The anti-slavery cause in America and its martyrs

Front matter

N c.

G. & E. L. ELBERT

THE

Preface

In presenting tiiis little offering to the Anti-Slavery Cause, it is only necessary to say, that the incidents it contains have been carefully gathered from the most authentic sources, with an earnest desire to adhere strictly to truth in fact and inference, and to leave the narrative and the actors in it to speak for themselves.

It has been difficult, within prescribed limits, to make selections from the great mass of valuable Anti- Slavery literature of the last thirty years j but should any, from a perusal of these meager selections, wish to extend their information, the same deeply interesting sources from which they are taken are open to others also, and will amply repay the research by affording more intimate acquaintance with some of the finest sentiments, utterances, and actions, to be found in the history of men.

It is very important to bear in mind the character of Slavery, in order to estimate the urgency of the call which the Abolitionists felt bound to obey, to cry aloud and spare not." It is also important to remember the intimate connexion of Slavery with the whole social, religious, and political organization of America, in order rightly to appreciate the courage of those who began to assail it — two or three against the millions.

Then to side with Truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just ; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside — Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified. And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."

It

PREFACE.

The late Dr. Andrew Thomson, of St. George's, Edinburgh, says, " Slavery belies the doctrines — it contradicts the precepts — it resists the power — it sets at defiance the sanctions of religion— it is the tempter, and the murderer, and the tomb of virtue."

Harriet Beecher Stowe says, " Nothing of tragedy can be written, can be spoken, can be conceived, that equals the frightful reality of scenes daily and hourly acting in the United States, beneath the shadow of American law, and the shadow of the cross of Christ ; " and Miss M. Griffiths, recently a slaveholder, says, " Mrs. Stowe knows only the echo of the system." Mr. Thome, also a slaveholder, says, " Though I am heir to a slave inheritance, I am bold to denounce the whole system as an outrage, a complication of crimes and wrongs and cruelties, that make angels weep."

Such being the case, may all whose eyes rest on these pages be stimulated to a strong determination to do all that in them lies to guard our beloved country from any action, social or political, which may tend to ally her with a Confederacy having for its corner-stone American Slavery, the deadly enemy of the poor slave, and of Righteousness and Freedom throughout the world, and the impious rejecter and opposer of every law and attribute of Almighty God.

And now, in the earnest wish to do some little thing, however humbly, in a Cause which is that of Liberty, Humanity, Truth, and Righteousness, which, in short, is emphatically that of our Lord and Redeemer, the following pages are committed to the Public.

E. W.

Edinburgh, 7th month, 1863.

Chapter I

Early Abolition Movements. — Call of Wm. Lloyd Garrison ; — his First Imprisonment. — Starting of the Liberator

CHAPTER 11.

Maria Weston Chapman and the Women of the Anti- Slavery Cause. — The Boston Mob of 21st October, 1835. — Prudence Crandall. — Heroism regardless of Life. — Lydia Maria Child. — Persecutions of the Coloured People. — James G. Birney. — Lane Seminary. — Heroic Determination and self-sacrifice of the Students. — Foundation of Oberhn College. — Amos Dresser .

Chapter III

Angelina and Sarah Grimke. — Rescue of Two Kidnapped Women. — Massachusetts Soil declared Free. — Convention of Anti-Slavery Women. — Burning of Pennsylvania Hall by the Mob. — Martyrdom of Lovejoy .

Chapter IV

Freedom of the Press. — Wm. Shreve Bailey of Kentucky. — Old Pioneer Society in 1841. — Change of Tactics in Pro-Slavery Opposition. — The True Church. — The American Church vi

CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Pagb

Fugitive Slaves and their Helpers. — John L. Brown condemned to Death for aiding the escape of a Coloured Girl. — Rev. Charles Turner Torrey. — Underground Railroad. — The Branded Hand. — Francis J ackson, Esq., of Boston. — Rev. Calvin Fairbanks. — Mexican War. — Annexation of Texas. — Missouri Compromise. — Constitutional support of Slavery. — Moral Revolution Principles 60

Chapter VI

1848. — Rejoicings in Washington over French Revolutionary Liberty. — Penalties for seeking Liberty in America. — Captain Drayton of the Pearl Schooner. — Escape, Pursuit, and Capture. — The disappointed and heart-stricken Captives. — Edmondson Family. — Emily Russell. — Motion for Abolition of Slavery in the District. — Thomas Garrett. — Samuel D. Burns. — Richard Dillingham . 72

CHAPTER YII.

The Year 1850.— Clay's "Omnibus Bill." —Abolition of Slave-trade in the District. — Non-extension of Slavery to California. — Fugitive Slave Law. — Sentiments of Ministers of various Denominations regarding it. — Workings of the Law. — Wm. L. Chapman. — Christiana Tragedy. — Jerry. — Rachel Parker. — Uncle Tom's Cabin. — Sentiments of Abolitionists 88

Chapter VIII

Position of the Coloured People. — Barriers to their Education.— Miss Miner at Washington. — Mrs. Margaret Douglas and her Daughter Rosa, in Virginia. — National Schools opened to Coloured Children in Boston in 1855. — Repudiation of the Missouri Compromise, March 4th,

CONTENTS.

vii

1854. — Kansas. — State Rights affected. — Passmore Williamson in the Case of J ane Johnson. — Margaret Garner. — 1856. — Increased Atrocities in the South. — John C. Underwood. — Rev. Edward Matthews. — Rev. Jesse M'Bride 101

Chapter IX

Hon. Charles Sumner. — Republican Party. — Election of 1856. — John C. Fremont. — President Buchanan. — Southern Fury. — Dred Scott Decision. — 1857. — Commercial Crisis. — Revivals. — 1858. — Proscription of Free Coloured People in Maryland, Virginia, and Arkansas. — Oberlin Rescue Case, — Interesting Fugitive Trial at Philadelphia 115

Chapter X

Kansas. — Dr. Doy. — John Brown 131

Chapter XI

Northern Efforts to propitiate the South all in vain. — Southern Atrocities. — Rev. Daniel Worth. — Rev. J. G. Fee. — Northern Sentiment ripens to action. — Election of President Lincoln. — SecessioiL — Corner-stone of the Slaveholding Republic. — War. — Anti-Slavery Measures of the Government. — Care of the Freedmen . .144

Conclusion

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE IN AMERICA

AND ITS MARTYRS.

Chapter 1

EARLY ABOLITION MOVEMENTS. — CALL OF WM. LLOYD GARRISOK ; — HIS FIRST IMPRISONMENT. — STARTING OF THE LIBERATOR.

EvEKYTHiNG associated with America at the present time must necessarily be of interest to British readers, especially everything bearing on the fearful aspect of matters prevailing in that country, and on the cause of the fratricidal war now waging there. The war has originated in a determination on the part of the South to maintain, perpetuate, and, above all, to extend the infamous institution of slavery; and the interests of freedom throughout the world are affected by the success or overthrow of this manifestation of overweening tyranny and despotism. This determination on the part of the South has been brought to a crisis by a growing sentiment at the North against the extension of slavery, and whatever mixture there may be in the motives of the North in repelling the outburst of the South, we cannot doubt that the cause of the slave will become more and more a prominent element in the

B struggle, and that out of this state of things will come liis final deliverance. Therefore, all who are interested in the cause of humanity must watch the contest with intense earnestness, fervently desiring its speedy termination, which can only be righteously effected by the emancipation of the most oppressed of the human race.

The slave in America, and the tried friends of the slave, must ever have the sympathy of the lovers of freedom in Britain, many of whose fathers suffered and died for their own civil and religious liberty, and who have themselves laboured so nobly for the abolition of British colonial slavery. Under this conviction, we venture to present a brief summary of the leading events that have marked the anti- slavery enterprise in America, — an enterprise which has enlisted in its ranks some of the most persevering and most disinterested men and women who have performed a part in the liistory of the world ; fearlessly they endured calumny, the loss of reputation and worldly wealth, persecutions, imprisonments, death, for the sake of the despised and down-trodden slave. It is fitting that their names should be recorded in our grateful memories ; and although history may not deem them worthy of a place, they may hereafter be hailed in the great day of account with the gracious words, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.''

The first abolition society was formed in Philadelphia in 1775, by a few benevolent persons of different religious denominations, the majority of whom were members of tlie Society of Friends, to which body be-

AND ITS MARTYRS.

longed Anthony Benezet, the most active anti-slavery worker of the period. He was the friend and correspondent of Granville Sharpe and the Abb^ Raynal, and, in after times, of Thomas Clarkson, and many others. The child of wealthy Huguenots, who escaped from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes when Anthony was an infant, he inherited the love of civil and religious liberty, which in his matured philanthropy he extended towards all the nations of the earth. Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford preceded him in this work, but Benezet was the first effectually to call public attention to the wrongs of the negro, and to enlist the most eminent philanthropists in England and America in the struggle which eventually overthrew the slave-trade, and, as far as England's colonies were concerned, slavery itself With the cooperation of that faithful, humble follower of his Lord and Master, John Woolman, he laboured earnestly with his brethren in religious profession, to awaken them to a just sense of the sin of slaveholding. The result of these efforts was, that in 1774 all the slaves held by " Friends'' in Pennsylvania were emancipated. In other states the example was gradually followed, till, in 1787, no slave was any longer held in bondage by any member of that religious society, and slaveholding has ever since been an offence visited by disownment from their fellowsliip. Had this course, which was also that of the Scottish Covenanters from their first settlement in America, and in later years that of a very few smaller religious bodies, been faithfully pursued, we should not now have the sad spectacle, in the midst

B B

THE ANTI-SLAVEEY CAUSE IN AMERICA of the nineteenth century, of brother going to war against brother for the right to maintain, extend, and perpetuate the atrocious system of American slavery. If the American Church, we repeat, had been faithful in this matter, slavery would long ago have vanished under the ban of a church worthy to take the name of Him who came to preach deliverance to the captives. On the American Church, therefore, mainly rests the guilt of fostering slavery, and consequently the burden and responsibility of this war.

The anti-slavery movement, thus commenced, spread gradually, till at length chattel slavery was abolished in seven of the thirteen original states of the American Union, and the distinction between the free and the slave states took place. It is probable the system might have gi^adually died out altogether, had not the gins been invented, by means of which cotton wool is much more easily prepared for market, so that the cultivation of cotton began to be very profitable, the value of slaves became proportionally increased, the Southern planters kept therefore a tighter hold on their valuable jproperty^ and to propitiate them in order to promote their own profitable commerce with the South, the Northern merchants attempted to gloss over the iniquity of slavery, whilst the ministers and churches lent themselves to this matter ; they received slaveholders to their communion, accepted their contributions for missionary and other benevolent objects, and threw the mantle of church-fellowship and sanction over the slaveholder and his deeds. Thus the progress of emancipation was arrested, the hold of

AND ITS MARTYRS.

slavery on the nation grew stronger and stronger; apathy prevailed in regard to this leprosy, which speedily tainted the whole civil and religious society of America ; and prejudice against colour exercised its cruel influence to keep in a degraded condition those who, by great and heroic efforts, had freed themselves, and were respectably striving to procure maintenance and instruction in an honest and honourable way, and whom, shortly afterwards, the Colonisation Society sought to banish from the country.

Tilings were in this state when an influence arose which so disturbed them, that quiet on the question of slavery has not since been known in America. About the year 1828, tlie soul of William Lloyd Garrison was suddenly touched by the horrors of slavery, and, fired by the determination to devote his life to its overthrow, he thenceforth became the pioneer in a fresh crusade against this fearful iniquity. This remarkable man was born on the lOtli of December, 1805. His father was a sea captain, but it was from his mother he inherited the adherence to principle and determination of character which so remarkably distinguish him. Her name was Fanny Lloyd; she was very beautiful and very gay, but in her youth she was arrested in the midst of frivolity by convictions of sin, which came to her one day when, with foolish companions, for a frolic, she attended a meeting of Baptists, then a despised and persecuted sect. The words she that day heard became as nails fastened in a sure place; she received impressions which never deserted her. Before long, these convictions led her to renounce her gay associates and the pleasures of the world, and to unite with the despised Baptists, although her doing so involved expulsion from her father's house, and the contempt of all her former acquaintances. Persecution onlystrengthened her religious faith, which supported her through the many and sore trials she was called to bear. Left by her husband with five young children, she struggled to maintain them, and while doing so, by acting in the capacity of sick-nurse at Baltimore, she continued to be the guide of her son William, then six hundred miles ofi* at Boston. William, after receiving a humble education, and having tried two different trades, had that of printer suggested to him by a kind friend who had been as a father to him — Deacon Ezekiel Bartlett. Here the yoimg Garrison, then thirteen years of age, was quite in his element; he had found a vocation which was so much to his taste, that he has been heard to say that the handling of types was perfectly delightful to him, and his editorial articles in after days were frequently transferred immediately to the types, without the intermediate process of pen and ink. At the age of sixteen, he made his first attempt at authorship, in the shape of anonymous letters to the editor of the paper which employed him as a printer. These letters were so good, that it was long before his master detected their author in his apprentice. When he did so, instead of resenting the liberty that had been taken, he associated young Garrison with him in the editorship of the paper till the expiry of his apprenticeship. After

AND ITS MARTYRS.

this period he had many changes of circumstances, in one of which he was editor of a paper devoted to total abstinence^ called the National Philanthropist, which was the first paper ever issued to promulgate this cause. Through all these changes his character was ripening for the career which was shortly to open before him.

A philanthropist named Benjamin Lundy had started, in Baltimore, the first journal in America devoted to the defence of the negro's rights; it was called the Genius of Universal Emancipation, Garrison read this paper, his heart was aroused at once to see a new purpose and aim of his existence, and he vowed henceforth to consecrate his life, as far as possible, to the deliverance of his enslaved fellow-countrymen. About this time he was employed at Bennington, in the state of Vermont, as editor to a paper, called The Spirit of the Times, which was started mainly to promote the election to Congress of John Quincy Adams, — but the editor likewise advocated temperance, peace, moral reforms, and the abolition of slavery in its columns; and he also took measures to procure from the state a petition against slavery, which was very numerously signed. When these efforts became known to Benjamin Lundy, he visited this talented and energetic co-worker, and at once offered him a partnership in his paper, entreating him to help in this great work ; and as a ready vent for the hatred of slavery which burned within him. Garrison promptly consented.

It was not very long before a great difference appeared between these two partners. Although they were equally earnest for the abolition of slavery, Lundy's cautious mind tended towards gradual emancipation, while Garrison very soon saw, both by reason and reflection, that immediate and unconditional emancipation was the only remedy and atonement for the guilt of slavery.

It was about the year 1824 that Elizabeth Heyrick, an Englishwoman, published a pamphlet, entitled

Immediate not Gradual Emancipation;"' while in Scotland it was suggested by Dr. Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh that gradualism was merely an interminable lengthening out of the sufferings of the slave, and they gave the watchword of Immediate Emancipation under which the anti-slavery hosts of Britain marched on to victory; and it was the same light, almost at the same time, wliicli had dawned on the young printer in Maryland. Those who remember the struggle for abolition in our own colonies will recoUect the outcry which greeted that noble watchword given forth in the old Assembly Rooms of Edinburgh — the slaveholders felt their death-thrust had been sent forth, and with bitter malignity they assailed the friends of the slave. So it was with young Garrison, but the hatred was intensified a hundredfold by the blow being given in the very face of a present enemy. Benjamin Lundy, although not agreeing fully witli the ardent views of his young partner, allowed him to enunciate them, and immediately the paper was denounced as fanatical and dangerous. Lundy 's previous moderation was of no avail, the subscribers fell off* on all hands, and the slaveholders determined to crush the paper

AND ITS MARTYRS.

under the forms of law. The opportunity to do this occurred in the spring of 1830. A merchant of Newburyport, named Todd, whom Garrison had known from infancy, sent one of his ships laden with slaves to the Southern market. The circumstance of a New Englandman being engaged in this iniquitous trade so filled with indignation the breast of Garrison, that he denounced the horrible traffic in the terms it merited. Mr. Todd was exasperated, and aided by the Southern slaveholders, he brought an action for libel against Garrison ; the latter proved at the coui^t, from customhouse books, &c., that the number of slaves actually conveyed by the vessel exceeded that stated in the paper, and that his charges against Mr. Todd were truth and no libel. But in vain, the judge before whom he was tried, one Nicholas Brice, a notoriously pro-slavery man, was extremely anxious to annihilate Garrison and his paper; the jury was packed, and so it was easy to convict the accused of libel. He was sentenced to pay a fine which was far beyond his means, and was therefore sent to prison, to a cell which had just been vacated by a murderer. Here he continued the same undaunted friend of liberty ; he employed his time in writing a sketch of liis mock trial, which was afterwards printed and widely circulated, exciting in many minds intense indignation against the administrators, and sympathy with the victim, of such unrighteous judgment.

He also employed many hours in inscribing on the walls of his prison the breathings of his free spirit. Two of these inscriptions we may be allowed to reproduce. The first appears to be addressed to some possible-successor in his undeserved imprisonment: —

I. Prisoner, within those massive walls close pent

Guiltless of horrid crime or trivial wrong, Bear nobly up against thy punishment,

And in thy innocence be great and strong. Perchance thy fault was love to all mankind ;

Thou didst oppose some vile oppressive end, Or strive all human fetters to unbind ;

Or wouldst not bear the implements of war ; What then ? Dost thou so soon repent the deed ?

A martyr's crown is richer than a king's ! Think it an honour with thy Lord to bleed,

And glory, midst intensest sufferings ! Though beaten, imprison'd, put to open shame. Time shall embalm and magnify thy name.

XL

THE FKEEDOM OF THE MIND.

High walls and huge the body may confine,

And iron grates obstruct the prisoner's gaze. And iron bolts may baffle his design,

And vigilant keepers watch his devious ways ; Yet scorns the immortal mind this base control ;

No chain can bind it and no cell enclose ; Swifter than light, it flies from pole to pole.

And in a flash from earth to heaven it goes ! It leaps from mount to mount, from vale to vale ;

Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours; 'Tis up before the sun, roaming afar.

And in its watches wearies every star !

After he had been in prison upwards of a month, he was liberated by the kindness of Arthur Tappan, a wealthy merchant of New York, personally a stranger,

AND ITS MARTYRS.

but who had become acquainted with Garrison's character through his writings. This gentleman, who afterwards became honourably known in the cause, forwarded the amount of the fine, and the champion of emancipation was again fi^ee. New difficulties, however, were found to beset his path. The weekly paper in which he was associated with Lundj^ could not be sustained; he therefore retired, leaving it to be conducted monthly by its original proprietor, who continued as long as he lived to be a zealous friend of the slave, although not so prominent as his youthful ally. Two sonnets were penned by Garrison in memory of Lundy, in one of which he says: —

Of Freedom^s friends the truest of the true Wast thou, as all her deadly foes well knew ; For bravely her good cause thou didst maintain. No threats could move, no perils could appal.

No bribes seduce thee in thy high career. 0, many a fettered slave shall mourn thy fall,

And many a ransomed one let drop the tear ; A nation wakened by the trumpet call —

The world itself — thy memory shall revere !

Still the strong voice within urged Garrison to plead for outraged humanity. His poverty, his recent release from prison, and other circumstances, might have induced him to remain in obscurity, but he could not He therefore went north, and attempted to obtain a hearing for his cause in Boston, but for a long time in vain ; and it was not until after he had announced his intention to lecture on Boston Common that a hall was offered him, in which to plead for the dumb.

Conviction was produced by these lectures on many minds, but very few men of wealth and influence were disposed to aid him. The friends of the Colonization Society, — the fallacies and covert iniquity of which he had thought it right to expose, — were his enemies, and the press was generally opposed to him. The papers which had advocated his principles had suffered, and none would now open their columns to his appeals. In this state of matters, the bold thought seized him of starting a journal of his own. His friends shook their heads at the fanatical rashness. How could a man standing alone, without a penny, start, and still less sustain, a newspaper ?

Thanks, however, to good old Ezekiel Bartlett, he knew how to print, and, besides this, he had a friend, named Isaac Knapp, who was also a printer ; with him he took counsel, and the result was, that though very poor, with not even sixpence of capital between them, they determined to worh They could worh There was a third friend, a foreman in a printing establishment, and to him they offered their services, and engaged with him as journeymen, on condition that their labour should cover the expenses of this important paper, which was already called the Liberator.

On the 1st January, 1831, the first number was published. In the beginning, only a few coloured people were its supporters; but it was not many weeks before its bold proprietors were in a condition to buy some second-hand type and an old press, which they set up in a small upper room. For several years the Liberator was issued from this small upper room, which, during a considerable portion of that time,

AND ITS MARTYRS.

served its proprietors for printing-office, bed-room, and counting-house, these noble, self-denying partners living in the most simple manner. Their diet was principally bread and water. When the paper sold particularly well, as Knapp afterwards remarked, they treated themselves to a bowl of milk. Thus, as Lowell says,—

" In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,

Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man ; The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean, Yet there the freedom of a race began.

" Help came, but slowly ; surely no man yet Put lever to the heavy world with less. What need of help ? He knew how types were set — He had a dauntless spirit and a press."

A dauntless spirit truly, as the opening address to the public proved. " I am aware (he says) that many object to the severity of my language ; but is there not cause for severity ? I will be as harsh as Truth, and as uncompromising as Justice. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch ; AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead. I desire to thank God that he enables me to disregard the fear of man, and to speak His truth in its simplicity and power.'' One year after the establishment of the Liberator, the first meeting of the American Anti- Slavery Society was held. It consisted of about a dozen members. The formation of this society was the signal for scattering much seed abroad, and many adherents joined it. But in proportion to its progress was the bitter hostility of the slaveholders, and their determination to oppose the new doctrine which threatened to overthrow their darling system of iniquity.

At the close of 1834 it was found that the auxiliary anti-slavery societies had increased to two hundred; and the Executive Committee of the parent society, in their report to their constituents, felt bound to ^' thank God and take courage/'

About this time Garrison visited England, to unmask the true character of the Colonization Society, which he clearly perceived was a scheme to get rid of free people of colour, lest slave property should be endangered. In England he met with the leaders of the anti-slavery enterprise, who cordially received and higlily appreciated him. He had several friendly and interesting interviews with Wilberforce shortly before his death, and had the melancholy privilege of attending the funeral of that gTeat man in Westminster Abbey.

AND ITS MARTYRS.

Chapter II

MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN AND THE WOMEN OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE, — THE BOSTON MOB OF 21ST OCTOBER, 1835. — PRUDENCE CRANDALL. — HEROISM REGARDLESS OF LIFE. — LYDIA MARIA CHILD. — PERSECUTIONS OF THE COLOURED PEOPLE. — JAMES G. BIRNEY. — LANE SEMINARY. — HEROIC DETERMINATION AND SELF-SACRIFICE OF THE STUDENTS. — FOUNDATION OF OBERLIN COLLEGE. — AMOS DRESSER.

The hatred against Garrison in the United States intensified from day to day. In 1829, a coloured man named Walker, who issued an appeal to the coloured people to rise and assert their rights, was found murdered at liis own door. Garrison was threatened with the fate of Walker ; he was told that " he would not be permitted to live long \' that " he would be taken away, and that no man would be the wiser for if His answer to this was characteristic of his spirit : — Will you aim at no higher victims than Arthur Tappan, George Thompson,* and William Lloyd Garrison ? Who and what are they ? Three drops from a boundless ocean — three rays from a noon-day sun — three particles of dust floating in a limitless atmosphere — nothing abstracted from infinite fulness ! Should

* In 1834 Geo. Thompson, then at the height of his popularity in Great Britain, having been the most powerful instrument in obtaining West Indian emancipation, was deputed by the anti-slavery societies of Edinburgh and Glasgow to carry a message of sympathy to the faithful abolitionists of America, and to aid their work. He, taking his hfe in his hand, cheerfully threw in his lot with theirs. The hostility against him had additional bitterness from the fact that he was a foreigner, and he very nearly fell a sacrifice to this hostility.