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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/38716-8.txt b/38716-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ad3409 --- /dev/null +++ b/38716-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6526 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery and the Constitution, by +William Ingersoll Bowditch + +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: Slavery and the Constitution + +Author: William Ingersoll Bowditch + +Release Date: January 30, 2012 [EBook #38716] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + SLAVERY + AND + THE CONSTITUTION. + + BY WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH. + + BOSTON: + ROBERT F. WALLCUT, 21, CORNHILL. + 1849. + + + BOSTON: + PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, + No. 21, School-street. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +_Chapter_ _Page_ + +I. "SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE" 1 + +II. DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 5 + +III. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES 14 + +IV. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES 19 + +V. DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 27 + +VI. INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.--NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES 56 + +VII. "SOUL-DRIVING" 68 + +VIII. "DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE" 77 + +IX. RUNAWAY SLAVES 94 + +X. SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG 107 + +XI. THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION 117 + +XII. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS 120 + +XIII. THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT 127 + +XIV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT 136 + +XV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL + INTERPRETER 143 + +XVI. NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS 150 + + + + +NOTE. + + +Page 45 was struck off before I became aware that "Master Auld" _now_ +shelters Douglass's grandmother under his own roof. We are glad of the +fact, and respect Master Auld for his change. But the case of Douglass's +grandmother is by no means a solitary instance of cruel treatment. I +might easily adduce others equally cruel, though not told with nearly so +much feeling. W. I. B. + + + + +SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +"SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE"! + + "Thus did Jehovah stereotype his _approbation_ of domestic + slavery"!--_Rev. President Shannon, of Bacon College, Ky._ + + "Here we see _God dealing in slaves_; giving them to his own + favorite child [Abraham], a man of superlative worth, and as a + reward for his eminent goodness."--_Rev. Theodore Clapp, of New + Orleans._ + + +Nearly three millions of men, women, and children are held in slavery in +the Southern States, not by the ignorant and brutal alone, but by +enlightened Christian bishops, ministers, and church members of all +denominations; whilst men and women of cultivated minds, refined +manners, and delicate tastes, indignantly deny that slaveholding is +wrong. + +The Right Rev. George W. Freeman, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal +Church in Arkansas and Texas, whilst a minister at Raleigh, N.C. Nov. +27, 1836, preached two discourses on the character of slavery and the +duties of masters. In these ("A Reproof of the American Church, by the +Bishop of Oxford; with an Introduction, by an American Churchman;" New +York, 1846, p. 6) he declared "that no man, nor set of men in our day, +unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled to +pronounce slavery wrong;" and that "_slavery, as it exists at the +present day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Providence_." The +Right Rev. Levi S. Ives, Bishop of the diocese, was present; and, though +a northern man, has in writing published that he listened to them "with +most unfeigned pleasure"! (Ib. p. 7.) They were afterwards published +with the bishop's note of approbation, under the title, "The Rights and +Duties of Slaveholders." They were also printed in South Carolina, and +distributed gratuitously as a tract by the Society for the Advancement +of Christianity,--a society composed of clergymen and laymen, with +Bishop Bowen at their head. (Ib. pp. 7, 8.) Rev. Theodore Clapp,[A] the +Unitarian minister of New Orleans, says ("Slavery, a Sermon delivered in +the First Congregational Church in New Orleans, April 15, 1838," p. 11), +"The same _God_ who gave Abraham sunshine, air, rain, earth, flocks, +herds, silver, and gold, _blessed him with a donative of slaves_." Ib. +p. 33: "To succeed, then, in putting down every thing like servitude, +you must annihilate the word of God." Bishop Hedding, of the Methodist +Episcopal Church, says ("The Church as it is," p. 50), "The right to +hold a slave is founded on this rule, 'Therefore, all things whatsoever +ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them.'" The funds +of churches and theological institutions are not unfrequently invested +in slaves. Sometimes these slaves are hired out at auction, and from +their earnings the salaries of the clergymen and professors are paid! At +other times, they are sold in order to change the investment! Thus, in +the "Charleston Courier," Feb. 12, 1835, there is advertised for sale, +by Thomas N. Gadsden, "a prime gang of ten negroes, accustomed to the +culture of cotton and provisions belonging to the Independent Church in +Christ Church parish"! ("The Church as it is," p. 72.) No _incredible_ +story, therefore, was told by the fugitive slave, who gave as his reason +for not receiving the Lord's Supper, "I could not bear to go forward, +and receive the communion from vessels which were the purchase of my +brother's blood." In the memorial of the Presbytery of Georgia to the +Presbyteries of the Southern States in 1844, on the religious +instruction of the negroes, it is stated that slaves are "connected with +our churches; nay, more, they are owned by our church members and by our +ministers."--"What is it," asks the Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes (Sermon in +Philadelphia in 1846, "The Church as it is," p. 81), "that lends the +most efficient sanction to slavery in the United States? What is it that +does most to keep the public conscience at ease on the subject? What is +it that renders abortive all measures to remove the evil?... It is the +fact that the system is countenanced by good men; that bishops and +priests and deacons, that ministers and elders, that Sunday-school +teachers and exhorters, that pious matrons and heiresses, are the +holders of slaves; and that the ecclesiastical bodies of the land +address no language of rebuke or entreaty to their consciences." More +evidence to the same point might be adduced, if thought necessary. + +This open vindication of the rightfulness of slaveholding is by no means +confined to persons residing at the South. In the year 1847, the Rev. +Geo. W. Blagden, of Boston, who delivered the last Dudleian Lecture in +Harvard University, defended slavery from the Bible, in the pulpit of +Old South Church, that second cradle of Liberty! Only last winter +(1848), a gentleman of this State, of high legal attainments, at present +connected with the Law School in Harvard University, in conversation +hesitated not to declare to us his opinion, "that it was not _desirable_ +that slavery should cease"! And Dr. Taylor, of Yale College, at the head +of the theological department, instructs his pupils, candidates for the +ministry, that, "if Jesus Christ were now on earth, he would, under +certain circumstances, become a slaveholder"! ("The Church as it is," p. +95.) + +Open defenders of slavery are therefore found among the foremost of the +leaders in Church and State. And how few of the opponents of the system +have a deep, ineradicable conviction, that slaveholding is wrong under +_all_ circumstances! Our object is to create and deepen this conviction. + +To prove our position, we shall not rely upon the physical condition of +the slaves. Notwithstanding the fact is otherwise, we are willing to +suppose that every slave is comfortably housed, and has sufficient food +and clothing. These may give + + "Ease to the body some, none to the mind + From restless thoughts." + +Even if in a comfortable house, the slave is homeless! No joys cluster +around _his_ hearthstone! _He_ has no wife to share his sorrows, or to +partake his joys; for neither law nor public opinion sanctions the +marriage of slaves! The very children whom the slave presses to his +heart are not regarded, either by law or public sentiment, as his dear +children, but only as part of the stock of the plantation! Mother and +children may be, and are, sold at auction, and separated from him and +from each other for ever! And yet the heart of the slave-mother yearns +for her children as much as the heart of the white mother. + +By giving me a spiritual nature capable of improvement, God has made it +my duty to strive to improve myself,--has declared that I have a natural +right to improve myself, and that any wanton or unnecessary infringement +of this right is a wrong. No man has the right to prevent me, or the +meanest slave, from earnestly seeking after wisdom; to prevent me, or +the meanest slave, from becoming pure in heart; or to deaden my +affections, or those of the humblest slave that walks. In keeping a +slave ignorant or impure, or in blunting his affections, even though he +is well fed, clothed, and housed, violence is offered to his nature; his +God-given _rights_ are infringed; a _wrong_ is done! + +Slaveholding is wrong under _all_ circumstances, because it either +darkens the minds, brutalizes the souls, and deadens the affections of +the slaves, or, without any necessity, renders such spiritual death not +merely possible, but almost inevitable. If it is wrong to murder the +body, how much more wrong is it to murder the soul! Slaveholding is +murder of the soul! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES. + + "It is universally the fact throughout the Slaveholding States, that + either custom or law prohibits them [_i.e._ the slaves] the + acquisition of letters."--_Report made to Synod of South Carolina + and Georgia in 1833._ + + +At a recent annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, the +Rev. Joel Parker, D.D. of Philadelphia, a member of the Presbyterian +Church, speaking of the instruction of the colored race, is reported to +have used the following language:--"There seems to me, in connection +with this subject, a beautiful illustration of what Hall calls 'a fetch +in Divine Providence.' God had a design in bringing these people to this +country in the way he did. We cannot probably comprehend the whole of +it; but this we can see, he has secured the education of those who, to +all human appearance, would not and could not have been educated in any +other way. There are now in this country more than three hundred +thousand Africans who can read and write, who could not have done it if +it had not been for the slave-trade. There are many in this country and +in Liberia who are capable of preaching the gospel, editing papers, and +performing all the duties of civil life, who must have remained in total +darkness but for this trade. How came this people by all this knowledge? +Did anybody go to Africa and teach them? No! It has been done by +slavery.... And now we send them back to Africa, with a preparation for +doing a great work there, which we never could have imparted to them in +any other way.... In this view of the subject, we may perceive at least +one good which slavery has done to Africa; and the question may with +propriety be asked, whether it has not done for Africa more good than +harm." + +If we may believe this spiritual teacher, the Being who made of one +blood all the nations of men, the common Father of us all, himself +designed the scheme by which millions of men, women, and children were +torn from their homes and friends, and all they held dear, and brought +to this country, through all the horrors of the middle passage, where a +terrible death relieved on an average at least one fifth of the victims +from a scarcely less terrible life,--for this end in part, that, after +two centuries of wrongs, not even a tithe of their descendants might be +returned to the land of their fathers, to teach the Africans the +religion of their oppressors! A truly touching example of God's +loving-kindness and tender mercy to all his children! + +That many slaves have been instructed to the extent stated by Dr. Parker +is true; but they have been educated, not in consequence, but in spite, +of slavery. So hostile to mental culture is slavery, that but a slight +examination is needed to satisfy us that it is neither profitable nor +safe to educate a slave beyond a certain point. Without _some_ +education, a slave would be worse than valueless. Far the larger number +of them, as field slaves, are simply taught to use the hoe, and other +instruments of agriculture. Others are brought up as carpenters, masons, +blacksmiths, house-servants, &c. Frederick Douglass earned a dollar and +a half a day at caulking; whilst William Craft, as a cabinet-maker and +occasional waiter at an hotel, supported himself, and paid his owner +twenty dollars a month for the right to use his own muscles. We +occasionally meet with such advertisements as the following, cut from +the "New Orleans Picayune," of Oct. 18, 1846:-- + + "CREDIT SALE OF VALUABLE NEGRO MECHANICS, &c.--By Beard, Calhoun, + and Co. auctioneers, will be sold at auction, on Tuesday the 20th + October, at twelve o'clock, at Banks's Arcade, the following + valuable slaves:--Ezekiel, 25 years, _a superior carpenter_, + fully guarantied; Jacob, 25 years, _a superior carpenter and + wheelwright_, fully guarantied; Dick, 35 years, _a superior + carpenter and wheelwright_, fully guarantied; Charles, 28 years, + _engineer and rough carpenter_; Charles, 22 years, _field hand_, + fully guarantied, excepting slightly ruptured; Sancho, 26 years, + _good house carpenter_, fully guarantied; Maria, mulattress, 28 + years, _first-rate washer and ironer_, fully guarantied; Maria, + negress, 13, child's nurse, fully guarantied. + + "Terms: Twelve months' credit for notes drawn and endorsed to the + satisfaction of the vendor, with mortgage on the property, bearing + interest eight per cent per annum, from date of sale until paid. + Slaves not to be delivered until the notes are approved of. The + servants can be seen on the morning of sale. Act of sale before D. + I. Ricardo, notary public, at the expense of the purchaser." + +In the same paper, Alexander Daggett advertises "for sale a negro man, +_a first-rate blacksmith_." In the "Richmond Whig" of Jan. 25, 1848, +Benjamin Davis advertises for sale a negro man "who is a first-rate +carpenter by trade; also a rough blacksmith." In the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury," Thomas W. Mordecai, broker and auctioneer, under date Sept. 1, +1847, advertises at private sale-- + + "An uncommonly prime and likely black man, about 22. + A _prime woman_, a superior washer, and good cook and farm hand. + A very prime axeman and field hand. + A superior man-cook." + +It is not, however, necessary to teach a slave-mechanic or field hand, +or even "a prime woman," to read or write, in order to make him or her a +profitable investment. If we suppose William Craft's value as a slave to +have been two thousand dollars, his master received from his investment +_only_ twelve per cent _clear profit_! Yet William could neither read +nor write. He was a valuable working machine. To have him educated +farther, to have taught him to read or write, would have lessened his +market value. To teach a slave these things is to teach him his rights, +and to make him keenly feel his wrongs. Mrs. Hugh Auld taught Frederick +Douglass his letters before slavery had hardened her naturally kind +heart. She gave him the inch, as he says, and no precaution could +prevent his taking the ell. He taught himself to read and write, and +thus describes the effect produced by reading a book called "The +Columbian Orator." This book contains one or more of Sheridan's +speeches, and a dialogue between a master and his slave, wherein the +slave is made to refute all the arguments usually brought forward in +support of slavery. + + "The more I read," he says ("Narrative," p. 40), "the more I was led + to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other + light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, + and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange + land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as + well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the + subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had + predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to + torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under + it, I could at times feel that learning to read had been a curse, + rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched + condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible + pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I + envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished + myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to + my own,--any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was + this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There + was no getting rid of it." + +As a necessary result of his learning to read, Douglass loathed slavery, +and detested his enslavers. If he had never read, his eyes would never +have been fully opened to the extent of his wrongs; and what is true of +him is true of all other slaves. _Any_ slave who can read Sheridan's +denunciations of slavery must, like Douglass, loathe his condition, and +detest his oppressors. + +But a slave who loathes his condition, and detests his oppressors, will +be refractory and disobedient. A late writer in the "Charleston Mercury" +admits this when he remarks ("William Jay's Letter to Bishop Ives," +1848, p. 12):-- + + "It has been the policy of this State not to admit the teaching to + the slaves, either of reading or writing. We all know why this is + so. It needed no great scope of argument to satisfy those who framed + our laws, that the expansion of intellect, the hundred influences + which education generates, would be very inconsistent with habits of + obedience, which was the corner-stone of the institution." + +Such a slave will also try to escape at every fair opportunity; and, +being able to write passes or forge free papers, the chances for +successful escape are very much increased. The owner's hold upon him +becomes daily more and more precarious, and consequently the slave's +value as property daily diminishes. So true is this, that in Louisiana a +buyer may legally refuse to take a slave, if he has only "absented +himself from his master's house twice for several days, or once for more +than a month." The "Civil Code" (Art. 2496, 2505) declares that the +"vice of character," as it is called, which is proved by either of these +Acts, renders the slave absolutely useless, or renders his use so +inconvenient or imperfect that it must be supposed no one would buy a +slave who was known to have this vice. + +Every particle of instruction given to a slave beyond what is consistent +with his remaining a passive and obedient, working machine, is so much +money taken from the master's pocket. Nobody wants to invest his money +in a slave who is refractory or disobedient, or who runs away at every +opportunity,--unless, indeed, he buys the stock, in consequence, at very +much under par! The value of Douglass as a slave decreased just as fast +as his manhood increased; and Capt. Price now candidly avows, that he +hesitated some time before he invested seven hundred dollars in William +W. Brown; for William was a noted runaway! The love of money impels the +slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance. + +Not only this, but an educated slave, who loathes his condition and +hates his oppressors, is an unsafe member of a household or a community. +His means for taking a fearful vengeance are ample, and what +consideration shall stay his hands? None but an educated slave can plan +or head an insurrection. Such are the ones who always do take active +part in rebellions. The house-servants constitute everywhere the most +educated class. None are more dreaded than they, for this reason in +part, and partly because of their living under the same roof with their +masters. In a pamphlet published in Charleston, S. C. in 1822, p. 14, by +Gen. Thomas Pinckney, speaking of house-servants, he remarks:-- + + "They are the most dangerous. Their intimate acquaintance with all + the circumstances relating to the interior of the dwellings, the + confidence reposed in them, _and the information they unavoidably + obtain from hearing the conversation and observing the habitual + transactions of their owners, afford them the most ample means for + treacherous bloodshed and devastation_. The success, therefore, of + servile conspiracies mainly depends on this class for taking off, by + midnight murder, their unsuspecting owners; and the late trials, by + exhibiting so large a portion of this description among the + ringleaders of the conspiracy, afford a melancholy proof of their + promptitude to become actors in such scenes."--_William Jay's + Letter, &c._ p. 9. + +The love of life itself, the desire for the safety of their wives and +children, impels the slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance. + +Two of the strongest motives which can be brought to bear upon man, the +love of money and the love of life, are therefore constantly urging the +slaveholder to darken the minds of his slaves. If the former of these +motives leads to the commission of so much wrong everywhere, what will +not both motives together accomplish to the injury of the slave? But the +slaveholders have not been willing to trust wholly to these motives, +strong though they are. In many of the States, it is a penal offence to +teach a slave to read or write; and, where laws of this kind do not +exist, custom, as universal, powerful, and remorseless as the law, +accomplishes the same wrong. The following are some of these laws:-- + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA, chap. 34, sec. 74 ("Revision +of Stat." 1830, chap. 6, §1), provide that + + "Any free person who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any + slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures + excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or + pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in + this State having jurisdiction thereof; and, upon conviction, shall, + at the discretion of the court, if a white man or woman, be fined + not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than two hundred + dollars, or imprisoned; and, if a free person of color, shall be + fined, imprisoned, or whipped, at the discretion of the court, not + exceeding thirty-nine lashes, nor less than twenty lashes." + +Chap. 111, sec. 27 (Statute, 1830, chap. 6, § 2), provides that,-- + + "If any slave shall teach, or attempt to teach, any other slave to + read or write, the use of figures excepted, he or she may be carried + before any justice of the peace, and, on conviction thereof, shall + be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back." + +In SOUTH CAROLINA, the "Negro Act" (1740, § 45; "2 Brev. Dig." 243), +provides that-- + + "All and every person and persons whatsoever who shall hereafter + teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall + use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing + whatsoever, hereafter taught to write; every such person and persons + shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds + current money." + +In ALABAMA (Statute, 1832, chap. 8, § 10; "Clay's Digest," p. 543, § +24),-- + + "Any person or persons who shall attempt to teach any free person of + color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction + thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred + and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars." + +In GEORGIA ("Penal Code approved Dec. 23, 1833," 13th div., sec. 18; +"Prince's Digest," p. 658; "William A. Hotchkiss's Codification," 1845, +p. 772),-- + + "If any person shall teach any slave, negro, or free person of + color, to read or write either written or printed characters, or + shall procure, suffer, or permit a slave, negro, or person of color, + to transact business for him in writing, such person so offending + shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be + punished by fine, or imprisonment in the common jail of the county, + or both, at the discretion of the court." + +In MISSISSIPPI ("Howard & Hutchinson's Laws," p. 673), + + "No slave or free person of color can be employed in the setting of + types in any printing office." + +In MISSOURI, the "Revised Statutes" (chap. 8, sec. 10, p. 117) provide +that,-- + + "When an apprentice is a negro or mulatto, it shall _not_ be the + duty of the master to cause such colored apprentice to be taught to + read or write, or a knowledge of arithmetic; but he shall be + allowed, at the expiration of his term of service, a sum of money in + lieu of education, to be assessed by the county court." + +The Act of 1847 (approved Feb. 16, § 1) reads,-- + + "No person shall keep or teach any school for the instruction of + negroes or mulattoes in reading or writing in this State." + +Other similar laws might be produced; but these suffice to exhibit, in a +clear light, the opportunities presented for the mental instruction of +slaves! In some States, it is unlawful to teach even a FREE colored +person to read or write! + +That these laws have been almost universally respected and obeyed, there +is no room to doubt. No one has given more attention to this subject +than the Rev. Chas. C. Jones, of Savannah, Ga. In 1842 he published, at +Savannah, a work, containing the result of his researches, entitled "The +Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States." In this +work, p. 115, he says, "The statutes of our respective Slave States +forbid all knowledge of letters to the negroes; and, where the statutes +do not, custom does. It is impossible to form an estimate of the number +of negroes that _read_. My belief is, that the proportion would be +expressed by AN ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE FRACTION. The greatest number of +readers is found in and about towns and cities, and among the FREE negro +population some two or three generations removed from servitude."--As a +confirmation of this testimony of Mr. Jones, we know no greater proof +that the degraded class in any community is almost wholly uneducated, +than that a large portion of the privileged class is so. The law of +compensation is divine. We cannot degrade or brutalize our fellow-men, +without degrading or brutalizing ourselves. Now, we find that, in the +Slave States, almost one tenth of the free _white_ population over +twenty years of age are unable to read and write! To some persons this +may seem a small proportion; but, in the Free States, with all our +ignorance, there are less than one in one hundred and fifty! and Horace +Mann, the best authority on this subject, says that "at least four +fifths of these are foreigners, who ought not to be included in the +computation." In Connecticut, out of 163,843 free persons over twenty +years of age, there are only 526 who are unable to read and write; +while, in the model Slave State of South Carolina, out of only 111,663 +free white persons over twenty years of age, there are 20,615 who cannot +read and write! "In South Carolina," says Theodore Parker, "out of each +626 free whites more than twenty years of age, there are more than 58 +wholly unable to read or write; out of that number of such persons in +Connecticut, not quite two"! More than the sixth part of the adult +freemen of South Carolina are unable to read the vote they deposit in +the ballot-box! And Gov. Clarke, of Kentucky, declared in his message to +the legislature in 1837, that one third of the adult population of that +State were unable to write their names! While such is the state of the +freemen, it is impossible that any considerable number of the slaves +should become educated. With these facts before us, it is impossible not +to admit the correctness of Mr. Jones's conclusion. Only an "almost +inconceivable fraction" of three millions of slaves can read or write! +These are taught by their owners, or with their connivance; and of them +we shall speak hereafter. But, taken as a mass, the slaves are truly +described by a writer in the "Marysville (Tennessee) Intelligencer" as +being "degraded, stupid savages." We may add, not naturally degraded and +stupid, but made and kept so in open violation of their rights as human +beings, for the sake of gain! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES. + + "Their depravity, their spiritual ignorance and destitution, are + amazingly and awfully great."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Catechism_; + _preface_, p. 4. + + +"When the charge of the intellectual and moral degradation of the slaves +is preferred against us," says Mr. Jones[B] ("Religious Instruction," p. +107), "we are inclined to put the best face on affairs, knowing that +this is the darkest feature and the most vulnerable point." + +"Their notions of the Supreme Being (ib. p. 125); of the character and +offices of Christ and of the Holy Ghost; of a future state; and of what +constitutes holiness of life, are indefinite and confused. Some brought +up in a Christian land, and in the vicinity of the house of God, have +heard of Jesus Christ; but who he is, and what he has done for a ruined +world, they cannot tell. The Mohammedan Africans remaining of the old +stock of importations, although accustomed to hear the gospel preached, +have been known to accommodate Christianity to Mohammedanism. 'God,' +say they, 'is Allah, and Jesus Christ is Mohammed: the religion is the +same; but different countries have different names.'" + +"True religion they are inclined to place in profession, in forms and +ordinances, and in excited states of feeling; and true conversion, in +dreams, visions, trances, voices,--all bearing a perfect or striking +resemblance to some form or type which has been handed down for +generations, or which has been originated in the wild fancy of some +religious teacher among them." Page 126: "Sometimes principles of +conduct are adopted by _church members_ at so much variance with the +gospel that the 'grace of God is turned into lasciviousness.' For +example, that which would be an abominable sin, committed by a church +member with a worldly person, becomes no sin at all if committed with +another church member. The brethren must 'bear one another's burdens, +and so fulfil the law of Christ.'... To know the extent of their +ignorance, even where they have been accustomed to the sound of the +gospel in white churches, a man should make investigation for himself: +the result will frequently surprise and fill him with grief. They +scarcely feel shame for their ignorance on the subject of religion, +although they may have had abundant opportunity of becoming wiser. +Ignorance they seem to feel is their lot; and that feeling is intimately +associated with another, every way congenial to the natural man, namely, +a feeling of irresponsibility: ignorance is a cloak and excuse for +crime." Page 127: "He who carries the gospel to them encounters +depravity, intrenched in ignorance, both real and pretended. He beholds +the Scripture fulfilled, 'Having the understanding darkened, being +alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, +because of the hardness of their hearts,' Eph. iv. 17-19. He discovers +deism (!), scepticism (!!), universalism (!!!)... 'They are wise to do +evil; but to do good they have no knowledge.'" + +"Intimately connected with their ignorance is their superstition. They +believe in second sight, in apparitions, charms, witchcraft, and in a +kind of irresistible Satanic influence. The superstitions brought from +Africa have not been wholly laid aside (p. 128). Ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers, doctors, +prophets, conjurers; to artful, designing men. When fairly committed to +such leaders, they may be brought to the commission of almost any crime. +Facts in their history prove this. On certain occasions, they have been +made to believe, that, while they carried about their persons some charm +with which they had been furnished, they were _invulnerable_.[C] They +have, on certain other occasions, been made to believe that they were +under a protection that rendered them invincible.... They have been +known to be so perfectly and fearfully under the influence of some +leader or conjurer or minister, that they have not dared to disobey him +in the least particular; nor to disclose their own intended or +perpetrated crimes, in view of inevitable death itself; notwithstanding +all other influences brought to bear upon them." + +"The discipline of colored members is involved, tedious, vexatious, and +_disgusting_" (p. 131). "_Excommunications and suspensions are of +perpetual occurrence, for crimes shocking in character_, and of +themselves sufficient to show the general state of morals; _such, for +example, as adultery, fornication, theft, lying, drunkenness, +quarrelling, and fighting_. The first three are their most common +vices." Page 135: "They are, proverbially, _thieves_. They bear this +character in Africa; they have borne it in all countries whither they +have been carried; it has been the character of slaves in all ages, +whatever their nation or color. They steal from each other, from their +masters, from anybody.... Their veracity is nominal." Page 136: "The +number, the variety, and ingenuity of falsehoods that can be told by +them in a few brief moments, is most astonishing.... Servants, however, +who will neither steal nor lie, may be found, and in no inconsiderable +numbers." + +Other similar extracts, and touching other vices, might be given; but +these seem amply sufficient to justify the general conclusion to which +Mr. Jones arrives, p. 153, that "they are, intellectually and morally, a +degraded people, the most so of any in the United States; and while, +from their universal (?) profession of the Christian system, and their +attendance upon its ordinances of worship, and the absence of all fixed +forms of idolatry, they cannot _strictly_ be termed _heathen_, yet may +they with propriety be termed _the heathen of our land_." In a sermon +preached by him in Georgia, and published at Savannah in 1831, he calls +them "_a nation of heathen in our very midst_" ("Jay's Letter," p. 11). +Abundant confirmation of this conclusion exists. The Hon. Chas. C. +Pinckney, in his "Address before the Agricultural Society of South +Carolina" (Charleston, 1829, second edit. pp. 10-12; Jones's "Relig. +Inst." p. 141), says, "There needs no stronger illustration of the +doctrine of human depravity than the state of morals on plantations in +general." "Who would credit it," asks the Committee of the Synod of +South Carolina and Georgia in 1833, "that, in these years of revival and +benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there are _over two +millions of human beings in the condition of heathen, and in some +respects in a worse condition_? From long-continued and close +observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition is such +that they may justly be considered the _heathen_ of this Christian +country." The Executive Committee of the Kentucky Union for the Moral +and Religious Improvement of the Colored Race, in their "Circular to the +Ministers of the Gospel in Kentucky," 1834 (Jones's "Relig. Inst." p. +143), say, "We desire not to represent that condition worse than it is. +Doubtless, the light that shines around them, more or less illuminates +their minds, and moralizes their characters. We hope and believe, that +some of them, though poor in this world's goods, will be found rich in +spiritual possessions in the day when the King of Zion shall make up his +jewels. We know that many of them are included in the visible church, +and frequently exhibit great zeal; but it is to be feared, that it is +often a zeal without knowledge; and of the majority it must be +confessed, that the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness +comprehendeth it not. After making all reasonable allowances, _our +colored population can be considered, at the most, but semi-heathen_." + +In view of these statements, we cannot but be forced to the conclusion, +that the slaves, as a body, are in an extremely degraded moral and +religious condition. That they are _naturally_ thus, even Mr. Jones +denies ("Relig. Instruction," p. 124). He says, "As to moral and +religious character, the negroes are _naturally_ what other men are." +That they are so much more degraded than others must, then, be owing to +their education or their social condition. The inference, therefore, is +unavoidable that they have been thus degraded by others. The wrong rests +upon those who have denied them the means of education, and who have +kept them in slavery,--upon those who have thus degraded their minds and +souls, in order that their bodies might remain in slavery! In violation +of the slave's dearest rights, all the highest, noblest, and purest +instincts of his nature have been destroyed, in order to advance the +pecuniary interests of the man "who gains his fortune from the blood of +souls"! Are those slaves who enjoy moral and religious instruction any +better off? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES. + + "Q. When you hear the minister preach, are you not to listen to him + as the minister of God; God's messenger to your soul? A. + Yes."--_Jones's Catechism_, p. 140. + + +"By the providence and word of God," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," pp. 165, 166), "are we under obligations to impart the +gospel to our servants.... We cannot disregard this obligation ... +without forfeiting our humanity, our gratitude, our consistency, and our +claim to the spirit of Christianity itself. _Our humanity...._ The Lord +Jesus has furnished us with the most beautiful and striking +illustrations of this virtue:--'What man shall there be among you, that +shall have one sheep; and, if it fall into a pit, will he not lay hold +on it, and lift it out?' 'Doth not each one of you loose his ox or his +ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this +woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these +eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?'... Apply the reasoning: 'How +much, then, is a man better than a sheep or an ox?' When our servants +are sick and diseased, we do not suffer them to want: we physic and +nurse them (?). But are not their _souls_ more precious than their +_bodies_? Much more, then, should we lift our servants from the pit of +ignorance, moral pollution and death, into which they have fallen. Much +more should we strive to loose them (bound for so many years!) from the +bonds of sin and Satan, and lead away their famishing souls to the water +of life." + +"_Our gratitude._ They nurse us in infancy, contribute to our pleasures +and pastimes in youth, and furnish us with the means of education. They +constitute our wealth, and yield us all the comforts and conveniences of +life. They may, in a degree, adopt towards us the language of Jacob to +Laban, 'Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by +night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.' They watch around our +languishing beds in sickness, share in our misfortunes, weep over us +when we die, prepare us for the burial, and carry us to the house +appointed for all the living. The obligations, the sacrifice, and +service are not to be all on one side, in the relation of master and +servant. If we have been made partakers of their _carnal_ things, our +duty is also to minister unto them in _spiritual_ things,[D] Rom. xv. +27. 1 Cor. ix. 11. And shall we consider it a great thing to fulfil this +duty? The kindest and the most grateful return which we can make them is +to put them in possession of the richest gift of God to men, the gospel +of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." + +How far has the existence or utterance of such sentiments as these +resulted in securing to the slaves a sound moral and religious +instruction? What kind of teachers and what kind of instruction are +thought to be consistent with proper feelings of gratitude and humanity +on the part of masters? We have just seen the deep moral degradation of +the very great majority of the slaves. Still "there are at the present +time," says Mr. Jones (p. 100), "tens of thousands connected by a +credible profession to the church of Christ, and the gospel is reaching +them to a greater extent and in greater purity and power than ever +before." + +By whom is the gospel thus preached to them in purity and power? Who is +it that "ministers unto them in spiritual things," and "leads away their +famishing souls to the water of life"? + +"Those who would keep the Bible from their fellow-creatures are the +enemies of God and man. The Bible belongs of right to every man. It is +the property of the world." Thus speaks the _Protestant_ defender of +slavery, Charles C. Jones ("Catechism," p. 80). But to prevent a slave +from reading the Bible is not by any means to keep the Bible from him! +In what a _Catholic_ spirit he thus exhorts the slaves! ("Catechism," p. +79) "What benefit will this precious book be to us, unless we diligently +study it, and embrace opportunities of receiving instruction from it, +such as are afforded us in the house of God, in the sabbath-school, and +in the Bible-class? 'Search the Scriptures' is the Redeemer's +command."[E] "We cannot," he says ("Religions Instruction," p. 167), +"cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the +common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life; for our +inconsistency is as great as theirs, if we withhold the Bible from our +servants, and keep them in ignorance of its saving truths, which we +certainly do while we will not provide ways and means of having it read +and explained to them"! So readily, at the bidding of slavery, will +Protestants surrender the most distinctive feature of Protestantism! + +It is obvious, that, if any religious instruction is to be imparted to +slaves, it must be given them by others. But it is in the power of the +owner to forbid all such instruction. "The whole arrangement of the +religious instruction of the negroes, as to teachers, times, places, +matter and manner, is in our own power," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 98). + +The Presbytery of Georgia, in the memorial before alluded to, says-- + + "The law of the land makes and can make no provision for their + religious instruction. That instruction is committed to owners, as + the instruction of children is to parents; and _they can give or + withhold it at pleasure_. We owners and ministers are 'the almoners + of divine mercy to them,' and, if we do not open the door of + salvation, they may grope their way into a miserable eternity; for + they have no power of any kind to originate and establish and carry + forward church organizations and associations for their own benefit. + They are entirely dependent upon us for the gospel of salvation." + +"We may," says Mr. Jones ("Religious Instruction," p. 158), "according +to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings and +religious instruction on our own plantations; we may forbid our servants +going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for +them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and +suffer not them that are entering to go in!" + +Wherever an owner is willing to permit such instruction, it must still +be carried on wholly by _oral_ communications. "This immense mass of +immortal beings," says Mr. Jones, "is thrown for religious instruction +upon oral communications _entirely_" (ib. p. 157). That any oral +instruction of the adult or aged slaves is worth but little he evidently +admits, because he says (ib. p. 229), "If a people are to be instructed +orally, let the instruction be communicated to them in early life;" and +"the great hope of permanently benefiting the negroes is laid in +sabbath-schools, in which children and youth may be trained up in the +knowledge of the Lord." Our minds are so constituted, that, unless our +powers of memory have been strengthened by constant or frequent use in +youth, we cannot in after-life either receive or retain much benefit +from oral instruction. And if this is true of the freeman, how much more +is it true of the slave! Consequently, the only method of instructing +the slaves, which law or custom or both do not forbid, is the very +last,--the poorest method for their real good which can be devised! + +There are _colored_ preachers at the South, "and _some_ of them," says +Mr. Jones, "are able to read" (ib. p. 175). The following anecdote, +illustrative of their capacity to impart knowledge, is told by Charles +Lyell. When in Louisville, Ky. he attended a Methodist Church. "The +preacher was a full black, spoke good English, and quoted Scripture +well." "It appeared," says Prof. Lyell, "from his explanation of 'Whose +superscription is this?' that he supposed the piece of money to be a +dollar note, to which Cæsar had put his signature." + +Some, probably most of them, are slaves. We have now before us the +advertisement of a runaway slave who claimed to be a Methodist preacher! +The Alabama Baptist Association bought one of its missionaries, named +Cæsar, in 1828, and owned him till the time of his death! He lived to be +76 years old. A writer in the "Georgia Christian Index" begins an +obituary notice of him thus, "A good colored man has fallen in Israel;" +and ends by saying, "The writer can truly say that his labors have been +much blest." Mr. Jones gives the names of several other slave preachers. +Still, however, they are discountenanced. + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA (chap. 111, sec. 34; "Revision +of Statute," 1831, chap. 4, sec. 1) provide that-- + + "It shall not be lawful, under any pretence, for any slave or free + person of color to preach or exhort in public, or in any manner to + officiate as a preacher or teacher in any prayer-meeting or other + association for worship where slaves of different families are + collected together; and if any free person of color shall be thereof + duly convicted, on indictment, before any court having jurisdiction + thereof, he shall for each offence receive not exceeding thirty-nine + lashes on his bare back; and when any slave shall be guilty of a + violation of this section, he shall, on conviction before a single + magistrate, receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare + back." + +In ALABAMA (Stat. 1832, chap. 8, sec. 24; "Clay's Digest," 545, sec. +35),-- + + "If any slave or free person of color shall preach to, exhort, or + harangue any slave or slaves or free persons of color, unless in the + presence of five respectable (!) slaveholders, any such slave or + free person of color so offending shall, on conviction before any + justice of the peace, receive, by order of said justice of the + peace, thirty-nine lashes for the first offence, and fifty lashes + for every offence thereafter; and any person may arrest any such + slave or free person of color, and take him before a justice of the + peace for trial,--Provided that the negroes so haranguing or + preaching shall be licensed thereto by some regular body of + professing Christians immediately in the neighborhood, and to whose + society or church such negro shall properly belong." + +In GEORGIA, the Act approved Dec. 23, 1833, sec. 5 ("Prince's Digest," +808; "Hotchkiss's Codification," 840, 841), provides that-- + + "No person of color, whether free or slave, shall be allowed to + preach to, exhort, or join in any religious exercise with, any + persons of color, either free or slave, there being more than seven + persons of color present," &c. + +In MISSISSIPPI, the law declares (How. and Hutch. 178) that-- + + "It shall not be lawful for any slave, free negro or mulatto to + exercise the functions of a minister of the gospel under the penalty + of thirty-nine lashes,--Provided that it shall be lawful for any + master or owner to permit his slave to preach upon his own premises, + but not to permit any other slaves but his own to assemble there on + such occasion." + +In MISSOURI, the Act approved Feb. 16, 1847, sec. 2, provides that-- + + "No meeting or assemblage of negroes or mulattoes for the purpose of + religious worship or preaching shall be held or permitted, where the + services are performed or conducted by negroes or mulattoes, unless + some sheriff, constable, marshal, police officer, or justice of the + peace shall be present during all the time of such meeting or + assemblage, in order to prevent all seditious speeches and + disorderly and unlawful conduct of every kind." + +"Negro preachers are discouraged," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," p. 157), "if not suppressed, on the ground of +incompetency, and liability to abuse their office and influence to the +injury of the morals of the people, and the infringement of the laws and +peace of the country. I would not go all the lengths of many on this +point; for, from my own observation, negro preachers may be employed and +confided in, and _so regulated_ as to do their own color great good, and +community no harm." Ib. p. 274: "The appointment of colored preachers +and watchmen by the _white churches, and under their particular +supervision_, in many districts of country, has been attended with happy +effects; and _such_ auxiliaries, _properly managed_, may be of great +advantage." Doubtless, when thus "properly managed," they are of great +advantage! "I shall never forget," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 215), "the +remark of a venerable colored preacher, made with reference to the +Southampton tragedy" (_i.e._ Nat. Turner's insurrection in Southampton, +Va. in 1832). "With his eyes filled with tears, and his whole manner +indicating the deepest emotion, said he, 'Sir, it is the gospel that we, +ignorant and wicked people, need.(!) If you will give us the gospel, it +will do more for the obedience of servants and the peace of community +than all your guards and guns and bayonets.' This same Christian +minister, on receiving a packet of inflammatory pamphlets through the +post-office, and discovering their character and intention, immediately +called upon the mayor of the city, and delivered them into his hands. +Who can estimate the value in community of one such man acting under the +influence of the gospel of peace?" + +Not only are negro preachers thus discountenanced, unless they are the +abject tools of the slaveholders, but only a certain class of _white_ +teachers are allowed. The following extract is taken from the "Georgia +Christian Index:"-- + + "PREACHERS FOR THE SLAVES.--We think the instruction of the blacks + in the South should be committed wholly to white men; and they + should be Southern men, in whom the masters have confidence. If the + preacher is himself a slaveholder, as are Mr. Jones and Mr. Law, + they will command the greater confidence, and have access to the + larger number of plantations." + +"The field of labor among the negroes in the South," says Mr. Jones +("Religious Instruction," p. 196), "is one, in many respects, of no +ordinary difficulty; and it is the dictate as well of benevolence as of +prudence to inquire into the character and qualifications of those who +enter it. _They should be Southern men_; men entitled to that +appellation; either those who have been born and reared in the South, or +those who have identified themselves with the South, and are familiarly +acquainted with the structure of society; _in a word, men having their +interests in the South_. Such men would possess the _confidence of the +community_; for they would not act, in their official connection with +the negroes, in such a manner as to breed disturbances, which would +inevitably jeopard their own lives, and tend to the utter prostration of +their families and interests." Ib. p. 235: "The missionaries should be +_Southern men_, or men ... _identified in views, feelings, and interests +with the South, and who possess the confidence of society_." We should +(ib. p. 197) "know _who_ their teachers are, and _what_ and _when_ and +_where_ they are taught." + +The object of these laws and precautions evidently is wholly to exclude, +as religious teachers of the slaves, all persons except slaveholders, or +those who are fully identified with or subject to them. Only +slaveholders and their tools _can_ be "God's messengers" to the souls of +the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is +_exclusively_ vested in that class of men whose _interest_ it is to +_uphold_ and _strengthen_ slavery! A slaveholder _must_ have the +strongest inducement to make his teaching of such a quality as directly +to increase the market value of his hearers; and yet the slaves are +receiving from the hallowed lips of their owners the gospel of love and +human brotherhood in greater purity and power than ever before! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES. + + "Hath _He_ not brought you out of a land of darkness and ignorance, + where your forefathers knew nothing of him, to a country where you + may come to the knowledge of the only true God, and learn a sure way + to heaven?"--_Right Rev. Bishop Meade's Instruction to Slaves._ + + "The religious instruction of your people will promote your own + _interests_ for time and eternity."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to + Slaveholders_ ("_Rel. Inst._" p. 275). + + +We might safely presume, that religions owners would instruct their +slaves in such doctrines as they deemed essential to the salvation of +their own souls, and that such instruction would not materially vary +from that given elsewhere on the same points. But abundant proof exists. +The Right Rev. Levi S. Ives has published "A Catechism to be taught +orally to those who cannot read;" New York, 1848. In the preface, he +says it was the result of a winter's visit to a large Southern +plantation, and was adapted by him, "in a course of actual experiment, +to the capacity of _colored_ children, from four to twelve years of +age." There are twenty lessons in this little book. He teaches, among +other things, about the fall, original sin, the atonement, the trinity, +and the sacraments. Elsewhere ("Spirit of Missions," Nov. 1842) he has +expressed the conviction, that, if the planters of North Carolina would +adopt it, and see to its faithful inculcation, the next generation of +blacks in that State, "at a very small expense, would sufficiently +understand the truth as it is in Jesus, without knowing a letter of the +alphabet." + +Dr. Jones's Catechism is really, what it professes to be, a "Catechism +of Scripture doctrine, as well as practice," and contains a very much +more elaborate exposition than Bishop Ives's book. Altogether, it must +be a much more serviceable book to "owners and ministers." + +We shall therefore chiefly content ourselves with showing what the +slaves are taught it is their duty to do, and to refrain from doing, and +what motives to duty are urged upon them. + +"As ministers or missionaries to the negroes," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. +Inst." p. 270), "in the discharge of our official duty, and in our +intercourse with the negroes, we should have nothing to do with their +civil condition. We are appointed of God to preach 'the unsearchable +riches of Christ' to our perishing fellow-men. We are to meditate upon +the duties and responsibilities of our office, and to give ourselves +_wholly to it_." Ib. pp. 193, 194: "We _separate entirely_ their +_religious_ and their _civil_ condition, and contend that the one may be +attended to without interfering with the other. Our principle is that +laid down by the holy and just one, 'Render unto Cæsar the things which +are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' And Christ and his +apostles are our example. Did they deem it proper and consistent with +the good order of society to preach the gospel to servants? They did. In +discharge of this duty, did they interfere with their civil condition? +They did not. They expressed no opinion whatever on the subject, if we +except that which appears in one of the Epistles to the Corinthian +Church (1st Epist. chap. vii. ver. 19-23). There the Apostle Paul +considers a state of freedom preferable to one of servitude, and advises +slaves, if they can lawfully obtain their freedom, to do it; but not +otherwise. He does not treat the question as one of very great moment, +in comparison to the benefits of the gospel. 'Art thou called being a +servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it +rather; for he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the +Lord's freeman,' &c. May we not follow in the footsteps of our Saviour +and his apostles, and that with perfect safety too? Yea, and without +proceeding as far as did the Apostle Paul?(!) We maintain that in +judicious religious instruction there will be no necessary interference +with their civil condition. The religious teacher must step out of his +way for the purpose." The Presbytery of Georgia declares in its +memorial, that, if the church will undertake the religious instruction +of the slaves,-- + + "The minds of ministers and members will be drawn off from abstract + questions of a civil and a political nature, with which, as + Christians engaged in evangelizing the world, we have little to do; + and they will be presented with a way whereby they may practically + gratify all their benevolent sympathies for the negroes, in the best + manner possible. Our attention, as a church, will be turned to the + great question before us, and indeed before all other denominations, + _and which should take precedence of all other questions touching + the negroes_, _Shall this people be saved or lost?_" + +"The New Testament," says the Rev. Theodore Clapp (Sermon, pp. 25, 26, +and these are his present sentiments), "decides in the plainest terms +that Christians are bound to acquiesce in and support those laws and +regulations concerning slavery which are enacted by the respective civil +governments under which they live. The legislature must determine who +shall be kept in bondage, and what shall be their condition and +privileges. The pulpit must not interfere in this important and delicate +matter.... Let him (the clergyman) at all times preach unconditional +submission to civil laws and institutions." + +At the outset, therefore, the religious teachers of the slaves disclaim +all desire or intention to interfere with the condition of servitude. +Their appropriate and only work, they say, is the saving of souls![F] +That their brother's soul is brutalized and deadened, in consequence of +slavery, is to them no reason why they should interfere with slavery; +for slavery is a _civil_ condition, which God, in his mysterious +providence, has allowed to exist! But, though it is thus improper to +"interfere" with the civil condition of the slaves, that religious +teacher (as we shall shortly see) does _not_ "step out of his way," but +merely does his duty, who preaches to them that submission to their +civil condition, and faithful service for their masters, is demanded of +them by God! They cannot interfere to _injure_ the institution of +slavery; but _very materially to strengthen_ it falls within their +legitimate province! To condemn slavery would be to condemn the +providence of God; but in strengthening slavery, they are preaching "the +unsearchable riches of Christ" to their perishing fellow-men! + +The Right Rev. William Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church +for the diocese of Virginia, who has also devoted a great deal of +attention to the religious instruction of slaves, a few years since +collected and published a volume of sermons and tracts, designed to aid +the almoners of Divine Mercy in their work of salvation. The grand +motive to duty is thus presented to the slaves, pp. 94, 95 ("Slavery and +the Slaveholder's Religion as opposed to Christianity, by Samuel +Brooke," p. 29, &c.):-- + + "Besides, when people die, we know but of two places they have to go + to, and that is heaven or hell; so that whoever misses the one must + go to the other. Now, heaven is a place of great happiness, which + God hath prepared for all that are good; where they shall enjoy rest + from their labors, and a blessedness which shall never have an end. + And hell is a place of great torment and misery, where all wicked + people will be shut up with the devil and other evil spirits, and be + punished for ever because they will not serve God. If, therefore, we + would have our souls saved by Christ; if we would escape hell and + obtain heaven, we must set about doing what he requires of us, that + is, to serve God. Your own poor circumstances in this life ought to + put you particularly upon this, and taking care of your souls; for + you cannot have the pleasures and enjoyments of this life like rich + free people, who have estates and money to lay out as they think + fit. If others will run the hazard of their souls, they have a + chance of getting wealth and power, of heaping up riches, and + enjoying all the ease, luxury, and pleasure their hearts should long + after. But you can have none of these things; so that, if you sell + your souls for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this + world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed. Almighty God + hath been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing + but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit + to, as it is his will that it should be so. And think within + yourselves what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors + and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next + life; and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into + a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be + delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his + slaves for ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from + it. If, therefore, you would be God's freemen in heaven, you must + strive to be good and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you + know, are not your own: they are at the disposal of those you belong + to; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can + take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, + that, if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you + have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in + the next. For your idleness and wickedness is generally found it, + and your bodies suffer for it here; and, what is far worse, if you + do not repent and amend, your unhappy souls will suffer for it + hereafter." + +The Rev. Alexander Glennie, Rector of All-Saints Parish, Waccamaw, S.C. +has for several years been in the habit of preaching expressly for +slaves. In 1844, he published in Charleston a selection of these +sermons, under the title of "Sermons preached on Plantations to +Congregations of Negroes." This book[G] contains twenty-six sermons; and +in twenty-two of them there is either a more or less extended account or +a reference to eternal misery in hell as a motive to duty. He thus +describes the day of judgment (Serm. 15, Matt. xxv. 31, p. 90):-- + + "When all people shall be gathered before him, 'he shall separate + them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the + goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats + on the left.' That, my brethren, will be an awful time, when this + separation shall be going on; when the holy angels, at the command + of the great Judge, shall be gathering together all the obedient + followers of Christ, and be setting them on the right hand side of + the judgment-seat, and shall place all the remainder on the left. + Remember that each of you must be present; remember that the great + Judge can make no mistake; and that you shall be placed on one side + or on the other, according as in this world you have believed in and + obeyed him or not. How full of joy and thanksgiving will you be, if + you shall find yourselves placed on the right hand! but how full of + misery and despair, if the left shall be appointed as your + portion!"... + + "But what shall he say to the wicked on the left hand? To them he + shall say, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, + prepared for the devil and his angels.' He will tell them to depart: + they did not while here seek him by repentance and faith; they did + not obey him; and he will drive them from him. He will call them + cursed." + + Page 42 (Sermon 7, Rom. vi. 28): "The death, which is the wages of + sin, is this everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his + angels. It is a fire which shall last for ever; and the devil and + his angels, and all people who will not love and serve God, shall + there be punished for ever. The Bible says, 'The smoke of their + torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:' the fire is not quenched; + it never goes out: 'their worm dieth not:' their punishment is + spoken of as a worm, always feeding upon them, but never consuming + them: it never can stop." + +Mr. Jones orally catechizes[H] the slaves in the same manner:-- + + Page 83: "Q. Are there two places only spoken of in the Bible to + which the souls of men go after death?--A. Only two. + + Q. Which are they?--A. Heaven and hell. + + Pp. 91, 92: Q. After the Judgment is over, into what place do the + righteous go?--A. Into heaven. + + Q. What kind of a place is heaven?--A. A most glorious and happy + place. + + * * * * * + + Q. Shall the righteous in heaven have any more hunger or thirst, or + nakedness or heat or cold? Shall they any more have sin or sorrow, + or crying or pain or death?--A. No. + + Q. Repeat, 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'--A. + 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall + be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be + any more pain; for the former things are passed away.' + + Q. Will heaven be their everlasting home?--A. Yes. + + Q. And shall the righteous grow in knowledge and holiness and + happiness for ever and ever?--A. Yes. + + Q. To what place should we wish and strive to go, more than to all + other places?--A. Heaven. + + Pp. 93, 94: Q. Into what place are the wicked to be cast?--A. Into + hell. + + Q. Repeat, 'The wicked shall be turned.'--A. 'The wicked shall be + turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' + + Q. What kind of a place is hell?--A. A place of dreadful torments. + + Q. What does it burn with?--A. Everlasting fire. + + Q. Who are cast into hell besides wicked men?--A. The devil and his + angels. + + Q. What will the torments of hell make the wicked do?--A. Weep and + wail, and gnash their teeth. + + Q. What did the rich man beg for when he was tormented in the + flame?--A. A drop of water to cool his tongue. + + Q. Will the wicked have any good thing in hell? the least comfort? + the least relief from torment?--A. No. + + Q. Will they ever come out of hell?--A. No: never. + + Q. Can any go from heaven to hell, or from hell to heaven?--A. No. + + Q. What is fixed between heaven and hell?--A. A great gulf. + + Q. What is the punishment of the wicked in hell called?--A. + Everlasting punishment. + + Q. Will this punishment make them better?--A. No. + + Q. Repeat, 'It is a fearful thing.'--A. 'It is a fearful thing to + fall into the hands of the living God.' + + Q. What is God said to be to the wicked?--A. A consuming fire. + + Q. What place should we strive to escape from above all others?--A. + Hell." + +The slaves are taught that they must do what God requires of them, if +they would escape never-ending torments in hell. How strict an account +of their stewardship does God require at their hands! He, they are +taught, has made them slaves, and has given them nothing but labor and +poverty for their lot in this life. Will he require much, where he has +given little? Bishop Meade continues (Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 30, 31, +32):-- + + "Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to your great Master + in heaven, I now come to lay before you the duties you owe to your + masters and mistresses here upon earth; and for this you have one + general rule that you ought always to carry in your minds, and that + is, to do all service for them as if you did it for God himself. + Poor creatures! you little consider, when you are idle and + neglectful of your masters' business, when you steal and waste and + hurt any of their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, when + you are telling them lies and deceiving them; or when you prove + stubborn and sullen, and will not do the work you are set about + without stripes and vexation; you do not consider, I say, that _what + faults you are guilty of towards your masters and mistresses are + faults done against God himself_, who hath set your masters and + mistresses over you in his own stead, and expects that you will do + for them just as you would do for him. And, pray, do not think that + I want to deceive you, when I tell you that _your masters and + mistresses are God's overseers_; and that, if you are faulty towards + them, God himself will punish you severely for it in the next world, + unless you repent of it, and strive to make amends by your + faithfulness and diligence for the time to come; for God himself + hath declared the same. + + "Now, from this general rule,--namely, that you are to do all + service for your masters and mistresses as if you did it for God + himself,--there arise several other rules of duty towards your + masters and mistresses, which I shall endeavor to lay out in order + before you. + + "And, in the first place, you are to be obedient and subject to your + masters in all things.... And Christian ministers are commanded to + 'exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to + please them well in all things, not answering them again, or + gain-saying.' You see how strictly God requires this of you, that + whatever your masters and mistresses order you to do, you must set + about it immediately, and faithfully perform it, without any + disputing or grumbling, and take care to please them well in all + things. And for your encouragement he tells you, that he will reward + you for it in heaven; because, while you are honestly and faithfully + doing your master's business here, you are serving your Lord and + Master in heaven. You see also that you are not to take any + exceptions to the behavior of your masters and mistresses, and that + you are to be subject and obedient, not only to such as are good and + gentle and mild towards you, but also to such as may be froward, + peevish, and hard. For you are not at liberty to choose your own + masters; but into whatever hands God hath been pleased to put you, + you must do your duty, and God will reward you for it. + + "2. You are not to be eye-servants. Now, eye-servants are such as + will work hard, and seem mighty diligent, while they think anybody + is taking notice of them; but, when their masters' and mistresses' + backs are turned, they are idle, and neglect their business. I am + afraid there are a great many such eye-servants among you, and that + you do not consider how great a sin it is to be so, and how severely + God will punish you for it. You may easily deceive your owners, and + make them have an opinion of you that you do not deserve, and get + the praise of men by it; but remember that you cannot deceive + Almighty God, who sees your wickedness and deceit, and will punish + you accordingly. For the rule is, that you must obey your masters in + all things, and do the work they set you about with fear and + trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with + eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service as to + the Lord, and not as to men. If, then, you would but say within + yourselves, 'My master hath set me about this work, and his back is + turned, so that I may loiter and idle if I please, for he does not + see me; but _there is my great Master in heaven, whose overseer my + other master is_,[I] and his eyes are always upon me and taking + notice of me, and I cannot get anywhere out of his sight, nor be + idle without his knowing it; and what will become of me, if I lose + his good-will and make him angry with me?'--if, I say, you would + once get the way of thinking and saying thus upon all occasions, you + then would do what God commands you, and serve your masters with + singleness of heart, that is, with honesty and sincerity, and do the + work you are set about with fear and trembling, not for fear of your + masters and mistresses upon earth, for you may easily cheat them, + and make them believe you are doing their business when you do not, + but with fear and trembling, lest God your heavenly Master, whom you + cannot deceive, should call you to account, and punish you in the + next world for your deceitfulness and eye-service in this. + + "3. _You are to be faithful and honest to your masters and + mistresses, not purloining or wasting their goods or substance, but + showing all good fidelity in all things...._ Do not your masters, + under God, provide for you? And how shall they be able to do this, + to feed and to clothe you, unless you take honest care of every + thing that belongs to them? _Remember that God requires this of you; + and, if you are not afraid of suffering for it here, you cannot + escape the vengeance of Almighty God, who will judge between you and + your masters, and make you pay severely in the next world for all + the injustice you do them here._ And though you could manage so + cunningly as to escape the eyes and hands of man, yet think what a + dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who + is able to cast both soul and body into hell! + + "4. _You are to serve your masters with cheerfulness, reverence, and + humility. You are to do your masters' service with good-will, doing + it as the will of God from the heart, without any sauciness or + answering again._ How many of you do things quite otherwise, and, + instead of going about your work with a good will and a good heart, + dispute and grumble, give saucy answers, and behave in a surly + manner! There is something so becoming and engaging in a modest, + cheerful, good-natured behavior, that a little work done in that + manner seems better done and gives far more satisfaction than a + great deal more that must be done with fretting, vexation, and the + lash always held over you. It also gains the good-will and love of + those you belong to, and makes your own life pass with more ease and + pleasure. Besides, you are to consider that this grumbling and + ill-will does not affect your masters and mistresses only. They have + ways and means in their hands of forcing you to do your work, + whether you are willing or not. _But your murmuring and grumbling is + against God, who hath placed you in that service, who will punish + you severely in the next world for despising his commands._" + +If the slave who wastes his master's goods and substance will not be +able to escape the vengeance of Almighty God, what will become of the +master who impoverishes and darkens the mind of his brother-man? Who +commits the greater injustice,--the man who robs another of his mind, or +the man who robs another of his money? + +Mr. Glennie is equally explicit in his teaching. His fourth Sermon is on +the text, Eph. vi. 7, "With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and +not to men," pp. 21, 22:-- + + "In this part of the word of God, servants are taught with what mind + they ought to do their service. They are told to do what is required + of them 'with good-will;' and to do it, 'as to the Lord, and not to + men.' + + "What a blessed book the Bible is, my brethren! It speaks comfort to + all people in every station of life; it shows how every one must + live here so as to please our heavenly Father. He, the Father of + mercies and the God of all comfort, has in his word forgotten none + of the children of men. All may learn from that holy book how their + souls may be saved through the merits of the death of Christ. And, + in addition to this, every one, in whatever condition he may be, + will find in that holy book what his peculiar duties are. Thus, + ministers are taught in the Bible how they ought to preach the + gospel, and how they ought to live, so as to glorify their Saviour + Jesus Christ. The rich are taught in the Bible how they must do good + with their riches; and the poor, how they must be contented with the + portion that God has given them; and both rich and poor are taught + how to lay up treasure in heaven. Parents are told in the Bible how + they must bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of + the Lord; and children, how they must obey their parents. Masters + are taught in the Bible how they must rule their servants, and + servants how they must obey their masters. Truly, this holy word of + God is a blessed gift indeed; and how greatly blessed shall we all + be, if we diligently seek the help of the Holy Spirit, that we may + be 'doers of the word, and not hearers only'! I will now read to you + the whole of this passage out of God's holy word, which is written + especially for your instruction:--'Servants, be obedient to them + that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and + trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with + eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart: with good-will doing service, as to + the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man + doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or + free.' This passage from the Bible shows to you what God requires + from you as servants; and there are many other passages which teach + the same things. You should try and remember these parts of the + Bible, that you may be able 'to do your duty in that state of life + unto which it has pleased God to call you.' For, although a bad + servant may not wish to know what God requires of him, yet a + Christian servant will desire to know this, and to do his will in + every thing." + +How easy it must be for those who cannot read to learn from the holy +book what God requires of them! Mr. Glennie assures his hearers, that +not one of them will be able to say, in the day of judgment, "I had no +way of hearing and learning about my God and Saviour"! (p. 137). May +they not all listen to such words of comfort as fall from his lips? And +how full of comfort to their souls must that book be which tells them +that God intended to make them slaves, and that they must be faithful +and obedient to their oppressors, if they wish to avoid endless +punishment in hell! + + Pp. 22, 23: "Our heavenly Father commands that you, who are + servants, should 'be obedient to your masters according to the + flesh;' that is, to your earthly master, the master that you serve + here while in the body. Here is a very plain command: 'Servants, be + obedient;' be obedient to your masters. A bad servant will not try + and obey this command. A worldly-minded servant, who is not living + in the fear of God, will neglect this command. But you, who call + yourselves children of God, will do his will, and be obedient to + your earthly master. You can every day give proof that you wish to + serve God, by your ready, your cheerful obedience. + + "You are here directed to be obedient to your master 'with fear and + trembling;' that is, you ought to feel as anxious to discharge your + duty faithfully as to feel afraid of giving offence by any conduct + that looks like disobedience; for, by disobedience, you not only + offend your earthly master, but you sin against God; and of this + every Christian servant will be afraid. A bad servant will be afraid + only of the punishment which he will receive, if his disobedience + should be found out. But a Christian servant must look up always to + his heavenly Master. Therefore, if you love God, whose children you + were made at your baptism, you will do every day all that you have + to do, with fear and trembling; that is, in the fear of God; knowing + that he would be angry with you, if you neglected your duty. If you + love the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for you, you will do + your daily work with fear and trembling, lest, by any act of + disobedience, you bring reproach on him whose name you bear. If you + desire that the Holy Spirit should abide in your hearts, you will + not willingly be disobedient, being afraid that this Comforter and + Sanctifier would forsake you, if you paid so little attention to the + plain word of God." + +How full of comfort must the Bible be to the slaveholder! How gratifying +to him the reconciliation between God and mammon! How interesting to a +reverend father must be the reflection, that, just in the proportion as +he serves his God, by imparting to his hearers gospel truth, he is +serving mammon, and putting money in the purses of his employers, by +making his hearers more valuable as slaves! + + Page 23: "You are here commanded to be obedient, 'in singleness of + your heart, as unto Christ:' that is, do not be double-minded, + professing to be one thing, but really being another; but, in your + duty to your master, have a single heart; an honest, upright, and + true heart, as unto Christ; knowing that he sees your heart, and + will not be pleased with double-dealing." + + Page 24: "This part of the Bible goes on speaking of the same matter + in different words; it gives 'line upon line and precept upon + precept;' because it is what all of us ought to keep in mind, that + we must engage in our several duties with a desire to please God, + and with a fear of sinning against him. It says, 'not with + eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart.' Do not attend to your work, only + when your earthly master's eye is upon you; but remember that the + eye of your heavenly Master is always upon you. Do your work as + serving Christ, _look upon your daily tasks as the will of God_, and + do them from the heart, with a hearty desire to please God. A bad + servant is an eye-servant, doing the work required of him so long as + his master's eye is upon him: he has no regard to Christ our + Saviour; and, instead of the will of God, he thinks only of his own + will, and the desires of his own evil heart. But you, who profess to + be the servants of Jesus Christ, will, if you are indeed his, do all + your duty faithfully, whether the eye of man is upon you or not; you + will feel that such is the will of God; and you will daily watch and + pray, that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, you may 'do the will of + God from the heart.' + + "The word of God goes on teaching you the same thing. It says, 'with + good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men.' A bad + servant will very often do his service with a very bad will; he will + try many ways to deceive his master, and will do as little for him + as he can. You, however, who call yourselves the servants of Christ, + will, if you indeed belong to him, aim at doing your service 'with + good-will;' you will pray that your will may be subject to the will + of God, so that you may 'do service' cheerfully, 'as to the Lord, + and not to men.'" + +We candidly confess, that we have not sufficient faith to believe that +the Rev. Rector of All-Saints Parish would, if he were a slave, be a +good servant, and do service as unto the Lord. We do verily believe, +that both he and Bishop Meade would follow the desires of man's +unregenerate and evil heart, and do their utmost to escape from this +unwelcome service of Christ. But what a curious subject for reflection, +that the saving of negro souls and of negro overseers in All-Saints +Parish must keep pace one with another! + +The Rector concludes his Sermon with these important suggestions:-- + + Page 25: "This passage of Scripture ends by telling you to remember + that the day of judgment is coming, when every one, in every + condition of life, shall receive according to what he has done in + the body. It says, 'Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man + doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or + free.' We are here told, that in the day of judgment, the inquiry + will be, What have we done in this world? how did we live in this + world? It matters not, we see, in what condition we have been here; + it matters not whether we be bond-servants or freemen; it matters + not whether we be among the high and the rich, or among the low and + the poor, we shall in that day receive according as we now live. If + we now live as obedient followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus + Christ, we shall, through him who loved us, inherit everlasting + life. But if we are not true believers in him, if we are disobedient + to his word, we can inherit only everlasting misery. With regard to + you, the disobedient servants amongst you, the unfaithful, the + deceitful, the ungodly servants, unless they repent and turn from + the service of the devil to the service of God, shall surely 'be + punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, + and from the glory of his power.' Whilst the obedient servants + amongst you, the faithful, the true, the godly servants, who are + living 'as the servants of Christ,' 'doing service as to the Lord, + and not to men,' shall, if they continue steadfast unto the end, be + blessed for ever." + +We read in the Bible, that "God is no respecter of persons;" that "he +hath made of one blood all the nations of men;" "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself;" and that "all things whatsoever ye would that men +should do to you, do ye even so to them." Would not the slaves be led to +neglect of duty and insubordination by hearing such sentences? This +effect, says Mr. Jones (speaking in reference to these sentences, "Rel. +Inst." p. 197), "might result from _imperfect_ and _injudicious_ +religious instruction.... But who will say that neglect of duty and +insubordination are the _legitimate_ effects of the gospel, purely and +sincerely imparted to servants?" How judicious is the instruction given +by Bishop Hedding! How purely and sincerely does Bishop Meade thus +continue imparting the gospel! p. 116 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. pp. 32, +33):-- + + "'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye + even so unto them;' that is, do by all mankind just as you would + desire they should do by you, if you were in their place and they in + yours. + + "Now, to suit this rule to your particular circumstances, suppose + you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you, would + you not desire that your servants should do their business + faithfully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while + you were looking over them? Would you not expect, that they should + take notice of what you said to them? that they should behave + themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of + every thing belonging to you as you would be yourselves? You are + servants: do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you + will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God, + who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do + it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his commands." + +From the same command of Christ, Mr. Jones instructs the slaves that +they must not steal any of their own earnings, and must inform their +masters when any of their fellow-slaves intend to steal! ("Catechism," +pp. 114-116.) He never for an instant imagines (to use the words of the +Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards in 1791), that "_to hold any man in slavery is +to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of +man-stealing_" ("The Church as it is," p. 8). How solemnly would Bishop +Freeman declare to the slaves, that thieves can never enter the kingdom +of God, without thinking of the law of North Carolina, which provides +that no slave shall be "permitted, on any pretence whatever, to raise +any horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep" ("Rev. Stat." chap. 111, § 25), +without the same being liable to be seized and sold, and the proceeds +distributed, one half towards the support of the poor of the county, and +the other half to the informer! (Ib. chap. 89, § 24.) + +A friend once said that she was always grieved at receiving any +expression of gratitude. She was grieved to think that the mere +performance of duty was so uncommon as to call forth gratitude. In a +somewhat similar manner, we feel more distinctly than ever how great is +the degradation of the slaves, when such arguments as these can be +addressed to them by intelligent men, with the expectation of producing +conviction! How degraded must that slave be who does not feel or who +cannot expose these wicked perversions of a beautiful command, and who +cannot ask, in indignant tones, of these truly reverend fathers in God, +"If _you_ were the slave, would you consider yourself bound to work for +your master faithfully?" Verily, "We owners and ministers" _are_ "the +almoners of _Divine_ mercy" to the suffering slave! + +Mr. Glennie declares, that God requires them patiently to submit to all +the wrongs of slavery, as being afflictions sent by him for the good of +their souls!-- + + Page 145: "Is it strange that any person who is loved by our Lord + should endure sickness or pain or sorrow of any kind? No: this is + what the whole Bible teaches. We read in one place, 'Whom the Lord + loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' + And in another place, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.' The + Bible also tells us the reason of this, which is, that the children + of God may be taught to repent more of their sins, and to be more + submissive and obedient to God; ... that they may think less about + this world, and may be more diligent in getting ready for heaven. + For these good reasons, God chastises his people; and whenever you + become sick, or are visited with sorrows, you should try and look up + to God as chastising you for your sins, and should pray much to him + for his Spirit, that you may be patient like our Saviour, when he + suffered for our sins, that you may improve by his chastening, and + grow more like him in holiness."--Pp. 128, 129: "Whenever, + therefore, the sorrows of this life are pressing you sore, think of + this saying of our Saviour, 'Every branch which beareth fruit, he + purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' If you are indeed + followers of Jesus, it will at such times comfort you to think that + a Father's hand is upon you, chastising you,--in love chastising you + to make you partakers of his holiness." + +Mr. Glennie also frequently represents Christ as having appeared on +earth as a servant, in order still more to reconcile his hearers to +their lot (pp. 2, 3, 89). Nay, so anxious does he seem to be to induce +his hearers to believe that Christ really endured the wrongs of a slave, +that he sometimes goes beyond the Bible record. Thus, in describing +Christ's sufferings before Pilate, he says (p. 9), "They spit in his +face, and beat him with their hands; they scourged him, _making long +furrows in his back with the whip_.... How grievous were the sufferings +of our dear Lord!" + +But he is not content with telling them they must patiently endure their +wrongs: he also declares to them, that, unless they _love_ those who +wrong them, they are "going along the broad road that leads to hell"! He +says (pp. 115, 116):-- + + "That we may all understand how the case stands with us, whether we + are in the broad road leading to destruction, or in the narrow road + leading to heaven, let us see what our Lord says about his sheep, + and the mark by which they are known."--Page 117: "Our Lord says, + 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have + love one to another.' Do ye hear his voice in this? Are you trying + to love your neighbor as yourselves? Are you trying to do to others + as you would have them do to you? Do you, for Jesus Christ's sake, + love your enemies? Do you bless them that curse you, do good to them + that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and + persecute you? In this way, again, you may try yourselves, and see + whether you are the sheep of Jesus Christ."--Page 93: "If, in the + great day, you would be placed on the right hand, you must, from + love to Jesus, be kind to one another, and be ready to help any one + as much as you can.... In your daily work, you should try and keep + the Lord before you, and do it as to him, and not to man.... When + any one offends you, you should, from love to Jesus, forgive him and + pray for him." + +Bishop Meade is equally explicit, pp. 131, 132 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. +pp. 33, 34). Senator Dickinson regrets that he was not born in a Slave +State, so congenial is slavery to his soul! But the bishop, if he +believes in his own argument, must be sorrowful that he is not himself a +slave, so easy does he say is the slave's road to heaven!-- + + "_Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grumble or repine at + your condition; for this will not only make your life uneasy, but + will greatly offend Almighty God._ Consider that it is not + yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is not the + men that have brought you to it, but _it is the will of God, who + hath, by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, he + knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and help + you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty in + it_. So that any discontent at your not being free or rich or + great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly + Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath made you what + you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of + heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself + aright, and do the business he hath set you about in this world + honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have proved the ruin of + many an unhappy soul, by drawing away the heart and affections from + God, and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments; so that, when + God, who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees + that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore keeps them from us, + it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us. + + "You may perhaps fancy, that, if you had riches and freedom, you + could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you can + now. But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your souls + through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the best + of purposes in this world; and he that at last can get to heaven has + performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so rugged and + difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage over most + white people, who have not only the care of their daily labor upon + their hands, but the care of looking forward and providing + necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing and bringing + up their children, and of getting food and raiment for as many of + you as belong to their families, which often puts them to great + difficulties, and distracts their minds so as to break their rest, + and take off their thoughts from the affairs of another world. + Whereas you are quite eased from all these cares, and have nothing + but your daily labor to look after, and, when that is done, take + your needful rest. Neither is it necessary for you to think of + laying up any thing against old age, as white people are obliged to + do; for the laws of the country have provided, that you shall not be + turned off when you are past labor, but shall be maintained, while + you live, by those you belong to, whether you are able to work or + not.[J] _And these are great and real advantages, for which, if you + consider things rightly, you cannot but thank Almighty God, who hath + so wisely provided for your well-being here and your eternal + happiness hereafter._" + +God has made some men slaves, in order the better to help them towards +heaven! How admirably has the plan of the All-wise succeeded! The slaves +are a nation of _heathen_ in our very midst, daily and hourly (if we may +believe their religious teachers) descending to everlasting perdition. +From our very souls we are sick of the expression, "the providence of +God," as thus cantingly used! Wherever a great wrong is committed by +_man_, there the wrong is made part of God's mysterious providence! Are +the poor oppressed,--it is a part of God's providence! Are bloody wars +carried on for man's selfish ends,--they are part of God's providence! +Nothing is too wicked, nothing too infamously mean, for that Being to do +whose essence is love, whose law is just. We denounce the African +slave-trader as a fiend, and, with appropriate religious ceremonies, +hang him by the neck until he is dead, so deep is our detestation of a +pirate; and yet, at the same time, we thank God, that, in his infinite +wisdom, he has devised and executed the plan of negro-slavery, as the +true way of Christianizing and elevating Africa! The slave-owner is said +to have it in his power to shut up the kingdom of heaven against his +slaves, and the power is said to have been exercised; and Mr. Jones +seems to think that the race, taken as a whole, are thus shut out. And +yet the slaves are called upon by right reverend bishops to fall on +their knees, and devoutly thank God that he has made them slaves, in +order the better to help them towards heaven! Truly wonderful is it, +that ("Rel. Inst." p. 153) "they are living in manifold and gross sins; +their iniquities are aggravated and great before the Lord, and _not the +least of them is their neglect and contempt of the spiritual mercies and +privileges within their reach_"! + +We conclude our extracts from Bishop Meade's book with the following +(Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 34, 35):-- + + "There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I + shall now take notice of, and that is correction. + + "Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do + not deserve it. But whether you really deserve it or not, it is your + duty, and Almighty God requires that you bear it patiently. You may + perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but, if you consider it + right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you + deserve correction, you cannot but say that it is just and right you + should meet with it. Suppose you do not, or at least you do not + deserve so much, or so severe a correction, for the fault you have + committed, you perhaps have escaped a great many more, and are at + last paid for all. Or suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid + to your charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is + it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was + never discovered, and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would + not let you escape without punishment one time or another? And ought + you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful that + he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness than + destroy your souls for it in the next life? But, suppose even this + was not the case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you have + by no means, known or unknown, deserved the correction you suffered, + there is this great comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, + and leave your cause in the hands of God, he will reward you for it + in heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to + your exceeding great glory hereafter." + +Douglass's aunt Hester disobeyed _God's_ commands, when she paid no heed +to the orders of Capt. Anthony,--God's overseer. Accordingly, says +Douglass ("Narrative," p. 7), who was an eye-witness of the transaction, +the latter "took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to +waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked. After +crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a +stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made +her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood +fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full +length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to +her,--'Now, you d----d b----h! I'll learn you how to disobey my orders!' +And, after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy +cowskin; and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-ending shrieks from +her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor."[K] Poor, +ignorant, degraded aunt Hester! She little thought that _God_ had +ordered her not to visit her companion; and that, instead of shrieking, +she ought rather to be giving glory to Him who was punishing her in this +world, in order to save her soul in the next! + +Bishop Ives thus instructs the slave-children under his charge[L] +("Catechism"):-- + + Page 27: "Q. You said that at your baptism you were made inheritors + of the kingdom of heaven; but will you get eternal life in heaven, + if you do not strive to go there?--A. No; but I shall be sent down + to hell. + + Q. How are you to strive or try to go to heaven?--A. I must have + nothing to do with the devil and his works; which I gave up at my + baptism. + + Q. In what way are you to shun the devil and his works?--A. By + keeping within me no bad thoughts; by speaking no bad words; and by + doing no bad things. + + Q. What do you mean by keeping within you no bad thoughts?--A. I + mean that I must not hate anybody, nor wish to hurt anybody, nor + wish to do any wrong. + + Page 30: Q. What do you mean by doing no bad things, such things as + the devil tempts you to do?--A. I mean that I must not hurt anybody; + must not disobey my parents, nor disobey my master, nor disobey God. + + Q. But can you not disobey your parents and your master without + their knowing it?--A. Yes; but God knows it; for God always sees me. + + Q. What else must you do to get to heaven?--A. I must believe all + that God has told me about the way to get there. + + Pp. 35, 36: Q. How are you to show that you love your neighbor as + yourself?--A. I am to show it by always doing my duty to my + neighbor, as God has commanded me. + + Q. Who is your neighbor?--A. Everybody who lives with me and around + me, and has the control over me. + + Q. Can you name some persons?--A. My playfellows, my master and + mistress, and my parents.... + + Q. How are you to show your love to your master and mistress and + your parents?--A. I am never to lie to them, to steal from them, nor + speak bad words about them, but always to do as they bid me. + + Page 47: Q. How do others sin against you?--A. By cursing me, + telling lies about me, or striking me. + + Q. What must you do to those who thus sin against you?--A. I must + forgive them. + + Q. What if you do not forgive them?--A. Then God will not forgive + me. + + Q. Why?--A. Because I pray to him to forgive me, just as I forgive + others. + + Page 48: Q. How are you to forgive others, when they trespass + against you?--A. I am not to hurt them, because they hurt me; but I + must pray for them, and try to do them good. + + Q. What if you do to them just as they do to you?--A. Then God will + not forgive my sins, but will punish me. + + Page 43: Q. What do you pray for, when you say in the Lord's prayer, + 'Thy will be done'?--A. I pray that my will and everybody's will may + submit to God's will. + + Q. Where does God make his will known to us?--A. In his word and in + his acts. + + Page 44: Q. What are God's acts by which he makes his will known to + us?--A. Every thing that happens to us is God's act. + + Q. How are you to submit to God's will as made known in his + acts?--A. When God sends trouble or sickness or death, I am to feel + that God does right." + +Mr. Jones thus catechizes the slaves ("Catechism," pp. 129-131):-- + + "Q. What command has God given to servants concerning obedience to + their masters?--A. 'Servants, obey in all things your masters + according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in + singleness of heart, fearing God.' + + Q. What does God mean by masters according to the flesh?--A. Masters + in this world. + + Q. What are servants to count their masters worthy of?--A. 'All + honor.' + + Q. How are they to do the service of their masters?--A. '_With good + will_, doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men.' + + Q. How are they to try to please their masters?--A. 'Please them + well in all things, not answering again.' + + Q. Is a servant who is an eye-servant to his earthly master an + eye-servant to his heavenly Master?--A. Yes. + + Q. Is it right in a servant, when commanded to do any thing, to be + sullen and slow, and answer his master again?--A. No. + + Q. If the servant professes to be a Christian, ought he not to be + _as a Christian servant_, an example to all other servants of love + and obedience to his master?--A. Yes. + + Q. And, should his master be a Christian also, ought he not on that + account specially to love and obey him?--A. Yes. + + Q. But suppose the master is hard to please, and threatens and + punishes more than he ought, what is the servant to do?--A. Do his + best to please him. + + Q. When the servant suffers _wrongfully_ at the hands of his master, + and, to please God, takes it patiently, will God reward him for + it?--A. Yes. + + Q. Is it right for the servant to _run away_, or is it right to + _harbor_ a runaway?--A. No. + + Q. What did the Apostle Paul to Onesimus, who was a runaway? Did he + harbor him, or send him back to his master?--A. He sent him back to + his master with a letter. + + Q. Is it any praise to a servant to be punished for his faults, or + ought he to think hard of it?--A. No. + + Q. Are servants at liberty to tell lies, and deceive their + masters?--A. No. + + Q. Are they at liberty to steal from their masters?--A. No. + + Q. What ought they to show in their whole character and conduct?--A. + '_All good fidelity_, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our + Saviour in all things.' + + Q. If servants will faithfully do their duty and serve God in their + stations as servants, will they be respected of men, and blessed and + honored of God as well as others?--A. Yes. + + Q. Will servants have to account to God for the manner in which they + serve their masters on earth?--A. Yes." + +Mr. Jones thus expounds the tenth commandment ("Catechism," pp. +118-120):-- + + "Q. How does God require me to love my neighbor?--A. As myself. + + Q. Ought I not therefore to be glad when I see him have and enjoy + every good thing?--A. Yes. + + Q. But suppose I am _not glad_, and desire the very things he has, + and begrudge his having them, what do I?--A. I covet. + + Q. Is it not my duty to be contented with such things as I have, + without coveting what my neighbor has?--A. Yes. + + Q. What did the Apostle Paul say he had learned?--A. 'I have + learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.' + + Q. Repeat, 'Godliness with contentment.'--A. 'Godliness with + contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, + and it is certain we can carry nothing out; and, having food and + raiment, let us be therewith content.' + + Q. From whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift?--A. + From God. + + Q. Who is exalted as head above all, and giveth riches and honor and + greatness and strength, and also casteth down and maketh poor whom + he pleaseth?--A. God. + + Q. If I work and am industrious, and walk uprightly with God, will + he suffer me to want any good thing?--A. No. + + * * * * * + + Q. Does this commandment forbid _the very thought itself_ of evil + against our neighbor?--A. Yes. + + * * * * * + + We are to be contented with our own condition and circumstances, as + appointed unto us by our infinitely wise and gracious Father in + heaven." + +Thus discourseth that eminent son of Massachusetts, the Rev. Theodore +Clapp, after seventeen years' experience of the blessedness of slavery +(Sermon, p. 66):-- + + "Let all Christian teachers show our servants the importance of + being submissive, obedient, industrious, honest, and faithful to the + interests of their masters. Let their minds be filled with sweet + anticipations of rest eternal beyond the grave. Let them be trained + to direct their views to that fascinating and glorious futurity, + where the sins, sorrows, and troubles of earth will be contemplated + under the aspect of means indispensable to our everlasting progress + in knowledge, virtue, and happiness. I would say to every slave in + the United States, You should realize that a wise, kind, and + merciful Providence has appointed for you your condition in life; + and, all things considered, you could not be more eligibly situated. + The burden of your care, toils, and responsibilities is much lighter + than that which God has imposed on your master. The most enlightened + philanthropists, with unlimited resources, could not place you in a + situation more favorable to your present and everlasting welfare + than that which you now occupy. You have your troubles. So have all. + Remember how evanescent are the pleasures and joys of human life." + +_Judicious_ religious instruction, therefore, makes the slaves faithful, +diligent, and honest, and very materially promotes discipline; and it +produces these results much more perfectly than any other motive which +can be used. The cowskin and the paddle are doubtless serviceable; but +that South Carolina planter told the truth who said to Dr. Brisbane +(Brooke's "Slavery," p. 35), that religion was worth more to him with +his slaves than four wagon-loads of cowskins! A judiciously awakened +conscience, an earnest wish on the part of the slave to do what he +believes to be the will of God, in order to escape never-ending torments +in hell, constitute a much more forcible and constant incitement and +restraint than that of fear. When we reflect that "ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers," and that the +more ignorant and superstitious they are, the more easily they may be +duped, it is evident that this religious restraint is easily created, +and daily increases in strength. How infinitely more powerful, then, is +such a motive than the fear of bodily suffering! It is equally easy and +vastly more efficacious to ply judicious religious instruction than to +ply the cowskin or the paddle! + +It is evident also, that the religious instruction of slaves increases +their market-value, and greatly promotes the safety of the community. +"Experience teaches us," says the Right Rev. Dr. Gibson, "the great +value of those servants who are truly religious, compared with those who +have no sense of religion" ("Rel. Inst." p. 22). No persons feel this +more sensibly than the slaveholders. "Even _men of the world_," says the +Presbytery of Georgia, "throw wide the door of access to their negroes." +The fourth of a series of resolutions reported to the Synod of South +Carolina and Georgia in 1833 reads, "We deem religious instruction to +master and servant every way conducive to _our interests for this world_ +and for that which is to come" (ib. p. 74). With the proceedings of a +convention held in Charleston, S.C. in 1845, to consider the subject of +the religious instruction of slaves, were published letters from several +persons, describing the effect actually produced by such instruction. +One person writes, "The deeper the piety of the slave, the more valuable +is he in every sense of the word." Another says, "A regard to +self-interest should lead every planter to give his people religious +instruction." "On such large plantations," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. +Inst." p. 239), "_as a mere matter of gain_, a religious instructor +should be employed." _By religious instruction_ (ib. p. 208), "_the +pecuniary interests of masters will be advanced as a necessary +consequence._"--Page 204: "Is it not conceded, that a truly pious +servant gives less trouble, and is more profitable, than one who is not? +Is there one master in a thousand who does not desire such servants? Is +it not true, that the most pious servants exert the happiest influence +in promoting honesty and good order on plantations and in +communities?"--Page 210: "_The religious instruction of the slaves will +contribute to safety._ 'The thing that hath been, it is that which may +be;' and although, as a slaveholding country, we are so situated that, +so far as man can see, the hope of success on the part of our laboring +class, in any attempt at revolution, is forlorn; yet no enemy (if there +be an enemy) should be despised, however weak, and no danger unprovided +for, however apparently remote.... It is, then, but a prudent foresight, +a dictate of benevolence and of wisdom, to originate, and set in +operation, means that may act as _a check upon, if not a perfect +preventive, of evil_. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of _sound +religious instruction_ as a means to the end desired." + +Ib. p. 212: "Besides the general and special influences of the gospel +now adverted to, safety will be connected with _the very dispensation of +it_.... The presence of white instructors, settled ministers, or +missionaries, in their private as well as public religious assemblies, +and free intercourse with the people and with their influential men and +leaders, exert a restraining influence upon any spirit of +insubordination that may exist, and at the same time give opportunities +for its detection. The negroes are as capable of strong personal +attachments to their religious instructors as are any other people, _and +of their own will are inclined to make confidential communications_"! + +Such is the quality of the religious instruction imparted to slaves; +such is the way in which their famishing souls are led away to the water +of life! To escape everlasting torments in hell, a slave must submit to +remain in slavery! He must neither murmur nor repine at his lot, but +rather give thanks to God for his loving-kindness and tender mercy in +removing from his path so many temptations to sin! He must obey his +master in all things, and do the work assigned to him faithfully and +diligently, "in singleness of heart, as unto Christ"! He must act +honestly, and never waste any of "the comforts and conveniences of life" +which he procures for his master. No accumulation of injuries or +deprivations can excuse him for running away; but he is bound to endure +all his wrongs with cheerfulness and patience, and, leaving his cause in +the hands of God, look to Heaven alone for his reward! Who is there that +does not feel irresistibly impelled, with Bishop Ives, to cease "wailing +over the _imaginary_ suffering" of the slaves, and to unite with him in +"the heart-felt exclamation, 'How happy are the people that are in such +a case! yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God'"? +(Bishop Ives's "Address to the Convention in his Diocese;" Jay's +"Letter," p. 3). Who cannot say to the slaves, with Mr. Glennie (p. 58), +"Your advantages are indeed great: ... oh! make full use of your +privileges, and show that you thank God by serving him"? + +To teach untruths is a greater wrong to a man's soul than merely to keep +him in ignorance. How much more pitifully wicked is it, then, to teach +such untruths only or mainly as must advance the pecuniary interest of +the oppressor! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.--NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES. + + "Marriage unites all which ennobles and beautifies life."--_De + Wette._ + + "Negro marriages are neither recognized nor protected by + law."--_Rev. C. C. Jones._ + + +Besides the direct instruction thus imparted to slaves, there is an +indirect instruction much more powerful and effective in securing their +degradation. + +"Marriage," says De Wette, "is genuine only when single and permanent. +It is then also the first and most important institution of human +existence; the foundation of all civilization and culture; the root of +church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed among +mankind; and thousands are first made aware by it that they have within +them a nobler impulse and a nobler want than to labor, to acquire, and +to enjoy. It is the union of manly strength with feminine gentleness; +the tempering of masculine rudeness by female delicacy; and, for +innumerable persons, the only relation in which they feel the true +sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for every human virtue, since +each of these is developed from the love and confidence which here +predominate. It unites all which ennobles and beautifies +life,--sympathy, kindness of will and deed, gratitude, devotion, and +every delicate, intimate feeling. As the only asylum for true education, +it is the first and last sanctuary of human culture. As husband and +wife, through each other, become conscious of complete humanity, of +every humane feeling and every humane virtue; so children, at their +first awakening in the fond covenant of love between parents, both of +whom are tenderly concerned for the same object, find an image of +complete humanity, leagued in free love. The spirit of love, which +prevails between them, acts with creative power upon the young mind, and +awakens every germ of goodness within it. This invisible, uncalculated, +and incalculable influence of parental life acts more upon the child +than all the efforts of education by means of instruction, precept, and +exhortation." + +How true and yet how faint a picture of the vast influence for good of +the institution of marriage! But if marriage thus unites all which it +ennobles and beautifies life; if, as a means of education, its influence +is uncalculated and incalculable, what must be the moral degradation of +that people to whom marriage is denied? Must not the degradation also be +uncalculated and incalculable? And yet such is the condition of the +slaves! Not content with depriving them of all the higher and holier +enjoyments of marriage, by degrading and darkening their souls, the +slaveholders deny to their slaves even that slight alleviation to their +misery which would result from their marriage-relations being protected. + +It is obviously true, that (Jones's "Catechism," p. 112) "all the +comfort and happiness of the marriage-state, and all the good flowing +from it, to families and the world at large, depend upon its sacredness +and purity." Without these there can be no marriage. No less true is it, +that the institution ("Rel. Inst." p. 132) "depends, for its perpetuity, +sacredness, and value, _largely_ upon the protection given to it by the +law of the land." _But the law gives no protection whatever to the +marriage of slaves!_ + +"Slaves cannot marry," says the Civil Code of Louisiana (Art. 182), +"without the consent of their masters; and their marriages do not +produce any of the civil effects which result from such contract." + + "With the consent of their masters, slaves may marry, and their + moral power to agree to such a contract or connection as that of + marriage cannot be doubted; but, whilst in a state of slavery, it + cannot produce any civil effect, because slaves are deprived of all + civil rights" (6 Martin's Rep. 550.) + + "As the State," says a writer in the "Carolina Baptist," + "constitutionally and legally is ignorant of the marriage of slaves, + it is equally ignorant of its dissolution. _It leaves this whole + matter where it ought to be, that is, untouched, and with the owners + themselves._ If there be an abuse of this power, the remedy is not + with the State, but social, religious, and ecclesiastical" ("The + Church as it is," p. 77). + +"_Negro marriages_," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. Inst." pp. 132, 133), "_are +neither recognized nor protected by law._ The negroes receive no +instruction on the nature, sacredness, and perpetuity of the +institution: at any rate, they are far from being duly impressed with +these things. They are not required to be married in any particular +form, nor by any particular persons. Their ceremonies are performed by +their own watchmen or teachers, by some white minister, or, as it +frequently happens, not at all.... There is no special disgrace +nor punishment visited upon those who criminally violate their +marriage vows,[M] except what may be inflicted by owners, or, if +the parties be members, by the church in the way of suspension and +excommunication."--Page 119: "_The relation is liable to disruption in a +variety of forms, for some of which there is no remedy._"--Page 133: +"Families are, and may be, divided for improper conduct on the part of +either husband or wife, _or by necessity, as in cases of the death of +owners, division of estates, debt, sale, or removals; for they are +subject to all the changes and vicissitudes of property_. Such divisions +are, however, carefully guarded against and prevented, _as far as +possible_, by owners, on the score of interest, as well as of religion +and humanity. Hence, as may well be imagined, the marriage-relation +loses much of the sacredness and perpetuity of its character. It is a +contract of convenience, profit, or pleasure, that may be entered into +and dissolved at the will of the parties, and that without heinous sin." + +What a pitiful and wicked mockery it is thus to expound to slaves the +seventh commandment! (Jones's "Catechism," pp. 110, 111): + + "Q. Should persons be married in a public or in a private way?--A. + In a public way. + + Q. And by whom should the ceremony be performed?--A. By a minister + or some other lawful person. + + Q. Is God really present to witness the marriage?--A. Yes. + + Q. How near of kin may a man marry?--A. His first cousin. + + Q. After marriage, can husband and wife separate whenever they + please?--A. No. + + Q. Has any person whatever power to separate them if he pleases?--A. + No. + + Q. What saith our Saviour, 'What, therefore, God hath joined'? A. + 'What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put + asunder.' + + Q. Can husband and wife ever separate?--A. Yes. + + Q. In how many ways?--A. In two only. + + Q. What is the first?--A. When either of them commits adultery. + + Q. What is the second?--A. When either of them dies. + + Q. After one dies, may the other lawfully marry again?--A. Yes. + + Page 112: Q. How will God punish those who break this commandment in + the world to come?--A. In everlasting fire." + +How sacred is the marriage of slaves! They cannot even go through the +_form_, without the consent of their owners. And if the owner of two +bodies consents to the performance of the ceremony "by a minister or +some other lawful person," and God himself "is really present to witness +the marriage," the law, notwithstanding, declares the so-called marriage +to be as complete a nullity as the union of any other kind of +live-stock! It declares that those whom God hath joined may be put +asunder, whenever the owner pleases; as if, wishing to raise money to +pay his debts, he finds it more convenient to sell the wife at auction +to pledging his bank-stock; or if, wishing to remove, he thinks it will +be better economy to take his stock with him than sell out, perhaps at a +sacrifice, and buy again an inferior article! In order to be able to +live with his wife at all, Henry Brown was obliged to hire her of her +owner for fifty dollars a year; and, when her master became short of +funds, he sold the wife and three children, before Brown's very face, to +a Methodist minister,--one of those holy men who are "called of God" and +"solemnly set apart" to preach to all men the gospel of love! So sacred +is the marriage of slaves! + +There is no such thing as a sacred marriage among slaves. Marriage, with +them, at its best estate, is but concubinage. The relation _must_ be +entered into when and as the owner orders! It is changed whenever, in +his good pleasure, he wills that it shall change! It ends when he wills +that it shall end! Wherein is the union among the _human_ stock, on the +Southern plantations, regarded as more sacred and lasting than the union +among the _brute_ stock? In both cases, the law considers the union as a +merely animal relation, for an animal purpose,--the increase, perhaps +the improvement, of the breed! So sacred is the marriage of slaves! + +The following advertisements, and hundreds of similar ones might be +cited, throw light on the subject:-- + +From the "Richmond Enquirer," Feb. 20, 1838: + + "STOP THE RUNAWAY!!!--$25 Reward. Ran away from the Eagle Tavern, a + negro fellow, named Nat. _He is no doubt attempting to follow his + wife, who was lately sold to a speculator, named Redmond._ The above + reward will be paid by Mrs. Lucy M. Downman, of Sussex county, Va." + +From the "Richmond (Va.) Compiler," Sept. 8, 1837: + + "RAN AWAY FROM THE SUBSCRIBER--BEN. He ran off _without any known + cause_, and _I suppose he is aiming to go to his wife, who was + carried from the neighborhood last winter_. JOHN HUNT." + +From the "Lexington (Ky.) Intelligencer," July 7, 1838: + + "$160 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscribers, living in this city, + on Saturday, 16th inst. a negro man, named Dick, about 37 years of + age. _It is highly probable said boy will make for New Orleans, as + he has a wife living in that city, and he has been heard to say + frequently that he was determined to go to New Orleans._ + + DRAKE & THOMPSON. + "Lexington, June 17, 1838." + + "$50 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, his negro man, + Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne _has + purchased his wife and children_ from H. L. Pinckney, Esq. and has + them now on his plantation at Goosecreek, where, no doubt, the + fellow is frequently _lurking_. + T. DAVIS." + +The wife has been sold to the speculator in human flesh! The sacred +relation has been for ever sundered by God's overseer! The husband has +been orally taught to say,--"Thou shalt not commit adultery," and to +consider such to be a divine command. But he is strong and healthy, and +his master orders him to live with another woman. What is he to do? If +he obeys, he commits adultery, and disobeys God's commands. Truly a +difficult matter to settle! + +What ardent prayers will the church send up to heaven, that their +brother may have strength given to him to enable him to save his +soul alive! What earnest entreaties! How solemnly will the church +remonstrate with its member against the commission of so great a +sin! And, when prayers, entreaties, remonstrances, have all been +tried and have failed, how sternly will the church proceed to the last +extremity,--excommunication! If the man who marries his deceased wife's +sister must be cut off from "membership in the Saviour's body" as +impure,[N] how much more must that man be cut off who is faithless +during his wife's lifetime? + +How admirably does the Savannah River Baptist Association harmonize the +worship of God and mammon, and reconcile obedience to the commands of +the master with obedience to God! This Association, in reply to the +question (Brooke's "Slavery," p. 38),-- + + "Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character + as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought + to be allowed to marry again," + +Answer-- + + "That such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is + civilly a separation by death; and they believe, that, in the sight + of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such + cases would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships + and strong temptation, but to church-censure for acting in obedience + to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a + regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit + of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The + slaves are not free agents; and a dissolution by death is not more + entirely without their consent, and beyond their control, than by + such separation." + +A similar decision was made by the Shiloh Baptist Association in +Virginia. This question was presented for solution ("The Church as it +is," pp. 76, 77),-- + + "Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her + master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again?" + +The query was referred to a committee, who made the following report; +which, after discussion, was adopted:-- + + "That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this + country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion, that + it is better to permit servants thus circumstanced to take another + husband or wife." + +Convenient truth! A different rule would lessen the productiveness of +the master's stock! Can any man who owns the body of his sister be +expected to acquiesce in a regulation which would deprive his property +of half its value! + +But, suppose the master wishes to sell the female slave for purposes of +licentiousness, or suppose the master is himself impure, is this +agreeable to the order of Divine Providence? Does any one say that +either law or public opinion protects the female slave from the +brutality of her master? The great frequency of outrages of this kind is +demonstrated by the tens of thousands of slaves, more or less white, who +are found at the South. It was a Southerner who said, that the best +blood of Virginia flowed in the veins of her slaves! + +From the "Richmond (Va.) Whig:" + + "$100 REWARD will be given for the apprehension of my negro(?) + Edmund Kenney. _He has straight hair, and complexion so nearly + white, that it is believed a stranger would suppose there was no + African blood in him._ He was with my boy Dick a short time since in + Norfolk, _and offered him for sale_, and was apprehended, _but + escaped under pretence of being a white man_! + + "January 6, 1836. ANDERSON BOWLES." + +From the "Republican Banner and Nashville Whig" of July 14, 1849: + + "$200 REWARD--Ran away from the subscriber, on the 23d of June last, + a bright mulatto woman, named Julia, about 25 years of age. She is + of common size, _nearly white_, and very likely. She is a good + seamstress, and can read a little. _She may attempt to pass for + white_,--dresses fine. She took with her Anna, her child, 8 or 9 + years old, and considerably darker than her mother.... She once + belonged to a Mr. Helm, of Columbia, Tennessee. + + "I will give a reward of $50 for said negro and child, if delivered + to me or confined in any jail in this State, so I can get them; + $100, if caught in any other Slave State, and confined in a jail so + that I can get them; and $200, if caught in any Free State, and put + in any good jail in Kentucky or Tennessee, so I can get them. + + "Nashville, July 9, 1849. A. W. JOHNSON." + +The following three advertisements are taken from Alabama papers: + + "RAN AWAY FROM THE SUBSCRIBER, working on the plantation of Col. H. + Tinker, a bright mulatto boy, named Alfred. Alfred is about 18 years + old, pretty well grown, _has blue eyes, light flaxen hair, skin + disposed to freckle. He will try to pass as free-born._ + + "Green County, Ala. S. G. STEWART." + + "$100 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, a bright mulatto + man-slave, named Sam. _Light sandy hair, blue eyes, ruddy + complexion,--is so white as very easily to pass for a free white + man._ + EDWIN PECK. + "Mobile, April 22, 1837." + + "RAN AWAY, on the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman, named Fanny. + Said woman is 20 years old; is rather tall; can read and write, and + so forge passes for herself. Carried away with her a pair of + ear-rings,--a Bible with a red cover; is very pious. She prays a + great deal, and was, as supposed, contented and happy. _She is as + white as most white women, with straight light hair, and blue eyes, + and can pass herself for a white woman._ I will give $500 for her + apprehension and delivery to me. She is very intelligent. + + JOHN BALCH. + "Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845." + +From the "Newbern (N.C.) Spectator:" + + "$50 REWARD will be given for the apprehension and delivery to me of + the following slaves,--Samuel and Judy, his wife, with their four + children, belonging to the estate of Sacker Dubberly, deceased. + + "I will give $10 for the apprehension of _William Dubberly_, a slave + belonging to the estate. William is about 19 years old, _quite + white, and would not readily be taken for a slave_. + + "March 13, 1837. JOHN J. LANE." + +The next two advertisements we cut from the "New Orleans Picayune" of +Sept. 2, 1846: + + "$25 REWARD.--Ran away from the plantation of Madame Fergus + Duplantier, on or about the 27th of June, 1846, a bright mulatto, + named Ned, very stout built, about 5 feet 11 inches high, _speaks + English and French_, about 35 years old, waddles in his walk. _He + may try to pass himself for a white man, as he is of a very clear + color, and has sandy hair._ The above reward will be paid to whoever + will bring him to Madame Duplantier's plantation, Manchac, or lodge + him in some jail where he can be conveniently obtained." + + "$200 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, last November, _a white + negro_ man, about 35 years old, height about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, + _blue eyes, has a yellow woolly head, very fair skin_, + (particularly under his clothes).... Said negro man was raised in + Columbia, S.C. and is well known by the name of Dick Frazier.... He + was lately known to be working on the railroad in Alabama, near + Moore's Turn Out, _and passed as a white man_, by the name of Jesse + Teams. I will give the above reward for his delivery in any jail, so + that I can get him; and I will give $500 for sufficient proof to + convict, in open court, any man who carried him away. + + "Barnwell Court House, S.C. J. D. ALLEN. + + "P.S. Said man has a good-shaped foot and leg, and his foot is very + small and hollow." + +In the "New Orleans Bee" of June 22, 1831, P. Bahi advertises as a +runaway "_Maria, with a clear, white complexion_." Ellen Craft is as +white as our own sisters. Wm. W. Brown ("Narrative," p. 34), describing +a gang of slaves who were under his charge, and destined to supply the +New Orleans market, thus speaks of one who attracted the attention of +the passengers and the crew:-- + + "It was a _beautiful girl_, apparently about twenty yeas of age, + _perfectly white, with straight, light hair, and blue eyes_. But it + was not the whiteness of her skin that created such a sensation + among those who gazed upon her: it was her almost unparalleled + beauty. She had been on the boat but a short time before the + attention of all the passengers, including the ladies, had been + called to her; and the common topic of conversation was about the + beautiful slave-girl." + +A friend, a resident for some time in New Orleans, describes to us a +very beautiful slave he saw there, who had light curling hair, blue +eyes, and almost a blonde complexion. After having been kept as a +mistress by her owner, he finally sold her to pay his debts! No isolated +case is exhibited by Wm. W. Brown when he relates the history of poor +Cynthia! + +Is any sickly sentimentalist shocked at these recitals? Be of stout +heart! Do not Christian bishops, and hundreds of other reverend +fathers,--the messengers of God's everlasting truth to our +souls,--assure us that _slavery_, "AS IT EXISTS," _is right_; and that, +consequently, the fundamental maxim of slavery, "the child follows the +condition of the mother," is right also! Why, then, should not the +children of slave-women by white fathers be rightfully slaves? Of what +consequence, then, is the pollution of the soul of the mother, compared +with the fact of her increased value as a commodity? How utterly +insignificant is the fact that a father holds his own children in +slavery, compared with the advantages notoriously derived from such an +improvement in the slave-stock? In sober, literal truth, the brother +owns the body of his sister, and the sister that of her brother,--so +sacred is the marriage-state of slaves! If the father wishes to repair +the wrong he has done, the law forbids his teaching his own child to +read or write! If he is poor, too poor to pay his debts, a creditor may +seize his child in its very cradle, and sell it at auction to pay the +debt! It ought not to be otherwise! Is it not agreeable to the order of +Divine Providence, that a child should be sold to pay his father's +debts? How fitting it is for Mr. Jones and Bishop Freeman to teach such +a vendible commodity to say, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy +mother"! + +Does any reader still doubt whether an owner thus has uncontrolled +authority over the body of his female slave? Let him read the following +extract from an opinion of the Supreme Court of the State of North +Carolina,--the Old North State, whence Bishop Ives has long since ceased +to weep over the "imaginary sufferings" of the slaves! To avoid a +chastisement, a female slave ran off, and, on her refusal to stop when +called, was shot at and wounded. Judge Ruffin, in delivering the opinion +of the court (State _vs._ Mann, 2 Dev. Rep. 263), says:-- + + "The inquiry here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery on a + slave by the hirer is indictable?... In criminal proceedings, and, + indeed, in reference to all other persons but the general owner, the + hirer and possessor of a slave, in relation to both rights and + duties, is, for the time being, the owner.... + + "With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the profit of the + master, his security, and the public peace. The subject is one + doomed in his own person, and in his posterity, to live without + knowledge, and without capacity to make any thing his own, and to + toil that others may reap the fruits. + + "What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a being to + convince him what it is impossible but that the most stupid must + feel and know can never be true, that he is thus to labor upon a + principle of natural duty, or for the sake of his own personal + happiness? Such services can only be expected from one who has no + will of his own, who surrenders his will in explicit obedience to + that of another. _Such obedience is the consequence only of + uncontrolled authority over the body._ There is nothing else which + can operate to produce the effect. The power of the master must be + absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect. I most + freely confess my sense of the harshness of this proposition. I feel + it as deeply as any man can. And, as a principle of moral right, + every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But, in the actual + condition of things, it must be so. There is no remedy. This + discipline belongs to slavery."[O] + +Judge Ruffin had not enjoyed the benefit of the instruction imparted +some years later by Bishops Ives and Freeman. If he had, he would not +thus have followed the dictate of a "desperately wicked" heart, and have +repudiated the discipline of slavery as morally wrong! + +The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, of the Presbyterian Church, himself a +slaveholder, was a delegate to the State Emancipation Convention +recently held in Kentucky. In a speech made by him before the +Convention, he is reported to have said ("Louisville Examiner"), that-- + + "The system of slavery denies to a whole class of human beings the + sacredness of marriage and of home, compelling them to live in a + state of concubinage; for, in the eye of the law, _no colored + slave-man is the husband of any wife in particular, nor any + slave-woman the wife of any husband in particular; no slave-man is + the father of any children in particular, and no slave-child is the + child of any parent in particular_." + +Who will venture even to conceive, much less compute, the deep +degradation caused by the denial of marriage to the slaves? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"SOUL-DRIVING." + + "A negro speculator, or a _soul-driver_ as they are generally called + among slaves."--_Wm. W. Brown's Narrative_, p. 39. + + +If we would most effectually degrade a man, we need only trample on the +highest and holiest of all his rights,--his right to himself; we have +only to make him the subject of barter and sale, a thing for speculators +to make money on, for jockeys to deceive about, and for buyers to +depreciate. And yet how few act as if they admitted this truth, or even +faintly realized the enormity of this wrong! + +Slaves, as subjects of property, are continually spoken of and treated +as horses and cows, and other live-stock! Tens of thousands of +advertisements might be adduced to prove this. We have room only for a +very few proofs. The Civil Code of Louisiana provides:-- + + "Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and animals are divided + into two classes,--vices of body and vices of character. + + "Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished into absolute and + relative.... + + "Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are leprosy, madness, and + epilepsy. + + "Art 2503. The absolute vices of horses and mules are short wind, + glanders, and founder." + +In the "National Intelligencer" of May 2, 1843, the administrators of +Alexius Boarman advertise for sale "twelve or thirteen likely young +negroes, among whom are two carpenters; four head of horses, two yoke +of oxen, several head of cows, all the sheep and hogs belonging to said +deceased." The same paper of December 2, 1843, contains the following:-- + + "PUBLIC SALE OF VERY VALUABLE NEGROES AND STOCK.--The subscriber + will offer at public sale at his residence, near Bladensburg, Prince + George's County, Maryland, on Wednesday, the 20th of December next, + if fair, if not, the next fair day thereafter, _forty-five or fifty + very valuable young negroes, consisting of men and women, boys, + girls, and children_. + + "_At the same time and place, he will offer his entire stock of + blood horses, together with some farm stock._ + + "The terms of sale will be a credit of nine and eighteen months; the + purchaser giving bond with approved security, bearing interest from + the day of sale. + + "Sale to commence at 10 o'clock, A. M. SAMUEL SPRIGG. + + "The Marlborough Gazette will copy till day of sale." + +In the same paper of January 25, 1843, directly under an advertisement +for sale of "_a girl_ about 18 years of age, who is honest, industrious, +and a good cook, fine washer and ironer, and a good seamstress," we find +the notice of a "_Blooded colt_ at auction.--A thorough bred colt, two +years old the coming spring, got by Farmer, dam by Lafayette"! D. H. +Candler, the sheriff of Montgomery County, Md. in an advertisement now +before us, states that he has seized on execution, and will sell "for +cash only" at the Court House door in Rockville, "_one stallion, Red +Buck_, and _one negro boy, John_"![P] To bring the case nearer home:--in +the "New England Weekly Journal" of August 27, 1733, printed in +_Boston_, we find the following advertisement:-- + + "SEVERAL LIKELY YOUNG NEGROES, best Barbadoes sugars, very good + Bohea tea, bag Hollands, fine cambric muslins, and sundry other + merchandise, to be sold by Hugh Hall, Esq."[Q] + +In the "Boston Gazette" of October 21, 1734:-- + + "TO BE SOLD BY ----, Several likely young negroes, lately + imported,--as men, women, boys. Also choice raisins of the sun, + gunpowder, Newcastle glass, in crates and boxes." + +Not only are slaves thus placed on the same level with other property, +but they are treated in the same manner. As our horse-jockeys not +infrequently color their horses, or put on false tails, for the sake of +enhancing their value, so similar arts are practised by the +slave-jockeys of the South! Wm. W. Brown thus describes a part of his +duties, whilst hired to the slave-trader Walker ("Narrative," pp. 42, +43): + + "In the course of eight or nine weeks, Mr. Walker had his cargo of + human flesh made up. There was in this lot a number of old men and + women, some of them with gray locks. We left St. Louis in the + steamboat Carlton, Captain Swan, bound for New Orleans. On our way + down, and before we reached Rodney, the place where we made our + first stop, I had to prepare the old slaves for market. I was + ordered to have the old men's whiskers shaved off, and the gray + hairs plucked out, where they were not too numerous, in which case + he had a preparation of blacking to color it, and with a + blacking-brush we would put it on. This was new business to me, and + was performed in a room where the passengers could not see us. These + slaves were also taught how old they were by Mr. Walker; and, after + going through the blacking process, they looked ten or fifteen years + younger; and I am sure that some of those who purchased slaves of + Mr. Walker were dreadfully cheated, especially in the ages of the + slaves which they bought."--Pp. 45, 46: "The next day we proceeded + to New Orleans, and put the gang in the same negro-pen which we + occupied before. In a short time the planters came flocking to the + pen to purchase slaves. Before the slaves were exhibited for sale, + they were dressed and driven out into the yard. Some were set to + dancing, some to jumping, some to singing, and some to playing + cards. This was done to make them appear cheerful and happy. My + business was to see that they were placed in those situations before + the arrival of the purchasers, and I have often set them to dancing + when their cheeks were wet with tears." + +Can such treatment result in any thing but brutalizing every noble +faculty? If advertisements of stallions and boys, blood-horses and men +and women, blooded colts and young slave-girls, are considered so very +similar as to be placed in the same paragraph, or alongside each other, +how great a difference can there be in the treatment by the public of +the two kinds of stock? Is the auction-block a scene for cultivating the +affections of a poor slave-girl? Are the coarse and unfeeling jests +there perpetrated calculated to increase her purity, or strengthen her +moral sensibilities? Treat a man as you would have him to be, is a good +maxim. Respect him, and he will respect himself. Continually disregard +his holiest and best purposes, and in time he will do the same. + +What but pecuniary profit does the speculator in horses look to? What +other object has the speculator in men, women, and children, in view? +Whatever mammon bids the slave-trader do, will be done. How much more +than this, or will any thing more than this, be done? Will such a person +consider as of any consequence the broken hearts of husbands and wives, +of parents and children, who are torn by this terrible trade from all +they hold dear in life, so long as their bodies are sound, strong, and +healthy; so long as the investment retains its market-value? Of what +consequence is deep, heart-felt agony to a speculator? Is he whose idol +is gold to be turned from his purpose merely by the foolish wailing of a +woman whose heart-strings are breaking? Do the cries of children made +orphans, and of parents made childless, by his acts, move the heart of +that man who makes his living by buying parents and children, husbands +and wives, at the lowest prices, and by selling them, "singly or in lots +to suit," to whomsoever will give the highest price? + +The following is a well-known extract front an Address (p. 12) published +by the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky to the churches under their care, +in 1835:-- + + "Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are + torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts + are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony + often witnessed on such occasions proclaim, with a trumpet-tongue, + the iniquity of our system. There is not a neighborhood where these + heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or + road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, + whose mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from + all that their hearts hold dear." + +In the "New Orleans Bulletin," we find the following "Slavery as it is," +p. 168):-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--A negro woman, 24 years of age, and has two + children, one eight, and the other three years. _Said negroes will + be sold separately or together, as desired._ The woman is a good + seamstress. She will be sold low for cash, or _exchanged for + groceries_. For terms apply to MAYHEW, BLISS, & CO. + 1, Front Levee." + +A similar advertisement will be found in the "New England Weekly +Journal" (Boston), April 9, 1733; printers, S. Kneeland and T. Green:-- + + "A VERY LIKELY NEGRO WOMAN, that has a child of _about six weeks + old, to be sold, either with or without the child_. Inquire of the + printers hereof." + +The following was a standing advertisement, a few years since, in the +Charleston (S. C.) papers:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NEGROES FOR SALE.--The subscriber has just + arrived from Petersburg, Virginia, with one hundred and twenty + likely young negroes, of both sexes and every description, which he + offers for sale on the most reasonable terms. + + "The lot now on hand consists of plough-boys; several likely and + well-qualified house-servants, of both sexes; several women with + children; small girls, suitable for nurses; and _several small boys, + without their mothers_. Planters and traders are earnestly requested + to give the subscriber a call previously to making purchases + elsewhere, as he is enabled, and will sell as cheap or cheaper than + can be sold by any other person in the trade. + + "Hamburg, S.C. Sept. 28, 1838. BENJAMIN DAVIS." + +This is taken from the "Jackson (Tenn.) Telegraph," Sept. 14, 1838:-- + + "COMMITTED TO THE JAIL OF MADISON COUNTY, a negro woman, who calls + her name Fanny, and says she belongs to Wm. Miller, of Mobile. She + formerly belonged to John Givins, of this county, who now owns + several of her children. DAVID SHROPSHIRE, Jailer." + +How strong was that poor mother's love! She had toiled all the way from +Mobile to the county where her children lived, and the laws of a +Christian country consigned her to the jail! Perhaps, in her loneliness, +she remembered some oral instruction like this (Jones's "Catechism," pp. +125,126): + + "Q. Should mothers and fathers very tenderly love their + children?--A. Yes. + + Q. And, as they receive their children from the Lord, is it not + their duty and privilege to present them unto the Lord in his own + appointed ordinance, and to train them up for his church and + service?--A. Yes.... + + Q. What should they teach them to do every night and morning?--A. + Pray to God. + + Q. What book should parents early make their children acquainted + with, and out of which diligently instruct them?--A. The Holy Bible. + + Q. Is it the duty of parents to pray with and for their children + continually?--A. Yes. + + * * * * * + + Q. Is it their duty to warn their children of bad company, and keep + them out of it?--A. Yes." + +Poor slave-mother! very tenderly indeed did you love your children. But, +in your agony, you forgot that it was wicked to run away,--even for the +sake of teaching them to pray night and morning! How thankful, then, +ought you to be to God, that, in his great mercy, he was willing to +punish your transgression in this world, instead of the next! + +We never so deeply feel the brutalizing effects of slavery as when we +reflect upon its peculiarly degrading influences upon woman. On some +accounts, we would gladly pass over this point in silence; but so +atrocious a wrong should rest upon the heart of every one. + +It is an established maxim of trade, that the supply eventually equals +the demand. If the trade happens to be in men and women; in one way or +another, men and women will be supplied to meet the demand. There is a +great demand for slaves in the Southern and South-western States, +because slave-labor is very profitable there. "The domestic cannot +compete with the South-western demand for slaves," says a writer in the +leading Democratic paper of Virginia ("Richmond Enquirer," Nov. 13, +1846). The slaves in the South and West do not increase fast enough to +supply the demand. The foreign slave-trade is piracy. The only resource, +therefore, which is left to those States is a domestic slave-trade with +the Northern Slave States; where, to meet the demand, they resort to +breeding slaves! _Woman is degraded into a breeder!_ + +Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that +State, Jan. 18, 1832 (see "Richmond Whig"), says:-- + + "It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered by steady and + old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right + to its annual profits; the owner of orchards, to their annual + fruits; the owner of _brood mares_, to their product; and the owner + of _female slaves, to their increase_. We have not the fine-spun + intelligence nor legal acumen to discover the technical distinctions + drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim of '_Partus sequitur ventrem_' + is coeval with the existence of the rights of property itself, and + is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and + inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of + the female slave; has her nursed and attended during the period of + her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant offspring. The + value of the property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate + to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth." + +Hon. Thomas M. Randolph, of Virginia, formerly governor of that State, +in his speech before the legislature in 1832, said:-- + + "_It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in parts of + Virginia, to rear slaves for market._ How can an honorable mind, a + patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient + dominion converted into _one grand menagerie, where men are to be + reared for market, like oxen for the shambles_!" + +President Dew, of William and Mary's College, speaking of the annual +exportation of slaves from Virginia, says:-- + + "A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this + emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the + black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because + it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the + negroes, to _encourage breeding_, and to cause the greatest number + possible to be raised," &c. + + "_Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for other States._" + +Henry Clay, in his speech before the Colonization Society in 1829, +says:-- + + "It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United + States would slave-labor be generally employed, if the proprietor + were not tempted _to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern + market, which keeps it up in his own_." + +"It is a melancholy fact," says the same writer in the "Richmond (Va.) +Enquirer," Nov. 13, 1846, "that negroes have become the only _reliable +staple_ of the tobacco-growing sections of Virginia, the only reliable +means of liquidating debts foreign and domestic." + +The following advertisement is taken from the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury" ("Slavery as it is," p. 175):-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--A girl, about twenty years of age (raised in + Virginia), and her two female children, one four and the other two + years old; is remarkable strong and healthy, never having had a + day's sickness, with the exception of the small-pox, in her life. + The children are fine and healthy. _She is very prolific in her + generating qualities, and affords a rare opportunity to any person + who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for + their own use._ + + "Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at + the Mercury office." + +Does any reader exclaim there must be some mistake; it is impossible +that such a notice could be inserted in the _leading political paper_ of +South Carolina? Will he feel any more convinced by reading this, taken +from the "_Boston_ Evening Post" of September 10, 1744?-- + + "TO BE SOLD,--A likely negro wench, about 25 years of age, that can + do all sorts of household work, especially cookery; _is very hearty + and strong; has proved her faculty at propagation_, and is very + fluent in the English language. Inquire of the printer." + +Slavery is said to have existed in a _mild_ form in Massachusetts! And +yet we find in our own history parallels to some of the most brutal +atrocities which can be perpetrated on any human being. So essentially +the same is the character and effect of slavery, wherever it exists! +Does any one, and who does not, feel deep disgust at these recitals? Let +us rather feel disgusted at the system which leads to such atrocities! +Let not our indignation rest upon the story of the wrong, but upon the +wrong itself and its perpetrators. + +Does any one say these are solitary instances of atrocity? Doubtless +such advertisements are rare, but not unique. Others of the same kind, +and still more atrocious, might be adduced. But which constitutes the +greater atrocity,--to use men and women as "stallions" and "brood +mares," or to speak or print the damning deed? If the latter shows +hardened feeling, what does the former prove? If these advertisements +were the only ones of the kind which could be cited, still they tell a +story of brutal outrage, which is happening in this Christian land, +every day, hour, and minute, to tens of thousands of human beings! Other +advertisements, showing the brutality of the examinations to which women +are frequently subjected, might be cited. But for these we must refer +the reader to other anti-slavery documents; for enough of the disgusting +details has been exhibited to establish our position. + +To obtain any thing like an adequate conception of the brutalizing +influence upon the slaves of this trading in their bodies and the bodies +of their children, we must first see to what an extent it is carried. We +shall confine our attention chiefly to those who make a business of the +matter, "to gentlemen dealing in slaves;" leaving almost wholly +unnoticed the vast number of instances of buying and selling slaves +between private individuals, chaffering between neighbors, for their +private ends! Not that this latter kind of slave-trade is any less +degrading in its effects, but only because proofs in relation to the +other are more accessible, and are amply sufficient for our purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE." + + "The traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of + justice and humanity."--_Treaty of Ghent._ + + +No description of ours can give any adequate idea of the extent of this +terrible trade. It is as regular a branch of business as any other that +can be named. The city of Washington licenses persons to "traffic in +slaves for profit"! The trade is carried on between Maryland, Virginia, +North and South Carolina, Kentucky,--or the slave-raising States,--and +Alabama, Mississippi, and the other slave-consuming States. Depots, or +private jails, are erected at convenient places. + +In the "American Beacon" (published at Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848, +appear the two following advertisements:-- + + "NEGRO REPOSITORY.--The undersigned has, at a very considerable + expense, erected, and fitted up in a style of comfort and + convenience, a commodious two-story building on Union-street, second + door east of Church-street, for the safe keeping and accommodation + of negroes, both male and female (the apartments being entirely + separate), which are brought to this market for sale. This building + is admirably adapted to the object proposed, having airy and + pleasant rooms, and every convenience which could be desired, + besides large yards, _walled in high_, a capacious cistern, &c. + which, whilst they secure the comfort of the negro, likewise + guarantee the most ample security for his safe keeping. + + "In addition to boarding negroes for sale, the undersigned proposes + keeping on hand from time to time, for sale, such negroes as may be + in demand in this market, embracing every description of house and + field-hands, male and female, young and old, that may be called for, + and upon terms entirely accommodating. + + "Besides the boarding and the selling of negroes, he will also make + exchanges, giving or receiving such boot as the difference in age, + character, qualifications, and appearance may notify. + + "The highest cash market prices paid for negroes of both sexes at + all times. WM. W. HALL." + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--I will pay the highest cash for likely young + negroes of both sexes, from 10 to 30 years of age. All those that + have such to dispose of would do well to give me a call before + selling. I will also attend to shipping of negroes to any of the + Southern ports, free of charge, when left with me; _as I have a + private jail for the safe keeping of servants_. For further + information, inquire at my office at Union Hotel, Union-street, or + through the post-office. G. W. APPERSON." + +The following is taken from a New Orleans paper:-- + + "SLAVE DEPOT.--J. Buddy.--Slave-yard and boarding-house, 159, + Gravier-street, second door from Carondelet. + + "House-servants and field-hands for sale at all times. Slaves will + be received on board or sold on favorable terms. The building is a + large three-story brick house, and _very commodious as a slave + depot_. Particular attention will be paid to the health and + cleanliness of all slaves placed in this yard." + +From the "Missouri Republican," St. Louis, July 13, 1849:-- + + "REMOVAL.--Blakey & McAfee have removed to No. 93, Olive-street, six + doors west of their old stand. They are prepared at all times to pay + the highest prices for negroes. _They have also a good secure yard, + with a strong jail attached_, and are prepared to board negroes sent + to this market for sale. Persons having negroes for sale will please + call and see us. Those wishing to purchase can find what they want + at our yard. BLAKEY & MCAFEE, + No. 93, Olive-street." + +Hon. Horace Mann has described to us the slave-pen in the city of +Washington; and another member of Congress informs us, that the United +States jail in the District of Columbia is frequently used for the +purpose of storing human beings for sale! Thus, in the "National +Intelligencer" (Dec. 19, 1844), we find the following notice:-- + + "FOR SALE,--A likely young negro, in the jail of Washington. He is a + most excellent teamster, and well acquainted with the care of + horses. Persons wishing to purchase will apply to Mr. Ball, at the + jail, where the boy may be seen, and further information given." + +The activity of this trade may be inferred from these advertisements, +which constitute but a small portion of what might be produced. + +In the "National Intelligencer," March 28, 1836, three slave-traders in +the District of Columbia advertise for _twelve hundred_ negroes, and a +fourth offers to buy any number! Here is one of the advertisements:-- + + "CASH FOR FIVE HUNDRED NEGROES, including both sexes, from ten to + twenty-five years of age.--Persons having likely servants to dispose + of will find it their interest to give us a call, as we will give + higher prices in cash than any other purchaser who is now or may + hereafter come into the market. FRANKLIN & AMFIELD, Alexandria." + +In a later number of the same paper are the following:-- + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--I will give cash and liberal prices for any + number of young and likely negroes, from eight to forty years of + age. Persons having negroes to dispose of will find it to their + advantage to give me a call at my residence, on the corner of + Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue, and opposite Mr. Williams's + private jail. WILLIAM H. RICHARDS." + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--The subscriber wishes to purchase a number of + negroes for the Louisiana and Mississippi market. Himself or an + agent at all times can be found at his jail, on Seventh-street. + WM. H. WILLIAMS." + +In a later number, June 24, 1843, Mr. Richards is not so eager:-- + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--The subscriber wishes to purchase twenty or + thirty negroes, and will pay the highest market price. Persons + having negroes to sell will find it to their interest to give him a + call before they sell. I can be always found at my residence, + corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All communications + through the post-office will be promptly attended to. + WM. H. RICHARDS." + +In a still later number, July 22, 1843, appears this:-- + + "CASH! CASH!--The subscriber wishes to purchase any number of + negroes for the Southern markets. The subscriber will at all times + give the highest market price in cash for likely negroes, mechanics + and house servants included. Himself or agent can at all times be + seen at the corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All + communications will receive prompt attention. THOMAS WILLIAMS." + +The following are samples of some of the advertisements of Maryland +traders. The original of all of these advertisements will be found at +the Anti-Slavery office, Boston. We begin with one of Hope H. Slatter:-- + + "NEGROES WANTED.--Having returned from New Orleans, I will now pay + the highest cash prices for all likely negroes that are slaves for + life and good titles. All communications will be promptly attended + to. HOPE H. SLATTER, Pratt-street. + + "N.B. On the 7th day of June, 1844, Jonathan M. Wilson (my former + agent), by mutual consent, withdrew from my employment, and is no + longer my agent. HOPE H. SLATTER. + + "Baltimore, July 29." + + "CASH FOR FIVE HUNDRED NEGROES, at the old establishment of + Slatter's, No. 244, Pratt-street, Baltimore, between Sharp and + Howard-streets, where the highest prices are paid,--which is well + known. _We have large accommodations for negroes, and always + buying._ _Being regular shippers to New Orleans_, persons should + bring their property where no commissions are paid, as the owners + lose it. All communications attended to promptly by addressing + H. F. SLATTER." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--I have removed from my former residence, West + Pratt-street, to my new establishment on Camden-street, immediately + in the rear of the railroad depot, where I am permanently located. + Persons bringing negroes by the cars will find it very convenient, + as it is only a few yards from where the passengers get out. Those + having negroes for sale will find it to their advantage to call and + see me, as I am at all times paying the highest prices in cash. + J. S. DONOVAN, Baltimore, Md." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--O. C. & S. Y. Harris, of Upper Marlboro', wish to + purchase any number of negroes, for which they will give the highest + market price in cash. They will be in Port Tobacco once in every + week. Any communications left in their absence with Mr. Lyne + Shackelford will be promptly attended to." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--The highest market prices will be given for + negroes at all times. Persons having negroes for sale will please + call at my office, No. 26, Conway-street, between Charles and + Hanover. Communications promptly attended to. + + "Also negroes will be received and kept at twenty-five cents per + day. B. M. CAMPBELL. + + "April 7, 1846." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--Persons wishing to sell their negroes will find it + to their advantage to give me a call before selling elsewhere. _I + have all the facilities that the trade will admit of in the New + Orleans and other markets._ Such being the case, I can give as much + as any one else, which I am determined to do. Any communication + addressed to me, either in Baltimore or Port Tobacco, will be + attended to immediately. JOHN G. CAMPBELL, + "Jan. 1, 1847. Agent for B. M. Campbell." + + "TAKE NOTICE.--Persons wishing to dispose of their servants would do + well to give me a call before they sell to the traders. By paying a + small commission to an agent, they can get from $75 to $100 more; as + _I receive monthly from New Orleans, Savannah, Georgia, and + Charleston, S.C. the full market prices for slaves_. + "SCOTT'S Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place." + +The following is taken from the "Wilmington (Va.) Journal" of Sept. 3, +1847:-- + + "NEGROES WANTED.--I wish to purchase a large number of negroes, of + both sexes, from the age of 14 to 30, for which I will pay the + highest cash market price. As I intend making a long stay in + Wilmington for that purpose, persons from the country would find it + to their advantage to bring such slave-property to town as they have + to dispose of. Also wanted some good carpenters, blacksmiths, + coopers, and bricklayers.--Apply to me, at the Carolina Hotel. + ANSLEY DAVIS, of Petersburg, Va. + "Wilmington, May 7, 1847." + +The following is extracted from an advertisement of Lewis A. Collier, a +trader in Richmond, Va.:-- + + "NOTICE.--This is to inform my former acquaintances and the public + generally, that I yet continue in the slave-trade, at Richmond, + Virginia, and will at all times buy and give a fair market price for + young negroes. Persons in this State, Maryland, or North Carolina, + wishing to sell lots of negroes, are particularly requested to + forward their wishes to me at this place. Persons wishing to + purchase lots of negroes are requested to give me a call, as I keep + constantly on hand at this place a great many for sale; and have at + this time the use of one hundred young negroes, consisting of boys, + young men, and girls. I will sell at all times at a small advance on + cost, to suit purchasers. _I have comfortable rooms, with a jail + attached, for the reception of the negroes_; and persons coming to + this place to sell slaves can be accommodated, and every attention + necessary will be given to have them well attended to; and, when it + may be desired, the reception of the company of _gentlemen dealing + in slaves_ will conveniently and attentively be received. My + situation is very healthy, and suitable for the business. + LEWIS A. COLLIER." + +The "St. Louis Daily Union" of August 26, 1847, contains the +following:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED.--The subscriber wishes to purchase one + hundred negroes, of both sexes, for which I will pay the highest + price, in cash. I can be found at all times at No. 104, + Locust-street, by Gerard's stable. WM. JOHNSON." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--For two hundred negroes, the highest prices will + be paid by B. W. POWELL, City Hotel, or + 51, Front-street." + +The "Daily Reveille" (St. Louis), of the same date, contains the +following:-- + + "WANTED to purchase, thirty or forty young negroes, by + CURLE & GODDIN, 79, Olive-street." + +The following is taken from the "St. Louis Republican:" + + "NEGROES WANTED AND BOARDED.--The highest cash price paid for young + likely negroes, at 104, Locust-street, between Third and Fourth, + adjoining Gerard's stables. + + "N.B. Our house will be well secured, and afford the _advantages of + a jail surrounded by walls, and a basement cell in it_. + WHITE & TOOLY." + +The following two are found in the "Evening Mercury" of Jan. 14, 1848, +published in New Orleans:-- + + "SLAVES WANTED.--Wanted to purchase, slaves of every description, at + the New Orleans depot, No. 156, Common-street, for which liberal + prices will be paid. Slaves will also be sold on commission, and + purchasers are invited to call and see a well-selected lot of slaves + offered at low prices. ELIHU CRESWELL." + + "SLAVES WANTED.--E. Creswell, No. 163, Gravier-street, will pay the + most liberal price for slaves of all descriptions; and those who + have slaves for sale will do well to give him a call before selling + to others. He will also exchange slaves, sell slaves on commission; + and those who wish to purchase will do well to give him a call + before buying elsewhere, _as he keeps on hand a good selection of + slaves_, sold under full guarantee, and good reference for titles + given." + +The foregoing advertisements give us some faint idea of the demand for +slaves. Those which follow are of slaves for sale. We cannot commence +more appropriately than with these, taken from the "New Orleans +Picayune:"-- + + "SLAVES FOR SALE.--Hope H. Slatter, who has retired from the trade, + has sold to me his establishment in Baltimore, and leased for a + number of years his old stand at the corner of Esplanade and + Moreau-streets, at which place _I shall keep up a large and general + assortment of slaves for sale, imported direct from Maryland and + Virginia_. WALTER L. CAMPBELL, + Successor to Hope H. Slatter." + + "NEGROES, NEGROES.--Just received, and for sale at No. 7, + Moreau-street, Third Municipality, a large and likely lot of + negroes, consisting of field-hands, house-servants, and mechanics. + _Will be receiving new lots regularly from Virginia during the + season._ WM. F. TALBOTT." + +The same paper of Oct. 18, 1846, contains the following two:-- + + "SLAVES FOR SALE, No. 165, Gravier-street.--The subscriber has + always on hand a number of slaves, consisting of house-servants, + field-hands, and mechanics, which will be sold low, for cash or + negotiable paper. Persons desirous of purchasing will find it to + their interest to call and examine. The subscriber will also receive + and sell on consignment any negro that may be entrusted to his care. + + "He would also respectfully notify persons engaged in the + slave-trade, that he is prepared to board them and their slaves on + the most reasonable terms. WM. H. MERRITT. + + "Reference: J. Barelli, C. J. Mansoni." + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--We, the subscribers, have for sale, at our + establishment, No. 159, Gravier-street (block in the rear of St. + Charles Exchange), a large lot of valuable slaves, suitable for + plantation, house-servants, &c. &c. Persons desirous of purchasing + will find it to their interest to call and examine. + + "We will also receive and sell on consignment any negroes that may + be entrusted to us. We would also respectfully notify owners of + negroes, _and persons engaged in the slave-trade_, that we are + prepared to board negroes, and furnish traders with rooms, &c. + + "Our house is roomy, airy, and dry. Terms reasonable. + JOHN BUDDY. + WM. H. MERRITT." + +Mr. Wm. H. Bolton, whose name is appended to the next advertisement, is +from Tennessee:-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--I have again returned to this market, with + eighteen or twenty likely negroes. I have located on the corner of + Main and Adams-streets. I have plough-boys, men, women, and girls, + _and some very fancy ones_. _I intend to keep a constant supply + through the season, and will not be undersold by any in market._ My + motto is, 'the swift penny; the slow shilling' I never get. + + "I will also pay the highest cash price for young negroes. + + "November 21, 1846. W. H. BOLTON." + +To what uses these "very fancy" girls are put may be inferred from the +following advertisement,[R] taken from the "Norfolk Herald:"-- + + "NOTICE.--For sale, a colored girl, of very superior qualifications, + who is now in Mr. Hall's jail in Norfolk. She is what speculators + call a fancy girl; a bright mulatto, fine figure, straight, black + hair, and very black eyes; remarkably neat and cleanly in her dress + and person. I venture to say, that there is not a better seamstress, + cutter and fitter of ladies' and children's dresses in Norfolk, or + elsewhere, or a more fanciful netter of bead bags, money-purses, &c. + + "Any lady or gentleman in Norfolk or Portsmouth, who may wish to + purchase a girl of this description (whom I consider the most + valuable in Virginia), may take her and try her a month or more at + my risk, and, if she does not suit and answer the description here + given, may return her to Mr. Hill. + + "The cause of offence for which I intend, though reluctantly, to + sell her, is, that she has been recently induced by the persuasions + of some colored persons to make her escape with them to the North, + in which she failed, and is now for sale.--Apply to the subscriber, + in Suffolk, or to James Murdaugh, Esq. or to C. C. Robinson, of + Portsmouth, for further information. JOSEPH HOLLADAY." + +Tennessee can also claim the honor of having such careful traders as Mr. +J. S. Curtis:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED "A NO. 1" NEGROES.--I have on hand one hundred negroes, + men, women, boys, and girls, at my depot, in Gaine's brick building, + immediately back of Howard's Row, between the Gayoso and Herron + House. I have judicious men purchasing in North Carolina, Kentucky, + and Middle Tennessee, and will keep constantly on hand a large + number. + + "Persons wishing to purchase will do well not to trade, without + first calling to see my stock. J. S. CURTIS. + + "Memphis, November 20, 1846." + +The "Spirit of Liberty" contains the following:-- + + "SOUTHERN PLANTERS, wishing to purchase negroes, would do well to + give me a call before they make their purchases, as it would be + greatly to their advantage. Negroes purchased and sold on reasonable + commission. Apply at + SCOTT'S Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place." + +In the "Daily Richmond Enquirer," Sept 1, 1847, we find this:-- + + "NEGROES AT AUCTION.--On Monday, the 6th of September (Albemarle + Court day), at Charlottesville, there will be sold at public auction + about sixty valuable negroes, of every description. + + "August 31." + +In the same paper, Jan. 25, 1848, we find this:-- + + "TWENTY NEGROES.--Will be sold Friday, 28th inst. at 10 o'clock, + twenty likely young negroes, viz. ten able-bodied men, three boys, + four women, and three girls. + + "Will be added to the above sale, a negro-man, 40 years of age, who + is a first-rate carpenter by trade, also a rough blacksmith. + "BENJ. DAVIS, Auctioneer, + No. 3, Wall-street." + +The following is taken from the "Alabama Argus," published at Dayton, +Ala.:-- + + "FOR SALE SIXTY NEGROES.--By order of the Hon. the Orphans' Court of + Marengo County, the undersigned, administrator of the estate of + Moses W. Alexander, deceased, will, on Monday, the 5th of February, + 1849, at the plantation of said Moses W. Alexander, deceased, in the + Cane Brake, one mile south of Col. Pickens's mills, offer at public + sale, to the highest bidder, a lot, numbering sixty, of the + likeliest and best negroes ever sold in the South. They are all + family negroes,--not bought up by speculators from every State in + the South, but raised by different men, in families from five to + twenty each. Among this stock of negroes are some able-bodied, + stout, and valuable negro-men, and several likely young boys, from + 10 to 18 years of age; also some likely negro-women, girls, and + children. Among the same, A No. 1 cotton-pickers; a good weaver; and + also one negro, who is a very good carpenter and blacksmith.--Terms + of sale, twelve months' credit, with approved security. + J. M. ALEXANDER, Administrator. + "January 5." + +The following advertisement is before us ("Spirit of Liberty"):-- + + "VALUABLE SLAVES AT AUCTION.--I will sell on Saturday, the 14th + inst. in front of the Market-house, one woman and her child. The + woman is about 24 years old; and the child, a girl, about 5 years of + age. The woman accustomed to house-business, also to the farm. The + negroes are very likely, and warranted sound. They will be sold on + a credit of sixty days for negotiable paper satisfactorily endorsed. + + "Nov. 5. CHARLES PHELPS, Auctioneer." + +The following is taken from a paper published at Opelousas (La.):-- + + "AUCTION SALE.--The undersigned will offer for sale, through the + ministry of a public auctioneer, on her plantation, near Carancro, + in the parish of St. Landry, on Monday the 5th day of February next, + and the following days, one hundred choice slaves, of both sexes and + different ages, among which is a good blacksmith and several other + mechanics. These slaves will be sold separately, and under full and + satisfactory guarantee of titles.--8 ox-carts, 69 work-oxen, 20 + mules, 20 work-horses, 1,500 barrels of corn, 12,500 cypress + pickets. + + Conditions of Sale.--The slaves will be sold on a credit of one and + two years from the day of sale; purchasers giving sufficient + security to the satisfaction of the vendor, and the slaves remaining + specially mortgaged until final payment of principal and the + interest which may accrue thereon, at the rate of eight per cent per + annum from time due until final payment. The conditions of the sale + of the movable property will be made known on the day of sale. + WIDOW HYPOLITE CRETIEN. + "Opelousas, January 3d, 1849." + +Literally speaking, tens of thousands of such advertisements as these +might be adduced. You can hardly open a Southern paper without finding +several. + +Part of the trade is carried on by water. This part of the trade is +regulated by Act of Congress (Act March 2, 1807, sect. 8-10), and +slavers sail apparently with commendable regularity. The following +notice is taken from the "National Intelligencer" a few years since:-- + + "ALEXANDRIA AND NEW ORLEANS PACKETS.--Brig Tribune, Samuel C. Bush, + master, will sail as above on the 1st January; brig Isaac Franklin, + William Smith, master, on the 15th January; brig Uncas, Nathaniel + Boush, master, on the 1st February. They will continue to leave this + port on the 1st and 15th of each month, throughout the shipping + season. _Servants that are intended to be shipped will at any time + be received for safe keeping at twenty-five cents a day._ + JOHN AMFIELD, Alexandria." + +The two following advertisements are taken from the "American Beacon" of +January 24, 1848, published at Norfolk, Virginia. They are +advertisements of the same person, who, as we have just seen, offers to +"attend to shipping of negroes to any of the Southern ports:"-- + + "FOR NEW ORLEANS.--Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets. The + fast-sailing packet barque Bachelor, Page, master, will sail for the + above port from the 20th to the 27th inst. For freight, cabin or + steerage passage, for which she has good accommodations, apply to + G. W. APPERSON." + + "FOR NEW ORLEANS.--Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets will commence + their regular trips to the above port the 20th September, and + continue monthly throughout the season. They consist of the + following vessels, to wit, barque Parthian, Capt. G. W. Allen; + barque Bachelor, Capt. Hiram Horton; barque Phoenix, Capt. + Nathaniel Boush. + + "The above vessels are all of the first class, and commanded by long + and experienced commanders.--For further information, apply to + G. W. APPERSON." + +This Capt. Nath. Boush is probably the same man who figures in Mr. +Amfield's advertisement. But _Southern_ traders by no means have a +monopoly of this coastwise slave-trade. The barque Parthenon, Mellish, +master, cleared from the port of New York, October 10, 1846, for +Richmond, Virginia, _avowedly_ "_to load with slaves for the port of New +Orleans_." + +How business-like is the following letter from a North Carolina +slave-trader to his consignee in New Orleans! ("A Reproof of the +American Church," p. 22):-- + + "HALIFAX, N.C. November 16, 1839. + + "Dear Sir,--I have shipped in the brig Addison, prices as + below:--No. 1, Caroline Ennis, $650; 2, Silvy Holland, $625; 3, + Silvy Booth, $487.50; 4, Maria Pollock, $475; 5, Emeline Pollock, + $475; 6, Delia Averit, $475. + + "The two girls that cost $650 and $625 were bought before I shipped + my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me; but I will not + pay the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no + opposition in market. I will wait until I hear from you before I + buy, and then I can judge what I must pay. Goodwin will send you the + bill of lading for my negroes, as he shipped them with his own. + _Write often, as the times are critical, and it depends on the + prices you get to govern me in buying._ + "Yours, &c. + G. W. BARNES. + "Mr. Theophilus Freeman, New Orleans." + +The number of slaves thus bought and sold can never be known with +perfect accuracy. Hon. John G. Palfrey, in his excellent Papers on the +Slave Power (p. 83), estimates the number annually sold from the more +northerly Slave States at not less than _forty thousand_! We think his +estimate within the truth. + +In the course of a single year, 1835-6, no less than forty thousand +slaves are said to have been sold out of Virginia alone! ("Niles's Reg." +Oct. 8, 1836.) The "New York Journal of Commerce" of Oct. 12, 1835, +contained a letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls "a very good +and sensible man," asserting that _twenty thousand_ slaves had been +driven to the South from Virginia during that year, of which nearly one +fourth was then remaining. But 1835 and 1836 were years of great +speculation. In 1837 the consequent severe pressure in the money market +was attributed by a committee of the citizens of Mobile (Ala.) in part +to over-trading in slaves. Their report states, that purchases by +Alabama of that species of property from other States since 1833 have +amounted to about ten million dollars annually. + +The slaves increase in about the same ratio in all of the Slave States. +If the warmer latitudes of the extreme South are more congenial to them, +and favor their increase more than the climate of Virginia, this effect +is, at least, fully balanced by the great amount and unhealthy character +of much of the labor on the sugar, rice, and cotton plantations, and by +the great extent to which slave-breeding is carried in the more northern +States. The following table exhibits the rates of increase of the +slaves, every ten years, from 1790 to 1840:-- + + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | 1790-1800 | 1800-1810 | 1810-1820 | 1820-1830 | 1830-1840 | + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | 27 | 33 | 29 | 30 | 28 | + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + +Accordingly, for the fifty years ending in 1840, the slaves increased on +an average a little over twenty-eight per cent every ten years. We adopt +this as a fair statement of what should be their decennial natural +increase in all the States; and, by natural increase, we mean increase +from births. The following tables explain themselves:-- + + SLAVE-EXPORTING STATES. + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | | | | Number | | | + | | | | which ought |Decrease | Annual | + | Name of State. | Slaves | Slaves |to have been |every ten|decrease.| + | | in 1830.| in 1840.|in each State| years. | | + | | | | in 1840. | | | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + |Delaware | 3,292 | 2,605 | 4,214 | 1,619 | 162 | + |Maryland | 102,294 | 89,737 | 130,936 | 41,199 | 4,120 | + |Dis. of Columbia| 6,119 | 4,694 | 7,833 | 3,139 | 313 | + |Virginia | 469,757 | 448,987 | 601,289 | 152,302 | 15,230 | + |North Carolina | 235,601 | 245,817 | 301,569 | 55,752 | 5,575 | + |South Carolina | 315,401 | 327,038 | 403,713 | 76,675 | 7,668 | + |Kentucky | 165,213 | 182,258 | 211,473 | 29,215 | 2,922 | + |Tennessee | 681,904 | 829,210 | 872,837 | 43,627 | 4,363 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Total | |2130,346 | | 403,528 | 40,353 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + + SLAVE-IMPORTING STATES. + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | | | | Number | | | + | | | | which ought | Extra | Extra | + | Name of State. | Slaves | Slaves |to have been |decennial| annual | + | | in 1830.| in 1840.|in each State|increase.|increase.| + | | | | in 1840. | | | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Georgia | 217,531 | 280,944 | 278,440 | 2,504 | 250 | + | Florida | 15,501 | 25,717 | 19,841 | 5,876 | 587 | + | Alabama | 117,549 | 253,532 | 150,462 | 103,070 | 10,307 | + | Mississippi | 65,659 | 195,211 | 84,043 | 111,168 | 11,117 | + | Louisiana | 109,588 | 168,452 | 140,273 | 28,179 | 2,818 | + | Arkansas | 4,576 | 19,935 | 5,857 | 14,078 | 1,408 | + | Missouri | 25,081 | 58,240 | 32,104 | 26,136 | 2,614 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Total | | | | 291,011 | 29,101 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + +The census of 1840, therefore, exhibits an annual unnatural decrease of +over forty thousand of the slave-population in the exporting States. But +this census, at least so far as statistics touching slaves and free +colored persons are concerned, is notoriously and grossly incorrect. +Either it or the tables prepared from it in the State Department have +been dishonestly prepared, or very much garbled, apparently with the +intent to prove that slavery was better calculated to secure the health +of the negro race than a state of freedom. What figures will tell in +favor of slavery?--not, what figures will tell the truth?--seems to have +been the principle on which the last census was taken. Such being the +case, we feel confident that the census makes the slaves in the +exporting States decrease as little as possible. In 1830, Virginia had +469,757 slaves. In 1840 she ought to have had this number, and their +natural increase for ten years, 135,532. Instead of this, all the +natural increase is gone, and 20,770 besides! All will see that such a +statement would tell too strongly against slavery to be admitted into a +census got up under such slave-supporting auspices, unless the statement +was really _within the truth_. + +We believe, therefore, that the census of 1850, if truly taken, will +exhibit a much larger annual unnatural decrease of the slave-population +in the exporting States. This decrease, whatever it may really be, has +not been owing to manumissions. It has not been caused by slaves running +away. For the effects of both these causes, the surplus over 40,000 +would be a liberal allowance. This unnatural decrease must, then, be +caused by the slave-trade, and the migration of planters with their +slaves. The fact is beyond all question, that every year forty thousand +men, women, and children are torn from their homes and friends, and +driven to the South and West. So truly did the Rev. Theodore Clapp speak +(Sermon, p. 46), when he declared, "Slaves possess the inappreciable +benefits which grow out of the endearing ties of friendship, kindred, +sympathy, and the whole class of domestic affections. Parents and +children, husbands and wives (it is true), are sometimes separated by +being involved in those calamities which sweep away the possessions and +prosperity of the master. But, take it all in all, they are as free and +undisturbed in the enjoyment of their domestic relations, as the white +inhabitants of the Northern States"! Forty thousand fathers, mothers, +brothers, sisters, and children are every year carried from the places +of their birth, like so many cattle, although the terrible fact is well +known that at least one fourth of them must die in the process of +acclimation![S] So very tender is man of man, when he holds his brother +in slavery, and makes merchandise of his sister! So eager is the +soul-driver to coin his brother's blood into dollars! So ready are those +whom "God has appointed masters" to sacrifice the lives of one fourth of +those committed to their charge, in order greatly to advance the market +value of the survivors! + +We have no data from which to infer the number of planters who go South +with their slaves. But, allowing that five hundred thus remove, and that +on an average they have ten slaves each (proper estimates we believe), +we have left thirty-five thousand as the number of human beings who are +every year sold to the speculators in human flesh! + +Now, Mr. Barnes's "lot" of his fellow-creatures averaged in value over +five hundred dollars apiece; and those were times when, from his +account, the market was glutted, and the prices accordingly low. "Young +and likely" negroes are more easily acclimated, and are better able to +work, than others. Consequently, they are the ones most sought after by +judicious traders. We should consider five hundred dollars for a young, +healthy negro, warranted sound, as really a low price. But, if we +suppose the slaves annually exported to be worth less than any of Mr. +Barnes's lot,--considering them as worth only $450 apiece,--we have, as +_the sums of money every year invested in the trade in slaves, the very +moderate sum of fifteen millions seven hundred and fifty thousand +dollars_! This is _exclusive_ of the cost of all the private jails, of +transportation by sea and land, food, wages of drivers, &c.; which +cannot but very largely increase this sum. This sum, $15,750,000, would, +in less than three years, double the number of miles of railroad which +were in operation in all the Southern States in 1846 (Parker's "Letter +on Slavery," p. 52). It would, in only two years, more than double in +length all the railroads which were then in operation in all the Slave +States, except Maryland. It costs every year five millions more to carry +on the domestic slave-trade than it does to fit out and victual all the +whale-ships of the United States! ("American Almanac, 1843," p. 178.) +Over one fifth of the entire value of the cotton, sugar, rice, and +tobacco raised in the fifteen Slave States in 1839, and over one third +of the value of articles manufactured in the South, was invested in +slaves! Nearly twice as many slaves are carried South and West every +year as there are men in all the Slave States engaged in the learned +professions!--so terribly prominent is this trade in men and women! Who +will venture to conceive, much less express, the deep degradation which +must be caused by a trade of such fearful character and +magnitude;--degradation not only to the immediate sufferers, but to all +those who may be subjected to it? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +RUNAWAY SLAVES. + + "It is contrary also to the will of God for servants either to run + away, or harbor a runaway"--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to Slaves._ + + +The treatment which runaway slaves receive cannot but greatly degrade +them. Pious as well as worldly masters consider that their slaves have +no more right to run away than their horses or mules. The Christian +slaveholder orally teaches his slaves, that, by taking this step, they +sin in the sight of God; for has not Paul most emphatically condemned +the practice? So careful is he of the souls of those whom God has +committed to his charge! + +We frequently find advertisements similar to this, cut from the +"American Beacon" (Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848:-- + + "$50 REWARD.--Stop Ruffin and Wyatt.--These men left my house on + Saturday night, January 15, 1848, _without any provocation_. They + have uniformly maintained a good character for honesty, industry, + and sobriety,--were obedient and trustworthy servants, and _no + severity nor threats had been offered towards them_; and I very much + fear they have left for some Northern State. + + * * * * * + + "These slaves were originally owned in Surry, and _possibly_ may be + in the vicinity of their relatives. GEORGE N. HATCH. + + "Gaysville, P.O. Prince George County, Va." + +Good Mr. Bryant Johnson is very much more indignant. In the "Macon +(Georgia) Telegraph," May 28, is the following:-- + + "About the first of March last, the negro-man, Ransom, left me + _without the least provocation whatever_. I will give a reward of + $20 for said negro if taken, dead or alive; and, if killed in any + attempt, an advance of $5 will be paid. BRYANT JOHNSON. + + "Crawford County, Georgia." + +In the extremity of his wrath, he cannot think of the least provocation +whatever which he has given his slave. But we confess we are much more +touched by friend Hatch's advertisement. Simple-minded creature! He +evidently speaks more in sorrow and astonishment than in anger. +Doubtless he had uniformly fed, clothed, and housed his servants well, +and had never been severe with or threatened them. How could they desire +to leave him? They have run away without any provocation! So unnatural, +almost impossible, in the eyes of masters, is any spark of manliness in +a slave! They cannot conceive it possible for a manly love of liberty to +provoke a favored negro to run away. Still, however, even favored +servants are continually escaping from their happy state; and, by the +methods adopted to retake them, they are most efficiently taught that +they have no more rights than has a favored hound or a valued horse. +Their manliness is crushed, until at last they really feel themselves to +be little else than items of profit or loss to their owners. The old +slave who, at the point of death, was asked whether he was not sorry to +die, and who replied, "Oh! no: the loss is massa's," had very faithfully +improved the instruction imparted to his class. + +If our horse is stolen from his stable, or our cow strays from her +pasture, we advertise them as "strayed or stolen." If a slave runs away, +his master advertises him, and offers a reward for his capture. If he is +found, the lucky finder deposits him in jail for safe keeping, to await +a favorable opportunity of sending him back to his master,--of course, +like Onesimus, as a brother beloved. The jailer gets his legal fees, the +finder gets his reward, the master gets his slave, and the slave most +generally receives some "moderate correction" from the cowskin or the +paddle. If he will not listen to the teaching of God's messengers to his +soul, who are continually repeating to him (Jones's "Rel. Inst." 188) +"a servant who knows his master's duty, and will not do it, must be made +to do it," how can he complain of his treatment? + +So anxious are they at the South that every poor African should have a +good, kind master to attend to the wants of his soul, and support him in +old age, that, if a stray negro is taken up running at large without an +apparent owner, and for any cause he cannot legally prove his freedom, +even though he does really own himself, he is nevertheless advertised, +and sold at auction to the highest bidder, to pay the expenses +occasioned by his own capture and detention. How happy must be the +people that are in such a case! Yea, blessed is his condition whose body +is fed and whipped, whose soul is saved and darkened, by his brother +man! + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA, chap. 111, sec. 11, provides +that,-- + + "If any negro who shall be taken up as a runaway, and brought before + any justice of the peace, will not declare the name of his or her + owner, such justice shall in such case, and he is hereby required, + by a warrant under his hand, to commit the said negro-slave to the + jail of the county wherein he or she shall be taken up; and the + sheriff or undersheriff of the county into whose custody the said + runaway shall be committed, shall forthwith cause notice in writing + of such commitment to be set up on the Court-house door of the said + county, and there continued during the space of two months; in which + notice a full description of the said runaway and his clothing shall + be particularly set down."--When the owner is supposed to be a + resident in another State, the jailer is obliged by sec. 15, "by the + first opportunity after such commitment, to send a description of + such negro or runaway, together with the account of the time of + commitment, and the county where such runaway is committed, to the + press, to be advertised in the State Gazette."--Sec. 16 provides, + that, "whenever any negro-slave shall be taken up in this State as a + runaway, and confined in any jail for the space of twelve months, + and the apprehension and confinement of said slave have been + advertised in the State Gazette at least six months, and the owner + does not apply to prove property in said time, then it shall be + lawful for the court of pleas and quarter sessions of the county in + which said runaway is confined, to command their sheriff to expose + said negro-slave to public sale for ready money, giving three + months' notice in some public newspaper in this State, at the + Court-house door, and at two other public places in the said county, + of the time and place of sale, and of the circumstances under which + the said slave is to be sold."--Sect. 17 gives the sheriff "two and + a half per centum on the amount of sale."--Sect. 18 declares that + "the bill of sale of the sheriff shall vest in the purchaser an + absolute right to the said slave." The residue of the amount of + sales, after deducting commissions and prison charges, is directed + to be paid to the county trustee for the use of the county. + +Similar laws, authorizing the sale into slavery of negroes taken up as +runaway slaves, who cannot from any cause prove their freedom, are found +in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, +Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. A similar law +has always existed in the District of Columbia, originally enacted, and +since supported, by Northern freemen. _Our_ law, however, differs from +the others in offering to the marshal a high bribe to induce him to sell +_free_ negroes, by providing that the _proceeds of the persons sold may +remain in his own pocket_, unless after the sale the master shall be +discovered, and shall claim the balance. + +Throughout all the Slave States, the law presumes every free negro to be +a slave, until he can legally prove his freedom. Consequently, every +_free_ negro, out of his own neighborhood, is presumed to be, and +treated as, a runaway slave, until he can establish his freedom. Under +laws of this kind, many free negroes are taken; and, if from want of +money or friends, or distance from home, or any other cause, they cannot +prove their freedom, as no owner can come forward and "claim property +and pay charges," they must necessarily be sold into slavery for life! + +Very recently, in the columns of the "Washington Union," appeared the +following notices:-- + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on + the 5th July, 1846, as a runaway, a negro-man, who calls himself + John Crew. He is black, about 5 feet 6-1/2 inches high, and about 43 + years of age. _He says he is free_, and was born in Hanover County, + Virginia, _and was set free_ by Mrs. Allen, formerly Mrs. Watson, of + said county; and that he lived with Jude & Muir, in Richmond, + Virginia; and that he obtained his free papers in Richmond in 1823, + when a Mr. Henning was clerk of the court. He has had right leg + broken, which has left a large scar on it. He has a scar on the + right side of his neck, which he says he has received since he left + Richmond. + + "The owner or owners of the above-described negro-man are hereby + required to come forward, prove him, and take him away, _or he will + be sold for his prison and other expenses, as the law directs_. + ROBT. BALL, Jailer for + "Aug. 15. A. HUNTER, Marshal." + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on + the 23d of July, 1847, as a runaway, a negro-woman, who calls + herself Ann E. Hodges. She is nearly black, about 5 feet 5-1/4 + inches high, and about 22 years of age. Had on, when committed, a + slate-colored Merino dress and a brown calico sun-bonnet. _She says + she is free_, and served her time out with a Mr. Benjamin Daltry, of + Southampton, Va.; and that Messrs. Griffin & Bishop, of the same + place, know her to be free. She has two scars on the left leg, near + the knee, from the bite of a dog, one on her left wrist, and one on + the point of her breast-bone, occasioned by a burn. + + "The owner or owners of the above-described negro-woman are hereby + required to come forward, prove her, and take her away, _or she will + be sold for her prison and other expenses, as the law directs._ + ROBT. BALL, Jailer, for + "Aug. 23. A. HUNTER, Marshal." + +Here is another instance, which happened several years since:-- + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District + of Columbia, as a runaway, a negro-woman, by the name of Polly + Leiper, and her infant child, William.... _Says she was set free_ by + John Campbell, of Richmond, Va. in 1818 or 1819. The owner of the + above-described woman and child, _if any_, are requested to come and + prove them, and take them away, or they will be _sold for their jail + fees and other expenses, as the law directs_. + TENCH RINGGOLD, Marshal. + "May 29, 1827." + +Many other similar ones might be cited from papers published in the +District. The following is taken from the "Mobile (Ala.) Register" of +July 21, 1837:-- + + "WILL BE SOLD CHEAP FOR CASH, in front of the Court-house of Mobile + County, on the 22d day of July next, one mulatto-man, named Henry + Hale, _who says he is free_. His owner or owners, if any, having + failed to demand him, he is to be sold according to the statute in + such case made and provided, _to pay jail fees_. + WILLIAM MAGEE, Shff. M.C." + +Here are two from the "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register." The first is the +notice of the committal of a negro. The second is the advertisement for +his sale:-- + + "SHERIFF'S SALE.--Committed to the jail of Warren County, as a + runaway, on the 23d inst. a negro-man, who calls himself John J. + Robinson; says that he is free; says that he kept a baker's shop in + Columbus, Miss. and that he peddled through the Chickasaw nation to + Pontotoc, and came to Memphis, where he sold his horse, took water, + and came to this place. The owner of said boy is requested to come + forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will + be dealt with as the law directs. + + "Dec. 24, 1835. WM. EVERETT, Jailer." + + "Notice is hereby given, that the above-described boy, who calls + himself John J. Robinson, having been confined in the jail of Warren + County as a runaway for six months, and having been regularly + advertised during this period, _I shall proceed to sell said + negro-boy at public auction to the highest bidder for cash_, at the + door of the Court-house in Vicksburg, on Monday, 1st of August, + 1836, _in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided_. + + "Vicksburg, July 2, 1836. E. W. MORRIS, Sheriff." + +Slavery, as it exists, is not wrong, according to Bishops +Ives and Freeman; and yet, in the diocese of the former, in +the "Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer," June 27, 1838, this +advertisement appears:-- + + "TAKEN AND COMMITTED TO JAIL, a negro-girl, named Nancy, + who is _supposed_ to belong to Spencer P. Wright, of the State of + Georgia. She is about 30 years of age, and is a _lunatic_. The + owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, + and take her away, or _she will be sold to pay her jail fees_. + FREDERICK HOME, Jailer." + +And suppose this supposition is incorrect, and that this poor woman does +not belong to Mr. Wright, but on the contrary that she is free, how then +will stand the case? A poor free woman, a lunatic, one who accordingly +cannot by any possibility prove her freedom, being arrested as a +runaway, may be sold as a slave for life, in virtue of the laws of the +Christian State of North Carolina! And no one is entitled to pronounce +such act to be wrong, unless he can produce a new revelation from +Heaven! If a slave has performed a great service to the State or his +master, as a reward he is set free; and, if the freeman, availing +himself of his privileges, goes out of his own neighborhood, the law, +with the sanction of right reverend fathers in God, consigns him to the +auction block! + +But the runaway slave is not always to be taken easily. Strenuous +liberty is often preferred to slavish ease. To meet such cases, ample +provision is made, no less degrading to the slave. + +If any one here at the North should advertise that he was ready to +pursue, with dogs trained for the purpose, runaway apprentices, or +prisoners who had escaped from jail, we should all shudder at the +cold-bloodedness of the proposition. Have we not, in the Old Bay State, +just solemnly enacted that not even the most hardened convicts in our +State Prison shall be whipped? How, then, can we so far forget our +common manhood as to pursue our brother with bloodhounds? The slave, +unlike the prisoner, has committed no crime. Unlike the apprentice, he +has never consented, either by himself or his parents, to be a slave. He +is held in slavery against his will, and not as the punishment for any +crime; and yet, if he ventures to take his freedom, to assert the +highest and holiest of all his rights, he is liable to be hunted with +dogs and maimed with shot! In this so-called Christian country, which is +spending its millions in regenerating the heathen, whole communities +exist which tolerate such a fiendish occupation as a slave-hunter! +Communities do we say? Has not the nation elevated to its highest post +of honor the individual who first suggested to our government the idea +of importing bloodhounds from Cuba, with which to track the Seminole +Indians, and the fugitive slaves whom they protected, and with whom they +had intermarried? How proudly did the star-spangled banner wave its +folds over the gallant men and hounds that pursued and finally conquered +the panting fugitives! + +In the "Madison Journal," published at Richmond, La. Nov. 26, 1847, +appears the following:-- + + "NOTICE.--The subscriber, living on Carroway Lake, on Hoe's Bayou, + in Carroll Parish, sixteen miles on the road leading from Bayou + Mason to Lake Providence, _is ready with a pack of dogs to hunt + runaway negroes at any time_. These dogs are well trained, and are + known throughout the parish. Letters addressed to me at Providence + will secure immediate attention. + + "My terms are $5 per day for hunting the trails, whether the negro + is caught or not. Where a twelve hours' trail is shown, and the + negro not taken, no charge is made. For taking a negro, $25, and no + charge made for hunting. JAMES W. HALL." + +In the "Sumpter County Whig" (Alabama) of Nov. 6, 1845, the following is +found:-- + + "NEGRO DOGS.--The undersigned, having bought the entire pack of + negro dogs (of the Hay & Allen stock), _he now proposes to catch + runaway negroes_. His charges will be $3 a day for hunting, and $15 + for catching a runaway. He resides three and one half miles north of + Livingston, near the lower Jones' Bluff road. + + "Nov. 6, 1845. WILLIAM GAMBREL." + +William W. Brown was hunted by Major Benjamin O'Fallon, who kept for his +professional purposes five or six bloodhounds ("Narrative," p. 22). Last +year, 1848, Mr. J. Ervin, a native of Fairfield District, South +Carolina, a slave-hunter by profession, was murdered by some runaway +slaves. Owners sometimes vary the monotony of a plantation life by a +private hunt on their own account. But, unless they have considerable +practice, they make a bungling piece of work of it. The true object, +both of dogs and men, is the capture of the negro, not his death. Gen. +Taylor did not wish to "worry" the Seminoles. We might cite many notices +like the following, cut from the "Raleigh (N.C.) Register," Aug. 20, +1838:-- + + "On Saturday night, Mr. George Holmes, of this county, and some of + his friends were in pursuit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr. + Holmes), and fell in with him in attempting to make his escape. Mr. + H. discharged a gun at his legs, for the purpose of disabling him; + but, unfortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot struck him near + the small of the back, of which wound he died in a short time. The + slave continued to run some distance after he was shot, until + overtaken by one of the party. We are satisfied from all that we can + learn, that Mr. H. had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound." + +The hunter, in the following instance, was more skilful or lucky. The +advertisement is found in the "Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser," +Jan. 25, 1848:-- + + "$50 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscribers, on Sunday, the 8th + instant, a negro-man, named George. The said slave is about 21 years + of age, black, about 5 feet 6 inches high, weighs about 150 pounds, + has good teeth, and a round and likely face. He was purchased at R. + H. Dickinson & Bro.'s auction-room, on the 22d of March, last, from + Messrs. Millner & Keen, of Pittsylvania Court-house. He was + purchased by them (M. & K.) in Rickingham, N.C.; and he will in all + probability make for that place, as he ran off last April, and was + taken upon his way there, at Amelia Court-house. _The person that + took him on that occasion shot him with small shot on the legs, and + the shot-marks are very perceptible on the hind part or the calves + of his legs._ We will give $50 for the apprehension and delivery of + said boy to R. H. Dickinson & Bro. in Richmond, Va. if taken up + after this date; and, if taken up previous to this date, we will pay + $25 for his delivery here, and the expense of bringing him to this + place from where he may be taken up. KELLY, HUNDLEY, & CO. + + "Richmond, Aug. 27, 1847." + +The Rev. Mr. Jones would probably instruct "George," that he was shot +because he disobeyed God's commands in running away, and especially +because he "robbed God of his own" in breaking the Sabbath! But how +judicious was the man who took him up on that occasion! He only shot him +with small shot in the legs! + +In the "Macon (Ga.) Telegraph," Nov. 27, 1838, we find the following +account of a runaway's den, and of the good luck of a "Mr. Adams," in +running down one of them "with his excellent dogs:"-- + + "A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday, near the Washington + Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several + months so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected only + by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near the + road and fields where there has been constant daily passing. The + entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing a + hog-bed, which being removed, discovered a trap-door and steps that + led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with plank, + containing a small fireplace, the flue of which was ingeniously + conducted above ground and concealed by the straw. The inmates took + the alarm, and made their escape; _but Mr. Adams and his excellent + dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down and secured one of + them_, which proved to be a negro-fellow who had been out about a + year. He stated that the other occupant was a woman, who had been a + runaway a still longer time. In the den was found a quantity of + meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c. and various cooking utensils and + wearing apparel." + +The Lord of the sabbath seems to favor the masters; for Mr. Adams's hunt +occurred on Sunday! Many other instances might be given. We adduce only +this. The "St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle" of Feb. 1, 1839, gives the +following account of a "negro-hunt" in that parish:-- + + "Two or three days since, a gentleman of this parish, in hunting + runaway negroes, came upon a camp of them in the swamp on Cat + Island. He succeeded in arresting two of them; but the third made + fight, and, upon being shot in the shoulder, fled to a sluice, where + the dogs succeeded in drowning him before assistance could arrive." + +Does any one say these atrocities must be confined to the extreme +South, and that law or public opinion in North Carolina would forbid +them? How far otherwise is the fact! The "Revised Statutes" of North +Carolina, chap. 111, sec. 22, provide as follows:-- + + "Whereas, many times slaves run away and lie out, hid and lurking in + swamps, woods, and other obscure places, killing cattle and hogs, + and committing other injuries to the inhabitants of this State; in + all such cases, upon intelligence of any slave or slaves lying out + as aforesaid, any two justices of the peace for the county wherein + such slave or slaves is or are supposed to lurk or do mischief, + shall, and they are hereby empowered and required to issue + proclamation against such slave or slaves (reciting his or their + names, and the name or names of the owner or owners, if known), + thereby requiring him or them, and every of them, forthwith to + surrender him or themselves; and also to empower and require the + sheriff of the said county to take such power with him as he shall + think fit and necessary for going in search and pursuit of, and + effectually apprehending, such outlying slave or slaves; which + proclamation shall be published at the door of the Court-house, and + at such other places as said justices shall direct.[T] And if any + slave or slaves against whom proclamation hath been thus issued stay + out, and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any + person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or + slaves by such ways and means as he shall think fit, without + accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same." + +This is truly a Christian law! A written proclamation to men, of whom +not one in ten thousand can read a letter of it!--and yet, after +publication of it at the door of the Court-house, and at such other +places (if any) as the justices may direct, if the slaves do not +immediatelyy return, it is lawful for any person to kill and destroy +them "by such ways or means as he shall think fit." And may not +bloodhounds be the most expeditious and fit? + +Is this law a dead letter? Only fifteen days before Bishop Freeman's +sermon was delivered, and Bishop Ives enjoyed "most unfeigned pleasure" +at the thought that slavery existed as it did in North Carolina, the +following proclamation and advertisement appeared in the "Newbern (N.C.) +Spectator:"-- + + "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, LENOIR COUNTY.--Whereas complaint hath + been this day made to us, two of the justices of the peace for the + said county, by William D. Cobb, of Jones county, that two + negro-slaves belonging to him, named Ben (commonly known by the name + of Ben Fox) and Rigdon, have absented themselves from their said + master's service, and are lurking about in the counties of Lenoir + and Jones, committing acts of felony; these are, in the name of the + State, to command the said slaves forthwith to surrender themselves, + and turn home to their said master. And we do hereby also require + the sheriff of said county of Lenoir to make diligent search and + pursuit after the above-mentioned slaves.... And we do hereby, by + virtue of an Act of Assembly of this State concerning servants and + slaves, intimate and declare, if the said slaves do not surrender + themselves and return home to their master immediately after the + publication of these presents, that any person may kill or destroy + said slaves by such means as he or they think fit, without + accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, or + without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby. + + "Given under our hands and seals, this 12th of November, 1838. + + B. COLEMAN, J.P. [Seal.] + JAS. JONES, J.P. [Seal.] + + "$200 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, about three years ago, + a certain negro-man, named Ben, commonly known by the name of Ben + Fox, also one other negro, by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on + the 8th of this month. + + "I will give the reward of $100 for each of the above negroes, to be + delivered to me, or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones County, + _or for the killing of them, so that I can see them_. + + "Nov. 12, 1838. W. D. COBB." + +In what has preceded, we have endeavored to give a faint but true +picture of slaveholding as it most generally exists. Though we have +purposely left unmentioned many wrongs, we have abundantly supported our +conclusion. If, as we have seen, every slave, as a man, has a natural, +God-given right to be left free to seek after wisdom, to strive to +become pure in heart, to cherish his affections, it is a great wrong +deliberately and carefully to close against him all the avenues to +knowledge, to refuse him even the rudiments imparted to the child that +clings to our knees, to refuse him all moral and religious instruction, +or give him such only as is calculated to make him contented with his +lot, and more profitable to his oppressors. It is a great wrong--who can +conceive a greater?--to deny to a whole race the sacredness of marriage, +the blessings of home, the joys of brother and sister, of father and +mother, and all the refining, ennobling influences of these relations. +It is a great wrong, none can conceive a greater, than to trade in the +bodies of men, to higgle in the market-place about the price of our +brother, to traffic in our sister's flesh and bones as merchandise. +Slaveholding, as it most generally exists, darkens the mind, deadens the +soul, and brutalizes the affections, of its victims. It is carefully +planned and deliberately executed murder of the soul. No human heart +exists, unwarped by self-interest, that does not respond to the poor +slave's call for help. We need no new revelation from Heaven, we need no +book to tell us, that it would be wrong for any one to darken _our_ +minds, to deaden _our_ souls, to brutalize _our_ affections. No more do +we need, a new revelation from Heaven to convince us, that all men are +brethren; that the slave who toils on the Louisiana plantation is no +less our neighbor than the friend whom we have known and loved from +boyhood; and that we should love the slaves as ourselves, not with that +barren love which consists in saving their souls by imparting to them a +still more barren creed, but that love which never wearies, and which +sacrifices its own for another's good. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG. + + "No seeming of logic can ever convince the American people, that + thousands of our slaveholding brethren are not excellent, humane, + and even Christian men, fearing God, and keeping his + commandments."--_Rev. Dr. Joel Parker._ + + +It remains for us to consider the special cases in which slaveholding is +thought by many to be right. All slaveholders are not actors in the +cruel system which we have just described. There are in the Southern +States, we are ready to believe, thousands who disregard the laws, who +treat their slaves as humanely as is possible, who cultivate to a +considerable extent their mental and moral faculties, and who would +unite with us in condemning the barbarities we have been considering. + +The Rev. Dr. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, S.C. thus describes the +condition of his slaves ("Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural +Institution," &c. p. 222; 1845): + + "In a familiar correspondence like this, I may be pardoned for + saying, that, during twelve years, I have devoted the salary given + me, whenever at my disposal, to the spiritual instruction of the + slaves, and am now doing so. With reference to my own servants, + their condition is as good as I can make it. They are placed under a + contract, which no instrument in writing could make more sacred. By + this contract, they, on their part, perform not one half the work + done by free laborers; and I, on my part, am bound to employ a + missionary to teach and catechize them and their children; to + provide them a home and clothes and provisions and fuel, and land to + plant for themselves; to pay all medical bills; to guaranty to them + all the profits of their skill and labor in their own time; to + protect them as a guardian, and to administer to the wants of their + children, and of those that are sick and infirm and aged. Such is + their state; nor have I any idea that they would consent to be + removed." + +This picture may be deepened as we please. Dr. Fuller, and every +slaveholder who is like him, may clothe, feed, and house his slaves as +he does himself; he may watch over their mental and moral condition with +as much real solicitude as he does that of a child; he may love them +almost with a father's love; and yet, notwithstanding all alleviations, +it is wrong for him to hold slaves. Slaveholding is always wrong. + +It should be constantly borne in mind, that no man can be obliged either +to become or continue a slaveholder. No man can make me a slaveholder or +a landholder without or against my consent. Indeed, no gift to me of +slaves or land is perfect, until I have accepted it. No man need accept +an inheritance of slaves, or be a slaveholder any longer than he pleases +to be. Where the law of his State permits, he may emancipate his slaves. +If manumission is actually or virtually forbidden, he may take his +slaves into a Free State; and, by such act alone, they become freemen. +With full power, therefore, at any moment to dissolve the relation, Dr. +Fuller voluntarily continues to hold slaves. All slaveholding is +unnecessary, and none is involuntary on the part of the owner. + +It should also be borne in mind, that a slave, under all circumstances, +whether he be caressed or scourged, loved or hated, overworked or +underworked, instructed or debased, is the property of his master, and, +as such, is subject to all the legal incidents of property. Dr. Fuller's +slaves are as much Dr. Fuller's property as his horse, his watch, the +coat on his back, or the books on the shelves of his library; and, as +property, their happy, elevated condition necessarily depends upon the +accidents of Dr. Fuller's life, health, and wealth. When these fail, +their condition will unquestionably be either very materially affected +for the worse, or altogether changed. + +And, first, if his wealth should fail from unforeseen calamities; so +that from affluence, it may be, he should be reduced to real want, and +be unable to pay the just claims of his creditors; the latter may +satisfy their claims by a sale of his slaves. Nothing but payment of the +debts could prevent such a catastrophe. Equally with his horses and +theological library,[U] his slaves would legally constitute a fund out +of which his creditors might satisfy their claims. Husband and wife, +parent and child, the prattling infant and the old man of seventy +winters, might legally be placed upon the auction-block, and sold to the +highest bidder, singly or in lots to suit, as might seem most calculated +to advance the interest of the creditors. Dr. Fuller's prayers and tears +would avail nothing. His kind and humane treatment, continued through so +many years, would then increase the market-value of his slaves; and that +is all. Nothing that he could do would be able to save them from the +auction-block. And what, under such circumstances, would become of their +mental, moral, or even their physical condition? There would not be one +chance in a thousand that all their new masters would be like Dr. +Fuller, or that they would escape the lot of most other slaves,--a state +of hopeless degradation! + +Does any one say, that, though the law would favor such a sale by +creditors, public opinion would not tolerate it? We will not stop to +consider how far the law may be regarded as an index of public opinion. +We simply ask, If Christian churches may sell slaves at auction, what +may not private individuals do consistently with public opinion? We have +already given the advertisement for sale by Thomas N. Gadsden, a +brother, we believe, of Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina ("Slavery as +it is," p. 174), of a prime gang of negroes belonging to the Independent +Church in Christ Church Parish; and we will adduce only one other +similar instance. Few, if any, theological bodies at the South seem to +have devoted more time, attention, and money to elevating the moral +character of the slaves than the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia; +and yet the Board of Directors of its Theological Seminary do not +scruple to invest the funds of the institution in slaves, or to sell +them by auction in order to obtain repayment of a loan. The "Savannah +(Ga.) Republican" of March 3, 1845, contains an advertisement, of which +the following is an extract:-- + + "WILL BE SOLD, on the first Tuesday in March, in front of the + Court-house, in the city of Darien, Georgia, between the legal hours + of sale, the following negro-slaves, _i.e._ Charles, Peggy, + Antonett, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny, and Isaac, levied on as the + property of Henry T. Hall, _to satisfy a mortgage, fi. fa., issued + out of the M'Intosh Superior Court in favor of the Board of + Directors of the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina + and Georgia, against said Henry T. Hall_.--Conditions cash. + C. O'NEAL, Deputy-sheriff, M.C." + +Suppose Dr. Fuller should become insane, or otherwise unfit to manage +his own affairs. Such cases often occur. Then the control of the slaves +would pass with his other property into other hands. What would insure +their continued mental and moral well-being? The law would not,--public +opinion would not! Every thing would depend on the character of the +legal guardian or trustee; and even this could afford no adequate +protection. The law permits an _owner_ to do many things which it would +not suffer a guardian or a trustee to do. The legal guardian of Dr. +Fuller's estate would hardly be allowed to suffer his slaves to "perform +_not one half_ the work done by free laborers." The guardian's rule of +conduct would be the _law_, and the _common_ mode of treatment in the +community. If he overstepped this line, and any pecuniary loss should be +the consequence, the loss would fall on him personally. How many +guardians or trustees would be willing to run any risk of a criminal +prosecution or a fine or imprisonment, in order to insure the happy +condition of anther's man property? Not one in ten thousand! And yet, +unless his guardian was willing to do this,--unless he was willing to +brave the law, and act contrary to the general customs of society, Dr. +Fuller's slaves would very soon lapse into the same degraded condition +in which the slaves about them commonly live. Nothing would be more +likely than to find Dr. Fuller's guardian advertising in the following +manner:-- + + "NEGROES TO HIRE.--On Wednesday, the 26th inst. I will hire to the + highest bidder the negroes belonging to Charles and Robert Innes. + GEO. W. WILLIAMS, Guardian." + + "NEGRO HIRINGS.--Will be offered for hire, at Capt. Long's Hotel, a + number of slaves, men, women, boys, and girls, belonging to the + orphans of George Ash, deceased. RICHARD W. BARTON, Guardian." + +The law forbids teaching slaves to read and write. Dr. Fuller may +disregard the law, and give his slaves careful instruction, supplying +them with plenty of books, and allowing them time to read in. The law +denies marriage to the slaves, and pays no heed to their family ties. +Dr. Fuller may consecrate with the utmost care the marriage of his +slaves, and sacredly protect their family relations. The law declares +slaves to be, under all circumstances, saleable articles. Dr. Fuller may +think that he treats them as men, and shudder at the thought of selling +them. Thus may he do in his lifetime; but it is appointed unto all men +to die; and what, in the event of his death, will become of his slaves? + +He may possibly leave a will, bequeathing them, upon the condition that +his kind and humane treatment shall be continued, that they shall be +taught to read and write, that their marriages and family relations +shall be sacredly respected, and that they shall never be subject to be +sold; that is, on the condition that his legatees shall break the law, +as he has done. The only result will be, that the law will declare all +such conditions to be utterly void; and the legatees will own the +slaves, entirely freed from all such conditions. The legatees will be +under no other restraints than those imposed by the law, public opinion, +and their own conscience. The latter restraint only may possibly avail +the slaves; and their happy condition may be continued, _if_ all the +legatees are, like Dr. Fuller, law-defying, humane, kind-hearted, and +above want! But how unlikely is it that such will be the case! How much +more unlikely is it that such a state of things will continue! And yet, +unless such a state of things exists, and continues to exist, Dr. +Fuller's slaves must inevitably become as degraded as the great mass of +their fellows. + +If he should die intestate, then his slaves, as part of his estate, +would have to be duly administered on and distributed among the +heirs-at-law. The administrator, a mere trustee, could not, as we have +seen, safely continue Dr. Fuller's plan of management; nor can it be +supposed that any administrator would follow it. If it became necessary +or expedient in order to pay debts, husbands would be separated from +wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. The widow (if +any) would be entitled to a life-estate in one-third of the slaves, +which one-third would be assigned to her in severalty, even though this +might involve a separation of families; for the common law of the Slave +States makes the same profession as the common law of England, that it +favors three things,--life, liberty, and dower! The remaining slaves, +and the reversion of those assigned to the widow, would belong to the +heirs, and would have to be equally divided between them, not divided by +families, or even _per capita_, but so that each heir should have an +equally valuable slave-investment, or an equal share in the property of +the deceased. If the heirs should be numerous, or the slaves few, so +that an equal division of them could not be thus made, they would have +to be sold, and their proceeds equally divided. Such sales must be +common. The following is taken from the "Georgia Journal:"-- + + "TO BE SOLD,--One negro-girl, about 18 months old, belonging to the + estate of William Chambers, deceased. _Sold for the purpose of + distribution._ + JETHRO DEAN, } Executors." + SAMUEL BEALL,} + +How often are heirs needy! How very seldom are they actuated by the same +spirit or governed by the same views as their ancestor! Some of them +might be under age, and legally incapable of acting for themselves; and +yet here, as in the other case, unless the widow and heirs-at-law should +be all of full age, ready to break the law of the State, and humane, +kind-hearted, and above want, like Dr. Fuller, his slaves could not +escape the common degradation of their fellows. How extremely improbable +is it that such would be the situation of the widow and all the heirs! +How much more improbable is it that such a state of things would +continue! How much more likely is it that we should find some of the +heirs disliking an investment in slaves, or wishing to be disembarrassed +of their care, or desirous to reduce their stock of negroes, and +accordingly selling their portion of Dr. Fuller's slaves at auction! In +the "Charleston (S.C.) Mercury" of Sept. 1, 1847, we find the +following:-- + + "FOR SALE,--A young and healthy negro-woman, about 24 years of age, + with her two children, a boy between 5 and 6 years, and an infant, 6 + months old. _Sold for no fault but to change the property._ Apply at + this office." + +This is from the "New Orleans Commercial Bulletin" of August 27, 1847:-- + + "DESIRABLE VIRGINIA HOUSE-SERVANT.--By Beard, Calhoun, & Co. + Saturday, 28th inst. at 12 o'clock, will be sold at auction, at + Banks's Arcade, the Griffe servant, Lucy, 19 years; a trusty + house-girl, of fine character, washer, ironer, and American cook, + and sews remarkably well. _Sold for no fault, as her owner is + leaving the city._ Fully guarantied against the vices and maladies + prescribed by law.--Terms cash. Act of sale before J. R. Beard, + notary public, at the expense of purchaser." + +The "National Intelligencer" of August 1, 1848, contains the +following:-- + + "VALUABLE SERVANT AT PRIVATE SALE.--We have for sale a valuable + servant-girl, aged about 17 years. She is an excellent + house-servant. _Sold for no fault; the owner about removing to the + country._ ED. C. & G. F. DYER, + Auctioneers and Commission Merchants." + +The same paper of January 20, 1844, contains the following:-- + + "FOR SALE,--Two likely mulatto women; one middle-aged, an excellent + cook, washer, and ironer, and a good seamstress; the other young, + and a good seamstress and house-servant; and both capable of doing + any work required in a family. _They are sold on account of the + owner not having sufficient employment._--Apply to Mr. Henry + Trunnel, Georgetown." + +In the same paper, Nov. 2, 1844, we find this:-- + + "A NEGRO-BOY FOR SALE OR HIRE.--A boy, 16 years old, well-grown and + active, is for sale, but not to a trader. He has been employed in + attending to horses, driving a carriage, working in a garden, &c. + _and will be sold only because the owner has too many servants_. He + may be had on trial.--Apply at J. B. Holmead's Auction Rooms." + +The boy is not to be sold to a trader; but there can be no security that +the purchaser will not thus sell him. + +The "Spirit of Liberty" contains a notice, from "Scott's Intelligence +Office," of the sale of three negro girls, aged 10, 19, and 16 years +respectively, and a boy 14 years old. The notice states, "All the above +servants are sold for no faults, and are just from the country, +consigned to me for sale by their owners, who recommend them very +highly; _they wish to reduce their stock of negroes is the cause of +their being in the market for sale_." + +Perhaps some one or more of Dr. Fuller's heirs may be indebted. What, in +such case, will prevent a creditor from levying on an undivided share of +Dr. Fuller's happy slaves? Perhaps the debtor may wish to convey his +property to trustees for the benefit of his creditors. We take the +following advertisement from the "National Anti-Slavery Standard," April +15, 1847:-- + + "TRUSTEE'S SALE.--Plantation and negroes in Washington County, + Mississippi; and Yazoo city town lot and buildings. On Monday, the + first of February, 1847, I will proceed to sell, by virtue of a + certain deed of trust, executed 10th May, 1845, by Thomas J. Reed, + to me, as trustee, and duly recorded in the proper county, and at + the special instance and request of the creditors named in said + deed, at public sale, to the highest bidder, for cash, on the + premises, the following described lands, situated, lying, and being + in the county of Washington, and State of Mississippi, and described + as follows, to wit:-- + + "Section No. 3, &c. &c. + + "Also _one undivided half of the following named negroes, slaves for + life_, held jointly with the heirs of Baine, viz. Sophia, aged 45; + Nancy, 35; Queen, 40; Jane, 19; Rachel, 11; Priscella; Jenny, 60; + Maria, 30; Lydia, 30; Amanda, 22; Edna, 30; Vina, 36; Betsy, 35; + Ellen, 9; Peyton, 8; Bob, 4; Louis, 15; Chub, 8; Horace, 6; Louisa, + 1; Jim, jr. 4; Mary, 4-1/2; Harriet, 6; Dick, 9; George, 5; Billy, + 50; John Brown, 36; Alexander, 40; Louis Johnson, 62; Hatton, 35; + Jim, sen. 42; Frank, 50; John, jr. or Little John, 16; John + Mitchell, 47; Louis Davis, 40; Warren, 40; Ben, 36; Oliver, 40; + Louis, jr. or Charles Louis, 5; Lawson, 35; Sam, 19; Harvey, 21; + Fleming, 6; Amy, 4; Bonaparte, 3; Catherine (Queen's child), 2. + + "And further, all the right, title, and interest of said Reed in and + to the following named slaves, to wit, Henny and her three children, + Dick, Jane, and Peter; together with all the stock of horses, + cattle, mules, hogs, and farming implements appertaining to said + tracts of land, which is believed to be an entire estate in fee. + + "The above sale will be for cash, and I will convey to the purchaser + only such title as is vested in me by said deed of trust. + W. S. MOTT. + "No postponement on account of the weather." + + +Other cases might doubtless be put; but these are sufficient to enable +us to test the question of right and wrong. And no labored argument is +necessary. Dr. Fuller admits (what we have already proved) that +slaveholding is most generally wrong, because it is accompanied by the +mental and moral degradation of the slaves. But, by voluntarily +retaining the ownership of his slaves, he renders just such a +degradation almost inevitable even for them. Without the slightest +necessity for so doing, and solely because he wishes so to do, he +renders almost certain the hopeless degradation of his fellow-man. Such +conduct cannot be right, even though (as doubtless in his case) pursued +from right motives. No one has the right unnecessarily to impede our +spiritual or mental culture, even in the slightest degree,--much less +unnecessarily to expose us, almost certainly, to hopeless degradation. +No more have we the right, by holding our fellows in slavery, to render +almost inevitable the death of their souls. + +Slaveholding, then, is _always_ wrong, because it either deliberately +murders the souls of its victims, or else renders such spiritual death +almost inevitable. Nor is slaveholding ever made right by the fact that +the slaves will not consent to be emancipated; for no man can rightfully +consent to his own degradation. What _man_ would consent to become even +the favored slave of Dr. Fuller? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION. + + The Constitution is not what it ought to be, not what we wish it to + be; not what is consistent with sound morals, but simply what its + words meant in 1789,--nothing more, nothing less. + + +The Constitution of the United States was drawn up by a Convention, of +which Washington was president. The people, assembled in their State +Conventions, adopted the draft, because it aptly expressed the kind of +union they wished to have, because it fully and exactly expressed their +meaning. In order, therefore, to ascertain the character of our +political union with the Slave States, we have only to ascertain the +true meaning of the words of the Constitution, or their plain, obvious, +and common meaning, at the time the Constitution was adopted. Every +writer who wishes to be understood uses his words in their usual +signification. Every one supposes that we mean just what our words +commonly mean now. When we read Chaucer, or Shakspeare, or Dr. Johnson, +we understand him to mean just what his words commonly meant at the time +he wrote, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified by the context, +in which case we adopt this new or qualified meaning. In like manner, +the people of the United States are to be understood to mean, by the +words of the Constitution, just what those words commonly meant when the +Constitution was adopted, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified +by the context; in which case, a regard for truth obliges us to adopt +this new or qualified meaning. + +This simple, true, and universally practised rule is thus laid down by +Judge Story (Comm. on Const. Abr. § 210):-- + + "Every word employed in the Constitution is to be expounded in its + plain, obvious, and common sense, unless the context furnishes some + ground to control, qualify, or enlarge it. Constitutions are not + designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of + expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, + or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or juridical + research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the + common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for + common use, and fitted for common understandings. The people make + them; the people adopt them; the people must be supposed to read + them, with the help of common sense; and cannot be presumed to admit + in them any recondite meaning, or any extraordinary gloss."--Sec. + 212: "Where technical words are used, the technical meaning is to be + applied to them, unless it is repelled by the context. But the same + word often possesses a technical and a common sense. In such a case, + the latter is to be preferred, unless some attendant circumstance + points clearly to the former." + +The Constitution was also framed and adopted with reference to the +actual political, social, and local condition of the people. It grew out +of their wants and wishes. The steps which finally led to its adoption +grew out of one of the many defects in the articles of confederation. +Consequently, to arrive at the true meaning of the Constitution, we must +bear in mind the political, social, and local condition of the people at +the time of its adoption, and, among many other similar facts, the very +general existence of domestic slavery.[V] + +Keeping in view these, the very simplest rules of interpretation, we +will show what the Constitution is according to the common meaning of +its terms; what its framers intended to make it; what, in point of fact, +it has been considered to be in the practice of the government; and, +finally, what it has been adjudged to mean by that body which it has +itself pointed out as the final arbiter of its meaning. And, if all +these unite in giving the Constitution but one character, we, as +reasonable men, seeking the truth, cannot deny that such is its true +character. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS. + + The people made it, the people adopted it, the people must be + supposed to read it with the help of common sense, and cannot be + presumed to admit in it any hidden or extraordinary meaning. + + +At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, slavery existed in all +the States except Massachusetts. How far, if at all, does this +instrument support or countenance the institution? + + Art. 1, sec. 2: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be + apportioned among the several States which may be included within + this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be + determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including + those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians + not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons." + +By this section, persons are divided into those who are free and those +who are slaves; for to the whole number of _free_ persons are to be +added three-fifths of _all other_ persons, that is, persons not free, or +_slaves_. If we adopt the plain, obvious, and common meaning of the +words as their true meaning, this conclusion is incontrovertible. + +It is sometimes urged, that by "free person" is meant "citizen." But the +expression cannot be taken in any such technical sense. Under the +expression "free persons" are included those bound to service for a term +of years, and therefore from it are excluded those bound to service for +life, or slaves. + +This article, therefore, recognizes slavery as explicitly as if the word +_slave_ itself had been used, and gives to the free persons in a Slave +State, solely because they are slaveholders, a larger representation, +and consequently greater political power, than the same number of free +persons in a Free State. A BOUNTY ON SLAVEHOLDING! + + Art. 1, sec. 9: "The _migration or importation_ of such persons as + any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall + not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand + eight hundred and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such + _importation_, not exceeding ten dollars for each person." + +It is clear that this section recognizes a difference between the +meaning of _migration_ and _importation_, since, if both words mean the +same thing, no reason whatever can be assigned why a tax is not +permitted in both cases. This difference, whatever it is, must afford a +good reason why persons imported may be taxed, and persons migrating +not. The true meaning of the section seems obvious. A person who +migrates does so of his own accord: he cannot be said to be migrated by +any other person. He is wholly a free agent. A person who is imported +does not import himself, but is imported by some other person. He is +passive. The importer is the free agent; the person imported is not a +free agent. Thus the slave-laws of Virginia of 1748[W] and 1753[X] +begin--"All _persons_ who have been or shall be _imported_," &c. &c. +"_shall be_ accounted and be _slaves_." Whenever we hear an importation +spoken of, we instantly infer an importer, an _owner_, and _property_ +imported. This distinction between the meaning of the two words is, +then, real. It affords a good reason for the restriction on the right to +tax. Therefore, we say, it is the true distinction. On our construction, +Congress had power to lay a tax on persons imported as property or +slaves, but had no right to tax free persons migrating. + +By this clause, therefore, Congress was prevented, during twenty years, +from prohibiting the foreign slave-trade with any State that pleased to +allow it. But, by Art. 1, sec. 8, Congress had the general power "to +regulate commerce with foreign nations." Consequently, _the slave-trade +was excepted from the operation of the general power, with a view to +place the slave-trade, during twenty years, solely under the control of +the Slave States_. It could not be wholly stopped, so long as one State +wished to continue it. It is a clear compromise in favor of slavery. +True, the compromise was a temporary one; but it will be noticed, that +Congress, even after 1808, was not obliged to prohibit the trade; and, +in point of fact, until 1819 the laws of Congress authorized the States +to sell into slavery, for their own benefit, negroes imported contrary +to the laws of the United States! (Act Congr. 1807, c. 77, § 4, 6; 1818, +c. 86, § 5 and 7; 10 Wheat. Rep. 321, 322.) So unmixed should be our +satisfaction at the oft-repeated boast, that ours was the first nation +to prohibit the African slave-trade! + + Art. 4, sec. 2: "No person held to service or labor in one State, + under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence + of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or + labor; but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such + service or labor may be due." + +The time of holding not being limited, the expression here used must +include not only persons held to service or labor for a term of years, +but also those held to service or labor for life. Consequently, it +includes those who are free persons within the meaning of Art. 1, sec. +2, and slaves or persons held to service or labor for life. + +That the expression "person held to service or labor" was a correct +definition of the condition of a slave, at the time the Constitution was +adopted, is evident. The sixth article of the North-western ordinance +reads thus: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in +the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof +the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that, any +person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully +claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be +lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor +or service as aforesaid." In other words, the expression "a person from +whom labor or service is lawfully claimed" so correctly described the +condition of a slave, that Congress deemed it necessary to except such +persons from the operation of an article relating only to slaves. In +less than three months after the passage of this ordinance, this clause +in the Constitution was drafted. It needs no argument to show, that the +expression in the Constitution means the same as that in the ordinance. +"A person from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of +the original States" means the same as "a person held to service or +labor in one State under the laws thereof." If the former correctly +described the condition of a slave, the latter did also. + +We can, however, see that the expression does properly describe the +legal condition of a slave. A slave, though an article of property, has +always and in every State been recognized as a person, by being held +criminally responsible for his acts. Thus the preamble to the Act of +South Carolina (May 10, 1740; 1 Grimke's Laws, 165), which provides for +the trial of _slaves_, recites that "natural justice forbids that any +_person_, of what condition soever, should be condemned unheard;" and +the Act of Georgia of 1770 (Prince's Dig. 777) provides for the trial of +"slaves and _other persons_." The Act of Virginia (1748, sec. 15; 5 Hen. +Stat. 547) and North Carolina (1741, sec. 29; Iredell, Stat. 62-66) call +runaway slaves _persons_ in so many words. Similar laws might be cited, +if deemed necessary. A slave is also held to labor and service for life +by law. Labor and service are the lot of every slave. "To slave" means +"to toil." It is sometimes denied, but nevertheless it is true, that the +law recognizes that labor and service are legally due from the slave to +his master. Thus the Act of North Carolina (1741, sec. 27), before +quoted, makes it a criminal offence to tempt or persuade a slave to +leave his master's "service." "Service" is recognized as being legally +due from a slave in Virginia (Act 1691, 3 Hen. Stat. 86, 87). The +Provincial Assembly of South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 44) provided +that,-- + + "If any owner of slaves, or other person who shall have the care, + management, or overseeing of any slaves, shall work, or put any such + slave or slaves to labor, more than fifteen hours in twenty-four + hours, from the twenty-fifth day of March to the twenty-fifth day of + September, or more than fourteen hours in twenty-four hours, from + the twenty-fifth day of September to the twenty-fifth day of March, + every such person shall forfeit any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, + nor under five pounds, current money for every time he, she, or they + shall offend herein, at the discretion of the justice before whom + the complaint shall be made." + +The Provincial Assembly of Georgia (Act 1770, May 10, sec. 41) provided +that,-- + + "If any person shall, on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, + employ any slave in any work or labor (works of absolute necessity + and the necessary occasions of the family only excepted), every + person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten shillings + for every slave he, she, or they shall so cause to work or labor." + +A similar law was passed in South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 22). These +and similar laws, by limiting the hours of daily work and labor, or by +providing that work and labor shall not be demanded of a slave on +Sunday, recognize that on other days, and within certain hours, a master +may legally demand them. That which may be legally demanded is legally +due. Therefore, work and labor, or service, are legally due from the +slave to his master. To this labor and service the slave is "held" by +the law. If he refuses to work, his master may coerce him. If he runs +away, his master may pursue and retake him legally. He is "held for +life," or until emancipated according to law. Consequently, the +expression in the Constitution correctly describes the condition of a +slave. Indeed, it more correctly describes this condition than "chattel +personal" would, because it is the almost universal practice to treat a +slave in many important particulars, such as dower, &c. like real +property; and, in some States, slaves are declared by statute to be +real estate. + +By this section, therefore, it is provided that no person held as a +slave in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, +in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from his +slavery, but shall be delivered up on claim of his owner. The laws of +one State, whether they support slavery or any other institution, have +no power in another State. Consequently, if a slave escapes into a Free +State, he becomes free. This is the general rule of law. In virtue of +it, thousands of slaves are now free on the soil of Canada. In virtue of +it, a fugitive slave from South Carolina would be free in this State, +were it not for this section in the Constitution. But this section +declares that he shall not thereby become free, but shall be delivered +up. Again, _the Constitution makes an exception from a general rule of +law in favor of slavery_. It gives to slaveholders, and slave-laws, a +power which the general rule of law does not give. It enables a South +Carolina slaveholder to drag from the soil of Massachusetts a person +whom the general rule of law pronounces free, solely because South +Carolina laws declare the contrary. It makes the whole Union a vast +hunting-ground for slaves! There is not a single spot from the Atlantic +to the Pacific, from the St. John's to the Rio del Norte, or +"wheresoe'er may be the fleeting boundary of this republic," on which a +fugitive slave may rest, and his owner may not, in virtue of this +clause, claim and retake him as his slave! + + Art. 1, sec. 8: "Congress shall have power ... to provide for + calling forth the militia ... _to suppress insurrections_." + + Art. 4, sec. 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in + this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each + of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature or + of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against + _domestic violence_." + +_All_ insurrections and _all_ cases of domestic violence are here +provided for. To constitute an insurrection within the meaning of the +Constitution, there must be a rising against those laws which are +recognized as such by the Constitution; and, to make out a case of +domestic violence, the violence must be exerted against that right or +power which is recognized by the Constitution as lawful. But, by Art. 4, +sec. 2, the Constitution admits that some persons are legally slaves; +else the clause itself must be entirely inoperative. Consequently, if +these persons rise in rebellion, or commit acts of violence contrary to +the laws which hold them in slavery, their rising constitutes an +insurrection; such acts are acts of violence within the meaning of the +Constitution, and consequently must be suppressed by the national power. +And what insurrections were more likely to happen and more to be dreaded +than slave-insurrections, and therefore more likely to have been +provided for? + +Slave-owners are not the only slaveholders. All persons who voluntarily +assist or pledge themselves to assist in holding persons in slavery are +slaveholders. _In sober truth, then, we are a nation of slaveholders!_ +for we have bound our whole national strength to the slave-owners, to +aid them, if necessary, in holding their slaves in subjection! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT. + + "Yes!--it cannot be denied--the slaveholding lords of the South + prescribed, as a condition of their assent to the Constitution, + three special provisions to secure the perpetuity of their dominion + over their slaves."--_John Quincy Adams._ + + +The question, What kind of a Constitution did its framers intend to +make? is purely an historical one; and it must be obvious to all, that +any thing like a complete statement of the evidence on this point cannot +be given within the limits of this pamphlet. + +On the 17th of September, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention adopted the +plan of the present Constitution. The draft thus made was submitted to +the people, assembled in State Conventions, "for their assent and +ratification." President Madison has preserved a record of the debates +in the Philadelphia Convention; and we have also published accounts of +the debates in several of the State Conventions. We draw our evidence +mainly from these sources. + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +On the 18th of April, 1783, the Continental Congress passed a resolve, +recommending the States to amend the Articles of Confederation in such +manner that the national expenses should be defrayed out of a common +treasury, "which shall be supplied by the several States, in proportion +to the whole number of white or other free inhabitants, of every age, +sex, and condition, including those bound to servitude for a term of +years, and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the +foregoing description, except Indians, not paying taxes, in each State." +This amendment was adopted by eleven out of the thirteen States. + +A single glance is sufficient to satisfy any one, that, under the +expression in this resolve, "all other persons," slaves were intended; +and an equally cursory glance suffices to show, that Art. 1, sec. 2, of +the Constitution is derived, almost copied, from this resolve. Did not +the framers of the Constitution, in adopting the same expression (Art. +1, sec. 2), mean the same thing as the Continental Congress? + +In the Massachusetts Convention, Art. 1, sec. 2, of the Constitution +having been read, Rufus King, one of its framers, rose to explain it:-- + + "This paragraph states, that the number of free persons shall be + determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including + those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians + not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. _These persons are the + slaves._ By this rule is representation and taxation to be + apportioned, and it was adopted because it was the language of all + America.... + + Five negro-children of South Carolina are to pay as much tax as the + three governors of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut." + +In the New York Convention, Alexander Hamilton, another of the framers, +remarked:-- + + "The first thing objected to is that clause which allows a + representation for three-fifths of the negroes.... + + "The regulation complained of was one result of the spirit of + accommodation which governed the Convention; and, _without this + indulgence, no union could possibly have been formed_." + +In the Pennsylvania Convention, James Wilson, another of the framers, +said, referring to the resolve of the Continental Congress passed in +1783:-- + + "It was not carried into effect, but it was adopted by no fewer than + eleven out of thirteen States; and it cannot but be matter of + surprise to hear gentlemen, who agreed to this very mode of + expression at that time, come forward, and state it as an objection + on the present occasion. It was natural, sir, for the late + Convention to adopt the mode after it had been agreed to by eleven + States, and to use the expression which they found had been received + as unexceptionable before." + +In a speech before the legislature of Maryland, Luther Martin, also a +delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, offers the following clear and +unmistakable testimony:-- + + "With respect to that part of the second section of the first + article, it was urged that no principle could justify taking slaves + into computation in apportioning the number of representatives a + State should have in the government;--that _it involved the + absurdity of increasing the power of a State in making laws for + freemen, in proportion as that State violated the rights of + freedom_;--that it might be proper to take slaves into + consideration, when taxes were to be apportioned, because it had a + tendency to discourage slavery; but to take them into account in + giving representation tended to encourage the slave-trade, and to + make it the interest of the States to continue that infamous + traffic." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Wm. R. Davie, a member of the +Convention who framed the Constitution, said:-- + + "The Eastern States had great jealousies on this subject. They + insisted that their cows and horses were equally entitled to + representation; that the one was property as well as the other. It + became our duty, on the other hand, to acquire as much weight as + possible in the legislation of the Union; and, as the Northern + States were more populous in whites, this only could be done by + insisting that a certain proportion of our _slaves_ should make a + part of the computed population." + +In the South Carolina Convention, General Chas. C. Pinckney, another of +the framers of the Constitution, said:-- + + "We were at a loss for some time for a rule to ascertain the + proportionate wealth of the States. At last we thought that the + productive labor of the inhabitants was the best rule for + ascertaining their wealth. In conformity to this rule, joined to a + spirit of concession, we determined that representatives should be + apportioned among the several States, by adding to the whole number + of free persons, three-fifths of the _slaves_." + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +In the Massachusetts Convention, Mr. Dawes, speaking in relation to Art. +1, sec. 2, said that-- + + "Gentlemen would do well to connect the passage in dispute with + another article in the Constitution, that permits Congress, in the + year 1808, wholly to prohibit the importation of _slaves_, and in + the meantime to impose a duty of ten dollars a head on such blacks + as should be imported before that period." + +Many persons spoke in the Convention on this section; and, among others, +Judge Dana rejoiced that a door was opened by it for the annihilation of +the slave-trade. + +In the Pennsylvania Convention, Mr. Wilson said:-- + + "Under the present confederation, the States may admit the + _importation of slaves as long as they please_; but by this article, + after the year 1808, the Congress will have power to prohibit such + importation, notwithstanding the disposition of any State to the + contrary.... It is with much satisfaction I view this power in the + general government, whereby they may lay an interdiction on this + reproachful trade. But an immediate advantage is also obtained; for + a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten + dollars for each person; and this, sir, operates as a partial + prohibition. It was all that could be obtained: I am sorry it was no + more." + +In Maryland, Luther Martin, in the speech before referred to, says, +speaking of this section:-- + + "The design of this clause is to _prevent the general government + from prohibiting the importation of slaves_; but the same reasons + which caused them to strike out the word 'national,' and not admit + the word 'stamps,' influenced them here to guard against the word + 'slaves.' They anxiously sought to avoid the admission of + expressions which might be odious in the ears of Americans, although + they were willing to admit into their system those things which the + expressions signified." + +Mr. Martin thus gives the well-known history of the compromise involved +in this clause:-- + + "This clause was the subject of a great diversity of sentiment in + the Convention. As the system was reported by the committee of + detail, the provision was general, that such importation should not + be prohibited, without confining it to any particular period. This + was rejected by eight States; Georgia, South Carolina, and, I think, + North Carolina, voting for it. + + "We were then told by the delegates of the two first of those + States, that their States would never agree to a system which put it + in the power of the general government to prevent the importation of + slaves; and that they, as delegates from those States, must withhold + their assent from such a system. + + "A committee of one member from each State was chosen by ballot to + take this part of the system under their consideration, and to + endeavor to agree upon some report which should reconcile those + States. To this committee also was referred the following + proposition, which had been reported by the committee of detail, to + wit: 'No Navigation Act shall be passed without the assent of + two-thirds of the members present in each house;'--a proposition + which the staple and commercial States were solicitous to retain, + lest their commerce should be placed too much under the power of the + Eastern States; but which these last States were as anxious to + reject. This committee, of which also I had the honor to be a + member, met, and took under their consideration the subjects + committed to them. _I found the Eastern States, notwithstanding + their aversion to slavery, were very willing to indulge the Southern + States, at least with a temporary liberty to prosecute the + slave-trade, provided the Southern States would in their turn + gratify them, by laying no restriction on Navigation Acts_; and, + after a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed + on a report, by which the general government was to be prohibited + from preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time, and + the restricted clause relative to Navigation Acts was to be omitted. + + "This report was adopted by a majority of the Convention, but not + without considerable opposition." + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:-- + + "Mr. Chairman, I should conceive this clause to be impolitic, if it + were one of those things which could be excluded without + encountering greater evils. The Southern States would not have + entered into the Union of America, without the temporary permission + of that trade. And if they were excluded from the Union, the + consequences might be dreadful to them and to us. We are not in a + worse situation than before. That traffic is prohibited by our laws, + and we may continue the prohibition. The Union in general is not in + a worse situation. Under the articles of confederation, it might be + continued for ever; but, by this clause, an end may be put to it + after twenty years. There is, therefore, an amelioration of our + circumstances. A tax may be laid in the meantime." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Spaight, one of the framers of the +Constitution, said-- + + "That there was a contest between the Northern and Southern States; + that the Southern States, whose principal support depended on the + labor of slaves, would not consent to the desire of the Northern + States, to exclude the importation of slaves absolutely; that South + Carolina and Georgia insisted on this clause, as they were now in + want of hands to cultivate their lands; that in the course of twenty + years they would be fully supplied; that the trade would be + abolished then, and that in the meantime some tax or duty might be + laid on." + +In the South Carolina Convention, Hon. Rawlins Lowndes said:-- + + "In the first place, what cause was there for jealousy of our + importing negroes? Why confine us to twenty years, or rather why + limit us at all? For his part, he thought this trade could be + justified on the principles of religion, humanity, and justice; for + certainly to translate a set of human beings from a bad country to a + better was fulfilling every part of these principles. But they don't + like our slaves, because they have none themselves." + +Gen. Charles C. Pinckney said:-- + + "_By this settlement we have secured an unlimited importation of + negroes for twenty years_; nor is it declared that the importation + shall be then stopped: it may be continued; we have a security that + the general government can never emancipate them." + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +In the Philadelphia Convention, Aug. 28, 1787, Art. 14 was taken up for +consideration. This article read, "The citizens of each State shall be +entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several +States." Gen. Pinckney was not satisfied with it. He seemed to wish some +provision should be included in favor of property in slaves. + +Art. 15 was as follows:-- + + "Any person charged with treason, felony, or high misdemeanor, in + any State, who shall flee from justice, and shall be found in any + other State, shall, on demand of the executive power of the State + from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having + jurisdiction of the offence." + +This article being then taken up, the words "high misdemeanor" were +struck out, and the words "other crime" inserted, in order to comprehend +all proper cases; it being doubtful whether "high misdemeanor" had not a +technical meaning too limited. + +Mr. Butler and Mr. Pinckney moved to require "_fugitive slaves and +servants to be delivered up like criminals_." + +Mr. Wilson: This would oblige the executive of the State to do it at the +public expense. + +Mr. Sherman saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering +a slave or servant than a horse. + +Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition, in order that some particular +provision might be made, apart from this article. + +Article 15, as amended, was then agreed to, _nem. con._--Mad. Papers, +pp. 1447-8. + +The next day, Aug. 29, Mr. Butler, to accomplish his purpose, moved to +insert, after Art. 15,-- + + "If any person, bound to service or labor in any of the United + States, shall escape into another State, he or she shall not be + discharged from such service or labor, in consequence of any + regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape, but shall + be delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or + labor." + +Which was agreed to, _nem. con._ + +After the phraseology had been somewhat altered, on Saturday, Sept. 15, +1787, in this clause (then Const. Art. 4, sec. 2) the term "legally" was +struck out, and the words "under the laws thereof" inserted after the +word "State," in compliance with the wish of some one who thought the +term _legal_ equivocal, and favoring the idea that _slavery_ was legal +in a moral view. + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:-- + + "Another clause secures us that property which we now possess. At + present, if any slave elopes to any of those States where slaves are + free, he becomes emancipated, by their laws; for the laws of the + States are uncharitable (!) to one another in this respect. But in + this Constitution, 'No person held to service or labor in one State, + under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence + of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or + labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such + service or labor may be due.' _This clause was expressly inserted to + enable owners of slaves to reclaim them._ This is a better security + than any that now exists. No power is given to the general + government to interpose with respect to the property in slaves now + held by the States." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Iredell begged leave to explain +the reason of this clause:-- + + "In some of the Northern States, they have emancipated all their + slaves. If any of our slaves," said he, "go there and remain there a + certain time, they would, by the present laws, be entitled to their + freedom, so that their masters could not get them again. This would + be extremely prejudicial to the inhabitants of the Southern States; + and, _to prevent it, this clause is inserted in the Constitution_. + Though the word _slave_ be not mentioned, this is the meaning of it. + The Northern delegates, owing to their particular scruples on the + subject of slavery, did not choose the word _slave_ to be + mentioned." + +Gen. Pinckney, says Mr. Madison, was not satisfied with Art. 14, and +"seemed to wish some provision should be included in favor of property +in slaves." He thus, in the South Carolina Convention, expresses his +satisfaction at this article of the Constitution:-- + + "_We have obtained a right to recover our slaves, in whatever part + of America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not + before._ In short, considering all circumstances, we have made the + best terms for the security of this species of property it was in + our power to make. We would have made better if we could; but, on + the whole, I do not think them bad."(!) + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +Luther Martin, in the speech before alluded to, used the following +language:-- + + "It was further urged, that, by this system of government, every + State is to be protected both from foreign invasion and from + domestic insurrections: from this consideration, it was of the + utmost importance it should have a power to restrain the importation + of slaves, since, in proportion as the number of slaves are + increased in any State, in the same proportion the State is weakened + and exposed to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, and by so + much less will it be able to protect itself against either, and + therefore will by so much the more want aid from, and be a burden + to, the Union." + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. George Nicholas said:-- + + "Another worthy member says there is no power in the States to quell + an insurrection of slaves. Have they it now? If they have, does the + Constitution take it away? If it does, it must be in one of the + three clauses which have been mentioned by the worthy member. The + first clause gives the general government power to call them out + when necessary. Does this take it away from the States? No; but it + gives an additional security; for, besides the power in the State + governments to use their own militia, _it will be the duty of the + general government to aid them with the strength of the Union, when + called for_. No part of this Constitution can show that this power + is taken away." + +Mr. Madison, respecting these clauses, says:-- + + "On application of the legislature or executive, as the case may be, + the militia of the other States are to be called to suppress + domestic insurrections. Does this bar the States from calling forth + their own militia? No; but _it gives them a supplementary security + to suppress insurrections and domestic violence_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT. + + Uniform practice under a law is one of the highest proofs of the + meaning of that law. + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +The Constitution (Art. 1, sec. 2, par. 3) provides that the enumeration +of the people of the United States (upon which the apportionment of +representatives and direct taxes was to be made) "shall be made within +three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United +States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as +they shall by law direct." + +On the 1st of March, 1790, George Washington, who had been president of +the Convention which framed the Constitution, approved "an Act providing +for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States." The first +Congress ever assembled, and the first President ever elected, under the +Constitution, under the sanction of their respective oaths "to support +the Constitution," by this Act expressed their deliberate judgment as to +the true meaning of the people of the United States in adopting this +section of the Constitution. What, in their judgment, was such meaning? + +These extracts from the Act will suffice (Act 1790, chap. 29):-- + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That the marshals of the several + districts of the United States shall be, and they are hereby, + authorized and required to cause the number of the inhabitants + within their respective districts to be taken, omitting, in such + enumeration, Indians not taxed, and distinguishing free persons, + including those bound to service for a term of years, from all + others; distinguishing also the sexes and colors of free persons, + and the free males of sixteen years and upwards from those under + that age: for effecting which purpose, the marshals shall have power + to appoint as many assistants within their respective districts as + to them shall appear necessary, assigning to each assistant a + certain division of his district," &c. + +These assistants were obliged to transmit to the marshals, returns in +manner following:-- + + "The number of persons within my division, consisting of ----, + appears in a schedule hereunto annexed, subscribed by me, this + ----day of ---- 179 . + + A. B. Assistant to the Marshal of ----" + ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ +|Names of |Free white|Free white |Free white|_All other|_Slaves._| +|heads of | males of |males under| females, | free | | +|families.| sixteen | sixteen |including | persons._| | +| |years and | years. | heads of | | | +| | upwards, | | families.| | | +| |including | | | | | +| | heads of | | | | | +| |families. | | | | | ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ + +That is, the enumeration directed to be made, and upon the basis of +which the constitutional apportionment of representatives and direct +taxes was to be made, distinguished only between _free persons_ and +_slaves_. Congress and the President, under the sanction of their oaths, +united in the expression of their deliberate judgment, that the people +of the United States, by the expression (Art. 1, sec. 2) "three-fifths +of all other persons," intended "three-fifths of the slaves," because, +in passing this Act, they declare that all other persons not free within +the meaning of this section are slaves. + +The second Congress, at its first session, passed "An Act for +apportioning representatives among the several States, according to the +first enumeration" (Stat. 1792, c. 23). The language of the statute is +as follows:-- + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That from and after the third day of + March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, the House of + Representatives shall be composed of members elected agreeably to a + ratio of one member for every thirty-three thousand persons in each + State, computed according to the rule prescribed by the + Constitution, that is to say, within the State of New Hampshire, + four," &c. &c. + +That is, the second Congress, upon an enumeration distinguishing only +freemen from slaves, undertake to apportion representatives among the +States according to the rule laid down in the Constitution, viz. by +adding to the whole number of free persons "three-fifths of the slaves." + +This interpretation, by the first and second Congress, has never been +varied from. In every census which has since been taken, the only +distinction sanctioned has been between freemen and slaves; and, on +every occasion of apportioning representatives, according the +representative or federal number, such number has been invariably +determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, three-fifths +of the slaves. _If this, the pro-slavery, interpretation of this section +of the Constitution is not right, then, since March 3, 1793, there has +not been a single House of Representatives constitutionally elected, or +a single statute or resolve constitutionally passed!_ Who is ready to +make this admission? + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +On the 13th of May 1789, in Congress,-- + + "Mr. Parker (of Va.) moved to insert a clause in the bill, imposing + a duty on the importation of slaves of ten dollars each person. He + _was sorry that the Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting + the importation altogether_; he thought it a defect in that + instrument that it allowed of such actions; it was contrary to the + revolution principles, and ought not to be permitted; but, as he + could not do all the good he desired, he was willing to do what lay + in his power. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Sherman (of Ct.) approved of the object of the motion; but he + did not think this bill was proper to embrace the subject. He could + not reconcile himself to the insertion of human beings, as an + article of duty, among goods, wares, and merchandise. He hoped it + would be withdrawn for the present, and taken up hereafter as an + independent subject. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Schureman (of N. J.) hoped the gentleman would withdraw his + motion, because the present was not the time or place for + introducing the business; he thought it had better be brought + forward in the House, as a distinct proposition. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Madison (of Va.): I cannot concur with gentlemen who think the + present an improper time or place to enter into a discussion of the + proposed motion. If it is taken up in a separate view, we shall do + the same thing, at a greater expense of time.... + + "I conceive the Constitution, in this particular, was formed in + order that the government, whilst it was restrained from laying a + total prohibition, might be able to give some testimony of the sense + of America with respect to the African trade. We have liberty to + impose a tax or duty upon the importation of such persons as any of + the States now existing shall think proper to admit; and this + liberty was granted, I presume, upon two considerations: the first + was, that, until the time arrived when they might abolish the + importation of slaves, they might have an opportunity of evidencing + their sentiments on the policy and humanity of such a trade; the + other was, that they might be taxed in due proportion with other + articles imported; for, if the possessor will consider them as + property, of course they are of value, and ought to be paid for." + +After a very considerable discussion, in which this section of the +Constitution was referred to by various members, and the +constitutionality of Mr. Parker's motion admitted, with the advice of +Mr. Madison his colleague, Mr. Parker consented to withdraw his motion. + +In 1794, "An Act to prohibit the carrying on the slave-trade from the +United States to any foreign place or country" was passed (Stat. 1794, +c. 11). In 1800, an Act in addition to the last was passed (Stat. 1800, +c. 51). That both these laws were framed with reference to this section +of the Constitution is apparent, because the latter Act expressly +refers to it. Sec. 6 reads thus, "That nothing in this Act contained +shall be construed to authorize the bringing into either of the United +States any person or persons, the importation of whom is, by the +existing laws of such State, prohibited." In 1803 (Stat. 1803, c. 63) +was passed "An Act to prevent the importation of certain persons into +certain States, where, by the laws thereof, their admission is +prohibited." + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That, from and after the first day of + April next, no master or captain of any ship or vessel, or any other + person, shall import or bring, or cause to be imported or brought, + any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, not being a native, a + citizen, or registered seaman of the United States, or seamen, + natives of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, into any port or + place of the United States, which port or place shall be situated in + any State which by law has prohibited, or shall prohibit, the + admission or importation of such negro, mulatto, or other person of + color," &c. &c. + +This Act also is most manifestly framed upon this section of the +Constitution. It renders illegal the importation of any negro, mulatto, +or person of color, into States prohibiting such importation, unless +such negro, &c. is a native, citizen, or registered seaman of the United +States, or native of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope; that is, it +renders illegal the importation of African negroes into any State whose +laws prohibit such importation. And, as no African negro has yet been +imported as a free laborer, this Act was directed against the African +slave-trade. + +And, not to multiply proof, the importation of persons is not to be +prohibited by Congress prior to 1808. On the 2d day of March, 1807, +President Jefferson approved (Stat. 1807, c. 77) "An Act to prohibit the +importation of _slaves_ into any port or place within the jurisdiction +of the United States, from and after the _first day of January_, in the +year of our Lord _one thousand eight hundred and eight_." That is, at +the very earliest day allowed by Const. Art. 1, sec. 9, for the passage +by Congress of an Act prohibiting the importation of persons, a law is +passed totally prohibiting the _importation of slaves_. + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +On the 12th day of February, 1793 (Stat. 1793, chap. 7), there was +approved "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping +from the service of their masters." This is the law which, for over half +a century, has prescribed the modes in which a runaway slave may be +retaken. It is what is now called "the infamous law of '93." Thousands +of runaway slaves have owed their return to their happy condition to the +beneficent operation of this law, obviously framed, as it is, with an +eye to this constitutional provision. + +Sec. 3 provides that,-- + + "When a person held to labor in any of the United States, or in + either of the territories on the north-west or south of the river + Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the + said States or territory, the person to whom such labor or service + may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or + arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any + judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, + residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a + county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest + shall be made; and, upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or + magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit, taken before and + certified by a magistrate of any such State or territory, that the + person so seized or arrested doth, under the laws of the State or + territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the + person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or + magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent + or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said + fugitive from labor to the State or territory from which he or she + fled." + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +"An Act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of +the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions," was approved +May 2, 1792 (Act Const. 1792, chap. 28). Section first provides that, +"_In case of an insurrection in any State_ against the government +thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on +application of the legislature of such State, or of the executive (when +the legislature cannot be convened), to call forth such number of the +militia of any other State or States as may be applied for, or as he may +judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection." Precisely the same +language is made use of in Stat. 1795, c. 101. By Act approved March 3, +1807 (Stat. 1807, c. 94), the President is authorized "in _all_ cases of +insurrection," "when it is lawful for him to call forth the militia for +the purpose of suppressing the same," "to employ for the same purpose +such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be +judged necessary." + +That these laws have been held to include an insurrection of slaves is +indisputable. On receipt of the intelligence of Nat. Turner's +insurrection in Southampton, Va., Col. House, then commanding at +Fortress Monroe, set out with three companies of United States troops, +for the purpose of suppressing the revolt. He was reinforced by a +detachment from the United States ships Warren and Natchez, amounting in +all to about three hundred men. With _our_ troops and _our_ officers we +have actually aided the slaveholder in holding his fellow-man in +slavery! We have actually done what our fathers engaged in the +Constitution that we should do, namely, aid with the national strength +in keeping the slaves in subjection! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL INTERPRETER. + + "The judicial department of the United States is, in the last + resort, the final expositor of the Constitution as to all questions + of a judicial nature. Were there no power to interpret, pronounce, + and execute the law, the government would either perish through its + own imbecility, as was the case with the articles of confederation, + or other powers must be assumed by the legislative body, to the + destruction of liberty."--_Chancellor Kent._ + + +The people of the United States, in adopting the Constitution, made +_one_ standard, _one_ fundamental law, and _only one_. They gave to the +government of the United States certain powers. They restricted it as to +others. They placed certain prohibitions on the States. The Constitution +was to be the one fundamental law of the land, to which all, as well +States as people, should submit. Art. 6, sec. 2, provides that the +"Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in +pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under +the authority of the United States, shall be _the supreme law of the +land_; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing +in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary +notwithstanding." + +Who now is to tell us what this one standard is, to which all must +submit, and which is thus to override all State Constitutions and all +State laws? Is it the province of each individual to do it? Then we may +have at this moment seventeen million different interpretations, and +hence as many different Constitutions, each of which, however, is the +supreme law of the land! Are the executive or judicial departments of +the States the proper expounders? Then, at this moment, we may have +only thirty different interpretations, twenty-nine of which must be +wrong, because the supreme law can be but one. + +In order, therefore, that the end of the Constitution may be +accomplished, that it may really be the supreme law of the land, it must +have provided a way in which its only true meaning may be ascertained +and definitively settled. Unless it has provided a final interpreter of +its meaning, it is the merest folly to style it the supreme law of the +land, or to call on us to obey its requirement. Is the Constitution thus +deficient? Does it demand uniformity, and at the same time deny the use +of those means which are absolutely necessary to produce such +uniformity? Does it present a variable, ever-changing standard of duty, +and yet demand complete uniformity in practice? + +There are three departments in the Government, namely, the Executive, +the Legislative, and the Judicial. The first two of these are each, to +some extent, supreme in its own sphere; and its acts are incapable of +revision elsewhere. "Thus, in measures exclusively of a political, +legislative, or executive character, it is plain, that, as the supreme +authority as to these questions belongs to the legislative and executive +departments, they cannot be re-examined elsewhere. Thus, Congress having +the power to declare war, to levy taxes, to appropriate money, to +regulate intercourse and commerce with foreign nations, their mode of +executing these powers can never become the subject of re-examination in +any other tribunal. So, the power to make treaties being confided to the +President and Senate, when a treaty is properly ratified, it becomes the +law of the land, and no other tribunal can gainsay its stipulations. Yet +cases may readily be imagined, in which a tax may be laid, or a treaty +made, upon motions and grounds wholly beside the intention of the +Constitution. The remedy, however, in such cases is solely by an appeal +to the people at the elections, or by the salutary power of amendment +provided by the Constitution itself. + +"But, where the question is of a different nature, and capable of +judicial inquiry and decision, there it admits of a very different +consideration. The decision then made, whether in favor or against the +constitutionality of the Act, by the State or by national authority, by +the legislature or by the executive, being capable in its own nature of +being brought to the test of the Constitution, is subject to judicial +revision. It is in such cases, as we conceive, that there is a final and +common arbiter provided by the Constitution itself, to whose decisions +all others are subordinate; and that arbiter is the supreme judicial +authority of the courts of the Union" (Story, Comm. Const. sec. 374, +375); for the Constitution declares, Art. 3, sec. 2, that "the judicial +power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this +Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which +shall be made, under their authority," &c. And Art. 3, sec. 1: "The +judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme +court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time +ordain and establish." + +These constitutional provisions are clear. The Constitution and laws and +treaties of the United States are declared to be the supreme law of the +land. To expound what the law is, is a judicial act. The judicial power +extends to all cases arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties +of the United States. It therefore extends to the exposition of the +Constitution, laws, and treaties, when the case before the court +properly calls for such exposition. This judicial power, and +consequently this power of exposition, it is declared, shall be vested +in one supreme court, &c. Most obviously, the exposition given by this +one supreme court cannot be overruled by any other constitutional power; +else the court is not supreme, else the Constitution is nullified. The +decision of the supreme court is the decision of the _only +constitutionally authorized expounder of the meaning of the +Constitution_; and such exposition, to be supreme, must be final. + +What, then, has this final interpreter declared the meaning of these +clauses of the Constitution to be? + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +On the 5th of June, 1794 (Stat. 1794, c. 45), was approved an Act of +Congress, "laying duties upon carriages for the conveyance of persons." +The duty was uniform throughout the States. One Hylton, in Virginia, +refused to pay the duty; alleging that the Act was unconstitutional, +because the tax was a direct tax within the meaning of the Constitution, +and therefore should have been apportioned among the States according to +their federal numbers. He was sued by the United States, and finally the +case came before the supreme court of the United States for decision. +The following extracts are taken from the opinion of Justice Paterson +(Hylton _versus_ the United States, 3 Dallas's Reports, p. 177; 1796):-- + + "I never entertained a doubt that the principal, I will not say the + only, objects that the framers of the Constitution contemplated, as + falling within the rule of apportionment, were a capitation-tax and + a tax on land. Local considerations, and the particular + circumstances and relative situation of the States, naturally lead + to this view of the subject. _The provision was made in favor of the + Southern States._ They possessed a large number of _slaves_; they + had extensive tracts of territory, thinly settled, and not very + productive. A majority of the States had but few _slaves_; and + several of them, a limited territory, well-settled, and in a high + state of cultivation. The Southern States, if no provision had been + introduced in the Constitution, would have been wholly at the mercy + of the other States. _Congress, in such case, might tax slaves at + discretion or arbitrarily_, and land in every part of the Union. + After the same rate or measure, so much a head in the first + instance, and so much an acre in the second. _To guard them against + imposition in these particulars was the reason of introducing the + clause in the Constitution_ which directs that representatives and + direct taxes shall be apportioned among the States, according to + their respective numbers." + + Page 178: "The rule of apportionment is of this nature: it is + radically wrong; it cannot be supported by any solid reasoning. Why + should slaves, who are a species of property, be represented more + than any other property? The rule, therefore, ought not to be + extended by construction." + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +In the great case of Gibbons _vs._ Ogden, 9 Wheaton's Reports, pp. 206 +and 207 (1824), Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the +supreme court, makes use of the following language:-- + + "The Act passed in 1803 (Act Const. 1803, c. 63), prohibiting the + importation of slaves into any State which shall itself prohibit + their importation, implies, it is said, an admission that the States + possess the power to exclude or admit them; from which it is + inferred, that they possess the same power with respect to other + articles. + + "If this inference were correct; if this power were exercised, not + under any particular clause in the Constitution, but in virtue of a + general right over the subject of commerce to exist as long as the + Constitution itself, it might now be exercised. Any State might now + import African slaves into its own territory. But it is obvious that + the power of the States over this subject, previous to the year + 1808, constitutes an exception to the power of Congress to regulate + commerce; and the exception is expressed in such words as to + manifest clearly the intention to continue the pre-existing right of + the States to admit or exclude for a limited period. The words are, + 'The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States + now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by + the Congress prior to 1808.' The whole object of the exception is to + preserve the power to those States which might be disposed to + exercise it, and its language seems to the court to convey this idea + unequivocally." + +See also pp. 216, 217. + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +The following extracts are taken from the opinion of the supreme court +in the well-known case, Prigg _vs._ the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (16 +Pet. Rep. 609, &c.). Judge Story delivered the opinion:-- + + "Historically, it is well known, that the object of this clause was + to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the complete + right and title of ownership in their slaves, as property, in every + State in the Union into which they might escape from the State where + they were held in servitude. The full recognition of this right and + title was indispensable to the security of this species of property + in all the slaveholding States; and, indeed, was so vital to the + preservation of their domestic interests and institutions, that it + cannot be doubted that it constituted a fundamental article, without + the adoption of which the Union could not have been formed. Its true + design was to guard against the doctrines and principles prevalent + in the non-slaveholding States, by preventing them from + intermeddling with, or obstructing, or abolishing, the rights of the + owners of slaves." + + Page 612: "If the Constitution had not contained this clause, every + non-slaveholding State in the Union would have been at liberty to + have declared free all runaway slaves coming within its limits, and + to have given them entire immunity and protection against the claims + of their masters;--a course which would have created the most bitter + animosities, and engendered perpetual strife, between the different + States. The clause was, therefore, of the last importance to the + safety and security of the Southern States, and could not have been + surrendered by them without endangering their whole property in + slaves. The clause was accordingly adopted into the Constitution by + the unanimous consent of the framers of it;--a proof at once of its + intrinsic and practical necessity." + + Page 613: "Upon this ground, we have not the slightest hesitation in + holding, that, under and in virtue of the Constitution, the owner of + a slave is clothed with entire authority, in every State in the + Union, to seize and recapture his slave, whenever he can do it + without any breach of the peace or any illegal violence. In this + sense, and to this extent, this clause of the Constitution may + properly be said to execute itself, and to require no aid from + legislation, state or national." + + Page 625: "Upon these grounds, we are of opinion, that the Act of + Pennsylvania upon which this indictment is founded is + unconstitutional and void. It purports to punish, as a public + offence against that State, the very act of seizing and removing a + slave by his master, which the Constitution of the United States was + designed to justify and uphold." + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +We are not aware of any decision of the supreme court upon the meaning +of these clauses; but it seems difficult to conceive, that they would +hold that the word "insurrections" did not include all insurrections. + + * * * * * + +Such is the Constitution according to the plain, obvious, and common +meaning of its terms; such it was intended to be made by its framers; +such has been the interpretation constantly followed in the practice of +the government, from the time of its adoption until now; and such it is +according to the decision of the final interpreter of its meaning. As +reasonable men, seeking the truth, we cannot say that there is the +slightest doubt whatever on the subject. THE CONSTITUTION VERY +MATERIALLY SUPPORTS SLAVERY! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS. + + "We will extend to the slaveholder all the courtesy he will allow. + If he is hungry, we will feed him; if he is in want, both hands + shall be stretched out for his aid. We will give him full credit for + all the good that he does, and our deep sympathy in all the + temptations under whose strength he falls. But to help him in his + sin, to remain partners with him in the slave-trade, is more than he + has a right to ask."--_Wendell Phillips._ + + +No wrong action can be rightfully done. No wrong can be rightfully +supported. We can neither rightfully hold slaves nor support others in +slaveholding, because, as we have seen, slaveholding is under all +circumstances wrong. Some of the provisions of the Constitution, as we +have seen, were expressly designed for the purpose of supporting +slavery, and for over half a century have very materially supported it. +Consequently, these provisions cannot be rightfully obeyed or supported. +It is wrong to offer a bounty on slaveholding,--to give the oppressor +power and influence, in proportion as he tramples on the rights of his +fellow-man; it is wrong to return, or aid in returning, a fugitive +slave; it is wrong to aid in keeping the slave in his fetters. These +things are wrong, and not all the Constitutions and laws of the universe +can make them right. We cannot, therefore, rightfully obey the +pro-slavery clauses of the Constitution. + +If we cannot rightfully obey them ourselves, we cannot rightfully, +voluntarily support others in obeying them. If it is wrong for me to +return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for me voluntarily to aid or +support another man in doing the act. If it is wrong for me to commit +murder, it is no less wrong for me to hand the pistol to the assassin. +Whatever it is wrong for us to do ourselves, it is wrong for us +voluntarily to aid or support others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong +for us voluntarily to aid or support others in obeying the pro-slavery +requirements of the Constitution. + +If we cannot rightfully obey them, it is wrong for us to promise such +obedience. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to support others in their +obedience, it is wrong for us to promise any such support. If it is +wrong for us to return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for us to promise +to return one. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to aid the +slave-hunter, it is wrong for us to promise such aid. Whatever it is +wrong for us to do or aid others in doing, it is wrong for us to promise +to do or aid others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong for us to +promise to support these constitutional provisions. We cannot, +therefore, accept any office, either state or national, which renders it +necessary for us to support these clauses, or to promise to support +them. We cannot, therefore, rightfully hold any executive or judicial +office, either state or national, or become a member of any State +legislature or of Congress; for all these officers are obliged solemnly +to swear or affirm that they will "support the Constitution;" and to +support the Constitution is to support all of its clauses, as well those +which favor slavery as those which do not. If we take this oath, meaning +to keep it, we do wrong. If we take it, meaning not to keep it, we add +to our wrong, perjury; for we mentally break our oath at the very +instant it passes our lips. + +Some good men seek to avoid the difficulty by saying, "When I swear to +support the Constitution, I mean I will support the good clauses in it, +and disobey the bad, and submit to the penalty for such disobedience." +But such a course is not a compliance with the terms of the oath. You +have sworn "to support the Constitution;" that is, the whole +Constitution,--all its clauses,--the bad as sacredly as the good. Your +oath is not in the alternative, "I will support the clause requiring the +return of fugitive slaves, or pay five hundred dollars for every slave I +aid in escaping;" but simply, without any qualification, "I will +support the side of the oppressor." If you aid the fugitive slave to +escape from his master, you do not support the latter in retaking his +property, merely by paying the legal penalty for not giving such +support. You would not support a bad law, and yet you say your oath to +support it is not broken, because you submit to the penalty for not +supporting it. The thief does not support the law of private property, +merely by submitting to the legal punishment of his crime. To support is +to be active: to submit is to be passive. You swear to be active, and +you do not comply with your oath by being merely passive. You have sworn +actively to support the recapture of slaves. You break your oath, if you +refuse to do this, or do any thing less or different from this. + +Others think to find a good excuse for taking the oath, by adopting +another alternative, equally unauthorized. "We will support the +Constitution," say they, "until we are called on to act under any of its +bad clauses; and then we will resign our office, and refuse obedience." +Doubtless, honor requires you to resign, if you cannot comply with the +terms of your oath; but what right have you to adopt or imagine an +alternative in your oath where the law has made none,--where the officer +administering it will admit of none? Who does not see the wide +difference between an honest oath to support the return of fugitive +slaves, and an oath to support such return, but with a firm resolve on +your part to refuse such support when called on for it, and to resign? +What right have you to take an oath which you have previously resolved +not to keep, when called on to comply with? You admit that a bad clause +cannot be rightfully supported, else why do you not support it? You +admit that the oath obliges you to support the bad clauses of the +Constitution as well as the good; else why do you resign, if refusal to +support the bad clauses is consistent with your oath? You openly avow, +therefore, that, at the very moment you swear to support a clause, you +determine never to support it. You swear, and determine not to keep your +oath! Such a course seems to us inconsistent with the plainest rules of +honesty. We have no right to promise to do wrong, even though we have +resolved to do right when the time for action shall arrive. + +Others say, "We swear to support the Constitution as we understand it, +and we consider it an anti-slavery instrument." In other words, you +swear to support an interpretation which is contrary to the plain, +obvious, and common meaning of the instrument; contrary to the +interpretation put upon it by its framers; contrary to that followed by +all the executive and legislative departments of the government, from +its first establishment until now; and contrary to that which has been +adjudged to be its true interpretation by the final arbiter of its +meaning. Of course, you intend to support the true meaning of the +Constitution. Do you really believe that the people of the United States +did not mean by their words what those words then commonly meant? Do you +really doubt the historical fact of the humiliating compromise between +the delegates from the Southern and Eastern States in the Philadelphia +Convention, by which the latter undertook to barter the moral sense of +their constituents for what was supposed to be their interest? Do you +really believe that the people have suffered their servants to go on in +ignorance of the true meaning for sixty years? In fact, do you venture +to affirm, or do you in perfect sincerity and truthfulness believe, that +your interpretation has ever at any time been considered right by the +people of the United States, or by any considerable number of them? You +deceive yourself with words! What is the Constitution? Not the meaning +which you or I, or any third person, may please to put upon it; but that +meaning, and that meaning only, which consists with its being, what it +declares itself to be, the supreme law of the land. Until, therefore, +you can show that the Constitution may properly receive as many +different interpretations as there are oaths to support it, and still be +in fact the supreme law, the one, single, definite rule for all, States +as well as people, you have no right to say, "I will support the +pro-slavery clauses as I understand them." To support them in any other +sense than that which is affixed to them, as the supreme law of the +land, is merely to evade the true meaning of your oath. + +Others say, "We took the oath before we had any of our present scruples. +We would not take the oath now; but, nevertheless, we shall continue in +office, and disregard our oath." This excuse seems to us very +objectionable. How can you reap the honorary or pecuniary advantages of +your office, and honestly refuse compliance with your part of the +bargain? When you took office, you were really told, that, if you would +swear to support the return of fugitive slaves, &c. you should enjoy +these honors and these profits. The conscientious man, who, in striving +to better himself, not his condition, discovers afterwards that he +cannot rightfully aid, or promise to aid, the slaveholder in retaking +his slaves, will not think of claiming the reward which was offered to +him solely because he swore to give such aid. He will make haste to +resign honors and rewards which he feels can be retained only at the +price of his own degradation. + +If we cannot rightfully hold any office, state or national, which +requires of us a promise to support the Constitution, it is wrong to +place, or voluntarily aid in placing, any other person in such office; +for, by so doing, we ask him to do wrong. If we vote for Horace Mann, by +this act alone we say to him, as distinctly as if the words passed our +lips,--"We wish to elect you as representative to Congress. If chosen, +we expect and ask you to qualify yourself to act as representative, by +swearing to give slavery all constitutional support." Merely by voting +for him, we ask him to do wrong, hoping that good may come, almost +knowing that good will come! So little faith have we in the final +triumph of right and justice, by pursuing only right and just ways! Of +so little consequence do we consider it, that the earnest advocate of +freedom should commence his holy work by promising very materially to +strengthen slavery! But a short time has elapsed since we read one of +his most eloquent rebukes of slavery. Our heart beat quickly as we read +his earnest words. But if, in the midst of his address, some slaveholder +had turned and asked him, "How happens it, sir, that you, who are so +very earnest and disinterested in behalf of the rights of the slave, +have been willing to swear to support this terrible wrong, to any extent +or for any time?" And what answer could be returned? The eloquent tongue +would be palsied! Surely that man who has solemnly called God to witness +that he will support the oppressor, cannot fail, at some time or +another, to feel himself to be unworthy to plead the cause of freedom. + +Finally, some say, "This reasoning leads to non-resistance. You +disregard the fact that all human governments must contain a greater or +less amount of evil; and consequently, if you are ever to support any +government in all its requirements, you must support evil." Very true is +it that human governments and laws fall short of our relative standard +of right, and always of absolute right. What is our duty? Clearly, as +moral beings, to support the right, and refuse to support the wrong; as +peaceful citizens, to support the right, and submit to the penalty of +disobeying the wrong. Nothing more than this is required of us. Nothing +less than this is our duty. We are not put into the world, blindly to +support all existing governmental wrongs, until they can be +constitutionally abolished. We are to be true to ourselves as moral +beings. If we can be true to our own souls and support the government, +we may give such support,--not otherwise! Right and wrong are not +creatures of agreement and law. Neither the Philadelphia Convention that +framed the Constitution, nor the State Conventions that adopted it, had +power to make wrong in the slightest degree right, or alter at all the +moral character of slaveholding. Right is right, the Revised Statutes to +the contrary notwithstanding. Wrong is wrong, the Constitution to the +contrary notwithstanding. We say, therefore, we will obey the good +requirements of the Constitution, and peacefully submit to the penalty +of disobeying the bad. This is all that government has a right to ask of +us. Institutions were made for man, not man for them. Constitutions are +the work of man, and man is to be reverenced before his works. We see no +inconsistency or impropriety in supporting the system of free-trade +between the States, and refusing to support the domestic slave-trade; in +supporting the patent laws, and refusing to aid in returning a runaway +slave. We are good-government men, not no-government men. All +governments are partly good. All we are willing to support in part: we +will actively support the Constitution and laws, so far as conscience +permits; we will peacefully submit to legal exaction for disobeying the +rest. + +Our purpose is accomplished. We have shown that we are politically +united with the South in the support of slavery. We have shown that we +should constantly bear upon our lips, and in our lives, the motto, "_No +union with slaveholders, whereby we are obliged to countenance or +support slavery_." We desire to see a union among the States, but not a +slaveholding union! A union of freemen, and Free States for the sake of +freedom, no one would more readily support than we. But a union like +ours, of freemen and slaveholders, of Free States and Slave States, for +the sake in part of securing property in slaves, is demoralizing (how +demoralizing has it been!) to both parties, and should receive, as it +doubtless at no distant day will receive, the condemnation of the wise +and good. In the meantime, it ought not, and it will not, receive either +our respect or our voluntary support. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Mr. Clapp is said to have changed his opinions since 1838. We hope +he has. But he has not favored the world with any statement of what his +change consists in. The statement which recently appeared in the +"Picayune," even if reliable, shows that Mr. Clapp had changed his +opinion somewhat, but not essentially, as it seems to us. + +[B] We quote from Mr. Jones's work just referred to. His work contains a +summary of all that has been done for the religious instruction of the +negroes from their first introduction here; an account of their actual +moral condition, and what he thinks should be done for their elevation. +His testimony is unimpeachable, and is of the very highest authority. +Our faith in his sincerity is sometimes tried, when we read language +like this applied to the adult slave, p. 117: "He marries and _settles +in life_; his children grow up around him, and tread in his footsteps, +as he did in the footsteps of his father before him." + +For a loan of this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend, +William Lloyd Garrison. + +[C] Sandy Jenkins tried to impress Douglass with the belief, that if he +would always carry a root which he gave him, _on his right side_, it +would render it impossible for any white man to whip him ("Narrative," +p. 70). And before Wm. W. Brown made his last successful effort to +escape, he paid the old slave fortune-teller, Frank, twenty-five cents +for his advice. + +[D] "If they make you partakers of their temporal things (of their +strength and spirits, and even of their offspring), you ought to make +them partakers of your spiritual things."--_Bishop of London in 1727_ +(_Jones_, p. 20). + +[E] How carefully does Mr. Jones teach the slaves "to search the +Scriptures"! ("Catechism," p. 103.) + +"Q. Is not our duty, on the sabbath, to go to the house of God, to the +meeting for prayer, to the sabbath-school, and wherever we may worship +God and learn his will?--A. Yes. + +"Q. What was done with the man that gathered sticks on the sabbath-day, +not caring for God's commandment?--A. He was stoned. + +"Q. Is sabbath-breaking a great sin in the sight of God?--A. Yes. (Ib. +p. 104) He who breaks the sabbath robs God of his own; for the day is +the Lord's." + +[F] "Were it now revealed to us," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 180), "that the +most extensive system of instruction which we could devise, requiring a +vast amount of labor, and protracted through ages, would result in the +tender mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of _one poor +African_, we should feel warranted in cheerfully entering upon our work, +with all its costs and sacrifices; for our reward would exceed all our +toil and care above the computation of any finite mind." Badly educated, +misguided, we believe Mr. Jones to be; but these are the words of +honest, sincere conviction. + +[G] For a loan of this book we are indebted to our friend Parker +Pillsbury. + +[H] "A Catechism of Scripture Doctrine and Practice for Families and +Sabbath Schools, designed also for the Oral Instruction of Colored +Persons, by Charles C. Jones," 6th edit.; Charleston, 1845. In his +preface, Mr. Jones says, "The Catechism has been prepared _expressly_ +for the religious instruction of the negroes; and it has been +extensively tried and approved by those engaged in that good work." It +is unquestionably much more used than any other. It has already passed +through six editions. It really merits this position.--For a perusal of +this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend Samuel Brooke, +of Ohio. + +[I] "Let us ever remember the name that Hagar gave to God, 'Thou God +seest me,' and act as in his presence. Let us be afraid to steal or lie +or curse, or break the Sabbath, or do any wicked thing. _God will see +and know._"--Jones's "Catechism," p. 28. + +"Ought not you to try and keep the fear of God always before your eyes? +Do not be tempted to say, as too many wicked people do, 'Oh! nobody will +know it; nobody will see it.' Remember that God is always looking at +you. He sees all that you do: he hears every word that you say: he knows +all that you think about: and he can in a moment strike you dead: he is +able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Knowing these things, fear +him, so as not willingly to offend him."--_Rev. Alexander Glennie's +Sermons_, p. 32. See also to the same point, Bishop Ives's "Catechism," +p. 13, 14, 42. + +[J] What a beautiful commentary on this teaching is afforded us by +Douglass! ("Narrative," p. 47.) Speaking of his grandmother, he +says,--"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 for ever. 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"! Who that has read Douglass's account of his grandmother, of which +this is a small extract, has not been moved both to pity for the slave, +and loathing for slavery? Who has not asked with him, "Will not a +righteous God visit for these things"? + +[K] A slave may die in consequence of "_moderate correction_," as that +term is understood in some of the Slave States. + +The Constitution of Georgia, Art. 4, sec. 12, reads thus (Hotchkiss's +"Codification," p. 71, 1845):--"Any person who shall maliciously +dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punishment as +would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed on a free +white person, and on the like proof, except in case of insurrection of +such slave, and unless such death should happen by accident in giving +such slave moderate correction." + +[L] Our friend Francis Jackson procured us this book. + +[M] Mr. Jones thinks ("Rel. Inst." p. 135), that "the crime of +infanticide" among the slaves is "restrained in good measure ... by the +moral degradation of the people, that takes away the disgrace of +bastardy." We remember hearing from Prof. Greenleaf the account of a +successful defence, on this ground, of a female slave in this State, who +was tried for committing this offence. A female slave, it was argued, +_could_ not feel shame at the birth of an illegitimate child, and +therefore her affection as a mother would prevent her from committing +the crime. But experience has demonstrated, that a slave-mother may be +led to take her child's life from very love itself. + +[N] "The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church recently expelled a +minister from both the ministry and the church, for marrying a sister of +his deceased wife."--_The Church as it is_, p. 76. + +[O] Colored persons are not competent witnesses on the trial of a white +man. Any white man, therefore, can, with perfect impunity, commit any +excess whatever upon any slaves, so long as they or their companions +alone are witnesses. So carefully does the law guard the honor of the +female slave! + +[P] The original of this advertisement may be seen at the Anti-Slavery +office, Boston, 21, Cornhill, pasted on one side of a copy of the +newspaper called "Spirit of Liberty"! How appropriate a heading! + +[Q] For this and other advertisements from Boston papers, I am indebted +to my friend Wendell Phillips. + +[R] We cut this advertisement from the "Boston Daily Republican" of Aug. +30, 1849. It previously appeared in the "Providence Journal." + +[S] A writer in the "New Orleans Argus," Sept. 1830, in an article on +the culture of the sugar-cane, says,--"The loss by death in bringing +slaves from a northern climate, which our planters are under the +necessity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per cent"! Our tables +prove the same thing. Of the 40,000 slaves annually carried south, only +29,101 are found to survive;--a greater sacrifice of life than that +caused by the middle passage! + +[T] The Act of 1741, of which this law is in part a revision, reads +thus, sec. 45: "Which proclamation shall be published on a _sabbath-day +at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such, at the +place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by the +parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service_; and, if any +slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued, stay +out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any +person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by +such ways or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation or +impeachment of any crime for the same."--In those happy days, Father +Taylor would not have been called on to thank God, that the man who was +on the point of strangling his brother according to law was not troubled +by any feeling of _sentimentalism_! + +[U] The Rev. Dr. Furman, of North Carolina, another Baptist clergyman, +like Dr. Fuller wrote a defence of slavery. After his death, his legal +representative advertised for sale at auction his real estate, and "a +library of a miscellaneous character, _chiefly theological_; +twenty-seven negroes, _some of them very prime_," &c. ("The Church as it +is," p. 73.) + +[V] This point, and the legality of Colonial and State Slavery, are more +elaborated in an article called "The Constitutionality of Slavery," +printed in the "Massachusetts Quarterly Review;" a purely legal, +uninteresting examination, which needs not to be repeated here. + +For a more extended proof of the constitutionality of slavery, we refer +to Wendell Phillips's very able Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay. + +[W] 5 Hen. Stat. 547. + +[X] 6 Ibid. 356. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows: + Page 66: opinon changed to opinion + Page 150: righfully changed to rightfully + + Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from + the original. + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery and the Constitution, by +William Ingersoll Bowditch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + +***** This file should be named 38716-8.txt or 38716-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/1/38716/ + +Produced by David E. 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Bowditch.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + +hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .bt {border-top: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + .btr {border-top: solid 1px; border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + .btlr {border-top: solid 1px; border-left: solid 1px; border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + .br {border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + .blr {border-left: solid 1px; border-right: solid 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + +table.braces{text-align: left; margin-right: 10%; line-height: .3em;} +.symb {font-family: "Courier", "Arial";} + +.big {font-size: 125%;} +.huge {font-size: 150%;} +.giant {font-size: 200%;} + +.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + +.blockquot {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +.bqright {text-align: right; margin-right: 10%;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery and the Constitution, by +William Ingersoll Bowditch + +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: Slavery and the Constitution + +Author: William Ingersoll Bowditch + +Release Date: January 30, 2012 [EBook #38716] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">SLAVERY</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">AND</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE CONSTITUTION.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH.</span></p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">BOSTON:<br/> +ROBERT F. WALLCUT, 21, CORNHILL.<br/> +1849.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">BOSTON:<br/> +PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON,<br/> +No. 21, School-street.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CONTENTS.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> + +<tr><td align="right"><i>Chapter</i></td><td> </td><td align="right"><i>Page</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td>"<span class="smcap">Slavery Agreeable to God's Providence</span>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Direct Mental Instruction of Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Moral and Religious Condition of the Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Moral and Religious Teachers of the Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Direct Religious Instruction of Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Indirect Instruction.—No Legal Marriage of Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td> "<span class="smcap">Soul-driving</span>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td> "<span class="smcap">Domestic Slave-trade</span>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Runaway Slaves</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Slaveholding always Wrong</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Constitution and its Interpretation</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Constitution according to the Common Meaning of its Terms</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Constitution as its Framers Intended to Make it</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Constitution According to the Practice of the Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Constitution according to the Exposition of its final Interpreter </span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">No Union with Slaveholders</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="big">NOTE.</span></p> + + +<p class="blockquot">Page 45 was struck off before I became aware that "Master Auld" <i>now</i> +shelters Douglass's grandmother under his own roof. We are glad of the +fact, and respect Master Auld for his change. But the case of Douglass's +grandmother is by no means a solitary instance of cruel treatment. I +might easily adduce others equally cruel, though not told with nearly so +much feeling.</p> + +<p class="bqright">W. I. B.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER I.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">"SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE"!</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Thus did Jehovah stereotype his <i>approbation</i> of domestic +slavery"!—<i>Rev. President Shannon, of Bacon College, Ky.</i></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Here we see <i>God dealing in slaves</i>; giving them to his own +favorite child [Abraham], a man of superlative worth, and as a +reward for his eminent goodness."—<i>Rev. Theodore Clapp, of New +Orleans.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Nearly three millions of men, women, and children are held in slavery in +the Southern States, not by the ignorant and brutal alone, but by +enlightened Christian bishops, ministers, and church members of all +denominations; whilst men and women of cultivated minds, refined +manners, and delicate tastes, indignantly deny that slaveholding is +wrong.</p> + +<p>The Right Rev. George W. Freeman, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal +Church in Arkansas and Texas, whilst a minister at Raleigh, N.C. Nov. +27, 1836, preached two discourses on the character of slavery and the +duties of masters. In these ("A Reproof of the American Church, by the +Bishop of Oxford; with an Introduction, by an American Churchman;" New +York, 1846, p. 6) he declared "that no man, nor set of men in our day, +unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled to +pronounce slavery wrong;" and that "<i>slavery, as it exists at the +present</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> <i>day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Providence</i>." The +Right Rev. Levi S. Ives, Bishop of the diocese, was present; and, though +a northern man, has in writing published that he listened to them "with +most unfeigned pleasure"! (Ib. p. 7.) They were afterwards published +with the bishop's note of approbation, under the title, "The Rights and +Duties of Slaveholders." They were also printed in South Carolina, and +distributed gratuitously as a tract by the Society for the Advancement +of Christianity,—a society composed of clergymen and laymen, with +Bishop Bowen at their head. (Ib. pp. 7, 8.) Rev. Theodore Clapp,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> the +Unitarian minister of New Orleans, says ("Slavery, a Sermon delivered in +the First Congregational Church in New Orleans, April 15, 1838," p. 11), +"The same <i>God</i> who gave Abraham sunshine, air, rain, earth, flocks, +herds, silver, and gold, <i>blessed him with a donative of slaves</i>." Ib. +p. 33: "To succeed, then, in putting down every thing like servitude, +you must annihilate the word of God." Bishop Hedding, of the Methodist +Episcopal Church, says ("The Church as it is," p. 50), "The right to +hold a slave is founded on this rule, 'Therefore, all things whatsoever +ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them.'" The funds +of churches and theological institutions are not unfrequently invested +in slaves. Sometimes these slaves are hired out at auction, and from +their earnings the salaries of the clergymen and professors are paid! At +other times, they are sold in order to change the investment! Thus, in +the "Charleston Courier," Feb. 12, 1835, there is advertised for sale, +by Thomas N. Gadsden, "a prime gang of ten negroes, accustomed to the +culture of cotton and provisions belonging to the Independent Church in +Christ Church parish"! ("The Church as it is," p. 72.) No <i>incredible</i> +story, therefore, was told by the fugitive slave, who gave as his reason +for not receiving the Lord's Supper,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> "I could not bear to go forward, +and receive the communion from vessels which were the purchase of my +brother's blood." In the memorial of the Presbytery of Georgia to the +Presbyteries of the Southern States in 1844, on the religious +instruction of the negroes, it is stated that slaves are "connected with +our churches; nay, more, they are owned by our church members and by our +ministers."—"What is it," asks the Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes (Sermon in +Philadelphia in 1846, "The Church as it is," p. 81), "that lends the +most efficient sanction to slavery in the United States? What is it that +does most to keep the public conscience at ease on the subject? What is +it that renders abortive all measures to remove the evil?... It is the +fact that the system is countenanced by good men; that bishops and +priests and deacons, that ministers and elders, that Sunday-school +teachers and exhorters, that pious matrons and heiresses, are the +holders of slaves; and that the ecclesiastical bodies of the land +address no language of rebuke or entreaty to their consciences." More +evidence to the same point might be adduced, if thought necessary.</p> + +<p>This open vindication of the rightfulness of slaveholding is by no means +confined to persons residing at the South. In the year 1847, the Rev. +Geo. W. Blagden, of Boston, who delivered the last Dudleian Lecture in +Harvard University, defended slavery from the Bible, in the pulpit of +Old South Church, that second cradle of Liberty! Only last winter +(1848), a gentleman of this State, of high legal attainments, at present +connected with the Law School in Harvard University, in conversation +hesitated not to declare to us his opinion, "that it was not <i>desirable</i> +that slavery should cease"! And Dr. Taylor, of Yale College, at the head +of the theological department, instructs his pupils, candidates for the +ministry, that, "if Jesus Christ were now on earth, he would, under +certain circumstances, become a slaveholder"! ("The Church as it is," p. +95.)</p> + +<p>Open defenders of slavery are therefore found among the foremost of the +leaders in Church and State. And how few of the opponents of the system +have a deep, ineradicable conviction,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> that slaveholding is wrong under +<i>all</i> circumstances! Our object is to create and deepen this conviction.</p> + +<p>To prove our position, we shall not rely upon the physical condition of +the slaves. Notwithstanding the fact is otherwise, we are willing to +suppose that every slave is comfortably housed, and has sufficient food +and clothing. These may give</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Ease to the body some, none to the mind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">From restless thoughts."</span></p> + +<p>Even if in a comfortable house, the slave is homeless! No joys cluster +around <i>his</i> hearthstone! <i>He</i> has no wife to share his sorrows, or to +partake his joys; for neither law nor public opinion sanctions the +marriage of slaves! The very children whom the slave presses to his +heart are not regarded, either by law or public sentiment, as his dear +children, but only as part of the stock of the plantation! Mother and +children may be, and are, sold at auction, and separated from him and +from each other for ever! And yet the heart of the slave-mother yearns +for her children as much as the heart of the white mother.</p> + +<p>By giving me a spiritual nature capable of improvement, God has made it +my duty to strive to improve myself,—has declared that I have a natural +right to improve myself, and that any wanton or unnecessary infringement +of this right is a wrong. No man has the right to prevent me, or the +meanest slave, from earnestly seeking after wisdom; to prevent me, or +the meanest slave, from becoming pure in heart; or to deaden my +affections, or those of the humblest slave that walks. In keeping a +slave ignorant or impure, or in blunting his affections, even though he +is well fed, clothed, and housed, violence is offered to his nature; his +God-given <i>rights</i> are infringed; a <i>wrong</i> is done!</p> + +<p>Slaveholding is wrong under <i>all</i> circumstances, because it either +darkens the minds, brutalizes the souls, and deadens the affections of +the slaves, or, without any necessity, renders such spiritual death not +merely possible, but almost inevitable. If it is wrong to murder the +body, how much more wrong is it to murder the soul! Slaveholding is +murder of the soul!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER II.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It is universally the fact throughout the Slaveholding States, that +either custom or law prohibits them [<i>i.e.</i> the slaves] the +acquisition of letters."—<i>Report made to Synod of South Carolina +and Georgia in 1833.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>At a recent annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, the +Rev. Joel Parker, D.D. of Philadelphia, a member of the Presbyterian +Church, speaking of the instruction of the colored race, is reported to +have used the following language:—"There seems to me, in connection +with this subject, a beautiful illustration of what Hall calls 'a fetch +in Divine Providence.' God had a design in bringing these people to this +country in the way he did. We cannot probably comprehend the whole of +it; but this we can see, he has secured the education of those who, to +all human appearance, would not and could not have been educated in any +other way. There are now in this country more than three hundred +thousand Africans who can read and write, who could not have done it if +it had not been for the slave-trade. There are many in this country and +in Liberia who are capable of preaching the gospel, editing papers, and +performing all the duties of civil life, who must have remained in total +darkness but for this trade. How came this people by all this knowledge? +Did anybody go to Africa and teach them? No! It has been done by +slavery.... And now we send them back to Africa, with a preparation for +doing a great work there, which we never could have imparted to them in +any other way.... In this view of the subject, we may perceive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> at least +one good which slavery has done to Africa; and the question may with +propriety be asked, whether it has not done for Africa more good than +harm."</p> + +<p>If we may believe this spiritual teacher, the Being who made of one +blood all the nations of men, the common Father of us all, himself +designed the scheme by which millions of men, women, and children were +torn from their homes and friends, and all they held dear, and brought +to this country, through all the horrors of the middle passage, where a +terrible death relieved on an average at least one fifth of the victims +from a scarcely less terrible life,—for this end in part, that, after +two centuries of wrongs, not even a tithe of their descendants might be +returned to the land of their fathers, to teach the Africans the +religion of their oppressors! A truly touching example of God's +loving-kindness and tender mercy to all his children!</p> + +<p>That many slaves have been instructed to the extent stated by Dr. Parker +is true; but they have been educated, not in consequence, but in spite, +of slavery. So hostile to mental culture is slavery, that but a slight +examination is needed to satisfy us that it is neither profitable nor +safe to educate a slave beyond a certain point. Without <i>some</i> +education, a slave would be worse than valueless. Far the larger number +of them, as field slaves, are simply taught to use the hoe, and other +instruments of agriculture. Others are brought up as carpenters, masons, +blacksmiths, house-servants, &c. Frederick Douglass earned a dollar and +a half a day at caulking; whilst William Craft, as a cabinet-maker and +occasional waiter at an hotel, supported himself, and paid his owner +twenty dollars a month for the right to use his own muscles. We +occasionally meet with such advertisements as the following, cut from +the "New Orleans Picayune," of Oct. 18, 1846:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Credit Sale of Valuable Negro Mechanics</span>, &c.—By Beard, Calhoun, +and Co. auctioneers, will be sold at auction, on Tuesday the 20th +October, at twelve o'clock, at Banks's Arcade, the following +valuable slaves:—Ezekiel, 25 years, <i>a superior carpenter</i>, +fully guarantied; Jacob, 25 years, <i>a superior carpenter</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> <i>and +wheelwright</i>, fully guarantied; Dick, 35 years, <i>a superior +carpenter and wheelwright</i>, fully guarantied; Charles, 28 years, +<i>engineer and rough carpenter</i>; Charles, 22 years, <i>field hand</i>, +fully guarantied, excepting slightly ruptured; Sancho, 26 years, +<i>good house carpenter</i>, fully guarantied; Maria, mulattress, 28 +years, <i>first-rate washer and ironer</i>, fully guarantied; Maria, +negress, 13, child's nurse, fully guarantied.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Terms: Twelve months' credit for notes drawn and endorsed to the +satisfaction of the vendor, with mortgage on the property, bearing +interest eight per cent per annum, from date of sale until paid. +Slaves not to be delivered until the notes are approved of. The +servants can be seen on the morning of sale. Act of sale before D. +I. Ricardo, notary public, at the expense of the purchaser."</p> + +<p>In the same paper, Alexander Daggett advertises "for sale a negro man, +<i>a first-rate blacksmith</i>." In the "Richmond Whig" of Jan. 25, 1848, +Benjamin Davis advertises for sale a negro man "who is a first-rate +carpenter by trade; also a rough blacksmith." In the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury," Thomas W. Mordecai, broker and auctioneer, under date Sept. 1, +1847, advertises at private sale—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"> +"An uncommonly prime and likely black man, about 22.<br /> +A <i>prime woman</i>, a superior washer, and good cook and farm hand.<br /> +A very prime axeman and field hand.<br /> +A superior man-cook."</p> + +<p>It is not, however, necessary to teach a slave-mechanic or field hand, +or even "a prime woman," to read or write, in order to make him or her a +profitable investment. If we suppose William Craft's value as a slave to +have been two thousand dollars, his master received from his investment +<i>only</i> twelve per cent <i>clear profit</i>! Yet William could neither read +nor write. He was a valuable working machine. To have him educated +farther, to have taught him to read or write, would have lessened his +market value. To teach a slave these things is to teach him his rights, +and to make him keenly feel his wrongs. Mrs. Hugh Auld taught Frederick +Douglass his letters before slavery had hardened her naturally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> kind +heart. She gave him the inch, as he says, and no precaution could +prevent his taking the ell. He taught himself to read and write, and +thus describes the effect produced by reading a book called "The +Columbian Orator." This book contains one or more of Sheridan's +speeches, and a dialogue between a master and his slave, wherein the +slave is made to refute all the arguments usually brought forward in +support of slavery.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The more I read," he says ("Narrative," p. 40), "the more I was led +to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other +light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, +and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange +land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as +well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the +subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had +predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to +torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under +it, I could at times feel that learning to read had been a curse, +rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched +condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible +pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I +envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished +myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to +my own,—any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was +this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There +was no getting rid of it."</p> + +<p>As a necessary result of his learning to read, Douglass loathed slavery, +and detested his enslavers. If he had never read, his eyes would never +have been fully opened to the extent of his wrongs; and what is true of +him is true of all other slaves. <i>Any</i> slave who can read Sheridan's +denunciations of slavery must, like Douglass, loathe his condition, and +detest his oppressors.</p> + +<p>But a slave who loathes his condition, and detests his oppressors, will +be refractory and disobedient. A late writer in the "Charleston Mercury" +admits this when he remarks ("William Jay's Letter to Bishop Ives," +1848, p. 12):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>"It has been the policy of this State not to admit the teaching to +the slaves, either of reading or writing. We all know why this is +so. It needed no great scope of argument to satisfy those who framed +our laws, that the expansion of intellect, the hundred influences +which education generates, would be very inconsistent with habits of +obedience, which was the corner-stone of the institution."</p> + +<p>Such a slave will also try to escape at every fair opportunity; and, +being able to write passes or forge free papers, the chances for +successful escape are very much increased. The owner's hold upon him +becomes daily more and more precarious, and consequently the slave's +value as property daily diminishes. So true is this, that in Louisiana a +buyer may legally refuse to take a slave, if he has only "absented +himself from his master's house twice for several days, or once for more +than a month." The "Civil Code" (Art. 2496, 2505) declares that the +"vice of character," as it is called, which is proved by either of these +Acts, renders the slave absolutely useless, or renders his use so +inconvenient or imperfect that it must be supposed no one would buy a +slave who was known to have this vice.</p> + +<p>Every particle of instruction given to a slave beyond what is consistent +with his remaining a passive and obedient, working machine, is so much +money taken from the master's pocket. Nobody wants to invest his money +in a slave who is refractory or disobedient, or who runs away at every +opportunity,—unless, indeed, he buys the stock, in consequence, at very +much under par! The value of Douglass as a slave decreased just as fast +as his manhood increased; and Capt. Price now candidly avows, that he +hesitated some time before he invested seven hundred dollars in William +W. Brown; for William was a noted runaway! The love of money impels the +slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance.</p> + +<p>Not only this, but an educated slave, who loathes his condition and +hates his oppressors, is an unsafe member of a household or a community. +His means for taking a fearful vengeance are ample, and what +consideration shall stay his hands? None but an educated slave can plan +or head an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> insurrection. Such are the ones who always do take active +part in rebellions. The house-servants constitute everywhere the most +educated class. None are more dreaded than they, for this reason in +part, and partly because of their living under the same roof with their +masters. In a pamphlet published in Charleston, S. C. in 1822, p. 14, by +Gen. Thomas Pinckney, speaking of house-servants, he remarks:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"They are the most dangerous. Their intimate acquaintance with all +the circumstances relating to the interior of the dwellings, the +confidence reposed in them, <i>and the information they unavoidably +obtain from hearing the conversation and observing the habitual +transactions of their owners, afford them the most ample means for +treacherous bloodshed and devastation</i>. The success, therefore, of +servile conspiracies mainly depends on this class for taking off, by +midnight murder, their unsuspecting owners; and the late trials, by +exhibiting so large a portion of this description among the +ringleaders of the conspiracy, afford a melancholy proof of their +promptitude to become actors in such scenes."—<i>William Jay's +Letter, &c.</i> p. 9.</p> + +<p>The love of life itself, the desire for the safety of their wives and +children, impels the slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance.</p> + +<p>Two of the strongest motives which can be brought to bear upon man, the +love of money and the love of life, are therefore constantly urging the +slaveholder to darken the minds of his slaves. If the former of these +motives leads to the commission of so much wrong everywhere, what will +not both motives together accomplish to the injury of the slave? But the +slaveholders have not been willing to trust wholly to these motives, +strong though they are. In many of the States, it is a penal offence to +teach a slave to read or write; and, where laws of this kind do not +exist, custom, as universal, powerful, and remorseless as the law, +accomplishes the same wrong. The following are some of these laws:—</p> + +<p>The "Revised Statutes" of <span class="smcap">North Carolina</span>, chap. 34, sec. 74 ("Revision +of Stat." 1830, chap. 6, §1), provide that</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Any free person who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any +slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or +pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in +this State having jurisdiction thereof; and, upon conviction, shall, +at the discretion of the court, if a white man or woman, be fined +not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than two hundred +dollars, or imprisoned; and, if a free person of color, shall be +fined, imprisoned, or whipped, at the discretion of the court, not +exceeding thirty-nine lashes, nor less than twenty lashes."</p> + +<p>Chap. 111, sec. 27 (Statute, 1830, chap. 6, § 2), provides that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any slave shall teach, or attempt to teach, any other slave to +read or write, the use of figures excepted, he or she may be carried +before any justice of the peace, and, on conviction thereof, shall +be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">South Carolina</span>, the "Negro Act" (1740, § 45; "2 Brev. Dig." 243), +provides that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"All and every person and persons whatsoever who shall hereafter +teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall +use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing +whatsoever, hereafter taught to write; every such person and persons +shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds +current money."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Alabama</span> (Statute, 1832, chap. 8, § 10; "Clay's Digest," p. 543, § +24),—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Any person or persons who shall attempt to teach any free person of +color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction +thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred +and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Georgia</span> ("Penal Code approved Dec. 23, 1833," 13th div., sec. 18; +"Prince's Digest," p. 658; "William A. Hotchkiss's Codification," 1845, +p. 772),—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any person shall teach any slave, negro, or free person of +color, to read or write either written or printed characters, or +shall procure, suffer, or permit a slave, negro, or person of color, +to transact business for him in writing, such person so offending +shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be +punished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> by fine, or imprisonment in the common jail of the county, +or both, at the discretion of the court."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Mississippi</span> ("Howard & Hutchinson's Laws," p. 673),</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No slave or free person of color can be employed in the setting of +types in any printing office."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Missouri</span>, the "Revised Statutes" (chap. 8, sec. 10, p. 117) provide +that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"When an apprentice is a negro or mulatto, it shall <i>not</i> be the +duty of the master to cause such colored apprentice to be taught to +read or write, or a knowledge of arithmetic; but he shall be +allowed, at the expiration of his term of service, a sum of money in +lieu of education, to be assessed by the county court."</p> + +<p>The Act of 1847 (approved Feb. 16, § 1) reads,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No person shall keep or teach any school for the instruction of +negroes or mulattoes in reading or writing in this State."</p> + +<p>Other similar laws might be produced; but these suffice to exhibit, in a +clear light, the opportunities presented for the mental instruction of +slaves! In some States, it is unlawful to teach even a <small>FREE</small> colored +person to read or write!</p> + +<p>That these laws have been almost universally respected and obeyed, there +is no room to doubt. No one has given more attention to this subject +than the Rev. Chas. C. Jones, of Savannah, Ga. In 1842 he published, at +Savannah, a work, containing the result of his researches, entitled "The +Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States." In this +work, p. 115, he says, "The statutes of our respective Slave States +forbid all knowledge of letters to the negroes; and, where the statutes +do not, custom does. It is impossible to form an estimate of the number +of negroes that <i>read</i>. My belief is, that the proportion would be +expressed by <small>AN ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE FRACTION</small>. The greatest number of +readers is found in and about towns and cities, and among the <small>FREE</small> negro +population some two or three generations removed from servitude."—As a +confirmation of this testimony of Mr. Jones, we know no greater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> proof +that the degraded class in any community is almost wholly uneducated, +than that a large portion of the privileged class is so. The law of +compensation is divine. We cannot degrade or brutalize our fellow-men, +without degrading or brutalizing ourselves. Now, we find that, in the +Slave States, almost one tenth of the free <i>white</i> population over +twenty years of age are unable to read and write! To some persons this +may seem a small proportion; but, in the Free States, with all our +ignorance, there are less than one in one hundred and fifty! and Horace +Mann, the best authority on this subject, says that "at least four +fifths of these are foreigners, who ought not to be included in the +computation." In Connecticut, out of 163,843 free persons over twenty +years of age, there are only 526 who are unable to read and write; +while, in the model Slave State of South Carolina, out of only 111,663 +free white persons over twenty years of age, there are 20,615 who cannot +read and write! "In South Carolina," says Theodore Parker, "out of each +626 free whites more than twenty years of age, there are more than 58 +wholly unable to read or write; out of that number of such persons in +Connecticut, not quite two"! More than the sixth part of the adult +freemen of South Carolina are unable to read the vote they deposit in +the ballot-box! And Gov. Clarke, of Kentucky, declared in his message to +the legislature in 1837, that one third of the adult population of that +State were unable to write their names! While such is the state of the +freemen, it is impossible that any considerable number of the slaves +should become educated. With these facts before us, it is impossible not +to admit the correctness of Mr. Jones's conclusion. Only an "almost +inconceivable fraction" of three millions of slaves can read or write! +These are taught by their owners, or with their connivance; and of them +we shall speak hereafter. But, taken as a mass, the slaves are truly +described by a writer in the "Marysville (Tennessee) Intelligencer" as +being "degraded, stupid savages." We may add, not naturally degraded and +stupid, but made and kept so in open violation of their rights as human +beings, for the sake of gain!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER III.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Their depravity, their spiritual ignorance and destitution, are +amazingly and awfully great."—<i>Rev. C. C. Jones's Catechism</i>; +<i>preface</i>, p. 4.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>"When the charge of the intellectual and moral degradation of the slaves +is preferred against us," says Mr. Jones<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> ("Religious Instruction," p. +107), "we are inclined to put the best face on affairs, knowing that +this is the darkest feature and the most vulnerable point."</p> + +<p>"Their notions of the Supreme Being (ib. p. 125); of the character and +offices of Christ and of the Holy Ghost; of a future state; and of what +constitutes holiness of life, are indefinite and confused. Some brought +up in a Christian land, and in the vicinity of the house of God, have +heard of Jesus Christ; but who he is, and what he has done for a ruined +world, they cannot tell. The Mohammedan Africans remaining of the old +stock of importations, although accustomed to hear the gospel preached, +have been known to accommodate Christianity to Mohammedanism. 'God,' +say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> they, 'is Allah, and Jesus Christ is Mohammed: the religion is the +same; but different countries have different names.'"</p> + +<p>"True religion they are inclined to place in profession, in forms and +ordinances, and in excited states of feeling; and true conversion, in +dreams, visions, trances, voices,—all bearing a perfect or striking +resemblance to some form or type which has been handed down for +generations, or which has been originated in the wild fancy of some +religious teacher among them." Page 126: "Sometimes principles of +conduct are adopted by <i>church members</i> at so much variance with the +gospel that the 'grace of God is turned into lasciviousness.' For +example, that which would be an abominable sin, committed by a church +member with a worldly person, becomes no sin at all if committed with +another church member. The brethren must 'bear one another's burdens, +and so fulfil the law of Christ.'... To know the extent of their +ignorance, even where they have been accustomed to the sound of the +gospel in white churches, a man should make investigation for himself: +the result will frequently surprise and fill him with grief. They +scarcely feel shame for their ignorance on the subject of religion, +although they may have had abundant opportunity of becoming wiser. +Ignorance they seem to feel is their lot; and that feeling is intimately +associated with another, every way congenial to the natural man, namely, +a feeling of irresponsibility: ignorance is a cloak and excuse for +crime." Page 127: "He who carries the gospel to them encounters +depravity, intrenched in ignorance, both real and pretended. He beholds +the Scripture fulfilled, 'Having the understanding darkened, being +alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, +because of the hardness of their hearts,' Eph. iv. 17-19. He discovers +deism (!), scepticism (!!), universalism (!!!)... 'They are wise to do +evil; but to do good they have no knowledge.'"</p> + +<p>"Intimately connected with their ignorance is their superstition. They +believe in second sight, in apparitions, charms, witchcraft, and in a +kind of irresistible Satanic influence. The superstitions brought from +Africa have not been wholly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> laid aside (p. 128). Ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers, doctors, +prophets, conjurers; to artful, designing men. When fairly committed to +such leaders, they may be brought to the commission of almost any crime. +Facts in their history prove this. On certain occasions, they have been +made to believe, that, while they carried about their persons some charm +with which they had been furnished, they were <i>invulnerable</i>.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> They +have, on certain other occasions, been made to believe that they were +under a protection that rendered them invincible.... They have been +known to be so perfectly and fearfully under the influence of some +leader or conjurer or minister, that they have not dared to disobey him +in the least particular; nor to disclose their own intended or +perpetrated crimes, in view of inevitable death itself; notwithstanding +all other influences brought to bear upon them."</p> + +<p>"The discipline of colored members is involved, tedious, vexatious, and +<i>disgusting</i>" (p. 131). "<i>Excommunications and suspensions are of +perpetual occurrence, for crimes shocking in character</i>, and of +themselves sufficient to show the general state of morals; <i>such, for +example, as adultery, fornication, theft, lying, drunkenness, +quarrelling, and fighting</i>. The first three are their most common +vices." Page 135: "They are, proverbially, <i>thieves</i>. They bear this +character in Africa; they have borne it in all countries whither they +have been carried; it has been the character of slaves in all ages, +whatever their nation or color. They steal from each other, from their +masters, from anybody.... Their veracity is nominal." Page 136: "The +number, the variety, and ingenuity of falsehoods that can be told by +them in a few brief moments, is most astonishing.... Servants, however, +who will neither steal nor lie, may be found, and in no inconsiderable +numbers."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>Other similar extracts, and touching other vices, might be given; but +these seem amply sufficient to justify the general conclusion to which +Mr. Jones arrives, p. 153, that "they are, intellectually and morally, a +degraded people, the most so of any in the United States; and while, +from their universal (?) profession of the Christian system, and their +attendance upon its ordinances of worship, and the absence of all fixed +forms of idolatry, they cannot <i>strictly</i> be termed <i>heathen</i>, yet may +they with propriety be termed <i>the heathen of our land</i>." In a sermon +preached by him in Georgia, and published at Savannah in 1831, he calls +them "<i>a nation of heathen in our very midst</i>" ("Jay's Letter," p. 11). +Abundant confirmation of this conclusion exists. The Hon. Chas. C. +Pinckney, in his "Address before the Agricultural Society of South +Carolina" (Charleston, 1829, second edit. pp. 10-12; Jones's "Relig. +Inst." p. 141), says, "There needs no stronger illustration of the +doctrine of human depravity than the state of morals on plantations in +general." "Who would credit it," asks the Committee of the Synod of +South Carolina and Georgia in 1833, "that, in these years of revival and +benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there are <i>over two +millions of human beings in the condition of heathen, and in some +respects in a worse condition</i>? From long-continued and close +observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition is such +that they may justly be considered the <i>heathen</i> of this Christian +country." The Executive Committee of the Kentucky Union for the Moral +and Religious Improvement of the Colored Race, in their "Circular to the +Ministers of the Gospel in Kentucky," 1834 (Jones's "Relig. Inst." p. +143), say, "We desire not to represent that condition worse than it is. +Doubtless, the light that shines around them, more or less illuminates +their minds, and moralizes their characters. We hope and believe, that +some of them, though poor in this world's goods, will be found rich in +spiritual possessions in the day when the King of Zion shall make up his +jewels. We know that many of them are included in the visible church, +and frequently exhibit great zeal; but it is to be feared, that it is +often a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> zeal without knowledge; and of the majority it must be +confessed, that the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness +comprehendeth it not. After making all reasonable allowances, <i>our +colored population can be considered, at the most, but semi-heathen</i>."</p> + +<p>In view of these statements, we cannot but be forced to the conclusion, +that the slaves, as a body, are in an extremely degraded moral and +religious condition. That they are <i>naturally</i> thus, even Mr. Jones +denies ("Relig. Instruction," p. 124). He says, "As to moral and +religious character, the negroes are <i>naturally</i> what other men are." +That they are so much more degraded than others must, then, be owing to +their education or their social condition. The inference, therefore, is +unavoidable that they have been thus degraded by others. The wrong rests +upon those who have denied them the means of education, and who have +kept them in slavery,—upon those who have thus degraded their minds and +souls, in order that their bodies might remain in slavery! In violation +of the slave's dearest rights, all the highest, noblest, and purest +instincts of his nature have been destroyed, in order to advance the +pecuniary interests of the man "who gains his fortune from the blood of +souls"! Are those slaves who enjoy moral and religious instruction any +better off?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER IV.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Q. When you hear the minister preach, are you not to listen to him +as the minister of God; God's messenger to your soul? A. +Yes."—<i>Jones's Catechism</i>, p. 140.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>"By the providence and word of God," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," pp. 165, 166), "are we under obligations to impart the +gospel to our servants.... We cannot disregard this obligation ... +without forfeiting our humanity, our gratitude, our consistency, and our +claim to the spirit of Christianity itself. <i>Our humanity....</i> The Lord +Jesus has furnished us with the most beautiful and striking +illustrations of this virtue:—'What man shall there be among you, that +shall have one sheep; and, if it fall into a pit, will he not lay hold +on it, and lift it out?' 'Doth not each one of you loose his ox or his +ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this +woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these +eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?'... Apply the reasoning: 'How +much, then, is a man better than a sheep or an ox?' When our servants +are sick and diseased, we do not suffer them to want: we physic and +nurse them (?). But are not their <i>souls</i> more precious than their +<i>bodies</i>? Much more, then, should we lift our servants from the pit of +ignorance, moral pollution and death, into which they have fallen. Much +more should we strive to loose them (bound for so many years!) from the +bonds of sin and Satan, and lead away their famishing souls to the water +of life."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>"<i>Our gratitude.</i> They nurse us in infancy, contribute to our pleasures +and pastimes in youth, and furnish us with the means of education. They +constitute our wealth, and yield us all the comforts and conveniences of +life. They may, in a degree, adopt towards us the language of Jacob to +Laban, 'Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by +night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.' They watch around our +languishing beds in sickness, share in our misfortunes, weep over us +when we die, prepare us for the burial, and carry us to the house +appointed for all the living. The obligations, the sacrifice, and +service are not to be all on one side, in the relation of master and +servant. If we have been made partakers of their <i>carnal</i> things, our +duty is also to minister unto them in <i>spiritual</i> things,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> Rom. xv. +27. 1 Cor. ix. 11. And shall we consider it a great thing to fulfil this +duty? The kindest and the most grateful return which we can make them is +to put them in possession of the richest gift of God to men, the gospel +of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."</p> + +<p>How far has the existence or utterance of such sentiments as these +resulted in securing to the slaves a sound moral and religious +instruction? What kind of teachers and what kind of instruction are +thought to be consistent with proper feelings of gratitude and humanity +on the part of masters? We have just seen the deep moral degradation of +the very great majority of the slaves. Still "there are at the present +time," says Mr. Jones (p. 100), "tens of thousands connected by a +credible profession to the church of Christ, and the gospel is reaching +them to a greater extent and in greater purity and power than ever +before."</p> + +<p>By whom is the gospel thus preached to them in purity and power? Who is +it that "ministers unto them in spiritual things," and "leads away their +famishing souls to the water of life"?</p> + +<p>"Those who would keep the Bible from their fellow-creatures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> are the +enemies of God and man. The Bible belongs of right to every man. It is +the property of the world." Thus speaks the <i>Protestant</i> defender of +slavery, Charles C. Jones ("Catechism," p. 80). But to prevent a slave +from reading the Bible is not by any means to keep the Bible from him! +In what a <i>Catholic</i> spirit he thus exhorts the slaves! ("Catechism," p. +79) "What benefit will this precious book be to us, unless we diligently +study it, and embrace opportunities of receiving instruction from it, +such as are afforded us in the house of God, in the sabbath-school, and +in the Bible-class? 'Search the Scriptures' is the Redeemer's +command."<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> "We cannot," he says ("Religions Instruction," p. 167), +"cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the +common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life; for our +inconsistency is as great as theirs, if we withhold the Bible from our +servants, and keep them in ignorance of its saving truths, which we +certainly do while we will not provide ways and means of having it read +and explained to them"! So readily, at the bidding of slavery, will +Protestants surrender the most distinctive feature of Protestantism!</p> + +<p>It is obvious, that, if any religious instruction is to be imparted to +slaves, it must be given them by others. But it is in the power of the +owner to forbid all such instruction. "The whole arrangement of the +religious instruction of the negroes, as to teachers, times, places, +matter and manner, is in our own power," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 98).</p> + +<p>The Presbytery of Georgia, in the memorial before alluded to, says—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>"The law of the land makes and can make no provision for their +religious instruction. That instruction is committed to owners, as +the instruction of children is to parents; and <i>they can give or +withhold it at pleasure</i>. We owners and ministers are 'the almoners +of divine mercy to them,' and, if we do not open the door of +salvation, they may grope their way into a miserable eternity; for +they have no power of any kind to originate and establish and carry +forward church organizations and associations for their own benefit. +They are entirely dependent upon us for the gospel of salvation."</p> + +<p>"We may," says Mr. Jones ("Religious Instruction," p. 158), "according +to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings and +religious instruction on our own plantations; we may forbid our servants +going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for +them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and +suffer not them that are entering to go in!"</p> + +<p>Wherever an owner is willing to permit such instruction, it must still +be carried on wholly by <i>oral</i> communications. "This immense mass of +immortal beings," says Mr. Jones, "is thrown for religious instruction +upon oral communications <i>entirely</i>" (ib. p. 157). That any oral +instruction of the adult or aged slaves is worth but little he evidently +admits, because he says (ib. p. 229), "If a people are to be instructed +orally, let the instruction be communicated to them in early life;" and +"the great hope of permanently benefiting the negroes is laid in +sabbath-schools, in which children and youth may be trained up in the +knowledge of the Lord." Our minds are so constituted, that, unless our +powers of memory have been strengthened by constant or frequent use in +youth, we cannot in after-life either receive or retain much benefit +from oral instruction. And if this is true of the freeman, how much more +is it true of the slave! Consequently, the only method of instructing +the slaves, which law or custom or both do not forbid, is the very +last,—the poorest method for their real good which can be devised!</p> + +<p>There are <i>colored</i> preachers at the South, "and <i>some</i> of them," says +Mr. Jones, "are able to read" (ib. p. 175).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> The following anecdote, +illustrative of their capacity to impart knowledge, is told by Charles +Lyell. When in Louisville, Ky. he attended a Methodist Church. "The +preacher was a full black, spoke good English, and quoted Scripture +well." "It appeared," says Prof. Lyell, "from his explanation of 'Whose +superscription is this?' that he supposed the piece of money to be a +dollar note, to which Cæsar had put his signature."</p> + +<p>Some, probably most of them, are slaves. We have now before us the +advertisement of a runaway slave who claimed to be a Methodist preacher! +The Alabama Baptist Association bought one of its missionaries, named +Cæsar, in 1828, and owned him till the time of his death! He lived to be +76 years old. A writer in the "Georgia Christian Index" begins an +obituary notice of him thus, "A good colored man has fallen in Israel;" +and ends by saying, "The writer can truly say that his labors have been +much blest." Mr. Jones gives the names of several other slave preachers. +Still, however, they are discountenanced.</p> + +<p>The "Revised Statutes" of <span class="smcap">North Carolina</span> (chap. 111, sec. 34; "Revision +of Statute," 1831, chap. 4, sec. 1) provide that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It shall not be lawful, under any pretence, for any slave or free +person of color to preach or exhort in public, or in any manner to +officiate as a preacher or teacher in any prayer-meeting or other +association for worship where slaves of different families are +collected together; and if any free person of color shall be thereof +duly convicted, on indictment, before any court having jurisdiction +thereof, he shall for each offence receive not exceeding thirty-nine +lashes on his bare back; and when any slave shall be guilty of a +violation of this section, he shall, on conviction before a single +magistrate, receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare +back."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Alabama</span> (Stat. 1832, chap. 8, sec. 24; "Clay's Digest," 545, sec. +35),—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any slave or free person of color shall preach to, exhort, or +harangue any slave or slaves or free persons of color, unless in the +presence of five respectable (!) slaveholders, any such slave or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +free person of color so offending shall, on conviction before any +justice of the peace, receive, by order of said justice of the +peace, thirty-nine lashes for the first offence, and fifty lashes +for every offence thereafter; and any person may arrest any such +slave or free person of color, and take him before a justice of the +peace for trial,—Provided that the negroes so haranguing or +preaching shall be licensed thereto by some regular body of +professing Christians immediately in the neighborhood, and to whose +society or church such negro shall properly belong."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Georgia</span>, the Act approved Dec. 23, 1833, sec. 5 ("Prince's Digest," +808; "Hotchkiss's Codification," 840, 841), provides that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No person of color, whether free or slave, shall be allowed to +preach to, exhort, or join in any religious exercise with, any +persons of color, either free or slave, there being more than seven +persons of color present," &c.</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Mississippi</span>, the law declares (How. and Hutch. 178) that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It shall not be lawful for any slave, free negro or mulatto to +exercise the functions of a minister of the gospel under the penalty +of thirty-nine lashes,—Provided that it shall be lawful for any +master or owner to permit his slave to preach upon his own premises, +but not to permit any other slaves but his own to assemble there on +such occasion."</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Missouri</span>, the Act approved Feb. 16, 1847, sec. 2, provides that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No meeting or assemblage of negroes or mulattoes for the purpose of +religious worship or preaching shall be held or permitted, where the +services are performed or conducted by negroes or mulattoes, unless +some sheriff, constable, marshal, police officer, or justice of the +peace shall be present during all the time of such meeting or +assemblage, in order to prevent all seditious speeches and +disorderly and unlawful conduct of every kind."</p> + +<p>"Negro preachers are discouraged," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," p. 157), "if not suppressed, on the ground of +incompetency, and liability to abuse their office and influence to the +injury of the morals of the people, and the infringement of the laws and +peace of the country. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> would not go all the lengths of many on this +point; for, from my own observation, negro preachers may be employed and +confided in, and <i>so regulated</i> as to do their own color great good, and +community no harm." Ib. p. 274: "The appointment of colored preachers +and watchmen by the <i>white churches, and under their particular +supervision</i>, in many districts of country, has been attended with happy +effects; and <i>such</i> auxiliaries, <i>properly managed</i>, may be of great +advantage." Doubtless, when thus "properly managed," they are of great +advantage! "I shall never forget," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 215), "the +remark of a venerable colored preacher, made with reference to the +Southampton tragedy" (<i>i.e.</i> Nat. Turner's insurrection in Southampton, +Va. in 1832). "With his eyes filled with tears, and his whole manner +indicating the deepest emotion, said he, 'Sir, it is the gospel that we, +ignorant and wicked people, need.(!) If you will give us the gospel, it +will do more for the obedience of servants and the peace of community +than all your guards and guns and bayonets.' This same Christian +minister, on receiving a packet of inflammatory pamphlets through the +post-office, and discovering their character and intention, immediately +called upon the mayor of the city, and delivered them into his hands. +Who can estimate the value in community of one such man acting under the +influence of the gospel of peace?"</p> + +<p>Not only are negro preachers thus discountenanced, unless they are the +abject tools of the slaveholders, but only a certain class of <i>white</i> +teachers are allowed. The following extract is taken from the "Georgia +Christian Index:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Preachers for the Slaves.</span>—We think the instruction of the blacks +in the South should be committed wholly to white men; and they +should be Southern men, in whom the masters have confidence. If the +preacher is himself a slaveholder, as are Mr. Jones and Mr. Law, +they will command the greater confidence, and have access to the +larger number of plantations."</p> + +<p>"The field of labor among the negroes in the South," says Mr. Jones +("Religious Instruction," p. 196), "is one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> in many respects, of no +ordinary difficulty; and it is the dictate as well of benevolence as of +prudence to inquire into the character and qualifications of those who +enter it. <i>They should be Southern men</i>; men entitled to that +appellation; either those who have been born and reared in the South, or +those who have identified themselves with the South, and are familiarly +acquainted with the structure of society; <i>in a word, men having their +interests in the South</i>. Such men would possess the <i>confidence of the +community</i>; for they would not act, in their official connection with +the negroes, in such a manner as to breed disturbances, which would +inevitably jeopard their own lives, and tend to the utter prostration of +their families and interests." Ib. p. 235: "The missionaries should be +<i>Southern men</i>, or men ... <i>identified in views, feelings, and interests +with the South, and who possess the confidence of society</i>." We should +(ib. p. 197) "know <i>who</i> their teachers are, and <i>what</i> and <i>when</i> and +<i>where</i> they are taught."</p> + +<p>The object of these laws and precautions evidently is wholly to exclude, +as religious teachers of the slaves, all persons except slaveholders, or +those who are fully identified with or subject to them. Only +slaveholders and their tools <i>can</i> be "God's messengers" to the souls of +the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is +<i>exclusively</i> vested in that class of men whose <i>interest</i> it is to +<i>uphold</i> and <i>strengthen</i> slavery! A slaveholder <i>must</i> have the +strongest inducement to make his teaching of such a quality as directly +to increase the market value of his hearers; and yet the slaves are +receiving from the hallowed lips of their owners the gospel of love and +human brotherhood in greater purity and power than ever before!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER V.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Hath <i>He</i> not brought you out of a land of darkness and ignorance, +where your forefathers knew nothing of him, to a country where you +may come to the knowledge of the only true God, and learn a sure way +to heaven?"—<i>Right Rev. Bishop Meade's Instruction to Slaves.</i></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The religious instruction of your people will promote your own +<i>interests</i> for time and eternity."—<i>Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to +Slaveholders</i> ("<i>Rel. Inst.</i>" p. 275).</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>We might safely presume, that religions owners would instruct their +slaves in such doctrines as they deemed essential to the salvation of +their own souls, and that such instruction would not materially vary +from that given elsewhere on the same points. But abundant proof exists. +The Right Rev. Levi S. Ives has published "A Catechism to be taught +orally to those who cannot read;" New York, 1848. In the preface, he +says it was the result of a winter's visit to a large Southern +plantation, and was adapted by him, "in a course of actual experiment, +to the capacity of <i>colored</i> children, from four to twelve years of +age." There are twenty lessons in this little book. He teaches, among +other things, about the fall, original sin, the atonement, the trinity, +and the sacraments. Elsewhere ("Spirit of Missions," Nov. 1842) he has +expressed the conviction, that, if the planters of North Carolina would +adopt it, and see to its faithful inculcation, the next generation of +blacks in that State, "at a very small expense, would sufficiently +understand the truth as it is in Jesus, without knowing a letter of the +alphabet."</p> + +<p>Dr. Jones's Catechism is really, what it professes to be, a "Catechism +of Scripture doctrine, as well as practice," and contains a very much +more elaborate exposition than Bishop<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> Ives's book. Altogether, it must +be a much more serviceable book to "owners and ministers."</p> + +<p>We shall therefore chiefly content ourselves with showing what the +slaves are taught it is their duty to do, and to refrain from doing, and +what motives to duty are urged upon them.</p> + +<p>"As ministers or missionaries to the negroes," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. +Inst." p. 270), "in the discharge of our official duty, and in our +intercourse with the negroes, we should have nothing to do with their +civil condition. We are appointed of God to preach 'the unsearchable +riches of Christ' to our perishing fellow-men. We are to meditate upon +the duties and responsibilities of our office, and to give ourselves +<i>wholly to it</i>." Ib. pp. 193, 194: "We <i>separate entirely</i> their +<i>religious</i> and their <i>civil</i> condition, and contend that the one may be +attended to without interfering with the other. Our principle is that +laid down by the holy and just one, 'Render unto Cæsar the things which +are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' And Christ and his +apostles are our example. Did they deem it proper and consistent with +the good order of society to preach the gospel to servants? They did. In +discharge of this duty, did they interfere with their civil condition? +They did not. They expressed no opinion whatever on the subject, if we +except that which appears in one of the Epistles to the Corinthian +Church (1st Epist. chap. vii. ver. 19-23). There the Apostle Paul +considers a state of freedom preferable to one of servitude, and advises +slaves, if they can lawfully obtain their freedom, to do it; but not +otherwise. He does not treat the question as one of very great moment, +in comparison to the benefits of the gospel. 'Art thou called being a +servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it +rather; for he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the +Lord's freeman,' &c. May we not follow in the footsteps of our Saviour +and his apostles, and that with perfect safety too? Yea, and without +proceeding as far as did the Apostle Paul?(!) We maintain that in +judicious religious instruction there will be no necessary interference +with their civil condition. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> religious teacher must step out of his +way for the purpose." The Presbytery of Georgia declares in its +memorial, that, if the church will undertake the religious instruction +of the slaves,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The minds of ministers and members will be drawn off from abstract +questions of a civil and a political nature, with which, as +Christians engaged in evangelizing the world, we have little to do; +and they will be presented with a way whereby they may practically +gratify all their benevolent sympathies for the negroes, in the best +manner possible. Our attention, as a church, will be turned to the +great question before us, and indeed before all other denominations, +<i>and which should take precedence of all other questions touching +the negroes</i>, <i>Shall this people be saved or lost?</i>"</p> + +<p>"The New Testament," says the Rev. Theodore Clapp (Sermon, pp. 25, 26, +and these are his present sentiments), "decides in the plainest terms +that Christians are bound to acquiesce in and support those laws and +regulations concerning slavery which are enacted by the respective civil +governments under which they live. The legislature must determine who +shall be kept in bondage, and what shall be their condition and +privileges. The pulpit must not interfere in this important and delicate +matter.... Let him (the clergyman) at all times preach unconditional +submission to civil laws and institutions."</p> + +<p>At the outset, therefore, the religious teachers of the slaves disclaim +all desire or intention to interfere with the condition of servitude. +Their appropriate and only work, they say, is the saving of souls!<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> +That their brother's soul is brutalized and deadened, in consequence of +slavery, is to them no reason why they should interfere with slavery; +for slavery is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> <i>civil</i> condition, which God, in his mysterious +providence, has allowed to exist! But, though it is thus improper to +"interfere" with the civil condition of the slaves, that religious +teacher (as we shall shortly see) does <i>not</i> "step out of his way," but +merely does his duty, who preaches to them that submission to their +civil condition, and faithful service for their masters, is demanded of +them by God! They cannot interfere to <i>injure</i> the institution of +slavery; but <i>very materially to strengthen</i> it falls within their +legitimate province! To condemn slavery would be to condemn the +providence of God; but in strengthening slavery, they are preaching "the +unsearchable riches of Christ" to their perishing fellow-men!</p> + +<p>The Right Rev. William Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church +for the diocese of Virginia, who has also devoted a great deal of +attention to the religious instruction of slaves, a few years since +collected and published a volume of sermons and tracts, designed to aid +the almoners of Divine Mercy in their work of salvation. The grand +motive to duty is thus presented to the slaves, pp. 94, 95 ("Slavery and +the Slaveholder's Religion as opposed to Christianity, by Samuel +Brooke," p. 29, &c.):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Besides, when people die, we know but of two places they have to go +to, and that is heaven or hell; so that whoever misses the one must +go to the other. Now, heaven is a place of great happiness, which +God hath prepared for all that are good; where they shall enjoy rest +from their labors, and a blessedness which shall never have an end. +And hell is a place of great torment and misery, where all wicked +people will be shut up with the devil and other evil spirits, and be +punished for ever because they will not serve God. If, therefore, we +would have our souls saved by Christ; if we would escape hell and +obtain heaven, we must set about doing what he requires of us, that +is, to serve God. Your own poor circumstances in this life ought to +put you particularly upon this, and taking care of your souls; for +you cannot have the pleasures and enjoyments of this life like rich +free people, who have estates and money to lay out as they think +fit. If others will run the hazard of their souls, they have a +chance of getting wealth and power, of heaping up riches, and +enjoying all the ease, luxury, and pleasure their hearts should long +after. But you can have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> none of these things; so that, if you sell +your souls for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this +world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed. Almighty God +hath been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing +but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit +to, as it is his will that it should be so. And think within +yourselves what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors +and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next +life; and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into +a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be +delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his +slaves for ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from +it. If, therefore, you would be God's freemen in heaven, you must +strive to be good and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you +know, are not your own: they are at the disposal of those you belong +to; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can +take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, +that, if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you +have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in +the next. For your idleness and wickedness is generally found it, +and your bodies suffer for it here; and, what is far worse, if you +do not repent and amend, your unhappy souls will suffer for it +hereafter."</p> + +<p>The Rev. Alexander Glennie, Rector of All-Saints Parish, Waccamaw, S.C. +has for several years been in the habit of preaching expressly for +slaves. In 1844, he published in Charleston a selection of these +sermons, under the title of "Sermons preached on Plantations to +Congregations of Negroes." This book<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> contains twenty-six sermons; and +in twenty-two of them there is either a more or less extended account or +a reference to eternal misery in hell as a motive to duty. He thus +describes the day of judgment (Serm. 15, Matt. xxv. 31, p. 90):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"When all people shall be gathered before him, 'he shall separate +them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the +goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats +on the left.' That, my brethren, will be an awful time, when this +separation shall be going on; when the holy angels, at the command +of the great Judge, shall be gathering together all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> the obedient +followers of Christ, and be setting them on the right hand side of +the judgment-seat, and shall place all the remainder on the left. +Remember that each of you must be present; remember that the great +Judge can make no mistake; and that you shall be placed on one side +or on the other, according as in this world you have believed in and +obeyed him or not. How full of joy and thanksgiving will you be, if +you shall find yourselves placed on the right hand! but how full of +misery and despair, if the left shall be appointed as your +portion!"...</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"But what shall he say to the wicked on the left hand? To them he +shall say, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, +prepared for the devil and his angels.' He will tell them to depart: +they did not while here seek him by repentance and faith; they did +not obey him; and he will drive them from him. He will call them +cursed."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 42 (Sermon 7, Rom. vi. 28): "The death, which is the wages of +sin, is this everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his +angels. It is a fire which shall last for ever; and the devil and +his angels, and all people who will not love and serve God, shall +there be punished for ever. The Bible says, 'The smoke of their +torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:' the fire is not quenched; +it never goes out: 'their worm dieth not:' their punishment is +spoken of as a worm, always feeding upon them, but never consuming +them: it never can stop."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones orally catechizes<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> the slaves in the same manner:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 83: "Q. Are there two places only spoken of in the Bible to +which the souls of men go after death?—A. Only two.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Which are they?—A. Heaven and hell.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Pp. 91, 92: Q. After the Judgment is over, into what place do the +righteous go?—A. Into heaven.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What kind of a place is heaven?—A. A most glorious and happy +place.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Shall the righteous in heaven have any more hunger or thirst, or +nakedness or heat or cold? Shall they any more have sin or sorrow, +or crying or pain or death?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Repeat, 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'—A. +'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall +be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be +any more pain; for the former things are passed away.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Will heaven be their everlasting home?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. And shall the righteous grow in knowledge and holiness and +happiness for ever and ever?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. To what place should we wish and strive to go, more than to all +other places?—A. Heaven.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Pp. 93, 94: Q. Into what place are the wicked to be cast?—A. Into +hell.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Repeat, 'The wicked shall be turned.'—A. 'The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What kind of a place is hell?—A. A place of dreadful torments.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What does it burn with?—A. Everlasting fire.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Who are cast into hell besides wicked men?—A. The devil and his +angels.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What will the torments of hell make the wicked do?—A. Weep and +wail, and gnash their teeth.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What did the rich man beg for when he was tormented in the +flame?—A. A drop of water to cool his tongue.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Will the wicked have any good thing in hell? the least comfort? +the least relief from torment?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Will they ever come out of hell?—A. No: never.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Can any go from heaven to hell, or from hell to heaven?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What is fixed between heaven and hell?—A. A great gulf.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What is the punishment of the wicked in hell called?—A. +Everlasting punishment.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Will this punishment make them better?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Repeat, 'It is a fearful thing.'—A. 'It is a fearful thing to +fall into the hands of the living God.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What is God said to be to the wicked?—A. A consuming fire.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>Q. What place should we strive to escape from above all others?—A. +Hell."</p> + +<p>The slaves are taught that they must do what God requires of them, if +they would escape never-ending torments in hell. How strict an account +of their stewardship does God require at their hands! He, they are +taught, has made them slaves, and has given them nothing but labor and +poverty for their lot in this life. Will he require much, where he has +given little? Bishop Meade continues (Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 30, 31, +32):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to your great Master +in heaven, I now come to lay before you the duties you owe to your +masters and mistresses here upon earth; and for this you have one +general rule that you ought always to carry in your minds, and that +is, to do all service for them as if you did it for God himself. +Poor creatures! you little consider, when you are idle and +neglectful of your masters' business, when you steal and waste and +hurt any of their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, when +you are telling them lies and deceiving them; or when you prove +stubborn and sullen, and will not do the work you are set about +without stripes and vexation; you do not consider, I say, that <i>what +faults you are guilty of towards your masters and mistresses are +faults done against God himself</i>, who hath set your masters and +mistresses over you in his own stead, and expects that you will do +for them just as you would do for him. And, pray, do not think that +I want to deceive you, when I tell you that <i>your masters and +mistresses are God's overseers</i>; and that, if you are faulty towards +them, God himself will punish you severely for it in the next world, +unless you repent of it, and strive to make amends by your +faithfulness and diligence for the time to come; for God himself +hath declared the same.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Now, from this general rule,—namely, that you are to do all +service for your masters and mistresses as if you did it for God +himself,—there arise several other rules of duty towards your +masters and mistresses, which I shall endeavor to lay out in order +before you.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"And, in the first place, you are to be obedient and subject to your +masters in all things.... And Christian ministers are commanded to +'exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to +please them well in all things, not answering them again, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +gain-saying.' You see how strictly God requires this of you, that +whatever your masters and mistresses order you to do, you must set +about it immediately, and faithfully perform it, without any +disputing or grumbling, and take care to please them well in all +things. And for your encouragement he tells you, that he will reward +you for it in heaven; because, while you are honestly and faithfully +doing your master's business here, you are serving your Lord and +Master in heaven. You see also that you are not to take any +exceptions to the behavior of your masters and mistresses, and that +you are to be subject and obedient, not only to such as are good and +gentle and mild towards you, but also to such as may be froward, +peevish, and hard. For you are not at liberty to choose your own +masters; but into whatever hands God hath been pleased to put you, +you must do your duty, and God will reward you for it.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"2. You are not to be eye-servants. Now, eye-servants are such as +will work hard, and seem mighty diligent, while they think anybody +is taking notice of them; but, when their masters' and mistresses' +backs are turned, they are idle, and neglect their business. I am +afraid there are a great many such eye-servants among you, and that +you do not consider how great a sin it is to be so, and how severely +God will punish you for it. You may easily deceive your owners, and +make them have an opinion of you that you do not deserve, and get +the praise of men by it; but remember that you cannot deceive +Almighty God, who sees your wickedness and deceit, and will punish +you accordingly. For the rule is, that you must obey your masters in +all things, and do the work they set you about with fear and +trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with +eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing +the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service as to +the Lord, and not as to men. If, then, you would but say within +yourselves, 'My master hath set me about this work, and his back is +turned, so that I may loiter and idle if I please, for he does not +see me; but <i>there is my great Master in heaven, whose overseer my +other master is</i>,<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> and his eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> are always upon me and taking +notice of me, and I cannot get anywhere out of his sight, nor be +idle without his knowing it; and what will become of me, if I lose +his good-will and make him angry with me?'—if, I say, you would +once get the way of thinking and saying thus upon all occasions, you +then would do what God commands you, and serve your masters with +singleness of heart, that is, with honesty and sincerity, and do the +work you are set about with fear and trembling, not for fear of your +masters and mistresses upon earth, for you may easily cheat them, +and make them believe you are doing their business when you do not, +but with fear and trembling, lest God your heavenly Master, whom you +cannot deceive, should call you to account, and punish you in the +next world for your deceitfulness and eye-service in this.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"3. <i>You are to be faithful and honest to your masters and +mistresses, not purloining or wasting their goods or substance, but +showing all good fidelity in all things....</i> Do not your masters, +under God, provide for you? And how shall they be able to do this, +to feed and to clothe you, unless you take honest care of every +thing that belongs to them? <i>Remember that God requires this of you; +and, if you are not afraid of suffering for it here, you cannot +escape the vengeance of Almighty God, who will judge between you and +your masters, and make you pay severely in the next world for all +the injustice you do them here.</i> And though you could manage so +cunningly as to escape the eyes and hands of man, yet think what a +dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who +is able to cast both soul and body into hell!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"4. <i>You are to serve your masters with cheerfulness, reverence, and +humility. You are to do your masters' service with good-will, doing +it as the will of God from the heart, without any sauciness or +answering again.</i> How many of you do things quite otherwise, and, +instead of going about your work with a good will and a good heart, +dispute and grumble, give saucy answers, and behave in a surly +manner! There is something so becoming and engaging in a modest, +cheerful, good-natured behavior, that a little work done in that +manner seems better done and gives far more satisfaction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> than a +great deal more that must be done with fretting, vexation, and the +lash always held over you. It also gains the good-will and love of +those you belong to, and makes your own life pass with more ease and +pleasure. Besides, you are to consider that this grumbling and +ill-will does not affect your masters and mistresses only. They have +ways and means in their hands of forcing you to do your work, +whether you are willing or not. <i>But your murmuring and grumbling is +against God, who hath placed you in that service, who will punish +you severely in the next world for despising his commands.</i>"</p> + +<p>If the slave who wastes his master's goods and substance will not be +able to escape the vengeance of Almighty God, what will become of the +master who impoverishes and darkens the mind of his brother-man? Who +commits the greater injustice,—the man who robs another of his mind, or +the man who robs another of his money?</p> + +<p>Mr. Glennie is equally explicit in his teaching. His fourth Sermon is on +the text, Eph. vi. 7, "With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and +not to men," pp. 21, 22:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In this part of the word of God, servants are taught with what mind +they ought to do their service. They are told to do what is required +of them 'with good-will;' and to do it, 'as to the Lord, and not to +men.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"What a blessed book the Bible is, my brethren! It speaks comfort to +all people in every station of life; it shows how every one must +live here so as to please our heavenly Father. He, the Father of +mercies and the God of all comfort, has in his word forgotten none +of the children of men. All may learn from that holy book how their +souls may be saved through the merits of the death of Christ. And, +in addition to this, every one, in whatever condition he may be, +will find in that holy book what his peculiar duties are. Thus, +ministers are taught in the Bible how they ought to preach the +gospel, and how they ought to live, so as to glorify their Saviour +Jesus Christ. The rich are taught in the Bible how they must do good +with their riches; and the poor, how they must be contented with the +portion that God has given them; and both rich and poor are taught +how to lay up treasure in heaven. Parents are told in the Bible how +they must bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of +the Lord; and children, how they must obey their parents. Masters +are taught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> in the Bible how they must rule their servants, and +servants how they must obey their masters. Truly, this holy word of +God is a blessed gift indeed; and how greatly blessed shall we all +be, if we diligently seek the help of the Holy Spirit, that we may +be 'doers of the word, and not hearers only'! I will now read to you +the whole of this passage out of God's holy word, which is written +especially for your instruction:—'Servants, be obedient to them +that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and +trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with +eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing +the will of God from the heart: with good-will doing service, as to +the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man +doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or +free.' This passage from the Bible shows to you what God requires +from you as servants; and there are many other passages which teach +the same things. You should try and remember these parts of the +Bible, that you may be able 'to do your duty in that state of life +unto which it has pleased God to call you.' For, although a bad +servant may not wish to know what God requires of him, yet a +Christian servant will desire to know this, and to do his will in +every thing."</p> + +<p>How easy it must be for those who cannot read to learn from the holy +book what God requires of them! Mr. Glennie assures his hearers, that +not one of them will be able to say, in the day of judgment, "I had no +way of hearing and learning about my God and Saviour"! (p. 137). May +they not all listen to such words of comfort as fall from his lips? And +how full of comfort to their souls must that book be which tells them +that God intended to make them slaves, and that they must be faithful +and obedient to their oppressors, if they wish to avoid endless +punishment in hell!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Pp. 22, 23: "Our heavenly Father commands that you, who are +servants, should 'be obedient to your masters according to the +flesh;' that is, to your earthly master, the master that you serve +here while in the body. Here is a very plain command: 'Servants, be +obedient;' be obedient to your masters. A bad servant will not try +and obey this command. A worldly-minded servant, who is not living +in the fear of God, will neglect this command. But you, who call +yourselves children of God, will do his will, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> be obedient to +your earthly master. You can every day give proof that you wish to +serve God, by your ready, your cheerful obedience.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"You are here directed to be obedient to your master 'with fear and +trembling;' that is, you ought to feel as anxious to discharge your +duty faithfully as to feel afraid of giving offence by any conduct +that looks like disobedience; for, by disobedience, you not only +offend your earthly master, but you sin against God; and of this +every Christian servant will be afraid. A bad servant will be afraid +only of the punishment which he will receive, if his disobedience +should be found out. But a Christian servant must look up always to +his heavenly Master. Therefore, if you love God, whose children you +were made at your baptism, you will do every day all that you have +to do, with fear and trembling; that is, in the fear of God; knowing +that he would be angry with you, if you neglected your duty. If you +love the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for you, you will do +your daily work with fear and trembling, lest, by any act of +disobedience, you bring reproach on him whose name you bear. If you +desire that the Holy Spirit should abide in your hearts, you will +not willingly be disobedient, being afraid that this Comforter and +Sanctifier would forsake you, if you paid so little attention to the +plain word of God."</p> + +<p>How full of comfort must the Bible be to the slaveholder! How gratifying +to him the reconciliation between God and mammon! How interesting to a +reverend father must be the reflection, that, just in the proportion as +he serves his God, by imparting to his hearers gospel truth, he is +serving mammon, and putting money in the purses of his employers, by +making his hearers more valuable as slaves!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 23: "You are here commanded to be obedient, 'in singleness of +your heart, as unto Christ:' that is, do not be double-minded, +professing to be one thing, but really being another; but, in your +duty to your master, have a single heart; an honest, upright, and +true heart, as unto Christ; knowing that he sees your heart, and +will not be pleased with double-dealing."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 24: "This part of the Bible goes on speaking of the same matter +in different words; it gives 'line upon line and precept upon +precept;' because it is what all of us ought to keep in mind, that +we must engage in our several duties with a desire to please God, +and with a fear of sinning against him. It says,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> 'not with +eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing +the will of God from the heart.' Do not attend to your work, only +when your earthly master's eye is upon you; but remember that the +eye of your heavenly Master is always upon you. Do your work as +serving Christ, <i>look upon your daily tasks as the will of God</i>, and +do them from the heart, with a hearty desire to please God. A bad +servant is an eye-servant, doing the work required of him so long as +his master's eye is upon him: he has no regard to Christ our +Saviour; and, instead of the will of God, he thinks only of his own +will, and the desires of his own evil heart. But you, who profess to +be the servants of Jesus Christ, will, if you are indeed his, do all +your duty faithfully, whether the eye of man is upon you or not; you +will feel that such is the will of God; and you will daily watch and +pray, that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, you may 'do the will of +God from the heart.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The word of God goes on teaching you the same thing. It says, 'with +good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men.' A bad +servant will very often do his service with a very bad will; he will +try many ways to deceive his master, and will do as little for him +as he can. You, however, who call yourselves the servants of Christ, +will, if you indeed belong to him, aim at doing your service 'with +good-will;' you will pray that your will may be subject to the will +of God, so that you may 'do service' cheerfully, 'as to the Lord, +and not to men.'"</p> + +<p>We candidly confess, that we have not sufficient faith to believe that +the Rev. Rector of All-Saints Parish would, if he were a slave, be a +good servant, and do service as unto the Lord. We do verily believe, +that both he and Bishop Meade would follow the desires of man's +unregenerate and evil heart, and do their utmost to escape from this +unwelcome service of Christ. But what a curious subject for reflection, +that the saving of negro souls and of negro overseers in All-Saints +Parish must keep pace one with another!</p> + +<p>The Rector concludes his Sermon with these important suggestions:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 25: "This passage of Scripture ends by telling you to remember +that the day of judgment is coming, when every one, in every +condition of life, shall receive according to what he has done in +the body. It says, 'Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man +doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> be bond or +free.' We are here told, that in the day of judgment, the inquiry +will be, What have we done in this world? how did we live in this +world? It matters not, we see, in what condition we have been here; +it matters not whether we be bond-servants or freemen; it matters +not whether we be among the high and the rich, or among the low and +the poor, we shall in that day receive according as we now live. If +we now live as obedient followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus +Christ, we shall, through him who loved us, inherit everlasting +life. But if we are not true believers in him, if we are disobedient +to his word, we can inherit only everlasting misery. With regard to +you, the disobedient servants amongst you, the unfaithful, the +deceitful, the ungodly servants, unless they repent and turn from +the service of the devil to the service of God, shall surely 'be +punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, +and from the glory of his power.' Whilst the obedient servants +amongst you, the faithful, the true, the godly servants, who are +living 'as the servants of Christ,' 'doing service as to the Lord, +and not to men,' shall, if they continue steadfast unto the end, be +blessed for ever."</p> + +<p>We read in the Bible, that "God is no respecter of persons;" that "he +hath made of one blood all the nations of men;" "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself;" and that "all things whatsoever ye would that men +should do to you, do ye even so to them." Would not the slaves be led to +neglect of duty and insubordination by hearing such sentences? This +effect, says Mr. Jones (speaking in reference to these sentences, "Rel. +Inst." p. 197), "might result from <i>imperfect</i> and <i>injudicious</i> +religious instruction.... But who will say that neglect of duty and +insubordination are the <i>legitimate</i> effects of the gospel, purely and +sincerely imparted to servants?" How judicious is the instruction given +by Bishop Hedding! How purely and sincerely does Bishop Meade thus +continue imparting the gospel! p. 116 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. pp. 32, +33):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye +even so unto them;' that is, do by all mankind just as you would +desire they should do by you, if you were in their place and they in +yours.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Now, to suit this rule to your particular circumstances, suppose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you, would +you not desire that your servants should do their business +faithfully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while +you were looking over them? Would you not expect, that they should +take notice of what you said to them? that they should behave +themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of +every thing belonging to you as you would be yourselves? You are +servants: do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you +will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God, +who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do +it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his commands."</p> + +<p>From the same command of Christ, Mr. Jones instructs the slaves that +they must not steal any of their own earnings, and must inform their +masters when any of their fellow-slaves intend to steal! ("Catechism," +pp. 114-116.) He never for an instant imagines (to use the words of the +Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards in 1791), that "<i>to hold any man in slavery is +to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of +man-stealing</i>" ("The Church as it is," p. 8). How solemnly would Bishop +Freeman declare to the slaves, that thieves can never enter the kingdom +of God, without thinking of the law of North Carolina, which provides +that no slave shall be "permitted, on any pretence whatever, to raise +any horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep" ("Rev. Stat." chap. 111, § 25), +without the same being liable to be seized and sold, and the proceeds +distributed, one half towards the support of the poor of the county, and +the other half to the informer! (Ib. chap. 89, § 24.)</p> + +<p>A friend once said that she was always grieved at receiving any +expression of gratitude. She was grieved to think that the mere +performance of duty was so uncommon as to call forth gratitude. In a +somewhat similar manner, we feel more distinctly than ever how great is +the degradation of the slaves, when such arguments as these can be +addressed to them by intelligent men, with the expectation of producing +conviction! How degraded must that slave be who does not feel or who +cannot expose these wicked perversions of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> beautiful command, and who +cannot ask, in indignant tones, of these truly reverend fathers in God, +"If <i>you</i> were the slave, would you consider yourself bound to work for +your master faithfully?" Verily, "We owners and ministers" <i>are</i> "the +almoners of <i>Divine</i> mercy" to the suffering slave!</p> + +<p>Mr. Glennie declares, that God requires them patiently to submit to all +the wrongs of slavery, as being afflictions sent by him for the good of +their souls!—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 145: "Is it strange that any person who is loved by our Lord +should endure sickness or pain or sorrow of any kind? No: this is +what the whole Bible teaches. We read in one place, 'Whom the Lord +loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' +And in another place, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.' The +Bible also tells us the reason of this, which is, that the children +of God may be taught to repent more of their sins, and to be more +submissive and obedient to God; ... that they may think less about +this world, and may be more diligent in getting ready for heaven. +For these good reasons, God chastises his people; and whenever you +become sick, or are visited with sorrows, you should try and look up +to God as chastising you for your sins, and should pray much to him +for his Spirit, that you may be patient like our Saviour, when he +suffered for our sins, that you may improve by his chastening, and +grow more like him in holiness."—Pp. 128, 129: "Whenever, +therefore, the sorrows of this life are pressing you sore, think of +this saying of our Saviour, 'Every branch which beareth fruit, he +purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' If you are indeed +followers of Jesus, it will at such times comfort you to think that +a Father's hand is upon you, chastising you,—in love chastising you +to make you partakers of his holiness."</p> + +<p>Mr. Glennie also frequently represents Christ as having appeared on +earth as a servant, in order still more to reconcile his hearers to +their lot (pp. 2, 3, 89). Nay, so anxious does he seem to be to induce +his hearers to believe that Christ really endured the wrongs of a slave, +that he sometimes goes beyond the Bible record. Thus, in describing +Christ's sufferings before Pilate, he says (p. 9), "They spit in his +face, and beat him with their hands; they scourged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> him, <i>making long +furrows in his back with the whip</i>.... How grievous were the sufferings +of our dear Lord!"</p> + +<p>But he is not content with telling them they must patiently endure their +wrongs: he also declares to them, that, unless they <i>love</i> those who +wrong them, they are "going along the broad road that leads to hell"! He +says (pp. 115, 116):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"That we may all understand how the case stands with us, whether we +are in the broad road leading to destruction, or in the narrow road +leading to heaven, let us see what our Lord says about his sheep, +and the mark by which they are known."—Page 117: "Our Lord says, +'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have +love one to another.' Do ye hear his voice in this? Are you trying +to love your neighbor as yourselves? Are you trying to do to others +as you would have them do to you? Do you, for Jesus Christ's sake, +love your enemies? Do you bless them that curse you, do good to them +that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and +persecute you? In this way, again, you may try yourselves, and see +whether you are the sheep of Jesus Christ."—Page 93: "If, in the +great day, you would be placed on the right hand, you must, from +love to Jesus, be kind to one another, and be ready to help any one +as much as you can.... In your daily work, you should try and keep +the Lord before you, and do it as to him, and not to man.... When +any one offends you, you should, from love to Jesus, forgive him and +pray for him."</p> + +<p>Bishop Meade is equally explicit, pp. 131, 132 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. +pp. 33, 34). Senator Dickinson regrets that he was not born in a Slave +State, so congenial is slavery to his soul! But the bishop, if he +believes in his own argument, must be sorrowful that he is not himself a +slave, so easy does he say is the slave's road to heaven!—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grumble or repine at +your condition; for this will not only make your life uneasy, but +will greatly offend Almighty God.</i> Consider that it is not +yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is not the +men that have brought you to it, but <i>it is the will of God, who +hath, by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, he +knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and help +you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty in +it</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> So that any discontent at your not being free or rich or +great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly +Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath made you what +you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of +heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself +aright, and do the business he hath set you about in this world +honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have proved the ruin of +many an unhappy soul, by drawing away the heart and affections from +God, and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments; so that, when +God, who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees +that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore keeps them from us, +it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"You may perhaps fancy, that, if you had riches and freedom, you +could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you can +now. But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your souls +through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the best +of purposes in this world; and he that at last can get to heaven has +performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so rugged and +difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage over most +white people, who have not only the care of their daily labor upon +their hands, but the care of looking forward and providing +necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing and bringing +up their children, and of getting food and raiment for as many of +you as belong to their families, which often puts them to great +difficulties, and distracts their minds so as to break their rest, +and take off their thoughts from the affairs of another world. +Whereas you are quite eased from all these cares, and have nothing +but your daily labor to look after, and, when that is done, take +your needful rest. Neither is it necessary for you to think of +laying up any thing against old age, as white people are obliged to +do; for the laws of the country have provided, that you shall not be +turned off when you are past labor, but shall be maintained, while +you live, by those you belong to, whether you are able to work or +not.<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> <i>And these are great and real advantages, for which, if you +consider things rightly, you cannot but thank Almighty God, who hath +so wisely provided for your well-being here and your eternal +happiness hereafter.</i>"</p> + +<p>God has made some men slaves, in order the better to help them towards +heaven! How admirably has the plan of the All-wise succeeded! The slaves +are a nation of <i>heathen</i> in our very midst, daily and hourly (if we may +believe their religious teachers) descending to everlasting perdition. +From our very souls we are sick of the expression, "the providence of +God," as thus cantingly used! Wherever a great wrong is committed by +<i>man</i>, there the wrong is made part of God's mysterious providence! Are +the poor oppressed,—it is a part of God's providence! Are bloody wars +carried on for man's selfish ends,—they are part of God's providence! +Nothing is too wicked, nothing too infamously mean, for that Being to do +whose essence is love, whose law is just. We denounce the African +slave-trader as a fiend, and, with appropriate religious ceremonies, +hang him by the neck until he is dead, so deep is our detestation of a +pirate; and yet, at the same time, we thank God, that, in his infinite +wisdom, he has devised and executed the plan of negro-slavery, as the +true way of Christianizing and elevating Africa! The slave-owner is said +to have it in his power to shut up the kingdom of heaven against his +slaves, and the power is said to have been exercised; and Mr. Jones +seems to think that the race,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> taken as a whole, are thus shut out. And +yet the slaves are called upon by right reverend bishops to fall on +their knees, and devoutly thank God that he has made them slaves, in +order the better to help them towards heaven! Truly wonderful is it, +that ("Rel. Inst." p. 153) "they are living in manifold and gross sins; +their iniquities are aggravated and great before the Lord, and <i>not the +least of them is their neglect and contempt of the spiritual mercies and +privileges within their reach</i>"!</p> + +<p>We conclude our extracts from Bishop Meade's book with the following +(Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 34, 35):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I +shall now take notice of, and that is correction.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do +not deserve it. But whether you really deserve it or not, it is your +duty, and Almighty God requires that you bear it patiently. You may +perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but, if you consider it +right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you +deserve correction, you cannot but say that it is just and right you +should meet with it. Suppose you do not, or at least you do not +deserve so much, or so severe a correction, for the fault you have +committed, you perhaps have escaped a great many more, and are at +last paid for all. Or suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid +to your charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is +it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was +never discovered, and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would +not let you escape without punishment one time or another? And ought +you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful that +he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness than +destroy your souls for it in the next life? But, suppose even this +was not the case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you have +by no means, known or unknown, deserved the correction you suffered, +there is this great comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, +and leave your cause in the hands of God, he will reward you for it +in heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to +your exceeding great glory hereafter."</p> + +<p>Douglass's aunt Hester disobeyed <i>God's</i> commands, when she paid no heed +to the orders of Capt. Anthony,—God's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> overseer. Accordingly, says +Douglass ("Narrative," p. 7), who was an eye-witness of the transaction, +the latter "took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to +waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked. After +crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a +stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made +her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood +fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full +length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to +her,—'Now, you d——d b——h! I'll learn you how to disobey my orders!' +And, after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy +cowskin; and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-ending shrieks from +her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor."<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a> Poor, +ignorant, degraded aunt Hester! She little thought that <i>God</i> had +ordered her not to visit her companion; and that, instead of shrieking, +she ought rather to be giving glory to Him who was punishing her in this +world, in order to save her soul in the next!</p> + +<p>Bishop Ives thus instructs the slave-children under his charge<a name="FNanchor_L_12" id="FNanchor_L_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_12" class="fnanchor">[L]</a> +("Catechism"):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 27: "Q. You said that at your baptism you were made inheritors +of the kingdom of heaven; but will you get eternal life in heaven, +if you do not strive to go there?—A. No; but I shall be sent down +to hell.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How are you to strive or try to go to heaven?—A. I must have +nothing to do with the devil and his works; which I gave up at my +baptism.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>Q. In what way are you to shun the devil and his works?—A. By +keeping within me no bad thoughts; by speaking no bad words; and by +doing no bad things.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What do you mean by keeping within you no bad thoughts?—A. I +mean that I must not hate anybody, nor wish to hurt anybody, nor +wish to do any wrong.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 30: Q. What do you mean by doing no bad things, such things as +the devil tempts you to do?—A. I mean that I must not hurt anybody; +must not disobey my parents, nor disobey my master, nor disobey God.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. But can you not disobey your parents and your master without +their knowing it?—A. Yes; but God knows it; for God always sees me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What else must you do to get to heaven?—A. I must believe all +that God has told me about the way to get there.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Pp. 35, 36: Q. How are you to show that you love your neighbor as +yourself?—A. I am to show it by always doing my duty to my +neighbor, as God has commanded me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Who is your neighbor?—A. Everybody who lives with me and around +me, and has the control over me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Can you name some persons?—A. My playfellows, my master and +mistress, and my parents....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How are you to show your love to your master and mistress and +your parents?—A. I am never to lie to them, to steal from them, nor +speak bad words about them, but always to do as they bid me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 47: Q. How do others sin against you?—A. By cursing me, +telling lies about me, or striking me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What must you do to those who thus sin against you?—A. I must +forgive them.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What if you do not forgive them?—A. Then God will not forgive +me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Why?—A. Because I pray to him to forgive me, just as I forgive +others.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 48: Q. How are you to forgive others, when they trespass +against you?—A. I am not to hurt them, because they hurt me; but I +must pray for them, and try to do them good.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What if you do to them just as they do to you?—A. Then God will +not forgive my sins, but will punish me.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 43: Q. What do you pray for, when you say in the Lord's prayer, +'Thy will be done'?—A. I pray that my will and everybody's will may +submit to God's will.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>Q. Where does God make his will known to us?—A. In his word and in +his acts.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 44: Q. What are God's acts by which he makes his will known to +us?—A. Every thing that happens to us is God's act.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How are you to submit to God's will as made known in his +acts?—A. When God sends trouble or sickness or death, I am to feel +that God does right."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones thus catechizes the slaves ("Catechism," pp. 129-131):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Q. What command has God given to servants concerning obedience to +their masters?—A. 'Servants, obey in all things your masters +according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in +singleness of heart, fearing God.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What does God mean by masters according to the flesh?—A. Masters +in this world.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What are servants to count their masters worthy of?—A. 'All +honor.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How are they to do the service of their masters?—A. '<i>With good +will</i>, doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How are they to try to please their masters?—A. 'Please them +well in all things, not answering again.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is a servant who is an eye-servant to his earthly master an +eye-servant to his heavenly Master?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is it right in a servant, when commanded to do any thing, to be +sullen and slow, and answer his master again?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. If the servant professes to be a Christian, ought he not to be +<i>as a Christian servant</i>, an example to all other servants of love +and obedience to his master?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. And, should his master be a Christian also, ought he not on that +account specially to love and obey him?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. But suppose the master is hard to please, and threatens and +punishes more than he ought, what is the servant to do?—A. Do his +best to please him.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. When the servant suffers <i>wrongfully</i> at the hands of his master, +and, to please God, takes it patiently, will God reward him for +it?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is it right for the servant to <i>run away</i>, or is it right to +<i>harbor</i> a runaway?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What did the Apostle Paul to Onesimus, who was a runaway? Did he +harbor him, or send him back to his master?—A. He sent him back to +his master with a letter.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>Q. Is it any praise to a servant to be punished for his faults, or +ought he to think hard of it?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Are servants at liberty to tell lies, and deceive their +masters?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Are they at liberty to steal from their masters?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What ought they to show in their whole character and conduct?—A. +'<i>All good fidelity</i>, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our +Saviour in all things.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. If servants will faithfully do their duty and serve God in their +stations as servants, will they be respected of men, and blessed and +honored of God as well as others?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Will servants have to account to God for the manner in which they +serve their masters on earth?—A. Yes."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones thus expounds the tenth commandment ("Catechism," pp. +118-120):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Q. How does God require me to love my neighbor?—A. As myself.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Ought I not therefore to be glad when I see him have and enjoy +every good thing?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. But suppose I am <i>not glad</i>, and desire the very things he has, +and begrudge his having them, what do I?—A. I covet.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is it not my duty to be contented with such things as I have, +without coveting what my neighbor has?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What did the Apostle Paul say he had learned?—A. 'I have +learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Repeat, 'Godliness with contentment.'—A. 'Godliness with +contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, +and it is certain we can carry nothing out; and, having food and +raiment, let us be therewith content.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. From whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift?—A. +From God.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Who is exalted as head above all, and giveth riches and honor and +greatness and strength, and also casteth down and maketh poor whom +he pleaseth?—A. God.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. If I work and am industrious, and walk uprightly with God, will +he suffer me to want any good thing?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Does this commandment forbid <i>the very thought itself</i> of evil +against our neighbor?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>We are to be contented with our own condition and circumstances, as +appointed unto us by our infinitely wise and gracious Father in +heaven."</p> + +<p>Thus discourseth that eminent son of Massachusetts, the Rev. Theodore +Clapp, after seventeen years' experience of the blessedness of slavery +(Sermon, p. 66):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Let all Christian teachers show our servants the importance of +being submissive, obedient, industrious, honest, and faithful to the +interests of their masters. Let their minds be filled with sweet +anticipations of rest eternal beyond the grave. Let them be trained +to direct their views to that fascinating and glorious futurity, +where the sins, sorrows, and troubles of earth will be contemplated +under the aspect of means indispensable to our everlasting progress +in knowledge, virtue, and happiness. I would say to every slave in +the United States, You should realize that a wise, kind, and +merciful Providence has appointed for you your condition in life; +and, all things considered, you could not be more eligibly situated. +The burden of your care, toils, and responsibilities is much lighter +than that which God has imposed on your master. The most enlightened +philanthropists, with unlimited resources, could not place you in a +situation more favorable to your present and everlasting welfare +than that which you now occupy. You have your troubles. So have all. +Remember how evanescent are the pleasures and joys of human life."</p> + +<p><i>Judicious</i> religious instruction, therefore, makes the slaves faithful, +diligent, and honest, and very materially promotes discipline; and it +produces these results much more perfectly than any other motive which +can be used. The cowskin and the paddle are doubtless serviceable; but +that South Carolina planter told the truth who said to Dr. Brisbane +(Brooke's "Slavery," p. 35), that religion was worth more to him with +his slaves than four wagon-loads of cowskins! A judiciously awakened +conscience, an earnest wish on the part of the slave to do what he +believes to be the will of God, in order to escape never-ending torments +in hell, constitute a much more forcible and constant incitement and +restraint than that of fear. When we reflect that "ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> and that the +more ignorant and superstitious they are, the more easily they may be +duped, it is evident that this religious restraint is easily created, +and daily increases in strength. How infinitely more powerful, then, is +such a motive than the fear of bodily suffering! It is equally easy and +vastly more efficacious to ply judicious religious instruction than to +ply the cowskin or the paddle!</p> + +<p>It is evident also, that the religious instruction of slaves increases +their market-value, and greatly promotes the safety of the community. +"Experience teaches us," says the Right Rev. Dr. Gibson, "the great +value of those servants who are truly religious, compared with those who +have no sense of religion" ("Rel. Inst." p. 22). No persons feel this +more sensibly than the slaveholders. "Even <i>men of the world</i>," says the +Presbytery of Georgia, "throw wide the door of access to their negroes." +The fourth of a series of resolutions reported to the Synod of South +Carolina and Georgia in 1833 reads, "We deem religious instruction to +master and servant every way conducive to <i>our interests for this world</i> +and for that which is to come" (ib. p. 74). With the proceedings of a +convention held in Charleston, S.C. in 1845, to consider the subject of +the religious instruction of slaves, were published letters from several +persons, describing the effect actually produced by such instruction. +One person writes, "The deeper the piety of the slave, the more valuable +is he in every sense of the word." Another says, "A regard to +self-interest should lead every planter to give his people religious +instruction." "On such large plantations," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. Inst." +p. 239), "<i>as a mere matter of gain</i>, a religious instructor should be +employed." <i>By religious instruction</i> (ib. p. 208), "<i>the +pecuniary interests of masters will be advanced as a necessary +consequence.</i>"—Page 204: "Is it not conceded, that a truly pious +servant gives less trouble, and is more profitable, than one who is not? +Is there one master in a thousand who does not desire such servants? Is +it not true, that the most pious servants exert the happiest influence +in promoting honesty and good order on plantations and in +communities?"—Page 210: "<i>The</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> <i>religious instruction of the slaves will +contribute to safety.</i> 'The thing that hath been, it is that which may +be;' and although, as a slaveholding country, we are so situated that, +so far as man can see, the hope of success on the part of our laboring +class, in any attempt at revolution, is forlorn; yet no enemy (if there +be an enemy) should be despised, however weak, and no danger unprovided +for, however apparently remote.... It is, then, but a prudent foresight, +a dictate of benevolence and of wisdom, to originate, and set in +operation, means that may act as <i>a check upon, if not a perfect +preventive, of evil</i>. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of <i>sound +religious instruction</i> as a means to the end desired."</p> + +<p>Ib. p. 212: "Besides the general and special influences of the gospel +now adverted to, safety will be connected with <i>the very dispensation of +it</i>.... The presence of white instructors, settled ministers, or +missionaries, in their private as well as public religious assemblies, +and free intercourse with the people and with their influential men and +leaders, exert a restraining influence upon any spirit of +insubordination that may exist, and at the same time give opportunities +for its detection. The negroes are as capable of strong personal +attachments to their religious instructors as are any other people, <i>and +of their own will are inclined to make confidential communications</i>"!</p> + +<p>Such is the quality of the religious instruction imparted to slaves; +such is the way in which their famishing souls are led away to the water +of life! To escape everlasting torments in hell, a slave must submit to +remain in slavery! He must neither murmur nor repine at his lot, but +rather give thanks to God for his loving-kindness and tender mercy in +removing from his path so many temptations to sin! He must obey his +master in all things, and do the work assigned to him faithfully and +diligently, "in singleness of heart, as unto Christ"! He must act +honestly, and never waste any of "the comforts and conveniences of life" +which he procures for his master. No accumulation of injuries or +deprivations can excuse him for running away; but he is bound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> to endure +all his wrongs with cheerfulness and patience, and, leaving his cause in +the hands of God, look to Heaven alone for his reward! Who is there that +does not feel irresistibly impelled, with Bishop Ives, to cease "wailing +over the <i>imaginary</i> suffering" of the slaves, and to unite with him in +"the heart-felt exclamation, 'How happy are the people that are in such +a case! yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God'"? +(Bishop Ives's "Address to the Convention in his Diocese;" Jay's +"Letter," p. 3). Who cannot say to the slaves, with Mr. Glennie (p. 58), +"Your advantages are indeed great: ... oh! make full use of your +privileges, and show that you thank God by serving him"?</p> + +<p>To teach untruths is a greater wrong to a man's soul than merely to keep +him in ignorance. How much more pitifully wicked is it, then, to teach +such untruths only or mainly as must advance the pecuniary interest of +the oppressor!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VI.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.—NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="center">"Marriage unites all which ennobles and beautifies life."—<i>De +Wette.</i></p> + +<p class="center">"Negro marriages are neither recognized nor protected by +law."—<i>Rev. C. C. Jones.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Besides the direct instruction thus imparted to slaves, there is an +indirect instruction much more powerful and effective in securing their +degradation.</p> + +<p>"Marriage," says De Wette, "is genuine only when single and permanent. +It is then also the first and most important institution of human +existence; the foundation of all civilization and culture; the root of +church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed among +mankind; and thousands are first made aware by it that they have within +them a nobler impulse and a nobler want than to labor, to acquire, and +to enjoy. It is the union of manly strength with feminine gentleness; +the tempering of masculine rudeness by female delicacy; and, for +innumerable persons, the only relation in which they feel the true +sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for every human virtue, since +each of these is developed from the love and confidence which here +predominate. It unites all which ennobles and beautifies +life,—sympathy, kindness of will and deed, gratitude, devotion, and +every delicate, intimate feeling. As the only asylum for true education, +it is the first and last sanctuary of human culture. As husband and +wife, through each other, become conscious of complete humanity, of +every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> humane feeling and every humane virtue; so children, at their +first awakening in the fond covenant of love between parents, both of +whom are tenderly concerned for the same object, find an image of +complete humanity, leagued in free love. The spirit of love, which +prevails between them, acts with creative power upon the young mind, and +awakens every germ of goodness within it. This invisible, uncalculated, +and incalculable influence of parental life acts more upon the child +than all the efforts of education by means of instruction, precept, and +exhortation."</p> + +<p>How true and yet how faint a picture of the vast influence for good of +the institution of marriage! But if marriage thus unites all which it +ennobles and beautifies life; if, as a means of education, its influence +is uncalculated and incalculable, what must be the moral degradation of +that people to whom marriage is denied? Must not the degradation also be +uncalculated and incalculable? And yet such is the condition of the +slaves! Not content with depriving them of all the higher and holier +enjoyments of marriage, by degrading and darkening their souls, the +slaveholders deny to their slaves even that slight alleviation to their +misery which would result from their marriage-relations being protected.</p> + +<p>It is obviously true, that (Jones's "Catechism," p. 112) "all the +comfort and happiness of the marriage-state, and all the good flowing +from it, to families and the world at large, depend upon its sacredness +and purity." Without these there can be no marriage. No less true is it, +that the institution ("Rel. Inst." p. 132) "depends, for its perpetuity, +sacredness, and value, <i>largely</i> upon the protection given to it by the +law of the land." <i>But the law gives no protection whatever to the +marriage of slaves!</i></p> + +<p>"Slaves cannot marry," says the Civil Code of Louisiana (Art. 182), +"without the consent of their masters; and their marriages do not +produce any of the civil effects which result from such contract."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"With the consent of their masters, slaves may marry, and their +moral power to agree to such a contract or connection as that of +marriage cannot be doubted; but, whilst in a state of slavery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> it +cannot produce any civil effect, because slaves are deprived of all +civil rights" (6 Martin's Rep. 550.)</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"As the State," says a writer in the "Carolina Baptist," +"constitutionally and legally is ignorant of the marriage of slaves, +it is equally ignorant of its dissolution. <i>It leaves this whole +matter where it ought to be, that is, untouched, and with the owners +themselves.</i> If there be an abuse of this power, the remedy is not +with the State, but social, religious, and ecclesiastical" ("The +Church as it is," p. 77).</p> + +<p>"<i>Negro marriages</i>," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. Inst." pp. 132, 133), "<i>are +neither recognized nor protected by law.</i> The negroes receive no +instruction on the nature, sacredness, and perpetuity of the +institution: at any rate, they are far from being duly impressed with +these things. They are not required to be married in any particular +form, nor by any particular persons. Their ceremonies are performed by +their own watchmen or teachers, by some white minister, or, as it +frequently happens, not at all.... There is no special disgrace nor +punishment visited upon those who criminally violate their marriage +vows,<a name="FNanchor_M_13" id="FNanchor_M_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_13" class="fnanchor">[M]</a> except what may be inflicted by owners, or, if the +parties be members, by the church in the way of suspension and +excommunication."—Page 119: "<i>The relation is liable to disruption in a +variety of forms, for some of which there is no remedy.</i>"—Page 133: +"Families are, and may be, divided for improper conduct on the part of +either husband or wife, <i>or by necessity, as in cases of the death of +owners, division of estates, debt, sale, or removals; for they are +subject to all the changes and vicissitudes of property</i>. Such divisions +are, however, carefully guarded against and prevented, <i>as far as +possible</i>, by owners, on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> score of interest, as well as of religion +and humanity. Hence, as may well be imagined, the marriage-relation +loses much of the sacredness and perpetuity of its character. It is a +contract of convenience, profit, or pleasure, that may be entered into +and dissolved at the will of the parties, and that without heinous sin."</p> + +<p>What a pitiful and wicked mockery it is thus to expound to slaves the +seventh commandment! (Jones's "Catechism," pp. 110, 111):</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Q. Should persons be married in a public or in a private way?—A. +In a public way.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. And by whom should the ceremony be performed?—A. By a minister +or some other lawful person.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is God really present to witness the marriage?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. How near of kin may a man marry?—A. His first cousin.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. After marriage, can husband and wife separate whenever they +please?—A. No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Has any person whatever power to separate them if he pleases?—A. +No.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What saith our Saviour, 'What, therefore, God hath joined'? A. +'What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put +asunder.'</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Can husband and wife ever separate?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. In how many ways?—A. In two only.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What is the first?—A. When either of them commits adultery.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What is the second?—A. When either of them dies.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. After one dies, may the other lawfully marry again?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 112: Q. How will God punish those who break this commandment in +the world to come?—A. In everlasting fire."</p> + +<p>How sacred is the marriage of slaves! They cannot even go through the +<i>form</i>, without the consent of their owners. And if the owner of two +bodies consents to the performance of the ceremony "by a minister or +some other lawful person," and God himself "is really present to witness +the marriage," the law, notwithstanding, declares the so-called marriage +to be as complete a nullity as the union of any other kind of +live-stock! It declares that those whom God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> hath joined may be put +asunder, whenever the owner pleases; as if, wishing to raise money to +pay his debts, he finds it more convenient to sell the wife at auction +to pledging his bank-stock; or if, wishing to remove, he thinks it will +be better economy to take his stock with him than sell out, perhaps at a +sacrifice, and buy again an inferior article! In order to be able to +live with his wife at all, Henry Brown was obliged to hire her of her +owner for fifty dollars a year; and, when her master became short of +funds, he sold the wife and three children, before Brown's very face, to +a Methodist minister,—one of those holy men who are "called of God" and +"solemnly set apart" to preach to all men the gospel of love! So sacred +is the marriage of slaves!</p> + +<p>There is no such thing as a sacred marriage among slaves. Marriage, with +them, at its best estate, is but concubinage. The relation <i>must</i> be +entered into when and as the owner orders! It is changed whenever, in +his good pleasure, he wills that it shall change! It ends when he wills +that it shall end! Wherein is the union among the <i>human</i> stock, on the +Southern plantations, regarded as more sacred and lasting than the union +among the <i>brute</i> stock? In both cases, the law considers the union as a +merely animal relation, for an animal purpose,—the increase, perhaps +the improvement, of the breed! So sacred is the marriage of slaves!</p> + +<p>The following advertisements, and hundreds of similar ones might be +cited, throw light on the subject:—</p> + +<p>From the "Richmond Enquirer," Feb. 20, 1838:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Stop the Runaway!!!</span>—$25 Reward. Ran away from the Eagle Tavern, a +negro fellow, named Nat. <i>He is no doubt attempting to follow his +wife, who was lately sold to a speculator, named Redmond.</i> The above +reward will be paid by Mrs. Lucy M. Downman, of Sussex county, Va."</p> + +<p>From the "Richmond (Va.) Compiler," Sept. 8, 1837:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Ran away from the Subscriber—Ben.</span> He ran off <i>without any known +cause</i>, and <i>I suppose he is aiming to go to his wife, who was +carried from the neighborhood last winter</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John Hunt.</span>"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>From the "Lexington (Ky.) Intelligencer," July 7, 1838:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">$160 Reward.</span>—Ran away from the subscribers, living in this city, +on Saturday, 16th inst. a negro man, named Dick, about 37 years of +age. <i>It is highly probable said boy will make for New Orleans, as +he has a wife living in that city, and he has been heard to say +frequently that he was determined to go to New Orleans.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Drake & Thompson.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Lexington, June 17, 1838."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">$50 Reward.</span>—Ran away from the subscriber, his negro man, +Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne <i>has +purchased his wife and children</i> from H. L. Pinckney, Esq. and has +them now on his plantation at Goosecreek, where, no doubt, the +fellow is frequently <i>lurking</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">T. Davis.</span>"</p> + +<p>The wife has been sold to the speculator in human flesh! The sacred +relation has been for ever sundered by God's overseer! The husband has +been orally taught to say,—"Thou shalt not commit adultery," and to +consider such to be a divine command. But he is strong and healthy, and +his master orders him to live with another woman. What is he to do? If +he obeys, he commits adultery, and disobeys God's commands. Truly a +difficult matter to settle!</p> + +<p>What ardent prayers will the church send up to heaven, that their +brother may have strength given to him to enable him to save his soul +alive! What earnest entreaties! How solemnly will the church remonstrate +with its member against the commission of so great a sin! And, when +prayers, entreaties, remonstrances, have all been tried and have +failed, how sternly will the church proceed to the last +extremity,—excommunication! If the man who marries his deceased wife's +sister must be cut off from "membership in the Saviour's body" as +impure,<a name="FNanchor_N_14" id="FNanchor_N_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_14" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> how much more must that man be cut off who is faithless +during his wife's lifetime?</p> + +<p>How admirably does the Savannah River Baptist Association harmonize the +worship of God and mammon, and reconcile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> obedience to the commands of +the master with obedience to God! This Association, in reply to the +question (Brooke's "Slavery," p. 38),—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character +as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought +to be allowed to marry again,"</p> + +<p>Answer—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"That such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is +civilly a separation by death; and they believe, that, in the sight +of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such +cases would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships +and strong temptation, but to church-censure for acting in obedience +to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a +regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit +of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The +slaves are not free agents; and a dissolution by death is not more +entirely without their consent, and beyond their control, than by +such separation."</p> + +<p>A similar decision was made by the Shiloh Baptist Association in +Virginia. This question was presented for solution ("The Church as it +is," pp. 76, 77),—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her +master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again?"</p> + +<p>The query was referred to a committee, who made the following report; +which, after discussion, was adopted:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this +country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion, that +it is better to permit servants thus circumstanced to take another +husband or wife."</p> + +<p>Convenient truth! A different rule would lessen the productiveness of +the master's stock! Can any man who owns the body of his sister be +expected to acquiesce in a regulation which would deprive his property +of half its value!</p> + +<p>But, suppose the master wishes to sell the female slave for purposes of +licentiousness, or suppose the master is himself impure, is this +agreeable to the order of Divine Providence?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> Does any one say that +either law or public opinion protects the female slave from the +brutality of her master? The great frequency of outrages of this kind is +demonstrated by the tens of thousands of slaves, more or less white, who +are found at the South. It was a Southerner who said, that the best +blood of Virginia flowed in the veins of her slaves!</p> + +<p>From the "Richmond (Va.) Whig:"</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"$100 <span class="smcap">Reward</span> will be given for the apprehension of my negro(?) +Edmund Kenney. <i>He has straight hair, and complexion so nearly +white, that it is believed a stranger would suppose there was no +African blood in him.</i> He was with my boy Dick a short time since in +Norfolk, <i>and offered him for sale</i>, and was apprehended, <i>but +escaped under pretence of being a white man</i>!</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Anderson Bowles.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"January 6, 1836."</p> + + + +<p>From the "Republican Banner and Nashville Whig" of July 14, 1849:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"$200 <span class="smcap">Reward</span>—Ran away from the subscriber, on the 23d of June last, +a bright mulatto woman, named Julia, about 25 years of age. She is +of common size, <i>nearly white</i>, and very likely. She is a good +seamstress, and can read a little. <i>She may attempt to pass for +white</i>,—dresses fine. She took with her Anna, her child, 8 or 9 +years old, and considerably darker than her mother.... She once +belonged to a Mr. Helm, of Columbia, Tennessee.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I will give a reward of $50 for said negro and child, if delivered +to me or confined in any jail in this State, so I can get them; +$100, if caught in any other Slave State, and confined in a jail so +that I can get them; and $200, if caught in any Free State, and put +in any good jail in Kentucky or Tennessee, so I can get them.</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">A. W. Johnson.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Nashville, July 9, 1849."</p> + + + +<p>The following three advertisements are taken from Alabama papers:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Ran away from the Subscriber</span>, working on the plantation of Col. H. +Tinker, a bright mulatto boy, named Alfred. Alfred is about 18 years +old, pretty well grown, <i>has blue eyes, light flaxen hair, skin +disposed to freckle. He will try to pass as free-born.</i></p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">S. G. Stewart.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Green County, Ala."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>"$100 <span class="smcap">Reward</span>.—Ran away from the subscriber, a bright mulatto +man-slave, named Sam. <i>Light sandy hair, blue eyes, ruddy +complexion,—is so white as very easily to pass for a free white +man.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Edwin Peck.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Mobile, April 22, 1837."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Ran away</span>, on the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman, named Fanny. +Said woman is 20 years old; is rather tall; can read and write, and +so forge passes for herself. Carried away with her a pair of +ear-rings,—a Bible with a red cover; is very pious. She prays a +great deal, and was, as supposed, contented and happy. <i>She is as +white as most white women, with straight light hair, and blue eyes, +and can pass herself for a white woman.</i> I will give $500 for her +apprehension and delivery to me. She is very intelligent.</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John Balch.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845."</p> + + + + + +<p>From the "Newbern (N.C.) Spectator:"</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"$50 <span class="smcap">Reward</span> will be given for the apprehension and delivery to me of +the following slaves,—Samuel and Judy, his wife, with their four +children, belonging to the estate of Sacker Dubberly, deceased.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I will give $10 for the apprehension of <i>William Dubberly</i>, a slave +belonging to the estate. William is about 19 years old, <i>quite +white, and would not readily be taken for a slave</i>.</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John J. Lane.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"March 13, 1837."</p> + + + +<p>The next two advertisements we cut from the "New Orleans Picayune" of +Sept. 2, 1846:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"$25 <span class="smcap">Reward</span>.—Ran away from the plantation of Madame Fergus +Duplantier, on or about the 27th of June, 1846, a bright mulatto, +named Ned, very stout built, about 5 feet 11 inches high, <i>speaks +English and French</i>, about 35 years old, waddles in his walk. <i>He +may try to pass himself for a white man, as he is of a very clear +color, and has sandy hair.</i> The above reward will be paid to whoever +will bring him to Madame Duplantier's plantation, Manchac, or lodge +him in some jail where he can be conveniently obtained."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"$200 <span class="smcap">Reward</span>.—Ran away from the subscriber, last November, <i>a white +negro</i> man, about 35 years old, height about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, +<i>blue eyes, has a yellow woolly head, very fair skin</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> (particularly +under his clothes).... Said negro man was raised in Columbia, +S.C. and is well known by the name of Dick Frazier.... He +was lately known to be working on the railroad in Alabama, near +Moore's Turn Out, <i>and passed as a white man</i>, by the name of Jesse +Teams. I will give the above reward for his delivery in any jail, so +that I can get him; and I will give $500 for sufficient proof to +convict, in open court, any man who carried him away.</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">J. D. Allen.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Barnwell Court House, S.C.</p> + + +<p class="blockquot">"P.S. Said man has a good-shaped foot and leg, and his foot is very +small and hollow."</p> + +<p>In the "New Orleans Bee" of June 22, 1831, P. Bahi advertises as a +runaway "<i>Maria, with a clear, white complexion</i>." Ellen Craft is as +white as our own sisters. Wm. W. Brown ("Narrative," p. 34), describing +a gang of slaves who were under his charge, and destined to supply the +New Orleans market, thus speaks of one who attracted the attention of +the passengers and the crew:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It was a <i>beautiful girl</i>, apparently about twenty yeas of age, +<i>perfectly white, with straight, light hair, and blue eyes</i>. But it +was not the whiteness of her skin that created such a sensation +among those who gazed upon her: it was her almost unparalleled +beauty. She had been on the boat but a short time before the +attention of all the passengers, including the ladies, had been +called to her; and the common topic of conversation was about the +beautiful slave-girl."</p> + +<p>A friend, a resident for some time in New Orleans, describes to us a +very beautiful slave he saw there, who had light curling hair, blue +eyes, and almost a blonde complexion. After having been kept as a +mistress by her owner, he finally sold her to pay his debts! No isolated +case is exhibited by Wm. W. Brown when he relates the history of poor +Cynthia!</p> + +<p>Is any sickly sentimentalist shocked at these recitals? Be of stout +heart! Do not Christian bishops, and hundreds of other reverend +fathers,—the messengers of God's everlasting truth to our +souls,—assure us that <i>slavery</i>, "<small>AS IT EXISTS</small>," <i>is right</i>; and that, +consequently, the fundamental maxim of slavery, "the child follows the +condition of the mother," is right also! Why, then, should not the +children<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> of slave-women by white fathers be rightfully slaves? Of what +consequence, then, is the pollution of the soul of the mother, compared +with the fact of her increased value as a commodity? How utterly +insignificant is the fact that a father holds his own children in +slavery, compared with the advantages notoriously derived from such an +improvement in the slave-stock? In sober, literal truth, the brother +owns the body of his sister, and the sister that of her brother,—so +sacred is the marriage-state of slaves! If the father wishes to repair +the wrong he has done, the law forbids his teaching his own child to +read or write! If he is poor, too poor to pay his debts, a creditor may +seize his child in its very cradle, and sell it at auction to pay the +debt! It ought not to be otherwise! Is it not agreeable to the order of +Divine Providence, that a child should be sold to pay his father's +debts? How fitting it is for Mr. Jones and Bishop Freeman to teach such +a vendible commodity to say, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy +mother"!</p> + +<p>Does any reader still doubt whether an owner thus has uncontrolled +authority over the body of his female slave? Let him read the following +extract from an opinion of the Supreme Court of the State of North +Carolina,—the Old North State, whence Bishop Ives has long since ceased +to weep over the "imaginary sufferings" of the slaves! To avoid a +chastisement, a female slave ran off, and, on her refusal to stop when +called, was shot at and wounded. Judge Ruffin, in delivering the opinion +of the court (State <i>vs.</i> Mann, 2 Dev. Rep. 263), says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The inquiry here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery on a +slave by the hirer is indictable?... In criminal proceedings, and, +indeed, in reference to all other persons but the general owner, the +hirer and possessor of a slave, in relation to both rights and +duties, is, for the time being, the owner....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the profit of the +master, his security, and the public peace. The subject is one +doomed in his own person, and in his posterity, to live without +knowledge, and without capacity to make any thing his own, and to +toil that others may reap the fruits.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>"What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a being to +convince him what it is impossible but that the most stupid must +feel and know can never be true, that he is thus to labor upon a +principle of natural duty, or for the sake of his own personal +happiness? Such services can only be expected from one who has no +will of his own, who surrenders his will in explicit obedience to +that of another. <i>Such obedience is the consequence only of +uncontrolled authority over the body.</i> There is nothing else which +can operate to produce the effect. The power of the master must be +absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect. I most +freely confess my sense of the harshness of this proposition. I feel +it as deeply as any man can. And, as a principle of moral right, +every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But, in the actual +condition of things, it must be so. There is no remedy. This +discipline belongs to slavery."<a name="FNanchor_O_15" id="FNanchor_O_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_15" class="fnanchor">[O]</a></p> + +<p>Judge Ruffin had not enjoyed the benefit of the instruction imparted +some years later by Bishops Ives and Freeman. If he had, he would not +thus have followed the dictate of a "desperately wicked" heart, and have +repudiated the discipline of slavery as morally wrong!</p> + +<p>The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, of the Presbyterian Church, himself a +slaveholder, was a delegate to the State Emancipation Convention +recently held in Kentucky. In a speech made by him before the +Convention, he is reported to have said ("Louisville Examiner"), that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The system of slavery denies to a whole class of human beings the +sacredness of marriage and of home, compelling them to live in a +state of concubinage; for, in the eye of the law, <i>no colored +slave-man is the husband of any wife in particular, nor any +slave-woman the wife of any husband in particular; no slave-man is +the father of any children in particular, and no slave-child is the +child of any parent in particular</i>."</p> + +<p>Who will venture even to conceive, much less compute, the deep +degradation caused by the denial of marriage to the slaves?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VII.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">"SOUL-DRIVING."</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"A negro speculator, or a <i>soul-driver</i> as they are generally called +among slaves."—<i>Wm. W. Brown's Narrative</i>, p. 39.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>If we would most effectually degrade a man, we need only trample on the +highest and holiest of all his rights,—his right to himself; we have +only to make him the subject of barter and sale, a thing for speculators +to make money on, for jockeys to deceive about, and for buyers to +depreciate. And yet how few act as if they admitted this truth, or even +faintly realized the enormity of this wrong!</p> + +<p>Slaves, as subjects of property, are continually spoken of and treated +as horses and cows, and other live-stock! Tens of thousands of +advertisements might be adduced to prove this. We have room only for a +very few proofs. The Civil Code of Louisiana provides:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and animals are divided +into two classes,—vices of body and vices of character.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished into absolute and +relative....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are leprosy, madness, and +epilepsy.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Art 2503. The absolute vices of horses and mules are short wind, +glanders, and founder."</p> + +<p>In the "National Intelligencer" of May 2, 1843, the administrators of +Alexius Boarman advertise for sale "twelve or thirteen likely young +negroes, among whom are two carpenters;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> four head of horses, two yoke +of oxen, several head of cows, all the sheep and hogs belonging to said +deceased." The same paper of December 2, 1843, contains the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Public Sale of very valuable Negroes and Stock.</span>—The subscriber +will offer at public sale at his residence, near Bladensburg, Prince +George's County, Maryland, on Wednesday, the 20th of December next, +if fair, if not, the next fair day thereafter, <i>forty-five or fifty +very valuable young negroes, consisting of men and women, boys, +girls, and children</i>.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>At the same time and place, he will offer his entire stock of +blood horses, together with some farm stock.</i></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The terms of sale will be a credit of nine and eighteen months; the +purchaser giving bond with approved security, bearing interest from +the day of sale.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Sale to commence at 10 o'clock, <small>A. M.</small></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Samuel Sprigg.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The Marlborough Gazette will copy till day of sale."</p> + +<p>In the same paper of January 25, 1843, directly under an advertisement +for sale of "<i>a girl</i> about 18 years of age, who is honest, industrious, +and a good cook, fine washer and ironer, and a good seamstress," we find +the notice of a "<i>Blooded colt</i> at auction.—A thorough bred colt, two +years old the coming spring, got by Farmer, dam by Lafayette"! D. H. +Candler, the sheriff of Montgomery County, Md. in an advertisement now +before us, states that he has seized on execution, and will sell "for +cash only" at the Court House door in Rockville, "<i>one stallion, Red +Buck</i>, and <i>one negro boy, John</i>"!<a name="FNanchor_P_16" id="FNanchor_P_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_P_16" class="fnanchor">[P]</a> To bring the case nearer home:—in +the "New England Weekly Journal" of August 27, 1733, printed in +<i>Boston</i>, we find the following advertisement:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Several likely Young Negroes</span>, best Barbadoes sugars, very good +Bohea tea, bag Hollands, fine cambric muslins, and sundry other +merchandise, to be sold by Hugh Hall, Esq."<a name="FNanchor_Q_17" id="FNanchor_Q_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_Q_17" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>In the "Boston Gazette" of October 21, 1734:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">To be Sold by</span> ——, Several likely young negroes, lately +imported,—as men, women, boys. Also choice raisins of the sun, +gunpowder, Newcastle glass, in crates and boxes."</p> + +<p>Not only are slaves thus placed on the same level with other property, +but they are treated in the same manner. As our horse-jockeys not +infrequently color their horses, or put on false tails, for the sake of +enhancing their value, so similar arts are practised by the +slave-jockeys of the South! Wm. W. Brown thus describes a part of his +duties, whilst hired to the slave-trader Walker ("Narrative," pp. 42, +43):</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In the course of eight or nine weeks, Mr. Walker had his cargo of +human flesh made up. There was in this lot a number of old men and +women, some of them with gray locks. We left St. Louis in the +steamboat Carlton, Captain Swan, bound for New Orleans. On our way +down, and before we reached Rodney, the place where we made our +first stop, I had to prepare the old slaves for market. I was +ordered to have the old men's whiskers shaved off, and the gray +hairs plucked out, where they were not too numerous, in which case +he had a preparation of blacking to color it, and with a +blacking-brush we would put it on. This was new business to me, and +was performed in a room where the passengers could not see us. These +slaves were also taught how old they were by Mr. Walker; and, after +going through the blacking process, they looked ten or fifteen years +younger; and I am sure that some of those who purchased slaves of +Mr. Walker were dreadfully cheated, especially in the ages of the +slaves which they bought."—Pp. 45, 46: "The next day we proceeded +to New Orleans, and put the gang in the same negro-pen which we +occupied before. In a short time the planters came flocking to the +pen to purchase slaves. Before the slaves were exhibited for sale, +they were dressed and driven out into the yard. Some were set to +dancing, some to jumping, some to singing, and some to playing +cards. This was done to make them appear cheerful and happy. My +business was to see that they were placed in those situations before +the arrival of the purchasers, and I have often set them to dancing +when their cheeks were wet with tears."</p> + +<p>Can such treatment result in any thing but brutalizing every noble +faculty? If advertisements of stallions and boys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> blood-horses and men +and women, blooded colts and young slave-girls, are considered so very +similar as to be placed in the same paragraph, or alongside each other, +how great a difference can there be in the treatment by the public of +the two kinds of stock? Is the auction-block a scene for cultivating the +affections of a poor slave-girl? Are the coarse and unfeeling jests +there perpetrated calculated to increase her purity, or strengthen her +moral sensibilities? Treat a man as you would have him to be, is a good +maxim. Respect him, and he will respect himself. Continually disregard +his holiest and best purposes, and in time he will do the same.</p> + +<p>What but pecuniary profit does the speculator in horses look to? What +other object has the speculator in men, women, and children, in view? +Whatever mammon bids the slave-trader do, will be done. How much more +than this, or will any thing more than this, be done? Will such a person +consider as of any consequence the broken hearts of husbands and wives, +of parents and children, who are torn by this terrible trade from all +they hold dear in life, so long as their bodies are sound, strong, and +healthy; so long as the investment retains its market-value? Of what +consequence is deep, heart-felt agony to a speculator? Is he whose idol +is gold to be turned from his purpose merely by the foolish wailing of a +woman whose heart-strings are breaking? Do the cries of children made +orphans, and of parents made childless, by his acts, move the heart of +that man who makes his living by buying parents and children, husbands +and wives, at the lowest prices, and by selling them, "singly or in lots +to suit," to whomsoever will give the highest price?</p> + +<p>The following is a well-known extract front an Address (p. 12) published +by the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky to the churches under their care, +in 1835:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are +torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts +are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony +often witnessed on such occasions proclaim, with a trumpet-tongue, +the iniquity of our system. There is not a neighborhood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> where these +heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or +road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, +whose mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from +all that their hearts hold dear."</p> + +<p>In the "New Orleans Bulletin," we find the following "Slavery as it is," +p. 168):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes for Sale.</span>—A negro woman, 24 years of age, and has two +children, one eight, and the other three years. <i>Said negroes will +be sold separately or together, as desired.</i> The woman is a good +seamstress. She will be sold low for cash, or <i>exchanged for +groceries</i>. For terms apply to</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Mayhew, Bliss, & Co.</span><br /> +1, Front Levee."</p> + +<p>A similar advertisement will be found in the "New England Weekly +Journal" (Boston), April 9, 1733; printers, S. Kneeland and T. Green:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">A very likely Negro Woman</span>, that has a child of <i>about six weeks +old, to be sold, either with or without the child</i>. Inquire of the +printers hereof."</p> + +<p>The following was a standing advertisement, a few years since, in the +Charleston (S. C.) papers:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">One hundred and twenty Negroes for Sale.</span>—The subscriber has just +arrived from Petersburg, Virginia, with one hundred and twenty +likely young negroes, of both sexes and every description, which he +offers for sale on the most reasonable terms.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The lot now on hand consists of plough-boys; several likely and +well-qualified house-servants, of both sexes; several women with +children; small girls, suitable for nurses; and <i>several small boys, +without their mothers</i>. Planters and traders are earnestly requested +to give the subscriber a call previously to making purchases +elsewhere, as he is enabled, and will sell as cheap or cheaper than +can be sold by any other person in the trade.</p> +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Benjamin Davis.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Hamburg, S.C. Sept. 28, 1838."</p> + + +<p>This is taken from the "Jackson (Tenn.) Telegraph," Sept. 14, 1838:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Committed to the Jail of Madison County</span>, a negro woman, who calls +her name Fanny, and says she belongs to Wm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> Miller, of Mobile. She +formerly belonged to John Givins, of this county, who now owns +several of her children.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">David Shropshire</span>, Jailer."</p> + +<p>How strong was that poor mother's love! She had toiled all the way from +Mobile to the county where her children lived, and the laws of a +Christian country consigned her to the jail! Perhaps, in her loneliness, +she remembered some oral instruction like this (Jones's "Catechism," pp. +125,126):</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Q. Should mothers and fathers very tenderly love their +children?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. And, as they receive their children from the Lord, is it not +their duty and privilege to present them unto the Lord in his own +appointed ordinance, and to train them up for his church and +service?—A. Yes....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What should they teach them to do every night and morning?—A. +Pray to God.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. What book should parents early make their children acquainted +with, and out of which diligently instruct them?—A. The Holy Bible.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is it the duty of parents to pray with and for their children +continually?—A. Yes.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + +<p class="blockquot">Q. Is it their duty to warn their children of bad company, and keep +them out of it?—A. Yes."</p> + +<p>Poor slave-mother! very tenderly indeed did you love your children. But, +in your agony, you forgot that it was wicked to run away,—even for the +sake of teaching them to pray night and morning! How thankful, then, +ought you to be to God, that, in his great mercy, he was willing to +punish your transgression in this world, instead of the next!</p> + +<p>We never so deeply feel the brutalizing effects of slavery as when we +reflect upon its peculiarly degrading influences upon woman. On some +accounts, we would gladly pass over this point in silence; but so +atrocious a wrong should rest upon the heart of every one.</p> + +<p>It is an established maxim of trade, that the supply eventually equals +the demand. If the trade happens to be in men and women; in one way or +another, men and women<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> will be supplied to meet the demand. There is a +great demand for slaves in the Southern and South-western States, +because slave-labor is very profitable there. "The domestic cannot +compete with the South-western demand for slaves," says a writer in the +leading Democratic paper of Virginia ("Richmond Enquirer," Nov. 13, +1846). The slaves in the South and West do not increase fast enough to +supply the demand. The foreign slave-trade is piracy. The only resource, +therefore, which is left to those States is a domestic slave-trade with +the Northern Slave States; where, to meet the demand, they resort to +breeding slaves! <i>Woman is degraded into a breeder!</i></p> + +<p>Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that +State, Jan. 18, 1832 (see "Richmond Whig"), says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered by steady and +old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right +to its annual profits; the owner of orchards, to their annual +fruits; the owner of <i>brood mares</i>, to their product; and the owner +of <i>female slaves, to their increase</i>. We have not the fine-spun +intelligence nor legal acumen to discover the technical distinctions +drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim of '<i>Partus sequitur ventrem</i>' +is coeval with the existence of the rights of property itself, and +is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and +inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of +the female slave; has her nursed and attended during the period of +her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant offspring. The +value of the property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate +to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth."</p> + +<p>Hon. Thomas M. Randolph, of Virginia, formerly governor of that State, +in his speech before the legislature in 1832, said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in parts of +Virginia, to rear slaves for market.</i> How can an honorable mind, a +patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient +dominion converted into <i>one grand menagerie, where men are to be +reared for market, like oxen for the shambles</i>!"</p> + +<p>President Dew, of William and Mary's College, speaking of the annual +exportation of slaves from Virginia, says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>"A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this +emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the +black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because +it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the +negroes, to <i>encourage breeding</i>, and to cause the greatest number +possible to be raised," &c.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for other States.</i>"</p> + +<p>Henry Clay, in his speech before the Colonization Society in 1829, +says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United +States would slave-labor be generally employed, if the proprietor +were not tempted <i>to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern +market, which keeps it up in his own</i>."</p> + +<p>"It is a melancholy fact," says the same writer in the "Richmond (Va.) +Enquirer," Nov. 13, 1846, "that negroes have become the only <i>reliable +staple</i> of the tobacco-growing sections of Virginia, the only reliable +means of liquidating debts foreign and domestic."</p> + +<p>The following advertisement is taken from the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury" ("Slavery as it is," p. 175):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes for Sale.</span>—A girl, about twenty years of age (raised in +Virginia), and her two female children, one four and the other two +years old; is remarkable strong and healthy, never having had a +day's sickness, with the exception of the small-pox, in her life. +The children are fine and healthy. <i>She is very prolific in her +generating qualities, and affords a rare opportunity to any person +who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for +their own use.</i></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at +the Mercury office."</p> + +<p>Does any reader exclaim there must be some mistake; it is impossible +that such a notice could be inserted in the <i>leading political paper</i> of +South Carolina? Will he feel any more convinced by reading this, taken +from the "<i>Boston</i> Evening Post" of September 10, 1744?—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">To be Sold</span>,—A likely negro wench, about 25 years of age, that can +do all sorts of household work, especially cookery; <i>is very hearty +and strong; has proved her faculty at propagation</i>, and is very +fluent in the English language. Inquire of the printer."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Slavery is said to have existed in a <i>mild</i> form in Massachusetts! And +yet we find in our own history parallels to some of the most brutal +atrocities which can be perpetrated on any human being. So essentially +the same is the character and effect of slavery, wherever it exists! +Does any one, and who does not, feel deep disgust at these recitals? Let +us rather feel disgusted at the system which leads to such atrocities! +Let not our indignation rest upon the story of the wrong, but upon the +wrong itself and its perpetrators.</p> + +<p>Does any one say these are solitary instances of atrocity? Doubtless +such advertisements are rare, but not unique. Others of the same kind, +and still more atrocious, might be adduced. But which constitutes the +greater atrocity,—to use men and women as "stallions" and "brood +mares," or to speak or print the damning deed? If the latter shows +hardened feeling, what does the former prove? If these advertisements +were the only ones of the kind which could be cited, still they tell a +story of brutal outrage, which is happening in this Christian land, +every day, hour, and minute, to tens of thousands of human beings! Other +advertisements, showing the brutality of the examinations to which women +are frequently subjected, might be cited. But for these we must refer +the reader to other anti-slavery documents; for enough of the disgusting +details has been exhibited to establish our position.</p> + +<p>To obtain any thing like an adequate conception of the brutalizing +influence upon the slaves of this trading in their bodies and the bodies +of their children, we must first see to what an extent it is carried. We +shall confine our attention chiefly to those who make a business of the +matter, "to gentlemen dealing in slaves;" leaving almost wholly +unnoticed the vast number of instances of buying and selling slaves +between private individuals, chaffering between neighbors, for their +private ends! Not that this latter kind of slave-trade is any less +degrading in its effects, but only because proofs in relation to the +other are more accessible, and are amply sufficient for our purpose.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VIII.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">"DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE."</span></p> + +<p class="center">"The traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of +justice and humanity."—<i>Treaty of Ghent.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>No description of ours can give any adequate idea of the extent of this +terrible trade. It is as regular a branch of business as any other that +can be named. The city of Washington licenses persons to "traffic in +slaves for profit"! The trade is carried on between Maryland, Virginia, +North and South Carolina, Kentucky,—or the slave-raising States,—and +Alabama, Mississippi, and the other slave-consuming States. Depots, or +private jails, are erected at convenient places.</p> + +<p>In the "American Beacon" (published at Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848, +appear the two following advertisements:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negro Repository.</span>—The undersigned has, at a very considerable +expense, erected, and fitted up in a style of comfort and +convenience, a commodious two-story building on Union-street, second +door east of Church-street, for the safe keeping and accommodation +of negroes, both male and female (the apartments being entirely +separate), which are brought to this market for sale. This building +is admirably adapted to the object proposed, having airy and +pleasant rooms, and every convenience which could be desired, +besides large yards, <i>walled in high</i>, a capacious cistern, &c. +which, whilst they secure the comfort of the negro, likewise +guarantee the most ample security for his safe keeping.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In addition to boarding negroes for sale, the undersigned proposes +keeping on hand from time to time, for sale, such negroes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> as may be +in demand in this market, embracing every description of house and +field-hands, male and female, young and old, that may be called for, +and upon terms entirely accommodating.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Besides the boarding and the selling of negroes, he will also make +exchanges, giving or receiving such boot as the difference in age, +character, qualifications, and appearance may notify.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The highest cash market prices paid for negroes of both sexes at +all times.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. W. Hall.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Negroes.</span>—I will pay the highest cash for likely young +negroes of both sexes, from 10 to 30 years of age. All those that +have such to dispose of would do well to give me a call before +selling. I will also attend to shipping of negroes to any of the +Southern ports, free of charge, when left with me; <i>as I have a +private jail for the safe keeping of servants</i>. For further +information, inquire at my office at Union Hotel, Union-street, or +through the post-office.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">G. W. Apperson.</span>"</p> + +<p>The following is taken from a New Orleans paper:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Slave Depot.</span>—J. Buddy.—Slave-yard and boarding-house, 159, +Gravier-street, second door from Carondelet.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"House-servants and field-hands for sale at all times. Slaves will +be received on board or sold on favorable terms. The building is a +large three-story brick house, and <i>very commodious as a slave +depot</i>. Particular attention will be paid to the health and +cleanliness of all slaves placed in this yard."</p> + +<p>From the "Missouri Republican," St. Louis, July 13, 1849:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Removal.</span>—Blakey & McAfee have removed to No. 93, Olive-street, six +doors west of their old stand. They are prepared at all times to pay +the highest prices for negroes. <i>They have also a good secure yard, +with a strong jail attached</i>, and are prepared to board negroes sent +to this market for sale. Persons having negroes for sale will please +call and see us. Those wishing to purchase can find what they want +at our yard.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Blakey & McAfee</span>,<br /> +No. 93, Olive-street."</p> + +<p>Hon. Horace Mann has described to us the slave-pen in the city of +Washington; and another member of Congress informs us, that the United +States jail in the District of Columbia is frequently used for the +purpose of storing human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> beings for sale! Thus, in the "National +Intelligencer" (Dec. 19, 1844), we find the following notice:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For Sale</span>,—A likely young negro, in the jail of Washington. He is a +most excellent teamster, and well acquainted with the care of +horses. Persons wishing to purchase will apply to Mr. Ball, at the +jail, where the boy may be seen, and further information given."</p> + +<p>The activity of this trade may be inferred from these advertisements, +which constitute but a small portion of what might be produced.</p> + +<p>In the "National Intelligencer," March 28, 1836, three slave-traders in +the District of Columbia advertise for <i>twelve hundred</i> negroes, and a +fourth offers to buy any number! Here is one of the advertisements:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Five Hundred Negroes</span>, including both sexes, from ten to +twenty-five years of age.—Persons having likely servants to dispose +of will find it their interest to give us a call, as we will give +higher prices in cash than any other purchaser who is now or may +hereafter come into the market.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Franklin & Amfield</span>, Alexandria."</p> + +<p>In a later number of the same paper are the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Negroes.</span>—I will give cash and liberal prices for any +number of young and likely negroes, from eight to forty years of +age. Persons having negroes to dispose of will find it to their +advantage to give me a call at my residence, on the corner of +Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue, and opposite Mr. Williams's +private jail.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">William H. Richards.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Negroes.</span>—The subscriber wishes to purchase a number of +negroes for the Louisiana and Mississippi market. Himself or an +agent at all times can be found at his jail, on Seventh-street.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. H. Williams.</span>"</p> + +<p>In a later number, June 24, 1843, Mr. Richards is not so eager:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Negroes.</span>—The subscriber wishes to purchase twenty or +thirty negroes, and will pay the highest market price. Persons +having negroes to sell will find it to their interest to give him a +call before they sell. I can be always found at my residence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All communications +through the post-office will be promptly attended to.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. H. Richards.</span>"</p> + +<p>In a still later number, July 22, 1843, appears this:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash! Cash!</span>—The subscriber wishes to purchase any number of +negroes for the Southern markets. The subscriber will at all times +give the highest market price in cash for likely negroes, mechanics +and house servants included. Himself or agent can at all times be +seen at the corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All +communications will receive prompt attention.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Thomas Williams.</span>"</p> + +<p>The following are samples of some of the advertisements of Maryland +traders. The original of all of these advertisements will be found at +the Anti-Slavery office, Boston. We begin with one of Hope H. Slatter:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—Having returned from New Orleans, I will now pay +the highest cash prices for all likely negroes that are slaves for +life and good titles. All communications will be promptly attended +to.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Hope H. Slatter</span>, Pratt-street.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"N.B. On the 7th day of June, 1844, Jonathan M. Wilson (my former +agent), by mutual consent, withdrew from my employment, and is no +longer my agent.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Hope H. Slatter.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Baltimore, July 29."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Cash for Five Hundred Negroes</span>, at the old establishment of +Slatter's, No. 244, Pratt-street, Baltimore, between Sharp and +Howard-streets, where the highest prices are paid,—which is well +known. <i>We have large accommodations for negroes, and always +buying.</i> <i>Being regular shippers to New Orleans</i>, persons should +bring their property where no commissions are paid, as the owners +lose it. All communications attended to promptly by addressing</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">H. F. Slatter.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—I have removed from my former residence, West +Pratt-street, to my new establishment on Camden-street, immediately +in the rear of the railroad depot, where I am permanently located. +Persons bringing negroes by the cars will find it very convenient, +as it is only a few yards from where the passengers get out. Those +having negroes for sale will find it to their advantage to call and +see me, as I am at all times paying the highest prices in cash.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">J. S. Donovan</span>, Baltimore, Md."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—O. C. & S. Y. Harris, of Upper Marlboro', wish to +purchase any number of negroes, for which they will give the highest +market price in cash. They will be in Port Tobacco once in every +week. Any communications left in their absence with Mr. Lyne +Shackelford will be promptly attended to."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—The highest market prices will be given for +negroes at all times. Persons having negroes for sale will please +call at my office, No. 26, Conway-street, between Charles and +Hanover. Communications promptly attended to.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Also negroes will be received and kept at twenty-five cents per +day.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">B. M. Campbell.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"April 7, 1846."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—Persons wishing to sell their negroes will find it +to their advantage to give me a call before selling elsewhere. <i>I +have all the facilities that the trade will admit of in the New +Orleans and other markets.</i> Such being the case, I can give as much +as any one else, which I am determined to do. Any communication +addressed to me, either in Baltimore or Port Tobacco, will be +attended to immediately.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John G. Campbell</span>,<br/> +Agent for B. M. Campbell.<br /></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Jan. 1, 1847."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Take Notice.</span>—Persons wishing to dispose of their servants would do +well to give me a call before they sell to the traders. By paying a +small commission to an agent, they can get from $75 to $100 more; as +<i>I receive monthly from New Orleans, Savannah, Georgia, and +Charleston, S.C. the full market prices for slaves</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright">"<span class="smcap">Scott's</span> Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place."</p> + +<p>The following is taken from the "Wilmington (Va.) Journal" of Sept. 3, +1847:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—I wish to purchase a large number of negroes, of +both sexes, from the age of 14 to 30, for which I will pay the +highest cash market price. As I intend making a long stay in +Wilmington for that purpose, persons from the country would find it +to their advantage to bring such slave-property to town as they have +to dispose of. Also wanted some good carpenters, blacksmiths, +coopers, and bricklayers.—Apply to me, at the Carolina Hotel.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Ansley Davis</span>, of Petersburg, Va.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Wilmington, May 7, 1847."</p> + +<p>The following is extracted from an advertisement of Lewis A. Collier, a +trader in Richmond, Va.:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—This is to inform my former acquaintances and the public +generally, that I yet continue in the slave-trade, at Richmond, +Virginia, and will at all times buy and give a fair market price for +young negroes. Persons in this State, Maryland, or North Carolina, +wishing to sell lots of negroes, are particularly requested to +forward their wishes to me at this place. Persons wishing to +purchase lots of negroes are requested to give me a call, as I keep +constantly on hand at this place a great many for sale; and have at +this time the use of one hundred young negroes, consisting of boys, +young men, and girls. I will sell at all times at a small advance on +cost, to suit purchasers. <i>I have comfortable rooms, with a jail +attached, for the reception of the negroes</i>; and persons coming to +this place to sell slaves can be accommodated, and every attention +necessary will be given to have them well attended to; and, when it +may be desired, the reception of the company of <i>gentlemen dealing +in slaves</i> will conveniently and attentively be received. My +situation is very healthy, and suitable for the business.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Lewis A. Collier.</span>"</p> + +<p>The "St. Louis Daily Union" of August 26, 1847, contains the +following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">One Hundred Negroes Wanted.</span>—The subscriber wishes to purchase one +hundred negroes, of both sexes, for which I will pay the highest +price, in cash. I can be found at all times at No. 104, +Locust-street, by Gerard's stable.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. Johnson.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted.</span>—For two hundred negroes, the highest prices will +be paid by</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">B. W. Powell</span>, City Hotel, or<br /> +51, Front-street."</p> + +<p>The "Daily Reveille" (St. Louis), of the same date, contains the +following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Wanted</span> to purchase, thirty or forty young negroes, by</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Curle & Goddin</span>, 79, Olive-street."</p> + +<p>The following is taken from the "St. Louis Republican:"</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes Wanted and Boarded.</span>—The highest cash price paid for young +likely negroes, at 104, Locust-street, between Third and Fourth, +adjoining Gerard's stables.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"N.B. Our house will be well secured, and afford the <i>advantages of +a jail surrounded by walls, and a basement cell in it</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">White & Tooly.</span>"</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>The following two are found in the "Evening Mercury" of Jan. 14, 1848, +published in New Orleans:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Slaves Wanted.</span>—Wanted to purchase, slaves of every description, at +the New Orleans depot, No. 156, Common-street, for which liberal +prices will be paid. Slaves will also be sold on commission, and +purchasers are invited to call and see a well-selected lot of slaves +offered at low prices.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Elihu Creswell.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Slaves Wanted.</span>—E. Creswell, No. 163, Gravier-street, will pay the +most liberal price for slaves of all descriptions; and those who +have slaves for sale will do well to give him a call before selling +to others. He will also exchange slaves, sell slaves on commission; +and those who wish to purchase will do well to give him a call +before buying elsewhere, <i>as he keeps on hand a good selection of +slaves</i>, sold under full guarantee, and good reference for titles +given."</p> + +<p>The foregoing advertisements give us some faint idea of the demand for +slaves. Those which follow are of slaves for sale. We cannot commence +more appropriately than with these, taken from the "New Orleans +Picayune:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Slaves for Sale.</span>—Hope H. Slatter, who has retired from the trade, +has sold to me his establishment in Baltimore, and leased for a +number of years his old stand at the corner of Esplanade and +Moreau-streets, at which place <i>I shall keep up a large and general +assortment of slaves for sale, imported direct from Maryland and +Virginia</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Walter L. Campbell</span>,<br/> +Successor to Hope H. Slatter."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes, Negroes.</span>—Just received, and for sale at No. 7, +Moreau-street, Third Municipality, a large and likely lot of +negroes, consisting of field-hands, house-servants, and mechanics. +<i>Will be receiving new lots regularly from Virginia during the +season.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. F. Talbott.</span>"</p> + +<p>The same paper of Oct. 18, 1846, contains the following two:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Slaves for Sale</span>, No. 165, Gravier-street.—The subscriber has +always on hand a number of slaves, consisting of house-servants, +field-hands, and mechanics, which will be sold low, for cash or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +negotiable paper. Persons desirous of purchasing will find it to +their interest to call and examine. The subscriber will also receive +and sell on consignment any negro that may be entrusted to his care.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"He would also respectfully notify persons engaged in the +slave-trade, that he is prepared to board them and their slaves on +the most reasonable terms.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. H. Merritt.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Reference: J. Barelli, C. J. Mansoni."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes for Sale.</span>—We, the subscribers, have for sale, at our +establishment, No. 159, Gravier-street (block in the rear of St. +Charles Exchange), a large lot of valuable slaves, suitable for +plantation, house-servants, &c. &c. Persons desirous of purchasing +will find it to their interest to call and examine.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"We will also receive and sell on consignment any negroes that may +be entrusted to us. We would also respectfully notify owners of +negroes, <i>and persons engaged in the slave-trade</i>, that we are +prepared to board negroes, and furnish traders with rooms, &c.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Our house is roomy, airy, and dry. Terms reasonable.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John Buddy.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Wm. H. Merritt.</span>"</p> + +<p>Mr. Wm. H. Bolton, whose name is appended to the next advertisement, is +from Tennessee:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes for Sale.</span>—I have again returned to this market, with +eighteen or twenty likely negroes. I have located on the corner of +Main and Adams-streets. I have plough-boys, men, women, and girls, +<i>and some very fancy ones</i>. <i>I intend to keep a constant supply +through the season, and will not be undersold by any in market.</i> My +motto is, 'the swift penny; the slow shilling' I never get.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I will also pay the highest cash price for young negroes.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">W. H. Bolton.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"November 21, 1846."</p> + +<p>To what uses these "very fancy" girls are put may be inferred from the +following advertisement,<a name="FNanchor_R_18" id="FNanchor_R_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_R_18" class="fnanchor">[R]</a> taken from the "Norfolk Herald:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—For sale, a colored girl, of very superior qualifications, +who is now in Mr. Hall's jail in Norfolk. She is what speculators +call a fancy girl; a bright mulatto, fine figure, straight, black +hair, and very black eyes; remarkably neat and cleanly in her dress +and person. I venture to say, that there is not a better seamstress, +cutter and fitter of ladies' and children's dresses in Norfolk, or +elsewhere, or a more fanciful netter of bead bags, money-purses, &c.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Any lady or gentleman in Norfolk or Portsmouth, who may wish to +purchase a girl of this description (whom I consider the most +valuable in Virginia), may take her and try her a month or more at +my risk, and, if she does not suit and answer the description here +given, may return her to Mr. Hill.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The cause of offence for which I intend, though reluctantly, to +sell her, is, that she has been recently induced by the persuasions +of some colored persons to make her escape with them to the North, +in which she failed, and is now for sale.—Apply to the subscriber, +in Suffolk, or to James Murdaugh, Esq. or to C. C. Robinson, of +Portsmouth, for further information.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Joseph Holladay.</span>"</p> + +<p>Tennessee can also claim the honor of having such careful traders as Mr. +J. S. Curtis:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">One Hundred "A No. 1" Negroes.</span>—I have on hand one hundred negroes, +men, women, boys, and girls, at my depot, in Gaine's brick building, +immediately back of Howard's Row, between the Gayoso and Herron +House. I have judicious men purchasing in North Carolina, Kentucky, +and Middle Tennessee, and will keep constantly on hand a large +number.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Persons wishing to purchase will do well not to trade, without +first calling to see my stock.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">J. S. Curtis.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Memphis, November 20, 1846."</p> + +<p>The "Spirit of Liberty" contains the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Southern Planters</span>, wishing to purchase negroes, would do well to +give me a call before they make their purchases, as it would be +greatly to their advantage. Negroes purchased and sold on reasonable +commission. Apply at</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Scott's</span> Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place."</p> + +<p>In the "Daily Richmond Enquirer," Sept 1, 1847, we find this:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>"<span class="smcap">Negroes At Auction.</span>—On Monday, the 6th of September (Albemarle +Court day), at Charlottesville, there will be sold at public auction +about sixty valuable negroes, of every description.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"August 31."</p> + +<p>In the same paper, Jan. 25, 1848, we find this:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Twenty Negroes.</span>—Will be sold Friday, 28th inst. at 10 o'clock, +twenty likely young negroes, viz. ten able-bodied men, three boys, +four women, and three girls.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Will be added to the above sale, a negro-man, 40 years of age, who +is a first-rate carpenter by trade, also a rough blacksmith.</p> + +<p class="bqright">"<span class="smcap">Benj. Davis</span>, Auctioneer,<br /> +No. 3, Wall-street."</p> + +<p>The following is taken from the "Alabama Argus," published at Dayton, +Ala.:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For Sale Sixty Negroes.</span>—By order of the Hon. the Orphans' Court of +Marengo County, the undersigned, administrator of the estate of +Moses W. Alexander, deceased, will, on Monday, the 5th of February, +1849, at the plantation of said Moses W. Alexander, deceased, in the +Cane Brake, one mile south of Col. Pickens's mills, offer at public +sale, to the highest bidder, a lot, numbering sixty, of the +likeliest and best negroes ever sold in the South. They are all +family negroes,—not bought up by speculators from every State in +the South, but raised by different men, in families from five to +twenty each. Among this stock of negroes are some able-bodied, +stout, and valuable negro-men, and several likely young boys, from +10 to 18 years of age; also some likely negro-women, girls, and +children. Among the same, A No. 1 cotton-pickers; a good weaver; and +also one negro, who is a very good carpenter and blacksmith.—Terms +of sale, twelve months' credit, with approved security.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">J. M. Alexander</span>, Administrator.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"January 5."</p> + +<p>The following advertisement is before us ("Spirit of Liberty"):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Valuable Slaves at Auction.</span>—I will sell on Saturday, the 14th +inst. in front of the Market-house, one woman and her child. The +woman is about 24 years old; and the child, a girl, about 5 years of +age. The woman accustomed to house-business, also to the farm. The +negroes are very likely, and warranted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> sound. They will be sold on +a credit of sixty days for negotiable paper satisfactorily endorsed.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Charles Phelps</span>, Auctioneer.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Nov. 5."</p> + +<p>The following is taken from a paper published at Opelousas (La.):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Auction Sale.</span>—The undersigned will offer for sale, through the +ministry of a public auctioneer, on her plantation, near Carancro, +in the parish of St. Landry, on Monday the 5th day of February next, +and the following days, one hundred choice slaves, of both sexes and +different ages, among which is a good blacksmith and several other +mechanics. These slaves will be sold separately, and under full and +satisfactory guarantee of titles.—8 ox-carts, 69 work-oxen, 20 +mules, 20 work-horses, 1,500 barrels of corn, 12,500 cypress +pickets.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Conditions of Sale.—The slaves will be sold on a credit of one and +two years from the day of sale; purchasers giving sufficient +security to the satisfaction of the vendor, and the slaves remaining +specially mortgaged until final payment of principal and the +interest which may accrue thereon, at the rate of eight per cent per +annum from time due until final payment. The conditions of the sale +of the movable property will be made known on the day of sale.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Widow Hypolite Cretien.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Opelousas, January 3d, 1849."</p> + +<p>Literally speaking, tens of thousands of such advertisements as these +might be adduced. You can hardly open a Southern paper without finding +several.</p> + +<p>Part of the trade is carried on by water. This part of the trade is +regulated by Act of Congress (Act March 2, 1807, sect. 8-10), and +slavers sail apparently with commendable regularity. The following +notice is taken from the "National Intelligencer" a few years since:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Alexandria and New Orleans Packets.</span>—Brig Tribune, Samuel C. Bush, +master, will sail as above on the 1st January; brig Isaac Franklin, +William Smith, master, on the 15th January; brig Uncas, Nathaniel +Boush, master, on the 1st February. They will continue to leave this +port on the 1st and 15th of each month, throughout the shipping +season. <i>Servants that are intended to be shipped will at any time +be received for safe keeping at twenty-five cents a day.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">John Amfield</span>, Alexandria."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>The two following advertisements are taken from the "American Beacon" of +January 24, 1848, published at Norfolk, Virginia. They are +advertisements of the same person, who, as we have just seen, offers to +"attend to shipping of negroes to any of the Southern ports:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For New Orleans.</span>—Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets. The +fast-sailing packet barque Bachelor, Page, master, will sail for the +above port from the 20th to the 27th inst. For freight, cabin or +steerage passage, for which she has good accommodations, apply to</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">G. W. Apperson.</span>"</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For New Orleans.</span>—Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets will commence +their regular trips to the above port the 20th September, and +continue monthly throughout the season. They consist of the +following vessels, to wit, barque Parthian, Capt. G. W. Allen; +barque Bachelor, Capt. Hiram Horton; barque Phœnix, Capt. +Nathaniel Boush.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The above vessels are all of the first class, and commanded by long +and experienced commanders.—For further information, apply to</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">G. W. Apperson.</span>"</p> + +<p>This Capt. Nath. Boush is probably the same man who figures in Mr. +Amfield's advertisement. But <i>Southern</i> traders by no means have a +monopoly of this coastwise slave-trade. The barque Parthenon, Mellish, +master, cleared from the port of New York, October 10, 1846, for +Richmond, Virginia, <i>avowedly</i> "<i>to load with slaves for the port of New +Orleans</i>."</p> + +<p>How business-like is the following letter from a North Carolina +slave-trader to his consignee in New Orleans! ("A Reproof of the +American Church," p. 22):—</p> + +<p class="bqright">"<span class="smcap">Halifax, N.C.</span> November 16, 1839.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Dear Sir,—I have shipped in the brig Addison, prices as +below:—No. 1, Caroline Ennis, $650; 2, Silvy Holland, $625; 3, +Silvy Booth, $487.50; 4, Maria Pollock, $475; 5, Emeline Pollock, +$475; 6, Delia Averit, $475.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The two girls that cost $650 and $625 were bought before I shipped +my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> but I will not +pay the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no +opposition in market. I will wait until I hear from you before I +buy, and then I can judge what I must pay. Goodwin will send you the +bill of lading for my negroes, as he shipped them with his own. +<i>Write often, as the times are critical, and it depends on the +prices you get to govern me in buying.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright">"Yours, &c.<br /> +<span class="smcap">G. W. Barnes.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Mr. Theophilus Freeman, New Orleans."</p> + +<p>The number of slaves thus bought and sold can never be known with +perfect accuracy. Hon. John G. Palfrey, in his excellent Papers on the +Slave Power (p. 83), estimates the number annually sold from the more +northerly Slave States at not less than <i>forty thousand</i>! We think his +estimate within the truth.</p> + +<p>In the course of a single year, 1835-6, no less than forty thousand +slaves are said to have been sold out of Virginia alone! ("Niles's Reg." +Oct. 8, 1836.) The "New York Journal of Commerce" of Oct. 12, 1835, +contained a letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls "a very good +and sensible man," asserting that <i>twenty thousand</i> slaves had been +driven to the South from Virginia during that year, of which nearly one +fourth was then remaining. But 1835 and 1836 were years of great +speculation. In 1837 the consequent severe pressure in the money market +was attributed by a committee of the citizens of Mobile (Ala.) in part +to over-trading in slaves. Their report states, that purchases by +Alabama of that species of property from other States since 1833 have +amounted to about ten million dollars annually.</p> + +<p>The slaves increase in about the same ratio in all of the Slave States. +If the warmer latitudes of the extreme South are more congenial to them, +and favor their increase more than the climate of Virginia, this effect +is, at least, fully balanced by the great amount and unhealthy character +of much of the labor on the sugar, rice, and cotton plantations, and by +the great extent to which slave-breeding is carried in the more northern +States. The following table exhibits the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> rates of increase of the +slaves, every ten years, from 1790 to 1840:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> + +<tr><td class="btlr" align="center">1790-1800</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">1800-1810</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">1810-1820</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">1820-1830</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">1830-1840</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="btlr" align="center">27</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">33</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">29</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">30</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">28</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bt"> </td><td class="bt"> </td><td class="bt"> </td><td class="bt"> </td><td class="bt"> </td></tr></table> + +<p>Accordingly, for the fifty years ending in 1840, the slaves increased on +an average a little over twenty-eight per cent every ten years. We adopt +this as a fair statement of what should be their decennial natural +increase in all the States; and, by natural increase, we mean increase +from births. The following tables explain themselves:—</p> + + +<p class="center">SLAVE-EXPORTING STATES.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> + +<tr><td class="btlr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="center">Number</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">Slaves</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Slaves</td> + <td class="br" align="center">which ought</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Decrease</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Annual</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr" align="center">Name of State.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1830.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1840.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">to have been</td> + <td class="br" align="center">every ten</td> + <td class="br" align="center">decrease.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">in each State</td> + <td class="br" align="center">years.</td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1840.</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="btlr">Delaware</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">3,292</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">2,605</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">4,214</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">1,619</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">162</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Maryland</td> + <td class="br" align="right">102,294</td> + <td class="br" align="right">89,737</td> + <td class="br" align="right">130,936</td> + <td class="br" align="right">41,199</td> + <td class="br" align="right">4,120</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Dis. of Columbia</td> + <td class="br" align="right">6,119</td> + <td class="br" align="right">4,694</td> + <td class="br" align="right">7,833</td> + <td class="br" align="right">3,139</td> + <td class="br" align="right">313</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Virginia</td> + <td class="br" align="right">469,757</td> + <td class="br" align="right">448,987</td> + <td class="br" align="right">601,289</td> + <td class="br" align="right">152,302</td> + <td class="br" align="right">15,230</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">North Carolina</td> + <td class="br" align="right">235,601</td> + <td class="br" align="right">245,817</td> + <td class="br" align="right">301,569</td> + <td class="br" align="right">55,752</td> + <td class="br" align="right">5,575</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">South Carolina</td> + <td class="br" align="right">315,401</td> + <td class="br" align="right">327,038</td> + <td class="br" align="right">403,713</td> + <td class="br" align="right">76,675</td> + <td class="br" align="right">7,668</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Kentucky</td> + <td class="br" align="right">165,213</td> + <td class="br" align="right">182,258</td> + <td class="br" align="right">211,473</td> + <td class="br" align="right">29,215</td> + <td class="br" align="right">2,922</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Tennessee</td> + <td class="br" align="right">681,904</td> + <td class="br" align="right">829,210</td> + <td class="br" align="right">872,837</td> + <td class="br" align="right">43,627</td> + <td class="br" align="right">4,363</td></tr> +<tr><td class="btlr" align="center">Total</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="right">2130,346</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="right">403,528</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">40,353</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">SLAVE-IMPORTING STATES.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> + +<tr><td class="btlr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="center">Number</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">Slaves</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Slaves</td> + <td class="br" align="center">which ought</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Extra</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Extra</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr" align="center">Name of State.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1830.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1840.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">to have been</td> + <td class="br" align="center">decennial</td> + <td class="br" align="center">annual</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">in each State</td> + <td class="br" align="center">increase.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">increase.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">in 1840.</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="btlr">Georgia</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">217,531</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">280,944</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">278,440</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">2,504</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">250</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Florida</td> + <td class="br" align="right">15,501</td> + <td class="br" align="right">25,717</td> + <td class="br" align="right">19,841</td> + <td class="br" align="right">5,876</td> + <td class="br" align="right">587</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Alabama</td> + <td class="br" align="right">117,549</td> + <td class="br" align="right">253,532</td> + <td class="br" align="right">150,462</td> + <td class="br" align="right">103,070</td> + <td class="br" align="right">10,307</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Mississippi </td> + <td class="br" align="right">65,659</td> + <td class="br" align="right">195,211</td> + <td class="br" align="right">84,043</td> + <td class="br" align="right">111,168</td> + <td class="br" align="right">11,117</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Louisiana</td> + <td class="br" align="right">109,588</td> + <td class="br" align="right">168,452</td> + <td class="br" align="right">140,273</td> + <td class="br" align="right">28,179</td> + <td class="br" align="right">2,818</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Arkansas</td> + <td class="br" align="right">4,576</td> + <td class="br" align="right">19,935</td> + <td class="br" align="right">5,857</td> + <td class="br" align="right">14,078</td> + <td class="br" align="right">1,408</td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr">Missouri</td> + <td class="br" align="right">25,081</td> + <td class="br" align="right">58,240</td> + <td class="br" align="right">32,104</td> + <td class="br" align="right">26,136</td> + <td class="br" align="right">2,614</td></tr> +<tr><td class="btlr" align="center">Total</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="right">291,011</td> + <td class="btr" align="right">29,101</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td></tr></table> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>The census of 1840, therefore, exhibits an annual unnatural decrease of +over forty thousand of the slave-population in the exporting States. But +this census, at least so far as statistics touching slaves and free +colored persons are concerned, is notoriously and grossly incorrect. +Either it or the tables prepared from it in the State Department have +been dishonestly prepared, or very much garbled, apparently with the +intent to prove that slavery was better calculated to secure the health +of the negro race than a state of freedom. What figures will tell in +favor of slavery?—not, what figures will tell the truth?—seems to have +been the principle on which the last census was taken. Such being the +case, we feel confident that the census makes the slaves in the +exporting States decrease as little as possible. In 1830, Virginia had +469,757 slaves. In 1840 she ought to have had this number, and their +natural increase for ten years, 135,532. Instead of this, all the +natural increase is gone, and 20,770 besides! All will see that such a +statement would tell too strongly against slavery to be admitted into a +census got up under such slave-supporting auspices, unless the statement +was really <i>within the truth</i>.</p> + +<p>We believe, therefore, that the census of 1850, if truly taken, will +exhibit a much larger annual unnatural decrease of the slave-population +in the exporting States. This decrease, whatever it may really be, has +not been owing to manumissions. It has not been caused by slaves running +away. For the effects of both these causes, the surplus over 40,000 +would be a liberal allowance. This unnatural decrease must, then, be +caused by the slave-trade, and the migration of planters with their +slaves. The fact is beyond all question, that every year forty thousand +men, women, and children are torn from their homes and friends, and +driven to the South and West. So truly did the Rev. Theodore Clapp speak +(Sermon, p. 46), when he declared, "Slaves possess the inappreciable +benefits which grow out of the endearing ties of friendship, kindred, +sympathy, and the whole class of domestic affections. Parents and +children, husbands and wives (it is true), are sometimes separated by +being involved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> in those calamities which sweep away the possessions and +prosperity of the master. But, take it all in all, they are as free and +undisturbed in the enjoyment of their domestic relations, as the white +inhabitants of the Northern States"! Forty thousand fathers, mothers, +brothers, sisters, and children are every year carried from the places +of their birth, like so many cattle, although the terrible fact is well +known that at least one fourth of them must die in the process of +acclimation!<a name="FNanchor_S_19" id="FNanchor_S_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_S_19" class="fnanchor">[S]</a> So very tender is man of man, when he holds his brother +in slavery, and makes merchandise of his sister! So eager is the +soul-driver to coin his brother's blood into dollars! So ready are those +whom "God has appointed masters" to sacrifice the lives of one fourth of +those committed to their charge, in order greatly to advance the market +value of the survivors!</p> + +<p>We have no data from which to infer the number of planters who go South +with their slaves. But, allowing that five hundred thus remove, and that +on an average they have ten slaves each (proper estimates we believe), +we have left thirty-five thousand as the number of human beings who are +every year sold to the speculators in human flesh!</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Barnes's "lot" of his fellow-creatures averaged in value over +five hundred dollars apiece; and those were times when, from his +account, the market was glutted, and the prices accordingly low. "Young +and likely" negroes are more easily acclimated, and are better able to +work, than others. Consequently, they are the ones most sought after by +judicious traders. We should consider five hundred dollars for a young, +healthy negro, warranted sound, as really a low price. But, if we +suppose the slaves annually exported to be worth less than any of Mr. +Barnes's lot,—considering them as worth only $450 apiece,—we have, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +<i>the sums of money every year invested in the trade in slaves, the very +moderate sum of fifteen millions seven hundred and fifty thousand +dollars</i>! This is <i>exclusive</i> of the cost of all the private jails, of +transportation by sea and land, food, wages of drivers, &c.; which +cannot but very largely increase this sum. This sum, $15,750,000, would, +in less than three years, double the number of miles of railroad which +were in operation in all the Southern States in 1846 (Parker's "Letter +on Slavery," p. 52). It would, in only two years, more than double in +length all the railroads which were then in operation in all the Slave +States, except Maryland. It costs every year five millions more to carry +on the domestic slave-trade than it does to fit out and victual all the +whale-ships of the United States! ("American Almanac, 1843," p. 178.) +Over one fifth of the entire value of the cotton, sugar, rice, and +tobacco raised in the fifteen Slave States in 1839, and over one third +of the value of articles manufactured in the South, was invested in +slaves! Nearly twice as many slaves are carried South and West every +year as there are men in all the Slave States engaged in the learned +professions!—so terribly prominent is this trade in men and women! Who +will venture to conceive, much less express, the deep degradation which +must be caused by a trade of such fearful character and +magnitude;—degradation not only to the immediate sufferers, but to all +those who may be subjected to it?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER IX.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">RUNAWAY SLAVES.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It is contrary also to the will of God for servants either to run +away, or harbor a runaway"—<i>Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to Slaves.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The treatment which runaway slaves receive cannot but greatly degrade +them. Pious as well as worldly masters consider that their slaves have +no more right to run away than their horses or mules. The Christian +slaveholder orally teaches his slaves, that, by taking this step, they +sin in the sight of God; for has not Paul most emphatically condemned +the practice? So careful is he of the souls of those whom God has +committed to his charge!</p> + +<p>We frequently find advertisements similar to this, cut from the +"American Beacon" (Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">$50 Reward.</span>—Stop Ruffin and Wyatt.—These men left my house on +Saturday night, January 15, 1848, <i>without any provocation</i>. They +have uniformly maintained a good character for honesty, industry, +and sobriety,—were obedient and trustworthy servants, and <i>no +severity nor threats had been offered towards them</i>; and I very much +fear they have left for some Northern State.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + + +<p class="blockquot">"These slaves were originally owned in Surry, and <i>possibly</i> may be +in the vicinity of their relatives.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">George N. Hatch.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Gaysville, P.O. Prince George County, Va."</p> + +<p>Good Mr. Bryant Johnson is very much more indignant. In the "Macon +(Georgia) Telegraph," May 28, is the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>"About the first of March last, the negro-man, Ransom, left me +<i>without the least provocation whatever</i>. I will give a reward of +$20 for said negro if taken, dead or alive; and, if killed in any +attempt, an advance of $5 will be paid.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Bryant Johnson.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Crawford County, Georgia."</p> + +<p>In the extremity of his wrath, he cannot think of the least provocation +whatever which he has given his slave. But we confess we are much more +touched by friend Hatch's advertisement. Simple-minded creature! He +evidently speaks more in sorrow and astonishment than in anger. +Doubtless he had uniformly fed, clothed, and housed his servants well, +and had never been severe with or threatened them. How could they desire +to leave him? They have run away without any provocation! So unnatural, +almost impossible, in the eyes of masters, is any spark of manliness in +a slave! They cannot conceive it possible for a manly love of liberty to +provoke a favored negro to run away. Still, however, even favored +servants are continually escaping from their happy state; and, by the +methods adopted to retake them, they are most efficiently taught that +they have no more rights than has a favored hound or a valued horse. +Their manliness is crushed, until at last they really feel themselves to +be little else than items of profit or loss to their owners. The old +slave who, at the point of death, was asked whether he was not sorry to +die, and who replied, "Oh! no: the loss is massa's," had very faithfully +improved the instruction imparted to his class.</p> + +<p>If our horse is stolen from his stable, or our cow strays from her +pasture, we advertise them as "strayed or stolen." If a slave runs away, +his master advertises him, and offers a reward for his capture. If he is +found, the lucky finder deposits him in jail for safe keeping, to await +a favorable opportunity of sending him back to his master,—of course, +like Onesimus, as a brother beloved. The jailer gets his legal fees, the +finder gets his reward, the master gets his slave, and the slave most +generally receives some "moderate correction" from the cowskin or the +paddle. If he will not listen to the teaching of God's messengers to his +soul, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> are continually repeating to him (Jones's "Rel. Inst." 188) +"a servant who knows his master's duty, and will not do it, must be made +to do it," how can he complain of his treatment?</p> + +<p>So anxious are they at the South that every poor African should have a +good, kind master to attend to the wants of his soul, and support him in +old age, that, if a stray negro is taken up running at large without an +apparent owner, and for any cause he cannot legally prove his freedom, +even though he does really own himself, he is nevertheless advertised, +and sold at auction to the highest bidder, to pay the expenses +occasioned by his own capture and detention. How happy must be the +people that are in such a case! Yea, blessed is his condition whose body +is fed and whipped, whose soul is saved and darkened, by his brother +man!</p> + +<p>The "Revised Statutes" of <span class="smcap">North Carolina</span>, chap. 111, sec. 11, provides +that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any negro who shall be taken up as a runaway, and brought before +any justice of the peace, will not declare the name of his or her +owner, such justice shall in such case, and he is hereby required, +by a warrant under his hand, to commit the said negro-slave to the +jail of the county wherein he or she shall be taken up; and the +sheriff or undersheriff of the county into whose custody the said +runaway shall be committed, shall forthwith cause notice in writing +of such commitment to be set up on the Court-house door of the said +county, and there continued during the space of two months; in which +notice a full description of the said runaway and his clothing shall +be particularly set down."—When the owner is supposed to be a +resident in another State, the jailer is obliged by sec. 15, "by the +first opportunity after such commitment, to send a description of +such negro or runaway, together with the account of the time of +commitment, and the county where such runaway is committed, to the +press, to be advertised in the State Gazette."—Sec. 16 provides, +that, "whenever any negro-slave shall be taken up in this State as a +runaway, and confined in any jail for the space of twelve months, +and the apprehension and confinement of said slave have been +advertised in the State Gazette at least six months, and the owner +does not apply to prove property in said time, then it shall be +lawful for the court of pleas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> and quarter sessions of the county in +which said runaway is confined, to command their sheriff to expose +said negro-slave to public sale for ready money, giving three +months' notice in some public newspaper in this State, at the +Court-house door, and at two other public places in the said county, +of the time and place of sale, and of the circumstances under which +the said slave is to be sold."—Sect. 17 gives the sheriff "two and +a half per centum on the amount of sale."—Sect. 18 declares that +"the bill of sale of the sheriff shall vest in the purchaser an +absolute right to the said slave." The residue of the amount of +sales, after deducting commissions and prison charges, is directed +to be paid to the county trustee for the use of the county.</p> + +<p>Similar laws, authorizing the sale into slavery of negroes taken up as +runaway slaves, who cannot from any cause prove their freedom, are found +in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, +Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. A similar law +has always existed in the District of Columbia, originally enacted, and +since supported, by Northern freemen. <i>Our</i> law, however, differs from +the others in offering to the marshal a high bribe to induce him to sell +<i>free</i> negroes, by providing that the <i>proceeds of the persons sold may +remain in his own pocket</i>, unless after the sale the master shall be +discovered, and shall claim the balance.</p> + +<p>Throughout all the Slave States, the law presumes every free negro to be +a slave, until he can legally prove his freedom. Consequently, every +<i>free</i> negro, out of his own neighborhood, is presumed to be, and +treated as, a runaway slave, until he can establish his freedom. Under +laws of this kind, many free negroes are taken; and, if from want of +money or friends, or distance from home, or any other cause, they cannot +prove their freedom, as no owner can come forward and "claim property +and pay charges," they must necessarily be sold into slavery for life!</p> + +<p>Very recently, in the columns of the "Washington Union," appeared the +following notices:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on +the 5th July, 1846, as a runaway, a negro-man, who calls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> himself +John Crew. He is black, about 5 feet 6½ inches high, and about 43 +years of age. <i>He says he is free</i>, and was born in Hanover County, +Virginia, <i>and was set free</i> by Mrs. Allen, formerly Mrs. Watson, of +said county; and that he lived with Jude & Muir, in Richmond, +Virginia; and that he obtained his free papers in Richmond in 1823, +when a Mr. Henning was clerk of the court. He has had right leg +broken, which has left a large scar on it. He has a scar on the +right side of his neck, which he says he has received since he left +Richmond.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The owner or owners of the above-described negro-man are hereby +required to come forward, prove him, and take him away, <i>or he will +be sold for his prison and other expenses, as the law directs</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Robt. Ball</span>, Jailer for<br /> + <span class="smcap">A. Hunter</span>, Marshal.</p> +<p class="blockquot">"Aug. 15."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on +the 23d of July, 1847, as a runaway, a negro-woman, who calls +herself Ann E. Hodges. She is nearly black, about 5 feet 5¼ +inches high, and about 22 years of age. Had on, when committed, a +slate-colored Merino dress and a brown calico sun-bonnet. <i>She says +she is free</i>, and served her time out with a Mr. Benjamin Daltry, of +Southampton, Va.; and that Messrs. Griffin & Bishop, of the same +place, know her to be free. She has two scars on the left leg, near +the knee, from the bite of a dog, one on her left wrist, and one on +the point of her breast-bone, occasioned by a burn.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The owner or owners of the above-described negro-woman are hereby +required to come forward, prove her, and take her away, <i>or she will +be sold for her prison and other expenses, as the law directs.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Robt. Ball</span>, Jailer, for<br /> +<span class="smcap">A. Hunter</span>, Marshal.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Aug. 23."</p> + +<p>Here is another instance, which happened several years since:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District +of Columbia, as a runaway, a negro-woman, by the name of Polly +Leiper, and her infant child, William.... <i>Says she was set free</i> by +John Campbell, of Richmond, Va. in 1818 or 1819. The owner of the +above-described woman and child, <i>if any</i>, are requested to come and +prove them, and take them away, or they will be <i>sold for their jail +fees and other expenses, as the law directs</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Tench Ringgold</span>, Marshal.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"May 29, 1827."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>Many other similar ones might be cited from papers published in the +District. The following is taken from the "Mobile (Ala.) Register" of +July 21, 1837:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Will be Sold Cheap for Cash</span>, in front of the Court-house of Mobile +County, on the 22d day of July next, one mulatto-man, named Henry +Hale, <i>who says he is free</i>. His owner or owners, if any, having +failed to demand him, he is to be sold according to the statute in +such case made and provided, <i>to pay jail fees</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">William Magee</span>, Shff. M.C."</p> + +<p>Here are two from the "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register." The first is the +notice of the committal of a negro. The second is the advertisement for +his sale:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Sheriff's Sale.</span>—Committed to the jail of Warren County, as a +runaway, on the 23d inst. a negro-man, who calls himself John J. +Robinson; says that he is free; says that he kept a baker's shop in +Columbus, Miss. and that he peddled through the Chickasaw nation to +Pontotoc, and came to Memphis, where he sold his horse, took water, +and came to this place. The owner of said boy is requested to come +forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will +be dealt with as the law directs.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Wm. Everett</span>, Jailer.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Dec. 24, 1835."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Notice is hereby given, that the above-described boy, who calls +himself John J. Robinson, having been confined in the jail of Warren +County as a runaway for six months, and having been regularly +advertised during this period, <i>I shall proceed to sell said +negro-boy at public auction to the highest bidder for cash</i>, at the +door of the Court-house in Vicksburg, on Monday, 1st of August, +1836, <i>in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">E. W. Morris</span>, Sheriff.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Vicksburg, July 2, 1836."</p> + +<p>Slavery, as it exists, is not wrong, according to Bishops +Ives and Freeman; and yet, in the diocese of the former, in +the "Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer," June 27, 1838, this +advertisement appears:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Taken and committed to Jail</span>, a negro-girl, named Nancy, +who is <i>supposed</i> to belong to Spencer P. Wright, of the State of +Georgia. She is about 30 years of age, and is a <i>lunatic</i>. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, +and take her away, or <i>she will be sold to pay her jail fees</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Frederick Home</span>, Jailer."</p> + +<p>And suppose this supposition is incorrect, and that this poor woman does +not belong to Mr. Wright, but on the contrary that she is free, how then +will stand the case? A poor free woman, a lunatic, one who accordingly +cannot by any possibility prove her freedom, being arrested as a +runaway, may be sold as a slave for life, in virtue of the laws of the +Christian State of North Carolina! And no one is entitled to pronounce +such act to be wrong, unless he can produce a new revelation from +Heaven! If a slave has performed a great service to the State or his +master, as a reward he is set free; and, if the freeman, availing +himself of his privileges, goes out of his own neighborhood, the law, +with the sanction of right reverend fathers in God, consigns him to the +auction block!</p> + +<p>But the runaway slave is not always to be taken easily. Strenuous +liberty is often preferred to slavish ease. To meet such cases, ample +provision is made, no less degrading to the slave.</p> + +<p>If any one here at the North should advertise that he was ready to +pursue, with dogs trained for the purpose, runaway apprentices, or +prisoners who had escaped from jail, we should all shudder at the +cold-bloodedness of the proposition. Have we not, in the Old Bay State, +just solemnly enacted that not even the most hardened convicts in our +State Prison shall be whipped? How, then, can we so far forget our +common manhood as to pursue our brother with bloodhounds? The slave, +unlike the prisoner, has committed no crime. Unlike the apprentice, he +has never consented, either by himself or his parents, to be a slave. He +is held in slavery against his will, and not as the punishment for any +crime; and yet, if he ventures to take his freedom, to assert the +highest and holiest of all his rights, he is liable to be hunted with +dogs and maimed with shot! In this so-called Christian country, which is +spending its millions in regenerating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> the heathen, whole communities +exist which tolerate such a fiendish occupation as a slave-hunter! +Communities do we say? Has not the nation elevated to its highest post +of honor the individual who first suggested to our government the idea +of importing bloodhounds from Cuba, with which to track the Seminole +Indians, and the fugitive slaves whom they protected, and with whom they +had intermarried? How proudly did the star-spangled banner wave its +folds over the gallant men and hounds that pursued and finally conquered +the panting fugitives!</p> + +<p>In the "Madison Journal," published at Richmond, La. Nov. 26, 1847, +appears the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Notice.</span>—The subscriber, living on Carroway Lake, on Hoe's Bayou, +in Carroll Parish, sixteen miles on the road leading from Bayou +Mason to Lake Providence, <i>is ready with a pack of dogs to hunt +runaway negroes at any time</i>. These dogs are well trained, and are +known throughout the parish. Letters addressed to me at Providence +will secure immediate attention.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"My terms are $5 per day for hunting the trails, whether the negro +is caught or not. Where a twelve hours' trail is shown, and the +negro not taken, no charge is made. For taking a negro, $25, and no +charge made for hunting.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">James W. Hall.</span>"</p> + +<p>In the "Sumpter County Whig" (Alabama) of Nov. 6, 1845, the following is +found:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negro Dogs.</span>—The undersigned, having bought the entire pack of +negro dogs (of the Hay & Allen stock), <i>he now proposes to catch +runaway negroes</i>. His charges will be $3 a day for hunting, and $15 +for catching a runaway. He resides three and one half miles north of +Livingston, near the lower Jones' Bluff road.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">William Gambrel.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Nov. 6, 1845."</p> + +<p>William W. Brown was hunted by Major Benjamin O'Fallon, who kept for his +professional purposes five or six bloodhounds ("Narrative," p. 22). Last +year, 1848, Mr. J. Ervin, a native of Fairfield District, South +Carolina, a slave-hunter by profession, was murdered by some runaway +slaves. Owners sometimes vary the monotony of a plantation life by a +private hunt on their own account. But, unless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> they have considerable +practice, they make a bungling piece of work of it. The true object, +both of dogs and men, is the capture of the negro, not his death. Gen. +Taylor did not wish to "worry" the Seminoles. We might cite many notices +like the following, cut from the "Raleigh (N.C.) Register," Aug. 20, +1838:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"On Saturday night, Mr. George Holmes, of this county, and some of +his friends were in pursuit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr. +Holmes), and fell in with him in attempting to make his escape. Mr. +H. discharged a gun at his legs, for the purpose of disabling him; +but, unfortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot struck him near +the small of the back, of which wound he died in a short time. The +slave continued to run some distance after he was shot, until +overtaken by one of the party. We are satisfied from all that we can +learn, that Mr. H. had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound."</p> + +<p>The hunter, in the following instance, was more skilful or lucky. The +advertisement is found in the "Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser," +Jan. 25, 1848:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">$50 Reward.</span>—Ran away from the subscribers, on Sunday, the 8th +instant, a negro-man, named George. The said slave is about 21 years +of age, black, about 5 feet 6 inches high, weighs about 150 pounds, +has good teeth, and a round and likely face. He was purchased at R. +H. Dickinson & Bro.'s auction-room, on the 22d of March, last, from +Messrs. Millner & Keen, of Pittsylvania Court-house. He was +purchased by them (M. & K.) in Rickingham, N.C.; and he will in all +probability make for that place, as he ran off last April, and was +taken upon his way there, at Amelia Court-house. <i>The person that +took him on that occasion shot him with small shot on the legs, and +the shot-marks are very perceptible on the hind part or the calves +of his legs.</i> We will give $50 for the apprehension and delivery of +said boy to R. H. Dickinson & Bro. in Richmond, Va. if taken up +after this date; and, if taken up previous to this date, we will pay +$25 for his delivery here, and the expense of bringing him to this +place from where he may be taken up.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Kelly, Hundley, & Co.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Richmond, Aug. 27, 1847."</p> + +<p>The Rev. Mr. Jones would probably instruct "George," that he was shot +because he disobeyed God's commands in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> running away, and especially +because he "robbed God of his own" in breaking the Sabbath! But how +judicious was the man who took him up on that occasion! He only shot him +with small shot in the legs!</p> + +<p>In the "Macon (Ga.) Telegraph," Nov. 27, 1838, we find the following +account of a runaway's den, and of the good luck of a "Mr. Adams," in +running down one of them "with his excellent dogs:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday, near the Washington +Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several +months so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected only +by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near the +road and fields where there has been constant daily passing. The +entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing a +hog-bed, which being removed, discovered a trap-door and steps that +led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with plank, +containing a small fireplace, the flue of which was ingeniously +conducted above ground and concealed by the straw. The inmates took +the alarm, and made their escape; <i>but Mr. Adams and his excellent +dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down and secured one of +them</i>, which proved to be a negro-fellow who had been out about a +year. He stated that the other occupant was a woman, who had been a +runaway a still longer time. In the den was found a quantity of +meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c. and various cooking utensils and +wearing apparel."</p> + +<p>The Lord of the sabbath seems to favor the masters; for Mr. Adams's hunt +occurred on Sunday! Many other instances might be given. We adduce only +this. The "St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle" of Feb. 1, 1839, gives the +following account of a "negro-hunt" in that parish:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Two or three days since, a gentleman of this parish, in hunting +runaway negroes, came upon a camp of them in the swamp on Cat +Island. He succeeded in arresting two of them; but the third made +fight, and, upon being shot in the shoulder, fled to a sluice, where +the dogs succeeded in drowning him before assistance could arrive."</p> + +<p>Does any one say these atrocities must be confined to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> extreme +South, and that law or public opinion in North Carolina would forbid +them? How far otherwise is the fact! The "Revised Statutes" of North +Carolina, chap. 111, sec. 22, provide as follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Whereas, many times slaves run away and lie out, hid and lurking in +swamps, woods, and other obscure places, killing cattle and hogs, +and committing other injuries to the inhabitants of this State; in +all such cases, upon intelligence of any slave or slaves lying out +as aforesaid, any two justices of the peace for the county wherein +such slave or slaves is or are supposed to lurk or do mischief, +shall, and they are hereby empowered and required to issue +proclamation against such slave or slaves (reciting his or their +names, and the name or names of the owner or owners, if known), +thereby requiring him or them, and every of them, forthwith to +surrender him or themselves; and also to empower and require the +sheriff of the said county to take such power with him as he shall +think fit and necessary for going in search and pursuit of, and +effectually apprehending, such outlying slave or slaves; which +proclamation shall be published at the door of the Court-house, and +at such other places as said justices shall direct.<a name="FNanchor_T_20" id="FNanchor_T_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_T_20" class="fnanchor">[T]</a> And if any +slave or slaves against whom proclamation hath been thus issued stay +out, and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any +person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or +slaves by such ways and means as he shall think fit, without +accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same."</p> + +<p>This is truly a Christian law! A written proclamation to men, of whom +not one in ten thousand can read a letter of it!—and yet, after +publication of it at the door of the Court-house, and at such other +places (if any) as the justices may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> direct, if the slaves do not +immediatelyy return, it is lawful for any person to kill and destroy +them "by such ways or means as he shall think fit." And may not +bloodhounds be the most expeditious and fit?</p> + +<p>Is this law a dead letter? Only fifteen days before Bishop Freeman's +sermon was delivered, and Bishop Ives enjoyed "most unfeigned pleasure" +at the thought that slavery existed as it did in North Carolina, the +following proclamation and advertisement appeared in the "Newbern (N.C.) +Spectator:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">State of North Carolina, Lenoir County.</span>—Whereas complaint hath +been this day made to us, two of the justices of the peace for the +said county, by William D. Cobb, of Jones county, that two +negro-slaves belonging to him, named Ben (commonly known by the name +of Ben Fox) and Rigdon, have absented themselves from their said +master's service, and are lurking about in the counties of Lenoir +and Jones, committing acts of felony; these are, in the name of the +State, to command the said slaves forthwith to surrender themselves, +and turn home to their said master. And we do hereby also require +the sheriff of said county of Lenoir to make diligent search and +pursuit after the above-mentioned slaves.... And we do hereby, by +virtue of an Act of Assembly of this State concerning servants and +slaves, intimate and declare, if the said slaves do not surrender +themselves and return home to their master immediately after the +publication of these presents, that any person may kill or destroy +said slaves by such means as he or they think fit, without +accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, or +without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Given under our hands and seals, this 12th of November, 1838.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">B. Coleman</span>, J.P. [Seal.]<br /> +<span class="smcap">Jas. Jones</span>, J.P. [Seal.]</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">$200 Reward.</span>—Ran away from the subscriber, about three years ago, +a certain negro-man, named Ben, commonly known by the name of Ben +Fox, also one other negro, by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on +the 8th of this month.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I will give the reward of $100 for each of the above negroes, to be +delivered to me, or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones County, +<i>or for the killing of them, so that I can see them</i>.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">W. D. Cobb.</span></p> +<p class="blockquot">"Nov. 12, 1838."</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>In what has preceded, we have endeavored to give a faint but true +picture of slaveholding as it most generally exists. Though we have +purposely left unmentioned many wrongs, we have abundantly supported our +conclusion. If, as we have seen, every slave, as a man, has a natural, +God-given right to be left free to seek after wisdom, to strive to +become pure in heart, to cherish his affections, it is a great wrong +deliberately and carefully to close against him all the avenues to +knowledge, to refuse him even the rudiments imparted to the child that +clings to our knees, to refuse him all moral and religious instruction, +or give him such only as is calculated to make him contented with his +lot, and more profitable to his oppressors. It is a great wrong—who can +conceive a greater?—to deny to a whole race the sacredness of marriage, +the blessings of home, the joys of brother and sister, of father and +mother, and all the refining, ennobling influences of these relations. +It is a great wrong, none can conceive a greater, than to trade in the +bodies of men, to higgle in the market-place about the price of our +brother, to traffic in our sister's flesh and bones as merchandise. +Slaveholding, as it most generally exists, darkens the mind, deadens the +soul, and brutalizes the affections, of its victims. It is carefully +planned and deliberately executed murder of the soul. No human heart +exists, unwarped by self-interest, that does not respond to the poor +slave's call for help. We need no new revelation from Heaven, we need no +book to tell us, that it would be wrong for any one to darken <i>our</i> +minds, to deaden <i>our</i> souls, to brutalize <i>our</i> affections. No more do +we need, a new revelation from Heaven to convince us, that all men are +brethren; that the slave who toils on the Louisiana plantation is no +less our neighbor than the friend whom we have known and loved from +boyhood; and that we should love the slaves as ourselves, not with that +barren love which consists in saving their souls by imparting to them a +still more barren creed, but that love which never wearies, and which +sacrifices its own for another's good.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER X.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No seeming of logic can ever convince the American people, +that thousands of our slaveholding brethren are not excellent, +humane, and even Christian men, fearing God, and keeping his +commandments."—<i>Rev. Dr. Joel Parker.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>It remains for us to consider the special cases in which slaveholding is +thought by many to be right. All slaveholders are not actors in the +cruel system which we have just described. There are in the Southern +States, we are ready to believe, thousands who disregard the laws, who +treat their slaves as humanely as is possible, who cultivate to a +considerable extent their mental and moral faculties, and who would +unite with us in condemning the barbarities we have been considering.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Dr. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, S.C. thus describes the +condition of his slaves ("Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural +Institution," &c. p. 222; 1845):</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In a familiar correspondence like this, I may be pardoned for +saying, that, during twelve years, I have devoted the salary given +me, whenever at my disposal, to the spiritual instruction of the +slaves, and am now doing so. With reference to my own servants, +their condition is as good as I can make it. They are placed under a +contract, which no instrument in writing could make more sacred. By +this contract, they, on their part, perform not one half the work +done by free laborers; and I, on my part, am bound to employ a +missionary to teach and catechize them and their children; to +provide them a home and clothes and provisions and fuel, and land to +plant for themselves; to pay all medical bills;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> to guaranty to them +all the profits of their skill and labor in their own time; to +protect them as a guardian, and to administer to the wants of their +children, and of those that are sick and infirm and aged. Such is +their state; nor have I any idea that they would consent to be +removed."</p> + +<p>This picture may be deepened as we please. Dr. Fuller, and every +slaveholder who is like him, may clothe, feed, and house his slaves as +he does himself; he may watch over their mental and moral condition with +as much real solicitude as he does that of a child; he may love them +almost with a father's love; and yet, notwithstanding all alleviations, +it is wrong for him to hold slaves. Slaveholding is always wrong.</p> + +<p>It should be constantly borne in mind, that no man can be obliged either +to become or continue a slaveholder. No man can make me a slaveholder or +a landholder without or against my consent. Indeed, no gift to me of +slaves or land is perfect, until I have accepted it. No man need accept +an inheritance of slaves, or be a slaveholder any longer than he pleases +to be. Where the law of his State permits, he may emancipate his slaves. +If manumission is actually or virtually forbidden, he may take his +slaves into a Free State; and, by such act alone, they become freemen. +With full power, therefore, at any moment to dissolve the relation, Dr. +Fuller voluntarily continues to hold slaves. All slaveholding is +unnecessary, and none is involuntary on the part of the owner.</p> + +<p>It should also be borne in mind, that a slave, under all circumstances, +whether he be caressed or scourged, loved or hated, overworked or +underworked, instructed or debased, is the property of his master, and, +as such, is subject to all the legal incidents of property. Dr. Fuller's +slaves are as much Dr. Fuller's property as his horse, his watch, the +coat on his back, or the books on the shelves of his library; and, as +property, their happy, elevated condition necessarily depends upon the +accidents of Dr. Fuller's life, health, and wealth. When these fail, +their condition will unquestionably be either very materially affected +for the worse, or altogether changed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>And, first, if his wealth should fail from unforeseen calamities; so +that from affluence, it may be, he should be reduced to real want, and +be unable to pay the just claims of his creditors; the latter may +satisfy their claims by a sale of his slaves. Nothing but payment of the +debts could prevent such a catastrophe. Equally with his horses and +theological library,<a name="FNanchor_U_21" id="FNanchor_U_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_U_21" class="fnanchor">[U]</a> his slaves would legally constitute a fund out +of which his creditors might satisfy their claims. Husband and wife, +parent and child, the prattling infant and the old man of seventy +winters, might legally be placed upon the auction-block, and sold to the +highest bidder, singly or in lots to suit, as might seem most calculated +to advance the interest of the creditors. Dr. Fuller's prayers and tears +would avail nothing. His kind and humane treatment, continued through so +many years, would then increase the market-value of his slaves; and that +is all. Nothing that he could do would be able to save them from the +auction-block. And what, under such circumstances, would become of their +mental, moral, or even their physical condition? There would not be one +chance in a thousand that all their new masters would be like Dr. +Fuller, or that they would escape the lot of most other slaves,—a state +of hopeless degradation!</p> + +<p>Does any one say, that, though the law would favor such a sale by +creditors, public opinion would not tolerate it? We will not stop to +consider how far the law may be regarded as an index of public opinion. +We simply ask, If Christian churches may sell slaves at auction, what +may not private individuals do consistently with public opinion? We have +already given the advertisement for sale by Thomas N. Gadsden, a +brother, we believe, of Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina ("Slavery as +it is," p. 174), of a prime gang of negroes belonging to the Independent +Church in Christ Church Parish; and we will adduce only one other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +similar instance. Few, if any, theological bodies at the South seem to +have devoted more time, attention, and money to elevating the moral +character of the slaves than the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia; +and yet the Board of Directors of its Theological Seminary do not +scruple to invest the funds of the institution in slaves, or to sell +them by auction in order to obtain repayment of a loan. The "Savannah +(Ga.) Republican" of March 3, 1845, contains an advertisement, of which +the following is an extract:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Will be Sold</span>, on the first Tuesday in March, in front of the +Court-house, in the city of Darien, Georgia, between the legal hours +of sale, the following negro-slaves, <i>i.e.</i> Charles, Peggy, +Antonett, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny, and Isaac, levied on as the +property of Henry T. Hall, <i>to satisfy a mortgage, fi. fa., issued +out of the M'Intosh Superior Court in favor of the Board of +Directors of the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina +and Georgia, against said Henry T. Hall</i>.—Conditions cash.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">C. O'Neal</span>, Deputy-sheriff, M.C."</p> + +<p>Suppose Dr. Fuller should become insane, or otherwise unfit to manage +his own affairs. Such cases often occur. Then the control of the slaves +would pass with his other property into other hands. What would insure +their continued mental and moral well-being? The law would not,—public +opinion would not! Every thing would depend on the character of the +legal guardian or trustee; and even this could afford no adequate +protection. The law permits an <i>owner</i> to do many things which it would +not suffer a guardian or a trustee to do. The legal guardian of Dr. +Fuller's estate would hardly be allowed to suffer his slaves to "perform +<i>not one half</i> the work done by free laborers." The guardian's rule of +conduct would be the <i>law</i>, and the <i>common</i> mode of treatment in the +community. If he overstepped this line, and any pecuniary loss should be +the consequence, the loss would fall on him personally. How many +guardians or trustees would be willing to run any risk of a criminal +prosecution or a fine or imprisonment, in order to insure the happy +condition of anther's man property? Not one in ten thousand! And yet, +unless his guardian was willing to do this,—unless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> he was willing to +brave the law, and act contrary to the general customs of society, Dr. +Fuller's slaves would very soon lapse into the same degraded condition +in which the slaves about them commonly live. Nothing would be more +likely than to find Dr. Fuller's guardian advertising in the following +manner:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negroes to Hire.</span>—On Wednesday, the 26th inst. I will hire to the +highest bidder the negroes belonging to Charles and Robert Innes.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Geo. W. Williams</span>, Guardian."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Negro Hirings.</span>—Will be offered for hire, at Capt. Long's Hotel, a +number of slaves, men, women, boys, and girls, belonging to the +orphans of George Ash, deceased.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Richard W. Barton</span>, Guardian."</p> + +<p>The law forbids teaching slaves to read and write. Dr. Fuller may +disregard the law, and give his slaves careful instruction, supplying +them with plenty of books, and allowing them time to read in. The law +denies marriage to the slaves, and pays no heed to their family ties. +Dr. Fuller may consecrate with the utmost care the marriage of his +slaves, and sacredly protect their family relations. The law declares +slaves to be, under all circumstances, saleable articles. Dr. Fuller may +think that he treats them as men, and shudder at the thought of selling +them. Thus may he do in his lifetime; but it is appointed unto all men +to die; and what, in the event of his death, will become of his slaves?</p> + +<p>He may possibly leave a will, bequeathing them, upon the condition that +his kind and humane treatment shall be continued, that they shall be +taught to read and write, that their marriages and family relations +shall be sacredly respected, and that they shall never be subject to be +sold; that is, on the condition that his legatees shall break the law, +as he has done. The only result will be, that the law will declare all +such conditions to be utterly void; and the legatees will own the +slaves, entirely freed from all such conditions. The legatees will be +under no other restraints than those imposed by the law, public opinion, +and their own conscience. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> latter restraint only may possibly avail +the slaves; and their happy condition may be continued, <i>if</i> all the +legatees are, like Dr. Fuller, law-defying, humane, kind-hearted, and +above want! But how unlikely is it that such will be the case! How much +more unlikely is it that such a state of things will continue! And yet, +unless such a state of things exists, and continues to exist, Dr. +Fuller's slaves must inevitably become as degraded as the great mass of +their fellows.</p> + +<p>If he should die intestate, then his slaves, as part of his estate, +would have to be duly administered on and distributed among the +heirs-at-law. The administrator, a mere trustee, could not, as we have +seen, safely continue Dr. Fuller's plan of management; nor can it be +supposed that any administrator would follow it. If it became necessary +or expedient in order to pay debts, husbands would be separated from +wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. The widow (if +any) would be entitled to a life-estate in one-third of the slaves, +which one-third would be assigned to her in severalty, even though this +might involve a separation of families; for the common law of the Slave +States makes the same profession as the common law of England, that it +favors three things,—life, liberty, and dower! The remaining slaves, +and the reversion of those assigned to the widow, would belong to the +heirs, and would have to be equally divided between them, not divided by +families, or even <i>per capita</i>, but so that each heir should have an +equally valuable slave-investment, or an equal share in the property of +the deceased. If the heirs should be numerous, or the slaves few, so +that an equal division of them could not be thus made, they would have +to be sold, and their proceeds equally divided. Such sales must be +common. The following is taken from the "Georgia Journal:"—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">To be Sold</span>,—One negro-girl, about 18 months old, belonging to the +estate of William Chambers, deceased. <i>Sold for the purpose of +distribution.</i></p> + +<table class="braces" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Jethro Dean</span></td><td class="symb">⎫</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"> </span></td><td class="symb">⎬</td><td>Executors."</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Samuel Beall</span></td><td class="symb">⎭</td><td> </td></tr></table> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>How often are heirs needy! How very seldom are they actuated by the same +spirit or governed by the same views as their ancestor! Some of them +might be under age, and legally incapable of acting for themselves; and +yet here, as in the other case, unless the widow and heirs-at-law should +be all of full age, ready to break the law of the State, and humane, +kind-hearted, and above want, like Dr. Fuller, his slaves could not +escape the common degradation of their fellows. How extremely improbable +is it that such would be the situation of the widow and all the heirs! +How much more improbable is it that such a state of things would +continue! How much more likely is it that we should find some of the +heirs disliking an investment in slaves, or wishing to be disembarrassed +of their care, or desirous to reduce their stock of negroes, and +accordingly selling their portion of Dr. Fuller's slaves at auction! In +the "Charleston (S.C.) Mercury" of Sept. 1, 1847, we find the +following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For Sale</span>,—A young and healthy negro-woman, about 24 years of age, +with her two children, a boy between 5 and 6 years, and an infant, 6 +months old. <i>Sold for no fault but to change the property.</i> Apply at +this office."</p> + +<p>This is from the "New Orleans Commercial Bulletin" of August 27, 1847:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Desirable Virginia House-servant.</span>—By Beard, Calhoun, & Co. +Saturday, 28th inst. at 12 o'clock, will be sold at auction, at +Banks's Arcade, the Griffe servant, Lucy, 19 years; a trusty +house-girl, of fine character, washer, ironer, and American cook, +and sews remarkably well. <i>Sold for no fault, as her owner is +leaving the city.</i> Fully guarantied against the vices and maladies +prescribed by law.—Terms cash. Act of sale before J. R. Beard, +notary public, at the expense of purchaser."</p> + +<p>The "National Intelligencer" of August 1, 1848, contains the +following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Valuable Servant at Private Sale.</span>—We have for sale a +valuable servant-girl, aged about 17 years. She is an excellent +house-servant. <i>Sold for no fault; the owner about removing to the +country.</i></p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">Ed. C. & G. F. Dyer</span>,<br/> +Auctioneers and Commission Merchants."</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>The same paper of January 20, 1844, contains the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">For Sale</span>,—Two likely mulatto women; one middle-aged, an excellent +cook, washer, and ironer, and a good seamstress; the other young, +and a good seamstress and house-servant; and both capable of doing +any work required in a family. <i>They are sold on account of the +owner not having sufficient employment.</i>—Apply to Mr. Henry +Trunnel, Georgetown."</p> + +<p>In the same paper, Nov. 2, 1844, we find this:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">A Negro-boy for Sale or Hire.</span>—A boy, 16 years old, well-grown and +active, is for sale, but not to a trader. He has been employed in +attending to horses, driving a carriage, working in a garden, &c. +<i>and will be sold only because the owner has too many servants</i>. He +may be had on trial.—Apply at J. B. Holmead's Auction Rooms."</p> + +<p>The boy is not to be sold to a trader; but there can be no security that +the purchaser will not thus sell him.</p> + +<p>The "Spirit of Liberty" contains a notice, from "Scott's Intelligence +Office," of the sale of three negro girls, aged 10, 19, and 16 years +respectively, and a boy 14 years old. The notice states, "All the above +servants are sold for no faults, and are just from the country, +consigned to me for sale by their owners, who recommend them very +highly; <i>they wish to reduce their stock of negroes is the cause of +their being in the market for sale</i>."</p> + +<p>Perhaps some one or more of Dr. Fuller's heirs may be indebted. What, in +such case, will prevent a creditor from levying on an undivided share of +Dr. Fuller's happy slaves? Perhaps the debtor may wish to convey his +property to trustees for the benefit of his creditors. We take the +following advertisement from the "National Anti-Slavery Standard," April +15, 1847:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<span class="smcap">Trustee's Sale.</span>—Plantation and negroes in Washington County, +Mississippi; and Yazoo city town lot and buildings. On Monday, the +first of February, 1847, I will proceed to sell, by virtue of a +certain deed of trust, executed 10th May, 1845, by Thomas J. Reed, +to me, as trustee, and duly recorded in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> proper county, and at +the special instance and request of the creditors named in said +deed, at public sale, to the highest bidder, for cash, on the +premises, the following described lands, situated, lying, and being +in the county of Washington, and State of Mississippi, and described +as follows, to wit:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Section No. 3, &c. &c.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Also <i>one undivided half of the following named negroes, slaves for +life</i>, held jointly with the heirs of Baine, viz. Sophia, aged 45; +Nancy, 35; Queen, 40; Jane, 19; Rachel, 11; Priscella; Jenny, 60; +Maria, 30; Lydia, 30; Amanda, 22; Edna, 30; Vina, 36; Betsy, 35; +Ellen, 9; Peyton, 8; Bob, 4; Louis, 15; Chub, 8; Horace, 6; Louisa, +1; Jim, jr. 4; Mary, 4½; Harriet, 6; Dick, 9; George, 5; Billy, +50; John Brown, 36; Alexander, 40; Louis Johnson, 62; Hatton, 35; +Jim, sen. 42; Frank, 50; John, jr. or Little John, 16; John +Mitchell, 47; Louis Davis, 40; Warren, 40; Ben, 36; Oliver, 40; +Louis, jr. or Charles Louis, 5; Lawson, 35; Sam, 19; Harvey, 21; +Fleming, 6; Amy, 4; Bonaparte, 3; Catherine (Queen's child), 2.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"And further, all the right, title, and interest of said Reed in and +to the following named slaves, to wit, Henny and her three children, +Dick, Jane, and Peter; together with all the stock of horses, +cattle, mules, hogs, and farming implements appertaining to said +tracts of land, which is believed to be an entire estate in fee.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The above sale will be for cash, and I will convey to the purchaser +only such title as is vested in me by said deed of trust.</p> + +<p class="bqright"><span class="smcap">W. S. Mott.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"No postponement on account of the weather."</p> + +<p>Other cases might doubtless be put; but these are sufficient to enable +us to test the question of right and wrong. And no labored argument is +necessary. Dr. Fuller admits (what we have already proved) that +slaveholding is most generally wrong, because it is accompanied by the +mental and moral degradation of the slaves. But, by voluntarily +retaining the ownership of his slaves, he renders just such a +degradation almost inevitable even for them. Without the slightest +necessity for so doing, and solely because he wishes so to do, he +renders almost certain the hopeless degradation of his fellow-man. Such +conduct cannot be right, even though (as doubtless in his case) pursued +from right motives. No<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> one has the right unnecessarily to impede our +spiritual or mental culture, even in the slightest degree,—much less +unnecessarily to expose us, almost certainly, to hopeless degradation. +No more have we the right, by holding our fellows in slavery, to render +almost inevitable the death of their souls.</p> + +<p>Slaveholding, then, is <i>always</i> wrong, because it either deliberately +murders the souls of its victims, or else renders such spiritual death +almost inevitable. Nor is slaveholding ever made right by the fact that +the slaves will not consent to be emancipated; for no man can rightfully +consent to his own degradation. What <i>man</i> would consent to become even +the favored slave of Dr. Fuller?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XI.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">The Constitution is not what it ought to be, not what we wish it to +be; not what is consistent with sound morals, but simply what its +words meant in 1789,—nothing more, nothing less.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The Constitution of the United States was drawn up by a Convention, of +which Washington was president. The people, assembled in their State +Conventions, adopted the draft, because it aptly expressed the kind of +union they wished to have, because it fully and exactly expressed their +meaning. In order, therefore, to ascertain the character of our +political union with the Slave States, we have only to ascertain the +true meaning of the words of the Constitution, or their plain, obvious, +and common meaning, at the time the Constitution was adopted. Every +writer who wishes to be understood uses his words in their usual +signification. Every one supposes that we mean just what our words +commonly mean now. When we read Chaucer, or Shakspeare, or Dr. Johnson, +we understand him to mean just what his words commonly meant at the time +he wrote, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified by the context, +in which case we adopt this new or qualified meaning. In like manner, +the people of the United States are to be understood to mean, by the +words of the Constitution, just what those words commonly meant when the +Constitution was adopted, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified +by the context; in which case, a regard for truth obliges us to adopt +this new or qualified meaning.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>This simple, true, and universally practised rule is thus laid down by +Judge Story (Comm. on Const. Abr. § 210):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Every word employed in the Constitution is to be expounded in its +plain, obvious, and common sense, unless the context furnishes some +ground to control, qualify, or enlarge it. Constitutions are not +designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of +expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, +or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or juridical +research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the +common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for +common use, and fitted for common understandings. The people make +them; the people adopt them; the people must be supposed to read +them, with the help of common sense; and cannot be presumed to admit +in them any recondite meaning, or any extraordinary gloss."—Sec. +212: "Where technical words are used, the technical meaning is to be +applied to them, unless it is repelled by the context. But the same +word often possesses a technical and a common sense. In such a case, +the latter is to be preferred, unless some attendant circumstance +points clearly to the former."</p> + +<p>The Constitution was also framed and adopted with reference to the +actual political, social, and local condition of the people. It grew out +of their wants and wishes. The steps which finally led to its adoption +grew out of one of the many defects in the articles of confederation. +Consequently, to arrive at the true meaning of the Constitution, we must +bear in mind the political, social, and local condition of the people at +the time of its adoption, and, among many other similar facts, the very +general existence of domestic slavery.<a name="FNanchor_V_22" id="FNanchor_V_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_V_22" class="fnanchor">[V]</a></p> + +<p>Keeping in view these, the very simplest rules of interpretation, we +will show what the Constitution is according to the common meaning of +its terms; what its framers intended to make it; what, in point of fact, +it has been considered to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> be in the practice of the government; and, +finally, what it has been adjudged to mean by that body which it has +itself pointed out as the final arbiter of its meaning. And, if all +these unite in giving the Constitution but one character, we, as +reasonable men, seeking the truth, cannot deny that such is its true +character.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XII.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">The people made it, the people adopted it, the people must be +supposed to read it with the help of common sense, and cannot be +presumed to admit in it any hidden or extraordinary meaning.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, slavery existed in all +the States except Massachusetts. How far, if at all, does this +instrument support or countenance the institution?</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Art. 1, sec. 2: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be +apportioned among the several States which may be included within +this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be +determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including +those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians +not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons."</p> + +<p>By this section, persons are divided into those who are free and those +who are slaves; for to the whole number of <i>free</i> persons are to be +added three-fifths of <i>all other</i> persons, that is, persons not free, or +<i>slaves</i>. If we adopt the plain, obvious, and common meaning of the +words as their true meaning, this conclusion is incontrovertible.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes urged, that by "free person" is meant "citizen." But the +expression cannot be taken in any such technical sense. Under the +expression "free persons" are included those bound to service for a term +of years, and therefore from it are excluded those bound to service for +life, or slaves.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>This article, therefore, recognizes slavery as explicitly as if the word +<i>slave</i> itself had been used, and gives to the free persons in a Slave +State, solely because they are slaveholders, a larger representation, +and consequently greater political power, than the same number of free +persons in a Free State. A <small>BOUNTY ON SLAVEHOLDING</small>!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Art. 1, sec. 9: "The <i>migration or importation</i> of such persons as +any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall +not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand +eight hundred and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such +<i>importation</i>, not exceeding ten dollars for each person."</p> + +<p>It is clear that this section recognizes a difference between the +meaning of <i>migration</i> and <i>importation</i>, since, if both words mean the +same thing, no reason whatever can be assigned why a tax is not +permitted in both cases. This difference, whatever it is, must afford a +good reason why persons imported may be taxed, and persons migrating +not. The true meaning of the section seems obvious. A person who +migrates does so of his own accord: he cannot be said to be migrated by +any other person. He is wholly a free agent. A person who is imported +does not import himself, but is imported by some other person. He is +passive. The importer is the free agent; the person imported is not a +free agent. Thus the slave-laws of Virginia of 1748<a name="FNanchor_W_23" id="FNanchor_W_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_W_23" class="fnanchor">[W]</a> and 1753<a name="FNanchor_X_24" id="FNanchor_X_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_X_24" class="fnanchor">[X]</a> +begin—"All <i>persons</i> who have been or shall be <i>imported</i>," &c. &c. +"<i>shall be</i> accounted and be <i>slaves</i>." Whenever we hear an importation +spoken of, we instantly infer an importer, an <i>owner</i>, and <i>property</i> +imported. This distinction between the meaning of the two words is, +then, real. It affords a good reason for the restriction on the right to +tax. Therefore, we say, it is the true distinction. On our construction, +Congress had power to lay a tax on persons imported as property or +slaves, but had no right to tax free persons migrating.</p> + +<p>By this clause, therefore, Congress was prevented, during twenty years, +from prohibiting the foreign slave-trade with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> any State that pleased to +allow it. But, by Art. 1, sec. 8, Congress had the general power "to +regulate commerce with foreign nations." Consequently, <i>the slave-trade +was excepted from the operation of the general power, with a view to +place the slave-trade, during twenty years, solely under the control of +the Slave States</i>. It could not be wholly stopped, so long as one State +wished to continue it. It is a clear compromise in favor of slavery. +True, the compromise was a temporary one; but it will be noticed, that +Congress, even after 1808, was not obliged to prohibit the trade; and, +in point of fact, until 1819 the laws of Congress authorized the States +to sell into slavery, for their own benefit, negroes imported contrary +to the laws of the United States! (Act Congr. 1807, c. 77, § 4, 6; 1818, +c. 86, § 5 and 7; 10 Wheat. Rep. 321, 322.) So unmixed should be our +satisfaction at the oft-repeated boast, that ours was the first nation +to prohibit the African slave-trade!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Art. 4, sec. 2: "No person held to service or labor in one State, +under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence +of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or +labor; but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such +service or labor may be due."</p> + +<p>The time of holding not being limited, the expression here used must +include not only persons held to service or labor for a term of years, +but also those held to service or labor for life. Consequently, it +includes those who are free persons within the meaning of Art. 1, sec. +2, and slaves or persons held to service or labor for life.</p> + +<p>That the expression "person held to service or labor" was a correct +definition of the condition of a slave, at the time the Constitution was +adopted, is evident. The sixth article of the North-western ordinance +reads thus: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in +the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof +the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that, any +person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully +claimed in any one of the original States,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> such fugitive may be +lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor +or service as aforesaid." In other words, the expression "a person from +whom labor or service is lawfully claimed" so correctly described the +condition of a slave, that Congress deemed it necessary to except such +persons from the operation of an article relating only to slaves. In +less than three months after the passage of this ordinance, this clause +in the Constitution was drafted. It needs no argument to show, that the +expression in the Constitution means the same as that in the ordinance. +"A person from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of +the original States" means the same as "a person held to service or +labor in one State under the laws thereof." If the former correctly +described the condition of a slave, the latter did also.</p> + +<p>We can, however, see that the expression does properly describe the +legal condition of a slave. A slave, though an article of property, has +always and in every State been recognized as a person, by being held +criminally responsible for his acts. Thus the preamble to the Act of +South Carolina (May 10, 1740; 1 Grimke's Laws, 165), which provides for +the trial of <i>slaves</i>, recites that "natural justice forbids that any +<i>person</i>, of what condition soever, should be condemned unheard;" and +the Act of Georgia of 1770 (Prince's Dig. 777) provides for the trial of +"slaves and <i>other persons</i>." The Act of Virginia (1748, sec. 15; 5 Hen. +Stat. 547) and North Carolina (1741, sec. 29; Iredell, Stat. 62-66) call +runaway slaves <i>persons</i> in so many words. Similar laws might be cited, +if deemed necessary. A slave is also held to labor and service for life +by law. Labor and service are the lot of every slave. "To slave" means +"to toil." It is sometimes denied, but nevertheless it is true, that the +law recognizes that labor and service are legally due from the slave to +his master. Thus the Act of North Carolina (1741, sec. 27), before +quoted, makes it a criminal offence to tempt or persuade a slave to +leave his master's "service." "Service" is recognized as being legally +due from a slave in Virginia (Act 1691, 3 Hen. Stat. 86, 87). The +Provincial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> Assembly of South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 44) provided +that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any owner of slaves, or other person who shall have the care, +management, or overseeing of any slaves, shall work, or put any such +slave or slaves to labor, more than fifteen hours in twenty-four +hours, from the twenty-fifth day of March to the twenty-fifth day of +September, or more than fourteen hours in twenty-four hours, from +the twenty-fifth day of September to the twenty-fifth day of March, +every such person shall forfeit any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, +nor under five pounds, current money for every time he, she, or they +shall offend herein, at the discretion of the justice before whom +the complaint shall be made."</p> + +<p>The Provincial Assembly of Georgia (Act 1770, May 10, sec. 41) provided +that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any person shall, on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, +employ any slave in any work or labor (works of absolute necessity +and the necessary occasions of the family only excepted), every +person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten shillings +for every slave he, she, or they shall so cause to work or labor."</p> + +<p>A similar law was passed in South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 22). These +and similar laws, by limiting the hours of daily work and labor, or by +providing that work and labor shall not be demanded of a slave on +Sunday, recognize that on other days, and within certain hours, a master +may legally demand them. That which may be legally demanded is legally +due. Therefore, work and labor, or service, are legally due from the +slave to his master. To this labor and service the slave is "held" by +the law. If he refuses to work, his master may coerce him. If he runs +away, his master may pursue and retake him legally. He is "held for +life," or until emancipated according to law. Consequently, the +expression in the Constitution correctly describes the condition of a +slave. Indeed, it more correctly describes this condition than "chattel +personal" would, because it is the almost universal practice to treat a +slave in many important particulars, such as dower, &c. like real +property; and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> in some States, slaves are declared by statute to be +real estate.</p> + +<p>By this section, therefore, it is provided that no person held as a +slave in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, +in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from his +slavery, but shall be delivered up on claim of his owner. The laws of +one State, whether they support slavery or any other institution, have +no power in another State. Consequently, if a slave escapes into a Free +State, he becomes free. This is the general rule of law. In virtue of +it, thousands of slaves are now free on the soil of Canada. In virtue of +it, a fugitive slave from South Carolina would be free in this State, +were it not for this section in the Constitution. But this section +declares that he shall not thereby become free, but shall be delivered +up. Again, <i>the Constitution makes an exception from a general rule of +law in favor of slavery</i>. It gives to slaveholders, and slave-laws, a +power which the general rule of law does not give. It enables a South +Carolina slaveholder to drag from the soil of Massachusetts a person +whom the general rule of law pronounces free, solely because South +Carolina laws declare the contrary. It makes the whole Union a vast +hunting-ground for slaves! There is not a single spot from the Atlantic +to the Pacific, from the St. John's to the Rio del Norte, or +"wheresoe'er may be the fleeting boundary of this republic," on which a +fugitive slave may rest, and his owner may not, in virtue of this +clause, claim and retake him as his slave!</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Art. 1, sec. 8: "Congress shall have power ... to provide for +calling forth the militia ... <i>to suppress insurrections</i>."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Art. 4, sec. 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in +this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each +of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature or +of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against +<i>domestic violence</i>."</p> + +<p><i>All</i> insurrections and <i>all</i> cases of domestic violence are here +provided for. To constitute an insurrection within the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> meaning of the +Constitution, there must be a rising against those laws which are +recognized as such by the Constitution; and, to make out a case of +domestic violence, the violence must be exerted against that right or +power which is recognized by the Constitution as lawful. But, by Art. 4, +sec. 2, the Constitution admits that some persons are legally slaves; +else the clause itself must be entirely inoperative. Consequently, if +these persons rise in rebellion, or commit acts of violence contrary to +the laws which hold them in slavery, their rising constitutes an +insurrection; such acts are acts of violence within the meaning of the +Constitution, and consequently must be suppressed by the national power. +And what insurrections were more likely to happen and more to be dreaded +than slave-insurrections, and therefore more likely to have been +provided for?</p> + +<p>Slave-owners are not the only slaveholders. All persons who voluntarily +assist or pledge themselves to assist in holding persons in slavery are +slaveholders. <i>In sober truth, then, we are a nation of slaveholders!</i> +for we have bound our whole national strength to the slave-owners, to +aid them, if necessary, in holding their slaves in subjection!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XIII.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Yes!—it cannot be denied—the slaveholding lords of the South +prescribed, as a condition of their assent to the Constitution, +three special provisions to secure the perpetuity of their dominion +over their slaves."—<i>John Quincy Adams.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The question, What kind of a Constitution did its framers intend to +make? is purely an historical one; and it must be obvious to all, that +any thing like a complete statement of the evidence on this point cannot +be given within the limits of this pamphlet.</p> + +<p>On the 17th of September, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention adopted the +plan of the present Constitution. The draft thus made was submitted to +the people, assembled in State Conventions, "for their assent and +ratification." President Madison has preserved a record of the debates +in the Philadelphia Convention; and we have also published accounts of +the debates in several of the State Conventions. We draw our evidence +mainly from these sources.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Apportionment of Representatives.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>On the 18th of April, 1783, the Continental Congress passed a resolve, +recommending the States to amend the Articles of Confederation in such +manner that the national expenses should be defrayed out of a common +treasury, "which shall be supplied by the several States, in proportion +to the whole number of white or other free inhabitants, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> every age, +sex, and condition, including those bound to servitude for a term of +years, and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the +foregoing description, except Indians, not paying taxes, in each State." +This amendment was adopted by eleven out of the thirteen States.</p> + +<p>A single glance is sufficient to satisfy any one, that, under the +expression in this resolve, "all other persons," slaves were intended; +and an equally cursory glance suffices to show, that Art. 1, sec. 2, of +the Constitution is derived, almost copied, from this resolve. Did not +the framers of the Constitution, in adopting the same expression (Art. +1, sec. 2), mean the same thing as the Continental Congress?</p> + +<p>In the Massachusetts Convention, Art. 1, sec. 2, of the Constitution +having been read, Rufus King, one of its framers, rose to explain it:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"This paragraph states, that the number of free persons shall be +determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including +those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians +not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. <i>These persons are the +slaves.</i> By this rule is representation and taxation to be +apportioned, and it was adopted because it was the language of all +America....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Five negro-children of South Carolina are to pay as much tax as the +three governors of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut."</p> + +<p>In the New York Convention, Alexander Hamilton, another of the framers, +remarked:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The first thing objected to is that clause which allows a +representation for three-fifths of the negroes....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The regulation complained of was one result of the spirit of +accommodation which governed the Convention; and, <i>without this +indulgence, no union could possibly have been formed</i>."</p> + +<p>In the Pennsylvania Convention, James Wilson, another of the framers, +said, referring to the resolve of the Continental Congress passed in +1783:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It was not carried into effect, but it was adopted by no fewer than +eleven out of thirteen States; and it cannot but be matter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +surprise to hear gentlemen, who agreed to this very mode of +expression at that time, come forward, and state it as an objection +on the present occasion. It was natural, sir, for the late +Convention to adopt the mode after it had been agreed to by eleven +States, and to use the expression which they found had been received +as unexceptionable before."</p> + +<p>In a speech before the legislature of Maryland, Luther Martin, also a +delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, offers the following clear and +unmistakable testimony:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"With respect to that part of the second section of the first +article, it was urged that no principle could justify taking slaves +into computation in apportioning the number of representatives a +State should have in the government;—that <i>it involved the +absurdity of increasing the power of a State in making laws for +freemen, in proportion as that State violated the rights of +freedom</i>;—that it might be proper to take slaves into +consideration, when taxes were to be apportioned, because it had a +tendency to discourage slavery; but to take them into account in +giving representation tended to encourage the slave-trade, and to +make it the interest of the States to continue that infamous +traffic." +</p> + +<p>In the North Carolina Convention, Wm. R. Davie, a member of the +Convention who framed the Constitution, said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The Eastern States had great jealousies on this subject. They +insisted that their cows and horses were equally entitled to +representation; that the one was property as well as the other. It +became our duty, on the other hand, to acquire as much weight as +possible in the legislation of the Union; and, as the Northern +States were more populous in whites, this only could be done by +insisting that a certain proportion of our <i>slaves</i> should make a +part of the computed population."</p> + +<p>In the South Carolina Convention, General Chas. C. Pinckney, another of +the framers of the Constitution, said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"We were at a loss for some time for a rule to ascertain the +proportionate wealth of the States. At last we thought that the +productive labor of the inhabitants was the best rule for +ascertaining their wealth. In conformity to this rule, joined to a +spirit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> concession, we determined that representatives should be +apportioned among the several States, by adding to the whole number +of free persons, three-fifths of the <i>slaves</i>."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Permission of the African Slave-trade.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.)</p> + +<p>In the Massachusetts Convention, Mr. Dawes, speaking in relation to Art. +1, sec. 2, said that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Gentlemen would do well to connect the passage in dispute with +another article in the Constitution, that permits Congress, in the +year 1808, wholly to prohibit the importation of <i>slaves</i>, and in +the meantime to impose a duty of ten dollars a head on such blacks +as should be imported before that period."</p> + +<p>Many persons spoke in the Convention on this section; and, among others, +Judge Dana rejoiced that a door was opened by it for the annihilation of +the slave-trade.</p> + +<p>In the Pennsylvania Convention, Mr. Wilson said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Under the present confederation, the States may admit the +<i>importation of slaves as long as they please</i>; but by this article, +after the year 1808, the Congress will have power to prohibit such +importation, notwithstanding the disposition of any State to the +contrary.... It is with much satisfaction I view this power in the +general government, whereby they may lay an interdiction on this +reproachful trade. But an immediate advantage is also obtained; for +a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten +dollars for each person; and this, sir, operates as a partial +prohibition. It was all that could be obtained: I am sorry it was no +more."</p> + +<p>In Maryland, Luther Martin, in the speech before referred to, says, +speaking of this section:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The design of this clause is to <i>prevent the general government +from prohibiting the importation of slaves</i>; but the same reasons +which caused them to strike out the word 'national,' and not admit +the word 'stamps,' influenced them here to guard against the word +'slaves.' They anxiously sought to avoid the admission of +expressions which might be odious in the ears of Americans, although +they were willing to admit into their system those things which the +expressions signified."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>Mr. Martin thus gives the well-known history of the compromise involved +in this clause:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"This clause was the subject of a great diversity of sentiment in +the Convention. As the system was reported by the committee of +detail, the provision was general, that such importation should not +be prohibited, without confining it to any particular period. This +was rejected by eight States; Georgia, South Carolina, and, I think, +North Carolina, voting for it.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"We were then told by the delegates of the two first of those +States, that their States would never agree to a system which put it +in the power of the general government to prevent the importation of +slaves; and that they, as delegates from those States, must withhold +their assent from such a system.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"A committee of one member from each State was chosen by ballot to +take this part of the system under their consideration, and to +endeavor to agree upon some report which should reconcile those +States. To this committee also was referred the following +proposition, which had been reported by the committee of detail, to +wit: 'No Navigation Act shall be passed without the assent of +two-thirds of the members present in each house;'—a proposition +which the staple and commercial States were solicitous to retain, +lest their commerce should be placed too much under the power of the +Eastern States; but which these last States were as anxious to +reject. This committee, of which also I had the honor to be a +member, met, and took under their consideration the subjects +committed to them. <i>I found the Eastern States, notwithstanding +their aversion to slavery, were very willing to indulge the Southern +States, at least with a temporary liberty to prosecute the +slave-trade, provided the Southern States would in their turn +gratify them, by laying no restriction on Navigation Acts</i>; and, +after a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed +on a report, by which the general government was to be prohibited +from preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time, and +the restricted clause relative to Navigation Acts was to be omitted.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"This report was adopted by a majority of the Convention, but not +without considerable opposition."</p> + +<p>In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Mr. Chairman, I should conceive this clause to be impolitic, if it +were one of those things which could be excluded without +encountering greater evils. The Southern States would not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +entered into the Union of America, without the temporary permission +of that trade. And if they were excluded from the Union, the +consequences might be dreadful to them and to us. We are not in a +worse situation than before. That traffic is prohibited by our laws, +and we may continue the prohibition. The Union in general is not in +a worse situation. Under the articles of confederation, it might be +continued for ever; but, by this clause, an end may be put to it +after twenty years. There is, therefore, an amelioration of our +circumstances. A tax may be laid in the meantime."</p> + +<p>In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Spaight, one of the framers of the +Constitution, said—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"That there was a contest between the Northern and Southern States; +that the Southern States, whose principal support depended on the +labor of slaves, would not consent to the desire of the Northern +States, to exclude the importation of slaves absolutely; that South +Carolina and Georgia insisted on this clause, as they were now in +want of hands to cultivate their lands; that in the course of twenty +years they would be fully supplied; that the trade would be +abolished then, and that in the meantime some tax or duty might be +laid on."</p> + +<p>In the South Carolina Convention, Hon. Rawlins Lowndes said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In the first place, what cause was there for jealousy of our +importing negroes? Why confine us to twenty years, or rather why +limit us at all? For his part, he thought this trade could be +justified on the principles of religion, humanity, and justice; for +certainly to translate a set of human beings from a bad country to a +better was fulfilling every part of these principles. But they don't +like our slaves, because they have none themselves."</p> + +<p>Gen. Charles C. Pinckney said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>By this settlement we have secured an unlimited importation of +negroes for twenty years</i>; nor is it declared that the importation +shall be then stopped: it may be continued; we have a security that +the general government can never emancipate them."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Restoration of Fugitive Slaves.</span> (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>In the Philadelphia Convention, Aug. 28, 1787, Art. 14 was taken up for +consideration. This article read, "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> citizens of each State shall be +entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several +States." Gen. Pinckney was not satisfied with it. He seemed to wish some +provision should be included in favor of property in slaves.</p> + +<p>Art. 15 was as follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Any person charged with treason, felony, or high misdemeanor, in +any State, who shall flee from justice, and shall be found in any +other State, shall, on demand of the executive power of the State +from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having +jurisdiction of the offence."</p> + +<p>This article being then taken up, the words "high misdemeanor" were +struck out, and the words "other crime" inserted, in order to comprehend +all proper cases; it being doubtful whether "high misdemeanor" had not a +technical meaning too limited.</p> + +<p>Mr. Butler and Mr. Pinckney moved to require "<i>fugitive slaves and +servants to be delivered up like criminals</i>."</p> + +<p>Mr. Wilson: This would oblige the executive of the State to do it at the +public expense.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sherman saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering +a slave or servant than a horse.</p> + +<p>Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition, in order that some particular +provision might be made, apart from this article.</p> + +<p>Article 15, as amended, was then agreed to, <i>nem. con.</i>—Mad. Papers, +pp. 1447-8.</p> + +<p>The next day, Aug. 29, Mr. Butler, to accomplish his purpose, moved to +insert, after Art. 15,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If any person, bound to service or labor in any of the United +States, shall escape into another State, he or she shall not be +discharged from such service or labor, in consequence of any +regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape, but shall +be delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or +labor."</p> + +<p>Which was agreed to, <i>nem. con.</i></p> + +<p>After the phraseology had been somewhat altered, on Saturday, Sept. 15, +1787, in this clause (then Const. Art. 4, sec. 2) the term "legally" was +struck out, and the words "under the laws thereof" inserted after the +word "State,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> in compliance with the wish of some one who thought the +term <i>legal</i> equivocal, and favoring the idea that <i>slavery</i> was legal +in a moral view.</p> + +<p>In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Another clause secures us that property which we now possess. At +present, if any slave elopes to any of those States where slaves are +free, he becomes emancipated, by their laws; for the laws of the +States are uncharitable (!) to one another in this respect. But in +this Constitution, 'No person held to service or labor in one State, +under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence +of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or +labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such +service or labor may be due.' <i>This clause was expressly inserted to +enable owners of slaves to reclaim them.</i> This is a better security +than any that now exists. No power is given to the general +government to interpose with respect to the property in slaves now +held by the States."</p> + +<p>In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Iredell begged leave to explain +the reason of this clause:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"In some of the Northern States, they have emancipated all their +slaves. If any of our slaves," said he, "go there and remain there a +certain time, they would, by the present laws, be entitled to their +freedom, so that their masters could not get them again. This would +be extremely prejudicial to the inhabitants of the Southern States; +and, <i>to prevent it, this clause is inserted in the Constitution</i>. +Though the word <i>slave</i> be not mentioned, this is the meaning of it. +The Northern delegates, owing to their particular scruples on the +subject of slavery, did not choose the word <i>slave</i> to be +mentioned."</p> + +<p>Gen. Pinckney, says Mr. Madison, was not satisfied with Art. 14, and +"seemed to wish some provision should be included in favor of property +in slaves." He thus, in the South Carolina Convention, expresses his +satisfaction at this article of the Constitution:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"<i>We have obtained a right to recover our slaves, in whatever part +of America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not +before.</i> In short, considering all circumstances, we have made the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +best terms for the security of this species of property it was in +our power to make. We would have made better if we could; but, on +the whole, I do not think them bad."(!)</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Suppression of Slave Insurrections.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.)</p> + +<p>Luther Martin, in the speech before alluded to, used the following +language:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"It was further urged, that, by this system of government, every +State is to be protected both from foreign invasion and from +domestic insurrections: from this consideration, it was of the +utmost importance it should have a power to restrain the importation +of slaves, since, in proportion as the number of slaves are +increased in any State, in the same proportion the State is weakened +and exposed to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, and by so +much less will it be able to protect itself against either, and +therefore will by so much the more want aid from, and be a burden +to, the Union."</p> + +<p>In the Virginia Convention, Mr. George Nicholas said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Another worthy member says there is no power in the States to quell +an insurrection of slaves. Have they it now? If they have, does the +Constitution take it away? If it does, it must be in one of the +three clauses which have been mentioned by the worthy member. The +first clause gives the general government power to call them out +when necessary. Does this take it away from the States? No; but it +gives an additional security; for, besides the power in the State +governments to use their own militia, <i>it will be the duty of the +general government to aid them with the strength of the Union, when +called for</i>. No part of this Constitution can show that this power +is taken away."</p> + +<p>Mr. Madison, respecting these clauses, says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"On application of the legislature or executive, as the case may be, +the militia of the other States are to be called to suppress +domestic insurrections. Does this bar the States from calling forth +their own militia? No; but <i>it gives them a supplementary security +to suppress insurrections and domestic violence</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XIV.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Uniform practice under a law is one of the highest proofs of the +meaning of that law.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Apportionment of Representatives.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>The Constitution (Art. 1, sec. 2, par. 3) provides that the enumeration +of the people of the United States (upon which the apportionment of +representatives and direct taxes was to be made) "shall be made within +three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United +States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as +they shall by law direct."</p> + +<p>On the 1st of March, 1790, George Washington, who had been president of +the Convention which framed the Constitution, approved "an Act providing +for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States." The first +Congress ever assembled, and the first President ever elected, under the +Constitution, under the sanction of their respective oaths "to support +the Constitution," by this Act expressed their deliberate judgment as to +the true meaning of the people of the United States in adopting this +section of the Constitution. What, in their judgment, was such meaning?</p> + +<p>These extracts from the Act will suffice (Act 1790, chap. 29):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That the marshals of the several +districts of the United States shall be, and they are hereby, +authorized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> and required to cause the number of the inhabitants +within their respective districts to be taken, omitting, in such +enumeration, Indians not taxed, and distinguishing free persons, +including those bound to service for a term of years, from all +others; distinguishing also the sexes and colors of free persons, +and the free males of sixteen years and upwards from those under +that age: for effecting which purpose, the marshals shall have power +to appoint as many assistants within their respective districts as +to them shall appear necessary, assigning to each assistant a +certain division of his district," &c.</p> + +<p>These assistants were obliged to transmit to the marshals, returns in +manner following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The number of persons within my division, consisting of ——, +appears in a schedule hereunto annexed, subscribed by me, this —— +day of —— 179 .</p> + +<p class="bqright">A. B. Assistant to the Marshal of ——"</p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> + +<tr><td class="btlr"> </td> + <td class="btr" align="center">Free white</td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">males of sixteen</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Free white</td> + <td class="br" align="center">Free white</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr" align="center">Names of</td> + <td class="br" align="center">years and</td> + <td class="br" align="center">males under</td> + <td class="br" align="center">females,</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr" align="center">heads</td> + <td class="br" align="center">upwards,</td> + <td class="br" align="center">sixteen years.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">including</td> + <td class="br" align="center"><i>All other free</i></td> + <td class="br" align="center"> <i>Slaves.</i> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr" align="center">of families.</td> + <td class="br" align="center">including</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">heads of</td> + <td class="br" align="center"><i>persons.</i></td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">heads of</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">families.</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br" align="center">families.</td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="btlr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="blr"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td></tr></table> + +<p>That is, the enumeration directed to be made, and upon the basis of +which the constitutional apportionment of representatives and direct +taxes was to be made, distinguished only between <i>free persons</i> and +<i>slaves</i>. Congress and the President, under the sanction of their oaths, +united in the expression of their deliberate judgment, that the people +of the United States, by the expression (Art. 1, sec. 2) "three-fifths +of all other persons," intended "three-fifths of the slaves," because, +in passing this Act, they declare that all other persons not free within +the meaning of this section are slaves.</p> + +<p>The second Congress, at its first session, passed "An Act for +apportioning representatives among the several States, according to the +first enumeration" (Stat. 1792, c. 23). The language of the statute is +as follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That from and after the third day of +March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, the House of +Representatives shall be composed of members elected agreeably to a +ratio of one member for every thirty-three thousand persons in each +State, computed according to the rule prescribed by the +Constitution, that is to say, within the State of New Hampshire, +four," &c. &c.</p> + +<p>That is, the second Congress, upon an enumeration distinguishing only +freemen from slaves, undertake to apportion representatives among the +States according to the rule laid down in the Constitution, viz. by +adding to the whole number of free persons "three-fifths of the slaves."</p> + +<p>This interpretation, by the first and second Congress, has never been +varied from. In every census which has since been taken, the only +distinction sanctioned has been between freemen and slaves; and, on +every occasion of apportioning representatives, according the +representative or federal number, such number has been invariably +determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, three-fifths +of the slaves. <i>If this, the pro-slavery, interpretation of this section +of the Constitution is not right, then, since March 3, 1793, there has +not been a single House of Representatives constitutionally elected, or +a single statute or resolve constitutionally passed!</i> Who is ready to +make this admission?</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Permission of the African Slave-trade.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.)</p> + +<p>On the 13th of May 1789, in Congress,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Mr. Parker (of Va.) moved to insert a clause in the bill, imposing +a duty on the importation of slaves of ten dollars each person. He +<i>was sorry that the Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting +the importation altogether</i>; he thought it a defect in that +instrument that it allowed of such actions; it was contrary to the +revolution principles, and ought not to be permitted; but, as he +could not do all the good he desired, he was willing to do what lay +in his power.</p> + + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>"Mr. Sherman (of Ct.) approved of the object of the motion; but he +did not think this bill was proper to embrace the subject. He could +not reconcile himself to the insertion of human beings, as an +article of duty, among goods, wares, and merchandise. He hoped it +would be withdrawn for the present, and taken up hereafter as an +independent subject.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + + +<p class="blockquot">"Mr. Schureman (of N. J.) hoped the gentleman would withdraw his +motion, because the present was not the time or place for +introducing the business; he thought it had better be brought +forward in the House, as a distinct proposition.</p> + +<p class="center"><strong>· · · · · ·</strong></p> + + +<p class="blockquot">"Mr. Madison (of Va.): I cannot concur with gentlemen who think the +present an improper time or place to enter into a discussion of the +proposed motion. If it is taken up in a separate view, we shall do +the same thing, at a greater expense of time....</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I conceive the Constitution, in this particular, was formed in +order that the government, whilst it was restrained from laying a +total prohibition, might be able to give some testimony of the sense +of America with respect to the African trade. We have liberty to +impose a tax or duty upon the importation of such persons as any of +the States now existing shall think proper to admit; and this +liberty was granted, I presume, upon two considerations: the first +was, that, until the time arrived when they might abolish the +importation of slaves, they might have an opportunity of evidencing +their sentiments on the policy and humanity of such a trade; the +other was, that they might be taxed in due proportion with other +articles imported; for, if the possessor will consider them as +property, of course they are of value, and ought to be paid for."</p> + +<p>After a very considerable discussion, in which this section of the +Constitution was referred to by various members, and the +constitutionality of Mr. Parker's motion admitted, with the advice of +Mr. Madison his colleague, Mr. Parker consented to withdraw his motion.</p> + +<p>In 1794, "An Act to prohibit the carrying on the slave-trade from the +United States to any foreign place or country" was passed (Stat. 1794, +c. 11). In 1800, an Act in addition to the last was passed (Stat. 1800, +c. 51). That both these laws were framed with reference to this section +of the Constitution is apparent, because the latter Act expressly +refers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> to it. Sec. 6 reads thus, "That nothing in this Act contained +shall be construed to authorize the bringing into either of the United +States any person or persons, the importation of whom is, by the +existing laws of such State, prohibited." In 1803 (Stat. 1803, c. 63) +was passed "An Act to prevent the importation of certain persons into +certain States, where, by the laws thereof, their admission is +prohibited."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That, from and after the first day of +April next, no master or captain of any ship or vessel, or any other +person, shall import or bring, or cause to be imported or brought, +any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, not being a native, a +citizen, or registered seaman of the United States, or seamen, +natives of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, into any port or +place of the United States, which port or place shall be situated in +any State which by law has prohibited, or shall prohibit, the +admission or importation of such negro, mulatto, or other person of +color," &c. &c.</p> + +<p>This Act also is most manifestly framed upon this section of the +Constitution. It renders illegal the importation of any negro, mulatto, +or person of color, into States prohibiting such importation, unless +such negro, &c. is a native, citizen, or registered seaman of the United +States, or native of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope; that is, it +renders illegal the importation of African negroes into any State whose +laws prohibit such importation. And, as no African negro has yet been +imported as a free laborer, this Act was directed against the African +slave-trade.</p> + +<p>And, not to multiply proof, the importation of persons is not to be +prohibited by Congress prior to 1808. On the 2d day of March, 1807, +President Jefferson approved (Stat. 1807, c. 77) "An Act to prohibit the +importation of <i>slaves</i> into any port or place within the jurisdiction +of the United States, from and after the <i>first day of January</i>, in the +year of our Lord <i>one thousand eight hundred and eight</i>." That is, at +the very earliest day allowed by Const. Art. 1, sec. 9, for the passage +by Congress of an Act prohibiting the importation of persons, a law is +passed totally prohibiting the <i>importation of slaves</i>.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Restoration of Fugitive Slaves.</span> (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>On the 12th day of February, 1793 (Stat. 1793, chap. 7), there was +approved "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping +from the service of their masters." This is the law which, for over half +a century, has prescribed the modes in which a runaway slave may be +retaken. It is what is now called "the infamous law of '93." Thousands +of runaway slaves have owed their return to their happy condition to the +beneficent operation of this law, obviously framed, as it is, with an +eye to this constitutional provision.</p> + +<p>Sec. 3 provides that,—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"When a person held to labor in any of the United States, or in +either of the territories on the north-west or south of the river +Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the +said States or territory, the person to whom such labor or service +may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or +arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any +judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, +residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a +county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest +shall be made; and, upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or +magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit, taken before and +certified by a magistrate of any such State or territory, that the +person so seized or arrested doth, under the laws of the State or +territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the +person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or +magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent +or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said +fugitive from labor to the State or territory from which he or she +fled."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Suppression of Slave Insurrections.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.)</p> + +<p>"An Act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of +the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions," was approved +May 2, 1792 (Act Const. 1792, chap. 28). Section first provides that, +"<i>In case of an</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> <i>insurrection in any State</i> against the government +thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on +application of the legislature of such State, or of the executive (when +the legislature cannot be convened), to call forth such number of the +militia of any other State or States as may be applied for, or as he may +judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection." Precisely the same +language is made use of in Stat. 1795, c. 101. By Act approved March 3, +1807 (Stat. 1807, c. 94), the President is authorized "in <i>all</i> cases of +insurrection," "when it is lawful for him to call forth the militia for +the purpose of suppressing the same," "to employ for the same purpose +such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be +judged necessary."</p> + +<p>That these laws have been held to include an insurrection of slaves is +indisputable. On receipt of the intelligence of Nat. Turner's +insurrection in Southampton, Va., Col. House, then commanding at +Fortress Monroe, set out with three companies of United States troops, +for the purpose of suppressing the revolt. He was reinforced by a +detachment from the United States ships Warren and Natchez, amounting in +all to about three hundred men. With <i>our</i> troops and <i>our</i> officers we +have actually aided the slaveholder in holding his fellow-man in +slavery! We have actually done what our fathers engaged in the +Constitution that we should do, namely, aid with the national strength +in keeping the slaves in subjection!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XV.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL INTERPRETER.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The judicial department of the United States is, in the last +resort, the final expositor of the Constitution as to all questions +of a judicial nature. Were there no power to interpret, pronounce, +and execute the law, the government would either perish through its +own imbecility, as was the case with the articles of confederation, +or other powers must be assumed by the legislative body, to the +destruction of liberty."—<i>Chancellor Kent.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The people of the United States, in adopting the Constitution, made +<i>one</i> standard, <i>one</i> fundamental law, and <i>only one</i>. They gave to the +government of the United States certain powers. They restricted it as to +others. They placed certain prohibitions on the States. The Constitution +was to be the one fundamental law of the land, to which all, as well +States as people, should submit. Art. 6, sec. 2, provides that the +"Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in +pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under +the authority of the United States, shall be <i>the supreme law of the +land</i>; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing +in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary +notwithstanding."</p> + +<p>Who now is to tell us what this one standard is, to which all must +submit, and which is thus to override all State Constitutions and all +State laws? Is it the province of each individual to do it? Then we may +have at this moment seventeen million different interpretations, and +hence as many different Constitutions, each of which, however, is the +supreme law of the land! Are the executive or judicial departments of +the States the proper expounders? Then,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> at this moment, we may have +only thirty different interpretations, twenty-nine of which must be +wrong, because the supreme law can be but one.</p> + +<p>In order, therefore, that the end of the Constitution may be +accomplished, that it may really be the supreme law of the land, it must +have provided a way in which its only true meaning may be ascertained +and definitively settled. Unless it has provided a final interpreter of +its meaning, it is the merest folly to style it the supreme law of the +land, or to call on us to obey its requirement. Is the Constitution thus +deficient? Does it demand uniformity, and at the same time deny the use +of those means which are absolutely necessary to produce such +uniformity? Does it present a variable, ever-changing standard of duty, +and yet demand complete uniformity in practice?</p> + +<p>There are three departments in the Government, namely, the Executive, +the Legislative, and the Judicial. The first two of these are each, to +some extent, supreme in its own sphere; and its acts are incapable of +revision elsewhere. "Thus, in measures exclusively of a political, +legislative, or executive character, it is plain, that, as the supreme +authority as to these questions belongs to the legislative and executive +departments, they cannot be re-examined elsewhere. Thus, Congress having +the power to declare war, to levy taxes, to appropriate money, to +regulate intercourse and commerce with foreign nations, their mode of +executing these powers can never become the subject of re-examination in +any other tribunal. So, the power to make treaties being confided to the +President and Senate, when a treaty is properly ratified, it becomes the +law of the land, and no other tribunal can gainsay its stipulations. Yet +cases may readily be imagined, in which a tax may be laid, or a treaty +made, upon motions and grounds wholly beside the intention of the +Constitution. The remedy, however, in such cases is solely by an appeal +to the people at the elections, or by the salutary power of amendment +provided by the Constitution itself.</p> + +<p>"But, where the question is of a different nature, and capable of +judicial inquiry and decision, there it admits of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> very different +consideration. The decision then made, whether in favor or against the +constitutionality of the Act, by the State or by national authority, by +the legislature or by the executive, being capable in its own nature of +being brought to the test of the Constitution, is subject to judicial +revision. It is in such cases, as we conceive, that there is a final and +common arbiter provided by the Constitution itself, to whose decisions +all others are subordinate; and that arbiter is the supreme judicial +authority of the courts of the Union" (Story, Comm. Const. sec. 374, +375); for the Constitution declares, Art. 3, sec. 2, that "the judicial +power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this +Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which +shall be made, under their authority," &c. And Art. 3, sec. 1: "The +judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme +court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time +ordain and establish."</p> + +<p>These constitutional provisions are clear. The Constitution and laws and +treaties of the United States are declared to be the supreme law of the +land. To expound what the law is, is a judicial act. The judicial power +extends to all cases arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties +of the United States. It therefore extends to the exposition of the +Constitution, laws, and treaties, when the case before the court +properly calls for such exposition. This judicial power, and +consequently this power of exposition, it is declared, shall be vested +in one supreme court, &c. Most obviously, the exposition given by this +one supreme court cannot be overruled by any other constitutional power; +else the court is not supreme, else the Constitution is nullified. The +decision of the supreme court is the decision of the <i>only +constitutionally authorized expounder of the meaning of the +Constitution</i>; and such exposition, to be supreme, must be final.</p> + +<p>What, then, has this final interpreter declared the meaning of these +clauses of the Constitution to be?</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Apportionment of Representatives.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>On the 5th of June, 1794 (Stat. 1794, c. 45), was approved an Act of +Congress, "laying duties upon carriages for the conveyance of persons." +The duty was uniform throughout the States. One Hylton, in Virginia, +refused to pay the duty; alleging that the Act was unconstitutional, +because the tax was a direct tax within the meaning of the Constitution, +and therefore should have been apportioned among the States according to +their federal numbers. He was sued by the United States, and finally the +case came before the supreme court of the United States for decision. +The following extracts are taken from the opinion of Justice Paterson +(Hylton <i>versus</i> the United States, 3 Dallas's Reports, p. 177; 1796):—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"I never entertained a doubt that the principal, I will not say the +only, objects that the framers of the Constitution contemplated, as +falling within the rule of apportionment, were a capitation-tax and +a tax on land. Local considerations, and the particular +circumstances and relative situation of the States, naturally lead +to this view of the subject. <i>The provision was made in favor of the +Southern States.</i> They possessed a large number of <i>slaves</i>; they +had extensive tracts of territory, thinly settled, and not very +productive. A majority of the States had but few <i>slaves</i>; and +several of them, a limited territory, well-settled, and in a high +state of cultivation. The Southern States, if no provision had been +introduced in the Constitution, would have been wholly at the mercy +of the other States. <i>Congress, in such case, might tax slaves at +discretion or arbitrarily</i>, and land in every part of the Union. +After the same rate or measure, so much a head in the first +instance, and so much an acre in the second. <i>To guard them against +imposition in these particulars was the reason of introducing the +clause in the Constitution</i> which directs that representatives and +direct taxes shall be apportioned among the States, according to +their respective numbers."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 178: "The rule of apportionment is of this nature: it is +radically wrong; it cannot be supported by any solid reasoning. Why +should slaves, who are a species of property, be represented more +than any other property? The rule, therefore, ought not to be +extended by construction."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Permission of the African Slave-trade.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.)</p> + +<p>In the great case of Gibbons <i>vs.</i> Ogden, 9 Wheaton's Reports, pp. 206 +and 207 (1824), Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the +supreme court, makes use of the following language:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"The Act passed in 1803 (Act Const. 1803, c. 63), prohibiting the +importation of slaves into any State which shall itself prohibit +their importation, implies, it is said, an admission that the States +possess the power to exclude or admit them; from which it is +inferred, that they possess the same power with respect to other +articles.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"If this inference were correct; if this power were exercised, not +under any particular clause in the Constitution, but in virtue of a +general right over the subject of commerce to exist as long as the +Constitution itself, it might now be exercised. Any State might now +import African slaves into its own territory. But it is obvious that +the power of the States over this subject, previous to the year +1808, constitutes an exception to the power of Congress to regulate +commerce; and the exception is expressed in such words as to +manifest clearly the intention to continue the pre-existing right of +the States to admit or exclude for a limited period. The words are, +'The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States +now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by +the Congress prior to 1808.' The whole object of the exception is to +preserve the power to those States which might be disposed to +exercise it, and its language seems to the court to convey this idea +unequivocally."</p> + +<p>See also pp. 216, 217.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Restoration of Fugitive Slaves.</span> (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.)</p> + +<p>The following extracts are taken from the opinion of the supreme court +in the well-known case, Prigg <i>vs.</i> the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (16 +Pet. Rep. 609, &c.). Judge Story delivered the opinion:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">"Historically, it is well known, that the object of this clause was +to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the complete +right and title of ownership in their slaves, as property, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> every +State in the Union into which they might escape from the State where +they were held in servitude. The full recognition of this right and +title was indispensable to the security of this species of property +in all the slaveholding States; and, indeed, was so vital to the +preservation of their domestic interests and institutions, that it +cannot be doubted that it constituted a fundamental article, without +the adoption of which the Union could not have been formed. Its true +design was to guard against the doctrines and principles prevalent +in the non-slaveholding States, by preventing them from +intermeddling with, or obstructing, or abolishing, the rights of the +owners of slaves."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 612: "If the Constitution had not contained this clause, every +non-slaveholding State in the Union would have been at liberty to +have declared free all runaway slaves coming within its limits, and +to have given them entire immunity and protection against the claims +of their masters;—a course which would have created the most bitter +animosities, and engendered perpetual strife, between the different +States. The clause was, therefore, of the last importance to the +safety and security of the Southern States, and could not have been +surrendered by them without endangering their whole property in +slaves. The clause was accordingly adopted into the Constitution by +the unanimous consent of the framers of it;—a proof at once of its +intrinsic and practical necessity."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 613: "Upon this ground, we have not the slightest hesitation in +holding, that, under and in virtue of the Constitution, the owner of +a slave is clothed with entire authority, in every State in the +Union, to seize and recapture his slave, whenever he can do it +without any breach of the peace or any illegal violence. In this +sense, and to this extent, this clause of the Constitution may +properly be said to execute itself, and to require no aid from +legislation, state or national."</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Page 625: "Upon these grounds, we are of opinion, that the Act +of Pennsylvania upon which this indictment is founded is +unconstitutional and void. It purports to punish, as a public +offence against that State, the very act of seizing and removing a +slave by his master, which the Constitution of the United States was +designed to justify and uphold."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Suppression of Slave Insurrections.</span> (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.)</p> + +<p>We are not aware of any decision of the supreme court upon the meaning +of these clauses; but it seems difficult to conceive, that they would +hold that the word "insurrections" did not include all insurrections.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Such is the Constitution according to the plain, obvious, and common +meaning of its terms; such it was intended to be made by its framers; +such has been the interpretation constantly followed in the practice of +the government, from the time of its adoption until now; and such it is +according to the decision of the final interpreter of its meaning. As +reasonable men, seeking the truth, we cannot say that there is the +slightest doubt whatever on the subject. <span class="smcap">The Constitution very +materially supports slavery!</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER XVI.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"We will extend to the slaveholder all the courtesy he will allow. +If he is hungry, we will feed him; if he is in want, both hands +shall be stretched out for his aid. We will give him full credit for +all the good that he does, and our deep sympathy in all the +temptations under whose strength he falls. But to help him in his +sin, to remain partners with him in the slave-trade, is more than he +has a right to ask."—<i>Wendell Phillips.</i></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>No wrong action can be rightfully done. No wrong can be rightfully +supported. We can neither rightfully hold slaves nor support others in +slaveholding, because, as we have seen, slaveholding is under all +circumstances wrong. Some of the provisions of the Constitution, as we +have seen, were expressly designed for the purpose of supporting +slavery, and for over half a century have very materially supported it. +Consequently, these provisions cannot be rightfully obeyed or supported. +It is wrong to offer a bounty on slaveholding,—to give the oppressor +power and influence, in proportion as he tramples on the rights of his +fellow-man; it is wrong to return, or aid in returning, a fugitive +slave; it is wrong to aid in keeping the slave in his fetters. These +things are wrong, and not all the Constitutions and laws of the universe +can make them right. We cannot, therefore, rightfully obey the +pro-slavery clauses of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>If we cannot rightfully obey them ourselves, we cannot rightfully, +voluntarily support others in obeying them. If it is wrong for me to +return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for me voluntarily to aid or +support another man in doing the act. If it is wrong for me to commit +murder, it is no less wrong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> for me to hand the pistol to the assassin. +Whatever it is wrong for us to do ourselves, it is wrong for us +voluntarily to aid or support others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong +for us voluntarily to aid or support others in obeying the pro-slavery +requirements of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>If we cannot rightfully obey them, it is wrong for us to promise such +obedience. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to support others in their +obedience, it is wrong for us to promise any such support. If it is +wrong for us to return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for us to promise +to return one. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to aid the +slave-hunter, it is wrong for us to promise such aid. Whatever it is +wrong for us to do or aid others in doing, it is wrong for us to promise +to do or aid others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong for us to +promise to support these constitutional provisions. We cannot, +therefore, accept any office, either state or national, which renders it +necessary for us to support these clauses, or to promise to support +them. We cannot, therefore, rightfully hold any executive or judicial +office, either state or national, or become a member of any State +legislature or of Congress; for all these officers are obliged solemnly +to swear or affirm that they will "support the Constitution;" and to +support the Constitution is to support all of its clauses, as well those +which favor slavery as those which do not. If we take this oath, meaning +to keep it, we do wrong. If we take it, meaning not to keep it, we add +to our wrong, perjury; for we mentally break our oath at the very +instant it passes our lips.</p> + +<p>Some good men seek to avoid the difficulty by saying, "When I swear to +support the Constitution, I mean I will support the good clauses in it, +and disobey the bad, and submit to the penalty for such disobedience." +But such a course is not a compliance with the terms of the oath. You +have sworn "to support the Constitution;" that is, the whole +Constitution,—all its clauses,—the bad as sacredly as the good. Your +oath is not in the alternative, "I will support the clause requiring the +return of fugitive slaves, or pay five hundred dollars for every slave I +aid in escaping;" but simply,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> without any qualification, "I will +support the side of the oppressor." If you aid the fugitive slave to +escape from his master, you do not support the latter in retaking his +property, merely by paying the legal penalty for not giving such +support. You would not support a bad law, and yet you say your oath to +support it is not broken, because you submit to the penalty for not +supporting it. The thief does not support the law of private property, +merely by submitting to the legal punishment of his crime. To support is +to be active: to submit is to be passive. You swear to be active, and +you do not comply with your oath by being merely passive. You have sworn +actively to support the recapture of slaves. You break your oath, if you +refuse to do this, or do any thing less or different from this.</p> + +<p>Others think to find a good excuse for taking the oath, by adopting +another alternative, equally unauthorized. "We will support the +Constitution," say they, "until we are called on to act under any of its +bad clauses; and then we will resign our office, and refuse obedience." +Doubtless, honor requires you to resign, if you cannot comply with the +terms of your oath; but what right have you to adopt or imagine an +alternative in your oath where the law has made none,—where the officer +administering it will admit of none? Who does not see the wide +difference between an honest oath to support the return of fugitive +slaves, and an oath to support such return, but with a firm resolve on +your part to refuse such support when called on for it, and to resign? +What right have you to take an oath which you have previously resolved +not to keep, when called on to comply with? You admit that a bad clause +cannot be rightfully supported, else why do you not support it? You +admit that the oath obliges you to support the bad clauses of the +Constitution as well as the good; else why do you resign, if refusal to +support the bad clauses is consistent with your oath? You openly avow, +therefore, that, at the very moment you swear to support a clause, you +determine never to support it. You swear, and determine not to keep your +oath! Such a course seems to us inconsistent with the plainest rules of +honesty. We have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> no right to promise to do wrong, even though we have +resolved to do right when the time for action shall arrive.</p> + +<p>Others say, "We swear to support the Constitution as we understand it, +and we consider it an anti-slavery instrument." In other words, you +swear to support an interpretation which is contrary to the plain, +obvious, and common meaning of the instrument; contrary to the +interpretation put upon it by its framers; contrary to that followed by +all the executive and legislative departments of the government, from +its first establishment until now; and contrary to that which has been +adjudged to be its true interpretation by the final arbiter of its +meaning. Of course, you intend to support the true meaning of the +Constitution. Do you really believe that the people of the United States +did not mean by their words what those words then commonly meant? Do you +really doubt the historical fact of the humiliating compromise between +the delegates from the Southern and Eastern States in the Philadelphia +Convention, by which the latter undertook to barter the moral sense of +their constituents for what was supposed to be their interest? Do you +really believe that the people have suffered their servants to go on in +ignorance of the true meaning for sixty years? In fact, do you venture +to affirm, or do you in perfect sincerity and truthfulness believe, that +your interpretation has ever at any time been considered right by the +people of the United States, or by any considerable number of them? You +deceive yourself with words! What is the Constitution? Not the meaning +which you or I, or any third person, may please to put upon it; but that +meaning, and that meaning only, which consists with its being, what it +declares itself to be, the supreme law of the land. Until, therefore, +you can show that the Constitution may properly receive as many +different interpretations as there are oaths to support it, and still be +in fact the supreme law, the one, single, definite rule for all, States +as well as people, you have no right to say, "I will support the +pro-slavery clauses as I understand them." To support them in any other +sense than that which is affixed to them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> as the supreme law of the +land, is merely to evade the true meaning of your oath.</p> + +<p>Others say, "We took the oath before we had any of our present scruples. +We would not take the oath now; but, nevertheless, we shall continue in +office, and disregard our oath." This excuse seems to us very +objectionable. How can you reap the honorary or pecuniary advantages of +your office, and honestly refuse compliance with your part of the +bargain? When you took office, you were really told, that, if you would +swear to support the return of fugitive slaves, &c. you should enjoy +these honors and these profits. The conscientious man, who, in striving +to better himself, not his condition, discovers afterwards that he +cannot rightfully aid, or promise to aid, the slaveholder in retaking +his slaves, will not think of claiming the reward which was offered to +him solely because he swore to give such aid. He will make haste to +resign honors and rewards which he feels can be retained only at the +price of his own degradation.</p> + +<p>If we cannot rightfully hold any office, state or national, which +requires of us a promise to support the Constitution, it is wrong to +place, or voluntarily aid in placing, any other person in such office; +for, by so doing, we ask him to do wrong. If we vote for Horace Mann, by +this act alone we say to him, as distinctly as if the words passed our +lips,—"We wish to elect you as representative to Congress. If chosen, +we expect and ask you to qualify yourself to act as representative, by +swearing to give slavery all constitutional support." Merely by voting +for him, we ask him to do wrong, hoping that good may come, almost +knowing that good will come! So little faith have we in the final +triumph of right and justice, by pursuing only right and just ways! Of +so little consequence do we consider it, that the earnest advocate of +freedom should commence his holy work by promising very materially to +strengthen slavery! But a short time has elapsed since we read one of +his most eloquent rebukes of slavery. Our heart beat quickly as we read +his earnest words. But if, in the midst of his address, some slaveholder +had turned and asked him, "How happens it, sir,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> that you, who are so +very earnest and disinterested in behalf of the rights of the slave, +have been willing to swear to support this terrible wrong, to any extent +or for any time?" And what answer could be returned? The eloquent tongue +would be palsied! Surely that man who has solemnly called God to witness +that he will support the oppressor, cannot fail, at some time or +another, to feel himself to be unworthy to plead the cause of freedom.</p> + +<p>Finally, some say, "This reasoning leads to non-resistance. You +disregard the fact that all human governments must contain a greater or +less amount of evil; and consequently, if you are ever to support any +government in all its requirements, you must support evil." Very true is +it that human governments and laws fall short of our relative standard +of right, and always of absolute right. What is our duty? Clearly, as +moral beings, to support the right, and refuse to support the wrong; as +peaceful citizens, to support the right, and submit to the penalty of +disobeying the wrong. Nothing more than this is required of us. Nothing +less than this is our duty. We are not put into the world, blindly to +support all existing governmental wrongs, until they can be +constitutionally abolished. We are to be true to ourselves as moral +beings. If we can be true to our own souls and support the government, +we may give such support,—not otherwise! Right and wrong are not +creatures of agreement and law. Neither the Philadelphia Convention that +framed the Constitution, nor the State Conventions that adopted it, had +power to make wrong in the slightest degree right, or alter at all the +moral character of slaveholding. Right is right, the Revised Statutes to +the contrary notwithstanding. Wrong is wrong, the Constitution to the +contrary notwithstanding. We say, therefore, we will obey the good +requirements of the Constitution, and peacefully submit to the penalty +of disobeying the bad. This is all that government has a right to ask of +us. Institutions were made for man, not man for them. Constitutions are +the work of man, and man is to be reverenced before his works. We see no +inconsistency or impropriety in supporting the system of free-trade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +between the States, and refusing to support the domestic slave-trade; in +supporting the patent laws, and refusing to aid in returning a runaway +slave. We are good-government men, not no-government men. All +governments are partly good. All we are willing to support in part: we +will actively support the Constitution and laws, so far as conscience +permits; we will peacefully submit to legal exaction for disobeying the +rest.</p> + +<p>Our purpose is accomplished. We have shown that we are politically +united with the South in the support of slavery. We have shown that we +should constantly bear upon our lips, and in our lives, the motto, "<i>No +union with slaveholders, whereby we are obliged to countenance or +support slavery</i>." We desire to see a union among the States, but not a +slaveholding union! A union of freemen, and Free States for the sake of +freedom, no one would more readily support than we. But a union like +ours, of freemen and slaveholders, of Free States and Slave States, for +the sake in part of securing property in slaves, is demoralizing (how +demoralizing has it been!) to both parties, and should receive, as it +doubtless at no distant day will receive, the condemnation of the wise +and good. In the meantime, it ought not, and it will not, receive either +our respect or our voluntary support.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">FOOTNOTES:</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Mr. Clapp is said to have changed his opinions since 1838. +We hope he has. But he has not favored the world with any statement of +what his change consists in. The statement which recently appeared in +the "Picayune," even if reliable, shows that Mr. Clapp had changed his +opinion somewhat, but not essentially, as it seems to us.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> We quote from Mr. Jones's work just referred to. His work +contains a summary of all that has been done for the religious +instruction of the negroes from their first introduction here; an +account of their actual moral condition, and what he thinks should be +done for their elevation. His testimony is unimpeachable, and is of the +very highest authority. Our faith in his sincerity is sometimes tried, +when we read language like this applied to the adult slave, p. 117: "He +marries and <i>settles in life</i>; his children grow up around him, and +tread in his footsteps, as he did in the footsteps of his father before +him." +</p><p> +For a loan of this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend, +William Lloyd Garrison.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Sandy Jenkins tried to impress Douglass with the belief, +that if he would always carry a root which he gave him, <i>on his right +side</i>, it would render it impossible for any white man to whip him +("Narrative," p. 70). And before Wm. W. Brown made his last successful +effort to escape, he paid the old slave fortune-teller, Frank, +twenty-five cents for his advice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> "If they make you partakers of their temporal things (of +their strength and spirits, and even of their offspring), you ought to +make them partakers of your spiritual things."—<i>Bishop of London in</i> +1727 (<i>Jones</i>, p. 20).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> How carefully does Mr. Jones teach the slaves "to search +the Scriptures"! ("Catechism," p. 103.) +</p><p> +"Q. Is not our duty, on the sabbath, to go to the house of God, to the +meeting for prayer, to the sabbath-school, and wherever we may worship +God and learn his will?—A. Yes. +</p><p> +"Q. What was done with the man that gathered sticks on the sabbath-day, +not caring for God's commandment?—A. He was stoned. +</p><p> +"Q. Is sabbath-breaking a great sin in the sight of God?—A. Yes. (Ib. +p. 104) He who breaks the sabbath robs God of his own; for the day is +the Lord's."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> "Were it now revealed to us," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 180), +"that the most extensive system of instruction which we could devise, +requiring a vast amount of labor, and protracted through ages, would +result in the tender mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of +<i>one poor African</i>, we should feel warranted in cheerfully entering upon +our work, with all its costs and sacrifices; for our reward would exceed +all our toil and care above the computation of any finite mind." Badly +educated, misguided, we believe Mr. Jones to be; but these are the words +of honest, sincere conviction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> For a loan of this book we are indebted to our friend +Parker Pillsbury.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> "A Catechism of Scripture Doctrine and Practice for +Families and Sabbath Schools, designed also for the Oral Instruction of +Colored Persons, by Charles C. Jones," 6th edit.; Charleston, 1845. In +his preface, Mr. Jones says, "The Catechism has been prepared +<i>expressly</i> for the religious instruction of the negroes; and it has +been extensively tried and approved by those engaged in that good work." +It is unquestionably much more used than any other. It has already +passed through six editions. It really merits this position.—For a +perusal of this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend +Samuel Brooke, of Ohio.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> "Let us ever remember the name that Hagar gave to God, +'Thou God seest me,' and act as in his presence. Let us be afraid to +steal or lie or curse, or break the Sabbath, or do any wicked thing. +<i>God will see and know.</i>"—Jones's "Catechism," p. 28. +</p><p> +"Ought not you to try and keep the fear of God always before your eyes? +Do not be tempted to say, as too many wicked people do, 'Oh! nobody will +know it; nobody will see it.' Remember that God is always looking at +you. He sees all that you do: he hears every word that you say: he knows +all that you think about: and he can in a moment strike you dead: he is +able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Knowing these things, fear +him, so as not willingly to offend him."—<i>Rev. Alexander Glennie's +Sermons</i>, p. 32. See also to the same point, Bishop Ives's "Catechism," +p. 13, 14, 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> What a beautiful commentary on this teaching is afforded us +by Douglass! ("Narrative," p. 47.) Speaking of his grandmother, he +says,—"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 for ever. 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"! Who that has read Douglass's account of his grandmother, of which +this is a small extract, has not been moved both to pity for the slave, +and loathing for slavery? Who has not asked with him, "Will not a +righteous God visit for these things"?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> A slave may die in consequence of "<i>moderate correction</i>," +as that term is understood in some of the Slave States. +</p><p> +The Constitution of Georgia, Art. 4, sec. 12, reads thus (Hotchkiss's +"Codification," p. 71, 1845):—"Any person who shall maliciously +dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punishment as +would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed on a free +white person, and on the like proof, except in case of insurrection of +such slave, and unless such death should happen by accident in giving +such slave moderate correction."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_12" id="Footnote_L_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_12"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> Our friend Francis Jackson procured us this book.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_13" id="Footnote_M_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_13"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Mr. Jones thinks ("Rel. Inst." p. 135), that "the crime of +infanticide" among the slaves is "restrained in good measure ... by the +moral degradation of the people, that takes away the disgrace of +bastardy." We remember hearing from Prof. Greenleaf the account of a +successful defence, on this ground, of a female slave in this State, who +was tried for committing this offence. A female slave, it was argued, +<i>could</i> not feel shame at the birth of an illegitimate child, and +therefore her affection as a mother would prevent her from committing +the crime. But experience has demonstrated, that a slave-mother may be +led to take her child's life from very love itself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_14" id="Footnote_N_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_14"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> "The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church recently +expelled a minister from both the ministry and the church, for marrying +a sister of his deceased wife."—<i>The Church as it is</i>, p. 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_15" id="Footnote_O_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_15"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> Colored persons are not competent witnesses on the trial of +a white man. Any white man, therefore, can, with perfect impunity, +commit any excess whatever upon any slaves, so long as they or their +companions alone are witnesses. So carefully does the law guard the +honor of the female slave!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_P_16" id="Footnote_P_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_P_16"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> The original of this advertisement may be seen at the +Anti-Slavery office, Boston, 21, Cornhill, pasted on one side of a copy +of the newspaper called "Spirit of Liberty"! How appropriate a heading!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Q_17" id="Footnote_Q_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Q_17"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> For this and other advertisements from Boston papers, I am +indebted to my friend Wendell Phillips.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_R_18" id="Footnote_R_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_R_18"><span class="label">[R]</span></a> We cut this advertisement from the "Boston Daily +Republican" of Aug. 30, 1849. It previously appeared in the "Providence +Journal."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_S_19" id="Footnote_S_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_S_19"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> A writer in the "New Orleans Argus," Sept. 1830, in an +article on the culture of the sugar-cane, says,—"The loss by death in +bringing slaves from a northern climate, which our planters are under +the necessity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per cent"! Our +tables prove the same thing. Of the 40,000 slaves annually carried +south, only 29,101 are found to survive;—a greater sacrifice of life +than that caused by the middle passage!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_T_20" id="Footnote_T_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_T_20"><span class="label">[T]</span></a> The Act of 1741, of which this law is in part a revision, +reads thus, sec. 45: "Which proclamation shall be published on a +<i>sabbath-day at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of +such, at the place where divine service shall be performed in the said +county, by the parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine +service</i>; and, if any slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath +been thus issued, stay out and do not immediately return home, it shall +be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such +slave or slaves by such ways or means as he or she shall think fit, +without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same."—In those +happy days, Father Taylor would not have been called on to thank God, +that the man who was on the point of strangling his brother according to +law was not troubled by any feeling of <i>sentimentalism</i>!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_U_21" id="Footnote_U_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_U_21"><span class="label">[U]</span></a> The Rev. Dr. Furman, of North Carolina, another Baptist +clergyman, like Dr. Fuller wrote a defence of slavery. After his death, +his legal representative advertised for sale at auction his real estate, +and "a library of a miscellaneous character, <i>chiefly theological</i>; +twenty-seven negroes, <i>some of them very prime</i>," &c. ("The Church as +it is," p. 73.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_V_22" id="Footnote_V_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V_22"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> This point, and the legality of Colonial and State Slavery, +are more elaborated in an article called "The Constitutionality of +Slavery," printed in the "Massachusetts Quarterly Review;" a purely +legal, uninteresting examination, which needs not to be repeated here. +</p><p> +For a more extended proof of the constitutionality of slavery, we refer +to Wendell Phillips's very able Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_W_23" id="Footnote_W_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_W_23"><span class="label">[W]</span></a> 5 Hen. Stat. 547.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_X_24" id="Footnote_X_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_X_24"><span class="label">[X]</span></a> 6 Ibid. 356.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</span></p> + + +<p> +Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Page 66: opinon changed to opinion</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Page 150: righfully changed to rightfully</span><br /> +<br /> +Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.<br /> +<br /> +Punctuation has been corrected without note.<br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery and the Constitution, by +William Ingersoll Bowditch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + +***** This file should be named 38716-h.htm or 38716-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/1/38716/ + +Produced by David E. 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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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Slavery and the Constitution + +Author: William Ingersoll Bowditch + +Release Date: January 30, 2012 [EBook #38716] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + SLAVERY + AND + THE CONSTITUTION. + + BY WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH. + + BOSTON: + ROBERT F. WALLCUT, 21, CORNHILL. + 1849. + + + BOSTON: + PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, + No. 21, School-street. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +_Chapter_ _Page_ + +I. "SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE" 1 + +II. DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 5 + +III. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES 14 + +IV. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES 19 + +V. DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 27 + +VI. INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.--NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES 56 + +VII. "SOUL-DRIVING" 68 + +VIII. "DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE" 77 + +IX. RUNAWAY SLAVES 94 + +X. SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG 107 + +XI. THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION 117 + +XII. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS 120 + +XIII. THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT 127 + +XIV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT 136 + +XV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL + INTERPRETER 143 + +XVI. NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS 150 + + + + +NOTE. + + +Page 45 was struck off before I became aware that "Master Auld" _now_ +shelters Douglass's grandmother under his own roof. We are glad of the +fact, and respect Master Auld for his change. But the case of Douglass's +grandmother is by no means a solitary instance of cruel treatment. I +might easily adduce others equally cruel, though not told with nearly so +much feeling. W. I. B. + + + + +SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +"SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE"! + + "Thus did Jehovah stereotype his _approbation_ of domestic + slavery"!--_Rev. President Shannon, of Bacon College, Ky._ + + "Here we see _God dealing in slaves_; giving them to his own + favorite child [Abraham], a man of superlative worth, and as a + reward for his eminent goodness."--_Rev. Theodore Clapp, of New + Orleans._ + + +Nearly three millions of men, women, and children are held in slavery in +the Southern States, not by the ignorant and brutal alone, but by +enlightened Christian bishops, ministers, and church members of all +denominations; whilst men and women of cultivated minds, refined +manners, and delicate tastes, indignantly deny that slaveholding is +wrong. + +The Right Rev. George W. Freeman, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal +Church in Arkansas and Texas, whilst a minister at Raleigh, N.C. Nov. +27, 1836, preached two discourses on the character of slavery and the +duties of masters. In these ("A Reproof of the American Church, by the +Bishop of Oxford; with an Introduction, by an American Churchman;" New +York, 1846, p. 6) he declared "that no man, nor set of men in our day, +unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled to +pronounce slavery wrong;" and that "_slavery, as it exists at the +present day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Providence_." The +Right Rev. Levi S. Ives, Bishop of the diocese, was present; and, though +a northern man, has in writing published that he listened to them "with +most unfeigned pleasure"! (Ib. p. 7.) They were afterwards published +with the bishop's note of approbation, under the title, "The Rights and +Duties of Slaveholders." They were also printed in South Carolina, and +distributed gratuitously as a tract by the Society for the Advancement +of Christianity,--a society composed of clergymen and laymen, with +Bishop Bowen at their head. (Ib. pp. 7, 8.) Rev. Theodore Clapp,[A] the +Unitarian minister of New Orleans, says ("Slavery, a Sermon delivered in +the First Congregational Church in New Orleans, April 15, 1838," p. 11), +"The same _God_ who gave Abraham sunshine, air, rain, earth, flocks, +herds, silver, and gold, _blessed him with a donative of slaves_." Ib. +p. 33: "To succeed, then, in putting down every thing like servitude, +you must annihilate the word of God." Bishop Hedding, of the Methodist +Episcopal Church, says ("The Church as it is," p. 50), "The right to +hold a slave is founded on this rule, 'Therefore, all things whatsoever +ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them.'" The funds +of churches and theological institutions are not unfrequently invested +in slaves. Sometimes these slaves are hired out at auction, and from +their earnings the salaries of the clergymen and professors are paid! At +other times, they are sold in order to change the investment! Thus, in +the "Charleston Courier," Feb. 12, 1835, there is advertised for sale, +by Thomas N. Gadsden, "a prime gang of ten negroes, accustomed to the +culture of cotton and provisions belonging to the Independent Church in +Christ Church parish"! ("The Church as it is," p. 72.) No _incredible_ +story, therefore, was told by the fugitive slave, who gave as his reason +for not receiving the Lord's Supper, "I could not bear to go forward, +and receive the communion from vessels which were the purchase of my +brother's blood." In the memorial of the Presbytery of Georgia to the +Presbyteries of the Southern States in 1844, on the religious +instruction of the negroes, it is stated that slaves are "connected with +our churches; nay, more, they are owned by our church members and by our +ministers."--"What is it," asks the Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes (Sermon in +Philadelphia in 1846, "The Church as it is," p. 81), "that lends the +most efficient sanction to slavery in the United States? What is it that +does most to keep the public conscience at ease on the subject? What is +it that renders abortive all measures to remove the evil?... It is the +fact that the system is countenanced by good men; that bishops and +priests and deacons, that ministers and elders, that Sunday-school +teachers and exhorters, that pious matrons and heiresses, are the +holders of slaves; and that the ecclesiastical bodies of the land +address no language of rebuke or entreaty to their consciences." More +evidence to the same point might be adduced, if thought necessary. + +This open vindication of the rightfulness of slaveholding is by no means +confined to persons residing at the South. In the year 1847, the Rev. +Geo. W. Blagden, of Boston, who delivered the last Dudleian Lecture in +Harvard University, defended slavery from the Bible, in the pulpit of +Old South Church, that second cradle of Liberty! Only last winter +(1848), a gentleman of this State, of high legal attainments, at present +connected with the Law School in Harvard University, in conversation +hesitated not to declare to us his opinion, "that it was not _desirable_ +that slavery should cease"! And Dr. Taylor, of Yale College, at the head +of the theological department, instructs his pupils, candidates for the +ministry, that, "if Jesus Christ were now on earth, he would, under +certain circumstances, become a slaveholder"! ("The Church as it is," p. +95.) + +Open defenders of slavery are therefore found among the foremost of the +leaders in Church and State. And how few of the opponents of the system +have a deep, ineradicable conviction, that slaveholding is wrong under +_all_ circumstances! Our object is to create and deepen this conviction. + +To prove our position, we shall not rely upon the physical condition of +the slaves. Notwithstanding the fact is otherwise, we are willing to +suppose that every slave is comfortably housed, and has sufficient food +and clothing. These may give + + "Ease to the body some, none to the mind + From restless thoughts." + +Even if in a comfortable house, the slave is homeless! No joys cluster +around _his_ hearthstone! _He_ has no wife to share his sorrows, or to +partake his joys; for neither law nor public opinion sanctions the +marriage of slaves! The very children whom the slave presses to his +heart are not regarded, either by law or public sentiment, as his dear +children, but only as part of the stock of the plantation! Mother and +children may be, and are, sold at auction, and separated from him and +from each other for ever! And yet the heart of the slave-mother yearns +for her children as much as the heart of the white mother. + +By giving me a spiritual nature capable of improvement, God has made it +my duty to strive to improve myself,--has declared that I have a natural +right to improve myself, and that any wanton or unnecessary infringement +of this right is a wrong. No man has the right to prevent me, or the +meanest slave, from earnestly seeking after wisdom; to prevent me, or +the meanest slave, from becoming pure in heart; or to deaden my +affections, or those of the humblest slave that walks. In keeping a +slave ignorant or impure, or in blunting his affections, even though he +is well fed, clothed, and housed, violence is offered to his nature; his +God-given _rights_ are infringed; a _wrong_ is done! + +Slaveholding is wrong under _all_ circumstances, because it either +darkens the minds, brutalizes the souls, and deadens the affections of +the slaves, or, without any necessity, renders such spiritual death not +merely possible, but almost inevitable. If it is wrong to murder the +body, how much more wrong is it to murder the soul! Slaveholding is +murder of the soul! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES. + + "It is universally the fact throughout the Slaveholding States, that + either custom or law prohibits them [_i.e._ the slaves] the + acquisition of letters."--_Report made to Synod of South Carolina + and Georgia in 1833._ + + +At a recent annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, the +Rev. Joel Parker, D.D. of Philadelphia, a member of the Presbyterian +Church, speaking of the instruction of the colored race, is reported to +have used the following language:--"There seems to me, in connection +with this subject, a beautiful illustration of what Hall calls 'a fetch +in Divine Providence.' God had a design in bringing these people to this +country in the way he did. We cannot probably comprehend the whole of +it; but this we can see, he has secured the education of those who, to +all human appearance, would not and could not have been educated in any +other way. There are now in this country more than three hundred +thousand Africans who can read and write, who could not have done it if +it had not been for the slave-trade. There are many in this country and +in Liberia who are capable of preaching the gospel, editing papers, and +performing all the duties of civil life, who must have remained in total +darkness but for this trade. How came this people by all this knowledge? +Did anybody go to Africa and teach them? No! It has been done by +slavery.... And now we send them back to Africa, with a preparation for +doing a great work there, which we never could have imparted to them in +any other way.... In this view of the subject, we may perceive at least +one good which slavery has done to Africa; and the question may with +propriety be asked, whether it has not done for Africa more good than +harm." + +If we may believe this spiritual teacher, the Being who made of one +blood all the nations of men, the common Father of us all, himself +designed the scheme by which millions of men, women, and children were +torn from their homes and friends, and all they held dear, and brought +to this country, through all the horrors of the middle passage, where a +terrible death relieved on an average at least one fifth of the victims +from a scarcely less terrible life,--for this end in part, that, after +two centuries of wrongs, not even a tithe of their descendants might be +returned to the land of their fathers, to teach the Africans the +religion of their oppressors! A truly touching example of God's +loving-kindness and tender mercy to all his children! + +That many slaves have been instructed to the extent stated by Dr. Parker +is true; but they have been educated, not in consequence, but in spite, +of slavery. So hostile to mental culture is slavery, that but a slight +examination is needed to satisfy us that it is neither profitable nor +safe to educate a slave beyond a certain point. Without _some_ +education, a slave would be worse than valueless. Far the larger number +of them, as field slaves, are simply taught to use the hoe, and other +instruments of agriculture. Others are brought up as carpenters, masons, +blacksmiths, house-servants, &c. Frederick Douglass earned a dollar and +a half a day at caulking; whilst William Craft, as a cabinet-maker and +occasional waiter at an hotel, supported himself, and paid his owner +twenty dollars a month for the right to use his own muscles. We +occasionally meet with such advertisements as the following, cut from +the "New Orleans Picayune," of Oct. 18, 1846:-- + + "CREDIT SALE OF VALUABLE NEGRO MECHANICS, &c.--By Beard, Calhoun, + and Co. auctioneers, will be sold at auction, on Tuesday the 20th + October, at twelve o'clock, at Banks's Arcade, the following + valuable slaves:--Ezekiel, 25 years, _a superior carpenter_, + fully guarantied; Jacob, 25 years, _a superior carpenter and + wheelwright_, fully guarantied; Dick, 35 years, _a superior + carpenter and wheelwright_, fully guarantied; Charles, 28 years, + _engineer and rough carpenter_; Charles, 22 years, _field hand_, + fully guarantied, excepting slightly ruptured; Sancho, 26 years, + _good house carpenter_, fully guarantied; Maria, mulattress, 28 + years, _first-rate washer and ironer_, fully guarantied; Maria, + negress, 13, child's nurse, fully guarantied. + + "Terms: Twelve months' credit for notes drawn and endorsed to the + satisfaction of the vendor, with mortgage on the property, bearing + interest eight per cent per annum, from date of sale until paid. + Slaves not to be delivered until the notes are approved of. The + servants can be seen on the morning of sale. Act of sale before D. + I. Ricardo, notary public, at the expense of the purchaser." + +In the same paper, Alexander Daggett advertises "for sale a negro man, +_a first-rate blacksmith_." In the "Richmond Whig" of Jan. 25, 1848, +Benjamin Davis advertises for sale a negro man "who is a first-rate +carpenter by trade; also a rough blacksmith." In the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury," Thomas W. Mordecai, broker and auctioneer, under date Sept. 1, +1847, advertises at private sale-- + + "An uncommonly prime and likely black man, about 22. + A _prime woman_, a superior washer, and good cook and farm hand. + A very prime axeman and field hand. + A superior man-cook." + +It is not, however, necessary to teach a slave-mechanic or field hand, +or even "a prime woman," to read or write, in order to make him or her a +profitable investment. If we suppose William Craft's value as a slave to +have been two thousand dollars, his master received from his investment +_only_ twelve per cent _clear profit_! Yet William could neither read +nor write. He was a valuable working machine. To have him educated +farther, to have taught him to read or write, would have lessened his +market value. To teach a slave these things is to teach him his rights, +and to make him keenly feel his wrongs. Mrs. Hugh Auld taught Frederick +Douglass his letters before slavery had hardened her naturally kind +heart. She gave him the inch, as he says, and no precaution could +prevent his taking the ell. He taught himself to read and write, and +thus describes the effect produced by reading a book called "The +Columbian Orator." This book contains one or more of Sheridan's +speeches, and a dialogue between a master and his slave, wherein the +slave is made to refute all the arguments usually brought forward in +support of slavery. + + "The more I read," he says ("Narrative," p. 40), "the more I was led + to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other + light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, + and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange + land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as + well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the + subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had + predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to + torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under + it, I could at times feel that learning to read had been a curse, + rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched + condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible + pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I + envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished + myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to + my own,--any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was + this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There + was no getting rid of it." + +As a necessary result of his learning to read, Douglass loathed slavery, +and detested his enslavers. If he had never read, his eyes would never +have been fully opened to the extent of his wrongs; and what is true of +him is true of all other slaves. _Any_ slave who can read Sheridan's +denunciations of slavery must, like Douglass, loathe his condition, and +detest his oppressors. + +But a slave who loathes his condition, and detests his oppressors, will +be refractory and disobedient. A late writer in the "Charleston Mercury" +admits this when he remarks ("William Jay's Letter to Bishop Ives," +1848, p. 12):-- + + "It has been the policy of this State not to admit the teaching to + the slaves, either of reading or writing. We all know why this is + so. It needed no great scope of argument to satisfy those who framed + our laws, that the expansion of intellect, the hundred influences + which education generates, would be very inconsistent with habits of + obedience, which was the corner-stone of the institution." + +Such a slave will also try to escape at every fair opportunity; and, +being able to write passes or forge free papers, the chances for +successful escape are very much increased. The owner's hold upon him +becomes daily more and more precarious, and consequently the slave's +value as property daily diminishes. So true is this, that in Louisiana a +buyer may legally refuse to take a slave, if he has only "absented +himself from his master's house twice for several days, or once for more +than a month." The "Civil Code" (Art. 2496, 2505) declares that the +"vice of character," as it is called, which is proved by either of these +Acts, renders the slave absolutely useless, or renders his use so +inconvenient or imperfect that it must be supposed no one would buy a +slave who was known to have this vice. + +Every particle of instruction given to a slave beyond what is consistent +with his remaining a passive and obedient, working machine, is so much +money taken from the master's pocket. Nobody wants to invest his money +in a slave who is refractory or disobedient, or who runs away at every +opportunity,--unless, indeed, he buys the stock, in consequence, at very +much under par! The value of Douglass as a slave decreased just as fast +as his manhood increased; and Capt. Price now candidly avows, that he +hesitated some time before he invested seven hundred dollars in William +W. Brown; for William was a noted runaway! The love of money impels the +slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance. + +Not only this, but an educated slave, who loathes his condition and +hates his oppressors, is an unsafe member of a household or a community. +His means for taking a fearful vengeance are ample, and what +consideration shall stay his hands? None but an educated slave can plan +or head an insurrection. Such are the ones who always do take active +part in rebellions. The house-servants constitute everywhere the most +educated class. None are more dreaded than they, for this reason in +part, and partly because of their living under the same roof with their +masters. In a pamphlet published in Charleston, S. C. in 1822, p. 14, by +Gen. Thomas Pinckney, speaking of house-servants, he remarks:-- + + "They are the most dangerous. Their intimate acquaintance with all + the circumstances relating to the interior of the dwellings, the + confidence reposed in them, _and the information they unavoidably + obtain from hearing the conversation and observing the habitual + transactions of their owners, afford them the most ample means for + treacherous bloodshed and devastation_. The success, therefore, of + servile conspiracies mainly depends on this class for taking off, by + midnight murder, their unsuspecting owners; and the late trials, by + exhibiting so large a portion of this description among the + ringleaders of the conspiracy, afford a melancholy proof of their + promptitude to become actors in such scenes."--_William Jay's + Letter, &c._ p. 9. + +The love of life itself, the desire for the safety of their wives and +children, impels the slaveholders to keep their slaves in ignorance. + +Two of the strongest motives which can be brought to bear upon man, the +love of money and the love of life, are therefore constantly urging the +slaveholder to darken the minds of his slaves. If the former of these +motives leads to the commission of so much wrong everywhere, what will +not both motives together accomplish to the injury of the slave? But the +slaveholders have not been willing to trust wholly to these motives, +strong though they are. In many of the States, it is a penal offence to +teach a slave to read or write; and, where laws of this kind do not +exist, custom, as universal, powerful, and remorseless as the law, +accomplishes the same wrong. The following are some of these laws:-- + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA, chap. 34, sec. 74 ("Revision +of Stat." 1830, chap. 6, Sec.1), provide that + + "Any free person who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any + slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures + excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or + pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in + this State having jurisdiction thereof; and, upon conviction, shall, + at the discretion of the court, if a white man or woman, be fined + not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than two hundred + dollars, or imprisoned; and, if a free person of color, shall be + fined, imprisoned, or whipped, at the discretion of the court, not + exceeding thirty-nine lashes, nor less than twenty lashes." + +Chap. 111, sec. 27 (Statute, 1830, chap. 6, Sec. 2), provides that,-- + + "If any slave shall teach, or attempt to teach, any other slave to + read or write, the use of figures excepted, he or she may be carried + before any justice of the peace, and, on conviction thereof, shall + be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back." + +In SOUTH CAROLINA, the "Negro Act" (1740, Sec. 45; "2 Brev. Dig." 243), +provides that-- + + "All and every person and persons whatsoever who shall hereafter + teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall + use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing + whatsoever, hereafter taught to write; every such person and persons + shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds + current money." + +In ALABAMA (Statute, 1832, chap. 8, Sec. 10; "Clay's Digest," p. 543, Sec. +24),-- + + "Any person or persons who shall attempt to teach any free person of + color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction + thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred + and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars." + +In GEORGIA ("Penal Code approved Dec. 23, 1833," 13th div., sec. 18; +"Prince's Digest," p. 658; "William A. Hotchkiss's Codification," 1845, +p. 772),-- + + "If any person shall teach any slave, negro, or free person of + color, to read or write either written or printed characters, or + shall procure, suffer, or permit a slave, negro, or person of color, + to transact business for him in writing, such person so offending + shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be + punished by fine, or imprisonment in the common jail of the county, + or both, at the discretion of the court." + +In MISSISSIPPI ("Howard & Hutchinson's Laws," p. 673), + + "No slave or free person of color can be employed in the setting of + types in any printing office." + +In MISSOURI, the "Revised Statutes" (chap. 8, sec. 10, p. 117) provide +that,-- + + "When an apprentice is a negro or mulatto, it shall _not_ be the + duty of the master to cause such colored apprentice to be taught to + read or write, or a knowledge of arithmetic; but he shall be + allowed, at the expiration of his term of service, a sum of money in + lieu of education, to be assessed by the county court." + +The Act of 1847 (approved Feb. 16, Sec. 1) reads,-- + + "No person shall keep or teach any school for the instruction of + negroes or mulattoes in reading or writing in this State." + +Other similar laws might be produced; but these suffice to exhibit, in a +clear light, the opportunities presented for the mental instruction of +slaves! In some States, it is unlawful to teach even a FREE colored +person to read or write! + +That these laws have been almost universally respected and obeyed, there +is no room to doubt. No one has given more attention to this subject +than the Rev. Chas. C. Jones, of Savannah, Ga. In 1842 he published, at +Savannah, a work, containing the result of his researches, entitled "The +Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States." In this +work, p. 115, he says, "The statutes of our respective Slave States +forbid all knowledge of letters to the negroes; and, where the statutes +do not, custom does. It is impossible to form an estimate of the number +of negroes that _read_. My belief is, that the proportion would be +expressed by AN ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE FRACTION. The greatest number of +readers is found in and about towns and cities, and among the FREE negro +population some two or three generations removed from servitude."--As a +confirmation of this testimony of Mr. Jones, we know no greater proof +that the degraded class in any community is almost wholly uneducated, +than that a large portion of the privileged class is so. The law of +compensation is divine. We cannot degrade or brutalize our fellow-men, +without degrading or brutalizing ourselves. Now, we find that, in the +Slave States, almost one tenth of the free _white_ population over +twenty years of age are unable to read and write! To some persons this +may seem a small proportion; but, in the Free States, with all our +ignorance, there are less than one in one hundred and fifty! and Horace +Mann, the best authority on this subject, says that "at least four +fifths of these are foreigners, who ought not to be included in the +computation." In Connecticut, out of 163,843 free persons over twenty +years of age, there are only 526 who are unable to read and write; +while, in the model Slave State of South Carolina, out of only 111,663 +free white persons over twenty years of age, there are 20,615 who cannot +read and write! "In South Carolina," says Theodore Parker, "out of each +626 free whites more than twenty years of age, there are more than 58 +wholly unable to read or write; out of that number of such persons in +Connecticut, not quite two"! More than the sixth part of the adult +freemen of South Carolina are unable to read the vote they deposit in +the ballot-box! And Gov. Clarke, of Kentucky, declared in his message to +the legislature in 1837, that one third of the adult population of that +State were unable to write their names! While such is the state of the +freemen, it is impossible that any considerable number of the slaves +should become educated. With these facts before us, it is impossible not +to admit the correctness of Mr. Jones's conclusion. Only an "almost +inconceivable fraction" of three millions of slaves can read or write! +These are taught by their owners, or with their connivance; and of them +we shall speak hereafter. But, taken as a mass, the slaves are truly +described by a writer in the "Marysville (Tennessee) Intelligencer" as +being "degraded, stupid savages." We may add, not naturally degraded and +stupid, but made and kept so in open violation of their rights as human +beings, for the sake of gain! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES. + + "Their depravity, their spiritual ignorance and destitution, are + amazingly and awfully great."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Catechism_; + _preface_, p. 4. + + +"When the charge of the intellectual and moral degradation of the slaves +is preferred against us," says Mr. Jones[B] ("Religious Instruction," p. +107), "we are inclined to put the best face on affairs, knowing that +this is the darkest feature and the most vulnerable point." + +"Their notions of the Supreme Being (ib. p. 125); of the character and +offices of Christ and of the Holy Ghost; of a future state; and of what +constitutes holiness of life, are indefinite and confused. Some brought +up in a Christian land, and in the vicinity of the house of God, have +heard of Jesus Christ; but who he is, and what he has done for a ruined +world, they cannot tell. The Mohammedan Africans remaining of the old +stock of importations, although accustomed to hear the gospel preached, +have been known to accommodate Christianity to Mohammedanism. 'God,' +say they, 'is Allah, and Jesus Christ is Mohammed: the religion is the +same; but different countries have different names.'" + +"True religion they are inclined to place in profession, in forms and +ordinances, and in excited states of feeling; and true conversion, in +dreams, visions, trances, voices,--all bearing a perfect or striking +resemblance to some form or type which has been handed down for +generations, or which has been originated in the wild fancy of some +religious teacher among them." Page 126: "Sometimes principles of +conduct are adopted by _church members_ at so much variance with the +gospel that the 'grace of God is turned into lasciviousness.' For +example, that which would be an abominable sin, committed by a church +member with a worldly person, becomes no sin at all if committed with +another church member. The brethren must 'bear one another's burdens, +and so fulfil the law of Christ.'... To know the extent of their +ignorance, even where they have been accustomed to the sound of the +gospel in white churches, a man should make investigation for himself: +the result will frequently surprise and fill him with grief. They +scarcely feel shame for their ignorance on the subject of religion, +although they may have had abundant opportunity of becoming wiser. +Ignorance they seem to feel is their lot; and that feeling is intimately +associated with another, every way congenial to the natural man, namely, +a feeling of irresponsibility: ignorance is a cloak and excuse for +crime." Page 127: "He who carries the gospel to them encounters +depravity, intrenched in ignorance, both real and pretended. He beholds +the Scripture fulfilled, 'Having the understanding darkened, being +alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, +because of the hardness of their hearts,' Eph. iv. 17-19. He discovers +deism (!), scepticism (!!), universalism (!!!)... 'They are wise to do +evil; but to do good they have no knowledge.'" + +"Intimately connected with their ignorance is their superstition. They +believe in second sight, in apparitions, charms, witchcraft, and in a +kind of irresistible Satanic influence. The superstitions brought from +Africa have not been wholly laid aside (p. 128). Ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers, doctors, +prophets, conjurers; to artful, designing men. When fairly committed to +such leaders, they may be brought to the commission of almost any crime. +Facts in their history prove this. On certain occasions, they have been +made to believe, that, while they carried about their persons some charm +with which they had been furnished, they were _invulnerable_.[C] They +have, on certain other occasions, been made to believe that they were +under a protection that rendered them invincible.... They have been +known to be so perfectly and fearfully under the influence of some +leader or conjurer or minister, that they have not dared to disobey him +in the least particular; nor to disclose their own intended or +perpetrated crimes, in view of inevitable death itself; notwithstanding +all other influences brought to bear upon them." + +"The discipline of colored members is involved, tedious, vexatious, and +_disgusting_" (p. 131). "_Excommunications and suspensions are of +perpetual occurrence, for crimes shocking in character_, and of +themselves sufficient to show the general state of morals; _such, for +example, as adultery, fornication, theft, lying, drunkenness, +quarrelling, and fighting_. The first three are their most common +vices." Page 135: "They are, proverbially, _thieves_. They bear this +character in Africa; they have borne it in all countries whither they +have been carried; it has been the character of slaves in all ages, +whatever their nation or color. They steal from each other, from their +masters, from anybody.... Their veracity is nominal." Page 136: "The +number, the variety, and ingenuity of falsehoods that can be told by +them in a few brief moments, is most astonishing.... Servants, however, +who will neither steal nor lie, may be found, and in no inconsiderable +numbers." + +Other similar extracts, and touching other vices, might be given; but +these seem amply sufficient to justify the general conclusion to which +Mr. Jones arrives, p. 153, that "they are, intellectually and morally, a +degraded people, the most so of any in the United States; and while, +from their universal (?) profession of the Christian system, and their +attendance upon its ordinances of worship, and the absence of all fixed +forms of idolatry, they cannot _strictly_ be termed _heathen_, yet may +they with propriety be termed _the heathen of our land_." In a sermon +preached by him in Georgia, and published at Savannah in 1831, he calls +them "_a nation of heathen in our very midst_" ("Jay's Letter," p. 11). +Abundant confirmation of this conclusion exists. The Hon. Chas. C. +Pinckney, in his "Address before the Agricultural Society of South +Carolina" (Charleston, 1829, second edit. pp. 10-12; Jones's "Relig. +Inst." p. 141), says, "There needs no stronger illustration of the +doctrine of human depravity than the state of morals on plantations in +general." "Who would credit it," asks the Committee of the Synod of +South Carolina and Georgia in 1833, "that, in these years of revival and +benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there are _over two +millions of human beings in the condition of heathen, and in some +respects in a worse condition_? From long-continued and close +observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition is such +that they may justly be considered the _heathen_ of this Christian +country." The Executive Committee of the Kentucky Union for the Moral +and Religious Improvement of the Colored Race, in their "Circular to the +Ministers of the Gospel in Kentucky," 1834 (Jones's "Relig. Inst." p. +143), say, "We desire not to represent that condition worse than it is. +Doubtless, the light that shines around them, more or less illuminates +their minds, and moralizes their characters. We hope and believe, that +some of them, though poor in this world's goods, will be found rich in +spiritual possessions in the day when the King of Zion shall make up his +jewels. We know that many of them are included in the visible church, +and frequently exhibit great zeal; but it is to be feared, that it is +often a zeal without knowledge; and of the majority it must be +confessed, that the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness +comprehendeth it not. After making all reasonable allowances, _our +colored population can be considered, at the most, but semi-heathen_." + +In view of these statements, we cannot but be forced to the conclusion, +that the slaves, as a body, are in an extremely degraded moral and +religious condition. That they are _naturally_ thus, even Mr. Jones +denies ("Relig. Instruction," p. 124). He says, "As to moral and +religious character, the negroes are _naturally_ what other men are." +That they are so much more degraded than others must, then, be owing to +their education or their social condition. The inference, therefore, is +unavoidable that they have been thus degraded by others. The wrong rests +upon those who have denied them the means of education, and who have +kept them in slavery,--upon those who have thus degraded their minds and +souls, in order that their bodies might remain in slavery! In violation +of the slave's dearest rights, all the highest, noblest, and purest +instincts of his nature have been destroyed, in order to advance the +pecuniary interests of the man "who gains his fortune from the blood of +souls"! Are those slaves who enjoy moral and religious instruction any +better off? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES. + + "Q. When you hear the minister preach, are you not to listen to him + as the minister of God; God's messenger to your soul? A. + Yes."--_Jones's Catechism_, p. 140. + + +"By the providence and word of God," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," pp. 165, 166), "are we under obligations to impart the +gospel to our servants.... We cannot disregard this obligation ... +without forfeiting our humanity, our gratitude, our consistency, and our +claim to the spirit of Christianity itself. _Our humanity...._ The Lord +Jesus has furnished us with the most beautiful and striking +illustrations of this virtue:--'What man shall there be among you, that +shall have one sheep; and, if it fall into a pit, will he not lay hold +on it, and lift it out?' 'Doth not each one of you loose his ox or his +ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this +woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these +eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?'... Apply the reasoning: 'How +much, then, is a man better than a sheep or an ox?' When our servants +are sick and diseased, we do not suffer them to want: we physic and +nurse them (?). But are not their _souls_ more precious than their +_bodies_? Much more, then, should we lift our servants from the pit of +ignorance, moral pollution and death, into which they have fallen. Much +more should we strive to loose them (bound for so many years!) from the +bonds of sin and Satan, and lead away their famishing souls to the water +of life." + +"_Our gratitude._ They nurse us in infancy, contribute to our pleasures +and pastimes in youth, and furnish us with the means of education. They +constitute our wealth, and yield us all the comforts and conveniences of +life. They may, in a degree, adopt towards us the language of Jacob to +Laban, 'Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by +night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.' They watch around our +languishing beds in sickness, share in our misfortunes, weep over us +when we die, prepare us for the burial, and carry us to the house +appointed for all the living. The obligations, the sacrifice, and +service are not to be all on one side, in the relation of master and +servant. If we have been made partakers of their _carnal_ things, our +duty is also to minister unto them in _spiritual_ things,[D] Rom. xv. +27. 1 Cor. ix. 11. And shall we consider it a great thing to fulfil this +duty? The kindest and the most grateful return which we can make them is +to put them in possession of the richest gift of God to men, the gospel +of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." + +How far has the existence or utterance of such sentiments as these +resulted in securing to the slaves a sound moral and religious +instruction? What kind of teachers and what kind of instruction are +thought to be consistent with proper feelings of gratitude and humanity +on the part of masters? We have just seen the deep moral degradation of +the very great majority of the slaves. Still "there are at the present +time," says Mr. Jones (p. 100), "tens of thousands connected by a +credible profession to the church of Christ, and the gospel is reaching +them to a greater extent and in greater purity and power than ever +before." + +By whom is the gospel thus preached to them in purity and power? Who is +it that "ministers unto them in spiritual things," and "leads away their +famishing souls to the water of life"? + +"Those who would keep the Bible from their fellow-creatures are the +enemies of God and man. The Bible belongs of right to every man. It is +the property of the world." Thus speaks the _Protestant_ defender of +slavery, Charles C. Jones ("Catechism," p. 80). But to prevent a slave +from reading the Bible is not by any means to keep the Bible from him! +In what a _Catholic_ spirit he thus exhorts the slaves! ("Catechism," p. +79) "What benefit will this precious book be to us, unless we diligently +study it, and embrace opportunities of receiving instruction from it, +such as are afforded us in the house of God, in the sabbath-school, and +in the Bible-class? 'Search the Scriptures' is the Redeemer's +command."[E] "We cannot," he says ("Religions Instruction," p. 167), +"cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the +common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life; for our +inconsistency is as great as theirs, if we withhold the Bible from our +servants, and keep them in ignorance of its saving truths, which we +certainly do while we will not provide ways and means of having it read +and explained to them"! So readily, at the bidding of slavery, will +Protestants surrender the most distinctive feature of Protestantism! + +It is obvious, that, if any religious instruction is to be imparted to +slaves, it must be given them by others. But it is in the power of the +owner to forbid all such instruction. "The whole arrangement of the +religious instruction of the negroes, as to teachers, times, places, +matter and manner, is in our own power," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 98). + +The Presbytery of Georgia, in the memorial before alluded to, says-- + + "The law of the land makes and can make no provision for their + religious instruction. That instruction is committed to owners, as + the instruction of children is to parents; and _they can give or + withhold it at pleasure_. We owners and ministers are 'the almoners + of divine mercy to them,' and, if we do not open the door of + salvation, they may grope their way into a miserable eternity; for + they have no power of any kind to originate and establish and carry + forward church organizations and associations for their own benefit. + They are entirely dependent upon us for the gospel of salvation." + +"We may," says Mr. Jones ("Religious Instruction," p. 158), "according +to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings and +religious instruction on our own plantations; we may forbid our servants +going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for +them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and +suffer not them that are entering to go in!" + +Wherever an owner is willing to permit such instruction, it must still +be carried on wholly by _oral_ communications. "This immense mass of +immortal beings," says Mr. Jones, "is thrown for religious instruction +upon oral communications _entirely_" (ib. p. 157). That any oral +instruction of the adult or aged slaves is worth but little he evidently +admits, because he says (ib. p. 229), "If a people are to be instructed +orally, let the instruction be communicated to them in early life;" and +"the great hope of permanently benefiting the negroes is laid in +sabbath-schools, in which children and youth may be trained up in the +knowledge of the Lord." Our minds are so constituted, that, unless our +powers of memory have been strengthened by constant or frequent use in +youth, we cannot in after-life either receive or retain much benefit +from oral instruction. And if this is true of the freeman, how much more +is it true of the slave! Consequently, the only method of instructing +the slaves, which law or custom or both do not forbid, is the very +last,--the poorest method for their real good which can be devised! + +There are _colored_ preachers at the South, "and _some_ of them," says +Mr. Jones, "are able to read" (ib. p. 175). The following anecdote, +illustrative of their capacity to impart knowledge, is told by Charles +Lyell. When in Louisville, Ky. he attended a Methodist Church. "The +preacher was a full black, spoke good English, and quoted Scripture +well." "It appeared," says Prof. Lyell, "from his explanation of 'Whose +superscription is this?' that he supposed the piece of money to be a +dollar note, to which Caesar had put his signature." + +Some, probably most of them, are slaves. We have now before us the +advertisement of a runaway slave who claimed to be a Methodist preacher! +The Alabama Baptist Association bought one of its missionaries, named +Caesar, in 1828, and owned him till the time of his death! He lived to be +76 years old. A writer in the "Georgia Christian Index" begins an +obituary notice of him thus, "A good colored man has fallen in Israel;" +and ends by saying, "The writer can truly say that his labors have been +much blest." Mr. Jones gives the names of several other slave preachers. +Still, however, they are discountenanced. + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA (chap. 111, sec. 34; "Revision +of Statute," 1831, chap. 4, sec. 1) provide that-- + + "It shall not be lawful, under any pretence, for any slave or free + person of color to preach or exhort in public, or in any manner to + officiate as a preacher or teacher in any prayer-meeting or other + association for worship where slaves of different families are + collected together; and if any free person of color shall be thereof + duly convicted, on indictment, before any court having jurisdiction + thereof, he shall for each offence receive not exceeding thirty-nine + lashes on his bare back; and when any slave shall be guilty of a + violation of this section, he shall, on conviction before a single + magistrate, receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare + back." + +In ALABAMA (Stat. 1832, chap. 8, sec. 24; "Clay's Digest," 545, sec. +35),-- + + "If any slave or free person of color shall preach to, exhort, or + harangue any slave or slaves or free persons of color, unless in the + presence of five respectable (!) slaveholders, any such slave or + free person of color so offending shall, on conviction before any + justice of the peace, receive, by order of said justice of the + peace, thirty-nine lashes for the first offence, and fifty lashes + for every offence thereafter; and any person may arrest any such + slave or free person of color, and take him before a justice of the + peace for trial,--Provided that the negroes so haranguing or + preaching shall be licensed thereto by some regular body of + professing Christians immediately in the neighborhood, and to whose + society or church such negro shall properly belong." + +In GEORGIA, the Act approved Dec. 23, 1833, sec. 5 ("Prince's Digest," +808; "Hotchkiss's Codification," 840, 841), provides that-- + + "No person of color, whether free or slave, shall be allowed to + preach to, exhort, or join in any religious exercise with, any + persons of color, either free or slave, there being more than seven + persons of color present," &c. + +In MISSISSIPPI, the law declares (How. and Hutch. 178) that-- + + "It shall not be lawful for any slave, free negro or mulatto to + exercise the functions of a minister of the gospel under the penalty + of thirty-nine lashes,--Provided that it shall be lawful for any + master or owner to permit his slave to preach upon his own premises, + but not to permit any other slaves but his own to assemble there on + such occasion." + +In MISSOURI, the Act approved Feb. 16, 1847, sec. 2, provides that-- + + "No meeting or assemblage of negroes or mulattoes for the purpose of + religious worship or preaching shall be held or permitted, where the + services are performed or conducted by negroes or mulattoes, unless + some sheriff, constable, marshal, police officer, or justice of the + peace shall be present during all the time of such meeting or + assemblage, in order to prevent all seditious speeches and + disorderly and unlawful conduct of every kind." + +"Negro preachers are discouraged," says Mr. Jones ("Religious +Instruction," p. 157), "if not suppressed, on the ground of +incompetency, and liability to abuse their office and influence to the +injury of the morals of the people, and the infringement of the laws and +peace of the country. I would not go all the lengths of many on this +point; for, from my own observation, negro preachers may be employed and +confided in, and _so regulated_ as to do their own color great good, and +community no harm." Ib. p. 274: "The appointment of colored preachers +and watchmen by the _white churches, and under their particular +supervision_, in many districts of country, has been attended with happy +effects; and _such_ auxiliaries, _properly managed_, may be of great +advantage." Doubtless, when thus "properly managed," they are of great +advantage! "I shall never forget," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 215), "the +remark of a venerable colored preacher, made with reference to the +Southampton tragedy" (_i.e._ Nat. Turner's insurrection in Southampton, +Va. in 1832). "With his eyes filled with tears, and his whole manner +indicating the deepest emotion, said he, 'Sir, it is the gospel that we, +ignorant and wicked people, need.(!) If you will give us the gospel, it +will do more for the obedience of servants and the peace of community +than all your guards and guns and bayonets.' This same Christian +minister, on receiving a packet of inflammatory pamphlets through the +post-office, and discovering their character and intention, immediately +called upon the mayor of the city, and delivered them into his hands. +Who can estimate the value in community of one such man acting under the +influence of the gospel of peace?" + +Not only are negro preachers thus discountenanced, unless they are the +abject tools of the slaveholders, but only a certain class of _white_ +teachers are allowed. The following extract is taken from the "Georgia +Christian Index:"-- + + "PREACHERS FOR THE SLAVES.--We think the instruction of the blacks + in the South should be committed wholly to white men; and they + should be Southern men, in whom the masters have confidence. If the + preacher is himself a slaveholder, as are Mr. Jones and Mr. Law, + they will command the greater confidence, and have access to the + larger number of plantations." + +"The field of labor among the negroes in the South," says Mr. Jones +("Religious Instruction," p. 196), "is one, in many respects, of no +ordinary difficulty; and it is the dictate as well of benevolence as of +prudence to inquire into the character and qualifications of those who +enter it. _They should be Southern men_; men entitled to that +appellation; either those who have been born and reared in the South, or +those who have identified themselves with the South, and are familiarly +acquainted with the structure of society; _in a word, men having their +interests in the South_. Such men would possess the _confidence of the +community_; for they would not act, in their official connection with +the negroes, in such a manner as to breed disturbances, which would +inevitably jeopard their own lives, and tend to the utter prostration of +their families and interests." Ib. p. 235: "The missionaries should be +_Southern men_, or men ... _identified in views, feelings, and interests +with the South, and who possess the confidence of society_." We should +(ib. p. 197) "know _who_ their teachers are, and _what_ and _when_ and +_where_ they are taught." + +The object of these laws and precautions evidently is wholly to exclude, +as religious teachers of the slaves, all persons except slaveholders, or +those who are fully identified with or subject to them. Only +slaveholders and their tools _can_ be "God's messengers" to the souls of +the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is +_exclusively_ vested in that class of men whose _interest_ it is to +_uphold_ and _strengthen_ slavery! A slaveholder _must_ have the +strongest inducement to make his teaching of such a quality as directly +to increase the market value of his hearers; and yet the slaves are +receiving from the hallowed lips of their owners the gospel of love and +human brotherhood in greater purity and power than ever before! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES. + + "Hath _He_ not brought you out of a land of darkness and ignorance, + where your forefathers knew nothing of him, to a country where you + may come to the knowledge of the only true God, and learn a sure way + to heaven?"--_Right Rev. Bishop Meade's Instruction to Slaves._ + + "The religious instruction of your people will promote your own + _interests_ for time and eternity."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to + Slaveholders_ ("_Rel. Inst._" p. 275). + + +We might safely presume, that religions owners would instruct their +slaves in such doctrines as they deemed essential to the salvation of +their own souls, and that such instruction would not materially vary +from that given elsewhere on the same points. But abundant proof exists. +The Right Rev. Levi S. Ives has published "A Catechism to be taught +orally to those who cannot read;" New York, 1848. In the preface, he +says it was the result of a winter's visit to a large Southern +plantation, and was adapted by him, "in a course of actual experiment, +to the capacity of _colored_ children, from four to twelve years of +age." There are twenty lessons in this little book. He teaches, among +other things, about the fall, original sin, the atonement, the trinity, +and the sacraments. Elsewhere ("Spirit of Missions," Nov. 1842) he has +expressed the conviction, that, if the planters of North Carolina would +adopt it, and see to its faithful inculcation, the next generation of +blacks in that State, "at a very small expense, would sufficiently +understand the truth as it is in Jesus, without knowing a letter of the +alphabet." + +Dr. Jones's Catechism is really, what it professes to be, a "Catechism +of Scripture doctrine, as well as practice," and contains a very much +more elaborate exposition than Bishop Ives's book. Altogether, it must +be a much more serviceable book to "owners and ministers." + +We shall therefore chiefly content ourselves with showing what the +slaves are taught it is their duty to do, and to refrain from doing, and +what motives to duty are urged upon them. + +"As ministers or missionaries to the negroes," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. +Inst." p. 270), "in the discharge of our official duty, and in our +intercourse with the negroes, we should have nothing to do with their +civil condition. We are appointed of God to preach 'the unsearchable +riches of Christ' to our perishing fellow-men. We are to meditate upon +the duties and responsibilities of our office, and to give ourselves +_wholly to it_." Ib. pp. 193, 194: "We _separate entirely_ their +_religious_ and their _civil_ condition, and contend that the one may be +attended to without interfering with the other. Our principle is that +laid down by the holy and just one, 'Render unto Caesar the things which +are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' And Christ and his +apostles are our example. Did they deem it proper and consistent with +the good order of society to preach the gospel to servants? They did. In +discharge of this duty, did they interfere with their civil condition? +They did not. They expressed no opinion whatever on the subject, if we +except that which appears in one of the Epistles to the Corinthian +Church (1st Epist. chap. vii. ver. 19-23). There the Apostle Paul +considers a state of freedom preferable to one of servitude, and advises +slaves, if they can lawfully obtain their freedom, to do it; but not +otherwise. He does not treat the question as one of very great moment, +in comparison to the benefits of the gospel. 'Art thou called being a +servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it +rather; for he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the +Lord's freeman,' &c. May we not follow in the footsteps of our Saviour +and his apostles, and that with perfect safety too? Yea, and without +proceeding as far as did the Apostle Paul?(!) We maintain that in +judicious religious instruction there will be no necessary interference +with their civil condition. The religious teacher must step out of his +way for the purpose." The Presbytery of Georgia declares in its +memorial, that, if the church will undertake the religious instruction +of the slaves,-- + + "The minds of ministers and members will be drawn off from abstract + questions of a civil and a political nature, with which, as + Christians engaged in evangelizing the world, we have little to do; + and they will be presented with a way whereby they may practically + gratify all their benevolent sympathies for the negroes, in the best + manner possible. Our attention, as a church, will be turned to the + great question before us, and indeed before all other denominations, + _and which should take precedence of all other questions touching + the negroes_, _Shall this people be saved or lost?_" + +"The New Testament," says the Rev. Theodore Clapp (Sermon, pp. 25, 26, +and these are his present sentiments), "decides in the plainest terms +that Christians are bound to acquiesce in and support those laws and +regulations concerning slavery which are enacted by the respective civil +governments under which they live. The legislature must determine who +shall be kept in bondage, and what shall be their condition and +privileges. The pulpit must not interfere in this important and delicate +matter.... Let him (the clergyman) at all times preach unconditional +submission to civil laws and institutions." + +At the outset, therefore, the religious teachers of the slaves disclaim +all desire or intention to interfere with the condition of servitude. +Their appropriate and only work, they say, is the saving of souls![F] +That their brother's soul is brutalized and deadened, in consequence of +slavery, is to them no reason why they should interfere with slavery; +for slavery is a _civil_ condition, which God, in his mysterious +providence, has allowed to exist! But, though it is thus improper to +"interfere" with the civil condition of the slaves, that religious +teacher (as we shall shortly see) does _not_ "step out of his way," but +merely does his duty, who preaches to them that submission to their +civil condition, and faithful service for their masters, is demanded of +them by God! They cannot interfere to _injure_ the institution of +slavery; but _very materially to strengthen_ it falls within their +legitimate province! To condemn slavery would be to condemn the +providence of God; but in strengthening slavery, they are preaching "the +unsearchable riches of Christ" to their perishing fellow-men! + +The Right Rev. William Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church +for the diocese of Virginia, who has also devoted a great deal of +attention to the religious instruction of slaves, a few years since +collected and published a volume of sermons and tracts, designed to aid +the almoners of Divine Mercy in their work of salvation. The grand +motive to duty is thus presented to the slaves, pp. 94, 95 ("Slavery and +the Slaveholder's Religion as opposed to Christianity, by Samuel +Brooke," p. 29, &c.):-- + + "Besides, when people die, we know but of two places they have to go + to, and that is heaven or hell; so that whoever misses the one must + go to the other. Now, heaven is a place of great happiness, which + God hath prepared for all that are good; where they shall enjoy rest + from their labors, and a blessedness which shall never have an end. + And hell is a place of great torment and misery, where all wicked + people will be shut up with the devil and other evil spirits, and be + punished for ever because they will not serve God. If, therefore, we + would have our souls saved by Christ; if we would escape hell and + obtain heaven, we must set about doing what he requires of us, that + is, to serve God. Your own poor circumstances in this life ought to + put you particularly upon this, and taking care of your souls; for + you cannot have the pleasures and enjoyments of this life like rich + free people, who have estates and money to lay out as they think + fit. If others will run the hazard of their souls, they have a + chance of getting wealth and power, of heaping up riches, and + enjoying all the ease, luxury, and pleasure their hearts should long + after. But you can have none of these things; so that, if you sell + your souls for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this + world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed. Almighty God + hath been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing + but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit + to, as it is his will that it should be so. And think within + yourselves what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors + and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next + life; and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into + a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be + delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his + slaves for ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from + it. If, therefore, you would be God's freemen in heaven, you must + strive to be good and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you + know, are not your own: they are at the disposal of those you belong + to; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can + take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, + that, if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you + have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in + the next. For your idleness and wickedness is generally found it, + and your bodies suffer for it here; and, what is far worse, if you + do not repent and amend, your unhappy souls will suffer for it + hereafter." + +The Rev. Alexander Glennie, Rector of All-Saints Parish, Waccamaw, S.C. +has for several years been in the habit of preaching expressly for +slaves. In 1844, he published in Charleston a selection of these +sermons, under the title of "Sermons preached on Plantations to +Congregations of Negroes." This book[G] contains twenty-six sermons; and +in twenty-two of them there is either a more or less extended account or +a reference to eternal misery in hell as a motive to duty. He thus +describes the day of judgment (Serm. 15, Matt. xxv. 31, p. 90):-- + + "When all people shall be gathered before him, 'he shall separate + them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the + goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats + on the left.' That, my brethren, will be an awful time, when this + separation shall be going on; when the holy angels, at the command + of the great Judge, shall be gathering together all the obedient + followers of Christ, and be setting them on the right hand side of + the judgment-seat, and shall place all the remainder on the left. + Remember that each of you must be present; remember that the great + Judge can make no mistake; and that you shall be placed on one side + or on the other, according as in this world you have believed in and + obeyed him or not. How full of joy and thanksgiving will you be, if + you shall find yourselves placed on the right hand! but how full of + misery and despair, if the left shall be appointed as your + portion!"... + + "But what shall he say to the wicked on the left hand? To them he + shall say, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, + prepared for the devil and his angels.' He will tell them to depart: + they did not while here seek him by repentance and faith; they did + not obey him; and he will drive them from him. He will call them + cursed." + + Page 42 (Sermon 7, Rom. vi. 28): "The death, which is the wages of + sin, is this everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his + angels. It is a fire which shall last for ever; and the devil and + his angels, and all people who will not love and serve God, shall + there be punished for ever. The Bible says, 'The smoke of their + torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:' the fire is not quenched; + it never goes out: 'their worm dieth not:' their punishment is + spoken of as a worm, always feeding upon them, but never consuming + them: it never can stop." + +Mr. Jones orally catechizes[H] the slaves in the same manner:-- + + Page 83: "Q. Are there two places only spoken of in the Bible to + which the souls of men go after death?--A. Only two. + + Q. Which are they?--A. Heaven and hell. + + Pp. 91, 92: Q. After the Judgment is over, into what place do the + righteous go?--A. Into heaven. + + Q. What kind of a place is heaven?--A. A most glorious and happy + place. + + * * * * * + + Q. Shall the righteous in heaven have any more hunger or thirst, or + nakedness or heat or cold? Shall they any more have sin or sorrow, + or crying or pain or death?--A. No. + + Q. Repeat, 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'--A. + 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall + be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be + any more pain; for the former things are passed away.' + + Q. Will heaven be their everlasting home?--A. Yes. + + Q. And shall the righteous grow in knowledge and holiness and + happiness for ever and ever?--A. Yes. + + Q. To what place should we wish and strive to go, more than to all + other places?--A. Heaven. + + Pp. 93, 94: Q. Into what place are the wicked to be cast?--A. Into + hell. + + Q. Repeat, 'The wicked shall be turned.'--A. 'The wicked shall be + turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' + + Q. What kind of a place is hell?--A. A place of dreadful torments. + + Q. What does it burn with?--A. Everlasting fire. + + Q. Who are cast into hell besides wicked men?--A. The devil and his + angels. + + Q. What will the torments of hell make the wicked do?--A. Weep and + wail, and gnash their teeth. + + Q. What did the rich man beg for when he was tormented in the + flame?--A. A drop of water to cool his tongue. + + Q. Will the wicked have any good thing in hell? the least comfort? + the least relief from torment?--A. No. + + Q. Will they ever come out of hell?--A. No: never. + + Q. Can any go from heaven to hell, or from hell to heaven?--A. No. + + Q. What is fixed between heaven and hell?--A. A great gulf. + + Q. What is the punishment of the wicked in hell called?--A. + Everlasting punishment. + + Q. Will this punishment make them better?--A. No. + + Q. Repeat, 'It is a fearful thing.'--A. 'It is a fearful thing to + fall into the hands of the living God.' + + Q. What is God said to be to the wicked?--A. A consuming fire. + + Q. What place should we strive to escape from above all others?--A. + Hell." + +The slaves are taught that they must do what God requires of them, if +they would escape never-ending torments in hell. How strict an account +of their stewardship does God require at their hands! He, they are +taught, has made them slaves, and has given them nothing but labor and +poverty for their lot in this life. Will he require much, where he has +given little? Bishop Meade continues (Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 30, 31, +32):-- + + "Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to your great Master + in heaven, I now come to lay before you the duties you owe to your + masters and mistresses here upon earth; and for this you have one + general rule that you ought always to carry in your minds, and that + is, to do all service for them as if you did it for God himself. + Poor creatures! you little consider, when you are idle and + neglectful of your masters' business, when you steal and waste and + hurt any of their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, when + you are telling them lies and deceiving them; or when you prove + stubborn and sullen, and will not do the work you are set about + without stripes and vexation; you do not consider, I say, that _what + faults you are guilty of towards your masters and mistresses are + faults done against God himself_, who hath set your masters and + mistresses over you in his own stead, and expects that you will do + for them just as you would do for him. And, pray, do not think that + I want to deceive you, when I tell you that _your masters and + mistresses are God's overseers_; and that, if you are faulty towards + them, God himself will punish you severely for it in the next world, + unless you repent of it, and strive to make amends by your + faithfulness and diligence for the time to come; for God himself + hath declared the same. + + "Now, from this general rule,--namely, that you are to do all + service for your masters and mistresses as if you did it for God + himself,--there arise several other rules of duty towards your + masters and mistresses, which I shall endeavor to lay out in order + before you. + + "And, in the first place, you are to be obedient and subject to your + masters in all things.... And Christian ministers are commanded to + 'exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to + please them well in all things, not answering them again, or + gain-saying.' You see how strictly God requires this of you, that + whatever your masters and mistresses order you to do, you must set + about it immediately, and faithfully perform it, without any + disputing or grumbling, and take care to please them well in all + things. And for your encouragement he tells you, that he will reward + you for it in heaven; because, while you are honestly and faithfully + doing your master's business here, you are serving your Lord and + Master in heaven. You see also that you are not to take any + exceptions to the behavior of your masters and mistresses, and that + you are to be subject and obedient, not only to such as are good and + gentle and mild towards you, but also to such as may be froward, + peevish, and hard. For you are not at liberty to choose your own + masters; but into whatever hands God hath been pleased to put you, + you must do your duty, and God will reward you for it. + + "2. You are not to be eye-servants. Now, eye-servants are such as + will work hard, and seem mighty diligent, while they think anybody + is taking notice of them; but, when their masters' and mistresses' + backs are turned, they are idle, and neglect their business. I am + afraid there are a great many such eye-servants among you, and that + you do not consider how great a sin it is to be so, and how severely + God will punish you for it. You may easily deceive your owners, and + make them have an opinion of you that you do not deserve, and get + the praise of men by it; but remember that you cannot deceive + Almighty God, who sees your wickedness and deceit, and will punish + you accordingly. For the rule is, that you must obey your masters in + all things, and do the work they set you about with fear and + trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with + eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service as to + the Lord, and not as to men. If, then, you would but say within + yourselves, 'My master hath set me about this work, and his back is + turned, so that I may loiter and idle if I please, for he does not + see me; but _there is my great Master in heaven, whose overseer my + other master is_,[I] and his eyes are always upon me and taking + notice of me, and I cannot get anywhere out of his sight, nor be + idle without his knowing it; and what will become of me, if I lose + his good-will and make him angry with me?'--if, I say, you would + once get the way of thinking and saying thus upon all occasions, you + then would do what God commands you, and serve your masters with + singleness of heart, that is, with honesty and sincerity, and do the + work you are set about with fear and trembling, not for fear of your + masters and mistresses upon earth, for you may easily cheat them, + and make them believe you are doing their business when you do not, + but with fear and trembling, lest God your heavenly Master, whom you + cannot deceive, should call you to account, and punish you in the + next world for your deceitfulness and eye-service in this. + + "3. _You are to be faithful and honest to your masters and + mistresses, not purloining or wasting their goods or substance, but + showing all good fidelity in all things...._ Do not your masters, + under God, provide for you? And how shall they be able to do this, + to feed and to clothe you, unless you take honest care of every + thing that belongs to them? _Remember that God requires this of you; + and, if you are not afraid of suffering for it here, you cannot + escape the vengeance of Almighty God, who will judge between you and + your masters, and make you pay severely in the next world for all + the injustice you do them here._ And though you could manage so + cunningly as to escape the eyes and hands of man, yet think what a + dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who + is able to cast both soul and body into hell! + + "4. _You are to serve your masters with cheerfulness, reverence, and + humility. You are to do your masters' service with good-will, doing + it as the will of God from the heart, without any sauciness or + answering again._ How many of you do things quite otherwise, and, + instead of going about your work with a good will and a good heart, + dispute and grumble, give saucy answers, and behave in a surly + manner! There is something so becoming and engaging in a modest, + cheerful, good-natured behavior, that a little work done in that + manner seems better done and gives far more satisfaction than a + great deal more that must be done with fretting, vexation, and the + lash always held over you. It also gains the good-will and love of + those you belong to, and makes your own life pass with more ease and + pleasure. Besides, you are to consider that this grumbling and + ill-will does not affect your masters and mistresses only. They have + ways and means in their hands of forcing you to do your work, + whether you are willing or not. _But your murmuring and grumbling is + against God, who hath placed you in that service, who will punish + you severely in the next world for despising his commands._" + +If the slave who wastes his master's goods and substance will not be +able to escape the vengeance of Almighty God, what will become of the +master who impoverishes and darkens the mind of his brother-man? Who +commits the greater injustice,--the man who robs another of his mind, or +the man who robs another of his money? + +Mr. Glennie is equally explicit in his teaching. His fourth Sermon is on +the text, Eph. vi. 7, "With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and +not to men," pp. 21, 22:-- + + "In this part of the word of God, servants are taught with what mind + they ought to do their service. They are told to do what is required + of them 'with good-will;' and to do it, 'as to the Lord, and not to + men.' + + "What a blessed book the Bible is, my brethren! It speaks comfort to + all people in every station of life; it shows how every one must + live here so as to please our heavenly Father. He, the Father of + mercies and the God of all comfort, has in his word forgotten none + of the children of men. All may learn from that holy book how their + souls may be saved through the merits of the death of Christ. And, + in addition to this, every one, in whatever condition he may be, + will find in that holy book what his peculiar duties are. Thus, + ministers are taught in the Bible how they ought to preach the + gospel, and how they ought to live, so as to glorify their Saviour + Jesus Christ. The rich are taught in the Bible how they must do good + with their riches; and the poor, how they must be contented with the + portion that God has given them; and both rich and poor are taught + how to lay up treasure in heaven. Parents are told in the Bible how + they must bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of + the Lord; and children, how they must obey their parents. Masters + are taught in the Bible how they must rule their servants, and + servants how they must obey their masters. Truly, this holy word of + God is a blessed gift indeed; and how greatly blessed shall we all + be, if we diligently seek the help of the Holy Spirit, that we may + be 'doers of the word, and not hearers only'! I will now read to you + the whole of this passage out of God's holy word, which is written + especially for your instruction:--'Servants, be obedient to them + that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and + trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with + eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart: with good-will doing service, as to + the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man + doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or + free.' This passage from the Bible shows to you what God requires + from you as servants; and there are many other passages which teach + the same things. You should try and remember these parts of the + Bible, that you may be able 'to do your duty in that state of life + unto which it has pleased God to call you.' For, although a bad + servant may not wish to know what God requires of him, yet a + Christian servant will desire to know this, and to do his will in + every thing." + +How easy it must be for those who cannot read to learn from the holy +book what God requires of them! Mr. Glennie assures his hearers, that +not one of them will be able to say, in the day of judgment, "I had no +way of hearing and learning about my God and Saviour"! (p. 137). May +they not all listen to such words of comfort as fall from his lips? And +how full of comfort to their souls must that book be which tells them +that God intended to make them slaves, and that they must be faithful +and obedient to their oppressors, if they wish to avoid endless +punishment in hell! + + Pp. 22, 23: "Our heavenly Father commands that you, who are + servants, should 'be obedient to your masters according to the + flesh;' that is, to your earthly master, the master that you serve + here while in the body. Here is a very plain command: 'Servants, be + obedient;' be obedient to your masters. A bad servant will not try + and obey this command. A worldly-minded servant, who is not living + in the fear of God, will neglect this command. But you, who call + yourselves children of God, will do his will, and be obedient to + your earthly master. You can every day give proof that you wish to + serve God, by your ready, your cheerful obedience. + + "You are here directed to be obedient to your master 'with fear and + trembling;' that is, you ought to feel as anxious to discharge your + duty faithfully as to feel afraid of giving offence by any conduct + that looks like disobedience; for, by disobedience, you not only + offend your earthly master, but you sin against God; and of this + every Christian servant will be afraid. A bad servant will be afraid + only of the punishment which he will receive, if his disobedience + should be found out. But a Christian servant must look up always to + his heavenly Master. Therefore, if you love God, whose children you + were made at your baptism, you will do every day all that you have + to do, with fear and trembling; that is, in the fear of God; knowing + that he would be angry with you, if you neglected your duty. If you + love the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for you, you will do + your daily work with fear and trembling, lest, by any act of + disobedience, you bring reproach on him whose name you bear. If you + desire that the Holy Spirit should abide in your hearts, you will + not willingly be disobedient, being afraid that this Comforter and + Sanctifier would forsake you, if you paid so little attention to the + plain word of God." + +How full of comfort must the Bible be to the slaveholder! How gratifying +to him the reconciliation between God and mammon! How interesting to a +reverend father must be the reflection, that, just in the proportion as +he serves his God, by imparting to his hearers gospel truth, he is +serving mammon, and putting money in the purses of his employers, by +making his hearers more valuable as slaves! + + Page 23: "You are here commanded to be obedient, 'in singleness of + your heart, as unto Christ:' that is, do not be double-minded, + professing to be one thing, but really being another; but, in your + duty to your master, have a single heart; an honest, upright, and + true heart, as unto Christ; knowing that he sees your heart, and + will not be pleased with double-dealing." + + Page 24: "This part of the Bible goes on speaking of the same matter + in different words; it gives 'line upon line and precept upon + precept;' because it is what all of us ought to keep in mind, that + we must engage in our several duties with a desire to please God, + and with a fear of sinning against him. It says, 'not with + eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing + the will of God from the heart.' Do not attend to your work, only + when your earthly master's eye is upon you; but remember that the + eye of your heavenly Master is always upon you. Do your work as + serving Christ, _look upon your daily tasks as the will of God_, and + do them from the heart, with a hearty desire to please God. A bad + servant is an eye-servant, doing the work required of him so long as + his master's eye is upon him: he has no regard to Christ our + Saviour; and, instead of the will of God, he thinks only of his own + will, and the desires of his own evil heart. But you, who profess to + be the servants of Jesus Christ, will, if you are indeed his, do all + your duty faithfully, whether the eye of man is upon you or not; you + will feel that such is the will of God; and you will daily watch and + pray, that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, you may 'do the will of + God from the heart.' + + "The word of God goes on teaching you the same thing. It says, 'with + good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men.' A bad + servant will very often do his service with a very bad will; he will + try many ways to deceive his master, and will do as little for him + as he can. You, however, who call yourselves the servants of Christ, + will, if you indeed belong to him, aim at doing your service 'with + good-will;' you will pray that your will may be subject to the will + of God, so that you may 'do service' cheerfully, 'as to the Lord, + and not to men.'" + +We candidly confess, that we have not sufficient faith to believe that +the Rev. Rector of All-Saints Parish would, if he were a slave, be a +good servant, and do service as unto the Lord. We do verily believe, +that both he and Bishop Meade would follow the desires of man's +unregenerate and evil heart, and do their utmost to escape from this +unwelcome service of Christ. But what a curious subject for reflection, +that the saving of negro souls and of negro overseers in All-Saints +Parish must keep pace one with another! + +The Rector concludes his Sermon with these important suggestions:-- + + Page 25: "This passage of Scripture ends by telling you to remember + that the day of judgment is coming, when every one, in every + condition of life, shall receive according to what he has done in + the body. It says, 'Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man + doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or + free.' We are here told, that in the day of judgment, the inquiry + will be, What have we done in this world? how did we live in this + world? It matters not, we see, in what condition we have been here; + it matters not whether we be bond-servants or freemen; it matters + not whether we be among the high and the rich, or among the low and + the poor, we shall in that day receive according as we now live. If + we now live as obedient followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus + Christ, we shall, through him who loved us, inherit everlasting + life. But if we are not true believers in him, if we are disobedient + to his word, we can inherit only everlasting misery. With regard to + you, the disobedient servants amongst you, the unfaithful, the + deceitful, the ungodly servants, unless they repent and turn from + the service of the devil to the service of God, shall surely 'be + punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, + and from the glory of his power.' Whilst the obedient servants + amongst you, the faithful, the true, the godly servants, who are + living 'as the servants of Christ,' 'doing service as to the Lord, + and not to men,' shall, if they continue steadfast unto the end, be + blessed for ever." + +We read in the Bible, that "God is no respecter of persons;" that "he +hath made of one blood all the nations of men;" "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself;" and that "all things whatsoever ye would that men +should do to you, do ye even so to them." Would not the slaves be led to +neglect of duty and insubordination by hearing such sentences? This +effect, says Mr. Jones (speaking in reference to these sentences, "Rel. +Inst." p. 197), "might result from _imperfect_ and _injudicious_ +religious instruction.... But who will say that neglect of duty and +insubordination are the _legitimate_ effects of the gospel, purely and +sincerely imparted to servants?" How judicious is the instruction given +by Bishop Hedding! How purely and sincerely does Bishop Meade thus +continue imparting the gospel! p. 116 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. pp. 32, +33):-- + + "'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye + even so unto them;' that is, do by all mankind just as you would + desire they should do by you, if you were in their place and they in + yours. + + "Now, to suit this rule to your particular circumstances, suppose + you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you, would + you not desire that your servants should do their business + faithfully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while + you were looking over them? Would you not expect, that they should + take notice of what you said to them? that they should behave + themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of + every thing belonging to you as you would be yourselves? You are + servants: do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you + will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God, + who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do + it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his commands." + +From the same command of Christ, Mr. Jones instructs the slaves that +they must not steal any of their own earnings, and must inform their +masters when any of their fellow-slaves intend to steal! ("Catechism," +pp. 114-116.) He never for an instant imagines (to use the words of the +Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards in 1791), that "_to hold any man in slavery is +to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of +man-stealing_" ("The Church as it is," p. 8). How solemnly would Bishop +Freeman declare to the slaves, that thieves can never enter the kingdom +of God, without thinking of the law of North Carolina, which provides +that no slave shall be "permitted, on any pretence whatever, to raise +any horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep" ("Rev. Stat." chap. 111, Sec. 25), +without the same being liable to be seized and sold, and the proceeds +distributed, one half towards the support of the poor of the county, and +the other half to the informer! (Ib. chap. 89, Sec. 24.) + +A friend once said that she was always grieved at receiving any +expression of gratitude. She was grieved to think that the mere +performance of duty was so uncommon as to call forth gratitude. In a +somewhat similar manner, we feel more distinctly than ever how great is +the degradation of the slaves, when such arguments as these can be +addressed to them by intelligent men, with the expectation of producing +conviction! How degraded must that slave be who does not feel or who +cannot expose these wicked perversions of a beautiful command, and who +cannot ask, in indignant tones, of these truly reverend fathers in God, +"If _you_ were the slave, would you consider yourself bound to work for +your master faithfully?" Verily, "We owners and ministers" _are_ "the +almoners of _Divine_ mercy" to the suffering slave! + +Mr. Glennie declares, that God requires them patiently to submit to all +the wrongs of slavery, as being afflictions sent by him for the good of +their souls!-- + + Page 145: "Is it strange that any person who is loved by our Lord + should endure sickness or pain or sorrow of any kind? No: this is + what the whole Bible teaches. We read in one place, 'Whom the Lord + loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' + And in another place, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.' The + Bible also tells us the reason of this, which is, that the children + of God may be taught to repent more of their sins, and to be more + submissive and obedient to God; ... that they may think less about + this world, and may be more diligent in getting ready for heaven. + For these good reasons, God chastises his people; and whenever you + become sick, or are visited with sorrows, you should try and look up + to God as chastising you for your sins, and should pray much to him + for his Spirit, that you may be patient like our Saviour, when he + suffered for our sins, that you may improve by his chastening, and + grow more like him in holiness."--Pp. 128, 129: "Whenever, + therefore, the sorrows of this life are pressing you sore, think of + this saying of our Saviour, 'Every branch which beareth fruit, he + purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' If you are indeed + followers of Jesus, it will at such times comfort you to think that + a Father's hand is upon you, chastising you,--in love chastising you + to make you partakers of his holiness." + +Mr. Glennie also frequently represents Christ as having appeared on +earth as a servant, in order still more to reconcile his hearers to +their lot (pp. 2, 3, 89). Nay, so anxious does he seem to be to induce +his hearers to believe that Christ really endured the wrongs of a slave, +that he sometimes goes beyond the Bible record. Thus, in describing +Christ's sufferings before Pilate, he says (p. 9), "They spit in his +face, and beat him with their hands; they scourged him, _making long +furrows in his back with the whip_.... How grievous were the sufferings +of our dear Lord!" + +But he is not content with telling them they must patiently endure their +wrongs: he also declares to them, that, unless they _love_ those who +wrong them, they are "going along the broad road that leads to hell"! He +says (pp. 115, 116):-- + + "That we may all understand how the case stands with us, whether we + are in the broad road leading to destruction, or in the narrow road + leading to heaven, let us see what our Lord says about his sheep, + and the mark by which they are known."--Page 117: "Our Lord says, + 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have + love one to another.' Do ye hear his voice in this? Are you trying + to love your neighbor as yourselves? Are you trying to do to others + as you would have them do to you? Do you, for Jesus Christ's sake, + love your enemies? Do you bless them that curse you, do good to them + that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and + persecute you? In this way, again, you may try yourselves, and see + whether you are the sheep of Jesus Christ."--Page 93: "If, in the + great day, you would be placed on the right hand, you must, from + love to Jesus, be kind to one another, and be ready to help any one + as much as you can.... In your daily work, you should try and keep + the Lord before you, and do it as to him, and not to man.... When + any one offends you, you should, from love to Jesus, forgive him and + pray for him." + +Bishop Meade is equally explicit, pp. 131, 132 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. +pp. 33, 34). Senator Dickinson regrets that he was not born in a Slave +State, so congenial is slavery to his soul! But the bishop, if he +believes in his own argument, must be sorrowful that he is not himself a +slave, so easy does he say is the slave's road to heaven!-- + + "_Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grumble or repine at + your condition; for this will not only make your life uneasy, but + will greatly offend Almighty God._ Consider that it is not + yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is not the + men that have brought you to it, but _it is the will of God, who + hath, by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, he + knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and help + you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty in + it_. So that any discontent at your not being free or rich or + great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly + Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath made you what + you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of + heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself + aright, and do the business he hath set you about in this world + honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have proved the ruin of + many an unhappy soul, by drawing away the heart and affections from + God, and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments; so that, when + God, who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees + that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore keeps them from us, + it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us. + + "You may perhaps fancy, that, if you had riches and freedom, you + could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you can + now. But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your souls + through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the best + of purposes in this world; and he that at last can get to heaven has + performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so rugged and + difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage over most + white people, who have not only the care of their daily labor upon + their hands, but the care of looking forward and providing + necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing and bringing + up their children, and of getting food and raiment for as many of + you as belong to their families, which often puts them to great + difficulties, and distracts their minds so as to break their rest, + and take off their thoughts from the affairs of another world. + Whereas you are quite eased from all these cares, and have nothing + but your daily labor to look after, and, when that is done, take + your needful rest. Neither is it necessary for you to think of + laying up any thing against old age, as white people are obliged to + do; for the laws of the country have provided, that you shall not be + turned off when you are past labor, but shall be maintained, while + you live, by those you belong to, whether you are able to work or + not.[J] _And these are great and real advantages, for which, if you + consider things rightly, you cannot but thank Almighty God, who hath + so wisely provided for your well-being here and your eternal + happiness hereafter._" + +God has made some men slaves, in order the better to help them towards +heaven! How admirably has the plan of the All-wise succeeded! The slaves +are a nation of _heathen_ in our very midst, daily and hourly (if we may +believe their religious teachers) descending to everlasting perdition. +From our very souls we are sick of the expression, "the providence of +God," as thus cantingly used! Wherever a great wrong is committed by +_man_, there the wrong is made part of God's mysterious providence! Are +the poor oppressed,--it is a part of God's providence! Are bloody wars +carried on for man's selfish ends,--they are part of God's providence! +Nothing is too wicked, nothing too infamously mean, for that Being to do +whose essence is love, whose law is just. We denounce the African +slave-trader as a fiend, and, with appropriate religious ceremonies, +hang him by the neck until he is dead, so deep is our detestation of a +pirate; and yet, at the same time, we thank God, that, in his infinite +wisdom, he has devised and executed the plan of negro-slavery, as the +true way of Christianizing and elevating Africa! The slave-owner is said +to have it in his power to shut up the kingdom of heaven against his +slaves, and the power is said to have been exercised; and Mr. Jones +seems to think that the race, taken as a whole, are thus shut out. And +yet the slaves are called upon by right reverend bishops to fall on +their knees, and devoutly thank God that he has made them slaves, in +order the better to help them towards heaven! Truly wonderful is it, +that ("Rel. Inst." p. 153) "they are living in manifold and gross sins; +their iniquities are aggravated and great before the Lord, and _not the +least of them is their neglect and contempt of the spiritual mercies and +privileges within their reach_"! + +We conclude our extracts from Bishop Meade's book with the following +(Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 34, 35):-- + + "There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I + shall now take notice of, and that is correction. + + "Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do + not deserve it. But whether you really deserve it or not, it is your + duty, and Almighty God requires that you bear it patiently. You may + perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but, if you consider it + right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you + deserve correction, you cannot but say that it is just and right you + should meet with it. Suppose you do not, or at least you do not + deserve so much, or so severe a correction, for the fault you have + committed, you perhaps have escaped a great many more, and are at + last paid for all. Or suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid + to your charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is + it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was + never discovered, and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would + not let you escape without punishment one time or another? And ought + you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful that + he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness than + destroy your souls for it in the next life? But, suppose even this + was not the case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you have + by no means, known or unknown, deserved the correction you suffered, + there is this great comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, + and leave your cause in the hands of God, he will reward you for it + in heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to + your exceeding great glory hereafter." + +Douglass's aunt Hester disobeyed _God's_ commands, when she paid no heed +to the orders of Capt. Anthony,--God's overseer. Accordingly, says +Douglass ("Narrative," p. 7), who was an eye-witness of the transaction, +the latter "took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to +waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked. After +crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a +stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made +her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood +fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full +length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to +her,--'Now, you d----d b----h! I'll learn you how to disobey my orders!' +And, after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy +cowskin; and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-ending shrieks from +her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor."[K] Poor, +ignorant, degraded aunt Hester! She little thought that _God_ had +ordered her not to visit her companion; and that, instead of shrieking, +she ought rather to be giving glory to Him who was punishing her in this +world, in order to save her soul in the next! + +Bishop Ives thus instructs the slave-children under his charge[L] +("Catechism"):-- + + Page 27: "Q. You said that at your baptism you were made inheritors + of the kingdom of heaven; but will you get eternal life in heaven, + if you do not strive to go there?--A. No; but I shall be sent down + to hell. + + Q. How are you to strive or try to go to heaven?--A. I must have + nothing to do with the devil and his works; which I gave up at my + baptism. + + Q. In what way are you to shun the devil and his works?--A. By + keeping within me no bad thoughts; by speaking no bad words; and by + doing no bad things. + + Q. What do you mean by keeping within you no bad thoughts?--A. I + mean that I must not hate anybody, nor wish to hurt anybody, nor + wish to do any wrong. + + Page 30: Q. What do you mean by doing no bad things, such things as + the devil tempts you to do?--A. I mean that I must not hurt anybody; + must not disobey my parents, nor disobey my master, nor disobey God. + + Q. But can you not disobey your parents and your master without + their knowing it?--A. Yes; but God knows it; for God always sees me. + + Q. What else must you do to get to heaven?--A. I must believe all + that God has told me about the way to get there. + + Pp. 35, 36: Q. How are you to show that you love your neighbor as + yourself?--A. I am to show it by always doing my duty to my + neighbor, as God has commanded me. + + Q. Who is your neighbor?--A. Everybody who lives with me and around + me, and has the control over me. + + Q. Can you name some persons?--A. My playfellows, my master and + mistress, and my parents.... + + Q. How are you to show your love to your master and mistress and + your parents?--A. I am never to lie to them, to steal from them, nor + speak bad words about them, but always to do as they bid me. + + Page 47: Q. How do others sin against you?--A. By cursing me, + telling lies about me, or striking me. + + Q. What must you do to those who thus sin against you?--A. I must + forgive them. + + Q. What if you do not forgive them?--A. Then God will not forgive + me. + + Q. Why?--A. Because I pray to him to forgive me, just as I forgive + others. + + Page 48: Q. How are you to forgive others, when they trespass + against you?--A. I am not to hurt them, because they hurt me; but I + must pray for them, and try to do them good. + + Q. What if you do to them just as they do to you?--A. Then God will + not forgive my sins, but will punish me. + + Page 43: Q. What do you pray for, when you say in the Lord's prayer, + 'Thy will be done'?--A. I pray that my will and everybody's will may + submit to God's will. + + Q. Where does God make his will known to us?--A. In his word and in + his acts. + + Page 44: Q. What are God's acts by which he makes his will known to + us?--A. Every thing that happens to us is God's act. + + Q. How are you to submit to God's will as made known in his + acts?--A. When God sends trouble or sickness or death, I am to feel + that God does right." + +Mr. Jones thus catechizes the slaves ("Catechism," pp. 129-131):-- + + "Q. What command has God given to servants concerning obedience to + their masters?--A. 'Servants, obey in all things your masters + according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in + singleness of heart, fearing God.' + + Q. What does God mean by masters according to the flesh?--A. Masters + in this world. + + Q. What are servants to count their masters worthy of?--A. 'All + honor.' + + Q. How are they to do the service of their masters?--A. '_With good + will_, doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men.' + + Q. How are they to try to please their masters?--A. 'Please them + well in all things, not answering again.' + + Q. Is a servant who is an eye-servant to his earthly master an + eye-servant to his heavenly Master?--A. Yes. + + Q. Is it right in a servant, when commanded to do any thing, to be + sullen and slow, and answer his master again?--A. No. + + Q. If the servant professes to be a Christian, ought he not to be + _as a Christian servant_, an example to all other servants of love + and obedience to his master?--A. Yes. + + Q. And, should his master be a Christian also, ought he not on that + account specially to love and obey him?--A. Yes. + + Q. But suppose the master is hard to please, and threatens and + punishes more than he ought, what is the servant to do?--A. Do his + best to please him. + + Q. When the servant suffers _wrongfully_ at the hands of his master, + and, to please God, takes it patiently, will God reward him for + it?--A. Yes. + + Q. Is it right for the servant to _run away_, or is it right to + _harbor_ a runaway?--A. No. + + Q. What did the Apostle Paul to Onesimus, who was a runaway? Did he + harbor him, or send him back to his master?--A. He sent him back to + his master with a letter. + + Q. Is it any praise to a servant to be punished for his faults, or + ought he to think hard of it?--A. No. + + Q. Are servants at liberty to tell lies, and deceive their + masters?--A. No. + + Q. Are they at liberty to steal from their masters?--A. No. + + Q. What ought they to show in their whole character and conduct?--A. + '_All good fidelity_, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our + Saviour in all things.' + + Q. If servants will faithfully do their duty and serve God in their + stations as servants, will they be respected of men, and blessed and + honored of God as well as others?--A. Yes. + + Q. Will servants have to account to God for the manner in which they + serve their masters on earth?--A. Yes." + +Mr. Jones thus expounds the tenth commandment ("Catechism," pp. +118-120):-- + + "Q. How does God require me to love my neighbor?--A. As myself. + + Q. Ought I not therefore to be glad when I see him have and enjoy + every good thing?--A. Yes. + + Q. But suppose I am _not glad_, and desire the very things he has, + and begrudge his having them, what do I?--A. I covet. + + Q. Is it not my duty to be contented with such things as I have, + without coveting what my neighbor has?--A. Yes. + + Q. What did the Apostle Paul say he had learned?--A. 'I have + learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.' + + Q. Repeat, 'Godliness with contentment.'--A. 'Godliness with + contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, + and it is certain we can carry nothing out; and, having food and + raiment, let us be therewith content.' + + Q. From whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift?--A. + From God. + + Q. Who is exalted as head above all, and giveth riches and honor and + greatness and strength, and also casteth down and maketh poor whom + he pleaseth?--A. God. + + Q. If I work and am industrious, and walk uprightly with God, will + he suffer me to want any good thing?--A. No. + + * * * * * + + Q. Does this commandment forbid _the very thought itself_ of evil + against our neighbor?--A. Yes. + + * * * * * + + We are to be contented with our own condition and circumstances, as + appointed unto us by our infinitely wise and gracious Father in + heaven." + +Thus discourseth that eminent son of Massachusetts, the Rev. Theodore +Clapp, after seventeen years' experience of the blessedness of slavery +(Sermon, p. 66):-- + + "Let all Christian teachers show our servants the importance of + being submissive, obedient, industrious, honest, and faithful to the + interests of their masters. Let their minds be filled with sweet + anticipations of rest eternal beyond the grave. Let them be trained + to direct their views to that fascinating and glorious futurity, + where the sins, sorrows, and troubles of earth will be contemplated + under the aspect of means indispensable to our everlasting progress + in knowledge, virtue, and happiness. I would say to every slave in + the United States, You should realize that a wise, kind, and + merciful Providence has appointed for you your condition in life; + and, all things considered, you could not be more eligibly situated. + The burden of your care, toils, and responsibilities is much lighter + than that which God has imposed on your master. The most enlightened + philanthropists, with unlimited resources, could not place you in a + situation more favorable to your present and everlasting welfare + than that which you now occupy. You have your troubles. So have all. + Remember how evanescent are the pleasures and joys of human life." + +_Judicious_ religious instruction, therefore, makes the slaves faithful, +diligent, and honest, and very materially promotes discipline; and it +produces these results much more perfectly than any other motive which +can be used. The cowskin and the paddle are doubtless serviceable; but +that South Carolina planter told the truth who said to Dr. Brisbane +(Brooke's "Slavery," p. 35), that religion was worth more to him with +his slaves than four wagon-loads of cowskins! A judiciously awakened +conscience, an earnest wish on the part of the slave to do what he +believes to be the will of God, in order to escape never-ending torments +in hell, constitute a much more forcible and constant incitement and +restraint than that of fear. When we reflect that "ignorance and +superstition render them easy dupes to their teachers," and that the +more ignorant and superstitious they are, the more easily they may be +duped, it is evident that this religious restraint is easily created, +and daily increases in strength. How infinitely more powerful, then, is +such a motive than the fear of bodily suffering! It is equally easy and +vastly more efficacious to ply judicious religious instruction than to +ply the cowskin or the paddle! + +It is evident also, that the religious instruction of slaves increases +their market-value, and greatly promotes the safety of the community. +"Experience teaches us," says the Right Rev. Dr. Gibson, "the great +value of those servants who are truly religious, compared with those who +have no sense of religion" ("Rel. Inst." p. 22). No persons feel this +more sensibly than the slaveholders. "Even _men of the world_," says the +Presbytery of Georgia, "throw wide the door of access to their negroes." +The fourth of a series of resolutions reported to the Synod of South +Carolina and Georgia in 1833 reads, "We deem religious instruction to +master and servant every way conducive to _our interests for this world_ +and for that which is to come" (ib. p. 74). With the proceedings of a +convention held in Charleston, S.C. in 1845, to consider the subject of +the religious instruction of slaves, were published letters from several +persons, describing the effect actually produced by such instruction. +One person writes, "The deeper the piety of the slave, the more valuable +is he in every sense of the word." Another says, "A regard to +self-interest should lead every planter to give his people religious +instruction." "On such large plantations," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. +Inst." p. 239), "_as a mere matter of gain_, a religious instructor +should be employed." _By religious instruction_ (ib. p. 208), "_the +pecuniary interests of masters will be advanced as a necessary +consequence._"--Page 204: "Is it not conceded, that a truly pious +servant gives less trouble, and is more profitable, than one who is not? +Is there one master in a thousand who does not desire such servants? Is +it not true, that the most pious servants exert the happiest influence +in promoting honesty and good order on plantations and in +communities?"--Page 210: "_The religious instruction of the slaves will +contribute to safety._ 'The thing that hath been, it is that which may +be;' and although, as a slaveholding country, we are so situated that, +so far as man can see, the hope of success on the part of our laboring +class, in any attempt at revolution, is forlorn; yet no enemy (if there +be an enemy) should be despised, however weak, and no danger unprovided +for, however apparently remote.... It is, then, but a prudent foresight, +a dictate of benevolence and of wisdom, to originate, and set in +operation, means that may act as _a check upon, if not a perfect +preventive, of evil_. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of _sound +religious instruction_ as a means to the end desired." + +Ib. p. 212: "Besides the general and special influences of the gospel +now adverted to, safety will be connected with _the very dispensation of +it_.... The presence of white instructors, settled ministers, or +missionaries, in their private as well as public religious assemblies, +and free intercourse with the people and with their influential men and +leaders, exert a restraining influence upon any spirit of +insubordination that may exist, and at the same time give opportunities +for its detection. The negroes are as capable of strong personal +attachments to their religious instructors as are any other people, _and +of their own will are inclined to make confidential communications_"! + +Such is the quality of the religious instruction imparted to slaves; +such is the way in which their famishing souls are led away to the water +of life! To escape everlasting torments in hell, a slave must submit to +remain in slavery! He must neither murmur nor repine at his lot, but +rather give thanks to God for his loving-kindness and tender mercy in +removing from his path so many temptations to sin! He must obey his +master in all things, and do the work assigned to him faithfully and +diligently, "in singleness of heart, as unto Christ"! He must act +honestly, and never waste any of "the comforts and conveniences of life" +which he procures for his master. No accumulation of injuries or +deprivations can excuse him for running away; but he is bound to endure +all his wrongs with cheerfulness and patience, and, leaving his cause in +the hands of God, look to Heaven alone for his reward! Who is there that +does not feel irresistibly impelled, with Bishop Ives, to cease "wailing +over the _imaginary_ suffering" of the slaves, and to unite with him in +"the heart-felt exclamation, 'How happy are the people that are in such +a case! yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God'"? +(Bishop Ives's "Address to the Convention in his Diocese;" Jay's +"Letter," p. 3). Who cannot say to the slaves, with Mr. Glennie (p. 58), +"Your advantages are indeed great: ... oh! make full use of your +privileges, and show that you thank God by serving him"? + +To teach untruths is a greater wrong to a man's soul than merely to keep +him in ignorance. How much more pitifully wicked is it, then, to teach +such untruths only or mainly as must advance the pecuniary interest of +the oppressor! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.--NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES. + + "Marriage unites all which ennobles and beautifies life."--_De + Wette._ + + "Negro marriages are neither recognized nor protected by + law."--_Rev. C. C. Jones._ + + +Besides the direct instruction thus imparted to slaves, there is an +indirect instruction much more powerful and effective in securing their +degradation. + +"Marriage," says De Wette, "is genuine only when single and permanent. +It is then also the first and most important institution of human +existence; the foundation of all civilization and culture; the root of +church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed among +mankind; and thousands are first made aware by it that they have within +them a nobler impulse and a nobler want than to labor, to acquire, and +to enjoy. It is the union of manly strength with feminine gentleness; +the tempering of masculine rudeness by female delicacy; and, for +innumerable persons, the only relation in which they feel the true +sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for every human virtue, since +each of these is developed from the love and confidence which here +predominate. It unites all which ennobles and beautifies +life,--sympathy, kindness of will and deed, gratitude, devotion, and +every delicate, intimate feeling. As the only asylum for true education, +it is the first and last sanctuary of human culture. As husband and +wife, through each other, become conscious of complete humanity, of +every humane feeling and every humane virtue; so children, at their +first awakening in the fond covenant of love between parents, both of +whom are tenderly concerned for the same object, find an image of +complete humanity, leagued in free love. The spirit of love, which +prevails between them, acts with creative power upon the young mind, and +awakens every germ of goodness within it. This invisible, uncalculated, +and incalculable influence of parental life acts more upon the child +than all the efforts of education by means of instruction, precept, and +exhortation." + +How true and yet how faint a picture of the vast influence for good of +the institution of marriage! But if marriage thus unites all which it +ennobles and beautifies life; if, as a means of education, its influence +is uncalculated and incalculable, what must be the moral degradation of +that people to whom marriage is denied? Must not the degradation also be +uncalculated and incalculable? And yet such is the condition of the +slaves! Not content with depriving them of all the higher and holier +enjoyments of marriage, by degrading and darkening their souls, the +slaveholders deny to their slaves even that slight alleviation to their +misery which would result from their marriage-relations being protected. + +It is obviously true, that (Jones's "Catechism," p. 112) "all the +comfort and happiness of the marriage-state, and all the good flowing +from it, to families and the world at large, depend upon its sacredness +and purity." Without these there can be no marriage. No less true is it, +that the institution ("Rel. Inst." p. 132) "depends, for its perpetuity, +sacredness, and value, _largely_ upon the protection given to it by the +law of the land." _But the law gives no protection whatever to the +marriage of slaves!_ + +"Slaves cannot marry," says the Civil Code of Louisiana (Art. 182), +"without the consent of their masters; and their marriages do not +produce any of the civil effects which result from such contract." + + "With the consent of their masters, slaves may marry, and their + moral power to agree to such a contract or connection as that of + marriage cannot be doubted; but, whilst in a state of slavery, it + cannot produce any civil effect, because slaves are deprived of all + civil rights" (6 Martin's Rep. 550.) + + "As the State," says a writer in the "Carolina Baptist," + "constitutionally and legally is ignorant of the marriage of slaves, + it is equally ignorant of its dissolution. _It leaves this whole + matter where it ought to be, that is, untouched, and with the owners + themselves._ If there be an abuse of this power, the remedy is not + with the State, but social, religious, and ecclesiastical" ("The + Church as it is," p. 77). + +"_Negro marriages_," says Mr. Jones ("Rel. Inst." pp. 132, 133), "_are +neither recognized nor protected by law._ The negroes receive no +instruction on the nature, sacredness, and perpetuity of the +institution: at any rate, they are far from being duly impressed with +these things. They are not required to be married in any particular +form, nor by any particular persons. Their ceremonies are performed by +their own watchmen or teachers, by some white minister, or, as it +frequently happens, not at all.... There is no special disgrace +nor punishment visited upon those who criminally violate their +marriage vows,[M] except what may be inflicted by owners, or, if +the parties be members, by the church in the way of suspension and +excommunication."--Page 119: "_The relation is liable to disruption in a +variety of forms, for some of which there is no remedy._"--Page 133: +"Families are, and may be, divided for improper conduct on the part of +either husband or wife, _or by necessity, as in cases of the death of +owners, division of estates, debt, sale, or removals; for they are +subject to all the changes and vicissitudes of property_. Such divisions +are, however, carefully guarded against and prevented, _as far as +possible_, by owners, on the score of interest, as well as of religion +and humanity. Hence, as may well be imagined, the marriage-relation +loses much of the sacredness and perpetuity of its character. It is a +contract of convenience, profit, or pleasure, that may be entered into +and dissolved at the will of the parties, and that without heinous sin." + +What a pitiful and wicked mockery it is thus to expound to slaves the +seventh commandment! (Jones's "Catechism," pp. 110, 111): + + "Q. Should persons be married in a public or in a private way?--A. + In a public way. + + Q. And by whom should the ceremony be performed?--A. By a minister + or some other lawful person. + + Q. Is God really present to witness the marriage?--A. Yes. + + Q. How near of kin may a man marry?--A. His first cousin. + + Q. After marriage, can husband and wife separate whenever they + please?--A. No. + + Q. Has any person whatever power to separate them if he pleases?--A. + No. + + Q. What saith our Saviour, 'What, therefore, God hath joined'? A. + 'What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put + asunder.' + + Q. Can husband and wife ever separate?--A. Yes. + + Q. In how many ways?--A. In two only. + + Q. What is the first?--A. When either of them commits adultery. + + Q. What is the second?--A. When either of them dies. + + Q. After one dies, may the other lawfully marry again?--A. Yes. + + Page 112: Q. How will God punish those who break this commandment in + the world to come?--A. In everlasting fire." + +How sacred is the marriage of slaves! They cannot even go through the +_form_, without the consent of their owners. And if the owner of two +bodies consents to the performance of the ceremony "by a minister or +some other lawful person," and God himself "is really present to witness +the marriage," the law, notwithstanding, declares the so-called marriage +to be as complete a nullity as the union of any other kind of +live-stock! It declares that those whom God hath joined may be put +asunder, whenever the owner pleases; as if, wishing to raise money to +pay his debts, he finds it more convenient to sell the wife at auction +to pledging his bank-stock; or if, wishing to remove, he thinks it will +be better economy to take his stock with him than sell out, perhaps at a +sacrifice, and buy again an inferior article! In order to be able to +live with his wife at all, Henry Brown was obliged to hire her of her +owner for fifty dollars a year; and, when her master became short of +funds, he sold the wife and three children, before Brown's very face, to +a Methodist minister,--one of those holy men who are "called of God" and +"solemnly set apart" to preach to all men the gospel of love! So sacred +is the marriage of slaves! + +There is no such thing as a sacred marriage among slaves. Marriage, with +them, at its best estate, is but concubinage. The relation _must_ be +entered into when and as the owner orders! It is changed whenever, in +his good pleasure, he wills that it shall change! It ends when he wills +that it shall end! Wherein is the union among the _human_ stock, on the +Southern plantations, regarded as more sacred and lasting than the union +among the _brute_ stock? In both cases, the law considers the union as a +merely animal relation, for an animal purpose,--the increase, perhaps +the improvement, of the breed! So sacred is the marriage of slaves! + +The following advertisements, and hundreds of similar ones might be +cited, throw light on the subject:-- + +From the "Richmond Enquirer," Feb. 20, 1838: + + "STOP THE RUNAWAY!!!--$25 Reward. Ran away from the Eagle Tavern, a + negro fellow, named Nat. _He is no doubt attempting to follow his + wife, who was lately sold to a speculator, named Redmond._ The above + reward will be paid by Mrs. Lucy M. Downman, of Sussex county, Va." + +From the "Richmond (Va.) Compiler," Sept. 8, 1837: + + "RAN AWAY FROM THE SUBSCRIBER--BEN. He ran off _without any known + cause_, and _I suppose he is aiming to go to his wife, who was + carried from the neighborhood last winter_. JOHN HUNT." + +From the "Lexington (Ky.) Intelligencer," July 7, 1838: + + "$160 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscribers, living in this city, + on Saturday, 16th inst. a negro man, named Dick, about 37 years of + age. _It is highly probable said boy will make for New Orleans, as + he has a wife living in that city, and he has been heard to say + frequently that he was determined to go to New Orleans._ + + DRAKE & THOMPSON. + "Lexington, June 17, 1838." + + "$50 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, his negro man, + Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne _has + purchased his wife and children_ from H. L. Pinckney, Esq. and has + them now on his plantation at Goosecreek, where, no doubt, the + fellow is frequently _lurking_. + T. DAVIS." + +The wife has been sold to the speculator in human flesh! The sacred +relation has been for ever sundered by God's overseer! The husband has +been orally taught to say,--"Thou shalt not commit adultery," and to +consider such to be a divine command. But he is strong and healthy, and +his master orders him to live with another woman. What is he to do? If +he obeys, he commits adultery, and disobeys God's commands. Truly a +difficult matter to settle! + +What ardent prayers will the church send up to heaven, that their +brother may have strength given to him to enable him to save his +soul alive! What earnest entreaties! How solemnly will the church +remonstrate with its member against the commission of so great a +sin! And, when prayers, entreaties, remonstrances, have all been +tried and have failed, how sternly will the church proceed to the last +extremity,--excommunication! If the man who marries his deceased wife's +sister must be cut off from "membership in the Saviour's body" as +impure,[N] how much more must that man be cut off who is faithless +during his wife's lifetime? + +How admirably does the Savannah River Baptist Association harmonize the +worship of God and mammon, and reconcile obedience to the commands of +the master with obedience to God! This Association, in reply to the +question (Brooke's "Slavery," p. 38),-- + + "Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character + as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought + to be allowed to marry again," + +Answer-- + + "That such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is + civilly a separation by death; and they believe, that, in the sight + of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such + cases would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships + and strong temptation, but to church-censure for acting in obedience + to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a + regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit + of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The + slaves are not free agents; and a dissolution by death is not more + entirely without their consent, and beyond their control, than by + such separation." + +A similar decision was made by the Shiloh Baptist Association in +Virginia. This question was presented for solution ("The Church as it +is," pp. 76, 77),-- + + "Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her + master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again?" + +The query was referred to a committee, who made the following report; +which, after discussion, was adopted:-- + + "That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this + country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion, that + it is better to permit servants thus circumstanced to take another + husband or wife." + +Convenient truth! A different rule would lessen the productiveness of +the master's stock! Can any man who owns the body of his sister be +expected to acquiesce in a regulation which would deprive his property +of half its value! + +But, suppose the master wishes to sell the female slave for purposes of +licentiousness, or suppose the master is himself impure, is this +agreeable to the order of Divine Providence? Does any one say that +either law or public opinion protects the female slave from the +brutality of her master? The great frequency of outrages of this kind is +demonstrated by the tens of thousands of slaves, more or less white, who +are found at the South. It was a Southerner who said, that the best +blood of Virginia flowed in the veins of her slaves! + +From the "Richmond (Va.) Whig:" + + "$100 REWARD will be given for the apprehension of my negro(?) + Edmund Kenney. _He has straight hair, and complexion so nearly + white, that it is believed a stranger would suppose there was no + African blood in him._ He was with my boy Dick a short time since in + Norfolk, _and offered him for sale_, and was apprehended, _but + escaped under pretence of being a white man_! + + "January 6, 1836. ANDERSON BOWLES." + +From the "Republican Banner and Nashville Whig" of July 14, 1849: + + "$200 REWARD--Ran away from the subscriber, on the 23d of June last, + a bright mulatto woman, named Julia, about 25 years of age. She is + of common size, _nearly white_, and very likely. She is a good + seamstress, and can read a little. _She may attempt to pass for + white_,--dresses fine. She took with her Anna, her child, 8 or 9 + years old, and considerably darker than her mother.... She once + belonged to a Mr. Helm, of Columbia, Tennessee. + + "I will give a reward of $50 for said negro and child, if delivered + to me or confined in any jail in this State, so I can get them; + $100, if caught in any other Slave State, and confined in a jail so + that I can get them; and $200, if caught in any Free State, and put + in any good jail in Kentucky or Tennessee, so I can get them. + + "Nashville, July 9, 1849. A. W. JOHNSON." + +The following three advertisements are taken from Alabama papers: + + "RAN AWAY FROM THE SUBSCRIBER, working on the plantation of Col. H. + Tinker, a bright mulatto boy, named Alfred. Alfred is about 18 years + old, pretty well grown, _has blue eyes, light flaxen hair, skin + disposed to freckle. He will try to pass as free-born._ + + "Green County, Ala. S. G. STEWART." + + "$100 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, a bright mulatto + man-slave, named Sam. _Light sandy hair, blue eyes, ruddy + complexion,--is so white as very easily to pass for a free white + man._ + EDWIN PECK. + "Mobile, April 22, 1837." + + "RAN AWAY, on the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman, named Fanny. + Said woman is 20 years old; is rather tall; can read and write, and + so forge passes for herself. Carried away with her a pair of + ear-rings,--a Bible with a red cover; is very pious. She prays a + great deal, and was, as supposed, contented and happy. _She is as + white as most white women, with straight light hair, and blue eyes, + and can pass herself for a white woman._ I will give $500 for her + apprehension and delivery to me. She is very intelligent. + + JOHN BALCH. + "Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845." + +From the "Newbern (N.C.) Spectator:" + + "$50 REWARD will be given for the apprehension and delivery to me of + the following slaves,--Samuel and Judy, his wife, with their four + children, belonging to the estate of Sacker Dubberly, deceased. + + "I will give $10 for the apprehension of _William Dubberly_, a slave + belonging to the estate. William is about 19 years old, _quite + white, and would not readily be taken for a slave_. + + "March 13, 1837. JOHN J. LANE." + +The next two advertisements we cut from the "New Orleans Picayune" of +Sept. 2, 1846: + + "$25 REWARD.--Ran away from the plantation of Madame Fergus + Duplantier, on or about the 27th of June, 1846, a bright mulatto, + named Ned, very stout built, about 5 feet 11 inches high, _speaks + English and French_, about 35 years old, waddles in his walk. _He + may try to pass himself for a white man, as he is of a very clear + color, and has sandy hair._ The above reward will be paid to whoever + will bring him to Madame Duplantier's plantation, Manchac, or lodge + him in some jail where he can be conveniently obtained." + + "$200 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, last November, _a white + negro_ man, about 35 years old, height about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, + _blue eyes, has a yellow woolly head, very fair skin_, + (particularly under his clothes).... Said negro man was raised in + Columbia, S.C. and is well known by the name of Dick Frazier.... He + was lately known to be working on the railroad in Alabama, near + Moore's Turn Out, _and passed as a white man_, by the name of Jesse + Teams. I will give the above reward for his delivery in any jail, so + that I can get him; and I will give $500 for sufficient proof to + convict, in open court, any man who carried him away. + + "Barnwell Court House, S.C. J. D. ALLEN. + + "P.S. Said man has a good-shaped foot and leg, and his foot is very + small and hollow." + +In the "New Orleans Bee" of June 22, 1831, P. Bahi advertises as a +runaway "_Maria, with a clear, white complexion_." Ellen Craft is as +white as our own sisters. Wm. W. Brown ("Narrative," p. 34), describing +a gang of slaves who were under his charge, and destined to supply the +New Orleans market, thus speaks of one who attracted the attention of +the passengers and the crew:-- + + "It was a _beautiful girl_, apparently about twenty yeas of age, + _perfectly white, with straight, light hair, and blue eyes_. But it + was not the whiteness of her skin that created such a sensation + among those who gazed upon her: it was her almost unparalleled + beauty. She had been on the boat but a short time before the + attention of all the passengers, including the ladies, had been + called to her; and the common topic of conversation was about the + beautiful slave-girl." + +A friend, a resident for some time in New Orleans, describes to us a +very beautiful slave he saw there, who had light curling hair, blue +eyes, and almost a blonde complexion. After having been kept as a +mistress by her owner, he finally sold her to pay his debts! No isolated +case is exhibited by Wm. W. Brown when he relates the history of poor +Cynthia! + +Is any sickly sentimentalist shocked at these recitals? Be of stout +heart! Do not Christian bishops, and hundreds of other reverend +fathers,--the messengers of God's everlasting truth to our +souls,--assure us that _slavery_, "AS IT EXISTS," _is right_; and that, +consequently, the fundamental maxim of slavery, "the child follows the +condition of the mother," is right also! Why, then, should not the +children of slave-women by white fathers be rightfully slaves? Of what +consequence, then, is the pollution of the soul of the mother, compared +with the fact of her increased value as a commodity? How utterly +insignificant is the fact that a father holds his own children in +slavery, compared with the advantages notoriously derived from such an +improvement in the slave-stock? In sober, literal truth, the brother +owns the body of his sister, and the sister that of her brother,--so +sacred is the marriage-state of slaves! If the father wishes to repair +the wrong he has done, the law forbids his teaching his own child to +read or write! If he is poor, too poor to pay his debts, a creditor may +seize his child in its very cradle, and sell it at auction to pay the +debt! It ought not to be otherwise! Is it not agreeable to the order of +Divine Providence, that a child should be sold to pay his father's +debts? How fitting it is for Mr. Jones and Bishop Freeman to teach such +a vendible commodity to say, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy +mother"! + +Does any reader still doubt whether an owner thus has uncontrolled +authority over the body of his female slave? Let him read the following +extract from an opinion of the Supreme Court of the State of North +Carolina,--the Old North State, whence Bishop Ives has long since ceased +to weep over the "imaginary sufferings" of the slaves! To avoid a +chastisement, a female slave ran off, and, on her refusal to stop when +called, was shot at and wounded. Judge Ruffin, in delivering the opinion +of the court (State _vs._ Mann, 2 Dev. Rep. 263), says:-- + + "The inquiry here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery on a + slave by the hirer is indictable?... In criminal proceedings, and, + indeed, in reference to all other persons but the general owner, the + hirer and possessor of a slave, in relation to both rights and + duties, is, for the time being, the owner.... + + "With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the profit of the + master, his security, and the public peace. The subject is one + doomed in his own person, and in his posterity, to live without + knowledge, and without capacity to make any thing his own, and to + toil that others may reap the fruits. + + "What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a being to + convince him what it is impossible but that the most stupid must + feel and know can never be true, that he is thus to labor upon a + principle of natural duty, or for the sake of his own personal + happiness? Such services can only be expected from one who has no + will of his own, who surrenders his will in explicit obedience to + that of another. _Such obedience is the consequence only of + uncontrolled authority over the body._ There is nothing else which + can operate to produce the effect. The power of the master must be + absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect. I most + freely confess my sense of the harshness of this proposition. I feel + it as deeply as any man can. And, as a principle of moral right, + every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But, in the actual + condition of things, it must be so. There is no remedy. This + discipline belongs to slavery."[O] + +Judge Ruffin had not enjoyed the benefit of the instruction imparted +some years later by Bishops Ives and Freeman. If he had, he would not +thus have followed the dictate of a "desperately wicked" heart, and have +repudiated the discipline of slavery as morally wrong! + +The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, of the Presbyterian Church, himself a +slaveholder, was a delegate to the State Emancipation Convention +recently held in Kentucky. In a speech made by him before the +Convention, he is reported to have said ("Louisville Examiner"), that-- + + "The system of slavery denies to a whole class of human beings the + sacredness of marriage and of home, compelling them to live in a + state of concubinage; for, in the eye of the law, _no colored + slave-man is the husband of any wife in particular, nor any + slave-woman the wife of any husband in particular; no slave-man is + the father of any children in particular, and no slave-child is the + child of any parent in particular_." + +Who will venture even to conceive, much less compute, the deep +degradation caused by the denial of marriage to the slaves? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"SOUL-DRIVING." + + "A negro speculator, or a _soul-driver_ as they are generally called + among slaves."--_Wm. W. Brown's Narrative_, p. 39. + + +If we would most effectually degrade a man, we need only trample on the +highest and holiest of all his rights,--his right to himself; we have +only to make him the subject of barter and sale, a thing for speculators +to make money on, for jockeys to deceive about, and for buyers to +depreciate. And yet how few act as if they admitted this truth, or even +faintly realized the enormity of this wrong! + +Slaves, as subjects of property, are continually spoken of and treated +as horses and cows, and other live-stock! Tens of thousands of +advertisements might be adduced to prove this. We have room only for a +very few proofs. The Civil Code of Louisiana provides:-- + + "Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and animals are divided + into two classes,--vices of body and vices of character. + + "Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished into absolute and + relative.... + + "Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are leprosy, madness, and + epilepsy. + + "Art 2503. The absolute vices of horses and mules are short wind, + glanders, and founder." + +In the "National Intelligencer" of May 2, 1843, the administrators of +Alexius Boarman advertise for sale "twelve or thirteen likely young +negroes, among whom are two carpenters; four head of horses, two yoke +of oxen, several head of cows, all the sheep and hogs belonging to said +deceased." The same paper of December 2, 1843, contains the following:-- + + "PUBLIC SALE OF VERY VALUABLE NEGROES AND STOCK.--The subscriber + will offer at public sale at his residence, near Bladensburg, Prince + George's County, Maryland, on Wednesday, the 20th of December next, + if fair, if not, the next fair day thereafter, _forty-five or fifty + very valuable young negroes, consisting of men and women, boys, + girls, and children_. + + "_At the same time and place, he will offer his entire stock of + blood horses, together with some farm stock._ + + "The terms of sale will be a credit of nine and eighteen months; the + purchaser giving bond with approved security, bearing interest from + the day of sale. + + "Sale to commence at 10 o'clock, A. M. SAMUEL SPRIGG. + + "The Marlborough Gazette will copy till day of sale." + +In the same paper of January 25, 1843, directly under an advertisement +for sale of "_a girl_ about 18 years of age, who is honest, industrious, +and a good cook, fine washer and ironer, and a good seamstress," we find +the notice of a "_Blooded colt_ at auction.--A thorough bred colt, two +years old the coming spring, got by Farmer, dam by Lafayette"! D. H. +Candler, the sheriff of Montgomery County, Md. in an advertisement now +before us, states that he has seized on execution, and will sell "for +cash only" at the Court House door in Rockville, "_one stallion, Red +Buck_, and _one negro boy, John_"![P] To bring the case nearer home:--in +the "New England Weekly Journal" of August 27, 1733, printed in +_Boston_, we find the following advertisement:-- + + "SEVERAL LIKELY YOUNG NEGROES, best Barbadoes sugars, very good + Bohea tea, bag Hollands, fine cambric muslins, and sundry other + merchandise, to be sold by Hugh Hall, Esq."[Q] + +In the "Boston Gazette" of October 21, 1734:-- + + "TO BE SOLD BY ----, Several likely young negroes, lately + imported,--as men, women, boys. Also choice raisins of the sun, + gunpowder, Newcastle glass, in crates and boxes." + +Not only are slaves thus placed on the same level with other property, +but they are treated in the same manner. As our horse-jockeys not +infrequently color their horses, or put on false tails, for the sake of +enhancing their value, so similar arts are practised by the +slave-jockeys of the South! Wm. W. Brown thus describes a part of his +duties, whilst hired to the slave-trader Walker ("Narrative," pp. 42, +43): + + "In the course of eight or nine weeks, Mr. Walker had his cargo of + human flesh made up. There was in this lot a number of old men and + women, some of them with gray locks. We left St. Louis in the + steamboat Carlton, Captain Swan, bound for New Orleans. On our way + down, and before we reached Rodney, the place where we made our + first stop, I had to prepare the old slaves for market. I was + ordered to have the old men's whiskers shaved off, and the gray + hairs plucked out, where they were not too numerous, in which case + he had a preparation of blacking to color it, and with a + blacking-brush we would put it on. This was new business to me, and + was performed in a room where the passengers could not see us. These + slaves were also taught how old they were by Mr. Walker; and, after + going through the blacking process, they looked ten or fifteen years + younger; and I am sure that some of those who purchased slaves of + Mr. Walker were dreadfully cheated, especially in the ages of the + slaves which they bought."--Pp. 45, 46: "The next day we proceeded + to New Orleans, and put the gang in the same negro-pen which we + occupied before. In a short time the planters came flocking to the + pen to purchase slaves. Before the slaves were exhibited for sale, + they were dressed and driven out into the yard. Some were set to + dancing, some to jumping, some to singing, and some to playing + cards. This was done to make them appear cheerful and happy. My + business was to see that they were placed in those situations before + the arrival of the purchasers, and I have often set them to dancing + when their cheeks were wet with tears." + +Can such treatment result in any thing but brutalizing every noble +faculty? If advertisements of stallions and boys, blood-horses and men +and women, blooded colts and young slave-girls, are considered so very +similar as to be placed in the same paragraph, or alongside each other, +how great a difference can there be in the treatment by the public of +the two kinds of stock? Is the auction-block a scene for cultivating the +affections of a poor slave-girl? Are the coarse and unfeeling jests +there perpetrated calculated to increase her purity, or strengthen her +moral sensibilities? Treat a man as you would have him to be, is a good +maxim. Respect him, and he will respect himself. Continually disregard +his holiest and best purposes, and in time he will do the same. + +What but pecuniary profit does the speculator in horses look to? What +other object has the speculator in men, women, and children, in view? +Whatever mammon bids the slave-trader do, will be done. How much more +than this, or will any thing more than this, be done? Will such a person +consider as of any consequence the broken hearts of husbands and wives, +of parents and children, who are torn by this terrible trade from all +they hold dear in life, so long as their bodies are sound, strong, and +healthy; so long as the investment retains its market-value? Of what +consequence is deep, heart-felt agony to a speculator? Is he whose idol +is gold to be turned from his purpose merely by the foolish wailing of a +woman whose heart-strings are breaking? Do the cries of children made +orphans, and of parents made childless, by his acts, move the heart of +that man who makes his living by buying parents and children, husbands +and wives, at the lowest prices, and by selling them, "singly or in lots +to suit," to whomsoever will give the highest price? + +The following is a well-known extract front an Address (p. 12) published +by the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky to the churches under their care, +in 1835:-- + + "Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are + torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts + are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony + often witnessed on such occasions proclaim, with a trumpet-tongue, + the iniquity of our system. There is not a neighborhood where these + heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or + road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, + whose mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from + all that their hearts hold dear." + +In the "New Orleans Bulletin," we find the following "Slavery as it is," +p. 168):-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--A negro woman, 24 years of age, and has two + children, one eight, and the other three years. _Said negroes will + be sold separately or together, as desired._ The woman is a good + seamstress. She will be sold low for cash, or _exchanged for + groceries_. For terms apply to MAYHEW, BLISS, & CO. + 1, Front Levee." + +A similar advertisement will be found in the "New England Weekly +Journal" (Boston), April 9, 1733; printers, S. Kneeland and T. Green:-- + + "A VERY LIKELY NEGRO WOMAN, that has a child of _about six weeks + old, to be sold, either with or without the child_. Inquire of the + printers hereof." + +The following was a standing advertisement, a few years since, in the +Charleston (S. C.) papers:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NEGROES FOR SALE.--The subscriber has just + arrived from Petersburg, Virginia, with one hundred and twenty + likely young negroes, of both sexes and every description, which he + offers for sale on the most reasonable terms. + + "The lot now on hand consists of plough-boys; several likely and + well-qualified house-servants, of both sexes; several women with + children; small girls, suitable for nurses; and _several small boys, + without their mothers_. Planters and traders are earnestly requested + to give the subscriber a call previously to making purchases + elsewhere, as he is enabled, and will sell as cheap or cheaper than + can be sold by any other person in the trade. + + "Hamburg, S.C. Sept. 28, 1838. BENJAMIN DAVIS." + +This is taken from the "Jackson (Tenn.) Telegraph," Sept. 14, 1838:-- + + "COMMITTED TO THE JAIL OF MADISON COUNTY, a negro woman, who calls + her name Fanny, and says she belongs to Wm. Miller, of Mobile. She + formerly belonged to John Givins, of this county, who now owns + several of her children. DAVID SHROPSHIRE, Jailer." + +How strong was that poor mother's love! She had toiled all the way from +Mobile to the county where her children lived, and the laws of a +Christian country consigned her to the jail! Perhaps, in her loneliness, +she remembered some oral instruction like this (Jones's "Catechism," pp. +125,126): + + "Q. Should mothers and fathers very tenderly love their + children?--A. Yes. + + Q. And, as they receive their children from the Lord, is it not + their duty and privilege to present them unto the Lord in his own + appointed ordinance, and to train them up for his church and + service?--A. Yes.... + + Q. What should they teach them to do every night and morning?--A. + Pray to God. + + Q. What book should parents early make their children acquainted + with, and out of which diligently instruct them?--A. The Holy Bible. + + Q. Is it the duty of parents to pray with and for their children + continually?--A. Yes. + + * * * * * + + Q. Is it their duty to warn their children of bad company, and keep + them out of it?--A. Yes." + +Poor slave-mother! very tenderly indeed did you love your children. But, +in your agony, you forgot that it was wicked to run away,--even for the +sake of teaching them to pray night and morning! How thankful, then, +ought you to be to God, that, in his great mercy, he was willing to +punish your transgression in this world, instead of the next! + +We never so deeply feel the brutalizing effects of slavery as when we +reflect upon its peculiarly degrading influences upon woman. On some +accounts, we would gladly pass over this point in silence; but so +atrocious a wrong should rest upon the heart of every one. + +It is an established maxim of trade, that the supply eventually equals +the demand. If the trade happens to be in men and women; in one way or +another, men and women will be supplied to meet the demand. There is a +great demand for slaves in the Southern and South-western States, +because slave-labor is very profitable there. "The domestic cannot +compete with the South-western demand for slaves," says a writer in the +leading Democratic paper of Virginia ("Richmond Enquirer," Nov. 13, +1846). The slaves in the South and West do not increase fast enough to +supply the demand. The foreign slave-trade is piracy. The only resource, +therefore, which is left to those States is a domestic slave-trade with +the Northern Slave States; where, to meet the demand, they resort to +breeding slaves! _Woman is degraded into a breeder!_ + +Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that +State, Jan. 18, 1832 (see "Richmond Whig"), says:-- + + "It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered by steady and + old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right + to its annual profits; the owner of orchards, to their annual + fruits; the owner of _brood mares_, to their product; and the owner + of _female slaves, to their increase_. We have not the fine-spun + intelligence nor legal acumen to discover the technical distinctions + drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim of '_Partus sequitur ventrem_' + is coeval with the existence of the rights of property itself, and + is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and + inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of + the female slave; has her nursed and attended during the period of + her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant offspring. The + value of the property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate + to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth." + +Hon. Thomas M. Randolph, of Virginia, formerly governor of that State, +in his speech before the legislature in 1832, said:-- + + "_It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in parts of + Virginia, to rear slaves for market._ How can an honorable mind, a + patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient + dominion converted into _one grand menagerie, where men are to be + reared for market, like oxen for the shambles_!" + +President Dew, of William and Mary's College, speaking of the annual +exportation of slaves from Virginia, says:-- + + "A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this + emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the + black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because + it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the + negroes, to _encourage breeding_, and to cause the greatest number + possible to be raised," &c. + + "_Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for other States._" + +Henry Clay, in his speech before the Colonization Society in 1829, +says:-- + + "It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United + States would slave-labor be generally employed, if the proprietor + were not tempted _to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern + market, which keeps it up in his own_." + +"It is a melancholy fact," says the same writer in the "Richmond (Va.) +Enquirer," Nov. 13, 1846, "that negroes have become the only _reliable +staple_ of the tobacco-growing sections of Virginia, the only reliable +means of liquidating debts foreign and domestic." + +The following advertisement is taken from the "Charleston (S.C.) +Mercury" ("Slavery as it is," p. 175):-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--A girl, about twenty years of age (raised in + Virginia), and her two female children, one four and the other two + years old; is remarkable strong and healthy, never having had a + day's sickness, with the exception of the small-pox, in her life. + The children are fine and healthy. _She is very prolific in her + generating qualities, and affords a rare opportunity to any person + who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for + their own use._ + + "Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at + the Mercury office." + +Does any reader exclaim there must be some mistake; it is impossible +that such a notice could be inserted in the _leading political paper_ of +South Carolina? Will he feel any more convinced by reading this, taken +from the "_Boston_ Evening Post" of September 10, 1744?-- + + "TO BE SOLD,--A likely negro wench, about 25 years of age, that can + do all sorts of household work, especially cookery; _is very hearty + and strong; has proved her faculty at propagation_, and is very + fluent in the English language. Inquire of the printer." + +Slavery is said to have existed in a _mild_ form in Massachusetts! And +yet we find in our own history parallels to some of the most brutal +atrocities which can be perpetrated on any human being. So essentially +the same is the character and effect of slavery, wherever it exists! +Does any one, and who does not, feel deep disgust at these recitals? Let +us rather feel disgusted at the system which leads to such atrocities! +Let not our indignation rest upon the story of the wrong, but upon the +wrong itself and its perpetrators. + +Does any one say these are solitary instances of atrocity? Doubtless +such advertisements are rare, but not unique. Others of the same kind, +and still more atrocious, might be adduced. But which constitutes the +greater atrocity,--to use men and women as "stallions" and "brood +mares," or to speak or print the damning deed? If the latter shows +hardened feeling, what does the former prove? If these advertisements +were the only ones of the kind which could be cited, still they tell a +story of brutal outrage, which is happening in this Christian land, +every day, hour, and minute, to tens of thousands of human beings! Other +advertisements, showing the brutality of the examinations to which women +are frequently subjected, might be cited. But for these we must refer +the reader to other anti-slavery documents; for enough of the disgusting +details has been exhibited to establish our position. + +To obtain any thing like an adequate conception of the brutalizing +influence upon the slaves of this trading in their bodies and the bodies +of their children, we must first see to what an extent it is carried. We +shall confine our attention chiefly to those who make a business of the +matter, "to gentlemen dealing in slaves;" leaving almost wholly +unnoticed the vast number of instances of buying and selling slaves +between private individuals, chaffering between neighbors, for their +private ends! Not that this latter kind of slave-trade is any less +degrading in its effects, but only because proofs in relation to the +other are more accessible, and are amply sufficient for our purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE." + + "The traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of + justice and humanity."--_Treaty of Ghent._ + + +No description of ours can give any adequate idea of the extent of this +terrible trade. It is as regular a branch of business as any other that +can be named. The city of Washington licenses persons to "traffic in +slaves for profit"! The trade is carried on between Maryland, Virginia, +North and South Carolina, Kentucky,--or the slave-raising States,--and +Alabama, Mississippi, and the other slave-consuming States. Depots, or +private jails, are erected at convenient places. + +In the "American Beacon" (published at Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848, +appear the two following advertisements:-- + + "NEGRO REPOSITORY.--The undersigned has, at a very considerable + expense, erected, and fitted up in a style of comfort and + convenience, a commodious two-story building on Union-street, second + door east of Church-street, for the safe keeping and accommodation + of negroes, both male and female (the apartments being entirely + separate), which are brought to this market for sale. This building + is admirably adapted to the object proposed, having airy and + pleasant rooms, and every convenience which could be desired, + besides large yards, _walled in high_, a capacious cistern, &c. + which, whilst they secure the comfort of the negro, likewise + guarantee the most ample security for his safe keeping. + + "In addition to boarding negroes for sale, the undersigned proposes + keeping on hand from time to time, for sale, such negroes as may be + in demand in this market, embracing every description of house and + field-hands, male and female, young and old, that may be called for, + and upon terms entirely accommodating. + + "Besides the boarding and the selling of negroes, he will also make + exchanges, giving or receiving such boot as the difference in age, + character, qualifications, and appearance may notify. + + "The highest cash market prices paid for negroes of both sexes at + all times. WM. W. HALL." + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--I will pay the highest cash for likely young + negroes of both sexes, from 10 to 30 years of age. All those that + have such to dispose of would do well to give me a call before + selling. I will also attend to shipping of negroes to any of the + Southern ports, free of charge, when left with me; _as I have a + private jail for the safe keeping of servants_. For further + information, inquire at my office at Union Hotel, Union-street, or + through the post-office. G. W. APPERSON." + +The following is taken from a New Orleans paper:-- + + "SLAVE DEPOT.--J. Buddy.--Slave-yard and boarding-house, 159, + Gravier-street, second door from Carondelet. + + "House-servants and field-hands for sale at all times. Slaves will + be received on board or sold on favorable terms. The building is a + large three-story brick house, and _very commodious as a slave + depot_. Particular attention will be paid to the health and + cleanliness of all slaves placed in this yard." + +From the "Missouri Republican," St. Louis, July 13, 1849:-- + + "REMOVAL.--Blakey & McAfee have removed to No. 93, Olive-street, six + doors west of their old stand. They are prepared at all times to pay + the highest prices for negroes. _They have also a good secure yard, + with a strong jail attached_, and are prepared to board negroes sent + to this market for sale. Persons having negroes for sale will please + call and see us. Those wishing to purchase can find what they want + at our yard. BLAKEY & MCAFEE, + No. 93, Olive-street." + +Hon. Horace Mann has described to us the slave-pen in the city of +Washington; and another member of Congress informs us, that the United +States jail in the District of Columbia is frequently used for the +purpose of storing human beings for sale! Thus, in the "National +Intelligencer" (Dec. 19, 1844), we find the following notice:-- + + "FOR SALE,--A likely young negro, in the jail of Washington. He is a + most excellent teamster, and well acquainted with the care of + horses. Persons wishing to purchase will apply to Mr. Ball, at the + jail, where the boy may be seen, and further information given." + +The activity of this trade may be inferred from these advertisements, +which constitute but a small portion of what might be produced. + +In the "National Intelligencer," March 28, 1836, three slave-traders in +the District of Columbia advertise for _twelve hundred_ negroes, and a +fourth offers to buy any number! Here is one of the advertisements:-- + + "CASH FOR FIVE HUNDRED NEGROES, including both sexes, from ten to + twenty-five years of age.--Persons having likely servants to dispose + of will find it their interest to give us a call, as we will give + higher prices in cash than any other purchaser who is now or may + hereafter come into the market. FRANKLIN & AMFIELD, Alexandria." + +In a later number of the same paper are the following:-- + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--I will give cash and liberal prices for any + number of young and likely negroes, from eight to forty years of + age. Persons having negroes to dispose of will find it to their + advantage to give me a call at my residence, on the corner of + Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue, and opposite Mr. Williams's + private jail. WILLIAM H. RICHARDS." + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--The subscriber wishes to purchase a number of + negroes for the Louisiana and Mississippi market. Himself or an + agent at all times can be found at his jail, on Seventh-street. + WM. H. WILLIAMS." + +In a later number, June 24, 1843, Mr. Richards is not so eager:-- + + "CASH FOR NEGROES.--The subscriber wishes to purchase twenty or + thirty negroes, and will pay the highest market price. Persons + having negroes to sell will find it to their interest to give him a + call before they sell. I can be always found at my residence, + corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All communications + through the post-office will be promptly attended to. + WM. H. RICHARDS." + +In a still later number, July 22, 1843, appears this:-- + + "CASH! CASH!--The subscriber wishes to purchase any number of + negroes for the Southern markets. The subscriber will at all times + give the highest market price in cash for likely negroes, mechanics + and house servants included. Himself or agent can at all times be + seen at the corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue. All + communications will receive prompt attention. THOMAS WILLIAMS." + +The following are samples of some of the advertisements of Maryland +traders. The original of all of these advertisements will be found at +the Anti-Slavery office, Boston. We begin with one of Hope H. Slatter:-- + + "NEGROES WANTED.--Having returned from New Orleans, I will now pay + the highest cash prices for all likely negroes that are slaves for + life and good titles. All communications will be promptly attended + to. HOPE H. SLATTER, Pratt-street. + + "N.B. On the 7th day of June, 1844, Jonathan M. Wilson (my former + agent), by mutual consent, withdrew from my employment, and is no + longer my agent. HOPE H. SLATTER. + + "Baltimore, July 29." + + "CASH FOR FIVE HUNDRED NEGROES, at the old establishment of + Slatter's, No. 244, Pratt-street, Baltimore, between Sharp and + Howard-streets, where the highest prices are paid,--which is well + known. _We have large accommodations for negroes, and always + buying._ _Being regular shippers to New Orleans_, persons should + bring their property where no commissions are paid, as the owners + lose it. All communications attended to promptly by addressing + H. F. SLATTER." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--I have removed from my former residence, West + Pratt-street, to my new establishment on Camden-street, immediately + in the rear of the railroad depot, where I am permanently located. + Persons bringing negroes by the cars will find it very convenient, + as it is only a few yards from where the passengers get out. Those + having negroes for sale will find it to their advantage to call and + see me, as I am at all times paying the highest prices in cash. + J. S. DONOVAN, Baltimore, Md." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--O. C. & S. Y. Harris, of Upper Marlboro', wish to + purchase any number of negroes, for which they will give the highest + market price in cash. They will be in Port Tobacco once in every + week. Any communications left in their absence with Mr. Lyne + Shackelford will be promptly attended to." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--The highest market prices will be given for + negroes at all times. Persons having negroes for sale will please + call at my office, No. 26, Conway-street, between Charles and + Hanover. Communications promptly attended to. + + "Also negroes will be received and kept at twenty-five cents per + day. B. M. CAMPBELL. + + "April 7, 1846." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--Persons wishing to sell their negroes will find it + to their advantage to give me a call before selling elsewhere. _I + have all the facilities that the trade will admit of in the New + Orleans and other markets._ Such being the case, I can give as much + as any one else, which I am determined to do. Any communication + addressed to me, either in Baltimore or Port Tobacco, will be + attended to immediately. JOHN G. CAMPBELL, + "Jan. 1, 1847. Agent for B. M. Campbell." + + "TAKE NOTICE.--Persons wishing to dispose of their servants would do + well to give me a call before they sell to the traders. By paying a + small commission to an agent, they can get from $75 to $100 more; as + _I receive monthly from New Orleans, Savannah, Georgia, and + Charleston, S.C. the full market prices for slaves_. + "SCOTT'S Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place." + +The following is taken from the "Wilmington (Va.) Journal" of Sept. 3, +1847:-- + + "NEGROES WANTED.--I wish to purchase a large number of negroes, of + both sexes, from the age of 14 to 30, for which I will pay the + highest cash market price. As I intend making a long stay in + Wilmington for that purpose, persons from the country would find it + to their advantage to bring such slave-property to town as they have + to dispose of. Also wanted some good carpenters, blacksmiths, + coopers, and bricklayers.--Apply to me, at the Carolina Hotel. + ANSLEY DAVIS, of Petersburg, Va. + "Wilmington, May 7, 1847." + +The following is extracted from an advertisement of Lewis A. Collier, a +trader in Richmond, Va.:-- + + "NOTICE.--This is to inform my former acquaintances and the public + generally, that I yet continue in the slave-trade, at Richmond, + Virginia, and will at all times buy and give a fair market price for + young negroes. Persons in this State, Maryland, or North Carolina, + wishing to sell lots of negroes, are particularly requested to + forward their wishes to me at this place. Persons wishing to + purchase lots of negroes are requested to give me a call, as I keep + constantly on hand at this place a great many for sale; and have at + this time the use of one hundred young negroes, consisting of boys, + young men, and girls. I will sell at all times at a small advance on + cost, to suit purchasers. _I have comfortable rooms, with a jail + attached, for the reception of the negroes_; and persons coming to + this place to sell slaves can be accommodated, and every attention + necessary will be given to have them well attended to; and, when it + may be desired, the reception of the company of _gentlemen dealing + in slaves_ will conveniently and attentively be received. My + situation is very healthy, and suitable for the business. + LEWIS A. COLLIER." + +The "St. Louis Daily Union" of August 26, 1847, contains the +following:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED.--The subscriber wishes to purchase one + hundred negroes, of both sexes, for which I will pay the highest + price, in cash. I can be found at all times at No. 104, + Locust-street, by Gerard's stable. WM. JOHNSON." + + "NEGROES WANTED.--For two hundred negroes, the highest prices will + be paid by B. W. POWELL, City Hotel, or + 51, Front-street." + +The "Daily Reveille" (St. Louis), of the same date, contains the +following:-- + + "WANTED to purchase, thirty or forty young negroes, by + CURLE & GODDIN, 79, Olive-street." + +The following is taken from the "St. Louis Republican:" + + "NEGROES WANTED AND BOARDED.--The highest cash price paid for young + likely negroes, at 104, Locust-street, between Third and Fourth, + adjoining Gerard's stables. + + "N.B. Our house will be well secured, and afford the _advantages of + a jail surrounded by walls, and a basement cell in it_. + WHITE & TOOLY." + +The following two are found in the "Evening Mercury" of Jan. 14, 1848, +published in New Orleans:-- + + "SLAVES WANTED.--Wanted to purchase, slaves of every description, at + the New Orleans depot, No. 156, Common-street, for which liberal + prices will be paid. Slaves will also be sold on commission, and + purchasers are invited to call and see a well-selected lot of slaves + offered at low prices. ELIHU CRESWELL." + + "SLAVES WANTED.--E. Creswell, No. 163, Gravier-street, will pay the + most liberal price for slaves of all descriptions; and those who + have slaves for sale will do well to give him a call before selling + to others. He will also exchange slaves, sell slaves on commission; + and those who wish to purchase will do well to give him a call + before buying elsewhere, _as he keeps on hand a good selection of + slaves_, sold under full guarantee, and good reference for titles + given." + +The foregoing advertisements give us some faint idea of the demand for +slaves. Those which follow are of slaves for sale. We cannot commence +more appropriately than with these, taken from the "New Orleans +Picayune:"-- + + "SLAVES FOR SALE.--Hope H. Slatter, who has retired from the trade, + has sold to me his establishment in Baltimore, and leased for a + number of years his old stand at the corner of Esplanade and + Moreau-streets, at which place _I shall keep up a large and general + assortment of slaves for sale, imported direct from Maryland and + Virginia_. WALTER L. CAMPBELL, + Successor to Hope H. Slatter." + + "NEGROES, NEGROES.--Just received, and for sale at No. 7, + Moreau-street, Third Municipality, a large and likely lot of + negroes, consisting of field-hands, house-servants, and mechanics. + _Will be receiving new lots regularly from Virginia during the + season._ WM. F. TALBOTT." + +The same paper of Oct. 18, 1846, contains the following two:-- + + "SLAVES FOR SALE, No. 165, Gravier-street.--The subscriber has + always on hand a number of slaves, consisting of house-servants, + field-hands, and mechanics, which will be sold low, for cash or + negotiable paper. Persons desirous of purchasing will find it to + their interest to call and examine. The subscriber will also receive + and sell on consignment any negro that may be entrusted to his care. + + "He would also respectfully notify persons engaged in the + slave-trade, that he is prepared to board them and their slaves on + the most reasonable terms. WM. H. MERRITT. + + "Reference: J. Barelli, C. J. Mansoni." + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--We, the subscribers, have for sale, at our + establishment, No. 159, Gravier-street (block in the rear of St. + Charles Exchange), a large lot of valuable slaves, suitable for + plantation, house-servants, &c. &c. Persons desirous of purchasing + will find it to their interest to call and examine. + + "We will also receive and sell on consignment any negroes that may + be entrusted to us. We would also respectfully notify owners of + negroes, _and persons engaged in the slave-trade_, that we are + prepared to board negroes, and furnish traders with rooms, &c. + + "Our house is roomy, airy, and dry. Terms reasonable. + JOHN BUDDY. + WM. H. MERRITT." + +Mr. Wm. H. Bolton, whose name is appended to the next advertisement, is +from Tennessee:-- + + "NEGROES FOR SALE.--I have again returned to this market, with + eighteen or twenty likely negroes. I have located on the corner of + Main and Adams-streets. I have plough-boys, men, women, and girls, + _and some very fancy ones_. _I intend to keep a constant supply + through the season, and will not be undersold by any in market._ My + motto is, 'the swift penny; the slow shilling' I never get. + + "I will also pay the highest cash price for young negroes. + + "November 21, 1846. W. H. BOLTON." + +To what uses these "very fancy" girls are put may be inferred from the +following advertisement,[R] taken from the "Norfolk Herald:"-- + + "NOTICE.--For sale, a colored girl, of very superior qualifications, + who is now in Mr. Hall's jail in Norfolk. She is what speculators + call a fancy girl; a bright mulatto, fine figure, straight, black + hair, and very black eyes; remarkably neat and cleanly in her dress + and person. I venture to say, that there is not a better seamstress, + cutter and fitter of ladies' and children's dresses in Norfolk, or + elsewhere, or a more fanciful netter of bead bags, money-purses, &c. + + "Any lady or gentleman in Norfolk or Portsmouth, who may wish to + purchase a girl of this description (whom I consider the most + valuable in Virginia), may take her and try her a month or more at + my risk, and, if she does not suit and answer the description here + given, may return her to Mr. Hill. + + "The cause of offence for which I intend, though reluctantly, to + sell her, is, that she has been recently induced by the persuasions + of some colored persons to make her escape with them to the North, + in which she failed, and is now for sale.--Apply to the subscriber, + in Suffolk, or to James Murdaugh, Esq. or to C. C. Robinson, of + Portsmouth, for further information. JOSEPH HOLLADAY." + +Tennessee can also claim the honor of having such careful traders as Mr. +J. S. Curtis:-- + + "ONE HUNDRED "A NO. 1" NEGROES.--I have on hand one hundred negroes, + men, women, boys, and girls, at my depot, in Gaine's brick building, + immediately back of Howard's Row, between the Gayoso and Herron + House. I have judicious men purchasing in North Carolina, Kentucky, + and Middle Tennessee, and will keep constantly on hand a large + number. + + "Persons wishing to purchase will do well not to trade, without + first calling to see my stock. J. S. CURTIS. + + "Memphis, November 20, 1846." + +The "Spirit of Liberty" contains the following:-- + + "SOUTHERN PLANTERS, wishing to purchase negroes, would do well to + give me a call before they make their purchases, as it would be + greatly to their advantage. Negroes purchased and sold on reasonable + commission. Apply at + SCOTT'S Intelligence Office, No. 10, Exchange Place." + +In the "Daily Richmond Enquirer," Sept 1, 1847, we find this:-- + + "NEGROES AT AUCTION.--On Monday, the 6th of September (Albemarle + Court day), at Charlottesville, there will be sold at public auction + about sixty valuable negroes, of every description. + + "August 31." + +In the same paper, Jan. 25, 1848, we find this:-- + + "TWENTY NEGROES.--Will be sold Friday, 28th inst. at 10 o'clock, + twenty likely young negroes, viz. ten able-bodied men, three boys, + four women, and three girls. + + "Will be added to the above sale, a negro-man, 40 years of age, who + is a first-rate carpenter by trade, also a rough blacksmith. + "BENJ. DAVIS, Auctioneer, + No. 3, Wall-street." + +The following is taken from the "Alabama Argus," published at Dayton, +Ala.:-- + + "FOR SALE SIXTY NEGROES.--By order of the Hon. the Orphans' Court of + Marengo County, the undersigned, administrator of the estate of + Moses W. Alexander, deceased, will, on Monday, the 5th of February, + 1849, at the plantation of said Moses W. Alexander, deceased, in the + Cane Brake, one mile south of Col. Pickens's mills, offer at public + sale, to the highest bidder, a lot, numbering sixty, of the + likeliest and best negroes ever sold in the South. They are all + family negroes,--not bought up by speculators from every State in + the South, but raised by different men, in families from five to + twenty each. Among this stock of negroes are some able-bodied, + stout, and valuable negro-men, and several likely young boys, from + 10 to 18 years of age; also some likely negro-women, girls, and + children. Among the same, A No. 1 cotton-pickers; a good weaver; and + also one negro, who is a very good carpenter and blacksmith.--Terms + of sale, twelve months' credit, with approved security. + J. M. ALEXANDER, Administrator. + "January 5." + +The following advertisement is before us ("Spirit of Liberty"):-- + + "VALUABLE SLAVES AT AUCTION.--I will sell on Saturday, the 14th + inst. in front of the Market-house, one woman and her child. The + woman is about 24 years old; and the child, a girl, about 5 years of + age. The woman accustomed to house-business, also to the farm. The + negroes are very likely, and warranted sound. They will be sold on + a credit of sixty days for negotiable paper satisfactorily endorsed. + + "Nov. 5. CHARLES PHELPS, Auctioneer." + +The following is taken from a paper published at Opelousas (La.):-- + + "AUCTION SALE.--The undersigned will offer for sale, through the + ministry of a public auctioneer, on her plantation, near Carancro, + in the parish of St. Landry, on Monday the 5th day of February next, + and the following days, one hundred choice slaves, of both sexes and + different ages, among which is a good blacksmith and several other + mechanics. These slaves will be sold separately, and under full and + satisfactory guarantee of titles.--8 ox-carts, 69 work-oxen, 20 + mules, 20 work-horses, 1,500 barrels of corn, 12,500 cypress + pickets. + + Conditions of Sale.--The slaves will be sold on a credit of one and + two years from the day of sale; purchasers giving sufficient + security to the satisfaction of the vendor, and the slaves remaining + specially mortgaged until final payment of principal and the + interest which may accrue thereon, at the rate of eight per cent per + annum from time due until final payment. The conditions of the sale + of the movable property will be made known on the day of sale. + WIDOW HYPOLITE CRETIEN. + "Opelousas, January 3d, 1849." + +Literally speaking, tens of thousands of such advertisements as these +might be adduced. You can hardly open a Southern paper without finding +several. + +Part of the trade is carried on by water. This part of the trade is +regulated by Act of Congress (Act March 2, 1807, sect. 8-10), and +slavers sail apparently with commendable regularity. The following +notice is taken from the "National Intelligencer" a few years since:-- + + "ALEXANDRIA AND NEW ORLEANS PACKETS.--Brig Tribune, Samuel C. Bush, + master, will sail as above on the 1st January; brig Isaac Franklin, + William Smith, master, on the 15th January; brig Uncas, Nathaniel + Boush, master, on the 1st February. They will continue to leave this + port on the 1st and 15th of each month, throughout the shipping + season. _Servants that are intended to be shipped will at any time + be received for safe keeping at twenty-five cents a day._ + JOHN AMFIELD, Alexandria." + +The two following advertisements are taken from the "American Beacon" of +January 24, 1848, published at Norfolk, Virginia. They are +advertisements of the same person, who, as we have just seen, offers to +"attend to shipping of negroes to any of the Southern ports:"-- + + "FOR NEW ORLEANS.--Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets. The + fast-sailing packet barque Bachelor, Page, master, will sail for the + above port from the 20th to the 27th inst. For freight, cabin or + steerage passage, for which she has good accommodations, apply to + G. W. APPERSON." + + "FOR NEW ORLEANS.--Virginia and Louisiana Line Packets will commence + their regular trips to the above port the 20th September, and + continue monthly throughout the season. They consist of the + following vessels, to wit, barque Parthian, Capt. G. W. Allen; + barque Bachelor, Capt. Hiram Horton; barque Phoenix, Capt. + Nathaniel Boush. + + "The above vessels are all of the first class, and commanded by long + and experienced commanders.--For further information, apply to + G. W. APPERSON." + +This Capt. Nath. Boush is probably the same man who figures in Mr. +Amfield's advertisement. But _Southern_ traders by no means have a +monopoly of this coastwise slave-trade. The barque Parthenon, Mellish, +master, cleared from the port of New York, October 10, 1846, for +Richmond, Virginia, _avowedly_ "_to load with slaves for the port of New +Orleans_." + +How business-like is the following letter from a North Carolina +slave-trader to his consignee in New Orleans! ("A Reproof of the +American Church," p. 22):-- + + "HALIFAX, N.C. November 16, 1839. + + "Dear Sir,--I have shipped in the brig Addison, prices as + below:--No. 1, Caroline Ennis, $650; 2, Silvy Holland, $625; 3, + Silvy Booth, $487.50; 4, Maria Pollock, $475; 5, Emeline Pollock, + $475; 6, Delia Averit, $475. + + "The two girls that cost $650 and $625 were bought before I shipped + my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me; but I will not + pay the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no + opposition in market. I will wait until I hear from you before I + buy, and then I can judge what I must pay. Goodwin will send you the + bill of lading for my negroes, as he shipped them with his own. + _Write often, as the times are critical, and it depends on the + prices you get to govern me in buying._ + "Yours, &c. + G. W. BARNES. + "Mr. Theophilus Freeman, New Orleans." + +The number of slaves thus bought and sold can never be known with +perfect accuracy. Hon. John G. Palfrey, in his excellent Papers on the +Slave Power (p. 83), estimates the number annually sold from the more +northerly Slave States at not less than _forty thousand_! We think his +estimate within the truth. + +In the course of a single year, 1835-6, no less than forty thousand +slaves are said to have been sold out of Virginia alone! ("Niles's Reg." +Oct. 8, 1836.) The "New York Journal of Commerce" of Oct. 12, 1835, +contained a letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls "a very good +and sensible man," asserting that _twenty thousand_ slaves had been +driven to the South from Virginia during that year, of which nearly one +fourth was then remaining. But 1835 and 1836 were years of great +speculation. In 1837 the consequent severe pressure in the money market +was attributed by a committee of the citizens of Mobile (Ala.) in part +to over-trading in slaves. Their report states, that purchases by +Alabama of that species of property from other States since 1833 have +amounted to about ten million dollars annually. + +The slaves increase in about the same ratio in all of the Slave States. +If the warmer latitudes of the extreme South are more congenial to them, +and favor their increase more than the climate of Virginia, this effect +is, at least, fully balanced by the great amount and unhealthy character +of much of the labor on the sugar, rice, and cotton plantations, and by +the great extent to which slave-breeding is carried in the more northern +States. The following table exhibits the rates of increase of the +slaves, every ten years, from 1790 to 1840:-- + + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | 1790-1800 | 1800-1810 | 1810-1820 | 1820-1830 | 1830-1840 | + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | 27 | 33 | 29 | 30 | 28 | + +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + +Accordingly, for the fifty years ending in 1840, the slaves increased on +an average a little over twenty-eight per cent every ten years. We adopt +this as a fair statement of what should be their decennial natural +increase in all the States; and, by natural increase, we mean increase +from births. The following tables explain themselves:-- + + SLAVE-EXPORTING STATES. + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | | | | Number | | | + | | | | which ought |Decrease | Annual | + | Name of State. | Slaves | Slaves |to have been |every ten|decrease.| + | | in 1830.| in 1840.|in each State| years. | | + | | | | in 1840. | | | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + |Delaware | 3,292 | 2,605 | 4,214 | 1,619 | 162 | + |Maryland | 102,294 | 89,737 | 130,936 | 41,199 | 4,120 | + |Dis. of Columbia| 6,119 | 4,694 | 7,833 | 3,139 | 313 | + |Virginia | 469,757 | 448,987 | 601,289 | 152,302 | 15,230 | + |North Carolina | 235,601 | 245,817 | 301,569 | 55,752 | 5,575 | + |South Carolina | 315,401 | 327,038 | 403,713 | 76,675 | 7,668 | + |Kentucky | 165,213 | 182,258 | 211,473 | 29,215 | 2,922 | + |Tennessee | 681,904 | 829,210 | 872,837 | 43,627 | 4,363 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Total | |2130,346 | | 403,528 | 40,353 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + + SLAVE-IMPORTING STATES. + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | | | | Number | | | + | | | | which ought | Extra | Extra | + | Name of State. | Slaves | Slaves |to have been |decennial| annual | + | | in 1830.| in 1840.|in each State|increase.|increase.| + | | | | in 1840. | | | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Georgia | 217,531 | 280,944 | 278,440 | 2,504 | 250 | + | Florida | 15,501 | 25,717 | 19,841 | 5,876 | 587 | + | Alabama | 117,549 | 253,532 | 150,462 | 103,070 | 10,307 | + | Mississippi | 65,659 | 195,211 | 84,043 | 111,168 | 11,117 | + | Louisiana | 109,588 | 168,452 | 140,273 | 28,179 | 2,818 | + | Arkansas | 4,576 | 19,935 | 5,857 | 14,078 | 1,408 | + | Missouri | 25,081 | 58,240 | 32,104 | 26,136 | 2,614 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + | Total | | | | 291,011 | 29,101 | + +----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------+---------+ + +The census of 1840, therefore, exhibits an annual unnatural decrease of +over forty thousand of the slave-population in the exporting States. But +this census, at least so far as statistics touching slaves and free +colored persons are concerned, is notoriously and grossly incorrect. +Either it or the tables prepared from it in the State Department have +been dishonestly prepared, or very much garbled, apparently with the +intent to prove that slavery was better calculated to secure the health +of the negro race than a state of freedom. What figures will tell in +favor of slavery?--not, what figures will tell the truth?--seems to have +been the principle on which the last census was taken. Such being the +case, we feel confident that the census makes the slaves in the +exporting States decrease as little as possible. In 1830, Virginia had +469,757 slaves. In 1840 she ought to have had this number, and their +natural increase for ten years, 135,532. Instead of this, all the +natural increase is gone, and 20,770 besides! All will see that such a +statement would tell too strongly against slavery to be admitted into a +census got up under such slave-supporting auspices, unless the statement +was really _within the truth_. + +We believe, therefore, that the census of 1850, if truly taken, will +exhibit a much larger annual unnatural decrease of the slave-population +in the exporting States. This decrease, whatever it may really be, has +not been owing to manumissions. It has not been caused by slaves running +away. For the effects of both these causes, the surplus over 40,000 +would be a liberal allowance. This unnatural decrease must, then, be +caused by the slave-trade, and the migration of planters with their +slaves. The fact is beyond all question, that every year forty thousand +men, women, and children are torn from their homes and friends, and +driven to the South and West. So truly did the Rev. Theodore Clapp speak +(Sermon, p. 46), when he declared, "Slaves possess the inappreciable +benefits which grow out of the endearing ties of friendship, kindred, +sympathy, and the whole class of domestic affections. Parents and +children, husbands and wives (it is true), are sometimes separated by +being involved in those calamities which sweep away the possessions and +prosperity of the master. But, take it all in all, they are as free and +undisturbed in the enjoyment of their domestic relations, as the white +inhabitants of the Northern States"! Forty thousand fathers, mothers, +brothers, sisters, and children are every year carried from the places +of their birth, like so many cattle, although the terrible fact is well +known that at least one fourth of them must die in the process of +acclimation![S] So very tender is man of man, when he holds his brother +in slavery, and makes merchandise of his sister! So eager is the +soul-driver to coin his brother's blood into dollars! So ready are those +whom "God has appointed masters" to sacrifice the lives of one fourth of +those committed to their charge, in order greatly to advance the market +value of the survivors! + +We have no data from which to infer the number of planters who go South +with their slaves. But, allowing that five hundred thus remove, and that +on an average they have ten slaves each (proper estimates we believe), +we have left thirty-five thousand as the number of human beings who are +every year sold to the speculators in human flesh! + +Now, Mr. Barnes's "lot" of his fellow-creatures averaged in value over +five hundred dollars apiece; and those were times when, from his +account, the market was glutted, and the prices accordingly low. "Young +and likely" negroes are more easily acclimated, and are better able to +work, than others. Consequently, they are the ones most sought after by +judicious traders. We should consider five hundred dollars for a young, +healthy negro, warranted sound, as really a low price. But, if we +suppose the slaves annually exported to be worth less than any of Mr. +Barnes's lot,--considering them as worth only $450 apiece,--we have, as +_the sums of money every year invested in the trade in slaves, the very +moderate sum of fifteen millions seven hundred and fifty thousand +dollars_! This is _exclusive_ of the cost of all the private jails, of +transportation by sea and land, food, wages of drivers, &c.; which +cannot but very largely increase this sum. This sum, $15,750,000, would, +in less than three years, double the number of miles of railroad which +were in operation in all the Southern States in 1846 (Parker's "Letter +on Slavery," p. 52). It would, in only two years, more than double in +length all the railroads which were then in operation in all the Slave +States, except Maryland. It costs every year five millions more to carry +on the domestic slave-trade than it does to fit out and victual all the +whale-ships of the United States! ("American Almanac, 1843," p. 178.) +Over one fifth of the entire value of the cotton, sugar, rice, and +tobacco raised in the fifteen Slave States in 1839, and over one third +of the value of articles manufactured in the South, was invested in +slaves! Nearly twice as many slaves are carried South and West every +year as there are men in all the Slave States engaged in the learned +professions!--so terribly prominent is this trade in men and women! Who +will venture to conceive, much less express, the deep degradation which +must be caused by a trade of such fearful character and +magnitude;--degradation not only to the immediate sufferers, but to all +those who may be subjected to it? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +RUNAWAY SLAVES. + + "It is contrary also to the will of God for servants either to run + away, or harbor a runaway"--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to Slaves._ + + +The treatment which runaway slaves receive cannot but greatly degrade +them. Pious as well as worldly masters consider that their slaves have +no more right to run away than their horses or mules. The Christian +slaveholder orally teaches his slaves, that, by taking this step, they +sin in the sight of God; for has not Paul most emphatically condemned +the practice? So careful is he of the souls of those whom God has +committed to his charge! + +We frequently find advertisements similar to this, cut from the +"American Beacon" (Norfolk, Va.), Jan. 24, 1848:-- + + "$50 REWARD.--Stop Ruffin and Wyatt.--These men left my house on + Saturday night, January 15, 1848, _without any provocation_. They + have uniformly maintained a good character for honesty, industry, + and sobriety,--were obedient and trustworthy servants, and _no + severity nor threats had been offered towards them_; and I very much + fear they have left for some Northern State. + + * * * * * + + "These slaves were originally owned in Surry, and _possibly_ may be + in the vicinity of their relatives. GEORGE N. HATCH. + + "Gaysville, P.O. Prince George County, Va." + +Good Mr. Bryant Johnson is very much more indignant. In the "Macon +(Georgia) Telegraph," May 28, is the following:-- + + "About the first of March last, the negro-man, Ransom, left me + _without the least provocation whatever_. I will give a reward of + $20 for said negro if taken, dead or alive; and, if killed in any + attempt, an advance of $5 will be paid. BRYANT JOHNSON. + + "Crawford County, Georgia." + +In the extremity of his wrath, he cannot think of the least provocation +whatever which he has given his slave. But we confess we are much more +touched by friend Hatch's advertisement. Simple-minded creature! He +evidently speaks more in sorrow and astonishment than in anger. +Doubtless he had uniformly fed, clothed, and housed his servants well, +and had never been severe with or threatened them. How could they desire +to leave him? They have run away without any provocation! So unnatural, +almost impossible, in the eyes of masters, is any spark of manliness in +a slave! They cannot conceive it possible for a manly love of liberty to +provoke a favored negro to run away. Still, however, even favored +servants are continually escaping from their happy state; and, by the +methods adopted to retake them, they are most efficiently taught that +they have no more rights than has a favored hound or a valued horse. +Their manliness is crushed, until at last they really feel themselves to +be little else than items of profit or loss to their owners. The old +slave who, at the point of death, was asked whether he was not sorry to +die, and who replied, "Oh! no: the loss is massa's," had very faithfully +improved the instruction imparted to his class. + +If our horse is stolen from his stable, or our cow strays from her +pasture, we advertise them as "strayed or stolen." If a slave runs away, +his master advertises him, and offers a reward for his capture. If he is +found, the lucky finder deposits him in jail for safe keeping, to await +a favorable opportunity of sending him back to his master,--of course, +like Onesimus, as a brother beloved. The jailer gets his legal fees, the +finder gets his reward, the master gets his slave, and the slave most +generally receives some "moderate correction" from the cowskin or the +paddle. If he will not listen to the teaching of God's messengers to his +soul, who are continually repeating to him (Jones's "Rel. Inst." 188) +"a servant who knows his master's duty, and will not do it, must be made +to do it," how can he complain of his treatment? + +So anxious are they at the South that every poor African should have a +good, kind master to attend to the wants of his soul, and support him in +old age, that, if a stray negro is taken up running at large without an +apparent owner, and for any cause he cannot legally prove his freedom, +even though he does really own himself, he is nevertheless advertised, +and sold at auction to the highest bidder, to pay the expenses +occasioned by his own capture and detention. How happy must be the +people that are in such a case! Yea, blessed is his condition whose body +is fed and whipped, whose soul is saved and darkened, by his brother +man! + +The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA, chap. 111, sec. 11, provides +that,-- + + "If any negro who shall be taken up as a runaway, and brought before + any justice of the peace, will not declare the name of his or her + owner, such justice shall in such case, and he is hereby required, + by a warrant under his hand, to commit the said negro-slave to the + jail of the county wherein he or she shall be taken up; and the + sheriff or undersheriff of the county into whose custody the said + runaway shall be committed, shall forthwith cause notice in writing + of such commitment to be set up on the Court-house door of the said + county, and there continued during the space of two months; in which + notice a full description of the said runaway and his clothing shall + be particularly set down."--When the owner is supposed to be a + resident in another State, the jailer is obliged by sec. 15, "by the + first opportunity after such commitment, to send a description of + such negro or runaway, together with the account of the time of + commitment, and the county where such runaway is committed, to the + press, to be advertised in the State Gazette."--Sec. 16 provides, + that, "whenever any negro-slave shall be taken up in this State as a + runaway, and confined in any jail for the space of twelve months, + and the apprehension and confinement of said slave have been + advertised in the State Gazette at least six months, and the owner + does not apply to prove property in said time, then it shall be + lawful for the court of pleas and quarter sessions of the county in + which said runaway is confined, to command their sheriff to expose + said negro-slave to public sale for ready money, giving three + months' notice in some public newspaper in this State, at the + Court-house door, and at two other public places in the said county, + of the time and place of sale, and of the circumstances under which + the said slave is to be sold."--Sect. 17 gives the sheriff "two and + a half per centum on the amount of sale."--Sect. 18 declares that + "the bill of sale of the sheriff shall vest in the purchaser an + absolute right to the said slave." The residue of the amount of + sales, after deducting commissions and prison charges, is directed + to be paid to the county trustee for the use of the county. + +Similar laws, authorizing the sale into slavery of negroes taken up as +runaway slaves, who cannot from any cause prove their freedom, are found +in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, +Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. A similar law +has always existed in the District of Columbia, originally enacted, and +since supported, by Northern freemen. _Our_ law, however, differs from +the others in offering to the marshal a high bribe to induce him to sell +_free_ negroes, by providing that the _proceeds of the persons sold may +remain in his own pocket_, unless after the sale the master shall be +discovered, and shall claim the balance. + +Throughout all the Slave States, the law presumes every free negro to be +a slave, until he can legally prove his freedom. Consequently, every +_free_ negro, out of his own neighborhood, is presumed to be, and +treated as, a runaway slave, until he can establish his freedom. Under +laws of this kind, many free negroes are taken; and, if from want of +money or friends, or distance from home, or any other cause, they cannot +prove their freedom, as no owner can come forward and "claim property +and pay charges," they must necessarily be sold into slavery for life! + +Very recently, in the columns of the "Washington Union," appeared the +following notices:-- + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on + the 5th July, 1846, as a runaway, a negro-man, who calls himself + John Crew. He is black, about 5 feet 6-1/2 inches high, and about 43 + years of age. _He says he is free_, and was born in Hanover County, + Virginia, _and was set free_ by Mrs. Allen, formerly Mrs. Watson, of + said county; and that he lived with Jude & Muir, in Richmond, + Virginia; and that he obtained his free papers in Richmond in 1823, + when a Mr. Henning was clerk of the court. He has had right leg + broken, which has left a large scar on it. He has a scar on the + right side of his neck, which he says he has received since he left + Richmond. + + "The owner or owners of the above-described negro-man are hereby + required to come forward, prove him, and take him away, _or he will + be sold for his prison and other expenses, as the law directs_. + ROBT. BALL, Jailer for + "Aug. 15. A. HUNTER, Marshal." + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, D.C. on + the 23d of July, 1847, as a runaway, a negro-woman, who calls + herself Ann E. Hodges. She is nearly black, about 5 feet 5-1/4 + inches high, and about 22 years of age. Had on, when committed, a + slate-colored Merino dress and a brown calico sun-bonnet. _She says + she is free_, and served her time out with a Mr. Benjamin Daltry, of + Southampton, Va.; and that Messrs. Griffin & Bishop, of the same + place, know her to be free. She has two scars on the left leg, near + the knee, from the bite of a dog, one on her left wrist, and one on + the point of her breast-bone, occasioned by a burn. + + "The owner or owners of the above-described negro-woman are hereby + required to come forward, prove her, and take her away, _or she will + be sold for her prison and other expenses, as the law directs._ + ROBT. BALL, Jailer, for + "Aug. 23. A. HUNTER, Marshal." + +Here is another instance, which happened several years since:-- + + "NOTICE.--Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District + of Columbia, as a runaway, a negro-woman, by the name of Polly + Leiper, and her infant child, William.... _Says she was set free_ by + John Campbell, of Richmond, Va. in 1818 or 1819. The owner of the + above-described woman and child, _if any_, are requested to come and + prove them, and take them away, or they will be _sold for their jail + fees and other expenses, as the law directs_. + TENCH RINGGOLD, Marshal. + "May 29, 1827." + +Many other similar ones might be cited from papers published in the +District. The following is taken from the "Mobile (Ala.) Register" of +July 21, 1837:-- + + "WILL BE SOLD CHEAP FOR CASH, in front of the Court-house of Mobile + County, on the 22d day of July next, one mulatto-man, named Henry + Hale, _who says he is free_. His owner or owners, if any, having + failed to demand him, he is to be sold according to the statute in + such case made and provided, _to pay jail fees_. + WILLIAM MAGEE, Shff. M.C." + +Here are two from the "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register." The first is the +notice of the committal of a negro. The second is the advertisement for +his sale:-- + + "SHERIFF'S SALE.--Committed to the jail of Warren County, as a + runaway, on the 23d inst. a negro-man, who calls himself John J. + Robinson; says that he is free; says that he kept a baker's shop in + Columbus, Miss. and that he peddled through the Chickasaw nation to + Pontotoc, and came to Memphis, where he sold his horse, took water, + and came to this place. The owner of said boy is requested to come + forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will + be dealt with as the law directs. + + "Dec. 24, 1835. WM. EVERETT, Jailer." + + "Notice is hereby given, that the above-described boy, who calls + himself John J. Robinson, having been confined in the jail of Warren + County as a runaway for six months, and having been regularly + advertised during this period, _I shall proceed to sell said + negro-boy at public auction to the highest bidder for cash_, at the + door of the Court-house in Vicksburg, on Monday, 1st of August, + 1836, _in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided_. + + "Vicksburg, July 2, 1836. E. W. MORRIS, Sheriff." + +Slavery, as it exists, is not wrong, according to Bishops +Ives and Freeman; and yet, in the diocese of the former, in +the "Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer," June 27, 1838, this +advertisement appears:-- + + "TAKEN AND COMMITTED TO JAIL, a negro-girl, named Nancy, + who is _supposed_ to belong to Spencer P. Wright, of the State of + Georgia. She is about 30 years of age, and is a _lunatic_. The + owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, + and take her away, or _she will be sold to pay her jail fees_. + FREDERICK HOME, Jailer." + +And suppose this supposition is incorrect, and that this poor woman does +not belong to Mr. Wright, but on the contrary that she is free, how then +will stand the case? A poor free woman, a lunatic, one who accordingly +cannot by any possibility prove her freedom, being arrested as a +runaway, may be sold as a slave for life, in virtue of the laws of the +Christian State of North Carolina! And no one is entitled to pronounce +such act to be wrong, unless he can produce a new revelation from +Heaven! If a slave has performed a great service to the State or his +master, as a reward he is set free; and, if the freeman, availing +himself of his privileges, goes out of his own neighborhood, the law, +with the sanction of right reverend fathers in God, consigns him to the +auction block! + +But the runaway slave is not always to be taken easily. Strenuous +liberty is often preferred to slavish ease. To meet such cases, ample +provision is made, no less degrading to the slave. + +If any one here at the North should advertise that he was ready to +pursue, with dogs trained for the purpose, runaway apprentices, or +prisoners who had escaped from jail, we should all shudder at the +cold-bloodedness of the proposition. Have we not, in the Old Bay State, +just solemnly enacted that not even the most hardened convicts in our +State Prison shall be whipped? How, then, can we so far forget our +common manhood as to pursue our brother with bloodhounds? The slave, +unlike the prisoner, has committed no crime. Unlike the apprentice, he +has never consented, either by himself or his parents, to be a slave. He +is held in slavery against his will, and not as the punishment for any +crime; and yet, if he ventures to take his freedom, to assert the +highest and holiest of all his rights, he is liable to be hunted with +dogs and maimed with shot! In this so-called Christian country, which is +spending its millions in regenerating the heathen, whole communities +exist which tolerate such a fiendish occupation as a slave-hunter! +Communities do we say? Has not the nation elevated to its highest post +of honor the individual who first suggested to our government the idea +of importing bloodhounds from Cuba, with which to track the Seminole +Indians, and the fugitive slaves whom they protected, and with whom they +had intermarried? How proudly did the star-spangled banner wave its +folds over the gallant men and hounds that pursued and finally conquered +the panting fugitives! + +In the "Madison Journal," published at Richmond, La. Nov. 26, 1847, +appears the following:-- + + "NOTICE.--The subscriber, living on Carroway Lake, on Hoe's Bayou, + in Carroll Parish, sixteen miles on the road leading from Bayou + Mason to Lake Providence, _is ready with a pack of dogs to hunt + runaway negroes at any time_. These dogs are well trained, and are + known throughout the parish. Letters addressed to me at Providence + will secure immediate attention. + + "My terms are $5 per day for hunting the trails, whether the negro + is caught or not. Where a twelve hours' trail is shown, and the + negro not taken, no charge is made. For taking a negro, $25, and no + charge made for hunting. JAMES W. HALL." + +In the "Sumpter County Whig" (Alabama) of Nov. 6, 1845, the following is +found:-- + + "NEGRO DOGS.--The undersigned, having bought the entire pack of + negro dogs (of the Hay & Allen stock), _he now proposes to catch + runaway negroes_. His charges will be $3 a day for hunting, and $15 + for catching a runaway. He resides three and one half miles north of + Livingston, near the lower Jones' Bluff road. + + "Nov. 6, 1845. WILLIAM GAMBREL." + +William W. Brown was hunted by Major Benjamin O'Fallon, who kept for his +professional purposes five or six bloodhounds ("Narrative," p. 22). Last +year, 1848, Mr. J. Ervin, a native of Fairfield District, South +Carolina, a slave-hunter by profession, was murdered by some runaway +slaves. Owners sometimes vary the monotony of a plantation life by a +private hunt on their own account. But, unless they have considerable +practice, they make a bungling piece of work of it. The true object, +both of dogs and men, is the capture of the negro, not his death. Gen. +Taylor did not wish to "worry" the Seminoles. We might cite many notices +like the following, cut from the "Raleigh (N.C.) Register," Aug. 20, +1838:-- + + "On Saturday night, Mr. George Holmes, of this county, and some of + his friends were in pursuit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr. + Holmes), and fell in with him in attempting to make his escape. Mr. + H. discharged a gun at his legs, for the purpose of disabling him; + but, unfortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot struck him near + the small of the back, of which wound he died in a short time. The + slave continued to run some distance after he was shot, until + overtaken by one of the party. We are satisfied from all that we can + learn, that Mr. H. had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound." + +The hunter, in the following instance, was more skilful or lucky. The +advertisement is found in the "Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser," +Jan. 25, 1848:-- + + "$50 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscribers, on Sunday, the 8th + instant, a negro-man, named George. The said slave is about 21 years + of age, black, about 5 feet 6 inches high, weighs about 150 pounds, + has good teeth, and a round and likely face. He was purchased at R. + H. Dickinson & Bro.'s auction-room, on the 22d of March, last, from + Messrs. Millner & Keen, of Pittsylvania Court-house. He was + purchased by them (M. & K.) in Rickingham, N.C.; and he will in all + probability make for that place, as he ran off last April, and was + taken upon his way there, at Amelia Court-house. _The person that + took him on that occasion shot him with small shot on the legs, and + the shot-marks are very perceptible on the hind part or the calves + of his legs._ We will give $50 for the apprehension and delivery of + said boy to R. H. Dickinson & Bro. in Richmond, Va. if taken up + after this date; and, if taken up previous to this date, we will pay + $25 for his delivery here, and the expense of bringing him to this + place from where he may be taken up. KELLY, HUNDLEY, & CO. + + "Richmond, Aug. 27, 1847." + +The Rev. Mr. Jones would probably instruct "George," that he was shot +because he disobeyed God's commands in running away, and especially +because he "robbed God of his own" in breaking the Sabbath! But how +judicious was the man who took him up on that occasion! He only shot him +with small shot in the legs! + +In the "Macon (Ga.) Telegraph," Nov. 27, 1838, we find the following +account of a runaway's den, and of the good luck of a "Mr. Adams," in +running down one of them "with his excellent dogs:"-- + + "A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday, near the Washington + Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several + months so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected only + by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near the + road and fields where there has been constant daily passing. The + entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing a + hog-bed, which being removed, discovered a trap-door and steps that + led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with plank, + containing a small fireplace, the flue of which was ingeniously + conducted above ground and concealed by the straw. The inmates took + the alarm, and made their escape; _but Mr. Adams and his excellent + dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down and secured one of + them_, which proved to be a negro-fellow who had been out about a + year. He stated that the other occupant was a woman, who had been a + runaway a still longer time. In the den was found a quantity of + meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c. and various cooking utensils and + wearing apparel." + +The Lord of the sabbath seems to favor the masters; for Mr. Adams's hunt +occurred on Sunday! Many other instances might be given. We adduce only +this. The "St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle" of Feb. 1, 1839, gives the +following account of a "negro-hunt" in that parish:-- + + "Two or three days since, a gentleman of this parish, in hunting + runaway negroes, came upon a camp of them in the swamp on Cat + Island. He succeeded in arresting two of them; but the third made + fight, and, upon being shot in the shoulder, fled to a sluice, where + the dogs succeeded in drowning him before assistance could arrive." + +Does any one say these atrocities must be confined to the extreme +South, and that law or public opinion in North Carolina would forbid +them? How far otherwise is the fact! The "Revised Statutes" of North +Carolina, chap. 111, sec. 22, provide as follows:-- + + "Whereas, many times slaves run away and lie out, hid and lurking in + swamps, woods, and other obscure places, killing cattle and hogs, + and committing other injuries to the inhabitants of this State; in + all such cases, upon intelligence of any slave or slaves lying out + as aforesaid, any two justices of the peace for the county wherein + such slave or slaves is or are supposed to lurk or do mischief, + shall, and they are hereby empowered and required to issue + proclamation against such slave or slaves (reciting his or their + names, and the name or names of the owner or owners, if known), + thereby requiring him or them, and every of them, forthwith to + surrender him or themselves; and also to empower and require the + sheriff of the said county to take such power with him as he shall + think fit and necessary for going in search and pursuit of, and + effectually apprehending, such outlying slave or slaves; which + proclamation shall be published at the door of the Court-house, and + at such other places as said justices shall direct.[T] And if any + slave or slaves against whom proclamation hath been thus issued stay + out, and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any + person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or + slaves by such ways and means as he shall think fit, without + accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same." + +This is truly a Christian law! A written proclamation to men, of whom +not one in ten thousand can read a letter of it!--and yet, after +publication of it at the door of the Court-house, and at such other +places (if any) as the justices may direct, if the slaves do not +immediatelyy return, it is lawful for any person to kill and destroy +them "by such ways or means as he shall think fit." And may not +bloodhounds be the most expeditious and fit? + +Is this law a dead letter? Only fifteen days before Bishop Freeman's +sermon was delivered, and Bishop Ives enjoyed "most unfeigned pleasure" +at the thought that slavery existed as it did in North Carolina, the +following proclamation and advertisement appeared in the "Newbern (N.C.) +Spectator:"-- + + "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, LENOIR COUNTY.--Whereas complaint hath + been this day made to us, two of the justices of the peace for the + said county, by William D. Cobb, of Jones county, that two + negro-slaves belonging to him, named Ben (commonly known by the name + of Ben Fox) and Rigdon, have absented themselves from their said + master's service, and are lurking about in the counties of Lenoir + and Jones, committing acts of felony; these are, in the name of the + State, to command the said slaves forthwith to surrender themselves, + and turn home to their said master. And we do hereby also require + the sheriff of said county of Lenoir to make diligent search and + pursuit after the above-mentioned slaves.... And we do hereby, by + virtue of an Act of Assembly of this State concerning servants and + slaves, intimate and declare, if the said slaves do not surrender + themselves and return home to their master immediately after the + publication of these presents, that any person may kill or destroy + said slaves by such means as he or they think fit, without + accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, or + without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby. + + "Given under our hands and seals, this 12th of November, 1838. + + B. COLEMAN, J.P. [Seal.] + JAS. JONES, J.P. [Seal.] + + "$200 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, about three years ago, + a certain negro-man, named Ben, commonly known by the name of Ben + Fox, also one other negro, by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on + the 8th of this month. + + "I will give the reward of $100 for each of the above negroes, to be + delivered to me, or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones County, + _or for the killing of them, so that I can see them_. + + "Nov. 12, 1838. W. D. COBB." + +In what has preceded, we have endeavored to give a faint but true +picture of slaveholding as it most generally exists. Though we have +purposely left unmentioned many wrongs, we have abundantly supported our +conclusion. If, as we have seen, every slave, as a man, has a natural, +God-given right to be left free to seek after wisdom, to strive to +become pure in heart, to cherish his affections, it is a great wrong +deliberately and carefully to close against him all the avenues to +knowledge, to refuse him even the rudiments imparted to the child that +clings to our knees, to refuse him all moral and religious instruction, +or give him such only as is calculated to make him contented with his +lot, and more profitable to his oppressors. It is a great wrong--who can +conceive a greater?--to deny to a whole race the sacredness of marriage, +the blessings of home, the joys of brother and sister, of father and +mother, and all the refining, ennobling influences of these relations. +It is a great wrong, none can conceive a greater, than to trade in the +bodies of men, to higgle in the market-place about the price of our +brother, to traffic in our sister's flesh and bones as merchandise. +Slaveholding, as it most generally exists, darkens the mind, deadens the +soul, and brutalizes the affections, of its victims. It is carefully +planned and deliberately executed murder of the soul. No human heart +exists, unwarped by self-interest, that does not respond to the poor +slave's call for help. We need no new revelation from Heaven, we need no +book to tell us, that it would be wrong for any one to darken _our_ +minds, to deaden _our_ souls, to brutalize _our_ affections. No more do +we need, a new revelation from Heaven to convince us, that all men are +brethren; that the slave who toils on the Louisiana plantation is no +less our neighbor than the friend whom we have known and loved from +boyhood; and that we should love the slaves as ourselves, not with that +barren love which consists in saving their souls by imparting to them a +still more barren creed, but that love which never wearies, and which +sacrifices its own for another's good. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG. + + "No seeming of logic can ever convince the American people, that + thousands of our slaveholding brethren are not excellent, humane, + and even Christian men, fearing God, and keeping his + commandments."--_Rev. Dr. Joel Parker._ + + +It remains for us to consider the special cases in which slaveholding is +thought by many to be right. All slaveholders are not actors in the +cruel system which we have just described. There are in the Southern +States, we are ready to believe, thousands who disregard the laws, who +treat their slaves as humanely as is possible, who cultivate to a +considerable extent their mental and moral faculties, and who would +unite with us in condemning the barbarities we have been considering. + +The Rev. Dr. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, S.C. thus describes the +condition of his slaves ("Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural +Institution," &c. p. 222; 1845): + + "In a familiar correspondence like this, I may be pardoned for + saying, that, during twelve years, I have devoted the salary given + me, whenever at my disposal, to the spiritual instruction of the + slaves, and am now doing so. With reference to my own servants, + their condition is as good as I can make it. They are placed under a + contract, which no instrument in writing could make more sacred. By + this contract, they, on their part, perform not one half the work + done by free laborers; and I, on my part, am bound to employ a + missionary to teach and catechize them and their children; to + provide them a home and clothes and provisions and fuel, and land to + plant for themselves; to pay all medical bills; to guaranty to them + all the profits of their skill and labor in their own time; to + protect them as a guardian, and to administer to the wants of their + children, and of those that are sick and infirm and aged. Such is + their state; nor have I any idea that they would consent to be + removed." + +This picture may be deepened as we please. Dr. Fuller, and every +slaveholder who is like him, may clothe, feed, and house his slaves as +he does himself; he may watch over their mental and moral condition with +as much real solicitude as he does that of a child; he may love them +almost with a father's love; and yet, notwithstanding all alleviations, +it is wrong for him to hold slaves. Slaveholding is always wrong. + +It should be constantly borne in mind, that no man can be obliged either +to become or continue a slaveholder. No man can make me a slaveholder or +a landholder without or against my consent. Indeed, no gift to me of +slaves or land is perfect, until I have accepted it. No man need accept +an inheritance of slaves, or be a slaveholder any longer than he pleases +to be. Where the law of his State permits, he may emancipate his slaves. +If manumission is actually or virtually forbidden, he may take his +slaves into a Free State; and, by such act alone, they become freemen. +With full power, therefore, at any moment to dissolve the relation, Dr. +Fuller voluntarily continues to hold slaves. All slaveholding is +unnecessary, and none is involuntary on the part of the owner. + +It should also be borne in mind, that a slave, under all circumstances, +whether he be caressed or scourged, loved or hated, overworked or +underworked, instructed or debased, is the property of his master, and, +as such, is subject to all the legal incidents of property. Dr. Fuller's +slaves are as much Dr. Fuller's property as his horse, his watch, the +coat on his back, or the books on the shelves of his library; and, as +property, their happy, elevated condition necessarily depends upon the +accidents of Dr. Fuller's life, health, and wealth. When these fail, +their condition will unquestionably be either very materially affected +for the worse, or altogether changed. + +And, first, if his wealth should fail from unforeseen calamities; so +that from affluence, it may be, he should be reduced to real want, and +be unable to pay the just claims of his creditors; the latter may +satisfy their claims by a sale of his slaves. Nothing but payment of the +debts could prevent such a catastrophe. Equally with his horses and +theological library,[U] his slaves would legally constitute a fund out +of which his creditors might satisfy their claims. Husband and wife, +parent and child, the prattling infant and the old man of seventy +winters, might legally be placed upon the auction-block, and sold to the +highest bidder, singly or in lots to suit, as might seem most calculated +to advance the interest of the creditors. Dr. Fuller's prayers and tears +would avail nothing. His kind and humane treatment, continued through so +many years, would then increase the market-value of his slaves; and that +is all. Nothing that he could do would be able to save them from the +auction-block. And what, under such circumstances, would become of their +mental, moral, or even their physical condition? There would not be one +chance in a thousand that all their new masters would be like Dr. +Fuller, or that they would escape the lot of most other slaves,--a state +of hopeless degradation! + +Does any one say, that, though the law would favor such a sale by +creditors, public opinion would not tolerate it? We will not stop to +consider how far the law may be regarded as an index of public opinion. +We simply ask, If Christian churches may sell slaves at auction, what +may not private individuals do consistently with public opinion? We have +already given the advertisement for sale by Thomas N. Gadsden, a +brother, we believe, of Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina ("Slavery as +it is," p. 174), of a prime gang of negroes belonging to the Independent +Church in Christ Church Parish; and we will adduce only one other +similar instance. Few, if any, theological bodies at the South seem to +have devoted more time, attention, and money to elevating the moral +character of the slaves than the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia; +and yet the Board of Directors of its Theological Seminary do not +scruple to invest the funds of the institution in slaves, or to sell +them by auction in order to obtain repayment of a loan. The "Savannah +(Ga.) Republican" of March 3, 1845, contains an advertisement, of which +the following is an extract:-- + + "WILL BE SOLD, on the first Tuesday in March, in front of the + Court-house, in the city of Darien, Georgia, between the legal hours + of sale, the following negro-slaves, _i.e._ Charles, Peggy, + Antonett, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny, and Isaac, levied on as the + property of Henry T. Hall, _to satisfy a mortgage, fi. fa., issued + out of the M'Intosh Superior Court in favor of the Board of + Directors of the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina + and Georgia, against said Henry T. Hall_.--Conditions cash. + C. O'NEAL, Deputy-sheriff, M.C." + +Suppose Dr. Fuller should become insane, or otherwise unfit to manage +his own affairs. Such cases often occur. Then the control of the slaves +would pass with his other property into other hands. What would insure +their continued mental and moral well-being? The law would not,--public +opinion would not! Every thing would depend on the character of the +legal guardian or trustee; and even this could afford no adequate +protection. The law permits an _owner_ to do many things which it would +not suffer a guardian or a trustee to do. The legal guardian of Dr. +Fuller's estate would hardly be allowed to suffer his slaves to "perform +_not one half_ the work done by free laborers." The guardian's rule of +conduct would be the _law_, and the _common_ mode of treatment in the +community. If he overstepped this line, and any pecuniary loss should be +the consequence, the loss would fall on him personally. How many +guardians or trustees would be willing to run any risk of a criminal +prosecution or a fine or imprisonment, in order to insure the happy +condition of anther's man property? Not one in ten thousand! And yet, +unless his guardian was willing to do this,--unless he was willing to +brave the law, and act contrary to the general customs of society, Dr. +Fuller's slaves would very soon lapse into the same degraded condition +in which the slaves about them commonly live. Nothing would be more +likely than to find Dr. Fuller's guardian advertising in the following +manner:-- + + "NEGROES TO HIRE.--On Wednesday, the 26th inst. I will hire to the + highest bidder the negroes belonging to Charles and Robert Innes. + GEO. W. WILLIAMS, Guardian." + + "NEGRO HIRINGS.--Will be offered for hire, at Capt. Long's Hotel, a + number of slaves, men, women, boys, and girls, belonging to the + orphans of George Ash, deceased. RICHARD W. BARTON, Guardian." + +The law forbids teaching slaves to read and write. Dr. Fuller may +disregard the law, and give his slaves careful instruction, supplying +them with plenty of books, and allowing them time to read in. The law +denies marriage to the slaves, and pays no heed to their family ties. +Dr. Fuller may consecrate with the utmost care the marriage of his +slaves, and sacredly protect their family relations. The law declares +slaves to be, under all circumstances, saleable articles. Dr. Fuller may +think that he treats them as men, and shudder at the thought of selling +them. Thus may he do in his lifetime; but it is appointed unto all men +to die; and what, in the event of his death, will become of his slaves? + +He may possibly leave a will, bequeathing them, upon the condition that +his kind and humane treatment shall be continued, that they shall be +taught to read and write, that their marriages and family relations +shall be sacredly respected, and that they shall never be subject to be +sold; that is, on the condition that his legatees shall break the law, +as he has done. The only result will be, that the law will declare all +such conditions to be utterly void; and the legatees will own the +slaves, entirely freed from all such conditions. The legatees will be +under no other restraints than those imposed by the law, public opinion, +and their own conscience. The latter restraint only may possibly avail +the slaves; and their happy condition may be continued, _if_ all the +legatees are, like Dr. Fuller, law-defying, humane, kind-hearted, and +above want! But how unlikely is it that such will be the case! How much +more unlikely is it that such a state of things will continue! And yet, +unless such a state of things exists, and continues to exist, Dr. +Fuller's slaves must inevitably become as degraded as the great mass of +their fellows. + +If he should die intestate, then his slaves, as part of his estate, +would have to be duly administered on and distributed among the +heirs-at-law. The administrator, a mere trustee, could not, as we have +seen, safely continue Dr. Fuller's plan of management; nor can it be +supposed that any administrator would follow it. If it became necessary +or expedient in order to pay debts, husbands would be separated from +wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. The widow (if +any) would be entitled to a life-estate in one-third of the slaves, +which one-third would be assigned to her in severalty, even though this +might involve a separation of families; for the common law of the Slave +States makes the same profession as the common law of England, that it +favors three things,--life, liberty, and dower! The remaining slaves, +and the reversion of those assigned to the widow, would belong to the +heirs, and would have to be equally divided between them, not divided by +families, or even _per capita_, but so that each heir should have an +equally valuable slave-investment, or an equal share in the property of +the deceased. If the heirs should be numerous, or the slaves few, so +that an equal division of them could not be thus made, they would have +to be sold, and their proceeds equally divided. Such sales must be +common. The following is taken from the "Georgia Journal:"-- + + "TO BE SOLD,--One negro-girl, about 18 months old, belonging to the + estate of William Chambers, deceased. _Sold for the purpose of + distribution._ + JETHRO DEAN, } Executors." + SAMUEL BEALL,} + +How often are heirs needy! How very seldom are they actuated by the same +spirit or governed by the same views as their ancestor! Some of them +might be under age, and legally incapable of acting for themselves; and +yet here, as in the other case, unless the widow and heirs-at-law should +be all of full age, ready to break the law of the State, and humane, +kind-hearted, and above want, like Dr. Fuller, his slaves could not +escape the common degradation of their fellows. How extremely improbable +is it that such would be the situation of the widow and all the heirs! +How much more improbable is it that such a state of things would +continue! How much more likely is it that we should find some of the +heirs disliking an investment in slaves, or wishing to be disembarrassed +of their care, or desirous to reduce their stock of negroes, and +accordingly selling their portion of Dr. Fuller's slaves at auction! In +the "Charleston (S.C.) Mercury" of Sept. 1, 1847, we find the +following:-- + + "FOR SALE,--A young and healthy negro-woman, about 24 years of age, + with her two children, a boy between 5 and 6 years, and an infant, 6 + months old. _Sold for no fault but to change the property._ Apply at + this office." + +This is from the "New Orleans Commercial Bulletin" of August 27, 1847:-- + + "DESIRABLE VIRGINIA HOUSE-SERVANT.--By Beard, Calhoun, & Co. + Saturday, 28th inst. at 12 o'clock, will be sold at auction, at + Banks's Arcade, the Griffe servant, Lucy, 19 years; a trusty + house-girl, of fine character, washer, ironer, and American cook, + and sews remarkably well. _Sold for no fault, as her owner is + leaving the city._ Fully guarantied against the vices and maladies + prescribed by law.--Terms cash. Act of sale before J. R. Beard, + notary public, at the expense of purchaser." + +The "National Intelligencer" of August 1, 1848, contains the +following:-- + + "VALUABLE SERVANT AT PRIVATE SALE.--We have for sale a valuable + servant-girl, aged about 17 years. She is an excellent + house-servant. _Sold for no fault; the owner about removing to the + country._ ED. C. & G. F. DYER, + Auctioneers and Commission Merchants." + +The same paper of January 20, 1844, contains the following:-- + + "FOR SALE,--Two likely mulatto women; one middle-aged, an excellent + cook, washer, and ironer, and a good seamstress; the other young, + and a good seamstress and house-servant; and both capable of doing + any work required in a family. _They are sold on account of the + owner not having sufficient employment._--Apply to Mr. Henry + Trunnel, Georgetown." + +In the same paper, Nov. 2, 1844, we find this:-- + + "A NEGRO-BOY FOR SALE OR HIRE.--A boy, 16 years old, well-grown and + active, is for sale, but not to a trader. He has been employed in + attending to horses, driving a carriage, working in a garden, &c. + _and will be sold only because the owner has too many servants_. He + may be had on trial.--Apply at J. B. Holmead's Auction Rooms." + +The boy is not to be sold to a trader; but there can be no security that +the purchaser will not thus sell him. + +The "Spirit of Liberty" contains a notice, from "Scott's Intelligence +Office," of the sale of three negro girls, aged 10, 19, and 16 years +respectively, and a boy 14 years old. The notice states, "All the above +servants are sold for no faults, and are just from the country, +consigned to me for sale by their owners, who recommend them very +highly; _they wish to reduce their stock of negroes is the cause of +their being in the market for sale_." + +Perhaps some one or more of Dr. Fuller's heirs may be indebted. What, in +such case, will prevent a creditor from levying on an undivided share of +Dr. Fuller's happy slaves? Perhaps the debtor may wish to convey his +property to trustees for the benefit of his creditors. We take the +following advertisement from the "National Anti-Slavery Standard," April +15, 1847:-- + + "TRUSTEE'S SALE.--Plantation and negroes in Washington County, + Mississippi; and Yazoo city town lot and buildings. On Monday, the + first of February, 1847, I will proceed to sell, by virtue of a + certain deed of trust, executed 10th May, 1845, by Thomas J. Reed, + to me, as trustee, and duly recorded in the proper county, and at + the special instance and request of the creditors named in said + deed, at public sale, to the highest bidder, for cash, on the + premises, the following described lands, situated, lying, and being + in the county of Washington, and State of Mississippi, and described + as follows, to wit:-- + + "Section No. 3, &c. &c. + + "Also _one undivided half of the following named negroes, slaves for + life_, held jointly with the heirs of Baine, viz. Sophia, aged 45; + Nancy, 35; Queen, 40; Jane, 19; Rachel, 11; Priscella; Jenny, 60; + Maria, 30; Lydia, 30; Amanda, 22; Edna, 30; Vina, 36; Betsy, 35; + Ellen, 9; Peyton, 8; Bob, 4; Louis, 15; Chub, 8; Horace, 6; Louisa, + 1; Jim, jr. 4; Mary, 4-1/2; Harriet, 6; Dick, 9; George, 5; Billy, + 50; John Brown, 36; Alexander, 40; Louis Johnson, 62; Hatton, 35; + Jim, sen. 42; Frank, 50; John, jr. or Little John, 16; John + Mitchell, 47; Louis Davis, 40; Warren, 40; Ben, 36; Oliver, 40; + Louis, jr. or Charles Louis, 5; Lawson, 35; Sam, 19; Harvey, 21; + Fleming, 6; Amy, 4; Bonaparte, 3; Catherine (Queen's child), 2. + + "And further, all the right, title, and interest of said Reed in and + to the following named slaves, to wit, Henny and her three children, + Dick, Jane, and Peter; together with all the stock of horses, + cattle, mules, hogs, and farming implements appertaining to said + tracts of land, which is believed to be an entire estate in fee. + + "The above sale will be for cash, and I will convey to the purchaser + only such title as is vested in me by said deed of trust. + W. S. MOTT. + "No postponement on account of the weather." + + +Other cases might doubtless be put; but these are sufficient to enable +us to test the question of right and wrong. And no labored argument is +necessary. Dr. Fuller admits (what we have already proved) that +slaveholding is most generally wrong, because it is accompanied by the +mental and moral degradation of the slaves. But, by voluntarily +retaining the ownership of his slaves, he renders just such a +degradation almost inevitable even for them. Without the slightest +necessity for so doing, and solely because he wishes so to do, he +renders almost certain the hopeless degradation of his fellow-man. Such +conduct cannot be right, even though (as doubtless in his case) pursued +from right motives. No one has the right unnecessarily to impede our +spiritual or mental culture, even in the slightest degree,--much less +unnecessarily to expose us, almost certainly, to hopeless degradation. +No more have we the right, by holding our fellows in slavery, to render +almost inevitable the death of their souls. + +Slaveholding, then, is _always_ wrong, because it either deliberately +murders the souls of its victims, or else renders such spiritual death +almost inevitable. Nor is slaveholding ever made right by the fact that +the slaves will not consent to be emancipated; for no man can rightfully +consent to his own degradation. What _man_ would consent to become even +the favored slave of Dr. Fuller? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION. + + The Constitution is not what it ought to be, not what we wish it to + be; not what is consistent with sound morals, but simply what its + words meant in 1789,--nothing more, nothing less. + + +The Constitution of the United States was drawn up by a Convention, of +which Washington was president. The people, assembled in their State +Conventions, adopted the draft, because it aptly expressed the kind of +union they wished to have, because it fully and exactly expressed their +meaning. In order, therefore, to ascertain the character of our +political union with the Slave States, we have only to ascertain the +true meaning of the words of the Constitution, or their plain, obvious, +and common meaning, at the time the Constitution was adopted. Every +writer who wishes to be understood uses his words in their usual +signification. Every one supposes that we mean just what our words +commonly mean now. When we read Chaucer, or Shakspeare, or Dr. Johnson, +we understand him to mean just what his words commonly meant at the time +he wrote, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified by the context, +in which case we adopt this new or qualified meaning. In like manner, +the people of the United States are to be understood to mean, by the +words of the Constitution, just what those words commonly meant when the +Constitution was adopted, unless such meaning is repelled or qualified +by the context; in which case, a regard for truth obliges us to adopt +this new or qualified meaning. + +This simple, true, and universally practised rule is thus laid down by +Judge Story (Comm. on Const. Abr. Sec. 210):-- + + "Every word employed in the Constitution is to be expounded in its + plain, obvious, and common sense, unless the context furnishes some + ground to control, qualify, or enlarge it. Constitutions are not + designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of + expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, + or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or juridical + research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the + common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for + common use, and fitted for common understandings. The people make + them; the people adopt them; the people must be supposed to read + them, with the help of common sense; and cannot be presumed to admit + in them any recondite meaning, or any extraordinary gloss."--Sec. + 212: "Where technical words are used, the technical meaning is to be + applied to them, unless it is repelled by the context. But the same + word often possesses a technical and a common sense. In such a case, + the latter is to be preferred, unless some attendant circumstance + points clearly to the former." + +The Constitution was also framed and adopted with reference to the +actual political, social, and local condition of the people. It grew out +of their wants and wishes. The steps which finally led to its adoption +grew out of one of the many defects in the articles of confederation. +Consequently, to arrive at the true meaning of the Constitution, we must +bear in mind the political, social, and local condition of the people at +the time of its adoption, and, among many other similar facts, the very +general existence of domestic slavery.[V] + +Keeping in view these, the very simplest rules of interpretation, we +will show what the Constitution is according to the common meaning of +its terms; what its framers intended to make it; what, in point of fact, +it has been considered to be in the practice of the government; and, +finally, what it has been adjudged to mean by that body which it has +itself pointed out as the final arbiter of its meaning. And, if all +these unite in giving the Constitution but one character, we, as +reasonable men, seeking the truth, cannot deny that such is its true +character. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS. + + The people made it, the people adopted it, the people must be + supposed to read it with the help of common sense, and cannot be + presumed to admit in it any hidden or extraordinary meaning. + + +At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, slavery existed in all +the States except Massachusetts. How far, if at all, does this +instrument support or countenance the institution? + + Art. 1, sec. 2: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be + apportioned among the several States which may be included within + this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be + determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including + those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians + not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons." + +By this section, persons are divided into those who are free and those +who are slaves; for to the whole number of _free_ persons are to be +added three-fifths of _all other_ persons, that is, persons not free, or +_slaves_. If we adopt the plain, obvious, and common meaning of the +words as their true meaning, this conclusion is incontrovertible. + +It is sometimes urged, that by "free person" is meant "citizen." But the +expression cannot be taken in any such technical sense. Under the +expression "free persons" are included those bound to service for a term +of years, and therefore from it are excluded those bound to service for +life, or slaves. + +This article, therefore, recognizes slavery as explicitly as if the word +_slave_ itself had been used, and gives to the free persons in a Slave +State, solely because they are slaveholders, a larger representation, +and consequently greater political power, than the same number of free +persons in a Free State. A BOUNTY ON SLAVEHOLDING! + + Art. 1, sec. 9: "The _migration or importation_ of such persons as + any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall + not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand + eight hundred and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such + _importation_, not exceeding ten dollars for each person." + +It is clear that this section recognizes a difference between the +meaning of _migration_ and _importation_, since, if both words mean the +same thing, no reason whatever can be assigned why a tax is not +permitted in both cases. This difference, whatever it is, must afford a +good reason why persons imported may be taxed, and persons migrating +not. The true meaning of the section seems obvious. A person who +migrates does so of his own accord: he cannot be said to be migrated by +any other person. He is wholly a free agent. A person who is imported +does not import himself, but is imported by some other person. He is +passive. The importer is the free agent; the person imported is not a +free agent. Thus the slave-laws of Virginia of 1748[W] and 1753[X] +begin--"All _persons_ who have been or shall be _imported_," &c. &c. +"_shall be_ accounted and be _slaves_." Whenever we hear an importation +spoken of, we instantly infer an importer, an _owner_, and _property_ +imported. This distinction between the meaning of the two words is, +then, real. It affords a good reason for the restriction on the right to +tax. Therefore, we say, it is the true distinction. On our construction, +Congress had power to lay a tax on persons imported as property or +slaves, but had no right to tax free persons migrating. + +By this clause, therefore, Congress was prevented, during twenty years, +from prohibiting the foreign slave-trade with any State that pleased to +allow it. But, by Art. 1, sec. 8, Congress had the general power "to +regulate commerce with foreign nations." Consequently, _the slave-trade +was excepted from the operation of the general power, with a view to +place the slave-trade, during twenty years, solely under the control of +the Slave States_. It could not be wholly stopped, so long as one State +wished to continue it. It is a clear compromise in favor of slavery. +True, the compromise was a temporary one; but it will be noticed, that +Congress, even after 1808, was not obliged to prohibit the trade; and, +in point of fact, until 1819 the laws of Congress authorized the States +to sell into slavery, for their own benefit, negroes imported contrary +to the laws of the United States! (Act Congr. 1807, c. 77, Sec. 4, 6; 1818, +c. 86, Sec. 5 and 7; 10 Wheat. Rep. 321, 322.) So unmixed should be our +satisfaction at the oft-repeated boast, that ours was the first nation +to prohibit the African slave-trade! + + Art. 4, sec. 2: "No person held to service or labor in one State, + under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence + of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or + labor; but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such + service or labor may be due." + +The time of holding not being limited, the expression here used must +include not only persons held to service or labor for a term of years, +but also those held to service or labor for life. Consequently, it +includes those who are free persons within the meaning of Art. 1, sec. +2, and slaves or persons held to service or labor for life. + +That the expression "person held to service or labor" was a correct +definition of the condition of a slave, at the time the Constitution was +adopted, is evident. The sixth article of the North-western ordinance +reads thus: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in +the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof +the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that, any +person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully +claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be +lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor +or service as aforesaid." In other words, the expression "a person from +whom labor or service is lawfully claimed" so correctly described the +condition of a slave, that Congress deemed it necessary to except such +persons from the operation of an article relating only to slaves. In +less than three months after the passage of this ordinance, this clause +in the Constitution was drafted. It needs no argument to show, that the +expression in the Constitution means the same as that in the ordinance. +"A person from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of +the original States" means the same as "a person held to service or +labor in one State under the laws thereof." If the former correctly +described the condition of a slave, the latter did also. + +We can, however, see that the expression does properly describe the +legal condition of a slave. A slave, though an article of property, has +always and in every State been recognized as a person, by being held +criminally responsible for his acts. Thus the preamble to the Act of +South Carolina (May 10, 1740; 1 Grimke's Laws, 165), which provides for +the trial of _slaves_, recites that "natural justice forbids that any +_person_, of what condition soever, should be condemned unheard;" and +the Act of Georgia of 1770 (Prince's Dig. 777) provides for the trial of +"slaves and _other persons_." The Act of Virginia (1748, sec. 15; 5 Hen. +Stat. 547) and North Carolina (1741, sec. 29; Iredell, Stat. 62-66) call +runaway slaves _persons_ in so many words. Similar laws might be cited, +if deemed necessary. A slave is also held to labor and service for life +by law. Labor and service are the lot of every slave. "To slave" means +"to toil." It is sometimes denied, but nevertheless it is true, that the +law recognizes that labor and service are legally due from the slave to +his master. Thus the Act of North Carolina (1741, sec. 27), before +quoted, makes it a criminal offence to tempt or persuade a slave to +leave his master's "service." "Service" is recognized as being legally +due from a slave in Virginia (Act 1691, 3 Hen. Stat. 86, 87). The +Provincial Assembly of South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 44) provided +that,-- + + "If any owner of slaves, or other person who shall have the care, + management, or overseeing of any slaves, shall work, or put any such + slave or slaves to labor, more than fifteen hours in twenty-four + hours, from the twenty-fifth day of March to the twenty-fifth day of + September, or more than fourteen hours in twenty-four hours, from + the twenty-fifth day of September to the twenty-fifth day of March, + every such person shall forfeit any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, + nor under five pounds, current money for every time he, she, or they + shall offend herein, at the discretion of the justice before whom + the complaint shall be made." + +The Provincial Assembly of Georgia (Act 1770, May 10, sec. 41) provided +that,-- + + "If any person shall, on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, + employ any slave in any work or labor (works of absolute necessity + and the necessary occasions of the family only excepted), every + person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten shillings + for every slave he, she, or they shall so cause to work or labor." + +A similar law was passed in South Carolina (Act 1740, sec. 22). These +and similar laws, by limiting the hours of daily work and labor, or by +providing that work and labor shall not be demanded of a slave on +Sunday, recognize that on other days, and within certain hours, a master +may legally demand them. That which may be legally demanded is legally +due. Therefore, work and labor, or service, are legally due from the +slave to his master. To this labor and service the slave is "held" by +the law. If he refuses to work, his master may coerce him. If he runs +away, his master may pursue and retake him legally. He is "held for +life," or until emancipated according to law. Consequently, the +expression in the Constitution correctly describes the condition of a +slave. Indeed, it more correctly describes this condition than "chattel +personal" would, because it is the almost universal practice to treat a +slave in many important particulars, such as dower, &c. like real +property; and, in some States, slaves are declared by statute to be +real estate. + +By this section, therefore, it is provided that no person held as a +slave in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, +in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from his +slavery, but shall be delivered up on claim of his owner. The laws of +one State, whether they support slavery or any other institution, have +no power in another State. Consequently, if a slave escapes into a Free +State, he becomes free. This is the general rule of law. In virtue of +it, thousands of slaves are now free on the soil of Canada. In virtue of +it, a fugitive slave from South Carolina would be free in this State, +were it not for this section in the Constitution. But this section +declares that he shall not thereby become free, but shall be delivered +up. Again, _the Constitution makes an exception from a general rule of +law in favor of slavery_. It gives to slaveholders, and slave-laws, a +power which the general rule of law does not give. It enables a South +Carolina slaveholder to drag from the soil of Massachusetts a person +whom the general rule of law pronounces free, solely because South +Carolina laws declare the contrary. It makes the whole Union a vast +hunting-ground for slaves! There is not a single spot from the Atlantic +to the Pacific, from the St. John's to the Rio del Norte, or +"wheresoe'er may be the fleeting boundary of this republic," on which a +fugitive slave may rest, and his owner may not, in virtue of this +clause, claim and retake him as his slave! + + Art. 1, sec. 8: "Congress shall have power ... to provide for + calling forth the militia ... _to suppress insurrections_." + + Art. 4, sec. 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in + this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each + of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature or + of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against + _domestic violence_." + +_All_ insurrections and _all_ cases of domestic violence are here +provided for. To constitute an insurrection within the meaning of the +Constitution, there must be a rising against those laws which are +recognized as such by the Constitution; and, to make out a case of +domestic violence, the violence must be exerted against that right or +power which is recognized by the Constitution as lawful. But, by Art. 4, +sec. 2, the Constitution admits that some persons are legally slaves; +else the clause itself must be entirely inoperative. Consequently, if +these persons rise in rebellion, or commit acts of violence contrary to +the laws which hold them in slavery, their rising constitutes an +insurrection; such acts are acts of violence within the meaning of the +Constitution, and consequently must be suppressed by the national power. +And what insurrections were more likely to happen and more to be dreaded +than slave-insurrections, and therefore more likely to have been +provided for? + +Slave-owners are not the only slaveholders. All persons who voluntarily +assist or pledge themselves to assist in holding persons in slavery are +slaveholders. _In sober truth, then, we are a nation of slaveholders!_ +for we have bound our whole national strength to the slave-owners, to +aid them, if necessary, in holding their slaves in subjection! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT. + + "Yes!--it cannot be denied--the slaveholding lords of the South + prescribed, as a condition of their assent to the Constitution, + three special provisions to secure the perpetuity of their dominion + over their slaves."--_John Quincy Adams._ + + +The question, What kind of a Constitution did its framers intend to +make? is purely an historical one; and it must be obvious to all, that +any thing like a complete statement of the evidence on this point cannot +be given within the limits of this pamphlet. + +On the 17th of September, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention adopted the +plan of the present Constitution. The draft thus made was submitted to +the people, assembled in State Conventions, "for their assent and +ratification." President Madison has preserved a record of the debates +in the Philadelphia Convention; and we have also published accounts of +the debates in several of the State Conventions. We draw our evidence +mainly from these sources. + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +On the 18th of April, 1783, the Continental Congress passed a resolve, +recommending the States to amend the Articles of Confederation in such +manner that the national expenses should be defrayed out of a common +treasury, "which shall be supplied by the several States, in proportion +to the whole number of white or other free inhabitants, of every age, +sex, and condition, including those bound to servitude for a term of +years, and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the +foregoing description, except Indians, not paying taxes, in each State." +This amendment was adopted by eleven out of the thirteen States. + +A single glance is sufficient to satisfy any one, that, under the +expression in this resolve, "all other persons," slaves were intended; +and an equally cursory glance suffices to show, that Art. 1, sec. 2, of +the Constitution is derived, almost copied, from this resolve. Did not +the framers of the Constitution, in adopting the same expression (Art. +1, sec. 2), mean the same thing as the Continental Congress? + +In the Massachusetts Convention, Art. 1, sec. 2, of the Constitution +having been read, Rufus King, one of its framers, rose to explain it:-- + + "This paragraph states, that the number of free persons shall be + determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including + those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians + not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. _These persons are the + slaves._ By this rule is representation and taxation to be + apportioned, and it was adopted because it was the language of all + America.... + + Five negro-children of South Carolina are to pay as much tax as the + three governors of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut." + +In the New York Convention, Alexander Hamilton, another of the framers, +remarked:-- + + "The first thing objected to is that clause which allows a + representation for three-fifths of the negroes.... + + "The regulation complained of was one result of the spirit of + accommodation which governed the Convention; and, _without this + indulgence, no union could possibly have been formed_." + +In the Pennsylvania Convention, James Wilson, another of the framers, +said, referring to the resolve of the Continental Congress passed in +1783:-- + + "It was not carried into effect, but it was adopted by no fewer than + eleven out of thirteen States; and it cannot but be matter of + surprise to hear gentlemen, who agreed to this very mode of + expression at that time, come forward, and state it as an objection + on the present occasion. It was natural, sir, for the late + Convention to adopt the mode after it had been agreed to by eleven + States, and to use the expression which they found had been received + as unexceptionable before." + +In a speech before the legislature of Maryland, Luther Martin, also a +delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, offers the following clear and +unmistakable testimony:-- + + "With respect to that part of the second section of the first + article, it was urged that no principle could justify taking slaves + into computation in apportioning the number of representatives a + State should have in the government;--that _it involved the + absurdity of increasing the power of a State in making laws for + freemen, in proportion as that State violated the rights of + freedom_;--that it might be proper to take slaves into + consideration, when taxes were to be apportioned, because it had a + tendency to discourage slavery; but to take them into account in + giving representation tended to encourage the slave-trade, and to + make it the interest of the States to continue that infamous + traffic." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Wm. R. Davie, a member of the +Convention who framed the Constitution, said:-- + + "The Eastern States had great jealousies on this subject. They + insisted that their cows and horses were equally entitled to + representation; that the one was property as well as the other. It + became our duty, on the other hand, to acquire as much weight as + possible in the legislation of the Union; and, as the Northern + States were more populous in whites, this only could be done by + insisting that a certain proportion of our _slaves_ should make a + part of the computed population." + +In the South Carolina Convention, General Chas. C. Pinckney, another of +the framers of the Constitution, said:-- + + "We were at a loss for some time for a rule to ascertain the + proportionate wealth of the States. At last we thought that the + productive labor of the inhabitants was the best rule for + ascertaining their wealth. In conformity to this rule, joined to a + spirit of concession, we determined that representatives should be + apportioned among the several States, by adding to the whole number + of free persons, three-fifths of the _slaves_." + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +In the Massachusetts Convention, Mr. Dawes, speaking in relation to Art. +1, sec. 2, said that-- + + "Gentlemen would do well to connect the passage in dispute with + another article in the Constitution, that permits Congress, in the + year 1808, wholly to prohibit the importation of _slaves_, and in + the meantime to impose a duty of ten dollars a head on such blacks + as should be imported before that period." + +Many persons spoke in the Convention on this section; and, among others, +Judge Dana rejoiced that a door was opened by it for the annihilation of +the slave-trade. + +In the Pennsylvania Convention, Mr. Wilson said:-- + + "Under the present confederation, the States may admit the + _importation of slaves as long as they please_; but by this article, + after the year 1808, the Congress will have power to prohibit such + importation, notwithstanding the disposition of any State to the + contrary.... It is with much satisfaction I view this power in the + general government, whereby they may lay an interdiction on this + reproachful trade. But an immediate advantage is also obtained; for + a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten + dollars for each person; and this, sir, operates as a partial + prohibition. It was all that could be obtained: I am sorry it was no + more." + +In Maryland, Luther Martin, in the speech before referred to, says, +speaking of this section:-- + + "The design of this clause is to _prevent the general government + from prohibiting the importation of slaves_; but the same reasons + which caused them to strike out the word 'national,' and not admit + the word 'stamps,' influenced them here to guard against the word + 'slaves.' They anxiously sought to avoid the admission of + expressions which might be odious in the ears of Americans, although + they were willing to admit into their system those things which the + expressions signified." + +Mr. Martin thus gives the well-known history of the compromise involved +in this clause:-- + + "This clause was the subject of a great diversity of sentiment in + the Convention. As the system was reported by the committee of + detail, the provision was general, that such importation should not + be prohibited, without confining it to any particular period. This + was rejected by eight States; Georgia, South Carolina, and, I think, + North Carolina, voting for it. + + "We were then told by the delegates of the two first of those + States, that their States would never agree to a system which put it + in the power of the general government to prevent the importation of + slaves; and that they, as delegates from those States, must withhold + their assent from such a system. + + "A committee of one member from each State was chosen by ballot to + take this part of the system under their consideration, and to + endeavor to agree upon some report which should reconcile those + States. To this committee also was referred the following + proposition, which had been reported by the committee of detail, to + wit: 'No Navigation Act shall be passed without the assent of + two-thirds of the members present in each house;'--a proposition + which the staple and commercial States were solicitous to retain, + lest their commerce should be placed too much under the power of the + Eastern States; but which these last States were as anxious to + reject. This committee, of which also I had the honor to be a + member, met, and took under their consideration the subjects + committed to them. _I found the Eastern States, notwithstanding + their aversion to slavery, were very willing to indulge the Southern + States, at least with a temporary liberty to prosecute the + slave-trade, provided the Southern States would in their turn + gratify them, by laying no restriction on Navigation Acts_; and, + after a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed + on a report, by which the general government was to be prohibited + from preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time, and + the restricted clause relative to Navigation Acts was to be omitted. + + "This report was adopted by a majority of the Convention, but not + without considerable opposition." + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:-- + + "Mr. Chairman, I should conceive this clause to be impolitic, if it + were one of those things which could be excluded without + encountering greater evils. The Southern States would not have + entered into the Union of America, without the temporary permission + of that trade. And if they were excluded from the Union, the + consequences might be dreadful to them and to us. We are not in a + worse situation than before. That traffic is prohibited by our laws, + and we may continue the prohibition. The Union in general is not in + a worse situation. Under the articles of confederation, it might be + continued for ever; but, by this clause, an end may be put to it + after twenty years. There is, therefore, an amelioration of our + circumstances. A tax may be laid in the meantime." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Spaight, one of the framers of the +Constitution, said-- + + "That there was a contest between the Northern and Southern States; + that the Southern States, whose principal support depended on the + labor of slaves, would not consent to the desire of the Northern + States, to exclude the importation of slaves absolutely; that South + Carolina and Georgia insisted on this clause, as they were now in + want of hands to cultivate their lands; that in the course of twenty + years they would be fully supplied; that the trade would be + abolished then, and that in the meantime some tax or duty might be + laid on." + +In the South Carolina Convention, Hon. Rawlins Lowndes said:-- + + "In the first place, what cause was there for jealousy of our + importing negroes? Why confine us to twenty years, or rather why + limit us at all? For his part, he thought this trade could be + justified on the principles of religion, humanity, and justice; for + certainly to translate a set of human beings from a bad country to a + better was fulfilling every part of these principles. But they don't + like our slaves, because they have none themselves." + +Gen. Charles C. Pinckney said:-- + + "_By this settlement we have secured an unlimited importation of + negroes for twenty years_; nor is it declared that the importation + shall be then stopped: it may be continued; we have a security that + the general government can never emancipate them." + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +In the Philadelphia Convention, Aug. 28, 1787, Art. 14 was taken up for +consideration. This article read, "The citizens of each State shall be +entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several +States." Gen. Pinckney was not satisfied with it. He seemed to wish some +provision should be included in favor of property in slaves. + +Art. 15 was as follows:-- + + "Any person charged with treason, felony, or high misdemeanor, in + any State, who shall flee from justice, and shall be found in any + other State, shall, on demand of the executive power of the State + from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having + jurisdiction of the offence." + +This article being then taken up, the words "high misdemeanor" were +struck out, and the words "other crime" inserted, in order to comprehend +all proper cases; it being doubtful whether "high misdemeanor" had not a +technical meaning too limited. + +Mr. Butler and Mr. Pinckney moved to require "_fugitive slaves and +servants to be delivered up like criminals_." + +Mr. Wilson: This would oblige the executive of the State to do it at the +public expense. + +Mr. Sherman saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering +a slave or servant than a horse. + +Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition, in order that some particular +provision might be made, apart from this article. + +Article 15, as amended, was then agreed to, _nem. con._--Mad. Papers, +pp. 1447-8. + +The next day, Aug. 29, Mr. Butler, to accomplish his purpose, moved to +insert, after Art. 15,-- + + "If any person, bound to service or labor in any of the United + States, shall escape into another State, he or she shall not be + discharged from such service or labor, in consequence of any + regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape, but shall + be delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or + labor." + +Which was agreed to, _nem. con._ + +After the phraseology had been somewhat altered, on Saturday, Sept. 15, +1787, in this clause (then Const. Art. 4, sec. 2) the term "legally" was +struck out, and the words "under the laws thereof" inserted after the +word "State," in compliance with the wish of some one who thought the +term _legal_ equivocal, and favoring the idea that _slavery_ was legal +in a moral view. + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:-- + + "Another clause secures us that property which we now possess. At + present, if any slave elopes to any of those States where slaves are + free, he becomes emancipated, by their laws; for the laws of the + States are uncharitable (!) to one another in this respect. But in + this Constitution, 'No person held to service or labor in one State, + under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence + of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or + labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such + service or labor may be due.' _This clause was expressly inserted to + enable owners of slaves to reclaim them._ This is a better security + than any that now exists. No power is given to the general + government to interpose with respect to the property in slaves now + held by the States." + +In the North Carolina Convention, Mr. Iredell begged leave to explain +the reason of this clause:-- + + "In some of the Northern States, they have emancipated all their + slaves. If any of our slaves," said he, "go there and remain there a + certain time, they would, by the present laws, be entitled to their + freedom, so that their masters could not get them again. This would + be extremely prejudicial to the inhabitants of the Southern States; + and, _to prevent it, this clause is inserted in the Constitution_. + Though the word _slave_ be not mentioned, this is the meaning of it. + The Northern delegates, owing to their particular scruples on the + subject of slavery, did not choose the word _slave_ to be + mentioned." + +Gen. Pinckney, says Mr. Madison, was not satisfied with Art. 14, and +"seemed to wish some provision should be included in favor of property +in slaves." He thus, in the South Carolina Convention, expresses his +satisfaction at this article of the Constitution:-- + + "_We have obtained a right to recover our slaves, in whatever part + of America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not + before._ In short, considering all circumstances, we have made the + best terms for the security of this species of property it was in + our power to make. We would have made better if we could; but, on + the whole, I do not think them bad."(!) + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +Luther Martin, in the speech before alluded to, used the following +language:-- + + "It was further urged, that, by this system of government, every + State is to be protected both from foreign invasion and from + domestic insurrections: from this consideration, it was of the + utmost importance it should have a power to restrain the importation + of slaves, since, in proportion as the number of slaves are + increased in any State, in the same proportion the State is weakened + and exposed to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, and by so + much less will it be able to protect itself against either, and + therefore will by so much the more want aid from, and be a burden + to, the Union." + +In the Virginia Convention, Mr. George Nicholas said:-- + + "Another worthy member says there is no power in the States to quell + an insurrection of slaves. Have they it now? If they have, does the + Constitution take it away? If it does, it must be in one of the + three clauses which have been mentioned by the worthy member. The + first clause gives the general government power to call them out + when necessary. Does this take it away from the States? No; but it + gives an additional security; for, besides the power in the State + governments to use their own militia, _it will be the duty of the + general government to aid them with the strength of the Union, when + called for_. No part of this Constitution can show that this power + is taken away." + +Mr. Madison, respecting these clauses, says:-- + + "On application of the legislature or executive, as the case may be, + the militia of the other States are to be called to suppress + domestic insurrections. Does this bar the States from calling forth + their own militia? No; but _it gives them a supplementary security + to suppress insurrections and domestic violence_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT. + + Uniform practice under a law is one of the highest proofs of the + meaning of that law. + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +The Constitution (Art. 1, sec. 2, par. 3) provides that the enumeration +of the people of the United States (upon which the apportionment of +representatives and direct taxes was to be made) "shall be made within +three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United +States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as +they shall by law direct." + +On the 1st of March, 1790, George Washington, who had been president of +the Convention which framed the Constitution, approved "an Act providing +for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States." The first +Congress ever assembled, and the first President ever elected, under the +Constitution, under the sanction of their respective oaths "to support +the Constitution," by this Act expressed their deliberate judgment as to +the true meaning of the people of the United States in adopting this +section of the Constitution. What, in their judgment, was such meaning? + +These extracts from the Act will suffice (Act 1790, chap. 29):-- + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That the marshals of the several + districts of the United States shall be, and they are hereby, + authorized and required to cause the number of the inhabitants + within their respective districts to be taken, omitting, in such + enumeration, Indians not taxed, and distinguishing free persons, + including those bound to service for a term of years, from all + others; distinguishing also the sexes and colors of free persons, + and the free males of sixteen years and upwards from those under + that age: for effecting which purpose, the marshals shall have power + to appoint as many assistants within their respective districts as + to them shall appear necessary, assigning to each assistant a + certain division of his district," &c. + +These assistants were obliged to transmit to the marshals, returns in +manner following:-- + + "The number of persons within my division, consisting of ----, + appears in a schedule hereunto annexed, subscribed by me, this + ----day of ---- 179 . + + A. B. Assistant to the Marshal of ----" + ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ +|Names of |Free white|Free white |Free white|_All other|_Slaves._| +|heads of | males of |males under| females, | free | | +|families.| sixteen | sixteen |including | persons._| | +| |years and | years. | heads of | | | +| | upwards, | | families.| | | +| |including | | | | | +| | heads of | | | | | +| |families. | | | | | ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | +| | | | | | | ++---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+---------+ + +That is, the enumeration directed to be made, and upon the basis of +which the constitutional apportionment of representatives and direct +taxes was to be made, distinguished only between _free persons_ and +_slaves_. Congress and the President, under the sanction of their oaths, +united in the expression of their deliberate judgment, that the people +of the United States, by the expression (Art. 1, sec. 2) "three-fifths +of all other persons," intended "three-fifths of the slaves," because, +in passing this Act, they declare that all other persons not free within +the meaning of this section are slaves. + +The second Congress, at its first session, passed "An Act for +apportioning representatives among the several States, according to the +first enumeration" (Stat. 1792, c. 23). The language of the statute is +as follows:-- + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That from and after the third day of + March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, the House of + Representatives shall be composed of members elected agreeably to a + ratio of one member for every thirty-three thousand persons in each + State, computed according to the rule prescribed by the + Constitution, that is to say, within the State of New Hampshire, + four," &c. &c. + +That is, the second Congress, upon an enumeration distinguishing only +freemen from slaves, undertake to apportion representatives among the +States according to the rule laid down in the Constitution, viz. by +adding to the whole number of free persons "three-fifths of the slaves." + +This interpretation, by the first and second Congress, has never been +varied from. In every census which has since been taken, the only +distinction sanctioned has been between freemen and slaves; and, on +every occasion of apportioning representatives, according the +representative or federal number, such number has been invariably +determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, three-fifths +of the slaves. _If this, the pro-slavery, interpretation of this section +of the Constitution is not right, then, since March 3, 1793, there has +not been a single House of Representatives constitutionally elected, or +a single statute or resolve constitutionally passed!_ Who is ready to +make this admission? + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +On the 13th of May 1789, in Congress,-- + + "Mr. Parker (of Va.) moved to insert a clause in the bill, imposing + a duty on the importation of slaves of ten dollars each person. He + _was sorry that the Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting + the importation altogether_; he thought it a defect in that + instrument that it allowed of such actions; it was contrary to the + revolution principles, and ought not to be permitted; but, as he + could not do all the good he desired, he was willing to do what lay + in his power. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Sherman (of Ct.) approved of the object of the motion; but he + did not think this bill was proper to embrace the subject. He could + not reconcile himself to the insertion of human beings, as an + article of duty, among goods, wares, and merchandise. He hoped it + would be withdrawn for the present, and taken up hereafter as an + independent subject. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Schureman (of N. J.) hoped the gentleman would withdraw his + motion, because the present was not the time or place for + introducing the business; he thought it had better be brought + forward in the House, as a distinct proposition. + + * * * * * + + "Mr. Madison (of Va.): I cannot concur with gentlemen who think the + present an improper time or place to enter into a discussion of the + proposed motion. If it is taken up in a separate view, we shall do + the same thing, at a greater expense of time.... + + "I conceive the Constitution, in this particular, was formed in + order that the government, whilst it was restrained from laying a + total prohibition, might be able to give some testimony of the sense + of America with respect to the African trade. We have liberty to + impose a tax or duty upon the importation of such persons as any of + the States now existing shall think proper to admit; and this + liberty was granted, I presume, upon two considerations: the first + was, that, until the time arrived when they might abolish the + importation of slaves, they might have an opportunity of evidencing + their sentiments on the policy and humanity of such a trade; the + other was, that they might be taxed in due proportion with other + articles imported; for, if the possessor will consider them as + property, of course they are of value, and ought to be paid for." + +After a very considerable discussion, in which this section of the +Constitution was referred to by various members, and the +constitutionality of Mr. Parker's motion admitted, with the advice of +Mr. Madison his colleague, Mr. Parker consented to withdraw his motion. + +In 1794, "An Act to prohibit the carrying on the slave-trade from the +United States to any foreign place or country" was passed (Stat. 1794, +c. 11). In 1800, an Act in addition to the last was passed (Stat. 1800, +c. 51). That both these laws were framed with reference to this section +of the Constitution is apparent, because the latter Act expressly +refers to it. Sec. 6 reads thus, "That nothing in this Act contained +shall be construed to authorize the bringing into either of the United +States any person or persons, the importation of whom is, by the +existing laws of such State, prohibited." In 1803 (Stat. 1803, c. 63) +was passed "An Act to prevent the importation of certain persons into +certain States, where, by the laws thereof, their admission is +prohibited." + + Sec. 1: "Be it enacted, &c. That, from and after the first day of + April next, no master or captain of any ship or vessel, or any other + person, shall import or bring, or cause to be imported or brought, + any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, not being a native, a + citizen, or registered seaman of the United States, or seamen, + natives of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, into any port or + place of the United States, which port or place shall be situated in + any State which by law has prohibited, or shall prohibit, the + admission or importation of such negro, mulatto, or other person of + color," &c. &c. + +This Act also is most manifestly framed upon this section of the +Constitution. It renders illegal the importation of any negro, mulatto, +or person of color, into States prohibiting such importation, unless +such negro, &c. is a native, citizen, or registered seaman of the United +States, or native of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope; that is, it +renders illegal the importation of African negroes into any State whose +laws prohibit such importation. And, as no African negro has yet been +imported as a free laborer, this Act was directed against the African +slave-trade. + +And, not to multiply proof, the importation of persons is not to be +prohibited by Congress prior to 1808. On the 2d day of March, 1807, +President Jefferson approved (Stat. 1807, c. 77) "An Act to prohibit the +importation of _slaves_ into any port or place within the jurisdiction +of the United States, from and after the _first day of January_, in the +year of our Lord _one thousand eight hundred and eight_." That is, at +the very earliest day allowed by Const. Art. 1, sec. 9, for the passage +by Congress of an Act prohibiting the importation of persons, a law is +passed totally prohibiting the _importation of slaves_. + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +On the 12th day of February, 1793 (Stat. 1793, chap. 7), there was +approved "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping +from the service of their masters." This is the law which, for over half +a century, has prescribed the modes in which a runaway slave may be +retaken. It is what is now called "the infamous law of '93." Thousands +of runaway slaves have owed their return to their happy condition to the +beneficent operation of this law, obviously framed, as it is, with an +eye to this constitutional provision. + +Sec. 3 provides that,-- + + "When a person held to labor in any of the United States, or in + either of the territories on the north-west or south of the river + Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the + said States or territory, the person to whom such labor or service + may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or + arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any + judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, + residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a + county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest + shall be made; and, upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or + magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit, taken before and + certified by a magistrate of any such State or territory, that the + person so seized or arrested doth, under the laws of the State or + territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the + person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or + magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent + or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said + fugitive from labor to the State or territory from which he or she + fled." + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +"An Act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of +the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions," was approved +May 2, 1792 (Act Const. 1792, chap. 28). Section first provides that, +"_In case of an insurrection in any State_ against the government +thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on +application of the legislature of such State, or of the executive (when +the legislature cannot be convened), to call forth such number of the +militia of any other State or States as may be applied for, or as he may +judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection." Precisely the same +language is made use of in Stat. 1795, c. 101. By Act approved March 3, +1807 (Stat. 1807, c. 94), the President is authorized "in _all_ cases of +insurrection," "when it is lawful for him to call forth the militia for +the purpose of suppressing the same," "to employ for the same purpose +such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be +judged necessary." + +That these laws have been held to include an insurrection of slaves is +indisputable. On receipt of the intelligence of Nat. Turner's +insurrection in Southampton, Va., Col. House, then commanding at +Fortress Monroe, set out with three companies of United States troops, +for the purpose of suppressing the revolt. He was reinforced by a +detachment from the United States ships Warren and Natchez, amounting in +all to about three hundred men. With _our_ troops and _our_ officers we +have actually aided the slaveholder in holding his fellow-man in +slavery! We have actually done what our fathers engaged in the +Constitution that we should do, namely, aid with the national strength +in keeping the slaves in subjection! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL INTERPRETER. + + "The judicial department of the United States is, in the last + resort, the final expositor of the Constitution as to all questions + of a judicial nature. Were there no power to interpret, pronounce, + and execute the law, the government would either perish through its + own imbecility, as was the case with the articles of confederation, + or other powers must be assumed by the legislative body, to the + destruction of liberty."--_Chancellor Kent._ + + +The people of the United States, in adopting the Constitution, made +_one_ standard, _one_ fundamental law, and _only one_. They gave to the +government of the United States certain powers. They restricted it as to +others. They placed certain prohibitions on the States. The Constitution +was to be the one fundamental law of the land, to which all, as well +States as people, should submit. Art. 6, sec. 2, provides that the +"Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in +pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under +the authority of the United States, shall be _the supreme law of the +land_; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing +in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary +notwithstanding." + +Who now is to tell us what this one standard is, to which all must +submit, and which is thus to override all State Constitutions and all +State laws? Is it the province of each individual to do it? Then we may +have at this moment seventeen million different interpretations, and +hence as many different Constitutions, each of which, however, is the +supreme law of the land! Are the executive or judicial departments of +the States the proper expounders? Then, at this moment, we may have +only thirty different interpretations, twenty-nine of which must be +wrong, because the supreme law can be but one. + +In order, therefore, that the end of the Constitution may be +accomplished, that it may really be the supreme law of the land, it must +have provided a way in which its only true meaning may be ascertained +and definitively settled. Unless it has provided a final interpreter of +its meaning, it is the merest folly to style it the supreme law of the +land, or to call on us to obey its requirement. Is the Constitution thus +deficient? Does it demand uniformity, and at the same time deny the use +of those means which are absolutely necessary to produce such +uniformity? Does it present a variable, ever-changing standard of duty, +and yet demand complete uniformity in practice? + +There are three departments in the Government, namely, the Executive, +the Legislative, and the Judicial. The first two of these are each, to +some extent, supreme in its own sphere; and its acts are incapable of +revision elsewhere. "Thus, in measures exclusively of a political, +legislative, or executive character, it is plain, that, as the supreme +authority as to these questions belongs to the legislative and executive +departments, they cannot be re-examined elsewhere. Thus, Congress having +the power to declare war, to levy taxes, to appropriate money, to +regulate intercourse and commerce with foreign nations, their mode of +executing these powers can never become the subject of re-examination in +any other tribunal. So, the power to make treaties being confided to the +President and Senate, when a treaty is properly ratified, it becomes the +law of the land, and no other tribunal can gainsay its stipulations. Yet +cases may readily be imagined, in which a tax may be laid, or a treaty +made, upon motions and grounds wholly beside the intention of the +Constitution. The remedy, however, in such cases is solely by an appeal +to the people at the elections, or by the salutary power of amendment +provided by the Constitution itself. + +"But, where the question is of a different nature, and capable of +judicial inquiry and decision, there it admits of a very different +consideration. The decision then made, whether in favor or against the +constitutionality of the Act, by the State or by national authority, by +the legislature or by the executive, being capable in its own nature of +being brought to the test of the Constitution, is subject to judicial +revision. It is in such cases, as we conceive, that there is a final and +common arbiter provided by the Constitution itself, to whose decisions +all others are subordinate; and that arbiter is the supreme judicial +authority of the courts of the Union" (Story, Comm. Const. sec. 374, +375); for the Constitution declares, Art. 3, sec. 2, that "the judicial +power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this +Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which +shall be made, under their authority," &c. And Art. 3, sec. 1: "The +judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme +court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time +ordain and establish." + +These constitutional provisions are clear. The Constitution and laws and +treaties of the United States are declared to be the supreme law of the +land. To expound what the law is, is a judicial act. The judicial power +extends to all cases arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties +of the United States. It therefore extends to the exposition of the +Constitution, laws, and treaties, when the case before the court +properly calls for such exposition. This judicial power, and +consequently this power of exposition, it is declared, shall be vested +in one supreme court, &c. Most obviously, the exposition given by this +one supreme court cannot be overruled by any other constitutional power; +else the court is not supreme, else the Constitution is nullified. The +decision of the supreme court is the decision of the _only +constitutionally authorized expounder of the meaning of the +Constitution_; and such exposition, to be supreme, must be final. + +What, then, has this final interpreter declared the meaning of these +clauses of the Constitution to be? + + +APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 2.) + +On the 5th of June, 1794 (Stat. 1794, c. 45), was approved an Act of +Congress, "laying duties upon carriages for the conveyance of persons." +The duty was uniform throughout the States. One Hylton, in Virginia, +refused to pay the duty; alleging that the Act was unconstitutional, +because the tax was a direct tax within the meaning of the Constitution, +and therefore should have been apportioned among the States according to +their federal numbers. He was sued by the United States, and finally the +case came before the supreme court of the United States for decision. +The following extracts are taken from the opinion of Justice Paterson +(Hylton _versus_ the United States, 3 Dallas's Reports, p. 177; 1796):-- + + "I never entertained a doubt that the principal, I will not say the + only, objects that the framers of the Constitution contemplated, as + falling within the rule of apportionment, were a capitation-tax and + a tax on land. Local considerations, and the particular + circumstances and relative situation of the States, naturally lead + to this view of the subject. _The provision was made in favor of the + Southern States._ They possessed a large number of _slaves_; they + had extensive tracts of territory, thinly settled, and not very + productive. A majority of the States had but few _slaves_; and + several of them, a limited territory, well-settled, and in a high + state of cultivation. The Southern States, if no provision had been + introduced in the Constitution, would have been wholly at the mercy + of the other States. _Congress, in such case, might tax slaves at + discretion or arbitrarily_, and land in every part of the Union. + After the same rate or measure, so much a head in the first + instance, and so much an acre in the second. _To guard them against + imposition in these particulars was the reason of introducing the + clause in the Constitution_ which directs that representatives and + direct taxes shall be apportioned among the States, according to + their respective numbers." + + Page 178: "The rule of apportionment is of this nature: it is + radically wrong; it cannot be supported by any solid reasoning. Why + should slaves, who are a species of property, be represented more + than any other property? The rule, therefore, ought not to be + extended by construction." + + +PERMISSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 9.) + +In the great case of Gibbons _vs._ Ogden, 9 Wheaton's Reports, pp. 206 +and 207 (1824), Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the +supreme court, makes use of the following language:-- + + "The Act passed in 1803 (Act Const. 1803, c. 63), prohibiting the + importation of slaves into any State which shall itself prohibit + their importation, implies, it is said, an admission that the States + possess the power to exclude or admit them; from which it is + inferred, that they possess the same power with respect to other + articles. + + "If this inference were correct; if this power were exercised, not + under any particular clause in the Constitution, but in virtue of a + general right over the subject of commerce to exist as long as the + Constitution itself, it might now be exercised. Any State might now + import African slaves into its own territory. But it is obvious that + the power of the States over this subject, previous to the year + 1808, constitutes an exception to the power of Congress to regulate + commerce; and the exception is expressed in such words as to + manifest clearly the intention to continue the pre-existing right of + the States to admit or exclude for a limited period. The words are, + 'The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States + now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by + the Congress prior to 1808.' The whole object of the exception is to + preserve the power to those States which might be disposed to + exercise it, and its language seems to the court to convey this idea + unequivocally." + +See also pp. 216, 217. + + +RESTORATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. (Const. Art. 4, sec. 2.) + +The following extracts are taken from the opinion of the supreme court +in the well-known case, Prigg _vs._ the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (16 +Pet. Rep. 609, &c.). Judge Story delivered the opinion:-- + + "Historically, it is well known, that the object of this clause was + to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the complete + right and title of ownership in their slaves, as property, in every + State in the Union into which they might escape from the State where + they were held in servitude. The full recognition of this right and + title was indispensable to the security of this species of property + in all the slaveholding States; and, indeed, was so vital to the + preservation of their domestic interests and institutions, that it + cannot be doubted that it constituted a fundamental article, without + the adoption of which the Union could not have been formed. Its true + design was to guard against the doctrines and principles prevalent + in the non-slaveholding States, by preventing them from + intermeddling with, or obstructing, or abolishing, the rights of the + owners of slaves." + + Page 612: "If the Constitution had not contained this clause, every + non-slaveholding State in the Union would have been at liberty to + have declared free all runaway slaves coming within its limits, and + to have given them entire immunity and protection against the claims + of their masters;--a course which would have created the most bitter + animosities, and engendered perpetual strife, between the different + States. The clause was, therefore, of the last importance to the + safety and security of the Southern States, and could not have been + surrendered by them without endangering their whole property in + slaves. The clause was accordingly adopted into the Constitution by + the unanimous consent of the framers of it;--a proof at once of its + intrinsic and practical necessity." + + Page 613: "Upon this ground, we have not the slightest hesitation in + holding, that, under and in virtue of the Constitution, the owner of + a slave is clothed with entire authority, in every State in the + Union, to seize and recapture his slave, whenever he can do it + without any breach of the peace or any illegal violence. In this + sense, and to this extent, this clause of the Constitution may + properly be said to execute itself, and to require no aid from + legislation, state or national." + + Page 625: "Upon these grounds, we are of opinion, that the Act of + Pennsylvania upon which this indictment is founded is + unconstitutional and void. It purports to punish, as a public + offence against that State, the very act of seizing and removing a + slave by his master, which the Constitution of the United States was + designed to justify and uphold." + + +SUPPRESSION OF SLAVE INSURRECTIONS. (Const. Art. 1, sec. 8; Art. 4, sec. +4.) + +We are not aware of any decision of the supreme court upon the meaning +of these clauses; but it seems difficult to conceive, that they would +hold that the word "insurrections" did not include all insurrections. + + * * * * * + +Such is the Constitution according to the plain, obvious, and common +meaning of its terms; such it was intended to be made by its framers; +such has been the interpretation constantly followed in the practice of +the government, from the time of its adoption until now; and such it is +according to the decision of the final interpreter of its meaning. As +reasonable men, seeking the truth, we cannot say that there is the +slightest doubt whatever on the subject. THE CONSTITUTION VERY +MATERIALLY SUPPORTS SLAVERY! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS. + + "We will extend to the slaveholder all the courtesy he will allow. + If he is hungry, we will feed him; if he is in want, both hands + shall be stretched out for his aid. We will give him full credit for + all the good that he does, and our deep sympathy in all the + temptations under whose strength he falls. But to help him in his + sin, to remain partners with him in the slave-trade, is more than he + has a right to ask."--_Wendell Phillips._ + + +No wrong action can be rightfully done. No wrong can be rightfully +supported. We can neither rightfully hold slaves nor support others in +slaveholding, because, as we have seen, slaveholding is under all +circumstances wrong. Some of the provisions of the Constitution, as we +have seen, were expressly designed for the purpose of supporting +slavery, and for over half a century have very materially supported it. +Consequently, these provisions cannot be rightfully obeyed or supported. +It is wrong to offer a bounty on slaveholding,--to give the oppressor +power and influence, in proportion as he tramples on the rights of his +fellow-man; it is wrong to return, or aid in returning, a fugitive +slave; it is wrong to aid in keeping the slave in his fetters. These +things are wrong, and not all the Constitutions and laws of the universe +can make them right. We cannot, therefore, rightfully obey the +pro-slavery clauses of the Constitution. + +If we cannot rightfully obey them ourselves, we cannot rightfully, +voluntarily support others in obeying them. If it is wrong for me to +return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for me voluntarily to aid or +support another man in doing the act. If it is wrong for me to commit +murder, it is no less wrong for me to hand the pistol to the assassin. +Whatever it is wrong for us to do ourselves, it is wrong for us +voluntarily to aid or support others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong +for us voluntarily to aid or support others in obeying the pro-slavery +requirements of the Constitution. + +If we cannot rightfully obey them, it is wrong for us to promise such +obedience. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to support others in their +obedience, it is wrong for us to promise any such support. If it is +wrong for us to return a fugitive slave, it is wrong for us to promise +to return one. If it is wrong for us voluntarily to aid the +slave-hunter, it is wrong for us to promise such aid. Whatever it is +wrong for us to do or aid others in doing, it is wrong for us to promise +to do or aid others in doing. Consequently, it is wrong for us to +promise to support these constitutional provisions. We cannot, +therefore, accept any office, either state or national, which renders it +necessary for us to support these clauses, or to promise to support +them. We cannot, therefore, rightfully hold any executive or judicial +office, either state or national, or become a member of any State +legislature or of Congress; for all these officers are obliged solemnly +to swear or affirm that they will "support the Constitution;" and to +support the Constitution is to support all of its clauses, as well those +which favor slavery as those which do not. If we take this oath, meaning +to keep it, we do wrong. If we take it, meaning not to keep it, we add +to our wrong, perjury; for we mentally break our oath at the very +instant it passes our lips. + +Some good men seek to avoid the difficulty by saying, "When I swear to +support the Constitution, I mean I will support the good clauses in it, +and disobey the bad, and submit to the penalty for such disobedience." +But such a course is not a compliance with the terms of the oath. You +have sworn "to support the Constitution;" that is, the whole +Constitution,--all its clauses,--the bad as sacredly as the good. Your +oath is not in the alternative, "I will support the clause requiring the +return of fugitive slaves, or pay five hundred dollars for every slave I +aid in escaping;" but simply, without any qualification, "I will +support the side of the oppressor." If you aid the fugitive slave to +escape from his master, you do not support the latter in retaking his +property, merely by paying the legal penalty for not giving such +support. You would not support a bad law, and yet you say your oath to +support it is not broken, because you submit to the penalty for not +supporting it. The thief does not support the law of private property, +merely by submitting to the legal punishment of his crime. To support is +to be active: to submit is to be passive. You swear to be active, and +you do not comply with your oath by being merely passive. You have sworn +actively to support the recapture of slaves. You break your oath, if you +refuse to do this, or do any thing less or different from this. + +Others think to find a good excuse for taking the oath, by adopting +another alternative, equally unauthorized. "We will support the +Constitution," say they, "until we are called on to act under any of its +bad clauses; and then we will resign our office, and refuse obedience." +Doubtless, honor requires you to resign, if you cannot comply with the +terms of your oath; but what right have you to adopt or imagine an +alternative in your oath where the law has made none,--where the officer +administering it will admit of none? Who does not see the wide +difference between an honest oath to support the return of fugitive +slaves, and an oath to support such return, but with a firm resolve on +your part to refuse such support when called on for it, and to resign? +What right have you to take an oath which you have previously resolved +not to keep, when called on to comply with? You admit that a bad clause +cannot be rightfully supported, else why do you not support it? You +admit that the oath obliges you to support the bad clauses of the +Constitution as well as the good; else why do you resign, if refusal to +support the bad clauses is consistent with your oath? You openly avow, +therefore, that, at the very moment you swear to support a clause, you +determine never to support it. You swear, and determine not to keep your +oath! Such a course seems to us inconsistent with the plainest rules of +honesty. We have no right to promise to do wrong, even though we have +resolved to do right when the time for action shall arrive. + +Others say, "We swear to support the Constitution as we understand it, +and we consider it an anti-slavery instrument." In other words, you +swear to support an interpretation which is contrary to the plain, +obvious, and common meaning of the instrument; contrary to the +interpretation put upon it by its framers; contrary to that followed by +all the executive and legislative departments of the government, from +its first establishment until now; and contrary to that which has been +adjudged to be its true interpretation by the final arbiter of its +meaning. Of course, you intend to support the true meaning of the +Constitution. Do you really believe that the people of the United States +did not mean by their words what those words then commonly meant? Do you +really doubt the historical fact of the humiliating compromise between +the delegates from the Southern and Eastern States in the Philadelphia +Convention, by which the latter undertook to barter the moral sense of +their constituents for what was supposed to be their interest? Do you +really believe that the people have suffered their servants to go on in +ignorance of the true meaning for sixty years? In fact, do you venture +to affirm, or do you in perfect sincerity and truthfulness believe, that +your interpretation has ever at any time been considered right by the +people of the United States, or by any considerable number of them? You +deceive yourself with words! What is the Constitution? Not the meaning +which you or I, or any third person, may please to put upon it; but that +meaning, and that meaning only, which consists with its being, what it +declares itself to be, the supreme law of the land. Until, therefore, +you can show that the Constitution may properly receive as many +different interpretations as there are oaths to support it, and still be +in fact the supreme law, the one, single, definite rule for all, States +as well as people, you have no right to say, "I will support the +pro-slavery clauses as I understand them." To support them in any other +sense than that which is affixed to them, as the supreme law of the +land, is merely to evade the true meaning of your oath. + +Others say, "We took the oath before we had any of our present scruples. +We would not take the oath now; but, nevertheless, we shall continue in +office, and disregard our oath." This excuse seems to us very +objectionable. How can you reap the honorary or pecuniary advantages of +your office, and honestly refuse compliance with your part of the +bargain? When you took office, you were really told, that, if you would +swear to support the return of fugitive slaves, &c. you should enjoy +these honors and these profits. The conscientious man, who, in striving +to better himself, not his condition, discovers afterwards that he +cannot rightfully aid, or promise to aid, the slaveholder in retaking +his slaves, will not think of claiming the reward which was offered to +him solely because he swore to give such aid. He will make haste to +resign honors and rewards which he feels can be retained only at the +price of his own degradation. + +If we cannot rightfully hold any office, state or national, which +requires of us a promise to support the Constitution, it is wrong to +place, or voluntarily aid in placing, any other person in such office; +for, by so doing, we ask him to do wrong. If we vote for Horace Mann, by +this act alone we say to him, as distinctly as if the words passed our +lips,--"We wish to elect you as representative to Congress. If chosen, +we expect and ask you to qualify yourself to act as representative, by +swearing to give slavery all constitutional support." Merely by voting +for him, we ask him to do wrong, hoping that good may come, almost +knowing that good will come! So little faith have we in the final +triumph of right and justice, by pursuing only right and just ways! Of +so little consequence do we consider it, that the earnest advocate of +freedom should commence his holy work by promising very materially to +strengthen slavery! But a short time has elapsed since we read one of +his most eloquent rebukes of slavery. Our heart beat quickly as we read +his earnest words. But if, in the midst of his address, some slaveholder +had turned and asked him, "How happens it, sir, that you, who are so +very earnest and disinterested in behalf of the rights of the slave, +have been willing to swear to support this terrible wrong, to any extent +or for any time?" And what answer could be returned? The eloquent tongue +would be palsied! Surely that man who has solemnly called God to witness +that he will support the oppressor, cannot fail, at some time or +another, to feel himself to be unworthy to plead the cause of freedom. + +Finally, some say, "This reasoning leads to non-resistance. You +disregard the fact that all human governments must contain a greater or +less amount of evil; and consequently, if you are ever to support any +government in all its requirements, you must support evil." Very true is +it that human governments and laws fall short of our relative standard +of right, and always of absolute right. What is our duty? Clearly, as +moral beings, to support the right, and refuse to support the wrong; as +peaceful citizens, to support the right, and submit to the penalty of +disobeying the wrong. Nothing more than this is required of us. Nothing +less than this is our duty. We are not put into the world, blindly to +support all existing governmental wrongs, until they can be +constitutionally abolished. We are to be true to ourselves as moral +beings. If we can be true to our own souls and support the government, +we may give such support,--not otherwise! Right and wrong are not +creatures of agreement and law. Neither the Philadelphia Convention that +framed the Constitution, nor the State Conventions that adopted it, had +power to make wrong in the slightest degree right, or alter at all the +moral character of slaveholding. Right is right, the Revised Statutes to +the contrary notwithstanding. Wrong is wrong, the Constitution to the +contrary notwithstanding. We say, therefore, we will obey the good +requirements of the Constitution, and peacefully submit to the penalty +of disobeying the bad. This is all that government has a right to ask of +us. Institutions were made for man, not man for them. Constitutions are +the work of man, and man is to be reverenced before his works. We see no +inconsistency or impropriety in supporting the system of free-trade +between the States, and refusing to support the domestic slave-trade; in +supporting the patent laws, and refusing to aid in returning a runaway +slave. We are good-government men, not no-government men. All +governments are partly good. All we are willing to support in part: we +will actively support the Constitution and laws, so far as conscience +permits; we will peacefully submit to legal exaction for disobeying the +rest. + +Our purpose is accomplished. We have shown that we are politically +united with the South in the support of slavery. We have shown that we +should constantly bear upon our lips, and in our lives, the motto, "_No +union with slaveholders, whereby we are obliged to countenance or +support slavery_." We desire to see a union among the States, but not a +slaveholding union! A union of freemen, and Free States for the sake of +freedom, no one would more readily support than we. But a union like +ours, of freemen and slaveholders, of Free States and Slave States, for +the sake in part of securing property in slaves, is demoralizing (how +demoralizing has it been!) to both parties, and should receive, as it +doubtless at no distant day will receive, the condemnation of the wise +and good. In the meantime, it ought not, and it will not, receive either +our respect or our voluntary support. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Mr. Clapp is said to have changed his opinions since 1838. We hope +he has. But he has not favored the world with any statement of what his +change consists in. The statement which recently appeared in the +"Picayune," even if reliable, shows that Mr. Clapp had changed his +opinion somewhat, but not essentially, as it seems to us. + +[B] We quote from Mr. Jones's work just referred to. His work contains a +summary of all that has been done for the religious instruction of the +negroes from their first introduction here; an account of their actual +moral condition, and what he thinks should be done for their elevation. +His testimony is unimpeachable, and is of the very highest authority. +Our faith in his sincerity is sometimes tried, when we read language +like this applied to the adult slave, p. 117: "He marries and _settles +in life_; his children grow up around him, and tread in his footsteps, +as he did in the footsteps of his father before him." + +For a loan of this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend, +William Lloyd Garrison. + +[C] Sandy Jenkins tried to impress Douglass with the belief, that if he +would always carry a root which he gave him, _on his right side_, it +would render it impossible for any white man to whip him ("Narrative," +p. 70). And before Wm. W. Brown made his last successful effort to +escape, he paid the old slave fortune-teller, Frank, twenty-five cents +for his advice. + +[D] "If they make you partakers of their temporal things (of their +strength and spirits, and even of their offspring), you ought to make +them partakers of your spiritual things."--_Bishop of London in 1727_ +(_Jones_, p. 20). + +[E] How carefully does Mr. Jones teach the slaves "to search the +Scriptures"! ("Catechism," p. 103.) + +"Q. Is not our duty, on the sabbath, to go to the house of God, to the +meeting for prayer, to the sabbath-school, and wherever we may worship +God and learn his will?--A. Yes. + +"Q. What was done with the man that gathered sticks on the sabbath-day, +not caring for God's commandment?--A. He was stoned. + +"Q. Is sabbath-breaking a great sin in the sight of God?--A. Yes. (Ib. +p. 104) He who breaks the sabbath robs God of his own; for the day is +the Lord's." + +[F] "Were it now revealed to us," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 180), "that the +most extensive system of instruction which we could devise, requiring a +vast amount of labor, and protracted through ages, would result in the +tender mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of _one poor +African_, we should feel warranted in cheerfully entering upon our work, +with all its costs and sacrifices; for our reward would exceed all our +toil and care above the computation of any finite mind." Badly educated, +misguided, we believe Mr. Jones to be; but these are the words of +honest, sincere conviction. + +[G] For a loan of this book we are indebted to our friend Parker +Pillsbury. + +[H] "A Catechism of Scripture Doctrine and Practice for Families and +Sabbath Schools, designed also for the Oral Instruction of Colored +Persons, by Charles C. Jones," 6th edit.; Charleston, 1845. In his +preface, Mr. Jones says, "The Catechism has been prepared _expressly_ +for the religious instruction of the negroes; and it has been +extensively tried and approved by those engaged in that good work." It +is unquestionably much more used than any other. It has already passed +through six editions. It really merits this position.--For a perusal of +this book we are indebted to the kindness of our friend Samuel Brooke, +of Ohio. + +[I] "Let us ever remember the name that Hagar gave to God, 'Thou God +seest me,' and act as in his presence. Let us be afraid to steal or lie +or curse, or break the Sabbath, or do any wicked thing. _God will see +and know._"--Jones's "Catechism," p. 28. + +"Ought not you to try and keep the fear of God always before your eyes? +Do not be tempted to say, as too many wicked people do, 'Oh! nobody will +know it; nobody will see it.' Remember that God is always looking at +you. He sees all that you do: he hears every word that you say: he knows +all that you think about: and he can in a moment strike you dead: he is +able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Knowing these things, fear +him, so as not willingly to offend him."--_Rev. Alexander Glennie's +Sermons_, p. 32. See also to the same point, Bishop Ives's "Catechism," +p. 13, 14, 42. + +[J] What a beautiful commentary on this teaching is afforded us by +Douglass! ("Narrative," p. 47.) Speaking of his grandmother, he +says,--"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 for ever. 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"! Who that has read Douglass's account of his grandmother, of which +this is a small extract, has not been moved both to pity for the slave, +and loathing for slavery? Who has not asked with him, "Will not a +righteous God visit for these things"? + +[K] A slave may die in consequence of "_moderate correction_," as that +term is understood in some of the Slave States. + +The Constitution of Georgia, Art. 4, sec. 12, reads thus (Hotchkiss's +"Codification," p. 71, 1845):--"Any person who shall maliciously +dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punishment as +would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed on a free +white person, and on the like proof, except in case of insurrection of +such slave, and unless such death should happen by accident in giving +such slave moderate correction." + +[L] Our friend Francis Jackson procured us this book. + +[M] Mr. Jones thinks ("Rel. Inst." p. 135), that "the crime of +infanticide" among the slaves is "restrained in good measure ... by the +moral degradation of the people, that takes away the disgrace of +bastardy." We remember hearing from Prof. Greenleaf the account of a +successful defence, on this ground, of a female slave in this State, who +was tried for committing this offence. A female slave, it was argued, +_could_ not feel shame at the birth of an illegitimate child, and +therefore her affection as a mother would prevent her from committing +the crime. But experience has demonstrated, that a slave-mother may be +led to take her child's life from very love itself. + +[N] "The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church recently expelled a +minister from both the ministry and the church, for marrying a sister of +his deceased wife."--_The Church as it is_, p. 76. + +[O] Colored persons are not competent witnesses on the trial of a white +man. Any white man, therefore, can, with perfect impunity, commit any +excess whatever upon any slaves, so long as they or their companions +alone are witnesses. So carefully does the law guard the honor of the +female slave! + +[P] The original of this advertisement may be seen at the Anti-Slavery +office, Boston, 21, Cornhill, pasted on one side of a copy of the +newspaper called "Spirit of Liberty"! How appropriate a heading! + +[Q] For this and other advertisements from Boston papers, I am indebted +to my friend Wendell Phillips. + +[R] We cut this advertisement from the "Boston Daily Republican" of Aug. +30, 1849. It previously appeared in the "Providence Journal." + +[S] A writer in the "New Orleans Argus," Sept. 1830, in an article on +the culture of the sugar-cane, says,--"The loss by death in bringing +slaves from a northern climate, which our planters are under the +necessity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per cent"! Our tables +prove the same thing. Of the 40,000 slaves annually carried south, only +29,101 are found to survive;--a greater sacrifice of life than that +caused by the middle passage! + +[T] The Act of 1741, of which this law is in part a revision, reads +thus, sec. 45: "Which proclamation shall be published on a _sabbath-day +at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such, at the +place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by the +parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service_; and, if any +slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued, stay +out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any +person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by +such ways or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation or +impeachment of any crime for the same."--In those happy days, Father +Taylor would not have been called on to thank God, that the man who was +on the point of strangling his brother according to law was not troubled +by any feeling of _sentimentalism_! + +[U] The Rev. Dr. Furman, of North Carolina, another Baptist clergyman, +like Dr. Fuller wrote a defence of slavery. After his death, his legal +representative advertised for sale at auction his real estate, and "a +library of a miscellaneous character, _chiefly theological_; +twenty-seven negroes, _some of them very prime_," &c. ("The Church as it +is," p. 73.) + +[V] This point, and the legality of Colonial and State Slavery, are more +elaborated in an article called "The Constitutionality of Slavery," +printed in the "Massachusetts Quarterly Review;" a purely legal, +uninteresting examination, which needs not to be repeated here. + +For a more extended proof of the constitutionality of slavery, we refer +to Wendell Phillips's very able Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay. + +[W] 5 Hen. Stat. 547. + +[X] 6 Ibid. 356. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows: + Page 66: opinon changed to opinion + Page 150: righfully changed to rightfully + + Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from + the original. + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slavery and the Constitution, by +William Ingersoll Bowditch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION *** + +***** This file should be named 38716.txt or 38716.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/1/38716/ + +Produced by David E. 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