i Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/lecturesonslaver01phel LECTURES ON SLAVERY AND ITS REMEDY. I BY AMOS A. PHELPS, PASTOR OF PINE-STREET CHURCH, BOSTON* £,8 9 30 BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE NEW-ENGLANB ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1834 , Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834; By Garrison & Knapp; In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Mass. GARRISON AND KNArP, PRINTERS. •> V ? > CONTENTS. T4*-&£n the footing of freemen, and exercise a guardian care iver them in finding them suitable employment. One uch removal would preach more to the consciences of laveholders that remained, than fifty expeditions to Li- •eria. Or if he cannot do this, then let him give those 120 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. slaves a real , if not a legal emancipation on the spot. : j The moment that they come under his control, let him refuse to adopt his father’s principles of action in re- spect to them — let him call them around him, inform them of his resolution, tell them that so far as he is concerned, he gives them their freedom ; that he needs their labor and will employ them as hired laborers, and do all he can to instruct and elevate them if they will remain in his service ; that such are the laws, that he ! cannot give them a legal freedom, and therefore if they leave his service, they will be taken up and sold as slaves to some one else, but still thett they have their option whether to go or stay — I say let him do this, and he will thereby give those slaves a real, though not a legal ! emancipation. And if this provokes the jealousies and animosities of his neighbors, or brings him into collis- ion with the laws, so be it. He must obey God rather thanknen. Less than this he cannot do, and be faithful I to God. Trying, therefore, and self-denying as may be j the duty, he is bound to meet it. Why, what if the | legislature of a slaveholding State should enact laws ( forbidding the Christian to pray, or read his bible, or : keep the sabbath? Who would not feel it solemn du- ty to go to the stake, if need be, rather than obey such 1 laws? What if such legislature, taking advantage of a perverted public sentiment tolerating it at the time, ' should enact a law requiring the stronger slaveholders I to reduce the weaker to bondage, and then retain them and their posterity in bondage indefinitely on pain of confiscation and death ? Who would not deem it duty ( to break such a lav/, and thus test its constitutionality at once ? Or admitting its constitutionality, who would not deem it duty, if need were, to give his life a sacri- 1 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 121 fice, in order to show forth its obnoxiousness, and thus do what he could to correct the perverted sentiment out of which it originated ? So at least did Christian martyrs think and act in similar cases, in other days. Let not the slaveholder then plead that the laws com- pel his assent to the principles and practice of slavery. Whatever of compulsion there be, it is not of such a kind as cancels guilt. See that Christian martyr. The ' fiat of a tyrant demands the renunciation of his religious principles. The instruments of torture have been tried in vain. Confiscation has not moved him. At length the faggots are piled together, the torch applied, and the flames beginning to rise around him. ‘Will you renounce or will you not?’ is the harsh inquiry of the iron-hearted executioner. And what is that martyr’s answer? — that the laws compel assent? Never — with death, certain and speedy, staring him in the face — his decided answer is, ‘I will never do it.’ It is all idle in the slaveholder then to talk of necessity, and urge entailment as a canceling of his guilt. No such en- tailment is possible in the case. The only entailment that is possible, is the same as that which is common to all sin — an entailment that takes place through the voluntary consent of the individuals concerned, and is therefore of such a kind as makes the thing entailed their own, and they themselves personally responsible for it. The whole matter may be thus illustrated. A. B. is the rightful sovereign of a large and extensive empire. C. D. is a rebel. Madly bent on the accomplishment of his own schemes of self-aggrandizement, he'attempts, in ten thousand ways, to lead oft’ his fellow subjects from allegiance to their lawful king, and attach them P 122 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. to his interests. lie succeeds. Province after prov- ince join the revolt and rally around him as their leader. The work of rebellion goes on, until, at length, the rightful sovereign is displaced, and tho usurper seated upon the throne. The whole structure of soci- ety and all the relations thereof are thus changed. Things move on. Tho generation of men, that were the actors in this revolution, and the instruments of in- troducing this chango in the structure and relations of society, is soon dead. In the mean time, the usurper has been consolidating the powers of his usurped do- minion, and providing for its security and continuanco by the enactment of various laws and the adoption of various measures, suited to that end. In this state of tilings, posterity comes upon the stage. They know, for their ears have heard it, and their eyes behold it, that the present king is an usurper, and that their alle- giance belongs of right to another. What then is to be done ? Shall they sit tamely down, and say usurpa- tion is entailed on us ; if we attempt to throw it off, it will be to change the whole structure of society, to subject ourselves to untold inconveniences, perhaps to whelm us in utter ruin, and therefore we are justified in upholding, or at least consenting to its present con- tinuance ? Never. That posterity are bound to take their stand at once on the side of loyalty to the right- ful sovereign. Not a moment is to be lost. They must rally at once, and change, if need be, the whole structure of society and its relations back to their orig- inal condition. And if they will not do it, but instead thereof, sit tamely and silently down under the usurpa- tion, their very silence gives consent to its existence, and makes it and its guilt their own. Acting as a. com- OHJECTIOITS ASSWEBED 123 munity that posterity is bound to throw off the usurpa- tion at once. But what shall the individual do ? Take his stand at once as an individual. Whatever the in- conveniences to which he may subject himself, he must take his stand. The community itself will never take its stand as a community, until he and others lead the way by taking their stand as individuals. At the risk of consequences then, he must take his stand as an indi- vidual, else he ranks himself on the side of usurpation, consents to its existence, and becomes, with his eyes opex, a partaker of its guilt. The cases are exactly parallel. Is it said that all this is fine-spun abstraction ? Lei us see then how plain practical common sense reasons. ‘A negro fellow, previous to the revolution, being suspected of having stolen goods in his possession, was taken before a certain justice of the peace in Philadel phia, and charged with the offence. The Negro ac- knowledged the fact, and made the following decisive defence: “Massa justice, me know me got dem things from Tom dere, and me tink Tom teal dem too ; but what den Massa? dey be only a piccaninny knife and a piccaninny corkscrew ; one cost sixpence, and tudder a shilling, an me pay Tom honestly for dem, Massa.” “A pretty story, truly,” said his worship ; ‘‘you knew they were stolen, and yet allege for excuse, you paid honestly for them ; I’ll teach you better law than that, sirrah; don’t you know, Pompey, the receiver is as bad as the thief? You must be severely whipt, you black rascal.” “Very well, Massa, if de black rascal be whipt, for buying tolen goods, me hope de white rascal be whipt too, for same ting, when you catch him, as well as Pompey.” “ To be sure,” replied the justice. — “Well den,” says Pompey “here be Tom’s Massa, hold him fast, constable ; he buy Tom, as I buy de picca- ninny knife, and de piccaninny corkscrew. He know very well Tom be tolen from his old fadder and fnud- 124 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. der, de knife and de corkscrew had neder.’ Such was the justice, as well as the severity, of Ponipcy’s ad- dress, that the Magistrate after a pause, dismissed him, and discharged the action.' Such is the reasoning of plain common sense. It is, that stolen property is stolen property, and that the partaker, though he be of the third or fourth genera- tion, is still a partaker, and is as bad as the thief. But let us advance a step farther — to matters of fact. In March of 1825, a writer in the Christian Spectator said, ‘ There can be no palliation for the conduct of those, who first brought the curse of slavery upon poor Africa, and poor America too. But the body of this generation are not liable to this charge. Posterity arc not answerable for the sins of their father, unless they ' approve their deeds.’’ In the Recorder and Telegraph of Oct. 7, 1S25, a ‘Southern man’ thus notices this passage — ‘Would to God, Messrs. Editors, we could take the benefit of this saving clause. But I fear it will not prove such a safety-valve to us as the writer wishes. It unfortunately happens, that the present generation have “ approved the deeds of their fathers.” There was a time, previous to the penal arrest by Con- gress in 1808, of the importation of slaves into the i United States, when Southern ports were closed by the edicts of Southern legislatures against this “first 1 born of hell,” this infernal traffic. But that time did not j endure. ^Cupidity got the better of conscience, and of regard to safety, and the legislature of South Carolina, jj (perhaps of other slaveholding states too,) threw the door wide open to the introduction of Africans, and hundreds and thousands were introduced by almost every eastern breeze, and were eagerly bought. Le- gislatures of the present generation, therefore, have been * Negro’s Friend, No. 13, pp. 12, 13. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 125 guilty of this original sin. And so far as the commu- nity were concerned in patronizing and appointing men of such a description to legislate for them, the commu- nity was guilty too. And every one, who did not bear his decided testimony against it, and every minister of Jesus, who did not lift up his loud and warning voice, teas a large sharer in the guilt. Yes, the present gen- eration are guilty, awfully guilty, and let us not “cover our sins, for we shall not prosper, but confess and for- sake them, that we may have mercy.” We certainly are under obligation to our Northerfl brethren for throwing this mantle of charity over our shoulders. But the mantle itself is transparent, and we still ap- pear in the nakedness of our guilt.’ Such then is the testimony of a ‘ Southern man ’ in respect to the facts in the case. There can therefore be no mistake. The present generation have acted, and acted voluntarily, both as a community and as in- dividuals, in respect to the present existence of slave- ry. It is absurd then — it is in face of facts to talk of its being entailed in any such sense as cancels guilt. This leads me to say that, so far from being literally entailed, slaveholding descends from father to son, not merely by voluntary consent, but under circumstances which heighten its guilt in every succeeding generation. And the simple reason is, that whatever else may be true in the case, this also is true, that the son, in each succeeding generation, sins against greater light and motive than did the father, and therefore incurs great- er guilt. Whatever mitigating circumstances may exist on the one hand, they are more than overbalanced by the single aggravating circumstance of greater light and motive on the other. It is really painful, as well as surprising, to see how the prejudices, or fears, or interests of even good men p2 S 12G OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. warp their judgment, and lead them to overlook the most obvious and self-evident principles. If, for ex- ample, Ananias and Sapphira are smitten to the earth for the sin of lying to the Holy Ghost, who needs to be informed that their case is designed as an example to deter others from the commission of that sin ? If then, with their example staring me in the face, I venture recklessly on in their footsteps, what so self-evident as that my guilt is infinitely greater than theirs ? And yet, this plea of entailment would only make it less. Even if I were their son, instead of a mere looker on, and were therefore so connected with them that their example should be a parent’s example — one, therefore, that could not but make a more thrilling and impres- sive appeal to my heart than to any one’s beside, yet this plea would only turn that example, with its thrill- ing appeal and its heart-rending admonition, into a mere apology for my sin. Take another case. My father, falling in with the customs of society and following in the footsteps of his ancestors, lives and dies intemperate. His history, and that of his predecessors, is all before me. It is written on my memory so as never to be forgotten. Its every page is but the history of his darling sin — its ruinous, its damning tendencies, and effects. From earliest childhood I witnessed those tendencies, and felt those effects. I felt them in the nakedness, and hunger, and violence to which it subjected me. I saw and felt them in the poverty, ignorance, degradation, shame, and wretchedness of the family —in the sufferings, abuses, tears, agonies, and groans of my broken-hearted moth- er — in the cries, lamentations and sufferings of that little one, my sister, — and more than all, in the bloated OBJECTIONS ANSWERER. 127 visage, rained constitution, wasted health, loathsome diseases, seared conscience, hardened heart, raging appetites and ruthless passions of that monster, once a husband and a father. Nay, I stood by him in his dying hour. My mother, with an affection that no abuses could destroy, was bending over the wretched victim and ministering to his wants. At length he died. And in the delirium and trembling, and agonies, and groans, and shrieks of that hour, and in the thrill of angaish that rent my mother’s heart as the guilty spirit sunk to hell, I more than ever saw and felt the ruinous and damning tendencies and effects of my father’s sin. And yet that father’s was not a solitary case. He did but follow in the footsteps of those before him and around him. Turn which way I will, therefore, and on every hand I meet with similar examples fraught with similar instruction. They gather thick around me. Past and present are both alike full of them. And yet with all these examples staring me in the face, and flashing the conviction full upon me that there is death in the cup, I go reckless on, and quaff that cup to my own undoing. Now what so self-evident as the fact that my guilt is infinitely greater than that of my pre- decessors in crime ? And yet this plea of entailment does but turn all these examples, with their appalling admonitions, into mere apologies for my sin ! It allows i me to put the suicidal cup to my lips, and yet proclaim my innocence, though the tears of a broken-hearted mother, and the miseries of a ruined family, are yet be- f fore my eyes, and the death-shrieks of a self-murdered father are yet ringing in my ears! The case is per- fectly in point. Away then with the idea that slave- holding is so entailed as to caneel guilt The very reverse is the fact. 128 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Bo it so, that there are mitigating circumstances — that the son, if he take his stand and refuse to adopt the principles and the practices of his father, must do so at the risk of great sacrifices and inconveniences — what then ? This is more than counterbalanced by tbe strong light shed upon the subject from the past. There is no sin, and from the nature of the case, there can be none, the abandonment of which does not require self-denial, greater or less, according to the circumstances of ‘the case or the nature of the sin. Who can tell the incon- veniences and the struggles to which that son must needs subject himself, who takes his stand against the example and influence of his intemperate father and his companions in crime? Who can estimate aright the tide of influence he must stem — the host of difficulties with which he must contend ? In every case of sin, * * * * •' facilis descensus Averno, *#*■***#***■ Sed revocarc gradual, superasque evadere ad auras, Hce opus, hie labor est.’* * * * * The only difference is, that the more abominable the sin, the more easy is the descent, and the more difficult the work of retracing one’s steps. To talk of the diffi- culties therefore in the way of reformation, as if these constituted a necessity for continued sin, and thus en- tailed it on posterity, is to talk utter nonsense. These very difficulties arc the legitimate fruits of the sin, and accumulating and multiplying as they do with every step of progress in the sin, they are only so many lights revealing its hideousness. They are but so many voices from heaven, bidding its guilty perpetrators abandon it at once, and begin to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. *The descent to hell is easy, but to retrace one’s steps, that is the difficulty. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 129 The truth is, no sin, and least of all that of slave- holding, can he practised from generation to generation without bringing forth results that shall throw the clear I light of unclouded day upon it, and stripping it of all 1 disguise, set it forth in all its ugliness and deformity. To talk then of mitigating circumstances in the case as a set-off against this light and the motive embodied in it — why, it is as if a man should stand at the mouth of the bottomless abyss, and with the smoke of its tor- ment rolling up before him, should yet persist in his sin, and then gravely talk of the mitigating circum- stances in the case ! No ; the single circumstance of increased light and motive swallows up every other, and brings a darker guilt and a deeper damnation on him that disregards and sins against it. How strange that great, and good men too, should ever overlook these self-evident principles ! Yet so it is. But this is not the worst of the matter — in overlook- ing these, they overlook one cf the most obvious, and at the same time, fearful principles of God’s providen- tial administration — that of visiting on one generation the sins of preceding generations. The fact that God does this is not to be doubted. He even announces it, as a prominent characteristic of his administration, that he is 4 a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him.’ Hence it was, when 4 the wickedness of man had become great in the earth,’ that God broke up the fountains of the great deep, and open- ed the windows of heaven, and swept the earth with a flood. Hence it was, when the cry of Sodom and Go- morrah had become 4 great,’ and their sin 4 very griev- ous,’ that then the Lord rained upon them ‘brimstone 130 OBJECTIONS AN9WERED. and fire from the Lord out of heaven ; and overthrew those cities, and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground,’ so | that 4 the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.’ The generation then existing had filled up the measure of their fathers’ iniquity, and upon them, therefore, it was, that God poured out those judgments without mercy that had been slumbering indeed, but yet gathering for ages. So it was with the devoted Canaanites. When j Abrain first visited their land, their iniquity was 4 not yet full,’ and God therefore did not give him posses- sion. But when it was full — when a generation arose, by whose abominations the measure of their fathers’ iniquity was filled up, then came the 4 day of visitation.’ And so also was it with the Jews. Age after age, God waited on them. He sent them ‘prophets and wise men and scribes,’ to turn them from their wicked- ness, and some they killed, and some they crucified, and some they scourged in their synagogues, and some they persecuted from city to city. At length a gene- ration arose that built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous, and said, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets ; and yet, with this plea on their lips, imbrued their hands in the blood of the Son of God. Not this man but Barabbas was the decision of the nation. That was their crowning sin. That was the filling up of the measure of their iniquity. That brought upon them all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood ofZacharias, son of Barachias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar. Then came the ‘day of vengeance.’ Their OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 131 judgment lingered not. Their damnation slumbered not ‘Wrath came upon them to the uttermost.’ And thus doubtless it will be to the end of time. True, ‘ the acceptable year of the Lord ’ will move on, side by side, with ‘the day of vengeance of our God;’ and in this way, God will redeem and save, from among the children of men, a ‘ great multitude which no man can number.’ At the same time, this same principle of administration will continue to regulate the move- ments of his providence down to the last guilty gene- ration of men. That will be a generation whose sins will be committed against the light of the example and experience of countless generations before them. Their guilt will therefore far exceed that of their pre- decessors, and God, true to the principles of his admin- istration, will then come to judgment on a larger scale and in more awful terrors than ever before. That will be ‘ the great day of his wrath.’ It ‘ will come as a thief in the night.’ In its progress ‘the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.’ It will not only be ‘the day of wrath,’ but also the day of the ‘ revelation of the righteous judgment of God.’ It will show out to the universe, so as it was never shown before, the great, the appalling fact, that each generation of sin- ners, whatever its particular sin, sins against greater light, incurs deeper guilt, and therefore must lie down under a heavier damnation than its predecessor ; and that it is in this way and on this account, that God visits on one generation the sins of another. And yet plain and obvious as is this principle of the divine administration — written in sunbeams as it is, on 132 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. the pages of God’s word, and on every opening leaf of his providence — this plea of entailment entirely over- looks it. It puts out the light that shines on the pres- . ent from the past, and, loving darkness rather than light, attempts to hide sin behind circumstances of its own creation. It even puts in a plea of innocence, and talks of peace and safety, at the very moment when the measure of iniquity is filling up, and destruction without remedy is standing at the door. Suppose we come to the case in hand — our own sys- tem of slavery. Slavery, it is admitted, is a great evil — a curse even ; and the people of the South feel it, . it is said, more sensibly than we at the North can do. It is ‘ an evil which presses them more sorely than can enter into our most benevolent conception They even groan under it ; but then, it is entailed on them, and how are they to be blamed for it ? How are they to be blamed ! Why what are the facts in the case ? Are there various mitigating cir- cumstances ? And what else, what aggravating cir- cumstances are there ? First, there is the light of the Bible, shining with increased and increasing brightness ! upon the subject. Next, there is the light of the Con- stitution, meeting the slaveholder at every step, and flashing on his mind the conviction of inconsistency and guilt. Next, there is the light of public sentiment at home, and more' especially abroad ; and last, not ) least, there is the light of past and of gathering judg- j ments. Slavery is a curse, and the people of the South, though not perhaps aware of the real cause of their j distress, do groan under it. And these groans are i *Mr. Danforth. Boston Recorder, June 12, 1833. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 133 waxing- louder and louder. Jehovah’s slumbering damnations are awaking, and his lingering judgments make haste. ' God comes ! God, in his car of vengeance, comes ! ’ Else what mean those sterile lands, and bankrupt es- tates, and that blasted prosperity? What mean that reckless scepticism, and rank impiety, and abominable licentiousness, and sensual gratification, and beastly indulgence, so rife among them ? What mean those fearful forebodings, those nightly patrols, those pistols under the pillow, those dreams of insurrection and carnage and blood, and those fears, that agonize the soul when the slumbers of midnight are broken up by the cry of fire ? x\nd, to say nothing of judgments direct from Jehovah’s hand, what mean those actual in- surrections, and that unwonted movement of the moral and political elements of society, as if its deep founda- tions were soon to be uprooted, and all its elements to be thrown into chaotic agitation ? These are not un- meaning signs. He that runneth may read and under- ; stand. Our brethren of the South are conscious of ■their meaning, and though they may not formally ac- knowledge it, still in their every movement they do virtually say, a volcano is underneath us, and the hour is hastening on when it will pour desolation over the land. Talk you then of entailmer.t ? Hun your eye back upon the past, and in the results of involuntary servi- tude in other lands and other ages — nay, in its results in our own land and our own age, read the fact that this plea i is not valid with God.*' Or, if not content with this, look out upon God’s gathering judgments, and read it there, * See Appendix A. Q 134 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Talk you then of cntailment? It will not avert the thunderbolts of heaven. Entailed or not entailed, God’s providence will hasten onto judgment. Unless s speedy repentance take place, the time is not distant, when, in the language of a Virginian, ‘ the same breeze that fans our harvest — that plays among the leaves of the cane and the corn, will rustle banners of war. By the side of implements of agriculture, employed in works of peace, will appear the gleam of arms.’ There 1 is no avoiding it. Of American slaveholders it may be said with emphasis — ‘Ye have heaped treasure to- |i gether for the last days.’ You have sinned against 1 such light, and in the face of such warnings, that your guilt far transcends that of your predecessors in crime. I You have done it, and you persist in doing it with your eyes open. You cannot therefore escape the righteous judgments of God. They will overtake you. No plea of entailment will turn them back. They will hasten on. Clouds of vengeance, dark and dreadful, will veil the sky. Lurid fires will dart athwart their dark and !' gathering folds, and muttering thunders will utter their ; ' voices. Then talk of entailment if you will ; but will those thunders listen ? Will those fires put out their I blaze ? Will those clouds scatter ? Will God turn would come the introduction of the various arts and manufactures which exist in the free States and are among their greatest sources of prosperity, but which 1 do not, and cannot exist, to any great extent, among a slaveholding community. Indeed, in ways innumera- ble, would immediate emancipation, notwithstanding present inconvenience, be but the precursor of better days to the slaveholding States— days of returning ! peace and prosperity and salvation. But let us take our second rule of judgment, and de- cide in view of fads and not of panic-stricken anticipa- tions — and what is the decision ? What are the facts? It is needless for me to quote them. Those already quoted on pp. 56, &c. are but a fair specimen of the whole. They show, not only that it is safe to the master’s life, but to his interest also, to 1 cease his oppression. Hear the testimony — l in ten years from the time that they were manumitted , he should \ OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 229 be a richer man than if he had kept his people as proper- ty,' and that, too, without any inconvenience or loss whatever at the time of their emancipation. ‘ They rejoiced to be free, and embraced my offer with gladness, at the same time, declaring their intention not to leave me.' And what was true of the individual in this case, was true in the case of St. Domingo, of the communi- ty. ‘The Colony marched, as by enchantment, to- wards its ancient splendor.’* ‘ The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates ; cultivation was making rapid progress ; the blacks were industrious and beyond example happy .’f Facts of a similar char- acter might be quoted to almost any extent. And where facts of an opposite character have existed, they may be accounted for from some fault in the man- ner or condition of emancipation. The slaves have been turned adrift on society, uncared for by the mas- ter, in the midst of a community that would not employ them because they were free, and without even the offer of employment on the master’s part. Wherever emancipation has gone forward on the principles of equity and benevolence, there I believe, the result has been one and uniform — prosperity to the master and prosperity to the slave. But here, it is said, lies the difficulty — the planter has no property save his plantation and his slaves; the plantation is worth nothing to him, except it be culti- vated, and it cannot be cultivated without the slaves* how then is he to escape poverty if he give them up? Thus — To ‘give them up,’ does not suppose, that they are to be turned adrift on society, so that the * Gen. Lacroix. Z t Clarkson. 230 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. master cannot avail himself of their services. On the contrary, it supposes that he, if they are willing', will employ them at once as free laborers. And if the matter operates as in the case mentioned, p. 217, he will be in no danger of wanting for laborers. They will need employment for a support, and he will need laborers for the cultivation of his plantation, and mutu- al interest, therefore, will compel the one to employ the other to work. The planter will get his laborers just as the farmer does his — by offering wages for them. And the same interest that makes the white work for the farmer, will make the black work for the planter.* The idea that emancipation will deprive the planter of his laborers is preposterous in the extreme. What is it that crowds our manufactories — nay, reaches across the Atlantic and covers our canals and railroads with free, voluntary and industrious laborers ? The * A beautiful illustration of these remarks is furnished by the following' facts : 1 In the South African Commercial Advertiser ofOlh of Febru- ary, 1831, we are happy to find recorded one. more of the numer- ous 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 pre- cisely similar circumstances, and witli the same result. These facts are within our own observation ; and to stale that sadden and abrupt emancipation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, is not reason ; but the plea of all men who are adverse to emancipation.’ Again, ‘ a Vermont gentleman who had been a slaveholder in Mississippi, and afterwards resident at Metamoras, in Mexico, speaks with enthusiasm of the beneficial effects of these regula- tions, 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.” ’ — Mrs. Child’s Appeal, pp. 96, 97. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 231 law of mutual necessity and mutual interest. Nothing- less — nothing more. And the same law would exist and operate, in case of emancipation, to cover planta- tions with free, yet willing and industrious laborers. The planter, therefore, will have no difficulty in culti- vating his plantation. Let him offer suitable wages, and he will not want for laborers. But where shall he get the wages ? He has no prop- erty save the plantation and the slaves, how then is he going to get the means of paying them for their labor ? Just as he gets the means of paying them now. The expense of feeding and clothing them, together with the expense of supporting the young, the old, the wo- men, the children, the maimed, the lame, the halt, the blind, &c., is really so much paid for their labor now ; and the master can obtain the means of paying them in the way of direct wages as well as in this. But will it not cost him more ? Far less. Make the calculation. Here is a planta- tion with, say 300 slaves upon it Suppose the aver- age value of them to be $100 each. Here, then, is an expense of $30,000, at the outset, thatj might all be saved on the free-labor plan. Of these 300 slaves, one third are healthy, efficient and profitable laborers, another third are less so, and do just woTk enough to pay for their support, 'and the other third are the young, the maimed,; the halt, the weak, the sick, the old, &c., whose support is a dead loss to the planter. What, then, are the facts in the case ? These — the planter is obliged to sink a large capital at the outset — then has to lose the interest on that cap- ital and to support a large number of unprofitable la- borers, and then, out of those that are profitable, he 232 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. gets a mere forced, and, compared with free, unprofita- ble labor ; while on the other hand, on the plan of free labor, he would not sink the supposed capital, nor have the unproductive laborers to support, and yet ivould secure, from the productive ones, the full amount of labor of which they were capable. But if the planter gives up the supposed slaves, he will at least lose the $30,000 — Not at all. That is lost already. So long as he re- tains the slaves, it is so much capital sunk. It is not available at all. He reaps and can reap no present ad- vantage from it, other than what he receives in the la- bor of the slaves. If therefore he can, on the free labor system, obtain that labor, or more labor at a less ex- pense and better done, he surely is the gainer and not the loser. But suppose he wishes to sell, then surely he is the loser — Not in the long run, or to the full extent of the value of his slaves, if at all. Their value^n case of emancipa- tion, would revert, in part, or altogether to the lands. It would do so in part at once, and gradually it would, in most cases, do so entirely. And the proof is, the greater comparative value of lands in the free and slave States. In the fact quoted, p. 225, it is shown that the houses, lands and slaves together, in the seven slave States, were of less value than the houses and land merely, in two free States, although the former had more land and a greater population than the latter. This simple fact shows, that let slavery once be abol- ished in any considerable extent of territory, the increased and constantly increasing value of the lands would, in part, or in whole, equal the amount sunk in the manumission of the slaves. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 233 But be this as it may, so long as itis evident that the planter, by employing his slaves as free laborers, can cul- tivate his plantation to better advantage and at a less ex- pense, that is enough. It shows that the plea of beggary is utterly unfounded; and indeed that the path of true and greatest prosperity is to bid the oppressed go free. Objection 4. Immediate Emancipation, it is said, would be the ruin of the slaves. In respect to this I would say, 1. The objection goes upon the supposition that the slaves are to be turned adrift upon society, without em- ployment, and, therefore, without the means of subsist- ence. But this cannot be done. The mutual neces- sities and interest of planter and slave will, as we have seen, absolutely forbid it. 2. It goes on the supposition that the circumstan- ces of their condition would not only be like, but worse than those of the free blacks now. Whereas the whole state of things, in respect to the opportunities of hon- orable and profitable employment and the means of subsistence, would be changed. The monopoly of la- bor would cease, and the chance of free and honorable competition be open to all. 3. The objection i3 destitute of proof. In most cases it is mere conjecture. Where are the facts? 4. It involves absurdity. It supposes that bringing the relations of society into harmony with the princi- ples of God’s government is fraught with ruin, and therefore that the safer, better way is to infringe those principles ; or, in other words, that righting the rela- tions of society is ruinous, and that, on that account, it is safer and better not to right them — than which, nothing is more absurd. z 2 234 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. And 5. The objection is blind to facts. It contra diets universal experience. In addition to the facts already quoted, see the following extract of a letter from Trinidad ; ‘A field negro brings four hundred dollars, but most of the work is done by free blacks and people from the main at a much cheaper rate 5 and as these are gener- ally employed by foreigners, this accounts for their succeeding better than our own countrymen, who are principally from the old islands, and are accustomed to any other management than that of slaves; however, they are coming into it fast. In Trinidad, there are upwards of fifteen thousand free people of color ; there is not a single pauper amongst them; they live inde- pendently and comfortably, and nearly half of the prop- erty of the island is said to be in their hands. It is admitted that they are highly respectable in character, and are rapidly advancing in knowledge and refine- ment. Mr. Mitchell, a sugar planter who had resided twenty-seven years in Trinidad, and who is the super- intendent of the liberated negroes there, says he knows of no instance of a manumitted slave not maintaining himself.’ The following is from the report of the Commons’ Committee on Slavery. It is the testimony of Hon. Charles Fleming, the Admiral of the West India Sta- tion, who has resided in Jamaica, and has frequently visited Cuba, Hayti, and the Caraccas : ‘Speaking of the black republic of Hayti, Admiral Fleming says — ‘ Are you aware that there is a prohibition against all corporeal punishment in that country ? — Yes, I know there is.’ ‘ Did they appear to you to be living comfortably ? — Yes ; the most happy, the richest, the best fed, and the most comfortable negroes that I saw in the West In- dies were in Hayti, even better than in the Caraccas.’ OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 235 'Were they decidedly better than the slaves in Ja- maica?’ — ‘No comparison.’ ‘Do you happen to know whether the population of Hayti has increased within the last twenty years ? — Of my own knowledge I cannot know that ; neither are there any correct returns ; but I have every reason to believe that, since the last time the French retired from the island, in 1800, the population has trebled.’ ‘ What were their victuals, compared with the food of the slaves in Jamaica — were they superior or much the same ? — They were fed on meat principally ; cattle are very cheap in Hayti.’ ‘Is meat much cheaper in Hayti than in Jamaica? — Yes, much cheaper ; it is 2d a pound, whilst the con- tract price in Jamaica is 12 d ; in both places these are the highest prices.’ There need be no anxiety, then, in respect to the slave. Strike off the chains, break the yoke, bid him ! go free, and the health and vigor and enterprise and prosperity of the freeman are his.* Objection 5. If the scheme of immediate eman- cipation is carried out, we must have emancipation I here, on the soil, and of course, we shall have two races in the country, and amalgamation, &c. &c., will be the consequence ; and who is there, that would like to have his child marry a ‘ nigger V How often does one hear this absurd objection ! Sometimes he hears it gravely urged by those, who on other subjects, are regarded as men of intelligence and sense. For myself, however, when I hear it, I hardly know whether most to pity the ignorance, or frown with indignation at the prejudice it betrays. If ever I feel ■disposed to ‘ answer a fool according to his folly,’ it is at such a time. However, I generally contrive to be seri- * See Appendix B. 236 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. ous, and show the panic-stricken objector that, after all, there is no lion there. And the reasons I offer to show it, are briefly these : 1. There are two races in the country now. 2. They are amalgamating as fast as possible now ; infinitely faster than they would if slavery were abol- ished. And the simple reason is this — give that slave girl her freedom, and instead of courting the unhallow- ed embrace of her master or his sons as an honor, she would have a character of her own, and would stand upon it, and reject that embrace. Besides this, there are the authority and violence of various kinds, to which she is now exposed, from ungodly and licentious masters and overseers, but from which she would then be exempt.* 3. So long as the present prejudice exists there is no danger. Do you think, Mr. Objector, that with your present feeling there is any danger of your amalgama- ting ? No more is there in the case of others, who feel as you do. Only keep your prejudice alive, and instil it into your children, and rely upon it, neither you nor they will ever marry a negro. And 4. If, by and by, this prejudice should melt away, and the generation then on the stage should have no objection to amalgamation, why should you be con- cerned ? You probably will never live to see it. Amal- gamation will never take place extensively in your day ; and if it does in your children’s, it can do so only as it is a matter of choice with them, and if they choose it, why should you forbid them ? * An intelligent and pious colored man, who was once a slave, recently assured me that he had known slaves compelled to yield to the unhallowed embrace of the master or overseer by threats of the lash, or other violence. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 237 ‘Perhaps, a hundred years hence, some negro Roths- child may come from Hayti, with his seventy millions of pounds, and persuade some white woman to sacrifice herself to him — Stranger things than this do happen every year. But before that century has passed away, I apprehend there will be a sufficient number of well- informed and elegant colored women in the world, to meet the demands of colored patricians. Let the sons and daughters of Africa both be educated, and then they will be fit for each other. They will not be forc- ed to make war upon their white neighbors for wives; nor will they, if they have intelligent women of their own, see anything so very desirable in the project. Shall we keep this class of people in everlasting deg- radation, for fear one of their descendants may marry our great-great-great-great-grand-child ?’ # Away then with this hue and cry about amalgama- tion. It is entirely groundless — the offspring of a most cruel and wicked prejudice. It merits only pity or con- tempt. What, shall the professed disciple of Christ say to his brother man and brother disciple, toiling in cruel bondage, ‘toil on, toil on, die under your oppres- sion,’ because forsooth he is afraid some of his descen- dants, or somebody else will marry a colored wife or husband ! Shame — shame on such religion — religion did I call it ? There it is, in the sanctuary — what says it ? ‘ Stand thou there, or sit’ yonder brother, for thou art black.’ There it is, at the communion table — what says it ? 1 Stand by thyself, come not near to me,’ my brother, ‘ for I am ’ — whiter ‘than thou.’ There it is, in heaven, amid that throng of redeemed ones, ‘ out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation’ — and what says it there ? ‘Stand back, my black broth- er, to be sure your robe is as white and your crown as *Mrs. Child’s Appeal, pp. 140, 238 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. bright as mine, nevertheless you are black, and I am no friend to amalgamation, so stand back, stand back !’ Religion did I call it? No — no. All heaven would cry out upon it, as upon a demon from the pit. It is not religion. It savors not of heaven but of hell. Christian — professing Christian, there is a God who is no respecter of persons. Look well to thine heart then. Thy God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into his hands. ‘ Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.’ ‘ He that loveth not his broth- er, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer.’ And ‘ if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgres- sors.’ APPENDIX. (A.) Mr. Phelps, — Dear Sir : Having had the pleasure of hearing your interesting and valuable Lectures on slavery, I take the liberty ot sending you a few facts, collected from various sources, which I noted down in consequence of the following remark, which peculiarly arrested my attention. ‘ If the Bible sanctions slavery, why does not the God of the Bible sanction it ?’ In other words, if slavery is agreeable to the revealed will of God, why are not the dispensations of his providence in accordance with that will? Could it be fairly proved that slavery is in ac- cordance with the will of God, it must necessarily fol- low that obedience to his will is not only highly advan- tageous but perfectly safe; for surely no Christian can for a moment believe that the providence of God ever militates with the precepts of his word. As, however, the consequences of slavery have been, in all cases, when not averted by timely repentance, disastrous in the extreme, it is therefore undeniably evident that slavery is in direct opposition to the revealed will of God, and consequently that those who so violently op- pose the abolition of slavery, for fear of supposed dan- gerous consequences, may truly b’ said ‘to know' not what they do.’ The truth on this subject is so plain, and the facts so abundant, that he who runs may read, and know, to a certainty, the entire safety of immediate 240 APPENDIX. emancipation, that danger arises solely from liberty withheld, and, not from liberty granted. The general opinion seems to be, that the moment you ‘proclaim liberty to the captive ’ and make the slave a freeman, be the conditions and restrictions what they may, that mo- ment you make him a vagabond, a thief and a murderer, whom nothing will satisfy but the blood of those, who had been so ‘ fanatical and insane ’ as to treat him like a human being. Whence this opinion is derived no one can tell ; for it is in direct opposition to reason, common sense, the nature of the human mind, and is entirely unsustained by facts. Indeed, so far as the evidence of facts is concerned, the advocates of im- mediate abolition have a complete monopoly. All ex- perience proves two things, viz. the entire safety of immediate emancipation, and that all danger has arisen from its indefinite postponement ; for this is really the true definition of the phrase ‘ gradual emancipation.’ We all know the results of slavery in Greece and Rome. Troy perished by her slaves in a single night, and as like causes always produce like effects, our ob- ligations to our slaveholding brethren imperiously de- mand that we should urge upon them, in the most ear- nest manner, the duty of immediately abolishing slavery as their only hope of safety — the only means, by which they can escape the just judgments of God. In our exemption from slavery at the North, we have no cause of boasting, but rather of deep humiliation. We are all involved in the guilt, and must share in the punish- ment, unless timely and thorough repentance avert the impending blow. To do this effectually, information must be spread, the spirit of inquiry aroused, the tem- ple of God be purified, and ‘the book of the law be found and read in the ears of all the people,’ that thus the gross mistakes and misapprehensions, which exist on the subject of slavery and its abolition, may be cor- rected. Of these mistakes, none is more prevalent or more dangerous than the one just mentioned, that insurrec- tion, rapipe and bloodshed, are the necessary result of APPENDIX. 241 immediate emancipation, and that the only way to avert the evils and the curse of slavery, is to continue in the sin for the present, promise future repentance, and in the mean time, whilst we are preparing to get ready to begin to repent, do every thing that in us lies to extin- guish every good feeling, and cultivate and bring into action every bad feeling of the human heart. That such is the belief and consequent practice to an alarm- ing extent throughout our country, and that such a course is as impolitic as it is wicked, and as dangerous as it is unjust, facts abundantly show. How the consequences of abolishing slavery would be dreadful and terrible, neither history nor experience informs us. Let us, however, see what they tell us of the consequences of holding men in bondage. In ev- ery instance, which has fallen under my notice, in- surrections have always been projected and carried on by slaves, for the purpose of obtaining their liberty, and never by the free blacks. In the speech of Gov. Gibbes to the Legislature of South Carolina, delivered May 15, 1711, is the following : ‘And, Gentlemen, I desire you will consider the great quantities of negroes that are daily brought into the government, and the small number of whites that comes amongst us ; how insolent and mischievous the negroes are become, and to consider the negro act al- ready made, doth not reach up to some of the crimes they have lately been guilty of, therefore it might be convenient, by some additional clause of said Negro Act, to appoint either by gibbets or some such like way, that after executed, they may remain more ex- emplary than any punishment that hitherto hath been in- flicted on them.’ Whether the Legislature of South Carolina prepared the ‘more exemplary’ remedy recommended by the Governor, and thus aggravated the disease it was in- tended to cure, or not, I have no means of ascertaining ; but in June of the same year, the Governor thus writes : ‘ We further recommend unto you the repairs of the fortifications about Charleston, and the amending of the A A 242 APPENDIX. Negro Act, who are of late grown to that height of im- pudence, that there is scarce a clap passes without some robbery or insolence, committed by them in one part or other of this province.’ Early 1 in the year 1712,’ says the Rev. D. Hum- phreys, ‘a considerable number of negroes of the Car- mantee and Papa nations, residing in New York, form- ed a plot to destroy all the English, in order to obtain their liberty, and kept their conspiracy so secret that there was no suspicion of it, till it came to the very execution, which was in April. The plot was this. On a Sabbath evening about sunset, the negroes set fire to a house in the city, which greatly alarmed the people, who ran from all parts to it. The conspirators planted themselves in the several streets and lanes leading to the fire, and shot or stabbed the people as they were running to it. Some of the wounded escaped and in- formed the Government, and presently, by the signal of firing a great gun from the fort, the inhabitants were called under arms and prevented from running to the fire. A body of men was soon raised, which soon scat- tered the negroes ; they had killed about eight persons, and wounded twelve more. In their flight some of them shot themselves ; others, their wives, and then themselves ; some absconded a few days, and then killed themselves for fear of being taken. Many, how- ever, were apprehended and eighteen suffered death.’ From the Weekly Journal, April 8, 1734, 1 make the following extract : ‘ Every reasonable man ought to remember their first villanous attempt at New York, and how many good innocent people were murdered by them, and had it not been for the Garrison there, that City would have been reduced to ashes, and the greatest part of the inhabitants murdered.’ * On the Gth of May, 1720, the negroes in South Car- olina, murdered Mr. Benjamin Cottle, a white woman * May the assertion be again verified, and the soldiers of an- other Garrison, armed with weapons of ethereal temper, and the panoply of truth and justice, save not only New York, but the whole country from impending ruin. APPENDIX. 243 and a negro boy. Forces were immediately raised and sent after them, 23 of whom were taken, 6 convicted, 3 executed, and 3 escaped. In October, 1722, about 200 negroes near the mouth of Rastahanock river, Va., got together in a body arm- ed, with an intent to fall on the people in church, but were discovered and fled, and only 5 were taken. From the New England Courantof November, 1724, I take the following extracts : ‘It is well known what loss the town of Boston sus- tained by fire not long since, when almost every night for a considerable time together, some building or other, and sometimes several in the same night were either burnt to the ground, or some attempts made to do it. It is likewise known that these villanies were carried on by Negro servants, [slaves] — thelike whereof ice nev- er felt before from unruly servants, nor ever heard of the like happening to any place, attended with the same circumstances.’ So great at that time were the alarm and danger, that in addition to the common watch, a military was not only kept up, but at the breaking out of every fire a part of the militia were ordered out under arms to keep the slaves in order! ! Now to a thinking man the in- quiry would naturally arise, what caused the peculiar ‘villany ’ of the blacks in 1724! Let him examine the Boston records of April , 1723, he will find a most ‘ vil- lanous ’ ‘ JVegro Act ’ in fifteen sections, the last of which is as follows : ‘ That no Indian, negro, or mulatto, upon the break- ing out of fire and the continuance thereof during the night season, shall depart from his or her master’s house, nor be found in the streets at or near the place where the fire is, upon pain of being forthwith seized and sent to the common gao!, and afterwards whipt three days following, before dismissed,’ &c. Now will any reflecting mind doubt that the crimes of 1724 were principally caused by their very prohibi- tion ? The first settlers of this country prohibited cer- tain unmentionable crimes by severe laws, which, how- 244 APPENDIX. ever, were in a few years repealed. And what was the consequence ? When the laws were repealed, the crime ceased. ‘ Nitimur in vetitum’ is a true saying, and I have no doubt that had the blacks been made free and treated with humanity instead of being subjected to the cruel rigor of the law of 1723, the disasters of 1724 would never have occurred. To me nothing is more plain than that the increasing severity of the laws of' the Southern States will accelerate the very catastrophe they are designed to prevent. ‘Q,uem Deus vult per- dere, prius dementat.’ In 1728, an insurrection took place in Savannah, Ga.- among the slaves, who were fired on twice before they fled. They had formed a plot to destroy all the whites, and nothing prevented them but a disagreement about the mode. The population was at that time 3000 whites, and 2700 blacks. In January, 1729, the slaves in Antigua formed a conspiracy to destroy the English, which was discover- ed two or three days before the intended assault. Of the chief conspirators, three were burnt alive ! ! ‘ ’ T was admirable, ’ says the account, 1 to see how long they stood bejore they died, the great wood not readily burning, and tlieir cry was, water ! water ! ! ’ In July, 1730, an insurrection of blacks occurred in Williamsburg!), Va., occasioned by a report, on Col. Spotswood’s arrival, that he had direction from his Majesty, to free all baptized persons. The negroes improved this to a great height. Five counties were in arms pursuing them, with orders to kill them if they did not submit. In August, 1730, the slaves in South Carolina con- spired to destroy all the whites. This was the first open rebellion in that State, where the negroes were actually armed and embodied, and took place on the Sabbath. In the same month, a negro man plundered and burnt a house in Malden, Mass., and gave this reason for his conduct, that his master had sold him to a man in Salem whom he did not like! APPENDIX. 245 - In 1731, Capt. George Scott, of Rhode Island, was 1-eturning from Guinea with a cargo of slaves, who rose upon the ship, and murdered three of the crew, all of ' whom soon after died, except the captain and boy. In 1732, Capt. John Major of Portsmouth, N. H. was murdered with all his crew, and the schooner and car- go seized by the slaves. In December, 1734, Jamaica was under martial law, and 2000 soldiers ordered out after ‘the rebellious ne- groes.’ ^ In the same year an insurrection took place in Bur- lington, Pa. among the blacks, whom the account styles ‘intestine and inhuman enemies who in some places are too much indulged ! !’ Their design was, as soon as the season was advanced so that they could lie in the woods, on a certain night, agreed on by some hundreds of them, and kept secret a long time, that every negro and negress should rise at midnight, kill every master and his sons, sparing the women, kill all the draught horses, set all their houses and barns on fire, and secure their saddle horses for flight towards the Indians in the Prench interest In 1735, the slaves of the ship Dolphin of London, on the coast of Africa, rose upon the crew, but being over- powered, they got into the powder room, and to be re- venged, blew up themselves with the whole crew. In 1739, there were three formidable insurrections •of the slaves in South Carolina, one in St. Paul’s Par- ish, one in St. John’s, and one in Charleston. In one of these, which occurred in September, they killed in one night, 25 whites, burned 6 houses, and sacrificed every thing in their way. They were pursued, attack- ed, and 14 killed on the spot. In two days, 20 more were killed, and 40 were taken, some of whom were shot, some hanged, and some sribbetted alive! This ‘more exemplary’ punishment, as Gov. Gibbes called it, failed of its intended effect, for the next year there was another insurrection. There were then above 40,000 slaves, and about twenty persons were murder- ed before it was quelled. A A 2 246 APPENDIX. In 1741, there was a formidable insurrection among the slaves in New York. At that time the population consisted of 12,000 whites, and 2000 blacks. Of the conspirators, 13 were burnt alive! 18 hung, and 80 transported.* In 1747, the slaves on board of a Rhode Island ship, commanded by Capt. Bears, rose, when off Cape Coast Castle, and murdered the Captain and all the crew, except the two mates, who swam ashore. In June, 1754, C. Croft, Esq. of Charleston, S. C.had his buildings burnt by his female negroes, two of whom were burnt alive ! In September, 1755, Mark and Phillis were executed at Cambridge, Mass., for poisoning their master, Mr. John Codman of Charlestown. Mark was hanged, and Phillis burnt alive ! ! Their object was to obtain their liberty, as their master had by his will made them free at his death. They accordingly poisoned him that the will might take effect, and they be emancipated. In August, 1759, another insurrection was contem- plated in Charleston, S. C. In 1761, October 20, there was a rebellion among the blacks in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1761, December 3, the blacks in Bermuda rebell- ed, and threatened to destroy all the whites. All were engaged in the plot, which was accidentally discovered. One was burnt alive ! 1 hanged, and 11 condemned. * As, in tho language of Gov. Mechlin, Ihese last were proba- bly among ‘ the lowest and most abandoned of their class,’ they would doubtless have made good emigrants for Liberia, had such a colony been at that time established, but in lieu of that, or a similar asylum, they were distributed with commendable impartiality to the different West India Islands. To show how and what they used to transport in those days, I give the follow- ing from the Boston Gazette of Aug. 17, 17G1 : ‘ To be sold a parcel of likely young negroes, imported from Africa, cheap for cash. Inquire of Jno. Avery. Also, if any persons have any negro men, strong and hearty, though not of the best moral character, which are proper subjects of trans - portation , they may have an exchange for small negroes’ !! APPENDIX. 247 In the same year, Capt. Nichols of Boston lost 40 •of his slaves by an insurrection, but saved his vessel. In 1703, the Dutch settlement at Barbetias was sur- prised and cut off by the negroes. In 1704, the blacks in Jamaica projected a rebellion, and intended to destroy all the whites in the island. In 1707, there was a rebellion among the slaves in Grenada. The scenes of St. Domingo come next. ‘To an almost unprecedented extent, the past history and pre- sent condition of St. Domingo, have been misrepresent- ed by the opponents of negro emancipation, who have propagated reports on this subject, as opposite to truth as light is to darkness.’ Let us examine the facts in the case. ‘ When the French Revolution took place, the free people of color in St. Domingo petitioned the Na- tional Convention that they might enjoy the same polit- ical privileges with the whites. In March, 1790, a de- •cree on that subject was adopted, but worded so am- biguously, that the whites and the people of color, each interpreted it in their own favor. This caused great animosities between them, disturbances ensued and blood was shed. ‘On the 15th of May, 1791, another decree, in more explicit terms, declared that the people of color, in all the French Islands, were entitled to all the privileges of citizenship. This decree, on arriving at the Cape, produced an indignation almost amounting to phrensy among the whites. The two parties were armed against each other, camps were formed, and massacres and conflagrations followed. The report of these occur- rences led the Assembly to rescind the decree they had passed in favor of the free people of color. ‘ The news of this repeal enraged the people of col- or as much as the former decree had done the whites, and hostilities were renewed. On this, the National Convention resolved to re-adopt their former decree of May, 1791, and they appointed Commissioners to re- pair to St. Domingo, with a large body of troops, in order to enforce the decree, and to keep the peace. 248 APPENDIX. During the interval, which had elapsed from 1790 to the time of their arrival in 1793, the island had present- ed a dreadful scene of carnage, caused by a civil war, not only between the whites and the people of color, but between the different parties of whites. And it was at this time, namely, in 1791 and 1792, before the emancipation of the slaves had been contemplated, that the great massacres and conflagrations, which make so frightful a picture in the history of this island, occurred ; and all of which were caused, not by giving liberty to the slaves, but by quarrels between the white and col- ored planters, and between the royalists and revolution- ists, who, to wreak their vengeance on each other, call- ed in the aid of their slaves.’ ‘In the year 1793, the same divisions and conflicts continued, notwithstanding the arrival of the Commis- sioners, and on the 20th of June, a dreadful commotion took place at Cape Francois, the seamen and the white inhabitants being ranged against the people of color, who were afterwards joined by the insurgent blacks. The battle lasted two days, the arsenal was taken and plundered ; some thousands were killed in the streets, and more than half the town was burnt. The Commissioners, who were spectators of this horrible scene, tried in vain to prevent it. As the only ivay to restore order, they issued a proclamation, promising freedom to all the slaves who should range themselves under the ban- ner of the Republic. This was the first proclamation by any public authority for emancipating any part of the slaves in St. Domingo. Satisfied that nothing short of the complete emancipation of the slaves would or could stop the effusion of blood, one of the commis- sioners [Palverel] issued a proclamation to that effect, in September, 1793. In this measure all the planters in the South and West, save one, concurred, and in February, 1794, the French Convention abolished sla- very throughout the whole of the French Colonies, thus completing and consolidating the emancipation of the whole slave population of St. Domingo.’ This had the desired effect. Peace was restored, APPENDIX. 249 tlie reign of liberty and order commenced, and the ef- fect of this sudden and entire emancipation of 500,000 slaves, who were at once freed from the absolute au- thority of their masters, was most happy. ‘ The Colo- ny,’ says Lacroix, ‘ marched as by enchantment, towards its ancient splendor ; cultivation prospered ; every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The blacks were peaceable, the colony flourished, and no evil consequences followed Emancipation from 1794, till the peace of Amiens in 1802, when Bonaparte fitted out a powerful armament to reduce the negroes of St. Domingo to their former state of slavery. The consequences of this mad project are well known. The armament sailed, and the happy and flourishing island became a scene of outrage, cruelty and blood, thus furnishing another proof that slavery is the only real cause of danger, insurrection and bloodshed. In 1800 an insurrection took place in Richmond and neighborhood. The extent of the conspiracy and mis- chief I have never been able to ascertain. It is mem- orable only as having been the occasion of bringing into existence the Colonization Society. See African Repository, June, 1832. In June, 1816, an insurrection was projected in Cam- den, S. C. but information of it was given by a favorite and confidential slave of Col. Chesnut. In July, 1822, thirty-five slaves were executed, and thirty-seven were transported, on pain of death, for an alleged conspiracy against their masters. Perrault, a slave, was the chief witness against them before a court, consisting of a justice of the peace, and freeholders, without a jury. ‘In 1826, the inhabitants of Newbern, Tarborough, and Hillsborough, N. C. were excited with the antici- pation of insurrectional movements among their slaves. The inhabitants of Newbern, being advised of the as- semblage of 60 armed slaves in a swamp, in their vicin- ity, the military were called out, and surrounding the swamp, killed the whole party’ ! ! — Af. Rep. v. iv. p. 384. 250 APPENDIX. In August, 1831, an insurrection took place among the slaves in Southampton Co., Va., headed by Nat Turner, a slave. Before they were quelled, they had murdered 64 persons, men, women and children. In 1832 there was ageneralinsurrectionofthe slaves in Jamaica. One hundred and fifty plantations were burnt, between two and three thousand slaves killed, and a large number of whites ; and the whole loss oc- casioned by the rebellion and attempts to suppress it, valued at five millions of dollars. Now what is the inference from this long list of in- surrections, and hundreds of others, which might read- ily be collected ? Why (1), that all danger from slavery arises from its continuance, and not from its abolition ; and (2), that ‘if the Bible sanctions slavery, the God of the Bible does not.’ The language of God’s provi- dence is one and uniform. It is too explicit to be misunderstood. It assures us, and it writes the assur- ance in lines of blood, that ‘the way of the transgres- sor is hard,’ and that ‘ though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.’ ‘ All history, ancient and modern, is full of warning on this point.’ Shall we slight these warnings, shut our eyes against the light, and rush madly upon our own destruction? Let us remember that ‘slavery is an unnatural state,’ and that nature, when her eternal principles are violated, is struggling to restore them to their first estate, and that the natural feelings of every slave accord with the sentiment of the poet :■ ‘ If I’m design’d yon lordling’s slave, By Nature’s law design’d, Why was an independent wish, E’er planted in my mind ?’ Ay, why, unless the Creator designed, that man should be free ? ' Away then with the wretched cant, or wicked sophistry of those, who are continually sing- ing the lullaby of ‘to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to- morrow.’ ‘To-morrow’ never comes, and our neglect- ing to do what is right, is equivalentto a determination APPENDIX. 251 to continue in the commission of sin. To all those, who thus postpone repentance to ‘a more convenient season,’ it may truly be said, * Fatal mistake ! their time runs on, ^ Their dread account proceeds, And their not doing is set doicn, Among tlieir darkest deeds . 1 If the above facts are deemed worth an insertion in the Appendix to your lectures, they are at your service. Yours with much respect, JOSHUA COFFIN. Boston, Nov. 23, 1833. Mr. C. will please accept niy sincere thanks for the above collection of facts. The reader will see in it, a practical illustration of the truth, that violence ivill beget violence in return , and that the only path of real safety is to cease from violence and oppression at ■once. This is a law of God’s kingdom. He has writ- ten it out in his providence as well as his word. (B.) It will be seen, that in my lectures, I have avoided ■discussing the subject of slavery as ‘ a question of treatment , one way or the other, kind or cruel,’ and have discussed it rather as ‘a question of principle.' * On this account, I have said little of the cruelties of slavery, or of its pretended ‘ tender mercies.’ I have therefore taken no notice of the objection, that the slaves are happy, contented, more comfortably situated than the free blacks, & c. &c. As this objection, however, is a very popular one, and withal so often, and so confidently urged, it seems proper to say something in reply to it in the appendix. This I propose to do, in the language of Mr. Thomp- * See page 28. 252 APPENDIX. son, the celebrated anti-slavery lecturer in England. Although spoken in reply to a Mr. Borthwick, agent for the West India party, and therefore an advocate for slavery, it applies with all its force to certain men in tins country, who, while they oppose immediate emancipation, and do it by urging the same objections that Mr. Borthwick did, yet profess to be, not, like him, the advocates, but the enemies of slavery. ‘Mr. Borthwick said something very beautiful about the happiness and contentedness of the negro, which would be very elegant, if it were true; but the misfor- tune is, that most of the things he says are not true, in fact. That he believes them to be true, I must not question. He says the negroes do not care for free- dom, — that they set no value upon it, — that if you go round amongst them, and put the question to them, they will say ‘ No, Massa ; me very happy, me want no more, me get all me care for: ’ that, in fine, they would not have their freedom, if they could get it. Would they not ? Then why are the newspapers filled with advertisements of runaway negroes ? Why are the prisons filled with runaway negroes? Why are the mountains peopled with runaway negroes? Why is the bush filled with runaway negroes ? Why is a standing army kept to force slavery down the throats of the negroes, if they are in love with it? (Loud ap- plause.) Does the mother hold a rod over the child’s head to force it to eat apple tart? (Laughter.) Did Adam and Eve run out of Paradise ? If the negroes like slavery, then withdraw the troops, and save us the trouble and expense, the loss of life and money need- lessly incurred, if the negroes are contented with their condition. (Loud applause.) But they like slavery, and do not wish for liberty; and Mr. Borthwick ex- claims they shall not have liberty now, because they do not know its value : but shall man be kept in slave- ry, because he does not know the value of liberty? See the pitiful dilemma into which Mr. Borthwick has brought himself; the negroes do not like what all men sigh for,— what they would bleed and die to defend,— APPENDIX. 253 what they would give house and lands, friends and reputation to obtain ; and here is the dilemma, — if it be so, then, planters, proprietors, upholders of sla- very, he defends and maintains a vile and brutalizing system, which has extinguished in man the most noble and generous quality that distinguishes him from the brutes. (Loud cheers.) What ! because men do not like liberty, — if it be true that they do not like it, are we not to try to make them like it ? Mr. Borthwick tells us that the negroes are very happy and contented, — that they want no more ; and then he tells us of a man, a most miserable man, — if there ever were so very a wretch, — that bought fifty acres of land, and then said he did not want his own liberty. I should like to see the man who was thus in love with ‘ going round and round his tub.’ Not like liberty for himself! — why, then, did he want it for his wife and children ? Mr. Borthwick tells us that he might call them ‘my own.’ (Loud cheers.) Mr. Borthwick tells us that, when ask- ed this question, the man replied, ‘I want to call them mir\c ; ’ and I beg Mr. Borthwick to remember that word mine. Not like liberty ! Suppose I go with Mr. Borthwick to a lunatic asylum ; (I do not mean any thing invidious — I do not think that either Mr. Borth- wick or myself arc fit to be permanent residents of a lunatic asylum;) but suppose that we go as accidental visitors, just as he came to see me at Manchester. (A laugh.) Suppose we go into a ward, and see a man weaving a crown of straw, putting it upon his head, and then walking up and down the ward, with his miser- able rags trailing behind him, wielding his sceptre over an imaginary world, — Utopian princes bowing at his footstool. I say to Mr. Borthwick, ‘Is not that man happy? He never implores for liberty; he fancies himself clothed in regal splendor, with crouchingslaves around him ; — is he not happy ? ’ Mr. Borthwick would shake his head, be silent and turn grave. Then we might see another man chalking ludicrous figures on the wall, or stringing together senseless rhymes, and humming them the livelong day; and I might say, ‘Is B n 254 APPENDIX. not this man happy ? He is always smiling ; he is fully satisfied with himself; he never sends a wish beyond his prison walls; — is he not happy?’ Mr. Borthwick would still be silent. Then I might show him a beau- tiful female singing love ditties all day long,— an eter- nal smile playing on her countenance ; and I might say, ‘Look upon this being, and say, is she not happy ? Are not all these happy ? ’ And then Mr. Borthwick, with a sigh, would answer, ‘No, they are not happy; see what a wreck of mind; see reason dethroned; see all the bright faculties of the soul gone astray ! Oh 1 save them from this place, ' Where laughter is not mirth, nor thought the mind, Nor words a language, — nor e’en men mankind ! ’ Let us strive to bring them back to society and to ra- tional being; let them, if it must be, taste its sorrows and its bitterness ; but let them know what are its joys, its hopes, its anticipations ; let them live to min- gle with mankind, and fit themselves for immortality.’ And I reply, ‘ Yes, let us try to save them ; let all hu- man means be used to save them from this place ; and when you have dropped the tear of sympathy over de- graded reason here, go to the West Indies, preach that doctrine to the slaves, and see whether in their present prostration there is any reason why they should not have awakened in their minds a love of liberty, if it be not already there, — why they should not be released from that hateful system by which they are now en- thralled, and brought to the enjoyment of perfect free- dom.’ (Cheers.) But I am prepared to show that the slaves do value freedom and long to possess it, notwithstanding Mr. Borthwick’s declaration to the contrary. I hold in my hand two documents, — the first is a proclamation from Governor Ross, published in the Jintigua Register of March 29, 1831 : ‘ANTIGUA. ‘ By his Excellency Sir Patrick Ross, Knight, Commander of "the most distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Major-General in the Army, Governor, and Com- APPENDIX. 255 mander-in-Chief in and over his Majesty’s Island of Antigua, Montserrat, and Barbuda, Chancellor, Vice-Admiral, and Ordinary of the same, &c. &c. &c. ‘ Patrick (L. S.) Ross. ‘Whereas by my proclamation boariu°; date the twenty-first day of this piesent month, I did, by and with the advice of His Majesty’s Privy Council, offer a Reward of One Hundred Pounds to the Person or Persons (except the actual offender) who should give such information as would lead to the conviction of the offender or offenders who set lire to several cane pieces in this Island, and also a free pardon to an accomplice or accom- plices on conviction by their means of the actual perpetrator of such diabolical acts. Now, therefore, I do further, in compliance with the joint Address of both Houses of the Legislature, offer FREEDOM TO ANY SLAVE who by his or her exertions and evidence may bring to justice anj _ of the incendiaries who have been destroying the canes in various parts of the Island. ‘ Given under my hand and seal at Government- house, this Twenty-second day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thiity-one, and in the First Year of His Majesty's Reign. ‘ God save the King. 'By His Excellency’s command, ‘ Chaki.es Taylor, Private Secretary. ' Duly published this Twenty-third day of March, One Thou- sand Eight Hundred and Thirty-one. ‘ Martin Nanton, Deputy Provost Marshal.’ Weekly Register, Antigua, I’uesduy, March 29, 1831. Now, Mr. Borthwick, when Governor Ross means to offer the highest reward which it is in his power to confer, — what is it that he does offer ? A few more yams, a little more rum, or a little more clothing ? No ; but he offers the slave the highest boon which the is- land can grant, — he offers him freedom. (Loud cheers.) Another proclamation to the same effect was issued in Jamaica during the late insurrection. Freedom, Mr. Bortfnvick, is the highest boon that governors and generals can bestow ; and to-day I have been informed, by a gentleman now on this platform, that whilst he was on the island of Nevis, a few years back, the inhabitants were alarmed by a tremendous storm, and found that a vessel had been wrecked, the crew of which were in danger of perishing. The plan- 256 APPENDIX. ters stood on the beach, beholding the desolation on the waters, but they could not induce any person to launch a boat and go to the assistance of the persons in the wreck. At last the planters offered freedom to any slaves who would put off to the assistance of the ship- wrecked mariners, and immediately these men, who are said to care nothing for liberty, rushed into the boat, and risked their own existence to save those who were in danger of perishing. (Cheers.) In the year 1794 there was what was termed the Maroon war in Jamaica : and who were the Maroons ? Runaway ne- groes ! And where had they run from ? From the ‘ four parlors and a saloon.’ What did they run from ? From the light work, the beautiful clothing, and abun- dance of food ; from the kind care and culture of the planters. And where did they run to from all this comfort and happiness ? To the bleak and desolate mountains, to the fastnesses of Jamaica. Ay, to the desolate mountain, from the four parlors and a saloon. And what did they do there ? Why, whilst the negro of Jamaica was enjoying his four parlors and a saloon, drinking his wine, and revelling in all the luxuries of slavery, like another Sardanapalus, the negroes in the mountains were getting strong, increasing and multi- plying, and at last down they came upon the whites, and threatened to exterminate them. The whites met together, to consider how they might best resist the aggressions of the Maroons : the standing troops were called out, and found to be insufficient, and with the militia added to them they were still thought insuffi- cient, and the arming of the negroes was talked of : but somebody said, ‘ How do you know, when you have armed the negroes, that they will fight for you ? How do you know that they will not make common cause with the Maroons? You must find some motive suffi- ciently strong to induce them to fight.’ And what was that motive ? Was it food, house, a provision ground — No; they promised the slaves liberty ! (Loud cheers.) And with liberty in their hearts, liberty their watch- word, and liberty their expected reward, they went to APPENDIX. 257 the battle plain, they fought and bled, and even many of them died, whilst the living returned victorious, not to pull down chapels, not to injure innocent men, but to clasp to their bosoms their wives and their children, to stretch out their free hands to Heaven and say, ‘ Now, indeed, we are men and brethren.’ (Hear that, Mr. Borthwick.) I beg my friends will not make any remarks ; let them leave that to me, for I am exceed- ingly jealous of my privileges. (Much laughter.) And now Mr. Borthwick comes to Hayti ; he thinks he has a fine specimen of the dangers of emancipation at Hayti ; and he measures the happiness of the inhabit- ants of that island by the amount of their exports. But this is false philosophy, Mr. Borthwick. Sup- pose the people of Ireland were to ship less of their produce, less corn, fewer cattle, and fewer potatoes to foreign countries than they now do, and eat it all them- selves, would any person assign this as a reason why they should be worse off than they were when they did export a larger quantity. (Cheers.) Mr. Borth- wick ought not to measure the comfort and happiness of a people by the amount of their exports. Would he argue because the stage-proprietor did not carry so many passengers, and therefore did not run his horses so frequently, that the horses were worse off than they were before ? (Loud cheers.) Would he argue that the ox was in a worse condition because he trod out less corn than he did before ? How does it happen that the Haytians have not cultivated so much sugar as they did formerly ? Why did they cultivate so much formerly? Because of the whip, to please their mas- ters, not to please themselves. (Loud cheers.) What is the fact now ? A gentleman -who is now here is willing to come forward, to state it firmly, fearlessly and openly. (Cheers.) After a twelve years’ residence in Hayti, where he kept a regular account of exports and imports, and investigated the manners, motives and desires of the inhabitants, he is ready to testify that the commerce of Hayti is prosperous, and that the peasants of Hayti are as happy and comfortable as any 258 APPENDIX. portion of the human family. (Loud cries of ‘Name, name.’) Mr, Shiel. (Loud and reiterated cheering.) Mr. Shied then stood upon the table, and said — Ladies and Gentlemen, called upon as I have been by the gentleman who has already addressed you for up- wards of three hours, I do not come forward to make any long oration, I merely come forward to say that the facts stated by that gentleman, with regard to Hayti, are perfectly correct, and that I have witnessed them. I know that the people of Hayti are free, independent, comfortable, and happy. (Cheers.) There is also another point which I wish to notice, a point which has never yet been laid before the British public ; — I allude to the revolution which occurred in Hayti in 1822, when the Spanish part of the colony threw off the yoke of slavery. That revolution was effected by the peo- ple, without a single act of violence even of the most trifling character. (Cheers.) The masters, it is to be observed, were Spaniards — a people who never mal- treated their slaves. (Hear, hear.) The slaves de- clared themselves free, shook off the Spanish yoke, and joined the republican' part of Hayti, without a single act of violence or the slightest destruction of property. (Loud cheers.) ’ — Thompson’s Lee. pp. 49, 50, 51, 52. (C.) ‘ The argument of temperance from the beginning has been on moral grounds. Allusion has been made to the apostle of temperance. Sir, I knew the apostle of temperance from my boyhood. And I know the difficulties he had to contend with.’ * * * * ‘And yet this herald of reform did not shrink from denouncing the traffic as a moral evil. If he had trimmed to the popular breeze, this convention would never have met. But he went forward in the face of opposition. His first sermon hurled him from his pulpit.’ [‘This is a mistake. Mr. Hewit’s first sermon produced a con* siderable excitement, but was very far from unsettling APPENDIX. 259 him.’] ‘ But he was not daunted by this. He gather- ed strength from opposition, and went throughout this land, every where denouncing the traffic in ardent spirits as the criminal cause of all the evils of intem- perance. Nay, sir, he crossed the ocean with his message, and proclaimed it in that luxurious metropo- lis, till England’s titled nobility bowed to the force of truth, and rejoiced in doing honor to him who told it. 1 Now, sir, if he had come to us with smooth and honied words, persuading us with gentle solicitations, and urging upon us the arguments of expediency, does any one suppose he would have converted a whole community to his views? Sir, by such measures, the temperance cause would never have begun to move. And now has it come to this, that we are ashamed to declare our principles ? Reformers are not fit FOR THEIR OFFICE IF THEY BOW TO EXPEDIENCY. The men of the revolution — the Patrick Henrys, the Washingtons, the Hampdens, the Sidneys, have left no such examples to men who are anxious to benefit their fellows. He was pained to think that the con- vention should be ashamed or afraid to declare its opin- ions. The eyes of the world were upon them. ‘The gentleman talks of American morality. Shall we shut our eyes to what American morality has done towards counteracting the greatest moral evil the world ever saw ? And how has it done this? Why, bring- ing moral principle to bear upon it, by declaring it morally wrong, and treating it as such, and putting it down as such.’ — Speech of Mr. Wood, of Albany, at Temperance Convention in Philadelphia. I quote this to show, that those who encounter op- position and suffer inconvenience, on account of their efforts in the Anti-Slavery cause, are not alone. They are but following in the footsteps of all reformers. It would be well for them, and their opposers too, occa- sionally to read Heb. xi, particularly verses 32 — 39. The one would be cheered and comforted thereby. The other might perhaps be led to pause, and ask themselves, whether, in their opposition, they were not ‘ FIGHTING AGAINST God.’ 260 APPEND I5C. (D.) Mr. Wilkinson said — ‘Sir, if we cannot say that it is morally wrong, we had better say nothing about it. i We had better go home, and let the Temperance cause ■ go down, and let the discretion of mankind take care I of the matter, on the principle of prudent use. For however we may talk and resolve on other points, we may rely on it the Temperance reformation is at an end, if its friends are prepared to concede that the use and traffic is not morally wrong.’ * * * * ‘ I hope nothing will be done by this convention to hinder the cause of Temperance, as I am sure it will, if we fail to declare our sentiments on this vital point. Sir, sound heads and pure hearts, such as I see around me, will not ask, whether it will be popular and help me to office, or give me the friendship of those who drink and vend ardent spirits, but do their duty, and leave results with God.’ Mr. Gerrit Smith said — ‘ These gentlemen com- plain of their want of success in promoting temper- ance, and of the low condition of the temperance cause in Pennsylvania. Sir, I never heard that temper- ance had any success any where, unless the appeals in its favor were made directly to the consciences of rum-dealers. Strike out these, and it is in vain that you seek for other means to propel the triumphant car ( of temperance. Hitch to that car health, economy, expediency, the public good, what you please; if you leave out the appeal to men’s consciences, you have, as we say at the North, but a iveak team.' Mr. Goodell said — ‘ Why, Sir, it has always been the doctrine of temperance folks that it is wrong. The apostle of temperance never thrilled the multitudes that came to hear him, by telling about expediency, prudence, and all that. But he proclaimed in tones of thunder which made the roof ring again, that it is wrong to drink or sell. Heaven grant that nothing of a cold, calculating prudence may have shorn Sampson of his strength, and induced him to compromise this vital question. APPENDIX. 261 . ‘We are told, over and over again, and by the same persons who oppose this resolution, that the temperance reform is all to be gained by moral influence, but now they are not willing to have the convention say it is morally wrong. Sir, 1 should like to know what kind of moral influence we can employ, if the subject lias no moral character.’ (BO The following' Extracts from Parliamentary Papers,’ will show the fact, and to what an extent, the colonies at Sierra Leone and Liberia have already furnished facilities for carrying on the slave-trade. * Copy of a charge delivered by Mr. Chief- Justice Jeffcott, to the Grand Jury of Sierra Leone, on the subject of the slave-trade.’ ‘ Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 6th April, 1832. ‘ Extracts from a speech of Chief-Justice Jeffcott’s, at Sierra Leone.’ ‘ I have heard, and from the source from which my information is derived, I am bound to believe what 1 should otherwise have deemed incredi- ble — that persons are to be found in this colony, who, if not directly engaged in, aid and abet the abominable traffic in slaves. That such persons are to be found, I repeat it, in this colony — a colony founded for its suppression , towards whose establishment, and in whose support, so much wealth has been expended, and so many valuable lives sacrificed : and further, that men holding respectable stations, — men having all the out- ward appearance and show of respectability, are not ashamed — I should rather say, are not afraid — to lend themselves to this nefarious, this abominable trade ! ‘ I say, Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, that it has come to the ears of the Government of this colony, that such aid and assistance have been afforded in the filing out of ships well known to be destined for such 262 APPENDIX. unlawful traffic ; and that vessels have been fitted out from time to time by persons such as I have described, residents of this colony, for the Gallinas and elsewhere, with the objects and purposes of which it is impossible they could have been unacquainted.’ ‘ Is it to be tolerated, I say, Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, that this colony, established for the express pur- pose of suppressing this vile traffic, should be made a mart for carrying it on ? Is it to be borne that this harbor, miscalled — -if all I have heard and am led to believe be true — the harbor of Freetown, should shelter within its bosom, while the British flag waves over its ramparts, vessels, purchased after their condemnation by the Mixed Commission Courts, to make a second and a third experiment in the Slave-trade P to be per- haps again captured by our cruizers, and again bought up by the skulking foreigners who prowl about this place, as the one best calculated for their iniquitous purpose ? ‘I have, since my arrival here, taken some pains to ascertain the number of liberated Africans imported into this colony within a given period, as compared with the number now located in the different villages ; and although the census of the latter is not quite complete, I have every reason to believe, that whereas there have been imported into the colony of Sierra Leone within the last ten years, upwards of 22,000 Africans, who have obtained their liberation, and have been located here at the expense of the British Government — an expense, which upon the most moderate calculation,’ ‘ amounts to 300/. per man, or nearly seven millions sterling, in the course of ten years — there are not now to be found in the whole colony above 17,000 or 18,000 men ! What then is the conclusion to which I come, and to which every honest, unprejudiced, and right- thinking man must come, upon the subject? Why, appalling as the fact may be, and incredible as it must appear to many, that the Slave-trade is either directly carried on, although of course not openly and ostensibly , or that it is aided and abetted in this colony .’ I APPENDIX. 963 After this it appears that ‘a commission of persons i was appointed to inquire into the truth of the charges contained in the Chief-Justice’s speech.’ The follow- ing are extracts from their report. | ‘The Report of the Committee of Inquiry constituted in and by the Despatch of the Right Hon. Sir George Murray, late his Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for War and the Colonies: dated 26th Octo- ber, 1830 ‘Humbly showeth, (among other things) ‘That ****** they have called before them such i persons of all classes, as they were of opinion could ' afford them most correct information ; and from the ev- idence adduced, the Committee cannot but conclude that the nefarious system of kidnapping has prevailed in this colony, to a much greater extent than was even alluded to in the Charge of the Chief- Justice to the i Grand Jury in 1830, as will fully appear in the evi- dence adduced. ! ‘ The Committee have further to submit, that while the actual system of kidnappinghas principally prevail- j. ed among the Mandingo tribes and liberated Africans I themselves (who seem, in many instances, to have but little gratitude for the favors conferred upon them by the British Government), they cannot refrain from re- marking, that great facility has at the same time been afforded to the increase of the Slave-trade by the Brit- ■ ish merchants of the colony, who have purchased vessels condemned in the Mixed Commission Court, as agents for foreigners ; which vessels have afterwards been ;i brought into the colony and again condemned, for a '! repeated infraction of the Slave-trade Abolition Act. ‘ With reference to this subject, thejCommittee have to express their regret that some very recent instances have occurred, in which persons of apparent respecta- bility have been charged with aiding and abetting the Slave-trade, as will appear from the evidence annexed.’ (Signed) 1 Alex. Findlay, Lieu. Governor , ‘ J- W. Jeffcott, Chief Justice. 1 J. Boyle, Colonial Surgeon , ‘ Henf.y Rishton, Col. Secretary. 264 APPENDIX. The following is some of the evidence alluded to. Thirty-two persons were examined. The whole evi- dence is of the same tenor with that which follows. From the evidence of Mr. Benjamin Campbell. — - ‘He is aware that the system of kidnapping ’ [liberated Africans, who have been taken from slave-ships and | sent into the colony] ‘ has prevailed in this Colony for the last live years, and latterly to a very great extent. ***** On his late visit to the Rio Pongas, he made many inquiries to ascertain to what extent this kidnap- ping system prevailed, and the result has led him to believe that if he stated the annual export from that river, during the last three years to have been two hun- dred and fifty liberated Africans, the average would not be exaggerated.’ ‘ Deponent is of opinion that a great number of lib- erated Africans are sent to the Gallinas for the purpose of being sold ; and supposes the average to be about the same as he has already stated for the Rio Pongas. Deponent does not know of this of his own knowledge ' but from report ; and he is further led to believe it, from his knowledge of the sums of money being brought up from the Gallinas to Sierra Leone, as returns for the exports. Deponent knows that the slave vessels are in the habit of bringing specie for the purpose of procur- ing goods; deponent knows one instance. Mr. Hilary j Teague, wlio resides at the American settlement at Libe- ria, at Cape Mensurado, near the Gallinas, and who trades between that place and Sierra Leone, when pur- chasing some goods from a Mr. Lake, a merchant in the colony, produced a bag containing about one thousand dollars, on which was marked the name of the Spanish schooner * Manzanares.’ This vessel took in her cargo at the Gallinas, and was subsequently (in the month of May, 4830) condemned in the Courts of Mixed Com- - missions i. e. condemned as a slave ship. From the evidence of Mr. John Dean Lake. ‘De- ponent had a mercantile transaction with a Mr. Hilary [ Teague, an American subject residing at Liberia. This Mr. Teague is in the habit of purchasing goods in this APPENDIX. 265 colony, which he takes down to Liberia for sale, where a great many of the articles he purchases are in de- mand. Mr. Teague, in paying Mr. Lake for some goods, took the money from a bag containing about 1,000 dollars. The word ‘Manzanares’ was marked on this bag. This circumstance struck him from the singularity of the word. Deponent has every reason to believe this bag came out of this vessel, she having been brought into this harbor subsequently and con- demned in the Court of Mixed Commissions, where it was proved that she had taken in her cargo at the Gal- linas.’ From the evidence of Alexander Rae, Esq. * De- ponent is a partner with Mr. Horne]]. The vessel, the ‘Ellen Montgomery,’ was insured for a voyage down the coast to Fernando Po, with liberty to touch at ev- ery trading place. Mr. Hornell called at Liberia, and landed goods to the amount of 400Z. No one is allow- ed to sell at Liberia, unless they employ an agent from among those living on shore. Mr. Hilary Teague was j employed as such agent. Mr. Hornell took Teague on 1 board, and went from Liberia to Cape Mount and the Gallinas. Fro m thence he returned to Sierra Leone I for more goods, deponent expecting a large assortment out from England. Mr. Teague made the whole of the sales. Mr. Hornell is now gone on the same voyage with the same description of goods, namely, to Fernando Po, with liberty to touch at every trading place. Deponent is not acquainted with the trade at the Gallinas, but, from report, he understands the slave-trade is carried on there.' From the evidence of Mr. John Mac Cormack. ‘ That during the administration of Sir Neil Campbell, he received information that some liberated African boys and some native boys had been kidnapped by some Mandingoes from the Sand Beach, near the Merchants’ Powder Magazine, and carried to the Mandingo coun- try. Deponent sent over messengers to the Mandingo chiefs, and recovered two of the boys ; afterwards, through the assistance of Dalla Mahommadoo, deponent C c 26G ■SfjMSflD/X-.- recovered five others. The eldest boy was about four teen years of age, the youngest about seven. One of them stated, that when at the Fish Market in Freetown, a person asked him to carry home a bunch of fish to a house in Gibralter Town. The boy consented, and when he arrived at the house, he went into the kitchen ; he was seized, and carried to a canoe. The Man-din-- goes who carried him, pul something over his mouth,- ivkich contracted his lips, and prevented his making amf noise. The boy could not recognize the house ; he told deponent that he had seen two others who had been carried away at the same time with him ; one of them was deponent’s own servant. This boy was aTimma- nee, not a liberated African. During the time depo- nent lived at Tombo (an island in the river Sierra Le- one, upon which deponent has a timber factory), he had frequent opportunities of recovering boys who had been kidnapped. Deponent was the better enabled to do this from his knowledge of the native languages. In some cases boys knowing this deponent to be in the native towns, have escaped.to him, and claimed his protection.’ From the evidence of Mr. Duncan Noble. ‘He is of opinion, that the slave-trade is aided by the facility given to slave-dealers in purchasing vessels condemn- ed in the Court of Mixed Commission. The usual way of disposing of these vessels is mn public auction ; and it would seem of little consequence whether the purchasers are slave-dealers or no, provided they give the highest priced From the evidence of William Smith, Esq. Commis- sioner of Arbitration. ‘That, the “ Hoop,” a Dutch vessel, was condemned in the Mixed Commission Court in the year 182G. She was purchased by Commodore Bullen, and called the “ Hope.” She was employed as a tender to the Maidstone, in preventing the illicit traf- fic in slaves, under the command of Lieut. William Tucker, and captured the “ Prince de Guinea.” Com- modore Bullen subsequently sold her to a person at Princes Island (a Portuguese colony.) She was then (in 1827) sent by this person to Bahia, and obtained Brazilian papers, under the name of the “Esperanza.” APPENDIX. 267 In 1823 she came to the coast for a cargo of slaves, and was captured, with her cargo, by his Majesty’s ship “ Sybille,” the Esperanza being then under the com- mand of Jose Alvar de Cruz Rios. She was condemn- ed in June or July of the same year, put up to public auction, and purchased by one William Henry Savage. She quitted this port on the 12th July, and was report- ed by the master of the Santa Ephiginia, on oath before the king’s advocate, to have sailed from Ajudah on the 6th October following, with a cargo of 300 slaves, under the command of the said Jose Alvar de Cruz Rios. This vessel has since been employed (as appears by the Parliamentary papers) in the slave-trade, and returned to Bahia under the command of the said Jose Alvar de Cruz Rios, having arrived at Bahia on the 5th May, 1829, since which time deponent has lost all trace of her. ‘ The Prince de Guinea was taken by Commodore Bullen’s tender, the before-mentioned vessel, the “Hoop,” in 1826, and purchased by him as a tender ; was kept by him as such until the year 1827, when she was offered for sale in this colony ; but Commodore Bullen not being able to procure a sufficient price for her, she was taken to the Cape de Verd Islands, and sold to one Martinez, a noted slave-dealer, as appears by the affidavit of the master of the “ Tonhuiha” (pub- lished in the Parliamentary papers of 1827.) She was despatched, as alleged by Martinez, to the Brazils with salt, under the name of the “ Volante.” She obtained Brazilian papers in the Brazils; calledthe “ Vingador,” returned to the coast, and was captured off Wydah, with a cargo of slaves, by Commodore Collier. She was then bought at public auction by John Mardon Brockinton, and called the “Perseverance,” afterwards condemned in the Court of Vice- Admiralty in this col- ony for breach of revenue laws, &c.’ Mr. Smith goes on to mention the names of quite a number of other vessels, which were captured, sold at auction and bought up for the slave-trade, in the same way. Among the rest, ‘the “Donna Barbara,” pur- 268 APPENDIX. chased by an American named Pollard, agent of Jose Alvar de Cruz Rios,’ the slave captain mentioned above. From the evidence of William Cole, Commissioner of Appraisement and Sale to the Mixed Com. Court. ‘Until lately, it was not customary for foreigners to purchase vessels themselves at the auction’s; they were generally purchased for them by merchants of tire col- ony, on commission. ‘Deponent believes the system of kidnapping has prevailed in the colony for the last six or seven years. ****** The Government, in deponent’s opinion, have done every thingin their power to put a stop to this trade ; but it is carried on so systematically as to DEFY ANY POLICE. The liberated Africans are^ the thieves ; the Mandingoes the receivers. From the evidence Mr. William Benjamin Pratt, who ‘ has been in the service of the Colonial Government, principally in the Liberated African Department, for the last ten years.’ On one occasion he went to a place called ‘ Moribiah’ to rescue a ‘liberated African girl and boy.’ ‘ Deponent ascertained that the girl was in the possession of a man named Anthony. ********** When the girl had been given up, Antony came to deponent in the evening and asked him for some rum, and said to him, “ Now we are friends I may as well tell you the truth : I bought that girl from Suree Ga- boo,” ’ [a Sierra Leone man.] Said he gave sixty-six bars for her, produced his book, and pointed out the ar- ticles with which he had purchased her. Deponent copied it; it is as follows, viz. Bars. 1 Gun - - 10 4 fathorn3 Blue Baft - 4 3 — White ditto - - 3 4 — Check - - 4 5 — Shalloon - - 5 7 — Print - - 7 Madras Handkerchiefs - - 3 3 fathoms Salin Stripe - - 3 Tobacco, Powder, Rum, £>• Knife - 27 Total . . 66 5 APPENDIX. 269 And this, it seems is what becomes of the knives, and tobacco, and rum, and powder, and guns, which are shipped to the colonies along with emigrants ! This is the commerce, by means of which the colonists amass their wealth ! Is it indeed so ? If not, what is done with these articles of merchandize? This certainly is a matter which needs to be investigated. (PO It will be seen from the whole tenor of my remarks in the lectures, that I have no confidence in the scheme of Colonization. It is proper, to prevent misunder- standing, to make the following brief remarks. 1. I cheerfully admit that the scheme has the confi- dence of many good men — especially at the North, who, I have no doubt, espouse it from the best of motives. 2. The mere colonizing of colored or white persons, with their own, unconstrained consent, is in itself, a harmless and innocent affair. 3. To plant truly Christian colonies, on the coast of Africa, or any where else in this way, is a very lauda- ble enterprise, and I, for one, should be willing to pat- ronize it. These then are not the reasons of my dissent from the present Colonization scheme. I do dissent however, 1. Because it departs from its design, as expressed in the constitution of the Society, and proposes itself as the remedy for slavery, thus claiming for itself the monopoly of the public confidence and co-operation. 2. Because, thus departing, it promises what it can never perform — viz. remedy slavery. In proposing to remedy slavery by transportation, or by the moral in- fluence of such a physical operation, it proposes a physical impossibility. Make what arithmetical calcu- lations you please, and yet, it is everlasting truth, the project is Utopian. You might a3 soon think to remove all the ‘ring-straked, speckled and grisled’ cattle from cc 2 270 APPENDIX. the land, by the mere process of colonizing, with their own consent, those only, of these classes, that run at large and have no master. Emigration does not de- populate. Every emigrant, but makes room for another, to occupy his place. For aught I know, there are as many Irishmen in Ireland now, as when she first began to pour her thousands of emigrants into America. You can never put a stop to increase — never extirpate a race by mere voluntary emigration. So far from it, emigration does but quicken increase, and cause the race, that is thus spreading itself, to strike its roots deeper and deeper in its native soil. And the same or similar causes, which prevent an English population from rushing in and crowding out the Irish, as emigration goes on from Ireland, will operate to prevent a white population from rushing in to take the place of the col- ored, as emigration may go forward from the Southern States. The white population may and doubtless will drive the colored into the more Southern States and concentrate it there ; but when thus concentrated, as is now extensively the fact, then the more brisk voluntary emigration, the more brisk the increase. This will hold as true of them, as of Ireland or New-England. Pray, how has it happened that emi- gration has not extirpated the Yankees ; or at least caused the Irish, or the Dutch or some other population to come in and supplant them ? It is nonsense then — it is contrary to all the laws of increase to suppose that a race of men are to be extirpated by mere voluntary emigration ; and as to any other, the present scheme of colonizing, professedly at least, disavows it. 3. Because it does not promise even, to remedy sla- very short of one or two hundred years ; and for one, I hope to see the millenium come before that time. 4. Because it stands in the way of other and more efficient schemes of remedy. This it does by taking the ground of gradual emancipation, and claiming, at the same time, to be the only practicable scheme. Sup- pose a national temperance society organized on the 'principle of moderate use, claiming to itself that this is the only feasible or correct principle of reform, secur- APPENDIX. 271 ing to itself the sanction of the great and the good throughout the land, the votes of legislatures, ecclesi- astical bodies, &c. &c., thus thrusting itself upon the attention, and monopolizing to itself the confidence of the public mind, as being the •great national measure for the remedy of intemperance — who so blind as not to see, that it must, of necessity, stand in the way of all other measures ?— that so long as the public mind rests in this as the great, the national, the only practicable measure, it is lulled to sleep, and cannot be aroused to any other ? The analogy is perfect. 5. Because it puts public sentiment back instead of advancing it. This it does in the way just specified. It makes up the public mind to the position, that this is the only practicable method of reaching the difficul- ty, and though the process be slow and its accomplish- ment distant, it yet causes it to believe and rest in the belief, that nothing more rapid is practicable. In this way it puts the public mind to rest, lulls its conscience to sleep, and whether intentionally or not, does in point of fact lower the tone of feeling and put back public sentiment on the subject. Nor is this mere ‘a priori’ inference. I have docu- • ments on hand which demonstrate, that the tone of public sentiment on the subject of slavery was higher, thirty and forty and even ten years ago, than it was a year since — before the anti-slavery discussions came up. They used to speak of slavery as a sin. Take the following facts as proof. As long ago as 1790, there were quite a number of Abolition Societies organized in different parts of the United States. They were called Societies for the ‘ Abolition of Slavery, &c. &c.’ They seem to have aimed at the abolition of slavery as their main and ul- timate object, dnd this in three distinct ways, (1), and mainly, by aiming at the abolition of the slave-trade ; (2) , by attempting the release of persons who were kidnapped, or otherwise illegally held in bondage ; and (3) by endeavoring the elevation of the colored people, by schools, &c. &c. Accordingly, in 1790, they pre- 272 APPENDIX. sented various petitions to Congress praying for the abolition of the slave-trade. In them however, they in- cidentally give us their views of slavery itself. Take the following extracts as illustrations. ‘To the Honorable the Senate, &c. ‘The Petition, &c., ‘Humbly sheweth, ‘That, from a sober conviction of the unrighteous- ness of slavery, your petitioners have long beheld, with grief, a considerable number of our fellow men doom- ed to perpetual bondage, in a country which boasts of her freedom.’ ‘ Your petitioners are fully of opinion, that calm re- flection will at last convince the world, that the whole system of African slavery is unjust in its nature — im- politic in its principles — and, in its consequences, ruin- ous to the industry and enterprise of the citizens of these States. ‘ From a conviction of these truths, your petitioners were led, by motives, we conceive, of general philan- throphy, to associate ourselves for the protection and assistance of this unfortunate part of our fellow-men ; .and, though this society has been lately established, it has now become generally extensive through this state, and, we fully believe, embraces, on this subject, the sen- timents of a large majority of its citizens.'’ [Signed] ‘In the name, and by order, of the Con- necticut Society for the promotion of freedom, & c. EZRA STILES, President of said Society. Simeon Baldwin, Secretary. JVew- Haven, Jan. 7, 1791.’ The Memorial of the Pennsylvania Society, has the following. ‘ We wish not to trespass upon your time, by refer- ing to the different declarations made by Congress on the unalienable right of all men to equalliberty ; neith- er would we attempt, in this place, to point out the in- consistency of extending freedom to a part only of the human race.’ APPENDIX. 273 Again : — ‘ The Memorial of the subscribers, formed into a So- ciety for the Abolition of Slavery, &c. in Baltimore : ‘Respectfully sheweth, ‘ That the objects of their association are founded in reason and humanity. That, in addition to an avow- ed enmity to slavery in every form, your memorialists, in their exertions, contemplate a melioration of the condition of that unhappy part of the human race who are doomed to fill the degraded rank of slaves in our country, and a protection of the unhappy sons of Afri- ca, who are entitled to liberty, but unjustly deprived of it.’ ‘It is no less painful to know, than to communicate to your honorable body, that a traffic so degrading to the rights of man, and so repugnant to reason and re- ligion, as that in human flesh, is carried on by the free citizens of these free governments, for the supply of foreigners — thus exhibiting to the world the curious and horrid spectacle, of liberty supporting slavery — • and the successful asserter of his own rights, the un- provoked and cruel invader of the rights of others.’ And farther; — ‘ The Memorial of the Virginia Society, for promot- ing the Abolition of Slavery, &c. ‘ Respectfully sheweth, ‘That your Memorialists, fully believing that “right- eousness exalteth a nation,” and that slavery is not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the gospel, which breathes “ peace on earth, good will to men they lament that a practice, so inconsistent with true policy and the unalienable rights of men, should subsist in so enlightened an age, and among a people profess- ing, that all mankind are, by nature, equally entitled to freedom.’ Take another illustration of the sentiment prevalent on the subject at that time. On the 15th of Septem- ber of the same year, the younger Edwards, then pas- 274 APPENDIX. tor of a church in Now-Haven, and afterwards Presi- dent of Union College, preached a sermon before the above mentioned Connecticut Society, in which he holds the following language.* ‘The arguments which have been urged against the slave-trade, are with little variation applicable to the holding of slaves. He who holds a slave, continues to deprive him of that liberty, which was taken from him on the coast of Africa. And if it were wrong to deprive him of it in the first instance, why not in the second? If this be true, no man has a better right to retain his negro in slavery, than he had to take him from his na- tive African shores. And every man who cannot show, that his negro hath by his voluntary conduct forfeited his liberty, is obligated immediately to manumit him.' ‘ I presume it will not be denied, that to commit theft or robbery every day of a man’s life, is as great a sin as to commit fornication in one instance. But to steal a man or to rob him of his liberty is a greater sin, than to steal his property, or to take it by violence. And to hold a man in a state of slavery, who has a right to his liberty, is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing. The consequence is inev- itable, that other things being the same, to hold a negro slave, unless he has forfeited his liberty, is a greater sin in the. sight of God, than concubinage or fornication.' ‘To convince yourselves, that your information bein^ the same, to hold a negro slave is a greater sin than illi fornication, theft or robbery, you need only bring the matter home to yourselves. I am willing to appeal to your own consciences, whether you would not judge it to be a greater sin for a man to hold you or your child during life in such slavery, as that of the negroes, than for him to indulge in one instance of licentious con- duct, or in one instance to steal or rob. Let conscience speak, and I will submit to its decision.’ * * # * ‘ Thirty years ago, scarcely a man in this country thought either the slave trade or the slavery of negroes * It is to be presumed, that the sentiments of Mr. Edwards were, in the main, the sentiments of the whole Society. He was a leader among; the abolitionists of that day. ill Utl APPENDIX. 375 to be Wrong. But now how many and able advocates in private life, in our legislatures, in Congress, have appeared and have openly and irrefragably pleaded the rights of humanity in this as well as other instances ? Nay, the great body of the people from New-Hamp- shire to Virginia inclusively, have obtained such light, that in all those States, the further importation of slaves is prohibited by law. In Massachusetts and New- Hampshire, slavery is totally abolished.’ * '* * * ‘ This light is still increasing, and in time will effect a total revolution. And if we judge of the future by the past, within fifty years from this time, it ivill be as shame- ful for a man to hold a negro slave, as to be guilty of common robbery or theft.' Yet more ; in 1793, there was a New-Jersey Society for promoting the abolition of slavery. Among other officers it had an acting committee of five members, in Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Morris, Sussex, Hun- terdon, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland Counties. The whole State seems to have been put under an efficient organization. The following is an extract from the preamble to its Constitution : 1 ‘It is our boast, that we live under a government founded on principles of justice and reason, wherein life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are recogniz- ed ns the universal rights of men; and whilst we are mxious to preserve these rights to ourselves, and trans- mit them inviolate, to our posterity, we abhor that in- 1, : onsistent , illiberal, and interested policy, which withholds • 'hose rights from an unfortunate and degraded class of > mr fellow-creatures.' | And in addition to all the rest, I have in my hands 5 he ‘Minutes of the Proceedings of the Fourth Con- . mention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies, es- i ablished in different parts of the United States, assem- iled at Philadelphia, on the third day of May, 1797, ,md continued ’ in session ‘ until the ninth day of the :ame month, inclusive,’— a session of six days. Dele- rates were present from ‘New-York, New-Jersey, 5 ensylvania, Baltimore, Richmond, and Alexandria ; 276 APPENDIX. lie K and societies in various other places are reported as sending no delegates. Now in view of the above facts and extracts, illustra tive of the tone of feeling then prevalent, I ask wheth- er it be not indisputably evident, that, up to the recent discussions, public sentiment, on the subject of slavery, has been going back ? Where were the men two years ago, when Colonization held the monopoly of the pub- lic confidence, that took the high ground of President Edwards in respect to the wickedness of slaveholding ? Where is the Colonizationist that does it now ? Who does not know, that the operation of this scheme on his mind has been to modify and lower down his abhor- rence of slavery, so much at least as to fill him with misgivings at the thought of taking the high ground of Edwards, that the master ought 1 immediately to man- umit ’ his slave, and that not to do it, but to hold him in involuntary servitude is ‘ man-stealing,’ and ‘ a greater sin in the sight of God than concubinage or fornication’? Is it said that Colonization is not answerable for this going back of public sentiment — that the above-men- tioned abolition societies were dead, and public sent! ment gone back before Colonization came into exis tence ? True; but Colonization is answerable for keeping it back. It had gone back, but just as it began to rise again — -just as the public feeling, that had slumber- ed for a little season, began to gather and pent up as it was, to demand some vent, then Colonization came in, proposed to strike off the chains of the captive, and gave the desired vent, but unhappily in such a direction and on the admission of such principles, as, in effect, to leave slavery untouched, and yet put the public mind ™ to rest again, and, to all practical purposes, keep it in the same torpid state from which it was just awaking. The facts in the case were these. The enemies of ^ slavery, both in this country and in England, made strenuous and almost simultaneous efforts for the abo-|l eCl lition of the slave-trade. This they did under the er- roneous impression that, if they could abolish the trade. Ai n APPENDIX. 277 slavery would die of itself. They succeeded in the effort. The slave-trade was abolished by law and measures taken to carry the laws into effect. Of con- sequence the friends of abolition, both here and in England, rested for a time in this, expecting that before long, it would issue in the destruction of slavery. It was during this period, and owing principally to this cause, that the above-mentioned societies became vir- tually dead, and that the tone of public feeling was lowered. The friends of the cause felt, for the time, that the victory was won, and their minds accordingly were put to sleep on the subject. This was true in England as well as here. It was not long, however, before they found out their mistake, and learned after all their efforts, that slavery still survived, and that the slave trade was carried on as briskly as ever, and with even greater cruelty. They saw, therefore, that nothing ef- fectual could be done until slavery itself was abolished. At this, therefore, they must next direct their efforts. But how reach the matter — how accomplish the object ? And with this, public feeling and sentiment began to rise again. In England, the friends of the cause began with amelioration and failed — then tried gradual eman- cipation and failed, and were thus forced to the dilem- ma of consenting to the perpetual existence of slavery, or of going, with all their might, for its immediate and entire abolition. They resolved on the latter, they took their stand, the public mind was aroused so as it had nev- er been before, and in six years, the work was done — the fetters were stricken from every slave in the colonies. In this country the course of events was different. The friends of the cause saw that nothing could be done, except as slavery itself was assailed and demol- ished, but how should they touch that P There was the sacred constitution, each State much legislate for itself, and a thousand other difficulties, so that there seemed to be no practicable way of reaching the sub- ject at all. The public mind therefore remained at rest on the subject longer than in England. Still it lould not be entirely at rest. As England went on with 278 APPENDIX. ab her schemes of amelioration and gradual emancipation, from this and other causes, the feeling began to rise that something must be done here. The feeling rose higher and higher, and gathered strength and strug- gled for vent. Just at that point the Colonization scheme stepped in, let off the pressure of feeling which then existed, and which, but for that, had probably ta- ken the same direction it did in England, and issued in the same glorious results — it let that feeling off, and, from that time to the present, has continued to operate as a kind of waste-gate to public feeling ; or rather, I should say, as the safety-valve of slavery , letting off continually, in one way and another, those feelings of abhorrence and indignation, which, but for it, had by this time, engrossed the public mind, aroused its slum- bering energies to resistless action, and thus swept tli away every vestige of slavery from the land. It has turned off the public eye from the hideousness of sla- very by its honied apologies ; and whatever of public feeling may or would have arisen from time to time, on the subject, it has either quelled, at the outset, by its cries of a ‘ necessary evil,’ an ‘ unfortunate state of so- ciety,’ &c., or let off in the direction of Liberia, instead of allowing it to rise, and swell and concentrate its en- ergies on the system of slavery. It has thus in point of fact, operated continually as a mere safety-valve to slavery — not that it has been so regarded by most of its advocates, but simply that such has been its actual op- eration. In more senses than one, it has operated as a ‘ drain ’ to carry off what had otherwise, by this time, shaken the system to its foundation. I deem it clear, then, that the scheme operates mightily to put back and in keep back public sentiment on the subject, and feel bound, therefore, to abandon it. 6. Because, in present circumstances, its movements do but sanction and encourage the most highhanded op pression. Tiffs it does by the admission of the principle that' emancipation maybe conditioned on expatriation. All its operations go on the admission of this principle. It comes, therefore, with all the authority of the bar. APPENDIX. 279 ! the legislature, the ecclesiastical assembly, the pulpit, : and the press, and begets and sanctions in the public mind the idea, that emancipation on condition of re- moval is right — is all even, that justice demands. It thus sanctions a false principle, and, what is more, a principle, which, in the present aspect of things, seems to be fraught with oppressions and cruelties, well nigh as grievous as those of slavery itself. Witness the legislative acts of Maryland on the subject. Its sum of one hundred thousand dollars for the colonization of people of color, is appropriated on such conditions as make it little better than a bribe to oppression. It is a price put into the hand of the oppressor, by which to force his unoffending and trodden-down brother to the execrable alternative of wearing the yoke of ser- vitude, or quitting his country. For say what you may about ‘ their own consent, ’/acts warrant the assertion that in many cases, there is no consent, save such an one as that by which the Indians have been driven to the west of the Mississippi — a mere, choice of evils. And this, be it remembered, is but the legitimate result — nay, is but the acting out of that one principle, ad- mitted and sanctioned by all the operations of the col- onizing scheme 1 — that emancipation on condition of re- moval is right — is all even, that in our peculiar circum- stances, justice demands. The scheme thus, whether wittingly or not, does in fact become the parent of the most high-handed oppression. 7. Because it throws innumerable obstacles in the way of the improvement of the free people of color, in this country. This it does, by begetting and sanc- tioning the idea in the public mind, that the colored man cannot be elevated here, but, if at all, must be C elevated in Africa or elsewhere. This idea, sanction- p ed as it is by the simple operation of the scheme, is as wicked and disastrous as the one just specified. It is : part and parcel of the same. It is fatal to effective effort in behalf of the colored man on the part of the white, and equally fatal to all ambition and effort on the part of the colored man in his own behalf. It is 280 APPENDIX. an idea that sunders all the sinews of action at once and forever/ * Since writing the above, I have met with the following ex- il cellent remarks by Gerrit Smith, Esq. upon the ‘process’ pur- tl sued with great success, in Peterboro’, N. Y., ‘ for reforming the j drunkard.’ i ' Benevolence is the soul of the enterprise. * * * * Those of my neighbors, who have undertaken, in reliance on God, the 0 work of reforming drunkards, do not feel and act towards those p wretched beings as they once did. * * * * Formerly they dcspis- j ed the drunkard. Now they pity him. Now they feel, that no j class of men are entitled to draw so largely on their compassions as drunkards ; and especially do they feel this, when they con- sider how much they have themselves done to make drunkards. 1 ***** Formerly they repulsed the drunkard from their doors ; i neglected his sufferings; and wherever they met him, manifested s their contempt and abhorrence of him. Now they are kind to him ; furnish him with employment ; are tender of his feelings, “ and attentive to his wants. The drunkard’s self-despair arises, * in a great measure, from the conviction, that he is an outcast I from the public respect and sympathy. Of this we have been ; aware in our efforts to reform him ; and we have sought to show ^ him, that, as to ourselves at least, this conviction shall be ground- less. We have taken grdat pains to persuade him, that we are 1 his friends, and that every improvement in his habits, however I slight, would proportionally and promptly elevate him in our j esteem. We have also cheerfully consented to practice every self-denial, by which we could gain his confidence. ***** The drunkard is affected by this self-denial for his sake, and he straightway opens his heart to those who practice it.’ And in this way, the work of reformation, hopeless as it was once re- I garded, is accomplished. Mr. Smith gives an account of thirty- 1 eight drunkards, that have thus been reclaimed in his immediate neighborhood. This shows what benevolence can do. Aided from on high, it can work most marvellous and unexpected changes. Aye, it can make the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid. Suppose then, by a similar 'process,’ benevolence should atttempt the elevation of the col- ored people in our land. Let those who undertake the work, cease to feel and act toward these wretched beings as they now do. Instead of despising the colored man, let them pity him, and feel that no class of men are entitled to draw so largely on their compassions, especially, when they consider how much they have themselves done to make them degraded. And far- ther, instead of repulsing the colored man from their doors, neg- lecting his sufferings, and wherever they meet him, manifesting their contempt and abhorrence of him, let them be kind to him, APPENDIX. 28 i I omit an extended notice of the objection so often and so justly urged, that the whole tendency and oper- ation of this scheme is to deepen and perpetuate, and at ! the same time, sanction, and excuse, and even sanctify that ungodly prejudice, which is already so rife in the community, and so pregnant with mischief to its unof fending victims. No man can over-estimate the weight of this objection. But I must not enlarge upon it. I must pass from the tendencies of the scheme in this country to its tendencies in Africa. I object to Colonization I then, 8. Because, it promises for Africa, what it never has and never can perform — viz. the introduction of civili- zation and Christianity among the natives. This is mis- sionary work, and if ever done, must be done by mission- aries set apart expressly to it, and not by men or minis- ters, such as Teague and Waring and several others that might be named, who will lay aside their sacerdotal robes the moment they reach their field of labor, and turn merchants, and get a living by selling rum, spear- pointed knives, powder and guns. These are not the men, nor these the means of civilizing and christianiz- ing any people. And besides, such is the nature of man, such the nature of the case, that colonies, of the very best ma- furnish him with employment, be tender of bis feelings, and at- tentive to his wants. The colored man’s ‘self-despair arises, in a great measure, from the conviction that he is an outcast from the public respect and sympathy.’ Of this, let those that endeav- or his elevation be aware, and therefore, in their efforts, seek to show him, that, as to themselves at least, this conviction shall henceforth be groundless. Let them take great pains to per- suade him, that they are his friends, and that every improvement in his habits, however slight, instead of subjecting him to new insults, will proportionally and promptly elevate him in their esteem. And finally, let them cheerfully’ consent to practice every self-denial bv which they can gain his confidence, and, rely upon it, he will be affected thereby, and will straightway open his heart to those who practice it, and what then, think you, will have become of the now prevalent idea, that the colored man cannot be elevated in this country ? It will have perished from the mind, or be remembered with wonder and abhorrence. Dr 2 282 APPENDIX. terials, never will or can be made the means of civiliz- ing- and christianizing the natives of a country. The very nature of the enterprise is such, and all history proves it, that the colonists and natives will have separ- ate interests — so separate as to prevent their mutual amalgamation. The line of distinction will always be kept up, and so long as it is, there is an end to all civ- ilization and Christianity. This was the fact with these American colonies. This is the fact in Liberia now. We have it on the authority of the Rev. J. B. Pinney, the Presbyterian missionary, and now acting Governor of the Colony. And what does he say — that the distinction in question does not exist ? Hear him — ‘ Nothing has been done for the natives, hitherto, by the colonists, except to educate a few who were in their families in the capacity of servants. The natives are, as to wealth and intellectual cultivation, related to the colonists as the negro in America is to the ivhiic man — and this fact, added to their mode of dress, which consists of nothing usually, but a handkerchief around the loins, leads to the same distinction as exists in Amer- ica between colors. A colonist of any dye (and many there are of a darker hue than the Vey, or Dey, or Croo, or Bassoo) would, if at all respectable, think himself degraded by marrying a native.’ Here then you have the distinction in all its strength — and more, you have its results. ‘Nothing has been done for the natives, except,’ &c. ! The truth is, the whole tendency of colonies is, notto incorporate the natives with them- selves, but to exist as separate communities, having sep- arate interests, and so doing, to drive the natives back, and back, and back to ultimate extermination. Nor can this tendency be ever effectually counteracted. How- ever circumstances may vary in different cases, yet the general principles of the operation, and therefore its general tendencies, are and must evermore be the same. Colonization is a good measure to people an uninhab- ited country; or, when a people, like the Canaanites of old, have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and God wishes to inflict summary punishment on them'. APPENDIX. 283 then it is a good measure to extirminate and cut them off. It answers such purposes well, but is useless, and worse than useless, as to all purposes of reform and salvation. 9. Because it aims at securing two incompatible ob- jects — viz. the end, or gratification of prejudice and of benevolence. Prejudice says, send the people of color to Africa, and get them out of my way. They can’t be'elevated here, neither do I want they should be. Send them off’. Benevolence says, ‘ convert Africa to Christ.’ Be- nevolence aims at one object — the conversion of Africa to Christ. Prejudice aims at another — the removal of the people of color. Can loth objects be secured at the same time and by the same means ? Can benevolence secure her end at the same time and by the same means, by which prejudice secures hers? Can Christ and Belial enter into copartnership and each have his own way and secure his own ends ? If Africa is to be christianized, it must be done by appropriate means. What madness to think 01 doing it by inappropriate means ! Who would send the ig- norant and degraded — the dregs of society — to do it ? If done at all, then, it must be done, (1 ) by means of colored and other missionaries and teachers, qualified J'or the work here in America, and going forth to it in ■the spirit of Christ ; and (2), if the colony at Liberia is to aid in this work, it must be increased slowly, and by the addition of such persons and such only, as are disposed and qualified to aid it. In a word, it must be strictly and truly the handmaid of benevolence and not the great lazar-house of prejudice, into which it is to empty its victims by thousands. In this way Benev- olence might secure her object. If Prejudice is to have her way and secure her object, then the colored people, unfit (as the Colonization Society declares) to remain, and incapable of being elevated here — these, the dregs of society, are to be and must be disgorged by thousands on the shores of Africa! ! Yes — prejudice must disgorge herself of 284 APPENDIX. more than sixty thousand* of her victims every year, for many years to come, or she can never secure her object and get her hated victims outof the w’ay. But let her put into her colony at Liberia only one thousand a year and the colony is ruined and the ends of benev- olence defeated. Set down 1000 new emigrants a year into that thriving seaport New Bedford — could New Bedford live ? The town would be a state pau- per in five years. The colony is growing too fast now. Make it then the open receptacle of Prejudice’s countless victims, and it ceases to be the handmaid of benevolence, and becomes the lazar-house of prejudice, — the curse of curses to oppressed and bleeding Africa. For these and other similar reasons, I have been con- strained to withdraw my confidence and co-operation from this scheme. It is a scheme, in which I was once deeply interested. I have spoken, and preached, and written, and taken contributions in its behalf. I did not then understand the real nature and tendency of the scheme. I meant well in espousing it, but I now see my error and my sin ; and though it was a sin of igno- rance, still I desire to repent of it, and to send out this little book, to speak for the oppressed and vindicate their cause, that I may thereby do something, to make rep- aration for the injury done by former neglect and error. * This is the present annual increase. FINIS. Date Due Library Bureau Cat. HO. 1137 D004386120 _