The Project Gutenberg EBook of Walker's Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His
Life, by David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet
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Title: Walker's Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life
And Also Garnet's Address to the Slaves of the United States of America
Author: David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet
Release Date: August 12, 2005 [EBook #16516]
Language: English
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WALKER'S APPEAL,
WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.
BY
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.
AND ALSO
GARNET'S ADDRESS
TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
NEW-YORK:
Printed by J.H. Tobitt, 9 Spruce st
1848.
PREFACE.
Such is the very high esteem which is entertained for the memory of
DAVID WALKER, and so general is the desire to preserve his
"Appeal," that the subscriber has undertaken, and performed the task
of re-publication, with a brief notice of his life, having procured
permission from his widow, Mrs. Dewson.
The work is valuable, because it was among the first, and was actually
the boldest and most direct appeal in behalf of freedom, which was
made in the early part of the Anti-Slavery Reformation. When the
history of the emancipation of the bondmen of America shall be
written, whatever name shall be placed first on the list of heroes,
that of the author of the Appeal will not be second.
_Troy, N.Y., April 12, 1848._
A BRIEF SKETCH
OF THE
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DAVID WALKER.
It is generally the desire of the reader of any intellectual
production, to know something of the character and the life of the
author. The character of _David Walker_ is indicated in his writings.
In regard to his life, but a few materials can be gathered; but what
is known of him, furnishes proof to the opinion which the friends of
man have formed of him--that he possessed a noble and a courageous
spirit, and that he was ardently attached to the cause of liberty.
Mr. Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sept. 28, 1785. His
mother was a free woman, and his father was a slave. His innate hatred
to slavery was very early developed. When yet a boy, he declared that
the slaveholding South was not the place for him. His soul became so
indignant at the wrongs which his father and his kindred bore, that he
determined to find some portion of his country where he would see less
to harrow up his soul. Said he, "If I remain in this bloody land, I
will not live long. As true as God reigns, I will be avenged for the
sorrow which my people have suffered. This is not the place for
me--no, no. I must leave this part of the country. It will be a great
trial for me to live on the same soil where so many men are in
slavery; certainly I cannot remain where I must hear their chains
continually, and where I must encounter the insults of their
hypocritical enslaver. Go, I must."
The youthful Walker embraced his mother, and received a mother's
blessings, and turned his back upon North Carolina. His father died a
few months before his birth; and it is a remarkable coincidence, that
the son of the subject of this Memoir, was a posthumous child.
After leaving home, David Walker travelled rapidly towards the North,
shaking off the dust of his feet, and breathing curses upon the system
of human slavery, America's darling institution. As might be expected,
he met with trials during his journey; and at last he reached Boston,
Mass., where he took up his permanent residence. There he applied
himself to study, and soon learned to read and write, in order that he
might contribute something to the cause of humanity. Mr. Walker, like
most of reformers, was a poor man--he lived poor, and died poor.
In 1827 be entered into the clothing business in Brattle street, in
which he prospered; and had it not been for his great liberality and
hospitality, he would have become wealthy. In 1828, he married Miss
Eliza ----. He was emphatically a self-made man, and he spent all his
leisure moments in the cultivation of his mind. Before the
Anti-Slavery Reformation had assumed a form, he was ardently engaged
in the work. His hands were always open to contribute to the wants of
the fugitive. His house was the shelter and the home of the poor and
needy. Mr. Walker is known principally by his "APPEAL," but it was in
his private walks, and by his unceasing labors in the cause of
freedom, that he has made his memory sacred.
With an overflowing heart, he published his "Appeal" in 1829. This
little book produced more commotion among slaveholders than any volume
of its size that was ever issued from an American press. They saw that
it was a bold attack upon their idolatry, and that too by a black man
who once lived among them. It was merely a smooth stone which this
David took up, yet it terrified a host of Goliaths. When the fame of
this book reached the South, the poor, cowardly, pusillanimous
tyrants, grew pale behind their cotton bags, and armed themselves to
the teeth. They set watches to look after their happy and contented
slaves. The Governor of GEORGIA wrote to the Hon. Harrison Grey Otis,
the Mayor of Boston, requesting him to suppress the Appeal. His Honor
replied to the Southern Censor, that he had no power nor disposition
to hinder Mr. Walker from pursuing a lawful course in the utterance of
his thoughts. A company of Georgia men then bound themselves by an
oath, that they would eat as little as possible until they had killed
the youthful author. They also offered a reward of a thousand dollars
for his head, and ten times as much for the live Walker. His consort,
with the solicitude of an affectionate wife, together with some
friends, advised him to go to Canada, lest he should be abducted.
Walker said that he had nothing to fear from such a pack of coward
blood-hounds; but if he did go, he would hurl back such thunder across
the great lakes, that would cause them to tremble in their strong
holds. Said he, "I will stand my ground. _Somebody must die in this
cause._ I may be doomed to the stake and the fire, or to the scaffold
tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of
emancipation." He did not leave the country, but was soon laid in the
grave. It was the opinion of many that he was hurried out of life by
the means of poison, but whether this was the case or not, the writer
is not prepared to affirm.
He had many enemies, and not a few were his brethren whose cause he
espoused. They said that he went too far, and was making trouble. So
the Jews spoke of Moses. They valued the flesh-pots of Egypt more than
the milk and honey of Canaan. He died 1830 in Bridge street, at the
hopeful and enthusiastic age of 34 years. His ruling passion blazed up
in the hour of death, and threw an indescribable grandeur over the
last dark scene. The heroic young man passed away without a struggle,
and a few weeping friends
"Saw in death his eyelids close,
Calmly, as to a night's repose,
Like flowers at set of sun."
The personal appearance of Mr. Walker was prepossessing, being six
feet in height, slender and well proportioned. His hair was loose, and
his complexion was dark. His son, the only child he left, is now 18
years of age, and is said to resemble his father; he now resides at
Charlestown, Mass., with his mother, Mrs. Dewson. Mr. Walker was a
faithful member of the Methodist Church at Boston, whose pastor is the
venerable father Snowden.
The reader thus has a brief notice of the life and character of David
Walker.
WALKER'S
APPEAL,
IN FOUR ARTICLES,
TOGETHER WITH
A PREAMBLE,
TO THE
COLORED CITIZENS OF THE WORLD,
BUT IN PARTICULAR, AND VERY EXPRESSLY TO THOSE OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
_Written in Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, Sept. 28, 1829._
SECOND EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS, &c.
BY DAVID WALKER.
1830.
APPEAL. &c.
PREAMBLE.
_My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens:_
Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United States,
and having, in the course of my travels taken the most accurate
observations of things as they exist--the result of my observations
has warranted the full and unshakened conviction, that we, (colored
people of these United States) are the most degraded, wretched, and
abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began, and I pray
God, that none like us ever may live again until time shall be no
more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta,
and of the Roman Slaves, which last, were made up from almost every
nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and heathen
nations were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and
christian nation, no more than a cypher--or in other words, those
heathen nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the
name and form of slavery, while wretchedness and endless miseries were
reserved, apparently in a phial, to be poured out upon our fathers,
ourselves and our children by _christian_ Americans!
These positions, I shall endeavour, by the help of the Lord, to
demonstrate in the course of this _appeal_, to the satisfaction of the
most incredulous mind--and may God Almighty who is the father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, open your hearts to understand and believe the
truth.
The _causes_, my brethren, which produce our wretchedness and
miseries, are so very numerous and aggravating, that I believe the pen
only of a Josephus or a Plutarch, can well enumerate and explain them.
Upon subjects, then, of such incomprehensible magnitude, so
impenetrable, and so notorious, I shall be obliged to omit a large
class of, and content myself with giving you an exposition of a few of
those, which do indeed rage to such an alarming pitch, that they
cannot but be a perpetual source of terror and dismay to every
reflecting mind.
I am fully aware, in making this appeal to my much afflicted and
suffering brethren, that I shall not only be assailed by those whose
greatest earthly desires are, to keep us in abject ignorance and
wretchedness, and who are of the firm conviction that heaven has
designed us and our children to be slaves and _beasts of burden_ to
them and their children.--I say, I do not only expect to be held up to
the public as an ignorant, impudent and restless disturber of the
public peace, by such avaricious creatures, as well as a mover of
insubordination--and perhaps put in prison or to death, for giving a
superficial exposition of our miseries, and exposing tyrants. But I am
persuaded, that many of my brethren, particularly those who are
ignorantly in league with slave-holders or tyrants, who acquire their
daily bread by the blood and sweat of their more ignorant
brethren--and not a few of those too, who are too ignorant to see an
inch beyond their noses, will rise up and call me cursed--Yea, the
jealous ones among us will perhaps use more abject subtlety by
affirming that this work is not worth perusing; that we are well
situated and there is no use in trying to better our condition, for we
cannot. I will ask one question here.--Can our condition be any
worse?--Can it be more mean and abject? If there are any changes, will
they not be for the better, though they may appear for the worse at
first? Can they get us any lower? Where can they get us? They are
afraid to treat us worse, for they know well, the day they do it they
are gone. But against all accusations which may or can be preferred
against me, I appeal to heaven for my motive in writing--who knows
that my object is, if possible, to awaken in the breasts of my
afflicted, degraded and slumbering brethren, a spirit of enquiry and
investigation respecting our miseries and wretchedness in this
_Republican Land of Liberty!!!!!_
The sources from which our miseries are derived and on which I shall
comment, I shall not combine in one, but shall put them under distinct
heads and expose them in their turn; in doing which, keeping truth on
my side, and not departing from the strictest rules of morality, I
shall endeavor to penetrate, search out, and lay them open for your
inspection. If you cannot or will not profit by them, I shall have
done _my_ duty to you, my country and my God.
And as the inhuman system of _slavery_, is the _source_ from which
most of our miseries proceed, I shall begin with that _curse to
nations_; which has spread terror and devastation through so many
nations of antiquity, and which is raging to such a pitch at the
present day in Spain and in Portugal. It had one tug in England, in
France, and in the United States of America; yet the inhabitants
thereof, do not learn wisdom, and erase it entirely from their
dwellings and from all with whom they have to do. The fact is, the
labor of slaves comes so cheap to the avaricious usurpers, and is (as
they think) of such great utility to the country where it exists, that
those who are actuated by sordid avarice only, overlook the evils,
which will as sure as the Lord lives, follow after the good. In fact,
they are so happy to keep in ignorance and degradation, and to receive
the homage and the labor of the slaves, they forget that God rules in
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, having
his ears continually open to the cries, tears and groans of his
oppressed people; and being a just and holy Being will at one day
appear fully in behalf of the oppressed, and arrest the progress of
the avaricious oppressors; for although the destruction of the
oppressors God may not effect by the oppressed, yet the Lord our God
will bring other destructions upon them--for not unfrequently will he
cause them to rise up one against another, to be split and divided,
and to oppress each other, and sometimes to open hostilities with
sword in hand. Some may ask, what is the matter with this enlightened
and happy people?--Some say it is the cause of political usurpers,
tyrants, oppressors, &c. But has not the Lord an oppressed and
suffering people among them? Does the Lord condescend to hear their
cries and see their tears in consequence of oppression? Will he let
the oppressors rest comfortably and happy always? Will he not cause
the very children of the oppressors to rise up against them, and
oftimes put them to death? "God works in many ways his wonders to
perform."
I will not here speak of the destructions which the Lord brought upon
Egypt, in consequence of the oppression and consequent groans of the
oppressed--of the hundreds and thousands of Egyptians whom God hurled
into the Red Sea for afflicting his people in their land--of the
Lord's suffering people in Sparta or Lacedemon, the land of the truly
famous Lycurgus--nor have I time to comment upon the cause which
produced the fierceness with which Sylla usurped the title, and
absolutely acted as dictator of the Roman people--the conspiracy of
Cataline--the conspiracy against, and murder of Cæsar in the Senate
house--the spirit with which Marc Antony made himself master of the
commonwealth--his associating Octavius and Lipidus with himself in
power,--their dividing the provinces of Rome among themselves--their
attack and defeat on the plains of Phillipi the last defenders of
their liberty, (Brutus and Cassius)--the tyranny of Tiberius, and from
him to the final overthrow of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan,
Mahomed II., A.D. 1453. I say, I shall not take up time to speak of
the _causes_ which produced so much wretchedness and massacre among
those heathen nations, for I am aware that you know too well, that God
is just, as well as merciful!--I shall call your attention a few
moments to that _christian_ nation, the Spaniards, while I shall leave
almost unnoticed that avaricious and cruel people, the Portuguese,
among whom all true hearted christians and lovers of Jesus Christ,
must evidently see the judgments of God displayed. To show the
judgments of God upon the Spaniards I shall occupy but little time,
leaving a plenty of room for the candid and unprejudiced to reflect.
All persons who are acquainted with history, and particularly the
Bible, who are not blinded by the God of this world, and are not
actuated solely by avarice--who are able to lay aside prejudice long
enough to view candidly and impartially, things as they were, are, and
probably will be, who are willing to admit that God made man to serve
him _alone_, and that man should have no other Lord or Lords but
himself--that God Almighty is the _sole proprietor_ or _master_ of the
WHOLE human family, and will not on any consideration admit of a
colleague, being unwilling to divide his glory with another.--And who
can dispense with prejudice long enough to admit that we are men,
notwithstanding our _improminent noses_ and _woolly heads_, and
believe that we feel for our fathers, mothers, wives and children as
well as they do for theirs.--I say, all who are permitted to see and
believe these things, can easily recognize the judgments of God among
the Spaniards. Though others may lay the cause of the fierceness with
which they cut each other's throats, to some other circumstances, yet
they who believe that God is a God of justice, will believe that
SLAVERY _is the principal cause_.
While the Spaniards are running about upon the field of battle cutting
each other's throats, has not the Lord an afflicted and suffering
people in the midst of them whose cries and groans in consequence of
oppression are continually pouring into the ears of the God of
justice? Would they not cease to cut each others throats if they
could? But how can they? The very support which they draw from
government to aid them in perpetrating such enormities, does it not
arise in a great degree from the wretched victims of oppression among
them? And yet they are calling for _Peace!--Peace!!_ Will any peace be
given unto them? Their destruction may indeed be procrastinated
awhile, but can it continue long while they are oppressing the Lord's
people? Has He not the hearts of all men in His hand? Will he suffer
one part of his creatures to go on oppressing another like brutes
always, with impunity? And yet those avaricious wretches are calling
for _Peace!!!!_ I declare it does appear to me, as though some nations
think God is asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but
to dig their mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe
history, sacred or profane. I ask every man who has a heart and is
blessed with the privilege of believing--Is not God a God of justice
to all his creatures? Do you say he is? Then if he gives peace and
tranquility to tyrants, and permits them to keep our fathers, our
mothers, ourselves and our children in eternal ignorance and
wretchedness to support them and their families, would he be to us a
God of _justice_? I ask O ye _christians!!!_ who hold us and our
children, in the most abject ignorance and degradation, that ever a
people were afflicted with since the world began--I say, if God gives
you peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting
us and our children, who have never given you the least
provocation,--Would he be to us _a God of justice_? If you will allow
that we are MEN, who feel for each other, does not the blood of our
fathers and of us their children, cry aloud to the Lord of Sabaoth
against you, for the cruelties and murders with which you have, and do
continue to afflict us. But it is time for me to close my remarks on
the suburbs, just to enter more fully into the interior of this system
of cruelty and oppression.
ARTICLE I.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF SLAVERY.
My beloved brethren: The Indians of North and of South America--the
Greeks--the Irish subjected under the king of Great Britain--the Jews
that ancient people of the Lord--the inhabitants of the islands of the
sea--in fine, all the inhabitants of the earth, (except however, the
sons of Africa) are called _men_, and of course are, and ought to be
free. But we, (coloured people) and our children are _brutes!!_ and of
course are and ought to be SLAVES to the American people and their
children forever! to dig their mines and work their farms; and thus go
on enriching them, from one generation to another with our blood and
our tears!!
I promised in a preceding page to demonstrate to the satisfaction of
the most incredulous, that we, (colored people of these United States
of America) are the _most wretched, degraded_ and abject set of beings
that ever _lived_ since the world began, and that the white Americans
having reduced us to the wretched state of _slavery_, treat us in that
condition _more cruel_ (they being an enlightened and Christian
people) than any heathen nation did any people whom it had reduced to
our condition. These affirmations are so well confirmed in the minds
of all unprejudiced men who have taken the trouble to read histories,
that they need no elucidation from me. But to put them beyond all
doubt, I refer you in the first place to the children of Jacob, or of
Israel in Egypt, under Pharaoh and his people. Some of my brethren do
not know who Pharaoh and the Egyptians were--I know it to be a fact
that some of them take the Egyptians to have been a gang of _devils_,
not knowing any better, and that they (Egyptians) having got
possession of the Lord's people, treated them _nearly_ as cruel as
_christians Americans_ do us, at the present day. For the information
of such, I would only mention that the Egyptians, were Africans or
colored people, such as we are--some of them yellow and others dark--a
mixture of Ethiopians and the natives of Egypt--about the same as you
see the colored people of the United States at the present day,--I
say, I call your attention then, to the children of Jacob, while I
point out particularly to you his son Joseph among the rest, in Egypt.
"And Pharaoh, said unto Joseph, thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled;
only in the throne will I be greater than thou."[1]
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, see, I have set thee over all
the land of Egypt."[2]
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without
thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land
of Egypt."[3]
Now I appeal to heaven and to earth, and particularly to the American
people themselves who cease not to declare that our condition is not
_hard_, and that we are comparatively satisfied to rest in
wretchedness and misery, under them and their children. Not, indeed,
to show me a colored President, a Governor, a Legislator, a Senator, a
Mayor, or an Attorney at the Bar.--But to show me a man of color, who
holds the low office of a Constable, or one who sits in a Juror Box,
even on a case of one of his wretched brethren, throughout this great
Republic!!--But let us pass Joseph the son of Israel a little further
in review, as he existed with that heathen nation.
"And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he
gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest
of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt."[4]
Compare the above, with the American institutions. Do they not
institute laws to prohibit us from marrying among the whites? I would
wish, candidly, however, before the Lord, to be understood, that I
would not give _a pinch of snuff_ to be married to any white person I
ever saw in all the days of my life. And I do say it, that the black
man, or man of color, who will leave his own color (provided he can
get one who is good for any thing) and marry a white woman, to be a
double slave to her just because she is _white_, ought to be treated
by her as he surely will be, viz; as a NIGER!!! It is not indeed what
I care about intermarriages with the whites, which induced me to pass
this subject in review; for the Lord knows, that there is a day coming
when they will be glad enough to get into the company of the blacks,
notwithstanding, we are, in this generation, levelled by them almost
on a level with the brute creation; and some of us they treat even
worse than they do the brutes that perish. I only made this extract to
show how much lower we are held, and how much more cruel we are
treated by the Americans, than were the children of Jacob, by the
Egyptians. We will notice the sufferings of Israel some further, under
_heathen Pharaoh_, compared with ours under the _enlightened
christians of America_.
"And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, thy father and thy
brethren are come unto thee:"
"The land of Egypt is before thee: in the best of the land
make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen
let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of activity
among them, then make them rulers over my cattle."[5]
I ask those people who treat us so _well_, Oh! I ask them, where is
the most barren spot of land which they have given unto us? Israel had
the most fertile land in all Egypt. Need I mention the very notorious
fact, that I have known a poor man of color, who labored night and
day, to acquire a little money, and having acquired it, he vested it
in a small piece of land, and got him a house erected thereon, and
having paid for the whole, he moved his family into it, where he was
suffered to remain but nine months, when he was cheated out of his
property by a white man, and driven out of door!--And is not this the
case generally? Can a man of color buy a piece of land and keep it
peaceably? Will not some white man try to get it from him even if it
is in a _mud hole_? I need not comment any farther on a subject, which
all, both black and white, will readily admit. But I must, really,
observe that in this very city, when a man of color dies, if he owned
any real estate it must generally fall into the hands of some white
person. The wife and children of the deceased may weep and lament if
they please, but the estate will be kept snug enough by its white
possessors.
But to prove farther that the condition of the Israelites was better
under the Egyptians than ours is under the whites. I call upon the
professing christians, I call upon the philanthropist, I call upon the
very tyrant himself, to show me a page of history, either sacred or
profane, on which a verse can be found, which maintains, that the
Egyptians heaped the _insupportable insult_ upon the children of
Israel by telling them that they were not of the _human family_. Can
the whites deny this charge? Have they not, after having reduced us to
the deplorable condition of slaves under their feet, held us up as
descending originally from the tribes of _Monkeys_ or _Orang-Outangs_?
O! my God! I appeal to every man of feeling--is not this
insupportable? Is it not heaping the most gross insult upon our
miseries, because they have got us under their feet and we cannot help
ourselves? Oh! pity us we pray thee, Lord Jesus, Master.--Has Mr.
Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to the whites,
both in the endowments of our bodies and of minds? It is indeed
surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined with such
excellent natural parts, should speak so of a set of men in chains. I
do not know what to compare it to, unless, like putting one wild deer
in an iron cage, where it will be secured, and hold another by the
side of the same, then let it go, and expect the one in the cage to
run as fast as the one at liberty. So far, my brethren, were the
Egyptians from heaping these insults upon their slaves, that Pharaoh's
daughter took Moses, a son of Israel, for her own, as will appear by
the following.
"And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, [Moses' mother] take
this child away, and nurse it for me and I will pay thee thy
wages. And the woman took the child [Moses] and nursed it.
"And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's
daughter and he became her son. And she called his name
Moses: and she said because I drew him out of the water."[6]
In all probability, Moses would have become Prince Regent to the
throne, and no doubt, in process of time but he would have been seated
on the throne of Egypt. But he had rather suffer shame, with the
people of God, than to enjoy pleasures with that wicked people for a
season. O! that the colored people were long since of Moses' excellent
disposition, instead of courting favor with, and telling news and lies
to our _natural enemies_, against each other--aiding them to keep
their hellish chains of slavery upon us. Would we not long before this
time, have been respectable men, instead of such wretched victims of
oppression as we are? Would they be able to drag our mothers, our
fathers, our wives, our children and ourselves, around the world in
chains and hand-cuffs as they do, to dig up gold and silver for them
and theirs? This question, my brethren, I leave for you to digest; and
may God Almighty force it home to your hearts. Remember that unless
you are united, keeping your tongues within your teeth, you will be
afraid to trust your secrets to each other, and thus perpetuate our
miseries under the _christians!!!!!_ [Hand->] ADDITION,--Remember,
also to lay humble at the feet of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ,
with prayers and fastings. Let our enemies go on with their
butcheries, and at once fill up their cup. Never make an attempt to
gain our freedom or _natural right_, from under our cruel oppressors
and murderers, until you see your way clear; when that hour arrives
and you move, be not afraid or dismayed; for be you assured that Jesus
Christ the king of heaven and of earth who is the God of justice and
of armies, will surely go before you. And those enemies who have for
hundreds of years stolen our _rights_, and kept us ignorant of Him and
His divine worship, he will remove. Millions of whom, are this day, so
ignorant and avaricious, that they cannot conceive how God can have an
attribute of justice, and show mercy to us because it pleased Him to
make us black--which color, Mr. Jefferson calls unfortunate!!!!!! As
though we are not as thankful to our God for having made us as it
pleased himself, as they (the whites) are for having made them white.
They think because they hold us in their infernal chains of slavery
that we wish to be white, or of their color--but they are dreadfully
deceived--we wish to be just as it pleased our Creator to have made
us, and no avaricious and unmerciful wretches, have any business to
make slaves of or hold us in slavery. How would they like for us to
make slaves of, or hold them in cruel slavery, and murder them as they
do us? But is Mr. Jefferson's assertion true? viz. "that it is
unfortunate for us that our Creator has been pleased to make us
black." We will not take his say so, for the fact. The world will have
an opportunity to see whether it is unfortunate for us, that our
Creator _has made us_ darker than the _whites_.
Fear not the number and education of our _enemies_, against whom we
shall have to contend for our lawful right; guaranteed to us by our
Maker; for why should we be afraid, when God is, and will continue
(if we continue humble) to be on our side?
The man who would not fight under our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in
the glorious and heavenly cause of freedom and of God--to be delivered
from the most wretched, abject and servile slavery, that ever a people
was afflicted with since the foundation of the world, to the present
day--ought to be kept with all of his children or family, in slavery,
or in chains, to be butchered by his _cruel enemies_. [<-Hand]
I saw a paragraph, a few years since, in a South Carolina paper,
which, speaking of the barbarity of the Turks it said: "The Turks are
the most barbarous people in the world--they treat the Greeks more
like _brutes_ than human beings." And in the same paper was an
advertisement, which said: "Eight well built Virginia and Maryland
_Negro fellows_ and four _wenches_ will positively be _sold_ this day
_to the highest bidder!_" And what astonished me still more was, to
see in this same _humane_ paper!! the cuts of three men, with clubs
and budgets on their backs, and an advertisement offering a
considerable sum of money for their apprehension and delivery. I
declare it is really so _funny_ to hear the Southerners and Westerners
of this country talk about _barbarity_, that it is positively, enough
to make a man _smile_.
The sufferings of the Helots among the Spartans, were somewhat severe,
it is true, but to say that theirs were as severe as ours among the
Americans I do most strenuously deny--for instance, can any man show
me an article on a page of ancient history which specifies, that, the
Spartans chained, and hand-cuffed the Helots, and dragged them from
their wives and children, children from their parents, mothers from
their sucking babes, wives from their husbands, driving them from one
end of the country to the other? Notice the Spartans were heathens,
who lived long before our Divine Master made his appearance in the
flesh. Can Christian Americans deny these barbarous cruelties? Have
you not Americans, having subjected us under you, added to these
miseries, by insulting us in telling us to our face, because we are
helpless that we are not of the human family? I ask you, O! Americans,
I ask you, in the name of the Lord, can you deny these charges? Some
perhaps may deny, by saying, that they never thought or said that we
were not men. But do not actions speak louder than words?--have they
not made provisions for the Greeks, and Irish? Nations who have never
done the least thing for them, while _we_ who have enriched their
country with our blood and tears--have dug up gold and silver for them
and their children, from generation to generation, and are in more
miseries than any other people under heaven, are not seen, but by
comparatively a handful of the American people? There are indeed, more
ways to kill a dog besides choaking it to death with butter. Further.
The Spartans or Lacedemonians, had some frivolous pretext for
enslaving the Helots, for they (Helots) while being free inhabitants
of Sparta, stirred up an intestine commotion, and were by the Spartans
subdued, and made prisoners of war. Consequently they and their
children were condemned to perpetual slavery.[7]
I have been for years troubling the pages of historians to find out
what our fathers have done to the _white Christians of America_, to
merit such condign punishment as they have inflicted on them, and do
continue to inflict on us their children. But I must aver, that my
researches have hitherto been to no effect. I have therefore come to
the immovable conclusion, that they (Americans) have, and do continue
to punish us for nothing else, but for enriching them and their
country. For I cannot conceive of any thing else. Nor will I ever
believe otherwise until the Lord shall convince me.
The world knows, that slavery as it existed among the Romans, (which
was the primary cause of their destruction) was, comparatively
speaking, no more than a _cypher_, when compared with ours under the
Americans. Indeed, I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had not
the very learned and penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "When a master
was murdered, all his slaves in the same house or within hearing, were
condemned to death."[8]--Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson, (but he is
gone to answer at the bar of God, for the deeds done in his body while
living,) I therefore ask the whole American people, had I not rather
die, or be put to death than to be a slave to any tyrant, who takes
not only my own, but my wife and children's lives by the inches? Yea,
would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in preference to such
_servile submission_ to the murderous hands of tyrants. Mr.
Jefferson's very severe remarks on us have been so extensively argued
upon by men whose attainments in literature, I shall never be able to
reach, that I would not have meddled with it, were it not to solicit
each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to buy a copy of Mr.
Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put it in the hand of his son.
For let no one of us suppose that the refutations which have been
written by our white friends are enough--they are _whites_--we are
_blacks_. We, and the world wish to see the charges of Mr. Jefferson
refuted by the blacks _themselves_, according to their chance: for we
must remember that what the whites have written respecting this
subject, is other men's labors and did not emanate from the blacks. I
know well, that there are some talents and learning among the coloured
people of this country, which we have not a chance to develope, in
consequence of oppression; but our oppression ought not to hinder us
from acquiring all we can.--For we will have a chance to develope them
by and by. God will not suffer us, always to be oppressed. Our
sufferings will come to an _end_, in spite of all the Americans this
side of _eternity_. Then we will want all the learning and talents
among ourselves, and perhaps more, to govern ourselves.--"Every dog
must have its day," the American's is coming to an end.
But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further.
Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of
Greece, he says:
"Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging
circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often
their rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch
as to be usually employed as tutors to their master's
children; Epictetus, Terence and Phædrus, were slaves,--but
they were of the race of whites. It is not their _condition_
then, but _nature_, which has produced the distinction."[9]
See this, my brethren!! Do you believe that this assertion is
swallowed by millions of the whites? Do you know that Mr. Jefferson
was one of as great characters as ever lived among the whites? See his
writings for the world, and public labors for the United States of
America. Do you believe that the assertions of such a man, will pass
away into oblivion unobserved by this people and the world? If you do
you are much mistaken--See how the American people treat us--have we
souls in our bodies? are we men who have any spirits at all? I know
that there are many _swell-bellied_ fellows among us whose greatest
object is to fill their stomachs. Such I do not mean--I am after those
who know and feel, that we are MEN as well as other people; to them, I
say, that unless we try to refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting
us, we will only establish them.
But the slaves among the Romans. Every body who has read history,
knows, that as soon as a slave among the Romans obtained his freedom,
he could rise to the greatest eminence in the State, and there was no
law instituted to hinder a slave from buying his freedom. Have not the
Americans instituted laws to hinder us from obtaining our freedom. Do
any deny this charge? Read the laws of Virginia, North Carolina, &c.
Further: have not the Americans instituted laws to prohibit a man of
colour from obtaining and holding any office whatever, under the
government of the United States of America? Now, Mr. Jefferson tells
us that our condition is not so hard, as the slaves were under the
Romans!!!!
It is time for me to bring this article to a close. But before I close
it, I must observe to my brethren that at the close of the first
Revolution in this country with Great Britain, there were but thirteen
States in the Union, now there are twenty-four, most of which are
slave-holding States, and the whites are dragging us around in chains
and hand-cuffs to their new States and Territories to work their mines
and farms, to enrich them and their children, and millions of them
believing firmly that we being a little darker than they, were made by
our creator to be an inheritance to them and their children
forever--the same as a parcel of _brutes_!!
Are we MEN!!--I ask you, O my brethren! are we MEN? Did our creator
make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not
dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance
before the tribunal of heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the
body, as well as we? Have we any other master but Jesus Christ alone?
Is he not their master as well as ours?--What right then, have we to
obey and call any other master, but Himself? How we could be so
_submissive_ to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as
_good_ as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is
shut up with the Lord and we cannot precisely tell--but I declare, we
judge men by their works.
The whites have always been an unjust, jealous unmerciful, avaricious
and blood thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and
authority.--We view them all over the confederacy of Greece, where
they were first known to be any thing, (in consequence of education)
we see them there, cutting each other's throats--trying to subject
each other to wretchedness and misery, to effect which they used all
kinds of deceitful, unfair and unmerciful means. We view them next in
Rome, where the spirit of tyranny and deceit raged still higher.--We
view them in Gaul, Spain and in Britain--in fine, we view them all
over Europe, together with what were scattered about in Asia and
Africa, as heathens, and we see them acting more like devils than
accountable men. But some may ask, did not the blacks of Africa, and
the mulattoes of Asia, go on in the same way as did the whites of
Europe. I answer no--they never were half so avaricious, deceitful and
unmerciful as the whites, according to their knowledge.
But we will leave the whites or Europeans as heathens and take a view
of them as Christians, in which capacity we see them as cruel, if not
more so than ever. In fact, take them as a body, they are ten times
more cruel avaricious and unmerciful than ever they were; for while
they were heathens they were bad enough it is true, but it is
positively a fact that they were not quite so audacious as to go and
take vessel loads of men, women and children, and in cold blood and
through devilishness, throw them into the sea, and murder them in all
kind of ways. While they were heathens, they were too ignorant for
such barbarity. But being Christians, enlightened and sensible, they
are completely prepared for such hellish cruelties. Now suppose God
were to give them more sense, what would they do. If it were possible
would they not _dethrone_ Jehovah and seat themselves upon his throne?
I therefore, in the name and fear of the Lord God of heaven and of
earth, divested of prejudice either on the side of my colour or that
of the whites, advance my suspicion of them, whether they are _as good
by nature_ as we are or not. Their actions, since they were known as a
people, have been the reverse, I do indeed suspect them, but this, as
I before observed, is shut up with the Lord, we cannot exactly tell,
it will be proved in succeeding generations.--The whites have had the
essence of the gospel as it was preached by my master and his
apostles--the Ethiopians have not, who are to have it in its meridian
splendor--the Lord will give it to them to their satisfaction. I hope
and pray my God, that they will make good use of it, that it may be
well with them.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Genesis, chap. xli. v. 40.
[2] v. 41.
[3] v. 44.
[4] v. 45
[5] Genesis, chap. xlvii. v. 5, 6.
[6] See Exodus, chap. ii. v. 9, 10.
[7] See Dr. Goldsmith's History of Greece--page 9. See also Plutarch's
lives. The Helots subdued by Agis, king of Sparta.
[8] See his notes on Virginia, page 210.
[9] See his notes on Virginia, page 211.
ARTICLE II.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF IGNORANCE.
Ignorance, my brethren, is a mist, low down into the very dark and
almost impenetrable abyss of which, our fathers for many centuries
have been plunged. The christians, and enlightened of Europe, and some
of Asia, seeing the ignorance and consequent degradation of our
fathers, instead of trying to enlighten them, by teaching them that
religion and light with which God had blessed them, they have plunged
them into wretchedness ten thousand times more intolerable, than if
they had left them entirely to the Lord, and to add to their miseries,
deep down into which they have plunged them, tell them, that they are
an _inferior_ and _distinct race_ of beings, which they will be glad
enough to recall and swallow by and by. Fortune and misfortune, two
inseparable companions, lay rolled up in the wheel of events, which
have from the creation of the world, and will continue to take place
among men until God shall dash worlds together.
When we take a retrospective view of the arts and sciences--the wise
legislators--The Pyramids, and other magnificent buildings--the
turning of the channel of the river Nile, by the sons of Africa or of
Ham, among whom learning originated, and was carried thence into
Greece, where it was improved upon and refined. Thence among the
Romans, and all over the then enlightened parts of the world, and it
has been enlightening the dark and benighted minds of men from then,
down to this day. I say, when I view retrospectively, the renown of
that once mighty people, the children of our great progenitor, I am
indeed cheered. Yea further, when I view that mighty son of Africa,
HANNIBAL, one of the greatest generals of antiquity, who defeated and
cut off so many thousands of the white Romans or murderers, and who
carried his victorious arms, to the very gate of Rome, and I give it
as my candid opinion, that had Carthage been well united and had given
him good support, he would have carried that cruel and barbarous city
by storm. But they were disunited, as the colored people are now, in
the United States of America, the reason our natural enemies are
enabled to keep their feet on our throats.
Beloved brethren--here let me tell you, and believe it, that the Lord
our God, as true as he sits on his throne in heaven, and as true as
our Saviour died to redeem the world, will give you a Hannibal, and
when the Lord shall have raised him up, and given him to you for your
possession, O my suffering brethren! remember the divisions and
consequent sufferings of _Carthage_ and of _Hayti_. Read the history
particularly of Hayti, and see how they were butchered by the whites,
and do you take warning. The person whom God shall give you, give him
your support and let him go his length, and behold in him the
salvation of your God. God will indeed, deliver you through him from
your deplorable and wretched condition under the Christians of
America. I charge you this day before my God to lay no obstacle in his
way, but let him go.
The whites want slaves, and want us for their slaves, but some of them
will curse the day they ever saw us. As true as the sun ever shine in
its meridian splendor, my colour will root some of them out of the
very face of the earth. They shall have enough of making slaves of,
and butchering, and murdering us in the manner which they have. No
doubt some may say that I write with a bad spirit, and that I being a
black, wish these things to occur. Whether I write with a bad or a
good spirit, I say if these things do not occur in their proper time,
it is because the world in which we live does not exist, and we are
deceived with regard to its existence. It is immaterial however to me,
who believe, or who refuse--though I should like to see the whites
repent peradventure God may have mercy on them, some however, have
gone so far that their cup must be filled.
But what need have I to refer to antiquity, when Hayti, the glory of
the blacks and terror of tyrants, is enough to convince the most
avaricious and stupid of wretches--which is at this time, and I am
sorry to say it, plagued with that scourge of nations, the Catholic
religion; but I hope and pray God that she may yet rid herself of it,
and adopt in its stead the Protestant faith; also, I hope that she may
keep peace within her borders and be united, keeping a strict look out
for tyrants, for if they get the least chance to injure her, they will
avail themselves of it, as true as the Lord lives in heaven. But one
thing which gives me joy is, that they are men who would be cut off to
a man, before they would yield to the combined forces of the whole
world--in fact, if the whole world was combined against them, it could
not do any thing with them, unless the Lord delivers them up.
Ignorance and treachery one against the other--a servile and abject
submission to the lash of tyrants, we see plainly, my brethren, are
not the natural elements of the blacks, as the Americans try to make
us believe; but these are misfortunes which God has suffered our
fathers to be enveloped in for many ages, no doubt in consequence of
their disobedience to their Maker, and which do, indeed, reign at this
time among us, almost to the destruction of all other principles: for
I must truly say, that ignorance, the mother of treachery and deceit,
gnaws into our very vitals. Ignorance, as it now exists among us,
produces a state of things, Oh my Lord! too horrible to present to the
world. Any man who is curious to see the full force of ignorance
developed among the colored people of the United States of America,
has only to go into the southern and western states of this
confederacy, where, if he is not a tyrant, but has the feelings of a
human being, who can feel for a fellow creature, he may see enough to
make his very heart bleed! He may see there, a son take his mother,
who bore almost the pains of death to give him birth, and by the
command of a tyrant, strip her as naked as she came into the world,
and apply the cow-hide to her, until she falls a victim to death in
the road! He may see a husband take his dear wife, not unfrequently in
a pregnant state, and perhaps far advanced, and beat her for an
unmerciful wretch, until his infant falls a lifeless lump at her feet!
Can the Americans escape God Almighty? If they do, can he be to us a
God of Justice? God is just, and I know it--for he has convinced me to
my satisfaction--I cannot doubt him. My observer may see fathers
beating their sons, mothers their daughters, and children their
parents, all to pacify the passions of unrelenting tyrants. He may
also, see them telling news and lies, making mischief one upon
another. These are some of the productions of ignorance, which he will
see practised among my dear brethren, who are held in unjust slavery
and wretchedness, by avaricious and unfeeling tyrants, to whom, and
their hellish deeds, I would suffer my life to be taken before I would
submit. And when my curious observer comes to take notice of those
who are said to be free (which assertion I deny) and who are making
some frivolous pretensions to common sense, he will see that branch of
ignorance among the slaves assuming a more cunning and deceitful
course of procedure. He may see some of my brethren in league with
tyrants, selling their own brethren into _hell upon earth_, not
dissimilar to the exhibitions in Africa but in a more secret, servile
and abject manner. Oh Heaven! I am full!!! I can hardly move my pen!!!
As I expect some one will try to put me to death, to strike terror
into others, and to obliterate from their minds the notion of freedom,
so as to keep my brethren the more secured in wretchedness where they
will be permitted to stay but a short time (whether tyrants believe it
or not,) I shall give the world a development of facts which are
already witnessed in the courts of heaven. My observer may see some of
those ignorant and treacherous creatures (colored people) sneaking
about in the large cities, endeavoring to find out all strange colored
people, where they work and where they reside, asking them questions
and trying to ascertain whether they are runaways or not, telling
them, at the same time, that they always have been, are, and always
will be, friends to their brethren; and perhaps, that they themselves
are absconders, and a thousand such treacherous lies to get the better
information of the more ignorant!! There have been and are at this day
in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, coloured men, who
are in league with tyrants, and receive a great portion of their daily
bread, of the moneys which they acquire from the blood and tears of
their more miserable brethren whom they scandalously delivered into
the hands of our _natural enemies!!!!_
To show the force of degraded ignorance and deceit among us some
further, I will give here an extract from a paragraph, which may be
found in the Columbian Centinel of this city, for September 9, 1829,
on the first page of which the curious may find an article, headed
"AFFRAY AND MURDER."
_Portsmouth, (Ohio) Aug. 22, 1829._
"A most shocking outrage was committed in Kentucky, about
eight miles from this place, on the 14th inst. A negro
driver, by the name of Gordon, who had purchased in Maryland
about sixty negroes, was taking them, assisted by an
associate named Allen and the wagoner who conveyed the
baggage, to the Mississippi. The men were hand-cuffed and
chained together, in the usual manner for driving these poor
wretches, while the women and children were suffered to
proceed without incumbrance. It appears that, by means of a
file the negroes unobserved had succeeded in separating the
irons which bound their hands, in such a way as to be able
to throw them off at any moment. About 8 o'clock in the
morning, while proceeding on the state road leading from
Greenup to Vanceburg, two of them dropped their shackles and
commenced a fight, when the wagoner (Petit) rushed in with
his whip to compel them to desist. At this moment, every
negro was found to be perfectly at liberty; and one of them
seizing a club, gave Petit a violent blow on the head and
laid him dead at his feet; and Allen, who came to his
assistance, met a similar fate from the contents of a pistol
fired by another of the gang. Gordon was then attacked,
seized and held by one of the negroes, whilst another fired
twice at him with a pistol, the ball of which each time
grazed his head, but not proving effectual, he was beaten
with clubs, and left for dead They then commenced pillaging
the wagon and with an axe split open the trunk of Gordon and
rifled it of the money, about $2,490. Sixteen of the negroes
then took to the woods; Gordon, in the mean time, not being
materially injured was enabled, by the assistance of one of
the women, to mount his horse and flee; pursued, however, by
one of the gang on another horse, with a drawn pistol;
fortunately he escaped with his life, barely arriving at a
plantation, as the negro came in sight; who then turned
about and retreated.
"The neighborhood was immediately rallied, and a hot pursuit
given--which, we understand, has resulted in the capture of
the whole gang and the recovery of the greatest part of the
money.--Seven of the negro men and one woman, it is said
were engaged in the murder, and will be brought to trial at
the next court in Greenupsburg."
Here my brethren, I want you to notice particularly in the above
article, the ignorant and _deceitful actions_ of this colored woman. I
beg you to view it carefully, as for ETERNITY!!! Here a _notorious
wretch_, with two other confederates had SIXTY of them in a gang,
driving them like _brutes_--the men all in chains and hand-cuffs, and
by the help of God they got their chains and hand-cuffs thrown off and
caught two of the wretches and put them to death, and beat the other
until they thought he was dead, and left him for dead; however he
deceived them, and rising from the ground, this _servile woman_ helped
him upon his horse and he made his escape. Brethren what do you think
of this? Was it the natural _fine feelings_ of this woman, to save
such a wretch alive? I know that the blacks, take them half
enlightened and ignorant, are more humane and merciful than the most
enlightened and refined Europeans that can be found in all the earth.
Let no one say that I assert this because I am prejudiced on the side
of my color, and against the whites or Europeans. For what I write, I
do it candidly, for my God and the good of both parties: Natural
observations have taught me these things; there is a solemn awe in the
hearts of the blacks, as it respects _murdering_ men:[10] whereas the
whites (though they are great cowards) where they have the advantage,
or think that there are any prospects of getting it, they murder all
before them, in order to subject men to wretchedness and degradation
under them. This is the natural result of pride and avarice.--But I
declare, the actions of this black woman are really insupportable. For
my own part, I cannot think it was any thing but servile deceit,
combined with the most gross ignorance: for we must remember that
_humanity_, _kindness_ and the _fear of the Lord_, does not consist in
protecting _devils_. Here is a set of wretches, who had SIXTY of them
in a gang, driving them around the country like _brutes_, to dig up
gold and silver for them, (which they will get enough of yet.) Should
the lives of such creatures be spared? Is GOD and Mammon in league?
What has the Lord to do with a gang of desperate wretches, who go
_sneaking about the country like robbers_--light upon his people
wherever they can get a chance, binding them with chains and
hand-cuffs, beat and murder them as they would _rattle-snakes_? Are
they not the Lord's enemies? Ought they not to be destroyed? Any
person who will save such wretches from destruction, is fighting
against the Lord, and will receive his just recompense. The black men
acted like _blockheads_. Why did they not make sure of the wretch? He
would have made sure of them if he could. It is just the way with
black men--eight white men can frighten fifty of them; whereas, if you
can only get courage into the blacks, I do declare it, that one good
black man can put to death six white men; and I give it as a fact, let
twelve black men get well armed for battle, and they will kill and put
to flight fifty whites. The reason is, the blacks, once you get them
started, they glory in death. The whites have had us under them for
more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes;
and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never _found us
out_--they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable
disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which when it is fully
awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction
of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not
have a gang of lions and tigers to deal with, I am a deceiver of the
blacks and the whites. How sixty of them could let that wretch escape
unkilled, I cannot conceive--they will have to suffer as much for the
two whom they secured, as if they had put one hundred to death: if you
commence, make sure work--do not trifle, for they will not trifle with
you--they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us
in order to subject us to that wretched condition--therefore, if there
is an _attempt_ made by us, kill or be killed. Now, I ask you had you
not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the
life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your
mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this,
that it is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill
you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty; in
fact, the man who will stand still and let another murder him, is
worse than an infidel, and if he has common sense, ought not to be
pitied.--The actions of this deceitful and ignorant coloured woman, in
saving the life of a desperate man, whose avaricious and cruel object
was to drive her and her companions in miseries, through the country
like cattle, to make his fortune on their carcasses, are but too much
like that of thousands of our brethren in these states: if any thing
is whispered by one, which has any allusion to the melioration of
their dreadful condition, they run and tell tyrants, that they may be
enabled to keep them the longer in wretchedness and miseries. Oh!
coloured people of these United States, I ask you, in the name of that
God who made us, have we, in consequence of oppression, nearly lost
the spirit of man, and, in no very trifling degree, adopted that of
brutes? Do you answer, No?--I ask you, then, what set of men can you
point me to, in all the world, who are so abjectly employed by their
oppressors as we are by our _natural enemies_? How can, Oh! how can
those enemies but say that we and our children are not of the HUMAN
FAMILY, but were made by our creator to be an inheritance to them and
theirs forever? How can the slave-holders but say that they can bribe
the best coloured person in the country, to sell his brethren for a
trifling sum of money, and take that atrocity to confirm them in their
avaricious opinion, that we were made to be slaves to them and their
children? How could Mr. Jefferson but say,[11]
"I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the
blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct
by time and circumstances, are _inferior_ to the whites in
the endowments both of body and mind?" "It," says he, "is
not against experience to suppose, that different species of
the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may
possess different qualifications."
[Here, my brethren listen to him.]
[Hand->] "Will not a lover of natural history then, one who
views the gradations in all the races of _animals_ with the
eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the
department of MAN as _distinct_ as nature has formed them?"
I hope you will try to find out the meaning of this verse--its widest
sense and all its bearings: whether you do or not, remember the whites
do. This very verse, brethren, having emanated from Mr. Jefferson, a
much greater philosopher the world never afforded, has in truth
injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our emancipation
as any thing that has ever been advanced against us. I hope you will
not let it pass unnoticed. He goes on further, and says:
"This _unfortunate_ difference of colour, and _perhaps_ of
_faculty_, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of
these people. Many of their advocates, while they wish to
vindicate the liberty of human nature are anxious also to
preserve its _dignity_ and _beauty_. Some of these,
embarrassed by the question, 'What further is to be done
with them? join themselves in opposition with those who are
actuated by sordid avarice only."
Now I ask you candidly, my suffering brethren in time, who are
candidates for the eternal worlds, how could Mr. Jefferson but have
given the world these remarks respecting us, when we are so submissive
to them, and so much servile deceit prevails among ourselves--when we
so _meanly_ submit to their murderous lashes, to which neither the
Indians or any other people under heaven would submit? No, they could
die to a man, before they would suffer such things from men who are no
better than themselves, and _perhaps not so good_. Yes, how can our
friends but be embarrassed, as Mr. Jefferson says, by the question,
"What further is to be done with these people?" for while they are
working for our emancipation, we are, by our treachery, wickedness and
deceit, working against ourselves and our children--helping ours, and
the enemies of God, to keep us and our dear little children, in their
infernal chains of slavery!! Indeed, our friends cannot but relapse
and join themselves with those who are actuated by _sordid avarice_
only!!!!' For my part, I am glad Mr. Jefferson has advanced his
position for your sake; for you will either have to contradict or
confirm him by your own actions and not by what our friends have said
or done for us; for those things are other men's labors and do not
satisfy the Americans who are waiting for us to prove to them
ourselves that we are MEN before they will be willing to admit the
fact; for I pledge you my sacred word of honor that Mr. Jefferson's
remarks respecting us have sunk deep into the hearts of millions of
the whites and never will be removed this side of eternity. For how
can they, when we are confirming him every day by our _groveling
submissions_ and _treachery_?
I aver that when I look upon these United States and see the ignorant
deceptions and consequent wretchedness of my brethren, I am brought
oft-times solemnly to a stand, and in the midst of my reflections I
exclaim to my God, 'Lord didst thou make us to be slaves to our
brethren, the whites?' But when I reflect that God is just, and that
millions of my wretched brethren would meet death with glory--yea,
more, would plunge into the very mouths of cannons and be torn into
particles as minute as the atoms which compose the elements of the
earth, in preference to a mean submission to the lash of tyrants, I am
with streaming eyes, compelled to shrink back into nothingness before
my Maker, and exclaim again, thy will be done, O Lord God Almighty.
Men of colour, who are also of sense, for you particularly is my
appeal designed. Our more ignorant brethren are not able to penetrate
its value. I call upon you therefore to cast your eyes upon the
wretchedness of your brethren and to do your utmost to enlighten
them--_go to work and enlighten your brethren!_--let the Lord see you
doing what you can to rescue them and yourselves from degradation. Do
any of you say that you and your family are free and happy and what
have you to do with wretched slaves and other people? So can I say,
for I enjoy as much freedom as any of you, if I am not quite as well
off as the best of you. Look into our freedom and happiness and see of
what kind they are composed!! They are of the very lowest kind--they
are the very _dregs!_--they are the most servile and abject kind, that
ever a people was in possession of! If any of you wish to know how
FREE you are, let one of you start and go thro' the southern and
western States of this country, and unless you travel as a slave to a
white man (a servant is a _slave_ to the man whom he serves,) or have
your free papers (which if you are not careful they will get from you)
if they do not take you up and put you in jail, and if you cannot
give evidence of your freedom, sell you into eternal slavery, I am not
a living man; or any man of color, immaterial who he is or where he
came from, if he is not the 4th from the "_Negro race_," (as we are
called,) the white christians of America will serve him the same, they
will sink him into wretchedness & degradation forever while he lives.
And yet some of you have the hardihood to say that you are free &
happy! May God have mercy on your freedom and happiness! I met a
colored man in the street a short time since, with a string of boots
on his shoulder; we fell into conversation, and in course of which I
said to him, what a miserable set of people we are! He asked
why?--Said I, we are so subjected under the whites, that we cannot
obtain the comforts of life, but by cleaning their boots and shoes,
old clothes, waiting on them, shaving them, etc. Said he, (with the
boots on his shoulders,) "I am completely happy!!! I never want to
live any better or happier than when I can get a plenty of boots and
shoes to clean!!!" Oh! how can those who are actuated by avarice only,
but think that our creator made us to be an inheritance to them
forever, when they see that our greatest glory is centered in such
mean and low objects? Understand me, brethren, I do not mean to speak
against the occupations by which we acquire enough and sometimes
scarcely that, to render ourselves and families comfortable through
life. I am subjected to the same inconvenience, as you all. My
objections are, to our _glorying_ and being _happy_ in such low
employments; for if we are men, we ought to be thankful to the Lord
for the past, and for the future. Be looking forward with thankful
hearts to higher attainments than _wielding the razor_ and _cleaning
boots and shoes_. The man whose aspirations are not _above_, and even
_below_ these, is indeed, ignorant and wretched enough. I advance it
therefore to you, not as a _problematical_, but as an unshaken and
forever immoveable _fact_, that your full glory and happiness, as well
as all other colored people under heaven, shall never be fully
consummated, but with the _entire emancipation of your enslaved
brethren all over the world_. You may therefore, go to work and do
what you can to rescue, or join in with tyrants to oppress them and
yourselves, until the Lord shall come upon you all like a thief in the
night. For I believe it is the will of the Lord that our greatest
happiness shall consist in working for the salvation of our whole
body. When this is accomplished a burst of glory will shine upon you,
which will indeed astonish you and the world. Do any of you say this
will never be done? I assure you that God will accomplish it--if
nothing else will answer, he will hurl tyrants and devils into _atoms_
and make way for his people. But O my brethren! I say unto you again,
you must go to work and _prepare the way_ of the Lord.
There is a great work for you to do, as trifling as some of you may
think of it. You have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we
are MEN, and not _brutes_ as we have been represented, and by millions
treated. Remember, to let the aim of your labours among your brethren,
and particularly the youths, be the dissemination of education and
religion. It is lamentable, that many of our children go to school,
from four until they are eight or ten, and sometimes fifteen years of
age, and leave school knowing but a little more about the grammar of
their language than a horse does about handling a musket--and not a
few of them are really so ignorant, that they are unable to answer a
person correctly, general questions in geography, and to hear them
read would only be to disgust a man who has a taste for reading;
which, to do well, as trifling as it may appear to some, (to the
ignorant in particular) is a great part of learning. Some few of them,
may make out to scribble tolerably well, over a half sheet of paper,
which I believe has hitherto been a powerful obstacle in our way, to
keep us from acquiring knowledge. An ignorant father, who knows no
more than what nature has taught him, together with what little he
acquires by the senses of hearing and seeing, finding his son able to
write a neat hand, sets it down for granted that he has as good
learning as any body; the young, ignorant gump, hearing his father or
mother, who perhaps may be ten times more ignorant, in point of
literature, than himself, extolling his learning, struts about in the
full assurance, that his attainments in literature are sufficient to
take him through the world, when, in fact, he has scarcely any
learning at all!!!!
I promiscuously fell in a conversation once, with an elderly colored
man on the topics of education, and of the great prevalency of
ignorance among us: Said he, "I know that our people are very ignorant
but my son has a good education: he can write as well as any white
man, and I assure you that no one can fool him," etc. Said I, what
else can your son do, besides writing a good hand? Can he post a set
of books in a mercantile manner? Can he write a neat piece of
composition in prose or in verse? To these interrogations he answered
in the negative. Said I, Did your son learn, while he was at school,
the width and depth of English Grammar? to which he also replied in
the negative, telling me his son did not learn those things. Your son,
said I, then, has hardly any learning at all--he is almost as
ignorant, and more so, than many of those who never went to school one
day in their lives. My friend got a little put out, and so walking off
said that his son could write as well as any white man.--Most of the
coloured people, when they speak of the education of one among us who
can write a neat hand, and who perhaps knows nothing but to scribble
and puff pretty fair on a small scrap of paper, immaterial whether his
words are grammatical, or spelt correctly, or not; if it only looks
beautiful, they say he has as good an education as any white man--he
can write as well as any white man, etc. The poor, ignorant creature,
hearing this, he is ashamed, forever after, to let any person see him
humbling himself to another for knowledge but going about trying to
deceive those who are more ignorant than himself, he at last falls an
ignorant victim to death in wretchedness. I pray that the Lord may
undeceive my ignorant brethren, and permit them to throw away
pretensions, and seek after the substance of learning. I would crawl
on my hands and knees through mud and mire, to the feet of a learned
man, where I would sit and humbly supplicate him to instil into me,
that which neither devils nor tyrants could remove, only with my
life--for the Africans to acquire learning in this country, makes
tyrants quake and tremble on their sandy foundation. Why what is the
matter? Why, they know that their infernal deeds of cruelty will be
made known to the world. Do you suppose one man of good sense and
learning would submit himself, his father, mother, wife and children,
to be slaves to a wretched man like himself, who, instead of
compensating him for his labours, chains, handcuffs and beats him and
family almost to death, leaving life enough in them, however, to work
for, and call him master? No! no! he would cut his devilish throat
from ear to ear, and well do slaveholders know it. The bare name of
educating the coloured people, scares our cruel oppressors almost to
death. But if they do not have enough to be frightened for yet, it
will be, because they can always keep us ignorant, and because God
approbates their cruelties, with which they have been for centuries
murdering us. The whites shall have enough of the blacks, yet, as true
as God sits on his throne in heaven.
Some of our brethren are so very full of learning that you cannot
mention any thing to them which they do not know better than
yourself!!--nothing is strange to them!!--they knew every thing years
ago!--if any thing should be mentioned in company where they are,
immaterial how important it is respecting us or the world, if they had
not divulged it; they make light of it, and affect to have known it
long before it was mentioned, and try to make all in the room, or
wherever you may be, believe that your conversation is nothing--not
worth hearing!! All this is the result of ignorance and ill-breeding;
for a man of good breeding, sense, and penetration, if he had heard a
subject told twenty times over and should happen to be in company
where one should commence telling it again, he would wait with
patience on its narrator, and see if he would tell it as it was told
in his presence before--paying the most strict attention to what is
said, to see if any more light will be thrown on the subject; for all
men are not gifted alike in telling, or even hearing the most simple
narration. These ignorant, vicious, and wretched men, contribute
almost as much injury to our body as tyrants themselves, by doing so
much for the promotion of ignorance amongst us; for they, making such
pretensions to knowledge, such of our youth as are seeking after
knowledge, and can get access to them, take them as criterions to go
by, who will lead them into a channel, where, unless the Lord blesses
them with the privilege of seeing their error, they will be
irretrievably lost forever, while in time!!
I must close this article by narrating the very heart-rending fact,
that I have examined school-boys and young men of colour in different
parts of the country, in the most simple parts of Murray's English
Grammar, and not more than one in thirty was able to give a correct
answer to my interrogations. If any one contradicts me, let him step
out of his door into the streets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or
Baltimore, (no use to mention any other, for the Christians are too
charitable further south or west!)--I say, let him who disputes me,
step out of his door into the streets of either of those four cities,
and promiscuously collect one hundred school boys or young men of
colour, _who have been to school_, and who are considered by the
coloured people to have received an excellent education, because,
perhaps, some of them can write a good hand, but who notwithstanding
their neat writing, may be almost as ignorant, in comparison, as
horses. And, I say it, he will hardly find (in this enlightened day,
and in the midst of this _charitable_ people) five in one hundred, who
are able to correct the false grammar of their language. The cause of
this almost universal ignorance amongst us, I appeal to our
school-masters to declare. Here is a fact, which I this very minute
take from the mouth of a young coloured man, who has been to school in
this state (Massachusetts) nearly nine years, and who knows grammar
this day, _nearly_ as well as he did the day he first entered the
school-house, under a white master. This young man says--"My master
would never allow me to study grammar."--I asked him why? "The school
committee," said he, "forbid the colored children learning
grammar--they would not allow any but the white children to study
grammar."
It is a notorious fact that the major part of the white Americans
have, ever since we have been among them, tried to keep us ignorant
and make us believe that God made us and our children to be slaves to
them and theirs. _Oh! my God, have mercy on Christian Americans!!_
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Which is the reason the whites take the advantage of us.
[11] See his Notes on Virginia, page 213.
ARTICLE III.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE PREACHERS OF THE RELIGION
OF JESUS CHRIST.
RELIGION, my brethren, is a substance of deep consideration among all
nations of the earth. The Pagans have a kind, as well as the
Mahometans, the Jews and the Christians. But pure and undefiled
religion, such as was preached by Jesus Christ and his apostles, is
hard to be found in all the earth. God, through his instrument, Moses,
handed a dispensation of his divine will to the children of Israel
after they had left Egypt for the land of Canaan, or of Promise, who
through hypocrisy, oppression, and unbelief, departed from the faith.
He then, by his apostles handed a dispensation of his, together with
the will of Jesus Christ, to the Europeans in Europe, who, in open
violation of which, have made _merchandize_ of us, and it does appear
as though they take this very dispensation to aid them in their
infernal depredations upon us. Indeed, the way in which religion was
and is conducted by the Europeans and their descendants, one might
believe it was a plan fabricated by themselves and the _devils_ to
oppress us. But hark! my master has taught me better than to believe
it--he has taught me that his gospel as it was preached by himself and
his apostles remains the same, notwithstanding Europe has tried to
mingle blood and oppression with it.
It is well known to the Christian world that Bartholomew Las Casas,
that very notoriously avaricious Catholic priest or preacher, and
adventurer with Columbus in his second voyage, proposed to his
countrymen, the Spaniards in Hispaniola, to import the Africans from
the Portuguese settlement in Africa, to dig up gold and silver, and
work their plantations for them, to effect which, he made a voyage
thence to Spain, and opened the subject to his master, Ferdinand, then
in declining health, who listened to the plan; but who died soon
after, and left it in the hands of his successor, Charles V.[12]--This
wretch, ("Las Cassas, the Preacher,") succeeded so well in his plans
of oppression, that in 1503, the first blacks had been imported into
the new world. Elated with this success, and stimulated by sordid
avarice only, he importuned Charles V. in 1511, to grant permission
to a Flemish merchant to import 4000 blacks at one time. Thus we see,
through the instrumentality of a pretended preacher of the gospel of
Jesus Christ our common master, our wretchedness first commenced in
America--where it has been continued from 1503 to this day, 1829. A
period of three hundred and twenty-six years. But two hundred and
nine, from 1620--when twenty of our fathers were brought into
Jamestown, Virginia, by a Dutch man-of-war, and sold off like brutes
to the highest bidders; and there is not a doubt in my mind, but that
tyrants are in hopes to perpetuate our miseries under them and their
children until the final consummation of all things. But if they do
not get dreadfully, deceived, it will be because God has forgotten
them.
The Pagans, Jews and Mahometans try to make proselytes to their
religions, and whatever human beings adopt their religions, they
extend to them their protection. But Christian Americans not only
hinder their fellow creatures, the Africans, but thousands of them
will _absolutely beat a coloured person nearly to death, if they catch
him on his knees, supplicating the throne of grace_. This barbarous
cruelty was by all the heathen nations of antiquity, and is by the
Pagans, Jews and Mahometans of the present day, left entirely to
Christian Americans to inflict on the Africans and their descendants
that their cup which is nearly full may be completed. I have known
tyrants or usurpers of human liberty in different parts of this
country take their fellow creatures, the colored people, and beat them
until they would scarcely leave life in them; what for? Why they say,
"The black devils had the audacity to be found _making
prayers and supplications to the God who made them!!!_"
Yes, I have known small collections of coloured people to have
convened together, for no other purpose than to worship God Almighty,
in spirit and in truth, to the best of their knowledge; when tyrants,
calling themselves _patrols_, would also convene and wait almost in
breathless silence for the poor coloured people to commence singing
and praying to the Lord our God, and as soon as they had commenced the
wretches would burst in upon them and drag them out and commence
beating them as they would rattle-snakes--many of whom, they would
beat so unmercifully, that they would hardly be able to crawl for
weeks and sometimes for months.--Yet the American ministers send out
missionaries to convert the heathen, while they keep us and our
children sunk at their feet in the most abject ignorance and
wretchedness that ever a people was afflicted with since the world
began. Will the Lord suffer this people to proceed much longer? Will
he not stop them in their career? Does he regard the heathens abroad,
more than the heathens among the Americans? Surely the Americans must
believe that God is partial, notwithstanding his Apostle Peter,
declared before Cornelius and others that he has no respect to
persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh
righteousness is accepted with him.--
"The word," said he, "which God sent unto the children of
Israel, preaching peace, by Jesus Christ, (he is the Lord of
all.")[13]
Have not the Americans the Bible in their hands? Do they believe it?
Surely they do not. See how they treat us in open violation of the
Bible!! They no doubt will be greatly offended with me, but if God
does not awaken them, it will be, because they are superior to other
men, as they have represented themselves to be. Our divine Lord and
Master said
"all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
do ye even so unto them."
But an American minister, with the Bible in his hand, holds us and our
children in the most abject slavery and wretchedness. Now I ask them,
would they like for us to hold them and their children in abject
slavery and wretchedness? No says one, that never can be done--you
are too abject and ignorant to do it--you are not men--you were made
to be slaves to us, to dig up gold and silver for us and our children.
Know this, my dear sirs, that although you treat us and our children
now, as you do your domestic beasts--yet the final result of all
future events are known but to God Almighty alone, who rules in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and who
dethrones one earthly king and sits up another, as it seemeth good in
his holy sight. We may attribute these vicissitudes to what we please,
but the God of armies and of justice rules in heaven and in earth, and
the whole American people shall see and know it yet, to their
satisfaction. I have known pretended preachers of the gospel of my
Master, who not only held us as their natural inheritance, but treated
us with as much rigor as any Infidel or Deist in the world--just as
though they were intent only on taking our blood and groans to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked and ungodly, seeing their preachers
treat us with so much cruelty, they say: our preachers, who must be
right, if any body are, treat them like brutes, and why cannot
we?--They think it is no harm to keep them in slavery and put the whip
to them, and why cannot we do the same!--They being preachers of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, if it were any harm, they would surely preach
against their oppression and do their utmost to erase it from the
country; not only in one or two cities, but one continual cry would be
raised in all parts of this confederacy, and would cease only with the
complete overthrow of the system of slavery, in every part of the
country. But how far the American preachers are from preaching against
slavery and oppression, which have carried their country to the brink
of a precipice; to save them from plunging down the side of which,
will hardly be effected, will appear in the sequel of this paragraph,
which I shall narrate just as it transpired. I remember a Camp Meeting
in South Carolina, for which I embarked in a Steam Boat at
Charleston, and having been five or six hours on the water, we at last
arrived at the place of hearing, where was a very great concourse of
people, who were no doubt, collected together to hear the word of God,
(that some had collected barely as spectators to the scene, I will not
here pretend to doubt, however, that is left to themselves and their
God.) Myself and boat companions, having been there a little while, we
were all called up to hear; I among the rest, went up and took my
seat--being seated, I fixed myself in a complete position to hear the
word of my Saviour and to receive such as I thought was authenticated
by the Holy Scriptures; but to my no ordinary astonishment, our
Reverend gentleman got up and told us (colored people) that slaves
must be obedient to their masters--must do their duty to their masters
or be whipped--the whip was made for the backs of fools, &c. Here I
pause for a moment, to give the world time to consider what was my
surprise, to hear such preaching from a minister of my Master, whose
very gospel is that of peace and not of blood and whips, as this
pretended preacher tried to make us believe. What the American
preachers can think of us, I aver this day before my God, I have never
been able to define. They have newspapers and monthly periodicals,
which they receive in continual succession, but on the pages of which,
you will scarcely ever find a paragraph respecting slavery, which is
ten thousand times more injurious to this country than all the other
evils put together; and which will be the final overthrow of its
government, unless something is very speedily done; for their cup is
nearly full.--Perhaps they will laugh at, or make light of this; but I
tell you Americans! that unless you speedily alter your course, _you_
and your _Country are gone!!!!!!_ For God Almighty will tear up the
very face of the earth!!!! Will not that very remarkable passage of
Scripture be fulfilled on Christian Americans? Hear it Americans!!
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:--and be which
is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy,
let him be holy still."[14]
I hope that the Americans may hear, but I am afraid that they have
done us so much injury, and are so firm in the belief that our Creator
made us to be an inheritance to them forever, that their hearts will
be hardened, so that their destruction may be sure.--This language,
perhaps is too harsh for the American's delicate ears. But Oh
Americans! Americans!! I warn you in the name of the Lord, (whether
you will hear, or forbear,) to repent and reform, or you are
ruined!!!!!! Do you think that our blood is hidden from the Lord,
because you can hide it from the rest of the world by sending out
missionaries, and by your charitable deeds to the Greeks, Irish, &c.?
Will he not publish your secret crimes on the house top? Even here in
Boston, pride and prejudice have got to such a pitch, that in the very
houses erected to the Lord, they have built little places for the
reception of colored people, where they must sit during meeting, or
keep away from the house of God; and the preachers say nothing about
it--much less, go into the hedges and highways seeking the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and try to bring them in, to their Lord and
Master. There are hardly a more wretched, ignorant, miserable, and
abject set of beings in all the world, than the blacks in the Southern
and Western sections of this country, under tyrants and devils. The
preachers of America cannot see them, but they can send out
missionaries to convert the heathens, notwithstanding. Americans!
unless you speedily alter your course of proceeding, if God Almighty
does not stop you, I say it in his name, that you may go on and do as
you please for ever, both in time and eternity--never fear any evil at
all!!!!!!!!
[Hand->] ADDITION.--The preachers and people of the United States
form societies against Free Masonry and Intemperance, and write
against Sabbath breaking, Sabbath mails, Infidelity, &c. &c. But the
fountain head,[15] compared with which all those other evils are
comparatively nothing, and from the bloody and murderous head of
which, they receive no trifling support, is hardly noticed by the
Americans. This is a fair illustration of the state of society in this
country--it shows what a bearing _avarice_ has upon a people, when
they are nearly given up by the Lord to a hard heart and a reprobate
mind, in consequence of afflicting their fellow creatures. God suffers
some to go on until they are ruined for ever!! Will it be the case
with our brethren the whites of the United States of America? We hope
not--we would not wish to see them destroyed, notwithstanding they
have and do now treat us more cruel than any people have treated
another, on this earth since it came from the hands of its creator
(with the exception of the French and the Dutch, they treat us nearly
as bad as the Americans of the United States.) The will of God must
however, in spite of us, _be done_.
The English are the best friends the colored people have upon earth.
Tho' they have oppressed us a little, and have colonies now in the
West Indies, which oppress us _sorely_,--Yet notwithstanding they (the
English) have done one hundred times more for the melioration of our
condition, than all the other nations of the earth put together. The
blacks cannot but respect the English as a nation, notwithstanding
they have treated us a little cruel.
There is no intelligent _black man_ who knows any thing, but esteems a
real English man, let him see him in what part of the world he
will--for they are the greatest benefactors we have upon earth. We
have here and there, in other nations, good friends. But as a nation,
the English are our friends. [<-Hand]
How can the preachers and people of America believe the Bible? Does it
teach them any distinction on account of a man's color? Hearken,
Americans! to the injunctions of our Lord and Master, to his humble
followers.
[16]"And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,
"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world. Amen."
I declare, that the very face of these injunctions appears to be of
God and not of man. They do not show the slightest degree of
distinction.
"Go ye, therefore," (says my divine Master) "and teach all
nations," (or in other words, all people) "baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."
Do you understand the above, Americans? We are a people,
notwithstanding many of you doubt it. You have the Bible in your
hands, with this very injunction. Have you been to Africa, teaching
the inhabitants thereof the words of the Lord Jesus?
"Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost."
Have you not, on the contrary, entered among us, and learnt us the art
of throat-cutting, by setting us to fight, one against another, to
take each other as prisoners of war, and sell to you for small bits of
calicoes, old swords, knives, &c. to make slaves for you and your
children? This being done, have you not brought us among you, in
chains and handcuffs, like brutes, and treated us with all the
cruelties and rigour your ingenuity could invent, consistent with the
laws of your country, which (for the blacks) are tyrannical enough?
Can the American preachers appeal unto God, the Maker and Searcher of
hearts, and tell him, with the Bible in their hands, that they make no
distinction on account of men's colour? Can they say, O God! thou
knowest all things--thou knowest that we make no distinction between
thy creatures to whom we have to preach thy Word? Let them answer the
Lord; and if they cannot do it in the affirmative, have they not
departed from the Lord Jesus Christ, their master? But some may say,
that they never had or were in possession of a religion, which makes
no distinction, and of course they could not have departed from it. I
ask you then, in the name of the Lord, of what kind can your religion
be? Can it be that which was preached by our Lord Jesus Christ from
Heaven? I believe you cannot be so wicked as to tell him that his
Gospel was that of _distinction_. What can the American preachers and
people take God to be?--Do they believe his words? If they do, do they
believe that he will be mocked? Or do they believe because they are
whites and we blacks, that God will have respect to them? Did not God
make us as it seemed best to himself? What right, then, has one of us,
to despise another and to treat him cruel, on account of his colour,
which none but the God who made it can alter? Can there be a greater
absurdity in nature, and particularly in a free republican country?
But the Americans, having introduced slavery among them, their hearts
have become almost seared, as with an hot iron, and God has nearly
given them up to believe a lie in preference to the truth!!! and I am
awfully afraid that pride, prejudice, avarice and blood, will, before
long, prove the final ruin of this happy republic, or land of
liberty!!! Can any thing be a greater mockery of religion than the way
in which it is conducted by the Americans? It appears as though they
are bent only on daring God Almighty to do his best--they chain and
handcuff us and our children and drive us around the country like
brutes, and go into the house of the God of justice to return Him
thanks for having aided him in their infernal cruelties inflicted upon
us. Will the Lord suffer this people to go on much longer, taking his
holy name in vain? Will he not stop them, PREACHERS and all? O
Americans! Americans!! I call God--I call angels--I call men, to
witness, that your DESTRUCTION _is at hand_, and will be speedily
consummated unless you REPENT.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] See Butler's History of the United States, vol. 1, page 24. See
also, page 25.
[13] See the Acts of the Apostles, chap. x. v.--25--26.
[14] See Revelation, chap. xxii. v. 11.
[15] Slavery and oppression.
[16] See St. Matthew's Gospel, chap, xxviii. v. 18--19--20. After
Jesus was risen from the dead.
ARTICLE IV.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE COLONIZING PLAN.
My dearly beloved brethren:--This is a scheme on which so many able
writers, together with that very judicious colored Baltimorean, have
commented, that I feel my delicacy about touching it. But as I am
compelled to do the will of my master, I declare, I will give you my
sentiments upon it. Previous, however, to giving my sentiments, either
for or against it, I shall give that of Mr. Henry Clay together with
that of Mr. Elias B. Caldwell, Esq. of the District of Columbia, as
extracted from the National Intelligencer, by Dr. Torrey, author of a
series of "Essays on Morals, and the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge."
At a meeting which was convened in the District of Columbia, for the
express purpose of agitating the subject of colonizing us in some part
of the world, Mr. Clay was called to the chair, and having been seated
a little while, he rose and spake in substance, as follows: Says
he--[17]
"That class of the mixt population of our country [coloured
people] was peculiarly situated; they neither enjoyed the
immunities of freemen, nor were they subjected to the
incapacities of slaves, but partook, in some degree, of the
qualities of both. From their condition, and the
unconquerable prejudices resulting from their colour, they
never could amalgamate with the free whites of this country.
It was desirable, therefore, as it respected them, and the
residue of the population of the country, to drain them off.
Various schemes of colonization had been thought of, and a
part of our continent, it was supposed by some, might
furnish a suitable establishment for them. But, for his
part, Mr. C. said, he had a decided preference for some part
of the coast of Africa. There ample provision might be made
for the colony itself, and it might be rendered instrumental
in the introduction into that extensive quarter of the
globe, of the arts, civilization, and Christianity."
[Here I ask Mr. Clay, what kind of Christianity? Did he mean such as
they have among the Americans--distinction, whip, blood and
oppression? I pray the Lord Jesus Christ to forbid it.]
"There," said he, "was a peculiar, a moral fitness, in
restoring them to the land of their fathers, and if instead
of the evils and sufferings which we had been the innocent
cause of inflicting upon the inhabitants of Africa, we can
transmit to her the blessings of our arts, our civilization,
and our religion. May we not hope that America will
extinguish a great portion of that moral debt which she has
contracted to that unfortunate continent? Can there be a
nobler cause than that which, whilst it proposes, &c * * * * *
[you know what this means.] contemplates the spreading of
the arts of civilized life, and the possible redemption from
ignorance and barbarism of a benighted quarter of the
globe?"
Before I proceed any further, I solicit your notice, brethren, to the
foregoing part of Mr. Clay's speech, in which he says, ([Hand->] look
above)
"and if, instead of the evils and sufferings, which we had
been the innocent cause of inflicting,"
&c. What this very learned statesman could have been thinking about,
when he said in his speech, "we had been the innocent cause of
inflicting," etc., I have never been able to conceive. Are Mr. Clay
and the rest of the Americans, innocent of the blood and groans of
our fathers and us, their children? Every individual may plead
innocence, if he pleases, but God will, before long, separate the
innocent from the guilty, unless something is speedily done--which I
suppose will hardly be, so that their destruction may be sure. Oh
Americans! let me tell you, in the name of the Lord, it will be good
for you, if you listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost, but if you do
not you are ruined!!!! Some of you are good men; but the will of my
God must be done. Those avaricious and ungodly tyrants among you, I am
awfully afraid will drag down the vengeance of God upon you.--When God
Almighty commences his battle on the continent of America, for the
oppression of his people, tyrants will wish they never were born.
But to return to Mr. Clay, whence I digressed. He says,
"It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he
understood it constituted no part of the object of this
meeting, to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a
delicate question, connected with another portion of the
coloured population of our country. It was not proposed to
deliberate upon or consider at all, any question of
emancipation, or that which was connected with the abolition
of slavery. It was upon that condition alone, he was sure,
that many gentlemen from the South and the West, whom he saw
present, had attended, or could be expected to co-operate.
It was on that condition only, that he himself had
attended."
--That is to say, to fix a plan to get those of the coloured people,
who are said to be free, away from among those of our brethren whom
they unjustly hold in bondage, so that they may be enabled to keep
them the more secure in ignorance and wretchedness, to support them
and their children, and consequently they would have the more obedient
slaves. For if the free are allowed to stay among the slaves, they
will have intercourse together, and, of course, the free will learn
the slaves _bad habits_, by teaching them that they are MEN, as
well as other people, and certainly _ought_, and _must_ be FREE.
I presume, that every intelligent man of colour must have some idea of
Mr. Henry Clay, originally of Virginia, but now of Kentucky; they know
too, perhaps, whether he is a friend, or a foe, to the coloured
citizens of this country, and of the world. This gentleman, according
to his own words, had been highly favoured and blessed of the Lord,
though he did not acknowledge it; but to the contrary, he acknowledged
men, for all the blessings which God had favoured him. At a public
dinner given him at Fowler's Garden, Lexington, Kentucky, he delivered
a public speech to a very large concourse of people--in the concluding
clause of which, he says,
"And now, my friends and fellow citizens, I cannot part from
you, on possibly the last occasion of my ever publicly
addressing you, without reiterating the expression of my
thanks, from a heart overflowing with gratitude. I came
among you, now more than thirty years ago, an orphan boy
pennyless, a stranger to you all, without friends, without
the favour of the great, you took me up, cherished me,
protected me, honoured me, you have constantly poured upon
me a bold and unabated stream of innumerable favors, time
which wears out every thing has increased and strengthened
your affection for me. When I seemed deserted by almost the
whole world, and assailed by almost every tongue, and pen,
and press, you have fearlessly and manfully stood by me,
with unsurpassed zeal and undiminished friendship. When I
felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of abuse and
detraction, which was violently raging around me, I have
found myself upheld and sustained by your encouraging voices
and approving smiles. I have doubtless, committed many
faults and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the
broad mantle of your charity. But I can say, and in the
presence of God and this assembled multitude, I will say,
that I have honestly and faithfully served my country--that
I have never wronged it--and that, however unprepared, I
lament that I am to appear in the Divine presence on other
accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judgment on my
public conduct without the slightest apprehension of his
displeasure."
Hearken to this statesman indeed, but no philanthropist, whom God sent
into Kentucky, an orphan boy, pennyless and friendless, where he not
only gave him a plenty of friends and the comforts of life, but raised
him almost to the very highest honour in the nation, where his great
talents, with which the Lord has been pleased to bless him, has gained
for him the affection of a great portion of the people with whom he
had to do. But what has this gentleman done for the Lord, after having
done so much for him? The Lord has a suffering people, whose moans and
groans at his feet for deliverance from oppression and wretchedness,
pierce the very throne of Heaven, and call loudly on the God of
Justice, to be revenged. Now what this gentleman who is so highly
favored of the Lord, has done to liberate those miserable victims of
oppression, shall appear before the world, by his letters to Mr.
Gallatin, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great
Britain, dated June 19, 1826. Though Mr. Clay was writing for the
states, yet nevertheless, it appears, from the very face of his
letters to that gentleman, that he was as anxious, if not more so, to
get those free people and sink them into wretchedness, as his
constituents for whom he wrote.
The Americans of North and of South America, including the West India
Islands--no trifling portion of whom were, for stealing, murdering,
&c. compelled to flee from Europe, to save their necks or banishment,
have effected their escape to this continent, where God blessed them
with all the comforts of life--He gave them a plenty of every thing
calculated to do them good--not satisfied with this, however, they
wanted slaves, and wanted us for their slaves, who belong to the Holy
Ghost, and no other, who we shall have to serve instead of tyrants. I
say, the Americans want us, the property of the Holy Ghost, to serve
them. But there is a day fast approaching when (unless there is a
universal repentance on the part of the whites, which will scarcely
take place--they have got to be so hardened in consequence of our
blood, and so wise in their own conceit.) To be plain and candid with
you, Americans! I say that the day is fast approaching when there will
be a greater time on the continent of America than ever was witnessed
upon this earth since it came from the hands of its Creator. Some of
you have done us so much injury that you will never be able to repent.
Your cup must be filled. You want us for your slaves and shall have
enough of us--God is just, _who will give you your fill of us_. But
Mr. Henry Clay, speaking to Mr. Gallatin respecting coloured people
who had effected their escape from the U. States (or to them _hell
upon earth!!_) to the hospitable shores of Canada[18] from whence it
would cause more than the lives of the Americans to get them, to
plunge into wretchedness--he says:
"The General Assembly of Kentucky, one of the states which
is most affected by the escape of slaves into Upper Canada,
has again, at their session which has just terminated,
invoked the interposition of the General Government. In the
treaty which has been recently concluded with the United
Mexican States, and which is now under the consideration of
the Senate, provision is made for the restoration of
fugitive slaves. As it appears from your statements of what
passed on that subject with the British Plenipotentiaries,
that they admitted the correctness of the principle of
restoration, it is hoped that you will be able to succeed in
making satisfactory arrangements."
There are a series of these letters, all of which are to the same
amount; some however presenting a face more of his own responsibility.
I wonder what would this gentleman think if the Lord should give him
among the rest of his blessings enough of slaves? Could he blame any
other being but himself? Do we not belong to the Holy Ghost? What
business has he or any body else, to be sending letters about the
world respecting us? Can we not go where we want to, as well as other
people, only if we obey the voice of the Holy Ghost? This gentleman,
(Henry Clay) not only took an active part in this colonizing plan, but
was absolutely chairman of a meeting held at Washington the 21st day
of December, 1816[19] to agitate the subject of colonizing us in
Africa.--Now I appeal and ask every citizen of these United States and
of the world, both _white_ and _black_, who has any knowledge of Mr.
Clay's public labors for these States--I want you candidly to answer
the Lord, who sees the secrets of your hearts, Do you believe that Mr.
Henry Clay, late Secretary of State, and now in Kentucky, is a friend
to the blacks, further than his personal interest extends? Is it not
his greatest object and glory upon earth to sink us into miseries and
wretchedness by making slaves of us, to work his plantation to enrich
him and his family? Does he care a pinch of snuff about
Africa--whether it remains a land of Pagans and of blood, or of
Christians, so long as he gets enough of her sons and daughters to dig
up gold and silver for him? If he had no slave, and could obtain them
in no other way if it were not repugnant to the laws of his country,
which prohibit the importation of slaves, (which act was indeed more
through apprehension than humanity) would he not try to import a few
from Africa to work his farm? Would he work in the hot sun to earn his
bread if he could make an African work for nothing, particularly if he
could keep him in ignorance and make him believe that God made him for
nothing else but to work for him? Is not Mr. Clay a white man, and too
delicate to work in the hot sun? Was he not made by his Creator to sit
in the shade, and make the blacks work without remuneration for their
services, to support him and his family? I have been for some time
taking notice of this man's speeches and public writings, but never to
my knowledge have I seen any thing in his writings which insisted on
the emancipation of slavery, which has almost ruined his country. Thus
we see the depravity of men's hearts, when in pursuit only of
gain--particularly when they oppress their fellow creatures to obtain
that gain--God suffers some to go on until they are lost for ever.
This same Mr. Clay wants to know what he has done to merit the
disapprobation of the American people. In a public speech delivered by
him, he asked:
"Did I involve my country in an unnecessary war?"
to merit the censure of the Americans--
"Did I bring obloquy upon the nation, or the people whom I
represented--did I ever lose an opportunity to advance the
fame, honor and prosperity of this State and the Union?"
How astonishing it is, for a man who knows so much about God and his
ways, as Mr. Clay, to ask such frivolous questions. Does he believe
that a man of his talents and standing in the midst of a people, will
get along unnoticed by the penetrating and all-seeing eye of God who
is continually taking cognizance of the hearts of men? Is not God
against him, for advocating the murderous cause of slavery? If God is
against him, what can the Americans, together with the whole world do
for him? Can they save him from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ?
I shall now pass in review the speech of Mr. Elias B. Caldwell, Esq.
of the District of Columbia, extracted from the same page on which Mr.
Clay's will be found. Mr. Caldwell, giving his opinion respecting us,
at that ever memorable meeting, he says:
"The more you improve the condition of these people, the
more you cultivate their minds, the more miserable you make
them in their present state. You give them a higher relish
for those privileges which they can never attain, and turn
what we intend for a blessing into a curse."
Let me ask this benevolent man, what he means by a blessing intended
for us? Did he mean sinking us and our children into ignorance and
wretchedness, to support him and his family? What he meant will appear
evident and obvious to the most ignorant in the world. [Hand->] See
Mr. Caldwell's intended blessings for us, O! my Lord!!!
"No," said he, "if they must remain in their present
situation, keep them in the _lowest state of degradation and
ignorance_. The nearer you bring them to the condition of
brutes, the better chance do you give them of possessing
their _apathy_."
Here I pause to get breath, having labored to extract the above clause
of this gentleman's speech, at that colonizing meeting. I presume that
every body knows the meaning of the word "_apathy_"--if they do not,
let him get Sheridan's Dictionary, where he will find it explained in
full. I solicit the attention of the world to the foregoing part of
Mr. Caldwell's speech, that they may see what man will do with his
fellow men, when he has them under his feet. To what length will not
man go in iniquity, when given up to a hard heart and reprobate mind,
in consequence of blood and oppression? The last clause of this
speech, which was written in a very artful manner and which will be
taken for the speech of a friend, without close examination and deep
penetration, I shall now present. He says,
"Surely Americans ought to be the last people on earth to
advocate such slavish doctrines, to cry peace and
contentment to those who are deprived of the privileges of
civil liberty, they who have so largely partaken of its
blessings, who know so well how to estimate its value, ought
to be among the foremost to extend it to others."
The real sense and meaning of the last part of Mr. Caldwell's speech
is, get the free people of colour away to Africa, from among the
slaves, where they may at once be blessed and happy, and our slaves
will be contented to rest in ignorance and wretchedness, to dig up
gold and silver for us and our children. Men have indeed, got to be
so cunning, these days, that it would take the eye of a Solomon to
penetrate and find them out.
Extract from the speech of Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke.
Said he:--
"It had been properly observed by the Chairman, as well as
by the gentlemen from this District (meaning Messrs. Clay
and Caldwell) that there was nothing in the proposition
submitted to consideration which in the smallest degree
touches another very important and delicate question, which
ought to be left as much out of view as possible, (Negro
Slavery.)[20]
"There was no fear, Mr. R. said, that this proposition would
alarm the slave-holders; they had been accustomed to think
seriously of the subject. There was a popular work on
agriculture, by John Taylor of Carolina, which was widely
circulated, and much confided in, in Virginia. In that book,
much read because coming from a practical man, this
description of people, [referring to us half free ones,]
were pointed out as a great evil. They had indeed been held
up as the greater bug-bear to every man who feels an
inclination to emancipate his slaves, not to create in the
bosom of his country so great a nuisance. If a place could
be provided for their reception, and a mode of sending them
hence, there were hundreds, nay thousands of citizens, who
would, by manumitting their slaves, relieve themselves from
the cares attendant on their possession. The great
slave-holder, Mr. R. said, was frequently a mere sentry at
his own door--bound to stay on his plantation to see that
his slaves were properly treated, &c. Mr. R. concluded by
saying that he had thought it necessary to make these
remarks, being a slave-holder himself, to show that, so far
from being connected with abolition of slavery, the measure
proposed would prove one of greatest securities to enable
the master to keep in possession his own property."
Here is a demonstrative proof, of a plan got up by a gang of
slave-holders to select the free people of colour from among the
slaves, that our more miserable brethren may be the better secured in
ignorance and wretchedness, to work their farms and dig their mines,
and thus go on enriching the christians with their blood and groans.
What our brethren could have been thinking about, who have left their
native land and home and gone away to Africa I am unable to say. This
country is as much ours as it is the whites, whether they will admit
it now or not, they will see and believe it by and by. They tell us
about prejudice--what have we to do with it? Their prejudices will be
obliged to fall like lightning to the ground, in succeeding
generations; not, however with the will and consent of all the whites,
for some will be obliged to hold on to the old adage, viz.: the blacks
are not men, but were made to be an inheritance to us and our children
forever!!!!!! I hope the residue of the coloured people will stand
still and see the salvation of God, and the miracle which he will work
for our delivery from wretchedness under the christians!!!!!!
[Hand->] ADDITION.--If any of us see fit to go away, go to those who
have been for many years, and are now our greatest earthly friends and
benefactors--the English. If not so, go to our brethren, the Haytians,
who, according to their word, is bound to protect and comfort us. The
Americans say that we are ungrateful--but I ask them for heaven's
sake, what we should be grateful to them for--for murdering our
fathers and mothers?--Or do they wish us to return thanks to them for
chaining and handcuffing us, branding us, cramming fire down our
throats, or for keeping us in slavery, and beating us nearly or quite
to death to make us work in ignorance and miseries, to support them
and their families. They certainly think that we are a gang of fools.
Those among them, who have volunteered their services for our
redemption, though we are unable to compensate them for their labors,
we nevertheless thank them from the bottom of our hearts, and have our
eyes steadfastly fixed upon them, and their labors of love for God and
man. But do slave-holders think that we thank them for keeping us in
miseries, and taking our lives by the inches? [<-Hand]
Before I proceed further with this scheme, I shall give an extract
from the letter of that truly Reverend Divine, (Bishop Allen,) of
Philadelphia, respecting this trick. At the instance of the Editor of
the Freedom's Journal, he says,[21]
"Dear Sir, I have been for several years trying to reconcile
my mind to the Colonizing of Africans in Liberia, but there
have always been, and there still remain great and
insurmountable objections against the scheme. We are an
unlettered people, brought up in ignorance, not one in a
hundred can read or write, not one in a thousand has a
liberal education; is there any fitness for such to be sent
into a far country, among heathens, to convert or civilize
them, when they themselves are neither civilized or
christianized? See the great bulk of the poor, ignorant
Africans in this country, exposed to every temptation before
them: all for the want of their morals being refined by
education and proper attendance paid unto them by their
owners, or those who had the charge of them. It is said by
the Southern slave-holders, that the more ignorant they can
bring up the Africans, the better slaves they make, 'go and
come.' Is there any fitness for such people to be colonized
in a far country, to be their own rulers? Can we not discern
the project of sending the free people of colour away from
their country? Is it not for the interest of the
slave-holders to select the free people of colour out of the
different states, and send them to Liberia? Will it not make
their slaves uneasy to see free men of colour enjoying
liberty? It is against the law, in some of the southern
states, that a person of colour should receive an education,
under a severe penalty. Colonizationists speak of America
being first colonized, but is there any comparison between
the two? America was colonized by as _wise_, _judicious_ and
_educated_ men as the world afforded. WILLIAM PENN did not
want for _learning_, _wisdom_, _or intelligence_. If all the
people in Europe and America were as ignorant, and in the
same situation as our brethren, what would become of the
world? where would be the principle or piety that would
govern the people? We were _stolen_ from our mother country,
and brought _here_. We have _tilled_ the ground and made
fortunes for thousands, and still they are not weary of our
services. _But they who stay to till the ground must be
slaves._ Is there not land enough in America, or 'corn
enough in Egypt?' Why should they send us into a far country
to die? See the thousands of foreigners emigrating to
America every year: and if there be ground sufficient for
them to cultivate, and bread for them to eat; why would they
wish to send the _first tillers_ of the land away? Africans
have made fortunes for thousands, who are yet unwilling to
part with their services; but the free must be sent away,
and those who remain must be _slaves_. I have no doubt that
there are many good men who do not see as I do, and who are
for sending us to Liberia; but they have not duly considered
the subject--they are not men of colour. This land which we
have watered with our _tears_ and _our blood_, is now our
_mother country_, and we are well satisfied to stay where
wisdom abounds and the gospel is free."
"RICHARD ALLEN,
"_Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States_."
I have given you, my brethren, an extract verbatim from the letter of
that godly man as you may find it on the aforementioned page of
Freedom's Journal. I know that thousands and perhaps millions of my
brethren in these States, have never heard of such a man as Bishop
Allen--a man whom God many years ago raised up among his ignorant and
degraded brethren, to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified to
them--who notwithstanding, had to wrestle against principalities and
the powers of darkness to diffuse that gospel with which he was
endowed, among his brethren--but who having overcome the combined
powers of devils and wicked men has under God planted a church among
us which will be as durable as the foundation of the earth on which it
stands. Richard Allen! O my God!! the bare recollection of the labours
of this man, and his ministers among his deplorably wretched brethren
(rendered so by the whites,) to bring them to a knowledge of the God
of heaven, fills my soul with all those very high emotions which would
take the pen of an Addison to portray. It is impossible, my brethren,
for me to say much in this work respecting that man of God. When the
Lord shall raise up coloured historians in succeeding generations, to
present the crimes of this nation to the then gazing world, the Holy
Ghost will make them do justice to the name of Bishop Allen, of
Philadelphia. Suffice it for me to say, that the name of this very man
(Richard Allen,) though now in obscurity and degradation, will
notwithstanding stand on the pages of history among the greatest
divines who have lived since the apostolic age, and among the
African's, Bishop Allen's will be entirely pre-eminent. My brethren,
search after the character and exploits of this godly man among his
ignorant and miserable brethren, to bring them to a knowledge of the
truth as it is in our Master. Consider upon the tyrants and false
christians against whom he had to contend in order to get access to
his brethren. See him and his ministers in the states of New York,
New Jersey, Penn. Delaware and Maryland, carrying the gladsome tidings
of free and full salvation to the colored people. Tyrants and false
christians however, would not allow him to penetrate far into the
South for fear that he would awaken some of his ignorant brethren,
whom they held in wretchedness and miseries--for fear, I say it, that
he would awaken and bring them to a knowledge of their Maker. O my
Master! my Master! I cannot but think upon Christian Americans!! What
kind of people can they be? Will not those who were burnt up in Sodom
and Gomorrah rise up in judgment against Christian Americans with the
Bible in their hands, and condemn them? Will not the Scribes and
Pharisees of Jerusalem, who had nothing but the laws of Moses and the
Prophets to go by, rise up in judgment against Christian Americans,
and condemn them[22] who in addition to these have a revelation from
Jesus Christ the son of the living God? In fine, will not the
Antediluvians, together with the whole heathen world of antiquity,
rise up in judgment against Christian Americans and condemn them? The
Christians of Europe and America go to Africa, bring us away, and
throw us into the seas, and in other ways murder us, as they would
wild beasts. The Antediluvians and heathens never dreamed of such
barbarities. Now the Christians believe because they have a name to
live, while they are dead, that God will overlook such things. But if
he does not deceive them, it will be because he has overlooked it sure
enough. But to return to this godly man, Bishop Allen. I do hereby
openly affirm it to the world, that he has done more in a spiritual
sense for his ignorant and wretched brethren than any other man of
colour has, since the world began. And as for the greater part of the
whites, it has hitherto been their greatest object and glory to keep
us ignorant of our Maker, so as to make us believe that we were made
to be slaves to them and their children to dig up gold and silver for
them. It is notorious that not a few professing christians among the
whites who profess to love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, have
assailed this man and laid all the obstacles in his way they possibly
could, consistent with their profession--and what for? Why, their
course of proceeding and his, clashed exactly together--they trying
their best to keep us ignorant that we might be the better and more
obedient slaves--while he on the other hand, doing his very best to
enlighten us and teach us a knowledge of the Lord. And I am sorry that
I have it to say, that many of our brethren have joined in with our
oppressors, whose dearest objects are only to keep us ignorant and
miserable, against this man to stay his hand. However, they have kept
us in so much ignorance that many of us know no better than to fight
against ourselves, and by that means strengthen the hands of our
natural enemies, to rivet their infernal chains of slavery upon us and
our children. I have several times called the white Americans our
_natural enemies_--I shall here define my meaning of the phrase. Shem,
Ham, and Japheth, together with their father Noah and wives, I believe
were not natural enemies to each other. When the ark rested after the
flood upon Mount Arrarat in Asia, they (eight) were all the people
which could be found alive in all the earth--in fact if scriptures be
true (which I believe are) there were no other living men in all the
earth, notwithstanding some ignorant creatures hesitate not to tell
us, that we, (the blacks) are the seed of Cain, the murderer of his
brother Abel. But where those ignorant and avaricious wretches could
have got their information, I am unable to declare. Did they receive
it from the Bible? I have searched the Bible as well as they, if I am
not as well learned as they are, and have never seen a verse which
testifies whether we are the seed of Cain or of Abel.--Yet those men
tell us that we are of the seed of Cain and that God put a dark stain
upon us, that we might be known as their slaves!!! Now I ask those
avaricious and ignorant wretches, who act more like the seed of Cain,
by murdering, the whites or the blacks? How many vessel loads of human
beings have the blacks thrown into the seas? How many thousand souls
have the blacks murdered in cold blood to make them work in
wretchedness and ignorance, to support them and their
families?[23]--However, let us be the seed of Cain, Harry, Dick or
Tom!!! God will show the whites what we are yet. I say, from the
beginning, I do not think that we were natural enemies to each other.
But the whites having made us so wretched, by subjecting us to
slavery, and having murdered so many millions of us in order to make
us work for them, and out of devilishness--and they taking our wives,
whom we love as we do ourselves--our mothers who bore the pains of
death to give us birth--our fathers & dear little children, and
ourselves, and strip and beat us one before the other--chain, handcuff
and drag us about like rattle-snakes--shoot us down like wild bears,
before each other's faces, to make us submissive to and work to
support them and their families. They (the whites) know well if we are
_men_--and there is a secret monitor in their hearts which tells them
we are--they know, I say, if we _are_ men, and see them treating us in
the manner they do, that there can be nothing in our hearts but death
alone, for them; notwithstanding we may appear cheerful, when we see
them murdering our dear mothers and wives, because we cannot help
ourselves. Man, in all ages and all nations of the earth, is the same.
Man is a peculiar creature--he is the image of his God, though he may
be subjected to the most wretched condition upon earth, yet that
spirit and feeling which constitute the creature man, can never be
entirely erased from his breast, because the God who made him after
his own image, planted it in his heart; he cannot get rid of it. The
whites knowing this, they do not know what to do; they are afraid that
we, being men, and not brutes, will retaliate, and woe will be to
them; therefore, that dreadful fear, together with an avaricious
spirit, and the natural love in them to be called masters, (which term
we will yet honour them with to their sorrow) bring them to the
resolve that they will keep us in ignorance and wretchedness, as long
as they possibly can[24] and make the best of their time while it
lasts. Consequently they, themselves, (and not us) render themselves
our natural enemies, by treating us so cruel. They keep us miserable
now, and call us their property, but some of them will have enough of
us by and by--their stomachs shall run over with us; they want us for
their slaves, and shall have us to their fill. (We are all in the
world together!!) I said above, because we cannot help ourselves,
(viz. we cannot help the whites murdering our mothers and our wives)
but this statement is incorrect--for we can help ourselves; for, if we
lay aside abject servility, and be determined to act like men, and
not brutes--the murderers among the whites would be afraid to show
their cruel heads. But O, my God!--in sorrow I must say it, that my
colour, all over the world, have a mean, servile spirit. They yield in
a moment to the whites, let them be right or wrong--the reason the
whites are able to keep their feet on our throats. Oh! my coloured
brethren, all over the world, when shall we arise from this death-like
apathy?--And be men!! You will notice, if ever we become men (I mean
_respectable_ men, such as other people are,) we must exert ourselves
to the full. For remember, that it is the greatest desire and object
of the greater part of the whites, to keep us ignorant, and make us
work to support them and their families.--Here now, in the Southern
and Western Sections of this country, there are at least three
coloured persons for one white, why is it, that those few weak,
good-for-nothing whites, are able to keep so many able men, one of
whom, can put to flight a dozen whites, in wretchedness and misery? It
shows at once, what the blacks are, we are ignorant, abject, servile,
and mean--and the whites know it--they know that we are too servile to
assert our rights as men--or they would not fool with us as they do.
Would they fool with any other people as they do with us? No, they
know too well that they would get themselves ruined. Why do they not
bring the inhabitants of Asia to be body servants to them? They know
they would get their bodies rent and torn from head to foot. Why do
they not get the Aboriginies of this country to be slaves to them and
their children, to work their farms and dig their mines? They know
well that the Aboriginies of this country, (or Indians) would tear
them from the earth. The Indians would not rest day or night, they
would be up all times of night, cutting their cruel throats. But my
colour, (some, not all,) are willing to stand still and be murdered by
the cruel whites. In some of the West-India Islands, and over a large
part of South America, there are six or eight coloured persons for one
white. Why do they not take possession of those places? Who hinders
them? it is not the avaricious whites--for they are too busily engaged
in laying up money--derived from the blood and tears of the blacks.
The fact is they are too servile, they love to have Masters too
well!!!!!! Some of our brethren, too, who seeking more after self
aggrandizement, than the glory of God, and the welfare of their
brethren, join in with our oppressors, to ridicule and say all manner
of evils falsely against our Bishop. They think, that they are doing
great things, when they get in company with the whites, to ridicule
and make sport of those who are labouring for their good. Poor
ignorant creatures, they do not know that the sole aim and object of
the whites, are only to make fools and slaves of them and put the whip
to them, and make them work to support them and their families. But I
do say, that no man can well be a despiser of Bishop Allen, for his
public labors among us, unless he is a despiser of God and
Righteousness. Thus, we see, my brethren, the two very opposite
positions of those great men, who have written respecting this
"Colonizing Plan," (Mr. Clay and his slave holding party,) men who are
resolved to keep us in eternal wretchedness, are also bent upon
sending us to Liberia. While the Reverend Bishop Allen, and his party,
men who have the fear of God, and the welfare of their brethren at
heart. The Bishop in particular, whose labors for the salvation of his
brethren, are well known to a large part of those, who dwell in the
United States, are completely opposed to the plan--and advise us to
stay where we are. Now we have to determine whose advice we will take
respecting this all important matter, whether we will adhere to Mr.
Clay and his slave-holding party, who have always been our oppressors
and murderers, and who are for colonizing us, more through
apprehension than humanity, or to this godly man who has done so much
for our benefit, together with the advice of all the good and wise
among us and the whites. Will any of us leave our homes and go to
Africa? I hope not.[25] Let them commence their attack upon us as they
did on our brethren in Ohio, driving and beating us from our country,
and my soul for theirs, they will have enough of it. Let no man of us
budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our
country. America is more our country, than it is the whites--we have
enriched it with our _blood and tears_. The greatest riches in all
America have arisen from our blood and tears:--and will they drive us
from our property and homes, which we have earned with our _blood_?
They must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction
upon them. The Americans have got so fat upon our blood and groans,
that they have almost forgotten the God of armies. But let them go on.
How cunning slave-holders think they are!!!!--How much like the king
of Egypt, who after he saw plainly that God was determined to bring
out his people, in spite of him and his, as powerful as they were. He
was willing that Moses, Aaron and the Elders of Israel, but not all
the people should go and serve the Lord. But God deceived him as he
will christian Americans, unless they are very cautious how they move.
What would have become of the United States of America, was it not for
those among the whites, who not in words barely, but in truth and in
deed, love and fear the Lord Our Lord and Master said:--[26]
"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe
in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of
the sea."
But the Americans with this very threatening of the Lord's, not only
beat his little ones among the Africans, but many of them they put to
death or murder. Now the avaricious Americans think that the Lord
Jesus Christ will let them off, because his words are no more than the
words of a man! In fact, many of them are so avaricious and ignorant
that they do not believe in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Tyrants
may think they are so skilful in State affairs is the reason that the
government is preserved. But I tell you, that this country would have
been given up long ago, was it not for the lovers of the Lord. They
are indeed, the salt of the earth. Remove the people of God among the
whites, from this land of blood, and it will stand until they cleverly
get out of the way. I adopt the language of the Rev. S.E. Cornish, of
N. York, editor of the Rights of All, and say:
"Any colored man of common intelligence who gives his
countenance and influence to that colony further than its
missionary object and interest extend, should be considered
as a traitor to his brethren, and discarded by every
respectable man of colour: and every member of that society,
however pure his motive, whatever may be his religious
character and moral worth, should in his efforts to remove
the coloured population from their rightful soil, the land
of their birth and nativity, be considered as acting
gratuitously unrighteous and cruel."
Let me make an appeal brethren, to your hearts, for your cordial
co-operation in the circulation of "The Rights of All," among us. The
utility of such a vehicle, if rightly conducted, cannot be estimated.
I hope that the well informed among us, may see the absolute necessity
of their co-operation in its universal spread among us. If we should
let it go down, never let us undertake any thing of the kind again,
but give up at once and say that we are really so ignorant and
wretched that we cannot do any thing at all! As far as I have seen the
writings of its editor, I believe he is not seeking to fill his
pockets with money, but has the welfare of his brethren truly at
heart. Such men, brethren, ought to be supported by us.
But to return to the colonizing trick. It will be well for me to
notice here at once, that I do not mean indiscriminately to condemn
all the members and advocates of this scheme, for I believe that there
are some friends to the sons of Africa, who are laboring for our
salvation, not in words only but in truth and in deed, who have been
drawn into this plan. Some, more by persuasion than any thing else;
while others, with humane feelings and lively zeal for our good,
seeing how much we suffer from the afflictions poured upon us by
unmerciful tyrants, are willing to enroll their names in any thing
which they think has for its ultimate end our redemption from
wretchedness and miseries; such men, with a heart truly overflowing
with gratitude for their past services and zeal in our cause, I humbly
beg to examine this plot minutely, and see if the end which they have
in view will be completely consummated by such a course of procedure.
Our friends who have been imperceptibly drawn into this plot I view
with tenderness, and would not for the world injure their feelings,
and I have only to hope for the future, that they will withdraw
themselves from it; for I declare to them, that the plot is not for
the glory of God, but on the contrary the perpetuation of slavery in
this country, which will ruin them and the country forever, unless
something is immediately done.
Do the colonizationists think to send us off without first being
reconciled to us? Do they think to bundle us up like brutes and send
us off, as they did our brethren of the State of Ohio? Have they not
to be reconciled to us, or reconcile us to them, for the cruelties
with which they have afflicted our fathers and us? Methinks
colonizationists think they have a set of brutes to deal with, sure
enough. Do they think to drive us from our country and homes, after
having enriched it with our blood and tears, and keep back millions of
our dear brethren, sunk in the most barbarous wretchedness, to dig up
gold and silver for them and their children? Surely, the Americans
must think that we are brutes, as some of them have represented us to
be. They think that we do not feel for our brethren, whom they are
murdering by the inches, but they are dreadfully deceived. I
acknowledge that there are some deceitful and hypocritical wretches
among us, who will tell us one thing while they mean another, and thus
they go on aiding our enemies to oppress themselves and us. But I
declare this day before my Lord and Master, that I believe there are
some true-hearted sons of Africa, in this land of oppression, but
pretended _liberty!!!!!_--who do in reality feel for their suffering
brethren, who are held in bondage by tyrants. Some of the advocates of
this cunningly devised plot of Satan represent us to be the greatest
set of cut throats in the world, as though God, wants, us to take his
work out of his hand before he is ready. Does not vengeance belong to
the Lord? Is he not able to repay the Americans for their cruelties,
with which they have afflicted Africa's sons and daughters, without
our interference, unless we are ordered? Is it surprising to think
that the Americans, having the bible in their hands, do not believe
it. Are not the hearts of all men in the hands of the God of battles?
And does he not suffer some, in consequence of cruelties, to go on
until they are irrecoverably lost? Now, what can be more aggravating,
than for the Americans, after having treated us so bad, to hold us up
to the world as such great throat cutters? It appears to me as though
they are resolved to assail us with every species of affliction that
their ingenuity can invent. ([Hand->] See the African Repository and
Colonial Journal, from its commencement to the present day--see how we
are, through the medium of that periodical, abused and held up by the
Americans, as the greatest nuisance to society, and throat-cutters in
the world.) But the Lord sees their actions. Americans!
notwithstanding you have and do continue to treat us more cruel than
any heathen nation ever did a people it had subjected to the same
condition that you have us. Now let us reason--I mean you of the
United States, whom I believe God designs to save from destruction, if
you will hear. For I declare to you, whether you believe it or not,
that there are some on the continent of America, who will never be
able to repent. God will surely destroy them, to show you his
disapprobation of the murders they and you have inflicted on us. I
say, let us reason; had you not better take our body, while you have
it in your power, and while we are yet ignorant and wretched, not
knowing but a little, give us education, and teach us the pure
religion of our Lord and Master, which is calculated to make the lion
lay down in peace with the lamb, and which millions of you have beaten
us nearly to death for trying to obtain since we have been among you,
and thus, at once, gain our affection, while we are ignorant? Remember
Americans, that we must and shall be free, and enlightened as you are,
will you wait until we shall, under God, obtain our liberty by the
crushing arm of power? Will it not be dreadful for you? I speak
Americans for your good. We must and shall be free I say, in spite of
you. You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery, to
enrich you and your children but God will deliver us from under you.
And wo, wo, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by
fighting. Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and enlighten us
and treat us like men, and we will like you more than we do now hate
you,[27] and tell us now no more about colonization, for America is as
much our country, as it is yours.--Treat us like men, and there is no
danger but we will all live in peace and happiness together. For we
are not like you, hard hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a
happy country this will be, if the whites will listen. What nation
under heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives
us up into his hand? But Americans, I declare to you, while you keep
us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us
support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not
look for it, do you? Treat us then like men, and we will be your
friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of
the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will
become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible,
but remember that nothing is impossible with God.
The Americans may say or do as they please, but they have to raise us
from the condition of brutes to that of respectable men, and to make a
national acknowledgement to us for the wrongs they have inflicted on
us. As unexpected, strange, and wild as these propositions may to some
appear, it is no less a fact, that unless they are complied with, the
Americans of the United States, though they may for a little while
escape, God will yet weigh them in a balance, and if they are not
superior to other men, as they have represented themselves to be, he
will give them wretchedness to their very heart's content.
And now brethren, having concluded these four Articles, I submit them,
together with my Preamble, dedicated to the Lord for your inspection,
in language so very simple, that the most ignorant, who can read at
all, may easily understand--of which you may make the best you
possibly can.[28] Should tyrants take it into their heads to
emancipate any of you, remember that your freedom is your natural
right. You are men, as well as they, and instead of returning thanks
to them for your freedom, return it to the Holy Ghost, who is your
rightful owner. If they do not want to part with your labours, which
have enriched them, let them keep you, and my word for it, that God
Almighty, will break their strong band. Do you believe this my
brethren?--See my Address delivered before the General Coloured
Association of Massachusetts, which may be found in Freedom's Journal,
for Dec. 20, 1828.--See the last clause of that Address. Whether you
believe it or not, I tell you that God will dash tyrants, in
combination with devils, into atoms, and will bring you out from your
wretchedness and miseries, under these _Christian People!!!!!!_
Those philanthropists and lovers of the human family, who have
volunteered their services for our redemption from wretchedness, have
a high claim on our gratitude, and we should always view them as our
greatest earthly benefactors.
If any are anxious to ascertain who I am, know the world, that I am
one of the oppressed, degraded and wretched sons of Africa, rendered
so by the avaricious and unmerciful, among the whites.--If any wish to
plunge me into the wretched incapacity of a slave, or murder me for
the truth, know ye, that I am in the hand of God, and at your
disposal. I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be
offered at any moment. For what is the use of living when in fact I am
dead. But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded
and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation,
to support you and your families, that some of you (whites) on the
continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born.
You want slaves, and want us for your slaves!!! My colour will yet,
root some of you out of the very face of the earth!!!!!! You may doubt
it if you please. I know that thousands will doubt--they think they
have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children,
that it is impossible for such things to occur. So did the
antideluvians doubt Noah, until the day in which the flood came and
swept them away. So did the Sodomites doubt, until Lot had got out of
the City, and God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven, upon
them and burnt them up. So did the king of Egypt doubt the very
existence of a God, he said, "who is the Lord, that I should let
Israel go?" Did he not find to his sorrow, who the Lord was, when he
and all his mighty men of war, were smothered to death in the Red
Sea?--So did the Romans doubt, many of them were really so ignorant,
that they thought the world of mankind were made to be slaves to them;
just as many of the Americans think now, of my colour.--But they got
dreadfully deceived. When men got their eyes opened, they made the
murderers scamper. The way in which they cut their tyrannical throats,
was not much inferior to the way the Romans or murderers, served them,
when they held them in wretchedness and degradation under their feet.
So would Christian Americans doubt, if God should send an Angel from
heaven to preach their funeral sermon. The fact is, the Christians
having a name to live, while they are dead, think that God will screen
them on that ground.
See the hundreds and thousands of us that are thrown into the seas by
Christians, and murdered by them in other ways. They cram us into
their vessel holds in chains and in hand-cuffs--men, women and
children, all together!! O! save us, we pray thee, thou God of heaven
and of earth, from the devouring hands of the white Christians!!!!!!
Oh! thou Alpha and Omega!
The beginning and the end,
Enthron'd thou art, in Heaven above,
Surrounded by angels there:
From whence thou seest the miseries
To which we are subject;
The whites have murder'd us, O God!
And kept us ignorant of thee.
Not satisfied with this, my Lord!
They throw us in the seas:
Be pleas'd, we pray, for Jesus' sake,
To save us from their grasp.
We believe that, for thy glory's sake,
Thou wilt deliver us;
But that thou may'st effect these things,
Thy glory must be sought.
* * * * *
In conclusion, I ask the candid and unprejudiced of the whole world,
to search the pages of historians diligently, and see if the
Antediluvians--the Sodomites--the Egyptians--the Babylonians--the
Ninevites--the Carthagenians--the Persians--the Macedonians--the
Greeks--the Romans--the Mahometans--the Jews--or devils, ever treated
a set of human beings, as the white Christians of America do us, the
blacks, or Africans.--I also ask the attention of the world of mankind
to the declaration of these very American people, of the United
States.
_A Declaration made July 4, 1776._
It says,[29]
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers
of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the
laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation. We hold these truths to be self evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute a new government laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath
shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it
is their right, it is their duty to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for their future
security."
See your declaration, Americans!! Do you understand your own language?
Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4, 1776--
[Hand->] "We hold these truths to be self evident--that
_ALL_ MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL! _that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!_"
Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of
Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel
and unmerciful fathers on ourselves on our fathers and on us, men who
have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!
Hear your language further!
[Hand->] "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their _right_,
it is their _duty_, to throw off such government, and to
provide new guards for their future security."
Now, Americans! I ask you candidly, was your sufferings under Great
Britain one hundredth part as cruel and tyrannical as you have
rendered ours under you? Some of you, no doubt, believe that we will
never throw off your murderous government, and "provide new guards for
our future security." If Satan has made you believe it, will he not
deceive you?[30] Do the whites say, I being a black man, ought to be
humble, which I readily admit? I ask them, ought they not to be as
humble as I? or do they think they can measure arms with Jehovah? Will
not the Lord yet humble them? or will not these very coloured people,
whom they now treat worse than brutes, yet under God, humble them low
down enough? Some of the whites are ignorant enough to tell us, that
we ought to be submissive to them, that they may keep their feet on
our throats. And if we do not submit to be beaten to death by them, we
are bad creatures and of course must be damned, &c. If any man wishes
to hear this doctrine openly preached to us by the American preachers,
let him go into the Southern and Western sections of this country--I
do not speak from hearsay--what I have written, is what I have seen
and heard myself. No man may think that my book is made up of
conjecture--I have travelled and observed nearly the whole of those
things myself, and what little I did not get by my own observation, I
received from those among the whites and blacks, in whom the greatest
confidence may be placed.
The Americans may be as vigilant as they please, but they cannot be
vigilant enough for the Lord, neither can they hide themselves, where
he will not find and bring them out.
* * * * *
1 Thy presence why withdraw'st thou, Lord?
Why hid'st thou now thy face,
When dismal times of deep distress
Call for thy wonted grace?
2 The wicked, swell'd with lawless pride,
Have made the poor their prey;
O let them fall by those designs
Which they for others lay.
3 For straight they triumph, if success
Their thriving crimes attend;
And sordid wretches, whom God hates,
Perversely they commend.
4 To own a pow'r above themselves
Their haughty pride disdains;
And, therefore, in their stubborn mind
No thought of God remains.
5 Oppressive methods they pursue,
And all their foes they slight;
Because thy judgements, unobserved,
Are far above their sight.
6 They fondly think their prosp'rous state
Shall unmolested be;
They think their vain designs shall thrive,
From all misfortune free.
7 Vain and deceitful is their speech,
With curses fill'd, and lies;
By which the mischief of their heart
They study to disguise.
8 Near public roads they lie conceal'd,
And all their art employ,
The innocent and poor at once
To rifle and destroy.
9 Not lions crouching in their dens,
Surprise their heedless prey
With greater cunning, or express
More savage rage than they.
10 Sometimes they act the harmless man,
And modest looks they wear;
That so, deceiv'd, the poor may less
Their sudden onset fear
PART II.
11 For God, they think, no notice takes
Of their unrighteous deeds;
He never minds the suff'ring poor,
Nor their oppression heeds.
12 But thou, O Lord, at length arise,
Stretch forth thy mighty arm,
And by the greatness of thy pow'r,
Defend the poor from harm.
13 No longer let the wicked vaunt,
And, proudly boasting, say,
"Tush, God regards not what we do;
He never will repay."--_Common Prayer Book._
* * * * *
1 Shall I for fear of feeble man,
The Spirit's coarse in me restrain?
Or, undismay'd in deed and word.
Be a true witness of my Lord.
2 Aw'd by mortal's frown shall I
Conceal the word of God Most High!
How then before thee shall I dare
To stand, or how thine anger bear?
3 Shall I, to sooth th' unholy throng,
Soften the troth, or smooth my tongue,
To gain earth's gilded toys, or flee
The cross endur'd, my Lord, by thee?
4 What then is he whose scorn I dread?
Whose wrath or hate makes me afraid
A man! an heir of death! a slave
To sin! a bubble on the wave!
5 Yea, let men rage: since thou wilt spread
Thy shadowing wings around my head:
Since in all pain thy tender love
Will still my sure refreshment prove.
_Wesley's Collection._
FOOTNOTES:
[17] See Dr. Torrey's Portraiture of Domestic Slavery in the United
States, page 85-86.
[18] Among the English, our real friends and benefactors.
[19] In the first edition of this work, it should read 1816, as above,
and not 1826, as it there appears.
[20] "Niger" is a word derived from the Latin, which was used by the
old Romans to designate inanimate beings which were black, such as
soot, pot, wood, house, &c. Also, of animals which they considered
inferior to the human species, as a black horse, cow, hog, bird, dog,
&c. The white Americans have applied this term to Africans, by way of
reproach for our color, to aggravate and heighten our miseries,
because they have their feet on our throats, and we cannot help
ourselves.
[21] See Freedom's Journal for Nov. 2d, 1827--vol. 1, No. 34.
[22] I mean those whose labors for the good, or rather destruction of
Jerusalem, and the Jews. Ceased before our Lord entered the Temple,
and over turned the tables of the Money Changers.
[23] How many millions souls of the human family have the blacks, beat
nearly to death, to keep them from learning to read the Word of God
and from writing. And telling lies about them, by holding them up to
the world as a tribe of TALKING APES, void of _intellect!!! incapable_
of LEARNING, &c.
[24] And still hold us up with indignity as being incapable of
acquiring knowledge!!! See the inconsistency of the assertions of
those wretches--they beat us inhumanly, sometimes almost to death, for
attempting to inform ourselves, by reading the _Word_ of our Maker,
and at the same time tell us, that we are beings _void of
intellect!!!!!_ How admirably their practices agree with their
professions in this case. Let me cry shame upon you Americans, for
such outrages upon human nature!!! If it were possible for the whites
always to keep us ignorant and miserable, and make us work to enrich
them and their children, and insult our feelings by representing us as
_talking Apes_, what would they do? But glory honour and praise to
Heaven's King, that the sons and daughters of Africa, will, in spite
of all the opposition of their enemies, stand forth in all the dignity
and glory that is granted by the Lord to his creature man.
[25] Those who are ignorant enough to go to Africa, the coloured
people ought to be glad to have them go, for if they are ignorant
enough to let the whites _fool_ them off to Africa, they would be no
small injury to us if they reside in this country.
[26] See St. Mathew's Gospel, chap, xviii. v. 6.
[27] You are not astonished at my saying we hate you, for if we are
men, we cannot but hate you, while you are treating us like dogs.
[28] Some of my brethren, who are sensible, do not take an interest in
enlightening the minds of our more ignorant brethren respecting this
_Book_, and in reading it to them, just as though they will not have
either to rise or fall by what is written in this book. Do they
believe that I would be so foolish as to put out a book of this kind,
without strict--ah! very strict commandments of the Lord!--Surely the
blacks and whites must think that I am ignorant enough. Do they think
that I would have the audacious wickedness to take the name of my God
in vain?
Notice, I said in the concluding clause of Article 3--I call God, I
call Angels, I call men to witness, that the destruction of the
Americans is at hand, and will be speedily consumated unless they
repent. Now I wonder if the world think that I would take the name of
God in this way in vain? What do they think I take God to be? Do they
suppose that I would trifle with that God who will not have his holy
name taken in vain?--He will show you and the world, in due time,
whether this book is for his glory, or written by me through envy to
the whites, as some have represented.
[29] See the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
[30] The Lord has not taught the Americans that we will not some day
or other throw off their chains and hand-cuffs, from our hands and
feet, and their devilish lashes (which some of them shall have enough
of yet) from off our backs.
AN ADDRESS
TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA
(REJECTED BY THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1843.)
BY HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.
PREFACE.
The following Address was first read at the National Convention held
at Buffalo, N.Y., in 1843. Since that time it has been slightly
modified, retaining, however, all of its original doctrine. The
document elicited more discussion than any other paper that was ever
brought before that, or any other deliberative body of colored
persons, and their friends. Gentlemen who opposed the Address, based
their objections on these grounds. 1. That the document was war-like,
and encouraged insurrection; and 2. That if the Convention should
adopt it, that those delegates who lived near the borders of the slave
states, would not dare to return to their homes. The Address was
rejected by a small majority; and now in compliance with the earnest
request of many who heard it, and in conformity to the wishes of
numerous friends who are anxious to see it, the author now gives it to
the public, praying God that this little book may be borne on the four
winds of heaven, until the principles it contains shall be understood
and adopted by every slave in the Union.
H.H.G.
Troy, N.Y., April 15, 1848.
ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE U.S.
BRETHREN AND FELLOW CITIZENS:
Your brethren of the north, east, and west have been accustomed to
meet together in National Conventions, to sympathize with each other,
and to weep over your unhappy condition. In these meetings we have
addressed all classes of the free, but we have never until this time,
sent a word of consolation and advice to you. We have been contented
in sitting still and mourning over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that
before this day, your sacred liberties would have been restored. But,
we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands
have been borne on streams of blood, and tears, to the shores of
eternity. While you have been oppressed, we have also been partakers
with you; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We therefore
write to you as being bound with you.
Many of you are bound to us, not only by the ties of a common
humanity, but we are connected by the more tender relations of
parents, wives, husbands, children, brothers, and sisters, and
friends. As such we most affectionately address you.
Slavery has fixed a deep gulf between you and us, and while it shuts
out from you the relief and consolation which your friends would
willingly render, it afflicts and persecutes you with a fierceness
which we might not expect to see in the fiends of hell. But still the
Almighty Father of Mercies has left to us a glimmering ray of hope,
which shines out like a lone star in a cloudy sky. Mankind are
becoming wiser, and better--the oppressor's power is fading, and you,
every day, are becoming better informed, and more numerous. Your
grievances, brethren, are many. We shall not attempt, in this short
address, to present to the world, all the dark catalogue of this
nation's sins, which have been committed upon an innocent people. Nor
is it indeed, necessary, for you feel them from day to day, and all
the civilized world look upon them with amazement.
Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our injured race
were brought to the shores of America. They came not with glad spirits
to select their homes, in the New World. They came not with their own
consent, to find an unmolested enjoyment of the blessings of this
fruitful soil. The first dealings which they had with those calling
themselves Christians, exhibited to them the worst features of corrupt
and sordid hearts; and convinced them that no cruelty is too great, no
villainy, and no robbery too abhorrent for even enlightened men to
perform, when influenced by avarice, and lust. Neither did they come
flying upon the wings of Liberty, to a land of freedom. But, they came
with broken hearts, from their beloved native land, and were doomed to
unrequited toil, and deep degradation. Nor did the evil of their
bondage end at their emancipation by death. Succeeding generations
inherited their chains, and millions have come from eternity into
time, and have returned again to the world of spirits, cursed, and
ruined by American Slavery.
The propagators of the system, or their immediate ancestors very soon
discovered its growing evil, and its tremendous wickedness, and secret
promises were made to destroy it. The gross inconsistency of a people
holding slaves, who had themselves "ferried o'er the wave," for
freedom's sake, was too apparent to be entirely overlooked. The voice
of Freedom cried, "emancipate your Slaves." Humanity supplicated with
tears, for the deliverance of the children of Africa. Wisdom urged her
solemn plea. The bleeding captive plead his innocence, and pointed to
Christianity who stood weeping at the cross. Jehovah frowned upon the
nefarious institution, and thunderbolts, red with vengeance, struggled
to leap forth to blast the guilty wretches who maintained it. But all
was vain. Slavery had stretched its dark wings of death over the land,
the Church stood silently by--the priests prophesied falsely, and the
people loved to have it so. Its throne is established, and now it
reigns triumphantly.
Nearly three millions of your fellow citizens, are prohibited by law,
and public opinion, (which in this country is stronger than law), from
reading the Book of Life. Your intellect has been destroyed as much as
possible, and every ray of light they have attempted to shut out from
your minds. The oppressors themselves have become involved in the
ruin. They have become weak, sensual, and rapacious. They have cursed
you--they have cursed themselves--they have cursed the earth which
they have trod. In the language of a Southern statesman, we can truly
say, "even the wolf, driven back long since by the approach of man,
now returns after the lapse of a hundred years, and howls amid the
desolations of slavery."
The colonists threw the blame upon England. They said that the mother
country entailed the evil upon them, and that they would rid
themselves of it if they could. The world thought they were sincere,
and the philanthropic pitied them. But time soon tested their
sincerity. In a few years, the colonists grew strong and severed
themselves from the British Government. Their Independence was
declared, and they took their station among the sovereign powers of
the earth. The declaration was a glorious document. Sages admired it,
and the patriotic of every nation reverenced the Godlike sentiments
which it contained. When the power of Government returned to their
hands, did they emancipate the slaves? No; they rather added new links
to our chains. Were they ignorant of the principles of Liberty?
Certainly they were not. The sentiments of their revolutionary orators
fell in burning eloquence upon their hearts, and with one voice they
cried, LIBERTY OR DEATH. O, what a sentence was that! It ran from soul
to soul like electric fire, and nerved the arm of thousands to fight
in the holy cause of Freedom. Among the diversity of opinions that are
entertained in regard to physical resistance, there are but a few
found to gainsay that stern declaration. We are among those who do
not.
SLAVERY! How much misery is comprehended in that single word. What
mind is there that does not shrink from its direful effects? Unless
the image of God is obliterated from the soul, all men cherish the
love of Liberty. The nice discerning political economist does not
regard the sacred right, more than the untutored African who roams in
the wilds of Congo. Nor has the one more right to the full enjoyment
of his freedom than the other. In every man's mind the good seeds of
liberty are planted, and he who brings his fellow down so low, as to
make him contented with a condition of slavery, commits the highest
crime against God and man. Brethren, your oppressors aim to do this.
They endeavor to make you as much like brutes as possible. When they
have blinded the eyes of your mind--when they have embittered the
sweet waters of life--when they have shut out the light which shines
from the word of God--then, and not till then has American slavery
done its perfect work.
TO SUCH DEGRADATION IT IS SINFUL IN THE EXTREME FOR YOU TO MAKE
VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION. The divine commandments, you are in duty
bound to reverence, and obey. If you do not obey them you will surely
meet with the displeasure of the Almighty. He requires you to love him
supremely, and your neighbor as yourself--to keep the Sabbath day
holy--to search the Scriptures--and bring up your children with
respect for his laws, and to worship no other God but him. But slavery
sets all these at naught and hurls defiance in the face of Jehovah.
The forlorn condition in which you are placed does not destroy your
moral obligation to God. You are not certain of Heaven, because you
suffer yourselves to remain in a state of slavery, where you cannot
obey the commandments of the Sovereign of the universe. If the
ignorance of slavery is a passport to heaven, then it is a blessing,
and no curse, and you should rather desire its perpetuity than its
abolition. God will not receive slavery, nor ignorance, nor any other
state of mind, for love, and obedience to him. Your condition does not
absolve you from your moral obligation. The diabolical injustice by
which your liberties are cloven down, NEITHER GOD, NOR ANGELS, OR
JUST MEN, COMMAND YOU TO SUFFER FOR A SINGLE MOMENT. THEREFORE IT IS
YOUR SOLEMN AND IMPERATIVE DUTY TO USE EVERY MEANS, BOTH MORAL,
INTELLECTUAL, AND PHYSICAL, THAT PROMISE SUCCESS. If a band of
heathen men should attempt to enslave a race of Christians, and to
place their children under the influence of some false religion,
surely, heaven would frown upon the men who would not resist such
aggression, even to death. If, on the other hand, a band of Christians
should attempt to enslave a race of heathen men and to entail slavery
upon them, and to keep them in heathenism in the midst of
Christianity, the God of heaven would smile upon every effort which
the injured might make to disenthral themselves.
Brethren, it is as wrong for your lordly oppressors to keep you in
slavery, as it was for the man thief to steal our ancestors from the
coast of Africa. You should therefore now use the same manner of
resistance, as would have been just in our ancestors, when the bloody
foot prints of the first remorseless soul thief was placed upon the
shores of our fatherland. The humblest peasant is as free in the sight
of God, as the proudest monarch that ever swayed a sceptre. Liberty is
a spirit sent out from God, and like its great Author, is no respecter
of persons.
Brethren, the time has come when you must act for yourselves. It is an
old and true saying, that "if hereditary bondmen would be free, they
must themselves strike the blow." You can plead your own cause, and do
the work of emancipation better than any others. The nations of the
old world are moving in the great cause of universal freedom, and some
of them at least, will ere long, do you justice. The combined powers
of Europe have placed their broad seal of disapprobation upon the
African slave trade. But in the slave holding parts of the United
States, the trade is as brisk as ever. They buy and sell you as
though you were brute beasts. The North has done much--her opinion of
slavery in the abstract is known. But in regard to the South, we adopt
the opinion of the New York Evangelist--"We have advanced so far, that
the cause apparently waits for a more effectual door to be thrown open
than has been yet." We are about to point you to that more effectual
door. Look around you, and behold the bosoms of your loving wives,
heaving with untold agonies! Hear the cries of your poor children!
Remember the stripes your fathers bore. Think of the torture and
disgrace of your noble mothers. Think of your wretched sisters, loving
virtue and purity, as they are driven into concubinage, and are
exposed to the unbridled lusts of incarnate devils. Think of the
undying glory that hangs around the ancient name of Africa:--and
forget not that you are native-born American citizens, and as such,
you are justly entitled to all the rights that are granted to the
freest. Think how many tears you have poured out upon the soil which
you have cultivated with unrequited toil, and enriched with your
blood; and then go to your lordly enslavers, and tell them plainly,
that YOU ARE DETERMINED TO BE FREE. Appeal to their sense of justice,
and tell them that they have no more right to oppress you, than you
have to enslave them. Entreat them to remove the grievous burdens
which they have imposed upon you, and to remunerate you for your
labor. Promise them renewed diligence in the cultivation of the soil,
if they will render to you an equivalent for your services. Point them
to the increase of happiness and prosperity in the British West
Indies, since the act of Emancipation. Tell them in language which
they cannot misunderstand, of the exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and
of a future judgment, and of the righteous retributions of an
indignant God. Inform them that all you desire, is FREEDOM, and that
nothing else will suffice. Do this, and for ever after cease to toil
for the heartless tyrants, who give you no other reward but stripes
and abuse. If they then commence the work of death, they, and not you,
will be responsible for the consequences. You had far better all
die--_die immediately_, than live slaves, and entail your wretchedness
upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is
your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it, there is
not much hope of Redemption without the shedding of blood. If you must
bleed, let it all come at once--rather, _die freemen, than live to be
slaves_. It is impossible, like the children of Israel, to make a
grand Exodus from the land of bondage. THE PHARAOHS ARE ON BOTH SIDES
OF THE BLOOD-RED WATERS! You cannot remove en masse, to the dominions
of the British Queen--nor can you pass through Florida, and overrun
Texas, and at last find peace in Mexico. The propagators of American
slavery are spending their blood and treasure, that they may plant the
black flag in the heart of Mexico, and riot in the halls of the
Montezumas. In the language of the Rev. Robert Hall, when addressing
the volunteers of Bristol, who were rushing forth to repel the
invasion of Napoleon, who threatened to lay waste the fair homes of
England, "Religion is too much interested in your behalf, not to shed
over you her most gracious influences."
You will not be compelled to spend much time in order to become inured
to hardships. From the first moment that you breathed the air of
heaven, you have been accustomed to nothing else but hardships. The
heroes of the American Revolution were never put upon harder fare,
than a peck of corn, and a few herrings per week. You have not become
enervated by the luxuries of life. Your sternest energies have been
beaten out upon the anvil of severe trial. Slavery has done this, to
make you subservient to its own purposes; but it has done more than
this, it has prepared you for any emergency. If you receive good
treatment, it is what you could hardly expect; if you meet with pain,
sorrow, and even death, these are the common lot of the slaves.
Fellow-men! patient sufferers! behold your dearest rights crushed to
the earth! See your sons murdered, and your wives, mothers, and
sisters, doomed to prostitution! In the name of the merciful God! and
by all that life is worth, let it no longer be a debateable question,
whether it is better to choose LIBERTY or DEATH!
In 1822, Denmark Veazie, of South Carolina, formed a plan for the
liberation of his fellow men. In the whole history of human efforts to
overthrow slavery, a more complicated and tremendous plan was never
formed. He was betrayed by the treachery of his own people, and died a
martyr to freedom. Many a brave hero fell, but History, faithful to
her high trust, will transcribe his name on the same monument with
Moses, Hampden, Tell, Bruce, and Wallace, Touissaint L'Overteur,
Lafayette and Washington. That tremendous movement shook the whole
empire of slavery. The guilty soul thieves were overwhelmed with fear.
It is a matter of fact, that at that time, and in consequence of the
threatened revolution, the slave states talked strongly of
emancipation. But they blew but one blast of the trumpet of freedom,
and then laid it aside. As these men became quiet, the slaveholders
ceased to talk about emancipation: and now, behold your condition
to-day! Angels sigh over it, and humanity has long since exhausted her
tears in weeping on your account!
The patriotic Nathaniel Turner followed Denmark Veazie. He was goaded
to desperation by wrong and injustice. By Despotism, his name has
been recorded on the list of infamy, but future generations will
number him among the noble and brave.
Next arose the immortal Joseph Cinque, the hero of the Amistad. He was
a native African, and by the help of God he emancipated a whole
ship-load of his fellow men on the high seas. And he now sings of
liberty on the sunny hills of Africa, and beneath his native palm
trees, where he hears the lion roar, and feels himself as free as that
king of the forest. Next arose Madison Washington, that bright star of
freedom, and took his station in the constellation of freedom. He was
a slave on board the brig Creole, of Richmond, bound to New Orleans,
that great slave mart, with a hundred and four others. Nineteen struck
for liberty or death. But one life was taken, and the whole were
emancipated, and the vessel was carried into Nassau, New Providence.
Noble men! Those who have fallen in freedom's conflict, their memories
will be cherished by the true hearted, and the God-fearing, in all
future generations; those who are living, their names are surrounded
by a halo of glory.
We do not advise you to attempt a revolution with the sword, because
it would be INEXPEDIENT. Your numbers are too small, and moreover the
rising spirit of the age, and the spirit of the gospel, are opposed to
war and bloodshed. But from this moment cease to labor for tyrants who
will not remunerate you. Let every slave throughout the land do this,
and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed
than you have been--you cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have
already. RATHER DIE FREEMEN, THAN LIVE TO BE SLAVES. Remember
that you are THREE MILLIONS.
It is in your power so to torment the God-cursed slaveholders, that
they will be glad to let you go free. If the scale was turned, and
black men were the masters, and white men the slaves, every
destructive agent and element would be employed to lay the oppressor
low. Danger and death would hang over their heads day and night. Yes,
the tyrants would meet with plagues more terrible than those of
Pharaoh. But you are a patient people. You act as though you were made
for the special use of these devils. You act as though your daughters
were born to pamper the lusts of your masters and overseers. And worse
than all, you tamely submit, while your lords tear your wives from
your embraces, and defile them before your eyes. In the name of God we
ask, are you men? Where is the blood of your fathers? Has it all run
out of your veins? Awake, awake; millions of voices are calling you!
Your dead fathers speak to you from their graves. Heaven, as with a
voice of thunder, calls on you to arise from the dust.
Let your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE!--No oppressed
people have ever secured their liberty without resistance. What kind
of resistance you had better make, you must decide by the
circumstances that surround you, and according to the suggestion of
expediency. Brethren, adieu. Trust in the living God. Labor for the
peace of the human race, and remember that you are three millions.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Walker's Appeal, with a Brief Sketch
of His Life, by David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet
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