"A New York paper, of November, 1829, contains the following caution.
_"Beware of Kidnappers!_--It is well understood, that there is at present in this city, a gang of kidnappers, busily engaged in their vocation, of stealing colored children for the southern market. It is believed that three or four have been stolen within as many days.
There are suspicions of a foul nature connected with some who serve the police in subordinate capacities. It is hinted that there may be those in some authority, not altogether ignorant of these diabolical practices. Let the public be on their guard! It is still fresh in the memories of all, that a cargo, or rather drove of negroes, was made up from this city and Philadelphia, about the time that the emanc.i.p.ation of all the negroes in this state took place, under our present const.i.tution, and were taken through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, and disposed of in the state of Mississippi. Some of those who were taken from Philadelphia were persons of intelligence; and after they had been driven through the country in chains, and disposed of by sale on the Mississippi, wrote back to their friends, and were rescued from bondage. The persons who were guilty of this abominable transaction are known, and now reside in North Carolina. They may very probably be engaged in similar enterprizes at the present time--at least there is reason to believe, that the system of kidnapping free persons of color from the northern cities, has been carried on more extensively than the public arc generally aware of."
GEORGE BRADBURN, Esq. of Nantucket, Ma.s.s. a member of the Legislature of that state, at its last session, made a report to that body, March 6, 1839, "On the deliverance of citizens liable to be sold as slaves."
That report contains the following facts and testimony.
"The following facts are a few out of a VAST MULt.i.tUDE, to which the attention of the undersigned has been directed.
"On the 27th of February last, the undersigned had an interview with the Rev. Samuel Snowden, a respectable and intelligent clergyman of the city of Boston. This gentleman stated, and he is now ready to make oath, that during the last six years, he has himself, by the aid of various benevolent individuals, procured the deliverance from jail of six citizens of Ma.s.sachusetts, who had been, arrested and imprisoned as runaway slaves, and who, but for his timely interposition, would have been sold into perpetual bondage. The names and the places of imprisonment of those persons, as stated by Mr. S. were as follows:
"James Hight, imprisoned at Mobile; William Adams, at Norfolk; William Holmes, also at Norfolk; James Oxford, at Wilmington; James Smith, at Baton Rouge; John Tidd, at New Orleans.
"In 1836, Mary Smith, a native of this state, returning from New Orleans, whither she had been in the capacity of a servant, was cast upon the sh.o.r.es of North Carolina. She was there seized and sold as a slave. Information of the fact reached her friends at Boston. Those friends made an effort to obtain her liberation. They invoked the a.s.sistance of the Governor of this Commonwealth. A correspondence ensued between His Excellency and the Governor of North Carolina: copies of which were offered for the inspection of your committee.
Soon afterwards, by permission of the authorities of North Carolina, "Mary Smith" returned to Boston. But it turned out, that this was not _the_ Mary Smith, whom our worthy Governor, and other excellent individuals of Boston, had taken so unwearied pains to redeem from slavery. It was another woman, of the same name, who was also a native of Ma.s.sachusetts, and had been seized in North Carolina as a runaway slave. The Mary Smith has not yet been heard of. If alive, she is now, in all probability, wearing the chains of slavery.
"About a year and a half since, several citizens of different free states were rescued from slavery, at New Orleans, by the direct personal efforts of an acquaintance of the undersigned. The benevolent individual alluded to is Jacob Barker, Esq. a name not unknown to the commercial world. Mr. Barker is a resident of New Orleans. A statement of the cases in reference is contained in a letter addressed by him to the Hon. Samuel H. Jenks, of Nantucket."
The letter of Mr. Barker, referred to in this report to the Legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts, bears date August 19, 1837. The following are extracts from it.
"A free man, belonging to Baltimore, by the name of Ephraim Larkin, who came here cook of the William Tell, was arrested and thrown into prison a few weeks since, and sent in chains to work on the road. I heard of it, and with difficulty found him; and after the most diligent and active exertions, got him released--in effecting which, I traveled in the heat of the day, thermometer ranging in the shade from 94 to 100, more than twenty times to and from prison, the place of his labor, and the different courts, a distance of near three miles from my residence; and after I had established his freedom, had to pay for his arrest, maintenance, and the advertising him as a runaway slave, $29.89, as per copy of bill herewith--the allowance for work not equalling the expenses, the amount augments with every day of confinement.
"In pursuing the cook of the William Tell, I found three other free men, confined in the same prison; one belonged also to Baltimore, by the name of Leaven Dogerty: he was also released, on my paying $28 expenses; one was a descendant of the Indians who once inhabited Nantucket--his name is Eral Lonnon. Lonnon had been six weeks in prison; he was released without difficulty, on my paying $20.38 expenses--and no one seemed to know why he had been confined or arrested, as the law does not presume persons of mixed blood to be slaves. But for the others, I had great difficulty in procuring what was considered competent witnesses to prove them free. No complaint of improper conduct had been made against either of them. At one time, the Recorder said the witness must be white; at another, that one respectable witness was insufficient; at another, that a person who had been (improperly) confined and released, was not a competent witness, &c. &c. Lonnon has been employed in the South Sea fishery from Nantucket and New Bedford, nearly all his life; has sailed on those voyages in the ships Eagle, Maryland, Gideon, Triton, and Samuel. He was born at Marshpee, Plymouth (Barnstable) county, Ma.s.s.
and prefers to encounter the leviathan of the deep, rather than the turnkeys of New Orleans.
"The other was born in St. Johns, Nova Scotia, and bears the name of William Smith, a seaman by profession.
"Immediately after these men were released, two others were arrested.
They attempted to escape, and being pursued, ran for the river, in the vain hope of being able to swim across the Mississippi, a distance of a mile, with a current of four knots. One soon gave out, and made for a boat which had been despatched for their recovery, and was saved; the other being a better swimmer, continued on until much exhausted, then also made for the boat--it was too late; he sank before the boat could reach him, and was drowned. They claimed to be freemen.
"On Sunday last I was called to the prison of the Munic.i.p.ality in which I reside, to serve on an inquest on the body of a drowned man.
There I saw one other free man confined, by the name of Henry Tier, a yellow man, born in New York, and formerly in my employ. He had been confined as a supposed runaway, near six months, without a particle of testimony; although from his color, the laws of Louisiana presume him to be free. I applied immediately for his release, which was promptly granted. At first, expenses similar to those exacted in the third Munic.i.p.ality were required; but on my demonstrating to the recorder that the law imposed no such burden on free men, he was released without any charge whatever. How free men can obtain satisfaction for having been thus wrongfully imprisoned, and made to work in chains on the highway, is not for me to decide. I apprehend no satisfaction can be had without more active friends, willing to espouse their cause, than can be found in this quarter. Therefore I repeat, that no person of color should come here without a certificate of freedom from the governor of the state to which he belongs.
"Very respectfully, your a.s.sured friend, Jacob Barker."
"N.B.--Since writing the preceding, I have procured the release of another free man from the prison of the third Munic.i.p.ality, on the payment of $39.65, as per bill, copy herewith. His name is William Lockman--he was born in New Jersey, of free parents, and resides at Philadelphia. A greater sum was required which was reduced by the allowance of his maintenance (written _labor_,) while at work on the road, which the law requires the Munic.i.p.ality to pay; but it had not before been so expounded in the third Munic.i.p.ality. I hope to get it back in the case of the other three. The allowance for labor, in addition to their maintenance, is twenty-five cents per day; but they require those illiterate men to advance the whole before they can leave the prison, and then to take a certificate for their labor, and go for it to another department--to collect which, is ten times more trouble than the money when received is worth. While these free men, without having committed any fault, were compelled to work in chains, on the roads, in the burning sun, for 25 cents per day, and pay in advance 18 3-4 cents per day for maintenance, doctor"s, and other bills, and not able to work half their time, I paid others, working on ship-board, in sight, two dollars per day. J.B."
The preceding letter of Mr. Barker, furnishes grounds for the belief, that _hundreds_, if not _thousands_ of free colored persons, from the different states of this Union, both slave and free from the West Indies, South America, Mexico, and the British possessions in North America, and from other parts of the world, are reduced to slavery _every year_ in our slave states. If a single individual, in the course of a few days, _accidentally_ discovered _six_ colored free men, working in irons, and soon to be sold as slaves, in a _single_ southern city, is it not fair to infer, that in all the slave states, there must be _mult.i.tudes_ of such persons, now in slavery, and that this number is rapidly increasing, by ceaseless accessions?
The letter of Mr. Barker is valuable, also, as a graphic delineation of the "public opinion" of the south. The great difficulty with which the release of these free men was procured, notwithstanding the personal efforts of Mr. Jacob Barker, who is a gentleman of influence, and has, we believe, been an alderman of New Orleans, reveals a "public opinion," insensible as adamant to the liberty of colored men.
It would be easy to fill scores of pages with details similar to the preceding. We have furnished enough, however, to show, that, in all probability, _each_ United States" census of the _slave_ population, is increased by the addition to it of _thousands_ of free colored persons, kidnapped and sold as slaves.
5th. To argue that the rapid multiplication of any cla.s.s in the community, is proof that such a cla.s.s is well-clothed, well-housed, abundantly fed, and very _comfortable_, is as absurd as to argue that those who have _few children_, must of course, be ill-clothed, ill-housed, badly lodged, overworked, ill-fed, &c. &c. True, privations and inflictions may be carried to such an extent as to occasion a fearful diminishment of population. That was the case generally with the slave population in the West Indies, and, as has been shown, is true of certain portions of the southern states. But the fact that such an effect is _not_ produced, does not prove that the slaves do not experience great privations and severe inflictions.
They may suffer much hardship, and great cruelties, without experiencing so great a derangement of the vital functions as to prevent child-bearing. The Israelites multiplied with astonishing rapidity, under the task-masters and burdens of Egypt. Does this falsify the declarations of Scripture, that "they sighed by reason of their bondage," and that the Egyptians "made them serve _with rigor_,"
and made "their lives bitter with _hard bondage_." "I have seen," said G.o.d, "their _afflictions_. I have beard their _groanings_," &c. The history of the human race shows, that great _privations and much suffering_ may be experienced, without materially checking the rapid increase of population.
Besides, if we should give to the objection all it claims, it would merely prove, that the female slaves, or rather a portion of them, are in a comfortable condition; and that, so far as the absolute necessities of life are concerned, the females of _child-bearing_ age, in Delaware, Maryland, northern, western, and middle Virginia, the upper parts of Kentucky and Missouri, and among the mountains of east Tennessee and western North Carolina, are in general tolerably well supplied. The same remark, with some qualifications, may be made of the slaves generally, in those parts of the country where the people are slaveholders, mainly, that they may enjoy the privilege and profit of being _slave-breeders_.
OBJECTION VIII.--"PUBLIC OPINION IS A PROTECTION TO THE SLAVE."
ANSWER. It was public opinion that _made him a slave_. In a republican government the people make the laws, and those laws are merely public opinion _in legal forms_. We repeat it,--public opinion made them slaves, and keeps them slaves; in other words, it sunk them from men to chattels, and now, forsooth, this same public opinion will see to it, that these _chattels_ are treated like _men!_
By looking a little into this matter, and finding out how this "public opinion" (law) protects the slaves in some particulars, we can judge of the amount of its protection in others. 1. It protects the slaves from _robbery_, by declaring that those who robbed their mothers may rob them and their children. "All negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes who now are, or shall hereafter be in this province, and all their offspring, are hereby declared to be, and shall remain, forever, hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother."--Law of South Carolina, 2 Brevard"s Digest, 229. Others of the slave states have similar laws.
2. It protects their _persons_, by giving their master a right to flog, wound, and beat them when he pleases. See Devereaux"s North Carolina Reports, 263.--Case of the State vs. Mann, 1829; in which the Supreme Court decided, that a master who _shot_ at a female slave and wounded her, because she got loose from him when he was flogging her, and started to run from him, had violated _no law_, AND COULD NOT BE INDICTED. It has been decided by the highest courts of the slave states generally, that a.s.sault and battery upon a slave is not indictable as a criminal offence.
The following decision on this point was made by the Supreme Court of South Carolina in the case of the State vs. Cheetwood, 2 Hill"s Reports, 459.
_Protection of slaves_.--"The criminal offence of a.s.sault and battery _cannot, at common law, be committed on the person of a slave_. For, notwithstanding for some purposes a slave is regarded in law as a person, yet generally he is a mere chattel personal, and his right of personal protection belongs to his master, who can maintain an action of trespa.s.s for the battery of his slave.
"There can be therefore no offence against the state for a mere beating of a slave, unaccompanied by any circ.u.mstances of cruelty, or an attempt to kill and murder. The peace of the state is not thereby broken; for a slave is not generally regarded as legally capable of being within the peace of the state. He is not a citizen, and _is not in that character ent.i.tled to her protection_."
This "public opinion" protects the _persons_ of the slaves by depriving them of Jury trial;[28] their _consciences_, by forbidding them to a.s.semble for worship, unless their oppressors are present;[29]
their _characters_, by branding them as liars, in denying them their oath in law;[30] their _modesty_, by leaving their master to clothe, or let them go naked, as he pleases;[31] and their _health_, by leaving him to feed or starve them, to work them, wet or dry, with or without sleep, to lodge them, with or without covering, as the whim takes him;[32] and their _liberty_, marriage relations, parental authority, and filial obligations, by _annihilating_ the whole.[33]
This is the protection which "PUBLIC OPINION," in the form of _law_, affords to the slaves; this is the chivalrous knight, always in stirrups, with lance in rest, to champion the cause of the slaves.
[Footnote 28: Law of South Carolina. James" Digest, 392-3. Law of Louisiana. Martin"s Digest, 42. Law of Virginia. Rev. Code, 429.]
[Footnote 29: Miss. Rev. Code, 390. Similar laws exist in the slave states generally.]
[Footnote 30: "A slave cannot be a witness against a white person, either in a civil or criminal cause." Stroud"s Sketch of the Laws of Slavery, 65.]
[Footnote 31: Stroud"s Sketch of the Slave Laws, 132.]
[Footnote 32: Stroud"s Sketch, 26-32.]
[Footnote 33: Stroud"s Sketch, 22-24.]
Public opinion, protection to the slave! Brazen effrontery, hypocrisy, and falsehood! We have, in the laws cited and referred to above, the formal testimony of the Legislatures of the slave states, that, "public opinion" does pertinaciously _refuse_ to protect the slaves; not only so, but that it does itself persecute and plunder them all: that it originally planned, and now presides over, sanctions, executes and perpetuates the whole system of robbery, torture, and outrage under which they groan.
In all the slave states, this "public opinion" has taken away from the slave his _liberty_; it has robbed him of his right to his own body, of his right to improve his mind, of his right to read the Bible, of his right to worship G.o.d according to his conscience, of his right to receive and enjoy what he earns, of his right to live with his wife and children, of his right to better his condition, of his right to eat when he is hungry, to rest when he is tired, to sleep when be needs it, and to cover his nakedness with clothing: this "public opinion" makes the slave a prisoner for life on the plantation, except when his jailor pleases to let him out with a "pa.s.s," or sells him, and transfers him in irons to another jail-yard: this "public opinion"
traverses the country, buying up men, women, children--chaining them in coffles, and driving them forever from their nearest friends; it sets them on the auction table, to be handled, scrutinized, knocked off to the highest bidder; it proclaims that they shall not have their liberty; and, if their masters give it them, "public opinion" seizes and throws them back into slavery. This same "public opinion" has formally attached the following legal penalties to the following acts of slaves.
If more than seven slaves are found together in any road, without a white person, _twenty lashes a piece_; for visiting a plantation without a written pa.s.s, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, _thirty-nine lashes for the first offence_; and for the second, "_shall have cut off from his head one ear_;" for keeping or carrying a _club, thirty-nine lashes_; for having any article for sale, without a ticket from his master, _ten lashes_; for traveling in any other than "the most usual and accustomed road," when going alone to any place, _forty lashes_; for traveling in the night, without a pa.s.s, _forty lashes_; for being found in another person"s negro-quarters, _forty lashes_; for hunting with dogs in the woods, _thirty lashes_; for being on _horseback_ without the written permission of his master, _twenty-five lashes_; for riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, without leave, a slave may be whipped, _cropped_, or _branded in the cheek_ with the letter R, or otherwise punished, _not extending to life_, or so as to render him _unfit for labor_. The laws referred to may be found by consulting 2 Brevard"s Digest, 228, 213, 216; Haywood"s Manual, 78, chap. 13, pp. 518, 529; 1 Virginia Revised Code, 722-3; Prince"s Digest, 454; 2 Missouri Laws, 741; Mississippi Revised Code, 571. Laws similar to these exist throughout the southern slave code. Extracts enough to fill a volume might be made from these laws, showing that the protection which "public opinion" grants to the slaves, is hunger, nakedness, terror, bereavements, robbery, imprisonment, the stocks, iron collars, hunting and worrying them with dogs and guns, mutilating their bodies, and murdering them.
A few specimens of the laws and the judicial decisions on them, will show what is the state of "public opinion" among slaveholders towards their slaves. Let the following suffice.--"Any person may lawfully kill a slave, who has been outlawed for running away and lurking in swamps, &c."--Law of North Carolina; Judge Stroud"s Sketch of the Slave Laws, 103; Haywood"s Manual, 524. "A slave _endeavoring_ to entice another slave to runaway, if provisions, &c. be prepared for the purpose of aiding in such running away, shall be punished with DEATH. And a slave who shall aid the slave so endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, shall also suffer DEATH."--Law of South Carolina; Stroud"s Sketch of Slave Laws, 103-4; 2 Brevard"s Digest, 233, 244. Another law of South Carolina provides that if a slave shall, when absent from the plantation, refuse to be examined by "_any white_ person," (no matter how crazy or drunk,) "such white person may seize and chastise him; and if the slave shall _strike_ such white person, such slave may be lawfully killed."--2 Brevard"s Digest, 231.
The following is a law of Georgia.--"If any slave shall presume to strike any white person, such slave shall, upon trial and conviction before the justice or justices, suffer such punishment for the first offence as they shall think fit, not extending to life or limb; and for the second offence, DEATH."--Prince"s Digest, 450. The same law exists in South Carolina, with this difference, that death is made the punishment for the _third_ offence. In both states, the law contains this remarkable proviso: "Provided always, that such striking be not done by the command and in the defence of the person or property of the owner, or other person having the government of such slave, in which case the slave shall be wholly excused!" According to this law, if a slave, by the direction of his OVERSEER, strike a white man who is beating said overseer"s _dog_, "the slave shall be wholly excused;"
but if the white man has rushed upon the slave himself, instead of the _dog_, and is furiously beating him, if the slave strike back but a single blow, the legal penalty is "ANY _punishment_ not extending to life or limb;" and if the tortured slave has a second onset made upon him, and, after suffering all but death, again strike back in self-defence, the law KILLS him for it. So, if a female slave, in obedience to her mistress, and in defence of "her property," strike a white man who is kicking her mistress" pet kitten, she "shall be wholly excused," saith the considerate law: but if the unprotected girl, when beaten and kicked _herself_, raise her hand against her brutal a.s.sailant, the law condemns her to "any punishment, not extending to life or limb; and if a wretch a.s.sail her again, and attempt to violate her chast.i.ty, and the trembling girl, in her anguish and terror, instinctively raise her hand against him in self-defence, she shall, saith the law, "suffer DEATH."