American Slave Trade Part 4

[9] "Give me an uninformed brute," said Mirabeau, "and I will soon make him a ferocious monster. It was a white, who first plunged a negro into a burning oven,--who dashed out the brains of a child in the presence of its father,--who fed a slave with his own proper flesh. These are the monsters that have to account for the barbarity of the revolted savages.

Millions of Africans have perished on this soil of blood. In this dreadful struggle the crimes of the whites are yet the most horrible:--They are the offspring of despotism; whilst those of the blacks originate in the hatred of slavery--the thirst of vengeance."

[10] Several letters have been addressed to the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, by individuals residing in the southern and south-western states, expressing their desire to emanc.i.p.ate their slaves, and requesting the Society to receive them under its patronage.

In a letter from Dr. John Adams, to the Society, dated Richmond Hill, Dec. 19, 1815, he states that, "A certain Samuel Guest, deceased, had, by his will, directed that his slaves, amounting to about 300, should be emanc.i.p.ated, and his lands sold for their benefit; which, being prohibited by law, unless they should be removed out of the boundaries of the commonwealth of Virginia, he requests the aid of the Society, and recommends their transportation to Guinea."

The committee of the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, to whom this letter was referred, reported, "that it did not appear that the convention could, at present, propose any specific plan for accomplis.h.i.+ng the benevolent intention of Samuel Guest." This is really a distressing case. If there exists _any where_, the power of affording a remedy in such instances as this, the omission of exercising it is, in effect, an act of converting freemen into slaves! This subject demands the serious attention of the government, and of every citizen, who, like Howard, the model of beneficence, is "a patriot of every clime."

Since the original of the preceding note was written, the following statement has been published in the National Intelligencer:--

"The legislature of Indiana are now actively engaged in the organization of the details of the state government. Much debate has taken place on a pet.i.tion or letter from W. E. Sumner, of Williamson county, (Tennessee,) requesting that the legislature may enable him to bring into the state a number of slaves, with the view which he expresses in the following words:

"I have about 40, and my intention is, if permitted by the laws of Indiana, to bring and free them, to purchase land for them and settle them on it; to give them provisions for the first year, and furnish them with tools for agriculture and domestic manufactory, and next spring with domestic animals. You must be aware, sir, that this must be attended with no small expenditure of money and trouble. I think, that after a man has had the use of slaves and their ancestors, twenty or thirty years, it is unjust and inhuman to set them free, unprovided with a home, &c. &c. All that I have were raised by my father and myself, and the oldest is about my age (46.) I am also very desirous to leave the slave states, and spend my few remaining days in that state where involuntary slavery is not admissible; and will, with the blessing of G.o.d, prepare to do so as soon as I can settle my affairs."

"The mode in which this letter should be treated is the subject of the debate. It appears to be agreed that the const.i.tution of the state forbids a compliance with his request."

The writer has been a.s.sured that this conscientious, just, and generous individual is one among the number of those who made similar propositions to the above, to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and with the like disappointment.

[11] A few days subsequent to the time that the above suggestions were originally committed to paper, the House of Delegates of the Virginia Legislature, pa.s.sed the following resolution, by an almost unanimous vote; "That the Executive be requested to correspond with the President of the United States, for the purpose of obtaining a Territory upon the North Pacific, or at some other place, not within any of the states, or the territorial governments of the United States, to serve as an asylum for such persons of colour, as are now free, and may desire the same, and for those who may be hereafter emanc.i.p.ated within this commonwealth, &c." If the present system of restrictions upon emanc.i.p.ation should be persevered in, for an indefinite length of time, the necessary final result must be frightful to contemplate. If a state, containing soil sufficient to subsist only 1,000,000 of slaves, besides the free population, provides no outlet, for the excess of that number, by permitting their emanc.i.p.ation or otherwise, _starvation_ must be the consequence!

[12] On first hearing this epithet used, I was at a loss to account for its meaning. I have since observed that, in the middle states, the general t.i.tle applied to slave-traders, indiscriminately, is "_Georgia-men_."

[13] Would it be superst.i.tious to presume, that the sovereign Father of all nations, permitted the _perpetration_ of this apparently execrable transaction, as a _fiery_, though salutary signal of his displeasure at the conduct of his Columbian children, in erecting and idolizing this splendid fabric as the temple of freedom, and at the same time oppressing with the yoke of captivity and toilsome bondage, twelve or fifteen hundred thousand of their African _brethren_ (by logical induction,) making merchandize of their _blood_, and dragging their bodies with _iron chains_, even under its towering walls? Yet is it a fact, that _slaves_ are employed in rebuilding this sanctuary of _liberty_.

[14] It is a notorious and afflicting truth, that in the United States, the head of a _poor black man_ has been cut off _with impunity_, by a white man (or master;) that black men have been _wantonly shot_ by white men; and that a free black man (whom I have seen myself) was _hoppled_, and being unsuccessfully offered for sale as a slave, was bound to a post in the winter, and left without food until his feet _were frozen_, where he would probably have perished, had he not extricated himself by his own struggles.

[15] This statement was furnished by a respectable citizen, who was one of the first that found the dead body, near his own house.

N.B. Nothing can more strongly indicate the true state of the case than this _disguising of names_. The _Author_ dared put _his_ name; but he was in _Pennsylvania_: he would, probably have exposed his _Maryland_-informant to _death_ by naming him. W. C.

[16] It is a frequent custom in the district of Columbia, Maryland, and Delaware, for masters to endeavour to reform their bad slaves, by terrifying them with threats of selling them for the Georgia market, or "_to Carolina_" them; which is often carried into effect. There are, notwithstanding, several individuals, so conscientiously opposed to selling men against their will, that the most unpardonable conduct will not induce men to do it; and they prefer rejecting them, and letting them keep all the wages they can get for their own use.

[17] One of the members of the house of representatives (Mr. ADGATE,) related to me, while at Was.h.i.+ngton, the following fact:--"That during the last session of congress, (1815-16,) as several members were standing in the street, near the new capitol, a drove of manacled coloured people were pa.s.sing by; and when just opposite, one of them elevating his manacles as high as he could reach, commenced singing the favorite national song, "_Hail Columbia! happy land_," &c.

N.B. This is an excessively stupid song, written more than 20 years ago by one HOPKINSON, a lawyer of Philadelphia, who seems to have been born to be an ornament of Grub-Street. But, however silly the thoughts or inflated the expressions, down it goes if national vanity or party strife lay hold of it. "_Hail Columbia_" is much about upon a level with "_G.o.d save the king_;" they have both had about the same cause to keep them in vogue; but, I must confess, that the Americans, with _manacles on their hands and chains round their necks_, singing songs in praise of the _freedom_ of that Country, is going a little further than our fools when they bleat and bellow and bawl out that parcel of stuff, that low bombast, which the news-papers, in their cant, call "Our great National _Anthem_;" an "_Anthem_" that talks, amongst other things, of "confounding _politicks_ and all their _knavish tricks_!" Come, come: we must not pretend to _laugh_ at the Was.h.i.+ngton Negro!--W. C.

[18] Judge Morrel, in his charge to the grand jury of Was.h.i.+ngton, at the session of the circuit court of the United States, in January 1816, for the district of Columbia, urged this subject to its attention very emphatically, as an object of remonstrance and juridical investigation.

He said the frequency with which the streets of the city had been crowded with manacled captives, sometimes even on the sabbath, could not fail to shock the feelings of all humane persons; that it was repugnant to the spirit of our political inst.i.tutions, and the rights of man, and he believed was calculated to impair the public morals, by familiarizing scenes of cruelty to the minds of youth.

[19] Extract from the preamble to the first act pa.s.sed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, for the gradual abolition of slavery in that state:

"Sect. 2. And whereas the condition of those persons who have heretofore been denominated negro and mulatto slaves, has been attended with circ.u.mstances which not only deprived them of the common blessings that they were by nature ent.i.tled to, but has cast them into the deepest afflictions by an unnatural separation of husband and wife from each other and from their children--an injury the greatness of which can only be conceived by supposing that we were in the same unhappy case," &c.

Darwin, who may well be styled an _arch connoisseur_, both in physiology and morality, in his cla.s.sification of human diseases, includes one which he denominates _Nostalgia_, and thus defines it:

"_Nostalgia._ An unconquerable desire of returning to one's native country, frequent in long voyages, in which the patients become so insane as to throw themselves into the sea, mistaking it for green fields and meadows. The Swiss are said to be particularly liable to this disease, and when taken into foreign service frequently desert from this cause, and especially after hearing or singing a particular tune, which was used in their village dances, in their native country; on which account their playing or singing this tune was punished with death.

Zwingerus.

Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill, which lifts him to the storms. Goldsmith." Zoonomia, Cl. III. 1. 1. 6.

The late _indefatigable Rush_, in his Inquiry into the Causes of the Derangement of the Human Mind, states, that the slaves imported into the _West Indies from Africa_, frequently become distracted when they are about to commence the toils of perpetual slavery on the plantations.

N. B. This "_indefatigable_ RUSH" was, indeed, _indefatigable_ in _puffing himself off_ for a friend of _humanity_, in which he was pretty successful too. He made his court to the Quakers, and even exceeded some of them in cunning. It was as puny a creature, in point of talent, as ever contrived to get a reputation for wisdom. Principles he had none: he wrote about every thing, and about nothing well; but, as a _pretender_ to humanity he was consummate. Only mind how he _here_ calls for indignation against the "_West India_" planters. Not a word about those of his own "_free country_!" What a hypocrite! He was a Doctor of Physic; and he knew well that he would have lost his best patients, those that paid best for the _blood-letting_, (for which he was so famous) if he had made free with the Slave-holders of his own "free-country."--W. C.

[20] To those speculators in human flesh, who purchase free people as well as slaves, without discrimination, I must now apply the t.i.tle of _Man-Dealers_, instead of Slave Traders.

[21] While interrogating him about the manner of his being seized and bound, he gave his chains a shake, by moving his feet on the floor, and with vexation muttered, "When the devil gets 'em he'll _chain them_."

"No, no," said I, "you shouldn't make such speeches as that, perhaps they were brought up to such things, and don't know any better." "_Well but_," said he, "_they know what's right_." I have since been a.s.sured, that several instances of _black_ man-stealing had occurred, in which fathers, sons, brothers, and even wives and daughters, were promiscuously engaged.

[22] I was informed, on my arrival in the neighbourhood where this affair was transacted, that this _person_, on hearing that the mulatto man had been intercepted at Was.h.i.+ngton, said he had a _bad pain_ on his mind, and believed he should _clear out_; which he had done accordingly.

[23] Thos. Clarkson states, in his History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, that "the arrival of slave s.h.i.+ps on the coasts of Africa was the uniform signal for the immediate commencement of wars for the attainment of prisoners, for sale and exportation to America and the West Indies."

In Maryland and Delaware, the same drama is now performed in miniature.

The arrival of the Man-Traffickers, _laden_ with cash, at their respective _stations_, near the coasts of a great American water, called justly, by Mr. Randolph, "a Mediterranean sea," or at their several _inland posts_, near the dividing line of Maryland and Delaware, (at some of which they have grated prisons for the purpose) is the well known signal for the professed _kidnappers_, like beasts of prey, to commence their nightly invasions upon the _fleecy flocks_; extending their ravages, (generally attended with bloodshed, and sometimes murder,) and spreading terror and consternation amongst both freemen and slaves throughout the _sandy regions_, from the western to the eastern sh.o.r.es. These "two-legged featherless animals," or _human bloodhounds_, when overtaken (rarely) by the messengers of law, are generally found armed with instruments of death, sometimes with pistols with _latent_ spring daggers attached to them! Mr. Cooper, one of the representatives to congress from Delaware, a.s.sured me that he had often been afraid to send one of his servants out of his house in the evening, from the danger of their being seized by kidnappers.

While at Wilmington (Del.) I accidentally heard a black woman telling the gate-keeper of the bridge, that she had set out to go to Georgetown, (Del.) but was returning without having reached it, for fear of being caught on the road by the kidnappers.

[24] I was informed in Delaware, that her seller absconded in about ten days after the outrage was committed.

[25] The mulatto youth had been purchased in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, and kept in it in irons several weeks, by a person who confessed his regret that he had not removed him before the suit for the recovery of his freedom had commenced; and that, if he had known it sooner, he would have taken him on to ----, (the place of his residence,) even if he had been satisfied of his being free. One Slave-Trader, to whom he had been offered, was however so conscientious, that he refused to purchase him, or the lad who was with him, (before mentioned) being confident that they were illegally enslaved.

[26] I have been a.s.sured by a gentleman of the highest respectability, that a former representative to Congress, from one of the southern states, acknowledged to him, that he held a mulatto man as a slave, having purchased him in company with slaves, who affirmed that he was free born, and had been kidnapped from one of the New England states; who was well educated, and who, he had no doubt, was born as free a man as himself, or my informant. Upon being asked, how he could _bear_ then to retain him, he replied, that the customs of his part of the country were such, that these things are not minded much.

[27] I was informed that the mulatto man was probably destined for the New-Orleans market, not very far distant from the _Gulf of Mexico_, which probably embraces more personal slavery, including its neighbouring regions, than any region of equal extent on the globe.

[28] On the ensuing day, having persevered in endeavours to secure the captives, the son of this landlord (to whom I presume _manacles_, _hand-cuffs_, _iron man-fetters_, _hopples_ _&c._ are as familiar as steel-traps and snares to the hunter of the _animals which yield fur_,) expressed his sympathy for the loss of the purchaser of the mulatto man, (who still remained in his chains,) should he be set at liberty. I asked him whether he considered it worse for the trader to lose a few hundred dollars in money, than for the mulatto man to be transported to a strange country, and be deprived of his liberty for life. To which he replied, after a short pause, _that he did not know as there was much difference_! I a.s.sured him, that if he _did not_, I was _sorry_ for him.

This ill.u.s.trates the invincible force of morbid education and of habit.

[29] By information, derived from distinct and corresponding sources, a few days after this caravan left Was.h.i.+ngton, there is no doubt of the fact, that it contained, in addition to the slaves, a young black woman, who had been emanc.i.p.ated in Delaware, and was sold by the same person as an agent, that a.s.sisted in seizing and sold the black woman and child; and also a legally free mulatto man, in irons, who had been sold in the night by his employer, near Philadelphia, and who was most unmercifully beaten with a club, on the night previous to their arrival in the city, for telling a person that he was free.

[30] Additional aid was also rendered by the Abolition Society at Wilmington.

[31] It would be equally as absurd to do this, as it would to import 2,000,000 prisoners of war from Turkey or China, and make citizens of them.

[32] "It is not for us to inquire why, in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of the several parts of the earth were distinguished by a difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know, that all are the work of an Almighty Hand." [From the first section of the Preamble to the Pennsylvania act for the Abolition of Slavery, before referred to.]

[33] M'Gurran Coulon, in his "Observations on the Insurrection of the Negroes in the Island of St. Domingo," read before the National a.s.sembly of France, attributes the _troubles_ of that island, "above all, to the injustice of which the whites have been guilty, in refusing to let the mulattos partake of the blessings of liberty." This was evidently one of the chief _proximate_ causes;--but the primitive radical origin of those implacable conflicts between different shades of colour, may be traced to the miserable fatal policy which permitted the production of those shades. "The white father falls a victim to the unnatural rage of his mulatto son." "In a country where it is by no means unusual for the known children of the Planter to undergo all the hards.h.i.+ps, and the ignominy of slavery, in common with the most degraded cla.s.s of mortals, is it there we are to seek for instances of filial affection?" [Inquiry into the Causes of the Insurrection of the Negroes in St. Domingo.]

[34] Recent message of the President of the United States to Congress, alluding to the red natives of America.

[35] See Parag. 40. I consider it a fortunate circ.u.mstance, and one which will protect me effectually from the imputation of plagiarism, in respect to the similarity of what I had previously written on the subject of colonization by "_beneficent societies_" and the national ransom of slaves (see Parag. 80 & 81) to any thing advanced at this meeting; that I had communicated the contents of the original ma.n.u.script of the preceding work to page 98, except some notes and slight alterations, to Roberts Vaux, Esq. one of the members of the common council of the city of Philadelphia, on or previous to the 8th of Dec.

1816--And the fact is made public, in this manner, with his consent and approbation.

[36] Several free persons of colour, of both s.e.xes and all a little shaded with a yellowish tint, being employed as servants in the house in which I lodge, I inquired of two of the females, a few days ago, whether they would like to go to Africa, as it was the country of their forefathers. One of them expressed great repugnance at going there, and the other said her fathers did not come from Africa, "and (said she) if they (the Americans) did not want us, they had no need to have brought us away: after they've brought us here, and made us work hard, and _disfigured the colour_, I don't think it would be fair to send us back again."