extract from a lecture on slavery, at rochester,
december 1, 1850
more than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. my childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave system. i grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed monster—not as a master—not as an idle spectator—not as the guest of the slaveholder—but as a slave, eating the bread and drinking the cup of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. in consideration of these facts, i feel that i have a right to speak, and to speak strongly. yet, my friends, i feel bound to speak truly.
goading as have been the cruelties to which i have been subjected—bitter as have been the trials through which i have passed—exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities offered to my manhood—i find in them no excuse for the slightest departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject.
first of all, i will state, as well as i can, the legal and social relation of master and slave. a master is one—to speak in the vocabulary of the southern states—who claims and exercises a right of property in the person of a fellow-man. this he does with the force of the law and the sanction of southern religion. the law gives the master absolute power over the slave. he may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, and, in certain contingencies, kill him, with perfect impunity. the slave is a human being, divested of all rights—reduced to the level of a brute—a mere “chattel” in the eye of the law—placed beyond the circle of human brotherhood—cut off from his kind—his name, which the “recording angel” may have enrolled in heaven, among the blest, is impiously inserted in a master’s ledger, with horses, sheep, and swine. in law, the slave has no wife, no children, no country, and no home. he can own nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what must belong to another. to[338] eat the fruit of his own toil, to clothe his person with the work of his own hands, is considered stealing. he toils that another may reap the fruit; he is industrious that another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal that another may eat the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at home, under a burning sun and biting lash, that another may ride in ease and splendor abroad; he lives in ignorance that another may be educated; he is abused that another may be exalted; he rests his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground that another may repose on the softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and tattered raiment that another may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he is sheltered only by the wretched hovel that a master may dwell in a magnificent mansion; and to this condition he is bound down as by an arm of iron.
from this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most revolting cruelties. the very accompaniments of the slave system stamp it as the offspring of hell itself. to ensure good behavior, the slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on the whip; to supply the place of wages as an incentive to toil, he relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and the blood-hound. these are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of the system. wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are also found. whether on the coast of africa, among the savage tribes, or in south carolina, among the refined and civilized, slavery is the same, and its accompaniments one and the same. it makes no difference whether the slaveholder worships the god of the christians, or is a follower of mahomet, he is the minister of the same cruelty, and the author of the same misery. slavery is always slavery; always the same foul, haggard, and damning scourge, whether found in the eastern or in the western hemisphere.
there is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. the physical cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in the great ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon the mental, moral, and religious nature of its hapless victims. it is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, and the intense criminality of the slaveholder. i have said that the slave was a man. “what a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action[339] how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!”
the slave is a man, “the image of god,” but “a little lower than the angels;” possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable of endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, of affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, and he is endowed with those mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and sense, and grasps, with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely glorious idea of a god. it is such a being that is smitten and blasted. the first work of slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims which distinguish men from things, and persons from property. its first aim is to destroy all sense of high moral and religious responsibility. it reduces man to a mere machine. it cuts him off from his maker, it hides from him the laws of god, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the dark, under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved, and sinful fellow-man. as the serpent-charmer of india is compelled to extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the conscience of the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over his victim.
it is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden, and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. conscience is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of gravitation is to the universe. it holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. without it, suspicion would take the place of trust; vice would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a hell.
nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind. this is shown by the fact, that in every state of the american union, where slavery exists, except the state of kentucky, there are laws absolutely prohibitory of education among the slaves. the crime of teaching a slave to read is punishable with severe fines and imprisonment, and, in some instances, with death itself.
nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. cases may occur in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where slaves may have learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only prove the rule. the great mass of slaveholders look upon education among the slaves as utterly subversive of the slave system. i well remember when my mistress first announced to my master that she had dis[340] covered that i could read. his face colored at once with surprise and chagrin. he said that “i was ruined, and my value as a slave destroyed; that a slave should know nothing but to obey his master; that to give a negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that having learned how to read, i would soon want to know how to write; and that by-and-by i would be running away.” i think my audience will bear witness to the correctness of this philosophy, and to the literal fulfillment of this prophecy.
it is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a slave is to make him discontened(sic) with slavery, and to invest him with a power which shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the object of the slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his slave, his constant vigilance is exercised to prevent everything which militates against, or endangers, the stability of his authority. education being among the menacing influences, and, perhaps, the most dangerous, is, therefore, the most cautiously guarded against.
it is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law, punishing as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not because of a want of disposition to enforce it. the true reason or explanation of the matter is this: there is the greatest unanimity of opinion among the white population in the south in favor of the policy of keeping the slave in ignorance. there is, perhaps, another reason why the law against education is so seldom violated. the slave is too poor to be able to offer a temptation sufficiently strong to induce a white man to violate it; and it is not to be supposed that in a community where the moral and religious sentiment is in favor of slavery, many martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives by violating those prohibitory enactments.
as a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the enslaved, and “how great is that darkness!”
we are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness. we are told that they often dance and sing; that their masters frequently give them wherewith to make merry; in fine, that they have little of which to complain. i admit that the slave does sometimes sing, dance, and appear to be merry. but what does this prove? it only proves to my mind, that though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it is not able entirely to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman. that spirit will rise and walk abroad, despite of whips and chains, and extract from the cup of nature occasional drops of joy and gladness. no thanks to the slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the[341] vivacious captive may sometimes dance in his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances stands before god as an accusing angel against his enslaver.
it is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, that the condition of the people of ireland is more deplorable than that of the american slaves. far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the irish people. they have been long oppressed; and the same heart that prompts me to plead the cause of the american bondman, makes it impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. yet i must say that there is no analogy between the two cases. the irishman is poor, but he is not a slave. he may be in rags, but he is not a slave. he is still the master of his own body, and can say with the poet, “the hand of douglass is his own.” “the world is all before him, where to choose;” and poor as may be my opinion of the british parliament, i cannot believe that it will ever sink to such a depth of infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of fugitive irishmen! the shame and scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly monopolized by the american congress. the irishman has not only the liberty to emigrate from his country, but he has liberty at home. he can write, and speak, and cooperate for the attainment of his rights and the redress of his wrongs.
the multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile plains of the emerald isle; they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim their wants without molestation; and the press, that “swift-winged messenger,” can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds of the civilized world. they have their “conciliation hall,” on the banks of the liffey, their reform clubs, and their newspapers; they pass resolutions, send forth addresses, and enjoy the right of petition. but how is it with the american slave? where may he assemble? where is his conciliation hall? where are his newspapers? where is his right of petition? where is his freedom of speech? his liberty of the press? and his right of locomotion? he is said to be happy; happy men can speak. but ask the slave what is his condition—what his state of mind—what he thinks of enslavement? and you had as well address your inquiries to the silent dead. there comes no voice from the enslaved. we are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours would be, were our souls in his soul’s stead.
if there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a grand aggregation of human horrors.
most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this[342] country have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the nation. a system of measures to promote this object was adopted a few months ago in congress. the result of those measures is known. instead of quiet, they have produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought us war; and so it must ever be.
while this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and lasting peace, as it is to think there is no god to take cognizance of the affairs of men. there can be no peace to the wicked while slavery continues in the land. it will be condemned; and while it is condemned there will be agitation. nature must cease to be nature; men must become monsters; humanity must be transformed; christianity must be exterminated; all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal goodness must be utterly blotted out from the human soul—ere a system so foul and infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can have a sound, enduring peace.
