The story of the life of John Anderson, the fugitive slave

Dedication

TO GEORGE THOMPSON, ESQ.,

THE STORY OF THE LIFE OF JOHN ANDERSON

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

Preface

The Story of the Life of John Anderson has been prepared for publication by the Editor at the earnest request of the Committee and of John Anderson himself, and whatever profits may accrue from its sale will be devoted to the benefit of Anderson, whose history must, in many respects, be regarded as an extraordinary one. The circumstances connected with the demand for his rendition are of such general interest, that the Editor makes no apology for presenting them in a permanent form in the following pages. He also desires to express, on his own behalf, and in the name of the John Anderson Committee, the warmest thanks to the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti- Slavery Society, for the noble manner in which they vindicated the cause of freedom, when called upon to resist a foul wrong attempted to be perpetrated on a

VI. PREFACE.

subject of the British Crown. A variety of circumstances combine to make the history of John Anderson one of deep interest. The novelty and peculiarity of the case itself, the excitement which it created in Canada, England, and the United States; the gravity of the proceedings to which it gave rise ; the opinions of the many eminent men in Parliament, in the Cabinet, in Courts of Law, and of the Press, which it drew forth ; the importance of the question to be decided, as affecting the freedom and safety of thousands of fugitive slaves in the British American possessions ; the lofty, disinterested, and honourable position, which, from the first, was assumed by England ; and the prompt, decided, and magnanimous conduct of the British Government ; these, and other features of the case are brought out in the succeeding sketch of the brief, but singular and eventful, career of an American slave — now, happily, a slave no longer.

In addition to the above circumstances, the history of John Anderson will be found to illustrate the actual condition of a slave in all countries where chattel servitude is permitted. He is the type and representative of eight millions of the human race — Africans and their descendants — who, at this hour, are held in

PREFACE. Vll.

debasing and cruel bondage by nominally Christian nations. In the light of the facts of Anderson s slave life, we see the true nature and effects of Slavery, as it exists in the Confederate States of America, throughout the empire of Brazil, and in the islands of the Gulf of Mexico.

The father of Anderson was a slave, who — not, that he loved kindred less, but that he loved freedom more — forsook his wife and little one, and became an exile, a fugitive, and an outlaw upon the face of the earth. The mother of Anderson was a slave, who, but a few months after she became a parent, was left, virtually, a widow ; her natural protector — he who should have been her counsellor and stay, and the example and guide of her child — lost to her for ever ; and she, while yet that child was in its infancy, severed from it, sold like a bale of merchandize, or a four-footed beast of the field, and sent far from the scenes of her youth and the centre of her associations, to labour and to die upon the cane-fields of Louisiana. Behold the havoc which the execrable system of slavery makes of the sacred and divine relationships of the family !

The genealogy of an American slave is traced only through the maternal line. The progenitors on the male

Till, PREFACE.

side are rarely known in fact, and are never recognized in law. A slave, in law, lias no father. The legislation of the Slave States makes no reference to paternal ancestry, and acknowledges the mother — not in respect to any natural rights, duties, or affections, but simply for the determination of the question of title, and for the purpose of fixing the legal status of the child. The natural relation between parent and child is not considered ; and hence, neither in a legal nor in a religious sense, has a slave-born child either a father or a mother ; as is the condition of the mother, so is the condition of the child. This is the recognized and law-established principle, laid down for the administration of the brutal system of American slavery. As early as 1715, it was enacted by the state of Maryland, and it has since become the general law of the United States, that children born of slave mothers are slaves during their natural lives. It was thus that the atrocious maxim, — Partus seguitor ventrwn, — (the offspring follows the condition of the mother,) was introduced into the civil law ; and from that day to the present, the condition of the mother has determined the fate of the child. Who is he, who does not at once perceive that this revolting and horrible maxim of civil law is one

PREFACE. IX.

of the most cruel and degrading principles by which the institution of slavery, for which the rebel states are fighting, is distinguished ? By this law, any child whose maternal ancestor, even in the remotest degree, can be shewn to have been a slave, is declared the property of him who was the owner of its mother at the time of its birth ; and it is, therefore, doomed to perpetual bondage, although its paternal ancestor, at every successive generation, may have been a free white man. Where is the man of intelligence who does not instantly see that this provision of human law perverts the divine ordinance of marriage from a holy institution, into a slave-breeding commerce between the sexes ; into a perpetual manufacture of property in human flesh, for the profit of the slave master ; that it breaks up and destroys the parental relation, and converts the children of slavemothers into household cattle, for the pecuniary benefit of the owner ; that it abrogates the commandment of the decalogue — " Honour thy father and thy mother" — and that it makes the relation, between father and mother, that of mere agents for increasing the gains of him who claims a right of property in the human chattel, whose offspring, by law, are his? Well may that eloquent defender of the rights of the injured slave, Dr. Cheever, observe —

X. PREFACE.

" The essence of American slavery, the central fundamental element of cruelty and crime by which it is sustained and made perpetual, is just this, namely, the incessant stealing of children from their parents, by the factorship of the marriage relation, — perverted, corrupted, diabolized, into an engine of anguish and debasement to the parents, and of gain to the masters ; that hath on it, more than any thing else in the world, the stamp of hell.' ,

The particulars furnished in the following pages, of the events in the slave-life of John Anderson, and of the condition and treatment of his companions in bondage, though far from exhibiting slavery in its worst horrors, do more or less, illustrate its peculiar evils. They show that slavery is human chattelism ; that it reduces beings created in the image of God, to the level of the beasts that perish, or the clods of the earth. Anderson was a piece of property. It will be seen that slavery annihilates the heaven-ordained right of marriage, and encourages concubinage and adultery; that slavery ruthlessly sunders every conjugal, parental and filial bond; that slavery deprives the child of the protection, support, example, and instruction due to it from the parent ; that slavery totally neglects the moral,

PREFACE. xi.

rational and spiritual faculties of the being claimed as property ; that slavery denies the use of letters, and abandons its victim to intellectual darkness ; that slavery transforms professing Christians into hypocrites, taskmasters and menstealers ; and perverts the Word of God into a law in favour of robbery and oppression. Finally, that slavery is remorseless and unforgiving, and will abate no jot or tittle of its iniquitous demands.

H. T.

Eversley House, Bromley, Middlesex, March 9th, 1863.

Chapter I. MISSOUEI

Birthplace of Anderson— -Purchase of the Territory of Louisiana- Missouri, originally a part of the Territory — Its settlement by shareholders — Efforts made to bring it into the Union — The repeal of theMissouri « Compromise" — Its admission in 1820— Subsequent Missouri Compromise— Geography, climate, products and population . ... . Page 1

Chaptee II.

akdeeson's slave lipe.

His parentage — The fate of his father and mother — His life in the plantation — His marriage — Is 3old and separated from his wife — Character of his new master — Morality of slaveholders — Why he resolved to run away ..... 8

Chaptee III.

Leaves the plantation — Bids farewell to wife and child — Encounters Diggs, a slaveholder—" Give me liberty, or give me death" — Wounds his adversary and flies — Perilous journey through the woods — Beaches the State of Illinois — Hospitality of an English settler — Proceeds to Chicago . . 13

XIV. CONTENTS.

Chapteb it.

ANDEESON BENEATH THE BEITISH FLAG.

Arrives at Windsor, Upper Canada — His first employment as a fireman — Discovers a plot to get him back to slavery — Changes his name and residence — For five years remains unmolested Page 21

Chapteb T.

Anderson's confidence is betrayed — He is arrested and afterwards released — He is arrested a second time, and after some •weeks' confinement discharged — He is a third time arrested, and is committed to the county gaol — His rendition is demanded, diplomatic correspondence thereon . . .24

Chapteb TI.

EIBST WHIT OF HABEAS COBPTJS.

The Court of Queen's Bench, Canada, issues a writ — The decision on the case is postponed — Anderson petitions the Governor- General — The Extradition clause of the Ashburton Treaty — The Act of the Canadian Parliament providing for its execution — The arguments of Counsel, pro and con . 28

Chapteb TIL

THE OPINIONS OF THE JUDGES.

The 15th of December, 1860 — Intense excitement within and around the Court House in Toronto — Description of the crowd — Appearance and demeanour of Anderson — Adverse decision of the Bench — Eemarks of Mr. Justice McLean in favour of Anderson's discharge — Anderson is remanded to prison ......... 37

Chapteb Till.

G-BEAT MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF TOBONTO, TO PBOTEST AGAINST THE EXTBADITION OF ANDEBSON.

Character of the Meeting — Resolutions adopted — Masterly speech of John Scoble, Esq. — Memorial to the Governor-General 43

CONTENTS. XV.

Chaptee IX.

PEOCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND — SECOND WEIT OE HABEAS COEPTTS.

First knowledge of Anderson being a slave — Prompt and praiseworthy conduct of the Duke of Newcastle — Action of the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society — Memorial to the Colonial Mission — Application to the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster — The Lord Chief Justice issues a Writ of Habeas Corpus — American Minister's despatch describing the state of the anti-slavery feeling in England — Agitation throughout the country — Language of the public journals — Times , Weekly Dispatch, $fc. — Exertions made by the Anti-Slavery Society and its Secretary — The writ is sent to Canada ..... Page 35

Chaptee X.

PEOCEEDINGS IN CANADA — THIED WEIT OE HABEAS COEPUS.

Writ granted by the Court of Common Pleas, Canada — The Case argued, February the 1st — Judgment delivered, February the 16th — Opinion of Mr. Justice Draper — Comments on the termination of the Struggle. — Course taken by the Canadian Press .«.....,. 65

Chaptee XI.

Anderson in England — Great Reception Meeting in Exeter Hall 85

Chaptee XII.

John Anderson's Speeches at Folkestone, Dover, Hastings, St. Leonard's, &c. . . . . . . . 125

Chaptee XIII.

John Anderson at Corby . . . . . , 135

Chaptee XIY.

Farewell Soiree to John Anderson ..... 147

CHAPTEE I.

MISSOURI.

The Birthplace of Anderson. — Purchase of the Louisiana Territory. — Missouri originally a part of that Territory. — Its Settlement by Slaveholders. — Efforts made to bring it into the Union. — « The Missouri Compromise." — Its Admission in 1820. — Subsequent Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. — Geography, Climate, Products, and Population.

Before entering upon the narration of the personal history of John Anderson, it may not be out of place to introduce a notice of the State in which he was born, and in which he spent the days of his enslavement. He was " raised" in the territory of Missouri. The admission of Missouri into the Union was a trying crisis in the life of the Western Republic, and occurred when the nation was yet comparatively young.

In the year 1787, and previous to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, an ordinance was passed by the Continental Congress for the government of "all the territories of the United States, lying to the North- West of the river Ohio. One of the provisions of this ordinance was as follows : —

" There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in pun-

B ishment of crime, whereof the parties shall be duly convicted."

When Ohio (in 1802-3) was constituted a State, the residue of the vast regions, included in the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, remained under the exclusive control of the Federal Government, as a part of the natural domain — the property of the nation, and sacred, therefore, according to the compact, to freedom, and free labour. It went by the name of the " Indiana Territory." From 1802 to 1807, inclusive, efforts were yearly made to induce Congress to allow slavery for a limited period in this territory, but without effect. It will be seen in what way this Ordinance has been since treated.

In 1803, the vast and indefinite territory, known by the name of Louisiana, was ceded by France to the United States, for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars. The territory had just before been ceded by Spain to France, but without any pecuniary consideration. Slaveholding had been allowed under both these governments. The treaty, ceding the territory to the United States, guaranteed to the inhabitants their rights as slaveholders. The State of Louisiana, according to its present limits, was fully admitted into the L^nion, with a State constitution recognizing slavery, in 1812. The rest of the territory passed under the name of the Missouri territory. Those who chose to dwell in this territory continued to hold slaves within its scattered and thinly populated, but increasing settlements.

MISSOUKI. 6

On the assembling of Congress in 1817, a delegate from Missouri was admitted to take his seat from that territory, and to present petitions from sundry of its inhabitants, praying for admission into the Union. The matter was referred to committee, who made a report to the House, but nothing was done during that session. In 1818, the subject was again introduced, when a resolution passed the House to the effect that Missouri should be admitted, provided — "That the further introduction of slavery, or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party should be duly convicted ; and that all children of slaves, born within the said State after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free, but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years." The vote upon this resolution was 87 ayes to 76 noes. The bill, upon the basis of this resolution, was read a third time— -ayes, 98 ; noes, 56. This bill was sent up to the Senate, and was returned to the House with the provisions contained in the above resolution struck out. The Senate adhered to its amendment, and remanded the bill to the House. The House adhered to its resolution, so the bill was lost in the struggle. A motion was then made to organize the Southern portion of the territory into a State under the name of Arkansas, whereupon it was attempted to apply the same provisions to that State also ; but, ultimately, the bill for organization passed without any allusion to slavery. Arkansas thus became a slave State, and was fully admitted as such in 1836.

The second great struggle regarding Missouri, was in the following year, 1819, on the assembling of a new Congress. This protracted and celebrated conflict, between the friends of the extension of slavery, and the friends of restriction, ended in a compromise between the extreme men of the two parties. The champions of extension were conciliated by the agreement to receive Missouri as a slave State ; and the leaders of the non-extensionists were won over by the consent of their opponents to a provision that slavery should, for ever afterwards, be excluded from all the territories lying north and west of Missouri. It was, in effect, an offer from the milder opponents of slavery restriction to the moderate and flexible advocates of that restriction. "Let us," said the former, "have slavery in Missouri, and we will unite with you in excluding it from all the uninhabited territories north and west of that state." It was, in substance, an agreement between the North and the South to that effect, though the more determined champions, whether of slavery extension or slavery restriction, did not unite in it. Such was the virtual termination of the struggle to prohibit slavery in Missouri : the opposition was overcome by the plan of offering instead thereof, an exclusion of slavery from the then Federal territory west and north of that State. This was the great Missouri compromise ; the accomplishment of which is due, mainly, to the efforts of the great American statesmen, Henry Clay.

Notwithstanding the solemnity of the compact then

MISSOURI. 5

entered into, and the universal belief of the people of the free states that it would be perpetual, it was repealed by a clause in the fourteenth section of a Bill for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, the words of which are as follows : —

" That the constitution and laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the Act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820; which being inconsistent with the principles of nonintervention by Congress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States."

This repealing section of the Bill at once removed every impediment to the introduction of slavery into the vast and as yet unpeopled territories of the North- West, and led to the attempt made to establish slavery in Kansas, and all the outrages, horrors, and blood which were the consequence.

Missouri is bounded on the north by Iowa, on the west by the Indian territory, on the east by the Mississippi, which separates it from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and south by the State of Arkansas, Its length is 280 miles, and its medium breadth about 230 ; the area being about 65,000 square miles. Besides the great rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi, the country is watered by others of inferior magnitude, among the largest of which are the Osage, the Suit, the Chariton, the Gasconade, the Maranec or Merrimac, the Big Black, and the St. Francis.

The best and most thickly inhabited portions of the State are those lying between the Mississippi and the Missouri. Beyond the western limit of the State there is an almost boundless region of prairie land. A great part of the country is admirably adapted for the growth of wheat, rye, and oats. Indian corn is cultivated to the highest perfection, yielding from seventy to seventyfive bushels to the acre. With an adequate population, under the stimulus of free labour, Missouri might be made to produce wheat for all the inhabitants of the United States, eastward of the Rocky Mountains, and establish a claim to be regarded as one of the most prolific granaries in the world.

Missouri, above any other State in the Union abounds in fruits. The pumpkin, squash, and melon, are produced in profusion. The apple attains its utmost development and beauty. The vine is common throughout the country ; one species of grapes ripens in June, a second in October, and a third during the winter. The peach is luxuriant and abundant beyond description ;

MISSOURI. 7

and the pear, the apricot, and the melon thrive well. The mulberry tree is common throughout the woods, affording the means of breeding the silk- worm to any extent, and thereby raising Missouri to the highest position among the middle States as a country for the production of raw silk. Above all other regions in North America, Missouri is the land of flowers. In the season, every prairie is an immense flower-garden. In the early stages of spring there is a generation of flowers whose prevalent tint is peach blow. To this succeeds one whose hue is of a deeper red, then follows one of yellow, and to the latest period of autumn the widely extended prairies are redolent of flowers exhibiting a golden lustre. Bears, wolves, panthers, buffaloes, elks, and deer, are found in Missouri. There are also myriads of waterfowl — swans, pelicans, cranes, geese, and ducks ; and besides prairie hens, two large and beautiful kinds of grouse, turtle doves, and wood pigeons. The Virginia nightingale and parroquet are also frequently visitors.

The population of Missouri was, in 1810, 19,833 ; in 1820, 66,586; in 1830, 140,074; in 1840, 383,702, of whom 58,240 were slaves. In 1850, the free population was 594,622, and in 1860, 1,085,596; shewing an increase, in ten years, of 590,974. In 1850, the slaves were 87,422, and in 1860, 115,619; being an increase of only 28,197. It will thus be seen that there has been but a small positive increase of slaves, while, compared with the free population, which has doubled, there has been an enormous relative decrease.

LIFE OF JOHN ANDERSON.

Chapter II. Anderson's Slaye Life

His Parentage. — The Fate of his Father and Mother. — His Life on the Plantation. — His Marriage. — Is Sold and separated from his Wife. — Character of his new Master. — Slaveholders' Morality. — Why he resolved to Run Away.

Like the great majority of those reared under the institution of American slavery, Anderson is ignorant of the precise date of his birth, but believes that he is at the present time thirty-one or thirty -two years of age. His mother was the property of a person named Moses Burton, of the town of Fayette, Howard County, Missouri. Burton cultivated a farm, raised tobacco, and at the same time followed the business of a carpenter, and was the owner of several slaves. Anderson, at his birth, according to the law referred to in a preceding chapter, became the chattel personal of the man who claimed his mother, and was reckoned among his live stock. As he increased in years he increased in value, until at the age of manhood he was worth a thousand dollars, and was sold for that sum. During the time he was with his first master he was known as Jack Burton.

Anderson's slave life. 9

Anderson cannot remember his father, but has heard him described as a person of light mulatto complexion, who pursued the occupation of a servant on board the steam boats employed on the Mississippi. While Anderson was yet an infant, his father made his escape from slavery, and, it was believed, went to South America. When seven years of age, his mother, having given oiFence to her master, was sold to a negro trader for transportation to the slave market of New Orleans, and he was thus left an orphan. It was his good fortune, however, to possess a mistress of a kind disposition, who supplied, in a great degree, the place of the parents of whom he had been deprived. He invariably speaks of Mrs. Burton in terms of gratitude and affection, calls her his "mother," and says he was " raised'' by her. This lady lived until Anderson was about nineteen.

Anderson grew up upon his master's farm, and was early put to agricultural pursuits. The produce of the land was tobacco, wheat, Indian corn, and various kinds of fruits. Anderson's youth does not appear to have passed unhappily. The whip was occasionally in requisition, and he, doubtless, sometimes felt its smart in common with the other boys on the farm. But his time, upon the whole, appears to have~passed pleasantly. He was fond of athletic sports, such as running, jumping, and wrestling; enjoyed his evenings after the labours of the day; and joined with eagerness in the frolics and festivities permitted to the Negroes during

10 LIFE OF JOHN ANDERSON. w

the Christmas holiday, which is the carnival and saturnalia of the plantation Negroes of the South.

Thus the time passed away, and Anderson became a man. He was expert in all the duties of the farm, could manage the tobacco crop for his master, and was allowed to cultivate a little patch on his own account, and also to sell the produce for his own benefit. This peculium is not uncommon in Missouri ; and slaves, not unfrequently, by availing themselves of the privilege, are enabled to purchase their freedom with the money they obtain for that which they cultivate in their overhours.

Anderson states that he made a profession of religion among the Freewill Baptists, and attended the ordinances of religion among the members of that denomination. Like other young men he, in due time, also entered into the matrimonial relation. The person whom he chose to be his future help-meet was Maria Tomlin, the daughter of Lewis Tomlin. Lewis had been a slave, but had obtained his freedom by purchase — had also purchased his wife, and was, when Anderson left Missouri, making his living as a barber in the town of Fayette. Tnis marriage was contracted by the parties agreeing to live together as man and wife, and promising to be faithful to each other. A colored minister was present when Anderson pledged his troth to Maria. They were married at Christmas, 1850, and towards the close of 1851 the union was crowned by the birth of a child. Maria was a slave upon the farm of Mr. Samuel

ANDERSON'S SLAVE LIFE. 11

Brown, distant about two miles from the farm of Burton. Maria had been previously married to a slave of the name of Green Shepherd, by whom she had had two children, the eldest, Emily, now about thirteen ; the second, a boy, now about eleven. She had been a widow twelve months when Anderson married her. She stipulated that Anderson should act the part of a father to her children, and that, should he succeed in obtaining his own freedom, and afterwards possess the means, he should exert himself as much for the freedom of his step-children as for the freedom of his own, which he agreed to do.

As nearly as it can be ascertained, with the assistance of Anderson, it was about the middle of August, 1853, when Burton effected the sale of Anderson to a man of the name of McDonald, whose residence was thirty miles distant from that of Brown, the owner of Anderson's wife. This separation was, naturally, a great trial to the young husband, and it was rendered more bitter by McDonald's refusal to permit Anderson to visit his wife and infant child. When Anderson requested a pass to return and see his wife and infant, he was told that he must abandon and forget them, and take a new wife, or mistress, from amongst^ the slaves of his present owner. Such is the humanity and morality of the owners of slaves in America ! The motive which influenced McDonald was obvious, and was perfectly understood by Anderson. His master wished him to become the father of children who should be born upon his farm, who should call his slave mother, and, hence, become his property, and increase the number of his live human stock.

To such an arrangement Anderson determined he would never be a party, and further, that if his master insisted upon his compliance, he would adopt means for making his escape from Missouri, and for reaching the free soil of Canada, from whose shores he might hurl defiance at slaveholders and kidnappers, secure of the protection of British law, and the sympathy and support of British philanthropy. At this time Anderson was ignorant of the nature of international treaties and the meaning of extradition laws.

HIS ESCAPE FKOM SLAVERY. 13

Chapter III

ANDERSON'S ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY.— DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AND LIBERTY.

Leaves the Plantation. — Bids farewell to his Wife and Child. — Encounters Diggs, a Slaveholder. — « Give me Liberty, or give me Death." — Wounds his Adversary and Flies — Perilous Journey through the Woods. — Reaches the State of Illinois. — Hospitality of an English Settler. — Proceeds to Chicago.

As Andersons master insisted that he should follow the practice usual among plantation slaves, he at once proceeded to carry out his resolution to bid Mr. McDonald and slavery, " good bye." He chose a Sunday at the latter end of September (having been but six or seven weeks in his new position) for his departure. The day seemed favourable for his project, as his master had been summoned from home to attend a church meeting, called to investigate a charge brought against a religious slaveholder of whipping a slave to death! To aid him in his flight he borrowed one of his master s mules, and two hours before daybreak made fast his blankets on the back of the mule, took a rope, some twenty feet long, to be of use in making a raft," and helping himself to a bridle, started for a ferry on the Missouri river.