An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans Part 9

"Dr. Walsh[V] states that in Brazil there are six hundred thousand enfranchised persons, either Africans or of African descent, who were either slaves themselves or are the descendants of slaves. He says they are, generally speaking, 'well conducted and industrious persons, who compose indiscriminately different orders of the community. There are among them merchants, farmers, doctors, lawyers, priests and officers of different ranks. Every considerable town in the interior has regiments composed of them.' The benefits arising from them, he adds, have disposed the whites to think of making free the whole negro population."

[Footnote V: Walsh's Notes on Brazil, vol. ii. page 365.]

"Mr. Koster, an Englishman living in Brazil, confirms Mr. Walsh's statement.[W] 'There are black regiments,' he observes, 'composed entirely and exclusively of black creole soldiers, commanded by black creole officers from the corporal to the colonel. I have seen the several guard-houses of the town occupied by these troops. Far from any apprehension being entertained on this score, it is well known that the quietude of this country, and the feeling of safety which every one possesses, although surrounded by slaves, proceed from the contentedness of the free people.'"

[Footnote W: Amelioration of Slavery, published in No. 16 of the Pamphleteer.]

"The actual condition of the hundred thousand emanc.i.p.ated blacks and persons of color in the British West India Colonies, certainly gives no reason to apprehend that if a general emanc.i.p.ation should take place, the newly freed slaves would not be able and willing to support themselves. On this point the Returns from fourteen of the Slave Colonies, laid before the House of Commons, in 1826, give satisfactory information: they include a period of five years from January 1, 1821, to December 31, 1825, and give the following account of the state of pauperism in each of these colonies.

"_Bahamas._--The only establishment in the colony for the relief of the poor, appears to be a hospital or poor-house. The number pa.s.sing through the hospital annually was, on the average, fifteen free black and colored persons and thirteen whites. The number of free black and colored persons is about _double_ that of the whites; so that the proportion of white to that of colored paupers in the Bahamas, is nearly two to one.

"_Barbadoes._--The average annual number of persons supported in the nine parishes, from which returns have been sent, is nine hundred and ninety-eight, all of whom, with a single exception, are white. The probable amount of white persons in the island is fourteen thousand five hundred--of free black and colored persons, four thousand five hundred.

"_Berbice._--The white population appears to amount to about six hundred, the free black and colored to nine hundred. In 1822, it appears that there were seventeen white and two colored paupers.

"_Demerara._--The free black and colored population, it is supposed, are twice the number of the whites. The average number of white pensioners on the poor fund appears to be fifty-one, that of colored pensioners twenty-six. In occasional relief, the white paupers receive about three times as much as the colored.

"_Dominica._--The white population is estimated at about nine hundred; the free black and colored population was ascertained, in 1825, to amount to three thousand one hundred and twenty-two. During the five years ending in November, 1825, thirty of the former cla.s.s had received relief from the poor fund, and only ten of the latter, making the proportion of more than nine white paupers to one colored one in the same number of persons.

"_Jamaica_ is supposed to contain twenty thousand whites, and double that number of free black and colored persons. The returns of paupers from the parishes which have sent returns, exhibit the average number of white paupers to be two hundred ninety-five, of black and colored paupers, one hundred and forty-eight; the proportion of white paupers to those of the other cla.s.s, according to the whole population, being as four to one.

"_Nevis._--The white population is estimated at about eight hundred, the free black and colored at about eighteen hundred. The number of white paupers receiving relief is stated to be twenty-five; that of the other cla.s.s, two; being in the proportion of twenty-eight to one.

"_St. Christophers._--The average number of white paupers appears to be one hundred and fifteen; that of the other cla.s.s, fourteen; although there is no doubt that the population of the latter cla.s.s greatly outnumbers that of the former.

"_Tortola._--In 1825 the free black and colored population amounted to six hundred and seven. The whites are estimated at about three hundred.

The number of white paupers relieved appears to be twenty-nine: of the other cla.s.s, four: being in the proportion of fourteen to one.

"In short, in a population of free black and colored persons amounting to from eighty thousand to ninety thousand, only two hundred and twenty-nine persons have received any relief whatever as paupers during the years 1821, to 1825; and these chiefly the concubines and children of dest.i.tute whites; while of about sixty-five thousand whites, in the same time, sixteen hundred and seventy-five received relief. The proportion, therefore, of enfranchised persons receiving any kind of aid as paupers in the West Indies, is about one in three hundred and seventy: whereas the proportion among the whites of the West Indies is about one in forty; and in England, generally one in twelve or thirteen--in some counties, one in eight or nine.

"Can any one read these statements, made by the colonists themselves, and still think it necessary to keep the negroes in slavery, lest they should be unable to maintain themselves if free?

"In 1823, the a.s.sembly of Grenada pa.s.sed a resolution, declaring that the free colored inhabitants of these colonies, were a respectable, well behaved cla.s.s of the community, were possessed of considerable property, and were ent.i.tled to have their claims viewed with favor.

"In 1824, when Jamaica had been disturbed for months by unfounded alarms relating to the slaves, a committee of the legislative a.s.sembly declared that 'the conduct of the freed people evinced not only zeal and alacrity, but a warm interest in the welfare of the colony, and every way identified them with those who are the most zealous promoters of its internal security.' The a.s.sembly confirmed this favorable report a few months ago, by pa.s.sing a bill conferring on all free black and colored persons the same privileges, civil and political, with the white inhabitants.

"In the orders issued in 1829, by the British Government, in St. Lucia, placing all freemen of African descent upon the footing of equal rights with their white neighbors, the loyalty and good conduct of that cla.s.s are distinctly acknowledged, and they are declared 'to have shown, hitherto, readiness and zeal in coming forward for the maintenance of order.' As similar orders have been issued for Trinidad, Berbice, and the Cape of Good Hope, it may be presumed that the conduct of the free blacks and colored persons in those colonies has likewise given satisfaction to Government.

"In the South African Commercial Advertiser, of the 9th of February, 1831, we are happy to find recorded one more of the numerous proofs which experience affords of the safety and expediency of immediate abolition.

"_Three thousand_ prize negroes have received their _freedom_; _four hundred in one day_; but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred;--_servants found masters--masters hired servants; all gained homes, and at night scarcely an idler was to be seen_. In the last month, one hundred and fifty were liberated under precisely similar circ.u.mstances, and with the same result. These facts are within our own observation; and to state that sudden and abrupt emanc.i.p.ation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, is not reason, but the plea of all men who are adverse to emanc.i.p.ation.

"As far as it can be ascertained from the various doc.u.ments which have been cited, and from others, which, from the fear of making this account too long, are not particularly referred to, it appears that in every place and time in which emanc.i.p.ation has been tried, _not one drop of white blood has been shed, or even endangered by it_; that it has everywhere greatly improved the condition of the blacks, and in most places has removed them from a state of degradation and suffering to one of respectability and happiness. Can it, then, be justifiable, on account of any vague fears of we know not what evils, to reject this just, salutary and hitherto uninjurious measure; and to cling to a system which we know, by certain experience, is producing crime, misery and death, during every day of its existence?"

In Mexico, September 15, 1829, the following decree was issued; "Slavery is for ever abolished in the republic; and consequently all those individuals, who, until this day, looked upon themselves as slaves, are free." The prices of slaves were settled by the magistrates, and they were required to work with their master, for stipulated wages, until the debt was paid. If the slave wished to change masters he could do so, if another person would take upon himself the liability of payment, in exchange for his labor; and provided the master was secured against loss, he was obliged to consent to the transaction. Similar transfers might take place to accommodate the master, but never without the consent of the servant. The law regulated the allowance of provisions, clothing, &c., and if the negro wished for more, he might have it charged, and deducted from his wages; but lest masters should take advantage of the improvidence of their servants, it was enacted, that all charges exceeding half the earnings of any slave, or family of slaves, should be void in law. The duties of servants were defined as clearly as possible by the laws, and magistrates appointed to enforce them; but the master was entrusted with no power to punish, in any manner whatever. It was expressly required that the masters should furnish every servant with suitable means of religious and intellectual instruction.

A Vermont gentleman, who had been a slaveholder in Mississippi, and afterward resident at Matamoras, in Mexico, speaks with enthusiasm of the beneficial effects of these regulations, and thinks the example highly important to the United States. He declares that the value of the plantations was soon increased by the introduction of free labor. "No one was made poor by it. It gave property to the servant, and increased the riches of the master."

The republics of Buenos Ayres, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Monte Video, likewise took steps for the abolition of slavery, soon after they themselves came into possession of freedom. In some of these States, means were taken for the instruction of young slaves, who were all enfranchised by law, on arriving at a certain age; in others, universal emanc.i.p.ation is to take place after a certain date, fixed by the laws. The empire of Brazil, and the United States are the only American nations, that have taken no measures to destroy this most pestilent system; and I have recently been a.s.sured by intelligent Brazilians, that public opinion in that country is now so strongly opposed to slavery that something effectual will be done toward abolition, at the very next meeting of the Cortes. If this _should_ take place, the United States will stand alone in most hideous pre-eminence.

When Necker wrote his famous book on French finances, he suggested a universal compact of nations to suppress the slave trade. The exertions of England alone have since nearly realized his generous plan, though avarice and cunning do still manage to elude her vigilance and power.

She has obtained from Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and Denmark, a mutual right to search all vessels suspected of being engaged in this wicked traffic.[X] I believe I am correct in saying that ours is now the _only_ flag, which can protect this iniquity from the just indignation of England. When a mutual right of search was proposed to us, a strong effort was made to blind the people with their own prejudices, by urging the old complaint of the impressment of seamen; and alas, when has an unsuccessful appeal been made to pa.s.sion and prejudice? It is evident that nothing on earth ought to prevent co-operation in a cause like this. Besides, "It is useless for us to attempt to linger on the skirts of the age that is departing. The action of existing causes and principles is steady and progressive. It cannot be r.e.t.a.r.ded, unless we would 'blow out all the moral lights around us;' and if we refuse to keep up with it, we shall be towed in the wake, whether we are willing or not."[Y]

[Footnote X: The British Government actually paid Spain four hundred thousand pounds, as an indemnity to those engaged in the slave trade, on condition that the traffic should be abolished by law throughout her dominions.]

[Footnote Y: Speech of Mr. Brodnax, of Virginia.]

When I think of the colonies established along the coast of Africa--of Algiers, conquered and civilized--of the increasing wealth and intelligence of Hayti--of the powerful efforts now being made all over the world to sway public opinion in favor of universal freedom--of the certain emanc.i.p.ation of slaves in all British Colonies--and above all, the evident union of purpose existing between the French and English cabinets,--I can most plainly see the hand of G.o.d working for the deliverance of the negroes. We may resist the blessed influence if we will; but we cannot conquer. Every year the plot is thickening around us, and the nations of the earth, either consciously or unconsciously, are hastening the crisis. The defenders of the slave system are situated like the man in the Iron Shroud, the walls of whose prison daily moved nearer and nearer, by means of powerful machinery, until they crushed all that remained within them.

But to return to the subject of emanc.i.p.ation. Nearly every one of the States north of Mason and Dixon's line once held slaves. These slaves were manumitted without bloodshed, and there was no trouble in making free colored laborers obey the laws.

I am aware that this desirable change must be attended with much more difficulty in the Southern States, simply because the evil has been suffered until it is fearfully overgrown; but it must not be forgotten that while they are using their ingenuity and strength to sustain it for the present, the mischief is increasing more and more rapidly. If this be not a good time to apply a remedy, when will be a better? They must annihilate slavery, or slavery will annihilate them.

It seems to be forgotten that emanc.i.p.ation from tyranny is not an emanc.i.p.ation from law; the negro, after he is made free, is restrained from the commission of crimes by the same laws which restrain other citizens: if he steals, he will be imprisoned: if he commits murder, he will be hung.

It will, perhaps, be said that the free people of color in the slave portions of _this_ country are peculiarly ignorant, idle, and vicious?

It may be so: for our laws and our influence are peculiarly calculated to make them bad members of society. But we trust the civil power to keep in order the great ma.s.s of ignorant and vicious foreigners continually pouring into the country; and if the laws are strong enough for this, may they not be trusted to restrain the free blacks?

In those countries where the slaves codes are mild, where emanc.i.p.ation is rendered easy, and inducements are offered to industry, insurrections are not feared, and free people of color form a valuable portion of the community. If we persist in acting in opposition to the established laws of nature and reason, how can we expect favorable results? But it is p.r.o.nounced _unsafe_ to change our policy. Every progressive improvement in the world has been resisted by despotism, on the ground that changes were dangerous. The Emperor of Austria thinks there is need of keeping his subjects ignorant, that good order may be preserved. But what he calls good order, is sacrificing the happiness of many to the advancement of a few; and no doubt knowledge _is_ unfavorable to the continuation of such a state of things. It is precisely so with the slaveholder; he insists that the welfare of millions must be subordinate to his private interest, or else all good order is destroyed.

It is much to be regretted that Was.h.i.+ngton enfranchised his slaves in the manner he did; because their poverty and indolence have furnished an ever ready argument for those who are opposed to emanc.i.p.ation.[Z]

To turn slaves adrift in their old age, unaccustomed to take care of themselves, without employment, and in a community where all the prejudices were strongly arrayed against free negroes, was certainly an unhappy experiment.

[Footnote Z: With all my unbounded reverence for Was.h.i.+ngton, I have, I confess, sometimes found it hard to forgive him for not manumitting his slaves long before his death. A fact which has lately come to my knowledge, gave me great joy; for it furnishes a reason for what had appeared to me unpardonable. It appears that Was.h.i.+ngton possessed a gang of negroes in right of his wife, with which his own negroes had intermarried. By the marriage settlement, the former were limited, in default of issue of the marriage, to the representatives of Mrs.

Was.h.i.+ngton at her death; so that her negroes could not be enfranchised.

An unwillingness to separate parents and children, husbands and wives, induced Was.h.i.+ngton to postpone the manumission of his own slaves. This motive is briefly, and as it were accidentally, referred to in his will.]

But if slaves were allowed to redeem themselves progressively, by purchasing one day of the week after another, as they can in the Spanish colonies, habits of industry would be gradually formed, and enterprise would be stimulated, by their successful efforts to acquire a little property. And if they afterward worked better as free laborers than they now do as slaves, it would surely benefit their masters as well as themselves.

That strong-hearted republican, La Fayette, when he returned to France in 1785, felt strongly urged by a sense of duty, to effect the emanc.i.p.ation of slaves in the Colony of Cayenne. As most of the property in the colony belonged to the crown, he was enabled to prosecute his plans with less difficulty than he could otherwise have done. Thirty thousand dollars were expended in the purchase of plantations and slaves for the sole purpose of proving by experiment the safety and good policy of conferring freedom. Being afraid to trust the agents generally employed in the colony, he engaged a prudent and amiable man at Paris to undertake the business. This gentleman, being fully instructed in La Fayette's plans and wishes, sailed for Cayenne. The first thing he did when he arrived, was to collect all the cart-whips, and other instruments of punishment, and have them burnt amid a general a.s.semblage of the slaves; he then made known to them the laws and rules by which the estates would be governed. The object of all the regulations was to encourage industry by making it the means of freedom. This new kind of stimulus had a most favorable effect on the slaves, and gave promise of complete success. But the judicious agent died in consequence of the climate, and the French Revolution threw every thing into a state of convulsion at home and abroad. The new republic of France bestowed unconditional emanc.i.p.ation upon the slaves in her colonies; and had she persevered in her promises with good faith and discretion, the horrors of St. Domingo might have been spared. The emanc.i.p.ated negroes in Cayenne came in a body to the agents, and declared that if the plantations still belonged to General La Fayette they were ready and willing to resume their labors for the benefit of one who had treated them like men, and cheered their toil by making it a certain means of freedom.

I cannot forbear paying a tribute of respect to the venerable Moses Brown, of Providence, Rhode Island, now living in virtuous and vigorous old age. He was a slave-owner in early life, and, unless I have been misinformed, a slave-dealer, likewise. When his attention became roused to religious subjects, these facts troubled his conscience. He easily and promptly decided that a Christian could not consistently keep slaves; but he did not dare to trust his own nature to determine the best manner of doing justice to those he had wronged. He therefore appointed a committee, before whom he laid a statement of the expenses he had incurred for the food and clothing of his slaves, and of the number of years, during which he had had the exclusive benefit of their labors. He conceived that he had no right to charge them for their freedom, because G.o.d had given them an inalienable right to that possession, from the very hour of their birth; but he wished the committee to decide what wages he ought to pay them for the work they had done. He cordially accepted the decision of the committee, paid the negroes their dues, and left them to choose such employments as they thought best. Many of the grateful slaves preferred to remain with him as hired laborers. It is hardly necessary to add that Moses Brown is a Quaker.

It is commonly urged against emanc.i.p.ation that white men cannot possibly labor under the sultry climate of our most southerly States. This is a good reason for not sending the slaves out of the country, but it is no argument against making them free. No doubt we do need their labor; but we ought to pay for it. Why should their presence be any more disagreeable as hired laborers, than as slaves? In Boston, we continually meet colored people in the streets, and employ them in various ways, without being endangered or even incommoded. There is no moral impossibility in a perfectly kind and just relation between the two races.

If white men think otherwise, let _them_ remove from climates which nature has made too hot for their const.i.tutions. Wealth or pleasure often induces men to change their abode; an emigration for the sake of humanity would be an agreeable novelty. Algernon Sidney said, "When I cannot live in my own country, but by such means as are worse than dying in it, I think G.o.d shows me that I ought to keep myself out of it."

But the slaveholders try to stop all the efforts of benevolence, by vociferous complaints about infringing upon their _property_; and justice is so subordinate to self-interest, that the unrighteous claim is silently allowed, and even openly supported, by those who ought to blush for themselves, as Christians and as republicans. Let men _simplify_ their arguments--let them confine themselves to one single question, "What right can a man have to compel his neighbor to toil without reward, and leave the same hopeless inheritance to his children, in order that _he_ may live in luxury and indolence?" Let the doctrines of _expediency_ return to the Father of Lies, who invented them, and gave them power to turn every way for evil. The Christian knows no appeal from the decisions of G.o.d, plainly uttered in his conscience.

The laws of Venice allowed _property_ in human beings; and upon this ground Shylock demanded his pound of flesh, cut nearest to the heart.

Those who advertise mothers to be sold separately from their children, likewise claim a right to human flesh; and they too cut it nearest to the _heart_.

The personal liberty of one man can never be the property of another.

All ideas of property are founded upon the mutual agreement of the human race, and are regulated by such laws as are deemed most conducive to the general good. In slavery there is no _mutual_ agreement; for in that case it would not be slavery. The negro has no voice in the matter--no alternative is presented to him--no bargain is made. The beginning of his bondage is the triumph of power over weakness; its continuation is the tyranny of knowledge over ignorance. One man may as well claim an exclusive right to the air another man breathes, as to the possession of his limbs and faculties. Personal freedom is the birthright of every human being. G.o.d himself made it the first great law of creation; and no human enactment can render it null and void. "If," says Price, "you have a right to make another man a slave, he has a right to make you a slave;" and Ramsay says, "If we have in the beginning no right to sell a man, no person has a right to buy him."

Am I reminded that the _laws_ acknowledge these vested rights in human flesh? I answer the laws themselves were made by individuals, who wished to justify the wrong and profit by it. We ought never to have recognised a claim, which cannot exist according to the laws of G.o.d; it is our duty to atone for the error; and the sooner we make a beginning, the better will it be for us all. Must our arguments be based upon justice and mercy to the slaveholders _only_? Have the negroes no right to ask compensation for their years and years of unrewarded toil? It is true that they have food and clothing, of such kind, and in such quant.i.ties, as their masters think proper. But it is evident that this is not the worth of their labor; for the proprietors can give from one hundred to five and six hundred dollars for a slave, beside the expense of supporting those who are too old or too young to labor. They could not _afford_ to do this, if the slave did not earn more than he receives in food and clothing. If the laws allowed the slave to redeem himself progressively, the owner would receive his money back again; and the negro's years of uncompensated toil would be more than lawful interest.

The southerners are much in the habit of saying they really wish for emanc.i.p.ation, if it could be effected in safety; but I search in vain for any proof that these a.s.sertions are sincere. (When I say this I speak collectively; there are, no doubt, individual exceptions.)