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SLAVERY 
 DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE ^^ 
 
 IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 IN A SERIES OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EXECUTIVE 
 COMMITTEE OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN UNION 
 
 • X V ■ ■ 
 
 FOR THE. 
 ' « * 
 
 RELIEF AND IxMPROVEMENT OF THE COLORED RACE. 
 
 BY PROF. E. A. ANDREWS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 LIGHT &. STEARNS, 1 CORNHILL. 
 
 1836. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, 
 by Light & Stearns, in the Clerk's Office of the 
 District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 PRESS OF LIGHT AND STEARNS. 
 Samuel Harris, Printer. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN UNION. 
 
 The American Union for the Relief and Im- 
 provement of the Colored Race, was formed in 
 Boston, in January, 1835. An exposition of 
 the principles and plans of the Union was soon 
 after published by the Executive Committee. 
 One of the principal objects of the Society, as 
 stated in that paper, is to collect and publish 
 information of an authentic character respect- 
 ing Slavery. It is conceived that there is yet 
 no inconsiderable dearth of well-prepared and 
 trust- worthy facts respecting this great national 
 evil. It is obvious that it cannot be peacefully 
 removed, except as it is seen in its true light. 
 
 It is in prosecution of this great branch of 
 their labors, that the Committee •present the 
 
IV 
 
 following Report concerning Slavery and the 
 domestic slave-trade as it exists in Maryland, 
 Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Coming, 
 as it does, from a gentleman who is well 
 acquainted with the whole subject of Slavery, 
 from an actual residence of a number of years 
 in a slave-holding state, it will be read with 
 much interest and profit. It gives, in the 
 opinion of the Committee, an accurate accoimt 
 of Slavery, and of the public sentiment respect- 
 ing it in the district of country visited. As 
 such, it is respectfully commended to the atten- 
 tion of all the friends of the African race. 
 
 Boston, Jan. 1, 1836. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 The time for the solution of the great problem 
 respecting the ultimate destination of the colored 
 people of this country, has probably not yet arrived ; 
 and though thousands of patriotic individuals, dis- 
 tinguished alike for wisdom and benevolence, are 
 now engaged in devising plans in relation to this 
 subject, it is probable that many years must elapse 
 before our countrymen will all unite in any mea- 
 sure for the final settlement of this most important 
 question. In the mean time, it is obviously of great 
 importance that no practicable means for their bene- 
 fit and improvement should be neglected. Upon this 
 subject, the author of these Letters, in common with 
 other members of the " American Union," believes 
 that there is no well founded objection to a general 
 union of all who sincerely wish to promote the 
 best interests of the African race. Correct informa- 
 X* 
 
VI 
 
 tion respecting their present condition, was consid- 
 ered by the members of the American Union as an 
 indispensable preliminary to any relief which could 
 be afforded them ; and it was with special reference 
 to obtaining such information, that the author of 
 these Letters w^as'led to visit the northern slave-hold- 
 ing states. The result of these inquiries was given 
 in the following series of Letters, which are now 
 published by order of the Committee to whom they 
 were directed, and in the form in which they were 
 originally written. If their publication shall tend in 
 any degree to turn the minds of our countrymen from 
 angry contention respecting SlaveTy, to a serious 
 consideration of the duties which they owe to the 
 African race collectively and individually, the wishes 
 of the author will be fully realized. 
 
 Boston, Jan. 1, 1836. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I.— New Haven.— Purpose of the author in 
 undertaking tlie journey — Public sentiment in Con- 
 necticut respecting Slavery and the Colonization 
 Society — Cause of the increased activity of the friends 
 of colonization — Canterbury school, and the college 
 for free blacks — Connecticut not opposed to the im- 
 provement of the colored race, 9 
 
 LETTER IL — New York. — An unceremonious intro- 
 duction to a fellow traveller — His sentiments in regard 
 to compulsory emancipation — Mob-law^ in Georgia — 
 Interview with the President of the Anti-Slavery 
 Society — His distinguished character for benevo- 
 lence, , . . 15 
 
 LETTER in.— New York.— Condition of the free 
 blacks in the Northern States — Their prospects — 
 Their gradual change of employments — Comparison 
 of their condition, &c., with that of Irish laborers — 
 Sabbath Schools — Tendency of the education of the 
 free blacks to foster bad passions, 21 
 
 LETTER IV. — JoDRNEY to Philadelphia. — Inter- 
 view with an old friend — Sentinjents of fellow trav- 
 ellers from the south — Young Men's Colonization 
 
VIU 
 
 Society of Pennsylvania— Hostility between the white 
 and colored laborers in Philadelphia— Inconvenience 
 to which the Middle States are subject in consequence 
 of fugitive slaves, 27 
 
 LETTER v.— Journey to Baltimore.— Condition of 
 southern slaves employed as house servants— Condi- 
 tion of the free blacks in Maiyland— Causes of their 
 depressed condition— Then- aversion to colonizing in 
 Africa— Then- attachment to the Methodist church- 
 General sentiments of the people of this state in 
 regard to immediate emancipation— Mortality among 
 the free blacks— Their condition not a valid argument 
 for pei-petuating slavery, 33 
 
 LETTER VI.— Baltimore.— Gradual diminution of 
 the number of slaves in Maryland— Rapid increase of 
 the free blacks— Free blacks reside principally in the 
 cities— Extracts from the records of the Board of 
 Health— Comparative mortality of the different classes 
 of inhabitants, ^j 
 
 LETTER VII.— Baltimore.— Interview with a clergy- 
 man—His views of colonization, &c.— Religious in- 
 struction of the people of color-Indirect domestic 
 slave-trade— Anecdote of a slave-trader and a pur- 
 chaser of slaves— Laws relating to the free blacks in 
 Maryland and New York, 47 
 
 LETTER VIII.— Baltimore.— Public sentiment in 
 
 -Maryland respecting slavery— A negro confined for 
 
 stealing his wife— Colored church and school under 
 
 the care of Mr. Livingston— State of education among 
 
 the free blacks m Baltimore, 53 
 
IX 
 
 LETTER IX. — Baltimore. — Maiyland Colonization 
 Society — Prospects of tJieir colony at Cape Palmas — 
 3Ianiimissions in Maryland — Visit to the peniten- 
 tiary — Instruction given gratuitously to the convicts 
 by the Methodists — Proportion of white and colored 
 convicts — Crimes for which they were committed, 59 
 
 LETTER X. — Baltimore. — Causes of crime among 
 the people of color — Remedy for it — Blacks said to be 
 reluctant to aid each other — Difficulties of a conscien- 
 tious slave-holder illustrated by an example, .... 65 
 
 LETTER XI. — Baltimore. — Conversation with the 
 clergyman mentioned in the last letter — Information 
 communicated by him respecting the religiaus instruc- 
 tion of the people of color — Possibihty of the white 
 and colojed races living together as freemen — British 
 emancipation considered as an example for Americans 
 — Irish laborers taking the place of colored ones — 
 Probability that if the blacks are freed, the Irish and 
 other white laborers will supplant them, 71 
 
 LETTER XII. — Baltimore. — Interview with a slave- 
 dealer — With a member of the Society of Friends — 
 Difficulties in the way of adopting a system of eman- 
 cipation in IMaryland— Slave-trade in Baltimore — Mr. 
 W. a wealthy dealer in slaves — Character of his 
 brother who is engaged in the same trade, 11 
 
 LETTER XIII. — Baltimore. — Readiness of the peo- 
 ple of Maryland to manumit their slaves — Discourage- 
 ments to this spirit — Mr. P.'s advertisements for slaves 
 — Visit to a Sabbath School in Sharp Street — To the 
 African Church in the same street, 83 
 
LETTER XIV. Baltimore. Responses of the 
 
 Methodist Church— Adaptation of the Methodist dis- 
 cipline to the character and condition of the negroes 
 — Visit to a Sabbath School in the old town— Journey 
 to Washington— Completion of the railroad— Author 
 meets with an old friend— His interest in the people 
 of color, 92 
 
 LETTER XV. — Washington.— Difficulty of ascer- 
 taining the real feelings of the slaves illustrated— 
 Causes of this difficult}^- Frequent apprehensions of 
 insurrections— Trying situation of the'*slaves in such 
 cases— Patrols— Their abuse of power, 97 
 
 LETTER. XVL — Washington. — Anecdotes exhibiting 
 the sufferings occasioned by the domestic slave-trade 
 —Liberty valued by the negro— Sam's opinion. of the 
 value of liberty— Under what circumstances liberty is 
 not desired, 203 
 
 LETTER XVII. — Washington. — Distress occasioned 
 in the District of Cokunbia by the slave-trade— Anec- 
 dotes illustrative— Probability that slavery must soon 
 terminate — Excitement against abolitionists, . . . Ill 
 
 LETTER XVIII. — Washington. — Interview with a 
 clergyman— Rapid emigj-ation from Virginia — Wil- 
 lingness of the slaves to remove— Deplorable situation 
 of the free blacks in Washington — Colored membei-s 
 of the Methodist churches— Kidnapping— Testimony 
 of Judge Cranch to the good character of the blacks 
 belonging to the Methodist churches— Slave-trade of 
 the District— Right of Congi-ess to interfere with the 
 slavery of the District, 117 
 
XI 
 
 LETTER XIX. — Washington.— Visit to the peniten- 
 tiary of the District — Proportion of colored convicts 
 
 Story of old Anna and her children, 127 
 
 LETTER XX. — Alexandria. — Visit to Franklin and 
 
 Armfield's slave-prison— Description of the interior 
 
 Appearance of the slaves— Manner of conducting the 
 trade, I35 
 
 LETTER XXL — Steamboat on the Potomac. A 
 
 slave-trader with his slaves— Escape of a nunjber of 
 slaves to Bermuda— N.'s account of the manner of 
 conducting the slave-trade and of its profits— Treat- 
 ment of slaves on their way to market— Infamy of 
 the slave-dealer, 245 
 
 LETTER XXII.— Fredericksburg. — Southern ex- 
 citement on the subject of slavery— Causes of this 
 excitement— Injury to the slaves from northern inter- 
 ference—Unfair treatment of abolitionists— Danger 
 arising from misrepresenting their views, 155 
 
 LETTER XXIII. — Fredericksburg. — The death of a 
 slave— Character of the free blacks in this city— A 
 collection for the Colonization Society— Objections 
 made to northern discussions— A slave-prison in this 
 city— Effect of slavery on the character of female 
 slaves, 2g2 
 
 LETTER XXIV. — Fredericksburg. — Increasino- wil- 
 hngness of slaves to remove to the south— Separation 
 of husbands and wives by the slave-trade— Anecdotes 
 
 illustrating the miseries occasioned by this trade 
 
 Change in the treatment of slaves in Virginia Pro- 
 posed change in the compensation made to slaves, 167 
 
LETTER XXV.— RicHMO.vr.— A planter from Louisi- 
 ana — His purchase of a large lor of slaves — His stare- 
 menrs respecting slavery in the sourh-west — Interview 
 wirh Mr. P. — Objections made by him to northern 
 interference, 1 < 1 
 
 LETTER XX^^. — Steamboat ox thx Chesapeake, 
 — Sentiments of a Virginian respecting the dissolution 
 of the Union — Enbrts in Virginia for the removal of 
 slaverv not suspended by the movements of the aboli- 
 tionists — Baliioiore — Frequent attempts at kidnapping 
 — Anecdotes respecting it 175 
 
 LETTER XX^Tf.— Baltimore- — Success of Metho- 
 dist and Baptist preachers among the colored popula- 
 tion — Peculiar qualifications nece^ary in such preach- 
 ers — A religious overseer — Abstract of the number of 
 colored communicants in the 3Iethodist chru^:hes in 
 the United States — Increasing attention to the rehgioua 
 instruction of the people of color, If 7 
 
 LETTER XXVIIL— Baltimore.— Possibihty of put- 
 ting an end to the domestic ^lave-trade — -Duty of pre- 
 serving imbroken the family relations — Under ivbat 
 circumstances the slave-trade is not an evil — Philadel- 
 phia — Comparative respectability of a slave-trader and 
 a wealthy slave-owner — Slaves employed in the gold 
 mines — Increased severity in the treatment of slaves 
 ascribed to the abolirionists^Reasons tor doubts upon 
 this subject — Prevailing tendency to attempt coercion — 
 Certainty that such attempts cannot finally succeed — 
 Principles confirmed by the authors inquiries. . . 193 
 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 New Haven, Jllt 10, 1835. 
 
 To the Executive Committep of the American Union for the Relief end 
 Improvement of the Colored Race : 
 
 As the journey which I have now commenced 
 was undertaken at your request, and for the pro- 
 motion of the benevolent purposes of the American 
 Union, I know not how I can better dischar^^e 
 the duties which your kindness has imposed upon 
 me, than by record in c]^, in a series of letters directed 
 to you, the impressions which I mav receive, 
 and the information which I may obtain, from day 
 to day, respecting the situation and prospects of 
 the colored people of this country. Their future 
 condition is dependent, in so great a degree, upon 
 the progress of public sentiment, that it must of 
 course be a prominent object to ascertain the pres- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 ent state of public feeling upon this subject, and to 
 inquire how far recent discussions, respecting this 
 people, may have affected their present prospects. 
 
 In passing through Connecticut, I have omitted 
 no opportunity, which an extensive and intimate 
 acquaintance with its citizens has afforded me, of 
 ascertaining their sentiments in relation to this sub- 
 ject. Like the people of the other New England 
 States, they have become deeply interested in the 
 present discussions respecting southern slavery, but, 
 so far as I can perceive, no considerable impression 
 has been made upon them in favor of the doctrine 
 of immediate emancipation. Tiie opposition to 
 this doctrine, on the other hand, appears to be 
 more strenuous and decided here than in Massa- 
 chusetts. This fact may be attributed to the more 
 iiuimate connection between the people of Connec- 
 ticut, and those of the Middle and Southern States. 
 
 The Colonization Society has always numbered 
 among its friends the principal men of this state. 
 From its commencement, they have favored its 
 design of planting christian colonies upon the 
 sliores of Africa, for the purpose of conveying to 
 them the blessings of civilization and religion, and 
 of affording an asylum for such of the free people 
 of color, as should be induced, by a love of indepen- 
 dence, to seek for a permanent residence in the 
 land of their fathers. But though friendly to these 
 
designs of the society, they have, in general, mani- 
 fested no remarkable zeal in its favor. It has 
 ranked, in their view, with the other benevolent 
 societies of the day, which they have been called 
 upon to sustain by their contributions f and they 
 have assisted in supporting it, rather from a sense of 
 duty, than from a deep feeling of personal interest 
 in its objects. From the first, there were some 
 who believed that its purposes were chimerical, and 
 especially that its influence could never materially 
 effect the condition of the great body of the colored 
 people in this country. When, at length, an 
 organized opposition arose, and the objects and 
 tendencies of the society were openly called in 
 question, many who had afforded to it their aid, 
 rather in compliance with fashion and general custom 
 than from a settled conviction of duty, withdrew 
 from its support. Some of these are now found in 
 the ranks of its opponents, but a greater part, 
 though by no means indifferent to -the welfare of 
 the slaves, or rather because they are not indiffer- 
 ent to it, have taken no part in the contest between 
 the two societies. Its remaining friends are now 
 more ardent than at any former period, but, in gen- 
 eral, they do not claim that colonization affords the 
 only means of benefiting the colored race. With 
 scarcely an exception, I have found them disposed 
 to unite in any feasible plan for improving their 
 
12 
 
 moral and intellectual condition, without refer- 
 ence to their final destination, whether as colo* 
 nists abroad, or as residents in this, their native 
 country. 
 
 That there is at present a reaction in Connecti- 
 cut in favor of the Colonization Society, is evident, 
 and the causes are perhaps equally so. A promi- 
 nent cause undoubtedly is, the alarm which is 
 generally felt in regard to the measures of the 
 Anti-Slavery Society. This has led those who 
 wished to stay the progress of principles, which 
 they deem to be of dangerous tendency to the 
 future peace and prosperity of our country, to unite 
 in favor of that society, against which the princi- 
 pal efforts of the abolitionists have been directed. 
 Had the latter never assailed this society, it is 
 doubtful, whether the apathy, which had for some 
 time prevailed respecting colonization, would, for 
 many years, have been shaken oft^; but now, those 
 who fear the consequences of anti-slavery doc- 
 trines, generally yield a ready support to those 
 of colonization. 
 
 The excitement, which so long prevailed in this 
 state, respecting the Canterbury school, has now 
 subsided, but no change of sentiment respecting it 
 seems to have occurred. The time has not yet 
 come for writing the history of that school, or of 
 the attempt to found at New Haven a college for 
 
13 
 
 colored youth ; nor, when it shall arrive, is it 
 probable that very enduring laurels will be gained 
 by those who acted a prominent part, either in 
 efforts for establishing those institutions, or for pre- 
 venting their establishment. For the honor of the 
 State, I am happy to believe, that it cannot be 
 fairly inferred from these transactions, nor even 
 from the acts of its legislature upon this subject, 
 that there ha's ever been a general disposition, 
 on the part of its citizens, to prevent the intellec- 
 tual and moral improvement of that unfortunate 
 race. This I think will be evident, whenever 
 these transactions shall be exhibited in their true 
 light ; but there is perhaps reason to fear, that the 
 measures which the state was induced to adopt, for 
 the purpose of opposing what she viewed as a 
 dangerous and pernicious fanaticism, were not 
 wholly free from danger to the cause of civil free- 
 dom and of human rights. The acts of her legis- 
 lature, of her courts, and of the citizens of Canter- 
 bury, it is easy to hold up to ridicule or reproach ; 
 but it is not easy to represent, in their true light, the 
 measures to which those legislative acts, and the 
 decisions of her courts were opposed. 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 New York, July 11, 1835. 
 
 Foreigners often complain of the unceremo- 
 nious manner, in which certain classes of Ameri- 
 cans take the liberty of introducing themselves to 
 strangers, and of entering into conversation with 
 them. From the frequency of the complaint, it is 
 probably not wholly without foundation ; and it is 
 easy to conceive, that our peculiar institutions, 
 operating upon men uninstructed in the etiquette of 
 more polished society, may lead them occasionally 
 to adopt a style of address offensive to persons of 
 fastidious taste, who are accustomed to more cere- 
 mony in their social intercourse. 
 
 I was forcibly reminded of this alleged charac- 
 teristic of my countrymen, as 1 was passing yester- 
 day through Long Island Sound, on my way from 
 New Haven to this city. After enjoying, for some 
 time, the beauty of that fine expanse of water, its 
 deep bays encircled with woods, and the pleasant 
 farm houses, and neat country seats, which adorn 
 its shores, and after exhausting the usual topics of 
 conversation^ with the few persons on board the 
 
16 
 
 boat, with whom I happened to be acquainted, I 
 had retired to a shady corner, and was deeply en- 
 gaged in reading. A short time only had passed 
 in this employment, when I was interrupted by a 
 middle aged stranger, who came behind me, and 
 without even the formality of, " with your leave, 
 sir," began to examine the book which I was read- 
 ing, and soon inquired wdiat -it was. A single 
 glance was enough to satisfy any American to 
 what class of society the stranger belonged, and 
 that no offence was intended. His object was 
 simply to draw me into conversation, and this was 
 the somewhat awkward expedient which he had 
 chosen for accomplishing it. I replied accordingly, 
 that it was a new work on African slavery. It 
 soon appeared that this was a subject in which my 
 new acquaintance took a deep interest, and he 
 proceeded indirectly to inquire where I lived. 
 "Maybe," said he, " you are a southerner." — I 
 replied, that I lived in Boston. He then told me, 
 
 that he belonged to S , in Connecticut, that 
 
 he was a Baptist, and knew some of the Baptist 
 clergymen in Boston very well — having heard thenn 
 
 preach in S . He then remarked, that he 
 
 thought '• it was quite time that something was 
 done about the slaves at the south, — that accord- 
 ing to all accounts, they were very badly used, and 
 if their masters would not set them at liberty, they 
 
17 
 
 ouo:ht to be made to do It." I endeavored, but 
 probably to no purpose, to convince him, that the 
 people of the north had no right forcibly to inter- 
 fere with the slavery of the south, however much 
 we might deplore its existence. It appeared that 
 he had heard the discussions of a lecturer of the 
 Anti-Slavery Society, and this was the inference 
 which he, in common with many others of the 
 same class of our northern citizens, had derived 
 from them ; — that it was the duty of the friends 
 of humanity to compel the slave-holders imme- 
 diately to liberate their slaves. 
 
 This was probably a false inference from the posi- 
 tions of the lecturer, as the sentiment is distinctly and 
 earnestly disavowed by the anti-slavery leaders. 
 Still it is an inference very often made, and evinces 
 the necessity of enlightening the understanding more 
 upon this subject, and of addressing the passions less. 
 
 Several other passengers at length took a part 
 in the conversation, among whom was one, who 
 had formerly resided for many years in Georgia, 
 and to whom that state was said to be under no 
 small obligation for the able services rendered by 
 him, as civil engineer, in promoting her schemes 
 of internal improvement, but who was, at length, 
 driven from the state by a mob, formed within 
 sight of her capltol, and deprived of nearly all his 
 property, the laborious earnings of many years of 
 
18 
 
 enterprising Industry. The excitement, of which 
 he was the innocent victim, had arisen from a sedi- 
 tious publication, sent from the north by some 
 unknown individual, for the purpose, as it was said, 
 of exciting the slaves to insurrection. An enemy 
 had intimated that this gentleman was concerned 
 in disseminating the obnoxious publication ; and 
 the mob, without inquiring into his guilt, would 
 have proceeded at once to imbrue their hands in 
 his blood, had he not escaped from them. 
 
 This morning I called upon a distinguished 
 member of the Anti-slavery Society, for the pur- 
 pose of engaging his co-operation in measures, for 
 ascertaining the actual condition of the free colored 
 people of the north, especially of those inhabiting 
 the principal cities. This measure was intended 
 as a foundation for efforts to relieve their wants, 
 whether physical or nioral ; and by ascertaining 
 their actual condition, to prepare the way for its 
 improvement. 
 
 The proposal did not meet with his entire ap- 
 probation. He thought we were already suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with their situation ; that it was 
 not mere information on this subject which was 
 principally needed, but the removal of a cruel 
 prejudice against them. To disclose their poverty, 
 and the meanness of their employments, he thought, 
 would but bring them into greater contempt ; and 
 
19 
 
 that such a census would be attended with great 
 difficulty, on account of their unsettled and migra- 
 tory habits. If, however, there should appear to 
 be any adequate advantage arising from such a 
 measure, he had no doubt that it would be cheer- 
 fully undertaken in New York, and the requisite 
 funds obtained. 
 
 His whole conversation left upon my mind an 
 impression of the deepest interest, on his part, in 
 this unfortunate class of our fellow citizens, and a 
 readiness to aid in any proper measure, which, in 
 his view, was likely to relieve them. Indeed a 
 long acquaintance with his principles and views, 
 not only authorizes, but requires me to declare? 
 that in genuine benevolence of heart, and in all the 
 varied acts of beneficence by which kindness can 
 manifest itself to the poor, the ignorant, and the 
 unfortunate, there is no man, in the whole length 
 and breadth of the land, that can claim pre-emi- 
 nence over the individual of whom I have now the 
 honor and the pleasure to speak, and who needs, 
 to an intelligent and pious community, no other 
 designation than this, that among American chris- 
 tians he has long been distinguished as first in 
 every good work. To those who have been so 
 forward in reproaching him for the part he has 
 taken in relation to African slavery, I may be 
 allowed to say, while holding opinions upon this 
 
20 
 
 important subject essentially different from his, that 
 for the relief of human suffering, and the enlighten- 
 ing of human ignorance, the entire contributions 
 made by some wealthy states, where his name is 
 the theme of daily reproach, would scarcely equal 
 the numerous, unostentatious, but noble benefac- 
 tions of Arthur Tappan. 
 
 i' 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 New York, July 13, 1835. 
 
 There is little in the present condition of the 
 colored people of the northern states of a nature to 
 encourage the friends of abolition, either immediate 
 or gradual. Here slavery has ceased to exist, but 
 the expected influence of liberty, in elevating the 
 character, and improving the condition of the col- 
 ored race, has been hitherto very imperfectly real- 
 ized. Their social and political relations continue 
 unaltered, nor is there the slightest evidence that, 
 in these respects, the progress of public sentiment 
 is becoming more favorable to their elevation. On 
 the contrary, the (ew attempts which have been 
 made by theoretic philanthropists, to press their 
 claims to social equality, have uniformly resulted 
 in an indignant rejection of those claims. 
 
 An opinion that they are inferior to the whites 
 in mental endowments is, no doubt, extensively 
 prevalent ; but this opinion is not the foundation of 
 the aversion to which I have alluded, which is 
 directed exclusively to their persons, and is not 
 materially affected by their talents, or even by their 
 
22 
 
 virtues. In regard to social equality, therefore, 
 their case appears at present to be altogether hope- 
 less ; but there is, perhaps, no insuperable diffi- 
 culty in their elevation to higher, more lucrative, 
 and more honorable employments ; and it still re- 
 mains to be determined, whether, when the ave- 
 nues to wealth shall be in a greater degree opened 
 to them, a change will not gradually follow in their 
 political and even in their social relations. In re- 
 gard to their employments, a change has already 
 occurred in New York, and in the more eastern 
 cities of the Union. It is said to be but a few 
 years since the hod-carriers and other laborers of 
 the same class in New York, were principally 
 negroes ; now they are almost exclusively Irish 
 Catholics. The latter, it is generally believed, are 
 capable of performing far more labor than the 
 former ; and they are also much more industrious 
 in their habits. Mr. M. of this city, who has 
 studied attentively the character of these two 
 classes of laborers, says that an Irish Catholic sel- 
 dom attempts to rise to a higher condition than 
 that in which he is placed, while the negro often 
 makes the attempt with success. In his opinion, 
 the negroes in New York evince a greater capacity 
 for improvement than the Irish Catholics, and 
 have so managed as to keep possession of those 
 employments which require less labor and fatigue, 
 
23 
 
 while they have left the more laborious ones for 
 their rivals in business. Mr. J., who has devoted 
 more attention to the improvement of the colored 
 people than almost any man in this country, has 
 remarked, that in visiting the houses of tlie ne- 
 groes and of the Irish laborers, he has usually 
 found the domestic comforts of the latter, and their 
 style of living, far inferior to what he had witnessed 
 m the abodes of the former. 
 
 The negroes in New York have also the charac- 
 ter of being far more trusty, and more kind and 
 affectionate in their dispositions than the Irish. 
 Parents do not, in general, fear that black nurses 
 will be wanting in kindness to the children en- 
 trusted to their care, but equal confidence would 
 seldom be placed in Irish nurses, whose kindness 
 and fidelity had not been proved. This compari- 
 son is made, not for the purpose of depressing the 
 character of Irish laborers, but of elevating that of 
 the negroes, by showing the confidence placed in 
 them as an entire class, and independently of per- 
 sonal acquaintance with them. 
 
 Yesterday being Sunday, I went out in search 
 of an African Sabbath school, but having neglected 
 to make precise inquiries in regard to their loca- 
 tion, I did not succeed in finding one. At length 
 I met a black boy in a clean Sunday suit, with a 
 book in his pocket, who told me that he was going 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 Philadelphia, July 14, 1835. 
 
 On board the steamboat in which I left New- 
 York, I found Mr. L)., a native of New England, 
 who had long resided in the south, but who, w'ithin 
 a few years past, has removed to New York. Our 
 conversation, as we crossed the bay and ascended 
 the Raritan, naturally turned to the days when we 
 had both resided in the Southern States, and had 
 there formed attachments, whicl) led us still to take 
 a deep interest in everything affecting their inter- 
 ests. I found my old friend was no abolitionist, in t!)e 
 present restricted sense of the term ; still he cher- 
 ished all his former kindness of feeling towards the 
 slaves, and the same ardent uishes that some ration- 
 al plan could be devised to restore liberty to them, 
 and security and prosperity to those who have inher- 
 ited so sad a birthright as the possession of slaves. 
 He is not altogether a cordial friend of the Coloni- 
 zation Society, for he fears that its tendency is, to 
 prevent the adoption of really efficient measures 
 for the removal of slavery. Still he does not wish 
 
28 
 
 the labors of the society to cease, but rather to be 
 employed, with augmented resources, in improving 
 the condition of Africa, and of tliose colored per- 
 sons who may desire to go to the land of their 
 fathers. 
 
 From South Amboy to Bordentown, several of 
 my fellow travellers upon the railroad were from 
 the south. They spoke of slaves, and of the Anti- 
 Slavery Society, in such a manner as fully to evince 
 their attachment to perpetual slavery. They won- 
 dered that the north would suffer anti-slavery doc- 
 trines to be publicly taught, and discussions respect- 
 ing the propriety of slavery to be continued ; and 
 above all, that foreigners were permitted to take a 
 part in these discussions. They declared that it 
 was time to put an end to such seditious proceed- 
 ings, and that a meetino; of southerners was soon to 
 be held in New York to take the subject into con- 
 sideration. When I spoke to them of the danger 
 which attended an interference with the subject, 
 lest, while we attempt to prevent discussions and 
 publications tending to produce insurrection, we 
 should subvert the great principles of the liberty of 
 speech and of the press, it was obvious that their 
 ideas respecting these privileges were essen- 
 tially different from those entertained in New Eng- 
 land. The measures to which they alluded for 
 the suppression of anti-slavery principles had, in 
 
29 
 
 general, no reference to legal proceedings, but to 
 personal intimidation and violence. 
 
 The friends upon whom I have called, as well 
 in this city as in New York, have evinced great 
 eagerness to know what measures the American 
 Union are proposing to adopt respecting slavery. 
 Such is the excitement which agitates almost every 
 mind, that the intellectual and moral improvement 
 of the African race, and the diffusion of correct 
 principles respecting the religious, political, and 
 social evils of slavery, are processes far too tardy 
 to satisfy the general demand for immediate action. 
 
 The Young Men's Colonization Society of Penn- 
 sylvania are zealously engaged in giving stability to 
 their promising colony at Bassa Cove. Among 
 the friends of this society, Mr. Elliot Cresson de- 
 serves to be especially mentioned for his untiring 
 zeal in the cause of African Colonization. To 
 him, and to other friends of the colored race in 
 Philadelphia, I am under many obligations for their 
 personal kindness and polite attentions, and for the 
 facilities which I have enjoyed through their means, 
 for obtaining the most valuable information in re- 
 gard to the condition of the free colored people of 
 the Middle States. The friends of colonization in 
 this city favor the objects of the American Union ; 
 but some of them are desirous that our efforts to 
 instruct and elevate the colored race should be 
 
30 
 
 confined, in a great degree, to the colonies in Africa. 
 The separation of the white and black races they 
 consider as an essential part of every plan for per- 
 manent benefit to the latter, and accordingly 
 they suppose it best, in our efforts to improve their 
 condition, that we should commence with this prin- 
 ciple. This advice is unquestionably the result of a 
 sincere conviction, on their part, that such a course 
 is most expedient : but I need not say how much 
 it is at variance with the views of those who formed 
 the Union, and by whom it is supported. 
 
 In my walks in this city, I have observed, 
 among the laborers, a larger proportion of ne- 
 groes than in ^ew York, and a proportionably 
 smaller number of Irishmen. There appears to 
 exist, in the lower class of white laborers in this 
 city, a very bitter hostility to the colored people, 
 the cause of which 1 do not fully understand. Its 
 natural effect in producing a return of hatred, is 
 very apparent ; and unless something is done to 
 raise the tone of moral feeling in both classes, it is 
 evident that great evils may result from their mu- 
 tual animosities. 
 
 This hostility to the negroes, on the part of the 
 lower class of whites, is not, however, peculiar to 
 Philadelphia. It is occasionally manifested, in an 
 alarming degree, by the populace in several of the 
 eastern cities, and even in the Southern States. 
 
31 
 
 The negroes also, though they feel great respect 
 for the wealthier and more intelligent whites, do 
 not hesitate to express their contempt for such of 
 them as are poor and ignorant ; and thus the 
 elements of hostility are perpetually in operation, 
 and are ready, whenever an occasion offers, to 
 burst forth into a flame. 
 
 Pennsylvania, as a frontier territory between the 
 slave-holding and non-slave-holding states, is be- 
 coming the receptacle of manumitted and fugitive 
 slaves, and is exposed to all the inconveniences in- 
 cident to such a population — and these are neither 
 few nor small. Should the present system of par- 
 tial manumission and expulsion continue to pre- 
 vail at the south, it is impossible to foresee the full 
 amount of evils which must result from their re- 
 moval to the Middle States. In Maryland, and the 
 states farther south, they are forbidden to reside 
 after manumission ; and hence a great part of those 
 who are liberated, or who escape from servitude, 
 flee to the Middle States, especially to Pennsylvania 
 and New York. Here they meet the tide of Irish 
 immigration, and a contest commences for obtain- 
 ing the means of subsistence. Such, however, is 
 the superior industry of the Irish laborer, that he is 
 gradually supplanting his rival, wherever severe 
 and patient toil is requisite ; and the free negro is 
 often driven, by the joint operation of sloth and of 
 
32 
 
 real inability to acquire employment, to resort to 
 dishonest means of support. It is impossible that 
 this state of things should long continue ; and if 
 the free states had no other interest in the subject 
 of slavery, and no right on other accounts to raise 
 their voice upon the subject, the evil of which I 
 now speak, would be sufficient to justify them in 
 expressing their fervent wish for the final termina- 
 tion of a system, which occasions a constant influx 
 of a class of citizens who threaten destruction to 
 all their valuable institutions. 
 
LETTER y. 
 
 Baltimore, July 16, 1835. 
 
 My journey from Philadelphia to this city was 
 rendered pleasant, not only by the rich variety of 
 beautiful scenery, through which we pass, and 
 which one can never cease to admire, but also by 
 the company with which I travelled. Among 
 others into whose society I was accidentally thrown, 
 were two families from the extreme south, who 
 were returning slowly homeward from their sum- 
 mer's tour to the Northern States, and stopping so 
 -long in the principal cities through which they 
 passed, and at the various watering places which 
 they visited, as to reach Louisiana after the first 
 frosts of autumn should have rendered their return 
 safe. The gentlemen might have been twenty- 
 five or thirty years old ; the ladies were a few 
 years younger. The latter had each the charge 
 of an interesting child two or three years old, the 
 special care of which was committed to two colored 
 nurses, who were their only attendants. It was 
 not easy to determine which of the group were hap- 
 
34 
 
 piest, the sedate, intelligent, and dignified fathers, 
 the accomplished mothers, the playful children, or 
 their young, well fed, and well dressed nurses. 
 V The situation in which domestic slaves are often 
 placed, in prosperous, moral and intelligent fi\mi- 
 lies, is one of far more unmingled happiness than 
 is usually imagined by those who have never wit- 
 nessed it. The mistake into which many fall, upon 
 this subject, arises principally from their failing 
 to estimate properly the amount of happiness occa- 
 sioned by the mutual affection between the white 
 and the colored members of the same family. 
 This attachment is of course a more available 
 source of happiness in virtuous families, than in 
 those of an opposite character; but, like parental 
 and filial affection, it is rarely entirely wanting, 
 even in the most hardened and profligate. This 
 relation is in reality more like that of parent and 
 child, than like any other with which it can be 
 compared, and is altogether stronger than that 
 which binds together the northern employer and 
 his hired domestic. The slave looks to his master 
 and mistress for direction in everything, and insen- 
 sibly acquires for them a respect mingled with 
 affection, of which those never dream who think of 
 slavery only as a system of whips and fetters — of 
 unfeeling tyranny, on the one part, and of fear 
 mingled with hatred, on the other. The latter is 
 
35 
 
 the usual picture of slavery which is presented to 
 the people of the north, and it is no wonder that 
 southern masters, who know how wide from truth 
 this representation is, are not particularly ready to 
 listen to the counsel of those, whom they perceive 
 to be so ill-informed upon the subject. Wanton 
 cruelty may be too often practised by masters, as 
 it is by many parents ; but this, wliich is but an 
 occasional incident of slavery, shou.ld not be ex- 
 hibited as the prominent evil. This may be 
 removed by the influence of humane feelings, and 
 especially by christian principle; but countless evils 
 will still remain, inherent and inseparable from the 
 system. V 
 
 Mr. A., an intelligent and influential member of 
 the Methodist church, to wliom I brought letters 
 from a friend in Boston, states as his deliberate 
 opinion, thai the condition of the free blacks in 
 Maryland is much worse than that of liie slaves. 
 As one proof of this, he alleges, that the propor- 
 tion of deaths amono; them is much greater than 
 in any other class of society. Their opportwiities 
 for intellectual improvement he supposes may be, 
 in general, greater than those of the slaves ; but 
 they either have few n)otives to improve then), or 
 are little influenced by such motives. Hence they 
 are addicted to sloth, with all its attendant evils. 
 Their imperfect moral discipline, and indolent 
 
36 
 
 habits, lead them also to the commission of petty 
 thefts, in consequence of which great numbers of 
 them are sent to the penitentiary. 
 
 These facts cannot probably be questioned, but 
 in explanation of them it ought not to be forgotten, 
 that a very prominent cause of the degradation of 
 the free blacks, is not tlieir own freedom, but the 
 slavery of others. The owners of slaves of course 
 look with jealousy and suspicion upon the free, 
 and may often pursue towards them such a course 
 as is calculated to depress and discourage them. 
 They are interested in making it appear that free- 
 dom is no blessing, and they have, to some extent, 
 t'the power to prevent its becoming so. If slavery 
 were universally abolished, at that moment the 
 free black would become valuable. He would 
 take his place in the field with his comrades, as 
 one of a company of hired laborers. He would be 
 encouraged to industry, and laws would be enacted 
 to promote his welfare and happiness. With such 
 a change in his circumstances, who does not per- 
 ceive that a corresponding change in his character 
 is likely to occur? 
 
 There is a general aversion, on the part of the 
 colored people of this state, both bond and free, to 
 the plan of colonization in Africa. This dislike 
 Mr. A. attributes principally to the publications of 
 
37 
 
 the Anti-Slavery Society, which are extensively 
 circulated here among the free blacks. He even 
 regrets that the Methodist church has given its 
 sanction to the plan of the Colonization Society, 
 since it prejudices the colored people against its 
 members and teachers. The Methodist church, 
 in this state, includes a great number of colored 
 members^ among whom are many slaves. The 
 doctrine, lately maintained in New England, that 
 the gospel cannot reach the heart of a slave, finds 
 little to countenance it in the actual condition of 
 the southern churches. 
 
 There are no free schools for colored children 
 in this city, but several private schools are 
 kept by free blacks. Opportunities are afford- 
 ed them for attending Sabbath schools, but 
 they are in general negligent of this privilege. 
 The Methodist churches devoted to the people of 
 color, are well filled. A part only of their preach- 
 ers are white ; but soma of the most popular 
 preachers of that church have been, at various 
 times, stationed here as preachers to the African 
 churches. 
 
 There is but one opinion here among all classes 
 respecting immediate emancipation. All agree 
 that it would be extremely dangerous, on account 
 of the indolent and improvident character of the 
 
38 
 
 negroes. It is thought that they need much pre- 
 vious preparation for freedom, and that any measure 
 for complete emancipation, in order to be safe to 
 others, or useful to the slaves, should be gradual 
 in its operation. To the inquiry, " how shall they 
 be prepared," it is replied, " by training them to 
 virtuous and industrious habits, and giving them 
 useful and profitable employment." It is said also 
 that there is much more kindness exercised to- 
 wards the colored people here than in the Northern 
 States. The negroes are represented as in general 
 a peaceable and quiet people, and as not peculiarly 
 prone to excitement, when not provoked by ill 
 treatment, or influenced by alcohol. Like other 
 persons in their situation, they are addicted to in- 
 temperance ; and although attempts have been 
 made to introduce temperance societies among them, 
 very little success has attended the efforts. 
 
 For the purpose of ascertaining the comparative 
 mortality of the whites, the free people of color, 
 and the slaves, I have obtained from the Board of 
 Health, copies of their reports for several years 
 past. From these it appears that since the sum- 
 mer of 18*23, an accurate account has been kept 
 of the number of deaths in each of these classes. 
 Inquiries were made, not only at the office of the 
 Board of Health, but from many well-informed 
 
39 
 
 citizens, respecting the confidence to be placed 
 in these reports, and no reason could be found for 
 distrusting their accuracy. Some of the results of 
 these reports will be given in a subsequent letter, 
 from which it will appear that the annual mortality 
 among the free blacks is considerably greater than 
 in either of the other classes. 
 
 It must not be thought, however, that the unfor- 
 tunate condition of the free blacks affords a valid 
 argument for perpetuating slavery. It proves, 
 indeed, that something besides nominal freedom is 
 requisite to insure their happiness ; but this is 
 equally true of all men. Idle, dissolute, and 
 intemperate white men, not less than those of 
 African origin, pass their lives unhappily, and die 
 prematurely. To every race, virtuous principles 
 are alike necessary ; and it is of equal importance 
 to all, to be placed in circumstances favorable to 
 the cultivation of their higher powers. It is plain 
 that the free black > in this country do not, at pres- 
 ent, enjoy a fair opportunity for the cultivation of 
 their talents, nor can they properly be expected to 
 become, in the highest degree, useful, as members 
 of t!ie comruun'tes to which they belong, until 
 greatly changed by the influence of moral and 
 reliirious instruction. 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 Baltimore, July 16, 1835. 
 
 From 1790 to 1810 the number of slaves in 
 Maryland had slowly increased ; but from that pe- 
 riod until the present time it has gradually dimin- 
 ished. In 1790 the whole number was 103,036, 
 in 1810, 111,502, and in 1830, 10:2,994. This 
 diminution has been occasioned, partly by manu- 
 mission, and partly by removals to other states, 
 through the operation of the domestic slave trade. 
 The free coloreji population, on the contrary, has 
 rapidly increased during the whole period from 
 1790 to the present time. In 1790 their number 
 was but 8,043 ; in 1830 it had increased to 52,938. 
 The augmentation has been owing to the joint 
 operation of manumissions and natural increase. 
 In 1830, the slaves in this state were only about 
 twice as numerous as the free people of color, but 
 in 1790 they were nearly in the proportion of 13 
 to 1. It is obvious, therefore, that should there 
 be no change of policy in the state, slavery will ter- 
 minate at no very distant period, by the operation 
 of causes now in progress ; and it is equally plain, 
 4 
 
42 
 
 that when that period arrives, the number of free 
 blacks in the state will be such, that the public 
 welfare will depend greatly upon the character 
 which they shall have assumed. If virtuous and 
 intelligent, they will add much to the prosperity 
 and strength of the state, but should they possess 
 a different character, they will materially impair 
 its strength, and impede its progress in improve- 
 ment. 
 
 The proportion between the colored and white 
 population of this state is nearly the same now as 
 in 1790, viz. 10 colored to 19 white persons. A 
 little more than one third of the whole population 
 therefore is colored, and, under the operation of 
 existing causes, will continue nearly the same. 
 
 There is one fact in relation to the two classes 
 of colored persons in this state which merits par- 
 ticular attention. More than one fourth of the 
 whole number of free blacks is found in Baltimore 
 alone, while of the w^iole number of slaves in the 
 state less than one twenty-fifth part reside in this 
 city. In this state, slave labor, employed in agri- 
 culture, has long since ceased, with few exceptions, 
 to be profitable ; and to this cause most of the 
 manumissions of the slaves, as well as their emigra- 
 tion to other states, are to be attributed. The em- 
 ployment of free blacks in agricultural labor has 
 not been found to yield a greater profit than that 
 
43 
 
 of slaves, and the residence of the fornner in the 
 neighborhood of plantations where slaves are em- 
 ployed, is disliked by the planter. Hence the 
 emancipated negroes generally leave the country, 
 and cono;reo;ate in the cities and laro;er towns, in 
 such numbers that it is not easy for them, even if 
 so disposed, to find profitable employment. If the 
 labor of colored men could be made profitable in 
 the cities, a greater number of slaves would be em- 
 ployed there, since they are of so little value in 
 the country ; and the fact that few are thus era- 
 ployed proves that their labor in the cities cannot 
 be made profitable to their owners. 
 
 That the moral and physical condition of the 
 free negroes in Baltimore is worse than that of the 
 slaves, is a fact to which all intelligent men with 
 whom I have conversed most fully bear testimony. 
 The satisfaction which arises from the conscious- 
 ness of freedom, or of having escaped from the 
 control of a master, they of course enjoy ; but, 
 independently of this, the condition of most of 
 them is represented as more depressed than it was 
 while they were slaves. They are not compelled 
 to labor, it is true ; but, on the other hand, they do 
 not enjoy the advantages which would spring from 
 labor, in the preservation of their health and morals, 
 and in providing wholesome food and necessary 
 clothing. Allusion was made in my last letter to 
 
44 
 
 the great mortality of the free colored people of 
 Baltimore, when compared with that of the slaves. 
 During each of the eleven years which have passed 
 since a record of the comparative numbers of deaths 
 among the slaves and the free colored people has 
 been kept, it appears that the mortality has been 
 considerably greater among the latter than the for- 
 mer. The following table is extracted from the 
 records of the Board of Health, and exhibits the 
 numbers of each of the three classes who have died 
 in Baltimore during the several years specified, from 
 1824 to 1834 inclusive. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Free Col'd. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1824 
 
 368 
 
 48 
 
 1052 
 
 1468 
 
 1825 
 
 332 
 
 57 
 
 1156 
 
 1545 
 
 1826 
 
 429 
 
 97 
 
 1396 
 
 1922 
 
 1827 
 
 357 
 
 60 
 
 1081 
 
 1498 
 
 1828 
 
 340 
 
 100 
 
 1262 
 
 1702 
 
 1829 
 
 429 
 
 100 
 
 1320 
 
 1849 
 
 1830 
 
 478 
 
 89 
 
 1519 
 
 2086 
 
 1831 
 
 514 
 
 118 
 
 1676 
 
 2308 
 
 1832 
 
 998 
 
 164 
 
 2410 
 
 3572 
 
 1833 
 
 534 
 
 98 
 
 1773 
 
 2405 
 
 1834 596 115 2036 2747 
 
 In 1832 and 1834 the city was visited by the 
 cholera. 
 
 In 1820 and 1830 the city contained as follows : 
 
 Year. 
 
 Free ColM. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1820 
 
 10,294 
 
 4,357 
 
 48,087 
 
 62,738 
 
 1830 
 
 • 14,783 
 
 4,124 
 
 62,083 
 
 80,990 
 
45 
 
 From these data it appears that the proportion 
 of deaths annually among the slaves is nearly as 
 i to 44 of the whole number ; among the whites, 
 1 to 38, and among the free colored people, 1 to 
 29. The chances for life therefore among the 
 slaves in Baltimore appear to be considerably 
 greater than even among the whites, and far 
 greater than that of the free blacks ; the deaths 
 among the slaves being only about two thirds as 
 great as among the free people of color. 
 
 This remarkable longevity of the slaves is an 
 interesting fact, in its relation to the salutary effect 
 of temperance and regular exercise upon human 
 life, and illustrates, in a remarkable manner, the 
 advantages which would spring from the general 
 adoption of correct habits in these respects. Many 
 causes tending to shorten the lives of slaves, might 
 be avoided by freemen ; and hence the lives of the 
 latter might be prolonged in even a greater degree 
 than those of the former. 
 
 It is much to be wished that we possessed the 
 means of extending this comparison to the entire 
 population of this and of the more Southern States. 
 It would throw much light upon the condition of 
 these three very distinct classes in southern soci- 
 ety, and, though it could never exhibit slavery as 
 a desirable state, it might serve to show what 
 were its essential evils, in distinction from such as 
 
46 
 
 are accidental. Its most important practical use 
 would probably be, to convince every philanthro- 
 pist that liberty is not the only boon which can be 
 bestowed upon the colored race, but that, along 
 with this, it is necessary that their moral and 
 intellectual habits should be greatly improved, 
 since otherwise liberty itself may prove no real 
 blessing. 
 
LETTER VII. 
 
 Baltimore, July 16, 1835. 
 
 This evening I called upon a Presbyterian 
 clergyman of this city, to whom I had letters, and 
 who, knowing my connection with the American 
 Union, turned the conversation to a discussion of 
 the principles and objects of that society. Of these 
 he highly approved, but expressed his doubts of 
 the utility of any association at the north for the 
 benefit of southern slaves. In his view, the only 
 way to approach this subject successfully is through 
 the medium of the Colonization Society. Of this, 
 he remarked, there is no great jealousy at the 
 south, but every northern plan of benevolence to 
 the slave would be rejected, if for no other reason, 
 yet for this, that it originated in the wrong quarter. 
 
 The very measures, however, which the Union 
 proposes, are those now pursued by this gentle- 
 man and his friends. They are organizing con- 
 gregations for public worship, and Sabbath schools 
 for the education of the children, and nothinsr is 
 wanting, but the systematic and sustained exertions 
 
4^ 
 
 which would spring from a more perfect organiza-* 
 tion, to give efficiency to their philanthropic labors. 
 
 In reply to my inquiries respecting the means of 
 religious instruction enjoyed by the colored people, 
 I was informed that there are three or four con- 
 gregations of colored Methodists in this city, in 
 regular connection with the Methodist church, and 
 one or two of Independent Methodists. There is 
 also one congregation of Episcopalians, and one of 
 Presbyterians, with both of which, as well as with 
 those previously mentioned, flourishing Sabbath 
 schools are connected. When we consider, how- 
 ever, that the number of blacks of both classes is, 
 at the present time, more than 20,000, it is ob- 
 vious that six or eight small congregations will com- 
 prise but an inconsiderable portion of the whole 
 number ; and we ought not to be surprised that, 
 with such means of moral and religious improve-? 
 ment, even freedom itself has hitherto failed to 
 elevate them in any considerable degree. 
 
 As the clergyman, of whom I have spoken, has 
 enjoyed the best opportunities for becoming ac-' 
 quainted with the character of the people of color, 
 I directed my inquiries particularly to this object. 
 He represents them as indolent, and of course ex- 
 posed to all the vices which spring from sloth, but 
 as in general peculiarly free from the controlling 
 influence of the malevolent passions. It is sel- 
 
4§ 
 
 dom that they are guilty of acts of violence and 
 outrage ; and in this respect they are very favora- 
 bly distinguished from the Irish laborers, who have 
 been employed upon the railroads, and other 
 similar works in this state. 
 
 In regard to the domestic slave* trade, he states 
 that no inconsiderable part of it is still carried on 
 in an indirect or circuitous manner. The produc- 
 tions of Kentucky, and of other Western States, 
 their horses, mules, cattle and swine, are driven 
 into the Atlantic states, where they are often ex- 
 changed for young negroes, which are taken to 
 the west, and there sold either to slave dealers 
 from the south, or. to the people of Kentucky and 
 the other Western States. In the latter case, the 
 Kentuckian probably sells to the southern trader 
 an older and more valuable slave, and pockets the 
 difference in their value. In this way, such slaves 
 especially as happen to be disliked by their mas- 
 ters, are sent out of the state, and their places sup- 
 plied by younger ones, who, when they have at- 
 tained to their full strength, will perhaps follow in 
 the same path. Family ties are often disregarded 
 in this traffic. The slave obtained by barter in 
 Virginia, is perhaps so young as to have formed no 
 matrimonial connection, but those carried to the 
 south are often separated from wives and children. 
 The south-western trader wants only those slaves 
 
50 
 
 who will be immediately serviceable upon the cot- 
 ton and sugar plantations. Young children, there- 
 fore, are for his purpose of no value. The object 
 of the planter is to get as much labor as possible 
 from his slaves ; and when they fail, he chooses to 
 supply their places by purchasing fresh hands from 
 the north. If deprived of this foreign supply, he 
 would perceive the necessity of paying more re- 
 gard to the lives of his slaves, and of making 
 greater efforts for raising their children. 
 
 The following incident, illustrative of this branch 
 of trade, was mentioned as having recently occur- 
 red in Louisiana. A slave trader had sold a lot 
 of slaves to a planter, and among the rest was a 
 young mother with her infant child. After the 
 bargain was completed for the whole number, the 
 planter offered to return the infant, as of no value 
 to him. This offer aroused the indignation of the 
 trader, who considered it a reflection upon his 
 humanity, and demanded, in great fury, whether 
 the planter considered hjm such a monster, that he 
 would be willing to tear the infant from its mother's 
 bosom ! The simple truth was, that the planter, 
 well knowing the usual mortality in that country 
 among young children, and that the full task of a 
 field hand was to be exacted from the mother, was 
 willing so far to listen to the combined voice of 
 
51 
 
 humanity and interest, as to leave the child in the 
 trader's hands, where its life might he preserved. 
 
 Such humanity is indeed worth little to the poor 
 slave, and it is almost a profanation of the term to 
 speak of it as influencing the parties in such a trans- 
 action. And yet, even such a traffic as this does 
 not of course render men-fond of cruelty for its own 
 sake. The love of money may have gained the 
 ascendency over every other principle ; but when 
 the claims of a master passion are satisfied, other 
 and better feelings may influence the conduct. 
 
 It is said that the free blacks in Maryland are 
 not by law excluded from any trade or employment 
 which may be practised by the whites, except 
 from the vending of spirituous liquors, and from the 
 command of vessels ; and both of these restraints 
 have a reference to the slaves, lest they should be 
 allured to intemperate habits, or should be secretly 
 conveyed to distant ports. In New York, on the 
 contrary, a colored man, it is said, cannot drive his 
 own hack or cart. 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 Baltimore, July 11, 1835. 
 
 In this city there appears to be no strong attach- 
 ment to slavery, and no wish to perpetuate it. If 
 the slaves were equally distributed, not one white 
 person in fifteen could be a slave holder ; and it is 
 probable that in fact not one in thirty owns a slave. 
 The majority, therefore, are not bound to the insti- 
 tution by any interest, either real or supposed, and 
 are in reality longing for its final extinction. Of 
 this, however, they would be far more desirous 
 were they not compelled, by their situation, daily 
 to observe the unfortunate condition of the free 
 blacks, and to be impressed by the belief that the 
 situation of the slaves is not in fact improved by 
 their emancipation. Could they see them in a 
 course of progressive elevation, after they have 
 gained their liberty, they would, in general, becom.e 
 eager for the entire abolition of the system of 
 slavery. The efforts of the friends of the race in 
 this state, should, as it seems to me, be principally 
 directed to this object, that when there shall be 
 added to the free white inhabitants of the state, a 
 
54 
 
 free black population amounting to more than one 
 third of the whole, it may be a population which 
 shall increase the happiness and resources of the 
 state, instead of hanging as a burden upon it, or 
 menacing the destruction of all that is valuable in 
 its institutions. No state can ever flourish while 
 more than one third of its inliabitants are sunk in 
 ignorance, without industry and without moral 
 principle. 
 
 After all that is said, however, respecting the 
 unfortunate situation of the free colored people in 
 this city, they appeared to me, in passing through 
 various parts of the old and new town, to be about 
 as well dressed as the poorer class of whites, and 
 better than some of the Irish, and especially the 
 Irish children, with whom I met. 
 
 An interestino; case of a negro now confined in 
 the penitentiary was mentioned to me this morn- 
 j^o' ^y ^ gentlemen who has long been the 
 teacher of a Bible class in that establishment. 
 The crime for which this negro is confined is that 
 of stealing his own wife, who is a slave. 
 
 By the laws of God, a man is not only per- 
 mitted, but required to leave, when it is necessary, 
 his father and his mother, to whom by the ties of 
 nature he is most tenderly attached, who have 
 watched over him in infancy, and have loved and 
 cherished him in childhood and youth — to leave 
 
55 
 
 even these, and his brethren and sisters, his earliest 
 and dearest companions, and to "cleave to his 
 wife." And yet here is a system of man's inven- 
 tion, which is at variance with this original purpose 
 of the Creator, to such a degree, that for the sake 
 of a stranger to their blood, the husband shall be 
 deprived of the society of his wife, and shall be 
 confined with malefactors for attempting to dissolve 
 a relation, which neither nature nor their own 
 consent had formed. But it is useless to inveigh 
 against particular acts of cruelty, arising from the 
 unnatural relation of master and slave. They are 
 often, in all their cruelty, but the necessary and 
 natural results of this relation, and may be essen- 
 tial to its continuance. As well might we com- 
 plain that ice is cold, or that fire is hot — they must 
 continue so, or cease to exist. 
 
 I have just returned from a visit to a colored 
 preacher of the name of Livingston. He belongs 
 to the Episcopal church, and was in Boston about 
 two years since, soliciting funds to enable his parish- 
 ioners to pay a debt which they had contracted in 
 building their church. He obtained, for this pur- 
 pose, five or six hundred dollars, but they still need 
 as much more to free them, from their embarrass- 
 ment. I cannot but hope that when this fact is 
 known to the wealthy members of that church, 
 with which this bumble branch is connected, they 
 
56 
 
 will at once relieve them from their debt, and thus 
 encourage them to persevere in their laudable 
 efforts for self-improvement. For this purpose, a 
 correspondence might be opened with the bishop 
 of this diocese, or with the reverend clergy of 
 that church residing in this city, from whom all 
 necessary information respecting this feeble church 
 could be obtained. 
 
 Mr. Living-ston has a school of colored children 
 of both sexes, whom he instructs in the elements 
 of education. For this purpose his church, during 
 the week, is converted into a school house, and 
 his pupils are instructed upon the Lancasterian 
 plan. His present number of pupils is about 
 eighty, and his terms for tuition are from $1'50 to 
 ^1*75 a quarter. 
 
 He informs me that there is another school in 
 the Old Town, containing forty or fifty pupils. 
 This is kept by John Fortie, a colored man 
 belono^ino; to the Methodist church, whose father is 
 regarded by the colored members of that church 
 as a venerable patriarch among their preachers. 
 William Watkins, another colored member of the 
 Methodist church, has a school of sixty or seventy 
 in Sharp street ; and besides these there are five or 
 six schools kept by females, including one which is 
 taught by the Sisters of Charity. Mr. Livingston 
 says that there is no free school for colored children 
 
57 
 
 in Baltimore, and that only a small proportion of 
 them ever learn to read. A considerable additional 
 number midit be tausjht in the schools which now 
 exist, and new schools might be opened for their 
 benefit, if a little exertion were made for this pur- 
 pose by the wealthy and benevolent. 
 
 The children in Mr. Livingston's school looked 
 well, were very decently clad, and appeared to be 
 intelligent. They are almost exclusively the chil- 
 dren of free parents. 
 
 In reply to my inquiries respecting the condition 
 and prospects of the colored people in the city, 
 Mr. L. says that they are decidedly improving. 
 The act of 1813, the operation of which was 
 much feared by them, has remained almost wholly 
 inooerative. He says that the whole colored popu- 
 lation, with scarce an exception, is opposed to 
 colonizing in Africa. They do not believe that 
 the plan was intended for their benefit, but for that 
 of the whites. He says they have letters circula- 
 ting among them, purporting to have been written 
 by some who have been sent out to Africa, and 
 speaking in disparaging terms of that country. 
 " No man," he observes, " will be viewed by the 
 colored people as their friend, who advocates the 
 cause of colonization." The abolitionists, on the 
 contrary, are in high favor with all of them. Mr. L. 
 says, that if their dislike to colonization is a preju- 
 5 
 
58 
 
 dice, it will be best removed by enlightening them, 
 so that they may better understand their own 
 interest. Should they be able to see those advan- 
 tages in emigration, which the friends of coloniza- 
 tion believe to exist, he is sure that emigrants will 
 not be wanting. 
 
LETTER IX. 
 
 Baltimore, July 17, 1835. 
 
 There is considerable diversity in the opinions 
 of gentlemen with whom I converse, respecting 
 the situation of the free people of color, but all 
 agree that it is one of very gn^at depression. In 
 general, they pronounce their condition to be worse 
 than that of the slaves in everything, except the 
 consciousness of freedom : but in this comparison, 
 they have especially in view the situation of do- 
 mestic servants, not of those upon the plantations, 
 with whose condition they are less familiar. 
 
 I have been much Interested to-day in an Interview 
 with several of the officers of the Maryland Colo- 
 nization Society. It was delightful to find, in the 
 midst of slavery, men who feel deeply for the con- 
 dition of the slave, and who delight in doino- crood 
 to him, not only in the way in which they are called 
 to act officially, but in all other modes which an 
 enlightened humanity may propose. The pros- 
 pects of this society, under the munificent patron- 
 age of the state, are of the most encouraging kind. 
 The location of the colony at Cape Palmas seems 
 
60 
 
 to have been particularly fortunate ; and notwith- 
 standing the general prejudice of the people of 
 color against the plan of colonization, this society 
 has no difficulty in obtaining, at all times, a suffi- 
 cient number of the niost desirable colonists. 
 
 They have adopted the principle, in its fullest 
 extent, of carrying to Africa no colonist who does 
 not go voluntarily. A resolution to this effect was 
 passed unanimously by the Board of Managers, on 
 the 2d of May, 1835. Its passage was occasioned 
 by an appncation to them to send to their colony 
 thirty-five manumitted slaves, two or three of whom 
 were unwilling to go, although their reluctance 
 prevented the emigration of the rest, who were 
 desirous of removing, but were unwilling, on ac- 
 count of family connections, to be separated from 
 them. 
 
 The Act of 1831-2, many of the provisions of 
 which have been thought to bear very hardly upon 
 the slave, appears, so far as its objectionable fea- 
 tures are concerned, to be nearly a dead letter. It 
 was passed at a period of excitement, and will 
 probably never be executed in its rigor, except 
 during some similar state of public feeling. The 
 provision, that a slave emancipated under this act, 
 and not consenting to freedom upon the prescribed 
 conditions, should return to slavery, has not been 
 enforced, so far as I could learn, in more than a 
 single case. 
 
61 
 
 The manumissions made since the passage of the 
 law of 1831-2, are required to be reported to the 
 Board of Managers of the State Colonization So- 
 ciety, and to be recorded in their office. The 
 number hitherto reported amounts to 1026 ; but 
 the returns are so incomplete, that the whole num- 
 ber of manumissions, in a little more than two 
 years, is supposed to he not less than 1500. These, 
 it should be remembered, have been voluntarily 
 emancipated, by the gradual progress of humane 
 sentiments ; and when the high price, which slaves 
 have for some time borne in the market, is con- 
 sidered, we may well be surprised, as well as de- 
 lighted, with the evidence of good feeling and 
 christian principle evinced by these acts. At the 
 present prices, they might have been sold for more 
 than half a million of dollars — a great sum to be 
 relinquished as a voluntary sacrifice to principle, in 
 so bad a world as this. A small part only of these 
 slaves have been liberated for the purpose of being 
 sent to the colony ; so that the Colonization So- 
 ciety seems not, in this instance, to have operated 
 injuriously upon general and unconditional manu- 
 mission. 
 
 By the law of this state before referred to, slaves 
 may be permitted, for peculiarly good conduct, to 
 remain in the state after manumission ; and, in 
 construing the law, it is held by the courts having 
 
62 
 
 cognizance of such cases, that the testimony of one 
 respectable witness, that he is well acquainted with 
 the party, and that he possesses a fair character for 
 honesty and temperance, is sufficient to secure to 
 him this privilege. In some of the more Southern 
 States, a similar privilege is occasionally conferred 
 by special legislative enactment ; and nothing but 
 some uncommon benefit, either of a public or 
 private nature, is sufficient to entitle the slave to 
 such a distinction. 
 
 This afternoon I have visited the penitentiary, 
 in company with Mr. A., a worthy member of the 
 Methodist church, to whom I have before alluded 
 as engaged in teaching a Bible class in this prison, 
 and to whom I am indebted for many attentions, 
 and especially for pointing out numerous sources 
 of valuable information. It appears that the 
 Methodist preachers stationed in Baltimore, have 
 long been accustomed to give religious instruction 
 to the inmates of this prison, not only without re- 
 ward, or expectation of reward, but without the 
 least recognition of their services on the part of the 
 government of the state. The same is true of the 
 instruction given in the Sabbath school by members 
 of the same church. It was pleasing to perceive, 
 by the smiles of recognition on the part of the 
 convicts wherever my friend appeared, that grati- 
 
63 
 
 tude, on their part at least, was not withheld for 
 such important and self-denying services. 
 
 The penitentiary is a state institution, and the 
 modern improvements in state prisons have not yet 
 been fully introduced into its management, on 
 account of the unsuitable nature of its buildings. 
 These are now undergoing a change, to adapt them 
 to a discipline like that practised at Auburn, and 
 -at other similar state prisons. 
 
 My inquiries at the penitentiary were greatly 
 facilitated by the politeness of the warden, Mr. 
 Jones, a member of the Methodist church, and a 
 gentleman of great benevolence, as well as energy 
 of character, and also by the clerk of the institution, 
 by whom I was furnished with copies of the re- 
 ports of the prison for the last four years. From 
 these reports it appears that the commitments for 
 this period have been, 
 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Males, 
 
 177 
 
 198 
 
 Females, 
 
 10 
 
 78 
 
 Total, 187 276 
 
 Of the whole number, therefore, committed in 
 four years, about three fifths have been colored, 
 and two fifths white. None of these are committed 
 for a shorter period than two years, although some 
 of them were convicted of thefts in which the value 
 
64 
 
 of the article stolen did not exceed fifty cents. 
 Slaves are not sent to the penitentiary ; and hence 
 it will be seen that the whole number of colored 
 convicts is furnished by the free blacks, amounting, 
 at the last census, to no more than 52,938, while 
 the white population was 291,108. 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 Baltimore, July 17, 1835. 
 
 From the statements in my last letter, you v:i\\ 
 perceive that, were the commitments to the peni- 
 tentiary proportioned equally among the whites 
 and free blacks, the latter w^ould be to the fomier 
 as 4 to 22, while in fact they are as 13 to 22. 
 
 It is said that the cases of recommitment amono; 
 the colored convicts are fewer than among the 
 whites ; and there is other evidence, also, that the 
 former are more frequently reformed by their pun- 
 ishment than the latter. Most of the prisoners in 
 the penitentiary are confined for theft ; and of the 
 88 female convicts, white and black, 82 are con- 
 fined for this crime. 
 
 The besetting sin of the free colored people, 
 as I have repeatedly remarked, is sloth ; and this, 
 in connection with their imperfect moral discipline, 
 leads to the commission of those crimes for which 
 they are so severely punished. It is said also that in 
 those counties where there is the greatest number of 
 slaves, the free blacks are regarded with peculiar 
 suspicion,' and are prosecuted for small crimes, for 
 
66 
 
 the purpose of sending them away from the neigh- 
 borhood of the plantations. Very few of them, 
 after being released from their confinement, ever 
 return to their old residence. The greater part 
 remain in Baltimore. 
 
 It is well known that among the whites at the 
 south, there is little dislike to the persons of the 
 blacks, in comparison with that which is felt at the 
 north. Hence they are constantly seen in the 
 same carriages with the white members of the 
 family ; and black nurses are often employed for 
 young children, Avho continue to sleep with and to 
 take <)are of them until they are five or six years 
 old. 
 
 A clergyman of the Methodist church, with 
 whom I conversed this morning respecting the 
 condition of the free people of color, represents it 
 as in general exceedingly deplorable, both in re- 
 gard to their moral state and their external cir- 
 cumstances. Their poverty and ignorance, he 
 supposes might be remedied, could they be in- 
 duced to practise industry, but they do not feel 
 sufficiently the motives to exertion to enable them 
 to rise above their present unfortunate situation. 
 It is probably too much to expect, that a people 
 sunk in ignorance, as are the African race in this 
 and in every other country, should be brought at 
 once to feel the motives to exertion, in that degree 
 
67 
 
 which their situation demands. Could they be 
 trained under a system of common school educa- 
 tion, and especially could they form separate com- 
 munities, where they would see none in a hopeless 
 degree superior to themselves, it might be satisfac- 
 torily known, whether they are capable of feeling, 
 in their full extent, the influence of those motives 
 which lead other communities to put forth great 
 and constant exertions to advance in improvement. 
 Such an experiment is now making, but under 
 great disadvantages, in Hayti, and the world is 
 looking with solicitude to its final result. 
 
 During my former residence at the south, as 
 well as upon my present journey, I have heard it 
 objected both to the slaves and the free blacks, 
 that they are backward to aid each other, when in 
 poverty or distress. It seems difficult to reconcile 
 this fact with their general kindness towards the 
 white members of those families wdth which they are 
 connected. Instances of this latter trait of char- 
 acter have so often fallen under my notice, that it 
 would not only be doing injustice to them, but 
 violence to my own feelings, not to acknowledge 
 their voluntary acts of kindness to a race from 
 which they have received many wrongs. 
 
 The following case is introduced for the pur- 
 pose of showing some of the difficulties by which 
 the conscientious master feels himself to be sur- 
 
68 
 
 rounded. A clergyman of this state, distinguished 
 for his piety and talents, and who had determined 
 never to be connected with slavery, found himself 
 suddenly, by the legacy of a relative residing at 
 a distance, the owner of twenty or thirty slaves. 
 He resolved not to continue to hold them in sla- 
 very, and as soon as his other duties would permit, 
 he made them a visit for the purpose of adopting 
 measures to free himself from so great a burden. 
 He assembled them too;ether, and told them that 
 he was unvvilling to hold them in slavery, or sell 
 them to another master : that the laws did not 
 permit him to liberate them with the intention of 
 having them continue in the state, and that even 
 were it in his pov\'er, he should be unwilling to do 
 it, with the certainty that their situation would be 
 In every respect worse than it then was. Equal 
 objections existed to sending them to the Northern 
 States, where they are not wanted, and where their 
 previous habits had disqualified them to struggle 
 with the untried difficulties which would surround 
 them. 
 
 He told them that one remedy remained — that 
 they might be liberated and remove to Africa : that 
 for this purpose he was willing not only to set 
 them at liberty, but to furnish them with all the 
 funds necessary for their removal and comfortable 
 settlement in the colony. He then explained to 
 
 V 
 
69 
 
 them the advantages which, hi his view, would 
 result from their emigration, but found them wholly 
 incredulous, and opposed to removal. Some of 
 them did not even beheve that there was such a 
 place as Cape Palmas, and if there were, they 
 could not believe that it would be for their benefit 
 to go to the colony. They even suspected, such 
 was tlieir extreme ignorance and distrust of the 
 wdiites, that the negroes who leave this country for 
 tlie colony, are carried to the south and sold as 
 slaves. 
 
 He asked them if they had not full confidence 
 in his word. They replied that they believed him 
 to be sincere, but that he might himself be de- 
 ceived, as he had never been at Cape Palmas ; 
 that if he could tell them from his own personal 
 knowledge, that it was best for them to go to 
 Africa, they should believe him. He then pro- 
 posed to them to select one of their number to go 
 out as their agent, and explore the colony, promis- 
 ing to defray the expense, and to permit them to be 
 governed by his report. To this proposal they did 
 not object, but no one of tliem Vv'as found willing 
 to eno;ao"e in such a mission. 
 
 The consequence is, that this clergyman is still, 
 what he most of all dislikes to be — a slave holder. 
 His duty may perhaps be plain to many of our 
 northem friends who have never crossed the Hud- 
 
70 
 
 son, but to those whose eyes are perhaps dazzled 
 by too near a view, it is encompassed with great 
 difficulties. And yet this is substantially the case 
 of thousands, who, contrary to their own wishes, 
 have, by the laws of the states in which they reside, 
 become the owners of slaves, 
 
LETTER XI. 
 
 Baltimore, July 17, 1835. 
 
 The facts stated at the close of my last letter 
 have been verified by a particular conversation with 
 the clergyman alluded to, who expressed his deep 
 concern at the embarrassing situation in which he 
 has been placed. He has never attempted in any 
 way to increase his property by their means, nor 
 will he consent to do so. He waits but for an op- 
 portunity to place them in a better situation, and 
 will then not only be willing, but will rejoice, to 
 liberate them. He remarks that a disposition to 
 emancipate their slaves is very prevalent among 
 the slave holders of this state, could they see any 
 way to do it consistently with the true interest of 
 the slave, but that it is their universal belief, that 
 no means of doing this is now presented, except 
 that of colonizing them in Africa. 
 
 He states also that there is not only a lament- 
 able want of religious instruction for the colored 
 people, but that much which they receive is of the 
 most imperfect kind, especially that which is given 
 
72 
 
 by colored preachers. The forms of the Metho- 
 dist church are in general most pleasing to the 
 negroes in this state, and to that church they are 
 most fond of attaching themselves. The black 
 preachers have the advantage of understanding the 
 feelings of their hearers, and of being understood by 
 them ; but they are so illiterate that their instruc- 
 tions are comparatively of little value. 
 
 Tiiere is but one sentiment among those with 
 whom I have conversed in this city, respecting the 
 possibility of the white and colored races living 
 peaceably together in freedom, nor during my 
 residence at the south, and my subsequent inter- 
 course with the southern people, did I ever meet 
 with one, who believed that it would be possible for 
 the two races to continue together after a general 
 emancipation. Such unanimity should not be 
 overlooked by theorists, if destitute of personal ac- 
 quaintance with the constitution of southern so- 
 ciety. The great experiment, which is now making 
 in the British West Indies, will eventually settle 
 this question ; but it must be remembered that this 
 experiment is but begun. It has been made too 
 by a legislature, whose constituents, as well as 
 themselves, will be but little affected by the result. 
 Should every white man be compelled to leave the 
 West India islands, the fair fields of England and 
 her venerable institutions would remain unaffected ; 
 
73 
 
 but when once the slaves of the south are liberated, 
 they form an integral part of the population of the 
 country, and must influence its destiny for ages, — 
 perhaps forever. 
 
 The Irish and other foreigners are, to a consider- 
 able extent, taking the place of colored labor- 
 ers, and of domestic servants, even in this city, 
 where there are probably at this time nearly 20,000 
 free colored persons, and 3,000 or 4,000 slaves. 
 The Irish are found in public as well as in private 
 houses, mingled with the blacks, and performing the 
 same offices ; and the great public works are exe- 
 cuted by them exclusively. It is obvious, that this 
 is not owing to the want of colored laborers in suf- 
 ficient numbers to perform all the .services which 
 may be required. It is to be attributed either to 
 the physical inability, or to the comparatively idle 
 habits of the free blacks, who, in general, will not 
 labor regularly ; and to supply their waste of time, 
 it becomes necessary to employ foreigners, who, as 
 a class, are far more industrious than the negroes. 
 On the whole, the Irish are fast encroaching upon 
 the territory of the blacks, and threaten ultimately 
 to supplant them wherever slavery may cease. 
 In this view, the question of the ultimate issue of 
 slavery in this country is assuming, in connection 
 with Irish immigration, a new and most interesting 
 form. It is still uncertain how far the clim.ate of 
 6 
 
74 
 
 the south will permit the Irish laborers to proceed 
 in their encroachments ; but there is not a little 
 evidence that they will be able to penetrate far 
 into the present dominions of slavery. 
 
 A gentleman from South Carolina, who had no 
 theory upon this subject to support, but whose 
 remark was made casually in the course of conver- 
 sation, recently stated to me his conviction, that 
 free colored laborers would never be employed in 
 any considerable numbers in that state, because 
 the Irish and other foreigners were found as labor- 
 ers to be so much more profitable. It is then at 
 least possible, that we see in this influx of foreign- 
 ers, the means by which slavery is to be progres- 
 sively driven south, and gradually confined to com- 
 paratively narrow limits. The negroes increase 
 rapidly while they continue in slavery; but when 
 liberated, their increase seems to be checked ; and 
 it is possible, that at some future period, the more 
 rapid advance of the white population in all the 
 states which shall be free, will leave the blacks in 
 a small and continually decreasing minority. 
 
 There appears to be but one mode of preventing 
 the result to which I have now alluded. Should the 
 character of the negroes undergo that great change, 
 in consequence of the influence of freedom, which 
 many have anticipated, and which all desire, their 
 progressive diminution may be in part prevented. 
 
75 
 
 So far as tlie experiment has yet been made in this 
 country, there are but (e\v and feeble indications 
 that a remarkable change of character is likely to 
 result from their possession of freedom, while they 
 shall continue mingled with the white population. 
 In the states where they have been longest dee. 
 they still possess substantially the same character. 
 They have rarely risen to intellectual distinction ^ 
 or to the possession of wealth ; and should this fact 
 be attributed to the depressing influence of preju- 
 dice, whicli will not permit them to enjoy a fair field 
 for enterprize, there is reason to apprehend that 
 this prejudice will long continue to operate in full 
 force, and tliat the relative rank of the two races 
 will remain substantially the same that it now is. 
 If the feelin"' of aversion which now subsists be- 
 tween them shall continue, its future effects will 
 probably be the same ; but between native Ameri- 
 cans and the Irish emigrants, there is no distinction 
 which education and a change of external circum- 
 stances may not remove ; and they must, in the 
 natural course of events, soon blend into one com- 
 mon mass. It is then possible, that the gradual 
 extinction of the African race in this country is 
 prevented only by their state of slavery. 
 
LETTER XII. 
 
 Baltimore, July 18, 1835. 
 
 I HAVE just had an interview with Mr. S., one 
 of the smaller slave dealers in this city. I intro- 
 duced myself by inquiring at his office the present 
 price of good "field hands," from 18 to 25 years 
 old. He says that "likely fellows" are worth 
 from ,^500 to $650 : girls of the same age, from 
 $300 to $500; but to bring the latter price, they 
 must be uncommonly fine ones, as they are worth, 
 for the field, only three or four hundred. He says 
 that slaves of all kinds are now very scarce in tlie 
 market, and in great demand. He has been trying 
 all the week to find some, — has been everywhere, 
 far and near, and incurred no small expense, and 
 can hear of but one. He is at the jail, and is a 
 " prime fellow — as likely a nigger as he has ever 
 seen, but has a defect in one of his hands, owing 
 to some accident which happened when he was 
 young." Mr. S. does not believe that he could 
 use an axe, but he would be a ^ood field hand. He 
 " has the refusal of the fellow," if he shall choose 
 
78 
 
 to take him; — and has offered ^500 for him, but 
 his owner refused to take it. Mr. S. tliinks, how- 
 ever, " that with his defect, it is as much as he is 
 worth." 
 
 Mr. S. says he has " a little girl — bright mu- 
 latto — seven years old, whom he will be glad to 
 sell ; as fine a servant as he ever saw ; quick and 
 handy — will go to market for any small article, as 
 well as many who are much older." He will sell 
 her for $250. 
 
 He informs me t1iat there are a dozen or more 
 in town engaged in " the business," but none of 
 them are doing much, as negroes are so scarce. A 
 good deal however is doing in the District of Co- 
 lumbia, especially by the firm of Franklin and 
 Armfield. The greatest part of the slaves from 
 the District are sent to the Southern States by 
 water; but some during the summer go by land. 
 A friend of Mr. S., who w^as in his office during 
 our conversation, remarked that he met about three 
 hundred last summer, who were all sent over land 
 by one house. Mr. S. thinks that " hands will be 
 plentier" in a few weeks, when the harvest is 
 over. He concluded the conversation, which he 
 had carried on in the style of a northern horse- 
 jockey, by asking how many hands I wished to 
 purchase. I told him that I had not yet com- 
 pleted my arrangements, and thought I should re-= 
 
79 
 
 main in this quarter two or three weeks, until the 
 harvest was gathered. Finding that he had taken 
 me for a southerner, and not caring to undeceive 
 him by answering other questions which he might 
 put, I took leave without further conversation. 
 
 After leaving the office of Mr. S., I called upon 
 a member of the Society of Friends, to whom I 
 had letters, and who has long taken a deep inter- 
 est in the condition of the people of color. He is 
 of opinion that their situation, especially that of the 
 free blacks, is improving. He does not know, 
 however, that, as a class, they are more respected 
 than they were formerly ; but individuals among 
 them are treated with much respect. There is 
 not, however, as ho states, the slightest disposition 
 to permit even tliese to enjoy either social or po- 
 litical equality. 
 
 The majority of the people of Maryland he 
 supposes to be in favor of some plan for prospec- 
 tive and gradual emancipation ; but such is the 
 division of political power among the counties, that 
 a small number of white inhabitants, in those 
 counties which possess the most slaves, are able 
 to control the legislation of the state. The coun- 
 ties are all entitled to an equal vote in the legisla- 
 ture, although in some there are not more than 
 eight or nine thousand white inhabitants, and in 
 others, four or five times that number. 
 
or the details of the domestic slave trade, he 
 observes, that it is difficult to obtain much informa- 
 tion, as its operations are in some degree concealed 
 from tlie public eye. The trade is not a clandes- 
 tine one, but being offensive to the feelings of a 
 large portion of the community, it is in a great 
 measure withdrawn from public observation. There 
 is an establishment near the end of Pratt street, 
 owned by Mr. W., w^ho has made himself very 
 rich by this trade. He has, like the other large 
 slave dealers, a prison, or slave pen, of his own, in 
 which he keeps the slaves until a cargo is com- 
 pleted. They are then carried on board the vessel, 
 usually at night, and immediately sail for New 
 Orleans. The business is conducted by him, and 
 by the other regular traders, in such a manner, that 
 there is never any suspicion of unfairness in regard 
 tojh eir mode of acquiring slaves. In this respect, 
 at least, their business is conducted in an honorable 
 manner. 
 
 Mr. W. has a brother at the south, I believe in 
 Louisiana, who receives the negroes shipped from 
 this port, and disposes of them to purchasers. On 
 hearing of such an agency as this, one is ready to 
 conceive, that the man who has grown wealthy by 
 receiving and selling these poor and defenceless 
 creatures, must be in all respects a monster — one 
 whose diabolical spirit must manifest itself in his 
 
81 
 
 very countenance, and in all the intercourse of pri- 
 vate life, so that all men, and especially the unfor- 
 tunate slaves, will instinctively shrink from him as 
 from a demon. And yet, how wide from the 
 truth would such a conclusion be ! This very 
 man is reported, upon the best authority, to be a 
 most mild and indulgent master, and an upright 
 and scrupulously lionest man. His recommenda- 
 tion of a slave will instantlv raise his value in the 
 market, for his word is implicitly relied upon by 
 all who know him. When he makes his appear- 
 ance among his slaves, they gatlier around him 
 with every demonstration of afiection ; and even 
 the little children manifest the most eager solici- 
 tude to share in his attentions. 
 
 Such fucts as these may to some appear to be 
 inconsistent with the established laws of human 
 nature. They exhibit a man as having the in- 
 humanity to devote himself to the acquisition of 
 wealth by trafficking in the miseries of the already 
 wretched African, as being the voluntary agent for 
 receiving the husband who has been torn from his 
 wife, and the wife who has been forcibly separated 
 from her husband and her children, and for selling 
 them into the n^.ost hopeless slavery, and yet, un- 
 der all these hardening influences, operating ha- 
 bitually upon his character, as cultivating, at the 
 same time, those gentle manners and kind afFec- 
 
82 
 
 tions which render him an object of attachment to 
 his fellow men, and even to his slaves themselves. 
 Such inconsistencies and apparent contradictions in 
 human character are, however, by no means un- 
 common ; and it would not perhaps be difficult, on 
 the other hand, to instance some, who are the de- 
 voted friends of the colored race, and of the op- 
 pressed of every name, who have cultivated towards 
 those whose sentiments are opposed to their own, 
 so bitter a hostility, as to have rendered their 
 characters in a high degree repulsive. 
 
LETTER XIIL 
 
 Baltimore, July 18, 1835. 
 
 At the office of the Maryland Colonization So- 
 ciety, I have beconje acquainted with many facts, 
 throuti;h the politeness of the agent of the state, 
 the Rev. Wm. M'Kenney, tending to show an 
 unexpected readiness, on the part of the slave 
 holders in this state, to manumit their slaves. In 
 general, there is an expectation that, when libe- 
 rated, ihey will go to the colony ; but many cases 
 are independent of such a reference. Tlie dispo- 
 sition now manifested would doubtless be still more 
 common, if the .present mode of manumission were 
 not, on many accounts, one of the worst which 
 could be devised. If those only received their 
 freedom who were previously prepared by suitable 
 discipline and instruction, or who had evinced their 
 fitness for this distinction by their superior intelli- 
 gence and virtue, freedom would be viewed as the 
 reward of peculiar excellence, and of course would 
 be sought for by the exhibition of virtuous char- 
 acter. If even an opposite plan were steadily 
 
84 
 
 pursued — if freedom were made the uniform pun- 
 ishment of extraordinary crimes, or utter worth- 
 lessness, and if, when freed, they were peculiarly 
 exposed to contumely and insult — dear as liberty 
 is, the virtuous slave might hesitate to purchase it 
 at such a price, preferring slavery itself to igno 
 miny and general contempt. 
 
 The present mode of manumission, on the con- 
 trary, is founded on no principle of utility, either 
 to the manumitted slave or to his companions who 
 continue in bondage. There is no principle of se- 
 lection. The subjects are taken indiscriminately, 
 according to the accidental caprice or conscientious- 
 ness of their owners. No useful impression there- 
 fore is made upon the slave; he is left to desire 
 freedom, but is not stimulated to virtuous conduct 
 in order to obtain it. The treatment of those who 
 are manumitted is, indeed, in a great degree, such 
 as it might be, if the sole object were to punish 
 them for their vices while they were in bondage, 
 and to deter others, by their example, from desir- 
 ing freedom. This effect, however, it cannot pro- 
 duce, while it is obvious that the severity with 
 which they are treated has, in general, no refer- 
 ence to their moral character. Few inducements 
 are presented to them to rise above their present 
 situation, and thus, while the state adds to the 
 number of its freemen, it adds nothing to the vir- 
 
85 
 
 tue and intelligence of its citizens — nothing to its 
 physical or moral resources. 
 
 In farther conversation with the benevolent 
 member of the Society of Friends, of whom 1 
 have befoi'e spoken, he states his full conviction 
 that the greatest obstacle, at this time, to the pro- 
 gressive improvement of the African race in this 
 country, is the interference of the people of the 
 north. So long as this continues, he thinks that 
 the apprehensions of the south will prevent any 
 farther improvement in their condition. 
 
 Advertisements for the purchase of negroes, and 
 for the restoration of runaway slaves, are very 
 common in the newspapers of this city, as well as 
 in those of Washington. A Mr. P. advertises for 
 slaves, and requests such as wish to dispose of 
 any to call either at "»S7rt7ie?''5 Hotel, ^' or at his 
 residence on " Gallows Hilly Certainly these 
 are very appropriate places to hail from, when em- 
 barking in such a traffic. 
 
 Sunday Evening, July 19, 1835. 
 
 This morning I went, in company with Mr. 
 M'Kenney and another friend, to visit the African 
 Sabbath school in Sharp street. This school has 
 more than four hundred names upon its books, but 
 
86 
 
 not more than one hundred now attend upon its exer- 
 cises, as two schools have recently been formed in 
 other places, the members of which formerly be- 
 longed to this. The superintendent and teachers, 
 as well as the children, are all persons of color. 
 With the teachers I conversed freely, and listened 
 attentively to the exercises, and have seldom been 
 equally gratified by the appearance of any Sabbath 
 school. In the teachers I found not only a degree 
 of intelligence far superior to what I had expected, 
 but a conscientious devotedness to their employ- 
 ment, at once the earnest and the evidence of suc- 
 cess ; and I have never seen, among the pupils of 
 any Sabbath school, more countenances indicative 
 of respectable talents, or of good dispositions. 
 
 Th.e clerk of the school, a bright mulatto of an 
 uncommonly fine and intelligent countenance, 
 apologized for having come in somewhat late, ob- 
 serving to us that he had been sent with a bundle 
 to the Annapolis steamboat. I could not but 
 reflect with sorrow upon the evils which every- 
 where spring from a profanation of the Sabbath by 
 the owners of stages and steamboats, and by those 
 masters who employ their servants in unnecessary 
 labors on this day of holy rest — a day so necessary 
 to the moral and religious improvement of all, but 
 especially of those who enjoy no other day of rest. 
 This clerk is a porter in a store ; and few clerks 
 
87 
 
 in Boston could make a neater book of records 
 than his. 
 
 A gentleman who was present inquired of one 
 of the teachers whether there were any slaves in 
 the school. He replied that there were a good 
 many, and that he himself was one. It appeared 
 however upon inquiry, that by the will of his 
 master, who was dead, he was to be free at the 
 age of twenty-eight, and that he had but eighteen 
 months more to serve as a slave. When 1 asked 
 him whether he should be glad to be free, his 
 countenance showed, as he answered, " Yes sir," 
 that it was a question which no one, who had been 
 a slave, would ever need to ask ; and still his 
 master and mistress had been distinguished for their 
 kindness to their slaves. His brother too, he told 
 us, would soon be free, and his mother was already 
 so. Would that those who doubt whether a slave 
 prizes freedom, could have seen the joyful looks 
 WMth which this christian slave stated these simple 
 facts in the history of his family. 
 
 The room in which the school was held was 
 well fitted up and clean, but the approach to it was 
 through a narrow and dirty lane in the rear of the 
 building. Under the stairs by which we ascended 
 to the school room, two swine were dozing away 
 the morning, and merely looked up and grunted as 
 we passed. It should be remarked, however, that 
 
88 
 
 these animals act as licensed scavengers in the 
 streets of the '' monumental city," and are par- 
 ticularly active in the neighborhood of the markets. 
 
 At ten o'clock we left the school and repaired to 
 the African church in the same street. This 
 church, like the school we have just left, belongs to 
 the Methodists, and the preacher, this morning, was 
 an old colored man. His subject, as he informed 
 us, was ''Phihp's going down to Samaria, and 
 preaching on the road to the eunuch and the queen 
 of Ethiopia.^' Philip, according to the preacher, 
 was told to " go and cotch right hold of the 
 chariot," (for so he interpreted the direction " to go 
 and join himself to it,") which having done, '' he 
 heard the eunuch reading to the queen, and asked 
 him what he was reading about." An apology 
 was made for the seeming impropriety of Philip's 
 being "so bold as to cotch hold of the chariot and 
 to ask 2i gemman such a question," and the preach- 
 er concluded that the evangelist could not be 
 blameable, as he only followed his directions, 
 '' which," it was thought, " he mought very prop- 
 erly do." 
 
 With all his quaintness and ignorance of let- 
 ters, the preacher evidently possessed respectable 
 talents, and uncommon skill in illustration. He 
 warned his hearers against supposing that the}' 
 could enter heaven without love to Christ in their 
 
89 
 
 hearts ; this he told them was the only ^^free 
 pass.'^ " If they wanted to go from the south to 
 Philadelphia or New York, they knew very well 
 that they would be stopped on the way if they had 
 not a free pass, and so it would be if they should 
 try to enter heaven without a pass containing the 
 name and the broad seal of Christ." All this was 
 perfectly intelligible to his hearers, who showed in 
 their countenances and by their animated responses, 
 how thoroughly they entered into the spirit of 
 his remarks. The responses of the Methodist 
 church seem to be especially adapted to such an 
 audience as were there assembled. They serve 
 to fix the attention of such hearers, and to cheer 
 and animate the preacher, by the interest they 
 evince in his performance. Were the preacher 
 engaged in pursuing a connected train of thought, 
 the responses might perhaps interrupt the attention 
 of his audience, but with such a preacher no effect 
 of that kind is likely to occur. 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 Baltimore, July 19, 1835. 
 
 The responses, of which I spoke at the close of 
 my last letter, became, in some instances, so sudden 
 and piercing, as to be even startling to one unac- 
 customed to such an accompaniment ; but they 
 plainly served to arouse the attention of the assem- 
 bly in a remarkable degree; and without some 
 such device, it would probably be impossible to en- 
 gage, for any considerable time, the attention of 
 such undisciplined minds. 
 
 On the whole, there was occasion to regret that 
 persons so ignorant, should spend their Sabbath in 
 listening to instruction which could do so liitle to 
 enlighten their minds ; but, on the other hand, it 
 was consoling to reflect, that some of the doctrinal 
 principles, and much of the morality h^ the gospel, 
 were thus imparted to them from w^eek to week, 
 and that there was conclusive evidence that the 
 hearts of many were brought into subjection to the 
 gospel of Christ. In the Methodist church, the 
 instruction given upon the Sabbath is followed by 
 
92 
 
 that of the "class meeting," and by instruction from 
 house to house during the week, as the teachers 
 have opportunity. By such means the minds of 
 the colored people belonging to this church, are 
 brought under a course of training to virtuous 
 habits, which seems peculiarly adapted to their 
 condition. 
 
 This afternoon I visited a colored school and 
 congregation, who meet in the "old town," and 
 are under the patronage of the Presbyterian church. 
 Their room, which is a small one, is entirely full, 
 thouo-h it is but two or three years since tlie con- 
 irregation was formed ; and they are now greatly in 
 want of more extended accommodations. Most 
 of the children are learning to read ; a kw, how- 
 ever, are receiving instruction in catechisms. On 
 account of its more recent formation, this school is 
 less perfectly organized than that in Sharp street ; 
 but the teachers have a good spirit, and many of 
 the children are very promising. Both here and 
 at the school which I visited this morning, I was 
 treated with great affection by the teachers, and 
 have seldom passed so pleasant a day as this. 
 Even the children seemed to have been impressed 
 by their teachers with the belief that I was their 
 friend, and listened to my conversation with most 
 earnest attention. One of the younger classes, 
 while not employed by their teacher, I overheard 
 
93 
 
 disputing whether my name was Mr. Goodman — 
 their teacher having told them that a good man 
 from Boston was coming to see them. 
 
 The singing at Sharp street, I should have be- 
 fore remarked, was excellent, — such as our friend 
 Mr. Lowell Mason might perhaps make belter, but 
 which, I am sure, it would give him exquisite 
 pleasure to hear, even prior to any improvement. 
 There is, in some of the African voices, a wild and 
 touching pathos, which art can never reach. Such 
 tones I have often heard at evening, through the 
 depths of a southern forest, when the singer evi- 
 dently supposed that no ear was listening to the 
 melody, save the ear of Him to whom the song 
 of devotion was ascending:. 
 
 Washington, July 20, 1835. 
 
 This morning I left Baltimore by the railroad 
 for this city. As I passed from the hotel to the 
 dej)oty I was greeted by the kind and respectful 
 salutations of some of the colored men whom I had 
 met at church yesterday, and who were now going 
 forth to their daily labors. This was the first morning 
 that the locomotive had travelled upon this road ; 
 and even now we could proceed in this way no 
 farther than to Bladensburg. The whole popu- 
 lation, for a considerable distance on each side of 
 
94 
 
 the road, had come out to see this novel sight, and 
 all appeared to be highly gratified. The animals, 
 on the other hand, who had received no previous 
 notice of what was to be expected, seemed to be 
 universally taken by surprise, and were generally 
 filled with consternation. Cows, horses, pigs and 
 turkeys were scampering in all directions, only 
 stopping occasionally to take another look at the 
 terrific object, and then posting off with fresh speed. 
 A bull, however, whom his whole herd had de- 
 serted, stood his ground nobly, and even advanced a 
 kw paces for the purpose of reconnoitering his foe. 
 No creature seemed to be indifferent to our move- 
 ment, except one young calf, who, with the true 
 philosophic nil ndmirari, appeared to consider the 
 whole as a very conmion affair, and in perfect 
 accordance with his " firm and unalterable expe- 
 rience." 
 
 The road appears to be finished in a superior 
 manner, and the cars are very large, containing each 
 sixty passengers. Like the northern works of a 
 similar nature, it has been constructed by the labor 
 of Irish emigrants, although the country which it 
 traverses is teeming with colored men, who stand 
 greatly in need of more profitable employment. 
 When our national system of railroads and canals 
 shall be completed, they will form a stupendous 
 monument of the labors of the Irish emigrants — 
 
95 
 
 such a monument as few strangers have ever reared 
 in their adopted country, since the pyramids of 
 Egypt were erected by a subjugated people. 
 
 From Bladensburg the company proceeded in 
 a long train of carriages, accompanied by a band of 
 music, and entered Washington with sound of 
 trumpet, and amidst the greetings of great numbers 
 who had assembled to witness the display. 
 
 July 21. 
 
 This morning I met with an old and valued ac- 
 quaintance, who has resided for more than a quar- 
 ter of a century in North Carolina, and is familiar, 
 not only with the domestic policy, but with the 
 peculiar sectional views and interests of the south. 
 A foreign education had prepared him to notice 
 whatever is peculiar in the organization of south- 
 ern society, and his long residence there, under 
 circumstances probably more favorable than those 
 enjoyed by any other individual in that state, for 
 obtaining authentic information, has deservedly 
 given great weight to his opinions upon subjects 
 connected with the interests and feelings of the 
 south. He has long taken a deep interest in 
 the condition of the colored population, and, for 
 some years past, has devoted a great part of his 
 time to investigations respecting their situation 
 
96 
 
 and prospects, and to exertions for their improve^ 
 ment. 
 
 From him I learn that the feelings of the col- 
 ored people in North Carolina, and in the neigh- 
 boring states, have been greatly changed, within a 
 few years, on the subject of colonization. For- 
 merly many of them were inclined to view that 
 project in a favorable light, as affording a good 
 opportunity for enterprizing individuals to establish 
 themselves in a country where they would be for- 
 ever independent of the influence of white men. 
 Now they entertain the same dislike to the society, 
 which is so common among the colored people of 
 the north. To a great extent, they view it as a 
 plan to perpetuate slavery. 
 
LETTER XV. 
 
 Washington, July 21, 1835. 
 
 The real sentiments and feelings of the negroes, 
 in respect to their situation, it is very difficult for 
 any white person to ascertain, and for a stranger, 
 it is nearly impossible. They regard the white 
 man as of a different race from themselves, and as 
 having views, feelings and interests which prevent 
 his sympathizing fully with theirs. Distrust, even 
 of their real friends, is no unnatural consequence 
 of the relation which they and their ancestors have 
 so long borne to the whites. 
 
 When therefore a white man approaches them 
 with inquiries concerning their condition, they are 
 at once put upon their guard, and either make in- 
 definite and vague replies, or directly contradict 
 their real sentiments. The following is the sub- 
 stance of many a conversation of the kind to which 
 I allude. 
 
 *' You have a kind master, I think. Jack." 
 "O yes, massa, he very kind, he very good to 
 de niggers." " You always have enough to eat 
 
98 
 
 i\ 
 
 and drink, I suppose." " Yes, tnassa, plenty to 
 eat ; — massa give all de niggers plenty to eat." 
 " Do you have to work very hard, Jack ? " " O 
 no, massa, me no work hard — only sometimes." 
 '- Have you a wife ? " " Yes, massa, she live at 
 Major B.'s in W. county." ^' Why, that is a 
 great way off: how often does your master let you 
 0^0 to see her?" ^/ Me ffo to see her and de 
 children once t' a month." " And how long does 
 he allow you to he absent from the plantation, " 1 
 when you go to see your wife and children ? " 
 " I always goes a Friday, and stays till Monday." 
 "And suppose you should not come back till 
 Tuesday, what then ? " " Why, massa no give me 
 pass only to Monday ; must come back den." 
 " Or else anybody will flog you that finds you ? " 
 "Yes, massa." "Don't you wish. Jack, that 
 Major B. v,-ould buy you, so that you could live 
 with your wife ? " "Massa good massa, me no 
 like to leave him — no leave massa." "Well, do n't 
 you w^ish then that your master would buy your 
 wife, and bring her here ? " " O yes, massa, me 
 like dat very much." " Well, Jack, suppose your 
 master would give you your liberty ; I suppose 
 you would like that best of all, would you not ? " 
 " O no, massa, me no want to be free, have good 
 massa, take care of me when I sick, never 'buse 
 nigger ; no, me no want to be free." 
 
99 
 
 All this is said with an air of sincerity well fitted 
 to produce the impression that the slave does not 
 wish for freedom, and that he would not accept it, 
 even if offered to him. The master himself, ac- 
 customed to hear such replies, though at heart 
 aware that no dependence can be placed upon de- 
 clarations made in such circumstances, half forgets 
 that they are untrue, and repeats them to others, 
 and especially to northern men, as evidence that 
 no change is necessary in the situation of the slave, 
 in order to render him as happy as his nature will 
 permit. Nor is it others only who are deceived ; 
 the slave himself is probably not always aware of 
 the insincerity of his replies. He has perhaps 
 never viewed his own emancipation as possible, 
 and does not know in what manner he would re- 
 ceive a proposition sincerely made of restoring him 
 to freedom.^ 
 
 But even when he has fully awaked to a sense 
 of the value of liberty, and when he sighs in secret 
 to obtain the direction of his own conduct, and to 
 pursue his own happiness without the control of 
 others, he is fully conscious of the danger of ex- 
 pressing his new feelings and the visions inspired by 
 hope. He knows that he shall be less valued if he 
 is suspected of being discontented, and that tlje 
 danger of exchanging his present lot for one still 
 worse, will in such case be greatly increased. He 
 
100 
 
 looks, too, upon all white men, and especially 
 strangers, as the friends of his master, and does not 
 dare to trust his secret wishes to those who may 
 immediately betray him. 
 
 Thus all continue to slumber upon the verge of 
 the volcano ; but it is only a feverish sleep, from 
 which the slightest sound, which may be mistaken 
 for the rumbling of the fires in the abyss beneath, 
 is sufficient instantly to arouse them. Then they 
 look around them, for a moment, with dismay ; but 
 the alarm soon subsides, and all sink again into 
 repose. Not so however incase of actual insurrec- 
 tion. Then the apprehensions and consequent suf- 
 ferings of all classes and all ages surpass description. 
 The stronfc and couraijeous master, whom no 
 merely personal danger could appal, who would go 
 calmly to meet a foreign enemy, trembles when he 
 remembers that his wife and children are exposed 
 to a foe who will show no mercy, and with whom 
 war is only another name for massacre. Women 
 and children, the aged and the helpless, tremble 
 before a savage foe, from whom they expect not 
 even the generosity which belongs to war in gen- 
 eral, though indeed the tender mercies of ordinary 
 wars are but cruelties. No more enviable is the 
 situation of the slave himself. If indisposed to 
 join in the revolt, he is apprehensive that he shall 
 be suspected by both parties; and is terrified by 
 
101 
 
 fear of the insurgents, upon the one hand, and of 
 the whites, upon the other. In such circumstances, 
 the slightest suspicion is often a passport to instant 
 death. To repel such dangers the strongest mea- 
 sures are felt to be necessar}'' ; and when those who 
 are suspected cannot be kept in safety till the dan- 
 ger is past, death is called in to afford that security 
 which nothino; else can give. 
 
 In general, however, no danger is felt in the 
 villages or large towns, except upon occasions of 
 peculiar alarm. The timid mother may indeed 
 *^clasp her infant closer to her bosom, when she 
 hears the sound of the midnight fire-bell," because 
 her fears at such an hour excite the image of rob- 
 bery and massacre, but commonly little apprehen- 
 sion of personal danger is felt, except in more 
 lonely situations. 
 
 In every town and village an active and vigilant 
 patrol is abroad at such hours of the night as they 
 judge most expedient, and no negro dares, after the 
 prescribed hour, to be found at a distance from his 
 quarters. Great cruelty is often practised by the 
 patrols, and such as is not only hard for the slaves, 
 but even for the humane master to bear, when 
 exercised towards his unoffending slaves. Often 
 have 1 known a company of licentious and inebri- 
 ated young men sally forth after an evening's 
 carousal, and in the stillness of night commence 
 
102 
 
 their round of domiciliary visits to the quarters of 
 the negroes, while their inmates were buried in 
 sleep. The principal object of such visits is to ter- 
 rify the slaves, and thus secure their good behavior, 
 and especially to prevent their wandering about at 
 night. If in such case a slave is found at any 
 distance from his own home without a ]jass, he is 
 often whipped upon the spot, without judge or 
 jury, and with no other limit to the severity of the 
 infliction, than such as the drunken caprice of the 
 patrols may prescribe. I have known the husband 
 thus chastised for being found in company with his 
 wife, if he was not able to produce his pass or per- 
 mit to visit her on that night. The state of a 
 family thus violently disturbed during their slum- 
 bers, by the curses, and execrations, and violence 
 of irresponsible men, may be in some measure 
 conceived. The husband and father is drasged 
 out and floo;o;ed before his terrified wife and children, 
 while the females fear every indignity that such 
 ruffians may please to perpetrate. Thus they pro- 
 ceed, until exhausted by fatigue and dizzy with the 
 fumes of their debauch, when they return to their 
 homes, leaving weeping, and dismay, and terror, 
 where they found peace and repose. 
 
LETTER XVI. 
 
 Washington, July 21, 1835. 
 
 While residing some years since in Carolina, 
 !an old negro, whom I had employed to lake care 
 of my garden, came to me one day, weeping so 
 immoderately that for some time I could not clearly 
 ascertain the cause of his distress. At leno-th I 
 found that it related to his wife, who lived some 
 ten or fifteen miles from the village where I was 
 residing. Peter had just then heard that his wife's 
 master was about to sell her to a speculator, as the 
 negroes call those who trade in slaves, and his 
 grief appeared to be inconsolable. I tried to pacify 
 him, by telling him that it was probably a false 
 report, and that her master would not be willing to 
 part witli so valuable a servant as I had always 
 understood that she was. Peter replied that he 
 heard that her master was obliged to sell her in 
 order to pay h/is debts. I then told him, that if 
 that were the case, I presumed that he would not 
 sell her to a trader, but to some one of his wealthy 
 neighbors, so that she might still remain in the 
 
104 
 
 county. He replied — " This is my third wife ; 
 both of my other wives were sold to speculators, 
 and were carried to the south, and I have never 
 heard from them since." In this case, however, 
 Providence favored poor Peter. Her master had, 
 indeed, been bargaining for her sale, but some 
 accidental circumstances had prevented the accom- 
 plishment of his purpose. Still it was felt by Peter 
 to be but a temporary respite, and the danger of 
 separation from her, like the fabled Tartarean rock, 
 was always impending over him, and threatening 
 every moment to crush him beneath its weight. 
 
 On another occasion, as I was walking at a 
 small distance from my house, 1 met a company of 
 six or eight negroes, who were upon their way to 
 Alabama or Mississippi. At the moment when I 
 came up, they, with the trader to whom they 
 belonged, were resting themselves under the shade 
 of some large trees which overshadowed the road, 
 and by which they were protected from a scorching 
 mid-day sun. Most of them were young females ; 
 and they had all been recently purchased in the 
 eastern part of the state, where their friends still 
 resided. My attention was particularly drawn to 
 one of the company, a young man five and twenty 
 or thirty years of age, whose arms were confined 
 by chains. He was a tall, well-formed, and ath- 
 letic negro, whose countenance indicated consider- 
 
105 
 
 able intelligence. I asked him what he had done, 
 which rendered it necessary that he should be 
 chained. He replied promptly, but respectfully, 
 that he had done nothing. " Why then are you 
 chained ? " ''I do n't know," he replied, — " may 
 be they thought I would run away." " But why 
 should they suspect that you would wish to run 
 away?" " I do n't know, — may be it was because 
 they thought I should want to get back to my wife 
 and children." '' Have you then a wife and chil- 
 dren ?" "Yes, I have a wife and four children in 
 H. county, and may be they thought 1 would not 
 like to leave them ! " His story was probably a true 
 one, and yet, with the full knowledge of this fact, 
 he had been sold into distant bondage, and was now 
 leaving his wife and children forever. Well might 
 the owner of such a slave suspect, that he would 
 long to escape and return once more to those who 
 were dearer to him than the whole world beside. 
 
 The amount of suffering which is occasioned by 
 such sales is very great, for scenes of the same 
 nature with those which I have described are occur- 
 ring somewhere almost every day. When travel- 
 ling in Maryland a few years since, the following 
 case of distressing separation was mentioned to me 
 by a young gentleman who had been an eye-wit- 
 ness of the occurrence. While a vessel at Balti- 
 more was receiving its cargo of slaves for New 
 
106 
 
 Orleans, and just as she was about to set sail, a 
 young woman who had been purchased a short time 
 before by the trader who was freighting the vessel, 
 was brought by her former master to the wharf. 
 She earned in her arms a young child which had not 
 been sold with the mother. When they reached 
 the wharf, she sat down, unconscious of every- 
 thing but of the presence of her infant. Upon whose 
 face she continued to gaze, in apparent agony, 
 V/hile afFordino; it nourishment for the last time 
 from her breast. At length the signal for their 
 departure was given ; her former master bore away 
 the unconscious infant, and the mother, while 
 uttering the most agonizing cries, was conveyed on 
 board the vessel. 
 
 The by-standers were deeply affected with pity 
 for her, and with indignation at the parties concerned 
 in the transaction, but there was no remedy. It 
 Vv'as n fair business transaction arising from the 
 nature of slavery, and it is by no means improbable 
 that her master was greatly afflicted by the neces- 
 sity which compelled him to occasion so cruel a 
 separation. The purchaser it is likely was a cruel 
 man, but he probably justified himself in pursuing 
 his employment, by reflecting that if he did not 
 trade in slaves, others would do it, and take the 
 profit. 
 
107 
 
 In addition to the sufferings occasioned by actual 
 separations, there is, as I have before intimated, 
 a constant dread felt by the whole slave population, 
 that they shall be torn from their families and 
 friends. 
 
 It is sometimes said that liberty is not greatly 
 prized by the slaves, or even by the free blacks 
 themselves. I have seen the attempt made to 
 convince the slave that liberty would not place 
 bun in more eli2;ible circumstances. He would 
 sometimes yield to the arguments, but there was 
 always something in his manner which showed, 
 that, even if the reason was confounded, the heart 
 did not yield its assent. Although the condition of 
 the free blacks in the Southern States is proverbially 
 wretched, and most of them are sufficiently ap- 
 prized of its inconveniences and miseries by their 
 own bitter experience, yet none of them manifest 
 an inclination to return to slavery. Fully acquaint- 
 ed with both conditions, they submit to the incon- 
 veniences of freedom, not indeed contentedly, but 
 with no design of improving their circumstances by 
 sacrificing their liberty. Wliile residing at the 
 south, I knew an intelligent free mulatto whose 
 name was Sam. 1 do not remember in what man- 
 ner he obtained his freedom, but he richly deserved 
 it by his uniformly good behavior. A friend of 
 mine who took a deep interest in his welfare, often 
 
108 
 
 conversed kindly with him concerning his pros- 
 pects, and endeavored to suggest plans for his 
 benefit. He was struck with the unfortunate cir- 
 cumstances in which the free blacks were placed, 
 and once endeavored to convince Sam that his 
 condition had not been improved by obtaining his 
 liberty. Sam listened to his representations in 
 respectful silence, conscious of his own inability to 
 maintain the cause of freedom by an array of argu- 
 ment. When my friend had concluded his appeal, 
 Sam's only answer was, "After all, it's a heap 
 BETTER TO BE FREE." Brief, howcvcr, as the an- 
 swer was, it spoke the feelings of the whole human 
 race whether bond or free. If liberty could ever 
 be accounted worthless, it would be such a liberty 
 as falls to the lot of the free negro, when surrounded 
 by slav^es and their masters. Yet, with no bet- 
 ter prospects than these, he was able to decide, 
 with a clearness of apprehension that nothing could 
 confuse or mislead, that freedom was still invalu- 
 able. While this principle remains in full opera- 
 tion in the heart, it is in vain that the slave is 
 convinced that his external circumstances would 
 not be improved by obtaining his freedom : though 
 satisfied that by remaining a slave he shall be better 
 fed, and clothed, and sheltered, and nursed when 
 sick or old, he still feels that the power to choose 
 for himself and to direct his own actions is more 
 
109 
 
 than an equivalent for all these advantages, and 
 his heart replies, ^'^ After all, it '« a heap better to 
 he free. ^^ 
 
 It is true that we hear of slaves to whom free- 
 dom is offered, and who, under all the circum- 
 stances refuse to accept the boon : and such cases 
 have probably sometimes occurred. If these, how- 
 ever, were investigated, they would be found to 
 present some peculiarity which causes them to be 
 apparent exceptions to a universal principle. Even 
 the gift of liberty may come too late. When life 
 has been drained to the very dregs, or when free- 
 dom would render its possessor a houseless wan- 
 derer, disqualified by a life of dependence to make 
 provision for his own wants, and especially when 
 kindred and friends must all be deserted to obtain 
 that boon, which will be worthless if they too 
 cannot participate in its enjoyments, — in such 
 cases it is not wonderful that even freedom should 
 be refused. " Let me return to my dungeon," 
 said the tenant of the Bastile, the doors of whose 
 cell had been thrown open, after having been 
 closed upon him for forty years. " Let me return 
 to my dungeon. My eyes can no longer endure 
 the clear light of day ; and of all who once loved 
 me, not one survives." And yet who ever thought 
 that the cells of the Bastile were in themselves 
 
110 
 
 preferable to the fair field of nature, or confinement 
 within their walls to personal liberty. 
 
 I should not think it necessary to make even a 
 passing remark upon this subject, had I not heard 
 the owners of slaves so often allude to their content- 
 ment and satisfaction with their condition, as a 
 reason why slavery might with propriety be con- 
 tinued. But though sometimes driven to such ar- 
 guments in self-defence, I must do them the justice 
 to say that, in general, they are far too clear-sighted, 
 and too well-informed, not to see their fallacy. 
 When a distinguished northern politician was 
 reported, a few years since, to have spoken lightly 
 of the evils of slavery, in comparison with the con- 
 dition of the free laborers of other countries, the 
 suggestion was received by slave-holders with 
 scorn, and was attributed to an unworthy desire of 
 obtaining popularity in the south. I am happy to 
 believe that his remarks were misunderstood, or 
 were uttered without due reflection. It is certain 
 that they produced no conviction of their truth 
 anions: those who best know what slavery is. 
 
LETTER XVII. 
 
 Washington, July 21, 1835. 
 
 From a gentleman well known in this country 
 for his literary and scientific attainments, and who 
 now resides in this district, I have been furnished 
 with many interesting facts respecting the domestic 
 slave trade, and the miseries often occasioned by 
 it. Scarcely a week passes, in which pressing 
 applications are not made to him by negroes, who 
 are about to be separated from their fmiilies, and 
 sent to the south, begging him to purchase them, 
 in order to prevent their removal. Some of these 
 cases are of a very trying kind. There is one at 
 this moment pending, which is fitted to excite the 
 keenest indignation, not only against the master, 
 but against the system which gives occasion to 
 such flagrant injustice. 
 
 A negro, about twenty-five years old, who is 
 married, and has three or four children, has jusi 
 applied to my informant, stating that he is to be 
 sold immediately to a slave-dealer, and separated 
 forever from his family, unless he can find some 
 
112 
 
 resident in the District who will consent to pur- 
 chase him. He is a member of a church in this 
 city, and has uniformly sustained a christian char- 
 acter. His master wishes to raise a few hundred 
 dollars, which he has not the means of doing con- 
 veniently, without the sale of one of his slaves. 
 No\^ it happens that the purpose for which this 
 money is to be raised is well known, and is no 
 other than to purchase a mulatto woman, with 
 whom he is known to be criminally connected. As 
 if even this were not a sufficient provocation to the 
 moral sense of the community, there is an asf2:ra- 
 vat ion arising from the motive which determined 
 the master to sell the slave of whom I am speaking, 
 rather than any other. He had endeavored to 
 employ this slave in bringing other colored women 
 into the same relation to him, as the mulatto 
 woman whom I have mentioned, but here the 
 servant felt that he had a Master in heaven, whom 
 he was bound to obey, rather than his earthly 
 master. His refusal had greatly irritated his master, 
 and led to his being selected for sale. 
 
 A poor woman is now residing in this city, who, 
 together with her two children, was, some years 
 since, separated from her husband, and brought to 
 this place, in order to be shipped for Georgia. In 
 her distraction at being separated from her hus- 
 band, she leaped from an upper window, and fall- 
 
113 
 
 ing upon the pavement, her hmbs were broken in 
 a shocking manner. She is a helpless cripple, 
 but in her affliction she has applied to the great 
 Physician, who heals the maladies of the soul, and 
 is now waiting in the confident hope, that she shall 
 meet again her dear children " where the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." 
 
 Cruelty to slaves, though odious in all, seems 
 especially so in females, from whom we expect 
 examples of kindness and gentleness. Notwith- 
 standing, however, its revolting character, instances 
 of great cruelty on the part of mistresses as well 
 as masters are occasionally witnessed. 
 
 A woman, who is still residing in this city, had 
 a slave for whom she had no regular employment, 
 and whom she allowed to find work for himself, 
 requiring him to bring her weekly a certain sum of 
 money as his wages. He was diligent and faithful 
 in endeavoring to find employment, but sometimes 
 could obtain but little, and consequently could 
 not always earn the amount which his mistress 
 required. Irritated by repeated failures, and insti- 
 gated by a revengeful spirit, she resolved at length 
 to sell him to a slave-dealer, so that he should be 
 compelled to leave the District, where his rela- 
 tions reside. She accordingly sold him to a trader 
 in Alexandria. Of his separation from his connec- 
 tions for the last time, as they all supposed, I had 
 
114 
 
 an account from one who was an eye-witness. 
 Such scenes must be substantially the same, wher- 
 ever they occur, and though most deeply affecting, 
 need not be described. Fortunately for the poor 
 slave, his case became known to Dr. S., a member 
 of the same church, and one whose christian 
 beneficence knows no other limit than his means. 
 He could not bear to see a worthy christian brother 
 torn in this manner from his relatives, his birth- 
 place, and the privileges of the christian church, 
 and being joined in his enterprise by another mem- 
 ber of the same church, they resolved, though 
 with considerable personal inconvenience, to step 
 between him and perpetual banishment. They 
 accordingly followed him to Alexandria, and at 
 length induced the trader to sell him, thoug;h at a 
 large advance beyond what he had himself given. 
 I shall leave you to imagine the joy of the poor 
 man, when, instead of receiving his order to em- 
 bark for New Orleans, the doors of the slave 
 prison were opened, and he was permitted to return 
 with his christian brethren to Washington. He is 
 now employed in slowly earning the price of his 
 liberation, and when this is accomplished he will 
 find himself not only free, but in the midst of his 
 kindred and friends. 
 
 This evening I have been deeply interested in 
 conversing upon the subject of American slavery 
 
115 
 
 with the gentleman mentioned at the beginning of 
 this letter. He thinks there can be no greater 
 absurdity, than to suppose that the whole colored 
 race in the United States are to be removed to 
 Africa ; and this he maintains, notwithstanding his 
 strong attachment to the Colonization Society, in 
 whose cause he has labored long and faithfully. 
 He does not believe, on the other hand, that the 
 two races will ultimately occupy the same territory, 
 but that the blacks will possess some portion of the 
 southern country to the exclusion of the v.hites. 
 He states his conviction, also, that the slaves will 
 all be free at no distant period, and that it is the 
 part of wisdom to consider the event as neither 
 doubtful nor remote, and to make all necessary 
 preparations for it. The kind of preparation which 
 he recommends is precisely that which the Ameri- 
 can Union desire, — the general diffusion among 
 the slaves of moral and religious influence, that 
 they may become not only a free, but an intelli- 
 gent and virtuous portion of the coinmunity, 
 whether separate, or still mingled with the white 
 population. 
 
 The friends of the colonization cause are the 
 only persons, whom I find in this quarter evincing 
 a deep interest in the improvement of the African 
 race, and such I know to be the case in states still 
 farther south. Some regard their improvement 
 
116 
 
 only as subsidiary to colonization, but others con- 
 sider it as a thing most desirable in itself, and with- 
 out regard to their final settlement. 
 
 There is, at this time, a strong feeling of indig- 
 nation, in this city, against the measures of the 
 northern abolitionists, which renders any attempt 
 to improve the condition of the colored people far 
 more difficult than it was but a short time since. 
 The excitement is greatest among the advocates of 
 perpetual slavery, and least of all among the 
 friends of colonization ; but all the friends of the 
 African race deplore the interference which has 
 occasioned it. 
 
LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Washington, July 22, 1835. 
 
 This morning I was introduced to a clergyman 
 who has an extensive acquaintance in the northern 
 part of Virginia. He represents the present emi- 
 gration from that state to the south-western states 
 as very great. The land-holders in some parts of 
 Virginia are becoming poorer nearly in direct pro- 
 portion to the number of their slaves and the ex- 
 tent of their plantations, while those of Mississippi 
 and Louisiana are growing rich with unexampled 
 rapidity. In consequence of this, the planters in 
 Virginia are selling their plantations as fast as pos- 
 sible, and removing with their slaves. When sales 
 cannot be made, on account of the scarcity of pur- 
 chasers, the younger members of the family often 
 remove, taking with them a share of the slaves, 
 and commence new plantations in the south, while 
 the other members of the family remain in Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 When neither the planter nor his family remove, 
 the slaves are sometimes let upon hire to others 
 
118 
 
 who are reniovino;, and who are not furnished with 
 the requisite number of laborers to enable them to 
 cultivate a large plantation. Many of those who let 
 their slaves upon hire, are such as are either par- 
 ticularly attached to them, or are, from principle, 
 indisposed to sell them, wdiile they are still unable 
 to furnish them with profitable employment upon 
 their own plantations. Wages are now so high, in 
 Mississippi and Louisiana, as to amount, in a few 
 years, to the market value of the slaves ; and some 
 masters, who have felt unable or unwilling to 
 emancipate them without compensation, are taking 
 this mode to acquire the price of their freedom. 
 The labor upon the cotton plantations is in general 
 not very severe, and the climate of the cotton 
 region in the south-western states, thouojh common- 
 ly prejudicial to the health of the whites, is favor- 
 able to that of the slaves. In many cases, when 
 the younger members of a slave family have been 
 sent to a southern plantation, they have been so 
 much gratified by their change of situation, as to 
 send the most favorable account of their circum- 
 stances to their relatives in Virginia, urging them 
 to embrace the first opportunity to join them and 
 share in their abundance. Cases of this kind are 
 of so frequent occurrence, that it is said, the slaves 
 in general do not now, as formerly, consider it a 
 great evil to remove to the south, unless lbs 
 
119 
 
 removal occasions a separation of family connec- 
 tions. The increasing poverty of the planters in 
 Virginia, and their consequent inability to furnish 
 a comfortable support for their slaves, increase the 
 desire on the part of both master and slave to 
 remove to a land of greater abundance. 
 
 A gentleman, in one of the poorer counties of 
 Virginia, has nearly two hundred slaves, whom he 
 employed, for several years, upon a second rate 
 plantation of eight or ten thousand acres, and who 
 constantly brought him into debt. At length he 
 found it necessary to purchase a smaller plantation, 
 of good land, in another county, which he con- 
 tinues to cultivate for no other purpose but to sup- 
 port his slaves. 
 
 The clergyman, from wdiom I derived most of 
 this information, represents the free blacks, in the 
 District of Columbia, as in a very deplorable situa- 
 tion ; ignorant, poor and vicious, and often exposed 
 to great sufferings by their poverty, especially 
 during the winter. Their sufferings he thinks, are, 
 in most cases, directly occasioned by their sloth. 
 There are some schools for colored children in 
 Washington, in addition to the Sabbath schools : 
 but upon the whole very little is done for their 
 improvement as a class. The slaves of the Dis- 
 trict, employed, as they generally are, as domesticSj 
 
120 
 
 are thought to be in a much better condition than 
 the free blacks. There are many colored mem- 
 bers of the Methodist churches in this city, but 
 such is their ignorance, and so numerous are their 
 temptations, that they occasion much anxiety and 
 trouble to the churches with which they are con- 
 nected. 
 
 At the house of Dr. S., this evening, I saw and 
 conversed with an intelligent colored woman, who 
 related many cases of the cruel separation of fami- 
 lies by the domestic slave-trade. Among others, 
 she mentioned a grandson of her own, whose case 
 I found was by no means peculiar. He was a 
 slave about twenty-two years old, and was induced, 
 by offers of assistance from a white man, to run 
 away from his master, for the purpose of escaping 
 to a free state. The man who had promised his 
 assistance proved his betrayer, and carried him to 
 New Orleans, where he sold him as a slave. For 
 a long time his relatives supposed that he was 
 dead, but they had at last heard the particulars of 
 his fate, from one who saw him at New Orleans. 
 The natural love of liberty, on the part of the 
 slave, is said to be often imposed upon in this 
 manner. 
 
121 
 
 July 23. 
 
 This mornino; I called at the office of Jud^e 
 Cranch, in company with Mr. F., to whom 1 am 
 indebted for many attentions. My object was to 
 ascertain such facts, respecting the colored people, 
 as might be found in his office, since it is in the 
 court over which he presides, that the criminal cases 
 occurring in the District are tried. Slaves, how- 
 ever, are never tried in this court, but by magis- 
 trates. It appeared that of one hundred persons 
 confined for crime, either before or after trial, in 
 the jail in this city, thirty-four were persons of 
 color. Of the number of trials, however, as they 
 appeared in a single docket consulted for the pur- 
 pose, only thirty-one out of one hundred and 
 seventy-six were cases in which colored persons 
 w^ere defendants. 
 
 A very interesting fact was stated casually by 
 Judge Cranch, respecting the colored people con- 
 nected with Methodist churches in this city. He 
 remarked that their reputation is in general good, 
 and that they are seldom or never brought before 
 the criminal courts for misconduct. This testimony 
 appeared to me of the highest interest and impor- 
 tance. It was but yesterday, as I have previously 
 stated in this letter, that an excellent clergyman 
 was lamenting the ignorance, and the low state of 
 9 
 
122 
 
 piety among these very persons, and yet, low as is 
 their standard of Christian principle, and imperfect 
 as their knowledge of duty is known to be, it is 
 sufficient, according to the testimony of this upright 
 and enlightened Judge, to preserve them, almost 
 perfectly, from the commission of those overt acts 
 of crime, to which their situation so powerfully 
 tempts them, and of which their irreligious brethren 
 are so frequently guilty. If such is the effect of 
 religious principle, we need not look to legislators 
 to devise plans for elevating the character of the 
 colored race, hough their aid, if well directed, may 
 be of great value. We are to rely upon the church 
 of Christ for effecting, through the influence of the 
 gospel, that great change which will fit this de- 
 pressed and now ignorant race to become useful 
 and happy members of the communities to which 
 they shall belong. 
 
 A number of slave-dealers reside in this District 
 within view of the Capitol, and their advertisements 
 constantly appear in the various newspapers of the 
 city. In fact, the ^' ten miles square" are the 
 very seat and centre of the domestic slave-trade. 
 This is an outrage upon public sentiment, which 
 ought not to exist at the seat of our national govern- 
 ment. The privilege of opening a slave-market, 
 with as much publicity as was ever enjoyed by a 
 slave-factory upon the coast of Africa, is wiiolly 
 
193 
 
 distinct from the right to own slaves ; and even if 
 the latter were continued, the former ought not to 
 be tolerated. Why should it be piracy to purchase 
 a cargo of slaves in Cono-o and offer them for sale 
 in Charleston, while it is lawful to procure them in 
 Alexandria or Washington and transport them to 
 the same market ? Is it because the negroes in 
 the former case are reduced to slavery for the pur- 
 pose of supplying the trade, and in the latter they 
 are only continued in slavery ? If the fact were so, 
 the reason for the distinction would still be unsatis- 
 factory. Are a man's rights less important because 
 he has been long deprived of them — perchance 
 even from the days of helpless infancy ? But the 
 fact is often otherwise. The African tribes acquire 
 slaves as well for their own use, as for market, 
 and hence the slave brought from the African 
 shore, like his companion in tribulation purchased at 
 Washington, only changes his place of servitude ; 
 with this difference, however, that the former is 
 brought to a more enlightened country, the latter 
 often plunges into deeper moral darkness. 
 
 Is it because the trade in one case is carried on 
 between independent states, and in the other 
 between states which are confederate ? Why 
 should this make a difference in the crime ? In 
 either case the slave is torn from home and kindred 
 and friends, and carried to a distant land, where he 
 
124 
 
 is compelled to spend his life in toiling for those 
 to whom he has given no right to control his 
 actions. But even this ground of distinction fails 
 in those states which claim to be sovereign and 
 independent. 
 
 The subject of slavery in the District of Columbia 
 is one which is completely within the power of 
 Congress, acting as the legislature of the District ; 
 and should they even adopt a plan of general 
 emancipation, provided the rights of their constitu- 
 ents in the District were regarded, the south 
 would have no more reason to complain, than of a 
 similar act on the part of the legislature of Virginia 
 or Maryland. 
 
 To the state governments belongs exclusively the 
 control of this subject within the several states; and 
 no one not included within their limits, can pro- 
 perly complain of them for exercising their right. 
 To Congress, in like manner, it belongs to deter- 
 mine whether slavery shall continue in the District 
 of Columbia, and no state or states has a right to 
 interfere with them, should they think proper, in 
 'Compliance with the wishes of the peojjle of the 
 District, to adopt a rational system of emancipa- 
 tion. Tlie expediency, or even the justice of such 
 interference, w^ithout the request of a majority of 
 the people of the District, may be questioned. 
 
125 
 
 This District presents the curious anomaly, in a 
 republican government, of a people governed by 
 laws enacted by a legislature not elected by them 
 selves, and over whom they have no more control 
 than had our ancestors over the British parliament. 
 It will scarcely be believed, that, in consenting to 
 place themselves under such a government, they 
 anticipated the enactment of laws contrary to their 
 wishes, and deeply affecting the very constitution 
 of the society in which they live. At the same 
 time, it is believed that the interest felt by a large 
 majority of the inhabitants of the District, in the 
 continuance of slavery, is very inconsiderable, and, 
 but for the recent excitements, it is not improbable 
 that they would have been willing, even now, to 
 petition Congress for the final extinction of the 
 system within their limits. 
 
LETTER XIX. 
 
 Washington, July 23, 1835. 
 
 I HAVE visited to-day, in company with my 
 friend Mr. F., the penitentiary devoted to the 
 criminals of the District. The buildings stand in a 
 very pleasant situation, near the Potomac, a mile 
 or two below the city. Every facility was here 
 afforded to my inquiries by the warden, Mr. Clark, 
 who conducted us through the prison, and pointed 
 out everything important connected with the estab- 
 lishment. The arrangements of the prison appeared 
 to be of the most perfect kind, and its internal 
 management pre-eminently excellent. 
 
 The prison is provided with a physician and a 
 chaplain. Six of the convicts, it is believed, have 
 become pious since their admission. There is but 
 one female convict, who is a colored girl, and has 
 been once discharged, but was subsequently recom- 
 mitted, to her great joy, as she says, "■ because 
 it keeps her from bad company ! " 
 
 From the records of the prison, it appears, that 
 since its establishmentj the whole number of con- 
 
128 
 
 victs, received from the District, has been 109, of 
 whom 53 were colored persons. Of the latter 
 number, 44 were committed for theft, 7 for man- 
 slaughter, 1 for forgery, and 1 for horse-stealing; 
 or 45 for stealing, and 8 for other crimes. Theft, 
 where the value of the goods exceeds five dollars, 
 is a ground of commitment, and the shortest period 
 of confinement is one year. A large proportion 
 of those who are brought before the criminal courts 
 of the District are addicted to intemperance. The 
 number of free white persons in the District, in 
 1830, was 27,563, and of free colored persons 
 6,152; so that the latter were about two ninths of 
 the former, while the number of the convictions for 
 crimes which are punishable by confinement in the 
 penitentiary, is about equal in the two classes. 
 Such facts show that the condition of the free 
 people of color is, at present, a very unfortunate 
 one, and evince the necessity of efficient measures 
 for promoting the Influence of moral principle among 
 them, and for removing from their situation every- 
 thing, which tends to degrade them and to vitiate 
 ;thelr character. 
 
 This evening I have seen old Anna, the unfor- 
 tunate slave mentioned under date of the 21st in- 
 stant, as having thrown herself from an upper win- 
 dow, many years since, while distracted at being 
 violently separated from her husband. She was 
 
129 
 
 born near Bladensburgh. Her " old master," as 
 she calls him, in whose family she was born, and 
 of whom she speaks with great respect, became 
 involved in debt, and the sheriff was about to seize 
 his property. Finding he could no longer retain 
 his slaves, he consented to sell Anna to her hus- 
 band's master, for slie was now married to a slave 
 upon a neighboring plantation, and was the mother 
 of two little girls. In her new situation, Anna was 
 treated unkindly, and was compelled to work very 
 hard, both in the house and in the field. Her 
 new master soon died, but her circumstances were 
 not improved at his death; and when she had been 
 in this family about a year, their affairs also became 
 much involved in consequence of the improvidence 
 of her young master, who was very extravagant in 
 his expenses, and dissipated in his habits, or, as 
 old Anna expresses it in her dialect, he was " very 
 rapicL^' It now became necessary that this family, 
 in its turn, should dispose of a part of their few 
 slaves to pay their pressing debts, and it was deter- 
 mined that Anna, who had been last purchased, 
 should be sold with her children. Anna is so 
 ignorant, and so many years of sorrow have now 
 passed over her, since the occurrences, that she 
 cannot tell the ages of her little girls. She only 
 says, " the youngest was about so high, and the 
 oldest about so much higher,^' raising her crippled 
 
130 
 
 arms, as If to show us their height by putting her 
 feeble hands once more upon their heads. From 
 her description, their ages might have been three 
 and six years. 
 
 When Anna heard that she was to be sold to a 
 man from Georgia, she " went," as she says, 
 " upon her knees to her young master, and begged 
 him that she and her children might not be sepa- 
 rated from her husband and their father." Vice 
 seems not yet fully to have hardened his heart, for 
 it is plain from Anna's simple narrative, that he 
 was moved by her appeal, and " swore," as she 
 says, '' a great oath, that they should not be sepa 
 rated." He did not, however, find it convenient to 
 adhere to his promise, and soon after, her husband 
 was one day sent away to work at a remote part of 
 the plantation, and " the man from Georgia," as 
 she calls her purchaser, came in the meantime to 
 her master's house. And now she was ordered to 
 take her children, and go immediately with her 
 new owner. She says " she was dreadfully fright- 
 ened, and did not know what to do," when they 
 took her by force and compelled her to go. She 
 does not remember anything distinctly which fol- 
 lowed, and has only a recollection of a dreadful 
 state of terror and affright, in which she seems 
 to have been deprived of the use of her reason, 
 and to have become frantic with grief and appre- 
 
131 
 
 hension. During this state she was brought to 
 Washington, and was placed, with a great number 
 of others, in the upper room of a three-story house 
 in F. street. During the night, she threw herself 
 from the window, and fell upon the pavement. 
 Her arms were broken and dislocated, and her 
 lower limbs and back dreadfully injured. Her 
 master, perceiving that she could never be of any 
 use to him, left her lying in the garret to which she 
 had been carried, and taking her little girls and his 
 other slaves, departed with them to Georgia. 
 
 It was then winter, and poor Anna's sufferings 
 were extreme, not only from broken limbs and 
 bruises, but from cold. She was alone, without 
 fire, with no one to help her, and was totally un- 
 able to help herself. Sometimes she suffered 
 greatly from thirst occasioned by fever, and often 
 from cold, when the blanket which covered her 
 would slip from her, and she could not replace it, 
 so that when the physician came to see her in the 
 morning — for a physician sometimes visited her — he 
 would find her, as she says, '' more dead than 
 alive." 
 
 Her bones were either not set in a proper man- 
 ner, or did not remain so, and one of the bones of 
 her left arm has protruded two or three inches be- 
 low the wrist, and is only kept from pushing its way 
 through, by means of the integuments. The wrist 
 
1-32 
 
 of the other hand also is nearly useless. When 
 she was able to leave her bed, the man at whose 
 house she had been left, claimed her as his slave, 
 alleging that her Georgia master had given her to 
 him, and she was therefore compelled to remain at 
 Washington, where her husband also came to live, 
 some time after her recovery. 
 
 Since Anna has lived at Washington, she has 
 had four children, two only of whom are now 
 livin": — a son and a daughter. Her husband con- 
 tinues a slave, but is allowed one dollar and fifty 
 cents a week from his wages, for the support of 
 himself and family. She says she has never learned 
 to " read book," but, since her afflictions, she 
 hopes that she has become a child of God. For 
 some time, she could not bear to think of seeing 
 the faniily, who by selling her had occasioned all 
 her affliction ; but when she thought so, she says 
 she was unhappy, and at length "she had a heart 
 to pray that she m.ight forgive them, and that God 
 would forgive them, and then she was happy.'' 
 At length she saw her old mistress, who reproached 
 her very much for having been unwilling to go to 
 Georgia 1 
 
 After some years, the man at whose house she 
 had been left, claimed her children also, and took 
 them away, but Anna applied to the Attorney for 
 
133 
 
 the District, who obtained "free papers" for her 
 and her cliildren. 
 
 She has never heard from her httle girls, who 
 were carried to Georgia, and does not expect to 
 know anything about them in this world. She 
 says " she has done mourning about them, but 
 always prays for them, and expects to meet 
 them up there^ She now blesses God for all her 
 afflictions, because they have been, as she hopes, 
 the means of her conversion ; and she seems espe- 
 cially grateful that her life was so remarkably pre- 
 served, at a time when she had not learned to be 
 submissive to the will of God. She prizes greatly 
 her religious privileges, and particularly her class 
 meetings, which are the more valuable to her from 
 her inability to read. 
 
1! 
 
LETTER XX. 
 
 Alexandria, July 24, 1835. 
 
 After spending four days at Washington, I 
 took passage in the steamboat this morning for this 
 place. 
 
 My principal object in coming to this city was, 
 to visit the establishment of Franklin and Armfield, 
 who have for some years been actively engaged in 
 purchasing slaves for the southern market. From 
 the gentlemen to whom I brought letters from friends 
 in Washington, I have received every attention, 
 and such directions as enabled me to accomplish 
 the purpose of my visit. 
 
 The establishment to which I have alluded is 
 situated in a retired quarter in the southern part of 
 the city. It is easily distinguished as you approach 
 it, by the high, white-washed wall surrounding the 
 yards, and giving to it the appearance of a peni- 
 tentiary. The dwelling-house Is of brick, three 
 stories high, and opening directly upon the street. 
 Over the front door is the name of the firm, 
 Franklin h Armfield. It was mid-day when 
 
136 
 
 I arrived. The day was excessively warm, and the 
 door and windows were thrown wide open to admit 
 the air. On inquiring at tlie door for Mr. Armfield, 
 he came forward in a kw minutes from the yard in 
 the rear of the building, and invited me into his 
 parlor. 
 
 Mr. Armfield is a man of fine personal appear- 
 ance, and of enojan-inp- and o;racefuI manners. He 
 is still in the prime of life, though he has been for 
 many years engaged in the traffic in human flesh, 
 by which he is supposed to have acquired great 
 wealth. I explained to him frankly my object in 
 visiting him, accompanying my statement with a 
 request that I might be allowed to see his estab- 
 lishment. It was an important object in my 
 journey to gain access to such an establishment, to 
 see the slaves collected for transportation, and to 
 ascertain the details of the traffic. I was not 
 wholly without fears, that, after all my labor, I 
 should meet with a refusal ; but these apprehen- 
 sions were soon dispelled, for he immediately, and 
 apparently with great readiness, complied with my 
 request. 
 
 Calling an assistant or clerk, he directed him to 
 accompany me to every part of the establishment. 
 We passed out at the back door of the dwelling- 
 house, and entered a spacious yard nearly sur- 
 rounded with neatly white-washed two story build- 
 
137 
 
 ings, devoted to the use of the slaves. Turning to 
 the left, we came to a strong grated door of iron, 
 opening into a spacious yard, surrounded by a high, 
 white-washed wall. One side of this yard was 
 roofed, but the principal part was open to the air. 
 Along the covered side extended a table, at which 
 the slaves had recently taken their dinner, wiiich, 
 judging from what remained, had been wholesome 
 and abundant. In this yard, only the men and boys 
 were confined. The gate was secured by strong 
 padlocks and bolts ; but before entering we had a 
 full view of the yard, and everything in it, through 
 the grated door. The slaves, fifty or sixty in num- 
 ber, were standing or moving about in groups, some 
 amusing themselves with rude sports, and others 
 en^af^ed in conversation, which was often inter- 
 rupted by loud laughter, in all the varied tones 
 peculiar to the negroes. 
 
 While opening the gate, my conductor directed 
 the slaves to form themselves into a line, and they 
 accordingly arranged themselves, in single file, upon 
 three sides of the yard. They were in general 
 young men, apparently from eighteen to thirty 
 years old, but among them were a few boys whose 
 age did not exceed ten or fifteen years. They 
 were all — except one or two, who had just been 
 admitted, and whose purchase was not yet com- 
 pleted — neatly and comfortably dressed, and, in 
 10 
 
138 
 
 genera], they looked cheerful and contented. As 
 my conductor, however, was expatiating on their 
 happy condition, when compared with that in 
 which they had lived before they came to this 
 place — a discourse apparently intended for the joint 
 benefit of the slaves and their northern visiter — I 
 observed a young man, of an interesting and intel- 
 ligent countenance, who looked earnestly at me, 
 and as often as the keeper turned away his face, 
 he shook his head, and seemed desirous of having 
 me understand, tliat he did not feel any such hap- 
 piness as was described, and that he dissented from 
 the representation made of his condition. I would 
 have given much to hear his tale, but in my situa- 
 tion that was impossible. Still, in imagination, I see 
 his countenance, anxiously and fearfully turning 
 from the keeper to me, with an expression which 
 seemed to say, like the ghost in Hamlet, " I could 
 a tale unfold." 
 
 After a short time, spent in walking around this 
 yard, and examining the appearance of the slaves, 
 we " passed out by the iron gate," and crossing 
 over to the right, we came to a similar one, which 
 admitted us into a yard like that which we had just 
 left. Here we found the female slaves, amounting 
 to thirty or forty. These, too, were well dressed, 
 and everything about them had a neat and comfort- 
 able appearance, for a 'prison. The inmates of 
 
139 
 
 this apartment were of about the same ages as 
 those who occupied the yard which I had just left. 
 There was but one mother with an infant ; and my 
 guide informed me, that they did not like to pur- 
 chase women with young children, as they were 
 less saleable than others, in the market to which 
 they sent their slaves. In answer to my inquiries 
 respecting the separation of families, he assured me 
 that they were at great pains to prevent such sepa- 
 ration in all cases, in which it was practicable, and 
 to obtain, if possible, whole families. IMarried 
 slaves, he said, were generally preferred by pur- 
 chasers to those who were single, because their 
 owners felt more sure that they would be contented, 
 and stay at home. In one instance, he remarked, 
 they had purchased, from one estate, more than 
 fifty, in order to prevent the separation of family 
 connections; and in selling them, they had been 
 equally scrupulous to have them continue together. 
 In this case, however, they had sacrificed not less 
 than one or two thousand dollars, which they migiit 
 have obtained by separating them, as tliey would 
 have sold much better in smaller lots. The 
 women, in general, looked contented and liappy, 
 but I observed a few who seemed to have been 
 weeping. 
 
 Near the yard in which the women were con- 
 fined, was the kitchen, where the food of the slaves 
 
140 
 
 was prepared. Here everything appeared neat 
 and clean, and the arrangements for cooking resem- 
 bled those which we usually see in penitentiaries. 
 From the kitchen we went to the tailor's shop, 
 where were stored great quantities of new clothing, 
 ready for the negroes when they set off upon their 
 long journey to the south. These clothes appeared 
 to be well made, and of good materials; and in 
 the female wardrobe considerable taste was dis- 
 played. Each negro, at his departure, is furnished 
 with two entire suits from the shop. These he 
 does not wear upon the road, but puts them on 
 when he arrives at the market. In the rear of 
 the vard, is a lono- buildintr, two stories hio;h, in 
 which the slaves pass the night. Their blankets 
 were then lying in the sun at the doors and windows, 
 which were grated like those of ordinary prisons. 
 Ill a corner of the yard, a building was pointed out 
 to me as the hospital ; but such was the health of 
 the slaves at this time, that the building was unoc- 
 cupied. 
 
 Passing out at a back gate, we entered another 
 spacious yard, in which four or five tents w^ere 
 spread, and the large wagons, which were to 
 accompany the next expedition, were stationed. 
 
 Having examined everything, so far as the ex- 
 cessive heat would permit, we returned to the par- 
 lor. Everywhere, as I passed along, I observed 
 
141 
 
 the most studied attention paid to cleanliness, con- 
 tinually reminding me of the penitentiary, which I 
 visited yesterday at Washington. The fences and 
 walls of the houses, both internally and externally, 
 were neatly white-washed, and there was also the 
 same apparatus of high walls, and bolts, and bars, 
 to secure the prisoners. In most respects, how- 
 ever, the situation of the convicts at the penitentiary 
 was far less deplorable than that of these slaves, 
 confined for the crime of being descended from 
 ancestors who were forcibly reduced to bondage. 
 Most of the former are confined for a few years 
 only, and then go forth as free as the judge by 
 whose sentence they had been imprisoned. While 
 in confinement, at morning and at evening, and 
 upon each returning Sabbath, they assemble like a 
 well ordered christian household, receive religious 
 instruction, and unite in the songs of thanksgiving 
 and praise which ascend to the common Parent of 
 all. Far different is the condition of the slave. 
 He is a prisoner for life ; and in his long and hope- 
 less bondage he may seldom hear the voice of the 
 religious teacher. 
 
 In the parlor, I again met Mr. Armfield, who, 
 during my absence, had been negotiating for the 
 purchase of a slave, and had just concluded a bar- 
 gain. Here I was again treated with great polite- 
 
142 
 
 ness, and refreshments of various kinds were offered 
 
 'J 
 me. 
 
 The number of slaves, now in the establishment, 
 is about one hundred. They are commonly sent 
 by water from this city to New Orleans. Brigs of 
 the first class, built expressly for this trade, are 
 employed to transport them. The average num- 
 ber, sent at each shipment, does not much exceed 
 one hundred and fifty, and they ship a cargo once 
 in two months. Besides these, they send a consid- 
 erable number over land, and those which I saw 
 were to set off in this way in a few days. A train 
 of wagons, with the provisions, tents, and other 
 necessaries, accompanies the expedition, and at 
 night they all encamp. Their place of destination 
 is Natchez, where Mr. Franklin resides, for the 
 purpose of disposing of them on their arrival. 
 Those which are sent by water, after landing at 
 New Orleans, are sent up the riv^ers by steamboats 
 to the general depot at Natchez, where they are 
 exposed for sale. 
 
 As it is an object of the first importance, that 
 the slaves should arrive at their place of destination 
 " in good order and well-conditioned," every indul- 
 gence is shown to them, which is consistent with 
 their security, and their good appearance in the 
 market. It is true that they are often chained at 
 night, while at the depot at Alexandria, lest they 
 
143 
 
 should overpower their masters, as not more than 
 three or four white men frequently have charge of 
 a hundred and fifty slaves. Upon their march, also, 
 they are usually chained together in pairs, to pre- 
 vent their escape ; and sometimes, when greater 
 precaution is judged necessary, they are all attached 
 to a long chain passing between them. Their 
 guards and conductors are, of course, well armed. 
 After resting myself a few minutes, I took leave 
 of Mr. Armfield and of his establishment, and 
 returned to my lodgings in the city, ruminating, as 
 I went, upon the countless evils, which ''man's 
 inhumanity to man," has occasioned in this world 
 of sin and misery. 
 
LETTER XXI. 
 
 Steam-hoat, on the Potomac, 
 July 25, 1835. 
 
 This morning, at an early hour, I left Alexandria, 
 and took my passage on board the steam-boat which 
 plies between Washington and Potomac Creek. 
 Among my fellow-passengers is a young man of 
 the name of N. He is a slave-trader, and is now 
 on his way from Washington to South Carolina with 
 about fifty negroes, whom he has recently pur- 
 chased. 
 
 He informs me that he has been employed in 
 this way about two years, but that his uncle, with 
 whom he is connected in business, has followed 
 the same employment for fourteen years. He 
 takes all his slaves by land from Fredericksburg 
 through Cartersville in Virginia, and Salisbury in 
 North Carolina. Formerly, the firm sent a portion 
 of them by water, and last winter they desp:itched 
 two vessels freighted with slaves, one of which 
 reached Charleston safely, but the other, having 
 seventy-five negroes on board, was driven off by 
 
146 
 
 storms to Bermuda, where the negroes all escaped 
 to land, and consequently obtained tlieir liberty. 
 Their owners had taken the precaution to get an 
 insurance of $30,000 upon them, and this sum 
 they expect to recover, but the rest N. supposes 
 that they shall lose. A by-stander suggested to 
 him that he would find it for his interest to apply 
 to the government of the island. He replied that 
 this would do no good ; that Armfield had lost a 
 whole shipment in the same way, and could get no 
 redress. '' But why don't you go there and^claira 
 them?" "Because," said N.,— minghng with 
 his reply more profanity than I care to record,— 
 ''a nigger is just as free there, and stands 
 JUST as good a chance in their courts as 
 A white man ! " How sad a perversion of justice 
 such a country must exhibit ! 
 
 This man, N., is the perfect counterpart in his 
 appearance to Mr. Armfield, being vulgar in his 
 manners, and mean in his personal appearance. It 
 is painful to think that such a man should have it 
 in his power to control so great a number of his 
 fellow-beings, and especially women and children. 
 The greater part of the slaves now on board are 
 young mothers, from eighteen to twenty-five years 
 old, with their children, many of them infants. 
 The rest consist of boys and young men ; but 
 the latter do not appear to be the husbands of the 
 
147 
 
 females who are on board. From my con- 
 versation with N., I find reason to conclude that 
 in almost every case, fomily ties have been broken 
 in the purchase of these slaves. Husbands are 
 here whose wives remain in the District, and wives 
 are now looking back upon the dome of the Ca- 
 pitol, which is still in sight, and near which their 
 husbands reside, whom they are never more to 
 
 meet. 
 
 In selling his slaves, N. assures me that he never 
 separates frmilies, but that in purchasing them he is 
 often compelled to do so, for that " his business 
 is to purchase, and he must take such as are in the 
 market!" "Do you often buy the wife without 
 the husband ? " " Yes, very often ; and frequently, 
 too, they sell me the mother while they keep her 
 children. 1 have often known them take atvay 
 the infant from its mother's breast and keep it, 
 while they sold her. Children, from one year to 
 eighteen months old, are now worth about one 
 hundred dollars. That little fellow there," points 
 ing to a boy about seven or eight years old, " I gave 
 four hundred dollars for. That fellow," pointing to 
 one about eighteen, " I gave seven hundred and 
 fifty for last night, after dark. I sold seven fellows 
 the other day, to Armfield. He just made me an 
 advance of fifty dollars a head." " How many 
 does your house purchase in a year? " " 1 go six 
 
148 
 
 times a year to South Carolina, and never take less 
 than forty. Arnifield does not usually buy more 
 than about ten or twelve hundred annually ; he 
 sends over land but once a year, — in midsummer. 
 There's an immense deal doing now in the busi- 
 ness, the price is so high ; — the owners can get 
 almost anything they ask. I offered the other day 
 twelve hundred dollars for two girls, and their 
 owner got thirteen hundred, a day or two after. 
 A first-rate field-hand is well worth nine hundred, 
 and would bring it, if the owners did but know it. 
 A good mechanic is worth twelve hundred. Mine 
 are nearly all field-hands ; but I shall not take a 
 cent under one thousand for the men, when I get 
 to Carolina. Did you notice the brig that was 
 hauling in as we came out from Alexandria, this 
 morning ? She was one of Armfield's, — she sails 
 in September. He has a first rate brig building in 
 Baltimore expressly for this trade. Tlie brig Uncas, 
 Capt. B., is also employed by Armfield, and is 
 now at Baltimore." These facts I learned also at 
 Mr. Armfield's, yesterday. "When husbands and 
 wives are separated, do they seem to care much 
 about it ? " '^ Sometimes they do n't mind it a 
 great while, but at other times they take on 
 right smart, for a long time." " Do you find 
 many slaves in the market ? " " Yes, I never 
 found them plentier ; but the price is monstrous 
 
149 
 
 high, and that, in fact, is the very reason so many- 
 are willing to sell/' " You have a great pro- 
 portion of children." *' Yes, — they sell well in 
 Carolina — but they wont go in IMississippi ; — Arni- 
 field never takes them if he can help it." " How 
 will your field-hands be employed ? " " In making 
 cotton." " But your women can't do much with 
 such small children." " O yes, they 'II do a smart 
 chance of work, and raise the children besides." 
 
 N., who takes me for a southerner, as most stran- 
 gers do, is quite communicative. Finding that I 
 have recently been in Baltimore, where I was ac- 
 quainted with some of the traders, and that 1 was 
 yesterday at Mr. Armfield's, he seems to sup- 
 pose me a planter deeply interested in the price of 
 slaves. He does not swear quite as much as he 
 did when I first came on board — probably because 
 he is alone in it ; but he enters with great spirit into 
 conversation respecting the trade. He says that if 
 the firm to which he belongs have lost the forty 
 thousand dollars, which the negroes were worth who 
 escaped at Bermuda, they had made it before they 
 lost it. On their journeys over land, he informs 
 me that they travel on an average, twenty-five 
 miles a day. At first they become a little tired, 
 but afterwards they get on very well. The small 
 children are drawn in the was^ons. I told him 
 that Mr. Armfield was at great pains to dress 
 
150 
 
 his negroes well when they get to market. N. 
 says that ha does the same, and thai they will sell 
 much belter for being well dressed. 
 
 The negroes on board the boat appear, in 
 general, indifferent to their situation ; whether they 
 fully understand it I do not know. To threaten to 
 sell a slave to a southern dealer, was formerly the 
 most effectual mode of enforcing obedience ; but it 
 would seem that there are now limits to this mode 
 of terrifying. I was assured, in Alexandria, that it 
 was not uncommon for servants in that town, when 
 about to be sold, to request that they might be sold 
 to Mr. Armfield ; and his clerk told me that they 
 had numerous applications from servants, requesting 
 that they would purchase them. Mr. Armfield 
 has acquired the confidence of all the neighboring 
 country, by his resolute efforts to prevent kidnap- 
 ping, and by his honorable mode of dealing. 
 
 Nothing, however, can reconcile the moral sense 
 of the southern public to the character of a trader 
 in slaves. However honorable may be his deal- 
 ings, his employment is accounted infamous. He 
 can hold no rank in society, nor can he, by any 
 means, push his family into favorable notice with 
 persons of respectability. The sale of slaves, also, 
 is said to be generally accounted disreputable, unless 
 the character of the slave, or the pecuniary circuni** 
 
151 
 
 stances of the owner induce him to do it, but apolo- 
 gies for tliis are rarely wanting. 
 
 I observed the slaves on board the boat while 
 eatino; their breakfast, and was fdad to see that 
 their food was such as they might well relish. 
 Not that there is any merit in feeding slaves well, 
 while on their way to market, or in dressing them 
 well after their arrival ; but because it is pleasant to 
 see them — however daik may be their future pros- 
 pects — enjoying an interval of happiness, or at least 
 of exemption from corporeal suffering. It is un- 
 doubtedly true, that the jockey is at equal pains to 
 present his horses sleek and well trinnned in market, 
 and the principal motive of each of these traders is 
 to increase his profits. There was, however, some- 
 thing indescribably affecting, in looking at the httle 
 children while taking their meal, all unconscious of 
 the wrongs which they are suffering, and of the 
 still greater ones to which they will be exposed. 
 As they sat in a circle upon the forward deck, and 
 ate their corn-bread and bacon, and looked around 
 with childish wonder upon the strange sights and 
 faces with which they were surrounded, it was 
 difficult to act the part of an indifferent spectator, 
 and not to execrate openly the man who, to in- 
 crease his own wealth, is hurrying these unconscious 
 little beings into a distant and hopeless slavery. 
 
152 
 
 And yet, of what crime has this man been guilty? 
 If slavery is a good thing, if it is " an ordinance of 
 heaven," this man is a necessary link in the chain. 
 If slaves are property, and are to continue such, 
 they must, like other property, change owners ; and 
 the slave-trader is but the merchant by whose inter- 
 vention the article changes hands, and no more de- 
 serves our censure than the drover, who takes the 
 hofrs and horses of Tennessee to a market in the 
 Atlantic states. I am convinced, by all my inqui- 
 ries, that the traders exhibit more proofs of hu- 
 manity in their dealings, than a large portion of 
 those from whom they purchase. Tlieir trade is 
 by common consent accursed, but it is the legitimate 
 result of a system, which, in the nineteenth century, 
 and in a christian land, has defenders, who main- 
 tain its expediency and its justice, independently of 
 its necessity. 
 
 N. was asked whether there was no danger of 
 his slaves escaping from him during their long 
 march through the interior of the country. He 
 replied that the principal danger occurs before they 
 have left the District, while they are near their 
 friends, and in a country with which they are well 
 acquainted. While at Alexandria, a winter or two 
 since, a man with his wife and infant child escaped 
 from him, and he has never been able to recover 
 
153 
 
 them. He has since learned, that the night when 
 they escaped was so cold, as to cause the death of 
 the child, but that the parents ultimately reached 
 Philadelphia. He had been about to follow them, 
 but his correspondent, who had originally informed 
 him where they were, has since told him that they 
 have removed, and he cannot find where they have 
 gone. 
 
 11 
 
LETTER XXII. 
 
 Fredericksburg, July 25, 1835. 
 
 There is now In the southern states a degree 
 of excitement on the subject of slavery, which 
 those at a distance can scarcely appreciate in a 
 proper manner. This is partly the effect of long- 
 cherislied prejudices against the north, partly the 
 result of the present state of political parties in the 
 country, and, in no small degree, the consequence 
 of the recent measures of northern abolitionists. 
 For the two former sources of excitement, 1 know 
 not that the north is answerable ; for the latter, a 
 portion of our citizens must no doubt be held in 
 some degree accountable. 
 
 A dishke to northern institutions, to northern 
 politics, and to northern men, has long been ex- 
 tensively indulged among the natives of the south. 
 I have been an Inhabitant of both sections of the 
 country, and am ardently attached to both ; but I 
 must still bear the most unequivocal testimony to 
 the existence of the prejudice to which I hav^e re- 
 ferred. On the other hand, I must unhesitatingly 
 
156 
 
 declare, that I have never, until perhaps very re- 
 cently, seen any evidence of unkindness of feeling 
 on the part of the citizens of the north towards 
 those of the south. The policy which they have 
 pursued, upon subjects connected with our na-^ 
 tional government, may sometimes have operated 
 injuriously upon southern interests ; but the feeU 
 ings of the north were never, that I could per- 
 ceive, hostile to their fellow-citizens of the south. 
 I am aware that with those politicians who are 
 accustomed to attribute every calamity to the 
 tariff, and the tarifi' to a settled purpose entertained 
 by northern men, to enrich themselves by the 
 spoils of the south, the assertion which I have 
 now made will scarcely obtain credit; but to those 
 who are well acquainted with northern sentiments 
 and feelings, I have no fear that the assertion will 
 appear incredible. 
 
 Since I entered the slave-holding country, I 
 have seen but one man w4io did not deprecate, 
 wholly and absolutely, the direct interference of 
 northern abolitionists with the institutions of the 
 south. " I was an abolitionist," has been the lan- 
 guage of numbers of those with whom I have 
 conversed, " I was an abolitionist, and was labor- 
 ing industriously to bring about a prospective sys- 
 tem of emancipation. I even saw, as I believed, 
 the certain and complete success of the friends of 
 
157 
 
 the colored race, at no distant period, when these 
 northern abohtionists interfered, and by their ex- 
 travagant and impracticable schemes, frustrated all 
 our hopes. We have no expectation that, in our 
 day, the prospects of the slaves will ever again be 
 as favorable, as they were at the moment when this 
 ill-omened interference commenced. Our people 
 have become exasperated, the friends of the slaves 
 alarmed, and nothing remains, but that we should 
 all unite in repelling the officious intermeddling of 
 persons who do not understand the subject with 
 which they are interfering. We will not be driven 
 by northern clamors, or northern associations, to 
 do that which we would gladly accomplish, in a 
 prudent manner, if left to ourselves." 
 
 These views and feelings may be unintelligible 
 to men who know nothing of southern society ; but 
 they are sentiments In which almost every man, 
 woman and child, south of Pennsylvania, fully 
 unites. Equally united are they, in the opinion 
 that the servitude of the slaves is far more rigorous 
 now, than it would have been, had there been no 
 interference with them. In proportion to the dan- 
 ger of revolt and insurrection, have been the se- 
 verity of the enactments for controlling them, and 
 the diligence with which the laws have been exe- 
 cuted. 
 
158 
 
 But let me not be, as I think the people of the 
 south generally are, unjust towards the abolition- 
 ists. Their efforts ought not, in general, to be 
 confounded with those of mere incendiaries, such 
 as are reported to have written and circulated in 
 the south, a few years since, a paragraph intended 
 to stir up the slaves to revolt. With such publi- 
 cations the writings of abolitionists are often con- 
 foimded; and thus, while injustice, is done to their 
 authors, there is danger of producing, by misrepre- 
 sentation, the very effects which the slave-holder 
 deprecates. Such is the infirmity of human na- 
 ture, tliat it is not safe to contemplate crime, as 
 something with v/hich we might possibly have 
 some connection. Men who have been fihed with 
 horror, because they had dreamed, in the slum- 
 bers of the night, that they had committed mur- 
 der, have afterwards deliberately engaged in its 
 perpetration. Is there no danger that, while al- 
 most every southern paper is filled with accounts 
 of " publications of an incendiary character," of 
 " ferocious attempts to stir up the slaves to mu- 
 tiny and massacre," with representations that "the 
 north are fast uniting to break the bonds of the 
 slave, and to coerce the south into measures of 
 emancipation," is there no danger, even if northern 
 sentiments and feelings should receive no disas- 
 
159 
 
 trous bias, that the slave will be kept in a state of 
 feverish excitement, and will be more prone to en- 
 gage in dangerous plots, than he would have been, 
 if not incited by such representations ? Upon the 
 north, these representations may produce but little 
 immediate effect ; since the newspapers of the 
 south have there but a limited circulation ; but upon 
 the colored people of the south, it seems to me that 
 their bad effect is certain. A sufficient number of 
 these can read to enable them to obtain all the 
 information from the newspapers which they per- 
 ceive to be interesting to them, and through ten 
 thousand channels of oral communication, such 
 information is extended until it reaches the most 
 ignorant slave, upon the most remote and secluded 
 plantation. He may indeed misunderstand its im- 
 port, but it at least keeps alive his thirst for lib- 
 erty, and binds him more strongly to his fellows. 
 
 Such are the evils which, in the present case, 
 arise from misrepresenting the real object of the 
 abolitionists. Scarcely have they been driven, 
 even by these misrepresentations, to utter senti- 
 ments in any case resembling those with which 
 they are charged ; and had their statements and 
 arguments been calmly answered, they would pro- 
 bably have excited but little interest. Such an 
 example of coolness, however, has not been set 
 
160 
 
 by many of the leaders of abolition themselves, 
 and they have therefore less of which they can 
 complain. They have sometimes declaimed, when 
 they should have reasoned ; and w^hen they have 
 reasoned, they have often assumed premises in a 
 great degree at variance with truth. 
 
LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Fredericksburg, July 25, 1835. 
 
 A LADY of this city, who is ardently devoted to 
 improving the condition of the colored race, related 
 to me an anecdote which she had received from a 
 physician residing at Washington. The doctor 
 was called to visit a slave, who had been sick for 
 some time, and whose master was very stern in the 
 treatment of his slaves. He found him lying upon 
 a heap of straw, and destitute of every external 
 comfort. He spoke kindly to him, inquiring how 
 he felt, but the negro made no reply, and did not 
 appear to notice him. He repeated the question, 
 but still received no reply. " Speak sharply to 
 him," said his master, impatiently, "he is a surly 
 dog." He again addressed him, when the negro, 
 who was conscious that he was dying, stretching 
 himself and composing his limbs, raised his eyes 
 towards heaven and said, " thank God, I am free 
 at last," — and immediately expired. The doctor 
 added — and I could not but love him for it — that 
 without speaking to the master, he turned upon 
 his heel, and left him to his reflections. 
 
162 
 
 My friends here unite in opinion that the free 
 blacks in Fredericksburg are more moral and re- 
 spectable than many among the lowest class of 
 whites. Some of the best mechanics of the city 
 are colored men, and among them are several 
 master-workmen, who employ considerable num- 
 bers of colored laborers. 
 
 Their opportunities for receiving religious in- 
 struction are but few. There is said to be no Sab- 
 bath school for their benefit, and they can seldom 
 be present at public worship. Their instruction 
 here has fallen, in a great measure, into the hands 
 of the Baptists, as in Baltimore it is conducted by 
 the Methodists. No regular bills of mortality are 
 kept, either here or in the District of Columbia, 
 and no precise estimate appears to have been 
 formed of the comparative mortality of difierent 
 classes ; but it is the received opinion that it is 
 greatest among the free blacks. 
 
 July 26, 1835. 
 
 This morning I attended public worship in the 
 Episcopal church. At the close of the exercises, a 
 contribution was taken up for the benefit of the Col- 
 onization Society. The preacher introduced the 
 subject with great caution, remarking that there was 
 probably no charitable object which belter merited 
 
163 
 
 the attention of his hearers, than that for the accom- 
 phshment of which this society was formed ; — that 
 much zeal was feh, in many quarters, in relation to 
 its object ; — that the colonies were in a very pros- 
 perous state ; — that they had flourishing churches 
 in, he believed, all the settlements ;— that they 
 were paying great attention to the education of 
 their children ; — and, wliat was perhaps of still 
 more importance, they w^ere educating the children 
 of the natives, and were presenting a barrier to 
 an Infamous traffic which had so long desolated the 
 coasts of that unhappy country. Of the bearing of 
 the society upon our own country, or upon any 
 portion of its inhabitants, nothing was said. I had 
 no means of knowino- how larsre a contribution was 
 taken up, but should judge from appearances that 
 it must have been but a moderate one. I did not 
 observe any colored persons present. 
 
 A portion of the constraint, with which the sub- 
 ject of slavery was formerly approached, has cer- 
 tainly been laid aside ; but it is still discussed with 
 reserve and caution. This, however necessary, is 
 painful to those who are accustomed to converse 
 without constraint upon all topics of public interest, 
 and whose thoughts and words are alike fiee. 
 
 In one point, I frequently find myself compelled 
 to differ from my southern friends, — the right of 
 the people of the north to discuss the tendency of 
 
164 
 
 slavery, its evils, as respects every portion of the 
 nation, and the remedies to be applied to prevent 
 or correct those evils. Not a few declare that the 
 northern people have no such right ; that it is a 
 violation of the compact between the states; and 
 that, if persevered in, it will first exclude the north- 
 ern literature entirely from the southern market, 
 and ultimately produce a dissolution of the Union. 
 This effect, it should be observed, is attributed to 
 the ordinary and peaceable discussion of the topic. 
 Some, however, are not disposed to push the prohi- 
 bition quite so far; but even these will not allow to 
 the North American Review and Quarterly Obser- 
 ver, for example, the same liberty in discussing the 
 subject as to the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. 
 There is a dealer in slaves who has established 
 himself in this town, where he is driving a very 
 profitable business. He has his prison, with the usual 
 appurtenances, which I went to view this evening, 
 in company with a friend. We contented ourselves 
 with an external view, and with lookinii: through 
 the fence which encloses the yard, without entering 
 the place. The appearance of the establishment 
 was not so neat as that of Mr. Armfield ; but the 
 slaves were well dressed and clean. Thev were 
 in groups in the yard, conversing together with all 
 the seeming indifference of persons in possession of 
 their liberty. As we turned a corner of the yard, I 
 
165 
 
 observed two or three negro women, from without, 
 conversing through the fence with some who were 
 confined in the yard, but apparently cheerful and 
 happy. This trader is said to have about one 
 hundred and fifty on hand at this time, whom he is 
 soon to send off, over land, I believe, to New 
 Orleans. He is not thought to treat his slaves so 
 humanely as Mr. Armfield. A recent instance was 
 mentioned of his sending off a number of mothers 
 without their little children, whom he had pur- 
 chased with them. He had separated them, 
 because the children were of no value in the mar- 
 ket to which the mothers were sent. It is difficult, 
 however, in such reports, to separate truth from 
 falsehood. 
 
 The windows of the buildings appropriated to 
 the U3e of the slaves, were grated with iron, in the 
 same manner as Mr. Armfield's, and in the same 
 manner, also, as those of tlie penitentiary at Wash- 
 ington. The predecessor of this man is said to 
 have been infimous for his cruelties, and very 
 appalling stories are still told respecting him, but 
 such as I had no certain means of verifying. It is 
 obvious that, in general, the pecuniary interest of 
 the trader will deter him from practising those 
 cruelties upon the slave which would impair his 
 value in the slave market. This, however, would 
 uot be sufficient to prevent the most revolting 
 
166 
 
 instances of occasional cruelty arising from the 
 influence of passion. Interest is the same motive 
 which influences the jockey to be kind to his horse ; 
 but it is well known, that, notwithstanding this 
 motive, he is often extremely cruel. A gentle- 
 man, who has conversed much with slave-traders, 
 tells me, that though mulattoes are not so much 
 valued for field-hands, they are purchased for do- 
 mestics, and the females to be sold for prostitutes. 
 The latter fact I am sorry to state, but a regard to 
 the high authority from which I received it forbids 
 that it should be concealed. One of the worst 
 effects of slavery is its depraving influence upon 
 the moral character of female slaves, which is 
 represented as most deplorable, and that, not in 
 a few instances, but almost without exception. 
 Whatever pains are taken with them while young, 
 the influence of corrupt society is such as to lead 
 them almost universally astray, and no objection 
 seems to be felt to keeping in one's house female 
 slaves, who have been guihy of crimes for which a 
 white female would forfeit her life. 
 
LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Fredericksburg, July 26, 1835. 
 
 The change to which I have before alluded, in 
 the sentiments of the slaves, in regard to removing 
 to the south, is observable in this vicinity, and in 
 general they are not particularly averse to such 
 removal, except when it occasions a separation 
 from their connections. Great numbers of slave- 
 holders have recently removed, and are now 
 removing from Virginia and North Carolina to the 
 south-western states. These carry their slaves 
 with them, and, settling in a fertile country, their 
 own situation, and that of their slaves, is greatly 
 improved. The negroes who remain at the north 
 soon become acquainted with the improved condi- 
 tion of the emigrants, and are desirous of following 
 them. Even when sold to a slave-trader for that 
 purpose, they manifest less concern than for- 
 merly. A number of negroes in a neighboring 
 county lately ran away from their master, and 
 came to the trader in this city, requesting him to 
 purchase them from their owner, and send them to 
 New Orleans. 
 
168 
 
 A gentleman In this city has a female slave 
 whom he purchased from a trader, for the purpose 
 of preventing her separation from her husband. 
 Her* former mistress had taken some offence at her, 
 and had sold her to the trader, whh the intention of 
 having her carried out of the state. The husband 
 and wife were both greatly distressed, and from 
 compassion to them this gentleman purchased her. 
 After this trouble was over, a year or two passed 
 quietly away, when suddenly the husband, who 
 had belonged to the minor heirs of an estate, was 
 seized, just as a drove of negroes were setting off 
 for the south, and immediately hand-cuffed to 
 prevent his escape. He had been sold some little 
 time previously, but had not been informed of his 
 fate, until the hour of departure arrived. The 
 gentleman who had purchased the wife, learning 
 the circumstances, attempted again to prevent the 
 separation of the husband and wife, by offering to 
 sell the latter to the trader, provided he would 
 guarantee that they should not be separated, when 
 sold at the south. The trader was willing to pur- 
 chase her, but said he could give no such guaranty, 
 as he always sold his slaves to those who would pay 
 the highest price, and he supposed it possible, that 
 for this purpose he should have to separate them. 
 Under these circumstances, the husband, who was 
 much attached to his wife, begged her not to leave 
 
169 
 
 her present situation, and thus they were finally 
 separated. 
 
 A friend, to whom and to whose family I am 
 indebted for many attentions, considers the final 
 extinction of slavery as decisively indicated by the 
 treatment which slaves now receive in the south, 
 and particularly in Virginia, when compared with 
 that which was common twenty or thirty years 
 since. Even the advertisements for runaway slaves 
 would serve to indicate a change in public senti- 
 ment, arid in fact, as the same gentleman observes, 
 are collectively a good index of the state of feeling, 
 not only at the same place at different periods, but 
 in different places at the same tim.e. A Virginia 
 advertisement usually contains a clause, stating, or 
 implying, that the slave has run away, notwithstand- 
 ing he has always been treated with the greatest 
 indulgence ; while advertisements from the ex- 
 treme south are solely occupied, like those for 
 stray oxen and horses, in describing their natural 
 and artificial marks, their ajies and habits. 
 
 He thinks, also, that in this state, slaves would 
 have no value whatever as field-hands, were it 
 not for the southern market. The labor performed 
 by them is not sufficient to meet the current 
 expenses of the plantations, at least of the more 
 ordinary ones, and the only profit of the planter is 
 derived from the negroes whom he raises for markets 
 13 
 
170 
 
 It remains still to be determined whether, if wa^es 
 were paid to the slaves in place of their present 
 regular supplies, and in proportion to the amount 
 of services rendered, a different result would not be 
 obtained. That this experiment will soon be 
 made, I have great confidence, and am inclined to 
 believe that, if judiciously made, it will succeed. 
 This practice, begun with the slaves early in life, 
 and accompanied with mental and moral cultiva- \ 
 tion, may prove the first step towards a complete 
 and most happy change in the agriculture of this 
 state, and in the condition of the laborers. F^ar, 
 in some of its forms, is now the moving principle 
 of the laborer ; then he will be influenced by hope ; 
 and this single change will prove, I doubt not, suf- 
 ficient to resuscitate the now palsied energies of 
 one of the finest portions of our country. So fine is 
 the chmate and so mild are the winters here, that 
 agricultural labors may be continued through a far 
 greater portion of the year than at the north. 
 Let Virginia be cultivated by laborers who shall 
 be influenced by the hope of increasing their own 
 enjoyments, and New England may yet find, that 
 her own barren and frozen hills are no longer 
 capable of coming in competition with the soil and 
 climate of the more favored south. 
 
LETTER XXV. 
 
 Richmond, July 28, 1835. 
 
 In my journey yesterday from Fredericksburg 
 to this place, I travelled with a planter, who had 
 emifrrated from North Carolina to Louisiana, where 
 he has resided for several years, but is now about 
 to remove from his plantation to a more healthy one 
 in a different part of the same state. His present 
 journey was undertaken partly for the purpose of 
 increasing the number of his slaves ; and he had 
 just completed the purchase of one hundred and 
 fifty-five, the entire stock of a plantation near Fred- 
 ericksburg. For these he had given seventy-five 
 thousand dollars, or about five hundred dollars, on 
 an average, for each. They included mechanics of 
 every kind necessary upon a great plantation. 
 The purchaser was still young, and exhibited, in a 
 striking degree, that promptitude and decision of 
 character, so often observable in those accustomed 
 early to direct their own conduct and that of others. 
 Visions, perhaps I ought rather to say sober calcu- 
 lations, of boundless wealth, to be acquired by the 
 
172 
 
 labor of his slaves, were alluring him forward, and 
 though naturally humane in his feelings, his kind- 
 ness to the slaves will probably go no farther than 
 to provide for their animal wants, regardless of 
 their high destinies as moral and intelligent beings. 
 He was not wholly without apprehension that 
 his hopes of soon acquiring a vast fortune might be 
 frustrated by a full in the price of his staple produc- 
 tion, cotton. He remarked that he should soon 
 pay for his slaves, if the present price of cotton 
 continued ; and that he should ultimately succeed, 
 if it did not fall below twelve and a half, or even 
 ten cents, but that he could not afford to go below 
 that price. 
 
 He represents the cares of the master upon an 
 extensive plantation as very great. These are much 
 increased in case of sickness among the slaves, as 
 they cannot in general be depended upon to nurse 
 one another, and the whole care of them while 
 sick often devolves upon the master. He says 
 '•' their weekly rations in Louisiana consist of eight or 
 ten quarts of corn meal and four pounds of northern 
 pork ; for the latter of which, in the winter, bacon is 
 commonly given to them, and molasses also is fre- 
 quently substituted for the whole or a part of the 
 pork, at the rate of a pint of the former for a pound 
 of the latter. Some make use of salt fish instead of 
 pork ; but this is generally thought objectionable^ on 
 
173 
 
 account of its tendency to create violent thirst. The 
 negroes commonly choose to receive their corn- 
 meal, rather than its equivalent in bread, that they 
 may cook it for themselves. Rations of spirits are 
 never given to them, except upon peculiar and rare 
 occasions, as at corn shucldng, and the like. It is 
 therefore extremely rare that a negro is seen intox- 
 icated, and still more so that he acquires a habit 
 of intemperance." 
 
 To the inquiry, how do the slaves in Louisiana 
 usually spend the Sabbath ? he replied : " gene- 
 rally in complete idleness ; lolling in the shade, or 
 basking in the sun. Some of them are disposed to 
 go to preaching, when there is an opportunity ; 
 but the greater part consider it a hardship to be 
 compelled to attend meeting. They are universally 
 attached to the Baptist, rather than to any other 
 church, and seem to consider ' soino; into the 
 
 J CO 
 
 water,' as a most essential part of religion. " This," 
 he observes, " may perhaps be attributed in part to 
 its involving an act of self-denial, as they are dog- 
 gedly averse to bathing or washing, for the purposes 
 of cleanliness. This indisposition to practise ablu- 
 tions for the promotion of health and cleanliness, is 
 nearly universal, and they can scarcely be more 
 offended by anything, than by a compulsory sys- 
 tem of batliin:! or of washing: their clothes. If not 
 compelled to do it, they would never wash a gar- 
 
174 
 
 ment from the time when it is put on new, until 
 it is worn out. Even house servants must be 
 watched like children, or most of them would 
 neglect attention to cleanliness. 
 
 " Whatever indulfjences, in regard to dress or 
 other things, custom has established, as the right of 
 the slave, he is very particular to require ; and if any- 
 thing is withheld, he remembers it as his due, and 
 asks for it, when he has an opportunity. 
 
 " The slave-traders have exacted such a profit 
 upon their slaves, that the planters, when intending 
 to make a considerable purchase, either come to 
 the north for the purpose, or employ a factor to 
 whom they allow a stipulated commission on the 
 purchase money. By such means only, can they 
 prevent the combinations among the traders, to 
 keep up the prices, as the infamy of the traffic 
 operates to prevent great competition." 
 
 A gentleman from Flalifax N. C, represents 
 the slaves as rapidly diminishing in that part of 
 the state, by their removal to Alabama, and other 
 southern states. In most cases, the masters emi- 
 grate with their slaves. 
 
 This morning I called upon Mr. P., a gentleman 
 of distinction, to whom I had letters, and who was 
 known to have recently published an article on the 
 subject of northern abolitionism, full of alarm to 
 southern slave-holders. He complains of us for 
 
175 
 
 concerning ourselves at all with the subject, because 
 no interference of the north can possibly, as he 
 thinks, promote the true interests of the slave. 
 Such, he says, has been the effect of the northern 
 anti-slavery movements, that not an individual at 
 the south dares to appear as the friend of emanci- 
 pation. There was a time when they seemed to 
 be near to the attainment of their object, — a pros- 
 pective system of emancipation. To this object 
 he had, as I well know, earnestly devoted himself; 
 but he declares that he can no longer safely ap- 
 proach the subject. 
 
 I remarked upon the seeming absurdity of 
 omitting all efforts for the removal of an ac- 
 knowledged evil, because others had taken an 
 injudicious course respecting it, " Would it not 
 be wiser to attempt to check, and ultimately to 
 remove the evils which must spring from a con- 
 tinuance of this system, rather than to do noth- 
 ing but oppose the mad projects of abolition- 
 ists ? " He replied that " it might be so, but the 
 south would not act upon compulsion." '' But is 
 the gradual extinction of slavery, by some 
 practicable method, the same thing as yielding 
 to the wishes of the abolitionists ? Is not that 
 the very course which they most of all disapprove? 
 and do they not appear to consider gradualism, 
 as they term it, more objectionable than even per- 
 petual slavery ? Is it not evident that the pres» 
 
176 
 
 ent relations of southern society must ultimately 
 change? and is it wise,fronri resentment at imperti- 
 nent interference, to let the only time escape, in 
 which it may be possible to act efficiently and 
 successfully ? " 
 
 I stated that the whole public sentiment of the 
 north was decidedly opposed to slavery. Mr. P. 
 replied, " so also is that of the south, with but a few 
 exceptions. A small party only is contending for 
 the propriety of perpetual bondage ; this party 
 is increasing, but is principally confined to South 
 Carolina, where the dissertation of Prof. Dew has 
 made some impression. 
 
 I then remarked, that though the sentiments of 
 the north were irreconcilably averse to slavery, a 
 large proportion of the talent and weight of char- 
 acter there was opposed to the movements of the 
 abolitionists, upon the ground that the course 
 recommended by them was founded in ignorance of 
 the real relations of southern society, and of the 
 difliculties in the way of its renovation. But was 
 it wise, I asked, while they were doing what they 
 could to give a prudent and safe direction to the 
 public mind, to declare to the world that nothing 
 should be done, until those who improperly inter- 
 fered should abandon such interference ? 
 
 Mr. P. remarked, that the subject had become 
 connected with politics, but that he deprecated 
 
177 
 
 any such connection, and was certainly conscious 
 of being influenced by no considerations of that 
 kind, in the part that he had taken. He regards 
 it as an alarmins: feature in northern abolitionism, 
 that it aims to carry the multitude with it, and to 
 overpower by numbers. 
 
 The conversation, wherever I go, is now turning 
 upon the insurrection in Mississippi, and upon the 
 summary measures taken to quell it. Mr. P. 
 remarked that the attempt was already made, but 
 in his view very improperly, to connect this with 
 abolitionism. Most persons, whom I hear speak- 
 ing upon the subject, express great pleasure that 
 the usual forms of law w^ere in this case superseded 
 by Judge LyncKs law. 
 
 Mr. P. says, he is not surprised that the doc- 
 trines of the abolitionists have gained jrround to such 
 a degree at the north. In the stand which they 
 take in favor of human liberty, he declares that 
 they are right. " God never intended that one por- 
 tion of mankind should be held in bondage by 
 another. Being abstractly right in this position, it 
 is not wonderful, that persons who are ignorant 
 of the difficulties in the way of emancipation, 
 should be clamorous that it should occur immedi- 
 ately. The only wonder is, that there should be 
 intelligence enough at the north to present so 
 powerful an opposition." 
 
LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Steam-hoat, on the Chesapeake, 
 July 29, 1835. 
 
 A Virginian, of no little influence, with whom 
 I conversed while in Richmond, says that " the 
 Union must ultimately be dissolved, and that, for his 
 own part, he cares very little how soon. It is im- 
 possible for the southern states to continue united, 
 against such a combination as are now opposing 
 their interests. The east and the west will always 
 be united in measures injurious to the south." I 
 replied, "suppose the division to have been made; 
 what then ? In what manner are the southern states 
 to be secured against the consequences of the rapid 
 increase of their colored population ? " He replied^ 
 "they will have no ultimate security, — for the 
 present, they could escape from the effects of the 
 abolition agitation." " But what is to be the end 
 of slavery? in what is it to result ? " "I don't 
 know ; I thank God I have very little to bind me 
 here." 
 
 The suspension of all measures for ultimate 
 emancipation seems to be universally attributed, in 
 
180 
 
 the slave-holding states, to the interference of the 
 Anti-Slavery Society. That the movement, begun 
 some years since in Virginia, was suspended solely, 
 or even in any considerable degree, on that 
 account, seems to me, however, wholly improbable. 
 The Anti-Slavery Society has been regarded with 
 no special alarm until very recently, while the 
 efforts at the south to fix a period to tlie exist- 
 ence of slavery have been, for a much longer time, 
 interrupted. The true solution is probably this. 
 The southern movement was begun under the in- 
 fluence of a recent and appalling calamity. As 
 time passed on, and no new disaster occurred, 
 those who disliked to part with their property, and 
 those who were perplexed to devise any plan of 
 relief, became more willing to postpone their 
 efforts. The increased demand for slaves in the 
 south-western states, and the consequent advance 
 in their price, contributed to the same effect. 
 When slaves become unprofitable, or their designs 
 are suspected, they can immediately be sold, and 
 removed to a safe distance ; and a vast revenue is 
 derived from their sale. The numerous emig[ra- 
 tions of the whites, who carry their slaves with 
 them, serve also greatly to diminish their number, 
 and the consequent alarm respecting them. It is 
 still true that apprehensions are occasionally enter- 
 tained in Virginia of fresh insurrections ; but this fear 
 
ISl 
 
 is not at present sufficient to stimulate to the adop- 
 tion of measures for ultimate emancipation in opposi- 
 tion to the combined operations of interest, uncer- 
 tainty respecting the proper measures to be taken, 
 and resentment at northern interference. TJie lat- 
 ter, as being more chivalrous, is the reason alleged 
 in public debates, and in newspaper paragraphs. 
 
 My inquiries in Richmond were much limited by 
 the absence of almost all the gentlemen to whom 
 I had letters. While there, I was also very ill ; and 
 my indisposition, together with the uncertainty 
 whether my friends, and those to whom I had let- 
 ters in Norfolk, were now there, determined me to 
 omit visiting it on my return. Investigations rela- 
 ting to the condition of the colored people, cannot 
 be made with propriety or even with safety in the 
 present excited state of southern feelings except 
 by conversation with those to whom our motives 
 are well known, and even then great caution is 
 necessary. 
 
 Baltimore, July 31, 1835. 
 
 The present high price of negroes is present- 
 ing a great temptation to unprincipled men to 
 attempt to sell such as are free ; and there is need 
 of constant vigilance in the northern slave-holding 
 states, to prevent the success of such iniquitous 
 
1S2 
 
 attempts. From letters read to me yesterday by 
 the Rev. Mr. McKenney, I became acquainted with 
 an interesting case of this kind, of which the follow- 
 ing is the outline. In one of the counties bordering 
 upon the Chesapeake, a gentleman, about twenty 
 years since, manumitted a number of his slaves. 
 The deed of manumission was required by law to 
 be registered within one year from its execution ; 
 but owing to some informality in the minute of the 
 magistrate before whom it was acknowledged, it 
 appeared to have been executed more than a year 
 before it was recorded. Their owner died ; and in 
 his will took no notice of them, having never 
 treated them as slaves, from the time when the 
 deed was executed. 
 
 The defect in the instrument having been re- 
 cently ascertained, a slave-trader who has purchased 
 the right of the heir, is now attempting to reduce 
 them again to slavery. A gentleman of the name 
 of B., who has often distinguished himself as the 
 friend of the oppressed African, hearing of the 
 meditated wrong, caused a writ to be issued to 
 apprehend the slave-trader, who had gone in pur- 
 suit of thehi. In this he had fortunately been suc- 
 cessful. The suit, however, on which he has ar- 
 rested him, has no connection with the case of the 
 manumitted slaves, of whom I have spoken ; but it 
 affords time to warn them of a danger, of which 
 
183 
 
 they have no more apprehension than any other 
 free citizens of Maryland. Still the suit is far from 
 being a fictitious one, or one in which the rights of 
 humanity are not concerned. It is founded upon 
 another transaction, of the same general nature, in 
 which this dealer in slaves had borne a prominent 
 part. A lady, who died some time since, had, by 
 her will, directed that a certain female slave should 
 be sold for ten years, and should then be free. 
 She was accordingly sold for that term. Such 
 sales of slaves, for a term of years, are not permit- 
 ted, by the laws of Maryland, to be made to persons 
 residing out of the limits of the state, or to professed 
 dealers in slaves, who are accustomed to send their 
 slaves to a market in another state. This slave- 
 dealer, in violation of the law, purchased the female 
 in question, and sold her to a regular southern 
 trader, by whom it is said she has been sent to 
 Norfolk, for the purpose of being shipped to New 
 Orleans, What the issue of these cases may be, is 
 still uncertain. The prosecutor is fearless, but 
 such are the evasions to which the traders resort, 
 that it is difficult to bring them to justice. 
 
 It is sometimes thought to be a proof of moral 
 courage, boldly to denounce all who are concerned 
 in the slave-holding system, although the assailant 
 of slavery may never have left New England on 
 his adventurous enterprise. But 'physical courage 
 
184 
 
 is often to be exhibited by the southern friends of the 
 colored race, to a degree of which the northern phi- 
 lanthropist is perhaps not fully aware. So desperate 
 is the game which the illicit trader is playing, that 
 he is prepared to carry it through, by almost any 
 act of violence and blood, in case he is interrupted 
 in his designs ; and if frustrated, the most summary 
 vengeance is sure to be taken, if it is in his power. 
 Several anecdotes are told of the personal intrepidity 
 of Mr. B., the gentleman who has so nobly volun- 
 teered in the cases above specified. On one occa- 
 sion, having been informed tliat a number of free ne- 
 groes had been seized, and were then detained at a 
 rendezvous of kidnappers, about twelve miles off, 
 and that they were upon the point of being removed 
 from the state, he immediately set off for their 
 rescue, with such assistance as he could obtain. 
 His movement, however, had been observed by a 
 confederate of the gang, w^ho set ofFat the same time 
 to warn them of their danger. This fact, too, was 
 known to Mr. B. ; and each exerting himself to the 
 utmost, they arrived at the place of rendezvous al- 
 most at the same moment ; and the gang, notified 
 of their danger, rushed out of the house to escape, 
 at the same moment that an armed guard was 
 stationed at every outlet to intercept their flight. 
 The gang were accordingly apprehended, but not 
 without a dangerous conflict ; and the free blacks in 
 their possession were liberated. 
 
185 
 
 On another occasion, having received notice that 
 a vessel was proceeding down the bay with free 
 colored persons on board, who had been kidnapped, 
 and were forcibly detained, he hastened to the 
 shore, and after hailing the vessel to no purpose, as 
 the traders did not choose to stop, he took a small 
 boat and boarded it, demanding the liberation of 
 the free negroes. When they denied that they 
 had any on board, he went among the slaves, telling 
 them that if any of them had a right to freedom, 
 they need not fear to say so — that he would protect 
 them at all hazards. Several of them then told 
 him that they were free. These he took before a 
 magistrate, and caused an investigation to be had, 
 which resulted in their liberation. 
 
 13 
 
I 
 
LETTER XXVII. 
 
 Baltimore, July 30, 1835. 
 
 The attention of the Methodist and Baptist 
 churches has been turned, for many years, to the 
 rehgious instruction of the colored population 
 of the south, and they have labored, in this 
 6eld, with the most encouraging success. Other 
 churches have not been wholly unmindful of their 
 duty in this respect, but none have equalled these, 
 either in the extent of their labors, or in the num- 
 ber of their converts. The preachers, by whose 
 labors these results have been accomplished, have 
 been, in comparison with those of some other 
 churches, plain and illiterate men ; and though 
 highly acceptable to the colored people, they have 
 in general been held in little respect by many of 
 the more intelligent part of the white population. 
 The consequences have been, to some extent, 
 unfavorable to the religious principles of the latter, 
 who, unfortunately, but perhaps not unnaturally, 
 came to regard piety as synonymous with igno- 
 rance. 
 
188 
 
 The importance of furnishing preachers of a 
 higher grade, in respect to literary attainments and 
 polite accomplishments, has long been felt by the 
 intelligent members of those churches, and a gradual 
 change has been for some years in progress. A 
 clergyman to whom I have been indebted for much 
 valuable information respecting the condition of the 
 colored churches, states that, many years since, a 
 bishop of the Methodist church remarked to him, 
 that a wide door was open at the south, and espe- 
 cially in South Carolina, for the religious instruc- 
 tion of the colored people, but that he had great 
 difficulty in finding suitable persons to occupy the 
 stations. He wished to find men w'lo could un- 
 derstand the views and feelings of the slave, and 
 who should still be so intelhgent and well-bred as 
 to be respected by the master. The time had 
 been, he remarked, when masters would not per- 
 mit their slaves to be taught, but now many were 
 desirous that they should receive religious instruc- 
 tion. In this he supposed that in general they 
 did not so much regard the good of the slave, as 
 their own advantage. He attributed a considerable 
 change in public sentiment, within his diocese, to 
 the following incident, which had become exten- 
 sively known : 
 
 A new overseer, who happened to be a religious 
 man, had been employed by a gentleman to take 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
189 
 
 charge of an extensive plantation. The first morn- 
 ing after entering upon the discharge of his new 
 duties, he called the slaves around him, addressed 
 them affectionately, read a passage of scripture to 
 them, and then, while they all knelt with him, he 
 offered up fervent prayers in their behalf. He did 
 the same at evening, and continued the practice 
 from day to day. The slaves, convinced that he 
 really cared for them, became strongly attached to 
 him, and highly distinguished for good order, obe- 
 dience and industry. The consequence was, that, 
 in a short time, the plantation was better cultivated 
 than it had ever been, and became remarkably 
 profitable to the owner. Inquiries were soon made 
 by neighboring proprietors into the cause of this 
 change, and a conviction was produced in the minds / 
 of many, that religion was of great importance to 
 the successful management of slaves. ^^..^s*^!/ 
 
 For the following abstract of the number of 
 colored persons in communion with the Methodist 
 Episcopal church in the United States, I am 
 indebted to the politeness of the Rev. William 
 McKenney. The document is well fitted to produce 
 in the public mind a high respect for the self-deny- 
 ing and truly christian labors of the pastors and 
 teachers of that church. 
 
190 
 
 Pittsburg Conference, 
 
 
 
 
 285 
 
 Ohio « 
 
 
 
 502 
 
 Missouri " 
 
 
 
 
 996 
 
 Kentucky " 
 
 
 
 
 5,709 
 
 Illinois " 
 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 Indiana " 
 
 
 
 
 273 
 
 South Carohna " 
 
 
 
 
 22,788 
 
 Virginia " 
 
 
 
 
 . 8,083 
 
 Baltimore " 
 
 
 
 
 . 13,851 
 
 Philadelphia « 
 
 
 
 
 . 9,025 
 
 New York « 
 
 
 
 
 516 
 
 New England " 
 
 
 
 
 320 
 
 Holstein « 
 
 
 
 
 2,593 
 
 Tennessee " 
 
 
 
 
 4,674 
 
 Mississippi " 
 
 
 
 
 2,622 
 
 Alabama " 
 
 
 
 
 3,163 
 
 Georgia " 
 
 
 
 
 7,421 
 
 Maine « 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 N. Hampshire " 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 Troy « 
 
 
 
 
 69 
 
 Oneida " 
 
 
 
 
 69 
 
 Genessee " 
 
 
 
 
 109 
 
 
 83,156 
 
 The conferences above-mentioned, although they 
 include all the states and territories, are not limited 
 by state lines. For exampje, the Philadelphia 
 Conference takes in the whole of the eastern shore 
 of Maryland, the states of Delaware, New Jersey, 
 or a part thereof, and only a part of Pennsylvania. 
 The Baltimore Conference includes all the western 
 
191 
 
 shore of Maryland, a part of Pennsylvania, and all 
 that part of Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge? 
 which lies between the Potomac and Rappahannoc 
 rivers ; and so of the rest. 
 
 The whole number of colored communicants, 
 belonging to this church, it appears, is 83,156; 
 and if to this were added the very large number 
 included in the Baptist and other churches, it would 
 be evident that the religious interests of our colored 
 population have been by no means wholly ne- 
 glected. 
 
 The assistant bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church in Virginia, has lately made the religious 
 instruction of the colored people the subject of an 
 interesting pastoral letter ; and the Presbyterian 
 churches are devoting particular attention to the 
 same subject. The labors of Rev. C. Van Ren- 
 salaer have contributed more, perhaps, than any 
 other occurrence, to stimulate the churches in 
 Virginia and Carolina to greater efforts in this 
 cause, and have shown that even northern clergy- 
 men, whose characters are a guaranty for their 
 prudence and good intentions, may take a part in 
 this great enterprise of improving the moral condi- 
 tion of that unfortunate race, without exciting 
 formidable opposition. There is, however, such a 
 
192 n 
 
 -* ■ .• 
 
 jealousy of foreign interference, that the work must 
 be left principally to the southern churches ; and 
 in proportion as piety shall increase among the 
 white population, exertions for the benefit of the 
 slaves may be expected also to increase. 
 
LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 Baltimore, July 30, 1835. 
 
 To a stranger, one of the most revolting features 
 in American slavery is, the domestic slave-trade ; 
 and hence the inquiry is so frequently made, 
 whether this evil at least may not be abolished. 
 Various plans have been proposed for the purpose, 
 but none which appear feasible; and it may well 
 be doubted, whether this feature can ever be 
 obliterated while the general system remains. 
 All which it appears possible to do, is to regulate 
 the sales in such a manner, that husbands and 
 wives, parents and young children, shall never be 
 separated. This, no one can deny, ought to be 
 done ; and if the system cannot exist with this 
 innovation, it ought not to be tolerated for a single 
 hour. The domestic relations are at the founda- 
 tion of all the virtue, and consequently of all the 
 happiness of society, and everything inconsistent 
 with the perpetuity of these relations ought at once, 
 everywhere, and forever, to cease. But whether 
 even this is practicable, is a question which I con- 
 
194 
 
 fess my inability to answer. I cannot see how 
 these separations are to be prevented, while the 
 husband is the property of one master, and the 
 wife and children of another, each master being 
 wholly independent, and his slav^es being considered 
 as in the most absolute sense his property. The 
 mode of accomplishing this change belongs to 
 southern moralists to determine ; but it is not a sub- 
 ject which they are at liberty to neglect, and least 
 of all, can the christian, who acts in view of his 
 Master's command not to separate those whom 
 God has joined in the marriage relation, consent 
 that such separations should be legalized by the 
 laws of a state of which he is an active and respon- 
 sible member. 
 
 When these relations are not violated, the char- 
 acter of the domestic slave-trade, considered as a 
 part of the general system of slavery, depends upon 
 the circumstances under which the transfer is made. 
 If the condition of the slave is improved in every- 
 thing essential, and especially if, with a full under- 
 standing of the nature of the transaction, he really 
 desires the transfer, no additional wrong appears to 
 be done by the new relation in which the parties are 
 placed. This case, so far from being uncommon, 
 is one which frequently occurs. 
 
 Removal at mature age from one's parents, 
 kindred, and early friends, and separation from the 
 
195 
 
 Scenes of childhood, though often painful events, 
 are unfortunately not peculiar to the African slave^ 
 They are the lot of the European emigrant, who 
 seeks in the new world an asylum from the op- 
 pression and poverty of the old, and they are 
 voluntarily encountered by a large portion of the 
 enterprising youth of this country, who leave 
 kindred and friends for a settlement in the western 
 wilderness. These, indeed, are all animated by 
 the hope that their circumstances in life may be 
 improved by their removal ; but the slave too 
 may be animated by the same hope, for slavery, 
 like freedom, has its different degrees of joy and 
 sorrow, of fear and hope, of pleasure and pain. 
 The domestic slave-trade then is not, under all 
 possible circumstances of the slave, an evil. To 
 be accounted the property of another, is an evil, 
 but beinff so accounted, it will be advantageous 
 to him to be transferred to a better situation, even 
 while he continues in slavery. 
 
 A literary friend who is a nativ^e of North Caro- 
 lina, remarked to me to-day, that he could tolerate 
 every thin 2; else about slavery better than the 
 shocking separations, which he saw continually 
 caused by the removal of slaves to the south and 
 west. When I told him that the evil seemed 
 inseparable from slavery in such a country as this, 
 he reluctantly assented to the position, after a mo- 
 
196 
 
 merit's hesitation, in a manner that seemed to me 
 tittle short of ludicrous. My meaning had been, 
 that a system, to which such evils were necessary 
 incidents, was intolerable ; his conclusion evidently 
 was, that if it cannot be made better, it must be 
 submitted to with all its inconveniences. 
 
 Philadelphia, Aug. 1, 1835. 
 
 Among my fellow passengers from Baltimore 
 was a dealer in slaves, whose principal field of 
 operations is Maryland. We had also Mr. C, a 
 southern planter, the owner of about a thousand 
 slaves, the market value of which is nearly half a 
 million. The former belongs to a class which is 
 deservedly infamous; the latter, if no other blot is 
 found upon his escutcheon than the purchase of 
 these slaves for his own emolument, is an honor- 
 able man. How charming a virtue is consistency ! 
 
 It is said that the mining operations of the gold 
 country are now employing great numbers of slaves. 
 The hopes, therefore, which have been entertained 
 by many, that the central parts of Virginia and 
 North Carolina, and the western districts of South 
 Carolina and Georgia, would soon be inhabited by 
 none but freemen, will suffer a disappointment, 
 should the present system of mining continue. It 
 
197 
 
 is probable also that this will prove to be the worst 
 form which slavery has ever taken in those states. 
 All the southern gentlemen with whom I meet 
 in this city, as well as those with whom I con- 
 versed in Virginia, speak of the increased severity 
 to which the negroes are subjected, and ascribe it 
 to the interference of the abolitionists. That their 
 interference has been, thus far, w holly mischievous 
 in its direct operation upon the condition of slaves, 
 no one acquainted with the facts can doubt. Still 
 I believe that, as a reason for the increased se- 
 verity with which the slave is treated, it is given 
 with but little reflection, and is at best but partly 
 true. It is the very nature of slavery, if continued 
 after the number of its subjects becomes so great 
 as to be formidable, to increase in the severity of 
 its restrictions. This effect was heightened sud- 
 denly and fearfully by the Southampton insurrec- 
 tion, which exhibited, in an appalling form, the 
 danger to which the white inhabitants, residing 
 upon the plantations, were exposed, from the 
 slaves by whom they w^ere surrounded. The first 
 impulse, as it exhibited itself in the debates of the 
 legislature of Virginia, was to remove the danger 
 by a system of progressive emancipation, which 
 should first prepare the slave for freedom, and 
 then remove forever the fetters which bound him. 
 Unfortunately, this impulse gradually ceased to 
 
198 
 
 operate, but the danger, which had occasioned it, 
 continued nearly the same. It remained, there- 
 fore, to increase the vigilance of the whites, and to 
 remove from the slave, so far as it was practicable, 
 every element of power. Hence has resulted a 
 more fixed determination to keep him in ignorance, 
 for " knowledge is power." This resolution has 
 been confirmed by the interference of northern 
 abolitionists, for this has heightened their present 
 dangers ; but, had no peril arisen from without, 
 the natural increase of danger, from the constantly 
 enlarging number of slaves, must soon have led to 
 the same measures which have now been adopted 
 for obtaining temporary security. The security 
 afforded by such measures, however, can be but 
 temporary. Like a torrent stayed in its course, 
 it is but accumulating greater force, and preparing 
 to burst forth at last with increased power, and to 
 spread around it a wider desolation. To keep mil- 
 lions in ignorance, while knowledge, like the light 
 of day, is beaming all around them, and to con- 
 tinue them in unconditional slavery, among a peo- 
 ple who glory in being as free as the air of heaven, 
 will be alike impracticable. The hope of freedom 
 Is cherished fondly by every slave ; and were the 
 cup of hope to be dashed from his lips — were he to 
 see that slavery, without mitigation, and without end, 
 was to be his portion — in that moment when hope 
 
199 
 
 should be extinguished in his breast, rage and des- 
 pair would arm him with a strength which would 
 lay waste the fairest portions of our country, and 
 cease its devastations only when the last throb 
 should cease in the last, despairing heart. 
 
 It Is in vain that we assure the slave that his 
 present condition is preferable to that of the free 
 negro ; — he may see that it is so, but he feels that 
 he has a riglit to freedom. In circumiStances more 
 favorable for Its enjoyment than those In which 
 the African Is now placed In this country, when 
 the fetters are removed from his body only, while 
 his mind continues In slavery to ignorance and 
 vice. By these he may be brutalized, but the 
 brutes whom he \\ ill most resemble are not the 
 ox and the ass, those patient and harmless drudges, 
 who quietly toil for the benefit of their masters, 
 but beasts of prey, who want only the power to 
 destroy those by whom they are held in chains. 
 
 A tendency to the employment of brute force, 
 or a coercion httle short of force, seems to be one 
 of the characteristics of the day In which we live, 
 as indeed it has been, in various degrees, of all 
 past ages. The master would coerce his slaves, 
 the abolitionist would coerce the slave-holder, and 
 the latter seeks in his turn, to restrain what he 
 terms the madness of fanaticism, by the employ- 
 ment of physical force and intimidation. 
 
200 
 
 This Is, in fact, the tendency of ultraism, in all 
 its various forms. The ultra advocate of temper- 
 ance is unwilling to trust to the force of argument, 
 though this has almost achieved for him the vic- 
 tory, but is disposed to finish his triumph by the 
 more summary process of legal and ecclesiastical 
 coercion. But it is a method of producing har- 
 mony which will succeed neither in the temper- 
 ance, in the anti-slavery, in the anti-abolition, nor 
 in any other cause ; and whatever gratification it 
 may occasionally yield to those who resort to its 
 aid, its mischiefs will usually, in the end, return 
 upon their own heads. The feeling which prompts 
 to coerce a christian brother to emancipate his 
 slaves, by refusing to hold christian communion 
 with him, is probably more akin to that which 
 seeks to check abolitionism by tar and feathers 
 and the gallows, than those who indulge the feel- 
 ing are willing to believe. 
 
 The following principles have received con- 
 tinually fresh confirmation at every step of my 
 journey, and in all my recent intercourse with my 
 friends, whether at the north or the south. They 
 are among the fundamental principles of the 
 " American Union," and, by a uniform adherence 
 to them, we may hope at length to remove the 
 almost innumerable obstacles which now prevent 
 
201 
 
 the desired improvement in the condition of the 
 African race : 
 
 1. The intellectual and moral elevation of the 
 free people of color demands the united efforts of 
 all the friends of their race. 
 
 2. The instruction of the slaves Is, by the laws 
 of the land, intrusted to their masters, but It is a 
 duty which they cannot neglect without great 
 guilt as well as danger. 
 
 3. No measure can tend to the ultimate benefit 
 of the slaves. In w hich the masters do not generally 
 and heartily concur. 
 
 4. The north will never attempt to interfere 
 tvith the slavery of the south, by any other means 
 than by moral Influence ; and, on the other hand, 
 will never consider the question of slavery in 
 our common country as one In which she has no 
 concern. 
 
 5. Our only safety In the dangers w^ilch menace 
 us in relation to slavery, must be sought In the 
 influence of christian principles in every portion 
 of the country, and among all classes of its inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
-! 3. 
 

 
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