SECTION I. SECTION I. 
This title is not written down in a spirit of mockery; thoughthere appears to be a mockery somewhere, when we contrast slaverywith the principles and the rule which are the test of allAmerican institutions:--the principles that all men are born freeand equal; that rulers derive their just powers from the consentof the governed; and the rule of reciprocal justice. Ihisdiscrepancy between principles and practice needs no more words.But the institution of slavery exists; and what we have to see iswhat the morals are of the society which is subject to it.
What social virtues are possible in a society of whichinjustice is the primary characteristic? in a society which isdivided into two classes, the servile and the imperious?
The most obvious is Mercy. Nowhere, perhaps, can more touchingexercises of mercy be seen than here. It must be remembered thatthe greater number of slave-holders have no other idea than ofholding slaves. Their fathers did it: they themselves have neverknown the coloured race treated otherwise than as inferiorbeings, born to work for and to teaze the whites; helpless,improvident, open to no higher inducements than indulgence andpraise; capable of nothing but entire dependence. The goodaffections of slave-holders like these show themselves in theform of mercy; which is as beautiful to witness as mercy, made asubstitute for justice, can ever be. I saw endless manifestationsof mercy, as well as of its opposite. The thoughtfulness ofmasters, mistresses, aml their children about, not only thecomforts, but the indulgences of their slaves, was a frequentsubject of admiration with me. Kind masters are liberal in theexpenditure of money, and (what is better) of thought, ingratifying the whims and fancies of their negroes. They makelarge sacrifices occasionally for the social or domesticadvantage of their people; and use great forbearance in theexercise of the power conferred upon them by law and custom.
At the time when the cholera was ravaging South Carolina, awealthy slave-holder there refused to leave the State, as most ofhis neighbours were doing. He would not consent to take anyfurther care of himself than riding to a distance from hisplantation (then overrun by the disease) to sleep. All day he wasamong his slaves: nursing them with his own hands; putting theminto the bath, giving them medicine himself, and cheering theirspirits by his presence and his care. He saved them almost all.No one will suppose this one of the ordinary cases where a masterhas his slaves taken care of as property, not as men. Sordidconsiderations of that kind must have given way before theterrors of the plague. A far higher strength than that ofself-interest was necessary to carry this gentleman through sucha work as this; and it was no other than mercy.
Again:--a y oung man, full of the southern pride, one of whoseaims is to have as great a display of negroes as possible,married a young lady who, soon after her marriage, showed animperious and cruel temper towards her slaves. Her husband gentlyremonstrated. She did not mend. He warned her, that he would notallow beings, for whose comfort he was responsible, to beoppressed; and that, if she compelled him to it, he would depriveher of the power she misused. StiII she did not mend. He one daycame and told her that he had sold all his domestic slaves, fortheir own sakes. He told her that he would always give her moneyenough to hire free service, when it was to be had; and that whenit was not, he would cheerfully bear, and help her to bear, thedomestic inconveniences which must arise from their having noservants. He kept his word. It rarely happens that free servicecan be hired; and this proud gentleman assists his wife's labourswith his own hands; and (what is more) endures with allcheerfulness the ignominy of having no slaves.
Nothing struck me more than the patience of slave-owners. Inthis virtue they probably surpass the whole christian world;--Imean in their patience with their slaves; for one cannot muchpraise their patience with the abolitionists, or with the tariff;or in some other cases of political vexation. When
I considered how they love to be called "fierysoutherners," I could not but marvel at their mildforbearance under the hourly provocations to which they areliable in their homes.1 It is found that such a degreeof this virtue can be obtained only by long habit. Persons fromNew England, France, or England, becoming slave-holders,are found to be the most severe masters and mistresses, howevergood their tempers may always have appeared previously. Theycannot, like the native proprietor, sit waiting half an hour forthe second course, or see everything done in the worst possiblemanner; their rooms dirty, their property wasted, their plansfrustrated, their infants slighted, themselves deludedbyartifices,--they canno, like the native proprietor, endure allthis unruffled. It seems to me that every slave-holder's temperis subjected to a discipline which must either ruin or perfectit. While we know that many tempers are thus ruined, and mustmourn for the unhappy creatures who cannot escape from theirtyranny, it is evident, on the other hand, that many tempers areto be met with which should shame down and silence for ever theirritability of some whose daily life is passed undercircumstances of comparative ease.
This mercy, indulgence, patience, was often pleaded to me indefence of the system, or in aggravation of the faults ofintractable slaves. The fallacy of this is so gross as not toneed exposure anywhere but on the spot. I was heart-sick of beingtold of the ingratitude of slaves, and weary of explaining thatindulgence can never atone for injury: that the extremestpampering, for a life-time, is no equivalent for rights withheld,no reparation for irreparable injustice. What are the greatestpossible amounts of finery, sweetmeats, dames, gratuities, andkind words and looks, in exchange for political, social, anddomestic existence? for body and spirit? Is it not true that thelife is more than meat, and the body than raiment?
This fallacious plea was urged upon me by three differentpersons, esteemed enlightened and religious, in relation to onecase. The case was this. A lady of fortune carried into herhusband's establishment, when she married, several slaves, andamong them a girl two years younger than herself, who had beenbrought up under her, and who was employed as her own maid. Thelittle slaves are accustomed to play freely with the chi1dren ofthe family--a practice which was lauded to me, but which neverhad any beauty in my eyes, seeing, as I did, the injury to thewhite children from unrestricted intercourse with the degradedrace, and looking forward as I did to the time when they mustseparate into the servile and imperious. Mrs. ------ had beenunusually indulgent to this girl, having allowed her time andopportunity for religious and other instruction, and favoured herin every way. One night, when the girl was undressing her, thelady expressed her fondness for her, and said, among otherthings: "When I die you shall be free;"--a dangerousthing to say to a slave only two years younger than herself. In ashort time the lady was taken ill,--with a strange, mysteriousillness, which no doctor could alleviate. One of her friends, whosuspected foul play, took the sufferer entirely under her owncharge, when she seemed to be dying. She revived; and as soon asshe was well enough to have a will of her own again, would bewaited on by no one but her favourite slave. She grew worse. Shealternated thus, for some time, according as she was under thecare of this slave or of her friend. At last, the friend excludedfrom her chamber every one but the physicians: took in themedicines at the room door from the hands of the slave, andlocked them up. They were all analysed by a physician, andarsenic found in every one of them. The lady partially recovered;but I was shocked at the traces of suffering in her wholeappearance. The girl's guilt was brought clearly home to her.There never was a case of more cruel, deliberate intention tomurder. If ever slave deserved the gallows, (which ought to bequestionable to the most decided minds,) this girl did. What wasdone? The lady was tenderhearted, and could not bear to have herhanged. This was natural enough; but what did she therefore do?keep her under her own eye, that she might at least poison nobodyelse, and perhaps be touched and reclaimed by the clemency of theperson she would have murdered? No. The lady sold her.
I was actually called upon to admire the lady's conduct; andwas asked whether the ingratitude of the girl was notinconceivable, and her hypocrisy too; for she used to lecture hermistress and her mistress's friends for being so irreligious asto go to parties on Saturday nights, when they should have beenpreparing their minds for Sunday. Was not the hypocrisy of thegirl inconceivable? and her ingratitude for her mistress'sfavours? No. The girl had no other idea of religion,--could haveno other than that it consists in observances, and, wicked as shewas, her wickedness could not be called ingratitude, for she wasmore injured than favoured, after all. All indulgences that couldbe heaped upon her were still less than her due, and her mistressremained infinitely her debtor.
Little can be said of the purity of manners of the whites ofthe south; but there is purity. Some few examples of domesticfidelity may be found: few enough, by the confession of residentson the spot; but those individuals who have resisted thecontagion of the vice amidst which they dwell are pure. Every manwho resides on his plantation may have his harem, and has everyinducement of custom, and of pecuniary gain,2 to tempthim to the common practice. Those who, notwithstanding, keeptheir homes undefiled may be considered as of incorruptiblepurity.
Here, alas! ends my catalogue of the virtues which are ofpossible exercise by slave-holders towards their labourers. Theinherent injustice of the system extinguishes all others, andnourishes a whole harvest of false morals towards the rest ofsociety.
The personal oppression of the negroes is the grossest vicewhich strikes a stranger in the country. It can never beotherwise when human beings are wholly subjected to the will ofother human beings, who are under no other external control thanthe law which forbids killing and maiming;-- a law which it isdifficult to enforce in individual cases. A fine slave waswalking about in Columbia, South Carolina, when I was there,nearly helpless and useless from the following causes. His masterwas fond of hirn, and the slave enjoyed the rare distinction ofnever having been flogged. One day, his master's child, supposedto be under his care at the time, fell down and hurt itself. Themaster flew into a passion, ordered the slave to be instantlyflogged, and would not hear a single word the man had to say. Assoon as the flogging was over, the slave went into the back yard,where there was an axe and a block, and struck off the upper halfof his right hand. He went and held up the bleeding hand beforehis master, saying, "You have mortified me, so I have mademyself useless. Now you must maintain me as long as I live."It came out that the child had been under the charge of anotherperson.
There are, as is well known throughout the country, houses inthe free States which are open to fugitive slaves, and where theyare concealed till the search for them is over. I know some ofthe secrets of such places; and can mention two cases, amongmany, of runaways, which show how horrible is the tyranny whichthe slave system authorises men to inflict on each other. A negrohad found his way to one of these friendly houses; and had beenso skilfully concealed, that repeated searches by his master,(who had followed for the purpose of recovering him,) and byconstables, had been in vain. After three weeks of thisseclusion, the negro became weary, and entreated of his host tobe permitted to look out of the window. His host strongly advisedhim to keep quiet, as it was pretty certain that his master hadnot given him up. When the host had left him, however, the negrocame out of his hiding-place, and went to the window. He met theeye of his master, who was looking up frorm the street. The poorslave was obliged to return to his bondage.
A young negress had escaped in like manner; was in like mannerconcealed; and was alarmed by constables, under the direction ofher master, entering the house in pursuit of her, when she hadhad reason to believe that the search was over. She flew upstairs to her chamber in the third story, and drove a heavyarticle of furniture against the door. The constables pushed in,notwithstanding, and the girl leaped from the window into thepaved street. Her master looked at her as she lay, declared shewould never be good for anything again, and went back into tbesouth. The poor creature, her body bruised, and her limbsfractured, was taken up, and kindly nursed; and she is nowmaintained in Boston, in her maimed condition, by the charity ofsome ladies there.
The following story has found its way into the northern States(as few such stories do) from the circumstance that a NewHampshire family are concerned in it. It has excited due horrorwherever it is known; and it is to be hoped that it will lead tothe exposure of more facts of the same kind, since it is but toocertain that they are common.
A New Hampshire gentleman went down into Louisiana, many yearsago, to take a plantation. He pursued the usual method; borrowingmoney largely to begin with, paying high interest, and clearingoff his debt, year by year, as his crops were sold. He followedanother custom there; taking a Quadroon wife: a mistress, in theeye of the law, since there can be no legal marriage betweenwhites and persons of any degree of colour: but, in nature and inreason, the woman he took home was his wife. She was awell-principled, amiable, well-educated woman; and they livedhappily together for twenty years. She had only the slightestpossible tinge of colour. Knowing the law that the children ofslaves are to follow the fortunes of the mother, she warned herhusband that she was not free, an ancestress having heen a slave,and the legal act of manumission having never been performed. Thehusband promised to look to it: but neglected it. At the end oftwenty years, one died, and the other shortly followed, leavingdaughters; whether two or three, I have not been able toascertain with positive certainty; but I have reason to believethree, of the ages of fifteen, seventeen, and eighteen: beautifulgirls, witll ro perceptible mulatto tinge. The brother of theirfather came down from New Hampshire to settle the affairs: and hesupposed, as every one else did, that the deceased had beenwealthy. He was pleased with his nieces, and promised to carrythem back witb him into New Hampshire, and (as they wereto all appearance perfectly white) to introduce them into thesociety which by education they were fitted for. It appeared,however, that their father had died insolvent. The deficiency wasvery srmall: but it was necessary to make an inventory of theeffects, to deliver to the creditors. This was done by thebrother,--the executor. Some of the creditors called on him, andcomplained that he had not delivered in a faithful inventory. Hedeclared he had. No: the number of slaves was not accurately setdown: he had omitted the daughters. The executor was overwhelmedwith horror, and asked time for thought. He went round among thecreditors, appealing to their mercy: but they answered that theseyoung ladies were "a first-rate article," too valuableto be relinquished. He next offered, (though he had himself sixchildren, and very little money,) all he had for the redemptionof his nieces; alloging that it was more than they would bring inthe market for house or field labour. This was refused withscorn. It was said that there were other purposes for which thegirls would bring more than for field or house labour. The unclewas in despair, and felt strongly tempted to wish their deathrather than their surrender to such a fate as was before them. Hetold them, abruptly, what was their prospect. He declares that henever before beheld human grief; never before heard the voice ofanguish. They never ate, nor slept, nor separated from eachother, till the day when they were taken into the New Orleansslave-market. There they were sold, separately, at high prices,for the vilest of purposes: and where each is gone, no one knows.They are, for the present, lost. But they will arise to the lightin the day of retribution.
It is a common boast in the south that there is less vice intheir cities than in those of the north. This can never, as amatter of fact, have been ascertained; as the proceedings ofslave households are, or may be, a secret: and in the north, whatlicentiousness there is may be detected. But such comparisons arebad. Let any one look at the positive licentiousness of thesouth, and declare if, in such a state of society, there can beany security for domestic purity and peace. The Quadroonconnexions in New Orleans are all but universal, as I was assuredon the spot by ladies who cannot be mistaken. The history of suchconnexions is a melancholy one: but it ought to be made knownwhile there are any who boast of the superior morals of NewOrleans, on account of the decent quietness of the streets andtheatres.
The Quadroon girls of New Orleans are brought up by theirmothers to be what they have been; the mistresses of whitegentlemen. The boys are some of them sent to France; some placedon land in the back of the State; and some are sold in theslave-market. They marry women of a somewhat darker colour thantheir own; the women of their own colour objecting to them,"ils sont si degoutants!" The girls are highlyeducated, externally, and are, probably, as beautiful andaccomplished a set of women as can be found. Every young manearly selects one, and establishes her in one of those pretty andpeculiar houses, whole rows of which may be seen in the Remparts.The connexion now and then lasts for life: usually for severalyears. In the latter case, when the time comes for the gentlemanto take a white wife, the dreadful news reaches his Quadroonpartner, either by a letter entitling her to call the house andfurniture her own, or by the newspaper which announces hismarriage. The Quadroon ladies are rarely or never known to form asecond connexion. Many commit suicide: more die brokenhearted.Some men continue the connexion after marriage. Every Quadroonwoman believes that her partner will prove an exception to therule of desertion. Every white lady believes that her husband hasbeen an exception to the rule of seduction.
What security for domestic purity and peace there can be whereevery man has had two connexions, one of which must be concealed;and two families, whose existence must not be known to eachother; where the conjugal relation begins in treachery, and mustbe carried on with a heavy secret in the husband's breast, nowords are needed to explain. If this is the system which isboasted of as a purer than ordinary state of morals, what is tobe thought of the ordinary state? It can only be hoped that theboast is an empty one.
There is no occasion to explain the management of the femaleslaves on estates where the object is to rear as many aspossible, like stock, for the southern market: nor to point outthe boundless licentiousness caused by the practice: a practicewhich wrung from the wife of a planter, in the bitterness of herheart, the declaration that a planter's wife was only "thechief slave of the harem." Mr. Madison avowed that thelicentiousness of Virginian plantations stopped just short ofdestruction; and that it was understood that the female slaveswere to become mothers at fifteen.
A gentleman of the highest character, a southern planter,observed, in conversation with a friend, that little was known,out of bounds, of the reasons of the new laws by whichemancipation was made so difficult as it is. He said that thevery general connexion of white gentlemen with their femaleslaves introduced a mulatto race whose numbers would becomedangerous, if the affections of their white parents werepermitted to render them free. The liberty of emancipating themwas therefore abolished, while that of selling them remained.There are persons who weakly trust to the force of the parentalaffection for putting an end to slavery, when the amalgamation ofthe races shall have gone so far as to involve a sufficientnumber! I actually heard this from the lips of a clergyman in thesouth. Yet these planters, who sell their own offspring to filltheir purses, who have such offspring for the sake of fillingtheir purses, dare to raise the cry of "amalgamation"against the abolitionists of the north, not one of whom has, asfar as evidence can show, conceived the idea of a mixture of theraces. It is from the south, where this mixture is hourlyencouraged, that the canting and groundless reproach has come. Imet with no candid southerner who was not full of shame at themonstrous hypocrisy.
It is well known that the most savage violences that are nowheard of in the world take place in the southern and westernStates of America. Burning alive, cutting the heart out, andsticking it on the point of a knife, and other such diabolicaldeeds, the result of the deepest hatred of which the human heartis capable, are heard of only there. The frequency of such deedsis a matter of dispute, which time will settle.3 Theexistence of such deeds is a matter of no dispute. Whether two ortwenty such deeds take place in a year, their perpetrationtestifies to the existence of such hatred as alone could promptthem. There is no doubt in my mind as to the immediate causes ofsuch outrages. They arise out of the licentiousness of manners.The negro is exasperated by being deprived of his wife,--by beingsent out of the way that his master may take possession of hishome. He stabs his master; or, if he cannot fulfil his desire ofvengeance, he is a dangerous person, an object of vengeance inreturn, and destined to some cruel fate. If the negro attempts toretaliate, and defile the master's home, the faggots are setalight about him. Much that is dreadful ensues from the negrobeing subject to toil and the lash: but I am confident that thelicentiousness of the masters is the proximate cause of societyin the south and south-west being in such a state that nothingelse is to be looked for than its being dissolved into itselements, if man does not soon cease to be called the property ofman. This dissolution will never take place through theinsurrection of the negroes; but by the natural operation ofvice. But the process of demoralisation will be stopped, I haveno doubt, before it reaches that point. There is no reason toapprehend serious insurrection; for the negroes are too degradedto act in concert, or to stand firm before the terrible face ofthe white man. Like all deeply-injured classes of persons, theyare desperate and cruel, on occasion, kindly as their nature is;but as a class, they have no courage. The voice of a white, evenof a lady, if it were authoritative, would make a whole regimentof rebellious slaves throw down their arms and flee. Poison isthe weapon that suits them best: then the knife, in moments ofexasperation. They will never take the field, unless led on byfree blacks. Desperate as the state of society is, it will berectified, probably, without bloodshed.
It may be said that it is doing an injustice to cite extremecases of vice as indications of the state of society. I do notthink so, as long as such cases are so common as to strike theobservation of a mere passing stranger; to say nothing of theirincompatibility with a decent and orderly fulfilment of thesocial relations. Let us, however, see what is the very beststate of things. Let us take the words and deeds of some of themost religious, refined, and amiable members of society. It wasthis aspect of affairs which grieved me more, if possible, thanthe stormier one which I have presented. The coarsening andhardening of mind and manners among the best; the blunting of themoral sense among the most conscientious, gave me more pain thanthe stabbing, poisoning, and burning. A few examples which willneed no comment, will suffice.
Two ladies, the distinguishing ornaments of a very superiorsociety in the south, are truly unhappy about slavery, and openedtheir hearts freely to me upon the grief which it causedthem,--the perfect curse which they found it. They need noenlightening on this, nor any stimulus to acquit themselves aswell as their unhappy circumstances allow. They one day pressedme for a declaration of what I should do in their situation. Ireplied that I would give up everything, go away with my slaves,settle them, and stay by them in some free place. I hadsaid, among other things, that I dare not stay there,--on my ownaccount,--from moral considerations. "What, not if you hadno slaves?" "No." "Why?" "I couldnot trust myself to live where I must constantly witness theexercise of irresponsible power." They made no reply at themoment: but each found occasion to tell me, some days afterwards,that she had been struck to the heart by these words: theconsideration I mentioned having never occurred to her before!
Madame Lalaurie, the person who was mobbed at New Orleans, onaccount of her fiendish cruelty to her slaves,--a cruelty soexcessive as to compel the belief that she was mentally deranged,though her derangement could have taken such a direction nowherebut in a slave country;--this person was described to me ashaving been "very pleasant to whites."
A common question put to me by amiable ladies was, "Donot you find the slaves generally very happy ?" They neverseemed to have been asked, or to have asked themselves, thequestion with which I replied:--"Would you be happy withtheir means?"
One sultry morning I was sitting with a friend, who was givingme all manner of information about her husband's slaves, both inthe field and house; how she fed and clothed them; whatindulgences they vrere allowed; what their respectivecapabilities were; and so forth. While we were talking, one ofthe house-slaves passed us. I observed that she appeared superiorto all the rest; to which my friend assented. "She is A.'swife?" said I. " We call her A.'s wife, but she hasnever been married to him. A. and she came to my husband, fiveyears ago, and asked him to let them marry: but he could notallow it, because he had not made up his mind whether to sell A.;and he hates parting husband and wife." "How manychililren have they ?" "Four." "And they arenot married yet?" "No; my husband has never been ableto let them marry. He certainly will not sell her: and he has notdetermined yet whether he shall sell A."
Another friend told me the following story. B. was the bestslave in her husband's possession. B. fell in love with C., apretty girl, on a neighbouring estate, who was purchased to beB.'s wife. C.'s temper was jealous and violent; and she wasalways fancying that B. showed attention to other girls. Hermaster warned her to keep her temper, or she should be sent away.One day, when the master was dining out, B. came to him,trembling, and related that C. had, in a fit of jealousy, aimed ablow at his head with an axe, and nearly struck him. The rmasterwent home, and told C. that her temper could no longer be bornewith, and she must go. He offered her the choice of being sold toa trader, and carried to New Orleans, or of being sent to fieldlabour on a distant plantation. She preferred being sold to thetrader; who broke his promise of taking her to New Orleans, anddisposed of her to a neighbouring proprietor. C. kept watch overher husband, declaring that she would be the death of any girlwhom B. might take to wife. "And so," said myinformant, "poor B. was obliged to walk about in singleblessedness for some time; till, last summer, happily, C.died."--"Is it possible," said I, "that youpair and part these people like brutes;" --The lady lookedsurprised, and asked what else could be done.
One day at dinner, when two slaves were standing behind ourchairs, the lady of the house was telling me a ludicrous story,in which a former slave of hers was one of the personages,serving as a butt on the question of complexion. She seemed torecollect that slaves were listening; for she put in, " D.was an excellent boy," (the term for male slaves of everyage.) "We respected him very highly as an excellent boy. Werespected him almost as much as if he had been a white. But&c.-------"
A southern lady, of fair reputation for refinement andcultivation, told the following story in the hearing of acompany, among whom were some friends of mine. She spoke withobvious unconsciousness that she was saying anything remarkable:indeed such unconsciousness was proved by her telling the storyat all. She had possessed a very pretty mulatto girl, of whom shedeclared herself fond. A young man carme to stay at her house,and fell in love with the girl. "She came to me," saidthe lady, "for protection; which I gave her." The youngman went away, but after some weeks, returned, saying he was somuch in love with the girl that he could not live without her."I pitied the young man," concluded the lady; " soI sold the girl to him for 1,500 dollars."
I repeatedly heard the preaching of a remarkably liberal man,of a free and kindly spirit, in the south. His last sermon,extempore, was from the text "Cast all your care upon him,for He careth for you." The preacher told us, among otherthings, that God cares for all,--for the meanest as well as themightiest. "He cares for that coloured person," saidhe, pointing to the gallery where the people of coloursit,--"he cares for that coloured person as well as for thewisest and best of you whites." This was the most wantoninsult I had ever seen offered to a human being; and it was withdifficulty that I refrained from walking out of the church. Yetno one present to whom I afterwards spoke of it seemedable to comprehend the wrong. "Well!" said they:"does not God care for the coloured people?"
Of course, in a society where things like these are said anddone by its choicest members, there is a prevalentunconsciousness of the existing wrong. The daily and hourly pleais of good intentions towards the slaves; of innocence under theaspersions of foreigners. They are as sincere in the belief thatthey are injured as their visitors are cordial in theirdetestation of the morals of slavery. Such unconsciousness of themilder degrees of impurity and injustice as enables ladies andclergymen of the highest character to speak and act as I haverelated, is a sufficient evidence of the prevalent grossness ofmorals. One remarkable indication of such blindness was thealmost universal mention of the state of the Irish to me, as aworse case than American slavery. I never attempted, of course,to vindicate the state of Ireland: but I was surprised to find noone able, till put in the way, to see the distinction betweenpolitical misgovernment and personal slavery: betweenexasperating a people by political insult, and possessing them,like brutes, for pecuniary profit. The unconsciousness of guiltis the worst of symptoms, where there are means of light to behad. I shall have to speak hereafter of the state of religionthroughout the country. It is enough here to say that if, withthe law of liberty and the gospel of peace and purity withintheir hands, the inhabitants of the south are unconscious of thelow state of the morals of society, such blindness proves nothingso much as how far that which is highest and purest may beconfounded with what is lowest and foulest, when once the fatalattempt has been entered upon to make them co-exist. From theirco-existence, one further step may be taken; and in the south hasbeen taken; the making the high and pure a sanction for the lowand foul. Of this, more hereafter.
The degradation of the women is so obvious a consequence ofthe evils disclosed above, that the painful subject need not beenlarged on. By the degradation of women, I do not mean to implyany doubt of the purity of their manners. There are reasons,plain enough to the observer, why their manners should be evenpeculiarly pure. They are all married young, from their beingout-numbered by the other sex: and there is ever present anunfortunate servile class of their own sex to serve the purposesof licentiousness, so as to leave them untempted. Theirdegradation arises, not from their own conduct, but from that ofall other parties about them.Where the generality of men carrysecrets which their wives must be the last to know; where thebusiest and more engrossing concerns of life must wear one aspectto the one sex, and another to the other, there is an end to allwholesome confidence and sympathy, and woman sinks to be theornament of her husband's house, the domestic manager of hisestablishment, instead of being his all-sufficient friend. I amspeaking not only of what I suppose must necessarily be; but ofwhat I have actually seen. I have seen, with heart-sorrow, thekind politeness, the gallantry, so insufficient to the lovingheart, with which the wives of the south are treated by theirhusbands. I have seen the horror of a woman's having to work,--toexert the facultieswhich her Maker gave her;--the eagerness toensure her unearned ease and rest; the deepest insult which canbe offered to an intelligent and conscientious woman. I know thetone of conversation which is adopted towards women; different inits topics and its style from that which any man would dream ofoffering to any other man. I have heard the boast of thechivalrous consideration in which women are held throughout theirwoman's paradise; and seen something of the anguish of crushedpride, of the conflict of bitter feelings with which such boastshave heen listened to by those whose aspirations teach them thehollowness of the system. The gentlemen are all the while unawarethat women are not treated in the best possible manner amongthem: and they will remain thus blind as long as licentiousintercourse with the lowest of the sex unfits them forappreciating the highest. Whenever their society shall take rankaccording to moral rather than physical considerations; wheneverthey shall rise to crave sympathy in the real objects ofexistence; whenever they shall begin to inquire what human lifeis, and wherefore, and to reverence it accordingly, they willhumble themselves in shame for their abuse of the right of thestrongest; for those very arrangements and observances which nowconstitute their boast. A lady who, brought up elsewhere to useher own faculties, and employ them on such objects as she thinksproper, and who has more knowledge and more wisdom than perhapsany gentleman of her acquaintance, told me of the disgust withwhich she submits to the conversation which is addressed to her,under the idea of being fit for her; and how she solaces herselfat home, after such provocation, with the silent sympathy ofbooks. A father of promising young daughters, whom he sees likelyto be crushed by the system, told me in a tone of voice which Ishall never forget, that women there might as well be turned intothe street, for anything they are fit for. There are reasonablehopes that his children may prove an exception. One gentleman whodeclares himself much interested in the whole subject, expresseshis horror of the employment of women in the northern States, foruseful purposes. He told me that the same force of circumstanceswhich, in the region he inhabits, makes men independent,increases the dependence of women, and will go on to increase it.Society is there, he declared, "always advancing towardsorientalism." "There are but two ways in which womancan be exercised to the extent of her powers; by genius and bycalamity, either of which may strengthen her to burst herconventional restraints. The first is too rare a circumstance toafford any basis for speculation: and may Heaven avert thelast!" O, may Heaven hasten it! would be the cry of manyhearts, if these be indeed the conditions of woman's fulfillingthe purposes of her being. There are, I believe, some who wouldscarcely tremble to see their houses in flames, to hear thecoming tornado, to feel the threatening earthquake, if these beindeed the messengers who must open their prison doors, and givetheir heaven-born spirits the range of the universe. God hasgiven to them the universe, as to others: man has caged them inone corner of it, and dreads their escape from their cag e, whileman does that which he would not have woman hear of. He putsgenius out of sight, and deprecates calamity. He has not,however, calculated all the forces in nature. If he had, he wouldhardly venture to hold either negroes or women as property, or totrust to the absence of genius and calamity.
One remarkable warning has been vouchsafed to him. A woman ofstrong mind, whose strenuous endeavours to soften the woes ofslavery to her own dependents, failed to satisfy her conscienceand relieve her human affections, has shaken the blood-slakeddust from her feet, and gone to live where every man can callhimself his own: and not only to live, but to work there, and topledge herself to death, if necessary, for the overthrow of thesystem which she abhors in proportion to her familiarity with it.Whether we are to call her Genius or Calamity, or by her ownhonoured name of Angelina Grimke, certain it is that she isrousing into life and energy many women who were unconscious ofgenius, and unvisited by calamity, but who carry honest andstrong human hearts. This lady may ere long be found to havematerially checked the "advance towards orientalism."
Of course, the children suffer, perhaps the most fatally ofall, under the slave system. What can be expected from littleboys who are brought up to consider physical courage the highestattribute of manhood; pride of section and of caste its loftiestgrace; the slavery of a part of society essential to the freedomof the rest; justice of less account than generosity; andhumiliation in the eyes of men the most intolerahle of evils?What is to be expected of little girls who boast of having got anegro flogged for being impertinent to them, and who aresurprised at the "ungentlemanly" conduct of a masterwho maims his slave? Such lessons are not always taughtexpressly. Sometimes the reverse is expressly taught. But this iswhat the children in a slave country necessarily learn from whatpasses around them; just as the plainest girls in a school growup to think personal beauty the most important of all endowments,in spite of daily assurances that the charms of the mind are allthat are worth regarding.
The children of slave countries learn more and worse still. Itis nearly impossible to keep them from close intercourse with theslaves; and the attempt is rarely made. The generality of slavesare as gross as the total absence of domestic sanctity might beexpected to render them. They do not dream of any reserves withchildren. The consequences are inevitable. The woes of mothersfrom this cause are such that, if this "peculiar donesticinstitution" were confided to their charge, I believe theywould accomplish its overthrow with an energy and wisdom thatwould look more like inspiration than orientalism. Among theincalculable forces in nature is the grief of mothers weeping forthe corruption of their chililren.
One of the absolutely inevitable results of slavery is adisregard of human rights; an inability even to comprehend them.Probably the southern gentry, who declare that the presence ofslavery enhances the love of freedom; that freedom can be dulyestirmated only where a particular class can appropriate allsocial privileges; that, to use the words of one of them,"they know too much of slavery to be slavesthemselves," are sincere enough in such declarations; and ifso, it follows that they do not know what freedom is. They mayhave the benefit of the alternative,--of not knowing what freedomis, and being sincere; or of knowing what freedom is, and notbeing sincere. I am disposed to think that the first is the morecommon case.
One reason for my thinking so is, that I usually found inconversation in the south, that the idea of human rightswas--sufficient subsistence in return for labour. This wasassumed as the definition of human rights on which we were toargue the case of the slave. When I tried the definition by thegolden rule, I found that even that straight, simple rule hadbecome singularly bent in the hands of those who profess toacknowledge and apply it. A clergyman preached from the pulpitthe following application of it, which is echoed unhesitatinglyby the most religious of the slaveholders:--" Treat yourslaves as you would wish to be treated if you were a slaveyourself." I verily believe that hundreds, or thousands, donot see that this is not an honest application of the rule; soblinded are they by custom to the fact that the negro is a manand a brother.
Another of my reasons for supposing that the gentry of thesouth do not know what freedom is, is that many seem unconsciousof the state of coercion in which they themselves are living;coercion, not only from the incessant fear of which I have beforespoken,--a fear which haunts their homes, their business, andtheir recreations; coercion, not only from their fear, and fromtheir being dependent for their hourly comforts upon theextinguished or estranged will of those whom they have injured;but coercion also from their own laws. The laws against the pressare as peremptory as in the most despotic countries of Europe:4as may be seen in the small number and size, and poor quality, ofthe newspapers of the south. I never saw, in the rawest villagesof the youngest States, newspapers so empty and poor as those ofNew Orleans. It is curious that, while the subject of theabolition of slavery in the British colonies was necessarily avery interesting one throughout the southern States, I met withplanters who did not know that any compensation had been paid bythe British nation to the West India proprietors. The miserablequality of the southern newspapers, and the omission from them ofthe subjects on which the people most require information, willgo far to account for the people's delusions on their ownaffairs, as compared with those of the rest of the world, and fortheir boasts of freedom, which probably arise from their knowingof none which is superior. They see how much more free they arethan their own slaves; but are not generally aware what libertyis where all are free. In 1834, the number of newspapers was, inthe State of New York, 267; in Louisiana, 31; in Massachusetts,108; in South Carolina, 19; in Pennsylvania, 220; in Georgia, 29.
What is to he thought of the freedom of gentlemen subject tothe following law? "Any person or persons who shall attemptto teach any free person of colour, or slave, to spell, read, orwrite, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined ina sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, nor more thanfive hundred dollars."5
What is to be thought of the freedom of gentlemen who cannotemancipate their own slaves, except by the consent of thelegislature; and then only under very strict conditions, whichmake the deed almost impracticable? It has been mentioned thatduring a temporary suspension of the laws against emancipationin Virginia, 10,000 slaves were freed in nine years; and that, asthe institution seemed in peril, the masters were again coerced.It is pleaded that the masters themselves were the repealers andre-enactors of these laws. True: and thus it appears thatthey thought it necessary to deprive each other of aliberty which a great number seem to have made use of themselves,while they could. No high degree of liberty, or of the love ofit, is to be seen here. The laws which forbid emancipation arefelt to be cruelly galling, throughout the south I heard frequentbitter complaints of them. They are the invariable plea urged byindividuals to excuse their continuing to hold slaves. Suchindividuals are either sincere in these complaints, or they arenot. If they are not, they must be under some deplorable coercionwhich compels so large a multitude to hypocrisy. If they aresincere, they possess the common republican means of gettingtyrannical laws repealed: and why do they not use them? If theselaws are felt to be oppressive, why is no voice heard denouncingthem in the legislatures? If men complainingly, but voluntarily,submit to laws which bnd the conscience, little can be said oftheir love of liberty. If they submit involuntarily, nothing canbe said for their possession of it.
What, again, is to be thought of the freedom of citizens whoare liable to lose caste because they follow conscience in a casewhere the perversity of the laws places interest on the side ofconscience, and public opinion against it? I will explain. In asouthern city, I saw a gentleman who appeared to have all theoutward requisites for commanding respect. He was very wealthy,had been governor of the State, and was an eminent and peculiarbenefactor to the city. I found he did not stand well. As somepains were taken to impress me with this, I inquired the cause.His character was declared to be generally good. I soon got atthe particular exception, which I was anxious to do only becauseI saw that it was somehow of public concern. While this gentlemanwas governor, there was an insurrection of slaves. His own slaveswere accused. He did not believe them guilty, and refused to hangthem. This was imputed to an unwillingness to sacrifice hisproperty. He was thus in a predicament which no one can be placedin, except where man is held as property. He must either hang hisslaves, believing them innocent, and keep his character; or hemust, by saving their lives, lose his own character. How the casestood with this gentleman, is fully known only to his own heart.His conduct claims the most candid construction. But, this beingaccorded as his due, what can be thought of the freedom of arepublican thus circumstanced?
Passing over the perils, physical and moral, in which thoseare involved who live in a society where recklessness of life istreated with leniency, and physical courage stands high in thelist of virtues and graces,--perils which abridge a man's libertyof action and of speech in a way which would be felt to beintolerable if the restraint were not adorned by the false nameof Honour,--it is only necessary to look at the treatment of theabolitionists by the south, by both legislatures and individuals,to see that no practical understanding of liberty exists there.
Upon a mere vague report, or bare suspicion, personstravelling through the south have been arrested, imprisoned, and,in some cases, flogged or otherwise tortured, on presence thatsuch persons desired to cause insurrection among the slaves. Morethan one innocent person has been hanged; and the device ofterrorism has been so practiced as to deprive the total number ofpersons who avowedly hold a certain set of opinions, of theirconstitutional liberty of traversing the whole country. It wasdeclared by some liberal-minded gentlemen of South Carolina,after the publication of Dr. Channing's work on Slavery, that ifDr. Channing were to enter South Carolina with a body-guard of20,000 men, he could not come out alive. I have seen thelithographic prints, transmitted in letters to abolitionists,representing the individual to whom the letter was sent hangingon a gallows. I have seen the hand-bills, purporting to be issuedby Committees of Vigilance, offering enormous rewards for theheads, or for the ears, of prominent abolitionists.
If it be said that these acts are attributable to the ignorantwrath of individuals only, it may be asked whence arose theCommittees of Vigilance, which were last year sitting throughoutthe south and west, on the watch for any incautious person whomight venture near them, with anti-slavery opinions in his mind?How came it that high official persons sat on these committees?How is it that some governors of southern States made formalapplication to governors of the northern States to procure thedispersion of anti-slavery societies, the repression ofdiscussion, and the punishment of the promulgators of abolitionopinions? How is it that the governor of South Carolina last yearrecommended the summary execution, without benefit of clergy, ofall persons caught within the limits of the State, holding avowedanti-slavery opinions; and that every sentiment of the governor'swas endorsed by a select committee of the legislature?
All this proceeds from an ignorance of the first principles ofliberty. It cannot be from a mere hypocritical disregard of suchprinciples; for proud men, who boast a peculiar love of libertyand aptitude for it, would not voluntarily make themselves soridiculous as they appear by these outrageous proceedings. Suchblustering is so hopeless, and, if not sincere, so purposeless,that no other supposition is left than that they have lost sightof the fundamental principles of both their federal and Stateconstitutions, and do now actually suppose that their own freedomlies in crushing all opposition to their own will. No pretence ofevidence has been offered of any further offence against themthan the expression of obnoxious opinions. There is no plea thatany of their laws have been violated, except those recentlyenacted to annihilate freedom of speech and the press: laws whichcan in no case be binding upon persons out of the limits of theStates for which these new laws are made.
The amended constitution of Virginia, of 1830, provides thatthe legislature shall not pass "any law abridging thefreedom of speech or of the press." North and South Carolinaand Georgia decree that the freedom of the press shall bepreserved inviolate; the press being the grand bulwark ofliberty. The constitution of Louisiana declares that "thefree communication of thoughts and opinions is one of theinvaluable rights of man; and every citizen may freely speak,write, and print, on any subject, being responsible for the abuseof that liberty." The Declaration of Rights of Mississippideclares that "no law shall ever be passed to curtail orrestrain the liberty of speech, and of the press." Theconstitutions of all the slave States contain declarations andprovisions like these. How fearfully have the descendants ofthose who framed them degenerated in their comprehension andpractice of liberty, violating both the spirit and the letter oftheir original Bill of Rights! They are not yet fully aware ofthis. In the calmer times which are to come, they will perceiveit, and look back with amazement upon the period of desperation,when not a voice was heard, even in the legislatures, to pleadfor human rights; when, for the sake of one doomed institution,they forgot what their fathers had done, fettered their ownpresses, tied their own hands, robbed their fellow-citizens oftheir right of free travelling, and did all they could to deprivethose same fellow-citizens of liberty and life, for the avowaland promulgation of opinions.
Meantime, it would be but decent to forbear all boasts of asuperior knowledge and love of freedom.
Here I gladly break off my dark chapter on the Morals ofSlavery.
1 I went with a lady in whose house I wats stayingto dine, one Sunday, on a neighbouring estate. Her husbandhappened not to be with us, as he had to ride in anotherdirection. The carriage was ordered for eight in the evening. Itdrew up to the door at six; and the driver, a slave said hismaster had sent him, and begged we would go home directly. We didso, and found my host very much surprised to see us home soearly. The message was a fiction of the slave's, who wanted toget his horses put up, that he might enjoy his Sunday evening.His master and mistress laughed, and took no further notice.
2 The law declares that the children of slaves areto follow the fortunes of the mother. Hence tbe practice ofplanters selling and bequeathing tbeir own children.
3 I knew, of the death of four men by summaryburning alive, within thirteen months of my residence in theUnited States.
4 No notice is taken of any occurrence, howeverremarkable, in which a person of colour, free or enslaved, hasany share, for fear of the Acts which denounce death orimprisonment for life against those who shall write, print,publish, or distribute anything having a tendency to excitediscontent or insubordination, &c.; or which doom to heavyfines those who shall use or issue language which may dsturb"the security of masters with their slaves, or diminish thatrespect which is commanded to free people of colour for thewhites."
5 Alabama Digest. In the same section occurs thefollowing:
"That no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflictedon any slave within this territory. And any owner of slavesauthorising or permitting the same, shall, on conviction thereof,before any court having cognizance, be fined according to thenature of the offence, and at the discretion of the court, in anysum not exceeding two hundred dollars."
Two hundred dollars' fine for torturing a slave: and fivehundred for teaching him to read!
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeII, Part II, Chapter V, Section I - "Morals ofSlavery." London: Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 312-352.
Forward to Society in America, Vol II,Part II, Chapter V, Section II - "Morals ofManufactures."
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