Ohio legislators may deny that negroes and mulattoes are citizens, or people; but they are estopped by the very words of the statute just quoted, from denying that they are "_persons_." Now, by the Const.i.tution every _person_, black as well as white, is to have justice administered to him without denial or delay. But by the law, while any unknown _white_ vagrant may be a witness in any case whatever, no black suitor is permitted to offer a witness of his own color, however well established may be his character for intelligence and veracity, to prove his rights or his wrongs; and hence in a mult.i.tude of cases, justice is denied in despite of the Const.i.tution; and why denied? Solely from a foolish and wicked prejudice against color.
6. IMPEDIMENTS TO EDUCATION.
No people have ever professed so deep a conviction of the importance of popular education as ourselves, and no people have ever resorted to such cruel expedients to perpetuate abject ignorance. More than one third of the whole population of the slave States are prohibited from learning even to read, and in some of them free men, if with dark complexions, are subject to stripes for teaching their own children. If we turn to the free States, we find that in all of them, without exception, the prejudices and customs of society oppose almost insuperable obstacles to the acquisition of a liberal education by colored youth. Our academies and colleges are barred against them. We know there are instances of young men with dark skins having been received, under peculiar circ.u.mstances, into northern colleges; but we neither know nor believe, that there have been a dozen such instances within the last thirty years.
Colored children are very generally excluded from our common schools, in consequence of the prejudices of teachers and parents. In some of our cities there are schools _exclusively_ for their use, but in the country the colored population is usually too spa.r.s.e to justify such schools; and white and black children are rarely seen studying under the same roof; although such cases do sometimes occur, and then they are confined to elementary schools. Some colored young men, who could bear the expense, have obtained in European seminaries the education denied them in their native land.
It may not be useless to cite an instance of the malignity with which the education of the blacks is opposed. The efforts made in Connecticut to prevent the establishment of schools of a higher order than usual for colored pupils, are too well known to need a recital here; and her BLACK ACT, prohibiting the instruction of colored children from other States, although now expunged from her statute book through the influence of abolitionists, will long be remembered to the opprobrium of her citizens. We ask attention to the following ill.u.s.tration of public opinion in another New England State.
In 1834 an academy was built by subscription in CANAAN, New Hampshire, and a charter granted by the legislature; and at a meeting of the proprietors it was determined to receive all applicants having "suitable moral and intellectual recommendations, without other distinctions;" in other words, without reference to _complexion_.
When this determination was made known, a TOWN MEETING was forthwith convened, and the following resolutions adopted, viz.
"RESOLVED, That we view with _abhorrence_ the attempt of the Abolitionists to establish in this town a school for the instruction of the sable sons and daughters of Africa, in common with our sons and daughters.
"RESOLVED, That we will not a.s.sociate with, nor in any way countenance, any man or woman who shall hereafter persist in attempting to establish a school in this town for the _exclusive_ education of blacks, _or_ for their education in conjunction with the whites."
The frankness of this last resolve is commendable. The inhabitants of Canaan, a.s.sembled in legal town meeting, determined, it seems, that the blacks among them should in future have no education whatever--they should not be instructed in company with the whites, neither should they have schools exclusively for themselves.
The proprietors of the academy supposing, in the simplicity of their hearts, that in a free country they might use their property in any manner not forbidden by law, proceeded to open their school, and in the ensuing spring had twenty-eight white, and fourteen colored scholars. The crisis had now arrived when the cause of prejudice demanded the sacrifice of const.i.tutional liberty and of private property. Another town meeting was convoked, at which, without a shadow of authority, and in utter contempt of law and decency, it was ordered, that the academy should be forcibly removed, and a committee was appointed to execute the abominable mandate. Due preparations were made for the occasion, and on the 10th of August, three hundred men, with about 200 oxen, a.s.sembled at the place, and taking the edifice from off its foundation, dragged it to a distance, and left it a ruin. No one of the actors in this high-handed outrage was ever brought before a court of justice to answer for this criminal and riotous destruction of the property of others.
The transaction we have narrated, expresses in emphatic terms the deep and settled hostility felt in the free States to the education of the blacks. The prejudices of the community render that hostility generally effective without the aid of legal enactments. Indeed, some remaining regard to decency and the opinion of the world, has restrained the Legislatures of the free States, with _one exception_, from consigning these unhappy people to ignorance by "decreeing unrighteous decrees," and "framing mischief by a law." Our readers, no doubt, feel that the exception must of course be OHIO.
We have seen with what deference Ohio legislators profess to regard their _const.i.tutional_ obligations; and we are now to contemplate another instance of their shameless violation of them. The Const.i.tution which these men have sworn to obey declares, "NO LAW SHALL BE Pa.s.sED to prevent the poor of the several townships and counties in this State from an _equal_ partic.i.p.ation in the schools, academies, colleges, and universities in this State, which are endowed in whole, or _in part_, from the revenue arising from _donations_ made by the United States, for the support of _colleges and schools_--and the door of said schools, academies, and universities shall be open for the reception of scholars, students, and teachers of every _grade_, without ANY DISTINCTION OR PREFERENCE WHATEVER."
Can language be more explicit or unequivocal? But have any donations been made by the United States for the support of colleges and schools in Ohio? Yes--by an act of Congress, the sixteenth section of land in _each_ originally surveyed township in the State, was set apart as a donation for the express purpose of endowing and supporting common schools. And now, how have the scrupulous legislators of Ohio, who refuse to acknowledge any other than const.i.tutional obligations to give ear to the cry of distress--how have they obeyed this injunction of the Const.i.tution respecting the freedom of their schools? They enacted a law in 1831, declaring that, "when any appropriation shall be made by the directors of any school district, from the treasury thereof, for the payment of a teacher, the school in such district shall be open"--to whom? "_to scholars, students, and teachers of every grade, without distinction or preference whatever_," as commanded by the Const.i.tution? Oh no!
"Shall be open to all the WHITE children residing therein!!" Such is the impotency of written const.i.tutions, where a sense of moral obligation is wanting to enforce them.
We have now taken a review of the Ohio laws against free people of color. Some of them are of old, and others of recent date. The opinion entertained of all these laws, new and old, by the _present_ legislators of Ohio, may be learned by a resolution adopted in January last, (1839) by both houses of the legislature. "RESOLVED, That in the opinion of this general a.s.sembly it is unwise, impolitic, and inexpedient to repeal _any_ law now in force imposing disabilities upon black or mulatto persons, thus placing them upon an equality with the whites, so far as this legislature can do, and indirectly inviting the black population of other States to emigrate to this, to the manifest injury of the public interest." The best comment on the _spirit_ which dictated this resolve is an enactment by the _same_ legislature, abrogating the supreme law which requires us to "Do unto others as we would they should do unto us," and prohibiting every citizen of Ohio from _harboring or concealing_ a fugitive slave, under the penalty of fine or imprisonment. General obedience to this vile statute is alone wanting to fill to the brim the cup of Ohio"s iniquity and degradation. She hath done what she could to oppress and crush the free negroes within her borders. She is now seeking to rechain the slave who has escaped from his fetters.
7. IMPEDIMENTS TO RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
It is unnecessary to dwell here on the laws of the slave States prohibiting the free people of color from learning to read the Bible, and in many instances, from a.s.sembling at discretion to worship their Creator. These laws, we are a.s.sured, are indispensable to the perpetuity of that "peculiar inst.i.tution," which many masters in Israel are now teaching, enjoys the sanction of HIM who "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth," and who has left to his disciples the injunction, "search the Scriptures."
We turn to the free States, in which no inst.i.tution requires, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should be prevented from shining on any portion of the population, and inquire how far prejudice here supplies the place of southern statutes.
The impediments to education already mentioned, necessarily render the acquisition of religious knowledge difficult, and in many instances impracticable. In the northern cities, the blacks have frequently churches of their own, but in the country they are too few, and too poor to build churches and maintain ministers. Of course they must remain dest.i.tute of public worship and religious instruction, unless they can enjoy these blessings in company with the whites.
Now there is hardly a church in the United States, not exclusively appropriated to the blacks, in which one of their number owns a pew, or has a voice in the choice of a minister. There are usually, indeed, a few seats in a remote part of the church, set apart for their use, and in which no white person is ever seen. It is surely not surprising, under all the circ.u.mstances of the case, that these seats are rarely crowded.
Colored ministers are occasionally ordained in the different denominations, but they are kept at a distance by their white brethren in the ministry, and are very rarely permitted to enter their pulpits; and still more rarely, to sit at their tables, although acknowledged to be amba.s.sadors of Christ. The distinction of _caste_ is not forgotten, even in the celebration of the Lord"s Supper, and seldom are colored disciples permitted to eat and drink of the memorials of the Redeemer"s pa.s.sion till after every white communicant has been served.
8. IMPEDIMENTS TO HONEST INDUSTRY.
In this country ignorance and poverty are almost inseparable companions; and it is surely not strange that those should be poor whom we compel to be ignorant. The liberal professions are virtually sealed against the blacks, if we except the church, and even in that admission is rendered difficult by the obstacles placed in their way in acquiring the requisite literary qualifications;[102] and when once admitted, their administrations are confined to their own color.
Many of our most wealthy and influential citizens have commenced life as ignorant and as pennyless as any negro who loiters in our streets. Had their complexion been dark, notwithstanding their talents, industry, enterprize and probity, they would have continued ignorant and pennyless, because the paths to learning and to wealth, would then have been closed against them. There is a conspiracy, embracing all the departments of society, to keep the black man ignorant and poor. As a general rule, admitting few if any exceptions, the schools of literature and of science reject him--the counting house refuses to receive him as a bookkeeper, much more as a partner--no store admits him as a clerk--no shop as an apprentice.
Here and there a black man may be found keeping a few trifles on a shelf for sale; and a few acquire, as if by stealth, the knowledge of some handicraft; but almost universally these people, both in town and country, are prevented by the customs of society from maintaining themselves and their families by any other than menial occupations.
[Footnote 102: Of the truth of this remark, the trustees of the Episcopal Theological Seminary at New-York, lately (June, 1839) afforded a striking ill.u.s.tration. A young man, regularly acknowledged by the Bishop as a candidate for orders, and in consequence of such acknowledgment ent.i.tled, by an _express statute_ of the seminary, to admission to its privileges, presented himself as a pupil. But G.o.d had given him a dark complexion, and _therefore_ the trustees, regardless of the statute, barred the doors against him, by a formal and deliberate vote. As a compromise between conscience and prejudice, the professors offered to give him _private_ instruction--to do in secret what they were ashamed to do openly--to confer as a favor, what he was ent.i.tled to demand as a right. The offer was rejected.
It is worthy of remark, that of the trustees who took an _active_ part against the _colored_ candidate, one is the PRESIDENT _of the New York Colonization Society_; another a MANAGER, and a third, one of its public champions; and that the Bishop of the diocese, who wished to exclude his candidate from the theological school of which he is both a trustee and a professor, lately headed a recommendation in the newspapers for the purchase of a packet ship for Liberia, as likely to "render far more efficient than heretofore, the enterprize of colonization."]
In 1836, a black man of irreproachable character, and who by his industry and frugality had acc.u.mulated several thousand dollars, made application in the City of New York for a carman"s license, and was refused solely and avowedly on account of his complexion! We have already seen the effort of the Ohio legislature, to consign the negroes to starvation, by deterring others from employing them.
Ignorance, idleness, and vice, are at once the punishments we inflict upon these unfortunate people for their complexion; and the crimes with which we are constantly reproaching them.
9. LIABILITY TO BE SEIZED, AND TREATED AS SLAVES.
An able-bodied colored man sells in the southern market for from eight hundred to a thousand dollars; of course he is worth stealing.
Colonizationists and slaveholders, and many northern divines, solemnly affirm, that the situation of a slave is far preferable to that of a free negro; hence it would seem an act of humanity to convert the latter into the former. Kidnapping being both a lucrative and a benevolent business, it is not strange it should be extensively practised. In many of the States this business is regulated by law, and there are various ways in which the trans.m.u.tation is legally effected. Thus, in South Carolina, if a free negro "entertains" a runaway slave, it may be his own wife or child, he himself is turned into a slave. In 1827, a _free woman and her three children_ underwent this benevolent process, for _entertaining_ two fugitive children of six and nine years old. In Virginia all emanc.i.p.ated slaves remaining twelve months in the State, are kindly restored to their former condition. In Maryland a free negro who marries a white woman, thereby acquires all the privileges of a slave--and generally, throughout the slave region, including the District of Columbia, every negro not known to be free, is mercifully considered as a slave, and if his master cannot be ascertained, he is thrown into a dungeon, and there kept, till by a public sale a master can be provided for him. But often the law grants to colored men, _known to be free_, all the advantages of slavery. Thus, in Georgia, every _free_ colored man coming into the State, and unable to pay a fine of one hundred dollars, becomes a slave for life; in Florida, insolvent debtors, if _black_, are SOLD for the benefit of their creditors; and in the District of Columbia a free colored man, thrown into jail on suspicion of being a slave and proving his freedom, is required by law to be sold as a slave, if too poor to pay his jail fees. Let it not be supposed that these laws are all obsolete and inoperative. They catch many a northern negro, who, in pursuit of his own business, or on being decoyed by others ventures to enter the slave region; and who, of course, helps to augment the wealth of our southern brethren. On the 6th of March, 1839, a report by a Committee was made to the House of Representatives of the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature, in which are given the _names_ of seventeen free colored men who had been enslaved at the south. It also states an instance in which twenty-five colored citizens, belonging to Ma.s.sachusetts, were confined at one time in a southern jail, and another instance in which 75 free colored persons from different free States were confined, all preparatory to their sale as slaves according to law.
The facts disclosed in this report induced the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature to pa.s.s a resolution protesting against the kidnapping laws of the slave States, "as invading the sacred rights of citizens of this commonwealth, as contrary to the Const.i.tution of the United States, and in utter derogation of that great principle of the common law which presumes every person to be innocent until proved to be guilty;" and ordered the protest to be forwarded to the Governors of the several States.
But it is not at the south alone that freemen may be converted into slaves "according to law." The Act of Congress respecting the recovery of fugitive slaves, affords most extraordinary facilities for this process, through official corruption and individual perjury.
By this Act, the claimant is permitted to _select_ a justice of the peace, before whom he may bring or send his alleged slave, and even to prove his property by _affidavit_. Indeed, in almost every State in the Union, a slaveholder may recover at law a human being as his beast of burden with far less ceremony than he could his pig from the possession of his neighbor. In only three States is a man, claimed as a slave, ent.i.tled to a trial by jury. At the last session of the New York Legislature a bill allowing a jury trial in such cases was pa.s.sed by the lower House, but rejected by a _democratic_ vote in the Senate, democracy in that State, being avowedly only _skin_ deep, all its principles of liberty, equality, and human rights depending on complexion.
Considering the wonderful ease and expedition with which fugitives may be recovered by law, it would be very strange if mistakes did not sometimes occur. _How_ often they occur cannot, of course, be known, and it is only when a claim is _defeated_, that we are made sensible of the exceedingly precarious tenure by which a poor friendless negro at the north holds his personal liberty. A few years since, a girl of the name of Mary Gilmore was arrested in Philadelphia, as a fugitive slave from Maryland. Testimony was not wanting in support of the claim; yet it was most conclusively proved that she was the daughter of poor _Irish_ parents--having not a drop of negro blood in her veins--that the father had absconded, and that the mother had died a drunkard in the Philadelphia hospital, and that the infant had been kindly received and _brought up in a colored family_. Hence the attempt to make a slave of her. In the spring of 1839, a colored man was arrested in Philadelphia, on a charge of having absconded from his owner _twenty-three_ years before. This man had a wife and family depending upon him, and a home where he enjoyed their society; and yet, unless he could find witnesses who could prove his freedom for more than this number of years, he was to be torn from his wife, his children, his home, and doomed for the remainder of his days to toil under the lash. _Four_ witnesses for the claimant swore to his ident.i.ty, although they had not seen him before for twenty-three years!
By a most extraordinary coincidence, a New England Captain, with whom this negro had sailed _twenty-nine_ years before, in a sloop from Nantucket, happened at this very time to be confined for debt in the same prison with the alleged slave, and the Captain"s testimony, together with that of some other witnesses, who had known the man previous to his pretended elopement, so fully established his freedom, that the Court discharged him.
Another mode of legal kidnapping still remains to be described. By the Federal Const.i.tution, fugitives from _justice_ are to be delivered up, and under this const.i.tutional provision, a free negro may be converted into a slave without troubling even a Justice of the Peace to hear the evidence of the captor"s claim. A fugitive slave is, of course, a felon--he not only steals himself, but also the rags on his back which belong to his master. It is understood he has taken refuge in New York, and his master naturally wishes to recover him with as little noise, trouble, and delay as possible.
The way is simple and easy. Let the Grand Jury indict A.B. for stealing wearing apparel, and let the indictment, with an affidavit of the criminal"s flight, be forwarded by the Governor of the State, to his Excellency of New York, with a requisition for the delivery of A.B., to the agent appointed to receive him. A warrant is, of course, issued to "any Constable of the State of New York," to arrest A.B. For what purpose?--to bring him before a magistrate where his ident.i.ty may be established?--no, but to deliver him up to the foreign agent. Hence, the Constable may pick up the first likely negro he finds in the street, and ship him to the south; and should it be found, on his arrival on the plantation, that the wrong man has come, it will also probably be found that the mistake is of no consequence to the planter. A few years since, the Governor of New York signed a warrant for the apprehension of 17 Virginia negroes, as fugitives from justice.[103] Under this warrant, a man who had lived in the neighborhood for three years, and had a wife and children, and who claimed to be free, was seized, on a Sunday evening, in the public highway, in West Chester County, N.Y., and without being permitted to take leave of his family, was instantly hand-cuffed, thrown into a carriage, and hurried to New York, and the next morning was on his voyage to Virginia.
[Footnote 103: There is no evidence that he knew they were negroes; or that he acted otherwise than in perfect good faith. The alleged crime was stealing a boat. The _real_ crime, it is said, was stealing themselves and escaping in a boat. The most horrible abuses of these warrants can only be prevented by requiring proof of ident.i.ty before delivery.]
Free colored men are converted into slaves not only by law, but also contrary to law. It is, of course, difficult to estimate the extent to which illegal kidnapping is carried, since a large number of cases must escape detection. In a work published by Judge Stroud, of Philadelphia, in 1827, he states, that it had been _ascertained_ that more than _thirty_ free colored persons, mostly children, had been kidnapped in that city within the last two years.[104]
[Footnote 104: Stroud"s Sketch of the Slave Laws, p. 94.]
10. SUBJECTION TO INSULT AND OUTRAGE.
The feeling of the community towards these people, and the contempt with which they are treated, are indicated by the following notice, lately published by the proprietors of a menagerie, in New York.
"The proprietors wish it to be understood, that people of color are not permitted to enter, _except when in attendance upon children and families_." For two shillings, any white scavenger would be freely admitted, and so would negroes, provided they came in a capacity that marked their dependence--their presence is offensive, _only_ when they come as independent spectators, gratifying a laudable curiosity.
Even death, the great leveller, is not permitted to obliterate, among Christians, the distinction of caste, or to rescue the lifeless form of the colored man from the insults of his white brethren. In the porch of a Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia, in 1837, was suspended a card, containing the form of a deed, to be given to purchasers of lots in a certain burial ground, and to enhance the value of the property, and to entice buyers, the following clause was inserted, "No person of _color_, nor any one who has been the subject of _execution_, shall be interred in said lot."
Our colored fellow-citizens, like others, are occasionally called to pa.s.s from one place to another; and in doing so are compelled to submit to innumerable hardships and indignities. They are frequently denied seats in our stage coaches; and although admitted upon the _decks_ of our steam boats, are almost universally excluded from the cabins. Even women have been forced, in cold weather, to pa.s.s the night upon deck, and in one instance the wife of a colored clergyman lost her life in consequence of such an exposure.
The contempt poured upon these people by our laws, our churches, our seminaries, our professions, naturally invokes upon their heads the fierce wrath of vulgar malignity. In order to exhibit the actual condition of this portion of our population, we will here insert some _samples_ of the outrages to which they are subjected, taken from the ordinary public journals.
In an account of the New York riots of 1834, the _Commercial Advertiser_ says--"About twenty poor African (native American) families, have had their all destroyed, and have neither bed, clothing, nor food remaining. Their houses are completely eviscerated, their furniture a wreck, and the ruined and disconsolate tenants of the devoted houses are reduced to the necessity of applying to the corporation for bread."
The example set in New York was zealously followed in Philadelphia.
"Some arrangement, it appears, existed between the mob and the white inhabitants, as the dwelling houses of the latter, contiguous to the residences of the blacks, were illuminated and left undisturbed, while the huts of the negroes were singled out with unerring certainty. The furniture found in these houses was generally broken up and destroyed--beds ripped open and their contents scattered in the streets.... The number of houses a.s.sailed was not less than twenty. In one house there was a _corpse, which was thrown from the coffin, and in another a dead infant was taken out of the bed, and cast on the floor, the mother being at the same time barbarously treated_."--_Philadelphia Gazette_.
"No case is reported of an attack having been _invited_ or _provoked_ by the residents of the dwellings a.s.sailed or destroyed. The extent of the depredations committed on the _three_ evenings of riot and outrage can only be judged of by the number of houses damaged or destroyed. So far as ascertained, this amounts to FORTY-FIVE. One of the houses a.s.saulted was occupied by an unfortunate cripple--who, unable to fly from the fury of the mob, was so beaten by some of the ruffians, that he has since died in consequence of the bruises and wounds inflicted ... For the last two days the Jersey steam boats have been loaded with numbers of the colored population, who, fearful their lives were not safe in this, determined to seek refuge in another State. On the Jersey side, tents were erected, and the negroes have taken up a temporary residence, until a prospect shall be offered for their perpetual location in some place of security and liberty."--_National Gazette_.
The facts we have now exhibited, abundantly prove the extreme cruelty and sinfulness of that prejudice against color which we are impiously told is an ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE. Colonizationists, a.s.suming the prejudice to be natural and invincible, propose to remove its victims beyond its influence. Abolitionists, on the contrary, remembering with the Psalmist, that "It is HE that hath made us, and not we ourselves," believe that the benevolent Father of us all requires us to treat with justice and kindness every portion of the human family, notwithstanding any particular organization he has been pleased to impress upon them. Instead, therefore, of gratifying and fostering this prejudice, by continually banishing from our country those against whom it is directed, Abolitionists are anxious to destroy the prejudice itself; feeling, to use the language of another, that--"It is time to recognize in the humblest portions of society, partakers of our nature with all its high prerogatives and awful destinies--time to remember that our distinctions are _exterior_ and evanescent, our resemblance real and permanent--that all is transient but what is moral and spiritual--that the only graces we can carry with us into another world, are graces of divine implantation, and that amid the rude incrustations of poverty and ignorance there lurks an imperishable jewel--a SOUL, susceptible of the highest spiritual beauty, destined, perhaps, to adorn the celestial abodes, and to shine for ever in the mediatorial diadem of the Son of G.o.d--_Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones_."