"God gave us only over beast,fish,fowl,Dominion absolute;that right we hold By his donation.But man over man He made not lord;such title to himself Reserving,human left from human free."MILTON.
MY wife and myself were born in different towns in the State of Georgia,which is one of the principal slave States.It is true,our condition as slaves was not by any means the worst;but the mere idea that we were held as chattels,and de-prived of all legal rights--the thought that we had to give up our hard earnings to a tyrant,to enable him to live in idleness and luxury--the thought that we could not call the bones and sinews that God gave us our own:but above all,the fact that another man had the power to tear from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in the shambles like a brute,and then scourge us if we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate,haunted us for years.
But in December,1848,a plan suggested itself that proved quite successful,and in eight days after it was first thought of we were free from the horrible trammels of slavery,rejoicing and praising God in the glorious sunshine of liberty.
My wife's first master was her father,and her mother his slave,and the latter is still the slave of his widow.
Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex-traction on her mother's side,she is almost white--in fact,she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old lady to whom she first belonged became so annoyed,at finding her frequently mistaken for a child of the family,that she gave her when eleven years of age to a daughter,as a wedding present.This separated my wife from her mother,and also from several other dear friends.But the incessant cruelty of her old mistress made the change of owners or treatment so desirable,that she did not grumble much at this cruel separation.
It may be remembered that slavery in America is not at all confined to persons of any particular complexion;there are a very large number of slaves as white as any one;but as the evidence of a slave is not admitted in court against a free white person,it is almost impossible for a white child,after having been kidnapped and sold into or re-duced to slavery,in a part of the country where it is not known (as often is the case),ever to recover its freedom.
I have myself conversed with several slaves who told me that their parents were white and free;but that they were stolen away from them and sold when quite young.As they could not tell their address,and also as the parents did not know what had become of their lost and dear little ones,of course all traces of each other were gone.
The following facts are sufficient to prove,that he who has the power,and is inhuman enough to trample upon the sacred rights of the weak,cares nothing for race or colour:--In March,1818,three ships arrived at New Orleans,bringing several hundred German emi-grants from the province of Alsace,on the lower Rhine.Among them were Daniel Muller and his two daughters,Dorothea and Salome,whose mother had died on the passage.Soon after his arrival,Muller,taking with him his two daughters,both young children,went up the river to Attakapas parish,to work on the plantation of John F.Miller.
A few weeks later,his relatives,who had remained at New Orleans,learned that he had died of the fever of the country.They immediately sent for the two girls;but they had disappeared,and the relatives,notwithstanding repeated and persevering inquiries and researches,could find no traces of them.They were at length given up for dead.
Dorothea was never again heard of;nor was any thing known of Salome from 1818till 1843.
In the summer of that year,Madame Karl,a German woman who had come over in the same ship with the Mullers,was passing through a street in New Orleans,and accidentally saw Salome in a wine-shop,belonging to Louis Belmonte,by whom she was held as a slave.Madame Karl recognised her at once,and carried her to the house of another German woman,Mrs.Schubert,who was Salome's cousin and godmother,and who no sooner set eyes on her than,without having any intimation that the discovery had been previously made,she un-hesitatingly exclaimed,"My God!here is the long-lost Salome Muller."The Law Reporter,in its account of this case,says:--"As many of the German emigrants of 1818as could be gathered together were brought to the house of Mrs.Schubert,and every one of the number who had any recollection of the little girl upon the passage,or any acquaintance with her father and mother,immediately identified the woman before them as the long-lost Salome Muller.By all these witnesses,who appeared at the trial,the identity was fully established.
The family resemblance in every feature was declared to be so remarkable,that some of the witnesses did not hesitate to say that they should know her among ten thousand;that they were as certain the plaintiff was Salome Muller,the daughter of Daniel and Dorothea Muller,as of their own existence."Among the witnesses who appeared in Court was the midwife who had assisted at the birth of Salome.
She testified to the existence of certain peculiar marks upon the body of the child,which were found,exactly as described,by the surgeons who were appointed by the Court to make an examina-tion for the purpose.
There was no trace of African descent in any feature of Salome Muller.She had long,straight,black hair,hazel eyes,thin lips,and a Roman nose.The complexion of her face and neck was as dark as that of the darkest brunette.
It appears,however,that,during the twenty-five years of her servitude,she had been exposed to the sun's rays in the hot climate of Louisiana,with head and neck unsheltered,as is customary with the female slaves,while labouring in the cotton or the sugar field.Those parts of her person which had been shielded from the sun were compara-tively white.
Belmonte,the pretended owner of the girl,had obtained possession of her by an act of sale from John F.Miller,the planter in whose service Salome's father died.This Miller was a man of consideration and substance,owning large sugar estates,and bearing a high reputation for honour and honesty,and for indulgent treatment of his slaves.It was testified on the trial that he had said to Belmonte,a few weeks after the sale of Salome,"that she was white,and had as much right to her freedom as any one,and was only to be retained in slavery by care and kind treatment."The broker who negotiated the sale from Miller to Belmonte,in 1838,testified in Court that he then thought,and still thought,that the girl was white!
The case was elaborately argued on both sides,but was at length decided in favour of the girl,by the Supreme Court declaring that "she was free and white,and therefore unlawfully held in bondage."The Rev.George Bourne,of Virginia,in his Picture of Slavery,published in 1834,relates the case of a white boy who,at the age of seven,was stolen from his home in Ohio,tanned and stained in such a way that he could not be distinguished from a person of colour,and then sold as a slave in Virginia.At the age of twenty,he made his escape,by running away,and happily succeeded in rejoining his parents.
I have known worthless white people to sell their own free children into slavery;and,as there are good-for-nothing white as well as coloured persons everywhere,no one,perhaps,will wonder at such inhuman transactions:particularly in the Southern States of America,where I believe there is a greater want of humanity and high principle amongst the whites,than among any other civilized people in the world.
I know that those who are not familiar with the working of "the peculiar institution,"can scarcely imagine any one so totally devoid of all natural affection as to sell his own offspring into returnless bondage.But Shakespeare,that great observer of human nature,says:--"With caution judge of probabilities.
Things deemed unlikely,e'en impossible,Experience often shews us to be true."My wife's new mistress was decidedly more humane than the majority of her class.My wife has always given her credit for not exposing her to many of the worst features of slavery.For instance,it is a common practice in the slave States for ladies,when angry with their maids,to send them to the calybuce sugar-house,or to some other place established for the purpose of punishing slaves,and have them severely flogged;and I am sorry it is a fact,that the villains to whom those de-fenceless creatures are sent,not only flog them as they are ordered,but frequently compel them to submit to the greatest indignity.Oh!if there is any one thing under the wide canopy of heaven,horrible enough to stir a man's soul,and to make his very blood boil,it is the thought of his dear wife,his unprotected sister,or his young and virtuous daughters,struggling to save themselves from falling a prey to such demons!
It always appears strange to me that any one who was not born a slaveholder,and steeped to the very core in the demoralizing atmosphere of the Southern States,can in any way palliate slavery.
It is still more surprising to see virtuous ladies looking with patience upon,and remaining indif-ferent to,the existence of a system that exposes nearly two millions of their own sex in the manner I have mentioned,and that too in a professedly free and Christian country.There is,however,great consolation in knowing that God is just,and will not let the oppressor of the weak,and the spoiler of the virtuous,escape unpunished here and hereafter.
I believe a similar retribution to that which destroyed Sodom is hanging over the slaveholders.
My sincere prayer is that they may not provoke God,by persisting in a reckless course of wicked-ness,to pour out his consuming wrath upon them.
I must now return to our history.
My old master had the reputation of being a very humane and Christian man,but he thought nothing of selling my poor old father,and dear aged mother,at separate times,to different persons,to be dragged off never to behold each other again,till summoned to appear before the great tribunal of heaven.But,oh!what a happy meeting it will be on that day for those faithful souls.
I say a happy meeting,because I never saw persons more devoted to the service of God than they.But how will the case stand with those reckless traffickers in human flesh and blood,who plunged the poisonous dagger of separation into those loving hearts which God had for so many years closely joined together--nay,sealed as it were with his own hands for the eternal courts of heaven?It is not for me to say what will become of those heartless tyrants.I must leave them in the hands of an all-wise and just God,who will,in his own good time,and in his own way,avenge the wrongs of his oppressed people.
My old master also sold a dear brother and a sister,in the same manner as he did my father and mother.The reason he assigned for disposing of my parents,as well as of several other aged slaves,was,that "they were getting old,and would soon become valueless in the market,and therefore he intended to sell off all the old stock,and buy in a young lot."A most disgraceful conclusion for a man to come to,who made such great professions of religion!
This shameful conduct gave me a thorough hatred,not for true Christianity,but for slave-holding piety.
My old master,then,wishing to make the most of the rest of his slaves,apprenticed a brother and myself out to learn trades:he to a black-smith,and myself to a cabinet-maker.If a slave has a good trade,he will let or sell for more than a person without one,and many slave-holders have their slaves taught trades on this account.But before our time expired,my old master wanted money;so he sold my brother,and then mortgaged my sister,a dear girl about four-teen years of age,and myself,then about sixteen,to one of the banks,to get money to speculate in cotton.This we knew nothing of at the moment;but time rolled on,the money became due,my master was unable to meet his payments;so the bank had us placed upon the auction stand and sold to the highest bidder.
My poor sister was sold first:she was knocked down to a planter who resided at some distance in the country.Then I was called upon the stand.
While the auctioneer was crying the bids,I saw the man that had purchased my sister getting her into a cart,to take her to his home.I at once asked a slave friend who was standing near the platform,to run and ask the gentleman if he would please to wait till I was sold,in order that I might have an opportunity of bidding her good-bye.He sent me word back that he had some distance to go,and could not wait.
I then turned to the auctioneer,fell upon my knees,and humbly prayed him to let me just step down and bid my last sister farewell.But,instead of granting me this request,he grasped me by the neck,and in a commanding tone of voice,and with a violent oath,exclaimed,"Get up!You can do the wench no good;therefore there is no use in your seeing her."On rising,I saw the cart in which she sat moving slowly off;and,as she clasped her hands with a grasp that indicated despair,and looked pitifully round towards me,I also saw the large silent tears trickling down her cheeks.She made a farewell bow,and buried her face in her lap.
This seemed more than I could bear.It appeared to swell my aching heart to its utmost.But before I could fairly recover,the poor girl was gone;--gone,and I have never had the good for-tune to see her from that day to this!Perhaps I should have never heard of her again,had it not been for the untiring efforts of my good old mother,who became free a few years ago by pur-chase,and,after a great deal of difficulty,found my sister residing with a family in Mississippi.
My mother at once wrote to me,informing me of the fact,and requesting me to do something to get her free;and I am happy to say that,partly by lecturing occasionally,and through the sale of an engraving of my wife in the disguise in which she escaped,together with the extreme kind-ness and generosity of Miss Burdett Coutts,Mr.George Richardson of Plymouth,and a few other friends,I have nearly accomplished this.
It would be to me a great and ever-glorious achievement to restore my sister to our dear mother,from whom she was forcibly driven in early life.
I was knocked down to the cashier of the bank to which we were mortgaged,and ordered to return to the cabinet shop where I previously worked.
But the thought of the harsh auctioneer not allowing me to bid my dear sister farewell,sent red-hot indignation darting like lightning through every vein.It quenched my tears,and appeared to set my brain on fire,and made me crave for power to avenge our wrongs!But alas!we were only slaves,and had no legal rights;consequently we were compelled to smother our wounded feel-ings,and crouch beneath the iron heel of des-potism.
I must now give the account of our escape;but,before doing so,it may be well to quote a few passages from the fundamental laws of slavery;in order to give some idea of the legal as well as the social tyranny from which we fled.
According to the law of Louisiana,"A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs.The master may sell him,dispose of his person,his industry,and his labour;he can do nothing,possess nothing,nor acquire anything but what must belong to his master."--Civil Code,art.35.
In South Carolina it is expressed in the following language:--"Slaves shall be deemed,sold,taken,reputed and judged in law to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors,and their executors,administrators,and assigns,to all intents,constructions,and purposes whatsoever.--2Brevard's Digest,229.
The Constitution of Georgia has the following (Art.4,sec.12):--"Any person who shall mali-ciously dismember or deprive a slave of life,shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed on a free white person,and on the like proof,except in case of insurrection of such slave,and unless SUCHDEATH SHOULD HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT IN GIVINGSUCH SLAVE MODERATE CORRECTION."--Prince's Digest,559.
I have known slaves to be beaten to death,but as they died under "moderate correction,"it was quite lawful;and of course the murderers were not interfered with.
"If any slave,who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave shall live,or shall be usually employed,or without some white person in company with such slave,shall REFUSE TO SUBMITto undergo the examination of ANY WHITE person,(let him be ever so drunk or crazy),it shall be lawful for such white person to pursue,apprehend,and moderately correct such slave;and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person,such slave may be LAWFULLY KILLED."--2Brevard's Digest,231.
"Provided always,"says the law,"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 person who is beating said overseer's pig,"the slave shall be wholly excused."But,should the bondman,of his own accord,fight to defend his wife,or should his terrified daughter instinctively raise her hand and strike the wretch who attempts to violate her chastity,he or she shall,saith the model republican law,suffer death.
From having been myself a slave for nearly twenty-three years,I am quite prepared to say,that the practical working of slavery is worse than the odious laws by which it is governed.
At an early age we were taken by the persons who held us as property to Macon,the largest town in the interior of the State of Georgia,at which place we became acquainted with each other for several years before our marriage;in fact,our marriage was postponed for some time simply because one of the unjust and worse than Pagan laws under which we lived compelled all children of slave mothers to follow their condition.That is to say,the father of the slave may be the President of the Republic;but if the mother should be a slave at the infant's birth,the poor child is ever legally doomed to the same cruel fate.
It is a common practice for gentlemen (if I may call them such),moving in the highest circles of society,to be the fathers of children by their slaves,whom they can and do sell with the greatest im-punity;and the more pious,beautiful,and virtuous the girls are,the greater the price they bring,and that too for the most infamous purposes.
Any man with money (let him be ever such a rough brute),can buy a beautiful and virtuous girl,and force her to live with him in a criminal connexion;and as the law says a slave shall have no higher appeal than the mere will of the master,she cannot escape,unless it be by flight or death.
In endeavouring to reconcile a girl to her fate,the master sometimes says that he would marry her if it was not unlawful.*However,he will always consider her to be his wife,and will treat her as such;and she,on the other hand,may regard him as her lawful husband;and if they have any children,they will be free and well edu-cated.
I am in duty bound to add,that while a great majority of such men care nothing for the happi-ness of the women with whom they live,nor for the children of whom they are the fathers,there are those to be found,even in that heterogeneous mass of licentious monsters,who are true to their pledges.But as the woman and her children are legally the property of the man,who stands in the anomalous relation to them of husband and father,as well as master,they are liable to be seized and sold for his debts,should he become involved.
There are several cases on record where such persons have been sold and separated for life.Iknow of some myself,but I have only space to glance at one.
I knew a very humane and wealthy gentleman,that bought a woman,with whom he lived as his *It is unlawful in the slave States for any one of purely European descent to intermarry with a person of African ex-traction;though a white man may live with as many coloured women as he pleases without materially damaging his reputa-tion in Southern society.
wife.They brought up a family of children,among whom were three nearly white,well edu-cated,and beautiful girls.
On the father being suddenly killed it was found that he had not left a will;but,as the family had always heard him say that he had no surviving relatives,they felt that their liberty and property were quite secured to them,and,knowing the insults to which they were exposed,now their protector was no more,they were making preparations to leave for a free State.
But,poor creatures,they were soon sadly unde-ceived.A villain residing at a distance,hearing of the circumstance,came forward and swore that he was a relative of the deceased;and as this man bore,or assumed,Mr.Slator's name,the case was brought before one of those horrible tribunals,presided over by a second Judge Jeffreys,and calling itself a court of justice,but before whom no coloured person,nor an abolitionist,was ever known to get his full rights.
A verdict was given in favour of the plaintiff,whom the better portion of the community thought had wilfully conspired to cheat the family.
The heartless wretch not only took the ordi-nary property,but actually had the aged and friendless widow,and all her fatherless children,except Frank,a fine young man about twenty-two years of age,and Mary,a very nice girl,a little younger than her brother,brought to the auction stand and sold to the highest bidder.Mrs.Slator had cash enough,that her husband and master left,to purchase the liberty of herself and children;but on her attempting to do so,the pusillanimous scoundrel,who had robbed them of their freedom,claimed the money as his property;and,poor creature,she had to give it up.According to law,as will be seen hereafter,a slave cannot own any-thing.The old lady never recovered from her sad affliction.
At the sale she was brought up first,and after being vulgarly criticised,in the presence of all her distressed family,was sold to a cotton planter,who said he wanted the "proud old critter to go to his plantation,to look after the little woolly heads,while their mammies were working in the field."When the sale was over,then came the separa-tion,and "O,deep was the anguish of that slave mother's heart,When called from her darlings for ever to part;The poor mourning mother of reason bereft,Soon ended her sorrows,and sank cold in death."Antoinette,the flower of the family,a girl who was much beloved by all who knew her,for her Christ-like piety,dignity of manner,as well as her great talents and extreme beauty,was bought by an uneducated and drunken salve-dealer.
I cannot give a more correct deion of the scene,when she was called from her brother to the stand,than will be found in the following lines--"Why stands she near the auction stand?
That girl so young and fair;
What brings her to this dismal place?
Why stands she weeping there?
Why does she raise that bitter cry?
Why hangs her head with shame,As now the auctioneer's rough voice So rudely calls her name!
But see!she grasps a manly hand,And in a voice so low,As scarcely to be heard,she says,"My brother,must I go?"A moment's pause:then,midst a wail Of agonizing woe,His answer falls upon the ear,--"Yes,sister,you must go!
No longer can my arm defend,No longer can I save My sister from the horrid fate That waits her as a SLAVE!"Blush,Christian,blush!for e'en the dark Untutored heathen see Thy inconsistency,and lo!
They scorn thy God,and thee!"
The low trader said to a kind lady who wished to purchase Antoinette out of his hands,"Ireckon I'll not sell the smart critter for ten thou-sand dollars;I always wanted her for my own use."The lady,wishing to remonstrate with him,com-menced by saying,"You should remember,Sir,that there is a just God."Hoskens not under-standing Mrs.Huston,interrupted her by saying,"I does,and guess its monstrous kind an'him to send such likely niggers for our convenience."Mrs.Huston finding that a long course of reckless wickedness,drunkenness,and vice,had destroyed in Hoskens every noble impulse,left him.
Antoinette,poor girl,also seeing that there was no help for her,became frantic.I can never forget her cries of despair,when Hoskens gave the order for her to be taken to his house,and locked in an upper room.On Hoskens entering the apart-ment,in a state of intoxication,a fearful struggle ensued.The brave Antoinette broke loose from him,pitched herself head foremost through the window,and fell upon the pavement below.
Her bruised but unpolluted body was soon picked up--restoratives brought--doctor called in;but,alas!it was too late:her pure and noble spirit had fled away to be at rest in those realms of endless bliss,"where the wicked cease from troubling,and the weary are at rest."Antoinette like many other noble women who are deprived of liberty,still "Holds something sacred,something undefiled;Some pledge and keepsake of their higher nature.
And,like the diamond in the dark,retains Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light."On Hoskens fully realizing the fact that his victim was no more,he exclaimed "By thunder Iam a used-up man!"The sudden disappointment,and the loss of two thousand dollars,was more than he could endure:so he drank more than ever,and in a short time died,raving mad with delirium tremens.
The villain Slator said to Mrs.Huston,the kind lady who endeavoured to purchase Antoinette from Hoskens,"Nobody needn't talk to me 'bout buying them ar likely niggers,for I'm not going to sell em.""But Mary is rather delicate,"said Mrs.