extract from a lecture on slavery, at rochester,
december 8, 1850
the relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and only second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and child. this representation is doubtless believed by many northern people; and this may account, in part, for the lack of interest which we find among persons whom we are bound to believe to be honest and humane. what, then, are the facts? here i will not quote my own experience in slavery; for this you might call one-sided testimony. i will not cite the declarations of abolitionists; for these you might pronounce exaggerations. i will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; for these you might call isolated cases. but i will refer you to the laws adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. i give you such evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. i hold in my hand sundry extracts from the slave codes of our country, from which i will quote. * * *
now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, what is cruelty? if this be parental affection, what is bitter malignity? a more atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived of. and yet i am bound to say that they fall short of indicating the horrible cruelties constantly practiced in the slave states.
i admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous than is allowed by law; but these form the exception. the majority of slaveholders find it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it. if kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip. one of the most telling testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is the fact that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting the dismal swamp, preferring[344] the untamed wilderness to their cultivated homes—choosing rather to encounter hunger and thirst, and to roam with the wild beasts of the forest, running the hazard of being hunted and shot down, than to submit to the authority of kind masters.
i tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural course of life, without great wrong. the slave finds more of the milk of human kindness in the bosom of the savage indian, than in the heart of his christian master. he leaves the man of the bible, and takes refuge with the man of the tomahawk. he rushes from the praying slaveholder into the paws of the bear. he quits the homes of men for the haunts of wolves. he prefers to encounter a life of trial, however bitter, or death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under the dominion of these kind masters.
the apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; and they tell us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as we are; and that they would go as far to correct those abuses and to ameliorate the condition of the slave as anybody. the answer to that view is, that slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives by abuse; and dies by the absence of abuse. grant that slavery is right; grant that the relations of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an apology in the very necessity of the case. as we said by a slaveholder (the rev. a. g. few) to the methodist conference, “if the relation be right, the means to maintain it are also right;” for without those means slavery could not exist. remove the dreadful scourge—the plaited thong—the galling fetter—the accursed chain—and let the slaveholder rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure obedience to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would remain on his plantation? the case only needs to be stated; it carries its own refutation with it.
absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over the body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and enormous cruelty.
to talk of kindness entering into a relation in which one party is robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is most absurd, wicked, and preposterous.
i have shown that slavery is wicked—wicked, in that it violates the great law of liberty, written on every human heart—wicked, in that it violates the first command of the decalogue—wicked, in that it fosters the most disgusting licentiousness—wicked, in that it mars and defaces[345] the image of god by cruel and barbarous inflictions—wicked, in that it contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the new testament.
the evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined to the states south of mason and dixon’s line. its noxious influence can easily be traced throughout our northern borders. it comes even as far north as the state of new york. traces of it may be seen even in rochester; and travelers have told me it casts its gloomy shadows across the lake, approaching the very shores of queen victoria’s dominions.
the presence of slavery may be explained by—as it is the explanation of—the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced new york, and which still more recently disgraced the city of boston. these violent demonstrations, these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly indicate the presence and power of slavery here. it is a significant fact, that while meetings for almost any purpose under heaven may be held unmolested in the city of boston, that in the same city, a meeting cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of the american declaration of independence, “that all men are created equal.” the pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole people.
the moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is little sympathy in this land for him. if he were greeted with smiles before, he meets with frowns now; and it shall go well with him if he be not subjected to that peculiarly fining method of showing fealty to slavery, the assaults of a mob.
now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, and that such conduct on the part of the people of the north, springs from a consciousness of rectitude? no! every fibre of the human heart unites in detestation of tyranny, and it is only when the human mind has become familiarized with slavery, is accustomed to its injustice, and corrupted by its selfishness, that it fails to record its abhorrence of slavery, and does not exult in the triumphs of liberty.
the northern people have been long connected with slavery; they have been linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the moral health. the union of the government; the union of the north and south, in the political parties; the union in the religious organizations of the land, have all served to deaden the moral sense of the northern people, and to impregnate them with sentiments and ideas forever in conflict with what as a nation we call genius of american institutions. rightly viewed,[346] this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally all that is pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush the monster of corruption, and to scatter “its guilty profits” to the winds. in a high moral sense, as well as in a national sense, the whole american people are responsible for slavery, and must share, in its guilt and shame, with the most obdurate men-stealers of the south.
while slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, every american citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his country branded before the world as a nation of liars and hypocrites; and behold his cherished flag pointed at with the utmost scorn and derision. even now an american abroad is pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land where men gain their fortunes by “the blood of souls,” from a land of slave markets, of blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some circles, such a man is shunned altogether, as a moral pest. is it not time, then, for every american to awake, and inquire into his duty with respect to this subject?
wendell phillips—the eloquent new england orator—on his return from europe, in 1842, said, “as i stood upon the shores of genoa, and saw floating on the placid waters of the mediterranean, the beautiful american war ship ohio, with her masts tapering proportionately aloft, and an eastern sun reflecting her noble form upon the sparkling waters, attracting the gaze of the multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to think myself an american; but when i thought that the first time that gallant ship would gird on her gorgeous apparel, and wake from beneath her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in defense of the african slave trade, i blushed in utter shame for my country.”
let me say again, slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the american people; it is a blot upon the american name, and the only national reproach which need make an american hang his head in shame, in the presence of monarchical governments.
with this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to look at home; if we say ought against crowned heads, we are pointed to our enslaved millions; if we talk of sending missionaries and bibles abroad, we are pointed to three millions now lying in worse than heathen darkness; if we express a word of sympathy for kossuth and his hungarian fugitive brethren, we are pointed to that horrible and hell-black enactment, “the fugitive slave bill.”
slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad—the criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth ridicule, contempt, and scorn. in a word, we are made a reproach and a by-word to a[347] mocking earth, and we must continue to be so made, so long as slavery continues to pollute our soil.
we have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love of country, &c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, has been impiously appealed to, by all the powers of human selfishness, to cherish the viper which is stinging our national life away. in its name, we have been called upon to deepen our infamy before the world, to rivet the fetter more firmly on the limbs of the enslaved, and to become utterly insensible to the voice of human woe that is wafted to us on every southern gale. we have been called upon, in its name, to desecrate our whole land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and even to engage ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping.
i, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow and restricted sense, but, i trust, with a broad and manly signification; not to cover up our national sins, but to inspire us with sincere repentance; not to hide our shame from the the(sic) world’s gaze, but utterly to abolish the cause of that shame; not to explain away our gross inconsistencies as a nation, but to remove the hateful, jarring, and incongruous elements from the land; not to sustain an egregious wrong, but to unite all our energies in the grand effort to remedy that wrong.
i would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law of the living god, natural and revealed, and in the full belief that “righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people.” “he that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, he shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.”
we have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid being invoked on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very prosperity of this people has been called in to deafen them to the voice of duty, and to lead them onward in the pathway of sin. thus has the blessing of god been converted into a curse. in the spirit of genuine patriotism, i warn the american people, by all that is just and honorable, to beware!
i warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, there is a power above us that can “bring down high looks; at the breath of whose mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall bow;” and who can tell how soon the avenging angel may pass over our land, and the sable bondmen now in chains, may become the instruments of our nation’s chastisement! without appealing to any higher feeling, i would warn the american people, and the american government,[348] to be wise in their day and generation. i exhort them to remember the history of other nations; and i remind them that america cannot always sit “as a queen,” in peace and repose; that prouder and stronger governments than this have been shattered by the bolts of a just god; that the time may come when those they now despise and hate, may be needed; when those whom they now compel by oppression to be enemies, may be wanted as friends. what has been, may be again. there is a point beyond which human endurance cannot go. the crushed worm may yet turn under the heel of the oppressor. i warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the name of retributive justice, to look to their ways; for in an evil hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, been engaged in cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our country, may yet become the instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout our borders.
it was the sage of the old dominion that said—while speaking of the possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the slaveholders—“god has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a contest. i tremble for my country when i reflect that god is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever.” such is the warning voice of thomas jefferson; and every day’s experience since its utterance until now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth.
