CHAPTER V.
ANTI-SLAVERY METHODS.

The Antiquity of Anti-slavery Sentiment.—Benjamin Lundy's Opposition to Slavery in the South and at the North.—He establishes the "Genius of Universal Emancipation."—His Great Sacrifices and Marvellous Work in the Cause of Emancipation.—William Lloyd Garrison edits a Paper at Bennington, Vermont.—He pens a Petition to Congress for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.—Garrison the Peerless Leader of the Anti-slavery Agitation.—Extract from a Speech delivered by Daniel O'Connell at Cork, Ireland.—Increase of Anti-slavery Societies in the Country.—Charles Sumner delivers a Speech on the "Anti-slavery Duties of the Whig Party."—Marked Events of 1846.—Sumner the Leader of the Political Party.—Heterodox Anti-slavery Party.—Its Sentiments.—Horace Greeley the Leader of the Economic Anti-slavery Party.—The Aggressive Anti-slavery Party.—Its Leaders.—The Colonization Anti-slavery Society.—American Colonization Society.—Manumitted Negroes colonize on the West Coast of Africa.—A Bill establishing a Line of Mail Steamers to the Coast of Africa.—It provides for the Suppression of the Slave-trade, Promotion of Commerce, and the Colonization of Free Negroes.—Extracts from the Press warmly urging the Passage of the Bill.—The Underground Railroad Organization.—Its Efficiency in freeing Slaves.—Anti-slavery Literature.—It exposes the True Character of Slavery.—"Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe, pleaded the Cause of the Slave in Twenty Different Languages.—The Influence of "Impending Crisis."

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ANTI-SLAVERY sentiment is as old as the human family. It antedates the Bible; it was eloquent in the days of our Saviour; it preached the Gospel of Humanity in the palaces of the Cæsars and Antonies; its arguments shook the thrones of Europe during the Mediæval ages. And when the doctrine of property in man was driven out of Europe as an exile, and found a home in this New World in the West, the ancient and time-honored anti-slavery sentiment combined all that was good in brain, heart, and civilization, and hurled itself, with righteous indignation, against the institution of slavery, the perfected curse of the ages! And how wonderful that God should have committed the task of blotting out this terrible curse to Americans! And what "vessels of honor" they were whom the dear Lord chose "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound!" Statesmen like Franklin, Rush, Hamilton, and Jay; divines like Hopkins, Edwards, and Stiles; philanthropists like Woolman, Lay, and Benezet! And the good Quakers—God bless them!—or Friends, which has so much tender meaning in it, did much to hasten the morning of freedom. In the poor Negro slave they saw Christ "an hungered," and they gave Him meat; "thirsty," and they gave Him drink; "a stranger," and they took Him in; "naked," and they clothed Him; "sick," and they visited Him; "in prison," and they came unto Him. Verily they knew their "neighbor."

They began their work of philanthropy as early as 1780. In Maryland,[12] Pennsylvania, and New Jersey the Friends emancipated all their slaves. At a single monthly meeting in Pennsylvania eleven hundred slaves were set at liberty. Nearly every Northern State had its anti-slavery society. They were charged with the humane task of ameliorating the condition of the Negro, and scattering modest literary documents that breathed the spirit of Christian love.

But the first apostle of Abolition Agitation was Benjamin Lundy. He was the John Baptist to the new era that was to witness the doing away of the law of bondage and the ushering in of the dispensation of universal brotherhood. He raised his voice against slave-keeping in Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, and Maryland. In 1821 he established an anti-slavery paper called "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," which he successively published in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington City,—and frequently en route during the tours he took through the country, wherever he could find a press. Once he made a tour of the free States, like another Apostle Paul, stirring up the love of the brethren for those who were in bonds, lecturing, obtaining subscribers, writing editorials, getting them printed where he could, stopping by the wayside to read his "proof," and directing and mailing his papers at the nearest post-office. Then, packing up his "column-rules," type, "heading," and "directing-book," he would journey on, a lone, solitary "Friend." He said in 1830:—

"I have, within the period above mentioned (ten years), sacrificed several thousands of dollars of my own hard earnings; I have travelled upwards of five thousand miles on foot and more than twenty thousand in other ways; have visited nineteen States of this Union, and held more than two hundred public meetings; have performed two voyages to the West Indies, by which means the emancipation of a considerable number of slaves has been effected, and I hope the way paved for the enfranchisement of many more."

He was a slight-built, wiry figure; but inflamed by a holy zeal for the cause of the oppressed, he was almost unconscious of the vast amount of work he was accomplishing. As a Quaker his methods were moderate. His journalistic voice was not a whirlwind nor the fire, but the still, small voice of persuasiveness. Though it was published in a slave mart, his paper, a monthly, was regarded as perfectly harmless. But away up in Vermont there was being edited, at Bennington, a paper called "The Journal of the Times." It was started chiefly to advocate the claims of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency, but much space was devoted to the subject of anti-slavery. The young editor of the above-named journal had had experience with several other papers previous to this—"The Free Press," of Newburyport, Mass., and "The National Philanthropist," of Boston. "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," was among the exchanges of "The Journal of the Times," and its sentiments greatly enthused the heart of the Vermont editor, who, under God, was destined to become the indefatigable leader of the Anti-slavery Movement in America, William Lloyd Garrison! To his advocacy of "temperance and peace" young Garrison added another excellent principle, intense hatred of slavery. He penned a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, which he sent to all the postmasters in Vermont, beseeching them to secure signatures. As the postmasters of those days paid no postage for their letters, many names were secured. The petition created a genuine sensation in Congress. The "Journal of Commerce" about this time said:

"It appears from an article in 'The Journal of the Times,' a newspaper of some promise, just established in Bennington, Vt., that a petition to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia is about to be put in circulation in that State.

"The idea is an excellent one, and we hope it will meet with success. That Congress has a right to abolish slavery in that District seems reasonable, though we fear it will meet with some opposition, so very sensitive are the slave-holding community to every movement relating to the abolition of slavery. At the same time, it would furnish to the world a beautiful pledge of their sincerity if they would unite with the non-slave-holding States, and by a unanimous vote proclaim freedom to every soul within sight of the capital of this free government. We could then say, and the world would then admit our pretence, that the voice of the nation is against slavery, and throw back upon Great Britain that disgrace which is of right and justice her exclusive property."

Charmed by the originality, boldness, and humanity of Garrison, the meek little Quaker went to Boston by stage; and then, with staff in hand, walked to Bennington, Vt., to see the young man whose great heart-throbs for the slave he had felt in "The Journal of the Times." There, in the Green Mountains of Vermont, swept by the free air, and mantled by the pure snow, the meek Quaker communed with the strict Baptist, and they both took sweet counsel together. The bright torch that Garrison had held up to the people in Vermont was to be transferred to the people of Baltimore, who were "sitting in darkness." So, as a result of this conference, Garrison agreed to join Lundy in conducting "The Genius of Universal Emancipation." Accordingly, in September, 1829, Garrison took the principal charge of the Journal, enlarged it, and issued it as a weekly. Lundy was to travel, lecture, and solicit subscribers in its interest, and contribute to its editorial columns as he could from time to time.

Both men were equally against slavery: Lundy for gradual emancipation and colonization; but Garrison for immediate and unconditional emancipation. Garrison said of this difference: "But I wasn't much help to him, for he had been all for gradual emancipation, and as soon as I began to look into the matter, I became convinced that immediate abolition was the doctrine to be preached, and I scattered his subscribers like pigeons."

But the good "Friend" contemplated the destructive zeal of his young helper with the complacency so characteristic of his class, standing by his doctrine that every one should follow "his own light." But it was not long before Garrison made a bold attack upon one of the vilest features of the slave-trade, which put an end to his paper, and resulted in his arrest, trial for libel, conviction, and imprisonment. The story runs as follows:

"A certain ship, the 'Francis Todd,' from Newburyport, came to Baltimore and took in a load of slaves for the New Orleans market. All the harrowing cruelties and separations which attend the rending asunder of families and the sale of slaves, were enacted under the eyes of the youthful philanthropist, and in a burning article he denounced the inter-State slave-trade as piracy, and piracy of an aggravated and cruel kind, inasmuch as those born and educated in civilized and Christianized society have more sensibility to feel the evils thus inflicted than imbruted savages. He denounced the owners of the ship and all the parties in no measured terms, and expressed his determination to 'cover with thick infamy all who were engaged in the transaction.'"

Then, to be sure, the sleeping tiger was roused, for there was a vigor and power in the young editor's eloquence that quite dissipated the good-natured contempt which had hitherto hung round the paper. He was indicted for libel, found guilty, of course, condemned, imprisoned in the cell of a man who had been hanged for murder. His mother at this time was not living, but her heroic, undaunted spirit still survived in her son, who took the baptism of persecution and obloquy not merely with patience, but with the joy which strong spirits feel in endurance. He wrote sonnets on the walls of his prison, and by his cheerful and engaging manners made friends of his jailer and family, who did everything to render his situation as comfortable as possible. Some considerable effort was made for his release, and much interest was excited in various quarters for him.[13]

Finally, the benevolent Arthur Tappan came forward and paid the exorbitant fine imposed upon Garrison, and he went forth a more inveterate foe of slavery. This incident gave the world one of the greatest reformers since Martin Luther. Without money, social influence, or friends, Garrison lifted again the standard of liberty. He began a lecture tour in which God taught him the magnitude of his work. Everywhere mouths were sealed and public halls closed against him. At length, on January 1, 1831, he issued the first number of "The Liberator," which he continued to edit for thirty-five years, and discontinued it only when every slave in America was free! His methods of assailing the modern Goliath of slavery were thus tersely put:

"I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill, and in the birthplace of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe; yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern oppressors tremble; let their secret abettors tremble; let all the enemies of the persecuted Black tremble. Assenting to the self-evident truths maintained in the American Declaration of Independence,—'that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.

. . . . . . . . .

"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present! I am in earnest. I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be Heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

"It is pretended that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question, my influence, humble as it is, is felt at this moment to a considerable extent; and it shall be felt in coming years—not perniciously, but beneficially,—not as a curse, but as a blessing; and POSTERITY WILL BEAR TESTIMONY THAT I WAS RIGHT. I desire to thank God that He enables me to disregard 'the fear of man which bringeth a snare,' and to speak truth in its simplicity and power; and I here close with this dedication:

. . . . . . . . .

"Oppression! I have seen thee, face to face,
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow;
By thy soul-withering glance I fear not now—
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place,
Of deep abhorrence! Scorning the disgrace
Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow,
I also kneel—but with far other vow
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base;
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins,
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand,
Thy brutalizing sway—till Afric's chains
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land,
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod;
Such is the vow I take—so help me, God!"

There never was a grander declaration of war against slavery. There never was a more intrepid leader than William Lloyd Garrison. Words more prophetic were never uttered by human voice. His paper did indeed make "Southern oppression tremble," while its high resolves and sublime sentiments found a response in the hearts of many people. It is pleasant to record that this first impression of "The Liberator" brought a list of twenty-five subscribers from Philadelphia, backed by $50 in cash, sent by James Forten, a Colored man!

One year from the day he issued the first number of his paper, William Lloyd Garrison, at the head of eleven others, organized The American Anti-Slavery Society. It has been indicated already that he was in favor of immediate emancipation; but, in addition to that principle, he took the ground that slavery was supported by the Constitution; that it was "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell"; that as a Christian it was his duty to obey God rather than man; that his conscience was paramount to the Constitution, and, therefore, his duty was to work outside of the Constitution for the destruction of slavery. Thus did Garrison establish the first Anti-slavery Society in this country to adopt aggressive measures and demand immediate and unconditional emancipation. It is not claimed that his methods were original. Daniel O'Connell was perhaps the greatest agitator of the present century. In a speech delivered at Cork, he said:—

"I speak of liberty in commendation. Patriotism is a virtue, but it can be selfish. Give me the great and immortal Bolivar, the savior and regenerator of his country. He found her a province, and he has made her a nation. His first act was to give freedom to the slaves upon his own estate. (Hear, hear.) In Colombia, all castes and all colors are free and unshackled. But how I like to contrast him with the far-famed Northern heroes! George Washington! That great and enlightened character—the soldier and the statesman—had but one blot upon his character. He had slaves, and he gave them liberty when he wanted them no longer. (Loud cheers.) Let America, in the fulness of her pride wave on high her banner of freedom and its blazing stars. I point to her, and say: There is one foul blot upon it: you have negro slavery. They may compare their struggles for freedom to Marathon and Leuctra, and point to the rifleman with his gun, amidst her woods and forests, shouting for liberty and America. In the midst of their laughter and their pride, I point them to the negro children screaming for the mother from whose bosom they have been torn. America, it is a foul stain upon your character! (Cheers.) This conduct kept up by men who had themselves to struggle for freedom, is doubly unjust. Let them hoist the flag of liberty, with the whip and rack on one side, and the star of freedom upon the other. The Americans are a sensitive people; in fifty-four years they have increased their population from three millions to twenty millions; they have many glories that surround them, but their beams are partly shorn, for they have slaves. (Cheers.) Their hearts do not beat so strong for liberty as mine.... I will call for justice, in the name of the living God, and I shall find an echo in the breast of every human being. (Cheers.)"[14]

But while Garrison's method of agitation was not original, it was new to this country. He spoke as one having authority, and his fiery earnestness warmed the frozen feeling of the Northern people, and startled the entire South. One year from the formation of the society above alluded to (December 4, 5, and 6, 1833), a National Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Philadelphia, with sixty delegates from ten States! In 1836 there were 250 auxiliary anti-slavery societies in thirteen States; and eighteen months later they had increased to 1,006. Money came to these societies from every direction, and the good work had been fairly started.

William Lloyd Garrison created a party, and it will be known in history as the Garrisonian Party.

While Mr. Garrison had taken the position that slavery was constitutional, there were those who held the other view, that slavery was unconstitutional, and, therefore, upon constitutional grounds should be abolished.

The Whig party was the nearest to the anti-slavery society of any of the political organizations of the time. It had promised, in convention assembled, "to promote all constitutional measures for the overthrow of slavery, and to oppose at all times, with uncompromising zeal and firmness, any further addition of slave-holding States to this Union, out of whatever territory formed.[15] But the party never got beyond this. Charles Sumner was a member of the Whig party, but was greatly disturbed about its indifference on the question of slavery. In 1846 he delivered a speech before the Whig convention of Massachusetts on "The Anti-Slavery Duties of the Whig Party." He declared his positive opposition to slavery; said that he intended to attack the institution on constitutional grounds; that slavery was not a "covenant with death or an agreement with hell"; that he intended to do his work for the slave inside of the Constitution. He said:—

"There is in the Constitution no compromise on the subject of slavery of a character not to be reached legally and constitutionally, which is the only way in which I propose to reach it. Wherever power and jurisdiction are secured to Congress, they may unquestionably be exercised in conformity with the Constitution. And even in matters beyond existing powers and jurisdiction there is a constitutional mode of action. The Constitution contains an article pointing out how at any time amendments may be made thereto. This is an important article, giving to the Constitution a progressive character, and allowing it to be moulded to suit new exigencies and new conditions of feeling. The wise framers of this instrument did not treat the country as a Chinese foot, never to grow after its infancy, but anticipated the changes incident to its growth."

He proposed to the Whigs as their rallying watchword, the "Repeal of slavery under the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government." Discussing the methods, he continued:—

"The time has passed when this can be opposed on constitutional grounds. It will not be questioned by any competent authority that Congress may by express legislation abolish slavery, first, in the District of Columbia; second, in the territories, if there should be any; third, that it may abolish the slave-trade on the high seas between the States; fourth, that it may refuse to admit any new State with a constitution sanctioning slavery. Nor can it be doubted that the people of the free States may, in the manner pointed out by the Constitution, proceed to its amendment."

Thus did Charles Sumner lay down a platform for a Political Abolition Party, and of such a party he became the laurelled champion and leader.

The year 1846 was marked by the most bitter political discussion; Garrison the Agitator, the Mexican war, and other issues had greatly exercised the people. At a meeting held in Tremont Temple, Boston, on the 5th of November, 1846, Mr. Sumner took occasion to give his reasons for bolting the nominee of the Whig party for Congress, Mr. Winthrop.[16] Mr. Sumner said that he had never heard Mr. Winthrop's voice raised for the slave; and that, judging from the past, he never expected to hear it. "Will he oppose," asked Mr. Sumner, "at all times, without compromise, any further addition of slave-holding States? Here, again, if we judge him by the past, he is wanting. None can forget that in 1845, on the 4th of July, a day ever sacred to memories of freedom, in a speech at Faneuil Hall, he volunteered, in advance of any other Northern Whig, to receive Texas with a welcome into the family of States, although on that very day she was preparing a constitution placing slavery beyond the reach of Legislative change."[17]

Here, then, was another party created—a Political Abolition Party—for the suppression of slavery.

In 1848, Mr. Sumner left the Whig party, and gave his magnificent energies and splendid talents to the organization of the Free-Soil Party, upon the principles he had failed to educate the Whigs to accept.

Charles Sumner was in the United States Senate, where "his words were clothed with the majesty of Massachusetts." The young lawyer who had upbraided Winthrop for his indifference respecting the slave, and opposed the Mexican war, was consistent in the Senate, and in harmony with his early love for humanity. He closed his great speech on freedom national, slavery sectional, in the following incisive language:—

"At the risk of repetition, but for the sake of clearness, review now this argument, and gather it together. Considering that slavery is of such an offensive character that it can find sanction only in positive law, and that it has no such 'positive' sanction in the Constitution; that the Constitution, according to its Preamble, was ordained to 'establish justice,' and 'secure the blessings of liberty'; that in the convention which framed it, and also elsewhere at the time, it was declared not to 'sanction'; that according to the Declaration of Independence, and the address of the Continental Congress, the nation was dedicated to 'Liberty' and the 'rights of human nature'; that according to the principles of common law, the Constitution must be interpreted openly, actively, and perpetually for Freedom; that according to the decision of the Supreme Court, it acts upon slaves, not as property, but as persons; that at the first organization of the national government under Washington, slavery had no national favor, existed nowhere on the national territory, beneath the national flag, but was openly condemned by the nation, the Church, the colleges, and literature of the times; and finally, that according to an amendment of the Constitution, the national government can only exercise powers delegated to it, among which there is none to support slavery;—considering these things, sir, it is impossible to avoid the single conclusion that slavery is in no respect a national institution, and that the Constitution nowhere upholds property in man."

This speech set men in the North to thinking. Sumner was now the acknowledged leader of the only political party in the country that had a wholesome anti-slavery plank in its platform.

Daniel Webster and the Whig party were in their grave. After the Democratic Convention had met and adjourned without mentioning Webster, a Northern farmer exclaimed when he had read the news, "The South never pay their slaves!"

During all these years of agitation and struggle, the pulpit of New England maintained an unbroken silence on the slavery question. Doctor Lyman Beecher was the acknowledged leader of the orthodox pulpit. Dr. William E. Channing was the champion of Unitarianism and the leader of the heterodox pulpit. Dr. Beecher was fond of controversy, enjoyed a battle of words upon every thing but the slavery question. He proclaimed the doctrine of "immediate repentance"; was earnest in his entreaties to men to quit their "cups" at once; but on the slavery question was a slow coach. He was for gradual emancipation. He frowned not a little upon the vigorous editorials in "The Liberator." He regarded Mr. Garrison as a hot-head; "having zeal, but not according to knowledge." Abolitionism received no encouragement from this venerable divine.

Dr. Channing was a gentle, pure-hearted, and humane sort of a man. He dreaded controversy, and shunned the agitation and agitators of anti-slavery.

The lesser lights followed the example of these bright stars in the churches.

But all could not keep silent,—for slavery needed apologists in the North. Stewart, of Andover; Alexander, of Princeton; Fisk, of Wilberham, and many other leading ministers endeavored to prove the Divine Origin and Biblical Authority of Slavery.

The silence of the pulpit drove out many anti-slavery men who, up to this time, had been hoping for aid from this quarter. Many went out of the Church temporarily, hoping that the scales would drop from the eyes of the preachers ere long; but others never returned-were driven to infidelity and bitter hatred of the Christian Church. Dr. Albert Barnes said: "That there was no power out of the Church that would sustain slavery an hour if it were not sustained in it."

Among the leaders of the HETERODOX ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY—those who attacked the reticency, silent acquiescence, or act of support the Church gave slavery,—were Parker Pillsbury, James G. Birney, Stephen S. Foster, and Samuel Brooke. The platform of this party was clearly defined by Mr. Pillsbury:—

"That slavery finds its surest and sternest defence in the prevailing religion of the country, is no longer questionable. Let it be driven from the Church, with the burning seal of its reprobation and execration stamped on its iron brow, and its fate is fixed forever. Only while its horrors are baptized and sanctified in the name of Christianity, can it maintain an existence.

"The Anti-Slavery movement has unmasked the character of the American Church. Our religion has been found at war with the interests of humanity and the laws of God. And it is more than time the world was awakened to its unhallowed influence on the hopes and happiness of man, while it makes itself the palladium of the foulest iniquity ever perpetrated in the sight of heaven."[18]

This was a bold movement, but it was doubtless a sword that was as dangerous to those who essayed to handle it, as to the Church whose destruction it was intended to effect. The doctrine that was to sustain and inspire this party can be briefly stated in a sentence: THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD, AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.

Once outside the orthodox church, Theodore Parker gave himself wholly to this idea. He preached the "Gospel of Humanity"; and, standing upon a broad platform, preaching a broad doctrine, bound by no ecclesiastical law, his claims to a place in the history of his county, and in the gratitude of his countrymen can be fairly audited when his work for the emancipation of evangelical churches from the thraldom of slavery is considered. He did more in his day to rupture the organic and sympathetic relation existing between the Northern and Southern churches, and, thereby, hasten the struggle between the sections for the extension or extinction of domestic slavery, than any other man in America. The men who found themselves on the outside of the Church gathered about Parker, and applauded his invective and endorsed his arraignment of the churches that had placed their hands upon their mouths, and their mouths in the dust, before the slave power. He touched a chord in the human heart, and it yielded rich music. He educated the pew until an occasional voice broke the long silence respecting the bondman of the land. First, the ministers were not so urgent in their invitations to Southern ministers to occupy their pulpits. This coldness was followed by feeble prayer and moderate speech on behalf of those who were bound. And the churches themselves began to feel that they were "an offence" to the world. Every note of sympathy that fell from the pulpit was amplified into a grand chorus of pity for the slave. And thus the leaven of human sympathy hid in the orthodox church of New England, leavened the whole body until a thousand pulpits were ablaze with a righteous condemnation of the wrongs of the slaves. Even Dr. Channing came to the conclusion that something should be "So done as not to put in jeopardy the peace of the slave-holding States!"[19]

THE ECONOMIC ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY was headed by the industrious and indomitable Horace Greeley. His claim to the feelings of humanity should never be disputed; but as a practical man who sought to solve the riddle of every-day life he placed his practical views in the foreground. As a political economist he reasoned that slave labor was degrading to free labor; that free labor was better than slave labor, and, therefore, he most earnestly desired its abolition. Wherever you turn in his writings this idea gives the edge to all his arguments concerning slavery. "But slavery," wrote Mr. Greeley, "primarily considered, has still another aspect—that of a natural relation of simplicity to cunning, of ignorance to knowledge, of weakness to power. Thomas Carlyle, before his melancholy decline and fall into devil-worship, truly observed, that the capital mistake of Rob Roy was his failure to comprehend that it was cheaper to buy the beef he required in the Grassmarket at Glasgow than to obtain it without price, by harrying the lowland farms. So the first man whoever imbibed or conceived the fatal delusion that it was more advantageous to him, or to any human being, to procure whatever his necessities or his appetites required by address and scheming than by honest work—by the unrequited rather than the fairly and faithfully recompensed toil of his fellow-preachers—was, in essence and in heart, a slave-holder, and only awaited opportunity to become one in deed and practice.... It is none the less true, however, that ancient civilization, in its various national developments, was habitually corrupted, debauched, and ultimately ruined by slavery, which rendered labor dishonorable, and divided society horizontally into a small caste of the wealthy, educated, refined, and independent, and a vast hungry, sensual, thriftless, and worthless populace; rendered impossible the preservation of republican liberty and of legalized equality, even among the nominally free. Diogenes, with his lantern, might have vainly looked, through many a long day, among the followers of Marius, or Catiline, or Cæsar, for a specimen of the poor but virtuous and self-respecting Roman citizen of the days of Cincinnatus, or even of Regulus."[20]

But Mr. Greeley's philosophy was as destructive as his logic was defective. He wished the slave free, not because he loved him; but because of the deep concern he had for the welfare of the free, white working-men of America. He was willing the Negro should be free, but never suggested any plan of relief for his social condition, or prescribed for his spiritual and intellectual health. He handled the entire Negro problem with the icy fingers of the philosopher, and always applied the flinty logic of abstract political economy. He was an anti-slavery advocate, but not an abolitionist. He was opposed to slavery, as a system at war with the social and commercial prosperity of the nation; but so far as the humanity of the question, in reaching out after the slave as an injured member of society, was concerned, he was silent.

THE AGGRESSIVE ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY had its birth in the pugnacious brains of E. P. Lovejoy, James G. Birney, Cassius M. Clay, and John Brown. All of the anti-slavery parties had taught the doctrine of non-resistance; that if "thy enemy smite thee on thy cheek, turn the other also." But there were a few men who believed they were possessed of sacred rights, and that it was their duty to defend them, even with their lives. It was not a popular doctrine; and yet a conscientious few practised it with sublime courage whenever occasion required. In 1836 James G. Birney, editor of The Philanthropist, published at Cincinnati, Ohio, defended his press, as best he could, against a mob, who finally destroyed it. And on the 7th of November, 1837, the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy sealed the sacred doctrine of the liberty of the press with his precious blood in the defence of his printing-press at Alton, Illinois. Cassius M. Clay went armed, and insisted upon his right to freely and peaceably discuss the cause of anti-slavery.

But these men only laid down a great, fundamental truth; it was given to John Brown to write the lesson upon the hearts of the American people, so that they were enabled, a few years later, to practise the doctrine of resistance, and preserve the Nation against the bloody aggressions of the Southern Confederacy.

THE COLONIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY ante-dated any of the other organizations. Benjamin Lundy was one of the earliest advocates of colonization. The object of colonizationists was to transport to Liberia, on the West Coast of Africa, all manumitted slaves. Only free Negroes were to be colonized. It was claimed by the advocates of the scheme that this was the only hope of the free Negro; that the proscription everywhere directed against his social and intellectual endeavors cramped and lamed him in the race of life; that in Liberia he could build his own government, schools, and business; and there would be nothing to hinder him in his ambition for the highest places in Church or State. Moreover, they claimed that the free Negro owed something to his benighted brethren who were still in pagan darkness; that a free Negro government on the West Coast of Africa could exert a missionary influence upon the natives, and thus the evangelization of Africa could be effected by the free Negro himself.[21]

To this method Henry Clay, of Kentucky, Horace Mann, of Massachusetts; Rev. Howard Malcom, of Pennsylvania; Rev. R. R. Gurley, of New York; and many other persons of distinction, gave their endorsement and assistance. The American Colonization Society was organized in 1817. Its earliest supporters were from the Southern and Middle States. A fair idea can be had of the character of the men who sustained the cause of colonization by an examination of the following list of officers elected in March, 1834.

"President.—James Madison, of Virginia.

"Vice-Presidents.—Chief-Justice Marshall; General Lafayette, of France, Hon. Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia; Hon. Henry Clay, of Lexington, Kentucky; Hon. John C. Herbert, of Maryland; Robert Ralston, Esq., of Philadelphia; Gen. John Mason, of Georgetown, D. C.; Samuel Bayard, Esq., of New Jersey; Isaac McKim, Esq., of Maryland; Gen. John Hartwell Cocke, of Virginia; Rt. Rev. Bishop White, of Pennsylvania; Hon. Daniel Webster, of Boston; Hon. Charles F. Mercer, of Virginia; Jeremiah Day, D.D., of Yale College; Hon. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania; Bishop McKendree; Philip E. Thomas, Esq., of Maryland; Dr. Thomas C. James, of Philadelphia; Hon. John Cotton Smith, of Connecticut; Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; Hon. Louis McLane, of Washington City; Gerrit Smith, of New York; J. H. M'Clure, Esq., of New Jersey; Gen. Alexander Macomb, of Washington City; Moses Allen, Esq., of New York; Gen. Walter Jones, of Washington City; F. S. Key, Esq., of Georgetown, D. C.; Samuel H. Smith, Esq., of Washington City; Joseph Gales, Jr., Esq., of Washington City; Rt. Rev. Wm. Meade, D.D., Assistant Bishop of Virginia; Hon. Alexander Porter, of Louisiana; John McDonough, Esq., of Louisiana; Hon. Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey.

"Managers.—Rev. James Laurie, D.D.; Gen. Walter Jones; Francis S. Key; Rev. Wm. Haley; John Underwood; William W. Seaton; Walter Lowrie; Dr. Phineas Bradley; Dr. Thomas Sewall.

"Secretaries.—Rev. Ralph R. Gurley, William H. Macfarland.

"Treasurer.—Joseph Gales, Senior.

"Recorder.—Phillip R. Fendall."

The Colonization Society was never able to secure the sympathy of the various anti-slavery societies of the country; and was unable to gain the confidence of the Colored people to any great extent. But it had the advantage of being in harmony with what little humane sentiment there was at the South. It did not attempt to agitate. It only sought to colonize on the West Coast of Africa all Negroes who could secure legal manumission. Nearly all the Southern States had laws upon their statute-books requiring all emancipated slaves to leave the State. The question as to where they should go was supposed to be answered by the Colonization Society. It had much influence with Congress, and did not hesitate to use it. A Mr. Joseph Bryan, of Alabama, petitioned Congress for the establishment "of a line of Mail Steam-ships to the Western Coast of Africa," in the summer of 1850. The Committee on Naval Affairs reported favorably the following bill:

"A Bill to Establish a Line of War Steamers to the Coast of Africa. [Report No. 438.]

"In the House of Representatives, August 1, 1850. Read twice, and committed to the Committee of the whole House on the State of the Union.

"Mr. F. P. Stanton, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, reported the following bill:—A bill to establish a line of war steamers to the coast of Africa, for the suppression of the slave-trade, and the promotion of commerce and colonization:

Sec. 1. "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Navy, immediately after the passage of this act, to enter into contract with Joseph Bryan, of Alabama, and George Nicholas Saunders, of New York, and their associates, for the building, equipment, and maintenance of three steam-ships to run between the United States and the coast of Africa, upon the following terms and conditions, to wit:

"The said ships to be each of not less than four thousand tons burden, to be so constructed as to be convertible, at the least possible expense, into war steamers of the first class, and to be built and equipped in accordance with plans to be submitted to and approved by the Secretary of the Navy, and under the superintendence of an officer to be appointed by him, two of said ships to be finished and ready for sea in two and a half years, and the other within three years after the date of the contract, and the whole to be kept up by alterations, repairs, or additions, to be approved by the Secretary of the Navy, so as to be fully equal to the exigencies of the service and the faithful performance of the contract. The said Secretary, at all times, to exercise such control over said ships as may not be inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and especially to have the power to direct, at the expense of the Government, such changes in the machinery and internal arrangements of the ships as he may at any time deem advisable.

"Each of said ships to be commanded by an officer of the Navy, who with four Passed Midshipmen to act as watch officers, and any mail agents who may be sent by the Government, shall be accommodated and provided for in a manner suitable to their rank, at the expense of the contractors. Each of said ships, if required by the Secretary, shall receive two guns of heavy calibre, and the men from the United States Navy necessary to serve them, who shall be provided for as aforesaid. In the event of war the Government to have the right to take any or all of said ships for its own exclusive use on payment of the value thereof; such value not exceeding the cost, to be ascertained by appraisers chosen by the Secretary of the Navy and the contractors.

"Each of said ships to make four voyages per annum; one shall leave New Orleans every three months; one shall leave Baltimore every three months, touching at Norfolk and Charleston; and one shall leave New York every three months, touching at Savannah; all having liberty to touch at any of the West India Islands; and to proceed thence to Liberia, touching at any of the islands or ports on the coast of Africa; thence to Gibraltar, carrying the Mediterranean mails; thence to Cadiz, or some other Spanish port to be designated by the Secretary of the Navy; thence to Lisbon; thence to Brest, or some other French port to be designated as above; thence, to London, and back to the place of departure, bringing and carrying the mails to and from said ports.

"The said contractors shall further agree to carry to Liberia so many emigrants being free persons of color, and not exceeding twenty-five hundred for each voyage, as the American Colonization Society may require, upon the payment by said Society of ten dollars for each emigrant over twelve years of age, and five dollars for each one under that age, these sums, respectively, to include all charges for baggage of emigrants and the daily supply of sailors' rations. The contractors, also, to carry, bring back, and accommodate, free from charge, all necessary agents of the said Society.

"The Secretary of the Navy shall further stipulate to advance to said contractors, as the building of said ships shall progress, two thirds of the amount expended thereon; such advances to be made in the bonds of the United States, payable thirty years after date, and bearing five per cent. interest, and not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars for each ship. And the said contractors shall stipulate to repay the said advances in equal annual instalments, with interest from the date of the completion of said ships until the termination of the contract, which shall continue fifteen years from the commencement of the service. The Secretary of the Navy to require ample security for the faithful performance of the contract, and to reserve a lien upon the ships for the sum advanced. The Government to pay said contractors forty thousand dollars for each trip, or four hundred and eighty thousand dollars per annum.

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall cause to be issued the bonds of the United States, as the same may, from time to time, be required by the Secretary of the Navy to carry out the contract aforesaid."

Public sentiment, North and South, was greatly in favor of the measure. T. J. Durant, Esq., of New Orleans, in an elaborate letter addressed to the "Commercial Bulletin" of New Orleans, under date of September 12, 1850, answered objections, and warmly urged the passage of the bill. The Chaplain of the U. S. Senate, Rev. R. R. Gurley, wrote a letter on the 10th of October, 1850, to George N. Saunders, Esq., urging the measure as of paramount importance to both America and Africa. The press of the country generally endorsed the bill, and commented upon the general good to follow in numerous editorials. A scheme of such gigantic proportions poorly set forth the profound thought that harassed the public mind in regard to the crime of keeping men in slavery. A few extracts from the papers will suffice to show how the matter was regarded.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRESS.

"The Report of the Naval Committee to the House of Representatives in favor of the establishment of a line of mail steam-ships to the Western Coast of Africa, and thence via the Mediterranean to London, has been received by the public press throughout the Union with the warmest expressions of approbation. The Whig, Democratic, and neutral papers of the North and South, in the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States, with a very few exceptions, appear to vie with each other in pressing its consideration upon the public attention. This earnest and almost unanimous support of the measure by the organs of public opinion, without respect to party or section, shows the deep hold which the objects it proposes to effect have upon the public favor. Those objects are to promote the emigration of free persons of color from this country to Liberia; also to increase the steam navy, and to extend the commerce of the United States,—all, it will be almost universally conceded, desirable objects. The desirableness of the objects being admitted, the question is, does the mode proposed for promoting them recommend itself to the sanction of Congress? We are forced to the conclusion that it does. We are aware that while all agree as to the expediency of increasing our steam navy—some are in favor of the Government's building its own steam-ships, and others advocate the encouragement of lines of steam-packets, to be established by private enterprise under the auspices of Government....

"The considerations, however, which in our opinion should commend this measure to the favorable attention of Congress are so obvious, and have been so clearly and strongly presented in the report of the committee, that we need not here repeat them. If the voice of the press, of all sections and of all parties, be any indication of popular opinion, we are free to say, that it would be difficult for Congress to pass a measure which would be received with more general satisfaction by the people of the United States."[22]

"African steam-lines.—The entertainment by the Government of Great Britain of a project for the establishment of a powerful line of steam-vessels between that country and the African coast, ostensibly for the conveyance of a monthly mail, and the more effectual checking of the slave-traffic, is strong proof, we think, of the value that the commerce between the two countries is capable of becoming. It may, in addition, be regarded as corroborative of the justness of the position taken by the advocates of a mail-steamer line between this country and Africa. We are by no means disposed to look invidiously on the enterprising spirit exhibited abroad for securing a closer connection with a country, the great mercantile wealth of which is yet, comparatively speaking, untouched. This spirit should have on us no other than a stimulating effect. Besides, for years, if not ages, to come, the trade with Africa can admit of no very close competition. The promised vastness of this trade, whilst excluding all idea of monopoly, must continue to excite the new enterprise by its unlimited rewards. It is unnecessary that we should exhibit statistics to show her how largely England has been benefited by persevering though frequently interrupted communication with the interior parts of that great continent; nor to make plain how, with better knowledge and more ready means of access, mercantile risks will be lessened and mercantile profits enlarged. It will be remembered that the Congressional committee to whom the question of establishing mail steamers between this country and Africa was referred, adverted in their report to the aid its adoption would afford in the consummation of the plans of the Colonization Society. On the intimate relation between the one and the other, it was supposed that a good part of the required success was dependent. It is something singular that the colored race—those in reality most interested in the future destinies of Africa—should be so lightly affected by the evidences continually being presented in favor of colonization. He will do a service to this country as well as Africa who shall do any thing to open the eyes of the colored race to the advantages of emigration to the fertile and, to them, congenial shores of Africa."[23]

"Africa and steam-ships.—If but a single line of steam-ships is to be authorized this Session—and the state and prospects of the finances must counsel frugality and caution,—we think a line to Africa fairly entitled to the preference. That continent on its western side is comparatively proximate and accessible; it is filled with inhabitants who need the articles we can abundantly fabricate, and it is the ancestral soil of more than three millions of our people—of a race on whose account we are deeply debtors to justice and to heaven. That race is more plastic and less conservative than the Chinese; their soil produces in spontaneous profusion many articles which are to us comforts and luxuries, while nearly every thing we produce is in eager demand among its inhabitants, if they can but find the wherewithal to pay for them. Instead of being a detriment and a depression to our own manufacturing and mechanical industry, as the trade induced by our costly steam-ship lines to Liverpool, Bremen, and Havre mainly is, all the commerce with Africa which a more intimate communication with her would secure, would be advantageous to every department of American labor. Her surplus products are so diverse from ours, that no collision of interests between her producers and ours could ever be realized, while millions' worth of her tropical products which will not endure the slow and capricious transportation which is now their only recourse, would come to us in good order by steam-ships, and richly reward the labor of the gatherers and the enterprise of the importers.

"But the social and moral aspects of this subject are still more important. We are now expending life and treasure, in concert with other nations, to suppress the African slave-trade, and it is now generally conceded that such suppression can never be effected by the means hitherto relied on. The colonization of the Slave Coast, with direct reference to its Christianization and civilization, is the only sure means of putting an end to this inhuman traffic. And this colonization, all who are interested in the work seem heartily to agree, would be immensely accelerated by the establishment of a line of African steam-ships. Liberia, now practically distant as Buenos Ayres, would, by such a line, be brought as near us as Bremen, and the ports regularly visited by our steamers could not fail rapidly to assume importance as centres of commerce and of increasing intelligence and industry."[24]

"The colony of liberia and its prospectus.—By every arrival from Liberia we learn that the colony of free negroes from the United States is progressing at a rate truly astonishing, and that before many years it promises to be a strong and powerful republic. The experiment of self-government has been completely successful; the educational interests of the inhabitants are duly cared for; civilization is making great headway among the aborigines; and, by means of Liberia, there is a very flattering prospect of the slave-trade on the coast of Africa being entirely destroyed. Governor Roberts, a very intelligent colored man, of mixed blood, goes even so far as to say that Liberia is destined to rival the United States, and that both republics, by a unity of action, can civilize and Christianize the world, and especially benighted Africa. We are pleased to hear such good accounts from Liberia, and we shall always be pleased to hear of its success, and of the progress and welfare of its inhabitants. Founded, as it has been, by American philanthropists, and peopled by our emancipated slaves, the United States will ever watch its progress with interest, and aid and assist it as far as it possibly can."[25]

But notwithstanding the apparent favor the cause of colonization received from the press, it was an impractical, impossible, wild, and visionary scheme that could not be carried to the extent its projectors designed. It lost strength yearly, until all were convinced that the Negro would be emancipated here and remain here; that it was as impossible to colonize a race of people as to colonize the sun, moon, and stars.

The underground railroad organization was perhaps one of the most useful auxiliaries the cause of agitation had. It could scarcely be called an organization. Unlike the other societies, it did not print its reports.[26] Like good Samaritans, its conductors did not ask passengers their creed; but wherever they found human beings wounded in body and mind by slavery, they gave them passage to the "Inn" of Freedom on Canadian soil.

In a sense, the Underground Railroad was a secret organization. This was necessary, as the fugitive-slave law gave the master the right to pursue his slave when "fleeing from labor and service in one State into another," and apprehend him by due process of Federal law. The men who managed this road felt that they should obey God rather than man; that the slave's right to his freedom was greater than any law the nation could make through its representatives. So the Underground Railroad was made up of a company of godly men who stretched themselves across the land, from the borders of the sunny slave States to the snow-white shores of Canada. When men came up out of the hell of slavery gasping for a breath of free air, these good friends sheltered and fed them; and then hastened them off in the stillness of the night, with the everlasting stars as their ministers, toward Canada. The fugitives would be turned over to another conductor, who would conceal them until nightfall, when he would load his living freight into a covered conveyance, and drive all night to reach the next "station"; and so on until the fugitives found themselves free and safe under the English flag in Canada.

This was the safety-valve to the institution of slavery. As soon as leaders arose among the slaves, refusing to endure the yoke, they came North. Had they remained, the direful scenes of St. Domingo would have been enacted, and the hot, vengeful breath of massacre would have swept the South as a tornado, and blanched the cheek of the civilized world.

Anti-slavery literature wrought mightily for God in its field.[27] Frederick Douglass's book, "My Bondage and My Freedom"; Bishop Loguen's, "As a Slave and As a Freeman"; "Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro," by the Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward; "Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman," by the Rev. Austin Stewart; "Narrative of Solomon Northup," "Walker's Appeal,"—all by eminent Negroes, exposed the true character of slavery, informed the public mind, stimulated healthy thought, and touched the heart of two continents with a sympathy almost divine.

But the uncounted millions of anti-slavery tracts, pamphlets, journals, and addresses of the entire period of agitation were little more than a paper wad compared with the solid shot "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was to slavery. Written in vigorous English, in scintillating, perspicuous style; adorned with gorgeous imagery, bristling with living "facts", going to the lowest depths, mounting to the greatest altitudes, moving with panoramic grandeur, picturing humanity forlorn and outraged; giving forth the shrillest, most despairing cries of the afflicted, and the sublimest strains of Christian faith; the struggle of innocent, defenceless womanhood, the subdued sorrow of chattel-babyhood, the yearnings of fettered manhood, and the piteous sobs of helpless old age,—made Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" the magnifying wonder of enlightened Christendom! It pleaded the cause of the slave in twenty different languages; it engrossed the thought of philosophers, and touched the heart of youth with a strange pity for the slave. It covered audiences with the sunlight of laughter, wrapt them in sorrow, and veiled them in tears. It illustrated the power of the Gospel of Love, the gentleness of Negro character, and the powers and possibilities of the race. It was God's message to a people who had refused to listen to his anti-slavery prophets and priests; and its sad, weird, and heart-touching descriptions and dialogues restored the milk of human kindness to a million hearts that had grown callous in an age of self-seeking and robbery of the poor.

In a political and sectional sense, the "Impending Crisis," by Helper, exerted a wide influence for good. It was read by merchants and politicians.

Diverse and manifold as were the methods of the friends of universal freedom, and sometimes apparently conflicting, under God no honest effort to rid the Negro and the country of the curse of slavery was lost. All these agencies, running along different lines, converged at a common centre, and aimed at a common end—the ultimate extinction of the foreign and domestic slave-trade.

CHAPTER VI.
ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORTS OF FREE NEGROES.

Intelligent Interest of Free Negroes in the Agitation Movement.—"First Annual Convention of the People of Color" held at Philadelphia.—Report of the Committee on the establishment of a College for Young Men of Color.—Provisional Committee appointed in each City.—Conventional Address.—Second Convention held at Benezet Hall, Philadelphia.—Resolutions of the Meeting.—Conventional Address.—The Massachusetts General Colored Association.—Convention of Anti-slavery Women of America at New York.—Prejudice against admitting Negroes into White Societies.—Colored Orators.—Their Eloquent Pleas for their Enslaved Race.

Return to Table of Contents

THE free Negroes throughout the Northern States were not passive during the agitation movement. They took a lively interest in the cause that had for its ultimate end the freedom of the slave. They did not comfort themselves with the consciousness that they were free; but thought of their brethren who were bound, and sympathized with them.

"The First Annual Convention of the People of Color" was held in Philadelphia from the 6th to the 11th of June, 1831. Its sessions were held "in the brick Wesleyan Church, Lombard Street," "pursuant to public notice, ... signed by Dr. Belfast Burton and William Whipper." The following delegates were present:

Philadelphia—John Bowers, Dr. Belfast Burton, James Cornish, Junius C. Morel, William Whipper.

New York—Rev. Wm. Miller, Henry Sipkins, Thos. L. Jennings, Wm. Hamilton, James Pennington.

Maryland—Rev. Abner Coker, Robert Cowley.

Delaware—Abraham D. Shad, Rev. Peter Gardiner.

Virginia—Wm. Duncan.

The following officers were chosen:

President—John Bowers.

Vice-Presidents—Abraham D. Shad, William Duncan.

Secretary—William Whipper.

Assistant Secretary—Thos. L. Jennings.

The first concern of this convention was the condition of that class which it directly represented—the "free persons of color" in the United States. A committee, consisting of Messrs. Morel, Shad, Duncan, Cowley, Sipkins, and Jennings, made the following report on the condition of the free persons of color in the United States:

"Brethren and Fellow-Citizens:

"We, the Committee of Inquiry, would suggest to the Convention the propriety of adopting the following resolutions, viz.:

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Convention, it is highly necessary that the different societies engaged in the Canadian Settlement be earnestly requested to persevere in their praiseworthy and philanthropic undertaking; firmly believing that, at a future period, their labors will be crowned with success.

"The Committee would also recommend this Convention to call on the free people of color to assemble annually by delegation at such place as may be designated as suitable.

"They would also respectfully submit to your wisdom the necessity of your deliberate reflection on the dissolute, intemperate, and ignorant condition of a large portion of the colored population of the United States. They would not, however, refer to their unfortunate circumstances to add degradation to objects already degraded and miserable; nor, with some others, improperly class the virtuous of our color with the abandoned, but with the most sympathizing and heartfelt commiseration, show our sense of obligation as the true guardians of our interests, by giving wholesome advice and good counsel.

"The Committee consider it as highly important that the Convention recommend the necessity of creating a general fund, to be denominated the Conventional Fund, for the purpose of advancing the objects of this and future conventions, as the public good may require.

"They would further recommend, that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United Stales be read in our Conventions; believing, that the truths contained in the former are incontrovertible, and that the latter guarantees in letter and spirit to every freeman born in this country, all the rights and immunities of citizenship.

"Your Committee with regret have witnessed the many oppressive, unjust, and unconstitutional laws which have been enacted in the different parts of the Union against the free people of color, and they would call upon this Convention, as possessing the rights of freemen, to recommend to the people, through their delegation, the propriety of memorializing the proper authorities, whenever they may feel themselves aggrieved, or their rights invaded, by any cruel or oppressive laws.

"And your Committee would further report, that, in their opinion, Education, Temperance, and Economy are best calculated to promote the elevation of mankind to a proper rank and standing among men, as they enable him to discharge all those duties enjoined on him by his Creator. We would, therefore, respectfully request an early attention to those virtues among our brethren who have a desire to be useful.

"And lastly, your Committee view with unfeigned regret, and respectfully submit to the wisdom of this Convention, the operations and misrepresentations of the American Colonization Society in these United States.

"We feel sorrowful to see such an immense and wanton waste of lives and property, not doubting the benevolent feelings of some individuals engaged in that cause. But we cannot for a moment doubt, but that the cause of many of our unconstitutional, unchristian, and unheard-of sufferings emanate from that unhallowed source; and we would call on Christians of every denomination firmly to resist it."[28]

The convention was in session for several days. It attracted public attention on account of the intelligence, order, and excellent judgment which prevailed. It deeply touched the young white men who had, but a few months previous, enlisted under the broad banner Wm. Lloyd Garrison had given to the breeze. They called to see Colored men conduct a convention. The Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, Connecticut; Arthur Tappan, of New York; Benjamin Lundy, of Washington, D. C.; William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, Massachusetts; Thomas Shipley and Charles Pierce, of Philadelphia, visited the convention and were cordially received. Messrs. Jocelyn, Tappan, and Garrison were invited to address the convention. They delivered stirring addresses, and especially urged the necessity of establishing a college for the education of "Young Men of Color." At the suggestion of the speaker the convention appointed a committee with whom the speaker conferred. The report of the committee was as follows:

"That a plan had been submitted to them by the above-named gentlemen, for the liberal education of Young Men of Color, on the Manual-Labor System, all of which they respectfully submit to the consideration of the Convention, are as follow:

"The plan proposed is, that a College be established at New Haven, Conn., as soon as $20,000 are obtained, and to be on the Manual-Labor System, by which, in connection with a scientific education, they may also obtain a useful Mechanical or Agricultural profession; and (they further report, having received information) that a benevolent individual has offered to subscribe one thousand dollars toward this object, provided that a farther sum of nineteen thousand dollars can be obtained in one year.

"After an interesting discussion, the above report was unanimously adopted; one of the inquiries by the Convention was in regard to the place of location. On interrogating the gentlemen why New Haven should be the place of location, they gave the following as their reasons:—

"1st. The site is healthy and beautiful.

"2d. Its inhabitants are friendly, pious, generous, and humane.

"3d. Its laws are salutary and protecting to all, without regard to complexion.

"4th. Boarding is cheap and provisions are good.

"5th. The situation is as central as any other that can be obtained with the same advantages.

"6th. The town of New Haven carries on an extensive West India trade, and many of the wealthy colored residents in the Islands, would, no doubt, send their sons there to be educated, and thus a fresh tie of friendship would be formed, which might be productive of much real good in the end.

"And last, though not the least, the literary and scientific character of New Haven, renders it a very desirable place for the location of the college."

The report of the Committee was received and adopted. The Rev. Samuel E. Cornish was appointed general agent to solicit funds, and Arthur Tappan was selected as treasurer. A Provisional Committee was appointed in each city, as follows:

"Boston—Rev. Hosea Easton, Robert Roberts, James G. Barbadoes, and Rev. Samuel Snowden.

"New York—Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Cromwell, Philip Bell, Thomas Downing, Peter Voglesang.

"Philadelphia—Joseph Cassey, Robert Douglass, Sr., James Forten, Richard Howell, Robert Purvis.

"Baltimore—Thomas Green, James P. Walker, Samuel G. Mathews, Isaac Whipper, Samuel Hiner.

"New Haven—Biars Stanley, John Creed, Alexander C. Luca.

"Brooklyn, L. I.—Jacob Deyes, Henry Thomson, Willis Jones.

"Wilmington, Del.—Rev. Peter Spencer, Jacob Morgan, William S. Thomas.

"Albany—Benjamin Latimore, Captain Schuyler, Captain Francis March.

"Washington, D. C.—William Jackson, Arthur Waring, Isaac Carey.

"Lancaster, Pa.—Charles Butler and Jared Grey.

"Carlisle, Pa.—John Peck and Rowland G. Roberts.

"Chambersburg, Pa.—Dennis Berry.

"Pittsburgh—John B. Vashon, Lewis Gardiner, Abraham Lewis.

"Newark, N. J.—Peter Petitt, Charles Anderson, Adam Ray.

"Trenton—Samson Peters, Leonard Scott."

The proceedings of the convention were characterized by a deep solemnity and a lively sense of the gravity of the situation. The delegates were of the ablest Colored men in the country, and were conversant with the wants of their people. The subjoined address shows that the committee that prepared it had a thorough knowledge of the public sentiment of America on the subject of race prejudice.

"CONVENTIONAL ADDRESS.

"Respected Brethren and Fellow-Citizens:

. . . . . . . . .

"Our attention has been called to investigate the political standing of our brethren wherever dispersed, but more particularly the situation of those in this great Republic.

"Abroad, we have been cheered with pleasant views of humanity, and the steady, firm, and uncompromising march of equal liberty to the human family. Despotism, tyranny, and injustice have had to retreat, in order to make way for the unalienable rights of man. Truth has conquered prejudice, and mankind are about to rise in the majesty and splendor of their native dignity.

"The cause of general emancipation is gaining powerful and able friends abroad. Britain and Denmark have performed such deeds as will immortalize them for their humanity, in the breasts of the philanthropists of the present day; whilst, as a just tribute to their virtues, after-ages will yet erect unperishable monuments to their memory. (Would to God we could say thus of our own native soil!)

"And it is only when we look to our own native land, to the birthplace of our fathers, to the land for whose prosperity their blood and our sweat have been shed and cruelly extorted, that the Convention has had cause to hang its head and blush. Laws, as cruel in themselves as they were unconstitutional and unjust, have in many places been enacted against our poor unfriended and unoffending brethren; laws, (without a shadow of provocation on our part,) at whose bare recital the very savage draws him up for fear of the contagion,—looks noble, and prides himself because he bears not the name of a Christian.

"But the Convention would not wish to dwell long on this subject, as it is one that is too sensibly felt to need description.

"We would wish to turn you from this scene with an eye of pity, and a breast glowing with mercy, praying that the recording angel may drop a tear, which shall obliterate forever the remembrance of so foul a stain upon the national escutcheon of this great Republic.

"This spirit of persecution was the cause of our Convention. It was that first induced us to seek an asylum in the Canadas; and the Convention feels happy to report to its brethren, that our efforts to establish a settlement in that province have not been made in vain. Our prospects are cheering; our friends and funds are daily increasing; wonders have been performed far exceeding our most sanguine expectations; already have our brethren purchased eight hundred acres of land—and two thousand of them have left the soil of their birth, crossed the lines, and laid the foundation for a structure which promises to prove an asylum for the colored population of these United States. They have erected two hundred log-houses, and have five hundred acres under cultivation.

"And now it is to your fostering care the Convention appeals, and we appeal to you as to men and brethren, yet to enlarge their borders.

"We therefore ask of you, brethren,—we ask of you, philanthropists of every color and of every kindred,—to assist us in this undertaking. We look to a kind Providence and to you to say whether our desires shall be realized and our labors crowned with success.

"The Convention has done its duty, and it now remains for you, brethren, to do yours. Various obstacles have been thrown in our way by those opposed to the elevation of the human species; but, thanks to an all-wise Providence, his goodness has as yet cleared the way, and our advance has been slow but steady. The only thing now wanted, is an accumulation of funds, in order to enable us to make a purchase agreeable to the direction of the first Convention; and, to effect that purpose, the Convention has recommended, to the different Societies engaged in that cause, to preserve and prosecute their designs with double energy; and we would earnestly recommend to every colored man (who feels the weight of his degradation), to consider himself in duty bound to contribute his mite toward this great object. We would say to all, that the prosperity of the rising generation mainly depends upon our active exertions.

"Yes, it is with us to say whether they shall assume a rank and standing among the nations of the earth, as men and freemen, or whether they shall still be prized and held at market-price. Oh, then, by a brother's love, and by all that makes man dear to man, awake in time! Be wise! Be free! Endeavor to walk with circumspection; be obedient to the laws of our common country; honor and respect its lawmakers and law-givers; and, through all, let us not forget to respect ourselves.

"During the deliberations of this Convention, we had the favor of advising and consulting with some of our most eminent and tried philanthropists—men of unblemished character and of acknowledged rank and standing. Our sufferings have excited their sympathy; our ignorance appealed to their humanity; and, brethren, we feel that gratitude is due to a kind and benevolent Creator, that our excitement and appeal have neither been in vain. A plan has been proposed to the Convention for the erection of a college for the instruction of young men of color, on the manual-labor system, by which the children of the poor may receive a regular classical education, as well as those of their more opulent brethren, and the charge will be so regulated as to put it within the reach of all. In support of this plan, a benevolent individual has offered the sum of one thousand dollars, provided that we can obtain subscriptions to the amount of nineteen thousand dollars in one year.

"The Convention has viewed the plan with considerable interest, and, after mature deliberation, on a candid investigation, feels strictly justified in recommending the same to the liberal patronage of our brethren, and respectfully solicits the aid of those philanthropists who feel an interest in sending light, knowledge, and truth to all of the human species.

"To the friends of general education, we do believe that our appeal will not be in vain. For the present ignorant and degraded condition of many of our brethren in these United States (which has been a subject of much concern to the Convention) can excite no astonishment (although used by our enemies to show our inferiority in the scale of human beings); for, what opportunities have they possessed for mental cultivation or improvement? Mere ignorance, however, in a people divested of the means of acquiring information by books, or an extensive connection with the world, is no just criterion of their intellectual incapacity; and it had been actually seen, in various remarkable instances, that the degradation of the mind and character, which has been too hastily imputed to a people kept, as we are, at a distance from those sources of knowledge which abound in civilized and enlightened communities, has resulted from no other causes than our unhappy situation and circumstances.

"True philanthropy disdains to adopt those prejudices against any people which have no better foundation than accidental diversities of color, and refuses to determine without substantial evidence and incontestible fact as the basis of her judgment. And it is in order to remove these prejudices, which are the actual causes of our ignorance, that we have appealed to our friends in support of the contemplated institution.

"The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of the American Colonization Society, and it would respectfully suggest to that august body of learning, talent, and worth, that, in our humble opinion, strengthened, too, by the opinions of eminent men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are pursuing the direct road to perpetuate slavery, with all its unchristianlike concomitants, in this boasted land of freedom; and, as citizens and men whose best blood is sapped to gain popularity for that institution, we would, in the most feeling manner, beg of them to desist; or, if we must be sacrificed to their philanthropy, we would rather die at home. Many of our fathers, and some of us, have fought and bled for the liberty, independence, and peace which you now enjoy; and, surely, it would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us an humble and quiet grave in that country which gave us birth!

"In conclusion, the Convention would remind our brethren that knowledge is power, and to that end, we call on you to sustain and support, by all honorable, energetic, and necessary means, those presses which are devoted to our instruction and elevation, to foster and encourage the mechanical arts and sciences among our brethren, to encourage simplicity, neatness, temperance, and economy in our habits, taking due care always to give the preference to the production of freemen wherever it can be had. Of the utility of a General Fund, the Convention believes there can exist but one sentiment, and that is for a speedy establishment of the same. Finally, we trust our brethren will pay due care to take such measures as will ensure a general and equal representation in the next Convention

[Signed]

"Belfast Burton,
"Junius C. Morel,
"William Whipper,
"Publishing Committee."

Encouraged by the good results that followed the first convention, another one was called, and assembled in Philadelphia, at Benezet Hall, Seventh Street, June 4, 1832. The following delegates were admitted to seats in the convention:

PENNSYLVANIA.

Pittsburgh—John B. Vashon.

Philadelphia—John Bowers, William Whipper, J. C. Morel, Benjamin Paschal, F. A. Hinton.

Carlisle—John Peck.

Lewistown, Miffin County—Samuel Johnson.

NEW YORK.

New York City—William Hamilton, Thomas L. Jennings, Henry Sipkins, Philip A. Bell.

Brooklyn—James Pennington.

DELAWARE.

Wilmington—Joseph Burton, Jacob Morgan, Abm. D. Shad, William Johnson, Peter Gardiner.

MARYLAND.

Baltimore—Samuel Elliott, Robert Cowley, Samuel Hiner.

NEW JERSEY.

Gloucester—Thomas D. Coxsin, Thomas Banks.

Trenton—Aaron Roberts.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Boston—Hosea Easton.

New Bedford—Nathan Johnson.

CONNECTICUT.

Hartford—Paul Drayton.

New Haven—Scipio C. Augustus.

RHODE ISLAND.

Providence—Ichabod Northrop.

On the following day the convention adjourned to the "First African Presbyterian Church." The following report was adopted:

"Resolved, That in the opinion of this Committee, the plan suggested by the first General Convention, of purchasing land or lands in Upper Canada, for the avowed object of forming a settlement in that province, for such colored persons as may choose to emigrate there, still merits and deserves our united support and exertions; and further, that the appearances of the times, in this our native land, demand an immediate action on that subject. Adopted.

"Resolved, That in the opinion of this committee, we still solemnly and sincerely protest against any interference, on the part of the American Colonization Society, with the free colored population in these United States, so long as they shall countenance or endeavor to use coercive measures (either directly or indirectly) to colonize us in any place which is not the object of our choice. And we ask of them respectfully, as men and as Christians, to cease their unhallowed persecutions of a people already sufficiently oppressed, or if, as they profess to have our welfare and prosperity at heart, to assist us in the object of our choice.

"Resolved, That this committee would recommend to the members of this Convention, to discountenance, by all just means in their power, any emigration to Liberia or Hayti, believing them only calculated to distract and divide the whole colored family."

In accordance with a resolution of the previous day the Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary of the American Colonization Society, was invited to address the convention. He endeavored to offer an acceptable explanation of the Society, and to advocate its principles. But the Colored people, almost to a man, were opposed to colonization; and most of the anti-slavery societies regarded colonization as impracticable and hurtful to the cause of emancipation. William Lloyd Garrison happened to be present, and followed Gurley in a speech that destroyed the hopes of the friends of colonization, and greatly delighted the convention.

While the Colored people opposed colonization they regarded Canada as a proper place to go. They felt that as citizens they had the right to decide where to go, and, when they got ready, to go on their own account. Canada had furnished an asylum to their flying, travel-soiled, foot-sore, and needy brethren,—was not so very far away, and, therefore, it was preferred to the West Coast of Africa. The committee having under consideration this subject, made the following comprehensive report:

"Resolved, That the members of this Convention take into consideration the propriety of effecting the purchase of lands in the province of Upper Canada, as an asylum for those of our bretheren who may be compelled to remove from these United States, beg leave, most respectfully to report:

"That, after due consideration, they believe the resolution embraces three distinct inquiries for the consideration of this Convention, which should be duly weighed before they can adopt the sentiments contained in the above-named resolution. Therefore, your Committee conceive the resolution premature, and now proceed to state the enquiries separately.

"First.—Is it proper for the Free people of color in this country, under existing circumstances, to remove to any distant territory beyond these United States?

"Secondly.—Does Upper Canada possess superior advantages and conveniences to those held out in these United States or elsewhere?

"Thirdly.—Is there any certainty that the people of color will be compelled by oppressive legislative enactments to abandon the land of their birth for a home in a distant region?

"Your Committee, before examining those enquiries, would most respectfully take a retrospective view of the object for which the Convention was first associated, and the causes which have actuated their deliberations.

"The expulsory laws of Ohio, in 1829, which drove our people to seek a new home in Upper Canada, and their impoverished situation afterward, excited a general burst of sympathy for their situation, by the wise and good, over the whole country. This awakened public feeling on their behalf, and numerous meetings were called to raise funds to alleviate their present miseries. The bright prospects that then appeared to dawn on the new settlement, awakened our people to the precariousness of their situations, and, in order more fully to be prepared for future exigencies, and to extend the system of benevolence still further to those who should remove to Upper Canada, a circular was issued by five individuals, viz.:—the Rev. Richard Allen, Cyrus Black, Junius C. Morel, Benjamin Pascal, and James C. Cornish, in behalf of the citizens of Philadelphia, calling a convention of the colored delegates from the several States, to meet on the 20th day of September, 1830, to devise plans and means for the establishment of a colony in Upper Canada, under the patronage of the general Convention, then called.

"That Convention met, pursuant to public notice, and recommended the formation of a parent society, to be established, with auxiliaries in the different towns where they had been represented in general convention, for the purpose of raising moneys to defray the object of purchasing a colony in the province of Upper Canada, for those who should hereafter wish to emigrate thither, and that immediately after its organization, a corresponding agent should be appointed to reside at or near the intended purchase.

"Our then limited knowledge of the manners, customs, and privileges, and rights of aliens in Upper Canada, together with the climate, soil, and productions thereof, rendered it necessary to send out agents to examine the same, who returned with a favorable report, except that citizens of these United States could not purchase lands in Upper Canada, and legally transfer the same to other individuals.

"The Convention resolved to reassemble on the first Monday in June, 1831, during which time the order of the Convention had been carried into operation, relative to establishing Societies for the promotion of said object; and the sum and total of their proceedings were, that the Convention recommended to the colored people generally, when persecuted as were our brethren in Ohio, to seek an Asylum in Upper Canada. During which time, information having been received that a part of the white inhabitants of said province had, through prejudice and the fear of being overburthened with an ejected population, petitioned the provincial parliament to prohibit the general influx of colored population from entering their limits, which threw some consternation on the prospect. The Convention did not wholly abandon the subject, but turned its attention more to the elevation of our people in this, our native home.

"The recent occurrences at the South have swelled the tide of prejudice until it has almost revolutionized public sentiment, which has given birth to severe legislative enactments in some of the States, and almost ruined our interests and prospects in others, in which, in the opinion of your Committee, our situation is more precarious than it has been at any other period since the Declaration of Independence.

"The events of the past year have been more fruitful in persecution, and have presented more inducements than any other period of the history of our country, for the men of color to fly from the graves of their fathers, and seek new homes in a land where the roaring billows of prejudice are less injurious to their rights and privileges.

"Your Committee would now approach the present Convention and examine the resolution under consideration, beginning with the first interrogatory, viz.: Is it proper for the Free people of color in this country, under existing circumstances, to remove to any distant territory beyond the United States?

"If we admit the first interrogatory to be true, as it is the exact spirit of the language of this resolution, now under consideration, it is altogether unnecessary for us to make further preparation for either our moral, intellectual, or political advancement in this our own, our native land.

"Your Committee also believe that if this Convention shall adopt a resolution that will, as soon as means can be obtained, remove our colored population to the province of Upper Canada, the best and brightest prospect of the philanthropists who are laboring for our elevation in this country will be thwarted, and they will be brought to the conclusion that the great object which actuated their labors would now be removed, and they might now rest from their labors and have the painful feeling of transmitting to future generations, that an oppressed people, in the land of their birth, supported by the genuine philanthropists of the age, amidsts friends, companions, and their natural attachments, a genial clime, a fruitful soil,—amidst the rays of as proud institutions as ever graced the most favored spot that has ever received the glorious rays of a meridian sun,—have abandoned their homes on account of their persecutions, for a home almost similarly precarious, for an abiding-place among strangers!

"Your Committee further believe that any express plan to colonize our people beyond the limits of these United States, tends to weaken the situation of those who are left behind, without any peculiar advantage to those who emigrate. But it must be admitted, that the rigid oppression abroad in the land is such, that a part of our suffering brethren cannot live under it, and that the compulsory laws and the inducements held out by the American Colonization Society are such as will cause them to alienate all their natural attachments to their homes, and accept of the only mode left open, which is to remove to a distant Country to receive those rights and privileges of which they have been deprived. And as this Convention is associated for the purpose of recommending to our people the best mode of alleviating their present miseries,

"Therefore, your Committee would, most respectfully, recommend to the general Convention, now assembled, to exercise the most vigorous means to collect monies through their auxiliaries, or otherwise, to be applied in such manner, as will advance the interests, and contribute to the wants of the free colored population of this country generally.

"Your Committee would now most respectfully approach the second inquiry, viz.:—Does Upper Canada possess superior advantages and conveniences to those held out in the United States or elsewhere?

"Your Committee, without summing up the advantages and disadvantages of other situations, would, most respectfully answer in the affirmative. At least they are willing to assert that the advantage is much in favor of those who are obliged to leave their present homes. For your more particular information on that subject we would, most respectfully, refer you to the interesting account given by our real and indefatigable friend, Benjamin Lundy, in a late number of the "Genius of Universal Emancipation." Vide "Genius of Universal Emancipation," No. 10, vol. 12.

"From the history there laid down, your Committee would, most respectfully, request the Convention to aid, so far as in their power lies, those who are obliged to seek an asylum in the province of Upper Canada; and, in order that they may more effectually carry their views into operation, they would respectfully request them to appoint an Agent in Upper Canada, to receive such funds as may be there transmitted for their use.

"Your Committee have now arrived at the third and last inquiry, viz.:—Is there any certainty that we, as a people, will be compelled to leave this our native land, for a home in a distant region? To this inquiry your Committee are unable to answer; it belongs to the fruitful events of time to determine. The mistaken policy of some of the friends of our improvement, that the same could be effected on the shore of Africa, has raised the tide of our calamity until it has overflowed the valleys of peace and tranquillity—the dark clouds of prejudice have rained persecution—the oppressor and the oppressed have suffered together—and we have yet been protected by that Almighty arm, who holds in his hands the destinies of nations, and whose presence is a royal safeguard, should we place the utmost reliance on his wisdom and power.

"Your Committee, while they rejoice at the noble object for which the Convention was first associated, have been unable to come to any conclusive evidence that lands can be purchased by this Convention and legally transferred to individuals, residents of said colony, so long as the present laws exist. But, while they deem it inexpedient for the Convention to purchase lands in Upper Canada for the purpose of erecting a colony thereon, do again, most respectfully, hope that they will exercise the same laudable exertions to collect funds for the comfort and happiness of our people there situated, and those who may hereafter emigrate, and pursue the same judicious measures in the appropriation of said funds, as they would in procuring a tract of land, as expressed by the resolution.

"Your Committee, after examining the various circumstances connected with our situation as a people, have come, unanimously, to the conclusion to recommend to this Convention to adopt the following resolution, as the best mode of alleviating the miseries of our oppressed brethren:

"Resolved, That this Convention recommend the establishment of a Society, or Agent, in Upper Canada, for the purpose of purchasing lands and contributing to the wants of our people generally, who may be, by oppressive legislative enactments, obliged to flee from these United States and take up residence within her borders. And that this Convention will employ its auxiliary societies, and such other means as may lie in its power, for the purpose of raising monies, and remit the same for the purpose of aiding the proposed object.

[Signed]	"Robert Cowley,	"Benj. Paschal,	}	Committee."
	"John Peck,	"Thos. D. Coxsin,
	"Wm. Hamilton,	"J. C. Morel,
	"Wm. Whipper,

This convention's work was carefully done, its plans were laid upon a broader scale, and the Colored people, beholding its proceedings, took heart, and went forward with zeal and courage seeking to increase their intelligence and wealth, and improve their social condition. In their address the convention did not fail to give the Colonization Society a parting shot.

"CONVENTIONAL ADDRESS.

"To the Free Colored Inhabitants of these United States:

"Fellow-Citizens: We have again been permitted to associate in our representative character, from the different sections of this Union, to pour into one common stream, the afflictions, the prayers, and sympathies of our oppressed people; the axis of time has brought around this glorious, annual event. And we are again brought to rejoice that the wisdom of Divine Providence has protected us during a year whose autumnal harvest has been a reign of terror and persecution, and whose winter has almost frozen the streams of humanity by its frigid legislation. It is under the influence of times and feelings like these, that we now address you. Of a people situated as we are, little can be said, except that it becomes our duty strictly to watch those causes that operate against our interests and privileges; and to guard against whatever measures that will either lower us in the scale of being, or perpetuate our degradation in the eyes of the civilized world.

"The effects of Slavery on the bond and Colonization on the free. Of the first we shall say but little, but will here repeat the language of a high-minded Virginian in the Legislature of that State, on the recent discussion of the slave question before that honorable body, who declared, that man could not hold property in man, and that the master held no right to the slave, either by a law of nature or a patentee from God, but by the will of society; which we declare to be an unjust usurpation of the rights and privileges of men.

"But how beautiful must the prospect be to the philanthropist, to view us, the children of persecution, grown to manhood, associating in our delegated character to devise plans and means for our moral elevation, and attracting the attention of the wise and good over the whole country, who are anxiously watching our deliberations.

"We have here to inform you, that we have patiently listened to the able and eloquent arguments produced by the Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary of the American Colonization Society, in behalf of the doings of said Society, and Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Esq., in opposition to its action.

"A more favorable opportunity to arrive at truth seldom has been witnessed, but while we admire the distinguished piety and Christian feelings with which he so solemnly portrayed the doctrines of that institution, we do now assert, that the result of the same has tended more deeply to rivet our solid conviction, that the doctrines of said Society are at enmity with the principles and precepts of religion, humanity, and justice, and should be regarded by every man of color in these United States as an evil, for magnitude, unexcelled, and whose doctrines aim at the entire extinction of the free colored population and the riveting of slavery.

"We might here repeat our protest against that institution, but it is unnecessary; your views and sentiments have long since gone to the world; the wings of the wind have borne your disapprobation to that institution. Time itself cannot erase it. You have dated your opposition from its beginning, and your views are strengthened by time and circumstances, and they hold the uppermost seat in your affections. We have not been unmindful of the compulsory laws which caused our brethren in Ohio to seek new homes in a distant land, there to share and suffer all the inconveniences of exiles in an uncultivated region; which has led us to admire the benevolent feelings of a rival government in its liberal protection to strangers; which has induced us to recommend to you, to exercise your best endeavors, to collect monies to secure the purchase of lands in the Canadas, for those who may by oppressive legislative enactments be obliged to move thither.

"In contributing to our brethren that aid which will secure them a refuge in a storm, we would not wish to be understood as possessing any inclination to remove, nor in the least to impoverish, that noble sentiment which we rejoice in exclaiming—

"This is our own,
Our native land.

"All that we have done, humanity dictated it; neither inclination nor alienated feelings to our country prescribed it, but that power which is above all other considerations, viz.: the law of necessity.

"We yet anticipate in the moral strength of this nation, a final redemption from those evils that have been illegitimately entailed on us as a people. We yet expect, by due exertions on our part, together with the aid of the benevolent philanthropists of our country, to acquire a moral and intellectual strength that will unshaft the calumnious darts of our adversaries, and present to the world a general character that they will feel bound to respect and admire.

"It will be seen by a reference to our proceedings, that we have again recommended the further prosecution of the contemplated college, proposed by the last Convention, to be established at New Haven, under the rules and regulations then established. A place for its location will be selected in a climate and neighborhood where the inhabitants are less prejudiced to our rights and privileges. The proceedings of the citizens of New Haven, with regard to the erection of the college, were a disgrace to them, and cast a stigma on the reputed fame of New England and the country. We are unwilling that the character of the whole country should sink by the proceedings of a few. We are determined to present to another portion of the country not far distant, and at no very remote period, the opportunity of gaining for them the character of a truly philanthropic spirit, and of retrieving the character of the country, by the disreputable proceedings of New Haven. We must have colleges and high-schools on the manual-labor system, where our youth may be instructed in all the arts of civilized life. If we ever expect to see the influence of prejudice decrease, and ourselves respected, it must be by the blessings of an enlightened education. It must be by being in possession of that classical knowledge which promotes genius, and causes man to soar up to those high intellectual enjoyments and acquirements, which place him in a situation to shed upon a country and a people that scientific grandeur which is imperishable by time, and drowns in oblivion's cup their moral degradation. Those who think that our primary schools are capable of effecting this, are a century behind the age when to have proved a question in the rule of three was considered a higher attainment than solving the most difficult problem in Euclid is now. They might have at that time performed what some people expect of them now, in the then barren state of science; but they are now no longer capable of reflecting brilliancy on our national character, which will elevate us from our present situation. If we wish to be respected, we must build our moral character on a base as broad and high as the nation itself; our country and our character require it; we have performed all the duties from the menial to the soldier,—our fathers shed their blood in the great struggle for independence. In the late war between Great Britain and the United States, a proclamation was issued to the free colored inhabitants of Louisiana, September 21, 1814, inviting them to take up arms in defence of their country, by Gen. Andrew Jackson. And in order that you may have an idea of the manner in which they acquitted themselves on that perilous occasion, we will refer you to the proclamation of Thomas Butler, Aid-de-Camp.

"You there see that your country expects much from you, and that you have much to call you into action, morally, religiously, and scientifically. Prepare yourselves to occupy the several stations to which the wisdom of your country may promote you. We have been told in this Convention, by the Secretary of the American Colonization Society, that there are causes which forbid our advancement in this country, which no humanity, no legislation, and no religion can control. Believe it not. Is not humanity susceptible of all the tender feelings of benevolence? Is not legislation supreme—and is not religion virtuous? Our oppressed situation arises from their opposite causes. There is an awakening spirit in our people to promote their elevation, which speaks volumes in their behalf. We anticipated at the close of the last Convention, a larger representation and an increased number of delegates; we were not deceived, the number has been tenfold. And we have a right to expect that future Conventions will be increased by a geometrical ratio, until we shall present a body not inferior in numbers to our State Legislatures, and the phenomenon of an oppressed people, deprived of the rights of citizenship, in the midst of an enlightened nation, devising plans and measures for their personal and mental elevation, by moral suasion alone.

"In recommending you a path to pursue for our present good and future elevation, we have taken into consideration the circumstances of the free colored population, so far as it was possible to ascertain their views and sentiments, hoping that at a future Convention, you will all come ably represented, and that your wishes and views may receive that deliberation and attention for which this body is particularly associated.

"Finally, before taking our leave, we would admonish you, by all that you hold dear, beware of that bewitching evil, that bane of society, that curse of the world, that fell destroyer of the best prospects and the last hope of civilized man,—Intemperance.

"Be righteous, be honest, be just, be economical, be prudent, offend not the laws of your country,—in a word, live in that purity of life, by both precept and example,—live in the constant pursuit of that moral and intellectual strength which will invigorate your understandings and render you illustrious in the eyes of civilized nations, when they will assert that all that illustrious worth which was once possessed by the Egyptians, and slept for ages, has now arisen in their descendents, the inhabitants of the New World."

Excellent as was the work of these conventions of men of color, they nevertheless became the magazines from which the pro-slavery element secured dangerous ammunition with which to attack the anti-slavery movement. The white anti-slavery societies were charged with harboring a spirit of race prejudice; with inconsistency, in that while seeking freedom for the Negro by means of agitation, separate efforts were put forth by the white and black anti-slavery people of the North. And this had its due effect. Massachusetts and other States had abolition societies composed entirely of persons of Color. "The Massachusetts General Colored Association" organized in the early days of the agitation movement. It had among its leading men the most intelligent and public-spirited Colored citizens of Boston. James G. Barbadoes, Coffin Pitts, John E. Scarlett, the Eastons, Hosea and Joshua; Wm. C. Nell, Thomas Cole, Thomas Dalton, Frederick Brimley, Walker Lewis, and John T. Hilton were a few of "the faithful." In January, 1833, the following communication was sent to the white anti-slavery society of New England.

"Boston, January 15, 1833.

"To the Board of Managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society:

"The Massachusetts General Colored Association, cordially approving the objects and principles of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, would respectfully communicate their desire to become auxiliary thereto. They have accordingly chosen one of their members to attend the annual meeting of the Society as their delegate (Mr. Joshua Easton, of North Bridgewater), and solicit his acceptance in that capacity.

"Thomas Dalton, President,
"William C. Nell, Vice-President.

"James G. Barbadoes, Secretary."

The request was granted, but a few hints among friends on the outside sufficed to demonstrate the folly and hurtfulness of anti-slavery societies composed exclusively of men of color. Within the next two years Colored organizations perished, and their members took their place in the white societies. Such Colored men as John B. Vashon and Robert Purvis, of Pennsylvania; David Ruggles and Philip A. Bell, of New York; and Charles Lenox Remond and Wm. Wells Brown, of Massachusetts, were soon seen as orators and presiding officers, in the different anti-slavery societies of the free States. Frederick Douglass, the Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward, James McCune Smith, M.D.; James W. C. Pennington, D.D.; Henry Highland Garnett, D.D.; Alexander Crummell, D.D.; and other Colored men were eloquent, earnest, and effective in their denunciation of the institution that enslaved their brethren. In England and in Europe a corps of intelligent Colored orators was kept busy painting, to interested audiences, the cruelties and iniquities of American slavery. By association and sympathy these Colored orators took on the polish of Anglo-Saxon scholarship. Of the influence of the American Anti-slavery Society upon the Colored man, Maria Weston Chapman once said, it is "church and university, high school and common school, to all who need real instruction and true religion. Of it what a throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators, and accomplished gentlemen of color have taken their degree! It has equally implanted hopes and aspirations, noble thoughts, and sublime purposes, in the hearts of both races. It has prepared the white man for the freedom of the black man, and it has made the black man scorn the thought of enslavement, as does a white man, as far as its influence has extended. Strengthen that noble influence! Before its organization, the country only saw here and there in slavery some 'faithful Cudjoe or Dinah,' whose strong natures blossomed even in bondage, like a fine plant beneath a heavy stone. Now, under the elevating and cherishing influence of the American Anti-slavery Society, the colored race, like the white, furnishes Corinthian capitals for the noblest temples. Aroused by the American Anti-slavery Society, the very white men who had forgotten and denied the claim of the black man to the rights of humanity, now thunder that claim at every gate, from cottage to capitol, from school-house to university, from the railroad carriage to the house of God. He has a place at their firesides, a place in their hearts—the man whom they once cruelly hated for his color. So feeling, they cannot send him to Coventry with a horn-book in his hand, and call it instruction! They inspire him to climb to their side by a visible, acted gospel of freedom. Thus, instead of bowing to prejudice, they conquer it."

In January, 1836, Rev. Mr. Follen offered the following resolution in a meeting of the New England Anti-slavery Society:

"Resolved, That we consider the Anti-slavery cause the cause of philanthropy, with regard to which all human beings, white men and colored men, citizens and foreigners, men and women, have the same duties and the same rights."

In support of his resolution, he said:

"We have been advised, if we really wished to benefit the slave and the colored race generally, not unnecessarily to shock the feelings, though they were but prejudices, of the white people, by admitting colored persons to our Anti-slavery meetings and societies. We have been told that many who would otherwise act in unison with us were kept away by our disregard of the feelings of the community in this respect.... But what, I would ask, is the great, the single object of all our meetings and societies? Have we any other object than to impress upon the community this one principle, that the colored man is a man? And, on the other hand, is not the prejudice which would have us exclude colored people from our meetings and societies the same which, in our Southern States, dooms them to perpetual bondage?"

In May, 1837, the Anti-slavery Women of America met in convention in New York. In a circular issued by the authority of the convention, and signed by Mary S. Parker, President, Angelina E. Grimkie, Secretary, another attack was made upon proscription in anti-slavery societies. There was a Colored lady named Sarah Douglass on the Central Committee. The following paragraphs from the circular are specimens sufficient to show the character of the circular; and the poetry at the end, written by a Colored member. Miss Sarah Forten, justified the hopes of her white sisters concerning the race:

"Those Societies that reject colored members, or seek to avoid them, have never been active or efficient. The blessing of God does not rest upon them, because they 'keep back a part of the price of the land,'—they do not lay all at the apostle's feet.

"The abandonment of prejudice is required of us as a proof of our sincerity and consistency. How can we ask our Southern brethren to make sacrifices, if we are not even willing to encounter inconveniences? First cast the beam from thine own eye, then wilt thou see clearly to cast it from his eye.

"We are thy sisters. God has truly said
That of one blood the nations He has made.
O Christian woman! in a Christian land,
Canst thou unblushing read this great command?
Suffer the wrongs which wring our inmost heart,
To draw one throb of pity on thy part?
Our Skins may differ, but from thee we claim
A sister's privilege and a sister's name."

Every barrier was now broken down inside of anti-slavery organizations; and having conquered the prejudice that crippled their work, they enjoyed greater freedom in the prosecution of their labors.

The Colored orators wrought a wonderful change in public sentiment. In the inland white communities throughout the Northern States Negroes were few, and the majority of them were servants; some of them indolent and vicious. From these few the moral and intellectual photograph of the entire race was taken. So it was meet that Negro orators of refinement should go from town to town. The North needed arousing and educating on the anti-slavery question, and no class did more practical work in this direction than the little company of orators, with the peerless Douglass at its head, that pleaded the cause of their brethren in the flesh before the cultivated audiences of New England, the Middle and Western States,—yea, even in the capital cities of conservative Europe.

CHAPTER VII.
NEGRO INSURRECTIONS.

The Negro not so Docile as supposed.—The Reason why he was kept in Bondage.—Negroes possessed Courage but lacked Leaders.—Insurrection of Slaves.—Gen. Gabriel as a Leader.—Negro Insurrection planned in South Carolina.—Evils Of Slavery revealed.—The "Nat. Turner" Insurrection in South Hampton County, Virginia.—The Whites arm themselves to repel the Insurrectionists.—Capture and Trial of "Nat. Turner."—His Execution.—Effect of the Insurrection upon Slaves and Slave-holders.

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THE supposed docility of the American Negro was counted among the reasons why it was thought he could never gain his freedom on this continent. But this was a misinterpretation of his real character. Besides, it was next to impossible to learn the history of the Negro during the years of his enslavement at the South. The question was often asked: Why don't the Negroes rise at the South and exterminate their enslavers? Negatively, not because they lacked the courage, but because they lacked leaders [as has been stated already, they sought the North and their freedom through the Underground R. R.] to organize them. But notwithstanding this great disadvantage the Negroes did rise on several different occasions, and did effective work.

"Three times, at intervals of thirty years, has a wave of unutterable terror swept across the Old Dominion, bringing thoughts of agony to every Virginian master, and of vague hope to every Virginian slave. Each time has one man's name become a spell of dismay and a symbol of deliverance. Each time has that name eclipsed its predecessor, while recalling it for a moment to fresher memory; John Brown revived the story of Nat. Turner, as in his day Nat. Turner recalled the vaster schemes of Gabriel."[29]

Mention has been made of the insurrection of slaves in South Carolina in the last century. Upon the very threshold of the nineteenth century, "General Gabriel" made the master-class of Virginia quail with mortal dread. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence; and his plans were worthy of greater success. The following newspaper paragraph reveals the condition of the minds of Virginians respecting the Negroes:

"For the week past, we have been under momentary expectation of a rising among the negroes, who have assembled to the number of nine hundred or a thousand, and threatened to massacre all the whites. They are armed with desperate weapons, and secrete themselves in the woods. God only knows our fate; we have strong guards every night under arms."

The above was communicated to the "United States Gazette," printed in Philadelphia, under date of September 8, 1800, by a Virginia correspondent. The people felt that they were sleeping over a magazine. The movement of Gabriel was to have taken place on Saturday, September 1st. The rendezvous of the Negro troops was a brook, about six miles from Richmond. The force was to comprise eleven hundred men, divided into three divisions. Richmond—then a town of eight thousand inhabitants—was the point of attack, which was to be effected under cover of night. The right wing was to fall suddenly upon the penitentiary, lately improvised into an arsenal; the left wing was to seize the powder-house; and, thus equipped and supplied with the munitions of war, the two columns were to assign the hard fighting to the third column. This column was to have possession of all the guns, swords, knives, and other weapons of modern warfare. It was to strike a sharp blow by entering the town from both ends, while the other two columns, armed with shovels, picks, clubs, etc., were to act as a reserve. The white troops were scarce, and the situation, plans, etc., of the Negroes were admirable.

"... the penitentiary held several thousand stand of arms; the powder-house was well-stocked; the capitol contained the State treasury; the mills would give them bread; the control of the bridge across James River would keep off enemies from beyond. Thus secured and provided, they planned to issue proclamations summoning to their standard 'their fellow-negroes and the friends of humanity throughout the continent.' In a week, it was estimated, they would have fifty thousand men on their side, with which force they could easily possess themselves of other towns; and, indeed, a slave named John Scott—possibly the dangerous possessor of ten dollars—was already appointed to head the attack on Petersburg. But in case of final failure, the project included a retreat to the mountains, with their newfound property. John Brown was therefore anticipated by Gabriel sixty years before, in believing the Virginia mountains to have been 'created, from the foundation of the world, as a place of refuge for fugitive slaves.'"[30]

The plot failed, but everybody, and the newspapers also, said the plan was well conceived.

In 1822 another Negro insurrection was planned in Charleston, S. C. The leader of this affair was Denmark Vesey.[31] This plot for an insurrection extended for forty-five or fifty miles around Charleston, and intrusted its secrets to thousands. Denmark Vesey, assisted by several other intelligent and trusty Negroes, had conceived the idea of slaughtering the whites in and about Charleston, and thus securing liberty for the blacks. A recruiting committee was formed, and every slave enlisted was sworn to secrecy. Household servants were rarely trusted. Talkative and intemperate slaves were not enlisted. Women were excluded from the affair that they might take care of the children. Peter Poyas, it was said, had enlisted six hundred without assistance. There were various opinions respecting the number enlisted. Some put it at hundreds, others thousands; one witness at the trial said there were nine thousand, another six thousand. But no white person ever succeeded in gaining the confidence of the black conspirators. Never was a plot so carefully guarded for so long a time.

"During the excitement and the trial of the supposed conspirators, rumor proclaimed all, and doubtless more than all, the horrors of the plot. The city was to be fired in every quarter, the arsenal in the immediate vicinity was to be broken open, and the arms distributed to the insurgents, and an universal massacre of the white inhabitants to take place. Nor did there seem to be any doubt in the mind of the people that such would actually have been the result, had not the plot fortunately been detected before the time appointed for the outbreak. It was believed, as a matter of course, that every black in the city would join in the insurrection, and that, if the original design had been attempted, and the city taken by surprise, the negroes would have achieved a complete and easy victory. Nor does it seem at all impossible that such might have been or yet may be the case, if any well-arranged and resolute rising should take place."[32]

This bold plot failed because a Negro named William Paul began to make enlistments without authority. He revealed the secret to a household servant, just the very man he should have left to the skilful manipulations of Peter Poyas or Denmark Vesey. As an evidence of the perfection of the plot it should be stated that after a month of official investigation only fifteen out of the thousands had been apprehended!

"The leaders of this attempt at insurrection died as bravely as they had lived; and it is one of the marvels of the remarkable affair, that none of this class divulged, any of their secrets to the court. The men who did the talking were those who knew but little."

The effect was to reveal the evils of slavery, to stir men to thought, and to hasten the day of freedom.

"Nat." Turner combined the lamb and lion. He was a Christian and a man. He was conscious that he was a man and not a "thing"; therefore, driven by religious fanaticism, he undertook a difficult and bloody task. Nathaniel Turner was born in Southampton County, Virginia, October 2, 1800. His master was one Benjamin Turner, a very wealthy and aristocratic man. He owned many slaves, and was a cruel and exacting master. Young "Nat." was born of slave parents, and carried to his grave many of the superstitions and traits of his father and mother. The former was a preacher; the latter a "mother in Israel." Both were unlettered, but, nevertheless, very pious people. The mother began when Nat. was quite young to teach him that he was born, like Moses, to be the deliverer of his race. She would sing to him snatches of wild, rapturous songs, and repeat portions of prophecy she had learned from the preachers of those times. Nat. listened with reverence and awe, and believed every thing his mother said. He imbibed the deep religious character of his parents, and soon manifested a desire to preach. He was solemnly set apart to "the Gospel Ministry" by his father, the Church, and visiting preachers. He was quite low in stature, dark, and had the genuine African features. His eyes were small, but sharp, and gleamed like fire when he was talking about his "mission," or preaching from some prophetic passage of Scripture. It is said that he never laughed. He was a dreamy sort of a man, and avoided the crowd. Like Moses, he lived in the solitudes of the mountains and brooded over the condition of his people. There was something grand to him in the rugged scenery that nature had surrounded him with. He believed that he was a prophet, a leader raised up by God to burst the bolts of the prison-house and set the oppressed free. The thunder, the hail, the storm-cloud, the air, the earth, the stars, at which he would sit and gaze half the night, all spake the language of the God of the oppressed. He was seldom seen in a large company, and never drank a drop of ardent spirits. Like John the Baptist, when he had delivered his message, he would retire to the fastness of the mountain, or seek the desert, where he could meditate upon his great work.

At length he declared that God spake to him. He began to dream dreams and to see visions. His grandmother, a very old and superstitious person, encouraged him in his dreaming. But, notwithstanding, he believed that he had communion with God, and saw the most remarkable visions, he denounced in the severest terms the familiar practices among slaves, known as "conjuring," "gufering," and fortune-telling. The people regarded him with mixed feelings of fear and reverence. He preached with great power and authority. He loved the prophecies, and drew his illustrations from nature. He presented God as the "All-Powerful"; he regarded him as a great "Warrior." His master soon discovered that Nat. was the acknowledged leader among the slaves, and that his fame as "prophet" and "leader" was spreading throughout the State. The poor slaves on distant plantations regarded the name of Nat. Turner as very little removed from that of God. Though having never seen him, yet they believed in him as the man under whose lead they would some time march out of the land of bondage. His influence was equally great among the preachers, while many white people honored and feared him. His master thought it necessary to the safety of his property, to hire Nat. out to a most violent and cruel man. Perhaps he thought to have him "broke." If so, he was mistaken. Nat. Turner was the last slave to submit to an insult given by a white man. His new master could do nothing with him. He ran off, and spent thirty days in the swamps—but returned. He was upbraided by some of his fellow-slaves for not seeking, as he certainly could have done, "the land of the free." He answered by saying, that a voice said to him: "Return to your earthly master; for he who knoweth his Master's will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." It was no direction to submit to an earthly master, but to return to him in order to carry out the will of his Heavenly Master. He related some of the visions he saw during his absence. "About that time I had a vision, and saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle; and the sun was darkened, the thunder rolled in the heavens, and blood flowed in streams; and I heard a voice saying: 'Such is your luck, such are you called on to see; and let it come, rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.' It was not long after this when he saw another vision. He says a spirit appeared unto him and spake as follows: "The serpent is loosened, and Christ has laid down the yoke he has borne for the sins of men; and you must take it up and fight against the serpent, for the time is fast approaching when the first shall be last, and the last shall be first." These visions and many others enthused Nat., and led him to believe that the time was near when the Blacks would be "first" and the whites "last."

The plot for a general uprising was laid in the month of February, 1831. He had seen the last vision. He says: "I was told I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons." He was now prepared to arrange the details of his plot. He appointed a meeting, to which he invited four trusted friends, Sam. Edwards, Hark Travis, Henry Porter, and Nelson Williams. A wild and desolate glen was chosen as the place of meeting, and night the time when they could perfect their plans without being molested by the whites. They brought with them provisions, and ate while they debated among themselves the methods by which to carry out their plan of blood and death. The main difficulty that confronted them was how to get arms. Nat. remembered that a spirit had instructed him to "slay my enemies with their own weapons," so they decided to follow these instructions. After they had decided upon a plan, "the prophet Nat." arose, and, like a great general, made a speech to his small but brave force. "Friends and brothers," said he, "we are to commence a great work to-night! Our race is to be delivered from slavery, and God has appointed us as the men to do his bidding; and let us be worthy of our calling. I am told to slay all the whites we encounter, without regard to age or sex. We have no arms or ammunition, but we will find these in the houses of our oppressors; and, as we go on, others can join us. Remember, we do not go forth for the sake of blood and carnage; but it is necessary that, in the commencement of this revolution, all the whites we meet should die, until we have an army strong enough to carry on the war upon a Christian basis. Remember that ours is not a war for robbery, nor to satisfy our passions; it is a struggle for freedom. Ours must be deeds, not words. Then let's away to the scene of action!"

The blow was struck on the night of the 21st of August, 1831, in Southampton County, near Jerusalem Court-House. The latter place is about seventy miles from Richmond. Not only Southampton County but old Virginia reeled under the blow administered by the heavy hand of Nat. Turner. On their way to the first house they were to attack, that of a planter by the name of Joseph Travis, they were joined by a slave belonging to a neighboring plantation. We can find only one name for him, "Will." He was the slave of a cruel master, who had sold his wife to the "nigger traders." He was nearly six feet in height, well developed, and the most powerful and athletic man in the county. He was marked with an ugly scar, extending from his right eye to the extremity of the chin. He hated his master, hated slavery, and was glad of an opportunity to wreak his vengeance upon the whites. He armed himself with a sharp broadaxe, under whose cruel blade many a white man fell. Nat.'s speech gives us a very clear idea of the scope and spirit of his plan. We quote from his confession at the time of the trial, and will let him tell the story of this terrible insurrection.

"On returning to the house, Hark went to the door with an axe, for the purpose of breaking it open, as we knew we were strong enough to murder the family should they be awakened by the noise; but, reflecting that it might create an alarm in the neighborhood, we determined to enter the house secretly, and murder them whilst sleeping. Hark got a ladder and set it against the chimney, on which I ascended, and, hoisting a window, entered and came down stairs, unbarred the doors, and removed the guns from their places. It was then observed that I must spill the first blood, on which, armed with a hatchet and accompanied by Will., I entered my master's chamber. It being dark, I could not give a death-blow. The hatchet glanced from his head; he sprang from his bed and called his wife. It was his last word. Will. laid him dead with a blow of his axe."

After they had taken the lives of this family, they went from plantation to plantation, dealing death-blows to every white man, woman, or child they found. They visited vengeance upon every white household they came to. The excitement spread rapidly, and the whites arose and armed themselves in order to repel these insurrectionists.

"The first news concerning the affair was in the shape of a letter from Col. Trezvant, which reached Richmond Tuesday morning, too late for the columns of the (Richmond) "Enquirer," which was a triweekly. The letter was written on the 21st of August, and lacked definiteness, which gave rise to doubts in reference to the 'insurrection.' It was first sent to Petersburgh, and was then immediately dispatched to the Mayor of Richmond.

. . . . . . . . .

"Arms and ammunition were dispatched in wagons to the county of Southampton. The four volunteer companies of Petersburgh, the dragoons and Lafayette artillery company of Richmond, one volunteer company from Norfolk and one from Portsmouth, and the regiments of Southampton and Sussex, were at once ordered out. The cavalry and infantry took up their line of march on Tuesday evening, while the artillery embarked on the steamer 'Norfolk,' and landed at Smithfield.... A member of the Richmond dragoons, writing from Petersburgh, under date of the 23d, after careful examination, thought that 'about two hundred and fifty negroes from a camp-meeting about the Dismal Swamp had murdered about sixty, persons, none of them families much known.'"[33]

Will., the revengeful slave, proved himself the most destructive and cruel of Nat.'s followers. A hand to hand battle came. The whites were well armed, and by the force of their superior numbers overcame the army of the "Prophet,"—five men. Will. would not surrender. He laid three white men dead at his feet, when he fell mortally wounded. His last words were: "Bury my axe with me," believing that in the next world he would need it for a similar purpose. Nat. fought with great valor and skill with a short sword, and finding it useless to continue the struggle, escaped with some of his followers to the swamps, where he defied the vigilance of the military and the patient watching of the citizens for more than two months. He was finally compelled to surrender. When the Court asked: "Guilty or not guilty?" he pleaded: "Not guilty." He was sustained during his trial by his unfaltering faith in God. Like Joan of Arc, he "heard the spirits," the "voices," and believed that God had "sent him to free His people."

In the impression of the "Enquirer" of the 30th of August, 1831, the first editorial, or leader, is under the caption of The Banditte. The editor says:

"They remind one of a parcel of blood-thirsty wolves rushing down from the Alps; or, rather like a former incursion of the Indians upon the white settlements. Nothing is spared: neither age nor sex respected—the helplessness of women and children pleads in vain for mercy.... The case of Nat. Turner warns us. No black-man ought to be permitted to turn a Preacher through the country. The law must be enforced—or the tragedy of Southampton appeals to us in vain."[34]

A remarkable prophecy was made by Nat. The trial was hurried, and, like a handle on a pitcher, was on one side only. He was sentenced to die on the gallows. He received the announcement with stoic indifference, and was executed at Jerusalem, the county seat of Southampton, in April, 1831. He died like a man, bravely, calmly; looking into eternity, made radiant by a faith that had never faltered. He prophesied that on the day of his execution the sun would be darkened, and other evidences of divine disapprobation would be seen. The sheriff was much impressed by Nat.'s predictions, and consequently refused to have any thing to do with the hanging. No Colored man could be secured to cut the rope that held the trap. An old white man, degraded by drink and other vices, was engaged to act as executioner, and was brought forty miles. Whether it was a fulfilment of Nat.'s prophecy or not, the sun was hidden behind angry clouds, the thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, and the most terrific storm visited that county ever known. All this, in connection with Nat.'s predictions, made a wonderful impression upon the minds of the Colored people, and not a few white persons were frightened, and regretted the death of the "Prophet."

The results of this uprising, led by a lone man—he was alone, and yet he was not alone,—are apparent when we consider that fifty-seven whites and seventy-three Blacks were killed and many were wounded.

The first reliable list of the victims of the "tragedy" was written on the 24th of August, 1831.

"List of the dead that have been buried:—At Mrs. Whiteheads', 7; Mrs. Waller's, 13; Mr. Williams', 3; Mr. Barrows', 2; Mr. Vaughn's, 5; Mrs. Turner's, 3; Mr. Travis's, 5; Mr. J. Williams', 5; Mr. Reice's, 4; Names unknown, 10; Total, 57."

Then there was a feeling of unrest among the slaves and a fear among the whites throughout the State. Even the proceedings of the trial of Nat. were suppressed for fear of evil consequences among the slaves. But now all are free, and the ex-planters will not gnash their teeth at this revelation. Nat. Turner's insurrection, like all other insurrections led by oppressed people, lacked detail and method. History records but one successful uprising—San Domingo has the honor. Even France failed in 1789, and in 1848. There is always a zeal for freedom, but not according to knowledge. No stone marks the resting-place of this martyr to freedom, this great religious fanatic, this Black John Brown. And yet he has a prouder and more durable monument than was ever erected of stone or brass. The image of Nat. Turner is carved on the fleshy tablets of four million hearts. His history has been kept from the Colored people, at the South, but the women have handed the tradition to their children, and the "Prophet Nat." is still marching on.

Of the character of this remarkable man, Mr. Gray, the gentleman to whom he made his confession, had the following to say:—

"It has been said that he was ignorant and cowardly, and that his object was to murder and rob, for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is notorious that he was never known to have a dollar in his life, to swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he certainly never had the advantages of education; but he can read and write, and for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever seen. As to his being a coward, his reason, as given, for not resisting Mr. Phipps, shows the decision of his character. When he saw Mr. Phipps present his gun, he said he knew it was impossible for him to escape, as the woods were full of men; he therefore thought it was better for him to surrender, and trust to fortune for his escape.

"He is a complete fanatic, or plays his part most admirably. On other subjects he possesses an uncommon share of intelligence, with a mind capable of attaining any thing, but warped and perverted by the influence of early impressions. He is below the ordinary stature, though strong and active, having the true negro face, every feature of which is strongly marked. I shall not attempt to describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by himself, in the condemned hole of the prison: the calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions; the expression of his fiend-like face, when excited by enthusiasm; still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothed with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands to Heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man. I looked on him, and the blood curdled in my veins."

In the "Richmond Enquirer," of September 2, 1831, appeared the following: "It is reported that a map was found, and said to have been drawn by Nat. Turner, with polk-berry juice, which was a description of the county of Southampton."

The influence of this bloody insurrection spread beyond the Old Dominion, and for years afterward, in nearly every Southern State the whites lived in a state of dread. To every dealer in flesh and blood the "Nat. Turner Insurrection" was a stroke of poetic justice.