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SOUTHERN INSTITUTES; 
 
 on, 
 
 AN INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND EARLY PR^y:ilI^ft 
 
 OP 
 
 SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE LAWS, HISTORY, AND GOVERNMENT OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 U^ THE PRINCIPAL NATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, FROM 
 
 THE EARLIEST AGES DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 l0t^s anh C0mmtnts 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE 
 
 SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 
 JT'!^ 
 
 A JIEirBER OF THE BAR OF LOUISIAX.i. 
 
 He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that 
 houoreth himself, and lacketh bread. — Prov. xii. 9. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1858. 
 
c^ 
 
 <;^' 
 
 Unterecl, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & co- 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Coui't of the United States for the Kasteru District 
 of PennsylTania. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting a treatise of this character to the public, 
 it may not be improper to state the motives which have 
 actuated the author, and the causes that have led to its 
 production. 
 
 No one inured to the institutions, habits, manners, 
 and customs of the South, can mingle to any consider- 
 able extent in social circles in portions of the free 
 States, without coming in collision with sentiments and 
 feelings that find no sympathy in his own heart — no 
 welcome response in his own bosom. Repeated alter- 
 cations of this character, within the last few years, have 
 convinced him of the gross ignorance and misconcep- 
 tion of the true spirit of our institutions, and of the facts 
 of their details, that pervade public opinion generally 
 in those sections of the Union. Born, and reared to the 
 verge of manhood, in a New England State ; educated at 
 one of her oldest colleges ; and having been for the last 
 fifteen years a resident of Louisiana, and almost an 
 annual sojourner for a season in some portion of the 
 free States — the author has enjoyed the opportunity of 
 
 becoming acquainted with the sources of information 
 
 (ui) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 accessible to the public, and with the misrepresentations 
 and frauds practised to perpetuate these errors on the 
 public mind. 
 
 The only hope or expectation of reward that he pro- 
 mises himself, is that of being able, to some extent, 
 to expose the imposition and frauds of designing men 
 and women, to elicit inquiry after the truth, and thus 
 to assist in forming a sound and correct public opinion. 
 Had it been his design to hire out his pen, after the 
 common custom of those petty scribblers, who flatter 
 popular error and pander to popular prejudice, for a 
 trifling reward of pelf and fame, the author would have 
 selected some subject more congenial to the vitiated taste 
 of the age. It is the duty of every friend of the Union, 
 as well as of every true lover of his country, to cast his 
 mite of oil upon the troubled waters, however feeble be 
 the effort and apparently powerless the effect — perchance 
 he may do something to allay the angry billows of fac- 
 tion, to still the tempest of party conflict, and to assuage 
 the acrimony of sectional animosities. We respectfully 
 submit to the Southern people, if there is not too much 
 apathy and indifference in literary and professional 
 circles, in regard to the insidious influences of the com- 
 bined system of our enemies to undermine our institu- 
 tions and upheave our social fabric. 
 
 There is a large and respectable portion of the good 
 citizens of the free States who are pledged to their 
 country, and to one another, to put down all this dis- 
 organizing work of fanaticism, to protect our institu- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tions from all lawless interference, and to stand firmly 
 by the constitutional rights of the South ; and it is the 
 duty of the Southern people to come to their aid, and 
 to furnish them with all the information and all the 
 legitimate means of defence in their power. Such is the 
 principal object of this treatise. It has been carefully 
 written, with the purpose of avoiding all sectarian views 
 in morals, politics, and religion, and of preserving, as far 
 as the author is capable, a high tone of moral and re- 
 ligious sentiment. In answering objections, and exposing 
 error in its various forms, many facts have been cited, 
 and much matter included in this inquiry, which might 
 not be pertinent to an impartial history. So also many 
 expressions have been used, arguendo, and numerous 
 remarks made, ex talione, that might well be omitted in 
 a purely literary treatise. For this we offer no apology 
 but the just provocation given us by our opponents. 
 
 These essays were all prepared for the press as early 
 as July, 1855 (as is well known in the book market) ; 
 but it was thought advisable, by many of the friends of 
 the South, to suspend their publication at that time, in 
 the hope that the agitation of the entire subject might 
 cease. Accordingly they have been withheld till the 
 present time, vainly awaiting the long expected event. 
 But, unfortunately, we have waited only to see the 
 breach widen and the combat thicken. It is now con- 
 ceded by all acquainted with the contents of this work, 
 that the present crisis imperiously demands something 
 of the kind. Consequently the author has endeavored to 
 1* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 modernize sueh portions of it as relate to the present 
 time, by the insertion of some additional matter, as well 
 as by appending notes and remarks upon passing events. 
 Meanwhile, some of the grounds seem to have been 
 partially occupied by others ; but still no disposition is 
 felt to change the main features of the book. 
 
 During the limited period that has been devoted to 
 this work, burdened as he was with the duties of his 
 profession, it has been impossible for the author to 
 devote such care and attention to style, in all its parts, 
 as might perhaps have rendered it more palatable to the 
 general reader ; but it being designed more as a prac- 
 tical delineator of facts and principles, than as a display 
 of beautiful composition, greater attention has been 
 devoted to the collection of the materials than to any 
 polish in the style of their presentation and arrangement. 
 
 CoxcoRDiA, La., October 1, 1857. 
 
AN ANALYTICAL 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION Page 13-16 
 
 ESSAY FIRST. 
 
 ON THE ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE OF SLAVERY 
 AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 The analogy of its origin to otlier principles of law — Its ne- 
 cessity in the earlj' days of nations as a principle of human 
 government — A penalty substituted for capital punishment, 
 by the dictates of humanity — Its justice — Its early preva- 
 lence — Egyptian Slavery — Patriarchal Slavery and the 
 Slave Trade — A principle of national law, founded on cus- 
 tom — The Slave Trade in Ancient Europe — The title of the 
 master to his slave 16-29 
 
 ESSAY SECOND. 
 
 ON HEBREW SLAVERY, OR SLAVERY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 The Old Testament as a code of civil laws — The relation of 
 master and slave in the same — An analysis of the statutes 
 of Moses upon — Did not create, but presuppose existence 
 of — Its prevalence by the force of custom — The property 
 of the master liable to be bought and'sold — The distinction 
 between the right of the master over slaves of Hebrew and 
 foreign origin — Position and treatment of — Manner of be- 
 coming such — The government of the Hebrew nation — Its 
 influence upon the character of their laws — The necessity 
 for the consistency of the prophets with the laws of Moses.. 29-50 
 
 (vii) 
 
Vm AN ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAY THIRD. 
 
 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 Its origin — Early use of terms to denote slaves — Founded 
 upon custom, or the law of nations — Argument of Aristotle 
 in support of — His definition of — Mode of becoming such — 
 Remarks of Plato upon — Notes of reference to, and pas- 
 sages from, original authors — An analysis of the laws of 
 Greece upon — Position and treatment of — Punishments, 
 ■ &c. — Number of — Classes and various employments of — 
 Value of — Mode of selling — Nations from which they were 
 obtained — Instances of voluntary slavery — Analogy between 
 Greek and Hebrew Slavery — Use of the words i5omXoj and 
 
 hUtrrti 50—68 
 
 ESSAY FOURTH. 
 
 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Recognized by the force of custom — Approved by most hu- 
 mane writers — Definition of a slave by the Roman code — 
 Manner of becoming such — Nations from which they were 
 principally obtained — Difference between treatment and 
 use of Greek and Roman slaves — The immense number of 
 — Numerous classification — Position, rights, and mode of 
 treatment of — Ergastula — Various modes of punishment — 
 Power of life and death over, by the master — Character of 
 Roman ladies towards — Various quotations from Roman 
 authors in notes upon — Its vast extent thi'ough the Pro- 
 vinces, and the vast number in the Empire, at the com- 
 mencement of the Christian Era 69-98 
 
 ESSAY FIFTH. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 The relation of Christianity to the institutions of civil govern- 
 ment — Only points of conflict — The influence of Christianity 
 
AN ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX 
 
 in vindicating moral and religious principles, and consist- 
 ency with Christian rectitude — Various instances of conflict 
 with civil institutions upon these points — Instances of the 
 gainsayings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles of the civil 
 laws — Instances of the approval of the relation of master 
 and slave — Figures of illustration drawn from — The Epis- 
 tles of Peter and Paul to the various places, persons and 
 churches to whom they were directed, considered — Analysis 
 of the laws and government of the Church upon, from 
 canons of, &c. — History of the English word "slave" — The 
 reason why it is not used more frequently in the Bible — 
 Numerous quotations from Greek authors to show that iov^o; 
 means a slave 99-132 
 
 ESSAY SIXTH. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Tacitus' description of German Slavery — Slavery among the 
 Lombards in Italy — Among the French in Gaul — Among 
 the Goths — Force of national law — Analysis of their va- 
 rious laws — Slavery in France — Instances and manner of 
 emancipation — Slavery in Britain — Slave Trade there — 
 Classification from Doomsday Book — Continued down to a 
 late period — Also in France — African Slave Trade com- 
 menced by Portuguese — Slavery of the Indians of America 
 — Spain engages in the same traffic — Royal Ordinance au- 
 thorizing negro slavery in America — Causes that abolished 
 the slavery of these nations 13o-147 
 
 ESSAY SEVENTH. 
 
 MORAL ATTITUDE OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," &c., con- 
 sidered with reference to — Objections stated and considered 
 — " Hath made of one blood," &c., comments upon — Criti- 
 cism upon translation of the original of — The doctrine of 
 the unity, equality, and common origin of mankind, consi- 
 
C AN ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 
 
 dered with reference to physical facts — Physical and intel- 
 lectual condition of Africa and the Africans — Physical and 
 mental facts relative to the unity theory — Description of the 
 various divisions and tribes of Africa, at some length — 
 Physical and moral impossibilities relative to their Asiatic 
 origin — The social and political history of the negro race — 
 Incapacity for native improvement — Contrasted with other 
 nations — Cause of their inferiority seated in their physical 
 organization — Anatomical facts relative to — Correspondence 
 of their anatomical structure with their mental and moral 
 character 147-201 
 
 ESSAY EIGHTH. 
 ^THE RELATIVE POSITION AND TREATMENT OF NEGROES. 
 
 C Origin of Negi-o Slavery — Slavery in Africa — Slave Trade 
 
 S 
 
 designed originally as a blessing to — Countenanced upon 
 pi'inciples of national law 201-205 
 
 Origin of Slavery in the United States. 
 
 It came here through the force of custom — Opposed by the 
 Colonists — Remark of Jeiferson upon — Number of slaves 
 at the adoption of the Constitution — "All men are created 
 equal," &c., considered — Not original with Jefferson — 
 Original meaning of, perverted by him — Value of slaves at 
 that time — Government could not pay 205-211 
 
 The Position and Treatment of the Slaves. 
 
 Definition of — Fiction of law relative to the idea of property 
 in — The power of the master to sell, a blessing to the slave 
 — Is not a chattel — Slavery the happiest condition the negro 
 can have in this country — Their employment, food, clothing, 
 punishment, and general mode of life — Their peculium — 
 Opportunities they have to acquire — Religious privileges — 
 Their chastity protected, as much as possible — Families 
 are not generally separated, laws against — The Southern 
 master the only true friend of the slave — Difference be- 
 tween the position of free blacks at the North and at the 
 South — Some objections answei'ed 211-23ft 
 
AN ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 
 
 ESSAY NINTH. 
 
 THE ABOLITIONISTS: CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 
 
 Who is meant by — Errors and misrepresentations of stated — 
 Injustice of charging slavery -with its abuses — The same 
 might be applied to marriage, &c. — Instances cited 23G-248 
 
 British Slavery. 
 The Press-gang, horrors of — Philosophical definition of 
 
 slavery 248-240 
 
 Slavery of the Agricultural Peasantry of Britain. 
 Their low wages, miserable hovels, food, clothing, &c. — Con- 
 dition of Irish peasants — Impossible to exti'icate them- 
 selves : 249-256 
 
 Slavery in the British Mines. 
 
 The colliers' condition — Male and Female — Infants — In- 
 stances of most revolting scenes of barbarism, from Report 
 of Commissioners 256-262 
 
 Slavery in British Manufactories. 
 
 Account of the trials, hardships, and sufferings of the opera- 
 tives, at some length, compiled from English authorities 262-271 
 
 British Slavery in General. 
 This account includes all their work-shops, street begging, 
 
 domestic service, &c 271-275 
 
 Slavery Work-House System. 
 
 Number of paupers in — Miserable condition of the Irish pea- 
 santry — Coolie Trade to the West Indies — Their con- 
 dition 275-280 
 
 Slavery in British India. 
 
 The tea and opium trade, salt monopoly, and all their attend- 
 ant consequences upon the poor natives — Sympathy of the 
 Abolitionists with — The history of conscience 280-2'Jo 
 
Xii AN ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAY TENTH. 
 
 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF SLAVERY IN THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Remarks upon the Dred Scott case — Criticism upon dissenting 
 opinions — Definition of slavery further considered — Expo- 
 sition of the master's right of property in a slave, or of 
 chattel slavery — Laws of different Slave States for the pro- 
 tection of slaves quoted, in a note — The power of the mas- 
 ter to sell and alienate the services of, a blessing to the 
 slave — The right of property in the services of the slave, 
 and to control his person so far, exists at common law — It 
 is recognized by the earliest decisions of the Courts of Eng- 
 land — Numerous decisions and Acts of Parliament quoted — 
 The same in this country — Decisions of Massachusetts and 
 others — The foundation of the title of the master to 293-332 
 
 Colonial Slavery in this Countrt. 
 
 Their "fugitive slave law" — Their Slave Trade, foreign and 
 domestic — Early manifestations upon, after formation of 
 the Union — Early legislation upon — Ordinance of 1787 — 
 Convention — Missouri Compromise — First violated by Abo- 
 litionists — Non-intervention — The rights of the South — 
 Abolition and Free-Soilism with reference to the Union and 
 its future prospects 332-388 
 
 APPENDIX 389-393 
 
SOUTHERN INSTITUTES. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 It is essentially the highest genius of the statesman and 
 political philosopher to place human institutions and human 
 progress upon their true foundation. Government, laws, and 
 the organic principles of society owe their perpetuity and ad- 
 vancement to the true theory of their existence. History is his 
 only measure of human experience ; and the experience of the 
 past can alone light the dark pathway of the future. The 
 smoke and din of turmoil and commotion may for a while over- 
 shadow its radiance, but to the undeviating eye of philosophy 
 and truth, it gradually reveals its twilight beams far in the dim 
 distance, and they brighten upon his view like constellations in 
 the celestial Gelds upon the steadfast gaze of the astronomer. 
 The eye of the true statesman and political philosopher is the 
 eye of faith ; it pierces the dim war-clouds of contending factions, 
 penetrating into regions of pure truth, into higher and more ample 
 fields of being, and then basks in balmy daylight as calm and 
 peaceful as summer sunshine, after the angry thunder-storm has 
 spent its fury and passed away. The theory of the South has 
 seldom yet been founded in truth, nor the philosophy of her 
 institutions put upon its true ground. 
 
 The faithful student of history will find, in the arrangement 
 of the following essays, such a continued chain of events in the 
 history of slavery and the slave-trade, as to show the analogy 
 of their origin and principles to those of all other laws and 
 institutions, and that they came down to us as well authenticated 
 by custom and usage, sanctioned, proved, and improved by the 
 wisdom and experience of ages, as any other right rule or rela- 
 tion of mankind towards one another. He will find from such 
 2 (13) 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a source and from such authority the substantial relation of 
 master and slave as necessary a regulation in the order of 
 human government as any other that enters into the organiza- 
 tion of society. In the history of this relation, the philosophy 
 of Aristotle upon the relation of mankind towards one another 
 is strikingly verified, "It is the province of mied to rule and 
 of matter to serve, of the strong to command and of the weak 
 to obey." This is a fixed fact in the philosophy of human 
 nature and lays at the foundation of all human progress. 
 
 Is it asked upon what principle slavery can be justified ? It 
 is upon the principle of the superiority of mind over matter, 
 of intellect and intelligence over instinct and brute force. As 
 the cause of this inequality lies beyond all human control and 
 beyond all human conceptions of right and wrong, so does the 
 substantial relation of master and slave. As well might we 
 be called upon to uphold or condemn sickness as health, sanity 
 as insanity, the sense of hearing as deafness, seeing as blindr 
 ness, idiocy as sound sense, folly as wisdom ; and a thousand 
 other mental and physical imbecilities and their attendant con- 
 sequences, incident to mankind, that arise wholly from the 
 imperfections of human nature. These must all alike remain 
 fixed facts in the philosophy of human nature, beyond the reach 
 of human laws, or remedy by human means. Laws and regu- 
 lations relate to them only upon the true principle of self- 
 government — the greatest amount of good to the greatest 
 number. The highest office of the philosopher, statesman, or 
 reformer, is to adopt the best possible means for the accom- 
 plishment of a given end, which implies an adequate knowledge 
 of the cause of the evil sought to be remedied ; and as an 
 essential principle of self-government, the State where the 
 remedy is sought should be the arbiter of its own policy. 
 
 But the world is full of visionary theorists and ITtopian 
 dreamers, who set themselves up as the cuslos morum of all. 
 These transcendentalists live too much in the ideal regions of 
 fancy, beyond the reach of practical reason, truth, and the sober 
 realities of life. Mistaking the world of men and things as 
 they really are, for a fanciful sketch, as they vainly conceive it 
 should, be, they erect an ethereal standard of right, moralize in 
 higher elements, legislate upon higher principles and govern by 
 "higher laws," than practically relate to this sublunary world. 
 Talent, for practical usefulness and motive power, everywhere 
 degenerates under their influence. Behold Massachusetts ! 
 " There is her history I The world knows it by heart." Once 
 the home of statesmen and of jurists ; the proud emporium of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 law, literature, and learning. But alas ! " Hath the glory 
 departed from Israel and the sceptre from Mount Lebanon." 
 Where now are her Adamses, her Parsons, her Storys, her 
 Websters ? And when her'Everetts and her Prescotts are no 
 more, the last echo of the great spirit of Seventy-Six will have 
 died away from his native hills, and the last link be broken in 
 the golden chain that connects the present and future with the 
 past. 
 
 The wisdom of modern philosophy has taught the world that 
 facts are the basis of all reasoning and all calculations ; that 
 truth is developed only step by step, by the slow and tedious, 
 yet sure, process of induction. The experience of the past 
 must lay the foundation of theory for the future ; that alone 
 can place truth and human improvement upon the true theory 
 of their advancement. Facts have always held a definite 
 relation to theory, but the distinction between ancient and 
 modern philosophy was in the relative position which they 
 occupied towards one another. Truth was too pure and exalted, 
 in the estimation of the Father of Grecian philosophy, to be 
 contaminated by the sordid position of a secondary relation to 
 facts in the order of investigation ; hence, by a single bound, he 
 reached the lofty goal, and then strove to wield the airy sceptre 
 of theory, like the sword of Ossian's ghost, over the warring 
 elements that lay beneath. 
 
 There is no philosophy beyond that which is the basis of the 
 operations of nature and of the transactions of mankind ; and 
 as theories and calculations that do not weigh and properly 
 estimate all the modifying conditions attending physical pheno- 
 mena are valueless, so all schemes of reform, and enterprizes for 
 moral or political improvement, are intellectually shallow, false 
 to facts, and faithless to the primal precepts of Christianity, if 
 the qualifying circumstances and conditions, combining to con- 
 stitute any particular form of evil, are not duly heeded and 
 entertained. The static laws of nature may be deranged in 
 their operation by the weight of a single particle of dust, thrown 
 by the feeble hand of man at his feet ; the proudest intellect 
 of man himself may be devoted from its stern purpose by the 
 unseen agency of a breath of summer wind, or shattered by so 
 little a thing as even the negative mind of another, a neglect to 
 satisfy a dream of love, or a vain hope of ambition. Such are 
 the imperfections and irregularities in both the moral and 
 physical world. The physician cannot sit at his desk and pre- 
 scribe an effective remedy for any specific class of maladies, 
 independent of the circumstances under which they exist. The 
 
16 ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE 
 
 mathematician and student of general science finds that abstract 
 theories, principles, and formulas, are but the stepping-stone to 
 a practical education, and without the aid of experience they 
 furnish but vague and uncertain directions for their own prac- 
 tical application. The astronomer may collect all his data and 
 prepare all his formula by the most skilful observations, but he 
 finds that many allowances for errors and many corrections for 
 irregularities must be made, even to approximate the truth in 
 any practical result. So, too, the tempest-tossed mariner finds 
 that the needle does not always follow the exact line of the 
 polar star, and that it will furnish but a blind guide to his 
 pathway across the deep, unless his calculations be made, and 
 his reckonings be kept, with a view to its natural variations. 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE OF SLAVERY AND THE 
 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 Law, in its most comprehensive sense, has been very cor- 
 rectly defined as a rule of action — a necessity arising from ex- 
 isting relations. This definition illustrates a general principle 
 in the philosophy of both the natural and civil law, which, in 
 this respect, as well as in many others, present striking points of 
 analogy. For law, whether natural or civil, human or divine, 
 can be nothing more than a set of rules, necessarily observed, 
 in order to secure the harmonious operation of any general 
 system of things. Hence, all general laws, to be perfect, must 
 be comprehensive in their designs, and universal in their appli- 
 cation : then their system of co-operation will be harmonious 
 throughout ; and constitute a perfect whole, just in all its pro- 
 portions, beautiful in its symmetry, and knit together by 
 the cohesive power of similar parts and analogous principles. 
 But such perfection in government can only be found in the 
 operation of natural or physical laws — those established by 
 Omniscience, or that have arisen ex necessitate rei, and neces- 
 sarily commanded obedience from the exigency of the existing 
 relations between the things to be governed. The same is true 
 in the origin and progress of human government and laws. 
 Hence, laws become authoritative and powerful just in proper- 
 
OP SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 17 
 
 tion to the necessity that exists for obeyinpj them ; and those 
 that are just and right will necessarily secure their own perpe- 
 tuity and supremacy.' Another source of the origin and 
 authority of civil law consists in the antiquity and absolute 
 force of the rule ; hence its necessity is tested and proven bv 
 the wisdom and experience of ages ; and customs long esta- 
 blished, and universally observed, become, by this means, the 
 most potent sources of law. When customs are so old that 
 the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, their origin is 
 lost in the oracles and mythical edicts of the gods. The feel- 
 ing of dependence upon the great wisdom and foresight neces- 
 sai'y to give validity, force, and effect to the institutions of go- 
 vernment and laws among men, has ever induced nations, in 
 their early ages, to attribute their origin to a divine source, 
 and to combine the civil, moral, and divine law all in a single 
 code. 
 
 The laws of Draco, Solon, and Lycurgus, were venerated 
 as the propitious gifts of the divinities that presided over the 
 destinies of Greece, and contained the whole code of morals, 
 theology, and national religion. Rome, too, claimed that the 
 foundation of her vast empire was laid by divine authority, and 
 that her laws were dictated and her destiny wielded by the na- 
 tional deities that her institutions had established. And hence 
 all moral and religious duties were reduced to the forms of 
 penal laws, and the Twelve Tables were studied and committed 
 with as much veneration by the Roman student, as the ten com- 
 mandments are at the present day. But the most perfect illus- 
 tration of this principle is found in the constitution and laws 
 of Moses. Here was a nation founded by the immediate direc- 
 tion of the one living and true God, and a constitution and 
 laws given them for their government in all time by Him. 
 Here, too, was an inseparable combination of the moral, civil 
 and ecclesiastical, or divine law, in a single code, emanating 
 from the same source, and administered by the same authority. 
 Whence, ecclesiastical or canon law has held an important 
 influence in the subsequent government of nations, and the 
 origin and formation of their laws. So, we see, that such is 
 the connection and relation existing between the physical, the 
 moral or divine, and the civil law, and such is the analogy of 
 
 1 AccorcUrig to the adage that necessity is the mother of invention, as 
 in the arts, so in government and laws, those most needed to supply the 
 ■wants of mankind are first to be discovered and brought into use : and 
 slavery and the slave trade is an example — it originated in the law of 
 necessity. 
 
 2* B 
 
18 ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE 
 
 their principles, the influence the one has over the other, and 
 the perfect consistency that should at all times exist in relation 
 to them, that no jurist can be master of the science without 
 being a philosopher, a moralist, and, to some extent, a theo- 
 logian. It is as much the province of the jurist as the priest 
 to discuss all theological and moral questions, so far as they 
 affect the interpretation and force of the laws of the land. 
 Man, it has been very truly said, is a social creature ; that such 
 is the constitution and law of his being as to render society a 
 condition essential to the development of his faculties, the per- 
 fection of his nature, and the attainment of the final design 
 and end of his creation. But the existence of society neces- 
 sarily implies the existence of government. But government 
 is nothing but obedience to a system of law, which is essentially 
 the foundation of society. The doctrine, then, of the supre- 
 macy of conscience, or that each one must be a law unto him- 
 self, would constitute each one of the individual members of the 
 body politic an independent sovereignty within themselves, and 
 resolve society into its original elements. 
 
 It is one of the fundamental principles acknowledged in the 
 philosophy of government, that each one of the governed 
 surrenders a certain portion of his so-called natural rights, for 
 the more safe and certain protection of those that remain. In 
 this sense, all self-government of nations is a contract, or com- 
 promise ; one of the necessary stipulations of which is obedience 
 to "the powers that be, " and a proper deference and respect 
 to the majesty and authority of the law. Hence, to rise up 
 against the State, to bid defiance to the edicts of the law- 
 making power, is treasonable and revolutionary, and necessarily 
 arms the compulsory power of the State against the offender. 
 There is no other alternative : or the institutions of all free 
 governments would be but a bundle of inconsistencies ; for one 
 of their fundamental principles is self-preservation and perpe- 
 tuity. Without coercion, constitutions and laws, like the old 
 American Articles of Confederation, would be but a soul cre- 
 ated under the ribs of death, a voluminous dead letter, as pow- 
 erless as the ponderous folios that contain their edicts. Who- 
 soever, then, shall bid defiance to the laws of the land, and 
 shall teach men so, the same is at heart a rebel and a traitor, 
 "and it were better for him that he had never been born," and 
 infinitely better for the world had he never lived. The neces- 
 sity of some supreme authority manifests itself in every grade 
 of society, and in every form of action. The absolute necessity 
 of rule or command implies the corresponding necessity of 
 
OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 19 
 
 obedience. The laws of nations, in their infancy, are all 
 founded and take their sonrce from customs. The province of 
 the legislator is at first to modify and adapt them to the wants 
 and condition of the nations to which they relate. These 
 consuetudinary regulations arise necessarily and imperceptibly 
 from the existing state of society, rather than from any specific 
 enactment of legislative will. It is not till the progress of the 
 arts, sciences, and civilization, have multiplied man's wants, 
 and thus produced a more multifarious, minute and complicated 
 classification of their rights, that those customs require to be 
 modified and digested into regular codes of laws. Hence, we 
 see the connection between history and jurisprudence, and the 
 light that they may naturally throw upon each other. The 
 surest key to the interpretation of the moral character and 
 political force of the laws of any nation, is its history. And, 
 in a like manner, when the history of any period is dark and 
 uncertain, these obscurities are best elucidated by the study of 
 its ancient laws. Many laws contain, in their preambles, the 
 causes that gave rise to the necessity of their enactment, and 
 thus reflect the image of the existing state of society. Others 
 point, in general terms, to the manners and customs, and thus 
 furnish, in themselves, a commentary upon the private and 
 public vices against which they have been enacted. 
 
 The advancement from barbarism to the various degrees of 
 civilization is a very slow and gradual process, as every step is 
 the result of a long struggle to correct a barbarous custom, or 
 overcome a vicious habit. This sad experience, at length, from 
 necessity fixes upon some general rules to be observed by all ; 
 and hence those rules, being long adhered to, become positive 
 laws, enforced by various penalties, according to the existing 
 state of society. The wild and ferocious manners, the untamed 
 passions and feelings of nations in their infancy, require more 
 vigorous laws and^ penalties ; the ruder and more intractable a 
 people, the severer must be the laws and penalties necessary 
 to govern them. Hence, the penal laws of all the ancient 
 nations have been extremely barbarous and severe. By the 
 laws of ancient Egypt, he who had it in his power to save the 
 life of another, and neglected to do it, was punished as a mur- 
 derer. The city in which a body was found murdered was 
 obliged to embalm and bestow a costly burial upon it. Perjury 
 was punished with death. The calumniator was subjected to 
 the same disadvantages, disabilities and disgrace that the 
 calumniated would have been had the slander been believed. 
 Forgery and counterfeiting were punished by cutting off the 
 
20 OP.IGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE 
 
 hands of the offenders. Treachery and the betrayal of the 
 secrets of the nation were punished by cutting out the tongue 
 of the traitor. Adultery by burning to death.' 
 
 By the Mosaic law, the crimes of incest, rape, adultery, homi- 
 cide, Sabbath breaking, &c., were punished with stoning, burn- 
 ing, or some other barbarous execution. 
 
 The first penal laws of Athens, framed by Draco, were pro- 
 verbial for their cruelty. The ancient laws of the Romans, 
 especially the Twelve Tables, were full of the most severe 
 punishments and capital inflictions for trifling offences. The 
 earliest period of nations is that in which the patriarchal rule 
 obtains, where the heads of single families were supreme au- 
 thority. This state of things must give rise to a multitude of 
 belligerent communities in a single province, and frequent wars 
 and dissensions among them. In these marauding and preda- 
 tory excursions the strong would necessarily overpower the 
 weak, and hence give rise to a combination of families to defend 
 themselves against the encroachments of their enemies. This 
 would give rise to united communities, in the form of tribes or 
 clans, with the head of a family ruling by his original authority 
 (except what was necessary to delegate to the chief ruler, as 
 king, for their common defence). Hence, it may fairly be sup- 
 posed the next step in governments, after that of the patri- 
 archal, was that of limited monarchies. Wars and dissensions 
 would necessarily arise among them, to enlarge and enrich 
 their dominions. Rapine, piracy and plunder would be the 
 predominant incentives to action. To restrain the depredations 
 of these marauding banditti, severe laws must be enforced 
 against them, and severe punishments inflicted upon them when 
 taken captive ; and hence the origin of the custom of saving 
 their lives, and reducing them and their descendants to slavery. 
 
 The custom grew into a positive law of nations, which has 
 obtained in all ages of the world, the moral character of which 
 will be hereafter considered. The first attempts at conquest 
 and plunder must have proceeded from wandering shepherd 
 tribes or clans, like the Tartars and Scythians, who wished to 
 change their territory for new pasturage (as the Black Feet 
 do their hunting grounds), and would often make incursions 
 upon fixed dominions of partially cultivated countries. Such 
 were the shepherd kings from Ethiopia, who were the first con- 
 querors of Egypt ; and, as we shall see, reduced many of the 
 Egyptians to bondage. Of such was the descent of "Amra- 
 
 1 Joquet, Origin of Laws. 
 
OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 21 
 
 phel, king of Sinai, Arioch of Ellasar, Chcdorlaoraer, king of 
 Elam, and Tidal, king- of nations, upon Bera, king of Sodom, 
 and others in the vale of Siddiiu," who put the kings of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah to flight, "and took Abram's nephew and all 
 his goods, and departed." But when Abram heard that his 
 nephew was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born 
 in his own house, and pursued thera. And Abram, with his 
 three hundred and eighteen well-disciplined servants, over- 
 powered the robbers, "and brought back all the goods, and 
 also his nephew Lot and his goods, and the women and the 
 people." 
 
 By this it would seem that Abram took quite a number of 
 captives from these tribes, both men and women, and the king 
 of Sodom wanted to divide with Abram, and take the persons 
 and give Abram the goods, and Abram did so.' Here were 
 five kings, with their tribes or clans, combined against the five 
 kings of Sodom and their neighbors, who put them all to flight 
 and despoiled them of their goods, yet Abram, with three hun- 
 dred and eighteen servants, conquered the victors, took them 
 captive, and returned the goods. We should judge from this 
 fact that the tribes over which each king had rule were very 
 small, and little else than marauding banditti. And hence the 
 necessity of inflicting a severe punishment upon them when 
 taken, to deter them from their frequent depredations. Here, 
 perhaps, occurs the first instance in the history of the human 
 race, of reducing captives taken in war to slavery. It cannot 
 be doubted that necessity gave rise to it as a penalty to prevent 
 piracy, pillage, and plunder, so common to these nomadic races 
 at this age of the world. It originated in mercy ; it spared 
 the life of the captive convict, which was in the power of the 
 captor, and sentenced him and his posterity to bondage. And 
 where is the injustice ? Had not a nation then as good a right 
 to protect itself by dooming its captives, taken in open at- 
 tempts at conquest (which was but another name for robbery, 
 pillage, and plunder), to perpetual bondage, as nations now 
 have to sentence certain criminals to the gallows. Grotius and 
 Puffendorfi", two of the most authoritative writers upon the law 
 of nations, approve of this rule as a principle of national law, yet 
 some say that it is contrary to the law of nature, as every man 
 by that is entitled to his freedom ; therefore, it is not right.^ 
 
 1 Gen. 14 : 1-21. 
 
 2 Vid. Argument of Mr. AUcny in the case of Summersett. Blackstone 
 attacked the justice of this law; but his remarks relate entirely to a bar- 
 barous kind of slavery peculiar to certain nations, and he views it wholly 
 
22 ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE 
 
 But this argument would destroy the whole coercive force of the 
 penal code. The belligerent attitude of nations necessarily 
 places them in the category of criminals with regard to one 
 another ; and, in barbarous ages, puts their lives in each others 
 hands. Hence they have, respectively, a right to consult their 
 own safety, protection and welfare, as well as the dictates of 
 humanity, in determining what punishment shall be inflicted 
 upon their captives. The same right and justice appertains to 
 them in this respect, that does to individual nations to regulate 
 their own internal policy with regard to crimes and offences. 
 The national law may as well, if necessity require it, doom a 
 captive and his posterity to perpetual bondage, as the muni- 
 cipal law may sentence a convict to Botany Bay, or the peni- 
 tentiary, for life, and thus cut off all hopes of posterity. As 
 nations become larger, more powerful, and are better capable of 
 defending themselves, and thus rendering life and property more 
 secure, the force and necessity of this penalty would be natu- 
 rally, as it has been in a degree, lost sight of. But, as we have 
 before said, to see the moral rectitude and political force of this 
 custom, we must look to the condition of those nations with 
 whom it originated, in their infancy and early ages. Look at 
 the condition of the English colonies in the first settlements of 
 Xew England ; alone, weak and defenceless, in the wilderness, 
 surrounded by hostile tribes, they were in a condition to fully 
 appreciate the necessity, moral and political force of this prin- 
 ciple of national law. They annexed this penalty to the cap- 
 tivity of iheir enemies, and enforced it to its fullest extent.' 
 Look at the new settlements upon our Western frontier, and 
 the emigrant trains crossing the plains to the far-off shores of the 
 Pacific ; here are instances strikingly illustrating the primeval 
 history and condition of those oriental nations, in the ages of 
 which we are now speaking. 
 
 When they are attacked at dead of night by a marauding 
 band of Camanches, to plunder their goods and leave nothing 
 but the bones of men, women, and children to mark the spot 
 of the tragical scene ; or, in the settlements, when the inhabit- 
 ants are startled at midnight from their slumbers, to rush into 
 the devouring flames of their dwellings and villages, or to fall 
 by the murderous blows of the death-dealing tomahawk, and 
 leave their wives and children to the unrelenting tortures of the 
 
 by the light and rule of enliglitened life, both of which are inapplicable 
 to the principle. Paley approves it. Blac. Com. I., p. 423; Friucip. 
 Philos., p. 158. 
 ^ See Essay on Political and Judicial Attitude of Slavery, post, p. 1293. 
 
OP SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 23 
 
 merciless savage — were these settlements nations of themselves, 
 •and these emigrant trains independent tribes, who made their 
 own laws and governed themselves, who would deny them the 
 right to reduce to slavery every savage son of these prowling 
 marauders whom they could capture ? 
 
 We are not advocating the validity of the lex talionis ; but 
 an absolute necessity arising from the defence, safety, and 
 general welfare of these almost defenceless people, would 
 require that death, or some such penalty should be inflicted 
 upon such invaders when captured ; and it would be an act of 
 mercy to spare their lives. Thus, the different tribes of Israel 
 under the patriarchs, as well as the caravans belonging to 
 the ancient commercial cities and nations of the East, governed 
 themselves and made their own laws. Nations arrayed in the 
 attitude of war are, in barbarous ages, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, robbers and murderers in the extermination of one 
 another, and as necessarily and justly forfeit their individual 
 rights, as men, to the captor, as the convict does those of a 
 citizen, to the State. Treaties of reciprocity for any specific 
 treatment of prisoners, expressed or implied, may, and have, 
 greatly improved their condition in later ages. But by the law 
 of nations the whole ancient world regarded captives taken in 
 war as slaves. It has been said that though one generation 
 might be reduced to slavery, yet they could not entail that curse 
 upon the succeeding one. But in the case of the captive, does 
 not his posterity owe their existence to the mercy of the law ? 
 And may they not abide the condition it gives them ? " Hath 
 not the potter power over the clay ?" This law is still in force 
 among the different nations and tribes of Africa;' and insti- 
 gated by avarice of other nations, its original purpose has been 
 much perverted, and its provisions much abused. But this is 
 no argument against the law itself; no law, custom, or institu- 
 tion which may be right in its original intention, and designed, 
 if properly applied, to subserve a good purpose, is accountable 
 for the perversions and abuses which it receives from the 
 wickedness of mankind. Else we might condemn the law of 
 capital punishment, and even the Christian religion itself, for 
 these have all been made the wicked instruments of ostracism, 
 carnage, and bloodshed, for the gratification of the sinful 
 passions of man. 
 
 This custom dates back to a remote period in antiquity, to 
 which the knowledge of the world now reacheth not. The curse 
 
 1 Wheat's Elements of International Law, p. 194. 
 
24 ORIGIN AND GENERAL TREVALENCE 
 
 of Noah, uttered soon after the Hood, that Canaan, the offspring 
 of his unfilial son Ham, should he a servant of servants, would 
 thus have been wholly unintellig-ible to the world unless there 
 had been some distinct idea preserved in the memory of Noah 
 and his family, of the relations of master and servant that 
 existed before the deluge. And here its necessity would seem 
 to be the more imperious, as we read that the earth was then 
 filled with violence. 
 
 Egypt, where are found the oldest landmarks of human 
 existence, was the great hot-bed and radiator of oriental servi- 
 tude ; she is termed in sacred scripture "the house of bondage. " 
 Her hieroglyphic and monographic inscriptions, from the earliest 
 glimpses of her history, furnish striking pictures of captivity 
 and the most abject subjugation. The captives being brought 
 to Egypt were not only employed in the service of the monarch, 
 but were interspersed through the several classes, and served 
 as domestics and servitors to their owners. The oldest monu- 
 ments on Egyptian soil are the work of slave labor. The 
 ^yjfAoaiov bovxoi, or public slaves, were employed in building 
 temples, cutting canals, raising dykes, embankments, and other 
 public works. The Israelites seem to have belonged to this 
 class of slaves — their work was brickmaking. Some who were 
 purchased by the grandees were employed in the same capacity 
 as the Mamelukes of the present day. Women slaves were 
 also employed in the service of females, like the Greeks and 
 Circassians in modern E'gypt, and other parts of the Turkish 
 Empire. In various tablets of ancient and Egyptian sculpture 
 and painting, we find them represented as being chained to- 
 gether by the neck and driven in gangs, accompanied by men 
 of their own nation, both negroes and whites. Hence, we con- 
 elude that a certain number were sent annually from the con- 
 quered provinces of the North-East, as well as Ethiopia. • 
 Hence it is evident that both whites and blacks were employed 
 as slaves, and that the ancient Egyptians followed the inexorable 
 custom of reducing captives taken in war to slavery. Whites 
 and blacks intermingled indiscriminately in the servile ranks of 
 bondage. From the same scenes of painting and sculpture, it 
 appears that they attended upon the guests when invited to the 
 house of their masters, something after the fashion of Greek and 
 Roman domestics, and were kept in the families of the priests, 
 as well as military chiefs. From this we may infer that the 
 
 1 See the plates of the great works of Belzoni, Champollion, and others, 
 taken from Egyptian art, to which reference is made post, p. 169, et seq. 
 
OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 20 
 
 right of possessing slaves was not confined to those who had 
 taken them in war, but that they were liable to be bought and 
 sold as other articles of trade. 
 
 The traffic in slaves was certainly tolerated and practised by 
 the ancient Egyptians, as well as by the Phrenicians, Chaldeans, 
 Hebrews, and surrounding nations ; and doubtless many traders 
 were engaged in bringing them to Egypt for public sale, inde- 
 pendent of those who were sent as a tribute. Abrara, when he 
 went forth to go into the laud of Canaan, "took Sarai his wife, 
 
 and Lot, his brother's son (xai rtavta -ta VTtapxovra avtwv oaa 
 fxtrjciavTOy xat, rtacar, ■^vxr,i' jji' ix-tr^Oavto tx Xappav'), and all the pro- 
 perty which they had gathered together [accumulated or pur- 
 chased], and all the souls that they had gotten in Haran" [or 
 every soul that they had purchased or acquired in Ilaran^]. 
 
 "And in the self-same day was Abraham circumcised and 
 Ishmael his son ;" "and all the men of his house born in his 
 
 house (xai 'oi 'ovxoysviLi autov, xai, 'oi apyvpuivrjroij &C.), and 
 
 bought with money of the stranger."' 
 
 Hence, it appears that Abraham, the founder of the Jewish 
 nation, both before and after the covenant, had trafficked in 
 slaves with the neighboring nations. When he went down into 
 Egypt, though as a private individual, yet to command the 
 attention and respect of Pharaoh, as well for the number of his 
 attendants, as for the beauty of his wife, he was accompanied 
 by a long train of "oxen and of he-asses, and men-servants 
 and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels."* 
 
 Abraham's household of servants was numerous ; for when 
 he went up out of Egypt, "he was very rich in cattle, in silver 
 and gold;" and when he went in pursuit of the banditti who 
 had carried off his nephew Lot, and all his goods, he could 
 muster three hundred and fifteen well-disciplined servants, of 
 those born in his house and capable of bearing arms, without 
 any of those " bought with his money of the stranger. " Taking 
 these, at a moderate estimate, to be one-fift4i of his home-born 
 slaves, it would give him at that time the enormous family of 
 fifteen huudred and ninety servants in his household. 
 
 These were the souls that they had gotten in Haran, in 
 
 ^ Septuagint, Tef. K. 12-5. In the Greek text the same verb is used to 
 denote the acquisition of the souls, that is used to denote that of the 
 property, and may be translated by bought ov purchased. 
 
 2 Gen. 12 : 5. 
 
 ' Gen. 17 : 2(5, 27. The Greek text has Kai 'oi apyvpwvrjroi cf aWoyciuiv 
 'tdvwv. Sept., literally, " and those bought with silver from foreign nations." 
 
 *Gcn. 12 : IG. 
 3 
 
26 ORIGIN AND GENERAL PREVALENCE 
 
 Egypt, Damascus, and surrounding nations. Eliezer, the chief 
 servant of Abraham's household, was a slave of Damascus ; 
 and Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, was an Egyptian woman. 
 Well might Abraham's servant say to Sarah : "And the Lord 
 hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great : and 
 he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and 
 men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses.'" 
 
 And the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph of his brethren 
 readily sold him to Potiphar on carrying him to Egypt; for 
 such was the custom of those days.^ The Phoenicians, who 
 traded in slaves, sold the children of Juda and Jerusalem to 
 the Greeks f as the people of Caucasus sent their boys and 
 girls to Persia ; as the modern Circassians do their children to 
 that country and to Turkey. Ancient Babylon, Tyre, and 
 Sidon, as well as all the cities and nations round about, were 
 slave markets, where the "descendants of Javan, Tubal, and 
 Meshech, traded the persons of men and vessels of brass ; and 
 the merchants of the earth bought their merchandize of horses, 
 chariots, slaves, and the souls of men."* 
 
 The Scythians of the desert had early established slavery 
 throughout the vast plains of the unknown North, whence all 
 the great slave markets of the South were supplied. The oldest 
 accounts of the land of Negroes, like the glimmerings of 
 Egyptian and Phoenician history, bear witness to domestic 
 slavery and the slave trade. Slavery outruns the oldest tradi- 
 tions of Greece.^ The Greek pirates, like the corsairs of Bar- 
 
 1 Gen. 24 : 25. This simple narrative of tlie marriage of Isaac, is one 
 of those historical incidents that show that human nature is the same in 
 all ages. His father, Abraham, being possessed of an immense fortune, 
 had, in his dotage, become too ai'istocratic and proud of his lineage to 
 allow his son to marry one of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt. He 
 therefore despatched his trusty servant to his native land, to induce some 
 Chaldean virgin to become his bride. He fits out a minister plenipotentiary 
 to negotiate the important matter of the marriage of his son ; he doubtless 
 commissioned him with full instructions as to what inducements he should 
 hold out to the young lady to accept his proposals. And true to the 
 instinctive impulse of human na'ture, as the most potent and persuasive 
 reasons he could offer to the daughter of Bethuel, the damsel of the city 
 of Nahor, to induce her to follow him back to the land of the Canaanites, 
 he presented her with bracelets of gold, and depicted to her in glowing 
 terms the great wealth of Isaac's father, and the great number of ser- 
 vants that he had. 
 
 2 Gen. 39 : 1 ; 44 : 9. 
 
 3 Amos 2:6; 8:6. "Because they sold the righteous for slaves and 
 the poor for a pair of shoes." 
 
 *Ezek. 27 : 13; Rev. 18: 13. 
 
 5 Odyps. 15 : 483. H. 9 : 595, T«.a it r aXoi ayovci, &c. H. 22 : 62. 
 Odyss. 20 : 149. 
 
OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 2T 
 
 bary roving* in quest of slaves laid the foundation of Greek 
 commerce ; each commercial town was a slave market, and 
 every cottage upon the seashore was in danger of the kid- 
 napper.' Every city that made war upon its neighbor exulted 
 over the number of its captives.^ The earliest slave markets 
 of Rome were filled with men of every complexion and nearly 
 every clime.' In early times the Romans, like the Greeks, ob- 
 tained most of their slaves from Asia — Syrians, Lydians, 
 Carians, Mysians, and Cappadocians are specially mentioned.^ 
 Though their trade afterwards extended to the western nations 
 of Europe, Germania, Gallia, and Britannia.^ When the Goths 
 and Vandals overran the Roman Empire, the great swarms of 
 Roman slaves began to disappear. But the middle ages wit- 
 nessed rather a change in the channels of the slave trade than 
 any diminution of its extent. The Saxon race carried the 
 most repulsive form of slavery into England ; where the toll on 
 the sale of a slave was only four times that of an ox.® The 
 long wars between the German and Sclavonic tribes, imparted 
 to the slave trade of the middle ages its greatest activity. This 
 traffic filled France and its neighboring States with such num- 
 bers of Sclavonian captives, that they adopted the name of 
 those people for a condition of servitude and bondage. And 
 every nation in western Europe still preserves a memento in its 
 language of the celebrated traffic in " Slaves.'" The Dneiper 
 early became a great highway through which the Russian mer- 
 chants transported their slaves to Constantinople. Greece, 
 Georgia, and Circassia, were laid under contribution to furnish 
 their annual tribute of ten youths and ten virgins, to supply 
 the harems of the Moslem Minotari of Turkey. 
 
 Close upon the verge of those interminable conflicts between 
 the Germans and Sclavonians of the North, followed those of 
 the Crusades and Holy Wars of the South and East. During 
 
 1 Isocr. Plateans 9, p. 406. Timceus apud Athen. 4, p. 264. Tliucid. 
 1. i. c. 4, 180 : 181. 
 
 2 Arist. Polit., 1. i. p. 2. 
 
 * Agmina exoletorum per nationes coloresque descripta Senaca, cpt. 
 xcv. l)e Brev. Vit. 
 
 * Beck's Gall, 201. 
 
 5 Cresar's Gall. Turner's Hist. An^lo-Saxon R. p. 294 : 337. 
 
 6 Temp.'s Int. to Hist, of Eng. p. 59. 
 
 7 Bancroft's Hist. U. S., vol. i., Art. Hist. Slave Trade. The French 
 word for slave is esclave ; Gex'man, Sclave; Dan., slave, sclave; Sw., da/; 
 Arm., sclaff; It., schiavo ; Sp., esclavo : Port., esclavo : see Webster. This 
 term is, therefore (as we shall show hereafter), of comparatively modern 
 origin. 
 
28 ORIGIN OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 all these long and exhausting sieges and campaigns, the law of 
 captivity was regularly enforced ; for centuries the two religions 
 ■waged a merciless war upon one another ; and Christian, 
 Saracen, Jew, and Infidel, were indiscriminately sold in count- 
 less numbers into irredeemable slavery. At Lyons, in "Venice, 
 and at Rome, they were exposed in market overt to be sold for 
 prices, and in lots, to suit purchasers. The whole number of 
 Moors brought under the yoke of the captor during the pro- 
 tracted wars of Granada, scarcely excels the number of Chris- 
 tians kidnapped and sold into slavery, by these roving corsairs 
 in Egypt and the Barbary States, after their expulsion and 
 emigration to Northern Africa.' 
 
 In the earliest gleamings of English history we find the foot- 
 prints of this inexorable law of captivity, that doomed thousands 
 of the vanquished to be subject to the power and will of the 
 victors. It doubtless originated in the conquests of the 
 Romans in that country ; but it continued through all the wars 
 of the Britons, Danes, and Saxons, triumphed as a para- 
 mount law during the existence of the Heptarchy, and subjected 
 thousands to hopeless bondage,' 
 
 The slave trade in England, the birthplace of American 
 jurisprudence, outlived the fusion of the live nations into one ; 
 survived the Norman Conquest, and continued, in a somewhat 
 modified form, under the disguised name of Yillianage, down to 
 quite a late period in English history.'^ 
 
 We have thus given a brief outline of the origin, progress, 
 and early and general prevalence of the slave trade, to show 
 that slaves have been deemed lawful articles of commerce by 
 the customs and laws of every nation ; that the traffic in them 
 is as old and universally prevalent as that in any other comodity; 
 that the law of captivity, originating in necessity, and founded 
 in mercy, justice, and right, gradually inwrought itself into the 
 texture of government and society, and imposed its authority 
 so favorably upon communities, that it became a paramount 
 principle of national law, and gave the purchaser a right and 
 title to the captive or slave, which became in the eyes of all 
 nations a vested right, as indefeasible by the force of any sub- 
 
 ^ See Art. Hist, of Slavery, &c.. in Bancroft's Hist. U. S. vol. i. 
 
 2 2d Black.'s, pp. 92, 93, by Monet. Lingard's Hist. Eng., vol. i. In 
 the abstract of the population of England, in the Doomsday Book, at the 
 close of the reign of William the Conqueror, the whole population is stated 
 at 283,242, of which the servi are 25,156, the ancillce, 967, &c. See Essay 
 on Slavery in the Middle Ages. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 29 
 
 sequent contravening custom, as that to any other species of 
 property. 
 
 A more minute inquiry into the laws, regulations, and extent 
 of the institution, in all the most important nations of antiquity, 
 as well as some of a more modern date, will follow in their 
 proper place. The more minutely we examine, and the later 
 we come down in the world's history, the more striking we find 
 the evidence of the absolute and indefeasible right and title of 
 the master to his slave. 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 We have no authentic reference upon the subject of slavery 
 in the ancient Hebrew nation but the laws of Moses, as they 
 are written in the Bible. The Scriptures, of the Old Testament 
 particularly, aside from their sacred character, we contend, have 
 a place in the history of government, literature, and law. In 
 analyzing the laws that are found in these records, we have 
 nothing to do with the divine legation of the lawgiver. Our 
 inquiry will be directed to ascertain what the law was upon this 
 subject, without any special reference to its divine character. 
 For this purpose we shall look into the Mosaic code as into the 
 code of any other nation, and apply the same rules of construc- 
 tion and interpretation. Our inquiry upon this subject is not 
 a theological, but a legal investigation ; we take up the 
 writings of Moses and the prophets as lawyers, legislators, 
 statesmen, and judges ; and discuss the principles which they 
 contain accordingly. 
 
 The relation of master and servant, as we have seen, dates 
 back as far as we have any authentic records of the human 
 race. During the patriarchal government of Israel we find 
 frequent mention made of both men-servants and maid-servants ; 
 and they were classed with the flocks and herds, goods and 
 effects of the master, which Abraham "had gotten in Haran," 
 and which the Lord God had given in blessings unto him, and 
 which Abraham had given unto Isaac' The first question 
 
 1 Gen. 24 : 35, 36. 
 
 3* 
 
30 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 that presents itself in this inquiry, is, whence arose this law 
 among the Patriarchs, in this early age of the Hebrew nation ? 
 Whence did Abraham, the founder of that nation, derive his 
 right and authority to buy and hold slaves ? We answer, and 
 undertake to show, that it was derived from the universal cus- 
 tom of the age ; that the practice was adhered to by common 
 consent, and had become a principle of international and com- 
 mon law ; as much so as the right to purchase and hold flocks 
 and herds. It was one of the primordial classifications of 
 property, that, as we have seen, obtained in all nations ; tliat 
 grew up, propria vigori, and enforced obedience to its prin- 
 ciples, in all ages, without the aid of legislative enactment. 
 
 The laws that first sprung up around this institution furnish 
 the only light upon its history, that has come down to us from 
 this remote period of antiquity. In analyzing the statutes of Jew- 
 ish law upon this subject, we may separate them, like all others, 
 into various classes. There are positive enactments of prin- 
 ciples that had no previous existence ; there are, also, statutes 
 that simply declare the law for the past, present, and future, 
 called declaratory statutes ; there are, also, amendments de- 
 signed to remedy some existing evil, by altering or modifying 
 the existing laws ; there are the directory statutes, that merely 
 prescribe certain forms as the most expedient to be observed. 
 
 The first question to be determined in arriving at a correct 
 understanding of any statute, is to determine to which of these 
 classes it belongs. 
 
 It has been asserted by the modern stoic professors of theo- 
 logy, that there is no evidence in the annals of Jewish law, that 
 slaves in that nation were saleable property ; and they deny 
 that they were merchandize, liable to be bought and sold like 
 other commodities. But Moses, in penning the Hebrew sta- 
 tutes, seems to have taken a different view of this subject. 
 " If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die 
 under his hand, he shall surely be punished." "Notwith- 
 standing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished ; 
 for he is his money.'" "He that smiteth a man so that he 
 die, shall surely be put to death. "^ 
 
 In these statutory provisions several important principles of 
 Jewish law are brought to light. The first is the distinct clas- 
 sification of persons, and the fundamental distinction of their 
 rank, as between "men" and "servants." To kill a man was 
 evidently a heinous crime, and required blood for blood ; but 
 
 1 Exod. 21 : 20, 21. ^ Exod. 21 : 12. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 31 
 
 to kill a servant, in the act of chastisement, and " with a rod," 
 was only visited with some form of punishment; yet we are no- 
 where informed what the penalty was.' Now, upon what prin- 
 ciple is this distinction of persons founded, and upon what is 
 this discrimination of punishment based ? It is all summed up 
 in the simple clause, {-to yap apyvptor avtov sativ,^) "for he is his 
 money;" literally, for he is his silver coin — which signifies 
 something more than mere property or possession, a medium 
 of exchange that might be given and received for other com- 
 modities, a kind of instar omnium. This latter clause of the 
 statute is evidently of a declaratory character ; it declares a 
 universal principle of law — a principle existing by common 
 consent — upon which is founded the reason for the exception 
 in the penalty of homicide, in the former clause of the same. 
 ^^ For he is his money. ''^ How so? He is not made so by 
 this provision of law ; the principle declared is no part of the 
 enacting clauses. It must rest, then, upon time-honored cus- 
 tom — a great principle of common law, so well understood and 
 so universally acceded to, that it is used in the statute as a 
 legal axiom. It was the same principle that filled the slave 
 markets of Egypt, Assyria, and all the surrounding nations, 
 with "bond-men and bond-maids;" "where the merchants of 
 the earth traded in their merchandize and souls of men."^ It 
 was the same principle by which Abraham and Lot held the 
 " souls that they had gotten in Haran ;" by which he purchased 
 Elizur of Damascus, Hagar the Egyptian woman, and all those 
 that he "had bought with his money." It was the same prin- 
 ciple by which the Ishmaelites bought Joseph of his brethren 
 for twenty pieces of silver ; by which they readily sold him to 
 Potiphar, when they got down into Egypt. It was the same 
 principle that caused Joseph's brethren to fear that they would 
 be seized upon and sold for slaves when they went down to buy 
 corn in Egypt, and found the purchase-money in their sacks. 
 It was the same principle by which the children of Judah and 
 Jerusalem were sold to the Grecians'* — "the righteous for 
 silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes." It was the same 
 principle by which "they cast lots for the honorable men of 
 
 1 The punishment provided for by this statute was no more than that 
 ■which prohibited cruelty to animals ; it seems to be founded wholly upon 
 animal sympathy, as much so as the duty to pull the " ox out of the pit ;" 
 not upon any right of the servant, for he is his money — as much so as 
 the ox. 
 
 2 Septuagint. s Ez, 27 : 13; Rev. 18 : 13. 
 * Joel 3 : 3-8 ; Amos 2:6; 8:6. 
 
32 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 Nineveh, and all her great men were bound in chains."' It 
 was the same principle by which Jews were compelled to redeem 
 their brethren that had been sold to the heathen.^ 
 
 "Again, if thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he 
 serve you." This passage of law is predicated upon the ac- 
 knowledged right of the Jews to buy Hebrew and other ser- 
 vants ; it is an amendatory provision, designed to remedy the 
 existing evil of making Hebrew servants perpetual bondmen 
 against their will, and necessarily implies that such was then 
 the law. It was an innovation in favor of liberty to the chosen 
 people. 
 
 "If a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall 
 not go out as the men-servants do." "If she please not her 
 master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her 
 be redeemed : to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no 
 power,"'' &c. No one can deny that the object of this statute, 
 like the one quoted above, was to ameliorate the condition of 
 Hebrew maid-servants. The limited term of service provided 
 for Hebrew men-servants had not yet, and was not, for forty 
 years afterwards, made applicable to Hebrew maid-servants.'' 
 But it was provided in their favor, that they could not be sold 
 to a strange nation. This amendatory statute is also predi- 
 cated upon two prevailing principles, and designed to remedy 
 a prevailing evil. It implies the right of a master to sell his 
 maid-servant or daughter to another master, and also the right 
 of the purchaser to sell her again, even to a strange nation, 
 which latter power is prohibited by its provisions. 
 
 The power to buy a Hebrew man or maid-servant necessarily 
 implied the power in all masters to sell them, as there can be no 
 vendee without a vendor. The whole tendency of the Mosaic 
 legislation upon this subject seems to be to ameliorate the con- 
 dition, particularly, of Hebrew slaves. What could have in- 
 duced Moses, educated, as he was, in the very hot-bed of Poly- 
 theism, and reared in "the house of bondage," to so far 
 outstrip all heathen customs and legislators upon this subject, 
 we leave to the answer of those whose province it is to study 
 
 1 Na. 3 : 10. 
 
 ■■' Nell. 5 : 8. " He that stealeth a man and selleth him," &c. : Exod. 
 21 : 16. Again, "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the 
 children of Israel, and maketh merchandize of him or selleth him," &c. : 
 Deut. 24 : 7. Unless such things -were possible and common, these penal 
 statutes would not have been enacted. 
 
 3 Exod. 21 : 8. 
 
 * Deut. 15 : 12. This was forty years after the enacting of the former 
 statute in favor of men-servants. See Deut. 1 : 3. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 33 
 
 the Scriptures as a body of divinity, and not as a mere code 
 of municipal laws. But even Moses, with all his humane ])ro- 
 visions in favor of Hebrew servants, never once attempted to 
 alter the condition of heathen slaves. He left them to the un- 
 mitigated rigors of the ancient laws. His object seemed to be 
 (as we shall see) to abolish Hebrew slavery, and to substitute 
 that of other nations. 
 
 " Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt 
 have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you ; of 
 them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the 
 children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them 
 shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which 
 they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. 
 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children 
 after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your 
 bondmen for ever : but over your brethren the children of 
 Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor." ' 
 
 The object of this statute is to distinguish betw^een the right 
 of the master over Hebrew and heathen slaves ; it contains a 
 clear and unequivocal declaration of the right of the master to 
 purchase slaves of foreign nations, and even of alien families 
 resident among the Israelites, and to hold them as absolute 
 property, alienable and heritable : to be a perpetual possession 
 for themselves and their children after them. "But if ye buy 
 a Hebrew servant, six years only shall he serve," &c. For, 
 "over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule 
 one over another with rigor." 
 
 The right of the master to buy, given in each of these 
 instances, at home and abroad, implies a right in the owner to 
 sell ; who then can say there is no evidence of a power to sell 
 slaves among the Jews ? 
 
 "And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her [?. e. a cap- 
 tive virgin taken to wife], then thou shalt let her go whither she 
 will, but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt 
 not make merchandize of her, because thou hast humbled her."- 
 
 This is another marked instance of an amendatory statute, 
 innovating upon a prevailing custom to remedy an existing 
 evil. The universal custom was to reduce all captives to mer- 
 chandize, and to sell them for money ; but here is an exception 
 created in favor of the captive virgin, humbled in the manner 
 spoken of in the statute. If such customs had not existed, 
 there could have been no necessity for the prohibition. Slaves 
 
 1 Lev. 25 : 44-46. 2 Deut. 21 : 14. 
 
34 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 under the Jewish law could become such by the law of nations 
 condemning captives to a state of bondage ; but this related 
 more particularly to those of a hpathen or foreign origin.' He- 
 brews might become slaves to one another, first, by debt ; ' 
 second, by theft, for the thief, if poor, was sold to repay the 
 property which he had stolen ; third, by birth, when the mother 
 was a slave — so that the children of the house, or born in the 
 house, became, as it were, a kind of proper name for slaves;^ 
 fourth, by sale or purchase. A man might sell himself, if he 
 "waxed poor,"* which was not common, or another who owned 
 a slave might sell him, but the seventh year broke his bonds. ^ 
 
 In relation to the position and treatment of slaves among 
 the Hebrews, it may be remarked that all servants, of every 
 kind, were to be circumcised,® partook of their religious privi- 
 leges, and rested on their feast and Sabbath days.' But they 
 possessed no civil rights, and were not otherwise considered in 
 the rank of persons. But a Hebrew sold for debt was not to 
 be treated with rigor, as a bond-servant, but as a hired servant, 
 and he shall be free with his family at the jubilee-year.^ 
 
 Cruel chastisement was punished, if the slave died under the 
 hand of his master.® A master who smote out the eye or tooth 
 of his slave, was compelled to set him free.'" Slaves enjoyed 
 rest on the Sabbath day, and attended the solemn feasts and 
 festivals." They were entitled to comfortable support.'" But 
 they possessed no property, no civil rights of their own, and 
 were doomed to the most menial service.'^ "Now therefore 
 are ye cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being 
 (bovjioi ") bondmen and hewers of wood and drawers of water 
 for the house of my God.'"* 
 
 Though the men-servants, by the statutes of Moses, were 
 entitled to their freedom on the seventh year if they were of 
 Hebrew origin, yet those of heathen origin found no such favor 
 in the eye of the law. They were, from the earliest periods of 
 
 1 Numb. 31 : 18, 32, 35, 40 ; Deut. 20 : 14 ; 21 : 10-12. 
 
 2 2 Kings 4:1; Is. 50 : 1 ; Matt. 18 : 25. 
 
 2 Gen. 14 : 14 ; 15 : 3 ; 17 : 23 ; 21 : 10 ; Ps. 80 : 16 ; 116 : 16. 
 * Lev. 25 : 47. 
 
 5 Lev. 25 : 25, 28, 39, 41. And by stealing them and selling them: 
 Ex. 21:16; Deut. 24 : 7. 
 « Gen. 17 : 12-14. 
 
 ' Exod. 20 : 10; Deut. 5 : 14; 12 : 17, 18; 16 : 10, 11. 
 8 Lev. 25 : 39-43. » Exod. 21 : 20, 21. w Exod. 21 : 26, 27. 
 
 " Exod. 20 : 10; Deut. 5 : 14; Deut. 12 : 17, 18; 16 : 10, 11. 
 1- Deut. 25 : 4 ; Tim. 5 : 8; 1 Cor. 9 : 9, 10. i3 2 Sam. 9 : 10 
 
 " Septuagint. is Josh. 9 : 23 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 35 
 
 Jewish history, made merchandize, and reduced to perpetual 
 bondage ; even among the patriarchs they were heritable pro- 
 perty ; for Isaac, the legal heir of Abraham, had in possession 
 a great store of family servants,' which he inherited from his 
 father's estate, for Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac,'' 
 except the sons of his concubines, whom he gave gifts, and sent 
 them away eastward ; in other words, he emancipated them 
 and sent,them away," in his lifetime. We find mention made 
 of Abraham's servants, that they were circumcised, both those 
 born in his household and those bought with his money of the 
 stranger." By this it seems that the slave trade was carried on 
 with the heathen nations even at that time, and that they were 
 lawful articles of commerce ; for Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, 
 was an Egyptian bondmaid, or female slave, belonging to 
 Sarah, Abraham's wife, doubtless bought of an Egyptian 
 slave-dealer, or a stranger. Captives taken in war were also 
 doomed to slavery under the patriarchs. When Abraham pur- 
 sued the banditti that had carried away his nephew Lot, he 
 captured them and brought back the goods, the women and the 
 people.^ It further appears that this right of property was 
 absolute, even to the power of life and death, over the slave ; 
 for when Sarah complained unto Abraham of the insolence of 
 Hagar, "Abraham said unto Sarah, Behold, thy maid is in thy 
 hand [completely under thy power] ; do with her as it pleaseth 
 thee.'"^ It should be i-emembered that what Abraham said 
 was law ; he was the absolute lawgiver to his household. What, 
 then, may be supposed to have been the consequence of giving 
 his wife (influenced by jealousy) absolute power over her ser- 
 vant Hagar ? As would be naturally supposed, she dealt so 
 harshly with her that she ran away. This is the first instance 
 we have on record of a runaway slave. But how was she re- 
 buked for running away by the heavenly messenger of the God 
 of Abraham, when the angel found her by the fountain in the 
 wilderness ? Did he give countenance, means and direction 
 wherewith to assist her escape? "And the angel said unto 
 Sarah's maid. Whence camest thou ? and whither wilt thou 
 go?" And when she answered, "I fled from the face of my 
 mistress Sarah," "the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return 
 to thy mistress, and submit thyself into her hands. "^ It seems 
 by this that the poor Egyptian concubine had no place of refuge, 
 
 1 Gen. 26 : 14. 2 Gen. 25 : 5. 
 
 3 Gen. 25 : 6. * Gen. 17 : 27. 
 
 5 Gen. 14 : 16. ^ Gen. 16 : 6. 
 ' Gen. 16 : 7-9. 
 
36 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 ill the sight of the God of Abraham, from the cruelty of her 
 jealous tormentor, but, by the decree of the Most High, she 
 was recognised as the lawful property of her mistress, and com- 
 manded to return and submit herself to her authority. Such, 
 then, was the character of this institution for nearly a thousand 
 years, during the ages of the patriarchal government of the 
 Jews, sanctified, upheld, and justified, by the direct interference 
 of Jehovah. It subjected both their Hebrew and heathen 
 slaves to the absolute ownership, power and control of the 
 master. By the Mosaic constitution and laws, enacted about 
 one thousand years after the flood, some improvements were 
 made in favor of the slaves, and some of the ancient rigors 
 essentially modified. The four hundred years of bondage 
 which the Israelites had suffered in Egypt, had so elevated 
 their condition, and so well prepared them for the enjoyment 
 of freedom, that directly after their delivery, the blessings of 
 the Mosaic code were given them for their government and 
 laws. This provided a system of gradual emancipation in 
 favor of Hebrew men-servants, by establishing an apprentice- 
 ship of six years, at the expiration of which all Hebrew men- 
 servants should be declared free. "If thou buy a Hebrew 
 servant,' six years shall he serve thee ; and in the seventh shall 
 he go out free for nothing,"' &c. 
 
 This code of laws, let it be remembered, was not given by 
 Moses for the regulation and government of the slaves already 
 owned and possessed by the children of Israel, but to regulate 
 the manner in which they should supply themselves with servants, 
 of which they were now entirely destitute. They were but a 
 baud of emancipated servants themselves, who had been for 
 four hundred years the subjects of a rigorous bondage. It 
 cannot be supposed that in that condition the relation of master 
 and servant had been preserved among them, or any distinctive 
 rights of property recognized for that length of time. They 
 went out of Egypt a poor, wandering multitude of about six 
 hundred thousand persons, destined to wander for forty years 
 as pilgrims in the wilderness, and to subsist upon the nutritious 
 dews of heaven. We read of no possessions which they had, 
 except the trinkets of gold and silver and the raiment that 
 the women borrowed of their Egyptian neighbors: "and it 
 shall come to pass that ye shall not go out empty, but every 
 woman shall borrow.^ In the third month after the departure 
 out of Egypt they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and there 
 
 1 Ex. 21 : 2-27. « Ex. 3 : 22. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 37 
 
 they received the law from Him whose word is forever settled 
 in Heaven. A code destined to rear them up as his peculiar 
 people and render them a " kingdom of priests and a holy 
 nation." Here now was a mighty nation in embryo, purified 
 from the sin of slavery, if such it was. They had atoned for 
 the iniquity of their fathers by four hundred years of servile 
 bondage. The question might well occur to their deliverer and 
 law-giver, Moses, whether the ancient institutions of their 
 fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, should be revived amongst 
 them. If the relation of master and servant were a sin, they 
 were the very people who could best appreciate the evil, having 
 so long suffered the wrong, and it would seem that they would 
 have been the last people to have peaceably submitted to its 
 revival among them. Yet in the Mosaic enactments made at 
 this time, the relation seems to be recognized, and the right to 
 purchase and hold slaves, to be spoken of as firmly established, 
 and as natural and necessary as the relation of parent and 
 child, or of husband and wife. " If thou buy a Hebrew ser- 
 vant (as though the right to do so was unquestionable) six 
 years shall he serve thee. " ' Xow whence arose this right to 
 buy a Hebrew servant, unless it was founded on the ancient 
 custom that existed among the patriarchs ? Here the right of 
 property, as also its ownership, is distinctly recognized, though 
 the power of life and death seems to be, in a measure, modified 
 and taken away. "If a man smite his servant or his maid 
 with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be pun- 
 ished ; notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall 
 not be punished, for he is his money. "^ 
 
 This passage, doubtless, has reference to other slaves than 
 of Hebrew origin : as all those were by law free on the coming- 
 in of the Jubilee, they could not be said to be the absolute 
 property of the master, or to be "his money."' But we shall 
 see that there was another class of slaves of foreign origin, to 
 whom this law of gradual emancipation did not apply. As a 
 general thing, all captives taken in war were regarded as slaves 
 by all the ancient world of which we have any authentic 
 account.'' But Abraham had a household of sixteen hundred 
 servants which the Lord had given him, some born in his 
 house, and others bought with his money, before we read of 
 any wars in which they could have been taken captive. 
 
 Under the Mosaic statute, slaves of Hebrew origin could 
 
 1 Gen. 21 : 2-27. = Exod. 21 : 20-21. 
 
 3 Ibid. * Num. 31 : 18; 32 : 35-40. 
 
 4 
 
33 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 become such only — 1st, by debt ; ' 2d, by theft (for if the thief 
 was poor he was sold to pay for the property he had stolen) ; 
 3d, by birth, when the mother was a slave ; ^ and 4th, by sale 
 and purchase, as a man might sell himself,^ which, however, 
 was not common. But the seventh year, and particularly the 
 Jubilee, put an end to all this slavery, as regarded the men- 
 servants of Hebrew origin. Such is the picture of the slavery 
 of Hebrews among Hebrews. But why this provision of the 
 Jewish law that set the men free at the end of the sixth year 
 did not apply to the female slaves, does not appear. When 
 Moses enacted on Mount Sinai that the Hebrew men-servants 
 should be free after the sixth year, he did not say a word about 
 the female slaves. But, after forty years, when on the borders 
 of the promised land, he made the law, which before was 
 applicable only to males, equally applicable to females. What 
 was the reason of this?* Evidently such was the state of 
 feeling among the Israelites, in favor of the ancient and time- 
 honored institutions of their fathers, at the time Moses first 
 began to legislate upon the subject, that he would have excited 
 open rebellion among them had he at that time attempted to 
 have freed both males and females alike, after six years' service. 
 But it took him forty years to mould the manners, customs, 
 and feelings of the nation to permit this to be done. Here we 
 have the example of the great Jewish legislator acting under 
 the direct inspiration of heaven, of the moral rectitude and 
 expediency of temporizing with the feelings and prejudices of 
 the people. Moses had the wisdom and foresight to see that 
 no precipitate action could change the established internal 
 structure of a nation or commonwealth in a day ; that the public 
 mind and public feelings must be prepared for the event before 
 they could be enfoi'ced. Would not many of the rabid fanatics 
 of the present day do well to profit by their example ? 
 
 " Thou shalt not deliver uuto the master the servant that has 
 escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, 
 even among you, "^ &c. Here occurs another direction for the 
 treatment of runaway slaves ; the law says they shall not be 
 given up. But it is evident, from the language of the context, 
 and the wording of the law itself, that it has reference only to 
 such slaves as escape from heathen masters unto Israel. Moses 
 was here giving laws for the government and discipline of the 
 army, and the regulations of the camp, when they wei'e at war 
 
 1 Kings 4:1. Is. 50 : 1. Matt. 18 : 25. 
 
 2 Gen. 14:14; 15:3; 17 : 29 ; 21 : 10. Ps. 86 : 16; 116 : 16. 
 
 3 Lev. 14 : 47. ^ Geu. 15 : 12-15. ^ jjeut. 23 : 15-16. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 39 
 
 The ninth verse of the same chapter, and the sixth one pre- 
 ceding the text, says : "When the host [an army] goeth forth 
 against thine enemies, then keep thou from every wicked thing." 
 Through the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth 
 verses, follow a series of rules and disciplinary regulations for 
 the camp ; then follows the passage of law just quoted : " Thou 
 shalt not deliver to his master the servant," &c. This has im- 
 mediate reference to deserters who came over from the enemy 
 to the camp of Israel. "They shall not be delivered up, but 
 they shall dwell with thee, even among you, in one of thy gates." 
 Such language could not be ascribed to au Hebrew slave, who 
 escaped from one tribe to another, for he would already be a 
 resident of Israel, and circumcised and dwelling among them. 
 It could apply only to the stranger, who had come among them 
 from a foreign land. And they were commanded to suffer him 
 to remain with them when he pleased, and not to oppress him. 
 This law was dictated by the policy of war, as well as by the 
 policy of humanity ; it was a kind of proclamation of liberty 
 to the slaves of the enemy who would come over to their side. 
 It is precisely the course adopted by Great Britain towards the 
 United States during the revolutionary war. This provision 
 was also undoubtedly favored by Moses for the reason that it 
 would induce desertion, and bring many of the heathen to a 
 knowledge of the worship of the one living and true God. He 
 knew that the treatment of heathen masters was much more 
 rigorous than that tolerated by his own laws ; for the heathen 
 master possessed power over his slave, even to that of life and 
 death, and could whip, scourge and maltreat him with impu- 
 nity. But not so among the Hebrews. Humanity and religion 
 both pleaded for the protection of the fugitive ; and Moses, 
 therefore, would not suffer him to be forced back into the dark- 
 ness of heathenism. But let it not be supposed for a moment 
 that this rule could apply to a Hebrew slave, who had escaped 
 from the tribe of Levi to that of Benjamin, or from one Hebrew 
 master to another. For such an one to harbor and withhold 
 his neighbor's servant, would be a violation of the tenth com- 
 mandment ; he could claim his property, which the Mosaic law 
 gave him a right to hold.' But the law, so far, has reference 
 
 1 "And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David ? and 
 wlio is the son of Jesse ? there are many servants now-a-days that break 
 away every man from his master." The Greek text of the Septuaglnt is : 
 afiixipov nenXitOvftefot eiaiv 1)1 6ov\oi ai/aXdipovi/res txaorof £k npoaunov roO (ci/piou aurou ; 
 literally, slaves running away from the vigilance of their own masters 
 are multiplying all the time. Nabal was disposed to treat them as runa- 
 
40 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 only to the government of slaves of Hebrew origen; we have 
 thus far shown the many modifications which Moses inscribed 
 in his code of laws, to modify the rigors and hardships of their 
 ancient condition. 
 
 We will next pass to another class of slaves known among 
 the Jews, who were of heathen origin. For these there was 
 no jubilee, nor any limitation to the time of service ; they were 
 doomed by the law to be bondmen for ever. " Both thy bond- 
 men and bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea- 
 then round about you ; of them shall ye buy your bondmen and 
 bondmaids. And they shall be your possession [or property] ; 
 and ye shall take them for an inheritance for your children 
 after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your 
 bondmen for ever : but over your brethren, the children of 
 Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.'" The 
 whole tendency of the legislation of Moses upon this subject 
 seems to be to extinguish the slavery of the Hebrews, and to 
 give them bondmen and bondmaids of the heathen round about 
 them ; and the last relic of it seems to have been where the 
 poor depressed Hebrew was compelled to sell himself into 
 slavery for debt, and the law could not permit him to be ruled 
 over as a bondservant, but as an hired servant;^ but he might 
 be redeemed by his friends.^ But it seems that it took many 
 years to exempt a people, whom God had delivered from the 
 yoke of Egyptian bondage, and conducted by a pillar of fire 
 through the wilderness to the borders of the promised land, 
 from this liability to become slaves. They had been delivered 
 by a miracle, and chosen to be keepers of the oracles of the 
 Most High, and to be raised up as a holy nation, a nation of 
 kings and priests and prophets unto God. It would, then, 
 seem incompatible with heavenly wisdom to suffer them to be 
 held as slaves. But even this could not be dispensed with, 
 without substituting in their stead a race of foreigners, who 
 should be procured from heathen nations, and be a perpetual 
 possession. And hence the command just quoted — ' ' Thy bond- 
 men and thy bondmaids shall be of the heathen round about 
 you," &c. This shows to every unprejudiced mind the neces- 
 
 wajs, and give them nothing, as though it would be a sin to harbor them. 
 1 Sam. 25 : 10. "And it came to pass, at the end of three years, that 
 two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maachah, 
 king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in 
 G.ith." Shimei saddled his ass and went down to Gath, and got Iiis ser- 
 vants, and no one harbored them from him. 1 Kings, 2 : 39-41. 
 1 Lev. 25 : 44-46. ^ Lev. 25 : 40. 3 Lev. 25 : 48. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 41 
 
 sity, arising from the jjrejudiccs and deep-seated feelings in the 
 Hebrew nation, of retaining and preserving to them the time- 
 honored customs and institutions of their ancestors. This 
 edict is one of the most remarkable to be found in the Jewish 
 statutes. It established three distinct principles to be the per- 
 petual law of that nation ; first, that Hebrews themselves 
 should no longer be regularly bought and sold as slaves (except 
 in particular instances, and then in a qualified condition) ; 
 second, that subjects of heathen princes were lawful articles of 
 commerce ; and third, that they should be heritable property, 
 and descend to the posterity of the Jews to the latest genera- 
 tion. Here is the great culminating point of the institution in 
 the laws of antiquity. Hitherto it had rested upon no better 
 authority than the manners and customs of the patriarchs, under 
 the implied sanction of their God. But now it was clothed 
 with the potency of positive legislation. It came to them in a 
 high edict from the Almighty, enacted amid the thunderings 
 and the lightnings of Mount Sinai, and proclaimed by the 
 flaming garments of Jehovah. Hence arose the high precedent 
 and example, that has branched off into every nation of the 
 earth, of trafficking in the subjects of heathen princes, and con- 
 tinued down through different channels to the present time. 
 Here were two great principles of law established by the word 
 of God, which we read is a truth for ever settled in Heaven ; 
 the one of the commercial, and the other of the law of inherit- 
 ance, founded upon a moral and fundamental relation of man- 
 kind to one another, and to their God. Its effects were not to 
 be limited to the Jewish nation alone, but it affected alike both 
 Jew and Gentile, and has its influence upon all nations in the 
 subsequent ages of the world. The right in the Jewish pur- 
 chaser to buy implies, necessarily, a right in the heathen master 
 to sell, and thus rendered the traffic a lawful commerce, as we 
 shall see, nearly all over the world. 
 
 The direct and necessary consequence of this law was to open and 
 keep open slave markets in the Gentile nations round about them.' 
 
 1 "There ye shall be sold for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no 
 man shall buy you." Deut. 28: 68 — i.e., in Egypt. "Ye have sold 
 yourselves for nought," &c. Is. 52 : 3. "Thou sellest thy people for 
 nought," &c. Ps. 44 : 12. " I will sell your sons and your daughters 
 into the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the 
 Sabeans, to a people afar off." Joel, 3 : 8; 3 : 3. "And they have cast 
 lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for 
 wine," &c. "Yea, and what have ye to do with me, Tyre and Zidon, 
 and all the cost of Palestine." ..." Because ye have taken my silver 
 and my gold, and have carried it into your temples." "The children also 
 4 * 
 
42 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 Becoming a lucrative branch of trade, it could not be confined to 
 Palestine ; but it would naturally, as it did actually, find its 
 way into all other nations. And if it is a sin in itself, Moses, 
 was as much to blame for entailing it upon the nations of the 
 earth, as Adam was for entailing sin upon the human race. 
 Many and varied have been the commentaries upon this statute 
 of the Jewish lawgiver — many and varied the apologies offered 
 for Moses, and for God himself, for enacting this law ; but there 
 it stands, as imperishable as the word of Grod, an everlasting 
 monument in testimony of the truths which it proclaimed ! — 
 There are some peculiarities in the circumstances under which 
 this law was passed, that were well deserving the consideration 
 of the philosopher, the jurist, and the moralist, to enable them 
 fully to appreciate its bearing and effect. It was given to be 
 the perpetual law of a people that had just been delivered from 
 a bondage of four hundred years, and who were destined to 
 become the light of the world, and to be separated by a middle 
 wall of partition from the darkness of the heathen round about 
 them. The history of their delivery from Egypt and of God's 
 providences towards them, showed that they were destined to 
 be the keepers of his holy oracles, to be his peculiar people, 
 and to become a holy nation, to bask in the sunlight of the 
 worship of the one living and true God ! 
 
 It was given to them at a time, too, when they had but 
 recently thro\ni off the yoke of bondage themselves ; when they 
 were too poor and depressed to profit by it ; when they were 
 far removed from the customs and institutions of their ancestors, 
 and when it might be well supposed that the recollections of 
 their sins (if such they were) were fast dying out from their 
 memories. Under these circumstances, coming from the source 
 whence it did, it seems to have come with an overwhelming- 
 weight of testimony in favor of its necessity, rectitude, and 
 moral power. If this time-honored institution, in the days of 
 the ancient Patriarchs of Israel, was a sin — if this custom of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is to be classed with the faults of 
 polygamy, concubinage, and the like, and justified only upon 
 the same grounds, (as is often asserted by modern theologians,) 
 
 of Juda and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, 
 that ye might remove them far from their border." Joel, 3 : 3-7. And 
 he said, I am a young man of Egypt, (JouAos) servant or slave to an Ama- 
 lekite. 1 Sam. 30: 13. — From this it would appear, that there were 
 slave markets open in all countries round about Palestine, as well as in 
 that country, and that a foreign and domestic slave-trade was extensively 
 carried on. — "I got me servants and maids, and had servants and maids 
 born in my house: I also had great possessions." Eccl. 2 : 7. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 43 
 
 why was it re-instated by the permission of High Heaven among 
 their descendants, after their delivery from Egypt ? Do we find 
 the other vices mentioned sanctioned in the same manner, and 
 to the same extent ? And wliy did Moses, under these circum- 
 stances, permit them to buy and to hold a Hebrew male slave 
 or servant for six years ? And why did he limit this term of 
 service to men servants, and for forty years, leaving the females 
 even of the Hebrews to serve indefinitely ? These are questions 
 easier asked than legitimately answered. But how easily are 
 they disposed of by some, by drawing the veil of mystery over 
 the scene, and pleading ignorance of the ways and dealings of 
 the Almighty; then seal the sacred volume, extinguish the light 
 of divine truth, as a lamp to our feet and a guide to our lives. 
 It is often asserted that this example of Hebrew slavery fur- 
 nishes no authority in justification of the slavery of modern 
 times ; that it was a peculiar institution, permitted to a peculiar 
 people, to make the world tributary to them, as a punishment 
 for the wickedness of heathenism, and for other reasons known 
 only to its divine author; that it has been repealed, abolished, 
 and done away with, by the advent of the Messiah and the Gos- 
 pel Dispensation. It is not necessary here to discuss the 
 mooted question among theologians, how far the doctrines of 
 the Christian religion went to abolish the rights, ceremonies, 
 and laws, of the Jewish nation. It is conceded by all, that 
 the great principles of the moral law remained unchanged ; 
 neither can it be denied that the principles of the commercial 
 law, and of the law of inheritance, remained the same, as we are 
 expressly told that the founder of the Christian religion came 
 not to abolish or destroy the law, that "his kingdom was not 
 of this world," and not designed to interfere with the civil or 
 political institutions any further than they were incompatible 
 with its precepts. But do we find one word in the New Testa- 
 ment that directly or indirectly militates against this ? Not 
 one word. It would have overthrown the civil law of Israel. 
 What, then, was the condition of the Mosaic statute iu the days 
 of the Apostles, and as long as the Jews were a nation or a 
 province ? To determine this, we must consider the nature of 
 the government under which this ordinance was passed, and its 
 influence upon the character and perpetuity of its laws. Ac- 
 cording to the scripture of the Old Testament, the government 
 of the Hebrew nation was in the nature of a theocracy, or under 
 the immediate supervision of God. It was at first administered 
 by judges of divine appointment, who held the supreme rule 
 until the days of the kings ; hence, they were literally governed 
 
44 HEBREW SLAVERY, 
 
 by the laws of God. These laws were essentially perpetual, 
 und could not be repealed or modified, except that it was done 
 by the same authority that had at first given them sanction. 
 
 This state of things could not be interrupted, without an 
 entire change of government, effected by a revolution. 
 
 Hence, the statutes of Moses, the great founder of the Jewish 
 constitution and laws, necessarily continued in force, except 
 such as were modified and repealed by the New Testament, as 
 long as the Jewish nation existed. Neither the prevalence of 
 the Roman dominion, nor the subsequent conquest of Titus and 
 Vespasian over Palestine, had any effect upon the provisions 
 of the commercial and of the civil law previously in force in 
 that province. It is a well-established principle of the law of 
 nations, as well as civilization, that the acquisition of one na- 
 tion by another, by conquest or other ways, leaves the muni- 
 cipal laws and institutions unchanged, except so far as they 
 are wholly incompatible with the government of the reigning 
 sovereign. 
 
 But Hebrew slavery was not incompatible with the govern- 
 ment of the Roman emperor, for the same existed in Rome. 
 So that the Mosaic statute was still the law upon this subject 
 in Palestine, even to the days of the Apostles, and as long as 
 the nations of the Israelites existed. Having never been re- 
 pealed, it still continues in all its moral force, although there is 
 no nation now to which it is politically applicable. The laws 
 of God were at first adopted by resolutions of the Plymouth 
 colony. They were thus politically applicable to that people, 
 and they, under their permission, purchased slaves, sold cap- 
 tives, &c. 
 
 Founded upon the fundamental relations of mankind to one 
 another, and to their God, it rests upon the basis of moral 
 principle, and stands unrepealed and unrepealable. And at 
 the ingathering of the ancient Israelites to resume their ancient 
 nationality, this law, though it may have slumbered for thou- 
 sands of years as a political dead letter upon the dusty alcoves 
 of the libraries, yet will it then, like the Phoenix spirit, from its 
 own ashes, spring into newness of life. 
 
 The late Professor Moses Stuart, of Andover Theological 
 Seminary, in a pamphlet entitled "Remarks on the Recent 
 Speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster" (referring to his great 
 speech of 1850, on the subject of slavery), said (page 36) : 
 "The whole tenor of the Mosaic legislation on the subject 
 seems to show that the permission to purchase heathen slaves, 
 was one of the means employed by Moses to render heathenism 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 45 
 
 contemptible in the eyes of the Hebrews," "No one can 
 reason from the case of the Jews — the favored, pre-eminent, 
 secluded nation — to the case of men who lived after the coming 
 of Him ' who broke down the middle wall of partition between 
 Jews and Gentiles,' proclaimed one common God and Father 
 of all ; one common Redeemer and Sanctifier ; that this God 
 is no respecter of persons, and that he has ' made of one blood 
 all the nations that dwell on the face of the earth.' I say no 
 one can now crave liberty to purchase slaves of either Jews or 
 Gentiles on the ground of Mosaic permission. He might as 
 well insist on the liberty of polygamy and concubinage, both of 
 which Moses allowed.' Where did Abram get his sixteen 
 hundred slaves which God had given him, some of which were 
 bought with his money, and some born in his house ? And 
 where did Sarah, his wife, get the Egyptian servant Hagar, 
 before the covenant with Abram, by which Israel was chosen 
 as the peculiar people of God's blessings ? Upon what prin- 
 ciple was this permission given to the Patriarchs to buy slaves, 
 to hold them as heritable property, to do unto them as they 
 pleased and transmit them to their children ? Professor Stuart 
 seems to have entirely lost sight of the force of this ancient 
 custom of Patriarchal law, and the imperious necessity that 
 compelled Moses to revive and reinstate it among their descend- 
 ants when they should dwell in the promised land. 
 
 When they came near to the borders of Canaan, a thousand 
 endearing associations connected with the history of their 
 fathers sprang upon them. They grappled their time-honored 
 customs and institutions to their hearts with locks of steel. 
 They acquired this by association with the Egyptians who 
 were a most tenacious people of their customs. But, if it was 
 the object of Moses to degrade the heathen in the estimation 
 of the Jews (as it only would), why did he permit the Hebrew 
 women to linger in an indefinite servitude for forty years after 
 the law of Jubilee, before he allowed them to partake of its 
 benefits ? And why did he allow them to purchase their 
 brethren as slaves for six years ? 
 
 The only rational conclusion is that the force of this custom 
 
 1 But were polygamy and concubinage generally allowed ? was there any 
 general permission given to them by statute ? I trow not. The sophistry 
 of this argument consists in placing the historical narrative of the private 
 vices of individuals on a par with the statute laws of Moses. The first 
 and great command upon the subject, " Thou shalt not commit adultery," 
 covers the whole ground ; if there be any exception to this provided for 
 by law, it is strictly Umited and for a specific purpose. (See Note, post, 
 page 46.) 
 
46 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 was so inwrought into the policy, of their national existence, 
 so time-honored and reverenced in the sacred memories of their 
 fathers, that it could not be eradicated from their feelings ; and 
 even their own brethren could not be wholly exempt from its 
 effects. 
 
 But because some of the Patriarchs and men of Israel fell 
 into the evil practices of polygamy, concubinage, &c. (which 
 are nowhere allowed or permitted by any law, ordinance, or 
 decree of that nation, and which can only be imputed to them 
 as the private vices of individuals), are they to be placed upon 
 a footing with the customs and institutions sanctioned and 
 upheld by the potent arm of divine legislation ? Had Moses 
 ever given general permission or sanction to polygamy and con- 
 cubinage by any edict, law or ordinance, then, and not till then 
 can the cases be considered parallel. The sophistry of an 
 argument that quotes the private vices of individuals to con- 
 demn the laws and institutions of a nation, is too apparent to 
 need refutation.' 
 
 Another class of anti-slavery writers array the prophets and 
 followers of Moses against his holy enactments, and quote their 
 language as in open opposition to the established laws and 
 institutions of the nation. 
 
 Here again it is necessary to recur to the position which 
 Moses and his ordinances occupy with i-egard to the prophets 
 and later writers of the Jewish nation. He was the chosen 
 
 1 "Thou shalt not commit adultery ;" what thus becomes of polygamy ? 
 "Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore," &c., Lev. 
 19 : 29. " And he shall take a wife in her virginity," Lev. 21 : 13. If 
 there is any passage in the Mosaic statutes that gives a general permis- 
 sion to take a plurality of wives, or to keep any number of concubines, 
 it has escaped my observation. The whole spirit of the Mosaic code 
 (wi^h a single exception, and that for a specific purpose), from the seventh 
 commandment to the end of the law, is against it. "And they say unto 
 him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now 
 Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned," &c., John 
 8 : 4-5. "Then shall they bring out the damsel to the door of her 
 father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her with stones that 
 she die,"Deut. 22 : 21. Compare Deut. 22 : 28-29; also 24 : 1-6. "For 
 this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife ; 
 and they twain shall be one flesh," &c., Mark 10 : 2-9. Compare 1 Cor. 
 6 : 15-19, and 10 : 8. "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself," &c., 
 Deut. 17 : 17. Compare Mai. 2 : 15, "And did he not make one," &c. 
 "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister," &c., Lev. 18 : 18. "My 
 dove, my undefiled is but one," &c., S. Sol. 6 : 9. "Give not thy strength 
 unto women," &c., Prov. 31 : 3. " The seed of the adulterer and the 
 whore," Is. 57 : 2-5. See Numb. 25 : 1-9. "For they be the children 
 of whoredom," &c., Hos. 2 : 4-8. See Ezek. 16 : 27-39 ; 23 : 35-38. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 47 
 
 instrument in the hand of God to deliver the Israelites from the 
 cruel hands of Pharaoh, to be their counsellor and guide during 
 their weary pilgrimage through the wilderness, to resuscitate 
 the exhausted energies of the ancient Hebrew nation, and 
 finally plant them safely within the borders of the promised 
 land. He established a government and laws, to be their 
 government and laws forever ; not liable to be gainsayed nor 
 subject to repeal and modification by any earthly ruler that 
 should come after him. When did the subsequent prophets 
 and teachers undertake to amend, gainsay, or abolish these laws ? 
 The universal answer must be, At no time whatever. Repeal 
 them they could not, for their commission and business was to 
 explain and enforce them. Amend them they could not, for 
 they were already perfect in the sight of Heaven, and what 
 they were designed to be under the whole Jewish dispensation.^ 
 Gainsay them they could not, for they held their offices by 
 divine appointment, and this would have introduced confusion 
 into the Mosaic jurisprudence. All they could do was to ex- 
 plain them, to rectify mistaken constructions, correct popular 
 errors and enforce a rigid observance of all the requirements 
 of Mosaic law. Yet a multitude of quotations from the prophets 
 and later writers are pressed into the service of these abolition 
 writers, who would fain place the prophets in the same hostile 
 attitude towards the constitution and laws of Moses, that they 
 themselves occupy towards the constitution and laws under 
 which they live. 
 
 The principal one of these texts, and the one most frequently 
 referred to, is that of Is. 58: 6. " Loose the bonds of wick- 
 edness ; undo the heavy burdens ; let the oppressed go free ; 
 break away every yoke." The prophet further enjoins that 
 they shall give bread to the hungry, shelter to the poor wan- 
 derers, and clothing to the naked. He then adds (by way of a 
 general duty to their brethren, including all the foregoing in- 
 junctions) : " Hide not thyself from thine own flesh !" Surely 
 it does not include heathen slaves. The prophet could not 
 have commanded the Jews in defiance of the Mosaic statute, 
 by virtue of which they held them as heritable property to be 
 their bondsmen forever ; to break their yoke and let them go 
 free. The term, "thine own flesh" means their kindred by 
 blood, fellow countrymen, citizens of the same commonwealth.^ 
 The passages referred to above have no special relation to 
 slaves, either heathen or Jewish, unless, perchance, it might 
 
 ' "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to 
 it, nor any thing taken from it." Eccles. 3 : 14. 
 
 2 Gen. 29 : 14. 2d Sam. 5:1; 19 : 13, 14. Judges, 9 : 2. 
 
48 HEBREW SLAVERY. 
 
 include a certain class of poor oppressed Hebrew slaves whc 
 were wrongfully held by their masters, and not liberated when 
 their term of service had expired.' Another passage is often 
 cited as a denunciation against slaveiy, which reads thus : 
 " Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and 
 his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's services with- 
 out wages and giveth him not for his work."^ To preserve a 
 due consistency between the law and the prophets, through the 
 ecclesiastical jurisprudence of the Jewish nation, some other 
 interpretation must be sought to this passage than a denuncia- 
 tion against the laws and institutions of Moses. In view of 
 this law, it would be a strange idea to hear the prophet speak of 
 defrauding slaves of their wages,, and hence we find that the whole 
 matter is explained by the language of the context (vs. 11), 
 which shows that the oppressive and tyrannical Shallam, the 
 degenerate son of Josiah, and heir of his throne, is the sole 
 object of this denunciation. ' ' He built large chambers, wide 
 houses ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion," by exac- 
 tions upon his subjects. Another passage is also often cited : 
 it reads thus : " Open thy mouth for the dumb, in the cause of 
 all such as are appointed to destruction ; open thy mouth ; 
 judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy."* 
 It seems that the dumb, here spoken of by the prophet, were 
 those who had cases pending before some judicial tribunal, who 
 were poor and needy and about to be ruined or appointed to 
 destruction by some privation of their rights, whose pleadings 
 could not be heard in consequence of their want of influence 
 and power, and thus by some bribed, corrupt, and unjust judge 
 who refused to hear their pleas or redress their wrongs, they 
 were forced to be dumb. But would this language apply to 
 heathen slaves ? had they any causes to be heard in the Hebrew 
 courts of justice which could then be pleaded and righteously 
 adjudicated ? ISTo one will so pretend. By the law of Moses 
 they were the property or money of their master, and had no 
 rights independent of their interest or their will. Another 
 passage : " Do justice to the afflicted and needy; rid them out 
 of the hand of the wicked."'* The Psalmist is not here preach- 
 ing treason against the government and laws of his country, by 
 commanding the people to wrest the slaves from the power and 
 authority of their masters, in open defiance of the Mosaic sta- 
 tute. This language is also addressed to the judges who act 
 unjustly: "How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the 
 
 1 24 : 10. 2 Jer. 22 : 13. 
 
 3 Prov. 31 : 8, 9. * Psalms, 82 : 3, 4. 
 
HEBREW SLAVERY. 49 
 
 persons of the wicked?" "Defend the poor and the father- 
 less, &c. ;'" then follows the above quotation. 
 
 The wicked here spoken of must mean those who dragged 
 the poor people into courts, to force exactions from them through 
 the injustice of the judges. But the question again recurs, 
 had the judges, as such, anything to do with the slaves? Were 
 they ever brought into courts by their masters ? The answer 
 is at hand ; the masters needed no court but their own, and 
 had a summary process within their own power. ^ 
 
 Another quotation is often cited : "Ye have not hearkened 
 unto me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and 
 every man to his neighbor."^ In this passage, also, we cannot 
 apply the terms brother and neighbor to the heathen slaves that 
 were lawful articles of property. But the context shows us 
 that the prophet is here threatening the Jews with Divine judg- 
 ments on account of their disobedience and perfidy to the law 
 of Moses, in not liberating their brethren when their time of 
 service had legally expired, or when the jubilee year had come." 
 We read that, in many instances, they paid no regard to this 
 provision of the law, but continued to hold them in bondage. 
 Another passage is also cited for the same purpose: "Hide 
 the outcast, bewray not him that wandereth. "^ But who are 
 the outcasts and the wanderers here spoken of? Are they run- 
 away slaves ? A glance at the context shows us that they were 
 the fugitive daughters of Moab who fled from their sanguinary 
 invaders and sought safety in the land of Israel. The prophet 
 presents them as addressing the Hebrew people, beseeching 
 them (in the words quoted) to conceal them in a place of safety 
 and not to tell the pursuing enemy where they are ; that is, not 
 to bewray them. What application, then, has this language to 
 the case of a slave escaping from one tribe of Israel to another ? 
 Many other quotations that are often made by abolition writers 
 might be explained in a similar way ; but these are suiScient to 
 illustrate the truth that the consciences of the prophets and 
 later rulers of the Jewish nation could never come in conflict 
 with the constitution and laws of Moses. 
 
 It cannot be denied by any candid person, that the traffic in 
 
 1 Ps. 82 : 2. 
 
 2 "A servant will not be corrected by words, for though he understand 
 he will not answer." Prov. 29: 19. The Greek text of the Septuagint has 
 "oiKcrrji aK^npo; an unruly or turbulent slave cannot be corrected by words, 
 plainly indicating that he must be whipped. " And that servant that 
 knew his master's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes," 
 &c. Luke, 12 : 45-47. 
 
 s Jer. 34 : 17. * Idem. vs. 12-16. * Isa. 16 : 3. 
 
 6 D 
 
50 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 heathen slaves was sanctioned by the laws of the Jewish nation ; 
 that it was held by them to be a principle of common law, ac- 
 knowledged by common consent as a universal custom or prin- 
 ciple of commercial law, and that such slaves were property, 
 transmissible and heritable. Now, we ask, if that institution 
 is a great moral evil, a malum in se, a high-handed sin against 
 God, to be classed with polygamy, adultery, theft, perjury, and 
 the like, why was it thus sanctioned by the law of Moses ? Is 
 there any instance, in the Mosaic statutes, where permission is 
 given to steal, to commit adultery, perjury, and the like, for 
 any purpose, or under any circumstances ? Can it be supposed 
 that this illustrious example would have been set, and this high 
 precedent been established before the world by Him who cannot 
 err, had it been in itself a sin against God ? These are ques- 
 tions which we suggest to anti-slavery theologians to read and 
 ponder. 
 
 ESSAY III. 
 
 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider the position of Christ and 
 his Apostles with regard to the constitution and laws of Moses, 
 and to discuss the principles and doctrines of the New Testa- 
 ment in relation to the institution of slavery, we propose to 
 present some of the leading features of that institution, as it 
 existed in those countries where they dwelt, and where they 
 travelled, and spent their labors, and with which they must 
 have been familiar.' 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that the word slave does not occur 
 in the Bible ; therefore, we call the attention of the reader to 
 the words that are used by certain profane writers in treating 
 
 I At the commencement of the Christian era, the Roman empire ex- 
 tended over the ancient Greek nation, and those States were held subject 
 to the dominion of Rome, with which Christianity had to contend. Yet 
 each State retained its own peculiar laws, institutions, and municipal 
 regulations. Hence, it becomes necessary, in showing the proper relation 
 of Christianity to the institutions of civil government in this particular, 
 and the true position of Jesus Christ and his Apostles with regard to the 
 slavery of the Roman empire at that time, to give an analysis of the 
 laws and government of that institution in ancient Greece, as well as 
 Rome. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 51 
 
 upon this subject, which we will show to be the same that are 
 used in the Scriptures of the New Testament, and that they 
 mean what we understand by the word slave. The reason why 
 that word is not used in the New Testament we will explain 
 hereafter. 
 
 Greece, like other nations in their infancy, was, in its early 
 ages, in a state of piratical warfare. The Pelasgic tribes seem 
 to have led somewhat of a nomadic life ; and cattle, as the great 
 means of subsistence, were the first objects of plunder. Here, 
 the same law of necessity gave rise to the custom of reducing 
 captives to bondage. To turn their slaves, so acquired, to 
 some profitable source of revenue, necessity again induced the 
 inhabitants, by degrees, to engage in agricultural pursuits ; 
 finding them thus profitable, men, women and children were 
 eagerly sought after as slaves. A sea that had innumerable 
 islands, coasts and ports, would naturally offer powerful incen- 
 tives to the kidnapper. Hostilities would naturally ensue, and 
 hence might first arise the estimation of Greek piracy, which 
 laid the foundation of Greek commerce, and became such a 
 fruitful source of slavery. 
 
 One of the fundamental principles in the early organization 
 of Grecian society, was, that freemen should be all equal, and 
 that they should be served by slaves. The soil was cultivated 
 by slaves on the public account, the freemen eat together at the 
 public tables, and their families were provided for from the 
 public stock.' There is a time referred to, by the historians of 
 Greece, when the Hellenes are said to have possessed no slaves.^ 
 In the Homeric period, however, we find that it prevailed 
 throughout the Grecian States. These are the evils, we are 
 told in the Iliad, that follow the capture of a town : the men 
 are killed ; the city is burned to the ground ; the women and 
 children of all ranks are carried off into slavery.* 
 
 The complaint of old Priam, of the slaying of his sons, and 
 the dragging of his daughters into slavery, is another allusion 
 to the slavery of captives.* The command that Penelope's 
 housekeeper gives to her attendants, shows that she had quite 
 a number at her command.^ We read that no less than twenty 
 
 1 See Lawb of Minos, by Plato and Aristotle. Sicyon, Corinth, and 
 Argos, were thus divided. 
 
 2 Thus Herodotus, speaking of the Athenians, says, vi. 137: "oO yri/i 
 tlvai TOVTOv TOv Xf't'i"' "(fiai kco ov6i roij dXXoi'f EXX/joioiVeraj." " They Say there 
 was a time when they were not slaves to the other Greeks." 
 
 3 " TcKva fe r' ayovat aWo'i Padv^uifov; re ywatKaf." 111. IX. o94. "And 
 
 others cari'y away the children and women of high rank." 
 
 < 111. xxii. G2. 5 Odyss. xx. 149. 
 
52 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 were required to execute her orders ; the whole numbei of 
 maid-servants were fifty. These and many other instances that 
 might be cited, show that slaves were quite common and nu- 
 merous during this heroic period. But at this time the slaves 
 were mostly captives taken in war ; though this was not uni- 
 versally the case, for captives are made articles of sale in 
 Homer.' 
 
 As in all other nations, in the march of civilization, when 
 predatory excursions had grown less frequent, and the States 
 had become more powerful, better able to defend themselves, 
 and life, liberty, and property had become more secure ; there 
 was, at length, no method by which slaves could be obtained 
 except by purchase. Hence the Sopiaxwroi,' (the captured slaves), 
 and the apyvpavr^toi, (the purchased slaves), were always distin- 
 guished.^ 
 
 In the progress of civilization it became a custom for the 
 Hellenes to set the captive Greeks free for a certain ransom, 
 feeling ashamed of enslaving their own countrymen. But just 
 in proportion as this source of supply failed, the traffic in bar- 
 barians, at the same time, increased to supply their places." 
 
 Although the idea, that Greek could not justly enslave Greek, 
 put an end to the subjugation and slavery of their own coun- 
 trymen, yet we nowhere find a dissenting opinion to the legality 
 of the trafi&c in barbarian slaves. 
 
 This, as we have seen, was admitted by universal consent to 
 be a lawful commerce. Plato, just and humane as he was, never 
 dreamt of excluding the slave elements, in this form, from his 
 ideal state, which was to include nothing inconsistent with na- 
 ture and reason. 
 
 He says, in his sixth book of laws, "there is nothing sound 
 in the feelings of a slave (Sovxoj) ; nor ought a prudent man to 
 trust them in anything of importance," as the wisest of all 
 poets says : — 
 
 "Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day 
 Makes man a ((5odXos) slave, takes half his sense away." 
 
 1 "^opt'aXtoror." Odyss. XV. 483. ^ jgocr. Platse, 9, p. 406. 
 
 ' "OuK riv ndrptov rejj "EAXrjoii' ino apyvpovTjrojv t6 naXaiov iiaKOveiadat." It waS 
 
 not yet a national custom with the Greeks to be waited upon by purchased 
 slaves. Timaeus apud Athen. vi. p. 264: ^'Xioi -npwroi royv EXXijctoi/ ptri 
 
 dcrraXovi Kai AaKtiatpiovwvi eXpfjoaVTO SovXoti, tj)v fiivroi KTr^oiv avrdv oi tov avrov 
 tponov eKsivoi;. Xio( 6e (iapfiapovi KkKTrjvrai tqvi; oiitEraj Kai Tiyjiv awCiv KaraffaX- 
 
 Xovns." The Chianswere the first Greeks after the Thessalians and Lace- 
 daemonians who purchased slaves with money. This mode of acquiring 
 them was not yet customary with these people. But the Chians obtained 
 only barbarian slaves, overcoming their valor. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 53 
 
 He says in the same passage : " Two remedies now are left 
 us, either never to allow for the future any person's (SovXoj) 
 slave to be one another's fellow countryman, or, as far as pos- 
 sible, to prevent him even speaking the same language." 
 
 "But he would, else, treat them all well, not only for their 
 own sake, but still more for their owners. The master should 
 behave towards them with as little insolence as possible. But 
 it is right to chastise them with justice ; not punishing them as 
 if they were freemen, so as to make them arrogant ; and every 
 word he addresses to them should be, in some sense, a com- 
 mand. A master ought never to play or jest with his (8ov%ol) 
 slaves, whether they be male or female. And as to the very 
 foolish manner in which some people treat their (5ox.?iot) slaves, 
 allowing them great license and indulgence, they only make it 
 the more diflBcult for both parties ; the harder for the one to 
 command, and for the other to obey.'" 
 
 Aristotle, in his Politics, discusses the subject as follows : 
 " A (Sov^oi) slave is simply the property of his master; but the 
 master stands in many other relations besides that of proprietor 
 to his (§ov?ioi) slaves. 
 
 Such is the nature of slavery. We proceed to examine whe- 
 ther the institution be wise and just. 
 
 To determine this question, it will be sufficient to contem- 
 plate the ordinary course of nature, and to deduce from our 
 observations clear inferences of reason. 
 
 Government and subjection are things useful and necessary ; 
 they prevail everywhere in animated, as well as brute matter. 
 From their first origin, some natures are formed to command 
 and others to obey ; the kinds of government varying with the 
 difference of their subjects ; but- all equally useful and proper 
 for their respective ends ; and those kinds the most excellent 
 from which the most excellent consequences ensue. In compo- 
 sitions endowed with life, it is the province of mind to com- 
 mand and of matter to obey. 
 
 Man consists of both soul and body ; and in all men rightly 
 constituted the soul commands the body ; though some men are 
 so grossly formed or constituted, that the body seems to rule 
 the soul. But here the order of nature is perverted. Those 
 men, therefore, whose powers are chiefly confined to the body, 
 and whose principal excellence consists in rendering bodily 
 service, those, I say, are naturally (Sorxot) slaves, because it is 
 for their interest to be so; they can obey reason, though they 
 cannot exercise it, and though different from tame animals, 
 
 1 Athen. Diep. p. 412. The Athenians passed a law against those vrho 
 ill-treated their slaves, called the '■^ypa(pri vl3pi(os-" Plato De Leg. vi. 
 5* 
 
54 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 ■which are actuated merely by their sensual appetites, they stand 
 in a very similar relation, and become the property of other men 
 because their interests and safety require it.' 
 
 In conformity with these observations, nature, we see, has 
 variously moulded the human frame. Some men are large, 
 compact, and firmly built, while others are erect and graceful, 
 unsuited in their constitutions to severe labor, but capable of 
 sustaining, honorably, the more responsible ofGces of the State. 
 This rule, however, is not universal, for a servile mind is some- 
 times lodged in a graceful person, and M^e have often found 
 bodies formed for service animated by the souls of freemen. 
 Yet the distinction is not frivolous, for were a part of mankind 
 arranged in that splendor of beauty that beams from the statue 
 of the gods, universal consent would acknowledge the balance 
 of the race formed to be their (bovkoi) slaves. The difference 
 of minds, though less obvious, is far more characteristic ; 
 whence we may conclude that (^ovxlia) slavery is founded both 
 in utility and justice.^ 
 
 The (6ov5vJta) slavery may be taken in two senses ; in one of 
 which he is a (6cuXo$) slave who submits to the laws of war, 
 commanding the vanquished to become the property of the 
 victors. 
 
 1 .... " noTCpov coTiv aperfi rij iov\ov napd rag opyaviKai icai dmxonitaf aWn 
 Ti//iwr£pa Tourojj', oioi/ acjippoavfrj Kai avipla Kai diKaioaviirj . . . tire yap 'iori ri iloi- 
 cova'i tCiv i'KtuOipOiv ; tiri fxfi eariv, Sutuv avdpmnoiv Kai \oyov KoifuvovvTojv, aTonou.'' 
 De Republ. I. 13, p. 1259. He asks the question, whether any slave is 
 not benefited by being engaged in offices and ministerial duties more 
 exalted than he otherwise would be, as to his intelligence, his manners, 
 and moral principles ; for that this is true, what freeman will deny ? 
 Since, to hold the contrary, is derogatory to the wisdom of those men 
 who associated with them. Again: " eori yap (pvaci Sov'So; u Swafupos aWov 
 civai iin aWov xai €otiv." " For a slave is by nature the subject of another 
 (to whom he belongs)." " xai 6 6ov\os KTri^xa ri epxpvxop." De. Rep. 1, 4. 
 "And a slave is a certain living piece of property.'" " "O yap 6ov\og 
 
 Cli^pvxov opyavov, to 6' opyavov aipvxoi iav'S.Oi." Eth. Nicom. viii. 13, p. IIGI. 
 
 Again: a slave is a living machine; but a machine is a dead slave. 
 
 2 In the days of Aristotle, it should be observed, the world had but a 
 limited knowledge of the entire human race. The numberless human 
 beings classed under the Malay, the Polynesian, African and American, 
 were almost entirely unknown to the Greek naturalists of his day. Yet, 
 what Aristotle has here advanced as speculative theory, founded upon a 
 limited observation, the late celebrated Dr. INIorton has demonstrated from 
 the most extensive observation and experiments. He has demonstrated 
 the intellectual inferiority of certain races, from the size and conformation 
 of the brain. Pie has, perhaps, examined more skulls, measured more 
 heads, and tested more accurately the size, weight, and formation of the 
 brain of the diiferent races, than any other man that ever lived. (Crania 
 ^gypt-) and Crania Amer.) 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 55 
 
 This is aokuowledged to be law, but the law itself is said to 
 be unjust; on this subject, the wise hold diifereut opinions. 
 To avoid this difficulty, it is proposed to limit the law to the 
 case of barbarians vanquished by Greeks. Thus, there are 
 two kinds of slavery, the one founded in nature, the other esta- 
 blished by law. ' 
 
 Posidonius, the stoic philosopher, in his eleventh book of 
 history, says that many men, unable to govern themselves, by 
 reason of the weakness of their intellects, give themselves up 
 to the guidance of wiser men than themselves, in order that they 
 may receive from them such care, advice and assistance as they 
 need ; and, in their turn, requite their benefactors with such 
 services as they are able to reader. lu this manner the Mary- 
 andyni became subject to the people of Heraclea, promising by 
 contract to act as their subjects for ever, if they would supply 
 them with the necessaries of life. And Archamachus, in the 
 second book of his history, says when the Beotians had founded 
 Armaea, those of them who did not return to Beotia, but took 
 a fancy to their new country, gave themselves up by agreement 
 to the Thessalians, to be their slaves. And these people are 
 now called the Penestos.^ 
 
 At an early period, the Greeks obtained most of their slaves 
 from Asia. The chief eraporia for slaves a-nd the slave trade, 
 were from the extensive Scythian regions, Ponticapseum, Dias- 
 curias and Phanagoria, all on the Euxine, or Black Sea. 
 Scythians, Lydians, Carians, Mysians, Cappadocians, were all 
 laid under contribution by the kidnappers and traders ; preda- 
 tory excursions were also made by the Greek pirates into Cilicia 
 and Pamphylia, and great numbers were carried off to the 
 market-places of Tyre, Sidon, and eveu Delos.* 
 
 At Athens and Corinth, as well as elsewhere, there were 
 regular slave-markets, where the slaves stood for selection. 
 
 1 A similar provision to the law of Moses, wliicli forbid Jews to enslave 
 Jews. It was the general opinion that Greeks could not enslave Greeks ; 
 the institution was maintained only on the right of the Greeks to enslave 
 the barbarians, and thus bring them within the pale of civilization. See 
 Aristotle's Eth. and Polit., translated by Gillies, 3d Lond. ed., 1813, vol. 
 ii., p. 29, et seq. 
 
 - Athen. Deip., p. 411-12. Here are two instances of a sensible ex- 
 ercise of the glorious privileges of liberty, about which we hear so much ; 
 they enjoyed the liberty to choose between slavery or st.irvation and 
 death ; they chose the former ; and how many thousands of poor wretches 
 are there in the world that would fain follow their example ! 
 
 3 Gell's Greece, Art. Slavery; Smith's Greek and Roman Antiq., Art. 
 Slaves. 
 
56 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 The slaves, when exposed in market for sale, were naked, or 
 had to strip th-emselves as it pleased the purchasers.' The law 
 also made the seller responsible for any defect. The market- 
 places were called the xvxxoi.'^ They were also named the 
 rtparr;p udo^, which is analogous to the Latin phrase, Lapis de 
 lapide emptus, referring to the rock on which they stood when 
 exposed to sale The prices, as elsewhere, varied according to 
 their quality. The most usual prices were from one to ten 
 rainas,'' though trustworthy men, who could act as overseers, 
 brought far higher sums. The story goes, that when somebody 
 asked Aristipus what he would ask for instructing his son, he 
 answered he would demand one thousand drachmae ; on which 
 the father replied that he could purchase a slave for that money 
 (about eighty dollars of our money).'* Of course, slaves who 
 were artisans by trade (as many were), varied much in their 
 skill, and the difficulty of their occupation.^ Next to the pur- 
 chased slaves (called by Plato ai'an^loiSrjtrjtu,^ Sovxoi), came those 
 born in the house, called ouxotpiiisi or oixorpi^', or Sovxot o^xoyei'r;^. 
 The oi,'xorpij3i; were the ofiTspriug of the master and a female 
 slave, or of two slaves, and in the latter case, they were called 
 the aixfi.dov'/.oi , or the descendants of two slaves. 
 
 There were no learned slaves, as at Rome, nor any who were 
 kept to minister to pleasure — such as dancers, actors, or musi- 
 cians. This, however, was not the case at a later period, 
 when the influence of Roman manners began to be felt.*^ The 
 
 ' . . . . "'Ot fiiv r/^Covv axoSvaavra; avrov ojanep roDf apyvpoivrjTov; inioKonliv" 
 Luci.an Eunuch, 12. They made them strip naked at the pleasure of the 
 purchaser. 
 
 ^ . . . . " Kw<cXoi eVaXcuJTO oi TOno'i, cv di'f eiTwXovvTO Tives upo/iaaBriaav, ih ano 
 Tov x»K^<^ Trtfiearavdi tov; irtoXou/jtrouj." Poll. 3, 78. The places in which 
 some kinds were sold, were called "Me circles." They were named from 
 the fact that the slaves stand around the [bidders] in a circle. 
 
 * " Twi' yap d'iKCToiv 6 fitv irov Svo p.'ii'Uiv a^log carlv 6 6e ovi' Vftiiivalov, h Si nevre 
 liifoiv^ Sc (cot ScKa. NiKtaf 6' o Nixr/parou Xeytrai tmaTarriv tij rapyvpta Tpalodal 
 ToXavTov." Xenoph. Memor. ii. 5, 2. Some slaves are worth two minte 
 or thereabouts ($16), others less; others, again, are worth five and six 
 minse. Nacias, the son of Niceratus, is said to have given a talent 
 ($480) for an overseer for the mines. 
 
 * Plutarch, De Educ. 7. 
 
 * . . . . " ixaxaipiTo'iovs ((carsXirrei' o' narnp) rpXaxovTa icat 6uo ij rpsif, rovg /icv afa 
 ttLi/tc plvi; ri xal tf 70v% S 6vK tXarroi'Oj fi rpiiov pXviiiti afiowj . . . KWvonoioVi S Moa'i 
 Tuv apWfioi' TtrpaKovTa pivav woicti/jEi/ous." Demosth. in Aphob. i. p. 816. A 
 certain father left by will thirty sword-makers, some worth two, and over 
 three ; some worth more than five or six ; and some, on the other hand, 
 worth not more than three minte ; also twenty upholsterers, appraised 
 at the sum of forty minte for these alone. 
 
 * "XapiicXEi yt jxfiv n-oXuj 6pX(0TpX!iwv Ka\ fiovaovpyo^v £iT£ro." Lucian, AmOr. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 5t 
 
 position of tlie Greek slave was far preferable to that of the 
 Roman, in reference to his master, and this is principally to be 
 attributed to the character of the Athenian, which led him to 
 establish a confidential relation between himself and his domestic. 
 Hence the mute obedience of the Roman, and the familiar 
 garrulity of the Gi'eek slave.' With regard to the difference 
 between the punishment imposed upon the slave and the free- 
 man, the leading distinction appears to be, that in every instance 
 a corporal penalty is inflicted on the former, while in the case 
 of the latter this is the last resort.^ 
 
 10. Kariclis employed a number of stage-players and musicians. The 
 rich kept negroes and eunuchs, the former for mere vanity and love ot 
 show — " (iiKpo0iXoTi^oi/ emueXrjOfiiial oVcoj avToi cJ aKdXovOoi Ai9lo(l> carai." "Any 
 vain lover of display has a negro body-servant to wait upon him." 
 Theophr. Char. 21. But eunuchs were prized for their fidelity; hence 
 they were employed as treasurers. In the retinue of the Lady of Smyrna, 
 mentioned by Lucian, there was TrX^flof emovxwv, the full accompaniment 
 of eunuchs, Herod, viii. 105; Holidor. Ethiop. viii. 17. The porter in the 
 house of Callias, was a eunuch, Plato Protag. p. 314. There is no ground 
 for the supposition that they were kept as protectors to the women. 
 
 1 There is an amusing anecdote illustrative of this fact related by Plu- 
 tarch (D. Garrul. 18). P. Piso had ordered his slaves never to speak about 
 anything unless when asked. On one occasion he invited Clodius to a 
 banquet. The guests arrived, all but Clodius ; Piso repeatedly sent the 
 slave who had carried the invitation, to look if he were coming. At last 
 he asked him whether he was sure that he had invited Clodius ; quite 
 sure, replied the slave. Why does he not come then? inquired Piso. 
 Because (massa) he declined, answered the slave. And why did you not 
 tell me that before? "Because you did not ask me," replied the slave. 
 
 Plutarch adds: "OiTWf /itf , Pw/iaUof dtKCrtu 6.ii iOri/co; tpii.To) Seavorr] OKamov, 
 tip' bli yeyovaaiv lii SiaXvarjli oii'rws niya Tpog navra 6 cdlajjiog tori." Unlike the 
 Roman slave, the Grecian, while delving, conversed familiarly with his 
 master, thus becoming reconciled to one another ; the custom is greatly 
 preferable to all other kinds of treatment. Though Plato requires the 
 master always to observe a grave deportment towards his slaves. Leg. vi. 
 p. 777. 
 
 ' . . . " Kai fnfiv ti QeXoire aKe^acOai nap' v/jitv avTois S> avSpii iiKaaTal, ti iovXov 
 T) t\tvQi.pov civui 6ia(pzptl, TovTo jizyioTov av tvpoirt, bri tuI; fizv ^ouAoif t& aotfia tuv 
 a SlKrijinTiiiv a-avrui/ vwcvOvvov tari, Toii 6' cXevdcpoii vararov tovto vpoafiKil KoXa^civ," 
 "Oh! ye administrators of justice, if any one is compelled to lean upon 
 you for protection, there is a great difference between being a freeman 
 and a slave ; since with a slave it is found most expedient to hold the 
 body accountable for all offences. Whereas, to chastise, is the last pun- 
 ishment that pertains to freemen." Demosth. in Tim. p. 752. "... tai 
 s^ch] fiev Tov; cXtvOtpovs opKoU "al Ttlartaiv avayKa^dv a Toii cXtvOtpovs iiaylara xal 
 vt I ttXeijtou tariv, t^ciij ii rovi (JouXouj crtpat; avayKaii, t(p (•>v, Kal rjv //tXXuiaiv 
 OJroOavtio-Sai), xartiffoircj', iixui' avayKa^ovral TaXtjdrj Xtytlv." Antippo De 
 Chocut, p. 778. It is lawful to condemn freemen upon creditable state- 
 ments under oaths ; this is by far the most binding consideration with 
 
58 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 It was forbidden to strike a slave at Athens, for fear of hitting 
 a freeman by mistake, as there were those in dress and appear- 
 ance not superior to the slaves and the meteoci ; but this regula- 
 tion applied only to strange slaves, and not to one's own. 
 
 It was permitted to institute the action founded on the yi>a^r, 
 vSpjcoj, for injury done to a slave. But this law was not enacted 
 for the benefit of the slave ; but for the benefit of freemen. 
 The slave had no source of redress for wrong except through 
 his master. The only defence the slave had against his owner's 
 ill treatment, was to take refuge under the Theseion, or at 
 some other altar, whereupon the master might be forced to sell 
 him.' 
 
 There was, also, a custom of beating and driving a slave out 
 of doors on a certain day in the year, as a personification of 
 want and worthlessness.^ 
 
 The method of using slaves for witnesses is illustrative of 
 their general treatment. Their simple statements passed for 
 nothing, unless extorted by the rack ; except, perhaps, when 
 they came forward as (/xr^i'vTai) informers in cases of heavy 
 crimes, such as murder." The punishment inflicted on slaves 
 was, almost invariably, corporal. We find no instances of 
 marks of ignominy, or of having been degraded, like the brand- 
 ing and /urea of the Romans. Beating with rods, thongs, or 
 whips, was the usual mode." Fetters (rtfSai)) were often fastened 
 on the feet, not only as a punishment, but to prevent the escape 
 of the slaves, especially those that worked in the fields or mines.- 
 
 them ; but it is customary to condemn slaves upon other sources of evi- 
 dence, from which the accusers must be under the penalty of death, and 
 thus be compelled to speak the truth. But the slave vras not allowed to 
 defend himself in a court of justice. Plato, Gorg. p. 483. But his mastei 
 might take up for liim. It was forbidden to strike a slave at Athens, for 
 fear of hitting a freeman by mistake. Xenoph. De Rep. Athen. 1-10. 
 1 See Petit. Leg. Alt. p. 258. 
 
 ^ . . . " KaXeiTai ie BouAi^ou t^eXaah, Kal twv oiKeTuv iva ruirovrtj dyiiaif pdjiSots 
 Sia Ovpwv i^cXavvovaiv eniXeyovrcs. "Efu BouAi/xoi' ecrui Se ttXovtov koi vyUlav." 
 Plutarch Symp. vi. p. 851. It was called the expulsion of Boulimus, or 
 starvation, and beating the slaves with tender willows, they drove them 
 out of doors, saying, "Starvation without, but riches and plenty within." 
 
 ^ This was called t* tov (ro/iaroj, or h tu itpjiari Tov tKtyxuv ii!i6vai to testify 
 with the body, or in the skin. Demosth. adv. Thimoth., p. 1200. 
 
 * Plutarch de Cohib. Ira. 11. 
 
 ^ . . . " Kai ai rroXXai it avrai Arriifai nvpialt; twv hiKCTOiv iiicjxtvai tipya\ovTO 
 ra iicraWa." Athens, vi. p. 272. As many as ten thousand Grecian slaves, 
 being fettered, worked in the mines. The noioKaKri was a cumbrous fetter, 
 used as a punishment for runaways. Demosth. in Timocr. p. 733. The (vXoi- 
 was an elaborate apparatus, in which the culprit was fixed, with his neck, 
 hands, and feet, in five different holes. Aristoph. Equites, 1049. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 59 
 
 The penalty of death could only be inflicted with the sanction 
 of the law, and not merely at the will of the master, as among 
 the Romans.' 
 
 Branding: was common for running away, and other light 
 offences, within the jurisdiction of the master.^ 
 
 Captives taken in war were sometimes thus dealt with, in 
 cases of peculiar animosity.^ It is diSicult to determine to 
 what extent the character of the slaves themselves might render 
 such harsh treatment necessary ; for it is from their masters 
 that we derive these accounts and get all our information. 
 
 It would be absurd to deny, that there were not, among the 
 great multitude of slaves in Greece, many intelligent, worthy, 
 and noble-minded persons.'* 
 
 On the other hand, it is, no doubt, true, that there were many 
 who, by the degradation of their nature, their want of fidelity 
 to their masters, and their vices of all kinds, might well deserve 
 their lot. Runaway slaves were not uncommon, even when 
 there was no war to encourage their desertion.^ 
 
 Slaves were sometimes manumitted by the state, as a I'eward 
 
 1 Antipho de coede Herod, p. 727. 
 
 2 A mark of some kind was branded upon the forehead, and many strove 
 to conceal it under their hair; hence the poet says, 
 
 " Konriv Tpt(po)V fitv np(i)TOV icpav tov 6cov, 
 (OS (paalv, 6v 6ia tovto y', aWa coTiynevoi 
 jrpo TOV jieTO) t:-ov napairtTaaiJi avTr]v cxei-" 
 
 Combing the hair forward, they call a religious rite ; but it is not for that 
 purpose — any one being branded, has this for a veil upon the forehead. 
 Dephilos, apud Athen. vi. p. 225. 
 
 * Plutarch, Pericl. 26. 
 
 * Plato says, "n-oXXoi yap a6£\(l>(i)v fi6f) Sov\oi Kal vieiavriai KpsiTTOVf irpoj aiterrii 
 naaav yevofitvoi aeaojKaai dumoTag icai KTrtnard raj r£ oiKTiati; avriiiv 6Xa{." Plato, 
 Leg. vi. p. 776. "For many, becoming slaves, are superior to certain 
 persons, brethren and their descendants, in all that is virtuous, and pro- 
 tect their masters in a more faithful manner, and also their household 
 possessions." But here is no intimation of an intellectual inferiority or 
 distinct physical organization. The t-coi adcXtpwv means, to some of their 
 own type or countrymen, and their descendants, who were superior only 
 in wealth, or some civil rank, or condition, conferred upon them by the 
 existing state of society. 
 
 5 Plato, Protag. p. 310. On this account the slave preceded the master 
 when going out, instead of going behind, lest he should escape. Theophr. 
 Char. 18. " Kai tov Jtatia &i aKoXovdovvra KcXcvelv avTov o-niadcv firji> (iaSt^ciy aXX' 
 tpiTifoaQtv ivd ijivXaTTTicai avTto jir) iv rrj 6Sii} airo6paari." " Hc Commanded the 
 
 lad accompanying him, not to go behind, but before, that he might watch 
 him, lest he should escape." Slave rebellions were frequent. Athen. vi. 
 p. 272; Plato, Leg. vi. p. 777. 
 
60 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 for certain services ; such as informing against criminals, or 
 good conduct in war ; but the master was always indemnified. ' 
 
 At other times, they obtained their freedom by paying their 
 master the amount he had paid for them. But these freedmen 
 (a.7ttuvdei>o^) always remained in a sort of dependence upon their 
 master, and the neglect of their duties gave rise to the (pcxr; 
 ttTtoarofn'oi)) action of separation.^ 
 
 Besides the slaves, there were many of the poorer classes, 
 especially among the {ixstoC xoi^) foreigners, who performed the 
 same services for hire, who were called fiiaOuitoi, (from filaOos 
 wages).' 
 
 Men frequently lived with female slaves as (rta-KXaxr^) concu- 
 bines ; and in all such instances, as well as in case of free 
 women with slaves, the children resulting from this intercourse 
 were free only by exception,'' 
 
 1 Plato, Leg. xi. p. 914. 
 
 ^ This explains the law proposed by the orator Lycurgus — "iir]it:vi i^tX- 
 
 vai Aflr/vuiwr, f^v^i tqjv dikovvtuiv Adrjvriaiv, t\ev9ipov ciofia vpiaadai em iovXeiq tic 
 T(3v aXicTKOfiiviiiv avcv tiiS tov nporepov Seoirorov yi'ojfD/f." "It is permitted to no 
 Athenian, nor to any one dwelling in Athens, to purchase an emancipated 
 slave, again into slavery, from the kidnappers, without the consent of his 
 former master." Plutarch, de Orat. Vit. p. 267. 
 3 Plato, de Republ. ii. p. 371. 
 
 * Demosth. in Aristocr. p. 637 — " jiriri rMvoiroiwrat bt biKerot ai>eu 7Tii Tijit- 
 
 Ttpai yv(iiiir)i." Xen. fficon. 9. 5. "Slaves are not begotten without our 
 
 knowledge." . . . "AouXt) ^itv lav avnjn\r], 6ov\i.o »; tXtuflEpto, /) antXtvQepw^navTUi 
 TOV izonoTOV tario Trjg io\i\r}s to ytvvb>jxtvov. 'Eav it rif tXevQcpa, iovXoy avyy lyvrirai 
 TOV StOTTOTOv iaTCii TO yiyvOfitvov tov oouXou. Eav S e.^ avTOv douXrjj i) £K (JouXou eavrtji 
 Kai ncpt<p(ivei tovt n, to ficv tth yvvaiKOf ai yvvaixCi £ij aWriv X'^f""" CKTrCjinovTuv ovv 
 riji rrarpi, to Se tov av6pof ot vOfioipiXaKCi avv tt] yivyriaaiDi." Plato, Lex. XI. p. 950. 
 " AVhether a female slave may have connection with a slave, or a freeman, 
 or an emancipated slave, let the oiFspring belong to the master, following 
 the condition of the mother (or female slave) in every instance. And, on 
 the other hand, if a free woman should cohabit with a slave, let the off- 
 spring also belong to the master, following the condition of the father (or 
 male slave).* Whether the offspring descend from a freeman and a female 
 slave, or from a male slave and a free woman, it is manifestly the same. 
 Since, on the one hand, the female descendants succeed with the father 
 to a different condition from the mother; so, on the other hand, the male 
 descendants (or guardians of the state) succeed with the mother to a 
 different condition from the father." 
 
 * "Eav S' U avrov, &c. This clause of the passage maybe rendered thus: 
 But if a free woman is with child from her own slave, as a freeman has a 
 child by his own female slave, and the same is discovered, let the guar- 
 dians of the law banish the offspring of the freeman, with its mother; and 
 in the other instance, let the mother send away her child, together with 
 its father, to another region. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 61 
 
 The number of slaves was considei'able, not only at Athens, 
 bat throughout Greece. According to Ctesicles, at a census 
 of the population of Attica, taken under Demetrius Phalereus, 
 the number of free burghers was found to be twenty-one thou- 
 sand, of residents ; aliens, ten thousand ; and of slaves, four 
 hundred thousand.' 
 
 According to Timaeus, Corinth possessed four hundred and 
 sixty thousand slaves; and Egina, as we learn from Aristotle, 
 four hundred and seventy thousand. But the number at Chios 
 appears to have been the greatest.^ In what manner this popu- 
 lation of four hundred and thirty thousand souls in Attica was 
 distributed, cannot now be accurately known. 
 
 Athens itself is said to have contained ten thousand houses. 
 There were besides, lodging-houses inhabited by several fami- 
 lies ; and workshops and manufactories contained many hun- 
 dreds of slaves. If one hundred and eighty thousand are 
 reckoned for the city and its harbors, and twenty thousand for 
 the mines, there then remain two hundred and sixty thousand 
 for the other six hundred and eight square miles in the rest of 
 Attica ; which gives less than four hundred and twenty-seven 
 to the mile ; which, with the number of small market-places, 
 villages, and farms, that were inhabited in Attica, is not ex- 
 cessive.* 
 
 1 Ctesicles, apud Athen. vi. p. 272. ^ Thucyd. viii. 40. 
 
 * Bockh. Public. Econ. Athens, pp. 30-39. The following were some 
 of the legal enactments respecting slavery which were in force, at various 
 times, at Athens: — Let no person who is a slave by birth be made free 
 of the city. They only shall be recognized as citizens, both of whose pa- 
 rents were so. He shall be looked upon as an illegitimate, whose mother 
 is not free. No slave, or woman, other than free-born, shall study or prac- 
 tice physic. No slave shall caress a free-born youth ; he who does so shall 
 receive fifty stripes. He that beats another man's slave may have an 
 action of battery brought against him. No one may sell a captive freed- 
 man into slavery, without the consent of his former master. Slaves may 
 buy themselves out of bondage. All emancipated slaves shall pay certain 
 services to the masters who gave them liberty, choosing them only for 
 their patrons; and they shall not be wanting in the performance of those 
 duties to which they are under obligation by law. Patrons may by action 
 reduce them again to slavery for legal cause, such as remissness of duty. 
 He that redeems a prisoner of war may claim him as his own property, 
 unless the prisoner himself be able to pay his ransom. See Potter's Greek 
 Antiqs., vol. i. p. 144; also, Smith's Greek and Roman Antiqs. (Slaves). 
 The law governing the condition of the slave derived from birth, was very 
 different, in Greece, from that of Rome, and all later nations: "partus 
 sequilur ventricm," is the maxim of the Roman law, which now universally 
 prevails, upon this subject. If the mother is free, the child is free, and 
 vice versd. But the whole policy of the Greek statute was in favor of 
 6 
 
62 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 Although the number of private slaves possessed by indi- 
 vidual burghers was sometimes very considerable, yet the Greeks 
 seem to have fallen far behind the Romans in this respect. The 
 father of Demosthenes possessed fifty slaves.' In other in- 
 stances the number was far greater. Necias let out one thou- 
 sand to the Thracian mines, and Hipponicas six hundred.* 
 Aristotle's friend Mnason, also, had a thousand.' In early 
 times, few were retained in the house, most of them being em- 
 ployed at various handicrafts. At a later period, domestic 
 slaves became much more numerous." There is no regular 
 account of the number of domestics in large establishments, 
 though free hints may be gathered. Xenophanes complained 
 to Hiero ("fioxii olxirai bvo tps^siv^^) that he was scarcely able 
 to keep two household servants, which, certainly, is a mark of 
 great poverty for a literary man like him.^ Again, the family 
 of ^schines, consisting of himself, his wife, mother and three 
 children, was waited on by only seven attendants, and this he 
 brought forward as a sign of straitened circumstances.^ To go 
 out without a single attendant was considered a mark of great 
 indigence.' When Phocion's wife allowed herself to be at- 
 tended by only one female slave, it was considered so unusual 
 that it even came to be mentioned in the theatre.^ Men often 
 had three or more slaves to attend them when from home.^ 
 
 In later times, the escort was much more numerous.'" But 
 
 slavery, and the servile condition of either parent tainted that of the 
 child. See translation of passage from Plato, de Leg. xi. p. 930, supra. 
 Again, the right to reduce the emancipated slave again to bondage by a 
 civil action, is peculiar to the Greek system. The maxim of the Roman 
 law, and the law generally, upon this subject, is, semel liber, semper sic, 
 once free, always so ; though there are some statutory exceptions, apply- 
 ing to vagrants and like offenders. 
 
 1 Some say fifty-three, besides females in his house. Demosth. in 
 Aphob., 1, p. 823. 
 
 2 Xenoph. De Vectigal, 4, 14. Plutarch, Nic. 4. 
 
 _ 3 Timaj apud Athens, vi. 2G4. Saidus, on the word anE\pri<pi<raro, men- 
 tioned that the slaves employed in the silver-mines alone, and in country 
 labor, amounted to 150,000. 
 
 * Aristot., De Rep., ii. 3. Dio Chrysost. orat., xiii. p. 434. 
 
 5 Plutarch, Apopth. Reg., i. p. 696. 6 Esch. Epist. 12, p. 698. 
 
 f Aristoph. Eccl. 593. Also Lysias, in Dioget., p. 903. 
 8 Plutarch, Phoe, 19. 
 
 * . . . "ko'i rpcU dKo\ovdovi >" Ttrapaf avro; eX(^v ita Tin ayopa; ttojiii." De- 
 mosth. in Mid., p. 565. "And he having three or four attendants, flaunts 
 through the public square or forum." 
 
 "Ot^airti'a ii ttoXX/) Kai aWr\ ntpi avrriv napaaKCVrj \iijiTTpa, Kal evvovxciiv rl irXiJflof, 
 
 rat afipai navv jroXXai." (She had) " a numerous retinue of attendants, a 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 63 
 
 of the numerous slaves owned by single individuals, the most 
 of them were employed as artisans, either for their master, or 
 on their own account, paying him wages. In this respect the 
 Greeks differed widely from the Romans ; while the former 
 looked upon their slaves as a capital, yielding interest, and a 
 lucrative source of investment and trade, the latter more nobly 
 looked upon them only as a means to subsei've the ease and 
 comfort, and to administer to the luxury and pride of their 
 masters.' It is true, the Roman slave also worked in the 
 familia urbana and the familia rustica, or on the plantation, as 
 a mechanic or otherwise, but only to supply the immediate 
 wants of his master ; while the Greek slave was an operative, 
 yielding a revenue, and his master trafficked and speculated 
 upon the wares and proceeds of his labors.^ 
 
 If the master cultivated his lands himself, as Ichoneas did, 
 he employed numerous slaves under an overseer, IrtiVporto?, who 
 was himself a slave, and on whom the entire management fre- 
 quently devolved ; the master devoting himself to public duties 
 or other employments.^ 
 
 The chief steward of the house was called (r'a^wtaj). He su- 
 perintended all the domestic arrangements and kept the house- 
 hold stores under lock and seal, giving out daily what was 
 
 certain number of eunuchs, quite a large number of ladies' maids, and 
 otherwise splendid equipage around her." Lucian, Imag. 2, speaking of 
 a distinguished lady of Smyrna, uses this language. 
 
 ^ Athen. vi. p. 272. "AXXa Toiiaiojv tKaaros . . . jrAticrrouj oVotif KCKmiiSvos 
 i'lKSTa^, Kai yap iivpiovs xai ilafivpiov; Kai 'in jrAsiouj 6e rra/uroXXoi KtKirii/aal, ovk tnl 
 TTpoadSo'ii is ojonep b run 'EXXtj^cov ^airXovros NiKiOf, aWa oi nXclov; toiv Pco^uioji' 
 trvjiTTpoTovTaf ixoval rouj nXciarovi." "But each one of the Roman citizens 
 possessed as many slaves as possible ; very many owned ten, and even 
 twenty thousand, and some more ; but not as a source of revenue, like a 
 certain Nicias, a very wealthy citizen of Greece ; though the Romans had 
 a gi-eat number, yet they were mostly personal attendants." Nicias, the 
 rich Greek, hired out a thousand slaves to Sosias, the Thracian, for an 
 oblus (3J cents) a day, yielding him a revenue of $33J a day, for which 
 he could have purchased two slaves. Xenoph., De Vect. 4, 14. Here is 
 a sarcastic allusion of Atheneus to the penurious custom of the Greeks, 
 of working their slaves only for pecuniary profit, while the proud and 
 haughty Roman was born above it, bred above it, and lived above it ; to 
 him his slaves, though he owned twenty thousand or more, were only to 
 administer to his ease and comfort. 
 
 2 The Greek slaves frequently hired their time, but the master took 
 good care to reserve a large portion of the profits to himself. Aristotle, 
 De Repub., 3, 4, p. 1277. JEschines mentions the daily sum that each 
 had to pay. Shoemakers made nine and ten obli a day — 27 to 33 J cents ; 
 out of which each had to pay six cents to his master. Timarch, p. 118. 
 
 s Plato, Leg. vii. p. 806. Xenoph. (Econ. 12, 2. 
 
64 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 required.^ He received from bis master for this purpose, a 
 signet ring.^ Tlie tifxlai was distinct from the trttVportoj, whose 
 duties were confined to outdoor arrangements. Of the other 
 domestic slaves each had his peculiar duties.^ 
 
 The number of females was less than that of male slaves. 
 Some of them were employed in manufacturing articles for sale." 
 
 The number, however, engaged in the articles of merchandize 
 must have been small, as most of the feminine labors, as weav- 
 ing, embroidering, and the like, were performed by men. In 
 wealthy families, a considerable number must have been em- 
 ployed in personal services ; and most of the ready-made arti- 
 cles which may now be obtained, then took up the time and 
 employment of domestic slaves. Besides, several must have 
 been employed at the mill and in the kitchen, as well as washers, 
 ironers, cooks, and the like ; besides the spinners, nurses, cham- 
 bermaids, and ladies' maids (xoi^F^tpia.^).^ Of these last, one 
 often held a more confidential position near her mistress, and 
 was called (ajSpa). 
 
 Female slaves born in the house were sometimes called 
 
 The general term for female slaves is (5ov%apla).^ 
 In entering into an analysis of the laws and institution of 
 slavery in ancient Greece, the student at once finds himself upon 
 the confines of a boundless chasm that exists between the he- 
 roes, philosophers, and wealthy citizens of those States, and 
 the lower and laboring classes. Their history is, in a degree, 
 a hidden mystery, impervious to the light that has come down 
 to us. No historian has lifted the veil and shown us the true 
 condition of the myriads of slaves and indigent laborers devoted 
 to the various trades and servile occupations among that re- 
 markable people. Occasionally be finds the fragment of a law, 
 a deduction of the philosopher, the moralist, and statesman, in 
 relation to them ; and, here and there, a scene of the heroic, 
 
 1 Xenoph. QEcon. 9-11. ^ Aristoph. Equites, 947. 
 
 3 Plutarch, Apoph. Reg. i. p. 723. 
 
 * . . . " ytii'J) ajiopyiva emaiaucvri epya^caOai xai cpya Xenra £ij t)]v ayopav tKipt- 
 
 povaa." jEschines in Timarch p. 118. "The women were accustomed to 
 manufacture fine goods, and to carry fancy articles to the markets." 
 Another evidence that the slaves of Greece were of a high order of intel- 
 lectual character, equal in that respect to their masters and mistresses. 
 
 5 Beck's Charac. p. 364. 
 
 ^ Lucian, Lcxiph. 25. This would, however, seem to depend upon the 
 peculiar style of each author. In Homer, Sophocles, as well as Thucy- 
 dides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and others, together with 
 the Scriptures, the word SovM is used. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 65 
 
 comedian and tragic poet scattered through tlie ponderous 
 volumes of Greek literature. 
 
 To collect and digest sufficient of these to present, briefly, 
 some of the leading features and fundamental principles of the 
 institution, and to show the meaning and use of certain terms, 
 is the most that we have attempted in the foregoing pages. 
 
 The origin of this institution, in the ancient Grecian States, 
 dates back to the celebrated laws and regulations of Minos; 
 the fabulous annual tribute of seven lads and seven virgins, 
 levied by him upon the vanquished Athenians, was but the figu- 
 rative idea of the law, making the conquered the property of 
 the victors. It was undoubtedly imported from Egypt, through 
 Phoenicia into the Island of Crete, and was nearly cotemporary 
 with the law of the patriarchs of Israel upon that subject, 
 which was, doubtless, derived from the same source. And in 
 Greece, as in the Hebrew nation, in the progress of civilization, 
 and as governments became better organized, more powerful, 
 and gave safer guarantees to life, liberty, and property, the force 
 and necessity of this law was gradually, and, in a measure, 
 done away with ; till, at length, the legislators of Greece, like 
 Moses, boldly advocated the doctrine that it ought to apply 
 only to barbarous nations, and as Hebrew could not enslave 
 Hebrew, so, on a similar principle, Greek could not enslave 
 Greek. But, in both nations alike, the application of the law 
 was limited to "the heathen round about them.'" 
 
 There are many other instances of similarity in the laws of 
 these two nations upon this subject. By neither could the slave 
 be put to death without the sanction of the law.^ 
 
 ^ Levit. 25 : 44: ^'Mtjii EXXiji/a apa iov\ov €KTr]ttdai jifiTE avroif, TOif ts aWoi; 
 
 EWrjaiv ovTO) ov^8ov\svsiv." Plato de Republ. p. 469. "Therefore, as they 
 cannot own a Greek as a slave themselves, shall they not recommend the 
 same to other Greeks ?" The meaning of which is, let every Greek set 
 the example, not to enslave his own countrymen. This was a favorite 
 idea of Plato. In his sixth book of Laws, he says: "We ought, there- 
 fore, for the future, never to allow any person's slaves to be of one an- 
 other's countrymen." So of Aristotle, he says: "Therefore, it is pro- 
 posed to limit this law to barbarians, conquered by Greeks." (Vid. supra, 
 p. 60.) 
 
 - Exod. 21 : 20: "If a man smite his servant with a rod, &c." . . . 
 
 *<xat oi ovie oi tov; ieandra; a^oKizivavTSi, cav en av70<pa)pii) Xrjipdcjaiv ov6' ovroi 
 Oi/ijffKOwiV m avTOiv roiv TrpoariKOVTOiv, aWd napaliSoaaiv avrov; rfj dpxi} Kara vofiovf 
 unerepoti; narptovs." '' Indeed, the masters cannot kill their slaves, if caught 
 in the very act of theft (or offence), nor could they be put to death by 
 persons selected for the purpose, but they must give them up to the civil 
 authority, according to the laws of the country." Antipho. de Coede 
 Herod, p. 727. Hence Euripides says: — 
 6* E 
 
66 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 In either nation, the poor debtor was liable to be sold into 
 slaver}' ; but in neither could he be ruled over with rigor.' In 
 both nations heathen slaves were lawful articles of commerce 
 and heritable property. In neither could they possess the 
 rights of citizens, nor could they be heard in the courts of jus- 
 tice in their own defence, or to give testimony for others.^ 
 
 In both nations there were large numbers, not only of foreign- 
 ers of the same type, and equally exalted and capable in their 
 ])hysical and intellectual organization with themselves, but of 
 their own countrymen in slavery." 
 
 In neither nation was it maintained on the ground of the 
 general intellectual inferiority of the race, and a general incapa- 
 city to attain to any better condition when left to themselves ; 
 but in the one, as in the other, the right to foreign slaves was 
 predicated upon the right of the victor over the vanquished, 
 and to others upon their extreme poverty and indigence, which 
 forced them to lead such vicious and degraded lives as to re- 
 duce them to a condition but little above the brute, unfit for all 
 intellectual culture and refinement. Slaves to their own appe- 
 tites and passions, they were better off under the care and pro- 
 tection of a kind master. '' 
 
 Hence, some, as we have seen, voluntarily went into slavery. 
 
 It is evident, from various facts, that Greece, like some of 
 the nations of the present day, in her large cities particularly, 
 
 " vo/iOj S'h Vftiv TOig r'eXtvdepov iarof 
 Kai Toiai 6ov\ois aifxTOi Keiral nepi. 
 
 " The freeman's laws are just and good ; 
 The slave's are written in letters of blood." 
 
 1 Levit. 25 : 39. See action ypa<pn vfiptwf or for injury done a slave. 
 ^Eschin. in Tim. p. 41 ; also Demosth. in Mid. p. 529. 
 
 2 Levit. 25 : 44. Terence's Phorni., scene 4, laid in Athens. " Servum 
 homiueni causam ovare leges non sinunt. Neque testimoni diotio est." 
 The testimony of slaves went for nothing unless exacted by the rack. 
 Plato, Leg. xi. p. 937. But Demosthenes says, in Onet. 1, p. 874: "o'ob- 
 
 Xii)!/ ot PaaaviaOkvTtov ovikfti rrtorror" c^n^tyxdnoav, ojf ovk aXridi] ra CK rri; fiaoavov 
 
 fi'jToi/." "None of the tortured slaves should ever be permitted to prove, 
 or substantiate a fact, as the saying is, truth is not from the rack." Hy 
 this it would seem that their testimony needed corroborating. 
 
 ^ Abraham had 1500; and every wealthy Hebrew had great numbers of 
 men-servants and maid-servants. Gen. 14 : 12-16. (For numbers pos- 
 sessed by the Greeks, see notes above, and preceding remarks generally. ) 
 
 ■* The poor debtor and his children were liable to be sold as slaves for 
 debt. 2d Kings, 4:1. Isa. 50 : 1. Matt. 25. Isocrates speaks (Plataeus, 
 19, p. 414). (niiVpwi/ £^£>fa <rvtt0o\aiojv Sov'Xc.vcii') of those bargaining to be- 
 come slaves on account of their insolvency, or straitened circumstances. 
 
 At Athens, the captive, not able to pay his ransom, was the slave of 
 him who paid it. Demosth. Ado. Nicaoter, p. 1250. 
 
GREEK SLAVERY. 67 
 
 was thronged by hordes of foreign population in the lowest 
 state of poverty and wretchedness, who were ever at the service 
 of the wealthy citizens, in all kinds of employments, to obtain 
 the means of subsistence. 
 
 This was also true to a great extent among the Jews. They 
 had many hired servants as well as slaves ; ' and that this insti- 
 tution, in both these nations, was derived from the same source 
 admits of no doubt, 
 
 1 Deut. 15 : 3, 4, 11. Exod. "3 : 11, "Because they sold the righteous 
 for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes." Amos 2:16; also 8 : 6, 
 " For the poor ye have always with you," John 12 : 8. This class was 
 also numerous in Greece ; they Avere known under various names, as fs^oi, 
 utroiKoi, or foreigners; when hired they were called inadurot. Plato de 
 Rep. ii. p. 371. They were employed more or less by all — Id. Polit. 
 p. 290 (vide Note supra, p. 63) — and were similar to slaves. Hence the 
 law at Athens, to forbid striking a slave, for fear of hitting a free man by 
 mistake. In a fragment of Philemon we find the following lines : 
 
 " Sli KpuTOV tcTi ScanoTov ^ptjorov ri;;^£(v, 
 rj ^rjv Tarrclv<i>i Kal kokOs, iXtiiOepov." 
 
 " A freeman is better off to have a kind master than to live a low debased 
 life." Besides these, there was another class known as the ancXsvBcpoi, or 
 frced-men, though they still remained in the service of their masters, as 
 we have seen, no one could purchase them without the consent of their 
 former masters. 
 
 It has been said by some, that these freedmen were the real iov\ot, 
 because they still remained in bond service to their masters, hence 
 (" Aia<pcpeiv if (prjai Xpvoivnos 6ov\ov oikctov . , , S7a to tovs ajreXcvdcpovi fiiv 
 iovXov; Itl uvai, oUtrai ii toO; fifj tjjj KTrjatui; a^ci/xevovs." Chrysippus Says 
 there is a distinction between the iov\og and the oiKcrm, because the freed- 
 men are still iovKoi, whereas the oUctih belong to the class that are never 
 discharged from ownership. Athen. vi. p. 267, 
 
 But according to CUtarchus, in his treatise on dialects, all the following 
 classes are called iov\oi promiscuously — the afoi, or servants connected 
 with the temples ; the OepaKovrei, or the servants of humble service ; the 
 oKoXovdoi, followers or footmen; the iiaKOfot, or body-servant, and many 
 others. 
 
 Ion of Chios, in his Laertes, uses the word iovXoi in the same sense as 
 oiKcrrig. Athen. vi. p. 269. 
 
 Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, and all the most approved writers in the 
 Greek literature, use these words indiscriminately in the same sense. K 
 there could be any distinction between them, it must be derived, not from 
 the character of the slavery, but from the different avocations which they 
 followed ; the iovXoi would seem to be a generic term comprehending all 
 classes of slaves, and the oifsrr;? confined to the household, or family slaves, 
 might denote but a single species or class coming under it. 
 
 In like manner there were the Helots of Greece, who, because they 
 were subject to a peculiar kind of servitude and belonged to the State, were 
 never designated by any other term, though helot and iovXoi are synony- 
 mous terms in Sparta. See Essay on Slavery in New Testament, post, p. 
 127, et seq. 
 
68 GREEK SLAVERY. 
 
 But all free men, and even freed-men, were designated by different 
 terms hence . . . "oiSh Tu^ouvTSf Triv tiH i(7;^i)OS yjdav tvv tIjuov ravrnv ixiaBos 
 KaXowTt? KCKXvral w; tyo/zii, inaBuiro'i." Plato de Eepubl. ii. p. 371. " Labor- 
 ing for the means of support, demanding wages as a reward, they are 
 called hirelings, or yuaQi^Toi, as they labor for wages." 
 
 .... '■'■ 6vi ye opHtfitv fiiaQdiTov^ Kai QriTUi naalv VT!t)ptTOvvTai." Plato Polit. 
 p. 290. "We speak of the hired servants and the hireling domestics 
 employed as waiters by all. The same word is used by the EvangeHst, in 
 Acts 15: 17 — "Iloffoi n'laQiai TOM narpos itov." " How many hired servants 
 Lath my father," &c. 
 
 This word is from the same theme, /iiado;, and has the same meaning as 
 Ihe one used by Plato above; it is only varied in its termination. And 
 here, it may be observed, that the terms 6ov\oi and diKtrrn, as we have shown 
 by the specific definition of Plato, Aristotle, and others, of the most ap- 
 proved Greek classics, are never used by Greek scholars, sacred or profane, 
 literally, in any other sense than that of a slave, a piece of property, a 
 living machine, a person subject by law or by nature to the ownership 
 and power of another. They are always used in contrast with eXevOepof, a 
 freeman as we have seen: " AouAoj tKhiOni, i^v croi ixtKiru) aW el kgi Swaam 
 eXtvOcpo; ytvtoQai," &c. 1 Corinth. 7 : 21. " Art thou called, being a ser- 
 vant (slave), care not for it; but if thou mayest be made/r«e," &c. 
 
 Also the same terms are used in the succeeding verse and in the same 
 sense. There is, however, a slight error in the translation of verse 22. 
 The language is " 'O yap Iv Kupi'w K\Qth &ov\oi, aTrcXevOtpos Kplov eoTtv," which 
 should read, "For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant (slave), 
 is the Lord's freed-man;" not free man, as in the English text, and it 
 refers to "the liberty in which Christ has made him free." 
 
 I submit it to Greek scholars to say whether ancXevdepo; ever means any- 
 thing, in Greek literature, but a freed-man, one who has been set free 
 from bondage. Would it not be preposterous in any one to say that 
 o'ouXoj, in this instance, did not meaji what we understand by slave ? AVhat 
 sense would there be in the context, " but if thou mayest be made free," 
 &c., if he was already so, or if he was a hired servant, as many contend ? 
 We will quote another instance from Aristotle, where these terms are used 
 in precisely the same sense as by Saint Paul, ..." oiKia ie riXtloi ex &ovXu>v 
 Kat iXcvdepov." Aristot. De Rep. i. 3. " A family is composed of freemen 
 and slaves." 
 
 We might multiply like quotations to show that these words, by all 
 Greek writers, are always used as antitheses to one another, just as we 
 use freeman and slave ; but we refer the reader to the numerous instances 
 that may be found in our quotations above, upon this subject. In con- 
 clusion we remark that free servants are universally designated by other 
 terms as cpyarrif, fiiadiaTos, oT /Jiiados. See Acts 15 : 17, above quoted, and 
 Acts 10 : 7 ; aQoi yap tpyarrji tov fitaOov avTov tarl." "The laborer is worthy 
 of his hire." Again, James 5 : 4, " l^ou 6 iitadoi tZv cpyarSiv." "Behold 
 the hire of the laborers," &c. Again, John 10 : 12, " 'O nioOuiTos." "He 
 that is a hireling," &c. Id. vrs. 13, " 'O 6i /hj0u)tos <ptvyh, dn inadhiros toA." 
 •'The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling." These same words are 
 here used in the exact sense in which they are used by Plato, Aristotle, 
 and classical writers ; then why except iov\oi and oikztj)^ ? See Essay on 
 Slavery in New Testament, post, p. 127, et seq. 
 
ROMAN SLOWER Y. (i9 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 
 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 After the learned and lengthy dissertations upon its justice 
 and moral character, by the great masters of the schools of an- 
 tiquity, the fathers of law, logic, and philosophy, Plato and 
 Aristotle, and the conclusions to which they arrived, establish- 
 ing the institution upon the basis of law, justice, and truth, we 
 should not expect to find any schools of opposite tenets, in any 
 more modern nations, as long as their philosophy ruled the in- 
 tellectual world. And we find the truth verified in the subse- 
 quent history of nations. It is at no remote period from the 
 present, that their views upon this subject have met with oppo- 
 sition from any considerable weight or collective mass of public 
 opinion, as we shall endeavor to show in our subsequent re- 
 marks. 
 
 Neither Cicero nor Seneca, just and humane as they both 
 were, have ever, either in their moral or political codes, called 
 the moral rectitude and justice of these opinions of their great 
 predecessors in question.' At Rome, in all ages of that na- 
 tion, there was much less opposition of sentiment to the doc- 
 trines of Plato and Aristotle upon this subject than among the 
 Greek sophists ; for here we find a few traces of repugnant 
 notions^ The arrogant spirit of domination among the ancient 
 Romans gave to this institution certain characteristics among 
 them peculiar to that nation.* 
 
 1 Their writings abound with strictures upon the extravagancies and 
 cruelties of certain masters. But these do not serve to condemn the re- 
 lation in itself, any more than the ill-treatment of husbands to their wives, 
 or parents to their children, condemns those relations. A Roman citizen 
 had the same power over his child that he had over his slave, and could 
 put either to death with impunity. 
 
 2 " All come free from the hand of their Creator; nature has made no 
 man a slave," &c. Schol. on Aristot. Rhet. Gill. Greece, vol. 2d, p. 337. 
 
 K3>' iovXos I) Tij aapxa riji' avrriv cx.si ipvaei yap ovdci; iovXoi cyenrtOr] nore t'f 6' av 
 Tixi ro ausjxa KaTciovXdoaaTo. Frag, of Philemon and Menander, p. 410. 
 " Though any one may be a slave, yet he has the same flesh and blood 
 with ourselves, for by nature no one is born a slave, though his body may, 
 by misfortune, be enslaved." Kav Sovyo; rim cv6iv i)TTOV ieozora, ai/^pcjirof oSroj 
 eoTiv an a^9(JTus t}. Id. p. 364. " Though any one may be a slave, yet he is 
 a man no less than his master, who is but a man." 
 
 ' The power of life and death which the Romans held over their slaves 
 and children was known to no other civilized nation. " Portentosus 
 
70 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 They procured most of their slaves, like the Greeks, from 
 Asiatic nations. Historians give us the same nations, the 
 public marts, and the same great thoroughfares as the source of 
 the slave traffic to both Greece and Rome, and undoubtedly 
 the Greek and Roman slave dealers both met in the same mar- 
 kets as rival bidders for the same lots of slaves — as the British, 
 Spanish, French, American, and other traders have met upon 
 the coast of Africa in competition with one another. 
 
 There is one view of Roman life, manners, and customs, that 
 the history and laws of this institution serve, in a degree, to 
 illustrate, though no modern can form any distinct and satis- 
 factory idea of the reality. We can scarcely conceive it possi- 
 ble that the almost incredible numbers of servants and attend- 
 ants kept in the houses of the more wealthy Roman lords, could 
 be governed and employed, or how there could be so many 
 divisions and subdivisions of labor, and not clog, confuse, and 
 impede the progress of one another. But we shall endeavor to 
 illustrate this by a succinct analysis of the Roman family while 
 treating upon this subject. As to the mode of acquiring slaves 
 there is no material difference between Hebrew, Greek, or Ro- 
 man slavery. At Rome, as elsewhere, slaves were the se7'vi 
 aut nascuntur aid fiunt. The law of captivity was in full 
 force (captivi, jure belli capto) ;' and they could be bought sub 
 corona as prisoners of war. They were generally sold in mar- 
 ket overt by the dealers.^ 
 
 foetus extinguimus liberos quoque, si debiles monstrosique editi sunt, mer- 
 guimus." Sen. de Ira. lib. 1, chap. 15. " Ex nepte Julia, post damna- 
 tionem, editum infantum agnosci alique vetuit." Suet. vit. octav. Ixv. 
 Juvenal alludes to this practice in Sat. vi. 595 : — 
 
 " Tantum artes hujus, tantum medicamina possunt, 
 Qua; steriles facit, atque homines in ventre necados conducit." 
 See also Sen. Consol ad Helviam 16, who speaks of the custom as not 
 uncommon. See also Inst. Just. lib. 1, t. 8, 1. 1. 
 
 1 Inst. Just., lib. 1, t. 3d, sects. 3 and 4. Cato in Gallias, vii. 4, lib. 
 V. 22. 
 
 2 These slave-dealers were termed mango, or venalitius. Plant., tom. ii. 
 2. 51. They exposed them openly in the slave markets where they were 
 sold by the prceco. They were first stripped and placed on a scaffold ca- 
 tasta, their feet being whitened with chalk. (Lib. ii. 2. 59, quem scepe 
 coegit Barbara gypsastos feme catasta pedes.) They were sometimes put 
 upon an elevation of stone (hence the lapede emptus. Cicero in Pis. 15. 
 Plant. Bach. iv. 7. 17), so that every one could see and touch them, nu- 
 dare, contrectare. Martin, vi. 66, describes a scene when the prceco, or 
 auctioneer, as an incentive to purchasers to bid, " bis, terque, qua, terque, 
 basiavit," the girl who was offered for sale. Those offered for sale wore 
 a tablet hanging from their collars called the tiiulus, upon which their 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 71 
 
 Although the Romans uever looked upon their slaves as a 
 source of revenue, but only as waiters to administer to their 
 immediate ease and comfort, yet the price of slaves was much 
 higher at Rome than in Greece ; the price of some is almost 
 incredible.' 
 
 The prices varied much, however, according to their quality 
 and nations. Syrians, Lydians, Carians, Mysleiaus, Cappa- 
 docians, also Beotians, Celts, Gauls, and Africans, were offered 
 in market with their titulus, indicating their nation, qualities, 
 defects, etc., hanging from the collars.^ 
 
 The slaves of Celtic or Germanic origin were usually devoted 
 to agriculture. Negroes were, like the court dwarfs, deformed 
 slaves and idiots, kept only as articles of fancy, luxury, display, 
 &c. ; they were, under the emperors, used as out-riders, parti- 
 cularly the Numidians.'' The principle that no Roman could 
 be the slave of another Roman, was more strictly observed 
 among them than the like rule in either Hebrew or Greek 
 slavery. An insolvent debtor might be made over to his cre- 
 ditors (addicere) ; but he could not become his slave at Rome, 
 but must, as was said, be sold abroad (trans Tiberem). This 
 was also the case where a Roman citizen was sold by the State.'' 
 
 The rich Roman citizens were extensive owners of slaves as 
 domestics, or artisans in the city, and as laborers or field-hands 
 on their vast estates in the provinces.^ 
 
 name, nation, capabilities, faults, aud defects were inscribed. Hence 
 Ciceit> De Off. iii. 17: ''Sed etiani iu maucipiorumvenditione fraus veu- 
 ditoris omnis excluditur, qui enim scire debuit do sanite, de fuga, de fur- 
 tis, praestat osdicto ajdilium." And Hor., Ep. ii. 2, 14: "Quorum titulus 
 per barbara colla pependit cretati medio quum saliere foro." Which 
 shows that they were trotted out to show their movement as horses are 
 with us. 
 
 1 The price of slaves was sometimes immense. In Hor. Ep. ii. 25, a 
 favorite is put up at six hundred and forty pounds. AVhile Martial, i. 59, 
 et xi. 10, mentions, "Pueros centenis millibus emptos." (Eight hundred 
 pounds, or about four thousand dollars.) Comp. Sen. Ep. 27; Gall, 
 XV. 19. 
 
 2 Ulp. Dig., xxi. 31. 
 
 3 Galli appositissimi ad jumenta. Fruitur Canius Ethiope. Varro R. 
 R. 1, 1. Mart. vii. 87. 
 
 * Gell. XX. 1, 45. " Trans Tiberem venum ibant." See, also, Val. Max. 
 vi. 3, 4. Cic. de Or., 1, 4Q. Plaut. Trin., ii. 4, 144. 
 
 5 The simplicity of the more ancient Roman customs was unacquainted 
 with such a concourse of slaves ; even Consuls took the field accompanied 
 by few. Sen. de Trauq. 8. " In servis jam interdicit illud genus, quod 
 ducibatur a domino, unde Marcipores Publiporesque." Quinct. Inst., i. 
 4, 7. Plin., xxiii. 1, 6, when talking of ceiling up the cells, says: "Hoc 
 profecere mancipionum legiones et in domo turba externa ac servorum 
 
"72 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Some rich planters are said to have possessed as many as 
 ten, and even twenty thousand. Seneca says that Demetrius, 
 the libertus or freedman of Pompey, was richer than his master.' 
 
 quoque causa nomenclator adbibendos. Aliter apud antiques singuli 
 Marcipores Luciporesve dominorum gentiles omnem victum in promiscuo 
 habebaut." The old-fashioned manner of attendance at meals is drawn 
 in lively colors by Juvenal, xi. 145: 
 
 "Plebeios calices et paucis assibus enptos 
 Porrigit incultus puer atque a frigore tutus ; 
 Non Phryx, aut Licius non a mangone petitus 
 Quixquam erit in magno cum poscis Latine, 
 Idem habitus cunctis, tonsi rectique cappilli, 
 Atque hodie tantum propter convivia pexi." 
 
 "The clownish waiter, clad only to protect him from the rigor of the 
 climate, will hand you the plebeian cups, bought for a few pence. He is 
 no Phrygian or Lycian, or one purchased from the slave-dealer at a great 
 price. When you ask for anything, ask in Latin. They have all the 
 same style of dress ; their hair is close-cropped and straight, and only 
 combed to-day on account of company." He goes on further to say — 
 " One is a son of a hardy shepherd ; another of a neat herdsman ; he 
 sighs and pines for his mother, whom he has not seen for a long time, and 
 for his native hovel and playmates, the kids — a lad of ingenuous modesty, 
 such as those ought to be who are clothed in brilliant purple. He shall 
 hand you wine, made on the very hills from which he himself came, and 
 under whose summits he has often played." It may be remai'ked that 
 the Romans enslaved nations and people in no manner inferior to them- 
 selves, except that they were enabled by their suj^erior numbers to over- 
 power them; nations which have since attained to the highest degrees of 
 civilization and refinement. They were taken from nearly every nation 
 of Europe and Western Asia or Asia Minor ; over these they held the 
 power of life and death, and, as we shall see, wantonly sacrificed them 
 to the gratification of their idle amusements, in the most brutal manner ; 
 of which the conflicts with wild animals, and the horrid butcheries of the 
 amphitheatres, are sufiicient proofs. 
 
 1 Cicero says, in his description of the loose household arrangements 
 of Piso, "idem coquus, idem atriensis." It was held disreputable not to 
 have a slave for every sort of work; and Horace, Sat. i. 3, 12, appears to 
 consider ten slaves the least number for one of restricted means. In Sat. 
 i. 6, he speaks of the ridicule thi'own upon Tullius the prajtor, because 
 he had no more than five slaves to accompany him from the Tribune villa 
 to Rome. But Cicero considers this an extraordinary expense in slaves. 
 De Leg. Arg. ii. 28. In later times, the numbers mentioned are incredible. 
 C. Cajcilius Claudius Isidorus, although he had lost great numbers in the 
 civil wars, yet left by his will four thousand one hundred and sixteen 
 slaves. Plin. xxxiii. 10. Tac. Ann. iii. 53 ; xiv. 43. But see account 
 of Petron(37), who says " familia vero, babte ! non me Hercules puto 
 decimam partem esse, qua horum suum novit." Trimalchio (47) asks a 
 slave: "ex quota decuria es?" He answers, "e quadragissima;" (53) an 
 actuarius reads aloud what has happened during the last twelve days on 
 the estate of Trimalchio; and, among other things, vii. Kal Sextilis, "in 
 predio cumano, quod est Trimulchionis, nati sunt pueri xsx. puellae xl." 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 16 
 
 The slaves of Crassus formed a large part of his fortune ; his 
 architects and masons alone exceeded five hundred. Scaurus 
 possessed four thousand domestics, and as many rural slaves. 
 In the reign of Augustus, a freed-man who had sustained great 
 losses during the civil wars, left four thousand one hundred and 
 sixteen slaves. On one occasion the family of Pedonius 
 Secundus, prefect of Rome under Nero, was found to consist 
 of four hundred slaves.' 
 
 A law, passed by Augustus, against manumitting too many 
 slaves by testament, forbidding any one to bequeath liberty to 
 more than one-fifth of his slaves, contains the following words : 
 ' ' Plures autem quam centum ex majore numero servorum 
 manumitti non licet. "^ We may thus infer that five hundred 
 was not an unusual number of slaves to be held by one owner. 
 It was, in the latter ages of the Republic, fashionable to go 
 abroad attended by large numbers of slaves.* Augustus pro- 
 hibited exiles from carrying with them more than twenty slaves.* 
 
 We may also form some idea of the vast numbers owned by 
 private individuals, from the fact that Augustus forbid magis- 
 trates to give shows of gladiators above twice in one year, or 
 more than sixty pairs at a time. 
 
 Julius Caesar exhibited at once three hundred and twenty 
 pairs. Trajan exhibited them for one hundred and twenty- 
 three days, in the course of which ten thousand gladiators fought. 
 
 The State and corporate bodies possessed large numbers of 
 slaves ; six hundred belonged to the public fire department at 
 
 The birth of thirty male and forty female children upon one estate in one 
 day is undoubtedly an exaggeration, but it gives us some idea of the 
 enormous numbers that were sometimes possessed by a single owner. 
 This immense number rendered it necessary that they should be classed 
 according to the divisions and subdivisions of labor; and each class 
 ranked higher or lower, according to the functions assigned them to per- 
 form, of which we shall speak more particularly in our analysis of the 
 Roman family. The origin of the term Servi, according to Justinian, 
 Inst. lib. 1, t. 2, c. 3, is as follows: "Servi autem ex eo appallati sunt 
 quod imperatores captivas vendere, ac per hoc servare nee occidere 
 Bolent ; qui etiam mancipia dicti sunt ; eo quod ad hostibus manu capi- 
 antur." Slaves are denominated Servi from the practice of our generals 
 to sell their captives, and thus presei've (servare) and not slay them. 
 Slaves are also called mancipia, in that they are taken from the enemy 
 by hand (manucapti). 
 
 1 Tac. Ann. iii. 53. 
 
 2 Hugo jus civile Antejustianeum, vol. i. p. 15. 7. 
 
 3 Cicero pro Mil. 10, "magno ancillarum puerorumque comitata." 
 Vedius also travels with a great number of slaves, as Atti. vi. 1. Horace 
 Sat. 1. iii. 11, says '• Habebat saepe ducentos, saepe decern sei-vos." 
 
 * See Plin. Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 47-52, et seq. 
 
14 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Rome." Chrysostom says, that under Thcodosius the Great, 
 and Arcadias, some persons had two and some three thousand 
 slaves. From the time of Augustus to Justinian, we may 
 allow three slaves to one freeman ; and of the twenty-eight 
 millions of population in Italy, upwards of twenty millions were 
 slaves. "After weighing every circumstance which could influ- 
 ence the balance," says Gibbon, "it seems probable that there 
 existed in the time of Claudius about twice as many provincials 
 as there were citizens of either sex and of every age, and that 
 the slaves were equal in number to the free inhabitants of the 
 Roman world." The total sum of this rough calculation 
 would rise to the amount of one hundred and twenty millions 
 of persons, one half of whom were slaves.^ 
 
 This will not seem so surprising when we consider the vast 
 numbers that accumulated upon the government by the endless 
 conquests that extended the dominions of the Roman Empire. 
 The very term that indicates slave in the Latin language shows 
 that they are the living monuments of the mercy of their con- 
 querors who have spared their lives, and to whose mercy they 
 and all their posterity are indebted for their existence upon the 
 face of the earth. ^ The law of captivity was enforced to its 
 most rigid extent, though it was sometimes modified by subse- 
 quent treaties between the vanquished and the victors.^ 
 
 After the fall of the Samnites at Aquilonia, two million and 
 thirty-three thousand pieces of brass were realized by the sale 
 of prisoners, who amounted to about thirty-six thousand.^ 
 
 Lucretius brought from the Volscian war, one thousand two 
 hundred and fifty captives ; and hj the capture of one incon- 
 siderable town, no less than four thousand slaves were obtained. 
 On the descent of the Roman armies upon Africa in the first 
 Punic war, twenty thousand prisoners were taken. Gelon, 
 praetor of Syracuse, having routed a Carthaginian army, took 
 such a number of captives that he gave five hundred to each 
 of the citizens of Agrigentum.'* 
 
 On the great victory of Marius and Catullus, over the Cimbri, 
 sixty thousand were captured. When Pindeuissus was taken 
 
 1 Publicos Servat. liv. ix. 29. 
 
 '■^ See Essay of Hume on popl. of Ancient Nations. Gibbon, Dec. and 
 Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. ii. Blair's Inquiry into State of Roman 
 Slavery, ch. 1. 
 
 3 Inst. Just. liv. i. t. 2, c. 3. See note (1), supra, p. 72. 
 
 * Liv. xlii. 8. See Hist of Ligurians. 
 
 ^ Liv. X. 46, "Id aes reductum ex captivis dicebatur." 
 
 " Idem et seq. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. i5 
 
 by Cicero, the inhabitants were sold for more than oiiC hundred 
 thousand pounds. Augustus having overcome the Salassi, sold 
 thirty-six thousand as slaves, eight thousand of whom were 
 capable of bearing arms. 
 
 Cassar, in his Gallic wars, according to the moderate estimate 
 of Yelleius Paterculus, took more than four hundred thousand 
 prisoners. ' 
 
 In addition to these vast numbers that were constantly accu- 
 mulating upon Roman territory during the Augustan ages of 
 her empire, there were multitudes imported from foreign nations 
 into the Roman markets as lawful articles of commerce. - 
 
 Besides the Asiatic resources of the Roman slave trade, of 
 which we have made mention, the trade in Africa is as old as 
 history reaches back. Among the ruling nations of the north 
 of that continent, Egyptians, Cyrenians and Carthaginians, 
 slavery was not only established (as we have before said), but 
 they imported whole armies of slaves, partly for home use, and 
 partly, at least, among the Carthaginians, to be shipped to 
 foreign markets. They were chiefly drawn from towards the 
 interior, where kidnapping was then carried on as extensively 
 as in more modern times. The Troglodyte Ethiopians seem to 
 have been a wild negro race dwelling in caves in the neighbor- 
 ing mountains,^ who were kidnapped by the Garamantes to be 
 sold as slaves. 
 
 The slave trade in Africa was directed mainly to females, 
 who, in the Balearian Islands, were sold for three times as 
 much as men.^ 
 
 The Island of Delos became an extensive mart for slaves, for 
 both Greek and Roman traders. In this opulent emporium it 
 is said that as many as ten thousand could be bought and sold 
 in a single day. We are told that for a long time great num- 
 bers were drawn from the interior of Asia Minor, particularly 
 
 1 Patere. Hist. Rom. vol. i. p. 58. 
 ^ See Heynes' Opuscula Academica, vol. iv. p. 137. 
 3 Heereu's Hist. Researches, vol. i. pp. 181, 223, 239. Liv. xxxii. 26. 
 Juvenal speaks of the negro slaves, v. 51 : 
 
 " Tibi pocula cursor, 
 Goetulus dubit, aut nigri manus ossea Mauri, 
 Et cui per mediam nobis occurrere noctem, 
 Clivosse veheris dum per monumenta Latina." 
 
 •' The Getulian footman, or the bony hand of a black Moor, will hand 
 you the drinking cups, one -whom you would not be willing to meet at 
 midnight while among the Latin tombs upon the steep way." 
 
 * Heeren's Hist. Researches, vol. i. p. 239. 
 
76 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 from Phrygia and Cappadocia. There were six thousand slaves 
 belonging to the temple of a goddess in Cappadocia. Slaves 
 appear to have reached the markets of Rome, under the CsBsars, 
 in separate bands, composed of the natives of their several 
 countries. The Getse, probably, came from a country to the 
 east of the Pontus. The Davi were an oriental race. Alex- 
 andria was a considerable place for the sale of slaves of a pecu- 
 liar kind : slaves possessing certain accomplishments were pro- 
 cured at Cadiz. Corsica, Sardinia, and even Britain, were the 
 birth-places of slaves. 
 
 The profits of the traders who bought slaves captured in dis- 
 tant nations were sometimes enormous. In the camp of Lu- 
 cullus, in Pontus, we are told that a slave might be purchased 
 for three shillings, while the lowest price they ever brought at 
 Rome was fifteen pounds.' 
 
 The almost incredible numbers of human beings subjected to 
 bondage and the dominion of the masters, by the conquests and 
 commerce of the Roman people, accounts for the inexhaustible 
 resources of their labor for public works ; the impregnable 
 ramparts of their national fortifications, and the brilliant prowess 
 of their army. Vast numbers were devoted to the construction 
 of those superb piers, porticos, aqueducts, of which we read. 
 How many must have been doomed to years of toil to complete 
 the gigantic work of the Appian Way ! The Coliseum, the 
 Mausoleum of Adrian, and other like works, whose magnificent 
 ruins are now the admiration of the world — these were reared 
 by the toil and blood of foreign slaves. 
 
 But though we have seen, to some extent, the vast numbers 
 of Roman slaves, the sources whence they were derived, the 
 mode in which they were acquired, and the works, to some 
 extent, upou which they were employed, yet we have not as 
 yet come to any knowledge of their real condition. 
 
 We find abundance of historical evidence, in the form of 
 edicts, constitutions, codes, digests, and institutes, to show 
 
 1 Plutarch's Vit. Lucullus. In trafficking with comparatively barbarous 
 nations, traders also procured their slaves very cheap by barter. Salt, 
 for instance, in ancient times, was much taken by the Thracians and other 
 nations, for slaves. It was also customary for parents, anciently, to sell 
 their children into slavery ; a custom which is still tolerated by modern 
 and Christian nations, as to all its effects and deleterious consequences, 
 as we shall see hereafter, in an examination of the condition of operatives 
 in different nations. — Man-stealing was also prevalent among the ancients. 
 St. Paul denounces man-stealers, 1 Tim. 1 : 10, as among the worst of 
 sinners. But he alludes to the frequent practice of stealing and carrying 
 away men into illegal bondage. Even Romans themselves were sometimes 
 thus stolen and sold. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. "77 
 
 their true condition in law ; but we find but an occasional 
 rebuke of the Satire, and a sly and silent tear dropped here 
 and there, by the tragic poet, for their sufferings, to determine 
 accurately their true condition. 
 
 Roman slavery, in law, was the worst and most barbarous 
 form that has ever existed, except among barbarous nations — 
 this a few quotations will serve to show : 
 
 Slavery is defined, by the Roman law, to be the subjecting 
 of one man to the power of another, according to the law of 
 nations, though contra naturam.* 
 
 Again : all slaves are in the power of their masters, which is 
 derived from the law of nations ; for it is equally observable 
 among all nations, that masters have the power of life and death 
 over their slaves, and that whatsoever is acquired by the slave 
 is acquired by the master. No injury is reputed to be done 
 to a slave, but to the master, through the body of the slave. 
 Servile relations are an impe-diment to matrimony. No slave 
 is allowed to testify, or to have any kind of civil right or con- 
 dition : they were held pro nullis, or pro quadriipedibus. A 
 more perfect and absolute ownership was originally given to 
 the master over his slave, and they were sunk to a lower grade 
 of chattels, by the laws of Rome, than any other civilized nation.^ 
 
 1 Inst. Just. lib. i, t. 3, c. 2. " Servus autem est constitutio juris gen- 
 tium, qua quis domino alieno contra naturam subjicitur." It is argued 
 that because this talies contra naturam, it is unjust; but the same argu- 
 ment would apply to all penal statutes; because all men are by nature 
 born free, it does not follow that circumstances may not justly deprive 
 them of liberty. 
 
 • Inst. Just. lib. i. t. 8, c. 1. The power of life and death here given 
 to the master over his slave, is peculiar to the Roman law, iinless it may 
 exist in some barbarous nations who have no written law, or among the 
 dififerent tribes and nations of Africa. This feature of law implies an 
 absolute ownership on the part of the master over his slave, as much as 
 over a stick of timber or a block of granite, and substitutes a relation 
 between them that has no just existence in natural, human, or divine law. 
 It is not the just, humane, and divine relation of master and servant, as 
 of parent and child, husband and wife, «&c., but of lord and brute, man 
 and beast. But this law was subsequently repealed by the constitution 
 of Antouius, in the second century of the Christian era. Dig. Hb. i. t. 6; 
 Just. lib. i. t. 8, c. 2. The heartless barbarity of this law, and its effect 
 upon the sensibilities of some (particularly the ladies), is strikingly set 
 forth by Juvenal, in a dispute between the master and mistress of some 
 unfortunate slave : — 
 
 "Pone crucem servo. — Meruit quo crimine servus 
 Supplicium ? quis testis adest ? quis detulis ? audi, 
 Nulla unqviam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est. 
 Oh demens! ita servus homo est? nil fecerit, esto: 
 Hoc volo; sicjubeo: sit pro ratione voluntas." 
 
t8 R03IAN SLAVERY. 
 
 This feature of Roman slavery bore more severely upon the 
 familia rustica, or country laborers, who were far removed 
 
 Juvenal, vi. 218. Which may be translated as follows — "Crucify that 
 slave ! — But, my dear, what is the crime, to call for such punishment ? 
 Can you produce any witness ? Who informed against him ? Remember, 
 no investigation can be too deliberate and cautious, where a man's life is 
 at stake. — Oh, you fool ! so a slave is a man, is he ? Suppose he has 
 done nothing: I will it; I command it. Is not my will a sufficient 
 reason ? " 
 
 Again, he says (Sat. xiv. 21) : — 
 
 "Tum felix, quoties aliquis tortare vocato 
 
 Uritur ardenti duo propter lintea fereo, 
 
 Quid suadet juveni loetus stridaro cutense, 
 
 Quem mire afficiunt inscripta ergastula cacer 
 
 Rusticus." 
 "Then is he happy, indeed, when the torturer is summoned, and some 
 poor wretch is branded with the burning iron, for stealing a pair of 
 towels. What example does he set his son, who revels in the clank of 
 chains, and whom the brands of wretched slaves and the rustic dungeon 
 fill with delight." 
 
 "Quidquid dominus indebite, iracunde, libens, nolens, oblitus, cogitans, 
 sciens, nescius, circa servum fecerit, judicium, justitia, lex est." Petrus, 
 Chrys. Serm. 141. The severity of this rule was undoubtedly mitigated, 
 in many instances, by the compassion of conscientious and humane mas- 
 ters ; yet the stern old Roman feeling prevailed, and most masters availed 
 themselves of the latitude of the laws to its fullest extent ; cruel masters 
 and mistresses hired torturers by profession, or had such persons whose 
 business it was to punish their slaves, to exact confessions from them, &c., 
 and many horrible torments were employed for this purpost. Juvenal 
 alludes to this custom, and the cruelty of the women. See Sat. vi. 475. 
 "If her husband has gone to sleep with his back towards her, the house- 
 keeper is half killed; the tirewomen are stripped to be whipped. The 
 Liburnian slave is accused of having come behind his time, and is forced 
 to pay the penalty of another's sleep; one has rods broken about him; 
 another bleeds from whips, another from the raw hide. Some women pay 
 a regular salary to their torturers : while he lashes, she is employed in 
 enamelling her face. She listens to her friend's chat, or examines the 
 broad gold of an embroidered robe. Still he lashes. She pores over 
 the items of her long diary. Still he lashes; till at length, when the tor- 
 turers are exhausted, 'Begone!' she thunders out, in an awful voice — 
 the inquisition being now complete." — The refined cruelty of the Roman 
 ladies was proverbial. The toilet of one was a terrible ordeal for a 
 dressing-maid ; a stray curl was an inexorable oflFence ; and the poor 
 girl's back was punished for the faults of the mirror. " Et ne fortuita 
 quidem verberibus excepta sunt, tussis, sternutamentum singultus." 
 Sen. Ep. xlvii. An accidental cough, sneeze, or hiccup, at forbidden 
 times, was severely punished. See Ovid, Am. i. 14. 13; Art. iii. 235 ; 
 Mart. ii. 66. Juvenal, vi. 491 : — 
 
 "Disponet crinem laceratis ipsa capillis, 
 Nuda humero Precas inflex, nudesque mamillis. 
 Altive hie quare cincimus ? Taurea punit 
 Continue flexi crimen facimusque capilli." 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 79 
 
 from all intercourse with Roman civilization and society : they 
 saw and knew little else besides their field of labor, their villicus 
 (overseer), and the dismal abodes of the Ergastulum. 
 
 Here is a dark chasm in Roman history that we cannot 
 unveil. The accounts that have come down to us relate mostly 
 to the condition of the varnse famllia nrbania, or household 
 servants. Like the Greek slaves who toiled for years in the 
 mines of Laconia, in chains, or spent their lives upon the 
 country estates of Attica, we hear little of the miseries and 
 groans of the Roman Ergastulum ; we cannot now gather up 
 the tears and blood that were shed upon the Appian Way, 
 around the mausoleum and public works of Augustus, nor upon 
 the countless farms of the provinces ; these are tales of woe 
 that will not be revealed till the day of doom. 
 
 It is contended by modern anti-slavery writers that slavery in 
 the abstract is wrong. But what, except the bewildered idea 
 they form of all such institutions from this barbarous feature of 
 Roman slavery, leads them to any such conclusion ? It is upon 
 the relation that follows from this most absolute form of the 
 institution, that all their reasoning is founded, and from which 
 all their conclusions are drawn. 
 
 That the rule that gives the master the absolute ownership 
 of his slave, so as to place the power of life and death over him 
 in his hands, is at war with the laws of humanity and the prin- 
 ciples of human nature, no one will deny. It is subversive of 
 the laws of creation that one man should thus own another. 
 But does the relation of master and slave, rendered just and 
 humane by good and wholesome laws, such as secure protection 
 to the life and person, and kind treatment to the slave, imply 
 any such a power ? or is it in itself liable to any such objections ? 
 We trow not. 
 
 Some laws have existed against the cruel treatment of slaves, 
 in all civilized nations, since the days of Moses down to the 
 present time, except during the age of the Republic of Rome, 
 in which this custom prevailed. But while it existed it was 
 severely animadverted upon by all the most celebrated philoso- 
 phers and poets of that nation, as their writings abundantly 
 testify.' 
 
 "PoorPrecas, with naked shoulders and breast, dresses her hair. But 
 why is this curl too high ? " Instantly the cowhide avenges the heinous 
 crime of misplacing a hair. "But what has poor Precas done? what 
 crime is it of the poor girl's, if your own nose displeases you ? " 
 
 1 The writings of Seneca are full of tender sympathy for the slave. He 
 says, " Servis imperare moderate laus est ; et in mancipio cogitandum 
 
80 RO>L\N SLAVERY. 
 
 Although many of the Roman poets and philosophers 
 abounded with passages of commiseration and reproof for the 
 unfortunate condition and treatment of the slaves, they at the 
 same time furnish abundant proof that they were but little 
 heeded. Slaves seem to have been valued by some only so far 
 as they represented money. Hortensius is said to have cared 
 less for the health of his slaves than that of his fish. It was a 
 question of ingenious disputation, whether, in order to lighten 
 a vessel in a storm, one should sacrifice a valuable horse or a 
 worthless slave. ' 
 
 It was the law at Rome, till long after the Christian Era, 
 that when a master was put to death by any one of his slaves, 
 the whole household of slaves, including the freedmen under the 
 roof, had to suffer the penalty of the law.^ 
 
 The power of Life and death which the Roman master had 
 over his slaves, was first sought to be abolished by Adrian and 
 Antonius Pius, in the second century.'' As their numbers 
 multiplied great severity was necessary to keep them in subjec- 
 tion ; at times their oppression became so intolerable that they 
 revolted in various provinces and in vast numbers.* 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the rigid discipline to which 
 they were subjected from the numerous classes into which they 
 were divided, and the distinct offices which they were called to 
 fulfil. A brief analysis also of the Roman family, including 
 
 est., non quantum illud impuue pati passit. Sed quantum tibi pumittat 
 aequi bonique natura." In the same place the conduct of Vadius Pollio 
 who fed his fish with the flesh of his slaves, is severely reprobated. De 
 Clem. i. 18, 
 
 Again, he says, "Erat si quis existemat servitutum in totum hominem 
 decendere: par melior ejus excepta est." His 47th Epistle is taken up 
 in describing what the treatment of slaves ought to be. 
 
 The younger Pliny was a humane master, and many instances are 
 recorded by historians of the magnanimity and grateful conduct of slaves. 
 Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom. i. 47, mentions three slaves in the time of 
 Antony's proscription, who saved their masters at the loss of their own 
 lives. This feature of the institution was discountenanced and done away 
 with by the prevalence of Christianity, wherever it was encountered. 
 (See Essay on Slavery in the New Testament.) This feature of the Roman 
 system never existed in India, as the provinces were left to their own 
 municipal regulations. 
 
 1 Writings of B. B. Edwards, vol. ii. p. 98, from which essay we have 
 derived great assistance in the investigation of this subject. Also Blair's 
 Inq. Rom. Slavery. 
 
 - Tac. Ann. xiv. 41. 
 
 •' Inst. Just. liv. i. t. 8. c. 2. 
 
 * Liv. iv. 45 ; do. xxii. 33 ; also xxxiii. 36. Diodorus mentions an in- 
 suiTection in Sicily, A. C. 135, the most dreadful that ever occurred. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 81 
 
 the slaves will serve, to some extent, to show the endless 
 formality and vast display of a princely household.' 
 
 Unlike most of the Grecian States, where the women were 
 little esteemed, and treated as children all their lives, confined 
 to their own separate apartments, shut out from all social life 
 and intercourse with public amusements, we find the Roman , 
 matron, though naturally subordinate to her husband, yet 
 treated with open attention and regard ; she always appears as 
 mistress of the whole household economy, instructress of the 
 children, and guardian of the honor of the family, equally 
 esteemed with the pater familias, both in doors and out. The 
 husband at the death of his father and grandfather, or by 
 emancipation from their authority, became himself the pater 
 familias, which constituted him lord of all the vast routine of 
 his possessions. The children were but a part of the family 
 patrimony, and remained during the life of the grandfather 
 subject to his arbitrary power and control, and at his death 
 they fell under the same authority of the father. 
 
 Though the Roman custom in relation to marriage and the 
 position of woman was decidedly preferable to that of the 
 Greeks, yet directly the reverse is true with regard to the rela- 
 tion of parent and child. The Roman custom upon this subject 
 is one of the most remarkable instances of arrogance, arbitrari- 
 ness and injustice to be found in the laws of any nation. It 
 extended the right of protecting and directing the child during 
 infancy over his entire life and liberty, and continued the same, 
 including the power of life and death over his person as long 
 as he lived. '^ 
 
 The patria potestas of the Romans differed only from absolute 
 ownership (dominium) in that the latter related to things, while 
 the former extended over persons ; but when applied to their 
 slaves it is difficult to see any distinction between them. 
 
 1 The Roman family in the sense in which it is used signifies, first, the 
 whole collected society of the house, freemen and slaves, at the head of 
 which stands the pater familias. Cic. de Invent, ii. 50. It has various 
 other meanings which are here unnecessary to be mentioned, as we design 
 to treat principally of the slaves. 
 
 2 See Just. Inst. liv. i. ts. 9-10. The patria potestas ceased, if the son 
 became a flamen dialis — a priest of the sacred order. Tac. Ann. iv. 16. 
 Gai. iii. 119. Other dignities made no diflference. See Val. Max. v. 4, .5. 
 In case of a daughter it ceased when she entered into marriage with 
 manus, or became a vestal virgin. Gell. i. 12., "Eo statim tempore sine 
 emancipatione ac sine capitis minutione a patris potestas exit," Ulp. x. 5. 
 "In potestas parentum esse desinunt at hi, qui Fla mines inaugurantur, 
 pt quiB Virginis Vestas capiuntur." Gal. i. 130. 
 
 F 
 
82 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 The authority of the father, extendinnj in a direct desceudinpj 
 line to the latest generation bora in his lifetime, would naturally 
 extend the limits of the family circle to large numbers of rela- 
 tives, and give him dominion not inferior to the patriarchal rule 
 of old. Sometimes the members of the family were increased 
 by adoption of other children.' 
 
 In later times this unnatural custom was somewhat modified 
 in that the power of life and death came to be considered in 
 the right of discipline and punishment, which was given to the 
 pater familias ; and as the father would naturally decline to sit 
 in judgment upon the life of his son for a public offence, he 
 would convoke a family council for that purpose.^ 
 
 But if the Roman father was so devoid, not only of paternal 
 affection, but of the common sympathies of humanity, as to sit 
 and coolly deliberate upon the passing of the sentence of death 
 upon his own legitimate son, what mercy can we hope for 
 towards the poor delinquent slave, who trembles at "vox domini 
 furit instantis virgamque teneretis. "^ The period fixed for the 
 majority of males was, by the Roman law, twenty-five years ; 
 at this age the son passed from under the authority of the 
 curator, and if his father and grandfather were both dead, he 
 became sui juris, or independent ; but if either of them were 
 alive, he still remained under their power as long as they lived, 
 unless he was emancipated " de jure," or " de facto. "^ 
 
 1 In the legal form of adoption, this barbarous power of the father is 
 expressly specified as though it was one of the essential requisites to con- 
 stitute one the child of the adopted father." Velitis jubeatis, ut L. 
 Valerius, L. .Titio, turn jure legique filius siet, quam si ex eo patre matrique 
 familias ejus natus esset, utique ei vitse nescisque in eum potestas siet, 
 uti patri endo filio est." Gill. v. 19. 
 
 2 " Cassius filinm — adhibito propinquoi'um et amicorum concilio afFectati 
 regni ci'imine domi damnavit verberibusque aflFectum nicari fossit." Val. 
 Max. V. 8. 2. On the killing of Cassius Viellinus by his father, see liv. ii. 
 41, Diony. viii. 70. Plin. H. M. xxxiv. 4. This judgment is mentioned 
 by Val. INIax. v. 8. 3, where he says of T. Manlius Torquatus, "ne consilio 
 quidem necessariorum indigere se credibit," as his son had been accused 
 by the Macedonians on account of extortion. The father sat in judgment 
 for three days, bearing witnesses and so on, and finally banished his son 
 from his presence ; whereupon he killed himself. The same author 
 (v. 9. 1.) relates another instance, when L. Gellius held judgment on his 
 son, " ptene universo senatu adhibito in consolium," and after a careful 
 inquiry, "absolvit cum tum consilii tum etiam sententia sua." 
 
 Other examples are related of sentences being passed by fathers upon 
 their sons without the intervention of a family meeting. 
 
 ' Juven. xiv. 63. "As the voice of his master thundered, brandishing 
 his whip over his head." 
 
 * Just. Inst. lib. i. t. 9. The Grecian law, as well as that of all other 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 3d 
 
 This custom, however, was peculiar to Roman citizens, and 
 though nearly related to that of exposing and destroying new- 
 born children, must not be wholly confounded with the same.' 
 But, though the political reasons on which they are said to have 
 been respectively founded, are somewhat different ; yet they 
 both seem to have sprung from that same arrogant spirit of 
 domination so strikingly peculiar to the Roman character in 
 ancient times. 
 
 The right of the father, also, to sell his children was unques- 
 tionably recognized by the Twelve Tables, though few instances 
 of the like can now be found ; it seems, therefore, to have been 
 early modified into a legal form of emancipation.^ 
 
 The father could not renounce his authority over his son ex- 
 cept by suffering him to be adopted in the power of another, 
 or by this formality of emancipation. 
 
 But this unnatural dependence in which the son was held by 
 the father applied also to the daughter; the most beautiful and 
 accomplished young lady was liable to be sold or put to death 
 at the will of an arbitrary and tyi'annical father.' As long as 
 the daughter remained single, she was under the power of her 
 natural father. Neither the son nor daughter could, at any 
 age, contract marriage without the consent of their father. 
 Therefore, by marriage the daughter was emancipated from the 
 power of her natural father, and, as it were, by adoption came 
 under that of her father-in-law. 
 
 There was a kind of marriage practised among the slaves, 
 
 civilized nations, upon this subject differed from the Roman in two 
 respects : — First, that the father's power over his son ceased at his 
 arriving at majority, or at his marriage, or on his being entered on the 
 list of citizens. Secondly, by the father having a right to terminate the 
 relation of parent and child, by banishing him from his house, or disin- 
 heriting him, without daring to injure his life or liberty. Beck's Gall. p. 
 178. Dion. ii. 26. "'O TMf Pfj/iai'oji' fofiodtTm," &c. 
 
 1 At Rome, it seems to have been commanded that the deformed should 
 be put to death. Cic. de Leg. iii. 8. Liv. xxvii. 37. Sen. de Ira., i. 18. 
 And the exposure and murder of new-born children was not unfrequent 
 even in the first families, as many instances show. Dio. Cass. xiv. ; and 
 the Lex. Gentilica of Fabii Dioys. ix. 22. See also Plant. Cas. Prol. 41, 
 79. Cist. 13, 17, 31. Ter. Heant, iv. t. 87. 
 
 - A fragment of the Twelve Tables decreed : " Si pater filium ter venum 
 duit, filius a pater liber esto." IJlp. xi. Again (Idem.) : "Liberi paren- 
 tum potestate liberantur emancipatione, ie si posteaquam mancipati fue- 
 rint manumissi sint. Sed filius quidem ter mancipatus ter manumissus 
 sui juris fit. Id enim lex xii. tabularum jubet his verbis:" Si pater filium 
 ter venum duit, filius a pater liber esto." 
 
 ^ " Se filiam jure cffisam judicare, ni ita esset, patrio jure in filium ani- 
 madversurum fuisse." Liv. 1 : 26. 
 
84 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 but it was only as a natui'al right, and wholly distinct from the 
 marriage of free persons; hence the term applied to it was, 
 eontubernium, instead of raatriraoniura, and the married pair 
 were called contubernals. The master, in case of the slave, as 
 with his own children, decided upon the propriety of the 
 match.' 
 
 The slaves born in the master's household were called the 
 vernae ; the possessions of the master were divided, first, into 
 the familia urbana and familia rustica, and we read that most 
 of the vast numbers possessed were employed in the familia 
 rustica, or upon the country estates ; but hundreds were in the 
 familia urbana, or immediate households of the master. It is 
 to this family that we shall chiefly confine our analysis.^ These 
 families of slaves, of which only we shall speak, were again 
 divided, first, into decuria, or divisions of ten in each ; and 
 again into ranks or classes, according to the occupations which 
 they followed. 
 
 Pignorius, who has treated this subject, perhaps more ex- 
 tensively than any other author, has enumerated forty-eight 
 classes of rustic slaves ; forty of rustic or urban ; sixty of urban ; 
 sixty-six of personal attendants ; fifteen of upper slaves ; thir- 
 teen of nursery ; one hundred and thirty of luxury, and five of 
 military slaves ; in all, three hundred and twenty-five classes.' 
 We cannot pursue all these classes in detail, and shall, there- 
 fore, treat only of the six primary divisions : the ordiaarii, the 
 medici, literati ; anagnoslce, librarii, and vulyares. Uuder 
 these several heads, innumerable subdivisions were included. 
 
 The ordinarii seem to have been a division of the highest 
 rank of slaves ; they were placed above the others (ciEteris pro- 
 fecti erant), and had their own slaves (vicarii) as a part of their 
 own estate, or peculium, acquired by their own economy. 
 
 Sometimes the master gave the ordinarii assistant slaves, who 
 acted under him, and for whose conduct he was responsible to 
 his master.* 
 
 1 Dio. Cass, xlviii. 44; lix. 13 (and), " qualicunque vilico contubemalis 
 mulier assignanda est." Col. 1:8. " To each (meaning male slaves) his 
 espoused woman must be assigned by the overseer." 
 
 2 "Urbana familia et rustica, noa loco sed genere distinguitur." Fest. 
 166. 
 
 3 The slave family considered in this point has been treated by Pigno- 
 rius : "Deservis et eorum apud veteres ministeriis." By Titus Papma, 
 De operis servorum, and Goci in tbe explanation of the Columbarium Li- 
 bertorum et servorum Liviae Augustas, referred to in Blair's Enquiry' into 
 the state of slavery among the Romans. 
 
 * Vicarius est qui servo furet." Hor. Sat. ii. 7 : 79. 
 The vicarii existed at an early period. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 85 
 
 The ordinarii were the si)ecial confidants of the master, and 
 entrusted by him with the management of his income and out- 
 lays; they appointed and controlled the other ranks of slaves, 
 both in the house and at the villa. 
 
 In this class of slaves are mentioned the procurator, the 
 actor, and dispensator. ' 
 
 The actor seems to have belonged, chiefly, to the family rus- 
 tica, and to have acted in about the same capacity as the vil- 
 licus, which answers nearly to the outdoor duties of the modern 
 overseer. '^ 
 
 The dispensator was a kind of book-keeper and cashier in 
 the family urbana.'' Another of the principals at the head of 
 domestic arrangements was the atriensis, who originally shared 
 the duties of the dispensator and procurator. The procurator 
 was the general supervisor, whose duties were quite analogous 
 to those of a modern general agent, or of a supercargo. In 
 later times there were, doubtless, special atrienses, whose duties 
 were confined to the several departments of the house, as the 
 atrium, department of statuary, &c. 
 
 There was, also, in this division, the celurius, or promus, 
 who had charge of the cella penaria and vinaria, and furnished 
 the daily supplies, and took charge of what remained.* 
 
 We read also of the negotiatores, who attended to certain 
 outdoor business-transactions for their masters, such as finan- 
 ciering and moneyed arrangements.^ 
 
 The multitude of slaves that thronged the premises of the 
 family urbana were sometimes mischievous and noisy; this gave 
 rise to the silentarii, who were a kind of patrol, that kept 
 watch over the quiet of the household. ** 
 
 "Esse sat est servum; quam nolo vicaiius esse." 
 *' Scio mihi vicarum esse." Plaut. Asin. ii. 4, 28. 
 And Cicero, when he wishes to mark the velitas (contempt) of Diogno- 
 
 tus, a public slave, says; "Vicarum nullum habet, nihil omnino peculii " 
 
 Verr. ill. 28. 
 
 1 Suet. Gall. 12. This procurator must not be confounded with the 
 like term occurring so often in legal matters ; the latter could only be a 
 freedman. Dig. lib. 13, t. 3. Cic. p. Ctel. 20. But domestic procuratores 
 were slaves or freedmen. Cic. de Crat. i. 58. Ad. Attic, xiv. 16. 
 
 2 Coelum, i. 7 ; ib. 8. In Scaev. Dis. xxxiii. 7-20. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Attic, xi. 1. "Nihil scire potui de nostris domesticis rebus, 
 de quibus acerbissime aflBictor quod qui eas dispensavit, neque adest istae 
 neque ubi terrarum sit scio." 
 
 * Plaut. Asin. ii. 4. 
 
 5 Plaut. Pseud, ii. 2; and hence, also, the Condus Promus. Plaut. 
 cap. iv. 2. 115. 
 
 e Sen. Epist. 47. 
 8. 
 
86 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Of the numberless subdivisions under this head we shall 
 mention but few. The terms by which they are designated 
 indicate their occupation. Of these were the architecti, fabri, 
 tectores, statuarii, pictores, ccelatores (engravers), plumarii 
 (ornamental weavers), topiarii (fancy gardeners), viridarii, 
 aquarii ; also, the symphianiaci (or band of household musi- 
 cians), ludiones (puppet-dancers), mimi (buffoons), funambuli 
 (rope-dancers), petauristse (mountebanks or jumpers), salta- 
 trices (women dancers), and gladiatores. Besides these, they 
 had the moriones, or clowns, fatui, or idiots, and nani, or 
 dwarfs.^ 
 
 The second primary division of the higher order of the slaves 
 which we shall mention, is the medici. 
 
 It was at a late period that the study of medicine attained 
 to any distinction at Rome, and then it was almost exclusively 
 practised by foreigners. Pliny says that the first Grecian phy- 
 sician, Archaguthus, arrived at Rome, from the Peloponnesus, 
 in the year of the city five hundred and thirty-five.^ 
 
 The astonishment which the art first excited was soon turned 
 into distrust, and sometimes into aversion. Cato earnestly 
 warned his son against the Greek physicians and the study of 
 medicine.^ Even in the time of Pliny, the Romans themselves 
 attended but little to the art, though it was, as he says, very 
 profitable ; but it was, perhaps, for that reason lowered in the 
 estimation of the old Romans.* 
 
 Pliny gives an interesting account of the relation in which 
 the patient stood to the physician, which may well be applied 
 to our own times. After remarking that the Romans did not 
 pursue the science with much devotion, he says, "Imo vero 
 auctoritas aliter quam Greece eum tractantibus, etiam apud 
 imperitas exjoertesqite linguce non est. Ac minus creduyit, 
 quce ad salutem suum pertinent, si intelligunt. Itaque in hcec 
 artium sola evenit, ut cuicunque viedicum se professo statim 
 credatur. Nulla praeterea lex est, quce puniat inscitiam, 
 
 1 See Beck's Gall., p. 206, translated by Metcalf, to which we are very 
 much indebted for the investigation of this subject, 
 •^ Plin. xxix. 1. 6. 
 3 We cannot wonder that Plautus scourges them with jokes, Monach. 
 
 V. 3. 5. Even Athenfeus says (XV. 666), "si ^i; larpoi t)oav^avitv !lt> riov ypafi- 
 
 fiaWxeoi/ liopoTCfiov." "If they cannot be doctors, there is no one of the 
 learned professions more simple." 
 
 * " Non rem antique dumnabant, sed artem. Maxime vero qusestum 
 esse immani pretio vitje, recusabant." " The ancients pursued nothing 
 but art. They denied the grand desideratum to consist in the immense 
 value of human life." 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 8t 
 
 capilale nullum exemplum vindidas. Discunt periculis nos- 
 tris et experimenta per mortes agunl, medicoque tantum homi- 
 nem occidisse impunitas summa cs?. '" 
 
 As the professional physician, therefore, was not looked upon 
 in the most favorable light, the Romans were accustomed to 
 employ trustworthy slaves as their family physicians, and care- 
 ful fathers of families collected recipes or prescriptions for par- 
 ticular cases. Thus, Cato had a receipt-book, commentarium, 
 quo raederetur filio servis familiaribus. These slaves were 
 called the medici. Surgery, as well as physic, was practised 
 by the medici ; but, it is possible that there were separate ones 
 for this branch of the profession, known as the vulnerum me- 
 dici. In the time of Tiberius regular chirurgi occur. About 
 this time physic began to be divided into distinct branches, 
 and there were doctors for the eye (medici ab oculis), as well 
 as dentists, &c.'- 
 
 Another class of well-educated slaves, were the literati ; a 
 class of whose literary acquirements and knowledge the master 
 made use of for his own convenience. They were principally 
 employed as lectores, or readers. 
 
 Men of letters were accustomed, when at their meals, or not 
 other ways mentally employed, and even while in the baths, to 
 have these lectores to read to them. At the banquet, it was 
 customary for the guests to be entertained a while by the lee- ' 
 tores. ^ Martial alludes to this practice, and says that some of 
 his friends invited him to their tables only to read to him their 
 bad comedies. Augustus, when unable to sleep, used to send 
 for his lectores.* 
 
 1 " Moreover, the importance of this profession to those who did pursue 
 it. was tar less than among the Greeks; even among the ignorant and 
 illiterate, it was held in disrepute. They attached less importance to 
 those things pertaining to the health, than to the mind (literally, than if 
 they acquired knowledge). Therefore it occurred to this alone, of all the 
 arts, that to whomsoever a diploma might be given (or the profession 
 might be entrusted), he became at once a doctor. Besides, there was no 
 law to punish his malpractice, nor any capital example of vindication. 
 They prescribe and experiment upon diseases at our peril, and however 
 illustrious a man may die from his treatment, it is with the utmost 
 impunity." 
 
 2 Mart. X. 56. 
 
 * Plin. Ep. iii. 5. Cornelius Nepos says of Atticus, "Nemo in convivio 
 ejus aliud axpoaiia audivit, quam anagnostem (or lectorem). Nequeunquam 
 sine aliqua lectione apud cum culnatium est." Cor. Nep. 1. 16. " No one 
 at his dinnei'-table heard any exhibition, other than the lector or reader. 
 Nor did supper ever pass without some reading to him." 
 
 * Mart. iii. 50; Suet. Aug. 78; Cic. ad Att. 1-12. 
 
88 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 There was also another class of educated slaves, called the 
 librarii ; these were slaves used for writing, hence also called 
 scribse. These seem to have been a distinct class, who were 
 trained to serve as amanuenses, private secretaries, and the 
 like, but were wholly distinct from the public scribes or nota- 
 ries, who were liberi, or freedmen, and formed a separate order. 
 
 There were also the p^dagogi, who served as private tutors 
 to the children, or accompanied them when they went abroad 
 to school ; and the matrices, the girls. ^ 
 
 The slaves of luxury were numerous ; and their several avo- 
 cations serve to illustrate the means with which the Roman 
 families of notoriety provided themselves with private amuse- 
 ments after meals, when the business of the day was at an end, 
 and everything was brought forward that could serve for recre- 
 ation. It was not until after the war with Antiochus, that the 
 early simplicity of Roman manners was corrupted by Asiatic 
 luxury ; then their banquets began to be more elegant and 
 sumptuous, by their imported refinements in cookery ; and their 
 leisure hours were whiled away by all kinds of shows (axpo^ara), 
 by artists hired for the occasion, or kept among the regular 
 family slaves.^ 
 
 Among these were the symphoniaci, the corps of household 
 musicians ; the frequent mention of which shows their general 
 use.^ To these were added, the ludiones, a kind of stage- 
 dancers ; the mimi, clowns or buffoons ; the funambuli, rope- 
 dancers ; the petauristce, a kind of mountebanks, or such as 
 performed wonderful feats of muscular power and agility ;* and 
 lastly, the gladiatores, such as wielded the sword in mortal 
 combat for the idle amusement of the beholders. 
 
 The deformed and idiotic (raoriones et fatui) seem to have 
 been in great demand, as sources of entertainment and amuse- 
 ment. The moriones were, perhaps, regular Cretins, as the 
 term implies not only uncomeliuess, but stupidity and deformity." 
 
 • Cato the elder taught his son himself (Kai'roi x^picym 6ov\ov tixe ypanna- 
 Tiarfiv ovoyia 'KXioyi/a, -noWovi iXiaoKuvra naiSa; — Plaut. lat. Mag. 20), although 
 
 he had a slave, called Chon, a most elegant teachei", who taught many 
 other boys. 
 
 2 Livy, xxxix. 6. 
 
 5 Cic. Mil. 21; Petron. c. 33. 47; Sen. Ep. 54. Seneca says, that in 
 their evening amusements there were more singers than formerly in the 
 public theatres. " In commissationibus nostris plus cantorum est, quam 
 in theatris olim spectatorum fuit." 
 
 ♦ Petron. 53. 
 
 5 Mart. vi. 39, describes one, "acute capite et auribus longis, quae sic 
 raoventur, ut solunt asellorum." 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 89 
 
 But tbch' stupidity was their chief point of excellence, as the 
 more stupid they were, the more valuable ; thus affording the 
 greater means of exciting laughter, by appearing the more 
 ludicrous/* Even in the moral and humane Seneca's house 
 there was no lack of them.^ 
 
 Of a similar kind to these were the dwarfs (nani), who were 
 the special favorites of the ladies.* Suetonius said of Augustus, 
 " pumilias (dwarfs) atque distortas ut ludibria naturce malique 
 omnis aborrebat " ; but still, it is said that he kept a court- 
 dwarf, Canopas, the pet of his niece Julia.* 
 
 It will, doubtless, seem not a little surprising to the refined 
 sympathies and moral sensibilities of the present day, that 
 human nature could ever have been so depraved as to make 
 sport of its own grievances and misfortunes, or as to eagerly 
 seek the most glaring instances of the imperfections of the 
 species, as sources of pastime and amusement. The above 
 sentiment of Augustus would seem to be more consonant with 
 reason and humanity. His feelings revolted at such freaks of 
 nature and worst of misfortunes. 
 
 Another division of the Roman slaves was the vulgares, of a 
 lower grade than the ordinarii ; this division included all those 
 who followed the more degraded avocations, and were confined 
 to menial services, in doors and out. The first of this class 
 may be mentioned as the Janitor, or ostarius, who constantly 
 kept watch over the entrance to the house. In ancient times, 
 and often later, their attendance was secured by fastening them 
 with a chain to the door-post.^ 
 
 The dog was the only companion of the Janitor, and helped 
 him to guard the court and entrance to the house. He some- 
 
 1 Mart. xiv. 210, et viii. 13. 
 
 2 Sen. Ep. 50. " Harpasten, uxoris meoe fatuam scis hereditarium onus 
 in domo mea remanisse ; ipse enim aversissimus ab istis prodigiis ; sum 
 si quando fatuo delectari volo, non est mihi longe quaerendum me rideo." 
 
 ^ Gell. xix. 13, explains fofovi, "brevi atque humili corpore homines 
 paulum supra terram extantes." Stat. Silv. i. 6. 57. 
 
 "Hie audax subit ordo pumilionum 
 Quos natura brevi statu peractos 
 Nodosum semel in globum ligavit." 
 
 * Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 16; Suet. Aug. 83, also lib. 61. The nani differed 
 from the distort!. Quinct. Decl. 278; Inst. ii. 5. These monsters used 
 to learn to dance and play the castanets. They used also to enact fights. 
 Dio. Cass. Ixvii. 8. Brass statues of these abortions are still extant. 
 
 * L. Octacilius, "serviisse dicitur; atque etiam ostarius veteri more in 
 catena fuisse ;" " and even to have been a doorkeeper in a chain." "Jani- 
 tor, indignum, dura religati catena." Ov. Am. 1, 161. 
 
 8* 
 
90 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 times bore his staff to repel an intruder, like the doorkeepers 
 at the principal hotels in modern times.' Next came the lubi- 
 cuiarii, who had the supervision of the sitting and sleeping 
 rooms ; and, probably, when the master was at home, waited 
 in the ante-chamber ; they also announced visitors.^ 
 
 When any one of rank went abroad without any particular 
 necessity for display, but in a private manner, one or more 
 slaves usually attended him ; hence there was a class called the 
 pedisequi, though every slave that followed his master was not 
 called by that name. 
 
 The Roman custom required the attendance of slaves in every 
 situation, and under all circumstances to exempt the master 
 from the most trifling exertions.^ Hence, every species of 
 labor, or pursuit of any description, except the military offices, 
 legal acquirements and practice, senatorial duties, and those 
 pertaining to matters of State, scientific and literary pursuits, 
 became disreputable in the estimation of Roman citizens. Any 
 deviation from the established custom by any of the elite, was 
 sure to be visited by public notice, and, perhaps, bring the 
 offender into public ridicule. *- 
 
 Besides these, many of the first families at Rome used a no- 
 menclator. It was with the Romans, in this respect, as with 
 the people of the present day ; every ambitious man who was 
 electioneering for ofiice, was obliged to condescend, at times 
 particularly, to treat not only men of distinction, but even the 
 
 1 See. de Const, sup. 14, Petron. c. 134, "arundinem ab ostio rapuit." 
 - " Hunc vestri janitores, hunc cubicularii diligunt; hunc liberi vestri, 
 hunc servi ancillre que amant; hie cum venit, extra ordinem vocatur ; 
 hie solus introducitur, cseteri ssepe frugalissiini homines excluduntur." 
 Cic. Verr. iii. 4. From this it would seem that the slaves had their pre- 
 ference, and would favor men of rank, while it was their duty to admit 
 visitors in the order of their arrival. Cic. ad Att. 2. This complaint 
 might well apply to some ill-bred slaves of the present day ; they often 
 take it upon themselves to distinguish those of rank as they fancy them. 
 
 * "Nihil scire potui de nostris domcsticis rebus de quibus acerbissime 
 aflictor; quod qui eas dispensavit, neque adest istic, neque ubi terrarum 
 sit scio." Cic. ad Att. xi. 1. "Non rem antiqui damnabant, sed artem." 
 Martial (ix. 60, 22) speaks of one, "qui asse duos calices emit et ipse 
 tulit;" "who purchased two cups and carried them home himself." 
 
 * Thus Cicero, in his strictures upon the common household arrange- 
 ments of Piso, says, "idem coquus, idem atriensis." This looks a little 
 like the law feminine, backbiting of families, so common between bick- 
 ering neighbors. Horace (Sat. 1, 3, 12) speaks of the public ridicule 
 thrown upon Tullius the prajtor, because he had no more than five slaves 
 to accompany him from the Tiburtine villa to Rome. Against all the 
 derelictions of custom, fashion and duty, Juvenal, above all, aimed the 
 poisoned shafts of satire. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 91 
 
 common people, with many little notices of politeness and 
 marked attention. Their houses were kept open to every one, 
 and when they were abroad all were hale fellows well met. But 
 so far were the haughty patricians removed from the names, 
 interests, and social condition of the plebeians, that it was im- 
 possible for them to recollect, at a moment, the names and cir- 
 cumstances of those they might meet, who claimed the right, 
 particularly in electioneering seasons, to be recognised, and to 
 have a few words of agreeable chat with the candidate, that 
 they kept slaves for this purpose, whose duty it was to remember 
 the names, condition and circumstances of all they met, and 
 inform their master.' 
 
 In the place of the hacks and pleasure-carriages of modern 
 times, the Romans used the lectica ; these were vehicles borne 
 by slaves, which was a very common mode of travelling in th« 
 city, particularly for the ladies. The strongest and most im- 
 posing slaves in appearance were chosen for this purpose, and 
 they consisted of Syrians, Celts, Germans, and especially Cap- 
 padocians. Sometimes there were six, sometimes eight in 
 number. These were a very numerous class of slaves, as may 
 well be supposed, in so populous a city as ancient Rome ; they 
 were called the lecticarii. Before the lecticarii, proceeded the 
 ante-ambulones, in order to clear the road of the crowd. They 
 did not always confine themselves to the customary words, 
 "date locum domino meo,'^ but occasionally getting a little 
 impatient, began to jostle with their elbows and to thrust aside 
 with their hands. ^ This led sometimes to disagreeable colli- 
 sions. "Eques Romanus a servo ejus (Surgii Macedonis), ut 
 transitum daret, manu leviter admonitus convertit se, nee ser- 
 vum, a quo erat tactus sed ipsum Macedonem tarn graviter 
 palma percussit, ut psene consideret."^ 
 
 The use of postilions, runners, and outriders, is not of mo- 
 dern origin ; the Romans, in the time of the emperors, were 
 particularly fond of this kind of display, and frequent men- 
 
 1 "Ad urbem ita veni, ut nemo alius ordinis homo nomenclatori non 
 notus," became a proverb. Sometimes, wheu their memory failed them, 
 they vrould play a trick and substitute a name. " Vetulus nomenclator, 
 qui nomina non reddit, sed imponit." Sen. Ep. 27. Perhaps Jack 
 Downing may have borrowed the idea from this custom, when he volun- 
 teered his services to shake hands for Gen. Jackson. 
 
 2 Mart. iii. 46. 
 
 3 A Roman knight being touched lightly by the hand of Surgius Ma- 
 cedo's slave, that he might give room to pass, turned not upon the slave 
 who had touched him, but upon jNIacedo himself, and gave him such a 
 blow that he almost fell. Phn. Ep. iii. 14. 
 
92 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 tion is made of the Cursores and Numidae who ran or rode in 
 advance of the rheda or carruca. Thus, Seneca says: "0 
 quam cuperem illi (Catoni) nunc occurrere aliquem ex his Tros- 
 sulis in via divitibus cursores et Numidas et multum ante de 
 pulveris agentera !'" 
 
 It is a peculiar feature of Roman discipline, that all labor 
 was so minutely divided, the operatives so minutely classed, 
 and the lines of duty for each so distinctly marked out, that we 
 can find no analogous system in modern times except in some 
 of the extensive workshops in large manufacturing districts 
 where the labor is, perhaps, in some instances, similarly divided. 
 This is evident from the fact, that a classification of more than 
 three hundred different classes, with specific duties, are men- 
 tioned. 
 
 We will next speak of the position and treatment of slaves. 
 We have seen that some of the higher order of slaves were well 
 educated, and accomplished artisans. Indeed, every descrip- 
 tion of employment, as a source of revenue, seems to have been 
 followed by slaves ; the system of hired or free labor, so com- 
 mon among the Grecian States, was almost wholly unknown to 
 the Romans. 
 
 The primary division of persons with respect to liberty was, 
 by the Roman law, into freemen and slaves."^ And to every 
 freeman (being a Roman citizen) all kinds of labor for profit 
 was considered servile and dishonorable, and even slave labor 
 not looked upon as a source of profit, but only as a means to 
 promote their luxury and happiness.' The immense fortunes 
 sometimes accumulated by wealthy Roman citizens, must have 
 fallen to them either by inheritance, or by the spoils of war. 
 In Greece, there was the extensive mining interests and other 
 vast resources of productive industry. But, as to Rome, we 
 read of no means of developing the resources of national 
 wealth and power, but their agriculture and arms. A large 
 portion of the property acquired by conquest consisted in 
 captives, which they regarded as their absolute property, and 
 could appropriate to any use they thought proper. Through- 
 
 ' " Oh, how I wish some one from the rich Trassulians could meet him 
 (Cato) in the road driving his runner Numidians and huge cloud of dust 
 before him!" Sen. Ep. 87. Seneca probably envied Cato his display, 
 and would like to have seen him outdone. 
 
 ^ Just. Inst., lib. 1, t. 2: "Non rem antiqui damnabant sed artem." 
 Beck's Gall., p. 207. 
 
 ^ Beck's Gall., p. 199. Smith's Greek and Roman Antiquities. Art. 
 Slaves. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 93 
 
 out the republic, and even up to the times of the Antonies, the 
 master held absolute control over his slave ; he could practise 
 the most cruel barbarities on him, or even kill him v^ith perfect 
 impunity. ' 
 
 But, as we have said, this custom of all ancient civilized na- 
 tions was peculiar to Rome ; in Greek and Hebrew slavery, as 
 we have seen, the case was different. At Athens, as in modern 
 times, if a master was excessively cruel to his slave, he could 
 be compelled to sell him.^ Altogether, the position of the Ro- 
 man slave was far harder than that of the Greek. For their 
 food, the Roman slaves received a monthly allowance of the 
 most necessary articles (menstrua), or daily (diaria cibaria) ; 
 this allowance was called the demensum.'' Cato fixes the allow- 
 ance according to the slave's labor, at from four to five modii 
 of wheat per month ; wine, according to the time of the year ; 
 oil, one sext ; salt, one modus per month, besides figs, olives, 
 halec, and vinegar.'* 
 
 The slave likewise received his tunica and saguan ; for shoes 
 he received sculponese, a kind of sandal made of wood. If he 
 could manage to save anything out of his allowance by his 
 economy, he might thus acquire a little property to which his 
 master could lay no claim. Indeed, as in modern times, the 
 principle " quodcunqne per servum acquiritur id domino ac- 
 quiritur, " was not strictly adhered to, and the slave could thus 
 earn a " peculium," by means of which he often purchased his 
 freedom.^ 
 
 1 See Juvenal, vi. 218 : "Pone crucem servo," &c. "Apud omnes 
 prseque gentes auimadvertere possumus, dominis in servos vitaj necisque 
 potestatem esse, et quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquiri- 
 tur." Gai's Inst., i. 52. 
 
 - But this is not true of Greek and Hebrew slavery, generally. Antipli. 
 de Caede Herod., p. 727. "If a man smite his servant with a rod, and 
 he die under his hand, he shall be punished." Ex. xxi. 20. 
 
 2 " Servi quaternos modios accipiebant frumenti in mensem et id de- 
 mensem dicebatur." Domet. ad Terren. Phoreni, i. 1, 9. 
 
 * Cato R. R. 56 : We learn from Plautus that the allowance was given 
 out monthly. Plant. Stich. i. 2, 2. 
 
 " Vos meministis quot calendis petere demensem cibum; 
 Qui minus meministis, quod opus sit facto facere in aedibus." 
 . . . "Rogabat 
 
 Denique cur unquara fugisset, cui satis ima 
 Farris libra foret, gracili sic tamque pusillo." 
 
 Hor. Sat. i. 5, 67. 
 
 Thus we see that bad diet, or scanty food, caused slaves to run away. 
 ■^ Sen. Ep. 80: "Peculium suum, quod comperaverant ventre fraudato, 
 pro oapite numerant." See also, Terent, Pho. i. 1, 9. 
 
94 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 The slave might also acquire property by other means ; the 
 master, usually, laid no claim to what the slave had found ; 
 hence there were often very rich slaves. ' As they had no civil 
 position, or right as men in society, their names were a kind 
 of nicknames, adopted at hap-hazard, as we adopt the names 
 of dogs, horses, and the like. 
 
 There was no difference between the dress of the slave and that 
 of the humble freeman.^ The punishments of the slaves, which 
 is the principal alleged sin against the institution of the present 
 day, were numerous, and even rendered more severe by the 
 increase of their numbers, the greater difficulty of keeping them 
 in subjection, and their greater turbulence and viciousuess. In 
 treating upon this part of the subject, we must not overlook 
 the fact that the multitude of Roman slaves had so increased 
 as to greatly outnumber the freemen, and had become systemati- 
 cally demoralized and vitiated for a course of several centuries, 
 so that they were, as a class, of equal intellectual capacity with 
 the generality of freemen, of excessive cunning and audacity, 
 and could only be kept under by extreme severity. 
 
 The milder punishments were, degrading out of the family 
 urbana into the family rustica and into the ergastulum, where 
 they often had to work — catenati et compediti.^ There was a 
 class called the " Vincti compode fossores," who are often 
 mentioned ; this was the class that inhabited the ergastulum ; 
 their crime was mostly that of running away, hence they were 
 sentenced to this kind of ball and chain-gang who inhabited 
 the dungeon.'' The conipes was, either a block of wood fastened 
 to the leg by a chain, or, more commonly, regular leg-irons. 
 Hence the proverb, " Gompedes, ipse fecit, ipsus ut gestet 
 
 1 Sen. de Benef., iii. 28, and Plin. xxx. 10. 
 
 ^ Sen. de Clem. i. 24. "Dicta est aliquando in senatu sententia, ut 
 servos a liberis cultus distingueret ; deinde apparuit, quantum periculum 
 immineret, si servi nostri numerare nos ccepissent." Lampr. Serv. 
 Alex. 27. Tac. Arm. xiii. 24. 
 
 3 Plaut. Mart. i. 1, 17. 
 
 4 Ovid, Trest. iv. 1, 5. Tib. ii. 6. 25. Col. i. 8, 16. Juvenal viii. 180. 
 "Ergastulum mancipia vincta compedibus." The Ergastulum was the 
 abode of the rustic slaves. They must have been immense establishments 
 to aiford each slave a separate cell ; something upon the plan of a modern 
 penitentiary. There was a dungeon attached to it, a vast excavation 
 under ground, something like a modern cistern, with no entrance, except 
 through a small aperture at the top, by a rope let down like a bucket into 
 a well. Here there were separate cells for the convicts in the walls, like 
 receiving tombs for the dead. Colum. i. 6, 3. See also Plaut. Poenullus, 
 Translation in Bohn's Library, vol. ii. p. 404, note. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 95 
 
 fdber. An iron collar (collare) like the Greek (xt^oloj), and 
 manacles (raanicae) were often used.' 
 
 "Whipping was also common with canes or cudgels (fustes), 
 or whips (virgae ulmeoe) ; hence for whipping they said, ^'facere. 
 aliquam ulmeum.''^^ Plautus in his comedies makes one 
 thoroughly acquainted with slave life on every side. Another 
 severe punishment was to be hung up by the hands with weights 
 attached to the feet while they were chastised.'' 
 
 The more grievous penalties were branding, executed upon 
 the fugitive or runaways, and upon the fures, or thieves. Letters 
 were burnt in the forehead, to mark the crime ; and those thus 
 lettered were called the literati." The stigma remained visible 
 for life ; and many who afterwards became free and rich tried 
 
 1 Lucil. in Non. i. 62. Plaut. cap. ii, 2, 107 ; see also Translation in 
 Bolin's Library, vol. ii. p. 404, note. 
 
 2 Plant. Asin. ii. 2, 96. Pers. ii. 4. 7. Also with straps. Hor. Epist. 
 ii. 2. 15. There was also the pistrinum, where slaves, for punishment, 
 had to pei-form hard labor on a bridewell, called bj some a treadmill. 
 Plant. Asin, i. 1. 21. 
 
 ' Plaut. Asin. ii. 2 : 31. Hence, frequently, " pendere et ferire pcnden- 
 tum." Plaut. Terin. ii. c. 19. " By the powers your legs shall be broken if 
 you do not proclaim this shameless fellow." See Plaut. Asinaria, or Ass 
 dealer, vol. ii. Translation, Bohu's Library. One of the most cruel pun- 
 ishments for slaves was breaking their legs ; this was done by stretching 
 the leg upon an anvil and striking it with a sledge : see preceding note. 
 Again, " When you are tied up with a full hundred pounds weight at your 
 feet, when the manacles are fastened to your hands and fastened to the 
 beams," &c. Plaut. Transl. vol. ii. p. 492. The slaves were hung up, 
 to be whipped, with their hands fastened over their heads, and heavy 
 weights to their feet to prevent them from kicking those who punished 
 them. (See note.) Again, "Where you have been detected in theft; 
 where you have full oft pleaded your cause as you were hung up, against 
 eight clever hardened fellows." Plaut. Trans, vol. ii. p. 505. The eight 
 clever hai'dened fellows here spoken of, were the lictors who attended the 
 Trumviri who had especial jurisprudence over slaves, &c. (See Note.) 
 " Within a short time, i' faith, Trunio, you'll full soon be adding to the 
 iron-bound race in the country." Mostelluria, or the Haunted House, 
 Plaut. Trans, vol. ii. 462. This has reference to the ball and chain-gang 
 above spoken of. Again, " . . . . unless, indeed, she wishes that we, 
 her fellows, should all be given up to the tortures of the cross." The 
 cross was an instrument of punishment among the Romans alone : it was 
 designed especially for slaves ; the convicts were first stripped, and either 
 nailed or bound to it, and often left to die of starvation. Plaut. Trans, 
 vol. i. p. 77. Again, "In that self-same position you will have to ilic 
 outside the gates, when with your hands outstretched you will be carrying 
 your cross." The gates here refen-ed to mean the well-known gates at 
 Rome, through which the slaves went to the place of punishment. 
 
 * Plaut. Cas. ii. 6, 49. Also Natati. Inscripti. Mart. viii. 75, 2. Plin. 
 xviii. 8, 4. 
 
96 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 to hide them with plasters.' Martial mentions a doctor Eras 
 who knew how to efface the traces of a former branding.- 
 
 The thievish propensities of the Roman slaves are more fre- 
 quently alluded to, and perhaps more severely censured than 
 any other vicious habit ; which is frequently mentioned by 
 Plautus, and from which we may gather something of their 
 vicious and depraved character generally.^ 
 
 A very frequent kind of punishment was wearing the furca. 
 It was much in the form of a Y, and was placed over the back 
 of the neck upon the shoulders, somewhat in the modern fashion 
 of yoking a hog, while the hands were bound fast to the thighs. 
 
 Corporeal punishment in chains, however, was far more 
 severe." The /nrca was applied to slaves about to be crucified. 
 Patibulum often means the same as furca, though literally it 
 was the transverse beam of the cross. ^ 
 
 The words extra portum, used in Plautus, refer to the cus- 
 tomary way of inflicting all supplicia outside of the city. It 
 was not the legendary porta Metia, as some contend, from the 
 reading in other places ; ® but the porta Esquelina, outside of 
 which, on the Campus Esquelinus, was the place of execution 
 and general bmial-ground.'' It is also recorded that slaves 
 were thrown into the vivaria to be devoured by wild. beasts, 
 and their conflicts with these animals are well known. A 
 
 1 Spluniis Mart. ii. 29. ^ x : 5& : 6. 
 
 3 " Unless I manage this one thing to cook the dinner down in the 
 dungeon, then when cooked, we bring it up in small baskets,"' &c. Here 
 is another allusion to the dungeon ; he means to say that such a place will 
 alone prevent the thievish cooks from stealing everything that comes in 
 their way. Plant. Transl., Stylus or Parasite Rebuked, vol. i. p. 247. 
 Again, " Is it among such men that you expect to find your ring? Chiur- 
 chus, Circonicus, Crimnus, Crisobalus, Calabus, were there ; whipped- 
 neck, whipped-legs, iron-rubbed knaves. By faith, any one of these could 
 steal the sole from the shoe of a running foot-man." Plaut. Tim. vol. i. 
 p. 56. 
 
 * Plaut. Cas. ii. 6, 67. " Tu quidem hodie canem et furcam feras." 
 Plaut. Mort. i. 1, 53. Liv. ii. 36: "sub furca Cissum." 
 
 * Sen. Ep. 101. "Patibulo pendere destrictum." Plaut. Miles Gro- 
 riose, or the Braggart Captain, ii. 4, 7. " Credo tibi esse eundum actu- 
 tum extra portam despissis manibus patibulum eum habebis." Mart. i. 
 1, 52. " Ita te forabunt patibulum per vivas stimulis." Connifices went 
 behind and beat and goaded the culprit. 
 
 6 Plaut. Cas. ii. 6, 2. 
 
 ■J Tacit. Ann. ii. 32. Suet. Claud. 25. Tacit. Ann. xv. 60. Death by 
 crucifixion was not uncommon. It was the Romans that introduced this 
 mode of punishment into Judea, by which the Saviour of the world was 
 put to death. He was crucified between two thieves, doubtless slaves, as 
 this kind of punishment was peculiar to them. 
 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 91 
 
 dreadful case occurs in the writins^s of Cicero.^ When the 
 master was murdered by one of his slaves, the law enjoined that 
 all should be put to death ; a dreadful case of this kind occurs 
 in Tacitus, where four hundred slaves, in one family, were put 
 to death under this law. "-' 
 
 Sometimes extra cruel punishments were resorted to, as 
 hacking off the hand, especially for theft; ^ or throwing the 
 culprit to be devoured by the Muraense * 
 
 One of the greatest hardships the slaves had to endure, was 
 that, very frequently, for the most trivial offence, or from the 
 mere caprice of some petulant master or mistress, they were 
 subjected to the most refined cruelties and maltreatment. The 
 Roman ladies, as we have seen, were particularly distinguished 
 for this kind of treatment and fashionable accomplishment ; and, 
 indeed, their maids, who dressed them, seldom escaped with- 
 out being beaten, scratched and torn, or pricked with needles.^ 
 
 From the extreme hardship of the condition of the slave, 
 resulting, in a great measure, from cruel treatment, the master 
 had everything to fear from their vindictive feelings, which 
 sometimes glutted themselves, either in sanguinary deeds of 
 hidden vengeance, or in secret outrages upon the most sacred 
 rights and privileges of the master, which strikingly exemplified 
 the truth of Ovid's maxim, " Sors ubi pessima rerum, sub pedi- 
 bus timor est."^ 
 
 Whips, thongs, &c., are not the most dreadful means of 
 punishment ; burning alive is mentioned in the Pandects and 
 elsewhere.' 
 
 Scourges (flagella or flagra), sometimes loaded w^ith lead, 
 plumbatffi ; and also chain scourges, with weights at the end, 
 all of bronze or tin, were used. 
 
 The Equuleus was a terrible instrument of torture ; disloca- 
 tion was one of its effects.^ There were, also, the fidiculte, 
 lyre strings, the ungnla and forceps. The nose, ears, teeth, or 
 even eyes, were in great danger from an enraged master. ** 
 
 1 Cic. p. Clu. 2 Tac. Ann. xiv. 41. 
 
 3 Plaut. Epid. i. 1, 11. < Sen. de Ira. iii. 40. 
 
 5 Ovid. Amor. i. 14, 13. Art. iii. 235. Mart. ii. 66. Juvenal, vi. 491. 
 
 s Sen. Ep. 47. Cic. p. Mil. 22. "De servis nulla quaestio in dommas, 
 nisi de incestu." Val. Max. vi. 8, 1. Plin. Ep. iii. 14, relates an in- 
 stance of such revenge. 
 
 ■f Sed de patibulo et comburio per omne ingenium crudelitatis exhau- 
 riat." Test, de Anima, 1. 
 
 8 Sen. Ep. xix. 
 
 9 " Trunci naribus auribusque vultus." Mart. ii. 88. " Pecantia 
 famuli pungo ne percuto dentes." Mart. xiv. 68. 
 
 9 G 
 
98 ROMAN SLAVERY. 
 
 A slave taken among the soldiers was cast from the Capi- 
 toline Bock, having been first manumitted, that he might be 
 worthy of that punishment.^ 
 
 No distinction seems to have been made between the modes 
 of punishing male and female slaves. The laws that abolished 
 the master's power of life and death appear to have been 
 obeyed with great reluctance, and were frequently defeated by 
 an increase in the amount of inferior punishments. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the condition of nearly sixty millions of 
 human beings, scattered through every part of the vast domain 
 of the Roman empire, in the times of the Caesars, and de- 
 scended from the most illustrious and remarkable nations upon 
 the face of the earth. There was no part of the Roman world 
 that did not witness their sufferings. The Sicilian dungeons 
 were full. Medians, Moesians, Bithynians, Celts, Germans, 
 and Britons, were driven in crowds to the Boman markets and 
 to the metropolis. 
 
 The kidnappers, like the modern corsairs of Barbary, were 
 ever on the alert in the fastnesses of the Ethiopian Troglodytes. 
 The voice of the slave auctioneer was heard early and late at 
 Corinth and Delos. From Britain to Parthia, and from the 
 hills of Sweden to the great African deserts, the cries of the 
 bondmen went up to Heaven. And even Judea, at the time 
 of the advent of the Messiah, may have witnessed all the hor- 
 rors of the Ergastulum, the Qusestio, the Yivarium and the 
 Crux. Here, too, the vast possessions of imperial wealth 
 found their way ; here, too, were those princely estates, and 
 lordly banquets in palaces of splendor ; here, too, you might 
 hear the bustle of busy thousands along the thronged quays, or 
 as it rose from the amphitheatre and the forum. 
 
 It was the home of Roman luxury, of gaiety and of joy, 
 where royalty drowned itself in dissipation, while the lion roared 
 over the martyred Christian, and the bleeding gladiator died at 
 the beck of the applauding multitude.^ 
 
 Here too, doubtless, many a beautiful Caucasian virgin has 
 paid the penalty of her temerity, in humbly professing the name 
 of Jesus of Nazareth, by being thrown to some hungry animal 
 to glut his thirst for blood, or, what is worse, doomed to lead 
 a life of open prostitution in some of the public brothels.^ 
 
 1 Dio. Cassius, i. 48. As slaves could not testify on tbe rack against 
 their own masters, they were sold to others, and thus qualified to testify. 
 Dio. Cass. Iv. 357. 
 
 - King Agrippa exhibited at one time, in Judea, seven hundred pairs 
 of gladiator slaves. Jus. Hist. xix. 
 
 3 "Nam et proxime ad lenonem damnando Christianum, potius quam 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEAV TESTAMENT. 99 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 It is a subject of mooted inquiry as to what position tbe 
 Founder of the Christian religion occupied towards civil go- 
 vernment, temporal institutions, and temporal powers. His 
 advent furnished a new era in the history of the world. He 
 was born in the dominions of Augustus ; Palestine had become 
 a province of the Roman Empire, subject to the relentless sway 
 of a Roman tetrarch. The political code of Moses, once in 
 force, had bevjn superseded by the constitutions of the Csesars ; 
 the ecclesiastico-political government of Israel, as such, was no 
 more. And nothing was now left, separate, but the old Jewish 
 ritual, of their Hebrew nationality. 
 
 The religion of Rome, like that of Greece and other nations 
 of antiquity, was of human origin ; it was a national religion, 
 established, governed, and upheld by the authority of the State. 
 The evidences of Divine countenance, in these systems, are 
 found only in those rude and irreligious fables running through 
 the mythical lutes of the muse. 
 
 The Patricians of Rome had, by law, long monopolized the 
 order of priesthood ; but the effort of Quiutus and Cneius 
 Ogulnius to separate the Patrician order from the plebeian 
 (perhaps more distinctly), produced a reaction, and led to the 
 assertion of the claim, on the part of plebeians, to the ponti- 
 fical order. And hence the bill increasing the pontiffs by four, 
 and the augurs by five additional incumbents, all eligible from 
 the plebeians, became a law.^ 
 
 As in Greece so in Rome, the rule of action and guide of life 
 was formed from the civil law, rather than from any separate 
 code of moral or religious principle. Whatever moral or reli- 
 gious precepts were recognised, they incorporated into their 
 
 ad leonem." Tert. Apol. cap. L. " Sed quaedam sanctje feminse tempore 
 persecutionis, ut insectatores sujb pudictte divitavent in rapturum atque 
 necaturum se fluvium progecerunt." August. De Civit., Dei, i. 26. 
 ♦'Fidelissimi quique servi contra vexabantur." 
 
 Lactantius, vol. ii. p. 214. 
 Paul also mentions slaves as haviDg been baptized. 1 Cor. xii. 13. Yet, 
 for all this, Christianity did not condemn the institution in itself, but only 
 its abuse. 
 1 Liv. X. 7, 9. 
 
100 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 civil jnrisprndence. "Whatever responsibilities the moral law 
 imposed upon them were exacted among their political duties. 
 Moral aphorisms became their legal decalogue ; the Roman 
 students studied and committed the Twelve Tables with as 
 much awe and veneration as we do the Ten Commandments. 
 The dependence of the religious system upon the State began 
 with the Greeks and was completed by the Romans.^ Hence 
 the State was the theologian. It had too much reverence for 
 ancient customs and names, to change those of the gods whom 
 the Latins, the Sabines, or Etruscans had brought with them 
 to Rome, in days of old. But it was the province of the State 
 to define the nature of those divinities, and to appoint and re- 
 gulate the ceremonies by which they should be honored.^ " To 
 keep up these rights" (was the assurance of the later Roman) 
 " is to preserve the religion which was given to us by the gods 
 themselves." " But let no one be allowed to have deities to 
 himself;" nor let any one worship new gods unless adopted by 
 the State.' The State was also the divinity ; the personifica- 
 tion of Rome as a goddess, enshrined in a magnificent temple, 
 was no empty form. Reverence for this was the highest that a 
 Roman could feel. 
 
 About half a century before the tribunate of Licinins, C, 
 there occm-red a year of great distress. An excessive heat and 
 drought dried up the streams and parched the plains of the 
 earth ; soon a fearful disease, seizing first the cattle, then tlie 
 herdsmen, spread wide through the country and city. In the 
 extremity of suff'ering and distress to which the poorer class were 
 reduced, they turned with new sacrifices to seek new deities. 
 But the chief men of the city (as the historian called the autho- 
 rities of the State), were offended at such a proceeding. 
 Forthwith, therefore, were the iEdiles charged to see that none 
 but the gods of Rome were worshipped, and none but the rites 
 of Rome employed. "Ne qui, nisi Romani dii ne quo alio 
 mare quam patrio colerentur. "* 
 
 The position of the priesthood is evident. The state was 
 the theologian ; the priests were its disciples. The State was 
 the deity, the priests were its ministers, its worshippers.* 
 
 This perfect system of centralization in the religio-political 
 systems of ancient Greece and Rome, this entire union, as we 
 
 1 Montesquieu refers to Tatius and Nama, who, he says, " Assuverent 
 les dleux a la politique." 
 
 2 Plin. N. H. 2118. Liv. 45 : 16. 3 cic. De Legg. 1118 : 11. 
 
 * Liv. iv. XXX. Comp. Id. iv : i. ; xi : xxxix. 
 
 * Doum. Etudes Hist. torn. 13, p. 434. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 101 
 
 should say of church and State, rendered their religion and 
 civil government, mutually dependent upon each other. 
 
 The sublime doctrine of a future state of rewards and pun- 
 ishments was little heeded, and had but little influence over the 
 religious feeling of those nations. The summuni honum of 
 mortal was their temporal aggrandizement ; the highest spirit 
 of devotion was devotion to the State. "Let the republic re- 
 ceive no detriment," was the national motto. Whatever in- 
 fluence their superstitions had, it was all wedded to the good 
 of the State ; religion had no other calling than as an instru- 
 ment of civil power ; its final end was the prowess of their 
 arms and the patriotism and power of the nation. For this 
 purpose, all religious rites and ceremonies were held in the most 
 superstitious awe and veneration. It pervaded the entire mass 
 in all their daily walks and conversation. "Wherever thou 
 turnest," said the great Roman orator, "this superstition pur- 
 sues you in the forum as in the field, in the senate as in the 
 Campus Martins ; whether thou listenest to a soothsayer, or 
 observest an augury, whatever happens it is the same."^ 
 
 At the promulgation of Christianity under the sway of uni- 
 versal heathenism, how far had old things passed away and all 
 things become new ? 
 
 The rise of the star of Bethlehem was like the light of an- 
 other morn risen on mid-day ; it eclipsed all ancient systems of 
 religion, law, and refinement, in all things spiritual and divine. 
 The Mosaic covenant was but for the deliverance of a single 
 nation from temporal bondage, to establish them within the 
 borders of the promised land, and give them a constitution and 
 system of government according to the provisions of the " Old 
 Testament." But the gospel dispensation was something be- 
 yond — a new bequest to all nations, appended, as it were, in a 
 codicil to the previous revelations of the "Divine will." 
 
 The coming of the Son of Man, then, was not to destroy or 
 " abolish the law, but that the law through him might be ful- 
 filled." His "kingdom was not of this w^orld;" his reign was 
 not that of a temporal prince clothed either with executive, 
 legislative, or judicial authority. 
 
 He came rather to be a new teacher of "the truth and the 
 way;" to bring "life and immortality to light;" to proclaim 
 the great doctrine of salvation through faith, repentance, and 
 the forgiveness of sin. How, then, could he fulfil the object of 
 his mission without coming in collision with the laws and insti- 
 
 1 Cic. De Divin., xi : Ixxii. 
 
 9* 
 
102 SLAVERY IX THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 tutions of civil government ? He came to establish a new reli- 
 gion for all nations ; to ransom the world, not from temporal 
 captivity, but from "the gall of bitterness and the bonds of 
 iniquity ;" to bring the whole earth to the light and knowledge 
 of "the one living and true God;" and to proclaim one com- 
 mon Redeemer for all mankind. He wielded a spiritual sceptre, 
 that shook the throne of polytheism to its centre ; pagan rulers 
 and Jewish officers met him at the threshold of his labors, to 
 protect the sanctity of their synagogues, to avert the impending 
 sacrilege of their gods, to uphold their national rites, and de- 
 fend their national religion. The whole conflict of faith and 
 unbelief during the first centuries of the Christian era, was a 
 constant warfare upon the institutions of civil government. It 
 was a protracted siege to break down "the middle wall of par- 
 tition" between Christianity and heathenism; to overturn the 
 great Bastile of idolatry, which rested its foundation upon 
 the basement of civil government. Christianity first drew 
 the proper line of distinction, in matters pertaining to religion 
 and government, between things temporal and things eternal ; 
 between what belonged "to Casar, and what belonged to 
 God." Hitherto, all governments had been ecclesiastico-poli- 
 tical, in which religion and politics mutually supported each 
 other, and were inseparably blended together. Christianity 
 first severed the bonds, and effected the dissolution of this 
 union of pagan and Jewish Church and State. Judaism, like 
 Samson, was shorn of its locks, the sons of Israel were no 
 longer the only chosen people, nor the priesthood of Aaron the 
 everlasting keepers of the oracles of truth. The still small 
 voice of Christianity was simple as the language of a child, yet 
 it pleased the most fastidious taste ; mournful as the voice of 
 grief, it sounded the highest notes of exultation ; secret and 
 silent as the reproofs of conscience, it proclaimed its truths 
 upon the mountain tops. The last hope of the destitute and 
 dying, it sealed the bridal vow and crowned the majesty of 
 kings. Bright and glorious as the morning star to the be- 
 nighted traveller, it rolled its terrors like the dark waves of the 
 deluge over the path of him who wilfully mistakes his way. It 
 hymned the last vestiges of time, and unveiled the dark myste- 
 ries of eternity. 
 
 Heathenism, with all its pomp, waned before it like a sum- 
 mer cloud before "the voice of the morning." Her priests 
 soon sprinkled her shrines with the blood of the Lamb ; from 
 her pagan altars arose the smoke of Christian incense, and be- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 103 
 
 neath the vaulted roofs of her temples echoed the praises of the 
 livinj^ God. 
 
 Christianity, in her triumphs over civil and religious despo- 
 tism, first emancipated the spiritual existence of man from the 
 thraldom of temporal power, and elevated him into regions of 
 truth and freedom, in a higher and more ample field of being ; 
 and thus it placed spiritual and intellectual liberty and excel- 
 lence upon the true theory of their advancement. Art, science, 
 literature and learning sprang up in her footsteps ; freedom 
 and the highest mental and spiritual excellence flourished hence- 
 forth under the van of her sacred influence. But Christianity 
 originated in a Roman province ; a Roman emperor sat in the 
 chair of State, and a Roman court wielded its secular and 
 social influence over the manners and customs of the inhabit- 
 ants. ' ' It was the home of Roman luxury, of gaiety and of 
 joy, where royalty drowned itself in dissipation, where the lion 
 roared o'er the martyred Christian, and the bleeding gladiator 
 died at the beck of the applauding multitude." It was the 
 ancient land of promise; "a goodly land of fields and vine- 
 yards," and "flowing with milk and honey." It was the 
 garden-spot of the world, fruitful in all the products of Roman 
 industry. Doubtless many of those large predial estates pecu- 
 liar to the agricultural pursuits of the Romans, had been esta- 
 blished through the country, and peopled with multitudes of 
 Roman slaves. Of the position and treatment of these slaves 
 the founder of the Christian religion must have been constantly 
 observant. His entire biography, and the whole history of his 
 mission, show that he was in constant intercourse, and tho- 
 roughly acquainted with the trials and duties incident to a state 
 of bondage, or the relation of master and slave, and the accus- 
 tom.ed government and regulations of that institution. Many 
 of the duties and relations appertaining to it are freely inter- 
 mingled in his parables ; most of the metaphors and other 
 figures by which he illustrates his doctrines and enforces his 
 precepts, are taken from it. 
 
 Of the many instances of the kind that occur in the New 
 Testament, we shall refer to but few. The first and funda- 
 mental doctrine of Christianity as set forth in the Gospel, is 
 prefigured from a state of Hebrew, Greek or Roman slavery. 
 It sets forth the world as "sold under sin,"^ "into the gall 
 of bitterness and the boiidn of iniquity ;"■' the atonement as 
 made to pay the ^:)rice of their redemption ; to emancipate 
 
 1 Rom. 7 : 14. 2 Acts 8 : 23. 
 
104 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 
 
 them "from the bondage of sin and corruption into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God."^ " Ye shall know the truth, 
 and the truth shall make you /ree. "^ " Where the spirit of 
 the Lord is, there is liberty."^ "For, brethren, ye have been 
 called unto liberty. ''^^ "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty 
 wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entan- 
 gled in the yoke of bondage.''^ ^ "For ye are bought with a 
 price. ''''^ 
 
 These, and a thousand other similar figures and expressions 
 in the New Testament, that in a literal sense have relation only 
 to a state of slavery, show the perfect knowledge and familiarity 
 of the inspired penmen with the institution at the time and 
 place when they wrote. 
 
 But in using these figures of speech they only imitated the 
 style and manner of him "who spake as never man spake." 
 "Aud ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
 /ree."'' "The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
 [Souxoj] servant above his lord."® " No servant [oizsrTjj, house 
 slave] can [SovXfufiv] serve [or be a slave to] two masters,'"* 
 &c. " How many hired servants [/^toetoi,'] of my father's have 
 bread enough and to spare." " Make me as one of thy hired 
 servants."'" "And sent his servant \hov%ov, slave] at supper- 
 time to say to them that were bidden. Come,"'' &c. "And 
 he sent forth his servants [fiovxoj, slaves] to call them that were 
 bidden to the wedding,"'^ &c. "Who is that faithful and 
 wise steward [Sodxoj, slave] whom his master had made ruler 
 over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due 
 season?"" "But which of you, having a servant [Sovxoj, 
 slave] ploughing in the field or feeding cattle, will say unto 
 him, by and by when he is come from the field, Go and sit down 
 to meat ? And will not rather say unto him. Make ready 
 wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me till I have 
 eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink? 
 Doth he thank that servant [hovxoi, slave] because he did the 
 things that were commanded him? I trow not."" "For I 
 am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and I 
 
 1 Rom. 8 : 21. ^ John 8 : 32. 3 1 Pet, 2 : 16. 
 
 * Gal. 5 : 13. 5 Gal. 5:1. ^ i Cor, 6 : 20, 
 
 1 John 8 : 32. 8 Matt. 10 : 24. John 13 : IG; 15 : 20. 
 
 9 Luke 16 : 13, 
 
 1" Luke 15 : 17-21. It will be noticed that the prodigal son was not 
 ■willing to become a 6ov\oi or oUtnn, a bond slave, like Onesimus, but rather 
 a n'wQLoi, hired servant, 
 
 " Luke 14 : 17. " Matt. 22 : 3, i3 Matt. 24 : 45, 
 
 " Luke 17 : 7-10, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 105 
 
 say to this man, Go, and he goeth ; and to another. Come, and 
 he Cometh ; and to my servant [Soi^xoj, slave], Do this, and he 
 doeth it."i 
 
 These incidents show that the Great Teacher of charity, love 
 and good will to men, encountered these scenes of domestic 
 relations, in their various forms, constantly in his daily walks 
 and conversation ; and that he cherished a social and most 
 affable familiarity with all the circumstances and conditions 
 appertaining to the same, by using all its epithets, terms and 
 expressions in his figures and illustrations as familiarly (if we 
 may be allowed the expression) as the school-boy does his 
 by-word. 
 
 Had he considered it the great moral and political evil that 
 some of his modern disciples have held it up to be, is it possible 
 that during his whole ministry, while he preached encourage- 
 ment and comfort to the masters and healed their sick, that 
 there should have never one word of censure or shade of reflec- 
 
 1 Matt. 8:9. " And he sent his servant," &c. This figure is taken 
 from the Roman custom of sending out invitations by slaves to their 
 guests, and of dispatching them to escort and usher in or announce the 
 individuals as they arrived. "Piso had ordered his slaves never to speak 
 about anything except when asked. On one occasion he had invited 
 Cladius to a banquet. The guests all arrived but Claudius. Piso repeat- 
 edly sent his slave, who had carried the invitation, to look if he was 
 coming. At last he asked him whether he was sure that he invited him. 
 Quite sure, was the reply. Why does he not come, then ? inquired Piso. 
 Because he declined the invitation, was the reply of the slave. And why 
 didn't you tell me before? Because you did not ask me, replied the 
 slave." See Essay on Greek Slavery, supra, p. 57. There were the 
 regular servi ab officio admissionum. Cicero, by way of complaint of the 
 partiality of these servants toward their favorites, says : " Hie eum venit, 
 extra ordinem vocatur ; hie solus introducitur, cajteri sajpe frugalissimi 
 homines excluduntur." From which it would seem that visitors should 
 be admitted according to their arrival. Cic. Verr. iii. iv. "Who is that 
 faithful stewai'd," &c. This figure, also, has a direct reference to a cus- 
 tom peculiar to Roman slavery. There was always a principal steward, 
 that had the control of the household affairs of the Roman family, called 
 the ^^ procurator." See Essay on Roman Slavery, supra, p. 85. Cic. De 
 Or. 1, 58. Si mandandum aliquid procuratore de agricultura aut impe- 
 randum villico sit. Ad Attic. 14, 16. See Petron. 30. Sen. Epist. 14. 
 Quinct. Decl. 345. (Familiam per procuratores continetis) : nihil scire 
 potui de domesticis rebus, de quibus acerbissime afBictor, quod qui eas 
 dispensavit, neque adest istic, neque ubi terrarum sit scio (Cic. Ad Attic, 
 xi. 1); meaning that he never knew where to find the procurator or 
 steward. He was also called the " dispensator," which is used in the 
 Vulgate. Suet. Galb. 12. M.art. 5, 42. Juv. 1, 91; 7, 219. The cen- 
 turion, too, was a Roman slaveholder; yet he "had not found so great 
 faith, no, not in Israel." So was the young man whom he commanded to 
 eell all that he had ; " for he had great possessions." 
 
106 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 tion escaped from bis lips. Yet search bis wbole bistoi'y from 
 the moment when he stood upon the banks of Jordan, to the 
 time of his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, and there is not 
 one breath of reproof to the kind and humane master, not one 
 sigh- of sympathy for the condition of the slave. Is that 
 "speaking after the manner of men" to draw figures and illus- 
 trations in an approving mood from the most abhorred forms 
 of vice and immorality ? From the instance of the servant 
 who waited and served his master at supper, something more 
 may be gathered than the fact of the familiarity of the author 
 with the position and duties of slaves. The figure loses all its 
 beauty and force, and the illustration all its eifect, unless it 
 carries with it a distinct and positive recognition of the fact 
 that the servant in obeying, had done only his duty and was 
 entitled to no gratitude from his master. 
 
 What thus silenced the voice of Christianity upon the giant 
 sin, that, at that time, held in its serpent folds, sixty millions 
 of people within the pale of the Roman Empire ? Was it the 
 paltry fear of being considered pragmatical in matters of civil 
 government ? To accuse Christianity of such tergiversation, 
 of taking refuge behind temporal expedients to compromise the 
 truth, of pandering to popular error and moral obliquity, of 
 truckling to a high-handed sin against God (if such it was), to 
 my mind is derogatory to the high and holy standard of Chris- 
 tian rectitude. And the scripture itself spurns such a craven 
 apology for divine consistency. The prevalence of Christianity 
 brooks no such compromises, promises no such results. " Think 
 not that I am come to send peace on earth, I came not to send 
 peace but a sword." He came then to pull down the strongholds 
 of sin, ' to overthrow iniquity in high places. Whether he 
 encountered the regal forms of the old Jewish dynasty, or the 
 more potent dictates of the throne of Caesar, both felt alike the 
 terrible visitations of his power. Upon the mount and in the 
 cities, in the synagogues and by the way, he pursued the same 
 high and consistent course as to everything just and right, and 
 the same undeviating averseness to every appearance of evil. 
 Setting forth the illustrious example that " neither principalities 
 nor power, nor height nor depth, nor things present nor things 
 to come, could separate him from the love of the Father," nor 
 deter him from declaring "the whole council of God," he 
 taught his disciples "to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up thy 
 voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions, 
 and the house of Israel their sins." The primeval abettors of 
 the Christian religion failed not "to prepare the way of the 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. lOT 
 
 coming of the Lord, and to make his path straight," to 
 denounce vice in all its forms, whether public or private ; to 
 "let their light so shine that others might see their good 
 works;" to indicate and uphold Christianity in all its moral 
 and religous teachings. Had they yielded a peaceful submis- 
 sion to the arbitrary dictates of "the powers that be," in toto, 
 their doctrines and tenets could never have got the first foot- 
 hold upon the face of the earth. There are but few instances 
 in which the Saviour himself was called upon to express an 
 opinion directly upon any of the legal questions of the day in 
 which he lived. 
 
 To pass over the charge which the Jews brought against him 
 of violating the first great commandment of the Mosaic Law, 
 by making himself God ; we will notice some instances of an 
 inferior grade, and of a municipal character. The first is his 
 opinion upon the form of a Jewish oath: "Again ye have 
 heard that it hath been said of them of old time, thou shalt not 
 forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths." 
 " But I say unto you, swear not at all ;" "But let your com- 
 munications be Yea, yea, and Nay, nay," " For whatsoever is 
 more than these cometh of evil."^ Had the author of this 
 passage been clothed with the legislative authority of Moses as 
 a profane lawgiver, it would be construed into an absolute ab- 
 rogation of the prevailing form of a civil and judicial oath, and 
 a positive direction as to what form should be observed.'^ With 
 the theological construction of this paragraph, as well as the 
 following ones which we shall notice upon this point, we have 
 nothing to do. But if it was to be taken as the paramount law 
 of the land in a civil sense, here was a direct interference with 
 civil government in one of the most important principles that 
 enter into the organization of society. Upon the responsibility 
 and sacred character of an oath, depends the safety of the life, 
 liberty and property of mankind. And the form has ever been 
 cherished with the most sacred awe and veneration.* But the 
 
 1 Matt. 5 : 35. 
 
 - The form of the Jewish oath was to " swear by the Lord God of 
 heaven and earth," Gen. 14 : 3 ; to "lift up the hand unto the Lord the 
 most high God," &c. Gen. 14 : 22. Deut. 6 : 18. Jos. 2 : 12. I. Sam. 
 24: 21. 
 
 3 An oath among all nations has ever been held sacred, as an appeal to 
 some superior being by way of imprecation of divine vengeance upon the 
 atiiant, should he not speak the truth. Among the Greeks there was 
 always used the expressions i'otoj Zevj, dtov iiaprvponai, and tho.^e of a similar 
 import, in the taking of oaths. Soph. Trach. 399. Antiq. 184. St. Paul 
 Galat. 1 : 20. The Greeks were as a nation deeply imbued with religious 
 
108 SLAA'ERY IX THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 reason of the scripture here assigned for the modification is, 
 that the affiant or witness is at all times under all possible 
 obligations to speak the truth, "and whatsoever is more than 
 this Cometh of evil." To call high heaven to witness, is to 
 take the name of the Lord in vain. The reason is predicated 
 upon a conflict between the civil and the moral law. And the 
 truest and governing principle, I apprehend, in all instances, 
 of the interference of Christianity with civil government will be 
 found to be the conflict of the latter with some well established 
 moral or religious principle which it could not consistently 
 countenance. 
 
 Again, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for 
 an eye and a tooth for a tooth ;" " But I say unto you, resist 
 not evil." In this instance the penal statute of Moses upon the 
 subject of maiming is the subject of this remark ; the penalty 
 founded upon the lex talionis, was inconsistent with the 
 heavenly injunction to love your enemies, and the cardinal 
 virtues of Christian morality. What could constitute a more 
 direct and positive interference with the institutions of civil 
 government than those foregoing strictures upon the forms and 
 penal codes of both the Roman and Jewish law ? 
 
 Again, upon the subject of divorce, there are positive 
 injunctions as the elements of Christian duty, that are diametri- 
 
 feeling, and paid high regard to the sanctity of an oath. They prided 
 themselves in being superior to the barbarians in this respect ; all their 
 treaties of peace, vows, alliances, compacts, and agreements between 
 nations and individuals were ratified by an oath. (Smith's Greek and 
 Rom. Antiqs. Art. Oath.) The practice of swearing, or calling upon the 
 gods to witness the truth asserted, was as common among the Romans as 
 among the Greeks. Various expressions were used, as follows: Ilercle, 
 or ]\Iehercle ; Pol, Perpol, or Edepol, i. e., by Pollux ; also, per Gavem 
 Lupidem, per Superas ; per Deos Immortales, &c. The women never 
 swore by Hercules, nor the men by Castor. False swearing was not 
 regarded by the Romans as by us ; the culprit was responsible to the 
 deity alone. (Oper. Cit.) 
 
 "Our law," says Mr. Phillips (after giving his reasons), "therefore, 
 like most other civilized countries, requires the witness to believe that 
 there is a God, and a future state of rewards and punishments." 
 (I. Phil. Ev. p. 21.) 
 
 "The very nature of an oath, it being a religious and most solemn 
 appeal to God, as the judge of all men, presupposes that the witness 
 believes in his existence," &c. Tyler on Oaths, p. 15. Granl. Ev. 1. sect. 
 368. The proper question to ask a witness is whether he believes in a 
 God, the obligations of an oath, and the future state of rewards and pun- 
 ishments." Bull N. P. 297. Gilbert Ev. 129. Rose. Do. Criml. 118. 
 ■Wheel. A. C. L. 210. Jackson vs. Geidly, 18. John. 103. Cou. Rep. 
 431. Curtis vs. Strong, 4. Day. 51. Wakefield vs. Ross, 5. Mason, 
 C. E. Rep. 16. White's case 1. Leach, 439. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 109 
 
 cally opposed to the lax and dissolute forms of both the Roman 
 and Jewish law upon that subject. 
 
 " And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, Is it lawful 
 for a man to put away his wife?" "And he answered and 
 said unto them, What did Moses command you ?" 
 
 " And they said Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, 
 and to put her away." 
 
 "And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness 
 of your hearts he wrote you this precept." "But from the 
 beginning of the creation God made them male and female." 
 
 "What therefore God has joined together let not man put 
 asunder."^ 
 
 In this terse and significant reply, a volume of practical 
 truth is revealed. It directly endorses the great truth upon 
 which civil government is founded, that many things which are 
 wrong in themselves must be tolerated as temporary expedients 
 in consequence of the imperfections of human nature. " For 
 the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this precept," or, in 
 other words, such was the degenerate state of the moral and 
 social sensibilities in the Jewish commonwealth at the time of 
 writing the law, that such a provision was necessary. But in 
 the primeval state of purity and holiness in which man was 
 created, "in the beginning it was not so." And as I now 
 command you to be " holy even as I am holy," and to render 
 the existing state of society what it should be rather than what 
 it really is; therefore, "what God has joined together let 
 not man put asunder." 
 
 By this solemn injunction the principles of both the Roman 
 and the Mosaic law are directly contravened, on the ground 
 that they are incompatible with the high and holy standard of 
 Christian rectitude, under the light of the New Testament. 
 
 1 Both by the Jewish and Roman law a voluntary separation might take 
 place between married persons. Matt. 5 : 31, 32. Deut. 24 : 2. 
 
 In Greece voluntary separations were also of frequent occurrence, un- 
 accompanied by any formalities ; the husband rejects the wife, tKntyL-nd, 
 as the wife leaves the husband, airoXeiizei. Plato, Leg. vi. p. 714; xi. p. 930. 
 In Rome voluntary divorces became quite common after the Punic Wars. 
 Val. Max. vi., out of many, selects three examples of this kind, that of 
 Sulpulius Gallus, who uxorem demisit, quod cam capite aputo focis 
 versatam cognovecat. Second, Q. Antistius Vetus, quod ilium in publico 
 cum quadam libertina vulgari secreto loquentem videret. Third, of P. 
 Sempronius Saphus qui conjugem repudii noto aifecit, nihil aliud quam se 
 ignorante ludos ausam spectare. The formula of separation either by 
 mutual consent, or by the desire of one of the parties, as given in the 
 Twelve Tables, was ^' Tuas res libi hehetoJ'' This applied to the men as 
 well as to the women. Cic. Phil. ii. 28. Plant. Amph. ill. 2 : 27. 
 10 
 
110 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 To regulate the institution of marriage ; to prescribe the forms 
 of civil and judicial oaths, and to punish crimes and offences, 
 have been, and are still, a part of the municipal laws of all na- 
 tions ; they are founded upon the institutions of civil govern- 
 ment, and constitute the most vital principles that enter into 
 the organization of society. 
 
 Can there be any plausible reason assigned, why He, who 
 taught obedience to the law, should have pointed out and inhi- 
 bited the foregoing inconsistencies of its conflict with Chris- 
 tianity, and have omitted that of its permission to purchase and 
 hold slaves, if that was also wrong ? If the fears of contra- 
 vening the laws of the land would deter him in one instance, 
 then why not in all ? If that had been his rule, his answers 
 upon all questions of civil law would have been as brief and 
 decisive as that in relation to the tribute money : " Render to 
 Csesar the things that are Cffisar's," &c. 
 
 The precepts and doctrines taught by the Apostles, and the 
 transactions of the church from its commencement through the 
 Apostolic age, down to a later period, should furnish a true 
 index as to the estimate in which slavery was held by the author 
 of Christianity. 
 
 First, what are the sentiments of the confidential friend and 
 disciple of Jesus, on whom was bestowed the honor of laying 
 the first foundation-stone in the new and glorious edifice of 
 Christianity ? Did he ever deviate so far from the example of 
 his Divine master as to cast a censure upon the relation of mas- 
 ter and slave ? 
 
 " Servants (olxnaij domestic slaves) be subject to your mas- 
 ters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to 
 the fro ward," &c. {pxo-Kioii, the unjust, cruel). Here we have 
 not only a general precept with regard to the duties of obe- 
 dience of servants to their masters, but there is even the Chris- 
 tian duty of forbearance and self-denial enjoined upon them, 
 of obeying the peevish and unjust. "For this is thankworthy, 
 if a man for conscience toward God endure grief and suffering, 
 wrongfully." But why did not Peter tell them, when you ai-e 
 cruelly treated, it is your duty to run away ? "We hear this," 
 says a New England divine, "among us even preached from the 
 pulpit, at present, almost every Sabbath, and proclaimed on all 
 sides by journals called Christian or religious." It is fairly 
 deducible from these remarks of the Apostle, as well as from 
 the instance of the servant who served his master at supper, 
 that obedience to the kind and humane master is but a reason- 
 able duty. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ill 
 
 This epistle of Peter was addressed "to the strangers scat- 
 tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bi- 
 thynia;" the principal slave countries then in the known 
 world. And this was the doctrine that Peter preached to all 
 the churches scattered through these vast ranges of country, at 
 that time containing millions of slaves. I submit the problem 
 to an ecclesiastical solution whether this epistle of Peter is not 
 addressed to the strangers scattered through the Southern 
 States of this Union as well as those countries above named, 
 or have there been sent some later Apostles to prescribe the 
 duties of the slaves of the United States ? 
 
 Let us next listen to the language of St. Paul upon this im- 
 portant branch of Christian duty. "Servants (bov-Kol, slaves) 
 be obedient to them that are your masters according to the 
 flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto 
 Christ;" "not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the 
 servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart," &c. 
 * * " And ye masters do the same thing unto them, forbearing 
 threatening ; knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; nei- 
 ther is there respect of persons with him." 
 
 History informs us that through the various provinces of the 
 Roman Empire there were frequent insurrections among the 
 slaves ; that they were, many of them, obtained from nations 
 who wore the yoke with a strong feeling of restlessness and in- 
 subordination. Hence the frequent injunctions of Christianity 
 upon them to be obedient and submissive, and the frequent ap- 
 peals of the Apostles to them in various places to be reconciled 
 to this condition. The passage we have just quoted is an ap- 
 peal of Paul to the slaves at Ephesus, reminding them of their 
 Christian duties to their masters and to their God. Here the 
 slaves are exhorted to do their duty cheerfully and sincerely, as 
 from the heart, and encouraged with the hope of reward, 
 " Knowing that whatsoever good thing a man doeth the same 
 shall he receive from the Lord, whether he be bond or free." 
 According to the doctrine of this passage, how are slaves to do 
 good ? by a faithful and sincere obedience and service to their 
 masters "as unto Christ," &c. Is not this the only honest 
 and consistent inference that can be drawn from it ? But the 
 slaves in the church at Ephesus were not the only ones to whom 
 Paul addressed this salutary counsel ; to those at Colosse also 
 he addressed the same language.^ At the same time enjoining 
 
 * Coll. 3 : 22-25, and 4:1. It may be observed that Colosse was the 
 place of residence of Philemon, ■whence Onesimus made his escape to 
 
112 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 npon the "masters to give unto their servants that which is 
 just and equal" (or equitable, more properly). The Greek 
 word (irsofyita) rendered in the text equal, means, it is true, 
 when applicable to objects of sense, equality. But, in the 
 moral or metaphysical sense in which it is here used, it must 
 mean equity or equitable. For how could the masters be com- 
 manded to make their slaves equal to themselves, and the slaves 
 at the same time be commanded to a thorough and sincere 
 obedience to them with fear and trembling ? 
 
 Such a construction as the abolition theologians sometimes 
 put upon the English translation of this text, is absolutely pre- 
 posterous, a perfect felo de se. Again, Paul instructed Timo- 
 thy, whom he had ordained first bishop of the church of the 
 Ephesians, to exhort the slaves there, as follows: "Let as 
 many servants (Sov^oi, slaves) as are under the yoke, count their 
 own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and 
 his doctrine be not blasphemed." "And they that have be- 
 lieving masters, let them not despise them because they are 
 brethren ; but rather do them service, because they are faithful 
 and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and 
 exhort." "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to 
 wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, 
 knowing nothing. " ^ 
 
 What is to be understood by the phrase "under the yoke" 
 in the text ? It is a literal and correct translation from the ori- 
 ginal, and means nothing more than as many as are in a state 
 of bondage ; the yoke means the yoke of bondage in contra- 
 distinction from a state of freedom. It is pretended by certain 
 abolition theologians that the servants spoken of in the New 
 Testament do not refer to that class of Greek, Roman, and 
 Hebrew slaves of whom we read in profane history, and of 
 whom we have spoken in our previous essays — but this point 
 will be considered hereafter. " Count their masters worthy of 
 all honor," &c. But how would this prevent the name and 
 the doctrine of God from being blasphemed, unless the obser- 
 vance of it was a consistent Christian duty, that would stop the 
 mouths of scoffers and blasphemers. " Ayid they that have 
 believing masters let them not despise them, because they arc 
 
 Rome, where he met with Paul and was converted to the Christian reli- 
 gion, and sent back by Paul to his master; there were many slaves a I 
 Colosse. 
 
 1 1 Tim. 6 : 1-4. Ephesus was an ancient city of Ionia, originally a 
 province of Greece, and inhabited by Grecian colonies. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 113 
 
 brethren,''^ &c. The English translations of the Greek phrase 
 (,ui} xara(})poMi.Vto(jav) above ; scarcely conveys the full force of 
 the meaning of the original ; which seems to me to be some- 
 thing more than simply to despise or slight, or to treat with 
 disrespect ; and the Apostle seems to enjoin upon such slaves 
 as have kind and Christian masters not to take advantage of 
 their leniency and kindness to plot against them and excite in- 
 surrection and disturbance, because they are brethren ; but 
 rather serve them (i. e. be their slaves, hovxivi-euxsa.v) ; because 
 they are beloved and faithful partakers of the benefit. The 
 doctrine has taught us plainly that, in case the master and ser- 
 vant are both Christians, the latter is not on this ground to 
 claim a release from his obligations as a slave, or to plot against 
 his master to obtain it ; i. e. because they are Christian bre- 
 thren and one in Christ, it does not follow that their civil and 
 social relations are changed. And such slaves are expressly 
 prohibited from attempting to take any advantage of such a 
 condition. It would seem from the language of the Apostle 
 that a contrary doctrine had prevailed, that a notion had sprung 
 up among some of the churches that slaves, on embracing the 
 Christian religion, became free, especially if they belonged to 
 unbelieving masters ; a doctrine that has been entertained by 
 even the civil jurisprudence of nations, in more modern times, 
 to some extent.^ Therefore, " These things teach and exhort.''^ 
 " And if any man teach otherivise,'' &c. 
 
 How do the modern abolition theologians and churchmen 
 reconcile their consciences to this passage of Scripture ? They 
 are here plainly denounced by St. Paul as not consenting " to 
 wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and to the doctrine which is according to godliness." "He is 
 py^oud, knowing nothing.''^ 
 
 Paul enjoins the same upon Titus, whom he had ordained at 
 Crete. "Exhort servants [bovxovi, slaves] to be obedient to 
 their own masters, and to please them well in all things not 
 answering again;" "Not purloining, but showing all good 
 fidelity ; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour 
 in all things."^ Suppose some ardent abolition divine should 
 be travelling at the South, and should be called upon (as is 
 frequently the case) to preach to a congregation of slaves from 
 
 1 In England, it was foi' a long time a mooted question whether a slave, 
 bj' being baptized, was not emancipated from the power of his master, 
 and great care was taken in the colonies to prevent them from being bap- 
 tized. See Essay on Political Slavery, post, p. 293. 
 
 i Titus 2 : 9-10. 
 
 10* H 
 
114 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 the above quoted text, what would be the character of his com- 
 meut, and what would be his reflections as to their Christian 
 duty derived from this passage of Scripture. How would he 
 exhort them to " adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all 
 things V^ Would he adopt the language that Paul here dic- 
 tates to Titus ? Could he avoid it and preach the Gospel ? 
 " If any man teach otherwise, &c. * * He is proud, knowing 
 nothing. ' ' 
 
 The island of Crete, where Titus was located when this epis- 
 tle was written to him, is famous in Grecian history for the 
 laws and institutions that prevailed over it. It was the birth- 
 place of Grecian slavery.^ 
 
 By the language of this passage, servants are required to 
 " please their masters well in all things;" i. e. to show a ready 
 and cheerful obedience {jj^ij dvtixiyovtai) ; not disputing with 
 their masters, or gainsaying their commands.- Here slaves are 
 told that they can adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour as 
 really and truly as their masters, or as nobles, princes, and 
 kings. But how can they do it ? by disobedience, theft, run- 
 ning away, and the like ? 
 
 The same doctrine is reiterated in Paul's Epistle to the 
 church at Corinth. " Let every man abide in the same calling 
 wherein he was called." " Art thou called being [as to be] a 
 servant [6ovXoj, slave], care not for it [^ufXtrw, be not concerned 
 about it]; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." 
 " For he that is called in the Lord, being [or to be] a servant 
 [fioiixoj, slave] is the Lord's freeman" [or rather freedman] ; 
 likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.^ 
 
 What, then, becomes of the assertion of the abolitionists, 
 that slavery cuts off the slave from all hope of salvation by de- 
 nying him all religious privileges and the like ? It seems to 
 me that there could not be a more perfect refutation of all the 
 eternal din and commotion even in abolition pulpits about the 
 present and future welfare of the slave. If the slaves them- 
 selves need not be solicitous about their condition, except to dis- 
 charge their duties faithfully to their masters, whence cometh 
 all the uproar and confusion of the abolitionists but from the 
 
 1 See Essay on Greek Slavery, supra, p. 55. Laws of Minos, by Plato 
 and Aristotle. 
 
 2 1 Cor. 7 : 20-24. Corinth was one of the chief slave-markets of Greece 
 and afterwards of Rome, where thousands were bought and sold daily. 
 See Essay on Greek and Roman Slavery, supra, p. 55. Timteus as- 
 serts that Corinth had, in early times, before Athens had reached her 
 supremac3% 460,000 slaves. They were called choenix measures, from a 
 Greek measure which they used. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 115 
 
 father of lies? Verily, "a disciple is not above his master." 
 "But if thou raayest be made free, use it rather." This lan- 
 guage shows beyond dispute to what condition of servants 
 these remarks are addressed ; if the servant was not in bondage, 
 such language would be inapplicable to his condition ; he could 
 not be said to be made free if he was already so. " Use it ra- 
 ther ;^^ use what? There has been much controversy among 
 commentators about the true meaning of this passage. The 
 original is, a^.^' cl, xal Svraaat £7.fv9fpoi y^vioOat, /xaxxov jrpjjtjai, lite- 
 rally, " But even if you are able to become free, rather desire." 
 It will be seen by the Greek scholar that some noun must be 
 supplied as the object of the verb x^aaC. The question is, 
 what noun it shall be ; or, in other words, what does the it in 
 the English relate to. The late Moses Stewart, of Andover 
 Theological Seminary, in remarking upon this passage, used 
 the following language : " One and all, the native Greek com- 
 mentators in the early ages, and many expositors in modern 
 times, say that the Greek word to be supplied is Sov\sL'a, slavery 
 or bondage. The reason which they give for it is, that this is 
 the only construction which can support the doctrine which the 
 Apostle is aiming to establish, viz. : Let every man abide in 
 istatu quo.''^ Even De Wette (who, for his high liberty notions, 
 was banished from Germany), in his commentary on the pas- 
 sage, seems plainly to accede to the force of this reasoning, and 
 with him many others have agreed. No man can look at the 
 simple continuity of logic in the passage without feeling that 
 there is force in the appeal. But still I am not satisfied with 
 this exegesis. "We have full surely another and different noun 
 offered by the context, which we may supply. If thou canst 
 become EXfrespo; (free), use i%iv9fpLa (freedom), rather; i. e. ra- 
 ther than be a slave. This is certainly the most facile philo- 
 logy ; although plainly not so congruous, at first sight, with 
 the Apostle's sentiment before and after this verse. 
 
 "Let every one abide in the calling wherewith he hath been 
 called ;" this principle of Christian duty also dictated to Paul 
 the course to pursue in the case of Onesimus ; he was by the 
 custom and laws of the times and place where he lived, a bond 
 slave, and justly owed his service to his master, Philemon, at 
 Colosse. Paul saw nothing incompatible with the Christian 
 duties of either the master or the slave, in the legal relation 
 that existed between them. He therefore commanded him to 
 return and be obedient to him who was his "master according 
 to the flesh ;" i. e., according to usages, customs, and laws of 
 the world ; and to serve him "with fear and trembling;" i. e., 
 
116 SLAVERY IX THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 with a proper sense of reverence and respect for his position 
 over him, "according to the flesh," or the ways of the world ; 
 "and to please him well in all things, not answering again;" 
 " not with eye-service, as men-pleasers," "but doing the will 
 of God from the heart ;" " that he might thus adorn the doc- 
 trine of God our Saviour in all things." 
 
 It has been contended by abolition theologians, among whom 
 is Dr. Barnes, in his Notes on the Gospels, that this interference 
 of Paul's to restore the servant Onesimus to his owner, illus- 
 trates nothing with regard to his views and feelings upon the 
 subject of the slavery of that age. It would appear from the 
 Scripture account of this affair, that Onesimus had been a 
 refractory and unprofitable slave of his master at Colosse ; that 
 he had then run away from him, and in his wanderings met 
 with Paul at Rome, by whom he was converted to Christianity. 
 
 By this conversion Paul seemed to have faith that he had now 
 become a faithful, obedient and profitable servant; " but now 
 profitable to thee and to me. " " Whom I would have retained 
 with me," &c. " But without thy mind [yva^iji, consent] I do- 
 nothing." Evidently recognising the right of the master to 
 control the person of the slave, and his own Christian duty not 
 to detain him contrary to the will of his master, but to restore 
 him to his lawful owner. " For perhaps he therefore departed 
 for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever." By 
 which language the apostle intimates that it might be a provi- 
 dential escape that Onesimus had thereby become a convert to 
 the Christian faith, and would now return and be a faithful and 
 profitable servant for life. "Not now as a servant, but above 
 a servant [6ou^o;, slave], a brother, &c. This passage, it is con- 
 ceded by all the most approved commentators, has reference 
 only to religious privileges and the spiritual relation between 
 them as a Christian brother, or brother in the church whom 
 Paul had begotten in his bonds. The doctrine is here clearly 
 taught : — 1st. That all Christians are equal and on a level in 
 that respect ; Onesimus, the slave, on becoming a Christian is 
 the apostle's son, and Philemon's brother. 2d. That Christianity 
 makes no alteration in men's political status : "Let every one 
 abide in the calling wherewith he hath been called," &c. 
 Onesimus, the slave, did not become free by embracing Chris- 
 tianity, but rather remained in that condition; "that thou 
 shouldest receive him forever." 3d. That slaves should not be 
 taken and detained from their masters without their consent.^ 
 
 1 S. Macknight on the Epistles, pp. 496-499, N. Y. ed. 1850. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. lit 
 
 And 4th. That the value of slaves is greatly enhanced by their 
 being converted to the Christian religion. 
 
 But these abolition theologians tell us that there is no evidence 
 that Onesimus was a bond slave, owned and held to service by 
 his master.'' What then could have induced Paul to send him 
 back to Philemon, and to write this most touching and sympa- 
 thetic appeal to his compassion to forgive him the offence, and 
 not inflict upon him that terrible punishment which the custom 
 and laws of that time and place authorised him to do. And 
 why did Onesimus feel it his duty, after his conversion, to return 
 to and serve his master, if he did not belong to him ? " If he 
 owe thee anything, " &c. ; it is contended that this language, 
 applied to Onesimus, would indicate a capacity for business 
 transactions on his own account, and a higher rank than that 
 of a bond slave. But this may refer to the loss of his services 
 by running away ; or it may relate to some transactions relative 
 to the peculium or peculiar property of the slave. ^ 
 
 It will be noticed that the same word is used in the original 
 to denote the class of persons to which Onesimus belonged, as 
 is used by other writers to denote those that worked in chains 
 in the mines of Laurion. In verse sixteenth, the word Soi;^? 
 (slave) is used twice to denote the character of Onesimus ; 
 and in the postscript at the close of the epistle, the word 
 oLXfT);? (family slave) is used for the same purpose. The 
 meaning of these words we shall explain more fully in the 
 sequel : we simply remark here that Onesimus must have been 
 a purchased slave, as distinguished from one born in his 
 master's family or household, as such were called dixot^f^, to 
 distinguish them from the oUetr,^, or ordinary house slave.^ 
 Because the subject of this epistle was a person apparently 
 considered of so much consequence, and was so much in the 
 favor of Paul, many are disposed to believe that he could not 
 
 ' See Barnes' Notes on this Epistle. 
 
 * Colosse was an ancient city of Phrygia, a Grecian province then 
 subject to Roman power ; either by the slave laws of Greece or Rome the 
 slave had a right to his peculium, property acquired independent of his 
 duty to his master. In some instances the Roman slaves attained to 
 great wealth, and had many slaves under them termed vicarii. See Essay 
 on Roman Slavery, sup. p. 69. In relation to this they might transact 
 business, contract, owe, and have debts due to them. The same is true 
 of the slaves of the present day, between whom and their masters, in 
 many instances, regular book accounts are kept. 
 
 * 'OiKOTpiip, 6ov\ci dUoycvrii. Lucidas. The hoiketrips is a slave born in 
 the house or family; "'OUorpiip xai diVcrr;; iiaipcpu," &.C., or the one means 
 a glave born in the family, and the other a purchased slave. 
 
118 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 have been a poor, oppressed, and down-trodden slave. But it 
 must be remembered that there were in that age many slaves of 
 high intellectual and literary attainment, many who even prac- 
 tised the learned professions, over whom their masters held the 
 absolute ownership, even to the power of life and death. ^ Thus 
 it is said that Plato and Diogenes were once sold into slavery, 
 as the father of Virginia is said to have tasted the sweets of 
 Turkish bondage. Paul pleaded for his Christian brother with 
 all the earnestness and benevolent feelings that could avail to 
 reach the sympathies of the human heart, to save him from that 
 awful day of retribution that awaited him on his return. The 
 example is often imitated by humane and benevolent persons 
 of the present day. Philemon was a man of great wealth, and 
 an officer of high rank in the church ; he had, as was customary 
 in that age, a numerous household of slaves : to suffer one to 
 escape from him in that manner with impunity would have a 
 deleterious influence upon the others. 
 
 The stern demands of justice must therefore be visited upon 
 him. It was doubtless for this cause that Paul reasoned his 
 case the more earnestly that, for Christianity's and mercy's 
 sake, he might in this instance avert the relentless rigors of 
 household discipline. How Onesimus fared on his return, we 
 are nowhere informed ; but doubtless in accordance with the 
 anticipations of Paul, he was kindly received by his injured 
 master, who even did more for him than his illustrious bene- 
 factors could ask. It has been contended that Paul in this 
 noble instance of Christian benevolence was actuated by a 
 paltry fear of the civil authorities ; that to have detained Ones- 
 imus and harbored him from his master, would have subjected 
 him to civil punishment. And thus they make Paul, as they 
 would the Saviour, a dupe to moral obliquity through fear of 
 offending Csesar. 
 
 If Paul sought to avoid interfering with civil government, 
 how dare he accuse the Romans of " turning the truth of God 
 into a lie ; and worshipping the creature more than the Cre- 
 ator" ? This was laying the axe at the root of the tree, and 
 sapping the very foundations of civil government. 
 
 The damsel that followed Paul and Silas from Thyatira was 
 the slave of a Roman citizen, and brought her master great 
 gain by her power of divination; "but Paul being grieved, 
 commanded the unclean spirit to come out of her. "^ Here 
 was an instance not only of a direct and positive interference 
 
 1 See Essay on Roman Slavery, sup. p. 69. ^ ^cts 16 : 18. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 110 
 
 with the civil institutions, but a great damage, as they deemed 
 it, to private property ; and for which the Apostle was arrested 
 and thrown into prison. The act of Paul was, in eifect, a con- 
 demnation of the custom or institution of soothsaying, which 
 was established by law. For this the people complained that 
 " these men do greatly trouble our city, and teach customs that 
 are not lawful for us to observe, being Romans."^ 
 
 Now, why did Paul interfere with the institutions of civil 
 government, in this instance, and teach customs that were not 
 lawful for Romans to observe, rather than in the case of One- 
 siraus ? The answer of every honest mind is at hand ; because 
 the custom of divination was incompatible with the doctrines 
 of the Christian religion, while the simple relation of master 
 and slave was not. 
 
 A similar charge was brought against him by Demetrius the 
 silversmith, who made silver for the shrine of Diana at Ephe- 
 sus. He alleged that Paul had not only injured his business by 
 turning away many from the worship of Diana (by saying that 
 "there be no gods that are made with hands"), but that he 
 had " caused the temple of the great goddess to be despised, 
 which all Asia worshipped." And the assembly, when they 
 heard this, being enraged, and considering their civil institutions 
 in danger, to uphold them, and to exhibit and encourage un- 
 wavering devotion to the State, in their outbursts of popular 
 enthusiasm, "cry out. Great is Diana of the Ephesians, for the 
 space of about two hours. "'^ 
 
 When Paul came to Athens, and began to dispute with the 
 Epicureans and the Stoics about their idolatry, why did they 
 take and bring him to the court of the Areopagus ? Because, 
 as they say, he was a setter forth of strange gods, a teacher of 
 a religion which it was not lawful for them, being Athenians, to 
 embrace ; and they wished to have it determined by the proper 
 tribunal whether such a heresy could be tolerated by the State. ^ 
 The charge against him at Athens, as at Ephesus, was that of 
 corrupting the national religion, of setting forth strange gods ; 
 
 1 Romans were compelled by law, as we have seen, to adhere to, uphold 
 and defend their national religion. Acts 16 : 21. 
 
 - Acts 20 : 34. A national exclamation, similar in import to God save 
 the Queen ! Vive le Empereur ! or Hail Columbia ! 
 
 ' The court of the Areopagus had special jurisdiction of all questions 
 relative to the national religion, as connected with the worship of the 
 gods ; it was for this reason that Paul was commanded to explain his doc- 
 trines before this tribunal, that the same might be approved or con- 
 demned by the legitimate authority. See Smith's Greek and Roman 
 Antiquities, N. Y. ed. 1854, p. 89, and authorities there cited. 
 
120 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 the same charge for which Socrates was condemned to death. 
 But how did the Apostle meet the charge before this august 
 tribunal ? Did he wink at the sin of idolatry, or smooth over 
 its sinful customs, for fear of being pragmatical in matters of 
 civil government ? So far from it, he denounced them all, as 
 he did the idolatry of the Romans, in the boldest and most 
 unmeasured terms. "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all 
 things ye are too superstitious," &c. At the same time that 
 the Apostle uttered this denunciation against the national reli- 
 gion of Greece, there were from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred thousand slaves in Athens and the harbors.^ Had 
 this been also a national sin in the estimation of the Apostle, 
 why should he have passed it over in silence while denouncing 
 the sin of idolatry ? If the dread of offending the civil autho- 
 rities would not deter him in one instance, then why in the 
 other? The answer here, again, to every unprejudiced mind, 
 must be obvious ; the national religion of Greece and Rome 
 was wholly incompatible with the doctrines of the Christian 
 religion, and an insurmountable obstacle to the spread of the 
 Gospel, while no such objection existed to the relation of mas- 
 ter and servant. 
 
 Christianity might do its complete work in all its highest 
 offices of the regeneration and sanctification of the world, and 
 still leave all to " abide in the calling wherewith he had been 
 called;" still leave the civil relation of master and slave un- 
 changed. Its precepts of charity, love, and good will, in their 
 highest and holiest sense of justice, equity, and Christian recti- 
 tude, are designed to perfect the nature of both master and 
 slave, to secure the discharge of their reciprocal duties towards 
 one another, rather than to dissolve the relation that exists 
 between them. It has exhibited this truth in its history in a 
 striking light, from the first foundation of the Church. It 
 early commenced the work of reforming the institution, by ame- 
 liorating the asperity of its ancient rigors. 
 
 One of the earliest apostolical canons is in the following 
 words: " Servi in clerum non promvisantur citra dominorura 
 voluntate ; hoc ipsum operatur redhibitionem. Si quando vero 
 servus quoque gradu ecclesiastico dignus videatur, qualis noster 
 Onesimus apparuit, et domini concenserint, manuque eraise- 
 riut, et domo sua obligaverint efficitor. "- 
 
 In the Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp is the following : 
 
 1 Boeck., Public Economy of Athens, vol. 1, p. 53. See Essay on 
 Greek Slavery, supra, p. 61. 
 
 - See Canons of the Apostles, No. Ixxxi. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 121 
 
 "Overlook not the men and the maid-servants; neither let 
 them be pufifed up ; but rather let them be the more subject to 
 the glory of God, that they may obtain from Him a better 
 liberation. Let them not desire to be set free at public cost, 
 that they be not slaves to their own lusts. "^ In the General 
 Epistle of Barnabas we read as follows : "Thou shalt not be 
 bitter in thy commands towards any of thy servants that trust 
 in God, lest thou chance not to fear him who is over both ; be- 
 cause he came not to call any with respect of persons, but 
 whomsoever the spirit prepared."- Though these passages all 
 recognise the right of property, and the right of control of the 
 master over his servant, yet they manifest a strong sympathy in 
 behalf of the slaves. 
 
 After the establishment of Christianity under Constantino, 
 slaves pai'took of all the ordinances of religion ; and their birth 
 or condition was no impediment, with the consent of their mas- 
 ters, to their rising to the highest dignities of the priesthood. 
 At first it was required that a slave should be enfranchised 
 before ordination ; but Justinian declared the simple consent 
 of the master to be sufficient. If a slave had been ordained 
 without his master's knowledge, the latter might demand him 
 within a year, and the slave fall back into his master's power. 
 If a slave, after ordination with his master's consent, chose to 
 renounce the ecclesiastical state and return to a secular life, he 
 was given back as a slave to his master. It was common for 
 the patrons of churches, till the fifth century, to encourage their 
 slaves to become clergymen, that they, instead of strangers, 
 might receive their benefices. If a Christian slave fell into the 
 hands of a heathen master, the latter was prohibited from inter- 
 fering with his spiritual concerns. Judaism was looked upon 
 with such horror, that any Christian was entitled to force a 
 Jewish master to sell him a Christian slave. The laws of the 
 Christian emperors all tended to the amelioration of the con- 
 dition of the slaves. Antonius empowered the judge who 
 should be satisfied about a slave's complaint of ill-treatment, 
 to force the master to sell him to another owner. The master's 
 power of life and death over his slave was first sought to be 
 legally abolished by Adrian and Antonius Pius. Constantine 
 placed the wilful murder of a slave on a level with that of a 
 freeman ; and expressly included the case of a slave who died 
 under punishment, unless it was inflicted with the usual instru- 
 ments of correction. Adrian suppressed the Roman ergastula 
 
 1 Epistle of Ignatius of Antioch to Polycarp, Smyrna, cli. 2. 
 
 2 Epistle of Barnabas, chap, xiv., ver. 15. 
 11 
 
122 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 or workhouse for the confinemeut of slaves. Several humane 
 laws were enacted by Constantine in relation to the separation 
 of families. One directs that property shall be so divided, 
 " ut Integra apud possessorem unumquemque servorura agnatio 
 permaneat. " Another law says : " ut Integra apud successo- 
 rem unumquemque servorum, vel calanorum ad scriptitiae con- 
 ditionis, seu inquilinorum proximorum agnatio, vel adfinitas 
 permaneat." 
 
 A Christian church afforded very great safety from the wrath 
 of unmerciful owners ; for when a slave took refuge there, it 
 became the duty of the ecclesiastics to intercede for him with 
 his master, as Paul did for Onesimus with his master Phile- 
 mon, and if his master refused to pardon him, they were bound 
 not to give him up, but to let him live within the precincts of 
 the sanctuary till he chose to depart, or till his master granted 
 him forgiveness.^ But at the same time it was enacted by the 
 Ecclesiastical Council at Nice, in the year 325, when Constan- 
 tine was emperor, "Si quis docet servum, pietatis prjetextu, 
 dominum contemnere, et a ministerio recedere, et non cum 
 benevolentia et omni honore domino suo inservere. Anathema 
 sit." " If any one, under pretence of piety, teaches a slave to 
 despise his master and to withdraw from his service, and not to 
 serve him with all good will and respect, Let him be Anathe- 
 ma. "^ In accordance with the example and the teachings of 
 the Apostle Paul, there are several early canons of the Church 
 upon that subject. As they are extremely lengthy, we shall 
 submit the translation that illustrates the spirit of them all. 
 It is a papal bull from Pope Gregory to the Praetor Sesquis. 
 
 " Concerning Peter, the Servant who ran away. 
 
 "Our son Occilianus, a highly respectable man, a tribune 
 of the city of Otranto, brought with him to our cousin, as is 
 known, when he was coming to us, a boy named Peter, a baker, 
 who belonged to that cousin. We have now learned that he 
 has run away and returned to your country. Let then it be 
 
 1 De servis vero, qui pro qualibet culpa ad ecclesiae septa confugerint, 
 &c., Can. xxii., Fifth Council of Orleans. An ancient method of claiming 
 the benefit of clergy, and perhaps the origin of the custom in the common 
 law of England. 
 
 2 Can. xlvii., Third Council of Paris. This is strictly according to the 
 teachings of Paul. " Let them that have believing masters not plot 
 against them;" "These things teach and exhort, and whosoever shall 
 teach otherwise," &o. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123 
 
 your care, experienced sir, before he shall be able to get back 
 to Otranto, to direct, as quickly as you can, a writing to the 
 bishop of Otranto, or to the aforesaid tribune himself, or to 
 any one else whom you know that you can depute, to have a 
 good care for the wife and children of the said slave, and to be 
 very careful respecting himself, that as soon as he shall arrive 
 he may be detained, and sent with everything that belongs to 
 him by all means hither, embarking them on board a ship in 
 the care of some faithful person. 
 
 "You, experienced sir, will therefore exert yourself to do 
 this with all attention and effect, so as not to displease us with 
 a delay, or neglect, which we should not desire."' 
 
 It was enacted early after the conversion of Constantine that 
 no one who was not a Christian should hold a Christian slave, 
 upon the principle of the Jewish law contained in Lev. 
 XXV : 47, 48.2 
 
 This was first adopted as a principle of the civil or municipal 
 law, but was soon after incorporated into the body of the canon 
 law. Canon xxx. of the Fourth Council of Orleans, reads as 
 follows, in the translation : ■' Whereas it has been decreed by 
 former canons, respecting the Christian slaves that are under 
 the Jews, that if they should fly to the church, or even to any 
 Christians, and demand their redemption, and be unwilling to 
 serve the Jews, they should be freed from their owners upon a 
 fair price being assessed by the faithful and tendered to them ; 
 we therefore enact that this so just a regulation shall be 
 observed by all Catholics." 
 
 Throughout the whole history of the transactions of the 
 Church, from its first formation, there will be found the most 
 scrupulous observance of the right of property in the master 
 to the service and the control of the person of the slave. In 
 all instances of civil and ecclesiastical legislation to ameliorate 
 his condition, the great principle laid down by Paul and the 
 
 1 Gregoritjs Sergio Defensor!. De Petro puero fuga lapso. 
 
 Filius noster vir magnificus Occilianus. tribunus Hydruntinae Civitatis, 
 &c. Canons of the Church, Lib. vii. indie, ii. epist. 107. 
 
 2 Civil Code, Lib. i. Tib. 10. Judseus servum Christianum nee eompa- 
 rare debebit. ne largitatis aut alio quocunque titulo cousequetur." Again, 
 " non solum mancipii damno muletetur, verum etiam capitali sententia 
 punietur." Not only shall he be mulcted by the loss of the slave, but he 
 shall be punished by a capital sentence. Again, "Graecus, seu paganus, 
 et Judseus, et Samaritanus, et alius hoereticus, id est, non existens ortho- 
 doxus, non potest Christianum mancipium habere." A Greek or pagan, 
 a Jew, a Samaritan, and any heretic that is not orthodox, cannot hold a 
 Christian slave. 
 
121 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 Apostles that Christianity did not change the civil relations 
 of master and slave, but left each to "abide in the calling 
 wherewith he had been called," was never lost sight of. Even 
 the blaspheming Jew could not be deprived of his property in 
 a Christian slave without an adequate compensation. Is the 
 Church now more holy than in the pristine days of the 
 ApQstles ?^ 
 
 History of the word Slave, in Scripture use. 
 
 But it is stated that the word slave does not occur in the 
 Bible. This, however, is a mistake with reference to King 
 James' Translation of the New Testament. In that version 
 of the Revelation of St. John, the learned commissioners 
 rendered the last clause of the 13th verse of the 18th chapter, 
 "and the slaves and the souls of men.'''' The writer of this 
 passage was enumerating the several articles of merchandize 
 usually bought and sold at Babylon ; he mentions the mer- 
 chandize "of beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and 
 slaves, and souls of men.'' ^ Supplying the Greek word yo,uov 
 where it is properly understood, the original reads thus, xai. 
 yofjLov cfo^ardii', xaC icvxo-i av^pcortcor, literally, and the merchandize 
 of the bodies and the souls of men. There is no conceivable 
 reason why the making merchandize of the bodies and souls of 
 men at ancient Babylon, should render them slaves, more than at 
 Jerusalem, or Tyre, Sidon, Corinth, Delos, Athens, Rome, or 
 any one of the slave markets of the Roman Empire. Doubtless 
 the permission given to the Jews by the statutes of Moses to 
 "buy their bondmen and bondmaids of the heathen round about 
 them," included the market at Babylon as well as others ; yet 
 the learned seventy of the Alexandrine school of critics, in 
 translating that statute into Greek, rendered the bondmen and 
 bondmaids so to be purchased, by fiopxovj xai. Sovxa^,^ meaning 
 
 1 Upon the subject of slavery in the New Testament, we have consulted 
 most of the current commentators of the day. Upon the subject of 
 Canon Law and Civil Law, upon this subject during the early centuries 
 of the Christian Era, we have examined the different codes of the Roman 
 law, including the Theodosian and Justinian ; also the Digest and Novles, 
 which properly constitute a part of the jurisprudence of Louisiana. 
 Also several volumes of the Canon Law, Bishop England's Letters, 
 Bower's Lives of the Popes, Lingard, Antiquities of Italy, Muratori, 
 Gihon, and others. There may also be found a very well selected and 
 convenient compilation of these transactions of the Church, in tlie work 
 of John Fletcher. Studies on Slavery, Study iv. p. 2-16, 1852, Natchez ed. 
 
 ^ Sept. Liv. 25 : 44. In Ezek. 27 : 13, this same Oriental slave trade is 
 alluded to. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125 
 
 slaves bought with money ; the same words which the English 
 translators have rendered male and female, or maid, servants, 
 universally throughout the Scriptures. So also in the family 
 of Abraham those slaves bought with his money are properly 
 called Sovxol.^ In Joshua and in Judges the same word is used 
 in the Greek ;^ meaning, in the former, those slaves "cursed to 
 be hewers of wood and drawers of water;" and in the latter 
 the slaves of Gideon, which were either captives or "bought 
 with his money." In other instances this word and a variety 
 of its derivations are used in the Septuagint in a similar sense. 
 If then the Greek word 8ov'Koi\ in its primitive and literal signi- 
 fication means what we understand by the word slave, a person 
 that belongs to another in a certain sense, as a piece of pro- 
 perty or merchandize, as defined by Aristotle and used by all 
 the Greek authors, why did the learned translators of King 
 James' version of the Bible universally render that word by 
 the English word servant, and yet use the term slave in the 
 passage in Revelation ? or to put the question in a different 
 form, why does not the word slave occur more frequently in the 
 present English version of the Bible ? 
 
 This question we have partially promised to attempt to an- 
 swer, and we submit the following as our only conceivable rea- 
 son. The history of the English word slave, and the manner 
 in which it came into legitimate use, furnishes the only expla- 
 nation of the mystery. The legitimate use of this word in the 
 English must be of comparatively modern date. It first ori- 
 ginated with the French in the eighth or ninth century, and 
 was used as a term of reproach to degrade the miserable race 
 of Sclavonian captives in the eyes of their Norman lords. ^ It 
 is a well-known fact, in the history of the English tongue, that 
 the strength, purity, and beauty of the Anglo-Saxon dialect 
 never became corrupted by the use of the Norman French 
 idioms, words, and phrases, till after the intermingling of the 
 French and English people subsequent to the Norman conquest, 
 in the year 1066. This word, then, which was originally ap- 
 
 1 Gen. 17 : 12, 27. Exod. 12 : 44. 
 
 - Josh. 9 : 23. Judges 6 : 27. Sept. 
 
 3 From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in the condition of captives, sub- 
 jects, or allies, the Sclavonians overspread the land, and the national ap- 
 pellation of "slaves" has been degraded by chance or malice from the 
 signification of what is glorious to that of servitude. 
 
 " This conversion," he says, "seems to have arisen with the French in 
 the eighth century, where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavo- 
 nian captives, from whence the word extended to gradual use in all the 
 modern languages." Gib. Dee. and F. R. E., vol. 4, p. 38. 
 11* 
 
126 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 plied to the Sclavonian captives as a stigma in terms of re- 
 proach, a kind of nickname invented, as Gibbon says, by acci- 
 dent or malice, and used only in a bad sense, the same as Helot 
 was applied to Spartan slaves, would, like the Norman manners 
 and customs, be reluctantly received, and be a long time in 
 working its way into legitimate use by the English. It would 
 not, therefore, be readily adopted into the high and holy stand- 
 ard of Scripture phraseology. But the Anglo-Saxons read 
 the Bible in their own tongue long before the days of Alfred. 
 They had the versions of Adhelm Acbert, of Bede, and of 
 
 Alfred himself. In 1319, Richard translated portions of 
 
 the Bible. Soon after came the translations of the New Tes- 
 tament by John Wickliff, copies of which are still extant. 
 Next came Tyndal's Bible, revised by Mathews, 1537, known 
 as the Bishop's Bible. The Bible, however, as such, was re- 
 organized and read only in the Latin till a comparatively short 
 time previous to the publication of the royal version of King- 
 James. The vulgate and the Bishop's Bible had been by a 
 royal order a short time previously submitted to the option of 
 the clergy and the people, and to lay side by side in the churches 
 and monasteries. A halo of superstitious veneration had so 
 enshrined this Latin text of St. Jerome in the heads and me- 
 mories of the church at that day, that it is with reluctance given 
 up by the priests even at the present time. To suit the whim- 
 sical notions of the age, great deference would naturally be paid 
 to the Latin Bible, and great care taken in all previous and 
 subsequent versions to preserve all the names and terms there 
 with as little alteration as possible. This, it appears, had been 
 partially done to suit the fantastical notions of the laymen and 
 the clergy in the version known as the Bishop's Bible. There- 
 fore, King James enjoined upon the commissioners, which he 
 held appointed to prepare the present English version of the 
 Bible, the following instructions : 1st. The Bible, commonly 
 read in the churches, known as the Bishop's Bible, should be 
 altered as little as possible. 2d. All the old and venerable 
 Scripture names to be kept sacred according to all Scripture 
 usage. 3d. All ecclesiastical words to be retained. 4th. 
 When any word had several significations, that which had been 
 most commonly used by the most celebrated Christian Fathers 
 should be preferred.^ It would have been impossible for the 
 modern word slave to have been used in any versions of the 
 Scriptures during the Danish or Anglo-Saxon period of the 
 
 1 Robinson's Calmet, Art. Bible, p. 182. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 
 
 English tongue. It is a Norman French word, and slavery 
 found its way into the English as the manners and customs of 
 that people did into England. This word, then, converted, 
 through malice by the Normans, from what is illustrious and 
 noble to what is base, to degrade their captives in the eyes of 
 freemen, and used only in a bad sense, could not have partaken 
 of that sacred and venerable character essential to a Scripture 
 term, or as are used by the most celebrated and venerable Fa- 
 thers. And under these royal instructions the translators could 
 not have so innovated upon the ancient Scripture liturgy as to 
 substitute the word slave for that of servant ; a word of poetical 
 endearment, and used only in a good sense ; a word, too, idem 
 sonans, and of such easy transition from the word servus or ser- 
 vans; consequently, we find, as we should expect, that the word 
 slave is, by the translators of that day, used in but one passage, 
 and that, too, with reference to those carried into captivity and 
 sold in Babylon, the mother of harlots. But, in the use of the 
 word servant, the translators have universally qualified it with 
 some epithet, when it means anything in its literal sense but what 
 we now understand by the word slave. The Greek words Souxoj 
 and Mxitr;? are the words most frequently used in the New Tes- 
 tament and in Greek authors, as the general terms for servants 
 or slaves. Other terms are used to denote specific classes, or 
 for particular reasons, all of which, for the reasons which are 
 assigned above, the translators of King James have rendered 
 servant. But that they mean in their literal signification what 
 we mean by the word slave, we will cite a few instances of their 
 use by numerous authors in the mass of Greek literature, now 
 extant, to prove. In addition to those already cited in our 
 Essay on Greek Slavery, we quote the following for this pur- 
 pose alone : — 
 
 We commence with the Iliad. In book iii., line 409, dou}.7] 
 is translated by Pope, " slave." In book vi., line 464, a/wveiv 
 dooXiov rjfjtap is translated "to ward off the day of slavery." 
 In Odyss. xiv. 339, SooXiov i^imp e;j.o{, in regard to which, Pope 
 says : " With ready hands they rush to seize the slave." 
 
 Eurip. Troad. GYS : vaofrOXoop-ai a sycu T.ptK "E'Xla^, ai'^!ia)M- 
 Toi; e{<; doulov ^uyov. " I go by sea a prisoner of war to the 
 yoke of slavery." 
 
 Bacch. 1028 : 5? <ts a-zva^oj, SooXo<; <5v piv aXX o/xm^ xp^i'^''^°k 
 douXoiq auiKfopa za deaTzo-wv. "How I lament this, though a 
 slave ; yet slaves, if faithful, mourn the ruin of their masters." 
 
 Helen. 283 : yai (fiXmv zrjTcopivyj, douXrj y.aOtG-rr^x oud tXeuOzpcov 
 ojzo. ra J3apj3apwv yap dooX.o Tzavra rtXijv i-^u^. " Of friends de- 
 
128 SLAVERY IX THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 prived, I, from the free who draw my generous blood, am made 
 a slave; for, among barbarians, all arc slaves save one." 
 
 In this instance, as in many others which we shall notice, the 
 word doiAoe; is used in contrast with the word e?.su8tpoq, and can 
 mean nothing but a person in a state of bondage. 
 
 Idem, 1630 : a?J.d dsffTrorwv xpa-rqadq, dooloq ocbv. " Slave as 
 thou art, wilt thou control thy master?" 
 
 Idem, 1640: tt^oo dsffrroTcov roiai yevaioiffi douXoi^ suxXsin-aTir^ 
 da'^siv. " To home-born slaves it is glory to die for their mas- 
 ters. ' ' 
 
 Jan., 855 : rown;j.a ra d' aXXa Tzavra rwv U-v^dtptav ovbsiq 7.a:/.'.u)M 
 Souh)^, o<TTt<; ssOXoq yj. "It is the name; in all else than the 
 free, the slave is nothing worse, if he be virtuous." 
 
 Methu., line 54: /prj^rruli duuXoiq ^op-fpopa radeaizoTav y.ay.ajq 
 nirvo'^ra xai (fpevwv mOa-Kxerai " Slaves who are faithful, suffer 
 in the afflictions of their master." 
 
 Hecub. line 234 : Ei 8' ear: roie; Sov'Koi.i zouq eX.euOspooc;, &c. 
 " But to many slaves it is permitted to ask of the free," &c. 
 
 Idem, line 291 : vo[j.o(; J' h uriiv rolq r eXeu0£po{<; iaoq xai toii; 
 Sou?.ntq alparoq xeirai iztpi " The laws of blood are equal to us 
 slaves, and to you our freemen (or masters)." 
 
 Orestes, line 1522 : JouXoq m <fo^e\ zov Atdrjv, oq a a-aXla:d 
 y.a/.u),/ . Slave : Uaq mr/p, xaV douXoq ^ rt'Cj Tjdsrai to <f(uq opSy^. 
 Orest. : "Fears a slave death, the end of all his ills ?" Slave : 
 "To slave or free, sweet is the light of heaven." 
 
 Thucydides, lib. i. chap. 34 : Ob yap eni rw oouXot aXX' e-\ 
 rev o/JLoti rote; Xsinopevoii; elnai ex-e/ntovrai. " They are not sent 
 out to be slaves, but to be the equals of those who remain 
 behind." 
 
 Chap. 55 : Jiat zujy Kepxupaiwv dxzaxoaiouz pev di ^ffa'^ douX.oi 
 aTzrjSuvzo. "Eight hundred of the Carcyrean prisoners, who 
 were slaves, they sold at public sale." 
 
 Lib. ii. chap. 63 : 3Irjdi '^opirrai Tztp! evoc po'^ou, dooXstaq a-jz" 
 tXzoOtpiaq. " Think not you have only one point at stake, the 
 alternative of slavery or freedom." 
 
 Idem, chap. YS : Aa{ aXJ.oq oudelq ^v iv zu) zet/ec, ovzz douXaq, 
 ooze eXeuOspoq. ' ' Nor was there any other portion within the 
 wall, either slave or free." 
 
 Chap. 118, lib. iv : Mr^zs eXeuOspov, pijze douX.ov. "Whether 
 ihey be freemen or slaves." 
 
 Lib. 3, chap. 63 : Tooq ph xazadooXoupevouq zrjv ^ EXXdda, zouq 
 
 'U kXeuOepomzaq. "The Athenians have truly enslaved your 
 country, and the others would regain its freedom." 
 
 Xenophon Mem. lib. i. chap. 3, § 11 : i2 zXr^pov, l(pr^ (f 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 129 
 
 ScjxpdTTje;, xai ri av oiti TzaOdv xalov (fiX-qaaq • ap oux av aorixa jiaXa 
 douXoq psv dvai avr iXeuOepov. "Miserum te, ait Socrates, quid 
 eveuturum tibi existimas, si formosum osculeris ? anoa subito 
 pro libero servns esses?" (Leuncluvius.) 
 
 Idem, chap. 5, § 3 : Aouku) S' axpazel eTCCTp^c/iatpev av ^ l^offxyj- 
 [la-a vj za/jLuia ^ eywv sniaTaaiav. " Et sei'vo iiitemperanti num 
 vel pecora, vel penum, ut operi praeesset, committeremus ? " 
 (Leunc.) 
 
 Idem, chap. 6, § 9 : XaXtixov di xai ^rjamza xaze^eiv. wsnsp 
 dooXov. " Neque minus difficile vinctum retinere tanquam 
 i'eruMm. " (Leunc.) 
 
 Idem, chap. 1, § 3 and 4 : "Oz{ vrj At, k'<fT], 6 fiev douXouq 
 zpt<pz\^ eyw di eXeuOspoug. Kai Tzozspov, i(py]f rou? Tzapd irol eXeu- 
 Uspouq out l^sXzcouq ehat i] zooq Tzapa Kepd[iwvi douXouq. ' ' By 
 Jupiter, said [Aristarchus], he rears up slaves, and I only 
 freemen. Well, then, said [Socrates], which do you prefer, 
 your freemen or Ceramon's slaves." 
 
 Lib. iii. chap. 12, § 2 : IloXXoi 8e Si auzo roozo Z&vzsg d)Ua- 
 xovzaij xai aXovzsz rjzoi douXeuouffi z6v Xoi-ov /3;oy, eav ouzcj zu'/^wat 
 zYJv -(aXs-aj'/zaz-i^v douXeiav. "Many endure the most burdensome 
 slavery, produced by their having been taken captives in war, 
 and, as captives, slaves themselves through the remainder of 
 their lives." 
 
 Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. iii. cap. 1, § 2 : Kai yop iazu, i<pr} o 
 Kupoc, xaXm pdysaOat, o~ajq pyj ~ozi ztq dooXoq peXXoi ysvijffeoffac 
 rfj di dij -o?.epu> xpazrjffOe)^, tj xaX aXXov zivd zpoTzov oovXioOeiq, fKi- 
 ytipwv ziq <pa>.vrjzai zohq deaizozaq anoazspelv eaozou, zouzov ou, 
 TZpwzot; ecrrk, Tzoztpov wq ayaOov avdpa xai xaX.d Tzpazzo'^za zipaq rj wq 
 dduoovza, rj Xa,3r]q, xoXa^eiq ; xoXm^co, iffj. " It is indeed noble, 
 said Cyrus, to fight, in order not to be made a slave ! But if 
 a man be conquered in war, or by other means reduced to 
 slavery, and be found attempting to throw off his master, do 
 you yourself first pronounce whether you reward or honor such 
 a one as an honest man, and as one that does noble things, or, 
 if you take him, do you punish him as one that acts unjustly ? 
 I punish him, said he." 
 
 Ibid : '//v fi, v-q Ai, iauzui auvoiSev eXeuOspiaq piv eniOuprjffaq 
 douX.ooq S' wq ovdsTzwnoze yevnpevoq. "Why, by Jupiter, being 
 conscious of himself that, effecting his liberty, he has become 
 by far much more a slave than ever." 
 
 Lib. iv. chap. 8; Auzixa paXa Cil'tffOe, ujanep 8ovXwy di:o 
 dtdpaaxovzio xai ebp-qpivwv, zouq piv Ixzztuovzcuv auzwv, zouq 8i 
 <pffo'>zaq, zouq d" uuSi zauza ypvstv vwapivouq. " You will see 
 them like slaves that have run away and are discovered, some 
 
 I 
 
130 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 supplicating for mercy, some flying, and some without presence 
 of mind enough to do either." 
 
 Idem, chap. 23 : Auroq Si 6 Kupor; a-^etTzaJv, ixeXeuasv, et riq tv 
 T6J ^Aaaupiwv rj Eupwv r^ ^ Apa^Hiov arpaTevpLazt a'^r^p 8ouXo<i 7/ MtjSwv, 
 ri Uepffwv, ^ BaxrpcayuJv, ij AapW'/, ij KiXcxaJv, ^ ^EXXrjvwv, yj aXkoOe-^ 
 -oOsv (ieiSiafffj-ivoq ty.fahtaOai. " Cyrus himself ordered them to 
 make proclamation, that whatever slave there might be, either 
 in the Assyrian, Syrian or Arabian armies, whether he were 
 Mede, Persian, Bactrian, Carian, Cicilian or Greek, or of any 
 other country, forced to be a slave, that he should appear." 
 
 Anab. lib. i. chap. 9 : Uapd psv Kupoo, 8oo?.ou oVro?, oudslq 
 aTzyjsi Tzoq jSaffUea. "No One, not even a, slave, ever deserted 
 Cyrus to go to the king." 
 
 Lib. ii. chap. 3 : AouXoi 8i -koXXoi emovzo. " They were at- 
 tended by a great many slaves.^^ 
 
 Chap. 5 : i/era di zauza zwv ^ap^dpu), zv^eq i~-twv, 8ia zov tzs- 
 8loo eX.auvovzei;, ^rcvt evzoy/avoisv 'E).X.r^yi rj 6ou)m rj eXsuOtpaj, 
 -avzaq sy.zdvov. "After this, some of the barbarian horse, 
 scouring the plains, killed all the Greeks they met, both freemen 
 and slaves." 
 
 Lib. vii. cap. 4 : '0 5^ eIttcv AX-X" iywys haW^v vwpi'u) vuv dur/V 
 e/jiv ouzoi douXoi erruozai avz' eXeuOspwv. "And then he said, I 
 think myself sufficiently revenged, if these people, instead of 
 freemen, are to be made slaves." 
 
 Idem, chap, t : ^ou p.h yap xpazouvzoq, dooXela vitdpysl aozoiq 
 y.pazoufiivou di ao iX.suOs.pla. " For if you conquer they are 
 slaves (lit. slavery has them), but if you are conquered they 
 are free (lit. freedom has them)." 
 
 Demosth. Olenth. 2 : . . . i'j ujq oc 7:apd ztjV auzwv a^{av oedou- 
 Xofxivoi dezzaXoi 'Juv oux av sX.eoOspoi yevoizo aiapevoi. ..." Or 
 that the Thessalians, who had been so basely, so unjustly en- 
 slaved, would not gladly embrace their freedom." 
 
 De Corona, p. 208 : Ttuzep wc 6 naz-qp aou, Tpdp-qiq, edouXeus 
 Tza^ 'EXtzio. z^ ~p6q zu> Orjffsiu} 8idaffxovzi ypajxpaza. "Just as 
 your father Tromes served as a slave to Theseus, teaching 
 grammar in Elpia. " 
 
 Idem, p. 289 : waz'' iX.euOepoq £x douX.ou, xat, &c. " Just as a 
 freeman from a slave. ' ' 
 
 Orat. iii. adv. Apho. p. 243 : dX.Xd xai douX.ov elvai z6v a'^Opw- 
 Tzov -pw ovzt. " But even a slave is a man in his being." 
 
 Orat. in Pantse. p. 80 : ztq ydp tzwtzozs tw dcff-dzrj Xa/wv, zoo 
 8ouXmu zd TzpdypLaza, (bar.tp xupiou, xazryyoprjasv. " For who, 
 drawing lots with the master, will ever claim the private pro- 
 perty of the slave, as of his lord." 
 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 131 
 
 Orat. in Macart, p, 173: IzayYiXXeiv 8i, r.spi pjv roiv dovXmv 
 r^ deffTZOTTj -Kspi 8i twv ehuOipwv roi? ra yp-qpar eyou<7t.v. " To 
 make proclamation concerning the masters of the slaves, and 
 concerning those having the possessions or rights of freemen." 
 ^schylus Promth. Chained, line 463 : xaZeuX,a r.pwroc; h 
 Zoyoiq xvcudaXa ZeuyXaKri douXsuovra. "I first subdued the nodu- 
 lion to the yoke, to serve or be a slave in the cholars." 
 
 In this instance, the verb douX.euw, meaning to be a slave, is 
 applied to the service of domestic animals. 
 
 Again, in Lucian Dull, of the gods Mue and Muia : w<7-ep 
 oi iv yfi xaxwi; dvuX.evuyzeq. " As those prone to earth, following 
 an abject servitude." 
 
 Sophocles, Antig. line 517 : o6 ydp zc 8uuXo<;, a?X ads.).<poq 
 wXero. "For he died not as a slave, but a brother." 
 
 Ajax, line 489 : wv ^ dpi dooXrj. " Though now a wretched 
 slave." 
 
 Idem, line 1020 : douXo^ Xdyoiaiv a'^z cXsuOepou (I'avdq. "From 
 a freeman, by thy sentence doomed to be a slave." 
 
 Idem, line 1289 : v douXoq, 6 ix t^? jSapiSapou pr^zpuq ytyd). 
 "A slave descended from a barbarian mother." 
 
 Trachin. line 63 : i'l^s ydp ywij duuX.-q piv, eUprjxsv ^ IXeuOepov 
 X.oyov. ' ' For this woman, as a slave, hath spoken like a free- 
 man." 
 
 Philoe, line 995 : ot not zdX.dg r^pa^ piv wq dooXouq aafwq -azr^p 
 a/5 e^e<fU(Ttv, ouS' eXeuOepoui;. "0 me miserum ! That our 
 father should have unfortunately begot us slaves, instead of 
 freemen." 
 
 From the poets, orators, and other historians, we turn now 
 to the primitive use of this word in the plain and unvarnished 
 style of the Father of Historians. 
 
 Herod, lib. i. chap. 7 : sz' duuX7]<; ze r^? lapSavoo ysyovozeq 
 xat 'HpaxXeoc;. " The Heraclidffi are descended from Hercules 
 and a female slave of lardanus." 
 
 Chap. 94 : Au8oi piv drj una Ilspar^oi 8edou?Mvzo. " Thus the 
 Lydians were enslaved by the Persians." 
 
 Idem, chap, 95 : Aai a-oaaptvu\ ztjv douXoffuvijv rjXsuOspiuOrjffav. 
 "And rejecting slavery, they became free." 
 
 Idem, 173 : Kai r^v pev ys ywTJ dffzr] dayXu) ffuvoiui^ffrj, yzwala za 
 ztxva vsvopiffzai. "If any free woman cohabits with a slave, 
 the children begotten are subject to the law." 
 
 Lib. ii. chap. 1 : i2? dooXooq -azpojiou^ sovzai; ivoplX^. " The 
 law makes slaves heritable property (or subject to inherit- 
 ance) " 
 
1S2 SLAVERY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 Similar quotations might be multiplied from the various 
 authors to fill a volume. We have selected but a few, as the 
 most convenient and appropriate. Whoever wishes to see a 
 more elaborate investij^ation of the use of this word and its 
 derivatives, in Greek literature, will find the most extensive 
 and well-digested compilation of passages from the various 
 Greek authors whom we have cited above, that can be found 
 in this or any other language, in Fletcher's Studies on Sla- 
 very ; for which the literary world must be for ever indebted to 
 the indefatigable labors of John Fletcher, of Louisiana. 
 
 But we have as yet considered only the poetical and histo- 
 rical use of this word : it remains yet to consider its political, 
 moral or philosophical, and religious signification. This, it 
 will be readily conceded, can be best ascertained from the 
 writings of Plato, Aristotle, and the Bible. 
 
 Plato, De Leg. xi. p. 930 : doukrj fiev idv guiu^tj doOXoj Tj 
 tXtudspu) ri a-tXsvOpw, Tzaziue; roib dsoTtorou e'ffza) r^? 8ouXr/q to 
 yv^-^wiivMv^, &c. See Essay on Greek Slavery, where the pas- 
 sage is quoted and translated in full (sup. p. 59.) 
 
 For further illustrations of the meaning and use of this 
 word, we must beg leave to refer to our Essay on Greek Sla- 
 very, entire, including its philosophical definition by Aristotle, 
 its political and legal use and meaning by Plato, Athenseus, 
 and others ; also to our Essay on Slavery in the New Testa- 
 ment, showing the use of the term by the learned Seventy, and 
 by the Evangelists and Apostles. After a careful and some- 
 what thorough examination of this subject, we have been 
 forced to the irresistible conclusion, that whoever will delibe- 
 rately say that the Greek words douloq and dhsr-flq do not 
 literally mean what we understand by the English word slave, 
 must be either a literary novice or knave. It is true that the 
 relation of master and slave is often alluded to by writers and 
 speakers for the purpose of illustrating great truths and en- 
 forcing doctrines and precepts, and hence these words must 
 frequently be used in a figurative sense ; but we treat only of 
 their primitive and literal signification.' 
 
 1 Hendrico Greek Lex. verb f>ov\KOi, hktTtji. Scurvill, do., Pickering, &c. 
 Lidell & Scott. Don. Groves, Robinson's Lex., Greek New Testament. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 133 
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 The decline of the Roman sway in Western Europe left 
 behind its language, literature, and 'laws, as a precious inhe- 
 ritance to subsequent nations. Although the ancient flag of 
 her vast empire no longer waved over them ; though they were 
 no longer subject to the proud prowess of her arms, still had 
 she left behind the pure traces of her ancient nationality, in 
 jer letters and jurisprudence, whence the modern literature 
 and laws of those nations took their source. The Corpus 
 Juris Civilis was a great heir-loom in these national genera- 
 tions and families ; the Pandects was their legal Bible ; the 
 Twelve Tables their Pater Noster and Decalogue. Hence the 
 general uniformity in all their fundamental principles of law 
 appertaining to the rights of persons and things. In all those 
 modern nations deriving theip legal systems and codes from 
 the civil law, including the canons of the Church, which con- 
 tained many important principles upon the subject of freedom, 
 there is necessarily a great uniformity upon the subject of sla- 
 very. "When the Goths and Yandals overran the Roman 
 Empire in the West, the great swarms of Roman slaves began 
 to disappear. But the Middle Ages witnessed rather a change 
 in the channels of the slave trade, than any diminution of its 
 extent. The Saxon race carried the worst and most repulsive 
 form of slavery into England, where the toll on the sale of a 
 slave was only four times that of an ox 1 The long wars 
 between the German and Sclavonic tribes imparted to the 
 slave trade of the Middle Ages its greatest severity. This 
 traffic filled France and its neighboring States with such num- 
 bers of Sclavonic captives, that they adopted the name of 
 those people for condition of servitude."' Slavery then pre- 
 vailed in every nation of Europe, most of which were governed 
 directly by the civil law. 
 
 Such, then, being the uniformity of the laws of those 
 nations, as well as their customs regulating this system of 
 slavery, we prefer rather to treat them all collectively, under 
 the topic placed at the head of this Essay, than to particulax'- 
 ize by going into a separate analysis of their laws, which would 
 be but a useless repetition. 
 
 1 See Essay V, p. 125.- 
 12 
 
134 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 In the various codes containing the laws and institutions of 
 the Middle Ages, the first thing that strikes us is the distinc- 
 tion of social ranks. The fundamental one is that of freemen 
 and slaves. Before the conclusion of the fifth century, the 
 Roman Empire in all the west of Europe was overthrown by 
 the Northern barbarians. The Yandals were masters of 
 Africa ; the Suevi held parts of Spain ; the Yisigoths held 
 the remainder, with a large portion of Gaul ; the Burgundians 
 occupied the provinces watered by the Rhone and the Soane ; 
 the Ostrogoths nearly the whole of Italy. Among these bar- 
 barous nations, involuntary servitude, in various forms, seems 
 to have existed. 
 
 The following passage occurs in Tacitus : "The slaves, in 
 general, were not arranged at their several employments in the 
 household affairs, as is the practice at Rome. Each has his 
 separate habitation, and his own establishment to manage. 
 The master considers him as an agrarian dependant, who is 
 obliged to furnish a certain quantity of grain, of cattle, or of 
 wearing apparel. The slave obeys, and the state of servitude 
 extends no further. All domestic affairs are managed by the 
 master's wife and children. To punish the slave with stripes, 
 to bind him with chains, to condemn him to excessive labor, is 
 unusual. It is true, the skives are sometimes put to death — 
 not under color of justice or of any authority vested in the 
 master, but in a transport of passion, in a fit of rage, as is 
 often the case iu a sudden affray ; but it is also true that this 
 species of homicide passes with impunity. The freedmen are 
 of not much higher consideration than the real slaves. They 
 obtain no work in their master's family, and, if we except the 
 parts of Germany where monarchy is established, they never 
 figure on the stage of public business. In despotic govern- 
 ments, they rise above the men of ungenerous birth, and even 
 eclipse the whole body of the nobles. In other states, the 
 subordination of the freedmen is a proof of public liberty." ' 
 
 Besides the slaves who became so by birth or the fortunes 
 of war, anciently, any freeman could dispose of his own liberty, 
 by the provisions of these antique codes of law.^ If a free- 
 man married a female slave, he incurred the same penalty ; if 
 unable to pay his debts, he became the bondman of his credi- 
 tors. The code of the Lombards, in Italy, seems, in some 
 respects, to have been peculiarly rigorous. For him who slew 
 
 1 Tac. De Mos. Germ. xxv. 
 
 - Such as the Lex Salica, the Code of the Kipuarii, Code of the Bur- 
 gundians, Lex Saxonum, &c. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 135 
 
 his own slave, no punishment was provided ; but no composi- 
 tion would atone for the life of a slave who assassinated a 
 freeman. If a slave presumed to marry a free woman, the 
 doom of both was death; but the freeman might marry his 
 maiden, provided he previously enfranchised her. Such unions, 
 however, were regarded as disgraceful. The slave had little 
 hope of escape. Enfranchisement was far from frequent, and 
 the lihertus was as dependent on his patron as the slave on his 
 owner : neither could marry beyond his own caste without in- 
 curring the penalty of death ; yet marriage was all but obli- 
 gatory, that servitude might be perpetuated. Manumission 
 generally took place in the churches, or by will, or by written 
 instrument ; and those thus made were also common to the 
 Romans. But there were other modes, peculiar to certain 
 nations. In France, it was effected by striking a denarius 
 from the hands of the slave, or by opening the door for him 
 to escape. The Lombards delivered him to one man, this 
 man delivered him to a third, the third to a fourth, who told 
 him he had leave to go north, south, east, or west.' The 
 owner might also deliver his slave to the king, that the king 
 might deliver him to the priest, who might manumit him at 
 the altar. Among the Lombards, the symbol was sometimes 
 an arrow, which, being delivered to the slave, betokened that 
 he was now privileged to bear arms — the distinguishing cha- 
 racteristic of freedom.* 
 
 It is difficult to determine whether slavery was more rigorous 
 in Germany or in Gaul. In the latter country the influence of 
 religion was much greater, while in the former there was more 
 individual independence. In Gaul, however, manumission was 
 much more frequent, the slaves being made free in order that 
 they might, on any occasion, be able to assist their lords, who 
 had not, like the German barons, free-born warriors always at 
 hand to assist them. In Gaul the Church had a much greater 
 number of slaves, and under the influence of Christianity slavery 
 has always been mitigated. 
 
 The condition of the liherti varied ; those who were emanci- 
 pated before the altar were exempt from every species of 
 dependence. The same may be said of the viamcmissio joer 
 denarium, per qiiartum manum, per partus j)otentes ; but if 
 per chartam, the libertus obtained a much less share of freedom : 
 
 1 Simiki- to the form of manumission prescribed by the Twelve Tables 
 of their selling the slave. 
 
 2 See Muratorius Ital. Scriptte. Rerum. vol. i. Pars. ii. p. 90. 
 
136 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 if he escaped from personal, he was still subject to other service 
 and to the jurisdiction of his late owner. 
 
 Among the Salian Franks, if a freeman married a slave he 
 became a slave. The Ripuarians were still more severe ; the 
 woman who married a slave was offered, by the local judge at 
 court, a sword and a spindle ; if she took the former she must 
 kill her husband ; if the latter she must embrace servitude with 
 him. The greatest severity was found among the Burgundiaus, 
 Yisigoths, and Lombards. Among the Saxons, says Adam of 
 Bremen, it is commanded that no unequal marriage be con- 
 tracted — that noble marry with noble, free-man with free- 
 woman, freed-man with f reed-woman, slave with slave ; for if 
 any one should marry out of his condition, he is punished with 
 death. 
 
 A criminal leniency towards crimes committed against slaves, 
 and great severity toward crimes committed by that unfor- 
 tunate class, characterized, more or less, all the German codes. 
 By the Lex Saxonum, the mulct for the murder of a noble was 
 1440 sols to the kindred, besides a fine to the state ; for the 
 murder of a freed-man, 120; for that of a slave by a noble, 
 36 ; but by a freedman an oath of compurgation sufficed. 
 
 The perpetual wars in which those nations were engaged, 
 greatly increased the number of slaves. The Goths, the Bur- 
 gundiaus, or the Franks, who returned from a successful expe- 
 dition, dragged after them a long train of sheep, of oxen, and 
 of human captives, whom they treated with the same brutal con- 
 tempt. The youths of an elegant form were set apart for the 
 domestic service ; a doubtful situation which alternately exposed 
 them to favorable or cruel impulses of passion. The useful 
 smiths, carpenters, cooks, gardeners, &c., employed their skill 
 for the benefit of their masters. But the Roman captives, who 
 were desitute of art, but capable of labor, were condemned, 
 without regard to their former rank or condition, to tend the 
 cattle, and cultivate the lands of the barbarians. The number 
 of the hereditary bondmen, who were attached to the Gallic 
 estates, was continually increased by new supplies from this 
 source. 
 
 When the masters gave their daughters in marriage, a long 
 train of useful servants, chained on the wagons like captives to 
 the car of a conqueror, to prevent their escape, was sent as a 
 nuptial present into a distant country. 
 
 The Roman laws protected the liberty of each citizen against 
 the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 137 
 
 of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal 
 freedom.^ 
 
 From the reign of Clovis, during five successive centuries, 
 the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the 
 increase of servitude. In a later age, and during the preva- 
 lence of the feudal system, the lower classes of the population 
 may be considered under three divisions. 1st. Freemen dis- 
 tinguished among the writers of the Middle Ages as Arimani, 
 Gonditionales Originari, Tributales, &c. 2d. Villain. They 
 were likewise adscripti glehce, or villce, from which they derived 
 their name. And 3d. The Servi. The master of slaves had 
 absolute power over their persons and could inflict punishment 
 when he pleased, without the intervention of a judge. They 
 possessed this dangerous right not only in early times when 
 their manners were fierce, but it continued as late as the twelfth 
 century. Even after this jurisdiction of the master came to be 
 restrained, the life of the slave was deemed to be of so little 
 value, that a very slight compensation atoned for taking it 
 away. Slaves might be put to the rack on very slight occa- 
 sions. All the children of slaves were iu the same condition 
 with their mother, and became the property of their masters. 
 Slaves were so entirely the property of their masters that they 
 could sell them at pleasure. While domestic slavery continued, 
 property in a slave was sold in the same manner precisely as 
 property in any other commodity. Afterwards slaves became, 
 or were merged into the class of adscripti glehce, and were con- 
 veyed by sale, together with the farm or estate to which they 
 belonged. Slaves had a title to nothing but subsistence and 
 clothes from their masters. Slaves were distinguished from 
 freemen by their peculiar dress. Among all the barbarous 
 nations, long hair was a mark of dignity and freedom. Slaves 
 were, for that reason, obliged to shave their heads, and thus 
 they were constantly reminded of their own inferiority. For 
 the same reason it was enacted in the laws of all Europe, that 
 no slave should be admitted to give evidence against a freeman 
 in a court of justice. The multifarious classification of slaves 
 during this period, though numerous, seems somewhat less than 
 that of the ancient Romans.^ 
 
 1 "Licentiam habeatis mihi qualem ciinque volueritis discipliuam 
 ponere ; vel venumdare, aut quod nobis placuerit de me facere." 
 
 2 Ducange, under the word semis, mentions, among others, the follow- 
 ing classes of slaves: "Of the field, beneficiarii; attached to the soil, 
 adscripti ghhcn, censuales servi civitatis ; public slaves, servi comitum ; con- 
 suetudinarii, a species of serfs ; ecclesiaslici, belonging to the Church ; 
 
 12* 
 
138 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 When charters of liberty, or manumissions, were granted to 
 persons in servitude, they contained four concessions corres- 
 ponding with the four capital grievances to which men in a 
 state of bondage are subject : First, the right of disposing of 
 their persons by sale or grant was relinquished. Second, power 
 was given thera to hold property, and to convey the same by 
 will or any other legal deed. Third, the tribute which they 
 owed to their superiors, of all kinds, was precisely ascertained, 
 which was previously at the will of the master. Fourth, they 
 were allowed the privilege of marrying according to their own 
 inclinations, and to transmit their property by inheritance, the 
 same as other persons. Many circumstances combined to effect 
 their deliverance for the slaves. 
 
 "The humane spirit of the Christian religion," says Dr. 
 Robertson, "struggled long with the maxims and customs of 
 the world, and contributed, more than any other circumstance, 
 to introduce the practice of manumission." A great part of 
 the charters of manumission, previous to the reign of Louis X., 
 were granted, "pro amore Dei, pro remedio animse, et pro 
 mercede anim^B. ' ' ^ The formality of manumission was executed 
 in the church as a religious solemnity. 
 
 The person to be set free was led round the great altar with 
 a torch in his hand ; he took hold of the horns of the altar, 
 and there the solemn words of conferring liberty were pro- 
 nounced. The princes on the birth of a son, or other joyous 
 event, enfranchised a certain number of slaves as a testimony 
 of gratitude. The ohlati, or voluntary slaves of the churches 
 or monasteries, were very numerous. 
 
 Slavery, however, notwithstanding the benign influence of 
 the Christian religion, maintained most of its ancient rigors ; 
 
 fiscales, connected with the royal treasury; fugitivi, servi fundarum, 
 gregarii, massari, a species of serfs ; ministeriales, domestics employed in 
 and about the house, of whom twenty classes are enumerated ; palatii, 
 servi pcence, stipendarii, testamentales, tritularii, triduani, who served three 
 days for themselves, and three for their masters ; vicarii, who performed 
 in the country-seats duties for their masters," &c. 
 
 1 When Pope Gregory, towards the end of the sixth century, granted 
 hberty to some of his slaves, he introduced this reason for it: " Cum Re- 
 demptor noster, totius conditor naturae, ad hoc propitiatus humanam 
 carnem voluerit assumere, ut divinitatis suae gratia, dirempto (quo teneba- 
 tur captivus) vinculo, pristinae nos restitueret liberati ; salubriter agitur, 
 si homines quos ab initio liberos natura protulit, et jus gentium jugo sub- 
 stituit servitutis, in ea, qua nati fuerant manumittentis beneficio, Ubertate 
 reddantur." But it should be remarked that the class of persons to 
 whom the Pope has reference were as capable of enjoying their liberty as 
 those who held them in bondage. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 139 
 
 and instances of enfrancbisement were comparatively few, while 
 the feudal system maintained its ascendency. The inferior 
 order of men owed the recovery of their liberty, in a great 
 measure, to the decline of that aristocratical policy which 
 lodged the most extensive power in the hands of a few mem- 
 bers of the society, and depressed all the rest. 
 
 When Louis X. issued his ordinance, some slaves had been 
 so long accustomed to servitude that they refused to accept of 
 their freedom. Long after the reign of that prince, several of 
 the ancient nobility continued to exercise dominion over their 
 slaves. 
 
 Not only in Germany and in Gaul, but in Britain, even 
 among our English ancestors, slavery seems to have existed 
 from the earliest times. The Anglo-Saxons in their conquests, 
 probably found, and certainly made, a great many slaves. The 
 posterity of these men inherited the lot of their parents. Many 
 free-born Saxons, on account of debt, want, or crime, lost their 
 liberty. 
 
 In the more ancient laws, we find various classes of slaves. 
 The most numerous 'class were the villani. All, however, 
 were forbidden to carry arms, and subjected to ignominious 
 punishments, and might be branded and whipped, according 
 to law.' 
 
 Li the charter, by which one Harold, of Buckenale, gives 
 his manor of Spalding to the Abbey of Croyland, he enume- 
 rates among his appendages, Colyein, his bailiff; Harding, his 
 smith ; Lefstan, his carpenter ; Elstan, his fisherman ; Osmand, 
 his miller, and nine others, probably husbandmen ; and these, 
 with their wives and children, goods and chattels, and the cot- 
 tages in which they live, he transfers in perpetual possession to 
 the Abbey. The sale and purchase of slaves prevailed during 
 the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period. The toll in the market 
 of Lewes was one penny for the sale of an ox, and fourpence 
 for that of a slave. On the importation of foreign slaves, no 
 impediment has ever been imposed. The export of native 
 slaves was at length forbidden under severe penalties. But 
 habit and avarice had taught the Northumbrians to bid defiance 
 to all the efforts of the legislature. They even carried off their 
 own relations and sold them as slaves in the ports of the con- 
 
 1 In the reign of Anthelstan, a man-thief was ordered to be stoned to 
 death, by twenty of bis fellows, each of whom was punished with three 
 whippings, if he failed thrice to hit the culprit. A woman-thief was 
 burned by eighty women slaves, each of whom brought their billets of 
 wood to the execution. If either failed, she was likewise whipped. 
 
140 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 tinent. The men of Bristol were the last to abandon this 
 traffic. Their agents travelled into all parts of the country ; 
 they were instructed to give the highest price for females in a 
 state of pregnancy ; and the slave ships regularly sailed from 
 that port to Ireland, where they were secure of a ready and 
 profitable market. Daily might be seen, upon the wharves at 
 Bristol, the fairest specimens of Anglo-Saxon beauty and come- 
 liness loitering there awaiting their transportation to Ireland to 
 be sold for slaves. At last, Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, 
 visited Bristol several years successively, resided for months in 
 the neighborhood, and preached every Sunday against the bar- 
 barity and irreligion of the slave-dealers. The merchants were 
 convinced by his reasons, and solemnly bound themselves to re- 
 nounce the traffic. The influence of religion considerably 
 mitigated the hardships of the slaves. The bishop was the 
 appointed protector of the slaves in his diocese. 
 
 In the abstract of the population of England, in Doomsday 
 Book, at the close of the reign of William the Conqueror, the 
 whole population is stated at 283,242; of which the servi are 
 25,156; ancillce, 4:Q1 ; bordarii, 82,119; viUani, 108, iOI ; 
 total, 216,149; leaving, for remaining classes, 67,093. "The 
 servi of the Norman period," says Bishop Kennett, "might 
 be the pure villani, and villani in grass, who, without any 
 determined tenure of land, were, at the arbitrary pleasure of 
 the lord, appointed to servile works and received their wages 
 and maintenance at the discretion of their lord. " We have the 
 authority of Bracton for asserting that, however unhappy the 
 condition of the servi was in other respects, yet their lives and 
 limbs were under the protection of the laws ; so that, if a mas- 
 ter killed his bondman, he was subject to the same punishment 
 as if he had killed any other person. The form of the emanci- 
 pation of the servi is minutely described in the laws of the 
 conqueror. The ancillce were the female slaves, and under the 
 same circumstances of the servi. Their chastity was, in some 
 measure, protected by law. The bordarii were distinct from 
 the servi and the villani, and seem to be those of a less servile 
 condition, who had a bord or cottage with a small parcel of 
 land, on condition that they should supply their lord with eggs, 
 poultry, &c., as necessary for his board and entertainment. 
 Brardy says they were drudges, and performed vile services, 
 which were reserved by the lord upon a poor little house, and 
 a small parcel of land.^ 
 
 » See Genl. Introd. to Doomsday Book, by Sir Henry Ellis, 2 vols., 1833. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 141 
 
 There seems to have been no general law for the emancipa- 
 tion of slaves in the Statute Book of England. Though the 
 genius of the English constitution favored personal liberty, yet 
 servitude continued long in England in particular places. 
 There were some points of distinction between the villani and 
 the servi proper, that it may not be irrelevant to notice. The 
 villayn were likewise the adscrijM glebce, or villse, from which 
 they derived their name. They differed from the servi proper, 
 or slaves, in that they paid a fixed rent for their lands to their 
 lords, and after paying that, all the fruits of their labor and 
 industry belonged to themselves in property. They were, how- 
 ever, precluded from selling the lands on which they dwelt. 
 Their persons were bound, and their masters might reclaim 
 them at any time in a court of law, if they strayed. ^ In Eng- 
 land, at least from the reign of Henry II., the villiens were 
 incapable of holding property, and destitute of redress, except 
 against the most outrageous injuries. This tenure bound them 
 to what was called villien-service, such as the felling of timber, 
 carrying out manure, repairing of roads, &c." But by the 
 customs of France and Germany, persons in this abject condi- 
 tion seem to have been serfs, and distinguished from villiens, 
 who were only bound to fixed payments of rents and duties. 
 How the class of servi proper, or slaves, became extinct in 
 England, it is impossible now to definitely ascertain ; though 
 the probability is, that in the progress and gradual development 
 of the principle of personal liberty, their bondage was at length 
 lost in that of villien service, in the same manner as villanage 
 was finally merged in the modern English system of tenant at 
 will. 
 
 In the year 1514, we find a charter of Henry VIII. enfran- 
 chising two slaves belonging to one of his manors. As late as 
 1547, there is a commission from Elizabeth with respect to the 
 manumission of certain slaves belonging to her. 
 
 While slavery was still universal in Europe, in Italy, in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries, the number of slaves began to 
 diminish. Early in the fifteenth century, a writer, quoted by 
 Muratori in his Antiquities of Italy, speaks of them as no 
 longer existing. 
 
 The greater part of the slaves in Germany had acquired their 
 liberty before the end of the thirteenth century ; in the northern 
 and eastern portions of Europe they remain in bondage to this 
 day. 
 
 1 By the action of trover. See Essay on Political and Judicial Attitude 
 of Slavery, post, p. 293. 
 
 2 See Blac. Com. ''Villanage." 
 
142 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 As in America, so in Europe, from a universal prevalence 
 of slavery and the slave trade, some States and nations have 
 abolished the one and prohibited the other by positive law ; 
 and " the domination of ihe power of a master to reclaim his 
 escaping bondman in Europe commenced in the enactment of 
 laws of prescription in favor of privileged communes. Bre- 
 men, Spire, Worms, Yienna and Ratisbon, in Germany; Car- 
 casonne, Beziers, Toulouse and Paris, in France, acquired 
 privileges on this subject at an early period. The Ordinance 
 of William the Conqueror, that a residence of any of the ser- 
 vile population of England, for a year and a day, without 
 being claimed, in any city, burgh or walled town, or castle of 
 the king, should entitle them to perpetual liberty, is a specimen 
 of those laws." 
 
 In France, after innumerable instances of manumission had 
 taken place, Louis Hutin, by a general edict, in 1315, asserting 
 that his kingdom is denominated the kingdom of the Franks, 
 that he would have the fact correspond to the name, emanci- 
 pated all persons in the royal domain upon paying a just com- 
 pensation, as an example for other lords possessing slaves to 
 follow. Philip the Long renewed the edict three years after- 
 wards. Praedial servitude was not totally abolished in all parts 
 of France till the Revolution. Bodin, a jurist of the sixteenth 
 century, the earliest publicist who discussed this subject, says : 
 "In France, although there be some remembrance of old servi- 
 tude, yet it is not lawful here to make a slave or to buy any one 
 of others, insomuch as the slaves of strangers, so soon as they 
 set their foot within France, become Frank and free, as was 
 determined by an old decree of the court of Paris against an 
 ambassador of Spain who had brought a slave with him into 
 France. " He states another case, which arose in the city of 
 Toulouse, of a Genoese merchant, who had carried a slave into 
 that city on his voyage from Spain ; and when the matter was 
 brought before the magistrates, the "procureur of the city, out 
 of the records, showed certain ancient privileges given unto 
 them of Toulouse, wherein it was granted that slaves, so soon 
 as they should come into Toulouse, should be free." 
 
 Charles V. of France exempted all the inhabitants of Paris 
 from serfdom, or other feudal incapacities, in 137 1, and this 
 was confirmed by several of his successors.^ 
 
 In 1615, the Tiers Etat prayed the king to cause all the serfs 
 to be emancipated on paying a fair compensation, but this was 
 
 1 Dulaire, Hist de Paris, torn. iii. p. 546. Broud Cout. de Par. 21. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 143 
 
 not complied with, and they continued to exist in many pro- 
 vinces. Throughout almost the whole jurisdiction of Besan50n 
 the serfs were attached to the soil, not being capable of leaving 
 it without their lord's consent ; in some places he inherited 
 their goods, to the exclusion of their nearest relations. Yol- 
 taire mentions an instance of his interfering in behalf of a few 
 wretched slaves of a certain French compte. About the mid- 
 dle of the fifteenth century some Catalonian serfs, who had 
 escaped into France, being claimed by their lords, the parlia- 
 ment of Toulouse declared, by an edict, that every man who 
 entered the kingdom of enceiant France should be free.^ 
 
 Thus the history of the world shows us that slavery and the 
 slave trade are not local, and created only by special laws, as 
 asserted by Justices McLean and Curtis, in their dissenting 
 opinions in the Dred Scott case, but rather that they are ori- 
 ginally universal, founded upon immemorial custom and uni- 
 versal principles of international law ; and that all free terri- 
 tory, or territory where this right can no longer exist, has 
 originated from some abrogation of this time-honored custom, 
 or some modification of these long-established rights of pro- 
 perty and of persons, by the potent arm of legislation. This 
 is a historical fact, that the decision of no court, nor the dictum 
 of any individual, can alter. 
 
 From about A. D. 990, regular accounts of the negro slave 
 trade exist. These are its earliest traces in Europe. At that 
 period Moorish merchants from the Barbary coast first reached 
 the cities of Nigritia, and established an uninterrupted exchange 
 of Saracen and European luxuries for gold, the gold and slaves 
 of Central Africa. Even though whole caravans were some- 
 times buried in the sands of the desert, and, at others, without 
 shade and without water, suffered the horrors of parching thirst 
 under a tropical sun, yet the commerce extended, because it was 
 profitable ; and before the genius of Columbus had opened the 
 path to the New World, the negro slave trade had been re- 
 duced to a system by the Moors, and had spread from the 
 native regions of the Ethiopian race to the heart of Egypt on 
 the one hand, and to the coasts of Barbary on the other. 
 
 "It was not long" (says the same author) "after the first 
 conquest of the Portuguese in Barbary, that the passion for 
 
 1 Ordinance of Toulouse. Civitas Toulosana fuit et erit sine fine libera, 
 adeo ut servi et ancillffi, sclavi et sclavae, dominog sive dominos habentes, 
 cum rebus vel sine rebus suis, ad Tholosam vel infra terminos extra urbera 
 terminates accidentes acquirant libertatim. Hist, de Laugue. torn. 3, p. 
 69, &c. See Dred Scott case, 19 How, p. 479. 
 
144 SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 gain, the love of conquest, and the hatred of the infidels, con- 
 ducted their navy to the ports of Western Africa ; and the first 
 ships that sailed so far south as Cape Blanco, returned not with 
 negroes, but with Moors. "^ 
 
 From these captive Moors they derived their most important 
 information relative to this portion of Africa. And when they 
 were restored by Antony Gonzalez to their native country, the 
 Moors gave for their ransom not gold alone, but black Moors, 
 with curly hair. 
 
 Thus commenced the notorious traffic in negro slaves in 
 Europe, and mercantile cupidity immediately observed that 
 negroes might become a lucrative commodity. Spain also en- 
 gaged in the traffic. The merchants of Seville imported gold 
 dust and slaves from Western Africa ; and negro slavery, 
 though the severity of the bondage was mitigated in its cha- 
 racter by benevolent legislation, was established in Andalusia, 
 and abounded in the city of Seville before the enterprise of 
 Columbus was conceived. The coasts of America, like those 
 of Africa, were also visited by ships in search of slaves ; and 
 there was not a convenient harbor on the whole Atlantic fron- 
 tier of the United States that was not entered by slavers. The 
 native Indians themselves were ever ready to resist the treach- 
 erous merchant ; the freemen of the wilderness, unlike the 
 Africans, among whom slavery had existed from time imme- 
 morial, would never abet the foreign kidnapper, or become his 
 factors in the nefarious traffic. Fraud or force remained, there- 
 fore, the means by which, near Newfoundland or Florida, on 
 the shores of the Atlantic or among the Indians of the Missis- 
 sippi valley, Cortereal and Yasquez de Ayllon, Porcallo and 
 De Soto, with private adventurers, whose names and whose 
 crimes may be left unrecorded, transported the natives of North 
 America into slavery in Europe and the West Indies. The 
 glory of Columbus did not escape the stain ; enslaving five 
 hundred native Americans, he sent them to Spain, that they 
 might be publicly sold at Seville.^ The generous Isabella com- 
 manded the liberation of the Indians held in bondage in her 
 European possessions. Yet her benevolence extended not to 
 the servile condition of the Moors nor the Africans ; and 
 though she manifested a temporary sympathy for the oppressed 
 in the New World, yet in her commissions for making disco- 
 veries, issued but a few days after her interference to rescue 
 those whom Columbus had enslaved, she reserved for herself 
 
 1 Hist. U. S. vol. 1, p. 165. 
 
 2 Irving's Columbus, b. viii. c. 5. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 145 
 
 and Ferdinand a fourth part of all the slaves which the new 
 kingdoms might contain.* The slavery of the Indians was 
 recognized as lawful, and was practised in the early settlements 
 of New England by our Puritan fathers.'^ The practice of 
 selling the natives of North America into foreign bondage con- 
 tinued for nearly two centuries, and even the severest morality 
 pronounced the sentence of slavery and exile on the captives 
 whom the field of battle had spared. 
 
 It was not Las Casas who first suggested the plan of trans- 
 porting African slaves to Hispaniola ; Spanish slave-holders, 
 as they emigrated, were accompanied by their negroes. The 
 royal ordinances of Spain authorized negro slavery in America. 
 King Ferdinand himself sent fifty slaves from Seville, to labor 
 in the mines ; and because it was said that one negro could do 
 the work of four Indians, the direct traffic in slaves between 
 Guinea and Hispaniola was enjoined by a royal ordinance and 
 deliberately sanctioned by repeated decrees. The very year in 
 which Charles Y. sailed with a powerful expedition against 
 Tunis, to check the piracies of the Barbary States, and to 
 emancipate Christian slaves in Africa, he gave an open legal 
 sanction to the African slave-trade. The sins of the corsairs 
 were to be visited on the negroes ; and the monopoly for eight 
 years of annually transporting four thousand negro slaves to 
 the West Indies, was eagerly seized by La Bresa, a favorite 
 of the Spanish monarch, and was sold to the G,enoese, who 
 purchased their cargoes of Portugal. 
 
 A series of Papal bulls had secured to the Portuguese the 
 exclusive commerce with Western Africa ; "but the slave trade 
 between Africa and America was," says Bancroft, " I believe, 
 never expressly sanctioned by the See of Rome." The spirit 
 of the Romish Church was against it. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be remarked that in the darkness and 
 confusion which reigned from the fourth to the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, slavery of the most barbarous form would be likely to 
 prevail ; during the last years of the Roman Empire, an unfor- 
 tunate change was going on which was destined to revive and 
 perpetuate such a system. The middle class in society was 
 dwindling away. A few distinguished families swallowed up 
 the moderate land-holders, or drove them out of the country. 
 
 The Goths and Vandals threw their chains on the descend- 
 ants of Cincinnatus and Brutus, and sent them to work in their 
 
 1 " Esclavos 6 negros, € locos que en estos nuestros reinos scan habidos 
 6 cspatandos por esclavos," &c. (Leo B.'s H. U. S.) 
 
 2 See Essay on Political and Judicial Attitude of Slavery, post, p. 293. 
 
 13 
 
146 SLAVERY IN TUE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 kitchens and farm-yards. The way had been prepared by the 
 destruction of the middle class — a class that contains the 
 bone and muscle of any community in which it exists. These 
 barbarous lords then rushed in, finding scarcely any thing to 
 obstruct their progress. The children of the men from whom 
 Scipio sprang became the scavengers and scullions of Visigoths 
 and Huns. And hence followed the long and barbarous slavery 
 of the noblest blood of the human family during the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 Christianity, as in all instances of human progress, exerted 
 its own appropriate influence in special instances of emancipa- 
 tion, and the general amelioration of the condition of the slaves 
 of this period. By various canons in the early history of the 
 Church, as we have seen, this work of benevolence and human 
 kindness was commenced and carried forward. Yet in all its 
 teachings upon that subject there can be found nothing that 
 essentially abrogates the fundamental relation of master and 
 slave ; all its tendency and influence is rather to perfect than to 
 destroy that relation, except where the slave may "be made 
 free," then it would "use it rather." But there were other 
 influences that co-operated with Christianity to soften the 
 asperities of this system of slavery. The expeditions of Peter 
 the Hermit had their influence in partially breaking the yoke 
 of these feudal bondsmen. The contemporaneous revival of 
 literature and learning must come in also for its share of the 
 humane work. Xenophon, Cicero, and Lucian, could pot be 
 perused without exciting a beneficial influence in ameliorating 
 the asperity of the manners, in inspiring a love for freedom, 
 and a tender sympathy toward the oppressed. The more 
 northern nations of Europe seem always to have possessed a 
 strong sense of individual freedom and of personal rights, 
 which when directed and enlightened by Christianity and letters, 
 became a powerful antagonist force to slavery. The spirit that 
 broke out at Runnymede ; at London, in 1688; at Philadel- 
 phia, in n76 ; was nurtured in its infancy in the woods of 
 Sweden and in the marshes of Denmark.^ 
 
 1 Wlioever may be curious to pursue the subject of this essay more in 
 detail, may consult the following authorities: The Glossarium of Ducange 
 on the words Servus Villanus. Tributales Oi-iginarii Oblatii Manumisso, 
 &c., in G vols, folio. Hcincceius, in 8 vols, quarto. Muratori's Antiqui- 
 ties of Italy, in 6 vols, folio. These books are found in Boston Athenoeuni 
 library, and are an invaluable source of information upon these subjects. 
 Robertson's History of Charles V. Hallam's Middle Ages. Bordie's 
 British Empire. Vol. I. of Lingard's Hist. Eng. Turner's Anglo-Saxon 
 Race. Danum's Germanic Empire. Sismondi's Italian Republic. Mon- 
 
 I 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 14T 
 
 We have thus attempted to give a kind of historical analysis 
 of the laws and government of the institution of slavery in the 
 principal nations both ancient and modern. Hitherto we have 
 been unable to make any distinction between the intellectual 
 capacity, mental and moral characteristics of the race of 
 masters and slaves in any age or nation ; but have proceeded 
 upon the hypothesis that they were both of the same type of 
 mankind, and equal in those particulars. And we find the truth 
 of this supposition strikingly illustrated in the subsequent 
 history of those nations from which, anciently, slaves were 
 principally obtained. These nations have all, except Africa, 
 risen to supremacy in letters, science, arts, and arms over the 
 nations that once held their sons in bondage. 
 
 Our future remarks will be directed to the institution of 
 American, or Negro slavery, and the mental, moral and physical 
 characteristics of the slaves in our own country. In the follow- 
 ing essay we shall endeavor to explain the real origin and cause 
 of this kind of slavery, to show its necessity in the present 
 organization of society, and the true principles upon which it 
 has been and must be vindicated. 
 
 ESSAY VII. 
 
 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 We will take the " golden rule" for our theme in this essay; 
 "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye eyen 
 so to them. "^ 
 
 This precept is declared to be the foundation of our rule of 
 duty towards one another ; when correctly understood, it is the 
 principal test by which to determine the moral character of our 
 actions. It is a precept clear and comprehensive, and both 
 practical and universal in its application ; and with all, perhaps, 
 the most perfect formula for the government of human actions 
 that could have been conceived. 
 
 But, generally, both theologians and moralists are as much 
 mistaken in point of consistency, in their interpretation and 
 
 tesquieu. Blackstone's Comments. Grotius. Bracton. Littleton. Irving's 
 Columbus. Prescott's Ferd. and Isab. Bancroft's Hist. U. S. A., &c. 
 1 Matt. 7 : 12. 
 
148 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 application of this rule, as they are in fault in not living up to 
 its requirements. 
 
 It is true of the moral as well as of the civil code, that all 
 laws in pari materia must be construed together; the moral 
 code is a unity, all its precepts emanate from the same source ; 
 all are of equal dignity and force ; all relate to th(? same subject 
 matter, and must all be taken and interpreted in their qualified 
 relations. Hence in determining moral rectitude and the path 
 of duty, all moral precepts must have their due weight, all 
 must be so construed as to violate none, but to properly observe 
 their various requirements, and properly to heed their various 
 modifications towards one another. Hence men are as well 
 limited by this precept, as to what they desire should be done 
 to them as they are enjoined by the same to do the like to 
 others. 
 
 The term " would," in the former clause of the sentence, im- 
 plies a desire, a will or wish, and is, in the eye of the law, as 
 much a moral action as the performance of the reciprocal deed 
 enjoined by the latter. Therefore, this great and golden rule 
 obligates us only to do to others as we have a moral right to 
 ask and desire that they should do to us. Men are as much in 
 danger of transgression in their covetings and desires as to 
 what should be done for themselves, as they are in their dere- 
 lictions as to what they ought to do to others. If these con- 
 clusions are correct, this precept is, indeed, a golden rule ; it is 
 beautifully adapted to operate as a reciprocal limitation both 
 to men's actions and desires towards one another. 
 
 We cannot lawfully ask a man to violate any moral or poli- 
 tical duty, or to wrongfully do himself a great injury to gratify 
 our unhallowed covetings of "his ox, or his ass, or anything 
 that is our neighbor's," therefore, we are under no obligations 
 to gratify his sinful or unjust desires of us in our transactions 
 with him. It is sometimes said that this precept to be correctly 
 understood needs to be modified with the qualification of a 
 change of place of the parties, or in like circumstances, and 
 should read thus : Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 to you were you in their places, or in like circumstances, do ye 
 even so to them. But even this will not serve to relieve it of 
 all the obligations to which such a construction is liable ; it 
 still wants the reciprocal limitation to men's desires as to what 
 should be done for them by others. For instance, take the 
 convict, under sentence of death for murder, who applies to 
 the executive for a pardon ; because that officer would, through 
 the weakness of human nature, desire to be pardoned were he 
 
SLOWER Y IN THE UNITED STATES. l49 
 
 a convict, does it follow that he is morally bound to comply 
 with the prisoner's request ? 
 
 Take again the case of the raiser who has plodded on through 
 life, freezing his soul over the chilling themes of worldly policy 
 and golden gains till the last spark of animated existence be- 
 comes extinct, he meets the beggar boy in the street, who asks 
 such a portion of his goods as to make him rich ; because the 
 miser would, through the sinful covetousness of his disposition, 
 in a change of circumstances and place, earnestly desire the 
 same thing ; is he, therefore, bound to comply with the beggar's 
 request ? No one will pretend it, and why ? because the de- 
 sire in the first instance is not such a one as the law permits ; it 
 is a violation of the tenth commandment.' 
 
 Like instances might be multiplied, but these are sufficient to 
 show that no desire, will, or wish, as to what should be done 
 for him by others, will impose any obligation, direct or reci- 
 procal, upon either, but such as is in accordance with the moral 
 code, and requires no remission of duty, in its widest sense, to 
 be complied with. 
 
 This passage is often quoted as a rule by which Southern 
 masters should be guided in determining their duty towards 
 their slaves, and "hurled at them with an air of defiance as in- 
 culcating the doctrine of immediate emancipation. 
 
 But, as an enlightened Christian moralist, he has learned 
 that " the human heart is deceitful above all things and despe- 
 rately wicked," and, in determining his duty, he cannot trust 
 its dictates and desires, either in what he would himself desire 
 of others were he in their situation, or what others might de- 
 sire of him.^ He looks at the moral law as a whole, and feels 
 his obligation to his neighbor to love him as himself, he feels 
 his obligation to the community in which he lives as well as to 
 those whom he has under his charge ; and can never resolve 
 upon a course of conduct, as his duty, which he knows, will 
 necessarily wrong and injure them all as well as himself. Would 
 he be loving his neighbor as himself, who, turned loose upon 
 the community an army of vagabonds to beset it with discon- 
 
 ^ We do not here allude to the duty of bestowing charity upon the poor, 
 but the hypothesis is predicated upon a covetous desire of his neighbor's 
 goods, not for the relief of immediate wants, but to place the beggar in 
 opulent circumstances. 
 
 2 In the Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp is the following: * * "but let 
 them [slaves] be the more subject to the glory of God that they may ob- 
 tain from Him a better liberation. Let them not desire to be set free at 
 public cost, that they be not slaves to their own lusts." See Slavery in 
 New Test., supra p. 120. 
 13* 
 
150 THE MORAL ATTIirCE OF 
 
 tent, pillage, and every inconvenience and danger which the 
 viciousness of a prowling banditti could invent ? Would he 
 be loving the slave himself, who is, ia this country, iu a helpless 
 condition, without any fault of his own — the aged, infants, 
 and infirm, as well as youth and manhood, to withdraw from 
 them the fostering care and protection, in sickness and in health, 
 which he has long extended over them, and leave them to de- 
 generate into barbarism, or perish, for want of sustenance from 
 the cold charities of the world ? Would that be giving the 
 " slave what is just and equitable ?" His zeal for the good of 
 mankind includes the whole human race ; his philanthropy is 
 peculiar to no race or condition ; he sympathizes with the vic- 
 tims of oppression, pestilence, or famine, in every quarter of 
 the globe. 
 
 He seeks out no peculiar spot, no singular errors, crimes, or 
 abuses, as alone worthy of his charitable consideration. The 
 miseries of starvation in Ireland ; the tears, groans, and chains 
 of the coal-pits and work-shops of England ; the crimes, 
 abuses, wretchedness, and woe too prevalent in all parts of his 
 native country, are all included under the broad wing of his 
 benevolence. One of his neighbors is a lonely and disconso- 
 late widow, surrounded by a group of helpless children, with 
 no shield or protector but the fears and anxieties of a tender 
 mother ; and all dependent for their resources for support, 
 rearing, and suitable education of the children, upon what 
 they realize from the labors of a few families of devoted ser- 
 vants, which the children have inherited from the deceased 
 father (as Isaac did from the Father of the Faithful), who are 
 well provided for in sickness and in health ; who are allowed 
 all the religious privileges, and deeply sympathize iu all the 
 fortunes and misfortunes, and share all the joys and sorrows 
 of the household ; and who are happy and contented in the 
 discharge of all their duties. He feels that to rashly dissolve 
 the relation that exists between these servants and their owners, 
 and to deprive them of the care and protection of a merciful 
 and humane mistress, would not only deprive this helpless 
 family of their only means of a support, and reduce them to 
 beggary and want, but it would also deprive the slaves of a 
 comfortable and happy home, and reduce them to misery and 
 wretchedness. 
 
 Another is a cruel, morose, and inhuman master, who rules 
 with a rod of iron ; neglects the proper care for the health, 
 food, and clothing of his slaves ; and yet forces them to unrea- 
 sonable exposure and tasks for the love of gain. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 151 
 
 This he classes in the common calendar of the frailties and 
 imperfections of human nature, under the same head and in the 
 same catalogue as cruel and abusive husbands, neglectful and 
 brutal parents, fiendish guardians, and the numerous list of the 
 other abuses of the power and authority which one has over 
 another, in the present organization of society. 
 
 He consoles the servants by preaching to them the heavenly 
 consolations of the Gospel, as taught by St. Paul in his Epistle 
 to the Ephesians, and others. He does not preach to them 
 abolition ; he does not encourage them in insurrection or 
 absconding ; but he tells them, in that heaven-born spirit of 
 meekness and Christian resignation which is everywhere breathed 
 throughout the writings and teachings of the Great Apostle to 
 the Gentiles: "Art thou called being a servant, care not 
 for it." 
 
 The cruel master he does not denounce as a thief or robber, 
 or by any other opprobrious epithet ; but strives, with the in- 
 fluence of holy precept and good example, to reclaim him from 
 the error of his ways to the path of rectitude and duty, as he 
 strives to reform the wayward propensities and sinful practices 
 of all other men. He opens to him those divine precepts that 
 proclaim the doctrine of universal love, peace, charity, kind- 
 ness, and compassion as among the cardinal virtues of the 
 human heart, and sets forth one common Redeemer for all 
 mankind. Following the illustrious example of the author of 
 the celebrated Epistle to Philemon, he approaches him with 
 the same spirit of forgiveness, charity, and kindness which he 
 wishes to impress upon him by his teachings, and persuade him 
 to exercise in his daily duties. 
 
 Such, as we have seen, was the genius and spirit of the 
 whole Christian system, so far as it related to this subject — 
 not to abrogate the relation between master and servant, but 
 to improve and perfect the character and condition of both, in 
 the calling wherewith they had been called. Not one syllable 
 was ever uttered by the Founder of its doctrines, condemning 
 this relation as wrong in itself. Throughout the writings of 
 the apostles Peter and Paul, the relation is recognized as right 
 in itself; and both master and servant are exhorted to a faith- 
 ful performance of their respective duties. The sole object 
 of their ministry, so far as it related to this subject, was to 
 improve the condition of both, and not to abrogate the rela- 
 tion that existed between them. 
 
 Such was the object of Jesus Christ and his Apostles ; such, 
 as we have seen, was the object of the Christian Fathers during 
 
152 THE jMoral attitude of 
 
 the Apostolic ages, and even down to a late period in the his- 
 tory of the Church. And such is the object of the enlightened 
 and sincere Christian moralist of the present day. 
 
 The Golden Rule, then, as expounded by divine authority, 
 does not require of the kind, humane, and Christian master, 
 to withdraw the care, protection, and support which has long 
 secured and promoted the welfare and happiness of his slaves, 
 as a shield thrown around their helpless condition, and leave 
 them to perish for the want of it; but only to continue his 
 kind and humane treatment, by continuing the relation existin.Li' 
 l)etween them, and "to give them that which is just and equi- 
 table." But methinks I hear the upbraidings of the abolition- 
 ists, in language like the following: "God hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the 
 earth." "All men are created equal." "Slavery degrades its 
 subjects to mere chattels, and places them in the catalogue of 
 the brute creation : it deprives them of every hope or possi- 
 bility of advancement, or of bettering their condition." 
 "It is a high-handed sin against God, a malum in se that 
 no man has a right, for a single moment, to persist in." 
 "Freedom would not result in injury to the slave; it is just 
 what he requires to put him upon the true theory of his ad- 
 vancement. " " The master has no right to come to any such 
 conclusion ; it is all wilful blindness and selfishness that leads 
 him to do it." " No man has a right to enslave another man ; 
 there can be no such thing as property in man." "Slavery 
 corrupts the public morals ; prostrates the industrial energies, 
 and impoverishes the States in which it exists, and should, 
 therefore, be abolished and suppressed by law." "No man's 
 conscience can justify slavery, therefore it is wrong," &c. 
 
 These are some of the leading so-styled axioms of the aboli- 
 tionists ; they are like a class of groundless fabrications that 
 are so oft repeated for truths, that their very author is at last 
 cheated into a partial belief in their verity. They have be- 
 come so hackneyed and stale as to pass quite current for self- 
 evident pro])ositions, and, consequently, he who presumes to 
 dissent from this truth, and whose conscience dictates a diiferent 
 view of this subject, is proscribed, and subjected to the worst 
 form of intolerance and persecution. We have defined to some 
 extent the position and views of the inspired expounders of the 
 scriptural law and Christian doctrines upon this subject. We 
 shall next present some of the views that may be honestly 
 maintained by the moral apologist for modern slavery. The 
 first proposition in the above series is taken from Paul's dis- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 153 
 
 course to the Athenians at the court of Areopagus. The pas- 
 sage in the original reads thus : EtoCrjak -ts «'! ivo( aiy.atoi rtav 
 iOfOi av0i>u,7iiov, &c. Acts n : 26. The verb noUto is )iere used 
 in an active transitive sense, with the noun iOro; for its object ; 
 its primitive meaning in this form is, to make, to mould, form, 
 shape, or fashion.^ In this passage it means the making of the 
 nations or races, in the same sense that man was made in the 
 beginning. " He that [rto(,'7;'(jaj] made them at the beginning 
 [trtotjjcrti'], made them male and female;"" "Who [tTtoijjat] 
 made the heavens and earth and sea.'"* " Hath not my hand 
 [{rtoi'jycTf] made all things ?"* 
 
 But, when the Scriptures say: "All things were [fyr«ro] 
 made by him," &c.,^ the verb yalvo^ai is used, signifying to 
 cause to be, or to exist. The one means the immediate work 
 of his hand, in an active transitive sense ; the other simply the 
 cause in a passive signification, as by enacting and upholding 
 the laws of nature. But how does this comport with the theory 
 of the unity and common origin of all mankind ? If there is 
 any meaning in Scripture language, God made [rtav iOvo^'] every 
 race as type of men, as certain as he did man himself; for the 
 same language is used in both instances.*' 
 
 Adam Clark, in his learned Commentaries, says, in reference 
 to this passage, that the noun at^uaroj is wanting in many an- 
 cient MSS. and, consequently, that the numeral ho^ may as 
 well qualify any other noun as that. But this is immaterial to 
 our view of the subject, niv lOioi avOpuinuv : This phrase in the 
 English is rendered, "all nations of men ;^^ and is certainly 
 susceptible of a different construction and of a different idea ; 
 tOfOi is in the singular, in which form the adjective rtaj is never 
 used in a collective sense in the New Testament, except when 
 applied to a noun that admits of no plural, as Ttaj 6 xoono^, the 
 whole world, and the like. When applied to one of a number 
 of like things in the singular, with or without the article in the 
 New Testament, it is, or should be, invariably rendered each 
 or " every," and conveys a distributive, rather than a collective, 
 idea.^ In the plural it is universally rendered "all," collect- 
 
 1 See Gr. Lex.'s Lid. and Scott, Dan., Pick., Gro. 
 
 2 Matt. 19 : 4, 3 Acts 14:5. 
 
 * Acts 7 : 50. Mark 10 : 6. Heb. 1. Comp. Sept. Gen. 1 : 1, 7, 16, 
 21, 25, 26; 2:2; 5: 2. 
 
 5 John 1 : 3. 
 
 6 £01/05 is used ■with reference to the natural, rather than civil, divisions 
 of mankind, and means a race or type, whence the science of ethnology. 
 
 ' HaiToj eOnovs, ^'from every nation." Acts 2 : 5. nas o' ytycvvrinhos, " every 
 
154 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 ively, in the New Testament. In the Septuagint, in the plural 
 it is sometimes rendered every, but I think never, all, collect- 
 ively, in the singular. 
 
 The only exception that can be found to this rule in the New 
 Testament is in the passage in dispute. In Acts 2 : 5 (Ttdvroi 
 idi'ovi), is correctly rendered "every nation;" respectively, 
 being in the singular. Then why should (ndi> Idvoi) be rendered 
 "all nations," collectively, in the passage in Acts 17 : 26 ? 
 Let it be remembered that this is the only instance of the kind 
 in the New Testament, and contravenes its established use of 
 language.^ {xatolxiiv 'iTtl jtdv to ytpoaunov trji yi^s) : this clause 
 is rendered, " to divell upon all the face of the earth." In 
 that sense ndv would be superfluous ; the face of a thing is ne- 
 cessarily its whole face. Let it be remembered that the noun 
 (y>;) as often means a country or section of the earth's surface, 
 where the sense requires it, as it does the earth itself.^ The 
 word (rtui-), here occurs again in the singular, qualifying a 
 noun that may be used in the plural ; as there are many differ- 
 ent countries or portions of the earth presenting different faces 
 or physical characters. This language is fairly susceptible of 
 being rendered, every face of country, or variety of clime, if 
 necessary to the sense of the passage. The verb (xatoixllv) 
 
 one born [of the spirit]." John 3 : 8. wv K^r^^a, ^^ every branch." John 
 15 : 2. txoi/ri -rravrX, '■'■to every one having," &c. Matt. 25 : 29. naj yiip ^ai7•(o^, 
 '■'■every one asking," &c. Matt. 7 : 8. vav itiipov ayadov, ^^ every good tree, 
 &c. Matt. 7 : 17. ov n-uj o Xeyoiv, '■^ not every one saying," &c. Matt. 7 : 21. 
 ■naaTi rij xtIoii., '■'■to every Creature." Mark IG : 15. ti's vaa'av -noXXv, " into every 
 city." Luke 10 : 1. -nawi ru niaTtvovrX, "to every one believing." Rom. 1 : 
 16. On the other hand, in the plural it is rendered all, coUectivelj'. 
 iroffi Toli iBvcaiv, [" shall be called] by all nations." Mark 11 : 17. iU jzaara 
 TO. 'iQvT), [" shall be led captive] i7xto all nations." Luke 21 : 24. navra ra 
 cdvt}, ["suffered] all nations." Acts 14: 16. idvt) inra, "seven nations." 
 
 Acts 13 : 19. X<i' irai/ra to idvr], " a7ld all nations." Acts 15 : 17. avOpwroii 
 naa'i, '■'■all men, &C. Acts 17 : 30. npoq navraf afdpw-^o^Oi, " to all men." Acts 
 21 : 15. jTui/To idifri, "all nations." Rev. 18: 23; also 17 : 13; 14 : 8. 
 But the same rule, generally, is observed by the learned Seventy in the 
 Septuagint. See Gen. 1 : 25; 29 : 2, 5, 16. 
 
 1 Wherever iraj denotes all collectively, the noun is not used in the plural, 
 as T:av voaof, all manner of sickness, &c. Matt. 4 : 28. 
 
 2 Destroying seven nations, He divided \_Tr,v y/>] their country. Acts 13 : 
 19. See also Lex. Lidd. and Scott, Don. et al. Behold, thou hast driven 
 me out this day [Sto' iipoaoj-nov riji yijs] "from the face of the earth," but that 
 could not be the entire face of the earth, but only his native clime. Gen. 
 4 : 14. This phrase is certainly here used to denote some particular sec- 
 tion of the earth's surface, then -vihy not in Acts 17 : 27? See Septua- 
 gint, Gen.2 : 6; 19 : 4; 14 : 10, 5, 8; 10: 11, 12; 13 : 9; 18: 18; 20 : 1, 
 et passim. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 155 
 
 here means to inhabit or dwell in some place; and the noun 
 (xaroixias), froni the same root, according to the philosophy of 
 language, must mean the place inhabited : the one is the exact 
 measure of the extent of the other. If, then {rtav to npoauHov 
 tr^i yy,<,), the place or places inhabited, means the whole face of 
 the earth collectively (xaioixlai), or the habitation must be co- 
 extensive with it, and would not be susceptible of (opofjfffta?) 
 boundaries ; but all nations, collectively, would have but one 
 habitation, viz., '^ all the face of the earth,'''' collectively.' 
 Hence, in view of the other clause, and applying the philosophy 
 of language to that of things, we deem our construction legiti- 
 mate, optaaj rtpoT'fT'ayjitii'ovj xaipoiij, xai ia^ upoOirsia^ trji; xa.taoi xia^; 
 
 avt^v : "And hath determined the time, before appointed, and 
 the bounds of their habitation.'" This resembles a ti'anslatiou 
 of the Latin more than of the Greek of this passage ; it is, to 
 say the least, extremely doubtful and obscure. To a proper 
 understanding of this text, it is necessary to consider the sub- 
 ject-matter upon which the Apostle was here treating. He 
 stood before the assembled wisdom of Greece, the most august 
 tribunal in the known world, to whom he was presenting the 
 majesty, wisdom, and power of the one living and true God, 
 the creator of all things, as displayed in his works. In the 
 2Gth verse, the one under consideration, he comes to speak of 
 the origin and distribution of the races of men. In this, he 
 shows the evidence of Divine wisdom and power, in that the 
 earth had not been left to be peopled by chance. He had not 
 only made each nation or race from one original, but he had 
 distributed them into appropriate localities, and marked out the 
 boundaries of the region that each should inhabit. In all this 
 he traces the hand of creative wisdom and power ; surely He 
 dwelleth not in temples made with hands. The beauty and 
 elegance of the language is appi'opriate to the sublimity of the 
 subject and the magnitude of the occasion. Paul knew they 
 called him a babbler, that they looked upon his doctrine as fool- 
 ishness ; if this could have prompted him to his master effort, 
 he proved himself fully equal to the occasion. 
 
 ' But such is not the meaning of the passage ; it means the distributing 
 the nations into diiferent countries, separated by boundaries. Gen. 10 : 
 5, 2o : 11 : 9. Deut. 32 . 8 ; 2 : 5, 9, 10, 12, 19. If God made the races 
 to inhabit every cUme, or " all (he face of the earth," would he have ci-eated 
 them all in one man and left them to find their way by chance into the 
 different parts of the earth? No; if he made the nations to dwell in dif- 
 ferent parts of the earth, he must have adapted them to the several 
 climes ; there is no other meaning in the language ; KaToUdi' is a verb in 
 the infinitive mood and governed by edi^o;, meaning that the races were 
 fitted to dwell in, or inhabit every variety of clime. 
 
156 THE MOEAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 But what would these learned Greek philosophers have under- 
 stood from the English version, " hath detei'mined the times 
 before appointed? " What times ? What connection has this 
 with the main chain of ideas here advanced ? 
 
 Some commentators say, "the times, ^^ here, mean the sea- 
 sons of the year; others, the number of men's days, in reference 
 to the passage in Job, 15 : 5. Others, again, that they refer 
 to the moral and political aspect of nations, their rise and fall, 
 and the measure of their political existence, as in Luke 21 : 24, 
 where it says, that " Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the 
 Gentiles, until 'the times ^ of the Gentiles be fulfilled." In this 
 passage, xalpov^ is evidently used with reference to the political 
 and moral condition of nations or races, without reference to their 
 physical situation ; but this is the only instance where this word 
 is used, in that sense, in the New Testament, unless it be where 
 it speaks of the "signs of the times. ^^ It is true, the noun 
 :Kai,'poj, in the New Testament, is rendered time or times ; but 
 it never means the past, the present or future, or any measure 
 of duration. In such instances, the noun xpovo^, or some other 
 word, is used.^ Ka/poj is generally used, in the New Testament, 
 to denote the fit, appropriate, or allotted time; and means, an 
 opportunity, emergency, crisis, or fit season, without reference 
 to date or duration.^ It is a word of various shades of mean- 
 ing, which must always be determined from the context. It is 
 used by profane writers as nearly synonymous with the Latin 
 word modus, and the English word measure. Hence, it means, 
 the most fit or appropriate time, situation, opportunity, or oc- 
 casion ; and, in Greek literature generally, is as often used with 
 reference to place, as to time.' When used with reference to 
 
 1 "En' taxaroiv roji/ XPOviSv, "in the last times." 1 Pet. 1 : 20. y.povovs Ttji 
 ayyola;, "times of ignorance." Acts 17 : 30. Kai ug TtaaapaKOVTatTt) xpovoi', 
 "for about the space of forty years." Acts 13 : 18. 'O hcpali ycvcaXs, 
 "which in other ages." Eph. 3 : 5. Mera ToaoXrov xpovuv^ "after so long a 
 time. Heb. 4:7; also 9 : 27; Acts, 15 : 21. "On xpovoi ovk (arai hi, "that 
 time shall be no more." Rev. 10 : 6. 
 
 2 Tdii Kolpov Tijf cniaKomii aov, "the time of thy visitation." Luke 19 : 44. 
 'O Kaipo; b f/joj ovTTOj napcaTin, " my time is not yet come." John 7 : 6, 8. 
 Oi yap rjv Kaipoi ovkwv, "for the time of figs was not yet." Mark 11 : 13. 
 "EiioTCf t6v Kaipov, "and knowing the time," i. e. the hour. Rom. 13 : 11; 
 see also 1 Cor. 7 : 29; 2 Cor. 6:2; Eph. 5 : 16; Col. 4 : 5. "O:". hWyov 
 Kaipov ixit, "he hath but a short time." Rev. 12 : 12; Matt 11 : 25: 12: 
 1; 14 : 1. "ZrijicXa TOiv Kaipiov oi ivvaaQt, "cannot discern the signs ef the 
 times." Mat. 16 : 3. Ajcpf T:\ripwQu>a\ KaXpoi Wt/dv, "until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21 : 24. 
 
 3 YncpffaWtjiv Ton Kaipov, "overshooting the mark or proper place. Plut. 
 Kaipii 6' C7TI nSalv ap'wTo;, " the best situation for all. Hes. Op. 692 ; Theogn. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 157 
 
 place, it means, its fitness in size or suitableness of localit}'. 
 As it is used with reference to their moral and political aspect, 
 so it may be with reference to the physical situation of nations. 
 In the former sense, it is used but once in the New Testament. 
 Why, then, may we not render it once in the latter, if the mean- 
 ing of the other clauses of the passage require it ? The subject- 
 matter of this verse is, the physical history of the races, as to 
 their origin and distribution. The chain of ideas seems to be, 
 that they were created, distributed into appropriate localities, 
 and their boundaries set between them.^ To render xaipovi 
 "^zmes,"here, seems not at all congenial to the sense : it seems 
 to be a wide digression from the obvious chain of ideas in the 
 author's mind. We should have no objection to the rendering, 
 but for the difficulty of fixing upon its meaning. What does 
 the word "tinies^^ here mean? Does it mean, the moral and 
 political aspect or condition of nations, as Cicero did by the 
 gravissima tempora — as when he exclaimed, tempora ! 
 mores I — or as in speaking of the times with reference to any 
 period of history — as, the time of Elizabeth, &c. ? That I 
 cannot believe ; for, in that sense, God ^'haW not " determmed 
 the times before ajopointed.'' ^ I cannot distinguish such doc- 
 trine from rank fatalism — one of the peculiar tenets of the Stoic 
 philosophers, whom St. Paul was addressing on that occasion; 
 yet he told them, in "all thijigs" they were too superstitious. 
 Had Paul intended here to teach them the doctrine, that God 
 had predestinated the times, or whatever happened to all na- 
 tions, he might well have reminded them of the sayings of some 
 of their philosophers, as he did of their poets with reference to 
 Omnipotence. 
 
 Again : does times here mean, the beginning, reign, do- 
 minion, rise and fall of empires ? or, the commencement and 
 political existence of nations, as where it speaks of the "times''^ 
 
 401. Kaipou TTcpa, "beyond measure, unduly." Esch, Pr. 507. ^ItX^wv tov 
 Kaipov yaarnp, -'the greatest longing for an opportunity, as a good appetite 
 for dinner." Xen. Symp. 2. 11. 'Eaxaro; Kaipo;, "extreme danger." Pub. 
 Of place, it means, the right or fit place or spot. Thuc. 4. 54. 90. Also, a 
 vital part of the body; hence, tj Kaipov Tvirrival, "hit in the vital parts or 
 right place. Euvip. Audr. 1120. Tdp rcXevralu) Xapiv xaipov ixovaa, "having 
 the last favorable opportunity." Thuc. 1. 42. Ti^^v uKaiptav rfjv ckuvuv xaipov 
 vpicTepov co/iio-ai'Taf, " considering his unfavorable, your favorable situation." 
 DemOSth. Olinth. 1. 10. Ei 'i>'MljTOi \a0oi Kaff fifiuu toiovtov Kaipov, "if Philip 
 should seize upon such an opportunity against you." Id. Taira noinoal 
 Kaipov exovTCi, "these things must be done while there is an opportunity." Id. 
 1 Homer uses only the adjective Katpio^, and always in 111. with reference 
 to place, as being or happening in the right place. See Lex. Lidd, and 
 Scott, et al. 
 
 14 
 
158 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 of the Gentiles ? ^ This meaning would be equally liable to the 
 objection just stated ; for these are but the inevitable results 
 of their moral and political conditions : whatever determines 
 the one, necessarily determines the other. Were the vast extent 
 of the Roman Empire, its rise, decline, and fall, and the over- 
 running of the nations by the Goths and Yandals of the North, 
 and the subsequent sway of Mohammedan dominion, all {npoTs- 
 ■tay/j-ivovi^) before appointed, or foreordained, by the active in- 
 
 1 Luke 21 : 24. 
 
 2 Adam Clark has it TrpoartraYntvovi, in four of tlie most approved ancient 
 MSS., viz., Codex Alex., Codex Vatic, Codex Basil., Codex Bez. SeeComm. 
 With this change, the clause ■would read, " and hath designated the ap- 
 pointed or allotted seasons, situations, or climes," &c. 
 
 There are scarcely two commentators who agree upon the exact mean- 
 ing of this clause. The obscurity and difficulty attending the present 
 English version first led me to examine the original more ci'itically ; by so 
 doing, I became satisfied that it -was susceptible of a different idea. As 
 to the rendering of the first clause of this verse, I am satisfied that ours 
 is the only consistent and correct rendering that can be given to it; as 
 to the remainder, I am not so vrell satisfied, and I leave it for the reader to 
 devise a more consistent and satisfactory one, if he can, for himself — 
 having presented the facts. 
 
 We expect, this, as all innovations upon the present English version of 
 the Bible do, will provoke the censure of all those who believe more in 
 the inspirations of the popes of Rome, the savans of king James, and ec- 
 clesiastical synods and theological professors, than in the authors of the 
 New Testament. But the charitable reader must pardon me for taking 
 the liberty, in this instance, to read and think for myself. This was a 
 part of my college education, that the New Testament was put into our 
 hands in the original. This, with the assistance of the most approved 
 commentators and lexicons, we were required to read for ourselves, inde- 
 pendent of ecclesiastical law or sectarian dictation. We were taught to 
 look through the mist of superstitious venerations in which any version 
 might be shrouded, to read and judge for ourselves, and to account 
 weekly to our preceptors for the proficiency we had made. Yet we are 
 not wholly lost to a just appreciation of the English version of the Bible. 
 It is undoubtedly, as a whole, the best translation that ever has been, or 
 ever will be made. In its literary character there is a chasteness and 
 elegance of style, purity of diction, and accuracy of representation of the 
 original ideas, unequalled by any translation of other works. In a Scrip- 
 ture sense, there is a sacred consonance between the very language and 
 the ideas, that by the power of association has become a part of men's 
 moral and intellectual being, as inseparable, within their mental vision, 
 as light and heat. There is a holy prestige pervading its very idioms 
 and phraseology, so inwrought into the taste, feelings, and afi"ections of 
 men, that it would seem to be sacrilege to invade. Hence, no language 
 can now be substituted, to convey the same truths with equal power; and 
 it behoves all to be cautious how they tamper with this sacred treasure. 
 But to say that there is not a single word, or a single passage, fairly sus- 
 ceptible of a diflferent meaning, is more than we are required to endorse. 
 But, if our rendering of this passage be not satisfactory to the reader, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 159 
 
 terposition of the Divine Will ? Is this what Paul was declaring 
 to the learned Greeks, as the work of creative wisdom and 
 
 and he still insists that it means all nations collectively, then we submit 
 whether these universal terms are not used in a limited meaning in the 
 text, as in numerous instances that have been and may be cited. The 
 frequent use of universal terms, in the Scriptures, in a limited significa- 
 tion, renders it unsafe to predicate any idea of universality upon them, 
 except from the positive requirement of the subject-matter of the text. 
 See quotations, above, of the word na;, p. 156, n. 1 ; infra, p. 163, n. 1. 
 
 The doctrine of a plurality of original creations for the human family 
 ia by no means new. For it was believed and expounded by a learned 
 Rabbi of the Apostolic age, in a commentary on the Pentateuch, known 
 as the Targum, "Relation between Scriptures and Geology," by Rev. G. 
 P. Smith, p. 393. The words of the Hebrew Targum are, that God 
 originally created men red, white, and black. Sfrid Dr. Morton, " I have 
 invariably, when treating of this subject, avowed my belief in the 
 aboriginal diversity of mankind, independently of the progressive action 
 of physical causes. I now venture to give a full and somewhat modified 
 explanation of their origin." For which see "Crania Americania," p. 83. 
 "Crania ^gyptiaca," p. 37. "Distinctive Characteristics of the Abori- 
 ginal Race of America," p. 36; and "Hybridity of Animals considered 
 with reference to the Unity of the Human Species." Am. Jour. Science, 
 1847. 
 
 The passage in the Targum, above referred to, has reference to Gen. 1 : 
 26, 27. "And God said [Hoinauiiev auBpoinov), Lei us make man," &c., "and 
 ^apxcrcooav'^ let them have dominion over the fish of the sea," &c. "And God 
 
 [inoiriaei'Tdv ui-OpaJiroc) made man, &C., (^apaev xai SfjXv inoiriaev a'irovi), male and 
 
 female created he them." Such language as this could hardly refer to a 
 single individual. Man in its widest sense means the whole human 
 family, and would seem to refer here to the genus homo. If it meant but 
 one man, the Greek text would read [icat Spxiro)] and let him have dominion, 
 &c. But there rather seems to be a plurality of them, hence " let them 
 have dominion," &c. ; and "male and female created he them." And the 
 Targum says they were "created red, white and black." I have quoted 
 the Septuagint as the best acknowledged authority upon the Hebrew text. 
 The article seems to be used or omitted arbitrarily with reference to man 
 in the several verses of the second chapter, by the English translators. 
 According to the Greek test there is no possible reason for the use that is 
 thus made of it. "And Adam called the name of his wife Zuij [life, ex- 
 istence], because she was the mother of all the living," Gen. 3 : 20. But 
 who named Adam ? he must have taken his name from the import of the 
 term, which means [in the Heb. Ch. Lyr. Etta. Ar.] man, primarily the 
 human species, mankind, &c., N. Web. " This is the book of the generations 
 of Adam," [Greek ysiroewj ai'dpojnov,'^ "and this is the book of the genera- 
 tions of men [instead of Adam], Gen. 5:1. '^ Male and female created he 
 them;" " and called their name Adam" [or man, or mankind]. The name 
 Adam seems to be used in the Scriptures sometimes in a generic and 
 sometimes in an individual sense : it seems to apply to created man, in 
 contradistinction from man that is born of woman. 
 
 People of a common stock may have had several or many origins. 
 Such appears to be the fact not only with men, but all the inferior ani- 
 mals. AVe are nowhere told that they were created in a single pair, but 
 
160 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 power ? Some say it means their respective seasons. This is 
 far less objectionable; for their seasons, as to their length, 
 character, &c., would result necessarily from their physical situ- 
 ations or climes, and diifer in nothing materially from what we 
 understand from the passage. I think it cannot be success- 
 fully contended, that xaiTpouj does not here relate to physical 
 subject-matters or things; whether it be the seasons, or situa- 
 tions, or climes of the nations, it is of but little consequence. 
 Why, then, may it not be rendered, appropriate situations or 
 climes — thus: and hath determined their appropriate climes, 
 before appointed (or allotted or set apart for each), and the 
 boundaries of their habitations ? Here there is no digression 
 from the main chain of the ideas. The participle uplna^ is de- 
 rived from the root opoj, which means, a boundary or limit, and 
 was originally applied to a field : it is here used to designate 
 both the xalpovi (climes) and the opo^sola; xarolxia^ (boundaries 
 of the habitations). It seems to have the same meaning in 
 both members of the sentence, connected and continued by the 
 force of xat, andraj opo^iaia^ seems to be thrown in intensively. 
 The rtttv ro rtooauTiov tr^^ 7^5 (every face of country or variety of 
 clime), the xaiporj (appropriate seasons, situations, or climes), 
 and the xatolxia? (habitations), all seem to relate to the same 
 subject-matter, modifications of the same thing, and their cor- 
 relative significations to be essential to the continuity of the 
 idea. So far they seem to be convertible terms : the one mean- 
 ing the thing inhabited ; the other, the habitation. 
 
 And, as the idea of boundaries applies more appropriately 
 to a region of country, or situation, or clime, than to any thing 
 else, applying the philosophy of language to that of things, t 
 conclude that the following is a legitimate construction of this 
 passage : — 
 
 [Grod] hath made of one blood each or every race or type 
 of men, to divell in, or inhabit, each or every variety of clime 
 or face of country ; having designated their appropriate sea- 
 
 rather, "Male and female created He them." Nerig. Hist. R. i. p. 37. 
 Will any one pretend that the millions of millions of living calcareous 
 polythalmia, discovered in a single cubic inch of marl taken from the late 
 deep sea soundings on the coast of the United States, were created in a 
 single pair, or had their origin in Mesopotamia? " Les libres Juifs 
 n'entendent pas etabliere que leur premier homme ait 6t6 le pfere du genre 
 humain, mais seulement cclui de leur espfece privileged. D ne pent con- 
 sequemment y avoir aucune impi6te a reconnnitre parmi nous plusieurs 
 especes qui, chacune, auront eu leur Adam ct leur berceau particulier." 
 Berg, de St. Vincent, L'Hom. i. p. 66. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 161 
 
 sons, situations, or climes, before appointed, or allotted, and 
 the boundaries of their habitations. 
 
 This differs materially from the present English version. 
 The one, it is contended, means, that God hath made all na- 
 tions of men, collectively, from one original blood, or stock, or 
 parentage. The other, that he hath made each nation, respec- 
 tively, from one blood or parentage. It is contended, that the 
 one teaches the unity and common origin of all mankind ; the 
 other teaches, that there may have been a plurality of original 
 races, each descending from their respective originals. Which 
 of these theories is true, we leave for the reader to conclude 
 for himself, after presenting the facts. 
 
 The Apostle, in the discourse from which this quotation is 
 made, was treating upon the attributes of the Deity. He was 
 striving to impress upon his hearers an idea of the awful 
 grandeur and majesty of his being ; he illustrates this by 
 alluding to the wonderful exhibitions of power, wisdom, and 
 goodness, in his acts of creations ; had it been his object simply 
 to assert that the human race had sprung from a single source, 
 he might have employed fewer words and different language. 
 But he rather shows that the Creator had not only formed every 
 nation or species of men from one source, but that he had first 
 formed the several portions of the earth to be their habitations 
 and then adapted them to their respective climates and physical 
 divisions, appointed them their several locations and set bounds 
 to their habitations. 
 
 The passage thus presents a glimpse at the great sciences of 
 Geology and Ethnology. The idea that he hath appointed the 
 locations before determined, evidently refers to the intermediate 
 changes and fitting up of the earth, by geological phenomena, 
 for the habitation of man. It seems to be intended as an ex- 
 position of the Mosaic account of the origin and distribution 
 of the human race.^ And although the construction which we 
 have put upon it harmonizes perfectly with known truths as 
 developed by modern science, yet we should be very reluctant 
 
 1 It could not be expected that the English translators, under their royal 
 instructions, would presume to innovate, in rendering this passage, upon 
 the commonly received dogma of that day relative to the Mosaic account 
 of the origin and distribution of mankind. See Instructions, sup. p. 126. 
 
 If God has made from one source every nation of man to inhabit every 
 different portion of the earth, who can say that he did not form them into 
 the varieties in which they are now found in those regions ? How could 
 they be made to inhabit them unless they were suited to the climate, and 
 destined for a specific mode of life ? 
 14* L 
 
162 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 to adopt or reject any construction of Scripture language, 
 simply on account of its apparent harmony or conflict with any 
 human theory, except where such theory is based upon demon- 
 strable truth. 
 
 In that case, from the established laws of belief, the mind is 
 forced to seek out some construction of the language compatible 
 with the demonstration, or admit that the Scriptures are incon- 
 sistent with themselves. To attempt to silence reason in such 
 a case, to draw the veil of monastic bigotry over the truth, and 
 to control the intellect by the terrors of hell-fire, is to do vio- 
 lence to the constitution of the human mind. Belief is matter 
 of evidence, and not of will ; over which man has no more 
 control than he has over "the wind that bloweth where it 
 listeth." Demonstration carries with it irresistible conviction ; 
 and mankind are only accountable for their belief so far as they 
 have neglected to keep their minds justly susceptible of the 
 proper influence of evidence. Suppose, for instance, that Moses 
 had, in some of his writings, attempted some remarks upon 
 Geometry, in which he had said that the sum of the squares of 
 the two legs of a right-angled triangle was equal to twice the 
 square of the hypothenuse ; when we come to test the appa- 
 rent meaning of this language, by the demonstration of Euclid, 
 who would deny the necessity for seeking some explanatory 
 construction such as to reconcile it with known truth. The per- 
 fect equality of these parts is a truth "from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting," unchangeable, "the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 forever. " It is a necessary existence which it is impossible to 
 conceive to be otherwise." In this sense it is said that " God 
 is truth." That his " Word" is also truth, "forever settled in 
 the heavens." But we need not be confined to hypothetical cases 
 for our illustration ; we may cite those of reality. Take, for 
 instance, the command of Joshua to the sun to stand still ; by 
 that language the idea is apparent that the length of the day is 
 governed by the motion of the sun round the earth, which 
 brings the Pentateuch in conflict with the Principia and the 
 Copernican theory of the heavenly bodies, which are based upon 
 demonstration. Here again the mind is forced to the conclu- 
 sion that this language cannot be understood in its literal sense. 
 So likewise in the account of the six days' creation, the recent 
 geological developments force the mind back through the dim 
 twilight of the past to a remote period in the antiquity of 
 nature, where reason falters as upon the boundaries of eternity, 
 and the light of the imagination dies away in the welkin beyond. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 163 
 
 Compared with the period actually fixed by the Mosaic narra- 
 tive, it is as a thousand years to a single day. 
 
 Take, again, the apparent philosophy of Moses in relation 
 to a "firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide 
 the waters from the waters." (Gen. 1 : 6.) It cannot be 
 denied that an allusion is here made to the common notion of 
 all antiquity of a material firmament. The Greeks and Romans 
 believed it was made of brass ; others supposed it was of 
 crystal. And Moses, it seems, could not satisfy the minds of 
 the Jews as to the rain that descended from heaven and drowned 
 the earth without interposing a material firmament that divided 
 the waters from the waters, "and the firmament was called 
 heaven;" hence he says, "the windows of heaven were 
 opened," &c. 
 
 We propose, in the remainder of this essay, to adduce facts 
 for the consideration of the reader, and to suggest the inquiry 
 whether the commonly received notion of the Mosaic account 
 of the origin and distribution of the human race (which is that 
 by the natural law of propagation the whole human family have 
 descended from a single pair called Adam and Eve), is not as 
 manifestly at variance with demonstrative truth, as either of the 
 instances above cited. We shall adopt no theory, assume no 
 position as our own, but simply present an impartial array of 
 facts and leave the reader to form his own conclusions. We 
 simply premise that we believe the diversity of species or types 
 of manldnd is as much beyond the power of natural causes and 
 as much implies the miraculous interposition of the hand of the 
 Creator, as the origin of man itself. At what stage in the 
 progress of human origin and distribution, and in what manner 
 these diversities were formed by the Creator, it seems to be 
 difficult to determine in our present state of knowledge. 
 Whether they were formed from one original stock which was 
 alone created from the dust, as the various languages were 
 formed from one original at the "confusion of tongues," or 
 whether they were originally created in distinct species, is 
 immaterial to the gist of our argument. If mankind were 
 formed by the direct hand of the Creator into diiferent species, 
 with all the mental and physical peculiarities that now distinguish 
 them, and adapted by Him in their several classes, susceptibili- 
 ties, ranks, and gradations, to inhabit the various climes and 
 physical divisions of the globe, then they must have been 
 originally designed for peculiar modes of life, and distinct 
 grades in the rank of civilization, as well as in scientific and 
 intellectual improvement. 
 
164 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 The language of the Apostle above quoted, was, doubtless, 
 intended as an exposition of the Mosaic account of the origin 
 and distribution of the human family over the earth ; and the 
 construction which we have put upon it, as we shall see, can 
 alone reconcile it with demonstrative truth in the ethnological 
 history of man.^ 
 
 It may be remarked that the divine legation of Moses might 
 have related only to the affairs of the Jewish nation ; — that the 
 Jews were in his estimation the human race, par excellence, 
 and that his writings, in a literary and philosophical point of 
 view, are but a history of the origin, rise, and progress of that 
 peculiar nation. He was raised up by a special providence to 
 be their deliverer from Egyptian slavery, to conduct them 
 safely through the mysterious paths of the sea, to lead them 
 across the desert wilds of an unknown region. His history of 
 these events seems to be designed as a narrative of their trials 
 and sufferings under Pharaoh, of their miraculous delivery from 
 the house of bondage, and preservation through the wilderness. 
 Though he begins back with the history of the creation of the 
 world, and of all its inhabitants, it is but to trace the hand of 
 the Creator, and his design seems only to be to narrate such a 
 series of the precursory providences of God as conspired to 
 fulfil this promise to Abraham, the planting of Israel in the 
 promised land. 
 
 In his genealogy of the several generations from Adam, 
 through Noah and family down, he pursues them no further 
 than is necessary to get at the paternal ancestors of Abraham, 
 the founder of the Jewish nation. His object seems to be, to 
 trace back the origin of the children of Israel to the imme- 
 diate hand of God, rather than to give any general history of 
 the origin and distribution of the human race.^ The use of 
 
 1 "Even Dr. Pritchard, the Magnus Apollo of the theory of the unity 
 and common origin of mankind, in the last page of the fifth and last 
 volume of his great work, gives it as his matured opinion, that the human 
 race has been chilliads of years upon the earth. He also admits the 
 deluge Tvas but a partial phenomenon, and that no known physical 
 causes could have produced the existing diversities among men." 
 (Morton.) But it may be that some of the blood of the defunct types 
 vras preserved in the ark (as contended for by Mr. Fletcher), and that the 
 curse of Noah upon the descendants of Ham was but a declaration of 
 the physiological fact that they would possess the color, as well as the 
 physical and mental characteristics of the people of Africa : we have no 
 objection to such a theory. 
 
 - Hence, in the fourth chapter of Genesis, we lose sight of Cain and of 
 his generations: how long he lived, where he died, or who was his wife, 
 we are nowhere informed ; and, what is still more singular, we are left 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 165 
 
 universal terms in a limited sense, throughout the Scriptures 
 of both the Old and New Testaments, is so frequent that they 
 will have but little weight in the history of Moses towards 
 establishing its general character.^ Therefore, the history of 
 Adam and Eve may be understood as an account of the origin 
 of the peculiar type of man to which the children of Israel 
 belonged, and perhaps the figurative or representative idea of 
 the origin or formation of all other species ; or, that each spe- 
 cies or type was distinctly formed, and suited to the region it 
 was to inhabit, at the confusion of tongues and the dispersion 
 of the races. '^ 
 
 It may also be remarked, that the author of the Pentateuch 
 always spoke after the manner of men, or, in other words, 
 adapted his language and observations to the knowledge and 
 notions prevalent in the age in which he wrote. Hence the 
 command of Joshua to the sun. And it will not be pretended 
 that the children of Israel, admitting that they were learned in 
 all the wisdom of the Egyptians, had any knowledge of the 
 remote parts of the earth from Palestine. Egypt, Arabia, a 
 limited portion of Northern Africa and Western Asia, circum- 
 
 in the dark as to the age, death, and burial of "Eve, the mother of all 
 the living," the most important personage in the human family. 
 
 1 "As Jehovah thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom whither 
 my soul hath not sent me to seek thee," &c. 1 Kings 18: 18. "And all 
 the earth sought the face of Solomon, to hear his wisdom." 1 Kings 
 10 : 24. "And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the 
 worid were discovered." 2 Sam. 22 : 16. 
 
 "And the whole earth was of one language," &c. Gen. 11 : 1, Does 
 this include China, Lapland, Patagonia, Peru, and New Holland? "And 
 the queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to hear the wis- 
 dom of Solomon." Matt. 12 : 42. "And it came to pass in those days, 
 that a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that all the world should 
 be taxed." Luke 2 : 1. "I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, 
 that thou shouldst be for salvation to the ends of the earth." Acts 13 : 47; 
 Isa. 47 : 6. "Yes, verily, their sounds went into all the earth, and their 
 words unto the ends of the tvorld." Rom. 10 : 18. Ps. 19 : 4. 
 
 2 It is well established that the different species of man cannot be ac- 
 counted for upon physiological principles — nothing less than a miracle 
 could have produced such an effect: it matters not, then, how this 
 miracle was wrought, whether by the transformation of mankind into 
 different species after their creation, or by creating them in varieties. 
 The confusion of tongues would be no less a miracle than such a trans- 
 formation. And we say that the Creator might as well have formed the 
 different species by suiting them to the different regions, when He dis- 
 persed them abroad over the earth from the tower of Babel, as to have 
 formed from one all the varieties of language which they should speak, 
 so that they would no longer understand one another. Either is a miracle, 
 and one quite as probable as the other. 
 
166 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 scribed the knowledge of the earth of the Pharaonic Egyptians 
 themselves. And in the use of general terms by the writer of 
 Genesis, &c., as the whole world, all mankind, and the like, 
 this portion of the earth could reasonably be the only one in- 
 cluded in the remark. And hence it becomes the limits of the 
 geography and ethnology of the Mosaic history. 
 
 It would be wholly inconsistent with the economy of Nature, 
 as everywhere exhibited, to disperse abroad, from the single 
 region of Mesopotamia, all the different races of men and 
 animals to the most remote parts of the earth, and leave them 
 to perish, die out, and become extinct for want of adaptation 
 to the climate and region which they were destined to inhabit ; 
 or, to leave them to the slow, tedious, and destructive process 
 (if such were possible) of peopling the earth, by undergoing 
 such changes in their physical organization and mental charac- 
 ter as to enable them to live in the various zoological locations 
 in which they may now be found. ^ 
 
 It is a natural and fixed law of the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms, that each genus, and even species, is suited to the 
 elements in which they dwell — both the fish of the sea, the 
 fowls of the air, and the trees of the forest, the plants and 
 flowers of the field, and beasts to the regions in which they are 
 found. And this analogy holds good throughout the entire 
 economy of Nature. So true is it, that, reasoning d poste- 
 riori, the growth of the vegetation and animals of any region 
 being given, the climate and physical character of the country 
 is at once determined.^ It is an imposing zoological fact, that 
 the different types of mankind have each a distinct fauna or 
 
 1 Such doctrine leaves the world to have been peopled by chance, 
 against the laws of Nature. But, in this, is it possible that the Cauca- 
 sian would ever have become a Negro? As well might it be said that 
 the noble Newfoundland dog was from the German Poodle or the Beagle. 
 It is said that unless all men descended literally from the Mosaic Adam, 
 then the great plan of redemption is defective and false : this is, how- 
 ever, a 11071- sequitur. The Mosaic narrative may be the figurative or re- 
 presentative idea of the origin of every type or race of men, all of whom 
 are sinful in their earthly nature, and all included within the pale of the 
 great plan of redemption. 1 Cor. 15, 45, 47, 48, 49. 2 Cor. 5 : 1. John 
 3 : 31. Rom. 8: 29; 5 : 14. 
 
 2 In certain coal deposits, and among the fossil remains of high north- 
 ern localities, there are found the remains of certain plants and animals 
 that are known to exist onh' in the tropical countries (such as the coal 
 deposit near the mouth of Mackenzie river, and the fossil remains of 
 elephants in Siberia and other high northern latitudes). Hence the con- 
 clusion of geologists, that a tropical climate once pervaded those regions. 
 Lyell's P. Geol. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 167 
 
 type of animals, that may be naturally classified with them, and 
 limited to the same zoological location.^ Hence, it would be 
 as preposterous to contend that the multifarious species of the 
 genus horse, or cow, or dog, or any other class of animals that 
 may be found so widely difiCerent in different zoological loca- 
 tions, have all descended from a single pair, or a common 
 stock or blood, as to contend that this is true of the human 
 species.^ 
 
 The anomaly in the laws of nature would be equally manifest 
 in forcing either men, animals or plants into a clime uncongenial 
 to their growth, and unsuited to their natures. 
 
 But we appeal to well authenticated facts in the physical 
 history of man. 
 
 The recent developments of Chevalier Lepsius, and others, 
 in Egyptian researches, establish beyond a doubt, a date for 
 the termination of the twelfth dynasty of Egypt, at least twenty- 
 three centuries before the Christian era — a period, according 
 to the best biblical chronology, nearly cotemporary with Noah's 
 flood.^* 
 
 1 See Essay of Prof. Agassiz, iu Types of Mankind, Part First. This 
 fact, established by that learned profesp; r, is one of the most imposing 
 iu the whole range of Natural History. It leads to the inevitable con- 
 clusion, that the human race and the animal kingdom have been governed 
 by the same laws in their origin and distribution. 
 
 2 If mankind are progressive or variable in their type, what could limit 
 their vax-iations ? Why are they not constantly going on ? Has the 
 human species attained to every possible variety? There has not yet 
 been any alteration in their varieties since the earliest glimpses of their 
 history : when did these variations begin, and when will they cease, if 
 they are not fixed facts in the physical history of the races ? 
 
 ^ The generations from Noah to Abraham were ten : Shem, Arphaxad, 
 Salah, Eber, Peleg, Pi.eu, Serug, Nahor, Terah and Abraham. According 
 to biblical chronology, Abraham was 58 years old at the death of Noah. 
 Noah died 350 years after the flood, aged 950 years. Abraham, then, was 
 born 292 years after the flood. He was 75 years old when he went up 
 out of Ur of the Chaldees, the land of Haran, to go into the land of 
 Canaan. Accordingly it must have been, according to the Mosaic account, 
 about 370 years after Noah's flood that Abraham went down into Egypt ; 
 yet he finds there no acquaintance or kindred, but, on the contrary, he 
 finds a great empire, composed of millions of strange people, and beholds, 
 standing around him, pyramids and temples erected by this more ancient 
 and distinct race, with records, hieroglyphical and hieratic, written in a 
 language to him foreign, and dating back more than 2000 years before 
 his birth. Is it possible that this empire could have sprung from the 
 family of Noah ? 
 
 "Whence that curse we call primeval sin? 
 'Twere Adam's children breeding in and in." — Morton. 
 
 When Cain went down into the land of Nod, he must have found a wife, 
 neither his sister nor his niece. 
 
168 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 Upon the monuments of this dynasty are found delineated, 
 iu sculpture and paintings, several of the different types of 
 man. The same author traces these records of stone back to 
 the fourth Memphitic dynasty, the oldest sculptural represen- 
 tations of man now extant. And even here, in these remote 
 evidences of the first footprints of man upon the earth, are 
 monumental evidences of Egyptian Pharaohs striking at Asi- 
 atics, and perfect delineations of two distinct types of men 
 about five thousand years old. If there then existed two dis- 
 tinct types of mankind within the range of the geographical 
 knowledge of Egypt, five thousand years ago, or as far back 
 as we have any historical evidences of any kind upon this sub- 
 ject, and the same identical types, or their vestiges, are still 
 found in the same locality, there is reason to believe that there 
 were then as many distinct types, located in the various por- 
 tions of the earth, as are found in those localities at the present 
 day. 
 
 In the delineations of the several species of men in the relics 
 of Egyptian art of the twelfth dynasty, there are exhibited 
 four distinct types or classifications, with lineaments as widely 
 different and as distinctly marked as those of the living speci- 
 mens that now people those regions. The figures that may be 
 seen in plates, on a folio scale, in the great works of Belzoni, 
 Champollion, Rossellini, Lepsius, and others, copied from the 
 tombs, monuments and pyramids of Ancient Egypt, show con- 
 clusively that the physiognomy of the Egyptian (or Mongolian 
 complexion of the present), the yellow or Malaysian, the white 
 or Caucasian, and the black or Negro types or races, thirty-five 
 centuries ago, were identical with those of the present day.^ 
 Says Dr. Nott : "I know of no Archaeologist of respectable 
 authority, at the present day, who will aver that the races now 
 found throughout the great valley of the Nile, and scattered 
 over a considerable portion of Asia, were not as distinctly and 
 broadly contrasted, at least thirty-five centuries ago, as at this 
 moment. The Egyptians, Canaanites, Nubians, Tartars, Ne- 
 groes, Arabs, and other types, are as faithfully delineated on 
 the monuments of the seventeenth and eighteenth dynasties, as 
 if the paintings had been executed by an artist of our present 
 age." 
 
 If these distinct features of the four difi'erent races of men 
 found in Egyptian sculpture, were as manifest thirty-five cen- 
 turies ago as they now are, and the long period of three thou- 
 
 1 These plates may be seen in miniature in the Types of Mankind, on 
 folio scale, in Harvard College library. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 169 
 
 sand and five hundred years has made no inroads upon their 
 lines of demarkation, but left them identically the same, how 
 far back into the eternity of the past must we trace these lines 
 of descent to bring them to a termination in a single point ? 
 
 If they have run parallel for near four thousand years, what 
 is the geometrical conclusion with regard to their ever meeting 
 in the past ? and what must be our hopes, expectations, and 
 theory, with regard to their destiny in the future ? 
 
 But the ancient Egyptians could include in their divisions 
 only such nations as were then known to them ; and if the 
 Egyptian ethnographers, four thousand years ago, found the 
 same diversity of features and complexions, and were puzzled 
 with the same different types of men, within the limited circum- 
 ference of their geographical knowledge, what must we conclude 
 with regard to the nations totally unknown to them ? 
 
 They were not a commercial people ; they were a nation 
 within themselves, tenacious of their own arts, government, 
 manners and customs, and much like the Chinese, locked up 
 within the limits of their own territory. They could have pos- 
 sessed no knowledge of the nations of the earth except within 
 the immediate valley of the Nile, Arabia, and a limited portion 
 of Western Asia. Of the great cotemporary nations, China, 
 Australia, Northern and Southern Asia, Central and Southern 
 Africa, Europe and America, the Pharaonic Egyptians knew 
 nothing. 
 
 If, then, climatic influences have wrought no change in the 
 physiology of these ancient classifications, handed down to us, 
 distinct and entire, from so remote a period, what must we 
 conclude with regard to all the other different species of men 
 now found scattered over the wide surface of the globe ? 
 
 If the varieties of complexion, features, and physiology, ob- 
 servable in the different species of mankind, is to be attributed 
 to climatic and other influences, as is contended by Dr. 
 Pritchard, and other advocates of the unity and common origin 
 of the human race,^ why is it that we, on the one hand, find 
 such vast scopes of country, presenting every variety of climate, 
 soil and production, from the frigid to the torrid zone, often 
 peopled by nations of a single type, presenting the same gene- 
 ral features and normal characteristics ? In such instances, 
 certainly, the varieties of species do not correspond to the va- 
 
 1 Natural History of Man, by Dr. Growls PritcliarU, the acknowledged 
 orthodox authority upon the unity and common origin of mankind, for 
 the last halt' century. 
 15 
 
170 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 rieties in climate, &c., whicl], according to the above theory, 
 would seem to be natural. 
 
 Take, for instance, the whole continent of America, as far as 
 it extends, from pole to pole. The aboriginal tribes of this 
 immense belt, equal to one-half the circumference of the earth, 
 were wholly unknown to the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans; 
 and when the continent was discovered, less than four centuries 
 ago, it was found to be inhabited from the Arctic to Cape 
 Horn, and from ocean to ocean, by a population displaying 
 peculiar physical traits unlike any race in the old world ; speak- 
 ing languages bearing no resemblance in structure to other 
 languages, and living everywhere among animals and plants 
 specifically distinct from those of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
 Oceanica. Yet they possessed no aberrant peculiarities as to 
 one another, sufiQcient to distinguish them into separate species, 
 or types. They all, from the polar regions of the North to the 
 South, possessed the same complexion, facial contour, and 
 physical conformation. Says Dr. Morton, "All possess, though 
 in various degrees, the long, lank, black hair ; the heavy brow ; 
 the small, dull, and sleepy eye; the full, compressed lips; the 
 salient but dilated, nose ; ' and, we may add, the copper com- 
 plexion, broad mouth, high cheek bones, and small square 
 heads." 
 
 These characteristics are blended in the most civilized and 
 savage tribes, along the rivers and sea-coasts, in the valleys and 
 on the mountains ; in the prairies and the forests ; in the torrid 
 and the ice-bound regions ; amongst those that live on fish, on 
 flesh, or on vegetables. - 
 
 The vast regions inhabited by the Mongolians in Asia present 
 instances of a similar character. That vast race of beings 
 known as Esquimaux in America, and under the names of Lap- 
 landers, Samoiedes, and Tchuktshes in the north of Asia, so 
 well known since the voyages of Captain Cook, and the Arctic 
 expeditions of England and Russia, differs widely from the 
 Indian of North America, the white of Europe, and the Mon- 
 gols of Asia, to whom they are adjacent ; yet they are all 
 stamped with the same general conformation so as to be classed 
 under a single species. Again, the vast region of New Holland, 
 stretching from ten to forty degrees of south latitude, in its 
 population, animals, birds, insects, and plants, is totally 
 different from any other portion of the globe. ^ 
 
 1 Crania Americana, Morton, p. 260. ^ Types of Mankind, p. 275. 
 * Essay of Prof. Agassiz ; Types of Mankind, Pt. i. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 171 
 
 " The men," says Dr. Nott, " present altogether a very pecu- 
 liar tyi)e ; they are black, but without the woolly heads and 
 other characteristics of the negroes." "Beyond, we find Yan 
 Diemen's Land, reaching to the 44° south, which pi-esents a 
 temperate climate not unlike that of France ; and what is 
 remarkable, its inhabitants, unlike those of New Holland, are 
 black, with frizzled heads, very similar to the African race.'" 
 
 Under the same parallels, and extending even farther south, 
 lies New Zealand, where commence the beautiful Polynesian 
 race. And what is still more wonderful, they are of a light- 
 brown color, have smooth, black hair, and almost oval faces ; 
 they include, with various islands, near half the circumference 
 of the globe.' 
 
 On the other hand, take, for instance, the single distinguish- 
 ing peculiarity of color, and we find it impossible to account 
 for its varieties in different species upon any hypothesis, for the 
 distribution of mankind, founded upon the unity or common 
 origin of the whole human race, and the effect of climatic and 
 other physical influences alleged by its advocates. 
 
 In the highest hyperborean regions where human foot-prints 
 can be traced, there are found colors and complexions darker 
 than others under the burning climes of the Torrid Zone.^ 
 
 The Samoiedes and Tchuktshes of the extreme north, are 
 said to be much darker than the Tuaricks of Soudan in Central 
 Africa. Among the Mongols, also, there exist various shades, 
 not confined to any zone, locality, climate, or condition. In 
 India, also, we meet vrith people of all shades, from fair to 
 black, who have been living adjacent to each other from time 
 immemorial. The Rohillas, who are blonde, and situated south 
 of the Ganges, are surrounded by the Nepauleans with black 
 skins ; the Mahrattas, with yellow ; and the Bengalese of a deep 
 brown color. And yet the Rohillas inhabit the plains, and the 
 Nepauleans the mountains.* The same is true of the inhabi- 
 
 1 Types of Mankind, p. 71. 
 
 2 U. S. Exploring Expedition of Wilkes and D'Arville in the South 
 Pacific, 1849 and 1850. 
 
 3 Types of Mankind, p. 64. 
 
 ^ Des Moulins des Races Humaines, p. 169. All the intermediate shades 
 from white to black are found in those races of oval faces, large facial 
 angle, smooth hair, which Blumenbach ranks under the head of Caucasian. 
 Commence, for instance, with the fair Fins and Sclavonians with blonde 
 hair, and pass successively through the Celts, Iberians, Italians, Greeks, 
 Arabs, Egyptians, and Hindoos, till you reach the inhabitants of Malabar, 
 and you find these last to be as black as negroes, M. Jacquinet, Cans. 
 Anthro. kc. 
 
It 2 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 tants of Africa ; here you find every tint from the pale yellow 
 Hottentot and Bushman, to the dusky brown Caffir, and the 
 coal-black negro of the tropics and confines of Eg-ypt. 
 
 The lolofts of Senegambia, between the Senegal and the 
 Gambia, the most northerly negro nation on the western coast, 
 are of a fine, transparent, deep black ; while the Mandingos 
 and the Fulahs, of the same region, are said to be of a light 
 mahogany color, with good features, and hair more or less 
 straight. They pass themselves for white people, and look 
 down upon their neighbors as inferiors ; they resemble the 
 Hindoo more than the negro. ^ 
 
 Take, again, for instance, the anatomical structure of the 
 head, the facial angle, and comparative anatomy of the several 
 races ; the same difficulties arise to the adoption of any pre- 
 conceived notion as to their origin and distribution, predicated 
 upon their universal equality, relationship, or common origin. 
 The learned researches of modern science in the catacombs and 
 upon the monuments of ancient Egypt, have traced these 
 anatomical peculiarities and varieties to the earliest foot-prints 
 of man upon the face of the earth. It appears thus to have 
 demonsti'ated the great truth that climate and mode of living 
 have no influence in radically changing or assimilating the 
 varieties of the human species. Destroy them it may, and 
 does, but it cannot change the physical or mental peculiarities, 
 or convert them into different types. 
 
 Where, then, do we find the physical or mental evidence of 
 the universal equality or unity of the races ? The further we 
 trace back the record of the past, the more broadly marked do 
 we find all human diversity. In no part of Europe, at the pre- 
 sent day, can be found the striking notes of contrast which 
 Tacitus describes, still less those represented in the more ancient 
 pages of Herodotus.^ 
 
 No climate or condition can radically diversify or assimilate 
 the different races in their comparative anatomy, any more than 
 in their color. The Fuegians of Cape Horn, the Hottentots 
 and Bushmen of South Africa, and the people of Van Dieraen's 
 Land, are the varieties that, under similar parallels of latitude, 
 differ most. Such differences in races are also found in the 
 tropical regions, as seen in the Negro in Central Africa, the 
 Indian in America, and the Papuan in Polynesia. In the 
 temperate zones, in the Old World, the Mongolians and Cau- 
 
 1 Godberry. See all authorities cited in D. Eichthal. Types of Man- 
 kind, p. 188. 
 
 2 Kuox, Races of Man, Philda. ed. p. 30. 
 
SLAVERY IN. THE UNITED STATES. 1T3 
 
 casians, and the Indian in America living in similar climates, 
 yet wholly dissimilar in themselves.' 
 
 Where, then, shall we look for unity and universal equality 
 in the creation and intellectual endowments of men, and their 
 universal capability of rising in the scale of civilization, the 
 development of the sciences and the progress of the arts ? 
 How stand the facts in history, as opposed to the oft-mistaken 
 theory of the Declaration of Independence ? 
 
 From the vast field that is laid open before us, we shall 
 select but a few instances, to illustrate the truth that is pre- 
 sented in answer to this question. 
 
 Student of American history ! look at the past and the pre- 
 sent, and say, upon any principle of human probability, what 
 must be the future and final destiny of the numerous tribes of 
 aborigines that once peopled their cheerless realm in the wilds 
 of the New World ? How stand they affected to the habita- 
 tions of civilized man ? Where now are the contemporaries 
 of Columbus, the adorers of the children of the sua ? Where 
 now are the kind recipients and friends of De Soto ? the cap- 
 tors of John Smith ? the descendants of Powhatan ? and the 
 numerous tribes that once ranged along the southern Atlantic 
 coast '{ Where now are the brave Pequods and the hostile 
 Narragansetts that once chased the fleet deer over the hills and 
 inhaled free the mountain air of New England ? Where now 
 are the scenery and landscapes of their hunting-grounds, and 
 their wigwams, hung around with the trophies of war ? They 
 have all vanished from their native hills and plains, like scenes 
 of mirage upon the Egyptian deserts, that float upon the wings 
 of the wind. Where now are the once-powerful Chickasaw, 
 Cherokee, and Choctaw nations ? Are they not fast fleeing 
 before the light and progress of civilization, and gradually 
 fading away in the far West, like the waning shades of night 
 before the opening eyelids of the morning ? Nature has pre- 
 scribed the final limits of their zoological location, and destined 
 them for a specific mode of life. They can live only as the 
 unsophisticated sons of the forest. As their hunting-grounds 
 are gradually taken from them, nothing but the stern and hope- 
 less alternative of extermination awaits them. Their lungs 
 cannot breathe the air of civilized man ; their eyes cannot 
 endure the light of science and the progress of arts. Like the 
 elk and the bison, they skulk from the view, and hide themselves 
 in the deep shades of the wilderness. What does their history 
 teach us but mental and physical inferiority ? and that the less 
 1 Types of Mankind, p. 77. 
 
 15* 
 
174 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 intellectual races are doomed to eventual extermination in all 
 those climes where the higher groups of the fair-skinned family 
 can permanently exist ? The entire race of the Gaunches, at 
 the Canary Islands, was exterminated by the Portuguese during 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — not a living vestige 
 remains to tell the tale. 
 
 Some of the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain, Gaul, and 
 Scandinavia seem to have shared a similar fate. Sixteen mil- 
 lions of aborigines in North America have dwindled down to 
 two millions, since the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth 
 Rock ; and their congeners, the Caribs, have long been extinct 
 in the West India Islands. The mortal destiny of the whole 
 American group, like the sands in Time's hour-glass, seems to 
 be fast running out. Of the four hundred thousand inhabitants 
 of the Sandwich Islands, far less than one hundred thousand 
 survive, and these are daily sinking beneath the influence of 
 commerce, civilization, and rum. In New Holland, New 
 Guinea, many of the Pacific islands, in Africa, and other parts 
 of the world, the same consequences are following the labors 
 of proselytisra and the influence of civilization ! 
 
 The ancient Moors fled from their former habitations over 
 the waters of Gibraltar, and were long known only as roving 
 corsairs upon the Barbary coast. On the other hand, where 
 now are the august colonnades that towered along the banks 
 of the Tiber, and adorned the ancient seat of Roman great- 
 ness, upon its seven hills ? Where are now the lights of Athens 
 at the zenith of her glory ? Argos with its hundred eyes, and 
 Thebes with its hundred gates ? The crescent has supplanted 
 the cross over the eastern empire of ancient Rome ; "the tur- 
 baned Arab has trod in mockery over the tombs of the Scipios, 
 and the enervate Ottoman blasted the fairest fields of Grecian 
 art." 
 
 And why have these ancient lights, like Pompeii, slumbered 
 in the darkness of ages ? Shall we be told that nature has put 
 an interdict on their revival in the present physical character 
 of these ancient seats of literature and learning ? The same 
 salubrious clime now breathes its sweet gales over Greece that 
 did in the age of her classic days ; the same lofty hills and 
 verdant plains now adorn and beautify her scenery that did in 
 the days of her poets and philosophers ; yet the eloquence of 
 Demosthenes is no longer heard in her country, no gods dwell 
 in Parnassus, nor "the nine longer hallow her helicon springs." 
 The names of her heroes, poets, and philosophers, are known 
 only in her history and ancient song. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 175 
 
 The same breeze, too, still blows over Rome that wafted 
 Sabeaa odors and spicy gales over the imperial city ; the same 
 moon and stars now look down upon her that saw the rise and 
 fall of her mighty empire ; but all else how changed ! No 
 Cincinnatus now commands her arms, no Cicero now watches 
 over the destinies of the Republic ; but these ancient trees of 
 knowledge have sown their seeds broadcast upon the world, 
 from which, like the fabled teeth of the dragon, will spring up 
 armed men, to strike for their homes, the land of their sires ; 
 to disentomb the birthplace of heroes, poets and philosophers, 
 from the grave of centuries, and call up their slumbering ghosts, 
 like the Phoenix spirit, from their own ashes. Genius is pro- 
 gressive, and the natural course of the human mind is upward 
 and onward in all nations where the intellectual predominates 
 over the animal. To what, then, can be attributed this retro- 
 gradation in the progress of society, but to the intellectual 
 inferiority of the present dominant race. 
 
 Turn now to benighted Africa ! Take a stand upon some 
 summit of the central highlands that intersect the continent, 
 or upon the high table-lands of Abyssinia ; lift the sable cur- 
 tain and look out to the south upon this dark corner of the 
 earth. Behold the fifty millions of human beings that skirt her 
 borders and roam over her plains. Behold them polluting with 
 the blood of heathenism and despair, the most exuberant soil 
 under the sun ; staining with the smoke of human wretchedness 
 the sweetest scenery ever eye reposed on ; and tainting the 
 most salubrious clime with the incense of degradation and woe. 
 How long have they been thus brooding in the region and 
 shadow of death ? When will the blackness of darkness that is 
 lowering in gloomy clouds over the land be scattered away ? 
 And when will the dawning light of a brighter day beam upon 
 her ? We may light up the dark picture with the distant twi- 
 light of faith ; we may cast upon its dark scene the faint glim- 
 mering of religious hope ; but, alas ! how soon they vanish in 
 the dark chasm that is yawning before us ! 
 
 Let us pause, for a time, to dwell upon the condition of this 
 mysterious people. It is contended by the advocates of the 
 common origin of mankind, that Africa was peopled by Asiatic 
 emigrants into Egypt ; that these wanderers passed on, step by 
 step, across the deserts, over the mountains, through the 
 marshes and plains, gradually changing their physical orL^ani- 
 zation under climatic and other local influences, until the whole 
 continent, from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 became inhabited by the various races and tribes that are now 
 
176 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 found scattered over the various faces of the country. But it 
 seems never to have occurred to them, that those distant lati- 
 tudes, south of the great desert, could not have been reached 
 by sea ; for the compass, and nautical skill necessary for ex- 
 ploring this yet unexplored ocean, were yet unknown to the world ; 
 neither, that Central and Southern Africa could not have been 
 explored by caravans from the Mediterranean coast, prior to 
 the introduction of camels from Asia, through Egypt, into 
 Barbary — and this epoch is well ascertained to have antedated 
 the Christian era but a short time. Yet it is asserted by Lep- 
 sius, and others, whose researches have demonstrated the fact, 
 that the negro races existed in these regions more than two 
 thousand years before Christ. They existed here, too, in de- 
 spite of natural barriers that could not have been passed by 
 any means previously known. Besides, it is shown that all the 
 four African races have, from the earliest epochs, spoken lan- 
 guages radically different from every Asiatic tongue. Lin- 
 guistic researches have established, that prior to the introduc- 
 tion of Asiatic elements into the lower valley of the Nile, the 
 speech of the ante-monumental Egyptians could have borne no 
 affinity to the latter. Lepsius, De Rogue and Birch, our 
 highest philological authorities on this question, concur in the 
 main principle that the lexicology deduced from the earliest 
 hieroglyphics exhibits two elements, namely, a primary or Afri- 
 can, and a secondary or Asiatic superimposed upon the former. 
 It is also shown, that if the Syro-Arabian engraftments were 
 deducted from the present Nubian and Berbec vernaculars, 
 spoken above and westward of Egypt, these languages would 
 be as purely African now as must have been the idioms uttered 
 by the Egyptian ancestry of those who raised the pyramids of 
 the fourth dynasty, five thousand and three hundred years ago.^ 
 
 The region, now called Cape Colony, lies between 30° and 
 35° south latitude ; it rises as you recede from the coast into 
 high table-lands and mountains, and possesses a most delightful 
 climate. The tints of vegetation are of a deep and brilliant 
 dye ; it resembles that which skirts the mountain-sides, receding 
 to the north-east, till they reach perpetual summer at the equa- 
 tor. The forests are clad in a foliage that never sears, and the 
 shrubs and flowers decorate the landscape upon the plains with 
 their tinctured shades of evergreen. Yet, in this delightful re- 
 gion, we find the lowest grade, perhaps, of the human species." 
 
 All travellers agree, that the Bushman and Hottentot are 
 
 1 Types of Mankind, p. 182. 
 
 2 "Africa and the American Flag," by Capt. Foote, U. S. N., p. 69. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 17t 
 
 but little elevated above the ourang-outang. Tlieir complexion 
 is compared by travellers to that of a person afflicted with 
 jaundice, a yellowish-brown, near the hue of a faded leaf. 
 They have woolly heads ; diminutive stature ; small, ill-shapen, 
 crania; very projecting mouths-; prognatheous faces, and badly 
 formed bodies. They are described by travellers as bearing 
 the strongest resemblance to the monkey tribe. Their common 
 objects of pursuit, for a subsistence, are serpents, lizards, and 
 grassho'i^pers. They have no fixed habitations, but sleep in 
 holes in the ground, or under the branches of trees, wherever 
 night overtakes them. They are short, lean, and, in appear- 
 ance, weak in physical strength, yet capable of enduring great 
 fatigue. Their sight is acute, but their taste and sensations 
 feeble. They do not form great societies, but wander about in 
 families.^ The next race we encounter, after leaving the Cape 
 Colony to the north-east, is the Kafirs, or Caffres. They range 
 along through the Orange River Sovereignties and Caffraria, 
 even beyond the interior. They are thus described by Lichten- 
 stein, a celebrated traveller among them, whose descriptions 
 we shall principally follow, as already quoted above : — 
 
 " The universal characteristic of all the tribes of this great 
 nation consists in an external form and figure, varying exceed- 
 ingly from the other nations of Africa. They are much taller, 
 stronger, and their limbs are better proportioned. Their color 
 is brown ; their hair black and woolly. Their countenances 
 have a character peculiar to themselves, and which does not 
 permit them to be included in any other race. They have the 
 high forehead and prominent nose of the European ; the thick 
 lips of the negro, and the high cheek-bones of the Hottentot." 
 
 " Taking our departure from the Cape," says Dr. Nott, "if 
 we continue our examinations along the coast, easterly or west- 
 erly (the interior being unexplored), as far as the transverse 
 belt of highlands, just above the equator, that separates the 
 two great deserts, northern and southern, we find a succession 
 of well-marked types seemingly indigenous to their respective 
 localities. " Along the eastern coast we find the various tribes 
 inhabiting Inharabane, Sabia, Lofala, Botonga, Mozambique, 
 Zanguebar, &c., each presenting physical characters more or 
 less hideous, and almost, without exception, in not only a bar- 
 barous, but a superlatively savage state. All hopes of eventu- 
 ally improving them, or reclaiming them from their brutish 
 habits, must be given up ; even the slaver has always rejected 
 
 1 Liclitenstein (Types of Mankind, p. 182, 183). Researches, ii. p. 44. 
 
 M 
 
nS THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 them as untractable and beyond hope of redemption.^ Yet, 
 they live in the finest country in the known world. Hear the 
 testimony of Mr. James Macqueen, who had devoted a large 
 portion of his life to the interests of Africa, given before the 
 British House of Peers in 1850 : — 
 
 "There is scarcely any tropical production known in the 
 world that does not come to perfection in Africa. There are 
 many productions peculiarly her own. The dye-stuffs and dye- 
 woods are superior to any which are known in any other quar- 
 ter of the world, inasmuch as they resist both acids and light, 
 things which we know no other dye-stuffs, from any other quar- 
 ter, can do. There is the article of sugar that can be produced 
 in every part of Africa to an unlimited extent. There is cot- 
 ton, also, above all things — cotton of a quality so fine that it 
 is finer than any description we know of in the world. Com- 
 mon cotton, in Africa, I have seen, and had it in my possession, 
 which was equal to the finest quality of American cotton. 
 Egyptian cotton is not so good as the cotton away to the South ; 
 but the cotton produced in the southern portion of Africa is 
 peculiarly fine. 
 
 "Africa is a most extraordinary country. In the eastern 
 horn, which you think to be a desolate wilderness, there is the 
 finest country and the finest climate I know. I know of none 
 in South America equal to the climate of the country in the 
 north-eastern horn of Africa. It is a very elevated country ; 
 and on the upper regions you have all the fruits, flowers, and 
 grains of Europe growing ; and in the valleys you have the 
 finest fruits in the torrid zone. The whole country is covered 
 with myrrh and frankincense ; it is covered with flocks and 
 herds ; it produces the finest grass and grains in abundance. 
 Near Brasa, for instance, on the river Webbe, you can purchase 
 as much wheat for one dollar as will serve a man for a year. 
 All kinds of European grains flourish there. In Euarca and 
 KafiFa the whole country is covered with coffee ; it is the ori- 
 ginal country of the coffee. You can purchase an ass-load 
 (200 lbs.) of coffee in the berry for about a dollar. The greater 
 portion of the coffee that we receive from Mocha is actually 
 African coffee produced in that part. "^ Again, if you were 
 to pass from the Cape Colony along up the western coast, you 
 would meet with another equally diversified series of negro 
 races inhabiting Cimbebas, Benguela, Angola, Congo, Loango, 
 Matimbas, and Guinea, where you have passed the equator to 
 lO*^ north latitude. 
 
 1 Types of Mankind, p. 184. 
 
 2 " Africa and the American Flag," by Capt. Foote, U. S. N., p. 69. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 179' 
 
 Through these provinces the negro type is but little removed 
 from the Hottentot. " The whole of Africa," says Dr. Nott, 
 "south of 10° north latitude, shows a succession of human 
 beings with intellects as dark as their skins, and with a cephalic 
 conformation that renders all hope of their future amelioration 
 a Utopian dream. "^ "It is from this region on the western 
 coast, that most of the slaves have been purchased by modern 
 nations engaged in the slave-trade. Cruelty and oppression 
 everywhere prevail. It is estimated that one-sixth of the popu- 
 lation own and enslave the balance of the entire population." 
 " It is not easy," says a modern traveller among them, " for us 
 to conceive it possible that a human being can be moulded to 
 the unhesitating submission in which a negro subject lives ; yet 
 such it is, that it becomes a source of satisfaction to him to live 
 or die, suffer or rejoice, work or play, eat or fast, just as his 
 sovereign wills. Nor is it easy to offer any probable reason 
 for the eagerness to share in cruelties, which glows in the 
 negro's bosom. Like the ferocious tiger, the appalling scenes 
 that most gratify his lusts, consist in the amount of blood shed, 
 rather than in the studious prolongation of pain. He offers, in 
 this respect, a most bloodthirsty contrast to the cold demoniac 
 vengeance of the North American savage."^ 
 
 But the conscience, the favorite genius of the Abolitionists, 
 lifts her unerring voice in justification of the horrid, loathsome 
 and disgusting forms of superstition and idolatry. Human 
 sacrifices have been, and still are, common almost everywhere. 
 Our author again tells us that "the mouths of the victims were 
 gagged by knives run through their cheeks ; and captives among 
 southern tribes were beaten with clubs to prevent resistance ; 
 or to take away their strength as the natives expressed it, that 
 they might the more easily be hurried to the hill of death." 
 Among other superstitions is that of often paying reverence to 
 the spirits of their forefathers. 
 
 The custom of saturating their graves with human blood, leads 
 to great enormities.^ " Men of rank, at their death, are pre- 
 sumed to require attendants and to be gratified with the com- 
 panionship of their friends ; for this purpose their wives, 
 children, and slaves are murdered in great numbers to afford 
 them suitable companions and attendants in another world. 
 From this superstitious notion, the utmost horror is felt at 
 
 1 Types of Mankind, p. 185. 
 
 ^ Africa and American Flag. Travels of Bayard Taylor in Central 
 Africa. Perkins' Three Years in Abyssinia, &c. 
 3 Opera cit., also Expedition of Bowditch, Forbes, Duncan, and others. 
 
180 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 decapitation, or the severing of limbs from the body after 
 death. And hence revenge malies them eager for the skulls and 
 jawbones of their enemies ; so that to perpetuate the memories 
 of their victories, in a royal metropolis, its walls, floors and 
 thrones are everywhere lowering with the hollow and ghostly 
 eyes of the dead. These sad, bare, and whitened emblems 
 of mortality and revenge present a curious and startling spec- 
 tacle clustering and festooning the red clay walls of Kamassie, 
 the Ashantee capital. 
 
 "All along the coast from the Equator to the north of the 
 Gulf of Guinea, they did not eat without throwing a portion 
 of their food upon the ground for the benefit of the dead. To 
 attempt to describe minutely the customs of the numerous tribes 
 of this section, and to wade through the horrid and revolting 
 scenes of bloodshed, cruelty, filth, and pollution that charac- 
 terize their adoration for man, beast, bird, fish, serpent, reptiles, 
 and the like, would require a volume of itself and carry us far 
 beyond the design of this treatise upon this subject. We shall 
 therefore present but a few remarks upon the two principal 
 nations on the western coast, Dahomey and Ashantee. These 
 two nations are acknowledged by all travellers to be far in 
 advance of all the surrounding nations and tribes in their 
 habits, manners and customs, and mode of living. And we 
 invite the careful attention of the reader to their comparative 
 condition, and then ask him to say in the honesty of his con- 
 viction, whether the children of these nations and their posterity 
 have been degraded by their condition and treatment in 
 America. "The people of Dahomey and Ashantee," says a 
 modern traveller among them, "are acknowledged to be con- 
 siderably in advance of all others living upon the western coast. 
 They have some agricultural implements, such as the hoe, and 
 cultivate the ground to some extent ; they also manufacture some 
 coarse goods from cotton, and live in villages." 
 
 Mr. Bowditch, of the British Exploring Expedition to Africa, 
 in 1819, describes them as follows : he says "that the Boor- 
 noos were, at that time, the most numerous nation of Africa. 
 Timbuctoo was inferior to Houssa, and not to be compared 
 with Boornoo. The Moorish influence prevailed, but was not 
 predominant ; the king of Boornoo was a Moorish negro, called 
 Billabahada ; he had a few double-barrel guns which he fired 
 on great occasions ; but gunpowder was as scarce as gold dust. 
 He was acute, capricious, and severe, but not totally devoid of 
 humanity ; and had become exceedingly unpopular by limiting 
 the number and extent of human sacrifices too much." 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 181 
 
 "The Ashantees are also quite a large tribe in the west of 
 Africa. Among this tribe they are much given to the belief in 
 witchcraft ; and those who are accused of it are tortured to 
 death. " (A custom that once prevailed in the early settlements 
 of New England.) 
 
 "The master here may kill his slave with as little fear or 
 compunction as his dog. They believe in a paradise of 
 sensuality and luxury for the nobles and better class. Hence a 
 large number of cooks, butlers, and domestics of various 
 descriptions are sacrificed at their funerals and on their tombs. 
 They believe that a higher class of gods preside over the 
 destinies of the white man than over that of the black ; and 
 hence their jealousy, prejudice, and dread of the whites. The 
 most horrid of all their customs is the sacrifice of human beings, 
 and all the horrors preparatory to that event. These take 
 place at all their principal festivals, and there are not less than 
 one hundred victims immolated at a time, and sometimes five 
 times that number. Besides, at the death of every person of 
 rank a large sacrifice is made ; and these are repeated at every 
 anniversary of the death for years afterwards. Sometimes they 
 are renewed monthly for a long time. On the occasion of the 
 death of his mother, the king butchered three hundred slaves. 
 The funeral rites of certain great captains were repeated 
 weekly for twelve weeks; and two hundred slaves immolated 
 at a time, making in all twenty-four hundred human beings for 
 each one." He gives a most horrid description of a sacrifice 
 that he witnessed, too horrid to relate ; yet it was all conscien- 
 tious and to them seemingly right, and the victims submitted 
 with astonishing fortitude to their direful fate. " They have 
 no implements of agriculture but the hoe. The tropical fruits 
 all grow spontaneously. The great obstacle to cultivating 
 commercial intercourse with these African chieftains by the 
 Europeans, is the fact that they have rejected the slave trade, 
 which constituted their main inducement to treat with other 
 nations. The continuance of this trade by the Spanish, keeps 
 up a constant interchange of commodities between them. " He 
 says, that during his stay there, more than one thousand slaves 
 left for two Spanish schooners lying off the coast. Commander 
 Forbes, of the British Navy, in 1850, the latest visitor to that 
 country, tells what he saw. He says : " There is something 
 fearful in the state of subjection, in which, in outward show, 
 the kings of Dahomey hold their highest offices ; yet when the 
 system is examined, these protestations are merely keeping up 
 of ancient customs. Although no man's head, in Dahomey, 
 16 
 
182 TlIE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 can be considered warranted for twenty-four hours, still the 
 great chief himself would find his tottering if one of these were 
 omitted. They were preparing for the ceremonies of watering 
 the graves of the royal ancestors with blood, during which the 
 king also presents some victims as a royal gift to his people. 
 This merely means that they are knocked down in public, and 
 their heads cut off amidst trumpeting, clamor, and jesting." 
 
 "With much ceremony," we read, "two large calabashes, 
 containing the skulls of kings, conquered by the Dahoraans, 
 ornamented with copper, brass, coral, &c. , were brought in 
 and placed on the ground. There was a great display of the 
 skull-bones of enemies. Some formed the heads of walking- 
 sticks and distaffs ; while those of the chiefs and men of war 
 ornamented drums, umbrellas, surmounted standards, and deco- 
 rated doorways; they were on all sides, by thousands." 
 
 " There was much to disgust the white man in the number 
 of human skulls and jawbones displayed ; but can the reader 
 imagine twelve unfortunate human beings, lashed hands and 
 feet, and tied in small canoes and baskets, dressed in clean 
 white dresses, with a high red cap, carried on the heads of fel- 
 low men ? These and an alligator and a cat were the gifts of 
 the monarch to the people — prisoners of war. " " When car- 
 ried round the court they bore the gaze of their enemies with- 
 out shrinking. At the foot of the throne they halted, while 
 the Mayo presented each with a head (bunch) of cowries, ex- 
 tolling the munificence of their monarch, who had sent it to 
 them to purchase a last meal, for to-morrow they must die." 
 
 "But of the fourteen now brought on the platform, we, the 
 unworthy instruments of Divine will, succeeded in saving the 
 lives of three. Lashed, as we have said, these sturdy men met 
 the gaze of their persecutors with a firmness perfectly asto- 
 nishing. Not a sigh was breathed. In all my life before, I 
 never saw such coolness so near death. The victims were held 
 high above the heads of their bearers, and the naked ruffians 
 thus acknowledged the munificence of their prince." "Having 
 called their names, the nearest one was divested of his clothes, 
 the foot of the basket placed on the parapet, when the king 
 gave its upper part an impetus, and the victim fell at once into 
 the pit beneath. A fall of upwards of twelve feet may have 
 stunned him, and before sense could return his head was cut oS", 
 and the body thrown to the mob, who now, armed with clubs 
 and branches, brutally mutilated and dragged it to a distant 
 pit."i 
 
 1 Africa and American Flag, p. 67. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 183 
 
 The women of Africa are everywhere slaves, or the slaves of 
 slaves ; all the burdensome labor falls on them. In Dahomey 
 a considerable portion of the king's troops consists of armed 
 and disciplined females.^ The institution of marriage is un- 
 known to the nations and tribes of which we are now speaking. 
 When a chief or noble is announced as having so many wives, 
 it signifies that he has so many female slaves. There does not 
 appear to be any tribe in Africa, in which it is not the rule that 
 a man may have as many wives as he can procure. Hence, 
 there is no such thing known to them as conjugal attachment 
 or parental affection, any more than what is common to the 
 brutes. It is asserted by travellers that the children, at the age 
 of seven or eight, are actually banished from the care and pro- 
 tection of the parent, not to return, under pain of death. 
 
 But little progress has been made towards the suppression 
 of the slave trade, by the co-operation or consent of the native 
 chiefs ; they cling to it as to life, as a time-honored custom of 
 their ancestors, and their main source of revenue. 
 
 Frequent negotiations have been had with them by English 
 missionaries, but hitherto with little effect. The reasons for 
 perpetuating this traffic, on the part of the natives, are set 
 forth in glowing colors in a speech of the King of Dahomey 
 at a conference of this kind with Captain Winniet, in 1849. 
 
 After professing his devotedness to England, he says : " The 
 form of my government cannot be suddenly changed without 
 such a revolution as to deprive me of my throne, and preci- 
 pitate my kingdom into anarchy. I and ray army are ready, 
 at all times, to fight the Queen's enemies, and to do anything 
 the English may ask of me, except to give up the slave trade. 
 No other trade is known to my people. Palm-oil, it is true, 
 is engaging the attention of some of them, but it is a slow 
 method of making money, and brings only a very small amount 
 of duties into my coffers. The planting of cotton and coffee 
 has been suggested, but this is still slower. The trees have to 
 grow, and probably I shall be in my grave before I reap any 
 benefit from them. And what am I to do in the mean time ? 
 Who will pay my troops ? Who will buy arms and clothes for 
 them? Who will buy dresses for my wives? Who will give 
 me supplies of cowries, rum, gunpowder and cloth for my annual 
 'customs'? I hold my power by the observance of the time- 
 honored customs of my fathers. I should forfeit it, and entail 
 
 1 They are called the Ainazons. Queen Victoria has recently sent a 
 thousand ornamental caps to them as a present to the King of Dahomey. 
 A.f. and Am. Flag, p. 84. 
 
184 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 on myself a life full of shame, and a death full of misery, by 
 neglecting them. The slave trade has been the ruling principle 
 of my people. It is the source of their glory and their wealth. 
 Their songs celebrate their victories, and the mother lulls the 
 child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to 
 slavery. Can I, by signing such a treaty, change the senti- 
 ments of a whole people ? It cannot be. "^ 
 
 What a chapter is here presented, in this short speech of 
 this intelligent, open-hearted and ambitious barbarian, upon 
 the infallible dictates of conscience ! He was as conscientious 
 in his plea as the very pious John Newton, of England, who 
 was for a long time engaged in this traffic, or the celebrated 
 President Edwards, who dedicated one of his masterpieces of 
 logic to the defence of the same. 
 
 The urgency, however, to which the King of Dahomey was 
 subjected, ended, at last, in 1852, in his yielding his assent to 
 the treaty. Partly overawed by the terrors of the British 
 cannon, and partly bribed by the influence of British gold, he 
 reluctantly put his seal to the document. 
 
 A few other like treaties have been established by a like 
 forced assent, principally with the chiefs or powers whose terri- 
 tories have fallen under the influence of the Republic of Liberia 
 and Cape Palmas. These have been fostered, maintained and 
 preserved from reversion into native barbarism by the force of 
 the British and American fleets cruising on the coasts of Africa. 
 But it is the opinion of the best-informed upon this subject, 
 that the trade can never be finally suppressed, except by the 
 entire conquest and subjugation of Africa.^ 
 
 One of the most potent influences for the final suppression, 
 is that of the recaptured slaves, and their descendants, return- 
 ing to their native lands, elevated in character and capacity 
 by their associations with the whites, and by the instructions 
 which they have thus received. They are carrying some im- 
 provements in agricultural, and other pursuits, where they 
 settle ; and thus rendering slave labor more valuable at home, 
 they will turn thousands into employment that would else be 
 shipped for a foreign market. Three thousand of them are now 
 settled among their brethren of the Yoruba tribe, near the 
 mouth of the Niger.* 
 
 In Dahomey, also, says Duncan, there is some improvement 
 
 1 Africa and American Flag, p. 82. 
 
 2 See Expedition of Richardson, Barth, Overway and Vogel, to Central 
 Africa, by authority of H. B. M. 1850-1-2-3, Lond. ed. 1854. 
 
 * Africa and Am. Flag, p. 76. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 185 
 
 in agriculture, traced to the return from the Brazils of a few 
 who had been trained as slaves in that empire.^ 
 
 Thus, as seeds of certain plants are thought to be transported 
 by birds of passage to distant climes, so these returning pil- 
 grims, of Africa's sons, carry back with them the germs of 
 civilization and improvement to their benighted brethren. 
 Who, then, shall say that they have been degraded by their 
 pilgrimage in the land of canes ? 
 
 It is only by the transportation of these germs from the ele- 
 ments of civilization, that they can ever be redeemed from their 
 present degradation, if they are capable of such redemption. 
 But it seems to be a physiological fact, well settled with regard 
 to the real Negro type, that they have not the mental capacity 
 ever to rise above a barbarous state of existence ; and this fact 
 is confirmed by their history, in all ages of the world. Mea- 
 sured by the size, weight, and capacity of the brain, they are 
 inferior to the race of aborigines of America.^ And they have 
 nowhere, in the history of the world, when left to themselves, 
 attained to so high a rank in the scale of civilization as some 
 of these tribes. 
 
 As we descend from the table-lands of Abyssinia along the 
 
 1 Africa and American Flag, p. 92. 
 
 •^ "Craniorum inquam quibus ad gentilitias varietates distinguendas et 
 definiendas nulla alia humani corporis pars aptior videtur, cum caput 
 osseum (praeterquam quod animae domicilium et ofiSciua, imo vero inter- 
 pres quasi et explanator ejus sit, utpote universce physiognomife basin et 
 firmamentum constituens) stabilitati suae maximam conformationis et 
 partium relativEe proportionis varietatem junctam Iiabeat unde characteres 
 nationum, cerlissemas desumere licet." Blumenbach. 
 
 The peculiar expression of the Negro physiognomy depends upon the 
 difference between the horizontal measurement of the circumference of 
 the head from around the crown downwards : the number of inches 
 around the crown is less than around the forehead, and that still less 
 than around the nose and ears, showing a constant increase downwards 
 from the crown. This is owing to the narrow, flat crown ; the low, 
 slanting forehead ; the projection of the upper edges of the orbits of the 
 eyes — a formation that contracts the intellectual lobe of the brain, and 
 enlarges the back and lower portion, generally acknowledged to be the 
 seat of the animal propensities. In the Caucasian race, these measure- 
 ments will all be found equal, or, if there is a slight variation, they decrease 
 downwards from the crown. The equality of these lines is the standard 
 of a model head. 
 
 Dr. Wyman, in his post-mortem examination of the head of Daniel 
 Webster, found the internal capacity to be 122 cubic inches, with a cir- 
 cumference of 23| inches; while the mean internal capacity of Negro 
 crania, as far as ascertained by Morton, is only 82 cubic inches ; but 
 there are many heads of Anglo-Americans much larger than Mr Web- 
 ster's. 
 
 16* 
 
186 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 waters of the Nile, flowing to the south, we lose sight of the 
 real Negro land, and all traces of the true Negro type. We 
 have met with another race of beings, wholly distinct, in their 
 physical conformation, character, and condition, from those we 
 have been contemplating. It is here we first meet with the 
 pure Ethiopians, who have been very improperly confounded 
 with negroes.' 
 
 Dr. Pritchard, in describing this race of Africans, has taken 
 much pains to prove that they, together with the tribes of the 
 eastern basin of the Nile, down to Egypt, inclusive, not only 
 are not Negro, but were not originally Asiatic races, display- 
 ing somewhat of an intermediate type, which is nevertheless 
 essentially African in character.^ 
 
 "This autochthonous type," says Mr. Gliddon, "as we shall 
 prove, ascends so far back in time, is so peculiar, and withal 
 so connected with a primordial tongue presenting but small 
 incipient affinity with Asiatic languages, about thirty-five cen- 
 turies before Christ, as to preclude every possible idea of an 
 Asiatic origin for its aboriginal Nilotic speakers and hiero- 
 glyphical scribes."* 
 
 On the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean 
 and the Great Desert, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tri- 
 poli, and Bengazi, there is a continued range of highlands 
 which have been included under the general name of Atlas, 
 anciently Atlantis, now Barbary States. 
 
 "This immense tract," says Mr. Gliddon, "in no very 
 recent geological period, was an island, with the ocean flow- 
 ing over the whole of Sahara, and thus cutting off all com- 
 munication between Barbary on the Mediterranean, and the 
 remote plateau of Nigretia, or Negro land."'' 
 
 Throughout this northern region of Africa are found quite 
 a different and distinct group of races, subdivided into many 
 tribes of various shades. At the time of Leo Africanus, the 
 ancient Berber was the language of all Atlas. These ancient 
 Berbers are the Numidians and Mauritanians of classical wri- 
 ters, by the Romans termed genus insuperable in hello. To 
 these belong the white Tuarics who have penetrated to the 
 oases in the deserts. Here, then, seems to have been another 
 centre of creation and distribution, like that of Southern Asia, 
 described in the tenth chapter of Genesis. * 
 
 The countries of these more northern races of Africa lay 
 
 1 Physical History of Mau: Pritchard. Types of Mankind, pp. 173-4. 
 
 2 Opera cit. 3 Types of Mankind, p. 194. 
 * Opera cit. p. 204. * Types of Mankind, p. 205. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 187 
 
 accessible to the Asiatic and European nations, by whom fre- 
 quent conquests were made upon them, and several colonies 
 founded among them and in their territories, at an early day ; 
 from whence arose those infiltrations of foreign blood in their 
 veins, and those engraftments of exotic idioms upon their 
 original languages. And to this cause must be attributed the 
 diversified tribes, and variations in their more modern dialects. 
 The Christian and European captives sold in the maritime cities 
 throughout the privateering principalities, have blended every 
 type of man that could be kidnapped around the Black Sea, 
 the Mediterranean, and eastern Atlantic, by the corsairs of 
 Barbary. 
 
 Yet these people, like the other branches of the family, the 
 Abyssinians, Nubians, and Egyptians, have preserved enough 
 of their original characteristics, both in their physiology and 
 language, to prove conclusively to all the most celebrated tra- 
 vellers among them, that they are a race (including all their 
 several branches) distinct from all others, and indigenous to 
 the zoological locations that they inhabit.' 
 
 We next approach Egypt — Egypt, the cradle of arts and 
 the ancient seat of civilization. Listen to the voice that she 
 sends up from the grey years of antiquity ! It comes like the 
 stirring of the breeze upon the mountaius ; it floats in majesty 
 like the echo of thunder ; it breathes solemnity like a sound 
 from the tombs. Let the nations hearken, for the slumber of 
 ages is broken, and the hurried voices of centuries speak 
 again from her magnificent ruins ! Roll back the tide of five 
 thousand years ! Towering along upon the banks of the sacred 
 Nile, stand her gigantic monuments and all the magic display 
 of her arts. The scathing billows of Time come surging over 
 them like the heavings of the mad ocean ; and, merged in the 
 gloom of the past, Egypt, with all her grandeur, becomes a 
 land of seared mummies and mysterious tombs. 
 
 Ages roll on — silence, darkness, and desolation hang over 
 the face of her ancient splendor. Her pompous mansions, 
 temples, and catacombs are tenanted only by the embalmed 
 skeletons of those who once laid the vast foundations of her 
 former greatness. So, other generations have lived above 
 these, and trampled upon the dust of her long-lost glory, till 
 the slumber of their dreamless abodes are nigh forgotten. 
 
 But she now beheld a resurrection. As summoned by the 
 
 1 They are an iuJoniitable nomadic people, who, since the introduction 
 of camels, have penetrated in considerable numbers into the deserts, even 
 as far as Nigretia. 
 
188 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 blast of the final trumpet, she has shaken from her beauty the 
 ashes of centuries, and once more speaks to the world in the 
 hieroglyphic language of the builders of her citadels. There 
 stand her gigantic ruins, with utter desolation perched upon 
 their dilapidated walls. Egypt, mouldering relic of a former 
 world ! — strange redemption from the sepulchre ! — how vivid 
 are the historic memoirs that cluster around her ! Her loneli- 
 ness is rife with tongues, for the shadows of many ages are cast 
 upon her walls. Man treads her desolate and forgotten streets, 
 and is lost in the dreams of other days. Yenerable and eter- 
 nal relic ! The storied urn of a nation's memory ! A disen- 
 tombed and risen witness from the dead ! Every stone in the 
 walls of her tombs and her monuments is immortal ! 
 
 "When we cast around for a spot on which to locate the first 
 traces of human existence upon the earth, with their magic 
 signals they point to the banks of the sacred Nile. Egypt's 
 proud pyramids, if we credit the Champollion school, elevates 
 us at least one thousand years above all other profane traces 
 of nationality. "And what is most remarkable," says Mr. 
 Gliddon, "when Egypt first presents herself to our view, she 
 stands forth not in childhood, but with the maturity of man- 
 hood's age, arrayed in the time-worn habiliments of civiliza- 
 tion.'" 
 
 It has been a source of much speculation and animated 
 controversy as to the origin of the ancient Egyptians, and the 
 race of mankind to which they belong. It has been said by 
 one school of naturalists, among whom, of the ancients, was 
 Herodotus, and of modern archaeologists. Prof. Rosselini, 
 Champollion, Figeac Champollion le Jeune, and others, that 
 they were of Ethiopian descent, and that Egyptian civilization 
 descended from Ethiopia down the Nile. Others contend for 
 their Adamic and Asiatic origin — among whom are the names 
 of J. Gr. Wilkinson, long a resident of Egypt ; also the learned 
 hierologist Samuel Birch, of the British Museum ; and the 
 great naturalists Blumenbach, Cuvier, and many others. 
 
 Again, it is contended, in the progress of discoveries and 
 of knowledge, that the ancient Egyptians were of a race sui 
 generis, the aborigines of their ancient habitations, and indi- 
 genous to their own central creation and zoological location 
 — the connecting type between the Negro proper and the 
 
 1 But for the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the recent 
 developments from their tombs and monuments, the world must have 
 remained in ignorance of one of the earliest and most important periods 
 of its history. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 189 
 
 Asiatic races. Among the advocates of this theory is to be 
 found the name of the late celebrated Dr. Morton : it is also 
 advocated by Nott and Gliddon, in a very learned and forcible 
 collection of facts and authorities in their joint work, entitled 
 "Types of Mankind." 
 
 But the proper limits of our remarks, in a treatise of this 
 kind, will not admit of a statement of this controversy, in 
 detail, or any extended review of the arguments of either 
 party. It is not our purpose to enter into any minute discus- 
 sion of the great question of the origin and distribution of the 
 human races : guided by such lights as we have before us, we 
 have made a few general remarks upon this subject. For the 
 benefit of those who may be curious to pursue this interesting 
 subject more extensively, some reference to the most approved 
 authors may not be improper. ' 
 
 We remark, further, that the late extensive researches in 
 Egyptian arts, as well as craniology, have delineated the dis- 
 tinct type of a race, from the earliest ages, so dissimilar to the 
 negro type proper, as to render it just as improbable that the 
 ancient Egyptians descended from the negroes, as it would be, 
 in a physiological point of view, that the present inhabitants 
 of the United States were the descendants of the Aborigines 
 of America. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Morton, whose researches were, in some 
 particulars, the most extensive, and whose writings are perhaps 
 the best authority upon this question, made the following re- 
 mark : " From the preceding facts, and many others that might 
 be adduced, I think that it may be safely concluded that the 
 complexion of the ancient Egyptians did not differ from that 
 
 1 At the head of this list we would place the first part of the " Types 
 of Mankind," by Nott & Gliddon: Phila. ed. 1854. This is the latest 
 book upon this subject, and a work of great learning and research, em- 
 bodying a vast amount of valuable information, collected from the most 
 authentic sources. "Natural History of Man," in five volumes. Lend, 
 ed. 1848, by Dr. Pritchard; also "Varieties of Man," Lend ed. 1851. 
 " Knox's Races of Men," Phila. ed. 1850. The great work of Jaquinot, 
 "Considei'ations G^nerales sur I'Anthropologie Zoologie," 1846. The 
 works of Charles Pickering, Naturalist to the U. S. Exploring Expedi- 
 tion. The Ptesearches of Lepsius, an explorer sent out to Egypt by the 
 Prussian Government, in 1842-3 — the translations of which may be 
 found in Bohn's Library. Also the great works of Champollion, Belzoni, 
 and Rosellini, with their plates, copied accurately from the Egyptian; 
 which may be seen, on a folio scale, in Harvard College Library. "Cra- 
 nia /Egyptiaca," by Dr. Morton, Phila. 1844; also "Crania Americana." 
 "Otia ^Egyptiaca," by G. R. Gliddon, a collection of facts from twenty 
 years' residence in Egypt. 
 
190 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 of the Caucasian races in the same latitude; — that, while the 
 higher classes that were screened fropi the action of the sun, 
 were fair, in a comparative sense, the multitude and lower 
 classes, like the modern Arabs, Berbers, and Moors, presented 
 various shades of complexion even to a dark and swarthy tint, 
 that the fair-skinned Gieeks regarded as black, in comparison 
 with their own."^ 
 
 He said, also, "that negroes were numerous in Egypt, but 
 their social condition was, in ancient times, the same as now, 
 that of slaves." 
 
 Again, he says, speaking of the MS. preparation of a new 
 edition of his " Crania iEgyptiaca : "In this work I maintain, 
 without reservation, that the human race, as a whole, has not 
 sprung from one single pair, but from a plurality of centres ; 
 that these were created, ab initio, in those parts of the world 
 best adapted to their physical characters, that the epoch of 
 creation was that undefined period of time spoken of in the 
 first chapter of Genesis, when it is related that God formed 
 man from the dust ; male and female created He them. That 
 the deluge was a mere local phenomenon ; that it affected but 
 a limited portion of the then inhabited globe. These views 
 are consistent with the facts of the case as well as the analogi- 
 cal evidence." 
 
 Again, he says, "You allude to my altered views in Ethno- 
 logy, but it all consists in regarding the Egyptian race as the 
 indigenous people of the valley of the Nile."^ 
 
 A volume of similar quotations might be cited from other 
 authors to this effect; but these are sufficient to show the views 
 of those great masters of this science who have devoted their 
 lives to this subject. 
 
 But it is really a matter of no great importance to the ques- 
 tion of the original unity and equality of the human races, 
 who the people of Ancient Egypt may have been, or from what 
 source they emanated. The most imposing and important fact 
 disclosed by the revelations of their history, is that they found 
 the several types of mankind as varied and distinct as those of 
 the present day, and that they have preserved a record of this 
 from so remote a period. 
 
 1 <' Crania .(Egyptiaca," Morton. An ancient writer, Ammianus Mai-- 
 celliuus, speaks of the Egyptians as follows: "Homines autem ^Egyptii 
 phrique subfusculi sunt, et atrati magisque moestiores, gracilenti et aridi 
 ad singulos motus, excandescentcs controversi et reposcones acerrinii. 
 Erubescit apud eos si quis non inficiando tributa, plurimas in corpora 
 vibices ostendat." — Rerum Gesiarum, lib. xxxii. 
 
 2 Types of Mankind, p. 232. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 191 
 
 Even admitting that Egypt, if it were possible, was the 
 great artery through which portions of Africa were peopled by 
 Asiatic nations, as is contended ; suppose even the poor de- 
 graded Bushman, forming for himself, from sticks and grass, a 
 lair among the low spreading branches of the Protea, or nest- 
 ling, at sunset, in a shallow hole, amid the sands of the desert, 
 with his little ones, like a covey of birds, sheltered by some 
 ragged fragments of skins from the chilling dews of heaven, 
 has an ancestral relationship to the builders of the pyramids 
 and colossal temples of Egypt. How long will be required 
 for him to retrace his wandering steps through the several links 
 of gradations along upon the eastern coast of Africa, till his 
 present beastly and prognathous features shall be merged in the 
 type of the ante-monumental Egyptians, and the low, guttural 
 " gluckings" of the Hottentot shall rise to the lofty idioms of 
 the ancient Berber ? ' 
 
 And how long a time will be required from him to roll back 
 the wave of oblivion that has passed over this ancient seat of 
 Nilotic civilization ; to turn back the tide of five thousand 
 years, and recall from the dark abyss of the past the long-lost 
 arts and sciences, all traces of which have nearly adcd from 
 the memory of man ; to reconstruct and readorn those ancient 
 and modern wonders of the world whose gigantic ruins have 
 withstood the dilapidating scourges of time for more than five 
 thousand years ? Is such a dream within the range of human 
 possibility ? We answer, no : nothing but a miracle can ever 
 produce such an effect. 
 
 But if this genealogical theory would account for the Hot- 
 tentots and Bushmen, to what source shall we trace the normal 
 features and signal characteristics of the real negro race ? 
 Whither shall we retrace their steps from the low marshes and 
 sunderbunds of the Gaboon and Congo rivers, where the aber- 
 rant peculiarities of the negro type seem to be most strikingly 
 developed, and the central highlands of the more interior and 
 northern nations ? Can any retrograde pathway be found 
 across the trackless and impassable desert, or through the un- 
 known ocean that will also carry them back to the land of the 
 Pharaohs, and identify them by marks of kindred blood with the 
 builders of the Pharaonic pyramids, and the sacred tenants of 
 their tombs ? Are they, too, to be gathered under the wing of 
 
 1 "If the great branches of the human family have remained distinct 
 in separate types for the lapse of ages, with their characteristics fixed 
 and unalterable, we are justified in the conclusion that mankind are divi- 
 sible into distinct original species." — Jacquinof, ZoL, 2, p. 36. 
 
192 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 their Libyan family as a branch of the same parental stock ? 
 If so, how long will be required for them to exhibit the physi- 
 cal and mental proofs to entitle them to such ancestral relation- 
 ship ? 
 
 The social, moral, and political, as well as the physical his- 
 tory of the negro race bears strong testimony against them ; 
 it furnishes the most undeniable proof of their mental inferiority. 
 In no age or condition has the real negro shown a capacity to 
 throw off the chains of barbarism and brutality that have long 
 bound down the nations of that race ; or to rise above the com- 
 mon cloud of darkness that still broods over them. 
 
 In no quarter of the globe have the energies of the human 
 mind been so long locked up in the dungeon of despair. "While 
 in other nations its elastic energies have burst up like the heav- 
 ings of a volcano, sundering all obstacles to its rise, progress, 
 and developments, the barbarous negro nations of Africa have 
 quietly rested in their unalloyed barbarism for thousands of 
 years, exhibiting no more evidence of a capacity for native 
 born advancement than the baboons and ourang-outangs that 
 people the forests.^ 
 
 Every other nation, from China to Mexico and Peru, have 
 respectively advanced from a savage to a barbarous, semi-bar- 
 barous, half-civilized, to a civilized and an enlightened state. 
 The wealth, magnificence, and power of the Celestial Empire 
 is the result of native genius and energy. Those mysterious 
 landmarks of art, science, and civilization in the ancient do- 
 mains of the Inca and Toltecan Family, are undeniable proofs 
 of an intellectual capacity and mental endowment far superior 
 to any traces of the kind within the whole range of the prime- 
 val negro nations of Africa.^ 
 
 The glory of ancient Greece took its rise from a tribe of 
 savages that at first fed upon nuts, roots, and herbs. Rome, 
 too, first sprang from the urned ashes of a few Latin exiles 
 cast upon her shores. Yet, lifting herself, like the serpent in 
 the wilderness, she stretched her broad wing over half the cir- 
 cumference of the globe. Her course through the earth was 
 like a comet through the heavens ; yet how beautiful are the 
 
 1 The snake's poison arms their weapons, and her body is eaten. 
 Throughout all the deserts, as in ancient times, the grasshopper is used 
 as an article of food. — Africa and Am. Flag, p. 92. It is said that slavery 
 and oppression have been the cause of their present degradation. But 
 what other nation has not been weighed down by the same incubus ? 
 
 ^ Yet the Africans live in similar latitudes, and in some of the finest 
 climates in the world. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 193 
 
 stars that she left in her trail 1 Great Britain was once peopled 
 by a race of Cannibals, once tributary to the great Roman 
 Conqueror, and her sons fit only to be the slaves of Romans. 
 Yet, by the commingling of a five-fold race there has grown up 
 a mighty nation, who claims to be master of the sea, and upon 
 whose empire the sun always shines.' 
 
 What were the Celtic, Germanic, and other nations of West- 
 ern Europe in the days of Tacitus ? They scarcely excelled 
 in arts and civilization the wandering tribes of Aborigines in 
 America, yet they have all lived through the dark passage of 
 the middle ages, seen the revival of literature and learning, and 
 are now like cities set on a hill, disseminating their light to the 
 world. '^ 
 
 Revolutions and the conflict of passions, like throes in the 
 depths of nature, have thrown up nations in the fields of the 
 past, like isles in an ocean of darkness. Hermes, with his 
 magic rod, has waved the flag of commerce over their shores, 
 and civilization, literature, and art have sprung up and flou- 
 rished in his footsteps. But the oldest state of negro society 
 continues unchanged. With the exception of a few civilized 
 vices, civilized arms, and some amount of civilized luxuries, 
 borrowed from other nations, life upon the African coast is pre- 
 cisely the same now that the first discoverers found it. Intel- 
 lectual inferiority and incapacity for any native improvement is 
 stamped by the hand of his Creator upon the negro's brow, 
 written in his features, and re-written in his social and political 
 history.' 
 
 Unfortunate and unjust as it may seem, still, wherever he 
 may go, the mark of Cain is yet upon him ; the first impulse 
 of nature, in the bosom of his superiors, responds everywhere 
 to this truth, in their contempt for his person and aversion to 
 his society.* In the very heart and hot-bed of the professed 
 
 1 And she carried along with her, from her earliest history, the worst 
 form of slavery. (Vid. supra.) 
 
 2 They have all advanced with the incubus of slavery hanging to the 
 car. 
 
 2 We would not decry or discourage missionary labors among them, if 
 they can by any means ameliorate their condition. We bid them God 
 speed in a noble work. But we fear that they are "casting their pearls 
 before swine." What have their efforts availed with the North American 
 savage ? Nothing ; every real tawny son of the forest is still the same. 
 What have they, and what will they avail with the African savage? Alas! 
 experience "hurries us back to despair." 
 
 * See remarks of Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case, 19 How. 
 Rep. p. 416, et seq. They arc there held to be an inferior race of beings, 
 17 N 
 
194 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 negro philanthropists or Abolitionists, he is an outcast from all 
 society, and the furthest removed from many of the most pre- 
 cious privileges of a citizen and a social being. In the State 
 of Massachusetts, even in the city of Boston, the social condi- 
 tion of the free man of color is more degraded than in the 
 State of Louisiana — a fact which completely negatives the oft- 
 repeated assertion that slavery has been the cause of the con- 
 tempt and social degradation under which they live. The cause 
 lies rather in a general want of moral, intellectual and personal 
 excellence in the negro, to render him companionable and an 
 object of interest and an equal, rather than of aversion and of 
 inferiority.^ 
 
 Human history cannot be a mere chapter of accidents. The 
 fate of races and nations cannot be always regulated by chance ; 
 their intellectual philosophy, literature, science, art, wealth, 
 religion, language, laws and morals cannot be the result of mere 
 accidental circumstances. 
 
 These truths, practically held and universally acknowledged, 
 have elicited a more diligent inquiry into the comparative ana- 
 tomy and physiology of the negro race. These investigations, 
 with reference to the theory that there is a necessary connection 
 between the cephalic conformation and the leading features of 
 mental structure, and, consequently, between the size, propor- 
 tional divisions, and relative capacity of each section of the 
 brain, and the intellectual, moral, social and political condition 
 of every race of men. In this chapter of experimental philo- 
 sophy, induction has confirmed what was but a preconceived 
 hypothesis. The result has been the solution of the great pro- 
 blem, that the real cause of the negro's inferior character and 
 condition is seated iu his physical organization. 
 
 The late celebrated Dr. Morton, formerly President of the 
 American Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia (to 
 whose writings we refer with the utmost confidence, as the best 
 authority upon this subject extant), established, by numerous 
 observations, tests and admeasurements, a mean internal capa- 
 city for the negro crania, of both African and American born, 
 
 who are not classed as citizens or members of the body politic by the con- 
 stitution, not capable of being entrusted with the rights and duties of a 
 sitizen in the United States. 
 
 1 Their inferiority and unfitness for companionship with the whites has 
 often been made a matter of legislative enactment, by prohibiting mar- 
 riages between the two races, and in excluding them from all the highest 
 functions of citizens and social beings with the whites. See collection of 
 legislative enactments upon this subject in the opinion of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case, 19 How. Rep. p. 415. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 195 
 
 less by twelve cubic inches than that of the Ansjlo-Saxoii race, 
 besides a variety of peculiarities of form, among the most im- 
 portant of which are the low, flat and slanting forehead, and 
 the depressed or flattened summit or crown of the head — a 
 conformation that necessarily contracts the capacity of the cere- 
 brum, the seat of the intellectual faculties, elongates and en- 
 larges the cerebellum, dethrones the intellect, and renders the 
 acknowledged seat of the animal propensities the principal 
 volume of the brain. 
 
 Prof. Agassiz has also asserted " that a peculiar conforma- 
 tion characterizes the brain of an adult negro. Its development 
 never goes beyond that observable in the Caucasian in boyhood. 
 And, besides other singularities, it bears a striking resemblance, 
 in several particulars, to the brain of an ourang-outang. " 
 
 One of these particulars is the excess of the animal over the 
 intellectual portion of the biain. 
 
 These peculiarities characterize the negro type ; they have, 
 from the earliest ages, remained the same ; they are, and must 
 of necessity be, a fixed fact in physiology ; as much so as the 
 peculiar form of the hand, the foot, the relative position of the 
 spine, the form of the ribs, or any other marks of peculiarity 
 that distinguish the negro from the other types of mankind. 
 The doctrine of the plurality of original types or races of men 
 has been denounced as anti-scriptural, and tending to infidelity ; 
 but, in truth, the danger lies upon the other side of the ques- 
 tion. For if the physical organization of the animal kingdom 
 is progressive, and one type of man or beast may, from exter- 
 nal causes, gradually approximate, and finally lose itself in 
 another, higher than itself, the skeptic has but to seize upon 
 the retrograde course, and he finds no stopping-place till he 
 reaches the mineral kingdom. It puts a magic wand into his 
 hand, that enables him to smite the whole framework of natural 
 theology and it falls into chaos, to overturn the foundations of 
 the universe, and resolve the whole pantheism into an endlessly 
 revolving system of things.^ 
 
 No man will deny, who is able to form an opinion from ob- 
 servation, that the average size of the head around the crown 
 of any promiscuous number of African, or American born 
 negroes, will be found less than the size of the same number of 
 white population of English descent, by from one to two inches. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton Smith states : "We have personally witnessed 
 the issue of military cbacos (caps) to the Second West India 
 
 ^ He may thus run the race out into a monad. See "Vestiges of 
 Creation." 
 
196 THE MORAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 regiment, at the time when all the rank and file were bought 
 out of slave ships, and the sergeants alone being part white, 
 men of color, negroes from North America, or born Creoles. 
 And it was observed that scarcely any fitted the heads of the 
 privates, excepting the two smallest sizes ; in many instances, 
 robust men of the standard height required padding an inch 
 and a half in thickness to fit their caps !"^ And this, too, not- 
 withstanding the excess of the thickness in the crania of the 
 negro. 
 
 These analyses of the size, form, and anatomical structure 
 of the negro's head, we frequently meet with in treatises upon 
 anatomy and physiology. But it remains yet for the philoso- 
 pher and the moralist to analyze his mental structure, and show 
 a corresponding development of intellectual and moral cha- 
 racter. Upon this metaphysical subject we have not the means 
 of ocular demonstration accessible to the physiologist ; we can 
 only reason from facts established by the most extensive and 
 authentic sources of observation. 
 
 From what we have seen of the negro race in their native 
 country, and what may be correctly observed of their posterity 
 in all parts of the woi-ld, it must be admitted, by all of exten- 
 sive observation, that the preponderance of the animal propen- 
 sities is a general trait in their character. This predisposes 
 them to moral insensibility, intellectual stupidity, indolence and 
 gluttony. Beyond a few childish amusements generally, the 
 height of his aspirations is to satiate his appetite, then to 
 lounge, sleep, sweat and steam in the sun, like the moping alli- 
 gator upon his log by the river bank. 
 
 Like some of the more gluttonous and greedy species of ani- 
 mals, he is a perfect slave to desires, and often becomes a mono- 
 maniac upon the subject of the gratification of his appetites. 
 Hence his adoration for certain beasts, birds, fishes, insects, 
 serpents and lizards ; and not unfrequently he alone, of all the 
 known species, falls into the grovelling and beastly habit of 
 eating dirt.^ 
 
 The insatiable passion for stimulants, such as tobacco, whis- 
 key, and the like, that shows itself, even in the early childhood 
 of the negro race, and the abject slavery to which it reduces 
 its subjects, is another evidence of the predominance of the 
 animal inclinations. Who has ever travelled through any 
 neighborhood of the slave-holding States, and not been fre- 
 
 i Types of Mankiod, p. 453. 
 
 ^ There may be some very rare instances of this in the higher species, 
 from some local cause, but with the negro it is quite common as a habit. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 19Y 
 
 quently accosted by the little curly-headed urchins, from seven 
 to ten or twelve years of age, with " Massa, gimme chaw 
 hakker, please sir" ? And generally, even at this tender age, 
 they will devour large quids of tobacco, and drams of whiskey, 
 with as great a gusto as the white toper and tobacco-chewer of 
 mature years — things at which the more delicate organs of the 
 Caucasian youth would sicken and revolt. This is not habit; 
 it is nature ; it is born in him, and continues with him to his 
 grave. 
 
 All the social attachments, sentiments and feelings of the 
 negro are imperfect, and savor rather of animal instinct and 
 impulse, than of intellectual and moral sensibilities. Even 
 those of conjugal attachment and parental aifection are not 
 natural to the unsophisticated African negro, to a much greater 
 extent than is common to the brute. In their native country, 
 the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, have but a 
 nominal existence. In their association with civilized society, 
 they imbibe these feelings to some extent by the force of imi- 
 tation and habit. 
 
 The very many instances of remarkable fidelity and attach- 
 ment to their masters, a characteristic quite common among 
 them, are founded not so much upon any high intellectual and 
 refined sentiment of gratitude, as upon an instinctive impulse, 
 possessed even to a higher degree by some of the canine species. 
 
 Another evidence of the ruling character of the animal 
 appetites and passions in the negro, is the very weak and im- 
 perfect development of the intellectual powers. The fact can- 
 not be denied by any one acquainted with the subject, that 
 there is almost a total want of imagination, of the powers of 
 comparison, and of originality of genius and conception, 
 throughout the entire negro population.^ 
 
 Among the plantation hands throughout the slave States, 
 while a few are forced by imitation and a long training, by 
 habit, to do some of the rough work of the arts necessary for 
 those purposes, the greater majority of them have not genius 
 enough to make a hoe-handle, an axe-helve, or stock a plough. 
 
 During a residence of fifteen years in the State of Louisiana, 
 and from an extensive acquaintance and observation in both 
 the States of Mississippi and Louisiana, and to a greater or 
 
 1 It should be remarked, that not every black man, or even African, is 
 properly included in what is termed by ethnologists the negro type. A 
 very broad distinction has been made, as we have seen, between the negro 
 proper and many nations of Africa. And when I speak of the negro, I 
 mean of the type of the Guinea negro. 
 11* 
 
198 THE jNioral attitude of 
 
 less extent, in every State in the Union, except Florida, I have 
 never met with, or read of a real negro, possessing the pecu- 
 liarities of that type, either African or American born, who 
 evinced even an ordinary degree of originality or inventive 
 genius for anything.^ Nor have I ever seen, read of, or heard 
 of a specimen of their manufacturing in any portion of the 
 world, that evinced even an ordinary degree of skill ; or ever 
 known of one being employed in the higher and more difficult 
 mechanism of the arts. And I shall be sustained, by every 
 observing mind, whose means of observation have been exten- 
 sive, in the assertion that the negro population could never, 
 upon any principle of human probability, acquire the exact 
 sciences to any considerable extent, or ever make any pro- 
 ficiency in the arts, sculpture, painting, or poetry. 
 
 In ancient Greece, slaves worked at all the higher branches 
 of the arts.^ 
 
 In Rome, there was a class of highly educated slaves who 
 were masters of all the arts, and practised some of the learned 
 professions.^ 
 
 It is useless to contend that the political and social condition 
 of the negro has always kept him back: his condition in por- 
 tions of Africa has been as favorable for the development of 
 his powers as that of any nation of the world. 
 
 Whenever there is native talent, latent intellect and origi- 
 nality of genius, it must and will, at times, either accidentally 
 or designedly, discover itself. You might as well suppress the 
 elastic energies of a volcano. Neither will it suffice to attri- 
 bute this long chapter of blank existence in the history of the 
 negro race to want of opportunity and proper culture and in- 
 ducements : these do not lay at the root of the evil ; it is seated, 
 as we have before said, in the structure of the brain. How 
 has it been with the unlettered of other nations ? Wherever 
 there is intellect ; wherever there is genius, even in the untu- 
 tored mind, it has and will develop itself in various ways in 
 whatever condition it may be in. Look at China, Mexico, and 
 even the aboriginal tribes of America. Even their evidences of 
 
 1 1 am aware of the history of " George Harris," of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
 and if he was even a half-breed of the real negro type, I should require 
 some further evidence of the fact before I should be induced to credit the 
 story. 
 
 2 Demosthenes' father left sword-makers and engravers. There were 
 also artisans in all the workshops of Greece. See Essay on Greek Slavery, 
 p. 63. 
 
 ' See Essay on Roman Slavery, p. 87. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 199 
 
 intellect and of geuins are far superior to anything discovered 
 by the negro race. 
 
 What other race of beings has ever been reduced to such 
 abject servitude, and so long worn the yoke of bondage with 
 such grace and docility as the negro race in Africa ? And 
 what does this argue for them but inherent intellectual imbe- 
 cility ? They are the creatures of imitation ; they originate 
 nothing ; they acquire nothing, except it be to imitate what 
 they see done by their superiors ; their language, their manners 
 and customs and habits are imperfectly acquired in this man- 
 ner, though they seemingly take great pride in politeness and 
 refinement of manners. 
 
 Again : no one, who has been accustomed to notice the pecu- 
 liar traits of the negro character to any considerable extent, 
 can fail to have noticed the total want of moral firmness that 
 characterizes all their actions. Hence their native disregard 
 for the truth, for honesty, and their treacherous and unprinci- 
 pled character. To talk to the negro about being governed by 
 principle any further than those principles contribute to the 
 gratification of his appetites and passions, would be as idle as 
 to attempt to control the wind with a broken reed. 
 
 Being the slaves of imitation and habit, their characters, in 
 certain particulars, as far as relates to acquired traits, are the 
 result of accidental circumstances, rather than of any firmness 
 of purpose, or decision of their own. Thus they are often 
 found to lead lives of great devotion, faithfulness, and honesty, 
 to their masters ; but in this they are seldom, if ever, actuated 
 by any higher motive than a dread of incurring the displeasure 
 of one who has the tact and talent to inspire them with feelings 
 of confidence in, and dependence upon, himself. 
 
 Others, on the other hand, are often accidentally left to the 
 habit of absconding, theft, intemperance, and the like, which 
 being congenial to their natures, it is in many instances impos- 
 sible to eradicate from their disposition. 
 
 Their whole life is comparatively but a state of pupilage and 
 infancy ; conscious of their own intellectual inferiority, they are 
 generally extremely credulous and confiding, except where it 
 may interfere with their vicious propensities, and easily duped 
 by their superiors to any scheme by the most trifling fascinations. 
 
 From a child-like simplicity and weakness, they are perhaps 
 the most superstitious beings in the world. They have their 
 family legends of haunted-houses, ghosts, and hobgoblins, and 
 believe in literal devils, witchcraft, and incantations of various 
 descriptions. 
 
200 SLAVERY IN THE UJJITED STATES. 
 
 These notions prevail generally, except when they have been 
 overcome by the influence of superior minds. All their freaks 
 of enthusiasm, upon religion and other subjects, often lead to 
 permanent mental derangement, and generally resemble fits of 
 intellectual hallucination more than sober rationality. lu justice 
 to " Uncle Tom's Cabin," we must say that the leading traits 
 in the character of " Topsy" are drawn to perfection as to all 
 her vicious propensities. We never wish to see a more perfect 
 delineation of the real type of negro character, in many par- 
 ticulars, than is there set forth ; but we cannot endorse the 
 representation as a whole. The authoress could not resist the 
 temptation to weave into the scene some of her own peculiar 
 dogmatisms, that exist only in the kind and charitable misgiv- 
 ings of her own imagination, and which entirely destroy the 
 truth and beauty of the picture. 
 
 The keen susceptibility of such refined feelings, exalted 
 emotions, and high intellectual endowments that she has bestowed 
 upon her, to the thoroughly experienced mind, are as much out 
 of place in the bosom of Topsy as the most costly array of 
 precious jewelry, laces, and finery would be in her costume. 
 
 In the whole routine of negro literature, their drama, popular 
 speeches, patent sermons, songs, ballads, and body of minstrelsy, 
 which, to be in good taste, must be a correct index to the 
 standard of negro intellect and character, where can be found 
 any strong bursts of impassioned feelings of an elevated 
 character ? or any traces of such refined intellectual and moral 
 sentiments as Topsy exhibits in the reformation of her charac- 
 ter ? It is all but a windy volume of rhodomontade, or ranting 
 strains of dancing, carousing, and sensual sentimentality. 
 From the gifted genius of — 
 
 " Old Zip Coon, a wery apt scholar 
 'Case lie kill all de coon up Possum Holler," 
 
 to the sad misfortunes of — 
 
 * * " Old Dan Tucker, 
 
 Who came too late to got his supper," 
 
 it is all negro at first, negro afterwards, and negro to the last. 
 
 The highest excellence of this species of literature consists 
 in the exact representations of the reality ; and the world 
 admires and laughs most when the intellectual and moral foibles 
 are the most correctly delineated. Yet when we come to 
 analyze the subject and show the real cause of it all, we are 
 accused of harsh sayings upon the misfortunes of the black 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 201 
 
 man. It is true, the subject is unpleasant ; but the philosopher 
 can never pander to public prejudice, nor flatter popular error ; 
 wherever truth leads him he must go. The die is cast ; nature 
 has assigned the condition of the negrQ race, and fixed the limits 
 of their destiny. 
 
 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 ,No government has ever existed in the civilized world that 
 placed the black and the white man upon an equal footing as 
 to all the rights and privileges of citizens. In their jiolitical 
 and social condition, universally among the Caucasian race, 
 the negro lives under many social and civil disabilities. Lord 
 Mansfield said, in the decision of Sommersett's case, that such 
 was the odium that existed against them among the English 
 people, that they could not live in the enjoyment of any social 
 or civil privileges in England. In France they caii never 
 attain to the rights of citizens. The fundamental principles of 
 our Federal and State governments place these privileges all 
 beyond the reach of the negro in America. The Constitution 
 of the United States and that of nearly all the States, say, that 
 every free white male citizen, &c., shall be a duly qualified 
 elector ; and such only are eligible to any office of honor, profit, 
 or trust, or to be admitted generally to civil functions, to seats 
 in the churches, public schools, places of general assembly, or 
 private circles of society ; all intermarriages between the white 
 and the black races is prohibited by law. This all goes to show 
 that the negro race, by universal consent of the civilized world, 
 are considered a separate and distinct race of beings, suited 
 only to their own peculiar state and condition.^ Their freedom 
 is but a name, an unmeaning sound ; they are by nature totally 
 incapacitated to enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen, 
 except in secluded communities of their own kindred blood, 
 
 1 These truths are set forth in a striking light in the very learned and 
 masterly opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred 
 Scott case. See 19 Hou. Rep. p. 408-410. It is there decided that the 
 descendants of African slaves are not citizens of the United States within 
 the meaning of the Constitution, even though they be free. 
 
202 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 which ever have been, and ever will be, sooner or later, when 
 left to themselves, in a state of barbarism. Their condition 
 among the whites is necessarily that of pupilage and dependenc^? 
 Considerations of this kind first induced civilized nations To 
 purchase them as slaves. Slavery, as we have before said, had 
 its origin in the stern yet merciful dictates of humanity ; the 
 very word from which they take their name in the Latin lan- 
 guage, indicates the act of mercy that spared their lives. ^ 
 Slavery originated from the same cause, and existed by the same 
 laws in Africa.^ This principle of national law that governed 
 the whole ancient world, took effect there also ; and thousands 
 and millions of the hapless wretches who fell into the hands of 
 their otherwise merciless captors, were by its benign influence 
 snatched, as it were, from the jaws of death. But by the 
 barbarous customs of the country, their blood was spared but 
 for a time ; till the anniversary of some funeral rites or festive 
 occasion, to water the graves of the ancestors of their victors. 
 Wars and revolutions had destroyed and enslaved nations, till 
 one-sixth owned and held the other five-sixths of the entire 
 population in bondage. The less the demand for these preserved 
 captives as merchandize, the less value and consequence they 
 became to their African owners, and even burdensome to sup- 
 port ; and hence the greater number could be sacrificed on all 
 occasions, and the more shocking these scenes of carnage and 
 bloodshed became, to glut the blood-thirsty mania of these 
 African savages. J 
 
 Such was the condition of all the slave regions of Africa 
 when the first English slave ship found its way to her coast. 
 She arrived there upon a mission of mercy ; to be (as Com- 
 mander Forbes, of the British navy in 1850, tells us he was at 
 one of their sacrifices),^ the unworthy instrument, in the hands 
 of Divine Providence, in saving the lives of so^ne of these mi- 
 serable creatures doomed to the knife of the executioner j to 
 transport them from this thraldom of heathen darkness into the 
 light and knowledge of the one living and true God. 
 
 Humanity and Christian benevolence every where plead for 
 
 1 Serve or Servare, to preserve, not slay their captives. Inst. Just, 
 lib. i. t. 2. c. 3. 
 
 2 Wheat's Elements of Inter. Law, p. 194. The slave trade is not pro- 
 hibited by the code of nations ; this principle of national law is still in 
 force in Africa, and in all nations where it has not been abolished by 
 municipal regulations. Op. cit. (in loco.), Case of Diana Stowell, 
 1 Dod. p. 95. 
 
 * Africa and the American Flag, by Foote. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 203 
 
 mercy to the wretched African captive. It was originally the 
 same spirit that induced Moses to retain the foreign fugitive 
 who had escaped from a heathen master to some one of the 
 tribes of Israel : actuated by the noblest impulse of the human 
 heart, he could not suffer the stranger to be denied the blessings 
 that had been vouchsafed to his own countrymen, and remanded 
 back into a land of heathen darkness. The same motives 
 touched the cord of true philanthropy in the heart of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and moved her at first to permit, encourage, and 
 patronize John Hawkins and other English merchants to en- 
 gage in the traffic. It was the same spirit that first moved the 
 enlightened and philanthropic body of the British Parliament 
 to charter the Royal African, and afterwards the West India 
 Company, for the same purpose. Clt was in the Christian hope 
 of benefiting these wretched beings in Africa, that the pious 
 John Newton, of Liverpool, fitted a slave ship, and actually 
 commanded her for several trips in the Guinea Trade.) It was 
 the same spirit that moved the pen of the celebrated "Jonathan 
 Edwards in defence of the African slave trade, and prompted 
 him to dedicate one of his master-pieces of logic to that object. 
 It also quieted the conscience of the renowned Cotton Mather 
 to hold them as slaves ; and also that of the Rev. Dr. Styles, 
 one of the early presidents of Yale College, to export a barrel 
 of rum to the coast of Africa to buy him a slave. 
 
 This appeal for mercy in behalf of the wretched African cap- 
 tive, long rung through the volumes of British eloquence ; long 
 buffeted the efforts of Clarkson and Wilberforce, and put off 
 the abolition of the African slave trade to a late day. And 
 had it not been for the cupidity, avarice, and heinous depravity 
 of human nature, that soon entailed the long catalogue of 
 abuses and horrors upon this originally beneficent enterprise, 
 intended, upheld, and supported by the most pious and best 
 men of the age, as a precious boon of mercy for the relief of 
 bleeding Africa, it would have been still openly and success- 
 fully extending the hand of deliverance to her benighted sons.' 
 
 1 It will, doubtless, be asked why they were, when rescued, still kept 
 as slaves. The answer is, because commerce was the only channel 
 through which they could be reached, and even this change was fraught 
 with great blessings to the slave. 
 
 "The African Slave Trade. — The Messrs. Regis, of Marseilles, have 
 made arrangements for the transportation of twenty thousand African 
 apprentices to the French colonies ; and the first vessel for this traffic has 
 Bailed from Marseilles, provided with sea-passports by both the French 
 and English Governments, for the coast of Africa. The Barcelona Fenix, 
 which makes these statements, says that this vessel takes out a cargo of 
 
204 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 This originally beneficent scheme of ransoming these prisoners 
 from destruction, and making them as comfortable and happy 
 in a Christian land as their character and the nature of their 
 condition will admit, is no more accountable for the horrid 
 abuses that have been consequent upon it, than the Christian 
 religion itself is for the oceans of human blood that have flowed 
 in its footsteps. And the question of suppression of the slave 
 trade by law at the present day is one of national policy, and 
 pure expediency, as to whether, in consequence of the avarice 
 and wickedness of mankind, it is not productive of more evil 
 than good to Africa, and the world at large. It is not my 
 purpose to enter into any discussion of this question ; but there 
 is a fair question that may be asked by every true philanthro- 
 pist, Whether these attempts at suppression do not aggravate 
 the sufferings of the African slaves, both in their native coun- 
 try and on their passage, when smuggled away for a foreign 
 port? It is conceded by the best-informed upon this subject, 
 that nothing but the entire conquest of Africa can ever abolish 
 this trade ;^ and the question may be conscientiously asked, 
 whether the ineffectual and fruitless attempts at present being 
 made at suppression are, on the whole, productive of any 
 good. 
 
 Every human being with African blood in his veins, who has 
 escaped from this maelstrom of African slavery and of human 
 misery, lived through the horrors of the middle passage, and 
 is now alive in a Christian land, owes his existence, and that 
 of his posterity to the merciful interposition of the African 
 slave trade. But for this, the life-blood that now flows freely 
 through the swelling pulsations of his heart, and animates his 
 system, would have long since drenched the grave of some bar- 
 baric prince, or person of rank, upon a heathen soil. 
 
 The same principle of national law that permitted Abraham 
 
 trinkets of small value, which are to be profitably invested in contracting 
 negroes for ten years' service, and conveying them to Martinique and 
 Guadalupe. The Fenix adds, that it is supposed this experiment will be 
 often repeated, and finds in it a means of supplying Cuba and Porto Rico 
 with additional labor. In connection with this subject, the Leon Espanol, 
 of Madrid, states that the Government has found the means of supplying 
 these islands with abundant labor, which will soon be put in operation, 
 without infringing the slave trade treaties with England. 
 
 " Of course, this is only a revival of the African slave trade, under the 
 hypocritical name of apprenticeship." 
 
 1 See Expedition to Central Africa of Messrs. Richardson, Barth, Over- 
 way, and Vogel, 1851, '52, '53, by authority of her Majesty, Queen Vic- 
 toria. Lond. ed., 1854. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 205 
 
 to bring back the women, and also the people from the slaughter 
 of Chederlaomer and the king's that were with him at the bat- 
 tle of Shaveh, to pay tithes of all to Melchisedec, the Jewish 
 High Priest ; and to divide the spoils with the king of Sodom 
 and give him the people ;^ the same principle of national law 
 that permitted the Hebrew slave-dealers under the Mosaic code 
 to purchase the captives of the heathen round about them : the 
 same principle that permitted governor Winthrop to brand the 
 captive Pequods on the shoulder, and send them with the ne- 
 groes to the West Indies for slaves, has also, from the earliest 
 ages, prevailed in Africa, as well as all other nations.- By this 
 law of captivity, the custom of sparing the lives of their cap- 
 tives made them their property, as it did in ancient Greece, 
 Rome, and all the nations of Europe- This law, as we have 
 before remarked, was founded in mercy; it was one step in the 
 progress of civilization ; it was enacted in favor of human life. 
 On Africa, as in all nations, these captives were lawful arti- 
 cles of commerce ; the right of the African owner to sell them 
 was perfect and indefeasible, and (as we shall show more fully 
 hereafter), has been universally so held by the judicial tribunals 
 of all civilized nations. Therefore, slaves were originally pro- 
 cured from Africa in a regular and lawful course of trade ; it 
 was a legal commerce, carried on by many pious men, under 
 the permission and patronage of Christian sovereigns. As in 
 all other commercial enterprises, companies were chartered by 
 the British Parliament to promote this kind of trade with 
 Africa. At length, bad men engaged in the trade, perverted 
 its original purpose, and abused this privilege.^ l,- 
 
 Ori(jin of Slavery in the United States. 
 
 I Some of the English, Spanish, and other slave ships, at 
 length found their way to the West Indies, and the coast of 
 America. Slavery was not legislated into the British Colonies 
 in America ; it flowed in there freely as the wind that bloweth 
 where it listeth, for the reason that it was then a regular and 
 lawful commerce, and there was no law in the colonies to pro- 
 hibit it. New England was for a long time a great importing 
 emporium for African slaves ; some of the principal i)laces 
 along her coast owe their origin to the wealth derived from 
 this trade. Newport was not alone ; other places contributed 
 their portion. Many of these slaves were retained as domes- 
 tics, and for other service in the New England States, but they 
 
 ^ Gen. 14 : 12, IG. ''■ Wheat's Elements International Law, p. 194. 
 
 18 
 
206 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 were mostly reshipped at these places for the West Indies and 
 Southern markets.^ England, France, Spain, and Portugal, 
 were, for a long time, and some still are, deeply engaged in 
 this traffic. The British Colonies in America made several in- 
 effectual attempts to suppress it, but were always overpowered 
 by the authority of the mother countryj 
 
 Feeling a natural aversion to negro labor and negro society, 
 the colonial authorities frequently remonstrated against its in- 
 troduction into the colonies. But every voice was put to 
 silence, and every effort to remedy this evil frustrated, by the 
 overwhelming power of English despotism ; and the trade was 
 continued for years under the favor of foreign influence and 
 foreign power. Hence arose the numerous class of slave popu- 
 lation in the United States. 
 
 In Virginia, several efforts were made to prohibit the impor- 
 tation of slaves, but the British Government constantly checked 
 all their efforts. South Carolina passed a similar law, which 
 was rejected by the king in council upon the plea that slavery 
 was beneficial to the country as a source of protection, &c. 
 Massachusetts was the first of the colonies to participate in 
 this trade ; yet, when she would stop, Governor Hutchinson, 
 acting under the direction of the Crown of England, rejected 
 all her efforts. The importation of slaves into Georgia was 
 early prohibited for twenty years, that this State might be peo- 
 pled with a sturdy white population, and thus become a strong 
 barrier of protection against the inroad of Spanish incursions 
 from the South. ^ The slave population continued to increase 
 during the colonial existence of the States ; till, at the forma- 
 tion and adoption of the Federal Constitution, twelve of the 
 thirteen were slave-holding States.^ 
 
 This class of population was forced upon the colonists against 
 their will in great numbers, and as they existed in all the ori- 
 ginal States but one, some provision necessarily had to be 
 agreed upon in the Constitution for their recognition and govern- 
 ment. The idea is held up by Abolitionists among people not 
 well informed upon this subject, that the African progenitors 
 
 1 Peterson's His. Rho., pp. 22, 24. 
 
 2 Bancroft's Hist. U. S., vol. 2, p. 17. Stephens' Hist. Ga., vol. 1, pp. 
 285, 6, 7, and 8. Tuck's Black, vol. 1, part 2d, pp. 49-51. Appendix to 
 Mad. State Papers, 3, 1390. Walsh's Appeal, 327. South Carolina Sta- 
 tutes, 2 : 526. Stephens' Journal, 3 : 281. End. Am., tit. Slaveiy, vol. 
 2, p. 429. Jefiferson's Corresp., 146 : 2. Illiot's Debates, 335. Story's 
 Const. U. S. ; 3d, p. 203 : 132. 
 
 8 Census U.S. 1850. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 207 
 
 of the present slave population in this country were originallv 
 stolen from Africa ; and hence their present owners and holders 
 are denounced as partakers of stolen property, known to be 
 such. 
 
 This is but one of the multiplicity of errors that lie at the 
 foundation of all the misguided zeal and fanaticism that pre- 
 vail in different States and places upon this subject. /<• • 
 
 But is not the same true of the East India company ? look 
 at the horrors and abuse of the opium trade, and others, which 
 will be more fully set forth hereafter. The following passage, 
 it is said, was originally inserted in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, by Mr. Jefferson. Speaking of the king of England, 
 he says, "He has waged a cruel war against human nature 
 itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the 
 persons of a distant people who never offended him ; capturing 
 and carrying them away into slavery in another hemisphere, or 
 to incur a miserable death in their transportation thither. This 
 piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare 
 of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep 
 open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has 
 prostituted his negative for the suppressing of every legislative 
 attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce." In 
 the first place, it can hardly be said that the British nation 
 waged a war against human nature in permitting and encour- 
 aging the African slave trade ; it was, as we have said, in its 
 real design, or as patronized by government, dictated by 
 humanity. In the second place, it violated no rights of life or 
 liberty by capturing and carrying away a distant people into 
 slavery ; it found them already in slavery and doomed to inevi- 
 table destruction in their native country. It found them lawfully 
 held and owned by their native masters, and purchased them in 
 a fair and legitimate course of trade ; capturing and kidnapping 
 were never sanctioned by royal authority. Neither was it " the 
 opprobrium of infidel powers." Africa has been visited by 
 the slave merchant of nearly every nation of the earth, as a 
 lawful commerce ; and the traffic is given up by African poten- 
 tates at this day, with the greatest reluctance. It is even the 
 source of a violent prejudice in Africa against those who have 
 abolished it, and becomes a great obstacle to their commerce 
 with those nations. 
 
 This groundless assertion of Thomas Jefferson is as unfounded 
 a scandal upon the government of Great Britain, as his blas- 
 phemous remark upon the story of the Yirgin Mary was upon 
 the inspired author of St. Matthew's Gospel. He finally 
 
208 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 became ashamed of it himself, and concluded to suppress it, 
 from a delicacy of feeling towards some gentlemen of the South ; 
 and, as he intimates, from the same feeling towards some of 
 the delegates from the North, then engaged in the Guinea 
 trade. This language, at the organization of the Federal 
 Government, became as applicable to the government of the 
 United States and the framers of its constitution, as to the king 
 of Great Britain — since it is provided by that instrument that 
 the importation of African slaves shall not be prohibited by 
 Congress prior to the year 1808. For eighteen years then, this 
 nefarious war against human nature, as termed by Mr. Jefferson, 
 was continued under the direct sanction of the framers and 
 adopters of the Constitution of the United States. Thus was 
 this scandal of Mr. Jefferson upon not only the English but 
 American nation, silently yet severely rebuked by the united 
 voice of the American people. Thomas Jefferson himself 
 turns a perfect somersault in sentiment, and wages this same 
 war against human nature, by taking the oath to support the 
 Constitution aS President of the United States, and that, too, 
 before the time of this provisional sanction of the African slave 
 trade had elapsed. If he was sincere in what he uttered against 
 the king of England with regard to this traffic, what a paragon 
 of absurdity does his biography here present ! 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was a true patriot and a great man, but 
 he was extremely fond, of strange eccentricities, quaint expres- 
 sions, glaring paradoxes, and sweeping assertions. And he 
 displays this peculiarity in a singular degree in some of his 
 expressions in the Declaration of Independence. He there 
 asserts that "all men are created equal, and endowed by their 
 Creator with certain inalienable rights, " &c.^ In the first place, 
 all men are not created at all ; it is contended by some that 
 there never was but one man created, and by others that each 
 type of man had its origin in a separate creation. But if it is 
 to be understood that all men are horn equal, its absurdity in 
 a literal sense is none the less apparent (as we have endeavored 
 to show above). In the second place, men have no inalienable 
 rights either naturally or politically. What natural or political 
 right has a man, that he may not voluntarily or involuntarily 
 forfeit or transfer to the body politic ? It is one of the funda- 
 mental principles in the science of human government, that it 
 derives its just and full powers from the consent of the governed : 
 
 1 In justice to the real author of this sentiment, it should be observed 
 that this was intended to apply only to political men, members of the body 
 politic ; — for to what others did the Declaration of Independence relate ? 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 209 
 
 and this consent consists in a voluntary alienation of a portion 
 for the more safe and certain protection of the balance. Hence 
 government becomes a kind of compromise or compact between 
 the rulers and the ruled ; and every individual subject may 
 forfeit his liberty, and even his life, in various ways. He may 
 do it by the voluntary commission of crime, or by enlisting 
 into the army, &c. Again, he may involuntarily forfeit it by 
 such a concourse of circumstances as to render it necessary ; to 
 avoid a death by fire, he may jump into the ocean ; the calls of 
 his country may require too " the poor offering of his life, and 
 the victim must be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice." 
 Physical disabilities and worldly misfortunes may throw him 
 upon the cold charities of the world, and confine him to the 
 prison limits of public alms. Mental infirmities and derange- 
 ments may consign him to a lunatic asylum ; what then becomes 
 of his inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness ? 
 
 But let us inquire into what claim Mr. Jefferson had to 
 originality in this particular. Alexander Hamilton, speaking 
 of the British colonies in America, long prior to the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, used the following language : 
 
 "We are threatened with the most abject slavery. It has 
 been proven that resistance by remonstrance will l3e without 
 effect. Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to 
 stand in need of it, I might enumerate the tedious train of 
 calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to 
 religion and morality, that it tends to debase the mind and 
 corrupt its noblest springs of action.'" " That Americans are 
 entitled to freedom is manifest upon every rational principle ; 
 all men have a common original, they participate in a common 
 nature and consequently have a common right; no valid reason 
 can be assigned why one man should exercise more power or 
 pre-eminence over his fellow- men than another, unless they have 
 voluntarily vested him with that right. Since, then, Americans 
 have not by any act of theirs empowered the British Parliament 
 to make laws for them, it follows," &c.- It will not be pre-' 
 tended that Mr. Hamilton, in the use of the above language,^ 
 had reference to any other than British subjects, or the Anglo- 
 Saxon race ; he is speaking of their condition in America, and 
 assigns this as a reason why they were, and ought to be, free 
 and independent. He could not have intended to convey the 
 fantastical idea that seems to have been taken from it by the 
 
 1 Hamilton's Works, vol. ii. p. 9. ^ Ibid., vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
 18* 
 
210 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 writer of the Declaration of Independence, or that it should 
 apply to negroes, Indians,^ &c. If so, he could not have been 
 so inconsistent as to sit as chairman of a committee of three, 
 in 1788, during the existence of the Confederation, consisting 
 of Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Sedgewick, who re- 
 ported a resolution to Congress strongly recommending the 
 necessity and propriety of negotiating a treaty with the King 
 of Spain for the restitution of fugitive slaves who escaped from 
 the States adjoining into his territory, to which we shall refer 
 more particularly hereafter. Besides, he was one of the most 
 lucid and logical commentators upon the Constitution of the 
 United States and one of the most successful advocates for its 
 adoption with all its pro-slavery provisions. 
 
 But Mr. Jeiferson seized upon this restricted remark, meta- 
 morphosed it into an ecumenical proposition, and brandished it 
 in his usual sweeping and random manner in the Declaration 
 of Independence. But public opinion, in this instance, too, 
 gave a negative to his startling hypothesis, by adopting the 
 idea as it was intended by its original author ; and in the sub- 
 sequent formation and adoption of the Constitution of the 
 United States, held that only free white male citizens have a 
 common right, and that negroes might be held as slaves, and 
 restored to their owners when they escaped.' The framers car- 
 ried out the full meaning and spirit of this much-abused and 
 miscons rued clause in the Declaration of Independence, in the 
 provisions of the Constitution of the United States, by thus 
 adopting its true and original meaning. It related only to the 
 hereditary claims to prominence and power of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race over one another ; hence it provided that there should be 
 no titles of nobility, no established class, rank or religion, that 
 "no man should be deprived of his life, liberty, or ])roperty, 
 without due process of law," &c. This covered the whole 
 original doctrine of this celebrated clause in the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
 At the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, 
 twelve of the thirteen were slave-holding States ; and, indeed, 
 it might be said that all were of that character, for although 
 there do not appear to have been any slaves actually held in 
 
 1 The Supreme Court of the United States have recentlj' decided that 
 negroes are not citizens of the United States within the meaning of tlie 
 Constitution of the U. S. ; that the principles of our government do not 
 apply to them ; that the government of the United States -was designed 
 for the white man, and that slaves are lawful property. (Dred Seott Case.) 
 
 - See opinion of Supreme Court in Dred Scott case. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 211 
 
 Massachusetts, yet, as we shall see, but a short time previous 
 that State held many, and there never was any law there abo- 
 lishing it, except the force of public opinion, unexpressed by 
 any direct legislative enactment. There were, at that date, in 
 the several States, about seven hundred thousand slaves. This 
 number could not have been estimated at a value less than three 
 hundred millions of dollars. This vast amount of property had 
 been originally acquired in a legitimate course of trade ; the 
 right of the owners was perfect and indefeasible by any act of 
 legislation without remuneration. How, then, could the sub- 
 ject be disposed of in the formation of the present government ? 
 It must be tolerated or abolished. But were the United States 
 able, at the close of a protracted and expensive war, with a 
 bankrupt treasury, to pay this amount as a remuneration to the 
 owners for the loss of property and damages sustained by the 
 abolition of slavery ? 
 
 It must, therefore, be tolerated, and its existence provided 
 for as a matter of right. The policy adopted by the framers 
 of the Constitution was (as we shall show more fully hereafter), 
 for Congress to abstain from all interference with this subject, 
 directly or indirectly, and to leave it exclusively to the govern- 
 ments of the several States in which it existed. 
 
 The Position and Treatment of Slaves. 
 
 VjThe definition of " a slave, is one who is subject to the power 
 of a master, and who belongs to him in such a manner that the 
 master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and 
 his labor ; and who can do nothing, possess nothing, nor ac- 
 quire anything, but that may belong to his master."' 
 
 Many of the features of this definition have but a nominal 
 existence, without any practical effect. It will be seen that the 
 slave belongs to his master only for certain specific purposes. 
 The idea of property in his person (as we shall show more fully 
 hereafter) is but a fiction of law. The power to sell, alienate, 
 and transfer, is not only an essential requisite to the existence 
 of the present relation between master and slave, but greatly 
 enhances the value of that relation ; and when not abused, it 
 is a source of great comfort and blessing to the slave. By this 
 provision of law, the master who cruelly treats his slave can be 
 compelled to transfer him to another master. Besides, the 
 
 1 Civil code of La., .4rt. 35, Domat. torn. 2, sect. 97; ff. D. lib. 1, 5, 1. 
 4, s. 1, et Tit. 6, 1. 1, sect. 1. This definition does not make a slave, but 
 presupposes his existence. A thing cannot be defined that has no exist- 
 ence. 
 
212 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 slave who is dissatisfied with his master can select another more 
 congenial to his notion, and by requesting the change, the 
 master will generally find it to his interest to grant his request, 
 as the value of the slave's services consists, in a great measure, 
 in his being contented and satisfied with his master. For this 
 reason, slaves are seldom sold except in families. The idea is 
 prevalent among the misinformed upon this subject, that no 
 heed is given to the desires of the slave in this particular ; but 
 this the universal experience of every man acquainted with the 
 management of slaves will contradict. Though the slave's 
 right to property is not known de jure, yet it exists, and is 
 practically recognised de facto — as much so as the property of 
 a free person ; and in their intercourse with the world it is uni- 
 versally observed and respected. Like the Roman slaves they 
 have i\x&\x peculium, to which the master lays no claim. ^ And 
 many a one, by industry and economy, acquires sufiBcient means 
 to purchase his freedom. But comparatively few are willing to ' 
 invest it in that way. The remark of an industrious and eco- 
 nomical negro man, belonging to a friend of mine, illustrates 
 their general ideas of freedom. It was generally supposed 
 that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money. I 
 asked him one day, in the presence of his master, why he did 
 not purchase his freedom, to which he replied that negro pro- 
 perty was so fluctuating that he considered it a poor investment, 
 and he was looking out for a better speculation. 
 
 This shows the utter contempt and ridicule in which the 
 more intelligent portion of the slave population hold the sub- 
 ject of liberty, accompanied with all the disabilities and disad- 
 vantages which the negro must suffer in all parts of the country. 
 He feels and realizes the fact that he enjoys all the freedom that 
 the nature of his character and condition in society will pos- 
 sibly admit. He sees thousands around him nominally free, 
 but who are actually in a worse slavery than himself, and with 
 whom he would not exchange situations. He concludes that, 
 after all, this boasted liberty is but a sound, an unmeaning 
 thing, and that slavery is the happiest condition that the black 
 population in this country can enjoy - 
 
 1 Civil Code of Louisiana, Art. 175. 
 
 2 A Returning Penitent. — Our readers may remember an advertise- 
 ment of a runaway that appeared in our columns some three years since, 
 and excited some characteristic comments from the New York Tribune. 
 No information was elicited by the advertisement concerning the fugitive, 
 who was a very intelligent and valuable servant, that had been well 
 treated and well regarded. We have now before us, however, a letter 
 written by the servant referred to, who addresses a friend and I'elative, 
 
TREATMENT OF TILE NEGROES. 213 
 
 The numerous classifications and divisions of labor peculiar 
 to Roman slavery, are unknown to the American system in the 
 United States. They are here divided into but two classes or 
 divisions, known as the house or family servants and the plan- 
 tation hands. These latter are generally under the management 
 of an overseer, who corresponds to the Roman villicus, having 
 the superintendence of all the affairs immediately connected 
 with the plantation. This is a necessary regulation, and one 
 enforced by law where the proprietor does not reside on the 
 plantation. It is as necessary for the safety and peace of the 
 neighborhood as for the good order and regulation of the plan- 
 tation. From fifty to one hundred negroes dwelling together 
 in a single village or quarter (^ which is about the average num- 
 ber), without the immediate supervision of some white man, to 
 regulate them and keep them in order, would be as dangerous 
 a foe to the surrounding plantations, as well as their own, as a 
 camp of Camanche Indians to the border settlements upon our 
 frontier. 
 
 There are in the slave-holding States a numerous class of per- 
 sons who make this a regular profession, and follow it con- 
 stantly for a livelihood. Their reputation and success in busi- 
 ness, like all other professions, depends upon their skill and 
 judgment in discipline and good management. Many of the 
 most prominent citizens of these States have commenced life by 
 this kind of employment, and risen from it to wealth and dis- 
 tinction. The duties of an overseer are those of any other 
 general superintendent of any particular branch of business. 
 He is invested with all necessary authority to secure the services 
 of those under his charge, and to preserve good discipline and 
 order in the quarter. 
 
 All those barbarous modes of punishment, such as wearing 
 the f urea, the cross, hanging them up by the hands with weights 
 to their feet to be whipped, have all been done away. In tur- 
 bulent and unmanageable cases, corporeal punishment is still 
 allowed. But this, among all humane and judicious managers, 
 is resorted to with reason and discretion, and not unfrequently 
 with great reluctance. 
 
 The instrument generally used for inflicting this punishment 
 is a soft buckskin thong, from four to six inches in length, and 
 
 enclosing an appeal to his mistress, and begging permission to return to 
 servitude and safety. He addresses earnest and emphatic assurances of 
 penitence and regret to his "dear mistress," and begs her to receive and 
 permit the return of her "dear servant." The New York Ti-ibune will 
 notice, of course. — Charleston Courier. 
 
214 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 from a half to an inch in width, attached to the end of a com- 
 mon whip. All excessive punishments are discountenanced ; 
 the fjreatest dissatisfaction is generally felt by the owner at the 
 breaking of the skin in the course of such punishment ; and, 
 should it happen, not unfrequently the manager is discharged 
 for the violation of this fixed rule. Confinement in the stocks 
 is also sometimes resorted to in the most desperate cases, and 
 for certain criminal offences. The idea generally held up by 
 the Abolitionists, that the slaves are all brutally beaten and 
 whipped without discretion or mercy, is false and unfounded. 
 Nothing is a more certain source of dissatisfaction, on the part 
 of the owner, than the cruel treatment or neglect of his over- 
 seer to his slaves. That instances of cruelty and neglect, from 
 brutal and unprincipled managers, do sometimes occur, cannot 
 be denied ; but these are rare, and generally meet with the 
 severest rebuke from public opinion, and, if possible, are visited 
 with the penalty of the law. There is no object of human 
 sympathy upon which it is more keenly alive, in the Southern 
 States, than that of neglect and cruel treatment to slaves. 
 Their helpless and dependent condition renders them peculiarly 
 the objects of sympathy in this particular. 
 
 Their tasks of labor must not be beyond their strength, their 
 constitution, and ability to perform ; if humanity, law, and the 
 force of public opinion should all fail to regulate this matter 
 within its proper bounds, pecuniary interest, always the last 
 and most sordid appeal to the motives of the master, would 
 restrain him from over-working his slave. 
 
 The plantation hands generally reside in a little hamlet or 
 cluster of cottages, apart and some distance from the master's 
 residence, when that is on the plantation ; this is called the 
 "gimrfer. " It consists of a group of cabins numbering in 
 proportion to the number of inhabitants, arranged in rows at 
 some distance apart, with a yard or play-ground intervening, 
 generally beset with large shade trees. This little cluster, when 
 adorned with its usual hues of snow, ensconsed beneath and 
 within the verdant shades of some retired grove, looming out 
 with its glimmerings of white through the green boughs of the 
 trees, presents a scene to the view of the traveller approaching 
 the distant heights of the back-ground, that, were he not ac- 
 customed to the optical illusion, he might mistake for a respect- 
 able New England village. The hands leave the quarter iu 
 the morning at the ringing of the bell, and are in the field in 
 the busy season as soon as daylight will enable them to work. 
 When the distance from the quarter will not admit of their re- 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 215 
 
 turning to their meals, they arc carried to them in the field. 
 They continue at their work till towards noon ; when it is time 
 to feed the teams, the plough-boys then return to the stables for 
 that purpose, and the balance, commonly known as the hoe- 
 hands,, take from one to three hours' recess according to the 
 heat of the weather and the condition of the crop. During the 
 hottest part of the summer it is common for them to take three 
 hours' recess in the middle of the day. This time they spend 
 in lounging and sleeping in the cooling retreat of some adja- 
 cent grove or shade trees upon the borders of the field ; after 
 which, they again resume their labors and continue till dark ; 
 when they return to the quarter, get their suppers, and retire 
 for the night. Such is the regular routine of their daily labors 
 during the planting and busy season for the week till Saturday 
 noon ; then, if the condition of the crop will admit of it, they 
 are discharged from labor till Monday morning. This portion of 
 the day they usually spend in cultivating their small " patches" 
 for themselves. And those of the men who are too indolent to 
 improve this opportunity, as many of them are, they are com- 
 pelled to it by their managers. The women spend their time 
 thus allowed them in washing and repairing their clothes, and 
 preparing to resume their labor on the following week. It is 
 a privilege commonly given to those of the men who will im- 
 prove it, to plant and cultivate small portions or "patches" 
 (as they term them) for themselves. From these they not un- 
 frequently realize from thirty to fifty bushels of corn ; this, with 
 the fodder that they can save, they can sell to their masters, 
 their neighbors, or haul to a neighboring town, for from thirty 
 to forty dollars. They also have the privilege of raising poul- 
 try and of selling their eggs, chickens, ducks, and turkeys, be- 
 sides all they can realize from odd jobs and over-work, for 
 which they are as regularly paid as hired laborers. I know of 
 many plantations where book accounts are kept with the slaves, 
 and every item, that belongs to their debt and credit, is as 
 formally and regularly entered as in the account-books of coun- 
 try merchants.^ 
 
 On the plantations fronting on the rivers and navigable 
 
 1 One of the "Horrors of Slavery." — The Norfolk (Va.) Herald 
 states that, a few days ago, several free negroes were put up at auction, 
 in Norfolk County, and sold to laboi' for a term sufficient to liquidate their 
 taxes. Singular to relate, four of them were purchased by a slave in 
 Portsmouth, who felt quite proud of the distinction, and made known 
 his determination to get the full value of his money out of them, or 
 know the reason why. This is a development under our "Institutions" 
 which the apostles of free society would do well to make a note of. 
 
216 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 streams, the slaves are usually allowed a portion of time in 
 which they may cut cord-wood for steamboats. This is a very 
 lucrative business ; and, where opportunities are favorable, 
 both the master and slave realize great profits from the sale of 
 their wood. Any hand can, in a favorable situation, who is 
 kept at ordinary industry, realize from five to six hundred dol- 
 lars per year for his master, and from fifty to one hundred for 
 himself. 
 
 Thus, any slave, who has been well disciplined and enured to 
 habits of industry and economy, who will improve his opportu- 
 nity, may actually save as much for himself, besides the service 
 that his master claims, as the majority of laborers in the free 
 States, who labor for from ten to fifteen dollars per month, 
 clothe themselves, and sustain all losses from sickness, want of 
 employment, &c. 
 
 Where can there be found a class of agricultural hirelings 
 who actually save, on an average, more than from fifty to one 
 hundred dollars, annually, for any number of years from their 
 earnings ? On the other hand, how many thousands are there 
 who but just live and support their families from hand to mouth 
 by their daily labor, without being able to save one dollar at 
 the year's end ; — a class who must be constantly weighed down 
 with cares and anxieties for the welfare of themselves and fami- 
 lies in sickness and other misfortunes. 
 
 The slave is relieved from all this oppressive burden of trou- 
 bles ; he is comforted by the pleasing consolation, if he has 
 any thought for his family, that they have a sure support, in 
 sickness and health, in infancy and old age. He is relieved of 
 all those dark forebodings of the future that so weigh down and 
 depress the spirits of the poor laborer of the free States.^ All 
 that the slave makes is his own ; he has nothing to pay out for 
 the necessaries of life, though in strictness of law all that he has 
 belongs to his master ; yet this is but a nominal provision ; it is 
 all included, like a wheel within a wheel, in his possessions. 
 But he is the proprietor of his slave's peculium only as his re- 
 presentative, guardian, and protector, to see that he is not 
 wronged, and that he does not apply his means inconsistent 
 with his duties as a servant. It is given in charge by the law 
 to the master for the same reason that the slave's person is, and 
 that is because he is incapable of managing it himself. 
 
 1 Although the negro race are naturally more disposed to idiocy and 
 insanity, yet among the slaves of the South, the like are almost wholly 
 unknown,* an evidence of their happy state of mind. For statistics on 
 this point, see Essay on PoUtical Slavery, post, p. 367. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 217 
 
 As to their food and clothing-, it compares well with that of 
 any class of free laborers with whom I have become acquainted. 
 They are generally allowed plenty of the most substantial and 
 wholesome articles of diet. It is generally estimated that it 
 requires as many barrels of mess-pork, of two hundred pounds 
 each, as there are slaves, big a,nd little, to furnish them with 
 meat for one year. It is true, that the planter is not always at 
 the expense of purchasing that amount, for the reason that he 
 has other sources of supply ; but the amount of meat annually 
 consumed, on every well-managed plantation, is equal to this 
 estimate. 
 
 For breadstuffs, an allowance is made of a bushel of meal, 
 per month, for each slave. In addition to this, they generally 
 have sweet-potatoes and milk ; besides, all the poultry, vegeta- 
 bles, and other articles which they may raise, or purchase them- 
 selves. They have also privileges by which they are enabled 
 to supply themselves with sugar and coffee ; their tobacco and 
 molasses are furnished for them by their masters. For clothing, 
 the general rule is two suits a year, one for summer and one 
 for winter. Their winter suits are made of heavy goods manu- 
 factured from cotton and wool, called jeans ; they have, also, 
 for winter, one blanket, over-coat, and flannel under-shirts. 
 They wear a kind of wool, or glazed hat ; they have, also, two 
 pairs of shoes, or, more frequently, a pair of shoes and a pair 
 of boots. Their summer suits are made of a kind of cotton 
 goods called Osnaburgs, or Lowells. These keep them well 
 clad for their labor during the year ; they have separate suits 
 for Sundays, for which, and the few articles of luxury that they 
 buy, they generally spend their savings during the year. 
 
 It is now Christmas ; the cotton-picking season is over ; the 
 slaves have finished their year's work, iind are now enjoying 
 their holidays. They have a week to themselves before resum- 
 ing the labors of another year. While I sit penning this chap- 
 ter, the town is thronged with hundreds of the black people 
 from the neighboring plantations. They have come to town to 
 sell their "truck" (as they term it), which they have raised 
 during the year, and to buy articles of family luxuries, and fine 
 clothing, as they may fancy. They spend this week in visiting, 
 feasting, frolicking, dancing, and such other amusements as 
 they most enjoy. When it has passed, they cheerfully make 
 preparations for another crop. 
 
 The house slaves or servants have nothing to do with the 
 plantation ; they are retained as waiting servants, and their 
 duties are confined to the more immediate wants of the family. 
 19 
 
218 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 One has charge of the sleepinj^-rooms, and the various apart- 
 ments of the house ; others of the culinary department ; others 
 of the laundry ; others again, of the horses kept for family uses, 
 and pleasure carriages. This class of servants have their houses 
 usually in the back yard, or somewhere near the family resi- 
 dence, and eat at what may be called the second table, after the 
 white members of the family. Like all white sei'vants through- 
 out the free States : in all families of respectability they are 
 kept neatly clad ; and often for a Sunday garb, or ball dress, 
 put on what would, in a Quaker village, be called a rich and 
 extravagant costume. 
 
 No traveller of observation can have failed to notice the 
 dashing glitter of gewgaws and finery in which the colored 
 servant girls promenade the streets of the principal towns of the 
 South, in going to, and returning from church ; and the fine 
 broadcloths and kid gloves of the colored gentry who accom- 
 pany them. There is no happier class of laboring people in 
 the world than the family servants, generally, at the South. 
 Their labors are light ; what in a New England family would 
 be put sometimes upon the wife and mother alone, or upon one 
 or two of the daughters, or where help is hired, upon one poor 
 Irish servant girl, with a compensation seldom more than from 
 a dollar and a quarter to a dollar and a half per week, would 
 in all families of any considerable wealth be divided between 
 from three to five servants. 
 
 It is asserted by Abolition writers and speakers that the 
 slaves enjoy no religious privileges. This is another one of the 
 numerous popular errors resulting from ignorance and misrepre- 
 sentation, that help to fan the flame of popular fanaticism that 
 pervades the Abolition crusade of the North against the South. 
 By the rules of church discipline, slaves are admitted as, and 
 actually become, members of all Evangelical churches through- 
 out the slave-holding States. In all towns and neighborhoods 
 where there is regular preaching they are generally privileged 
 to attend, and one exercise of the Sabbath is usually devoted 
 to their express benefit. Plantations and settlements remote 
 from these privileges, are generally supplied by itinerant 
 preachers either of the Methodist Episcopal Conference, or by 
 those appointed by the several denominations to take charge 
 of the different stations of the African Mission. Not unfre- 
 quetitly, settlements support local preachers for the benefit of 
 the colored population. It is true, some masters object to 
 having preaching on their plantations, and to their slaves 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 219 
 
 attending church ; but such men are not peculiar to the slave 
 States. 
 
 Child-like in their intellectual capacity, predisposed to super- 
 stition, credulity, and imitation ; confiding in their superiors, 
 without reason or reflection, they become the most willing and 
 ready pretenders to religious notions. But these have very little 
 practical effect upon their moral character. They are generally 
 the most zealous and enthusiastic converts of the faith ; but 
 tlieir zeal, unfoi'tunately, is not according to their knowledge. 
 This misfortune, however, is not peculiar to the slave popula- 
 tion. They are more passionate and flaming in their pretensions 
 to religious observances, than scrupulous and exact in the dis- 
 charge of their practical obligations ; more vehement and 
 boisterous in their devotional exercises, than penitent and 
 humble for their remissness of duty. But we fear that even 
 these remarks cannot be confined to the colored population. 
 
 Marriage rites and ceremonies are as strictly observed among 
 them, and the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, 
 as firmly protected, generally, as their character and condition 
 will possibly admit. These are essentially under the supervision 
 and direction of the master, for without the influence of his 
 immediate interposition and regulation, such relations could no 
 more exist among African slaves in America, than in their 
 native country. The proper regulation of the matrimonial 
 connection, is the cause of more difficulty, trouble, and anxiety 
 to the master, than perhaps any other subject connected with the 
 management of his slaves. Upon this subject the males and 
 females are mutually unfortunate and ill-adapted in their nature 
 to the security of family tranquillity. We hear much prating and 
 rhodomontade among anti-slavery writers and speakers, about 
 female virtue ; much about the heavenly boon guaranteed to all 
 females in the protection of their chastity. And when they 
 preach and write about enlightening the South upon the evils 
 of slavery, they would have us believe that this is dearer than 
 life to the female slave ; that it is the pearl of great price, and 
 pure as the driven snow. They would also teach us that it 
 may be involuntarily prostituted to open shame by the wanton 
 authority and control of the master with impunity. But this 
 is the result of ignorance and bad philosophy. This is the most 
 indelicate and objectionable part of our subject ; yet with the 
 high precedent of the modern Sto(we)ic philosophy before us, 
 we need feel no qualms of delicacy or self-reproach in entering 
 upon a brief consideration of the subject. 
 
 The relation of master and slave puts the latter in his power 
 
220 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 only for certain specified purposes ; and he cannot, by virtue 
 of that relation, exercise any more power or control over the 
 slave than is implied as necessary to secure the object for which 
 the servant has been intrusted to the charge of the master. 
 Hence nature, law, and public opinion, all cry out and remon- 
 strate with an unwavering voice against the usurpation of any 
 illeeitiraate and unnatural authority over the slave for dissolute 
 and abandoned purposes. Nature has wisely regulated the 
 government of the passions in both man and beast, with a view 
 to the protection of the weaker sex. And when the master 
 approaches even the negro wench for the purpose of improper 
 familiarity, nature disarms him of all superiority over her ; and 
 he must not only meet her upon grounds of equality, but humble 
 himself at her feet. And thus conscious of his own guilty 
 position, like the cowardly thief in the night, he loses all courage 
 for the exercise of authority or resistance, and if she has but 
 the disposition, she may, with perfect impunity, spurn his 
 proffered kindness with contempt. And the master, so far from 
 entertaining feelings of revenge, would value the slave higher 
 and praise her the more for her strict adherence to virtuous 
 principles. Every slave-holder knows, if not, he will soon learn 
 l3y sad experience, that just in proportion as he practises or 
 permits and encourages dissolute habits among his slaves, he 
 loses the confidence of the males as a master, and the reverence 
 and respect of the females as a superior. And these are the 
 only effective sources of authority and good government over 
 them. The man who would violate his trust and prostitute his 
 authority to overcome the chaste and virtuous habits of a 
 helpless and defenceless female slave, is as much a monster in 
 human shape, as he who is guilty of 'incest within the circle 
 of his own domestic fireside. And though violations of the 
 natural, civil, and moral law, in both these instances, may, and 
 do, sometimes occur, yet they show the offender equally as 
 unfit to have charge of the personal subjects of the outrage in 
 one instance as in the other. They are both alike responsible 
 to the law, responsible to public opinion, and above and beyond 
 responsible to their God and the tribunal of their own bed and 
 board. This last responsibility, when all others fail, operates 
 as the chief of terrors to all such evil-doers. We hear it said 
 that in the case of the slave there is none to avenge the wrong ; 
 but tlie culprit can never escape the horrors of a guilty con- 
 science or the dread of exposure. In most cases he would call 
 upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon him, and hide 
 him from the day of wrath and the terrible revelation of house- 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES, 221 
 
 hold vengeance that awaits him in a day of retribution. Thus 
 the injured female servant feels conscious of the protection of 
 the domestic tribunal to which she can safely resort for redi'ess. 
 And this is an arbitress that, it is universally acknowledged, in 
 matters of this kind, " beareth not the sword in vain." 
 
 What evils are there, then, in this particular, peculiar to the 
 relation of master and slave ? or that do not apply with equal 
 force to the condition of hired servants ? We shall, perhaps, 
 be told that one has redress at law, while the other has not ; 
 but what privilege is that to the destitute servant girl, who is 
 struggling, as it were, between life and death, with the task of 
 three slaves imposed upon her, for the pitiful compensation of 
 one dollar and a half per week — a sum not sufficient to keep 
 her in decent clothes, to say nothing of her liability to sickness 
 and other contingent expenses — without friends, without money, 
 and liable, at the least displeasure of her employer, to be 
 turned out upon the cold charities of the world, and there to 
 incur the uncertainty and difficulty of obtaining another situa- 
 tion, or go to the almshouse for a support. No such fears, no 
 such dread or anxiety operates upon the mind of the female 
 slave ; she knows that she has a protector, to whom she can 
 resort with impunity. But does the law afford no protection 
 to the slave in this particular ? I answer, yes ; the culprit is 
 just as amenable and liable to its penalties, for any violence or 
 outrage, in the one instance as in the other. The female slave 
 has as strong inducements, and as much encouragement to lead 
 a virtuous life, as the hired servant girl, if she had the disposi- 
 tion ; and she has quite as strong a shield of protection thrown 
 around her, both by nature and by law, if she chooses to avail 
 herself of the privilege! But the predominance of the animal 
 passions superinduces the loose, easy and reckless habits, in this 
 respect, natural to the negro wench. Her character, in this 
 particular, forms a striking contrast to the deathly tenacity of 
 her virtue, peculiar, of all savages, to the Indian squaw. 
 
 The same animal propensities that produce the lax and dis- 
 solute vices of the females, produce the jealousy and disaffection 
 of the males. Jealousy, the invariable concomitant of a weak 
 and dissolute mind, is the enslaving sin of the black man. He 
 is naturally the most jealous of all creatures, and comes nearest 
 to a monomaniac upon this subject of any being in the world. 
 This is a constant source of family bickerings, broils and diffi- 
 culties, that sometimes end in tragical scenes of blood. Hence 
 arise the difficulties and trials of the master in preserving the 
 proper discipline and government of the quarter. It therefore 
 19* 
 
 V 
 
222 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 becomes a matter of paramount interest, and the imperious 
 duty of every master to inculcate and enforce the most rigid 
 adherence to virtuous habits and conjugal fidelity among his 
 slaves. 
 
 The animal impulses and vices of this kind, peculiar in de- 
 gree to the negro and some other savage races, from their phy- 
 sical organization, must for ever be one of the most destructive 
 elements to the existence of organized society among them. 
 And but for the influence of civilization, and the rigors and 
 restraints of domestic discipline, they would lead to promis- 
 cuous intercourse, or keep them in constant anarchy and con- 
 fusion, and thus hasten their degeneracy into their original 
 savage state. Wherever they are brought under this influence, 
 and subjected to this di^^cipline, by the force of habit and imi- 
 tation they may, and do, in a degree, overcome these wayward 
 propensities, and attain to some degree of elevation in their 
 condition and character. 
 
 Again, we hear of long and windy appeals to the sympathies 
 of anti-slavery people, about the horrors of separating man and 
 wife, parent and child, as though this was necessary to the rela- 
 tion of master and slave, and peculiar to that institution. Here 
 is another of those popular errors blazoned forth by ignorant 
 and malicious brawlers, to inflame the prejudices and excite the 
 hostilities of one section of the Union against the other. 
 
 To the native African, a wife or a child, as to any of those 
 cares, anxieties, and tender regards that exist in the bosom of 
 civilized man, is wholly unknown. By the force of habit and 
 imitation, they imbibe these feelings to some extent in their 
 connexion with civilized society ; yet even then they often 
 cherish a morbid insensibility to all ties of fixmily and kindred 
 that is truly derogatory to human nature. Horrid as the idea 
 of an owner and master may seem to the Abolitionist, the poor 
 wife is often glad to appeal to his merciful protection against 
 the cruelties and brutal treatment of her husband. So also is 
 the child against the neglect and abuses of the mother. The 
 authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin has kindly informed us that 
 emotions of parental and kindred attachment are ardent and 
 strong in the hearts of the negro race, but my experience and 
 observation have led me to form a very different conclusion 
 upon that subject. Lust and beastly cruelty are the strong pas- 
 sions that glow in the negro's bosom. " There is no flesh in 
 his obdurate heart ; it does not feel for man," or beast. I have 
 often witnessed scenes of his cruelties to animals, that would 
 make the heart of civilized man bleed at every pore. This is 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 223 
 
 natural to his race in their native country ; it results from the 
 peculiar physical conformation of the head, and the consequent 
 predominance of the animal passions. All travellers agree in 
 bearing testimony to the truth of this fact. But it is the inte- 
 rest, as well as the duty of the master, to improve the character 
 of his slaves in this particular, as the value of their services 
 will be greatly enhanced thereby. 
 
 Though the slave, like a minor, cannot marry without the 
 permission of those under whose authority he may be, yet no 
 control is exercised by the master over their choice of a com- 
 panion. When married, each family has its separate house or 
 apartment, where they are required to live together decently 
 and faithfully as man and wife. These houses, as we have 
 before said, are situated together in clusters of cottages in some 
 pleasant and retired situation. In building them, they are 
 generally raised from two to four feet from the ground to give 
 a free circulation of air under them, and thus render them as 
 cool and comfortable as possible. These cottages are gene- 
 rally frame buildings (though sometimes of brick and sometimes 
 of logs) of one story in height, and two rooms from sixteen to 
 twenty feet square, finished with a view to health, convenience 
 and comfort. We often hear of their living in miserable huts, 
 with no floor but the earth, without bedding, &c. It is true, 
 there ai'e instances of this kind, as there are in every commu- 
 nity where poor, destitute and improvident people can be found. 
 But why should these exceptions be heralded forth to the world 
 as one of the evils of slavery ? With the same plausibility 
 might such facts be urged against the present organization of 
 society. " The poor ye have always with you." No traveller can 
 pass through the laboring communities of the Northern States, 
 and observe the condition of thousands of the poor and des- 
 titute, without seeing and feeling the inconsistency and injustice 
 of such slanderous imputations upon the condition of the slave 
 population of the South. But more of this anon. 
 
 Whoever has passed through the channel from Lake Erie to 
 Lake St. Clair, and observed the soldiers' quarters at Fort 
 Maiden, has a very correct idea of the external appearance of 
 a Louisiana negro quarter. This the author observed to a 
 large number of passengers while passing that place in the 
 month of October, 1854. Indeed, the whole Canada shore, 
 along the channel, might easily be mistaken for the Louisiana 
 coast, at a moderate laeight of the water of the Mississippi. 
 
 It is for the interest, as well as the duty of the master, to cul- 
 tivate the tender sensibilities, and improve the character and 
 
224 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 condition of his slaves in this respect, as the value of their ser- 
 vices will thereby be greatly enhanced. Interest, then, as well 
 as humanity and duty, plead against the separation of husband 
 and wife, parent and child, and the breaking up of families. 
 This sentiment so pervades public opinion, that such instances 
 but seldom occur. Observe the list of notices of the sales of 
 negroes throughout the Southern States, and almost universally 
 you will see the specification that families are not to be sepa- 
 rated. It may be boldly asserted, in the hearing of all South- 
 ern men, and those best acquainted with the system, that such 
 is the law and the state of public opinion, that there is not a 
 slave-holder in the country, of respectable standing in the com- 
 munity where he lives, who would consent to sell a family of 
 slaves separately. And I venture to say, further, that you may 
 travel from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and from Baltimore to 
 Corpus Christi, and try every man in both routes, and not be 
 able to purchase a child under ten years of age without its 
 mother, if alive. ^ But are the laws of slavery the only laws 
 that permit the separation of husband and wife, &c. ? I ap- 
 peal to maritime and martial laws, the regulations of the army 
 and navy, commerce, California gold, and the Mexican and 
 foreign wars, for an answer to this question. Why is it, then, 
 that this system is alone singled out as the peculiar object of 
 calumny and vituperation ? 
 
 If there is one spark of true philanthropy, if there is one 
 sincere emotion of friendship and kind regard for the welfare of 
 the slave, known to the Anglo-Saxon race, that exists in its 
 greatest purity and most unalloyed state in the benevolent heart 
 of the Southern master. I have become convinced of this 
 truth from a somewhat long and familiar acquaintance with 
 real facts. The many instances of kind regard and mutual 
 attachment that I have witnessed between masters and super- 
 annuated servants, who have long passed their days of useful- 
 ness and profit, and become helpless, have satisfied me that the 
 truest friends to the black man are those who have been raised 
 by, and among them, and best know his character and condi- 
 tion, and best understand his interests and his wants. 
 
 When age and infirmities have rendered them unfit for the 
 daily duties of regular hands, the men are assigned some light 
 task about the garden or the quarter, suited to their ability ; 
 and the old women are left to attend to the children, knit, sew, 
 or spin, and sometimes, when they are able, to cook. They 
 
 J The law prohibits it. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 225 
 
 are generally spoken to by all the white members of the family 
 in terms of kindness and due respect, generally addressed by 
 the epithet of uncle or aunt. I have known of great devotion 
 and regard for the welfare of these aged and helpless peo])le ; 
 and by all masters of good breeding they are kindly treated. 
 
 Jack was a faithful old patriarch of the neighborhood ; h^ 
 had lived to see three generations, and was looked up to by all 
 his fellow-servants for counsel and advice ; he was an heredi- 
 tary servant, and had already passed to the second generation 
 in the family; he was the body-servant of his elder master, and 
 had helped to raise his young mistress from her cradle. He 
 had seen her grow up from her infant gambols and childish 
 sports to a pious and devoted young mother, with a group of 
 interesting children around her. Jack loved them all better 
 than his own, and they all respected Jack ; he had been a 
 faithful, and was still, as far as he was able, a worthy and de- 
 voted servant. He was, of course, a great favorite of his 
 young master, who always treated him with the greatest kind- 
 ness and attention ; and Jack felt more than the interest of a 
 father in his young master's welfare. His master always per- 
 mitted the most free and familiar conversation to Jack, and to 
 humor and gratify his good wishes, often took counsel and ad- 
 vice with him upon matters of importance. 
 
 But Jack's days were numbered ; a sudden change to a cold 
 December wind, had prostrated him upon a bed of sickness to 
 rise no more. Then came the test of the sincerity in their 
 friendship and kind feelings for poor Jack. And never was 
 kindness more sincerely manifested ; all felt the deepest anxiety 
 and concern ; his master scarcely left his bedside, day or night, 
 till death laid his icy hand upon him, and poor old Jack was 
 numbered with the congregation of the dead. And when the 
 news was announced to the household that this time-honored 
 servant of a former generation was no more, a sadness and 
 solemnity cast its shade over the countenances of all, as though 
 a, vacancy was felt in the ranks of the family circle. This is 
 but one instance, similar to thousands that might be mentioned, 
 to show that it is natural to the human heart, when possessed 
 of kind and benevolent feelings, or even of the common sym- 
 pathies of humanity, to cherish sentiments of gratitude and 
 compassion for the helpless condition of those who have spent 
 faithful lives in devotion to the service and welfare of their 
 masters.^ 
 
 1 We find in the census that of the free negroes there are 24,1G0 over 
 the age of sixty. Who shall provide for these decreind men and helpless 
 
 P 
 
226 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 We often see striking manifestations of a kindred sentiment 
 towards even the animal creation ; some faithful old dog or 
 horse, that has long since passed his days of usefulness, is 
 long nurtured bythe kind and compassionate attention of the 
 owner, not for what he may hope from them in future, but in 
 gratitude for the good they have done in the past. This ex- 
 ample is not instanced to compare man with beast ; but to show 
 that it is but the natural impulse of the human heart, when 
 thrown into long association with man, or even beast, to con- 
 tract feelings of attachment, of kindness and compassion for 
 their misfortunes. And when those feelings are not repulsed 
 and eradicated by the vicious and refractory character of the 
 negro slave, they beget for him a friendship and compassionate 
 regard for his welfare, that can be found nowhere so sincere 
 and so warm as in the heart of a kind and benevolent Southern 
 master. In confirmation of this truth, instances by thousands 
 miglit be enumerated of the heroic devotion of masters and 
 mistresses to the health, safety, and comfort of their slaves, 
 even at the hazard and loss of their lives in times of great pes- 
 tilential peril. But our limits will only permit us to mention 
 but few. An instance of this kind, often related to me, and 
 of which there are many living witnesses, now occurs as suita- 
 ble to give as an illustration. It is an account of the heroic 
 devotion of a distinguished lady who lived in the parish, and 
 near the place where the bloody scene of Uncle Tom's death 
 was laid. It occurred during the terrible ravages of the cho- 
 lera through the Red River country, and the different parts of 
 the South, in 1833. 
 
 Already it had stricken down its thousands in and around 
 this section of the State of Louisiana. Already its bloody 
 footprints might be traced high up upon the banks of this 
 stream, and wide over the face of this devoted section of coun- 
 try ; it sped its course bearing a trail like "the destroying 
 angel that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noonday." At 
 length, it broke out in the numerous household of the subjeot 
 of this narrative ; her husband was absent ; its victims were 
 falling thick and fast around her ; moved by compassion for the 
 
 ■women ? Left to the cold charities of strangers, they linger out a misera- 
 ble existence: not so with the slave; of these, we have 114,752 over the 
 age of sixty; yet are they, for their faithful services, kindly treated by 
 their masters. The free States, in 13,000,000, have but 6,641 over the 
 age of ninety; while of the slaves, in 3,200,412, there are 4,109 over 
 that age, which is indisputable evidence of their kind treatment. (See 
 post, p. 367.) 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 22 T 
 
 suffering and helpless condition of the servants in her cliarjre, 
 this heroine left the family residence, and a group of darling- 
 children smiling around licr, and rushed, as it were, into the 
 jaws of death, to try to administer to the comfort and relief of 
 her distressed slaves. There she continued her labors of mercy 
 among them, night and day, till in turn, she herself fell a vic- 
 tim to this deathly scourge and a martyr to the benevolence and 
 magnanimity of a true Christian heart. 
 
 Among a thousand others, I will mention but a single in- 
 stance of the kind that fell under my own personal observa- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1850, this same deadly plague, the besom of destruction, 
 swept through the land nearly in the same broad pathway of 
 its former range ; again came this messenger of fate among us, 
 shaking pestilence and death from his gory locks ; again, the 
 grim angel of death hovered near, flapping his dark wings 
 over the fairest portions of the Pelican State. Thick and fast, 
 like the leaves of autumn, were the slain falling on our right 
 and on our left. The sounds of lamentation and sorrow rung 
 along her coasts, echoing over her prairies and through her 
 plains. The sable moss tresses hung like funeral palls upon 
 the lofty cypress, waving their sepulchral drapery in the breeze 
 as the mourning vesture of the forest ; and all nature had put 
 on its garb of sorrow. 
 
 At this critical juncture, a young friend of mine, with one 
 hundred slaves in his charge, set out from the mouth of this 
 same Red River to locate them upon his plantation up some 
 distance in the interior of the State, hoping, by this means, to 
 get beyond the reach of the pestilence. During the second 
 day on his journey, it broke out in all its fury among them. 
 Did he flee for his life, and abandon them to their fate ? Let 
 the keen pangs of grief that wrung the life-blood from the 
 heart of his wife and children, let the tears and sorrows of a 
 large circle of acquaintances and friends, and the lamentations 
 of his own faithful servants, answer the question. 
 
 Like the heroic pilot upon the burning ship, tossed upon the 
 high and giddy wave, he bravely kept his post to the last. 
 One by one, to the number of some eighteen or twenty, in the 
 space of a few days, he carefully consigned them to the dust ; 
 till his own choice spirit, glowing with the warmest sympathies 
 for suffering humanity, took its flight, and his weeping servants 
 hi turn sorrowfully bore a kind and humane master to the gates 
 of the grave. ^ 
 
 1 It is commonly supposed, by the Abolitionists, that the slaves of the 
 
228 THE RELATIVE TOSITION AND 
 
 What would have been the fate of these unfortunate beings 
 had they been in the boasted land of freedom ? Who would 
 have eared for them had they been conveyed by some subter- 
 ranean railroad scheme to the heart of an abolition community ? 
 Ye boasting philanthropists, read the following facts, and weep 
 tears of blood over the truth ! 
 
 ' ' Singular and horrible state of facts. — A correspond- 
 ent of the Cincinnati Commercial, writing from Franklin Coun- 
 ty, Ohio, relates the following : A relative of his named David 
 Ward, who made his home with Thomas Ward, was taken with 
 the cholera and died, having two negroes to wait upon him 
 during his illness, there being none of the neighbors who would 
 go to the house. After his death, two men went from Frank- 
 lin to Ward's house, dressed the corpse, and put it into a cof- 
 fin. One of the negroes who had waited on David lived on 
 Thomas Ward's farm, and had a wife and three children. He 
 was taken ill with the cholera, but was in a fair way of recover- 
 ing, when his wife and one child died. At this he got out of 
 bed and ran off. He was found dead a few days after lying in 
 Clear Creek, with one of his arms broken. An undertaker 
 had the bodies of his wife and child decently buried. The 
 negro man who had waited on David Ward, and the two re- 
 maining children, were, at that time, at Thomas Ward's. The 
 man was taken with the cholera, when Tom Ward sent him to 
 the woods to die. One of the negro children being also taken 
 with the cholera. Ward led it out into the woods, and laid it 
 beside the sick man, where it died in a few hours. Ward dug 
 a hole at some distance, threw a long rope to the sick negro 
 and ordered him to tie it round the corpse of the child, which 
 being done, he dragged the body to the hole, pulling at the end 
 of the rope ; and then made the sick negro drag himself to the 
 edge of the hole and push in dirt until he covered the dead 
 body of the child."! 
 
 All this revolting scene occurred in the heart and hotbed of 
 
 South have no affection for their masters and mistresses ; but how mis- 
 taken would they find themselves could they but witness their lamenta- 
 tions and sorrowings frequently at the death and burial of those who 
 have long kindly and carefully watched over them ! While masters and 
 mistresses will peril their lives for their servants, they, in turn, are as 
 faithful and devoted to them as their own children in time of sickness. 
 This is abundantly pi'oven by the numerous instances of self-sacrifice and 
 heroic devotion of the slaves to their masters and mistresses, recently 
 shown in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Va. 
 
 1 Who would not rather be the fictitious Simeon Legree than the real 
 Thomas Ward ? 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 229 
 
 the Abolitionists ; in the neigliborhood of Aunt Rachel Halli- 
 day's. But where was Senator Bird, Honest Old John Yan 
 Trompe, Simeon Halliday, Phineas Fletcher, Giddings, and 
 Senator Chase ? Perhaps they had adopted the Scripture 
 motto to "Let the dead bury their dead," and were at this 
 very time employed in the more imperious Christian duty of 
 transporting Eliza and her little Harry, by underground rail- 
 road, to Canada. 
 
 Need I refer to the shocking scenes of suffering that necessa- 
 rily occur among the free population, in all large cities, that 
 have not the means to secure their own comfort during the 
 prevalence of these terrible epidemics? — a state of things that 
 gives rise to the various bodies of charitable associations for 
 their relief. How much better in this respect, as well as in all 
 other helpless situations, is the condition of the slave ! This 
 feeling of confidence and assurance that he will be provided for 
 in all times of need ; that in all times of trial he can fall back 
 upon the sympathy and compassion of a benevolent master, like 
 a child upon a parent, is a great source of comfort and conso- 
 lation to the slave. It renders him always cheerful and happy. 
 No anxieties and troubles about himself or his family, no dark 
 and fearful forebodings of the future, weigh down and depress 
 his spirits. He is never subjected to such fits of gloom and 
 despondency as we often see depicted upon the countenances 
 of thousands in the land of liberty. A gloomy and depressed 
 state of mind is altogether unnatural to a negro slave. With 
 perfect deference to your position, with perfect confidence in 
 your sympathy, kindness, and compassion towards him, he will 
 always approach you with a smile of familiarity, freedom, and 
 cheerfulness, totally unknown to the privileges of a negro in 
 any other part of the country. None of that arrogance of 
 superiority, none of that stern and relentless scorn peculiar to 
 the people of the free States, in their intercourse with the negro 
 race, ever finds place in the chivalric heart of a Southern 
 master. 
 
 The cause of this is in the different relation and relative 
 position in which the parties are placed with regard to one 
 another. Ever conscious and ever taught to feel his inferiority 
 in both capacity and condition, the slave regulates his manners 
 and intercourse with his superiors accordingly. He always 
 appeals to their generosity and magnanimity of soul, not to do 
 him a wrong or an injustice, in his comparatively helpless and 
 defenceless condition. This cannot fail to win the sympathy 
 and compassion for his misfortunes, of every ingenuous heart. 
 20 
 
230 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 On the other hand, the negro of the free States pretends to 
 no inferiority. With a bold, defying, and arrogant air, he 
 attempts to intrude himself upon the white man upon perfect 
 grounds of equality ; a sentiment utterly abhorred by the 
 nature, the morals, politics, and religion of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race in all parts of the world. And hence their entire want 
 of social sympathy ; their cold, distant, and repulsive feeling 
 for the negro race in the free States. This will be found uni- 
 versal in all those States and in Europe, except in instances of 
 hypocritical and dogmatical pretensions, by a few misguided 
 enthusiasts, as a false pretence to consistency. There is no such 
 friendly intercourse, no such sympathy for their welfare and 
 social familiarity existing between the black and white popula- 
 tion of the free States, except in the instances above cited, as 
 there is between the Southern slave-holder and the well-behaved 
 free colored people around him. The secret of it all is that 
 these people are less assuming in their manners, and less arro- 
 gant in their pretensions. 
 
 In Louisiana, the better class of the free colored people fre- 
 quently attain to great wealth and comparative respectability. 
 They live side by side with the white people, and are good 
 neighbors together ; and in some instances upon terms of great 
 intimacy and friendship, except in some of the more reserved 
 social and family intercourse, in regard to which there always 
 exist mutual and friendly concessions.^ 
 
 Whoever wishes to see the most striking instances of the 
 mutual feelings of regard that exist between the master and 
 slave, should take a trip down the Mississippi river in company 
 with a number of Southern planters returning from a summer 
 tour at the North, and witness their meeting after a long 
 absence. See them as they drop out at their several plantations 
 along upon the river bank, iirst met by a group of jubilant 
 slaves, with joy sparkling in their eyes and beaming from their 
 countenances, each impatient for his turn to greet him with a 
 welcome "How dy, MassaV and a fond shake of the hand. 
 One on witnessing such scenes cannot but be reminded of the 
 strange spectacle that would be presented in the streets of 
 Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, to see some aristocratic 
 millionaire beset by a crowd of dirty negroes, each waiting an 
 opportunity to shake him by the hand. 
 
 Much of the misapprehension and the wrong impressions of 
 
 1 In many instances, these free people of color hold hundreds of slaves, 
 and are universally the most cruel and oppressive masters; but these are 
 mixed bloods, or not of the real negro type. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 231 
 
 those not well-informed upon the subject in regard to the true 
 character of slavery, or slavery as it really is in America, arise 
 from a wrong idea of its fundamental precepts. All anti-slavery 
 agitation is predicated upon the hypothesis that the slave-holder 
 and the slave, are naturally of equal rank and capacity, as in 
 the case of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman slavery ; — that slavery 
 is an obstacle to the rise, progress, and improvement of the 
 slaves. But every one familiar with the subject knows that the 
 very reverse of this hypothesis is the truth. Instead of prevent- 
 ing the slave's improvement, it has converted him from a savage 
 to a state of partial civilization ; instead of obstructing his 
 improvement, it prevents him from degenerating into his native 
 barbarism, as he has universally tended when left to himself.^ 
 
 The history of the present and the past proves that the con- 
 dition of the American slave is the happiest one that he is 
 capable of enjoying. In no age or nation have the same number 
 of Africans attained to so high an elevation in their character 
 and condition. Nowhere else have they enjoyed so many of the 
 blessings of Christian society and the privileges of civilized 
 life. They are well fed, well clothed, well cared for in sickness 
 and in health, in infancy and old age. Enjoying religious 
 privileges in common with the free white population, they are 
 wholly devoid of cares and anxieties for themselves and their 
 families. 
 
 The gayety, hilarity, and joy often manifested by these people 
 ■while at their labor, or at their dwellings, present scenes truly 
 
 ' "A Candid Confession. — The British Governor of Jamaica, in his 
 address at the opening of the Provincial Legislature, recommends the trans- 
 portation of the fugitive dates from our Southern States, who have taken 
 refuge in Canada, to the island of Jamaica, for the following reasons : 
 ' The people who may, if matters be properly represented to them, be 
 induced to come hither from America, are precisely the sort of industrial 
 jjopulation we require ; besides, they are admirably adapted to the climate 
 of this island. Bringing with them an amount of civilization far higher 
 than that of the generality of the laboring population of this island, and ac- 
 quainted as they are to a much greater extent with agriculture and 
 mechanical arts — two of the greatest desiderata in Jamaica — the black 
 and colored people of America are not only admirably- calculated to 
 develop the innumerable resources of the island to a far greater extent 
 than the natives are at present capable of, but they will, to a certainty, 
 if brought here, be the means of improving our native peasantry, by con- 
 tinually presenting, to a people so imitative, examples worthy for them to 
 follow.' 
 
 •' This is a striking testimony, as the New York Express justly remarks, 
 to the humanizing and elevating influences with which the African is 
 surrounded in the United (Southern) States." — Richmond [Va.) Dispatch. 
 
232 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 romantic to the traveller as he approaches a well-managed 
 plantation upon a pleasant evening of spring. His advent is 
 first noticed by some one or more huge mastilfs occupying the 
 position of the Roman janitors at the gate of the castle. Their 
 loud barking gives note of the approaching stranger. He is next 
 observed by a group of curly-headed young urchins who 
 scamper away to their hiding-places, or some more distant and 
 safe retreat, to stand and gaze at what they deem a lawless 
 intrusion upon their premises. The sun is reclining towards 
 the western ocean of forests, the earth is clad in her verdant 
 mantle, and vegetation glows in tints of living green. The 
 herds and flocks are grazing upon the open fields, and the birds 
 are making melody through the groves with their evening song. 
 The yard teems with every species of ducks, geese, turkeys, 
 chickens, goats, cats, and dogs of various sizes, castes, colors, 
 and descriptions. In the distance he hears the merry song of 
 the plough-boys and hands that "stalk afield," and the shrill 
 tones of the k-e-s-o-o-kf k-e-s-o-o-k ! of the old stock- 
 " minder," at the sound of which a hundred forest grunters 
 come squealing and growling up from the adjacent woods to 
 the accustomed spot of rendezvous to receive their daily rations. 
 A ceremony repeated from evening to evening, to enable this 
 faithful old patriarch and feeder of flocks and herds, to ascer- 
 tain if any lawless marauder or prowling vermin have invaded 
 their ranks and diminished their number. But should the 
 traveller be belated and not reach this rural village till after 
 night, frequently, as he approaches, he hears the far-off" echoes 
 of music, and the sounds of jubilant voices in dancing, rejoicings 
 and merriment, as though they were celebrating some festive 
 occasion. Where can there be found a class of agricultural 
 laborers so independent of the world, so bountifully supplied 
 with all the comforts of life ? Where can there be found a 
 class of hired laborers of this description whose families are 
 furnished with one barrel of meat to each member per year, and 
 one bushel of meal to each per mouth ? and besides this from 
 fifty to one hundred dollars of their wages saved for their con- 
 tingent expenses. It may be safely asserted that such a class 
 of hired laborers cannot be found within the territory of the 
 United States, and much less in Europe. And every man who 
 has experienced the hardship of supporting a family from his 
 daily labors will respond to the truth of the assertion. 
 
 The negroes, as we have seen, never have, and never can, as a 
 people, attain to equal rights and privileges with the whites 
 without a miracle ; they can never live upon grounds of equality 
 
TREATMENT OP THE NEGROES. 283 
 
 with them in the same community. Inferiority is the position 
 in which nature has placed them ; and so long as they are in 
 the same community with the whites, laws and institutions 
 necessarily have been, and must be adapted to them in that 
 condition. It is not the statute law that creates the slavery, 
 but it is rather an adaptation of itself to the previous condition 
 in which it 6nds the slave. All statute law upon that subject 
 in its very provisions presupposes the condition of slavery, and 
 is designed only for its good govecument and I'egulation. This 
 we have seen, and shall see, is true from the nature, history, 
 government and laws of the institution. Each sovereignty ever 
 lias been, and ever will be, its own arbiter of its own govern- 
 ment and laws upon this subject. Slavery is always anterior 
 to all its statute laws ; and its very existence is always the 
 cause and gives rise to the necessity of all political interference 
 and regulations of the institution. This point we shall illus- 
 trate more fully hereafter. But we are told that slavery is a 
 sin ; that the very institution is a malum in se, a great moral 
 and political evil ; that the very relation of master and slave is 
 necessarily wrong in itself; and that no government can legis- 
 late to uphold a sin, &c. 
 
 After what we have said upon the connexion of the consti- 
 tution and laws of the Jewish nation with Hebrew slavery, of 
 the relation of those laws to that institution, and their force 
 and effect upon the same, we think we might justly leave this 
 question between the modern Stoic philosophers and the Author 
 of the Ten Commandments. 
 
 We sometimes hear of the sin of slavery in the abstract, but 
 the idea is beyond my comprehension. Slavery in the abstract, 
 to my understanding, is a perfect contradiction in terms. 
 Slavery is but a relation, and that can never constitute an ab- 
 stract idea, except it be between two abstract ideas or exist- 
 ences. But, in this instance, the relation is between two mate- 
 rial and positive subjects, without which it has no conceivable 
 form, and is therefore necessarily an idea in the concrete. 
 
 Its moral character, therefore, must always depend upon the 
 condition of the subjects to which it relates, and the circum- 
 stances under which it exists. The slavery of one man to ano- 
 ther may be wrong in one instance, and right in another ; there 
 can be no general principle of universal application to determine 
 its character. In what, then, does the sin consist ? In the 
 forcible subjection of one man to another, says one, and the 
 compulsion to labor without compensation. In depriving the 
 slave of his natural rights, says another. But this definition 
 20* 
 
234 THE RELATIVE POSITION AND 
 
 of the evil would condemn civil 2:overnment, and all its coercive 
 measures. Besides, the idea of laboring without compensation 
 supposes an impossibility ; the food and raiment necessary to the 
 existence of the slave is an essential compensation. Its adequacy 
 has no reference to the definition. Therefore we must seek for 
 some other definition of the sin of this relation. It consists, 
 says another, in unjustly depriving the slave of his liberty ; but 
 this is but another form of the same idea, and in part the peti- 
 tio jiTincipii. The question of justice or injustice in depi'iving 
 any subject of his liberty, is one to be determined with refer- 
 ence to the rights of all parties, and the end and object of all 
 government. But, says another, its sin consists in degrading 
 the slave to a chattel, and making him liable to be bought and 
 sold as an article of merchandize. But who is responsible for 
 this ? We have shown that government and law do not pZace, 
 hxjitfind him in that condition — a condition, in many instances, 
 from which they are incapable of extricating him, as in case of 
 the negro in the Slave States. But this point we shall con- 
 sider more fully hereafter. 
 
 If slavery in America is an evil, it is a necessary one, result- 
 ing from the peculiar character of the negro race, the condi- 
 tion of the country, and growing out of the imperfections of 
 human nature. Civil government, with all its penal laws, 
 prison discipline, and system of coercive measures, is in viola- 
 tion of the natural rights of man, and, in that sense, may be 
 called an evil ; but it is a relative one, and relates to the simple 
 fact that mankind are as they are, rather than as they should 
 be. If the world was perfect, penal laws would be unknown. 
 
 It will perhaps be said that government, on the part of free- 
 men, is a voluntary surrendering of their natural rights ; that 
 they are parties to the compact, and may, therefore, justly incur 
 the penalties of its laws : but that the slave has no voice, part 
 or lot in the matter, except unconditional subjection and obe- 
 dience. This is true, but it arises from his presumed incapacity 
 for civil functions, as in the case of minors and women. In 
 neither case does the law create the cause of their disability, 
 but ever strives to adapt itself to their condition. 
 
 The same principles that would abolish the relation of master 
 and slave, and remove all restraint imposed by that relation 
 upon the liberties of the entire mass of the slave population in 
 this country, would also, if carried out to their necessary results, 
 abolish all restraint imposed by penal codes, prison discipline, 
 and poor laws, upon the balance of the population. These 
 restraints, in both instances, arise from the same cause, are 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES. 235 
 
 founded upon the same reasons, and exist from the same neces- 
 sity. One of the principal reasons that sustains thera, and 
 renders them both alike necessary, is the peace, prosperity and 
 safety of society ; or, in other words, the greatest amount of 
 good to the greatest number. To this end all governments 
 have a right, and it is their leading object, to shape their laws. 
 All governments have the right, and it is their object, to secure, 
 first, their own permanency, preservation and perpetuity ; and 
 second, the best possible state of society in the best possible 
 manner. They must, therefore, be their own judges of the 
 manner in which this end shall be obtained, and have the right 
 to employ the most expedient measures to secure the same. 
 Hence, the right of any independent government to regulate 
 and uphold the institution of slavery, so long as it may be 
 deemed expedient, and conducive to the common defence and 
 general welfare of the State, is indisputable. 
 
 This relation imposes reciprocal obligations and duties upon 
 both the master and slave. It is the duty of the master, im- 
 posed upon him by the law of the laud, as well as that of hu- 
 manity, to refrain from imposing excessive labor and from cruel 
 treatment ; to pi'otect the objects of his trust, in sickness and 
 in health, in infancy and helpless old age ; to clothe the naked 
 and feed the hungry, and to treat them, under all circumstances, 
 with as much kindness and compassion as the welfare of society, 
 his own interests and safety, and the disposition, character and 
 position of the slave, will safely admit. In the words of St. 
 Paul, to "give them that which is just and equitable." 
 
 On the other hand, it is the duty of the slave to "obey his 
 master with fear and trembling, ' ' i. e. with a high sense of 
 reverence for their superiors : and "ivith singleness of he art,' ^ 
 i. e. with a willingness and sincerity; '^as unto Christ,'" i. e. 
 they owe, in a degree, the same faithful obedience, reverence 
 and devotion to their earthly, that they do to their Heavenly 
 Master; "not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the 
 servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;'' 
 ''with good will doing service as to tJie Lord, and not to men." 
 The doctrine of Christian resignation and obedience here 
 inculcated by St. Paul, must for ever stand opposed to the 
 teachings, preaching and practice of a class of the false and 
 pretended friends of freedom in our sister States. It is a 
 chapter direct upon the duties of servants and masters ; it 
 teaches them to be reconciled, sincere and faithful. "Art thou 
 called to be a servant, care not for it." And though it exists 
 not in the form of a statute law, yet I trust it is equally as im- 
 
236 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 perious and as important as a statute. And though we weep 
 over the remissness of these Christian duties, both by the mas- 
 ter and the slave, yet surely we will not, for this reason alone, 
 rashly dissolve this Gospel relation between them, and thus put 
 for ever beyond the power of either to do "the will of God " 
 in that capacity. 
 
 ESSAY IX. 
 
 THE ABOLITIONISTS.— CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS, &c. 
 
 This Essay will be confined to that school of Abolitionists 
 who pretend to confine their labors to moral and religious 
 means. Their political aspect will form a distinct topic, to be 
 considered hereafter. 
 
 The fundamental principle in the creed of this class of "latter 
 day" reformers, is, that the relation between master and slave 
 is an usurpation of unjustifiable power, wrong ab initio, and 
 ought to be abolished, irrespective of consequences. 
 
 It is wrong, say they, because it deprives its subjects of their 
 natural rights. But so do civil government, penal codes, poor 
 laws, and lunatic asylums. It is wrong because it denies the 
 slave the means of religious instruction. This is a misrepre- 
 sentation of facts ; they enjoy these in common with the free 
 population. It is wrong because it permits the vilest monster 
 of a man to have as many slaves as he can get, and abuse and 
 maltreat them with impunity. This is also a misrepresentation ; 
 the law protects the slave against cruel treatment (as we shall 
 show). But the law also permits this same monster to have a 
 wife, and as many children as may be added to his family, over 
 whom he has as much conti'ol as he has over his slaves. 
 
 But slavery is wrong because it has a deleterious influence 
 upon the moral and religious character of the community 
 where it exists ; and it should, therefore, be condemned. But, 
 from what we have said in another place in this book, it would 
 seem that the Founder of the Christian religion, and his Apos- 
 tles, had the misfortune to differ with these " latter day saints^' 
 upon this subject. At best, such a position can be but a mat- 
 ter of opinion ; as is true of the influence of great cities; great 
 manufacturing communities ; large collections of people for ex- 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 237 
 
 tensive public works ; the array ; the navy ; the marine laws 
 and regulations, and a thousand other collections and associa- 
 tions that might be mentioned. To be consistent, these fasti- 
 dious conservators of public morals, who believe in their dele- 
 terious influences upon morals and religion, should wage the 
 same war of extermination against them all. 
 
 But slavery is condemned by the golden rule, "Whatsoever 
 ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them." 
 This, we have endeavored to show, imposes no obligation upon 
 the master to liberate his slave, but directly the reverse. But 
 it denies the slave all means of education and hope of improve- 
 ment, and thus puts an interdict on his advancement. This 
 position is one of the fundamental errors in the creed of the 
 Abolitionists. The relation of the slave to his master, and his 
 association with civilized life, instead of denying him the 
 sources of education and means of improvement, is a constant 
 source of education and means of improving his character and 
 condition ; instead of interdicting his advancement it prevents 
 him from degenerating into his native barbarism.^ 
 
 But slavery is wrong because it reduces men to things, and 
 allows them to be bought and sold. This is also a misrepre- 
 sentation, from which an egregious error pervades public opi- 
 nion throughout the free States. The idea of property in the 
 person of the slave is an absurdity, which we shall explain 
 more fully hereafter.^ 
 
 But slavery must be wrong from the scenes of cruelty and 
 incidents of abuse of the murderous treatment of the slaves, 
 that are so frequently paraded before the public. But if the 
 relation of master and servant is to be condemned on this 
 ground alone, consistency calls for the condemnation of all the 
 individual relations of persons whence arise abuses of authority 
 and cruel treatment. And why is slavery singled out as the 
 special object of calumny and vituperation for this reason ? If 
 abolition is the work of love, charity, and Christian benevo- 
 lence, why is it that all the most revolting scenes of cruelty, 
 misery, and wretchedness, arising from other relations, always 
 escape their notice ? If they condemn slavery for this, why 
 not condemn those also ? 
 
 The same reason would abolish the relation between husband 
 
 1 Compare the condition of the negro in America with that in Africa, 
 and tell me what has been the cause of the difference. Or, compare the 
 condition of the American slave with that of a St. Domingo freeman, or 
 an emancipated slave of Jamaica, and answer the same question. 
 
 2 See Essay on the PoUtical Aspect of Slavery, &c., post, 312, et seq. 
 
238 THE abolitionists: 
 
 and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, tutor and pupil, 
 master and apprentice, and every other instance of the indivi- 
 dual authority of one person over another. No honest philo- 
 sopher can fail to see the analogy of these relations in this 
 particular. It is said, that in the association of husband and 
 wife, and parent and child, there is a natural guarantee for the 
 discharge of reciprocal duties and for kind treatment in the 
 incentive for conjugal and parental affection, that is unknown 
 to any other relation. But this conclusion, it will be readily 
 seen, rests upon false premises. The relation itself furnishes 
 no more assurance in one instance than in the other of the dis- 
 charge of these reciprocal duties. On the contrary, where the 
 domestic relation is unfortunate, the very reverse of this is 
 true. 
 
 History is full of instances to show that misery is often the 
 result of matrimonial connection. "We all sympathize with 
 Socrates in his trials with Xantippe and the Greek sophists. 
 Juvenal tells us that those Roman matrons who had no affec- 
 tion for their husbands, kept their hired miscreants to torture 
 their slaves. The greatest source of grief to the creator of the 
 Lady in Comus was his misfortunes in his domestic relations. 
 And thus was the Laureate of Eve enabled to write the best 
 treatise on divorce. The face of one of England's earliest and 
 best linguists is reported to have exhibited crimson marks, 
 traced by loving fingers ; and Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and 
 English, must often have met and run together in his brain, as 
 he reeled beneath the qonfusing ring of a fair hand knocking at 
 his ears. Look at the helpmates of Whitelocke, Bishop 
 Cooper, and Addison ; they were tempestuous viragoes, en- 
 dowed with a genius for scolding and trouble that constantly 
 haunted the midnight visions of their husbands. The wives 
 of Rousseau, Moliere, Montaigne, Dante, Byron, Dryden, and 
 Steele, were acute vixens, with tempers composed of vinegar 
 and saltpetre, and tongues tipped with lunar caustic and as 
 explosive as gun-cotton. Their husbands might as well sit to a 
 bundle of lucifer-matches ; for, at the least rub, they would 
 ignite into a flame of hell-fire and blue blazes that would scorch 
 their earlocks till they were glad to beat a retreat and make 
 their escape. Some betook themselves to their gin-cup and 
 club meetings, and others spent their lives in tears, solitude, 
 and repentance. But how many modern Mrs. Caudles, whose 
 " Curtain Lectures" are suppressed, and forever kept a secret 
 from the world, while their poor submissive husbands are buf- 
 feting the storms of their household eloquence with hearts 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 239 
 
 cheered by its pleasing consolations, and sleep sweetened by 
 its soothing accents. And these miserable beings, with no 
 source of earthly comfort left, in attempting to drown their 
 sorrows, drowu themselves in that liquid current, that is sweep- 
 ing millions to a premature grave. 
 
 Were one willing to prostitute his pen to the capacity of a 
 moral scavenger, and gather up the dregs that float only in the 
 filthy sewers of society, and parade them all into a tale of the 
 cares and misfortunes of matrimonial connections, he might 
 present a picture that would put to the blush, and shame even 
 the seared face of the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. He 
 could not only vary its figure with scars and stripes, but he 
 could dye the ground-work of the picture crimson, with human 
 blood. 
 
 But we forbear ; we will present but few instances of the 
 fruits of matrimony that have, in the last few weeks, come 
 under our notice, as an offset to the fictitious parts of Uncle 
 Tom, which, according to the modern Stoic and Abolition phi- 
 losophers, are just grounds for condemning the institution. 
 
 "A Monster in human shape. — A German, named Jacob 
 Brenigar, is now awaiting his trial in Wyoming County, Ya., 
 charged with a series of offences that surpass in horror any of 
 the tales which old wives tell bad children to keep them quiet, of 
 giants that lived "once upon a time." This Brenigar was 
 formerly a Baptist preacher in North Carolina. While re- 
 siding there, he attempted an outrage upon his own daughter. 
 His wife made the fact known, and Brenigar, with his family, 
 moved over into Wyoming. There he made another attempt 
 at a rape upon his daughter. Shortly after, being desirous of 
 obtaining his license to preach, which had been taken away 
 from him in North Carolina, he applied to his wife to retract 
 the charge she had brought against him, and admit that she 
 bad sworn falsely. This she refused to do, notwithstanding he 
 inflicted frequent and severe beatings upon her. At last, find- 
 ing neither persuasion, threats, nor beatings, would have any 
 influence, one night he pulled his wife from the bed and dragged 
 her over a piece of new ground full of stumps, so that she died 
 in a short time after giving premature birth to a child. Mrs. 
 Brenigar, at first, refused to tell the mode of receiving her in- 
 juries, but, finding that death was inevitable, made some of her 
 neighbors acquainted with the facts. The husband was arrested, 
 but released on bail. While under bonds he made an attempt 
 to decoy his niece, a married woman, into some woods at the 
 
240 THE ABOLITIONISTS: 
 
 back of her residence, but she told her husband, who pursued 
 the ruffian, and would have killed him, but his gun missed fire." 
 
 — Abington Democrat, 1854. 
 
 ' ' Singular Case. — Rev. Joseph Johnson is on trial at 
 Kingston, Ulster Co., N. Y., on a charge of having murdered 
 his wife and child. The evidence thus far tends to prove that 
 the Reverend gentleman was in love with some other woman 
 than his wife, and he got rid of the latter by drowning her in 
 order to marry the former, which he did a few months ago. 
 This miscreant escaped the just penalty of the law for a time 
 by a defect in the indictment." — Times, July, 1854. 
 
 "Mysterious; Shocking Burial of a Body without a 
 Coffin. — The neighborhood of Cheltenham, out on the Pacific 
 Railroad, has been much excited within a few days past by some 
 disclosures which show that a man, whose name we suppress 
 for the present, living in that vicinity, buried the dead body of 
 his wife, who died the previous day, in a hole in the ground, 
 without placing it in a coffin or in any other manner enclosing 
 it from contact with the earth. He dug a hole in the ground 
 about two and a half feet deep, in which, he remarked to a 
 neighbor who asked him about it, he intended to plant a tree. 
 On the night after the death of his wife, with the assistance of 
 a man in his house, he took the body, dropped it in the hole, 
 and covered it up with dirt. 
 
 "The Coroner receiving information of the fact, went out to 
 the place for the purpose of exhuming the body and holding an 
 inquest, but on reaching the spot and conferring with some of 
 the neighbors, he concluded not to disturb the remains. The 
 husband is at this time out at Franklin, on the railroad. It is 
 impossible to conjecture an adequate cause for such inhuman 
 and shocking treatment of the remains of a wife by a husband. 
 The only cause we have heard assigned, is that the man was 
 too penurious to go to the expense of procuring a coffin. 
 
 "The Coroner procured the names of all those who knew 
 anything of the affair, intending to lay the matter before the 
 Grand Jury, to see if some action may not be taken by that 
 body in the case. 
 
 " Surely the atrocious affair demands investigation, and the 
 punishment of the perpetrators. We conceal the husband's 
 name for the present, for he yet may not be altogether guilty." 
 
 — Missouri Democrat. 
 
 " Total Depravity. — The Evansville Journal contains an 
 account of a brute in human form, living in that place, who left 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 241 
 
 his house early one Monday morninj^, and went sportinj? in the 
 woods with his j^un and dog, leaving- a wife and child locked up 
 in the house, both of whom were dangerously sick, without food 
 or drink of any description within their reach. The inhuman 
 wretch remained away all day, and until nearly 12 o'clock that 
 night. About 10 o'clock in the evening some of the neighbors 
 were alarmed by the groans of the woman, and the crying of 
 the child — heard cries for food, water, &c., &c. The doors 
 were forced open, and a horrible sight presented itself. The 
 woman was in the last agonies of death, the immediate cause 
 of which was undoubtedly neglect and starvation. She died in 
 about one hour after being discovered. The child, about a 
 year and six months old, was cared for by the neighbors, and 
 exhibited painful symptoms of hunger, disease, and most 
 wanton and brutal neglect. The wretch of a father returned 
 before his wife died, but could give no excuse for his unpardon- 
 able absence, or for leaving his family in such a destitute con- 
 dition. " — Louisville Democrat. 
 
 " Mrs. Guilphor, a feminine fiend, attempted to destroy her 
 three step-children by poison, near Neelville, Ohio, last week. 
 It appears that she was a servant to the first wife of her hus- 
 band, and when she died this woman was chosen to supply the 
 vacancy. She soon commenced tyrannizing over the helpless 
 children, and finally concluded her malignant cruelty by admin- 
 istering poison to them. The youngest' died, but by the timely 
 application of remedies, the other two survived." 
 
 Whoever heard "of sorrows like these," of misery in such 
 grim and horrid forms, among the slaves ? One would suppose 
 that consistency would arm the whole Abolition host in the 
 panoply of war against the institution whence such scenes arose. 
 And we see that the women, always the most sincere and guile- 
 less followers of consistency, are beginning to take action in 
 this matter ; they are about getting up an insurrection of spirits 
 and others to abolish the abomin.^'.ble institution of marriage. 
 It would seem, by the following extracts, that their present 
 head-quarters was at Hope Dale, Milford, Massachusetts. 
 
 " Woman's Rights Convention, — A notice of the forth- 
 coming Annual Convention for the consideration of Woman's 
 Rights, will be found in another column of our paper, and we 
 call attention to it, hoping that some of our readers will thereby 
 be induced to attend it. It is an important movement, this 
 'Woman's Rights' movement — one of the most important of 
 21 Q 
 
242 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 the age — and all who feel interested in the welfare of the whole 
 human race, should seriously consider the subject. Many 
 women — as well as men — are not conscious of the necessity of 
 it — not now — not feeling wronged by popular usages, having 
 favored positions, or being content to be the mere appendages 
 of men, if not their slaves. Into some women's souls, however, 
 the iron has entered, and here follows a record of wrongs 
 endured by a few which we take from The Una for the present 
 month. They are extracts from letters addressed to Mrs. Davis, 
 whose editorial comments follow them." w. H. F. 
 
 "Letter No. 1. — Please do not send the ' Una' any more — 
 I cannot receive it. My husband tore the last one from my 
 hands and burned it. Oh, for an hour of peace, of rest ! A 
 blessing which I shall never again enjoy, till I hear ' the songs 
 of angels round the Throne. ' Sometimes I wish my ears were 
 duller than they are, I hear so many heart-grieving, wrath- 
 provoking things ; but patience, patience, says my proud, firm 
 heart. 'To bear, is to conquer onv fate.' 
 
 " No. 2. — It is evident to me, my dear Madam, that the 
 iron has never entered into your soul. You have never felt 
 yourself a dependant, a slave in your husband's house — not 
 daring to use one cent of money without his knowledge ; and, 
 at the same time, knowing he will not permit you to do, even 
 with your own, what you desire. I brought my husband twenty 
 thousand dollars. I have been three months trying to get one 
 dollar to send you for your paper. My children, born in this 
 relation, are a curse ; for their inharmonious organizations are 
 constantly a reproach to me. They are ill-looking and sickly, 
 while we both have excellent constitutions. 
 
 "No. 3. — I would send you the pay for your paper if I 
 could, for it comes like a ray of hope to my weary heart. I 
 shall be a mother again, soon. Ah, what a terrible thing it is 
 to have children, to die so early ! Just as my heart begins to 
 have a little joy in them, they pass away, and I am again without 
 life or love, which is the same thing to a woman. * * * 
 
 "No. 4. — A man may beat his wife, maltreat his servants, 
 and ruin his children ; that is nobody's concern. Society 
 regards those things that are injurious to it, but meddles in 
 nothing else, so it says. Do you not think, if society had any 
 true regard for itself, it would prevent nine-tenths of the mar- 
 riages, simply that criminals might not be born. I am quite 
 certain that no circumstances can so ruin a good organization, 
 that it may not be redeemable. While in these loathed, hated 
 unions, good ones cannot be produced. I know I am a slave, 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 243 
 
 and Mr. is my lord. He can bind my body, tie my hands, 
 
 but with my will he can do nothing. Do you ask why I am in 
 this position ? I was educated to s;et a husband — and was 
 flattered and urged into a marriage at seventeen, that was 
 thought to be very advantageous, and I thought that I loved. 
 But I now see that misplaced affection diEFers as much from a 
 right state of feeling, as truth from falsehood ; and the living a 
 lie is terrible. You have seen me always immersed in gaiety, 
 but I felt that you looked below the surface and saw that this 
 was not sufficient for me. I shall be a devotee when T am 
 passe. Dorcas Societies, Ragged Schools, Boriaboula Missions 
 anything to kill time, and make me forget my degradation ; for 
 I am a legalized — bah — I cannot write the word. God help 
 us, for there is no other ' arm mighty to save.' 
 
 "No. 5. — My heart is breaking; but, alas! how long it 
 takes to kill ! My last child is dead, and I am alone. I have 
 food and clothes. Ah ! yes, my bed is of down, and my 
 clothing 'silk and purple, and fine linen,' but the veriest slave 
 on a Southern plantation has more freedom than I have. More 
 to live for ; for there is some one to love them, and they love. 
 I have nothing ; for I cannot love fine furniture, fine dress, &c. 
 I must have objects that give as well as receive. There is no 
 help ; ray husband is a drunkard ; how I hate that vice ! 
 
 " No. 6. — I am half disposed, just here, to ask your advice. 
 You know my infirmity. Ought this to prevent me from 
 marrying ? I love, and am loved by one so true, so just, so 
 good and noble, that he would take me, deformed as I am, to 
 his heart, and treasure me there. I have loved him for three 
 years ; but my scruples have prevented an engagement to this 
 time. Tell me — will it be a sin to marry?" — From the 
 Practical Christian, Sept. 23, 1854; Hope Dale, Milford, Mass. 
 
 It may be pertinently asked why there is not more sympathy 
 for the cause of the poor oppressed and down-trodden women 
 of Hope Dale ? There is not a slave on the Southern planta- 
 tions but that has more liberty than they ; they are struggling 
 between life and death to assert their rights, and to throw off 
 the galling yoke of matrimony, an institution upon which they 
 remark as follows : " But so radical is the question of marriage 
 itself, so deep is the hell of the marriage institution, 'as it is,' 
 and so sore therefore does every body feel in relation to the 
 question, that tlie very proposition to discuss it is considered 
 by some as tantamount to licentiousness." 
 
 It seems that this natural guarantee, so often spoken of for 
 
244 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 the protection of the wife and children, fails of its object among 
 the "Christian Socialists" of Massachusetts. They are laboring 
 and longinff for the millennium of "Free Loveism'' (as they 
 terra it). The only security for conjugal attachment, fidelity, and 
 happiness, consists not in the respect of the relation itself, but in 
 the kind and amiable disposition of the parties. But will the 
 same cause secure no kind treatment to the slave ? Whatever 
 secures family peace, prosperity and happiness, secures also 
 kind and humane treatment to him. When all other motives 
 fail, the slave has the security, for food and raiment, at least, 
 from the love of gain and pecuniary considerations of his 
 master, an incentive ever opposed to the claims of the wife and 
 children upon his clemency. Another school of Abolitionists, 
 in carrying out their principles to their legitimate results, lay the 
 axe at the root of all government and laws that forcibly deprive 
 men of their liberty in their administration and execution. 
 They stand upon the broad platform of abolition, non-resist- 
 ance, and the anti-coercitione regni. Among the thousand 
 ludicrous extracts that might be made from their publications, 
 we submit only the following letter of Thomas Haskell to Adam 
 Ballou, editor of the Practical Christian. 
 
 "Gloucester, September 10, 1854. 
 
 "Brother Ballou: — I intended to have been at your 
 annual meeting, but circumstances are such that I cannot con- 
 veniently attend ; so I will send you my thoughts upon the pre- 
 sent human governments. I have been thinking lately of the 
 complete resemblance they bear to the 'Man of sin' spoken of 
 by the Apostle, ' who opposeth and exalteth himself above all 
 that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, 
 sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. ' 
 Does not our Government fully answer this description ? Look 
 at the Fugitive Slave Law, read the debates they had upon it, 
 and see with what contempt and scorn they treated the thought 
 that there was any higher law than their own enactments. 
 Perhaps this Government is as complete a resemblance of a 
 Righteous Government, as is possible for Satan to transform 
 himself into an Angel of Light. 
 
 " Mankind are governed by one or the other of those two 
 great principles, love and fear. This Government, both State 
 and National, is founded upon the latter. We are not required 
 to do or not to do certain acts because they are right or wrong, 
 but because they are the enactments of Government, and must 
 be obeyed, or we must suffer certain forfeitures and penalties 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 245 
 
 for disobedience. All who willingly sustain this Government 
 of fear and violence, are willing slaves. They try to oppose 
 chattel slavery, but they are sustaining a system equally de- 
 grading and inhuman. What greater degradation can be 
 heaped upon us, than to be forbidden to give a starving brother 
 a piece of bread under the penalty of one thousand dollars fine 
 and six months imprisonment. Yet such is the institution we 
 are taught we must sustain to protect the weak from the op- 
 pression of the strong, the righteous from the tyranny of the 
 wicked." 
 
 But if the abuse of any privilege, right, or institution, is to 
 determine its character, suppose one was to adopt the uncha- 
 ritable course of the Abolitionists in judging a tree by its fruits, 
 and should sketch faithfully the annals of the Church for the 
 last half century, write the biography of the numerous back- 
 slidden saints, and the dark catalogue of crimes and misde- 
 meanors that have stained its sacred history ; and in the book 
 he should devote a single chapter exclusively to the clergy, and 
 hold all sincere Christians accountable for the black calendar 
 of iniquities in the lives of all the murderers and miscreants 
 that have iuvaded the ranks of this holy order, and condemn 
 them all as of the same type of character; and, finally, de- 
 nounce the Church and all its priesthood as a posthumous bant- 
 ling of the devil. Could he be judged less consistent, and less 
 charitable towards them, than the Northern slanderers and per- 
 secutors are towards the people of the South ? 
 
 We are not of that school of moralists or logicians who 
 would attempt to justify one evil by the existence of another. 
 But we do say, that if one institution is to be condemned in 
 consequence of the abuse of its privileges, and the bad fruits 
 that thus result from it, all others must fall for a like reason. 
 And we repeat the question, why are the Southern people 
 selected as the special objects of calumny and vituperation ? 
 pursued, persecuted and denounced, with all the malice, clamor 
 and indignation of public enemies ? Is human nature so per- 
 fect, is the world so free from cruelty and abuses to the helpless 
 of mankind, in every other portion, that there are no objects 
 of sympathy, no cause of suffering deserving of this fanfaro- 
 nade of Northern philanthropy, but the slaves of the South ? 
 
 "Suicide to Avoid the Cat. — James Ransom, an able 
 
 seaman of the Valorous, 16 (paddle), Captain Buckle, in the 
 
 Baltic, committed suicide on the 5th of August last, by jumping 
 
 overboard. It appears that the unfortunate poor fellow had 
 
 21* 
 
246 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 been sentenced to receive three dozen lashes for some offence. 
 While the gratings were being rigged for this punishment, he 
 pleaded hard to the captain for mercy, and subsequently to the 
 first lieutenant, to intercede in obtaining some other punish- 
 ment ; but finding these ofiBcers determined to let the punish- 
 ment be inflicted, jumped overboard and was drowned." — 
 Plymouth (Eng.) Mail. 
 
 " Cruelty. — An American young woman, 19 years old, says 
 the Newark (N. J.) Advertiser of the 20th, came to the office 
 of the Overseer of the Poor last evening, and stated that she 
 had been living, since she was three years old, with a family in 
 Clinton township ; and that on Tuesday last, the family com- 
 pelled her to remain in a cold shed to do her washing, refusing 
 her any opportunity of warming herself, so that at night her 
 feet were badly frozen. Yesterday, seeing that she was crij)- 
 pled so as to be of no further service to them, they sent her to 
 Newark. The Overseer of the Poor bestowed all requisite 
 attention upon her, and this moi'ning, after making an affidavit 
 of the above facts before Justice Baldwin, she was taken to the 
 Almshouse. Her feet are so badly frozen that is probable both 
 must be amputated." 
 
 These very people were undoubtedly loudest in their denun- 
 ciations of slavery, and were contributing their mite to support 
 the cause of the poor slave at the South. 
 
 Fi'ora personal observation I can assert the fact, and chal- 
 lenge a contradiction by any well-informed person, that there 
 are to-day, May 12th, 1857, fifty thousand people in the city 
 of New York, and twenty thousand in Boston, whose condition, 
 as to the enjoyment of all the pleasures and comforts of life, 
 will bear no comparison to the general condition of the slave 
 population of the South. 
 
 The scenes of beggary, squalid poverty, and wretchedness, 
 that force themselves upon the sight of the traveller in all the 
 large cities of the Free States, forcibly remind him of the 
 truth of the old maxim, that true charity should always begin 
 its work at home. 
 
 " 'White Slave.' — This is the self-assumed title of white 
 persons in New York. The New York Tribune contains a 
 letter from a person who signs herself ' The Wife of a White 
 Slave.' She complains that her husband, a glass-blower, is 
 compelled to work without the rest that is allowed ' the slave 
 on the plantation. ' She very piteously inquires, ' While there 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 241 
 
 are so many to employ their talents in behalf of the colored 
 slave, is there not one to speak a word for the white ?' Alluding 
 to the severity of the labor of her husband and his fellow- 
 workmen, and the little relaxation allowed them, she inquires, 
 ' Who can wonder, however much they may deplore the error, 
 that such men should recruit their exhausted energies with an 
 artificial stimulus ?' 
 
 " It is astonishing, that with such examples at their doors, 
 the enthusiasts restrict their efforts to schemes for intermeddling 
 with slavery at the South. But it is always so. Fanaticism 
 prefers that far-reaching sort of sympathy, which manifests 
 itself towards a distant people, and which can be indulged 
 along with that kind of pomp and circumstance which is so 
 grateful to its followers. They prefer that the dollar they give 
 should be wasted upon impracticable schemes that make a noise 
 in the world, rather than it should be given to the complaining 
 'White Slave' (as he calls himself) at their very doors." 
 
 But distance seems to lend enchantment to the cause of the 
 Abolitionists. If philanthropy was their real motto, and humanity 
 their real theme, and they were sincerely toiling in its spirit, 
 and laboring in its hope, why do they not adopt the spirit of 
 universal charity and benevolence of "Him who went about 
 doing good," and in their labors of love breathe the brotherly 
 spirit of St. Paul in his Epistle to the slave-holder Philemon ? 
 Like moral monomaniacs, there is no evil in their sight but the 
 far-oft" wrongs of the Southern slave ; there is no oppression 
 that moves their compassion, no suffering that reaches their 
 sympathy, but his. Thousands of their fellow-beings around 
 may live in the most abject poverty and wretchedness, and die 
 of starvation and distress, yet they have remembered not the 
 wants of the poor and needy in the day of their distress. And 
 whosoever of the Abolitionists does not clothe the naked and 
 feed the hungry at home, the same is a hollow-hearted hypo- 
 crite, a liar, and the truth is not in him. 
 
 But "a prophet is not without honor, save in his own coun- 
 try ;" therefore these Abolitionists and fomenters of disaffection 
 and disunion, have to look to a foreign land in hope of reward. 
 They must go to Great Britain for sympathy, to receive the 
 congratulations and praises of the oppressive and tyrannical 
 aristocracy of England. There are treasured up for them 
 crowna of glory, and honors immortal. And Great Britain 
 herself, with a laboring population literally weltering in their 
 own grim misery, starvation and despair, is sending back her 
 
248 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 emissaries, professedly to aid in this great work of freedom and 
 humanity ; like Satan reproving sin, to preach liberty and 
 emancipation to the American people. 
 
 British Slavery. 
 
 A plantation of well-fed and well-clothed negro slaves shocks 
 humanity, and calls down the vengeance of heaven upon the 
 head of the slave-holder. But a press-gang may perform its 
 heart-rending work in perfect consistency with the free and glo- 
 rious institutions of Britain. One of the most repulsive fea- 
 tures of the general system of British slavery is their laws rela- 
 tive to impressment. By these, peaceable and unoffending men 
 are doomed to her vessels of war to serve at the pleasure and 
 bidding of her naval oflBcers. In this practice there are some 
 of the most distressing instances of the sundering of kindred 
 ties of home and friends. Here the husband is torn from the 
 wife, the father from the child, the brother from the sister, by 
 the press-gang, the kidnappers and slave-hunters of England — 
 a custom that never has prevailed in any other civilized nation, 
 ancient or modern. Anciently, some of the maritime nations 
 condemned men to the galleys for crime.^ 
 
 After a long and laborious voyage in a merchant vessel, the 
 sun-burned seaman arrives in sight of home. His wife and 
 children, who have long bewailed his absence, and feared for 
 his life, stand with joyous countenances upon the shore, eager 
 to embrace the returning wanderer. Perhaps a government 
 vessel, on the search for seamen, then sends its barbarous press- 
 gang aboard the ship, and forces the husband and father once 
 more from the presence of the beloved ones. Long protracted 
 years will pass away before he will be allowed to return. Then 
 his wife may be dead, his children at the mercy of the parish. 
 Yet England preaches freedom and humanity ! 
 
 One of the most thrilling narratives of the scenes attending 
 impressment, is to be found in the romance of Katie Stewart, 
 published, without the author's name, in Blackwood's Maga- 
 zine. It is founded on facts, and without exaggeration. A 
 lengthy extract may be seen in the White Slaves of England, 
 by Cobden, 1853. It is truly a heart-rending tale. 
 
 Whoever wishes to see another faithful and life-like picture 
 of this species of British slavery, should read the novel of 
 Jacob Faithful, by Capt. Marryatt. Could we but follow 
 
 * See McCuUoch, Diet. Com. (Impressment), ■where lie coolly discusses 
 the expediency of the laws. 
 
CONSISTENCY OP THEIR LABORS. 249 
 
 the history of Jacob and Thomas, the watermen, or bring them 
 up to tell their own tales of the "cat," and the horrors of 
 naval discipline aboard of British men-of-war, we might then 
 institute a comparison between the condition of this species of 
 British, and American, slaves. 
 
 Slavery is any system of involuntary servitude, by which the 
 time, service, and toil of one person becomes the property of 
 another by compulsion. This has been the fundamental requi- 
 site of the institution in all ages of the world. But it has ex- 
 isted in different forms and under modified features in different 
 nations and at different times. The power of life and death 
 over the slave peculiar to some nations, is not an essential re- 
 quisite to its existence ; neither is the right to sell and alienate 
 the services accompanied by a compulsory right to control the 
 person of the slave in that manner (or, in other words, by a 
 fiction of law to sell the slave). He who is compelled to labor 
 without adequate compensation, without the ability to escape, 
 to acquire property in the soil, or representation in legislation, 
 is a slave ! Slavery of the agricultural peasantry of 
 Britain. Yet, such is the real condition of the mass of the 
 laboring population of Great Britain. 
 
 The laud-tenant is compelled to labor, and is subject to the 
 will of his lord, because he fixes the price of rent, shares in the 
 products of the soil and the proceeds of the poor man's labor, 
 ad libitum, always leaving him a scant subsistence of the neces- 
 saries of life. He cannot escape from this condition; "once 
 a peasant in England, and the man must remain a peasant for- 
 ever. "^ 
 
 This is evident from the general policy of the nation upon 
 this subject, which is to reduce the number of land proprietors 
 and concentrate them all in the hands of a few who may hold 
 the reins of government. In the United Kingdom, the laud is 
 divided into immense estates, constantly retained in the hands 
 of a few ; and the tendency of the existing laws of entail and 
 primogeniture is to reduce even the number of these proprie- 
 tors. There are 77,007,048 acres of land in the United King- 
 dom, including the small adjacent islands. Of this quantity, 
 28,227,435 acres are uncultivated. The number of proprietors 
 of all this land is about 50,000. While the people of the 
 
 1 London Times, 1844. Said Mr. Kay, of Trinity College, Cambridge: 
 "Unless the English peasant has the means, and will consent to tear him- 
 self from his relations, friends, and early associations, and either trans- 
 plant himself into a town or a distant colony, he has no chance of im- 
 proving his condition." See White Slaves of England, p. 14. 
 
250 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 United Kingdom number, at least, 28, 000,000. » What a tre- 
 mendous majority, then, own not a foot of soil ! And such are 
 the policy and laws of England, that they never can, to any 
 considerable number, own one foot of land, but must remain 
 thereon, at the will and mercy of these few lords of the soil, 
 and subject to a government in which they have no voice, and 
 in which their interests are not represented. 
 
 "Mankind," says Aristotle, "are divided into freemen and 
 slaves ;" ^ look, then, at the condition of the British peasantry, 
 and say if they are freemen ? 
 
 Look at the effects of the landed aristocracy in England. 
 The Rev. Mr. Henry Worsley states, that in the year 1110, 
 there were in England 250,000 freehold estates in the hands of 
 250,000 different families; and that, in 1815, the whole of the 
 lands of England were concentrated in the hands of only 
 32,000 proprietors! 
 
 The effects of this system are obvious, according to the old 
 maxim, "the big fish eat up the little ones," which is particu- 
 larly true of all landed proprietors in all countries. As fast as 
 the smaller estates come into market they are bought up by 
 this landed aristocracy, the more wealthy and opulent proprie- 
 tors outbidding the smaller ones, and thus monopolizing land 
 at any cost. " The consequence is," says a distinguished law- 
 yer of Westmoreland and Cumberland Counties in 1849, "for 
 some time past, the number of small estates has been rapidly 
 diminishing in all parts of the country. In a short time, none 
 of them will remain, but all be merged in the great estates 
 The consequence is, that the peasant's position, instead of being 
 what it once was, one of hope, is fast becoming one of despair. 
 Unless he emigrates, it is now impossible for him ever to rise 
 above a peasant."^ But what chance have the majority of the 
 peasantry of Great Britain to emigrate, when their year's labor 
 is scarcely sufficient to keep soul and body together. The dis- 
 tressing policy of this monopoly of the British aristocracy, by 
 swallowing these small estates, is to turn thousands upon thou- 
 sands adrift upon the country without houses, or means of sup- 
 port. If one of the great landholders prefers the pursuit of 
 
 1 See McCulloch, Diet. Com. "Britain." 
 
 ^2 oUta ii TcXcioi ck iovXtav Kai tKtvdipiiiv. De Rep. 1 : 3. He says, in another 
 place, that some were born to rule and others to serve ; are not the pea- 
 sants born to serve? 
 
 ' See White Slaves of England, p. 15. This most excellent work con- 
 tains a compilation of testimony and facts collected entirely from foreign 
 sources of the most reliable kind. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 251 
 
 grazing to tliat of farming, he may sweep away tlic homes of 
 his laborers, turning the poor wretches upon the country as 
 wandering paupers, or drive them into the cities to overstock 
 the workshops, and thus reduce the wages of the poor mecha- 
 nic, which are now too small to afford him and his family the 
 necessaries of life. The country, by this means, is filled with 
 beggary, misery, and distress ; the poor-houses peopled to over- 
 flowing with helpless paupers ; till, at length, the government 
 is driven to the desperate alternative of emptying them by 
 transportation to the shores of America. 
 
 But we propose to present a few of the leading sketches and 
 astounding facts, to show the condition of the white slaves that 
 remain, and of their condition, generally, under British domi- 
 nation. 
 
 Mr. John Fox, medical officer of the Cerne Union, in Dorset- 
 shire, says : " Most of the cottages of the agricultural laborers 
 in Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Wiltshire, are of the worst de- 
 scription ; some are mere mud-hovels, and situated in low and 
 damp places, with cesspools, or accumulations of filth, close to 
 the doors. The mud floors of many are much below the level 
 of the road, and, in wet seasons, are little better than so much 
 clay. In many of them, the bed stood on the ground-floor, 
 which was damp three parts of the year ; scarcely one had a 
 fireplace in the bed-room ; and one had a single pane of glass 
 stuck in the mud wall as its only window. Persons living in 
 these cottages are generally poor, very dirty, and usually in 
 rags, living almost wholly on bread and potatoes, scarcely ever 
 tasting animal food, and, consequently, highly susceptible of 
 disease, and very unable to contend with it." 
 
 Again: "One house, which our correspondent visited, was 
 almost a ruin. It had continued in that state for ten years. 
 The floor was of mud, dipping near the fireplace into a deep 
 hollow which was constantly filled with water. There were 
 five in family ; a young man about twenty-one ; one girl of 
 eighteen, and another of thirteen, with the father and mother, 
 all sleeping up-stairs. And what a sleeping-room 1 In places 
 it seemed falling in. To ventilation it was a perfect stranger. 
 The crazy floor creaked under me as I paced it. Yet the rent 
 was Is. a week, the same sum, for which apartments that may 
 be called luxurious in comparison, may be had in model lodg- 
 ing-houses. And here sat a girl weaving that beautiful Honi- 
 ton lace that our peeresses wear on court-days. Cottage after 
 cottage, at Southleigh, presented the same characteristics. 
 Clay floors ; low ceilings ; letting in the rain ; no ventilation j 
 
252 THE abolitionists: 
 
 two rooms, one above, one below ; gutters running through the 
 lower room to let off the water; unglazed window-frames, now 
 boarded up, now uncovered to the elements, the boarding going 
 for firewood ; the inmates disabled by rheumatism, ague, and 
 typhus : broad, stagnant, open ditches, close to the doors ; 
 heaps of abominations piled round the dwellings ; and it is in 
 these worse than pig-styes that one of the most beautiful fabrics 
 that luxury demands, or art supplies, is fashioned. The parish 
 houses are still worse. In each room live a family night and 
 day, the space being about twelve feet square. In one (says 
 our author), were a man, his wife, and eight children ; the 
 father and mother and two children lay in one bed, the remain- 
 ing six were huddled together head and foot, three at the top 
 and three at the foot, in the other bed. The eldest girl being 
 fifteen or sixteen, the eldest boy between fourteen and fifteen. 
 Is it not horrible to think of men and women being brought up 
 in this brutish manner in Christian England ! The lowest of 
 savages are not worse cared for than these children of a luxu- 
 rious and refined country."^ 
 
 In Wales, the condition of the peasantry is even worse than 
 in England. "The cottages in which the people dwell are 
 miserable in the extreme in nearly every part of the country. 
 I believe (says our author) the Welsh cottages are but little, if 
 any, superior to the Irish huts in the country districts. He 
 says further, the people of ray district are in a worse condition, 
 and wages are generally lower than in England."^ 
 
 In Scotland, the estates of the nobility are even larger than 
 in England. McCulloch states that there are not more than 
 8000 proprietors of land in the whole of Scotland ; and, as in 
 England, this number is decreasing. For some years past, the 
 great landholders, such as the Duke of Buccleuch and the Du- 
 chess of Sutherland, have been illustrating the glorious bene- 
 ficence of British institutions, by removing the poor peasantry 
 from the homes of their fathers, for the purpose of turning the 
 vacated districts into deer-parks, sheep-walks, and large graz- 
 ing-farms. Many a poor, yet gallant Highland family, have 
 vented their curses upon the head of the remorseless Duchess 
 of Sutherland,* 
 
 "Slaves cannot breathe in England, " said the English jurist ; 
 
 1 London Morning Chronrcle, of November, 1849. 
 
 2 Report of Mr. Symonds, a commissioner, sent by government to ex- 
 amine the state of education in Wales. — White Slaves of England, p. 19. 
 
 9 Ibid. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 253 
 
 " that moment their lungs receive our air, their shackles fall." 
 But, turn to Catholic Ireland, with her quintuple population, 
 in rags and wretchedness, staining the sweetest scenery ever eye 
 reposed on ! Scenery that hath wreathed the immortal sham- 
 rock around the brow of painting, poetry, and eloquence. Talk 
 of ancient miseries in the mines of Laurian ; talk of the tears 
 and groans of the Roman Ergastula ; talk of the bondage and 
 chains of the Ottoman's slave, of the degradation and suffer- 
 ings of the subjects of Moslem power ! 
 
 But the crowning scene to this picture of human misery may 
 be drawn from the beautiful Emerald Isle. A people whose 
 very life-blood has been trampled out by the oppressive system 
 of British slavery ; whose miseries have gone forth upon the 
 wings of song and in themes of eloquence, till they have kindled 
 the sympathies of all nations save their oppressors. 
 
 It is the universal and concurrent testimony of all travellers, 
 that in consequence of this system of organized oppression, 
 Ireland has become the home of miseries that scarce have a 
 parallel upon the face of the earth. " Everywhere in Ireland 
 a traveller as he passes along the road will see on the road-side 
 and in the fields, places that look like mounds of earth and 
 sods, with a higher heap of sods upon the top, out of which 
 smoke is curling upwards ; and with two holes in the side of 
 the heap next the road, one of which is used as a door, and 
 the other as the window of the hovel. These are the homes 
 of the peasantry ! Entering, you will find it to contain but one 
 room, formed by the mud walls ; and in these places, upon the 
 mud floor, the families of the peasants live. Men, women, boys, 
 and girls, live and sleep together, and herd with the wallowing 
 
 pig- 
 Gaunt, ragged figures crawl out of these hovels and plant 
 the ground around with potatoes, which constitute the ouly 
 food of the inmates during the year, or swarm the roads and 
 thoroughfares as wretched beggars. But the tenure even of 
 these miserable hovels is insecure. The tenants are subject to 
 the tender mercies of the lay proctor of some absent lord, and 
 if they do not pay their rent at a proper time, they are liable 
 to be turned adrift even in the middle of the night. And they 
 have no appeal except to the court of heaven. Kay says, that 
 in 1849, more than 50,000 families were evicted and turned as 
 beggars upon the community.^ 
 Here was a striking illustration of the effects of immediate 
 
 1 White Slaves of England, p. 22. 
 
254 THE abolitionists: 
 
 emancipation in all its wretchedness. Think of the heart-i-ending 
 scenes of misery and distress that must have followed the turning 
 out near half a million of people, pennyless, upon the charities 
 of Great Britain ! Thousands of these poor wretches after 
 wandering about for a time like the ghosts of JEneas, starved 
 to death and perished by the road-side, the victims of the 
 murderous policy of the humane and benevolent landed aristoc- 
 racy of Britain.^ 
 
 Since that time, the great landed proprietors, envious of the 
 lurid fame acquired by the celebrated Duchess of Sutherland, 
 have been evicting their tenants on the most extensive scale, 
 and establishing large farms and pasturages, which they deem 
 the most profitable appropriation of their lands. And these 
 miserable refugees from British slavery, starvation and death, 
 have been swarming as numerous as the wandering spirits upon 
 the banks of the Styx, along the coast of the United States 
 and in the large cities and towns. Thousands have escaped a 
 premature grave and found an asylum here ; but thousands are 
 still lingering in their hereditary serfdom, without the means 
 of escaping and reaching other and happier lands. 
 
 The dearest ties of family are sundered by the force of want, 
 like a company of shipwrecked wanderers in an open boat, who 
 see no possible means of deliverance. The lot must fall upon 
 some to perish, that, peradventure, some may be saved. The 
 husband can, perhaps, pay his own passage to America, but 
 the wife and children must remain paupers in the land of their 
 hereditary misery. 
 
 But the evil consequences of British slavery do not end with 
 the miseries and sufferings of the agricultural laborers or tenants 
 of the soil. There are London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bir- 
 mingham, Glasgow, Dublin, and many other cities and towns, 
 with their crowds of slaves either in the factories and work- 
 shops, or in the streets as beggars, paupers, and criminals. 
 There are said to be four millions of paupers in the United 
 Kingdom ! Can such an amount of wretchedness be found in 
 any other country upon the face of the globe ? To what cause 
 can this be attributed save to the oppressive system of the 
 landed aristocracy and the laws that favor them. How else 
 could there be eleven millions of acres of good tillable land 
 unoccupied, save for some of the pleasure purposes of these 
 aristocrats, and four millions of perishing paupers ? It is said 
 that more than two millions of people were kept from starving 
 
 ^ See great Speech of Sir Robert Peel, on Ii-eland, 1849. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 255 
 
 in England and Wales, in 1848, by relief doled out to them 
 from public and private sources.^ 
 
 So scant are the earnings of those who labor day and night 
 in the cities and towns, that they may become paupers if thrown 
 out of employment a single week. Upon an average a hard- 
 working peasant can earn five shillings a week ; two of which 
 must go for rent, leaving him only three shillings to buy his 
 food and raiment. The slaves of Great Britain are not attached 
 to the soil, and bought and sold with it like the serfs of Russia, 
 or the negroes of the United States ; but far better would it be 
 for them were such their destiny. Then the rich landlord who 
 enjoys the labor of his hundred, would also incur the responsi- 
 bility of their maintenance in sickness, and in infancy and old 
 age. But they are called freemen to enable their lords to 
 detach them from the soil at will, and after spending long and 
 faithful lives in their service, till they have passed their days 
 of usefulness, then to turn them adrift and drive them forth to 
 starve, perish, or become paupers at public charge, without 
 incurring any penalties for their cruelties, such as the slave- 
 holders of other countries would suffer. The Russian, the 
 Spanish, and the North American slave-holder must support his 
 slaves in sickness and helpless old age, or suffer the penalties 
 of the law for his neglect. But the British slave-holder is 
 exempt from such a tax ; he may leave them to perish by thou- 
 sands with impunity. His Irish slaves may be saved from star- 
 vation by American bounty, but neither American or any other 
 human law can punish the offender. Truly then did Southey 
 write : 
 
 " To talk of English happiness is to talk of Spartan freedom ; 
 the Helots are overlooked. In no country can such riches be 
 acquired by commerce, but it is the one who grows rich by the 
 labor of the hundred. The hundred human beings like himself, 
 as wonderfully fashioned by nature, gifted with like capacities, 
 and equally destined for immortality, are sacrificed body and 
 soul. 
 
 " Horrible as it may seem, the assertion is true to the very 
 letter. They are deprived in childhood of all instruction and 
 all enjoyments — of the sports in which childhood instinctively 
 indulges — of fresh air by day and natural sleep by night. 
 Their health, physical and moral, is alike destroyed ; they die 
 of diseases induced by unremitting taskwork, by too close con- 
 
 1 How much of this was the proceeds of the slave labor of the South, 
 
 contributed as thousands were by the people of the Southern States for 
 the relief of starving Ireland ? 
 
256 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 finement in the impure atmosphere of crowded rooms, by the 
 particles of metallic or vegetable dust which they are constantly 
 inhaling ; or they live to grow up without decency, without 
 comfort, and without hope — without morals, without religion, 
 and without shame, and bring forth slaves like themselves to 
 tread in the same path of misery." 
 
 Again, this same distinguished Englishman says: "The 
 English boast of their liberty ; but there is no liberty in England 
 for the poor. They are no longer sold with the soil (as for- 
 merly), it is true ; but they cannot leave the parish of their 
 nativity if they are liable to become chargeable. In such a 
 case, if they endeavor to remove to some situation where they 
 hope more easily to maintain themselves, where work is more 
 plentiful or provisions cheaper, the overseers are alarmed, the 
 intruder is apprehended as if he were a criminal, and sent back 
 to his own parish. Wherever a pauper dies, the parish must be 
 at the expense of his burial. Instances therefore have not been 
 wanting of wretches, in the last stage of disease, having been 
 hurried away in an open cart, and dying upon the road. Nay, 
 even women in the pains of labor have been driven out, and 
 perished by the way-side, because the birthplace of the child 
 would be its parish."^ To follow out the various forms of 
 British slavery in detail would require a volume of itself. We 
 can therefore make but a few passing remarks upon the different 
 features of this organized system of oppression as it exists in 
 the several branches of labor throughout the British Empire. 
 
 Having presented briefly the condition of the agricultural 
 peasantry, we will next speak of 
 
 Slavery in the British Mines, 
 
 The mining industry of the kingdom is divided into two dis- 
 tinct branches ; that of the coal and iron, and the mines of tin, 
 copper, lead and zinc. It is to the labors of colliers that our 
 remarks will be confined. The facts which we shall present 
 relative to their condition, are all taken from the Report of the 
 Commissioners appointed by Parliament to inquire into that 
 matter. 
 
 From the history of the British colliers, it would almost seem 
 that they were a race of beings destined by nature to lead a 
 life peculiar to themselves. Shut out from all intercourse with 
 
 1 Whoever has a desire to pursue this subject more in detail, may refer 
 to the White Slaves of England, by Cobden, or to the original sources of 
 information from which these facts ai'e compiled. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 257 
 
 the rest of mankind, little has hitherto been known about them. 
 Unlike the other inhabitants upon the face of the earth, they 
 live by rifling its bowels ; and, like the children of Erebus, 
 they are doomed to spend their lives in the lowest depth of her 
 treasures. In vain is the light in its coming ; it shines only 
 upon their tenantless dwellings. In vain do the jubilant voices 
 of the morning sound through the land ; in vain are the waning 
 seasons succeeded in their course, and nature robed in her 
 varying mantle ; their eyes seldom behold these glowing beau- 
 ties, their ears seldom hear these joyful sounds. Their lot is 
 cast in those subterranean regions of darkness, where not a ray 
 of heaven's light can penetrate their gloomy abodes. There 
 they toil on from week to week in darkness, scarcely at any time 
 beholding the light of day. Their lives are as monotonous 
 and mechanical as the evolutions of a tread-mill. It never 
 varies from the same routine of ascending and descending by 
 the same shaft, to and from the bottom of the same pit, to their 
 subterranean fields of labor. In the division of labor there, 
 each has his specific duties, that admit of no variation. Here 
 they spend their lives, father, mother, sister and brother, toge- 
 ther, from the cradle to the grave, without once dreaming that 
 they are capable of a higher and more noble sphere of action. 
 Indeed is English happiness like Spartan freedom, for "the 
 Helots are overlooked ^^ ! We read of slavery in the mines of 
 ancient Greece, we read of the monuments of Egypt, the 
 gigantic public works of ancient Rome. We may imagine the 
 suffering, the toil, sweat and blood of the slaves spent in their 
 erection ; but it remains to contemplate the horrors of a life in 
 the coal-mines of Great Britain, to place the crowning scene 
 upon this chapter of human degradation and misery. 
 
 As soon as the children of these unfortunate parents are old 
 enough to render them the least aid by their labor, they are 
 compelled to take them to the mines to assist in making a sup- 
 port. Here these hapless infants, at the tender age of eight 
 years and upwards, are frequently chained to a coal-car by a 
 harness like a dog, and made to drag these carriages, weighing, 
 when filled with coal, from two to five hundred pounds, through 
 passages, in some cases, not more than from sixteen to twenty 
 inches in height, where no other means of conveyance can be 
 obtained. To do this the child even must crawl on its hands 
 and feet. To enable them to do this, the Commissioners say, 
 they buckle round their naked person a broad leather strap, to 
 which is attached, in front, a ring and about four feet of chain, 
 terminating in a hook. This hook is attached to the coal-car 
 22* R 
 
258 THE abolitionists: 
 
 or corve, in the same manner as the negro slave hitches his 
 mule to the plough. 
 
 Thomas Moorhouse was brought to the notice of the Com- 
 missioners, and said — 
 
 " I don't know how old I am ; father is dead ; I am a chance 
 child; mother is dead also; I don't know how long she has 
 been dead ; 'tis better na three years ; I began to 'hurry' when 
 I was nine years old for William Gi'eenwood ; I was appren- 
 ticed to him till I should be twenty-one ; my mother appren- 
 ticed me ; I lived with Greenwood ; I don't know how long it 
 was, but it was a goodish while ; he was bound to find me vic- 
 tuals, drink and clothes ; I never had enough ; he gave me 
 some old clothes to wear which he bought at the rag shop ; the 
 overseers gave him a sovereign to buy clothes with, but he 
 never bought any ; the overseers bound me out, with mother's 
 consent, from the township of Southowrans ; I ran away from 
 him because he lost my indentures, for he served me very bad ; 
 he stuck a pick into me twice." 
 
 Here the boy was made to strip, and the Commissioner, Mr. 
 Symonds, found a large cicatrix, likely to have been made by 
 such an instrument, which must have passed through the glutei 
 muscles, and have stopped only short of the hip-joint. There 
 were twenty other wounds, occasioned by hurrying in low 
 workings, upon and around the spinous processes of the verte- 
 brae, from the sacrum upwards. The boy continued — 
 
 " He used to hit me with the belt and maul or sledge, and 
 fling coals at me ; he served me so bad that I left him, and 
 went about to see if I could get a job ; I used to sleep in the 
 cabins upon the- pit's bank, and in the old pits that had done 
 working ; I laid upon the shale all night ; I used to get what 
 I could to eat; I ate, for a long time, the candles that I found 
 in the pits, that the colliers left over-night ; I had nothing else 
 to eat ; I looked about for work, and begged of the people a 
 bit ; I got to Bradford after awhile, and had a job for three 
 months while a collier's lad was poorly ; when he came back, I 
 was obliged to leave." 
 
 Another case was related by Mr Kennedy, one of the Com- 
 missioners. "A boy named Edward Kershaw had been ap- 
 prenticed by the overseers of Castleton to a collier by the name 
 of Robert Brierly, residing at Balsgate, who worked in a pit 
 in the vicinity of Roarly Moor. The boy was examined, and 
 from twenty-four to twenty-six wounds were found upon his 
 body. His posteriors and loins were beaten to a jelly ; his 
 head, which was almost cleared of hair on the scalp, had the 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 259 
 
 marks of many old wounds upon it that had healed up. One 
 of the bones of one arm was broken below the elbow, and, from 
 appearances, had been so for some time. The boy, on being 
 brought before the Commissioners, was unable either to sit or 
 stand, and was placed on the floor of the ofiice, laid on his side 
 upon a small cradle-bed. It appeared that the boy's arm had 
 been broken by a blow from an iron rail, and the fracture had 
 never been set, and that he had been kept at work for several 
 weeks with his arm in the condition above described. It fur- 
 ther appeared in evidence, and was admitted by Brierly himself, 
 that he had been in the habit of beating the boy with a flat 
 piece of wood, in which a nail was driven and projected out 
 half an inch. The blows had been inflicted with such violence 
 that they penetrated the skin, and caused the wounds above 
 mentioned. The body of the boy presented all marks of ema- 
 ciation. This brutal master had kept the boy at work as a 
 wagoner until he was no longer of any use, and then sent him 
 home in a cart to his mother, who was a poor widow residing 
 in Church Lane, Rockdale. " And yet we hear the vaunting 
 of humanity and self-righteousness, that "slaves cannot breathe 
 in England'''' ! 
 
 If the employment of boys in such a way be, as a miner said 
 to the Commissioners, "barbarity, barbarity," v.'hat are we to 
 think of the slavery of females in the same abyss of darkness ? 
 How shall we express our feelings upon learning that females, 
 in years of womanhood, and in all their most delicate and 
 critical situations, are engaged in the same occupations as their 
 male companions, in circumstances too repugnant to the crudest 
 sense of decency. In great numbers of these pits the men were 
 working in a state of entire nakedness, and were assisted by 
 females of all ages, from girls of six years to women of twenty- 
 one. 
 
 "The girls 'hurry' with a belt and chain, as well as thurst ; 
 there are many girls thus employed. One of the most dis- 
 gusting sights (says Mr. Thomas Pearce) I have ever seen, was 
 that of a young female, dressed like a boy, in trousers, crawling 
 on all fours, with a belt around her waist, and chains passing 
 between her legs, dragging after them cars or corves, loaded 
 with coal." 
 
 The girls associate and labor with the men, who are in a 
 state of nakedness, and they have on no other garment than a 
 ragged shift, or, in the absence of that, a pair of broken trou- 
 sers, to cover their persons. 
 
260 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 Here are some of the specimens of the evidence taken by 
 the Commissioners : — 
 
 " Susan Pitchforth, aged eleven. I have worked in the 
 mines for two years. I have a sister working with me, aged 
 fourteen. This child, said the Commissioners, stood before 
 them shivering with cold. The rags that hung about her waist 
 were once called a shift, which was black as the coal she 
 'thursts,' and saturated with water." 
 
 "Patience Kershaw, aged seventeen. I 'hurry' in the clothes 
 I have on (trousers and ragged jacket) ; the bald place upon 
 ray head is made by thursting the coal corves ; the getters I 
 work for are naked, except their caps ; they pull off their 
 clothes ; all the men are naked. " 
 
 " Betty Harris, aged thirty-seven. I have a belt round my 
 waist, and a chain passing between my legs, and I go on my 
 hands and feet while drawing the corves. The road is very 
 steep, and we have to hold by a rope, &c. There are six wo- 
 men, and as many boys and girls, in the pit where I work ; it 
 is very hard work for a woman. The pit is very wet, and the 
 water comes over our clog tops always ; I have seen it up to 
 ray thighs ; my clothes are wet almost all day long. I have 
 ^ drawn till I had the skin off me. The belt and chain is 
 
 WORSE WHEN WE ARE IN A FAMILY WAY.^ My feller (husband) 
 has beaten me for not being ready." 
 
 Mary Glover tells a similar tale ; she hurries with a belt and 
 chain ; wears a shift and trousers ; is thirty-eight years old, &c. 
 
 Besides hurrying, by dragging immense loads after them, on 
 all-fours, like horses, they are compelled, when the way from 
 the wall-face to the pit's Jbottom will not admit of running the 
 corve, to bear the coal upon their backs. It is said that fa- 
 thers have been known to rupture theniselves from straining to 
 lift coal on their children's backs. The usual hours of labor 
 are from five in the morning till five at night ; but in many 
 places it is much longer. The sub-commissioner thus describes 
 the female child's labor in the mines of Scotland : " She has 
 first to descend a nine-ladder pit to the first rest, even to which, 
 a shaft is sunk to draw up the basket or tubs of coals filled by 
 the bearers ; she then takes her cral (a basket formed to the 
 back, not unlike a cockle-shell flattened towards the back of 
 the neck so as to allow lumps of coal to rest upon her shoul- 
 ders), and pursues her journey to the wall-face. She then lays 
 down her basket, into which coal is rolled, and it is frequently 
 
 1 S«e White Slaves of England, p. 40-45. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 261 
 
 more than one man can do to lift the burden on her back. The 
 tugs or straps are placed over the forehead, and the body bent 
 in a semicircular form in order to stiifen the arch. * * Females 
 submit to work where no man, or even lad, could be got to 
 labor ; they work in bad places and roads up to their knees in 
 water, in a posture nearly double, where they continue until 
 the last hour of pregnancy : they are brought to premature 
 graves," &c. 
 
 Then follows a numerous list of the names, and deplorable 
 condition of these subterranean inhabitants. And the commis- 
 sioner adds : "It is almost incredible that human beings can 
 submit to and undergo such employment, crawling on their 
 hands and knees harnessed like horses, over soft, slushy floors, 
 more difficult than dragging the same weights through our 
 lowest common-sewers, and more difficult in consequence of the 
 inclination, which is frequently even dangerous." 
 
 Such is the condition of thousands upon thousands of those 
 inheriting the purest and best blood of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 in the immense coal-pit of England. Cut off from the face of 
 the earth and doomed to a region of endless night. The sun 
 may rise and set in all its loveliness, but they behold none of 
 its splendor ; the hurricane may sweep over the land ; the 
 thunder-storm may spend its fury above their heads, but it is 
 all the same to them ; they still plod on in their dreamless 
 abode, unconscious of the world without. And when we con- 
 sider the nature of this horrible labor ; its extreme severity ; its 
 incessant duration from twelve to fourteen hours daily ; the 
 damp heated air and mephitie vapors that infest the atmosphere 
 of the mines ; the tender age and sex of the worker, enduring 
 it all for the trifling compensation of from three to five shillings 
 per week, a picture is presented of deadly physical oppression 
 and systematic slavery that has no parallel in the annals of any 
 age or nation. 
 
 But, says Mr. Cobden, what did the British Government do 
 when the report of these commissioners was presented ? Lord 
 Ashley introduced a bill into the House of Commons, having 
 for its object the amelioration of the condition of the mining 
 women and children. Much discussion arose, but it finally 
 passed the House, and was taken up in the House of Lords, 
 the high court of British oppression. Some of them advocated 
 the bill, whereupon Lord Londonderry, and some others, spoke 
 of them as " bitten with a humanity mania."^ Under various 
 modifications it was adopted. It provided that no child under 
 ten years of age, and no female, should work in the mines. 
 
262 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 But what relief was this ? The majority of the abused and 
 sufiFering that came to the notice of the commissioners were 
 over ten years of age. As to the females, though it prohibited 
 their working in the mines, yet it furnished them no aid, or 
 other means of support. They were driven there, in the first 
 instance, to escape from starvation. The bill prevented them 
 even this desperate means of escape, and, soon after its passage, 
 petitions were sent to Parliament, from the mining districts, 
 praying for the repeal of the law. There were many proprie- 
 tors of mines in Parliament, and their influence was sufficient 
 to nullify the law in practice. 
 
 Much that has been said upon British slavery in the mines 
 will apply with equal force to many other divisions of this sys- 
 tem of oppression. 
 
 The Slavery of thei?' Manufactories. 
 
 England has been called the " game cock" of Europe, and 
 her large manufacturing towns the toy-shops of the world. 
 The English people, alone, supply a large portion of the na- 
 tions of the earth with the products of their labor. The looms 
 of Manchester, and the mills and work-shops of Birmingham, 
 London, and Liverpool, have long been sending their articles 
 to every nation. Viewed at a distance, and by first impres- 
 sions, this gigantic system of productive industry presents 
 nought but a magnificent aspect to the admiring beholder. 
 But, upon closer inspection, and a more minute survey of its 
 elements, one beholds a picture of human wretchedness and 
 woe that turns his admiration into horror and disgust. 
 
 Allowing a just measure of glory and renown for the extent 
 and perfection of arts, manufactures, and commerce, the real 
 condition of the two millions of operatives who perform all the 
 labor, cannot escape the observation of the faithful historian. 
 Glory in war, purchased at the price of slaughtered victims, 
 adds but a stained laurel to the brow of the conqueror ; but 
 the glory of a nation in times of peace, purchased also at the 
 price of human blood, and human souls sacrificed upon its 
 altar, shows but a black spot in her national escutcheon. The 
 number of operatives employed in the cotton, wool, silk, and 
 flax manufactures of Great Britain, is estimated at about two 
 millions. 
 
 Mr. Baines states that about one and a half millions are em- 
 ployed in the cotton manufactures alone. ^ The wtole number 
 
 1 White Slaves of England, p. 104. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 263 
 
 employed on the production of all sorts of iron, hardware, and 
 cutlery articles, is estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand. 
 In the manufacture of jewelry, earthen and glasswares, paper, 
 woollen stuffs, distilled and fermented liquors, and in the com- 
 mon trades of tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering, stone-cut- 
 ting, &c., is very great, though not accurately known. 
 
 It has often been asserted by travellers, and we think the 
 facts about to be disclosed, will bear us out in saying, that this 
 vast body of operatives suffer more of the real miseries of de- 
 gradation, poverty, hardships, and want, than the subjects of 
 any other system of slavery that has ever existed upon the face 
 of the earth. 
 
 Admitting that wages are as high in Great Britain as in any 
 continental country, the enormous expenses of the church and 
 aristocracy produce a taxation which eats up so large a portion 
 of these wages, that there is not eiiougli left to enable the work- 
 men to live decently and comfortably. Besides, the wages are 
 reduced to the lowest possible degree to afford a possible sub- 
 sistence by excessive competition ; and, in consequence, the 
 operative must prolong his hours of toil far beyond all healtliy 
 limits, to earn enough to pay his taxes and support himself. 
 It is the struggle of drowning men for life, and what wonder 
 is it that so many thousands sink beneath these gloomy waves ? 
 
 When C. Edwards Lester, an author of reputation, was in 
 England, he visited Manchester, and, making inquiries of an 
 operative, obtained the following reply : — 
 
 " I have a wife and nine children, and a pretty hard time we 
 have of it, too, we are so many ; and most of the children are 
 so small they can do little for the support of the family. I 
 generally get from two shillings to a crown a day for carrying 
 luggage ; and some of my children are in the mills ; the rest 
 are too young to work yet. My wife is never well : it comes 
 very hard on her to do the work of the family. We often talk 
 these things over, and feel very sad. We live in a poor 
 house ; we are not able to clothe our children comfortably ; not 
 one of them ever went to school ; they could go to Sunday 
 school, but we can't make them look decent enough to go to 
 such a place. As for meat, we never taste it ; potatoes and 
 coarse bread are our principal food. We can't save anything 
 for a day of want; almost everything we get for our labor goes 
 for taxes. I have gone home at night many times and told my 
 wife that I had eaten a bite at the chop-house on the way, and 
 was not hungry — she and the children could eat my share. 
 Life is not worth much to a poor man in England, and some- 
 
264 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 times Mary and T, when we talk about it, pretty much condude 
 that we should be better off if we were dead. I soraetiraes 
 wonder that God suffers so many poor people to come into the 
 world." 
 
 But this, says Mr. Cobden, is comparatively a mild case. 
 Instances of hard-working^ families living in dark, damp cellars, 
 and having the coarsest food, are common in Manchester, Bir- 
 mingham, and other manufacturing towns. Who can read the 
 tale of Mary Barton, by Mrs. Gaskell, without weeping over 
 the sorrows and sufferings of the poor operatives in the great 
 manufacturing metropolis of Britain ? It contains a literal de- 
 lineation and true picture of the trials, hardships, and miseries 
 of the poor laborers of Manchester ' 
 
 An historical incident is related by the author of the tale of 
 Mary Barton (Mrs. Gaskell, a lady of Manchester), that also 
 strikingly illustrates the misery and wretchedness of the poor 
 operatives, and the heartless indifference of the aristocracy to 
 their sufferings. At a season when the grim miseries of starva- 
 tion were staring the poor laborers in the face, when lank hunger 
 was preying upon their mortal bodies like an epidemic, carrjnug 
 off its- thousands ; when the starving multitude could not be 
 persuaded that the government knew of their condition, a 
 petition was framed and signed by thousands in the bright 
 spring of 1839, imploring Parliament to hear witnesses who 
 could testify to the unparalleled destitution of the manufacturing 
 districts. Nottingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, Manchester, and 
 many other towns, were busy in appointing delegates to convey 
 their petition, who might speak not merely of what they had 
 seen and heard, but from what they themselves had borne and 
 suffered. Lank, life-worn, gaunt, anxious, hunger-stamped 
 were those delegates. The delegates went in a body to London, 
 and applied at the House of Parliament for permission to pre- 
 sent their petition upon this subject of life and death. But how 
 were they received ? They were haughtily denied a hearing. 
 What had these rose-pink legislators to do with the miseries of 
 .the base-born rabble — the soil- serfs and slaves of their chivalric 
 Norman ancestors ? In other nations such a peremptory 
 rejection of a humble petition from breadless and starving men 
 by their equals, would have been followed by such an outburst 
 of popular fury as to have resulted in a revolution. But in 
 Great Britain the poor laborers seem to have the inborn sub- 
 mission of hereditary slaves. They feel that it is impossible to 
 
 1 Tale of Mary Barton, Tvritten by Mrs. Gaskell, of Manchester, quoted 
 in AVhite Slaves of England, pp. 110-114. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 265 
 
 throw ofif the iron heel of the aristocracy upon their necks ; and 
 though they see their families actually starving around them, 
 yet they delay, and still delay taking that highway to freedom 
 — manly and united rebellion. According to the report of the 
 board of Commissioners before referred to, the laborers in the 
 factories are committed to the charge of overseers, who have 
 the full power of masters, and exercise it with the cruel sway 
 of tyrants. Without distinction of sex, of however tender an 
 age, they are subjected to the same barbarous and inhuman 
 treatment. We might quote a volume of the testimony of 
 witnesses taken by these Commissioners, to prove the truth of 
 the above assertion ; but a few examples must suffice. 
 
 If an operative does not obey an order, he is not merely 
 reproved as a freeman, but kicked and beaten as a slave. He 
 has no alternative but submission, for if he resents it he is dis- 
 missed and sent forth to starve. A more compulsory system 
 of labor cannot exist, for the only freedom the subject enjoys is 
 to choose between submission and endurance on the one hand, 
 and a lingering death by starvation on the other. Such being 
 the system under which he works, the operative has the look 
 and air of a degraded Helot. Most of them are unhealthy, 
 destitute of spirit, and enfeebled by toil and privation. The 
 hand-loom weavers, who are numerous in some districts, are 
 the most miserable of all laborers, being hardly able, by the 
 most excessive toil, to earn scant food and filthy shelter. This 
 death struggle for the bare bread to keep soul and body 
 together, necessarily forces the parents to send their children 
 at early and tender ages to the mills, to aid them in procuring 
 a support ; and there they are often whipped, scourged, and 
 more cruelly treated than the most abject slaves. When the 
 father, no longer able to make a support, to avoid certain 
 death by starvation, goes to the poor-house, he has no longer 
 any control over his children. They are at the mercy of tlie 
 parish, and may be separated, apprenticed to all sorts of mas- 
 ters, and treated, to all intents and purposes, as slaves. The 
 invention of labor-saving machinery has brought the services 
 of children into great demand in manufacturing towns. Think 
 of the vast number of children that may be had among four 
 millions of paupers ! They may be bought at the work-houses 
 at a cheap rate, and subjected to cruel masters and overseers 
 who may beat and maltreat them with impunity. 
 
 The following extracts, taken from the report of these Par- 
 liamentary Commissioners before spoken of, show the barbarous 
 and cruel treatment to which they are subjected : — 
 23 
 
266 THE abolitionists: 
 
 " When she was a child, too young to put on her ain claiths, 
 the overlooker used to beat her till she screamed again. Gets 
 many a good beating and swearing. They are all very ill used ; 
 the overseer carries a strap. Has been licked with it four or 
 five times. The boys are' often severely strapped; the girls 
 sometimes get a clout. The mothers often complain of this. 
 . . Has often seen the workers beat cruelly. Has seen the 
 girls strapped, but the boys were often beat so that they fell to 
 the floor, in the coui'se of the beating with a rope with four 
 tails called a cat. Has seen the boys black and blue crying for 
 mercy," &c. 
 
 "Ellen Ferrier, aged thirteen, carries bobbins; 'has been 
 three years in this mill ; does not like the work because she gets 
 so tired from working from half past five in the morning until 
 half past seven, with only two intervals of half an hour each. 
 . . When Charles Kenedy was overseer, he licked us very bad.' 
 
 "Euphemia Anderson, aged twenty, has been three years at 
 this mill ; has been in different mills since she was seven years 
 old. About six years ago she was taken ill with pains in the 
 legs, and remained ill for three years. ' I was not able to stand. 
 Thinks it was standing too long that made me ill.' . . She 
 never went to school, never had niuckle time ; she would give 
 up some of her wages to have shorter hours ; their usual dinner 
 is broth and potatoes." 
 
 Henry Blincoe, once an apprentice to a cotton mill, was 
 examined by Dr. Hawkins on the 18th of May, 1833. 
 
 " Do you know how old you are ? Near upon forty according 
 to my indentures. — Do you know where you were born ? No ; 
 I only know that I came from St. Pancras parish, London. — 
 Do you know the names of your parents ? No. . . — Have 
 you any children ? Three. — Do you send them to the factories ? 
 No; I would rather have them transported. — What are the 
 forms of cruelty that you have seen and suffered, practised upon 
 children in factories ? I have seen the time when two hand- 
 vices of a pound weight each, have been screwed to my ears at 
 Littleton mills, in Derbyshire ; here are the scars still remaining 
 behind my ears. Three or four of us have been hung at once 
 to a cross-beam above the machinery, hanging by our hands, 
 without shirts or stockings. Mind, we were apprenticed from 
 different parishes without father or mother to protect us. . . 
 Then we used to stand up, in a skip, without our shirts, and be 
 beat with straps or sticks ; the skip was to prevent us from 
 running away from the strap. . . Then they used to tie on a 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 26Y 
 
 twenty-eight pounds weight (one or two at once), according to 
 our size, to hang down our backs with no shirts on."' 
 
 Besides the bodily sufferings of these miserable creatures from 
 excessive beatings and the various forms of brutal punishments, 
 the work is so protracted by incessant hours of toil, that the 
 children become exhausted, bi'oken down, and crippled often 
 for life, by standing too long in unhealthy positions. 
 
 John Wright, steward in the silk factory of Messrs. Bunsby 
 and Shatwell, examined : 
 
 " What are the effects of the present system of labor in the 
 factories ? From my earliest recollections I have found it 
 awfully detrimental to the health and well-being . . Through 
 excessive labor there and confinement (in the heat, dust, and 
 unwholesome atmosphere of the various apartments of the mill), 
 there is a total loss of appetite — a kind of languor steals over 
 the whole frame, enters to the very core, saps the foundations 
 of the best constitutions, and lays our strength prostrate in the 
 dust. . . By protracted labors there is an alarming increase of 
 cripples, in various parts of this town, which has come under 
 my own observation." 
 
 " I have known children, says one witness, to hide themselves 
 in the store, among the wool, so that they should not go home 
 when the work was over, when we have worked till ten or 
 eleven. I have seen six or eight at a time fetched out of the 
 store and beat home. . , I do not know why they should hide 
 themselves, unless they were too tired to go home." 
 
 Joseph Badder, a slubber, deposed. " Slubbing and spin- 
 ning is very heavy. . . I have known them (the slubbers) work 
 children, from seven to twelve in age, from six in the morning 
 till ten or eleven at night, and give no time for meals ; eat their 
 victuals as they worked, the engines running all the time. . . 
 I have seen children knocked down by the billy-rollers. It is 
 a weapon that a man will easily take up in a passion. . . 1 
 have seen the children fall asleep, and they have been per- 
 forming their work with their hands while they were asleep ; 
 after the hilly had slopped, when their work was done, I have 
 stopped and looked at them for two minutes going through the 
 motions of pieceing, fast asleep, when there was really no 
 work to do, and they were really doing nothing.''^ 
 
 John Fortesque, examined at his own house. "I am an 
 overseer in the factory. We have about a hundred hands ; forty 
 quite children ; most of the remainder are young women. Our 
 regular day is from six to seven. . . There are some children 
 
 1 See Memoir of Robert Blincoe and Manchester, J. Doherty, 1852. 
 
268 THE ABOLITIONISTS: 
 
 SO bad that they must be punished ; a strap is used for this 
 purpose ; beating is necessary, on account of their being idle. 
 We find it out in this way : we give them the same number of 
 bobbins each ; when the number they ought to finish falls off, 
 then they are corrected. . . At the factory of Messrs. Mills & 
 Elliot they go on working all night, as well as all day. I be- 
 lieve them to have done so for the last year and a half. (At 
 this moment, says our author, a respectable looking looman 
 entered xoith a petition agahist negro slavery ; after she luas 
 gone, Mr. Fortesque continued. ) I think home slavery as 
 bad as it can be abroad ; worst of anywhere in the factories." 
 This young lady was doubtless breathless in her zeal, and en- 
 thusiastic in her sympathy for the far-off negro bondmen, in 
 other parts of the world, while the tears, sorrows and sufferings 
 of her own kindred blood, groaning in their dying struggles 
 with starvation, oppression and wretchedness, of an unparalleled 
 kind, elicits not a single emotion from her tender and sympa- 
 thetic soul for their condition. 
 
 And such is the general character of the sympathies of the 
 advocates of the abolition of negro slavery in America. Their 
 feelings of commiseration seem to have a kind of chemical 
 affinity for negro sufferings alone. They overlook the miseries 
 of their own race, and give themselves up, body and soul, to 
 the cause of the negro, looking to England for countenance, 
 support, and the hope of reward for their labors in the great 
 work of benevolence. 
 
 Read the following extracts, and tell me, gentle reader, why 
 it is that such scenes excite no sympathy for the sufferings of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 "Much has been said of the black slaves and their chains. 
 No doubt they are entitled to freedom ; but are there no slaves 
 but those of a sable hue ? has slavery no sort of existence among 
 the children of the factories ? Yes ; and chains were some- 
 times introduced, though these chains might not be forged from 
 iron. A child not ten years of age having been late at the fac- 
 tory one morning, had, as a punishment, a rope put around its 
 neck, to which was attached a weight of twenty pounds ; and 
 thus burdened, like a galley-slave, it was compelled to labor 
 for a length of time, in the midst of an impure air, in a heated 
 room. The speaker said he heard the mother, with her eyes 
 filled with tears, relate this shocking tale of infant suffering in 
 the factories."^ 
 
 1 Extract from a speech made by Mr. Grant, a Manchester spinner, at 
 a meeting held at Chorlton upon Medlock, Manchester Chronicle, 20th 
 April, 1833. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF TITEIR LABORS. 269 
 
 Again: "In a mill at Wigan, the children, for any slight 
 neglect, were loaded with weights of twenty pounds each, 
 passed over their shoulders and hanging behind their backs. 
 Then there was the murderous instrument called the billy-roller, 
 about eight feet long and one inch and a half in diameter, with 
 which many children had been knocked down, and, in some 
 instances, murdered by it. . . I knew, said the same speaker, 
 that the Russians made the Poles carry iron weights in their 
 exile to Siberia, but it was reserved for Christian England thus 
 to use a helpless infant."' 
 
 The evidences upon which we rely are all drawn from English 
 sources of authority. The Report of this Parliamentary Com- ^ 
 mittee, detailed to inquire into the condition and treatment of / 
 the operatives in the several departments of labor in Great 
 Britain, as well as their own public prints, and the speeches of 
 their public men, abound with instances of the most brutal and 
 inhuman treatment to these hapless orphan children, consigned 
 by the poor-laws and workhouse system to conditions of phy- 
 sical suffering and mental depravity that shock the most har- 
 dened sensibilities. In many instances without either father or 
 mother, or any one to protect them, these helpless, inoffensive 
 creatures are driven, by the fears of starvation and the lash, to 
 the most wearisome and exhausting toil, in the most unwhole- 
 some or dangerous situations, which render them liable to be 
 crippled for life, or consign them to a premature grave. 
 
 Could we but relate all the heart-rending scenes of cruelty 
 specified by this Committee, as practised upon helpless infancy, 
 it would fill with tears the eyes of every one possessing the com- 
 mon sympathies of humanity. But as our limits forbid, we 
 cannot present this picture of human woe in a more brief and 
 striking form than by quoting a sympathetic and touching ditty, 
 from Francis Blake, upon the sufferings of the unfortunate 
 
 FACTORY CHILD. 
 
 "Early one winter's morning, 
 
 The weather wet and wild, 
 Some hours before the dawning, 
 
 A father call'd his child ; 
 Her daily morsel bringing. 
 
 The darksome room he paced. 
 And cried, ' The bell is ringing — 
 
 My hapless darling, haste.' 
 
 1 Extract from a speech of Mr. Oastler, London Times, 25th February. 
 1833. See also Bolton Chronicle, 30th March, 1833. 
 
 23* 
 
270 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 " ' Father, I 'm up but weary, 
 
 I scarce can reach the door, 
 And long the way and dreary — 
 
 Oh, carry me once more ! 
 To help us we've no mother. 
 
 To live how hard we try ; 
 They kill'd my little brother — 
 
 Like him I'll work and die.' 
 
 " His feeble arms they bore her. 
 
 The storm was loud and wild — 
 God of the poor man, hear him ! 
 
 He prays, 'Oh, save my child I' 
 Her wasted form seem'd nothing — 
 
 The load was in his heart; 
 The suflFerer he kept soothing, 
 
 Till at the mill they part. 
 
 *' The overlooker met her. 
 
 As to the frame she crept. 
 And with the thong he beat her, 
 
 And cursed her as she wept. 
 Alas ! what hours of horror 
 
 Made up her latest day ! 
 In toil, and pain, and sorrow, 
 
 They slowly pass'd away. 
 
 "It seem'd, as she grew weaker, 
 
 The threads the oftener broke, 
 The rapid wheel ran quicker. 
 
 And heavier fell the stroke ; ^ 
 The sun had long descended. 
 
 But night brought no repose — 
 Her day began and ended 
 
 As her taskmasters chose. 
 
 "Then to her little neighbor 
 
 Her only cent she paid. 
 To take her last hour's labor, 
 
 While by her frame she laid; 
 At last the engine ceasing, 
 
 The captives homeward flee, 
 One thought her strength increasing — 
 
 Her parent soon to see. 
 
 1 It is the concurrent statement of all the overlookers examined by the 
 Committee, that the labor is so exhausting and wearisome upon the chil- 
 dren from seven to twelve years of age, that they often fall asleep at their 
 work, and constant chastisement is necessary to keep them diligent, par- 
 ticularly towards the close of the day's work, and that they are sometimes 
 whipped to death. See White Slaves of England. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 271 
 
 " She left, but oft she tarried, 
 
 She fell and rose no more. 
 But by her comrades carried, 
 
 She reach'd her father's door; 
 All night with tortur'd feeling. 
 
 He watch'd his speechless child ; 
 While close beside her kneeling, 
 
 She knew him not nor smiled. 
 
 " Again the loud bell's ringing, 
 
 Her last perceptions tried, 
 When, from her straw bed springing, 
 
 "Tis time!' she shrieked, and died. 
 That night a chariot pass'd her, 
 
 While on the ground she lay, 
 The daughters of her master. 
 
 An evening visit pay; 
 Their tender hearts were sighing, 
 
 As negro wrongs were told, 
 While the white slave was dying, 
 
 Who gain'd their father's gold." 
 
 British Slavery, in General. 
 
 What we have shown in relation to slavery in the British 
 factories, will apply with equal force to slavery in the British 
 workshops, the work-house system, and various other forms of 
 this general system of organized oppression. The inmates of 
 the workshops, in particular, are of the most miserable class of 
 British slaves. Here, too, children of both sexes and of tender 
 ages, are subject to physical suffering that has no parallel in 
 any system but that of British slavery. The workshops of the 
 small masters are usually of the dirtiest, most dilapidated and 
 confined description, and situated in the most filthy and un- 
 drained localities, at the back of their wretched abodes. 
 
 " Among other witnesses, the superintendent registrar states 
 that in those trades, particularly in which the work is by the 
 piece, the growth of the children is injured ; that in these cases, 
 more especially, their strength is overtaxed for profit. One of 
 the constables of the town says that there are examples without 
 number in that place, of deformed men and boys ; their backs, 
 or their legs, and often both, grow wrong; and thus they be- 
 come hump-backed and knock-kneed. He says, that among 
 the adult of the working-classes of Willenhall, whose work is 
 all forging and filing, one-third of the number are afflicted with 
 hernia."^ Says Mr. Cobden : "We have the evidence of 
 
 1 Home's Evidences, p. 28. No. 128. 
 
272 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 Henry Nicholls Payne, superintendent-registrar of Wolver- 
 hampton ; Henry Hill, Esq., magistrate; and Paul Law, of 
 Wolverhampton, that it is common for masters to buy offal 
 meat, and the meat of animals that have died of all manner of 
 causes, for the food of apprentices. The clothing of these poor 
 creatures is but thin tatters for all seasons."^ 
 
 The apprentices employed in naihmaking are described as so 
 many poorly fed and poorly clad slaves. Nails are made at the 
 forges by the hammer, and these forges, which are the work- 
 shops, are usually at the backs of the wretched hovels in which 
 the work-people reside. " The best of these," says Mr. Home, 
 "are little brick shops, of about fifteen feet long and twelve 
 wide, in which seven or eight individuals constantly work toge- 
 ther with no ventilation except the door ; but a great majority 
 of these shops are much smaller, and filled with .filth and dirt ; 
 and, on looking into one of them when the fire is not lighted, 
 it presents the appearance of a dilapidated coal-hole, or little 
 black den."'^ In these places children are first put to labor, 
 from the ages of seven to eight, where they continue to work, 
 daily, from six in the morning till seven at night. Their task is 
 gradually increased till they arrive at the daily task of one 
 thousand. A girl, or a boy, from ten to twelve years old, con- 
 tinually accomplishes this arduous task from day to day and 
 week to week." In the manufacturing of glass and earthen- 
 ware, the toil and suffering of the apprentices, as recorded by 
 the commissioners, is extreme. 
 
 One witness said: "From his experience, he thinks, the 
 community has no idea of what a boy at a bottle goes through ; 
 it would never be allowed if it were known ; he has often been 
 carried home from fatigue. Boys begin to work on Sabbath 
 evening at ten o'clock, and are not at home any more till three 
 on Monday afternoon. The drawing the bottles out of arches 
 is a work which no child should be allowed to do ; he himself 
 has been obliged, several times, to have planks put in to walk 
 on that caught fire under his feet, and a woollen cape, and 
 always mits on his hands, and a boy cannot, generally, stop in 
 them over five minutes. " Young females, apprenticed to dress- 
 makers, suffer greatly from overwork and bad treatment. 
 
 1 Let it be asked of Southern masters, what would be the fate of one, 
 i;i any community of the Southern States, who was guilty of such con- 
 duct to his slaves ? And the universal answer will be, that public indig- 
 nation would expel him from that community. 
 
 ■^ Home's Evidences, p. 34. No. 128. See, also. White Slaves of Eng- 
 land, p. 174. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS, 273 
 
 The report of the sub-commissioner, and of several surgeons 
 of asylums and hospitals, reveal some shocking incidents of the 
 loss of sight and of other bodily infirmities, caused by ill-treat- 
 ment, to the apprentices of this kind. The London Times, in 
 an exceedingly able article upon Seamstress Slavery, thus de- 
 scribes the terrible system : — 
 
 " Granting that the negro gangs who are worked on cotton- 
 grounds of the Southern States of North America, or in the 
 sugar-plantations of Brazil, are slaves ; in what way should we 
 speak of persons who are circumstanced in the manner we are 
 about to relate ? Let us consider them as the inhabitants of a 
 distant region — say New Orleans — no matter about the color 
 of their skins, and then ask ourselves, what should be our opi- 
 nion of a nation in which such things are tolerated. They are 
 of a sex and age the least qualified to struggle with their lot, — 
 young women, for the most pai't, between sixteen and thirty 
 years of age. As we would not deal in exaggeration, we would 
 premise that we take them at their busy season, just as writers 
 upon American Slavery are careful to select the season of cot- 
 ton-picking and sugar-rolling, to illustrate their theories. The 
 young female slaves then are worked in gangs in ill-ventilated 
 rooms, or rooms that are not ventilated at all ; for it is found 
 that if the air be admitted it brings with it the ' blacks,' of an 
 other kind, which damage the work upon which the seamstresses 
 are employed. This occupation is, to sew from morning till 
 night and night till morning — stitch, stitch, stitch — without 
 pause, without speech, without a smile, without a sigh. In 
 the grey of the morning they must be at their work, say at six 
 o'clock, having a quarter of an hour allowed them for break- 
 fast. The food served out to them is scanty and miserable 
 enough, but still, in all probability, more than their fevered 
 system can digest. We do not, however, wish to make out a 
 case of starvation ; the suffering is of another kind, equally 
 dreadful of endurance. From six o'clock till eleven it is stitch, 
 stitch. At eleven, a small piece of dry bread is served to each 
 seamstress, but still she must stitch on. At one o'clock, twenty 
 minutes are allowed for dinner, — a slice of meat and a potato, 
 with a glass of toast and water to each work-woman. Then 
 again to work — stitch, stitch, until fiive o'clock, when fifteen 
 minutes are again allowed for tea. The needles are then set in 
 motion once more — stitch, stitch, until nine o'clock, when fif- 
 teen minutes are allowed for supper — a piece of dry bread and 
 cheese, and a glass of beer. From nine o'clock at night until 
 one, two, and three o'clock in the morning, stitch, stitch; the 
 
 s 
 
214: THE ABOLITIONISTS: 
 
 only break in this long period of time being a minute or two — 
 just long enough to swallow a cup of strong tea which is sup- 
 plied, lest the young people should feel sleepy. At three 
 o'clock A. M. to bed ; at six o'clock A. M. out again to re- 
 sume the duties of the following day. But when we have said 
 that, for certain months in the year, these unfortunate young 
 persons are worked in the manner we describe, we have not said 
 all. Even during the few hours allotted to sleep — should we 
 not rather say to a feverish cessation from toil — their miseries 
 continue. They are cooped up in sleeping pens, ten in a room, 
 which would, perhaps, be sufficient for the accommodation of 
 two persons. The change is from the tread-mill, and what a 
 tread-mill I to the Black Hole of Calcutta. Not a word of re- 
 monstrance is allowed, or is possible. The seamstresses may 
 leave the mill, no doubt, but what awaits them on the other 
 side of the door ? starvation, if they be honest ; and if not, 
 consequences equally to be dreaded. They would scarcely 
 escape from slavery in that way.^ Surely, this is a terrible 
 ^tate of things, and one which claims the anxious consideration 
 of the ladies of England, who have pronounced themselves so 
 loudly against the horrors of negro slavery in the United States. 
 Had this system of oppression against their own sex been really 
 exercised in New Orleans, it would have elicited from them 
 many expressions of sympathy for the sufferers, and of abhor- 
 rence for their cruel task-master who could cruelly overwork 
 wretched creatures so unfitted for toil. It is idle to use any 
 further mystification in the matter. The scenes we have been 
 describing exist at our own doors ; and in the most fashionable 
 quarters of luxurious London. It is in the dress-making and 
 millinery establishments of the ' West End' that the system is 
 steadily pursued. 
 
 This continuous labor is bestowed upon the gay garments in 
 which the ladies of England love to adorn themselves. It is 
 to satisfy their whims and caprices that their wretched sisters 
 undergo these days and nights of suffering and toil. . . The 
 leading milliners and dressmakers of London have hold of 
 English society at both ends. They hold the ladies by their 
 vanity and love of fine clothes, and the poor seamstresses by 
 what appears to be their interest and by their love of life. 
 
 1 American slaves are held to labor and service by law, and are pro- 
 tected by the same from all excess and cruel treatment. British slaves 
 are compelled to serve from fear of starvation, and are without protection. 
 Which is the most abject slavery ? 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 275 
 
 Now love of life and love of fine clothes are too very strong 
 motive springs of human action."^ 
 
 Beside the female, there are also the male slaves of the needle, 
 who, in common with all the apprentices of the workshops, are 
 subjected to physical suffering by toil, starvation, and bodily 
 chastisement that finds scarce a parallel in the history of any 
 other system of slavery in the world. They are sometimes 
 struck with a red-hot iron. Says one of the witnesses, " But 
 a few months ago an adult workman broke a boy's arm by a 
 blow with a piece of iron." . . Anothejr boy, aged sixteen, 
 says, " His master has cut his head open five or six times — 
 once with a key, and twice with a lock ; knocked the corner of a 
 lock into his head twice, and once with an iron bolt," &c. We 
 might multiply the instances to a great number, taken from 
 Horn's Reports, also from Dickens' picture of Smike, in 
 Nickleby ; there are thousands of Smikes. 
 
 " , aged seventeen; has no father or mother to take 
 
 his part. His master once cut his head open with a flat file 
 
 haft." " , aged eighteen. His master once ran at him 
 
 with a hammer, and drove the iron head of the hammer into 
 his side ; his master often knocks him down upon the shop 
 floor."! 
 
 What has been said upon slavery in the workshops will apply 
 to a great extent to 
 
 Slavery in the Workhouse System of Britain. 
 
 It has been estimated that out of the twenty-eight millions 
 of population of the United Kingdom, upwards of four millions 
 are paupers. We have related something of the causes of this 
 immense pauperism in Britain ; it all lays at the door of the 
 policy pursued by the landed aristocracy. The laboring classes 
 have no power to acquire an interest in the soil ; their wages 
 are kept so extremely low, and they are so much consumed in 
 the payment of taxes to support national extravagances, that 
 they are wholly unable to provide anything for the future ; and 
 in case of sickness, misfortune, or want of employment, their 
 only alternative is the work-house. It is the " glorious institu- 
 tions" of Britain that crowd these miserable places of abode 
 with an overwhelming population of paupers. And when they 
 can no longer find room for them at home, thousands are 
 
 1 Home's Evidences, p. 37, 1 : 57. See also White Slaves of England, 
 p. 184. 
 
276 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 shipped to the asylum of the free, and throng the cities and 
 towns of the United States. Each parish has a work-house 
 which is under the control of several guardians, who, again, 
 are under the control and orders of a Board of Commissioners 
 sitting at London. 
 
 From a casual survey of the poor-laws, it appears that 
 poverty is considered criminal in Great Britain. The work- 
 houses, which are declared to have been established for the 
 relief of the poor, are worse than prisons for solitary confine- 
 ment ; for the visits of friends and the consolations of religion, 
 except under particular forms, are denied to the unhappy 
 inmates, while they are permitted to criminals in a dungeon. 
 
 What an English pauper is, may be learned from the thou? 
 sand pathetic descriptions to be found in as many books, 
 pamphlets, and magazines, written by Englishmen themselves, 
 upon the miseries of pauperism. "What is that defective 
 being, with calfless legs and stooping shoulders, weak in body 
 and mind, inert, pusillanimous, and stupid, whose premature 
 wrinkles and furtive glance tell of misery and degradation ? 
 That is an English peasant or pauper. His sire was a pauper, 
 and his mother's milk wanted nourishment," &c. These work- 
 houses are the nurseries of all the miseries attendant upon the 
 apprenticeship system. Here the victims are reared up without 
 the consciousness of their own rights, or scarcely of their own 
 personal identity, to a certain age, when they are dealt out by 
 the guardians to suit customers, and are taught to be the willing 
 and submissive subjects of slavery, cruelty, and every degradation 
 that can be inflicted upon them. Instances might be enumerated 
 of cruelties and sufferings to which they are subjected, that 
 would make a merciful heart bleed at every pore. Perhaps 
 there cannot be found a more truthful and life-like conception 
 of the beauties of this system, than in the Life and Adventures 
 of Oliver Twist, Dickens' work-house boy, to which we refer 
 the reader. 
 
 Some years ago an investigation into the treatment of the 
 poor in St. Pancras work-house was made. It originated in 
 the suicide of a girl, who, having left her place, drowned 
 herself rather than return to the work-house to be confined in 
 the "shed" — a place of confinement for ill-disposed and refrac- 
 tory paupers. The shed is a kind of dungeon in the basement 
 story of the building, two feet below the surface, where they 
 are at times huddled in by crowds, like the victims of the Black 
 Hole of Calcutta. 
 
 This pleasant apartment communicates with a yard forty feet 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 277 
 
 long, and fifteen broad, with a flagged pavement, and high walls 
 like that of a penitentiary : it is always kept locked. It resembles 
 in many respects, the Roman Ergastulum, a place of confine- 
 ment for runaway slaves. 
 
 The system of farming out paupers, especially children, is 
 one of the most prolific sources of misery among the English 
 poor, who are compelled to appeal to the parish authorities. 
 This practice consists in entering into contracts with individuals 
 to supply the paupers with food, clothing and lodging. This is 
 put up at auction, and the man who offers to perform the work 
 the cheapest commonly gets the contract. It is said that during 
 the last visit of the cholera to England, a large number of 
 farmed paupers were crowded, by one Mr. Drouet, a contractor, 
 into a close and filthy building, where they nearly all perished. 
 But another of the most oppressive features of the English poor 
 laws is that called " Chargeability. " " Chargeability (says a 
 writer in Chambers' Journal) is the English slave system. The 
 poor man cannot go where he lists in search of employment — 
 lie may become chargeable. He cannot take a good place which 
 may be offered him, for he cannot get a residence lest he become 
 chargeable (i. e. a pauper). Thus houses are pulled down over 
 the heads of honest working-men, and poor people are driven 
 from Dan to Beersheba, lest they become chargeable." 
 
 By this arrangement of parochial settlement, the English 
 agricultural laborer has a compulsory residence like that of an 
 American slave upon the plantation where he is born. This 
 gives rise to those distressing accounts that we see of the 
 immense distance that laboi'ers often walk to their daily labors. 
 For the shocking accounts of the miseries attendant upon the 
 slavery of the Irish, we must refer the reader to the numerous 
 accounts that have filled the public prints in both Europe and 
 America.^ 
 
 The condition of the Irish peasantry has long been most 
 miserable. Untiring toil for the lords of the soil affords the 
 laborers only such a living as an American slave would despise. 
 Hovels, not fit for pig-styes — rags for clothing — potatoes for 
 food, are the allotment of these poor people. Who can read the 
 terrible accounts of the thousands of these hapless wretches 
 turned out of their miserable huts at the will of their lords 
 without a home or any possible means of subsistence, and left 
 to perish by starvation upon the highway, and so pervert the 
 meaning of language, and shock their own sensibilities, as to 
 
 1 See White Slaves of England, p. 284. Giles' Essays, Ireland. 
 24 
 
218 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 call these people /ree? In the language of O'Connell, in his 
 Repeal Declaration of July 2Y, 1841: "No people on the 
 face of the earth pay to another such a tribute for permission 
 to live, as Ireland pays to England. There is nothing like it 
 in ancient or modern history. It is a solecism in political 
 economy, inflicted upon Ireland alone, of all the nations that 
 are or ever were." While Clarkson and Wilberforce were 
 laboring for the cause of negro emancipation thousands of 
 miles away, they overlooked the most hideous system of slavery 
 at their very doors — the slavery of a people, too, capable of 
 enjoying the highest degree of civil and religious freedom. 
 And this is the accursed stigma peculiar to British slavery, that 
 it enslaves the best and purest blood of the human family. 
 Hebrew could not absolutely enslave Hebrew, Greek could not 
 enslave Greek, Romans could not enslave their own country- 
 men ; but it remains for Christian England alone to reduce to 
 the most abject and servile bondage her own kindred blood, 
 the noblest and best of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 The moral degradation and mental darkness of the laboring 
 classes in Great Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 are appalling to contemplate. Beneath the wing of a govern- 
 ment professedly Christian, there is sheltered a vast number of 
 people who must be characterized as heathen, and as fit subjects 
 of missionary labors as are the dark sons of India and Africa. 
 They know nothing of God but his prevailing name ; and the 
 Bible's light is hid from them as completely as if its pages were 
 inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Their code of morals 
 is the creation of their own sensual inclinations. The mode 
 . of life that they are compelled to live, is fraught with the most 
 debasing consequences upon their moral and intellectual char- 
 acter. The majority of the cottages in which they live have 
 but two small rooms ; in one of which, husband and wife, young 
 men and young women, boys and girls, and often a married son 
 and his wife, all sleep together. Says Mr. Kay : — 
 
 "People of both sexes, and of all ages, both married and 
 unmarried — parents, brothers, sisters, and strangers — sleep 
 in the same rooms, and often in the same beds. One gentle- 
 man tells us of six people of different sexes and ages, two of 
 whom were man and wife, sleeping in the same bed. Another, 
 of the uncle's and nieces in the same bed together. Many tell 
 us of adult brothers and sisters sleeping in the same beds 
 together ; others tell us of rooms so filled with beds that there 
 is no space between them, but that brothers, sisters, and parents 
 crawl over each other half naked, in order to get to their 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 279 
 
 resting-places ; another, of its being common for women and 
 men not being relations, to undress together in the same room 
 without any feelings of indelicacy, and many other scenes too 
 horrible to be alluded to. Nor are these solitary instances, 
 but similar reports are given by gentlemen writing in all parts 
 of the country." 
 
 This is but a slight glance at the true picture of the life of 
 an English peasant, or slave, which is the same. For the 
 startling developments of crime in its various forms, particularly 
 that of adultery, incest, bastardy, and the like, we must refer 
 the reader to the statistics of Mr. Cobdeu, in the White Slaves 
 of England. 
 
 Who can contemplate, without feelings of horror, hundreds 
 of thousands of human beings driven into this terrible abyss 
 of crime and misery by the iron rule of aristocracy ! Who ever 
 heard of such brutalizing scenes among the slave population 
 of the Southern States ! No ; dissolute and licentious as they 
 naturally are, no such degrading scenes are ever witnessed 
 among them ; they possess a sufficient sense of decency and 
 self-respect to preclude every possible idea of any such a loath- 
 some state of existence. 
 
 Much has been said of the philanthropy of England displayed 
 in the emancipation of the slaves of the West Indies ; but it 
 has resulted only in depreciating the value of those islands, per- 
 mitting a half-tamed race to degenerate into their native 
 barbarism, and in adding about seventy millions of pounds to 
 the national debt to be paid by the sweat and blood of her 
 white slaves at home. This is termed a grand act of humanity, 
 to increase their poverty, pauperism, and wretchedness at 
 home, to permit a few hundred thousand semi-barbarians to 
 degenerate into their native savage state. The negroes, being 
 free, with the indolence inherent in their natures, would not 
 work ; consequently it became necessary to substitute other 
 laborers in place of the freed negroes, and hence the origin of 
 the importation of the Coolies of India to the Antilles for 
 experiment. These laborers were generally sober, steady, and 
 industrious ; but how were they treated ? A colonist of Mar- 
 tinique, who visited Trinidad in June, 1848, thus writes to a 
 French author of a treatise on free and slave labor : — 
 
 •' If I could fully describe to you the evils and sufferings en- 
 dured by the Indian emigrants (Coolies) in that horribly- 
 governed colony, I should rend the heart of the Christian world 
 by a recital of enormities unknown in the worst periods of 
 Colonial slavery. . . My soul has been deeply afflicted by all 
 
280 THE ABOLITIONISTS. 
 
 that I have seen. How ;nany human beings lost ! So far as 
 I can judge, in spite of their wasting away, all the young are 
 perishing under the weight of disease. . In less than one 
 year, as is shown by official documents, two thousand corpses 
 of these unfortunate creatures have furnished food for the crows 
 of the island." But how is this strange and astounding state- 
 ment to be accounted for ? If disease renders a Coolie inca- 
 pable of work, he is driven from his habitation. This happens 
 continually ; he is not, in that case, even paid his wages. 
 What, then, can the unfortunate creature do ? "Very different 
 from the case of the slave, far distant from his country, without 
 food, without money ; disease, the result of insufficient food 
 and too severe labor, makes it impossible for him to find em- 
 ployment. He drags himself into the forests, or upon the skirts 
 of the roads, lies there and dies ! ^ 
 
 In Mauritius, the Coolies are also in a miserable condition ; 
 a large number of the Indian convicts have been transported 
 to this island, and their slavery is deplorable. Backhouse, who 
 visited the island when these poor wretches were not so nume- 
 rous as they now are, says : "Among the Indian convicts work- 
 ing on the road, we noticed one wearing chains ; several had a 
 slight single ring round the ankle. . . There are about seven 
 hundred of them in the island."^ 
 
 Hence we see, that after that memorable act of humanity on 
 the part of the English Parliament, in emancipating the negroes, 
 for which the pauper laborers of Great Britain had to pay by 
 their own slavery, the Colonial Government created another 
 system, attended with the misery and degradation of a people 
 better fitted for freedom than the negroes. And yet the English 
 aristocracy constantly thank God that they are holier than other 
 nations. 
 
 But the last, and one of the most repulsive forms of British 
 oppression which we shall notice, is 
 
 Slavery in Bntish India. 
 
 The policy of the East India Company, and of British con- 
 querors in India, was fully illustrated during the gubernatorial 
 term of Warren Hastings. 
 
 The rich and populous peninsula of Hindostan has suffered 
 greatly from the crushing effects of the British slave system. 
 
 1 See White Slaves of England, p. 434. Also Slave Trade, Domestic 
 and Foreign, by H. C. Carey. 
 
 2 See Backhouse's Visit to Mauritius. Also Bigelow's Jamaica in 1850. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 281 
 
 These vast and magnificent tracts of country have been wasted 
 with fire and sword, in punishment of the native princes for 
 refusing to become slaves. There the fat of the hmd has been 
 garnered up for the luxury of the conquerors, while famine has 
 destroyed the people by thousands. There, indeed, have the 
 British aristocracy, tempted by the love of gold, displayed its 
 most malignant propensities. In the last charter granted to 
 the East India Company, in 1834, a clause was introduced, 
 binding a secret committee of the Company, consisting of three 
 persons only, the chairman, deputy chairman, and senior di- 
 rector, who are solemnly sworn to this work : to receive all 
 private dispatches from the home board of control, and without 
 communicating them to a single individual besides themselves, 
 to forward them to India, where the receivers are bound, with- 
 out question or appeal, to enforce their immediate execution. 
 
 By this inquisitorial system, this worse than Spanish or 
 Yenetian system of secret decrees, the British Government has 
 reserved to itself a direction of the affairs of India, freed from 
 all constitutional or representative check, and reduced the East 
 India Company to a mere cat's-paw. By this sworn secresy, 
 and implicit obedience to this mysterious triumvirate, the Com- 
 pany is made the unconscious instrument of measures the most 
 hostile to its own interests. It may, at any hour, become the 
 medium of a secret order that may threaten the very destruction 
 of its empire. Such was the case with the war of Cabul. The 
 aristocratic government at home planned and ordered it ; and 
 the unconscious Company was made at once to carry out a 
 scheme so atrocious, so wicked and unprincipled, as well as so 
 destructive to its plans of civil economy, and to bear also the 
 infamy of the same.^ 
 
 Says Mr. Cobden : From the earliest times the "village 
 system," with its almost patriarchal regulations, seems to have 
 prevailed in Hindostan. Each village had its distinct organi- 
 zation, and over a certain number of villages, or a district, was 
 a hereditary chief and an accountant, both possessing great 
 local influence and authority, and certain estates.'^ The Hin- 
 doos were strongly attached to their native villages, and could 
 only be forced to abandon them by the most constant oppres- 
 sion. Dynasties might change, and revolutions might occur, 
 but so long as each little community remained undisturbed, the 
 Hindoos were contented. 
 
 1 See Aristocracy of England, by John Hampden, Jr. Also Mills' His- 
 tory of British India. 
 
 - Briggs' Historical Fragments. 
 24* 
 
282 THE abolitionists: 
 
 Mohammedan conquerors left this beautiful system, which 
 included much more of genuine freedom than the British insti- 
 tutions of the present day, untouched. The English conquer- 
 ors were not so merciful, although they were acquainted with 
 Christianity. The destruction of local organizations, and the 
 centralization of authority, which is always attended with 
 increase of slavery, have been the aims of English efforts.^ 
 
 The principle that the government is the sole proprietor of 
 the soil, and therefore entitled to a large share of the produce, 
 has been established, and slavery, to escape famine and death, 
 has become necessary to the Hindoos. 
 
 From free communities, these once happy little villages were 
 reduced to the condition of British tenants at will. The Ze- 
 mindaree system was first applied to Bengal. This struck a 
 fatal blow at all local organizations, which were the sources of 
 freedom and happiness among the Hindoos. Government 
 assumed all the functions of an immediate landholder, and dealt 
 with individual cultivators as its own tenants, getting as much 
 out of them as possible. 
 
 The Zemindars are an unthrifty, rack-renting class, and, like 
 the lay proctors of some absentee landlord of Ireland, take the 
 uttermost farthing from the under-tenants. Oppression and 
 eviction are their constant employment ; and since they have 
 been constituted a landed aristocracy, they have fully acted out 
 the character in genuine British fashion.^ 
 
 Another of the most distressing and destructive features of 
 British slavery in India is the government monopoly in the salt 
 trade. The salt consumed in India must be purchased through 
 the government, at a duty of upwards of two pounds per ton, 
 making the price to the consumer about eight-pence per pound. 
 In England, salt may be purchased by retail, three pounds, or 
 wholesale, five pounds for one penny ; while in India, upwards 
 of thirty millions of persons, whose average incomes do not 
 amount to above three shillings a week, are compelled to expend 
 one-fourth of that pittance in salt for themselves and their fami- 
 lies. It may naturally be inferred that, with such a heavy duty 
 upon this important necessary of life, underhand measures 
 would be adopted by the poor natives for supplying themselves. 
 But the most stringent regulations are adopted by the govern- 
 ment to prevent smuggling of this character.^ 
 
 Says Mr. Howit : "The East India Company exists by rao- 
 
 1 Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern, by H. C. Carey. 
 
 2 Campbell's jModern India. 
 
 s See Household Woi-ds. White Slaves of England, p. 460. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 283 
 
 nopolics of the land, of the opium, and of the salt. By their 
 narrow, greedy and purblind management of these resources, 
 they have contrived to reduce that once affluent country to the 
 uttermost depths of poverty and pauperism. The people starve 
 and perish in famine, every now and then, by half a million at 
 a time. . . We have some glimpses of the treatment of the 
 people in the collection of the land tax, as it is called, but 
 really the rent. . . The government claim the land in fee sim- 
 ple. . . The same system is pursued in the opium monopoly. 
 The finest lands are taken for the cultivation of the poppy ; the 
 government gives the natives what they please for the opium, 
 and ship it off to curse China with. ' In India, ' says a writer 
 in the Chinese Repository, 'the extent of territory occupied 
 with the cultivation of the poppy, and the amount of population 
 engaged in its cultivation and preparation, are five times 
 greater than in any other part of the world. ' Turkey is said to 
 produce only 2000 chests of opium annually ; India produces 
 40,000, of 134 lbs. each, and yielding a revenue of about four 
 million pounds sterling. But worse than all \^' and most to be 
 deplored, as human nature^s broadest, foulest blot'''\ is the 
 salt monopoly. It is well known that the people of India are 
 habituated to only a vegetable diet. Boiled rice is their chief 
 food, and salt is an absolute necessary of life. With a vege- 
 table diet in that hot climate, without plenty of salt, putrid 
 diseases and rapid mortality are inevitable. Nature or Provi- 
 dence has therefore given them salt in abundance. The sea 
 throws it up to them, ready crystallized, in many places ; but 
 the Company steps in and imposes tioo hundred j^er cent, on 
 this indispensable article, and guards it by such penalties that 
 the native dares not stoop to gather it when it lies at his feet. 
 The consequence is that mortality prevails, to a terrific extent 
 often, among the population. Officers of government are era- 
 ployed to destroy the salt naturally formed, and government 
 determines how much salt shall be annually consumed. 
 
 Now, let the people of England mark one thing. The cho- 
 lera originates in the East. It has visited us once, and is on 
 its march once more towards us. 
 
 Has any one yet imagined that this scourge may be possibly 
 the instrument of Divine retribution for our crimes and 
 cruelties? Has any one imagined that we have anything to do 
 with the creation of this terrible pestilence ? Yet there is 
 scarcely a doubt that this awful instrument of death is occa- 
 sioned by this very monopoly of salt, — that it is the direct 
 work of the four-and-twenty men in Leadenhall Street. The 
 
284 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 cholera is found to arise in the very centre of India., It com- 
 mences in the midst of this swarming population, which sub- 
 sists on vegetables, and which is deprived by the British govern- 
 ment of the necessary quantity of salt," &c. 
 
 The evil effect of the opium trade is not confined to India 
 alone. The imperial government of China seeing that the 
 traffic in opium was sowing misery and death among its sub- 
 jects, prohibited the introduction of the drug within the empire 
 in 1839. But the British had a vast amount of capital at stake, 
 and the profits of the trade were too great to be relinquished 
 for any considerations of humanity. War was declared ; thou- 
 sands of the Chinese were slaughtered, and the emperor forced 
 to permit the destructive traffic on a more extensive scale than 
 ever, and to pay two millions for daring to protest against it. 
 
 The annual revenue now realized from the opium traffic 
 amounts to about three and a half millions of pounds sterling- 
 It is estimated that about four hundred thousand Chinese perish 
 every year in consequence of using this drug, while the amount 
 of individual and social misery proceeding from the same cause 
 is appalling to every human heart. The recent Burmese war 
 had for one of its objects the opening of a road to the interior 
 of China for the purpose of extending the opium trade. 
 
 Thus, these four-and-twenty men of Leadenhall Street, Lon- 
 don, have been permitted, after having perverted the use of the 
 fairest fields and finest land, and thus paralyzed the power and 
 energies of India, to send to China, not the articles the Chinese 
 wanted, but to force upon them the very thing, above all, that 
 its authorities abhorred.^ 
 
 It is not for the purpose of proving that American slavery 
 is right, that we have attempted to show that British slavery 
 is wrong. We are not of that school of logicians who would 
 attempt to justify the sins of one nation by exposing the iniqui- 
 ties of another. But, after what has been said in the foregoing 
 pages upon that subject, we appeal to a candid world to decide 
 the question of consistency and sincerity of these latter-day 
 apostles of liberty and humanity known as Abolitionists in both 
 England and America ; those holy abhorrers of negro wrongs. 
 England, who has taxed and extorted sweat and blood from a 
 starving and helpless population, at home and abroad, to abo- 
 
 1 For the horrors of the opium trade, see Medhurst's China, Thelwall's 
 Iniquities of the Opium Trade, and Montgomery Martin's Opium in China. 
 It is well known what horrors, crimes, impoverishment and destruction 
 of families, the rage of opium-smoking introduced among millions of the 
 Chinese. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 285 
 
 lish negro slavery in her empire ; to maintain a cruising fleet 
 upon the coast of Africa to suppress the African slave trade, 
 and who drained nearly the last drop of the life-blood of her 
 laboring people, to maintain her fleets and armies in the trian- 
 gular fight in the Crimea, is the great centre and radiator of 
 the worst form of slavery that the world has ever witnessed. 
 She has studded the ocean with her sails ; girdled the earth with 
 the track of her dominion, and stretched the broad wing of her 
 empire over one-fourth of the groaning globe. But the most 
 abhorrent forms of slavery, physical oppression, sufi'ering, and 
 death, have everywhere sprung up in her footsteps. And such, 
 too, as find no parallel in any age or nation. 
 
 The poor Coolie's long catalogue of suffering may be all 
 faithfully told ; the poor Irish peasant may struggle through 
 the brief period allotted to his existence, writhing constantly 
 under the stinging lash of hunger, and finally perish by starva- 
 tion ; a faithful picture of all the horrors of British slavery at 
 home and abroad, may be presented ; and not a sigh is ever 
 breathed for their suffering ; not a tear of sympathy ever shed 
 over their graves. Yet, about negro wrongs, the Abolitionists 
 preach and pray ; yea, " make long prayers at the corners of 
 the streets, and in the synagogues." Surely these telescopic 
 philanthropists must be possessed of distorted visions or sensi- 
 bilities, who can see no wrongs but those inflicted on a sable 
 victim. 
 
 Go with them to the fairest portions of India where the soil 
 now lies under the curse of British slavery. It has become the 
 burying-place of millions who die upon its bosom crying for 
 bread. Show them, upon the plains of the Bengal Presidency, 
 the bleaching skeletons of five hundred thousand human beings 
 who perished of hunger in the space of a few short months ; 
 yes, died of hunger in what is called the granary of the world. 
 Let them inhale the air, poisoned for miles by the effluvia 
 emanating from the putrefying bodies of the dead. Let them 
 behold the rivers choked with the corpses thrown into their 
 channels ; mothers casting their little ones beneath the dark 
 rolling waves, because they would not see them draw their last 
 gasp, and feel them stiffen in their arms. Let them behold tlie 
 jackals and vultures approach and fasten upon the bodies of 
 men, women, and children, even before life was extinct ; while 
 madness, disease, and despair stalked abroad with no human 
 power present to arrest its progress. Show them even this 
 terrible carnival of death, under the van of the English flag, in 
 devoted India, in the reign of Victoria the First ; and they 
 
286 THE abolitionists: 
 
 will tell you it is all the work of Christian England, of a 
 Christian princess, and a Christian aristocracy, who are send- 
 ing Christian missionaries into all the world to preach the Gos- 
 pel ; who have abolished African slavery, and are laboring to 
 abolish the African slave trade : it must all be right. 
 
 Oh consistency ! thou art a jewel ! The Abolitionists of 
 America constantly look to England for encouragement, coun- 
 tenance, and support ; and he who has done most faithfully the 
 work of treason against the Constitution and laws of his coun- 
 try, is invited home to his foster-mother with the welcome 
 plaudit, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant." While 
 justice, humanity, and the spirit of the age, demand the aboli- 
 tion of this exhausting, famine-breeding, and murderous system 
 of British slavery, they see nothing in it to condemn. Though 
 it is hostile to every principle of right, to civilization, to the 
 loving spirit of Christianity ; though starving millions groan 
 beneath its yoke, it is no evil in their sight. Their ears are deaf 
 to all cries ; their souls are impervious to all sense of wrong, 
 except those of the negroes in America. From the crowded 
 factories and work-shops ; from the pestilential hovel ; from the 
 dark and slave-filled coal-pits ; from populous work-houses ; 
 from the vast army of wandering beggars in England and Scot- 
 land ; from the perishing peasantry ; from the wi'etched Hin- 
 doos upon the Ganges and the Indus ; from the lowest depths 
 of misery among the betrayed Coolies of the West Indies, may 
 arise the cry for relief from their plunderers and their oppres- 
 sors, yet no sound of their supplication ever reaches the ears of 
 the Abolitionists. And we must say of them, as was said of 
 Ephraim of old, they are "joined to their idols, let them alone." 
 Speaking after the manner of "a plain blunt man," we say 
 such philanthropists are hollow-hearted hypocrites, disunionists, 
 and traitors, willing to be used as a cat's-paw, in the hand of 
 England, to sow the seed of disaffection, dissension, and dis- 
 union in the bosom of their own country; like Judas of old, to 
 betray the pride and glory of America into the hands of its 
 enemies. Benedict Arnold was pampered and caressed by the 
 English aristocracy, so long as he could be used as a vile tool, 
 to betray the strongholds of our national defence into the hands 
 of the British army ; but, when these ofiBces had ceased, and 
 he could be no longer used for that purpose, he was avoided 
 as a traitor, cast out from all sympathy, and even sunk lower 
 in the estimation of every high-minded Englishman, if possible, 
 than in that of his own countrymen. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 287 
 
 Conscience and "Higher Law.'''' 
 
 But the Abolitionists profess to meet the charge of toryisra 
 and apostacy towards the Constitution and towards their 
 country, with the plea of conscience and that "higher law" 
 than the laws of the government and permanent law of the 
 land. All questions of construction and political obligations 
 are referred to the self-constituted tribunal of conscience. But 
 what is the history of this mysterious being ? It is but a bundle 
 of inconsistencies, a bloody paragon of absurdities. It is 
 written in characters "blacked through the damning drops that 
 fall from the denouncing angel's pen. ' ' Conscience administered 
 the cup of poison to the lips of Socrates ; she prompted the 
 atrocities of the wicked reign of Nero, and dealt the severest 
 blows of blood and cruelty to the meek and lowly followers of 
 the Lamb. Conscience was the amicus curi« of Pontius Pilate, 
 the condemner of the Saviour to the cross ; the sun hid its face 
 in the firmament and rocks were rent asunder on the day of the 
 crucifixion, at this terrible deed of Jewish conscience. It was 
 the same conscience that hurried on St. Paul to Damascus, to 
 bring back the Christians bound to Jerusalem ; and that moved 
 him to send back the Christian slave Onesimus from Rome to 
 his master at Colosse. Ignatius Loyola had a conscience ; 
 Xavier was a vain boaster of his conscience, yet the conscience 
 of the one, upon the principles, of that " higher law" of which 
 we hear, founded the tribunal of the Inquisition in Europe, and 
 that of the other, the same institution in Asia. St. Dominic 
 left a standing monument to the memory of his conscience and 
 the prevalence of that "higher law," at Languedoc. As the 
 perfect lover of truth, this same conscience imprisoned Galileo, 
 and long suppressed the beautiful theory of Copernicus. Con- 
 science was mistress of the secret and bloody tragedies of the 
 "higher law" of the Inquisition. Conscience was the ruling 
 genius of the reign of Bloody Mary ; she lighted the bigot's 
 torch at St. Paul's Cross, and glowered over the cinders at 
 Smithfield ; she wielded the axe of the guillotine, and plied the 
 knife of the executioner. But Mary was a very conscientious 
 woman ; so was James the Second a conscientious man ; and 
 even JefiFeries made noisy boasts about his conscience. "The 
 Grand Duke Constantine was a very conscientious and pious 
 man, he said grace before he swallowed Poland. " The Hindoo 
 mother, who throws her child into the Ganges, or ascends the 
 funeral pile to mingle her ashes with those of her deceased hus- 
 band, is urged on to the daring deed by conscience. And even 
 
288 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 the poor deluded African pleads conscience in justification of 
 the horrid ceremony of sprinkling the graves of his ancestors 
 with the blood of his fellow-beings. 
 
 But even Puritanical conscience, purified by the fires of regal 
 persecution, is scarcely less inconsistent and absurd. What, 
 then, is 
 
 The History of New England Conscience'^ 
 
 Endicott, the first governor of Massachusetts Colony, early 
 commenced the work of bigotry and intolerance. In 1628, he 
 enforced the same laws which had driven the Puritans from 
 their native country. He banished two of the principal 
 offenders, men of respectability and standing, for laxity of 
 religious sentiments, and sent them back to England. But the 
 very men who countenanced this, lived to see their own grand- 
 children excluded for the same reason. Coddington, an eminent 
 man of Boston, was banished for holding to the errors of Ann 
 Hutchinson. At the first general court held at Charlestown, 
 on board the ship Arabella, a law was passed that none should 
 be admitted as free men into the colony, or enjoy any rights of 
 the same, but such as had been received as members of the 
 Established Church.^ In 1656 commenced the well-known 
 Quaker persecution, a number of them having arrived in that 
 year. They were immediately outlawed; some of them ban- 
 ished, and others actually hung. They fled to Rhode Island, 
 and settled there. Severe laws were passed against their 
 return. All toleration was denounced in the most unmeasured 
 terms. One Mr. Dudley Deal, a very pious and devout man, 
 went constantly with a copy of some verses in his pocket, that 
 commenced thus : — 
 
 " Let men of God in courts and church keep watch 
 O'er such as do a toleration hatch." 
 
 The Antibaptists were the next sufferers ; some were disfran- 
 chised, and many were banished. The celebrated John Clark, 
 one of the first settlers of Newport, Rhode Island, was sentenced 
 to pay twenty pounds, and be whipped, July 20, 1651, by the 
 Court of Assistants, held in Boston. He was thrust into prison, 
 and on the 31st of the same month the said sentence was 
 executed upon him. A Mrs. Holmes was also sentenced to pay 
 thirty pounds, and be whipped ; a Mr. Crandell five pounds, 
 and be whipped ; and all for differing from the church upon the 
 subject of infant baptism. 
 
 1 The account of the banishment of Roger Williams is familiar to all. 
 
CONSISTENCY OF THEIR LABORS. 289 
 
 Mary Dyre, a Quakeress, was sentenced and executed for 
 returning to Massachusetts. The great and pious William 
 Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, were sentenced and 
 executed on the 20th of October, 1659, for a like reason. The 
 poor helpless witches of Salem, and other places, fell the next 
 victims to the relentless bigotry and intolerance of New Eng- 
 land conscience. 
 
 Here is an instance of the most fatal illustration of the 
 practical effects of the Seward "higher law" system in the 
 direction of public affairs. Conscience was the amicus curiae 
 and ruling genius of this unparalleled outrage. About 1690 
 this strange infatuation commenced its career. The innocent 
 sufferers were accused of being wizard spirits colleagued with 
 the devil to overthrow the holy religion established by the 
 Puintans, and to undermine the prosperity and happiness of the 
 colony. Like wildfire it spread till it enveloped the whole 
 colony, and filled the land with consternation and dread. Men, 
 women, and children, of all ranks, were accused of the wizard 
 malady. No one dared to raise a warning voice to stay its 
 terrible progress, lest a conspiracy should be set on foot to 
 bring him "into the limits of the accusation. The governor, 
 lieutenant-governor, and council, terror-stricken with the alarm, 
 as was usual in cases of great national calamities, appointed a 
 day of solemn observance to consult upon the best means for 
 their future safety. On the 15th of June, 1698, by order of 
 Sir William Phips, governor, and Mr. Stoughton, lieutenant- 
 governor, the most eminent divines were called together to give 
 them their wisdom, their weight and influence, of this body of 
 New England clergymen ; as is often found necessary to give 
 direction in the management of public affairs, and to remedy 
 great moral and political evils. They assembled in solemn 
 convocation to aid the civil authorities in suppressing the moral 
 and political bane of witchcraft. This conscientious body of 
 the learning, wisdom, and piety of New England, acting upon 
 the "higher law" principle, united in strongly recommending 
 the most rigorous persecution of all accused of this heinous 
 crime. Consequently all the accused were violently laid hold 
 of and arraigned for trial. 
 
 At these trials there was a new species of evidence admitted, 
 which I find in no other treatise on the Law of Evidence ; it 
 was called " Spectre Evidence," for which I find no accurate 
 definition ; but it appears that this class of evidence was finally 
 done away with on a resolution of the clergy — " that the devil 
 himself might assume the shape of a good man, and appear 
 25 T 
 
290 THE ABOLITIONISTS : 
 
 among them to deceive the people. " But this was after twenty- 
 eight innocent persons had been capitally convicted, nineteen 
 hanged, and one pi'essed to death for refusing to plead. At the 
 trial of one Burroughs, a most respectable clergyman, who had 
 publicly tried to convince the people of their delusion, the 
 witnesses testified that they saw the devil standing by, to put 
 words into his mouth. This, perhaps, is what is meant by 
 " Spectre Evidence." 
 
 It was here that the celebrated and conscientious Samuel 
 Sewell first acquired his notoriety. He sat upon the bench at 
 Salem during these trials, and concurred in the condemnation 
 -of these persons. He became so thoroughly imbued with the 
 doctrine of the infallibility of conscience, and so thoroughly 
 schooled in the true principles of "higher law," morals, and 
 Christian philanthropy, that he soon came out (as the first 
 agitator of the subject) with a pamphlet against slavery ; as 
 he says in his diary, that "he essayed to prevent negroes and 
 Indians from being rated as cattle and beasts." Here, it 
 appears, is where abolition in New England first took its source. 
 
 Cotton Mather looked upon an African slave as a great 
 blessing to himself; he had no conscientious scruples upon the 
 subject. The Rev. Dr. Styles was conscientious in advocating 
 the system both by precept and example. The same may be 
 said of Gov. Winthrop, Dr. Edwards, and many distinguished 
 men in our colonial history, as will be seen in the following 
 Essay. Such is the brief history of conscience; such was New 
 England conscience during parts of the seventeenth and eigh- 
 teenth centuries. But we shall be told that the enlightened 
 conscience of the nineteenth century is not accountable for the 
 darkness and errors that pervaded generations so long passed 
 away ; that the light and knowledge which have since beamed 
 npon her pathway, have corrected all her aberrant peculiarities 
 and tendencies, and brought her back to a perfect knowledge 
 of truth and rectitude ; that she is no longer to be charged 
 with the errors and peccadilloes of a perverted conscience. But 
 this logic savors of the petitio principii, or the begging the 
 question. Will you allow us no conscience? "Who made 
 thee a ruler and a judge over us ? Wilt thou slay us as thou 
 didst the Egyptian yesterday?" Ye whose consciences have 
 raised the standard of nullification and revolt against the 
 government upon the "higher law" principles, overleaped 
 the Constitution, ignored all political obligations, and would 
 even trample the Bible in the dust if opposed to its mad career 
 — will you allow us no conscience in this matter ? How say you 
 
CONSISTENCY OF TIIETR LABORS. 291 
 
 that we are on the side of perverted conscience ? Do you take 
 it from the Bible ? But we have shown that Moses and the 
 Prophets, St. Paul, and the Apostles, unfortunately, differ from 
 you in opinion. We prefer to adopt their precepts, doctrines, 
 and opinions upon this subject to those of Abolition commen- 
 tators, and latter-day theologians, and monomaniacs, who enjoy 
 but intervals of mental ratiocination. We hurl back the charge 
 upon you, that you have the perverted conscience ; that yov, are 
 the blinded bigots, the misguided zealots who arc hurrying on 
 with the torch-lights in your hands in the bloody footprints of 
 the worst forms of persecution. From the history of conscience 
 we are naturally led to inquire into the laws of its operations, 
 and the philosophy of its existence. It is held by some men- 
 tal philosophers to be a distinct and independent faculty of the 
 mind, always approving what is right and rejecting what is 
 wrong. It is classed with memory, reason, and imagination, 
 as a separate power that enables us to determine between right 
 and wrong, as we determine between the size, form, position, 
 and color of different objects, as we retain the idea of events 
 that have passed, distinguish between truth and falsehood, or 
 picture to the fancy ideal existence. 
 
 But it is not our purpose to enter into the metaphysical la- 
 byrinth of this controversy, but briefly to analyze the consti- 
 tuent principles of conscience, and leave the advocates of the 
 difierent theories to fix upon terms that best suit their own 
 views. If we can fix upon a true rule of interpretation of what 
 is right, there will be no difficulty in determining what is wrong. 
 Why, then, is an act said to be right? Or, what is the true 
 standard by which to determine the character of the act in that 
 respect ? One answers that it is its consistency with the moral 
 law. But this is but shifting the difficulty into another form. 
 Different nations have different codes of moral, as well as of 
 civil law. And even individuals may honestly differ upon the 
 true interpretation of moral law as upon any other subject. 
 By custom, education, and locality, the moral law becomes all 
 things to all men. One will say that the moral law is supreme ; 
 and absolves him from all obedience to the civil law in cases of 
 their fancied conflict. Another teaches him to be obedient to 
 the powers that be, to render unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's, &c. In this conflict of conscience, what is to be done ? 
 We have, as yet, made no progress towards a true rule of in- 
 terpretation of right and wrong. 
 
 As Cicero once said, "If there be a Supreme Being that 
 governs all things, and a hereafter of rewards and punish- 
 
 I 
 
292 THE ABOLITIONISTS, &C. 
 
 inents, as our fathers have taught us," then there roust be such 
 an idea as consistency and inconsistency with the laws of his 
 moral government, or right and wrong in an absolute sense. 
 
 If, in the language of the poet, "Whatever is, is right," 
 then there can be no such thing as government or law, the whole 
 must resolve itself into a blind rule of necessity, and there could 
 be no such thing as accountability or moral action. But how 
 can these absolute and abstract rules of the Supreme Being be 
 applicable to the actions of mankind ? Should they be obeyed 
 because they are right ? Or, are they right because they re- 
 quire obedience ? We answer in favor of the former ; the lat- 
 ter would make them but a set of rules depending, for their 
 binding force on mankind, only upon the arbitrary will of the 
 Law-Giver. Hence, the precepts of the moral law, when 
 rightly understood, are to right what demonstration is to truth. 
 
 The absolute principle of right has a necessary existence an- 
 terior to all commandments, as much as truth is anterior to the 
 fact of its demonstration. A thing, then, may be said to be 
 right when it has an exact fitness to all other things in all their 
 most minute and comprehensive relations to one another. This 
 is harmony ; it is in unison with the great plan of government 
 and laws of the Supreme Ruler of all things. Mankind have 
 an intuitive notion or idea of the existence of such a principle, 
 and of the necessity of its prevalence, the same as they have 
 of the necessity existing between cause and effect. And this 
 inward consciousness which they have of its obligatory force 
 upon their actions, constitutes what is called moral sense, and 
 renders them accountable beings. But this absolute principle 
 of right cannot serve as a practical rule of action for any being 
 but Him in whom all things have their existence, and "who 
 sees the end from the beginning." 
 
 Right and wrong, in their relations to the finite mind of man 
 as a rule of action, can have but a relative signification, and 
 always depend, so far as man is concerned, upon the condition 
 and relative influences of the matters of fact, concerning which 
 those questions arise. And nothing but Omniscience can do 
 away with the province of reason and understanding in deter- 
 mining the path of duty and furnishing the true guide of life. 
 
 The determination of the will in all moral action is the result 
 of the combined influence and effect of the imagination upon 
 the moral sensibilities, reason, judgment, or understanding. 
 Habit renders this mental process as quick and unconscious to 
 the mind as intuition : thus, they are mistaken for one another. 
 Hence, if we correctly analyze this spiritual light, this silent 
 
SLAVERY IX THE UNITED STATES. 293 
 
 monitor within, that serves (as we are told) as an unerring 
 guide in the bosom of every mortal being, we shall find that its 
 constituent principles, in all ages and conditions, are dependent 
 entirely upon education. " As the twig is bent the tree is in- 
 clined." And hence, when reason, imagination, judgment, 
 and the other mental faculties are overpowered by bigotry, 
 overheated by enthusiasm, or misguided by fanaticism, — con- 
 science, like the chameleon, may assume the hue of every sub- 
 ject with which it comes in contact, and turn into all the loath- 
 some shapes that have chequered its history in the past. Away, 
 then, with this unscriptural, law-defying, truce-breaking, Paul- 
 reproaching conscience, and let every man abide in the calling 
 wherein he is called. " Art thou called to be a slave, care not 
 for it." 
 
 ESSAY X. 
 
 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF SLAVERY IN 
 THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 By the late decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States in the case of Scott vs. Sanford,^ some principles of 
 vital importance to this feature of the institution in this coun- 
 try, have been settled. The Court held, in that case, 1st, 
 " That free negroes, of African descent, whose ancestors were 
 brought here as slaves, are not citizens within the meaning of 
 the Constitution of the United States;" 2d, "That they were 
 not originally numbered among the people or citizens of the 
 several States at the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States;" 3d, "The only two clauses in the Constitution that 
 point to this race, treat them as persons who were lawfully 
 held as property;" 4th, "That Congress has no constitutional 
 power to interfere with slavery in the territories ; the territo- 
 ries are acquired for the common benefit of all the States, and 
 the people thereof have equal right to go there with their 
 property ; that the Constitution recognizes slaves as pro- 
 perty, and the Government is pledged to protect them ;" 5ih, 
 "That the Act of Congress known as the Missouri Compro- 
 mise was, therefore, in violation of the Constitution." 
 
 1 19 How. Rep. p. 399-554. See also pamphlet form. 
 25* 
 
294 THE POLITICAL AND JLDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 Ouv limits in this essay will not admit of an extended review 
 of the masterly reasoning of the Court in that celebrated case ; 
 indeed, no review can improve it — no abstract can do it jus- 
 tice ; we can but refer to the opinion as a whole. In many 
 respects, it is one of the most important cases that can be 
 found in the history of this or any other nation. The sympa- 
 thies of the whole nation were deeply enlisted in the cause. 
 Interests of incalculable magnitude were indirectly involved in 
 the results. Principles that have shook the foundation of the 
 Union to its centre, were put at issue in the contest ; principles 
 that not only the peaceable administration of the Government, 
 but the sternest dictates of public justice and national equality, 
 have long demanded a constitutional adjudication at the hands 
 of the Federal judiciary, are here settled. These elements of 
 political strife have all here found their quietus. A geographi- 
 cal line invidiously drawn between slave and free territory, with 
 the worst forms of political antagonisms raging on either side, 
 has been blotted out by the invincible power of constitutional 
 law. With the aid of the power of the nation, it may yet 
 work out its political salvation. The issues in this case are 
 not measured by individual interests ; it was a national con- 
 test between the two nominal sections of this vast Union ; and 
 the decision stands unrivalled in the magnitude of these national 
 adjudications. If this view of the case could have prompted 
 the Court to an effort commensurate with the majesty and im- 
 portance of the subject-matter, they have proved their ability 
 fully adequate to the undertaking. This decision will form an 
 important era in the judicial history of the country, and will 
 go down to posterity as an imperishable monument to perpe- 
 tuate, in grateful recollection, the sterling integrity and intel- 
 lectual power of those who have reared it. It is founded 
 upon the rock of truth, and "the gates of hell cannot prevail 
 against it." 
 
 Thus has our enemy been shorn of his locks ; thus has the 
 weird monster, Fanaticism, been decapitated ; but he dies not 
 without a struggle. As it took the Republic of Rome three 
 hundred years to die, so the Black Republic in America may 
 for a while struggle in the violent throes and agonies of her 
 approaching dissolution. But the fiat has gone forth — the 
 culprit has been sentenced, and his doom is sealed. No effort 
 was spared to parry the blow about to be dealt upon his guilty 
 head. He found his sympathizers and abettors of the tribunal 
 even before which he had been arraigned. These captious 
 dissenters (captores legium) would fain have thwarted the 
 
SLAVERY IX THE UNITED STATES. 295 
 
 great national purposes of this decision, by the merest subtlety 
 that could be devised : they have rung their paralogies upon 
 every available technicality within the legal vocabulary, to 
 arrest the judgment, and obtain a respite : never did a tyro 
 at the bar play more ingeniously upon his technical quibbles 
 to save his victim from the gallows. A brief review of their 
 positions may not be inappropriate. And in attempting this, 
 we hope to be able to illustrate the optical anomaly, that great 
 men are the only objects in the universe that diminish as you 
 approach them. 
 
 Mr. Justice Curtis says (page 577): "T/ie Constitution 
 having recognized the rule that 2^ersons horn in the several 
 States are citizens of the United States, one of four things 
 must be true : First, that the Constitution itself has described 
 what native-born pei^sons shall or shall not be citizens of the 
 United States; or, second, that it has empoioered Congress so 
 to do ; or, third, that all free j^arsons born within the several 
 States are citizens of the United States; or, fourth, that it 
 has left it to each State to determine ivhat free persons born 
 within its limits shall be citizens of such State, and thereby 
 citizens of the United States." * * Therefore he says (page 
 588) : "The conclusions at which I have arrived on this part 
 of the case, are, first, that the free native-born citizens of 
 each State are citizens of the United States; second, that as 
 free colored persons born within some of the States are 
 citizens of those States, such pei'sons are also citizens of the 
 United States." 
 
 Perhaps the cheapest refutation of these sweeping proposi- 
 tions is the reductio ad absmxlum. If this position be cor- 
 rect, then every free negro and evei'y Indian born within the 
 limits of the territory originally belonging to the several 
 States, are natural-born citizens of the United States ; and 
 we have no constitutional guarantee against having a Choctaw 
 chief or the son of a Guinea negro for President of the United 
 States. There is nothing in the Constitution itself that ex- 
 cludes them, or that empowers Congress to exclude them, from 
 the pale of citizenship. There must, then, be some limit to 
 the acquisition of that right. But by what authority is this 
 limit to be fixed ? It will not for a moment be contended, 
 that the various Indian tribes and remnants of tribes found 
 roaming through the territory of the United States, in a 
 savage state, at the adoption of the Constitution, were a part 
 of ''the peojyle,'' and citizens within the meaning of that in- 
 strument. It is true that those not taxed are excluded from 
 
296 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 the census and Federal basis of representation ; but that is 
 only a matter of compromise, to equalize representation be- 
 tween the different sections of the TJnion ; and, by itself, no 
 more deprives them of citizenship, than the including three- 
 fifths of the slave population would confer that right upon 
 them. How, then, is the Constitution to be construed relative 
 to citizenship of native-born persons ? If Indians are excluded, 
 then why not negroes ? In the case of the Cherokee Nation 
 vs. the State of Georgia,' the Supreme Court of the United 
 States held that the Cherokees were not a foreign nation within 
 the meaning of the Constitution, and capable of proceeding 
 against the State ; but it was admitted that they were a dis- 
 tinct political body, and capable of managing their own affairs ; 
 and that the several Indian tribes in the territory of the United 
 States had been uniformly treated as such since the settlement 
 of the country. The same doctrine was held in the case of 
 Worcester vs. the State of Georgia, by the same court.^ Upon 
 what legal authority are these decisions founded ? The Con- 
 stitution is silent upon the subject ; Congress has no power to 
 discriminate between native-born persons as to citizenship. 
 But the Court based their opinion upon immemorial usage, 
 one of the most potent sources of law. This principle, on 
 authority, may apply to the exclusion of native-born negroes 
 as well as Indians. Hence, the ingeniously constructed propo- 
 sition above quoted falls to the ground. It is a blind view of 
 the science of human government, to say that no laws can exist 
 except in the prescribed forms of constitutional provisions and 
 legislative enactments. There is an inherent sovereignty in 
 the body politic that lies back of all written constitutions and 
 statutes. This is the authoritative source of all law, and may 
 establish legal principles by an expression of the popular will 
 through immemorial usage or custom, or by common consent, 
 as well as by the prescribed forms of legislation. 
 
 What, then, has been determined by custom relative to the 
 citizenship of the native-born negro population of the United 
 States ? It may be premised that there is a marked distinction 
 between those persons who enjoy all the rights and privileges 
 of citizens in any one of the States and citizens proper. For 
 example, suppose a colony of free negroes should settle in the 
 State of New Hampshire from a foreign country, and by the 
 laws of that State every male over twenty-one, after one year's 
 residence in the State, was admitted to all the rights and privi- 
 
 1 5 Peters's U. S. Rep. p. 1. =6 Peters's U. S. Rep. p. 515. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 297 
 
 leges of native-born white citizens. This could not affect their 
 relation towards the Federal Government ; they could never 
 become citizens of the United States ; for, by the present law 
 of Congress, none but whites can be naturalized. 1 hough they 
 might be eligible to the office of Governor, and both branches 
 of the State Legislature, yet they would be for ever ineligible 
 to either house of Congress. Though the rights, privileges, 
 &c., appertaining to citizenship within a State may be within 
 her power to confer, yet citizenship itself is not ; that can be 
 acquired only by birth or naturalization. Hence, the distinc- 
 tion between the citizens of any State and those of the United 
 States is without any difference. Every citizen of the United 
 States is necessarily a citizen of some one of the States or ter- 
 ritories, and vice versa. Hence we say, that the people of the 
 United States have the power, by virtue of their inherent 
 sovereignty, to elect or establish, by immemorial usage, or 
 common consent, who shall and who shall not be citizens of the 
 United States, under the Constitution and Acts of Congress 
 upon the subject. We have seen that native-born Indians have, 
 in this manner, been excluded. And it may safely be asserted, 
 that the same is true of native-born negroes. The voice of the 
 people, whenever and wherever it has been expressed, directly 
 or indirectly, upon this subject, has uniformly been in the nega- 
 tive. The negro race, in this and all civilized countries, occupy 
 a degraded condition ; they have been, by the customs and laws 
 of nations, considered legitimate articles of traffic. Commence 
 with families and neighborhoods, and go up to communities. 
 States, and nations, and their social and political position is 
 everywhere servile and dependent. From the social circle to 
 the public school, from the school-room to the village church, 
 from the court-house and jury-room to the ballot-box, and the 
 several offices of honor, profit, or trust, the mark of Cain is 
 everywhere upon them ; they are not considered a part of " the 
 people," or members of the political community, and, by com- 
 mon consent, are denied the rights and privileges of citizens. 
 These customs have given rise to a class of legislative enact- 
 ments by Congress, and the several States, for the political 
 degradation of the negro race, that are wholly inconsistent with 
 their position and rights as members of the political community. 
 We commence with the naturalization law passed in 1790, 
 which confines the right of becoming citizens "to aliens being 
 free white j^ersons.^' This act excludes all negroes of foreign 
 birth from the pale of citizenship. And why, if native-born 
 negroes enjoyed that right ? The Constitution is silent upon 
 
298 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 the subject, and here is an uumistakeable expression of the 
 popuhir will, founded at first upon immemorial usage, and sanc- 
 tioned by common consent to this day. Another of these early 
 laws was the first militia law, passed by the Second Congress, 
 in 1192. This law directs that every free, able-bodied white 
 male citizen shall be enrolled in the militia. It is of the spirit 
 of a republican government to exclude all privileged classes, to 
 deny all hereditary claims to pre-eminence, and to secure equal 
 rights to all in like circumstances. "All men (meaning poli- 
 tical men, or members of the political community) are created 
 equal," &c. This is one of the civil axioms upon which the 
 government is founded. But in the last Act of Congress referred 
 to, there is a numerous class of persons denied one of the first 
 and dearest rights of freemen, namely, to enrol their names 
 hi defence of their country. This inconsistency, however, with 
 the citizenship of negroes, is attempted to be explained by a 
 comparison of their position, in this particular, with that of 
 invalid and female citizens. But the sophistry of this shift is 
 manifest to the understanding of a child. This disability of 
 invalids and females is general in its application ; it is founded 
 upon a good and sufficient physical cause, and operates alike 
 upon all classes, black and white. Here there is no unjust and 
 invidious distinction of citizens. But what reason is there why 
 an able-bodied male citizen of color should be excluded ? If 
 he is a citizen, he stands on a perfect equality, politically and 
 physically, with the white citizen of that class, except as to the 
 color of his skin. Now, is that of itself any better political 
 reason for this discrimination, than the color of his hair, or the 
 color of his eyes, or of family lineage ? The distinction, then, 
 must be founded upon the want of political equality, or of citi- 
 zenship — for the Constitution admits of no degrees of member- 
 ship, in the body politic, to those in similar circumstances. 
 The only real standard requirements for military service recog- 
 nized by law, are citizenship, sex, and physical ability ; and it 
 is not pretended that the entire negro population are deficient 
 in any one of these, except citizenship ; and, as the color of 
 the skin could not alone exclude them, it must be an evidence 
 of something else — that is, the want of citizenship. 
 
 Again, by the Act of Congress, passed in 1813, it was "not 
 lawful to employ on board of any public or private vessels of 
 the United States, any person or persons except citizens of the 
 United States, or persons of color, natives of the United 
 States." By the language of this law, persons of color, though 
 natives, are not citizens of the United States ; the distinction 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 299 
 
 is broad and marked between them. This is but another ex- 
 pression of the popular will, acknowledged and admitted by 
 common consent. Again, the laws of the several States, pro- 
 hibiting the intermarriage of blacks and whites, prohibiting 
 negroes to serve in the State militia, also their free emigration 
 from State to State, like the citizens of the several States, all 
 arose from the same source, and have been upheld and enforced 
 by the same authority. If negroes are citizens, these laws 
 amount to the worst forms of political proscription and degra- 
 dation.^ But they have received the popular sanction from 
 time immemorial. Marriage, in the eye of the law, is a civil 
 contract, and any abridgement of the rights of citizens, in this 
 matter, that does not operate equally upon all classes, is an 
 unconstitutional proscription. The Constitution has guaran- 
 teed to the citizens of each State (or of the United States! the 
 enjoyment of all the rights, privileges and immunities of the 
 several States. The rights, privileges, &c., contemplated by 
 this provision of the Constitution, are enumerated by the Fede- 
 ral Court in the case of Corfield vs. Corquell.'^ Among them 
 are found the right of suffrage, to emigrate and settle in any 
 of the States or territories, to contract, hold property, &c. It 
 is true, these rights must be exercised conformably to the regu- 
 lations of the Sfate in which they are enjoyed. But these 
 regulations must apply to all citizens alike, in similar circum- 
 stances ; to say that any State can create privileged classes 
 among the citizens of the United States, arbitrarily, is absurd. 
 Yet it may be said (without particularizing) that nearly every 
 State in the Union, free as well as slave, has prohibited the 
 intermarriage of colored with white persons, excluded them 
 from the militia rolls, prohibited their emigration from State 
 to State, and totally denied them the elective franchise. What 
 right has the State of Ohio to exclude the colored citizens of 
 New York from her territory, while white citizens of the latter 
 are freely admitted to settle and live in the former State ? Is 
 this compatible with constitutional equality ? Yet such dis- 
 criminations have been long acquiesced in by the people of the 
 United States, and by common consent and immemorial usage 
 have obtained the force of consistent laws. The Constitution 
 also provides that new States may be admitted into the Union 
 from the territory of the United States ; yet there has not been 
 a single new State so admitted, with the exception of Maine, 
 
 1 See collection of these State laws by the Court, in Scott vs. Sanford, 
 19 How. Rep. p. 408-417. Also 2 Kent, p. 258 (n. b.). 
 
 2 4. Wash. C. C. Rep. 371. 
 
300 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 without a proviso in her Constitution against negro suffrage. 
 And though the Constitution of the United States guarantees 
 to every new State admitted into the Union a republican form 
 of government, yet these State Constitutions have all been ap- 
 proved and sanctioned by Congress. Now, if negroes are citi- 
 zens within the meaning of the Constitution, are these State 
 Constitutions republican forms of government ? Suppose a 
 territory includes a majority of native-born free negroes ; these, 
 together with the white population, constitute the requisite 
 number to form a State ; the white citizens form a State Con- 
 stitution disfranchising the blacks, thus usurping the govern- 
 ment ; if negroes are citizens, on a political equality with the 
 whites, in like political circumstances, is this a republican form 
 of government ? Here are a majority of the citizens liable to 
 be taxed without representation ; this government does not 
 derive its authority from the consent of the governed. It is a 
 usurpation, not in a republican, but an aristocratic form. Now, 
 as these State Constitutions have been sanctioned by Congress 
 since the formation of the government, and become absolutely 
 constitutional and valid by the force of precedent, custom and 
 common consent, it follows, necessarily, that negroes are not 
 considered, by the same authority, as citizen§ within the mean- 
 ing of the Constitution. 
 
 Perhaps we shall here again be met with the miserable sub- 
 terfuge, that the right of suifrage is not essential to citizenship, 
 as in the case of females and minors. But this, as we have 
 before remarked, scarcely deserves a serious consideration. 
 The civil disabilities resting upon females and minors, are 
 general and impartial to all in like circumstances, black as well 
 as white ; they are presumed to be founded upon a sufficient 
 cause, in this : there is no political degradation, inequality, or 
 rank, in any class of population. This rule, therefore, may 
 exist without just cause of complaint ; but how can a colored 
 male citizen, of age, and in every respect upon a political 
 equality with the white, except his color or race, be proscribed ? 
 If this discrimination is founded upon any want of virtue, 
 intelligence, or moral character, it would be a violation of the 
 Constitution for not being general and impartial, like that of 
 sex and minority. If, then, the black man is a citizen, he is 
 excluded from the polls for no other reason than the color of 
 bis skin, which, as we have before said, is of itself no better 
 reason than the color of his eyes or hair, or family lineage. 
 
 These several statute laws, opinions of the Attorney-Gene- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 301 
 
 rals/ and decisions of courts of justice, show that by common 
 consent our government is a government for the white man, that 
 there are no degrees of membership in the political family, and 
 that negroes and Indians are excluded from the body politic.^ 
 
 Again, says Mr. Justice Curtis (p. 633) : ^^ For these reasons, 
 I am of the opinion that so much of the several acts of Con- 
 gress as prohibit slavery, and involuntary servitude xoithin 
 that part of the Territory of Wisconsin lying north of thirty- 
 six degrees thirty minutes, north latitude, and west of the 
 Mississippi, are constitutional and valid.'''' That "the laws 
 of the United States in operation in the said territory at the 
 time of the plaintiff's residence there, did act directly on the 
 status of the plaintiff, and change it from a slave, to that of a 
 free man." (p. 601.) 
 
 The Territory of Wisconsin was formed in part from the 
 Territory of Michigan, which was included in the "Virginia 
 Cession, and the part west of the Mississippi from the Louisi- 
 ana Purchase. Hence the acts of Congress here referred to, 
 are first, the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the North- 
 West Territory, or the Virginia cession north and west of the 
 Ohio river. Second, the act of the 7th of March, 1789, con- 
 tinuing the said ordinance in force under the Constitution. 
 Third, the act of 11th of January, 1805, extending this ordi- 
 nance over the Territory of Michigan. Fourth, the act of the 
 6th of March, 1820, known as the Missouri Compromise; and 
 fifth, the act of the 20th of April, 1836, extending the laws of 
 Michigan, and the ordinance of 1787, over this territory. The 
 whole question, however, may be summed up in this : Has Con- 
 gress the power, under the Constitution, to prohibit slavery in 
 the territories? for the act of the 6th of March, 1820, known 
 as the Missouri Compromise, is a direct exercise of that power. 
 The history and effect of the celebrated ordinance of 1787, we 
 shall defer for future consideration ;^ we simply remark in thia 
 place in reference to this act, that it was in the nature of a 
 remedial statute, viewed by many in the light of a perpetual 
 compact, and necessarily presupposed the existence or general 
 prevalence of the evil sought to be remedied ; and viewed by 
 
 1 Opinions of Attorney-General, vol. i. p. 381. 
 
 - Whoever wishes to examine the several laws and decisions upon this 
 subject more minutely, will find an interesting collection in 2d Kent, p. 
 258 (m. b), also at page 72 (n. a), see also p. 39. 
 
 ' See post, p. 339, et seq. Remarks upon the Constitutional Policy or 
 Relation of the Federal Government towards Slavery. 
 
 26 
 
302 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 others as of no constitutional or binding force, particularly 
 after the adoption of the Constitution, the latter doctrine being 
 repeatedly held by the Supreme Court of the United States.' 
 Hence the mere silence of Congress, upon the sixth section or 
 article of this ordinance prohibiting slavery, in extending it 
 over territories formed from the Virginia cession, under the 
 Constitution, as a convenient form of territorial government, 
 is no evidence of a direct expression of legislative will for or 
 against such a proviso. It simply shows their unwillingness to 
 open an angry debate upon this subject, and their willingness 
 to let it remain for what it was worth. But to extend this 
 ordinance, with its anti-slavery proviso, to new territory to 
 which it was not originally applicable, would amount to positive 
 legislation upon the subject of slavery in that territory ; hence, 
 in every such instance, this prohibitory clause is excepted. The 
 only instances of direct legislation by Congress upon this subject 
 are in the case of Missouri and Oregon, both of which have 
 been substantially erased from the statute-book of the nation, 
 by the Compromise Act of 1850. Hence the list of acts cited 
 by the learned Justice Curtis (pp. 616-619) to prove the con- 
 structive power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories 
 by usage, stand entirely to the other side of the question. He 
 locates this power to Congress in the clause of the Constitution 
 authorizing it "to viake all needful regulations for the 
 government of the territories,^^ &c. He infers it from this 
 provision of the Constitution, from the necessity of the case, 
 as well as from "a practical construction, nearly contempora- 
 neous ivith the adoption of the Constitution, continued through 
 a long series of years,'''' to which we have just alluded. He 
 infers it from the necessity of the case, and the probability that 
 the framers of the Constitution would not omit to provide for 
 the proper government of the territories : (pp. 606, 601.) 
 
 As to the probability that the framers of the Constitution 
 foresaw the necessity of empowering Congress to prohibit 
 slavery in the territories, we shall refer the reader principally to 
 our remarks hereafter upon the Policy of the Federal Govern- 
 ment towards the Institution of Slavery.^ We will in this place 
 present a brief analysis of the several articles of the Constitu- 
 tion, manifestly founded in the spirit of compromise between 
 
 1 Pollard's Lessee vs. Hagan, 3 How. 212. Parmale vs. First Munici- 
 pality of Orleans, o How. 689. Strader vs. Geulum, 16 How. 82. See also 
 remarks of Mr. Madison on the perfect nullity of this ordinance, Letter to 
 Robert Walsh, Nov. 27, 1819. 
 
 * Poit, p. 342, et seq. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 303 
 
 the Northern and Southern States, to show that the South was 
 not so hostile to her own interests as to blindly consent to em- 
 power Congress to circumscribe and crush her institutions, to 
 leave the fairest portions of the South in desolation and despair, 
 and blast all her future prospects for wealth, independence, and 
 equal power, by excluding her slave property from all the terri- 
 tories. We shall see by this that the doctrine of probability 
 also stands on the other side of the question. We commence 
 with the preamble. By this the first and fundamental object of 
 the Constitution was, "to form a more j)erfect Union.'''' Could 
 this be effected by excluding slavery and the slave States 
 entirely from the public domain ? would this naturally tend to 
 strengthen the bonds that held the States together ? The sub- 
 sequent history of the country furnishes a lamentable refutation 
 of this assertion. Second, to "establish justice'''' between the 
 States, and thus "insure domestic tranquillity.^'' Would this 
 admit of destroying their property interests ? Could Congress 
 in that manner " provide for the common defence,^'' "pro- 
 mote the general welfare?^'' &c. In what consists the means 
 of defence to the States, if it be not in the development of their 
 resources for wealth, independence and power? and what else 
 can promote their general welfare ? In this each State is to 
 be the judge of what constitutes its general welfare, which it is 
 the object of the Constitution and the Union to promote. But 
 here the question again returns with redoubled force, could this 
 be done by excluding slavery and the slave States from all the 
 public domains, or by empowering Congress so to do ? Such 
 could not have been the understanding of the delegates and 
 citizens of the Southern States. Again, by Art. I., Sec. 2, 
 " Bepresejitatices and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
 the several States,^' &c. No one can fail to see the spirit of 
 compromise in this basis of representation and taxation between 
 the North and the South. No so judicious a plan could have 
 been otherwise devised to equalize the same. Tlie Southern 
 States, with their sparse population and vast amount of 
 unsettled and unproductive territory, with great excess in their 
 number of slaves, were unwilling to confide their interests to 
 Congress without some assurance of a respectable voice in 
 making the laws, and some guaranteeing against excessive and 
 unequal taxation. This they could not obtain without " ex- 
 cluding Indians not taxed," and "including three-fifths of all 
 other persons in the Federal basis of representation." 
 
 But why would the South have been so zealous to secure to 
 herself a just proportion of representatives, if she had at the 
 
304 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 same time intended to empower Congress to put an interdict 
 upon their increase, by excluding all new slave States from the 
 Union ? How long could she maintain her equality on the 
 floor of Congress under this proscriptive policy ? 
 
 "No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in 
 l^roioortion to the census or enumeration hereinhefore directed 
 to he taken.''' In the case of Hylton vs. United States/ the 
 Supreme Court held that a tax on land and a capitation tax 
 are the only direct taxes within the meaning of the Constitution. 
 Mr. Justice Chase in that case says : " This provision was made 
 in favor of the Southern States ; they possessed a large number 
 of slaves ; they had extensive tracts of territory thinly settled 
 and not very productive ; a majority of the States had but few 
 slaves, and several of them a limited territory well settled, and 
 in a high state of cultivation. The Southern States, if no pro- 
 vision had been introduced in the Constitution, would have been 
 wholly at the mercy of the other States. Congress, in such a 
 case, might tax slaves at discretion, or arbitrarily, and land in 
 every part of the Union after the same rate or measure, so much 
 a head in the first instance, and so much an acre in the second. 
 To guard the South against imposition in this particular, was 
 the reason for introducing the clause into the Constitution 
 which directs that representation and direct taxes shall be 
 apportioned among the States according to their respective 
 numbers." 
 
 Justice Curtis would have us believe, that while the Southern 
 States would not intrust the apportionment of taxes and repre- 
 sentation to Congress without some constitutional provision upon 
 the subject, lest they be at the mercy of the other States, yet, 
 upon the momentous question of Slavery in the Territories they 
 have empowered Congress to legislate without constitutional 
 restraint. Can it be possible that such an oversight as this 
 was committed by such statesmen as James Madison, Charles 
 Pinckney, J. Rutledge, Abr. Baldwin, et genus omne ? 
 
 " No person held to service or labor in one Stale, under 
 the laws thereof, escapi7ig into another, shall, in consequence 
 of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such 
 service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
 party to whom such service or labor may be due."^ The 
 Northern States had comparatively few slaves at the time of 
 the adoption of the Constitution ; and it must have been evident 
 to every one, from the nature of the soil and climate, and the 
 
 1 3 Dall. Rep. 171. ^ Const. Art. IV. Sect. 2. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 305 
 
 diminutive price of slaves there, that the necessary tendency of 
 the institution was to become extinct in those States. Hence 
 this provision in the Constitution, that when hereafter any 
 slave or slaves should escape from the Southern States, where 
 Slavery would continue, into the Northern States, which would 
 necessarily become Free States (because none of them were yet 
 free), they should be given up. This provision was wholly for 
 the future benefit of the South. It is true, some of the Free 
 States have repudiated it, by nullifying the acts of Congress 
 for the restitution of fugitives, founded upon the same ; yet the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Peiggs vs. 
 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,^ held that the fugitive slave 
 law of 1793 was constitutional, and passed in pursuance of its 
 express provisions ; that it excluded all State legislation upon 
 the subject, and that no State had a right to modify it, or to 
 impede the execution of any law of Congress upon the subject 
 of fugitive slaves.^ Here again the property interests of the 
 Southern States was recognized and secured by the Constitu- 
 tion. In doing this, could the Southern delegation have been 
 so blind to their future intei'ests as to have left their States 
 liable to be entirely excluded from all participation in the 
 peopling the Territories and in the formation of new States ? 
 The Southern delegates could not have been ignorant of the 
 vast amount of territory then belonging to the tJnited States, 
 from the cessions of the several States ; they could not have 
 been entirely ignorant of the geography and physical character 
 of this vast amount of territory south of the Ohio and of Ten- 
 nessee ; that these rich and fertile lands could never be brought 
 into successful cultivation except by slave labor. Can it be, 
 that while the Southern States were so zealous of their rights 
 and future interests in every other particular, as to hedge them 
 round with every necessary constitutional provision, and yet in 
 this, the most important of all, their rights and future interests 
 in settling up the Territories and forming of new States, they 
 should have left themselves entirely at the mercy of Congress 
 or of the other States ? They had provided in the Consti- 
 tution that " new States might be admitted by Congress into 
 the Union," but what benefit had they secured to themselves 
 from this, if they were liable to be excluded from them ? So 
 far from any benefit, they were liable to be swallowed up by an 
 
 1 16 Peters' U. S. Rep. 539. The Constitution and laws of the United 
 States contemplate a summary proceeding and surrender on a claim, and 
 not the delay of a trial by jury, S. C. See also Jackson vs. Martin, 12 
 Wendell's Rep. 311. 2 Kent, 32. 
 
 26* U 
 
306 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 increasing majority, to overwhelm them and entirely annihilate 
 their political importance in the affairs of the nation. Such 
 could never have been their intention. And our learned Justice, 
 when he comes to examine it, will find as little authority from 
 the doctrine of probability for his position, as from that of con- 
 temporaneous construction. 
 
 This Union is a union of all the States upon political equality. 
 No State can be admitted into this Union under any restraint 
 or political inequality. It appears by Mr. Madison's state- 
 ment, that thcKe was a proposition in the Convention to dis- 
 criminate between old and new States, by an article in the 
 Constitution, which was rejected. The effect of such a dis- 
 crimination, he said, is sufficiently evident.^ All power not 
 delegated by the Constitution to Congress is expressly reserved 
 to the States ; that is, to all the States. Whatever restraint, 
 therefore, is imposed upon one, must be common to all. The 
 exercise of any power by Congress over the Territories for the 
 purpose of forestalling public opinion or predetermining the 
 political character of the domestic institutions of the States 
 formed out of such territory, is a partial and an unjust inter- 
 ference with the rights of the people, and a palpable violation 
 of the spirit of the Constitution. If Congress cannot abolish 
 Slavery in the old States, it cannot prohibit it in the new, or in 
 the Territories, which would be indirectly doing the same 
 thing. What the Constitution will not permit directly, cannot 
 be done indirectly ; according to a legal maxim. The prohi- 
 . bition of Slavery in a Territory as a needful regulation would 
 not only exclude all the citizens of the Slave States, or their 
 property, which would be the same thing, but it might, if legal, 
 involve the expropriation of millions of private property for 
 public use, without compensation — an assumption of power 
 over Slave property that has never been exercised by the 
 government of any civilized nation on earth.- Suppose that 
 there had been fifty thousand slaves in the Territory of Oregon 
 when the territorial law took effect ; they would all thereby 
 have become free, and that, too, without compensation — an 
 act of confiscation unparalleled in the history of civilized 
 nations.^ The same may be said of the Louisiana Purchase, 
 and the Missouri Compromise line ; if that line could have 
 been placed where it was, it might also have been run along 
 
 1 Madison's Letter to Robert Walsh, November 27, 1819. 
 
 2 In every instance of emancipation by the English Parliament, com- 
 pensation has been awarded to the owners of the slaves for their loss. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 307 
 
 the southern boundary of the territory, and instead of three- 
 fifths it might have left the whole territory to its north ; with 
 this difference, however, that while in Oregon the property was 
 only protected by the Constitution, in Louisiana it was pro- 
 tected both by treaty and the Constitution. But we are told 
 that there were no slaves in Louisiana north of this line ; also 
 that the slave States ought not to complain of being excluded 
 from the territories, as they have a fair proportion of the terri- 
 tory, &c. Such reasoning cannot better be characterized than 
 as a kind of argumentative whining that always betokens the 
 weakness of the cause in which it is employed. It should be 
 borne in mind these are great constitutional questions to be 
 determined upon principles entirely independent of such circum- 
 stances. In the phrase "all needful regulations," our learned 
 Justice lays great stress upon the word "all,'' as though the 
 jurisdiction of Congress in this respect admitted of no limit. 
 Suppose then Congress should deem it a needful regulation to 
 establish some particular form of religion in the territories by 
 law, or confer titles of nobility ; or for the purpose of pro- 
 moting settlements it should tax the lands of non-residents 
 double those of residents, would our learned Justice in his seat 
 upon the Federal bench affirm the constitutionality of these 
 acts of Congress ? I trow not. For that Federal Court has 
 decided in the case of Loughborough vs. Blake, that the binding 
 force of the Constitution, which prohibits these acts, is co-ex- 
 tensive with the dominion of the United States, including the 
 territories. As Congress has no power except what it derives 
 from the Constitution, it can exercise none except it be under 
 that instrument. 
 
 Justice M'Lean, in his dissenting opinion in this case (Scott 
 vs. Sandforth), page 534, says: "The civil law throughout 
 the continent of Europe, it is believed, without exception, is 
 that slavery can exist only in the territory where it is esta- 
 blished; and that, if a slave escapes or is carried beyond 
 such territory, his master cannot reclaim him, unless by 
 virtue of some express stipidation.^^ Even admitting that 
 the master could not, without a treaty stipulation, recover his 
 slave in Europe, from a foreign nation, that would have no 
 bearing upon the question of the locality of slavery. A treaty 
 has always been thought necessary for this purpose, even in this 
 country. Treaties for this purpose existed even between the 
 colonies, while they were all alike engaged in the slave-trade 
 and slave-holding ; also to recover fugitives who escaped from 
 the United States into the Spanish dominions adjoining. Does 
 
308 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OE 
 
 this prove anything with regard to the absolute locality of sla- 
 very? Was not slavery universal in the colonies and early 
 States, and the Spanish dominions ? But this assertion is not 
 true with regard to European nations governed by the civil 
 law, except where slavery had been prohibited by some royal 
 decree or ordinance, as it was at an early day in France.^ If 
 the learned Justice will look into the canons of the Church, 
 he will find it the practice, from the days of Paul's Epistle to 
 Philemon down to a late period, not only to distinctly recog- 
 nize and protect the right of property in the master, but to 
 restore him his fugitive slave. '^ Originally, under the civil 
 law, the master held his slave by virtue of the jus gentium, 
 and could recover him in any nation where that law prevailed 
 — till it became modified, in some nations, by their own muni- 
 cipal regulations. Again (page 629): "Slavery, heinrj con- 
 trary to natural right, is created only by municipal laio.^'' 
 If this proposition be self-evident, as it is asserted to be, there 
 could be no such thing, at common law, as penalties for 
 crimes ; for every penalty is contrary to natural right. But 
 no : the propositions just cited are unwarranted assumptions, 
 unfounded in fact, untenable in truth. The original locality 
 or universality of slavery and the slave-trade, is necessarily, as 
 regards the present, a question of fact and not of law. Hence, 
 an appeal to its past history is of paramount authority to the 
 dictum of jurists or the decisions of courts of justice. No 
 court of justice can authoritatively determine any question 
 but a question of law for the present and future, within its own 
 territorial jurisdiction. We maintain directly the reverse of 
 this, viz. that slavery and the slave-trade are not founded on 
 municipal law, but on immemorial custom, incorporated into 
 the ancient and modern code of nations. That the relation of 
 master and slave is as old as the human family ; that it rests 
 on the same foundation as that of husband and wife, parent 
 and child, and the distinctive rights of persons and things ; 
 that it was originally universal, and sanctioned by law public 
 and private, human and divine ; that all exceptions to its pre- 
 valence arise from the abrogation of universal custom, by the 
 potent arm of legislation. 
 
 The fundamental origin of this institution was ex jure gen- 
 tium, from a state of captivity in war ; ^ its continuance rested 
 
 1 See Essay VI. ante, p. 142. 
 
 2 See Essay V. Slavery in the New Testament, ante, p. 113, 
 
 3 This law of captivity was the law of the ancient world: this is shown 
 by reference to the Old Testament, to Plato and Aristotle, to Justinian, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 309 
 
 on the law of birth, "partus sequiliir ventrum,'^ the ofifspring 
 follows the condition of the mother. We put the question to 
 these learned Justices, upon what municipal regulations did 
 these principles originally depend, and to what localities were 
 they confined ? 
 
 Law, for the government and regulation of this institution, 
 is the creature of slavery. The real cause and ultimate neces- 
 sity of human bondage in some form or other, have had, in all 
 ages and nations, an anterior existence to all human law ; 
 their foundation is laid broad and deep in the philosophy of 
 human nature ; they take their origin in the physical and men- 
 tal defects and imperfectioiis of the races. Laws may, it is 
 true, change the form and modify, for better or for worse, the 
 system under which any state of servitude may exist ; but 
 they can no more abolish the substantial relation of master 
 and slave, than they can do away with mental and physical 
 imbecility, poverty, ignorance, idiocy, lunacy, and the various 
 forms of mental incapacity, and their consequences upon man- 
 kind. In the language of Aristotle, it is the province of mind 
 to govern and of matter to be governed ; of the strong to 
 command and of the weak to obey.' 
 
 These principles are universal in their application, and the 
 world's history exemplifies their truth. Where is there a 
 nation that has no slavery or slave-trade in its history ? Where 
 is the nation, if free, that has not become so by the potent arm 
 of legislation, in some form? — by the abrogation of immemo- 
 rial custom ? If there be now States or nations, in Europe or 
 America, that will not enforce this relation, it is because, like 
 certain other laws, it contravenes their prohibitory statutes 
 and sound public policy, which they have a right to regulate : 
 it furnishes no evidence of a territorial limit to the master's 
 right, except where it is so prohibited. 
 
 Slavery and the slave-trade were originally universal by the 
 law of nations ; approved by all public writers and moralists, 
 from Moses to Plato, from Aristotle to Seneca, from Cicero to 
 Justinian, and the publicists of the Middle Ages.^ No one 
 
 to the codes and publicists of the Middle Ages, to Grotius and Puften- 
 dorf (the fathers of the modern law of nations), in the Ist, 2d, 3d, 4th, 
 and 6th Essays of this work. 
 
 1 See Essay on Greek Slavery, supra, p. 55. 
 
 2 Slavery and the slave-trade are universal by the law of nations (the 
 jus gentium). This law, by the whole ancient world, doomed the captive 
 to the service of his captor. Gen. 24 ; 35, 36. Exod. 21 : 20, 21. ro yap 
 ipyi'/ji'oi' avTov tanv; '■'■Jot he is his money." Sept. Ez. 27 : 13. Rev. 13 : 18. 
 
310 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 doubted the legitimacy of the traffic, in enlightened Europe. 
 It was patronized and defended by the best of men. How 
 
 Joel 3 : 3-8. Am. 2 : 6 ; 8 : 6. Na. 3 : 10. Nem. 5 : 8. Lev. 25 : 44-46. 
 Numb. 31 : 18, 32, 35, 40. Deut. 20 : 14; 21 : 10-12. See Essay I. II., 
 Hebrew Slavery, ante, p. 29. 111. ix. 594 : TcKi>a it f 'uXXoi, &c. xxii. 62, 
 Odyss. 146: (JopiaXuroi, Odyss. xv. 483. Isocr. Platse 9, p. 406: ovk J)v 
 rrapiov, &c. Tim. apud. Athen. vi. p. 264: Xiol rrpurol, &c. Theop. apud. 
 Id. 265: Mi)6£ EXXij^a Spa iovXov, &c. Plato de Rep. v. 469. De Leg. vi. 
 p. 777. See also Aristotle's Eth. and Politic, by Gillis, 3d Lond. ed. vol. 
 ii. p. 29 et seq. Gill's Greece, art. Slavery. Smith's Gr. and Rom. 
 Antiq., art. Slavery. Essay III. Greek Slavery, ante, p. 50. Dig. Lib. 
 i. tit. v. Justin's Insts. lib. i. tit. iii. sects. 3-4. Cato in Gall. vii. 4, 
 lib. V. 22. Cicero in Pis. 15. Plant. Bach. 10, 7, 17. Varro, R. R. i. i. 
 Mart. vii. 87. Essay IV. Roman Slavery, ante, p. 69. For canons of 
 the Church, see Essay V. Slavery in New Testament. For modern 
 nations, see Hall. Midd. Ages, iv. 221. Gibbon's Decl. and Fall R. Emp. 
 i. 63. Essay VI. Slavery in Middle Ages, ante, p. 133. Grotius and 
 Puff. Verbo Slave-Trade. By several nations of Europe, slavery and 
 the slave-trade have been abolished. Mr. Wheaton gives a minute history 
 of their acts upon this subject; but it is still recognized as a principle 
 of national law, and the trade is legitimate to all nations that have not 
 so abolished it. No nation is free of it except by legislation: it is 
 originally universal. Wheat. Elmts. Internat. Law, p. 184 et seq. Our 
 learned justices are entirely mistaken as to the locality of slavery. 
 
 Case of The Diana, per Lord Stowell : he says England will not be the 
 eustos morum of other nations upon slavery. 1 Dod. Ad. Rep. p. 95. 
 Slave-trade admitted to Africa by law of nations. Wheat, p. 195. In 
 aU the European nations governed by the civil law, slavery and the slave- 
 trade were originally universal by the international code of Europe and 
 America, the Jus Gentium of Justinian. It has only been abolished by 
 municipal law. Says Mr. Wheaton: "The African slave-trade, though 
 prohibited by the municipal law of most nations, and declared to be 
 piracy by the statutes of Great Britain and the United States, and, since 
 the treaty of 1841 with Great Britain, by Austria, Prussia, and Russia, 
 is not such by the law of nations ; and its interdiction cannot be enforced 
 by the exercise of the ordinary right of visitation and search. That right 
 does not exist, in time of peace, independent of special compact." * * 
 " This branch of commerce, once legitimate by all European States, 
 made the subject of wars, negotiations, and treaties, was first success- 
 fully prohibited by the municipal laws of Denmark, the United States of 
 America, and Great Britain, to their own subjects. Its final abolition was 
 stipulated by the treaties of Paris, Kiel, and Ghent, in 1814; confirmed 
 by the declaration of the Congress of Vienna, of the 8th Feb. 1815 ; 
 and reiterated by the additional article annexed to the treaty of peace 
 concluded at Paris, 20th Nov. 1815. The accession of Spain and Por- 
 tugal to the principles of abolition, was finally obtained by the treaties 
 between Great Britain and those powers, of the 23d Sept. 1817, and the 
 22d Jan. 1815. And by a convocation concluded with Brazil, in 1826, 
 it was made piratical for the subjects of that country to engage in the 
 trade after 1830. By the treaties of 30th Nov. 1831, and 22d May, 
 1833, between France and Great Britain, to which nearly all the mari- 
 time powers of Europe have subsequently acceded, the mutual right of 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 311 
 
 was it in the American colonics ? What locality can be given 
 to slavery there ? The illustrious Winthrop deemed Indian 
 captives, taken in just \vars, to be lawful articles of commerce. 
 The Guinea trade was carried on without scruple ; till, at the 
 Declaration of Independence, every one of the thirteen were 
 slave-holding colonies ; and, at the adoption of the Constitu- 
 tion, all the States but one. Slavery, then, in this country, 
 certainly was originally universal. Free territory became the 
 exception. The original universality of slavery and the slave- 
 trade, both in this country and Europe, is a fixed fact in his- 
 tory ; and the dictum of no man, nor the decision of any court 
 of justice, can prevail against it. The relation of master and 
 slave is as old and as universal as that of man and wife, or 
 parent and child ; and rests upon the same authoritative source 
 of right. By analogous principles and parity of reasoning, 
 the master has the same right to control his slave, whose status 
 is such at his native domicil, wherever he may go, except in 
 those governments where that relation is prohibited by muni- 
 cipal law, as he has to control his wife or his child. And his 
 right of property is indisputable, as we shall show in this 
 essay.' 
 
 All laws upon the subject of slavery presuppose its existence 
 from some anterior cause ; and they spring up and naturally 
 cluster around it as they do around any other one of the insti- 
 tutions that are as old as the human family, and lie at the foun- 
 dation of civil society. It is said that " Nature makes no man 
 a slave ; all come free from the hand of the Creator," &c.-' 
 This proposition is, directly, true ; but, indirectly, it is not ; 
 Nature inflicts the cause upon many men, that necessarily places 
 them in that condition, in their intercourse with civilized socie- 
 ty.'' It is not necessary to constitute slavery that the subject 
 
 search was conceded, within certain geographical limits, as a means of 
 suppressing this trade. The provisions of these treaties were extended 
 to a wider range by the Quintuple Treaty concluded on the 21st Dec. 
 1841, between the five great European Powers; and subsequently rati- 
 fied between them all, except France, which power still remained bound 
 only by her treaties of 1831 and 1833 with Great Britain. 
 
 "The United States and Great Britain, by treaty of 9th Aug. 1842, 
 mutually stipulated that each should prepare, equip, and maintain in 
 service, on the coast of Africa, a sufficient and adequate squadron or 
 naval force of vessels, &c., for the suppression of the slave-trade." 
 
 1 Pardessus's Droit. Comm. pt. vi. tit. 7, ch. 2, sect. 1. Felix Droit. 
 Internal. Plive Lev. i. sect. 31. Hub. torn. ii. 1 Tit. 3. De Conftct. 
 Ley. sect. 12. Wheat. Elmts. International Law, p. 122. 
 
 2 See verses of Philemon, Fray, Mein, p. 410. Essay on Greek Slavery. 
 
 3 See instances cited of voluntary slavery. Essay on Greek Slavery. 
 
312 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 should be immediately held to service by the force of the civil 
 law ; there may be, and are, other causes more coercive, deadly 
 and fatal in their effect, from which it is physically impossible 
 to escape ; and which subject him to a far more abject condi- 
 tion. It is not necessary that they should be driven by the 
 dread of the civil law, or the fear of the master's lash, to render 
 their servitude involuntary. There may be the stinging lash of 
 hunger constantly preying upon the vitals of its subjects, as in 
 the case of British slavery. They may have the grim and 
 ghostly terrors of starvation and death for their slave-drivers, 
 stalking after them in their most livid and ghastly form.^ Nei- 
 ther is the right to kill, or the power of life and death over the 
 person, or to make merchandize of the services of the slave ; 
 to hold them as money, and "buy them and take them for an 
 inheritance for your children, that they may be your bonds- 
 men forever;" a sine qua non to a state of involuntary servi- 
 tude. These are but the peculiar features of the institution 
 dependent upon the prevailing custom of the age and nation. 
 
 One of the most hideous features of the American system of 
 the present day, in the estimation of anti-slavery people, is, 
 that it is termed chattel-slavery ; that it makes merchandize of 
 human beings, and reduces men to mere things. This, how- 
 ever, arises wholly from a misconception of the nature and 
 spirit of the institution in this country. A single ray of light, 
 could it but fairly find its way into the benighted mass of pub- 
 lic opinion, would scatter the intense cloud of darkness, upon 
 this point, from their view. 
 
 The idea of a person becoming property, a mere chattel or 
 thing, as a brute, a bale of merchandize and the like, subject to 
 be bought and sold, is but a fiction of law, for mere form or 
 convenience, that has no counterpart in reality. There is not, 
 there cannot be, under the existing form of the government, 
 laws, and institutions of this country, such an article of pro- 
 perty as the person of an individual who is (as all persons are) 
 held amenable to the law of the land. 
 
 In the relation of master and slave, the right of ownership 
 
 1 This was one of the terrors held up to the Greek slave, to awe him 
 into obedience, and submission; he was constantly reminded of its hor- 
 rors by a certain custom which prevailed of beating him and driving him 
 out of doors on a certain day of the year, called the Feast of BomM/jo{, or 
 starvation personified. See Essay on Greek Slavery, supra, p. 58. This 
 is very similar to the practice of some masters to drive oiF their runaway 
 slaves when they come in, to break them of the habit of running away by 
 starving them. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 313 
 
 or property attaches wholly to his services, and gives no right 
 or claim of any name or kind upon his person, farther than to 
 secure and obtain the use and benefit of those services. The 
 right to the services must necessarily carry with it the right, so 
 far, and so far only, to control the person of the slave ; and 
 hence the ownership of the services is erroneously confounded 
 with that of the flesh and blood, soul and body, of the slave. 
 
 That a slave is not a chattel, and that the muster has no 
 right of property in his flesh and blood, as such, appears from 
 the fact that he cannot appropriate his bones and sinews to any 
 other use than that of rendering service, however much more 
 valuable they might be for other purposes. A chattel, as a 
 stick of timber, a block of marble, and the like, the owner may 
 elect to what use they shall be consigned. But not so with the 
 body and limbs of the slave ; those are a sacred trust placed 
 in the master's hands by law for their mutual good ; and only 
 as regards his right for a specific purpose. If he violates that 
 trust, the law will take it from him and punish him. 
 
 The person of the slave is not subject to ownership from the 
 fact that he is individually held amenable to the law ; which, if 
 he violates, he is taken from the control of the master and 
 punished ; like all other persons, he must atone for a transgres- 
 sion of the law by suffering the penalty, and all the master can 
 claim of the civil authorities is remuneration for the loss of his 
 services.' Is this one of the properties of a chattel ? Would 
 it not be an anomaly in judicial proceedings to organize a court 
 for the trial and punishment of unruly horses and horned-cat- 
 tle ? The right of the master to the service of the slave no 
 more entitles him to the ownership of his person than it does 
 the State to that of its paupers and convicts. It is true, in 
 either of these instances, that the labor of a person may and 
 does become an article of property, which may or may not 
 be alienable and heritable ; and, as such, it necessarily car- 
 ries with it the right so far to control the person of the in- 
 dividual held to service. In the Southern States the right is 
 preserved to the master to purchase, inherit, transmit, and 
 alienate this species of property ; and, as this carries with it 
 the limited right of personal discipline and control over the 
 subject, as in all other cases of the kind, it has, by common 
 Bonsent and for convenience, by a fiction of law, come to be 
 
 1 In every Slave State in the Union, slaves are privileged with a trial 
 by jurj' for any indictable offence the same as any other person. They 
 may also appear in many of the States, if not all, in courts of justice, 
 and maintain an action for their freedom. 
 2t 
 
314 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 called the inheritance, transmission, alienation, &c. of the slave. 
 To disprove this exposition of the philosophy of this feature 
 of the institution, passaj^es of law, like the following, are often 
 quoted : " Slaves shall be deemed, taken, and held to he chat- 
 tels, personal, to all intents, constructions, and jpurposes 
 whatsoever.''^ This passage of law is frequently emblazoned in 
 huge capitals upon Abolition books, pamphlets, and magazines, 
 and heralded forth to the world to prove that, by the laws of 
 the Slave States of this Union, the persons of the negroes are 
 reduced to mere chattels. But a word of explanation, we 
 trust, will serve to harmonize the meaning of this quotation 
 with the exposition of this feature of the institution above 
 given. In Louisiana, and perhaps some of the other Slave 
 States, the property which the master has in his slaves, is taken 
 and held by law to be real estate, immovable by a fiction of 
 law,^ and each State must determine by law what caste or cha- 
 racter this species of property shall assume in their acts and 
 judicial proceedings ; whether it shall be considered real estate, 
 as in Louisiana, or whether it shall be considered as chattels 
 personal, as in the law above quoted. The sole object and 
 meaning, which has been so grossly and blindly perverted, is 
 not to brand the slave as a chattel, in contradistinction from a 
 person, but to mark that species of property, which the master 
 holds in his slave, as a chattel personal, in contradistinction 
 from real estate. All this, so far as regards the person of the 
 slave, or reducing him from a person, under the law, to a mere 
 chattel, is but a fiction ; in a literal sense, it renders the law in- 
 consistent with itself, and is absurd. There is not a State in 
 the Union where slaves are not deemed, taken, and held to be 
 persons within the meaning of the law, amenable, and protected 
 by the same. To maim, mutilate, or take the life of one of 
 them, is, in every State, a criminal oifence, visited with various 
 penalties according to the aggravation of the crime. Homi- 
 cide with malice, &c. is as much murder with regard to a slave 
 as any other person.^ But it would be a singular freak of cri- 
 
 1 It is so also by the French and Spanish hxw, C. C. La., Art. 461. 
 Poth Commun, n. 30. Intro gen aux Cout, n. 47. C. N., Art. 523. "Les 
 tuyaux servant a la conduite des eaux dans une maison ou autre heritage, 
 sent immeubles, et font partie du fonds auquel ils sont attaches." Baquoit, 
 5 Aout, 1829. " Les nfegres, ou esclaves, quoique reputes immeubles lors- 
 qu'ils sont attaches dans les colonics k une habitation, i^rennent le carac- 
 tfere de lorsqu'ils en sont d^tachtSs." C. C. Rejet, Martinique. 
 
 2 Constitution of Texas, Art. 8, Slaves, Sect. I: '-They (the Legisla- 
 ture) shall have power to pass laws which will oblige the owners of slaves 
 to treat them with humanity ; to provide for the necessary food and cloth- 
 ing ; to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb, and, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 315 
 
 rainal law to condemn a man to be luing for murdering a chat- 
 tel, or piece of proj)erty. Such a crime can be committed only 
 upon a person within the power of the State. 
 
 The error and misrepresentations of Abolition writers con- 
 sist in citing single isolated passages and garbled extracts 
 from the slave code. To form a correct opinion upon this, as 
 
 in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such 
 laws, to have such slaves taken from such owners and sold for his benefit. 
 They may also pass laws to prevent slaves from being brought into the 
 State as merchandize." 
 
 Sect. 2. "In the prosecution of slaves for a crime of a higher grade 
 than petit larceny, the Legislature shall have no power to deprive thetu 
 of an impartial trial by petit jury." 
 
 Sect. 3. " Any person who shall pialiciously dismember or deprive a 
 slave of life, shall suffer the same punishment as would be inflicted in 
 case of such an offence against a white person, and on like proof." 
 
 Prince's Dig., Stat. Laws of Ga., p. 656. " Any owner or employer of 
 a slave, or slaves, who shall cruelly treat them, by withholding proper 
 food, or by excessive whipping, by overworking, by not afl'ording proper 
 clothing, &c., every such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on 
 conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine and imprisonment," &c. 
 
 See similar Statutes of Florida, Thompson's Dig., p. 511, Art. 21, .also 
 p. -542. In the trial of any slave in the Circuit Court, the same rules and 
 proceedings shall be observed as in the trials of white persons. 
 
 C. C. La., Art. 173. "The slave is entirely subject to the will of his 
 master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, 
 nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of loss 
 of life, or to cause his death." 
 
 Id., Art. 175. "All that a slave possesses belongs to his master; he 
 possesses nothing except his peculium ; that is to say, the sum of money, 
 or of moveable estate, which his master chooses he should possess." 
 
 Id., Art. 194. " The slave for years cannot be transported out of the 
 State. He may appear in court to claim the protection of the laws where 
 there are good reasons to beUeve that it is intended to carry him out of 
 the State." 
 
 Id., Art. 177. "A slave cannot be a party to any civil action, either as 
 plaintiff or defendant, except when he has to claim, or prove his free- 
 dom." 
 
 Id., Art. 191. "Masters may be compelled to manumit their slaves 
 when they have rendered valuable services to the. State, but the master 
 must be compensated by the State, as in case of punishment of his slave, 
 for the loss, of the services of bis slaves." 
 
 Id., Art. 192. " The slave may be taken from the master, as by a forced 
 Bale, when he is cruelly treated. 
 
 " ' If any person or persons whatsoever, shall wilfully kill his slave, or 
 the slave of any other person, the said person or persons being convicted 
 thereof, shall be tried and condemned agreeably to the laws.' And it is 
 provided by the same act, that when any slave shall be beaten, mutilated, 
 and ill-treated, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, and 
 when, in such case, no one shall be present in consequence of the inad- 
 missibility of negro testimony, the owner himself shall be deemed respon- 
 
316 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 well as any other legal subject, all laws in pari materia, must 
 be construed together. 
 
 In this manner they quote the common definition of a slave, 
 without any reference to other laws that qualify the meaning of 
 the terms, and limit the extent of their application. "A slave 
 is one who is in the power of the master to whom he belongs. 
 The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry 
 and his labor ; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire 
 anything, but what must belong to his master." (C. C La.. 
 Art, 35.') By construing this definition with other laws upon 
 the same subject, to what extent does the slave belong to his 
 master, and for what purpose can he dispose of his person ? 
 He has only a limited control^ over it, for a specific purpose, 
 and can dispose of nothing more. So as to the property or 
 peculium of the slave. The master has only such a control 
 over it as to prevent its being appropriated to any purpose in- 
 consistent with the services due by the slave, or with the slave's 
 own welfare. 
 
 What, then, is to be understood by chattel slavery ? It is 
 certainly not that the slave is an absolute chattel ; the term 
 applies to his labor, and not to his person ; the right to the 
 labor carries with it the limited control of the individual ; but 
 the purchaser acquires no more property in his being than the 
 husband has in the wife, or the parent in his child. If the 
 power to alienate and transfer this species of property, in this 
 manner, be not conducive to the welfare of both the master and 
 the slave, let it be abolished, altered or modified as their best 
 interests may require. There is no system that may not be im- 
 proved. But it is singular that the wisdom and experience of 
 the world, for more than sixty centuries, should not have de- 
 tected the error. Of the blessings of this custom, when not 
 abused, to both the master and the slave, no one at all ac- 
 quainted with the system can doubt. In the first place, it en- 
 
 sible and guilty of the ofiFence, and shall be prosecuted without further 
 evidence," &c. Revised Statutes of La. 
 
 A certain allowance of food, and a fixed number of hours for labor are 
 also fixed by statutes, too voluminous to quote. It is also a grave ofl"ence, 
 under the statute, visited by a heavy penalty, to sell away children from 
 their mothers before they have arrived at the age of ten years. See Re- 
 vised Statutes. 
 
 We might quote the laws of other slave States to a similar efi"ect, but 
 it would carry us beyond the limits of this work. We trust we have given 
 sufiicient to show the spirit of the institution. 
 
 1 Let it be remembered that this is but a declaratory statute ; it enacts 
 nothing, but simply declares the condition of a slave; it does not create 
 that condition, but presupposes its existence ; if there were no such class 
 of persons, no such law could have been passed. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 317 
 
 hances the value of this species of property : it gives the owner 
 better credit and greater ability to feed, clothe, and take care 
 of his people. Besides, it gives rise to a pecuniary incentive, 
 which is the most powerful with some to preserve the health 
 and good condition of the negroes ; it protects them, in some 
 instances, where both law and humanity would fail, against 
 over-work, bad diet, and other cruel treatment. On the other 
 hand, it as often enables the slave to better his condition as to 
 render it worse, and is more frequently the means of bringing 
 and keeping families together than of producing separation. 
 Neighborhoods and settlements, that have resided together for 
 years, whose people have intermarried with one another and 
 raised families, are constantly breaking up and removing to 
 different and distant parts of the country ; however humane and 
 kind these masters might be, were it not for the power to alienate 
 and exchange their people, the entire breaking up and final 
 separation of all these families must inevitably follow. Thou- 
 sands of instances also occur of slaves having wives at such a 
 distance as to render it too inconvenient and expensive for them 
 to visit as often as they desire In such instances a separation 
 must follow, unless the husband and wife can be settled nearer 
 to each other by a sale or interchange. In order to support 
 and provide employment for any considerable family of slaves 
 under one's own care, he must be confined to agriculture, or 
 some kindred pursuit ; and should the merchant, mechanic, or 
 professional man, come into possession of a large number, had 
 he not the power to alienate and transfer them, he would be 
 unable to provide for their wants. If slaves could not change 
 owners by purchase, exchange, &c., they would be liable to 
 linger through life in the hands of the poor and destitute, and 
 suffer all the inconveniences and hardships of abject poverty 
 and distress ; or in the hands of unprincipled brutes, who have 
 neither the disposition or power to provide for their wants, or 
 to secure their happiness in the least degree. But being 
 " motley, ^^ the shiftless and unprincipled are neither worthy of 
 or able to retain it ; as a general thing, it accumulates in the 
 hands of those who make the best use of it, and who are best 
 able to manage it. Take this last ray of hope from the slave 
 who is so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of a bad master, 
 be has nothing to look forward to but a lingering life of ill- 
 treatment, cruelties and abuse. Instead of a cheerful looking 
 forward to a better condition, with the consoling expectation 
 of a happy change of masters, which he may often eljfect him- 
 self, his doom would be fixed, his fate would be sealed. Ask 
 27 * 
 
318 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 him if the right to change masters is not a blessing to the slave, 
 and what is his reply ? Upon the principle of compensation to 
 the property in the labor of the slave, and the right to control 
 his person, the law attaches the obligation to nurse and support 
 him in sickness and in health, in infancy and helpless old age. 
 This is the peculiarity and redeeming feature of the American 
 or (if you please) chattel system. In British slavery, the mis- 
 erable victims are subjected to the most abject servitude during 
 life, without the slightest obligation of the master to provide 
 for their wants in time of helplessness and distress. When 
 they have spent faithful lives in toil for his benefit, till their 
 days of usefulness are past, they are turned over to the tender 
 mercies of the guardians of the poor, to be separated from 
 their families, and become the inmates of pest-houses and parish 
 prisons. 
 
 The selling of persons is not peculiar to the American or 
 negro slavery ; these paupers of England have been and are 
 still as effectually sold as negro slaves. There is always an 
 abundant supply at the public charge, and they are dealt out 
 by the pauper guardians, under the name of apprentices, to all 
 manner of employment to suit customers. This practice was 
 even transferred to the Colonies. "The supply of white ser- 
 vants became a regular business ; and a class of men, nick- 
 named spirits, used to delude young persons, servants and idlers, 
 into embarking for America as a land of spontaneous plenty. 
 White servants came to be a usual article of traffic. They 
 were sold in England to be transported, and in Virginia were 
 sold to the highest bidder ; like negroes, they were purchased 
 on shipboard, as men buy horses at a fair. "^ 
 
 Who ever heard of an American slave perishing from starva- 
 tion, or becoming a pauper at the public charge ? But what 
 is the origin of this right of property of the master in the labor 
 of his slave, and upon what foundation does it rest ? We 
 answer, that of custom, the most potent source of law, inter- 
 woven into the very texture of society. It is the same, in this 
 respect, as any other distinctive right or specification of 
 property. 
 
 We have endeavored, in the first Essay of this work, to shovr 
 that the relation of master and slave, and the right of the for- 
 mer to the service of the latter, date back to the earliest traces 
 
 1 By stat. 1 Ed. 6, chap. 3, it is provided that an able-bodied person at 
 public charge shall be sold as a slave for two years ; if he run away he is 
 branded (S.) on the cheek, and sold as a slave for life. Enc. Mit. vol. ii. 
 p. 802. 1 Bancroft, H. U. S. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 319 
 
 of the existence of inankind ; that this species of property has 
 been a lawful article of commerce in every age and nation ; that 
 the right and title of the owner to the same has been held as 
 perfect and indefeasible, and has been as universally protected 
 and held sacred by the laws of every nation (where it has not 
 been prohibited by positive law) as any other species of pro- 
 perty.^ We propose still further to show that the authority of 
 this custom is still recognized, and that this right of property 
 ever has been, and still is, held sacred and to be protected 
 (when to be exercised in a country where it has not been abo- 
 lished) by legislative and judicial authority, in both England 
 and America. 
 
 Slavery existed by the law of nations throughout the ancient 
 world. It existed in England before the Norman Conquest. 
 There were certain slaves, who belonged to their lords as much 
 as the cattle and stock upon the plantations ; they afforded 
 articles for a brisk and lucrative trade ; they were transported 
 to Ireland and other nations. It originated, no doubt, with 
 the Roman Conquest, and was continued, according to the law 
 of nations, by the numerous captives taken in the wars between 
 the Britons, Danes and Saxons, and among the States of the 
 Heptarchy.'^ African slavery existed in England as late as 
 1172. At the trial of Somerset's case, it was asserted that 
 there were fourteen thousand African slaves in England.^ 
 
 Among the earliest decisions of the courts of justice in Eng- 
 land, the right of property in the slave is recognized, and it 
 has been repeatedly held by those courts that trover would lie 
 for a slave. Contracts for the purchase of slaves, and for the 
 payment of the price, have been universally held good by the 
 courts, ancient and modern, in both England and America. 
 Damages have been universally awarded for injuries done to 
 
 1 See Essay I. p. 16. Also, Numb. 31 : 18-32; 35 : 40. Just. tit. iii. 
 sect. 4. Dig. lib. i. t. v. Odyss. xv. 483. Timaeus Apud Ath. vi. p. 264. 
 Theop. Apud. Ath. p. 265. Xi'oi npwroi twv EXXiji'ajv, &c. Plato, De Re- 
 publ. V. p. 469. Demostli. adv. Nic. p. 1250. For modern nations, see 
 Hallam's Mid. Ages, iv. 221. Gibbon, D. & F. R. E. vol. i. p. 63. See 
 ante, p. 309 (n. 2). 
 
 2 Blac. Comm. pp. 92 and 93. Temple's Introd. to Hist, of England, p. 
 59. Turner's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxon Race, pp. 292 and 397. The 
 toll in the market of Lewes, England, was one penny for the sale of an 
 ox, and four for the sale of a slave. See Work of B. B. Edwards, vol. ii. 
 p. 124. The Edict of 1685 permitted slavery in the French Colonies, and 
 that of 1716 recites the necessity of permitting it in France, but under 
 certain restrictions. See S. C. 
 
 5 See Report of Sommersett's case, Luft's Rep. p. 6. 
 
320 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 this species of property. In all the cases of emancipation by 
 the English government, the owners have been compensated for 
 the value of their property. In 1689, all the judges of Eng- 
 land, with the eminent men who filled the offices of Solicitors, 
 Attorney-Generals, &c., concurred in the opinion that negro 
 slaves were merchandize within the general terms of the naviga- 
 tion act.^ In the case of Butts vs. Penny, it was held that 
 trover would lie in England at common law, for negroes taken 
 from America.^ The doctrine of the Court of the K. B. in that 
 case was that negroes are merchandize at common law ; that 
 they are commonly bought and sold in America and other 
 nations, the same as other property. 
 
 In one of the decrees of Lord Stowell, in 1811, the following 
 truth is emphatically asserted : " Let me not be misunderstood 
 or misrepresented as a professed apologist for the practice (the 
 slave-trade), when I state facts, which no one can deny, that 
 personal slavery arising out of captivity, is coeval with the 
 earliest periods of the history of mankind ; that it is found 
 existing (and as far as appears without animadversion) in the 
 earliest and most authentic records of the human race ; that it 
 is recognized by the codes of the most polished nations of 
 antiquity ; that under the light of Christianity itself the pos- 
 session of persons so acquired has been in every civilized 
 country invested with the character of j^rojyerty, and secured 
 as such by all the protection of law ; that solemn treaties have 
 been framed, and national monopolies eagerly sought, to facili- 
 tate and extend the commerce in this asserted property ; and all 
 this with the sanction of law, public and municipal, and without 
 any opposition, except the protest of a few private moralists 
 little heard and less attended to in every country, till within 
 these few years in this particular country.'.'^ The Parliament 
 of Great Britain has especially recognized and invested negro 
 slaves with the character of property. In 1676, by special 
 act, it chartered the Royal African Company to prosecute this 
 trade. By another act it divested the African Company of its 
 slaves, and chartered the West India Company for the same 
 purpose, and vested the slave property of the former in the 
 latter company. By another act it subjected their property to 
 the payment of their debts, and thus rendered slaves raerchan- 
 
 1 See Chalmers' Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, p. 263. 
 
 -' Lev. Rep. vol. iii. p. 201. 
 
 3 See Speech of Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, on Nebraska and Kansas 
 Bill, March 30, 1854. Wheat. Inter. Law, p. 186. 1 Dod. Adm, Rep. 
 p. 95, case of Diana. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 321 
 
 dize, liable to be bon<?ht and sold. These are the evidences, 
 said Lord Mansfield, that rarliaraent has often interfered for 
 the maintenance of the slave-trade, and the recop;nition of this 
 species of property.' The statnte 29th Geo. 2d, chap. 31, gives 
 permission to the colonists to hold slaves in America, because 
 it was thought necessary. But, said JMr. Hargrave, the same 
 reasons do not exist in England. 
 
 It was evidently against the policy of England to perpetuate 
 African slavery at home, hence the custom gradually came into 
 disuse. But, said Mr. Hargrave, there never was any law 
 against it except the force of circumstances. 
 
 The reason why negro slavery could not exist in England, any 
 more than in Massachusetts and many of the free States, must be 
 obvious. Within the limited territory of that country, over- 
 whelmed with paupers in a perishing condition, there was no 
 room for negro slaves, no want of their labor. The British 
 aristocrat found it vastly to his interest to keep a starving white 
 population around him, nominally free, and working for nomi- 
 nal wages, without incurring the obligation of furnishing them 
 a support in times of need. 
 
 In the celebrated opinion delivered by Lord Mansfield in 
 Sommersett's case, in 1772, we find the principle asserted 
 (though not positively, as we contend) that the right of the 
 master to the service of his slave did not give him the right to 
 control his person in England at common law. Sommersett 
 was a slave, purchased upon the coast of Africa and carried to 
 Virginia ; he belonged to one Mr. Stewart ; he had been carried 
 over to England by his master, and was brought before the 
 judges there on a writ of Habeas Corpus ; the question was 
 whether he should be remanded to the custody of his master, 
 or whether he might be discharged from the same. The case 
 was learnedly argued on both sides, and a variety of authori- 
 ties cited. The argument for the defence was in substance that 
 the right of the master to the service of his slave was absolute 
 and indefeasible, being universally recognized by legislative 
 and judicial authority ; that it necessarily carried with it th^ 
 right to control the person of the slave. That there was no 
 law or precedent in England that prohibited the enforcement 
 of this right, and that the court was bound to recognize it as 
 existing at common law ; that to hold the contrary would turn 
 loose fourteen thousand African slaves that were then, and had 
 
 1 Sommersett's case. The decision in that case turned loose fourteen 
 thousand negro slaves in England, and gave rise to the foundation of the 
 colony of Sierra Leone. American Enc. vol. ii. p. 351. 
 
 V 
 
322 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 been, held in England. On the other hand, it was contended 
 that African slavery was an evil, immoral in its character and 
 consequences ; that in the present instance it existed only by a 
 Colonial law which was subject to the supervision of the legis- 
 lative and judicial authority of the mother government ; that 
 such authority could be under no obligations to recognize a 
 principle of Colonial law in England that contravened its own 
 policy ; that the question of comity, under such circumstances, 
 did not arise ; that to recognize the right of the master to hold 
 and control his slave would overwhelm England with negroes, 
 while with a limited territory and a starving pauper population, 
 she could not support them ; besides, they were held in such 
 odium that they could not live there. With these reasons 
 before him, the learned judge was evidently thrown into much 
 difficulty and embarrassment ; and we cannot but regret that 
 his reasons are not more fully stated in the report that has come 
 down to us. He says he shall confine his reasons strictly to 
 the return on the writ, and seems to intimate that there might 
 be some defect in that return. He says, " we are all agreed; 
 and for various reasons, as is usual on the return of a 
 Habeas Corpus, the only question before us is whether the 
 
 CAUSE ON THE RETURN IS SUFFICIENT FOR REMANDING THE 
 
 SLAVE." He decides that it was insufficient, and that he must 
 be discharged. He alludes to the immorality of the institution, 
 and the evil consequences that it might entail upon England. 
 
 It seems to have been decided, not as a question of right, 
 founded upon law, but either upon some defect in the return or 
 as a question of conscience, good morals, and sound public 
 policy in England. As the case is reported, it is difficult to see 
 the consistency of the reasoning of the court. We submit the 
 question to more experienced jurists, whether it is within the 
 province of the judiciary of any government to decide upon 
 questions of public policy, farther than such policy may be 
 indicated by the spirit of the law, or to decide questions of 
 conscience, farther than their office extends under the law as 
 conservators of public morals ; that whenever they overreach 
 these limits, they usurp the legislative power of the government. 
 He says, " we pay all due attention to the opinions of Sir 
 Philip Yorke, and Lord Chief Justice Talbot, in which they 
 had pledged themselves to British planters for all the legal 
 consequences of their slaves coming over from the colonies to 
 this country and being baptized." The learned judge also 
 admits in this, as well as many other opinions, that the laws of 
 England attach upon a contract for the price of a slave, and 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 323 
 
 it has been universally enforced in both England and America ; 
 now if the right of property is to be defeated npon the ground 
 that it contravenes the laws of nature, is immoral, &c., as seems 
 to have been intimated, it might be by the court in this case, 
 why does not the same reason vitiate the contract for the price 
 or the claim for damages for loss of services ?^ The courts of 
 England then will so far admit the right of property as to 
 enforce the payment of the price, and award damages for the 
 loss of services ; but will not enforce the law relative to the 
 control of the person, because it is immoral, &c. 
 
 If immorality taints the right of action in one instance, it 
 must necessarily do so in the other ; else the Court might be 
 thrown into the awkward dilemma of deciding upon the right 
 of the master to his slave in England, and his obligation to 
 pay the price of the purchase in the same case, and be com- 
 pelled to give judgment against him on both pleas ; in other 
 words, an individual might sell another a slave, and then 
 appeal to the laws of England to take him from him, and 
 compel him, at the same time, to pay the price. Therefore, 
 this case, as reported, has but little weight of authority upon 
 any principle whatever. It has been overruled by Lord Sto- 
 ■well, in the case of the slave Grace. 
 
 Although the African slave-trade has been declared piracy 
 by a number of Christian nations, yet it remains lawful for all 
 those that have not renounced it ; and this species of property, 
 belonging to the citizens of those nations, must be respected.^ 
 The courts of both England and America will enforce the con- 
 tract for the price, and the claims for damages, relative to this 
 species of property. The English Government has, in all acts 
 of emancipation in the West Indies and elsewhere, provided 
 for the remuneration of the owners : commissioners have been 
 appointed to appraise the damages, as in all cases of the ap- 
 propriation of private property for public use.^ Tliere was a 
 case brought up from the Supreme Court of British Guiana. 
 It was held by the Privy Council, that, in consequence of the 
 abolition act of Parliament, the lessee of a plantation and 
 slaves was entitled to a diminution of rent, in consequence of 
 
 1 Ex turpi contractu oritur non actio, US. and R. 164. 11 Wheat. 268. 
 4 Pic. Ilep. Dedham Bank vs. Cbickering. 
 
 2 Case of the Antelope, 10 Wheat. 66: See Jane Eugenie, 2 Mason, 
 409. The Amelia, 1 Acton, 240. The Jane Maria, 1 Dod. 19. The 
 Diana, 1 Dod. 75. Mindoe vs. Willis, 3 B. & A. Commonwealth vs. 
 Aves, 18 Pic. 193. 
 
 * See Albany vs. Metenayer, 3d E. & F. Moore, 452. 
 
324 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 the emancipation of three Indian women. This case was de- 
 cided in 1841 ; the act of Parliament took effect in 1834 : the 
 act provided commissioners to appraise the damages for loss 
 of property generally. In the case of Richards vs. Attorney- 
 General of Jamaica, the Lord Chancellor held that the com- 
 pulsory manumission or sale of slaves effected by the abolition 
 act, so impressed the slaves with the character of \^" chattels 
 personaP^'] personal estate, from the passing of the act, that 
 the compensation money provided by the act passed under the 
 will of the testator who died before the period of emancipation 
 arrived.' In the case of Baron vs. Denman, the slaves of a 
 Spaniard were taken from one of the barracoons at Dambo- 
 coro, and carried to Sierra Leone. The learned English 
 judges held that the plaintiff, who carried on the slave-trade, 
 had such a property in his slaves, that he might maintain 
 trespass for their seizure — the slave-trade not being prohibited 
 by the law of nations, and it not appearing that Spain liad 
 passed any law abolishing the traffic, pursuant to the treaty of 
 6 & 7 William lY.^ 
 
 "A native of a country where slavery is not prohibited by 
 law may recover, in a court of England, at common law, the 
 value of slaves wrongfully seized by a British officer, on board 
 of a ship of a country allowing slavery. And the master can 
 recover damages generally, at common law, for the loss of ser- 
 vices, when his slaves have been taken from him."^ 
 
 In the case of Williams vs. Brown, the plaintiff was a run- 
 away slave from Granada : he hired himself as a common sea- 
 man in England, on board the ship Holderness, bound to 
 Grenada. On her arrival there, Mr. Hardman, the master of 
 the slave, claimed him, and the captain gave him up. Where- 
 upon, they all three entered into a new contract for the manu- 
 mission of the slave for a stipulated price paid by the master 
 of the ship, on the agreement of the slave to serve him faith- 
 fully three years on board of said ship, for a stipulated sum. 
 This was agreed to by the then freedman. But on his return 
 from the first trip to England, he commenced the present action 
 for his services on the quantum meruit. The Court held that 
 he could not recover any more than the stipulated price. In 
 
 1 Albany vs. Metenayer, 3d E. & F. Moore, 452. 13 Jur. 197: 7 Har. 
 Dig. p. 1522. 
 
 - Baron vs. Denman, 2d Exch. 167. 
 
 3 Madi-azo vs. Willis, 3d B. & A. 353. Bacon's Abmt. vol. ix. p. 473. 
 Chamberton vs. Harvey, 1 Ld. Raym. 146. Smith vs. Gould, 2d I.d. 
 Kaym. 1274. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 325 
 
 this case, it was strenuously contended that the defendant had 
 taken advantage of the plaintiff's condition, and that his cove- 
 nant for services was made under a species of duress, to enable 
 him to obtain his freedom. But the Court distinctly recog- 
 nized the right of the master, and the obligation of the slave 
 to serve, under the laws of Grenada. They say that the slave 
 committed a fraud upon the master of the ship when he first 
 engaged his services to him, by concealing the fact that he was 
 a slave, and incapable of contracting ; that when he was 
 claimed by his master, the defendant was entitled to damages 
 for a breach of contract by the slave. ' Previous to the cele- 
 brated opinion delivered in Sommersett's case, in 1772, it had 
 been held by several decisions, that the master's right to the 
 service of his slave carried with it the right to control his per- 
 son even in England ; so much so, that he could maintain 
 trover for the same. 
 
 In the case of Pearne vs. Lisle, in the High Court of Chan- 
 cery, in 1749, it was held that trover would lie for a negro 
 slave ; that they were as much property in that respect as in 
 anything else. In that case, the plaiutiif claimed fourteen 
 negroes at Antigua ; defendant had them hired, and refused to 
 give them up. Defendant declared his intention of going to 
 Antigua soon. Plaintiff filed a bill in chancery, and obtained 
 a writ ne exeat regno, which was discharged. Per Curiam : 
 " I have no doubt that trover will lie for a negro slave ; they 
 are as much property [for that purpose] as anything else. 
 The case referred to at bar (in 2 Salkield 666, Smith vs. 
 Brown & Cooper) was determined for want of proper descrip- 
 tion. It was trover for an '^thiop vocat Negro, ^ without 
 alleging that he was a slave. The reason said to have been 
 given by Lord Holt, in that case, as the cause of his doubt, 
 viz. ' That the moment a slave sets foot in England he 
 BECOMES FREE, ' has no weight in it ; nor can any reason be 
 assigned why they should not be equally so when they set foot 
 in Jamaica, or any other English plantation. All our colo- 
 nies are subject to the laws of England ; though, for some 
 specific purposes, they have laws of their own. There was 
 once a doubt whether, if any slave was christened, he did not 
 become free ; and then great precautions were taken, in the 
 colonies, to prevent their being baptised ; until the opinion of 
 Lord Talbot and myself, then Attorney and Solicitor-General, 
 
 1 Williams vs. Brown, 3d Bass. & Pull. Rep. p. 69. A slave may be 
 the sulyect of larceuy at common law. Bad. Abr. 4, p. 178. 
 
 28 
 
326 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 was taken on that point. We both held that it did not alter 
 their condition. There were formerly villiens or slaves in 
 England ; and there are no laws that have abrogated this 
 right. Trover might have been brought for a villien. As to 
 the merits of this case, a specific delivery of the negroes is 
 prayed for : that is not necessary — others are as good: the 
 negroes cannot now be delivered in the plight they were in 
 when taken, for they wear out by use. " ' 
 
 Such has been the doctrine universally held in America, in 
 every instance where the question has arisen, except by some 
 few abolition fanatics, who acknowledge allegiance only to a 
 "higher law " than the permanent law of the land. 
 
 In 1119, the Continental Congress recommended to the 
 States to make provisions for the ^' proprietors^^ of negroes, 
 and a full compensation for the ' ^ property ,^ ^ &c. of such as 
 were lost or killed when in the U. S. service in South Carolina 
 and Georgia.^ 
 
 The old Congress of 1182 expressly recognized the right of 
 masters and of property in slaves, in resolving to have authen- 
 tic returns of slaves and other property which the British had 
 been carrying off during the Revolutionary War. " '^ In the 
 treaty of 1183, the Revolutionary Fathers expressly stipulated 
 against the destruction or carrying away of negroes. August 
 9th, 1188, Congress resolved that the Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs cause to be made out lists of the number, names, and 
 owners of negroes belonging to citizens of each State, and car- 
 ried away by the British, in violation of the treaty. General 
 Washington himself earnestly demanded of Sir Guy Carletou 
 restitution of such slave property. Mr. John Jay, of New 
 York, in 1186, also demanded restitution for this property. 
 So did old John Adams. The American commissioners made 
 a bill of these negroes in the possession of the British at the 
 close of the war. General Morris, in 1199, was pressing this 
 claim upon the British Ministry. 
 
 1 The case vs. Pearne, 28 Charles II. Lev. Rep. 201, is to the same 
 point. The Court in that case held that trover would lie in England for 
 a negro slave ; that they were originally the property of a heathen prince, 
 and lawful articles of commerce. The case of Gelly vs. Clive, 5 Wm. & 
 Mary, 1 Ld. Raym. ; Smith vs. Gould, 6 Anne, 2 Sulk. 666 ; and Smith 
 vs. Brown, 2d Sulk., all go to establish the indefeasible right of the mas- 
 ter to the service of his slave, as well as his right to conti-ol his person. 
 By an Act of 9 & 10 William III. Chap. 26, negroes are spoken of as 
 merchandize ; and by an Act of 5 Geo. II., slaves in the West Indies are 
 declared subject to seizure to pay debts. 
 
 2 Secret Journal, pp. 197-8. » State Papers, vol. i. p. 338. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 327 
 
 When the Federal Constitution was formed, in 1181, by the 
 then twelve slave-holding States, and Massachusetts, that Con- 
 stitution, in the vein of the Declaration of Independence, starts 
 out with the prearaple, "securing the blessings of liberty to 
 ourselves and our posterity," and yet, by the express language 
 of that instrument, the relation of master and slave is several 
 times recognized, as is the right of property in the master in 
 providing for the return of fugitive slaves, and iu inhibiting 
 the prohibition of the slave-trade for twenty years. In 1193, 
 Congress enacted a fugitive slave law, — in the Senate, unani- 
 mously ; in the House, ayes forty-eight, noes seven; — such 
 men as Fisher Ames, Elias Boudinot, of N. J., James Hill- 
 house, of Ct., Theodore Sedgwick, and the like, voting iu the 
 affirmative. 
 
 By the Judiciary Act of 1189, Congress recognized slaves as 
 property. The eighty-eighth section of that act recognizes 
 the laws of the several States as to property. Where slaves 
 are property in the States, the Federal Courts are thus ordered 
 to recognize them as property, and they have ever done so.^ 
 
 In the direct tax of 1813, slaves were rated as property. 
 Rufus King, of New York, voted for this act, with the right 
 of the U. S. Collector to purchase slaves on behalf of the 
 United States in certain cases. ^ 
 
 By the Treaty of Ghent, and in a subsequent Convention 
 referring the disputed articles of that Treaty to the Emperor 
 of Russia, one million and two hundred thousand dollars were 
 paid to the United States slave-owners in full for slaves taken 
 away by Great Britain, after the war of 1812. Among the 
 ayes on this Treaty were Daggett and Dana, of Ct. ; Gore, of 
 Mass. ; Hunter, of R. I. ; King, of N. Y. John Quincy 
 Adams, iu his messages to Congress, in 1825 and 182G, speaks 
 of ''the claims of our feUoio-citizens to indemnity for 
 slaves;^' it was under his auspices, as President, that the mo- 
 ney was paid.^ 
 
 So in the Judiciary ; the case of the Antelope was decided 
 by Chief-Justice Marshall upon the same doctrine so frequently 
 held by English courts.* She was a Spanish vessel, on board 
 of which were a certain number of African slaves ; she was cap- 
 tured by an American Revenue Cutter and brought into Sa- 
 
 1 la the cases of Williamson vs. Daniel, 12 Wheat., and Skebby vs. Grey. 
 11 Wheat., every memfcer of the bench concurring, slaves were recognized 
 as property. 
 
 2 See sections 5th and 24th of said Act. Laws U. S. 
 
 3 Message, Dec. 28, 1826. ■* 9 Georgia Reps., same case. 
 
328 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 vannah for adjudication. The Vice-Consuls of Spain and 
 Portugal claimed the negroes as the property of the citizens of 
 those nations, and they were adjudicated to them. The learned 
 judge, in that opinion, examined the subject in a masterly man- 
 ner, and affirmed the doctrine, that as those nations had not 
 abolished the African slave-trade, the negroes were their lawful 
 property. This case, decided on the authority of English de- 
 cisions, settled the law in the United States. The same doc- 
 trine was very ably maintained iu the case of Neal vs. Farmer, 
 in tlie Supreme Court of Georgia.^ 
 
 What considerations could have induced the framers of the 
 Constitution to prohibit the enacting of any law to suppress the 
 slave-trade prior to 1808, but that slaves were a lawful species 
 of property, and the trade in them, lawful commerce ? 
 
 In some of the early decisions of the Supreme Court of Mas- 
 sachusetts it was held, that slaves in that State, prior to the 
 adoption of the State Constitution, were lawful property at 
 common law. 
 
 In the case of the Town of Winchendon vs. the Town of 
 Hatfield, Chief-Justice Parsons decided the question directly ; 
 he held the following language : " Slavery was introduced into 
 this country soon after its first settlement, and tolerated till the 
 ratification of the present Constitution. The slave was the 
 property of his master, subject to his orders, and to a reason- 
 able correction, &c. ; he was transferable, like a chattel, by 
 gift or by sale, and was assets in the hands of his administra- 
 tor ; the issue of a female slave also belonged to her master, 
 according to the maxim of the civil law [^partus sequitur ven- 
 trem']. He (the slave) could acquire no settlement except 
 through his master."^ 
 
 Again, upon the same point, in the case of Dighton vs. Free- 
 town, the learned Chief-Justice remarked, that "Pomp being 
 and continuing a slave until 1779, he was settled in the town 
 with his master, deriving his settlement from him, as the slave 
 was the personal property of the master, and could not be 
 legally separated from him. Pomp was the slave of Elnathan 
 Walker ; at his death intestate ; he then, as the personal estate 
 of the deceased, became the property of Peter Walker, the ad- 
 ministrator, and acquired the settlement through him as his new 
 master, which was in Taunton," &c.^ 
 
 1 Geo. Rep., same case. 2 4tii Mass. Rep., 123. 
 
 ^ Opera cit., see case. But behold what a change in the jurisprudence 
 of that old and hitherto venerable State! See "Personal Liberty Bill," 
 nullifying the Fugitive Slave Law, &c. Session Acts of Mass. Legislature, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 329 
 
 By what State or Territorial law was a slave, then, the pro- 
 perty of his master in Massachusetts? Or, by what statute 
 was slavery introduced there ? 
 
 It was by the force of custom and the principles of national 
 law, as observed in the common law of England. In the same 
 manner is slavery extended wherever it f.^oes ; it is not the crea- 
 ture of law and extended only by acts of legislative enactment ; 
 it is originally sanctioned by universal custom, and grows and 
 extends itself like every other legitimate institution, propria 
 vigore. 
 
 Upon what foundation, then, does the right and title of the 
 Southern master to his slave depend ? We answer : it is 
 founded upon custom, the most potent source of law, as old, 
 too, as the records of the human family. It rests also upon 
 the sanction of the highest legislative and judicial authority in 
 the world. It rests upon the same foundation that his right 
 and title does to any other piece of property that he possesses. 
 How else did the idea of property, and the distinctive rights of 
 individuals arise ? 
 
 A person who is a slave in any country or state, where that 
 condition of persons exists, is also a slave, and belongs to his 
 master, in the legal sense, wherever he may go, except in those 
 governments where that condition is prohibited by law. It is 
 a personal status, like that of wife, child, minor, convict, or 
 interdicted person; that, in law, follows him wherever he 
 may go.^ 
 
 In this sense, slavery is universal, and its prohibition the 
 exception ; for it may rightfully exist everywhere, except where 
 it has been abolished and prohibited. It is erroneously con- 
 tended that slavery cannot extend beyond the territorial limits 
 of the States in which it actually exists, for there is not a syl- 
 lable of law upon the statute-book of any one of the slave 
 States that gives the master any more right to hold the service 
 of his slaves as property than he had before that law was passed. 
 The law in every act presupposes the right of the master to the 
 service of his slave the same as to that of his ox or his horse. 
 When the Abolitionists talk about the extension of slavery, and 
 the aggressions of the South, &c., they seem to have a very 
 indefinite idea of the manner in which it has been done ; as 
 
 1855, p. 117. Nullification! the accomplice of treason. Temporal 
 9 Mores! Spirit of Webster! "IIow art the glory departed from Israel, 
 and the sceptre from Mount Lebanon!' 
 
 1 Story's C. L., T. Personal Statutes, or condition of persons. Saul 
 vs. His Creditors, 5 Mart. La. Rep,, N. S. 580-596. 
 28* 
 
330 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 though it has been effected by the aid and operation of the sta- 
 tutes of the United States, or of the individual States. But 
 a moment's reflection will show them that the right to hold 
 slaves was never legislated, or asked to be legislated, into any 
 one of the States or Territories ; the absence of all legislation 
 is the secret of its existence. Upon analogous principles of 
 comity and constitutional law, this right, when claimed under 
 the law of a State where it exists, should be recognized by the 
 courts of every other State except where it may injure their 
 own citizens, or contravene their own public policy.^ 
 
 But, it is asked, what proof the Southern masters can show 
 that his negroes are slaves ? Their own pedigree makes the 
 proof; the evidence of which is seen in the lineaments of their 
 external features : and is so distinctly marked that it is impos- 
 sible to be mistaken. Every descendant of African lineage, 
 except the mixed-blooded to a certain degree, in all the slave 
 States is presumed to be a slave. This arises from the fact that 
 they are a nation of slaves at home, one-sixth owning and hold- 
 ing the balance of the population as property, and trafficking 
 in them as lawful articles of merchandize. The Africans are 
 presumed to be slaves for the same reason that helot and slave, 
 in Sparta, were synonymous terms ; and, for the same reason, 
 that the name of the Sclavonian nation came to be adopted, by 
 abbreviation, as a general term, for persons held in bondage.^ 
 
 The master is not required to trace back the pedigree of every 
 negro to his African ancestors, and to show that they were 
 slaves ; the fact is presumed because they are a nation of slaves 
 as the Helots were in Greece and the Sclavonians in modern 
 Europe ; made so by their own customs and laws, and because 
 none came to this country, originally, but slaves. They were 
 bought in lawful trade ; they were lawful articles of commerce ; 
 the trade was legitimate, and theft cannot be presumed. There- 
 
 1 This rests upon principles of international law. Pardess, Droit Comm., 
 pt. vi. tit. 7, ch. 2, sect. 1. Felix Droit Intern'l. Prive, lev. 1, sect. 31. 
 Hub. torn, ii, 1 tit. 3. De Conftet, leg. sect. 12. Wheat. El'mts Intern'l 
 Law, p. 122. Story's C. L., sect. 106, 594. 2 Kent, Com., 457, 461. Saul 
 vs. His Creditors. 5 Mart. La. Rep., N. S., 586, 596. Le Breton vs. 
 Nouchet, 3 Mart. La, Rep. 60, 66, cited in Story's C. L., sect. 182. Green- 
 wood vs. Curtis, 6 Mass. Rep. 378. Andrews vs. Pond, 13 Peters' Rep. 
 65, 78. The right of the master to his slave in the territories is unques- 
 tionable, and can be enforced in the Federal Coui'ts at common law. See 
 opinion of Attorney-General Cushing, recently given upon this question. 
 Hence the right to claim a fugitive in any one of the States is provided 
 for by the Constitution. 
 
 " Essay on Slavery in the New Testament, ante, p. 125. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 331 
 
 fore, the ancestors of tlie present slave population in the United 
 States must be presumed to have been bought in a legitimate 
 course of trade, called the Guinea traffic. At the time they 
 were purchased it was lawful to all nations, as it now is to 
 those who have not abolished it. Those, now in the country, 
 have descended from them in a direct line, and have necessarily 
 inherited their condition according to the well-known maxim of 
 the institution, " partus scquitur venti^em.^' Much has been 
 said against the iniquity and injustice of this maxim. But, it 
 will be seen, that the principle is founded on humanity ; its 
 force and necessity, in the first place, arise from the laws of 
 propagation. What would become of the offspring if it did 
 not follow the condition of the mother ? who would nurse and 
 rear it to an age when it could be separated from her ? Indeed, 
 the contrary would cut off all hope or prospect of increase, as 
 it would be a direct infringement upon the right of the master 
 to the service of his slave. It would, therefore, result not only 
 in the extinction of African slavery, but, 2^fO tanto, of the negro 
 race. 
 
 This maxim is, therefore, one of the fundamental principles 
 of the institution; it is as old as slavery itself; it is founded 
 upon the same authoritative source of law, and rests upon the 
 same legislative and judicial sanction. It makes the status of 
 the child the same as that of the parent,^ gives the master the 
 same right to its services and imposes upon him the same obli- 
 gation to nurse, feed, and clothe it in infancy, sickness, and 
 helpless old age. 
 
 Such is the tenure by which the American master holds his 
 slaves ; and who that feels the necessity of civil government, 
 and of the majesty of the law and of the supremacy of fixed 
 principles of jurisprudence, who that acknowledges his allegiance 
 to the laws and institutions of his country, who that has an 
 American head, and an American heart in his bosom throbbing 
 to uphold the pride and glory of the American Union, Will 
 wrest it from him by the ruthless hand of violence ? Stare 
 decisis is the motto of the jurist ; but for the force of this 
 maxim, amid the fierce whirlwinds of angry passions and storms 
 of wild fanaticism that sweep over the land, we should have no 
 assurance to-day of what the law would be to-morrow. 
 
 Human nature, in the multitude of her foibles and imperfec- 
 tions, has left some choice spirits fitted for the responsible 
 
 1 By the laws of Greece, if either the father or mother was a slave, it 
 tainted the status of the child. See Essay on Greek Slavery, p. 50. 
 
332 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 position of judicial functionaries on the bench. Few there are 
 who have worn the ermine robe with dignity and power, have 
 stood up with the strong arm of giants to face the frowning 
 multitude ; with iron resolution and inflexible nerve, have 
 carried it through the tumults of popular clamor and spiritual 
 indignation, unspotted by their violence, uncontaminated by 
 the foul breath. Such spirits dwell above the stormy atmo- 
 sphere of popular turmoil and commotion, and bask in the 
 sunlight of justice and truth in a higher and more ample field 
 of being. Tempests may rock earth beneath, earthquakes 
 shatter hill and mountain, angry billows dash upon the rocks 
 at their feet, sweeping her foundations away; " sublime in their 
 own solitude, magnificent amid the ruin, they soar above the 
 storm like the last mountain in the deluge ; the last vestige of 
 earth's loveliness to be efi'aced, the last resting-place of heaven's 
 light upon her." Such names are the just pride of any nation, 
 the brightest jewels in her crown ; they cast a lustre upon the 
 pages of her history superior to the most gorgeous achievement 
 of her arms. Time, whose defacing finger obliterates the fairest 
 earthly possessions, adds new lustre to these ; the mist that for 
 a time may overshadow them, at length fades away, and they 
 shine out in undimmed splendor to the eyes of the most distant 
 generations. Monuments may crumble, cities go to ruin, com- 
 merce may change its channels, and laws and institutions 
 undergo every vicissitude of form — still such names remain the 
 birthright of a nation, a priceless inheritance that it cannot 
 forfeit, except by such an apostacy as to render it unworthy of 
 them. 
 
 y Colonial Slavery in this Country. 
 
 We have seen that negro slavery was forced upon this country 
 during the colonial existence of the States, by the policy and 
 power of the mother government ; at first much against the 
 will and wishes of the colonists. They were brought here 
 principally by a company under the charter of the British Par- 
 liament, and the patronage of the crown of the United King- 
 doms. The trade was upheld and defended by the best of men, 
 and many American merchants engaged in the traffic.^ The 
 colonists entertained no qualms of conscience upon the subject, 
 
 1 It is stated that Newport, R. I., first took its rise from the -wealth 
 acquired by exchanging rum for slaves : as many as forty or fifty vessels 
 engaged annually in the trafl&c. Newport was not alone: other places 
 followed the example ; many of the wealthy families might trace their 
 riches to this origin. Peterson's History of lihode Island. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 333 
 
 and the business soon became so lucrative that they were quite 
 willing to adopt it as their own. They had so far identified 
 themselves with it, that at the formation of the Union under the 
 Confederation, every one of the thirteen was a slave-holding 
 State, with a greater or less number of slaves. 
 
 It is an interesting source of inquiry as to what were the 
 views and feelings of the colonists and the American people at 
 that early date upon this subject ; and what was the course of 
 policy intended by them to be afterward pursued by the Federal 
 government. 
 
 In the earliest glimpses of Puritan history we find that slavery 
 and the slave-trade occupy a prominent position as subjects of 
 legislation in the colonial State papers. Governor "Winthrop, 
 with his associates, having in his possession the colonial charter, 
 arrived at Boston in 1630. In 1641 the people adopted a code 
 of laws made by themselves, for their own special guidance and 
 direction. It was drawn up by some of their most pious and 
 practical men, after ten years' residence in their adopted coun- 
 try, and with the light of all the experience which they had 
 acquired in the art of self-government. Under the head of 
 Liberties of Foreigners and Strangers is the following article : 
 
 "There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage, or cap- 
 tivitie amongst us, unless it be lawfnll captives taken iu just 
 warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are 
 sold to us. . . This exempts none from servitude who shall be 
 judged thereto by authoritie. " 
 
 " If any man stealeth a man or mankind he shall surely be 
 put to death. ' ' 
 
 Here we see a practical exemplification of their notions re- 
 specting personal freedom, imbibed by the high-souled and 
 pious Governor Winthrop and his compatriots, amid the 
 villinage and slavery in England during the reign of Elizabeth. 
 Slavery was no new idea to the Puritans ; within seven years 
 of their landing, a fierce war broke out with the Pequods, a 
 numerous and powerful tribe residing within the borders of 
 Connecticut. The terrible catastrophe at Fort Mystic is well 
 known ; it is related that about seven hundred of the brave 
 Pequods perished together. Of the captives that were taken, 
 forty-eight of them, being women and children, were spared and 
 brought to Boston, the men having been put to death. These 
 captives were disposed of through the country among the 
 inhabitants. Some of them ran away, but were taken and 
 brought back by the neighboring Indians; "and these," says 
 Winthrop, " we branded on the shoulder." Of another lot of 
 
334 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 prisoners taken in the same war, Winthrop says, "the women 
 and children were divided, and some sent to Connecticut and 
 some to Massachusetts. We sent fifteen boys and two women 
 to Bermuda, by Captain Pierce, but he missing it carried them 
 to Providence Isle." As early as 1630 there were several 
 negro slaves in the Massachusetts Colony. When Governor 
 Winthrop landed in the bay, he found Samuel Maverick already 
 settled on IVoddle's Island; and as early as 1639 he was the 
 owner of sundry negro slaves of both sexes. "He," says a 
 late writer, "was not a Puritan, but strong for the worldly 
 and practical power. This gave him no hold on the sympathies 
 of those about him. Nevertheless he was not molested." 
 
 In 1643 the first union of the colonies was formed ; Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, entered 
 into articles of agreement and confederation. Rhode Island 
 and the eastern settlements were excluded on account of the 
 laxity in their religious opinions. After enumerating several 
 articles of agreement they say, . . . "and according to the 
 different charges of each jurisdiction and plantation, the whole 
 advantage of the war (if it please God to bless their endeavors), 
 whether it be in lands, goods, or persons, shall be proportion- 
 ally divided among the said confederates." 
 
 In 1676 was witnessed the closing of Philip's War. In dis- 
 posing of the captives, which was an affair of State, a great 
 many of the chiefs were executed at Boston and Plymouth, and 
 most of the rest were sold, and shipped for the Bermudas and 
 other parts. 
 
 In the same year Major Waldron, at Cacheco, in concert 
 with some Massachusetts forces, under Captains Syll and Haw- 
 thorn, succeeded by stratagem in capturing, in a time of peace, 
 about two hundred Indians who had taken sides with Philip 
 in the late war. They were sent to Boston. Seven or eight, 
 who were known to have killed Englishmen, were condemned 
 and hung, the rest were sold into slavery in foreign parts. 
 Mather relates the exploit with great satisfaction. Slavery 
 continued to flourish in New England, and negroes were gradu- 
 ally introduced. Josselyn, who spent ten years in the country 
 (from 1663 to 1673), says, in relation to the people of Boston : 
 " They have great stores of children, and are well accommodated 
 with servants ; some of these are English and some are negroes. " 
 
 It is estimated that, in 1680, there were in Massachusetts 
 from one hundred to one hundred and twenty negro slaves ; in 
 the same year there were in Connecticut thirty-seven. It is 
 said that but few blacks were at this time imported into Rhode 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 335 
 
 Island, though afterwards it became the great New England 
 emporium for negro slaves. 
 
 Another provision in the Articles of Confederation, above 
 referred to, was as follows : — 
 
 "It is also agreed, that if any servant run away from his 
 master into any of these confederate jurisdictions, that in such 
 case, upon certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdiction out 
 of which said servant fled, or upon any other due proof, the 
 said servant shall be delivered either to his master, or any other 
 person that pursues and brings such certificate or proof." 
 
 Here commences the history of fugitive slave legislation in 
 America — and what a commentary does it furnish upon the sub- 
 sequent conduct, upon this subject, of the boasted descendants 
 of the Puritans in the Free States 1 
 
 "Slaves," says Mr. Coffin, in his history of Newbury, 
 "though not numerous in Massachusetts, were, notwithstanding 
 the law, introduced without difficulty, and bought and sold 
 without scruple, by all classes of people. 
 
 Dr. Belknapp, who was an ardent Whig of the Revolution, 
 writing from Boston, in 1775, to Judge Tucker, of Virginia, 
 in answer to sundry inquiries of the latter relative to slavery 
 and its abolition in Massachusetts, says : — 
 
 "By inquiries of our oldest merchants now living, I cannot 
 find that more than three ships a year, belonging to this port, 
 
 were ever employed in the African trade The slaves 
 
 purchased in Africa were chiefly sold in the West Indies or in 
 the Southern Colonies; but when those markets were glutted, 
 and the price low, some of them were brought hither. ... I 
 remember one [ship load] between thirty and forty years ago, 
 which consisted almost wholly of children. " 
 
 There had been yet no display of public sentiment against 
 slavery, and the possession and selling of slaves, acquired in 
 the lawful course of trade. On the contrary, it was practised 
 and approved by the best men of the age. Cotton Mather, in 
 1706, speaks of a great blessing that had been conferred upon 
 him in the gift, by a friend, of a valuable negro slave. The 
 reputation for piety, learning and usefulness, of this distin- 
 guished divine, is well known. The celebrated Jonathan Ed- 
 wards was born in 1703 ; he left behind one of his master-pieces 
 of logic, dedicated to the defence of the slave trade. The 
 Rev. Dr. Stiles, who was President of Yale College, was a 
 settled minister in Newport, Rhode Island, when the revolu- 
 tionary war broke out. During his residence there, being in 
 want of a servant, he sent a barrel of rum by a slave-ship to 
 
336 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 the coast of Africa, to be exchanged for a negro boy, and one 
 was actually procured and brought home to him. 
 
 It appears, also, by the statement of Mr. Jefferson, that at 
 the time of presenting the Declaration of Independence, there 
 were members of the Congress engaged in the Guinea trade, 
 out of regard to whose feelings certain expressions in the ori- 
 ginal draft of that document were stricken out. The prevailing 
 sentiment of the better classes of society in New England was 
 in favor of the institution. 
 
 Whence, then, came the first voice of abolition and remon- 
 strance ? As we have before said, it had its origin in fanati- 
 cism ; it originated in the same elements, and was cast in the 
 same mould with Salem witchcraft. Let us appeal, for our 
 proof, again to the celebrated letter of Dr. Belknapp. With 
 all his knowledge of men and things, as they existed a century 
 ago, and with all his extensive and critical researches into colo- 
 nial antiquities, he was able to name but one person who pub- 
 licly protested against it.^ And who was that? Oh ye abo- 
 
 1 Mr. Coffin, in his History of Newbury, mentions one other person who 
 boi'e public testimony against the practice: Elihu Coleman, of Nantucket. 
 Dr. Belknapp's correspondence with Judge Tucker is published in the 4th 
 vol. of the Col. Mass. Hist. Soc. The slave-trade, in both negroes and 
 Indians, was as common in the Colonies as at present in the Slave States. 
 In 1708, Thomas Steel sells to John Farnum, of Boston, for thirty-five 
 pounds ($175), an Indian boy, called Harry, imported from the province 
 of South CaroUna. In 1725, Theophilus Cotton, of Hampton, deeds to 
 Jonathan Poor, of Newbury, "all my right to the Indian boy Sappai, 
 aged 16 years." In 1G46, Wm. Hilton, of Newbury, sells to Geo. Carr, 
 for one quarter of a vessel, "James, my Indian, with all the interest I 
 have in him, to be his servant for ever" (Scripture language). Earlier 
 still, Governor Winthrop wills to his son Adam the island called Governor's 
 Garden, and his Indians there," (' to take for an inheritance for his chil- 
 dren, and to be his servants for ever.') Read the following list of adver- 
 tisements, showing the fashions a century and more ago: — 
 
 " This day ran away from John McComb, Jr., an Indian woman, aged 
 about 17 years, of a middle stature, having on her druget waistcoat, and 
 kersey petticoats of a light color. If any person shall bring the said girl 
 to her said master, he shall be rewarded for his trouble to his content." — 
 American Weekly 3IeTCury, May 21 Lh, 1720. 
 
 "A servant maid, time four years, to be sold by John Copson." — Am. 
 Weekly Mercury, June 2d, 1724. 
 
 " A very likely negro woman to be sold, aged about 28 years, fit for 
 country or city business ; she can card, spin, knit, milk, and every other 
 country work. Whoever has a mind for said negro may repair to Andrew 
 Bradford, in Philadelphia." — Ibid, June 2d, 1724. 
 
 " A young negro woman to be sold by Samuel Kirk, in Second street, 
 Philadelphia." — Ibid. 
 
 "To be sold, a very likely negro woman, fit for all manner of house- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 33T 
 
 lition fire-eaters, conscience-smitten hypocrites, impostors, 
 disuuionists, traitors, and children of the devil 1 hide your faces 
 in shame, when he answers that it was none other than Samuel 
 
 work, as washing, starching, ironing," &c. " Inquire of Andrew Brad- 
 ford." — Ibid. 
 
 "A negro child of extraordinary good breeding to be given away. In- 
 quire of Edwards & Gill." — Boston Gazette, Feb. 25tk, 1765. 
 
 " To be sold, for want of employ, a likely negro fellow, about 25 years 
 of age ; he is an extraordinary good cook, and understands setting and 
 waiting on a table ; likewise all kinds of house-work. Also, a negro 
 wench, his wife, about 17 years of age, born in the city. For particulars 
 inquire at this office.," — A'ew York Gazette, March 2lst, 17G5. 
 
 •• To be sold, a hearty, strong negro weuch, fit for all kinds of work. 
 For particulars inquire," &c. — Fenn. Journal, Sept. 4ik, 1765. 
 
 No wonder slavery died out in New England and the other Free States. 
 Read the following inventory of prices. Suppose these slaves had been 
 worth from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars each, as they now are 
 in the Slave States. Slavery was never abolished in the Free States ; it 
 died a natural death, and they would now make a virtue of necessity. 
 
 "Price of Negroes. — The Homestead, published at Hartford, Conn., 
 has lately published an old document, which gives the price of farm stock 
 and negroes in that State, over 100 years ago. All the old thirteen 
 States, it will be remembered, were slave-holding until since the Revolu- 
 tion. The document in question is an inventory of the estate of Capt. 
 Thomas Wheeler, one of the richest men of his day, his estate being 
 valued at over $40,000. To show the great difference in the prices then 
 and now, we give the price of the slaves as found in the inventory, dated 
 December 11, 1755: — 
 
 "One negro man named Quash, $8.34; negro woman named Juno, 
 $2.75; negro woman named Cab, $139.06; negro man named Cezar, 
 $127.34; negro man named Cipeo, $152.78; negro woman named Hager, 
 $125; negro woman named Flora, .$105.50; negro woman named Sarah, 
 $133.34; negro woman named Jane, $125; negro woman named Cloe, 
 $125 ; negro boy named Pharo, $24 ; negro girl named Phillis, $50 ; ser- 
 vant mulatto boy Harry, $27.79; servant Indian woman Mary, $5.55." 
 
 "Ran away from Jacob Powers, Esq., on the 29th ult., a negro boy, 
 about 18 years old; was born in Hopkinton, and brought up by the Rev. 
 Mr. Barret ; his name is Ishmael ; he has been a soldier at the lake, is 
 thick set, has thick lips, and goes limping by reason of a toe of his having 
 been frosted, and is not yet well. He had on when he went away a shep- 
 herd yac^ei', leather breeches, checked woollen shirt, blue under-jacket, light 
 colored stockings, brass buckles in his shoes, and an old military cap. He 
 is an artful fellow, and will pass himself for a soldier, as he has carried 
 off his firelock and blanket. Whoever will take up the said negro and 
 bring him to his said master, or confine him in any one of his majesty's 
 jails, so that his master may get him, shall receive four dollars reward 
 ntid all charges paid." — Marblehead, Mass., Apr. 'Id, 1765. 
 
 " Francis Lewis has for sale a choice parcel of Muscovado and pow- 
 dered sugars, in hogsheads, tierces and barrels, and a negi'o woman and 
 boy." — Neio York Gazette, Apr. 'loth, 1765. 
 
 "Seventy Gold Coast slaves, of various ages and both sexes, to be sold 
 
 29 w 
 
338 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 Sewell, one of the judges who occupied the bench during the 
 trial of the Salem witches, and with whose concurrence nine- 
 teen innocent persons were hanged, and one, for refusing to 
 plead, pressed to death 1 
 
 It is sometimes erroneously asserted that the abolition cause 
 originated among the Quakers ; that they were, as a denomi- 
 nation, from the time of their settlement in this country under 
 Penn, opposed to slavery. But this, even if true, would only 
 prove that among the many wild and visionary theories which 
 distinguished them as a sect, they adopted that of abolition. 
 But it is not true. Opposition to slavery sprang up among 
 them at a comparatively recent date. "William Penn lived and 
 died a slave-owner. Says Mr. Matlack, an aged Friend : — 
 
 "The practice of slave-keeping in Pennsylvania and New 
 Jersey commenced with the first settlement of the Province, and 
 certainly was countenanced by William Penn. . . . Penn left 
 a family of slaves behind him. . . . Slave-keeping, of course, 
 became general among the Friends."^ 
 
 Says Mr. Graham: "Negro slavery lingered along in the 
 settlements of the Puritans in New England, and of the Quakers 
 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, although in none of these 
 States did the climate or soil, or its appropriate culture, suggest 
 the same temptations to its inhumanity which presented them- 
 selves in the southern quarter of America. Las Casas first 
 suggested its introduction into Mexico and Peru ; George Fox, 
 the most intrepid and enthusiastic of reformers, demanded no 
 more of his followers than a mitigation of its rigors in Barba- 
 does ; and the illustrious philosopher, John Locke, renowned 
 as a champion of religious and political freedom, introduced 
 an express sanction of it into the fundamental Constitution of 
 South Carolina."^ 
 
 The clause in the Constitution of Mr. Locke for South 
 Carolina, reads as follows : — 
 
 on board ship, at Plumstead's Wharf, by Willing & Morris." — Penn. 
 Journal, Aug. 18<A, 1765. 
 
 "To be sold, a negi-o man that understands cooking, house-work, &c. ; 
 also a grown negro girl ; both have had the small-pox." — Mass. Gazette, 
 Auff. 29th, 1769. 
 
 See, also, copy of a deed of sale from Mrs. Elizabeth Treat to Mr. 
 Samuel Brooks, of Boston, of a negro man named Harry, for the sum of 
 twenty-five pounds ($125), in 1770. Historical and literary curiosities, 
 Boston Genealogical Library. 
 
 1 Letter of T. Matlack to William Findley, Hist. Coll. 
 
 2 Graham's Colonial History. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE VNITED STATES. 339 
 
 ** Every freeman shall have absolute power and authority over 
 his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever." 
 
 Abolition, then, did not take its rise in the patriotism, learn- 
 ing or religion of the past. J^o ; it was the offspring of 
 bigotry and intolerance, and lives and has its being in injustice 
 and persecution. It is enough that Sewell was the father of the 
 creed. ^ 
 
 From the foregoing facts (gathered from various sources of 
 Colonial antiquities) we may infer what was the state of feeling 
 among the leading men of the nation upon the subject of slavery 
 and the slave-trade, at the time of the formation of the Federal 
 Government, and what course of national policy they would 
 desire to adopt with regard to the same. Already, in their 
 early Colonial Confederation, had they provided for the resti- 
 tution of fugitive slaves. But there was yet no free territory 
 in which they could take refuge. If such a provision was 
 necessary while there was yet no place of refuge, much more 
 would it be when they came to have a long coast adjacent to 
 them in which it had been prohibited by law. Consequently 
 we find a strenuous opposition to the passage of the Ordinance 
 of IT 87 for the government of the North- West Territory, in 
 which it was proposed to prohibit slavery. History informs us 
 that this proviso was, after being thrice defeated, smuggled 
 into the bill by Northern votes, after the old Congress had be- 
 come but a ghost of its former power. Nathan Dane was the 
 last mover of the proviso as it was finally adopted. It was at 
 first proposed by Mr. Jetferson in 1785, while the Southern 
 States were fully represented, and this proviso was stricken out, 
 every Southern State voting against it, and every Southern 
 delegate except Mr. Jefferson. It was revived again the fol- 
 lowing year by Rufus King, also of Massachusetts, but no final 
 action appears to have been had upon it. And Nathan Dane, 
 in 1787, again brought up the subject; it was at first agreed 
 to strike out the proviso, but, ou a reconsideration, it was 
 adopted in its present form ; but not even then till the abettors 
 of the Act had so far compromised with its opponents as to 
 provide, in the same Act, for the restitution of fugitive slaves 
 that might escape into the territory.* ' 
 
 The Convention had been assembled about three months at 
 
 1 By these Abolitionists are meant those fanatics who make it a matter 
 of conscience to avoid the law, and to adopt a political, moral and 
 religious hobby. 
 
 2 But how have they kept the compact in the State of Ohio ? See 
 speech of Mr. Calhoun on the Oregon bill, 1848. 
 
340 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 Philadelphia when this Ordinance was finally passed ; all the 
 leading men of the nation, such as Hamilton, Madison, et 
 genus omne, had left to occupy their seats in the Convention. 
 The old hall at Annapolis was left forsaken and desolate ; the 
 old obsolete Congress, with scarce a corporal's guard left, 
 eighteen members only remaining, the refuse delegation of eight 
 only of the thirteen States. It was well known that all the 
 great and leading features of the present Constitution had been 
 formed and agreed upon in the Convention ; they had been 
 publicly discussed and commented upon throughout the country. 
 The federal basis of representation, which so much excited the 
 fears and dread of the North, was one ; the perpetuity of the 
 slave-trade till 1808 was another. It was under such circum- 
 stances that the old defunct Congress, gasping in the struggles 
 of approaching dissolution, with just strength enough to invite 
 the agonies of death, by the craft of Nathan Dane and the 
 abolition confederates who were left, adopted this ungrateful 
 and perfidious Act. 
 
 It was thus smuggled upon the statute-book, to the great 
 injury and injustice of the Southern States, particularly Vir- 
 ginia. It was passed, said Mr. Calhoun, without the legiti- 
 mate number of States requisite, under the Articles of Confe- 
 deration, to pass such an Act : it was declared by Mr. Madison 
 to be void of constitutional authority. 
 
 The nation was then struggling with poverty, with a bank- 
 rupt treasury and broken-down credit ; overwhelmed with the 
 debt of the war. Virginia., North and South Carolina, and 
 Georgia nobly came to the rescue ; Yirginia alone ceded to 
 the United States an extent of public domain more than twice 
 the amount of the whole territorial limits of the Government 
 at that time, out of which to pay the national debt and reple- 
 nish the treasury. But what gratitude did she receive in 
 return, but this prescriptive Act over the very territory which 
 she had so munificently ceded away ? — an Act that precluded 
 all her own citizens from entering upon the soil of this vast 
 territory, without foregoing the riglit and privilege of taking 
 their own property with them. What compensation has ever 
 been given to the citizens of the Slave States for being peremp- 
 torily denied the privilege, in common with the citizens of the 
 several States, of emigrating with their property to this terri- 
 tory, while it was the common property of the Union ? Will 
 it be said that this ordinance provided for the return of fugi- 
 tive slaves ? But by whom has that compact been violated ? 
 How many of the Free States have adhered to this promise, 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 341 
 
 either in the ordinance of 11 ST or as provided by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States? Again, in 1188, the subject of 
 the fugitive slave law was brought before Congress : there 
 seemed to be a plain and manifest disposition on the part of 
 all the leading men of the nation, at that time, to protect this 
 species of property from being lost by escape, whenever there 
 was danger. The subject came up before Congress in the 
 following manner : 
 
 " On the report of a committee consisting of Mr. Ilamilton, 
 Mr. Sedgwick, and Mr. Madison, to whom was referred a 
 report of the Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs, 
 of the 1st inst., Resolved, that the Secretary of the Depart- 
 ment of Foreign Affairs be directed to transmit copies of the 
 papers referred to in his said report, to the Charg(§ d'Aftaires 
 of the United States at Madrid, and instruct him to represent 
 to his Catholic Majesty the inconvenience which the States 
 bordering on his dominions experience from the asylum there 
 afforded to the fugitive negroes belonging to the citizens of 
 those States ; and that Congress have full confidence that 
 orders will be forthwith given to his governors, to permit and. 
 facilitate their being apprehended and delivered to persons 
 authorized to receive them ; assuring his Majesty that the said 
 States will assure the like conduct respecting all such negroes 
 belonging to his subjects as may be found therein. Resolved, 
 further, that the said Secretary be instructed to communicate 
 the said papers to the Encargado de Negocioa of Spain, and 
 to signify to him that his interposition to obtain proper regu- 
 lations upon this subject, would be very agreeable to Congress. 
 Aug. 26, 1188.'" 
 
 Thus did Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Madison labor in concert 
 to secure protection to the slave-holder: they had the territo- 
 rial compact on the North — they sought to negotiate this 
 treaty with Spain on the South : they would leave no place of 
 refuge unguarded, no asylum where the fugitives could not be 
 reached. The same provision had already been inserted in the 
 Constitution of the United States, to operate as a compact 
 among the States. The influence and instrumentality of Mr. 
 Hamilton and Mr. Madison, in originating, completing, and 
 finally carrying the several provisions of that instrument, in 
 the Convention and with the States, no one will pretend to 
 dispute. What, then, was the sentiment that pervaded the 
 Convention and the States upon this subject, at that time ? 
 
 1 Works of Alexander Hamilton, vol. ii. p. 472. 
 
 29* 
 
342 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 If there was such a spirit of hostility to the institution enter- 
 tained by the Fathers of the Republic as is pretended, how 
 came they to assent to the continuance of the African slave- 
 trade for nearly twenty years after the formation of the Con- 
 stitution ? At the first Congress under the Federal Constitu- 
 tion, in 1790, petitions were presented by some of the Quakers 
 of Pennsylvania, for the interference of Congress with slavery : 
 they were referred to a committee of all northern men, who 
 reported unfavorably upon them ; and it was resolved, that 
 Congress could not prohibit the importation of slaves prior to 
 1808, nor interfere with slavery in the States.^ 
 
 We have seen something of the spirit of English jurispru- 
 dence relating to this species of property. Says Chief-Justice 
 Marshall: "When our forefathers emigrated to this country, 
 they brought with them the common law." It pervaded every 
 portion of the social and political fabric, and filled up every 
 interstice in the whole system : it was the first breath that gave 
 life to the Republic — the soul that first inhabited the body 
 politic. Jurists and statesmen breathed its elements and toiled 
 in its spirit. Whence came the evil genius, then, among the 
 framers of the Constitution and early national legislators, to 
 circumvent and paralyze the institution of slavery? What 
 could have moved them to labor to break down this system — 
 to wantonly destroy three hundred and fifty millions of private 
 property, and leave the country to bewail its own desolation, 
 and the people to weep over their blighted prospects ? Were 
 such the boasted sentiments, the high-toned patriotism of the 
 age, that the thirteen original States (which were then all 
 slave-holding States) should enter into a solemn confederation, 
 and give their sanction and plighted faith to the stipulations 
 of the civil compact ; that the people should afterwards ratify 
 and confirm the provisions of a Constitution the avowed spirit 
 and object of which was to cripple and prostrate the domestic 
 institutions of these several States ? Why, then, was the slave- 
 trade permitted for twenty years ? Why did Hamilton and 
 Madison, and the great men of the age, strive to throw up, 
 as it were, a national bulwark, upon the northern and southern 
 frontier of the slave States, to prevent the loss of fugitives by 
 escaping into territory beyond their jurisdiction ? We are 
 
 1 See Webster's Reply to Hayne. See also the several Acts of Con- 
 gress, and opinions of the Fathers of the Republic, enumerated above, 
 on pages 325 et seq. : they illustrate the views and feelings of the states- 
 men of that age upon the subject. They never refused to recognize tho 
 rights of the South to their fullest extent. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 343 
 
 often referred to the ordinance of lYST, as an index of the 
 spirit of the age. Of what authority was this ordinance, 
 passed under the circumstances that it was, and what have 
 been its practical effects ? In accordance with the opinion of 
 Mr. Madison, it has been totally disregarded, even by some 
 of the States and territories formed out of the North-west 
 Territory. When Illinois was organized into a territorial 
 government, it established and protected slavery, and main- 
 tained it in spite of the ordinance and in defiance of its express 
 prohibitions. In the constitution of Illinois, with which that 
 State was admitted into the Union, it was provided that all 
 slaves then in the State should remain slaves for life ; that all 
 persons born of slave parents, after a certain day, should 
 be free at a certain age ; and that all persons born in the 
 State, after a certain other day, should be free from their 
 birth. Thus, this State Constitution, as well as the territorial 
 law, repudiated this Wilmot Proviso in the ordinance of IVST 
 — the one receiving the direct and the other the indirect sanc- 
 tion of Congress.^ And thus the General Government, to say 
 the least, has been accessory to these acts of repudiation. 
 Congress have also repudiated this proviso in the ordinance 
 in every instance when they have directly legislated upon the 
 subject, since the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States, except in the case of Oregon. 
 
 Now, if it was the intended policy of the fraraers of the 
 Constitution and the early legislators of the nation, to carry out 
 what are called free-soil principles, to prohibit the extension 
 of slavery into the territories ceded to the Union for the pur- 
 pose of being organized into new States, as is asserted by the 
 abolitionists, why was such not the practice in the early history 
 of the Government ? If Congress intended really to prohibit 
 slavery in the territory north and west of the Ohio river, how 
 was it on the south? why did they repudiate this proviso 
 there ? 
 
 In organizing the territorial government of Mississippi, in 
 1798, the ordinance of 1787 was expressly applied to it, with 
 the exception of Article 6th, that prohibited the introduction 
 of slavery : that was omitted. - 
 
 1 Illinois, in 1818, when admitted into the Union, had 1000 slaves: 
 Indiana also had a number. See Census U. S. 1850, p. is. 
 
 2 Justice Curtis, in his dissenting opinion in the Dred Scott case, has 
 instanced this and similar acts as an indirect interference with slavery in 
 the territories; but no, they leave it as they find it. 10 House Rep. p. 
 619. If Congress, by simply extending the ordinance of 1787 over cer- 
 
344 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 Here, then, is an act of Congress — under Washington and 
 the early presidents, during the infancy of the Republic, and 
 under the administration of the elder Adams — showing that, 
 in the Southern territories, or those south of the Ohio River, 
 ceded to the Union by Yirginia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
 lina, and Georgia, the right to hold slaves was clearly implied 
 and recognized. It will be seen, also, by looking into the ter- 
 ritorial bill of 1805, establishing the government of the terri- 
 tory of Orleans, embracing the same section of country now 
 known as the State of Louisiana, that this celebrated ordinance 
 was expressly extended to that territory, excepting the 6th sec- 
 tion, relating to the prohibition of slavery, which was again 
 omitted. And when Congress came to form a government for 
 the remainder of the Louisiana purchase, subsequently known 
 as the Missouri Territory, north of the 33d parallel, they did 
 not extend this ordinance to it at all. The people were, at 
 first, to be governed by laws made by their governors and 
 judges, and when the territorial government was finally organ- 
 ized by Congress in 1812, the people were left to do as they 
 pleased upon the subject of slavery, when they formed their 
 State constitutions. Illinois and Indiana, as we have seen, 
 also repudiated the anti-slavery proviso in this ordinance, on 
 the ground probably taken by Mr. Madison, that it was of no 
 constitutional authority, and it is asserted there were some 
 slaves also in Ohio. The Territory of Iowa was formed from 
 that of Wisconsin, which was taken from the old Michigan 
 Territory, or part of the Virginia cession. Congress, in form- 
 ing the government of Iowa, did not legislate upon the subject 
 of slavery ; here, again, was omitted the anti-slavery proviso 
 of the Ordinance of 1*781. Though the ordinance was carried 
 into effect there, yet the very clause that transfers it, also makes 
 it subject to be altered, modified, or repealed by the Territorial 
 Legislature ; leaving the people free to act upon the suljject of 
 slavery, subject only to the Constitution and laws of the United 
 States. The Oregon Bill is also referred to as an evidence of 
 the anti-slavery policy of the Federal Government. But here, 
 unfortunately for this position, the people, in their sovereign 
 capacity, had anticipated any action of the General Govern- 
 ment upon this subject. They had lived twelve years without 
 
 tain territories, without omission, intended positively to re-enact and 
 enforce the anti-proviso in the same, how could it consistently approve 
 of the Constitutions of Indiana and Illinois, which repudiated it? These 
 acts only show that the effect of this ordinance was left to be determined, 
 under the Constitution, by the judiciary, not by the legislatures. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 345 
 
 any act of Congress to give them a government, or protection ; 
 in the mean time, they organized one of their own ; and, by 
 virtue of their own laws, passed by their own representatives, 
 before the United States extended its jurisdiction over them, 
 they prohibited slavery by a unanimous vote, right or wrong. 
 
 It is true, the northern members of Congress, through their 
 zeal for the triumph of certain free-soil tenets, partially re- 
 enacted this law by the passage of the Oregon Bill'; but for 
 what practical purpose no one can tell ; it was like the re-enact- 
 ing a law of Nature ; as well might they have provided in this 
 factious bill that the sun shall continue to rise and set in Ore- 
 gon, and that no tropical fruits shall be cultivated there. ^ But 
 this was the first and only triumph of the proscriptive policy of 
 their Abolition agitators, and God grant that it may be the last. 
 How was it in California ? The people were left to act upon 
 the true principles of self-government, and they coolly and dis- 
 passionately decided to prohibit slavery. In IJtah, New Mexi- 
 co, and Nebraska, the people have been also left free to adopt 
 or reject the institution in the State constitutions when formed, 
 as their feelings and best interests may dictate, without congres- 
 sional interference. 
 
 The first departure from the true line of policy, intended by 
 the framers of the Constitution, was, in the interference of Con- 
 gress with the subject of slavery by the act known as the Mis- 
 souri Compromise. The application of that State for admis- 
 sion into the Union was with a true republican form, and upon 
 strict principles of constitutional self-government. But the 
 spirit of faction and dissension raged to such an alarming ex- 
 tent at that period, that it was in vain to appeal to paper com- 
 pacts, or political obligations, to control it ; men's prejudices had 
 become so strong, their zeal and enthusiasm so overheated and 
 violent in the din of conflict and the strife of angry and jarring 
 passions, that the foundations of the political fabric were fast 
 breaking away, and the whole system was likely to be precipi- 
 tated into anarchy and civil commotion, or resolved, i)erhaps, 
 into its original elements : the embankments had fairly given 
 way ; the current was sweeping with terrible impetuosity tlirough 
 the crevasse, threatening to- deluge the face of the nation with 
 its frightful flood. At this critical juncture, some scheme must 
 be devised to check the headlong and wreckless career of poli- 
 
 1 The tempestuous and angry debate upon this party strife for supre- 
 macy, was a waste of the public fund. The Supreme Court of the United 
 States have recently decided in the Dred Scott Case that Congress has no 
 power to exclude slavery from the territories : hence this Oregon Bill is so 
 far unconstitutional. 
 
346 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 tical fanaticism. The occasion called for the exercise of tact 
 and temporizing policy, equal to that of the most critical mili- 
 tary juncture upon the field of battle. Under this species of 
 duress, to save the nation, the States, and the people from the 
 impending catastrophe of a revolutionary dissolution of the 
 Union, it was reluctantly conceded that the parallel of 36° 30' 
 should be the dividing line between slave and free territory in 
 the Louisiana purchase. But this was not acquiesced in upon 
 constitutional principles, and as a matter of right, but merely 
 adopted as a temporizing expedient, as the least of two evils. 
 Can it be supposed that it was the intention of Mr. Jefferson, 
 when he paid fifteen millions of the people's money for this 
 lovely tract of country, that the Southern States should be ex- 
 cluded from so large a portion ? After speaking of his quiet 
 repose from public labors, he says of the Missouri question : 
 "This momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awa- 
 kened me and filled me with terror ; I considered it at once the 
 knell of the Union. It is, indeed, hushed for a moment, but 
 this is a reprieve, not a final sentence. A geographical line 
 coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once 
 conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never 
 be obliterated ; and every new irritation will mark it deeper 
 and deeper." 
 
 Again, he says, speaking of the Spanish Treaty, and some 
 other topics of the day : " These are all small waves that will 
 pass under the ship ; but the Missouri question is a breaker on 
 which we lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what more 
 God only knows." 
 
 That this restriction upon the admission of Missouri into 
 the Union was unjust and in violation of the spirit of the Con- 
 stitution, and was so considered, but adopted as a temporary 
 expedient, appears from the opinions of the ablest constitutional 
 lawyers of that day. 
 
 Says Mr. Monroe: " My decided opinion is, that all the 
 States composing our Union, new as well as old, must have 
 equal rights, ceding to the General Government an equal share 
 of power, and retaining to themselves the like, that they cannot 
 be incorporated into the Union on different principles or con- 
 ditions. Should a bill pass admitting Missouri, subject to re- 
 straint, I shall have no difficulty in the course to be pursued ; 
 uor shall I, in any future case, respecting the admission of any 
 new State as to its rights as a State. "^ 
 
 1 See Mr. Monroe's Letter to Judge Roane, of Va., dated Washington. 
 Feb. leth, 1820. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 347 
 
 And, accordingly, after the passage of the Missouri bill, 
 President Monroe prepared the draft of a veto message, from 
 which is quoted the following extract : — 
 
 " Having fully considered the bill, entitled, &c., and disap- 
 proving of it, I now return it, &c. * * The Constitution, in 
 providing that new States may be admitted into the Union as 
 is done in the third section of the fourth article, intended that 
 they should be admitted with all the rights and immunities of 
 the original States — retaining, like them, all their powers as 
 to their local government, and ceding to the United States, in 
 the General Government, all the powers ceded to it by the 
 Constitution. 
 
 " That if conditions of a character, not applicable to the ori- 
 ginal States, should be imposed on new States, an inequality 
 would be imposed or created lessening, in a degree, the right 
 of State sovereignty, which would be always degrading to such 
 new States, and which, operating as a condition of its admis- 
 sion, its incorporation would be incomplete, and would also be 
 annulled, and such new State be severed from the Union, should 
 it afterwards assume equality, and exercise that right of sove- 
 reignty acknowledged to belong to the original States." ^ 
 
 Mr. Monroe applies the same objections to the interference 
 of Congress with slavery in the territories. He says it is 
 designed to act as a restraint upon the future policy of the new 
 States to be formed out of those territories, calculated directly 
 to injure many of the States in interests recognized and pro- 
 tected by the Constitution and in direct violation of the spirit 
 of that instrument. 
 
 No one but a bigot can fail to see the truth of this demon- 
 stration, no one but a fanatic can fail to acknowledge its 
 political force.^ Says Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina : 
 
 " I cannot on any grounds think of agreeing to a compro- 
 mise on this subject. However we may all wish to see Missouri 
 admitted as she ought, on equal terms with the other States, 
 that is a very unimportant object to her compared with keeping 
 the Constitution inviolable, with keeping the hands of Congress 
 
 1 See Speech of Mr. Keitt, of S. C, on Nebraska Bill, March 30, 1854. 
 
 - Tlie recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
 Dred Scott case, has affirmed this doctrine to its fullest extent : the Court 
 held in that case that the Missouri restriction was a violation of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, and that a negro is not a citizen of the 
 United States in the meaning of the Constitution ; that ours is a govern- 
 ment for the -white man ; and that African slaves are property. This 
 opinion of the Court should be read by every one. 
 
348 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 from touching the subject of slavery. On the subject of the 
 Constitution, no compromise should ever be made — neither can 
 any be made on the national faith, so seriously involved in 
 the treaty which gives to Louisiana, to every part of it, a right 
 to be incorporated into the Union on equal terms with the 
 other States. "1 
 
 But why then did President Monroe finally give his assent 
 to the Missouri restriction ? He was driven to it as a tempo- 
 rary expedient to save the Union, but such an acquiescence is 
 no acknowledgment of the right. He says, in the same letter 
 to Judge Roane : 
 
 "As to the part which I may act in all circumstances in 
 which I may be placed (in relation to the Missouri restriction), 
 I have not made up my mind, nor shall I, till the period arrives 
 for me to act, then I shall weigh well the injunctions of the 
 Constitution, which, according to my understanding of them, 
 will be conclusive with me. The next consideration with me 
 will be the preservation of the Union.'' ^ 
 
 Mr. Calhoun in a speech in the United States Senate, in 
 1841, reiterated this same sentiment ; he says, " Sir, let me say 
 a word on the Compromise line ; / have always considered it 
 a great error — highly injurious to the South, because it sur- 
 rendered, for mere temporary purposes, those high principles 
 of the Constitution on which I think we ought to stand. I am 
 against any compromise line, yet I would have been willing to 
 acquiesce in a continuation of the Missouri Compromise in 
 order to preserve the peace of the country." 
 
 But Mr. Jefferson was mistaken in his prophecy, when he 
 said, "Every new irritation would serve to mark it deeper and 
 deeper." He could not foresee the point to which the mad 
 career of Abolition phrenzy would drive its devotees. When 
 the subject came up again, in relation to the section of country 
 between the Rio Del Norte and the Pacific Ocean, acquired 
 from Mexico, the total abrogation of this compromise was the 
 watchword of the Abolitionists. The principle of this pre- 
 tended mutual concession, and in fact the division line itself, 
 instead of being marked deeper and deeper, as the true and 
 real division line between the conflicting elements that raged 
 on either side, had become totally obliterated from the memory 
 of the free-soil party. 
 
 Immediately after the acquisition of this vast extent of 
 
 1 See Speech of Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, March 30, 1854, in House 
 of Representatives. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 349 
 
 Mexican territory, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Douj^las of 
 Illinois, voted into a bill, a provision to extend the Missouri 
 Compromise line indefinitely westward to the Pacific Ocean, in 
 the same sense and with the same understanding with which it 
 was originally adopted ; but when this resolution was submitted 
 to the House, it was voted down by free-soil votes. Here, 
 certainly, the prophecy of Mr. Jeflerson did not prove true. 
 In the annexation of Texas, in 184.5, this line had been still 
 extended through that territory to the Rio Del Norte ; but here, 
 for the first time since its adojjtion, had it been disregarded by 
 Congress ; here, for the first time, had it been openly abjured 
 and abandoned by even the Abolitionists. In the height of 
 their zeal, in an evil hour, they resolved that the Slave States 
 henceforth should possess no right, title, or interest in, and to, 
 the common territory of the Union, and that their citizens 
 should be excluded from the same. Not content with our coat, 
 they went upon the literal Scripture principle that we ought to 
 give them our cloak also. But, unfortunately for them, they 
 overreached the mai'k — in chasing the shadow they lost the 
 substance. Says Mr. Douglas : "By whom was the Missouri 
 Compromise defeated in 1848 ? By Northern votes with free- 
 soil proclivities. It was this defeat of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise that re-opened the slavery agitation in all its fury, it was 
 this defeat of the Missouri Compromise that gave rise to the 
 tremendous struggle in 1850. It was this defeat of the Missouri 
 Compromise that gave rise to the necessity of the compromise 
 in 1850. 
 
 " Had we been faithful to the Missouri Compromise in 1848, 
 the question would never have arisen (in organizing the 
 government of Kansas and Nebraska), who was it that was 
 faithless ? I undertake to say that it was the very men who 
 now insist that the Missouri Compromise was a solemn com- 
 pact that should never have been departed from. Every nuui 
 who is now assailing the principles of the bill under considera- 
 tion (the Nebraska bill), so far as I am informed, opposed the 
 Missouri Compromise in 1848. The very men who now 
 arraign me for a departure from that Compromise, are the men 
 who successfully violated and repudiated it in 1848, and caused 
 it to be superseded by the Compromise of 1850. . . . Then, 
 sir, as I before remarked, the defeat of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise of 1848, having given rise to the necessity for the estab- 
 lishment of a new one in 1850, let us see what that compromise 
 was. The leading feature of the Compromise of 1850 was 
 Congressional non-interference as to slavery in the territories, 
 30 
 
350 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 that the people of the territories, and of all the States, were to 
 be allowed to do as they pleased upon the subject of slavery, 
 subject only to the Constitution and laws of the United States." 
 
 Thus has Mr. Jefferson's prophecy proved as false as the 
 theory on which it was based. Instead of " every irritation'' s 
 inarking it deeper and deeper,''^ it has had a tendency to 
 obliterate it. He overlooked the great principle of popular 
 governments, that when an ascendant faction once depart from 
 the just and true line of policy, they are never satisfied with 
 their aggressions, and every new agitation is not to keep what 
 they have got but to get something more, till the wrong becomes 
 so apparent, and the outrage so flagrant, as to produce a 
 reaction ; then the people seize upon the occasion to right them- 
 selves, by their virtue and intelligence to return to the path of 
 rectitude, by their capacity for self-government to correct 
 popular error, to bring back the laws and institutions of the 
 country to their correct and legitimate position. It is this salvo 
 of popular power and policy that has corrected the error of 
 Congressional interference upon the subject of slavery. 
 
 But let us inquire what would have been the present condition 
 of the country had that course of policy been pursued from the 
 formation of the government, which is contended for by the 
 free-soil party of the present day. There were at the adoption 
 of the Constitution, about seven hundred thousand slaves found 
 in greater or less numbers in every one of the thirteen original 
 States. At a reasonable estimate this amount of taxable pro- 
 perty could not have been estimated at less than three hundred 
 millions of dollars. For the loss of such an amount of private 
 property, the nation, bankrupt as it was from the heavy debt 
 of the war, was totally unable to make any compensation, had 
 it been disposed to do away with the institution. Its existence 
 must therefore be tolerated, and this vast amount of property 
 recognized and protected by the Constitution. It is a well- 
 established principle in politics as well as civil jurisprudence, 
 that the Constitution and law of the land recognize no evasion 
 of their own provisions; "the law permits nothing to he done 
 indirectly that cannot he done directly.'''' Suppose, then, the 
 government of the United States had attempted at the outset 
 to limit the territorial extent of slavery to the thirteen original 
 States ; that from all new territory that might thereafter be 
 acquired in any manner by the United States, slavery should 
 be excluded ; what would have been the effect of such a pro- 
 hibition upon the increase and future prospects of this vast 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 351 
 
 amount of property, witliiu the pale of the Constitution and 
 of the States in which this species of property still exists ? 
 The slave population throughout the United States at the 
 present day cannot number less than four millions of persons ; 
 figures would fail to give any adequate idea of the real value 
 of this mass of property. But Instead of being restricted, as 
 it would have been under the free-soil policy, to the si.x original 
 States, where it is still retained, it is spread over the face of 
 nine more of the most luxuriant and productive States that 
 have since been admitted into the Union. Instead of the pre- 
 sent prosperous and thriving condition of all the Slave States, 
 instead of the four millions of the present comparatively happy 
 and contented slave population in all these States ; under this 
 proscriptive policy, it requires no stretch of imagination to see 
 what would have been the mournful history of both the master 
 and the slave. 
 
 The rigor of the climate and the character of the soil in the 
 Eastern and Middle States could not foster the institution : it 
 would, as is evident, necessarily die out there, like plants trans- 
 planted from a warmer to a colder region, uncongenial to their 
 nature. The constant tendency of the negro race in those 
 States is to become extinct, as we see by the different censuses 
 taken of the inhabitants. The six Southern States then would 
 have been left with the whole burden of the present four millions 
 of slaves and free black population, instead of being distributed 
 as they now are over the vast territory of the entire Slave 
 States. Under this prohibitory policy these old Slave States 
 would have been overwhelmed with a slave population, with no 
 outlet, no means of selling or disposing of them, that would 
 ultimately have destroyed this species of property as such. 
 Such an undermining course of policy would have cut off all 
 prospects of the present wealthy and flourishing condition of 
 the Southern States. It is conceded by all acquainted with the 
 South, that no system of free labor could, in the same time, 
 have pushed the conquests of civilization so far through the 
 then sultry and epidemic regions along upon the Gulf coast and 
 upon the banks of the Mississippi. No constitution Ijut the 
 African's can endure constant toil beneath the burning sun in 
 this sultry clime. And but for this system of compnlsory^labor, 
 where now smile those beautiful flower-gardens of the South- 
 West, where now her boundless fields are whitened as the driven 
 snow, with the great staple of the South, or laden with their 
 heavy yields of corn and sugar-cane, the Chickasaw, Cherokee, 
 
352 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 and Choctaw, might still roam beneath the deep shades of her 
 lonely forests "with none to molest or make hira afraid."^ 
 
 Was such the plighted faith when the States united under 
 the common banner of the Union ? Could it have entered into 
 the genius and spirit of the civil compact, at the formation ol 
 the Federal Government, to undermine and overthrow the do- 
 mestic institutions of the States ; to weaken their power ; 
 1)reak down their future prospects for wealth and general 
 prosperity; to destroy their property, by circumscribing its 
 limits ; and leave the fairest portion of their country in deso- 
 lation and waste ? "Was it for this that some of the original 
 States ceded away the fairest portions of the Union ? Far 
 from it. They sought refuge from all danger and protection 
 from all injury under the common flag of their nation ; they 
 rallied around its standard, streaming over them in the breeze, 
 with the sacred preamble upon it: "We, the people of these 
 United States, in order to form a more perfect Union ; to esta- 
 blish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, to provide for 
 the Common Defence and General Welfare, &c. * * 
 Do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States 
 of America." 
 
 Whatever is destructive to the property interests of any 
 State, is subversive of its resources of wealth, independence, 
 and power. Would it, then, have been conducive to the 
 general welfare of the States, to have sacrificed this wealth, 
 destroyed their most valuable property interests, and cut off all 
 hope of future prosperity ? Would it have established justice 
 
 1 We had intended to prepare some statistics upon the effects of British 
 emancipation in the West Indies, but finding that it will extend this work 
 bejond its proper limits, we can make but a brief reference to that sub- 
 ject. The reader will find the subject fully treated in a report of the 
 West India Association of Glasgow, April 14, 1853 ; he will there find the 
 tables showing the number of estates that have been abandoned and gone 
 to waste since that act took effect, also the depressed and wretched con- 
 dition of these islands. Who can read it and then honestly contend for 
 the efiicacy of free labor with a negro population! The British governor 
 of Jamaica recommends the importation of fugitive slaves from Canada, 
 to instruct, enlighten, and improve the Creole population of that Island. 
 (See Essay on Treatment of Negroes, sup. p. 231.) Hence, we say, that 
 without compulsory labor, many of the new Slave States coitld not have 
 been populated. Without these new Slave States, whence would the world 
 supply its present demand for cotton ? where would be obtained the three 
 or four millions of bales of cotton that now feed and clothe nations ? and 
 what would be the condition of the millions of population and tens of 
 millions of capital now employed in its manufacture ? Who can estimate 
 its loss to the world ? 
 
SLAVERY IX THE UNITED STATES. 353 
 
 among' tliem, to have forever prohibited their citizens from 
 entering upon those beautiful and fertile lands that stretched 
 away from their boundaries towards the setting sun ? Whence 
 have those wealthy and flourishing Slave States upon the Ohio, 
 the Mississippi, and the Gulf of Mexico, been peopled? By 
 whose industry, wealth, and enterprise have they been consti- 
 tuted, in proportion to the number of their inhabitants, some 
 of the most interesting and important States of the Union ? 
 And how have the two millions of slave population that inha- 
 bit them found their way into this territory ? Were they car- 
 ried there by the effect of any statute law of any Slate or 
 nation ? They rather flowed in there, like every other species 
 of property, simply because there was no law to prevent it : 
 slaves first found their way into these new States and territo- 
 ries in the same manner and by the same right that they first 
 fonnd their way into the New England and other States, during 
 their early colonial existence. How did slavery originate in 
 Massachusetts, and how did it cease to exist in that State ? 
 Was there ever any statute law of the State or nation upon 
 that subject ? Did any law, during the existence of slavery in 
 all the States, ever prohibit the free emigration of citizens from 
 State to State, and taking their property with them ? Now, 
 because slavery was not profitable, and could not continue to 
 exist in Massachusetts and the other Free States, but survived 
 and flourished in Virginia and the Southern States, would it 
 not have been the height of "injustick" for Congress to have 
 prohibited the citizens of those States from emigrating with 
 their property to those beautiful and luxuriant climes and 
 countries that lay to their south and west ? Were they never 
 to set foot in the Hesperian Gardens that now lie in the beau- 
 tiful Yalley of the Mississippi ? Were the vast Elysian Fields 
 of the South-west to sleep forever in an untrod wilderness, in- 
 accessible to the footsteps of civilized man, to gratify the 
 whims and caprices of an Abolition sect in the Free States ? 
 Is such doctrine compatible with the great spirit, the just, 
 liberal, and comprehensive views of Washington and his com- 
 patriots ? 
 
 But this proscriptive policy, if unjust then is unjust still ; 
 and the same reasoning may be applied, half a century hence, 
 to the present condition of the States and territories, that \ve 
 have applied to the condition of the country from the begin- 
 ning. Who can reside but for a single year upon the banks 
 of t"he great Father of Waters, at one of the crossings of the 
 great thoroughfare of the immense tide of emigration that has 
 30* " X ^ 
 
354 THE POLITICAL AND JXJDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 been for years setting westward from the old Slave States, to 
 seek new fields and a virgin soil in the immense territory even 
 beyond the Mississippi, and not feel the weight of injustice 
 and the severe calamity that would befall these people, were 
 they denied this privilege ; and not realize the fact that it 
 would be the death-blow and knell of their future prospects ? 
 
 The soil, from long cultivation, in some of the old Slave 
 States, is fast becoming exhausted. In the States of North 
 and South Carolina, Georgia, and even in Alabama and parts 
 of Mississippi, large tracts of country, for this reason, must 
 be annually abandoned, and the inhabitants are compelled to 
 seek new and fresh lands to reward their labors.^ Millions 
 and millions of acres of the richest and most productive lands 
 upon the face of the globe, that have for years, and will for 
 hundreds of years to come, lay unoccupied in the West, invite 
 them, by the most tempting rewards, to seek new homes in 
 these vast realms of the public domain. Whoever has wit- 
 nessed them moving on, in caravans of hundreds in a company, 
 with their men-servants and their maid-servants, and their cat- 
 tle and their horses, and their train of wagons for miles arrayed 
 in a line of march, like the children of Israel in pursuit of the 
 promised land, can feel most sensibly the weight of the death- 
 blow that would be inflicted upon the industry, wealth, and 
 enterprise of these States, were their citizens denied this 
 privilege. 
 
 But why should Congress be asked to cut off this fruitful 
 source of public revenue, arising from the sale of the public 
 lands, and to deny the citizens of the Slave States the common 
 right of the citizens of the several States, to emigrate to the 
 new territories which can alone secure value to their property 
 and success to their labors ? It is asked for the reason that 
 they possess a species of property that does not meet the con- 
 scientious views of the people of those States where it has been 
 proven that it cannot exist. ^ But, say they, slavery in the 
 United States has a tendency to corrupt public morals, and a 
 baneful and debasing influence upon productive industry and 
 free labor ; therefore the people of the Free States cannot 
 
 1 It will perhaps be said that this is owing to bad husbandry ; but such 
 is not the fact : the soil is of such a character that, in consequence of its 
 washing, &c. it cannot be reclaimed. 
 
 2 Dr. Belknapp, in his correspondence with Judge Tucker, says the win- 
 ters were unfavorable to the African in Massachusetts ; the price which 
 they commanded shows that they were comparatively worthless in the 
 now free States, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars being 
 their average price. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 355 
 
 intermingle with it. "We cheerfully take issue wiih them on 
 these points, and appeal to facts to support the verity of our 
 pleading.^ But is the General Government to become the 
 propagandist of a moral or religious sect ? Shall Congress be 
 called upon to support a moral or religious creed — to uphold 
 its devotees in all their quibbling qualms of conscience, false 
 and fastidious notions of freedom, relative to the laws and 
 institutions of any one of the States or territories ? If so, 
 then the next sect, for the same reasons, will proscribe some 
 particular form of religious belief; another will shut out and 
 preclude all great cities in the new States and territories, large 
 public works of internal improvements, manufacturing corpo- 
 rations, &c. for the reason that they all have a tendency to 
 corrupt public morals, and to monopolies with regard to free 
 labor. And, finally, if these all succeed, the Christian social- 
 ists will next come in with their petitions to exclude the insti- 
 tution of marriage ; they will portray the long catalogue of 
 evils attendant upon it, and pray that it may be abolished in 
 the District of Columbia, excluded from the territories ; and 
 that no new State may be -admitted into the Union without a 
 " ^Vilmot Proviso " in its constitution against it. Next come 
 the non-resistant Woman's Rights, till we finally get back to 
 the full prescriptive system of the early colonists. 
 
 Each of these creeds may be made as legitimate a subject of 
 congressional interference, if the sect became sufficiently nume- 
 rous and powerful to sustain it, as that of anti-slavery. Once 
 give fanaticism a foothold upon the statute-book of the nation, 
 and who can satisfy the demands of its bigotry and intolerance ? 
 Who shall say "Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther?" 
 Or, set bounds to its blind and lawless career ? It will ulti- 
 mately lead to the most fatal consequences of political intoler- 
 ance, riot, and misrule. It is the same spirit that prompted 
 our forefathers to persecute and punish men for opinion's sake. 
 It is the same spirit that banished Roger Williams, the Anar 
 baptists, and the Quakers, that would now exclude a portion 
 of the citizens of the United States from the common territory 
 of the Union ; it seems to be still lurking, like the tempest 
 around the mountains, amid the hills and vales of these ancient 
 fields of puritanical persecution. And had they but the power 
 to wield the sceptre of the nation, we might read the terrible 
 fate of the Nonconformists, the Anabaptists, the Quakers, and 
 the Witches, and tremble for our own.^ 
 
 ' See Table, appended to this volume. 
 
 = Look at the recent act of the Massachusetts Legislature in removing 
 
356 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 It is objected to the prevalence of slavery by the free-soil 
 party that it is deleterious to the interests of free labor, para- 
 lyzes industrial pursuits, corrupts religion and public morals, 
 and impedes the general progress of the nation in knowledge, 
 wealth, independence, and power. 
 
 We have considered to some extent the effect of slavery upon 
 the slave population, but one of the most interesting aspects of 
 this institution is its effects upon the white population in slave- 
 holding States. Men have been so long accustomed to listen 
 to the bold and unwarranted statements of the Abolitionists, to 
 suffer these slanderous charges to go uncontradicted, that they 
 have been cheated into a partial belief in their verity ; forget- 
 ting the old adage, that a lie well stuck to is as good as the 
 truth ; they have come to look upon all who presume to con- 
 tradict them as presumptuous and unprofitable agitators, and, 
 generally, to decry discussion upon this subject. Thousands 
 of the dough-faced panderers to Northern fanaticism, even in 
 the slave-holding States, for want of a proper understanding 
 of this subject, have been brow-beat and bullied by the sophis- 
 try and misrepresentation of the Abolitionists, into a desire to 
 live in the peaceful and silent enjoyment of an acknowledged 
 evil ; fearing a truthful examination of its facts and details, 
 and dreading their unfavorable results. 
 
 But let every true-hearted friend of the South, who feels in- 
 terested in upholding and defending her institutions, put far 
 away such a craven and suicidal policy ; the day is fast ap- 
 proaching when he must record his vote and the weight of his 
 influence for or against the institution that has made the South 
 what it is, and the Southern people what they are. Let him 
 meet the Abolitionists fairly and boldly in the field, with his 
 bosom bravely brunt to the battle, and hurl at them the death- 
 shots of truth and facts as detailed in the statistical history of 
 the country, remembering that truth cannot suffer in the con- 
 flict, and that victory is never won in dastardly shrinking from 
 the field of battle. 
 
 We will commence with its effects upon religion. The Abo- 
 litionists have so long represented the people of the non-slave- 
 
 .Judge Loring for a faithful and conscientious discbarge of his duty in the 
 Burns' Case. The murder of Bachelor, for the same reason. Look 
 also at the persecutions of the immortal Webster ! An editor, or quon- 
 dam editor of Providence, Rhode Island, stated to the author, in the 
 month of August, 1854, that if he could have had his way he would have 
 hung Daniel Webster on the first tree, on his return from Congress after 
 making his great speech in 1850: doubtless, thousands entertained the 
 same feeling. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 357 
 
 holding States, and especially the people of New England, as 
 a devout God-fearing, 'saint-like people, "free from all pride, 
 vain-glory, and hypocrisy ;" they have been held up as such 
 models of humble piety, virtue, and sobriety, that their land 
 has been known as the land of steady habits. So strict have 
 they been in the outward observance of God's law, that even 
 the puff of a steam-car, or the kiss of one's wife on the Sabbath, 
 has been made a penal offence. On the contrary, the slave- 
 holder is held up as a God-forsaken, God-despising heathen ; as 
 one regardless of all law, human and divine, as vicious, reck- 
 less, lavish of his wealth only to gratify his pride. 
 
 The humble piety, the strict morality claimed for the people 
 of New England is attributed to their having freed themselves 
 from the curse of negro slavery, to the blighting effects of which, 
 charity charges the alleged moral and religious degradation of 
 the slave-holder. These vain-boasting and sweeping denuncia- 
 tions being uncontradicted by the South, have long passed for 
 current truths. But, " there is a point beyond which forbear- 
 ance ceases to be a virtue." The evidence is now made pub- 
 lic in the statistics of the country, and we purpose to present 
 the comparative condition of these two sections. 
 
 For this purpose, we will take Maine, New Hampshire, Yer- 
 mont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and con- 
 trast them with Maryland, Yirginia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, and Georgia, the old slave-holding States that still 
 retain the system. We give the Abolitionists every advantage ; 
 we take their models of religion and piety ; we take the very 
 homes of the good old Puritan Fathers, and we will compare 
 them with those who are denounced as "fire-eaters," "cut- 
 throats," "traffickers in human flesh," &c. The free popula- 
 tion of the New England States, and of these five Southern 
 States, are so nearly equal that the test is sufficiently e.xact. 
 
 We give, from the Census of 1850, the number of churches, 
 the value of church property, and the number of worshippers 
 who can be accommodated in the churches in each of these 
 portions of the country. 
 
 Free Pop. No. of Churches. Value. Accom. 
 
 Me., N.H.,Vt., Mass., 1 2-28,016 4,607 19,362,634 1,893,450 
 R. I., Conn. J 
 
 Md., Va., N.C.,S.C.,-| 2 730,214 8,081 11,149,118 2,896,472 
 Georgia. J 
 
 2,198 3,473 $8,113,516 1,003,022 
 
 These five Southern States, with only a free population of 
 
 2,198 greater than the six New England States, have nearly 
 
358 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 double the number of churches capable of accommodating a 
 million more worshippers at but little over half the cost ! 
 ■ We have, then, these facts, that the slave-holders are more 
 disposed to build churches ; that their object is not display, but 
 to accommodate those that wish to worship God ; while the 
 degenerate sons of the simple-hearted, humble-minded Puritan, 
 the Pharisaical Abolitionists, who "thanks God he is not as 
 other men," seeks to glorify himself rather than his God, by 
 the erection of costly temples from which the humble Christian 
 is excluded. But these Southern States have even a brighter 
 picture to present. The " poor slave," who is represented by 
 the Abolitionists as virtually deprived of all Christian teaching, 
 is here furnished accommodation in the house of God better than 
 the pious white man can find in the costly and gorgeous temples 
 of New England. 
 
 Free Pop. No. of Churches. Ratio. 
 
 Me., Vt., N. H., Mass., R. I., Conn 2,728.016 4,667 1 to 592 
 
 Md., Va., N.C., S.C, Ga., (free) 2,730,214 8,081 1 to 336 
 
 Total 3,448,426 1 to 426 
 
 In New England there is one church to every 592 of its inha- 
 bitants ; while in the Southern States there is one to every 336 
 of its free to every 426 of its whole population ! These South- 
 em States contain a population, including slaves, of 720,410 
 more than New England ; yet, in New England, there are 
 200,000 more who cannot find a seat in the house of God ! 
 These Southern churches can not only accommodate every man 
 that can be crowded into the gorgeous temples of New Eng- 
 land, but would then have room for more than a million of 
 slaves 1 
 
 In New England, 934,566, nearly one-third of their popula- 
 tion, are excluded from a seat in church ! while in these ana- 
 thematized Southern States there is not only room for all its 
 free population, but there is also room for 166,258 slaves. 
 
 These facts are startling. When we look further at the 
 origin of their respective populations, and other circumstances 
 which attend them, they are almost incomprehensible. When 
 we remember that the population is so much more dense in these 
 New England States than in the Southern — it being, in the 
 former, 43 to the square mile, in the latter but 13 ; that in New 
 England the price of labor and the cost of materials is much 
 less ; that the people of New England live so much more in 
 towns and villages ; that in these Southern States they are on 
 large farms, scattered far apart, rarely even in villages ; that 
 thus the inducements and facilities for the erection of churches 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, 359 
 
 are so much greater in New England, we are the more forcibly 
 struck with the character of these exhibits. 
 
 There is yet another fact, in connection with these develop- 
 ments, shown by the census, which will strike all candid persons 
 as worthy of reflection. Of the small number of churches in 
 New England, 202 are Unitarian, 285 TJniversalist, to say 
 nothing of the Come-Outers, Spiritualists, Mormons, ]\Iillerites, 
 Swedenborgians, and a host of others, too numerous to men- 
 tion ; while of the large number in these Southern States there 
 are i)ut one Unitarian and seven Universalist. Thus we see 
 that the slave-holders of the South run not after strange gods, 
 invent no new religious, but arc content with old-fashioned 
 humble Christianity. 
 
 But we find Abolition to originate and flourish in the same 
 atmosphere with every other heresy and heterodoxy, from Salem 
 witchcraft to Mormon polygamy. And the Garrisons, the 
 Parkers, Stowes and Beechcrs, with Fanny Wrights and Abby 
 Eolsoms, are found alone in that land that produced Joe Smith, 
 Miller, and the Misses Fox. 
 
 What is it that has thus reversed the condition of these peo- 
 ple ; set at naught all our experience ; that has converted the 
 indolent, thoughtless Southerner, into the humble orthodox 
 Christian, while the men and women of the North, the world 
 over noted for religious enthusiasm, the sons and daughters of 
 the Puritans, inheriting the homesteads of all their trials and 
 sufferings, have fallen from their simple, stern devotion, and 
 become setters-up of strange doctrines ? We will attempt, 
 during our remarks, to suggest the cause. 
 
 From the religious we turn to the social and moral condition 
 of the people. We will take them as they are, and not as they 
 are represented ; we will test bold assertions by stern facts. 
 We will again take the six New England States and the five 
 old Slave States, and contrast their condition, because we de- 
 sign to give the Abolitionists the advantage of their boasted 
 land of steady habits. When we assert that these slave-holding 
 States are far in advance of New England in all the elements 
 of real prosperity and true national greatness ; that the i)eople 
 are richer, healthier, happier ; that their natural increase of 
 population is far greater, and the standard of morality and 
 intelligence far higher among the people, we know that wc shall 
 be met with a sneer at our presumption. But let facts and 
 figures decide the issue. We find in the census of 1850 the 
 first great test of the superior condition of our own over these 
 other States, is in the larger proportion of our dwellings to our 
 
360 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 families. It needs no argument to show that country the hap- 
 piest which has the most homes for its people. Not only is 
 their physical condition, their mere comfort, promoted, but 
 there is nothing which more certainly conduces to health and 
 good morals. The watchful care of the home circle, the cheer- 
 ful, happy fireside, preserve not only the body from disease, but 
 the mind and the heart from corruption and vice. We turn, 
 then, to the homes and families of New England, and compare 
 them with these five old Slave States. 
 
 Families. Dwellings. 
 
 Me., N. H.. Vt, Mass., R. I., Conn 518,532 447,789 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 506,068 496,369 
 
 With equal population. New England has 11,564 more fami- 
 lies; these Southern States 48,580 more dwellings! In New 
 England, the land whose homes the Abolitionists delight to 
 praise, one in every seven of the families is homeless ! while 
 in these Southern States but one family in fifty-two is without 
 a home. Taking the average of the number of persons com- 
 posing a family, and New England has 373,700 of its popula- 
 tion thrown upon the world, who have no place for a home I 
 
 Could we trace, in the census, the full consequences of this 
 vast difference in the condition of the people, it would present 
 a picture far from flattering to the Abolition moralist. There 
 is no father in New England who would not place his family in 
 the humblest cabin, his own home, there to learn the lessons of 
 virtue, rather than for any luxury to expose them to the cor- 
 rupting influences of the public house. There is no mother 
 who would not toil with aching bones to guard her daughter 
 with the shield of the domestic hearth. At home, virtues 
 flourish ; abroad, vice plants its seeds, takes root and thrives. 
 
 There are consequences exhibited in the census which we can, 
 in some degree, trace to this cause. It is claimed that New 
 England has far outstripped the slave-holding States in the 
 growth of its population. But let us not take naked assertion 
 for truth ; let us again appeal to the census. We will take 
 New England and the same five old slave-holding States. 
 
 Population. Families. Ann. Births. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn 2.7:28.118 518,532 61,148 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 2,730,314 506,968 77,683 
 
 With equal population, with 11,564 more families. New 
 England has 16,535 less annual births ; the natural increase by 
 birth being 27 per cent, greater in these Southern States than 
 in New England 1 
 
SLAVERY IX THE UNITED STATES. 361 
 
 Of the five Southern States which we have selected, two of 
 them, South Carolina and Georgia, are deemed so fatal in their 
 climate, a Northern life insurance company would claim the 
 forfeiture of the policy for a visit to their territories ; and yet 
 we find them more prolific than the North ! Here, again, we 
 find the laws of nature vanquished, the rule reversed ; the North, 
 instead of supplying population to the South, is far behind her 
 in natural increase. We must look beyond the climate for the 
 cause. We may attribute it, in part, to the greater number of 
 dwellings, and the consequent increase of comfort to the occu- 
 pants at the South. But this alone is not sufficient to produce 
 so extraordinary a diiference; other causes, equally efficient, 
 conduce much to this result ; and those causes may, without 
 difficulty, be traced by their effects. 
 
 The natural increase of population is universally held to be 
 a correct criterion of the physical and moral condition of a 
 people. To increase and multiply, a people must be healthy 
 and happy, virtuous and vigorous. They must labor, not toil ; 
 their diet be nutritious, their habits regular. Luxury and in- 
 dolence as naturally beget effeminacy as do destitution and op- 
 pression produce imbecility. 
 
 A people, virtuous, with comfortable homes, ample provi- 
 sion, without excessive toil, will even overcome the obstacles of 
 climate, and increase more rapidly than those who,' in the most 
 favorable climates, without a home, toil for a scant subsistence, 
 become vicious from destitution ; or those who, from excessive 
 wealth, with no stimulus to healthful exercise, become idle and 
 effeminate. But statistical facts relative to the superior condi- 
 tion of the Southern people are no less startling. 
 
 Population. Deaths. Ratici. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn 2,728,118 42,368 1 to 64 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 2,720,316 32,216 1 to 85 
 
 In these New England States there are 10,152 more deaths 
 annually than in the sickly and fatal Southern States — about 
 33 per cent, in favor of the slave-holding States. Here, again, 
 we find nature conquered, the physical and moral condition of 
 the people better. 
 
 Thus we find that these slave-holding States which the 
 Abolitionists would represent as becoming depopulated from 
 the effects of climate and disease, actually increase 62 per cent, 
 per annum faster than New England, not taking into account 
 the artificial increase by importation : the excess of Southern 
 births beinc: 29 per cent., of Nortliern deaths, 33 per cent. It 
 31 " 
 
362 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 is not fair in this estimate to take into account the increase of 
 population in New England by immigration ; because we can 
 only look at natural increase to ascertain the physical and 
 moral condition of a people. There may be extraneous causes 
 for immigration to a country, that have nothing to do directly 
 with the moral or physical condition of the people, as, for 
 instance, the peopling of California and some of the new lands 
 of the West. Here the same causes operated to produce these 
 effects that prompted the avaricious Spaniard to the conquest 
 of Mexico and Peru — an inordinate love of gold. Gold ! 
 Gold ! was the watchword. 
 
 It is a favorite trick of the Abolitionists to make such com- 
 parisons as New York with Virginia, Pennsylvania with North 
 Carolina, Massachusetts with South Carolina, to show the 
 superiority of the system of labor in the free States, in the pro- 
 gress of population, wealth, prosperity, and happiness. But 
 the sophistry of such comparisons is apparent to the under- 
 standing of a child. The relative position and physical 
 character of these great Free States, affording superior advan- 
 tages for commerce and manufactures, have not only invited 
 millions of foreign capital to profitable investments, but millions 
 upon millions of foreign emigrants and paupers to their shores. 
 While they afford the greater facilities for the carrying trade 
 of all the States, and commerce in general, they are so situated 
 as to catch those immense waves of foreign immigration that 
 are constantly floating in upon the American coast. These 
 hordes of immigrants from higher northern latitudes in the Old, 
 range along similar parallels in the New World, and compara- 
 tively few of them are found south of Mason and Dixon's Line. 
 Hence it would be quite as unjust to compare these few States 
 with those of the Slave States that do not enjoy such advan- 
 tages of location and physical character, in their progress in 
 population, commerce, and manufactures, as to compare these 
 few States with California in progress of population and pro- 
 duction of gold dust, or with Texas in that of the increase of 
 population. Virginia, with no influx of foreign population, has 
 been subjected to a constant drain upon her native increase, by 
 an immense tide of emigration to all the new Slave States. She 
 has ceded more territory to the government, and peopled more 
 of the new Slave States with her native sons, than any other 
 State in the Union. And the same is true to some extent of 
 all the old Slave States. And what has been the result ? They 
 have from their own native resources opened and settled two 
 more new States than the old Free States, with all their foreign 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 363 
 
 resources ; taken up almost double the amount of p:ovcrnment 
 land, and produced douV)le the value of exports.* What truth 
 then is there in the assertion that slavery prevents national pro- 
 gress, by settlement, increase of population and wealth, or 
 otherwise? It is an old adage that "too much of a good 
 thing is good for nothing. " So great has been the increase 
 of population in some of the old free States, that they have 
 been compelled to put a check upon it by prohibiting immigrants 
 from landing. Comparisons are instituted by the Abolitionists 
 between the comparative value of land per acre in Virginia and 
 New York, and others of a like kind ; but what does the excess 
 in favor of the Free States show ? Only that there are a greater 
 number of persons to the square mile, and labor being cheaper 
 it is harder for the poor man, as in England, to become a pro- 
 prietor of the soil. But even then, if the comparison be put 
 upon its true basis, we shall find it to be in favor of the Slave 
 States ; the ratio between the number of persons to the square 
 mile in any two States, and the value of the land per acre in 
 those States, is the only criterion by which to determine its 
 comparative intrinsic value in each. In the State of New 
 York we find 66 persons to a square mile, with the proportion 
 of improved to unimproved land twice as great as in Virginia ; 
 in the latter State the number of persons to the square mile is 
 only 22, just one-third of that in New York ; yet in Virginia, 
 with all her waste of mountains and excess of unimjjroved terri- 
 tory, with a cash valuation of farms less by more than one-half 
 than that in New York, the value of land per acre is nearly 
 equal to the ratio between the number of persons to the square 
 mile ; the ratio of persons to the mile being as 66 to 22, and 
 the value of land per acre as about 29 to 9. I say the com- 
 parison put upon this, the correct basis, will in every instance 
 result in favor of the Slave States. But we do not contend that 
 the country which has the greatest aggregate wealth is really 
 the most prosperous ; we must look rather to the sources of its 
 wealth and to the equality in the distribution of the same. 
 Slave-holding States must be mainly agricultural, and their 
 wealth of necessity more equally distributed than in those 
 engaged in commerce and manufactures. The census confirms 
 this position by the vast disproportion in the number of paupers 
 in the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States. We will take 
 again the six New England and the five old Slave States. 
 Again we give the Abolitionists every advantage ; we take their 
 
 1 See Table III., Appendix. 
 
364 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 models of commercial and manufacturing prosperity, and con- 
 trast them with those which are ever held up and pointed at as 
 emblems of poverty ; we compare the frugal, ingenious, ener- 
 getic, thrifty Yankee, v/ith the idle, improvident, careless, and 
 wasteful slave-holder, with equal population : 
 
 Value of Property assessed. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., Conn., R.I $1,003,466,181 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 1,420,989,573 
 
 Excess of Southern wealth $417,523,392 
 
 Of this excess. Land $127,818,388 
 
 " " Personal Property 291,215,054 
 
 The ratio of wealth to the individual is, in New 
 
 England $367 per head. 
 
 In Southern States 520 " 
 
 The poor worn-out Slave States that have ceded away terri- 
 tory equal to twice the size of the original States, and have 
 divided their wealth and population over nine new States, have 
 still $411,523,392 more left than New England, with all its 
 boasted prosperity 1 This result is the more extraordinary 
 because it reverses again all our experience. Since the days 
 of Tyre and Sidon, commerce and manufactures have been 
 regarded as the greatest sources of wealth, and agriculture the 
 less. In Europe tariffs are made to protect the farmer, com- 
 merce and manufactures protect themselves. But in Southern 
 States agriculture not only protects itself, but it carries on its 
 shoulders commerce and manufactures. 
 
 If we rank the slaves as persons in this estimate and entitled 
 to share in the distribution of the property, still the South is 
 far richer than the North. 
 
 Total Popu- Ratio of Property 
 lation. per head. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn 2,728,016 $36700 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S.C, Ga 3,448,426 412-00 
 
 We may be accused of selecting the poorest of the non- 
 slaveholding States, and the richest slaveholding States for our 
 comparison. But let us contrast them with New York, Penn- 
 sylvania, and Ohio, the giants of the Free States, and we shall 
 find the comparison still more favorable to the South : 
 
 Ratio of property. 
 
 New York $231.00 per head. 
 
 Pennsylvania 214.00 " 
 
 Ohio 219.00 " 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 365 
 
 The other non-slavc-holding States are still lower in the 
 scale : 
 
 Indiana has §154.00 per head. 
 
 Illinois 134.00 
 
 While of the new Slave States : 
 
 Mississippi has $702.00 per head. 
 
 Louisiana 806.00 " 
 
 Kentucky, with her barren mountains, is far ahead of Ohio ; 
 and Missouri, the poorest of the Slave States, with a mere 
 handful of slaves, is richer, under all her disadvantages, than 
 Illinois, the giant of the West — than Indiana, with her unri- 
 valled soil and favorable position. 
 
 The ratio per head is as follows : 
 
 Ohio $219.00 
 
 Indiana 154.00 
 
 Illinois 134.00 
 
 Kentucky 377.00 
 
 Missouri ., 166.00 
 
 We have no means of contrasting the condition of the slaves 
 in the Southern States, with that of the hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water, exclusively, at the North. The census 
 enables us to compare them with the aggregate population of 
 the Free States — a large portion of whom are not driven by 
 necessity to toil for a subsistence ; and with all the advantages 
 of climate against the South, as is supposed ; but even with 
 the odds against us, we need not shrink from the contrast : 
 
 Population. Annual Births. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass. R. I., Conn 2,728,116 61,148 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 1,618,214 slaves, 40,496 
 
 Annual Deaths. 
 
 New England 42,368 
 
 Southern Slaves 24,790 
 
 RATIO QF BIRTHS AND DEATHS. 
 
 Births. Deaths. 
 
 New England 1 to 44 1 to 64 
 
 Southern Slaves 1 to 39 1 to 65 
 
 " Free 1 to 35 1 to 85 
 
 Thus we see that the slaves, though not so fortunate as 
 their masters, are yet more prolific and less liable to die than 
 the freemen of New England.^ 
 
 1 This exhibit shows the people of the Southern States to be the most 
 prolific, and less liable to die than any people in the world. In New 
 England, the ratio of deaths is 1 to 64 ; in England, it is 1 to every 44 ; 
 and no country will compare with the South in that respect, it being ] 
 to 65 ; of all, as 1 to 85 of the free inhabitants. 
 31* 
 
366 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 The number of paupers in Xew England is 33,431, accord- 
 ing to the census of 1850 ; while those in these old Slave 
 States are but 14,221 — giving an excess to New England, 
 with equal population, of 19,210, or 135 per cent, more pau- 
 pers than the Southern States. In New England, the boasted 
 land of thrift, 1 to every 81 is a pauper ; while in these South- 
 ern States, which the Abolitionists represent as impoverished 
 by slavery, there is but 1 in 191 of the inhabitants. 
 
 But we shall be told that these paupers in New England are 
 mostly foreigners. If so, these paupers did not come from 
 slave-holding States ; they came from those like New England, 
 miscalled "free," where they have been taught to look upon 
 negro slavery as a curse, blighting with its influence the 
 energies of the white race. To these foreigners is New Eng- 
 land indebted for her boasted increase of population.^ With- 
 out their aid, she would be far behind the South even in num- 
 bers ; for we have seen how greatly the South exceeds her in 
 natural increase. To foreign capital, also, is she indebted, to 
 a great extent, for her great manufacturing establishments — to 
 foreign labor for her railroads, canals, and public works : she 
 has no right, then, to cast them off when they count against 
 her. 
 
 But even this excuse will not avail ; for the census has dis- 
 tinguished the foreign from the native pauper, and still the 
 comparison is in favor of the South : 
 
 Native Paupers. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn 18,966 
 
 Md., Va., N. C, S. C, Ga 11,728 
 
 Excess of native New England paupers 7,238 
 
 But we have still further and stronger evidence of superior- 
 ity in the physical, moral, and intellectual condition of the 
 people of the South over those of the North. Loss of speech, 
 of hearing, of sight, as certainly indicates physical, as do idiocy 
 and insanity mental suffering. By the extent to which the 
 negroes, slave and free, are subject to these afflictions, we may 
 determine their condition. Blindness, insanity, and idiocy, espe- 
 cially, result from destitution and distress, other things being 
 equal. By the census, we find that the Negro race is much 
 more subject to these afflictions than the white — the ratio 
 being : 
 
 1 For excess of crime and criminals in the Free States, see Appendix, 
 Table IV. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, 367 
 
 White. Free Nc>.to. 
 
 Of Deaf and Dumb 1 to 2151 1 to 3005 
 
 P°<1 1 to 2445 1 to 870 
 
 Insane and Idiots 1 to 1374 1 to 980 
 
 We thus see that the neQ:ro, when free, is far more subject 
 to blindness, insanity, and idiocy, than the white. Yet we find 
 that the neero, when a slave, is almost exempt from them all — 
 not only is he far less afflicted than the free negro, but even less 
 than his master. 
 
 White. Free Negro. Slave. 
 
 Deaf and Dumb 1 to 2151 I to 3005 1 to 6552 
 
 Blind I to 2445 I to 870 1 to 2G45 
 
 Insane and Idiots I to 1374 I to 980 I to 3080 
 
 But one explanation can be made of this remarkable deve- 
 lopment. It is one that must present itself with peculiar force 
 to every unprejudiced mind accustomed to hear of the physical 
 suifering of the slaves. The explanation readily occurs to the 
 mind acquainted with the real condition of the slave : it is 
 found in the watchful care of the master, the simple, contented, 
 and genuine happiness of the slave. ^ 
 
 Total Deaf, Dumb, Blind, Insane, Idiots. 
 
 Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn 8,781 
 
 Md., Va., N. & S. C, Ga 7,809 
 
 Excess in New England 972 
 
 Insane. 
 
 New England 3,834 
 
 Southern States 2,580 
 
 Excess in New England 1,254 
 
 In the "land of steady habits," among a people cold and 
 phlegmatic in their temperament, claiming to be peculiarly 
 sober, temperate, and practical, we find the number of the 
 insane nearly 50 per cent, greater than among the excitable 
 and ardent sons of the South. We have, thus far, contrasted 
 New England with the five old Slave States ; and we find 
 commerce and manufactures, the great sources of wealth, are 
 here less profitable than slave-holding agriculture. To all the 
 ills to which man is subject, both mental and physical, the men 
 of the North, with all their advantages of climate, are far 
 more liable than the Southern slave-holder. In short, under 
 all the disadvantages of climate, of the cramping influence of 
 oppressive legislation to protect the North, in desjiite of the 
 very laws of Nature, by the so-called "curse of slavery," the 
 
 1 See Essay on Treatment of Slaves, sup. p. 220. 
 
368 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 people of the slave-holding States are more religious, moral, ^ 
 healthier and happier, multiply faster, live longer and better, 
 and are far richer, than the people of the North. They also 
 produce nearly double the amount in value of our exports; 
 pay nearly double of the amount of the revenue, by duties and 
 the purchase of the public domain ; furnish a boundless market 
 for domestic manufactures, and endless resources of the wealth, 
 independence, and power of the nation. 
 
 Yet we are told that "sterility tracks the slave," &c. ; that 
 slavery corrupts public morals, degrades both master and slave, 
 paralyzes industrial pursuits, the progress of wealth, enterprise, 
 and population ; and its extension should be prohibited by 
 Congress, &c. from the territories and new States. 
 
 But this, after the exhibits which we have made from the sta- 
 tistics of the country, may be justly pronounced a false accusa- 
 tion, a hypocritical pretence for agitation, unwarranted by 
 facts, unfounded in truth. We have shown from the Census of 
 1850 superiority of the population of the Slave States in reli- 
 gion, morals, wealth, comfort, health, and happiness. We 
 have also shown by our tables that they employ more persons, 
 including their slaves, in industrial pursuits than those of the 
 Free States, giving the latter the advantage of all their great 
 cities and legions of foreigners, that swarm upon their lands 
 like the locusts upon the plains of Egypt. ^ 
 
 If we off-set these by the slaves employed at the South, with 
 any given number of population, they will greatly exceed the 
 same number at the North in the proportion engaged in indus- 
 trial pursuits. The South also greatly exceeds the North, as re- 
 gards the number of acres of land improved ; in the number of 
 farmers, and in the amount of grain and live stock ; furnishing 
 nearly double the amount in value of exports, and thus contri- 
 bute far more to the wealth, prosperity, and power of the nation. 
 Though the North exceeds in commerce and manufactures, yet 
 in this there is no real production to enrich the nation but the 
 value of the labor ; and, consequently, while it enriches indivi- 
 duals, it might leave the nation comparatively dependent and 
 poor. But which portion of the country offers the greatest in- 
 ducement to the laborer ? Ask the mechanic and laborer of 
 every description where he is most liberally rewarded for his 
 labor.' 
 
 ' See, for comparative number of criminals, &c. Appendix, Table IV. 
 '■^ See Table I, Appendix. We have not separated the native and foreign 
 laborers. 
 
 ^ It would be an interesting inquiry to compare the wages of the seve- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE TNITED STATES. 369 
 
 Who have pushed their conquests farthest into the far-off 
 wilds of the West ? Before whose prowess has the forest van- 
 ished as by magic, and the wilderness blossomed as the rose ? 
 Look at the comparative number of acres of improved and of 
 unimproved lands owned by the farmers of the Slave and of the 
 Free States as set forth in the tables above referred to. Look 
 also at their comparative products in corn and live stock, bread 
 and meat, the great sta))les of human consumption. In addi- 
 tion to these, the Slave States have all their ])eculiar produc- 
 tions to enhance the annual amount of their productive invlustry ; 
 all their cotton, tobacco, rice, turpentine, sugar, hemp, besides 
 large quantities of wheat raised in many of these States ; and 
 then say which have the best claim upon the Federal Govern- 
 ment to protect their property interests, the Slave or the Free 
 States. Upon this subject I beg leave to quote from the elo- 
 quent remarks of Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina : they should be 
 read and re-read, and pondered well by every free man. 
 
 "As a Southern man, sir, I demand that this government 
 shall protect, constitutionally, our slave property. But a few 
 years ago, the whole North sent up a cry of distress and op- 
 pression, when you reduced your tariff but a few cents. You 
 were told of blighted prosperity, of stagnant industry, and 
 crumbling enterprises. When your legislation, in restoring 
 equality to different interests, withdrew some of the enormous 
 gains of their capital, which had been fostered by legislative 
 bounty ; while the North was thus whining in sackcloth and 
 ashes over their fancied oppression, she had but about seventy 
 millions invested in manufactures. What now is this Govern- 
 ment attempted to be used to do ? To withdraw legislative 
 bounties and refuse to foster unnatural interests upon capital ? 
 No ! it is called upon to upheave the social foundation of a 
 magnificent region ; to confiscate property of incalculable mag- 
 nitude ; to expel or exterminate a race, and to involve in 
 chaotic rupture all the social and industrial relations which an 
 age could not restore and readjust. Sir, the smallest^ State in 
 the South has more property in slaves than all the North had 
 in manufactures when she crowded these lobbies and besieged 
 the doors of this Hall, crying out against the withdrawal of 
 
 ral kinds of employment at the North and at the South ; we may safely 
 assert that they will be found nearly double in every instance in favor of 
 the South ; and the thousands of me'chanics, artizans, school-teachers, and 
 laborers of various description that annually emigrate from the Free to 
 the Slave States, Avill bear testimony to the truth of this assertion. The 
 expenses of the laborer depend altogether upon his habits : they need 
 scarcely exceed those of the Free States. 
 
 Y 
 
370 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 legislative bounty. And shall the South be quiescent and train 
 her tongue to honeyed words, when you raise against her the 
 ruthless hand of power and oppression ? No, sir. I ask for 
 no boon, and I will take none ; but I firmly demand our 
 rights." 
 
 Have the Slave or the Free States ceded most of the public 
 lands to the United States ? Which have paid, and are still 
 paying, the greatest tribute to the nation for the privilege of 
 settling those lands by entering and purchasing the same ?^ 
 
 A brief comparison between the value of the exported pro- 
 ducts of the North and of the South will approximate the truth 
 of the superiority of the latter over the former, as sources of 
 national wealth, progress, prosperity, and power. So large a 
 proportion of the exports are, in a degree, so common to all 
 the States, that the exact ratio cannot be determined. - 
 
 The total value of the exports derived, directly or indirectly, 
 from the products of the South, will average, at a very mode- 
 rate and safe calculation, four times the amount derived from 
 the North ; and, but for her exports, what resources has this 
 
 1 See Table of the comparative number of acres taken up by the inha- 
 bitants of the Slave and of the Free States. Table, No. II. 
 
 2 For the year ending June 30th, 1855, the aggregate 
 
 value of the exports of the United States, was $246,708,553 
 
 In round numbers, say 247,000.000 
 
 Exclusively Southern products 110,000,000 
 
 Balance for aU the States 137,000,000 
 
 From this, deduct for coin, bullion, &c., as common to 
 
 both North and South $54,000,000 
 
 For manufacture of cotton goods 6,000,000 
 
 For total products of wood, as tar, pitch, rosin, turpen- 
 tine, ashes, lumber, &c 13,000,000 
 
 Total products of animals 17,000,000 
 
 Vegetable food 24,000,000 
 
 As the value of the exclusive exports of the North, it 
 
 leaves a balance of only _. $23,000,000 
 
 For some years, this ratio was much larger in favor of the 
 
 South ; in 1853, the exports were $214,000,000 
 
 Exclusive of the South 125,000,000 
 
 Balance for States generally $89,000,000 
 
 Common to both, say 75,000,000 
 
 Exclusively for the North ._ $14,000,000 
 
 Total amount of imports for the same year was, in round 
 
 numbers $262,000,000 
 
 Leaving a balance of trade against the United States, of 15,000,000 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 311 
 
 nation to meet its enormous aninuil outlay in foreign commodi- 
 ties ? and what would become of its revenues arising from their 
 importation ? It is true, many of the Free States produce 
 large amounts from their various branches of domestic manu- 
 factures ; but these are mostly consumed at home, jiroteclcd by 
 national legislation, and add but little to the availal)le stock of 
 national wealth. Even these Northern manufacturers are sup- 
 ported, principally, by Southern patronage ; the South is com- 
 pelled by the legislative policy of the General Government to 
 purchase the manufactured articles of the North. Ilonce, of 
 the one hundred millions annually realized by the South from 
 the proceeds of her cotton, most of it ultimately finds its way 
 into the hands of Northern capitalists.' 
 
 A partnership business has long been carried on between the 
 North and the South. At first the North owned the slaves, and 
 furnished them to the South, which realized only the proceeds of 
 their labor. The process has since been reversed ; the South 
 now own the slaves, and the North the proceeds of their labor. 
 The South make the crop and prepare it for market ; the North 
 ship it, work up the raw material, and furnish all the necessary 
 supplies for the proceeds. Dissolve this partnership, withhold 
 our cotton, with its immense profits to the North, from her, ex- 
 clude her shipping from our ports, and her manufactured arti- 
 cles from our markets, and what more destructive blow could 
 be dealt upon her ? Throw the one hundred millions of dollars 
 that now annually flow into her coffers from her partnership 
 with the South, into some channel of foreign trade, and behold 
 
 1 From the official Tables, it appears that the North have, in shipping, 
 1,201,930 registered tonnage, and 1,450,314 enrolled tonnage. Deduct- 
 ing the whaling and fishing tonnage, leaves 1,009,750 registered, and 
 1,322,475 coasting tonnage applicable to the transporting of merchandize. 
 More than three-fourths of this entire tonnage (it was asserted by a 
 leading Review) is employed in the transportation of the produce of the 
 South. 
 
 A rough estimate of the profits of the North, derived from the South, 
 may be summed up thus : — 
 
 Freight on Northern shipping of Southern products $40,000,000 
 
 Profits on imports at the North for the South H.UUU.OUU 
 
 Profits of exchange operations, and Northern capital at the 
 
 South 7,000,000 
 
 Profits on Northern goods sold at the South 24,000,000 
 
 Profits on Western produce descending the Mississippi 10,(M)(l.0i>0 
 
 Amount annually left by Southern tourists at the North 15,ii00,000 
 
 Amount annually carried North by teachers, artists, and 
 
 other transient persons employed at the South 5,000,000 
 
 Total $110,000,000 
 
3T2 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 her shipping rotting in her harbors, her desolate towns and vil- 
 lages, with their millions of operatives wandering like foreign 
 mendicants through the land, bankruptcy and ruin would stalk 
 upon the heels of her palsied energies and withered enterprise. 
 Break down our property interests, destroy our productions, 
 and who can calculate the injury that would be inflicted upon 
 the present and future generations ! Of the three millions of 
 bales of cotton annually produced by the Slave States, the 
 shipping, fabrication, sale of the goods, &c., &c., directly and 
 indirectly supports, at home and abroad, a population which it 
 is impossible accurately to estimate. The production, and 
 number of persons engaged in its fabrication, &c., &c., and 
 supported by it, as well as the amount of capital so engaged in 
 the great staple of the South, are annually increasing at a rapid 
 rate ; but the supply in no measure keeps pace with the demand. 
 So great is this excess, that the agricultural resources of all re- 
 gions adapted to the growth of cotton, are likely to prove inade- 
 quate to overcome it. It is a fixed fact in human experience, that 
 cotton cannot be extensively and successfully cultivated except 
 by slave labor. And whence is this labor to be eventually de- 
 rived ? Any great convulsion that should destroy slave labor, 
 and swallow up this single article of Southern production, 
 would shake to their downfall the most powerful governments 
 on earth. 
 
 The suicidal policy of the Black Republicans, by breaking 
 down the institutions and property interests of the South, v/ould 
 not only bring ruin and distress upon countless numbers of the 
 population, deranging the commerce and manufactures of the 
 world, by cutting off the supply of cotton, but they would 
 bankrupt our national treasury, by stopping the revenues from 
 the sale of public lands to the South, and from duties on im- 
 ported articles, and swell the balance of trade against the 
 States beyond what their resources could support. They would 
 lay waste the fairest fields of Southern industry and enterprise, 
 cripple their own resources by depriving themselves of the 
 requisite supply of cotton, by excluding their own manufactures 
 from the markets of the South, and by destroying a lucrative 
 commerce between these two sections of the Union. 
 
 Should the lawless enthusiast continue unrebuked by reason, 
 should the disorganizing and infatuated continue unchecked by 
 constitutional compact, till they could achieve their diabolical 
 purpose, they would find that all their weapons of warfare 
 would deal the severest blows upon their own heads ; that their 
 very breath, in which they ''breathe out threatenings and 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 37? 
 
 slaughter" against the Soutli, like the food of Milton's devils, 
 would turn to coals of fire upon their own lips " If the South 
 were base enough, if slie were craven enough to submit to the 
 overthrow of her honor, peace, and political existence, the 
 triumph of the North would be that of the gladiator who died 
 receiving the submission of his foe.'" 
 
 Our tables also refute tlie accusation that slavery corrupts 
 the public morals. According to the best statistics, there is 
 less crime, and not one half the proportion of convicts in the 
 penitentiaries of the Slave States ; the contrast relative to bas- 
 tards and prostitution is still more favorable to the South. 
 There are effects produced by negro slavery upon the general 
 character of the white population that cannot be exhibited by 
 the census, that cannot be set down in figures, of far more im- 
 portance than the acquisition of wealth or the increase of popu- 
 lation. These are its tendency to elevate and give them a more 
 exalted tone of moral sentiment, and a more stern and un- 
 yielding attachment to their liberty and their rights, and a just 
 pride of character. 
 
 " There is, however, one circumstance attending these South- 
 ern Colonies," said Edmund Burke, "which fully counter- 
 balances this difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still 
 more high and haughty than in those to the eastward. It is, 
 that in Virginia and the Carolinas there is a vast multitude of 
 slaves. Where this is the case, in any part of the world, those 
 who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their 
 freedom. Freedom to them is not only an enjoyment, but a 
 kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, as 
 
 1 Mr. Charles Sumner asserted, in the Senate of the United States, that 
 ♦'sterility tracks the slave as it tracked Attila's horse." But upon what 
 authority did this red constitutionalist make this assertion ? Let the fore- 
 going facts and remarks answer. But says Mr. Keitt : "I appeal frum 
 the Mosaic Whig of to-day to the genuine Whig of 1776. 1 appeal to 
 John Adams, still revered in Boston. He said in 1770, 'That as to this 
 matter (the wealth of the State), it was of no consequence by what name 
 you called your people— whether by that of freemen or slaves. That in 
 some countries the laboring poor were called freemen, in others slaves; 
 but that the difference, as to the State, was imaginary only, \yhat mat- 
 ters it whether a landlord, employing ten laborers on his farm, gives them 
 annually as much money as they can use for the necessaries of life, or 
 gives them those necessaries at short hand? The ten laborers add as 
 much wealth annually to the State, increase its exports as much, in the 
 one case as the other. Certainly, five hundred freemen produce no more 
 profit, no greater surplus for the payment of taxes, than so many slaves. 
 The condition of the laboring poor in most countries, that of the fishermen 
 of the Northern States in particular, is as abject as that of slaves.' " 
 iladlson State Papers, vol. i, p. 20. 
 32 
 
314 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 in countries where it is a common blessing, and broad and 
 general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with 
 great misery, with all the exterior of servitude itself, liberty 
 looks among them like something that is more noble and liberal. 
 I do not mean, sir, to commend the superior morality of this 
 sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it ; but 
 the fact is so, and I cannot alter the nature of man. These 
 people of the Southern Colonies are much more strongly, and 
 with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty 
 than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient com- 
 monwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such, in our 
 day, were the Poles ; and such will ever be all masters of slaves 
 who are not themselves slaves. In such a people, the haughti- 
 ness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies 
 it, and renders it more invincible. " 
 
 History attests the truth of every word of the above ; not 
 only does negro slavery elevate the character of the master, and 
 where the master is free, render his devotion to liberty a high 
 and holy feeling, but where, as in our own country, the slave is 
 of a different and inferior race, marked and set apart by his 
 color, physical and mental characteristics, it elevates the cha- 
 racter, not only of the master, the actual owner of the slaves, 
 but of all the individuals of his own race who wear the color 
 and distinguishing characteristics of freemen. With us color, 
 not money, marks the class : black is the badge of slavery, 
 white the color of freemen ; and the white man, however poor, 
 whatever be his occupation, is inspired with the just pride of a 
 freeman, a sovereign. Though his estate be but an empty title, 
 he scorns to disgrace his station by dastardly acts of crime, or 
 by stooping, for money's sake, to become the slave of another. 
 
 In a community where all are nominally free and equal, wealth 
 becomes the great object to be obtained, for wealth alone dis- 
 tinguishes the higher from the lower classes. There money 
 makes the real master, poverty the real slave. A contest be- 
 tween wealth and poverty, capital and labor, necessarily begins. 
 Each party seeks, by the means within its command, to increase 
 its power. Wealth, by the aid of talent and influence, to in- 
 crease and secure its fortune at the expense of labor ; poverty, 
 by its political power, in numbers the stronger, seeks to better 
 its condition, to free itself from real slavery. In this unequal 
 conflict of interest, capital seeks to extort the greatest gain for 
 the least expenditure ; labor, struggling for bread, demands a 
 higher recompense for its services. The interest of the em- 
 ployer and the hireling, the capitalist and the laborer, are an- 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 375 
 
 tagonistic, like that of the vendor and the vendee — for the gain 
 of the one is the loss of the other. As a nation increases in 
 population, wealth, and power, the breach is widened, these 
 interests conflict the more, wealth becomes more absorbed in 
 the hands of the few, the demand for lal)or less, the supply 
 greater, till at last these starving millions become vicious and 
 desperate ; and crime, misery and wreteliedness is tlie conse- 
 quence. But not so where capital is labor, and the interest of 
 both is the same ; not so where color alone gives rank, and 
 where every white man is proud of his position and zealous of 
 his rights. Dastardly crime is unknown to his high and chi- 
 valrous character. There is a high standard of honor, an ex- 
 cessive pride of character, that taints eveu the kindred blood 
 of the culprit, and few are willing to hazard the fiery ordeal of 
 public opinion. This results, also, in part, from a more liberal 
 education. Though education is not so generally diffused at 
 the South, it being impossible to support schools, iu conse- 
 quence of the sparseness of the population, and the new settlers 
 not being able to send their children away, yet, in the older 
 and more wealthy States and neighborhoods the advantages are 
 greatly superior, and the general standard of education and 
 intelligence among business men, who form public opinion and 
 mould public character, is higher than is general iu the Free 
 States. This results from the fact that the pupils of both sexes 
 are kept constantly at school from the time of the commence- 
 ment to that of the completion of their education ; and, in most 
 cases, they enjoy the best advantages which the country affords. 
 The custom has hitherto prevailed of sending them to the insti- 
 tutions of the Free States. A collegiate education, and a 
 diploma in some one of the learned professions, becomes a fash- 
 ionable accomplishment, even to the planter and business man.' 
 The nature of the Souuern planter's business necessarily re- 
 quires, and naturally produces, a higher degree of general 
 intelligence than that of the farmer of the Free States. All 
 the great commercial and financial questions of the day are his 
 study, for the reason that they relate immediately to his inte- 
 rests ; whatever deranges commerce, or effects any change iu 
 the operations of financial circles, is first indicated by the ad- 
 vance or decline in the price of cotton, as regularly as any 
 change of temperature is evinced by the rise or fall of the mer- 
 cury. Such topics, therefore, become his study ; he becomes u 
 man of observation, and leads, to a great extent, the life of a 
 
 1 See Table No. I. for the comparative number of students in the Slave 
 and the Free States. See Table No. V. for criminal statistics. 
 
376 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 theoretical merchant. Whoever makes an acqnaintance with 
 the general character of the Southern planters, will find them 
 a well-read and well-informed class of people ; he will find 
 among them some of the highest order of mercantile talent, and 
 some of the boldest and most successful financial operators. 
 
 Not only does negro slavery thus elevate the character of the 
 white man, it ennobles woman. Relieved by the slave of the 
 abject toils, the servile condition to which the white woman is 
 so often subjected by necessity where negro slavery does not 
 exist, and which take from her woman's greatest charms — 
 modesty, virtue, and the like, which make of her the rude, 
 drudging, despised servant of a hard master ; the white woman 
 becomes, as she is fitted to be, not the slave but the queen of 
 her household, fit mate for a sovereign. Virtuous, modest, 
 retiring, sensitive, her only ambition to merit the love of hei 
 husband, her only pride to point to her children and say, 
 "these are my jewels;" worshipped in her sphere, her gentle 
 sway undisputed, the white woman in the slave-holding States 
 needs no convention to secure her rights ; whether she be the 
 mistress of a mansion or the humble tenant of a cabin, to her 
 the seat of honor is ever accorded at home, and abroad every 
 true son of the South deems himself her champion. 
 
 The rank and position of woman has ever been the true 
 criterion of civilization and refinement in all ages and nations. 
 To the barbarian she is not an equal but a slave, she relieves 
 her lord of his labor, bows her head in his presence. Thus the 
 Southern parents, of all professions, zealous of the riglits and 
 privileges of their sons as freemen, proud of the rank and posi- 
 tion of their daughters, bestow more care and attention upon 
 their education, where they are able, and thus render a collegiate 
 and liberal education a fashionable accomplishment to all. 
 
 But is this true generally of the agricultural people of the 
 Free States ? The professional and mercantile circles of these 
 States, in point of learning and general intelligence, are, per- 
 haps, excelled by few of those classes in the world ; but how is 
 it with the common country people ? What are the compara- 
 tive advantages of the farmers' sons and daughters throughout 
 the more distant or back portions of the country for an educa- 
 tion, an acquaintance with the world, with human nature, and 
 topics of general intelligence ? The New England farmer, and 
 in most of the Free States, from the climate, character of the 
 soil, and density of the population, is compelled to live within 
 a more limited sphere. However commendable may be his 
 industry, honesty, and frugality (and we would not say a single 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 377 
 
 word disparagingly of the same), it is a necessary economy to 
 keep his expenses within his means. His daughters, as soon 
 as they are capable, must share the burdens and labors of the 
 household affairs ; hence neatness in cooking, washing, ironing, 
 chamber- work, &c., is, by the force of necessity, held up as a 
 very requisite and fashionable accomplishment for a young lady. 
 His sons, from the age of fifteen to twenty-one, are thoroughly 
 drilled in the exercise of the crow-bar, the hoe, axe, spade, 
 &c., to fit them for the duties of citizens, and their sphere of 
 usefulness in after life. From two to three months' cessation 
 from labor during the inclemency of winter, affords them an 
 opportunity to attend a common country school. Here, by 
 improving their opportunities, they may learn to read and write, 
 something of Geography, of English Grammar, and of Arith- 
 metic as far as Interest or the Rule of Three. At the age of 
 twenty-one, they have read their Bible, some religious family 
 newspaper (the Liberator, Emancipator, et genus omne), and 
 have been to mill and to meeting. And this they call educa- 
 tion. At majority, the all-important crisis of life for which 
 they are always eagerly looking forward, they are allowed to 
 start in the world for themselves, though many become so im- 
 patient and discontented with their lot at home, that they 
 surreptitiously quit the parental domicil while they have yet 
 many years to serve, and take the chances of fortune before 
 them. Some one is selected to remain with the father and 
 mother and settle on the homestead, to take care of them in 
 their declining years ; the others are all started out into the 
 world to shift for themselves. The age of majority, the culmi- 
 nating point of all their infant anxieties, deprives them of their 
 right to a home under the domestic roof where they were born, 
 and they must now seek some employment to make a living for 
 themselves. The girls, if they have not yet been suited with an 
 offer for a husband, usually find their way to some neighboring 
 town or city to bind themselves out to some craft of the needle, 
 or to become the slavish inmates of those extensive cotton and 
 woollen factories. The boys all set out in the same beaten 
 track, on foot upon the highway, with a little bundle containing 
 a clean shirt, and a go-to-meeting suit, tied up in a flag silk 
 handkerchief, and swung with a stick over their shoulders, to 
 look for work. If the adventure is successful, he may ''set iu" 
 by the year, for from ten to fifteen dollars per month : for this 
 pitiful sum he toils on from year to year to get something 
 "aforehand. " If he is economical he may perhaps save one 
 hundred dollars per year from his wages, and this gives him 
 32* 
 
318 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 the reputation of a very steady, industrious, and promising 
 young man ; or he may go to some trade, and by working a 
 year or two for his board, realize afterwards somewhat higher 
 wages. Such is, to a great extent, a true picture in the history 
 of the farmer's family in the Free States.^ He may be ever so 
 devoted a parent to the interests and welfare of his children, 
 and may even go beyond his means, as he often does, to assist 
 them ; yet having started even with the world himself, he can 
 bequeath only the blessed privilege to them, consoling them 
 with the soothing consolation that fortunes inherited are very 
 dangerous to the heirs. Thus this sanctimonious custom of 
 leaving nothing behind them, as the great conservator of public 
 morals, is carefully observed, perpetuated, and handed down as 
 a precious bequest from generation to generation. Thousands 
 waste their intellectual being without the means of discipline 
 or culture, by spending their lives tied like a bond slave to some 
 agricultural implement, or other service, without being able 
 to obtain more than a subsistence. Even Daniel Webster himself, 
 but for the giant power of his nature to struggle up through 
 the surrounding obstacles that beset him, might have been a 
 New England clodhopper, delving in her granite soil as a 
 hireling for a support, to the day of his death. But how many 
 thousands are there, who, instead of rising above these mountain 
 obstacles to surmount them all, sink beneath their weight and 
 die in servile obscurity under their shades. Such are some of 
 the fruits of the vaunted system of free labor upon mental 
 culture, civilization, and refinement of the boasted yeomanry 
 of the Free States, "the bone and sinew of the land." How- 
 ever commendable may be industry and enterprise, to a certain 
 extent, in all classes, it is not the most exalted province of man 
 or woman to devote themselves wholly to physical labor, like 
 beasts of burden, for a bodily subsistence ; nor is such an 
 element the most essential to constitute a highly desirable state 
 of society. It is argued that idleness is the mother of vice, 
 and labor prevents crime ; but if men are so villanous by nature 
 that they must be doomed to fields of unremitting toil to prevent 
 the contraction of bad habits and the commission of felonies, 
 they should be sent to the work-house and penitentiary at once. 
 The most perfect conservators of public morals are virtue and 
 intelligence, and these are always found in the highest degree, 
 in the most exalted stage of civilization and refinement. But 
 
 1 To some of the more wealthy families, perhaps these remarks will 
 not apply, but they will include the great majority of the laboring classes. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 379 
 
 what there is in physical labor itself calculated to purify the 
 morals, promote the intelligence, and refine the sensibilities of 
 a community, no one has yet been able to discover. According 
 to Scripture it was a degrading curse inflicted upon the human 
 race as a punishment for the first transgression. And in the 
 progress of civilization the nearer man approaches to the high 
 and holy attitude in which he was created, the less liable will 
 he be to be doomed "to eat his bread by the sweat of the 
 brow." But labor must be performed by somebody ; and those 
 who do not live by their own, must subsist upon the labor of 
 others. " Whosoever does not work shall not eat. " That is 
 very true ; but the most perfect state of society is for each 
 individual, or class, to occupy the position to which they are 
 best suited, and not be constrained by necessitous circumstances ; 
 for so far he is a slave, unable to improve his condition though 
 he may have the ability. Ilere the pliilosophy of Aristotle is 
 again practically illustrated. " It is the province of mind to 
 command, and matter to obey ; ' Some men from their natures 
 are born to rule and direct, and others to serve. They can 
 obey reason, though they cannot exercise it." When each 
 occupy their appropriate position they mutually support and 
 protect one another, and thus strengthen the resources of the 
 body politic. But let no high-born American freeman be a 
 slave. 
 
 It has been often asserted in the hearing of the author, that 
 the Southern people can well afford to be more generous and 
 hospitable, to give their children better advantages for educa- 
 tion, to travel with them, and give them better means of 
 acquiring information, and to rear their families in more intelli- 
 gent, reiined, and accomplished circles of society; "for the 
 labor is all done and the money all earned by the slaves." But 
 how has the Southern planter obtained his slaves ? Their 
 service is all capital invested, yielding but a comj)aralivelY 
 small per centage on the amount ; how has he come in posses- 
 sion of this amount of capital ? Has it been through the 
 influence and tendencies of the boasted system of free labor ? 
 Why does not the farmer of the Free States invest his capital 
 in the service of a hundred laborers which he may procure at a 
 less expense than the slave is to his master ? Instead of invest- 
 ing money in banks, stocks, city property, or hoarding it up 
 and making servants of their wives and children, they might 
 throw this mass of labor around them, like the hospitable and 
 noble old Roman, to administer to the ease, comfort, and 
 happiness of themselves and families. The planter of the 
 
380 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 South, instead of biding his talent in the earth, invests it in 
 lands and labor ; he throws it around him in such a manner as 
 not only to contribute to the enjoyment of himself and family, 
 but to the support and welfare of thousands of laborers who 
 share his protection. Instead of throwing the drudgery and 
 hardships of the plantation labor and household affairs upon 
 his sons, his wife and daughters, and making servants of his 
 own wife and children, he buys servants for them "with his 
 money, ^' and sends his children away to school, where they are 
 constantly kept till they are grown ; and by means of travelling, 
 observation, and a variety of association, by the time they have 
 completed their education they have acquired something of a 
 knowledge of the world, of mankind — something of the accom- 
 plishments of ladies and gentlemen. And hence, at home and 
 abroad, they live and move in higher and more intelligent and 
 refined circles of society.^ 
 
 With these reasons for our faith, with these claims to our 
 rights, we conclude with a few remarks upon the future pros- 
 pects of the Union, and the duty and destiny of the South. 
 
 It is not the province of philosophy to predict, though 
 thousands of false prophets and croaking soothsayers have 
 arisen to prophesy in the sacred name of America, to cast the 
 horoscope of the Union ; to fix the bounds of its perpetuity, 
 and set the time for its dissolution. Yet we see no immediate 
 reason to fall in the wake of this multitude of funereal pipers 
 and pall-bearers, who have been so long knolling the death- 
 knell of its existence. 
 
 Yet facts being given, results may be calculated, in the poli- 
 tical as well as in the physical world, with some degree of 
 certainty. It cannot be denied that sectional feelings are 
 growing stronger ; that the breach is constantly widening be- 
 tween the two nominal sections of the Union. Mason and 
 Dixon's line is growing up to be "a middle wall of partition" 
 between the North and the South, with the worst forms of 
 political antagonisms and destructive elements raging on either 
 side. As Mr. Calhoun well said, this schism first commenced 
 in the Church. The clergy, in synods assembled, first com- 
 menced the undermining process of sundering the sacred ties 
 that link the political existence of the States together, and of 
 
 J It is true, to the backwoods and frontier settlements these remarks 
 are not strictly applicable ; but it is not in consequence of slave labor, 
 but rather for the want of it; where the slaves are most numerous, there 
 is the highest degree of intelligence and refinement among the free popu- 
 lation. 
 
SLAVERY m THE UNITED STATES. 381 
 
 demolishing the constitutional bulwark of the nation's salva- 
 tion. Conscience was the first mover and ruling genius of 
 this holy crusade against the institution of slavery. This pious 
 conflagration, fed by the combustible elements of fanaticism, 
 bigotry, and intolerance, fanned by the fierce breeze of angry 
 faction and political aspirations, spread from the clergy to the 
 laity; from the pul})it it caught upon the forum, the bar, and 
 the stump, and now permeates the body politic. It has become 
 the stale theme of every deluded theorist, blinded bigot, and 
 misguided zealot, that now infests the community. It has been 
 caught up as the hobby of a host of disappointed politicians 
 and cast-off demagogues, with an army of foragers, sutlers, 
 and camp-followers, driven from every quarter where they 
 have pitched their camp, yet still striving to rally their scat- 
 tered and dismantled forces around the sable standard of 
 negro philanthropy. The facts that are now transpiring, the 
 history that has been forming around their footsteps, forcibly 
 remind us of the early days of the French Revolution. France 
 had her Robespierre, her Mirabeau, Danton, and Marat : they 
 instilled their licentious and corrupting influences into the pub- 
 lic mind, inflaming the basest and worst passions of the mob, 
 till they broke out in those terrible eruptions of popular fury 
 that drenched the streets of Paris with blood. So the Aboli- 
 tionists, arrayed in treasonable warfare against the peaceful 
 execution of the laws of the land, in the attempted rescue of 
 the fugitive Burns, could congregate an infuriated mass, like 
 deluded crusaders enlisting under the banner of the Cross for 
 the Holy Wars, witli minds already wrought up to a pitch of 
 desperation that required but a single spark to e.xplode a 
 magazine, that would have drenched the streets of Boston, 
 like those of Paris, with the blood of her citizens. The slay- 
 ing of one who fell, on that memorable occasion, in the faithful 
 discharge of his duty, has left a stain upon the spot where he 
 paid the forfeit of his life, that will never be obliterated from 
 unprejudiced minds. But they have left the cries from the 
 blood of the martyr Bachelor to go up from his grave unheard, 
 except by other ears. All, all in Boston I "A mob in Bus- 
 tonV Where the great Abolitionist, George Thompson, nar- 
 rowly escaped with his life, as the secret emissary of a foreign 
 foe ; where William Lloyd Garrison was once dragged along 
 the streets, like a felon hurried on to the gallows, as a preacher 
 of sedition. But the names of the Garrisons, the Tappans, 
 the Parkers, the Beechers, et id omne genus — names that, in 
 the days of the martyr Lovejoy, the rebel refugees of Lane Serai- 
 
382 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OP 
 
 nary, and the fire and blood of the mobs and riots to suppress 
 abolition, were branded with the broad seal of public infamy, 
 are now heralded forth as the great apostles of freedom.^ They 
 have been gradually swept along upon this swelling current of 
 popular phrenzy, "to ride the whirlwind and direct the 
 storm. " This red revolution, with its fictions of suffering and 
 tales of imaginary woe, has been long running its wild career, 
 deluding the unwary by its weird appeal to their sympathies, 
 beguiling the unsuspecting by its false charms, as in a beautiful 
 summer evening when poison floats in the spicy gale, and the 
 damps of disease descend in the pestilent vapors of the night : 
 the most delicate and refined feelings are the surest victims of 
 the exposure. 
 
 National and state societies have long been in operation, 
 with their auxiliaries and sub-auxiliaries throughout various 
 portions of the Free States ; their treasuries have long been 
 replenished by public contribution, under the false pretence of 
 promoting the cause of freedom. A thousand hireling agents 
 and lecturers have been kept in the field, at fixed salaries, by 
 these societies, to mislead and deceive the uninformed, and 
 dupe them into the custom of often contributing large sums 
 of money for the false and pretended object of benefiting the 
 "poor slave ;^^ but which has all been pocketed by these mer- 
 cenary advocates of the cause — some of whom have accumu- 
 lated large fortunes. Frequent quarrels have sprung up among 
 them about the division of the spoils, or as to who shall be 
 the constituted authority to handle the funds. Like schisms 
 in the Church, divisions into old and new schools have arisen, 
 as to some peculiar tenets in their creeds. Competition, the 
 life of trade, sprang up ; and each school, in striving to outdo 
 the other in their great work, proclaimed, in flaming notices ; 
 "A thousand travelling agents wanted, to travel, lecture, and 
 take up collections for the glorious cause of Abolition, to 
 whom liberal wages tvill be given." '^ 
 
 Tissues of falsehood and misrepresentation, in the form of 
 
 1 Lovejoy was killed at Alton gill, by a mob, some twenty years ago, 
 for publishing an abolition paper. The rebellion at Lane Seminary, by 
 the students who were denied the privilege of discussing the subject of 
 slavery, is well known. Lyman Beecher, the father of Edward and Har- 
 riet, was then president of that theological school. 
 
 2 In 1835 or 1836, two separate abolition societies were organized, one 
 in New York and one in Boston ; and a fierce contest arose between them 
 as to which was the constituted authority : both had numerous lecturers 
 in the field, the States were generally districted, and each agent confined 
 to one district, like patent agents and tin peddlers. 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 383 
 
 lectures, newspapers, books, pamphlets, and magazines, have 
 been scattered broadcast through the land, and the peoj)le 
 made to pay for sowing the seeds of discord and dissension in 
 the bosom of the nation. As their capital and numbers have 
 increased, new enterprises have sprung up, and new fields of 
 operation been sought out ; hence their large investments in 
 underground railroad stocks, emigrant aid societies, and the 
 bloody scenes upon the fields of Kansas. 
 
 Abolition, with all its infernal machinery, once persecuted 
 and suppressed by the most rigorous mandates of public opi 
 nion, expelled from schools and seminaries of learning, hunted 
 down, like a public enemy, by the most violent mobs and riots 
 — now, being fostered and encouraged, is taking deep root in 
 the sentiments and feelings of the rising generation. The war 
 has been duly christened a holy war ; religion has been more 
 eifectually pressed into the service ; her churches have become 
 places of Abolition gatherings upon the holy Sabbath ; her ves- 
 tries arsenals, and her pulpits political forums ; where soldiers 
 are enlisted and armed, not, as formerly, with the panoply of 
 the Cross, but with Sharp's rifles for their Bibles, with broad- 
 swords for their plough-shares, and tomahawks for their 
 pruning-hooks. Thus armed with the panoply of the cause, 
 they are sent out to propagate the creed among the new set- 
 tlements in the territories. 
 
 If devotion to our institutions be sinister and sinful, where 
 shall we find a refuge from this charge of moral turpitude ? 
 Shall we fly to the Abolitionists ? What do we find there but 
 rottenness in their hearts, and basest hypocrisy and imposition 
 in their professions ? What do we find to be the secret springs 
 of their actions, but the love of money and the love of power? 
 Under the van of British gold and foreign influence, the one 
 stirs the heart of the knave and the raiser, the other prompts 
 the zeal of the demagogue. Let Queen Victoria justly spurn 
 every Abolitionist from her presence who becomes a fawning 
 sycophant for royal honors, for preaching and writing treason 
 against his native country : let the aristocracy of England 
 despise them all as traitors ; let Britain lock up her treasures 
 to their calls, and turn them away ; let the American people 
 cease to be gulled into paying tribute to sow the seeds of 
 desolation in the heart of the Union ; and where would be 
 found an Abolitionist ? What would then become of this 
 band of seditionists and disorganizers ? They would all die 
 of starvation, and their putrid carcases, morally and phy.sically 
 rotten, would poison and infect the atmosphere with their nau- 
 
384 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 seous exhalations, worse than the victims of famine upon the 
 plains of Bengal and the banks of the Ganges. 
 
 It has ever been the policy of England, since the reign of 
 Elizabeth, to cultivate peace and amity with her friends at 
 home, and to scatter discord and dissension among her enemies 
 abroad. For this latter purpose, she has found the Abolition- 
 ists willing tools in her hands in this country. Who have poi- 
 soned the public mind with this frenzy ? Who have wrought 
 this change in public opinion and prepared the way for such 
 damning deeds, even in the New England metropolis, and upon 
 the sanguinary plains of Kansas ? It is not alone such blas- 
 phemous miscreants as Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Gar- 
 rison, Wendell Philips, and the like; a multitude of "lesser 
 lights" enlist under the banner to follow in the wake of this 
 disorganizing triumvirate of treason and perfidy. Strong- 
 minded women, even, are buckling on the armor of the faith 
 and arraying themselves in battle-lines against the authority of 
 "the powers that be." Many of the more conservative and 
 professedly judicious, are unwilling to march in the front ranks, 
 yet they are constant hangers-on, as secret minions and emissa- 
 ries, giving countenance and aid to this Jacobin concourse, by 
 furnishing supplies, enlisting volunteers, reconnoitering the 
 fore-ground, lighting the camp-fires, standing sentinels, man- 
 ning the out-posts, and acting as spies in the camp of the 
 enemy. Men of every form of opinion, from the base and 
 licentious tenets of the Infidel, Socialists, Non-resistants, and 
 Freethinkers, like the Jacobins and Montaignards in the days 
 of Louis XVI., to the most rigid school of the Orthodox faith, 
 unite in this amalgamated collocation, like the union of Pilate 
 and Herod, upon a common platform. Political Hotspurs 
 and aspiring demagogues are beginning to see the importance 
 of their numbers and to bid for their suffrage. Organized 
 upon prescriptive principles of geographical limit in one sec- 
 tion of the Union, their avowed object is to paralyze and de- 
 stroy the power of the other. The foot-prints of Sylla or 
 Mark Antony, in their pathway to the dictatorship of Rome, 
 are not more distinctly marked in the history of the overthrow 
 of that Republic, than those of the present Black Republican 
 leaders in their recent attempt to usurp the reins of govern- 
 ment, proscribe the slave-holder, destroy Southern institutions, 
 and dissolve the Union. 
 
 Boisterous with their blood-thirsty philanthropy, and incen- 
 diary charity towards the South, their aim is to wrap her in 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 385 
 
 flames and stain her with blood.' The fanatical element which is 
 leavening the North, with unrebuked audacity, avows this ter- 
 rible purpose. The vindictive leader of this relentless crusade, 
 when told that Abolition would blast the South and the South- 
 West ; would involve the whites in indiscriminate Ijutchery, or 
 drive them from their homes in despair and bcixgary, unshel- 
 tered from the pitiless blast, said : " Let those horrors come, 
 though five hundred thousand lives should perish." This is a 
 fiercer curse against the South than some Marat or Robespierre 
 uttered against their opponents in the frenzied excesses of the 
 French Revolution, when they declared that " a hundred thou- 
 sand lives was a cheap sacrifice to establish a principle." It is 
 more blood than the crown of the most inhuman tyrant has 
 ever cost the world. This blood-hound instinct of fanaticism 
 would proscribe the South and girdle her with a belt of fire, 
 that the master and the slave might perish together of despair, 
 blood, and conflagration. It cherishes nothing in its bosom 
 but the most uncompromising and destructive elements of revo- 
 lution. Self-preservation requires more watchfulness and strin- 
 gent laws for the protection of the free ; and the universal cry 
 of the slave is, "Deliver us from our friends 1" "because ye 
 have made us to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the 
 eyes of his servants, to put a sword into their hands to 
 slay us." 
 
 The higher the excitement runs, the more the combat deepens ; 
 defeats, legislative and judicial rebukes, seem only to provoke 
 bitter acrimony and a more frenzied zeal ; again have their 
 camp-fires been lighted upon a thousand hills ; again are we 
 threatened with a Black Republican flag in place of the star- 
 spangled banner, with an Abolition President for our standard- 
 bearer; again, and still are the Constitution and the laws 
 threatened to be trampled in the dust ; still are the wheels of 
 Government threatened to be stopped, and Congress converted 
 into a turbid pool where the highest interests of the nation may 
 lie rotting in its stagnant waters. The storm is gathering thick 
 and heavy upon our borders ; we hear the low rumblings of the 
 distant thunder ; we see occasional flashes of its forked light- 
 nings ; and unless some intervening circumstance shall happily 
 avert the impending calamity — the day, though distant it may 
 
 1 Plans of insurrection in various localities in the Slave States were 
 secretly laid by the slaves, in anticipation of the triumph of the Black 
 Republicans iu Nov. 1856. Great consternation prevailed among the in- 
 habitants, and night patrols were kept, and every precaution used to de- 
 tect these conspu-ators, some of which were successful. 
 
 33 z 
 
386 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE OF 
 
 be, is yet certain, that will provoke a retribution with its terri- 
 ble revelations of fire and blood. 
 
 But, has the South no preparations to make for this eventful 
 crisis ? Cherishes she no disloyalty to her own institutions in 
 her own bosom ? Truth compels us to yield a reluctant affirm- 
 ative to these queries. We read of some whose "enemies 
 shall be those of their own household." Thousands there are, 
 in the heart of the South, who live in the daily countenance of 
 what they blindly acknowledge " a great moral and political 
 evil.''^ These sickly panderers to their misguided notions of 
 freedom, have studied only the anti-slavery code of morals, 
 and the Abolitionist's Bible ; they seem to dread the light, and 
 constantly cry down all discussion upon the subject, and all 
 attempts at the defence of the institution and the South, as 
 though the Southern people were only to suffer in the contest. 
 They claim only to be permitted to live in the peaceful enjoy- 
 ment of these evils. They contend only for rights that are 
 founded on self-acknowledged wrongs, and exist only in sup- 
 porting and upholding a self-acknowledged sin. All such need 
 to be enlightened as to their own rights and duties, and the 
 true character and spirit of our institutions. All such need to 
 read and reflect much to disabuse their minds of errors and 
 misconceptions thoughtlessly adopted through the influence of 
 the sophistry and misrepresentations of Abolition moralists and 
 theologians, before they can enter, soul and spirit, into their 
 own defence. 
 
 Is it to such that the South can safely look for the successful 
 defence of her institutions? Can such "grapple" Southern 
 interests "to their hearts with hooks of steel?" Will they 
 ever be found in the front ranks of the battle, with all their 
 prejudices, on the great day of trial ? It is only the self-con- 
 sciousness of rights to be defended, and of wrongs to be avenged, 
 that nerves the arm of the injured and oppressed in the death- 
 conflict of principles. It is this alone that inspires them with 
 that breathless frenzy and indomitable zeal that ever urge on 
 to certain victory. But consciousness of wrong gives a faint 
 heart and a craven resolve to the bravest soldier. Guilt makes 
 cowards of the boldest heroes. Hence the coward and traitor 
 are always those who have nothing at issue in the conflict or 
 are forcibly enlisted in a bad cause. The day is coming when 
 every man must record his vote and man his post. " He that 
 is not for us is against us : He that gathereth not with us, 
 scattereth abroad. ' ' 
 
 Dwells there au American heart in this section of the Union 
 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 381 
 
 that would hesitate or waver in its support of our institutions ; 
 let that heart be purified, or let it cease to be American 1 
 
 Lo ! we hear much of "the aggressions of the South upon 
 the North." But who can point out the fact ? If equal pri- 
 vileges and equal rights under the Constitution be aggression, 
 then the charge may justly lie at the door of the South. We 
 ask no legislative boon, no legislative extension or protection, 
 we ask only to be exempt from unconstitutional interference 
 with our property, interests, and rights ; if this be aggres- 
 sion in the eyes of any one, "let him speak, for him have we 
 offended." If to claim the privileges of freemen, and the 
 rights and immunities of the independent principles of self- 
 government under the Constitution, be aggression, forever be 
 it so ; we deny not the accusation. If to claim our right to 
 life, liberty, and property, under the law, wherever we may go, 
 be aggression, then only do we plead guilty to the charge. 
 
 Shall the South then "train her tongue to honeyed words," 
 and her sons to dastardly coalescence and submission ? Is 
 there not one drop of the pure New England and Virginia 
 blood of the Revolution left in her veins ? Do we mean to 
 submit tamely to the measures of the Abolitionists, the repeal 
 of the fugitive slave law, exclusion from the territories, and 
 all? "Shall we still lie supinely on our backs hugging the 
 delusive phantom of hope till our enemies have bound us hand 
 and foot?" "Will gentlemen still cry peace I peace! when 
 there is no peace," but in the surrender of our liberty and our 
 property ? Will they still cry Union ! Union ! when there is 
 no Union, but in submission to the worst forms of political 
 proscription and despotism ? "Is any man so weak as to hope 
 for a reconciliation that would leave neither safety to our own 
 lives nor to our own property ?" Is any man so humble as 
 to ask for peace upon such ignominious terms as this ? Is any 
 man so craven as to hope for union while union is but an empty 
 form for political oppression ? While the Union is based upon 
 the principles of the Federal compact, observed and carried 
 out ; while it stands upon the well-constructed pillars of Con- 
 stitutional liberty and equality, with the national banner stream- 
 ing free from its summit ; palsied be the hand that would mar 
 or mutilate the beauty of the edifice. But whoever shall under- 
 mine and sap this foundation, while the superstructure is totter- 
 ing upon its sinking basement, let us flee from it lest we be 
 crushed by the fall of its crumbling fragments. If the North 
 are so blind to their own interests as obstinately to persist in 
 their injustice, till they have forced a dissolution of the Union, 
 
388 THE POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDE, &C, 
 
 and driven us to arms, then let the call go forth for a new De- 
 claration of Independence, a new Bill of Rights, and a new 
 Constitution. If, then, as the last alternative, we must fight, 
 "let it come," and let every sword leap from its scabbard, 
 "resolved to maintain it, or to perish upon the field of honor. " 
 Will Southern gentlemen then stand, like hunted victims, while 
 prairie flames are closing around them in narrowing and still 
 narrowing circles, motionless and helpless, crying Union and 
 Peace ! No : "light but the torch, and every true son of the 
 South will burst through the wall of fire, though the flames 
 should shrivel their sinews and blast their eyeballs, resolved to 
 fall, if fall they must, struggling, blindly it may be, but strug- 
 gling like men." Not that we love the Union less, but liberty 
 and equal rights the more. The Union, so long as it can be 
 maintained upon the high principles of the Constitution, is 
 justly held sacred in the bosom of every true American patriot; 
 in the language of the immortal Webster, " Liberty and Union 
 forever one and inseparable." But we must add, Union and 
 Despotism forever twain and incoherent. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE I 
 
 Showing the comparative number of Farmers, Carpenters, Merchants and 
 Students, in each Free and Slave State, that approximate nearest to an 
 equality in their number of free population. As, for instance, Rhode Island 
 is compared with Arkansas, New Jersey with Alabama, ^c. 
 
 Names of States. 
 
 Rhode Island 
 Arkansas 
 
 New Jersey .. 
 Alabama 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Mississippi , 
 
 Massachusetts.. 
 Virginia 
 
 Maine 
 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Texas 
 
 New York 
 
 Va., Ky., Tenn., Ga. 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Ala., Tenn., Ky. 
 Ohio 
 
 Ga., N. C, S. C , Va. 
 Pennsylvania , 
 
 143,875 
 162,189 
 
 465,-507 
 426,514 
 
 363,099 
 295,718 
 
 985,450 
 894,800 
 
 581,813 
 553,028 
 
 304,736 
 255,491 
 
 191,881 
 154,034 
 
 3,480,084 
 3,134,621 
 
 846,034 
 894,800 
 
 2,044,763 
 1,955,650 
 
 2,243,963 
 2,258,160 
 
 6E 
 
 8,398 
 28,838 
 
 32,392 
 66,610 
 
 31,756 
 44,873 
 
 55,082 
 106,807 
 
 77,016 
 81,808 
 
 40,865 
 11,697 
 
 32,716 
 25,051 
 
 311,591 
 421,827 
 
 140,894 
 106,807 
 
 380,266 
 269,690 
 
 302,932" 
 206,347 
 
 So, 
 
 ^5 
 
 2,287 
 685 
 
 5,422 
 1,976 
 
 2,755 
 1,438 
 
 15,336 
 8,038 
 
 5,038 
 2,476 
 
 3,639 
 4,575 
 
 1,871 
 1,361 
 
 34,781 
 19,707 
 
 6,523 
 8,038 
 
 10.361 
 21,909 
 
 563 
 
 2,615 
 2,468 
 
 2,046 
 1,506 
 
 5,338 
 4,621 
 
 2,066 
 1,931 
 
 1,231 
 3,958 
 
 835 
 985 
 
 18,031 
 12,614 
 
 2,558 
 4,621 
 
 8,032 
 8,012 
 
 413 
 
 307 
 
 942 
 2269 
 
 1259 
 2284 
 
 2622 
 3125 
 
 692 
 2095 
 
 207 
 598 
 
 68 
 347 
 
 2572 
 9000 
 
 703 
 3125 
 
 6213 
 8659 1 
 
 » But tbis estimate gives the population of the Free States the aclvantage of all their 
 great cities and hordes of foreigners, and at the same time excludes all the slaves em 
 ployed in the Slave States. 
 
 33 * (389) 
 
390 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE II 
 
 Shoiving the difference in the Number of Free White Population in States, 
 compared in the preceding Table, also the number of slaves employed in each 
 of the Slave States, comparative number of persons engaged in industrial 
 pursuits, different acres of land improved, bushels of corn, value of live 
 stock, ^c.i 
 
 Names of States. 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Rhode Island.. 
 
 Connecticut.... 
 Mississippi 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 Virginia 
 
 Maine 
 
 North Carolina . 
 
 Wisconsin . 
 Louisiana.. 
 
 Illinois., 
 Texas... 
 
 New York 
 
 Va., Tenn., Ky. Ga. 
 
 Illinois ... 
 Virginia . 
 
 Tenn., Ky., Ala- 
 Ohio , 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Ga., N. C, S. C, Va.. 
 
 New Jersey , 
 Alabama 
 
 a 
 
 18,2S2 
 67,381 
 90,650 
 38,785 
 50,245 
 47,847 
 34,663 
 48,761 
 89,713 
 4,197 
 38,933 
 
 40,785 
 43,478 
 
 97,010 
 75,082 
 
 295,300 
 236,875 
 
 162,711 
 139,387 
 
 78,139 
 77,168 
 
 49,816 
 
 42,856 
 
 388.294 
 208:431 
 
 215,389 
 
 226,875 
 
 459,782 
 530,792 
 
 680,644 
 578,054 
 
 128,740 
 100,467 
 
 2,'686 
 
 58,168 
 
 21,928 
 
 
 
 309,878 
 
 68,425 
 
 
 472,528 
 
 23,324 
 
 971 
 
 288,584 
 244',809 
 "58,161 
 
 6,459 
 
 179,863 
 
 1,304,650 
 
 
 11,816 
 71,010 
 
 472,528 
 793,284 
 
 102,590 
 
 
 1,527,742 
 
 28,213 
 
 
 342,844 
 
 781,530 
 356,487 
 
 1.768,178 
 3,445,558 
 
 2,133,436 
 10,360,135 
 
 2,039,596 
 5,453,975 
 
 1,045,499 
 1,590,025 
 
 824,682 
 643,976 
 
 12,408.964 
 27,882,075 
 
 5,039.545 
 10,360,135 
 
 15,519,0.57 
 9,851,493 
 
 8,628,619 
 26,265,259 
 
 1,767,911 
 4,435,614 
 
 8,891,939 
 539,201 
 
 1,935,043 
 22,446,552 
 
 2,345,490 
 35,254,318 
 
 1,750.056 
 27,941,051 
 
 1,988.979 
 10,266,373 
 
 8.656,799 
 6,028,876 
 
 17.858,400 
 177,000,000 
 
 51,646,894 
 35,256,319 
 
 89,000,000 
 59,000,000 
 
 19,000,000 
 120,000.000 
 
 8,759,704 
 28,754,048 
 
 6,647,000 
 1,532,000 
 
 7,417,000 
 19,903,000 
 
 9.647,000 
 33,656,000 
 
 9,705.000 
 17,717,000 
 
 4.897,000 1 
 11,152,000 j 
 
 3.689,000 
 10,412,000 
 
 73,570,000 
 130,500,000 
 
 24,207,000 
 33,656.000 
 
 80.500.000 
 44,120,000 
 
 41,500.000 
 92,500,000 
 
 10,672,291 
 21,691,112 i 
 
 • The results of these tables give us some idea of that " sterility" that " tracks the fnot- 
 prints of the sl.ive as it did those of Attila's horse." This assertion is no less false and 
 unfounded in fact than a thousand others that obtain a free circulation as current truths 
 among the ignorant and misinformed upon this subject. Look at the comparative number 
 of acres of land improved by equal numbers of slave and free population, the number of 
 bushels of corn niised, and the amount in value of live stock ! bread and me.it — then say 
 if sterility tracks the slave. Verily, "He that is despised and hath a servant is better 
 than he that honoreth him.self and lacketh bread." — Prov. Where can be found in the 
 statistics of the Free States such evidence of national progress as is fui-nished by the 
 history of the Slave States. Look at the amount of lands taken up, rapid increase of 
 products, amount of exports. Ac, compared with the Free States. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 301 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 Showing the comparative number of Acres of Land taken up and purchased of 
 the Government by the new Slave and Free Slates. 
 
 New Slave 
 States. 
 
 Improved and 
 Unimproved. 
 
 Alabama 11,595,289 
 
 Arkansas 2,595,281 
 
 Florida 1,695,287 
 
 Mississippi 10,840,319 
 
 Louisiana 5,787,410 
 
 Texas 11,496,339 
 
 Tennessee 18,784,032 
 
 Kentucky 16,752,448 
 
 Missouri 9,732,670 
 
 New Free 
 States. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Michigan 
 
 AVisconsin 
 
 Iowa 2,73(3,064 
 
 Illinois 12,035,439 
 
 California 4,189,985 
 
 Indiana 12,795,922 
 
 Improved and 
 Unimproved. 
 
 17,997,473 
 4,373,890 
 2.976,038 
 
 Total 89,219,341 Total 57,105,911 
 
 Excess in favor of the new Slave States 32,113,430 acres.» 
 
 TABLE ly. 
 
 Showing the number of Population, Churches, Natives unable to Read and 
 Write, and Criminals in ten of the Northern and ten of the Southern Slates. 
 
 Names of State.s. 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts . .. 
 New Hampshire . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 New York 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Totals 
 
 Population. 
 
 583,169 
 994,514 
 317,976 
 314,120 
 370,792 
 147,545 
 
 3,097,394 
 489,555 
 
 2,311,786 
 91,532 
 
 8,718,383 
 
 No. of 
 Churches. 
 
 945 
 
 1,475 
 
 626 
 
 599 
 
 730 
 
 228 
 
 4,134 
 
 813 
 
 3,566 
 
 180 
 
 Natives una- 
 ble to read 
 and write. 
 
 2,134 
 
 1,861 
 
 945 
 
 616 
 
 1,293 
 
 1,248 
 
 30,670 
 
 12,787 
 
 51,283 
 
 9,777 
 
 Criminals. 
 
 13,300 j 112,614 
 
 • The value of the cotton in the Slave States increased from 1791 to 1851, sixty years, 
 from $52,000 to $112,.315,317 ; and the total amount of their exports in the same time, 
 from about $60,000,000 to $1.30.000,000, while the total export.^ of the Free :>talos at that 
 date, was only about §65,0IX),000. Thus have the .Slave States nearly doubled the free 
 States in the increased amount of their exports, in the public lands that they have taken 
 up and improved, in the amount of cotton and corn, and in the value of their live stock. 
 And yet we are told by Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, that "Sterility tracks the 
 slave." (See sup. p. 373.) AVe will next present some facts showing the influence of 
 slavery upon public morals. 
 
392 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE IV. — Continued. 
 
 Names of State 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi , 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Totals 8,329,459 
 
 Population. 
 
 583,034 
 1,421,661 
 869,039 
 668,507 
 906,185 
 771,623 
 606,526 
 517,762 
 1,012,717 
 982,407 
 
 No. of 
 Churches. 
 
 909 
 2,383 
 1,795 
 1,182 
 1,862 
 1,373 
 1,016 
 
 306 
 2.014 
 1,845 
 
 14,685 
 
 Natives una- 
 ble to read 
 and write. 
 
 38,426 
 87,383 
 80,083 
 16,460 
 41,261 
 33,853 
 13,447 
 18,339 
 78,114 
 67,359 
 
 474,725 
 
 Criminals. 
 
 200 
 
 188 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 85 
 
 23 
 
 81 
 
 160 
 
 187 
 
 141 
 
 1098 
 
 Though the ten Southern States have nearly half a million less popula- 
 tion, they have over 1000 more churches than the Northern States; 
 though among the latter are included that portion of the Union most famed 
 for religion and morality. The ten Northern States have twice as many 
 criminals as the ten Slave States, though the latter have four times as 
 many persons unable to read and write. 
 
 It may be said that the above table includes those Northern States 
 having the largest seaports in the Union, where an undue portion of vice 
 and crime abound in consequence of the foreign population. But we may 
 strike out New York and Massachusetts, and the result is not changed. 
 
API'EXDIX. 
 
 393 
 
 TABLE l^. — Continued. 
 
 Here the number of criminals is twice as great in the four New England 
 States, containing no great cities, as iu the four Southern Atlantic States 
 with a population three times that of the said Free States, and with the 
 number who cannot read and write, fifty times as great. Vary the esti- 
 mation as you will, the result is the same. 
 
 Names of States. 
 
 Population. 
 
 No. of 
 Churches. 
 
 Natives una- 
 ble to read 
 aud write. 
 
 1 
 Criminala. \ 
 
 1 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 317,976 
 370,792 
 
 626 
 734 
 
 045 
 1,293 
 
 n 
 145 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Totals 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Totals 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 088,768 
 
 606,526 
 682,044 
 
 1360 
 
 1016 
 880 
 
 2,238 
 
 13,447 
 34,917 
 
 222 
 
 81 
 108 
 
 189 
 
 145 
 
 188 
 
 301 
 
 187 
 
 1,288,570 
 
 370,792 
 1,421,661 
 
 994,514 
 1,002,717 
 
 1896 
 
 48,364 
 
 1,293 
 87,383 
 
 1,861 
 78,114 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 These facts, unless they can be controverted, must forever put to silence 
 the eternal uproar, din, and commotion of the Abolitionists about the 
 baneful influence of slavery upon the public morals ; and no traveller 
 ■who has become at all acquainted with the general characteristics of the 
 people at the North and at the South will be surprised at these results. 
 That there should be a greater proportion of persons unable to read and 
 write in these comparatively newly-settled States, where the population is 
 yet too sparse to support schools, would be naturally expected. But that 
 there should be a purer cast, a higher standard of public morals, and 
 such a disproportion of crime, can be accounted for upon no other prin- 
 ciples than the purifying influences of the manners and customs that 
 prevail. 
 
 The foregoing tables have all been carefully prepared from the Census Book of 1650, and 
 from extracts from De Bow's Keview (June, 186-1). 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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