Part 27 (1/2)

I must, however, state that, in speaking of the sufferings or injuries to which the slave is liable, I am not proclaiming them merely on the authority of Northern abolitionists, or on the deductions which I have drawn from human nature; many travellers have made similar charges. Miss Bremer writes:--”I beheld the old slave hunted to death because he dared to visit his wife--beheld him mangled, beaten, recaptured, fling himself into the water of the Black River, over which he was retaken into the power of his hard master--and the law was silent. I beheld a young woman struck, for a hasty word, upon the temples, so that she fell down dead!--and the law was silent. I heard the law, through its jury, adjudicate between a white man and a black, and sentence the latter to be flogged when the former was guilty--and they who were honest among the jurymen in vain opposed the verdict. I beheld here on the sh.o.r.es of the Mississippi, only a few months since, a young negro girl fly from the maltreatment of her master, and he was a professor of religion, and fling herself into the river.”--_Homes of the New World._ Would Miss Bremer write these things for the press, as occurring under her own eye, if they were not true?

Then, again, the Press itself in the South bears witness to what every one must admit to be an inhuman practice. How often must the reader of a Southern States' paper see children of the tenderest age, sometimes even under a year old, advertised for public sale! Did any one every take up the New Orleans paper without seeing more than one such advertis.e.m.e.nt as the following?--

150 NEGROES FOE SALE.

Just arrived, and for sale, at my old stand, No. 7, Moreau-street, Third Munic.i.p.ality, one hundred and fifty young and likely NEGROES, consisting of field-hands, house servants, and mechanics. They will be sold on reasonable terms for good paper or cash. Persons wis.h.i.+ng to purchase will find it to their advantage to give me a call. [Sep.

30--6m.] Wm. F. TALBOTT.

What happiness can the slave enjoy among a community where such an advertis.e.m.e.nt as the following can be tolerated, or, worse still, when, as in the present instance, it is sent forth under the sanction of the law? The advertis.e.m.e.nt is taken from a paper published at Wilmington, North Carolina.

$225 REWARD.--STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY.--_Whereas_, complaint upon, oath hath this day been made to us, two of the Justices of the Peace for the State and County aforesaid, by BENJAMIN HALLET, of the said county, that two certain male slaves belonging to him, named LOTT, aged about twenty-two years, five feet four or five inches high, and black, formerly belonging to LOTT WILLIAMS, of Onslow county; and BOB, aged about sixteen years, five feet high, and black; have absented themselves from their said master's service, and are supposed to be lurking about this county, committing acts of felony and other misdeeds. These are, therefore, in the name of the State aforesaid, to command the slaves forthwith to return home to their masters; and we do hereby, by virtue of the Act of the General a.s.sembly in such cases made and provided, intimate and declare that _if the said_ LOTT and BOB _do not return home and surrender themselves,_ immediately after the publication of these presents, that ANY PERSON MAY KILL AND DESTROY THE SAID SLAVES, by such means as he or they may think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, and without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby.

Given under our hands and seals, this 28th day of February, 1853.

W.N. PEDEN, J.P., [Seal]

W.C. BETTENCOURT, J.P., [Seal.]

$225 REWARD.--TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS will be given for negro LOTT, EITHER DEAD OR ALIVE; and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS FOR BOB'S HEAD, delivered to the subscriber in the town of Wilmington.

BENJAMIN HALLET.

March 2nd, 1853.

There is another evidence of a want of happiness among the slaves, which, though silent and unheard, challenges contradiction: I mean the annual escape of from one to two thousand into Canada, in spite not only of the natural difficulties and privations of the journey, but also of the fearful dread of the consequences of re-capture. Doubtless some of these may be fleeing from the dread of just punishment for offences against the law, but none can doubt that many more are endeavouring to escape from what they feel to be cruelty, injustice, and oppression.

I do not wish to pander to a morbid appet.i.te for horrors by gathering together under one view all the various tales of woe and misery which I have heard of, known, or seen. I think I have said enough to prove to any unprejudiced person that such things do and must ever exist under the inst.i.tution of slavery; and that, although the statements of rabid abolitionists are often the most unwarranted exaggerations, the all but total denial of their occurrence by the slave-owners is also not correct. The conviction forced upon my own mind, after much thought and inquiry on this most interesting topic is, that there are many dark clouds of cruelty in a sky which is bright with much of the truest and kindest sympathy for the poor slave.

I now propose to take a short review of the progress and real state of slavery, and I will commence by giving _in extenso_ an enactment which materially affects the negro, and, as I have before observed, has more than once threatened the Republic with disunion:--

Section 2.--Privileges of Citizens.--Clause 3. ”No person held to service or labour in one state under the laws thereof, escaping to another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due.”

Of course the word ”slave” would have read strangely among a community who set themselves up as the champions of the ”equal rights of man;” but it is clear that, according to this clause in the const.i.tution which binds the Republic together, every free state is compelled to a.s.sist in the recapture of a fugitive slave.

What was the exact number of slaves at the date of this law being pa.s.sed I have not the means of ascertaining: at the beginning of this century it was under 900,000; in the Census of 1850 they had increased to 3,200,000.[BT] There were originally 13 States. At present there are 31, besides territory not yet incorporated into States. The Slave States are 15, or nearly half. Thus much for increase of slaves and the slave soil. But, it will naturally be asked, how did it happen that, as the additional soil was incorporated, the sable workmen appeared as if by magic? The answer is very simple. The demand regulated the supply, and slave breeding became a most important feature in the system: thus the wants of the more southern States became regularly lessened by large drafts from Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia. Anybody desirous of testing the truth of this statement will find statistical data to a.s.sist him in an unpretending volume by Marshall Hall, M.D., &c., _On Twofold Slavery,_ which I read with much interest, although I cannot agree with him in everything.[BV]

I am aware that residents in these breeding States are to be found who would scorn to utter a wilful falsehood, and who deny this propagation of the human chattel for the flesh market; but there can be little doubt that the unbiased seeker after truth will find that such is the case.

And why not? Why should those who make their livelihood by trafficking in the flesh of their fellow-creatures hesitate to increase their profits by paying attention to the breeding of them? These facts do not come under the general traveller's eye, because, armed with letters of introduction, he consorts more with worthy slave-owners, who, occupied with the welfare of those around and dependent upon them, know little of the world beyond; in the same way as in England, a Christian family may be an example of patriarchal simplicity and of apostolic zeal and love, and yet beyond the circle of their action, though not very far from its circ.u.mference, the greatest distress and perhaps cruelty may abound. How many of the dark spots on our community has the single zeal of the Earl of Shaftesbury forced upon the public mind, of which we were utterly ignorant, though living in the midst of them. The degraded female drudge in a coal-pit, the agonized infant in a chimney, and the death-wrought child in a factory--each and all bear testimony to how much of suffering may exist while surrounded by those whose lives are spent in Christian charity. And so it is in every community, Slave States included. Christian hearts, pregnant with zeal and love, are diffusing blessings around them; and, occupied with their n.o.ble work, they know little of the dark places that hang on their borders. The Southern planter and his lady may be filled with the love of St. John, and radiate the beams thereof on every man, woman, and child under their guardians.h.i.+p, and then, ”measuring other people's corn by their own lovely bushel,” they may well hesitate to believe in the existence of a profligate breeding Pandemonium within the precincts of their immediate country. Yet, alas! there can be little doubt that it does exist.

Let us now fix our attention on the actual facts of the case which all parties admit. First, we have a slave population of 3,200,000. I think, if I estimate their marketable value at 80_l_ a head, I shall be considerably below the truth. That gives us in human flesh, 250,000,000l. Secondly, let us take the product of their labour. The Slave States raise annually--

Rice 215,000,000 lbs.

Tobacco 185,000,000 ”

Sugar 248,000,000 ”

Cotton 1,000,000,000 ”

Mola.s.ses 12,000,000 gallons.