The American fugitive in Europe. Sketches of places and people abroad

Front matter

Sivkiphers cokes re oe Sher Sts pees oe. bitoni dere oe Oe ee Se ee ee eee ied i ‘ ee te 4 ‘SNe WS ety eae ee '- Stes eos g litle sth pe dieedeah-a eee ~ oe Oe brs daa] Rae m . ot = - * etn te

1) os ty ; ent Ss ON ae

THE AMERICAN FUGITIVE IN EUROPE.

Preface

TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

Wurtx I feel conscious that most of the contents of these Letters will be interesting chiefly to American readers, yet I may indulge the hope that the fact of their being the first production of a Fugitive Siave as a history of travels may carry with them novelty enough to secure for them, to some extent, the attention of the reading public of Great Britain. Most of the letters were written for the private perusal of a few personal friends in America; some were contributed to Frederick Douglass’ Paper, a journal published in the United States. In a printed circular sent some weeks since to some of my friends, asking subscriptions to this volume, I stated the reasons for its publication : these need not be repeated here. To those who so promptly and kindly responded to that appeal, I tender my most sincere thanks. It is with no little diffidence

IV PREFACE.

that I lay these letters before the public; for Tam not blind to the fact that they must contain many errors ; and to those who shall find fault with them on that account, it may not be too much for me to ask them kindly to remember that the author was a slave in one of the Southern States of America until he had attained the age of twenty years; and that the education he has acquired was by his own exertions, he never haying had a day’s schooling in his life.

W. WELLS BROWN.

22 Crciz Street, STRAND, Lonnon.

NOTE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

Dorinc my sojourn abroad I found it advantageous to my purse to publish a book of travels, which I did under the title of ‘Three Years in Europe, or Places I have seen and People I haye met.’ The work was reviewed by the ablest journals in Great Britain, and from their favorable criticisms I have been induced to offer it to the American public, with a dozen or more additional chapters. i ee PS

Boston, November, 1854.

Contents

PAGE

Chapter I

Departure from Boston — The Passengers — Halifax — The Passage — First Sight of Land — Liverpool, ME de atl gah Gi oe Se an has om 6,741 oo. a oh hen Bre) er OD

OMAPTER II.

Trip to Ireland — Dublin — Her Majesty’s Visit — Tilumination of the City — The Birthplace of Thomas Moore— A Reception,. . +... 2. +e eee 2s 6 42

Chapter III

Departure from Ireland — London —Trip:to Paris — Paris ——The Peace Congress : First Day — Church of the Madeleine — Column Vendome — The French, . . 51

Chapter IV

Versailles —The Palace — Second Session of the Congress — Mr. Cobden — Henry Vincent — M. Girardin — Abbe Duguerry — Victor Hugo: his Speech, . . . 64

CHAPTER ‘V.

M. de Tocqueville’s Grand Soiree — Madame de Tocqueville — Visit of the Peace Delegates to Versailles — The Breakfast -—Speech-making — The Trianons — Water- ERE C= EDO HOLS, se eS cle ee ce te wt we we we

Chapter VI

The Tuileries — Place de la Concorde—The Egyptian Obelisk — Palais Royal — Residence of Robespierre — A Visit to the Room in which Charlotte Corday killed Marat — Church de Notre Dame — Palais de Justice — Hotel des Invalides —

. National Assembly —The Elysee,. 2... 1. 1 ee eee eee ee we es 6 80 1|*

VI CONTENTS.

Chapter VII

The Chateau at Versailles — Private Apartments of Marie Antoinette —The Secret Door — Paintings of Raphael and David— Are de Triomphe — Beranger the HPOEL, «ae 56 he 6 4s, telhe fo Se Qe ie ss te sae onsets an pee eaean siete es 6 OL

Chapter VIII

Departure from Paris — Boulogne — Folkstone — London — George Thompson, Esq., ~ M.P. — Hartwell House — Dr. Lee — Cottage of the Peasant — Windsor Castle — Residence of William Penn — England’s First Welcome — Heath Lodge —'The Bank of England, « .. Ngiw sie %e ls ale Um dle eal elle cede y lw le ieiat ges OO

Chapter XIII

Bristol: “‘ Cook’s Folly ” — Chepstow Castle and Abbey — Tintern Abbey — Redcliffe Church — Edinburgh — The Royal Institute — Scott?s Monument — John Knox’s Pulpit — Meetings in City Hall, Glasgow, e- 0 @ ose Teel hy. £28 . ee SS 8) e-8 154

CHAPTER XLV. :

Stirling — Dundee — Dr. Dick — George Gilfillan, the Essayist— Dr. Dick at home, 167 ‘ CHAPTER XY.

Melrose Abbey — Abbotsford —Dryburgh Abbey — The Grave of Sir Walter Scott — Hawick — Gretna Green — Visit to the Lakes, .,. . . 1. +e eee 178

CHAPTER XVI.

Miss Martineau —‘‘ The Knoll”? — “* Rydal Mount”? — ‘*'The Dove’s Nest ” — Grave of William Wordsworth, Esq.— The English Peasant,. ......... 182

CONTENTS. Vii

CHAPTER XVII.

A Day in the Crystal Palace— Thomas Carlyle, .......6008006 66 198

CHAPTER XVIII.

The London Peace Congress — Meeting of Fugitive Slaves — Temperance Demonstration— The Great Exhibition: Last Visit,. . 2... 1... 0 ee eee oe 202

CHAPTER XIX.

Oxford — Martyrs’ Monument — Cost of the Burning, of the Martyrs — The Colleges —Dr. Pusey — Energy the Secret of Success, . . 2. 0° 1 we oo 0 « 208

CHAPTER XX.

Fugitive Slaves in England — Great Meeting in Hall of Commerce, London,. . . 215

CHAPTER XXII.

Visit to Stratford upon Avon—Shakspeare’s Birth-place — His Grave — George SE lo ae! gc eae ant na Ve ce tt senda ees

CHAPTER XXII.

Visit to Ludlow — The Wet Sheets — Landlady in a Fix — Ludlow Castle — Milton’s Comus — Butler’s Hudibras — Visit to Hereford —Birth-places of Garrick, Mrs. Ba On eM Sy OTIC Soy e os Ens fogs eh oie ba Sapa oe eelet o 200

CHAPTER XXIII.

s A Fashionable Dinner Party — Cowley, the Poet — Residence of Alexander Pope — His Merits as a Poet, . . . . . ° ° ° . . . . . . ° . ° . . . . ° . . * 240

CHAPTER XXIV.

Birth-place of Robert Burns —His Monument —Tam O’Shanter and Souter Johnny — The Shell Palace — Newark Castle— Highland Mary,. . ... . » 247

CHAPTER XXV.

The Thames Tunnel — Colosseum — Swiss Cottage —Its Mysteries and its Beauties, 254

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Visit to a Burial-ground— Epitaph on the Grave of a Wife—A Warning to the MS se ew 8 wt 8 wt 8 me tw le oe a ty ROD

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Scotland — Aberdeen — Passage by Water — Edinburgh — George Combe, . . 262

VIII CONTENTS. -

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Joseph Jenkins, the African Genius — His Street-sweeping — Bill-distributing — Psalm-singing — Othello — And his Preaching, . . . . « + « « « « 268

OHAPTER ASI Monument to Thomas Hood — Eliza Cook- Murdo Young— Milnes, the Poet, 276

CHAPTER XXX.

A Night in the House of Commons — A Bird’s-eye View of its Members — Hastie, Layard, Hume, the Father of the House, Edward Miall, W. J. Fox, Macaulay, Richard Cobden, Gladstone the Orator, Disraeli the Jew, Lord Dudley Stuart, Lord John Russell—A Debate in the House—People in the Gallery — Sir Bidward “Bulwer Lytton, .‘. ss ¢ie 0 «ce wie gee ie) siietisMisl sete leila «cae

CHAPTER XXXII.

Anniversary of West India Emancipation — Francis W. Kellogg — British Hatred of Oppression — A Singular Recognition — Lady Noel Byron and Ellen Craft, 296

CHAPTER XXXII.

Thoughts on leaving for America— Acquaintances made in Great Britain — John Bishop Estlin — Departure in the Steamer ‘* City of Manchester ’? — Peculiarities of Passengers —TIrish, Germans, and Gypsies — Reception at Philadelphia — Anti-Christian Prejudices there — Design in Returning — Reflections, . . . 303

© Glemoir of the Author.

se

‘* Shall tongues be mute when deeds are wrought Which well might shame extremest Hell? Shall freemen lack the indignant thought ? Shall Mercy’s bosom cease to swell ? Shall Honor bleed ?— shall Truth succumb ? Shall pen, and press, and sow! be dumb?’’ — Whittier.

Wiiu1AM WeLis Browy, the subject of this narrative, was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky, not far from the residence of the late Hon. Henry Clay. | His mother was the slave of Dr. John Young. His father was a slaveholder, and, besides being a near relation of his master, was connected with the Wickliffe family, one . of the oldest, wealthiest, and most aristocratic of the Kentucky planters. Dr. Young was the owner of forty or fifty slaves, whose chief employment was in cultivating tobacco, hemp, corn, and flax. The doctor removed from Lexington, when William was five or six years old, to the State of Missouri, and commenced farming in a beautiful and fertile valley, within a mile of the Missouri river. —

- Here the slaves were put to work under a harsh and eruel overseer, named Cook. A finer situation for a farm could not have been selected in the state. With climate

~ fayorable to agriculture, and soil rich, the products came

- in abundance. At an early age William was separated from his mother, she being worked in the field, and he as a servant in his master’s medical department. hen about ten years of age, the young slave's feelings were much hurt at hearing the cries of his mother while ,being flogged by the negro-driver for being a few minutes behind the other hands in reaching the field. He heard her cry, “OQ, pray! O, pray! O, pray!” These are the words which slaves generally utter when implormg mercy at the hands of their oppressors. The son heard it, though he was some way off. He heard the crack of the whip, and the groans of his poor mother. The cold chill ran over him, and he wept aloud; but he was a slave like his mother, and could render her no assistance. - He was taught by the most bitter experience, that nothing Hagan 4 be more heart-rending than to see a dear and beloved *. mother or sister tortured by unfeeling men, and to hear her cries, and not to be able to render the least aid. When William was twelve years of age, his master left his farm and took up his residence near St. Louis. ‘The doctor having more hands than he wanted for his own use, William was let out to a Mr. Freeland, an innkeeper. Here the young slave found himself in the hands of a most cruel and heartless master. Freeland was one of the real chivalry of the South; besides being himself a slaveholder, he was a horse-racer, cock-fighter, gambler, and, to crown the whole, an inveterate drunkard. What else but bad treatment could be expected from such a character? After enduring the tyrannical and inhuman | usage of this man for five or six months, William resolved, to stand it no longer, and therefore ran away, like other slaves who leave their masters, owing to severe treatment;

“and not knowing where to flee, the young fugitive went into the forest, a few miles from St. Louis. He had been in the haa but a short time, when he heard the barking

owling of dogs, and was soon satisfied that he was pursued by the negro-dogs ; and, aware of their ferocious natttre, the fugitive climbed a tree, to save himself from being torn to pieces. The hounds were soon at the truik of the*tree, and remained there, howling and barking, until those in whose charge they were game up. The slave ‘was ordered down, tied, and taken home. Inmediately, on his arrival there, he was, as he expected, tied up in the smoke-house, and whipped till Freeland w as satisfied, and then smoked with tobacco-stems. This the slaveholder called ‘‘ Virginia play.” After being well whipped and smoked, he was again set tolwork. - William remained with this monster a few months longer, and was then let out to Elijah P. Lovejoy, who years after became the editor of an abolition newspaper, and was murdered ‘at Alton, Illinois, by a mob of slaveholders from the adjoining State of Missouri. The system of letting out slaves is one among the worst of the evils of slavery. The man who hires a slave looks upon him in the same light as does the man who hires a horse for a limited period ; he feels no interest in him, only to get the worth, of his money. Not so with the man who owns the slave; he regards him as so much property, of which care i be taken. After being let out to a steamer as an under-steward, William was hired by James Walker,

a slave-trader. Here the subject of our memoir was

psa I conden of the gangs of slaves that were

taken to the New Orleans market. In this capacity,

/William had opportunities, far greater than most slaves,

12 MEMOIR OF - - of acquiring knowledge of the different phases of the “peculiar institution.’ Walker was a negro speculator, who was amassing a fortune by trading in the bones, blood and nerves, of God’s children. The thought of such a traffic causes us to exclaim with the poet,

+e Is there not some chosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, Red with uncommon wrath, to blastthe man ~* Who gains his fortune from the blood of souls? ”’

Between fifty and sixty slaves were chained together, put on board a steamboat bound for New Orleans, and started on the voyage. New and strange scenes began to inspire the young slave with the hope of escaping to a - land of freedom. There was in the boat a large room on the lower deck in which the slaves were kept, men and women promiscuously, all chained two and two together, not even leaving the poor slaves the privilege of choosing their partners. <A strict watch was kept over them, so that they had no chance of escape. Cases had occurred in which slaves had got off their chains and made their escape at the landing-places, while the boat stopped to take in wood. But, with all their care, they lost one woman who had been taken from her husband and children, and, having no desire to live without them, in the agony of her soul jumped overboard and drowned herself. Her sorrows were greater than she could bear; slavery and its cruel inflictions had broken her heart. She, like William, sighed for freedom, but not the freedom which even British soil confers and inspires, but freedom fron torturing pangs, and overwhelming grief. =

At the end of the week they arrived at New Orleans the place of their destination. Here the slaves w placed in a negro-pen, where those who wished to purchase could call and examine them. The negro-pen is a small yard surrounded by buildings, from fifteen to. twenty feet wide, with the exception of a large gate with iron bars. ‘The slaves are kept in the buildings during the night, and turned into the pen during the day. After the best of the gang were sold off, the balance was taken to the Exchange Coffee-house auction-rooms, and sold at — public auction. After the sale of the last slave, William and Mr. Walker left New Orleans for St. Louis.

After they had been at St. Louis a few weeks, another cargo of human flesh was made up. There were amongst the lot several old men and women, some of whom had gray locks. On their way down to New Orleans William had to prepare the old slaves for market. He was ordered to shave off the old men’s whiskers, and to pluck

‘out the gray hairs where they were not too numerous ; where they were, he colored them with a preparation of blacking with a blacking-brush. After having gone through the blacking process, they looked ten or fifteen years younger. William, though not well skilled in the use of scissors and razor, performed the office of the barber tolerably.. After the sale of this gang of negroes they returned to St. Louis, and a second cargo was made up. In this lot was a woman who had a child at the breast, yet was compelled to travel through the interior of the country on foot with the other slaves. In a published memoir of his life, William says, ‘‘ The child cried during the most of the day, which displeased Mr. Walker, and he told the mother that if her child did not stop crying he would stop its mouth. After a long and weary

. under a burning sun, we put up for the night at a country inn. The following morning, just as they were about to start, the child again commenced crying. Walker stepped up to her, and told her to give the child to him. ‘The mother tremblingly obeyed. He took the child by one arm, as any one would a cat by the leg, and walked into the house where they had been staying, and said to the lady, ‘Madam, I will make you a present of this little nigger; it keeps making such a noise that I can’t bear it.’ ‘Thank you, sir,’ said the lady. : The mother, as soon as she saw that the child was to.be left,

ran up to Mr. Walker, and, falling on her knees, isiogba of him, in an agony of Scanae to let her have her child. She clung round his legs so closely that for some time he could not kick her off; and she cried, ‘O my child, my child! Master, do let me have my dear, dear child! O! do, do! I will stop its crying, and love you forever, if you will only let me have my child again.’ But her prayers were not heeded; they passed on, and the mother was separated from her child forever.

‘“ After the woman’s child had been given away, Mr. Walker rudely commanded her to retire into the ranks with the other slaves. Women who had children were not chained, but those who had none were. As soon as her child was taken she was chained to the gang.”’.

Nothing was more grievous to the sensitive: feelings of William than seeing the separation of families by the slave-trader : husbands taken from their wives, and mothers from their children, without the least appearance of feeling on the part of those who separated them. While at New Orleans, on one occasion, William saw a slave murdered. ‘The circumstances were as follows: Th the evening, between seven and eight o’clock, a slave mL pst)

THE AUTHOR. LO came running down the levee, followed by several men and boys. ‘The whites were crying out, ‘Stop that nigger! stop that nigger!” while the poor panting slave, in almost breathless accents, was repeating, ‘I did not steal the meat—I did not steal the meat!’’ The poor man at last took refuge in the river. The whites who were in pursuit of him ran on board of one of the boats to see if they could discover him. They finally espied him under the bow of the steamboat ‘‘Trenton.”” They got a pike-pole, and tried to drive him from his hiding-place. When they struck at him he would dive under the water. The water was so cold that it soon became evident that

~ he must come out or be drowned.

While they were trying to drive him from under the boat or drown him, he, in broken and imploring accents, said, ‘‘I did not steal the meat! I did not steal the meat! My master lives up the river. . I want to see my master. I did not steal the meat! Do let me go home to master!” After punching and striking him over the head for some time, he at last sunk in the water, to rise no more alive.

On the end of the pike-pole with which they had been striking him was a hook, which caught in his clothing, and they hauled him up on the bow of the boat. Some

_ said he was dead; others said he was ‘‘ playing ’pos-_ sum ;” while others kicked hinr to make him get up ; but it was of no use — he was dead.

As soon as they became satisfied of this, they commenced leaving, one after another. One of the hands on the boat informed the captain that they had killed the © man, and that the dead body was lying on the deck. The captain, whose name was Hart, came on deck, and said to those who were remaining, ‘‘ You have killed this nigger ; now take him off my boat.”” The dead body was dragged on shore and left there. William went on board of the boat where the gang of slaves were, and during the whole night his mind was occupied with what he had seen. arly in the morning he went on shore to see if the dead body remained there. He found it in the same position that it was left the night before. He watched to see what they would do with it. It was left there until between eight and nine o’clock, when a cart, which took up the trash from the streets, came along, and the body was thrown in, and in a few minutes more was covered over with dirt, which they were removing from the streets.

At the expiration of the period of his hiring with Walker, William returned to his master, rejoiced to have escaped an employment as much against his own feelings as it was repugnant to human nature. But this joy was of short duration. The doctor wanted money, and resolved to sell William’s sister and two brothers. The mother had been previously sold to a gentleman residing

-in the city of St. Louis. William’s master now informed

him that he intended to sell him, and, as he was his own nephew, he gave him the privilege of finding some one to purchase him, who would treat him better than if he was sold on the auction-block. William tried to make some arrangement by which he could purchase his own freedom, but the old doctor would hear nothing of the kind. If there is one thing more revolting in the trade of human flesh than another, it is the selling of one’s own blood relations.

He accordingly set out for the city in search of a new master. When he arrived there, he proceeded to the ~ a nd ae jail with the hope of seeing his sister, but was again disappointed. On the following morning he made another attempt, and was allowed to see her once, for the last time. When he entered the room where she was seated in one corner, alone and disconsolate, there were four other women in the room, belonging to the same man, who were bought, the jailer said, for the master’s own use. _ - | William’s sister was seated with her face towards the door when he entered, but her gaze was transfixed on nothingness, and she did not look up when he walked up to her; but as soon as she observed him she sprang up, threw her arms around his neck, leaned her head upon his breast, and, without uttering a word, in silent, indescribable sorrow, burst into tears. She remained so for some minutes, but when she recovered herself sufficiently to speak she urged him to take his mother immediately, and try to get to the land of freedom. She said there was no hope for herself; she must live and die a slave. After giving her some dikes and taking a ring from his finger, he bade her farewell forever. Reader, did ever a fair sister of thine go down to the grave prematurely ? If so, perchance thou hast drank deeply from the cup of sorrow. But how infinitely better is it for a sister to ‘go into the silent land” with her honor untarnished, but with bright hopes, than for her to be sold to sensual slaveholders! . |

William had been in the city now two days, and, as he was to be absent for only a week, it was well that he should make the best use of his time, if he intended to escapo. In conversing with his mother, he found her unwilling to make the attempt to reach the land of liberty, but she advised him by all means to get there himself, if he possibly could. She said, as all her children were in slavery, she did not wish to leave them; but he loved his mother so intensely, that he could not think of leaving without her. He consequently used all his simple eloquence to induce her to fly with him, and, at last, he prevailed. They consequently fixed upon the next night as the time for their departure. The time at length arrived, and they left the city just as the clock struck nine. Having found a boat, they crossed the river in it. Whose boat it was he did not know; neither did he care. When it had served his purpose, he turned it adrift, and _ when he saw it last it was going at a good speed down the river. After walking in the main road as fast as they could all night, when the morning came they made for the woods, and remained there during the day; but when night came again, they proceeded on their journey, with nothing but the North Star to guide them. ‘They - continued to travel by night, and to bury themselves in the silent solitudes of the forest by day. Hunger and fatigue could not stop them, for the prospect .of freedom at the end of the journey nerved them up. ‘The very thought of leaving slavery, with its democratic whips, ~ republican chains, and bloodhounds, caused the hearts of the weary fugitives to leap with joy. After travelling ten nights, and hiding in the woods during the day for fear of being arrested and taken back, they thought they might with safety go the rest of their way by daylight. In nearly all the free states there are men who make a business of catching runaway slaves and returning them to their owners for the reward that may be offered ; some of those were on the alert for William and his mother, for they had already seen the runaways advertised in the St. Louis newspapers.

All at once they heard the slick of a horse’s hoof, and looking back saw three men on horseback galloping towards them. ‘They soon came up, and demanded them to stop. ‘The three men dismounted, arrested them on a warrant, and showed them a handbill, offering two hundred dollars for their apprehension and delivery to Dr. Young and Isaac Mansfield, in St. Louis.

While they were reading the handbill, William’s mother

looked him in the face and burst into tears. ‘‘A cold chill ran over me,’ says he, ‘‘and such a sensation I never experienced before, and I trust I never shall again.”’ They took outa rope and tied him, and they were taken back to the house of the individual who ‘appeared to be the leader. They then had something given them to eat, and were separated. Hach of them was watched over by two men during the night. The religious characteristic of the American slaveholder soon manifested itself, as, before the family retired to rest, they were all called together to attend prayers; and the very man who, but a few hours before, had arrested poor, panting, fugitive slaves, now read a chapter from the Bible, and offered a prayer to God; as if that benignant and omnipotent One consecrated the infernal act he had _ just committed.

The next morning they were chained and handcuffed, and started back to St. Louis. A journey of three days , brought the fugitives again to the place they had left twelve days previously, with the hope that they would never return. ‘They were put in prison to await the

orders of their owners. When a slave attempts to escape — and fails, he feels sure of either being severely punished, or sold to the negro-traders and taken to the far south, there to be worked up on a cotton, sugar or rice plantation. This William and his roigtlebe dreaded. While they were in suspense as to what would be their fate, news came to them that the mother had been sold toa slave-speculator. William was soon sold to a merchant residing in the city, and removed to his new owner’s dwelling. In afew days the gang of slaves, of which William’s mother was one, were taken on board a steamer, to be carried to the New Orleans market. The young slave obtained permission from his new owner to go and take a last farewell of his mother. He went to the boat, and found her there, chained to another woman, and the whole number of slaves, amounting to some fifty or sixty, chained in the same manner. As the son approached his mother she moved not, neither did she weep; her emotions were too deep for tears. William approached her, threw his arms around her neck, kissed her, fell upon his knees begging her forgiveness, for he thought he was to blame for her Sain condition, and if he had not persuaded her to accompany him she might not have’ been in chains then. lke