/\^.\ c o *.^i..% y\j^srV. <.°/*~ vo* . . an, +> . V , . • • °. . % 4,0" °roperty, and would prevent in some cases the vio- ence done to the feelings of such connections by sales either compulsory or voluntary. We are sat- isfied that it would be beneficial to the master and slave to promote marriage, and the observance of all its duties and relations." Much as I have differed with the editor of the Southern Press in his general views of public policy, I am disposed to forgive him past errors in consideration of his public acknowledgment of this " incidental evil," and his frank recommend- ation of its removal. A Southern newspaper less devoted than the Southern Press to the mainte- nance of slavery would be seriously compromised by such a suggestion, and its advice would be far less likely to be heeded. I think, therefore, that Mr. Fisher deserves the thanks of every good man, North and South, for thus boldly pointing out the necessity of reform. The picture which Mrs. Stowe has drawn of slav- ery as an institution is anything but favorable. She has illustrated the frightful cruelty and op- pression that must result from a law which gires to one class of society almost absolute and irre- sponsible power over another. Yet the very ma- chinery she has employed for this purpose shows that all who are parties to the system are not necessarily culpable. It is a high virtue in St. Clare to purchase Uncle Tom. He is actuated by no selfish or improper motive. Moved by a desire to gratify his daughter, and prompted by his own humane feelings, he purchases a slave, in order to rescue him from a hard fate on the plantations. If he had not been a slave-holder before, it was now his duty to become one. This, I think, is the moral to be drawn from the story of St. Clare ; and the South have a right to claim the authority of Mrs. Stowe in defence of slave-holding, to this extent. It may be said that it was the duty of St. Clare to emancipate Uncle Tom ; but the wealth of the Ilothschilds would not enable a man to act out his benevolent instincts at such a price. And if such was his duty, is it not equally the duty of every monied man in the free states to attend the New Orleans slave-mart with the same benevolent pur- pose in view 1 It seems to me that to purchase a slave with the purpose of saving him from a hard and cruel fate, and without any view to emanci- pation, is itself a good action. If the slave should subsequently become able to redeem himself, it would doubtless he the duty of the owner to eman- cipate him ; and it would be but even-handed justice to sec down every dollar of the slave's earn- ings, above the expense of his maintenance, to his credit, until the price paid for him should be fully restored. This is all that justice could exact of the slave-holder. Those who have railed against " Uncle Tom's Cabin" as an incendiary publication have singu- larly (supposing that they have read the book) over- looked the moral of the hero's life. Uncle Tom is the most faithful of servants. He literally " obeyed in all things" his " masters according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God." If his con- duct exhibits the slightest departure from a lit- eral fulfilment of this injunction of Scripture, it is in a case which must command the appro- bation of the most rigid casuist ; for the injunc- tion of obedience extends, of course, only to law- ful commands. It is only when the monster Legree commands him to inflict undeserved chas- tisement upon his fellow-servants, that Uncle Tom refuses obedience. He would not listen to a prop- osition of escaping into Ohio with the young woman Eliza, on the night after they were sold by Mr. Shelby to the trader Haley. He thought it would be bad faith to his late master, whom he had nursed in his arms, and might be the means of bringing him into difficulty. He offered no resistance to Haley, and obeyed even Legree in every legitimate command. But when he was required to be the instrument of his master's cruelty, he chose rather to die, with the courage and resolution of a Christian martyr, than to save his life by a guilty compliance. Such was Uncle Tom — not a bad example for the imitation of man or master. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your ob't serv't, Daniel R. Goodloe. A. M. Gangewer, Esq., Washington, D. C. The writer has received permission to publish the following extract from a letter received by a lady at the North from the C6 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. editor of a Southern paper. The mind and character of the author will speak for them- selves, in the reading of it : Charleston, Sunday, 25th July, 1852. * * * The books, I infer, are Mrs. Beecher Stowe's " Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book was fur- nished me by , about a fortnight ago, and you may be assured I read it with an atten- tive interest. ' ' Now, what is your opinion of it J" you will ask ; and, knowing my preconceived opin- ions upon the question of slavery, and the em- bodiment of my principles, which I have so long supported, in regard to that peculiar institution, you may be prepared to meet an indirect answer. This my own consciousness of truth would not allow, in the present instance. The book is a truthful picture of life, with the dark outlines beautifully portrayed. The life — the character- istics, incidents, and the dialogues — is life itself reduced to paper. In her appendix she rather evades the question whether it was taken from actual scenes, but says there are many counter- parts. In this she is correct, beyond doubt. Had she changed the picture of Legree, on Red river, for , on Island, South Carolina, she could not have drawn a more admirable portrait. I am led to question whether she had not some knowledge of this beast, as he is known to be, and made the transposition for effect. My position in connection with the extreme party, both in Georgia and South Carolina, would constitute a restraint to the full expression of my feelings upon several of the governing principles of the institution. I have studied slavery, in all its different phases, — have been thrown in contact with the negro in different parts of the world, and made it my aim to study his nature, so far as my limited abilities would give me light, — and, whatever my opinions have been, they were based upon what I supposed to be honest convictions. During the last three years you well know •what my opportunities have been to examine all the sectional bearings of an institution which now holds the great and most momentous question of our federal well-being. These opportunities I have not let pass, but have given myself, body and soul, to a knowledge of its vast intricacies, — to its constitutional compact, and its individual hardships. Its wrongs are in the constituted rights of the master, and the blank letter of those laws which pretend to govern the bondman's rights. What legislative act, based upon the construction of self-protection for the very men who contemplate the laws, — even though their intention was amelioration, — could be enforced, when the legislated object is held as the bond prop- erly of the legislator '! The very fact of constituting a law for the amelioration of property becomes an absurdity, so far as carrying it out is concerned. A law which is intended to govern, and gives the governed no means of seeking its protection, is like the clustering together of so many use- less words for vain show. But why talk of law* That which is considered the popular rights of a people, and every tenacious prejudice set forth to protect its property interest, creates its own power, against every weaker vessel. Laws which inter- fere with this become unpopular, — repugnant to a forceable will, and a dead letter in effect. So long as the voice of the governed cannot be heard, and his wrongs are felt beyond the jurisdiction or domain of the law, as nine-tenths are, where is the hope of redress ? The master is the powerful vessel; the negro feels his dependence, and, fear- ing the consequences of an appeal for his rights, submits to the cruelty of his master, in preference to the dread of something more cruel. It is in those disputed cases of cruelty we find the wrongs of slavery, and in those governing laws which give power to bad Northern men to become the most cruel task-masters. Do not judge, from my obser- vations, that I am seeking consolation for the abolitionists. Such is not my intention ; but truth to a course which calls loudly for reformation con- strains me to say that humanity calls for some law to govern the force and absolute will of the master, and to reform no part is more requisite than that which regards the slave's food and raiment. A person must live years at the South before he can become fully acquainted with the many workings of slavery. A Northern man not prominently interested in the political and social weal of the South may live for years in it, and pass from town to town in his every-day pursuits, and yet see but the polished side of slavery. With me it has been different. Its effect upon the negro himself, and its effect upon the social and commercial well-being of Southern society, has been laid broadly open to me, and I have seen more of its workings within the past year than was disclosed to me all the time before. It is with these feelings that I am constrained to do credit to Mrs. Stowe's book, which I consider must have been written by one who derived the materials from a thorough acquaintance with the subject. The character of the slave-dealer, the bankrupt owner in Kentucky, and the Now Or- leans merchant, are simple every-day occurrences in these parts. Editors may speak of the dramatic effect as they please ; the tale is not told them, and the occurrences of common reality would form a picture more glaring. I could write a work, with date and incontrovertible facts, of abuses which stand recorded in the knowledge of the community in which they were transacted, that would need no dramatic effect, and would stand out ten-fold more horrible than anything Mrs. Stowe has described. I have read two columns in the Soul/urn Press of Mrs. Eastman's " Aunt Pliillis' Cabin, or Southern Life as It Is," with the remarks of the editor. I have no comments to make upon it, that being done by itself. The editor might have saved himself being-writ down an ass by the pub- lic, if he had withheld his nonsense. If the two columns are a specimen of Mrs. Eastman's book, I pity her attempt and her uamo as an author. PART II. CHAPTER I. TnE New York Courier and Enquirer of November 5th contained an article which has been quite valuable to the author, as summing up, in a clear, concise and intel- ligible form, the principal objections which may be urged to Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is here quoted in full, as the foundation of the remarks in the following pages. The author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," that writer states, has committed false-witness against thousands and millions of her fellow- men. She has done it [he says] by attaching to them as slaveholders, in the eyes of the world, the guilt of the abuses of an institution of which they are absolutely guiltless. Her story is so devised as to j}resent slavery in three dark aspects : first, the cruel treatment of the slaves ; second, the separa- tion of families; and, third, their want of religious instruction. To show the first, she causes a reward to be offered for the recovery of a runaway slave, " dead or alive," when no reward with such an alterna- tive was ever heard of, or dreamed of, south of Mason and Dixon's line, and it has been decided over and over again in Southern courts that " a slave who is merely flying away cannot be killed." She puts such language as this into the mouth of one of her speakers : — "The master who goes furthest and does the worst only uses within limits the power that the law gives him ;" when, in fact, the civil code of the very state where it is represented the language was uttered — Louisiana — declares that " The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or muti- late him, or to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.'" And provides for a compulsory sale " When the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment of his slaves, and the judge shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the penalty estab- lished for such cases, that the slave be sold at public auction, in order to place him out of the reach of the power which the master has abused." " If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill his slave, or the slave of another person, the said person, being convicted thereof, shall bo tried and condemned agreeably to the laws." In the General Court of Virginia, last year, in the case of Souther v. the Commonwealth, it was held that the killing of a slave by his master and owner, by wilful and excessive whipping, is mur- der in the first degree, though it may not have been the purpose of the master and owner to hill the slave ! And it is not six months since Governor Johnston, of Virginia, pardoned a slave who killed his master, who was beating him with brutal severity. And yet, in the face of such laws and decisions as these, Mrs. Stowe winds up a long series of cruelties upon her other black personages, by causing her faultless hero, Tom, to be literally whipped to death in Louisiana, by his master, Legree ; and these acts, which the laws make criminal, and punish as such, she sets forth in the most repulsive colors, to illustrate the insti- tution of slavery ! So, too, in reference to the separation of chil- dren from their parents. A considerable part of the plot is made to hinge upon the selling, in Louisiana, of the child Eliza, " eight or nine years old," away from her mother; when, had its inventor looked in the statute-book of Louis- iana, she would have found the following lan- guage : " Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers the children who shall not have attained the full age of ten years. ' ' " Be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall sell the mother of any slave child or children under the age of ten years, separate from said child or children, or shall, the mother living, sell any slave child or children of ten years of age, or under, separate from said mother, said person or persons shall be fined not less than one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars, and be imprisoned in the public jail for a period of not less than six months nor more than one year." The privation of religious instruction, as repre- sented by Mrs. Stowe, is utterly unfounded in fact. The largest churches in the Union consist entirely of slaves. The first African church in Louisville, which numbers fifteen hundred persons, and the first African church in Augusta, which numbers thirteen hundred, are specimens. On multitudes of the large plantations in the different parts of the South the ordinances of the gospel are as reg- ularly maintained, by competent ministers, as in any other communities, north or south. A larger proportion of the slave population are in commu- nion with some Christian church, than of the white population in any part of the country. A very considerable portion of every southern congiv^a tion, either in city or country, is sure to consist of blacks ; whereas, of our northern churches, not a colored person is to be seen in one out of fifty. The peculiar falsity of this whole book consists in making exceptional or impossible cases the rep- G8 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. resentatives of the system. By the same process which she has used, it would not be difficult to frame a fatal argument against the relation of husband and wife, or parent and child, or of guard- ian and ward ; for thousands of wives and chil- dren and wards have been maltreated, and even murdered. It is wrong, unpardonably wrong, to impute to any relation of life those enormities which spring only out of the worst depravity of human nature. A ridiculously extravagant spirit of generalization pervades this fiction from begin- ning to end. The Uncle Tom of the authoress is a perfect angel, and her blacks generally are half angels ; her Simon Legree is a perfect demon, and her whites generally are half demons. She has quite a peculiar spite against the clergy ; and, of the many she introduces at different times into the scenes, all, save an insignificant exception, are Pharisees or hypocrites. One who could know nothing of the United States and its people, except by what he might gather from this book, would judge that it was some region just on the confines of the infernal world. We do not say that Mrs. Stowe was actuated by wrong motives in the i reparation of this work, but we do say that she las done a wrong which no ignorance can excuse and no penance can expiate. A much- valued correspondent of the au- thor, writing from Richmond, Virginia, also uses the following language : I will venture this morning to make a few suggestions which have occurred to me in regard to future editions of your work, " Uncle Tom's Cabin, r ' which I desire should have all the influence of which your genius renders it capable, not only abroad, but in the local sphere of slavery, where it has been hitherto repudiated. Possessing al- ready the great requisites of artistic beauty and of sympathetic affection, it may yet be improved in regard to accuracy of statement without being at all enfeebled. For example, you do less than justice to the formalized laws of the Southern States, while you give more credit than is due to the virtue of public or private sentiment in restrict- ing the evil which the laws permit. I enclose the following extracts from a southern paper : "' I '11 manage thatar ; they 's young in the business, and must speet to work cheap,' said Marks, as he con- tinued to read. ' Thar 's three on 'em easy cases, 'cause all you've got to do is to shoot 'cm, or swear they is shot ; they couldn't, of course, chargo much for that.' " " The reader will observe that two charges against the South are involved in this precious discourse ; — one that it is the habit of Southern masters to offer a reward, with the alternative of ' dead or alive,' for their fugitive slaves ; and the other, that it is usual for pursuers to siioot them, [ndeed, we are led to infer that, as the shooting is the easier mode 01 obtaining the reward, it is the more frequently employed in such cases. Now, when a southern master offers a reward for ins runaway slave, it is becau ■ be has lost a cer- tain amount of property, represented by the negro which he wishes to recover. What man of Ver- mont, having an ox or an ass that had gone astray, would forthwith oflfer half the full value of the animal, not for the carcass, which might be turned to some useful purpose, but for the unavailing satis- faction of its head ! 5fel are tb i two cases exactly parallel YVVftlr regard tc the assumption that men are permitted to go about, at the South, with double-barrelled guns, shooting down runaway negroes, in preference to apprehending them, we can only say that it is as wicked and wilful as it is ridiculous. Such Thugs there may have been as Marks and Loker, who have killed negroes in this unprovoked manner ; but, if they have escaped the gallows, they are probably to be found within the walls of our state penitentiaries, where they , are comfortably provided for at public expense. The laws of the Southern States, which are de- signed, as in all good governments, for the pro- tection of persons and property, have not been so loosely framed as to fail of their object where person and property are one. " The law with regard to the killing of runaways is laid down with so much clearness and precision by a South Carolina judge, that we cannot forbear quoting his dictum, as directly in point. In the case of Witsell v. Earnest and Parker, Colcock J. delivered the opinion of the court : " ' By the statute of 1740, any white man may apprehend, and moderately correct, any slave who may be found out of the plantation at which he is employed ; and if the slave assaults the white person, he may be killed ; but a slave who is merely flying away cannot be killed. Nor can the defendants be justified by the common law, if Ave consider the negro as a person ; for j an .term isis. they were not clothed with the au- l Nott & Mc- thority of the law to apprehend him Cora's s. G. as a felon, and without such authority kep ' he could not be killed.' " ' It 's commonly supposed that the property interest is a sufficient guard in these cases. If people choose to ruin their possessions, I don't know what 's to be done. It seems the poor creature was a thief and a drunkard ; and so there won't be much hope to get up sympathy for her.' '" It is perfectly outrageous, — it is horrid, Augustine ! It will certainly bring down vengeance upon you.' " ' My dear cousin, I did n't do it, and I can't help it ; I would, if I could. If low-minded, brutal people will act like themselves, what am I to do 1 They have abso- lute control ; they are irresponsible despots . There would be no use in interfering ; there is no law, that a?nounts to any- thing practically, for such a case. The best we can do is to shut our eyes and ears, and let it alone. It 's the only resource left us.' " In a subsequent part of the same conversa- tion, St. Clare says : " • For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we are men born of women, and not savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not, — we would scorn to use the full power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes furthest and does the worst only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.' " Mrs. Stowe tells us, through St. Clare, that ' there is no law that amounts to anything ' in such cases, and that he who goes furthest in severity towards his slave, — that is, to the de- privation of an eye or a limb, or even the destruc- tion of life, — ' only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.' This is an awful and tremendous charge, which, lightly and unwarrant- ablv made, must subject the maker to a fearful accountability. Let us see how the matter stands upon the statute-book of Louisiana. By referring to the civil code of that state, chapter 3d, article li;'>, tho reader will find this general declaration : " ' The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastiso him, though not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.' KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 69 " On a subsequent page of the same volume and chapter, article 192, we find provision made for the slave's protection against his master's cruelty, in the statement that one of two cases, in which a master can be compelled to sell his slave, is " ' When the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment of his slave, and the judge shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the penalty established for such cases, that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to place him out of the reach of the power which the master has abused.' " A code thus watchful of the negro's safety in life and limb confines not its guardianship to in- hibitory clauses, but proscribes extreme penalties in case of their infraction. In the Code Noir (Black Code) of Louisiana, under head of Crimes and Offences, No. 55, § xvi., it is laid down, that " ' If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill his slave, or the slave of another person, the said person, being convicted thereof, shall be tried and condemned agreeably to the laws.' " And because negro testimony is inadmissible in the courts of the state, and therefore the evi- dence of such crimes might be with difficulty sup- plied, it is further provided that, " ' If any slave be mutilated, beaten or ill- treated, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, when no one shall be present, in such case the owner, or other person having the man- agement of said slave thus mutilated, shall be deemed responsible and guilty of the said offence, and shall be prosecuted without further evidence, unless the said owner, or other person so as afore- said, can prove the contrary by means of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear himself by his own oath, which said oath every court, under the Code Noir. cognizance of which such offence shall Crimes and Of- have been examined and tried, is by fences, 56, xvii. ^jg ac ^ authorized to administer.' " Enough has been quoted to establish the utter falsity of the statement, made by our authoress through St. Clare, that brutal masters are ' irre- sponsible despots,' — at least in Louisiana. It would extend our review to a most unreasonable length, should we undertake to give the law, with regard to the murder of slaves, as it stands in each of the Southern States. The crime is a rare one, and therefore the reporters have had few cases to record. We may refer, however, to two. In Fields v. the State of Tennessee, the plaintiff in error was indicted in the circuit court of Maury county for the murder of a negro slave. He pleaded not guilty ; and at the trial was found fuilty of wilful and felonious slaying of the slave, 'rom this sentence he prosecuted his writ of error, which was disallowed, the court affirming the orig- inal judgment. The opinion of the court, as given by Peck J., overflows with the spirit of enlight- ened humanity. He concludes thus : " ' It is well said by one of the judges of North Carolina, that the master has a right to exact the labor of his slave ; that far, the rights of the slave are suspended ; but this gives the master no right over the life of his slave. I add to the saying of the judge, that law which says thou shalt not kill, protects the slave ; and he is within l Yergers its very letter. Law, reason, Chris- Tenn^iiep. t i an i ty> an( j CO mmon humanity, all point but one way. ' " In the General Court of Virginia, June term, 1851, in Souther v. the Commonwealth, it was held that ' the killing of a slave by his master and owner, by wilful and excessive whipping, is mur- der in the first degree ; though it may not have been the purpose of the master and owner to kill the slave: The writer shows, 7 R ^ rat ^' s also, an ignorance of the law of con- tracts, as it affects slavery in the South, in mak- ing George's master take him from the factory against the proprietor's consent. George, by vir- tue of the contract of hiring, had become the prop- erty of the proprietor for the time being, and his master could no more have taken him away forci- bly than the owner of a house in Massachusetts can dispossess his lessee, at any moment, from mere whim or caprice. There is no court in Ken- tucky where the hirer's rights, in this regard,- would not be enforced. " ■ No. Father bought her once, in one of his trips to New Orleans, and brought her up as a present to mother. She was about eight or nine years old, then. Father would never tell mother what he gave for her ; but, the other day, in looking over his old papers, we came across the bill of sale. He paid an extravagant sum for her, to be sure. I suppose, on account of her extraordinary beauty.' '* George sat with his back to Cassy, and did not see the absorbed expression of her countenance, as he was giving these details. " At this point in the story, she touched his arm, and, with a face perfectly white with interest, said, ' Do you know the names of the people he bought her of 1 ' " ' A man of the name of Simmons, I think, was the principal in the transaction. At least, I think that was the name in the bill of sale.' " ' 0, my God ! ' said Cassy, and fell insensible on the floor of the cabin." " Of course Eliza turns out to be Cassy 's child, and we are soon entertained with the family meet- ing in Montreal, where George Harris is living, five or six years after the opening of the story, in great comfort. " Now, the reader will perhaps be surprised to know that such an incident as the sale of Cassy apart from Eliza, upon which the whole interest of" the foregoing narrative hinges, never could have taken place in Louisiana, and that the bill of sale for Eliza would not have been worth the paper it was written on. Observe. George Shelby states that Eliza was eight or nine years old at the time his father purchased her in New Orleans. Let us again look at the statute-book of Louisiana. " In the Code Noir we find it set down that " ' Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers the children icho shall not have attained the full age often years: "And this humane provision is strengthened by a statute, one clause of which runs as follows : " ' Be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall sell the mother of any slave child or children under the age of ten years, separate from said child or children, or shall, the mother living, sell any slave child or children of ten years of age, or under, separate from said mother, such person or persons shall incur the penalty of the sixth section of this act.' "This penalty is a fine of not less than one thou sand nor more than two thousand dollars, and im- prisonment in the public jail for a period of not less than six months nor more than one year. — Vide Acts of Louisiana, 1 Session, 9th Legislature, 1828, 1829, No. 24, Section 16." The author makes here a remark. Scat- tered through all the Southern States are slaveholders who are such only in name. They have no pleasure in the system, they consider it one of wrong altogether, and they 70 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. hold the legal relation still, only because not yet clear with regard to the best way of changing it, so as to better the condition of those held. Such are most earnest advo- cates for state emancipation, and are friends of anything, written in a right spirit, which tends in that direction. From such the author ever receives criticisms with pleasure. She has endeavored to lay before the world, in the fullest manner, all that can be objected to her work, that both sides may have an opportunity of impartial hearing. When writing " Uncle Tom's Cabin," though entirely unaware and unexpectant of the importance which would be attached to its statements and opinions, the author of that work was anxious, from love of consist- ency, to have some understanding of the laws of the slave system. She had on hand for reference; while writing, the Code Noir of Louisiana, and a sketch of the laws relat- inc to slavery in the different states, by Judge Stroud, of Philadelphia. This work, professing to have been compiled with great care from the latest editions of the statute- books of the several states, the author sup- posed to be a sufficient guide for the writing of a work of fiction.* As the accuracy of those statements which relate to the slave- laws has been particularly contested, a more especial inquiry has been made in this direction. Under the guidance and with the assistance of legal gentlemen of high standing, the writer has proceeded to examine the statements of Judge Stroud with regard to statute-law, and to follow them up with some inquiry into the decisions of courts. The result has been an increasing conviction on her part that the impressions first derived from Judge Stroud's work were correct ; and the author now can only give the words of St. Clare, as the best possible expression of the sentiments and opinion which this course of reading has awakened in her mind. Tliis cursed business, accursed of God and man, — what is it 1 Strip it of all its ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it ! Why, because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong, — because I know how, and can do it, — therefore I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much as suits my fancy ! Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too disagreeable for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I don't like work, Quashy shall work. Because the sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in the sun. Quashy shall earn the money, and 1 will spend it. Quashy shall lie down in every puddle, that I may walk over dry shod. Quashy shall do my will, and not his, all the days of his mortal life, and have such a chance of getting to heaven at last as I find convenient. This I take to be about what slavery is. I defy anybody on earth to read our slave-code, as it stands in our law-books, and make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery ! Humbug ! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse. And the only reason why the land don't sink under it, like Sodom and Gomorrah, is because it is used in a way infinitely better than it is. For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we are men born of women, and not savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not, — we would scorn to use the full power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes the furthest, and does the worst, only uses within limits the power that the law gives him ! The author still holds to the opinion that slavery in itself, as legally defined in law- books and expressed in the records of courts, is the SUM AND ESSENCE OF ALL ABUSE ; and she still clings to the hope that there are many men at the South infinitely better than their laws ; and after the reader has read all the extracts which she has to make, for the sake of a common humanity they will hope the same. The author must state, with regard to some passages which she must quote, that the language of certain enact- ments was so incredible that she would not take it on the authority of any compilation whatever, but copied it with her own hand from the latest edition of the statute-book where it stood and still stands. * In this connection it may bo well to state that tho work of Judgo Stroud is now out of print, but that a work of tho same character is in courso of preparation by Wil- liam I. Bowditoh, Esq., of Boston, which will bring the 6ubjcct out, by the assistance of tho latest editions of statutes, and tho most recoct decisions of courts. CHAPTER H. WHAT IS SLAVERY 1 The author will now enter into a consid- eration of slavery as it stands revealed in slave law. What is it, according to the definition of law-books and of legal interpreters 7 ^ "A slave," says the law of Louisiana, "is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor ; lie can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to civil Code, his master." South Carolina says Art - 35 - " slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in the 'hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, TO all intents, con- o ' 2 Brev. Pig. STRUCTIONS AND PURPOSES WHAT- 2 29. Prince's soever. ' ' The law of G eorgia is 1)igest ' *** similar. Let the reader reflect on the extent of the meaning in this last clause. Judge KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 71 Ruffin, pronouncing the opinion of the Su- preme Court of North Carolina, says, a slave is "one doomed in his own person, and his posterity, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make any- XS,m thing his own, and to toil that state v. Mann. ano ther may reap the fruits." This is what slavery is, — this is what it is to be a slave ! The slave-code, then, of the Southern States, is designed to keep millions of human beings in the condition of chattels personal ; to keep them in a condition in which the master may sell them, dispose of their time, person and labor ; in which they can do nothing, possess nothing, and acquire nothing, except for the benefit of the master ; in which they are doomed in themselves and in their posterity to live without knowledge, without the power to make anything their own, — to toil that another may reap. The laws of the slave-code are designed to work out this problem, consistently with the peace of the community, and the safety of that superior race which is constantly to perpetrate tins outrage. From this simple statement of what the laws of slavery are designed to do, — from a consideration that the class thus to be re- duced, and oppressed, and made the sub- jects of a perpetual robbery, are men of like passions with our own, men originally made in the image of God as much as our- selves, men partakers of that same human- ity of which Jesus Christ is the highest ideal and expression, — when we consider that the material thus to be acted upon is that fearfully explosive element, the soul of man ; that soul elastic, upspringing, immor- tal, whose free will even the Omnipotence of God refuses to coerce, — we may form some idea of the tremendous force which is necessary to keep this mightiest of elements in the state of repression which is contem- plated in the definition of slavery. Of course, the system necessary to con- summate and perpetuate such a work, from age to age, must be a fearfully stringent one ; and our readers will find that it is so. Men who make the laws, and men who in- terpret them, may be fully sensible of their terrible severity and inhumanity; but, if they are going to preserve the thing, they have no resource but to make the laws, and to execute them faithfully after they are made. They may say, with the honorable Judge Ruffin, of North Carolina, when sol- emnly from the bench announcing this great foundation principle of slavery, that " the POWER OP THE MASTER MUST BE ABSO- LUTE, TO RENDER THE SUBMISSION OF THE slave perfect," — they may say, with him, "I most freely confess my sense of the harshness of this proposition ; I feel it as deeply as any man can ; and, as a prin- ciple of moral right, every person in his re- tirement must repudiate it ; " — but they will also be obliged to add, with him, " But, in the actual condition of things, it must be so. * * This discipline belongs to the state of slavery. * * * It is in- herent in the relation of master and slave." And, like Judge Ruffin, men of honor, men of humanity, men of kindest and gentlest feelings, are obliged to interpret these severe laws with inflexible severity. In the per- petual reaction of that awful force of human passion and human will, which necessarily meets the compressive power of slavery, — in that seething, boiling tide, never wholly repressed, which rolls its volcanic stream un- derneath the whole frame- work of society so constituted, ready to find vent at the least rent or fissure or unguarded aperture, — there is a constant necessity which urges to severity of law and inflexibility of execution. So Judge Ruffin says, "We cannot allow the right of the matter to be brought into discussion in the courts of justice. The slave, to remain a slave, must be made sensible that there is no appeal from his mas- ter." Accordingly, we find in the more southern states, where the slave population is most accumulated, and slave property most necessary and valuable, and, of course, the determination to abide by the system the most decided, there the enactments are most severe, and the interpretation of courts the most inflexible.* And, when legal decisions of a contrary character begin to be made, it would appear that it is a symptom of leaning towards emancipation. So abhorrent is the slave-code to every feeling of humanity, that just as soon as there is any hesitancy in the community about perpetuating the institu- tion of slavery, judges begin to listen to the voice of their more honorable nature, and by favorable interpretations to soften its neces- sary severities. Such decisions do not commend them- selves to the professional admiration of legal gentlemen. But in the workings of the slave system, when the irresponsible power which it guarantees comes to be used by men * We except the State of Louisiana. Owing to the influence of the French codo in that state, more really humane provisions prevail there. How much these pro- visions avail in point of fact, will be shown when we come to that part of the subject. T. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. of the most brutal nature, cases sometimes arise for trial where the consistent exposi- tion of the law involves results so loathsome and frightful, that the judge prefers to be illogical, rather than inhuman. Like a spring outgushing in the desert, some noble man, now and then, from the fulness of his own better nature, throws out a legal decision, generously inconsistent with every principle and precedent of slave jurisprudence, and we bless God for it. All we wish is that there were more of them, for then should we hope that the day of redemption was drawing nigh. The reader is now prepared to enter with us on the proof of this proposition : That the slave-code is designed only for the security of the master, and not with re- gard to the welfare of the slave. This is implied in the whole current of law-making and law-administration, and is often asserted in distinct form, with a pre- cision and clearness of legal accuracy which, in a literary point of view, are quite admira- ble. Thus, Judge Ruffin, after stating that considerations restricting the power of the master had often been drawn from a com- parison of slavery with the relation of parent and child, master and apprentice, tutor and pupil, says distinctly : The court does not recognize their application. There is no likeness between the cases. They are in opposition to each other, and there is an impass- able gulf between them. * * * . * In the one [case], the end in view is the happiness of tlie youth, born to equal rights with that gov- ernor, on whom the duty devolves of training the young to usefulness, in a station which he is after- wards to assume among freemen. * * * * With , slavery it is far other wise. The end cK«y)p5 " ihe P ro f U °f t] . ie master > his secu_ 240. ritv and the public safety. Not only is this principle distinctly as- serted in so many words, but it is more dis- tinctly implied in multitudes of the arguings and reasonings winch are given as grounds of le^al decisions. Even such provisions as seem to be for the benefit of the slave we often find carefully interpreted so as to show that it is only on account of his property value to his master that he is thus protected, and not from any consideration of humanity towards himself. Thus it has been decided that a master can bring no action for assault wi ier'si*w and battery on his slave, unless of slavery, p. t/ ie injury be such as to pro- duce a loss of service. The spirit in which this question is dis- cussed is worthy of remark. We give a brief statement of the case, as presented in Wheeler, p. 239. It was an action for assault and battery committed by Dale on one Cornfute's slave. It was contended by Cornfute's counsel that it was not necessary to prove comfute». loss of service, in order that the ^f'^gS action should be sustained ; that inar.& Johns. an action might be supported for ep- beating plaintiff's horse; and usi-Z^yi- that the lord might have an ac- ner ' s Abr - 454 * tion for the battery of his villein, which is founded on this principle, that, as the villein could not support the action, the injury would be without redress, nnless the lord could. On the other side it was said that Lord Chief Justice Raymond had decided that an assault on a horse was no cause of action, unless accompanied with a special damage of the animal, which would impair his value. Chief Justice Chase decided that no re- dress could be obtained in the case, because the value of the slave had not been impaired, and without injury or wrong to the mas- ter no action could be sustained ; and as- signed this among other reasons for it, that there was no reciprocity in the case, as the master was not liable for assault and battery committed by his slave, neither could he gain redress for one committed upon Iris slave. Let any reader now imagine what an amount of wanton cruelty and indignity may be heaped upon a slave man or woman or child without actually impairing their power to do service to the master, and he will have a full sense of the cruelty of this decision. In the same spirit it has been held in North Carolina that patrols (night watch- men) are not liable to the master Tate „ 'Neai, for inflicting punishment on the [ T ^j£ ^t slave, unless their conduct clear- 2, p. 797, § 120. ly demonstrates malice against the master. The cool-bloodedness of some of these legal discussions is forcibly shown by two deci- sions in Wheeler's Law of Slavery, p. 243. On the question Avhether the criminal offence of assault and battery can be committed on a slave, there are two decisions of the two States of South and North Carolina ; audit is difficult to say which of these Sute ,, Mrinerj decisions has the preeminence Jgj^*^, for cool legal inhumanity. That Law of Slavery, of South Carolina reads thus. Judge O'Neill says : page 243. Tho criminal offence of assault and battery can not, at common law, lie committed upon the per- son of a slave. For notwithstanding (for some purposes) a Blave is regarded by law as a person, ye\ generally he is a mere chattel personal, and his KEY TO UNJLE TOM'S CABIN. 73 right of personal protection belongs to his master, ■who can maintain an action of trespass for the bat- tery of his slave. There can be therefore no offence against the state for a mere beating of a slave unac- companied with any circumstances of cruelty (! !), or an attempt to kill and murder. The peace of the state is not thereby broken; for a slave is not generally regarded as legally capable of being within the peace of the state. He is not a citi- zen, and is not in that character entitled to her protection. What declaration of the utter indifference of the state to the sufferings of the slave could be more elegantly cool and clear? &e state v. But in North Carolina it appears p. 239. 2Hawk! that the case is argued still more N-c.Bep.58a elaborately. Chief Justice Taylor thus shows that, after all, there are reasons why an assault and battery upon the slave may, on the ■whole, have some such general connection with the comfort and security of the com- munity, that it may be construed into a breach of the peace, and should be treated as an indictable offence. The instinct of a slave may be, and generally is, tamed into subservience to his master's will, and from him he receives chastisement, w T hether it be merited or not, with perfect submission ; for he knows the extent of the dominion assumed over him, and that the law ratifies the claim. But when the same authority is w r antonly usurped by a stranger, nature is disposed to assert her rights, and to prompt the slave to a resistance, often momentarily successful, sometimes fatally so. The public peace is thus broken, as much as if a free man had been beaten ; for the party of the aggressor is always the strongest, and such con- tests usually terminate by overpowering the slave, and inflicting on him a severe chastisement, with- out regard to the original cause of the conflict. There is, consequently, as much reason for mak- ing such offences indictable as if a white man had been the victim. A wanton injury committed on a slave is a great provocation to the owner, awakens his resentment, and has a direct tendency to a breach of the peace, by inciting him to seek immediate ven- geance. If resented in the heat of blood, it would probably extenuate a homicide to manslaughter, upon the same principle with the case stated by Lord Hale, that if A riding on the road, B had whipped his horse out of the track, and then A had alighted and killed B. These offences are usually committed by men of dissolute habits, hanging loose upon society, who, being repelled from association with well-disposed citizens, take refuge in the company of colored persons and staves, whom they deprave by their example, embold- en by their familiarity, and then beat, under the expectation that a slave dare not resent a blow from a white man. If such offences may be committed with impunity, the public peace will not only be rendered extremely insecure, but the value of slave property must be much impaired, for the offenders can seldom make any reparation in damages. Nor is it necessary, in any case, that a person who has received an injury, real or imaginary, froiu a slave, should carve out his own justice ; for the law has made ample and summary pro- vision for the punishment of all trivial offences com- mitted by slaves, by carrying them be- fore a justice, who is authorized to j Rev code, pass sentence for their being publicly 448. whipped. This provision, while it excludes the necessity of private vengeance, would seem to forbid its legality, since it effectually pro- tects all persons from the insolence of slaves, even where their masters are unwilling to correct them upon complaint being made. The common law has often been called into efficient operation, for the punishment of public cruelty inflicted -upon animals, for needless and wanton barbarity exer- cised even by masters upon their slaves, and for various violations of decency, morals, and comfort. Reason and analogy seem to require that a human being, although the subject of property, should be so far protected as the public might be injured through him. For all purposes necessary to enforce the obe- dience of the slave, and to render him useful as property, the law secures to the master a com- plete authority over him, and it will not lightly interfere with the relation thus established. It is a more effectual guarantee of his right of property, when the slave is protected from wanton abuse from those who have no power over him ; for it cannot be disputed that a slave is rendered less capable of performing his master's service when he finds himself exposed by the law to the capricious vio- lence of every turbulent man in the community. If this is not a scrupulous disclaimer of all humane intention in the decision, as far as the slave is concerned, and an explicit declaration that he is protected only out of regard to the comfort of the community, and his property value to his master, it is difficult to see how such a declaration could be made. After all this cool-blooded course of remark, it is somewhat curious to come upon the fol- lowing certainly most unexpected declaration, which occurs in the very next paragraph : Mitigated as slavery is by the humanity of oirr taws, the refinement of manners, and by pxddic opinion, which revolts at every instance of cruelty towards them, it would be an anomaly in the sys- tem of police which affects them, if the offenco stated in the verdict were not indictable. - The reader will please to notice that this remarkable declaration is made of the State of North Carolina. We shall have occa- sion again to refer to it by and by, when we extract from the statute-book of North Carolina some specimens of these humane laws. In the same spirit it is decided, under the law of Louisiana, that if an individual in- jures another's slave so as to make him en- tirely useless, and the owner recovers from him the full value of the slave, the slave by that act becomes thenceforth the Jourdain ^ property of the person who in- ration, July f r , , J . * i • • i A' term, 1818. 5 J ured him. A decision tO this Martin's Louis. effect is given in Wheeler's Law ltep - 615> 74 KEY' TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. of Slavery, p. 249. A woman sued for an in- jury done to her slave by the slave of the de- fendant. The injury was such as to render him entirely useless, his only eye being put out. The parish court decreed that she should recover twelve hundred dollars, that the de- fendant should pay a further sum of twenty- five dollars a month from the time of the injury; also the physician's bill, and two hundred dollars for the sustenance of the slave during his life, and that ho should remain forever in the possession of his mis- tress. The case was appealed. The judge re- versed the decision, and delivered the slave into the possession of the man whose slave had committed the outrage. In the course of the decision, the judge remarks, with that calm legal explicitness for which many decisions of this kind are remarkable, that The principle of humanity, which would lead us to suppose that the mistress, whom he had long served, would treat her miserahle Wind slave with more kindness than the defendant, to whom the judgment ought to transfer him, cannot be taken into consideration in deciding this case. T 4 1Q , Another case, reported in Wheel- jan. term, is-28. K r\r> l l QMartii, La. er s Law, page 198, the author ep ' thus summarily abridges. It is Dorothee v. Coquillon et al. A young girl, by will of her mistress, was to have her free- dom at twenty -one ; and it was required by the will that in the mean time she should be educated in such a manner as to enable her to earn her living when free, her services in the mean time being bequeathed to the daughter of the defendant. Her mother (a free woman) entered complaint that no care was taken of the child's education, and that she was cruelly treated. The prayer of the petition was that the child be declared free at twenty-one, and in the mean time hired out by the sheriff. The suit was decided against the mother, on this ground, — that she could not sue for her daughter in a case where the daughter could not sue for herself were she of age, — ■ the object of the suit being relief from ill-treatment during the time of her slavery, which a slave cannot sue for. Jan. term, WW. Observe, now, the^ following 4 ircord'aRep. case of Jennings v. Fundeberg. 161. Wheeler's _ T . ° , . & Law cf Slavery, It seems Jennings brings an ac- v ' tion of trespass against Funde- berg for killing his slave. The case was thus : Fundeberg with others, being out hunting runaway negroes, surprised them in their camp, and, as the report says, "fired his gun toivards them as they were run- ning away, to induce them to stop." One of them, being shot through the head, was thus induced to stop, — and the master of the boy brought action for trespass against the firer for killing his slave. The decision of the inferior court was as follows : The court " thought the killing acciden- tal, and that the defendant ought not to be made answerable as a trespasser." * * * * " When one is lawfully interfering with the property of another, and accidentally de- stroys it, he is no trespasser, and ought not to be answerable for the value of the prop- erty. In this case, the defendant was en- gaged in a lawful and meritorious service, and if he really fired his gun in the manner stated it was an allowable act." The superior judge reversed the decision, on the ground that in dealing with another person's property one is responsible for any injury which he could have avoided by any degree of circumspection. "The firing .... was rasJi and incautious." Does not the whole spirit of this discus- sion speak for itself? r, l , x1 • Jan. T. 1827. 4 bee also the very next case in M'Cord's Reo- Wheeler's Law. Richardson v. 156 - Dukes, p. 202. Trespass for killing the plaintiff's slave. It appeared the slave was stealing potatoes from a bank near the defendant's house. The defendant fired upon him with a gun loaded with buckshot, and killed him. The jury found a verdict for plaintiff for one dollar. Motion for a new trial. The Court. Nott J. held, there must be a new trial ; that the jury ought to have given the plaintiff the value of the slave. That if the jury were of opinion the slave was of bad character, some deduction from the usual price ought to be made, but the plaintiff was certainly entitled to his actual damage for killing his slave. Where property is in question, the value of the article, as nearly as it can be ascertained, furnishes a rule from which they are not at liberty to depart. It seems that the value of this unfortunate piece of property was somewhat reduced from the circumstance of his " stealing pota- toes." Doubtless he had his own best rea- sons for this ; so, at least, we should infer from the following remark, which wheeler's Law occurs in one of the reasonings °f Slavery, m of Judge Taylor, of N. Carolina. " The act of 1786 (Iredell's Revisal, p. 588) does, in the preamble, recognize the fact, that many persons, by cruel treatment to their slai-cs, cause them to commit crimes for which they are executed. * * The cruel treatment here al- luded to must consist in withholding from them the necessaries of life; and the crimes thus resulting are such as are calculated to furnish them with food and raiment" KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 75 Perhaps u stealing potatoes " in this case was one of the class of crimes alluded to. ■\vhitseii v. Again we have the following Earnest & Par- ° ° ker. Wheeler, Case : p. 202. The defendants went to the plantation of Mrs. Witsell for the purpose of hunting for runaway negroes ; there being many in the neighborhood , and the place in considerable alarm. As they approached the house with loaded guns, a negro ran from the house, or near the house, towards a swamp, when they fired and killed him. The judge charged the jury, that such cir- cumstances might exist, by the excitement and alarm of the neighborhood, as to authorize the killing of a negro without the sanction of a magis- trate. This decision was reversed in the Superior Court, in the following language : By the statute of 1740, any white man may apprehend and moderately correct any slave who may be found out of the plantation at which he is employed, and if the slave assaults the white person , he may be killed ; but a slave who is merely flying away cannot be killed. Nor can the de- fendants be justified by common law, if we consider the negro as a person; for they were not clothed with the authority of the law to apprehend him as a felon, and without such authority he could not be killed. If we consider the negro a person, says the judge ; and, from Ins decision in the case, he evidently intimates that he has a strong leaning to this opinion, though it has been contested by so many eminent legal authorities that he puts forth his sentiment modestly, and in an hypothetical form. The reader, perhaps, will need to be informed that the question whether the slave is to be considered a person or a human being in any respect has been extensively and ably argued on both sides in legal courts, and it may be a comfort to know that the balance of legal opinion inclines in favor of the slave. Judge Clarke, of Mississippi, is quite clear on the point, and argues very ably and earnestly, though, as he confesses, against very respect- able legal authorities, that the slave is a person, — that he is a reasonable creature. Tr , . The reasoning occurs in the case Wheeler, p. „,,.?.. T 252. State oi Mississippi v. Jones, and JuneT.,1820. . ,, c ,. r A i-.' walker's is worthy ot attention as a literary Rep. 83. curiosity. It seems that a case of murder of a slave had been clearly made out and proved in the lower court, and that judgment was arrested and the case appealed on the ground wheth- er, in that state, murder could be committed on a slave. Judge Clarke thus ably and earnestly argues : The question in this case is, wh'ether murder can be committed on a slave. Because individuals may have been deprived of many of their rights by society, it does not follow, that they have been deprived of all their rights. In some respects, slaves may be considered as chattels ; but in others, they are regarded as men. The law views them as capable of committing crimes. This can only be upon the principle, that they are men and ra- tional beings. The Roman law has been much relied on by the counsel of the defendant. Thai law was confined to the Roman empire, giving the power of life and death over captives in war, as slaves ; but it no more extended here, than the sim- ilar power given to parents over the lives of their children. Much stress has al3o been laid by the defendant's counsel on the case cited from Tay- lor's Reports, decided in North Carolina ; yet, in that case, two judges against one were of opinion, that killing a slave was murder. Judge Hall, who delivered the dissenting opinion in the above ease, based his conclusions, as we conceive, upon erro- neous principles, by considering the laws of Rome applicable here. His inference, alio, that a per- son cannot be condemned capitally, because he may be liable in a civil action, is not sustained by reason or authority, but appears to us to be in direct opposition to both. At a very early period in Virginia, the power of life OTer slaves was given by statute ; but Tucker observes, that as soon as these statutes were repealed, it was at once con- sidered by their courts that the killing of a slave might be murder. Commonwealth v. Dolly Chap- man : indictment for maliciously stabbing a slave, under a statute. It has been determined in Virginia that slaves are persons. In the con- stitution of the United States, slaves aTe ex- pressly designated as " persons." In this state the legislature have considered slaves as rea- sonable and accountable beings ; and it would be a stigma upon the character of the state, and a reproach to the administration of justice, if the life of a slave could be taken with impunity, or if he could be murdered in cold blood, without sub- jecting the offender to the highest penalty known to the criminal jurisprudence of the country. Has the slave no rights, because he is deprived of his freedom? He is still a human being, and pos- sesses all those rights of which he is not deprived by the positive provisions of the law; but in vain shall we look for any law passed by the enlight- ened and philanthropic legislature of this state, giving even to the master, much less to a stranger, power over the life of a slave. Such a statute would be worthy the age of Draco or Caligula, and would be condemned by the unanimous voice of the people of this state, where even cruelty to slaves, much [more] the taking away of life, meets with universal reprobation. By the provisions of our law, a slave may commit murder, and be pun- ished with death ; why, then, is it not murder to kill a slave 1 Can a mere chattel commit murder, and be subject to punishment ? The right of the master exists not by force of the law of nature or nations, but by virtue only of the positive law of the state; and although that gives to the master the right to command the services of the slave, requiring the master to feed and clothe the slave from infancy till death, yet it gives the master no right to take the life of the slave ; and, if the offence be not murder, it is not a crime, and subjects the offender to no punishment. The taking away the life of a reasonable crea- VG KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. ture, under the king's peace, with malice afore- thought, express or implied, is murder at common law. Is not a slave a reasonable creature? — is he not a human being ? And the meaning of this phrase, reasonable creature, is, a human being. For the killing a lunatic, an idiot, or even a child unborn, is murder, as much as the killing a phi- losopher ; and has not the slave as much reason as a lunatic, an idiot, or an unborn child? Thus triumphantly, in this nineteenth cen- tury of the Christian era and in the State of Mississippi, has it been made to appear that the slave is a reasonable creature, — a human being ! What sort of system, what sort of a pub- lic sentiment, was that which made this argument necessary ? And let us look at some of the admissions of this argument with regard to the nature of slavery. According to the judge, it is depriving human beings of many of their rights. Thus he says: " Because individ- uals may have been deprived of many of their rights by society, it does not follow that they have been deprived of all their rights." Again, he says of the slave : " He is still a human being, and possesses all those rights of which he is not deprived by the positive provisions of the law." Here he admits that the provisions of law deprive the slave of natural rights. Again he says : " The right of the master exists not by force of the law of nature or of nations, but by virtue only of the positive law of the state." According to the decision of this judge, therefore, slavery exists by the same right that robbery or oppression of any kind does, — the right of ability. A gang of robbers associated into a society have rights over all the neighboring property that they can acquire, of precisely the same kind. With the same unconscious serenity does the law apply that principle of force and robbery which is the essence of slavery, and show how far the master may proceed in appropriating another human being as his property. The question arises, May a master give a wheeler, p. 28. woman to one person, and her I'm ui'i! u' .'■' unborn children, to another one? Spring t. 1823. Let us hear the case argued. a Uttle'a Rep. „„ ,, , i . j *275. The unfortunate mother selected as the test point of this interesting legal principle comes to our view in the will of one Samuel Marksbury, under the style and denomination of " my negro wench Pen." Said Samuel states in his will that, for the eood will and love he hears to his own children, he gives said negro wench .Pen to Son Samuel, and all her future increase to daughter Rachael. When daughter Rachael, therefore, marries, her husband sets up a claim for this increase, — as it is stated, quite off-hand, that the "wench had several children." Here comes a beautifully inter- esting case, quite stimulating to legal acu- men. Inferior court decides that Samuel Marksbury could not have given away un- born children on the strength of the legal maxim, "Nemo dat quod non habet" — i. e., " Nobody can give what he has not got," — which certainly one should think sensible and satisfactory enough. The case, however, is appealed, and reversed in the superior court; and now let us hear the reasoning. The judge acknowledges the force of the maxim above quoted, — says, as one would think any man might say, that it is quite a correct maxim, — the only difficulty being that it does not at all apply to the present case. Let us hear him : He who is the absolute owner of a thing owns all its faculties for profit or increase ; and he may, no doubt, grant the profits or increase, as well as the thing itself. Thus, it is every day's practice to grant the future rents or profits of real estate ; and it is held that a man may grant the wool of a flock of sheep for years. See also p. 33, Fanny v. Bryant, 4 J. J. Marshall's Rep., 368. In this almost pre- cisely the same language is used. If the reader will proceed, he will find also this principle applied with equal clearness to the hiring, selling, mortgaging of unborn chil- dren ; and the perfect legal nonchalance of these discussions is only comparable to run- ning a dissecting-knife through the course of all the heart-strings of a living subject, for the purpose of demonstrating the laws of nervous contraction. Judge Stroud, in his sketch of the slave- laws, page 99, lays down for proof the fol- lowing assertion : That the penal codes of the slave states bear much more severely on slaves than on white persons. He intro- duces his consideration of this proposition by the following humane and sensible re- marks : A being, ignorant of letters, unenlightened by religion, and deriving but little instruction from good example, cannot be supposed to have right conceptions as to the nature and extent of moral or political obligations. This remark, with but a slight qualification, is applicable to the condition of the slave. It has been just shown that the benefits of education are not conferred upon him, while his chance of acquiring a knowledge of the precepts of the gospel is so remote as scarcely to be appreciated, lie may be regarded, therefore KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 77 as almost without the capacity to comprehend the force of laws ; and, on this account, such as are designed for his government should be recom- mended by their simplicity and mildness. His condition suggests another motive for tenderness on his behalf in these particulars. He is unable to read, and holding little or no com- munication with those who are better informed than himself; how is he to become acquainted with the fact that a law for his observance has been made ? To exact obedience to a law which has not been promulgated, — which is unknown to the subject of it, — has ever been deemed most unjust and tyrannical. The reign of Caligula, were it obnoxious to no other reproach than this, would never cease to be remembered with abhor- rence. The lawgivers of the slaveholding states seem, in the formation of their penal codes, to have been uninfluenced oy these claims of the slave upon their compassionate consideration. The hardened convict moves their sympathy, and is to be taught the laws before he is expected to obey them ; yet the guiltless slave is subjected to an extensive system of cruel enactments, of no part of which, probably, has he ever heard. Parts of this system apply to the slave ex- clusively, and for every infraction a large retribu- tion is demanded ; while, with respect to offences for which whites as well as slaves are amenable, punishments of much greater severity are inflicted upon the latter than upon the former. This heavy charge of Judge Stroud is sustained by twenty pages of proof, showing the very great disproportion between the number of offences made capital for slaves, and those that are so for whites. Con- cerning this, we find the following cool re- mark in Wheeler's Law of Slavery, page 222, note. Much has been said of the disparity of pun- ishment between the white inhabitants and the slaves and negroes of the same state ; that slaves are punished with much more severity, for the commission of similar crimes, by white persons, than the latter. The charge is undoubtedly true to a considerable extent. It must be remembered that the primary object of the enactment of penal laws, is the protection and security of those who make them. The slave has no agency in making them. He is indeed one cause of the apprehended evils to the other class, which those laws are ex- pected to remedy. That he should be held ame- nable for a violation of those rules established for the security of the other, is the natural result of the state in which he is placed. And the sever- ity of those rules will always bear a relation to that danger, real or ideal, of the other class. It has been so among all nations, and will ever continue to be so, while the disparity be- tween bond and free remains. A striking example of a legal decision to this purport is given ir Wheeler's The state v. Law of Slavery, page 224. The lenn, 1829. '2 ca se> apart from legal tech- kSFZSL Realities, may be thus briefly fiep. 203. stated : The defendant, Mann, had hired a slave- woman for a year. During this time the slave committed some slight offence, for which the defendant undertook to chastise her. While in the act of doing so the slave ran off, whereat he shot at and wounded her. The judge in the inferior court charged the jury that if they believed the punishment was cruel and unwarrantable, and disproportioned to the offence, in law the defendant was guilty, as he had only a special property in the slave. The jury finding evidence that the punishment had been cruel, unwarrant- able and disproportioned to the offence, found verdict against the defendant. But on what ground ? — Because, according to the law of North Carolina, cruel, unwarrantable, disproportionate punishment of a slave from a master, is an indictable offence ? No. They decided against the defendant, not because the punishment was cruel and unwarrant- able, but because he was not the person who had the right to inflict it, ' ' as he had only a special right of property in the slave. ,} The defendant appealed to a higher court, and the decision was reversed, on the ground that the hirer has for the time being all the rights of the master. The remarks of Judge Ruffin are so characteristic, and so strongly express the conflict between the feelings of the humane judge and the logical necessity of a strict interpreter of slave-law, that we shall quote largely from it. One cannot but admire the unflinching calmness with which a man, evidently possessed of honor- able and humane feelings, walks through the most extreme and terrible results and con- clusions, in obedience to the laws of legal truth. Thus he says : A judge cannot but lament, when such cases as the present are brought into judgment. It is impossible that the reasons on which they go can be appreciated, but where institutions similar to our own exist, and are thoroughly understood. The struggle, too, in the judge's own breast, be- tween the feelings of the man and the duty of the magistrate, is a severe one, presenting strong temptation to put aside such questions, if it be possible. It is useless, however, to complain of things inherent in our political state. And it is criminal in a court to avoid any responsibility which the laws impose. With whatever reluc- tance, therefore, it is done, the court is compelled to express an opinion upon the extent of the do- minion of the master over the slave in North Car- olina. The indictment charges a battery on Lydia, a slave of Elizabeth Jones The inquiry here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery on a slave by the hirer is indictable. The judge below instructed the jury that it is. He seems to have put it on the ground, that the defendant had but a special property. Our laws uniformly treat the master, or other person having the possession 78 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. and command of the slave, as entitled to the same extent of authority. The object is the same, the service of the slave ; and the same powers must be confided. In a criminal proceeding, and, indeed, in reference to all other persons but the general owner, the hirer and possessor of the slave, in rela- tion to both rights and duties, is, for the time being, the owner But, upon the general ques- tion, whether the owner is answerable criminal- iter, for a battery upon his own slave, or other exercise of authority of force, not forbidden by statute, the court entertains but little doubt. That he i3 so liable, has never been decided ; nor, as far as is known, been hitherto contended. There has been no prosecution of the sort. The established habits and uniform practice of the country, in this respect, is the best evidence of the portion of power deemed by the whole community requisite to the preservation of the master's do- minion. If we thought differently, we could not set our notions in array against the judgment of everybody else, and say that this or that authority may be safely lopped off. This has indeed been assimilated at the bar to the other domestic rela- tions : and arguments drawn from the well-estab- lished principles, which confer and restrain the authority of the parent over the child, the tutor over the pupil, the master over the apprentice, have been pressed on us. The court does not recognize their application. There is no likeness between the cases. They are in opposition to each other, and there is an im- passable gulf between them. The difference is that which exists between freedom and slavery ; and a greater cannot be imagined. In the one, the end in view is the happiness of the youth born to equal rights with that governor on whom the duty devolves of training the young to usefulness, in a station which he is afterwards to assume among freemen. To such an end, and with such a subject, moral and intellectual instruction seem the natural means ; and, for the most part, they are found to suffice. Moderate force is superadded only to make the others effectual. If that fail, it is bet- ter to leave the party to his own headstrong pas- sions, and the ultimate correction of the law, than to allow it to be immoderately inflicted by a pri- vate person. "With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the profit of the master, his security and the public safety ; the subject, one doomed, in his own person and his posterity, to live with- out knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that another may reap the fruits. What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a being, to convince him what it is impossible but that the most stupid must feel and know can never be true, — that he is thus to Labor upon a principle of natural duty, or for the sake of his own personal happiness ? Such services can only he expected from one who has no will of Ids own ; who surrenders his will in implicit obedience to that of another. Such obedience is the consequence only of uncontrolled authority over the body. There is nothing else which can operate to produce the effect. The POWER OP THE MASTER MUST BE ABSOLUTE, TO RENDER the SUBMISSION or the slave PKKIECT. I most freely confess my sense of the harshness of this propo- sition. I feel it as deeply as any man can. And, as a principle of moral right, every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But, in the actual condition of things, it must be so. There is no remedy. This discipline belongs to the state of slavery. They cannot be disunited without abro- gating at once the rights of the master, and ab- solving the slave from his subjection. It consti- tutes the curse of slavery to both the bond and the free portions of our population. But it is inherent in the relation of master and slave. That there may be particular instances of cruelty and deliberate barbarity, where in conscience the law might properly interfere, is most probable. The difficulty is to determine where a court may prop- erly begin. Merely in the abstract, it may well be asked which power of the master accords with right. The answer will probably sweep away all of them. But we cannot look at the matter in that light. The truth is that we are forbidden to enter upon a train of general reasoning on the subject. We cannot allow the right of the mas- ter to be brought into discussion in the courts of justice. The slave, to remain a slave, must be made sensible that there is no appeal from his master ; that his power is, in no instance, usurped, but is conferred by the laws of man, at least, if not by the law of God. The danger would be great, indeed, if the tribunals of justice should be called on to graduate the punishment appropriate to every temper and every dereliction of menial duty. No man can anticipate the many and aggra- vated provocations of the master which the slave would be constantly stimulated by his own pas- sions, or the instigation of others, to give ; or the consequent wrath of the master, prompting him to bloody vengeance upon the turbulent traitor ; a vengeance generally practised with impu- nity, by reason of its privacy. The court, therefore, disclaims the power of changing the relation in which these parts of our people stand to each other. # # # # * I repeat, that I would gladly have avoided this ungrateful question. But, being brought to it, the court is compelled to declare that while slavery exists amongst us in its present state, or until it shall seem fit to the legislature to interpose express enactments to the contrary, it will he the imperative duty of the judges to recognize the full dominion of the owner over the slave, except where the exercise of it is forbidden by statute. And this we do upon the ground that this do- minion is essential to the value of slaves as property, to the security of the master and the public tranquil- lity, greatly dependent upon their subordination; and, in fine, as most effectually securing the gen- eral protection and comfort of the slaves them- selves. Judgment below reversed ; and judgment entered for the defendant. No one can read this decision, so fine and clear in expression, so dignified and solemn in its earnestness, and so dreadful in its results, without feeling at once deep respect for the man and horror for the sys- tem. The man, judging him from this short specimen, which is all the author knows,* has one of that high order of minds, which looks straight through all verbiage and sophistry to the heart of every subject which it encounters. He has, too, that noble * Moro recently the. author has met with a passage in a North Carolina newspaper, containing some further par- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 79 scorn of dissimulation, that straightforward determination not to call a bad thing by a good name, even when most popular and reputable and legal, which it is to be wished could be more frequently seen, both in our Northern and Southern States. There is but one sole regret ; and that is that such a man, with such a mind, should have been merely an expositor, and not a reformer of law. CHAPTER III. SOUTHER V. THE COMMONWEALTH — THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF LEGAL HUMANITY. " Yet in the face of such laws and decisions as these ! Mrs. Stowe, &c." — Courier 8f Enquirer. The case of Souther v. the Common- wealth has been cited by the Courier $• Enquirer as a particularly favorable speci- ticulars of the life of Judge Ruffin, which have proved in- teresting to her, and may also to the reader. From the Raleigh (iV. C.) Register. Resignation of the Chief Justice of the State of North Carolina. We publish below the letter of Chief Justice Ruffin, of the Supreme Court, resigning his seat on the bench. This act takes us, and no less will it take the state, by surprise. The public are not prepared for it ; and we doubt not there will scarcely be an exception to the deep and general regret which will be felt throughout the state. Judge Ruffin's great and unsurpassed legal learning, his untiring industry, the ease with which he mastered the details and comprehended the whole of the most compli- cated cases, were the admiration of the bar; and it has been a common saying of the ablest lawyers of the state, for a long time past, that his place on tho bench could be supplied by no other than himself. He is now, as we learn, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, in full possession of his usual excellent health, unaffected, so far as we can discover, in his natural vigor and strength, and certainly without any symptom of mental decay. Forty-five years ago he commenced the practice of the law. He has been on the bench twenty-eight years, of which time he has been one of the Supreme Court twenty- three years. Luring this long public career he has, in a pecuniary point of view, sacrificed many thousands ; for there has been no time of it in which he might not, with per- fect ease, have doubled, by practice, the amount of his salary as judge. M To the Honorable the General Assembly of North Carolina, how in session. " Gentlemen : I desire to retire to the walks of private life, and therefore pray your honorable body to accept the resignation of my place on the bench of the Supreme 'Court. In surrendering this trust, I would wish to express my grattful sense of the confidence and honors so often and so long bestowed on me by the General Assembly. But I have no language to do it suitably. I am very sen- sible that they were far beyond my deserts, and that I have made an insufficient return of the service. Yet I can truly aver that, to the best of my ability, I have ad- ministered tho law as I understood it, and to the ends of suppressing crime and wrong, and upholding virtue, truth and right; aiming to give confidence to honest men, and to confirm in all good citizens love for our country, and a pure trust in her law and magistrates. " In my place I hope I have contributed to these ends; and I firmly believe that our laws will, as heretofore, be executed, and our people happy in the administration of justice, honest and contented, as long as they keep, and only so long as they keep, the independent and sound ju- diciary now established in the constitution; which, with men of judicial proceedings under the slave- code, with the following remark : And yet, in the face of such laws and decisions as these, Mrs. Stowe winds up a long series of cruelties upon her other black personages, by causing her faultless hero, Tom, to be literally whipped to death in Louisiana, by his master, Le- gree ; and these acts, which the laws make crimi- nal, and punish as such, she sets forth in tho most repulsive colors, to illustrate the institution of slavery ! By the above language the author was led into the supposition that this case had been conducted in a manner so creditable to the feelings of our common humanity as to present a fairer side of criminal jurispru- dence in this respect. She accordingly took the pains to procure a report of the case, designing to publish it as an offset to the many barbarities which research into this branch of the subject obliges one to un- fold. A legal gentleman has copied the case from Grattan's Reports, and it is here given. If the reader is astounded at it, he cannot be more so than was the writer. Souther v. The Commonirealth. 7 Grattan, 673, 1851. The killing of a slave by his master and owner, by wilful and excessive whipping, is murder in the first degree: though it may not have been the purpose and intention of the master and owner to kill the slave. Simeon Souther was indicted at the October Term, 1850, of the Circuit Court for the County of Hanover, for the murder of his own slave. The indictment contained fifteen counts, in which the various modes of punishment and torture by which the homicide was charged to have been committed were stated singly, and in various combinations, The fifteenth count unites them all : and, as the court certifies that the indictment was sustained by the evidence, the giving the facts stated in that count will show what was the charge against the prisoner, and what was the proof to sustain it. The count charged that on the 1st day of Sep- tember, 1849, the prisoner tied his negro slave, Sam, with ropes about his wrists, neck, body, legs and ankles, to a tree. That whilst so tied, the prisoner first whipped the slave with switches. That he next beat and cobbed the slave with a shingle, and compelled two of his slaves, a man and a woman, also to cob the deceased with the shingle. That whilst the deceased was so tied to the tree, the prisoner did strike, knock, kick, stamp and beat him upon various parts of his head, face and body ; that he applied fire to his body ; * * * * that he then washed his body witli warm water, in which pods of red pepper had been put and steeped ; and he compelled his two slaves aforesaid also to wash him with this same prepara- tion of warm water and red pepper. That after the tying, whipping, cobbing, striking, beating, knocking, kicking, stamping, wounding, bruising, lacerating, burning, washing and torturing, as all other blessings, I earnestly pray may bo perpetuated to the people of North Carolina. " I have tho honor to be, gentlemen, your most obliged and obedient servant, Thohas Rctpin. "Raleigh, November 10, 1852." 80 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. aforesaid, the prisoner untied the deceased from the tree in such way as to throw him with vio- lence to the ground ; and he then and there did knock, kick, stamp and heat the deceased upon his head, temples, and various parts of his body. That the prisoner then had the deceased carried into a shed-room of his house, and there he com- pelled one of his slaves, in his presence, to con- fine the deceased's feet in stocks, by making his legs fast to a piece of timber, and to tie a rope about the neck of the deceased, and fasten it to a bed-post in the room, thereby strangling, chok- ing and suffocating the deceased. And that whilst the deceased was thus made fast in stocks as afore- said, the prisoner did kick, knock, stamp and beat him upon his head, face, breast, belly, sides, back and body ; and he again compelled his two slaves to apply lire to the body of the deceased, whilst he was so made fast as aforesaid. And the count charged that from these various modes of punish- ment and torture the slave Sam then and there died. It appeared that the prisoner commenced the pun- ishment of the deceased in the morning, and that it was continued throughout the day : and that the deceased died in the presence of the prisoner, and one of his slaves, and one of the witnesses, whilst the punishment was still progressing. Field J. delivered the opinion of the court. The prisoner was indicted and convicted of mur- der in the second degree, in the Circuit Court of Hanover, at its April term last past, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for five years, the period of time ascertained by the jury. The mur- der consisted in the killing of a negro man-slave by the name of Sam, the property of the prisoner, by cruel and excessive whipping and torture, in- flicted by Souther, aided by two of his other slaves, on the 1st day of September, 1849. The prisoner moved for a new trial, upon the ground that the offence, if any, amounted only to manslaughter. The motion for a new trial was overruled, and a bill of exceptions taken to the opinion of the court, setting forth the facts proved, or as many of them as were deemed material for the considera- tion of the application for a new trial. The bill of exception states : That the slave Sam, in the indictment mentioned, was the slave and property of the prisoner. That for the purpose of chas- tising the slave for the offence of getting drunk, and dealing as the slave confessed and alleged with Henry and Stone, two of the witnesses for the Commonwealth, he caused him to be tied and punished in the presence of the said witnesses, with the exception of slight whipping witli peach or apple-tree switches, before the said witnesses arrived at the scene after they were sent for by the Jirisoner (who were present by request from the de- fendant), and of several slaves of the prisoner, in the manner and by the means charged in the in- dictment; and the said slave died under and from the infliction of the said punishment, in the pres- ence of tin: prisoner, one of his slaves, and of one of the wi tm 'ssi's for the Commonwealth. But it did not appear that it was the design of the pris- oner to kill the said slave, unless such design be Sroperly inferable from the manner, means and uration of the punishment. And, on the contrary, it did appear that the prisoner frequ sntly declared, while the said slave was undergoing the punish- ment, that he believed the said slave was feigning, and pretending to be suffering and injured when he was not. The judge certifies that the slave Was punished in the manner and by the means charged in the indictment. The indictment con- tains fifteen counts, and sets forth a case of the most cruel and excessive whipping and torture.* It is believed that the records of criminal juris- prudence do not contain a case of more atrocious and wicked cruelty than was presented upon the trial of Souther ; and yet it has been gravely and earnestly contended here by his counsel that his offence amounts to manslaughter only. It has been contended by the counsel of the prisoner that a man cannot be indicted and prose- cuted for the cruel and excessive whipping of his own slave. That it is lawful for the master to chastise his slave, and that if death ensues from such chastisement, unless it was intended to pro duce death, it is like the case of homicide which is committed by a man in the performance of a lawful act, which is manslaughter only. It has been decided by this court in Turner's case, 5 Rand, that the owner of a slave, for the malicious, cruel and excessive beating of his own slave, can- not be indicted ; yet it by no means follows, when such malicious, cruel and excessive beating results in death, though not intended and premeditated, that the beating is to be regarded as lawful for tlie purpose of reducing the crime to manslaughter, when the whipping is inflicted for the sole purpose of chastisement. It is the ■policy of the law, in respect to the relation of master and slave, and for the sake of sccwing proper subordination and obedience on the part of the slave, to protect the master from prosecu- tion in all such cases, even if the whipping and pun- ishment be malicious, cruel and excessive. But in so inflicting punishment for the sake of punishment, the owner of the slave acts at his peril ; and if death ensues in consequence of such punishment, the relation of master and slave affords no ground of excuse or palliation. The principles of the common law, in relation to homicide, apply to his case without qualification or exception ; and ac- cording to those principles, the act of the prisoner, in the case under consideration, amounted to mur- der. * * * The crime of the prisoner is not manslaughter, but murder in the first degree. On the case now presented there are some remarks to be made. This scene of torture, it seems, occupied about twelve hours. It occurred in the State of Virginia, in the County of Hanover. Two white men were witnesses to nearly the whole proceeding, and, so far as we can scCj made no effort to arouse the neighborhood, and bring in help to stop the outrage. What sort of an education, what habits of thought, does this presuppose in these men 1 The case was brought to trial. It re- * The following is Judgo Field's statement of tlio pun- ishment: The negro was tied to a tree and whipped with switches. When Souther became fatigued with the labor of whip- ping, he called upon a negro man of bis, and made him cob Sam with a shinglo. Ho also made a negro woman of his help to cob him. And, after cobbing and whipping, ho applied fire to the body of the slave. * * * * lie then caused him to bo washed down with Lot water, in which pods of red popper had been stooped. The negro was also tied to a log and to the bed-post with ropes, which ohoked him, and ho was kicked and stamped by Southern This sort of punishment was continued and repeated until the negro died under its infliction. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 81 quires no ordinary nerve to read over the counts of this indictment. Nobody, one would suppose, could willingly read them twice. One would think that it would have laid a cold hand of horror on every heart ; — that the community would have risen, by an universal sentiment, to shake out the man, as Paul shook the viper from his hand. It seems, however, that they were quite self-possessed; that lawyers calmly sat, and examined, and cross-examined, on particulars known before only in the records of the Inquisition; that it N was "ably and earnestly argued ' ' by educated, intelligent, American men, that this catalogue of hor- rors did not amount to a murder ! and, in the cOol language of legal precision, that " the offence, if any, amounted to man- slaughter;" and that an American jury found that the offence was murder in the second degree. Any one who reads the indictment Avill certainly think that, if this be murder in the second degree, in Vir- ginia, one might earnestly pray to be mur- dered in the first degree, to begin with. H*ad Souther \valked up to the man, and shot him through the head with a pistol, before white witnesses, that would have been murder in theirs/ degree. As he preferred to spend twelve hours in killing him by torture, under the name of " chastisement,''' that, says the verdict, is murder in the second degree ; " because" says the bill of exceptions, with admirable coolness, " it did not appear that it was the design of the prisoner to kill the slave, unless such de- sign BE PROPERLY INFERABLE FROM THE MANNER, MEANS AND DURATION, OF THE PUNISHMENT. The bill evidently seems to have a leaning to the idea that twelve hours spent in beating, stamping, scalding, burning and mutilating a human being, might possibly be considered as presumption of something beyond the limits of lawful chastisement. So startling an opinion, however, is expressed cautiously, and with a becoming diffidence, and is bal- anced by the very striking fact, which is also quoted in this remarkable paper, that the prisoner frequently declared, while the slave was undergoing the punishment, that he be- lieved the slave was feigning and pretending to l»e suffering, when he was not. This view appears to have struck the court as eminently probable, — as going a long way to prove the propriety of Souther's inten- tions, making it at least extremely probable that only correction was intended. It seems, also, that Souther, so far from 6 being crushed by the united opinion of the community, found those to back him who considered five years in the penitentiary an unjust severity for his crime, and hence the bill of exceptions from which we have quoted, and the appeal to the Superior Court ; and hence the form in which the case stands in law-books, " Souther v. the Common- wealth." Souther evidently considers him- self an ill-used man, and it is in this character that he appears before the Superior Court. As yet there has been no particular overflow of humanity in the treatment of the case. The manner in which it has been discussed so far reminds one of nothing so much as of some discussions which the reader may have seen quoted from the records of the Inquisition, with regard to the propriety of roasting the feet of children who have not arrived at the age of thirteen years, with, a view to eliciting evidence. Let us now come to the decision of the Superior Court, which the editor of the Courier <§* Enquirer thinks so particularly enlightened and humane. Judge Field thinks that the case is a very atrocious one, and in this respect he seems to differ ma- terially from judge, jury and lawyers, of the court below. Furthermore, he doubts whether the annals of jurisprudence furnish a case of equal atrocity, wherein certainly he appears to be not far wrong; and he also states unequivocally the principle that killing a slave by torture under the name of correction is murder in the first degree ; and here too, certainly, everybody will think that he is also right ; the only wonder being that any man could ever have been called to express such an opinion, judicially. But he states, quite as unequivocally as Judge Ruffin, that awful principle of slave- laws, that the law cannot interfere with the muster for any amount of torture inflicted on his slave which does not result in death. The decision, if it establishes anything, es- tablishes this principle quite as strongly as it doys the other. Let us hear the words of the decision : It lias been decided by tins court, in Turner's case, that the o%ner of a slave, for the malicious, cruel and excessive beating of his own slave, cannot be indicted. * * * * * * // is the policy of the laiv, in respect to the relation of muster and slave, and for the sake of securing proper subordination and obedience on the part of the slaw, to protect lie master from prosecution in all such cases, vein if the whipping and punishment be malicious, cruel and excessive. What follows as a corollary from this remarkable declaration is this, — that if the 82 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. victim of this twelve hours' torture had only possessed a little stronger constitution, and had not actually died under it, there is no law in Virginia by which Souther could even have been indicted for misdemeanor. If this is not filling out the measure of the language of St. Clare, that "he who goes the furthest and does the worst only uses within limits the power which the law gives him," h#w could this language be verified? Which is "the worst" death outright, or torture indefinitely prolonged ? This deci- sion, in so many words, gives every master the power of indefinite torture, and takes from him only the power of terminating the agony by merciful death. And this is the judicial decision which the Courier $• En- quirer cites as a perfectly convincing speci- men of legal humanity. It must be hoped that the editor never read the decision, else he never would have cited it. Of all who knock at the charnel-house of legal pre- cedents, with the hope of disinterring any evidence of humanity in the slave system, it may be said, in the awful words of the Hebrew poet : " He knoweth not that the dead are there, And that her guests are in the depths of hell." The upshot of this case was, that Souther, instead of getting off from his five years' imprisonment, got simply a judicial opinion from the Superior Court that he ought to be hung ; but he could not be tried over again, and, as we may infer from all the facts in the case that lie was a man of tolerably resolute nerves and not very ex- quisite sensibility, it is not likely that the opinion gave him any very serious uneasi- ness. He has probably made up his mind to get over his five years with what grace lie may. When he comes out, there is no law in Virginia to prevent his buying as many more negroes as he chooses, and going over the same scene with any one, of them at a future time, if only he profit by the information which has been so explicitly conveyed to him in this decision, that he must take care and stop his tortures short of the point of death, — a matter about which, as the history of the Inquisition shows, men, by careful practice, can be able to judge with considerable precision. Probably, also, the next time, he will not be so foolish as to send out and request the attendance of two white witnesses, even though they may be so complacently inter- ested in the proceedings as to spend the whole day in witnessing them without effort at prevention Slavery, as defined in American law, is no mo\'e capable of being regulated in its administration by principles of humanity, than the torture system of the Inquisition. Every act of humanity of every individual owner is an illogical result from the legal definition ; and the reason why the slave- code of America is more atrocious than any ever before exhibited under the sun, is that the Anglo-Saxon race are a more coldly and strictly logical race, and have an unflinching courage to meet the consequences of every premise which they lay down, and to work out an accursed principle, with mathemati- cal accuracy, to its most accursed results. The decisions in American law-books show nothing so much as this severe, unflinching accuracy of logic. It is often and evidently, not because judges are inhuman or partial, but because they are logical and truthful, that they announce from the bench, in the calmest manner, decisions which one would think might make the earth shudder, and the. sun turn pale. The French and the Spanish nations are, by constitution, more impulsive, passionate and poetic, than logical ; hence it will be found that while there may be more instances of individual barbarity, as might be expected among impulsive and passionate people, there is in their slave-code more exhibition of humanity. The code of the State of Louis- iana contains more really humane provisions. were there any means of enforcing them, than that of any other state in the Union. It is believed that there is no code of laws in the world which contains such a perfect cabinet crystallization of every tear and every drop of blood which can be wrung from humanity, so accurately, elegantly and scientifically arranged, as the slave-code of America. It is a case of elegant surgical instruments for the work of dissecting the living human heart; — every instrument wrought with exactest temper and polish, and adapted with exquisite care, and labelled with the name of the nerve.or artery or mus- cle which it is designed to sever. The instru- ments of the anatomist are instruments of earthly steel and wood, designed to operate at most on perishable and corruptible mat- ter; but these are instruments of keener temper, and more ethereal workmanship, de- signed in the most precise and scientific man- ner to DESTROY THE IMMORTAL SOUL, and carefully and gradually to reduce man from the high position of a free agent, a social, religious, accountable being, down to the con- dition of the brute, or of inanimate matter. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 83 CHAPTER IV. PROTECTIVE STATUTES. Apprentices protected. — Outlawry. — Melodrama of Prue in the Swamp. — Harry the Carpenter, a Romance of Real Life. But the question now occurs, Are there not protective statutes, the avowed object of which is the protection of the life and limb of the slave ? We answer, there are ; and these protective statutes are some of the most remarkable pieces of legislation extant. That they were dictated by a spirit of humanity, charity, which hopeth all things, would lead us to hope ; but no newspaper stories of bloody murders and shocking out- rages convey to the mind so dreadful a picture of the numbness of public sentiment caused by slavery as these so-called pro- tective statutes. The author copies the fol- lowing from the statutes of North Carolina. Section 3d of the act passed in 1798 runs thus : Whereas by another Act of the Assembly, passed in 1774, the killing of a slave, however wanton, cruel and deliberate, is only punishable in the first instance by imprisonment and paying the value thereof to the owner, which distinction of crimi- nality between the murder of a white person and one who is equally a human creature, but merely of a different complexion, is disgraceful to humanity, AND DEGRADING IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE TO THE LAWS AND PRINCIPLES OF A FREE, CHRISTIAN AND ENLIGHT- ENED country, Be it enacted, &c, That if any person shall hereafter be guilty of wilfully and maliciously killing a slave, such offender shall, upon the first conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of murder, and shall suffer the same punish- ment as if he had killed a free man : Provided always, this act shall not extend to the person killing a slave outlawed by virtue of any Act of Assembly of this state, or to any slave in the act of resistance to his lawful owner or master, or to any slave dying under moderate correction.' 1 '' A law with a like proviso, except the outl.iwry clause, exists in Tennessee. See Caruthers and Nicholson" 1 s Compilation, 1836, p. 670. The language of the constitution of Geor- gia, art. iv., sec. 12, is as follows : Any person who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punish- ment as would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed on a free white person, and on the like proof, except in case of insurrection by such slave, and unless such death should happen by accident in giving such slave moderate correction. —Cobb's Dig. 1851, p. 1125. Let now any Englishman or New Eng- ' lander imagine that such laws with regard to apprentices had ever been proposed in Parliament or State Legislature under the head of protective acts; — laws which in so many words permit the killing of the subject in three cases, and those comprising all the acts which would generally occur under the law ; namely, if the slave resist, if he be outlawed, or if he die under moder- ate correction. What rule in the world will ever prove correction immoderate, if the fact that the subject dies under it is not held as proof? How many such "accidents" would have to happen in Old England or New England, before Parliament or Legislature would hear from such a protective law. " But," some one may ask, " what is the outlawry spoken of in .this act?" The question is pertinent, and must be answered. The author has copied the following from the Revised Statutes of North Carolina, chap, cxi, sec. 22. It may be remarked in passing that the preamble to this law presents rather a new view of slavery to those who have formed their ideas from certain pictures of blissful contentment and Arcadian repose, which have been much in vogue of late. Whereas, many times slaves run aivay and li< out, hid and lurking in swamps, woods, and other obscure places, killing cattle and hogs, and com- mitting other injuries to the inhabitants of this state ; in all such cases, upon intelligence of any slave or slaves lying out as aforesaid, any two justices of the peace for the county wherein such slave or slaves is or are supposed to lurk or do mischief, shall, and they are hereby empowered and required to issue proclamation against such slave or slaves (reciting his or their names, and the name or names of the owner or owners, if known), thereby requiring him or them, and every of them, forthwith to surrender him or themselves : and also to empower and require the sheriff of the said county to take such power with him as he shall think fit and necessary for going in searcli and pursuit of, and effectually apprehending, such outlying slave or slaves; which proclamation shall be published at the door of the court-house. and -at such other places as said justices shall direct. And if any slave or slaves against whom proclamation hath been thus issued stay out, and do not immediately return home, it shall be law- ful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by such ways anil means as he shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same. What ways and means have been thought fit, in actual experience, for the destruction of the slave? What was done with the negro Mcintosh, in the streets of St. Louis, in open daylight, and endorsed at the next sitting of the Supreme Court of the state. as transcending the sphere of law, because it was "an act of the majority of her most respectable citizens"?* If these things are done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry ? If these things have once been *This man was burned alivo. 84 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. done in the open streets of St. Louis, by "a majority of her most respectable citizens, " what will be done in the lonely swamps of North Carolina, by men of the stamp of Souther and Legree ? This passage of the Revised Statutes of North Carolina is more terribly suggestive to the imagination than any particulars into which the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin has thought fit to enter. Let us suppose a little melodrama quite possible to have occurred under this act of the legislature. Suppose some luckless Prue or Peg, as in the case we have just quoted, in State v. Mann, getting tired of the discipline of whipping, breaks from the overseer, clears the dogs, and gets into the swamp, and there " lies out," as the act above graphically says. The act which we are considering says that many slaves do tins, and doubtless they have their own best reasons for it. We all know what fascinating places to "lie out'' in these Southern swamps are. What with alliga- tors and moccasin snakes, mad and water, and poisonous vines, one would be apt to think the situation not particularly eligible ; but still, Prue " lies out" there. Perhaps in the night some husband or brother goes to see her, taking a boo;, or some animal of the plantation stock, which he has ventured his life in killing, that she may not perish with hunger. Master overseer walks up to master proprietor, and reports 'the accident ; master proprietor mounts his horse, and assembles to his aid two justices of the peace. In the intervals between drinking brandy and smoking cigars a proclamation is duly drawn up. summoning the contumacious Prue to surrender, and requiring sheriff of said county to take such power as he shall think fit to go in search and pursuit of said slave; which proclamation, for Prue's fur- ther enlightenment, is solemnly published at the door of the court-bouse, and "at such other places as said justices shall direct," * Let us suppose, now. that Prue, given over: to hardness of heart and blindness of mind, pays no attention to all these means of grace, ! put forth to draw her to the protective e'iadow of the patriarchal roof. Suppose, urther, as a final effort of long-suffering, and to leave her utterly withoul excuse, the * The old statute of 1711 hud some features still more edifying. That provides that said " proclamation shall !»■ published on a Sabbath day, at the door uf every church or chapel, n of the property ; second, when the master shall lie con'victed of cruel treatment of his slave, ASH THE JUDOE SHALL DEEM IT PROPER TO PRONOUNCE, h ssid.es the penalty established for such cases, that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order i > place him out of the reach of the power which his master has abused. — Civil Code, Art. 102. The question for a jury to determine in this case is, What is cruel treatment of a slave? Now, if all these barbarities which have been sanctioned by the legislative acts which we have quoted are not held to be cruel treatment, the question is, What is cruel treatment of a slave? Everything that fiendish barbarity could desire can be effected under the protection of the law of South Carolina, which, as we have just shown, exists also in Louisiana. It is true tbe law restrains from some par- ticular forms of cruelty. If any person lias a mind to scald or burn his slave,— -and it seems, by the statute, that there have been i-uch people, — these statutes merely pro- vide that he shall do it in decent privacy ; for, as. the very keystone of Southern juris- prudence is the rejection of colored testi- mony, such an outrage, if perpetrated most deliberately in the presence of hundreds of slaves, could not be proved upon the master. It is to be supposed that the fiendish people whom such statutes have in view will generally have enough of common sense not to perform it in the presence of white wit- nesses, since this simple act of prudence will render them entirely safe in doing what- ever they have a mind to. We are told, it is true, as we have been reminded by our friend in the newspaper before quoted, that in Louisiana the deficiency caused by the rejection of negro testimony is supplied by the following most remarkable provision of the Code Noir : If any slave be mutilated, beaten, or ill treated, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this section, when no one shall be present, in such case the owner, or other person having the charge Or management of said slave thus mutilated, shall be deemed responsible and guilty of the said offence, and shall be prosecuted without further evidence, unless the said owner, or other person so as aforesaid, can prove the contrary by means of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear him- self by his own oath, which said oath every court under the cognizance of which such offence shall have been examined and tried is by this act authorized to administer. — Code Noir. Crimes and Offences, 56. xvii. Rev. Stat. 1852, p. 550, § 141. Would one have supposed that sensible people could ever publish as a law such a specimen of utter legislative nonsense — so ridiculous on the very face of it ! The object is to bring to justice those fiendish people who burn, scald, mutilate, &c. How is this done ? Why, it is enacted that the fact of finding the slave in this con- dition shall be held presumption against the owner or overseer, unless — unless what '? Why, unless he will prove to the contrary, — or swear to the contrary, it is no matter "which — either will answer the purpose. The question is, If a man is bad enough to do these things, will he not be bad enough to swear falsely ? As if men who are the incarnation of cruelty, as supposed by the deeds in question, would not have sufficient intrepidity of conscience to com- pass a false oath ! What was this law ever made for ? Can any one imagine? Upon this whole subject, we may quote the language of Judge Stroud, who thus sums up the whole amount of the protective laws for the slave, in the United States of America : KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 89 Upon a fair review of what has been written on the subject of this proposition, the result is found to be — ■ that the master's power to inflict corporal punishment to any extent, short of life and limb, is fully sanctioned by law, in all the slave-holding states ; that the master, in at least two states, is expressly protected in using the horse-whip and cowskin as instruments for beating^ his slave ; that he may with entire impunity, in the same states, load his slave with irons, or subject him to perpetual imprisonment, whenever he may so choose * that, for cruelly scalding, wilfully cut- ting out the tongue, putting out an eye, and for any other dismemberment, if proved, a fine of one hundred pounds currency only is incurred in South Carolina; that, though in all the states the wil- ful, deliberate and malicious murder of the slave is now directed to be punished with death, yet, as in the case of a white offender none except whites can give evidence, a conviction can seldom, if ever, take place. — Stroud's Sketch, p. 43. One very singular antithesis of two laws of Louisiana will still further show that Miss Grimke furnished to her brother-in- law, Mr. Weld, and has been before the public ever since 1839, in his work entitled Slavery as It Is, p. 22. A handsome mulatto woman, about eighteen or twenty years of age, whose independent spirit could not brook the degradation of slavery, was in the habit of running away : for this offence she had been repeatedly sent by her master and mistress to be whipped by the keeper of the Charleston work- house. This had been done with such inhuman severity as to lacerate her back in a most shocking manner; a finger could not belaid between the cuts. But the love of liberty w!Ls too strong to be annihilated by torture ; and, as a last resort, she was whipped at several different times, and kept a close prisoner. A heavy iron collar, with three long prongs projecting from it, was placed round her neck, and a strong and sound front tooth was extracted, to serve as a mark to describe her, in case of escape. Her sufferings at this time were agonizing ; she could lie in no position but deadness of public sentiment on cruelty to ° n her back, which was sore from scourgings, as . , i • i • • ii j .lean testify from personal inspection; and her only place of rest was the floor, on a blanket. These outrages were committed in a family where the mistress daily read the Scriptures, and as- sembled her children for family worship. She was accounted, and was really, so far as alms- giving was concerned, a charitable woman, and tender-hearted to the poor ; and yet this suffering slave, who was the seamstress of the family, was continually in her presence, sitting in her chamber to sew, or engaged in her other household work, with her lacerated and bleeding back, her muti- lated mouth, and heavy iron collar, without, so far as appeared, exciting any feelings of compas- sion. This iron collar the author has often heard of from sources equally authentic* the slave which is an inseparable attendant on the system. It will be recollected that the remarkable protective law of South Carolina, with respect to scalding, burning, cutting out the tongue, and putting out the eye of the slave, has been substantially en- acted in Louisiana ; and that the penalty for a man's doing these things there, if he has not sense enough -to do it privately, is not more than five hundred dollars. Now, compare this other statute of Louisi- ana, (Rev. Stat., 1852, p. 552, $ 151) : If any person or persons, &c, shall cut or break any iron chain or collar, which any master of slaves should have used, in order to Stroud - p- 41 - prevent the running away or escape of j That one will meet with it everyday in any such slave or slaves, such person or persons so walking the streets, is not probable : but offending shall, on conviction, &c, be fined not that it must have been used with some great less than -two hundred dollars, nor exceeding one defTree of f requenC y i s evident from the thousand dollars; and suffer imprisonment for a _ » i . j > term not exceeding two years, nor less than six fact of a law being thought necessary to months.— Act of Assembly of March 6, 1819. ; protect it. But look at the penalty of the Pamphlet, page 64. j two protective laws ! The fiendish cruel- Some Englishmen may naturally ask, j ties described in the act of South Carolina " What is this iron collar which the Legis- cost the perpetrator not -/nore than five lature have thought worthy of being pro- j hundred dollars, if he does them before tected by a special act? " On this subject white people. The act of humanity costs will be presented the testimony of an unim- > from two hundred to one thousand dollars, peachable witness, Miss Sarah M. Grimke, j and imprisonment from six months to two a personal friend of the author. " Miss years, according to discretion of court'! Grimke is a daughter of the late Judge What public sentiment was it which made Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South these laws ? Carolina, and sister of the late Hon. Thomas j ._, . ~ ' '. . v .. rnr ,,i; na „, r; . ' . , „ , * The iron collar was also in vogue in North Carolina, as S. Grimke. She IS nOW a member OI the the following extract from the statute-book will show. Society of Friends, and resides in Bcllville, The wearcrs of this * n }° le of a PP arel certainly have some -vr f m , ' . j. reason to complain of the "tyranny of fashion. JNew Jersey. The statement given is ot a « When the keeper of the said public jail shall, by di- kind that its author did not mean to give, 'rection of such court as aforesaid, let out any negro or . , . i ii ? runaway to hire, to any person or persons whomsoever, the nor wish to give, and never would have said ke ^ per shall> at J tho timo of his delivery, cause an given, had it not been made necessary tO iron collar to be put on the neck of such negro or runaway, ni i.1.' ■ +U~ „1,„« K,„ with the letters P. G. stamped thereon; and thereafter illustrate this passage in the Slave-law. ^ n Jj keeper shftl , not be answerable for any escape of The aCCOUnt OCCUrS in a Statement which the said negro or runaway."— Potter's Retinal, i. 1G2. 90 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN CHAPTER VI. PROTECTIVE ACTS WITH REGARD TO FOOD AND RAIMENT, LABOR, ETC. Illustrative Drama of Tom v. Legree, under the Law of South Carolina. — Separation of Parent and Child. Having finished the consideration of the laws which protect the life and limb of the slave, the reader may feel a curiosity to know something of the provisions by which he is protected in regard to food and clothing, and from the exactions of excessive labor. It is true, there are multitudes of men in the Northern States who would say, at once, that such enactments, on the very face of them, must be superfluous and absurd. ' ' What ! ' ' they say, "are not the slaves property? and is it likely that any man will impair the market value of his own property by not giving them sufficient food or clothing, or by overworking them?" This process of reasoning appears to have been less con- vincing to the legislators of Southern States than to gentlemen generally at the North ; since, as Judge Taylor says, " the act of wheeier, P . 1786 (Iredell'a Revisal, p. 588) 220. state w. does, in the preamble, recognize fc & e N.?nv n ond's the fact, that many persons, by c. Rep. 54. crue i treatment of their slaves, cause them to commit crimes for which they are executed ; " and the judge further explains this language, by saying, " The cruel treatment here alluded to must consist in withholding from them the necessaries of life ; and the crimes thus resulting are such as are necessary to furnish them with food and raiment." The State of South Carolina, in the act of 1740 (see Stroud's Sketch, p. 28), had a section with the following language in its preamble : Whereas many owners of slaves, and others who have the cure, management, and overseeing of slaves, do confine them so closely to hard Stroud, p. - . la/i/)r ( j ia( y^y ^ w nQt su j^ t . jen< tunc for natural rest ; — And the law goes on to enact that the slave shall not work more than fifteen hours a day in summer, and fourteen in winter. Judge Stroud makes it appear that in three of the slave states the time allotted for work to convicts in prison, whose punish- ment is to consist in hard labor, cannot ex- ceed ten hours, even in the summer months. This was the protective act of South Carolina, designed to reform the abusive practices of masters who confined their slaves so closely that they had not time for natural rest ! What sort of habits of thought do these humane provisions show, in the makers of them? In order to protect the slave from what they consider undue exac- tion, they humanely provide that he shall be obliged to work only four or five hours longer than the convicts in the prison of the neighboring state ! In the Island of Jamaica, besides many holidays which were accorded by law to the slave, tea hours a day was the extent to which he was compelled by law ordinarily to work. — See Stroud, p. 29. With regard to protective acts concerning food and clothing, Judge Stroud gives the following example from the legislation of •South Carolina. The author gives it as- quoted by Stroud, p. 32. In case any person, &c, who shall be the owner, or who shall have the care, government or charge, of any slave or slaves, shall deny, neglect or refuse to allow, such slave or slaves, &c, sufficient clothing, covering or food, it shall and may he lawful for any person or persons, on behalf of such slave or slaves, to make complaint to the next neighboring justice in the parish where such slave or slaves live, or are usually employed, * * * and the said justice shall summons the party against whom such complaint shall be made, and shall inquire of, hear and determine, the same ; and, if the said justice shall find the said complaint to be true, or that such person will not exculpate or clear himself from the charge, by his or her own oath, which such person shall be at liberty to do in all cases where positive proof is not given of the offence, such justice shall and may make such orders upon the same, for the relief of such slave or slaves, as he in his discretion shall think fit; and shall and may set and impose a fine or penalty on any person who shall offend in the premises, in any sum not exceeding twenty pounds current money, for each offence. — 2 Brev- ard's, Dig. 241. Also Cobb's Dig. 827. A similar law obtains in Louisiana. — Rev. Stat. 1852, p. 557, $ 166. Now, would not anybody think, from the virtuous solemnity and gravity of this act, that it was intended in some way to amount to something? Let us give a little sketch, to show how much it does amount to. Ange- lina Griinke Weld, sister to Sarah Grimke, before quoted, gives the following account of the situation of slaves on plantations : * And here let me say, that the treatment of plantation slaves cannot be fully known, except by the poor sufferers themselves, and their drivers and overseers. In a multitude of instances, even the master can know very little of the actual con- dition of his own field-slaves, and his wile and daughters far less. A few facts concerning my own family will show this. Our permanent resi- dence was in Charleston ; our country-seat ( Belle- mont) was two hundred miles distant, in the * Slavery as It Is ; Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. New York," lS^'J. pp. 5'2, 53. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 91 north western part of the state, where, for some years, our family spent a few months annually. Our plantation was three miles from this family mansion. Ttiere all the field-slaves lived and worked. Occasionally, — once a month, perhaps, — some of the family would ride over to the planta- tion ; but I never visited the fields where the slaves were at work, and knew almost nothing of their condition ; but this I do know, that the overseers who had charge of them were generally unprin- cipled and intemperate men. But I rejoice to know that the general treatment of slaves in that region of country was far milder than on the plantations in the lower country. Throughout all the eastern and middle portions of the state, the planters very rar;ly reside per- manently on their plantations. They have almost invariably two residences, and spend less than half the year on their estates. Even while spend- ing a few months on them, politics, field-sports, races, speculations, journeys, visits, company, literary pursuits, &c, absorb so much of their time, that th\ thai reflection. He hade the jury pause and reflect on the great sanctions and solemn responsibilities under which they were acting. The constitution of the state invested them with power over all that affected the life and was dear to the family of the unfortunate lady on trial before them. cleansed of the blood shed therein, except by the blood of him that shed it." He felt assured, then, that they would be swayed only by a firm resolve to act on this occasion in obedience to the dictates of sound judgments and enlightened con- sciences. The prisoner, however, had claims on them, as well as the community; she was en- titled to a fair and impartial trial. By the wise and humane principles of our law, they were bound to hold the prisoner innocent, and she stood guiltless before them, until proved guilty, by le- gal, competent, and satisfactory evidence. Deaf alike to the voice of sickly humanity and heated prejudice, they should proceed to their task with minds perfectly equipoised and impartial ; they should weigh the circumstances of the case with a nice and careful hand'; and if, by legal evi- dence, circumstantial and satisfactory, although not positive, guilt be established, they should un- hesitatingly, fearlessly and faithfully, record the result of their convictions. He would next call their attention to certain legal distinctions, but would not say a word of the facts; he would leave them to the lips of the witnesses, unaffected by any previous comments of his own. The pris- oner stood indicted for the murder of a slave. This was supposed not to be murder at common law. At least, it was not murder by our former statute; hut the act of 1821 had placed the kill- ing of the white man and the black man on the same looting. He here read the act of 1821, de- claring that "any person who shall wilfully, de- liberately, and maliciously murder a slave, shall, on conviction thereof. Buffer death without benefit of clergy." The rules applicable to murder at common' law were generally applicable, however, to the present case. The inquiries to be made may he reduced to two: 1. Is the party charged guilty of the fact of killing ? This must be clearly mad." out by proof. If she be not guilty of kill- in-, there is an end of the case. 2. The charac- ter of that killing, or of the offence. AVas it done with malice aforethought? Malice is the KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 95 essential ingredient of the crime. Where kill- ing takes place, malice is presumed, unless the contrary appear; and this must be gathered from the attending circumstances. Malice is a techni- cal term, importing a different meaning from that conveyed by the same word in common parlance. According to the learned Michael Foster, it con- sists not in " malevolence to particulars," it does not mean hatred to any particular individual, but is general in its import and application. But even killing, with intention to kill, is not always murder ; there may be justifiable and excusable homicide, and killing in sudden heat and passion is so modified to manslaughter. Yet there may be murder when there is no ill-feeling, — nay, perfect indifference to the slain, — as in the case of the robber who slays to conceal his crime. Malice aforethought is that depraved feeling of the heart, which makes one regardless of social duty, and fatally bent on mischief. It is fulfilled by that recklessness of law and human life which is indi- cated by shooting into a crowd, and thus doing murder on even an unknown object. Such a feel- ing the law regards as hateful, and visits, in its practical exhibition, with condign punishment, because opposed to the very existence of law and society. One may do fatal mischief without this recklessness ; but when the act is done, regard- less of consequences, and death ensues, it is mur- der in the eye of the law. If the facts to be proved in this case should not come uf> to these requisitions, he implored the jury to acquit the accused, as at once due to law and justice. They should note every fact with scrutinizing eye, and ascertain whether the fatal result proceeded from passing accident or from brooding revenge, which the law stamped with the odious name of malice. He would make no further preliminary remarks, but proceed at once to lay the facts before them, from the mouths of the witnesses. Evidence. J. Portcous Deveaux sworn. — He is the coro- ner of Charleston district ; held the inquest, on the seventh of January last, on the body of the deceased slave, Maria, the slave of Robert Row- and, at the residence of Mrs. T. C. Bee (the mother of the prisoner), in Logan-street. The body was found in an outbuilding — a kitchen; it was the body of an old and emaciated person, between fifty and sixty years of age ; it was not examined in his presence by physicians ; saw some few scratches about the face ; adjourned to the City Hall. Mrs. Rowand was examined ; her ex- amination was in writing; it was here produced, and read, as follows : " Mrs. Eliza Rowand sworn. — Says Maria is her nurse, and had misbehaved on yesterday morn- ing ; deponent sent Maria to Mr. Rowand's house, to be corrected by Simon ; deponent sent Maria from the house about seven o'clock, A. M.; she returned to her about nine o'clock ; came into her chamber ; Simon did not come into the chamber at any time previous to the death of Maria ; de- ponent says Maria fell down in the chamber ; de- ponent had her seated up by Richard, who was then in the chamber, and deponent gave Maria some asafcetida ; deponent then left the room ; Richard came down and said Maria was dead ; deponent says Richard did not strike Maria, nor did any one else strike her, in deponent's chamber. Richard left the chamber immediately with depo- nent ; Maria was about fifty-two years of age ; deponent sent Maria by Richard to Simon, to Mr. Rowand's house, to be corrected ; Mr. Rowand was absent from the city ; Maria died about twelve o'clock ; Richard and Maria were on good terms ; deponent was in the chamber all the while that Richard and Maria were there together. " Eliza Rowand. " Sworn to before me this seventh Januarv. 1847. " J. P. Deveaux, Coroner,' D. C." Witness went to the chamber of prisoner, where the death occurred ; saw nothing particular ; some pieces of wood in a box, set in the chimney ; hid attention was called to one piece, in particular, eighteen inches long, three inches wide, and about one and a half inch thick ; did not measure it ; the jury of inquest did ; it was not a light-wood knot ; thinks it was of oak ; there was some pine wood and some split oak. Dr. Peter Porcher was called to examine the body professionally, who did so out of witness' presence. Before this witness left the stand, B. F. Hunt, Esq., one of the counsel for the prisoner; rose and opened the defence before thf jury, in sub- stance as follows : He said that the scene before tuem was a very novel one ; and whether for good or evil, he would not pretend to prophesy. It was the first time, in the history of this state, that a lady of good character and respectable connections stood ar- raigned at the bar, and had been put on trial for her life, on facts arising out of her domestic rela- tions to her own slave. It was a spectacle con- soling, and cheering, perhaps, to those who owed no good will to the institutions of our country ; but calculated only to excite pain and regret among ourselves. lie would not state a proposi- tion so revolting to humanity as that crime should go unpunished ; but judicial interference between the slave and the owner was a matter at once of delicacy and danger. It was the first time he had ever stood between a slave-owner and the public prosecutor, and his "sensations were anything but pleasant. This is an entirely different case from homicide between equals in society. Subordination is indispensable where slavery exists ; and in this there is no new principle involved. The same principle prevails in every country ; on shipboard and in the army a large discretion is always left to the superior. Charges by inferiors against their superiors were always to be viewed with great circumspection at least, and especially when the latter are charged with cruelty or crime against subordinates. In the relation of owner and slave there is an absence of the usual motives for murder, and strong inducements against it on the part of the former. Life is usually taken from avarice or passion. The master gains nothing, but loses much, by the death of his slave; and when he takes the life of the latter deliberately, there must be more than ordinary malice to insti- gate the deed. The policy of altering the old law of 1740, which punished the killing of a slave with fine and political disfranchisement, was more than doubtful. It was the law of our colonial ancestors; it conformed to their policy and was approved by their wisdom, and it continued undisturbed by their posterity until the year 1821. It was engrafted on our policy in counter- action of the schemes and machinations, or in deference to the clamors, of those who formed plans for our improvement, although not inter- ested in nor understanding our institutions, and 96 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. whose interference led to the tragedy of 1822. He here adverted to the views of Chancellor Har- per on this subject, who, in his able and philosophi- cal memoir on slavery, said : " It is a somewhat singular fact, that when there existed in our state no law for punishing the murder of a slave, other than a pecuniary fine, there were, I will venture to say, at least ten murders of freemen for one mur- der of a slave. Yet it is supposed that they are less protected than their masters." " The change was made in subserviency to the opinions and clamor of others, who were utterly incompetent to form an opinion on the subject ; and a wise act is seldom the result of legislation in this spirit. From the fact I have stated, it is plain they need less protection. Juries are, therefore, less wil- ling to convict, and it may sometimes happen that the guilty will escape all punishment. Security is one of the compensations of their humble posi- tion. "We challenge the comparison, that with us there have been fewer murders of. slaves than of j:>arents, children, apprentices, and other mur- ders, cruel and unnatural, in society where slav- ery does not exist." Such was the opinion of Chancellor Harper on this subject, who had profoundly studied it, and whose views had been extensively read on this continent and in Europe. Fortunately, the jury, he said, were of the country, acquainted with our policy and practice ; composed of men too inde- pendent and honorable to be led astray by the noise and clamor out of doors. All was now as it should be; — at least, a court of justice had assembled, to which his client had fled for refuge and safety ; its threshold was sacred ; no profane clamors entered there ; but legal investigation was had of facts, derived from the testimony of sworn witnesses ; and this should teach the community to shut their bosoms against sickly humanity, and their ears to imaginary tales of blood and horror, the food of a depraved appetite. He warned the jury that they were to listen to no testimony but that of free white persons, given on oath in open court. They were to imagine none that came not from them. It was for this that they were selected, — their intelligence putting them beyond the influence of unfound- ed accusations, unsustained by legal proof; of legends of aggravated cruelty, founded on the evidence of negroes, and arising from weak and wicked falsehoods. Were slaves permitted to testify against their owner, it would cut the cord that unites them in peace and harmony, and ciiable them to sacrifice their masters to their ill will or revenge. Whole crews had been often Leagued to charge captains of vessels with foulest murder, but judicial trial had exposed the false- hood. Truth has been distorted in this casr, and murder manufactured out of what was nothing more than ordinary domestic discipline. Chastise- ment must lie inflicted until subordination is pro- duced ; and flic extent of the punishment is not to ''judged of by one's neighbors, but by himself. The evenl in this ease has been unfortunate and sad ; but there was no motive for the taking of life. There is no pecuniary interest in the owner to destroy his slave ; the murder of bis slave can only happen from ferocious passions of the master, filling his own bosom with anguish and contrition. This ease has no other basis but un- founded rumor, commonly believed, on evidence thai in/,' mil venture here, the offspring of that pas- sion and depravity which make up falsehood. The hope of freedom, of change of owners, revenge, are all motives with slave witnesses to malign their owners ; and to credit such testimony would be to dissolve human society. "Where deliberate, wilful, and malicious murder is done, whether by male or female, the retribution of the law is a debt to God and man ; but the jury should beware lest it fall upon the innocent. The offence charged was not strictly murder at common law. The act of 1740 was founded on the practical good sense of our old planters, and its spirit still prevails. The act of 1821 is, by its terms, an act only to in- crease the punishment of persons convicted of murdering a slave, — and this is a refinement in hu- manity of doubtful policy. But, by the act of 1821, the murder must be wilful, deliberate and mali- cious ; and, when punishment is due to the slave, the master must not be held to strict account for going an inch beyond the mark ; whether for doing so he shall be a felon, is a question for the jury to solve. The master must conquer a refractory slave ; and deliberation, so as to render clear the existence of malice, is necessary to "Taring the master within the provision of the act. He bade the jury remember the words of Him who spake as never man spake, — " Let him that has never sinned throw the first stone.'''' They, as masters, might regret excesses to ichich they have themselves carried punishment. He was not at all surprised at the course of the attorney-general ; it was his wont to treat every case with perfect fairness. He (Colonel H.) agreed that the inquiry should be — 1. Into the fact of the death. 2. The character or motive of the act. The examination of the prisoner showed con clusively that the slave died a natural death, and not from personal violence. She was chastised with a lawful weapon, — was in w r eak health, ner- vous, made angry by her punishment, — excited. The story was then a plain one ; the community had been misled by the creations of imagination, or the statements of interested slaves. The negro came into her mistress' chamber ; fell on the floor ; medicine was given her ; it was supposed she was asleep, but she slept the sleep of death. To show the wisdom and policy of the old act of 1740 (this indictment is under both acts, — the punishment only altered by that of 1821), he urged that a case like this was not murder at common law ; nor is the same evidence applicable at common law. There, murder was presumed from killing ; not so in the case of a slave. The act of 1740 permits a master, when his slave is killed in his presence, there being no other white person present, to exculpate himself by his own oath ; and this exculpation is complete, unless clearly contravened by the evidence of two white witnesses. This is exactly what the prisoner has done ; she has, as the law permits, by calling or. Cod, exculpated herself. And her oath is good, at least against the slander of her own slaves. Which, then, should prevail, the clamors of Oth- ers, or the policy of the law established by our colonial ancestors' There would not be a tittle of positive evidence against the prisoner, nothing but circumstantial eviden.ee ; and ingenious com- bination might be made to lead to any conclusion. Justice was all that his client asked. She ap- pealed to liberal and high-minded men, — and she rejoiced in the privilege of doing so,— to accord her that justice they would demand for them- selves. Mr. Deveaux was not cross-examined. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 97 Evidence resumed. Dr. E. W. North sworn. — (Cautioned by at- torney-general to avoid hearsay evidence.) Was the family physician of Mrs. Rowand. Went on the 6th January, at Mrs. Rowand's request, to see her at her mother's, in Logan-street ; found her down stairs, in sitting-room. She was in a nervous and excited state ; had been so for a month before ; he had attended her ; she said nothing to witness of slave Maria ; found Maria in a chamber, up stairs, about one o'clock, P. M. ; she was dead ; she appeared to have been dead about an hour and a half; his attention was attracted to a piece of pine wood on a trunk or table in the room ; it had a large knot on one end ; had it been used on Maria, it must have caused considerable contusion ; other pieces of wood were in a box, and much smaller ones ; the corpse was lying one side in the chamber ; it was not laid out ; presumed she died there ; the marks on the body were, to witness' view, very slight ; some scratches about the face ; he purposely avoided making an examination ; observed no injuries about the head ; had no conversation with Mrs. Rowand about Maria ; left the house ; it was on the 6th January last, — the day before the in- quest ; knew the slave before, but had never attended her. Cross-examined. — Mrs. Rowand was in feeble health, and nervous ; the slave Maria was weak and emaciated in appearance ; sudden death of such a person, in such a state, from apoplexy or action of nervous system, not unlikely; her sud- den death would not imply violence; had pre- scribed asafcetida .for Mrs-. Rowand on a former visit ; it is an appropriate remedy for nervous disorders. Mrs. Rowand was not of bodily strength to handle the pine knot so as to give a severe blow ; Mrs. Rowand has five or six children, the elder of them large enough to have carried pieces of the wood about the room ; there must have been a severe contusion, and much extravasation of blood, to infer death from violence in this case ; apoplexy is frequently attended with extravasa- tion of blood ; there were two Marias ia the fam- ily. In reply. — Mrs. Rowand could have raised the pine knot, but could not have struck a blow with it ; such a piece of wood could have produced death, but it would have left its mark ; saw the fellow Richard ; he was quite capable of giving such a blow. Dr. Peter Porcher. — Was called in by the coro- ner's jury to examine Maria's body ; found it in the wash-kitchen ; it was the corpse of one feeble and emaciated ; partly prepared for burial ; had the clothes removed ; the body was lacerated with stripes ; abrasions about face and knuckles ; skin knocked off; passed his hand over the head ; no bone broken ; on request, opened her thorax, and examined the viscera ; found them healthy ; heart unusually so for one of her age ; no particular odor ; some undigested food ; no inflammation ; removed the scalp, and found considerable extrav- asation between scalp and skull ; scalp bloodshot ; just under the scalp, found the effects of a single blow, just over the right ear ; after removing the scalp, lifted the bone ; no rupture of any blood- vessel ; some softening of the brain in the upper hemisphere ; there was considerable extravasation under the scalp, the result of a succession of blows on the top of the head ; this extravasation was general, but that over the ear was a single spot ; 7 the butt-end of a cowhide would have sufficed for this purpose ; an ordinary stick, a heavy one, would have done it ; a succession of blows on the head, in a feeble woman, would lead to death, when, in a stronger one, it would not ; saw no other appearance about her person, to account for her death, except those blows. Cross-examined. — To a patient in this wo- man's condition, the blows would probably cause death ; they were not such as were calculated to kill an ordinary person ; witness saw the body twenty-four hours after her death ; it was winter, and bitter cold ; no disorganization, and the ex- amination was therefore to be relied on ; the blow behind the ear might have resulted from a fall, but not the blow on the top of the head, unless she fell head foremost ; came to the conclusion of a succession of blows, from the extent of the ex- travasation ; a single blow would have shown a distinct spot, with a gradual spreading or diffu- sion ; one large blow could not account for it, as the head was spherical ; no blood on the brain ; the softening of the brain did not amount to much : in an ordinary dissection would have passed it over ; anger sometimes produces apoplexy, which results in death ; blood between the scalp and the bone of the skull ; it was evidently a fresh extrav- asation ; twenty-four hours would scarcely have made any change ; knew nothing of this negro before ; even after examination, the cause of death is sometimes inscrutable, — not usual, how- ever. In reply. — Does not attribute the softening of the brain to the blows ; it was slight, and might have been the result of age ; it was some evidence of impairment of vital powers by advancing age. Dr. A. P. Hayne. — At request of the coroner, acted with Dr. Porcher ; was shown into an out- house ; saw on the back of the corpse evidences of contusion ; arms swollen and enlarged ; lacera- tion of body ; contusions on head and neck ; be- tween scalp and skull extravasation of blood, on the top of head, and behind the right ear ; a burn on the hand ; the brain presented healthy appear- ance ; opened the body, and no evidences of disease in the chest or viscera ; attributed the extravasa- tion of blood to external injury from blows, — blows from a large and broad and blunt instru- ment ; attributes the death to those blows ; sup- poses they were adequate to cause death, as she was old, weak and emaciated. Cross-examined. — Would not have caused death in a young and robust person. The evidence for the prosecution here closed, and no witnesses were called for the defence. The jury were then successively addressed, ably and eloquently, by J. L. Petigru and James 8. Rhett, Esqr-s., on behalf of the prisoner, and H. Bailey, Esq., on behalf of the state, and by B. F. Hunt, Esq., in reply. Of those speeches, and also of the judge's charge, we have taken full notes, but have neither time nor space to insert them here. His Honor, Judge O'Neall, then charged the jury eloquently and ably on the facts, vindicating the existing law, making death the penalty for the murder of a slave ; but, on the law, intimated to the jury that he held the act of 1740 so far still in force as to admit of the prisoner's exculpation by her own oath, unless clearly disproved by the oaths of two witnesses ; ana that they were, therefore, in his opinion, bound to acquit, — although he left it to them, wholly, to say wheth- 98 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. er the prisoner was guilty of murder, killing in sudden heat and passion, or not guilty. The jury then retired, and, in about twenty or thirty minutes, returned with a verdict of "Not Guilty." There are some points which appear in this statement of the trial, especially in the plea for the defence. Particular attention is called to the following passage : "Fortunately," said the lawyer, "the jury were of the country ; — acquainted with our policy ftD .* practice ; composed of men too honorable to be 'jhI astray by the noise and clamor out of doors. All was now as it should be ; at least, a court of justice had assembled to which his client had fled for refuge and safety ; its threshold was sacred ; no profane, clamors entered there ; but legal investi- gation was had of facts." From this it plainly appears that the case was a notorious one ; so notorious and atro- cious as to break through all the apathy which slave-holding institutions tend to pro- duce, and to surround the court-house with noise and clamor. From another intimation in the same speech, it would appear that there was abun- dant testimony of slaves to the direct fact,— testimony which left no kind of doubt on the popular mind. Why else does he thus earnestly warn the jury ? He warned the jury that they were to listen to no evidence but that of free white persons, given on oath in open court ; they were to imag- ine none that came not from them. It was for this that they were selected ; — their intelligence putting them beyond the influence of unfounded accusations, unsustained by legal proof; of legends of aggravated cruelty, founded on the evidence of negroes, and arising from weak and wicked false- hoods. See also this remarkable admission : — " Truth had been distorted in this case, and murder manufactured out of what was nothing more than ordinary domestic discipline." If the reader refers to the tes- timony, ho will find it testified that the woman appeared to be about sixty years old; that she was much emaciated; that there had been a succession of blows on the top of her head, and one violent one over the ear ; and that, in the opinion of a sur- geon, these blows were sufficient to cause death. Yet the lawyer for the defence coolly remarks that " murder had been manufactured out of what was ordinary domestic discipline." Are we to under- stand that beating feeble old women on the head, in this manner, is a specimen of ordi- nary domestic discijjline in Charleston? What would have been said if any anti- slavery newspaper at the North had made such an assertion as this ? Yet the Charles- ton Courier reports this statement without comment or denial. But let us hear the lady's lawyer go still further in vindication of this ordinary domestic discipline : "Chas- tisement must be inflicted until subordina- tion is produced ; and the extent of the pun- ishment is not to be judged by one's neigh- bors, but by himself. The event, in this case, has been unfortunate and sad." The lawyer admits that the result of thumping a feeble old woman on the head has, in this case, been "unfortunate and sad." The old thing had not strength to bear it, and had no greater regard for the convenience of the family, and the reputation of " the institution," than to die, and so get the family and the community generally into trouble. It will appear from this that in most cases where old women are thumped on the head they have stronger constitutions — or more consideration. Again he says, "When punishment is due to the slave, the master must not be held to strict account for going an inch beyond the mark." And finally, and most astounding of all, comes this: " He bade the jury remember the words of him who spake as never man spake, — ' Let him THAT HATH NEVER SINNED THROW THE first stone.' They, as masters, might regret excesses to which they themselves might have carried punishment." What sort of an insinuation is this ? Did he mean to say that almost all the jury- men had probably done things of the same sort, and therefore could have nothing to say in this case ? and did no member of the jury get up and resent such a charge? From all that appears, the jury acquiesced in it as quite a matter of course ; and the Charleston Courier quotes it without com- ment, in the record of a trial which it says "will show to the world now the law ex- tends the oegis of her protection alike over the white man and the humblest slave." Lastly, notice the decision of the judge, which has become law in South Carolina. What point does it establish? That the simple oath of the master, in face of all cir- cumstantial evidence to the contrary, may clear him, when the murder of a slave is the question. And this trial is paraded as a triumphant specimen of legal impartiality and equity ! "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !" KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 99 CHAPTER VIII. THE GOOD OLD TIMES. W A refinement in humanity of doubtful policy." B. F. Hunt. The author takes no pleasure in present- ing to her readers the shocking details of the following case. But it seems necessary to exhibit what were the actual workings of the ancient law of South Carolina, which has been characterized as one "conformed to the policy, and approved by the wisdom," of the fathers of that state, and the reform of which has been called " a refinement in humanity of doubtful policy." It is well, also, to add the charge of Judge Wilds, partly for its intrinsic liter- ary merit, and the nobleness of its senti- ments, but principally because it exhibits such a contrast as could scarcely be found elsewhere, between the judge's high and indignant sense of justice, and the shameful impotence and imbecility of the laws under which he acted. The case was brought to the author's knowledge by a letter from a gentleman of Pennsylvania, from which the following is an extract : Some time between the years 1807 and 1810, there was lying in the harbor of Charleston a ship commanded by a man named Slater. His crew were slaves : one of them committed some offence, not specified in the narrative. The cap- tain ordered him to be bound and laid upon the deck ; and there, in the harbor of Charleston, in the broad day-light, compelled another slave- sailor to chop off his head. The affair was pub- lic — notorious. A prosecution was commenced against him ; the offence was proved beyond all doubt, — perhaps, indeed, it was not denied, — and the judge, in a most eloquent charge or rebuke of the defendant, expressed his sincere regret that he could inflict no punishment, under the laws of the state. I was studying law when the "case was pub- lished in " Hall's American Law Journal, vol. i." [ have not seen the book for twenty-five or thirty years. I -may be in error as to names, &c., but while I have life and my senses the facts of the case cannot be forgotten. The following is the "charge" alluded to in the above letter. It was pronounced by the Honorable Judge Wilds, of South Carolina, and is copied from Hall's Law Journal, I. 67. John Slater ! You have been convicted by a jury of your country of the wilful murder of your own slave ; and I am sorry to say, the short, impressive, uncontradicted testimony, on which that conviction was founded, leaves but too little room to doubt its propriety. The annals of human depravity might be safely challenged for a parallel to this unfeeling, bloody and diabolical transaction. You caused your unoffending, unresisting slave to be bound hand and foot, and, by a refinement in cruelty, compelled his companion, perhaps the friend of his heart, to chop his head with an axe, and to cast his body, yet convulsing with the agonies of death, into the water ! And this deed you dared to perpetrate in the very harbor of Charleston, within a few yards of the shore, un- blushingly, in the face of open day. Had your murderous arm been raised against your equals, whom the laws of self-defence and the more effi- cacious law of the land unite to protect, your crimes would not have been without precedent, and would have seemed less horrid. Your per- sonal risk would at least have proved, that though a murderer, you were not a coward. But you too well knew that this unfortunate man, whom chance had subjected to your caprice, had not, like your- self, chartered to him by the laws of the land the 'sacred rights of nature ; and that a stern, but necessary policy, had disarmed him of the rights of self-defence/ Too well you knew that to you alone he could look for protection ; and that your arm alone could shield him from oppression, or avenge his wrongs ; yet, that arm you cruelly stretched out for his destruction. The counsel, who generously volunteered his services in your behalf, shocked at the enormity oC your offence, endeavored to find a refuge, as well for his own feelings as for those of all who heard your trial, in a derangement of your intel- lect. Several witnesses were examined to estab- lish this fact ; but the result of their testimony, it is apprehended, was as little satisfactory to his mind, as to those of the jury to whom it was addressed. I sincerely wish this defence had proved successful, not from any desire to save you from the punishment which awaits you, and which you so richly merit, but from the desire of saving my country from the foul reproach of hav- ing in its bosom so great a monster. From the peculiar situation of this country, our fathers felt themselves justified in subjecting to a very slight punishment him who murders a slave. Whether the present state of society require a continuation of this policy, so opposite to the apparent rights of humanity, it remains for a subsequent legislature to decide. Their attention would ere this have been directed to this subject, but, for the honor of human nature, such hardened sinners as yourself are rarely found, to disturb the repose of society. The grand jury of this district, deeply impressed with your daring outrage against the laws both of God and man, have made a very strong expression of their feelings on the subject to the legislature ; and, from the wisdom and jus- tice of that body, the friends of humanity may confidently hope soon to see this blackest in the catalogue of human crimes pursued by appropri- ate punishment. In proceeding to pass the sentence which the law provides for your offence, I confess I never felt more forcibly the want of power to make respected the laws of my country, whose minister I am. You have already violated the majesty of those laws. You have profanely pleaded the law under which you stand convicted, as a justifica- tion of your crime. You have held that law in one hand, and brandished your bloody axe in the other, impiously contending that the one gave a license to the unrestrained use of the other. 100 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. But, though you will go off unhurt in person, by the present sentence, expect not to escape with impunity. Your bloody deed has set a mark upon you, which I fear the good actions of your future life will not efface. You will be held in abhor- rence by an impartial world, and shunned as a monster by every honest man. Your unoffending posterity will be visited, for your iniquity, by the stigma of deriving their origin from an unfeeling murderer. Your days, which will be but few, will be spent in wretchedness ; and, if your con- science be not steeled against every virtuous emo- tion, if you be not entirely abandoned to hardness of heart, the mangled, mutilated corpse of your murdered slave will ever be present in your imag- ination, obtrude itself into all your amusements, and haunt you in the hours of silence and repose. But, should you disregard the reproaches of an offended world, should you hear with callous insensibility the gnawings of a guilty conscience, yet remember, I charge you, remember, that an awful period is fast approaching, and with you is close at hand, when you must appear before a tribunal whose want of power can afford you no prospect of impunity ; when you must raise your bloody hands at the bar of an impartial omni- scient Judge ! Remember, I pray you, remem- ber, whilst yet you have time, that God is just, and that his vengeance will not sleep forever ! The penalty that followed this solemn denunciation was a fine of seven hundred pounds, current money, or, in default of payment, imprisonment for seven years. And yet it seems that there have not been wanting those who consider the reform of this law " a refinement in humanity of doubtful policy" ! To this sentiment, so high an authority as that of Chancellor Harper is quoted, as the reader will see by referring to the speech of Mr. Hunt, in the last chapter. And, as is very common in such cases, the old law is vindicated, as being, on the whole, a surer protection to the life of the slave than the new one. From the results of the last two trials, there would seem to be a fair show of plausibility in the argument. For under the old law it seems that Slater had at least to pay seven hundred pounds, while under the new Eliza Ho wand comes off with only the penalty of "a most sifting scrutiny." Thus, it appears, the penalty of the law goes with the murderer of the slave. How is it executed in the cases which concern the life of the master? Look at this short notice of a recent trial of this kind, which is given in the Alexandria (Va.) Gazette, of Oct. 23, 1852, as an extract from the Charlestown (Va.) Free Press. TRIAL OF NEGRO HENRY. The trial of this slave for an attack, with in- tent to kill, on the person of Mr. Harrison An- derson, was commenced on Monday and concluded ©n Tuesday evening, llis llonor, Braxton Daven- port, Esq., chief justice of the county, with four associate gentlemen justices, composed the court The commonwealth was represented by its at- torney, Charles B. Harding, Esq., and the ac- cused ably and eloquently defended by Win. C. Worthington and John A. Thompson, Esqs. The evidence of the prisoner's guilt was conclusiye. A majority of the court thought that he ought to suffer the extreme penalty of tho law ; but, as this required a unanimous agreement, he was sen- tenced to receive five hundred lashes, not more than thirty-nine at one time. The physician of the jail was instructed to see that they should not be administered too frequently, and only when, in his opinion, he could bear them. In another paper we are told that the Free Press says : A majority of the court thought that he ought to suffer the extreme penalty of the law ; but, as this required a unanimous agreement, he was sentenced to receive five hundred lashes, not more than thirty-nine at any one time. The physician of the jail was instructed to see that they should not be administered too frequently, and only when, in his opinion, he could bear them. This may seem to be a harsh and inhuman punishment ; but, when we take into consideration that it is in accordance with the law of the land, and the fur- ther fact that the insubordination among the slaves of that state has become truly alarming, we cannot question the righteousness of the judg- ment. Will anybody say that the master's life is in more danger from the slave than the slave's from the master, that this dispro- portionate retribution is meted out ? Those who countenance such legislation will do well to ponder the solemn words of an an- cient book, inspired by One who is no respecter of persons : " If I have refused justice to my man-servant or maid- servant, When they had a cause with me, What shall I do when God riseth up 1 And when be visiteth, what shall I answer him 1 Did not he that made me in the womb make him 1 Did not tho same God fashion us in the womb ! " Jon 31 : 13—15. CHAPTER IX. MODERATE CORRECTION AND ACCIDENTAL DEATH — STATE V. CASTLEMAN. The author remarks that the record of the following trial was read by her a little time before writing the account of the death of Uncle Tom. The shocking particulars haunted her mind and were in her thoughts when the following sentence was -written : What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear. What brother man and brother Christian KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 101 must suffer, cannot be told us, even in our secret chamber, it so harrows up the soul. And yet, my country, these things are done under the shadow of thy laws ! Christ, thy church sees them almost in silence ! It is given precisely as prepared by Dr. G. Bailey, the very liberal and fair-minded editor of the National Era. From the National Era, Washington, November 6, 1851. HOMICIDE CASE IN CLARKE COUNTY, VIRGINIA. Some time since, the newspapers of Virginia contained an account of a horrible tragedy, enacted in Clarke County, of that state. A slave of Colonel James Castleman, it was stated, had been chained by the neck, and whipped to death by his master, on the charge of stealing. The whole neighborhood in which the transaction occurred was incensed ; the Virginia papers abounded in denunciations of the cruel act ; and the people of the North were called upon to bear witness to the justice which would surely be meted out in a slave state to the master of a slave. We did not publish the account. The case was horrible ; it was, we were confident, exceptional ; it should not be taken as evidence of the general treatment of slaves ; we chose to delay any notice of it till the courts should pronounce their judgment, and we could announce at once the crime and its pun- ishment, so that the state might stand acquitted of the foul deed. Those who were so shocked at the transaction will be surprised and mortified to hear that the actors in it have been tried and acquitted; and when they read the following account of the trial and verdict, published at the instance of the friends of the accused, their mortification will deepen into bitter indignation : From the "Spirit of Jefferson.'" "Colonel James Castleman. — The following statement, understood to have been drawn up by counsel, since the trial, has been placed by the friends of this gentleman in our hands for publi- cation : " At the Circuit Superior Court of Clarke County, commencing on the 13th of October, Judge Samuels presiding, James Castleman and his son Stephen D. Castleman were indicted jointly for the murder of negro Lewis, property of the latter. By advice of their counsel, the parties elected to be tried separately, and the attorney for the commonwealth directed that James Cas- tleman should be tried first. " It was proved, on this trial, that for many months previous to the occurrence the money- drawer of the tavern kept by Stephen D. Castleman, and the liquors kept in large quantities in his cellar, had been pillaged from time to time, until the thefts had attained to a considerable amount. Suspicion had, from various causes, been directed to Lewis, and another negro, named Reuben (a blacksmith) , the property of James Castleman ; but by the aid of two of the house-servants they had eluded the most vigilant watch. " On the 20th of August last, in the afternoon, S. D. Castleman accidentally discovered a clue, by means of which, and through one of the house- servants implicated, he was enabled fully to de- tect the depredators, and to ascertain the manner in which the theft had been committed. He im- mediately sent for his father, living near him, and after communicating what he had discovered, it was determined that the offenders should be pun- ished at once, and before they should know of the discovery that had been made. " Lewis was punished first ; and in a manner, as was fully shown, to preclude all risk of injury to his person, by stripes with a broad leathern strap. He was punished severely, but to an extent by no means disproportionate to his offence ; nor was it pretended, in any quarter, that this punishment implicated either his life or health. He confessed the ofience, and admitted that it had been effected by false keys, furnished by the blacksmith, Reu- ben. " The latter servant was punished immediately afterwards. It was believed that he was the principal offender, and he was found to be more obdurate and contumacious than Lewis had been in reference to the offence. Thus it was proved, both by the prosecution and the defence, that he was punished with greater severity than his ac- complice. It resulted in a like confession on his part, and he produced the false key, one fashioned by himself, by which the theft had been effected . " It was further shown, on the trial, that Lewis was whipped in the upper room of a warehouse, connected with Stephen Castleman's store, and near the public road, where he was at work at the time ; that after he had been flogged, to secure his person, whilst they went after Reuben, lie was confined by a chain around his neck, which was attached to a joist above his head. The length of this chain, the breadth and thickness of the joist, its height from the floor, and the circlet of chain on the neck, were accurately measured ; and it was thus shown that the chain unoccupied by the circlet and the joist was a foot and a half longer than the space between the shoulders of the man and the joist above, or to that extent the chain hung loose above him ; that the circlet (which was fastened so as to prevent its contraction) rested on the shoulders and breast, the chain being suf- ficiently drawn only to prevent being slipped over his head, and that there was no other place in the room to which he could be fastened, except to one of the joists above. His hands were tied in front ; a white man, who had been at work with Lewis during the day, was left with him by the Messrs. Castleman, the better to insure his detention, whilst they were absent after Reuben. It was proved by this man (who was a witness for the prosecution) that Lewis asked for a box to stand on, or for something that he could jump off from ; that after the Castlemans had left him he expressed a fear that when they came back he would be whipped again ; and said, if he had a knife, and couldget one hand loose, he would cut his throat. The witness stated that the negro ' stood firm on his feet,' that he could turn freely in whatever di- rection he wished, and that he made no complaint of the mode of his confinement. This man stated that he remained with Lewis about half an hour, and then left there to go home. " After punishing Reuben, the Castlemans re- turned to the warehouse, bringing him with them ; their object being to confront the two men, in the hope that by further examination of them jointly all their accomplices might be detected. " They were not absent more than half an hour. When they entered the room above, Lewis was found hanging by the neck, his feet thrown behind 102 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S' CABIN. him his knees a few inches from the floor, and his j on the testimony of a house-servant, the nature of head thrown forward — the body warm and sup- which does not appear to have been inquired into pie (or relaxed), but life was extinct. by the court ! Not a word is said which au- » It was proved by the surgeons who made a post- 1 thorizes the belief that any careful examination mortem examination before the coroner's inquest ' was made, as it respects their guilt. Lewis and that the death was caused by strangulation by j Reuben were assumed, on loose evidence, without hanging ; and other eminent surgeons were ex- I deliberate investigation, to be guilty ; and then, amined to show, from the appearance of the brain | without allowing them to attempt to show their and its blood-vessels after death (as exhibited at the post-mortem examination), that the subject could not have fainted before strangulation. " After the evidence was finished on both sides, the jury from their box, and of their own motion, without a word from counsel on either side, in- formed the court that they had agreed upon their verdict. The counsel assented to its being thus received, and a verdict of " not guilty " was im- mediately rendered. The attorney for the com- monwealth then informed the court that all the evidence for the prosecution had been laid before the jury ; and as no new evidence could be offered on the trial of Stephen D. Castleman, he sub- mitted to the court the propriety of entering a nolle prosequi. The judge replied that the case had been fully and fairly laid before the jury upon the evidence"; that the court was not only satisfied with thp verdict, but, if any other had been ren- dered, it must have been set aside ; and that if no further evidence was to be adduced on the trial of Stephen, the attorney for the commonwealth would exercise a proper discretion in entering a nolle prosequi as to him, and the court would ap- prove its being done. A nolle prosequi was en- tered accordingly, and both gentlemen discharged. " It may be added that two days were consumed in exhibiting the evidence, and that the trial was by a jury of Clarke County. Both the parties had been on bail from the time of their arrest, and were continued on bail whilst the trial was de- pending." Let us admit that the evidence does not prove the legal crime of homicide : what candid man can doubt, after reading this ex parte version of it, that the slave died in consequence of the punish- ment inflicted upon him? In criminal prosecutions the federal constitu- tion guarantees to the accused the right to a pub- lic trial by an impartial jury ; the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa- tion ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witness in his favor ; and to have the assistance of counsel; guarantees necessary to secure inno- cence against hasty or vindictive judgment, — ab- solutely necessary to prevent injustice. Grant that they were not intended for slaves ; every master of a slave must feel that they arc still morally bind- ing upon him. He is the sole judge : he alum' determines the offence, the proof requisite to es- tablish it, and the amount of the punishment. The slave then has a peculiar claim upon him for justice. When charged with a crime, common humanity requires that he should be informed of it, that he Bhould be confronted with the witnesses against him, that he should be permitted to show evidence in favor of his innocence. But how was poor Lewis treated? The son of Castleman said he had discovered who stole the money; and it was forthwith " determined that the offenders should be punished at once, and be- fore t/u v should know of the discovery that had been evidence, they were whipped, until a confession of guilt was extorted by bodily pain. Is this Virginia justice 1 Lewis was punished with " a broad leathern strap," — he was " punished severely :" this Ave do not need to be told. A " broad leathern strap" is well adapted to severity of punishment. " Nor was it pretended," the account says, " in any quarter, that this punishment implicated either his life or his health." This is false ; it was ex- pressly stated in the newspaper accounts at the time, and such was the general impression in the neighborhood, that the punishment did very se- verely implicate his life. But more of this anon. Lewis was left. A chain was fastened around his neck, so as not to choke him, and secured to the joist above, leaving a slack of about a foot and a half. Remaining in an upright position, he was secure against strangulation, but he could neither sit nor kneel ; and should he faint, he would be choked to death. The account says that they fastened him thus for the purpose of securing him. If this had been the sole object, it could have been accomplished by safer and less cruel methods, as every reader must know. This mode of securing him was intended probably to intimi- date him, and, at the same time, afforded some gratification to the vindictive feeling which con- trolled the actors in this foul transaction. The man whom they left to watch Lewis said that, after remaining there about half an hour, he went home ; and Lewis was then alive. The Castle- mans say that, after punishing Reuben, they re- turned, having been absent not more than half an hour, and they found him hanging by the neck, dead. We direct attention to this part of the testimony , to show how loose the statements were which went to make up the evidence. Why was Lewis chained at all, and a man left to watch him ? "To secure him," say the Castle- mans. Is it customary to chain slaves in this manner, and set a watch over them, after severe punishment, to prevent their running away 1 If the punishment of Lewis had not been unusual, and if he had not been threatened with another infliction on their return, there would have been no necessity for chaining him. The testimony of the man left to watch repre- sents him as desperate, apparently , with pain and fright. "Lewis asked ior a box to stand on :" why ? Was he not suffering from pain and ex- haustion, and did he not Wish to rest himself, without danger of slow strangulation] Again: he asked for u something he could jump off from;" " alter the Castlemans left, he expressed a fear when they came hack that he would be whipped again ; and said, if lie had a knife, and could got one hand Loose, he would cut his throat." The punishment that could drive him to such desperation must have been horrible. How long they were absent we know not, for the testimony on this point is contradictory. They found him hanging by the neck, dead, " his feet thrown behind him, his knees a few inches made:' 1 Punished without a hearing ! Punished 1 from the floor, and his head thrown forward," — KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 103 just the position he would naturally foil into, had he sunk from exhaustion. They wish it to appear that he hung himself. Could this be proved (we need hardly say that it is not), it would relieve but slightly the dark picture of their guilt. The probability is that he sank, exhausted by suffering, Fatigue and fear. As to the testimony of " sur- geons," founded upon a post-mortem examination of the brain and blood-vessels, " that the subject could not have fainted before strangulation," it is not worthy of consideration. We know some- thing of the fallacies and fooleries of such ex- aminations. From all we can learn, the only evidence relied cm by the prosecution was that white man em- ployed by the Castlemans. He was dependent upon them for work. Other evidence might have been obtained ; why it was not is for the prosecut- ing attorney to explain. To prove what we say, and to show that justice has not been done in this horrible affair, we publish the following commu- nication from an old and highly-respectable citizen of this place, and who is very far from being an Abolitionist. The slave-holders whom he men- tions are well known here, and would have promptly appeared in the case, had the prosecu- tion, which was aware of their readiness, sum- moned them. " To the Editor of the Era: " I see that Castleman, who lately had a trial for whipping a slave to death, in Virginia, was ' triumphantly acquitted,'' — as many expected. There are three persons in this city, with whom I am acquainted, who staid at Castleman's the same night in which this awful tragedy was enacted. They heard the dreadful lashing and the heart-rending screams and entreaties of the sufferer. They implored the only white man they could find on the premises, not engaged in the bloody work, to interpose ; but for a long time he refused, on the ground that he was a dependent, and was afraid to give offence ; and that, more- over, they had been drinking, and he was in fear for his own life, should he say a word that would be displeasing to them. He did, however, ven- ture, and returned and reported the cruel manner in which the slaves were chained, and lashed, and secured in a blacksmith's vice. In the morning, when they ascertained that one of the slaves was dead, they were so shocked and indignant that they refused to eat in the house, and reproached Castleman with his cruelty. He expressed his regret that the slave had died, and especially as he had ascertained that he was innocent of the ac- cusation for which he had suffered. The idea was that he had fainted from exhaustion ; and, the chain being round his neck, he was strangled. The persons I refer to are themselves slave-holders, — but their feelings were so harrowed and lace- rated that they could not sleep (two of them are ladies) ; and for many nights afterwards their rest was disturbed, and their dreams made frightful, by the appalling recollection. " These persons would have been material wit- nesses, and would have willingly attended on the part of the prosecution. The knowledge they had of the case was communicated to the proper au- thorities, yet their attendance was not required. The only witness was that dependent who con- sidered his own life in danger. " Yours, &c, J. F." The account, as published by the friends of the accused parties, shows a case of extreme cruelty. The statements made by our correspondent prove that the truth has not been fully revealed, and that justice has been baffled. The result of the trial shows how irresponsible is the power of a master over his slave ; and that whatever security the latter has is to be sought in the humanity of the former, not in the guarantees of law. Against the cruelty of an inhuman master he has really no safeguard. Our conduct in relation to this case, deferring all notice of it in our columns till a legal investi- gation could be had, shows that we are not dis- posed to be captious towards our slave-holding countrymen. In no unkind spirit have we ex- amined this lamentable case ; but we must expose the utter repugnance of the slave system to the proper administration of justice. The newspapers of Virginia generally publish the account from the Spirit of Jefferson, without comment. They are evidently not satisfied that justice was done ; they doubtless will deny that the accused were guilty of homicide, legally ; but they will not deny that they were guilty of an atrocity which should brand them forever, in a Christian country. CHAPTER X. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED. — STATE V. LE- GREE ; A CASE NOT IN THE BOOKS. From a review of all the legal cases which have hitherto been presented, and of the principles established in the judicial decisions upon them, the following facts must be apparent to the reader : First, That masters do, now and then, kill slaves by the torture. Second, That the fact of so killing a slave is not of itself held presumption of murder, in slave jurisprudence. Third, That the slave in the act of resist- ance to his master may always be killed. From these things it will be seen to fol- low, that, if the facts of the death of Tom had been fully proved by two white wit- nesses, in open court, Legree could not have been held by any consistent interpreter of slave-law to be a murderer ; for Tom was in the act of resistance to the will of his master. His master had laid a command on him, in the presence of other slaves. Tom had deliberately refused to obey the command. The master commenced chas- tisement, to reduce him to obedience. And it is evident, at the first glance, to every one, that, if the law does not sustain him in enforcing obedience in such a case, there is an end of the whole slave power. No Southern court would dare to decide that Legree did wrong to continue the punish- ment, as long as Tom continued the insub- ordination. Legree stood by him every 104 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. moment of the time, pressing him to yield, and offering to let him go as soon as he did yield. Tom's resistance was insurrection. It was an example which could not be allowed, for a moment, on any Southern plantation. By the express words of the constitution of Georgia, and by the under- standing and usage of all slave-law, the power of life and death is always left in the hands of the master, in exigences like this. This is not a case like that of Souther v. The Commonwealth. The victim of Souther was not in a state of resistance or insurrec- tion. The punishment, in his case, was a simple vengeance for a past offence, and not an attempt to reduce him to subordination. There is no principle of slave jurispru- dence by which a man could be pronounced a murderer, for acting as Legree did, in his circumstances. Everybody must see that such an admission would strike at the found- ations of the slave system. To be sure, Tom was in a state of insurrection for con- science' sake. But the law does not, and cannot, contemplate that the negro shall have a conscience independent of his mas- ter's. To allow that the negro may refuse to obey his master whenever he thinks that obedience would be wrong, would be to pro- duce universal anarchy. If Tom had been allowed to disobey his master in this case, for conscience' sake, the next day Sambo would have had a case of conscience, and Quimbo the next. Several of them might very justly have thought that it was a sin to work as they did. The mulatto woman Avould have remembered that the command of God forbade her to take another husband. Mothers might have considered that it was more their duty to stay at home and take care of their children, when they were young and feeble, than to work for Mr. Legree in the cotton-field. There would be no end to the havoc made upon cotton- growing operations, were the negro allowed the right of maintaining his own conscience on moral subjects. If the slave system is a right system, and ought to be maintained, Mr. Legree ought not to be blamed for his conduct in this case : for he did only what was absolutely essential to maintain the system ; and Tom died in fanatical and fool- hardy resistance to " the powers that be, which are ordained of God." He followed a sentimental impulse of his desperately depraved heart, and neglected those "solid teachings of the written word," which, as recently elucidated, have proved so refresh- ing to eminent political men. CHAPTER XI. THE TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE OVER LAAV. Having been obliged to record so many trials in which justice has been turned away backward by the hand of law, and ecpuity and common humanity have been kept out by the bolt and bar of logic, it is a relief to the mind to find one recent trial recorded, in North Carolina, in which the nobler feelings of the human heart have burst over formalized limits, and where the prosecution appears to have been conducted by men, who were not ashamed of possessing in their bosoms that very dangerous and most illog- ical agitator, a human heart. It is true that, in giving this trial, very sorrowful, but inevitable, inferences will force them- selves upon the mind, as to that state of public feeling which allowed such outrages to be perpetrated in open daylight, in the capital of North Carolina, upon a hapless woman. It would seem that the public were too truly instructed in the awful doc- trine pronounced by Judge Ruffin, that " THE POWER OF THE MASTER MUST BE absolute," to think of interfering while the poor creature was dragged, barefoot and bleeding, at a horse's neck, at the rate of five miles an hour, through the streets of Raleigh. It seems, also, that the most horrible brutalities and enormities that could be conceived of were witnessed, with- out any efficient interference, by a number of the citizens, among whom Ave see the name of the Hon. W. H. HayAvood, of Ra- leigh. It is a comfort to find the attorney- general, in this case, speaking as a man ought to speak. Certainly there can be no occasion to Avish to pervert or overstate the dread workings of the slave system, or to leave out the feAY comforting and encour- aging features, hoAvever small the encour- agement of them may be. The case is noAV presented, as narrated from the published reports, by Dr. Bailey, editor of the National Era ; a man whose candor and fairness need no indorsing, as every line that be Avritcs speaks for itself. The reader may at first be surprised to find slave testimony in the court, till he recollects that it is a slave that is on trial, the testimony of slaves being only null when it concerns Avhites. AN 1NTKRESTINO TRIAL. Wo find in one of tlic Raleigh (North Caro- lina) papers, of Jnno 5, 1851, a report of an interesting trial, at the spring term of the Su- perior Court. Mima, a slave, was indicted for KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 105 the murder of her master, William Smith, of Johnston County, on the night of the 29th of November, 1850. The evidence for the prose- cution was Sidney, a slave-boy, twelve years old, who testified that, in the night, he and a slave-girl, named Jane, were roused from sleep by the call of their master, Smith, who had re- turned home. They went out, and found Mima tied to his horse's neck, with two ropes, one round her neck, the other round her hands. Deceased carried her into the house, jerking the rope fastened to her neck, and tied her to a post. He called for something to eat, threw her a piece of bread, and, after he had done, beat her on her naked back with a large piece of light-wood, giving her many hard blows. In a short time, deceased went out of the house, for a special pur- pose, witness accompanying him with a torch- light, and hearing him say that he intended " to use the prisoner up." The light was extin- guished, and he reentered the house for the pur- pose of lighting it. Jane was there ; but the prisoner had been untied, and was not there. While lighting his torch, he heard blows outside, and heard the deceased cry out, two or three times, " 0, Leah ! 0, Leah !" 'Witness and Jane went out, saw the deceased bloody and struggling, were frightened, ran back, and shut themselves up. Leah, it seems, was mother of the prisoner, and had run off two years, on account of cruel treat- ment by the deceased. Smith was speechless and unconscious till he died, the following morning, of the wounds in- flicted on him. It was proved on the trial that Carroll, a white man, living about a mile from the house of the deceased, and whose wife was said to be the ille- gitimate daughter of Smith, had in his possession, the morning of the murder, the receipt given the deceased by sheriff High, the day before, for jail fees, and a note for thirty-five dollars, due deceased from one Wiley Price, which Carroll collected a short time thereafter ; also the chest-keys of the deceased ; and no proof was offered to show how Carroll came into possession of these articles. The following portion of the testimony discloses facts so horrible, and so disgraceful to the people who tolerated, in broad daylight, conduct which would have shamed the devil, that we copy it just as we find it in the Raleigh paper. The scene, remember, is the city of Raleigh. " The defence was then opened. James Harris, C. W. D. Hu tchings, and Hon. W. II . Haywood, of Raleigh ; John Cooper, of Wake ; Joseph Hane and others, of Johnston, were examined for the prisoner. The substance of their testimony was as follows : On the forenoon of Friday, 29th of November last, deceased took prisoner from Ra- leigh jail, tied her round the neck and wrist; ropes were then latched to the horse's neck ; he cursed the prisoner several times, got on his horse, and startedoff; when he got opposite the Tele- graph office, on Fayetteville-street, he pulled her shoes and stockings off, cursed her again, went off m a swift trot, the prisoner running after him, doing apparently all she could to keep up ; passed round by Peck's store ; prisoner seemed very humble and submissive ; took down the street east of the capitol, going at the rate of five miles an hour; continued this gait until he passed 0. Rork's corner, about half or three-quarters of a mile from the capitol : that he reached Cooper's (one of the witnesses), thirteen miles from Ra- leigh, about four o'clock, P. M. : that it was rain- ing very hard ; deceased got off his horse, turned it loose with prisoner tied to its neck ; witness went to take deceased's horse to stable ; heard great lamentations at the house ; hurried back : saw his little daughter running through the rain from the house, much frightened ; got there ; deceased was gouging prisoner in the eyes, and she making outcries ; made him stop ; became vexed, and insisted upon leaving; did leave in a short time, in the rain, sun about an hour high ; when he left, prisoner was tied as she was before ; her arms and fingers were very much swollen ; the rope around her wrist was small, and had sunk deep into the flesh, almost covered with it; that around the neck was large, and tied in a slip- knot ; deceased would jerk it every now and then ; when jerked, it would choke prisoner ; she was barefoot and bleeding ; deceased was met some time after dark, in about six miles of home, being twenty-four or twenty-five from Raleigh." Why did they not strike the monster to the earth, and punish him for his infernal brutality? The attorney-general conducted the prosecution with evident loathing. The defence argued, first, that the evidence was insufficient to fasten the crime upon the prisoner ; secondly, that, should the jury be satisfied beyond a rational doubt that the prisoner committed the act charged, it would yet be only manslaughter. " A single blow between equals would mitigate a killing instanter from murder to manslaughter. It could not, in law, be anything more, if done under the furor brcvis of passion. But the rule was different as between master and slave. It was necessary that this should be, to preserve the subordination of the slave. The prisoner's coun- sel then examined the authorities at length, and contended that the prisoner's case came within the rule laid down in The State v. Will (1 Dev. and Bat. 121). The rule Ihere given by Judge Gaston is this : ' If a slave, in defence of his life, and under circumstances strongly calculated to excite his passions of terror and resentment^ kill his overseer or master, the homicide is, by such circumstances, mitigated to manslaughter.' The cruelties of the deceased to the prisoner were grievous and long-continued. They would have shocked a barbarian. The savage loves and thirsts for blood ; but the acts of civilized life have not afforded him such refinement of torture as was here exhibited." The attorney-general, after discussing the law, appealed to the jury " not to suffer the prejudice which the counsel for the defence had attempted to create against the deceased {whose conduct, he admitted, was disgraceful to human nature) to in- fluence their judgments in deciding whether the act of the prisoner was criminal or not, and what decree of criminality attached to it. He desired the prisoner to have a fair and impartial trial. He wished her to receive the benefit of every rational doubt. It was her right, however humble her condi- tion ; he hoped he had not that heart, as he certainly had not the right by virtue of his office, to ask in her case for anything more than he would ask from tlie highest and proudest of the land on trial, that the jury should decide according to the evidence, and vindicate the violated law."_ These were honorable sentiments. After an able charge by Judge Ellis, the jury retired, and, after having remained out several hours, returned with a verdict of Not Guilty. Of 10G KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. course, we see not how they could hesitate to come to this verdict at once. The correspondent who furnishes the Register witli a report of the case says : " It excited an intense interest in the commu- nity in which it occurred, and, although it devel- ops a series of cruelties shocking to human nature, the result of the trial, nevertheless, vindi- cates the benignity and justice of our laws tow- ards that class of our population whose condi- tion Northern fanaticism has so carefully and grossly misrepresented, for their own purposes of selfishness, agitation, and crime." "We have no disposition to misrepresent the condition of the slaves, or to disparage the laws of North Carolina ; but we ask, with a sincere desire to know the truth, Do the laws of North Carolina allow a master to practise such horrible cruelties upon his slaves as Smith was guilty of, and would the public sentiment of the city of Ra- leigh permit a repetition of such enormities as were perpetrated in its streets, in the light of day, by that miscreant ? In conclusion, as the accounts of these various trials contain so many shocking in- cidents and particulars, the author desires to enter a caution against certain mistaken uses which may be made of them, by well- intending persons. The crimes themselves, which form the foundation of the trials, are not to be considered and spoken of as speci- mens of the common working of the slave system. They are, it is true, the logical and legitimate fruits of a system which makes every individual owner an irrespons- ible despot. But the actual number of them, compared with the whole number of masters, we take pleasure in saying, is small. It is an injury to the cause of freedom to ground the argument against slavery upon the frequency , with which such scenes as these occur. It misleads the popular mind as to the real issue of the subject. To hear many men talk, one would think that they supposed that unless negroes actually were whipped or burned alive at the rate of two or three dozen a week, there was no harm in slavery. They seem to see nothing in the system but its gross bodily abuses. If these are absent. they think there is no harm in it. They do not consider that the twelve hours' torture of some poor victim, bleeding away his life, ilmp by drop, under the hands of a Souther, is only a symbol of that more atrocious process by which the divine, im- mortal soul is mangled, burned, lacerated, thrown down, stamped upon, and suffocated, by the fiend-like force of the tyrant Slav- ery. And as, when the torturing work was done, and the poor soul flew up to the judg- ment-seat, to stand there in awful witness, there was not a vestige of humanity left in that dishonored body, nor anything by which it could be said, " See, this Avas a man!" — so, when Slavery has finished her legitimate work upon the soul, and trodden out every spark of manliness, and honor, and self-respect, and natural affec- tion, and conscience, and religious sentiment, then there is nothing left in the soul, by which to say, " This was a nan ! " and it becomes necessary for judges to con- struct grave legal arguments to prove that the slave is a human being. Such extreme cases of bodily abuse from the despotic power of slavery are compara- tively rare. Perhaps they may be paral- leled by cases brought to light in the crim- inal jurisprudence of other countries. They might, perhaps, have happened anywhere ; at any rate, we will concede that they might. But where under the sun did such trials, of such cases, ever take place, in any nation professing to be free. and Christian '] The reader of English history will perhaps recur to the trials under Judge Jeffries, as a parallel. A moment's reflec- tion will convince him that there is no parallel between the cases. The decisions of Jeffries were the decisions of a monster, who violently wrested law from its legiti- mate course, to gratify his own fiendish nature. The decisions of American slave- law have been, for the most part, the deci- sions of honorable and humane men, who have wrested from their natural course the most humane feelings, to fulfil the mandates of a cruel law. In the case of Jeffries, the sacred forms of the administration of justice were violat- ed. In the case of the American decisions, every form has been maintained. Revolt- ing to humanity as these decisions appear, they are strictly logical and legal. Therefore, again, Ave say, Where, eA^er, in any nation professing to be civilized and Christian, did such trials, of such cases, take place ? When were ever such legal arguments made 1 When, ever, such legal principles judicially affirmed? Was ever such a trial held in England as that in Virginia, of Souther v. The Common- WBALTB .' Was it ever necessary in Eng- land for a judge to declare on the bench, contrary to the opinion of a lower court, that the death of an apprentice, by twelve hours' torture from his master, did amount to murder in the first degree ? Was such a decision, if given, accompanied by the af- firmation of the principle, that any amount of torture inflicted by the master, short of KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 107 the point of death, was not indictable 1 Not being read in English law, the writer cannot say ; but there is strong impression from within that such a decision as this would have shaken the whole island of Great Britain ; and that such a case as Souther v. The Commonwealth would never have been forgotten under the sun. Yet it is probable that very few per- sons in the United States ever heard of the case, or ever would have heard of it, had it not been quoted by the New York Courier and Enquirer as an overwhelming ex- ample of legal humanity. The horror of the whole matter is, that more than one such case should ever need to happen in a country, in order to make the whole community feel, as one man, that such power ought not to be left in the hands of a master. How many such cases do people wish to have happen 1 — how many must happen, before they will learn that utter despotic power is not to be trusted in any hands'? If one white man's son or brother had been treated in this way, under the law of apprenticeship, the whole coun- try would have trembled, from Louisiana to Maine, till that law had been altered. They forget that the black man has also a father. It is "He that sitteth upon the circle of the heavens, who bringeth the princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." He hath said that " When he maketh inquisition for blood, he forgetteth not the cry of the humble." That blood which has fallen so despised to the earth, — that blood which lawyers have quibbled over, in the quiet of legal nonchalance, discussing in great ease whether it fell by murder in the first or second degree, — HE will one day reckon for as the blood of his own child. He '• is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is long- suffering to usward ;" but the day of ven- geance is surely coming, and the year of his redeemed is in his heart. Another court will sit upon these trials, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. It will be not alone Souther, and such as he, that will be arraigned there ; but all those in this nation, north and south, who have abetted the system, and made the laws which made Souther what he was. In that court negro testimony will be received, if never before ; and the judges and the counsellors, and the chief men, and the mighty men, marshalled to that awful bar, will say to the mountains and the rocks. " Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." The wrath of the Lamb ! Think of it ! Think that Jesus Christ has been present, a witness, — a silent witness through every such scene of torture and anguish, — a silent witness in every such court, calmly hearing the evidence given in, the lawyers pleading, the bills filed, and cases appealed! And think what a heart Jesus Christ has, and with what age-long patience he has suffered ! What awful depths are there in that word, long-suffering ! and what must be that wrath, when, after ages of endurance, this dread accumulation of wrong and anguish comes up at last to judgment! CHAPTER XL A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAN LAW OF SLAVERY WITH THE AMERICAN. The writer has expressed the opinion that the American law of slavery, taken throughout, is a more severe one than that of any other civilized nation, ancient or modern, if we except, perhaps, that of the Spartans. She has not at hand the means of comparing French and Spanish slave-codes ; but, as it is a common remark that Roman slavery was much more severe than any that has ever existed in America, it will be well to compare the Roman with the American law. We therefore present a description of the Roman slave-law. as quoted by William Jay. Esq., from Blair's 1 Inquiry into the State of Slavery among the Romans,'" giving such references to American authorities as will enable the reader to make his own comparison, and to draw his own inferences. I. The slave had no protection against the avarice, rage, or lust of the master, whose authority was founded in absolute property; and the bondman icas viewed less as a human being subject to arbitrary dominion, than as an inferior animal, dependent icholly on the will of his owner. See law of South Carolina, in Stroud's u Sketch of the Lairs of Slavery ," p. 23. Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels per- 2 Brev Di;:< sonal in the hands of their owners and 229. Prince's possessors, and their executors, admin- j^b's Dig. istrators and assigns, to all intents, 971. constructions, and purposes whatever. A slave is one who is in the Lou . civil Code, power of a master to whom he art. 35. Stroud's belongs. Sketch, p. 22. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 108 Such obedience is the consequence only Judge Ruf- of uncontrolled authority over the body. fin's Decision rpL j g no thing; else -which can op- in the case of J -" v - 1 ^ o r The State v. erate to produce the efiect. the power Mann. Whee- f the master must be absolute, to ren- S!avery a, 246. f der tne submission of the slave perfect. II. At first, the master possessed the uncontrolled power of life and death. judge Clarke, in case of T .. A * » ™?J early period in State of Miss. v. Jones. \ irgmia, the power ot lite over Wheeler, 2o2. slaves was given by statute. III. He might Mil, mutilate or torture his slaves, for any or no offence ; he might force them to become gladiators or prostitutes. The privilege of killing is now some- what abridged; as to mutilation and tor- ture, see the case of Souther v. The Com- monwealth, 7 Grattan, 673, quoted in Chapter III, above. Also State v. Mann, in the same chapter, from Wheeler, p. 244. IV. The temporary unions of mate with female slaves were formed and dissolved at his command; families and friends were separated when he pleased. See the decision of Judge Mathews in the case of Girod v. Lewis, Wheeler, 199 : It is clear, that slaves have no legal capacity to assent to any contract. With the consent of their master, they may marry, and their moral power to agree to such a contract or connection as that of marriage cannot be doubted ; but whilst in a state of slavery it cannot produce any civil effect, because slaves are deprived of all civil rights. See also the chapter below on "the sep- aration of families," and the files of any southern newspaper, passim. V. The laivs recognized no obligation upon the owners of slaves, to furnish them with food and clothing, or to take care of them in sickness. The extent to which this deficiency in the Roman law has been supplied in the American, by " protective acts," has been< exhibited above. VI. Staves could have no property but by the suf- ferance of their master, for ivhom they acquired etx rything, ami with whom they could form no en- gagements which could be binding on him. The loll .wing chapter will show how far American legislation is in advance of that of the Romans, in that it makes it a penal offence on the pari of the master to permit his slave to hold property, and a crime on the part of the slave to be so permitted. For the present purpose, we give an extract from the Civil code of Louisiana, as quoted by Judge Stroud : * See also the case of State v. Abram, 10 Ala. 928. 1U. s. /' j. p. W9. "The master or overseer, and nnt the slave, is the proper judge whether the slave is too sick to be able to labor. The latter cannot, therefore, resist the order of the former to go to work." A slave is one who is in the power of a mast-ei to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, Civi , Co( j e and his labor ; he can do nothing, Article 35.' possess nothing, nor acquire anything Struud, p. 2a. but what must belong to his master. According to Judge Ruffin, a slave is "one doomed in his own person, and his posterity, to live without knowl- whuer's Law edge, and without the capacity to at^stLte I'. make anything his own, and to Mann - toil that another may reap the fruits." With reference to the binding power of engagements between master and slave, the following decisions from the United States Digest are in point (7, p. 449) : All the acquisitions of the slave in possession are the property of his master, not- withstanding the promise of his mas- S?.'^ ^^ ter that the slave shall have certain of ' 424. them. A slave paid money which he had earned over and above his wages, for the purchase "of his children into the hands of B, and B purchased such children with the money. Held that the master of such slave was entitled, to ' ' recover the money of B. VII. The master might transfer his rights by either sale or gift, or might bequeath them by will. Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law, to be chattels Law of S. Car- personal in the hands of their owners olina. Cobb's and possessors, and their executors, D 'S est ' 9a - administrators, and assigns, to all intents, con- structions, and purposes whatsoever. VIII. A master selling, giving, or bequeathing a slave, sometimes made it a provision that he should never be carried abroad, or that he should be manu- mitted on a fixed day; or that, on the other hand, he should never be emancipated, or that he should be kept in chains for life. We hardly think that a provision that a slave should never be emancipated, or that he should be kept in chains for ™.™ r.'s!"' life, would be sustained. A pro- Rcp. 1. 5 r. s. vision that the slave should not ; . f»2, § 5. k e gaj-pjed ou t f the state, or sold, and that on the happening of either event he should be free, has been sustained. The remainder of Blair's account of Ro- man slavery is devoted rather to the practices of masters than the state of the law itself. Surely, the writer is not called upon to exhibit in the society of enlightened, repub- lican and Christian America, in the nine- teenth century, a parallel to the atrocities committed in pagan Home, under the scep- tre of the persecuting Caesars, when the amphitheatre was the favorite resort of the most refined of her citizens, as well as the great " school of morals" for the multitude. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 109 A few references only -will show, as far as we desire to show, how much safer it is now to trust man with absolute power over his fellow, than it was then. IX. While slaves turned the handmill they were generally chained, and had a broad wooden collar, to ■prevent them from eating the grain. The furca, which in later language means a gibbet, was, in older dialect, used to denote a wooden fork or collar, which was made to bear vpon their shoulders, or around their necks, as a mark of disgrace, as much as an uneasy burden. The reader has already seen, in Chapter V., that this instrument of degradation has been in use, in our own day, in certain of the slave states, under the express sanction and protection of statute laws ; although the material is different, and the construction doubtless improved by modern ingenuity. X. Fetters and chains were much used for pun- ishment or restraint, and loere, in some instances, worn by slaves during life, through the sole author- ity of the master. Porters at the gates of the rich were generally chained. Field laborers worked for the most part in irons posterior to the first ages of the republic. The Legislature of South Carolina spec- ially sanctions the same practices, by except- ing them in the " protective enactment" which inflicts the penalty of one hundred pounds " in case any person shall wilfully cut out the tongue," &c, of a slave, " or shall inflict any other cruel punishment, other than by whipping or beating with a horse-whip, cowskin, switch, or small stick, or by putting irons on, or confining or imprisoning such slave." XI. Some persons n*adc it their business to catch runaway slaves. That such a profession, constituted by the highest legislative authority in the nation, and rendered respectable by the commenda- tion expressed or implied of statesmen and divines, and of newspapers political and re- ligious, exists in our midst, especially in . the free states, is a fact which is, day by day, making itself too apparent to need tes- timony. The matter seems, however, to be managed in a more perfectly open and busi- ness-like manner in the State of Alabama than elsewhere. Mr. Jay cites the follow- ing advertisement from the Sumpter County (Ala.) Whig: NEGRO DOGS. The undersigned having bought the entire pack of Negro Dogs (of the Hay and Allen stock) , he now proposes to catch runaway negroes. His charges will be Three Dollars per day for hunting, and Fifteen Dollars for catching a runaway. He resides three and one half miles north of Living- ston, near the lower Jones' Bluff road. William Gamdel. Nov. 6, 1845. — 6m. The following is copied, verbatim et lit- eratim, and with the pictorial embellish- ments, from The Dadeville (Ala.) Ban- ner, of November 10th, 1852. The Dadeville Banner is " devoted to politics, literature, education, agriculture, cj'c. ,: a NOTICE. jffife The undersigned having an excel- sj^-^J Jzk-** lent pack of Hounds, for trailing and== — ^ catching runaway slaves, informs the public that his prices in future will be as follows for such services : For each day employed in hunting or trailing, $2.50 For catching each slave, - - - 10.00 For going over ten miles and catching slaves, 20.00 If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in cash. The subscriber resides one mile and a half south of Dadeville, Ala. B. Black. Dadeville, Sept. 1, 1852. ltf XII. The runaway, when taken, was severely punished by authority of the master, or by the judge, at his desire; sometimes with crucifixion, amputa- tion of afoot, or by being sent to fight as a gladia- tor with ivild beasts ; but most frequently by being branded on the brow ivith letters indicative of his crime. That severe punishment would be the lot of the recaptured runaway, every one would suppose, from the " absolute power " of the master to inflict it. That it is inflicted in many cases, it is equally easy and needless to prove. The peculiar forms of punish- ment mentioned above are now very . much out of vogue, but the following advertise- ment by Mr. Micajah Ricks, in the Raleigh (N. C.) Standard of July 18th, 1838, shows that something of classic taste in tor- ture still lingers in our degenerate days. Ran away, a negro woman and two children ; a few days before she went off, I burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face. I tried to make the letter M. It is charming to notice the naif be- trayal of literary pride on the part of Mr. Ricks. He did not wish that letter M to be taken as a specimen of what he could do in the way of writing. The creature would not hold still, and he fears the M may be ilegible. The above is only one of a long list of advertisements of maimed, cropped and branded negroes, in the book of Mr. Weld. entitled American Slavery as It Is, p. 77. 110 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. XIII. Crue. masters sometimes hired torturers by profession, or had such persons in their estab- lishments, to assist them in punishing their slaves. The noses and ears and teeth of slaves were often in danger from an enraged owner; and sometimes the ryes of a great offender were put out. Crucifix- ton was very frequently made the fate of a wretched slave for a trifling misconduct, or from mere caprice. For justification of suet practices as these, we refer again to that horrible list of maimed and mutilated men, advertised by slaveholders themselves, in Weld's Ameri- can Slavery as It Is, p. 77. We recall the reader's attention to the evidence of the monster Kephart, given in Part I. As to crucifixion, we presume that there are wretches whose religious scruples would de- ter them from this particular form of torture, who would not hesitate to inflict equal cruel- ties by other means ; as the Greek pirate, during a massacre in the season of Lent, was conscience-stricken at having tasted a drop of blood. We presume ? — Let any one but read again, if he can, the sickening details of that twelve hours' torture of Souther's slave, and say how much more merciful is Ameri- can slavery than Roman. The last item in Blair's description of Roman slavery is the following : By a decree passed by the Senate, if a master was murdered when his slaves might possibly have aided him, all his household within reach were held as implicated, and deserving of death ; and Tacitus relates an instance in which a family of four hundred were all executed. To this alone, of all the atrocities of the slavery of old heathen Rome, do we fail to find a parallel in the slavery of the United States of America. There are other respects, in which Amer- ican legislation has reached a refinement in tyranny of which the despots of those early days never conceived. The following is the language of Gibbon : Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect con- dition, was not denied to the Roman slave ; and if lie had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. * * * Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honors was presented even to those whom pride and pre- judice almost disdained to number among the human species.* The youths of promising genius were in- structed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents. Almost every profession, either liberal or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator, f * Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," Chap. u. t Ibid. The following chapter will show how "the best comfort" which Gibbon knew for human adversity is taken away from the American slave ; how he is denied the com- monest privileges of education and mental improvement, and how the whole tendency of the unhappy system, under which he is in bondage, is to take from him the conso- lations of religion itself, and to degrade him from our common humanity, and common brotherhood with the Son of God. CHAPTER XIII. THE MEN BETTER THAN THEIR LAWS. Judgment is turned away backward, And Justice standeth afar off; For Truth is fallen in the street, And Equity cannot enter. Yea, Truth faileth ; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a fret. Isaiah 59: 14, 15. There is one very remarkable class of laws yet to be considered. So full of cruelty and of unmerciful se- verity is the slave-code, — such an atrocity is the institution of which it is the legal definition, — that there are multitudes of individuals too generous and too just to be willing to go to the full extent of its restric- tions and deprivations. A generous man, instead of regarding the poor slave as a piece of property, dead, and void of rights, is tempted to regard him rather as a helpless younger brother, or as a defenceless child, and to extend to him, by his own good right arm, that protection and those rights which the law denies him. A religious man, who, by the theory of his belief, regards all men as brothers, and con- siders his Christian slave, with himself, as a member of Jesus Christ, — as of one body, one spirit, and called in one hope of his calling,— cannot willingly see him " doomed to live without knowledge," without the power of reading the written Word, and to raise up his children after him in the same darkness. Hence, if left to itself, individual hu- manity would, in many cases, practically abrogate the slave-code. Individual human- ity would teach the slave to read and write, — would build school-houses for his chil- dren, and would, in very, very many cases, enfranchise him. • The result of all this has been foreseen. It has been foreseen that the result uf edu- KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN. Ill cation would be general intelligence ; that the result of intelligence would be a knowl- edge of personal rights ; and that an inquiry into the doctrine of personal rights would be fatal to the system. It has been foreseen, also, that the example of disinterestedness and generosity, in emancipation, might carry with it a generous contagion, until it should become universal ; that the example of edu- cated and emancipated slaves would prove a dangerous excitement to those still in bondage. For this reason, the American* slave-code, which, as we have already seen, embraces, substantially, all the barbarities of that of ancient Rome, has had added to it a set of laws more cruel than any which ancient and heathen Rome ever knew, — laws designed to shut against the slave his last refuge, — the humanity of his master. The master, in ancient Rome, might give his slave what- ever advantages of education he chose, or at any time emancipate him, and the state did not interfere to prevent* But in America the laws, throughout all the slave states, most rigorously forbid, in the first place, the education of the slave. We do not profess to give all these laws, but a few striking specimens may be presented. Our authority is Judge Stroud's " Sketch of the Laws of Slavery." The legislature of South Carolina, in 1740, enounced the following preamble : — Stroud's sketch, " Whereas, the having of slaves P . ss. taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be at- tended with great inconveniences ; " and enacted that the crime of teaching a slave to write, or of employing a slave as a scribe, should be punished by a fine of one hundred pounds, current money. If the reader will turn now to the infamous "protective" statute, enacted by the same legislature, in the same year, he will find that the same penalty has been appointed for the cutting out of the tongue, putting out of the eye, cruel scalding, &c, of any slave, as for the offence of teaching him to write ! That is to say, that to teach him to write, and to put out his eyes, are. to be regarded as equally reprehensible. That there might be no doubt of the "great and fundamental policy" of the Btate, and that there might be full security against the "great inconveniences 11 of " having of slaves taught to write," it was * In and after the reign of Augustus, certain restrictive regulations were passed, designed to prevent an increase of unworthy citizens by emancipation. They had, how- ever, nothing like the stringent force of American laws. enacted, in 1800, " That assemblies of slaves, free negroes, &c, * * * * for the purpose of mental instruction, in a con- fined or secret place, &c. &c, is [are] de- clared to be an unlawful meeting ; " and the officers are required to enter such confined places, and disperse the "unlawful assem- blage," inflicting, at their discretion, " such corporal punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes, upon such slaves, free stroud's Sketch, negroes, &c, as they may judge &&£K necessary for deterring them pp- 25*^6. from the like unlaioful assemblage in future." The statute-book of Virginia is adorned with a law similar to the one last str 2 U(, ' ao pp - quoted. The offence of teaching a slave to write was early punished, in Georgia, as in South Carolina, by a pecuniary fine. But the city of Savannah seems to have found this penalty insufficient to protect it from ' ' great inconveniences 1 " 1 and we learn, by a quot- ation in the work of Judge Stroud from a number of " The Portfolio," that " the city has passed an ordinance, by which any person that teaches any person of color. slave or free, to read or write, or causes such person to be so taught, is stroud's sketch, subjected to a fine of thirty dol- pp- 89 > &>. lars for each offence ; and every person of color who shall keep a school, to teach reading or writing, is subject to a fine of thirty dollars, or to be imprisoned ten days, and whipped thirty-nine lashes." Secondly. In regard to religious privi- leges : The State of Georgia has enacted a law, " To protect religious societies in the exer- cise of their religious duties." This law, after appointing rigorous penalties for the offence of interrupting or disturbing a con- gregation of white persons, concludes in the following words : No congregation, or company of negroes, shall, under pretence of divine worship, Stroud, p. 92. assemble themselves, contrary to the Prince's Digest, act regulating patrols. p ' " The act regulating patrols," as quoted by the editor of Prince's Digest, empowers every justice of the peace to disperse any assembly or meeting of slaves ud which may disturb the peace, irWs Digest, &c, of his majesty's subjects, p " and permits that every slave found at such a meeting shall " immediately be corrected, without trial, by receiving on the bare back twenty-five stripes with a whip, switch, or cowskin" KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 112 The history of legislation in South Caro- lina is significant. An act was passed in 1800, containing the following section : It shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes or mestizoes, even in company with white persons, to meet together Stroud p 93. and assemble for the purpose of men- 2 Brevard's tal instruction or religious worship, Dij. 254,255. e ;ther before the rising of the sun, or after the going clown of the same. And all magis- trates, sheriffs, militia officers, &c. &c, are hereby vested with power, &c, for dispersing such assemblies, &c. The law just quoted seems somehow to have had a prejudicial effect upon the reli- gious interests of the " slaves, free negrOes," &c, specified in it; for, three years after- wards, on the petition of certain religious societies, a " protective act" was passed, which should secure them this great re- ligions privilege ; to wit, that it should be unlawful, before nine o'clock, "to break into a place of meeting, wherein shall be assembled the members of any religious so- ciety of this state, provided a majority of them shall be white persons, or otherwise to disturb their devotion, wiless such per- son shall have first obtained * * * * a warrant, &c." Thirdly. It appears that many masters, who are disposed to treat their slaves gen- erously, have allowed them to accumulate property, to raise domestic animals for their own use, and, in the case of intelligent servants, to go at large, to hire their own time, and to trade upon their own account. Upon all these practices the law comes down, with unmerciful severity. A penalty is inflicted on the owner, but, with a rigor quite accordant with the tenor of slave-law the offence is considered, in law, as that of the slave, rather than that of the master ; so that, if the master is generous enough not to regard the penalty which is imposed upon himself, he may be restrained by the fear of bringing a greater evil upon his depend- ent. These laws are, in some cases, so con- structed as to make it for the interest of the lowest and most brutal part of society that they be enforced, by offering half the profits to the informer. We give the following, as specimens of slave legislation on this sub- ject : The law of South Carolina : It shall not be lawful for any slave to buy, sell, trade, &c, for any goods, &c, without a license from the owner, &c; nor shall any slave be permitted to keep any boat, periauger,* or canoe, Stroud, p. 47 * i. t. Pcriagua. or raise and breed, for the benefit of such slave, any horses, mares, cattle, sheep, or hogs, under pain of forfeiting all the goods, &c, and all the boats, periaugers, or canoes, horses, mares, cattle, sheep or hogs. And it shall be law- _, , .. c , f. ° , . Stroud, pp. 46, Jul tor any person whatsoever to 47. j am es' T»i seize and take away from any slave g« 3 t, sss. 3S6. all such goods, &c, boats, &c. &c, Actofmo - and to deliver the same into the hands of any jus- tice of the peace, nearest to the place where the seizure shall be made ; and such justice shall take the oath of the person making such seizure, con- cerning the manner thereof ; and if the said jus- tice shall be satisfied that such seizure has been made according to law, he shall pronounce and declare the goods so seized to be forfeited, and order the same to be sold at public outcry, one half of the moneys arising from such sale to go to the state, and the other half to him or them that sue for the same. The laws in many other states are similar to the above ; but the State of Georgia has an additional provision, against per- 2 Cobb's mitting the slave to hire himself to Dig - 2S4 - another for his own benefit ; a penalty of thirty dollars is imposed for every weekly offence, on the part of the master, unless the labor be done on his own premises. Savannah, Augusta, and Sunbury, are places excepted. In Virginia, "if the master shall permit his slave to hire himself out," the slave is to be apprehended, &c. and the master to be fined. In an early act of the legislature of the orthodox and Presbyterian State of North Carolina, it is gratifying to see how the judi- cious course of public policy is made to subserve the interests of Christian charity, — how, in a single ingenious sentence, pro- vision is made for punishing the offender against society, rewarding the patriotic in- former, and feeding the poor and destitute : All horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, that, one month after the passing of this act, shall belong to any slave, or be of any slave's g keto ij 4 \. mark, in this state, shall be seized and sold by the county wardens, and by them applied, the one-half to the support of the poor of the county, and the other half to the informer. In Mississippi a fine of fifty dollars is imposed upon the master who permits his slave to cultivate cotton for his own ... 1 • l x Stroud, p. -18. use ; or who licenses his slave to go at large and trade as a freeman ; or who is convicted of permitting his slave to keep " stock of any description." To show how the above law has been in- terpreted by the highest judicial tribunal of the sovereign State of Mississippi, we repeat here a portion of a decision of Chief Justice Sharkey, which we have elsewhere given more in full. KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN. 113 Independent of the principles laid down in ad- judicated cases, our statute-law prohibits slaves from owning certain kinds of property ; and it may be inferred that the legislature supposed they were extending the act as far as it could be necessary to exclude them from owning any prop- erty, as the prohibition includes that kind of property which they would most likely be per- mitted to own without interruption, to wit : hogs, horses, cattle, &c. They cannot be prohibited from holding such property in consequence of its being of a dangerous or offensive character, but be- cause it ivas deemed impolitic for them to hold prop- erty of any description. It was asserted, at the beginning of this head, that the permission of the master to a slave to hire his own time is, by law, con- sidered the offence of the slave ; the slave being subject to prosecution therefor, not the master. This is evident from the tenor of some of the laws quoted and alluded to above. It will be still further illustrated by the following decisions of the courts of North Carolina. They are copied from the Sup- plement to the U. S. Digest, vol. n. p. 798 : 139. An indictment charging that a certain _ „ „ negro did hire her own time, 5 ^eil, S 88 " contrary to the form of the stat- ute, &c, is defective and must be quashed, because it was omitted to be charged that she teas permitted by her master to- go at large, which is one essential part of the offence. 140. Under the first clause of the thirty-first section of the 111th chapterof the Revised Statutes, prohibiting masters from hiring to slaves their own time, the master is not indictable; he is only subject to a penalty of forty dollars. Nor is the master indictable under the second clause of that section ; the process being against the slave, not against the master. — lb. 142. To constitute the offence under section 32 (Rev. Stat. c. cxi. § 32) it is not necessary that the slave should have hired his time ; it is" suffi- cient if the master permits him to go at large as a freeman. This is maintaining the ground that u the master can do no wrong" with great consistency and thoroughness. But it is in perfect keeping, both in form and spirit. with the whole course of slave-law, which always upholds the supremacy of the master, and always depresses the slave. Fourthly. Stringent laws against eman- cipation exist in nearly all the slave states. In four of the states, — South Carolina, stroud, 147. Prince's Georgia, Alabama, and Mis- Si.' 4 To«' D | sissippi,— emancipation can- ts i2. Miss. Kev code, not be effected, except by a special act of the legislature of the state. In Georgia, the offence of setting free "any slave, or slaves, in any other manner and form than the one prescribed," was pun- ishable, according to the law of 1801, by 8 the forfeiture of two hundred dollars, to be recovered by action or indictment ; the slaves in question still remaining, " to all intents and purposes, as much in a state of slavery as before they were manu- mitted." Believers in human progress will be in- terested to know that since the law of 1801 there has been a reform introduced into this part of the legislation of the republic of Georgia. In 1818, a new law was passed, which, as will be seen, contains a grand remedy for the abuses of the old. In this it is provided, with endless variety of spe- cifications and synonyms, as if to " let sus- picion double-lock the door " against any possible evasion, that, "All and every -will, testament and deed, whether by way of trust or otherwise, contract, or agreement, or stipulation, or other instrument in writing or by parol, made and executed for the purpose of effecting, or endeavoring to effect, the manumission of any slave or slaves, either directly . . .or indirectly, or vir- tually, &c. &c, shall be, and the same are hereby, declared to be utterly null and void." And the guilty author of the out- rage against the peace of the state, contem- plated in such deed, &c. &c, "and all and every person or persons concerned in giving or attempting to give effect thereto, . in any way or manner Avhatsoever, shall be severally liable to a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars." It would be quite anomalous in slave-law, and contrary to the " great and fundamental policy" of slave states, if the negroes who, not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being instigated by the devil, should be guilty of being thus manumitted, were suf- fered to go unpunished ; accordingly, the law very properly and judiciously provides that " each and every slave or slaves in whose behalf such will or testament, &c. &c. &c, shall have been made, shall be liable to be arrested by war- „ n 17-7 Stroud's Sketch, pp. rant, etc. ; and, being there- in— s. Prince's i>i g . of convicted, &c, shall be 466 ' liable to be sold as a slave or slaves by pub- lic outcry ; and the proceeds of such slaves shall be appropriated, kc. &c." Judge Stroud gives the following account of the law of Mississippi : The emancipation must be by an instrument i /t writing, a last will or deed, &c, arona , aSfcetch m undo- seal, attested by at least two mj S8 . Rev. Code, 385 credible witnesses, or acknowledged —6 (Act June 18, in the court of the county or cor- '" poration where the emancipator resides ; proof satisfactory to the General Assembly must be ai 114 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. dnced that the slave has done some meritorious act for the bent fit of his master, or rendered some distin- guished service to the state; all which circumstances are hut pre-requisites, and are of no efficacy until a special act of assembly sanctions the emancipation ; to which may be added, as has been already stated, a saving of the rights of creditors, and the protec- tion of the widow's thirds. The same pre-requisite of " meritorious services, to be adjudged of and allowed by the countj court," is exacted by an act of the General Assembly of North Carolina ; and all slaves emancipated contrary to the provisions of this act are to be committed to the jail of the county, and at the next court held for that county are to be sold to the highest bidder. But the law of North Carolina does not refuse opportunity for repentance, even after the crime has been proved : accordingly, The sheriff is directed, five days before the time o. i. ci f v, for the sale of the emancipated negro, Stroud's Sketch, . , . . •■• , .1 148. Haywood's to give notice, in writing, to the per- Manuai,525,526, g0 n by whom the emancipation was made, to the end, and with the hope that, smitten by remorse of conscience, and brought to a sense of his guilt before God and man, such person may, if he thinks proper, renew his claim to the negro so emancipated by him ; on failure to do which, the sale is to be made by the sheriff, and one-fifth part of the net proceeds is to become the property of the freeholder by whom the apprehension was made, and the remaining four-fifths are to be paid into the public treasury. It is proper to add that we have given examples of the laws of states whose legis- lation on this subject has been most severe. . . The laws of Virginia, Maryland. Stroud, pp. O j t • • 148—154. Missouri, Kentucky and Louisiana, are much less stringent. A striking case, which shows how inex- orably the law contends with the kind de- signs of the master, is on record in the reports of legal decisions in the State of Mississippi. The circumstances of the case have been thus briefly stated in the Nev: York Evening Post, edited by Mr. Wil- liam ('alien Bryant. They are a romance of themselves. A man of the name (if Elisha Brazealle, a planter in Jefferson County, Mississippi, was at- tacked with a loathsome disease. During his ill- ness he was faithfully nursed by a mulatto slave, to whose assiduous attentions he felt that he owed his Life. He was duly impressed by her devotion, and soon after his recovery took her to Ohio, and had her educated. She was very intelligent, and improved her advantages so rapidly that when he visited her again he determined to marry her. He executed a deed for her emancipation, and had it | permit them to be evaded recorded both in the States of Ohio and Missis- sippi, and made her his wife. Mr. Brazealle returned with her to Missis- sippi, and in process of time had a. son. After a few years he sickened and died, leaving a will, in which, after reciting the deed of emancipation, he declared his intention to ratify it, and devised all his property to this lad, acknowledging him in the will to be such. Some poor and distant relations in North Car- olina, whom he did not know, and for whom he did not care, hearing of his death, came on to Mis- sissippi, and claimed the pi-operty thus devised. They instituted a suit for its recovery, and the case (it is reported in Howard's Mississippi Re- ports, vol. 11., p. 837) came before Judge Sharkey, our new consul at Havana. He decided it, and in that decision declared the act of emancipation an offence against morality, and pernicious and detestable as an example. He set aside the ivill ; gave the property of Brazealle to his distant rela- tions, condemned Brazealle's son, and his wife, that son's mother, again to bondage, and made them the slaves of these North Carolina kinsmen, as part of the assets of the estate. Chief Justice Sharkey, after nai rating the circumstances of the case, declares the validity of the deed of emancipation to*be the main question in the controversy. He then argues that, although according to principles of national comity ' ' contracts are to be construed according to the laws of the country or state where they are made," yet these principles are not to be followed when they lead to conclusions in conflict with "the great and fundamental policy of the state." What this " great and fundamental policy" is, in Mississippi. may be gathered from the remainder of the decision, which we give in full. Let us apply these principles to the deed of emancipation. To give it validity would be, in the first place, a violation of the declared policy, and contrary to a positive law of the state. The policy of a state is indicated by the gen- eral course of legislation on a given subject ; and we find that free negroes are deemed offensive, because they are not permitted to emigrate to or remain in the state. They are allowed few privi- leges, and subject to heavy penalties for offences. They are required to leave the state within thirty days after notice, and in the mean time give secu- rity for good behavior ; and those of them who can lawfully remain must register and carry with them their certificates, or they may bo committed to jail. It would also violate a positive law, passed by the legislature, expressly to maintain this settled policy, and to prevent emancipation. No owner can emancipate his slave, but by a deed or will properly attested, or acknowledged in court, and proof to the legislature that such slave has performed some meritorious act for the benefit of the master, or some distinguished service for the state ; and the deed or will ran have no validity until ratified by special act' of legislature. It is believed that this law and policy arc too essen- tially important to the interests of our citizens to KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 115 The state of the case shows conclusively that the contract hud its origin in an offence against morality, pernicious and detestahle as an example. But, above all, it seems to have been planned and executed with a fixed design to evade the rigor of the laws of this state. The acts of the party in going to Ohio with the slaves, and there execut- ing the deed, and his immediate return with them to this state, point with unerring certainty to his purpose and object. The laws of this state can- not be thus defrauded of their operation by one of our own citizens. If we could have any doubts about the principle, the case reported in 1 Ran- dolph, 15, would remove them. As we think the validity of the deed must depend upon the laws of this state, it becomes unnecessary to inquire whether it could have any force by the laws of Ohio. If it were even valid there, it can have no force here. The consequence is, that the negroes, John Monroe and his mother, are still slaves, and a part of the estate of Elisha Brazealle. They have not acquired a right to their freedom under the will ; for, even if the clause in the will were sufficient for that purpose, their emancipation has not been consummated by an act of the legislature. John Monroe, being a slave, cannot take the property as devisee ; and I apprehend it is equal- ly clear that it cannot be held in trust for him. 4 Desans. Rep. 266. Independent of the princi- ples laid down in adjudicated cases, our statute law prohibits slaves from owning certain kinds of property ; and it may be inferred that the legis- lature supposed they were extending the act as far as it could be necessary to exclude them from owning any property, as the prohibition includes that kind of property which they would most {ikely be permitted to own without interruption, to wit, hogs, horses, cattle, &c. They cannot be prohibited from holding such property in conse- quence of its being of a dangerous or offensive character, but because it was deemed impolitic for them to hold property of any description. It follows, therefore, that his heirs are entitled to the property. As the deed was void, and the devisee could not take under the will, the heirs might, perhaps, have had a remedy at law ; but, as an account must be taken for the rents and profits, and for the final settlement of the estate, I see no good reason why they should be sent back to law. The remedy is, doubtless, more full and complete than it eould be at law. The decree of the chancellor overruling the demurrer must be affirmed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings. The Chief Justice Sharkey who pro- nounced this decision is stated by the Evening Post to have been a principal agent in the passage of the severe law under which this horrible inhumanity was perpetrated. Nothing more forcibly shows the abso- lute despotism of the slave-law over all the kindest feelings and intentions of the mas- ter, and the determination of courts to carry these severities to their full lengths, than this cruel deed, which precipitated a young man who had been educated to con- sider himself free, asd his mother, fin edu- cated woman, back into the bottomless abyss of slavery. Had this case been chosen for the theme of a novel, or a tragedy, the world would have cried out upon it as a plot of monstrous improbability. As it stands in the law-book, it is only a speci- men of that awful kind of truth, stranger than fiction, which is all the time evolving, in one form or another, from the workings of this anomalous system. This view of the subject is a very im- portant one, and ought to be earnestly and gravely pondered by those in foreign coun- tries, who are too apt to fasten their con- demnation and opprobrium rather on the person of the slave-holder than on the hor- rors of the legal system. In some slave states it seems as if there was very little that the benevolent owner could do which should permanently benefit his slave, unless he should seek to alter the laws. Here it is that the highest obligation of the Southern Christian lies. Nor will the world or God hold them guiltless who, with the elective franchise in their hands, and the full power to speak, write and discuss, suffer this monstrous system of legalized cruelty to go on from age to age. CHAPTER XIY. THE HEBREW SLAVE-LAW COMPARED WITH THE AMERICAN SLAVE-LAW. Having compared the American law with the Roman, we will now compare it with one other code of slave-laws, to wit, the Hebrew. This comparison is the more important, because American slavery has been defended on the ground of God's permitting Hebrew slavery. The inquiry now arises, What kind of slavery was it that was permitted among the Hebrews ? for in different nations very dif- ferent systems have been called by the general name of slavery. . That the patriarchal state of servitude which existed in the time of Abraham was a very different thing from American slav- ery, a few graphic incidents in the scripture narrative show ; for we read that when the angels came to visit Abraham, although he had three hundred servants born in his house, it is said that Abraham hasted, and took a calf, and killed it, and gave it to a young man to dress ; and that he told Sarah 116 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. to take three measures of meal and knead it into cakes ; and that, when all was done, he himself set it before his guests. From various other incidents which ap- pear in the patriarchal narrative, it would seem that these servants bore more the re- lation of the members of a Scotch clan to their feudal lord than that of an American slave to his master ; — thus it seems that if Abraham had died without children, his head servant would have been his heir. — Gen. 15: 3. Of what species, then, was the slavery which God permitted among the Hebrews 7 By what laws was it regulated? In the New Testament the whole Hebrew system of administration is spoken of as a relatively imperfect one, and as superseded by the Christian dispensation. — Heb. 8 : 13. We are taught thus to regard the Hebrew system as an educational system, by which a debased, half-civilized race, which had been degraded by slavery in its worst form among the Egyptians, was gradually elevated to refinement and humanity. As they went from the land of Egypt, it would appear that the most disgusting per- sonal habits, the most unheard-of and un- natural impurities, prevailed among them ; so that it was necessary to make laws with relation to things of which Christianity has banished the very name from the earth. Beside all this, polygamy, war and slav- ery, were the universal custom of nations. It is represented in the New Testament that God, in educating this people, proceeded in the same gradual manner in which a wise father would proceed with a family of children. He selected a few of the most vital points of evil practice, and forbade them by positive statute, under rigorous penalties. The worship of any other god was, by the Jewish law, constituted high- treason, and rigorously punished with death. As the knowledge of the true God and re- ligious instruction could not then, as now, be afforded by printing and books, one day in the week had to be set apart for preserving in the minds of the people a sense of His being, and their obligations to Ilirn. The devoting of thi3 day to any other purpose was also pun- ished with death ; and the reason is obvious, that' its sacrcdness was the principal means relied on for preserving the allegiance of the nation to their king and God, and its dese- cration, of course, led directly to high trea- son against the head of the state. With regard to many other practices which prevailed among the Jews, as among other heathen nations, we find the Divine Being taking the same course which wise human legislators have taken. When Lycurgus wished to banish money and its attendant luxuries from Sparta, he did not forbid it by direct statute-law, but he instituted a currency so clumsy and un- comfortable that, as we are informed by Rol- lin, it took a cart and pair of oxen to carry home the price of a very moderate estate. In the same manner the Divine Being surrounded the customs of polygamy, war, blood-revenge and slavery, with regulations which gradually and certainly tended to abolish them entirely. No one would pretend that the laws which God established in relation to polygamy, cities of refuge, &c, have any application to Christian nations now. The following summary of some of these laws of the Mosaic code is given by Dr. C. E. Stowe, Professor of Biblical Literature in Andover Theological Seminary : 1. It commanded a Hebrew, even though a mar- ried man, with wife and children living, to take the childless widow of a deceased brother, and beget children with her. — Deut. 25 : 5 — 10. 2. The Hebrews, under certain restrictions , were allowed to make concubines, or wives for a limited time, of women taken in war. — Deut. 21 : 10 — 19. 3. A Hebrew who already had a wife was al- lowed to take another also, provided he still con- tinued his intercourse with the first as her hus- band, and treated her kindly and affectionately. — Exodus 21: 9—11. 4. By the Mosaic law, the nearest relative of a murdered Hebrew could pursue and slay the mur- derer, unless he could escape to the city of refuge ; and the same permission was given in case of accidental homicide. — Num. 35 : 9 — 39. 5. The Israelites were commanded to extermi nate the Canaanites,men, women and children. — Deut. 9 : 12 ; 20 : 16—18. 'Any one, or all, of the above practices, can be justified by the Mosaic law, as well as the practice of slave-holding. Each of these laws, although in its time it was an ameliorating law, designed to take the place of some barbarous abuse, and to be a connecting link by which some higher state of society might be introduced, belongs confessedly to that system which St. Paul says made nothing perfect. They are a part of the commandment which he says was annulled for the weakness and unprofit- ableness thereof, and which, in the time which he wrote, was waxing old, and ready to vanish away. And Christ himself says, with regard to certain permissions of this system, that they were given on account of the " hardness of their hearts," — be- cause the attempt to enforce a more stringent sys- tem at that time, owing to human depravity, would have only produced greater abuses. The following view of the Hebrew laws of slavery is compiled from Barnes' work on slavery, and from Professor Stowe's manuscript lectures. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 117 The legislation commenced by making the great and common source of slavery — kid- napping — a capital crime. The enactment is as follows : "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." —Exodus 21 : 16. The sources from which slaves were to be obtained were thus reduced to two : first, the voluntary sale of an individual by him- self, which certainly does not come under the designation of involuntary servitude ; second, the appropriation of captives taken in war, and the buying from the heathen. With regard to the servitude of the Hebrew by a voluntary sale of himself, such servitude, by the statute-law of the land, came to an end once in seven years ; so that the worst that could be made of it was that it was a voluntary contract to labor for a certain time. With regard to the servants bought of the heathen, or of foreigners in the land, there was a statute by which their servitude was annulled once in fifty years. It has been supposed, from a disconnected view of one particular passage in the Mosaic code, that God directly countenanced the treating of a slave, who was a stranger and foreigner, with more rigor and severity than a Hebrew slave. That this was not the case will appear from the following enact- ments, which have express reference to strangers : The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself. — Lev. 19 : 34. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. — Exodus 22: 21. Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger. — Exodus 23 : 9. The Lord your God regardeth not persons. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow, and loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment ; love ye therefore the stranger. — Deut. 10 : 17—19. Judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. — Deut. 1 : 16. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger. — Deut. 27 : 19. Instead of making slavery an oppressive institution with regard to the stranger, it was made by God a system within which heathen were adopted into the Jewish state, educated and instructed in the worship of the true God, and in due time emancipated. In the first place, they were protected by law from personal violence. The loss of an eye or a tooth, through the violence of his master, took the slave out of that master's power entirely, and gave him his liberty- Then, further than this, if a master's con- duct towards a slave was such as to induce him to run away, it was enjoined that no- body should assist in retaking him, and that he should dwell wherever he chose in the land, without molestation. Third, the law secured to the slave a very considerable por- tion of time, which was to be at his own disposal. Every seventh year was to be at his own disposal. — Lev. 25 : 4 — 6. Every seventh day was, of course, secured to him. — Ex. 20 : 10. The servant had the privilege of attend- ing the three great national festivals, when all the males of the nation were required to appear before God in Jerusalem. — Ex. 34: 23. Each of these festivals, it is computed, took up about three weeks. The slave also was to be a guest in the family festivals. In Deut. 12 : 12, it is said, "Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite that is within your gates." Dr. Barnes estimates that the whole amount of time which a servant could have to himself would amount to about twenty- three years out of fifty, or nearly one-half his time. Again, the servant was placed on an ex- act equality with his master in all that con- cerned his religious relations. Now, if we recollect that in the time of Moses the God and the king of the nation were one and the same person, and that the civil and religious relation were one and the same, it will appear that the slave and his master stood on an equality in their civil relation with regard to the state. Thus, in Deuteronomy 29, is described a solemn national convocation, which took place before the death of Moses, when the whole nation were called upon, after a solemn review of their national history, to renew their constitutional oath of allegiance to their supreme Magistrate and Lord. On this occasion, Moses addressed them thus : — "Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water ; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day." 118 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. How different is this from the cool and explicit declaration of South Carolina with regard to the position of the American slave : — "A slave is not generally regarded as legally capable of being Slavery , T T within the peace of the state. 243 - He is not a citizen, and is not in that character entitled to her protection." In all the religious services, which, as we have seen bj the constitution of the nation, were civil services, the slave and the master mingled on terms of strict equality. There was none of the distinction which appertains to a distinct class or caste. " There was no special service appointed for them at unusual seasons. There were no particular seats assigned to them, to keep up the idea that they were a degraded class. There was no withholding from them the instruc- tion which the word of God gave about the equal rights of mankind." Fifthly. It was always contemplated that the slave would, as a matter of course, choose the Jewish religion, and the service of God, and enter willingly into all the ob- ligations and services of the Jewish polity. Mr. Barnes cites the words of Maimoni- des, to show how this was commonly un- derstood by the Hebrews. — Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery. By Al- bert Barnes, p. 132. "Whether a servant be born in the power of an Israelite, or whether he be purchased from the heathen, the master is to bring them both into the covenant. But he that is in the house is entered on the eighth day ; and he that is bought with money, on the day on which his master receives him, un- less the slave be unwilling. For, if the master receive a grown slave, and he be unwilling, his master is to bear with him, to seek to win him over by instruction, and by love and kindness, for one year. After which, should he refuse so long, it is forbidden to keep him longer than a year. And the master must send him back to the strang- ers from whence he came. For the God of Jacob will not accept any other than the worship of a willing heart. — Maimon. Hilcoth Milulh, chap. i., sec. 8. A sixth fundamental arrangement with regard to the Hebrew slave was that he could never be sold. ' Concerning this Mr. Barnes remarks : A man, in certain circumstances, might be bought by a Hebrew ; but when once bought, that was an end of the matter. There is not the slightest evidence that any Hebrew ever sold a slave ; and any provision contemplating that was unknown to the constitution of the Common- wealth. It is said of Abraham that he had " ser- vants bought with money ;" but there is no record of his having ever sold one, nor is there any ac- count of its ever having been done by Isaac or Jacob. The only instance of a sale of this kind among the patriarchs is that act of the brothers of Joseph, which is held up to so strong reprobation, by which they sold him to the Ishmaelites. Per- mission is given in the law of Moses to buy a servant, but none is given to sell him again ; and the fact that no such permission is given is full proof that it was not contemplated. When he entered into that relation, it became certain that there could be no change, unless it was voluntary on his part (comp. Ex. 21 : 5, 6), or unless hia master gave him his freedom, until the not dis- tant period fixed by law when he could be free. There is no arrangement in the law of Moses by which servants were to be taken in payment of their master's debts, by which they were to be given as pledges, by which they were to be con- signed to the keeping of others, or by which they were to be given away as presents. There are no instances occurring in the Jewish history in which any of these things were done. This law is posi- tive in regard to the Hebrew servant, and the principle of the law would apply to all others. Lev. 25 : 42. — " They shall not be sold as bond men." In all these respects there was a marked difference, and there was doubtless intended to be, between the estimate affixed to servants and to property. — Inquiry, &c, p. 133 — 4. As to the practical workings of this sys- tem, as they are developed in the incidents of sacred history, they are precisely what we should expect from such a system of laws. For instance, we find it mentioned incidentally in the ninth chapter of the first book of Samuel, that when Saul and his ser- vant came to see Samuel, that Samuel, in anticipation of his being crowned king, made a great feast for him ; and in verse twenty- second the history says : " And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the parlor, and made them sit in the chiefest place." We read, also, in 2 Samuel 9 : 10, of a servant of Saul who had large estates, and twenty servants of his own. We find, in 1 Chron. 2 : 34, the follow- ing incident related : " Now, Sheshan had no sons, but daughters. And Sheshan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. And Sheshan gave his daughter to Javba, his servant, to wife." Does this resemble American slavery ? We find, moreover, that this connection was not considered at all disgraceful, for the son of this very daughter was enrolled among the valiant men of David's army. — 1 Chron. 2 : 41. In fine, we are not surprised to discover that the institutions of Moses in effect so obliterated all the characteristics of slavery, that it had ceased to exist among the Jews Ion"- before the time of Christ. Mr. Barnes asks : On what evidence would a man rely to prove KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN. 119 ing ; there is nothing in which it stands that slavery existed at all in the land in the time of the later prophets of the Maccabees, or when the Saviour appeared? There are abundant proofs, as we shall see, that it existed in Greece and Rome ; but what is the evidence that it ex- isted in Judea ? So far as I have been able to ascertain, there are no declarations that it did to be found in the canonical books of the Old Tes- tament, or in Josephus. There are no allusions to laws and customs which imply that it was prev- alent. There are no coins or medals which sup- pose it. There are no facts which do not admit of an easy explanation on the supposition that slavery had ceased. — Inquiry, &c, p. 226. Two objections have been urged to the interpretations which have been given of two of the enactments before quoted. 1. It is said that the enactment, " Thou shalt not return to his master the servant that has escaped," &c, relates only to ser- vants escaping from heathen masters to the Jewish nation. The following remarks on this passage are from Prof. Stowe's lectures: Deuteronomy 23: 15, 16. — These words make a statute which, like every other stat- ute, is to be strictly construed. There is nothing in the language to limit its mean- the connection in to limit its meaning ; nor is there anything in the history of the Mo- saic legislation to limit the application of this statute to the case of servants escaping from foreign masters. The assumption that it is thus limited is wholly gratuitous, and so far as the Bible is concerned, unsustained by any evidence whatever. It is said that it would be absurd for Moses to enact such a law while servitude existed among the Hebrews. It would indeed be absurd, were it the object of the Mosaic legislation to sus- tain and perpetuate slavery ; but, if it were the object of Moses to limit and to restrain, and finally to extinguish slavery, this statute was admirably adapted to his purpose. That it was the object of Moses to extin- guish, and not to perpetuate, slavery, is per- fectly clear from the whole course of his legislation on the subject. Every slave was to have all the religious privileges and instruction to which his master's chil- dren were entitled. Every seventh year released the Hebrew slave, and every fiftieth year produced universal emancipation. If a master, by an accidental or an angry blow, deprived the slave of a tooth,- the slave, by that act, was forever free. And so, by the statute in question, if the slave felt himself oppressed, he could make his escape, and, though the master was not forbidden to retake him if he could, every one was forbidden to aid his master in doing it. This statute, in fact, made the servitude voluntary, and that was what Moses intended. Moses dealt with slavery precisely as he dealt with polygamy and with war : with- out directly prohibiting, he so restricted as to destroy it ; instead of cutting down the poison-tree, he girdled it, and left it to die of itself. There is a statute in regard to military expeditions precisely analogous to this celebrated fugitive slave law. Had Moses designed to perpetuate a warlike spirit among the Hebrews, the statute would have been preeminently absurd ; but, if it was his design to crush it, and to render foreign wars almost impossible, the statute was exactly adapted to his purpose. It rendered foreign military service, in effect, entirely voluntary, just as the fugitive law rendered domestic servitude, in effect, voluntary. The law may be found at length in Deu- teronomy 20 : 5 — 10 ; and let it be care- fully read and compared with the fugitive slave law already adverted to. Just when the men are drawn up ready for the expe- dition, — just at the moment when even the hearts of brave men are apt to fail them, — the officers are commanded to address the soldiers thus : " What man of you is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it ? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the bat- tle, and another man dedicate it. " And what man is he that hath planted a vine- yard and hath not yet eaten of it ? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the bat- tle, and another man eat of it. " And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her ? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her." And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, " What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint, as well as his heart." Now, consider that the Hebrews were ex- clusively an agricultural people, that warlike parties necessarily consist mainly of young men, and that by this statute every man who had built a house which he had not yet lived in, and every man who had plant- ed a vineyard from which he had not yet gathered fruit, and every man who had en- gaged a w T ife whom he had not yet married, and every one who felt timid and faint- hearted, was permitted and commanded to go home, — how many would there probably be left ? Especially when the officers, in- 120 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. stead of exciting their military ardor by visions of glory and of splendor, were com- manded to repeat it over and over again that they would probably die in the battle and never get home, and hold this idea up before them as if it were the only idea suit- able for their purpose, how excessively ab- surd is the whole statute considered as a military law, — just as absurd as the Mosaic fugitive law, understood in its widest appli- cation, is, considered as a slave law ! It is clearly the object of this military law to put an end to military expeditions ; for, with this law in force, such expeditions must always be entirely volunteer expedi- tions. Just as clearly was it the object of the fugitive slave law to put an end to com- pulsory servitude; for, with that law in force, the servitude must, in effect, be, to a great extent, voluntary, — and that is just what the legislator intended. There is no possibility of limiting the law, on account of its absurdity, when understood in its widest sense, except by proving that the Mosaic legislation was designed to perpetu- ate and not to limit slavery ; and this cer- tainly cannot be proved, for it is directly contrary to the plain matter of fact. I repeat it, then, again : there is nothing in the language of this statute, there is nothing in the connection in which it stands, there is nothing in the history of the Mo- saic legislation on this subject, to limit the application of the law to the case of ser- vants escaping from foreign masters : but every consideration, from every legitimate source, leads us to a conclusion directly the opposite. Such a limitation is the arbitrary, unsupported stet voluntas pro rat lone as- sumption of the commentator, and nothing else. The only shadow of a philological argument that I can see, for limiting the statute, is found in the use of the words to thee, in the fifteenth verse. It may be said that the pronoun thee is used in a national and not individual sense, implying an es- cape from some other nation to the He- brews. But, examine the statute imme- diately preceding this, and observe the use of the pronoun thee in the thirteenth verse. Most obviously, the pronouns in these statutes are used with reference to the indi- viduals addressed, and not in a collective or national sense exclusively ; very rarely, if ever, can this sense be given to them in the way claimed by the argument re- ferred to. 2. It is said that the proclamation, "Thou shalt proclaim liberty through tho land to all the inhabitants thereof," related only ta Hebrew slaves. This assumption is based entirely on the supposition that the slave was not considered, in Hebrew law, as a person, as an inhabitant of the land, and a member of the state; but we have just proved that in the most solemn transaction of the state the hewer of wood and drawer of water is expressly designated as beino- just as much an actor and participator as his master ; and it would be absurd to sup- pose that, in a statute addressed to all the inhabitants of the land, he is not included as an inhabitant. Barnes enforces this idea by some pages of quotations from Jewish writers, which will fully satisfy any one who reads his work. From a review, then, of all that relates to the Hebrew slave-law, it will appear that it was a very well-considered and wisely- adapted system of education and gradual emancipation. No rational man can doubt that if the same laws were enacted and the same practices prevailed with regard to slavery in the United States, that the system of American slavery might be considered, to all intents and purposes, practically at an end. If there is any doubt of this fact, and it is still thought that the permission of slavery among the Hebrews justifies Ameri- can slavery, in all fairness the experiment of making the two systems alike ought to be tried, and we should then see what would be the result. CHAPTER XV. SLAVERY IS DESPOTISM. It is always important, in discussing a thing, to keep before our minds exactly what it is. The only means of understanding pre- cisely what a civil institution is are an examination of the laws which regulate it. In different ages and nations, very different things have been called by the name of slavery. Patriarchal servitude was one thing, Hebrew servitude was another, Greek and Roman servitude still a third ; and these institutions differed very much from each other. What, then, is American slavery, as we have seen it exhibited by law, and by the decisions of courts 'I Let us begin by stating what it is not. 1. It is not apprenticeship. 2. It is not guardianship. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 121 3. It is in no sense a system for the education of a weaker race by a stronger. 4. The happiness of the governed is in no sense its object. 5. The temporal improvement or the eter- nal well-being of the governed is in no sense its object. The object of it has been distinctly stated in one sentence, by Judge Ruffin, — "The end is the profit of the master, his security, and the public safety." Slavery, then, is absolute despotism, of the most unmitigated form. It would, however, be doing injustice to the absolutism of any civilized country to liken American slavery to it. The absolute governments of Europe none of them pre- tend to be founded on a 'property right of the governor to the persons and entire capa- bilities of the governed. This is a form of despotism which exists only in some of the most savage countries of the world ; as, for example, in Dahomey. The European absolutism or despotism, now, does, to some extent, recognize the happiness and welfare of the governed as the foundation of government ; and the ruler is considered as invested with power for the benefit of the people ; and his right to rule is supposed to be in somewhat predicated upon the idea that he better understands how to promote the good of the people than they themselves do. No government in the civ- ilized world now presents the pure despotic idea, as it existed in the old days of the Persian and Assyrian rule. The arguments which defend slavery must be substantially the same as those which defend despotism of any other kind ; and the objections which are to be urged against it are precisely those which can be urged against despotism of any other kind. The customs and practices to which it gives rise are precisely those to which despotisms in all ages have given rise. Is the slave suspected of a crime 1 His master has the power to examine him by torture (see State v. Castleman). His mas- ter has, in fact, in most cases, the power of life and death, owing to the exclusion of the slave's evidence. He has the power of ban- ishing the slave, at any time, and without giving an account to anybody, to an exile as dreadful as that of Siberia, and to labors as severe as those of the galleys. He has also unlimited power over the character of his slave. He can accuse him of any crime, yet withhold from him all right of trial ov investigation, and sell him into captivity, with his name blackened by an unexamined imputation. These are all abuses for which despotic governments are blamed. They are powers which good men who are despotic rulers are beginning to disuse ; but, under the flag of every slave-holding state, and under the flag of the whole United States in the District of Columbia, they are committed indiscrim- inately to men of any character. But the worst kind of despotism has been said to be that which extends alike over the body and over the soul ; which can bind the liberty of the conscience, and deprive a man of all right of choice in respect to the man- ner in which he shall learn the will of God, and worship Him. In other days, kings on their thrones', and cottagers by their fire- sides, alike trembled before a despotism which declared itself able to bind and to loose, to open and to shut the kingdom of heaven. Yet this power to control the conscience, to control the religious privileges, and all the opportunities which man has of acquaint- anceship with his Maker, and of learning to do his will, is, under the flag of every slave state, and under the flag of the United States, placed in the hands of any men, of any character, who can afford to pay for it. It is a most awful and most solemn truth that the greatest republic in the world does sustain under her national flag the worst system of despotism which can possibly exist. With regard to one point to which we have adverted, — the power of the master to deprive the slave of a legal trial while accus- ing him of crime, — a very striking instance has occurred in the District of Columbia, within a year or two. The particulars of the case, as stated, at the time, in several papers, were briefly these : A gentleman in Washington, our national capital, — an elder in the Presbyterian church, — held a female slave, who had, for some years, supported a good character in a Baptist church of that city. He accused her of an attempt to poi- son his family, and immediately placed her in the hands of a slave-dealer, who took her over and imprisoned her in the slave-pen at Alexandria, to await the departure of a coffle. The poor girl had a mother, who felt as any mother would naturally feel. When apprized of the situation of her daughter, she flew to the pen, and, with tears, besought an interview with her only child; but she was cruelly repulsed, and told to be gone ! She then tried to see the elder, 122 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. but failed. She had the promise of money sufficient to purchase her daughter, but the owner would listen to no terms of compro- mise. In her distress, the mother repaired to a lawyer in the city, and begged him to give form to her petition in writing. She stated to him what she wished to have said, and he arranged it for her in such a form as she herself might have presented it in, had not the benefits of education been denied her. The following; is the letter : Mr. Washington, July 25, 1851. Sir : I address you as a rich Christian freeman and father, while I am myself but a poor slave- mother ! I come to plead with you for an only child whom I love, who is a professor of the Christian religion with yourself, and a member of a Chris- tian church ; and who, by your act of ownership, now pines in her imprisonment in a loathsome man-warehouse, where she is held for sale ! I come to plead with you for the exercise of that blessed law, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." With great labor, I have found friends who are willing to aid me in the purchase of my child, to save us from a cruel separation. You, nsafathcr, can judge of my feelings when I was told that you had decreed her banishment to distant as well as to hopeless bondage ! For nearly six years my child has done for you the hard labor of a slave; from the age of sixteen to twenty-two, she has done the hard work of your chamber, kitchen, cellar, and stables. By night and by day, your will and your commands have been her highest law ; and all this has been unre- quited toil. If in all this time her scanty allow- ance of tea and coffee has been sweetened, it lias been at the cost of her slave-mother, and not at yours. You are an office-bearer in the church, and a man of prayer. As such, and as the absolute owner of my child, I ask candidly whether she has enjoyed such mild and gentle treatment, and amiable example, as she ought to have had, to encourage her in her monotonous bondage ? Has she received at your hands, in faithful religious instruction in the \Vord of God, a full and fair compensation for all her toil ? It is not to me alone that you must answer these questions. You ac- knowledge the high authority of 1 1 is laws who preached a deliverance to the captive, and who commands you to give to your servant " that which is just and equal." 0! 1 entreat you, withhold not, at this trying hour, from my child that which will cut oil" her last hope, and which may endanger your own soul ! It has been said that you charge my daughter with crime. Can this be really so! Can it be that you would set aside the obligations of honor and good citizenship, — that you would dare to sell the guilty one away for money, rather than bring her to trial, which you know she is ready to meet '! What would you say, if you were accused of guilt, and refused a trial 1 Is not her fair name as pre- cious to her, in the church to which she belongs, as yours can be to you ? Suppose, now, for a mement, that your daugh* ter, whom you love,- instead of mine, was in these hot days incarcerated in a negro-pen, subject to my control, fed on the coarsest food, committed to the entire will of a brute, denied the privilege commonly allowed even to the murderer — that of seeing the face of his friends? 0! then, you would feel! Feel soon, then, for a poor slave- mother and her child, and do for us as you shall wish you had done when we shall meet before the Great Judge,, and when it shall be your great- est joy to say, " I did let the oppressed free." Ellen Brown. The girl, however, was sent off to the Southern market. The writer has received these incidints from the gentleman who wrote the letter. Whether the course pursued by the master was strictly legal is a point upon which we are not entirely certain ; that it was a course in which the law did not in fact interfere is quite plain, and it is also very apparent that it was a course against which public senti- ment did not remonstrate. The man who exercised this power was a professedly reli- gious man, enjoying a position of importance in a Christian church ; and it does not ap- pear, from any movements in the Christian community about him, that they did not consider his course a justifiable one. Yet is not this kind of power the very one at which we are so shocked when Ave see it exercised by foreign despots l Do we not read with shuddering that in Russia, or in Austria, a man accused of crime is seized upon, separated from his friends, allowed no opportunities of trial or of self-defence, but hurried off to Siberia, or some other dreaded exile ? Why is despotism any worse in the gov- ernor of a state than in a private individual ? There is a great controversy now going on in the world between the despotic and the republican principle. All the common arguments used in support of slavery are arguments that apply with equal strength to despotic government, and there are some arguments in favor of despotic governments that do not apply to individual slavery. There are arguments, and quite plausible ones, in favor of despotic government. No- body can deny that it possesses a certain kind of efficiency, compactness, and prompt- ness of movement, which cannot, from the nature of things, belong to a republic. Des- potism has established and sustained much more efficient systems of police than ever a republic did. The late King of Prussia, by the possession of absolute despotic power was enabled to carry out a much more effi- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 123 cient system of popular education than we ever have succeeded in carrying out in America. He districted his kingdom in the most thorough manner, and obliged every parent, whether he would or not, to have his children thoroughly educated. If we reply to all this, as we do, that the possession of absolute power in a man qual- ified to use it right is undoubtedly calcu- lated for the good of the state, but that there are so few men that know how to use it, that this form of government is not, on the whole, a safe one, then we have stated an argument that goes to overthrow slavery as much as it does a despotic government ; for certainly the chances are much greater of finding one man, in the course of fifty years, who is capable of wisely using this power, than of finding thousands of men every day in our streets, who can be trusted with such power. It is a painful and most seri- ous fact, that America trusts to the hands of the most brutal men of her country, equally with the best, that despotic power which she thinks an unsafe thing even in the hands of the enlightened, educated and cultivated Emperor of the Russias. With all our republican prejudices, we cannot deny that Nicholas is a man of talent, with a mind liberalized by education ; we have been informed, also, that he is a man of serious and religious character ; — he cer- tainly, acting as he does in the eye of all the world, must have great restraint upon him from public opinion, and a high sense of character. But who is the man to whom American laws intrust powers more absolute than those of Nicholas of Russia, or Ferdi- nand of Naples ? He may have been a pirate on the high seas ; he may be a drunk- ard; he may, like Souther, have been con- victed of a brutality at which humanity turns pale ; but, for all that, American slave-law will none the less trust him with this irre- sponsible power, — power over the body, and power over the soul. On which side, then, stands the American nation, in the great controversy which is now going on between self-government and despotism '? On which side does America stand, in the great controversy for liberty of conscience ? Do foreign governments exclude their population from the reading of the Bible 1 — The slave of America is excluded by the most effectual means possible. Do we say, " Ah ! but Ave read the Bible to our slaves, and present the gospel orally 1 " — This is precisely what religious despotism in Italy says. Do we say that we have no objection to our slaves reading the Bible, if they will stop there ; but that with this there will come in a flood of general intelligence, which will upset the existing state of things 1 — This is precisely what is said in Italy. Do we say we should be willing that the slave should read his Bible, but that he, in his ignorance, will draw false and erroneous conclusions from it, and for that reason we prefer to impart its truths to him orally 7 — This, also, is precisely what the religious despotism of Europe says. Do we say, in our vain-glory, that despotic government dreads the coming in of any- thing calculated to elevate and educate the people ? — And is there not the same dread through all the despotic slave governments of America ? On which side, then, does the American nation stand, in the great, last question of the age? PART III. CHAPTER I. DOES PUBLIC OPINION PROTECT THE SLAVE 1 The utter inefficiency of the law to pro- tect the slave in any respect has been shown. But it is claimed that, precisely because the law affords the slave no protection, therefore public opinion is the more strenu- ous in his behalf. Nothing more frequently strikes the eye, in running over judicial proceedings in the courts of slave stntes, than announcements of the utter inutility of the law to rectify some glaring injustice towards this unhappy race, coupled with congratulatory remarks on that beneficent state of public sentiment which is to supply entirely this acknowl- edged deficiency of the law. On this point it may, perhaps, be suffi- cient to ask the reader, whether North or South, to review in his own mind the judi- cial documents which we have presented, and ask himself what inference is to be drawn, as to the state of public sentiment, from the cases there presented, — from the pleas of lawyers, the decisions of judges, the facts sworn to by witnesses, and the general style and spirit of the whole proceedings. In order to appreciate this more fully, let us compare a trial in a free state with a trial in a slave state. In the free State of Massachusetts, a man of standing, learning and high connections, murdered another man. He did not torture him, but with one blow sent him in a moment from life. The murderer had every advantage of position, of friends ; it may be said, indeed, that he had the sympathy of the whole United States ; yet how calmly, with what unmoved and awful composure, did the judicial examination proceed ! The murderer was condemned to die — what a sensation shook the country ! Even sover- eign states assumed the attitude of petition- ers for him. There was a voice of entreaty, from Maine to New Orleans. There were remonstrances, and there were threats ; but still, with what passionless calmness retributive justice held on its way ! Though the men who were her instruments were men of merciful and bleeding hearts, yet they bowed in silence to her sublime will. In spite of all that influence and wealth and power could do, a cultivated and intelligent man, from the first rank of society, suffered the same penalty that would fall on any other man who vio- lated the sanctity of human life. Now, compare this with a trial in a slave state. In Virginia, Souther also murdered a man ; but he did not murder him by one merciful blow, but by twelve hours of torture so horrible that few readers could bear even the description of it. It was a mode of death which, to use the language that Cicero in his day applied to crucifixion, ' ' ought to be forever removed from the sight, hear- ing, and from the very thoughts of man- kind." And to this horrible scene two white men were witnesses ! Observe the mode in which these two cases were tried, and the general sensation they produced. Hear the lawyers, in this case of Souther, coolly debating whether it can be considered any crime at all. Hear the decision of the inferior court, that it is murder in the second degree, and appor- tioning as its reward five years of imprison- ment. See the horrible butcher coming up to the Superior Court in the attitude of an injured man ! Sec the case recorded as that of Souther versus The Conwionirealth, and let us ask any intelligent man, North or South, what sort of public sentiment does this show ! Docs it show a belief that the negro is a man .' Does it not show decidedly that he is not considered as a man? Consider further the horrible principle which, reaffirmed in the case, is the law of the land in Virginia. // is the policy of the law, in respect to the relation of master and slave, and for KE5T TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 125 the sake of securing proper subordination on the part of the slave, to protect the 'master from prosecution in all such cases, even if the whipping and punishment be malicious, cruel and excessive! When the most cultivated and intelligent men in the state formally, calmly and without any apparent perception of saying anything inhuman, utter such an astounding decision as this, what can be thought of it ') If they do not consider this cruel, what is cruel 1 And, if their feelings are so blunted as to see no cruelty in such a decision, what hope is there of any protection to the slave? This law is a plain and distinct permis- sion to such wretches as Souther to inflict upon the helpless slave any torture they may choose, without any accusation or mpeachment of crime. It distinctly tells Souther, and the white witnesses who saw his deed, and every other low, unprincipled man in the court, that it is the policy of the law to protect him in malicious, cruel and excessive punishments. What sort of an education is this for the intelligent and cultivated men of a state to communicate to the lower and less-educated class ? Suppose it to be solemnly announced in Massachusetts, with respect to free laborers or apprentices, that it is the policy of the law, for the sake of producing subordination, to protect the master in inflicting any pun- ishment, however cruel, malicious and ex- cessive, short of death. We cannot imagine such a principle declared, without a rebel- lion and a storm of popular excitement to which that of Bunker Hill was calmness itself; — but, supposing the State of Massa- chusetts were so "twice dead and plucked up by the roots" as to allow such a decision to pass without comment concerning her work- ing classes, — suppose it did pass, and be- come an active, operative reality, what kind of an educational influence would it exert upon the commonwealth l What kind of an estimate of the working classes would it show in the minds of those who make and execute the law 1 What an immediate development of vil- lany and brutality would be brought out by such a law, avowedly made to protect men in cruelty ! Cannot men be cruel enough, without all the majesty of law being brought into operation to sanction it, and make it reputable ? And suppose it were said, in vindication of such a law, " 0, of course, no respect- able, humane man would ever think of taking advantage of it." Should we not think the old State of Massachusetts sunk very low, to have on her legal records direct assur- ances of protection to deeds which no decent man would ever do ? And, when this shocking permission is brought in review at the judgment-seat of Christ, and the awful Judge shall say to its makers, aiders, and abettors, Where is thy brother 7 — when all the souls that have called from under the altar, S ' How' long, Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood," shall rise around tke judgment-scat as a great cloud of witnesses, and the judg- ment is set and the books are opened, — what answer will be made for such laws and de- cisions as these ? Will they tell the great Judge that it was necessary to preserve the slave system, — that it could not be preserved without them ? Will they dare look upon those eyes, which are as a flame of fire, with any such avowal ? Will He not answer, as with a voice of thunders, "Ye have killed the poor and needy, and ye have forgotten that the Lord was his helper ' ' ? The deadly sin of slavery is its denial of humanity to man. This has been the sin of oppression, in every age. To tread down, to vilify and crush, the image of God, in the person of the poor and lowly, has been the great sin of man since the creation of the world. Against this sin all the proph- ets of ancient times poured forth their thunders. A still stronger witness was borne against this sin when God, in Jesus Christ, took human nature, and made each human being a brother of the Lord. But the last and most sublime witness shall be borne when a Man shall judge the whole earth — a Man who shall acknowledge for His brother the meanest slave, equally with the proudest master. In most singular and affecting terms it is asserted in the Bible that the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, because he is the Son of Man. That human nature, which, in the person of the poor slave, has been despised and rejected, scoffed and scorned, scourged and tortured, shall in that day be glorified ; and it shall appear the most fearful of sins to have made light of the sacredness of humanity, as these laws and institutions of slavery have done. The fact is, that the whole system of slave-, law, and the whole practice of the slave system, and the public sentiment that is formed by it, are alike based on the greatest of all heresies, a denial of equal human 126 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. brotherhood. A whole race has been thrown out of the range of human existence, their immortality disregarded, their dignity as children of God scoffed at, their brotherhood with Christ treated as a fable, and all the law and public sentiment and practice with regard to them such as could be justified only on supposition that they were a race of inferior animals. It is because the negro is considered an inferior animal, and not worthy of any bet- ter treatment, that the system which relates to him and the treatment which falls to him are considered humane. Take any class of white men, however uneducated, and place them under the same system of laws, and make their civil con- dition in all respects like that of the negro, and would it not be considered the most outrageous cruelty ? Suppose the slave-law were enacted with regard to all the Irish in our country, and they were parcelled off as the property of any man who had money enough to buy them. Suppose their right to vote, their right to bring suit in any case, their right to bear testimony in courts of justice, their right to contract a legal marriage, their right to hold property or to make contracts of any sort, were all by one stroke of law blotted out. Furthermore, suppose it was forbidden to teach them to read and write, and that their children to all ages were "doomed to live without knowledge." Sup- pose that, in judicial proceedings, it were solemnly declared, with regard to them, that the mere beating of an Irishman, "apart from any circumstances of cruelty, or any attempt to kill," was no offence against the peace of the state. Suppose that it were de- clared that, for the better preservation of subjection among them, the law would pro- tect the master in any kind of punishment inflicted, even if it should appear to be malicious, cruel and excessive; and suppose that monsters like Souther, in availing them- selves of this permission, should occasionally torture Irishmen to death, but still this cir- cumstance should not be deemed of sufficient importance to call for any restriction on the part of the master. Suppose it should be coolly said, " yes, Irishmen are occasion- ally tortured to death, we know; but it is not by any means a general occurrence; in fact, no men of position in society would do it; and when cases of the kind do occur, they arc indignantly frowned upon." Supp ise it should be stated that the rea- son that the law restraining the power of the master cannot be made any more strin- gent is, that the general system cannot be maintained without allowing this extent of power to the master. Suppose that, having got all the Irishmen in the country down into this condition, they should maintain that such was the public sentiment of humanity with regard to them as abundantly to supply the want of all legal rights, and to make their condition, on the whole, happier than if they were free. Should we not say that a public sentiment which saw no cruelty in thus depriving a whole race of every right dear to manhood could see no cruelty in anything, and had proved itself wholly unfit to judge upon the subject? What man would not rather see his children in the grave than see them slaves'? What man, who, should he wake to-morrow morning in the condition of an American slave, would not wish himself in the grave? And yet all the defenders of slavery start from the point that this legal condition is not of itself a cruelty ! They would hold it the last excess of cruelty with regard to themselves, or any white man ; why do they call it no cruelty at all with regard to the negro? The writer in defence of slavery in Fra- ser J s Magazine justifies this depriving of a whole class of any legal rights, by urging that "the good there is in human nature will supply the deficiencies of human legis- lation." This remark is one most signifi- cant, powerful index of the state of public sentiment, produced even in a generous mind, by the slave system. This writer thinks the good there is in human nature will supply the absence of all legal rights to thousands and millions of human beings. He thinks it right to risk their bodies and their souls on the good there is in human nature ; yet this very man would not send a fifty-dollar bill through the post-office, in an unsealed letter, trusting to " the good there is in human nature." Would this man dare to place his children in the position of slaves, and trust them to " the good in human nature " ? Would he buy an estate from the most honorable man of his acquaintance, and have no legal record f the deed, trusting to ' ' the good in human nature"? And if "the good in human nature" will not suffice for him and his children, how will it suffice for his brother and his brother's children? Is his happiness of any more importance in God's sight than his brother's happiness, that his must be secured by legal bolts, and KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 127 bonds, and bars, and his brother's left to "the good there is in human nature"? Never are we so impressed with the utter deadness of public sentiment to protect the slave, as when we see such opinions as these uttered by men of a naturally generous and noble character. The most striking and the most painful examples of the perversion of public senti- ment, with regard to the negro race, are often given in the writings of men of hu- manity, amiableness and piety. That devoted laborer for the slave, the Rev. Charles C. Jones, thus expresses his sense of the importance of one African soul: "Were it now revealed to us that the most ex- tensive 83'stem of instruction which we could devise, requiring a vast amount of labor and pro- tracted through ages, would result in the tender mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of one poor African, we should feel warranted in cheerfully entering upon our work, with all its costs and sacrifices. What a noble, what a sublime spirit, is here breathed ! Does it not show a mind capable of the very highest impulses ? And yet, if we look over his whole writings, we shall see painfully how the moral sense of the finest mind may be perverted by con- stant familiarity with such a system. We find him constructing an appeal to masters to have their slaves orally instructed in religion. In many passages he speaks of oral instruction as confessedly an imper- fect species of instruction, very much in- ferior to that which results from personal reading and examination of the Word of God. He says, in one place, that in order to do much good it must be begun very early in life, and intimates that people in advanced years can acquire very little from it ; and yet he decidedly expresses his opinion that slavery is an institution with which no Christian has cause to interfere. The slaves, according to his own showing, are cut off from the best means for the sal- vation of their souls, and restricted to one of a very inferior nature. They are placed under restriction which makes their souls as dependent upon others for spiritual food as a man without hands is dependent upon others for bodily food. He recognizes the fact, which his own experience must show him, that the slave is at all times liable to pass into the hands of those who will not take the trouble thus to feed his soul ; nay, if we may judge from his urgent appeals, to masters, he perceives around him many who, having spiritually cut off the slave's hands, refuse to feed him. He sees that, by the operation of this law as a matter of fact, thousands are placed in situations where the perdition of the soul is almost certain, and yet he declares that he does not feel called upon at all to interfere with their civil con- dition ! But, if the soul of every poor African is of that inestimable worth which Mr. Jones believes, does it not follow that he ought to have the very best means for getting to heaven which it is possible to give him ? And is not he who can read the Bible for himself in a better condition than he who is dependent upon the reading of another? If it be said that such teaching cannot be afforded, because it makes them unsafe prop- erty, ought not a clergyman like Mr. Jones to meet this objection in his own expressive language : Were it now revealed to us that the most ex- tensive system of instruction which we could devise, requiring a vast amount of labor and pro- tracted through ages, would result in the tender mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of one poor African, we should feel warranted in cheerfully entering upon our w;;rk, with all its costs and sacrifices. Should not a clergyman, like Mr. Jones, tell masters that they should risk the loss of all things seen and temporal, rather than incur the hazard of bringing eternal ruin on these souls ? All the arguments which Mr. Jones so eloquently used with masters, to persuade them to give their slaves oral instruction, would apply with double force to show their obligation to give the slave the power of reading the Bible for himself. Again, we come to hear Mr. Jones telling masters of the power they have over the souls of their servants, and we hear him say, We may, according to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings and religious in- struction on our own plantations ; we may forbid our servants going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for them. We may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and suffer not them that are entering to go in. And, when we hear Mr. Jones say all this, and then consider that he must see and know this awful power is often lodged in the hands of wholly irreligious men, in the hands of men of the most profligate charac- ter, we can account for his thinking such a system right only by attributing it to that blinding, deadening influence which the 128 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. public sentiment of slavery exerts even over the best-constituted minds. Neither Mr. Jones nor any other Christ- ian minister would feel it right that the eternal happiness of their own children should be thus placed in the power of any man who should have money to pay for them. How, then, can they think it right that this power be given in the case of their African brother ? Does this not show that, even in case of the most humane and Christian people, who theoretically believe in the equality of all souls before God, a constant familiarity with slavery works a practical infidelity on this point ; and that they give their assent to laws which practically declare that the sal- vation of the servant's soul is of less con- sequence than the salvation of the property relation ? Let us not be thought invidious or un- charitable in saying, that where slavery ex- ists there are so many causes necessarily uniting to corrupt public sentiment with re- gard to the slave, that the best-constituted minds cannot trust themselves in it. In the northern and free states public sentiment has been, and is, to this day, fatally infected by the influence of a past and the proximity of a present system of slavery. Hence the injustice with which the negro in many of our states is treated. Hence, too, those apologies for slavery, and defences of it, which issue from Northern presses, and even Northern pulpits. If even at the North the remains of slavery can produce such baleful effects in corrupting public sen- timent, how much more must this be the case where this institution is in full force ! The whole American nation is, in some sense, under a paralysis of public sentiment on this subject. It was said by a heathen writer that the gods gave us a fearful power when they gave us the faculty of becoming accustomed to things. This power has proved a fearful one indeed in America. We have got used to things which might stir the dead in their graves. When but a small portion of the things daily done in America has been told in Eng- land, and France, and Italy, and Germany, there has been a perfect shriek and outcry of horror. America alone remains cool, and asks. "What is the matter?" Europe answers back, "Why, we have heard that men are sold like cattle in your country." " Of course they are," says America ; "hut what then? " " We have heard," says Europe, " that millions of men are forbidden to read and write in your country." " We know that," says America; " but what is this outcry about? " "We have heard," says Europe, "that Christian girls are sold to shame in your markets ! " " That. is n't quite as it should be," says America ; " but still what is this excitement about?" " We hear that three millions of your people can have no legal marriage ties," says Europe. " Certainly that is true," returns Amer- ica ; "but you made such an outcry, we thought you saw some great cruelty going on." " And you profess to be a free country ! " says indignant Europe. " Certainly we are the freest and most enlightened country in the world, — what are you talking about? " says America. " You send your missionaries to Christ- ianize us," says Turkey ; "and our religion has abolished this horrible system." " You ! you are all heathen over there, — what business have you to talk?" an- swers America. Many people seem really to have thought that nothing but horrible exaggerations of the system of slavery could have produced the sensation which has recently been felt in all modern Europe. They do not know- that the thing they have become accustomed to, and handled so freely in every discus- sion, seems to all other nations the sum and essence of villany. Modern Europe, open- ing her eyes and looking on the legal theory of the slave system, on the laws and inter- pretations of law which define it, says to America, in the language of the indignant Othello, If thou wilt justify a thing like this, " Never pray more ; abandon all remorse ; On Horror's head horrors accumulate ; Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed; For nothing canst thou to damnation add Greater than this." There is an awful state of familiarity with evil which the apostle calls being " dead in trespasses and sins," where truth has been resisted, and evil perscveringly defended, and the convictions of conscience stifled, and the voice of God's Holy Spirit bidden to depart. There is an awful paralysis of the moral sense, when deeds unholiest and crimes most fearful cease any longer to affect the nerve. That paralysis, always a fearful KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 129 indication of the death and dissolution of nations, is a doubly dangerous disease in a republic, whose only power is in intelligence, justice and virtue. CHAPTER II. PUBLIC OPINION FORMED BY EDUCATION. Rev. Charles C. Jones, in his interest- ing work on the Religious Instruction of Negroes, has a passage which so peculiarly describes that influence of public opinion which we have been endeavoring to illustrate, that we shall copy it. Habits of feeling and prejudices in relation to any subject are wont to take their rise out of our education or circumstances. Every man knows their influence to be great in shaping opinions and conduct, and ofttimes how unwittingly they are formed ; that while we may be unconscious of their existence, they may grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. Familiarity converts deformity into comeliness. Hence we are not alwaj's the best judges of our condition. Another may remark inconveniences, and, indeed, real evils, in it, of which we may be said to have been all our lives scarcely conscious. So, also, evils which, upon first acquaintance, revolted our whole nature, and appeared intolerable, custom almost makes us forget even to see. Men passing out of one state of society into another encounter a thousand things to which they feel that they can never be reconciled ; yet, shortly after, their sensibilities become dulled, — a change passes over them, they scarcely know how. They have accommodated themselves to their new circum- stances and relations, — they are Romans in Rome. Let us now inquire what are the educa- tional influences which bear upon the mind educated in constant familiarity with the slave system. Take any child of ingenuous mind and of generous heart, and educate him under the influences of slavery, and what are the things which go to form his character 7 An anec- dote which a lady related to the writer may be in point in this place. In giving an ac- count of some of the things which induced her to remove her family from under the influence of slavery, she related the follow- ing incident : Looking out of her nursery window one day, she saw her daughter, about three years of age, seated in her little carriage, with six or eight young negro children harnessed into it for horses. Two or three of the older slaves were standing around their little mistress, and one of them, putting a whip into her hand, said, " There, Misse, whip 'em well; make 'em go, — they're all your niggers." What a moral and religious lesson was this for that young soul ! The mother was a judicious woman, who never would herself have taught such a thing ; but the whole influence of slave society had burnt it into the soul of every negro, and through them it was communicated to the child. As soon as a child is old enough to read the newspapers, he sees in every column such notices as the following from a late Rich- mond Whig, and other papers. LARGE SALE OF XEGROES, HORSES, MILES, CATTLE, &c. The subscriber, under a decree of the Circuit Superior Court for Fluvanna County, will proceed to sell, by public auction, at the late residence of William Gait, deceased, on Tuesday, the 30th day of November, and Wednesday, the 1st day of December next, beginning at 11 o'clock, the negroes, stock, &c, of all kinds, belonging to the estate, consisting of 175 negroes, amongst whom are some Carpenters and Blacksmiths, — 10 horses, 33 mules, 100 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 200 hogs, 1500 barrels corn, oats, fodder, &c, the planta- tion and shop tools of all kinds. The Negroes will be sold for cash ; the other property on a credit of nine months, the purchaser giving bond, with approved security. James Galt, Administrator of Oct. 19. William Gait, deceased From the Nashville Gazette, Nov. 23, 1852: GREAT SALE OP NEGROES, MULES, CAT TLE, &.C. On Tuesday, the 21st day of December next, at the Plantation of the late N. A. McNairy, on the Franklin Turnpike, on account of Mrs. C. B. McNairy, Executrix, we will offer at Public Sale FIFTY VALUABLE NEGROES. These Negroes are good Plantation Negroes, and will be sold in families. Those wishing to pur- chase will do well to see them before the day of sale. Also, TEN FINE WORK MlTLES, TWO JACKS AND one Jennet, Milch Cows and Calves, Cattle, Stock Hogs, 1200 barrels Corn, Oats, Hay, Fodder, &c. Two Wagons, One Cart, Farming Utensils, &c. From the Newberry Sentinel : FOR SALE. The subscriber will sell at Auction, on the I5th of this month, at the Plantation on which he resides, distant eleven miles from the Town of Newberry, and near the Laurens Railroad,. 22 Young and Likely Negroes ; comprising able-bodied field-hands, good' oooks, house-servants, and an excellent bJaoksmith ; — about 1500 bushels of corn, a quantity of fodder, hogs, mules, sheep, neat cattle, household and kitchen furniture, and other property. — Terms made public on day of Sale. M. C. Gary. Dec. 1. JSP" Laurensville Herald copy till day of sale. 130 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. From the South Carolinian, Oct. 21, 1852: ESTATE SALE OF VALUABLE PROP- ERTY. The undersigned, as Administrator of the Estate of Col. T. Randell, deceased, will sell, on Mon- day, the 20th December next, all the personal property belonging to said estate, consisting of 56 Negroes, Stock, Corn, Fodder, &c. &c. The sale will take place at the residence of the de- ceased, on Sandy River, 10 miles West of Ches- terville. Terms of Sale : The negroes on a credit of 12 months, with interest from day of sale, and two good sureties. The other property will be sold for cash. Samuel J. Randell, Sept. 2. See, also, New Orleans Bee, Oct. 28. After advertising the landed estate of Mad- eline Lanoux, deceased, comes the following enumeration of chattels : Twelve slaves, men and women ; a small, quite new schooner ; a ferrying flat-lx>at ; some cows, calves, heifers and sheep ; a lot of household fur- niture ; the contents of a store, consisting of hard- ware, crockery ware, groceries, dry goods, etc. Now, suppose all parents to be as pious and benevolent as Mr. Jones, — a thing not at all to be hoped for, as things are; — and suppose them to try their very best to impress on the child a conviction that all souls are of equal value in the sight of God ; that the negro soul is as truly beloved of Christ, and ransomed with his blood, as the master's ; and is there any such thing as making him believe or realize it 1 Will he believe that that which he sees, every week, advertised with hogs, and horses, and fod- der, and cotton-seed, and refuse furniture, — bedsteads, tables and chairs, — is indeed so divine a thing? We will suppose that the little child knows some pious slave ; that he sees him at the communion-table, partaking, in a far-off, solitary manner, of the -sacramental bread and wine. He sees his pious father and mother recognize the slave as a Christian brother ; they tell him that he is an " heir of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ;" and the next week he sees him advertised in the paper, in company with a lot of hogs, stock and fodder. Can the child possibly believe in what his Christian parents have told him, when he sees this? We have spoken now of only the common advertisements of the paper: but suppose the child to live in some districts of the country, and advertisements of a still more degrading character meet his eye. In the State of Alabama, a newspaper devoted to politics, literature and EDUCATION, lias a standing weekly advertisement of which this is a copy : XOTICE. The undersigned having an excel- ajs-rO lent pack of Hounds, for trailing ^^a^"**^ and catching runaway slaves, informs the public that his prices in future will be as follows for such services : For each day employed in hunting or trailing, ------ $2.59 For catching each slave, - 10.00 For going over ten miles, and catching slaves, 20.00 If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in cash. The subscriber resides one mile and a half south of Dadeville, Ala. -r, -r, ' B. Black. Dadeville, Sept. 1, 1852. 1-tf The reader will see, by the printer's sign at the bottom, that it is a season advertise- ment, and, therefore, would meet the eye of the child week after week. The paper from which we have cut this contains among its extracts passages from Dickens' Household Words, from Professor Felton's article in the Christian Examiner on the relation of the sexes, and a most beautiful and chivalrous appeal from the eloquent senator Soule on the legal rights of women. Let us now ask, since this paper is devoted to education, what sort of an educational influence such advertisements have. And, of course, such an establishment is not kept up without patronage. Where there are negro-hunters advertising in a paper, there are also negro-hunts, and there are dogs being trained to hunt; and all this process goes on before the eyes of children ; and what sort of an education is it 1 The writer has received an account of the way in which dogs are trained for this busi- ness. The information has been communi- cated to the gentleman who writes it by a negro man, who, having been always accus- tomed to see it done, described it with as little sense of there being anything out of the way in it as if the dogs had been trained to catch raccoons. It came to the writer in a recent letter from the South. The way to train 'em (says tho man) is to take these yep pups, — any kind o' pups will do, — fox-hounds, bull-dogs, most any; — but take the pups, and keep 'em shut up, and don't let 'em never see a nigger till they get hig enough to be lamed. When the pups gits old enough to be set on to things, then make 'em run after a nigger; and when they cotches him, ^ive 'em meat. Tell the nigger to run as hard as he can, and git up in a tree, so as to lam the dogs to tree 'em ; then take the shoe of a nigger, and lam 'em to find the nig- ger it belongs to ; then a rag of his clothes ; and so on. Allurs be earful to tree the nigger, and KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 131 teach the dog to wait and bark under the tree till you come up and give him his meat. See also the following advertisement from the Ouachita Register, a newspaper dated " Monroe, La., Tuesday evening, June 1, 1852." NEGRO DOGS. The undersigned would respectfully inform the citizens of Ouachita and adjacent parishes, that he has located about 2.^ miles east of John White's, on the road leading from Monroe to Bast- rop, and that he has a fine pack of Dogs for catch- ing negroes. Persons wishing; negroes caught will do well to give him a call. He can always be found at his stand when not engaged in hunt- ing, and even then information of his whereabouts can always be had of some one on the premises. Terms. — Five dollars per day and found, when there is no track pointed out. When the track is shown, twenty-five dollars will be charged for catching the negro. Monroe, Feb. 17, 1852. M. C. Goff. 15-3m Now, do not all the scenes likely to be enacted under this head form a fine educa- tion for the children of a Christian nation ? and can we wonder if children so formed see no cruelty in slavery? Can children real- ize that creatures who are thus hunted are the children of one heavenly Father with themselves ? But suppose the boy grows up to be a man, and attends the courts of justice, and hears intelligent, learned men declaring from the bench that " the mere beating of a slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances of cruelty, or an attempt to kill, is no breach of the peace of the state." Suppose he hears it decided in the same place that no insult or outrage upon any slave is considered worthy of legal redress, unless it impairs his prop- erty value. Suppose he hears, as he would in Virginia, that it is the policy of the law to protect the master even in inflicting cruel, malicious and excessive punishment upon the slave. Suppose a slave is murdered, and he hears the lawyers arguing that it cannot be considered a murder, because the slave, in law, is not considered a human being; and then suppose the case is ap- pealed to a superior court, and he hears the judge expending his forces on a long and elocpuent dissertation to prove that the slave is a human being ; at least, that he is as much so as a lunatic, an idiot, or an unborn child, and that, therefore, he can be murdered. (See Judge Clark's speech, on p. 75 .) Suppose he sees that all the admin- istration of law with regard to the slave proceeds on. the idea that he is absolutely nothing more than a bale of merchandise. Suppose he hears such language as this, which occurs in the reasonings of the Braze- alle case, and which is a fair sample of the manner in which such subjects are ordina- rily discussed. "The slave has no more political capacity, no more right to purchase, hold or transfer property, than the mule in his plough; he is in himself but a mere chattel, — the subject of absolute owner- ship." Suppose he sees on the statute- book such sentences as these, from the civil code of Louisiana : Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and ani- mals are divided into two classes, — vices of body and vices of character. Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished into absolute and relative. Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are lep- rosy, madness and epilepsy. Art. 2503. The absolute vices of horses and 1 mules are short wind, glanders, and founder. The influence of this language is made all the stronger on the young mind from the fact that it is not the language of contempt, or of passion, but of calm, matter-of-fact, legal statement. What effect must be produced on the mind of the young man when he comes to see that, however atrocious and however well- proved be the murder of a slave, the mur- derer uniformly escapes ; and that, though the cases where the slave has fallen a vic- tim to passions of the white are so multi- plied, yet the fact of an execution for such a crime is yet almost unknown in the country? Does not all this tend to produce exactly that estimate of the value of negro life and happiness which Frederic Douglass says was expressed by a common proverb among the white boys where he was brought up : " It ; s worth sixpence to kill a nigger, and sixpence more to bury him " ? We see the public sentiment which has been formed by this kind of education ex- hibited by the following paragraph from the Cambridge Democrat, Md., Oct. 27, 1852. That paper quotes the following firm the Wooduille Republican, of Mississippi. It seems a Mr. Joshua Johns had killed a slave, and had been sentenced therefor to the penitentiary for two years The Re- publican thus laments his hard lot : STATE V, JOSHUA JOHNS. This cause resulted in the conviction of Johns, and his sentence to the penitentiary for two years. Although every member of the jury, together with the bar, and the public generally, signed a peti- tion to the governor for young Johns' pardon, yet 132 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. there was no fault to find with the verdict of the jury. The extreme youth of Johns, and the cir- cumstances in which the killing occurred, enlisted universal sympathy in his favor. There is no doubt that the negro had provoked him to the deed by the use of insolent language ; but how often must it be told that words are no justifica- tion for blows? There are many persons — and we regret to say it — ivho think they have the same right to shoot a negro, if he insults them, or even runs from them, that they have to shoot down a dog ; but there are laws for the protection of the slave as well as the master, and the sooner the error above alluded to is removed, the better will it be for both parties. The unfortunate youth who has now entailed upon himself the penalty of the law, we doubt not, had no idea that there existed such penalty ; and even if he was aware of the fact, the repeated in- sults and taunts of the negro go far to mitigate the crime. Johns Avas defended by I. D. Gildart, Esq., who probably did all that could have been effected in his defence. The Democrat adds : We learn from Mr. Curry, deputy sheriff, of Wilkinson County, that Johns has been pardoned by the governor. We are gratified to hear it. This error above alluded to, of thinking it is as innocent to shoot down a negro as a dog. is one, we fairly admit, for which young Johns ought not to be very severely blamed. He has been educated in a system of things of which this opinion is the inevitable result; and he, individually, is far less guilty for it, than are those men Avho support the sys- tem of laws, and keep up the educational influences, which lead young Southern men directly to this conclusion. Johns may be, fur aught we know, as generous-hearted and as just naturally as any young man living; but the horrible system under which he has been educated has rendered him incapable of distinguishing what either generosity or justice is, as applied to the negro. The public sentiment of the slave states is the sentiment of men who have been thus educated, and in all that concerns the negro it is utterly blunted and paralyzed. What would seem to them injustice and horrible Avrong in the case of Avhite persons, is the coolest matter of course in relation to slaves. As this educational influence descends from generation to generation, the moral sense becomes more ami more blunted, and the poAver of discriminating right from wrung, in what relates to the subject race, more and more enfeebled. Thus, if Ave read the Avritings of distin- guished men avIio Avcrc slave-holders about the time of our American Revolution, what clear vieAvs do aa'c find expressed of the in- justice of slavery, what strong language of reprobation do we find applied to it ! Nothing more forcible could possibly be said in rela- tion to its evils than by quoting the language of such men as Washington, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. In those days there were no men of that high class of mind who thought of such a thing as defending slavery on principle ; now there are an abundance of the most distinguished men, North and South, statesmen, civilians, men of letters, even clergymen, who in various degrees palliate it, apologize for or openly defend it. And what is the cause of this, except that educational influences have corrupted public sentiment, and deprived them of the power of just judgment? The public opinion even of free America, with regard to slave?y, is behind that of all other civilized ?iations. When the holders of slaves assert that they are, as a general thing, humanely treated, what do they mean ? Not that they would consider such treatment humane if given to themselves and their children, — do, indeed ! — but it is humane for slaves. They do, in effect, place the negro below the range of humanity, and on a level with brutes, and then graduate all their ideas of humanity accordingly. They would not needlessly kick or abuse a dog or a negro. They may pet a dog, and they often do a negro. Men have been found Avho fancied having their horses ele- gantly lodged in marble stables, and to eat out of sculptured mangers, but they thought them horses still : and, with all the indul- gences with which good-natured masters sometimes surround the slave, he is to them but a negro still, and not a man. In Avhat has been said in this chapter, and in Avhat appears incidentally in all the facts cited throughout this volume, there is abun- dant proof that. notAvithstanding there be fre- quent and most noble instances of generosity towards the negro, and although the senti- ment of honorable men and the voice of Christian charity does everyAvhere protest against what it feels to be inhumanity, yet the popular sentiment engendered by the system must necessarily fall deplorably short of giving anything like sufficient pro- tection to the rights of the slave. It will appear in the succeeding chapters, as it must already have appeared to reflecting minds, that the Avholc course of educational influence upon the mind of the slave-master is such as to deaden his mind to those appeals which come from the negro as a fellow-man and a brother. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 133 CHAPTER III. SEPARATION OF FAMILIES- "What must the difference be," said Dr. Worthington, with startling energy, " between Isabel and her servants ! To hrr it is loss of position, fortune, the fair hopes of life, perhaps even health; for she must inevitably break down under the unaccustomed labor and privations she will have to undergo. But to them it is merely a change of masters " .' " Yes, for the neighbors won't allow any of the families to be separated." " Of course not. We read of such things in novels some- times. But I have yet to see it in real life, except in rare cases, or where the slave has been guilty of some mis- demeanor, or crime, for which, in the North, he would have been imprisoned, perhaps for life." — Cabin and Par- lor, b}' J. Thornton Randolph, p. 39. ********* " But they 're going to sell us all to Georgia, I say. How are vre to escape that 1 " " Spee dare some mistake in dat," replied Uncle Peter, stoutly. " I nebber knew of sich a ting in dese parts, *cept where some niggar 'd been berry bad." — Ibid. By such graphic touches as the above does Mr. Thornton Randolph represent to us the patriarchal stability and security of the slave population in the Old Dominion. Such a thin^r, as a slave being sold out of the state has never been heard of by Dr. Worthington, except in rare cases for some crime ; and old Uncle Peter never heard of such a thing in his life. Are these representations true ? The worst abuse of the system of slavery is its outrage upon the family : and, as the writer views the subject, it is one which is more notorious and undeniable than any other. Yet it is upon this point that the most stringent and earnest denial has been made to the representations of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." either indirectly, as by the romance- writer above, or more directly in the asser- tions of newspapers, both at the North and at the South. When made at the North, they indicate, to say the least, very great igno- rance of the subject : when made at the South, they certainly do very great injustice to the general character of the Southerner for truth and honesty. All sections of country have faults peculiar to themselves. The fault of the South, as a general thing, has not been cowardly evasion and deception. It was with utter surprise that the author read the following sentences in an article in Frasers Magazine, professing to come from a South Carolinian. Mrs. Stowe's favorite ill) istration of the master's power to the injury of the slave is the separation of families. We are told of infants of ten months old being sold from the arms of their mothers, and of men whose habit it is to raise children to sell away from their mother as soon as they are. old enough to be separated. Were our views of this feature of slavery derived from Mrs. Stowe's book, we should regard the families of slaves as utterly unsettled and vagrant. And again : We feel confident that, if statistics could be had to throw light upon this subject, we should find that there is less separation of families among the negroes than occurs with almost any other class of persons. As the author of the article, however, is evidently a man of honor, and expresses many most noble and praiseworthy senti- ments, it cannot be supposed that these statements were put forth with any view to misrepresent or to deceive. The3 r are only to be regarded as evidences of the facility 'with which a sanguine mind often overlooks the most glaring facts that make against a favorite idea or theory, or which are un- favorable in their bearings on one's own country or family. Thus the citizens of some place notoriously unhealthy will come to believe, and assert, with the utmost sin- cerity, that there is actually less sickness in their town than any other of its size in the known world. Thus parents often think their children perfectly immaculate in just those particulars in which others see them to be most faulty. This solution of the phenomena is a natural and amiable one, and enables us to retain our respect for our Southern brethren. There is another circumstance, also, to be taken into account, in reading such asser- tions as these. It is evident, from the pamphlet in question, that the writer is one of the few who regard the possession of ab- solute irresponsible power as the highest of motives to moderation and temperance in its use. Such men are commonly associated in friendship and family connection with others of similar views, and are very apt to fall into the error of judging others by themselves, and thinking that a thing may do for all the world because it operates well in their immediate circle. Also it cannot but be a fact that the various circumstances which from infancy conspire to degrade and depress the negro in the eyes of a Southern- born man, — the constant habit of speaking of them, and hearing them spoken of, and seeing them advertised, as mere articles of property, often in connection with horses, mules, fodder, swine, &c, as they are almost daily in every Southern paper, — must tend, even in the best-constituted minds, to pro- duce a certain obtuseness with regard to the interests, sufferings and affections, of such as do not particularly belong to himself, 134 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. which will pecularly unfit him for estimating their condition. The author has often been singularly struck with this fact, in the letters of Southern friends ; in which, upon one page, they will make some assertion regard- ing the condition of Southern negroes, and then go on, and in other connections state facts which apparently contradict them all. We can all be aware how this familiarity would operate with ourselves. Were we called upon to state how often our neighbors' cows were separated from their calves, or how often their household furniture and other effects are scattered and dispersed by executor's sales, we should be inclined to say that it was not a misfortune of very common occurrence. But let us open two South Carolina papers, published in the very state where this gen- tleman is residing, and read the advertise- ments for one week. The author has slightly abridged them. COMMISSIONER'S SALE OF 12 LIKELY NEGROES. Fairfield District. R. W. Murray and wife and' others v. William "Wright and wife and others. In pursuance of an Order of the Court of Equity made in the above case at July Term, 1852, I will sell at public outcry, to the highest bidder, before the Court House in Winnsboro, on the first Monday in January next, 12 VERY LIKELY NEGROES, belonging to the estate of Micajah Mobley, de- ceased, late of Fairfield District. These Negroes consist chiefly of young boys and girls, and are said to be very likely. Terms of Sale, &c. W. R. Robertson, C.E. F.D. Commissioner's Office, > Winnsboro, Nov. 30,1852. f Dec. 2 42 x4. >• In Equity. ADMINISTRATOR'S SALE. Will bo sold at public joutcry, to the highest bidder, mi Tuesday, the 21st uay of December next, at the late residence of Mrs. M. P. Rabb, deceased, all of the personal estate of said de- ceased, consisting in part of about 2,00(1 Bushels of Corn. 25,000 pounds of Fodder. Wheat — Cotton Seed. Horses, Mules, Cattle, Hogs, Sheep. There will, in all probability, be sold at the same time and place several likely Young Negroes. The Terms of Sale will be — nil Minis under Twenty-five Dollars, Cash. All sums of Twenty- five Dollars and over, twelve months' credit, with interest from day of Sale, secured bj note and two approved sureties. William S. Kami, Administrator. Nov. 11. 39 x2 COMMISSIONER'S SALE OF LAND AND NEGROES. Fairfield District. James E. Caldwell, Admr., with the Will annexed, of Jacob Gibson, deceased, f In Equity, v. Jason D. Gibson and others. In pursuance of the order of aale made in the above case, I will sell at public outcry, to the highest bidder, before the Court House in Winns-' boro, on the first Monday in January next, and the day following, the following real and personal estate of Jacob Gibson, deceased, late of Fair- field District, to wit : The Plantation on which the testator lived at the time of his death, containing 661 Acres, more or less, lying on the waters of Wateree Creek, and bounded by lands of Samuel Johnston, Theodore S. DuBose, Edward P. Mobley, and B. R. Cockrell. This plantation will be sold in two separate tracts, plats of which will be exhibited on the day of sale : 46 PRIME LIKELY NEGROES, consisting of Wagoners, Blacksmiths, Cools, House Servants, dec. W. R. Robertson. C.E. F.D. Commissioner's Office, ) Winnsboro, 29th Nov. 1852. J ESTATE SALE.— FIFTY PRIME NEGROES. BY J. & L. T. LEVIN. On the first Monday in January next I will sell, before the Court House in Columbia, 50 of as Likely Negroes as have ever been exposed to public sale, belonging to the estate of A. P. Vinson, de- ceased. The Negroes have been well cared for, and well managed in every respect. Persons wish- ing to purchase will not, it is confidently believed, have a better opportunity to supply themselves. J. II . Adams, Executor. Nov. 18 40 x3 ADMINISTRATOR'S SALE. Will be sold on the 15th December next, at the late residence of Samuel Moore, deceased, in York District, all the personal property of said deceased, consisting of : 35 LIKELY NEGROES, a quantity of Cotton and Corn, Horses and Mules, Farming Tools, Household and Kitchen Furniture, with many other articles. Nov. 18 Samuel E. Moore, Administrator. 40 x4t. ADMINISTRATOR'S SALE. Will be sold at public outcry, to the highest bidder, on Tuesday, the 14th day of December next, at the late residence of Robert W. Durham, deceased, in Fairfield District, all of the personal estate of said deceased : consisting in part as fol- lows : 50 PRIME LIKELY NEGROES. About 3,000 Bushels of Corn. A large quantity of Fodder. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 135 Wheat, Oats, Cow Peas, Rye, Cotton Seed, Horses, Mules, Cattle, Hogs, Sheep. C. H. Durham, Nov. 23. Administrator. SHERIFF'S SALE. By virtue of sundry executions to me directed, I will sell at Fairfield Court House, on the first Monday, and the day following, in December next, within the legal hours of sale, to the highest bid- der, for cash, the following property. Purchasers to pay for titles : 2 Negroes, levied upon as the property of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Alexander Brodie, et al. 2 Horses and 1 Jennet, levied upon as the prop- erty of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Alexan- der Brodie. 2 Mules, levied upon as the property of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance E. Miller and J. W. Miller. 1 pair of Cart Wheels, levied upon as the prop- erty of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Tem- perance E. Miller and J. W. Miller. 1 Chest of Drawers, levied upon as the property of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance E. Miller and J. W. Miller. 1 Bedstead, levied upon as the property of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance E. Miller and J. W. Miller. 1 Negro, levied upon as the property of R. J. Gladney, at the suit of James Camak. 1 Negro, levied upon as the property of Geo. McCormick, at the suit of W. M. Phifer. 1 Riding Saddle, to be sold under an assignment of G. W. Boulware to J. B. Mickle, in the case of Geo. Murphy, Jr., v. G. W. Boulware. R. E. Ellison, Sheriff's Office, > S. F. D. Nov. 19 1852. 5 Nov. 20 37 fxtf COMMISSIONER'S SALE. John A. Crumpton, and others, 1 In Equity. Zachariah C. Crumpton. In pursuance of the Decretal order made in this case, I will sell at public outcry to the highest bidder, before the Court House door in Winnsboro, on the first Monday in December next, three separate tracts or parcels of land, belonging to the estate of Zachariah Crumpton, deceased. I will also sell, at the same time and place, five or slx likely Young Negroes, sold as the property of the said Zachariah Crumpton, deceased, by virtue of the authority aforesaid. The Terms of sale are as follows, &c. &c. W. R. ROBETSON, Commissioner's Office, > C. E. F. D. Winnsboro, Nov. 8, 1852. J Nov 11 30 x3 ESTATE SALE OF VALUABLE PROPERTY. The undersigned, as Administrator of the Estate of Col. T. Randell, deceased, will sell, on Monday the 20th December next, all the personal property belonging to said estate, consisting of 56 NEGROES, STOCK, CORN, FODDER, ETC. ETC. Terms of sale, &c. &c. Samuel J. Randell. Sep. 2 29 xlG The Tri-weekly South Carolinian , pub- lished at Columbia, S. C, has this motto : " Be just and fear not ; let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy Country's, thy God's, and Truth's." In the number dated December 23d, 1852, is found a " Reply of the Women of Virginia to the Women of England." con- taming this sentiment : Believe us, we deeply, prayerfully, study God's holy word; we are fully persuaded that our in- stitutions are in accordance with it. After which, in other columns, come the ten advertisements following : SHERIFF'S SALES FOR JANUARY 2, 1S53. By virtue of sundry writs of fieri facias, to me directed, will be sold before the Court House in Columbia, within the legal hours, on the first Monday and Tuesday in January next, Seventy-four acres of Land, more or less, in Richland District, bounded on the north and east by Lorick's, and on the south and west by Thomas Trapp. Also, Te/i Head of Cattle, Twenty-five Head of Hogs, and Two Hundred Bushels of Corn, levied on as the property of M. A. Wilson, at the suit of Samuel Gardner v. M. A. Wilson. Seven Negroes, named Grace, Frances, Edmund, Charlotte, Emuline, Thomas and Charles, levied on as the property of Bartholomew Turnipseed, at the suit of A. F. Dubard, J. S. Lever, Bank of the State and others, v. B. Turnipseed. 450 acres of Land, more or less, in Richland District, bounded on the north, &c. &c. LARGE SALE OF REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.— ESTATE SALE. On Monday, the (7th) seventh day of February next, I will sell at Auction, without reserve, at the Plantation, near Linden, all the Horses, Mules, Wagons, Farming Utensils, Corn, Fodder, &c. And on the following Monday (14th), the four- teenth day of February next, at the Court House, at Linden, in Marengo County, Alabama, I will sell at public auction, without reserve, to the highest bidder, 110 PRIME AND LIKELY NEGROES, belonging to the Estate of the late John Robinson, of South Carolina. Among the Negroes are four valuable Carpen- ters, and a very superior Blacksmith. NEGROES FOR SALE. By permission of Peter Wylie, Esq., Ordinary for Chester District, I will sell, at public auction, before the Court House, in Chesterville, on the first Monday in February next, FORTY LIKELY NEGROES, belonging to the Estate of F. W. Davie. "W. D. DeSaussure, Executor. Dec. 23. 56 ftds. ESTATE SALE OF FURNITURE, Ate, BY J. & L. T. LEVIN. "Will be sold, at our store, on Thursday, the Gth day of January next, all the Household and Kitch 136 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. en Furniture, belonging to the Estate of B. L. McLaughlin, deceased, consisting in part of Hair Seat Chairs, Sofas and Rockers. Piano, Mahogany Dining, Tea, and Card Tables ; Carpets, Rugs, Andirons, Fenders, Shovel and Tongs, Man- tel Ornaments, Clocks, Side Board, Bureaus, Ma- hogany Bedsteads, Feather Beds and Mattresses, Wash Stands, Curtains, fine Cordial Stand, Glass- ware, Crockery, and a great variety of articles for family use. Terms cash. ALSO, A Negro Man, named Leonard, belonging to same. Terms, &c. ALSO, At same time, a quantity of New Brick, belong- ing to Estateof A. S. Johnstone, deceased. Dec. 21. 53 Jtds. GREAT SALE OP XEGROES AXD THE SA- LUDA FACTORY, BY J. &: L. T. LEVIN. On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o'clock, will be sold at the Court House in Columbia, ONE HUNDRED VALUABLE NEGROES. It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now offers. Among them are only four beyond 45 years old, and none above 50. There are twenty- five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty ; forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown! ! Terms, &c. Dec. 18, '52. XEGROES AT ATCTIOX. — BY J. & L. T. LEVIX. Will be sold, on Monday, the 3d January next, at the Court House, at 10 o'clock, 22 likely negroes, the larger number of which are young and desirable. Among them are Field Hands, Hostlers and Carnage Drivers, House Ser- vants, &c, and of the following ages : Robinson 40, Elsey 34, Yanaky 13, Sylla 11, Anikee 8, Rob- inson 6, Candy 3, Infant 0, Thomas 35, Die 38, Amey 18, Eldridge 13, Charles G, Sarah GO, Baket 50, Mary 18, Betty 10, Guy 12, Tilla 9, Lydia 21, Rachel 4, Scipio 2. The above Negroes are sold for the purpose of making some other investment of the proceeds ; the sale will, therefore, be positive. Terms. — A credit of one, two, and throe years, Cur notes payable at either of the Banks, with two or more approved endorsers, with interest from date. Purchasers to pay for papers. Dec 8 43 flE^" Black River Watchman will copy the above, and forward bill to the auctioneers for payment. Poor little Scip ! LIKELY AND VALUABLE GIRL, AT PRI- VATE SALE. A likely gikl, about seventeen years old (raised in the up-country), a good Nurse and House Servant, can wash and iron, and do plain cooking, and is _ warranted sound and healthy. She may be seen at our office, where she will re- main until sold. Alien & Phillips, Dec. 15, '4'J. Auctioneers & ( !om. Agents. PLANTATION AND NEGROES POR SALE. The subscriber, having located in Columbia, offers for sale his Plantation in St. Matthew's Parish, six miles from the Railroad, containing 1,500 acres, now in a high state of cultivation, with Dwelling House and all necessary Out-build- ings. ; ALSO, 50 Likely Negroes, with provisions, &c. The terms will be accommodating. Persons desirous to purchase can call upon the subscriber in Columbia, or on his son at the Plantation. Dec. G 41. T. J. Goodwyn. FOR SALE. A likely negro boy, about twenty-one years old, a good wagoner and field hand. Apply at this office. Dec. 20 52. Now, it is scarcely possible that a person who has been accustomed to see such adver- tisements from boyhood, and to pass them over with as much indifference as we pass over advertisements of sofas and chairs for sale, could possibly receive the shock from them which one wholly unaccustomed to such a mode of considering and disposing of human beings would receive. They make no impression upon him. His own family servants, and those of his friends, are not in the market, and he does not realize that any are. Under the advertisements, a hundred such scenes as those described in " Uncle Tom" may have been acting in his very vicinity. When Mr. Dickens drew pictures of the want and wretchedness of London life, perhaps a similar incredulity might have been expressed within the silken cur- tains of many a brilliant pa'rlor. They had never seen such things, and they bad always lived in London. But, for all that, the writings of Dickens awoke in noble and aristocratic bosoms the sense of a common humanity with the lowly, and led them to feel how much misery might exist in their immediate vicinity, of which they were entirely unaware. They have never accused him as a libeller of his country, though he did make manifest much of the suffering, sorrow and abuse, which were in it. The author is led earnestly to entreat that the writer of this very paper would examine the "statistics" of the American internal slave-trade; that he would look over the exchange files of some newspaper, and, for a month or two, endeavor to keep some inventory of the number of human beings, with hearts, hopes and affections, like his own, who are constantly subjected to all the uncertainties and mutations of property rela- tion. The writer is sure that he could not do it long without a generous desire being excited in his bosom to become, not an apol- ogist for, but a reformer of, these institu- tions of his country. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. O/ These papers of South Carolina are not exceptional ones ; they may be matched by hundreds of papers from any other state. Let the reader now stop one minute, and look over again these two weeks' advertise- ments. This is not novel-writing — this is fact. See these human beings tumbled pro- miscuously out before the public with horses, mules, second-hand buggies, cotton- seed, bedsteads, &c. &c. ; and Christian ladies, in the same newspaper, saying that they prayerfully study God's word, and believe their institutions have his sanction ! Does he suppose that here, in these two weeks, there have been no scenes of suffering? Imagine tbs distress of these families — the nights of anxiety of these mothers and children, wives and husbands, when these sales are about to take place ! Imagine the scenes of the sales ! A young lady, a friend of the writer, who spent a winter in Caro- lina, described to her the sale of a woman and her children. When the little girl, seven years of age, was put on the block, she fell into spasms with fear and excitement. She was taken off — recovered and put back — the spasms came back — three times the experiment was tried, and at last the sale of the child was deferred ! See also the following, from Dr. Elwood Harvey, editor of a western paper, to the Pennsijlvania Freeman. Dec. 25, 1846. We attended a sale of land and other property, near Petersburg, Virginia, and unexpectedly saw slaves sold at public auction. The slaves were told they would not be sold, and were collected in front of the quarters, gazing on the assembled multitude. The land being sold, the auctioneer's loud voice was heard, " Bring up the niggers!" A shade of astonishment and affright passed over their faces, as they stared first at each other, and then at the crowd of purchasers, whose attention was now directed to them. When the horrible truth was revealed to their minds that they were to be sold, and nearest relations and friends parted forever, the effect was indescribably agonizing. Women snatched up their babes, and ran scream- ing into the huts. Children hid behind the huts and trees, and the men stood in mute despair. The auctioneer stood on the portico of the house, and the " men and boys" were ranging in the yard for inspection. It was announced that no warranty of soundness was given, and purchasers must examine for themselves. A few old men were sold at prices from thirteen to twenty-five dollars, and it was painful to see old men, bowed with years of toil and suffering, stand up to be the jest of brutal tyrants, and to hear them tell their disease and worthlessness, fearing that they would be bought by traders for the southern market. A white boy, about fifteen years old, was placed on the stand. His hair was brown and straight, his skin exactly the same hue as other white per- sons, and no discernible trace of negro features in his countenance. Some vulgar jests were passed on his color, and two hundred dollars was bid for him ; but the audi- ence said " that it was not enough to begin on for such a likely young nigger." Several remarked that they " would not have him as a gift." Some said a white nigger was more trouble than he was worth. One man said it was wrong to sell while people. I asked him if it was more wrong than to sell black people. He made no reply. Before he was sold, his mother rushed from the house upon the portico, crying, in frantic grief, " My son, ! my boy, they will take away my dear — " Here her voice was lost, as she was rudely pushed back and the door closed. The sale was not for a moment interrupted, and none of the crowd ap- peared to be in the least affected by the scene. The poor boy, afraid to cry before so many stran- gers, who showed no signs of sympathy or pity, trembled, and wiped the tears from his cheeks with his sleeves. He was sold for about two hundred and fifty dollars. During the sale, the quarters resounded with cries and lamentations that made my heart ache. A woman was next called by name. She gave her infant one wild embrace before leaving it with an old woman, and hastened mechanically to obey the call ; but stopped, threw her arms aloft, screamed and was unable to move. One of my companions touched my shoulder and said, " Come, let us leave here ; I can bear no more." We left the ground. The man who drove our carriage from Petersburg had two sons who belonged to the estate — small boys. He obtained a promise that they should not be sold. He was asked if they were his only children ; he answered, "All that's left of eight." Three others had been sold to the south, and he would never see or hear from them again. As Northern people do not see such things, they should hear of them often enough to keep them awake to the sufferings of the victims of their indifference. Such are the common incidents, not the admitted cruelties, of an institution which people have brought themselves to feel is in accordance with God's word ! Suppose it be conceded now that "the family relation is protected, as far as possi- ble.'" The question still arises, How far is it possible ? Advertisements of sales to the number of those we have quoted, more or less, appear from Week to week in the same papers, in the same neighborhood ; and pro- fessional traders make it their business to attend them, and buy up victims. Now, if the inhabitants of a given neighborhood charge themselves with the care to see that no families are separated in this whirl of auctioneering, one would fancy that they could have very little else to do. It is a fact, and a most honorable one to our com- mon human nature, that the distress and anguish of these poor, helpless creatures does often raise up for them friends among the generous-hearted. Southern men often go to the extent of their means, and beyond their means, to arrest the cruel operations 138 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. of trade, and relieve cases of individual dis- tress. There are men at the South who could tell, if they would, how, when they have spent the last dollar that they thought they could afford on one week, they have been importuned by precisely such a case the next, and been unable to meet it. There are masters at the South who could tell, if they would, how they have stood and bid against a trader, to redeem some poor slave of their own, till the bidding was perfectly ruinous, and they have been obliged to give up by sheer necessity. Good-natured auc- tioneers know very well how they have often been entreated to connive at keeping a poor fellow out of the trader's clutches ; and how sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they do not. The very struggle and effort which gen- erous Southern men make to stop the regu- lar course of trade only shows them the hopelessness of the effort. We fully con- cede that many of them do as much or more than any of us would do under similar cir- cumstances ; and yet they know that what they do amounts, after all, to the merest trifle. But let us still further reason upon the testimony of advertisements. What is to be understood by the following, of the Mem- phis Eagle and Inquirer, Saturday, Nov. 13, 1852? Under the editorial motto, " Liberty and Union, now and forever," come the following illustrations : NO. Z. 75 NEGROES. ^# I liavo just received from the East 75 JKA assorted A No. 1 negroes. Call soon, if SL i you want to get the first choice. Benj. Little. NO. II. CASH FOR NEGROES. ffffi I will pay as high cash prices for a few jk\ likely young negroes as any trader in this ,^L. city. Also, will receive and sell on commis- sion at Byrd Hill's, old stand, on Adams-street, Memphis. Benj. Little. NO. III. 500 NEGROES WANTED. Jffi "We will pay the highest cash price jjr\ fur all ^ood negroes offered. We in- j£3L vite all those having negroes for sale to call on us at our Mart, opposite the lower Steamboat landing. We will also have a large lot of Virginia negroes lor sale in the Fall. We have as sale a jail as any in the country, where we can keep negroes safe for those that wish them kept. Bolton, Dickins & Co. Under the head of advertisements No. 1, let us humbly inquire what " assorted A No. 1 Negroes" means. Is it likely that it means negroes sold in families ? What is meant by the invitation, " Call soon if you want to get the first choice" ? So much for Advertisement No. 1. Let us now propound a few questions to the initiated on No. 2. What does Mr. Benja- min Little mean by saying that he " will pay as high a cash price for a few likely young negroes as any trader in the city " ? Do families commonly consist ex- clusively of " likely young- negroes" ? On the third advertisement we are also desirous of some information. Messrs. Bolton, Dickins & Co. state that they expect to receive a large lot of Virginia negroes in the fall. Unfortunate Messrs. Bolton, Dickins & Co. ! Do you suppose that Virginia fami- lies will sell their negroes 'I Have you read Mr. J. Thornton Randolph's last novel, and have you not learned that old Virginia families never sell to traders 1 and, more than that, that they always club together and buy up the negroes that are for sale in their neighborhood, and the traders when they appear on the ground are hustled off with very little ceremony? One would really think that you had got your impres- sions on the subject from "Uncle Tom's Cabin." For we are told that all who de- rive their views of slavery from this book ' ' regard the families of slaves as utterly unsettled and vagrant." * But, before we recover from our astonish- ment on reading this, we take up the Natchez (Mississippi) Courier of Nov. 20th, 1852, and there read : NEGROES. The undersigned would respectfully state $& to the public that he has leased the stand in Jr\ the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, for a^ term of years, and that he intends to keep a large lot of NEGROES on hand during the year. He will sell as low or lower than any other trader at this place or in New Orleans. He has just arrived from Virginia with a very likely lot of Field Men and Women ; also, House Servants, three Cooks, and a Carpenter. Call and see. A fine Buggy Horse, a Saddle Horse and a Carryall, on hand, and for sale. Tnos. G. James. Natchez, Sept. 28, 1852. Where in the world did this lucky Mr. Tnos. G. James get this likely Virginia "assortment"? Probably in some county which Mr. Thornton Randolph never visited. And had no families been separated to form * Article in Frascr's Magazine fur October, by a South Carolinian. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 139 the assortment 1 We hear of a tot of field men and women. Where are their children ? We hear of a lot of house-servants, — of "three cooks," and "one carpenter," as •well as a "fine buggy horse." Had these unfortunate cooks and carpenters no rela- tions? Did no sad natural tears stream down their dark cheeks, when they were being "assorted" for the Natchez market? Does no mournful heart among them yearn to the song of " O, carry me back to old Virginny " 1 Still further, we see in the same paper the following : SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES! /*# Fresh Arrivals Weekly. — Having estab- jgA lished ourselves at the Forks of the Road, .SL. near Natchez, for a term of years, we have now on hand, and intend to keep throughout the entire year, a large and well-selected stock of Negroes, consisting of field-hands, house servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers, etc., which we can and will sell as low or lower than any other house here or in New Orleans. Persons wishing to purchase would do well to call on us before making purchases elsewhere, as ■ our regular arrivals will keep us supplied with a good and general assortment. Our terms are liberal. Give us a call. Griffin & Pullam. Natchez, Oct. 15, 1852.-6m. Free Trader and Concordia Intelligencer copy as above. Indeed ! Messrs. Griffin and Pullam, it seems, are equally fortunate ! They are having fresh supplies weekly, and are going to keep a large, well-selected stock con- stantly on hand, to wit, ' ' field-hands, house- servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers, etc." Let us respectfully inquire what is the process by which a trader acquires a well- selected stock. He goes to Virginia to select. He has had orders, say, for one dozen cooks, for half a dozen carpenters, for so many house-servants, &c. &c. Each one of these individuals have their own ties ; besides being cooks, carpenters and house-servants, they are also fathers, mothers, husbands, wives ; but what of that ? They must be selected — it is an assortmeiit that is wanted. The gentleman who has ordered a cook does not, of course, want her five children ; and the planter who has ordered a carpenter does not want the cook, his wife. A carpenter is an expensive article, at any rate, as they cost from a thousand to fifteen hundred dol- lars ; and a man who has to pay out this sum for him cannot always afford himself the luxury of indulging his humanity ; and as to the children, they must be left in the slave-raising state. For, when the ready- raised article is imported weekly into Natchez or New Orleans, is it likely that the inhabitants will encumber themselves with the labor of raising children ? No, there must be division of labor in all well-ordered business. The northern slave states raise the article, and the southern ones con- sume it. The extracts have been taken from the papers of the more southern states. If, now, the reader has any curiosity to explore the selecting process in the northern states, the daily prints will further enlighten him. In the Daily Virginian of Nov. 19, 1852, Mr. J. B. McLendon thus announces to the Old Dominion that he has settled himself down to attend to the selecting process : NEGROEES WA7VTD. The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is giving the highest cash prices for negroes between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Those having negroes for sale may find it to their interest to call on him at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg, or address him by letter. All communications will receive prompt atten- tion. J. B. McLendon. nov. 5-dly. Mr. McLendon distinctly announces that he is not going to take any children under ten years of age, nor any grown people over thirty. Likely young negroes are what he is after : — families, of course, never separ- ated ! Again, in the same paper, Mr. Seth Woodroof is desirous of keeping up the recollection in the community that he also is in the market, as it would appear he has been, some time past. He, likewise, wants negroes between ten and thirty years of age ; but his views turn rather on mechanics, blacksmiths, and carpenters, — witness his hand : NEGROES WANTED. The subscriber continues in market for Negroes, of both sexes, between the ages of 10 and 30 years, including Mechanics, such as Blacksmiths, Carpenters, and will pay the highest market prices in cash. His office is a newly erected brick build- ing on 1st or Lynch street, immediately in rear of the Farmers" Bank, where he is prepared (having erected buildings with that view) to board negroes sent to Lynchburg for sale or otherwise on as moderate terms, and keep them as secure, as if they were placed in the jail of the Corporation. aug 26. , Seth Woodroof. There is no manner of doubt that thi8 Mr. Seth Woodroof is a gentleman of hu- manity, and wishes to avoid the separation 140 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. of families as much as possible. Doubt- less he ardently wishes that all his black- smiths and carpenters would be considerate, and never have any children under ten years of age ; but. if the thoughtless dogs have got them, what 's a humane man to do ? He has to fill out Mr. This, That, and the Other's order, — that 's a clear case ; and therefore John and Sam must take their last look at their babies, as Uncle Tom did of his when he stood by the rough trundle-bed and dropped into it great, useless tears. Nay, my friends, don't curse poor Mr. Seth Woodroof, because he does the horrible, loathsome work of tearing up the living human heart, to make twine and shoe-strings for you ! It 's disagreeable business enough, he will tell you, sometimes ; and, if you must have him to do it for you, treat him civilly, and don't pretend that you are any better than he. But the good trade is not confined to the Old Dominion, by any means. See the fol- lowing extract from a Tennessee paper, the Nashville Gazette, Nov. 23, 1852, where Mr. A. A. McLean, general agent in this kind of business, thus makes known his wants and intentions : WANTED. I want to purchase immediately 25 likely NEGROES, — male and female, — between the ages of 15 and 25 years; for which I will pay the highest price in cash. A. A. McLean, General Agent, nov 9 Cherry Street. Mr. McLean, it seems, only wants those between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. This advertisement is twice repeated in the same paper, from which fact we may con- jecture that the gentleman is very much in earnest in his wants, and entertains rather confident expectations that somebody will be willing to sell. Further, the same gen- tleman states another want. WANTED. I want to purchase, immediately, a Negro. man, Carpenter, and will give a good price. sept 29 A. A. McLean, Gcn'l Agent. Mr. McLean does not advertise for his wife and children, or where this same car- penter is to be sent, — whether to the New Orleans market, or up the Red River, or off to some far bayou of the Mississippi, never to look upon wife or child again. Rut, again, Mr. McLean in the same paper tells us of another want : WANTEF) IMMEDIATELY. A "Wet Nurse. Any price will be given for one of good character, constitution, &c. Apply to A. A. McLean, Gen I Agent. And whftt is to be done with the baby of this wet nurse ') Perhaps, at the moment that Mr. McLean is advertising for her, she is hushing the little thing in her bosom, and thinking, as many another mother has done, that it is about the brighest, prettiest little baby that ever was born; for, singularly enough, even black mothers do fall into this delusion sometimes. No matter for all this, — she is wanted for a wet nurse ! Aunt Prue can take her baby, and raise it on corn-cake, and what not. Off with her to Mr. McLean ! See, also, the following advertisement of the good State of Alabama, which shows how the trade is thriving there. Mr. S. N. Brown, in the Advertiser and Gazette, Montgomery, Alabama, holds forth as fol- lows : NEGROES FOR SALE. • S. N. Brown takes this method of informing his old patrons, and others waiting to purchase Slaves, that he has now on hand, of his own selection and purchasing, a lot of likely young Negroes, consisting of Men, Boys, and Women, Field Hands, and superior House Servants, which he offers and will sell as low as the times will warrant. Office on Market-street, above the Montgomery Hall, at Lindsay's Old Stand, where he intends to keep slaves for sale on his own account, and not on commission, — therefore thinks he can give satisfaction to those who patronize him. Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 13, 1852. twtf (j) "Where were these boys and girls of Mr. Brown selected, let us ask. How did their fathers and mothers feel when they were "selected" ? Emmeline was taken out of one family, and George out of another. The judicious trader has travelled through wide regions of country, leaving in his track wailing and anguish. A little incident, which has recently been the rounds of the papers, may perhaps illustrate some of the scenes he has occasioned : INCIDENT OF SLAVERY. A negro woman belonging to Geo. M. Garrison, of Polk Co., killed four other children, by cutting their throats while they were asleep, on Thursday night, the 2d inst., and then put an end to her own existence by cutting her throat. Her master knows of no cause for the horrid act, unless it be that she heard him speak of selling her and two of her children, and keeping the others. The uncertainty of the master in this case is edifying. Ite knows that negroes cannot be expected to have the feelings of cultivated people ; — and yet, here is a case where the creature really acts unaccountably, and he can't think of any cause except that he was going to sell her from her children. But, compose yourself, dear reader; there was no great harm done. These were all KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 141 poor people's children, and some of them, though not all, were black ; and that makes all the difference in the world, you knoAY ! But Mr. Brown is not alone in Montgom- ery. Mr. J. W. Lindsey wishes to remind the people of his depot. lOO NEGROES FOR SAL.E, At my depot, on Commerce-street, immediately between the Exchange Hotel and F. M. Gilmer, Jr.'s Warehouse, where I will be receiving, from time to time, large lots of Negroes during the sea- son, and will sell on as accommodating terms as any house in this city. I would respectfully request my old customers and friends to call and examine my stock. Jno. W. Lindsey. Montgomery, Nov. 2, 1852. Mr. Lindsey is going to be receiving, from time to time, all the season, and will sell as cheap as anybody ; so there 's no fear of the supply's falling off. And, lo ! in the same paper, Messrs. Sanders & Foster press their claims also on the public notice. NEGROES FOR SALE. The undersigned have bought out the well-known establishment of Eckles & Brown, where they have now on hand a large lot of likely young Negroes, to wit : Men, Women, Boys and Girls, good field- hands. Also, several good House Servants and Mechanics of all kinds. The subscribers intend to keep constantly on hand a large assortment of Negroes, comprising every description. Persons wishing to purchase will find it much to their interest to call and examine previous to buying elsewhere. Sanders & Fostek. April 13. Messrs. Sanders & Foster are going to have an assortment also. All their negroes are to be young and likely ; the trashy old fathers and mothers are all thrown aside like a heap of pig- weed, after one has been weed- ing a garden. Query : Are these Messrs. Sanders & Foster, and J. W. Lindsey, and S. N. Brown, and McLean, and Woodroof, and McLendon, all members of the church, in good and regular standing? Does the question shock you ? Why so ? Why should they not be ? The Rev. Dr. Smylie, of Mississippi, in a document endorsed by two presbyteries, says distinctly that the Bible gives a right to buy and sell slaves.* If the Bible guarantees this right, and sanctions this trade, why should it shock you to see the slave-trader at the communion- * " If language can convey a clear and definite mean- ing at all, I know not how it can more unequivocally or more plainly present to the mind any thought or idea than the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus clearly or une- quivocally establishes the fact that slavery or bondage was sanctioned by God himself ; and that ' buying, selling, holding and bequeathing ' slaves, as property, are regula- tions which were established by himself." — Smylie on Slavery. table ? Do you feel that there is blood on his hands, — the blood of human hearts, which he has torn asunder ? Do you shud- der when he touches the communion-bread, and when he drinks the cup which " who- soever drinketh unworthily drinketh damna- tion to himself"? But who makes the trader ? Do not you ? Do you think that the trader's profession is a healthy one for the soul? Do you think the scenes with which he must be familiar, and the deeds he must do, in order to keep up an assortment of negroes for your convenience, are such things as Jesus Christ approves ? Do you think they tend to promote his growth in grace, and to secure his soul's salvation? Or is it so important for you to have assorted negroes that the traders must not only be turned out of good society in this life, but run the risk of going to hell forever, for your accommodation ? But let us search the Southern papers, and see if we cannot find some evidence of that humanity which avoids the separation of families, as far as possible. In the Argus, published at Weston, Missouri, Nov. 5, 1852, see the following : A NEGRO FOR SALE. I wish to sell a black girl about 24 years old, a good cook and washer, handy with a needle, can spin and weave. I wish to sell her in the neigh- borhood of Camden Point ; if not sold there in a short time, I will hunt the best market ; or I will trade her for two small ones, a boy and girl. M. DOYAL. Considerate Mr. Doyal ! He is opposed to the separation of families, and, therefore, wishes to sell this woman in the neighbor- hood of Camden Point, where her family ties are, — perhaps her husband and chil- dren, her brothers or sisters. He will not separate her from her family if it is possi- ble to avoid it ; that is to say, if he can get as much for her without ; but, if he can't, he will "hunt the best market.'''' What more would you have of Mr. Doyal ? How speeds the blessed trade in the State of Maryland? — Let us take the Baltimore Sun of Nov. 23, 1852. Mr. J. S. Donovan thus advertises the Christian public of the accommodations of his jail : CASH FOR NEGROES. The undersigned continues, at his old stand, No. 13 Camden St., to pay the highest price for Negroes. Persons bringing Negroes by railroad or steamboat will find it very convenient to secure their Negroes, as my Jail is adjoining the Rail- road Depot and near the Steamboat Landings. Negroes received for safe keeping. J. S. Donovan. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 142 Messrs. B. M. & W. L. Campbell, in the respectable old stand of Slatter, advertise as follows : SLAVES WANTED. We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter's old stand). Communications attended to. B. M. & W. L. Campbell. In another column, however, Mr. John Denning has his season advertisement, in terms which border on the sublime : 5000 NEGROES WANTED. I will pay the highest prices, in cash, for 5000 Negroes, with good titles, slaves for life or for a term of years, in large or small families, or single negroes. I will also purchase Negroes restricted to remain in the State, that sustain good charac- ters. Families never separated. Persons having Slaves for sale will please call and see me, as I am always in the market with the cash. Com- munications promptly attended to, and liberal commissions ( paid, by John N. Denning, No. 18 S. Frederick street, between Baltimore and Second streets, Baltimore, Maryland. Trees in front of the house. Mr. John Denning, also, is a man of hu- manity. He never separates families. Don't you see it in his advertisement? If a man offers him a wife without her husband, Mr. John Denning won't buy her. 0, no ! His five thousand are all unbroken families ; he never takes any other ; and he transports them whole and entire. This is a comfort to reflect upon, certainly. See, also, the Democrat, published in Cambridge, Maryland, Dec. 8, 1852. A gentleman gives this pictorial representation of himself, with the proclamation to the slave-holders of Dorchester and adjacent counties that he is again in the market : NEGROES WANTED. I wish to inform the slave-holders of QT Dorchester and the ad jacent counties that I jjp am again in the Market. Persons having *-*- negroes that are slaves for life to dispose of will find it to their interest to see me before they sell, as I am determined to pay the highest prices in casli that the Southern market will jus- tify. I can be found at A. Hall's Hotel in Easton, where 1 will remain until the first day of July next. Communications addressed to me at Easton, or information given to Win. Bell in Cambridge, will meet with prompt attention. Wm. Harker. Mr. Harker is very accommodating. He keeps himself informed as to the state of the southern market, and will give the very highest price that it will justify. Moreover, he will be on hand till July, and will answer any letters from the adjoining country on the subject. On one point he ought to be spoken to. He has not advertised that he does not separate families. It is a mere matter of taste, to be sure; but then some well-disposed people like to see it on a trader's card, thinking it has a more credit- able appearance ; and, probably, Mr. Harker, if he reflects a little, will put it in next time. It takes up very little room, and makes a good appearance. We are occasionally reminded, by the advertisements for runaways, to how small an extent it is found possible to avoid the separation of families: as in the Richmond Whig of Nov. 5, 1852 : $10 REWARD. We are requested by Henry P. Davis to offer a reward of $10 for the apprehension of a negro man named Henry, who ran away from the said Davis' farm near Petersburg, on Thursday, the 27 th October. Said slave came from near Lynch- burg, Va., purchased of Cock, and has a wife in Halifax county, Va. He has recently been employed on the South Side Railroad. He may be in the neighborhood of his wife. Pulliam & Davis, Aucls., Richmond. It seems to strike the advertiser as possi- ble that Henry may be in the neighborhood of his wife. We should not at all wonder if he were. The reader, by this time, is in possession of some of those statistics of which the South Carolinian speaks, when he says, We feel confident, if statistics could be had, to throw light upon the subject, we should find that there is less separation of families among the negroes than occurs with almost any other class of persons. In order to give some little further idea of the extent to which this kind of property is continually changing hands, see the fol- lowing calculation, which has been made from sixty-four Southern newspapers, taken very much at random. The papers were all published in the last two weeks of the month of November, 1852. The negroes are advertised sometimes by name, sometimes in definite numbers, and sometimes in "lots," "assortments," and other indefinite terms. We present the result of this estimate, far as it must fall from a fair representation of the facts, in a tabular form. Here is recorded, in only eleven papers, the sale of eight hundred forty-nine slaves in two weeks in Virginia ; the state where Mr. J. Thornton Randolph describes such an event as a separation of families being a thing that " we read of in novels sometimes." KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 143 States where published. Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, S. Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, P"S ° a KS &* &° £ 11 849 7 5 238 1 8 385 4 12 852 2 6 98 2 10 549 5 8 669 5 4 460 4 G4 4100 30 15 7 17 7 5 6 35 92 In South Carolina, where the writer in Fraser's Magazine dates from, we have during these same two weeks a sale of eight hundred and fifty-two recorded by one dozen papers. Verily, we must apply to the news- papers of his state the same language which he applies to " Uncle Tom's Cabin :" " Were our views of the system of slavery to be derived from these papers, we should regard the families of slaves as utterly unsettled ind vagrant." The total, in sixty-four -papers, in differ- ent states, for only two weeks, is four thou- sand one hundred, besides ninety-two lots, as they are called. And now, who is he who compares the hopeless, returnless- separation of the negro from his family, to the voluntary separation of the freeman, whom necessary business in- terest takes for a while from the bosom of his family 1 Is not the lot of the slave bitter enough, without this last of mockeries and worst of insults ? Well may they say, in their anguish, " Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of them that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud ! " From the poor negro, exposed to bitterest separation, the law jealously takes away the power of writing. For him the gulf of sep- aration yawns black and hopeless, with no redeeming signa' Ignorant of geography, he knows not whither he is going, or where he is, or how to direct a letter. To all in- tents and purposes, it is a separation hope- less as that of death, and as final. CHAPTER IV. THE SLAVE-TRADE. What is it that constitutes the vital force of the institution of slavery in this country ? Slavery, being an unnatural and unhealth- ful condition of society, being a most waste- ful and impoverishing mode of cultivating the soil, would speedily run itself out in a community, and become so unprofitable as to fall into disuse, were it not kept alive by some unnatural process. What has that process been in America 1 Why has that healing course of nature which cured this awful wound in all the northern states stopped short on Mason & Dixon's line ? In Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, slave labor long ago impov- erished the soil almost beyond recovery, and became entirely unprofitable. In all these states it is well known that the ques- tion of emancipation has been urgently pre- sented. It has been discussed in legisla- tures, and Southern men have poured forth on the institution of slavery such anathemas as only Southern men can pour forth. All that has ever been said of it at the North has been said in four-fold thunders in these Southern discussions. The State of Ken- tucky once came within one vote, in her legislature, of taking measures for gradual emancipation. The State of Virginia has come almost equally near, and Maryland has long been waiting at the door. There was a time when no one doubted that all. these states would soon be free states ; and what is now the reason that they are not 1 Why are these discussions'now silenced, and why does this noble determination now ret- rograde ] The answer is in a word. It is the extension of slave territory, the open- ing of a great southern slave-market, and the organization of a great internal slave- trade, that has arrested the progress of emancipation. While these states were beginning to look upon the slave as one who might possibly yet become a man, while they meditated giving to him and his wife and children the inestimable blessings of liberty, this great southern slave-mart was- opened. It began by the addition of Missouri as slave territory, and the votes of two Northern men were those which decided this great question. Then, by the assent and concurrence of Northern men, came in all the immense ac- quisition of slave territory which now opens so~ boundless a market to tempt the avarice and cupidity of the northern slave-raising states. This acquisition of territory has deferred perhaps for indefinite ages the emancipation of a race. It has condemned to sorrow and 144 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. heart-breaking separation, to groans and wailings, hundreds of thousands of slave families ; it has built, through all the South- ern States, slave-warehouses, with all their ghastly furnishings of gags, and thumb- screws, and cow hides ; it has organized unnumbered slave-coffles, clanking their chains and filing in mournful march through this land of liberty. This accession of slave territory hardened the heart of the master. It changed what was before, in comparison, a kindly relation, into the most horrible and inhuman of trades. The planter whose slaves had grown up around him, and whom he had learned to look upon almost as men and women, saw on every sable forehead now nothing but its market value. This man was a thousand dollars, and this eight hundred. The black baby in its mother's arms was a hundred- dollar bill, and nothing more. All those nobler traits of mind and heart which should have made the slave a brother became only so many stamps on his merchandise. Is the slave intelligent ? — Good ! that raises his price two hundred dollars. Is he conscien- tious and faithful ? — Good ! stamp it down in his certificate ; it 's worth two hundred dollars more. Is he religious 1 Does that •Holy Spirit of God, Avhose name we men- tion with reverence and fear, make that despised form His temple 7 — Let that also be put down in the estimate of his market value, and the gift of the Holy Ghost shall be sold for money. Is he a minister of God 7 — Nevertheless, he has his price in the market. From the church and from the communion- table the Christian brother and sister are taken to make up the slave-coffle. And woman, with her tenderness, her gentleness, her beauty, — woman, to whom mixed blood of the black and the white have given graces perilous for a slave, — what is her accursed lot, in this dreadful commerce '? — The next few chapters will disclose facts on this subject which ought to wring the heart of every Christian mother, if, indeed, she be worthy of that holiest name. But we will not deal in assertions merely. We have stated the thing to be proved ; let us show the facts which prove it. The existence of this fearful traffic is known to many, — the particulars and dreadful extent of it realized but by few. Let ns enter a little more particularly on them. The slave-exporting states are Mary- land, Virginia. Kentucky, North Carolina. Tennessee and Missouri. These are slave- raising states, and the others arc slave-con- suming states. We have shown, in the pre- ceding chapters, the kind of advertisements which are usual in those states ; but, as we wish to produce on the minds of our readers something of the impression which has been produced on our own mind by their multi- plicity and abundance we shall add a few more here. For the State of Virginia, see all the following : Kanawha Republican, Oct. 20, 1852, Charleston, Va. At the head — Liberty, with a banner, " Drapeau sans Tteche." CASH FOR NEGROES. The subscriber wishes to purchase a few young NEGROES, from 12 to 25 years of age, for which the highest market price will be paid in cash. A few lines addressed to him through the Post Office, Kanawha 0. II., or a personal application, will be promptly attended to. Jas. L. Ficklin. Oct. 20, '53. — 3t Alexandria Gazette, Oct. 28th : CASH FOR NEGROES. I wish to purchase immediately, for the South, any number of NEGROES, from 10 to 30 years of age, for which I will pay the very highest cash price. All communications jmmiptly attended to. Joseph Bruin. West End, Alexandria, Va., Oct. 20. — tf Lynchburg Virginian, Nov. 18 : NEGROES WANTED. The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is giving the highest cash prices for negroes, between the ages of lO and 30 years. Those having negroes for sale may find it to their interest to call on him at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg, or address him by letter. All communications will receive prompt atten- tion. J. B. McLendon. Nov. 5. — dly Rockingham Register, Nov. 13 : CASH FOR NEGROES. I wish to purchase a number of NEGROES of both sexes and all ages, for the Southern market, for which I will pay the highest cash prices. Letters addressed to me at Winchester, Virginia, will be promptly attended to. II. J. McDaniel, Agent Nov. 24, 1846. — tf for Win. Crow. Richmond Whig, Nov. 16 : PUL.L.IAM & DAVIS, AUCTIONEERS FOE THE SALE OF NEGROES. D. M. PuLLUM. Hector Davis. The subscribers continue to sell Negroes, at their office, on Wall-street. From their experi- ence in the business, they can safely insure the highest prices for all negroes intrusted to their care. They will make sales of negroes in estates, and would say to Commissioners, Executors and Administrators, that they will make their sales on favorable terms. They are prepared to board and lodge negroes comfortably at 25 cents per day. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 145 NOTICE. — CASH FOR SLAVES. Those who wish to sell slaves in Buckingham and the adjacent counties in Virginia, hy applica- tion to Anderson D. Abraham, Sr., or his son, Anderson D. Abraham, Jr., they will find sale, at the highest cash prices, for one hundred and fifty to two hundred slaves. One or the other of _ the above parties will be found, for the next eight months, at their residence in the aforesaid county and state. Address Anderson D. Abraham, Sr., Maysville Post Office, White Oak Grove, Buck- ingham. County, Va. Winchester Republican, June 29, 1852 : NEGROES WANTED. The subscriber having located himself in "Win- chester, Va., wishes to purchase a large number of SLAVES of both sexes, for which he will give the highest price in cash. Persons wishing to dispose of Slaves will find it to their advantage to give him a call before selling. All communications addressed to him at the Taylor Hotel, Winchester, Va., will meet with prompt attention. Elijah McDowel, Agent for B. M. & Wm. L. Campbell, Dec. 27, 1851. — ly of Baltimore. For Maryland : Port Tobacco Times, Oct., '52 : SLAVES WANTED. The subscriber is permanently located at Mid- bleville, Charles County (immediately on the road from Port Tobacco to Allen's Fresh), where he vail be pleased to buy any Slaves that are for sale.' The extreme value will be given at all times, and liberal commissions paid for informa- tion leading to a purchase. Apply personally, or by letter addressed to Allen's Fresh, Charles County. John G. Campbell. Middleville, April 14, 1852. (Md.) Democrat, October prices will be paid. All communications ad- dressed to me in Baltimore will be punctually at- tended to. Lewis Winters. Jan. 2. — tf Cambridge 27, 1852: NEGROES WANTED. I wish to inform the slave-holders of Dorches- ter and the adjacent counties that I am again in the market. Persons having negroes that are (slaves for life to dispose of will find it to their in- terest to see me before they sell, as I am deter- mined to pay the highest prices in cash that the Southern market will justify. I can be found at A. Hall*s Hotel, in Easton, where I will remain until the first day of July next. Communications addressed to me at Easton, or information given to Wm. Bell, in Cambridge, will meet with prompt attention. I will be at John Bradahaw's Hotel, in Cam- bridge, every Monday. Wm. Harker. Oct. 6, 1852. — 3m The Westminster Carroltonian, Oct. 22, 1852 : 25 NEGROES WANTED. The undersigned wishes to purchase 25 LIKELY YOUNG NEGROES, for which the highest cash 10 For Tennessee the following : Nashville True Whig, Oct. 20th, '52 : FOR SALE. 21 likely Negroes, of different ages. Oct. 6. A. A. McLean, Gen. Agent. WANTED. I want to purchase, immediately, a Negro man, Carpenter, and will give a good price. Oct. 6. A. A. McLean, Gen. Agent. Nashville Gazette, October 22 : FOR SALE. SEVERAL likely girls from 10 to 18 years old, a woman 24, a very valuable woman 25 years old, with three very likely children. Williams & Glover. Oct. 16th, 1852. a. b. u. WANTED. I want to purchase Twenty-five LIKELY NEGROES, between the ages of 18 and 25 years, male and female, for which I will pay the highest price in cash. A. A. McLean. Oct. 20. Cherry Street. The Memphis Daily Eagle and En- quirer : 500 NEGROES WANTED. We will pay the highest cash price for all good negroes offered. We invite all those having negroes for sale to call on us at our mart, opposite the lower steamboat landing. We will also have a large lot of Virginia negroes for sale in the Fall. We have as safe a jail as any in the country, where we can keep negroes safe for those that wish them kept. Bolton, Dickjns & Co. je 13 — d & w LAND AND NEGROES FOR SALE. A good bargain will be given in about 400 acres of Land ; 200 acres are in a fine state of cultiva- tion, fronting the Railroad about ten miles from Memphis. Together with 18 or 20 likely negroes, consisting of men, women, boys and girls. Good time will be given on a portion of the purchase money. J. M. Provink. Oct. 17. — lm. Clarksville Chronicle, Dec. 3, 1852: NEGROES WANTED. We wish to hire 25 good Steam Boat hands for the New Orleans and Louisville trade. We witl pay very full prices for the Season, commencing about the 15th November. McClure & Crozier, Agent* Sept. 10th, 1852. — lm S. B. Bellpoor. 146 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Missouri : The Daily St. Louis Times, October 14, 1852 : REUBEN BARTLETT, On Chosnut, between Sixth and Seventh streets, near the city jail, will pay the highest price in cash for all good negroes offered. There are also other buyers to be found in the office very anxious to purchase, who will pay the highest prices given in cash. Negroes boarded at the lowest rates. jyi5 — Gm. NEGROES. BLAKFLY and McAFEE having dissolved co- partnership by mutual consent, the subscriber will at all times pay the highest cash prices for negroes of every description. Will also attend to the sale of negroes on commission, having a jail and yard fitted up expressly for boarding them. g^T Negroes for sale at all times. 3 A. B. McAfee, 93 Olive street. ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED. Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to purchase, as soon as possible, one hundred likely negroes, consisting of men, women, boys and girls, for a hich I will pay at all times from fifty to one hundred dollars on the head more money than any sither trading man in the city of St. Louis, or the State of Missouri. I can at all times be found at Barnum's City Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. jel2d&wly. John Mattl\glv. From another St. Louis paper : NEGROES \V ANTED. I will pay at all times the highest price in cash for all good negroes offered. I am buying for the Memphis and Louisiana markets, and can afford to pay, and will pay, as high as any trading man in this State. All those having negroes to sell will do well to give me a call at No. 210, corner of Sixth and Wash streets, St Louis, Mo. Tuos. Dickens, of the firm of Bolton, Dickins & Ce. ©18 — Gm* ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED. Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to purchase one hundred likely Negroes, consisting of men and women, boys and girls, for which I will pay in cash from fifty to one hundred dollars more than any other trading man in the city of St. Louis Or the State of Missouri. 1 ran at all times be found at Barnum's City Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. John Mattingly. jel4d&wly B. M. LYNCH, No. 104 Locust street, St Louis. Missouri, Is prepared to pay the highest prices in cash for d and likely negroes, or will furnish boarding hers, in < ifortable quarters and under se- cure fastenings. He will also attend to the sale I urchase of negroes on coinm if 3ion. Negroes for sale at all times. &w We ask you, Christian reader, we beg you to think, what sort of scenes are going on in Virginia under these advertisements 1 You see that they are carefully worded so as to take only the young people ; and they are only a specimen of the standing, season ad- vertisements which are among the most com- mon things in the Virginia papers. A suc- ceeding chapter will open to the reader the interior of these slave-prisons, and show him something of the daily incidents of this kind of trade. Now let us look at the corre- sponding advertisements in the southern states. The coffles made up in Virginia and other states are thus announced in the southern market. From the Natchez (Mississippi) Free Trader, Nov. 20 : NEGROES FOR SALE. The undersigned have just arrived, direct from Richmond, Va., with a large and likely lot of Negroes, consisting of Field Hands, House Servants, Seamstresses, Cooks, Washers and Ironers, a first-rate brick mason, and other me- chanics, which they now offer for sale at the Forks of the Road, near Natchez (Miss.), on the most accommodating terms. They will continue to receive fresh supplies from Richmond, Va., during the season, and will be able to furnish to any order any description of Negroes sold in Richmond. Persons wishing to purchase would do well to give us a call before purchasing elsewhere. nov20-Gm Matthews, Branton & Co. To The Public. NEGROES BOUGHT AND SOLD. Robert S. Adams & Moses J. Wicks have this day associated themselves under the name and style of Adams & Wicks, for the purpose of buy- ing and selling Negroes, in the city of Aberdeen, and elsewhere. They have an Agent who has been purchasing Negroes for them in the Old States for the last two months. One of the firm, Robert S. Adams, leaves this day for North Caro- lina and Virginia, and will buy a large number of negroes for this market. They will keep at their depot in Aberdeen, during the coming fall and winter, a large lot of choice Negroes, which they will sell low fur cash, or for lulls on Mobile. Robert S. Adams, Moses J. Wicks. Aberdeen, Miss May 7th, 1852. SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES! FRESn arrivals WEEKLY. — Having established ourselves at the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, for a term of years, we have now onhand,and in- tend to keep throughout the entire year, a large and well-selected stock of Negroes, consistm of field-hands, house servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers, etc.. which we can sell and will sell as L< w or lower than anj house here < >r in New ( Means. Persons wishing to purchase would do well cu call on us before making purchases elsewhere, as KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. our regular arrivals •will keep us supplied with a good and general assortment. Our terms are lib- eral. Give us a call. Griffin & Pullum. Natchez, Oct. 16, 1S52. 6m NEGROES FOR SALE. I have just returned to my stand, at the Forks of the Road, with fifty likely young NEGROES for sale. " R. H. Elam. sept 22 . NOTICE. The undersigned would respectfully state to the public that he has leased the stand in the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, for a terra of years, and that he intends to keep a large lot of NEGROES on hand during the year. He will sell as low, or lower, than any other trader at this place or in New Orleans. He has just arrived from Virginia, with a very likely lot of field men and women and house ser- vants, three cooks, a carpenter and a fine buggy horse, and a saddle-horse and carryall. Call and eee. . Tnos. G. James. Daily Orleanian, Oct. 19, 1852 : AV. F. TANXEHILL, No. 159 Gravier Street. SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES! Constantly on hand, bought and sold on com- mission, at most reasonable prices. — Field hands, cooks, washers and ironers, and general house servants. City reference given, if required. oct U DEPOT D'ESCIAVES DE LA NO UVELLE- ORLEANS. No. 68, rue Baronne. Wm. F. Tannehill & Co. ont constamment en mains un assortiment complet d'ESCLAVES bien choisis a vendre. Aussi, vente et achat d'esclaves par commission. Nous avons actuellement en mains un grand nombre de xegres a louer aux mois, parmi lesquels s€ trouvent des jeunes garcons, domestiques de maieon, cuisinieres, hlanchisseuses et repas- seuses, nourices, etc. REFERENCES : Wright, Williams & Co. Moon, Titus & Co. Williams, Phillips & Co. S. 0. Nelson & Co. Moses Greenwood. E. W. Diggs. 3ms Neio Orleans Daily Crescent, Oct. 21, 1852 : SLAVES. James White, No. 73 Baronne street, New Or- leans, will give strict attention to receiving, board- ing; and selling SLAVES consigned to him. He will also buy and sell on commission. References : Messrs. Robson & Allen, McRea, Coffman & Co., Pre gram, Bryan & Co. sep 23 NEGROES WANTED. Fifteen or twenty good Ne^ro Men wanted to go on a Plantation. The best of wages will be given nntil the first of January, 1853. Apply to Thomas G. Mackev & Co., 5 Canal street, corner of Magazine, oepll up stairs. 147 From another number of the Mississippi Free Trader is taken the following : NEGROES. The undersigned would respectfully state to the public that he has a lot of about forty-five now on hand, having this day received a lot of twenty- five direct from Virginia, two or three good cooks, a carriage driver, a good house boy, a ficldk r, a fine seamstress and a likely lot of field men and women ; all of whom he w'ill sell at a small profit. He wishes to close out and go on to Virginia after a lot for the fall trade. Call and see. Thomas G. James. The slave-raising business of the northern states has been variously alluded to and re- cognized, both in the business statistics of the states, and occasionally in the speeches of patriotic men, who have justly mourned over it as a degradation to their country. In 1841, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society addressed to the executive com- mittee of the American Anti-Slavery Society some inquiries on the internal American slave-trade. A labored investigation was made at" that time, the results of which were published in London ; and from that volume are made the following extracts : The Virginia Times (a weekly newspaper, published at Wheeling, Virginia) estimates, in 1836, the number of slaves exported for sale from that state alone, during " the twelve months pre- ceding," at forty thousand, the aggregate value of whom is computed at twenty-four millions of dollars. Allowing for Virginia one-half of the whole ex portation during the period in question, and we have the appalling sum total of eighty thousand slaves exported in a single year from the breeding states. _ We cannot decide with certainty what proportion of the above number was furnished by each of the breeding states, but Maryland ranks next to Virginia in point of numbers, 'North Caro- lina follows Maryland, Kentucky North Carolina, then Tennessee and Delaware. The Natchez (Mississippi) Courier says " that the States of Louisiana, Mississippi. Alabama and Arkansas, imported two hundred and fifty thou- sand slaves from the more northern states in the year 1836." This seems absolutely incredible, but it proba- bly includes all the slaves introduced by the im- migration of their masters. .The following, from the Virginia Times, confirms this supposition. In the same paragraph which is referred to under the second query, it is said : " We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves exported from Virginia, within the last twelve months, at a hundred and twenty thousand, each slave averaging at least six hundred dollars, making an aggregate of seventy- two million dollars. Of the number of slaves exported, not more than one-third have been sold ; the others having been carried by their masters, who have removed." Assuming one-third to be the proportion of the 148 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. sold, there are more than eighty thousand im- ported for sale into the four States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Supposing one-half of eighty thousand to be sold into the other buying states, — S. Carolina, Georgia, and the territory of Florida, — and we are brought to the conclusion that more than a hundred and twenty thousand slaves were, for some years pre- vious to the great pecuniary pressure in 1837, ex- ported from the breeding to the consuming states. The Baltimore American gives the following from a Mississippi paper of 1837 : " The report made by the committee of the citizens of Mobile, appointed at their meeting held on the 1st instant, on the subject of the ex- isting pecuniary pressure, states that so large has been the return of slave labor, that purchases by Alabama of that species of property from other states, since 1833, have amounted to about ten million dollars annually." " Dealing in slaves," says the Baltimore (Mary- land) Register of 1829, has become a large busi- ness ; establishments are made in several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle. These places of deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with iron thumbscrews and gags, and ornamented with cowskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody." Professor Dew, now President of the University of William and Mary, in Virginia, in his review of the debate in the Virginia legislature in 1831 — 2, says (p. 120) : " A full equivalent being left in the place of the slave (the purchase-money), this emigration be- comes an advantage to the state, and does not check the black population as much as at first view we might imagine ; because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised.' 1 '' Again : " Virginia is } in fact, a negro-raising slate for the other stales.'''' Mr. Goode,of Virginia, in his speech before the Virginia legislature, in January, 1832, said : " The superior usefulness of the slaves in the South will constitute an effectual demand, which will remove them from our limits. We shall send them from our state, because it will be our interest to do so. But gentlemen are alarmed lest the mar- kets of other states be closed against the introduction of our slaves. Sir, the demand for slave labor must increase" <5fc. In the debates of the Virginia Convention, in l c 2.), Judge Upshur said : " The value of slaves as an article of property depends much on the state of the market abroad. In this view, it is the value of land abroad, and not of land here, which furnishes the ratio. Nothing is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of Louisiana reduced their value twenty- five per cent, in two hours after its passage was known. If it should be our lot, as I trust it will be, to a *, Jre the country of Texas, their price will rise again." Hon. Philip Doddridge, of Virginia, in his speech in the Virginia Convention, in 1829 (De- bates p. 8'J), said : ' The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance the ralue of the property in question (Virginia slaves)." Rev. I>r. Graham, of Fayetteville, North Caro- lina, at a Colonization meeting held at that place in the fall of 1837, said : "There were nearly seven thousand slaves offered in New Orleans market, last winter. From Virginia alone six thousand were annually sent to the South, and from Virginia and North Carolina there had gone to the South, in the last twenty years, three hundred thousand slaves." Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in his speech before the Colonization Society, in 1829, says : "It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would slave labor he generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern markets, which keeps it up in his own." The New York Journal of Commerce of Octo- ber 12th, 1835, contains a letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls " a very good and sensible man," asserting that twenty thousand slaves had been driven to the South from Virginia that year, but little more than three-fourths of which had then elapsed. Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that state, January 18, 1831 (sea Richmond Whig) , says : " It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered, by steady and old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right to its annual profits ; the owner of orchards to their annual fruits ; the owner of brood mares to their product ; and the owner of female slaves to their increase. We have not the fine-spun intelligence nor legal acumen to discover the technical dis- tinctions drawn by gentlemen (that is, the distinc- tion between female slaves and brood mares). The legal maxim of partus sequitur ventrem is coeval with the existence of the right of property itself, and is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of the female slave, has her nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the helpless infant off- spring. The value of the property justifies the ex- pense, and I do not hesitate to say that in its in- crease consists much of our wealth.'''' Can any comment on the state of public sentiment produced by slavery equal the simple reading of this extract, if we re- member that it was spoken in the Virginia legislature? One would think the §old cheek of Washington would redden in its grave for shame, that his native state had sunk, so low. That there were Virginian hearts to feel this disgrace is evident from the following reply of Mr. Faulkner to Mr. Gholson, in the Virginia House of Dele- gates, 1832. See Richmond Whig : " But ho (Mr. Gholson) has labored to show that the abolition of slavery would be impolitic, because your slaves constitute the entire wealth of the state, all the productive capacity Virginia possesses ; and, sir, as things are, / believe he is correct. He says that the slaves constitute the entire available wealth of Eastern Virginia. Is it true that for two hundred years the only in- crease in the wealth and resources of Virginia has been a remnant of the natural increase of this miserable race ? Can it be that on this increase she places her sole dependence ? Until I heard these declarations, I had not fully conceived the horrible extent of this evil These gen- KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 149 tlemen state the fact, which the history and present aspect of the commonwealth but too well sustain. What, sir! have you lived for two hun- dred years without personal effort or productive industry, in extravagance and indolence, sustained alone by the return from the sales of the in- crease of slaves, and retaining merely such a number as your now impoverished lands can sustain as stock ?" Mr. Thomas Jefferson Randolph in the Virginia legislature used the following language [Liberty Bell, p. 20) : " I agree with gentlemen in the necessity of arming the state for internal defence. I will unite witli them in any effort to restore confidence to the public mind, and to conduce to the sense of the safety of our wives and our children. Yet, sir, I must ask upon whom is to fall the burden of this defence! Not upon the lordly masters of their hundred slaves, who will never turn out except to retire with their families when danger threatens. No, sir; it is to fall upon the less wealthy class of our citizens, chiefly upon the non-slaveholder. I have known patrols turned out where there ivas not a slave-holder among them ; and this is the practice of the country. I have slept in times of alarm quiet in bed, without having a thought of care, while these individuals, owning none of this prop- erty themselves, were patrolling under a compul- sory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents per twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house, and guarding that property which was alike dan- gerous to them and myself. After all, this is but an expedient. As this population becomes more numerous, it becomes less productive. Your guard must be increased, until finally its profits will not pay for the expense of its subjection. Slavery has the effect of lessening the free popu- lation of a country. " The gentleman has spoken of the increase of the female slaves being a part of the profit. It is admitted ; but no great evil can be averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It may be questioned how far it is desirable to foster and encourage this branch of profit. It is a prac- tice, and an increasing practice, in parts of Vir- ginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this Ancient Dominion, ren- dered illustrious by the noble devotion and patri- otism of her sons in the. cause of liberty, con- verted into one grand menagerie, where men are to reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles'? Is it better, is it not worse, than the slave-trade ; — that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish it? The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect and manners, from the merchant who has brought him from the in- terior The ties of father, mother, husband and child, have all been rent in twain ; before he re- ceives him, his soul lias become callous. But here, sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother's arms, and sells into a strange country, among strange people, subject to cruel task m asters. "lie has attempted to justify slavery here be- cause it exists in Africa, and has stated that it exists all o»er the world. Upon the same prin- ciple, he could justify Mahometanism, with its plurality of wives, petty wars for plunder, rob- bery and murder, or any other of the abomina- tions and enormities of savage tribes. Does slav- ery exist in any part of civilized Europe ? — No, sir, in no part of it." The calculations in the volume from which we have been quoting were made in the year 1841. Since that time, the area of the southern slave-market has been doubled, and the trade has undergone a proportional in- crease. Southern papers are full of its ad- vertisements. It is, in fact, the great trade of the country. From the single port of Baltimore, in the last two years, a thousand and thirty-three slaves have been shipped to the southern market, as is apparent from the following report of the custom-house officer : ABSTRACT OF THE NUMBER OF VESSELS CLEARED m THE DISTRICT OF BALTIMORE FOR SOUTHERN PORTS, HAVING SLAVES ON BOARD, FROM JAN. 1, 1851, TO NOVEMBER 20, 1852. Due Denomina's Names of Vessels. Where B und. Nos. 1851 Jan. 6 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 16 " 10 " " J 6 " 11 Bark, Elizabeth, New Orleans. 92 " 14 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. . 9 " 17 " " " 6 " 20 Bark, Cora, New Orleans. 14 Feb. 6 " E. H. Chapin, " SI " 8 " Sarah Bridge, " 34 " 12 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va, 5 " 24 Schooner, II. A. Darling, New Orleans. 37 " 26 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 3 " 28 " " " 42 Mar. 10 Ship, Edward Everett, New Orleans. 20 " 21 Sloop,-^ Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 11 " 10 Bark, Baltimore, Savannah. 13 Apr. 1 Sloop, Ik-raid, Norfolk, Va. 7 " 2 Brig, Waverley, New Orleans. 31 " 18 Sloop, Baltimore, Arquia Creek, Va. 4 " 23 Ship, Charles, New Orleans. 25 " 28 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 5 May 15 " Herald, " 2? " 17 Schooner, Brilliant, Charleston. 1 June 10 Sloop, Herald, Norfolk, Va. 3 " 16 " Georgia, " 4 " 20 Schooner, Truth, Charleston. 5 " 21 Ship, Herman, New Orleans. 10 July 19 Schooner, Aurora S., Charleston. 1 Sept. 6 Bark, Kirkwood, New Orleans. 2 Oct. 4 " Abbott Lord, " 1 " 11 " Elizabeth, " 70 " 18 Ship, Edward Everett, " 12 Oct. 20 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 1 Nov. 13 Ship, Eliza V. Mason, New Orleans. 57 " 18 Bark, Mary Broughtons, " 47 Dec. 4 Ship, Timalean, " 22 " 18 Schooner, 11. A. Barling, « 45 1852. Jan. 5 Bark, Southerner, " 52 Feb. 7 Ship, Nathan Hooper, " 51 " 21 " Dumbarton, " 22 Mar. 27 Sloop, Palmetto, Charleston. 36 " 4 " Jewess, Norfolk, Va. 34 Apr. 24 " Palmetto, Charleston. 3 •' 25 Bark, Abbott Lord, New Orleans. 36 May 15 Ship, Charles, " 2 June 12 Sloop, Pampero, " 4 July 3 " Palmetto, Charleston. 1 " 6 " Herald, Norfolk, Va. 7 " 6 " Maryland, Arquia Crick, Va. 4 Sept. 14 " North Carolina, Norfolk, Va. 15 " 23 Ship, America, New Orleans. 1 Oct. 15 " Brandy wine, " 6 " 18 Sloop, Isabel' Charleston. 1 ' 28 Schooner, .Maryland, " 12 " 29 " 11. M. (iambrill, Savannah. n Nov. 1 Ship, .lane Henderson, New Orleans. 18 " 6 Sloop, Palmetto, Charleston. 3 1033 150 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. If we look back to the advertisements, we shall see that the traders take only the younger ones, between the ages of ten and thirty. But this is only one port, and only one mode of exporting ; for multitudes of them are sent in coffles over land ■ d yet Mr. J. Thornton Randolph represents the negroes of Virginia as living in pastoral security, smoking their pipes under their own vines and fig-trees, the venerable pa- triarch of the flock declaring that "he neb- ber hab hear such a ting as a nigger sold to Georgia all his life, unless dat nigger did someting very bad." An affecting picture of the consequences of this traffic upon both master and slave is drawn by the committee of the volume from which we have quoted. The writer cannot conclude this chapter better than by the language which they have used. This system bears with extreme severity upon the slave. It subjects him to a perpetual fear of being sold to the " soul-driver," which to the slave is the realization of all conceivable woes and horrors, more dreaded than death. An awful ap- prehension of this fate haunts the poor sufferer by day and by night, from his cradle to his grave. Suspense hangs like a thunder-cloud over his head. He knows that there is not a passing hour, wheth- er he wakes or sleeps, which may not be the last that he shall spend with his wife and chil- dren. Every day or week some acquaintance is snatched from his side, and thus the consciousness of his own danger is kept continually awake. "Surely my turn will come next," is his harrow- ing conviction ; for he knows that he was reared for this, as the ox for the yoke, or the sheep for the slaughter. In this aspect, the slave's condi- tion is truly indescribable. Suspense, even when it relates to an event of no great moment, and " endureth but for a night," is hard to bear. But A'hen it broods over all, absolutely all that is dear, ■"hilling the present with its deep shade, and cast- ing its awful gloom over the future, it must break the heart ! Such is the suspense under which every slave in the breeding states lives. It poisons all his little lot of bliss. If a father, he canhot go forth to his toil without bidding a mental fare- well to his wife and children. He cannot return, weary and worn, from the field, with any certainty that he shall not find his home robbed and desolate. Nor can he seek his bod of straw and rags with- out the frightful misgiving that his wife may be torn from his arms before morning. Should a white stranger approach his master's mansion, he fears that the soul-driver has come, and awaits in terror the overseer's mandate, " You are sold ; fol- low that man." There is no being on earth whom the slaves of the breeding states regard with so much horror as the trader. He is to them what tin prowling kidnapper is to their less wretched brethren in the wilds of Africa. The master knows this, and that there is no punishment so effectual to secure labor, or deter from misconduct, as the threat of being delivered to the soul-driver.* * This horribly expressive appellation is in common use among tho slaves of the breeding states. Another consequence of this system is the prev- alence of licentiousness. This is indeed one of the foul features of slavery everywhere ; but it is espe- cially prevalent and indiscriminate where slave- breeding is conducted as a business. It grows di- rectly out of the system, and is inseparable from it. * * * The pecuniary inducement to general pol- lution must be very strong, since the larger the slave increase the greater the master's gains, and espe- cially since the mixed blood demands a considerably higher price than the pure black. The remainder of the extract contains spe- cifications too dreadful to be quoted. We can only refer the reader to the volume, p. 13. The poets of America, true to the holy soul of their divine art, have shed over some of the horrid realities of this trade the pathetic light of poetry. Longfellow and Whittier have told us, in verses beautiful as strung pearls, yet sorrowful as a mother's tears, some of the incidents of this unnatural and ghastly traffic. For the sake of a com- mon humanity, let us hope that the first ex- tract describes no common event. THE QUADROON GIRL. The Slaver in the broad lagoon Lay moored with idle sail : He waited for the rising moon, And for the evening gale. Under the shore his boat was tied And all her listless crew Watched the gray alligator slide Into the still bayou. Odors of orange-flowers and spice Iteached them, from time to time, Like airs that breathe from Paradise Upon a world of crime. The Planter, under his roof of thatch, Smoked thoughtfully and slow ; The Slaver's thumb was on the latch, He seemed in haste to go. He said, " My ship at anchor rides In yonder broad lagoon ; I only wait the evening tides, And the rising of the moon." Before them, with her face upraised, In timid attitude, Like one half curious, half amazed, A Quadroon maiden stood. Her eyes were largo, and full of light, Her arms and neck were bare ; No garment sho wore, savo a kirtle bright, And her own long raven hair. And on hor lips there played a smile As holy, meek, and faint, As lights in some cathedral aislo The features of a saint. " The soil is barren, the farm is old," The thoughtful Planter said ; Then looked upon the Slaver's gold, And then upon the maid. His heart within him was at strifo With such accursed gains ; For he knew whoso passions gave her life, Whoso blood ran in hor veins. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 151 But the voice of nature was too weak ; He took the glittering gold • Then (tale as death grew the maiden's cheek, Her hands as icy cold. The Slaver led her from the door, He Led her hy the hand, To be his slave and paramour In a strange and distant land ! THE FAREWELL OF A \ 'R.GINIA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTERS, SOLD INTO SOUTHERN BONDAGE. Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, Where the noisome insect stings, Where the fever demon strews Poison with the falling dews, Where the sickly sunbeams glare Through the hot and misty air, — Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice swamp dank and lone, From Virginia's hills and waters, — Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. There no mother's eye is near them, There no mother's ear can hear them ; Never, when the torturing lash Seams their back with many a gash, Shall a mother's kindness bless them, Or a mother's arms caress them. Gone, gone, &c. Gone, gone, — sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 0, when weary, sad, and slow, From the fields at night they go, Faint with toil, and racked with pain, To their cheerless homes again, — There no brother's voice shall greet them, There no father's welcome meet them. Gone, gone, ne of them, and were put into a carriage and driven immediately to the slave-prison at Alexandria, where, about two o'clock at night, they found themselves in the same for- lorn old room in which they had begun their term of captivity ! This was the latter part of August. Again they were employed in washing, ironing and 1C4 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. sewing by day, and always locked up by night. Sometimes they were allowed to sew in Bruin's house, and even to eat there. After they had been in Alexandria two or three weeks, their eldest married sister, not having heard from them for some time, came to see Bruin, to learn, if possible, something of their fate; and her surprise and joy were great to see them once more, even there. After a few weeks their old father came again to see them. Hopeless as the idea of their emancipation seemed, he still clung to it. He had had some encouragement of assistance in Washington, and he purposed to go North to see if anything could be done there ; and he was anxious to obtain from Bruin what were the very lowest possible ter^ns for which he would sell the girls. Bruin drew up his terms in the following document, which we subjoin : Alexandria, Va., Sept. 5, 1848. The bearer, Paul Edmondson, is the father of two girls, Mary Jane and Emily Catharine Ed- mondson. These girls have been purchased by us, and once sent to the south ; and, upon the positive assurance that the money for them would be raised if they were brought back, they were returned. Nothing, it appears, has as yet been done in this respect by those who promised, and we are on the very eve of sending them south the second time ; and we are candid in saying that, if they go again, we will not regard any promises made in relation to them. The father wishes to raise money to pay for them ; and intends to ap- peal to the liberality of the humane and the good to aid him, and has requested us to state in writ- ing the conditions upon which we ivill sell his daughters. We expect to start our servants to the south in a few days ; if the sum of twelve hundred ($1200) dollars be raised and paid to us in fifteen days, or we be assured of that sum, then we will retain them fur twenty-five days more, to give an oppor- tunity for the raising of the other thousand and fifty ($1050) dollars; otherwise we shall be com- pelled to send them along with our other servants. Bruin & Hill. Paul took his papers, and parted from his daughters sorrowfully. After this, the time to the girls dragged on in heavy suspense. Constantly they looked for letter or message, and prayed to God to raise them up a de- liverer from some quarter. But day after day and week after week passed, and the dreaded time drew near. The preliminaries for fitting up the gang for South Carolina commenced. Gay calico was bought for them to make up into "show dresses," in which they were to be exhibited on sale. They made them up with far sadder feelings than they would have sewed on their own .shrouds. Hope had almost died out of their bosoms A few days before the gang were to be sent off, their sister made them a sad farewell visit. They mingled their prayers and tears, and the girls made up little tokens of remem- brance to send by her as parting gifts to their brothers and sisters and aged father and mother, and with a farewell sadder than that of a death-bed the sisters parted. The evening before the coffle was to start drew on. Mary and Emily went to the house to bid Bruin's family good-by. Bruin had a little daughter who had been a pet and favorite with the girls. She clung round them, cried, and begged them not to go. Emily told her that, if she wished to have them stay, she must go and ask her father. Away ran the little pleader, full of her errand ; and was so very earnest in her im- portunities, that he, to pacify her, said he would consent to their remaining, if his part- ner, Captain Hill, would do so. At this time Bruin, hearing Mary crying aloud in the prison, went up to see her. With all the earnestness of despair, she made her last ap- peal to his feelings. She begged him to make the case his own, to think of his own dear little daughter, — what if she were ex- posed to be torn away from every friend on earth, and cutoff from all hope of redemption, at the very moment, too, when deliverance was expected ! Bruin was not absolutely a man of stone, and this agonizing appeal brought tears to his eyes. He gave some encourage- ment that, if Hill would consent, they need not be sent off with the gang. A sleepless night followed, spent in weeping, groaning and prayer. Morning at last dawned, and, according to orders received the day before, they prepared themselves to go, and even put on their bonnets and shawls, and stood ready for the word to be given. When the very last tear of hope was shed, and they were going out to join the gang, Bruin's heart relented. He called them to him, and told them they might remain ! 0, how glad were their hearts made by this, as they might now hope on a little longer! Either the entreaties of little Martha or Mary's plea with Bruin had prevailed. Soon the gang was started on foot, — men, women and children, two and two, the men all handcuffed together, the right wrist of one to the left wrist of the other, and a chain passing through the middle from the hand- cuffs of one couple to those of the next. The women and children walked in the same manner throughout, handcuffed or chained. Drivers went before and at the side, to take up those who were sick or lame. They were obliged to set off sinsrinsr ! accompanied KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 165 with fiddles and banjoes ! — " For they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth." And this is a scene of daily occurrence in a Christian country ! — and Christian ministers say that the right to do these things is given by God himself ! ! Meanwhile poor old Paul Edmondson went northward to supplicate aid. Any one who should have travelled in the cars at that time might have seen a venerable-looking black man, all whose air and attitude indi- cated a patient humility, and who seemed to carry a weight of overwhelming sorrow, like one who had long been acquainted with grief. That man was Paul Edmondson. Alone, friendless, unknown, and, worst of all, black, he came into the great bustling city of New York, to see if there was any one there who could give him twenty-five hundred dollars to buy his daughters with. Can anybody realize what a poor man's feel- ings are, who visits a great, bustling, rich city, alone and unknown, for such an ob- ject? The writer has now, in a letter from a slave father and visiting Portland on a touching expression of it a husband who was similar errand, a I walked all day, till I was tired and discouraged. O ! Mrs. S , when I see so many people who seem to have so many more things than they want or know what to do with, and then think that I have worked hard, till I am past forty, all my life, and don't own even my own wife and children, it makes me feel sick and discouraged ! So sick at heart and discouraged felt Paul Edmondson. He went to the Anti- Slavery Office, and made his case known. The sum was such a large one, and seemed to many so exorbitant, that, though they pitied the poor father, they were disheartened about raising it. They wrote to Washing- ton to authenticate the particulars of the story, and wrote to Bruin and Hill to see if there could be any reduction of price. Meanwhile, the poor old man looked sadly from one adviser to another. He was re- commended to go to the Rev. H. W. Beecher, and tell his story. He impaired his way to his door, — ascended the steps to ring the door-bell, but his heart failed him, — he sat down on the steps weeping ! _ There Mr. Beecher found him. He took him in, and inquired his story. There was to be a public meeting that night, to raise money. The hapless father begged him to go and plead for his children. He did go, and spoke as if he were pleading for his own father and sisters. Other clergymen fol- lowed in the same strain, — the meeting be- came enthusiastic, and the money was raised on the spot, and poor old Paul laid his head that night on a grateful pillow, — not to sleep, but to give thanks ! Meanwhile the girls had been dragging on anxious days in the slave-prison. They were employed in sewing for Bruin's family, staying sometimes in the prison and some- times in the house. It is to be stated here that Mr. Bruin is a man of very different character from many in his trade. He is such a man as never would have been found in the profession of a slave-trader, had not the most respectable and religious part of the community defended the right to buy and sell, as being conferred by God himself. It is a fact, with regard to this man, that he was one of the earliest sub- scribers to the Natio?ial Era, in the District of Columbia ; and, when a certain individual there brought himself into great peril by as- sisting fugitive slaves, and there was no one found to go bail for him, Mr. Bruin came forward and performed this kindness. While we abhor the horrible system and the horrible trade with our whole soul, there is no harm, we suppose, in wishing that such a man had a better occupation. Yet we can- not forbear reminding all such that, when we come to give our account at the judg- ment-seat of Christ, every man must speak for himself alone ; and that Christ will not accept as an apology for sin the word of all the ministers and all the synods in the country. He has given fair warning, " Be- ware of false prophets ; " and if people will not beware of them, their blood is upon their own heads. The girls, while under Mr. Bruin's care, were treated with as much kindness and con- sideration as could possibly consist with the design of selling them. There is no doubt that Bruin was personally friendly to them, and really wished most earnestly that they might be ransomed; but then he did not see how he was to lose two thousand five hun- dred dollars. He had just the same dif- ficulty on this subject that some New York members of churches have had, when they have had slaves brought into their hands as security for Southern debts. He was sorry for them, and wished them well, and hoped Providence would provide for them when they were sold, but still he could not afford to lose his money ; and while such men re- main elders and communicants in churches in New York, we must not be surprised that there remain slave-traders in Alexandria. 166 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. It is one great art of the enemy of souls to lead men to compound for their partici- pation in one branch of sin by their right- eous horror of another. The slave-trader has been the general scape-goat on whom all parties have vented their indignation, while buying of him and selling to him. There is an awful warning given in the fiftieth Psalm to those who in word have professed religion and in deed consented to iniquity, where from the judgment-seat Christ is represented as thus addressing them : ' ' What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my cove- nant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest in- struction, and castest my words behind thee 1 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been par- taker with adulterers." One thing is certain, that all who do these things, openly or secretly, must, at last, make up their account with a Judge who is no respecter of persons, and who will just as soon condemn an elder in the church for slave-trading as a professed trader ; nay, He may make it more tolerable for the Sodom and Gomorrah of the trade than for them, — for it may be, if the trader had the means of grace that they have had, that he would have repented long ago. But to return to our history. — The girls were sitting sewing near the open window of their cage, when Emily said to Mary, " There, Mary, is that white man we have seen from the North. ' ' They both looked, and in a moment more saw their own dear father. They sprang and ran through the house and the office, and into the street, shouting as they ran, followed by Bruin, who said he thought the girls were crazy. In a moment they were in their father's arms, but ob- served that he trembled exceedingly, and that his voice was unsteady. They eagerly inquired if the money was raised for their ransom. Afraid of exciting their hopes too soon, before their free papers were signed, he said he would talk with them soon, and went into the office with Mr. Bruin and Mr. Chaplin. Mr. Bruin professed himself sin- cerely glad, as undoubtedly he was, that they had brought the money ; but seemed much hurt by the manner in which lie had been spoken of by the Rev. II. W. Beechcratthc liberation meeting in New York, thinking it hard that no difference should be made between him and other traders, when he had shown himself so much more considerate and humane than the great body of them. lie, however, counted over the money and signed the papers with great good will, taking out a five-dollar gold piece for each of the girls, as a parting present. The affair took longer than they supposed, and the time seemed an age to the poor girls, who were anxiously walking up and down outside the room, in ignorance of their fate. Could their father have brought the money ? Why did he tremble so? Could he have failed of the money, at last? Or could it be that their dear mother was dead, for they had heard that she was very ill ! At length a messenger came shouting to them, " You are free, you are free ! " Emily thinks she sprang nearly to the ceiling over- head. They jumped, clapped their hands, laughed and shouted aloud. Soon their father came to them, embraced them tenderly and attempted to quiet them, and told them to prepare them to go and see their mother. This they did they know not how, but with considerable help from the family, who all seemed to rejoice in their joy. Their father procured a carriage to take them to the wharf, and, with joy overflowing all bounds, they bade a most affectionate farewell to each member of the family, not even omit- ting Bruin himself. The "good that there is in human nature " for once had the up- per hand, and all were moved to tears of sympathetic joy. Their father, with sub- dued tenderness, made great efforts to soothe their tumultuous feelings, and at length par- tially succeeded. When they arrived at Washington, a carriage was ready to take them to their sister's house. People of every rank and description came running together to get a sight of them. Their brothers caught them up in their arms, and ran about with them, almost frantic with joy. Their aged and venerated mother, raised up from a sick bed by the stimulus of the glad news, was there, weeping and giving thanks to God. Refreshments were prepared in their sister's house for all who called, and amid greetings and rejoicings, tears and gladness, prayers and thanksgivings, but without sleep, the night passed away, and the morning of November 4, 1848, dawned upon them free and happy. This last spring, during the month of May, as the writer has already intimated, the aged mother of the Edinondson family came on to New York, and the reason of her coming may be thus briefly explained. She had still one other daughter, the guide and support of her feeble age, or, as she calls her in her own expressive language, " the last drop of blood in her heart." She had KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 167 also a son, twenty-one years of age, still a slave on a neighboring plantation. The in- firm woman in whose name the estate was held was supposed to be drawing near to death, and the poor parents were distressed with the fear that, in case of this event, their two remaining children would be sold for the purpose of dividing the estate, and thus thrown into the dreaded southern market. No one can realize what a constant horror the slave-prisons and the slave-traders are to all the unfortunate families in the vicinity. Everything for which other parents look on their children with pleasure and pride is to these poor souls a source of anxiety and dismay, because it renders the child so much more a merchantable article. It is no wonder, therefore, that the light in Paul and Milly' s cottage was overshad- owed by this terrible idea. The guardians of these children had given their father a written promise to sell them to him for a certain sum, and by hard beg- ging he had acquired a hundred dollars tow- ards the twelve hundred which were neces- sary. But he was now confined to his bed with sickness. After pouring out earnest prayers to the Helper of the helpless, Milly says, one day she said to Paul, " I tell ye, Paul, I 'm going up to New York myself, to see if I can't get that money." ■'Paul says to me, ' Why. Milly dear, how can you? Ye an't fit to be off the bed, and ye 's never in the cars in your life.' " ' Never you fear, Paul,' says I; ' I shall go trusting in the Lord ; and the Lord. He '11 take me, and He '11 bring me, — that I know.' " So I went to the cars and got a white man to put me aboard ; and, sure enough, there I found two Bethel ministers; and one set one side o' me, and one set the other, all the way ; and they got me my tickets, and looked after my things, and did every thing for me. There did n't anything hap- pen to me all the way. Sometimes, when I went to set down in the sitting-rooms, peo- ple looked at me and moved off so scornful ! Well, I thought, I wish the Lord would give you a better mind." Emily and Mary, who had been at school ' in New York State, came to the city to meet their mother, and they brought her directly to the Rev. Henry W. Beecher's house, where the writer then was. The writer remembers now the scene when she first met this mother and daugh- ters. It must be recollected that they had not seen each other before for four years. One was sitting each side the mother, hold- ing her hand ; and the air of pride and filial affection with which they presented her was touching to behold. After being presented to the writer, she again sat down between them, took a hand of each, and looked very earnestly first on one and then on the other ; and then, looking up, said, w T ith' a smile, " 0, these children, — how they do lie round our hearts ! " She then explained to the writer all her sorrows and anxieties for the younger chil- dren. "Now, madam," she says, "that man that keeps the great trading-house at Alexandria, that man" she said, with a strong, indignant expression, "has sent to know if there 's any more of my children to be sold. That man said he wanted to see me ! Yes, ma'am, he said he 'd give twenty dollars to see me. Iw T ould n't see him, if he 'd give me a hundred ! He sent for me to come and see him, when he had my daugh- ters in his prison. , I would n't go to see him, — I did n't want to see them there ! " The two daughters, Emily and Mary, here became very much excited, and broke out in some very natural but bitter language against all slave-holders. " Hush, children ! you must forgive your enemies," she said. "But they 're so wicked ! " said the girls. " Ah, children, you must hate the si?i, but love the sinner." "Well," said one of the girls, " mother, if I was taken again and made a slave of, I 'd kill myself." " I trust not, child, — that would be wicked." "But, mother, I should; I know I never could bear it." " Bear it,- my child V she answered, " it 's they that bears the sorrow here is they that has the glories there." There was a deep, indescribable pathos of voice and manner as she said these words, — a solemnity and force, and yet a sweet- ness, that can never be forgotten. This poor slave-mother, whose whole life had been one long outrage on her holiest feelings, — who had been kept from the power to read God's Word, whose whole pilgrimage had been made one day of sor- row by the injustice of a Christian nation, — she had yet learned to solve the highest problem of Christian ethics, and to do what so few reformers can do, — hate the sin, but love the sinner ! A great deal of interest was excited among the ladies in Brooklyn by this his- tory. Several large meetings were held in different parlors, in which the old mother re- lated her history with great simplicity and pathos, and a subscription for the re- 168 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. demption of the remaining two of her family was soon on foot. It may be in- teresting to know that the subscription list was headed by the lovely and benevolent Jenny Lind Goldschmidt. Some of the ladies who listened to this touching story were so much interested in Mrs. Edinondson personally, they wished to have her daguerreotype taken ; both that they might be strengthened and refreshed by the sight of her placid countenance, and that they might see the beauty of true good- ness beaming there. She accordingly went to the rooms with them, with all the simplicity of a little child. "0," said she, to one of the ladies, "you can't think how happy it 's made me to get here, where everybody is so kind to me ! Why, last night, when I went home, I was so happy I could n't sleep. I had to go and tell my Saviour, over and over again, how happy I was." A lady spoke to her about reading some- thing. "Law bless you, honey ! I can't read a letter." " Then," said another lady, "how have you learned so much of God, and heavenly things?" " Well, 'pears like a gift from above." " Can you have the Bible read to you ?" " Why, yes ; Paul, he reads a little, but then he has so much work all day, and when he gets home at night he's so tired ! and his eyes is bad. But then the Sperit teaches us." " Do you go much to meeting?" " Not much now, we live so far. In winter I can't never. But, ! what meet- ings I have had, alone in the corner, — my Saviour and only me!" The smile with which these words were spoken was a thing to be remembered. A little girl, daughter of one of the ladies, made some rather severe remarks about somebody in the da- guerreotype rooms, and her mother checked her. The old lady looked up, with her placid smile. " That puts me in mind," she said, " of what I heard a preacher say once. ' My friends,' says he, ' if you know of any- thing that will make a brother's heart glad., run quick and tell it ; but if it is some- thing that will only cause a sigh, ' bottle it up, bottle it up ! ' 0,1 often tell my chil- dren, ' Bottle it up, bottle it up ! ' " When the writer came to part with the old lady, she said to her : " Well, good-by, my dear friend; remember and pray for me." "Pray for you ! " she said, earnestly. " Indeed I shall, — I can't help it." She then, raising her finger, said, in an emphatic tone, peculiar to the old of her race, " Tell you what ! we never gets no good bread ourselves till we begins to ask for our brethren." The writer takes this opportunity to in- form all those friends, in different parts of the country, who generously contributed for the redemption of these children, that they are at last free ! The following extract from the letter of a lady in Washington may be interesting to them : I have seen the Edmondson parents, — Paul and his wife Milly. I have seen the free Edinond- sons, — mother, son, and daughter, — the very day after the great era of free life commenced, while yet the inspiration was on them, while the mother's face was all light and love, the father's eyes moistened and glistening with tears, the. son calm in conscious manhood and responsibility, the daughter (not more than fifteen years old, I think) smiling a delightful appreciation of joy in the present and hope in the future, thus sud- denly and completely unfolded. Thus have we finished the account of oni of the families who were taken on board thr Pearl. We have another history to give, to which we cannot promise so fortunate a termination. CHAPTER VII. Among those unfortunates guilty of lov- ing freedom too well, was a beautiful youno quadroon girl, named Emily Russell, whose mother is now living in New York. The writer has seen and conversed with her. Sho is a pious woman, highly esteemed and re- spected, a member of a Christian church. By the avails of her own industry she pur- chased her freedom, and also redeemed from bondage some of her children. Emily was & resident of Washington, D. C, a place which belongs not to any state, but to the United States ; and there, under the laws of tho United States, she was held as a slave. She was of a gentle disposition and amiable man- ners ; she had been early touched with a senso of religious things, and was on the very point of uniting herself with a Christian church ; but her heart yearned after hex widowed mother and after freedom, and so, on the fatal night when all the other poor victims sought the Pearl, the child Emily' went also among them. How they were taken has already been KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 169 told. The sin of the poor girl was inexpiable. Because she longed for her mother's arms and for liberty, she could not be forgiven. Nothing would do for such a sin, but to throw her into the hands of the trader. She also was thrown into Bruin & Hill's jail, in Alexandria. Her poor mother in New York received the following letter from her. Read it, Christian mother, and think what if your daughter had written it to you ! To Mrs. Nancy Cartwright, New York. Alexandria, Jan. 22, 1850. My Dear Mother : I take this opportunity of writing you a few lines, to inform you that I am in Bruin s Jail, and Aunt Sally and all of her children, and Aunt Hagar and all her children, and grandmother is almost crazy. My dear moth- er, will you please to come on as soon as you can? I expect to go away very shortly. 0, mother ! my dear mother ! come now and see your distressed and heart-broken daughter once more. Mother ! my dear mother ! do not forsake me, for I feel desolate ! Please to come now. Your daughter, Emily Russell. P. S. — If you do not come as far as Alexandria, come to Washington, and do what you can. That letter, blotted and tear-soiled, was brought by this poor washerwoman to some Christian friends in New York, and shown to them. " What do you suppose they will ask for her? " was her question. All that she had, — her little house, her little furni- ture, her small earnings, — all these poor Nancy was willing to throw in ; but all these were but as a drop to the bucket. The first thing to be done, then, was to ascertain what Emily could be redeemed for ; and, as it may be an interesting item of American trade, we give the reply of the traders in full : Alexandria, Jan. 31, 1850. Dear Sir : When I received your letter I had not bought the negroes you spoke of, but since that time I have bought them. All I have t > say about the matter is, that we paid very high for the negroes, and cannot afford to sell the girl Eaiily for less than EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. This may seem a high price to you, but, cotton be- ing very high, consequently slaves are high. We have two or three offers for Emily from gentlemen from the south. She is said to be the finest-looking looman in this country. As for Hagar and her sjven children, we will take two thousand five hun Ired dollars for them. Sally and her four children, we will take for them two thousand eight hundred dollars. You may seem a little surprised at the difference in prices, but the difference in the ne- groes makes the difference in price. We expect to start south with the negroes on the 8th February, and if you intend to do anything, you had better do it soon. Yours, respectfully, Bruin & Hill. This letter came to New York before the case of the Edmondsons had called the atten- tion of the community to this subject. The enormous price asked entirely discouraged effort, and before anything of importance was done they heard that the coffle had de- parted, with Emily in it. Hear, heavens ! and give ear, earth ! Let it be known, in all the countries of the earth, that the market-price of a beautiful Christian girl in America is from EIGHTEEN HUNDRED to TWO THOUSAND dollars; and yet, judicatories in the church of Christ have said, in solemn con- clave, that American slavery as it is is no evil ! * From the table of the sacrament and from the sanctuary of the church of Christ this girl was torn away, because her beauty was a salable article in the slave-market in New Orleans ! Perhaps some Northern apologist for slavery will say she was kindly treated here — not handcuffed by the wrist to a chain, and forced to walk, as articles less choice are ; that a wagon was provided, and that she rode; and that food abundant was given her to eat, and that her clothing was warm and comfortable, and therefore no harm was done. We have heard it told us, again and again, that there is no harm in slavery, if one is only warm enough, and full-fed, and com- fortable. It is true that the slave-woman has no protection from the foulest dishonor and the utmost insult that can be offered to womanhood, — none whatever in law or gos- pel ; but, so long as she has enough to eat and wear, our Christian fathers and mothers tell us it is not so bad ! Poor Emily could not think so. There was no eye to pity, and none to help. The food of her accursed lot did not nourish her ; the warmest clothing could not keep the chill of slavery from her heart. In the middle of the overland passage, sick, weary, heart-broken, the child laid her down and died. By that lonely pillow there was no moth- er. But there was one Friend, who loveth at all times, who is closer than a brother. Could our eyes be touched by the seal of faith, where others see only the lonely wilderness and the dying girl, we, perhaps, should see one clothed in celestial beauty, waiting for that short agony to be over, that He might redeem her from all iniquity, and present her fault- less before the presence of his Grace with exceeding joy ! * The words of the Georgia Annual Conference : i?e- solved, " That slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil." 170 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Even the hard-hearted trader was touched with her sad fate, and we are credibly in- formed that he said he was sorry he had taken her. Bruin & Hill wrote to New York that the girl Emily was dead. The Quaker, William Harned, went with the letter, to break the news to her mother. Since she had given up all hope of redeeming her daughter from the dreadful doom to which she had been sold, the helpless mother had drooped like a stricken woman. She no longer lifted up her head, or seemed to take any interest in life. When Mr. Harned called on her, she asked, eagerly, " Have you heard anything from my daughter ? " " Yes, I have," was the reply, " a letter from Bruin & Hill." " And what is the news ? " He thought best to give a direct answer, — " Emily is dead.' 1 ' 1 The poor mother clasped her hands, and, looking upwards, said, " The Lord be thanked ! He has heard my prayers at last!" And, now, will it be said this is an ex- ceptional case — it happens one time in a thousand ? Though we know that this is the foulest of falsehoods, and that the case is only a specimen of what is acting every day in the American slave-trade, yet, for argu- ment's sake, let us, for once, admit it to be true. If only once in this nation, under the protection of our law, a Christian girl had been torn from the altar and the communion-table, and sold to foulest shame and dishonor, would that have been a light sin? Does not Christ say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me"? 0, words of woe for thee, America ! — words of woe for thee, church of Christ ! Hast thou trod them under foot and trampled them in the dust so long that Christ has forgotten them ? In the day of judgment every one of these words shall rise up, living and burning, as accusing angels to witness against thee. Art thou, church of Christ ! praying daily, " Thy kingdom come"? Darest thou pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly"? 0, what if He should come ? What if the Lord, whom ye seek, should suddenly come into his tem- ple ? If his soul was stirred within him when he found within his temple of old those that changed money, and sold sheep and oxen and doves, what will he say now, when he finds them selling body, blood and bones, of his own people ? And is the Christian church, which justifies this enor- mous system, — which has used the awful name of her Redeemer to sanction the buy- ing, selling and trading in the souls of men, — is this church the bride of Christ ? Is she one with Christ, even as Christ is one with the Father ? 0, bitter mockery ! Does this church believe that every Chris- tian's body is a temple of the Holy Ghost? Or does she think those solemn words were idle breath, when, a thousand times, every day and week, in the midst of her, is this temple set up and sold at auction, to be bought by any godless, blasphemous man, who has money to pay for it ! As to poor Daniel Bell and his family, whose contested claim to freedom was the beginning of the whole trouble, a few mem- bers of it were redeemed, and the rest were plunged into the abyss of slavery. It would seem as if thi3 event, like the sinking of a ship, drew into its maelstrom the fate of every unfortunate being who was in its vi- cinity. A poor, honest, hard-working slave- man, of the name of Thomas Ducket, had a wife who was on board the Pearl. Tom was supposed to know the men who counte- nanced the enterprise, and his master, there- fore, determined to sell him. He brought him to Washington for the purpose. Some in Washington doubted his legal right to bring a slave from Maryland for the pur- pose of selling him, and commenced legal proceedings to test the matter. While they were pending, the counsel for the master told the men who brought action against his client that Tom was anxious to be sold ; that he preferred being sold to the man who had purchased his wife and children, rather than to have his liberty. It was well known that Tom did not wish to be separated from his family, and the friends here, confiding in the representations made to them, consented to withdraw the proceedings. Some time after this, they received letters from poor Tom Ducket, dated ninety miles above New Orleans, complaining sadly of his condition, and making piteous appeals to hear from them respecting his wife and children. Upon inquiry, nothing could be learned respecting them. They had been sold and gone, — sold and gone, — no one knew whither ; and as a punishment to Tom for his contumacy in refusing to give the name of the man who had projected the expedition of the Pearl, he was denied the privilege of going off the place, and was KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. jfj not allowed to talk with the otlipr spr-vnn+a I t i • ■,• ™ his master fearing a lonspraw In one of Ltt* ''fv^i T ° m wroto a Ietter «• «*• hi letters he s°avs, " f haTe seen more noflZ' °f ) V f h fS ton - People *ho are trouble here in onV clay tnL I S in a h . " f 6 ,^'' ° f .S ettin S ,^h cloonments - — j ~> -»■ """c oceii mure trouble here m one day than I have in all my life. In another, « I would be dad to hear from her [his wife], but I should be more glad to hear of her death than for ner to come here." i ~ & v,^m S ouuu uuuuments have no idea of them. We give a /« c sunde of Tom's letter, with all its pir spelling, all its ignorance, helplessness, and misery. ' 172 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. m^^n- ^U^^ tun*- ^^^ddj [Fcliruary 18, 1 852. Mr. Bigelow. Dear Sir : — I write to let you know how 1 am getting along. Hard times here. I have not had one hour to go outside the place since I have been on it. I put my trust in the Lord to help me. I long to hear from you alL KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 173 I written to hear from you all. Mr. Bigelow, I hope you will not forget me. You know it was not my fault that I am here. I hope you will name me to Mr. Geden, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Bailey, to help me out of it. I believe that if they would make the least move to it that it could be done. I long to hear from my family how they are get- ting along. You will please to write to me just to let me know how they are getting along. You can write to me. I remain your humble servant, Thomas Ducket. You can direct your letters to Thomas Ducket, in care of Mr. Samuel T. Harrison, Louisiana, near Bayou Goula. For God's sake let me hear from you all. My wife and children are not out of my mind day nor night.] CHAPTER vni. KIDNAPPING. The principle which declares that one human being may lawfully hold another as property leads directly to the trade in hu- man beings ; and that trade has, among its other horrible results, the temptation to the crime of kidnapping. The trader is generally a man of coarse nature and low associations, hard-hearted, and reckless of right or honor. He who is not so is an exception, rather than a speci- men. If he has anything good about him when he begins the business, it may well be seen that he is in a fair way to lose it. Around the trader are continually pass- ing and repassing men and women who would be worth to him thousands of dollars in the way of trade, — who belong to a class whose rights nobody respects, and who, if reduced to slavery, could not easily make their word good against him. The probability is that hundreds of free men and women and children are all the time being precipitated into slavery in this way. The recent case of Northrop, tried in Washington, D. C, throws light on this fearful subject. The following account is abridged from the New York Times: Solomon Northrop is a free colored citizen of the United States ; he was b'>rn in Essex county, New York, about the year 1808 ; became early a resident of Washington county, and married there in 1829. His father and mother resided in the county of Washington ab »ut fifty years, till their decease, ;in ,i wero both free. With his wife and children he resided at Saratoga Springs in the winter of 1841, and while there was employed by two genfclem m to drive a team South, at the rate of a dollar a day. In fulfilment of his employ- ment, he proceeded to New York, and, having taken out free papers, to show that he was a citizen, he went on to Washington city, where he arrived the second day of April, the same year, and put up at Gadsby's Hotel. Soon after he arrived he felt unwell, and went to bed. While suffering with severe pain, some persons came in, and, seeing the condition he was in, pro- posed to give him some medicine, and did so. This is the last thing of which he had any recol- lection, until he found himself chained to the floor of Williams' slave-pen in this city, and hand- cuffed. In the course of a few hours, James II. Burch, a slave-dealer, came in, and the colored man asked him to take the irons off from him, and wanted to know why they were put on. Burch told him it was none of his business. The colored man said he was free, and told where he was born. Burch called in a man by the name of Ebenezer Rodbury, and they two stripped the man and laid him across a bench, Rodbury holding him down by his wrists. Burch whipped him with a pad- dle until he broke that, and then with a cat-o'- nine-tails, giving him a hundred lashes ; and he swore he would kill him if he ever stated to any one that he was a free man. From that time for- ward the man says he did not communicate the fact from fear, either that he was a free man, oi what his name was, until the last summer. He was kept in the slave-pen about ten days, when he, with others, was taken out of the pen in the night by Burch, handcuffed and shackled, and taken down the river by a steamboat, and then to Richmond, where he, with forty-eight others, was put on board the brig Orleans. There Burch left them. The brig sailed for New Orleans, and on arriving there, before she was fastened to the wharf, Theophilus Freeman, another slave-dealer, belonging in the city of New Orleans, and who in 1833 had been a partner with Burch in the slave- trade, came to the wharf, and received the slaves as they were landed, under his direction. This man was immediately taken by Freeman and shut up in his pen in that city. He was taken sick with the small-pox immediately after getting there, and was sent to a hospital, where he lay two or three weeks. When he had sufficiently recovered to leave the hospital, Freeman declined to sell him to any person in that vicinity, and sold him to a Mr. Ford, who resided in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where he was taken and lived more than a year, and worked as a carpenter, working with Ford at that business. Ford became involved, and had to sell him. A Mr. Tibaut became the purchaser. He, in a short time, sold him to Edwin Eppes, in Bayou Beouf, about one hundred and thirty miles from the mouth of Red river, where Eppes has retained him on a cotton plantation since the year 1843. To go back a step in the narrative, the man wrote a letter, in June, 1841, to Henry B. Nor- throp, of the State of New York, dated and post- marked at New Orleans, stating that he had been kidnapped and was on board a vessel, but was un- able to state what his destination was ; but re- questing Mr. N. to aid him in recovering his free- dom, if possible. Mr. N. was unable to do any- thing in his behalf, in consequence of not know- ing where he had gone, and not being able to find any trace of him. His place of residence re- mained unknown until the month of September last, when the following letter was received by his friends : 174 KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN. Bayou Beouf, August, 1852. Mr. William Pent, or Mr. Lewis Parker. Gentlemen : It having been a long time since I have seen or heard from you, and not knowing that you are living, it is with uncertainty that I write to you ; but the necessity of the case must be my excuse. Having been born free just across the river from you, I am certain you know me ; and I am here now a slave. I wish you to obtain free papers for me, and forward them to me at Marksville, Louisiana, Parish of Avovelles, and oblige Yours, Solomon Northrop. On receiving the above letter, Mr. N. applied to Governor Hunt, of New York, for such authority as was necessary for him to proceed to Louisiana as an agent to procure the liberation of Solomon. Proof of his freedom was furnished to Governor Hunt by affidavits of several gentlemen, General Clarke among others. Accordingly, in pursuance of the laws of New York, Henry B. Northrop was constituted an agent, to take such steps, by pro- curing evidence, retaining counsel, &c, as were necessary to secure the freedom of Solomon, and to execute all the duties of his agency. The result of Mr. Northrop's agency was the establishing of the claim of Solomon Northrop to freedom, and the restoring him to his native land. It is a singular coincidence that this man was carried to a plantation in the Red river country, that same region where the scene of Tom's captivity was laid; and his ac- count of this plantation, his mode of life there, and some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history. We extract them from the article of the Times : The condition of this colored man during the nine years that he was in the hands of Eppes was of a character nearly approaching that described by Mrs. Stowe as the condition of " Uncle Tom" while in that region. During that whole period his hut contained neither a floor, nor a chair, nor a bed, nor a mattress, nor anything for him to lie upon, except a board about twelve inches wide, with a block of wood for his pillow, and with a single blanket to cover him, while the walls of his hut did not by any means protect him from the inclemency of the weather. He was some- times compelled to perform acts revolting to hu- manity, and outrageous in the highest degree. On one occasion, a colored girl belonging to Eppes, about seventeen years of age, went one Sunday, without the permission of her master, to the near- est plantation, about half a mile distant, to visit another colored girl of her acquaintance. She re- turned in the course of two Or three hours, and for that offence she was called up for punishment, (which Solomon was required to inflict. Eppes com- pelled him to drive four stakes into the ground at Buch di jtances that the hands and ankles of the girl might he tied to them, as she lay with her lace upon the ground; and, having thus fastened her down, he compelled him, while standing by him- slf, to inflict one hundred lashes upon her hare . he being stripped naked. Saving inflicted the hundred blows, Solomon refused toproc further. Eppes tried to compel him to go on, but he absolutely set him at defiance, and refused to murder the girl. Eppes then seized the whip, and applied it until he was too weary to continue it. Blood flowed from her neck to her feet, and in this condition she was compelled the next day to go into the field to work as a field-hand. She bears the marks still upon her body, although the punishment was inflicted four years ago. When Solomon was about to leave, under the care of Mr. Northrop, this girl came from behind her hut, unseen by her master, and, throwing her arms around the neck of Solomon, congratulated him on his escape from slavery, and his return to his family; at the same time, in language of de- spair, exclaiming, " But, God! w r hat will be- come of me!" These statements regarding the condition of Solomon while with Eppes, and the punishment and brutal treatment of the colored girls, are taken from Solomon himself. It has been stated that the nearest plantation was distant from that of Eppes a half-mile, and of course there could be no interference on the part of neigh- bors in any punishment, however cruel, or how- ever well disposed to interfere they might be. Had not Northrop been able to write, as few of the free blacks in the slave states are, his doom might have been sealed for life in this den of misery. Two cases recently tried in Baltimore also unfold facts of a similar nature. The following is from THE CASE OF RACHEL PARKER AND HER SISTER. It will be remembered that more than a year since a young colored woman, named Mary Eliza- beth Parker, was abducted from Chester county and conveyed to Baltimore, where she was sold as a slave, and transported to New Orleans. A few days after, her sister, Rachel Parker, was also abducted in like manner, taken to Baltimore, and detained there in consequence of the interference of her Chester county friends. In the first case, Mary Elizabeth was, by an arrangement with the individual who had her in charge, brought back to Baltimore, to await her trial on a petition for free- dom. So also with regard to Rachel. Both, after trial, — the proof in their favor being so over- whelming, — were discharged, and are now among their friends in Chester county. In this com - tioii we give the narratives of both females, ob- tained since their release. IiarluJ Parker's Narrative. " I was taken from Joseph C. Miller's about twelve o'clock on Tuesday (Dec. 30th, L851), by two men who came up to the house b\ the back door. One came in and asked Mrs. Miller where Jesse McCreary lived, and thenseized me by the arm, and pulled me out of the house. Mrs. Miller called to her husband, who was in thefront porch, and he ran out and seized the man by the collar, and tried to stop him. The other, with an oath, then told him to take his hands oil', and if he touched me he would kill him. lie then told Mil- ler that I belonged to Mr. Schoolfield, in Balti- more. They then hurried me to a wagon, where there was another large man, put mo in, and drove off. " Mr. Miller ran across the field to head the wagon, and picked up a stake to run through the KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 11 wheel, when one of the men pulled out a sword (I think it was a sword, I never saw one) , and threat- ened to cut Miller's arm off. Pollock's wagon being in the way, and he refusing to get out of the road, we turned off to the left. After we rode away, one of the men toro.a hole in the back of the carriage, to look out to see if they were com- ing after us, and they said they wished they had given Miller and Pollock a blow. " We stopped at a tavern near the railroad, and I told the landlord (I think it was) that I was free. I also told several persons at the car-office ; and a very nice-looking man at the car-office was talking at the door, and he said he thought that they had better take me back again. One of the men did not come further than the tavern. I was taken to Baltimore, where we arrived about seven o'clock the same evening, and I was taken to jail. " The next morning, a man with large light- colored whiskers took me away by myself, and asked me if I was not Mr. Schoolfield's slave. I told him I was not ; he said that I was, and that if T did not say I was he would ' cowhide me and salt me, and put me in a dungeon.' I told him I was free, and that I would say nothing but the truth." Mary E. Parker's Narrative. " I was taken from Matthew Donnelly's on Sat- urday night (Dec. 6th, or 13th, 1851); was caught whilst out of doors, soon after I had cleared the supper-table, about seven o'clock, by two men, and put into a wagon. One of them got into the wagon with'me, and rode to Elkton, Md., where I was kept until Sunday night at twelve o'clock, when I left there in the cars for Baltimore, and arrived there early on Monday morning. " At Elkton a man was brought in to see me, by one of the men, who said that I was not his father's slave. Afterwards, when on the way to Baltimore in the cars, a man told me that I must say that I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave, or he would shoot me, and pulled a 'rifle' out of his pocket and showed it to me, and also threatened to whip me. "On Monday morning, Mr. Schoolfield called at the jail in Baltimore to see me ; and on Tues- day morning he brought his wife and several other ladies to see me. I told them I did not know them, and then Mr. C. took me out of the room, and told me who they were, and took me back again, so that I might appear to know them. On the next Monday I was shipped to New Orleans. " It took about a month to get to New Orleans. After I had been there about a week, Mr. C. sold me to Madame C, who keeps a large flower-gar- den. She sends flowers to sell to the theatres, sells milk in mai'ket, &c. I went out to sell candy and flowers for her, when I lived with her. One evening, when I was coming home from the theatre, a watchman took me up, and I told him I was not a slave. He put me in the calaboose, and next morning took me before a magistrate, who sent for Madame C. , who told him she bought me. He then sent for Mr. C, and told him he must account for how he got mo. Mr. C. said that my mother and all the family were free, except mi'. The magistrate told me to go back to Mad- ame C, and he told Madame 0. that she must not let me go out at night; and ho told Mr. 0. tlnu he must prove how he came by me. The magistrate afterwards called on Mrs. C, at her house, and had a long talk with her in the parlor. I do n it know what he said, as they were by them- selves. About a month afterwards, I was sent baci to Baltimore. I lived with Madame 0. about six months. ' ' There were six slaves came in the vessel with me to Baltimore, who belonged to Mr. D., and were returned because they were sickly. " A man called to see me at the jail after I came back to Baltimore, and told me that I must say I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave, and that if I did not do it he would kill me the first time he got a chance. He said Rachel [her sister] said she came from Baltimore and was Mr. Schoolfield's slave. Afterwards some gentlemen called on me [Judge Campbell and Judge Bell, of Philadelphia, and William II. Norris, Esq., of Baltimore], and I told them I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave. They said they were my friends, and I must tell them the truth. I then told them who I was, and all about it. " When T was in New Orleans Mr. C. whipped me because I said that I was free." Elizabeth, by her own account above, was seized and taken from Pennsylvania, Dec. 6th or 13th, 1851, which is confirmed by other testimony. It is conceded that such cases, when brought into Southern courts, are generally tried with great fairness and impartiality. The agent for Northrop' s release testifies to this, and it has been generally admitted fact. But it is probably only one case in a hundred that can get into court ; — of the multitudes who are drawn down in the ever-widening maelstrom only now and then one ever comes back to tell the tale. The succeeding chapter of advertisements will show the reader how many such victims there may probably be. CHAPTER IX. SLAVES AS THEY ARE, ON TESTIMONY OP OWNERS. The investigation into the actual con- dition of the slave population at the South is beset with many difficulties. So many things are said pro and con, — so many said in one connection and denied in another, — that the effect is very confusing. Thus, we are told that the state of the slaves is one of blissful contentment ; that they would not take freedom as a gift; that their family relations are only now and then invaded; that they are a stupid race, almost sunk to the condition of animals ; that generally they are kindly treated. &c. &c. [' Winston County. Said boy is about 20 years old, yellow complexion, round face, has << scar on his face, oni- on /lis left thigh, and one in his left hand, is about 5 feet C> inches high. Had on when taken up a cut- ton check shirt, Linsey pants, new cloth cap, and was riding a large roan horse about 12 or 11 years old and thin in order. Tin; owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be sold to pay charges. E. B. Sandeiis, Jailer A. (J. Oct. 12, 1312. n!2tf. Capitolian Vis-a- Vis, West Baton Rouge. Nov. 1, 1852 : $100 REWARD. Runaway from the subscriber, in Randolph County, on the 18th of October, a yellow boy, named JIM. This boy is 19 years old, a light mulatto with dirty sunhurnt hair, inclined* to be straight; he is just 5 feet 7 inches high, and slightly made. He had on when he left a black cloth cap, black cloth pantaloons, a plaided sack coat, a fine shirt, and brogan shoes. One hundred dollars will be paid for the recovery of the above- described boy, if taken out of the State, or fifty dollars if taken in the State. Mrs. S. P. IIau . Nov. 4, 1852. Huntsville, Mo. American Baptist, Dec. 20, 1852 : TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD FOR A PREACFIER. The following paragraph, headed " Twenty Dol- lars Reward," appeared in a recent number of the New Orleans Picayune : " Run away from the plantation of the under- signed the negro man Shedrick, a preacher, 5 feet 9 inches high, about 40 years old, but looking not over 23, stamped N. E. on the breast, and. having both small toes cut off. He is of a very dark com- plexion, with eyes small but bright, and a look quite insolent. He dresses good, and was arrested as a runaway at Donaldson ville, some three years ago. The above reward will be paid for his arrest, by addressing Messrs. Armant Brothers, St. James parish, or A. Miltenberger & Co., 30 Carondelet- street." Here is a preacher who is branded on the breast and has both toes cut off, — and will look insolent yet ! There 's depravity for you! Jefferson in<[iiirer, Nov. 27, 1852 : $100 DOLLARS REWARD. RANAWAY from my plantation, in Bolivar County, Miss., a negro man named MAY, aged 40 years, 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, copper colored,, and very straight ; his front teeth are good and stand a little open ; stout through the shoulders, and has some scars on his back that show above the skin plain, caused by the whip; lie fre- quently hiccups when eating, if he has not got water handy ; he was pursued into Ozark County, Mo., and there left. 1 will give the above reward for hi_ ■"•onh'nement in jail, so that I can got him. James II. Cousar, Victoria, Bolivar County, Mississippi. Nov. 13, 1m. Delightful master to go back to, this man must be ! The Alabama Standard has for its motto : '• Resistance to tyrants isobediench to God." Date of Nov. 20th, this advertisement: COMMITTED To the Jail of Choctaw County, by Judge Young, of Marengo County, a RUNAWAY SLAVE, who KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. calls his name BILLY, and says he helongs to the late William Johnson, and was in the employ- ment of John Jones, neo,r Alexandria, La. He is about 5 feet 10 inches high, black, about 40 years old, much scarred on the face and head, and quite intelligent. The owner is requested to come forward, prove his property, and take him from Jail, or he will be disposed of according to law. S. S. Houston, Jailer C. C. December 1, 1852. 44-tf Query : Whether this "quite intelligent" Billy had n't been corrupted by hearing this incendiary motto of the Standard? Knoxville (Tenn.) Register, Nov. 3d : LOOK OUT FOR RUNAWAYS ! ! $25 REWARD ! RANAWAY from the subscriber, on the night of the 26th July last, a negro woman named HARRIET. Said woman is about five feet five inches high, has prominent cheek-bones, large mouth and good front teeth,' tolerably spare built, about 26 years old. We think it probable she is harbored by some negroes not far from John My- natt's, in Knox County, where she and they are likely making some arrangements to get to a free state ; or she may be concealed by some negi'oes (her connections) in Anderson County, near Clin- ton. I will give the above reward for her appre- hension and confinement in any prison in this state, or I will give fifty dollars for her confine- ment in any jail out of this state, so that I get her. H. B. GOENS, Nov. 3. 4m Clinton, Tenn. The Alexandria Gazette, November 29, 1852, under the device of Liberty trampling on a tyrant, motto " Sic sem- per tyrannis" has the following : TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, living in the County of Rappahannock, on Tuesday last, Daniel, a bright mulatto, about 5 feet 8 inches high, about 35 years old, very intelligent, has been a wagoner for several years, and is pretty well acquainted from Richmond to Alexandria. He calls himself DANIEL TURNER ; his hair curls, without show- ing black blood, or wool; he has a scar on one cheek, and his left hand has been seriously injured by a pistol- shot , and he was shabbily dressed when last seen. I will give the above reward if taken out of the county, and secured in jail, so that I get him again, or $10 if taken in the county. A. M. Willis. Rappahannock Co.,Va., Nov. 29. — eolm. Another " very intelligent," straight- haired man. Who was his father ? The New Orleans Daily Crescent, office No. 93 St. Charles-street ; Tuesday morning, December 13, 1852 : BROUGHT TO THE FIRST DISTRICT PO- LICE PRISON. NANCY, a griffe, about 34 years old, 5 feet 1| inch high, a scar on left wrist; says she belongs to Madame Wolf. 12 177 CHARLES HALL, a black, about 13 years old, 5 feet 6 inches high ; says he is free, but supposed to be a slave. PHILOMONIA, a mulattress, about 10 years old, 4 feet 3 inches high ; says she is free, but sup- posed to be a slave. COLUMBUS, a griffe, about 21 years old, 5 feet 5£ inches high ; says he is free, but supposed to be a slave. SEYMOUR, a black, about 21 years old, 5 feet 11 inch high ; says he is free, but supposed to be a slave The owners will please comply with the law respecting them. J Workall, Warden. New Orleans, Dec. 14, 1852. What chance for Ay of these poor fel- lows who say they are free ? $50 REWARD, RANAWAY from the subscriber, living in Unionville, Frederick County, Md., on Sunday morning, the 17th instant, a DARK MULATTO GIRL, about 18 years of age, 5 feet 4 or 5 inches high, looks pleasant generally, talks very quick, converses tolerably well, and can read. It is sup- posed she had on, when she left, a red Merino dress, black Visette or plaid Shawl, and a purple calico Bonnet, as those articles are missing. A reward of Twenty-five Dollars will be given for her, if taken in the State, or Fifty Dollars if taken out of the State, and lodged in jail, so that I get her again. G. R. Safpington. Oct. 13. — 2m. Kosciusko Chronicle, Mississippi : TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD Will be paid for the delivery of the boy WALK- ER, aged about 28 years, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high, black complexion, loose make, smiles when spoken to, has a mild, sweet voice, and fine teeth. Apply at 25 Tchoupitoulas-street, up stairs. ol26t. Walker has walked off, it seems. Peace be with him ! $25 REWARD. RANAWAY from the subscriber, living near White's Store, Anson County, on the 3d of May last, a bright mulatto boy, named BOB. Bob is about 5 feet high, will weigh 130 pounds, is about 22 years old, and has some beard on his upper lip. His left leg is somewhat shorter than his right, causing him to hobble in his walk ; has a very broad face, and will show color like a ivhite man. It is probable he has gone off with some wagoner or trader, or he may have free papers and be pass- ing as a free man. He has straight hair. I will give a reward of TWENTY-FIVE DOL- LARS for the apprehension and delivery to me of said boy, or for his confinement in any jail, so that I get him again. Clara Lockhart, By Adam Lockhart. June 30, 1852. 698 : 5 Southern Standard, Oct. 16, 1852 : $50 REWARD! I! RANAWAY, or Stolen, from the subscriber, living near Aberdeen, Miss., a light mulatto wo- man, of small size, and about 23 years old. She has long, black, straight hair, and she usually koeps 178 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. it in good order. When she left she had on either a white dress, or a brown calico one with white spots or figures, and took with her a red handker- chief, and a red or pink sun-bonnet. She generally dresses very neatly. She generally calls herself Mary Ann Paine, — can read print, — has some freckles on her face and hands, — shoes No. 4, — had a ring or two on her fingers. She is very intelligent, and converses well. The above reward will be given for her, if taken out of the State, and $25 if taken within the State. U. McAllister. Memphis (weekly) Appeal will insert to the amount of $5, and send account to this office. October 6th, 1853. 20 — tf. Much can be seen <* this Mary Ann in this picture. The black, straight hair, usually kept in order, — the general neat- ness of dress, — the ring or two on the fingers, — the ability to read, — the fact of being intelligent and conversing well, are all to be noticed. $20 REWARD, Ranaway, on the 9th of last August, my ser- vant boy HENRY : he is 14- or 15 years old, a bright mulatto, has dark eyes, stoops a little, and stutters when confused. Had on, when he went away, white pantaloons, long blue summer coat, and a palm-leaf hat. I will give the above re- ward if he should be taken in the State of Vir- ginia, or $30 if taken in either of the adjoining States, but in either case he must be so secured that I get him again. Edwin C. Fitziiugh. Oct. 7. — eotf. Poor Henry ! — only 14 or 15. COMMITTED To the Jail of Lowndes County, Mississippi, on the 9th of May, by Jno. K. Peirce, Esq., and taken up as a runaway slave by William S. Cox, a negro man, who says his name is ROLAND, and that he belongs to Maj. Cathey, of Marengo Co., Ala., was sold to him by Henry Williams, a negro trader from North Carolina. Said negro is about 35 years old, 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, dark complexion, weighs about 150 pounds, middle finger on the right hand off at the second joint, and had on, when committed, a black silk hat, black drap d'ele dress coat, and white linsey pants. The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or ho will be dealt with according to' law. L. 11. WlLLKKOIID, June G, 1852. 19 — tf. Jailer. Richmond Semi-weekly Examiner, Oc- tober 20, 1852: FIFTY DOLLARS RFAVARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, residing in the County of Halifax, about the middle of last Au- gust, a Negro Man, Ned, aged some thirty or forty years, of medium height, copper color, full fore- head, and cheek bones a little prominent. No scars recollected, except ono of his fingers — the little one, probably — is stiff and crooked. The man Ned was purchased in Richmond, of Mr. Rob- ert Goodwin, who resides near Frederick-Hall, in Louisa County, and has a wife in that vicinity. He has been seen in the neighborhood, and is sup- posed to have gone over the Mountains, and to be now at work as a free man at some of the Iron Works ; some one having given him free papers. The above reward will be given for jthe apprehen- sion of the slave Ned, and his delivery to R. H. Dickinson & Bro., in Richmond, or to the under- signed, in Halifax, Virginia, or twenty-five if con- fined in any jail in the Commonwealth, so that I get him. Jas. M. Chappell, [Firm of Chappell & Tucker.] Aug. 10.— tf. This unfortunate copper-colored article is supposed to have gone after his vrife. Kentucky Whig, Oct. 22, '52 : $200 REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, near Mount Sterling, Ky., on the night of the 20th of October, a negro man named PORTER. Said boy is black, about 22 years old, very stout and active, weighs about 1G5 or 170 pounds, lie is a smart fellow, converses ivell, without the negro accent ; no particu- lar scars recollected. He had on a pair of coarse boots about half worn, no other clothing recol- lected. He was raised near Sharpsburg, in Bath county, by Harrison Caldwell, and may be lurk- ing in that neighborhood, but will probably endeavor to reach Ohio. I will pay the above-mentioned reward for him, if taken out of the State ; $50, if taken in any county bordering on the Ohio river ; or $25, if taken in this or any adjoining county, and secured so that I can get him. He is supposed to have ridden a yellow Horse, 15 hands and one inch high, 'mane and tail both yellow, five years old, and paces well. October 21st, 1852. G. W. Proctor. " No particular scars recollected " ! St. Louis Times, Oct. 14, 1852 : NOTICE. Taken up and committed to Jail in the town of Rockbridge, Ozark county, Mo., on the 31st of August last, a runaway slave, who calls' his name MOSES. Had on, when taken, a brown Jeanes pantaloons, old cotton shirt, blue frock-coat, an old rag tied round his head. He is about six feet high, dark complexion, a scar over the left eye, supposed to be about 27 years old. The owner is hereby notified to come forward, prove said negro, and pay all lawful charges incurred on his account, or the said negro will be sold at public auction for read v money at the Court House door in the town of Rockbridge, on MONDAY, the 13th of December next, according to law in such cases made and provided, this 9th of September, 1852. s23d&w. Robert Hicks, Sh*ff. Charleston Mercury, Oct. 15, 1852 : FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD, Runaway on Sunday the 0th inst., from the South Carolina Railroad Company, their negro KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S 'CABIN. 179 man SAM, recently bought by them, with others, at Messrs. Cothran & Sproull's sale, at Aiken. He was raised in Cumberland County, North Caro- lina, and last brought from Richmond, Va. In height he is 5 feet 6:{ inches. Complexion copper color ; on the left arm and right leg somewhat scarred. Countenance good. The above reward will he paid for his apprehension and lodgment in any one of the Jails of this or any neighboring State. J. D. Petsch, June 12. Sup't Transportation. Kosciusko Chronicle, Nov. 24, '52: COMMITTED To the Jail of Attila County, Miss., October the 7th,. 1852, a negro boy, who calls his name HAMBLETON, and says he belongs to Parson William Young, of Pontotoc County ; is about 2G or 27 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches high, rather dark complexion, has two or three marks on his back, a small srar on his left hip. Had on, when taken up, a pair of blue cotton pants, white cotton drawers, a new cotton shirt, a pair of kip boots, an old cloth cap and wool hat. The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take him away, or he will be dealt with as provided in such case. E. B. Sanders, Jailer A. C. Oct. 12, 1852. n 12tf. . Frankfort 21, 1852": Commonwealth. October COMMITTED TO JAIL.. A negro boy, who calls his name ADAM, was committed to the Muhlenburg Jail on the 24th of July, 1852. Said boy is black ; about 10 or 17 years old ; 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high ; will weigh about 150 lbs. He has lost a part of the finger next to his little finger on the right hand; also the great toe on his left foot. This boy says he belongs to Wm. Mosley ; that said Mosley was moving to Mississippi from Virginia. He further states that he is lost, and not a runaway. His owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay expenses, and take him away, or he will be dis- posed of as the law directs. S. II. Dempsey, J. M. C. Greenville, Ky., Oct. 20, 1852. RUNAWAY SLAVE. A negro man arrested and placed in the Barren County Jail, Ky., on the 21st instant, calling himself HENRY-, about 22 years old ; says he ran away from near Florence, Alabama, and belongs to John Calaway. He is about five feet eight inches high, dark, hut not very black; rather thin visage, pointed nose, no scars perceivable rather spare built; says he has been runaway nearly three months. The owner can get him by applying and paying the reward and expenses; if not, he will he proceeded against according to law. This 24th of August, 1852. Samuel Adwell, Jailer. Aug. 25, 1852. — Cm In the same paper are two more poor fellows, who probably have been sold to pay jail-i'ees, before now. NOTICE. Taken up by M. H. Brand, as a runaway slave, on the 22d ult., in the city of Covington, Kenton county, Ky., a negro man calling himself CHARLES WARFIELD, about 30 years old, but looks older, about G feet high ; no particular marks : had no free papers, but he says he is free, and was born in Pennsylvania, and in Fayette county. Said negro was lodged in jail on the said 22d ult., and the owner or owners, if any, are hereby notified to come forward, prove property, and pay charges, and take him away. C. W. Hull, J. K. C. August 3, 1852. — Gm. COMMITTED To the Jail of Graves county, Ky., on the 4th inst., a negro man calling himself DAVE or DAVID. He says he is free, but formerly belonged to Samuel Brown, of Prince William county, Virginia. He is of black color, about 5 feet 10 inches high, weighs about 180 lbs. ; supposed to be about 45 years old ; had on brown pants and striped shirt. He had in his possession an old rifle gun, an old pistol, and some old clothing. He also informs me that he has escaped from the Dyersburg Jail, Tennessee, where he had been confined some eight or nine months. The owner is hereby notified to come forward, prove property, pay charges, &c. L. B. Holefield, Jailer G. C. . June 28, 1852. — wGm. Charleston Mercury, Oct. 29, 1852 : $200 REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, some time in March last, his servant LYD1A, and is suspected of being in Charleston. I will give the above reward to any person who may apprehend her, and furnish evidence to conviction of the person supposed to harbor her, or $50 for having her lodged in any Jail so that I get her. Lydia is a Mulatto looman, twenty-five years of age, four feet eleven inches high, with straight black hair, which inclines to curl, her front teeth defective, and has been plugged ; the gold distinctly seen when talking; round face, a scar under her chin, and two fingers on one hand stiff at the first joints. June 1G. tuths C. T. Scaife. $25 REWARD. Runaway from the subscriber, on or about the first of May last, his negro boy GEORGE, about 18 years of age, about 5 feet high, well set, and speaks properly. He formerly belonged to Mr. J. D. A. Murphy, living in Blackville ; has a mother belonging to a Mr. Lorrick, living in Lexington District. He is supposed to have a pass, and is likely to be lurking about Branchville or Charles- ton. The above reward will be paid to any one lodging George in any Jail in the State, so that I can get him. J. J. Andrews, Orangeburg C. H. Orangeburg, Aug. 7, 1852. sw Sept 11 NOTICE. Committed to the Jail at Colleton District as a runaway, JORDAN, a negro man about thirty years of age, who says he belongs to Dobson 180 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Coely, of Pulaski County, Georgia. The owner has notice to prove property and take him away. L. W. McCants, Sheriff Colleton Dist. Walterboro, So. Ca., Sept. 7, 1852. The following are selected by the Com- momvealthmost\y from New Orleans papers. The characteristics of the slaves are inter- esting. TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD Will be paid by the undersigned for the appre- hension and delivery to any Jail in this city of the negro woman MARIAH, who ran away from the Phoenix House about the 15th of October last. She is about 45 years old, 5 feet 4 inches high, stout built, speaks French and English. Was purchased from Chas. Deblanc. H. Bidwell & Co., 16 Front Levee. FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway about the 25th ult., ALLEN, a bright mulatto, aged about 22 years, 6 feet high, very well dressed, has an extremely careless gait, of slender build, and wore a moustache when he left; the property of J. P. Harrison, Esq., of this city. The above reward will be paid for his safe delivery at any safe place in the city. For fur- ther particulars apply at 10 Bank Place. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD. We will give the above reward for the appre- hension of the light mulatto boy SEABOURN, aged 20 years, about 5 feet 4 inches high ; is stout, well made, and remarkably active. He is some- what of a circus actor, by which he may easily be detected, as he is always showing his gymnastic qualifications. The said boy absented himself on the 3d inst. Besides the above reward, all rea- sonable expenses will be paid. W. & II. Stackhouse, 70 Tchoupitoulas. TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. The above reward will be paid for the appre- hension of the mulatto boy SEVERIN, aged 25 years, 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high ; most of his front teeth are out. and the letters C. V. are marked on either of his arms with India Ink He speaks French, English (iml Spanish, and was formerly owned by Mr. Courcell, in the Third District. I will pay, in addition to the above reward, $50 for such in- formation as will lead to the conviction of any person harboring said slave. John Ekmon, corner Camp and Ruce sts. TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from the Chain Gang in New Orleans, First Municipality, in February last, a negro boy named STEPHEN. He is about 5 feet 7 inches in height, a very light mulatto, with blue eyes and brownish hair, stoops a little in the shoulders, has a cast-down look, and is very strongly built and muscular. He will not acknowledge Ids name or owner, is an habitual runaway, and was shut some- where in tin ankle while endeavoring to escape from Baton Rouge Jail. The above reward, with all attendant expenses, will be paid on his delivery to me, or for his apprehension and commitment to any Jail from which I can get him. A. L. BlNGAMAN. TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. The above reward will be given to the person who will lodge in one of the Jails of this city the slave SARAH, belonging to Mr. Guisonnet, cor- ner St. John Baptiste and Race streets ; said slave is aged about 28 years, 5 feet high, benevolent face, fine teeth, and speaking French and English. Captains of vessels and steamboats are hereby cautioned not to receive her on board, under penalty of the law. Avet Brothers, Corner Bienville and Old Levee streets. Lynchburg Virginian, Nov. 6th : TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, in the county of Wythe, on the 20th of June, 1852, a negro man named CHARLES, 6 feet high, copper color, with several teeth out in front, about 35 years of age, rather slow to reply, but pleasing appearance when spoken to. He wore, when he left, a cloth cap and a blue cloth sack coat ; he was purchased in Tennes- see, 14 months ago, by Mr. M. Connell, of Lynch- burg, and carried to that place, where he remained until I purchased him 4 months ago. It is more than probable that he will make his ivay to Tennessee, as he has a wife now living there ; or he may perhaps return to Lynchburg, and lurk about there, as he has acquaintances there. The above reward will be paid if he is taken in the State and confined so that I get him again ; or I will pay a reward of $40, if taken out of the State and confined in Jail. George W. Kyle. July 1. — d&c2twts Winchester Republican (Va.), Nov. 26: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, near Culpepper Ct. House, Va., about the 1st of October, a negro man named ALFRED, about five feet seven inches in height, about twenty-five years of age, uncom- monly muscular and active, complexion dark but not black, countenance mild and rather pleasant. He had a boil last winter on the middle joint of the middle or second finger of the right hand, which left the finger stiff in that joint, more visi- ble in opening his hand than in shutting it. He has a wife at Mr. Thomas G. Marshall's, near Farrowsvilk, in Fauquier County, and may be in that neighborhood, where he wishes to be sold, and where I am willing to sell him. I will give the above reward if he is taken out of the State and secured, so that I get him again ; or $50 if taken in the State, and secured in like manner. \V. 11. Slaughter. October 20, 1852. From the Louisville Daily Journal, Oct. 23, 1852 : $100 REWARD. Ran away from the subscriber, in this city, on Friday, May 28th, a negro boy named WYATT. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 181 Said boy is copper colored, 25 or 26 years old, about 5 feet 11 inches high, of large frame, slow and heavy gait, has very large hands and feet, small side-whiskers, a full head of hair which he combs to the side, quite a pleasing look, and is very likely. I recently purchased Wyatt from Mr. Garrett, of Garrett's Landing, Ky., and his wife is the property of Thos. G. Row/and, Esq., of this city. I will pay the above reward for the apprehension and delivery of the boy to me if taken out of the State, or $50 if taken in the State. June2d&wtf David W. Yandell. $200 REWARD. TWO NEGROES. Ranaway from the subscri- ber, living in Louisville, on the 2d, one negro man and girl. The man*s name is MILES. He is about 5 feet 8 inches high, dark-brown color, with a large scar upon his head, as if caused from a burn ; age about 25 years ; and had with him two carpet sacks, one of cloth, the other enamelled leather, also a pass from Louisville to Owenton, Owen county, Ky., and back. The girl's name is JULIA, and she is of light-brown color, short and heavy 6et, rather good looking, with a scar upon her fore- head ; had on a plaid silk dress when she left, and took other clothes with her ; looks to be about 16 years of age. The above reward will be paid for the man, if taken out of the State, or $100 for the girl ; $100 for the man, if taken in the State, or $50 for the girl. In either event, they are to be se- CUre ?^/ f P l them - John W. Lynn. oct 5 d&wtt The following advertisements are all dated Shelby Co., Kentucky. JAILER'S NOTICE. Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county a negro woman, who says her name is JUDA ; dark complexion ; twenty years of age ; some five feet high ; weighs about one hundred and twenty pounds ; no scars recollected, and says she belongs to James Wilson, living in Denmark, Tennessee. The owner of said slave is requested to come for- ward, prove property, pay charges, and take her away, or she will be dealt with as the law directs. W. II. Eanes, oct27 — w4t Jailer Shelby county. JAILER'S NOTICE. Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county, on the 28th ult., a negro boy, who says his name is JOHN W. LOYD ; of a bright complexion, 25 years of age, will weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds, about five feet nine or ten inches high, three scars on his left leg, which was caused by a dog-bite. The said boy John claims to be free. If he has any master, he is hereby notified to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. [nov3 — w4t Also — Committed at the same time a negro boy, who says his name is PATRICK, of a bright complexion, about u0 years of age, will weigh about one hundred*md forty-five or fifty pounds ; about six feet high ; his face is very badly scarred, which he says was caused by being salivated. The disease caused him to lose the boi>e out of his nose, and his jaw-bone, also. Says he belongs to Dr. Wm. Cheathum, living in Nashville, Tenn. The owner of said slave is requested to come for- ward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. [nov3 — w4t Also — Committed at the same time a negro boy, who says his name is CLAIBORNE; dark complexion, 22 years of age, will weigh about one hundred and forty pounds, about five feet high ; no scars recollected; says he belongs to Col. Rousell, living in De Soto county, Miss. The owner of said slave is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. W. H. Eanes, nov3 — w4t Jailer of Shelby county. JAILER'S NOTICE. Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county a negro boy, who says his name is GEORGE ; dark complexion, about twenty-five or thirty years of age, some five feet nine or ten inches high ; will weigh about one hundred and forty pounds, no scars, and says he belongs to M alley Bradford, living in Issaqueen county, Mississippi. The owner of said slave is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. W. H. Eanes, novlO. — w4t Jailer of Shelby county. JAILER'S NOTICE. Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county, on the 30th ult., a negro woman, who says her name is NANCY, of a bright complexion, some twenty or twenty-one years of age, will weigh about one hundred and forty pounds, about five feet high, no scars, and says she belongs to John Pittman, living in Memphis, Tenn. The owner of said slave is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take her away, or she will be dealt with as the law directs. W. H. Eanes, novlO. — w4t Jailer of Shelby county. Negro property is decidedly " brisk" in this county. Natchez (Miss.) Free Trader, Novem- ber 6, 1852 : 25 DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway from the undersigned, on the 17th day of October, 1852, a negro man by the name of ALLEN, about 23 years old, near 6 feet high, of dark mulatto color, no marks, save one, and that caused by the bite of a dog ; had on, when he left, lowell pants, and cotton shirt ; reads imperfect, can make a short calculation correctly, and can write some few words ; said negro has run away heretofore, and when taken up was in possession of a free pass. He is quick-spoken, lively, and smiles when in conversation. I will give the above reward to any one who will confine said negro in any Jail, so that I can get him. Thos R. Cheatham. nov6. — 3t 182 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Newberry Sentinel (S. G), Nov. 17, 1852 : notice : RANAWAY from the subscriber, on the 9th of July last, my Boy WILLIAM, a bright mulatto, about 26 years old, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, of slender make, quite intelligent, speaks quick when spoken to, and walks briskly. Said boy, ivas brought from Virginia, and will ■probably attempt to get back. Any information of said boy will be thankfully received. John M. Mars. Near Mollohon P. 0., Newberry Dist., S. C. Nov. 3. 414t. §2f" Raleigh Register and Richmond Enquirer will copy four times weekly, and send bills to this office. Greensboro 1 Patriot (N. C), Nov. 6 : 10 DOLLARS REWARD. RANAWAY from my service, in February, 1851, a colored man named EDWARD WINS- LOW, low, thick-set, part Indian, and a first rate iiddler. Said Winslow was sold out of Guilford jail, at February court, 1851, for his prison charges, for the term of five years. It is supposed that he is at work on the Railroad, somewhere in Davidson county. The above reward will be paid for his apprehension and confinement in the jail of Guil- ford or any of the adjoining counties, so that I get him, or for his delivery to me in the south-east corner of Guilford. My post-office is Long's Mills, Randolph, N. 0. P. C. Smith. October 27, 1852. 702 — 5w. The New Orleans Trve Delta, of the 11th ult., 1853, has the following editorial notice : The Great Raffle of a Trotting Horse and a Negro Servant. — The enterprising and go-a- head Col. Jennings has got a raffle under way now, which eclipses all his previous undertakings in that line. The prizes are the celebrated trot- ting horse "Star," buggy and harness, and a valu- able negro servant, — the latter valued at nine hun- dred dollars. See his advertisement in another column. The advertisement is as follows : RAFFLE. MR. JOSEPH JENNINGS Respectfully informs his friends and the public, that, at the request of many of his acquaintances, he lias been induced to purchase from Mr. Osborn, of Missouri, the celebrated dark bay Horse " Star," age five years, square trotter, and warranted sound, With a new light trotting Buggy and Harness ; a/50 the stout mulatto girl "Sarah," aged about twen- ty years , general house servant, valued at nine hun- dred dollars, and guaranteed ; will be raffled for at 4 o'clock, P. M., February 1st, at any hotel selected by the subscribers. The above is as represented, and those persons who may wish to engage in the usual practice of raffling will, I assure them, be perfectly satisfied with their destiny in this affair. Fifteen hundred chances, at $1 each. The whole is valued at its just worth, fifteen .hundred dollars. The raffle will be conducted by gentlemen se- lected by the interested subscribers present. Five nights allowed to complete the raffle. Both of above can be seen at my store, No. 78 Common- street, second door from Camp, at from 9 o'clock A.M., till half-past 2 P. M. Highest throw takes the first choice ; the lowest throw the remaining prize, and the fortunate win- ners to pay Twenty Dollars each, for the refresh- ments furnished for the occasion. Jan. 9. 2w. J. Jennings. Daily Courier (Natchez, Miss.), Nov. 20, 1852 : TVVENTV-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. THE above reward will be given for the appre- hension and confinement in any jail of the negro man HARDY, who ran away from the subscriber, residing on Lake St. John, near Rifle Point, Con- cordia parish, La., on the 9th August last. Hardy is a remarkably likely negro, entirely free from all marks, scars or blemishes, when he left home ; about six feet high, of black complexion (though quite light), fine countenance, unusually smooth skin, good head of hair, fine eyes and teeth. Address the subscriber at Rifle Point, Concordia Parish, La. Robert Y. Jones. Oct. 30. — lm. What an unfortunate master — lost an article entirely free from " marks, scars or blemishes"! Such a rarity ought to be choice ! Savannah Daily Georgian, 6th Sept., 1852: ARRESTED, ABOUT three weeks ago, under suspicious cir- cumstances, a negro woman, who calls herself PHEBE, or PHILLIS. Says she is free, and lately from Beaufort District, South Carolina. Said woman is about 50 years of age, stout in stature, mild-spoken, 5 feet 4 inches high, and weighs about 140 pounds. Having made diligent inquiry by letter, and from what I can learn, said woman is a runaway. Any person owning said slave can get her by making application to me, piopeily authentitated. Waring Russell, County Constable. Savannah, Oct. 25, 1852. oot. 26. 250 DOLLARS REWARD. RANAWAY from Sparta, Ga., about the first of last year my boy GEORGE. He is a good car- penter, about 35 years : a bright mulatto, tall and quite likely. He was brought about three years ago from St. Mary's, and had, when lie ran away, a wife there, or near there, belonging to a Mr. Holzen- dorff. I think ho has told me he has been about Macon also. He bad, and perhaps still has, a brother in Savannah. He is vn-y intelligent. I will give the above reward for his confinement in some jail in the State, so that I can get him. Re- fer, for any further information, to Rabun & Whitehead, Savannah, Ga. W. J. Sassnett. Oxford, Ga., Aug. 13th, 1852. tuths3m. al7. From these advertisement's, and hundreds of similar ones, one may learn the following thiritfs : KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 183 1. That the arguments for the enslaving of the negro do not apply to a large part of the actual slaves. '2. That they are not, in the estimation of their masters, very stupid. & That they are not remarkably con- tented. 4. That they have no particular reason to be so. 5. That multitudes of men claiming to be free are constantly being sold into slavery. In respect to the complexion of these slaves, there are some points worthy of con- sideration. The writer adds the following advertisements, published by Wm. I. Bow- ditch, Esq., in his pamphlet " Slavery and the Constitution." From the Richmond (Va.) Whig: lOO DOLLARS REWARD "WILL be given for the apprehension of my ne- gro ( ? ) Edmund Kenney. He iias straight hair, and complexion so nearly white that it is believed a stranger would suppose there was no African blood in him. He was with my boy Dick a short time since in Norfolk, and offered him for sale, and was apprehended, but escaped under pretence of being a white man ! Anderson Bowles. January 0, 1836. From the Republican Banner and Nash- ville Whig of July 14, 1849 : 200 DOLLARS REWARD. RANAWAY from the subscriber, on the 23d of June last, a bright mulatto woman, named Julia, about 25 years of age. She is of common size, nearly white, and very likely. She is a good seam- stress, and can read a little. She may attempt to pass for white, — dresses fine. She took with her Anna, her child, 8 or Oyears old, and considerably darker than her mother She once belonged to a Mr. Helm, of Columbia, Tennessee. I will give a reward of $50 for said negro and child, if delivered to me, or confined in any jail in this state, so I can get them ; $100, if caught in any other Slave state, and confined in a jail so that I can get them ; and $200, if caught in any Free state, and put in any good jail in Kentucky or Tennessee, so I can get them. A. W. Johnson. Nashville, July 9, 1849. The following three advertisements are taken from Alabama papers : RANAWAY From the Subscriber, working on the plantation of Col. II. Tinker, a bright mulatto boy, named Alfred. Alfred is about 18 years old, pretty well grown, has blue eyes, light flaxen hair, shin disposed to freckle. He will try to pass as free-born. Green County, Ala. S. G. Stewart. lOO DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from the subscriber, a bright mulatto man-slave, named Sam. Light, sandy hair, blue eyes, ruddy complexion, — is so white as very easily to pass for a free white man. Edwin Peck. Mobile, April 22, 1837. RANAWAY, On the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman, named Fanny. Said woman is 20 years old ; is rather tall ; can read and write, and so forgo passes for herself. Carried away with her a pair of ear-rings, — a Bible with a red cover ; is- very pious. She prays a great deal, and was, as sup- posed, contented and happy. She is as while as most white women, with straight, light hair, and blue eyes, and can pass herself for a white woman. I will give $500 for her apprehension and delivery to me. She is very intelligent. Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845. John Balch. From the Newbern (N. C.) Spectator: 50 DOLLARS REWARD Will be given for the apprehension and delivery to me of the following slaves : — Samuel, and Judy his wife, with their four children, belonging to the estate of Sacker Dubberly, deceased. I will give $10 for the apprehension of William Dubberly, a slave belonging to the estate. William is about 19 years old, quite white, and would not readily be taken for a slave. John J. Lane. March 13, 1837. The next two advertisements we cut from the New Orleans Picayune of Sept. 2. 1846: 25 DOLLARS REWARD. Ranaway from the plantation of Madame Fergus Duplantier, on or about the 27th of June, 1846, a bright mulatto, named Ned, very stout built, about 5 feet 11 inches high, speaks English and French, about 35 years old, waddles in his walk. He may try to pass himself for a white man, as he is-of a very clear color, and has sandy hair. The above reward will be paid to whoever will bring him to Madame Duplantiers plantation, Manchac, or lodge him in some jail where he can be conve- niently obtained. 200 DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from the subscriber, last November, a white negro man, about 35 years old, height about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, blue eyes, has a yelloio woolly head, very fair skin. These are the characteristics of three races. The copper-colored complexion shows the In- dian blood. The others are the mixed races of negroes and whites. It is known that the poor remains of Indian races have been in many cases forced into slavery. It is no less certain that white children have some- times been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, Presbyte- rian minister, who wrote against slavery there as early as 1816, gives an account of a boy who was stolen from his parents at seven years of age, immersed in a tan-vat to change his complexion, tattooed and sold, and, after a captivity of fourteen years, succeeded in escaping. The tanning process is not neces- sary now, as a fair skin is no presumption against slavery. There is reason to think 184 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. that the grandmother of poor Emily Rus- sell was a* wlute child, stolen by kidnappers. That kidnappers may steal and sell white children at the South now, is evident from these advertisements. The writer, within a week, has seen a fugitive quadroon mother, who had with her two children, — a boy of ten months, and a girl of three years. Both were surpassingly fair, and uncommonly beautiful. The girl had blue eyes and golden hair. The mother and those children were about to be sold for the division of an estate, which was the reason why she fled. When the mind once becomes familiarized with the process of slavery, — of enslaving first black, then Indian, then mu- latto, then quadroon, and when blue eyes and golden hair are advertised as properties of 7iegroes, — what protection will there be for poor white people, especially as under the present fugitive law they can be carried away without a jury trial ? A Governor of South Carolina openly'de- clared, in 1835, that the laboring population of any country, bleached or unbleached, were a dangerous element, unless reduced to slavery. Will not this be the result, then 7 CHAPTER VIII. " POOR WHITE TRASH." When the public sentiment of Europe speaks in tones of indignation of the system of American slavery, the common reply has been, " Look at your own lower classes" The apologists of slavery have pointed Eng- land to her own 'poor. They have spoken of the heathenish ignorance, the vice, the darkness, of her crowded cities, — nay, even of her agricultural districts. Now, in the first place, a country where the population is not crowded, where the resources of the soil are more than sufficient for the inhabitants, — a country of recent origin, not burdened with the worn-out institutions and clumsy lumber of past ages, — ought not to be satisfied to do only as well as countries which have to struggle against all these evils. It is a poor defence for America to say to older countries, " We are no worse than you are." She ought to be infinitely better. But it will appear that the institution of slavery has produced not only heathenish, degraded, miserable slaves, but it produces a class of white people avIio are, by univer- sal admission, more heathenish, degraded, and miserable. The institution of slavery has accomplished the double feat, in America, not only of degrading and brutalizing her black working classes, but of producing, notwithstanding a fertile soil and abundant room, a poor white population as degraded and brutal as ever existed in any of the most crowded districts of Europe. The way that it is done can be made ap- parent in a few words. 1. The distribu- tion of the land into large plantations, and the consequent sparseness of settlement, make any system of common-school edu- cation impracticable. 2. The same cause operates with regard to the preaching of the gospel. 3. The degradation of the idea of labor, which results inevitably from en- slaving the working class, operates to a great extent in preventing respectable work- ing men of the middling classes from settling o o o or remaining in slave states. Where carpen- ters, blacksmiths and masons, are advertised every week with their own tools, or in com- pany with horses, hogs and other cattle, there is necessarily such an estimate of the laboring class that intelligent, self-respecting mechanics, such as abound in the free states, must find much that is annoying and disa- greeable. They may endure it for a time, but with much uneasiness ; and they are glad of the first opportunity of emigration. Then, again, the filling up of all branches of mechanics and agriculture with slave labor necessarily depresses free labor. Suppose, now, a family of poor whites in Carolina or Virginia, and the same family in Vermont or Maine ; how different the influences that come over them ! In Vermont or Maine, the children have the means of education at hand in public schools, and they have all around them in society avenues of success that require only industry to make them available. The boys have their choice among all the different trades, for which the organization of free society makes a steady demand. The girls, animated by the spirit of the land in which they are born, think useful labor no disgrace, and find, with true female ingenuity, a hundred ways of adding to the family stock. If there be one mem- ber of a family in whom diviner gifts and higher longings seem a call for a more fin- ished course of education, then cheerfully the whole family unites its productive indus- try to give that one the wider education which his wider genius demands; and thus have been given to the world such men as I Roger Sherman and Daniel Webster. KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 185 But take this same family and plant them in South Carolina or Virginia — how differ- ent the result ! No common school opens its doors to their children ; the only church, pei'haps, is fifteen miles off, over a bad road. The whole atmosphere of the country in which they are born associates degradation and slavery with useful labor ; and the only standard of gentility is ability to live without work. What branch of useful labor opens a way to its sons ? Would he be a black- smith ? — The planters around him prefer to buy their blacksmiths in Virginia. Would he be a carpenter ? — Each planter in his neighborhood owns one or two now. And so coopers and masons. Would he be a shoe-maker? — The plantation shoes are made in Lynn and Natick, town3 of New Eng- land. In fact, between the free labor of the North and the slave labor of the South, there is nothing for a poor white to do. Without schools or churches, these misera- ble families grow up heathen on a Christian soil, in idleness, vice, dirt and discomfort of all sorts. They are the pest of the neighborhood, the scoff and contempt or pity even of the slaves. The expressive phrase, so common in the mouths of the negroes, of " poor white trash," says all for this luckless race of beings that can be said. From this class spring a tribe of keepers of small grog- geries, and dealers, by a kind of contraband trade, with the negroes, in the stolen produce of plantations. Thriving and promising sons may perhaps hope to grow up into negro-traders, and thence be exalted into overseers of plantations. The utmost stretch of ambition is to compass money enough, by any of a variety of nondescript measures, to "buy a nigger or two," and begin to appear like other folks. Woe betide the unfortunate negro man or woman, carefully raised in some good religious family, when an execution or the death of their proprie- tors throws them into the market, and they are bought by a master and mistress of this class ! Oftentimes the slave is infinitely the superior, in every respect, — in person, manners, education and morals ; but, for all that, the law guards the despotic authority of the owner quite as jealously. From all that would appear, in the case of Souther, which we have recorded, he must have been one of this class. We have certain indications, in the evidence, that the two white witnesses, who spent the whole day in gaping, unresisting survey of his diabolical proceedings, were men of this order. It appears that the crime alleged against the poor victim was that of getting drunk and trading with these two very men, and that they were sent for probably by way of showing them " what a nigger would get by trading with them." This circum- stance at once marks them out as belonging to that band of half-contraband traders who spring up among the mean whites, and occa- sion owners of slaves so much inconvenience by dealing with their hands. Can any words so forcibly show what sort of white men these are, as the idea of their stand- ing in stupid, brutal curiosity, a whole day, ' as witnesses in such a hellish scene ? Conceive the misery of the slave who falls into the hands of such masters ! A clergy- man, now dead, communicated to the writer the following anecdote: In travelling in one of the Southern States, he put up for the night in a miserable log shanty, kept by a man of this class. All was dirt, discom- fort and utter barbarism. The mnn, his wife, and their stock of wild, neglected chil- dren, drank whiskey, loafed and predominat- ed over the miserable man and woman who did all the work and bore all the caprices of the whole establishment. He — the gentle- man — was not long in discovering that these slaves were in person, language, and in every respect, superior to their owners; and all that he could get of comfort in this misera- ble abode was owing to their ministrations. Before he went away, they contrived to have a private interview, and begged him to buy them. They told him that they had been decently brought up in a respectable and refined family, and that their bondage was therefore the more inexpressibly galling. The poor creatures had waited on him with most assiduous care, tending his horse, brushing his boots, and anticipating all his wants, in the hope of inducing him to buy them. The clergyman said that he never so wished for money as when he saw the dejected visages with which they listened to his assurances that he was too poor to com- ply with their desires. This miserable class of whites form, in all the Southern States, a material for the most horrible and ferocious of mobs. Utterly ignorant, and inconceivably brutal, they aro like some blind, savage monster, which, when aroused, tramples heedlessly over everything in its way. Singular as it may appear, though slavery is the cause of the misery and degradation of this class, yet they are the most vehement and ferocious advocates of slavery. The reason is this. They feel the scorn 186 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. of the upper classes, and their only means of consolation is in having a class below them, whom they may scorn in turn. To set the negro at liberty would deprive them of this last comfort ; and accordingly no class of men advocate slavery with such frantic and unreasoning violence, or hate abolitionists with such demoniac hatred. Let the reader conceive of a mob of men as brutal and callous as the two white witnesses of the Souther tragedy, led on by men like Souther himself, and he will have some idea of the materials which occur in the worst kind of Southern mobs. The leaders of the community, those men who play on other men with as little care for them as a harper plays on a harp, keep this blind, furious monster of the mob, very much as an overseer keeps plantation-dogs, as creatures to be set on to any man or thing whom they may choose to have put down. These leading men have used the cry of "abolitionism" over the mob, much as a huntsman uses the "set on" to his dogs. Whenever they have a purpose to carry, a man to put down, they have only to raise this cry, and the monster is wide awake, ready to spring wherever they shall send him. Does a minister raise his voice in favor of the slave 1 — Immediately, with a whoop and 'hurra, some editor starts the mob on him, as an abolitionist. Is there a man teaching his negroes to read ? — The mob is started upon him — he must promise to give it up, or leave the state. Does a man at a public hotel-table express his approbation of some anti-slavery work I — Up come the police, and arrest him for seditious language ; * and on the heels of the police, thronging round the justice's office, come the ever-ready mob, — men with clubs and bowie-knives, swearing that they will have his heart 's blood. The more respectable citizens in vain try to com- pose them; it is quite' as hopeful to reason with a pack of hounds, and the only way is to smuggle the suspected person out of the state as quickly as possible. All these are scenes of common occurrence at the South. Every Southern man knows them to be so, and they know, too, the reason why they arc so; but, so much do they fear the monster, that they dare not say what they know. This brute monster sometimes gets be- yond the power of his masters, and then results ensue most mortifying - to the patriot- * The writer is describing hero a scene of recent occur- rence in a slave 6tato, of whose particulars she has tho best means of knowledge. Tho work in us condition of the slaves, but was un- successful. February 1st, in the evening, he preached to the colored congregation of that place, after which lie was assailed by a mob, and driven from the town. Returning in a short time, lie left a communication respecting the transaction at the office of the Richmond Chronicle,^ and again departed; but had not gone far before he was Overtaken by four men, who seized him, and led l/i:ii to an out-of-the-way place, where they^ con- sulted as to what they should do with him. They resolved to duck biin, ascertaining first that he Could swim. Two of them took him and threw him into a pond, as far as they could, and, on his rising to the surface, bade him come out. lie did so, and, on his refusing to promise never to c line t 1 Richmond, they flung him in again. This operation was repe ited four tim is, when he yielded. Chey next demanded of aim a promise that he would Leave Kentucky, and never return again. 11 ■ refused to give it, and they threw him in the water six tim is more, when, his strength failing, and they threatening to whip him, he gave the pledge required, and left the state. We do not know anything about Mr. Matthews, or his mode of promulgating his views. Thelaws in Kentucky for the pr ii icti in of what is called " slave property" are stringent enough, and no- body can doubt the readiness Of public sentiment to enforce their heaviest penalties against offend- ers. If Mr. Matthews violated the law, he should have been tried by the law ; and he would have been, had he committed an illegal act. No charge of the kind is made against him. He was, then, the victim of Lynch law, ad- ministered in a ruffianly manner, and without provocation ; and the parties concerned in the transaction, whatever their position in society, were guilty of conduct as cowardly as it was brutal. As to the manner in which Mr. Matthews has conducted himself in Kentucky we know nothing. We transfer to our columns the following extract from an editorial in the Journal and Messenger of Cincinnati, a Baptist paper, and which, it may be presumed, speaks intelligently on the subject; " Mr. Matthews is likewise a Baptist minister, whose ostensible mission is one of love. If he has violated that mission, or any law, he is amen bble to God and law, and not to lawless violence. His going to Kentucky is a matter of conscience 'to him, in which he has a right to indulge. Many good anti-slavery men would question the wisdom of such a step. None would doubt his right. Many, as a matter of taste and pro- priety, cannot admire the way in which he is re- puted to do his work. But they believe he is conscientious, and they know that ' oppression maketh even a wise man mad.' We do not think, in obedience to Christ's commands, he suf- ficiently counted the cost. For no one in his position should go to Kentucky to agitate the question of slavery, unless he expects to die. No man in this position, which Mr. Matthews oc- cupies, can do it, without falling a martyr. Lib- erty of speech and thought is not, cannot be, en- joyed in slave states. Slavery could not exist for a moment, if it did. It is, doubtless, the duty of the Christian not to surrender his life cheaply, for the sake of being a martyr. This would be an unholy motive. It is his duty to preserve it until the last moment. So Christ enjoins. It is no mark of cowardice to flee. _ ' When they persecute you in one city, flee into another,' said the Saviour. But he did not say, Give a pledge that you will not exercise your rights. Hence, he nor his disciples never did it. But it is a question, after one has deliberated, and conscientiously entered a community in the_ exer- cise of his constitutional ami religious rights, whether he should give a pledge, under the fn- fluence of a lore of life, never to return. If he does, he has not counted the cost. A Christian should be as conscientious in pledging solemnly not to do what he has an undoubted right t 1 do, as he is in laboring for the emancipation of the slave." The following is from the National Era, July 10, 1851. Mr. Mc Bride wished to form a church of non-slaveholders. CASE OF REV. JESSE m'iJRIDE. This missionary, it will be remembered, was oxpelled lately from the State of North Carolina. We give belOW his letter (let riling the e induct of the m ib. His letter is d ited Guilford, M iy <». After writing that he is suffering from temporary illness, be pr ice ids : " I would have kept within doors this day, but KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. for the fact that I mistrusted a mob would be out to disturb my congregation, though such a hint bad not been given me by a human being. About six o.'clock this morning I crawled into my carriage and drove eighteen miles, which brought me to my meeting place, eight miles east of Greensboro', — the place I gave an account of a few weeks since, — where some seven or eight persons gave their names to go into the organization of a Wes- leyan Methodist church. Well, sure enough, just before meeting time (twelve o'clock) I was in- formed that a pack of rioters were on hand, and that they had sworn I should not fulfil my ap- pointmentthis day. As they had heard nothing of this before, the news came upon some of my friends like a clap of thunder from a clear sky ; they scarcely knew what to do. I told them I should go to meeting or die in the attempt, and, like ' good soldiers,' they followed. Just before I got to the arbor, I saw a man leave the crowd and approach me at the left of my path. As I was about to pass, he said : " ' Mr. McBride, here 's a letter for you.' " I took the letter, put it into my pocket, and said, ' I have not time to read it until after meet- ing.' " ' No, you must read it now.' " Seeing that I did not stop, he said, ' I want to speak to you,' beckoning with his hand, and turn- ing, expecting me to follow. "'I will talk to you after meeting,' said I, pulling out my watch ; ' you see I have no time tolspare — it is just twelve.' " As I went to go in at the door of the stand, a man who had taken his seat on the step rose up, placed his hand on me, and said, in a very excited tone, " ' Mr. McBride, you can't go in here !' " Without offering any resistance, or saying a word, I knelt down outside the stand, on the ground, and prayed to my 'Father;' plead His promises, such as, ' When the enemy comes in like a flood, I will rear up a standard against' him; 'lam a present help in trouble;' ' I will fight all your battles for you ;' prayed for grace, victory, my enemies, &c. Rose perfectly calm. Meantime my enemies cursed and swore some, but most of the time they were rather "quiet. Mr. Iliatt, a slave-holder and merchant from Greens- boro', said, " ' You can't preach here to-day; we have eome to prevent you. We think you are doing harm — violating our laws,' &c. " ' From what authority do j r ou thus command and prevent me from preaching? Are you au- thorized by the civil authority to prevent meV " ' No, sir.' • " ' Has God sent you, and does he enjoin it on you as a duty to stop me?' " ' I am unacquainted with Him.' " ' Well, ' acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace;' and he will give you a more honor- able business than stopping men from preaching his g >spel. The ju Iginent-d ly is coming on, and I summon you there, to give an account of this day's conduct. And now, gentlemen, if I have violatedthe laws of North Carolina, by them I am willing to be judged, condemned, and pun- ished ; to go to the whipping- post, pillory or jail, or even to hug the stake, lint, gentlemen, you are not generally a pack of ignoramuses; your good sense teaches you tlie impropriety of your course ; you know that you are doing wrong ; you 191 know that it is not right to trample all law, both human and divine, in the dust, out of professed love for it. You must see that your course will lead to perfect anarchy and confusion. The time may come when Jacob Hiatt may be in the mi- nority, when his principles may be as unpopular as Jesse McBride's are now. What then? Why, if your course prevails, he must be lynched — whipped, stoned, tarred and feathered, dragged from his own house, or his house burned over his head, and he perish in the ruins. The per- sons became food for the beasts they threw Dan- iel to ; the same fire that was kindled for the '_ Hebrew children' consumed those who kindled it ; Haman stretched the same rope he prepared for Mordecai. Yours is a dangerous course, and 3'ou must reap a retribution, either here or here- after. We will sing a hymn,' said I. " ' yes,' said EL, ' you may sing'.' " ' The congregation will please assist me, as I am quite unwell;' and I lined off the hymn, ' Father, I stre.tch my hands to thee,' &c, rioters and all helping to sing. All seemed in good hu- mor, and I almost forgot their errand. When we closed, I said, ' Let us pray.' »' ' G — d d n it, that 's not singing !' said one of the company, who stood back pretty well. " While we invoked the divine blessing, I think many could say, ' It is good for us to be here.' Before I rose from my knees, after the friends rose, I delivered an exhortation of some ten or fifteen minutes, in which I urged the brethren to steadfastness, prayer, &c, some of the mob cry- ing, ' Lay hold of him !' ' Drag him out !' ' Stop him!' &c." " My voice being nearly drowned by the tumult, I left off. I was then called to have some conver- sation with H., who repeated some of the charges he preferred at first, — said I was bringing on in- surrection, causing disturbance, &c. ; wishing me to leave the state ; said he had some slaves, and he himself was the most of a slave of any of them, had harder times than they had, and he would like to be shut of them, and that he was my true friend. " ' As to your friendship, Mr. H., you have act- ed quite friendly, remarkably so — fully as much so as Judas when he. kissed the Saviour. As to your having to be so much of a slave, I am sorry for you ; you ought to be freed. As to insurrec- tion, I am decidedly opposed to it, have no sym- pathy with it whatever. As to raising disturb, ance and leaving the state, I left a little mother- less daughter in Ohio, over whom I wished to have an oversight and care. When I left, I only expected to remain in North Carolina one year ; but the people dragged me up before the court un- der the charge of felony, put me in bonds, and kept me ; and now would you have me leave ury secur- ities to suffer, have me lie and deceive the court?' " ' ! if you will leave, your bail will not have to sutler ; that can, I think, be settled with- out much trouble,' said Mr II. " ' They shall not have trouble on my account,' said I. " After talking with Mr. II. and one or two more on personal piety, &c, I went to the arbor, took my seat in the door of the stand for a min- ute ; then rose, and, after referring to a few texts of Scripture, t> show that all those who will live godly shall suff.T persecution, I inquired, 1st, What is persecution? 2ndly, noticed the fact, ' shall suffer ;' gave a synoptical history of per- 192 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. secution, by showing that Abel was the first mar- tyr for the right — the Israelites"' sufferings. The prophets were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, had to wan- der in deserts, mountains, dens and caves of the earth, were driven from their houses, given to fe- rocious beasts, lashed to the stake, and destroyed in different ways. Spoke of John the Baptist ; showed how he was persecuted, and what the charge. Christ was persecuted for doing what John was persecuted for not doing. Spoke of the sufferings of the apostles, and their final death ; of Luther and his coadjutors ; of the Wesleys and early Methodists ; of Fox and the early Qua- kers ; of the early settlers in the colonies of the United States. Noticed why the righteous were persecuted, the advantages thereof to the right- eous themselves, and how they should treat their persecutors — with kindness, &c. Spoke, I sup- pose, some half an hour, and dismissed. Towards the close, some of the rioters got quite angry, and yelled, 'Stop him!' 'Pull him out!' 'The righteous were never persecuted for d d aboli- tionism,' &c. Some of them paid good attention to what I said. And thus we spent the time from twelve to three o'clock, and thus the meeting passed by. " Brother dear, I am more and more confirmed in the righteousness of our cause. I would rather, much rather, die for good principles, than to have applause and honor for propagating false theories and abominations, You perhaps would like to know how I feel. Happy, most of the time ; a religion that will not stand persecution will not take us to heaven. Blessed be God, that I have not, thus far, been suffered to deny Him. Some- times I have thought that I was nearly home. I generally feel a calmness of soul, but sometimes my enjoyments are rapturous. I have had a great burden of prayer for the dear flock ; help me pray for them. Thank God, I have not heard of one of them giving up or turning ; and I believe some, if not most of them, would go to the stake rather than give back. I forgot to say I read a part of the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the rioters, commencing at the 17th verse. I told them, if their institutions were of God, I could not harm them ; that if our cause was of God, they could not stop it — that they could kill me, but they could not kill the truth. Though I talked plainly, I talked and felt kindly to them. " I have had to write in such haste, and being fatigued and unwell, my letter is disconnected. I meant to give you a copy of the letter of tho mob. Here it is : " ' Mr. McBride: " ' We, the subscribers, very and most respect- fully request you not to attempt to fulfil your appointment at this place. If you do, you will surely be interrupted. »« May 6, 1851.' . [Signed by 32 persons.] " Some were professors of religion — Presbyte- rians, Episcopal Methodists, and Methodist Prot- estants. One of the latter was an ' exhorter.' I understand some of the crowd were negro traders. "Farewell, J. McBride." PART IV. CHAPTER I. THE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH ON SLAVERY. There is no country in the Avorld where the religious influence has' a greater ascend- ency than in America. There is no country where the clergy are more powerful. This is the more remarkable, because in Amer- ica religion is entirely divorced from the state, and the clergy have none of those artificial means for supporting their influ- ence which result from rank and wealth. Taken as a body of men, the American clergy are generally poor. The salaries given to them afford only a bare support, and yield them no means of acquiring prop- erty. Their style of living can be barely decent and respectable, and no more. The fact that, under these circumstances, the American clergy are probably the most pow- erful body of men in the country, is of itself a strong presumptive argument in their fa- vor. It certainly argues in them, as a class, both intellectual and moral superiority. It is a well-known fact that the influence of the clergy is looked upon by our states- men as a most serious element in making up their political combinations; and that that influence is so great, that no statesman would ever undertake to carry a measure against which all the clergy of the country should unite. Such a degree of power, though it be only a power of opinion, argu- ment and example, is not without its dan- gers to the purity of any body of men. To be courted by political partisans is always a dangerous thing for the integrity and spirituality of men who profess to be gov- erned by principles which are not of this world. The possession, too, of so great a power as we have described, involves a most weighty responsibility ; since, if the clergy do possess the power to rectify any great national immorality, the fact of its not being 13 done seems in some sort to bring the sin of the omission to their door. We have spoken, thus far, of the clergy alone; but in America, where the clergy- man is, in most denominations, elected by the church, and supported by its voluntary contributions, the influence of the church and that of the clergy are, to a very great extent, identical. The clergyman is the very ideal and expression of the church. They choose him, and retain him, because he expresses more perfectly than any other man they can obtain, their ideas of truth and right. The clergyman is supported, in all cases, by his church, or else he cannot retain his position in it. The fact of his remaining there is generally proof of identity of opinion, since, if he differed very materially from them, they have the power to withdraw from him, and choose another. The influence of a clergyman, thus re- tained by the free consent of the under- standing and heart of his church, is in some respects greater even than that of a papal priest. The priest can control only by a blind spiritual authority, to which, very often, the reason demurs, while it yields an outward assent; but, the successful free minister takes captive the affections of the heart by his affections, overrules the rea- soning powers by superior strength of rea- son, and thus, availing himself of affection, reason, conscience, and the entire man, pos- sesses a power, from the very freedom of the organization, greater than can ever result from blind spiritual despotism. If a minis- ter cannot succeed in doing this to some good extent in a church, he is called unsuc- cessful ; and he who realizes this description most perfectly has the highest and most perfect kind of power, and expresses the idea of a successful American minister. ^ In speaking, therefore, of this subject, we shall speak of the church and the clergy as identical, using the word church in the American sense of the word, for that class 194 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. of men, of all denominations, who are or- ganized in bodies distinct from nominal Christians, as professing to be actually con- trolled by the precepts of Christ. What, then, is the influence of the church on this great question of slavery? Certain things are evident on the very face of the matter. 1. It has not put an end to it. 2. It has not prevented the increase of it. 3. It has not occasioned the repeal of the laws which forbid education to the slave. 4. It has not attempted to have laws passed forbidding the separation of families and legalizing the marriage of slaves. 5. It has not stopped the internal slave- trade. 6. It has not prevented the extension of this system, with all its wrongs, over new territories. With regard to these assertions it is pre- sumed there can be no difference of opinion. What, then, have they done ? In reply to this, it can be stated, 1. That almost every one of the leading denominations have, at some time, in their collective capacity, expressed a decided dis- approbation of the system, and recommended that something should be done with a view to its abolition. 2. One denomination of Christians has pursued such a course as entirely, and in fact, to free every one of its members from any participation in slave-holding. We refer to the Quakers. The course by which this result has been effected will be shown by a pamphlet soon to be issued by the poet J. G. Whittier, one of their own body. 3. Individual members, in all denomi- nations, animated by the spirit of Chris- tianity, have in various ways entered their protest against it. It will be well now to consider more defi- nitely and minutely the sentiments which some leading ecclesiastical bodies in the church have expressed on this subject It is fair that the writer should state the sources from which the quotations are drawn. Those relating to the action of Southern judi- catories are principally from a pamphlet com- piled by the lion. -James (J. Birney, and enti- tled " The Church the Bulwark of Slavery." The writer addressed a letter to Mr. Birney, in which she inquired the sources from which lie compiled. 1 1 is reply was, in substance, as follows : That the pamphlet was compiled from original documents, or files of news- papers, which had recorded these transactions at the time of their occurrence. It was compiled and published in England, in 1842, with a view of leading the people there to un- derstand the position of the American church and clergy. Mr. Birney says that, although the statements have long been before the world, he has never known one of them to be disputed; that, knowing the extraordi- nary nature of the sentiments, he took the utmost pains to authenticate them. We will first present those of the South- ern States. 1. The Presbyterian Church. HARMONY PRESBYTERY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Whereas, sundry persons in Scotland and Eng- land, and others in the north, east and west of our country, have denounced slavery as obnoxious to the laws of God, some of whom have presented before the General Assembly of our church, and the Congress of the nation, memorials and peti- tions, with the avowed object of bringing into disgrace slave-holders, and abolishing the relation of master and slave : And whereas, from the said proceedings, and the statements, reasonings and circumstances connected therewith, it is most manifest that those persons " know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm;" and with this ignorance discover a spirit of self-righteousness and exclusive sanctity, &c, therefore, 1. Resolved, That'as the kingdom of our Lord is not of this world, His church, as such, has no right to abolish, alter, or affectany institution or ordinance of men, political or civil, &c. 2. Resolved, That slavery lias existed from the days of those good old slave-holders and patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who are now in the kingdom of heaven), to the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master Philemon, and wrote a Christian and fraternal letter to this slave-holder, which we find still stands in the canon of the Scriptures ; and that slavery has existed ever since the days of the apostle, and docs now exist. 3. Resolved, That as the relative duties of master and slave are taught in the Scriptures, in the same manner as those of parent and child, and husband and wife, the existence of slaveryitself is not opposed to the will of God ; and whosoever has a conscience too tender to recognize this rela- tion as lawful is "righteous over much,'' is " who above what is written," and lias submitted his neck to the yoke of men, sacrificed his ( Ihris- tian liberty of conscience, and leaves the infallible word of God for the fancies and doctrines of men. THE CHARLESTON UNION PRESBYTERY. It is a principle which meets the views of this body, that slavery, as it exists aiming us, is a political institution, with which ecclesiastical ju- dicatories have not the smallest right to interfere ; and in relation to which, any such interference, especially at the present momentous crisis, would bo morally wrong, and fraught with the most dangerous and pernicious consequences. The sen- timents which ioe maintain, in common with Chris- tians at t/ie South of every denomination, are sentiments which so fully approve themselves to our consciences, are so identified with our solemn KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 195 convictions of duty, that we should maintain them under any circumstances. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Presbytery, the holding of slaves, so far from being a six in the sight of God, is nowhere condemned in his holy word ; that it is in accordance with the example, or consistent with the precepts, of patri- archs, apostles and prophets, and that it is com- patible with the most fraternal regard to the best good of those servants whom God may have committed to our charge. The New-sehool Presbyterian Church in Petersburg!!, Virginia, Nov. 16, 1888, passed the following : Whereas, the General Assembly did, in the year 1818, pass a law which contains provisions for slaves irreconcilable with our civil institutions, and solemnly declaring slavery to be sin against God — a law at once offensive and insulting to the whole Southern community, 1. Resolved, That, as slave-holders, we can- not consent longer to remain in connection with any church where there exists a statute conferring the right upon slaves to arraign their masters be- fore the judicatory of the church — and that, too, for the act of. selling them without their consent first had and obtained. 2. Resolved, That, as the Great Head of the church has recognized the relation of master and slave, we conscientiously believe that slavery is not a sin against God, as declared by the General Assembly, This sufficiently indicates the opinion of the Southern Presbyterian Church. The next extracts will refer to the opinions of Baptist Churches. In 1835 the Charles- ton Baptist Association addressed a memo- rial to the Legislature of South Carolina, which contains the following : The undersigned would further represent that the said association does not consider that the Holy Scriptures have made the fact of slavery a question, of ?norals at all. The Divine Author of our holy religion, in particular, found slavery a part of the existing institutions of society ; with which, if not sinful, it was not his design to inter- meddle, but to leave them entirely to the control of men. Adopting this, therefore, as one of the allowed arrangements of society, he made it the province of his religion only to prescribe the re- ciprocal duties of the relation. The question, it is believed, is purely one of political economy. It amounts, in effect, to this, — Whether the operatives of a country shall be bought and sold, and themselves become property, as in this state ; or whether they shall be hirelings, and their labor only become prop- erly, as in some other slates. In other words, whether an employer may buy the whole time of laborersat once, of those who* have a right to dis- pose of it, with a permanent relation of protection and care over them ; or whether he shall be re- stricted to buy it in certain portions only, subject, to their control, and with no such permanent rela- tion of care and protection. The right of masters to dispose of the lime of their slaves has been distinctly recognized by the Creator of all things, who is surely at liberty to vest the right of property over any object in whomsoever he pleases. That the lawful possessor should retain this right at will, is no more against the law3 of society and good morals, than that he should retain the personal endow- ments with which his Creator has blessed him, or the money and lands inherited from his ancestors, or acquired by his industry. And neither society nor individuals have any more authority to de- mand a relinquishment, without an equivalent, in the one case, than in the other. As it is a question purely of political economy, and one which in this country is reserved to the cognizance of the state governments severally, it is further believed, that the State of South Caro- lina alone has the right to regulate the existence and condition of slavery within her territorial limits ; and we should resist to the utmost every invasion of this right, come from what quarter and under whatever pretence it may. The Methodist Church is, in some re- spects, peculiarly situated upon this subject, because its constitution and book of discipline contain the most vehement denunciations against slavery of which language is capable, and the most stringent requisitions that all members shall be disciplined for the holding of slaves ; and these denunciations and re- quisitions have been reaffirmed by its Gen- eral Conference. It seemed to be necessary, therefore, for the Southern Conference to take some notice of this fact, which they did, with great cool- ness and distinctness, as follows : THE GEORGIA ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Resolved, unanimously, That, whereas there is a clause in the discipline of our church which states that we are as much as ever convinced of the great evil ot slavery ; and whereas the said clause has been perverted by some, and used in such a manner as to produce the impression that the Methodist Episcopal Church believed slavery to be a moral evil ; — Therefore Resolved, That it is the sense of the Georgia Annual Conference that slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil. Resolved, That we view slavery as a civil and domestic institution, and one with which, as min- isters of Christ, we have nothing to do, further than to ameliorate the condition of the slave, by endeavoring to impart to him and his master the benign influences of the religion of Christ, and aiding both on their way to heaven. On motion, it was Resolved, unanimously, That the Georgia Annual Conference regard with feelings of profound respect and approbation the dignified course pursued by our several superintend- ents, or bishops, in suppressing the attempts that have been made by various individuals to get up and protract an excitement in the churches and country on the subject of abolitionism. Resolved, further, That they shall have our cor- dial and zealous support in sustaining them in the ground they have taken. SOUTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE. The Rev. W. Martin introduced resolu- tions similar to those of the Georgia Con- ference. 196 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. The Rev. W. Capers, D.D., after ex- pressing his conviction that " the sentiment of the resolutions was universally held, not only by the ministers of that conference, but of the whole South;" and after stating that the only true doctrine was, " it belongs, to Cassar, and not to the church," offered the following as a substitute : Whereas, we hold that the subject of slavery in these United States is not one proper for the action of the church, but is exclusively appropri- ate to the civil authorities, Therefore Resolved, That this conference will not intermeddle with it, further than to express our regret that it has ever been introduced, in any form, into any one of the judicatures of the church. Brother Martin accepted the substitute. Brother Betts asked whether the substitute was intended as implying that slavery, as it exists among us, was not a moral evil ? He understood it as equivalent to such a declaration. Brother Capers explained that his intention was to convey that sentiment fully and unequivocally ; and that he had chosen the form of the substitute for the purpose, not only of reproving some wrong doings at the North, but with reference also to the General Conference. If slavery were a moral evil (that is, sinful), the church would be bound to take cognizance of it ; but our affirmation is, that it is not a matter for her jurisdiction, but is exclusively appropriate to the civil government, and of course not sinful. The substitute was then unanimously adopted. In 1836, an Episcopal clergyman in North Carolina, of the name of Freeman, preached, in the presence of his bishop (Rev. Levi. S. Ives, D.D., a native of a free state), two ser- mons on the rights and duties of slave-hold- ers. In these he essayed to justify from the Bible the slavery both of white men and negroes, and insisted that " without a new revelation from heaven, no man was authorized to pronounce slavery wrong." The sermons were printed in a pamphlet, prefaced with a letter to Mr. Freeman from the Bishop of North Carolina, declaring that he had " listened with most unfeigned pleas- ure " to his discourses, and advised their publication, as being " urgently called for at the present time." "The Protestant Episcopal Society for the advancement of Christianity (!) in South Carolina " thought it expedient to repub- lish Mr. Freeman's pamphlet as a religious tract ! * Afterwards, when the addition of the new State of Texas made it important to organize the Episcopal Church there, this Mr. Free- man was made Bishop of Texas. * Birncy's pamphlet. The question may now arise, — it must arise to every intelligent thinker in Chris- tendom, — Can it be possible that American slavery, as defined by its laws, and the decisions of its courts, including all the hor- rible abuses that the laws ' recognize and sanction, is considered to be a right and proper institution? Do these Christians merely recognize the relation of slavery, in the abstract, as one that, under proper legis- lation, might be made a good one, or do they justify it as it actually exists in America 1 It is a fact that there is a large party at the South who justify not only slavery in the abstract, but slavery just as it exists in America, in whole and in part, and even its worst abuses. There are four legalized parts or results of the system, which are of especial atrocity. They are, — 1. The prohibition of the testimony of colored people in cases of trial. 2. The forbidding of education. ■ 3. The internal slave-trade. 4. The consequent separation of families. We shall bring evidence to show that every one of these practices has been either defended on principle, or recognized without condemnation, by decisions of judicatories of churches, or by writings of influential cler- gymen, without any expression of dissent being made to their opinions by the bodies to which they belong. In the first place, the exclusion of colored testimony in the church. In 1840, the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church passed the following resolu- tion: "That it is inexpedient and UNJUSTIFIABLE FOR ANY PREACHER TO PERMIT COLORED PERSONS TO GIVE TES- TIMONY AGAINST WHITE PERSONS IN ANY STATE WHERE THEY ARE DENIED THAT PRIVILEGE BY LAW." This was before the Methodist Church had separated on the question of slavery, as they subsequently did, into Northern and Southern Conferences. Both Northern and Southern members voted for this resolution. After this was passed, the conscience of many Northern ministers was aroused, and they called for a reconsideration. The South- ern members imperiously demanded that it should remain as a compromise and test of union. The spirit of the discussion may be inferred from one extract. Mr. Peck, of New York, who moved the reconsideration of the resolution, thus ex- pressed himself: KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 197 That resolution (said he) was introduced under peculiar-circumstances, during considerable excite- ment, and he went for it as a peace-offering to the South, without sufficiently reflecting upon the pre- cise import of its phraseology ; but, after a little deliberation, he was sorry ; and he had been sorry but once, and that was all the time ; he was con- vinced that, if that resolution remain upon the journal, it would be disastrous to the whole Northern church. Rev. Dr. A. J. Few, of Georgia, the mover of the original resolution, then rose. The following are extracts from his speech. The Italics are the writers. Look at it! "What do you declare to us, in taking this course? Why, simply, as much as to say, "We cannot sustain you in the condition which you cannot avoid!" We cannot sustain you in the necessary conditions of slave-holding ; one of its necessary conditions being the rejection of negro testimony ! If it is not sinful to hold slaves, under all circumstances, it is not sinful to hold them in the only condition, and under the only circumstances, which they can be held. The rejec- tion of negro testimony is one of the necessary circumstances under which shave-holding can exist; indeed, it is utterly impossible for it to exist without it ; therefore it is not sinful to hold slaves in the condition and under the circumstances which they are held at the South, inasmuch as they can be held under no other circumstances. * * * If you believe that slave-holding is necessarily sinful, come out with the abolitionists, and honestly say so. If you believe that slave-holding is necessa- rily sinful, you believe we are necessarily sinners : and, if so, come out and honestly declare it, and let us leave you. * * * We want to know distinctly, precisely and honestly, the position which you take. We cannot be tampered with by you any longer. We have had enough of it. We are tired of your sickly sympathies. * * * If you are not opposed to the principles which it involves, unite with us, like honest men, and go home, and boldly meet the consequences. We say again, you are responsible for this state of things ; for it is you who have driven us to the alarming point where we find ourselves. * * * You have made that resolution absolutely necessary to the quiet of the South! But you now revoke that resolu- tion ! And you pass the Rubicon ! Let me not be misunderstood. I say, you pass the Rubicon ! If you revoke, you revoke the principle which that resolution involves, and you array the whole South against you, and we must separate! * * * If you accord to the principles which it involves, arising from the necessity of the case, stick by it, "though the heavens perish !" But, if you per- sist on reconsideration, I ask in what light will your course be regarded in the South ? What will be the conclusion, there, in reference to it? Why, that you cannot sustain us as long o,s we hold slaves ! It will declare, in the face of the sun, " We cannot sustain you, genilemen, while you retain your slaves ! " Your opp tsition to the resolution is based upon your opposition to slavery ; you cannot, therefore, maintain your consistency, unless you come out with the aboli- tionists, and condemn us at once and forever; or else refuse to reconsider. The resolution was therefore left in force, with another resolution appended to it, ex- pressing the undiminished regard of the General Conference for the colored popu- lation. It is quite evident that it was undi- minished, for the best of reasons. That the colored population were not properly impressed with this last act of condescension, appears from the fact that "the official members of the Sharp-street and Asbury Colored Methodist Church in Baltimore" protested and petitioned against the mo- tion. The following is a passage from their address : The adoption of such a resolution, by our highest ecclesiastical judicatory, — a judicatory composed of the most experienced and wisest brethren in the church, the choice selection of twenty-eight An- nual Conferences, — has inflicted, we fear, an irre- parable injury upon eighty thousand souls for whom Christ died — souls, who, by this act of your body, have been stripped of the dignity of Christians, degraded in the scale of humanity, and treated as criminals, for no other reason than the color of their skin ! Your resolution has, in our humble opinion, virtually declared, that a mere physical peculiarity, the handiwork of our all- wise and benevolent Creator, is prima facie evi- dence of incompetency to tell the truth, or is an unerring indication of unworthiness to bear testi- mony against a fellow-being whose skin is de- nominated white. * * * Brethren, out of the abundance of the heart we have spoken. Our grievance is before you! If you have any regard for the salvation of the eighty thousand immortal souls committed to your care ; if you would not thrust beyond the pale of the church twenty-five hundred souls in this city, who have felt determined never to leave the church that has nourished and brought them up ; if you regard us as children of one common Father, and can, upon reflection, sympathize with us as mem- bers of the body of Christ, — if you would not incur the fearful, the tremendous responsibility of offending not only one, but many thousands of his " little ones," we conjure you to wipe from your journal the odious resolution which is ruin- ing our people. "A Colored Baltimorean." writing to the editor of Z "tori's Watchman, says : The address was presented to one of the secre- taries, a delegate of the Baltimore Conference, and subsequently given by him to the bishops. How many of the members of the conference paw it, I know not. One thing is certain, it ivas not read to the conference. With regard to the second head, — of de- fending the laws which prevent the slave from being taught to read and write, — we have the following instance. In the year 1835, the Chillicothe Pres- bytery, Ohio, addressed a Christian remon- strance to the presbytery of Mississippi on 198 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. the subject of slavery, in which they spe- J cincally enumerated the respects in which they considered it tP he unchristian. The eighth resolution was as follows : That any member of our church, who shall advocate or speak in favor of such laws as have been or may yet be enacted, for the purpose of keeping the slaves in ignorance, and preventing them from learning to read the word of God, is o-uilty of a great sin, and ought to be dealt with as for other scandalous crimes. This remonstrance was answered by Rev. James Smylie, stated clerk of the Missis- sippi Presbytery, and afterwards of the Amity Presbytery of Louisiana, in a pam- phlet of eighty-seven pages, in which he defended slavery generally and particularly, in the same manner in which all other abuses have always been defended — by the word of God. The tenth section of this pamphlet is devoted to the defence of this law. He devotes seven pages of fine print to this object. He says (p. 63) : There are laws existing in both states, Missis- sippi and Louisiana, accompanied with heavy penal sanctions, prohibiting the teaching of the slaves to read, and ?neeting the approbation of the religious part of the reflecting community. # # # * * He adds, still further : The laws preventing the slaves from learning to read are a fruitful source of much ignorance and immorality among the slaves. The printing, pub- lishing, and circulating of abolition and emanci- patory principles in those states, was the cause of the passage of those laws. He then goes on to say that the ignorance and vice which are the consequence of those la ws do not properly belong to those who made the laws, but to those whose emancipating doctrines rendered them necessary. Speak- ing of these consequences of ignorance and vice, he says : Qpi m whom must they be saddled ? If you will allow me to answer the question, I will answer by saying, Upon such great and good men as John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Porteus, Paley jlnrslry, Scott, Clark, Wilberforce, Sbarpe, Clarkson, Fox, Johnson, Burke, and other great and good men, who. without examining the word of God, have concluded that it is a true maxim that slavery is in itself sinful. He then illustrates the necessity of these laws by the following simile, lie supposes that the doctrine had been promulgated that the authority of parents was an unjust usurpation, and that it was getting a general hold of society; that societies were being formed for the emancipation of children from the control of their parents; that all books were beginning to be pervaded by this senti- ment ; and that, under all these influences, children were becoming restless and frac- tious. He supposes that, under these cir- cumstances, parents meet and refer the subject to legislators. He thus describes the dilemma of the legislators : These meet, and they take the subject seriously and solemnly into consideration. On the one hand, they perceive that, if their children had access to these doctrines, they were ruined forever. To let them have access to them was unavoidable, if they taught them to read. To prevent their being taught to read was cruel, and would pre- venAhem from obtaining as much knowledge of the laws of Heaven as otherwise they might enjoy. In this sad dilemma, sitting and consulting in a legislative capacity, they must, of two evils, choose the least. With indignant feelings towards those, who, under the influence of "seducing spirits," had sent and were sending among them " doc- trines of devils," but with aching hearts towards their children, they resolved that their children should not be taught to read, until the storm should be overblown ; hoping that Satan's being let loose will be but for a little season. And during this season they will have to teach them orally, and thereby guard against their being contami- nated by these wicked doctrines. So much for that law. Now, as for the internal slave-trade, — the very essence of that trade is the buying and selling of human beings for the mere jmrposes of gain. A master who has slaves transmitted to him, or a master who buys slaves with the purpose of retaining them on his plantation or in his family, can be supposed to have some object in it besides the mere purpose of gain. He may be supposed, in certain cases, to have some regard to the happiness or well-being of the slave. The trader buys and sells for the mere purpose of gain. Concerning this abuse the Chillicothe Presbytery, in the document to which we have alluded, passed the following resolution : Resolved, That the buying, selling, or holding of a slave, for the sake of gain, is a heinous sin and scandal, requiring the cognizance of the judi- catories of the church. In the reply from which we have already quoted, Mr. Smylie says (p. 13) : Jf the buying, selling and holding of a slave for the sake of gain, is, as you say, a heinous sin and scandal, then verily three-fourths of all Episcopa- lians, .Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, in the eleven states of the Union, are of the devil. Again : To question whether slave-holders or slave-buy- ers are of the devil, seems to me like calling in KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 199 question whether God is or is not a true witness ; that is, provided it is God's testimony, and not merely the testimony of the Chillieothe Presbytery, that it is a " heinous - sin and scandal" to buy, sell and hold slaves. Again (p. 21) : If language can convey a clear and definite meaning at all, I know not how it can more plainly or unequivocally present to the mind any thought or idea, than the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus clearly and unequivocally establishes the fact that slavery was sanctioned by God him- self, and that buying, selling, holding and be- queathing slaves, as property, are regulations which are established by himself'. What language can more explicitly show, not that God winked at slavery merely, but that, to sav the least, he gave a written, permit to the He- brews, then the best people in the world, to buy, hold and bequeath, men and ivomen, to perpetual servitude ? What, now, becomes of the position of the Chillieothe Presbytery ? * * * * Is it, indeed, a fact, that God once gave a written per- mission to his own dear people [" ye shall buy'''] to do that which is in itself sinful ? Nay, to do that which the Chillieothe Presbytery says " is a hei- nous sin and scandal " ? God resolves that his own children may, or rather " shall" " buy, possess and hold," bond- men and bond- women, in bondage, forever. But the Chillieothe Presbytery resolves that " buying, selling, or holding slaves, for the sake of gain, is a heinous sin and scandal." We do not mean to say that Mr. Smylie had the internal slave-trade directly in his mind in writing these sentences ; but we do say that no slave-trader would ask for a more explicit justification of his trade than this. Lastly, in regard to that dissolution of the marriage relation, which is the neces- sary consequence of this kind of trade, the following decisions have been made by ju- dicatories of the church. The Savannah River (Baptist) Associa- tion, in 1835, in reply to the question, Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought to be al- lowed to marry again ? answered, That such a separation, among persons situated as our slaves are, is civilly a separation by death, and they believe that, in the sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages, in such, cases, would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships and strong temptation, but to church censure, for acting in obedience to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves arc not free agents, and a dissolution by death is not more entirely without their consent, and be- yond their control, than by such separation. At the Shiloh Baptist Association, which met at Gourdvine, a few years since, the following query, says the Religious Her- ald, was presented from Hedgman church, viz : Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again ? The query was referred to a committee, who made the following report ; which, after discussion, was adopted : That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion that it is better to permit servants thus circumstanced to take another husband or wife. The Reverend Charles C. Jones, who was an earnest and indefatigable laborer for the good of the slave, and one who, it would be supposed, would be likely to feel strongly on this subject, if any one would, simply re- marks, in estimating the moral condition of the negroes, that, as husband and wife are subject to all the vicissitudes of property, and may be separated by division of estate, debts, sales or removals, &c. &c, the marriage relation naturally loses much of its sacred- ness, and says : It is a contract of convenience, profit or pleas- ure, that may be entered into and dissolved at the will of the parties, and that without heinous sin, or injury to the property interests of any one. In this sentence suppose, the he is expressing, as we common idea of slaves and masters of the nature of this institution, and not his own. We infer this from the fact that he endeavors in his catechism to impress on the slave the sacredness and per- petuity of the relation. But, when the most pious and devoted men that the South has, and those professing to spend their lives for the service of the slave, thus calmly, and without any reprobation, con- template this state of things as a state with which Christianity does not call on them to interfere, what can be expected of the world in general 1 It is to be remarked, with regard to the sentiments of Mr. Smylie's pamphlet, that they are endorsed in the appendix by a document in the name of two presbyteries, which document, though with less minute- ness of investigation, takes the same ground with Mr. Smyhe. This Rev. James Smylie 200 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. was one "who. in company with the Rev. John L. Montgomery, was appointed by the synod of Mississippi, in 1839, to write or compile a catechism for the instruction of the negroes. Mr. Jones says, in his "History of the Religious Instruction of the Negroes " (p. 83) : " The Rev. James Smylie and the Rev. C. Blair are engaged in this good work (of enlightening the negroes) sys- tematically and constantly in Mississippi." The former clergyman is characterized as an " aged and indefatigable father." " His success in enlightening the negroes has been very great. A large proportion of the negroes in his old church can recite both Williston's and the Westminster Catechism very accurately." The writer really wishes that it were in her power to make copious extracts from Mr. Smylie's pamphlet. A great deal could be learned from it as to what style of mind, and habits of thought, and modes of viewing religious subjects, are likely to grow itp under such an institution. The man is undoubtedly and heartily sin- cere in his opinions, and appears to main- tain them with a most abounding and tri- umphant joy fulness, as the very latest improvement in theological knowledge. We are tempted to present a part of his Intro- duction, simply for the light it gives us on the style of thinking which is to be found on our south-western waters : In presenting the following review to the pub- lic, the author was not entirely or mainly influ- enced by a desire or hope to correct the views of the Chillicothe Presbytery. He hoped the publi- cation would be of essential service to others, as well as to the presbytery. From his intercourse with religious societies of all denominations, in Mississippi and Louisiana, he was aware that the abolition maxim, namely, thai slavery it in itself sinful, had gained on and en- twined itself among the religious and conscien- tious scruples of many in the community so far as not only to render them unhappy, but to draw off the attention from the great and important duty of a householder to his household. The eye of the mind, resting on slavery itself as a corrupt fountain, from which, of necessity, nothing but corrupt streams eoiuM flow, was incessantly em- ployed in search of some plan by which, with safety, the fountain could, in some future time, be entirely dried up; never reflecting, or dreaming, that slavery, in itself considered, was an innox- ious relation, and that the whole error rested in the neglect of the relative duties of the relation. If there be a consciousness of ^uilt resting on the mind, it is all the same, as to tin' effect, whether the conscience is or is not right. Al- though the word of God alone ought to he the guide of conscience, yet it is not always the ease. Hence, conscientious scruples sometimes exist for neglecting to do that which the word of God con- uemus. The Bornean who neglects to kill his father, and to cat him with his dates, when he has become old, is sorely tortured by the wringings of a guilty conscience, wdien his filial tenderness and sympa- thy have gained the ascendency over his appre- hended duty of killing his parent. In like man- ner, many a slave-holder, whose . conscience is guided, not by the word of God, but by the doc- trines of men, is often suffering the lashes of a guilty conscience, even when he renders to his slave " that which is just and equal," according to the Scriptures, simply because he does not emancipate his slave, irrespective of the benefit or injury done by such an act. " How beautiful upon the mountains," in the apprehension of the reviewer, " would be the feet of him that would bring" to the Bornean " the glad tidings" that his conduct, in sparing the life of his tender and affectionate parent, was no sin ! # # # # Equally beautiful and delightful, does the reviewer trust, will it be, to an honest, scrupulous and conscientious slave-holder, to learn, from the word of God, the glad tidings that slav- ery itself is not sinful. Released now from an incubus that paralyzed his energies in discharge of duty towards his slaves, he goes forth cheer- fully to energetic action. It is not now as for- merly, when lie viewed slavery as in itself sinful. He can now pray, with the hope of being heard, that God will bless his exertions to train up his slaves " in the nurture and admonition of" the Lord :" whereas, before, he was retarded by this consideration, — "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Instead of hanging down his head, moping and brooding over his condition, as formerly, without action, he raises his head, and moves on cheerfully, in the plain path of duty. . He is no more tempted to look askance at the word of God, and saying, " Hast thou found me, mine enemy," come to "filch from me" my slaves, which, "while not enriching" them, "leaves me poor indeed ?" Instead of viewing the word of God, as formerly, come with whips and scorpions to chastise him into paradise, he feels that its " ways are ways of pleasantness, and its paths peace." Distinguishing now between the real word of God and what are only the doctrines and commandments of men, the mystery is solved, which was before insolvable, namely, " The stat- utes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." If you should undertake to answer such a man by saying that his argument proves too much, — that neither Christ nor his apostles bore any explicit testimony against the gladiatorial shows and the sports of the anna, and, therefore, it would be .right to get them up in America. — the probability seems to be that he would heartily assent to it, and think, on the whole, that it might be a good speculation. As a further specimen of the free-and-easy facetiousness which seems to be a trait in this production, sec, on p. 58, where the Latin motto Facilis descensus Averni sad rccocarc, &c, receives the fol- lowing quite free and truly Western trans- lation, -which, he good-naturedly says, is "■iven for the benefit of those who do not KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 201 understand Latin, — "It is easy to go to the devil, but the devil to get back." Some uncharitable people might, perhaps, say that the preachers of such doctrines are as likely as anybody to have an experi- mental knowledge on this point. The idea of this jovial old father instructing a class of black " Sams " and young : ' Topsys " in the mysteries of the Assembly's Catechism is truly picturesque ! That Mr. Smylie's opinions on the subject of slavery have been amply supported and carried out by leading clergymen in every denomination, we might give volumes of quotations to show. A second head, however, is yet to be con- sidered, with regard to the influence of the Southern church and clergy. It is well known that the Southern politi- cal community have taken their stand upon the position that the institution of slavery shall not be open to discussion. In many of the slave states stringent laws exist, sub- jecting to fine and imprisonment, and even death, any who speak or publish anything upon the subject, except in its favor. They have not only done this with regard to citi- zens of slave states, but they have shown the strongest disposition to do it with regard to citizens of free states ; and when these discus- sions could not be repelled by regular law, they have encouraged the use of illegal meas- ures. In the published letters and speeches of Horace Mann the following examples are given (p. 467). In 1831 the Legislature of Georgia offered five thousand dollars to any one who would arrest and bring to trial and conviction, in Georgia, a citizen of Mas- sachusetts, named William Lloyd Garrison. This law was approved by W. Lumpkin, Governor, Dec. 26, 1831. At a meet- ing of slave-holders held at Sterling, in the same state, September 4, 1835, it was formally recommended to the governor to offer, by proclamation, five thousand dollars reward for the apprehension of any one of ten persons, citizens, with one exception, of New York and Massachusetts, whose names were given. The Milled geville (Ga.) Federal Union of February 1st, 1836, contained an offer of ten thousand dollars for the arrest and kidnapping of the Rev. A. A. Phelps, of New York. The committee of vigilance of the parish of East Feliciana offered, in the Louisville Journal of Oct. 15, 1835, fifty thousand dollars to any person who would deliver into their hands Arthur Tappan, of New York. At a pub- lic meeting at Mount Meigs, Alabama, Aug. 13, 1836, the Hon. Bedford Ginress in the chair, a reward of fifty thousand dollars was offered for the apprehension of the same Arthur Tappan, or of Le Roy Sunderland, a Methodist clergyman of New York. Of course, as none of these persons could be seized except in violation of the laws of the state where they were citizens, this was offering a public reward for an act of felony. Throughout all the Southern States associa- tions were formed, called committees of vigilance, for the taking of measures for suppressing abolition opinions, and for the punishment by Lynch law of suspected persons. At Charleston, South Carolina, a mob of this description forced open the post- office, and made a general inspection, at their pleasure, of its contents ; and whatever publication they found there which they considered to be of a dangerous and anti- slavery tendency, they made a public bonfire of, in the street. A large public meeting was held, a few days afterwards, to complete the preparation for excluding anti-slavery principles from publication, and for ferreting out persons suspected of abolitionism, that they might be subjected to Lynch law. Similar popular meetings were held through the Southern and Western States. At one of these, held in Clinton, Mississippi, in the year 1835, the following resolutions were passed : Resolved, That slavery through the South and "West is not felt as an evil, moral or political, but it is recognized in reference to the actual, and not to any Utopian condition of our slaves, as a bless- ing both to master and slave. Resolved, That it is our decided opinion that any individual who dares to circulate, with a view to effectuate the designs of the abolitionists, any of the incendiary tracts or newspapers now in a course of transmission to this country, is justly worthy, in the sight of God and man, of immedi- ate death ; and -we doubt not that such would be the punishment ot any such offender in any part of the State of Mississippi where he may be found. Resolved, That the clergy of the State of Missis- sippi be hereby recommended at once to take a stand upon this subject ; and that their further silence in relation thereto, at this crisis, will, in our opinion, be subject to serious censure. The treatment to which persons were ex- posed, when taken up by any of these vigi- lance committees, as suspected of anti-slavery sentiments, may be gathered from the follow- ing account. The writer has a distinct recollection of the circumstances at the present time, as the victim of this injustice was a member of the seminary then under the care of her father. Amos Dresser, now a missionary in Jamaica, was a theological student at Lane Seminary, near 202 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Cincinnati. In the vacation (August 1835) he undertook to sell Bibles in the State of Tennessee, with a view to raise means further to continue his studies. Whilst there, he fell under suspicion of being an abolitionist, was arrested by the vigi- lance committee whilst attending a religious meeting in the neighborhood of Nashville, the capitai°of the state, and, after an afternoon and evening's inquisition, condemned to receive twenty lashes on his naked body. The sentence was exe- cuted on him, between eleven and twelve o'clock on Saturday night, in the presence of most of the committee, and of an infuriated and blaspheming mob. The vigilance committee (an unlawful as- sociation) consisted of sixty persons. Of these, twenty-seven were members of churches ; one, a religious teacher ; another, the Elder who but a few days before, in the Presbyterian church, handed Mr. Dresser the bread and wine at the communion of the Lord's supper. It will readily be seen that the principle involved in such proceedings as these in- volves more than the question of slavery. The question was, in fact, this, — whether it is so important to hold African slaves that it is proper to deprive free Americans of the liberty of conscience, and liberty of speech, and liberty of the press, in order to do it. It is easy to see that very serious changes would be made in the government of a coun- try by the admission of this principle; because it is quite plain that, if all these principles of our free government may be given up for one thing, they may for another, and that its ultimate tendency is to destroy entirely that freedom of opin- ion and thought which is considered to be the distinguishing excellence of American institutions. The question now is, Did the church join with the world in thinking the institution of slavery so important and desirable as to lead them to look with approbation upon Lynch law, and the sacrifice of the rights of free inquiry l We answer the reader by submitting the following facts and quota- tions. At the large meeting which we have de- scribed above, in Charleston. South Caro- lina, the Charleston Courier informs us "that the clergy of all denominations at- tended in a body, lending their sanction to the proceedings, and adding by their pres- ence to the impressive character of the scene." There can be no doubt that the presence of the clergy of all denomina- tions, in a body, at a meeting held for such a purpose, was an impressive scene, truly ! At this meeting it was Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting arc due to the reverend gentlemen of the clergy in this city, who have so promptly and so effectually responded to public sentiment, by suspending their schools in which the free colored population were 'taught ; and that this meeting deem it a patriotic action, worthy Of" all praise, and proper to be imitated by other teachers of similar schools throughout the state. The question here arises, whether their Lord, at the day of judgment, will comment on their actions in a similar strain. The alarm of the Virginia slave-holders was not less ; nor were the clergy in the city of Richmond, the capital, less prompt than the clergy in Charleston to respond to "public sentiment." Accordingly, on the 29th of July, they assembled together, and Resolved, unanimously, That we earnestly deprecate the unwarrantable and highly improper interference of the people of any other state with the domestic relations of master and slave. That the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles, in not interfering with the question of slavery, but uniformly recognizing the relations of master and servant, and giving full and affec- tionate instruction to both, is worthy of the imi- tation of all ministers of the gospel. That we will not patronize nor receive any pamphlet or newspaper of the anti-slavery socie- ties, and that we will discountenance the circula- tion of all such papers in the community. The Rev. J. C. Postell, a Methodist minister of South Carolina, concludes a very violent letter to the editor of Zioii's Watch- man, a Methodist anti-slavery paper pub- lished in New York, in the following manner. The reader will see that this taunt is an allusion to the offer of fifty thousand dollars for his body at the South which we have given before. But, if you desire to educate the slaves, I will tell you how to raise the money without editing Zioii's Watchman. You and old Arthur Tappan come out to the South this winter, and they will raise one hundred thousand dollars for you. New Orleans, itself, will be pledged for it. Desiring no further acquaintance with you, and never ex- pecting to see you but once in time or eternity, that is at the judgment, I subscribe myself the friend of the Bible, and the opposer of aholitionists, J. C. Postell. Orangcburgh, July 21st, 1836. The Rev. Thomas S. Witherspoon, a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, writing to the editor of the Emancipator, says : I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, to hold the slave in I ii milage. The principle of holding the heathen in bondage is recognized by God. * * * When the tardy process of the law is too long in redress- ing our grievances, we of the South have adopted the summary remedy of Judge Lynoh — and really I think it one of the most wholesome and salutary remedies for the malady of Northern fanaticism that can be applied, and no doubt my worthy KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 203 friend, the Editor of the Emancipator and Human Rights, would feel the better of its enforcement, provided he had a Southern administrator. I go to the Bible for my warrant in all moral matters. * * Let your emissaries dare venture to cross the Potomac, and I cannot promise you that their fate will be less than Hainan's. Then beware how you goad an insulted but magnanimous peo- ple to deeds of desperation ! The Rev. Robert N. Anderson, also a member of the Presbyterian Church, says, in a letter to the Sessions of the Presbyterian Congregations within the bounds of the West Hanover Presbytery : At the approaching stated meeting of our Pres- bytery, I design to offer a preamble and string of resolutions on the subject of the use of wine in the Lord's Supper ; and also a preamble and string of resolutions on the subject of the treasonable and abominably wicked interference of the Northern and Eastern fanatics with our political and civil rights, our property and our domestic concerns. You are aware that our clergy, whether with or without reason, are more suspected by the public than the clergy of other denominations. Now, dear Christian brethren, I humbly express it as my earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men. If there be any stray goat of a minister among you, tainted with the blood-hound principles of aboli- tionism, let him be ferreted out, silenced, excom- municated, and left to the public to dispose of him in other respects. Your affectionate brother in the Lord, Robert N. Anderson. The Rev. William S. Plummer, D.D., of Richmond, a member of the Old-school Pres- byterian Church, is another instance of the same sort. JHe was absent from Richmond at the time the clergy in that city purged themselves, in a body, from the charge of being favorably disposed to abolition. On his return, he lost no time in communicating to the " Chairman of the Committee of Cor- respondence " his agreement with his clerical brethren. The passages quoted occur in his letter to the chairman : I have carefully watched this matter from its earliest existence, and everything I have seen or heard of its character, both from its patrons and its enemies, has confirmed me, beyond repentance, in the belief, that, let the character of abolition- ists be what it may in the sight of the Judge of all the earth, this is the most meddlesome, impu- dent, reckless, fierce, and wicked excitement I ever saw. If abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but fair that they should receive the first warming at the fire. Lastly. Abolitionists are like infidels, wholly unaddicted to martyrdom for opinion's sake. Let them understand that thcyivill be caught [Lynched] if they come among us, and they will take good heed to keep out of our way. There is not one man among them who has any more idea of shed- ding his blood in this cause than he has of making war on the Grand Turk. The Rev. Dr. Hill, of Virginia, said, in the New School Assembly : The abolitionists have made the servitude of the slave harder. If I could tell you some of the dirty tricks which these abolitionists have played, you would not wonder. Some of them have been Lynched, and it served them right. These things sufficiently show the estimate which the Southern clergy and church have formed and expressed as to the relative value of slavery and the right of free inquiry. It shows, also, that they consider slavery as so important that they can tolerate and encour- age acts of lawless violence, and risk all the dangers of encouraging mob law, for its sake. These passages and considerations sufficiently show the stand which the Southern church takes upon this subject. For many of these opinions, shocking as they may appear, some apology may be found in that blinding power of custom and all those deadly educational influences which always attend the system of slavery, and which must necessarily produce a certain ob- tuseness of the moral sense in the mind of any man who is educated from childhood under them. There is also, in the habits of mind formed under a system which is supported by con- tinual resort to force and violence, a neces- sary deadening of sensibility to the evils of force and violence, as applied to other sub- jects. The whole style of civilization which is formed under such an institution has been not unaptly denominated by a popular writer "the bowie-knife style;" and we must not be surprised at its producing a peculiarly martial cast of religious character, and ideas very much at variance with the spirit of the gospel. A religious man, born and educated at the South, has all these difficulties to con- tend with, in elevating himself to the true spirit of the gospel. It was said by one that, after the Reform- ation, the best of men, being educated under a system of despotism and force, and accus- tomed from childhood to have force, and not argument, made the test of opinion, came to look upon all controversies very much in a Smithfield light, — the question being not as to the propriety of burning heretics, but as to which party ought to be burned. The system of slavery is a simple retro- gression of society to the worst abuses of the middle ages. We must not therefore be sur- prised to find the opinions and practices of KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 204 the middle ages, as to civil and religious toleration, prevailing. However much we may reprobate and de- plore those unworthy views of God and reli- gion which are implied in such declarations as are here recorded, — however blasphemous and absurd they may appear, — still, it is ap- parent that their authors uttered them with sincerity ; and this is the most melancholy feature of the case. They are as sincere as Paul when he breathed out threatenings and slaughter, and when he thought within him- self that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus. They are as sincere as the Brahmin or Hindoo, conscientiously supporting a religion of cruelty and blood. They are as sincere as many enlightened, scholarlike and Christian men in modern Eu- rope, who, born and bred under systems of civil and religious despotism, and having them entwined with all fheir dearest associations of home and country, and having all their habits of thought and feeling biased by them, do most conscientiously defend them. There is something in conscientious con- viction, even in case of the worst kind of opinions, which is not without a certain de- gree of respectability. That the religion expressed by the declarations which we have quoted is as truly Antichrist as the religion of the Church of Rome, it is presumed no sensible person out of the sphere of American influences will deny. That there may be very sincere Christians under this system of religion, with all its false principles and all its disadvantageous influences, liberality must concede. The Church of Rome has had its Fenelon, its Thomas a Kempis; and the Southern Church, which has adopted these principles, has had men who have risen above the level of their system. At the time of the Reformation, and now, the Church of Rome had in its bosom thou- sands of praying, devoted, humble Christians, which, like flowers in the clefts of rocks, could be counted by no eye, save God's alone. And so, amid the rifts and glaciers of this horrible spiritual and temporal despotism, we hope are blooming flowers of Paradise, pa- tient, prayerful, and self-denying Christians ; and it is the deepest grief, in attacking the dreadful system under which they have been born and brought up, that violence must be done to their cherished feelings and associa- tions. In another and better world, perhaps, they may appreciate the motives of those who do this. But now another consideration comes to the mind. These Southern Christians have been united in ecclesiastical relations with Christians of the northern and free states, meeting with them, by their representatives, yearly, in their various ecclesiastical assem- blies. One might hope, in case of such a union, that those debasing views of Chris- tianity, and thatdeadness of public sentiment, which were the inevitable result of an educa- tion under the slave system, might have been qualified by intercourse with Christians in free states, who, having grown up under free institutions, would naturally be supposed to feel the utmost abhorrence of such sentiments. One would have supposed that the church and clergy of the free states would naturally have used the most strenuous endeavors, by all the means in their power, to convince their brethren of errors so dishonorable to Christianity, and tending to such dreadful practical results. One would have supposed also, that, failing to convince their brethren, they would have felt it due to Christianity to clear themselves from all complicity with these sentiments, by the most solemn, earnest and reiterated protests. Let us now inquire what has, in fact, been the course of the Northern church on this subject. Previous to making this inquiry, let us review the declarations that have been made in the Southern church, and see what prin- ciples have been established by them. 1. That slavery is an innocent and law- ful relation, as much as that of parent and child, husband and wife, or any other lawful relation of society. (Harmony Pres., S. C.) 2. That it is consistent with the most fraternal regard for the good of the slave. (Charleston Union Pres., S. C.) 3. That masters ought not to be disci- plined for selling slaves without their con- sent. (New-school Pres. Church, Peters- burg, Ya.) 4. That the right to buy, sell, and hold men for purposes of gain, was given by express permission of God. (James Smylie and his Presbyteries.) 5. That the laws which forbid the educa- tion of the slave are right, and meet the approbation of the reflecting part of the Christian community. (Ibid.) G. That the fact of slavery is not a ques- tion of morals at all. but is purely one of political economy. (Charleston Baptist As- sociation.) 7. The right of masters to dispose of the time of their slaves has been distinctly recognized by the Creator of all things. (Ibid.) KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIX. 205 8. That slavery, as it exists in these United States, is not a moral evil. (Georgia Conference, Methodist.) 9. That, without a new revelation from heaven, no man is entitled to pronounce slavery wrong. 10. That the separation of slaves by sale should be regarded as separation by death, and the parties allowed to marry again. (Shiloh Baptist Ass., and Savannah River Ass.) 11. That the testimony of colored mem- bers of the churches shall not be taken against a white person. (Methodist Church.) In addition, it has been plainly avowed, by the expressed principles and practice of Christians of various denominations, that they regard it right and .proper to put down all inquiry upon this subject by Lynch law. One -would have imagined that these prin- ciples were sufficiently extraordinary, as coming from the professors of the religion of Christ, to have excited a good deal of attention in their Northern brethren. It also must be seen that, as principles, they are principles of very extensive application, underlying the whole foundations of religion and morality. If not true, they were cer- tainly heresies of no ordinary magnitude, involving no ordinary results. Let us now return to our inquiry as to the course of the Northern church in relation to them. CHAPTER II. In the first place, have any of these opinions ever been treated in the church as heresies, and the teachers of them been sub- jected to the censures with which it is thought proper to visit heresy 1 After a somewhat extended examination upon the subject, the writer has been able to discover but one instance of this sort. It may be possible that such cases have existed in other denominations, which have escaped inquiry. A clergyman in the Cincinnati N. S. Pres- bytery maintained the doctrine that slave- holding was justified by the Bible, and for persistence in teaching this sentiment was suspended by that presbytery. He appealed to Synod, and the decision was confirmed by the Cincinnati Synod. The New School General Assembly, however, reversed this decision of the presbytery, and restored the standing of the clergyman. The presbytery, on its part, refused to receive him back, and he was received into the Old School Church. The Presbyterian Church has probably exceeded all other churches of the United States in its zeal for doctrinal opinions. This church has been shaken and agitated to its very foundation with questions of heresy ; but, except in this individual case, it is not known that any of these principles which have been asserted by Southern Presbyterian bodies and individuals have ever been dis- cussed in its General Assembly as matters of heresy. About the time that Smylie's pamphlet came out, the Presbyterian Church was convulsed with the trial of the Rev. Albert Barnes for certain allaged heresies. These heresies related to the federal headship of Adam, the propriety of imputing his sin to all his posterity, and the question whether men have any ability of any kind to obey the commandments of God. For advancing certain sentiments on these topics, Mr. Barnes was silenced by the vote of the synod to which he belonged, and his trial in the General Assembly on these points was the all-engrossing topic in the Presbyterian Church for some time. The Rev. Dr. L. Beecher went through a trial with reference to similar opinions. During all this time, no notice was taken of the heresy, if such it be, that the right to buy, sell, and hold men for purposes of gain, was expressly given by God ; although that heresy was publicly promulgated in the same Presbyterian Church, by Mr. Smylie, and the presbyteries with which he was con- nected. If it be accounted for by saying that the question of slavery is a question of 'practi- cal morals, and not of dogmatic theology, we are then reminded that questions of morals of far less magnitude have been dis- cussed with absorbing interest. The Old School Presbyterian Church, in whose communion the greater part of the slave-holding Presbyterians of the South are found, has never felt called upon to discipline its members for upholding a system which denies legal "marriage to all slaves. Yet this church was agitated to its very foundation by the discussion of a question of morals which an impartial observer would probably consider of far less magnitude, namely, whether a man might lawfully marry his deceased wife's sister. For the time, all the strength and attention of the church seemed concentrated upon this important subject. The trial went from Presbytery to 206 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Synod, and from Synod to General Assem- bly ; and ended with deposing a very respect- able minister for this crime. Rev. Robert P. Breckenridge, D.D., a member of the Old School Assembly, has thus described the state of the slave popu- lation as to their marriage relations : " The system of slavery denies to a whole class of human beings the sacredness of marriage and of home, compelling them to live in a state of concubinage ; for in the eye of the law no colored slave-man is the husband of any wife in particular, nor any slave-woman the wife of any husband in particular ; no slave-man is the father of any children in particular, and no slave-child is the child of any parent in particular." Now, had this church considered the fact that three million men and women were, by the laws of the land, obliged to live in this manner, as of equally serious consequence, it is evident, from the ingenuity, argument, vehemence, Biblical research, and untiring zeal, which they bestowed on Mr. McQueen's trial, that they could have made a very strong case with regard to this also. The history of the united action of de- nominations which included churches both in the slave and free states is a melancholy exemplification, to a reflecting mind, of that gradual deterioration of the moral sense which results from admitting any compro- mise, however slight, with an acknowledged sin. The best minds in the world cannot bear such a familiarity without injury to the moral sense. The facts of the slave system and of the slave laws, when presented to disinterested judges in Europe, have excited a universal outburst of horror ; yet, in assem- blies composed of the wisest and best cler- gymen of America, these things have been discussqd from year to year, and yet brought no results that have, in the slightest degree, lessened the evil. The reason is this. A portion of the members of these bodies had pledged themselves to sustain the system, and peremptorily to refuse and put down all discussion of it ; and the other part of the body did not consider this stand so taken as being of sufficiently vital consequence to authorize separation. Nobody will doubt that, had the Southern members taken such a stand against the divinity of our Lord, the division would have been immediate and unanimous ; but yet the Southern members do maintain the right to buy and sell, lease, hire and mort- gage, multitudes of men and women, whom, with the same breath, they declared to be members of their churches and true Chris- tians. The Bible declares of all such that they are temples of the Holy Ghost ; that they are members of Christ's body, of his flesh and bones. Is not the doctrine that men may lawfully sell the members of Christ, his body, his flesh and bones, for purposes of gain, as really a heresy as the denial of the divinity of Christ ; and is it not a dishonor to Him who is over all, God blessed forever, to tolerate this dreadful opinion, with its more dreadful consequences, while the smallest heresies concerning the imputation of Adam's sin are pursued with eager vehemence? If the history of the action of all the bodies thus united can be traced downwards, w r e shall find that, by reason of this tolerance of an admitted sin, the anti-slavery testimony has every year grown weaker and weaker. If we look over the history of all denominations, we shall see that at first they used very stringent language with relation to slavery. This is particularly the case with the Methodist and Presbyterian bodies, and for that reason we select these two as examples. The Methodist Society especially, as organized by John Wesley, was an anti-slavery society, and the Book of Discipline contained the most posi- tive statutes against slave-holding. The history of the successive resolutions of the conference of this church is very striking. In 1780, before the church was regularly organized in the United States, they resolved as follows : The conference acknowledges that slavery is contrary to the laws of God, man and nature, and hurtful to society ; contrary to the dictates of conscience and true religion ; and doing what we would not others should do unto us. In 1784, when the church was fully or- ganized, rules were adopted prescribing the times at which members who were already slave-holders should emancipate their slaves. These rules were succeeded by the following : Every person concerned, who will not comply with these rules, shall have liberty quietly to withdraw from our society within the twelve months following the notice being given him, as aforesaid; otherwise the assistants shall exclude him from the society. No person holding slaves shall in future be admitted into society, or to the Lord's Supper, till he previously comply with these rules concern- ing slavery. Those who buy, sell, or give [slaves] away, unless on purpose to free them, shall be 'expelled immediately. In 1801 : "Wc" declare that we are more than ever con- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. vincod of the great evil of African slavery, which still exists in these United States. Every member of the society who sells a slave shall, immediately after full proof, be excluded from the society, &c. The Annual Conferences are directed to draw up addressee, fur the gradual emancipation of the slaves, to the legislature. Proper committees shall be appointed by the Annual Conferences, out of the most respectable of our friends, for the conducting of the business ; and the presiding elders, deacons, and travelling preachers, shall procure as many proper signatures as possible to the addresses ; and give all the assistance in their power, in every respect, to aid the committees, and to further the blessed undertaking. Let this be continued from year to year, till the desired end be accomplished. In 1836 let us notice the change. The General Conference held its annual session in Cincinnati, and resolved as follows : Resolved, By the delegates of the Annual Con- ferences in General Conference assembled, That they are decidedly opposed to modern abolition- ism, and wholly disc/aim any right, icish, or inten- tion, to interfere in the civil and political relation between master and slave, as it exists in the slave- holding states of this Union. These resolutions were passed by a very large majority. An address was received from the VVesleyan Methodist Conference in England, affectionately remonstrating on the subject of slavery. The Conference re- fused to publish it. In the pastoral address to the churches are these passages : It cannot be unknown to you that the question of slavery in the United States, by the constitu- tional compact which binds us together as a nation, is left to be regulated by the several state legis- latures themselves ; and thereby is put beyond the control of the general government, as well as that of all ecclesiastical bodies ; it being manifest that in the slave-holding states themselves the entire responsibility of its existence, or non-existence, rests with those state legislatures. * * * * These facts, which are only mentioned here as a reason for the friendly admonition which we wish to give you, constrain us, as your pastors, who are called to watch over your souls as they must give account, to exhort you to abstain from all abolition movements and associations, and to refrain from patronizing any of their publications, &c. * * The subordinate conferences showed the same spirit. In 1836 the New York Annual Confer- ence resolved that no one should be elected a deacon or elder in the church, unless he would give a pledge to the church that he would refrain from discussing this subject.* In 1838 the conference resolved : • As the sense of this conference, that any of its members, or probationers, who shall patronize Zion's Watchman , either by writing in commend- * This resolution is given in Birney's pamphlet. 207 ation of its character, by circulating it, recom- mending it to our people, or procuring subscribers, or by collecting or remitting inone\ T s, shall be deemed guilty of indiscretion, and dealt with ac- cordingly. It will be recollected that Zion's Watch- man was edited by Le Roy Sunderland, for whose abduction the State of Alabama had offered fifty thousand dollars. In 1840, the General Conference at Bal- timore passed the resolution that we have already quoted, forbidding preachers to allow colored persons to give testimony in their churches. It has been computed that about eighty thousand people were deprived of the right of testimony by this act. This Metho- dist Church subsequently broke into a North- ern and Southern Conference. The South- ern Conference is avowedly all pro-slavery, and the Northern Conference has still in its communion slave-holding conferences and members. Of the Northern conferences, one of the largest, the Baltimore, passed the following : Resolved, That this conference disclaims having any fellowship with abolitionism. On the con- trary, while it is determined to maintain its well- known and long-established position, by keeping the travelling preachers composing its'own body- free from slavery, it is also determined not to hold connection with any ecclesiastical body that shall make non-slaveholding a condition of membership in the church ; but to stand by and maintain the discipline as it is. The following extract is made from an ad- dress of the Philadelphia Annual Conference to the societies under its care, dated "Wil- mington Del., April 7, 1847 : If the plan of separation gives us the pastoral care of you, it remains to inquire whether we have done anything, as a conference, or as men, to for- feit your confidence and affection. AVe are not advised that even in the great excitement which has distressed you for some months past, any one has impeached our moral conduct, or charged us with unsoundness in doctrine, or corruption or tyranny in the administration of discipline. But we learn that the simple cause of the unhappy ex- citement among you is, that some suspect us, or affect to suspect us, of being abolitionists. Yet no particular act of the conference, or any partic- ular member thereof, is adduced, as the ground of the erroneous and injurious suspicion. We would ask you, brethren, Whether the conduct of our ministry among you for sixty years past ought not to be sufficient to protect us from this charge. Whether the question we have been accustomed, for a few years past, to put to candidates for admission among us, namely, Are you an aboli- tionist ? and, without each one answered in the negative, he was not received, ought not to protect us from the charge. Whether the action of the last conference on this particular matter ought not to satisfy any fair and candid mind that we are 208 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. not, and do not desire to be, abolitionists. * * * We cannot see bow we can be regarded as aboli- tionists, without the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church South being considered in the same light. * * * * Wishing you all heavenly benedictions, we are, dear brethren, yours, in Christ Jesus, J. P. DURBIN, "I J. Kennaday, Ignatius T. Cooper, y Comm. William H. Gilder, I Joseph Castle, These facts sufficiently define the position of the Methodist Church. The history is melancholy, but instructive. The history of the Presbyterian Church is also of interest. In 1793, the following note to the eighth commandment was inserted in the Book of Discipline, as expressing the doctrine of the church upon slave-holding : ITim. 1 : 10. The law is made for jian-stealers. This crime among the Jews exposed the perpetra- tors of it to capital punishment, Exodus 21 : 15 ; and the apostle here classes them with sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race into slavery, or in retaining them in it. Hominum fures, qui servos vel liberos abdacunt, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt. Stealers of men are all those who bring off slaves or freemen, and keep, sell, or buy them. To steal a free man, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other instances, we only steal human property ; but when we steal or retain men in slavery, we seize those who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the original grant lords of the earth. No rules of church discipline were en- forced, and members whom this passage de- clared guilty of this crime remained undis- turbed in its communion, as ministers and elders. This inconsistency was obviated in 1816 by expunging the passage from the Book of Discipline. In 1818 it adopted an expression of its views on slavery. This document is a long one, conceived and writ- ten in a very Christian spirit. The Assembly's Digest says, p. 341, that it vivisunanimously adopted. The following is its testimony as to the nature of slavery : We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature ; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves ; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoin that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Slavery creates a paradox in the moral system — it exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action. It exhibits them as dependent on the will of others, whether they shall receive religious instruction; whether they shall know and worship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the gospel ; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endearments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends ; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery, — conse- quences not imaginary, but which connect them- selves with its very existence. The evils to which the slave is always exposed often take place in fact, and in their very worst degree and form : and where all of them do not take place, — as we rejoice to say that in many instances, through the influence of the principles of humanity and religion on the minds of masters, they do not, — still the slave is deprived of his natural right, degraded as a human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest. This language was surely decided, and it was unanimously adopted by slave-holders and non-slaveholders. Certainly one might think the time of redemption was drawing nigh. The declaration goes on to say : It is manifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the present day, when the incon- sistency of slavery both with the dictates of hu- manity and religion has been demonstrated and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use honest, earnest, unwearied endeavors to correct the errors of former times, and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom and throughout the world. Here we have the Presbyterian Church, slave-holding and non-slavehokling, virtually formed into one great abolition society^ as we have seen the Methodist was. The assembly then goes on to state that the slaves are not at present prepared to be free, — that they tenderly sympathize with the portion of the church and country that has had this evil entailed upon them, where as they say "a great and the most virtuous part of the community abhor slavery and wish ITS extermination." But they ex- hort them to commence immediately the work of instructing slaves, with a view to preparing them for freedom ; and to let no greater delay take place than "a regard to public welfare indispensably demands." "To be governed by no other considerations than an honest and impartial regard to the happiness of the injured party, uninfluenced by the expense and inconvenience which such re- gard may involve." It warns against " un- duly extending this plea of necessity" against making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery. It ends by recom- mending that any one who shall sell a fellow- Christian without his consent be immediately disciplined and suspended. \ KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN. If we consider that this was unanimously adopted by slave-holders and all, and grant, as we certainly do, that it was adopted in all honesty and good faith, we shall surely ex- pect something from it. We should expect forthwith the organizing of a set of common schools for the slave-children; for an efficient religious ministration ; for an entire discon tinuance of trading in Christian slaves ; for laws which make the family relations sacred. Was any such thing done or attempted? Alas ! Two years after this came the ADMIS- SION of Missouri, and the increase of de- mand in the southern slave-market and the internal slave-trade. Instead of school- teachers, they had slave-traders; instead of gathering schools, they gathered slave-cof- Jlcs ; instead of building school-houses, they built slave-pens and slave-prisons, jails, bar- racoons, factories, or whatever the trade pleases to term them ; and so went the plan of grad- ual emancipation. In 1884, sixteen years after, a committee of the Synod of Kentucky, in which state slavery is generally said to exist in its mildest form, appointed to make a report on the condition of the slaves, gave the follow- ing picture of their condition. First, as to their spiritual condition, they say : After making all reasonable allowances, our colored population can be considered, at the most, but serm-heathen. As to their temporal estate — Brutal stripes, and all the various kinds of per- sonal indignities, are not the only species of cruelty which slavery licenses. The law does not ree >gnize the family relations of the slave, and extends to him no protection in the enjoyment of domestic endearments. The members of a slave- family may be forcibly separated, so that they Bhall never more meet until the final judgment. And cupidity often induces the masters to practise what the law allows. Brothers and sisters, pa- rents and children, husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony often witnessed on such occasions proclaim with a trumpet-tongue the iniquity and cruelty of our system. The cries of these sufferers go up to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. There is not a neigldiorhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold dear. Oui murch, years ago, raised its voice of solemn warning against this flagrant violation of every principle of mercy, justice, and humanity. Yet we blush to announce to you and to the world that this warning has been often disregarded, even by those who hold to our communion. Cases Iwtve occurred, in our own denomination, where pro- fessors of the religion of mercy have lorn the niu'hcr from her children, and sent her into a merci- less and returnless exile. Yet acts of discipline have rarely followed such conduct. 14 209 Hon. James G. Bir.ney, for years a resi- dent of Kentucky, in his pamphlet, amends the word rarely by substituting never. What could show more plainly the utter ineffi- ciency of the past act of the Assembly, and the necessity of adopting some measures more efficient? In 1885, therefore, the sub- ject was urged upon the General Assembly, entreating them to carry out the principles and designs they had avowed in 1818. Mr. Stuart, of Illinois, in a speech he made upon the subject, said : I hope this assembly are prepared to come out fully and declare their sentiments, that slave-hold- ing is a most flagrant and heinous six. Let us not pass it by in this indirect way, while so many thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow- creatures are writhing under the lash, often inflicted, too, by ministers and elders of the Pres- byterian Church. * * * * # In this church a man may take a free-born child, force it away from its parents, to whom God gave it in charge, saying " Bring it up for me," and sell it as a beast or hold it in perpetual bondage, and not only escape corporeal punishment, but really be esteemed an excellent Christian. Nay, even ministers of the gospel and doctors of divinity may engage in this unholy traffic, and yet sus- tain their high and holy calling. * * # # « Elders, ministers, and doctors of divinity, are, with both hands, engaged in the practice. One would have thought facts like these, stated in a body of Christians, were enough to wake the dead ; but, alas ! we can become accustomed to very awful things. No ac- tion was taken upon these remonstrances, except to refer them to a committee, to be reported on at the next session, in 1836. The moderator of the assembly in 1*886 was a slave-holder, Dr. T. S. W r itherspoon, the same who said to the editor of the Emancipator, ' ' I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to hold my slaves in bondage. The princi- ple of holding the heathen in bondage is recognized by God. When the tardy pro- cess of the law is too long in redressing our grievances, we at the South have adopted the summary process of Judge Lynch.'' The majority of the committee appointed made a report as follows : Whereas the subject of slavery is inseparably connected with the laws of many of the states in this Union, with which it is by no means proper for an ecclesiastical judicature to interfere, and involves many considerations in regard to which great diversity of opinion and intensity of feeling are known to exist in the churches represented in this Assembly : And whereas there is great reasor to believe that any action on the part of this Aj 210 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. seinbly, in reference to this subject, would tend to distra'ct and divide our churches, and would iv ibably in no wise promote the benefit of those whose welfare is immediately contemplated in the memorials in question. Therefore, Resolved, 1. That it is not expedient for the Assembly to take any further order in relation to this subject. 2. That as the notes which have been expunged from our public formularies, and which some of the memorials referred to the committee request to have restored, were introduced irregularly, never had the sanction of the church, and there- fore never possessed any authority, the General Ass smbly has no power, nor would they think it expedient, to assign them a place in the authorized standards of the church. The minority of the committee, the Rev. Messrs. Dickey and Beman, reported as follows : Resolved, 1. That the buying, selling, or holding a human being as property, is in the sight of God a heinous sin, and ought to subject the doer of it to the censures of the church. 2. That it is the duty of every one, and espe- cially of every Christian, who may be involved in this "sin, to free himself from its entanglement without delay. 3. That it is the duty of every one, especially of every Christian, in the meekness and firmness of the gospel to plead the cause of the poor and needy, by testifying against the principle and practice of slave-holding ; and to use his best en- deavors to deliver the church of God from the evil ; and to bring about the emancipation of the slaves in those United States, and throughout the world. The slave-holding delegates, to the number of forty-eight, met apart, and Resolved, That if the General Assembly shall undertake rcise authority on the subject of slavery, so as to make it an immorality, or shall in any way declare that Christians are' criminal in holding slavi s. that a declaration shall be presented _ by the Southern delegation declining their jurisdiction in the ease, and our determination not to submit to such decision. I;i view of these conflicting reports, the Assembly resolved as follows: Inasmuch as the constitution of the Presbyte- rian Church, in its preliminary and fundamental principles, declares that no church judicatories iughi to pretend to make laws to bind the con- science in virtue of ih ir own authority; and as the urgency of the business id' the Assembly, and the shortness of the time during which they can continue in session, render it impossible to dolib- i fate and decide judici >usly on the subject of slavery in its relation to the church; therefore, Resolved, That thiB whole subject be indefinitely postponed. The amount of the slave-trade at the time when the General Assembly refused to act upon the subject of slavery at all, may be inferred from the following items. The Virginia Times, in an article pub- lished in this very year of 1836, estimated the number of slaves exported for sale from that state alone, during the twelve months preceding, at forty thousand. The Natchez (Miss.) Courier says that in the same year the States of Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas, received two hundred and fifty thousand slaves from the, more northern states. If we deduct from these all who may be supposed to have emigrated with their masters, still what an immense trade is here indicated ! The Rev. James H. Dickey, who moved the resolutions above presented, had seen some sights which would naturally incline him to wish the Assembly to take some action on the subject, as appears from the following account of a slave-coffle, from his pen. In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family from a visit to the Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene such as I never witnessed be- fore, and such as I hope never to witness again. Having passed through Paris, in Bourbon county, Ky., the sound of music (beyond a little rising ground) attracted my attention. I looked for- ward, and saw the Hag of my country waving. Supposing that I was about to meet a military parade, I drove hastily to the side of the road; and, having gained the ascent, I discovered (I sup- pose) about forty black men all chained together after the following manner : each of them was handcuffed, and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain perhaps forty feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched between the two ranks, to which short chains were joined, which connected with the handcuffs. Behind them were, I suppose, about thirty women, in double rank, the couples tied hand to hand. A solemn sadness sat on every countenance, and the dismal silence of this march of despair was interrupted only by the sound of two violins ; yes, as if to add insult to injury, the foremost couple were furnished with a violin a-piece ; the second couple were orna- mented with cockades, while near the centre waved the republican flag, carried by a band liter- ally in chains. 1 could n. 4 forbear exclaiming to the lordly driver wdio rode at his ease along-side^ " Heaven will curse that man who engages in such traffic, and the government that protects him in it!" I pursued my journey till evening, and put up for the night, when I mentioned the scene I had witnessed. "Ah!" cried thy land- lady, " that is my brother!"' Prom her 1 learned that his name is Stone, of Bourbon county. Ken- tucky, in partnership with one Kiiuiingham, of Paris; and that a few days before he had pur- chased a negro-woman from a man in Nicholas county. She refused to go with him; he at- tempted to compel her, but she defended herself. Without further ceremony, lie stepped back, and, by a blow on the side of her head with the butt of his whip, brought her to the ground ; lie tied her, and drove her off. 1 learned further, that besides the drove I had seen, there were about thirty shut up in the Paris prison for safe-keep- ing, to be added to the company, and that they KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 211 were designed for the Orleans market. And to this they are doomed for no other crime than that of a hlack skin and curled locks. Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? It cannot be possible that these Christian men realized these things, or, at most, they realized them just as we realize the most tre- mendous truths of religion, dimlj and feebly. Two years after, the General Assembly, by a sudden and very unexpected movement, passed a vote exscinding, without trial, from the communion of the church, four synods, comprising the most active and decided anti- slavery portions of the church. The reasons alleged were, doctrinal differences and eccle- siastical practices inconsistent with Presby- terianism. By this act about five hundred ministers and sixty thousand members were cut off from the Presbyterian Church. That portion of the Presbyterian Church called New School, considering this act un- just, refused to assent to it, joined the ex- scinded synods, and formed themselves into the New School General Assembly. In this communion only three slave-holding pres- byteries remained. In the old there were between thirty and forty. The course of the Old School Assembly, after the separation, in relation to the sub- ject of slavery, may be best expressed by quoting one of their resolutions, passed in 1845. Having some decided anti-slavery members in its body, and being, moreover, addressed on the subject of slavery by asso- ciated bodies, they presented, on this year, the following deliberate statement of their policy. (Minutes for 1845, p. 18.) Resolved, 1st. That the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was originally organized, and-has since continued the bond of union in the church, upon the conceded principle that the existence, of domestic slavery, under the circumstances in which it is found in the South- ern portion of the country, * no bar to Christian communion. 2. That the petitions that ask u.- Assembly to make the holding of slaves in itself a matter of discipline do virtually require this judicatory to dissolve itself, and abandon the organization under which, by the divine blessing, it lias so long pros- pered. The tendency is evidently to separate the Northern from the Southern portion of the church, — a result which every good Christian must de- plore, as tending to the dissolution of the Union of our beloved country, and which every enlightened Christian will oppose, as bringing about a ruinous and unnecessary schism between brethren who maintain a common faith. Yeas, Ministers and Elders, 168. Nays, " " " 13. It is scarcely necessary to add a comment to this very explicit declaration. It is the plainest possible disclaimer of any protest against slavery ; the plainest possible state- ment that the existence of the ecclesiastical organization is of more importance than all the moral and social considerations which are involved in a full defence and practice of American slavery. The next year a large number of petitions and remonstrances were presented, request- ing the Assembly to utter additional testi- mony against slavery. In reply to the petitions, the General As- sembly reaffirmed all their former testimonies on the subject of slavery for sixty years back, and also affirmed that the previous year's declaration must not be understood as a retraction of that testimony; in other words, they expressed it as their opinion, in the words of 1818, that slavery is " wholly OPPOSED TO THE LAW OF GOD," and " TO- TALLY IRRECONCILABLE WITH THE PRE- CEPTS OP the gospel of Christ; " and yet that they " had formed their church or- ganization upon the conceded pHnciple that the existence of it, under the circumstances in which it is found in the Southern States of the Union, is no bar to Christian com- munion." Some members protested against this ac- tion. (Minutes, 1846. Overture No. 17.) Great hopes were at first entertained of the New School body. As a body, it was com- posed mostly of anti-slavery men. It had in it those synods whose anti-slavery opin- ions and actions had been, to say the least, one very efficient cause for their excision from the church. It had only three slave- holding presbyteries. The power was all in its own hands. Now, if ever, was their time to cut this loathsome incumbrance wholly adrift, and stand up, in this, age of concession and conformity to the world, a purely protesting church, free from all com- plicity with this most dreadful national im- morality. On the first session of the General Assembly, this course was most vehemently urged, by many petitions and memorials. These memorials were referred to a commit- tee of decided anti-slavery men. The ar- gument on one side was, that the time was now come to take decided measures to cut free wholly from all pro-slavery com- plicity, and avow their principles with de- cision, even though it should repel all such churches from their communion as were not prepared for immediate emancipation. On the other hand, the majority of the committee were urged by opposing con erations. The brethren from slave si made to them representations somewhat like 212 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. these: "Brethren, our hearts are with you. We are with you in faith, in char- ity, in prayer. We sympathized in the injury that had heen done you by excision. We stood by you then, and are ready to stand by you still. We have no sympathy with the party that have expelled you, and we do not wish to go back to them. As to this matter of slavery, we do not differ from you. We consider it an evil. We mourn and lament over it. We are trying, by gradual and peaceable means, to exclude it from our churches. We are going as far in advance of the sentiment of our churches as we consistently can. We cannot come up to more decided action without losing our hold over them, and, as we think, throwing back the cause of emancipation. If you begin in this decided manner, we cannot hold our churches in the union ; they will divide, and go to the Old School." Here was a very strong plea, made by good and sincere men. It was an appeal, too, to the most generous feelings of the heart. It was, in effect, saying, " Brothers, we stood by you, and fought your battles, when everything was going against you ; and, now that you have the power in your hands, are you going to use it so as to cast us out?" These men. strong anti-slavery men as they were, were affected. One member of the committee foresaw and feared the result. He felt and suggested that the course pro- posed conceded the whole question. The m ijority thought, on the whole, that it was best to postpone the subject. The com- mittee reported that the applicants, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, had with- drawn their papers. The next year, in 1839, the subject was resumed ; and it was again urged that the Assembly should take high and decided and unmistakable ground ; and certainly, if we consider that all this time not a single church had emancipated its slaves, and that the power of the institution was everywhere stretching and growing and increasing, it would certainly seem that something more efficient was necessary than a general un- derstanding that the church agreed with the testimony delivered in 1818. It was strongly represented that it was time something was done. This year the Assembly decided to refer the subject to presbyteries, to do what they deemed advisable. The words employed were these : '*' Solemnly referring the whole subject to the lower judicatories, to take uch action as in their judgment is most judicious, and adapted to remove the evil." This of course deferred, but did not avert, the main question. This brought, in 1840, a much larger number of memorials and petitions ; and very strong attempts were made by the abolitionists to obtain some decided action. The committee this year referred to what had been done last year, and declared it in- expedient to do anything further. The subject was indefinitely postponed. At this time it was resolved that the Assembly should meet only once in three years.* Ac- cordingly, it did not meet till 1843. In 1843, several memorials were again pre- sented, and some resolutions offered to the Assembly, of which this was one (Minutes of the General Assembly for 1843, p. 15) : Resolved, That we affectionately and earnestly urge upon the Ministers, Sessions, Presbyteries and Synods connected with this Assembly, that they treat this as all other sins of great magni- tude ; and, by a diligent, kind and faithful appli- cation of the means which God has given them, by instruction, remonstrance, reproof and effective discipline, seek to purify the church of this great iniquity. This resolution they declined. They passed the following : Whereas there is in this Assembly great diver- sity of opinion as to the proper and best mode of action on the subject of slavery ; and whereas, in such circumstances, any expression of senti- ment would carry with it but little weight, as it would be passed by a small majority, and must operate to produce alienation and division ; and whereas the Assembly of 1839, with great unan- imity, referred this whole subject to the lower judicatories, to take such order as in their judg- ment might be adapted to remove the evil ; — Re- solved, That the Assembly do not think it for the edification of the church for this body to take any action on the subject. They, however, passed the following : Resolved, That the fashionable amusement of promiscuous dancing is so entirely unseriptural, and eminently and exclusively that of" the world which lieth in wickedness," and so wholly incon- sistent with the spirit of Christ, and with that propriety of Christian deportment and that purity of heart which his followers are bound to maintain, as to render it not only improper and injurious for professing Christians either to partake in it, or to qualify their children for it, by teaching them the art, but also to call for the faithful and judicious exercise of discipline on the part of Church Ses- sions, when any of the members of their churches have been guilty. Three years after, in 1846, the General * Tho synods wwo also uiado courts of last appeal iu judicial cases. KEY" TO UNCLE TOJl's CABIN. 213 Assembly published the following declaration of sentiment: 1. The system of slavery, as it exists in these United States, viewed either in the laws of the several states which sanction it, or in its actual operation and results in society, is intrinsically unrighteous and oppressive ; and is opposed to the prescriptions of the law of God, to the spirit and precepts of the gospel, and to the best interests of humanity. 2. The testimony of the General Assembly, from A. D. 1787 to A. D. 1818, inclusive, has condemned it ; and it remains still the recorded testimony of the Presbyterian Church of these United States against it, from which we do not recede. 8. We cannot, therefore, withhold the expres- sion of our deep regret that slavery should be continued and countenanced by any of the mem- bers of our churches ; and we do earnestly exhort both them and the churches among whom it exists to use all means in their power to put it away from them. Its perpetuation among them cannot fail to be regarded by multitudes, influenced by their example, as sanctioning the system por- trayed in it, and maintained by the statutes of the several slave-holding states, wherein they dwell. Nor can any mere mitigation of its severity, prompted by the humanity and Christian feeling of any who continue to hold their fellow-men in bondage, be regarded either as a testimony against the system, or as in the least degree changing its essential character. 4. But, while we believe that many evils inci- dent to the system render it important and obli- gatory to bear testimony against it, yet would we not undertake to determine the degree of moral turpitude on the part of individuals involved by it. This will doubtless be found to vary, in the sight of God, according to the degree of light and other circumstances pertaining to each. In view of all the embarrassments and obstacles in the way of emancipation interposed by the statutes of the slave-holding states, and by the social influ- ence affecting the views and conduct of those involved in it, we cannot pronounce a judgment of general and promiscuous condemnation, implying that destitution of Christian principle and feeling which should exclude from the table of the Lord all who should stand in the legal relation of mas- ters to slaves, or justify us in withholding our ecclesiastical and Christian fellowship from them. We rather sympathize with, and would seek to succor them in their embarrassments, believing that separation and secession among the churches and their members are not the methods God approves and sanctions for the reformation of his church. 5. While, therefore, we feel bound to bear our testimony against slavery, and to exhort our be- loved brethren to remove it from them as speedily as possible, by all appropriate and available means, we do at the same time condemn all divi- sive and sehismatical measures, tending to destroy the unity and disturb the peace of our church, and deprecate the spirit of denunciation and in- flicting severities, which would cast from the fold tfaoso whom we are rather bound, by the spirit of the gospel, and the obligations of our covenant, to instruct, to counsel, to exhort, and thus to lead in the ways of God ; and towards whom, even though they may err, we ought to exercise for- bearance and bro'therly love. 6. As a court of our Lord Jesus Christ, we possess no legislative authority ; and as the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, we possess no judiciary authority. We have no right to institute and prescribe a test of Christian char- acter _and church membership, not recognized and sanctioned in the sacred Scriptures, and in our standards, by which we have agreed to walk. We must leave, therefore, this matter with the ses- sions, presbyteries and synods, —the judicatories to whompertains the right of judgment to act in the administration of discipline, as they may judge it to be their duty, constitutionally subject to the General Assembly only in the way of gen- eral review and control. When a boat is imperceptibly going down stream on a gentle but strong current, we can see its passage only by comparing ob- jects with each other on the shore. If this declaration of the New-school General Assembly be compared with that of 1818, it will be found to be far less out- spoken and decided in its tone, while in the mean time slavery had become four-fold more powerful. In 1S18 the Assembly states that the most virtuous portion of the community in slave states abhor slavery, and wish its extermination. In 1846 the Assembly states with regret that slavery is still con- tinued and countenanced by any of the members of our churches. The testimony of 1818 has the frank, outspoken air of a unanimous document, where there was but one opinion. That of 1846 has the guarded air of a compromise ground out between the upper and nether millstone of two contend- ing parties, — it is winnowed, guarded, cau- tious and careful. Considering the document, however, in itself, it is certainly a \ery good one ; and it would be a very proper expression of Chris- tian feeling, had it related to an evil of any common magnitude, and had it been uttered in any common crisis ; but let us consider what Avas the evil attacked, and what was the crisis. Consider the picture which the Kentucky Synod had drawn of the actual state of things among them : — " The mem- bers of slave-families separated, never to meet again until the final judgment; broth- ers and sisters, parents and children, hus- bands and wives, daily torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more; the shrieks and agonies, proclaiming as with trumpet-tongue the iniquity and cruelty of the system ; the cries of the sufferers go- ing up to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth not a neighborhood where those heart rend- ing scenes are not displayed ; not a village 214 KEF TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. or road without the sad procession of mana- cled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances tell they are exiled by force from all that heart holds dear; Christian professors rending the mother from her child, to sell her into returnless exile." This was the language of the Kentucky Synod fourteen years before; and those scenes had been going on ever since, and are going on now, as the advertisements of every Southern paper show ; and yet the church of Christ since 1818 had done nothing but express regret, and hold grave metaphysical discussions as to whether slavery was an "evil per se," and censure the rash action of men Avho, in utter despair of stopping the evil any other way, tried to stop it by excluding slave-holders from the church. As if it were not better that one slave-holder in a hundred should stay out of the church, if he be peculiarly circumstanced, than that all this horrible agony and iniquity should continually receive the sanction of the church's example ! Should not a generous Christian man say, "If church excision will stop this terrible evil, let it come, though it does bear hardly upon me ! Better that I suffer a little injustice than that this horri- ble injustice be still credited to the account of Christ's church. Shull I embarrass the whole church with my embarrassments 1 What if I am careful and humane in my treatment of my slaves, — what if, in my heart, I have repudiated the wicked doctrine that they are my property, and am treating them as my brethren, — what am I then doing '! All the credit of my example goes to give force to the system. The church ought to reprove this fearful injustice, and reprovers ought to have clean hands ; and if I cannot really get clear of this, I had better keep out of the church till I can." Let us consider, also, the awful intrench- ments and strength of the evil against which this very moderate resolution was discharged. "A money power of two thousand millions of dollars, held by a small body of able and desperate men ; that body raised into a po- litical aristocracy by special constitutional provisions ; cotton, the product of slave- labor, forming the basis of our whole foreign commerce, and the commercial class thus subsidized ; the press bought up ; the Southern pulpit reduced to vassalage ; the heart of the common people chilled by a bitter prejudice against the black race ; and our leading men bribed by ambition either to silence or open hostility."* And now, in this condition of thing's, the whole weight of these churches goes in support of slavery, from the fact of their containing slave-holders. No matter if they did not participate in the abuses of the system ; no- body wants them to do that. The slave- power does not wish professors of religion to separate families, or over-work their slaves, or do any disreputable thing, — that is not their part. The slave power wants pious, tender-hearted, generous and humane mas- ters, and must have them, to hold up the system against the rising moral sense of the world ; and the more pious and generous the better. Slavery could not stand an hour without these men. What then ? These men uphold the system, and that great anti-slavery body of ministers uphold these men. That is the final upshot of the mat- ter. Paul says that we must remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them. Sup- pose that this General Assembly had been made up of men who had been fugitives. Suppose one of them had had his daughters sent to the New Orleans slave-market, like Emily and Mary Edmondson ; that another's daughter had died on the overland passage in a slave-coffle, with no nurse but a slave- driver, like poor Emily Russell ; another's wife died broken-hearted, when her chil- dren were sold out of her bosom ; and another had a half-crazed mother, whose hair had been turned prematurely whito with agony. Suppose these scenes of ago- nizing partings, with shrieks and groans, which the Kentucky Synod says have been witnessed so long among the slaves, had been seen in these ministers' families, and that they had come up to this discussion with their hearts as scarred and seared as the heart of poor old Paul Edmondson, when he came to New York to beg for his daughters. Suppose that they saw that the horrid system by which all this had been done was extending every hour; that pro- fessed Christians in every denomination at the South declared it to be an appointed in- stitution of God ; that all the wealth, and all the rank, and all the fashion, in the country, were committed in its favor ; and that they, like Aaron, were sent to stand between the living and the dead, that the plague might be stayed. Most humbly, most earnestly, let it be * Speech of W. Phillips, Boston. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 215 submitted to the Christians of this nation, and to Christians of all nations, for such an hour and such a crisis was this action suf- ficient ? Did it do anything } Has it had the least effect in stopping the evil I And, in such a horrible time, ought not something to be done which will have that effect ? Let us continue the history. It will be observed that the resolution concludes by re- ferring the subj ect to subordinate j udicatories. The New School Presbytery of Cincinnati, in which were the professors of Lane Seminary, suspended Mr. Graham from the ministry for teaching that the Bible justified slavery; thereby establishing the principle that this was a heresy inconsistent with Christian fellowship. The Cincinnati Synod con- firmed this decision. The General Assem- bly reversed this decision, and restored Mr. Graham. The delegate from that presby- tery told them that they would never re- trace their steps, and so it proved. The Cincinnati Presbytery refused to receive him back. All honor be to them for it ! Here, at least, was a principle established, as far as the New School Cincinnati Presbytery is concerned, — and a principle as far as the General Assembly is concerned. By this act the General Assembly established the fact that the New School Presbyterian Church had not decided the Biblical defence of slavery to be a heresy. For a man to teach that there are not three persons in the Trinity is heresy. For a man to teach that all these three Persons authorize a system which even Ma- hometan princes have abolished from mere natural shame and conscience, is no heresy ! The General Assembly proceeded further to show that it considered this doctrine no heresy, in the year 1846, by inviting the Old School General Assembly to the cele- bration of the Lord's supper with them. Connected with this Assembly were, not only Dr. Smylie, and all those bodies who, among them, had justified not only slavery in the abstract, but some of its worst abuses, by the word of God ; yet the New School body thought these opinions no heresy which should be a bar to Christian communion ! In 1849 the General Assembly declared* that there had been no information before the Assembly to prove that the members in slave states were not doing all that they could, in the providence of God, to bring about the possession and enjoyment of liberty by the enslaved. This is a remarkable declaration, -if we consider that in Kentucky there are Minutes of the New School Assembly, p. 188. no stringent laws against emancipation, and that, either in Kentucky or Virginia, the slave can be set free by simply giving him a pass to go across the line into the next state. In 1850 a proposition was presented in the Assembly, by the Rev. H. Curtiss, of In- diana, to the following effect : "That the en- slaving of men, or holding them as property, is an offence, as defined in our Book of Dis- cipline, ch. 1, sec. 8; and as such it calls for inquiry, correction and removal, in the man- ner prescribed by our rules, and should be treated with a due regard to all the aggra- vating or mitigating circumstances in each case." Another proposition was from an elder in Pennsylvania, affirming " that slave- holding was, prima facie, an offence within the meaning of our Book of Discipline, and throwing upon the slave-holder the burden of showing such circumstances as will take away from him the guilt of the offence."* Both these propositions were rejected. The following was adopted: " That slavery is fraught with many and great evils ; that they deplore the workings of the whole system of slavery ; that the holding of our fellow-men in the condition of slavery, except in those cases where it is unavoidable from the laws of the state, the obligations of guardiansliip, or the demands of human- ity, is an offence, in the proper import of that term, as used in the Book of Discipline, and should be regarded and treated in the same manner as other offences ; also refer- ring this subject to sessions and presbyter- ies." The vote stood eighty-four to six- teen, under a written protest of the minor- ity, who were for no action in the present state of the country. Let the reader again compare this action with that of 1818, and he will see that the boat is still drifting, — especially as even this moderate testimony was not unanimous. Again, in this year of 1850, they avow themselves ready to meet, in a spirit of fraternal kindness and Chris- tian love, any overtures for reunion which may be made to them by the Old School body. In 1850 was passed the cruel fugitive slave law. What deeds were done then ! Then to our free states were transported those scenes of fear and agony before acted only on slave soil. Churches were broken up. Trembling Christians fled. Husbands and wives were separated. f Then to the poor African was fulfilled the dread doom * Theso two resolutions are given on the authority of Goodel's History. I do not find them in the Miuutes. 216 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. denounced on the wandering Jew, — " Thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; but thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life." Then all the world went one way, — all the wealth, all the power, all the fashion. Now, if ever, was a time for Christ's church to stand up and speak for the poor. The General Assembly met. SHe was earnestly memorialized to speak out. Never was a more glorious opportunity to show that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world. A protest then, from a body so nu- merous and respectable, might have saved the American church from the disgrace it now wears in the eyes of all nations. that she had once spoken ! What said the Presbyterian Church ? She said nothing, and the thanks of political leaders were ac- corded to her. She had done all they de- sired. Meanwhile, under this course of things, the number of presbyteries in slave-holding states had increased from three to twenty ! and this church has now under its care from fifteen to twenty thousand members in slave states. So much for the course of a decided anti- slavery body in union with a few slave-hold- ing churches. So much for a most discreet, judicious, charitable, and brotherly attempt to test by experience the question, What communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial '? The slave-system is darkness, — the slave-system is Belial ! and every attempt to harmonize it with the profession of Christianity will be just like these. Let it be here recorded, how- ever, that a small body of the most deter- mined opponents of slavery in the Pres- byterian Church seceded and formed the Free Presbyterian Church, whose terms of communion are, an entire withdrawal from slave-holding. Whether this principle be a correct one, or not, it is worthy of re- mark that it was adopted and carried out by the Quakers, — the only body of Christians involved, in this evil who have ever suc- ceeded in freeing themselves from it. Whether church disci) dine and censure is an appropriate medium tor correcting such immoralities and heresies in individuals, or not, it is enough for the case that this has been the established opinion and practice of the Presbyterian Church. If the argument of Charles Sumner be contempl ited, it will be seen that the history of this Presbyterian Church and the history of our United States have strong pointg of similarity. In both, at the outset, the strong influence was anti-slavery, even among slave-holders. In both there was no differ- ence of opinion as to the desirableness of abolishing slavery ultimately ; both made a concession, the smallest which could possibly be imagined ; both made the concession in all good faith, contemplating the speedy re- moval and extinction of the evil ; and the history of both is alike. The little point of concession spread, and absorbed, and ac- quired, from year to year, till the United States and the Presbyterian Church stand just where they do. Worse has been the history of the Methodist Church. The his- tory of the Baptist Church shows the same principle ; and, as to the Episcopal Church, it has never done anything but comply, either North or South. It differs from all the rest in that it has never had any resisting ele- ment, except now and then a protestant, like William Jay, a worthy son of him who signed the Declaration of Independence. The slave power has been a united, con- sistent, steady, uncompromising principle. The resisting element has been, for many years, wavering, self-contradictory, compro- mising. There has been, it is true, a deep, and ever increasing hostility. to slavery in a decided majority of ministers and church- members in free states, taken as individ- uals. Nevertheless, the sincere opponents of slavery have been unhappily divided among themselves as to principles and measures, the extreme principles and measures of some causing a hurtful reaction in others. Besides this, other great plans of benevolence have occupied their time and attention; and the re- sult has been that they have formed altogether inadequate conceptions of the extent to which the cause of God on earth is imperilled by American slavery, and of the duty of Chris- tians in such a crisis. They have never had such a conviction as has aroused, and called out, and united their energies, on this, as on other great causes. Meantime, great organic influences in church and state are, much against their wishes, neutralizing their influ- ence against slavery, — sometimes even ar- raying it in its favor. The perfect inflex- ibility of the slave-system, and its absolute refusal to allow any discussion of the subject, has reduced all those who wish to have re- ligious action in common with slave-holding churches to the alternative of either giving up the support of the South for that object, or giving up their protest against slavery. This has held out a strong temptation to KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 217 men who have had benevolent and laudable objects to carry, and who did not realize the full peril of the slave-system, nor appreciate the moral power of Christian protest against it. When, therefore, cases have arisen where the choice lay between sacrificing what they considered the interests of a good object, or giving up their right of protest, they have generally preferred the latter. The decision has always gone in this way : The slave power will not concede, — we must. The South says, " We will take no religious book that has anti-slavery principles in it." The Sun- day School Union drops Mr. Gallaudet's History of Joseph. Why? Because they approve of slavery? Not at all. They look upon slavery with horror. What then ? " The South will not read our books, if we do not do it. They will not give up, and we must. We can do more good by intro- ducing gospel truth with this omission than vre can by using our protestant power." This, probably, was thought and said hon- estly. The argument is plausible, but the concession is none the less real. The slave power has got the victory, and got it by the very best of men from the very best of mo- tives ; and, so that it has the victory, it cares not how it gets it. And although it may be said that the amount in each case of these concessions is in itself but small, yet, when we come to add together all that have been made from time to time by every differ- ent denomination, and by every different benevolent organization, the aggregate is truly appalling ; and, in consequence of all these united, what are we now reduced to? Here we are, in this crisis, — here in this nineteenth century, when all the world is dissolving and reconstructing on principles of universal liberty, — we Americans, who are sending our Bibles and missionaries to Christianize Mahometan lands, are uphold- ing, with all our might and all our influence, a system of worn-out heathenism which even the Bey of Tunis has repudiated ! The Southern church has baptized it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This worn-out, old, effete system of Roman slavery, which Christian- ity once gradually but certainly abolished, has been dug up out of its dishonored grave, a few laws of extra cruelty, such as Rome never knew, have been added to it, and now, baptized and sanctioned by the whole South- ern church, it is going abroad conquering and to conquer! The only power left to the Northern church is the protesting power: and will they use it ? Ask the Tract Soci- ety if they will publish a tract on the sin- fulness of slavery, though such tract should be made up solely from the writings of Jon- athan Edwards or Dr. Hopkins! Ask the Sunday School Union if it will publish the facts about this heathenism, as it has facts about Burrnah and Hiudostan ! Will they ? 0, that they would answer Yes / Now, it is freely conceded that all these sad results have come in consequence of the motions and deliberations of good men, who meant well ; but it has been well said that, in critical times, when one wrong step en- tails the most disastrous consequences, to mean well is not enough. In the crisis of a disease, to mean well and lose the patient, — in the height of a tem- pest, to mean well and wreck the ship. — « in a great moral conflict, to mean well and lose the battle, — these are things to be lamented. We are wrecking the ship, — we are losing the battle. There is no mistake about it. A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep, and we shall awake in the whirls of that mael- strom which has but one passage, and -that downward. There is yet one body of Christians whose influence we have not considered, and that a most important one, — the Congregationalists of New England and of the West. From the very nature of Congregationalism, she cannot give so united a testimony as Presby- terianism ; yet Congregationalism has spoken out on slavery. Individual bodies have spoken very strongly, and individual cler- gymen still stronger. They have remon- strated with the General Assembly, and they have very decided anti-slavery papers. But, considering the whole state of public sentiment, considering the critical nature of the exigency, the mighty sweep and force of all the causes which are going in favor of slavery, has the vehemence and force of the testimony of Congregationalism, as a body, been equal to the dreadful emergency? It has testimonies on record, very full and ex- plicit, on the evils of slavery ; but testimo- nies are not all that is wanted. There is abundance of testimonies on record in the Presbyterian Church, for that matter, quite as good and quite as strong as any that have been given by Congregationalism. . There have been quite as many anti-slavery men in the New School Presbyterian Church as in the Congregational, — quite as strong anti- slavery newspapers ; and the Presbyterian Church has had trial of this matter that the Congregational Church has never been ex- 218 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. posed to. It has had slave-holders in i own communion ; and from this trial Congre- gationalism has, as yet, been mostly exempt. Being thus free, ought not the testimony of Congregationalism to have been more than equal ? ought it not to have done more than testify ? — ought it not to have fought for the question 1 ? Like the brave three hundred in Thermopylae left to defend the liberties of Greece, when all others had fled, should they not have thrown in heart and soul, body and spirit? Have they done it ? Compare the earnestness which Congre- gationalism has spent upon some other sub- jects with the earnestness which has been spent upon this. Dr. Taylor taught that all sin consists in ■ sinning, and therefore that there could be no sin till a person had sinned ; and Dr. Bushnell teaches some modifications of the doctrine of the Trinity, nobody seem- inns without shedding tears. It causes me excessive grief to think of my own poor slaves, for whom I have for years been trying to lind a free home. It strikes me with equal astonish- ment and horror to hear Northern people make light of slavery. Had they seen and known a8 much of it as I, they could not thus treat it, un- less callous to the deepest woes and degradation of humanity, and dead both to the religion and phiianthr ipy of the gospel. But many of them are doing just what the hardest-hearted tyrants of the South most desire. Those tyrants would not, on any account, have them advocate or even apologize for slavery in an unqualified manner. This would be bad policy with the North. I won- der that .Gerritt Smith should understand slavery so much better than most of the Northern people. How true was his remark, on a certain occasion, namely, that the South are laughing in their sleeves, to think what dupes they make of most of the people at the North in regard to the real character of slavery ! Well did Mr. Smith remark that the system, carried out on its fundamental principle, would as soon enslave any laboring white man as the African. But, if it were not for the support of the North, the fabric of blood would fall at once. And of all the efforts of public bodies at the North to sustain slavery, the Connecticut General Association has made the best one. I have never seen anything so well constructed in that line as their resolutions of June, 1836. The South certainly could not have asked anything more effectual. But, of all Northern periodicals, the New York Observer must have the preference, as an efficient support of slavery. I am not sure but it does more than all things combined to keep the dreadful system alive. It is just the succor demanded by the South. Its abuse of the abo- litionists is music in Southern ears, which operates as a charm. But nothing is equal to its harping upon the " religious privileges and instruction"' of the slaves of the South. And nothing could he so false and injurious (to the cause of freedom and religion) as the impression it gives on that subject. 1 say what I know when I speak in re- lation to this matter. I have been intimately ac- quainted with the religious opportunities of slaves, — in the constant habit of hearing the sermons which an; preached to them. And I solemnly affirm, that, during the forty years of my res- idence and observation in this line, I never heard a single one of these sermons but what was taken up with the obligations and duties of slaves t« their masters. Indeed, I never heard a Bermon to slaves but what made obedience to master., by the slaves the fundamental and supreme law of re- ligion. Any candid and intelligent man can de- cide whether such preaching is not, as to religious purposes, worse than none at all. Again : it is wonderful how the credulity of the North is subjected to imposition in regard to the kind, treatment of slaves. For myself, ( can clear up the apparent contradictions found in writers who have resided at or visited the South. The i " majority of slave-holders,*' say some, " treat | their slaves with kinduess." Now, this may be KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 221 true in certain states and districts ; setting aside all questions of treatment, except such as refer to thabody. And yet. while the " majority of slave- holders" in a certain section may he kind, the majority of slaves in that section will he treated with cruelty. This is the truth in many such cases, that while there may be thirty men who may have but one slave apiece, and that a house-ser- vant, a single man in their neighborhood may have a hundred slaves, — all field-hands, half-fed, worked excessively, and whipped most cruelly. This is what I have often seen. To give a case, to show the awful influence of slavery upon the master, I will mention a Presbyterian elder, who was esteemed one of the best men in the region, — a very kind master. I was called to his death- bed to write his will. He had what was con- sidered a favorite house-servant, a female. After all other tilings were disposed of, the elder paused, as if in doubt what to do with *' Su." I enter- tained pleasing expectations of hearing the word "liberty" fall from his lips; but who can tell my surprise when [ heard the master exclaim, " What shall be done with Su ? I am afraid she will never be under a master severe enough for her." Shall I say that both the dying elder and his " Su" were members of the same church, the latter statedly receiving the emblems of a Saviour's dying love from the former ! All this temporizing and concession has been excused on the plea of brotherly love. What a plea for us Northern freemen ! Do we think the slave-system such a happy, desirable thing for our brothers and sisters at the South I Can we look at our common schools, our neat, thriving towns and vil- lages, our dignified, intelligent, self-respect- ing fanners and mechanics, all concomitants of free labor, and think slavery any blessing to our Southern brethren I That system which beggars all the lower class of whites, which curses the very soil, which eats up everything before it, like the palmer-worm, canker and locust, — which makes common schools an impossibility, and the preaching of the gospel almost as much so. — this sys- tem a blessing ! Does brotherly love require us to help the "South preserve it? Consider the educational influences under which such children as Eva and Henrique must grow up there ! We are speaking of what many a Southern mother feels, of what makes many a Southern father's heart sore. Slavery has been spoken of in its influence on the family of the slave. There are those, who never speak, who could tell, if they would, its influence on the family of the master. It makes one's heart ache to see generation after generation of lovely, noble children exposed to such influences. What a country the South might be, could she develop herself without this curse ! If the Southern character, even under all these disadvantages, retains so much that is noble, and is fascinating even in its faults, what might it do with free institutions? Who is the real, who is the true and noble lover of the South I — they who love her with all these faults and incumbrances, or they who fix their eyes on the bright ideal of what she might be, and say that these faults are no proper part of her 7 Is it true love to a friend to accept the ravings of insanity as a true specimen of his mind 7 Is it true love to accept the disfigurement of sickness as a specimen of his best con- dition ? Is it not truer love to say, "This curse is no part of our brother; it dishonors him; it does him injustice; it misrepresents him in the eyes of all nations. We love his better self, and we will have no fellowship with his betrayer. This is the part of true, generous, Christian love." But will it be said. " The abolition enter- prise was begun in a wrong spirit, by reck- less, meddling, impudent fanatics" ) Well, supposing that this were true, how came it to be so \ If the church of Christ had be- gun it right, these so-called fanatics would not have begun it wrong. In a deadly pestilence, if the right physicians do not prescribe, everybody will prescribe. — men, women and children, will prescribe, — be- cause something must be done. If the Presbyterian Church in 1818 had pursued the course the Quakers did, there never would have been any fanaticism. The Qua- kers did all by brotherly love. They melted the chains of Mammon only in the fires of a divine charity. When Christ came into Jerusalem, after all the mighty works that he had done, while air the so-called better classes were non-committal or opposed, the multitude cut down branches of palm-trees and cried Hosanna ! There was a most indecorous tumult. The very children caught the enthusiasm, and were crying Hosanuas in the temple. This was contradictory to all ecclesiastical rules. It was a highly im- proper state of things. The Chief Priests and Scribes said unto Jesus, " Master, speak unto these that they hold their peace." That gentle eye flashed as he answered. "I TELL YOU, IF THESE SHOULD HOLD THEIR PEACE, THE VERY STONES WOULD CRY OUT." Suppose a fire bursts out in the streets of Bostou, while the regular conservators of the city, who have the keys of the fire- engines, and the regulation of fire-companie3, are sitting together in some distant part of the city, consulting for the public good. The cry of fire reaches them, but they think 9.00. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S* CABIN. it a false alarm. The fire is no less real, for all that. It burns, and rages, and roars, till everybody in the neighborhood sees that something must be done. A few stout leaders break open the doors of the engine- houses, drag out the engines, and begin, regularly or irregularly, playing on the fire. But the destroyer still advances. Messen- gers come in hot haste to the hall of these deliber'ators, and, in the unselect language of fear and terror, revile them for not com- ing out. " Bless me!" says a decorous leader of the body, " what horrible language these men use ! " "They show a very bad spirit," remarks another: "we can't possibly join them in such a state of things." Here the more energetic members of the body rush out, to see if the thing be really so : and in a few minutes come back, if pos- sible more earnest than the others. " ! there is a fire ! — a horrible, dread- ful fire ! The city is burning, — men, wo- men, children, all burning, perishing! Come out. come out ! As the Lord liveth, there is but a step between us and death ! " " I am not going out; everybody that goes gets crazy," says one. "I 've noticed," says another, "that as soon as anybody goes out to look, he gets just so excited, — I won't look." But by this time the angry fire has burned into their very neighborhood. The red demon glares into their windows. And now, fairly aroused, they get up and begin to look out. " Well, there is a fire, and no mistake !" says one. " Something ought to be done," says another. " Yes," says a third ; " if it was n't for being mixed up with such a crowd and rab- ble of folks, I'd go out." " Upon my word," says another, " there are women in the ranks, carrying pails of water ! There, one woman is going up a ladder to get those children out. What an indecorum ! If they 'd manage this matter properly, we would join them." And now come lumbering over from Charlestown the engines and fire-companies. "What impudence of Charlestown," say these men, " to be sending over here. — just as if we could not put our own fires out ! They have fires over there, as much as we do." And now the flames roar and burn, and shake hands across the streets. They leap over the steeples, and glare demoniacally out of the church-windows. " For Heaven's sake, do something!" is the cry. "Pull down the houses ! Blow up those blocks of stores with gunpowder ! Anything to stop it." " See, now, what ultra, radical measures they are going at," says one of these spec- tators. Brave men, w r ho have rushed into the thickest of the fire, come out, and fall dead in the street. "They are impracticable enthusiasts. They have thrown their lives away in fool- hardiness," says another. So, church of Christ, burns that awful fire ! Evermore burning:, burning, burning, over O" O" O' church and altar ; burning over senate-house and forum ; burning up liberty, burning up religion ! No earthly hands kindled that fire. From its sheeted flame and wreaths of sulphurous smoke glares out upon thee the eye of that enemy who was a murderer from the besinnincr. It is a fire that burns TO THE LOWEST HELL ! Church of Christ, there was an hour when this fire might have been extinguished by thee. Now, thou standest like a mighty man astonished, — like a mighty man that cannot save. But the Hope of Israel is not dead. The Saviour thereof in time of trouble is yet alive. If every church in our land were hung with mourning, — if every Christian should put on sack-cloth. — if "the priest should weep between the porch and the altar," and say, " Spare thy people, Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach ! " — that were not too great a mourning for such a time as this. 0, church of Jesus ! consider what hath been said in the midst of thee. What a heresy hast thou tolerated in thy bosom ! Thy God the defender of slavery ! — thy God the patron of slave-law ! Thou hast suffered the character of thy God to be slandered. Thou hast suffered false witness against thy Redeemer and thy Sanctifier. The Holy Trinity of heaven has been foully traduced in the midst of thee ; and that God whose throne is awful in justice has been made the patron and leader of oppression. This is a sin against every Christian on the globe. Why do we love and adore, beyond all tilings, our God I Why do we say to him, from our inmost souls, " Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee"'? Is this a KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 223 bought-up worship? — is it a cringing and I by a few hours of patient shining, dissolves hollow subserviency, because he is great and the iceberg on which all the storms of winter rich and powerful, and we dare not do | have beat in vain. 0, that so happy a otherwise? His eyes are a flame of fire ; — ! course had been thought of and pursued by he reads the inmost soul, and will accept no J all the other denominations ! But the day such service. From our souls we adore and is past when this monstrous evil would love him, because he is holy and just and good, and will not at all acquit the wicked. We love him because he is the father of the fatherless, the judge of the widow ; — because he lifteth all who fall, and raiseth them that are bowed down. We love Jesus Christ, be- cause he is the Lamb without spot, the one altogether lovely. We love the Holy Comforter, because he comes to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. 0, holy church universal, throughout all countries and nations ! 0, ye great cloud of witnesses, of all people past wtien tins monstrous evil would so quietly yield to gentle and persuasive meas- ures. At the time that the Quakers made their attempt, this Leviathan in the reeds and rushes of America was young and callow, and had not learned his strength. Then he might have been "drawn out with a hook;" then they might have "made a covenant with him, and taken him for a ser- vant forever;" but now Leviathan is full- grown. "Behold, the hope of him is vain. Shall not men be cast down even at the sight of him 1 None is so fierce that dare and languages and tongues ! — differing in J stir him up. His scales are his pride, shut many doctrines, but united in crying Wor thy is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed us from all iniquity ! — awake ! — arise up ! — be not silent ! Testify against this heresy of the latter day, which, if it were possible, is deceiving the very elect. Your God. your glory, is slandered. An- swer with the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings ! Answer with the in- numerable multitude in heaven, who cry, day and night, Holy, holy, holy ! just and true are thy ways. King of saints ! CHAPTER III. MARTYRDOM. At the time when the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches passed the anti-slav- ery resolutions which we have recorded, the system of slavery could probably have been extirpated by the church with comparatively little trouble. Such was the experience of the Quakers, who tried the experiment at that time, and succeeded. The course they pursued was the simplest possible. They districted their church, and appointed re regard solely the eternal and immutable principles of truth, which no human legislature or popular sen- timent can alter or remove. 2. We shall endeavor to present the question as one hetween this community and God, — a sub- ject on which He deeply feels, and on which we owe great and important duties to Him and to our fellow-citizens. 3. We shall endeavor, as far as possible, to allay the violence of party strife, to ran tve all unholy excitement, and to produce mutual confi- dence and kindness, and a deep interest in the welfare of all parts of our nation ; and a strong desire to preserve its union and promote its high- est welfare. Our entire reliance is upon truth and love, iind the influences of the Holy Spirit. We desire to compel no one to act against his judgment or con- science by an oppressive power of public senti- ment; hut to arouse all men to candid thought, and impartial inquiry in the fear of God. we do desire. And, to accomplish this end, we shall use tho same means that are used to enlighten and elevate the public mind on all Other great moral subjects, — personal influence, public address, the pulpit aud the press. KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 225 4. "Wo shall endeavor to produce a new and radical investigation of the principles of human rights, and of the relations of all just legislation to them, deriving our principles from the nature of the human mind, the relations of man to God, and the revealed will of the Creator. 5. We shall then endeavor to examine the slave- laws of our land in the light of these principles, and to prove that they are essentially sinful, and that they are at war alike with the will of God and all the interests of the master, the slave, and the community at large. G. "We shall then endeavor to show in what manner communities where such laws exist may relieve themselves at once, in perfect safety and peace, both of the guilt and dangers of the sys- tem. 7. And, until communities can be aroused to do their duties, we shall endeavor to illustrate and enforce the duties of individual slave-holders in such communities. To views presented in this spirit and manner one would think there could have been no rational objection. The only diffi- culty with them was, that, though calm and kind, they were felt to be in earnest ; and at once Leviathan was wide awake. The next practical question was, Shall the third printing-press be defended, or shall it also be destroyed? There was a tremendous excitement, and a great popular tumult. The timid, prudent, peace-loving majority, who are to be found in every city, who care not what principles prevail, so they promote their own interest, were wavering and pusillanimous, and thus encouraged the mob. Every motive was urged to induce Mr. Beecher and Mr. Love- joy to forego the attempt to reestablish the press. The former was told that a price had been set on his head in Missouri, — a fashion- able mode of meeting argument in the pro- slavery parts of this country. Mr. Lovejoy had been so long threatened with assassina- tion, day and night, that the argument with him was something musty. Mr. Beecher was also told that the interests of the college of which he was president would be sacrificed, and that, if he chose to risk his own safety, he had no right to risk those interests. But Mr. Beecher and Mr. Lovejoy both felt that the very foundation principle of free insti- tutions had at this time been seriously com- promised, all over the country, by yielding up the right of free discussion at the clamors of the mob ; that it was a precedent of very wide and very dangerous application. In a public meeting, Mr. Beecher ad- dressed the citizens on the right of main- taining free inquiry, and of supporting every man in the right of publishing and speaking his conscientious opinions. He 15 read to them some of those eloquent pas- sages in which Dr. Channing had maintained the same rights in very similar circumstances in Boston. He read to them extracts from foreign papers, which showed how the American character suffered in foreign lands from the prevalence in America of Lynch law and mob violence. He defended the right of Mr. Lovejoy to print and publish his conscientious opinions ; and. finally, he read from some Southern journals extracts in which they had strongly condemned the course of the mob, and vindicated Mr. Lovejoy's right to express his opinions. He then proposed to them that they should pass resolutions to the following effect : That the free communication of opinion is one of the invaluable rights of man ; and that every citizen may freely speak, write or print, on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of the liberty. That maintenance of these {principles should be independent of all regard to persons and senti- ments. That they should be especially maintained with regard to unpopular sentiments, since no others need the protection of law. That on these grounds alone, and without re- gard to political and moral differences, we agree to protect the press and property of the editor of the Alton Observer, and support him in his right to publish whatever he pleases, holding him re- sponsible only to the laws of the land. These resolutions, so proposed, were to be taken into consideration at a final meeting of the citizens, which was to be held the next day. That meeting was held. Their first step was to deprive Mr. Beecher, and all who were not citizens of that county, of the right of debating on the report to be presented. The committee then reported that they deeply regretted the excited state of feeling; that they cherished strong confidence that the citizens would refrain from undue excite- ments ; that the exigences of the time re- quired a course of moderation and compro- mise; and that, while there was no disposition to prevent free discussion in general, they deemed it indispensable to the public tran- quillity that Mr. Lovejoy should not publish a paper in that city ; not wishing to reflect in the slightest degree upon Mr. Lovejoy's character and motives. All that the meet- ing waited for now was, to hear whether Mr. Lovejoy would comply with their recom- mendation. One of the committee arose, and expressed his sympathy for Mr. Lovejoy, characterizing him as an unfortunate individual, hoping that they would all consider that he had a wife 226 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CAKItf. and family to support, and trusting that they would disgrace him as little as possible ; but that he and all his party would see the ne- cessity of making a compromise, and depart- ing from Alton. What followed is related in the words of Mr. Beecher, who was pres- ent at the meeting : As Brother Lovejoy rose to reply to the speech above mentioned, I watched his countenance with deep interest, not to say anxiety. I saw no tokens of disturbance. With a tranquil, self-possessed air, he went up to the bar within which the chair- man sat, and, in a tone of deep, tender and sub- dued feeling, spoke as follows : "I feel, Mr. Chairman, that this is the most solemn moment of my life. I feel, I trust, in some measure the responsibilities which at this hour I sustain to these, my fellow-citizens, to the church of which I am a minister, to my country, and to God. And let me beg of you, before I proceed fur- ther, to construe nothing I shall say as being disre- spectful to this assembly. I have no such feeling : far from it. And if I do not act or speak accord- ing to their wishes at all times, it is because I cannot conscientiously do it. " It is proper I should state the whole matter, as I understand it, before this audience. I do not stand here to argue the question as presented by the report of the committee. My only wonder is that the honorable-gentleman the chairman of that committee, for whose character I entertain great trespect, though I have not the pleasure of his per- gonal acquaintance, — my only wonder is how that •gentleman could have brought himself to submit ■such a report. '' Mr. Chairman, I do not admit that it is the business of this- assembly to decide whether I shall or shall not publish a newspaper in this city. The gentlemen have, as the lawyers say, made a wrong issue. I have the right to, do it. 1 know that I have the right freely to speak and pub- lish my sentiments, subject only to the laws of the land for the abuse of that right. This right was given me by my Maker ; and is solemnly guaranteed to me by the constitution of these United States, and df this state. What I wish to know of you is, whether you will protect me in the exercise of this right ; or whether, as heretofore, I am to be subjected to personal indignity and outrage. These resolutions, and the measures proposed by them, are spoken of as a compromise — a compro- mise between two parties. Mr. Chairman, this is not BO. There is but one party here. It is simply a question whether the law shall be enforced, or whether the mob shall be allowed, as they now do, to continue to trample it under their feet, by violating with impunity the rights of an innocent individual. " Mr. Chairman, what have I to compromise? If freely to forgive those who have so greatly in- jured me, if to pray for their temporal and eternal happiness, if still to wish for the prosperity of your city and state, notwithstanding all the indig- nities 1 have Buffered in it, — if this he the compro- mise intended, then do I willingly make it. My rights have been shamefully, wickedly outraged ; this 1 know, and feel, and can never forget. Hut I can and do freely forgive those who have done it. " Bat if by a compromise is meant that I should cease from doing that which duty requires of me, I cannot make it. And the reason is, that I fear God more than I fear man. Think not that I would lightly go contrary to public sentiment around me. The good opinion of my fellow-men is dear to me, and I would sacrifice anything but principle to obtain their good wishes ; but when they ask me to surrender this, they ask for more than I can, than I dare give. Reference is made to the fact that I offered a few days since to give up the editorship of the Observer into other hands. This is true ; I did so because it was thought or said by some that perhaps the paper would be better patronized in other hands. They declined accepting my offer, however, and since then we have heard from the friends and support- ers of the paper in all parts of the state. There was but one sentiment among them, and this was that the paper could be sustained in no other hands than mine. It is also a very different ques- tion, whether I shall voluntarily, or at the request of friends, yield up my post ; or whether I shall forsake it at the demand of a mob. The former I am at all times ready to do, when circumstances occur to require it ; as I will never put my personal wishes or interests in competition with the cause of that Master whose minister I am. But the latter, be assured, I never will do. God, in his providence, — so say all my brethren, and so I think, — has de- volved upon me the responsibility of maintaining my ground here ; and, Mr. Chairman, I am deter- mined to doit. A voice comes to me from Maine, from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, from New- York, from Pennsylvania, — yea, from Kentucky, from Mississippi , from Missouri, — calling upon me, in the name of all that is dear in heaven or earth, to stand fast ; and, by the help of God, I wili. stand. I know I am but one, and you are many. My strength would avail but little against you all. You can crush me, if you will ; but I shall die at my post, for I cannot and will not forsake it. " Why should I flee from Alton ? Is not this a free state ? When assailed by a mob at St. Louis, I came hither, as to the home of freedom and of the laws. The mob has pursued me here, and why should I retreat again ? Where can I be safe, if not here ? Have not I a right to claim the pro- tection of the laws'! What more caul have in any other place! Sir, the very act of retreating wiil embolden the mob to follow me wherever I go. No, sir, there is no way to escape the mob, but to abandon the path of duty ; and that, God helping me, I will never do. " It has been said here, that my hand is against every man, and every man's hand against me. The last part of the declaration is too painfully true. I do indeed find almost every hand lifted against me; but against whom in this place has my hand been raised ? I appeal to every individual present ; whom of you have I injured ? Whose character have I traduced? Whose family have 1 molested' Whose business have I meddled with ? If any, let him rise here and testily against me. — No one answers. " And do not your resolutions say that you find nothing against my private or personal character? And does any one believe that, if there was any- thing to be found, it would not be found and brought forth? If in anything I have offended against the law, I am not so popular in this com- munity as that it would be difficult to convict me. You have courts and judges and juries ; they find nothing against me. And now you come together for the purpose of driving out a confessedly inno- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 227 cent man, for no cause but that he dares to think and speak as his conscience and his God dictate. Will conduct like this stand the scrutiny of your countrj*, of posterity; above all, of the judgment- day! For remember, the Judge of that day is no respecter of persons. Pause, I beseech you, and reflect ! The present excitement will soon be over ; the voice of conscience will at last be heard. And in some season of honest thought, even in this world, as you review the scenes of this hour, you will be compelled to say, 'He was right; he was right.' " But you have been exhorted to be lenient and compassionate, and in driving me away to affix no unnecessary disgrace upon me. Sir, I reject all such compassion. You cannot disgrace me. Scan- dal and falsehood and calumny have already done their worst. My shoulders have borne the burthen till it sits easy upon them. You may hang ineup, as the mob hung up the individuals of Vicksburg! You may barn me at the stake, as they did Mcin- tosh at St. Louis ; or you may tar and feather me, or throw me into the Mississippi, as you have often threatened to do ; but you cannot disgrace me. I, and I alone, can disgrace myself ; and the deepest of all disgrace would be, at a time like this, to deny my Master by forsaking his cause. He died for me ; and I were most unworthy to bear his name, should I refuse, if need be, to die for him. " Again, you have been told thai I have a fam- ily, who are dependent on me ; and this has been given as a reason why I should be driven off as gently as possible, ft is true, Mr. Chairman, I am a husband and a father ; and this it is that adds the bitterest ingredient to the cup of sorrow I am called to drink. I am made to feel the wis- dom of the apostle's advice; 'It is better not to marry.' I know, sir, that in this contest I stake not my life only, but that of others also. I do not expect my wife will ever recover the shock received at the awful scenes through which she was called to pass at St. Charles. And how was it the other night, on my return to my house ? I found her driven to the garret, through fear of the mob, who were prowling round my house. And scarcely had I entered the house ere my windows were broken in by the brickbats of the mob, and she so alarmed that it was impossible for her to sleep or rest that night. I am hunted as a partridge upon the mountains ; I am pursued as a felon through your streets ; and to the guardian power of the law I look in vain for that protection against violence which even the vilest criminal may claim. " Yet think not that I am unhappy. Think not that I regret the choice that I have made. While all around me is violence and tumult, all is peace within. An approving conscience, and the re- warding smile of God, is a full recompense for all that I forego and all that I endure. Yes, sir, I enjoy a peace which nothing can destroy. I sleep sweetly and undisturbed, except when awaked by the brickbats of the mob. " No, sir, I am not unhappy. I have counted the cost, and stand prepared freely to offer up my all in the service of God. Yes, sir, I am fully aware of all the sacrifice I make, in here pledging myself to continue tnis contest to the last. — (For- give these tears — I had not intended to shed them, and they flow not for myself but others.) But I am commanded to forsake father and mother and wife and children for Jesus' sake ; and as his professed disciple I stand prepared to do it. The time for fulfilling this pledge in my case, it seems to me, has come. Sir, T dare not flee away from Alton. Should I attempt it, I should feel that the angel of the Lord, with his flaming sw >rd,was pursuing me wherever I went. It is because I fear God that I am not afraid of all who oppose me in this city. No, sir, the contest has com- menced here ; and here it must be finished. Be- fore God and you all, I here pledge myself to con- tinue it, if need be, till death. If I fall, my grave shall be made in Alton." In person Lovejoy was well formed, in voice and manners refined ; and the pathos of this last appeal, uttered in entire simplicity, melted every one present, and produced a deep silence. It was one of those moments when the feelings of an audience tremble in the balance, and a grain may incline tjiem to cither side. A proposition to support him might have carried, had it been made at that moment. The charm was broken by another minister of the gospel, who rose and deliv- ered a homily on the necessity of compro- mise, recommending to Mr. Lovejoy especial attention to the example of Paul, who was let down in a basket from a window in Damascus : as if Alton had been a heathen city under a despotic government ! The charm once broken, the meeting became tumultuous and excited, and all manner of denunciations were rained down upon abo- litionists. The meeting passed the resolu- tions reported by the committee, and refused to resolve to aid in sustaining the law against illegal violence ; and the mob perfectly un- derstood that, do what they might, they should have no disturbance. It being now understood that Mr. Lovejoy would not re- treat, it was supposed that the crisis of the' matter would develop itself when his print- ing-press came on shore. During the following three days there seemed to be something of a reaction. One of the most influential of the mob-leaders was heard to say that it was of no use to go on destroying presses, as there was money enough on East to bring new ones, and that they might as well let the fanatics alone. This somewhat encouraged the irresolute city authorities, and the friends of the press thought, if they could get it once landed, and safe into the store of Messrs. Godfrey & Gil- man, that the crisis would be safely passed. They therefore sent an express to the captain to delay the landing of the boat till three o'clock in the morning, and the leaders of the mob, after watching till they were tired, went home ; the press was safely landed and deposited, and all supposed that the trouble was safely passed. Under this impression Mr. Beecher left Alton, and returned home. 228 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. We will give a few extracts from Mr. Beecher's narrative, which describe his last interview with Mr. Lovejoy on that night. after they had landed and secured the press : Shortly after the hour fixed on for the landing of the boat, Mr. Lovejoy arose, and called me to go with him to see what was the result. The moon had set and it was still dark, but day was near ; and here and there a light was glimmering from the window of some sick room, or of some early riser. The streets were empty and silent, and the sounds of our feet echoed from the walls as we passed along. Little did he dream, at that hour, of the contest which the next night would witness ; that these same streets would echo with the shouts of an infuriate mob, and be stained with his own heart's blood. We found the boat there, and the press in the warehouse ; aided in raising it to the third story. We were all rejoiced that no conflict had ensued, and that the press was safe ; and all felt that the crisis was over. We were sure that the store could not be carried by storm by so few men as had ever yet acted in a mob ; and though the ma- jority of the citizens would not aid to defend the press, we had no fear that they would aid in an attack. So deep was this feeling that it was thought that a small number was sufficient to guard the press afterward ; and it was agreed that the company should be divided into sections of six, and take turns on successive nights. As they had been up all night, Mr. Lovejoy and my- self offered to take charge of the press till morn- ing ; and they retired. The morning soon began to dawn ; and that morning I shall never forget. Who that has stood on the banks of the mighty stream that then rolled before me can forget the emotions of sublimity that filled his heart, as in imagination he has traced those channels of intercourse opened by it and its branches through the illimitable regions of this western world? I thought of future ages, and of the countless millions that should dwell on this mighty stream ; and that nothing but the truth would make them free. Never did I feel as then the value of the right for which we were con- tending thoroughly to investigate and fearlessly to proclaim that truth. O, the sublimity of moral power ! By it God sways the universe. By it he will make the nations free. I passed through the scuttle to the roof, and as- cended to the highest point of the wall. The sky and the river were beginning to glow with ap- proaching day, and the busy hum of business to be heard. I looked with exultation on the sc-cnos below. I felt that a bloodless battle had been gained for God and for the truth ; and that Alton was redeemed from eternal shame. And as all around grew brighter with approaching day, I thought of that still brighter sun, even now dawn- ing on the world, and soon to bathe it with floods i.if glorious light. Brother Lovejoy, too, was happy. He did not exult ; he was tranquil and composed, but his countenance indicated the state of his mind. It was a calm and tranquil joy, for ho trusted in God that the point was gained ; that the banner of an un- fettered press would soon wave over that mighty stream. Vain hopes ! How soon to bo buried in a inartyr'a grave ! Vain, did I say? No : they are not vain. Though dead he still speaketh ; and a united world can never silence his voice. The conclusion of the tragedy is briefly told. A volunteer company, of whom Love- joy was one, was formed to act under the mayor in defence of the law. The next night the mob assailed the building at ten o'clock. The store consisted of two stone buildings in one block, with doors and windows at each end, but no windows at the sides. The roof was of wood. Mr. Gilman, opening the end door of the third story, asked what they wanted. They demanded the press. He re- fused to give it up, and earnestly entreated them to go away without violence, assuring them that, as the property had been com- mitted to their charge, they should defend it at the risk of their lives. After some in- effectual attempts, the mob shouted to set fire to the roof. Mr. Lovejoy, with some others, went out to defend it from this attack, and was shot down by the deliberate aim of one of the mob. After this wound he had barely strength to return to the store, went up one flight of stairs, fell and expired. Those within then attempted to capitulate, but were refused with curses by the mob, who threatened to burn the store, and shoot them as they came out. At kngth the building was actually on fire, and tney fled out, fired on as they went by the mob. So terminated the Alton tragedy. When the noble mother of Lovejoy heard of his death, she said, "It is well. I had rather he would die so than forsake his prin- ciples." All is not over with America while such mothers are yet left. Was she not blessed who could give up such a son in such a spirit? Who was that woman whom God pronounced blessed above all women ? Was it not she who saw her dearest cruci- fied? So differently does God see from what man sees. CHAPTER IV SERVITUDE IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH COMPARED WITH AMERICAN SLAVERY. "Look now upon this picture ! and on this." Hamlkt. It is the standing claim of those professors of religion at the South who support slavery that they arc pursuing the same course in relation to it that Christ and his apostles did. Let us consider the course of Christ and his apostles, and the nature of the kingdom KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 229 -which they founded, and see if this be the fact. Napoleon said, '-'Alexander, Cresar, Charle- magne and myself, have founded empires ; but upon what did we rest the creation of our genius'? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon LOVE." The desire to be above others in power, rank and station, is one of the deepest in human nature. If there is anything which distinguishes man from other creatures, it is that he is par excellence an oppressive animal. On this principle, as Napoleon observed, all empires have been founded; and the idea of founding a kingdom in any other way had not even been thought of when Jesus of Nazareth appeared. When the serene Galilean came up from the waters of Jordan, crowned and glorified by the descending Spirit, and began to preach, saying, " The kingdom of God is at hand," what expectations did he excite? Men's heads were full of armies to be marshalled, of provinces to be conquered, of cabinets to be formed, and offices to be distributed. There was no doubt at all that he could get all these things for them, for had he not miraculous power? Therefore it was that Jesus of Nazareth was very popular, and drew crowds after him. Of these, he chose, from the very lowest walk of life, twelve men of the best and most honest heart which he could find, that he might make them his inseparable companions, and mould them, by his sympathy and friend- ship, into some capacity to receive and trans- mit his ideas to mankind. But they too, simple-hearted and honest though they were, were bewildered and be- witched by the common vice of mankind ; and, though they loved him full well, still had an eye on the offices and ranks which he was to confer, when, as they expected, this miracu- lous kingdom should blaze forth. While his heart was struggling and labor- ing, and nerving itself by nights of prayer to meet desertion, betrayal, denial, rejection, by his beloved people, and ignominious death, they were forever wrangling about the offices in the new kingdom. Once and again, in the plainest way, he told them that no such thing was to be looked for ; that there was to be no distinction in his kingdom, except the distinction of pain, and suffering, and self- renunciation, voluntarily assumed for the good of mankind. His words seemed to them as idle tales. In fact, they considered him as a kind of a myth, — a mystery, — a strange, supernatu- ral, inexplicable being, forever talking in parables, and saying things which they could not understand. One thing only they held fast to : he was a king, he would have a kingdom ; and he had told them that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And so, when he was going up to Jerusa- lem to die, — when that anguish long wres- tled with in the distance had come almost face to face, and he was walking in front of them, silent, abstracted, speaking occasionally in broken sentences, of which they feared to ask the meaning, — they, behind, beguiled the time with the usual dispute of "who should be greatest." The mother of James and John came to him, and, breaking the mournful train of revery, desired a certain thing of him, — that her two sons might sit at his right hand and his left, as prime ministers, in the new kingdom. With his sad, far-seeing eye still fixed upon Gethsemane and Calvary, he said, "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup which I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism where- with I shall be baptized?" James and John were both quite certain that they were able. They were willing to fight through anything for the kingdom's sake. The ten were very indignant. Were they not as willing as James and John ? And so there was a contention among them. " But Jesus called them to him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them ; but it shall not be so among you. " Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, — yea, the servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. ; ' Let us now pass on to another week in this history. The disciples have seen their Lord enter triumphantly into Jerusalem, amid the shouts of the multitude. An in- describable something in his air and manner convinces them that a great crisis is at hand. He walks among men as a descended God. Never were his words so thrilling and ener- getic. Never were words spoken on earth which so breathe and burn as these of the last week of the life of Christ. All the fervor and imagery and fire of the old proph- ets seemed to be raised from the dead, 230 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. ethereal! zed ami transfigured in the person of this Jesus. They dare not ask him, but they :ire certain that the kingdom must be coming. They feel, in the thrill of that mighty soul, that a great cycle of time is finishing, and a new era in the world's history beginning. Perhaps at this very feast of the Passover is the time when the miraculous banner is to be unfurled, and the new, immortal kingdom proclaimed. Again the ambitious longings arise. This new kingdom shall have ranks and dignities. And who is to sustain them? While therefore their Lord sits lost in thought, revolving in his mind that simple ordinance of love which he is about to constitute the sealing ordinance of his kingdom, it is said again, " There was a strife among them which should be accounted the greatest." This time Jesus does not remonstrate. He expresses no impatience, no weariness, no disgust. What does he, then? Hear what St. John says : "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his gar- ments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." " After he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Mas- ter and Lord : and ye say well, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet ; for I have given you an exam- ple that ye should do as I have done to you." "Verily, verily I say unto you, the ser- vant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Here, then, we have the king, and the constitution of the kingdom. The king on his knees at the feet of' his servants, per- forming the lowest menial service, with the announcement, "I have given you an ex- ample, that ye should do as I have done to you. ' ' And when, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, all these immortal words of Christ, which had lain buried like dead seed in the heart, were quickened and sprang up in ce- lestial verdure, then these twelve became, each one in his place, another Jesus, filled with the spirit of him who had gone heaven- ward. The primitive church, as organized by them, was a brotherhood of strict equality. There was no more contention who should be greatest ; the only contention was, who should suffer and serve the most. The Christian church was an imperium In im- perio ; submitting outwardly to the laws of the land, but professing inwardly to be regu- lated by a higher faith and a higher law. They were dead to the world, and the world to them. Its customs were not their cus- toms ; its relations not their relations. All the ordinary relations of life, when they passed into the Christian church, underwent a quick, immortal change ; so that the trans- formed relation resembled the old and heathen one no more than the glorious body which is raised in incorruption resembles the mortal one which was sown in corruption. The relation of marriage was changed, from a tyrannous dominion of the stronger sex over the weaker, to an intimate union, symbolizing the relation of Christ and the church. The relation of parent and child, purified from the harsh features of heathen law, became a just image of the love of the heavenly Father; and the relation of master and servant, in like manner, was refined into a voluntary relation between two equal breth- ren, in which the servant faithfully performed his duties as to the Lord, and the master gave him a full compensation for his services. No one ever doubted that such a relation as this is an innocent one. It exists in all free states. It is the relation which exists between employer and employed generally, in the various departments of life. It is true, the master was never called upon to perform the legal act of enfranchisement, — and why ? Because the very nature of the kingdom into which the master and slave had entered enfranchised him. It is not necessary for a master to write a deed of en- franchisement when he takes his slaves into Canada, or even into New York or Pennsyl- vania. The moment the master and slave stand together on this soil, their whole rela- tions to each other are changed. The mas- ter may remain master, and the servant a servant; but, according to the constitution of the state they have entered, the service must be a voluntary one on the part of the slave, and the master must render a just equivalent. When the water of baptism passed over the master and the slave, both alike came under the great constitutional law of Christ's empire, which is this : " Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 231 chief among you, let him be your servant, yea, the servant of all." Under such a law, servitude was dignified and made honorable, but slavery was made an impossibility. That the church was essentially, and in its own nature, such an institution of equality, brotherhood, love and liberty, as made the existence of a slave, in the character of a slave, in it, a contradiction and an impossi- bility, is evident from the general scope and tendency of all the apostolic writings, par- ticularly those of Paul. And this view is obtained, not from a dry analysis of Greek words, and dismal discus- sions about the meaning of doulos, but from a full tide of celestial, irresistible spirit, full of life and love, that breathes in every de- scription of the Christian church. To all, whether bond or free, the apostle addresses these inspiring words : " There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 ' "For through him we all have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father." " Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ, himself, being the chief corner-stone." "Ye are all the chil- dren of God, by faith in Jesus Christ ; there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor fe- male, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." " For, as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ ; for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gen- tiles, whether we be bond or free; and wheth- er one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." It was the theory of this blessed and divine unity, that whatever gift, or superi- ority, or advantage, was possessed by one member, was possessed by every member. Thus Paul says to them, (< All things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or life, or death, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Having thus represented the church as one living body, inseparably united, the apostle uses a still more awful and im- pressive simile. The church, he says, is one body, and that body is the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. That is, He who filleth all in all seeks this church to be the associate and complement of him- self, even as a wife is of the husband. This body of believers is spoken of as a bright and mystical bride, in the world, but not of it; spotless, divine, immortal, raised from the death of sin to newness of life, redeemed by the blood of her Lord, and to be presented at last unto him, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. A delicate and mysterious sympathy is supposed to pervade this church, like that delicate and mysterious tracery of nerves that overspreads the human body; the mean- est member cannot suffer without the whole body quivering in pain. Thus says Paul, who was himself a perfect realization of this beautiful theory : " Who is weak, and I am not weak ? Who is offended, and I burn not?" " To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also." But still further, individual Christians were reminded, in language of awful solem- nity, "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and that ye are not your own?" And again, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them." Nor was this sublime language in those days passed over as a mere idle piece of rhetoric, but was the ever-present consciousness of the soul. Every Christian was made an object of sacred veneration to his brethren, as the temple of the living God. The soul of every Christian was hushed into awful still- ness, and inspired to carefulness, watchful- ness and sanctity, by the consciousness of an indwelling God. Thus Ignatius, who for his preeminent piety was called, pa?' excel- lence, by his church, "Theophorus, the God- bearer," when summoned before the Emperor Trajan, used the following remarkable lan- guage: "No one can call Theophorus an evil spirit * ** * for, bearing in my heart Christ the king of heaven, I bring to nothing the arts and devices of the evil spirits." "Who, then, is 'the God-bearer ' 7 " asked Trajan. " He who carries Christ in his heart," was the reply. * * * * " Dost thou mean him whom Pontius Pi- late crucified?" "He is the one I mean," replied Ignatius. t£ *tt? -Jv^ "Dost thou then bear the crucified one in thy heart?" asked Trajan. "Even so," said Ignatius; "for it is 232 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. •written, 'I will dwell in them and rest in them.'" So perfect was the identification of Christ with the individual Christian in the primitive church, that it was a familiar form of ex- pression to speak of an injury done to the meanest Christian as an injury done to Christ. So St. Paul says, " When ye sin so against the weak brethren, and wound their weak consciences, ye sin against Christ." He says of himself, " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." See, also, the following extracts from a letter by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, to some poor Numidian churches, who had ap- plied to him to redeem some of their mem- bers from slavery among bordering savage tribes. (Neander Denkw. I. 340.) We could view the captivity of our brethren no otherwise than as our own, since we belong to one body, and not only love, but religion, excites us to redeem in our brethren the members of our own body. We must, even if affection were not suf- ficient to induce us to keep our brethren, — we must reflect that the temples of God are in cap- tivity, and these temples of God ought not, by our neglect, long to remain in bondage. * * * Since the apostle says " as many of you as are baptized have put on Christ," so in our captive brethren we must see before us Christ, who hath ransomed us from the danger of captivity, who hath redeemed us from the danger of death ; Him who hath freed us from the abyss of Satan, and who now remains and dwells in us, to free Him from the hands of barbarians ! With a small sum of money to ransom Him who hath ransomed us by his cross and blood ; and who hath permitted this to take place that our faith may be proved thereby ! Now, because the Greek word doulos may mean a slave, and because it is evident that there were men in the Christian church who ■were called douloi, will anybody say, in the whole face and genius of this beautiful in- stitution, that these men were held actually as slaves in the sense of Roman and American law? Of all dry, dull, hopeless, stupidities, this is the most stupid. Suppose Christian masters did have servants who were called douloi, as is plain enough they did, is it not •evident that the word douloi had become si^r- nificant of something very different in the Christian church from what it meant in Roman law? It was not the business of the apostles to make new dictionaries ; they did not change words, — they changed things. The baptized, regenerated, new-created doulos, of one body and one spirit with his master, made one with his master, even as Christ is one with the Father, a member with him of that church which is the fulness of Him who filleth all in all, — was his relation to his Christian mas- ter like that of an American slave to his master 7 Would he who regarded his weak- est brother as being one with Christ hold his brother as a chattel personal? Could he hold Christ as as a chattel personal ? Could he sell Christ for money ? Could he hold the temple of the Holy Ghost as his property, and gravely defend his right to sell, lease, mortgage or hire the same, at his convenience, as that right has been argued in the slave-holding pulpits of America ? What would have been said at such a doc- trine announced in the Christian church? Every member would have stopped his ears, and cried out, "Judas!" If he was pronounced accursed who thought that the gift of the Holy Ghost might be purchased with money, what would have been said of him who held that the very temple of the Holy Ghost might be bought and sold, and Christ the Lord become an article of merchandise? Such an idea never was thought of. It could not have been refuted, for it never existed. It was an unheard-of and unsup- posable work of the devil, which Paul never contemplated as even possible, that one Christian could claim a right to hold another Christian as merchandise, and to trade in the " member of the body, flesh and bones" of Christ. Such a horrible doctrine never pol- luted the innocence of the Christian church even in thought. The directions which Paul gives to Chris- tian masters and servants sufficiently show what a redeeming change had passed over the institution. In 1st Timothy, St. Paul gives the following directions, first to those who have heathen masters, second, to those who have Christian masters. That con- cerning heathen masters is thus expressed : "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doc- trine be not blasphemed." In the next verse the direction is given to the servants of Christian masters : " They that have be- lieving masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." Notice, now, the contrast between these directions. The servant of the heathen master is said to be under the yoke, and it is evidently implied that the servant of the Christian master was not under the yoke. The servant of the heathen master was under the severe Roman law ; the servant of the Christian master is an equal, and a brother. In these circum- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 233 stances, the servant of the heathen master is commanded to obey for the sake of recom- mending the Christian religion. The ser- vant of the Christian master, on the other hand, is commanded not to despise his mas- ter because he is his brother; but he is to do him service because his master is faithful and beloved, a partaker of the same glori- ous hopes with himself. Let us suppose, now, a clergyman, employed as a chaplain on a cotton plantation, where most of the members on the plantation, as we are in- formed is sometimes the case, are members of the same Christian church as their mas- ter, should assemble the hands around him and say, " Now, boys, I would not have you despise your master because he is your brother. It is true you are all one in Christ Jesus ; there is no distinction here; there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither negro nor white man, neither bond nor free, but ye are all brethren, — all alike members of Christ, and heirs of the same kingdom; but you must not despise your master on this account. You must love him as a brother. and be willing to do all you can to serve him, because you see he is a partaker of the same benefit with you, and the Lord loves him as much as he does you." Would not such an address create a certain degree of astonish- ment both with master and servants; and does not the fact that it seems absurd show that the relation of the slave to his master in Ameri- can law is a very different one from what it was in the Christian church ? But again, let us quote another passage, which slave- owners are much more fond of. In Colos- sians 4 : 22 and 5 : 1, — " Servants, obey, in all things, your masters, according to the flesh ; not with eye-service as men- pleasers, but in singleness of heart as fear- ing God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men, know- ing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ." "Masters, give unto ser- vants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." Now, there is nothing in these directions to servants which would show that they were chattel servants in the sense of slave-law ; for they will apply equally well to every servant in Old England and New England ; but there is something in the direction to masters which shows that they were not con- sidered chattel servants by the church,' be- cause the master is commanded to give unto them that which is just and equal, as a con- sideration for their service. Of the words "just and equal," "just" means that which is legally theirs, and "equal" means that which is in itself equitable, irrespective of law. Now, we have the undoubted testimony t of all legal authorities on American slave- law that American slavery does not pretend to be founded on what is just or equal either. Thus Judge Ruffin says: " Merely in the abstract it may well be asked which power of the master accords with right. The answer will probably sweep away all of them;" and this principle, so unequivocally asserted by Judge Ruffin, is all along im- plied and taken for granted, as Ave have just seen, in all the reasonings upon slavery and the slave-law. It would take very little legal acumen to see that the enacting of these words of Paul into a statute by any state would be a practical abolition of slavery in that state. But it is said that St. Paul sent Ones- imus back to his master. Indeed ! but how ? When, to our eternal shame and disgrace, the horrors of the fugitive slave- law were being enacted in Boston, and the very Cradle of Liberty resounded with the groans of the slave, and men harder-hearted than Saul of Tarsus made havoc of the church, entering into every house, haling men and women, committing them to pris- on ; when whole churches of humble Chris- tians were broken up and scattered like flocks of trembling sheep ; when husbands and fathers were torn from their families, and mothers, with poor, helpless children, fled at midnight, with bleeding feet, through snow and ice, towards Canada ; — in the midst of these scenes, which have made America a by-word and a hissing and an astonishment among all nations, there were found men, Christian men, ministers of the gospel of Jesus, even, — alas ! that this should ever be written, — who, standing in the pulpit, in the name and by the authority of Christ, justified and sanctioned these enor- mities, and used this most loving and simple- hearted letter of the martyr Paul to justify these unheard-of atrocities ! He who said, " Who is weak and I am not weak 1 Who is offended and I burn not 7" — he who called the converted slave his own body, the son begotten in his bonds, and who sent him to the brother of his soul with the direction, " Receive him as myself, not now as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved," — this beautiful letter, this outo'ush of tenderness and love passing the 234 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. love of woman, was held up to be pawed over by the polluted hobgoblin-fingers of slave- dealers and slave- whippers as their lettre de cachet, signed and sealed in the name of Christ and his apostles, giving full authority to carry back slaves to be tortured and whipped, and sold into perpetual bondage, as were Henry Long and Thomas Sims ! Just as well might a mother's letter, when, with prayers and tears, she commits her first and only child to the cherishing love and sym- pathy of some trusted friend, be used as an in- quisitor's warrant for inflicting impi'isonment and torture upon that child. Had not every fragment of the apostle's body long since mouldered to dust, his very bones would have moved in their grave, in protest against such slander on the Christian mune and faith. And is it come to this, Jesus Christ! have such things been done in thy name, and art thou silent yet? Verily, thou art a God that liidest thyself, God of Israel, the Saviour ! CHAPTER V. But why did not the apostles preach against the legal relation of slavery, and seek its overthrow in the state ? This ques- tion is often argued as if the apostles were in the same condition with the clergy of Southern churches, members of republican institutions, law-makers, and possessed of all republican powers to agitate for the repeal of unjust laws. Contrary to all this, a little reading of the New Testament will show us that the apostles were almost in the condition of out- laws, under a severe and despotic govern- ment, whose spirit and laws they repro- bated as unchristian, and to which they sub- mitted, just as they exhorted the slave to submit, as to a necessary evil. Hear the apostle Paul thus enumerating the political privileges incident to the minis- try of Christ. Some false teachers had risen in the church at Corinth, and contro- verted his teachings, asserting that they had greater pretensions to authority in the Chris- tian ministry than he. St. Paul, defending his apostolic position, thus speaks: "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more ; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep: in jour- neyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country- men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren : in weariness and painfullness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." What enumeration of the hardships of an American slave can more than equal the hardships of the great apostle to the Gen- tiles 7 He had nothing to do with laws ex- cept to suffer their penalties. They were made and kept in operation without asking him, and the slave did not suffer any more from them than he did. It would appear that the clergymen of the South, when they imitate the example of Paul, in letting entirely alone the civil relation of the slave, have left wholly out of their account how different is the position of an American clergyman, in a republican govern- ment, where he himself helps make and sus- tain the laws, from the condition of the apostle, under a heathen despotism, with whose laws he could have nothing to do. It is very proper for an outlawed slave to address to other outlawed slaves exhortations to submit to a government which neither he nor they have any power to alter. We read, in sermons which clergymen at the South have addressed to slaves, exhorta- tions to submission, and patience, and hu- mility, in their enslaved condition, which would be exceedingly proper in the mouth of an apostle, where he and the slaves were alike fellow-sufferers under a despotism whose laws they could not alter, but which assume quite another character when addressed to the slave by the very men who make the laws that enslave them. If a man has been waylaid and robbed of all his property, it would be very becoming and proper for his clergyman to endeavor to reconcile him to his condition, as, in some sense, a dispensation of Providence : but if the man who robs him should come to him, and address to him the same exhortations, he certainly will think that that is quite another phase of the matter. A clergyman of high rank in the church, in a sermon to the negroes, thus addresses them : Almighty God hath boon pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it should be so. And think within yourselves what a terrible tiling it would he, after all your labors and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next life ; KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 235 and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his slaves for- ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from it. If, therefore, you would be God's free- men in heaven, you must strive to be good and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you know, are not your own : they are at the disposal of thosi you belong to ; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, that if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you have got nothing hy it in this world, and you have lost your all in the next. For your idleness and wickedness is generally found out, and your bodies suffhr for it here ; and, what is far worse, if you do not repent and amend, your un- happy souls will suffer for it hereafter. Now, this, clergyman was a man of un- doubted sincerity. He had read the New Testament, and observed that St. Paul ad- dressed exhortations something like this to 8laves in his day. But he entirely forgot to consider that Paul had not the rights of a republican clergyman ; that he was not a maker and sus- tainer of those laws by which the slaves were reduced to their condition, but only a fellow-sufferer under them. A case may be supposed which would illustrate this principle to the clergyman. Suppose that he were travelling along the highway, with all his worldly property about him, in the shape of bank-bills. An association of highwaymen seize him, bind him to a tree, and take away the whole of his worldly estate. This they would have precisely the same right to do that the clergyman and his brother republi- cans have to take all the earnings and pos- sessions of their slaves. The property Avould belong to these highwaymen by exactly the same kind of title, — not because they have earned it, but simply because they have got it and are able to keep it. The head of this confederation, observing some dissatisfaction upon the face of the clergyman, proceeds to address him a re- ligious exhortation to patience and submis- sion, in much the same terms as he had be- fore addressed to the slaves. "Almighty God has been pleased to take away your en- tire property, and to give you nothing but labor and poverty in thi9 world, which you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it should be so. Now, think within yourself what a terrible thing it would be, if, having lost all your worldly property, you should, by discontent and want of resignation, lose also your soul ; and, having been robbed of all your property here, to have your poor soul delivered over to the possession of the devil, to become his property forever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from it. Your property now is no longer your own ; we have taken possession of it ; but your precious soul is still your own, and nothing can take it from you but your own fault. Consider well. then, that if you lose your soul by rebellion and murmuring against this dispensation of Providence, you will get nothing by it in this world, and will lose your all in the next." Now, should this clergyman say, as he might very properly, to these robbers, — '• There is no necessity for my being poor in this world, if you will only give me back my property which you have taken from me," he is only saying precisely what the slaves to whom he has been preaching might say to him and his fellow-republicans. CHAPTER VI. But it may still be said that the apostles might have commanded Christian masters to perform the act of legal, emancipation in all cases. Certainly they might, and it is quite evident that they did not. The professing primitive Christian re- garded and treated his slave as a brother, but in the eye of the law he was .still his chattel personal, — a thing, and not a man. Why did not the apostles, then, strike at the legal relation ? Why did they not command every Christian convert to sunder that chain at once '? In answer, we say that every at- tempt at reform which comes from God has proceeded uniformly in this manner. — to destroy the spirit of an abuse first, and leave the form of it to drop away, of itself, after- wards, — to girdle the poisonous tree, and leave it to take its own time for dying. This mode of dealing with abuses has this advantage, that it is compendious and univer- sal, and can apply to that particular abuse in all ages, and under all shades and modifica- tions. If the apostle, in that outward and physical age, had merely attacked the legal relation, and had rested the whole burden of obligation on dissolving that, the corrupt and selfish principle might have run into other forms of oppression equally bad. and shel- tered itself under the technicality of avoiding legal slavery. God, therefore, dealt a surer blow at the monster, by singling out the precise spot where his heart beat, and say- ing to his apostles, " Strike there ! " Instead of saying to the slave-holder, 236 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. "manumit your slave," it said to him. " treat him as your brother," and left to the slave-holder's conscience to say how much was implied in this command. In the directions which Paul gave about slavery, it is evident that he considered the legal relation with the same indifference with which a gardener treats a piece of unsightly bark, which he perceives the growing vigor of a young tree is about to throw off by its own vital force. He looked upon it as a part of an old, effete system of heathen- ism, belon^inj; to a set of laws and usages which were waxing old and ready to vanish away. There is an argument which has been much employed on this subject, and which is specious. It is this. That the apostles treated slavery as one of the lawful relations of life, like that of parent and child, hus- band and wife. The argument is thus stated : The apostles found all the relations of life much corrupted by various abuses. They did not attack the relations, but reformed the abuses, and thus restored the relations to a healthy state. The mistake here lies in assuming that slavery is the lawful relation. Slavery is the corruption of a lawful relation. The lawful relation is servitude, and slavery is the corruption of servitude. When the apostles came, all the relations of life in the Roman empire were thoroughly permeated with the principle of slavery. The relation of child to parent was slavery. The relation of wife to husband was slavery. The relation of servant to master was slav- ery. The power of the father over his son, by Roman law. was very much the same with the power of the master over his slave.* He could, at his pleasure, scourge, imprison. or put him to death. The son could possess nothing but what was the property of his father; and this unlimited control extended through the whole lifetime of the father, unless the son were formally liberated by an act of manumission three times repeated, while the slave could be manumitted by per- forming the act only once. Neither was there any law obliging the father to manu- mit ; — he could retain this power, if he chose, during his whole life. Very similar was the situation of the Ro- man wife. In case she were accused of crime, her husband assembled a meeting of her relations, and in their presence sat in * See Adams' Koman Antiquities. judgment upon her, awarding such punish rnent as he thought proper. For unfaithfulness to her marriage-vow, * or for drinking wine, Romulus allowed her ' husband to put her to death.* From this slavery, unlike the son, the wife could never be manumitted; no legal forms were provided. | It was lasting as her life. The same spirit of force and slavery per- j- vaded the relation of master and servant, giving rise to that severe code of slave-law. ! which, with a few features of added cruelty, Christian America, in the nineteenth cen- j tury, has reenacted. With regard, now, to all these abuses of proper relations, the gospel pursued one ' uniform course. It did not command the \ Christian father to perform the legal act of emancipation to his son; but it infused such a divine spirit into the paternal relation, by assimilating it to the relation of the heavenly Father, that the Christianized Roman Avould regard any use of his barbarous and op- pressive legal powers as entirely inconsist- ent with his Christian profession. So it ennobled the marriage relation by comparing it to the relation between Christ and his church; commanding the husband to love his wife, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. It said to him, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church;" "so ought every one to love his wife, even as himself." Not an allusion is made to the barbarous, unjust power which the law gave the husband. It was perfectly understood that a Christian husband could not make use of it in con- formity with these directions. In the same manner Christian masters were exhorted to give to their servants that which is just and equitable; and, so far from coercing their services by force, to forbear even threatenings. The Christian master was directed to receive his Christianized slave, " not now as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved ;" and, as in all these other cases, nothing was said jto him about the barbarous powers which the Roman law gave him, since it was perfectly, understood that he could not at the same time treat him as a brother beloved and as a slave in the sense of Roman law. When, therefore, the question is asked, why did not the apostles seek the abolition of slavery, we answer, they did seek it. They sought it by the safest, shortest, and most direct course which could possibly have been adopted. * Dionys. Hal. n. 25. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 237 CHAPTER VII. But did Christianity abolish slavery as a matter of fact ? We answer, it did. Let us look at these acknowledged facts. At the time of the coming of Christ, slavery extended over the whole civilized world. Captives in war were uniformly made slaves, and. as wars were of constant occurrence, the ranks of slavery were continually being reinforced ; and, as slavery was hereditary and perpetual, there was every reason to suppose that the number would have gone on increasing indefinitely, had not some in- fluence operated to stop it. This is one fact. Let us now look at another. At the time of the Reformation, chattel-slavery had en- tirely ceased throughout all the civilized countries of the world ; — by no particular edict, by no special laws of emancipation, but by the steady influence of some gradual, unseen power, this whole vast system had dissolved away, like the snow-banks of win- ter. These two facts being conceded, the inquiry arises, What caused this change? If, now, Ave find that the most powerful organization in the civilized world at that time did pur- sue a system of measures which had a direct tendency to bring about such a result, we shall very naturally ascribe it to that organ- ization. The Spanish writer, Balmes, in his work entitled " Protestantism compared with Ca- tholicity," has one chapter devoted to the anti-slavery course of the church, in which he sets forth the whole system of measures which the church pursued in reference to this subject, and quotes, in their order, all the decrees of councils. The decrees them- selves are given in an appendix at length, in the original Latin. We cannot but sympa- thize deeply in the noble and generous spirit in which these chapters are written, and the enlarged and vigorous ideas which they give of the magnanimous and honorable nature of Christianity. They are evidently con- ceived by a large and noble soul, capable of understanding such views, — a soul grave, earnest, deeply religious, though evidently penetrated and imbued with the most pro- found conviction of the truth of his own peculiar faith. We shall give a short abstract, from M. Balmes, of the early course of the church. In contemplating the course which the church took in this period, certain things are to be borne in mind respecting the character of the times. The process was carried on during that stormy and convulsed period of society which succeeded the breaking up of the Ro- man empire. At this time, all the customs of society were rude and barbarous. Though Christianity, as a system, had been nominally very extensively embraced, yet it had not, as in the case of its first converts, penetrated to the heart, and regenerated the whole nature. Force and violence was the order of the day, and the Christianity of the savage northern tribes, who at this time became masters of Europe, was mingled with the barbarities of their ancient heathenism. To root the insti- tution of slavery out of such a state of society, required, of course, a very different process from what would be necessary under the enlightened organization of modern times. No power but one of the peculiar kind which the Christian church then possessed could have effected anything in this way. The Christian church at this time, far from being in the outcast and outlawed state in which it existed in the time of the apostles, was now an organization of great power, and of a kind of power peculiarly adapted to that rude and uncultured age. It laid hold of all those elements of fear, and mystery, and superstition, which are strongest in barba- rous ages, as with barbarous individuals, and it visited the violations of its commands with penalties the more dreaded that they related to some awful future, dimly perceived and imperfectly comprehended. In dealing with slavery, the church did not commence by a proclamation of universal emancipation, because, such was the barba- rous and unsettled nature of the times, so fierce the grasp of violence, and so many the causes of discord, that she avoided adding to the confusion by infusing into it this ele- ment ; — nay, a certain council of the church forbade, on pain of ecclesiastical censure, those who preached that slaves ought imme- diately to leave their masters. The course was commenced first by re- stricting the power of the master, and grant- ing protection to the slave. The Council of Orleans, in 549, gave to a slave threatened with punishment the privilege of taking sanctuary in a church, and forbade his mas- ter to withdraw him thence, without taking a solemn oath that he would do' him no harm ; and, if he violated the spirit of this oath, he was to be suspended from the church and the sacraments, — a doom which in those days was viewed with such a degree of supersti- tious awe, that the most barbarous would scarcely dare to incur it. The custom was afterwards introduced of requiring an oath 238 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. on such occasions, not only that the slave should be free from corporeal infliction, but that he should not be punished by an extra imposition of labor, or by any badge of disgrace. When this was complained of, as being altogether too great a concession on the side of the slave, the utmost that could be extorted from the church, by way of re- traction, was this, — that in cases of very heinous offence the master should not be required to make the two latter promises. There was a certain punishment among the Goths which was more dreaded than death. It was the shaving of the hair. This was considered as inflicting a lasting disgrace.. If a Goth once had his hair shaved, it was all over with him. The fifteenth canon of the Council of Merida, in 666, forbade eccle- siastics to inflict this punishment upon their slaves, as also all other kind of violence, and ordained that if a slave committed an offence, he should not be subject to private vengeance, but be delivered up to the secular tribunal, and that the bishops should use their power only to procure a moderation of the sentence. This was substituting public justice for personal vengeance — a most im- portant step. The church further enacted, by two councils, that the master who. of his own authority, should take the life of his slave, should be cut off for two years from the communion of the church, — a condition, in the view of those times, implying the most awful spiritual risk, separating the man in the eye of society from all that was sacred, and teaching him to regard himself, and others to regard him, as a being loaded with the weight of a most tremendous sin. Besides the protection given tolife and limb, the .church threw her shield over the family condition of the slave. By old Roman law, the slave could not contract a legal, inviola- ble marriage. The church of that age availed itself of the catholic idea of the sacra- mental nature of marriage to conflict with this heathenish doctrine. Pope Adrian I. said, " According to the words of the apostle, as in Jesus Christ we ought not to deprive cither slaves or freemen of the sacraments of the church, so it is not allowed in any way to prevent the marHage of slaves ; and if their marriages have been contracted in spile of the opposition and repugnance of their masters^ nevertheless they ought not to be dissolved." St. Thomas was of the same opinion, for he openly maintains that, with respect to contracting marriage, " slaves arc not obliged to obey their ??ias- tcrs." It can easily be seen what an effect was produced when the personal safety and family ties of the slaves were thus proclaimed sacred by an authority which no man living dared dispute. It elevated the slave in the eyes of his master, and awoke hope arid self- respect in his own bosom, and powerfully tended to fit him for the reception of that liberty to which the church by many ave- nues was constantly seeking to conduct him. Another means which the church used to procure emancipation was a jealous care of the freedom of those already free. Every one knows how in our Southern States the boundaries of slavery are continu- ally increasing, for want of some power there to perform the same kind office. The liberated slave, travelling without his papers, is con- tinually in danger of being taken up, thrown into jail, and sold to pay his jail-fees. He has no bishop to help him out of his troubles. In no church can he take sanctuary. Hun- dreds and thousands of helpless men and women are every year engulfed in slavery in this manner. The church, at this time, took all enfran- chised slaves under her particular protection. The act of enfranchisement was made a re- ligious service, and was solemnly performed in the church ; and then the church received the newly-made freeman to her protecting arms, and guarded his newly-acquired rights by her spiritual power. The first Council of Orange, held in 441, ordained in its seventh canon that the church should check by ecclesiastical censures whoever desired to reduce to any kind of servitude slaves who had been emancipated within the enclos- ure of the church. A century later, the same prohibition was repeated in the seventh canon of the fifth Council of Orleans, held in 549. The protection given by the church to freed slaves was so manifest and known to all, that the custom was introduced of espe- cially recommending them to her, either in lifetime or by will. The Council of Agde. in Languedoc. passed a resolution command- ing the church, in all cases of necessity, to undertake the defence of those to whom their masters had, in a lawful way, given liberty. Another anti-slavery measure which the church pursued with distinguished zeal had the same end in view, that is, the pre- vention of the increase of slavery. It was the ransoming of captives. As at that time it was customary for captives in war to be made slaves of, unless ransomed, and as. owing to the unsettled state of society, ware KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 239 were frequent, slavery might have been in- definitely prolonged, had not the church made the greatest efforts in this way. The ransoming of si ives in those days held the same place in the affections of pious and de- voted members of the church that the enter- prise of converting the heathen now does. Many of the unst eminent Christians, in their excess of zeal, even sold themselves into captivity that they might redeem distressed families. Chateaubriand describes a Christian priest in France who voluntarily devoted himself to slavery for the ransom of a Chris- tian soldier, and thu3 restored a husband to his desolate wife, and a father to three unfoi*- tunate children. Such were the deeds which secured to men in those days the honor of saintship. Such was the history of St. Zachary. whose story drew tears from many eyes, and excited many hearts to imitate so sublime a charity. In this the}'- did but imitate the spirit of the early Christians ; for the apostolic Clement says, "We know how many among ourselves have given up themselves unto bonds, that thereby they might free others from them." (1st letter to the Corinthians, § 55, or ch. xxi. v. 20.) One of the most distinguished of the Frankish bishops was St. Eloy. He was originally a goldsmith of remarkable skill in his art, and by his integrity and trustworthiness won the particular esteem and confidence of King Clotaire I., and stood high in his court. Of him Ne- ander speaks as follows. " The cause of the gospel was to him the dearest interest, to which everything else was made subservient. While working at his art, he always had a Bible open before him. The abundant income of his labors he devoted to religious objects and deeds of charity. Whenever he heard of captives, who in these days were often dragged off in troops as slaves that were to be sold at auction, he hastened to the spot and paid dawn their price." Alas for our slave-coffles ! — there are no such bishops now ! " Sometimes, by his means, a hundred at once, men and women, thus obtained their liberty. He then left it to their choice, either to return home, or to remain with him as free Christian brethren, or to become monks. In the first case, he gave them money for their journey ; in the last, which pleased him most, he took pains to procure them a handsome reception into some monastery." So great was the zeal of the church for the ransom of unhappy captives, that even the ornaments and sacred vessels of the church were sold for their ransom. By the fifth canon of the Council of Macon, held in 585, it appears that the priests devoted church property to this purpose. The Coun- cil of Rheims, held in 625. orders the punish- ment of suspension on the bishop who shall destroy the sacred vessels FOR any otiier MOTIVE THAN THE RANSOM OF CAPTIVES; and in the twelfth canon of the Councilof Verneuil, held in 844, we find that the prop- erty of the church was still used for this benevolent purpose. When the church had thus redeemed the captive, she still continued him under her special protection, giving him letters of re- commendation which should render his liberty safe in the eyes of a41 men. The Council of Lyons, held in 533, enacts that bishops shall state, in the letters of recommendation which they give to redeemed slaves, the date and price of their ransom. The zeal for this work was so ardent that some of the clergy even went so far as to induce captives to run away. A council called that of St. Patrick, held in Ireland, condemns this practice, and says that the clergyman who desires to ransom captives must do so with his own money, for to induce them to run away was to expose the clergy to be con- sidered as robbers, which was a dishonor to the church. The disinterestedness of the church in this work appears from the fact that, when she had employed her funds for the ransom of captives she never exacted from them any recompense, even when they had it in their power to discharge the debt. In the letters of St. Gregory, he reassures some persons who had been freed by the church, and who feared that they should be called upon to refund the money which had been expended on them. The Pope orders that no one, at any time, shall venture to disturb them or their heirs, because the sa- cred canons allow the employment of the goods of the church for the ransom of cap- tives. (L. 7, Ep. 14.) Still further to guard against the increase of the number of slaves, the Council of Lyons, in 5bb, ex- communicated those who unjustly retained free persons in slavery. If there were any such laws in the South- ern States, and all were excommunicated who are doing this, there would be quite a sen- sation, as some recent discoveries show. In 625, the Council of Rheims decreed excommunication to all those who pursue free persons in order to reduce them to slavery. The twenty-seventh canon of the Council of London, held 1102, forbade the 240 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. barbarous custom of trading in men, like animals ; and the seventh canon of the Coun- cil of Coblentz, held 922, declares that he who takes away a Christian to sell him is guilty of homicide. A French council, held in Verneuil in 616, established the law that all persons who had been sold into slavery on account of poverty or debt should receive back their liberty by the restoration of the price which had been paid. It will readily be seen that this opened a wide field for restoration to liberty in an age where so great a Christian zeal had been awakened for the redeeming of slaves, since it afforded op- portunity for Christians to interest themselves in raising the necessary ransom. At this time the Jews occupied a very peculiar place among the nations. The spirit of trade and commerce was ajmost entirely confined to them, and the great proportion of the wealth was in their hands, and, of course, many slaves. The regulations which the church passed relative to the slaves of Jews tended still further to strengthen the principles of liberty. They forbade Jews to compel Christian slaves to do things contrary to the religion of Christ. They allowed Christian slaves, who took refuge in the church, to be ransomed, by paying their masters the proper price. This produced abundant results in favor of liberty, inasmuch as they gave Christian slaves the opportunity of flying to churches, and there imploring the charity of their brethren. They also enacted that a Jew who should pervert a Christian slave should be condemned to lose all his slaves. This was a new sanction to the slave's conscience, and a new opening for liberty. After that, they proceeded to forbid Jews to have Chris- tian slaves, and it was allowed to ransom those in their possession for twelve sous. As the Jews were anions the greatest trad- ers of the time, the forbidding them to keep slaves was a very decided step toward gen- eral emancipation. Another means of lessening the ranks of slavery was a decree passed in a council «t Home, in 595, presided over by Pope Gregory the Great. This decree offered liberty to all who desired to embrace the monastic life. This decree, it is said, led to great scandal, as slaves fled from the houses of their masters in great numbers, and took refuge in monasteries. The church also ordained that any slave who felt a calling to enter the ministry, and appeared qualified therefor, should be al- lowed to pursue his vocation ; and enjoined it upon his master to liberate him, since the church could not permit her minister to wear the yoke of slavery. It is to be presumed that the phenomenon, on page 176, of a preacher with both toes cut off and branded on the breast, advertised as a runaway in the public papers, was not one which could have occurred consistently with the Chris- tianity of that period. Under the influence of all these regula- tions, it is not surprising that there are docu- ments cited by M. Balmes which go to show the following things. First, that the number of slaves thus liberated was very great, as there was universal complaint upon this head. Second, that the bishops were complained of as being always in favor of the slaves, as carrying their protection to very great lengths, laboring in all ways to realize the doctrine of man's equality,- and it is affirmed in the documents that complaint is made that there is hardly a bishop who cannot be charged with reprehensible compliances in favor of slaves, and that slaves were aware of this spirit of protection, and were ready to throw off their chains, and cast themselves into the church. It is not necessary longer to extend this history. It is as perfectly plain whither such a course tends, as it is whither the course pursued by the American clergy at the South tends. We are not surprised that under such a course, on the one hand, the number of slaves decreased, till there were none in modern Europe. We are not sur- prised by such a course, on the other hand, that they have increased until there are three millions in America. Alas for the poor slave ! What church befriends him? In what house of prayer can he take sanctuary? What holy men stand forward to rebuke the wicked law that denies him legal marriages'? What pious bishops visit slave-caffles to redeem men. women and children, to liberty ? What holy exhortations in churches to buy the freedom of wretched captives ? When have church velvets been sold, and communion-cups melted down, to liberate the slave? Where are the pastors, inflamed with the love of Jesus, who have sold themselves into slavery to restore separated families? Where are those honor- able complaints of the world that the church is always on the side of the oppressed ? — that the slaves feel the beatings of her gene- rous heart, and long to throw themselves into her arms ? Love of brethren, holy chari- ties, love of Jesus, — where are ye? — Are ye fled forever ? KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 241 > CHAPTER VIII. •' Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal." From what has been said in the last chap- ter, it is presumed that it will appear that the Christian church of America by no means occupies that position, with regard to slavery, that the apostles did, or that the church of the earlier ages did. However they may choose to interpret the language of the apostles, the fact still re- mains undeniable, that the church organiza- tion which grew up immediately after these instructions, did intend and did effect the abolition of slavery. But we wish to give still further consider- ation to one idea which is often put forward by those who defend American slavery. It is this. That the institution is not of itself a sinful one, and that the only sin consists in the neglect of its relative duties. All that is necessary, they say, is to regulate the institution by the precepts of the gospel. They admit that no slavery is defensible which is not so regulated. . If, therefore, it shall appear that Ameri- can slave-law cannot be regulated by the precepts of the gospel, without such altera- tions as will entirely do away the whole system, then it will appear that it is an unchristian institution, against which every Christian is bound to remonstrate, and from which he should entirely withdraw. The Roman slave-code was a code made by heathen, — by a race, too, proverbially stern and unfeeling. It was made in the darkest a^es of the world, before the light of the gospel had dawned. Christianity gradually but certainly abolished it. Some centuries later, a company of men, from Christian na- tions, go to the continent of Africa ; there they kindle wars, sow strifes, set tribes against tribes with demoniac violence, burn villages, and in the midst of these diabolical scenes kidnap and carry off, from time to time, hundreds and thousands of miserable captives. Such of those as do not die of ter- ror, grief, suffocation, ship-fever, and other horrors, are, from time to time, landed on the shores of America. Here they are. And now a set of Christian legislators meet together to construct a system and laws of servitude, with regard to these unfortunates, which is hereafter to be considered as a Chris- tian institution. Of course, in order to have any valid title to such a name, the institution must be regu- 16 lated by the principles which Christ and his apostles have laid down for the government of those who assume the relation of masters. The New Testament sums up these princi- ples in a single sentence : ' ' Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal." But, forasmuch as there is always some confusion of mind in regard to what is just and equal in our neighbor's affairs, our Lord has given this direction, by which we may arrive at infallible certainty. " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,«do ye even so to them." It is, therefore, evident that if Christian legislators are about to form a Christian sys- tem of servitude, they must base it on these two laws, one of which is a particular speci- fication under the other. Let us now examine some of the particu- lars of the code which they have formed, and see if it bear this character. First, they commence by declaring that their brother shall no longer be considered as a person, but deemed, sold, taken, and reputed, as a chattel personal. — This is "just and equal ! " This being the fundamental principle of the system, the following are specified as its consequences : 1. That he shall have no right to hold property of any kind, under any circum- stances. — Just and equal ! 2. That he shall have no power to con- tract a legal marriage, or claim any woman in particular for his wife. — Just and equal! 3. That he shall have no right to his children, either to protect, restrain, guide or educate. — Just and equal ! 4. That the power of his master over him shall be absolute, without any possi- bility of appeal or redress in consequence of any injury whatever. To secure this, they enact that he shall not be able to enter suit in any court for any cause. — Just and equal ! That he shall not be allowed to bear testi- mony in any court where any white person is concerned. — Just and equal ! That the owner of a servant, for " mali- cious, cruel, and excessive beating of his slave, cannot be indicted." — Just and equal ! It is further decided, that by no indirect mode of suit, through a guardian, shall a slave obtain redress for ill-treatment. (Do- rothea v. Coquillon et al, 9 Martin La. Rep. 350.) — Just and equal ! 5. It is decided that the slave shall not only have no legal redrcs3 for injuries in- flicted by his master, but shall have no re- 242 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. dress for those inflicted by any other person, unless the injury impair his property value. — Just and equal ! Under this head it is distinctly asserted as follows : "There can be no offence against the peace of the state, by the mere beating of a slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances of cruelty, or an intent to kill and murder. The peace of the state is not thereby broken." (State v. Maner, 2 Hill's Rep. S. C.) — Just and equal ! If a slave strike a white, he is to be con- demned to death; but if a master kill his slave by torture, no white witnesses being present, he may clear himself by his own oath. (Louisiana.) — Just and equal ! The law decrees fine and imprisonment to the person who shall release the servant of another from the torture of the iron collar. (Louisiana. ) — Just and equal ! It decrees a much smaller fine, without imprisonment, to the man who shall torture him with red-hot irons, cut out his tongue, put out his eyes, and scald or maim him. (Ibid.) — Just and equal ! It decrees the same punishment to him who teaches him to write as to him who puts out his eyes. — Just and equal ! As it might be expected that only very ignorant and brutal people could be kept in a condition like this, especially in a country where every book and every newspaper are full of dissertations on the rights of man, they therefore enact laws that neither he nor his children, to all generations, shall learn to read and write. — Just and equal ! And as, if allowed to meet for religious worship, they might concert some plan of escape or redress, they enact that " no con- gregation of negroes, under pretence of divine worship, shall assemble themselves ; and that every slave found at such meetings shall be immediately corrected, without trial, by receiving on the bare back twenty-five stripes with a whip, switch or cowskin." (Law of Georgia, Prince's Digest, p. 447.) — Just and equal ! Though the servant is thus kept in igno- rance, nevertheless in his ignorance he is punished more severely for the same crimes than freemen. — Just and equal ! By way of protecting him from over-work, they enact that he shall not labor more than five hours longer than convicts at hard labor in a penitentiary ! They also enact that the master or over- seer, not the slave, shall decide when he is too sick to work. — Just and equal ! If any master, compassionating this condi- tion of the slave, desires to better it, the law takes it out of his power, by the following decisions : 1. That all his earnings shall belong to his master, notwithstanding his master's promise to the contrary ; thus making them liable for his master's debts. — Just and equal ! 2. That if his master" allow him to keep cattle for his own use, it shall be lawful for any man to take them away, and enjoy half the profits of the seizure. — Just and equal ! 3. If his master sets him free, he shall be taken up and sold again. — Just and equal ! If any man or woman runs away from this state of things, and, after proclamation made, does not return, any two justices of the peace may delare them outlawed, and give permission to any person in the com- munity to kill them by any ways or means they think fit. — Just and equal ! Such are the laws of that system of slavery which has been made up by Christian mas- ters late in the Christian era, and is now defended by Christian ministers as an emi- nently benign institution. In this manner Christian legislators have expressed their understanding of the text, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal," and of the text, " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you io ye even so to them." It certainlv presents the most extraordi- nary view- of justice and equity, and is the most remarkable exposition of the principle of doing to others as we would others should do to us, that it has ever been the good fortune of the civilized world to observe. This being the institution, let any one con- jecture what its abuses must be ; for we are gravely told, by learned clergymen, that they do not feel called upon to interfere with the system, but only with its abuses. We should like to know what abuse could be specified that is not provided for and expressly pro- tected by slave-law. And yet, Christian republicans, who, with full power to repeal this law, arc daily sus- taining it, talk about there being no harm in slavery, if they regulate it according to the apostle's directions, and give unto their servants that which is just and equal. Do they think that, if the Christianized masters of Rome and Corinth had made such a set of rules as this for the government of their slaves, Paul would have accepted it as a proper exposition of what he meant by just and equal I KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 24< But the Presbyteries of South Carolina say, and all the other religious bodies at the South say, that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ has no right to interfere with civil institutions. What is this church of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they speak of 7 Is it not a collection of republican men, who have constitutional power to alter these laws, and whose duty it is to alter them, and who are disobeying the apostle's directions every day till they do alter them 7 Every minister at the South is a voter as much as he is a minister ; every church-member is a voter as much as he is a church-member ; and minis- ters and church-members are among the masters who are keeping up this system of atrocity, when they have full republican power to alter it; and yet they talk about giving their servants that which is just and equal ! If they are going to give their servants that which is just and equal, let them give them back their manhood ; they are law-makers, and can do it. Let them give to the slave the right to hold property, the right to form legal marriage, the right to read the word of God, and to have such education as will fully develop his intellectual and moral nature; the right of free religious opinion and worship; let -them give him the right to bring suit and to bear testimony; give him the right to have some vote in the government by which his interests are controlled. This will be something more like giving him that which is "just and equal. ; ' Mr. Smylie, of Mississippi, says that the planters of Louisiana and Mississippi, when they are giving from twenty to twenty-five dollars a barrel for pork, give their slaves three or four pounds a week ; and intimates that, if that will not convince people that they are doing what is just and equal, he does not know what will. Mr. C. C. Jones, after stating in various places that he has no intention ever to inter- fere with the civil condition of the slave, teaches the negroes, in his catechism, that the master gives to his servant that which is just and equal, when he provides for them good houses, good clothing, food, nursing, and religious instruction. This is just like a man who has stolen an estate which belongs to a family of orphans. Out of its munificent revenues, he gives the orphans comfortable food, clothing, &c, while he retains the rest for his own use, declaring that he is thus rendering to them that which is just and equal. If the laws which regulate slavery were made by a despotic sovereign, over whose movements the masters could have no con- trol, this mode of proceeding might be called just and equal; but, as they are made and kept in operation by these Christian masters, these ministers and church-members, in com- mon with those who are not so, they are every one of them refusing to the slave that which is just and equal, so long as they do not seek the repeal of these laws ; and, if they cannot get them repealed, it is their duty to take the slave out from under them, since they are constructed with such fatal ingenu- ity as utterly to nullify all that the master tries to do for their elevation and permanent benefit. No man would wish to leave his own family of children as slaves under the care of the kindest master that ever breathed; and what he would not wish to have done to his own children, he ought not to do to other people's children. But, it will be said that it is not becoming for the Christian church to enter into politi- cal matters. Again, we ask, what is the Christian church 7 Is it not an association of republican citizens, each one of whom has his rights and duties as a legal voter? Now, suppose a law were passed which depreciated the value of cotton or sugar three cents in the pound, would these men consider the fact that they are church-members as any reason why they should not agitate for the repeal of such law 7 Certainly not. Such a law would be brittle as the spider's web ; it would be swept away before it was well made. Every law to which the ma- jority of the community does not assent is, in this country, immediately torn down. Why, then, does this monstrous system stand from age to age 7 Because the com- munity consent to it. They re"nact these unjust laws every day, by their silent permission of them. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of this world, say the South Carolina Presbyteries; therefore, the church has no right to interfere with any civil institution; but yet all the clergy of Charleston could attend in a body to give sanction to the pro- ceedings of the great Vigilance Committee. They could not properly exert the least influ- ence against slavery, because it is a civil institution, but they could give the whole weight of their influence in favor of it. Is it not making the. kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ quite as much of this world, to patronize the oppressor, as to patronize the slave 7 244 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. CHAPTER IX. IS THE SYSTEM OF RELIGION WHICH IS TAUGHT THE SLAVE THE GOSPEL? The ladies of England, in their letter to the ladies of America, spoke in particular of the denial of the gospel to the slave. This has been indignantly resented in this country, and it has been claimed that the slaves do have the gospel communicated to them very extensively. Whoever reads Mr. Charles C. Jones' book on the religious instruction of the ne- groes will have no doubt of the following facts : 1. That from year to year, since the in- troduction of the negroes into this country, various pious and benevolent individuals have made efforts for their spiritual welfare. 2. That these efforts have increased, from year to year. 3. That the most extensive and important one came into being about the time that Mr. Jones' book was written, in the year 1842, and extended to some degree through the United States. The fairest development of it was probably in the State of Georgia, the sphere of Mr. Jones' immediate labor, where the most gratifying results were wit- nessed, and much very amiable and com- mendable Christian feeling elicited on the part of masters. 4. From time to time, there have been prepared, for the use of the slave, catechisms, hymns, short sermons, &c. &c, designed to be read to them by their masters, or taught them orally. 5. It will appear to any one who reads Mr. Jones' book that, though written by a man who believed the system of slavery sanctioned by God, it manifests a spirit of sincere and earnest benevolence, and of de- votedness to the cause he has undertaken, which cannot be too highly appreciated. It is a very painful and unpleasant task to express any qualification or dissent with regard to efforts which have been undertaken in a good spirit, and which have produced, in many respects, good results ; but, in the reading of Mr. Jones' book, in the study of his catechism, and of various other catechisms and sermons which give an idea of the re- ligious instruction of the slaves, the writer has often been painfully impressed with the idea that, howevor imbued and mingled with good, it is not the true and pure gospel system which is given to the slave. As far as the writer has been able to trace out what is communicated to him, it amounts in sub- stance to this ; that his master's authority over him, and property in him, to the full extent of the enactment of slave-law, is re- cognized and sustained by the tremendous authority of God himself. He is told that his master is God's overseer ; that he owes him a blind, unconditional, unlimited submis- sion; that he must not allow himself to grumble, or fret, or murmur, at anything in his conduct ; and, in case he does so, that his murmuring is not against his master, but against God. He is taught that it is God's will that he should have nothing but labor and poverty in this world ; and that, if he frets and grumbles at this, he will get nothing by it in this life,' and be sent to hell forever in the next. Most vivid descriptions of hell, with its torments, its worms ever feeding and never dying, are held up before him ; and he is told that this eternity of tor- ture will be the result of insubordination here. It is no wonder that a slave-holder once said to Dr. Brisbane, of Cincinnati, that religion had been worth more to him, on his plantation, than a wagon-load of cowskins. Furthermore, the slave is taught that to endeavor to evade his master by running away, or to shelter or harbor a slave who has run away, are sins which will expose him to the wrath of that omniscient Being, whose eyes are in every place. As the slave is a movable and merchanta- ble being, liable, as Mr. Jones calmly re- marks, to "all the vicissitudes of property," this system of instruction, one would think, would be in something of a dilemma, when it comes to inculcate the Christian duties of the family state. When Mr. Jones takes a survey of the field, previous to commencing his system of operations, he tells us, what we suppose every rational person must have foreseen, that he finds ainons; the negroes an utter demoralization upon this subject ; that po- lygamy is commonly practised, and that the marriage-covenant has become a mere tem- porary union of interest, profit or pleasure, formed without reflection, and dissolved without the slightest idea of guilt. That this state of things is the necessary and legitimate result of the system of laws which these Christian men have made and are still keeping up over their slaves, any sensible person will perceive ; and any one would think it an indispensable step to any system of religious instruction here, that the KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 245 negro should be placed in a situation where he can form a legal marriage, and can ad- here to it after it is formed. But Mr. Jones and his coadjutors com- menced by declaring that it was not their intention to interfere, in the slightest degree. with the legal position of the slave. We should have thought, then, that it would not have been possible, if these masters intended to keep their slaves in the condition of chattels personal, liable to a constant dis- ruption of family ties, that they could have the heart to teach them the strict morality of the gospel with regard to the marriage relation. But so it is, however. If we examine Mr. Jones' catechism, we shall find that the slave is made to repeat orally that one man can be the husband of but one woman, and if, during her lifetime, he marries another, God will punish him forever in hell. Suppose a conscientious woman, instructed in Mr. Jones' catechism, by the death of her master is thrown into the market for the division of the estate, like many cases we may read of in the Georgia papers every week. She is torn from her husband and children, and sold at the other end of the Union, never to meet them again, and the new mas- ter commands her to take another husband ; — what, now, is this woman to do? If she take the husband, according to her catechism she commits adultery, and exposes herself to everlasting fire ; if she does not take him, she disobeys her master, who, she has been taught, is God's overseer; and she is exposed to everlasting fire on that account, and cer- tainly she is exposed to horrible tortures here. Now, we ask, if the teaching that has involved this poor soul in such a labyrinth of horrors can be called the gospel ? Is it the gospel, — is it glad tidings in any sense of the words 1 In the same manner, this catechism goes on to instruct parents to bring up their chil- dren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they should guide, counsel, re- strain and govern them. Again, these teachers tell them that they should search the Scriptures most earnestly, diligently and continually, at the same time declaring that it is not their intention to interfere with the laws which forbid their being taught to read. Searching the Scrip- tures, slaves are told, means coming to people who are willing to read to them. Yes, but if there be no one willing to do this, what then? Anyone whom this catechism has thus instructed is sold off to a plantation on Red river, like that where Northrop lived] no Bible goes with him ; his Christian in- structors, in their care not to interfere with his civil condition, have deprived him of the power of reading; and in this land of dark- ness his oral instruction is but as a faded dream. Let any of us ask for what sum we would be deprived of all power of ever reading the Bible for ourselves, and made entirely dependent on the reading of others, — especially if we were liable to fall into such hands as slaves, are, — and then let us determine whether a system of religious in- struction, which begins by declaring that it has no intention to interfere with this cruel legal deprivation, is the gospel ! The poor slave, darkened, blinded, per- plexed on every hand, by the influences which the legal system has spread under his feet, is, furthermore, strictly instructed in a per- fect system of morality. He must not even covet anything that is his master's; he must not murmur or be discontented; he must consider his master's interests as his own, and be ready to sacrifice himself to them; and this he must do, as he is told, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro ward. He must forgive all injuries, and do exactly right under all perplexities ; thus is the obligation on his part expounded to him, while his master's reciprocal obliga- tions mean only to give him good houses, clothes, food, &c. &c, leaving every master to determine for himself what is good in re- lation to these matters. No wonder, when such a system of utter injustice is justified to the negro by all the awful sanctions of religion, that now and then a strong soul rises up against it. We have known under a black skin shrewd minds, unconquerable spirits, whose indignant sense of justice no such representations could blind. That Mr. Jones has met such is evident ; for, speaking of the trials of a missionary among them, he says (p. 127) : He discovers Deism, Scepticism, Universalism. As already stated, the various perversions of the gospel, and all the strong objections against the truth of God, — objections which ho may, perhaps, have considered peculiar only to the cultivated minds, the ripe scholarship and profound intelli- gence, of critics and philosophers ! — extremes here meet on the natural and common ground of a darkened understanding and a hardened heart. Again, in the Tenth Annual Report of the " Association for the Religious Instruc- tion of the Negroes in Liberty County, Georgia," he says: 246 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Allow me to relate a fact which occurred in the spring of this year, illustrative of the character and knowledge of the negroes at this time. I was preaching to a large congregation on the Epistle to Philemon; and when I insisted upon fidelity and obedience as Christian virtues in servants, and, upou the authority of Paul, condemned the practice of running away, one-half of my audience delibe- rately walked off with themselves, and those that remained looked anything but satisfied, either with the preacher or his doctrine. After dismis- sion, there was no small stir among them : some solemnly declared that there was no such epistle in the Bible ; others, " that it was not the gos- pel;" others, ".that I preached to please masters ;" others, "that they did not care if they ever heard me preach again." — pp. 24, 25. Lundy Lane, an intelligent fugitive who has published his memoirs, says that on one occasion they (the slaves) were greatly de- lighted with a certain preacher, until he told them that God had ordained and created them expressly to make slaves of. He says that after that they all left him, and went away, because they thought, with the Jews, " This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" In these remarks on the perversion of the gospel as presented to the slave, we do not mean to imply that much that is excellent and valuable is not taught him. We mean simply to assert that, in so far as the system taught justifies the slave-system, so far necessarily it vitiates the fundamental ideas of justice and morality; and, so far as the obligations of the gospel are inculcated on the slave in their purity, they bring him necessarily in conflict with the authority of the system. As we have said before, it is an attempt to harmonize light with darkness, and Christ with Belial. Nor is such an at- tempt to be justified and tolerated, because undertaken in the most amiable spirit by amiable men. Our admiration of some of the laborers who have conducted this system is very great ; so also is our admiration of many of the Jesuit missionaries who have spread the Roman Catholic religion among our aboriginal tribes. Devotion and disin- terestedness could be carried no further than some of both these classes of men have carried them. But, while our respect for these good men must not seduce us as Protestants into an admiration of the system which they taught, so our esteem for our Southern brethren must not lead us to admit that a system which fully justifies the worst kind of spir- itual and temporal despotism can properly represent the gospel of him who came to preach deliverance to the captives. To prove that we have not misrepresented the style of instruction, we will give some extracts from various sermons and discourses* In the first place, to show how explicitly religious teachers disclaim any intention of interfering in the legal relation (see Mr. Jones' work. p. 157) : By law or custom, they are excluded from the advantages of education ; and, by consequence, from the reading of the word of God ; and this immense mass of immortal beings is thrown, for religious instruction, upon oral communications entirely. And upon whom? Upon their owners. And their owners, especially of late years, claim to be the exclusive guardians of their religious in- struction, and the almoners of divine mercy tow- ards them, thus assuming the responsibility of their entire Christianization ! All approaches to them from abroad are rigidly guarded against, and no ministers are allowed to break to them the bread of life, except such as have commended themselves to the affection and con- fidence of their owners. I do not condemn this course of self-preservation on the part of our citi- zens ; I merely mention it to show their entire dependence upon ourselves. In answering objections of masters to al- lowing the religious instruction of the ne- groes, he supposes the following objection, and gives the following answer : If we suffer our negroes to be instructed, the tendency will be to change the civil relations of society as now constituted. To which let it be replied, that we separate entirely their religious and their civil condition, and contend that the one may be attended to without interfering with the other. Our principle is that laid down by the holy and just One : " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." And Christ and his apostles are our example. Did they deem it proper and consistent with the good order of society to preach the gospel to the servants \ They did. In discharge of this duty, did they in- terfere with their civil condition ! They did not. With regard to the description of heaven and the torments of hell, the following is from Mr. Jones' catechism, pp. 83, 91, 92: Q. Are there two places only spoken of in tho Bible to which the souls of men go after death ? — A. Only two. Q. Which are they? — A. Heaven and hell. # * # * * Q. After the Judgment is over, into what place do the righteous go? — A. Into heaven. Q. What kind of a place is heaven ! — A. A most glorious and happy place. ***** Q. Shall the righteous in heaven have any more hunger, or thirst, or nakedness, or heat, or cold? Shall they have any more sin, or sorrow, or crying, or pain, or death ? — A. No. Q. Repeat " And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." — A. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 247 neither shall there he any more pain ; for the former things are passed away." Q. Will heaven be their everlasting home ? — A. Yes. Q. And shall the righteous grow in knowledge and holiness and happiness for ever and ever? — A. Yes. Q. To what place should we wish and strive to go, more than to all other places? — A. Heaven. ***** Q. Into what place are the wicked to be cast? — A. Into hell. Q. Repeat " The wicked shall he turned." — A. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Q. What kind of a place is hell? — .4. A place of dreadful torments. Q. What does it burn with ? — A. Everlasting fire. Q. Who are cast into hell besides wicked men ? — A. The devil and his angels. Q. What will the torments of hell make the wicked do ? — A. Weep and wail and gnash their teeth. Q. What did the rich man beg for when he was tormented in the flame? — A. A drop of cold water to cool his tongue. Q. Will the wicked have any good thing in hell? the least comfort ? the least relief from tor- ment? — A. No. Q. Will they ever come out of hell ? — A. No, never. Q. Can any go from heaven to hell, or from hell to heaven ? — A. No. Q. What is fixed between heaven and hell ? — A. A great gulf. Q. What is the punishment of the wicked in hell called ? — ,4. Everlasting punishment. Q. Will this punishment make them better ? — A. No. Q, Repeat " It is a fearful thing." — A. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Q. What is God said to be to the wicked ? — A. A consuming fire. Q. What place should we strive to escape from above all others ? — A. Hell. The Rev. Alex. Glennie, rector of All- saints parish, Waccauiaw, South Carolina, has for several years been in the habit of preaching with express reference to slaves. In 184-1 he published in Charleston a se- lection of these sermons, under the title of ' ' Sermons preached on Plantations to Con- gregations of Negroes." This book contains twenty-six sermons, and in twenty-two of them there is either a more or less extended account, or a reference to eternal misery in hell as a motive to duty. He thus describes the day of judgment (Sermon 15, p. 90) : When all people shall be gathered before him, " he shall separate them, one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left." That, my brethren, will be an awful time, when this separation shall be going on ; when the holy angels, at the command of the great Judg;\ shall be gathering together all the obedient followers of Christ, and be setting them on the right hand of the Judgment-seat, and shall place all the remainder on the left. Remember that each of you must be present; remember that the Great Judge can make no mistake ; and that you shall be placed on one side or on the other, ac- cording as in this world you have believed in and obe}-ed him or not. How full of joy and thanks- giving will you be, if you shall find yourself placed on the right hand ! but how full of misery and despair, if the left shall be appointed as your portion ! * * * * But what shall he say to the wicked on the left hand? To them he shall say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." He will tell them to de- part ; they did not, while here i seek him by re- pentance and faith; they did not obey him, and now he will drive them from him. He will call them cursed. (Sermon 1, p. 42.) The death which is the wages of sin is this everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It is a fire which shall last forever ; and the devil and his angels, and all people who will not love and serve God, shall there be punished forever. The Bible says, " The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." The fire is not quenched, it never goes out, " their worm dieth not :" their punishment is spoken of as a worm always feed- ing upon but never consuming them ; it never can stop. Concerning the absolute authority of the master, take the following extract from Bishop Mead's sermon. (Brooke's Slavery, pp. 30, 31, 32.) Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to your great Master in heaven, I now come to lay before you the duties you owe to your mas- ters and mistresses here upon earth ; and for this you have one general rule that you ought always to carry in your minds, and that is, to do all ser- vice for them as if you did it for God himself. Poor creatures ! you little consider, when you are idle and neglectful of your masters' business, when you steal and waste and hurt any of their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, when you are telling them lies and deceiving them ; or when you prove stubborn and sullen, and will not do the work you are set about without stripes and vexation ; you do not consider, I say, that what faults you are guilty of towards your masters and mistresses are faults done against God himself, who hath set your masters and mistresses over you in his own stead, and expects that you will do for them just as you would do for Him. And, pray, do not think that I want to deceive you when I tell you that your ?nasters and mistresses arc God's overseers; and that, if you are faulty towards them, God himself will punish you severely for it in the next world, unless you repent of it, and strive to make amends by your faithfulness and diligence for the time to come ; for God himself hath declared the same. Now, from this general rule, — namely, that you are to do all service for your masters and mistresses as if you did it for God himself, — there arise several other rules of duty towards your masters and mistresses, which I shall endeavor to lay out in order before you. And, in the first place, you are to be obedient and subject to your masters in all things 248 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. And Christian ministers are commanded to "ex- hort servants to be obedient unto their own mas- ters, and to please them well in all things, not answering them again, or gainsaying." You see how strictly God requires this of you, that whatever your masters and mistresses order you to do, you must set about it immediately, and faithfully per- form it, without any disputing or grumbling, and take care to please them well in all things. And for your encouragement he tells you that he will reward you for it in heaven ; because, while you arc honestly and faithfully doing your master's business here, you are serving your Lord and Master in heaven. You see also that you are not to take any exceptions to the behavior of your masters and mistresses ; and that you are to be subject and obedient, not only to such as are good, and gentle, and mild, towards you, but also to such as may be froward, peevish, and hard. For you are not at liberty to choose your own masters ; but into whatever hands God hath been pleased to put you, you must do your duty, and God will reward you for it. # # # # * , You are to be faithful and honest to your masters and mistresses, not purloining or toasting their goods or substance, but showing all good fidelity in all things Do not your masters, under God, provide for you? And how shall they be able to do this, to feed and to clothe you, unless you take honest care of everything that belongs to them 1 Remember that God requires this of you ; and, if you are not afraid of suffering for it here, you camiot escape the vengeance of Almighty God, who will judge between you and your masters, and make you pay severely in the next world for all the injustice you do them here. And though you could manage so cunningly as to escape the eyes and hands of man, yet think what a dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who is able to cast both soul and body into hell ! You are to serve your masters with cheerfulness, reverence, and humility. You are to do your mas- ters' 1 service with good will, doing it as the will of God from the heart, ivithout any sauciness or an- swering again. How many of you do things quite otherwise, and, instead of going about your work witli a good will and a good heart, dispute and grumble, give saucy answers, and behave in a surly manner ! There is something so becoming and engaging in a modest, cheerful, good-natured behavior, that a little work done in that manner seems better done, and gives far more satisfaction, than a great deal more, that must be done with fretting, vexation, and the lash always held over you. It also gains the good will and love of those you belong to, and makes your own life pass with more ease and pleasure. Besides, you are to consider that this grumbling and ill-will do not affect your masters and mistresses only. They have ways and means in their hands of forcing you to do your work, whether you are willing or not. But your murmuring and grumbling is against God, who hath placed you in that service, who will punish you severely in the next world for despising his commands. A very awful query here occurs to the mind. If the poor, ignorant slave, who wastes his master's temporal goods to answer some of his own present purposes, be exposed to this heavy retribution, what will become of those educated men, who, for their tem- poral convenience, make and hold in force laws which rob generation after generation bf men, not only of their daily earnings, but of all their rights and privileges as immortal beings ? The Rev. Mr. Glennie, in one of his ser- mons, as quoted by Mr. Bowditch, p. 137, assures his hearers that none of them will be able to say, in the day of judgment, "I had no way of hearing about my God and Saviour." Bishop Meade, as quoted by Brooke, pp. 34, 35, thus expatiates to slaves on the ad- vantages of their condition. One would really think, from reading this account, that every one ought to make haste and get himself sold into slavery, as the nearest road to heaven. Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grum- ble or repine at your condition ; for this will not only make your life uneasy, but will greatly offend Al- mighty God. Consider that it is not yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is not the men that have brought you to it, but it is the will of God, who hath by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, he knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and help you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty in it. So that any discontent at your not being free, or rich, or great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath . made you what you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself aright, and do the business he hath set you about in this world honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have proved the ruin of many an un- happy soul, by drawing away the heart and affec- tions from God, and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments ; so that, when God, who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore keeps them from us, it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us. You may perhaps fancy that, if you had riches and freedom, you could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you can now. But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your souls, through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the best of purposes in this world ; and ho that at last can get to heaven has performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so rugged and difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage over most white people, who have not only the care of their daily labor upon their hands, but the care of looking forward and pro- viding necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing and bringing up their children, and of getting food and raiment for as many of you as belong to their families, which often puts them to great difficulties, and distracts their minds so as to break their rest, and take off their thoughts from the aflairs of another world. AVhere- as, you are quite eased from all these cares, and have nothing but your daily labor to look after, and, when that is done, take your needful rest. KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 249 Neither is it necessary for you to think of laying up anything against old age, as white people are dbliged to do ; for the laws of the country have provided that you shall not be turned off when you are past labor, but shall be maintained, while you live, by those you belong to, whether you are able to work or not. Bishop Meade further consoles slaves thus for certain incidents of their lot, for which they may think they have more reason to find fault than for most others. The reader must admit that he takes a very philo- sophical view of the subject. There is only one circumstance which may ap- pear grievous, that I shall now take notice of, and that is correction. Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do not deserve it. But, whether you really deserve it or not, it is your duty, and Almighty God requires, that you bear it patiently You may perhaps think that this is hard doc- trine ; but if you consider it right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you deserve correction ; you cannot but say that it is just and right you should meet with it. Suppose you do not, or at least you do not deserve so much, or so severe a correction, for the fault you have committed ; you perhaps have escaped a great many more, and at last paid for all. Or, suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing ; is it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was never discovered, and that Almighty God, who saw you doing it, would not let you escape without punishment, one time or another ? And ought you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful that he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness, than destroy your souls for it in the next life ? But, suppose even this was not the case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you have by no means, known or unknown, deserved the correction you suffered ; there is this great comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, and leave your cause in the hands of God, he will re- ward you for it in heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to your ex- ceeding great glory hereafter. That Bishop Meade has no high opinion of the present comforts of a life of slavery, may be fairly inferred from the following remarks which he makes to slaves : Your own poor circumstances in this life ou^ht to put you particularly upon this, and taking care of your souls ; for you cannot have the pleasures and enjoyments of this life like rich free people, who have estates and money to lay out as they think fit. If others will run the hazard of their souls, they have a chance of getting wealth and power, of heaping up riches, and enjoying all the ease, luxury and pleasure, their hearts should long after. But you can have none of these things ; so that, if you sell your souls, for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed. This information is certainly very explicit and to the point. He continues : Almighty God hath been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it "should be so. And think within yourselves, what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next life. and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his slaves for- ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from it ! If, therefore, you would be God's free- men in heaven, you must strive to be good, and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you know, are not your own ; they are at the disposal of those you belong to ; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, that if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in the next. For your idleness and Avickedness is generally found out, and your bodies suffer for it here ; and, what is far worse, if you do not repent and amend, your un- happy souls will suffer for it hereafter. Mr. Jones, in that part of the work where he is obviating the objections of masters to the Christian instruction of their slaves, sup- poses the master to object thus : You teach them that c< God is no respecter of persons ;" that " He hath made of one blood, all nations of men ;" " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ;" what use, let me ask, would they make of these sentences from the gospel ? Mr. Jones says : Let it be replied, that the effect urged in the objection might result from imperfect and inju- dicious religious instruction ; indeed, religious in- struction may be communicated with the express design, on the part of the instructor, to produce the effect referred to, instances of which have oc- curred. But who will say that neglect of duty and in- subordination are the legitimate effects of the gospel, purely and sincerely imparted to servants ? Has it not in all ages been viewed as the greatest civilizcr of the human race ? How Mr. Jones would interpret the golden rule to the slave, so as to justify the slave- system, we cannot possibly tell. We can, however, give a specimen of the manner in which it has been interpreted in Bishop Meade's sermons, p. 116. (Brooke's Slavery, &c, pp. 32, 33.) " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them ;" that is, do by all mankind just as you would do- sire they should do by you, if you were in their place, and they in yours. Now, to suit this rule to your particular circum- stances, suppose you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you ; would you not desire that your servants should do their business faith- 250 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. fully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while you were looking over thetu? Would you not expect that they should take notice of what you said to them ? that they should behave themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of everything belonging to you as you would be yourselves 7 You are servants : do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you will be both good servants to your masters, and good servants to God, who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do it for the sake of con- science, in obedience to his commands. The reverend teachers of such expositions of scripture do great injustice to the natural sense of their sable catechumens, if they sup- pose them incapable of detecting such very shallow sophistry, and of proving conclu- sively that " it is a poor rule that won't work both ways." Some shrewd old patri- arch, of the stamp of those who rose up and went out at the exposition of the Epistle to Philemon, and who show such great acute- ness in bringing up objections against the truth of God, such as would be thought pe- culiar to cultivated minds, might perhaps, if he dared, reply to such an exposition of scripture in this way: " Suppose you were a slave, — could not have a cent of your own earnings during your whole life, could have no legal right to your wife and children, could never send your children to school, and had, as you have told us, nothing but labor and poverty in this life, — how would you like it ? Would you not wish your Christian master to set you free from this condition?" We submit it to every one who is no respecter of persons, whether this in- terpretation of Sambo's is not as good as the bishop's. And if not, why not'? To us, with our feelings and associations, such discourses as these of Bishop Meade appear hard-hearted and unfeeling to the last degree. We should, however, do great injustice to the character of the man, if we supposed that they prove him to have been such. They merely go to show how per- fectly use may familiarize amiable and es- timable men with a system of oppression, till they shall have lost all consciousness of the wrong which it involves. That Bishop Meade's reasonings did not thoroughly convince himself is evident from the fact that, after all his representations of the superior advantages of slavery as a means of religious improvement, he did, at last, emancipate his own slaves. But, in addition to what has been said, this whole system of religious instruction is darkened by one hideous shadow, — the slave-trade. What does the Southern church do with her catechumens and com- municants ? Read the advertisements of Southern newspapers, and see. In every city in the slave-raising states behold the depots, kept constantly full of assorted negroes from the ages of ten to thirty ! In every slave-consuming state see the re- ceiving-houses, whither these poor wrecks and remnants of families are constantly borne ! Who preaches the gospel to the slave-coffles ? Who preaches the gospel in the slave-prisons ? If we consider the tre- mendous extent of this internal trade, — if we read papers with columns of auction advertisements of human beings, changing hands as freely as if they were dollar-bills instead of human creatures, — we shall then realize how utterly all those influences of re- ligious instruction must be nullified by leav- ing the subjects of them exposed "to all the vicissitudes of property." CHAPTER X. WHAT IS TO BE DONE 1 The thing to be done, of which I shall chiefly speak, is that the whole American church, of all denominations, should unitedly come up, not in form, but in fact, to the noble purpose avowed by the Presby- terian, Assembly of 1818, to seek the en- tire ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT America and throughout Christendom. To this noble course the united voice of Christians in all other countries is urgently calling the American church. Expressions of this feeling have come from Christians of all denominations in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, in France, in Switzerland, in Germany, in Persia, in the Sandwich Islands, and in China. All seem to be animated by one spirit. They have loved and honored this American church. They have rejoiced in the brightness of her rising. Her pros- perity and success have been to them as their own, and they have had hopes that God meant to confer inestimable blessings through her upon all nations. The American church has been to them like the rising of a glorious sun, shedding healing from his wings, dis- persing mists and fogs, and bringing songs of birds and voices of cheerful industry, and sounds of gladness, contentment and peace. But, lo ! in this beautiful orb is seen a disastrous spot of dim eclipse, whose gradu- ally widening shadow threatens a total dark- KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 251 nesg. Can we wonder that the voice of re- monstrance comes to us from those who have so much at stake in our prosperity and suc- cess 1 We have sent out our missionaries to all quarters of the globe ; but how shall they tell their heathen converts the things that are clone in Christianized America ? How shall our missionaries in Mahometan countries hold up their heads, and proclaim the superiority of our religion, when we tolerate barbarities which they have repu- diated ? A missionary among the Karens, in Asia, writes back that his course is much embar- rassed by a suspicion that is afloat among the Karens that the Americans intend to steal and sell them. He says : I dread the time when these Karens will be able to read our books, and get a full knowledge of all that is going on in our country. Many of them are very inquisitive now, and often ask me ques- tions that I find it very difficult to answer. No, there is no resource. The church of the United States is shut up, in the prov- idence of God, to one work. She can never fulfil her mission till this is done. So long as she neglects this, it will lie in the way of everything else which she attempts to do. She must undertake it for another reason, — because she alone can perform the work peaceably. If this fearful problem is left to take its course as a mere political question, to be ground out between the upper and nether millstones of political parties, then what will avert agitation, angry collisions, and the desperate rending the Union ? No, there is no safety but in making it a re- ligious enterprise, and pursuing it in a Christian spirit, and by religious means. If it now be asked what means shall the church employ, we answer, this evil must be abolished by the same means which the apostles first used for the spread of Chris- tianity, and the extermination of all the social evils which then filled' a world lyin^ in wickedness. Hear the apostle enumer- ate them: "By pureness, by knowledge, BY LONG-SUFFERING, BY THE HOLY GlIOST, BY LOVE ' UNFEIGNED, BY THE ARMOR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ON THE RIGHT HAND AND ON THE LEFT." We will briefly consider each of these means. First, "by Pureness." Christians in the Northern free states must endeavor to purify themselves and the country from various malignant results of the system of slavery ; and, in particular, they must endeavor to abolish that which is the most sinful, — the unchristian prejudice of caste. In Hindostan there is a class called the Pariahs, with which no other class will asso- ciate, eat or drink. Our missionaries tell the converted Hindoo that this prejudice is un- christian; for God hath made of one blood all who dwell on the face of the earth, and all mankind are brethren in Christ. With what face shall they tell this to the Hindoo, if he is able to reply, "In your own Chris- tian country there is a class of Pariahs who are treated no better than we treat ours. You do not yourselves believe the things you teach us." Let us look at the treatment of the free negro at the North. In the States of Indi- ana and Illinois the most oppressive and un- righteous laws have been passed with regard to him. No law of any slave state could be more cruel in its spirit than that recently passed in Illinois, by which every free negro coming into the state is taken up and sold for a certain time, and then, if he do not leave the state, is sold again. With what face can we exhort our South- ern brethren to emancipate their slaves, if we do- not set the whole moral power of the church at the North against such abuses as this ? Is this course justified by saying that the negro is vicious and idle ? This is add- ing insult to injury. What is it these Christian states do ? To a great extent they exclude the colored population from their schools ; they dis- courage them from attending their churches by invidious distinctions ; as a general fact, they exclude them from their shops, where they might learn useful arts and trades ; they crowd them out of the better callings where they might earn an honorable liveli- hood ; and, having thus discouraged every elevated aspiration, and reduced them to almost inevitable ignorance, idleness and vice, they fill up the measure of iniquity by making cruel laws to expel them from their states, thus heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. If we say that every Christian at the South who does not use his utmost influence against their iniquitous slave-laws is guilty, as a republican citizen, of sustaining those laws, it is no less true that every Christian at the North who does not do what in him lies to procure the repeal of such laws in the free states in, so far, gui! ty for their exist- ence. Of late years we have had abun- dant quotations from the Old Testament to justify all manner of oppression. A 252 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. Hindoo, who knew nothing of this generous and beautiful book, except from such pam- phlets as Mr. Smylie's, might possibly think it was a treatise on piracy, and a general justi- fication of robbery. But let us quote from it the directions which God gives for the treatment of the stranger: "If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth among you shall be as one born among you ; thou shalt love him as thyself." How much more does this apply when the stranger has been brought into our land by the injustice and cruelty of our fathers ! We are happy to say, however, that the number of states in which such oppressive legislation exists is small. It is also matter of encouragement and hope that the unphi- losophical and unchristian prejudice of caste is materially giving way, in many parts of our country, before a kinder and more Chris- tian spirit. Many of our schools and colleges are willing to receive the colored applicant on equal terms with the white. Some of the Northern free states accord to the colored free man full political equality and privileges. Some of the colored people, under this en- couragement, have, in many parts of our country, become rich and intelligent. A very fair proportion of educated men is rising among them. There are among them respectable editors, eloquent orators, and laborious and well-instructed clergymen. It gives us pleasure to say that among intelli- gent and Christian people these men are treated with the consideration they deserve ; and, if they meet with insult and ill-treatment, it is commonly from the less-educated class, who, being less enlightened, are always longer under the influence of prejudice. At a re- cent ordination at one of the largest and most respectable churches in Ne\Y York, the moderator of the presbytery was a black man, who began life as a slave ; and it was undoubtedly a source of gratification to all his Christian brethren to see him presiding in this capacity. He put the questions to the candidate in the German lan^ua^c, the church being in part composed of Germans. Our Christian friends in Europe may, at Least, infer from this that, if we have had our faults in times past, we have, some of us, seen and are endeavoring to correct them. To bring this head at once to a practical conclusion, the writer will say to every in- dividual Christian, who wishes to do some- thing for the abolition of slavery, begin by doing what lies in your power for the colored people in your vicinity. Are there children excluded from schools by unchristian preju- dice 7 Seek to combat that prejudice by fair arguments, presented in a right spirit. If you cannot succeed, then endeavor to pro- vide for the education of these children in seme other manner. As far as in you lies, endeavor to secure for them, in every walk of life, the ordinary privileges of American citizens. If they are excluded from the omnibus and railroad-car in the place where you reside, endeavor to persuade those who have the control of these matters to pursue a more just and reasonable course. Those Christians who are heads of mechanical establishments can do much for the cause by receiving colored apprentices. Many mas- ters excuse themselves for excluding the colored apprentice by saying that if they receive him all their other hands will desert them. To this it is replied, that if they do the thing in a Christian temper and for a Christian purpose, the probability is that, if their hands desert at first, they will return to them at last, — all of them, at least, w r hom they would care to retain. A respectable dressmaker in one of our towns has, as a matter of principle, taken colored girls for apprentices, thus furnishing them with a respectable means of livelihood. Christian mechanics, in all the walks of life, are earnestly requested to consider this sub- ject, and see if, by offering their hand to raise this poor people to respectability and knowledge and competence, they may not be performing a service which the Lord will accept as done unto himself. Another thing which is earnestly com- mended to Christians is the raising and comforting of those poor churches of colored people, who have been discouraged, dismem- bered and disheartened, by the operation of the fugitive slave law. In the city of Boston is a church, which, even now, is struggling with debt and embarrassment, caused by being obliged to buy its own deacons, to shield them from the terrors of that law. Lastly, Christians at the North, we need not say, should abstain from all trading in slaves, whether direct or indirect, whether by partnership with Southern houses or by receiving immortal beings as security for debt. It is not necessary to expand this point. It speaks for itself. By all these means the Christian church at the North must secure for itself purity KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 253 from all complicity with the sin of slavery, and from the unchristian customs and preju- dices which have resulted from it. The second means to he used for the abo- lition of slavery is "Knowledge." Every Christian ought thoroughly, care- fully and prayerfully, to examine this system of slavery. He should regard it as one upon which he is bound to have right views and right opinions, and to exert a right influence in forming and concentrating a powerful public sentiment, of all others the most efficacious remedy. Many people are deterred from examining the statistics on this subject, be- cause they do not like the men who have collected them. They say they do not like abolitionists, and therefore they will not at- tend to those facts and figures which they have accumulated. This, certainly, is not wise or reasonable. In all other subjects which deeply affect our interests, we think it best to take information where we can get it, whether we like the persons who give it to us or not. Every Christian ought seriously to ex- amine the extent to which our national government is pledged and used for the support of slavery. He should thoroughly look into the statistics of slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia, and, above all, into the sta- tistics of that awful system of legalized piracy and oppression by which hundreds and thousands are yearly torn from home and friends, and all that heart holds dear, and carried to be sold like beasts in the markets of the South. The smoke from this bottomless abyss of injustice puts out the light of our Sabbath suns in the eyes of all nations. Its awful groans and wailings drown the voice of our psalms and religious melodies. All nations know these things of us, and shall we not know them of ourselves ? Shall we not have courage, shall we not have patience, to investigate thoroughly our own bad case, and gain a perfect knowledge of the length and breadth of the evil we seek to remedy '? The third means for the abolition of slav- ery is "Long-suffering." Of this quality there has been some lack in the attempts that have hitherto been made. The friends of the cause have not had patience with each other, and have not been able to treat each other's opinions with for- bearance. There have been many painful things in the past history of this subject ; but is it not time when all the friends of the slave should adopt the motto, "forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before " ? Let not the believers of immediate abolition call those who believe in gradual emancipa- tion time-servers and traitors ; and let not the upholders of gradual emancipation call the advocates of immediate abolition fanatics and incendiaries. Surely some more broth-, erly way of convincing good men can be found, than by standing afar off- on some Ebal and Gerizim, and cursing each other. The truth spoken in love will always go further then the truth spoken in wrath ; and, after all. the great object is to persuade our Southern brethren to admit the idea of any emancipation at all. When we have suc- ceeded in persuading them that anything is necessary to be done, then will be the time for bringing up the question whether the object shall be accomplished by an im- mediate or a gradual process. Meanwhile, let our motto be, " Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same things ; and if any man be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto him." "Let us receive even him that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful dis- putations." Let us not reject the good there is in any, because of some remaining defects. We come now to the consideration of a power without which all others must fail, — " the Holy Ghost." The solemn creed of every Christian church, whether Roman, Greek, Episcopal or Protestant, says, " I believe in the Holy Ghost" But how often do Christians, in all these denominations, live and act, and even conduct their religious affairs, as if they had " never so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." If we trust to our own reasonings, our own misguided pas- sions, and our own blind self-will, to effect the reform of abuses, we shall utterly fail. There is a power, silent, convincing, irre- sistible, which moves over th% dark and troubled heart of man, as of old it moved over the dark and troubled waters of Chaos, bringing light out of darkness, and order out of confusion. Is it not evident to every one who takes enlarged views of human society that a gentle but irresistible influence is pervading the human race, prompting groanings and long- ings and dim aspirations for some coming era of good 1 Worldly men read the signs of the times, and call this power the Spirit of the Age, — but should not the church acknowl- edge it. as the spirit of God ? Let it not bo forgotten, however, that tho gift of his most powerful regenerating influ- 254 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. ence, at the opening of the Christian dis- pensation, was conditioned on prayer. The mighty movement that began on the day of Pentecost was preceded by united, fervent, persevering prayer. A similar spirit of prayer must precede the coming of the divine Spirit, to effect a revolution so great as that at which we aim. The most powerful in- strumentality which God has delegated to man, and around which cluster all his glori- ous promises, is prayer. All past prejudices and animosities on this subject must be laid aside, and the whole church unite as one man in earnest, fervent prayer. Have we forgotten the promise of the Holy Ghost? Have we forgotten that He was to abide with us forever 7 Have we forgotten that it is He who is to convince the world of sin. of righteousness and of judgment 1 0, divine and Holy Comforter ! Thou promise of the Father ! Thou only powerful to enlighten, convince and renew ! Return, we beseech thee, and visit this vine and this vineyard of thy planting ! With thee nothing is impos- sible ; and what we, in our weakness, can scarcely conceive, thou canst accomplish ! Another means for the abolition of slavery is "Love unfeigned." In all moral conflicts, that party who can preserve, through every degree of opposition and persecution, a divine, unprovokable spirit of love, must finally concmer. Such are the immutable laws of the moral world. Anger, wrath, selfishness and jealousy, have all a certain degree of vitality. They often pro- duce more show, more noise and temporary results, than love. Still, all these passions have, in themselves, the seeds of weakness. Love, and love only, is immortal ; and when all the grosser passions of the soul have spent themselves by their own force, love looks forth like the unchanging star, with a light that never dies. In undertaking this work, we must love both the slave-holder and the slave. We must never forget that both are our brethren. We must expect to be misrepresented, to be slandered, and to be hated. How can we attack so powerful an interest without it? We must be satisfied simply with the pleasure of being true friends, while we are treated as bitter enemies. This holy controversy must be one of principle, and not of sectional bitterness. We must not suffer it to degenerate, in our hands, into a violent prejudice against the South ; and, to this end, we must keep con- tinually before our minds the more amiable features and attractive qualities of those with whose principles we are obliged to con- flict. If they say all manner of evil against us, we must reflect that we expose them to great temptation to do so when we assail in- stitutions to which they are bound by a thousand ties of interest and early associa- tion, and to whose evils habit has made them in a great degree insensible. Tho apostle gives us this direction in cases where we are called upon to deal with offending brethren, " Consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted." We may apply this to our own case, and consider that if we had been exposed to the temptations which surround our friends at the South, and received the same education, we might have felt and thought and acted as they do. But, while we cherish all these considerations, we must also remember that it is no love to the South to countenance and defend a pernicious sys- tem ; a system which is as injurious' to the master as to the slave ; a system which turns fruitful fields to deserts ; a system ruinous to education, to morals, and to religion and social progress ; a system of which many of the most intelligent and valuable men at the South are weary, and from which they desire to escape, and by emigration are yearly escaping. Neither must w T e concede the rights of the slave ; for he is also our brother, and there is a reason why we should speak for him which does not exist in the case of his master. He is poor, uneducated and ignorant, and cannot speak for himself. We must, therefore, with greater jealousy, guard his rights. Whatever else we compromise, we must not compromise the rights of the helpless, nor the eternal principles of recti- tude and morality. We must never concede that it is an honorable thing to deprive working men of their wages, though, like many other abuses, it is customary, reputable, and popular, and though amiable men, under the influence of old prejudices, still continue to do it Never, not even for a moment, should we admit the thought that an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ may lawfully be sold upon the auction-block, though it be a common custom. We must repudiate, with determined severity, the blasphemous doc- trine of property in human beings. Some have supposed it an absurd refine- ment to talk about separating principles and persons, or to admit that he who upholds a bad system can be a good man. All ex- perience proves the contrary. Systems most unjust and despotic have been defended by men personally just and humane. It is KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. a melancholy consideration, but no less true, that there is almost no absurdity and no in- justice that has not, at some period of the world's history, had the advantage of some good man's virtues in its support. It is a part of our trial in this imperfect life ; — were evil systems only supported by the evil, our moral discipline would be much less severe than it is, and our course in attacking error far plainer. On the whole, we cannot but think that there was much Christian wisdom in the remark, which we have before quoted, of a poor old slave-woman, whose whole life had been darkened by this system, that we must " hate the sin, but love the sinner." The last means for the abolition of slavery is the " Armor of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left." By this we mean an earnest application of all straight-forward, honorable and just measures, for the removal of the system of slavery. Every man. in his place, should re- monstrate against it. All its sophistical arguments should be answered, its biblical- defences unmasked by correct reasoning and interpretation. Every mother should teach the evil of it to her children. Every cler- gyman should fully and continually warn his church against any complicity with such a sin. It is said that this would be introduc- ing politics into the pulpit. It is answered, that'since people will have to give an account of their political actions in the day of judg- ment, it seems proper that the minister should instruct them somewhat as to their political responsibilities. In that day Christ will ask no man whether he was of this or that part} 7 ; but he certainly will ask him whether lie gave his vote in the fear of God, and for the advancement of the kingdom of righteousness. It is often objected that slavery is a distant sin, with which we have nothing to do. If any clergyman wishes to test this fact, let him once plainly and faithfully preach upon it. He will probably then find that the roots of the poison-tree have run under the very hearth-stone of New England families, and that in his very congregation are those in complicity with this sin. It is no child's play to attack an institu- tion which has absorbed into itself so much of the political power and wealth of this nation, and they who try it will soon find that they wrestle "not with flesh and blood." No armor will do for this warfare but the " armor of righteousness." To our brethren in the South God has 255 pointed out a more arduous conflict. The very heart shrinks to think what the faithful Christian must endure who assails this insti- tution on its own ground ; but it must be done. How was it at the North ) There was a universal effort to put down the dis- cussion of it here by mob law. Printing- presses were broken, houses torn down, property destroyed. Brave men, however, stood firm ; martyr blood was shed for the right of free opinion and speech ; and so the right of discussion was established. Nobody tries that sort of argument now, — its day is past. In Kentucky, also, they tried to stop the discussion by similar means. Mob vio- lence destroyed a printing-press, and threat- ened the lives of individuals. But there were brave men there, who feared not vio- lence or threats of death ; and emancipation is now open for discussion in Kentucky. The fact is, the South must discuss the matter of slavery. She cannot shut it out, unless she lays an embargo on the literature of the whole civilized world. If it be, indeed, divine and God-appointed, why does she so tremble to have it touched ? If it be of God, all the free inquiry in the world can- not overthrow it. Discussion must and will come. It only requires courageous men to lead the way. Brethren in the South, there are many of you who are truly convinced that slavery is asin, a tremendous wrong; but, if you confess your sentiments, and endeavor to propagate your opinions, you think that persecution, affliction, and even death, await you. Hoav can we ask you, then, to come forward? We do not ask it. Ourselves weak, irreso- lute and worldly, shall we ask you to do what perhaps we ourselves should not dare ? But we will beseech Him to speak to you, who dared and endured more than this for your sake, and who can strengthen you to dare and endure for His. He can raise you above all temporary and worldly considera- tions. He can inspire you with that love to himself which will make you willing to leave father and mother, and wife and child, yea, to give up life itself, for his sake. And if he ever brings you to that place where you and this world take a final farewell of each other, where you make up your mind solemnly to give all up for his cause, where neither life nor death, nor things present nor things to come, can move you from this pur- pose, — then will you know a joy which is above all other joy, a peace constant and unchanging as the eternal God from whom it springs. 256 KEY TO UNCfiE TOM S CABIN. Dear brethren, is this system to go on forever in your land 1 Can you think these slave-laws anything but an abomination to a just God? Can you think this internal slave-trade to be anything but an abomina- tion in his sight ? Look, we beseech you, into ■ those awful slave-prisons which are in your cities. Do the groans and prayers which go up from those dreary mansions promise well for the prosperity of our country 1 Look, we beseech you, at the mournful march of the slave -comes ; follow the bloody course of the slave-ships on your coast. What, suppose you, does the Lamb of God think of all these things ] He whose heart was so tender that he wept, at the grave of Lazarus, over a sorrow that he was so soon to turn into joy, — what does he think of this constant, heart-breaking, yearly-repeated anguish? What does he think of Christian wives forced from their husbands, and hus- bands from their* wives ? What does he think of Christian daughters, whom his church first educates, indoctrinates and bap- tizes, and then leaves to be sold as merchan- dise 1 Think you such prayers as poor Paul Etlmondson's, such death-bed scenes as Emily Russell's, are witnessed without emotion by that generous Saviour, who regards what is done to his meanest servant as done to him- self? Did it never seem to you, Christian ! when you have read the sufferings of Jesus, that you would gladly have suffered with him ? Does it never seem almost ungenerous to accept eternal life as the price of such an- guish on his part, while you bear no cross for him 1 Have you ever wished you could have watched with him in that bitter conflict at Gethsemane. when even his chosen slept ? Have you ever wished that you could have Btood by him when all forsook him and fled, — that you could have owned when Peter de- nied, — that you could have honored him when buffeted and spit upon? Would you think it.too much honor, could you, like Mary, have followed him to the cross, and stood a patient sharer of that despised, unpitied agony ? That you cannot do. That hour is over. Christ, now, is exalted, crowned, glorified, — all men speak well of him; rich churches rise to him, and costly sacrifice goes up to him. What chance have you, among the multitude, to prove your love, — to show that you would stand by him discrowned, dishonored, tempted, betrayed, and suffering? Can you show it in any way but by espous- ing the cause of his suffering poor? Is there a people among you despised and re- jected of men, heavy with oppression, ac- quainted with grief, with all the power of wealth and fashion, of political and worldly in- fluence, arrayed against their cause, — Chris- tian, you can acknowledge Christ in them ! If you turn away indifferent from this cause, — "if thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that be ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Be- hold, we knew it not, doth not he that pon- dereth the heart consider it, and he that keepeth the soul, doth he not know it, shall he not render to every man according to his works?" In the last judgment will He not say to you, "I have been in the slave-prison,— in the slave-coffle. I have been sold in your markets ; I have toiled for naught in your fields; I have been smitten on the mouth in your courts of justice ; I have been denied a hearing in my own church, — and yo cared not for it. Ye went, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise." And if ye shall answer, " When, Lord?" He shall say unto you, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." V& RECEIVED. £*BRA.*B& APPENDIX. FACT VS. FIGUEES; OR, THE NINE ARAB BROTHERS. BEING A NEW ARABIAN NIGHT 's ENTERTAINMENT. It is a favorite maxim that "figures cannot liey We are loth to assail the time-honored reputation for veracity of this ancient and most respectable race. There may have been days of pastoral in- nocence and primitive simplicity, when they did not lie. When Abraham sat contemplatively in his tent-door, with nothing to do, all the long day, but compose psalms and pious meditations, it is likely that he had implicit faith in this maxim, and never thought of questioning the statistical tables of Eliezer of Damascus, with regard to the number of camels, asses, sheep, oxen and goats, which illustrated the prairie where he was for the time being encamped. Alas for those good old days ! Figures did not lie then, we freely admit ; but we are sadly afraid, from their behavior in recent ages, that this arose from no native inno- cence of disposition, but simply from want of occasion and opportunity. In those days, they were young and green, and had not learned what they could do. The first inventor, who commenced making a numeration table, with the artless pri- meval machine of his toes and fingers, had, like other great inventors, very little idea of what he was doing, and what would be the mighty uses of these very simple characters, when men got to having republican governments, and elections, and discussions of all sorts of unheard-of ques- tions in politics and morals, and to electioneering among these poor simple Arab herdsmen, the nine digits, for their votes on all these complicated sub- jects. No wonder that figures have had their heads turned ! Such unprecedented power and popular- ity is enough to turn any head. We are sorry to speak ill of them ; but really we must say, that, like many of our political men, they have been found on all sides of every subject to an extent that is really very confusing. Of course, there is no doubt of their veracity somewhere; the only problem being, on which side, and where. Is any great measure to be carried, no w-a-days? Of course, the statistics, cut and dried, in regular columns, on both sides of the question, contra- dict each other point-blank as two opposite can- nons ; and each party marshals behind them, firing them off with infinite alacrity, but with no par- ticular effect, except the bewilderment of the few old-fashioned people, who, like Mr. Pickwick at the review, stand on the middle ground. If that most respectable female person, Mrs. Partington, who, like most unsophisticated old ladies, is a most vehement and uncompromising abolitionist, could only hear the statistics that are to be shown up in favor of slavery, she would take off her spectacles and wipe her eyes in pious joy, and think that the millennium, and nothing less, had come upon earth. Such statistics they are, about the woe , and want , and agony, and heathenish darkness of Africa, which, by that eminent foreign 17 missionary operation, the slave-trade, have Deen turned into light and joy and thanksgiving ; here she has them, in round figures ; she only needs to put on her spectacles and look. " Here, ma'am, you have it," says the illustrator ; " look on this side of the column : here are three hundred million of heathen, — don't spare the figures, — down in Africa, sunk in heathenism — never heard the sound of the gospel — actually eating each other alive. Now, turn to this side of the column, and here they all are, over in America, clothed and in their right mind, going to church with their mas- ters, and finding the hymns in their own hymn- books. Now, ma'am, can you doubt the beneficial results of the slave-trade?" But Mrs. Partington has heard something about that middle passage which she thought was horrid. "By no means, my dear madam," says the illustrator, whisking over his papers. " I have that all in figures, — average of deaths in the first cargoes, 25 per cent., — large average, certainly ; they did n't manage the business exactly right ; but then the rate of increase in a Christian coun- try averages twenty-five per cent, over what it would have been in Africa. Now, Mrs. Parting- ton, if these had been left in Africa, they would have been all heathen ; by getting them over here, you have just as many, and all Christians to boot. Because, you see, the excess of increase balances the percentage of loss, and we make no deduction for interest in those cases." Now, as Mrs. Partington does not know with very great clearness what "percentage" and "average" mean, and as mental philosophers have demonstrated that we are always powerfully affected by the unknown, she is all the more impressed with this reasoning, on that account ; being one of the simple, old-fashioned people, who have not yet gotten over the impression that " figures cannot lie." " Well, now, really," says she, " strange what these figures will do ! I always thought the slave-trade was monstrous wicked. But it really seems to be quite a missionary work." The fact is, that these nomadic Arabs, the dig- its, are making a very unfair use, among us, of the family reputation gotten up during the palmy days of their innocence, when they were a breezy, contemplatively unsophisticated race of shep- herds, and, to use an American elegance of ex- pression, had not yet " cut their eye-teeth." All that remains of their Oriental origin in this coun- try seems to be a characteristic turn for romancing. Not an addition of slave territory has been made to the United States, wherein these same Arab brothers have not, with grave faces, been brought in as witnesses, to swear, by the honor of the fam- ily, that it was absolutely essential, for the best interest of the African race, that there should be more slavery and more slave territory. To be sure, it was for the pecuniary gain of the Ainer- ican race, but that was not the point insisted on. no ! we are always very glad when our inter- 258 APPENDIX. est coincides with that of the African race ; but the extension of slavery is not to be considered in that light principally ; it is entirely a system of Christian education, and evangelization of one race by another. Left to himself, Quashy goes right back into heathenism. His very body dete- riorates ; he becomes idiotic, insane, deaf, dumb, blind, — everything that can be thought of. " Is this an actual fact?" asks some incredulous Con- gress man, as innocent as Mrs. Partington. " yes ! for only look ; here are the statistics. Just see ; here in the town of Kittery, in Maine, are twenty-seven insane and idiotic black people, and down here in the town of Dittery, South Carolina, not a single one. Some simple-minded Kittery man, who overhears this conversation in the lobby, perhaps opens his eyes, and reflects with wonder that he never knew that there were so many black people in the town. But the Con- gress man shows it to him in the census, and he concludes to look for them when he goes home, as " figures cannot lie." On the census of 1840 conclusions innumerable as to the. capacity of the colored race to subsist in freedom have been based. It has been the very beetle, sledge-hammer and broad-axe ; and when all other means fail, the objector, with a tri- umphant flourish, exclaims, " There, sir, what do you think of the census of 1840 ? You see, sir, the thing's been tried, and it's no go." We poor common folks cannot tell what to think. Some of us suppose that we know that there were more insane and idiotic and variously dilapidated negroes reported in certain states than their entire negro population. But, of course, as it 's down in the census, and as "figures never lie," we must believe our own eyes. We can only say what some people have thought. That most inconvenient and pertinacious man, John Quincy Adams, made a good deal of trouble in Congress about this same matter. At no less than five different times did this very persistent old gentleman rise in Congress, with the state- ment that the returns of the census had been notoriously and grossly falsified in this respect ; and that he was prepared, if leave were given, to present before the House the most complete, direct, and overwhelming evidence to this effect. The following is an account of Mr. Adams' en- deavors on this subject, collected from the Con- gressional Globe, and Nilcs' s Register: TWENTV-EtUIITII CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. IIouse of Representatives. February 26, 1844. — Mr. Adams, on leave, otfered the following reso- lution : Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed to inform this House whether any gross errors have been discovered in the "Sixth Census, or Enumera- tion of the; Inhabitants of the United States, as cor- rected at the Department of State in 1841," and, if so, how these errors originated, what they are, and what, if any, measures have been taken to rectify them. House of REPRESENTATIVES. May 6, 1814. — The journal having been read, Mr. Adams moved a cor- rection of the same by striking out from the commu- nication of the Secretary of State (in answer to a resolution of this Bouse inquiring whether any gross errors had been discovered in the printing of the Sixth Census), as copied upon the journal, the following words : "Tint no Bucb errors had been discovered." Mr. Adams accompanied his motion with some re- marks. It could not possibly (Mr. Whims said) be a correct representation, as very gross errors lmd been discovered, as he intended and would pledge himself to show. He said they referred to the number of insane, blind, &c, among the colored population. This had been made the subject of a pamphlet on the annexation of Texas, and of a speech by a gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Hammett), which had been re- futed on this floor. The United States were at this time placed in a condition very little short of war with Great Britain, as well as Mexico, on the foundation of these very errors. It was important, therefore, that the true state of facts should be made to appear. The Speaker remarked that whether errors existed or not would be matter of investigation. In the opinion of the chair, there was no error of the jour- nal, because it contained only a faithful transcript of the communication made by the Secretary of State. Mr. Adams persisted in his motion. It was (he said) the most extraordinary communication ever made from the State Department. He would pledge himself to produce documents to prove that gross errors did exist. He would produce such proof as no man would be able to contradict. The House refused to amend the journal. House of Representatives. May 16, 1844. — Mr. Adams wished to present a memorial from certain citizens in relation to errors which they say have been committed in compiling and printing the last census of the United States. Objection being made, he moved to suspend the rules for the purpose of offering the resolution, and moving to refer it to a committee of five members. The yeas and nays were ordered, and, being taken, the rules were not suspended, — ayes 96, nays 49, — less than two-thirds voting in the affirmative. House of Representatives. Dec. 10, 1844. — Mr. Adams presented a petition from the American Statis- tical Society, in relation to certain errors in the last or sixth census. Mr. Adams said a petition on this subject at the last session was referred to a select committee, and he hoped this petition would take the same direction. He moved the appointment of a select committee of nine members, and that the memorial be printed. The speaker announced that a majority had decided in favor of a select committee. The motion to print was laid on the table. House of Representatives. Dec. 13, 1844. — The following is the Select Committee appointed, on the motion of Mr. Adams, to consider the petition from the American Statistical Society in relation to the errors in the sixth census: Messrs. Adams, Rhett, Rayner, Stiles, Maclay, Brengle, Foster, Sheppard, Cary, and Caleb B. Smith. This was the end of the affair in Congress. The false returns stand to this day in the statistical tables of the census, to convince all cavillers of the unfitness of the negro for freedom. That the reader may know what kind of evidence Mr. Ad- ams had with which to sustain his allegations, we append, as a specimen, an extract from tha American Almanac for 1845, p. 150. The "American Statistical Association," estab- lished in Boston, Mass., sent a memorial to Congress during the past winter, drawn up by Messrs. William Brigham, Edward Jarvis,- and J. W. Thornton, in which, though they " confined their investigations to the reports respecting education and nosology," they exposed an extraordinary mass of errors in the cen- sus. We can find room only for a few extracts from this memorial. "The most glaring and remarkable errors are found in the statements respecting nosology, the prevalence of insanity, blindness, deafness and dumbness, among the people of this nation. " The undersigned have compared these statements with information obtained from other more reliable APPENDIX. 259 sources, and have found them widely varying from the truth ; and, more than all, they have compared the statements in one part of the census with those in another part, and have found most extraordinary discrepances. They hava also examined the original manuscript copy of the census, deposited by the mar- shal of the District of Massachusetts in the clerk's office in Boston, and have compared this with the printed edition of both Blair and Rives, and Thomas Allen, and found here, too, a variance of statements. " Your memorialists are aware that some of these errors in respect to Massachusetts, and perhaps also in respect to other states, were committed by the marshals. Mr. William H. Williams, deputy mar- shal, states that there were one hundred and thirty- three colored pauper lunatics in the family of Samuel B. Woodward, in the town of Worcester ; but on another page he states that there are no colored per- sons in said Woodward's family. " Mr. Benali Blood, deputy marshal, states, on one page, that there were fourteen colored pauper lunatics and two colored lunatics, who were supported at pri- vate charge, in the family of Charles E. Parker, in the town of Pepperell ; while on another page he states that there are no colored persons in the family of said Parker. Mr. William M. Packson states, on one page, that there are in the family of Jacob Cushman, in the town of Plympton, four pauper colored lunatics, and one colored blind person ; while on another page he states that there are no colored persons in the family of said Cushman. " But, on comparing the manuscript copy of the census at Boston with the printed edition of Blair and Rives, the undersigned are convinced that a large portion of the errors were made by the printers, and that hardly any of the errors of the original doc- ument are left out. The original document finds the colored insane in twenty-nine towns, while the printed edition of Blair and Rives places them in thirty-five towns, and each makes them more than ten-fold greater than the state returns in regard to the paupers. And one edition has given twenty, and the other twenty- seven, self-supporting lunatics, in towns in which, according to private inquiry, none are to be found. According to the original and manuscript copy of the census, there were iu Massachusetts ten deaf and dumb and eight blind colored persons ; whereas the printed editions of the same document multiply them into seventeen of the former and twenty-two of the latter class of unfortunates. " The printed copy of the census declares that there were in the towns of Hingham and Scituate nineteen colored persons who were deaf and dumb, blind, or insane. On the other hand, the undersigned are in- formed, by the overseers of the poor and the assessors, who have cognizance of every pauper and tax-payer in the town, that in the last twelve years no such diseased persons have lived in the town of Scituate ; and they have equally certain proof that none such have lived in Hingham. Moreover, the deputy mar- shals neither found nor made record of such per- sons. "The undersigned have carefully compared the number of colored insane and idiots, and of the deaf and dumb and blind, with the whole number of the colored population, as stated in the printed edition of the census, in every city, town, and county of the United States ; and have found the extraordinary con- tradictions and improbabilities that are shown in the following tables. " The errors of the census are as certain, if not as manifest, in regard to the insanity among the whites, as among the colored people. Wherever your memo- rialists have been able to compare the census with the results of the investigations of the state governments, of individuals, or societies, they have found that the national enumeration has fallen far short of the more probable amount. "According to the census, there were in Massa- chusetts six hundred and twenty-seven lunatics and idiots supported at public charge ; according to the returns of the overseers of the poor, there were eight hundred and twenty-seven of this class of paupers. " The superintendents of the poor of the State of New York report one thousand and fifty -eight pauper lunatics within that state ; the census reports only seven hundred and thirty-nine. "The government of New Jersey reports seven hundred and one in that state ; the census discovers only four hundred and forty-two. "The Medical Society of Connecticut discovered twice as many lunatics as the census within that state. A similar discrepancy was found in Eastern Pennsylvania, and also in some counties in Virginia. " Your memorialists deem it needless to go further into detail in this matter. Suffice it to say, that these are but specimens of the errors that are to be found in the 'sixth census' in regard to nosology and educa- tion, and they suspect also in regard to other matters therein reported. " In view of these facts, the undersigned, in behalf of said Association, conceive that such documents ought not to have the sanction of Congress, nor ought they to be regarded as containing true statements relative to the condition of the people and the re- sources of the United States. They believe it would have been far better to have had no census at all than such an one as has been published ; and they respectfully request your honorable body to take such order thereon, and to adopt such measures for the correction of the same, — or, if the same cannot be corrected, for discarding and disowning the same, — as the good of the country shall require, and as justice and humanity shall demand. " We have room for the tables for only three of the states." [We will caution the reader not to skip this statistical table, as he probably never saw one like it before.] MAINE. m „. Total col'd Col'd T^"" 1 *- Inhab't.. Insane. Limerick, Lymington, Scarboro', Poland, Dixfield, Calais, Coventry, Haverhill, Holdernes3, Atkinson, Bath, Lisbon, Compton, Freetown, Plympton, Leominster, Wilmington, Sterling, Dan vers, Hingham, Industry, Dresden, Hope, Hartland, Newfield, NEW" HAMPSHIRE. Stratham, Northampton, New Hampton, Lyman, Littleton, Henniker, MASSACHUSETTS. Georgetown, Carver, Northbridge, Ashby, Randolph, Worcester, 1 1 1 1 1 151* 2 1 1 1 1 133 * 36 of these under 10 years of age. Every fable, allegory and romance, must have its moral. The moral of this ought to be deeply considered by the American people. In order to gain capital for the extension of slave territory, the most important statistical document of the United States has been boldly, grossly, and per- severingly falsified , and stands falsified to this day. Query : If state documents are falsified in sup- port of slavery, what confidence can be placed in any representations that are made upon the sub- ject? INDEX. PART I. CHAPTER L — Introduction p. 5 CHAPTER II. — Haley 5 Author's experience. — Trader's letter. — Kep- hart's examination. — Invoice of human beings. — Various classes of traders. CHAPTER III. —Mr. and Mrs. Shelby 8 Account of a well-regulated plantation. — Extract from Ingraham. CHAPTER IV.— George Harris 13 Advertisements. — Lewis Clark. — Mrs. Banton. — Story of Lewis' sister. — Mr. Nelson's story. — Frederick Douglas. — Josiah Henson's account of the sale of his mother and her children. — Re- cent incident in Boston. — Advertisements for dead or alive. CHAPTER V. — Eliza 21 Author's experience. — History of a 6lave-girl and her escape. CHAPTER VI.— Uncle Tom 23 Similar case. — Old Virginia family servant. — Bishop Meade's remarks. — Judge Upshur's ser- vant. — Instance in Brunswick, Me. — History of Josiah Henson. — Uncle Tom's vision. — Similar facts. — Story of a Boston lady. — Instance of the Southern lady on a plantation. — Story of an African woman. — Account of old Jacob. CHAPTER VII. —Miss Ophelia 30 Prejudice of color — Instance in a benevolent lady. — Dr. Pennington. — Influence of this upon slave- holders. — True Christian socialism. — Amos Lawrence. CHAPTER VIII. — Marie St. Clare 33 The Northern Marie St. Clare. — The Southern Marie St. Clare. — Degrading punishment of fe- males. — Dr. Howe's account. CHAPTER IX. — St. Clare 35 Alfred and Augustine St. Clare representatives of two classes of men. — Letter of Patrick Henry. — Southern men reproving Northern men. — Mr. Mitchell, of Tennessee. — John Randolph of Roan- oke. — Instance of a sceptic made by the Bibli- cal defence of slavery. — Baltimore Sun on Biblical defence of slavery. — Specimen of pro- slavery preaching. CHAPTER X. — Legree 39 No test of character required in a master. — Mr. Dickey's account in "Slavery as It Is." — "Work- ing up slaves." — Extracts from Mr. Weld's book. — Agricultural society's testimony. — James G. Birney's do. — Henry Clay's do. — Samuel Blackwell's. — Dr. Demming's. — Dr. Channing's. — Rev. Mr. Barrows'. — Rev. C. C. Jones'. — Causes of severe labor on sugar plan- tations. — Professor Ingraham's testimony. — Periodical pressure of labor in the cotton season. — Letter of a cotton-driver, published in the Fairfield Herald. — Testimony as to slave-dwell- ings. — Mr. Stephen E. Maltby. — Mr. George Avery. — William Ladd, Esq. — Rev. Joseph ML Sadd, Esq. — Mr. George W. Westgate. — Rev. C. C. Jones. — Extract from recent letter from a friend travelling in the South. — Extracts with relation to the food of the slaves. — Professor Ingraham's anecdotes. CHAPTER XI. — Select Incidents of Lawful Trade 47 Separation of an aged mother from her son authen- ticated. — Selling of the woman to the trader authenticated. — Parting the infant from the mother verified. — Suicide of slaves from grief authenticated. — Parting of "John aged 30" from his wife authenticated. — Case of old Prue in New Orleans authenticated. — Story of the mulatto woman authenticated. CHAPTER Xn. — Topsy 50 Effect of the principle of caste upon children. — Letter from Dr. Pennington. — Instance of the Southern lady. — Story of the devoted slave. CHAPTER XIII.— The Quakers 54 Trial of Garret and Hunn. — Imprisonment of Richard Dillingham. — Poetry of Whittier. CHAPTER XIV. — Spirit of St. Clare 5ft Containing various testimony from Southern papers and men in favor of Uncle Tom's Cabin. PART II. CHAPTER I p. 67 Accusations of the New York Courier and Enquir- er. — Extract from a letter from a gentleman in Richmond, Va., containing various criticisms on slave-law. — Writer's examination and gene- ral conclusion. CHAPTER II. — What is Slavery? 70 Definitions from civil code of Louisiana. — From laws of South Carolina. — Decision of Judge Ruflin. — Involve absolute despotism. — Do not admit of humane decisions. — Designed only for the security of the master, with no regard for the welfare of the slave. — Judge Ruffin. — No re- dress for personal injury that does not produce loss of service. — Case of Cornfute v. Dale. — Decision with regard to patrols. — Decisions of North and South Carolina with respect to the as- sault and battery of slaves. — Decision in Loui- siana, by which, if a person injures a slave, ho may, by paying a certain price, become his owncr , — Decision in Louisiana, Berard v. Be- rard, establishing the principle that by no mode of suit, direct or indirect, can a slave ob- tain redress for ill-treatment. — Case of Jennings v. Fundeburg. — Action for killing negroes. — Also Richardson t'. Dukes for the same. — Recog- nition of the fact that many pcrson9, by withhold INDEX. 261 ing from slaves proper food and raiment, cause them to commit crimes for which they are exe- cuted. — Is the negro a person in any sense ? — Judge Clark's argument to prove that he is a hu- man being. — Decision that a woman may be given to one person, and her unborn children to another. — Disproportioned punishment of the slave com- pared with the master. — Case of State v. Mann, showing that the owner or hirer of a slave cannot be punished for inflicting cruel, unwarrantable and disproportioned punishments. — Judge Ruf- fin's speech. CHAPTER III. — Souther v. Tue Commonwealth, THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF LEGAL HUMANITY. . . .79 Writer's attention called to this case by Courier and Enquirer. — Case presented. — Writer's remarks. — Principles established in this case. CHAPTER IV. —Protective Statutes 83 Apprentices protected. — Outlawry. — Melodrama of Prue in the swamp. — Harry the carpenter, a romance of real life. CHAPTER V. — Protective Acts of South Caro- lina and Louisiana. — The Iron Collar of Lou- isiana and North Carolina 87 CHAPTER VI. — Protective Acts with regard to Food and Raiment, Labor, etc 90 Illustrative drama of Tom v. Legree, under the law of South Carolina. — Separation of parent and child. CHAPTER VII. — The Execution of Justice. . . 92 State v. Eliza Rowand. — The "iEgis of protection" to the slave's life. CHAPTER VIII. —The Good Old Times 99 CHAPTER IX. — Moderate Correction and Acci- dental Death. — State v. Castleman. . . .100 CHAPTER X. — Principles established. — State v. Legree; a Case not in the Books 103 CHAPTER XI. — The Triumph of Justice over Law 104 CHAPTER XII. — A Comparison of the Roman Law of Slavery with the American 107 CHAPTER XIII. — The Men better than their Laws 110 CHAPTER XIV. — The Hebrew Slave-law com- pared with the American Slave-law. . . . 115 CHAPTER XV. — Slavery is Despotism. ... 120 PART III. CHAPTER I. — Does Public Opinion protect the Slave? p. 124 CHAPTER n. — Public Opinion formed by Educa- tion 129 Early training. — " The spirit of the press." CHAPTER III. —Separation of Families. . . .133 The facts in the case. — Humane dealers. — The exigences of trade. CHAPTER IV. — The Slave-trade 143 What sustains slavery? — The facts again, and the comments of Southern men. — The poetry of the slave-trade. CHAPTER V. — Select Incidents of Lawful Trade; or, Facts stranger than Fiction 151 What " domestic sensibilities" Violet and George had. — Testimony of a sea-captain, and of a fu- gitive slave. CHAPTER VI. — The Edmondson Fa mily. . . . 155 Old Milly and her household. — Liberty and equality. — The schooner Pearl. — An American slave-ship. — Capture of fugitives. — Indignation. — Captives imprisoned. — Voyage to New Orleans and return. — Affecting incidents. — Final re- demption. CHAPTER VH. — Emily Russell 168 Price of her redemption. — Not raised. — Sent to the South. — Redeemed by death. — Daniel Bell and family. — Poor Tom Ducket. — Fac simile of his letter. CHAPTER Vni.— Kidnapping 173 Causes which lead to kidnapping free negroes and whites. — Solomon Northrop kidnapped. — Car- ried to Red river. — Parallel to Uncle Tom. — Rachel Parker and sister. CHAPTER IX. — Slaves as they are, on Testi- mony of Owners 175 Color and complexion. — Scars. — Intelligence. — Sale of those claiming to be free. — Illustrated by advertisements. — Inferences. CHAPTER X. — Poor White Trash 184 Slavery degrades the poor whites. — Causes and process. — Materials for mobs. — Fierce for slav- ery. — Influence of slavery on education. — Emi- gration from slave states. — N. B. Watson adver- tised for a hunt. — John Cornutt lynched. — No defence in law. — Justice prostrate. — Rev. E. Matthews lynched. — Case of Jesse McBride. PART IV. CHAPTER I. — Influence of the American Church on Slavery p. 193 Power of the clergy. — The church, what ? — Influ- ence. — Points self-evident. — Course of ecclesi- astical bodies. — Sanction of American slavery, as it is, by Southern bodies. — Summary of re- sults. CHAPTER IL — American Church and Slavery. 205 Trials for heresy. — Course as to slavery heresies. — Course of the Methodist Church. — Course of the Presbyterian Church, before the division. — Course of the Old School body. — Course of the New School body. — Results. — Congregationalists. — Albany convention. — Home Missionary Society. — The protesting power. — Practical workings of the general system. — Pleas for inaction. — Appeal to the church. CHAPTER III. — Martyrdom 223 Power of Leviathan. — He cares more for deeds than words. — E. P. Lovejoy at St. Louis. — At Alton. — Convention. — Speech. — Mob. — Death. CHAPTER TV. — Servitude in the Primitive Church compared with American Slavery. 228 Fundamental principles of the kingdom of Christ 262 INDEX. — Relations to slavery. — Apostolic directions. — Case of Onesimus. CHAPTER V. — Teachings and Condition of thr Apostles. . / 234 Apostles and primitive Christians not law-makers. — Preaching of modern law-makers. CHAPTER VI. — Apostolic Teaching on Emanci- pation 235 CHAPTER VII. — Abolition of Slavery by Chris- tianity 237 State of society. — Course of councils. — Influence of bishops for freedom. — Redemption of cap- tives. — Contrast. CHAPTER Vin. — Justice and Equity versus Slavery 241 Regulation of slavery impossible. — Contrast of iu principles and provisions with justice and equity. CHAPTER IX. — Is the System of Religion which is taught the Slave the Gospel ? 244 Points to be conceded. — What is taught? — Prin- ciples and discussion. — Necessary results of the system. — Specimens of teaching and criticisms. CHAPTER X.— What is to be done? . . . . 250 Work of the church in America. — Feelings of Christians in all other countries. — Eradication of caste, and repeal of sinful laws against free colored people. — Various duties and measures as to slavery. — Closing appeal. ERRATUM. 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