Freedom and slavery in the United States of America

Front matter

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Preface

The objects which I have sought are these : — To do what little I may be able —

To prevent a costly, bloody, and disgraceful war between this country and the United States, which would follow a premature recognition of the Soirth ;

To prevent England perpetuating the bondage of four millions of men and women by such a premature recognition ;

To promote kind feelings between English and American Christians, who ought to "love as brothers ;"

And to make my readers sympathise heartily with the people of the United States in their endeavours to suppress the rebellion.

Although I have written strongly against the slave system, as it deserves, I heartily wish prosperity and happiness to the slave-holders ; and believe that these will be secured to them if they will accept emancipation as inevitable, and submit to their Government, with which they have no other cause of quarrel.

CHAPTER I. On Religion and Mohals in the United States

Sect. I. — Condition of the Working-Classes,

„ II. — Force of Law,

„ III. — The Punishment of Crime,

„ IV. — Temperance, .

„ V. — Education,

„ VI. — Religion,

„ VII. — Missions to the Heathen,

„ VI1L— The Revival, .

PAGE 1

2 4 5 6 6 9 29 34

CHAPTER II. x

On Slavery in the Slave States, .

Sect. I.— The Home Slave Trade,

„ II. — Slave Labour, .

„ III.— The Power of the Slave-holder,

„ IV.— Profligacy in the Slave States,

55 65

74 82

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Sect. V. — On Cruelty in the Slave States, . 91

VI. — Concealment of Crimes, . . 112

VII. — Opposition to Religious Instruction, 118 VIII.— Effects of Slavery, . . .135

IX. — Narrative of the Rev. John Sella Martin, 156

X. — Life of Josiah Henson. . . 170

XI. — The will of God respecting Slavery, . 194

CONCLUSION,

CHAPTER I.

ON RELIGION AND MOBALS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The people of the United States being free, each citizen with respect to his religious opinions is responsible to God alone ; and in all other matters may think, speak, and act as he pleases, so long as he does not violate the rights of his fellow-citizens. They have civil and religious liberty in the highest degree, comprehending liberty of speech and action, the freedom of the press, the right to meet, and the right to form associations. Ourselves a free people, we should naturally sympathise with a free people, which is ever ready to unite with us in the defence of freedom against tyranny in every part of the world.

Liberty is so great a blessing to mankind that all who know its value must be sorry to find its fruits bitter in any place where it has been planted. In the United States we have not that source of chagrin. If one great object of government is to do the greatest amount of good to the greatest number, or to allow them to do it for themselves, the American Government has at least that merit.

Section I. — Condition Of The Working-classes

In no country of the world are the working-classes so comfortable or so contented as in the older Free States of the Union. Of the New States of the extreme West I do not speak, because, although they are marvels of civilisation, and are fast following the Eastern States, they are scarcely yet settled into orderly societies, under the discipline of established law. The working-classes of New England, New York State, and Pennsylvania are not a mob, but the enlightened citizens of a great republic. By the labour of their hands they have secured for themselves a large share of material comforts ; they conduct with intelligence their parish affairs ; they support their schools, read their newspapers, discuss the public interests of their country, and elect the representatives who make their laws. " Men are there more equal in their fortune and in their intelligence, more equally strong, than they are in any other country of the world."* " When the people is enlightened, watchful over its interests, and accustomed to attend to them, as in America, the collective force of the citizens will be- always more powerful to secure the public welfare than the authority of any government can be. There is not a country in the world where the men make such efforts to secure their social welfare. I do not know a people which has established schools so numerous and so effective ; built churches more proportioned to the religious wants * De Toequeville, i. 68.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

of the inhabitants ; or maintained better parish roads. The Union is free and happy as a small nation, glorious and strong as a great one." * " The character of the true American renders him one of the most estimable men in the world. He has little talk, modesty, simple manners, energy, activity; his words are clear, firm, intelligent ; his behaviour is delicate ; and for all which touches his heart, he has a generosity as beautiful as is to be found on the earth."-]- "Among thw poorest peasants of New England, living on a sterile soil, we see a competency, an order, a cleanliness, a morality unknown among the corresponding classes of Europe. The peasant, here called farmer, has a good house, with a sitting-room cleaner and better furnished than that of the bourgeois in Europe. He studies much, and reads sermons so argumentative that the learned classes alone in other countries would comprehend them. His wife and daughters are ladies, who keep his home in the most perfect order, but who do no work in the fields. They have books in the sitting-room, and know Shakspeare, Milton, Baxter, Bunyan, the English classics, and the best writers of their own country." "An easy modesty, peculiar to the well-educated classes in Great Britain, is almost universal among American women." \ "America is that country in which of all others in the world the marriage bond is the most respected, and where men have formed the highest and t Eey, L'Amerique Protestante, Paris, 1857, i. 268.

4 ON BELIGION AND MOEALS

most just idea of conjugal happiness." " When after leaving the agitations of the political world the American returns to the bosom of his family, he finds there order and peace. There his pleasures are simple and natural, his joys innocent and tranquil ; and as he arrives at happiness by the regularity of his life, he learns thereby to regulate his opinions and his tastes." *

Section II. — Poece Oe Law

A people so well instructed and so happy are not likely to be lawless ; but other causes also give unusual force to the law. Here some among the poorer classes may be tempted to consider the law as their enemy, because it is passed chiefly by the richer classes ; but there every man believes the law to be his friend, because he has helped to make it. Some of their laws may be bad, but none can be intended to oppress them, because men do not mean to oppress themselves ; as all concur in making the law, all have a parental affection for it. They have passed it for their common welfare, and for the same object they maintain it. If any law, as, for instance, the Morill Tariff, is found to work ill, the people who made can rescind it. Since the " multitudinous sovereign " cannot mean to injure himself, he is always disposed by the aid of experience to correct his mistakes.

On this subject let me again quote De Tocqueville, an author who is as trustworthy for his penetration, as he is estimable for his candour : — :

* De Tocqueville, ii. 259,

IN THE UNITED STATES. O

"Often the European sees in the public officer nothing but force ; the American sees in him right. One may say that in America man never obeys man, but always justice and law." *

" The laws in general tend to the good of the greatest number, because they spring from the majority of all the citizens, who may be deceived, but who cannot have an interest against themselves. However vexatious the law may be, the inhabitant of the United States easily submits to it, not only as to the work of the greatest number, but also as to his own work. All classes shew a great confidence in the legislation which governs the country ; and, besides, they obey the law because they can change it when it hurts them." f

Section III. — The Punishment Oe Crime

As a natural consequence of the general disposition to enforce the law, the country is saved the cost of a vast gendarmerie. Eew policemen appear in town or country, yet few criminals escape. " An administrative police," says De Tocqueville, " does not exist, and passports are unknown. Yet I doubt whether there is any country in which crime so rarely escapes punishment." J

The prisons of the Union have long been remarkable for their good management. Numbers of them, instead of being confirmed in criminal habits, as often happens elsewhere, through an imperfect gaol discipline, are reformed through their imprisonment ; and comparativelyfew, when liberated, have returned on account of new crimes ; because the cells which have been their place of punishment, have proved likewise the means of their conversion.

Section Iv.— Tempeeance

But the maxim, that prevention is better than cure, is as true as it is trite ; and acting on it the Americans have sought to lessen the amount of crime by promoting temperance. Both moral and legislative means have been tried with considerable success. And, although the cheapness of alcoholic drinks still tempts multitudes, especially of the fresh immigrants, great numbers of Americans, by their practice of total abstinence, by their speeches, and by their writings, restrain the evil.

Section V. — Education

In a country, however, where the majority rule, much more is necessary than the restraint upon vice arising from a knowledge of its consequences.. . A free people to retain its freedom must be enlightened and virtuous. How else can they respect each other's rights, or know their own interests? This the Americans have up to the present time comprehended, and have therefore paid much attention to popular education. .

" The law creates schools in every parish ; obliomothe parishioners, on pain of heavy fines, to rate them-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

selves for their support. Magistrates must see that parents send their children to the schools, and may fine those who refuse." " I do not think that there is a country in the world where there is so small a proportion of persons who are ignorant. Primary instruction is within the reach of every one, and, as almost all the Americans are in comfortable circumstances, they can easily obtain for themselves the first elements of knowledge/'* "Education is open to all in this country ; and all, or almost all, are educated. Lately, out of a population of about 60,000 in the State of Massachusetts, only 400, beyond the age of childhood, could not read and write. By returns from 131 towns, presented to the legislature, the number of scholars receiving instruction in those towns is 12,393 ; the number of persons in those towns, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, who are unable to read or write is 58. In the town of Hancock, there are only three persons unable to read and write, and those three are mutes. The general plan of education at the public free schools comprehends grammar, mathematics, geography, history, logic, political economy, moral and natural philosophy. There are at present at Boston 68 free schools, besides 23 Sabbath-schools, in all of which the poorest inhabitant may have his children educated, from the age of four to seventeen, without any expense. In the adjoining State of Connecticut one-third of the population, about 275,000, attend the * De Tocqueville, i. 47, 66.

free schools. In the New England States, the population of which amounts to about 2,000,000, almost the entire population are educated ; that is, can read and write. In the State of New York, 499,434 children, out of a population of 1,900,000, were at the same time attending the schools ; that is, a fourth part of the whole population. The appropriations of land for schools in the New States have been regulated by Congress, and their extent is immense. Every township of the new land is divided into 86 sections, each containing a mile square, or 640 acres. One section of every township is appropriated for schools. The facts now stated respecting the number of persons educated and receiving education at schools in the United States will appear the more striking when contrasted with the provision for schools in Great Britain. In England, the number of persons attending schools, instead of being about one-third, as in Connecticut, or one-fourth, as in New York State, is one in sixteen, in Wales one in twenty, in Scotland one in ten. The order and decorum which distinguishes the people of the United States, and the total absence in that country of those who in Britain are designated as the rabble, or the mob, are to be ascribed to the general education of the people." *

" If a traveller asks for their savans, he will find few ; but if he counts up those who are ignorant, the American people will seem to him the most enlightened on the earth." " In New England each citizen receives the * Stuart, i. 316.

elements of knowledge. He learns the doctrines and the proofs of religion, the history of his country, and the chief features of the constitution. In Connecticut and Massachusetts it is very rare to find a man who knows these things imperfectly ; and one who is absolutely ignorant of them is a phenomenon. The Americans make no use of the word peasant because they have not the idea. The ignorance of the first ages is gone."*

" I have lived much among the people of the United States, and I cannot say how much I have admired their experience and their good sense/'f " The average of persons attending school in all the Union was in 1 850, twenty in every hundred. In New England, it is twenty-five in the hundred. In the extreme South, the proportion descends to thirteen in a hundred of the free" population. In the North, there is only one illiterate person in four hundred ; in the South, one in twelve. Among the European immigrants the proportion of the illiterate is exactly double that of the native Americans.

Section VI. — Religion

In a well-governed country all pure knowledge is valuable, because it enables a man to understand his obligations to the law, and to foresee the bad consequences of crime. The mere habit of thought is a gain both to the individual who has formed it, and to society ; because any one who can see the ruin which crime would bring upon him, is less likely to commit it than another is who is blind as well as brutal. Secular knowledge is, however, insufficient to restrain human passion. Under any government religion alone can make a people orderly, contented, and happy ; but under no government is religion so necessary to a people as under a democracy. When the people, who rule by their representatives, are passionate, selfish, and unprincipled, they choose leaders like themselves ; faction rages against faction ; parties, deaf to reason, appeal to force ; public and private wrongs render property insecure, and life becomes intolerable ; and at length such a people, harassed by evils without number, welcome a military despotism as a shelter from anarchy. What then is the amount of religion in the American people ?

The testimony of M. de Tocqueville on this point is explicit : —

" In America religion guides to knowledge, and the observance of the divine law conducts to liberty." " I have said enough to shew the character of Anglo- American civilisation ; it is the product of the spirit of religion, and the spirit of liberty." "Liberty sees in religion the companion of her struggles, the cradle of her infancy, the divine source of her rights. She considers religion as the safeguard of morals, and morals as the guarantee of law, and the pledge of her own duration." *

* De Tocqueville, i. 47, 49, 51.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

"America is the place where the Christian religion has preserved the most real power over men ; and this fact shews how useful and natural it is to man, because the country in which it exercises the greatest power is at the same time the most enlightened and the most free." " In the United States religion does not simply regulate the manners, but also extends its empire over the mind." " Among the Anglo-Americans some profess Christian doctrines because they believe them, others because they fear to seem not to believe them ; and so Christianity reigns by the consent of all." *

" Eeligion ought to be considered as the chief of their political institutions." "I know a European population whose unbelief is only equalled by its brutish ignorance ; while in America we see one of the most free and most enlightened peoples in the world fulfilling with ardour the external duties of religion." " Those who disbelieve concealing their unbelief, and those who believe manifesting their faith, a public opinion is created in favour of religion, which is loved, sustained, and honoured." -f-

The testimony of M. Key is still more ample : —

" With respect to the Americans, properly so called, and to all the foreigners who, being fused among them, participate in the advantages of that race, which of all the races under heaven is the most blessed by God, the first aspect of this class is that of a religious nation."

" It is the country in which, of all others, public * Ibid., ii. 249, 251. + Ibid., ii. 252, 257, 287.

opinion is the most decidedly favourable to religion. It is so more than in England, and maintains better whatever is connected with religion, either directly or indirectly, as the rest of the Sabbath." *

The testimony of these upright and intelligent French observers is confirmed by an English lady in the following words : — " The country districts are, however, the most completely under the religious or Puritan influence, and to them the New Englanders point with pride as to a part of the world which is unequalled for its moral beauty. In them religion displays itself as the most powerful of all social elements. There it has planted the church, the college, and the school ; it has given free institutions and free speech ; it has trained up a noble population of freemen, religious, moral, intelligent, and industrious, dwelling in happy homes, that are the centres of light and love, and which are found only in a land where the Bible is honoured and where the Sabbath is observed. These districts present the remarkable spectacle of a population engaged in peaceful pastoral pursuits, without being dulled by them ; tilling the ground which their fathers have tilled before them ; educating their children in the fear of God ; their sons rising to the highest positions in the country, or carrying to the far West the leaven of religion and morality.

"Virtue, sobriety, industry, reverence for the Sabbath, and love of order, characterise the country population throughout these six States. The people are * Key, i. 1*2, 143.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

educated and enlightened: Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Edwards's Works, and some standard volumes of theology, are to be found in almost the humblest library ; and the people are ready to discuss any point of theology with intelligence.

" I take the loveliest village in that surpassingly fair portion of America. It is a village of five thousand people, built on a collection of knolls rising from parklike meadows, through which flow the bright waters of the rushing Connecticut. Beyond the meadow, picturesque hills form an amphitheatre enclosing this gem of Massachusetts ; and in whatever direction the eye of the gazer turns, it is satiated with bright visions of material beauty. There are five churches : two Congregational, one Episcopalian, one Baptist, and one Methodist. Their ministers all live in harmony, and engage together in union prayer-meetings. There is no inn or tavern where liquor is sold in the place, and not one policeman or gaol is required for the extensive district.

" The tSabbath morning dawns, and the good people are up betimes to see that their children's lessons are well prepared, and to despatch them to the Sabbath-school : for in New England, children and young persons of all classes and ages attend school, and very frequently the link is only broken by marriage. The Sabbath-school bell rings, and the trampling of many feet is heard ; after which there is a profound stillness, broken only by the music of the oriole and the rustle of the humming-bird among the flowers. The sun's

ON KELIUION AND MORALS rays quiver through the thick trees and dance upon the bright green grass ; the cattle repose lazily in the meadows, the mountain shadows lie over the landscape, and man for once does not deface what God has made so beautiful. At ten the bell for meeting rings, and shortly after nearly the whole population is seen moving to the respective churches, while rude country vehicles well laden with human freights pour in along the different lanes. The children, who before this hour have returned from school, invariably accompany their parents, and generally walk according to age, the youngest first, each with Bible and hymn-book in hand, and the parents bring up the rear.

" Every church in that fair village is filled, for all the people are church-goers.

" It is hardly too much to say that these Sabbaths do more than anything else to cement those bonds of family affection which we have never seen stronger than in New England ; to make home a charmed spot, ever fresh and ever fragrant ; and to keep in active exercise those holy affections that make up the purest of life's enjoyments and smooth so many of life's sorrows. Such is the external influence of religion in the country districts of New England. It is the wide-spread influence of religion which has made New England, with her severe climate and her barren soil, the most prosperous portion of the Union ; which has produced her well-regulated families, her virtuous sons and virtuous daughters. It has been the fashion to sneer at this nation of psalm-singers ; but the order-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

loving and moral population of New England is the

best answer to the taunt / believe that the New

England States are the. most moral, perhaps the most religious portion of the world ; and that in the hearts of their people the love of their sacred faith is equally strong with their attachment to the principles of democratic liberty, the bequest in each instance of their honoured Puritan ancestors." *

This religious spirit in the people has led to religious activity. It has built temples for worship, formed Christian churches, maintained pastors, established Sunday schools, distributed Bibles and tracts, and provided preachers for new or neglected districts.

M. Rey thus describes what he saw of their public buildings : —

"The places of worship in the United States are much more attended than those of Europe, and are very numerous." f "When I went to Buffalo and Chicago, I was much surprised to see as many chapels and as many good ministers as in the older cities. I found in many American laymen religious fervour, and attention to religion in them all." + "In approaching even the newest cities, I saw the horizon broken by a crowd of church spires ; and in moving through the streets, I found these churches to be vast, as varied in style as they were beautiful, and solidly built." "My first impression at the sight of these

* Aspects of Religion in the United States, by the Author of the " Englishwoman in America." London, 1859.

splendid edifices was surprise at the faith and the generosity of the congregations which furnished the requisite sums. Buffalo has sixty churches and pastors, Chicago fifty, St Louis sixty-four, Cincinnati ninetyone ; and these cities are of yesterday." *

These temples are clue to the zeal of the churches which have raised them, of the organisation of which M. Eey writes as follows : — " Eeligious and converted persons settling in any place form themselves into a community of brethren. They are united by a spiritual relationship, as having been born again of one Father who is God, having experienced the work of the Holy Spirit, and believing themselves to be all saved by the same sacrifice — by the death of Christ on the cross. These brethren form an assembly, which is the church of the place, or rather one of the churches. Other persons, not possessing a living Christianity, attend the worship, who, joined to the members of the church, form a larger association called the congregation. All the members of the congregation sustain the worship by their contributions. Those who wish to become members of the church are admitted on the double condition that they make a profession of faith, and that they do not contradict the precepts of the gospel by their lives." f

Churches and Communicants.

In 1857 the number of churches, pastors, and communicants in the principal denominations was as * Eey, i. 112. + Ibid., ii. 63, 64.

H pi^— "n limii HM— w

IN THE UNITED STATES.

follows, according to M. Key's classification, who divides the Methodists into two bodies, the Presbyterian and the Episcopalian : — *

Churches.

Pastors.

Communicants.

Episcopalians, .

Presbyterians, .

Baptists, .

Total, .

13,341 13,753 14,193

9,505 9,852 9,080

41,287

28,437

3,976,206

This is a result which, when we recollect the comparatively scanty supply of churches, pastors, and communicants in the Slave States, shews that there must be much religious zeal in the Free States.

Sunday-Schools.

Almost every church has its Sunday-school. " They never build a chapel without adding a school-room capable of holding all the children of the congregation ; and there each Sunday the children are collected for instruction in the Bible. These schools have twenty or thirty teachers, and here several hundreds of thousands of instructed and pious Americans teach more than two millions and a half of children each Sabbath." f

Still, as there were in 1850 five millions of children between five and fifteen years of age, nearly half of them were left without Sabbath instruction. This * Ibid., ii. 73. + Ibid., i. 103, 104.

shews the need there was for the existence of the American Sunday-School Union. The report of that 'Society, in May 1855, gave the following results • —

"The agents of our Society, without speaking of what has been done by others, have organised, within the year, 2440 Sunday-schools, where none existed before ; they have induced more than 16,000 persons to become teachers ; and they have brought to the schools 97,000 children. The Society has had in its service during the year 824 missionaries, 256 of whom are students of theology, who have consecrated their vacation to this work." *

General use of the Word of God.

By all these pastors, churches, and Sunday-school teachers, the Word of God is studied, believed, venerated, taught ; and so it forms the faith of the nation. As might be expected, it is therefore largely distributed in the country. The American Bible Society of New York has published more than one copy of the Bible or Testament for every three inhabitants of the United States. It has 2000 auxiliaries, with 4000 depots; and its colporteurs hawk the Bible through the country. In the year 1854, it issued 815,000 volumes ; and in 1855, 749,000. Its receipts in 1854 were $346,000 ; and the contributions of the Free States alone, for the distribution of the Bible, in 1858-9, were $715,620.f

IN THE UNITED STATES.

Religious Tracts.

The Americans have not been less active in the distribution of tracts. The Tract Society has published 1540 tracts, and 408 volumes. During its 30 years of existence it has issued 10,000,000 volumes, and 158,000,000 tracts. During the year 1856, its issues were 1,070,000 volumes, and 13,127,000 tracts ; and 695 colporteurs were in its service, who visited 639,193 families.* The whole amount of contributions in the Free States for religious tracts was in 1858-9, $129,690. f Two of the periodicals published by the Tract Society have obtained an unexampled success. The American Messenger, a monthly paper, has reached a circulation of 200,000 copies ; and the Child's Paper has now 300,000 subscribers. We have no instances of success like these. J Further, the religious papers and reviews publish about 34,000,000 of copies annually ; § and in every great city there is also a Young Men's Christian Association, the members of which are engaged in doing good.

By these and other means the Christians of America endeavour to render their nation a Christian nation ; notwithstanding the large accession of European immigrants, who bring with them, too often, complete indifference to religion, or positive unbelief. Let us hear M. Eey : — " What is it then which preserves this interesting nation from religious indifference ? Millions of immigrants flow in from Europe ignorant of the

ON RELIGION AND MOKALS gospel." "European lepers form a great part of the stock of vice and irreligion in the United States. Irishmen and Germans commit the murders of New York, fill the prisons, and furnish the drunkards." "A mass of irreligious Germans, 30,000 or 40,000, are accumulated at St Louis, where they have some Eationalist pastors, of whom they make moreover very little use." "The 'little flock' knows all this perfectly, and strives against the danger." "It is astonishing to see the boldness of the Americans in industry, speculation, war, commerce ; but nowhere is it greater than in the way in which they advance religion. So, although the American nation, as descended from Adam, has been sin-stricken, still Christianity advances there in spite of difficulties which would arrest it elsewhere. That immense immigration of European Philistines, those savages from the banks of the Ehine who roar at the name of religion, of Christ, of morality, are restrained, and by degrees reclaimed. They do not succeed here in turning public opinion against Christian doctrine, as is the case in Europe ; but, on the contrary, the public favour still rests more or less with religious men and with the cause of religion." *