Anti-slavery days : a sketch of the struggle which ended in the abolition of slavery in the United States

Front matter

i

ANTI-SLAVERY DAYS.

A SKETCH OF THE STRUGGLE WHICH

Dedication

TO THE MEMORY OF

ELLIS GRAY LORING

AND

Chapter I The Origin Of The Anti-slavery Movements In The United

STATES.

Introduction. Beginning of slavery in the United States. England maintains it in her colonies. Its growth. Its character. Early . opposition to slavery. John Eliot. Samuel Sewall. The Quakers. John Woolman. Anthony Benezet. John Wesley. Samuel Hopkins. Elias Hicks. Benjamin Lundy. Constitution of Massachusetts, 1780. Franklin in 1787. John Jay. Alexander Hamilton. Jonathan Edwards. Thomas Jefferson. Their testimony against slavery. Dane ordinance of 1787. Constitution of the United States a compromise. Its pro-slavery provisions. Power of the slaveholders. Their sense of danger. Suddenly shown at the time of the Southampton massacre in 1831. Slavery a state of war. Upright and honorable slaveholders. Anti-slavery sentiments in Kentucky down to 1840. Anecdotes illustrating this. Old and new courts in Kentucky. Robert J. Breckenridge for emancipation. Duelling in the slave states. Rowan and Marshall. Views of Henry Clay. Families separated. Beginning of the Garrison movement, 1832. Character of Garrison. Mobs. Samuel J. May. Burning of Pennsylvania Hall. Activity of the abolitionists. Colonization society. . .... 9

Chapter II. The Fight In Congress

Early debates in Congress concerning slavery. George Thacher. Josiah Quincy. The Missouri compromise in 1820. Successive victories of the slave-power. Tristram Burgess. The real struggle begins in 1835, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. John Quincy Adams. Anecdote of Felix Grundy and Governor Poindexter. Career of John Quincy Adams. Anec-

4 CONTENTS.

dote of Josiah Quincy and Dr. Freeman. The Gag-Law in Congress. Remarkable debate in February, 1837. Mr. Adams stands almost alone against the slave-power in Congress, and conquers. Supported by Joshua R. Giddings. His career and character. Case of the Creole. Mr. Adams presents a petition for the dissolution of the Union. Scene on this occasion. John P. Hale. Anecdote of a passage between him and Henry Clay. Gamaliel Bailey, editor of the " National Era." Meetings at his house. The Prigg case. Admission of Arkansas in 1836. Florida war. Case of Samuel Hoar. Annexation of Texas. War with Mexico. Wilmot proviso. Compromises of 1850. Repeal of the Missouri compromise. Stephen A. Douglas and Squatter Sovereignty 39

Chapter III. Abolitionists And Fugitive Slaves

Recapitulation of the successive triumphs of the slave-power. Increased activity of the abolitionists. Their methods. Their meetings described. Anecdotes of Stephen Foster and Charles Burleigh. Fun in the anti-slavery meetings. Leading abolitionists. Samuel J. May described. Underground railroad. The black woman Moses. Fugitive slaves and their friends. Susan Hillard. William and Ellen Crafts. Anecdote of Mr. Booth, a Kentucky slaveholder. United States Marshal Barnes, and his methods. General Devens paying the ransom for Burns. Story of Father Henson. The fugitive from Alabama in the Ohio penitentiary. Box Brown. Edward Davis. Mr. May's stories of fugitives. The higher law. Free colored people in Cincinnati and elsewhere 69

Chapter IV. Friends And Opposers Of The Anti-slavery Movement

Northern opposers of the abolitionists, and their motives. The terrible evils of slavery as seen by the abolitionists. Theodore D. Weld's " American Slavery As It Is." Olmstead's travels in the southwest. Extracts from " Laws relating to Slavery," by Geo. W. Stroud. Case of Prudence Crandall. She is obliged to close her school for colored girls. Governor Everett's message. Hearing given to the abolitionists by a committee of the legislature. Their treatment by Mr. Lunt. Dr. Channing's appearance on this occasion. Alton mob and murder of Lovejoy. The meeting in Faneuil Hall. First appearanee of Wendell Phillips. James T. Austin. Dr. Nehemiah Adams, and his " South-side View of Slavery." Incident at Old Fort Plantation. Northern ladies who have taught the colored children. Dr. Lord of Dartmouth College, and his pamphlets in defence of slavery. Bishop Hopkins also defends slavery. His curious argument. Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Cass. Anecdote of an anti-slavery speaker in Pennsylvania. Other opponents of anti-slavery at the North. Its defenders. Robert Rantoul. Anecdote of John Quincy

CONTENTS. 5

Adams, by Captain Boutelle. The Latimer petition. Anecdote of Wendell Phillips in New Hampshire. Early anti-slavery men and women. Whittier's portrait-gallery. Character of the abolitionists. .98

Chapter V. Anti-slavery In Politics

TUree political parties. Liberty party, Free-Soil party, Republican party. The Garrisonians become Disunionists. Their method in this a mistake, though the moral influence of their teaching most important. Anti-slavery clergymen. Dr. Channing. John G. Palfrey. Theodore Parker, His speech in opposition to the Mexican war. Henry Ward Beecher. Compromise of 1850. Daniel Webster and his seventh of March speech. Defence by his friends. This defence examined. Great disappointment of the anti-slavery admirers of Daniel Webster. Dark days of 1850. Uncle Tom's Cabin published. Its great influence. Arrests of fugitives at the North, under the new law. Reminiscences of Austin Bearse. Story of Octave Johnson. John Brown at Harper's Ferry. My meeting him in Boston, and his account of his purpose. His interview with Charles Sumner 127

Chapter VI. The Combat Deepens

Futility of the compromises of 1850. The struggle renewed. New victories of the slave-power. Election of Pierce in 1852, of Buchanan in 1856. Their subservience to the slave-power. The phrase " dough-face." Repeal of the Missouri compromise, May, 1854. Struggle in Kansas, 1854. Kansas invaded by the people of Missouri. Polls taken possession of. Free-state settlers murdered. Pierce and Buchanan take sides with the border ruffians. Charles Sumner assaulted in the Senate by Brooks, May, 1856. Results. John Brown of Osawatomie. Dred Scott decision, March, 1857, Victims of the fugitive slave law. More anti-slavery men in Congress. Chase, Giddings, Horace Mann, Grant, Smith. Fremont's vote in 1856. Lincoln elected in i860. Slaveholders determined to secede. Their folly in this act. Demands of the Republican party. " Cotton is King." The sine qu§, non of the slave-power. Douglas opposes it. Attempts at new concessions to prevent secession. Southern members of Congress resign and the states secede. Attack on Fort Sumter. Rising of

the North. Civil war begins. 158

Chapter VII. Civil War And End Of Slavery

Character of Abraham Lincoln. A man specially adapted to the needs of the hour. Anecdote concerning him told by Joshua

CONTENlb.

Speed. Lincoln's call for 75,000 men. First ■successes of the Confederates. The aristocracy of England takes side with them. Its working people stand by the North. Charles Francis Adams. Great uprising at the North. All parties unite to resist secession. Immense efforts of the Northern people. National Banks. Sanitary commission and Christian commission. The nation falsifies all predictions of evil. Power of the North in its free institutions. Providential events. Anecdotes of Lincoln's humanity. Lincoln and Sumner. Lincoln and Doctor Bellows. Lowell's lines on Lincoln. Grant's victory at Fort Henry. Naval battles. The Merrimac and Monitor. The proclamation of Emancipation. Foreseen by John Quincy Adams. John A. Andrew urges the employment of colored troops. Character of Governor Andrew. Turn of the tide in favor of the Union. Capture of Vicksburg. Gettysburg. Sherman's march to the sea. End of the war. Providential events. The wages of colored soldiers. Governor Andrew's interest in having justice done to them. Joy at the return of peace. Satisfaction at the South at the end of slavery. Facts to show the improvement of the colored people. Lines from Lowell. 187

Introduction

The following brief sketch of the conflict which led to the emancipation of four millions of slaves in the United States, is intended chiefly for the generation which has grown up since those stirring scenes. They are, naturally, for the most part, little acquainted with it. Recent history is that ot which people know the least, with the exception of those who have taken part in it. Children are taught in the schools about the battle of Marathon, but not about the battle of Gettysburg. They learn in the Sunday-Schools all about the emancipation ot the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery, but very little about that of the colored people in the United States. Yet this story, when it comes to be fitly told, will be found as intensely interesting as any series of events in the records of mankind. I do not hope to do more in these chapters (originally given as lectures) than to call attention to a few important events and char acters belonging to the period described.

6 INTRODUCTION.

The hot passions of that time have now grown cool. The people engaged in that conflict can understand each other better. We, of the North, can see more clearly the difficulties under which the slaveowners labored. Slavery spread like an iron network over their society — it was connected with all their habits and interests. They did not see how it was possible to emancipate their slaves without rending asunder the whole fabric of their society. And if they did not decide to plunge into the unknown dangers and terrors of emancipation, they were compelled, by an inexorable logic, to bind the chains of their slaves tighter day by day, and to resist, by every possible means, everything which disturbed their perfect submission and entire docility. The aggressions of the slave-power, which finally drove the North into the anti-slavery movement, seemed to the slaveholders necessary measures of defence. In their determination not to yield, they seized every weapon which came in their way. Their determined and compact purpose gained them so many successes, that at last they took the fatal leap which ended in the destruction of the whole evil system, and the coming of a better day.

And now the South and the North are both agreed that emancipation was the greatest of blessings. Now a new prosperity, solid and increasing, has taken the place of the old in all the Southern States. Now

INTRODUCTION.

the North and South are really one, as they never » were before the war. Now we have a common country, united interests, the same ends. Now we can afford to retrace that period of tempestuous struggle, yf endeavoring to do justice to both contending parties. Now we have in reality, and not in mere words, " Union and Freedom, now and forever, one and inseparable." The terrible war came like the thunder storm, purifying the air, and leaving such a blessing V behind it as no war before ever did, enabling us to use sincerely the great words of Lowell : —

O beautiful ! My country! Ours once more ! Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair O'er such sweet brows as never other wore, — And letting thy set lips, • Freed from war's pale eclipse, The rosy edges of their smile lay bare . What were our lives without thee ?

What all our lives to save thee ?

We reck not what we gave thee ; We do not dare to doubt thee.

But ask whatever else and we will dare.

In these imperfect narrations I have naturally dwelt mostly on the events with which I was personally familiar, and the persons with whom I happened to be best acquainted. I have therefore confined my relation within narrower limits than would be proper in anything claiming to be a history. The scenes of the drama which I describe are chiefly laid in Massachusetts, and the characters are New England men. I have given the view taken by this class

8 INTRODUCTION.

of actors, and have only hinted at the way in which men felt and thought in other sections of the coun» try. This little work is, therefore, only one contribution to the future history of those days — one of the " Memoires pour servir " for the more complete work which is to be written hereafter.

ANTI-SLAVERY DAYS.

Chapter I. Origin Of Anti-slavery In The United States

" If we have whispered truth, Whisper no longer ; Speak as the trumpet does, Sterner and stronger."

— Whittier.

I propose in this work to give a brief sketch of the greatest moral conflict of modern times. We shall see how an immense institution, fortified by law, solidly bound together by pecuniary interests, upheld by political combinations, sustained by custom, fashion, prejudice, and the fear of change, was attacked by a few men whose only weapon was a perpetual appeal to the human reason, the human conscience, and the human heart. We shall see in what way this attack was resisted ; how the institution gathered more and more power ; gained the alliance of the two great political parties : annexed vast territories and opened them to slavery ; took

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possession of Congress, the Presidency, the Supreme Court of the United States, and by a series of Acts of Congress seemed to have entrenched itself against all assaults, and become stronger than ever before We shall see how, while this political power was passing into the hands of slaveholders, the moral power of the country was steadily accumulating in those of their opponents, until at last the war of tongue and pen changed into the greatest military struggle of modern times, We shall hear the first Southern gun fired at Fort Sumter, and see the people of the North uniting as one man to put down the rebellion ; vast armies springing as if born out of the earth ; great navies organized to blockade the long coast line of the South ; and shall glance at some events in the terrible war of four years, from the bombardment of Sumter, April 1 2th, 1 86 1, to the surrender of Lee, April 9th, 1865. We shall see how slavery went down in that dreadful conflict, never to rise again — how, in a single generation, and in the lifetime of the chief agitator himself, this vast revolution was accomplished. Never in y human history has there been such an example of i the power of conscience in gaining a victory over j worldly interest ; and it ought to be an encourage- I ment forever, for all who contend for lowly right against triumphant wrong, for unpopular truth against fashion, prejudice and power.

It is nearly eighteen years since these events came

ANTI-SLA VER Y DA VS. I j

to an end. The passions of men have cooled, a new South has sprung from the ruins of the old, another generation has come upon the stage. The North and South are truly one ; the American Union, this single root of bitterness having been taken away, is vastly more powerful, and more united, than ever. We can now speak I trust, without prejudice or severity of those who differed from us or from whom we differed. Though we may still think they were wrong, we can see how their conduct may have seemed to them right, or, at least, how it was natural for them to think so, under their circumstances.

The seeds of freedom and of slavery were planted N in this country in the same year. In 1620 the May Flower brought the Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth ; in 1620 a Dutch ship entered James River in Virginia with twenty African slaves. One of these ships brought free institutions to our shores ; the other brought slavery. From that time until the beginning of the American Revolution the whole power of Eng- J land supported and encouraged the African slave trade. Under that encouragement more than 300,. 000 African slaves were imported into thirteen British colonies. Alarmed by the rapid increase of slaves the planters of Virginia, in 1726, levied a tax on their importation, and South Carolina did the same in 1760. The legislature of Pennsylvania in I7i2had passed a similar act. Massachusetts endeavored to abolish the slave trade in 1771 and 1774 by act of legislature. All of these colonial acts were vetoed by the authority of the British crown. The prosperity of England was thought to be involved in maintaining the slave trade ; and the mother country steadily refused all attempts of the colonists to prohibit it. Thus the evil gradually extended itself, and became rooted in the habits of the people, and especially in the Southern States. Love of power, love of money, and love of ease, all were enlisted on its side. And when by discovery of the cotton-gin, Eli Whitney,* made slavery a source of great wealth, it became dangerous to speak against it in the cotton-growing states.

There were however, always those who saw and proclaimed the sin and evil of holding a man as a slave. By the laws of slavery, in this country, a man was turned into a thing ; he had no rights ; he could be bought and sold like a horse or an ox ; he could be torn from his wife and children, or they could be taken from him whenever the owner pleased. In the hands of a cruel master, he could be beaten to death, or burned alive, and no power could prevent it. He might have so little negro blood as to pass for a white man, but as long as his mother was a slave, he was a slave too. Young girls, even those almost white might be sold at their master's will to any one who wished to buy them ; and they had no safety, no pro- *Aided in this invention by the widow of Gen. Greene.

tection. The possession of absolute power often seems to make fiends of men, and that most fiendish of all sins, cruelty, grew and flourished in those whose power over their slaves was unrestrained by conscience or religion.

It seemed impossible that any thoughtful person could believe such an institution as this to be right. It took from the slave all his rights at one blow — it left him nothing. Christianity said, " Do to others as you would have them do to you," and " Love your neighbor as yourself." The declaration of Independence, the organic law of our Union, standing above the Constitution itself, begins — " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were made equal, and are created by their Creator with inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." How reconcile slavery with these great laws of God and man ? Very early, therefore, there was opposition made to slavery — an opposition founded on moral, religious, social, and political reasons, The apostle yohn Eliot, in 1675, presented a memorial against the slavery of Indians and others to the Colonial Legislature of Massachusetts. Judge Samuel Seivall, of Boston, in 1700, printed apamphiet against negro slavery.

The body of Quakers early agitated the question. Many eminent Friends gave their testimony against slavery. John Woolman, praised by Charles Lamb.

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travelled through the Middle and Southern States between 17/.6 and 1767, and everywhere told the Friends that the practice of slavery was not right. He said that wherever slavery prevailed " he saw a dark gloominess overhanging the land, and the spirit of fierceness and love of dominion in the people."

Anthony Benezet, the Huguenot ; Elias Hicks, founder of the Hicksite sect of Quakers ; Benjamin Lundy, the teacher of Garrison, uttered their protests against the system, and devoted their lives to pointing out its evils. John Wesley, who saw it in Georgia, called it " the sum of all villanies." Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of Newport R.I., a place which was in his time the very seat of the slave trade, preached, in the year 1770, against that trade, and against the holding of slaves, to a congregation engaged in that business. And there have been few greater examples of heroism in the pulpit than was shown by him on that occasion.

The Constitution of Massachusetts was adopted in 1780, before the end of the revolutionary war, and its Bill of Rights declares that all men are born free and equal. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts, by the voice of Judge Lowell, decided that this declaration abolished slavery in Massachusetts forever. By that decision, all the slaves at that time held in Massachusetts became free. The system had, however, never been oppressive in Massachusetts. It was tempered

ANTI-SLA VER Y DA VS. T $

by the principles and by the habits of the people. Slaves in New England, generally, were regarded as members of the household. They lived with the family and were treated as belonging to it, and after they were free they usually continued to live as be. fore, working for the family and being taken care of- These former slaves were thus provided for until their death. I, myself, remember seeing, when I was a boy, some -of those old colored men and women in several families. I recollect an old woman called Phoebe, who used to sit by the kitchen fire in the family of my uncle Williams, and there was another, old Tillo as he was called, in the family of my grandfather Hull. He considered himself always as much a member of the household as any of the children or grandchildren.

The first abolition society in this country was formed in Pennsylvania, and Franklin became its President in 1787. The New York Abolition Society was founded in 1785. Chief-Justice John Jay was its first President, and Alexander Hamilton was its Secretary. In 1 791, Jonathan Edwards, Jr., declared that to held a man as a slave is man-stealing, and a great sin in the sight of God. We all remember the sentiments of President Jefferson on this Subject. We know how, in his " Notes on Virginia," he described the evil effects of slave-holding on the manners and morals of the people, and especially on the young, who, from the very hours of childhood, formed habits of violent, arbitrary and wilful conduct. He foresaw that the time must come in which there would be a conflict between slavery and freedom, "And in such a conflict as this," said he " God has no attribute which can take part with the slaveholders." " I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just."

In the year 1787, in the first continental Congress, there was passed an ordinance, brought forward by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, prohibiting all slavery north and west of the Ohio. By this ordinance, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were saved from slavery for freedom. The inhabitants of Indiana, headed by Wm. II. Harrison, petitioned Congress to be allowed to have that ordinance suspended for a short time so that they might have the use of slaves in opening the country. Many of them had emigrated from Kentucky and were accustomed to slavery. But Congress again and again refused consent to their petition, and the slaveholders in Congress — such men as John Randolph taking the lead — were among the first to declare that it would be a great evil to allow slavery to invade that territory.

There were formerly two opposing sentiments at the South on this question. One party held that slavery was wrong ; that it was an evil, and that it must gradually disappear ; that it must by degrees come to an end. The other maintained that slavery was profitable, that it gave power to the South ; that . it prevented the necessity of white labor ; and, therefore, that it must be retained, and, if necessary, extended. Both these sentiments found their way into the Constitution. To please one party, the words " slave '' and " slavery '"' are not mentioned in that instrument. For " slaves " we have the euphemism, "Persons held to labor/' and "all other persons." ^ But the opposite party obtained the advantage of having- three provisions inserted in the Constitution, the first and most important ot which was that threefifths of the slaves , were to be counted as voters, so that the slaveowners were allowed to vote not only for themselves, but also tor their property. Many of the most important successes of the slave-power afterward were owing to that undue advantage which they obtained by this constitutional provision.

The second advantage gained by the slave-holding interest was that the importation of slaves was allowed v until the year 1800. Those thus imported, however, are not called slaves, but " such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit." This was the roundabout way in which it was then considered decent to speak of slavery.

The third provision in the Constitution for maintaining slavery, was that which provided for the return of fugitives. This was expressed in a still more obscure way. " No person held to labor or service in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such labor or service is due." Some thought that if this were construed grammatically, it declared (as John Quincy Adams once pointed out) that no such refugees should be returned. It was, however, well understood that that was by no means the intention of those who drew up the Constitution, and it was never construed according to the rules of strict grammar, but in precisely the opposite way. Many of the Abolitionists claimed that the Constitution was a pro-slavery instrument. Those who belonged to the political anti-slavery parties called it an anti-slavery instrument. To me it seems that both were right. It was a pro-slavery instrument, and also an anti-slavery instrument. It was an inconsistent instrument.

The slaveholders were bound together by the power of a common interest, by the sense of a common danger, and by the superior discipline of will which they developed from their position as masters over people wholly subservient to their will. Down to the time of the civil war they were continually gaining more and more strength and influence in the general government. Although it was computed that there were in the South only some three hundred and fifty or four hundred thousand slaveholders, they nevertheless had the entire control of the Southern States.

ANTISLA VER Y DA YS. i g

They governed nearly five million non-slaveholders among the whites. No non-slaveholder was known to be sent to Congress, ever became Governor of a Southern state, or was admitted to be a member of a Southern legislature. The whole of the South was therefore united under the control of these three or four hundred thousand slaveholders. Having crushed out every expression of dissent at home, they were able to govern the twenty-five or thirty millions of people at the North, by compelling both political parties to submit to their terms. Going on, step by step, they came at last to declare that slavery was not the evil their fathers had called it, but a blessing ; that the slaves were not wretched but happy ; that slavery was the corner-stone of free institutions ; that no republic could be sustained without resting on slavery ; and that it was sanctioned by the Bible itself. Yet all this time an inward sense of danger existed in every slaveholding community. There were two terrors constantly before the minds of Southern families — the dread of fire, and that of poison. These were the two weapons which the slaves had in their hands. When one of them had been abused, he might take his revenge on those who had wrought the wrong by setting fire to their houses or by putting poison into their food. I lived long at the South, and know that this was sometimes the case, and that nobody felt secure from these two dangers. Yet no newspaper was

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ever allowed to mention it, when either of these events occurred. You would never find in any Southern paper the statement that a building had been burned by slaves, or that a family had been poisoned. That was kept strictly secret, lest it might become an example to others.

But there was one occasion in which these truths came suddenly to light, and the hidden feelings of the South were developed. It was when the Southampton massacre occurred in 183 1. Nat Turner, a slave, a religious enthusiast, and, indeed, in reality a half-crazy fanatic, formed a conspiracy to murder the white people and to give the power to the slaves. In this insurrection some sixty of the whites were killed, and then the rebellion was conquered, and many of the slaves were put to death. In the next Virginia bgislature there was an outburst of feeling against slavery. One member called slavery "a great blighting curse," and said " many a brave man, who will readily face death in battle, has felt his blood chill, lest when he went home at night he should find only the murdered bodies of his family." Another declared that slavery " was a mildew that had blighted every region it had touched from the foundation of the world." Another said, " I thank God that the spell is broken, and that we now, for the first time, can say what we think. If slavery can be eradicated, in God's name let us put an end to it." Another declared, " I raise my voice for emancipation. Tax us what you will. Prove us in every way : but let us get rid of this horrid curse of slavery." In reading" what was said in that Virginia legislature in this debate, in the year 1831, you would v' have thought that you were attending a meeting of abolitionists. Who would have supposed that this same State of Virginia, in thirty years' time, would have seceded from the Union in order to defend and preserve this very institution ?

Abolitionists have stated the evils of slavery very strongly, but they never have been overstated. It was a condition of perpetual warfare. Not only were untold cruelties inflicted on the slaves almost as a matter u of necessity ; but among the whites, deeds of violence, duels, street-shootings, death by lynch law, mob violence, in all its forms, were common. The young men grew up in the midst of license and self-indulgences of all kinds. It is true there were those who maintained their virtue ; there were upright, honorable pure men and women of the South ; there were those who respected the laws of God and man ; and they deserved all the more credit for acquiring and maintaining this character under such influences as those to which they were exposed. There were, also, mistresses and masters who felt a responsiblity for the care and comfort of their slaves, and who devoted themselves to those duties in the most praiseworthy manner. But the system itself was so evil that it made their best efforts almost useless.