Book: Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854)

V >> Various >> Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854)




"Why, Mary, the truth is, I did not believe in the Bible, because,
being an Abolitionist, professed Christians and ministers instructed
me that the Bible sanctioned slavery, and that it required obedience
to earthly masters and rulers, even although their commands and laws
be contrary to the divine law. This was so contrary to my sense of
natural right, that I said to myself I cannot honor the true God by
submitting to the authority of the Bible; and therefore it was I took
an utter aversion to the Bible. My respect for my parents prevented me
from telling them when they would urge me to read the Bible, that
their own views and practice had already convinced me that it was an
unrighteous book; for I could not believe that my father would hold
slaves under any conviction of its rightfulness drawn from nature, and
that my mother would treat the blacks as she did, had she been
governed by her natural sense of justice; but that by early education
in the Bible, they had been trained to regard slaveholding perfectly
compatible with the divine law, and the black as some heathenish
being, whom it was no oppression to enslave. But now having examined
the Bible with care, I see that they who take that Book to justify the
enslaving of men, have been most dreadfully deluded."

"Well, Albert," said Mary, "you know the obligations of Christianity
require action as well as sentiment. If we are Christians truly, we
have to serve Christ fully. We dare not, therefore, withhold our
testimony against slavery any more than against any other crime. How
then can we return to Carolina? We cannot be happy there amidst an
institution which we abhor."

"Mary, like yourself, I now feel," said Albert, "that a Christian must
not hide his light under a bushel. We must speak for the dumb and for
the truth as it is in Jesus. But with such views and intentions we
would not be suffered in South Carolina. What, then, are we to do?"

Mary, after a few moments' meditation, answered, "Albert, our parents
think we were lost with the Pulaski. Let it stand so. They will suffer
more if we go back to them with such sentiments as we now entertain.
And for your sake, and for our parents' sake, and for the sake of
Christ, I am willing to sacrifice all my worldly prospects and try to
make a living by my own exertions in some place where my own feelings
will not be shocked with the perpetual violation of Christian law by
my own slaveholding relatives, and where I shall not be myself an
annoyance to them."

Here their dialogue was interrupted by the arrival of the ship at the
wharf, and in a short time our young friends were safely landed in New
York.

Suffice it to say, in conclusion, that they both agreed never more to
be dependent on the wealth of their parents,--assured as they were
that all they could bestow upon them would be the product of
unrequited toil. They were soon united in holy wedlock, and, after
engaging in teaching an academy a short time, Albert became a faithful
and zealous minister of the gospel; and he and his loving wife in
process of time succeeded in revealing their situation to their
parents, in such terms as to reconcile them to their anti-slavery
views, and to induce them finally to emancipate their slaves.

They are all living happily in moderate circumstances, in a little
town in one of the free States,--in the direct line of the
"under-ground railroad;" and many a poor fugitive finds a comfortable
shelter in either of their humble cottages.

A short time since, Mary was reading the discussion between Dr.
Wayland and Dr. Fuller, on the subject of slavery, and was startled to
find the very words of Mr. Gracelius and his identical argument, used
by the champion of American slavery.

"Albert," said she to her husband, "would you believe it, Dr. Fuller
and Mr. Gracelius are one and the same person."

"It surely cannot be!" said Albert. But to this day the matter looks
very mysterious to them. And it is hoped that Dr. Fuller or Dr.
Wayland will explain the coincidence of the arguments in some
satisfactory manner.

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Henry Brisbane]




Toil and Trust.


This is the motto of all persons sincerely disposed to embrace the
cross of the anti-slavery enterprise. The duty it imposes is two-fold;
1. To _toil_ for the spread of the truth; and 2. To _trust_ to the
dissipation of error. The most potent barrier set up against the
opponents of slavery is made of the prejudices carefully instilled
into the popular mind against them. I propose, in brief, to point out
their origin.

It is sedulously inculcated:

1. That anti-slavery is a pure sectional feeling, and springs from
jealousy of the South.

Fifty years ago this idea might fairly have been entertained. Many of
the arguments then used have no better root than political jealousy.
But it is not so now. The ruling objection at present is, that slavery
is WRONG, no matter where it may be found; that it is a moral evil,
and an offence against religion, not less than a great political
curse; that indifference to it among good men encourages its extension
among bad men; and that nothing but resolute and universal
condemnation of it in every form will stimulate to its abolition. How
far these views are from jealousy of the South, must appear obvious
enough to all who reflect that those who entertain them, consider the
result to be arrived at as one which must spring from the voluntary
convictions of those most affected by it, that they are getting rid of
the only serious drawback to their own prosperity. Of course, then, it
is the best interests of the South,--their strength, moral, social,
and political,--that anti-slavery men believe they are promoting, by
their course.

2. That the enemies of slavery desire to subvert the Constitution and
to dissolve the Union.

Possibly, a few impatient spirits may have got so far. They
constitute, however, but a very small portion of the number included
in the term. Nine-tenths of these hold that neither the Constitution
nor the Union should be brought into question at all. They consider
that the resort to them as a protection and safeguard to slavery, by
ill-judging and rash conservatives, has done more to put them into
serious danger, than the acts of all others combined during the
present century. Any man who relies upon a good government to sustain
acknowledged evil, does much to modify the notions of goodness which
honest and conscientious men have entertained respecting that
government. He furnishes an entering wedge for doubt and distrust,
which, if not removed, will grow into aversion. Anti-slavery men
reason differently. They separate slavery from the Constitution and
the Union, and, by seeking to destroy the former, desire to perpetuate
the latter. They hold, that against the concentrated moral sentiment
of the whole country, acting through its legitimate public channels,
and aided by the prayers and the hopes of all the civilized world, it
would be much more difficult to maintain slavery in the States, than
if the dangers of general misgovernment and disunion were to come in
to distract the public attention, and open up social disasters of a
worse kind than those which they seek to remedy.

3. The spirit of this reform is denunciatory, violent, and
proscriptive.

It is inevitable that all movements directed against the established
errors of communities originate with men more or less fanatical in
spirit. None but they have the necessary elements of character to
advance at all. But, as others become convinced of the fundamental
truths which they utter, the tendency of their association is to
modify and soften the tone, and make it more nearly approximate the
correct sentiment. At this period, there is quite as much of
liberality among anti-slavery men as is consistent with a determined
maintenance of their general purpose. Though disposed to be just to
all who conscientiously differ with them in opinion, they cannot
overlook the fact that many honest persons are too indifferent, and
more are too compromising in their views of slavery. To rouse the one,
and alarm the other class into a conviction of their responsibility
for their apathy, is one of the most imperative duties. It may be that
this is not always done in the most courtly or the choicest terms.
Some allowances must be made for the spirit of liberty. These cases
form, however, the exception, and not the rule, among anti-slavery
men. The great majority well comprehend that the greatest results will
follow efforts made without bitterness of temper. They remember that
whilst the Saviour denounced without stint the formal scribe, the
hollow Pharisee, and the greedy money-changer, he chose for his sphere
of exertion the society of publicans and sinners.

4. Anti-slavery men seek to set slaves against their masters, at the
risk of the lives and happiness of both.

This impression, which is much the most common, is, at the same time,
the least founded in truth of all. No evidence, worthy of a moment's
credit, has ever been produced, implicating any class of them in a
suspicion of the kind. Nothing proves the absence of all malignity
towards the slaveholders more clearly than this. If they sought really
to injure them, what could be more easy than to stimulate disaffection
along so extensive a line of boundary as that of the slave States?
Probably few of them entertain any doubt of the abstract _right_ of
the slave to free himself from the condition in which he is kept
against his own consent, in any manner practicable. How easy then the
step from this opinion to an act of encouragement! That it has never
been taken furnishes the most conclusive proof of the falsity of the
popular impression, and of the moderations of the anti-slavery men,
who seek only, in the moral convictions of the masters, for the
source of freedom to the slaves.

But though it be true that all these common impressions are delusions
strewn in the way of anti-slavery men to impair the effect of their
exertions, it by no means follows that they should be induced by them
to assume a moderation which encourages sluggishness. No great
movement in human affairs can be made without zeal, energy, and
perseverance. It must be animated by a strong will, and tempered by a
benevolent purpose. Such is the shape which the anti-slavery reform is
gradually assuming. Its motto, then, should be, as was said in the
beginning:

"TOIL AND TRUST."

[Illustration: (signature) Charles Francis Adams.]

QUINCY, 10 July, 1853.




Friendship for the Slave is Friendship for the Master.


It is a mistake on the part of the people of the south to suppose that
those who desire the extinction of slavery, whether residing in
America or England, are actuated by unfriendly feelings toward them
personally, or by any hostility to the pecuniary or social interests
of their section of country. The most important and influential
classes of the population, both of England and of the northern States
of this Union, have a direct and strong pecuniary interest at stake,
in the prosperity and welfare of the south. If the people of
Massachusetts or those of Lancashire were employed in raising cotton
and sugar, and if the prices which they obtained for their produce
were kept down by southern competition, then there might perhaps be
some ground for suspecting a covert hostility in any action or
influence which they might attempt to exert on such a question. But
the contrary is the fact. New England and Old England manufacture and
consume the cotton and sugar which the south produces. They are
directly and deeply interested in having the production of these
articles go on in the most advantageous manner possible. The southern
planter is not their competitor and rival. He is their partner. His
work is to them and to their pursuits one of co-operation and aid.
Consequently his prosperity is their prosperity, and his ruin would be
an irretrievable disaster, not a benefit, to them. They are thus
naturally his friends, and, consequently, when in desiring a change in
the relation which subsists between him and his laborers, they declare
that they are not actuated by any unfriendly feeling toward him, but
honestly think that the change would be beneficial to all concerned,
there is every reason why they should be believed.

There was a time when the laboring population of England occupied a
position in respect to the proprietors of the soil there, very
analogous to that now held by African slaves in our country. But the
system has been changed. From being serfs, compelled to toil for
masters, under the influence of compulsion or fear, they have become a
free peasantry, working in the employment of landlords, for wages.
But this change has not depressed or degraded the landlords, or
injured them in any way. On the contrary, it has probably elevated and
improved the condition of the master quite as much as it has that of
the man.

Imagine such a change as this on any southern plantation: the
Christian master desiring conscientiously to obey the divine
command,--given expressly for his guidance, in his responsible
relation of employer,--that he should "give unto his servants that
which is just and equal,--forbearing threatening,"--resolves that he
will henceforth induce industry on his estate by the payment of honest
wages, instead of coercing his laborers by menaces and stripes; and
after carefully considering the whole ground, he estimates, as fairly
and faithfully as he can, what proportion of the whole avails of his
culture properly belong to the labor performed by his men, and what to
the capital, skill, and supervision, furnished and exercised by
himself,--and then fixes upon a rate of wages, graduating the scale
fairly and honestly according to the strength, the diligence, and the
fidelity of the various laborers. Suppose, also, that some suitable
arrangement is made on the plantation or in the vicinity, by which the
servants can expend what they earn, in such comforts, ornaments, or
luxuries as are adapted to their condition and their ideas. Suppose
that, in consequence of the operation of this system, the laborers,
instead of desiring, as now, to make their escape from the scene of
labor, should each prize and value his place in it, and fear
dismission from it as a punishment. Suppose that through the change
which this new state of things should produce, it should become an
agreeable and honorable duty to superintend and manage the system, as
it is now agreeable and honorable to superintend the operations of a
manufactory, or the construction or working of a railway, or the
building of a fortress, or any other organized system of industry
where the workmen are paid, and that consequently, instead of rude and
degraded overseers, intemperate and profane, extorting labor by
threats and severity, there should be found a class of intelligent,
humane, and honest men, to direct and superintend the industry of the
estate,--men whom the proprietor would not be ashamed to associate
with, or to admit to his parlor or table. In a word, suppose that the
general contentment and happiness which the new system would induce in
all concerned in it, were such that peace of mind should return to
the master's breast, now,--especially in hours of sickness and
suffering, and at the approach of death,--so often disturbed, and a
sense of safety be restored to his family, so that it should no longer
be necessary to keep the pistols or the rifle always at hand, and that
the wife and children could lie down and sleep at night, without
starting at unusual or sudden sounds, or apprehending insurrection
when they hear the cry of fire. Suppose that such a change as this
were possible, is it the part of a friend or an enemy to desire to
have it effected?

But all such suppositions as these, the southern man will perhaps say,
are visionary and utopian in the highest degree. No such state of
things as is contemplated by them, can by any possibility be realized
with such a population as the southern slaves. Very well; say _this_,
if you please, and prove it, if it can be proved. But do not charge
those who desire that it might be realized, with being actuated, in
advocating the change, by unfriendly feelings towards you,--for most
assuredly they do not entertain any.

[Illustration: (signature) Jacob Abbott.]




Christine.

"O, these childen, how they do lie round our hearts."--MILLY
EDMONDSON.


The clock struck the appointed hour, and the sale commenced. Articles
of household furniture, horses, carts, and slaves, were waiting
together to be sold to the highest bidder. For strange as it would
seem in another land than this, beneath the ample folds of the
"Star-spangled Banner," _human sinews_ were to be bought and sold.
Bodies, such as the Apostle called the "temples of the Holy Ghost," in
which dwelt souls for which Christ died;--men, women and little
children, made in the image of God, were classed with marketable
commodities, to be sold by the pound, like dumb beasts in the
shambles. Husbands would be torn from their wives, mothers from their
children, and _all_ from everything they loved most dearly.

The group of _human chattels_ excited great interest among the
lookers-on, for they were a choice lot of prime negroes, and rumor
said that he would get a rare bargain who bought that day.

It was a saddening sight, that dusky group, whose only crime was being

"---- guilty of a skin
Not colored like our own,"

as they waited with anxious looks and quivering hearts to hear their
doom, filling up the dreary moments with thoughts of the chances and
changes which overhung their future.

A bright-eyed boy, of twelve years old,

"A brave, free-hearted, careless one,"

with a proud spirit playing in every line of his handsome face, and in
every movement of his graceful form, was first called to the
auction-block. His good qualities were rapidly enumerated, his limbs
rudely examined, his soundness vouched for, and he became the chattel
personal of a Georgian, who boasted of his good bargain; and on being
warned that he would have trouble with the boy, declared with an oath,
that he would "soon take the devil out of him."

Matty, a sister of this lad, was next placed upon the stand. Her
beauty, which the excitement of that dreadful moment only served to
heighten, hushed for awhile the coarse jests of the crowd. She was a
splendid-looking creature, just entering upon womanhood. But her
beauty proved, as beauty must ever prove to a slave woman, a deadly
curse. It enhanced her market value, and sealed her deadly fate. It
attracted the eye, and inflamed the passions of a wealthy Louisianian,
named St. Laurent, who gave a thousand dollars in hard gold in
exchange for her, that he might make her his petted favorite. Wives,
mothers, daughters of America, have _you_ nothing to do with slavery,
when such is the fate of slave women? _Can_ you sit silent, and at
your ease, knowing that such things are?

When Matty was removed from the auction-block, she fell upon her
brother's neck, and wept such tears as only they can weep whom slavery
parts, never to meet again.

"Christine!" cried the loud voice of the auctioneer. Matty checked her
passionate grief, and turning saw her mother, with her baby in her
arms, standing where she herself had stood but just before. Quickly
her keen eye sought the form of her new master. With a sudden impulse
she threw herself at his feet, exclaiming, "O master, master, _do_ buy
my mother too!" The man gazed for a moment on the beautiful face
upturned to his, with a look which made the lashes droop over her
pleading eyes, and tapping her cheek with his finger, he said,

"What! coaxing so early, my pretty one? No, no; it will not do; I have
no use for the old woman."

"Oh, master, she is not old. _Do_ buy my mother, master!"

"Here is a prize for you, gentlemen," broke in the harsh tones of the
auctioneer. "There is the best housekeeper and cook in all Virginia.
Who bids for her? $300 did you say, sir? $325--thanks, gentlemen, but
I cannot sell this woman for a song. She is an excellent seamstress.
$400--$450--$500--I am glad to see you are warming up a little,
gentlemen,--but she is worth more money than that. Look at her! What a
form! what an eye! what arms!--there is muscle for you, gentlemen.
Upon my honor she is the flower of the lot,--a dark-colored
rose,--black, but comely; and her baby goes with her. $550, did I
hear you say, sir? Will no one give more than $550 for such a woman
and baby?"

"The baby is of no account," said Mr. St. Laurent; "she would sell
better without it. If I buy her, I shall give away the little
encumbrance."

The poor slave-mother heard him, and strained her baby to her bosom,
as if she would say, "You shall _never_ take him from me." The boy
looked into her face, and smiled a sweet baby smile, and put his
little arms about her neck, and laid his cheek on hers. One would have
thought he understood what was passing in her heart, and strove to
comfort her. "$575--$600--$650,"--and Christine and her baby boy
became the property of Mr. St. Laurent.

"I would not have bought the woman," said he, turning to an
acquaintance, "but for the girl's importunity. I feared she would have
the sulks if I didn't, and I want to keep her good-natured. I shall
give the mother as a wedding-present to my daughter. But anybody may
have the child, who will take him off my hands?"

"I will take him, sir, and thank you too," said a little, sharp
looking, bustling man, stepping briskly up, and bowing to Mr. St.
Laurent.

"Will you, my friend? Then he is yours, and you may take him away as
soon as you please."

"If I take him now, the woman will raise a storm," said the little
man; "I know a better way than that," and drawing Mr. St. Laurent
aside, he communicated his plan, and they parted mutually satisfied.

Meanwhile the sale went on, but we will not follow further its
revolting details. Christine, with her baby and Matty, were put in
safe quarters for the night. Notwithstanding the intense anxiety that
filled their minds, and a superstitious fear in Christine's heart that
the worst had not yet come, an unaccountable drowsiness oppressed
them, and before long both fell into a deep death-like sleep.

Morning broke over the green earth. The sun gilded the mountain-tops,
and bathing the trees in splendor, was greeted with ten thousand
bird-songs. He kissed the dewy flowers, and their fragrance rose as
incense on the morning air. He looked into the windows of happy homes,
and wakened golden-haired children to renew their joyous sports, and
mothers, whose

"---- souls were hushed with their weight of bliss
Like flowers surcharged with dew,"

sent up their morning thanksgiving to "Him who never slumbers," for
His protection of their "laughing dimpled treasures." Suddenly a warm
ray fell upon the face of the sleeping slave-mother. She wakened with
a start, and with one wild shriek of agony sprang from the bed. Her
babe was gone.

Why need we dwell upon what followed? What pen can describe the
anguish of the heart-broken mother, when she knew that while under the
influence of opiates which she had unwittingly taken, her boy had been
taken from her, and that she should look upon her darling's face no
more. Mother! look at the darling nestler upon your own bosom, and ask
yourself how you would have felt in Christine's place.

After the first burst of agony was over, she did not give way
outwardly to grief. One might have thought she did not grieve. But she
carried all her sorrows in her heart, till they had eaten out her
life.

On the morning of Eleanore St. Laurent's bridal day, Christine was
sent for to perform some service for her young mistress. But the spoil
had been taken out of the hands of the spoiler--the bruised heart was
at rest. The outraged soul had gone with its complaints to the bar of
the Eternal.

[Illustration: (signature) Anne P. Adams.]




The Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual Condition of the Slave.


The American slave is a human being. He possesses all the attributes
of mind and heart that belong to the rest of mankind. He has intellect
with which to think, sensibility with which to feel, and toil which
prompts him to vigorous and manly action. Nor is he destitute of the
sublime faculty of reason, which is related to eternal and absolute
truths. Imagination and fancy, too, he possesses, in a very large
degree. But all these faculties, which nature has bestowed upon the
slave in common with other men, by a decree of slavery fixed and
unalterable like the laws of the Medes and Persians, are undeveloped,
and the results, therefore, of their activities are not to be found.
How mean then it must be to reproach the unfortunate slave with a lack
of intellectual qualities, such as characterize men generally. In
proof of the statement, that slaves have these qualities, it is only
necessary to refer to the many fugitives who, by their great thoughts,
their masterly logic, and their captivating eloquence, are astonishing
both the Old and the New World. Education is what the white man needs
for the development of his intellectual energies. And it is what the
black man needs for the development of his. Educate him, and his mind
proves itself at once as profound and masterly in its conceptions, and
as brisk and irresistible in its decisions, as the mind of any other
man.

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