DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 ■ / S 
 
 <r - 
 
 
 
 
 
1 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 
 ://archive.org/details/picturesofslaver01long 
 
PICTURES OF SLAVERY 
 
 IN 
 
 @|rau[i anil §fak; 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES, BIOGRAPHICAL 
 SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC. 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 APPENDIX, CONTAINING TEE MEWS OF JOHN TTF.sy.ET AND 
 RICHARD MATSON ON SLAVERY. 
 
 C_ 
 
 BY 
 
 KEY. JOHN DIXON LONG. 
 
 A Superannuated Minister of the Philadelphia Annas l Conference of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 But if thou mayest he made free, use it rather. — 1 Cor. -yii. 21 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 1857 . 
 
 1 U 83 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the ye. '- d 857, 
 
 BY REV. JOHN DIXON LONG, 
 
 in the Clerk’s Oicce of the District Court of the United States, in and for 
 the Eastern District «»f Pennsylvania. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES. 
 PRINTED BY T. K. it P. G. COLLINS. 
 
[i ^ 
 
 LIL^a nA.u* [^4 % L \ S' P 
 U-r^ 
 
 r (/ 
 
 # 
 
 INTKOD U CT ION. 
 
 I was born in New Town, Worcester County, Maryland, 
 on the 26th day of September, 181 T. My mother’s name 
 was Sally Laws Henderson. She was a devout member of 
 the M. E. Church, and died in June, 1828. From her lips 
 I received my first antislavery lesson. Could she have had 
 her way, no slave would ever have been held by any mem- 
 ber of her family. My father, John W. Long, was a native 
 of Maryland, and a slaveholder. In the early part of his 
 life he was a sea-captain, with all the generosity of the 
 sailor, but with few of the faults common to him. During 
 the war of 1812 he abandoned the sea, and commenced the 
 mercantile business in New Town. In 1824 he removed to 
 the Ferry on the Somerset side of the Pocomoke River, 
 nearly a mile from New Town. He died in 1834, leaving 
 my two sisters and brother under my protection. 
 
 I was received into the M. E. Church in 1835, by the 
 Rev. John A. Roche, of the Philadelphia Conference, who 
 is an accomplished Christian gentleman and eloquent 
 preacher. I commenced my ministerial career in 1839, 
 and was received into full connection in the Philadelphia 
 Conference in 1842. In 1848 my health failed ; and since 
 that time the Conference has permitted me to labor when 
 and where I have pleased, according to the state of my 
 health. 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 7 ? I $3 
 
8 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I am an ardent lover of Methodism, and consider 
 that man its greatest enemy who strives, directly or 
 indirectly, to fasten to it the dead and putrid body of 
 chattel slavery. I trust I am no bigot; for I love those 
 who love our Lord Jesus Christ, of whatever church, race, 
 or color. 
 
 Fifteen months ago it was my expectation to live and die 
 in my native State — in private to bear my testimony to 
 masters against slavery, and in public to labor for the sal- 
 vation of slaves. I had resolved to bear the reproaches 
 of those who would regard me as an abolitionist, and to 
 endure the slang to which I would necessarily be subjected 
 from fellows of the “ baser sort.” But I had four boys, and, 
 as a Christian father, I wished to train them to honorable 
 labor ; and was desirous that they should regard all man- 
 kind as members of one universal family. • They were 
 beginning to imbibe the common prejudices of slave so- 
 ciety — hatred of work and of slaves. Accordingly, I de- 
 termined to remove to a free State. A Southern gentleman 
 remarked to me that, if he had sons, and held my views on 
 slavery, he would act precisely as I have acted. 
 
 In October, 1856, I removed to Philadelphia; the “ city 
 of brotherly love in which, to my astonishment, I found 
 prevailing a vast deal of pro-slavery sentiment. At this 
 discovery all my latent antislavery feeling awoke into 
 activity. A Southern antislavery man can listen with 
 some patience to one who obtains his bread and butter by 
 the institution ; but the justification of slavery by a 
 Northern man is almost intolerable. A conviction that I 
 ought to bear my testimony against the system by writing 
 now took possession of my mind. But difficulties loomed 
 up before me. I should lose my friends, and would have 
 to encounter persecution. Again, I was no scholar. 
 Save a few scraps and obituary notices, I had never written 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 line for publication. But, in view of the responsibilities 
 of the great future, the path of duty seemed plain. Ac- 
 cordingly, last Christmas I commenced to write my book, 
 which, justice to myself requires me to state, has been 
 written in. a small room with my family around me, subject 
 to the interruptions of visitors, and to all the depressing 
 influences of feeble health, and the discouraging advice 
 of friends. When my manuscript was ready, no publisher 
 in Philadelphia that I approached would undertake its 
 publication. I have but little money to lose ; yet I have 
 published it at my own risk. It goes forth on my own re- 
 sponsibility. Its glory or its shame will fall on my own 
 head. jSTo minister or layman in the Philadelphia Con- 
 ference is accountable for it. If any of either class shall 
 approve it after reading it, I shall be gratified. I most 
 devoutly believe what I have written. I have no mis- 
 givings that the principles I have advocated will be found 
 unsound in the Great Day. I regret that I have not been 
 able to present my thoughts and facts in a more attractive 
 form. Like a plate of strawberries, or a quiver full of 
 arrows, they have association, but little arrangement. I 
 fear that the repetition of my thoughts, and the egotism 
 almost inseparable from such a work, will be offensive. 
 All criticisms aimed at the literary execution of the book 
 will be unheeded. If I have misstated facts, I am open to 
 conviction. I have not written for the learned ; yet even 
 to these some of my thoughts may prove suggestive. I am 
 from the masses, and have lived and labored with them. I 
 love and sympathize with the oppressed of all classes and 
 colors. Yet I honor the rich, the wise, the learned, and 
 those high in authority. My design is not to array the 
 poor against the rich, or the colored against the white ; 
 but to array all classes against slavery as it exists in the 
 Southern States of this Union. 
 
10 
 
 introduction’. 
 
 Slavery will be found, on close examination, to be the 
 common foe of church and state ; of master and slave ; 
 of rich and poor. I have added my mite of facts and 
 observations against it. I believe that all truth is profit- 
 able, sooner or later. I have done what I conceive to be 
 my duty to the church and to my country. May the 
 blessing of Christ rest on the antislavery cause ! 
 
 Philadelphia, May 1, 1857. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. page 
 
 Southern slavery, and who are slaves — Free colored people of the ^ 
 South — The negro race 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church and slavery — The testimony 27"'" 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Conference Report — Slavery in the Philadelphia Annual Confer- 
 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The mischievous colt — The model mistress — Physicians and slavery — 
 
 The true theory, or successful experiment — Slave-droves — Uncle 
 Levi TTTrnrvmvr™ 58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Abolitionist — Tattling — The church trial — Church discipline over 
 slaves — Cease to do evil 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Love of military titles— Commop schools and school-houses — Mis- 
 sionary speeches — The pastorate — A dangerous maxim — Selling 
 negroes by the pound — Hog thief — Freedom of speech — Washing- 
 ton and Patrick Henry — Martyrs — The hee-hive — Border troubles 
 — Cease agitating slavery — The white crow — Slavery and popery.... 88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Going in debt — The fright — “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” — Negro-buyers — 
 
 The fate of Nancy — -The conversion — The threatened lawsuit — 
 Joseph Smithers — Slavery and infidelity 107 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Aunt Phillis — Letter to the young ministers of the M. E. Church — - 
 
 Charles Clayton — Slavery no respecter of persons — Slavery once 
 unprofitable — The internal slave-trade — A letter to General Tench 
 Tilghman .T NTT. TUT. ■..vtttttt*. 130 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Popular preachers in the South — Gambling — Church and State — 
 
 Camp-meetings — Love-feasts — Georgia Baptists — The sin of slavery / 
 
 — The free negroes of Maryland — Cambridge, Maryland 152 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Rum and slavery — Southern literature — Going to school — A plea for 
 
 the slave — A prayer of Christian slaves 172 
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
12 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. page 
 
 The wicked slave — The execution — 'William Otterbein — Rev. John 
 Nicholson — Rev. David Shields — Slavery and health; white ladies 
 — Complaints — Slave literature — The monkey theory 1S3 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The foreign slave-trade — Slavery and its remedy, Liberia — Slavery 
 and marriage 201 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Great American Republic — Personal incidents — Slavery and 
 revivals — Moral and religious education of children and youth — 
 Negro insurrections — The rich colored man 212 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Tobacco and slavery — Revivals among our colored friends — The 
 young Presbyterian preacher — The kidnapper — Slavery, and horses 
 and cows — Mob law — Law and lawyers 237 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Slavery and novels — Slavery and Mormonism — Uncle Stephen — The 
 parting — Courtship and marriage — The lecture — Who is the true 
 gentleman? — To the white women of the free States — The great 
 Southern aristocracy 257 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Baltimore Conference — Colored class-meetings — Delaware — 
 Slavery and free territory — The free colored people of Philadelphia 
 — Baltimore — The Supreme Court 279 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Slavery and white labor — Familiarity — Index expurgatorius — Exhor- 
 tation by a colored preacher — The Sabbath and slavery — The warn- 
 ing — The old vessel — Pocomoke Swamp 306 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Maryland hospitality — A Southern man with Northern principles — - 
 The wild woman — The king-bird 324 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Personal incidents — The Discipline of the M. E. Church — The con- 
 trast — Pro-slavery arguments and apologies refuted 332 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Fourth of July — The poor whites of the South — The effect of 
 slavery on the higher classes in the slave States — The privateer and 
 the heretics — Impudence — The sailor — Miss Margaret Darrah — 
 
 The murderer — The drunkard 351 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A dying babe in jail — The African M. B. Church — Covetousness — 
 Degrading epithets — Negro prayer-meetings — Have you made your 
 will? — -The fugitive slave — The infidel 373 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. — Testimony of Rev. John We'sley against slavery 397 
 
 II. — Testimony of Rev. Richard Watson against slavery 399 
 
 II. — Judge Taney and Rev. Jacob Gruber 407 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT IS SOUTHERN SLAVERY, AND WHO 
 ARE SLAVES. 
 
 “ Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and ad- 
 judged in law to be chattels personal in the hands of their 
 owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, 
 and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes what- 
 soever.” “A slave is one doomed, in his own person and his 
 posterity, to live without knowledge, and without the ca- 
 pacity to make any thing his own ; and toil that another 
 may reap the fruits.” 
 
 My observations of Slavery have been con- 
 lined, in the main, to the States of Delaware 
 and Maryland, where it exists in its mildest 
 form : if, therefore, it shall be found to be a 
 great crime against God and humanity in those 
 States, what must it be in its most aggravated 
 manifestations ? I shall endeavor to draw truth- 
 ful pictures of what I have seen and heard. 
 I shall do justice to master and slave. In treat- 
 ing of slaves, I shall group them into three 
 2 (13) 
 
14 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 classes. First, there' are the slaves owned by 
 large planters and farmers, and governed by 
 overseers or “ nigger-drivers,” as they are called. 
 This class being excluded from all contact and 
 association with the families of their wealthy 
 owners, are, as a general rule, as degraded as 
 their ancestors were before they were stolen 
 from the west coast of Africa. Their language 
 is shockingly barbarous; they say “dis” for this, 
 “ dat” for that, and “ tudder” for the other. 
 
 They are great believers in charms, spells, 
 witches, wizards, and ghosts ; if they are sick; 
 they are ‘‘in misery.” They do not say that 
 they have the headache or pain in the side, 
 but “ misery” in the head or side, as the case 
 may be. Their food and clothing are of the 
 coarsest kind ; one suit of coarse cloth for win- 
 ter, and of cotton cloth for summer. Their 
 allowance of food is one peck of Indian com 
 meal and three pounds of fat pork per week. 
 This they cook as best they can. Among this 
 class there is no respect paid to sex: the fe- 
 males work in the field, cut wood, drive the 
 ox-cart, make fences. Indeed, I have often 
 seen them in situations, where, if the pecuniary 
 
SOUTHERN SLAVERY AND SLAVES. 15 
 
 value of their offspring had been consulted, 
 they should have been removed to the “ quar- 
 ters” till after a certain time. Chastity is out 
 of the question. There is a certain attachment 
 between male and female, but the horrible 
 slave laws allow it to be little more than the 
 promiscuous commerce of beasts. There is, 
 however, a genuine love between mother and 
 child. The slave can truly say, “ I have no 
 father, but I know my mother.” The males, 
 like the dogs of their masters, are frequently 
 called after the celebrated philosophers and 
 generals of Greece and Rome. Almost every 
 plantation has a Plato, Cato, Pompey, and 
 Caesar. This seems like a retribution. The 
 great men of Rome were slaveholders on a 
 magnificent scale, and their names are now 
 borne by slaves more abject than theirs. 
 
 The cowhide is their only coat of arms. They 
 seldom hear a kind word spoken to them on 
 the part of their overseers. With them there 
 is neither digression nor progression. The 
 common plantation slave is but little better 
 informed tMn those of the same class fifty 
 years ago ; and one hundred years hence will 
 
16 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 find them the same, if slavery continues as it 
 is. Their principal amusements are hunting 
 and dancing. They are very fond of hunting 
 the raccoon and opossum, which they call “var- 
 mint.” Reader, did you ever see a genuine 
 negro dog? There is as much difference be- 
 tween such a cur and a gentleman’s dog, as 
 there is between an oyster cart-horse and an 
 Arabian charger. 
 
 See that poor slave. He is just returning 
 from the lordly mansion of his master, with 
 his week’s allowance of meal and pork. Over 
 his left shoulder is suspended a wallet, with 
 meal in one end and pork in the other. His 
 left hand presses against it. In his right hand 
 he holds his stick (he never says cane). He 
 is trudging along to the adjoining plantation, 
 where he belongs. He has a downcast look, 
 and a gentle, forward stoop. His dog alter- 
 nately trots and walks behind him. His tail 
 is cut midway, and his ears are cropped. Look : 
 yonder comes his young master on his fine 
 horse, with his glossy spaniel bounding before 
 him. He approaches ; the negro makes a low 
 bow, and says, “Sarvent, massa.” His dog 
 
SOUTHERN SLAVERY A YD SLAVES. 17 
 
 skulks to one side : if the spaniel attacks him, 
 he makes no resistance; he falls flat on the 
 ground, turns on his back, curves his cut tail 
 between his legs, and appeals to the magna- 
 nimity o£ his master’s dog, and says by actions, 
 “ Oh don’t ! I am but a poor slave of a slave !” 
 The slave loves his dog. They are constant 
 companions. He talks with him by day and 
 hunts with him at night, and shares with him 
 his scanty meals. His dog is the only thing 
 under the sun that he can call his own ; for 
 the master claims the woman that' is called his 
 wife, his offspring, his hut, his pig, his own 
 body — and his very soul. 
 
 The master despises “ nigger dogs.” If he 
 I is given to profanity, he swears at them when- 
 ever he sees them, accusing them of killing sheep 
 and his fat young pigs. 
 
 The plantation slaves often suffer with hun- 
 | ger. Despite the common boasts of the slave- 
 holder, the Allwise only knows how much 
 penury and starvation wear out the lives of 
 the slaves. Dancing is one of their favorite 
 amusements. I have often looked at their 
 dances during their different holidays. The 
 
* j 
 
 18 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I 
 
 banjo is of all instruments the best adapted to 
 the lowest class of slaves. It is the very symbol 
 of their savage degradation. They talk to it, 
 and a skillful performer can excite the most 
 diverse passions among the dancers. Generally, 
 however, they have no instruments, but dance 
 to the tunes and words of a leader, keeping 
 time by striking their hands against the thighs, 
 and patting the right foot, to the words of 
 
 “ ‘ Juber,’ ‘ Cesar boy,’ 
 
 Ash-cake in cle fire, 
 
 ’Possum up de gum tree, 
 
 Raccoon in de holler.” 
 
 I have seen males and females dancing, rapidly 
 whirling round, whooping and yelling with 
 brutal delight, alike unmindful of the past and 
 future.* I have never known, in a single in- 
 stance, of a colored man of any moral tone who 
 was fond of the banjo or common dance. 
 
 The “quarters” of the large slaveholders are 
 generally mere shells ; very few are plastered ; 
 and no arrangement is made for the separation 
 of male and female. The men generally have 
 no beds, but sleep in their clothes on benches 
 
SOUTHERN SLAVERY AND SLAVES. 19 
 
 made of wide plank, with their feet to the fire. 
 The plantation slaves are remarkable for their 
 fine teeth. The slave is never supposed to be 
 sick, unless he is very ill. The ignorant over- 
 seer takes for granted that, if the slave com- 
 plains, he is “ acting the ’possum,” and fre- 
 quently, before the master or physician knows 
 it, the slave dies. The death of a slave is con- 
 sidered a mere money loss. Neighbor A says 
 that “neighbor B has lost a fine slave worth 
 one thousand dollars.” 
 
 The humble body is buried in the negro 
 graveyard, in some obscure part of the planta- 
 tion. For the slave there is no tombstone. 
 The flowers of memory and affection never 
 bloom over the lonely hillock that marks his 
 resting-place. The wild rose and dewberry 
 mat his grave ; and the lark builds there her 
 lowly nest, and sings at morn his only requiem. 
 Many an undeveloped poet, orator, and artist 
 lies entombed in such obscure cemeteries 
 throughout the South. A slave-burying is one 
 of the saddest sights I ever saw. They do not 
 cry and weep like freemen ; they are sad and 
 stupid. They have no religious services at the 
 
20 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 grave, and could not have them if they wished. 
 The negro preacher on the adjoining plantation 
 must not leave his hoe. The white minister 
 is either too grand to bury the slave, or is not 
 called on. I have never known of move than one 
 lohite minister of the gospel who has performed re- 
 ligious service at the burial of the slave. 
 
 A negro funeral is different from the “ bury- 
 ing,” and is a unique affair. Several weeks 
 after burial the funeral is preached ; and never 
 was there more frolic at an Irish wake than 
 at these funerals, held frequentty in the woods ; 
 and sometimes as many as three funerals are 
 preached at once. Unless a colored person’s 
 funeral is preached, whether he be saint or 
 sinner, there is no peace of mind to his friends. 
 
 There are 3,000,000 of these slaves in these 
 United States. 
 
 The second class of slaves embraces such as 
 are owned by the less extensive slaveholders 
 and farmers. These have no overseer, live in 
 the kitchen, mingle with the master’s family, 
 eat the same kind of food as the other 
 members of the family, are not generally over- 
 worked, use good language for slaves, and are 
 
SOUTHERN SLAVERY AND SLAVES. 21 
 
 attended to when sick. Their children are 
 raised with their master’s children, play with 
 them, and nurse them. In mind and body 
 they are greatly superior to the plantation 
 slaves. A strong attachment frequently exists 
 between them and their masters and mistresses. 
 From this class we derive most of our church 
 members. After they arrive at the age of 45, 
 many of them become truly chaste and pious, 
 according to the light they have, and receive 
 the honorable appellations of “ aunt” and ee un- 
 cle;” until that age, they are usually called 
 “ girls” and “ boys.” 
 
 Notwithstanding the superior physical con- 
 dition of this class of slaves, they are generally 
 more unhappy and restless than the more de- 
 graded classes. Their superior advantages only 
 serve as a lamp to show them their degradation. 
 They are just as liable as any other class of 
 chattels to be sold by the master or his credi- 
 tors. Take an illustration. Beaufort owns a 
 young negro man, brought up in his own house. 
 Beaufort becomes security for neighbor Miflin. 
 Miflin fails ; the creditors resort to Beaufort. 
 The boy must be sold. His master and negro 
 
 
22 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 buyer fix on the price. The boy is to be de- 
 livered at a certain place where I happen to 
 be. The poor fellow comes on an errand, as 
 he supposes, little dreaming of the trap that is 
 set for him. The master is there. The “Geor- 
 gia trader” presently arrives. This worthy or- 
 ders the boy to cross his hands ; the concealed 
 rope is produced, and the boy is tied. The 
 poor slave is stunned, and turns ashy pale. 
 The dealer in human souls hurries him off to 
 the county town to await transportation. Beau- 
 fort weeps and trembles, and mutters, “ He was 
 a good boy ; I never ate him or drank him ; I 
 shall never be happy again.” Unhappy mas- 
 ter ! if he had set him free before going in debt, 
 he would have escaped thorns that will be 
 planted in his dying pillow ; and if he should 
 ever read these lines, he will attest the faith- 
 fulness of this narration. Colored people love 
 to sing, “The judgment day is rolling around, 
 is rolling around,” &c. 
 
 The third class constitute the aristocracy and 
 chivalry of the slave population of the South. 
 They are the household servants of our Con- 
 gressmen, judges., lawyers, doctors, naval ofii- 
 
 . 
 
 an 1 
 
 an 
 
 an 
 
 K 
 
 Si 
 
 of 
 
 c 
 
 < 
 
 c 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
r 
 
 SOUIH.EE5 SLAVERY AY D SLAVES. 23 
 
 -leers, wealthy merchants, clergymen, planters, 
 ofand farmers. Very few of them ore jet black; 
 -'■nearly all are more or less white. The men 
 --■are line looking. The women are beautiful, 
 :• and many of them even opulent in charms. 
 • Nor is this a wonder. The best blood of the 
 
 - Saxon courses through their veins; the intellect 
 : of that race gleams in their eye. They have 
 
 the health and beautiful form of the Afri- 
 : can, with the polish and gracefulness of the 
 
 - Caucasian race. They seldom mix with the 
 : common slave, and feel great contempt for poor 
 ’ white people. Many of them can read; and 
 
 many of the female servants are brought up 
 virtuously, sleeping in the same room with 
 their young mistresses. Notwithstanding their 
 accomplishments, they are often sold with 
 mules, horses, and hogs. The females bring 
 the highest prices in the South. For them 
 there is no virtue after a certain age, unless 
 they die the martyr’s death. They never can 
 say “ this man is my husband;” “that woman is 
 my wife;” “this is my child.” From this class, 
 as fugitives, have arisen such men as Frederick 
 Douglass, Wm. Wells, Brown, and, I presume, 
 
24 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Dr. Pennington. I have seen them so white 
 that a stranger could not have told that they 
 were slaves or even negroes. 
 
 0 chattel slavery, if I had no other name by 
 which to call thee, “ I would call thee Devil !” 
 
 FREE COLORED PEOPLE OF TEE SOUTH. 
 
 The free colored people of the South consti- 
 tute a distinct class of colored persons in 
 that section of the Union. They labor under 
 many civil and religious disabilities, and are the 
 most slandered and persecuted class of men in 
 the United States. The early Methodists in 
 England and America were not more so. They 
 are not permitted to educate their children, un- 
 less they reside in the cities, notwithstanding 
 they pay taxes. They have to take the raking 
 fires from three batteries. The slave envies 
 them. The poor white man. is jealous of them 
 lest they encroach upon his assumed rights and 
 privileges; and the large slaveholder hates 
 them, as their very presence puts notions of 
 freedom in the minds of his slaves. They are 
 expected to please every body, which is a very 
 difficult matter. They are the scape-goats of 
 
FREE COLORED PEOPLE. 
 
 25 
 
 southern society. If any crime is committed, 
 and the perpetrator is not discovered, it is laid 
 to the free negro. If he commits a crime, and 
 it is proved on him, he is sure to get the full 
 penalty of the law. If he steals from the white 
 man, he goes to the penitentiary; which is 
 right. If the white man steals from him, he 
 goes clear; which is wrong. If he is lazy, he is 
 a nuisance ; if industrious, and lays up money, he 
 is accused of dealing with slaves ; if he conducts 
 himself properly, he is proud and wants taking 
 down a little. His wife and daughter may be 
 insulted by rowdies, and he must hold bis 
 tongue. Yet for intelligence, industry, economy, 
 and morality, he is far superior to the third 
 class of slaves. His wife and children are his ; 
 his body is his own. He can remove to a free 
 State or go to Africa. Partial liberty is better 
 than pampered slavery. Considering his ante- 
 cedents and circumstances, he has met the 
 expectations of all reasonable men. Many 
 of them are lazy, but it must be remembered 
 that laziness is a contagious disease in the South. 
 My advice to all young enterprising free colored 
 people of the Southern States is, to leave for the 
 
 free States. Canada, or Liberia. 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 THE NEGRO RACE. 
 
 I consider the Negro race inferior in mental 
 endowment only to the great European or 
 white race. The negro is as full of music as an 
 egg is full of meat ; and music is allied to poetry 
 and eloquence. No people have the religious 
 element more deeply grounded in their nature. 
 As a race, they are proverbial for kindness and 
 affection, and respect for authority and age. 
 In their religious meetings they exhibit more 
 reverence in their devotion than the whites. 
 We defy any set of atheists to make many con- 
 verts among them in theory. In drollery they 
 are unequalled ; and are only inferior to the Irish 
 in wit ; even rivalling the French in politeness. 
 If properly trained, they would make first-class 
 orators and musicians. I have seen an exceed- 
 ingly fine portrait executed by a colored artist 
 of Baltimore. They are great aristocrats ; and 
 pay much respect to those above them in in- 
 tellect and authority. Hence our great South- 
 ern aristocracy, by emancipating their negroes, 
 could retain them by affection and their own 
 choice ; and thus reap all the benefits of slavery 
 without its crime and consequences. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND 
 SLAYERY. 
 
 The M. E. Church was organized in 1784, in 
 the city of Baltimore. What did the fathers 
 of the church think of slavery at that time ? 
 We will quote their own language, taken from 
 the first Discipline of the church, compared with 
 the Large Minutes. See the History of the Disci- 
 pline by Rev. Robert Emory, former President of 
 Dickinson College. Published at the Book-room, 
 New York, for the M. E. Church : p. 43. 
 
 “ Question 42. What methods can we take to extirpate 
 slavery ? Ans. We are deeply conscious of the impropriety 
 of making new terms of communion for a religious society 
 already established, excepting on the most pressing occasion : 
 and such, we esteem the practice of holding our fellow-crea- 
 tures in slavery. We view it as contrary to the golden law 
 of God, on which hang all the law and the prophets, and 
 the unalienable rights of mankind, as well as every principle 
 of the Revolution, to hold in the deepest debasement, in a 
 
 (27) 
 
28 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 
 more abject slavery than is perhaps to be found in any part 
 of the world except America, so many souls tliat are capable 
 of the image of God. We therefore think it our most 
 bounden duty to take immediately some effective method to 
 extirpate this abomination from among us ; and for that pur- 
 pose we add the following to the rules of our society — viz. 
 
 1st. Every member of our society who has slaves in his 
 possession shall, within twelve months after notice given 
 him by the assistant (which notice the assistants are required 
 immediately, and without any delay, to give in their respective 
 circuits), legally execute and record an instrument, whereby 
 he emancipates and sets free every slave in his possession 
 who is between the ages of forty and forty-five immediately, 
 or at furthest when they arrive at the age of forty-five. 
 
 And every slave who is between the ages of twenty-five 
 and forty immediately, or at furthest at the expiration of 
 five years from the date of the said instrument. 
 
 And every slave who is between the ages of twenty and 
 twenty-five immediately, or at furthest when they arrive 
 at the age of thirty. 
 
 And every slave under the age of twenty, as soon as they 
 arrive at the age of twenty-five at furthest. 
 
 And every infant born in slavery after the above men- 
 tioned rules are complied with, immediately on its birth. 
 
 2d. Every assistant shall keep a journal, in which he 
 shall regularly minute down the names and ages of all the 
 slaves belonging to all the masters in his respective circuit, 
 and also the date of every instrument executed and re- 
 corded for the manumission of the slaves, with the name of 
 
METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 29 
 
 the court, book, and folio, in which said instrument respect- 
 ively shall have been recorded ; which journal shall be 
 handed down in each circuit to the succeeding assistants. 
 
 8d. In consideration that these rules form a new term 
 of communion, every person concerned who will not comply 
 with them, shall have liberty quietly to withdraw himself 
 from our society within the twelve months succeeding the 
 notice given as aforesaid ; otherwise the assistants shall ex- 
 clude him from the society. 
 
 4th. Ho person holding slaves shall in future be ad- 
 mitted into society or the Lord’s Supper, till he previously 
 complies with these rules concerning slavery. 
 
 H. B. These rules are to affect the members of our 
 society no further than as they are consistent with the 
 laws of the States in which they reside. 
 
 Question 43. "What shall be done with those who- buy 
 or sell slaves, or give them away ? Ans. They are imme- 
 diately to be expelled ; unless they buy them on purpose 
 to free them.” 
 
 '• ' 
 
 I. It will be seen, by the above, that our 
 preachers, in 1784, viewed the holding of slaves, 
 or the sustaining voluntarily the relation of 
 master and slave, as contrary to the golden law 
 of God. Hence, not only official members, but 
 private members, were to break that relation by 
 manumission according to the conditions laid 
 down. 
 
 o*f: 
 
 O * 
 
30 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 2. They regarded slavery in America the 
 most abject of any perhaps in the known world. 
 
 3. They considered that holding a fellow- 
 creature in bondage Avas a sin sufficient to exclude 
 any one from the Supper of the Lord, and was 
 an abomination which they sought to extirpate 
 from the church. These fathers then were a band 
 
 ■v of Christian abolitionists, and contended for eman- 
 cipation. For “ extirpation” means, according to 
 Webster, to “ destroy, to pull up by the roots 
 which is all we mean by abolition. 
 
 4. We have painfully to admit that the 
 church did afterward fall from her noble and 
 
 ‘ New Testament position on the subject of sla- 
 very ; and many of these fathers tried to undo 
 with their own hands what they had so nobly 
 accomplished. So that in 1808 was stricken 
 out of the Discipline all that related to private 
 members ; and slaveholding was only consid- 
 ered an official impediment. Private members 
 could hold for life their fellow-creatures in bond- 
 age, give them away to their children during 
 their lifetime, and leave them in perpetual sla- 
 very. So the whole ground was in effect con- 
 ceded to slavery. What a fearful history the 
 
METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 31 
 
 M. E. Church has read to the world by this 
 concession — a history written with the blood 
 and tears of oppressed thousands ! Private mem- 
 bers holding slaves, soon involved class-leaders, 
 exhorters, local preachers, and travelling preach- 
 ers, and finally debauched the moral senti- 
 ments of the whole church, so that in 1836 
 the General Conference w^as in direct antago- 
 
 nism to the Conference of 1784. The year 1836 
 w r as the. darkest hour in the history of the M. 
 E. Church. Rum and slavery were both tri- 
 umphant in her at this time. At that period 
 private members could manufacture and sell 
 rum, but an ordained elder could not. The 
 church has seen the folly of such a distinction, 
 and has since decreed that rumselling for gain 
 is sin in any man ; and she will arrive at the 
 same conclusion with regard to slavery. 
 
 Had it not been for New England and West- 
 
 ern Methodism, in 1844, -we should have had 
 some slaveholding bishops to preside over our 
 conferences at this time. I thank my Divine 
 Master for New England Methodism ! 
 
 What was the final result of the concession 
 of 1808? The organization and development of 
 
32 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 the M. E. Church South ; whose, only peculiar 
 and distinctive feature is, that she upholds, 
 defends, and sustains her entire membership, 
 including travelling preachers and bishops, in 
 holding, buying, selling, and giving away 
 slaves, as goods personal, to all intents and 
 purposes. She defends slavery as a good, and 
 appeals to the religion of Christ to sustain 
 it. She can take but one other step ; and that 
 is, to recommend the reopening of the slave- 
 trade on the coast of Africa, which is certainly 
 no worse than the internal slave-trade. And 
 all these consequences flow necessarily from the 
 premise that private members are not sinners 
 by holding, breeding and working, giving away, 
 or willing human beings as things and chattels. 
 Once grant this in church or state, and all other 
 things will be added, including the slave-trade. 
 They are all parts of one great whole. While 
 we detest the principles of the M. E. Church 
 South on the subject of slavery, we admire 
 her honesty in avowing that slavery is not a 
 sin in private members or bishops; and the 
 only holy and logical weapons by which we nan 
 subdue her is to affirm that slavery is sin by 
 
METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY, 33 
 
 •whomsoever committed, be he saint or sin- 
 ner, layman or bishop. To this point the 
 Discipline of the M. E. Church will come, as it 
 ought to have come in 1856, at the General 
 Conference at Indianapolis. 
 
 We lament that this talented and venerable 
 body of Christian ministers and divines should 
 have hesitated a moment to declare that slave- 
 holding is a sin in the laity as well as in the min- 
 istry. It is true that the members of the General 
 Conference of 1856 took higher ground against 
 slavery, in their speeches at the Conference, 
 than has been taken since 1784; and much 
 progress has been made in the right direction. 
 Nevertheless, we occupy an anomalous position. 
 While three-fourths of the ministry and laity are 
 decidedly antislavery, we have a pro-slavery 
 Discipline, which allows our private members 
 in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to hold 
 for gain, to give away, and transmit by will tp 
 their heirs, as chattels personal, souls for whom 
 Christ died. The slave can be sold for their 
 debts at any time. They can give them away 
 to relatives, who can sell them to the negro 
 buyer at pleasure ; and do all this according 
 
34 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 to the Discipline of the church ; and they cannot 
 be expelled for it. At one small country ap- 
 pointment, in the fall of ’55 and winter of ’56, 
 I knew two members of the M. E. Church who 
 died, and left from twenty-five to thirty slaves 
 in bondage for life ; thereby depriving these 
 poor creatures of rights natural and divine. 
 Slaveholding and slave-breeding can never be 
 broken up in the church by merely keeping it 
 out of the ministry. Suppose we were to send 
 missionaries to Utah to convert the Mormons, 
 and they were to profess to be converted and 
 offer to join the M. E. Church, but request to re- 
 tain polygamy, and the preachers were to say that 
 they might do it, but were determined to keep 
 it out of the ministry : would we ever break up 
 polygamy among the Mormons? Never ! never ! 
 Eor my part, I believe it just as much a sin in 
 a private member to deprive a fellow-creature 
 of his just wages, to separate him like a brute 
 from friends, as it would be in a bishop. The 
 antislavery principles of our holy religion, and the 
 M. E. Church South, will drive us, on the Border, 
 from this untenable ground. Let us get on the 
 rock of eternal truth and righteousness, and 
 
 then 
 of a 
 sbal 
 Jest 
 of? 
 ant 1 
 loy 
 
 the 
 
 qi 
 
 c 
 
 oi 
 
 n 
 
 t' 
 
 it 
 
 r 
 
 l 
 
THE TESTIMONY. 
 
 35 
 
 ; then we shall have the sympathy of the good 
 . of all nations. And what is still better, we 
 , shall have the sympathy of the man Christ 
 , Jesus, who was sold like a slave for thirty pieces 
 : of silver. I believe that the blessed Jesus is an 
 antislavery Redeemer. When he forgave me 
 my sins, he whispered to my inmost soul that 
 the holding of slaves was sin. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY. 
 
 I consider American slavery to be the great 
 question now before the American people in 
 | church and state. Its importance surpasses that 
 of the political separation from Great Britain, 
 which agitated the minds of our fathers from 1770 
 -to 1776. I believe that it will eventually come 
 in contact with every association, whether lite- 
 rary, scientific, benevolent, social, political, or 
 religious. With regard to this question, whatever 
 i appearances may indicate to the contrary, in 
 reality there is no neutral ground. In health, I 
 am as a reed shaken by the wind. As a 
 preacher in the M. E. Church, I am not dis- 
 tinguished for wealth, high office, learning, 
 family, or intellect. I shall soon fall from the 
 
36 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 tree of this natural life as a leaf, to be forgotten 
 among my fellow leaves : yet I have a little in- 
 fluence among men. It may survive me a little 
 while after death. For that influence, God, 
 the judge of all, will hold me accountable. I 
 feel I must bear my testimony as an honest 
 man against chattel slavery in this nation. 
 Whether living or dying, I wish to be quoted as 
 conscientiously opposed to it, in all its shapes, 
 forms, and modifications. I wish to wound no 
 man’s feelings ; yet, in the discharge of a sacred 
 duty, I may have to do it. I believe that the 
 only way to remedy any evil is to proclaim the 
 truth, clearly and distinctly, concerning that 
 evil. The man, and especially the Christian 
 minister, who is silent on the subject of slavery, 
 who never whispers to his friend or foe a word 
 of opposition to it, is giving his example and 
 influence in its favor. A projihet of God who 
 can stand by and see those for whom Christ 
 died held in bondage, deprived of legal claim 
 to wife, child, or to his own body, deprived of 
 freely worshiping Almighty God, and yet give 
 no alarm of danger, nor utter a cry of warning, 
 need not be envied when he stands at the judg- 
 
THE TESTIMONY. 
 
 37 
 
 ment-seat of Christ to render up his account. 
 Next to the love and approbation of Christ and 
 my own family, there is nothing that I so highly 
 appreciate as the love and good opinion of my 
 ministerial brethren, especially those of the 
 Philadelphia Conference. From the day that I 
 became associated with them to this hour, I 
 have honored them for their office’ sake, and 
 loved them (with few exceptions) for their great 
 moral worth and purity. When they have 
 honored me, in the darkest hour of my bodily 
 afflictions, with visits to my humble abode, they 
 always gave me more pleasure than they re- 
 ceived. I have not seen the hour, when not 
 confined to my sick room, that I would not go 
 through wind and rain to bathe their brows or 
 wash their burning feet, if that would alleviate 
 their sufferings. I expect my brethren to con- 
 demn this book, and severely blame me for 
 writing it; yet I trust I shall have grace to 
 hear up under the castigation. I must ex- 
 press the painful conviction that the fathers of 
 the Philadelphia Conference have been too silent 
 in their testimony against slavery. I have been 
 among them for seventeen years, and have 
 4 
 
88 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 never listened to a sermon against slavery. I 
 never heard a presiding elder in a quarterly 
 conference, public congregation, or love-feast, 
 throw out a hint that it was wrong to hold 
 slaves for life. Our membership must conclude, 
 from our silence upon the subject, that slavery 
 is no sin. Now and then a brother in Maryland 
 sets his negroes free, feeling it a sin to hold them 
 in slavery ; but he arrives at these conclusions 
 from his natural sense of justice; or, perhaps, 
 from reading the life of Freeborn Garretson, and 
 yielding to the silent operations of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 There are good men in Virginia, Kentucky, 
 and other Slave States, who, while the pulpit 
 has either been quiet upon the subject, or 
 taught the doctrine that slavery is of Divine 
 origin, have searched the Scriptures and rea- 
 soned for themselves; and, in the name of justice 
 and in the fear of God, they have emancipated 
 their slaves, and sent them to Liberia or the 
 free States of this Union. Why will not the 
 watchmen on the walls of Zion sound the alarm, 
 when they see slavery desolating our beautiful 
 Southern States, crushing the intellect, and 
 
THE TESTIMONY. 
 
 39 
 
 poisoning the morals of nearly all beneath its in- 
 ti uence ? 
 
 Brethren, I would that ye were as strongly 
 antislavery as I am, except these bonds. My 
 feelings have been lacerated a hundred" times 
 on account of my opposition to slavery. Soon 
 after I joined the church, I became leader of a 
 colored class. This brought persecution; and 
 from that day to this I have been hound in 
 spirit with Christ’s down-trodden people. This 
 hook will banish .me from my relatives, from 
 the graves of my honored parents, and from 
 my native State. If I were to visit my former 
 places of residence, I might not receive personal 
 violence ; but the man who should entertain 
 me would he marked, and would have to suffer 
 on my account ; and I would not knowingly be 
 the cause of bringing trouble upon my friends. 
 Henceforward I shall be an exile among stran- 
 gers, and shall seek a home and a grave among 
 them. Many who once thought of my name 
 with affection will associate it with disgrace. 
 Some will even believe that they will be doing 
 God service to abuse me. An}^ man who dares 
 to utter a word against slavery is branded by 
 
40 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the Southerners as a fanatic. I communicated 
 to a friend my intention of writing against sla- 
 very. “Well, sir,” said he, “you may prepare 
 yourself to have showers of lies heaped, upon 
 you.” ‘ Henceforward, by all Christian and law- 
 ful means, I expect to urge an uncompromising 
 warfare against the sin of slavery. To those 
 who may persecute me, I trust I shall be en- 
 abled by Divine assistance to pray, “ Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 
 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONFERENCE REPORT. 
 
 The following extract is made from an ad- 
 dress of the Philadelphia Annual Conference 
 to the Societies under its care, dated Wilming- 
 ton, Del., April 7, 1847 : 
 
 11 If the plan of separation gives us the pastoral care of 
 you, it remains to inquire whether we have done any thing, 
 as a Conference, or as men, to forfeit your confidence and 
 affection. We are not advised that, even in the great ex- 
 citement which has distressed you for some months past, 
 any one has impeached our moral conduct, or charged us 
 with unsoundness in doctrine, or corruption or tyranny in 
 the administration of Discipline. But we learn that the 
 simple cause of the unhappy excitement among you is, that 
 some suspect us, or affect to suspect us, of being abolition- 
 ists. Yet no particular act of the Conference, or any par- 
 ticular member thereof, is adduced as the ground of the 
 erroneous and injurious suspicion. We would ask you, 
 brethren, whether the conduct of our ministry among you 
 for sixty years past ought not to be sufficient to protect us 
 from this charge ? Whether the question we have been ae- 
 
 4* (41) 
 
42 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 custoraed, for a few years past, to put to candidates for 
 admission among us, namely, Are you an abolitionist ? and, 
 without each one answered in the negative, he was not re- 
 ceived, ought not to protect us from the charge ? Whether 
 the action of the last Conference on this particular matter 
 ought not to satisfy any fair and candid mind that we are 
 not, and do not desire to be, abolitionists ? * * * "We 
 
 cannot see how we can be regarded as abolitionists, without 
 the ministers of the M. E. Church South being considered 
 in the same light. ******* 
 Wishing you all heavenly benedictions, we are, dear 
 brethren, yours, in Christ Jesus, 
 
 J. P. Durbin, 
 
 J. Kennaday, 
 
 Ignatius T. Cooper, > Comm. 1 ’ 
 
 William H. Gilder, 
 
 Joseph Castle. 
 
 The above extract, I presume, is correctly 
 copied from the original Report made by the 
 Committee to the Philadelphia Conference of 
 the M. E. Church, at its annual session in Wil- 
 mington, Delaware, in April, 1847, and adopted 
 by the Conference. The extract has been pub- 
 lished in Mrs. Stowe’s “ Dred” and “ Key to 
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which circulated throughout 
 Europe and America. This Report did not 
 profess to speak the sentiments of the New 
 England and Western Conferences of the M. E. 
 
THE CONFERENCE REPORT. 
 
 43 
 
 Church, but simply those of the Philadelphia 
 Conference. I was often confined to my room 
 during that session of Conference, and did not 
 know the contents of the Report till I read it 
 in the Wilmington papers after the close of the 
 session. After the division of the M. E. 
 Church in 1844, there were troubles among our 
 members in Accomac and Northampton Coun- 
 ties, Ya. Many went off to the M. E. Church 
 South, and wished all others to go with them ; 
 but many determined to remain in the M. E. 
 Church. One or two of our preachers were 
 mobbed. And for what? For teaching that 
 holding slaves for gain was sin ? No. For in- 
 sisting that masters should teach slaves to read 
 as a preparation for freedom? No. For get- 
 ting up Sabbath-schools among colored people ? 
 No. What then caused the commotion ? Sim- 
 ply this : that some said that they would con- 
 tinue to belong to the M. E. Church, and others 
 said that all should join the M. E. Church 
 South. It was a quarrel about mere names. 
 There was no moral issue concerning slavery 
 between the laity of the two denominations. 
 In proof of this, I appeal to the Report of the 
 
44 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Committee of five of the most gifted and distin- 
 guished brethren of the Conference. The Re- 
 port says that “ some suspect us of being abo- 
 litionists;” but the Committee deny it, and say 
 they are not “abolitionists,” and do not in- 
 tend or desire to be. What did the Committee 
 mean by “ abolitionist?” Simply one who be- 
 lieves and teaches that it is a sin in the private 
 members of the M. E. Church to hold slaves, 
 and that non-slaveholding should be a condition 
 of membership. The Committee meant to say 
 to the Virginia Methodists who remained with 
 us, about as follows : “ Does the M. E. Church 
 South allow her private members, and class- 
 leaders, and local preachers, to hold slaves for 
 gain, and for life, and then leave them in bond- 
 age? So -do we. We are not more opposed to 
 slavery than the ministers of the M. E. Church 
 South. If any person accuses us of being. ‘ abo- 
 litionists,’ they can with the same propriety ac- 
 cuse the ministers of the M. E. Church South 
 of the same grievous offence.” 
 
 Now the whole country knows that the 
 Church South is pro-slavery, that it glories in 
 being so. This Report suggests to my mind these 
 
THE CONFERENCE REPORT. 
 
 45 
 
 inevitable reflections : 1st. It is unequivocally a 
 pro-slavery document. 2d. Its doctrines are 
 still held by a majority of the Philadelphia 
 Conference, for the Conference has not repudiated 
 them, but continues to send preachers to Vir- 
 ginia, with the understanding that they are to 
 act in accordance with the Report. 3d. The 
 right of the laity to breed and hold slaves, is 
 guaranteed to them by the present Discipline. 
 4th. The Committee, at that time, held the doc- 
 trine of the Discipline as their private views. 
 5th. If in the last ten years they have not 
 changed their views, we must sorrowfully place 
 them and their great talents and influence 
 among the ranks and resources of the pro- 
 slavery party. 6th. I repudiate the doctrine 
 of the Report, and believe that slaveholding is a 
 sin in all men. 7th. The Discipline of the M. 
 E. Church ought to be altered so as to exclude 
 slaveholders from the church. 8th. I believe 
 three-fourths of all the ministry and laity of the 
 M. E. Church are Christian abolitionists ; that 
 is, they are antislavery in sentiment. 
 
46 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE PHILADELPHIA ANNUAL 
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCO- 
 PAL CHURCH. 
 
 I profess to know as much about slavery in 
 the Philadelphia Conference as any member of 
 the Conference of my age. I have travelled 
 some of the most laborious circuits lying in the 
 slave portions of its territory. 
 
 In pursuing my pastoral duties, I have visited 
 the abject slaves in their huts or cabins, the free 
 negroes in their little houses, and baptized their 
 children. 
 
 I have seen slavery in the quarter, in the 
 kitchen, and in the parlor; at the church, at 
 the funeral, at the marriage, under the eye 
 of the overseer in the fields, and on • holiday 
 occasions. I have seen it in its most disgusting 
 forms, and amid circumstances so mild as to 
 veil from the stranger its real character. 
 
 I have witnessed its effects on the owners and 
 employers, in the relations of master, mistress, 
 and overseer. I have studied it with a painful 
 and prayerful interest. From the year 1835, in 
 which I confessed Christ, to this hour, I have 
 
SLAVERY IX OUR CONFERENCE, 47 
 
 never wavered in my conviction that to hold a 
 human being in bondage, as a chattel, would be 
 
 I a sin. For one human being has no right to 
 force another to work for him, or take his labor 
 without paying for it. One man has no right to 
 own another ; therefore, chattel slavery is a gross 
 violation of right. It is sin and a crime. I 
 always felt, too, that, if I treated a slave well, 
 my death, or failure in business, might never- 
 theless consign him to chains and to the lash 
 of the merciless slave-trader. 
 
 Of the few hundred dollars received from my 
 father’s estate, one-fourth of the whole was in the 
 person of a valuable and honest slave. I imme- 
 diately filed a deed of manumission ; and had I 
 owned five hundred slaves, and had every cent I 
 was worth been invested in them, I should have 
 set them free. Believing slavery to be a sin, why 
 should I have hesitated ? “ For what shall it 
 
 profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose 
 his own soul ?” Nevertheless, I have patiently 
 listened to every vulgar and obscene argument 
 advanced in its favor, and read all the arguments 
 in its defence from Dr. Fuller to Taylor Bledsoe. 
 Dr. Fuller is the ablest advocate that has yet 
 
48 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 taken the field in support of chattel slavery ; 
 and should he ever attempt to prove from the 
 Bible that we ought not to eat with our teeth, 
 or see with our eyes, he will be just as successful 
 as in his defence of slavery. From all these an- 
 tecedents, I think I am prepared to give a tole- 
 rably good idea of the state of things in the 
 slaveholding portions of our Conference. As 
 regards the supposed number of actual slave- 
 holders immediately under the jurisdiction of 
 our Conference, I have a word to say. By 
 actual slaveholders, I mean those who hold 
 them for gain, just as the utterly irreligious 
 hold them ; without any reference to brethren 
 w 7 ho have manumitted their slaves, to be free 
 at twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five years of age. 
 
 According to the Minutes of the Conference 
 for 1856, there were upward of 15,000 white 
 members and probationers in the slave portion 
 of the Conference. Of this number there are at 
 least 1000 mercenary slaveholders ; these thou- 
 sand slaveholders own at least 3000 slaves. 
 Numbers own from five to ten. I know one 
 individual who owns 20. Intelligent laymen, 
 in that section of the country, will not think 
 
 
SLAVERY IN OUR CONFERENCE. 49 
 
 • this a large estimate, but quite within the 
 bounds of truth. 
 
 I cannot speak for the Baltimore Conference, 
 though it is certain it has a vastly larger slave- 
 holding territory than the Philadelphia Confer- 
 ence. If that Conference lias jurisdiction over 
 one thousand mercenary slaveholders, and these 
 own 3000 slaves, then we have 6000 slaves 
 owned by 2000 members of the M. E. Church, 
 all sheltered by the Discipline of our church. 
 
 It is my opinion that 8000 of our Philadelphia 
 Conference members, who are not actual slave- 
 holders, are yet advocates of slavery ; and would 
 rejoice to inherit slaves, or otherwise obtain 
 them. If these 3000 or 6000 slaves, doomed 
 in their persons and posterity to toil that others 
 may reap, could have appeared before the Gene- 
 ral Conference of 1856, that noble and generous 
 body of Christian ministers would have been 
 moved to tears. Indeed, the poor slave cannot 
 go to conventions and Conference to plead his 
 own cause. He cannot know his benefactors. 
 His mind is doomed to eternal barrenness. He 
 who advocates his cause, in the public estima- 
 tion, partakes in some degree of his degradation. 
 
 o 
 
50 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I will advance another opinion. I do it with 
 caution. I know it will be called in question, 
 if not positively denied ; hut I court investiga- 
 tion ; and if the statement can he proved false, 
 
 I will rejoice. 
 
 I make bold to declare that there are more 
 slaves owned now by members of the M. E. 
 Church than in 1845. There has been a vast 
 increase of wealth in our church in the last fif- 
 teen years, especially among farmers. Wheat 
 and corn have brought enormous prices. Lux- 
 ury is on the increase, and slaves are very valu- . 
 able. The pecuniary temptation to hold them 
 is greater now than ever. Slaves have been 
 better fed and clothed for the last twenty years 
 than ever before in Maryland. The people of 
 the free States scarcely know how fast slaves 
 multiply. A brother who had two young girls 
 in 1844 may now have twelve or fifteen young 
 slaves as the product. 
 
 “ Why, you astonish me !” says one ; “ I 
 thought that antislavery principles were on the 
 increase since the division of the church.” 
 
 But the fact is, that our members don’t care 
 one cent how much the preachers slap each 
 
SLAVERY IN OUR CONFERENCE. 51 
 
 other and the bishops about holding slaves ; nor 
 how much they talk against slavery in the ab- 
 stract, and advocate colonization, if they will 
 but abuse abolitionists without defining the 
 term, and never hint, even in private conversa- 
 tion, that it is a sin in private members to hold 
 slaves, and get rich upon their labor. When 
 you strike that key-note, you will find out that 
 there is very little difference between the laity 
 of the M. E. Church and the laity of the M. E. 
 Church South, in theory or practice, on the sub- 
 ject of slavery. Do the members of the church 
 South hold slaves for life ? So do ours. Do 
 their slaves live in promiscuous intercourse ? So 
 do ours. Do they refuse to nominate and vote 
 for men who will advocate State laws prohibit- 
 ing masters from separating mother from child- 
 ren ? So do our members. On one point there 
 is entire unanimity among the laity in the slave- 
 holding portion of our Conference, and that is, 
 opposition to the free colored people having day 
 schools, in ■which to teach their children to read 
 the Word of God. I know numbers of free col- 
 ored people w r ho are able and willing to educate 
 their children, but no person dare teach them ; 
 
52 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and they must look on and see their children 
 grow up in ignorance. A free negro can send ! 
 his children to the grog-shop with a black jug; 
 he can get drunk, and no one interferes. 
 
 • Tell it not in old papal Rome that Method- 
 ists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, in the 
 nineteenth century, in the United States of 
 America, are contending that a part of the j 
 human race should be kept in ignorance, gross 
 and hopeless ignorance ; that ignorance in slaves 
 is the mother of devotion and State security ; 
 that the grog-shop is better than the school- 
 house ; and rum better than education. 
 
 A free colored man of property petitioned the 
 Legislature of Maryland to pass a law to ex- 
 empt his property from school-tax, as he could 
 not educate his own children. Some of its mem- 
 bers were in favor of the exemption ; but the 
 delegate from the county of the petitioner, who 
 was a prominent member of the M. E. Church, 
 opposed it, on the ground that the petitioner was 
 exempt from military duty ! But it is contended 
 that the members of the Church South can sell 
 negroes to the traders in flesh and blood, when 
 they please, but that our members can be ex- 
 
SLAVERY 1 1ST OUR CONFERENCE. 53 
 
 pellecl for such traffic. We will grant that this 
 is the theory; but in practice there is very little 
 : : difference, as far as my knowledge goes. There 
 are many ways to avoid this rule and expulsion. 
 Take an example. 
 
 Bro. Hardshell wants money; perhaps he has 
 an extravagant family. He has made up his 
 mind to sell a negro man; and as he must have 
 an excuse, he charges him with impudence. 
 His conscience goads him ; and he is ashamed 
 to tie him, and ride with him to the county 
 town, and be caught bargaining with the negro 
 buyer. So he goes to Mr. Skinflint, who repre- 
 sents a class of men in the South that, for fifty 
 cents, will give a woman stripped to her waist 
 thirty-nine lashes, and offers him 25 dollars if 
 he will come at night and take him to the negro 
 buyer : and this is done, according to contract. 
 Perhaps weeks elapse before the preacher hears 
 it, and then it is “ nigger news.” It is consid- 
 ered beneath the dignity of a gentleman to be 
 prowling around negro- quarters to see if any 
 slaves are missing. But should the preacher in 
 charge call on Bro. Hardshell, he demands proof 
 that he ever sold a slave. There is no proof at 
 
54 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 hand. If he admits it, he charges the negro 
 with being a thief, or being saucy, or with some 
 other fault. 
 
 This is about the end of the affair. And the 
 preacher must not show too much zeal in the 
 matter. If he does, the cry of “ abolitionist” 
 will soon ring about his ears. Mr. Skinflint can 
 procure among his associates plenty of tar and 
 feathers. It is sometimes the case that slaves 
 under age commit crimes for which the courts 
 order them to be sold. In such cases, Christian 
 masters should not use that money for the sup- 
 port of their families, but use it for the good of 
 the colored race. 
 
 It is urged that, if we pronounce slaveholding 
 a sin, we shall drive our slaveholding members 
 into the Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, 
 and Episcopal churches, and into the M. E. 
 Church South, where a man can do what he 
 pleases with his slaves without molestation. 
 But we should “deal justly” and “love mercy,” 
 though the pillars of heaven fall. 
 
 It is further contended that, if the General 
 Conference should make slaveholding a test of 
 membership, the preachers will not attempt to 
 
SLAVERY IV OUR C O V F E R E N C E . 55 
 
 carry it out in slaveholding territory. Very 
 well. Then the responsibility will rest on the 
 preachers and members of that particular locality. 
 The church at large and the Discipline would 
 he free from slaveholding taint; and brethren 
 i at the North and West would no longer have 
 j their cheeks mantled with shame, when infidels 
 point to the Discipline as it is, and prove that 
 . it allows men to hold human beings in igno- 
 
 I ranee and slavery, and will them at death to*un- 
 godly relatives, who may sell them as oxen. 
 Let no man in the ministry or laity of the M. 
 E. Church leave her communion because her 
 Discipline is not yet perfect; but let him pray 
 I and labor, and lift up his voice against the 
 abominations of chattel slavery, till a sound 
 public opinion shall blow it away like chaff 
 before the whirlwind. 
 
 Some fifteen years ago, the roll of the Phila- 
 delphia Conference was called, and each mem- 
 ber, as his name was announced, was required 
 to answer the following question: “Are you a 
 slaveholder?” When my name was called, I 
 made my first and nearly my last speech before 
 the Conference. In my remarks I used this ex- 
 
56 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 pression, that I would lose my right arm sooner 
 than he a voluntary slaveholder. When I sat 
 down, the Rev. Robert Emory, whom I had 
 never seen before, made his way toward me, 
 and putting his arm affectionately around me, 
 inquired if this was Ero. Long. I answered in 
 the affirmative, when he introduced himself very 
 good-humoredly. Whether he was pleased with 
 
 the sentiments I had expressed, I cannot say. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 This was the first and last time I ever spoke to 
 him. 
 
 Since that time, the question has never been 
 put, “Are you a slaveholder?” but another one 
 has been substituted, and put to young preachers 
 about to be received into the Conference: “Are 
 you an abolitionist?” Is it not time to recur to 
 the old question, “Are you a slaveholder?” I * 
 feel in my inmost soul that an awful storm- 
 cloud is gathering over the Philadelphia Con- 
 ference. The feeling may be from earth — a 
 morbid apprehension. It may be from Heaven. 
 Nevertheless, I have the impression. Preachers 
 brought up in Pennsylvania, who may be anti- 
 slavery in their principles, are trammeled when 
 they go into slave territory. They must own or 
 
SLAVERY IN OUR CONFERENCE. 57 
 
 deny Christ with regard to slavery pretty soon ; 
 for things have come to that point that slave- 
 holders want to know your sentiments soon after 
 you arrive on the circuit. If the preacher 
 denies his antislavery principles, he is a self- 
 disgraced man at the bar of his own conscience. 
 If he confesses them, he must leave, or be 
 annoyed all the time. If he sells his principles 
 for a wife or good salary, he becomes the. worst 
 of pro-slavery preachers. All apostates pursue 
 this course. The fact is, the Philadelphia Con- 
 ference has humored and compromised with 
 slavery in Delaware and Maryland so long, that 
 it is now unmanageable. The cry is stronger 
 than ever, “ The Discipline as it is !” And if the 
 General Conference should ever make non-slave- 
 holding and non-slavebreeding a test of member- 
 ship, the Eastern Shore of Maryland will go to the 
 Church South. And this after all the indulgence 
 the North has shown toward the Border brethren ; 
 and after losing thousands of members in the 
 free States, every year perhaps, because the Dis- 
 cipline allows private members to hold their fel- 
 low-creatures as chattels. Ami if a separation 
 takes place, it will engender more bad feeling 
 than it would have done in 1844. 
 
CHAPTER .IV. 
 
 THE MISCHIEVOUS COLT. 
 
 The colored people are remarkable for their 
 reverence and respect for the public worship of 
 God, notwithstanding their keen sense of the 
 mirthful and ridiculous. On one occasion, how- 
 ever, I saw them lose their gravitjr, and show 
 their white teeth in spite of themselves. In the 
 second year of my ministry, in the month of May 
 or June, in a beautiful grove of woods, I attempted 
 to preach for my colored brethren, according to 
 previous engagement. I had recently become 
 the owner of a new hat, and had determined to 
 take good care of it; for in these days I only 
 received $100 per annum, finding my own horse, 
 books, clothes, and traveling expenses. I had 
 placed it immediately behind me. While sing- 
 ing the first hymn, a gentleman,' who was a 
 cripple, came riding by in his carriage, and see- 
 ing the congregation, concluded to stop and 
 
 ( 58 ) . 
 
THE MODEL MIST DESS. 
 
 59 
 
 listen to the sermon. His mare had a young 
 colt, and a saucy fellow he was too. He soon 
 made his way around the outskirts of the 
 assembly; and when we knelt in prayer, he took 
 the opportunity to steal up behind me, and wdth 
 his mouth grabbed my new hat. The noise 
 attracted my attention, and when I saw the 
 ! danger my poor hat was in, I confess to the weak- 
 ness of bringing my prayer to an abrupt close. 
 I made at the colt, who, refusing to drop my 
 hat, ran off to the woods, and I after him. After 
 chasing him some distance, he let it fall, and 
 ran for the carriage. The master, I suppose, 
 
 ' shook his sides with laughter. The colored 
 friends could not command their risibles. I 
 made a few remarks in great confusion, and 
 departed, hoping never again to encounter a 
 frolicsome colt under similar circumstances. 
 
 THE MODEL MISTRESS. 
 
 In one of the Eastern Shore counties of Mary- 
 land, lying immediately on the road to the 
 county town, are the beautiful farm and mansion 
 of Mr. Willard. A spacious lawn leads from 
 the road-gate to the house, with a row of pop- 
 
GO FICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 lars on both sides. To the right is a large apple 
 orchard, and in the month of May I have seen 
 the ground literally covered with blossoms, the 
 air redolent with their perfume; the bluebird, 
 cat-bird, robin-redbreast, and wren, pouring 
 forth sweetest music ; while the mocking-bird 
 seemed to take pleasure in tantalizing the whole 
 feathered company. I spent ten pleasant months 
 under the hospitable roof of Mr. Willard, who 
 was a member of the M. E. Church, having 
 joined it in those days when it w r as considered 
 wrong to hold slaves for life. He made it a 
 rule to manumit all his slaves at a certain age, 
 and he had already set free quite a number of 
 them. Mrs. Willard was a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church; and as she has passed 
 away, in the hope .of a glorious immortality, I 
 feel at liberty to speak of her many virtues. 
 “’Tis distance that lends enchantment” to the 
 admiration we feel for many professors of reli- 
 gion; while close intimacy and observation are 
 destructive of all respect for their character. 
 Not so with Mrs. Willard. As time rolled on, 
 some new and lovely trait would show itself, as 
 a star appears in the heavens when darkness 
 
THE MODEL MISTRESS. 
 
 61 
 
 comes on. To her, Christ was all and in all. 
 She had dignity without stiffness, humility with- 
 out weakness, and cheerfulness without levity. 
 She had the most profound reverence for the 
 name of God, and his holy Sabbath. She 
 dressed plainly, and despised show and pretense. 
 It gave her pleasure to impart happiness to 
 others. As the mistress of her house, she ate not 
 the bread of idleness. From garret to cellar, 
 from parlor to kitchen, every thing passed under 
 her notice. She did not encourage her servants 
 in tattling and tale-bearing, and meddling with 
 their neighbors’ affairs. Nor did she indulge 
 them one day, and have them cowhided the 
 next. She neither scolded nor fretted. She 
 was not a saint in the parlor, and a termagant in 
 the kitchen. She cared for the temporal and 
 spiritual interests of those over whom the 
 Lord had made her mistress. Her female ser- 
 vants had rooms to themselves. Her kitchen 
 was not a place where licentiousness called down 
 the judgments of heaven. Her servants loved 
 her, and treated her with great respect. She 
 treated me as a son, and I loved her as a mother. 
 She was a fine specimen of a true Maryland 
 6 
 
62 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 lady ; and as a mistress and a Christian wife and 
 mother, I have never known her superior. 
 
 PHYSICIANS AND SLAVERY. 
 
 Physicians, as a class, are equal to any pro- 
 fession in intellectual culture, humanity, and 
 accomplished manners. The Christian ministry 
 are greatly indebted to them for their pro- 
 fessional services to themselves and families, 
 and for the kindness and cheerfulness with 
 which their labors are bestowed, and always 
 free of charge. The Doctors of Medicine of the 
 United States give away annually to the clergy 
 not less, perhaps, than $100,000 in professional 
 services, besides contributing in money, for 
 charitable purposes, as much as any other class 
 according to their wealth. Personally, I am 
 specially indebted to them for their kindness to 
 me in various sections of the country, having 
 for years suffered from bilious affections and 
 bleeding of the lungs. Presbyterian, Episcopal, 
 and Methodist physicians have treated me with 
 equal attention and Christian kindness. Had 
 they charged me for their services the same 
 rates paid by those unconnected with the 
 
PHYSICIANS AND SLAVERY. 
 
 63 
 
 ] ministry, I coulcl not have supported my family. 
 A braver set of men have never lived. The hero 
 meets death with sword and plume. The pres- 
 ence of brave comrades and the soul-stirring 
 . strains of martial music, nerve him for the con- 
 test. The approving smile of his government 
 . rests upon him, and the pen of the historian is 
 ready to embalm his name oil the pages of his 
 country’s history. Who could not die thus ? 
 The physician coolly meets the pestilence at the 
 midnight hour, in the lone cabin, or in the 
 alleys of crowded cities, while the darts of death 
 are flying thick around him. If he survives, it 
 is regarded as a mere business transaction, and 
 his noblest sacrifices and impulses are set down 
 to the account of dollars and cents. If he dies, 
 the grave too often covers his fame and name 
 among men. In the South, colored people, free 
 or slave, are treated kindly by physicians in 
 their professional capacity. No hut is too 
 lowly for them to enter. In this respect, they 
 put to shame many preachers and Bible and 
 Tract agents, who avoid the hut of the negro, 
 but visit the white man next door. What 
 preacher ever thinks, in his pastoral visits 
 
64 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 among liis flock, of calling and praying with his 
 despised sheep ? Yet surely they need his 
 pastoral attention more than any other class 
 committed to his care. 
 
 TIIE TRUE THEORY, OR SUCCESSFUL 
 EXPERIMENT. 
 
 An educated farmer, who was a native of one 
 of the Southern States, and a member of the 
 M. E. Church, related to me his experience 
 with regard to slavery and emancipation, in 
 substance as follows : He owned several valuable 
 slaves when he began his farming, and treated 
 them with great kindness; but soon his troubles 
 commenced. One slave would come to him 
 with charges against another. He did not know 
 which to believe. Things would be stolen. 
 His slaves would idle away their time when 
 they could. The farmer would often find meat 
 and potatoes secreted about the premises in a 
 decayed condition ; an evidence that they were 
 not wanted by the thief, when stolen. He at 
 last detected one of the thieves, and threatened 
 to sell him ; but his wife interceded, and he for- 
 gave him. Yet theft was as common as ever. He 
 
THE TRUE THEORY. 
 
 65 
 
 was worried and perplexed, yet did not despair. 
 He looked into his own bosom, and found that 
 Hope was the motive-power of his actions ; that 
 his labors were stimulated by the prospect of 
 reward, of something that he could call his own. 
 Applying this to the slave, he said to himself : 
 “ He is a man of like passions with myself. He 
 works under the influence of despair and force. 
 He has no motive to be honest or to labor.” 
 It then occurred to him that the system must 
 be wrong; contrary to the whole nature of man. 
 He determined to set his slaves free at a certain 
 age. He called them all together, and told 
 them what he had determined to do ; and pro- 
 posed to them that, at the commencement of 
 the New Year, he wished them all to become 
 partners with him in farming. He was to 
 have so much for his part of the produce of 
 the farm, and the balance was to be divided 
 equally among themselves; and he knew, if 
 they would be industrious, they might lay up 
 money, so that, when they were free, they would 
 have something to commence business with for 
 themselves. 
 
 They cheerfully agreed to the proposition. 
 
 6 * 
 
66 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 He said that lie never saw such a change as 
 that which followed. There was no more steal- 
 ing; and if one commenced to idle his time, the 
 others would tell him that it was not fair for 
 them to do the work, while he shared the pro- 
 duce equally with themselves. So to work he 
 would go. 
 
 The master began to experience what happi- 
 ness was, and made more money than he did 
 before. Several of his slaves became men of 
 property and usefulness among the free colored 
 community. Said a gentleman of Alabama to 
 me: “ You may imagine our fears, on our large 
 plantations of 300 or 400 negroes, where fre- 
 quently there are not more than ten or tw r elve 
 white persons.” Had that gentleman set them 
 free, and given them a certain portion of the 
 cotton crop, he might have slept sw T eetly, with- 
 out any fear of the midnight assassin. 
 
 SLAVE DROVES. 
 
 In all } our county towns are located negro- 
 traders or their agents. If any one doubts this 
 fact, let him read their advertisements in the 
 county papers. Thursdays and Saturdays are 
 
SLAVE DEO YES. 
 
 67 
 
 the public days in the towns. A great deal of 
 property is sold from various parts of the county 
 at Court House doors, at sheriff’s sale. At these 
 auctions, numbers of slaves are sold. The 
 trader or his agent is always present. He also 
 attends the public vendues of deceased persons, 
 where hogs, mules, horses, and negroes are sold. 
 He is also very attentive to private calls from 
 men at their houses. When he has collected a 
 drove of negroes, he starts for the South. Such 
 are the facilities for travel now, that he does not 
 collect so great a number at a time as formerly. 
 
 If the reader will take a good map of Mary- 
 land, he will find that the Pocomoke River 
 divides Worcester from Somerset County, for 
 more than twenty miles above its mouth. A 
 traveler wishing to go to Norfolk, Va., from 
 Princess Anne, the county town of Somerset, 
 would have to cross this river at the Ferry 
 about a mile above New Town, through which 
 he must pass to Eastville, Va., and thence to 
 Norfolk. To the Ferry my father removed in 
 1824, where he had bought property. It was 
 here that I spent several years of my life. It 
 was here that I witnessed some of the scenes 
 
68 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 which I will now attempt to describe, and 
 which are so deeply pictured on my memory as 
 to cast a gloom over the associations of my 
 youthful home. 
 
 Picture the following scene, which I have often 
 witnessed: One or two negro-buyers, mounted 
 on horses, with pistols peeping from their pockets, 
 with large loaded whips in their hands, and 
 cursing the slaves with deep oaths. A large 
 two or four-horse wagon, laden with women and 
 children. Negro men walking, handcuffed and 
 chained around the ankle, two and two; and 
 when the two men were not of the same height, 
 the chains were very painful; or, if the negro 
 was very large, the foot-cuff too small for his 
 ankle, he suffered great agony. I have seen 
 them, at the Ferry, under the necessity of violat- 
 
 o 
 
 ing the decencies of nature before the women, 
 not being permitted to retire. The first 
 drove I saw, after the love of Christ rvas shed 
 abroad in my heart, caused me to wring my 
 hands in deep agony. It cast a gloom over 
 me for several days. Slaves from Somerset 
 County could follow their friends as far as the ' 
 Ferry; here they had to part. Here I have 
 
SLAVE DROVES. 
 
 69 
 
 seen mothers part with their children, and 
 brothers with their sisters. Here I have heard 
 them bid adieu thus: “Farewell, mother ;” “fare- 
 well, child;” “farewell, John;” “farewell, Bill;” 
 and then rend the air with their cries and 
 lamentations. Dear reader, is it unreasonable 
 that I should feel deeply on this subject? This 
 infamous traffic is still carried on in every part 
 of Maryland, but not in so vulgar a manner. 
 The slaves are conveyed in close carriages to 
 the steamboats, via Baltimore. It is a shame- 
 ful fact that, in the South, church-members are 
 constantly selling church-members, professed 
 saints selling real ones, and infidels selling the 
 members of Christ’s body. Barter and traffic in 
 temples of the Holy Ghost are carried on. Native 
 Americans sell Native Americans; white Whigs 
 and Democrats sell black Whigs and Democrats 
 (for slaves generally profess the politics of their 
 masters) ; and all this is done in the “ land of the 
 free , and the home of the brave” What is the 
 fountain that feeds all these streams of negro- 
 droves. outrages, indecencies, handcuffs and 
 blighting separations of the dearest relations of 
 life ? The relation of owner and slave. Who fur- 
 
70 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 nishes the material for these slave factories ? 
 The man who breeds them, lets them be sold for 
 his debts, wills them to his children, or gives 
 them away during his lifetime, that they may 
 be sold. 
 
 UNCLE LEYI. 
 
 In a dense pine woods were a small lot of 
 cleared ground, and a hut built of pine logs 
 with clay chimney. The earthen floor was 
 often sprinkled with clean white sand. A few 
 peach-trees surrounded the cabin. Near by 
 was a spring of sweet water. Here the mocking- 
 bird sang his wild notes, and the owl woke the 
 slumbering echoes of the night. Every thing 
 in the inclosure seemed contented. The pig 
 ate, grunted, and slept. The cow lay chewing 
 her cud. The watch-dog whined in his day- 
 dreams outside the hut in a sunny corner; and 
 puss lay stretched in the fire-place within. In 
 summer time, after morning class and preaching, 
 might have been seen an aged couple, sitting at 
 the door of their tent — Uncle Levi and his wife. 
 Levi was a slave in law, but never in spirit. 
 The master who owned him in his old age, 
 
UNCLE LEVI. 
 
 71 
 
 treated him with great kindness and respect. 
 He was the 'patriarch of the cjreat home planta- 
 tion. He was converted under the first Metho- 
 dist preacher that visited Maryland. 
 
 Levi has now passed into the heavens. When 
 I saw him last, his form was erect ; his white 
 hair gave him a venerable appearance. He was 
 a remarkable man in his moral tone. He was 
 rigidly honest and truthful. He had not tasted 
 liquor since his conversion. He would not go 
 in debt. He spent all his leisure time in culti- 
 vating his lot; and, enjoying remarkable health, 
 he was regular at church. He related to me sub- 
 stantially the following incident in his history. 
 When he joined the Methodist Society, he was 
 taught that to drink spirituous liquor was a sin, 
 except in cases of necessity. Harvest time 
 came. All the hands drank but himself. His 
 master observed that he refused to drink. He 
 wanted to know the reason. Uncle Levi in- 
 formed him that he was a Methodist, and it 
 was wrong for him to drink. He told his 
 master that he “ did more work now than when 
 he drank.” His master said “ he should drink.” 
 He refused. His master got into a rage and 
 
72 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ordered the hands to tie him. His master had 
 a glass of liquor pressed to his mouth, hut Levi 
 closed his lips. Sending to the house for his ; 
 gun, his master loaded it in his presence. lie 
 had the bosom of his slave laid bare, and gave 
 him a short time to decide whether he would j 
 obey. If he did not, he told him he would 
 shoot him on the spot, for rebellion. Levi re- 
 plied that he could not sin against Christ, and 1 
 that he was willing to be shot. He was con- 
 vinced that his master would do what he said ; 
 but, just at the critical moment, a friend rode 
 up, and inquired what was the matter; took 
 the gun from the infuriated man ; and, finding 
 that Levi did not mean to disobey his master 
 in things lawful, soon brought about a recon- 
 ciliation. Ever afterward his master loved and 
 respected him. 
 
 Here was a noble instance of the martyr- 
 spirit. Such was Uncle Levi. There was no 
 power in chattel slavery to make him do a 
 thing that he thought was contrary to the will 
 of heaven. And to be a Christian, every slave 
 must be ready to die at any time. 
 

 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 ABOLITIONIST. 
 
 What a mad dog is on the crowded thorough- 
 fare — what a heretic is in Spain — what a Re- 
 publican is in Russia, the abolitionist is in the 
 Slave States. 
 
 Many good but timid men fear and tremble 
 at the very thought of being branded as an abo- 
 litionist. This one word of twelve letters has 
 done more to kill off the antislavery feeling of 
 the South, in church and state, than any other 
 in the English language. The slaveholder will 
 not stop to define it. That would defeat his 
 object. The term is now applied to men of the 
 purest Christian faith and morals. 
 
 Let it be known that you believe slavery to 
 be a sin ; that you mean what you say, then 
 take care. Once let a negro-catcher, or a grog- 
 shop politician, point you out, and say, as you 
 walk the streets “ There goes an abolitionist !” 
 7 (73) 
 
74 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 you are at the mercy of the mob, unless your 
 wealth and political influence shield you. A 
 Methodist slaveholder, who was defending his 
 right to hold slaves, said to me, “I hear that 
 you we ai abolitionist.” “ Sir,” I replied, “if 
 \ o mean by abolitionist one that would per- 
 _ slave to run away from his master, or 
 cut his master’s throat, then I am not an aboli- 
 tionist ; but, if you mean one who believes it a 
 sin to hold one’s fellow-beings in bondage, then 
 I am an abolitionist” 
 
 I could relate a bitter experience on this sub- 
 ject, giving dates and places ; but I forbear. 
 Ofttimes has the lip of contempt and the eye of 
 vengeance met my glance, the vulgar jest and 
 obscene allusion saluted my ears, as the “ negro 
 preacher” passed along. I have known good 
 men, who would not hold slaves, when ques- 
 tioned upon the subject, say, “ I am no aboli- 
 tionist.” There is one thing that gives me plea- 
 sure, in view of a dying hour and the judgment- 
 seat of Christ, — that I have not quailed before 
 the oppressors of the African race. I believe 
 that, on the subject of slavery and religion, there 
 is no neutral ground. Opposition to slavery 
 
T A T T 1, 1X6, 
 
 l O 
 
 ‘•'in the abstract’’ will not do before Heaven, 
 and will not do much longer before men. The 
 conservatives will have to quit blowing hot and 
 cold, and must take a decided position one way 
 or the other. 
 
 TATTLING. 
 
 Slavery produces laziness, and laziness begets 
 tale-bearing and tattling. This is natural. If 
 people will not labor either with their bands or 
 bead, or both, in useful employment, they will 
 use their tongues about other people’s business. 
 The masses of the South are not readers. Yet 
 they have all the natural talent and inquisitive- 
 ness of the people of New England, without 
 their industry, books, and periodicals to supply 
 the demand for intellectual stimulus. Hence 
 there is necessarity more “small talk” in the 
 South than in the North. Many of the slaves 
 are perfect adepts in it ; yet they are wholly 
 irresponsible. It is considered dishonorable for 
 persons to break friendship on what is called 
 “ nigger news.” Yet it is done ; and the diffi- 
 culty is that you cannot reconcile the parties, 
 for the one that believes the negro testimony is 
 
76 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ashamed to avow the authorship of the mis- 
 chief, and the other party remains in ignorance 
 of the cause of the altered conduct of his friend. 
 This is a feature of Southern society, arising out 
 of slavery, which I have not seen alluded to by 
 any writer on the subject. But experience as 
 a pastor has taught me the lesson. Neighbors 
 often get to know the family secrets of one another 
 through their servants, to the great annoyance 
 and mortification of high-minded gentlemen and 
 ladies, who abominate and detest tattling in all 
 persons and classes. Masters and mistresses 
 are frequently not careful in talking before some 
 half-grown negro girl, who pretends to be snor- 
 ing fast asleep in the chimney corner; and some 
 servants, finding that tattling pleases their mis- 
 tresses, become quite skillful in manufacturing 
 stories about their neighbors, in order to min- 
 ister to this morbid curiosity. 
 
 Example — Scene first and last. 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy and her slave girl Nell. 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle. 
 
 Mr. Sodawater ; his slaves Nance, Bob, and Bill. 
 
 Miss Truthful. 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “ Nell, run right quick and 
 
TATTLING. 
 
 77 
 
 tell Mrs. Twaddle to come over and spend the 
 afternoon with me; tell her she must be sure 
 and come, and bring her snuff-box with her.” 
 
 Nell goes, running wdth all speed. Mrs. 
 Twaddle comes immediately. 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “How are you, Mrs. Twaddle? 
 I am so glad to see you. I have been thinking 
 about you the whole blessed day. Right smart 
 and cold to-day, Mrs. Twaddle ; take a seat by the 
 fire. Nell, you can go after your cow, and cut 
 some wood for the night. Nell, get the spittoon 
 before you go. Mrs. Twaddle, did you bring 
 your snuff-box ?” 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle. “ 0 yes, Mrs. Slouchy ; I 
 never go without it.” 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “Tush! now, let’s have a 
 good rub of snuff.” 
 
 The box is passed round. The gums and 
 jaw-teeth are carefully plastered with it by the 
 insertion of the right fore-finger ; and then the 
 salivation and spitting commence. 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “ Mrs. Twaddle, have you heard 
 the report about Mr. Sodawater ?” 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle. “ No ; what is it ?” 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “ Now, if you be sure and not 
 7 * 
 
78 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 let it be known, even to your husband, I will 
 tell you.” 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle. “ 0, do tell me ; I will never 
 whisper it.” 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy. “Well, it’s £ nigger news;’ yet 
 I believe niggers can tell the truth sometimes, 
 as well as any person else. Well, my Nell ran 
 over last night to see Mr. Sodawater’s Nance, 
 and Bob and Bill live there. Now, I told Nell not 
 to stay long; but she came poking home about 
 one o’clock, and I told her if she did so again, I 
 would cowskin her. You know, Mrs. Twaddle, 
 that it is hard to keep negro girls from running 
 about at night ; but 4 niggers will be niggers ;’ 
 but I would not care about it if it was not that 
 I don’t want to be bothered with her brats, 
 crying and squalling in the kitchen. She has 
 as much as she can do to attend to the family. 
 
 “ Lali me, Mrs. Twaddle ! give me some more 
 snuff. I liked to have forgot what I was talking 
 about. Now I remember. Mr. Sodawater’s 
 Nance told my Nell that her master came home 
 drunk last night, and his face was bloody where 
 he fell down, and his wife had a great time 
 with him.” 
 
TATTLING. 
 
 79 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle. “ Dear me, what is the world 
 coming to ! Why, he is my class-leader. Well, 
 well, I always thought he was a hypocrite, and 
 I have said that he would come to some bad 
 end.” 
 
 Enter Miss Truthful. 
 
 Miss Truthful. ‘‘How are you, ladies? I 
 thought I would step in a moment and give 
 you a good religious tract. I have just called 
 on Bro. Sodawater, and I suppose you have 
 heard of his misfortune.” 
 
 Mrs. Slouch?/. “ What is it ?” 
 
 Miss Truthful. “ In returning from his office 
 last night, he attempted to part two drunken 
 rowdies that were fighting, and they turned on 
 him and beat him very badly.”. 
 
 Exit Miss Truthful. 
 
 Mrs. Twaddle hastily gets her bonnet, and 
 goes home. 
 
 Mrs. Slouchy and Nell. 
 
 Mrs. Slouch?/. “ Nell, how came you to tell 
 that story on Mr. Sodawater?” 
 
 Nell. “ Why, missis, Nance told me so ; in- 
 deed she did.” 
 
80 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 THE CHURCH TRIAL. 
 
 I was appointed preacher in charge on 
 
 Circuit. Soon after my arrival on the circuit, I 
 was informed that Brother A., one of the most 
 talented and influential men in that part of the 
 country, had sold one or two of his negroes. It was 
 also stated that there was no proof against him, 
 though the negroes were missing; and that the 
 church was suffering in consequence of the re- 
 port, as it was believed to be true. I was also 
 informed that, if I attempted to investigate the 
 charge, trouble might be expected ; that the 
 transgressor was a “ rough man to handle and 
 that he had never been defeated in any trial. 
 
 I was told that, some years previously, he 
 had sold a young negro-man. He sent the 
 poor fellow to the negro buyer alone, with a 
 letter. The letter was to inform the trader 
 that the bearer was the boy sold ; and when 
 the unfeeling savage attempted to tie him, he 
 fought bravely, supposing that the purchaser was 
 a kidnapper, exclaiming, “ My master don’t 
 know that you are taking me away !” And 
 such was his confidence in his master’s word, it 
 
THE CHURCH TRIAL. 
 
 81 
 
 was impossible to convince him that he had 
 been thus meanly sold ; and he went South under 
 the impression that he was kidnapped, and that 
 his master did not know what had become of him. 
 For this act he had been tried before the church, 
 when, by his overbearing temper, he frightened 
 preacher and committee, and was acquitted. 
 
 Now, what was to be done ? I was a 
 stranger, so debilitated with chills and fever 
 that all excitement had a tendency to prostrate 
 me. And, since my arrival on the circuit, this 
 gentleman had shown me the utmost kindness. 
 My wife was sick, and I was pressed down with 
 care. But conscience asserted her rights ; and 
 when I thought of the oppressed ones, I 
 determined to investigate the affair. I knew, 
 if I did any thing at all, I must do it quickly. 
 No member of the church would stand re- 
 sponsible for any thing. Determined to assume 
 the responsibility, I drew up a charge specifying 
 the offence, and sent it to him in a letter, over 
 my own name, requesting him to meet me, be- 
 fore a Committee of seven, the next week. He 
 readily promised to comply. The appointed 
 time came. It was the day my chills came on, 
 
82 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 find I rode to the place of meeting with en- 
 feebled body and heavy heart. The Committee 
 met at the time agreed upon, and Mr. A. was 
 there also. Knowing the Committee to be igno- 
 rant men, he felt certain of an easy victory. 
 He received me with great kindness; but I 
 could detect a lurking smile of contempt for the 
 sick preacher and the ignorant Committee. He 
 evidently anticipated a complete triumph, and 
 was preparing to rejoice. We opened the busi- 
 ness with prayer ; and before I had time to state 
 the object of the meeting, he arose, opened the 
 letter I had sent him containing the charge, and 
 with the most contemptuous scowl I ever wit- 
 nessed, commenced a speech. He addressed 
 himself to me substantially as follows: — 
 
 “May it please your Reverence: You have pre- 
 ferred a charge against me, and summoned me 
 to appear before this Committee, on mere report, 
 without any proof whatever; and I here let 
 you know that you cannot compel me to testify 
 against myself. Now prove to this Committee, 
 if you can, that I sold the woman and child. I 
 ask for proof, and defy you to do any thing 
 without it.” He took his seat. 
 
THE CHUKCH TKIAL. 83 
 
 The Committee were alarmed, and commenced 
 to speak one to another, saying, “ There is no 
 proof; we will have to acquit him &c. &c. 
 
 I arose and addressed him thus : “ Bro. A. : 
 I am aware that you are not required to con- 
 vict yourself before a civil tribunal ; but you are 
 now before a Committee of your brethren, who 
 cannot allow the truth to be suppressed and 
 our church injured by technicalities of law. Re- 
 port says you are guilty of the crime speci- 
 fied. Your reputation is suffering; the Church 
 of Christ is suffering; and we have brought the 
 i matter here for a fair and full investigation, and 
 for the good of all concerned. Now, if you will 
 !* say that you have not sold her, and that she is 
 at home, then the matter will drop, and we will 
 go out into the community and defend you ; but 
 ' if you have sold her, then don’t stand here quib- 
 bling about proof. As an honest Christian man, 
 you ought to affirm or deny the charge.” 
 
 He immediately arose and said : “ I sold her ; 
 that is more than I designed to admit when I 
 came here ; and I shall not tell you any thing 
 about the circumstances under which I sold her.” 
 
 He contended that he had not broken the 
 
84 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Discipline in selling her. He explained the 
 rule, which reads thus, “ the buying and sell- 
 ing of men, women, and children, with an in- 
 tention to enslave them,” to mean, “ trading in 
 negroes.” 
 
 I differed from him. The Committee brought 
 in a verdict of guilty on his own admission, and | 
 I expelled him. He refused to appeal to the 
 Quarterly Conference. I expected that he would 
 be exceedingly angry ; but he was calm after 
 hearing the decision, and continued to hear me 
 preach till his death. I had the satisfaction to 
 know that he entertained no unkind feelings, for 
 he remarked to a friend that I had done my duty. 
 If he had refused to acknowledge the fact of 
 the sale, he could have remained in the church. 
 
 Now, I say, from my observation and experi- 
 ence, that a member of the church can evade 
 the rule about buying and selling in numerous 
 ways ; and that the only true course is to strike 
 at negro-breeding in the church. Let no slave- 
 holder into the church. Let him not be 
 sheltered by the Discipline. It is impossible, 
 in this wicked world, that any church or society 
 should have all good men in it. Some persons 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE OYER SLAVES. 85 
 
 belonging to every Christian church may swear 
 and get drunk ; but they cannot do it, and 
 appeal to their church manuals as guaranteeing 
 them the right to do so. 
 
 If we had a rule excluding slaveholders, we 
 might still have members who would advocate 
 slavery as something right and just, and vote 
 for men that will sustain it ; yet they could not 
 . appeal to the Church Discipline, and say, “ This 
 book gives me the right to do so ; and you can- 
 not put me out for holding in bondage my fel- 
 low-beings.” As the Discipline now is, men can 
 breed slaves for their children and grand-chil- 
 dren ; and, when no white person is present, sell 
 them with impunity. I could give facts of re- 
 cent occurrence ; but I forbear. This thing is 
 done in all the churches in slave territory that 
 I am acquainted with, except among the Triends 
 or Quakers. 
 
 CHURCH DISCIPLINE OYER SLAVES. 
 
 W e find it impossible, from the nature of their 
 condition, to exercise church-discipline over 
 slaves for fornication or adultery. We have to 
 leave them to the judgment of the All-seeing 
 8 
 
86 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Eye. White members cannot be expelled from . 
 the church unless tried by a committee of lay 
 brethren. But slaves are taken in and expelled 
 at the will of their class-leaders ; and this is the ; 
 best that can be done under the circumstances. 
 Pastors have no right to summon a slave to 
 trial, or as a witness, from the work of his mas- 
 ter. And as many slaves are guilty of the j 
 crime, they will not inform against each other. 
 If they do inform, they get no credit from their 
 master, and are sure to be hated by their fellow- 
 slaves. Masters have the power to drive from 
 her house the husband of his slave woman, and 
 compel her to take any colored man they please. 
 Their power overrides all church authority. 
 Pastors cannot visit a dying or sick slave, no 
 matter how much the slave desires it, unless 
 the master gives permission. A slave boy may - 
 disobey his father, and yet that father dare not 
 correct him if the master forbids it. Chattel 
 slavery and licentiousness are inseparable ; and 
 he who defends the one must defend the other. 
 
 CEASE TO DO EYIL. 
 
 Methodist preachers teach that men ought 
 
CEASE TO DO EVIL. 
 
 87 
 
 to cease from evil at once. “Behold, now is 
 the accepted time! To-morrow may be too 
 late.” When should we set our slaves free? 
 Now? All under forty or forty-five years? 
 Immediately. A brother preacher related to me 
 the following anecdote. 
 
 At a camp-meeting, a brother was leading in 
 prayer, and among other petitions he prayed 
 the Lord to curtail the power of the Devil. A 
 poor African, behind the pulpit, who perhaps 
 had seen pictures of the devil with a long tail 
 and hoofs, misapprehended the meaning of the 
 word curtail, and responded, “Amen! may it be 
 cut right, smack, smooth, short off.” The poor 
 colored man was opposed to cutting a piece off 
 at a time. He wanted short work made of it, 
 and smooth at that. 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 LOYE OF MILITARY TITLES. 
 
 A traveler from the North will be struck 
 with the number of captains, colonels, majors, 
 and generals in the South, in proportion to the 
 white population. We should honor those to 
 whom honor is due. The soldier by educa- 
 tion and profession, or who has suffered and 
 fought for his country, is worthy of his titles; 
 but it is unfair and absurd for men in civil 
 life, farmers, merchants, mechanics and lawyers, 
 who have never smelt gunpowder, except when 
 shooting crows, blackbirds and partridges, to 
 claim and share the titles of regular military 
 officers. Doctors are generally satisfied with 
 the title which their profession confers. Unless 
 a lawyer becomes a judge, he has no title, and 
 remains a simple “Esquire.” Some lawyers are 
 very fond of being “ coloneled,” by way of break- 
 ing the monotony of their life. Perhaps there 
 ( 88 ) . ^ 
 
COMMON SCHOOLS AND SC H O O L- H 0 USES . 89 
 
 is one advantage in having so many colonels: it 
 may keep the poor whites in awe of their 
 superiors, and serve to scare the negroes. 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-HOUSES. 
 
 There are several colleges in the South, but 
 many of them are no better than first-class 
 academies in the North. Almost every county 
 town of 1000 inhabitants has an academy, 
 principally for the sons of the rich. Very little 
 provision is made for the education of the poor. 
 The school-houses are lonely, desolate, wretched- 
 looking, one-story buildings, situated with no 
 regard to shade, convenience, or play-grounds. 
 What windows! what doors! what benches 
 without backs ! what fine places to give the boys 
 and girls spinal diseases and consumption ! 
 There is not much difficulty in raising money 
 in the South for a barbecue, or to procure pine 
 and hickory poles and flags, or to buy whisky, 
 for political purposes; but when funds are 
 wanted for a library, to build a school-house, or 
 to increase the salary of a school-teacher — that 
 is quite another question. 
 
 A common-school teacher does not occupy a 
 8 * 
 
90 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 very high social position in public estimation. 
 
 A “gentleman horse-jockey” stands head and 
 shoulders above him. The rich generally edu- 
 cate their children at home, until old enough to 
 send to college or boarding-school. The in- I 
 structors of youth should occupy as honorable 
 a position in society as any other class of men. 
 Until this is the case, our progress in civiliza- 
 tion and useful learning will not be rapid. 
 
 MISSIONARY SPEECHES. 
 
 I confess that I have felt trammeled in the 
 South while making missionary speeches. If I 
 described Africa without the knowledge of let- 
 * ters and the Bible, and urged the importance 
 of sending the living teacher, I saw in the gal- 
 leries before me men who had grown up in our 
 families, and under the shadow of our school- ' 
 houses and churches, without any effort having 
 been made to open to their immortal minds the 
 more than golden treasure of the words of Jesus. 
 
 I knew these men had equal claims upon the 
 church with their brethren in Africa. Fre- 
 quently the offerings of their masters were 
 the product of their own involuntary earnings. 
 
THE PASTORATE 
 
 91 
 
 A sense of shame has come over me for these 
 inconsistencies, and paralyzed my efforts. If a 
 minister devotes much of his time to them, and 
 manifests much interest in their welfare, he 
 may get the name of “negro preacher;” and 
 as he passes by a crowd of miserable loafers, he 
 will hear one say, “That man’s got the nigger 
 mania; he’s just fit to preach to niggers!” and 
 even his superiors in office may give him a few 
 cold, discouraging hints. Forsaken by the 
 church, persecuted by the world, and disliked 
 by the immoral negroes themselves, the man of 
 God can look only to Heaven for support and 
 encouragement. But let a man go to Africa, 
 and his labors for the negro are lauded to the 
 skies by young orators at our missionary anni- 
 versaries. I am not opposing foreign missions 
 I am trying to rebuke that sickly religious 
 zeal that can cry over the condition of the 
 negro in Africa, and yet have no sympathy for 
 the unfortunate condition of those in America. 
 
 THE PASTORATE. 
 
 I had rather be the pastor of a congregation 
 in a free State than be a presiding elder or a 
 
92 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 bishop. For this reason. The office of an elder 
 or bishop would deprive me of the duties and 
 pleasures of the pastorate. To be surrounded 
 with a kind flock, to weep when they weep, 
 to rejoice when they rejoice, to build up when 
 tempted, to console in distress, is to my mind the 
 acme of human felicity. The weakest and most 
 obscure of the flock should have access to their 
 best earthly friend, and pour into his ear, if they 
 desire it, their troubles, their doubts, and their 
 temptations. But chattel slavery raises barriers 
 between the pastors and the slave that are 
 seldom, if ever, crossed. . If the slaves are mal- 
 treated by their masters, they fear to go to their 
 preachers with their trouble. If the masters 
 were to know of their servants making com- 
 plaints, both preacher and slave would fare 
 badly, for both are in the hands of the master. 
 Slaveholders, united, can starve the preacher and 
 sell the slaves. The whole truth of the matter 
 is, there is no such thing as the pastorate in the 
 South between the white preacher and slaves, 
 and never can be, from the nature of slave 
 society and its consequences. If the preacher 
 is pro-slavery; the slaves will never come to him, 
 
A - DANGEROUS MAXIM. 
 
 93 
 
 for they look upon him as an ally of the master; 
 consequently; have no faith in his religion. 
 
 A DANGEROUS MAXIM. 
 
 ‘•'My country, right or wrong,” said a brother 
 preacher in my presence. I pronounce this a 
 bad maxim, full of the poison of evil. My 
 country and my church, when right. When 
 wrong, I will pray for their reformation ; and, 
 if need be, cry aloud and show them their sins 
 and abominations. Suppose a father were to 
 say to his sons that he intended to stand by 
 them, right or wrong ; suppose a pastor were to 
 say to his congregation, “I will justify you, no 
 matter what sins you commit” — what would 
 be thought of such a father and such a minis- 
 ter? This dangei’ous American maxim is too 
 ■ much acted out by individuals and States. 
 
 SELLING NEGROES BY THE POUND. 
 
 This idea was suggested to me by a gentle- 
 man who stated that he was present when a 
 slave was sold to the traders. A pair of scales 
 being in the house, some of the party weighed 
 the body of the slave, and made a calculation 
 
94 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 of the price of the slave per pound. A young w ' 
 colored man will bring from seven to eight clol- 
 lars per pound at this time, and bright mulatto 111 
 girls a little more. Beef cattle from seven to ,e 
 eight cents per pound. 
 
 ni 
 
 HOG THIEF. n 
 
 In the days of my youthful inexperience, I 
 concluded that those who shed the most tears, 
 and used the best language while relating their 
 religious experience, had most piety. My views 
 were modified from, the following painful inci- 
 dent : One of the most eloquent men I ever 
 heard speak in class-meeting was a colored man. 
 He would relate his experience with great force 
 and power, while large tears would roll down 
 his cheeks. But he fell from his high estate. 
 He stole a hog, confessed it, and was sentenced 
 to the penitentiary. Gifts and grace are not ' 
 always found together in black or white. 
 
 FREEDOM OF SPEECH. 
 
 I was discussing, with an acquaintance who 
 was a slaveholder, that feature of Popery which 
 forbids freedom of speech where it has the 
 
 * 
 
WASHINGTON AND PATRICK HENEY. 95 
 
 ower to do it, and referred to Italy, where a 
 Iran is not allowed to preach against Popery 
 publicly. “ Very true,” said he ; “ but you know, 
 ery well, that there is no freedom of speech in 
 Maryland. You know that we would not per- 
 mit you to preach against slavery publicly. A 
 aan can do it in Massachusetts, but not here.” 
 le closed my mouth effectually. I felt that it 
 /as true. I said no more to him about Popery, 
 slavery and popery are twin sisters. 
 
 WASHINGTON AND PATRICK HENRY. 
 
 Of late years, the question of slavery meets 
 ■ou everywhere; and the time is very near 
 /hen woe be unto that man who shall attempt 
 o occupy neutral ground upon the subject. 
 )iscussing the question of slavery with a dis- 
 inguished son of Virginia, he defended the en- 
 ire system, even the separation of parents and 
 hildren. I suggested that his views were in 
 pposition to those expressed by Washington 
 ,nd Plenry. He admitted the fact, and added 
 hat “ any well-instructed Virginia lad was bet- 
 er informed upon that subject than they were.” 
 !ls a matter of course, the conversation then 
 
96 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 ceased. The immortal Washington emancipated , 
 all his negroes at his death ; and if all the great 
 slaveholders of Virginia had followed his exam- 
 
 I 
 
 pie, the Old Dominion .would not now be the 
 fourth State in the Union. Virginia is remark- 
 able for having given birth to more Presidents 
 than any other State. She gave the first Presi- 
 dent to this great Republic. Ex-president Ro- 
 berts, the first President of the Republic of Li- 
 beria, on the west coast of Africa, is also a na- 
 tive of Virginia. Maryland has given birth to 
 but one president, and he is a “Black Repub- 
 lican;” we allude to President Benson, the pre- 
 sent chief-magistrate of Liberia. 
 
 MARTYRS. 
 
 It has ever been the practice of the world, 
 and worldly churches, to extol the martyrs of- 
 the past, to build tombs and monuments to 
 their memory, and to despise and persecute the 
 martyrs of the present. I have no doubt that 
 those who burned John Rogers at the stake at 
 Smithfield were great admirers of St. Stephen. 
 It has forcibly struck me, in reading the lives 
 of martyrs, ancient and modern, that they were 
 
THE BEE-HIVE. 
 
 97 
 
 never put to death by their persecutors for 
 I doing good works, or for loving their Creator 
 I with all their hearts, and their neighbors as 
 : themselves, but for meddling with politics, for 
 violating the laws of the land, or for speaking 
 against the customs and prejudices of their 
 country ] Our Divine Saviour was crucified on 
 the charge of treason — of trying to overthrow 
 the government of Cmsar. When Stephen was 
 stoned to death, his enemies did not admit that 
 it was for his goodness, but for speaking against 
 the law of Moses and the custom of the Jews. 
 
 - The Jews despised the Gentiles as much as an 
 American does a negro. And in these last days 
 the test of martyrdom is opposition to slavery. 
 
 THE BEE-HIYE. 
 
 My father took great pleasure in raising bees. 
 He had one swarm that no kindness and attention 
 could tame or conciliate. There was a very 
 self-conceited colored man in his employ, who 
 boasted that he could rob them without being 
 stung. He insisted that it was one’s clothes 
 that irritated bees, and that he would rob them 
 for a given price. The bargain was made, and 
 9 
 
98 
 
 PICTUKES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Arnold commenced, with his shirt off, in good 
 earnest. He took the hive down, knocked off 
 the head, and in a moment the bees swarmed 
 on his neck and head, putting hundreds of stings 
 in his black skin. As he had boasted so much 
 of his skill, he endured it for some time, while 
 I — then a boy — was rolling over in the garden, 
 convulsed with laughter. Finally, nature could 
 endure the agony no longer. Arnold gave a 
 groan of despair, dropped his tub, sprang like 
 a deer over the railing of the garden, and 
 plunged into the river to drown his tormentors. 
 
 The spirit of slavery, like that hive of bees, 
 cannot be tamed. You may take your hat off 
 to it, and your shirt also ; but it will not do. It 
 will sting its best friends as well as its dead- 
 liest enemies. It must be drowned in the river 
 of life and in the ocean of righteousness. 
 
 BORDER TROUBLES. 
 
 I was brought up only a few miles from Acco- 
 mac County, Virginia. There was considerable 
 trouble there some years ago, upon the slavery 
 question. It is reported that peace reigns again 
 on the Border. I trust it has a good basis. I 
 
BORDER TROUBLES, 
 
 99 
 
 would not augment the trouble of any real anti- 
 slavery man, if such there be. But I have my 
 fears. I was conversing with a brother on the 
 troubles of the church. He stood by the M. E. 
 Church through all her difficulties. At the close 
 of the conversation, said I, “ Brother, are you a 
 slaveholder?” He replied that he was. “Do 
 you intend to free yourself from slavery ?” He 
 answered that he did not intend so to do. 
 
 I believe that, as a church, we offer the same 
 facilities to our members for negro-breeding, for 
 the holding of slaves for life, and for devising 
 them to relatives, as the M. E. Church South 
 does. We leave it with our members to decide 
 for themselves. But, says a preacher on the 
 Border : “ If I were to hint to my class-leaders 
 and stewards that holding slaves as chattels for 
 life was a sin, they would run me off, and the 
 M. E. Church South would get our members. 
 It is only by allowing our members the privi- 
 leges enjoyed by our Southern brethren, we can 
 maintain our ground.” If these are the con- 
 ditions upon which we are to maintain our 
 ground, the sooner we give it up the better. We 
 caii go to China and Turkey, and preach salva- 
 
100 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 tion to all persons without being molested. If 
 you are persecuted in one city, you can flee to 
 another. I suppose we cannot preach the 
 Gospel in Rome or Spain ; and, until we can 
 preach the truth there, we had better wait till 
 God in his providence opens our way. No real 
 antislavery preacher can be wholly silent on 
 this subject. If he is silent, his own manhood be- 
 gins to sink in slavery. One who is thoroughly 
 pro-slavery in sentiment is not fit to preach 
 to any people. One or two }^ears ago I was 
 visiting near the Border, and I remarked to an 
 acquaintance that, if I resided there, I would get 
 up a Sabbath-school among the negroes. He 
 answered that it would not be allowed ; “ he 
 should mark me as an abolitionist.” I told him, 
 if I had the opportunity the effort would be 
 made. 
 
 CEASE AGITATING SLAVERY. 
 
 The American nation may be compared to a 
 building or temple on fire. Chattel slavery is 
 the fire consuming the building. The anti- 
 slavery men are running with engine and hose 
 to arrest the flames, and, if possible, to save the 
 
CEASE AGITATING SLAVERY. 101 
 
 building. Here comes a Southern pro-slavery 
 man, as hoarse as if lie had wool in his throat, 
 and exclaims, “What is the matter here? Let 
 the fire alone ; it’s none of your business ! So 
 clear yourselves !” “ But it is our business,” 
 
 reply the antislavery men. “ The fire will not 
 only consume the southern portion of the 
 building, but will spread to the northern part, 
 and burn us all out of house and home.” “ No 
 danger of this,” says a northern pro-slavery man, 
 choked up with cotton. “ Let it alone, and 
 slavery will die out of itself; agitation only 
 makes it worse ; the more water you pour on it, 
 the fiercer it burns, because it is like no other 
 kind of fire in the universe.” Other kinds of 
 fire may be quenched with water, all other sub- 
 jects may be agitated, but this must not be 
 disturbed. If you wish to put down swearing, 
 you must preach against it. If you wish to 
 put down drunkenness, you must hold up the 
 evil effects of intoxication. If a merchant 
 wants to sell goods, he must advertise in the 
 newspapers. Every thing must be agitated but 
 slavery. Just let it alone, and it will increase 
 at the rate of 100,000 slaves yearly, or 1,000,000 
 9 * 
 
102 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 every ten years, and die out of itself, especially 
 in Texas ; and when the slave-trade is reopened 
 in Africa, and the Southern newspapers, books 
 
 ■ 
 
 and pulpits are teeming with arguments in its 
 defense, it will die out. 0 yes, it will die out 
 of itself ! 
 
 THE WHITE CROW. 
 
 Crows are very numerous in some of the 
 slave States, and are about as profitable to any 
 section of country as slavery itself. It was on 
 a cold, raw, winter afternoon, while visiting at 
 the house of a friend, that I was standing at 
 the window fronting a spacious yard. A large 
 flock of crows, apparently driven by hunger, 
 alighted near the window. My curiosity was 
 greatly excited at seeing a white bird among 
 them. I could not imagine what kind of bird - 
 it was. I perceived that it was of the same 
 size as the crows, and walked about the yard 
 and picked up its food in the same manner as 
 the other birds. I was satisfied that it was of 
 the same species. The gentleman of the house 
 came in, when I exclaimed, “ Here is a white 
 crow !” “ 0 yes/' said he, “ I often see it.” 
 
SLAVERY AND POPERY. 
 
 103 
 
 A genuine antislavery man is as easily dis- 
 tinguished among his fellow-citizens in the 
 slave States, as this white crow was among his 
 black companions. 
 
 SLAVERY AND POPERY. 
 
 The modem slave-trade on the western coast of 
 Africa originated in the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 Slavery on the continent of America is the 
 daughter of Rome. 
 
 “In 1442, Gonzales returned from a second 
 voyage of two years and a half, and brought 
 with him ten slaves and gold-dust. 
 
 “ This was the first gold, and these were the 
 first slaves ever taken from the western shore 
 of Africa, and may therefore be regarded as the 
 beginning of that inhuman traffic in men 
 which has continued with scarcely any inter- 
 ruption for more than four centuries. The 
 slaves were presented by Prince Henry to Pope 
 Martin the Fifth, who thereupon conferred upon 
 Portugal the right of possession and sovereignty 
 over all the country that might be discovered 
 between Cape Bojador and the East Indies. 
 
 “In accepting these slaves, the pope gave his 
 
104 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 sanction to the iniquitous transaction by which i 
 they were taken; but it would be difficult to 
 say whether he was guilty of greater injustice 
 in conferring upon Portugal territory over which 
 he had no jurisdiction, and which, as yet, had 
 been but partially discovered, or inhumanity in- 
 consigning the wffiole African race to perpetual 
 servitude.”* 
 
 The Portuguese, who have ever been the most I 
 devoted of Romanists, were the first to engage 
 in the bloody traffic, and will be the last to 
 abandon it. The spirit and laws that merci- 
 lessly consign men, women, and children to be 
 helpless chattels, are Popery in its blackest form. 
 
 A pro-slavery Protestant, of whatever creed, 
 is just as much opposed to liberty, and will 
 wage as bitter warfare against free discussion, as 
 any Romanist. There is as much liberty in ’ 
 Italy and Austria as in the extreme Southern 
 States of the American Union. 
 
 The author of the justly celebrated Kirwan’s 
 Letters exposed the abominations of Popery in 
 no very delicate language. If we mistake not, 
 he subsequently visited Italy and Rome with- 
 
 * “Western Africa,” by Wilson : p. 35. 
 
SLAVERY AND POPERY. 105 
 
 out any personal violence, and I presume he ex- 
 pressed himself freely against Romanism. If he 
 should ever, in his glowing language, picture 
 the heart-sickening and more vulgar abomina- 
 tions of chattel slavery, and afterward visit the 
 extreme South, it would be at his peril; his life 
 would be the forfeit for denouncing that hated 
 institution and defending human rights. Does 
 Romanism forbid the reading of the Protestant 
 Bible by the masses ? So does pro-slavery 
 Protestantism forbid the reading of the Bible by 
 the slaves. There is not an accusation that 
 can be sustained against Romanism which will 
 not hold good against pro-slavery ism. 
 
 Philip the Second, King of Spain, was one of 
 the most malignant and persecuting princes 
 which the Church of Rome has. ever held in 
 her communion. The Duke of Alva was a man 
 after his own heart. In the sixteenth century 
 Holland was the United States of Europe, com- 
 mercially. Protestantism found its way there. 
 Philip, claiming a right to govern these States 
 from his father, the emperor Charles the Fifth of 
 Germany, regarded these Protestants as heretics 
 in the church and traitors in the state; hence he 
 
106 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 authorized the Duke of Alva, his great general, 
 to put them to death by most cruel tortures. 
 But those men were charged with crime. We 
 handcuff men and sell them for no charge of 
 crime. Their very virtues and religion are sold 
 to the highest bidder ; and their obedience in all 
 things is assigned as the reason why they should 
 bring the highest price. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GOING IN DEBT. 
 
 Going in debt without a probability of pay- 
 ing frequently brings many sorrows. One of 
 the earliest lessons that my father instilled into 
 my mind was, to be cautious about contracting 
 debts, and to live within my income. Slavery 
 begets a carelessness in business, and this care- 
 lessness begets loss of credit and ruin of 
 character. Some of the aristocracy regard it 
 as almost an insult to demand the settlement 
 of an account under six or twelve months. 
 The rich slaveholder often lives beyond his 
 means, and his extravagance falls heavily upon 
 the mechanics and merchants who did his work 
 and furnished his goods on credit. If he is a 
 slaveholder, and engages in the sports of the 
 South, the fox-hunt and the gaming-table will 
 swallow up his cash; the merchant must wait, 
 the mechanic may have no means of buying 
 
 ( 107 ) 
 
108 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 comforts for his family, and the half-fed slave; 
 may go unclad. _ fa 
 
 THE FRIGHT. 
 
 w 
 
 Once, having returned to my native place fa 
 after an absence of several years, I was walk- 
 ing out alone, when a colored man, whom I had 
 known from my youth, approached me. My 
 heart swelled with joy, for the sight of him j 
 reminded me of bygone years. I soon per-; ] 
 ceived that he did not recognize me. So I sup-! 
 pressed my feelings, and feigned not to know 
 him, to see whether he would discover who I 
 was. I altered my voice, and asked his name. 
 He took off his hat, made a low bow, and seemed 
 confused. I could scarcely restrain my feelings. 
 
 I then asked him whether he was free, or a 
 slave. He said he was a slave. “ What is your- 
 master’s name?” He told me. 
 
 He still did not know me. I asked him if he 
 “ever knew a boy named John D. Long?” 
 His eyes brightened, and he exclaimed, “ Why, 
 is this Mass John Dixon ! Why, I did not know 
 you, Mass John. I am so glad to see you, Mass 
 John. You don’t know how bad I was scared 
 
 
THE FEIGHT. 
 
 109 
 
 ay lie ii I shay you. I took you to be a nigger- 
 buyer or kidnapper, Mass John.” 
 
 Poor felloAV ! If I bad thought that those 
 Avere his feelings, I Avould not have kept him 
 in suspense one moment. 
 
 Some pro-slavery orators say the negroes are 
 happy. Not quite so happy as the fox Avhen 
 the hounds are after him, though as happy as a 
 man Avalking a dark street in Netv York Avitk 
 money in his pocket, and Avho expects every 
 moment that he Avill be seized by some despe- 
 rado by the throat. The fact is, thousands of 
 slaA r es, Avhenever they see a stranger, think they 
 see an enemy in disguise. A sense of insecurity 
 is ahvays resting upon them. They distrust 
 eA'ery one, feeling that their patliAvay is upon 
 quicksand, A\ r liich may at any moment saaMIoav 
 them down. 
 
 "UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.” 
 
 “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is the “ Pilgrim’s Prog- 
 ress” of American literature. It struck sla- 
 very the heaviest blow it ever received from 
 one hand. It was astonishing hoAV extensively 
 it Avas read in the South. EA'ery one denounced 
 it. Some said it Avas “all a pack of lies.” Still 
 10 
 
110 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 all would read it. An intelligent slaveholder 
 was denouncing it in my presence. Said I, 
 “ Have you read it ?” “ No.” “ Do you get it, 
 
 and read it before you condemn it.” Pie pro- 
 mised to do so. Some time afterward I saw 
 him. “ Have you read 4 Uncle Tom’ ?” 44 Yes.” 
 
 “How did you like it?” “Well, I read it to 
 my wife and daughter, and we all cried. What 
 puzzled me most about 4 Uncle Tom’ was, how a 
 Northern woman could draw negro character to 
 life, and speak negro language to perfection !” 
 
 NEGRO-BUYERS. 
 
 Negro-Buyers — Negro- Traders — Georgia- Trad- 
 ers — Negro- Parcl lasers. By these four names 
 the dealers in human flesh are designated in 
 the South. 44 Georgia-trader” is a favorite title 
 among the slaves. I dare not trust myself to 
 describe the extent of my detestation of the 
 moral character and horrible occupation of this 
 class of men. No language is sufficiently strong 
 to paint them in their true colors. Paul uses 
 lansraaa'e, in reference to the old Romans, that 
 comes nearest to that which my subject requires, 
 when he says that they were 44 filled with all 
 
XE6E0-BUTERS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covet- 
 i ousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, 
 malignity, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
 
 ! without natural affection, implacable, unmer- 
 | ciful.” What the captain of a slave-ship is on 
 i the ocean these men are on the land. To this 
 . day, when I see one of them, a strange sensa- 
 tion thrills me, and mv love of human nature 
 is weakened. To the slave population they 
 i are regarded as the impersonation of Satan. 
 When slave mothers wish to keep their children 
 quiet, they threaten them with the negro-buyer ; 
 and when one of these men is seen riding up to 
 the master’s house by the slaves, terror settles 
 on the faces of all the poor creatures. They 
 feel as much alarmed as a hen and her chickens 
 when a hawk flies over a barn-yard. And well 
 -they may ! Negro-buyers respect ministers 
 of the Gospel who hate slavery ; and it is my 
 opinion that they have the utmost contempt for 
 those preachers who contend that chattel slavery 
 is right. No man knows better than the negro- 
 buyer the awful sin of slavery. And could you 
 see the terrible death-bed scenes of these men, 
 you wmuld think so too. If I believed that to 
 
112 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 sustain tlie relation of owner and slave was not 
 a sin, I should regard these men as gentlemen. 
 I should welcome them to the pews of our 
 churches. If it is no sin in an Ohio farmer to 
 raise hogs and horses for the eastern market, 
 it is no sin in any man to buy these hogs and 
 horses, and collect them in droves and sell 
 them in our cities. If it is no sin to hold men 
 as horses, it is no sin to sell them; and the 
 man who collects them in droves commits no 
 sin. It is therefore wrong in pro-slavery church 
 members to treat them with disrespect, and to 
 speak contemptuously of their calling. These 
 men are benefactors; they take away the 
 surplus stock of negro chattels; and provide 
 masters with ready money, which enables them 
 to build churches, to contribute to Bible, Tract, 
 and Missionary Societies — to visit Saratoga, 
 Cape May, the Virginia Springs and Newport — 
 to support pro-slavery preachers, Bible agents, 
 and political and religious newspapers ! 
 
 THE FATE OF NANCY. 
 
 The first official relation I ever sustained in 
 the M. E. Church was leader of a colored class. 
 
THE FATE OF X A X C T. 
 
 113 
 
 A young colored slave girl, whom I shall call 
 Nancy, was a member of my class. She had 
 been brought up in the house, by her old and 
 young mistresses, who had taken special care 
 of her religious training. Her virtue was above 
 suspicion. She was sold under the following 
 circumstances : — 
 
 A man who had married into the family took 
 it upon himself to sell her, without the know- 
 ledge or consent of her mistresses. The girl was 
 waylaid and brought over the Ferry to a house 
 near my residence, to await the coming of the 
 negro-buyer. The colored people heard of it, 
 and gave the alarm. I started for the house 
 to see if it were Nancy. I found the house 
 guarded, but, without asking permission, walked 
 in — and, 0 horrible ! Here was this Christian 
 girl, walking up and down the room, crying, 
 and wringing her hands. When she saw me, 
 she exclaimed: “0, Master John ! (slaves will 
 call you master, whether you desire it or not,) 
 I am sold ! I am sold ! My mistresses don’t know 
 that I am sold; I know they don’t. 0 that I 
 could only see them once more and bid them 
 10 * 
 
114 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 farewell. They won’t let me get my clothes. ^ 1 
 0! I am sold! I am sold! What shall I do!” 
 
 I said, “Nancy, put your trust in the Lord.” 
 
 I could say no more. ^ I left her. The sight was 
 unendurable. I went to the man who guarded * e 
 her, and said : “ Sir, though there is no human 
 law to punish you for selling this girl, yet God 
 will punish you at the Day of Judgment.” He ? 
 hung his guilty head, and said not a word. She £ 
 was soon gone to the county town. When she ! ' 
 arrived at Richmond, Ya., she procured the ser- 
 vice of some one to write me a letter, stating 
 that she was on her way South; and thanking 
 me for my kindness, and asking me to pray for ■ 
 her, and give her love to all her friends, and to 
 bid them farewell. This was the last we ever 
 heard of poor Nancy. 
 
 One of her young mistresses has since died, 
 with a blessed hope of immortality. 
 
 I have often asked myself the question-; “Does 
 Nancy still live? Is she now a coarse, vulgar 
 field hand, on some rice-swamp or sugar-planta- 
 tion ? Is she the finely dressed mistress of some 
 haughty atheist? Or has she died broken- 
 
THE CONVERSION. 
 
 115 
 
 hearted, and rejoined her mistress in the bosom 
 of their common Saviour?” 
 
 Though we live in a land dotted with post- 
 offices, and above our heads is a net-work of 
 telegraph wires, yet by neither is any message 
 of love sent or brought from the poor slave sold 
 from one State to another. They who sell them 
 wish to forget them, like the sons of Jacob who 
 sold their brother Joseph into Egypt; and those 
 who buy them endeavor to make the slave for- 
 get the associations of his youth as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 THE CONVERSION. 
 
 The following is the only instance that ever 
 came under my notice of a clear conversion by 
 the reading of the Word of God alone. A young 
 slave was very ill in the kitchen adjoining the 
 dwelling of his master. He was so much 
 alarmed on account of his sins, and by the 
 prospect of death, that he would hold on to his 
 mother, and would not consent for her to leave 
 his bedside. A good brother informed me of his 
 condition, and requested me to see him ; and I 
 asked the brother why lie did not go and pray 
 
116 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 for him. He said that he was afraid of his 
 master, who was violently opposed to religion. 
 
 I immediately felt it my duty to see him. 
 Then came the fear of man. Here was a struggle. 
 The cross was heavy. I went, hoping that the 
 master might be away; but he was at home. 
 
 I entered the kitchen, and lest I might awaken 
 the anger of the master, I did not attempt to 
 sing or pray. I took my Testament, and draw- 
 ing near the dying man, read a part of the third 
 chapter of St.John’s Gospel. When I read the 
 sixteenth verse: “For God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in him should not perish but; 
 have everlasting life,” his soul drank it in with 
 an attention and eagerness which I have never 
 witnessed. I read the verse again and again, 
 and left him. Before I reached home he was 
 happy in the Saviour’s love. He told his 
 mother that she could leave him; he was ready 
 and willing to die. 
 
 I saw him on the following Sabbath, and love, ' 
 hope, and joy gleamed from his countenance.! 
 He slept in Jesus. Despite the power of the 
 slave-breeder, who labors to reduce the sons and; 
 
THE THREATENED LAWSUIT. 
 
 117 
 
 laughters of our heavenly F ather to brute beasts, 
 the Christian slave, when dying, can exclaim, 
 
 “How can it be, thou heavenly King, 
 
 That thou shouldst me to glory bring ; 
 
 Make a slave a partner of thy throne, 
 
 Decked with a never-fading crown !” 
 
 How different the end of this Christian slave 
 from that of liis proud, haughty, and despotic 
 master. It was said that the last word that fell 
 from the lips of the master was a horrid oath, 
 addressed to a body-servant. He was struck 
 speechless, and soon expired. Thousands of 
 slaveholders die awful deaths. And no wonder, 
 when the blood and tears of mothers, infants, 
 orphans, fathers, brothers and sisters cry to 
 Heaven against them. 
 
 THE THREATENED LAWSUIT. 
 
 The laws in the slave States regard the mar- 
 riage of slaves as a farce, as an unmeaning j um- 
 ble of words, and of no more binding force than 
 if the ceremony were performed over so many 
 beasts of the field. Their marriage does not 
 diminish the power of the master; he can sepa- 
 rate and sell the husband and wife at any time 
 
118 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 lie pleases. Yet, strange to say, if a minister 
 marries a slave in Maryland, without the con- 
 sent of his owner, he is liable to a heavy fine. 
 
 A slave had obtained a forged certificate, pur- 
 porting to be from his master, and I married 
 him. Supposing the paper to be genuine, and 
 that its preservation was not important, I care- 
 lessly used it, a few mornings afterward, in 
 kindling a fire. But what an error ! The mas- 
 ter sent word to me that I had married his 
 servant without his consent, and that I must 
 prepare for court. A friend interposed, and the 
 enraged master was persuaded to abandon the 
 suit. 
 
 With shame I must inform the reader that 
 the man who threatened to arraign me before 
 the county court was a member of the M. E. 
 Church, on an adjoining circuit; and was con- 
 sidered so much of a saint that a house of wor- 
 ship in his neighborhood was named after him. 
 The man whom he sent to warn me was an in- 
 solent negro-driver in his employ. I suppose 
 this negro-breeding Methodist had heard that I 
 had organized a Sabbath-scliool for colored chil- 
 
THE THREATENED LAWSUIT. 
 
 119 
 
 dren on my circuit, and was anxious to get 
 some excuse to wreak his vengeance on me. 
 
 I sent word to him that, if he sued me, I 
 (would have him tried in the church for going 
 to law with me before preferring a charge 
 against me to the Presiding Elder or the Annual 
 Conference. Possibly this helped to prevent 
 the execution of his threat. 
 
 Masters seldom attach any importance to the 
 [marriage of their slaves. This is shown by re- 
 fusing to give the slave money to pay his mar- 
 riage fee. I have married scores, and have 
 never received but one dollar from these poor 
 creatures during my whole ministry. And these 
 slaves have principally belonged to professedly 
 religious masters in the M. E. Church. My 
 opinion is, that the clergyman who believes 
 chattel slavery well-pleasing in the sight of God, 
 and who justifies the master in separating hus- 
 band and wife, ought not to marry slaves. If 
 he does, he must do it under the impression 
 that the master is equal in authority with the 
 Deity, or that the Lord of Heaven and Earth 
 contradicts himself. 
 
120 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 JOSEPH SMITHERS. 
 
 Joseph Smithers was a native of Delaware ei 
 and died in Dover in 1854 or ’5, aged, I suj a 
 pose, in the absence of positive record, abou e 
 55 years. He was a local preacher in the M 
 E. Church, and was at one time a member ol i 
 the Senate of Delaware. I had not seen lain 
 for three years previous to his death. I becam<i i 
 acquainted with him in 1844, and our acquaint' 1 
 ance soon ripened into friendship. I never left 
 his presence without feeling that I was a bette] 
 man. The hours that we spent together ir 
 religious meetings and under his roof loom up 
 among the pleasant memories of my life. There 
 were many in Delaware who w r ere his superiors 
 in acquired knowledge ; but there were few, 
 greater in native intellect, and not one who had 
 a nobler moral constitution. His was an iron! 
 will. He looked at every thing through the 
 medium of his conscience. Whenever he came 
 to the conclusion that any thing was right, that 
 it was according to the law of God, that it was 
 beneficial to society, he would stand by it, 
 though friends and foes, in church and state, 
 
JOSEPH SIITHERS. 
 
 121 
 
 all combined against it. He was the chief 
 apostle of temperance in Kent County, Del. He 
 r : espoused the cause when it was young, feeble, 
 ft and unpopular.. He would go out into the for- 
 I ests and highways, and hold meetings, in order 
 I' to elevate the poor and the despised. He was 
 retiring and unassuming in his manners, and 
 ■ kind and gentle in private life. There was 
 nothing haughty or dictatorial in his conversa- 
 tion. He was small in stature, with an open, 
 
 : frank countenance ; his fine blue eye indicated 
 honesty and purity. He was not a man of 
 policy or cunning. Being in easy circumstan- 
 1 ces, he devoted several of the last years of his 
 life to moral and religious objects. His services 
 were in great demand as a temperance speaker ; 
 and he had but few equals on this subject. His 
 'health was taxed to the utmost, suffering, as he 
 did, from a pulmonary affection. Had you wished 
 to see this gentle man converted into a lion, you 
 should have gone to a temperance convention, 
 and seen some talented speaker oppose a favor- 
 ite measure; his lip would quiver, his eye would 
 flash fire, and, after speaking a few minutes in 
 scathing language, he would regain his usual 
 11 
 
122 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 equable temper; then there would flow from his 
 lips words that would enchain an audience in , 
 rapt attention. 
 
 The Hon. Henry M. Ridgely, formerly United ' . 
 States Senator from Delaware, and one of the 
 finest scholars in the State, invited me to make 
 his house my home occasionally, during my 
 stay in Dover Circuit. In one of my visits, the 
 conversation turned on Mr. Smithers, when Mr. 
 Ridgely remarked that he was opposed to Mr. 
 Smithers in politics, yet he considered him a 
 good and great man ; that such was the confi- 
 dence reposed in his judgment and integrity, 
 that cases were often taken out of court and 
 left to him for arbitration. 
 
 At that time, I thought Mr. Ridgely over- 
 rated his intellect; but further acquaintance 
 with Mr. Smithers proved to my mind the 
 correctness of Mr. Ridgely ’s judgment. He was 
 among that class of preachers who enter the 
 local ministry merely as a means of doing good 
 to the bodies and souls of men. He was willing 
 to take the lowest seat in the synagogue. It 
 was enough for him to have the smile and appro- 
 bation of Heaven. The following anecdote is 
 
JOSEPH SMITH EES. 
 
 123 
 
 characteristic of Mr. Smithers. It was related to 
 me bj- a brother in the Methodist Church, who 
 was also a member of the Senate of Delaware 
 when Mr. Smithers belonged to that body. It 
 seems that a bill had passed the lower house 
 granting to some company the privilege of 
 establishing lotteries throughout the State. Mr. 
 Smithers was its great opponent in the Senate. 
 The upper house was divided. The gentleman 
 who related to me the circumstance said he 
 was conscientiously opposed to lotteries, but' 
 found his better judgment beginning to give 
 way through considerations of policy. Mr. 
 Smithers entreated the Senate not to pass it. 
 During one of his vigorous speeches, he fixed 
 his eye on his wavering brother, and exclaimed 
 with great emphasis, “ What shall it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul ?” The shaft told. From that moment 
 the brother determined to vote against the bill ; 
 and it failed in the Senate. 
 
 In almost the last conversation I had with 
 Mr. Smithers, he expressed to me his abhorrence 
 of chattel slavery. 
 
 Joseph Smithers is not “dead, but sleepeth.” 
 
124 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SLAVERY AND INFIDELITY. 
 
 The infidelity existing at this time in the E 
 United States, in its outward manifestations, is 
 not the abusive, vulgar, and blasphemous in- 
 fidelity of Louis the Fifteenth of France or 
 Charles the Second of England, nor such as the 
 disciples of Paine once exhibited in this country. 
 The infidels of the present day are wiser and 
 better than their fathers. Their unbelief is 
 more secret, cautious, and circumspect. One 
 great cause of the infidelity in our nation is 
 chattel slavery. 
 
 The unbelief of our couniry may, for con- 
 venience, be distributed into two principal 
 divisions : — 
 
 I. That of the free States. The cultivated in- 
 fidels of the free States are equal, perhaps, in 
 education, to the same class in France or 
 England, and perhaps their superiors in private 
 morality. Many of them are sincere in promoting 
 the cause of temperance and human freedom. 
 Seeing professed ministers of the Gospel, in 
 their midst, teaching that slavery is not incon- 
 sistent with the principles of the Christian 
 
SLAVERY AND INFIDELITY. 
 
 125 
 
 religion, they embrace scepticism; for the very 
 instinct of their nature teaches them that 
 slavery is wrong. 
 
 II. That of the slave States. The infidels of 
 these States may be subdivided into two classes 
 — the masters and the slaves. I believe there 
 are more secret infidels among slaveholders 
 than among any other class of men, according 
 to their numbers, in the Christian world. They 
 do not show it by special avowal, or by writing 
 against the Bible, as a general thing, but by 
 total indifference to the moralities and duties of 
 religion. 
 
 .. A Southern infidel, making great pretensions 
 to intellectual ability, once remarked to me, 
 “ that he considered religion good enough for 
 negroes, but Christianity was not adapted to 
 cultivated men.” You will not find many edu- 
 cated Southern men avow these sentiments 
 publicly ; but, if you judge by their neglect of 
 the Sabbath, making it a day of feasting and 
 for reading and discussing politics, you will infer 
 that they consider it intended to be kept sacred 
 only by the poor whites and the negroes. 
 
 When ministers cease to defend chattel 
 11 * 
 
126 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 slavery, and refuse to acknowledge it to be a 
 divine institution, then even religion will not be 
 good enough for the negroes, and they will be 
 denied the free worship of the Great Eternal. 
 Slavery makes infidels of the masters thus : 
 The large slaveholder demands and receives 
 implicit obedience from his human chattels. 
 This servile obedience fills him with pride and 
 self-esteem. He soon begins to imagine himself 
 a god on a small scale. He begins to ask “ Who 
 is the God of Israel, that claims the homage of 
 my property ? They shall not be the Lord’s free- 
 men.” It was the pride engendered by absolute i 
 power that caused some of the Caesars, when at 
 the height of their glory, to build temples in 
 which to have themselves worshiped by the 
 Romans. 
 
 But there is infidelity among the slaves. 
 Many of these poor creatures become secret 
 infidels, doubting the sincerity of the white 
 preacher, and receiving for truth only so much 
 of his teachings as may seem consistent with 
 their views of justice. They sometimes listen 
 to a colonization agent, and go off and say : 
 
 “ There is no such place as Liberia. It is only 
 
 
SLAVERY AXD INFIDELITY. 
 
 but chattel slavery is polygamy in its wors, 
 form. 
 
 The divine command to “honor thy father 
 and thy mother,” is rendered void by slavery, 
 ■which annihilates the parental relation, making 
 the child honor his master, though, in so doing, 
 he may dishonor his parents, and set at naught 
 the laws of God. Where Popery prevails, it makes 
 secret infidels of the intellectual classes. Where 
 chattel slavery prevails, it does the same. At 
 least, this is the tendency of both institutions. 
 
 My opinion is that the clergy are more 
 respected as efficient police-officers, in the South, 
 than they are loved and honored as the ambas- 
 sadors of the “King of Kings and Lord of 
 Lords.” 
 
\ 
 
 !!0 
 
 * 
 
 I 1 
 
 ff 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AUNT PHILLIS. 
 
 Aunt Phillis died, in my native town, in the 
 fall of 1856, aged 83 years. She sustained a 
 membership of 65 years in the M. E. Church, 
 and died beholding the Lamb of God. She was 
 born a slave, and was sold to a second master, 
 of whom she bought herself. And all her 
 children became free except one. She was the 
 mother of “more bairns” than any other colored 
 woman in Worcester County. She was of pure 
 African descent. In her old age she was vener- 
 able; her hair white, and her eyes beaming with 
 good-will to all. Her mind was of a superior 
 order. She was a pattern of honesty, industry, ■ 
 meekness, and piety. Neither saint nor sinner 
 could bring aught against her character. Her > 
 religious enjoyments were uniform. I have seen | 
 her calm when all others were excited. And 
 when religion would ebb to its lowest point among ; 
 (130) 
 
AUNT PHILLIS. 
 
 181 
 
 aofessors, she was the same happy disciple of 
 Ihrist. 
 
 She enjoyed remarkable health. Every 
 sreacher that occupied the pulpit where she 
 vorshiped might expect that Aunt Phillis 
 vould be present, if ho one else was there. She 
 ived uear the town, in a neat little house, built 
 jy her husband. When I would return home, 
 sometimes after an absence of two or three 
 years, I would immediately hasten to greet her. 
 She was the only human being that I ever saw 
 Eat could always move me to tears. She had 
 the clearest of views of Christ’s love to a lost 
 world. It gave her the greatest pleasure to have 
 any one to read to her the New Testament. She 
 was the most devoted and pious colored woman 
 in all my acquaintance ; and I never expect to 
 see her like again. I would have esteemed it a 
 privilege to kneel side by side with her at the 
 Communion-table. 
 
 It is customary with all churches in the 
 South, so far as I know, to have grave-yards 
 connected with them. The veriest infidel or 
 drunken outcast in society would not be denied 
 burial, provided he had a white face, in any 
 
132 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Methodist grave-yard. He would be laid side 
 by side with the best member of the church, e 
 And of this I do not complain; I am glad that it 
 is so. But Aunt Phillis’s remains would not 
 have been permitted to be interred in any 
 Methodist grave-yard consecrated to the whites. 
 A white man may denounce, as an impostor , the ; 
 blessed Redeemer, and be buried with his ■ saints . 
 But this devout colored woman, serving the| i 
 Lord for 65 years, whose body was a temple of 
 the Holy Ghost, could not have been deposited i 
 in the same inclosure with white saints and 
 white scoffers, but must be buried in some old 
 field, like a dead horse. The master, in the 
 South, always provides a place for his slave’s; 
 body. But the free colored people are fre- 
 quently, in this respect, most painfully situated;: 
 like the heretics in some Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries, they have no place to bury their dead. Gen- 
 erally owning no land, their friends have to go 
 from land-owner to land-owner to beg the privi- 
 lege to bury the dead in the burying-grounds 
 of the slaves on the plantations. Free colored 
 Methodists are sometimes forced to beg the 
 
ADDRESS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 133 
 
 privilege of infidel land-owners for ground 
 enough to cover their departed loved ones. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. , of Town in Mary- 
 
 land, a minister in the Episcopal Church, sets a 
 [good example to all Christians in this respect. 
 
 He has the colored members of his church buried 
 among his white members, with beautiful trees . 
 planted over their graves. He is the only ex- 
 ception to this ride I have ever known. 
 
 When I think that Aunt Phillis was once 
 sold, like a cow or a horse, I hate slavery more 
 than ever. 
 
 TO THE YOUNG MINISTERS OF THE M. E. 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Dear Brethren : 
 
 Sutfer a word of exhortation from one who 
 has been compelled, by disease, in the prime of 
 life, to return to comparative obscurity from 
 active co-operation in your labors. It is painful 
 to listen to the cannon’s roar, and to the shouts 
 of victory, without being able to participate in 
 the battles that are going on ; but I will rejoice 
 in your moral triumphs, and pray while you 
 labor. The college in which I graduated was 
 ■12 
 
134 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 a log school-house ; my theological companion 
 was my saddle-bags ; and my text-books the Bi- 
 ble, the Hymn-book, and the Discipline. Yet 
 I rejoice at the greater facilities which the 
 church is offering to her young preachers for 
 acquiring the knowledge of those languages in 
 which the Scriptures were originally written. 
 I am inspirited at the sight of her academies, 
 her private tutors, her colleges, and her schools. 
 I have ever considered it an affliction that, as 
 a minister of the Gospel, I could not read the 
 Word of God in the original tongues. 
 
 The men of this age and in this country live 
 under a greater weight of responsibility than 
 men of past ages. The powers of light and 
 darkness are marshalling their hosts on the 
 plains of America. The greatest battle ever 
 waged between liberty and slavery, Christianity 
 and infidelity, is now going on in the United 
 States of America. And now, brethren, we 
 beseech you, by the mercies of the Cross, that 
 you do not, directly or indirectly, attempt to 
 prove, from the Greek or the Latin, that one 
 man has a right, natural or divine, to own prop- 
 erty in another man ; that one member of the 
 
ADDRESS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 135 
 
 body of Christ lias a right to sell another mem- 
 ber of Christ’s body, and hold and reduce him 
 to a chattel or thing. Of all men under the 
 blue and starry heaven, the minister of Christ, 
 the disciple of Christ, should be the last to coun- 
 tenance fraud or oppression. 
 
 The doctrine that one man can hold property 
 in another, and voluntarily sustain to another 
 the relation of an irresponsible master, and yet 
 be a good Christian, is a magazine of powder 
 that will blow up every church organization 
 that holds it. It is the corrupt fountain whence 
 flows the separation of families ; which has given 
 rise to the African slave-trade ; which sustains 
 the slave-trade between the States; which leads 
 to kidnapping, and all the ignorance and moral 
 degradation that abound in the slave States. 
 Slavery is based on the doctrine that the 
 strong may oppress the weak; that might is 
 right. Once admit the abstract principle of 
 slavery, and where shall we stop ? The proud 
 Saxon may enslave the Negro, the Indian, the 
 Mexican, the Chinese, the Hindoo, the Span- 
 iard. But suppose, when we become rich and 
 effeminate, that the hardy negro should, like 
 
136 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the barbarians that conquered proud Rome, gei [\ 
 might on his side, would it be right for him tc 
 make slaves of us ? “ No,” we indignantly re- 
 
 ply. Then we assert that it is wrong, now and 
 forever, to enslave any individual, or any part 
 of the human race. The very fact of holding 
 a man as a slave is a gross insult to his man- 
 hood. The very name brands him with dis- 
 grace in the estimation of the world. We do 
 not admonish you to withdraw from your church 
 organization, but, by patient continuance in 
 bearing your testimony against the great evil, 
 to wipe out that blot from our Discipline which 
 allows private members to breed and hold slaves 
 for life. And, even when this is done, a great 
 work will remain to be accomplished in correct- 
 ing a vitiated public opinion in the North. 
 The M. E. Church has a glorious future before , 
 her, if she will, in the spirit of her Lord and 
 Master, more earnestly help to save the poor, 
 the halt, and blind, and the oppressed of every 
 class and color. 
 
 CHARLES CLAYTON. 
 
 The lion. Jno. M. Clayton, of Delaware, had 
 
CHARLES CLAYTON. 
 
 137 
 
 •two sons, bis only children, James and Charles. 
 'They both died as they entered manhood. The 
 •father has recently followed them to the spirit 
 land. Charles was talented and reserved. His 
 father lavished upon him the wealth of his af- 
 [fections. He sent him to Paris and Rome to 
 j perfect his education. Soon after his return 
 home, consumption, that destroyer of so many 
 youthful prospects, settled upon him. The best 
 medical aid was called in requisition. He was 
 under the care of Dr. Cowper. Death approached 
 slowly, but with steady pace. I learned that 
 no minister of the Gospel had been to see him. 
 I was not personally acquainted with him or 
 his father, but was well acquainted with James. 
 Impressed with the conviction that I ought to 
 visit him, and present to his mind the subject 
 .of religion, I determined to make the attempt. 
 Discouraging thoughts arose in my mind. How 
 did I know that a visit to the } 7 oung man would 
 be acceptable from a stranger ? The father also 
 might be displeased at the intrusion of a stran- 
 ger upon the privacy of his son. I could get 
 no one to introduce me. I knew that Mr. Clay- 
 ton would receive me politely as a visitor ; but 
 12 * 
 
J38 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I feared that my object would be displeasing, 
 and my message rejected or disregarded. f 
 
 With many fears, I walked from a neighbor’s ® 
 house, and arrived at the home of Mr. Clayton s' 
 just before his dinner hour. I rang the bell, r; 
 supposing that a servant would come to the J 
 door, and hoping that James might be at home, « 
 who would inform me of the probability of an i 
 interview with his brother. But, to my sur- i 
 prise, Mr. Clayton came to the door himself. I 1 
 introduced myself to him as best I could, but 
 did not inform him that I was a minister. The I 
 period of my visit was soon after General Tay- i 
 lor’s election ; and a political friend of Mr. Clay- 
 ton was on a visit at his house. Contrary to 
 my expectation, he invited me into the parlor, 
 and introduced me to his friend. Strange feel- 
 ings came over me at that hour. What to do, 
 or what to say, or how explain the object of my 
 visit, I knew not. Mr. Clayton was scanning 
 me, and probably thinking I was some politician 
 seeking office. He asked what was the news. 
 
 I told him I knew of none. This seemed to 
 confuse him ; he took up his newspapers, and 
 threw them down. The conversation between 
 
CHARLES CLAYTON. 
 
 139 
 
 himself and his friend ceased. His eye scanned 
 me more closely, and it seemed that he could 
 not make up his mind concerning me. My po- 
 sition was exceedingly unpleasant. The perspi- 
 ration was gathering in drops upon my brow. 
 Just at that critical moment, his son James 
 came into the room, greeted me kindly, and in- 
 vited me to his apartment. I told him my busi- 
 ness. He remarked that the servant had taken 
 his brother Charles to ride, and would soon be 
 back ; that Charles did not converse much, as it 
 hurt him to talk. The brother soon returned, 
 when I was introduced to him, and politely re- 
 ceived. Dinner was ready, but I had dined at 
 the old-fashioned hour of twelve o’clock. I 
 begged to be left alone, and the young men re- 
 tired to their dining-room. While there, I sup- 
 pose James informed his brother who I was, 
 and what was the nature of my visit. I was 
 planning how r I should approach Charles upon 
 the subject of religion ; and while thus absorbed 
 in thought, I felt an arm affectionately laid 
 about me. I turned, and it was Charles Clay- 
 ton, who addressed me thus : “Sir, I cannot bear 
 to see you alone ; I cannot eat unless you come 
 
140 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and sit with us at the table.” I told him that, j® 
 for his gratification, I would do as he wished. 
 Soon after I was seated at table, he started the | c 
 subject of Romanism. He said that he had seen ® 
 it at head-quarters at Rome; that the cardinals 
 were proud and haughty ; and that he disliked 
 the whole system. He added that, in 'his doc- I 
 trinal views, he was a Methodist from convic- i 
 tion. This remark placed me at ease, and I i 
 felt at liberty to speak freely. 
 
 After dinner, he invited me to his private | 
 chamber. He took up a Bible, and said that a j 
 kind lady friend had presented it to him. He 
 then requested me to select some chapters 
 suitable to his condition. I did so, and among 
 others, the eighth chapter of Romans. He 
 pulled my chair up to his, and I saw, from the 
 tremulous tear in his eye, that this motherless - 
 and sisterless young man w r anted to unburthen 
 a sin-bleeding heart to some one that could tell 
 him what he must do to be saved. I encouraged 
 him to relate his experience. He told me that 
 his heavenly Father had convinced him of the 
 vanity of all earthly honors and pleasures; that 
 he believed he should die ; that he had no desire 
 
CHARLES CLAYTON. 
 
 141 
 
 whatever to get well; that he feared, if he 
 should recover, that, such were the worldly asso- 
 ciations surrounding him, his present impressions 
 might be effaced ; and that he would rather die 
 than that this should be the case. I told him 
 that what he needed was the divine assurance 
 that God, for Christ’s sake, had pardoned his 
 sins, and that he was a son of God ; that he 
 must not trust in any thing but the merits of 
 Christ; that he must look to the Saviour with 
 a child-like faith. “ Yes,” said he, “ this is just 
 what I want.” And the tears gushed from his 
 eye. 
 
 I asked if I should sing and pray with him. 
 “ If you please,” was the prompt reply. I sang : 
 
 “ Other knowledge I disdain : 
 
 ’Tis all but vanity ; 
 
 Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain : 
 
 He tasted death for me. 
 
 Me to save from endless woe 
 The sin-atoning victim died. 
 
 Only Jesus will I know, 
 
 And Jesus crucified.” 
 
 We knelt in prayer, and I committed the 
 young man to God and the word of his grace. 
 
142 
 
 PICTUBES OF SLAVEKY. 
 
 Before leaving, I went into the parlor to bid 
 Mr. Clayton good-by. He had ascertained that 
 my visit was agreeable to Charles, and I never 
 saw a father more delighted. He insisted that 
 I should come often, and ordered his carriage to 
 be brought that his servant might take me 
 home. I declined, stating that I was not ac- 
 customed to riding in such carriages, that I had 
 walked there and could walk back to the friend’s 
 house where I was staying. Charles insisted 
 on walking a short distance with me, expressing 
 his gratitude for my visit, and entreating me 
 to see him as often as I could. He pressed my 
 hand for the last time. A short time afterward* 
 he left for Havana, and died among strangers' 
 soon after his arrival in that city. 
 
 There was hope in his death. I related the 
 incidents of my visit to the late Rev. James - 
 Smith, my presiding elder, and he thought that 
 I ought to publish them in the newspapers. I 
 thought not. I feared that some might impute 
 an unworthy motive to me as the cause of my 
 visit. 
 
 The elder Mr. Clayton is now gone to another 
 world, and I feel at liberty to give the facts of the 
 
SLAVERY X ORESPECTER OF PERSONS. 143 
 
 :ase. I always differed from him on two sub- 
 jects — temperance and slavery. 
 
 SLAVERY NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. 
 
 I have observed that the man who will hold a 
 Congo negro in slavery will hold a mulatto and 
 a quadroon; and the man that will hold a 
 quadroon, would hold a white man in slavery, 
 if the law allowed it. The old Romans teach 
 us this lesson. Their slaves were of all colors 
 — the classical Greek, the jet-black African, and 
 the blue-eyed German. 
 
 It is as much a crime to hold an African in 
 slavery as to hold an Englishman, Irishman, or 
 American. Slavery tends to destroy the love 
 of liberty in the white man, and even to lessen 
 the love one has for his native place. No 
 matter where a true son of New England goes, 
 he loves and cherishes his early home. He 
 contributes his money, wherever he may reside, 
 to build colleges, schools, asylums, churches, 
 and libraries in his native county, town, or 
 State. 
 
 Now Maryland and Delaware have sent their 
 sons South and West, some of whom have 
 
144 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 amassed fortunes as doctors, lawyers, and mer- t 
 chants ; but who ever heard of their building a i 
 college, school, church, or library, as a tribute - 
 of love and respect for their native town or i 
 county. Why ? These flourish only on free soil. , 
 
 If they go South, they see the same manners, ; 
 customs, and institutions prevail as in their 
 native place. If they go to a free State they 
 begin to feel ashamed of the peculiar institution. ; 
 An intelligent Southern man remarked to me 
 once that “ he always felt ashamed of his native 
 State when he traveled North, especially in 
 Massachusetts, where every thing looked so 
 thriving, and the people appeared so intelligent.” 
 
 SLAVERY ONCE UNPROFITABLE. 
 
 From 1820 to 1830, slaves were very cheap. 
 
 A young negro man would only bring from two j 
 to three hundred dollars. A colored woman 
 could be hired for eighteen dollars per annum; 
 a colored man for thirty or forty dollars per 1 
 year. Now a person of the same class will sell 
 for from 1000 to 1500 dollars, and is hired at '.i 
 from 30 to 100 dollars per year. 
 
 It passed into a proverb that the hogs ate the 
 
THE INTERNAL SLAVE-TRADE. 145 
 
 corn, the negroes ate the hogs, and the master 
 ate the negroes. 
 
 The negro was the sure crop, though he sold 
 cheap. If the master wanted to build a new 
 house, he sold one or two negroes. If he bought 
 a fine carriage, poor Sambo had to look out. If 
 he got pushed for money, his hope lay in the 
 quarter. But when the virgin soils of Missouri, 
 Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, and Texas opened, 
 and cotton took a rise, then negroes went up. 
 
 If slaves were as cheap now as they were 30 
 years ago, the South would scarcely thank you for 
 a fugitive slave law. Hundreds of slaveowners 
 would give you all you wanted to get them out 
 of the way. It is not true that the abolitionist 
 has retarded emancipation in the South. The 
 change of sentiment is due to the augmented 
 . demand for cotton, sugar, and tobacco. 
 
 THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 “And to conclude, I here register my testimony against 
 the unprincipled, inhuman, antichristian, and diabolical 
 slave-trade, with all its authors, promoters, abettors, and 
 sacrilegious gains, as well as the great Devil, the father 
 of it and them.” — Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the 
 New Testament. 
 
 13 
 
146 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Whatever may be said against kidnapping 
 the natives on the west coast of Africa, and 
 selling them to the North American States, 
 may be charged against the internal slave-trade 
 of the American Union. Indeed, the latter is 
 far more odious, inhuman, and antichristian. 
 This will appear from several considerations. 
 Who are the subjects of the African slave-trade ? 
 Heathens, idolaters, barbarians, and strangers. 
 Who supplies the subjects of this trade? Out- 
 laws and pirates, by the laws of nations, and by 
 the laws of this great Republic; men whose 
 home is on the u ocean wave;” who sneak amid 
 the marshes and jungles of a tropical clime, 
 where the anaconda, the tiger, and the lion 
 crouch. Who are the subjects of the American 
 or internal slave-trade? Women who wiped 
 the cold sweat from the languid and pale faces 
 of our mothers when they suffered the pangs of 
 our nativity; mothers whose juicy breasts have 
 nourished the very men who sell them to the 
 slave-trader; Christian husbands and wives, 
 married by the ministers of the everlasting 
 Gospel in the name of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Spirit; brothers sold by brothers in 
 
LETTER TO GENERAL TILQHMAN. 14 
 
 church relationship; children sold by their 
 fathers, and sisters by their brothers. This 
 abomination of abominations is perpetrated in 
 sight of our school-houses and our churches; in 
 sight of our grave-yards and our cemeteries; at 
 the doors of our courts of justice and our halls 
 of legislation. Yes, more than this: in sight 
 of the Capitol of this Second Roman Empire, 
 enlarged and improved, whose proud eagles hold 
 in their iron claws 4,000,000 of human chattels. 
 Who furnishes the subjects for this inhuman 
 traffic ? Those who suffer their slaves to be sold 
 ; for their debts, or, dying, leave them to be sold 
 I by their children. He who condemns the 
 African slave-trade must condemn the internal 
 slave-trade; and he who condemns the internal 
 traffic must condemn the fountain that feeds it. 
 
 A LETTER TO GENERAL TENCH TILGHMAN. 
 Dear Sir {* 
 
 You are a native, and a distinguished 
 citizen of Talbot county, Md., a county for 
 which the God of nature has done almost 
 every thing. The best idea which a stranger 
 can form of this portion of Maryland is to 
 
148 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 imagine a thousand small islands connected 
 together by small necks of land, and these 
 islands indented in every direction by clear salt- 
 water rivers and streams, winding their course i 
 through green wheat fields, up to nearly every 
 man’s dwelling; and these rivers abounding in 
 fish, terrapins, oysters, and water-fowl. And,, 
 were it not for the curse of slavery, lands that 
 now sell for forty and sixty dollars per acre 
 would bring from one hundred and fifty to two | 
 hundred dollars per acre. I have often admired j 
 your beautiful residence near the ancient town 
 of Oxford, on the Third Haven River. Not far 
 from your place lies all that is mortal of the 
 father of the celebrated Robert Morris, the great 
 financier of the American Revolution. Borrow- 
 ing a term from the “ Old Dominion,” it can be 
 said of you that you belong to the “ first 
 families” of Maryland. 
 
 Deem it not flattery when I say that I regard 
 your mind, independent of culture, as one of the 
 first class. It has received that discipline and 
 polish which should be expected from the 
 National Military Academy at West Point, of j 
 which you are a graduate. I believe that there 
 is no one man that has so much public spirit 
 
LETTER TO GENERAL TILGHMAN. 149 
 
 and energy as yourself in tilings pertaining to 
 the material development of the Eastern Shore 
 of Maryland. To your exertions the Military 
 Academy at Oxford owes its existence. In the 
 face of opposition the most discouraging, you 
 projected, and are now prosecuting to completion, 
 the Maryland and Delaware Railroad. It will 
 be a proud monument to your memory. This 
 road will wake up the “old fogies,” will drive 
 the lazy white loafers further South, will bring 
 in its neighborhood a number of energetic 
 farmers and gardeners, and will promote the 
 interest of the poor whites by stimulating com- 
 mon schools, and, what is best of all, religion. 
 Whoever blesses and benefits my native State 
 shall have my gratitude. I have no personal 
 acquaintance with you ; and, for all I know, you 
 may desire to have none with an obscure 
 Methodist Preacher, especially one who believes 
 slavery to be a gigantic curse to any people — 
 morally, socially, religiously, agriculturally, and 
 politically. Eor you, personally, I have the 
 kindest of feelings. Nevertheless, regarding you 
 as a public man, I have somewhat against you. 
 
 You were appointed by the Governor of 
 
 ' 13 * 
 
150 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Maryland, to attend the late Southern Con- 
 vention held in Richmond, Va. You were 
 president of that Convention, and delivered a 
 speech during its session. In that speech, you 
 uttered, in substance, the following sentiment : 
 “ That the 'perpetuity of the Union depends upon 
 the perpetuity of slavery .” Stepping from the 
 political forum to the pulpit, you announced 
 that “ chattel slavery is in harmony with the 
 Christian religion ; that the African is better 
 off in a state of slavery than freedom.” I was 
 grieved to see such sentiments emanate from 
 such a man ; but what was still more painful 
 to me, all the papers of your native State, which 
 published your speech, gave them their warm 
 approval. Your doctriue cuts off at one stroke 
 all hope of emancipation, immediate or pro- 
 spective, by colonization or otherwise. You have 
 indirectly cast reflections upon the framers of the 
 Constitution of the United States, who were so 
 much ashamed of slavery, and especially chattel 
 slavery, that, in the instrument of their creation, 
 property in man was alluded to, not by the 
 terms “things or chattels,” but by the words 
 “persons held to service.” Your doctrine directly 
 or indirectly assumes that every man is an abo- 
 

 LETTER TO GENERAL TILGHMAN. 151 
 
 litionist who believes that the tendency of the 
 Gospel is to bring about the abolition of slavery, 
 gradually or otherwise. And, sir, I believe 
 there are men in Maryland who, rather than 
 subscribe to your bill of slavery, will prefer to 
 be so designated. If it is a greater blessing to the 
 negro to be held in slavery in America than to be 
 freemen in Africa or America, then the African 
 slave-trade is a blessing; then the crew of a 
 slaver, so far from being pirates, are missionaries 
 of the Cross ; then the man w T ho kidnaps free 
 negroes in our midst is doing a good work. 
 
 These, we conceive, are the conclusions to be 
 drawn from your premises. I am an advocate 
 for the perpetuity of the American Union ; but 
 I also believe that chattel slavery will be 
 abolished, either by the slaveholders themselves, 
 or by the judgment of a righteous God. I 
 regard slavery as a great cancer, eating up the 
 body of the great Republic ; and as a wolf in 
 sheep’s clothing in the church. 
 
 Hoping that you may yet embrace antislavery 
 principles, and that your valuable life may be 
 long spared to your family and State, 
 
 I remain yours, with respect, 
 
 JNO. D. LONG. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 (i! 
 
 POPULAR PREACHERS IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 j jk 
 
 I haye never regarded these gentlemen with 
 other than feelings of pity. I have heard them 
 eulogized by slaveholders and politicians, and 
 have thought that they had paid dearly for 
 their popularity, because, whether intentionally 
 or not, they were on the side of the oppressor. 
 
 If John Summerfield were living, and dared to 
 preach against the sin of slavery, he would be 
 unpopular. If the great Wesley could leave 
 the tomb, and preach the sentiments that are 
 found in his tract on slavery, he would be 
 driven from the South by Southern Methodists. '• 
 The result of this state of things will be that 
 those ministers residing in the South, who are 
 opposed to slavery, will leave for the free States 
 and Territories ; and their places will be filled 
 by pro-slavery men from the North. And I 
 venture the prediction that, eventually, very 
 many conscientious antislavery men among the 
 ( 152 ) 
 

 POPULAR PREACHERS. 158 
 
 llaity will settle in the free States- — not from 
 fear of personal violence, but to escape the 
 taunts of the rabble, and petty annoyances from 
 the pro-slavery multitude. The Southern pulpit 
 already presents a sad and dreary aspect. Minis- 
 ters are not allowed to proclaim in it the whole 
 counsel of God. It affords an immense amount 
 of unprofitable preaching. The following inci- 
 dent has often occurred to my mind. A pro- 
 fessional gentleman from one of the slave States, 
 in attempting to describe, in my hearing, the 
 peculiar cast of mind of a distinguished Southern 
 politician, said that he would argue with you all 
 night on the question, “ whether or not an 
 angel could see in the dark.” 
 
 We fear that the Northern pulpit is not 
 altogether innocent in this matter. The poor 
 .slave has no sympathy from men who love ease, 
 money, or popularity, more than they love 
 holiness and heaven. 
 
 Pro-slavery preachers have the advantage, in 
 this world, over antislavery preachers. While 
 the former are received in the South with open 
 arms, they can come North and be caressed ; 
 but the latter are not acceptable in the slave 
 
154 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 States, nor very cordially welcomed on free! 
 soil, 
 
 GAMBLING. 
 
 Stealing is the taking of your money or othei 
 property without your consent. Gambling is 
 talcing your money by the chances of a game 
 without giving you an equivalent for it. It is 
 stealing under the protection of a social custom 
 considered equivalent to law. Gamblers by 
 profession are often men of fine natural abilities, 
 who have been brought up without an honorable 
 trade or profession. They abound most in those 
 States where labor is regarded as dishonorable. 
 
 Young men should never know the names of 
 cards. They should eschew their use, even in 
 amusement. Dealing in lottery-tickets is the 
 worst form of gambling. Many persons who 
 wrnuld never think of sitting down to a card- 
 table with a professed gambler will step slyly 
 into a lottery-office, and buy a ticket. I have 
 known professors of religion to engage in this 
 business. I hazard nothing in saying that it 
 has ruined thousands of young men and hun- 
 dreds of families. The State that encourages 
 lottery-gambling to augment its revenues is 
 
CHUKCH AND STATE. 
 
 155 
 
 enny-wise and pound-foolish. I have never 
 lassed without indignation, the lottery-offices in 
 Baltimore, where large figures are glaringly ex- 
 hibited to tempt the young and the weak to 
 win. 
 
 -CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 ; Leaving the free States out of the question, 
 Church and State are, in the Southern section 
 )f our Union, united in fact, though not in form, 
 )ii the subject of slavery. What the State 
 dictates to be done, or declares ought not to be 
 done, the churches decree. In Italy, the 
 phurch governs the State, and priests govern 
 both. In the South, the State governs the 
 church, and the politicians govern both. If any 
 minister of the Gospel attacks slavery in the 
 South, no matter how prudently, and the poli- 
 ticians determine that he is a dangerous member 
 of society, there is no church that would defend 
 him. If all the Presbyterians, Methodists, 
 Baptists, and Episcopalians of the South were 
 to unite, they could abolish slavery, or greatly 
 mitigate its evils. But they will not do it. 
 They sit as laymen in their quarterly confer- 
 ences, their presbyteries, and their conventions, 
 
156 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and argue that, admitting slavery to be an evil, 
 it is a civil institution, and as such the church 
 has nothing to do with it. These men, when 
 sent as representatives to their several Legis- 
 latures, help to make those very laws to per- 
 petuate chattel slavery, whose existence they 
 affect to deprecate as a bar to effective exertion 
 on the part of the church to rid itself of the 
 evil. 
 
 Now, if these men fail to perform the duties 
 which God requires of them as civilians, how 
 can they attain heaven as churchmen ? The 
 truly pious man carries his religion into his 
 politics, and yields his support to no measure, 
 political or otherwise, that cannot abide the 
 test of the highest of ethical standards. In 
 other words, the true Christian cannot, as a 
 legislator, give his sanction to laws that are 
 unjust, oppressive, and cruel; because goodness j 
 and benevolence are the basis of all religion. 
 The churches of the South, through the sympa- 
 thies of their members, are so closely affiliated 
 with the State, that they are, to a great extent, 
 responsible for the existence of slavery. If 
 slavery is a sin, then the church must suffer for 
 
CAMP-MEETINGS. 
 
 lo. 
 
 that sin to the extent that its laity vote to 
 i sustain the laws that uphold it. It is the duty 
 ■ of a king to rule in righteousness. But the 
 • people are the rulers in this government ; there- 
 ' fore, they should rule in righteousness. 
 
 CAMP-MEETINGS. 
 
 Camp-meetings in the South are held almost 
 exclusively by the Methodist churches. The 
 primary design of these meetings was the glory 
 
 t ^ .5 
 
 of God and the salvation of souls. They are 
 ! generally held in the summer time — in some 
 ' central positiou, on an elevated spot, shaded 
 : with beautiful oak and hickory trees, and where 
 w r ater can easily be obtained. The camp con- 
 sists of a circle of tents, numbering from fifty to 
 three hundred, made of plank or canvas. The 
 . space included within the first circle of tents, 
 excepting the avenue for walking or promenad- 
 ing, is consecrated to religious worship. Within 
 this inclosure a rough and substantial pulpit is 
 erected, immediately in front of which is a place 
 denominated the altar, where those who seek the 
 forgiveness of their sins come forward to be prayed 
 for. Still further on are seats for the white con- 
 14 
 
_o8 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 gregation. Behind the pulpit, and separated by 
 a board fence, is the place allotted for the colored 
 people, who labor under the disadvantage of not 
 catching the inspiration which darts from the 
 eye of an earnest orator, or beams from a coun- 
 tenance irradiated by heavenly enthusiasm. 
 
 Camp-meetings are, of all meetings held by 
 Methodists, the most exciting and popular. 
 
 1. With the preachers, and the most spiritual 
 members of the church. But few men are great 
 orators before small ' assemblies. If a man has 
 the u gift divine,” he is very apt to develop it 
 at a camp-meeting, where thousands dwell upon 
 his tongue. Perhaps the greatest displays of 
 American pulpit eloquence have been wit- 
 nessed at camp-meetings. Here the preachers 
 generally do their best, and cultivate toward 
 each other kind feelings. Here, with many 
 young ministers, springs up an intimacy with 
 ladies who subsequently prove to be their com- 
 panions for life. Plere the private members 
 from different circuits and stations become 
 acquainted with each other, and reap mutual 
 benefits from each other’s talents, zeal, and 
 spirituality. 
 
■ 
 
 CAMP-MEETINGS. 159 
 
 2. With money-making Methodists, who can 
 keep a horse-pound, a boarding-tent, and a 
 bread-stall, and retail tobacco, pipes, and 
 cigars. 
 
 3. With the worldly; with the politician who 
 goes to confirm a doubtful voter; with the con- 
 stable and collector, who are thus afforded a con- 
 venient opportunity to catch an old debtor; with 
 the dandy and the beau, who seize the occasion 
 to exhibit the latest fashion of coat and cane; 
 with numbers of young, beautiful, and accom- 
 plished ladies, who, arrayed in rich and costly 
 attire, spend their golden moments in thought- 
 less levity. Here, also, like vultures flocking to 
 a carcass, come the licentious from the sur- 
 rounding country. 
 
 But by no class is a camp-meeting hailed with 
 more unmixed delight than by the poor slaves. 
 It comes at a season of the year w r hen they 
 most need rest. It gives them all the advan- 
 tages of an ordinary holiday, without its accom- 
 paniments of drunkenness and profanity. Here 
 they get to see their mothers, their brothers, 
 and their sisters from neighboring plantations; 
 
160 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 here they can sing and jump to their hearts’ 
 content. 
 
 When properly conducted, more can be 
 said in favor of camp-meetings than against 
 them. I have witnessed scenes at these meet- j 
 mgs, morally grand and sublime — scenes which 
 can never be blotted from my memory. Camp- i 
 fires blazing in every direction with heart pine 
 wood ; the groans and the sobs of penitent sin- 
 ners; the shout and the rapture of the new 
 convert; the rejoicing of friends; the deep, 
 melodious, organ-like music welling from a 
 thousand African throats — all conspired to 
 elevate the soul to Christ, “ who sitteth at the 
 right hand of the Father.” 
 
 LOVE-FEASTS. 
 
 Love-feasts, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, ! 
 are held once a quarter, at the visitation of the 
 Presiding Elder of the district. They usually 
 commence at nine o’clock on Sabbath morning, 
 and close before eleven. Members of the church, 
 far and near, are admitted to them. The Elder, 
 after opening the meeting, authorizes two or four 
 male members to hand round bread and water, 
 
 \ 
 
LOVE-FEASTS. 
 
 161 
 
 in token of equality and brotherly love. This 
 being done, the meeting is conducted on the 
 principle pursued at a Friends’ or Quaker Meet- 
 ing; no one is called on to speak; and those who 
 do speak are supposed to be moved thereto by 
 the drawings of the Holy Spirit. The young 
 are not to wait for the aged, nor are the women 
 to wait for the men. Nevertheless, in Delaware 
 and Maryland, when colored members are pre- 
 sent, no matter what may be their age or ex- 
 perience, they dare not speak till the Presiding 
 Elder closes for the whites, and announces to 
 them that they are at liberty to relate their ex- 
 perience. Out of two hours they have thirty 
 minutes. The Spirit is supposed to move the 
 white members at pleasure, but not the colored 
 people till the Elder gives them liberty to speak ; 
 or, if the Spirit does move them before the per- 
 mission thus given, they are compelled to quench 
 its promptings. 
 
 Among the Wesley ans in England no such 
 restriction exists. But with us slavery intrudes 
 itself into the vestibule of heaven; for I consider 
 a properly conducted love-feast an antepast of 
 glory. 
 
 14 * 
 

 162 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 “ 0, let us find the ancient way 
 Our numerous foes to move, 
 
 And force an unbelieving world to say — 
 
 See how these Christians love." 
 
 GEORGIA BAPTISTS. 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter 
 addressed to the New York Examiner by a 
 clergyman of the Baptist Church in the State 
 of Georgia. It was clipped from a Philadelphia 
 daily paper of January, 1857 : — 
 
 “We, Baptists of the South, have no hesitation in avow- 
 ing our belief that God 'hath made of one blood all nations.’ 
 We maintain, whether against ' politicians or infidels, philo- 
 sophers or fanatics,’ that the negro is a man. Because we 
 believe this, we preach the Gospel to the negro at home; 
 and we send the missionary to Africa to preach to him there. 
 We witness the effect of a preached Gospel in the conver- 
 sion of the negro; and when converted, the negro is as 
 gladly welcomed into our churches as a brother, as if he 
 were of pure Anglo-Saxon blood. Not more than a mile 
 from where I now write, stands an humble building erected 
 for the worship of God. Among the people who worship 
 there, more than a hundred negroes were baptized during 
 last year. The church now numbers two hundred and 
 eighty-five members, of whom two hundred and twenty- 
 eight are colored. By invitation of the pastor, I preached 
 
GEORGIA BAPTISTS. 
 
 163 
 
 there Sunday before last. Two-thirds of the congregation 
 were negroes, and, as I proclaimed the truth, ‘Ye are 
 bought with a price,’ their streaming eyes witnessed that 
 (there was a common tie of brotherhood felt and recognized 
 between the preacher and the people, without regard to 
 color. Yot many months ago, it was my privilege, as pas- 
 tor of a Baptist church, to preside in conference, when two 
 women presented themselves as candidates for admission. 
 They took seats on the same bench. One was a lady of 
 wealth, intelligence, and high social position; the other a 
 ; negro servant. They related their experiences. No differ- 
 | ence could be perceived -in the cordiality of the vote by 
 
 I which they were received. The next morning I baptized 
 
 | 
 
 . them both in the same running stream. We then repaired 
 to the church. In the beginning of the service, in the pre- 
 ! sence of an unusually large congregation, the newly baptized 
 ' took a stand together in front of the pulpit, and were 
 addressed by the pastor in the same words of warning, 
 exhortation, encouragement, and confidence. Then, while 
 we sang a hymn, the members of the church, white and 
 . colored, bond and free, came forward and gave the right 
 hand of fellowship to the new sisters. Among them, ser- 
 vants gave the hand to their mistress; yet was not that mis- 
 tress (well though we knew her future zeal and usefulness) 
 more sincerely welcomed as a sister in the church than the 
 humble servant who stood by her side.” 
 
 Well done, my Baptist brother ! So far, so 
 good. The Baptists of Georgia, in some respects, 
 
164 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 are far aliead of the members of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church in Maryland and Delaware. 
 Such is the prejudice against color in my own 
 church, that if, upon a public occasion in the 
 Lord’s House, at a baptism or at a reception of 
 members into the church, I were to invite the 
 colored candidates to come forward and kneel 
 around the same altar at the same time, I should 
 expect to be ordered off the circuit or station by ; 
 the members of the church themselves. 
 
 According to our custom, in the administra- 
 tion of the Lord’s Supper, the preachers take the 
 bread and wine first; then the white laity; and 
 afterward the colored members of our church. 
 If any preacher should advocate the doctrine 
 that colored and white members ought to kneel 
 at the same altar side by side, and together thus 
 partake of bread and wine in commemoration 
 of the Saviour’s death, and attempt to carry his 
 doctrine into practice, he would grossly insult 
 the white members, he would be denounced as 
 an amalgamationist, he would have to leave for 
 a free State, and would, perhaps, receive a rebuke 
 from his superior in office for his impertinence. 
 
 I am no leveller outside of the church walls. In 
 
GEORGIA BAPTISTS. 
 
 165 
 
 society, let every man know his own place. 
 But in the church, the beggar and the prince, 
 :he white and tjie colored man, the rich and the 
 loor, the master and the servant, should kneel 
 sogether. Our Divine Master set us the example 
 if washing the saints’ feet. Some think that, in 
 heaven, the negroes will all he made white, 
 r once heard a colored man, in relating his 
 Experience in a love-feast, say that, if he should 
 be so happy as to get to heaven, he “ex- 
 pected to have a white face, just like his white 
 brethren !” 
 
 The M. E. Church has recently sent a mis- 
 sionary to India. Now we have read that in 
 India there exist four castes or classes. Some 
 of these classes will not come in contact with 
 each other. Suppose that some of each class 
 should profess faith in Christianity under Brother 
 Butler, our missionary to India, and that the 
 higher class of Hindoos should refuse to take the 
 sacrament at the same time it is partaken of by 
 the converts of the poorer classes, and that our 
 minister should yield to their claims. What 
 would the church do ? Why, she would recall 
 him ; and it would be right so to do. Yet every 
 
166 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY 
 
 month we do at home what we would denouno 
 if done abroad. How inconsistent ! 
 
 It is but justice to add that, notwithstanding 
 our delinquencies as a church, we are doin< 
 more for the religious instruction of the colorec 
 people than any other denomination in tin 
 Southern States. While we rejoice that the 
 Baptists of Georgia recognize, in their religious 
 ordinances, the common humanity of the negro 
 it is painful to think that the laws of Georgis 1 
 permit a lady who is received into the 
 church at the same time with her servant, and 
 who acknowledges that servant as a Christian 
 sister, to send the latter the next day to the slave, 
 mart to be sold, far from husband and children,- 
 to be separated from the care of her pastor, and 
 to be deprived of religious ordinances. And 
 what is more painful, if true, is that the minister 
 who baptized her upholds and justifies the law 
 of the State of Georgia, which gives the mistress 
 such unlimited power over her colored sister in 
 Christ. 
 
 THE SIN OF SLAVERY. 
 
 In estimating the evils of slavery on mas- 
 
THE SIN OF SLAVERY. 
 
 167 
 
 ers and owners, we must not overlook the guilt 
 ontracted, and the remorse endured by those 
 dio hold, breed, and sell slaves for the market, 
 md none bnt the All-seeing Eye knows the full 
 up of misery which they drink. True, no out- 
 ward voice condemns them. The politician and 
 he preacher may tell the slave-breeder that his 
 business is Cl all right; that the Lord sent the 
 African here to be Christianized, to prepare him 
 p go to Liberia to convert the heathen.” But 
 onscience whispers : “ It is sin !” Thoughts 
 f death and judgment flash terror to his heart, 
 ven in the moment of greatest revelry. He 
 eels like the duelist feels, when he thinks of 
 he death, by separation, he has occasioned. 
 Chou blood-stained soul, thou wilt bear me 
 witness that I never soothed thy guilty con- 
 cience by telling thee that slavery was not 
 orbidden in the New Testament! 
 
 I have often observed, in men who have sold 
 laves, a peculiar restlessness about the eye; 
 ind with such men, the least reference to slavery 
 s as fire in the bosom. How hard it is for 
 state laws and worldly sophistry to efface the 
 iternal impress of right and wrong! The duel- 
 
168 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ist may take the life of his brother, and receivi 
 the plaudits of the community, yet his inwari 
 monitor will not be quiet, but ceaselessly whig 
 pers, “ Thou art a murderer !” And thus it i 
 with the slaveholder. He robs the slave of hi 
 intellect and affections, and the laws of the lan< 
 say he does right. But the inward voice whig 
 pers, “ Thy sin will find thee out !” 
 
 THE FREE NEGROES OE MARYLAND. 
 
 Maryland contains more free colored person 
 than any other State in the Union. The] 
 number 74,000. The question has been asked 
 “How has it come to pass that this State con 
 tains so many free colored persons ?” I believi 
 that the result is principally due to the rapic 
 spread of Methodism in its borders from 1776 
 to 1810. The early Methodists denounced th( 
 holding of slaves as a sin in private member;" 
 as well as in ministers. In those days, slave, 1 
 prayed ardently for the conversion of their mas 
 ters, knowing that the law of love worked gooc 
 to the master and emancipation to the slave. 
 
CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND. 
 
 169 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND. 
 
 The Chesapeake Bay is world-renowned for 
 its fish and canvass-back ducks, for its bold and 
 beautiful shore. Its vast oyster beds are per- 
 haps as rich and inexhaustible as the gold mines 
 of California. Noble rivers flow into its bosom 
 from its eastern and western shores. The 
 most prominent on the Eastern Shore is the 
 Choptank. A few miles from its mouth, on the 
 right bank, is the beautiful town of Cambridge. 
 This is the shire town of Dorchester County, 
 and contains about 1200 inhabitants. A few 
 years ago, a beautiful and costly stone church 
 was erected in this town by the members of the 
 M. E. Church. But it seems that, with the con- 
 sent of the preacher in charge, it was deeded 
 conditionally to trustees for the use of the mem- 
 bers of the M. E. Church. That is to say, so 
 long as the Discipline of the M. E. Church al- 
 lowed her laity to hold human beings as chat- 
 tels, and to be sold or given away as chattels, 
 so long should the beautiful edifice be theirs; 
 but so soon as the General Conference should 
 interfere with that right, the stone edifice was 
 15 
 
170 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 to be no longer the property of the M. E. 
 Church. 
 
 It is reported that the Cambridge church is 
 not the only one thus conditionally deeded to 
 the M. E. Church in the Philadelphia Confer- 
 ence. Now, the preacher who would aid to 
 build a church on such conditions should be 
 arraigned before his Conference on the charge 
 of maladministration, the specification being an 
 attempt unlawfully to legislate. What is this but 
 a daring effort to threaten and forestall the 
 General Conference in its legislative capacity? 
 Slavery manifests the same aggressive spirit 
 everywhere, whether in a bar-room of Kansas, 
 or in a church-building committee of Maryland. 
 I would never, under any circumstances, assist 
 even at the dedication of a church with such 
 a deed of trust. It is time that our brethren 
 at the North and West should know how many 
 churches in the Baltimore and Philadelphia 
 Conferences are thus conditionally deeded to 
 the M. E. Church. 
 
 I would like to know whether the Metro- 
 politan church at Washington is to be thus con- 
 secrated to chattel slavery; and whether anti- 
 
CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND, 
 
 171 
 
 slavery preachers are to be excluded from its 
 pulpit. 
 
 Just before, or soon after it was dedicated, 
 there sprang up in Cambridge church a great 
 revival of religion. Among others who at that 
 time joined the society was Judge Lecomte, 
 whose name is connected with the affairs of 
 Kansas. He was a lawyer in Cambridge. Did 
 the judge draw the deed I have sjpoTcen of? How 
 many years he remained a member of the M. E. 
 Church I cannot say, but it is reported that he 
 withdrew from the church some time before he 
 went to Kansas. 
 
 I do not consider churches deeded to us on 
 the conditions above specified as true M. E. 
 churches ; and unless such churches or trustees 
 throw up their deeds, and give us deeds ac- 
 cording to our Discipline, they should be ex- 
 cluded from the jurisdiction of our Conference. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 RUM AND SLAVERY. 
 
 Rum is a giant curse to any people. It is 
 one of the great pillars that support the temple 
 of slavery. Rum and slavery are inseparable. 
 What slave State has a prohibitory law ? 
 Drunkenness does more to corrupt the slaves 
 than any thing else. Nine-tenths of all the 
 crime committed by slaves are traceable to its 
 influence ; yet those who retail intoxicating 
 liquors find their strongest advocates among the 
 large slaveholders. In Maryland, the friends 
 of a prohibitory law found their weightiest oppo- 
 nents in the great landowners. When I have 
 beheld groups of drunken slaves around a grog- 
 shop, I have often wondered why it was that 
 masters did not oppose these nurseries of vice 
 simply from regard for their slaves. 
 
 But when you come to examine the philoso- 
 phy of chattel slavery, it will be found to be 
 ( 172 ) 
 
EUJI AND SLAVERY. 
 
 173 
 
 perfectly consistent with itself in the treat- 
 ment of slaves. Rum brutalizes the slave, and 
 destroys the desire for liberty by blunting his 
 thirst for moral and intellectual improvement ; 
 for, whenever a slave becomes reconciled to his 
 condition , he ceases to have any moral character 
 much beyond a brute. Even honesty in a slave 
 is not valued for its own sake, but in the light 
 of pecuniary advantage. As a general thing, 
 masters would rather see their slaves drunk 
 occasionally than be constantly sober, thought- 
 ful, and religious. Hence, w T hen there is any 
 rumor of an insurrection, preachers are warned 
 to stop their religious meetings. But no warning 
 is given to the retailers of whisky not to sell to 
 the slaves. We know this from painful ex- 
 perience. If you advocate a prohibitory law, 
 the reply may be : “0 yes ! and when you get 
 your prohibitory law, then you fanatics will 
 want a negro law to prevent us from holding 
 our slaves. Your prohibitory law will be an 
 entering wedge to emancipation.” Temperance 
 among the laboring white men of the South 
 might lead to thinking; and thinking might 
 bring on discussion ; and discussion might reveal 
 
 15 * 
 
174 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the cause of their depressed condition, and thus '' 
 terminate in something unpleasant. Pro-slavery ^ 
 men have a peculiar instinct for smelling affinities. 
 
 Where slavery abounds, education is below ' l 
 par, and the seller of rum is more respected than 111 
 the school-teacher. Chattel slavery inevitably 111 
 begets laziness, ignorance, drunkenness, and 110 
 licentiousness. It is morally impossible to re- F 
 form slavery. It is stupid nonsense to talk ^ 
 about sanctifying it. Education, religion, tern- ® 
 perance, industry, and the spirit of liberty must d 
 exterminate slavery, or slavery, like the rod of C( 
 Moses -when converted into a serpent, will 11 
 swallow up religion and liberty. 
 
 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 It has been asserted that the South has! 
 no literature. This is not true. If it can 
 be proved, however, that law-reports, judicial 
 decisions, and State papers constitute no part 
 of literature, then we admit the charge to be 
 partially true. But this will not be admitted. 
 In my opinion, legal learning should be ranked 
 in the highest class of literature. Why should 
 it not be? It emanates generally from the 
 
SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 175 
 
 aoblest minds of the nation. What section of 
 :he country has produced abler judges than 
 John Marshall and Buslirod Washington of 
 Virginia, and Tilghman of Maryland ? Alex- 
 ander Hamilton possessed the greatest intellect 
 unong the statesmen of his day; but he was 
 lot a native of our country. It was the im- 
 pression of Jefferson, if I mistake not, that 
 lames Madison was the only man that could 
 match him in depth of mind. If all the authors 
 if the political papers and legal decisions of the 
 ;ountry were ascertained, it would be found, I 
 Fink, that natives of the South had contributed 
 ;heir full portion to the legal literature of their 
 ;ountry. Much of the medical, scientific, and 
 theological literature of the nation is the pro- 
 luction of Southern authors. The South has 
 fiven birth to but few poets ; and among the 
 lest of these are Nathan C. Brooks, Amelia 
 Welby, Edgar A. Poe, and Frances E. Watkins, 
 ill natives of Maryland. The South would 
 produce more poets were it not for slavery. 
 Poetry needs the pure air and genial sunlight 
 pf liberty. If a man has ever so much poetry 
 n his soul, the sight of a slave drove, with men 
 
176 
 
 PIC TUBES OP SLAYEEY. 
 
 chained together, and women put up at publi 
 auction, is sufficient to drive it out of him ; oi 
 if it must have utterance, it is too apt to b 
 tinged with melancholy, like Poe’s “Raven.” 
 
 The South has produced several first-clas 
 orators. Eloquence is the noblest of God’ 
 earthly gifts to man. In its highest degree i 
 includes and reveals the power of poetry, music 
 and painting. Slavery is its great antagonist 
 No Southern orator has ever made a brillian 
 speech in defence of chattel slavery. He maj 
 foam and he may rage, but his eloquence die; 
 on his tongue. You must get him on somt 
 other subject, to feel and know his power 
 W ebster himself would scarcely have been known 
 as an orator, had he expended his energies if 
 attempting to prove that the sun did not shine; 
 and that no such objects as the moon and stars 
 existed. An orator, to be great, must really 
 believe what he says to be true, whether it is 
 true or not. No great man in the South really 
 believes in his heart that chattel slavery is 
 right and just; and any defence he may make 1 
 of it will necessarily be feeble. Henceforth, the 
 South will produce no full-developed orators 
 
GOING TO SCHOOL. 
 
 177 
 
 ‘but those professing antislavery principles. From 
 This portion of our Union, we predict, will come 
 The deliverance of the enslaved. Her great 
 orators will canvass the Northern towns, cities, 
 : and States, and in strains of eloquence worthy 
 : of the lips of Henry, Harper, Hayne, Preston, 
 ^ Pinkney, and Wirt, arouse the pro-slavery, 
 i money-loving, money -getting portion of the free 
 ■States to a sense of its duties and dangers. 
 
 GOING TO SCHOOL. 
 
 Col. Pocomoke was a Maryland gentleman 
 of the old school ; proud and haughty to his 
 inferiors; bland and courteous to his equals. 
 He was a large slaveholder, and owned several 
 farms near a The Home Mansion.” When pro- 
 voked, terrible was his wrath, swearing, as he did, 
 in classical English, and fearing neither God nor 
 man. At such times his poor negroes would 
 tremble as at the roar of a lion. He had a 
 remarkably retentive memory, forgetting nothing 
 that he had ever seen or heard. He always 
 treated me with great kindness and tenderness ; 
 and, I think, for this reason — that I would with 
 pleasure listen to his tales of the olden time. 
 
178 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 He was personally acquainted with many of the j 
 great lawyers of Maryland, such as Luther I 
 Martin, Chase, Pinkney, Bayly, and Wirt, of 1 
 whom he related many instructive anecdotes. 
 
 The colonel had a slave-boy of fine mind, for I 
 whom he conceived a great fancy. He sent I 
 him to the same school which I attended. The j 
 teacher, knowing the master’s influence, and 
 dreading his indignation, treated him kindly, 
 and made no difference between him and the I 
 white boys. When the colonel died, he willed I 
 him free, and to be sent to Pennsylvania. If a J 
 poor white man had sent the boy to school, he I 
 would have been driven home the first day he I 
 entered it by teacher and boys. The lesson we I 
 learn from this sketch is simply this, that the I 
 wealthy and influential men of the South can I 
 alter, abridge, or change any custom or preju- ] 
 dice at their pleasure. 
 
 As a further illustration of this fact, I shall j 
 record another incident. A wealthy man in I 
 Maryland, holding a highly responsible office i 
 under the United States government, and who 
 employs on his beautiful farms free colored > 
 laborers, sent for me to read the burial-service 
 
GOING TO SCHOOL. 179 
 
 of our church over the remains of a colored 
 boy, aged about ten years. This boy was re- 
 markable for his truthfulness and obedience. 
 He had been religiously trained by the two 
 sisters of his master, ladies who are an honor to 
 their native State, and whose labors of love 
 among the poor and the needy of every class 
 and color practically illustrate the religion of 
 Christ which they profess. His body was de- 
 posited in the family burying-ground, sur- 
 rounded by the tombstones of one of the most 
 respectable families of the State. I never read 
 the burial-service with more interest. Here 
 stood a wealthy man, whose companions were 
 the great and the wise of our land, his hair 
 frosted with age, his head uncovered, over the 
 grave of this youthful servant. This was the 
 first instance I had ever witnessed in a slave 
 State of a colored person being buried among 
 white people. It was the first practical ac- 
 knowledgment that I had ever seen, at the door 
 of eternity, that the proud American and the 
 oppressed African have a common origin and a 
 common destiny, and are equally redeemed by 
 the blood of Christ; that in death, the white 
 
180 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and the colored meet on common ground, for 
 “ the Lord is the maker of us all.” Not the leas 
 offence was given to the community by this act 
 
 Had a poor man paid this respect to a colorec 
 person he would have blasted his reputation ii 
 that neighborhood. 
 
 A PLEA POR THE SLAVE. 
 
 They have cut down our forest, and grubbec 
 our fields. They cultivate our sugar, tobacco, 
 and cotton plantations. They plant our corn, 
 and reap our wheat. They nursed us when' 
 young, and dig our graves for us when we die. 
 
 Their labor is the basis of England’s wealth 
 and New England’s prosperity. They hew our 
 wood and draw our water. They toil to edu- 
 cate our sons and daughters. Their labor sup- 
 ports our ministry and builds our churches. 
 They have not incurred the guilt of the white 
 man in taking possession of the soil. We drove 
 the Indians before us with the rifle, and dragged 
 the negro after us in chains and slavery. The 
 Africo-American says to the Anglo-American, 
 u Thy God shall be our God, and thy nation our 
 nation.” He appeals to our Christianity, to our 
 
 
 
A PLEA FOE THE SLAVE. 
 
 181 
 
 sense of justice and mercy, to our honor and 
 magnanimity. Shall he appeal in vain? The 
 African has a birthright in our soil. He is a 
 Native American. Did not his blood flow 
 in defence of American Independence? Did 
 not a colored man of Boston strike the 
 first blow against British aggression in the war 
 of 1776? 
 
 A PRAYER OF CHRISTIAN SLAVES 
 
 ‘ Saviour, when in dust to thee 
 Low we bow the adoring knee ; 
 
 When, repentant, to the skies 
 Scarce we lift our streaming eyes, 
 
 O, by all thy pain and wo, 
 
 Suffered once for man below, 
 
 Bending from thy throne on high, 
 
 Hear us when to thee we cry ! 
 
 “ By thine hour of dark despair, 
 
 By thine agony of prayer, 
 
 By the cross, the nail, the thorn, 
 
 Piercing spear, and tort’ring scorn ;* 
 
 By the gloom that veiled the skies 
 O’er the dreadful sacrifice, 
 
 Jesus, look with pitying eye ! 
 
 Listen to our humble cry ! 
 
 16 
 
182 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 “By the deep, expiring groan, 
 
 By the sad, sepulchral stone, 
 
 By the vault whose dark abode 
 Held in vain the rising God — 
 
 O, from earth to heaven restored, 
 Mighty, reascended Lord, 
 Saviour, prince exalted high, 
 Hear, 0 hear our humble cry !” 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE WICKED SLAVE. 
 
 A relative of the writer, a captain of a ves- 
 sel, owned a young negro man, who sailed with 
 his master. This slave was vicious and cruel 
 from his youth. I knew him personally. He 
 took offence at his master, who forbade his 
 marrying a certain colored woman. That he 
 might obtain revenge on his master, he delibe- 
 rately laid his plans to kill by poison all hands on 
 board the vessel, though several were men of his 
 own color, and had given him no offence. Bj' a 
 providential interference, all of them escaped a 
 terrible death. The boy confessed the crime, 
 and ought to have been handed over to the 
 court for trial. He deserved hanging, or the 
 penitentiary for life. But his master simply 
 took him to the slave-pen in Baltimore, and — 
 put him in his pocket} This was all the punish- 
 ment he received — a punishment daily inflicted 
 
 ( 183 ) 
 
184 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 on pious colored persons who have done no harm. 
 He went South to corrupt a whole plantation, 
 perhaps, and to involve innocent negroes in 
 suspicion and punishment. Slavery should 
 never he inflicted on any human being except 
 as a punishment for crime; but chattel slavery 
 dooms the good and the bad to one common 
 degradation. 
 
 THE EXECUTION - . 
 
 There are three crimes for which a human 
 being ought to be punished with death : Mali- 
 cious and unprovoked murder; setting tire to a 
 house, knowing it to be inhabited at the time 
 by persons asleep ; and violating the person of a 
 female. They should die, not to gratify in the 
 community a feeling of vengeance, but to pro- 
 tect society against the recurrence of such 
 crimes. I once attended a colored criminal to 
 the gallows for the crime last specified. He 
 richly deserved his fate. A number of colored 
 and white persons of the more vicious class were 
 present. So far was this public execution from 
 inspiring terror, that it was looked upon with 
 heartless levity ; so much so, that the citizens of 
 
-THE EXECUTION. 
 
 185 
 
 the place immediately got up a petition to the 
 legislature, then in session, to pass a law pro- 
 hibiting public executions. The law was passed ; 
 and criminals are now hung in that State 
 privately by the sheriff, in the company of 
 twelve men. This is as it ought to be. 
 
 The execution of a criminal in private gives 
 room for the imagination to play, and inspires 
 more dread than the sight of it. To my 
 Southern friends I would say : — When you con- 
 vict a colored man of a crime, don’t burn him, 
 don’t beat him to death. This injures your own 
 moral nature. Don’t put him to death in the 
 presence of slaves, for it hardens their hearts, 
 and kindles in their bosoms that mysterious 
 power in our nature called sympathy, and 
 defeats the end you wish to accomplish. Try, 
 convict, and punish him according to law, just 
 as you would any other human being. The 
 man who inflicts punishment to gratify a cruel 
 disposition sinks to a lower depth, morally, than 
 the object of his vengeance has reached. 
 
 16 * 
 
186 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 WILLIAM OTTERBEIN. 
 
 William Otterbein, a distinguished Presby- 
 terian divine, was born in Germany, in March, 
 1726, and died November 17th, 1813, in the 
 eighty-eighth year of his age. He assisted at the ! 
 ordination of Bishop Asbury in 1784. He was 
 a man equal to Bishop Asbury in piety, and 
 was his superior in learning. He was the 
 founder of the German Methodist Church, or 
 what is called “ The United Brethren in 
 Christ,” a community which now numbers 500 1 
 preachers and 60,000 members. The seventh 
 rule of the Discipline of this body of Christians 
 reads thus : “ All slavery, in every sense of the 
 word, 'is prohibited. Should any be found in 
 our church who hold slaves, they cannot con- 
 tinue as members, unless they do personally 
 manumit or set free such slaves.” 
 
 It is remarkable that the Germans are great 
 enemies of chattel slavery. May they ever re- 
 main so, world without end ! 
 
 I am glad to know, as a Methodist preacher, 
 that I can trace my ordination in regular suc- 
 cession up to Dr. Coke and William Otterbein, 
 
 \ 
 

 REV. JOHN NICHOLSON. 187 
 
 both good antislavery divines. I am more proud 
 | of it than I would be of all the ordinations of 
 all the pro-slavery bishops in the universe. 
 
 RET. JOHN NICHOLSON. 
 
 Rev. John Nicholson was born in Lewes, Dela- 
 ware, in 1807, and died in October, 1843, in the 
 thirty-seventh year of his age. He was received 
 on trial in the Philadelphia Conference in 1828. 
 We have taken the following extract from the 
 printed Minutes of the Conference for 1844 : — 
 
 “Bro. Nicholson was a man of study, of method, and of 
 prayer. His piety was never questioned, and his qualifi- 
 cations for the work of the ministry were beyond dispute. 
 His literary acquirements were respectable, and his talents, 
 though not showy, were real, solid, compact, and available. 
 He was indeed an amiable man, a Christian gentleman, 
 an able minister of the New Testament, a faithful pastor, 
 an affectionate husband, a kind parent, and true friend. 
 He lived to honor his Divine Master, and fell asleep in 
 Jesus, as a Christian warrior, fresh from the battle-field, 
 with his laurels green upon him. Many are the gems of 
 immortal beauty that will deck his unfading crown.” 
 
 John Nicholson was a man, in the highest 
 sense of that term. While he did not dictate to 
 
188 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 others, lie dared to think for himself, and hac |{ 
 the moral nerve to avow his principles ever} jj, 
 where, fearless of consequences. In proof of jo 
 this, I will recall an incident in his life whicl [jj 
 made a deep and lasting impression upoiyf 
 my mind. I think it was in 1842, or in 1843, ie 
 during the session of our Conference, that some- B j 
 thing was said about abolitionism. Mr. Nichol- B 
 son calmly arose, and in a tone of voice, andg, 
 with a firmness of manner, that I can never B 
 forget, said “ I am an abolitionist !” and imrne- ie 
 diately resumed his seat. It was the sublimest 1( 
 moral scene I ever witnessed. He was the only! 
 man who, to my knowledge, ever publicly: 
 avowed, upon the floor of the Philadelphia Con- 
 ference, that he was an abolitionist. A few 
 others may have held the same sentiments pri- 
 vately, hut did not see proper to call themselves; 
 by that name. If, under the same circum- 
 stances, a young man had made the same 
 avowal, he would have been located without 
 his consent. 
 
 DAVID SHIELDS. 
 
 Rev. David Shields was born in Ireland, in i 
 1813, and died in 1851. Having no copy of 
 
SLAVERY A X D HEALTH. 189 
 
 tie Minutes of the Philadelphia Conference for 
 ! 852, I cannot say what time he entered the 
 Conference; I presume it was about the year 
 838. I could justly eulogize him as a man, as 
 i Christian, and as a minister. I will say that 
 te was one of the purest and noblest Christian 
 ainisters I ever knew. He honored me with 
 tis confidence, and I loved him for his principles, 
 le utterly abominated chattel slavery in all its 
 orms and modifications. He was a true suc- 
 essor of John Nicholson, and with him may 
 iow be singing, “Worthy the Lamb that died!” 
 
 SLAVERY AYD HEALTH— WHITE LADIES 
 
 I have no doubt that the ivliite ladies of the 
 !outh have worse health than any class of 
 gmales in any enlightened nation or country, 
 .his is not owing to climate, for Maryland, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the mountainous 
 •arts of North Carolina and Georgia, are as 
 lealthy as any portion of the Union. It is the 
 esult of slavery, which exempts them from all 
 abor of a domestic character. Such labor is 
 tamped with disgrace, because it is associated 
 vith slaves. Without exercise in the open air, 
 
190 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 there can be no health. But persons who ai 
 averse to labor seldom take exercise. A 
 English nobleman’s daughter will walk fiv 
 miles at a time to promote health. Th 
 daughter of a rich planter would almost faint a 
 the idea. It is considered a mark of gentilit 
 to be feeble, effeminate, dyspeptic, and nervous 
 And, when nature triumphs over custom, and 1 
 young lady is healthy and large, with the blooii 
 of the new-blown rose on her cheeks rivalling th 
 tints of the luscious peach, she regrets that it i 
 so, and envies the wasp-waisted, emaciated crea 
 ture to whom life is a burthen. Some resort t( 
 acids to reduce their bulk, and thus ruii 
 their teeth, their breath, and their health. ' 
 once asked an intelligent English traveller, whc 
 spent some time in the metropolis of Mary- 
 land, whether he did not think that the ladies 
 of Baltimore were very beautiful. He replied 
 that he had never seen handsomer faces, hands, 
 and feet than were to be found among the young 
 ladies of that city; but they lacked the finely 
 formed chests of the ladies of England, especially 
 those of the middle counties. He added that 
 their flat breasts greatly detracted from their 
 
SLAVERY AND HEALTH. 
 
 191 
 
 ieauty. So we think, and fear that many 
 posoms, that appear natural, are but cotton after 
 ill. If the ladies should ever turn soldiers, they 
 vill not, we fear, stand in need of cotton bales, 
 ike Gen. Jackson’s soldiers, to defend them- 
 selves. Southern ladies die early, and bequeath 
 multitudes of motherless children to step-mothers. 
 It is no uncommon thing to find men who have 
 eeen married two, three, and four times. There 
 s another cause of bad health, especially in 
 some parts of Maryland and Delaware, and, we 
 aresume, in all the slave States. It is the use 
 }f tobacco, in the form of snuff, by ladies of the 
 highest class, as well as others. This snuff 
 is ground out of refuse tobacco stems, and is the 
 most dangerous form in which tobacco can be 
 taken. The manner of using it is this : The 
 svomen have a box well filled with snuff, and a 
 tittle mop by which it is pasted into the mouth. 
 Here it dissolves, and frequently passes into the 
 stomach. This is the most disgusting way in 
 svhich tobacco is used. It spoils the complexion. 
 Its first symptoms are a yellow tinge on the upper 
 tip, on the side of the nose, and on the forehead. 
 It produces giddiness of the head, dyspepsia, and 
 
192 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 irritability, and often ends in chronic diarrha 
 and death. It is nearly as dangerous as opiur 
 and far more filthy. It is blasting the heal! 
 of many a young mother, while a broken-hearti 
 husband stands by and can render no relic 
 No wonder that Southern men are irritabl 
 passionate, and headstrong, if born of .sue 
 mothers. This loathsome practice no doul 
 came originally from slave women, as it does nr 
 prevail in the North. Ask a young lady if si 
 rubs snuff. “No, sir,” she will reply; “only use 
 little to clean my teeth.” 
 
 It is sad to witness groups of little girls an 
 young ladies using the vile weed in this wa; 
 The use of snuff is demoralizing. It stimulate 
 passions that should be kept in check. I woul 
 rather that a wife or daughter of mine shoul 1 
 drink wine than be a snuff-rubber. In one cas 
 she might reform; in the other, there is but li 
 tie hope when the habit is once contracted, 
 once saw a lady dying, who knew I was oppose 1 
 to the habit. When I would turn my back, sh 
 would beckon her nurse to shovel snuff in he [ 
 mouth. What a sad spectacle ! 
 
COMPLAINTS. 
 
 193 
 
 COMPLAINTS. 
 
 I No. 1. “The better you treat slaves, the more 
 dissatisfied they are.” Mr. Acorn says that “he 
 lloes not put his slaves on allowance; that they 
 ^at in his kitchen; that he clothes them well, 
 |md does not overwork them ; that he gives them 
 inany privileges; but that they still seem dis- 
 satisfied, and are less contented than Mr. Wal- 
 nut’s slaves. Mr. Walnut works his slaves hard; 
 just barely gives them enough to eat; corrects- 
 hem severely; and always speaks to them 
 larshly ; notwithstanding which, they are patient, 
 ind very mannerly, and seem satisfied.” I admit 
 :he truth of all this, to some extent. The reason, I 
 iresume, is this. If you hold a man like a brute, 
 md treat him like a brute (unless a miracle of 
 n’ace interpose), he will feel like a brute. If you 
 lold a man like a horse, yet treat him as a man, 
 mu increase his desire to escape the chattel 
 mndition of the horse, and he is therefore mise- 
 •able. Try the experiment on free colored peo- 
 ple; and see if kindness will not produce grati- 
 ;ude, and cruelty dissatisfaction. 
 
 No. 2. “ There are very few slaves who will 
 17 
 
104 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 not steal from their masters.” This charge 
 deserves attention. Slaves are not accused of 
 stealing from slaves, hut from their masters 
 There is truth in the accusation. Slaves have 
 their code of honor , and their tricJcs of trade . 
 which are not altogether founded on the Gospel 
 The colored people reason as rationally on some 
 questions as we do. Their conceptions of justice 
 and right are not very different from those of 
 white men. They say: “We do the work; we 
 raise the corn and the wheat; and part of it is 
 justly ours.” A gentleman related to me the 
 following anecdote : When he was a hoy, and 
 going to school, one of his father’s servants said 
 to him: “Do you know who it is that sends' 
 you to school?” “Father,” replied the boy. 
 “No, he doesn’t,” said the slave; “it’s my labor 
 that sends you to school, but I cannot send my] 
 children to school.” The gentleman added that 
 he often thought of that remark. If a minister I 
 of the Gospel wishes to lose his influence with 
 the slaves, let him often preach against stealing. 
 They think that he is preaching to please their 
 masters. If it be wrong in the slave to steal 
 from his master, what shall we say of the mas- 
 
 # 
 
COMPLAINTS. 
 
 195 
 
 ter, who compels the slave to labor for his own 
 gains, and gives him a bare animal support? In 
 my travels as an itinerant minister, when I have 
 gazed on the golden harvest reaped by the 
 poor slave, who was deprived of his own body, 
 and debarred from the improvement of his mind, 
 this portion of Holy Scripture has forced itself 
 on my thoughts : “ Go to, now, ye rich men ; 
 
 weep and howl for your miseries that shall come 
 upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and 
 your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and 
 .silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall 
 be a witness against you, and shall eat your 
 flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped trea- 
 sure together for the last days. Behold, the 
 hire of the laborers which have reaped down your 
 fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : 
 and the cries of them which have reaped are 
 entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 
 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and 
 been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts, as 
 in a day of slaughter ; ye have condemned and 
 killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” 
 
m 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SLAVE LITERATURE. 
 
 The literature of any people, whether in prose 
 or song, is the index of their inner life, and of 
 their habits of thought. The slave population 
 of the Union have a literature unlike any other. 
 
 It is the literature of a class, not of a tribe or 
 nation — of a class which has none of the stimu- 
 lants of ancestral renown. The slaves have no 
 chief to remind them of the valor of their fathers. 
 There is no bond of union among them, except 
 that of a common oppression. This alone unites 
 the jet-black Congo with the quadroon. The 
 handcuff and the cowhide inspire a common 
 sympathy; and a “fellow feeling makes us won- 
 drous kind.” 
 
 The inevitable tendency of servitude is to 
 make a slave a hypocrite toward the white man. 
 If you approach him from the stand-point of i 
 authority, you will never get an insight into 
 his real character. He is exceedingly shrewd. 
 
 I have endeavored to study his character coolly 
 and impartially, and with all the philosophy 
 I could command. I think I have some little 
 knowledge of him, but I have not acquired it 
 
SLAVE LITERATURE. 
 
 197 
 
 always directly from him. Let a slave once 
 know or suspect that } 7 ou are seeking to “pump” 
 him, and if you don’t meet with your match for 
 once, then I am mistaken ; even though you be 
 an Eastern Shore or Delaware Yankee, the 
 keenest of all Yankees, the genuine Boston 
 specimens not excepted. You must catch him 
 at work. Listen to his songs while seated on 
 his ox-cart hauling wood, or splitting rails. You 
 must overhear his criticisms in the quarter’s — 
 his holiday songs and his self-made hymns. His 
 songs do not always indicate a happy state of 
 mind. He resorts to them in order to divert 
 his thoughts from dwelling on his condition. 
 The loud, merry laughter of the prostitute does 
 not prove that she is happy. The songs of a 
 slave are word-pictures of every thing he sees, 
 or hears, or feels. The tunes once fixed in his 
 memory, words descriptive of any and every 
 thing are applied to them, as occasion requires. 
 Here is a specimen, combining the sarcastic and 
 the pathetic. Imagine a colored man seated 
 on the front part of an ox-cart, in an old field, 
 unobserved by any white man, and in a clear 
 loud voice, ringing out these words, which wake 
 17 * * 
 
198 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 up sad thoughts in the minds of his fellow- 
 slaves : 
 
 “ William Rino sold Henry Silvers ; 
 
 Hilo ! Hilo ! 
 
 Sold him to de Gorgy trader ; 
 
 Hilo ! Hilo ! 
 
 His wife she cried, and children bawled, 
 
 Hilo 1 Hilo ! 
 
 Sold him to de Gorgy trader ; 
 
 Hilo ! Hilo I” 
 
 * 
 
 Here is a specimen in the religious vein. 
 
 “Working- all day, 
 
 And part of the night, 
 
 And up before the morning light. 
 
 Chorus. — When will Jehovah hear our cry, 
 
 And free the sons of Africa ?” 
 
 THE MONKEY THEORY. 
 
 I was once sitting at the table of a rich, 
 haughty slaveholder, who addressed me thus : 
 “ Mr. Long, do you believe that the negroes are 
 a part of the human race ?” “ Yes, sir,” I re- 
 
 plied. “ Well, I do not,” said he. “ I believe 
 that they are a species of monkey.” “ Then, 
 
THE HOTKEY THEORY. 
 
 199 
 
 ir,” said I, “you do not ’believe in the Bible.” 
 lis treatment of bis slaves was in accordance 
 | vitli his theory. Yet he was more consistent 
 ban those who hold that they are of the same 
 lood as ourselves, and yet treat them like 
 irutes — who hold to their common origin with 
 urselves from Adam, and their common re- 
 demption by Christ, and yet sell them like 
 >xen. Much ado has been made by some 
 .ivines about the infidel theory that denies the 
 ommon origin of the races. This theory is 
 upported by Professor Agassiz and others. 
 3ut the fact is we have, in the slave States, 
 iractically affirmed the diverse origin of the 
 African race for one hundred and fifty years, 
 dt is the very nature of slavery to produce this 
 ,’esult. I believe the Greeks and Romans held 
 ;heir origin to be distinct from that of their 
 slaves. Slavery is doing more to cast discredit 
 >n the doctrine of the unity of the races, than the 
 vritings of all the infidel philosophers combined. 
 Notwithstanding many pro-slavery men affect to 
 )e sceptical with regard to the intellect of the 
 legro, yet, as a general rule, the South secretly 
 md practically believes in the parity of mind of 
 
200 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the two races. This is evident from the steeple* 
 vigilance they exercise to keep all knowledg 
 from them ; by their forbidding them to lear 
 the letters of the alphabet; and by excludin 
 them from all honorable positions in society 
 With singular inconsistency, they withhol 
 from the slave the means of mental culture, an 
 then impute his ignorance to inferiority of mine 
 They not only by positive law interdict hin 
 educational advantages, but appeal to the wors 
 prejudices of our nature against him. Th 
 governing minds of the South know full wel 
 that, if they were to open their schools ant 
 colleges to colored people, many of this degrades 
 class would exhibit superior abilities. Tk< 
 very existence of the laws which forbid educatioi 
 to the slaves is positive proof that the law 
 makers of the slave States believe in the im 
 provability of the negro’s intellect. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE FOREIGN SLATE-TRADE. 
 
 “ The re-opening of the slave-trade, spoken of in Congress, 
 is not quite so horrible a proposition as it would appear at 
 first sight. True, as it was once conducted, it was a dis- 
 grace to the governments that tolerated it, and a stigma 
 upon the human race. It seems to have been prosecuted 
 without reference to any thing save the profits resulting 
 from it. The brutality which accompanied it in the days 
 of its pristine prosperity was no hindrance to it. Cruelty 
 was not taken into account as a drawback. But now, 
 things are different. The people who might be interested 
 in it at this time are a humane and highly cultivated 
 people. The government which would tolerate it is 
 abundantly able to throw such guards about it as would be 
 necessary to prevent excesses and to insure humanity ; and 
 under proper restrictions it could not fail to be a blessing 
 to the Africans, and to render the condition of very many 
 of them as much superior to what it is at present, as that 
 of the slave here is to the doom of the savage in the old 
 world. It is to show the savage at home that I compile 
 the papers which will follow. They will show him to be 
 just about as miserable as it is possible for a human being 
 to be. Savage is not the word to express the idea. He 
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
202 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 is a beast, with just enough intellect to make him worst 
 than if he were moved by instinct alone. 
 
 “ The proposition aforesaid was scoffed out of Congress. 
 It was right, perhaps, that it should be, while men, with 
 the films of prejudice and fanaticism over their eyes, art 
 unable to see any thing but the phantasms of their morbid 
 imaginations. But the day must come when philanthropy 
 will make it a matter of more serious reflection. An en- 
 lightened philanthropy now is shocked at the idea of the 
 African being forever doomed to the barbarity, to the re- 
 volting religious rites, to the brutal customs, and even to 
 the slavery prevailing on his own continent. It would 
 open emigration to him as well as to the rest of mankind, 
 and give him a chance to see and improve by a civilization 
 of which it appears unassisted he is incapable.” 
 
 The above paragraph is taken from the 
 “ Easton Star,” Talbot Co. Md., issued Feb. 24th, 
 1857. Its author is reputed to be a ripe classical)! 
 scholar. He has been engaged as an educator- 
 of the youth of the wealthy men of the Eastern! 
 Shore of Maryland for a number of years. It 
 is presumed that the editor of the paper, and 
 the writer of the article, are acquainted with the 
 opinions of their patrons with regard to the 
 subject in question. Ten years ago, public 
 sentiment would not have tolerated such an 
 
THE FOREIGN SLAVE-TRADE. 203 
 
 irticle in Talbot County. We call the attention 
 jf our Northern friends to it, as a straw or 
 feather which indicates the way the wind is 
 [blowing. 
 
 The extract shows the writer to be grossly 
 ignorant of the native African, whose moral 
 condition was greatly superior to the Spanish, 
 English, and American pirates who stole him 
 from his native country. 
 
 The slave States seem determined to re-open 
 the foreign slave-trade. If the governing 
 classes in Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, and 
 Missouri should object to it, their objections will 
 not be those of a moral or religious character, 
 but of a pecuniary nature. They may fear that 
 the traffic may diminish the price of their own 
 slaves. The opinion is fast gaining ground that 
 the foreign slave-trade is not piracy. The can- 
 did Southern slaveholder argues thus : “ If it is 
 right and just to hold the negro in slavery, if 
 he is my property, then it is right to sell him 
 if it is my pleasure. If it is right to sell him 
 in Maryland and send him to Texas, separating 
 him from mother and sisters, then it can be no 
 worse to catch a pagan African and sell him in 
 
204 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Texas. Consequently, if a planter in the South P 
 wants negroes, he ought to have the privilege So 1 
 of getting them from Africa or Virginia, as ma; tio 
 suit him best.” H 
 
 A word to the ministers of the South who 
 defend' chattel slavery among us : “ Gentlemen f 
 your task-masters, the politicians, have made 
 you their tools in the past. They made yoi 
 outlaw the negro from humanity and the com' 
 passion of Christ, so far as you are concerned : 
 and now you cannot stop. You cannot chain 
 the tiger. You cannot halt, and say, ‘we 
 shall go no further.’ They will force you to 
 preach the divine recognition of the benefits of 
 the foreign slave-trade. If you hesitate, they will 
 denounce you as abolitionists, and run you from 1 
 the sunny South. And they will serve you' 
 right. You granted them their premises. You 
 must now perforce accept their conclusions.” 
 
 And now a word to ministers of the North, 
 who justify slavery. “You need not turn up : 
 your eyes in holy horror at the thoughts of re-: 
 opening the foreign slave-trade. You have 
 already sanctioned the principle on which it 
 rests, the internal slave-trade. And now you 
 
THE FOREIGN SLAVE-TRADE. 205 
 
 must approve the other; otherwise the rich 
 Southern planter will rank you with the aboli- 
 tionists. Yes, gentlemen, ‘you have sown to the 
 wind, and you will reap the whirlwind.’ You 
 have taken ‘coals into your bosom,’ and you 
 must expect to be burned.” 
 
 And you, nice Conservatives, who labor day 
 and night, at the North, to choke off investiga- 
 tion, your time is coming! Once justify in one 
 man the right of property in another, and the 
 internal and foreign slave-trade, with all their 
 i horrors, naturally follow. Let me tell you, 
 i clerical gentlemen of the North who preach in 
 favor of slavery, that you are secretly despised 
 by the great slaveholders of the South. I 
 am a Southern man, and know a few of these 
 slave-holders. They are generally bold and 
 impetuous, and keenly penetrate the motives 
 of Northern men. Should some antislavery 
 preachers in the North go South, they would 
 be handed over to the tender mercies of the 
 mob. Yet they are at heart more respected 
 than those who, as soon as they get in the 
 South, belie their Northern education. I give 
 it as my opinion that, when a planter in 
 18 
 
206 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Texas or Florida wants slaves from Africa, lie 
 will get them in spite of the laws against the 
 slave-trade. When Southern men want to con- 
 quer the Central Americans, they will at least 
 try to do it. The South is dead in trespasses 
 and sins on the subject of slavery. The North 
 is far from being regenerated. Paul said : “ 0 1 
 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death !” Slavery is a 
 carcass chained to the church, and the church 
 will have to shake herself loose from it, or be 
 suffocated by its horrible stench. 
 
 SLAVERY AND ITS REMEDY— LIBERIA. 
 
 The American Colonization Society, and the 
 Colonization Societies of the different States, have, j 
 within the last forty years, succeeded in plant- i 
 ing a colony of free and liberated colored per- 
 sons on the west coast of Africa, called Liberia. 
 The men who projected and now sustain the 
 enterprise deserve all the credit they receive. 
 The missionaries of the Cross who have labored 
 and died there, have left the church a precious 
 legacy. As a foundation of missionary opera- 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS REMEDY. 207 
 
 Itions for the conversion of the native African, 
 
 : and as a refuge for those who otherwise might 
 never have enjoyed their freedom, I have ever 
 [given it my cordial support, and ever expect 
 , to. But as a remedy for American slavery , I 
 have no confidence whatever in African coloni- 
 zation, and for the following reasons : The pre- 
 sent colonial population of Liberia does not 
 exceed 12,000; yet it has had an existence of 
 more than thirty years. The slave population 
 of the United States is now 4,000,000, and more 
 than doubles itself every thirty years. The 
 annual increase of slaves, exclusive of those 
 that are sent to Liberia and those who flee to 
 free States, is 100,000 souls. Now if you could 
 transport 10,000 of these annually to Liberia, 
 you would ruin the colony, and have 90,000 net 
 increase left; for the plantation-slave would not 
 till the soil, and would thus prove a curse 
 to the colony. He would, if he could, get a 
 few pipes and tobacco, and there set up a little 
 shop. 
 
 The North will not send them, for she believes 
 that the colored man has as much right to the 
 soil as the white man. The South will not, for 
 
208 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the governing classes of that section proclain 
 that slavery is the best condition for the African 
 My opinion is that more slaves are smuggled 
 here from Africa every year than are liberated 
 by the South and sent to Liberia. If any one 
 doubts this, let him read the back numbers of 
 the Maryland Colonization Journal. I have 
 often listened to colonization agents, and have 
 heard them distinctly declare that colonization! 
 was not designed as a remedy for slavery, but 
 for the benefit of the free colored people. 
 
 Emancipation on the soil is the only remedy 
 for chattel slavery. Colored people could then 
 go to Liberia, to the West Indies, to the free 
 States, and to the Territories or Canada, just as 
 they pleased. This is no novel theory. The 
 fathers of the Methodist Church, in 1784, be- 
 lieved in this remedy. Gen. Washington be- 
 lieved in it when he set his slaves free at his 
 death. 
 
 The present colored race have a claim on our 
 justice, love, and magnanimity. We have de- 
 graded them, and we should labor to elevate them. 
 In the stead of negro-buyers and overseers, 
 I would have ten thousand Yankee, English, 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS REMEDY. 209 
 
 tud Irish school-teachers, who have no prejudices 
 igainst color; and an equal number of school- 
 ,'iouses. For slave-pens, I would have churches. 
 For handcuffs and thumh-screws, I would have 
 orimers and New Testaments. I believe that, 
 f the colored people were set free, they would 
 wake the peasantry of the South equal to the 
 peasantry of Europe, or at least equal to some 
 Darts of it. It is objected to this plan, or 
 .-emedjq that none but a few religious persons 
 svould ever consent to sacrifice the value of 
 their slaves by emancipation. This does not 
 prove the theory or principle a wrong one ; nor 
 does it militate against its justice and honesty. 
 If the Pharaohs of the land will not set the 
 slaves free, the Jehovah will do it by his judg- 
 ments. I believe drunkenness to be wrong, 
 and that abstinence from intoxicating liquors is 
 its remedy. But thousands will drink on, heed- 
 less of the remedy, and perish. Christ wall save 
 to the uttermost all that come to him ; .but mil- 
 lions will continue to reject him and forever die. 
 Yet the Gospel is true and soul-saving. "We 
 are to proclaim what we believe to be the 
 truth, whether the multitude believe it or not. 
 
 18 * 
 
210 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SLAVERY AND MARRIAGE. j f 
 
 Slavery dissolves tlie marriage relation be- 
 tween slaves, or between a slave man and a ® 
 free woman, or a free man and a slave woman, 
 at the will of the master. It ignores the au- 
 thority of God in the conjugal relation, and 
 trammels the conscience of true ministers of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Two colored persons called upon the writer, 
 in Maryland, to marry them, and, before pro- 
 ceeding with the ceremony, I inquired of the 
 man if he was single. He stated that he had 
 been married by a Methodist preacher, but bis! 
 wife had been sold to Georgia about two years. 
 
 I was embarrassed and perplexed. What was 
 to be done under the circumstances? I married' 
 them. Did I do wrong? I fear I did. If I 
 had refused, the man would have lived with 
 the woman, and I should have laid a burden 
 of temptation on him that the church woulc 
 not have touched with her little finger. On 
 the other hand, it seemed like acknowledging 
 the power of the master as above the command 
 of God. This man’s lawful wife was separated 
 
SLAVERY AND MARRIAGE. 
 
 211 
 
 from him for a cause other than adultery ; she 
 .,vas, perhaps, then living; and, it may be, was 
 already the forced wife or mistress of a slave or 
 master in the far-off South. 
 
 The serpent slavery meets the Christian 
 minister at every turn, hissing at the authority 
 and love of Christ. Slavery and the married 
 relation are utterly incompatible. To-day, the 
 preacher may, by permission of the master, 
 .unite two slaves in holy wedlock, and by Divine 
 authority say, “ Whom God hath joined together, 
 I let no man put asunder and the next day, 
 the husband or wife can, at the will of the 
 owner, be sent to some distant State. What 
 minister of Christ can justify a system which 
 thus strikes at morality, and openly, unblush- 
 in gly violates the commands of the Great 
 Jehovah ? 
 
The moral and political philosopher will fine 
 
 THE GREAT AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 
 stranger developments of humanity in the Great 
 American Republic than in any other Govern- 
 ment. During January, 1857, 1 listened to a lec- 
 ture delivered in Philadelphia by a distinguished 
 preacher from the Baltimore Conference. The 
 orator more than met my expectations. His 
 enunciation was clear, his voice filling the 
 great hall with ease. His gesture was fine; his 
 thought striking and witty, and at times 
 brilliant. In many particulars, he painted the 
 portrait of the “Universal Yankee Nation” with 
 accuracy. There was one prominent feature in 
 “Brother Jonathan,” however, which he entirely 
 omitted. It was Jonathan’s love for enslaving 
 4,000,000 of our fellow-creatures; his tact in 
 reducing men, women, and children to chattels 
 personal. Any painting of the Great American 
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
THE GREAT AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 213 
 
 republic, without this feature, would be as in- 
 accurate as a portrait of the face without the 
 lose. Indeed, chattel slavery is the great 
 Roman nose of the American portrait. I shall 
 ;ry my brush at a rough drawing of Brother 
 Jonathan. I anticipate his criticism, and denial 
 if its accuracy; but I shall insist that it is 
 u'uthful. Prior to exhibiting the picture, I shall 
 Relate an anecdote. 
 
 On one occasion, I visited the studio of a dis- 
 tinguished artist in one of our large cities. The 
 artist related to me the following incident : A 
 wealthy lady, quite advanced in years, employed 
 him to paint her portrait — which he executed, 
 as he thought, with truthfulness to nature. 
 She called to see it, and was much displeased, 
 petulantly asserting that it was not a good like- 
 ness. He saw what was the matter — that it* 
 was too faithful. She wished him to try again. 
 He complied with her request and painted a fine 
 youthful lady, with no resemblance to the 
 original. She was delighted — it was so young 
 and handsome, and favored her so much ! 
 
 The greatest moral, religious, and political 
 phenomenon that earth has ever seen is the 
 
214 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 United States of America, in which are concei: . 
 trated the virtues, and the vices, and the var: j 
 ous civilizations of all nations, ancient or moderr 
 A national body, through whose veins circulate 
 the blood of all races; a nation of “good, bad, am 
 indifferent;” a land of political and religiou 
 enigmas, absurdities, contradictions, and incon 
 sistencies; a land where the sublime and tbj 
 ridiculous perpetually approach each other 
 a land of books and newspapers, where it is i 
 disgrace for some not to read the Bible, anti 
 where it is treason to teach others to read it 
 a land of free speech and of trammeled speech 
 a land where the greatest liberty and the dead 
 liest despotism that ever crushed a people pre 
 vail side by side ; a land where there is no pope 
 and yet a million of popes; a land in which 
 •woman is treated with the utmost respect be^ 
 cause she is woman, and where women arc 
 unsexed and sold like beasts of burden, ano 
 treated as incapable of virtue; a land of trial 
 by jury, and of mob-law; a land where people 
 teach, on every 4th of July, that there are cer- 
 tain self-evident truths — for instance, that the' 
 Great Creator has endowed all men, without 1 
 
THE GREAT AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 215 
 
 istinction of color, with such rights as life, 
 berty, and the pursuit of happiness — and where, 
 pon the same day of Independence, the same 
 eople teach that, so far as colored persons are 
 mcerned, these self-evident truths are self- 
 yident lies; a land of churches, of Bibles, and 
 'acts, and yet a land of darkness and slave- 
 jens; a land where liberty is local, and slavery 
 ational; a nation combining within itself the 
 reatest power and the greatest weakness; a 
 eople whose national emblems are the steam- 
 ngine, the printing-press, and the clipper-ship, 
 rhile its slave-droves and old sedge fields loom 
 ut darkly in the background; a land that has 
 liven birth to the greatest and best men that 
 ver lived, and also to the meanest and vilest 
 rretches that ever breathed in any quarter of 
 >ur globe. Should old Apollyon call a world’s 
 convention, and offer a premium for the worst 
 nan in the world, it is probable that some New 
 England advocate of slavery would, uncontested, 
 jear off the prize. 
 
 PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 The world is not governed by chance or acci- 
 
216 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 dent. The King eternal, immortal, and invis 
 ble is “God over all and blessed forever more 
 The burning seraph and the little sparrow ai 
 both watched by a Father’s eye, and sustaine 
 by a Father’s love. In view of the thousand il 
 to which we are all exposed, I have ofte 
 thought that it is wonderful that so man 
 human beings should ever attain to the age o 
 forty years. I presume few persons have grow 
 to manhood under the most favorable circun 
 stances, without sometimes having stood upo: 
 the verge of death, and having witnessed th 
 watchful care and over-ruling providence o 
 the Author of all good. 
 
 I. A Vicious Cow . — The first hair-breadtl 
 escape from death that I remember occurre<| 
 when I was not more than six years old 
 Returning from school one afternoon, a viciou 1 , 
 cow ran at me. I was in front of a stabk 
 against which she backed me, and, in the effor 
 to gore me, she inclosed my body with hei 
 horns. She started back to run at me again 
 and her attention being just then diverted b;y 
 the screaming of my little sister, I fortunately 
 , escaped. 
 
PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 217 
 
 II. Skating . — This is an innocent and bracing 
 [exercise. I was very fond of it in my younger 
 days. A mill-pond, about a mile from home, 
 I offered great facilities for this healthful arnuse- 
 fment to the young men of the neighborhood. 
 The middle of the pond was deep, and, when 
 [the weather was not very cold, the ice on that 
 part was thin and unsafe. On one occasion, in 
 'company with several young companions, I ven- 
 tured too far on the weak ice, and broke 
 through. My youthful friends lost their pre- 
 sence of mind, collected together some distance 
 : off, and made no effort to rescue me. I sus- 
 pended myself even with the ice, but had no 
 power to escape. I was holding on to the 
 smooth surface with the greatest difficulty, and 
 in a few moments more would have been com- 
 pelled to let go and sink. A brave and noble 
 young sailor, who was skating some distance up 
 the pond saw me, and came dashing toward me 
 at full speed. I reached out my hand, and he 
 missed it. He could not stop, but circled off 
 and returned with wonderful velocity. Again 
 I reached out my hand, he caught it with a hard 
 sailor’s grasp, kept on his way, dragged me out 
 19 
 
218 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 of the water, and both of us were sqoii safely 
 rolling over on the hard ice. I shall ever owe 
 him a debt of gratitude. 
 
 . III. A Spirited Colt . — If my youthful readers 
 will examine a map of Maryland, they will see 
 that from Cape Charles to Cape Henlopen, there 
 are numerous small islands between the ocean 
 and main-land. The “Beach,” as it is called, -is 
 mostly barren, producing little else than myrtle 
 bushes, dwarf trees, and a sickly-looking marsh 
 grass. Farmers on the main often send to this; 
 place their infirm mares, whose young are left 
 to bask in the sunshine, or cower before a driv- 
 ing snow without shelter or protection, and to 
 spend their days in hearing the eternal roar, 
 of the ocean. These were at one time owned 
 by a stock company, and when old enough werej 
 caught and tamed. They are called “Beach! 
 ponies,” and are about the size of the Shetland 
 pony, but more beautiful in form and appear- 
 ance. They are hardy little animals, and of 
 wicked dispositions. 
 
 My father bought one, and I claimed him as 
 my own. I kept him very fat, and had but 
 little for him to do. A hill from eight to ten 
 
PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 219 
 
 feet high stood on the road-side, near my father’s 
 house. While riding my colt, one beautiful after- 
 jnoon, the bridle came off, but, supposing the 
 i animal would keep the main road to his stable, 
 I felt no alarm. But instead of doing as I ex- 
 pected, he deliberately turned out of the road, 
 went to the hill and jumped off, throwing me 
 over his head, and causing me to turn a very 
 undesirable summerset. Although I fell on my 
 hack, I sustained no injury. 
 
 IV. The Fox-hunt. — Fox-hunting is one of the 
 chief sports in some parts of the South. A man 
 who keeps a pack of hounds, and entertains his 
 fellow-sportsmen, is considered no mean fellow. 
 Many a poor slave has been sold to feed dogs 
 and keep up incidental expenses. There is a 
 great deal of fun and excitement in a fox-chase 
 for those who glory in earthly things. My first 
 and last fox-hunt occurred in my teens. A gen- 
 tleman in the neighborhood who was an accom- 
 plished hunter, and owned a fine pack of hounds 
 and ahorse thoroughly trained to the chase, gave 
 me an invitation to accompany a large party on 
 a hunt. As I was a green-horn in the business, 
 and as my Beach pony was also untutored, he prof- 
 
220 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 fered me his well-broken horse and rode mine. 
 I shall never forget the appearance of his horse. 
 He was a tall white animal, with a gentle sleepy 
 look, and seemed to take no interest in what was 
 going on. It was a cold, clear, frosty winter morn- 
 ing on which the hunt took place. A number 
 of gentlemen were in company with their hounds 
 and horses. Mr. Boice (the name by which I 
 shall designate the owner of the horse I rode) 
 was the master-spirit. The hounds were frantic 
 with delight. The horses snuffed in the bracing 
 air, and threw it out in puffs of smoke. The 
 merry laugh and joke passed round among the 
 gentry. I confess I was happy, for then I s;nv 
 nothing wrong in the sport. I was the only boy 
 in the company, and was rather petted by the 
 old friends of my father. Moreover, they antici- 
 pated some rare sport from me, in case a fox 
 should be started. As for my little pony, he was 
 all on fire. Sometimes he would go sideways, 
 and sometimes backwards. He was rather hard' 
 to manage. The horse I rode seemed to take 
 less interest in the whole scene than the other 
 animals. I felt perfectly safe on his back. We 
 started and rode about two miles, crossed one of 
 
♦ 
 
 PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 221 
 
 he turned-out fields, which are very common in 
 ■ lave States, and then passed through a pine 
 hicket, and arrived at the border of a dense 
 wamp. Mr. Boice then blew up the hounds, 
 tnd the leading dog plunged into the jungle. 
 The horsemen arranged themselves along the 
 wamp. My position was about the centre. It 
 vas my intention, if a fox should be started, to 
 keep in the rear, and take a lesson from the old 
 [sportsmen. My horse seemed to droop, now 
 md then working his ears. Not more than 
 fifteen minutes had expired when the leading 
 dog began to bay, the sounds coming in quick 
 succession. ' Mr. Boice gave notice that a fox 
 was up, and to keep a sharp look-out, as he 
 would pass by us. My sleepy horse became 
 suddenly transformed into life, his head erect, 
 and his body quivering with excitement. To 
 my surprise the fox passed almost under his 
 heels; but the animal did not move. The lead- 
 ing dog came on, and all the rest struck in at 
 full bay. My horse held on till the dogs passed ; 
 then in a moment he wheeled, and, like a fiery 
 racer, regardless of me, dashed on after the 
 hounds, leaving my companions far in the rear. 
 19 * 
 
* 
 
 222 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I found I should have to let go the bridle, whic 
 I did, and, with both hands, held on by tb 
 pommel of the saddle. When I came to th 
 old field, it almost seemed to me that the hors 
 flew. The wind whistled and roared in my ear* 
 
 I thought to myself: “What shall I do when 
 come to the oak woods?” I was trembling wit] 
 fright, for I expected to be killed. He enters 
 the woods, and wildly dashed through them 
 jumping old trees, and winding around others 
 He would actually accommodate his body to mi 
 circumstances, and dodge limbs to keep mt 
 from being hurt, so well did he understand the 
 danger of hunting. He ran thus two or three 
 miles, when the dogs lost the fox in a swamp, 
 The rest of the hunters came up, and I dis- 
 mounted amid the jokes of my old friends.; 
 Glad that I was not killed, I fully determined- 
 never to hunt the fox again. 
 
 V. Peril from Dogs . — A morbid love for dogs 
 pervades all classes of our community. It has 
 been computed that the annual cost of these 
 animals to the nation is $9,000,000, not in- 
 cluding in the calculation the loss occasioned 
 by their destruction of sheep, which is immense. 
 
PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 223 
 
 riiree-fourths of all the dogs in our country are 
 Av holly unnecessary for any purposes of security 
 ■ ir utility. 
 
 In the hot month of July, while travelling 
 on the public road, I was once bitten above the 
 knee by a large mastiff. The wound was a 
 terrible one, and the season of the year increased 
 my suffering. I was laid up for six weeks, and 
 ; narrowly escaped being a cripple for life. But 
 for a kind Providence, mortification of the limb 
 might have ensued, and resulted in my death. 
 
 While conversing with a friend, several years 
 ago, a large, yellow dog approached me. I 
 drove him from the house, and almost as soon 
 as he had got outside, he bit two dogs. The 
 alarm was given, and the cry of “Mad dog!” 
 rang on the air, causing mothers to call in their 
 children and close the doors. I took my gun 
 and foolishly pursued the animal alone. I 
 followed him to the woods, and came up to him 
 sooner than I expected. In a raging fit he 
 sprang toward me, but stopped, before he reached 
 me, to snap at or bite himself. I had only time 
 enough to raise my gun and fire at his head as 
 he turned his face toward me for the attack. 
 
224 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 The shot took effect in his forehead. But hie 15 
 skull was too thick to be seriously injured; the 16 
 wound seemed merely to stun him for a moment. 1 
 and, foaming with rage, he turned and ran 
 under a house close by. I stooped down to! 
 look for him, and there he was, only a few feet 1 
 distant, looking me in the face, his eyes glaring 
 like balls of fire. To this day I condemn my- 
 self for this uncalled-for exposure of my life. 
 
 SLAVERY AND REVIVALS. 
 
 By a revival of religion I mean a more than' 
 ordinarily gracious outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit upon an individual, or church. A revival 
 is to the moral and religious world what an 
 earthquake is to the natural or physical worlds 
 During its continuance, churches are revived,' 
 many worldly persons become thoughtful about I 
 eternal realities, and others are truly converted 
 to Christ. I have been honored by the blessed 
 Redeemer in conducting several of these revivals 
 both among white and colored persons. Young 
 converts, warm in their first love, never defend i 
 slavery. They feel that they want to elevate 
 all classes of men. It is the old professors, that 
 
SLAVERY AND REVIVALS. 
 
 225 
 
 ■ive succeeded in hardening their hearts, who 
 ■e in favor of slavery. My observations lead 
 e to conclude that not more than one out of 
 re persons, who profess to be converted in the 
 ave States, continues to adorn his profession 
 ith good works. Many remain in the church 
 ily a few months, or at most but one or two years. 
 
 ' slaveholders, they generally feel some scruples 
 bout holding their slaves in bondage. If they 
 ?fuse, like Pharaoh, to let God’s people go, 
 leir hearts become hardened, and they finally 
 ;ttle down as mere professors of religion, or 
 :ave the church altogether. They will back- , 
 ide, if young men, unless they engage in some 
 idustrial occupation; and one of the hardest 
 issons in the world for men to learn who have 
 een brought up to no business, is to acquire 
 be habit of labor. Many of our revivals ought 
 ot to be published till twelve months after 
 ate. In fact, some of our most prudent and 
 boughtful preachers have been so disgusted 
 -ith flaming revival notices in the “ Christian 
 
 • 
 
 idvocate and Journal,” as to get on the other ex- 
 reme, and write no accounts whatever. Many 
 f the reported converts are campaigners, pro- 
 
226 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 fessing religion at nearly every camp-meeting ai 
 protracted meeting in their vicinity. Preache 
 who insist on a strict moral life, on dealing just 
 in business transactions, and being truthful in o 
 words, self-denying in our lives, and liberal a 
 cording to the ability given us, are greatly unde 
 valued among us. The pastor who tries to get 1 
 Sunday-schools and Bible-classes, and to inspi 
 a taste for sound literature, is frequently co:j 
 sidered a “ dry stick.” But he who cares litt 
 for these things, but can shout aloud and ejaci 
 late “ Glory !” as unctuously as the politician h 
 “ Hurrah !” — he who beats the Bible and stamj 
 lustily in the pulpit, is supposed by many to t 
 full of the Holy Ghost. I have always foun 
 it easier to get up a “ shout” than a Bible-clasi 
 I am not opposing “ shouting,” as the result 0 ; 
 the Holy Spirit’s influence on the heart. Bu 
 it does not always indicate genuine feeling. 1 
 brother who was shouting and jumping witl 
 apparent earnestness, was approached and askec 
 by another brother if he wks happy. “Oh, no !’ 
 Tie replied. “ Why, then, do you jump and shoul 
 so V He answered that he did it “ to gel 
 happy.” He used it as a “ means of grace.” 1 
 
SLAVERY AND REVIVALS. 
 
 227 
 
 bve never yet found affected happiness set 
 rwn in the Bible as a means of grace. Slavery 
 tervates body and mind, and has a tendency 
 t create in the mind aversion to habits of close 
 fought and study. It seeks periodical ex- 
 
 ■ I 
 
 irtement. Our converts, however good, bad, 
 <■• indifferent, are on a par with those of other 
 
 i “nominations. I never knew one of them to 
 “ rejected when seeking admission into other 
 [lurches. Slavery destroys more than half of 
 le fruits of genuine revivals. It seeks and 
 iquires nothing but elementary and abstract 
 reaching. It is opposed to progress, and to 
 fersonal effort to attain perfection. When you 
 [rant to denounce sin, you must go to Adam 
 nd Eve, and to the Jews in the wilderness, 
 fou must be careful, however, when slaves are 
 •resent, how you talk about Pharaoh making 
 laves of the Hebrews, and refusing to let the 
 •eople leave Egypt. At any rate, you must 
 nake no direct application of the subject. To 
 pply the morality of the Bible to American 
 •olitics, would blow up the reputation of any 
 •readier. He may know, but he must not 
 iffirm, that his official members spend money 
 
22S 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 liberally to buy votes directly or indirectly, 
 may preach as much as he pleases agaii 
 French and Austrian politics. I once heart 
 minister in the pulpit say that the head of eve 
 king in Europe ought to come off. And t 
 sentiment was received with delight. You ml 
 even preach against a certain Austrian geneil, 
 who publicly whipped the wives and daughtc 
 of Hungary, and you will be applauded. B 
 you must not dare to hint that it is wrong 
 America to strip a woman and cowhide h 
 because she is restless under slavery. If i 
 Italian prince confines a man in prison fr 
 reading the Bible, you can get up an indignatu 
 meeting, especially in Baltimore, that wi 
 astonish mankind. But to deprive millions c 
 colored Native American citizens of equivalei 
 privileges, is a virtue of the highest order. Tli 
 preacher, to be popular, must flatter church an 
 state, especially the state. Fie must proclaii 
 that this is the greatest and freest nation o 
 
 •eft 
 
 the globe. It can be said truly that men i: 
 this country have more liberty to buy and sell 
 and whip men, women, and children, than i] 
 any other country, civilized or savage. II 
 
 
EDUCATION OF YOUTH. 
 
 229 
 
 Napoleon III. were to cause to be sold annually 
 LOO, 000 Frenchmen at public auction, and have 
 them handcuffed and driven like cattle to dif- 
 ferent parts of France, his throne would be 
 lulled down sooner than it took the allied 
 lowers to blow up Sebastopol. If the Pope 
 vere to sell at public auction, in Rome, 100,000 
 Italians yearly, the Vatican would tremble to 
 ts foundations. As a general thing, the re- 
 Igion of slaves is an A, B, C religion ; and, 
 Rough the great and merciful Redeemer saves 
 nany of them in their infantile development, 
 vet this affords no excuse to those who keep 
 ' hem in that state. 
 
 rHE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF 
 CHILDREN AND YOUTH. 
 
 White children in the South are almost ex- 
 clusively nursed by slaves. A parent ' thus 
 Addresses her child : “ Mary, child, you must 
 lot be kissing that black nigger,! Bet, why 
 lo you let that child kiss you? Go along, this 
 moment, and wash its face, for the child shall 
 not kiss me after she has been kissing you, 
 20 
 
 i* 
 
230 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 unless her face is washed.” Thus endeth the 
 first lesson on caste. 
 
 The only way slaves can get along pleasantly, 
 both with parents and children, is to flattei 
 both. The self-will and vanity of children are 
 stimulated from the beginning. Even aged 
 slaves are great flatterers of their mistresses and 
 masters. Slavery stimulates to excess the love' 
 of power, of ease, of applause, and of money, 
 and aggravates licentious passion — the very 
 tendencies that should be most repressed in 
 youth. There are virtuous young men in the 
 South; but their virtue is due solely to the 
 intense watchfulness of parents and sisters. 
 There is no need of French pictures and obscene 
 books to corrupt youth in the South. The, 
 living pictures are the slaves. I have often' 
 been ashamed and astonished at some professed 
 Christian parents, who would have thought 
 themselves unfit for decent society if obscene 
 prints were suspended in their parlors; and 
 yet who in summer would dress up large colored 
 boys and girls in a simple tow-linen shirt, who, 
 in this costume, would play with their white 
 children. White boys or girls coming on the 
 
NEGRO INSURRECTIONS. 
 
 231 
 
 plantation thus dressed would have been driven 
 iff. The white children necessarily listen to 
 conversations, and witness familiarities among 
 slaves, that they should never hear or see. 
 Many religious parents try to keep their chil- 
 dren from the quarters ; but it is a hard matter. 
 Slaves often glory in corrupting the children 
 of their owners. They learn them frequently 
 to swear, to chew tobacco, to drink rum; and 
 pollute their imaginations. In my opinion, 
 eighty out of one hundred of the most religious 
 families in the South have bad women con- 
 nected with their household, in the persons of 
 their female servants. Yet this horrid system 
 is considered so sacred that it must not be ex- 
 posed. Every man, from Maine to Oregon, 
 who defends and apologizes for the system will 
 partake of its punishment in the future world, 
 as well as the slaveholders themselves. 
 
 NEGRO INSURRECTIONS. 
 
 As a rule, I have no faith in negro insurrec- 
 tions. A few well-authenticated ones have 
 occurred ; but nineteen out of twenty rumors are 
 false. 1 have lived through two of these insur- 
 
232 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 rectious, and, if I had not witnessed the fea: (!■ 
 and cowardice of men of the highest standing, 
 could not have believed that such could be tfc if? 
 fact. There are men in the slave States, wb 
 neither fear God nor regard the white man, tin jfl 
 act like nerveless women at the very mentio « 
 of a slave insurrection. Their imaginations tak 
 fire, and they see a “Nat Turner” in ever! 
 negro boy. On the merest rumor, many of th 
 negroes are taken up and beaten unmercifully 
 and, for the sake of being let down, confess t< 
 any lie that may be suggested; just as the poo 
 creatures of New England confessed to witch 
 craft in order to mitigate their punishment 1 
 The order of proceeding is about as follows: 
 
 Somebody starts a report that “the niggers 
 are going to rise.” Messrs. Scared-to-death & Co,! 
 take up servant Bob, strip off his shirt, make 
 him “hug” a tree, and then tie him in that 
 position. Mr. Stonyhead steps forward: “Did : 
 you hear Bill Black say that the niggers were 
 going to rise and kill the whites?” “No, sir.” 
 “You lie, you rascal!” Click! click! click! goes 
 the cowhide ; the blood flows, and the boy writhes 
 in agony at every stroke. “ Now confess, you 
 
NEGRO INSURRECTIONS. 
 
 233 
 
 :jg.” “Oyes, Massa! 0, let me down, Massa ! 
 .id I will confess. Bill did say to me that the 
 .iggers were going to rise.” Away they go after 
 
 I ill. He is caught, and a rope is adjusted 
 ■ound his neck. In vain he protests his inno- 
 ence; he is hung up to the nearest tree just like 
 
 I dog, with no semblance of a trial. It is a 
 ear case of downright murder. When the 
 xcitement dies away, and conscience upbraids, 
 he men feel ashamed of themselves. 
 
 If a colored preacher or intelligent free negro 
 iains the ill-will of a malicious slave, all the latter 
 las to do is to report that said preacher had 
 ttempted to persuade him to “rise,” or to run 
 .way ; and the poor fellow’s life may pay the 
 orfeit. Indeed, the white man who is known 
 o be opposed to slavery is in the same danger, 
 f he reproves a vicious slave for swearing or 
 Irunkenness. Imaginary is as terrible as real 
 uffering. It is not to be denied that there is -a 
 rast amount of uneasiness among the white 
 >opulation of the South from fear of the negroes, 
 md the negroes suffer an equal amount from 
 ear of the whites. It is a fact that the reign of 
 error has already commenced in the South. 
 20 * 
 
2 SI- 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Scenes of cruelty and torture are there enacte< 
 equal in character to any enacted by th 
 authority of the Duke of Alva against the Prc r 
 testants of Holland. And such scenes will con 
 tinue to increase so long as the range of cliatte 
 slavery widens. When insurrections shall occu 
 in the South, they will take place, not througl 
 the agency of Christian antislavery men, bu 
 of political speakers and editors of the press, who 
 in charging each other with abolitionism, shall b( 
 unguarded in their remarks before colored peo- 
 ple; for by such means alone will the latter 
 know and feel their strength. Indeed, the peo- 
 ple of the South would never know anything of 
 abolitionism, were it not for politicians. It is a 
 terrible thought that the structure of Southern 
 society, based as it is on chattel slavery, rests 1 
 on a volcano, which, at some future day, will 
 belch forth fire and brimstone, and vomit rivers 
 of burning lava, which will sweep away the 
 cities, and devastate the plains of the sunny 
 South, unless the catastrophe is averted by timely 
 repentance. We may start back with horror 
 at the thought, and smile on the picture with 
 vain derision ; but neither horror nor affected 
 
THE KICK COLORED MAN. 
 
 235 
 
 .erision will change the eternal laws of right 
 - aid wrong, or arrest the awful penalties that fol- 
 ow their violation. 
 
 ■p- 
 
 THE RICH COLORED MAH. 
 
 1 
 
 Mr. Ruskin was once a slave in one of the 
 ;ounties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He 
 succeeded in buying himself from his master ; and 
 being a man of superior abilities, and devoting 
 ais talent and energy to the accumulation of 
 money, became one of the richest men in the 
 county. I was informed that he was a member 
 of the M. E. Church. He rode in the same style 
 as the richest white men ; and I observed, for he 
 lived on a circuit adjoining mine, that, when he 
 entered a store, the utmost respect was shown 
 him. The pro-slavery portion of the community 
 held him in high esteem. The colored people 
 despised him heartily; and so did I. He ivas a 
 slaveholder, and treated his slaves precisely as 
 his neighbors treated theirs. He died in 1846, 
 and I witnessed his funeral cortege. His male 
 slaves brought up the rear, mounted on horses. It 
 was the grandest funeral procession that I saw 
 while in the county. As the procession moved 
 
236 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 along, I involuntarily asked myself the question 
 whether his soul had gone to heaven ! 
 
 I have observed that, when colored men be 
 come wealthy in the South, they take sides, in { 
 majority of cases, with the whites against tin 
 oppressed class of their own color. The pos 
 session of wealth, by such colored men, goes far 
 in the South, to mitigate the rigors of color. 
 
 It is painful to reflect that this man, after! 
 having tasted the bitter cup of slavery himself, 
 should, in his state of freedom, have become the 1 
 oppressor of Ms own brethren. This case, how-! 
 ever, proves the necessity of good laws; for 
 some men will do any act, however atrocious, 
 which has the sanction of legal authority. The 
 white man oppresses the Indian and the negro. 
 The Indian enslaves the negro. The negro | 
 sometimes owns the negro; and, according to 
 the testimony of slaves themselves, he is the 
 worst of masters, and the most cruel of overseers. 
 The minister of the Gospel who turns slave- 
 holder is the worst of slaveholders. 
 
CHAPTER XI Y. 
 
 TOBACCO AND SLAVERY. 
 
 2 4 
 
 | The tobacco plant is intimately associated in 
 lay mind with negro slavery. It is the emblem 
 f filtb and degradation. Its cultivation ex- 
 nausts the richest soils, and increases the price 
 if bread, which is the staff of life. I have been 
 nformed that the slaves employed in its culti- 
 vation are worse treated than any other class, 
 because more exposed. To the philanthropist 
 md the Christian its extensive and increasing 
 lse is most painful and alarming. Its probable 
 lost to the people of this country, every year, is 
 lot far short of $40,000,000, a sum sufficient to 
 )ay the yearly tuition of every boy and girl, 
 vhite and black, throughout the United States 
 >f America. Its use is not necessary to sustain 
 ife, or to promote health. If needed for a medi- 
 cine, let it be labelled as other poisons. It is 
 me of the prolific causes of dyspepsia, the 
 
 (237) 
 
238 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 mother of “blue devils,” suicide, and miser ! 
 indescribable. "We shall soon earn, by its us 
 the inglorious epithet of the “filthy nation 
 Look at our streets, hotels, offices, stores, hall 
 court-houses, capitals, and churches, besmeare 
 with the juice of the vile weed ! Even our be( 
 rooms and parlors are not secure from the. evi'. 
 The tobacco-smoker pollutes the pure air of Go 
 which surrounds him ; he invades the rights o 
 his neighbors, and therefore should be indictabl 
 at common law. So unpleasant is the stenc 
 arising from the weed when we are confined in ! 
 close room, stage-coach, or omnibus, that I wil 
 not say that he who uses it is not a good mai 
 and a Christian, but that he would be a bette 
 man and a Christian, in every respect, withou 
 it. Its tendency is to kindle libidinous passion 
 Christian ministers should desist from it, espe 
 cially those under fifty years of age. It injure. 1 
 their health and their usefulness. Their labors 
 necessarily tax the brain. They need to carry 
 no additional weight. This habit lessens the 
 dignity of their office. It is in very bad taste 
 for a minister of the Gospel to smoke in the 
 thoroughfare. It demonstrates to the infidel 
 
TOBACCO AND SLAVERY. 
 
 239 
 
 tat lie loves the things of the flesh, if not of 
 le devil. It consumes time that should be 
 bent in reading, in study, in prayer, and in 
 jpstoral work. The man who uses tobacco is 
 ci great danger, in time of trouble, of trusting 
 •> it for consolation, instead of looking to our 
 ord Jesus Christ. 
 
 . The use of tobacco is driving men from the 
 iflerent churches on the holy Sabbath. Many 
 mokers will not forego their pleasures long 
 pough to hear a sermon ; and when they do 
 o to church, the “Amen” is the most joyful 
 art of the sermon, so anxious are they to rush 
 ut and consume the noxious weed. 
 
 Here is a special argument addressed to 
 ■Iethodist preachers : The chewing of tobacco 
 3 driving hundreds of respectable people, and 
 ntire families, from the Methodist Episcopal into 
 hurches that have pews, for our churches gene- 
 ally are free-seated. Persons not members of 
 ur church do not feel at liberty to take seats 
 iear the pulpit. They take their seats near 
 he centre of the church, or toward the door, 
 lere rowdies and tobacco-chewers congregate, 
 ,nd eject their filthy saliva on the floor, where 
 
240 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 no gentleman or lady can kneel in prayt 
 Decent persons become disgusted with sui 
 conduct, and go to churches where they c; 
 rent a pew, and thus shut out such creatures . 
 neither reverence the house of God nor respe 
 the requirements of good-breeding; and whei 
 their wives and daughters can worship in son 
 cleanliness and peace. To an American Metho; 
 ist, this is, in my opinion, the strongest argi 
 ment which can be brought forward in favor c 
 pews. Though opposed to pews as a generf 
 thing, yet I confess, after what I have seen 
 hundred times in our town and country churcliei 
 I can blame no man for renting one. A sexto 
 in one of our churches in town said to me, afte 
 the service was over, on beholding the floo 
 flooded with tobacco juice : “ How is it that th< 
 very men who treat our church so badly neve 
 think of spitting on the floor when they go t< 
 the Presbyterian church in this town?” Th< 
 reason is this : They felt that the pews wen 
 private property, and respected it as they would 
 a man’s parlor. But a free-seated church thej 
 regard as public property, and respect it nc 
 more than they do a bar-room or court-house. 
 
TOBACCO AND SLAVERY. 
 
 241 
 
 It is rumored that other churches are adopting 
 the free-seat plan. But mark what I tell you, 
 dear reader ; they will soon abandon that plan, 
 if this nation continues to be cursed with mil- 
 lions of tobacco-chewers and snuff-rubbers. I 
 have seen the women’s side of some country 
 churches horribly defiled by the spitting of snuff 
 against the wall and on the floor. A man who 
 will deliberately spit tobacco-juice in a house 
 of prayer, and thereby prevent others from 
 worshiping and conforming to the rules of the 
 church, should be invited to leave, and be re- 
 quested not to return until he learns to behave 
 himself genteelly. 
 
 But what shall I say of those preachers who 
 chew in the pulpit, and thus defile the holy of 
 holies ; who pile their cold “ quids” under the 
 sacred desk, to the great annoyance of their 
 anti-tobacco successors? A fat, easy, good- 
 natured brother preacher told me that he 
 desisted once from its use ; but that he became 
 so fat by abstaining that he could not cross his 
 legs, and had to take to the weed again. I 
 thought him excusable. The habit once ac- 
 quired, becomes imperious in its demands. A 
 21 
 
242 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 man who has never used tobacco can scarcely 
 conceive of the delicious pleasure it affords its 
 votaries. I once used it myself; and though 
 several years have elapsed since I gave it up, 
 yet when I see a nice piece of cavendish, the 
 appetite revives, and but for a sense of 1 duty, 
 would rather taste it than strawberries or ice- 
 cream, of which, like most people, I am very 
 fond. I can sympathize with those who have 
 the appetite. 
 
 It has been said that “conscience makes 
 cowards of us all;” certainly tobacco makes 
 beggars of all that use it. White and colored 
 here occupy common ground. It is a universal 
 leveller. See that proud slaveholder, as he 
 rides through his fields. He has forgotten his 
 tobacco. He searches his pockets in vain. He 
 determines to fast for once ; but his resolution 
 soon fails him. He calls for Pomp, and begs a 
 piece of his common weed. Perhaps he literally 
 bites it off with his teeth. It is true that it 
 does not taste like his best Richmond cavendish ; 
 but it is better than none. He throws a ten- 
 cent piece to Pomp, and the poor fellow is 
 pleased with the double honor conferred on 
 
TOBACCO AND SLAVERY. 
 
 243 
 
 him, kind words and money from his master. 
 I suppose that the 800,000 members of the M. 
 E. Church annually spend $500,000 for tobacco. 
 One brother told me that his cigars had cost him 
 as high as $100 a year. Poor men frequently 
 spend for this luxury five, ten, and twenty dol- 
 
 a 
 
 liars a year. I judge that at least 6000 slaves 
 are owned by members of the M. E. Church; 
 these, at $500 each, would amount to $3,000,000. 
 The sum of $500,000 will buy 1000 of these 
 poor creatures, many of them our brethren and 
 sisters in Christ. 
 
 It is said that not a single preacher in the 
 Irish Methodist Conference uses tobacco. I 
 hope this Conference will send us a deputation 
 to preach repentance on this subject. Hundreds 
 annually perish from the effects of the insidious 
 weed, who have never suspected the cause of 
 their decline. The time will come, I think, 
 when the merciful Redeemer will raise up men 
 who will go through our land, and preach 
 against tobacco as they have preached against 
 intemperance. A vast amount of property is 
 annually destroyed through carelessness in the 
 use of pipes and cigars. Hear me, my friends, 
 
244 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 for my cause, and your cause — the cause of 
 sweet breath and of sweet sleep. 
 
 REVIVALS AMONG OUR COLORED FRIENDS. 
 
 On every circuit I travelled, I made it a mat- 
 ter of conscience to attend to the colored friends 
 — these poor sheep in the wilderness. Many 
 of them are taken in church without baptism. 
 I generally called their attention to this ordi- 
 nance, and have baptized as many as forty at a 
 time, some of whom had been members of the 
 church for years. On a certain circuit, in the 
 early part of my ministry, I promised to hold a 
 protracted meeting for our colored brethren at a 
 specified time. When the period rolled round, it 
 found me unable to walk and confined to my room 
 with inflammatory rheumatism. The ground 
 was covered with snow. My boarding-bfuse 
 was not far from the church. The night came.; 
 The congregation w r as waiting. Two of the 
 sable brothers came to see me. When they! 
 saw my affliction, they were cast down. The 
 disappointment was great. I was responsible 
 for their meeting. I was not fit to leave my 
 room; but, seeing their disappointment, I told 
 
THE YOUA'G PREACHER. 
 
 245 
 
 hem, if I could be taken to church, and seated 
 n a chair, I would try and preach. They 
 iffered to take me in their arms. I accepted; 
 md accordingly was gently conveyed to the 
 muse of the Lord, placed in a chair, and 
 ^reached. And thus was I taken to and from 
 he church, night after night, in the arms of these 
 brethren. Many professed religion; and I trust 
 :hat eternity will disclose some good results from 
 r.hat meeting. 
 
 ‘ THE YOUNG PRESBYTERIAN PREACHER. 
 
 Within the bounds of a circuit I once travelled 
 was a Presbyterian Church. The congregation 
 had been without a pastor for some time. 
 Eventually, a young man belonging to the New 
 School was called, and commenced his labors 
 among them. Things went very smoothly for a 
 little while. In the simplicity of his first love 
 and zeal for Christ, the young man thought that 
 he ought to seek to benefit all classes in the 
 neighborhood. After laboring in the morning 
 of the Sabbath with the white part of his flock, 
 he set apart the afternoon for the instruction of 
 colored children, that were roving over the 
 21 * 
 
246 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 neighborhood, and growing up like the colts oi 
 wild asses. The children were delighted, and i 
 flourishing Sabbath School was soon in operation 
 The young man’s heart was cheered at the pros 
 pect of doing good. But, alas, for him and hi; 
 school! Soon the cry was started that he was! 
 an abolitionist. The clouds gathered darkl) 
 above his head ; the lightnings flashed, and the 
 rumbling of thunder was heard in the distance. 
 The poor fellow’s heart was sad. I suppose he 
 had heard that I had got up a Sabbath School 
 for the colored people on my own circuit. He 
 came to me with his troubles. I loved him and 
 sympathized with him from that hour. I told 
 him not to surrender. He had said nothing 
 against slavery, and perhaps the storm might 
 blow over. But it continued to increase, and 
 the young man gave up the school, as his own 
 members would not sustain him. Soon after, he 
 resigned his charge. If he had been a foreign 
 missionary , and if tire Roman Catholics had broken 
 up his school, the circumstance would have been 
 rung through all the church papers. 0 slavery! 
 slavery ! the half has not been told concerning 
 thee ! Thou hidest thyself in darkness ! Thou 
 
THE YOUNG PREACHER. 
 
 247 
 
 latest the light ! But the light will come, if it 
 ias to come in balls of fire from heaven. 
 
 On this same circuit I got up a colored school, 
 [t was not popular. It added nothing to my 
 acceptability. If I were a healthy, effective man 
 in this Conference, I would not, as I have never 
 done, refuse to go to any circuit within its 
 bounds; but I would define my position on 
 slavery to my elder or Bishop. If sent among 
 a slaveholding community, I would tell the 
 steward, on my arrival, that I believed slavery 
 a sin, and should advocate my sentiments 
 privately among the members of the church, 
 and seek, wherever practicable, to establish 
 schools. Should the members reply that I could 
 not be their preacher on these conditions, I 
 should ask to be removed to free territory. If my 
 request were not granted, I would ask for a 
 transfer to Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska or Min- 
 nesota, where I would live in a log cabin, eat 
 “ corn-dodgers,” bear-meat, and be a free man, 
 and preach a free Gospel to rich and poor, white 
 and colored. I would much prefer this to a good 
 salary and a fine table, with a padlock on my 
 mouth. If a man embraces a certain doctrine or 
 
243 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 opinion, and cannot utter his sentiments t 
 another, he has within him a fire that more c 
 less consumes his happiness. I don’t believe tha 
 any conscientious antislavery minister can b 
 happy in a slave State. He is constantly bt 
 holding offences which he cannot rebuke. 1 
 temperance man sees drunkenness everywhere 
 but in every State of the Union he can give ven 
 to his feelings by public speeches against it, ant 
 thus relieve the heavy pressure of responsibility 
 he feels in relation to that particular evil 
 Alas, how different is it with the question of 
 slavery! 
 
 THE KIDNAPPER. 
 
 A kidnapper is a stealer of men. He deals in 
 human flesh, and differs from the negro-buyer 
 thus: the former pays nothing for his human 
 chattels, while the latter does. The kidnapper 
 is despised by all classes in the South. The 
 slaveholder hates him, for the fellow may steal 
 his human property. The slave fears him as a 
 
 devouring lion. 
 
 The free negro dreads him as 
 
 his greatest enemy, for his operations are prin- 
 cipally confined to this class, who have less 
 
SLAVERY, AND HORSES AND COWS. 249 
 
 ower to punish him than the master of slaves. 
 Even those reverend divines who contend that 
 javery is right condemn kidnapping. Thou- 
 ands of free colored people have been reduced 
 o slavery by this blood-thirsty wolf. It is to 
 ie feared that many persons, who prowl about 
 he borders of the free and slave States, per- 
 uading slaves to run off, are kidnappers in dis- 
 guise. "VYhat produces kidnappers? What 
 nakes the business profitable ? Chattel slavery ! 
 'f no person bought or held slaves, the kid- 
 lapper would have no market for his chattels, 
 md his occupation would cease as a natural 
 consequence. The fact that such a class of men 
 exists in any society is proof positive of deep 
 corruption in that society. 
 
 SLAVERY, AND HORSES AND COWS. 
 
 “ The merciful man is merciful to his beast.” 
 The lower counties of the Eastern Shore of 
 Maryland, and the southern counties of Dela- 
 ware, are the purgatory of horses and cattle. 
 The sufferings endured by these dumb animals 
 from various causes is immense. 
 
 1st. From the want of shelter during the 
 
250 
 
 PICTUBES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 fall, winter, and early part of spring. A ft 
 wealthy and scientific farmers, of late yeai 
 have taken great pains with their stock, ai 
 provided their beasts with close and war 
 stables; but these are the exceptions to tl, 
 rule. I have seen cattle along the corners ( 
 the fence shivering and trembling, and near": 
 drawn doable, from exposure to the north-ea, 
 wind and rain. 
 
 2d. For want of food. Better keep one wel 
 fed cow than six half-starved ones. Whe; 
 spring arrives, it finds them feeble; the youm 
 grass often proves their death, and they becom 
 food for the vultures. The cows are badkj 
 milked. This is the process : A colored womap 
 and a boy go to the cow-pen. The woman seti 
 her bucket on one side, takes a cup, and strips on 
 tit at a time, very slowly. The boy stands off 
 holding the calf by a rope around its neck 
 When the milk ceases to flow, the calf is per- 
 mitted to approach the cow in order to get her 
 milk down. The calf is then pulled off, and the 
 woman proceeds. For weeks the calf is per- 
 mitted to suck its dam at the time of milking. 
 The result is, the cow soon goes dry. 
 
MOB LAW. 
 
 251 
 
 3d. From the cruelty of slaves. Slaves are 
 nted for their cruelty to horses, mules, and 
 c.en; at least, this is my experience. They are 
 \ry kind to dogs, and their own pigs. I have 
 sen slaves heat oxen for the mere pleasure of 
 i Free negroes are as kind to animals as white 
 len. Slavery is a cruelty inflicted by the mas- 
 tr on the slave; and cruelty begets cruelty, 
 'he slave cannot retaliate on those above him; 
 b therefore gratifies his vengeance on those 
 imeatli him by nature, but not by law. Hav- 
 itg no motive to work, he makes it his study to 
 o as little as possible without being punished ; 
 id what he does accomplish, he performs in as 
 ovenly a manner as he can. He often neglects 
 ) feed and water the animals intrusted to his 
 are. 
 
 MOB LAW. 
 
 While travelling, last September, on a Bay 
 ;eamer, several well-dressed and cultivated 
 len were near me discussing the politics of the 
 ay. From the conversation I inferred that they 
 itended to support Mr. Buchanan. Only one 
 f them I knew ; a young man of noble personal 
 
252 - 
 
 pictures OF SLAVERY. 
 
 appearance, fine manners, excellent educati(,lf 
 and of a humane heart. Though a slaveholdi .> 
 I never heard him charged with cruelty to hi 
 slaves. His mother, wife, and sister are amof 
 the most accomplished ladies of his native count 
 One of the company remarked to the otht: 
 “Have you heard of the mobbing affair th 
 took place in Baltimore the other night?” T1 
 remark attracted my special attention. T. 1 
 speaker then stated that some few men, su 
 porters of Mr. Fremont, had held a meeting 
 favor of their candidate, and that a mob hi 
 broken the meeting up, and inflicted some injui 
 on persons who were present. This intelj 
 gence was received with delight and approbatic 
 by all the company, except the young man allude 
 to. One remarked that, if he had been there, 1 
 would have made one of the mob: “Wouldn 
 you ?” said he to a person standing beside him. “ 1 
 yes!” Nearly all the company uttered simila 
 sentiments : but when the question came roun 
 to the young man referred to, he answered wit! 
 emphasis, “No!” He then arose to his feet, an( 
 said : “ I am opposed to Mr. Fremont ; but thos< 
 who support him have as much right as we t( 
 
LAW AND LAWYERS. 
 
 253 
 
 lold meetings and express their sentiments.” 
 That remark closed the conversation upon that 
 subject. 
 
 I felt proud of that young man on account of 
 3ij native State ; and it was pleasing to think 
 chat there was at least one slaveholder in Mary- 
 land who was in favor of freedom of speech, 
 k 
 
 LAW AND LAWYERS. 
 
 There is a vast amount of talent among the 
 first lawyers of our country. Politically, they 
 are the most important class of men in our 
 nation. From this class spring our judges, 
 Congressmen, and influential politicians. They 
 make the laws, explain them, and enforce them. 
 They are accused of not being over-righteous, yet 
 many of them are good men; and no class of 
 men have greater respect for a truly honest man. 
 In the South, they have more influence than in 
 the North. There, most people are so ignorant 
 of law that they run to them for advice in the 
 most trifling affairs. Ministers of the Gospel 
 should attend our court trials occasionally, for 
 from lawyers they may receive many useful 
 hints. 
 
 22 
 
254 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 In many of our county towns two or three 
 of the ablest and most experienced members of 
 the bar get nearly all the important cases. 
 But many talented young men waste their lives 
 in attending unimportant cases, which neither 
 strengthen the intellect, improve the morals, 
 nor fill the pocket — most of which cases may 
 be thus summarily illustrated : — 
 
 Peter Turnip struck Billy Rednose. 
 
 Counsel for State — Mr. Tobaccosmoke. 
 
 Counsel for defence — Mr. Frenchbrandy. 
 
 Yerdict, guilty. Turnip fined thirteen cents, with costs. 
 
 Now, would it not be better for these young' 
 men, especially in the slave States, to leave the. 
 hotels in our county towns, go into the country, 
 take a common school, and be useful to them- 
 selves and the community, by teaching the 
 “young idea how to shoot”? 
 
 But I must not digress. My object is to re- 
 late the substance of a speech which I heard, in 
 the South, delivered before a jury by a learned > 
 counsel, The nature of the case seemed to be 
 this : A free negro had committed some trivial 
 offence against a white man. The counsel for 
 the negro arose, and addressed the jury substan- 
 
LAW AND LAWYERS. 
 
 255 
 
 iaily thus ; “ Gentlemen of the jury: In pre- 
 
 senting the case of my client before you, I ask 
 aothing for him but justice at your hands; that 
 :he verdict which you shall render shall be in 
 accordance with the evidence and law in the 
 3ase. I entreat you, gentlemen of the jury, not 
 to let any considerations growing out of the 
 lowly condition jof the prisoner at the bar, no 
 prejudices against his class or color, bias your 
 minds against him. My client is a man, and 
 as such, stands, in the eye of justice, on an 
 equal footing with any other man.” These 
 seemed to be excellent sentiments, nobly ex- 
 pressed. The jury paid no particular attention 
 to them, and the lawyer soon after took his 
 seat* 
 
 I presume that the lawyer was a slaveholder 
 himself. Suppose I had taken him aside, and a 
 conversation like the following had taken place : 
 “ My friend, does that man in your office belong 
 to you?” “Yes!” “Well, that man labors all 
 the week for his hoard and coarse clothing, and 
 goes home to see his free wife on Saturday 
 night with nothing in his pocket ; and when his 
 little children gather around his knees, and 
 
256 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 climb up in his lap and look in his eyes, an 
 ask him for a frock or a pair of shoes, he tell 
 them that they must go to mother for ever 
 thing ; that he is a slave ; that his money goe 
 to buy a costly gold watch and trinkets for hi 
 young mistress. Now, is it just for you t< 
 take his labor without his consent, and deprivi 
 his overtaxed wife and children of bread?’ 
 “ 0, but he is black ! It would not, of course 
 be right to treat a white man so.” “But die 
 you not say, in pleading to-day, that, in the eye 
 of justice, color and caste count as nothing?’ 1 
 “0 well, I said that for Buncombe. I did nof 
 mean my remark to be taken literally, but in 
 the abstract.” It is within the range of possi- 
 bility that this same counsellor-at-law would 
 have stepped aside, after our private interview, 
 and said to some of our town rowdies : “ Boys, 
 there is an abolitionist in town ; you can have 
 some fine sport to-night with tinpan music and 
 blackguard songs. Don’t kill him, but tell him 
 to c make tracks’ before twenty-four hours : that, 
 if he doesn’t, he may get a coat of tar and 
 feathers.” 
 
CHAPTER XY. 
 
 SLAVERY AND NOVELS. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the masses of 
 :he South are illiterate. I mean they are not 
 readers. The slaves are the principal manu- 
 facturers of tales and stories; and really they 
 produce some tales far more exciting than many 
 of our three-cent novelists of the North. Come, 
 my Northern brother, and let’s take a ride, this 
 cold, bracing January evening, to neighbor 
 Goodliver in the country. Don’t be too critical. 
 Here is our old-fashioned worm-fence, made of 
 sap pine rails, that has to be mended every 
 year. Here is brother Goodliver’s farm of 300 
 acres. Except his potato and turnip patches, 
 where he has penned his cows and fattened his 
 hogs, it is poor all over. You are ready to say 
 that, if he would sell one-half of his farm, and 
 buy fertilizers for the other half, he would make 
 more money than he now does. Perhaps so. 
 22* (257) 
 
258 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 But he will tell you that his father farmed jus 
 as he does, and that his father knew all abou 
 it. Well, here we are at the gate; its hinge,: 
 are broken, and a fence-rail leans against it 
 No matter; pass on. Here is an old housd 
 which they call barn. See the cats, how they < 
 run and hide themselves. You have heard of 
 the peculiar wildness of barn cats. Well, this is 
 the carriage-house. It is open in front. There < 
 is a good carriage inside ; but the top of it is 
 soiled, because the chickens roost on the rafters' 
 above. Here is the old cherry-tree; its limbs 
 bending beneath the weight of large turkeys, - 
 who, like some politicians, are quarreling and gob- 
 bling for a good place. The dog barks ; out comes 
 Brother Goodliver, exclaiming : “ How do you 
 do ? How glad I am to see you ! Get out, get 
 out ! Here, Bob, take this horse, and feed him i 
 well.” Our Northern brother expresses a desire 
 to go and assist Bob. But our host objects. 
 Brother Goodliver introduces us to the kind 
 wife and smiling daughters. A good oak or 
 hickory fire is blazing, and we are soon made 
 comfortable. Soon supper is ready. Hot coffee, 
 fried hominy all smoking, fresh butter, fried 
 
SLAVERY AND NOVELS. 
 
 259 
 
 sausage, cold fowl, hot biscuit, and perhaps fried 
 : oysters. 
 
 Yet our friend is restless. He fears that Bob 
 has not fed his horse well ; that he has not 
 handled him aright, and has spread no warm 
 straw bedding under him. Supper is over; then 
 comes a series of direct questions on matters and 
 things in general. 
 
 It is now eight o’clock. We go through the 
 quarter, and see Uncle Jenkins and Aunt Chloe. 
 We take a 'seat on a stool. A good fire is 
 blazing, with plenty of heart pine-knots to give 
 a bright light. Uncle Jenkins is making door- 
 mats and horse-collars out of corn caps or husks. 
 Sam has just finished beating his hominy; he 
 has put away his iron pestle, and is now fanning 
 it up. Sal has some sweet potatoes before the 
 fire, and ash-cakes covered up beneath the hot 
 coals. Aunt Chloe is darning the old man’s 
 shirt. 
 
 The young folks, white and colored, are 
 seated around. Uncle Jenkins is telling of a 
 man he saw in the grave-yard dressed in white, 
 who told him that he was a lost soul because 
 he sold his colored man to Georgia. Uncle 
 
2G0 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Jenkins had seen horses without heads; lia 
 seen the devil with chains and a long tail; ha 
 heard strange noises in haunted houses; ha 
 been led by Jack-of-the-lantern through marshel 
 and swamps; and had spells put on him bj 
 witches and wizards. The children, witl 
 mouths wide open, are drinking it all down, til 
 they are afraid to go from the kitchen to tin 
 house. The time for family prayer has arrived 
 
 The servant girl that waits on the table is called 
 
 in. Those in the quarter, or the field-hands, 
 have no invitation. Then comes a good nig 
 rest, followed by a breakfast which corresponds] 
 with the supper; for we are in a land whos' 
 people, Bishop Asbury said, dig their graves 
 with their teeth. We bid good-by to our kind 
 host. The horse is brought out, and we pursue 
 our journey. 
 
 Our Northern brother complains. His horse 
 had no bedding, and shivered with cold all 
 night; its hair is all matted, it was rubbed 
 down hastily vdth a corn-cob. He declares that 
 he would rather not have fared so well himself, 
 provided his poor dumb beast had been better 
 
SLAVERY AND M OR MONISM. 261 
 
 reated. He insists that he will attend to his 
 >wn horse hereafter, no matter whom it offends. 
 
 SLAYERT AND MORMONISM. 
 
 Mormonism, socialism, freeloveism, and spirit- 
 
 ualwifeism, have existed in the South for one 
 I 
 
 hundred years, under different names, in the 
 peculiar or domestic institution of chattel slavery. 
 If Joe Smith had been born and brought up 
 in the slave States, with his brutal tastes and 
 licentious habits, he would never have thought 
 of being the founder of a sect. Among the 
 million of female chattels in the South, the 
 supply would have been equal to the demand. 
 You never hear of freelove associations in the 
 South. From the very structure of slave 
 society, there is no necessity for them. They 
 never will receive general favor while 1,000,000 
 females are considered, in law, as having no 
 virtue, and incapable of any. Mormon preachers 
 will never make many converts in the South. 
 Pure men will have nothing to do with them ; 
 and licentious white men will laugh at them, for 
 the latter can command all the beastly pleasures 
 of Mormonism without its cost, industry, noto- 
 
262 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 riety, and punishment. Amalgamation, wil" 
 polygamy in all its disgusting forms, is tl 11 
 twin sister of chattel slavery. Hence the nui 1 
 her and variety of white, mulatto, and chestnu 1 ' 
 colored slaves, especially in our county towi 
 and State capitals. 
 
 Amalgamation is increasing at a horrible ral JfC 
 
 throughout the slave States; and will continn lU 
 to increase while wealth and luxury prevail i lr ‘ 
 one class of the community, and degradatio " 
 in the other. There are many pure and virtuou 
 men in the South, who are, and who have beei 1 
 so, even from their childhood; but, as such 
 they labor under a temptation twofold greate 
 than persons who occupy the same social positioi 
 in the free States. It is admitted, by truthfu 
 men in the South, that slavery is a source of 
 unbounded licentiousness; but they contend, 
 also, that the white women of the South are 
 more chaste, according to a given aggregate of 
 the white population, than the same class in 
 the North. This I deny. The poor white girl 
 at the South has no more protection against the j 
 rich seducer than the poor girl at the North . 1 
 She has not the same chance, enjoyed by the 
 
SLAVERY AND MO E MONISM. 263 
 
 jj.tter, of getting an honest living. The licen- 
 xmsness produced by slavery is a clear addition 
 ■> be set down to a sum-total of wickedness in 
 le slave States which of itself fully equals 
 lat existing in the free States. It is with pain 
 !iat I express the conviction that one of the 
 [:asons why wicked men in the South uphold 
 avery is the facility which it affords for a li- 
 mtious life. Negroes tell no tales in courts of 
 .w of the violation by white men of colored 
 males. He who defends chattel slavery 
 uist defend polygamy, for it is polygamy 
 nder another name. If Utah should ever be 
 imitted into this Union, it will come to pass 
 lat certain pro-slavery preachers, as well as 
 oliticians, will attempt to defend polygamy 
 ■om the Bible. They will contend that it was 
 racticed by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and 
 olomon ; that Paul only forbade it in bishops 
 ad deacons, and did not enjoin it on the laity, 
 'hey will attempt to prove that it is a civil in- 
 itution, and as such that they have nothing to 
 o with it ; that it is their business not to preach 
 olitics, but the pure gospel. Pro-slavery men 
 
264 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 will assuredly stand up for Utah in the day o 
 her trial. 
 
 UNCLE STEPHEN. 
 
 Uncle Stephen was a free colored man, an 
 for many years a member of the Methods 
 Church. He died in the “ faith once delivere 
 to the saints.” His unsullied honesty and pur 
 life won for him the esteem of the community 
 He belonged to the same class as Uncle Lev 
 He left two sons, who, walking in his footstep 
 are an honor to the people among whom the; 
 live. Both are commanders of vessels. 
 
 Such is the disposition to undervalue wha( 
 ever is good in colored members of the church 
 that, when they die, no person furnishes obit; 
 uary notices of them in the “ Christian Advoi 
 cate and Journal.” The only way in whicli 
 colored persons get their names in the news! 
 papers is when they run away, when they arei 
 sold at vendue, or when they commit some crime, i 
 and are hung. Though many of them live the 
 most exemplary lives, their names perish among 
 men. Nevertheless, their record is on high; for 
 “ precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of 
 
UNCLE STEPHEN. 
 
 265 
 
 his saints!” When flaming obituary notices 
 have appeared in the Advocate concerning slave- 
 owners, the question might have been asked: 
 “How many human beings have they left to be 
 sold for debt? how many have they left in per- 
 petual bondage to their heirs-at-law?” Let me 
 die the death of Lazarus rather than die with 
 the sin of slavery fastened upon my skirts ! 
 
 The following incident was related to me by a 
 noble specimen of the Christian gentleman, a 
 resident of one of the large towns of Maryland. 
 A venerable colored man, a member of the 
 Methodist Church, died. His life and holy con- 
 versation had been proverbial. The narrator, 
 with three more of the most substantial citizens 
 of the town, begged the privilege of being his 
 pall-bearers; and, with their own hands, they 
 bore his body to the tomb. He said they did 
 this to show to the colored people that they in- 
 tended to respect and honor moral worth, 
 though found beneath an African skin. This 
 was the first case of the kind lever heard of in a 
 slave State. Their example is worthy of all 
 imitation. 
 
 23 
 
266 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 THE PARTING. 
 
 The day that an itinerant Methodist preache: 
 leaves home for the first time, to enter upon th< 
 untried duties of his calling, is one never forgot 
 ten in his history. A thousand associations of ■ 
 boyhood and manhood — the dear homestead, thi i 
 play-ground, the old school-house, the skating 
 pond, the angling rod, the gun and the dog- 
 start up before the mind. The tender farewel. 
 of father and mother; the kiss of an affectionate 
 sister; the good-by of class-mates and Sunday- 
 school companions; the tremendous sense of 
 responsibility; the unseen future; the criticism 
 to be endured; the consciousness of dependence 
 on strangers; all conspire to irfake the day a 
 memorable one. If a Southern man, some good 
 Aunt Dinah may bless him with her prayers, 
 and part with him in tears. 
 
 I well remember the day that I bade farewell 
 to the kind family* with whom I had been liv- 
 
 * Levin Cottingham, Esq., of Worcester County, was 
 a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He died 
 in 1839. I boarded in his excellent family for several 
 months before I entered the ministry. Mr. Cottingham 
 
 
THE PARTING. 
 
 267 
 
 ing. Mounted on a fine bay horse, with new 
 bridle and saddle, my saddle-bags containing, be- 
 sides a few items of clothing, a Bible, a Hymn- 
 Book, and a Discipline ; with my over-coat lashed 
 behind, and umbrella in hand, I parted with 
 Aunt Sarah, a genuine specimen of the African 
 race. She took leave of me with tears and 
 prayers for my success. As I moved slowly off, 
 I heard in the distance her loud sobs and wail- 
 ings. I hastily brushed the falling tears from 
 my cheeks, and pursued my journey, in the 
 hope of again seeing the whole family in the 
 course of a few months. 
 
 Aunt Sarah, it seems, had an impression that 
 she had seen me for the last time; and, sure 
 enough, her fears were verified. When I 
 returned, she had passed into the heavens. 
 Tell me not that the African has not love and 
 
 was no bigot. He was honest, open, and generous. His 
 natural talents were of a high order. He was a man who 
 would never forsake a friend in time of trouble. He de- 
 spised hypocrisy, as all true men do ; for a hypocrite, or a 
 time-server, is a walking caricature of humanity. 
 
 Aunt Sarah was a hired servant in his family. Both 
 master and servant were in good health when I left them; 
 and both were dead when I returned, a few months after. 
 
268 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 gratitude. Tell me not that he has no soul. 
 0, ye scorners and mockers of God’s images, the 
 day will come when you will wish that you had 
 treated them as human beings, that you had 
 been their benefactors, and not their oppressors! 
 
 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 
 
 Courtship and marriage are exciting and im- 
 portant questions everywhere, but especially in 
 the slave States. Among a sparse population, 
 where there are comparatively few social topics j 
 to enlist attention, many long winter evenings 
 and summer days are spent in discussing the 
 minutest incidents of a courtship. If a marriage 
 is to come otf, the bride’s lace on her nightcap is 
 a subject of criticism. Colored people take a 
 deep interest in the marriage of their owners. . 
 Courtships are frequently conducted through j 
 them. They carry the mail, and the letters are 
 not always sealed. Many a young man has 
 borne off a beautiful and wealthy bride, in 
 spite of opposition from relatives, through the 
 good offices of Uncle Toby and Aunt Dinah. 
 Many a man has lost a fair lady by incurring 
 the displeasure of servants. Reader, did you 
 
THE LECTURE. 
 
 269 
 
 3ver hear the servants in the kitchen criticizing 
 Miss Julia’s beau? One mimics his voice; 
 mother his language. Bill shows how he walks. 
 Aunt Sucky, in tracing his genealogy, relates 
 how his grandfather killed a negro, and how 
 his father sold one to Georgia. If Miss Julia 
 gets him, Tom expects to be sold to the Georgia 
 trader. Jim doesn’t like him because he has 
 too much white in his eyes. Sambo knows him 
 to be lazy and stingy, for he once refused to 
 give him a chew of tobacco. Uncle Lister says 
 that Mr. Willard’s slave girl, Nell, is his half 
 sister; and that he is too intimate with Mr. 
 Sturgeon’s yellow girl, and hopes Miss Julia 
 won’t have him. 
 
 THE LECTURE. 
 
 On one occasion I delivered a lecture to a con- 
 gregation of colored persons, on the fourth chapter 
 of Genesis, dwelling particularly on the conduct 
 of Cain toward his brother Abel, who, when the 
 Lord inquired for Abel, impudently asked, “Am 
 I my brother’s keeper ?” At the conclusion, I 
 told them that they were at liberty to propose 
 any questions they chose, relating to the chapter, 
 23 * 
 
270 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and that I would answer them if I could. A 
 colored man, now in the spirit world, immedi- 
 ately arose, and asked me if I thought it was 
 right for one brother to sell another. The 
 meaning of his question was, whether it was 
 right for one Christian to sell another Christian. 
 
 This question was wholly unexpected and 
 unlooked for. If I had received a blow on the 
 head, I could not have been more confused. 
 The blood mounted to my cheek. I painfully 
 felt that I was in a land of despotism ; and, 
 what was worse, that I myself was a slave. 
 Had white men alone been present, and had the 
 question been proposed by them, I should, 
 regardless of consequences, have answered im- < 
 mediately that to sell a human being under any 
 circumstances was a sin against God. But, for 
 the sake of those who composed the assembly, I 
 did not answer the question. I addressed them 
 thus : “ Colored friends, it is best for you not to 
 discuss such questions here.” And they ac- 
 quiesced. 
 
 I will here take occasion to remark that the 
 Gospel preached in the slave States is an adul- 
 terated Gospel. What preachers in the South 
 
WHO IS THE TRUE GENTLEMAN? 271 
 
 can say with Paul that they have not shunned 
 to declare the whole counsel of God ? Are 
 they not as mild as the moonbeam dancing on 
 the silver wave, in their ministrations to the 
 slaveholders of this generation ? In the fifteen 
 years of my ministry among slaves, I have 
 always refrained, in their presence, from discuss- 
 ing the question of liberty and slavery. To 
 have done so would not only have been a breach 
 of confidence reposed in me by their masters, 
 but the slaves need no instruction on this sub- 
 ject, as their Great Creator has stamped with 
 his own hand the love of liberty in their hearts, 
 so that they feel and know by instinct that sla- 
 very is an outrage upon their natures. Never- 
 theless, I have discussed the question with their 
 masters, and have denounced it in their presence. 
 
 WHO IS THE TREE GENTLEMAN? 
 
 No man of a cruel and unfeeling disposition 
 can be a gentleman, according to my esti- 
 mate of the character. The man who bows, 
 and scrapes, and takes off his hat to the accom- 
 plished and beautiful daughter of the honorable 
 and wealthy Mr. Philander, and who the next 
 
272 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 hour insults the poor slave girl that has no pro- i 
 tector but God, and makes slang remarks to her 
 as she passes the street, is no gentleman. The 
 true gentleman is a man of kind and humane 
 feelings. He treats all human beings with re- 
 spect, according to their position in society; 
 and never takes advantage of circumstances to 
 insult the w r eak and the defenceless. 
 
 I have seen sad specimens of the former class 
 of men in the South. They will almost jump 
 out of their boots to wait on a rich lady. But a 
 poor white woman, or slave, they will treat with 
 insult or contempt. These are the men gene- 
 rally who contend that there are no virtuous 
 women in the world. A high-spirited young 
 man, whom I shall call D., related to me the 
 following incident : A man of the class referred 
 to asserted, in his presence, that there were 
 no virtuous women. “ Well,” said D., “ do you 
 mean to say that your mother is not virtuous ?” 
 
 “ 0 no ! 1 make her an exception,” he replied. 
 “ Then,” said D., “ do you mean to say that my 
 mother is not virtuous ? If you do, I will 
 knock you down, or try to do so.” “ 0 no i” 
 said the fellow ; so the cowardly wretch made 
 
TO THE WOMEN OF THE FREE STATES. 273 
 
 wo exceptions. No high-minded father, hus- 
 >and, or brother should ever countenance such 
 vholesale slanderers of their mothers, wives, 
 laughters, and sisters. 
 
 TO THE WHITE WOMEX OF THE FREE 
 STATES. 
 
 When your little ones bow the knee before you 
 n the evening, and say “ Our Father who art 
 n heaven,” and you kiss them good-night, does 
 t afford you pleasure to think that no man can 
 ;ome, when they are sweetly asleep, and say : 
 ‘ These children are mine ; I have paid so much 
 noney for them, and they are my property,” 
 md tear them from your warm embrace, to be 
 ?een and heard of by you no more forever ? 
 
 Yet your colored sister of the South cannot, 
 is you do, claim her own children. She knows 
 lot at what moment the hunter of human flesh 
 nay pounce upon them. Will you not pray 
 iaily to the God of justice and mercy to bring 
 ibout the redemption of the millions of human 
 beings now held in bondage? Never justify 
 slavery, under any circumstances. Your influ- 
 ence may not be apparent, } r et it will be power- 
 
274 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ful against slavery. Men in tlie South wi • 
 justify the system in all its shocking details i 
 but I have never put the question to a niothe 
 with direct application to the separation c 
 children from parents, without hearing he 
 condemn it. 
 
 To the young ladies of the free States, esp< 
 cially those who support themselves by lionet 
 employment, I would say : It is your duty, • 
 is your interest, to oppose slavery. One of th 
 bitter fruits of the system is to lead Souther 
 masters, in order to justify themselves in hole 
 ing slaves, to draw comparisons between th 
 morality of slaves and that of the factory girl 
 of the North. I have been shocked, in th 
 South, at hearing the morals of laboring girl 
 put on a par with those of Southern slaves. ■ 
 know the reason of such slanders. When 
 will you hear the contemptuous epithet, “ greasj 
 mechanics,” but in slave society ? And hov 
 many of your fathers, brothers, and lovers be 
 long to the class thus insultingly spoken of: 
 Would there be cause for wonder if people 
 should seek to avoid farm labor and mechanical 
 employments, when the South is branding all 
 
THE GREAT SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY. 275 
 
 fch employment as 'worthy only of negro 
 faves? Southern politicians and editors do 
 amense harm in the North by their insolent 
 iircasm. 
 
 THE GREAT SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 The Southern aristocracy is composed of great 
 iwyers, doctors, clergymen of different denomi- 
 ations, military and naval, officers, planters, mer- 
 hants, and other educated and wealthy individ- 
 als. It is not so learned, polished and refined 
 s the French or English aristocracy; but it is 
 y far more powerful than either at the present 
 ime. I would not include in this class more 
 han 100,000 of the white inhabitants of the 
 iouth. But, small as it is, it rules 4,000,000 
 laves with absolute sway; and it dictates to all 
 ithers what shall be taught in politics and 
 ■eligion. It fills all State offices in the South, 
 ind controls every appointment of the General 
 Government for that section of the Union. It 
 las nearly all the wealth, and controls the 
 iress, and all the institutions of learning, in the 
 South. Its power is not based on the affection 
 md love which the masses bear to it, but on the 
 
276 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 perfect union which exists among its membip 
 upon the one great subject of slavery. In old 1 1 
 times, when Europe was under the feudal syste y ( 
 one baron or lord would wage war agaii j 
 another; and the slaves of each baron, parti - 1 
 pating, as they did, in the strife, would >9 
 drawn into close contact with their leader. N; ; 
 so in the South. No great planter, with li i| 
 200 slaves, goes to war with his neighbor. T1 j 
 political parties of the South may differ up( 1 
 various points, but they present an unbroke 4 
 front when antislavery influence is to 1 1 
 opposed; hence those parties in the North whic 
 sustain slavery may expect their undivide 
 support. It is thus in the church. Methodis; 
 and Presbyterians may differ from each other o 
 the Five Points, and both may differ from th 
 Baptists as to the true mode of baptism 
 each of the three may differ from the Episcc 
 palians as to apostolical succession; and al 
 denominations of Christians may unite in denoun 
 cing the infidel ;*yet, should a public meeting bt 
 called to crush antislavery influence, they woulc 
 shake hands in cordial union. By this unanimity 
 of purpose, the Southern aristocracy governs 
 
THE GREAT SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY. 277 
 
 millions at the North. If a merchant in 
 .Philadelphia or New York is known to oppose 
 slavery, the Southern merchant cuts his custom. 
 If a bookseller or publisher favors freedom of 
 speech, the South marks him. Deference to the 
 institution is exacted from our medical and 
 collegiate institutions that seek patronage in 
 the South. The South pushes her principles 
 into the North, even invading the social circle and 
 the halls of science. Some men in our Northern 
 cities are actually afraid to whisper their anti- 
 slavery sentiments above their breath. The 
 wealth of our large cities is made tributary to 
 the great evil. Our moneyed aristocracy sympa- 
 thizes at heart with the aristocracy of the South. 
 The latter is chargeable with the ignorance of 
 the poor whites, who are deprived of common 
 schools, without which they never can be 
 elevated. It is chargeable with the mob spirit 
 that prevails in the South. True, you do not 
 find Southern gentlemen at the head of a mob. 
 They only shut their doors while the storm rages 
 without, and are careful to render no assistance 
 to the poor creature that seeks the protection 
 of the law. A frown from some of them would 
 24 
 
278 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 deter any mob. The Southern aristocracy ha; 
 grown up in the last fifty years. It now flourishe; 
 like a green bay tree; but, like Jonah’s gourd, i 
 has a worm at its roots; for the millions of pool 
 whites will some day find out who are then 
 oppressors ! 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 
 
 The Baltimore Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church claims the same relation to her 
 sister Conferences, that Virginia does to her 
 sister States. Virginians boast that she is the 
 did Dominion. Members of the Baltimore 
 Conference are loud in their praises of the Old 
 Baltimore Conference. Both have produced 
 some great men, whose memory I love to honor. 
 Ihe Baltimore Conference has been fitly deno- 
 minated the Breakwater Conference, with spe- 
 cial reference to the slavery question. And, 
 sure enough, it has done more to roll back the 
 genuine New Testament antislavery feeling 
 among the laity, than any Conference in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 My first appointment as a travelling preacher 
 was at Lewes, Delaware. Here is the great 
 national work, the “ Breakwater,” extending 
 along the bay in front of the town. Ofttimes 
 
 ( 279 ) 
 
280 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY 
 
 in the morning have I looked out upon th 
 waters of the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic 
 when the sky was clear, when the billows wer 
 at rest, and when not a vessel was to ‘be seei 
 behind these huge piles of stones. But as nigh 
 would approach, and dark clouds would loom up 
 from the east, you would see ships from the bay 
 and the ocean taking shelter behind the stonj 
 walls of defence. In vain did the waves dash 
 high before the angry storm. The vessels at 
 anchor bade defiance to the tempest. When 
 the church has sought to reach the laity that 
 hold slaves for gain, the Baltimore delegation 
 has stood up in the General Conference, andj 
 said : “ You may do what you pilease with our 
 travelling preachers, who, in an undisguised 
 manner, hold slaves ; but don’t you touch our 
 pious slaveholders of Prince George, Carroll, 
 Calvert, St. Mary’s, Charles, and Anne Arundel 
 counties, in Maryland, and of several counties 1 
 in Virginia. If you do, we will leave you.” 
 The Baltimore Conference professes to be anti- 
 slavery, and yet opiposes abolitionism. What 
 does she mean by these terms? From her 
 practice, it seems to be this. If you con- 
 
THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 281 
 
 iemn the holding of slaves by the travelling 
 ireachers, that is antislavery; and if you op- 
 )ose the same thing in private members, and 
 vish them expelled, that is abolition. Hence, 
 irivate members are just as secure in slave- 
 ireeding as if they were under the jurisdiction 
 >f the Virginia Conference of the M. E. Church 
 south. 
 
 In proof of this position, I will quote some 
 ’esolutions passed at the late session of the 
 Baltimore Conference, held in Baltimore, and 
 :aken from the “ Baltimore Sun” of Tuesday, 
 March 17, 1857. These resolutions would do 
 credit to any convention of Southern politi- 
 cians. 
 
 “ Resolved, by the Baltimore Conference, in conference 
 assembled, that we highly deprecate the agitation of the 
 slavery question, which has already resulted to the great 
 detriment of the political and religious interests of the 
 country. 
 
 “ Resolved, that, as heretofore, we will oppose with zeal 
 any aggression which shall be attempted by the abolition 
 agitations of the country.” 
 
 Rev. Henry Slicer defined his position as 
 a conservative, thorough State-rights man, and 
 24 * 
 
282 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 wished the resolutions of the Conference of 184( 
 reaffirmed. Rev. John A. Collins supported the 
 resolutions. Fourteen voted against them ou) 
 of a Conference of nearly 400 ministers. I wist 
 I had their names, so that the church might 
 see that fourteen men were not overawed in a ( 
 slaveholding city. I have a few reflections tc 
 make on the resolutions, and on the course pur- 
 sued by Rev. John A. Collins and Rev. Henry] 
 Slicer. The first resolution deprecates the agi- 
 tation of slavery. Observe carefully. The 
 Conference does not deprecate slavery , hut it 
 deprecates resistance to the aggressions of slavery. 
 The Conference does not deprecate the fact that 
 4,000,000 of our brethren are in hopeless, and 
 worse than Egyptian bondage ; that they are 
 increasing at the fearful rate of 100,000 a year; 
 that the day on which they passed the resolu- 
 tion 250 human beings came into the world 
 with the slaveholder’s brand of infamy upon 
 them. The Conference did not deprecate the 
 introduction of slavery into Kansas, the late in- 
 human and antichristian decision of the majority 
 of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott, 
 the existence of the slave-pens in the very city in 
 
THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 283 
 
 which they were assembled. Perhaps, at the 
 very time they were debating the above resolu- 
 tions, several of their brethren in Christ were 
 being handcuffed and marched down to some 
 ship bound for Charleston, or New Orleans ; 
 husbands were parted from wives to whom 
 they were united by some of the very preach- 
 ers who were pledging themselves zealously 
 to oppose all denunciation of the infamous 
 traffic in human flesh ; children were separated 
 from their mothers, though offered to the Lord 
 in holy consecration, and baptized, perhaps, 
 by these very ministers, in the name of the 
 Holy Trinity. Yes ! that very hour, perhaps, 
 violated females of the Methodist, Presbyterian, 
 Baptist, and Episcopal churches were crying 
 to God for mercy and support, while their shep- 
 herds were pledging themselves to human wolves 
 and bears that they would not interfere to 
 rescue them, and would not suffer others to do 
 it. 0, ye degenerate sons of the immortal Wes- 
 ley ! how shall ye escape the condemnation of 
 outraged Christianity and civilization ? The 
 future historian of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church will blush with shame when he comes to 
 
281 - 
 
 pictures OF SLAVERY, 
 
 the proceedings . of this annual session of youi 
 Conference. 
 
 It is my humble opinion that Mr. Collins’, 
 and Mr. Slicer have done, and are now doing, 
 more to tighten the chains of the oppressed in 
 Maryland and Virginia, than William A. Smith 
 of the Virginia Conference. They have done 
 more to crush out the antislavery feeling among 
 the young preachers of the Old Baltimore 
 Conference than any other two men. It is! 
 true that they helped to suspend Harding for 
 holding slaves ; but when you come to touch 
 the Methodist laity for holding slaves, that is 
 quite another matter. To this they are as in- i 
 flexibly adverse as Wm. A. Smith. They are 
 opposed to discussion, to free speech on the 
 subject. They know full well that slavery can 
 only be kept at bay by exposing its enormities. ; 
 Drunkenness and profanity are kept in check 
 by opposition and denunciation. The very 
 worst class of pro-slavery men are those who 
 dislike free pulpits and a free press. The slave- 
 breeders and slave-traders would not ask more : 
 of the preachers of the Baltimore Conference 
 than to keep silent themselves, and oppose, 
 
THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 285 
 
 is best they can, the Methodist preachers of 
 :he North and West, who can neither be inti- 
 midated nor coaxed into silence 'while Christ is 
 dishonored in the house of his friends. The 
 very stones are ready to cry out against the 
 sum of “ all villanies.” I trust that the 
 General Conference of 1860 will preach the 
 funeral sermon of slaveholding in the M. E. 
 Church, so that her garments may thence- 
 forth be without spot or taint. Rev. Mr. 
 Torrence, a member of the Conference, a Bible 
 agent in Pennsylvania, and a resident of Phila- 
 delphia, offered the following resolution : “ Re- 
 solved, that as the position of the Baltimore 
 Methodist Episcopal Conference is well known, 
 the introduction of such a question as slavery 
 into its consideration was highly inexpedient, 
 either pro or con.” This gentleman considers 
 the question of slavery as of so little importance, 
 so much beneath the dignity of the Rev. Di- 
 vines of the Baltimore Conference, that it should 
 not enter into their deliberations ! Two things 
 always sicken me — a pro-slavery Bible agent, 
 and a pro-slavery chaplain of the United States 
 Senate. 
 
28fi PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 No man is fit to be a Bible agent wlio is ; i 
 propagandist of slavery, or, what is the sam< 
 thing, one who deprecates the agitation of the 
 slavery question. 
 
 The Baltimore Conference may say to m< 
 that if she took, at the present time, the grounc 
 that I advocate — that it is sin for the laity 
 including class-leaders and local-preachers, t( 
 breed and hold slaves — the earthly prospects of 
 scores of the preachers would be blasted ; thai 
 many of their sons and daughters, who may 
 own slaves, would be subjected to insult ; that 
 her preachers, when they fail in health, could 
 not get offices in Washington under pro-slavery 
 administrations. All this may be true. It is 
 sufficient to answer that we ought to be faithful 
 to Christ, being assured that, “if we suffer with 
 him, we shall also reign with him.” But I have 
 no hope that the Baltimore Conference will be 
 guided by t^his lofty motive. She is more pro- 
 slavery to-day than she was in 1844 or 1847. 
 She stands on the same foundation now that 
 she stood on ten years ago, despite the develop- 
 ments of late years as to the irrepressible tend- 1 
 encies of the system ; despite the rapid progress 
 
THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 
 
 )f slavery in that period. Witness, for example, 
 he passing of the inhuman Fugitive Slave Law ; 
 he repeal of the Missouri Compromise ; the 
 Kansas outrages ; and the late decision of the 
 supreme Court. The Baltimore Conference is 
 ncorrigibly pro-slavery. The majority report of 
 he committee on slavery, appointed by the late 
 General Conference, has strengthened her pro- 
 lavery position. That report ivas an unfortunate 
 me. It conceded too much antislavery action 
 o the Border Conferences. If the president of 
 hat committee, Dr. Reymond, will visit the 
 Philadelphia Conference, I can take him where 
 le can find mercenary slaveholders and advo- 
 :ates for slavery ; and I have no doubt that of 
 iuch the Baltimore Conference has two to one, 
 ;ompared with the Philadelphia Conference. 
 For the last thirty years the Baltimore Confer- 
 ;nce has exerted more power in the General 
 Conference than anyone of her sister Conferences. 
 But her glory is departing from her. She will 
 ie willing to remain in the M. E. Church, so 
 .ong as the Discipline shields, as at present it 
 loes, her slaveholding laity. But if the General 
 Conference makes non-slaveholding a test of 
 
PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 membership, then, I believe, she will seced< 
 The present position of the M. E. Church : 
 a serious one. If she does not alter the Disc 
 pline, so as to exclude mercenary slaveholder 
 she will lose thousands of souls in the Nortl 
 and gain nothing in the South. The M. I 
 Church South charge the laity of our churc 
 with mercenary slaveholding; and, as an hones 
 man, I must say that the charge is true to th 
 very letter. 
 
 COLORED CLASS-MEETINGS. 
 
 The doctrines of the M. E. Church are mor 
 clearly and beautifully expressed in her standar 
 Hymn-Book than in the Discipline, or in Wesley’' 
 “Sermons,” or in Watson’s “Institutes.” Th 
 Hymn-Book contains both our creed and ou 
 liturgy. We teach the people to sing ou 
 theology. To its frequent use in the churcl 
 and at social meetings may be attributed th< 
 harmony of doctrine throughout the borders ol 
 our church. The Hymn-Book is the colorec 
 people’s only catechism. Many of them coulc 
 state the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel in th( 
 language of song. I have been conversant with 
 
COLORED CLASS-MEETINGS. 
 
 289 
 
 ;keir class-meetings for years, and am familiar 
 with their peculiar manner and language in the 
 relation of their experience. By putting lan- 
 guage in the mouths of imaginary speakers, I shall 
 endeavor to give the reader a correct idea of the 
 ordinary exercises of a class-meeting composed 
 of colored persons. I shall give many of the 
 very phrases I have heard them use. I shall do 
 this, not to gratify impertinent curiosity, or to 
 provoke the smile of a scoffer at things sacred, 
 but to complete our picture of slave life. 
 
 I shall make one remark with regard to class- 
 meetings generally. They are not secret societies, 
 in the proper sense of those terms. I have at- 
 tended them for twenty years, and never heard 
 any thing in them that I would be ashamed for 
 any sensible infidel to hear. 
 
 Travelling preachers now-a-days seldom meet 
 colored classes, or know their colored members 
 when they see them. This may be accounted 
 for thus : The circuits are getting wealthy and 
 compact. Each appointment demands preach- 
 ing every Sabbath. This requires three sermons 
 a day from the preacher. He has therefore no 
 time for meeting his colored flock on Sunday, 
 25 
 
290 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and this is the only time the slaves have i I 
 their disposal. This throws them exclusi pel 1 
 into the hands of the white leader, who i i 
 practically, preacher and pastor, receiving an q 
 expelling members at his option. The leadeij 
 are generally pious, good men ; for no man wi 
 be a negro class-leader who is not crucified t 
 human applause. 
 
 Come, dear reader, let us go to the Sunda; 
 morning class. The leader enters. His floci 
 is waiting. He kneels in silent prayer for 
 few moments, then takes the Hymn-Book am 
 reads : — 
 
 And are we yet alive, 
 
 And see each other’s face ? 
 
 Glory and praise to Jesus give 
 For his redeeming grace. 
 
 After the hymn is sung, all kneel down, anc 
 the leader addresses the Throne of Grace in fer 
 vent prayer, responded to by hearty Amens bj 
 the class. After prayer, all take their seats, 
 Some member, in a clear, full, strong voice, 
 sings : — 
 
 Yain, delusive world, adieu, 
 
 With all of creature good ! 
 
 Only Jesus I pursue, 
 
 Who bought me with his blood. 
 
COLORED CLASS- MEETINGS. 192 
 
 O that I could all invite 
 This saving truth to prove; 
 
 Show the length, the breadth, the height, 
 
 And depth of Jesus’ love. 
 
 The leader relates his own experience in a few 
 words, and addresses, a short exhortation to the 
 class. 
 
 A class consists of from 25 to 50 persons. 
 Their names are recorded in a book, called the 
 class-book; and are set down, not according to 
 age, but with reference to the time each joined 
 the church. Colored persons often take the 
 names of their owners; hence a husband may 
 have one name, and his wife another, if she 
 belongs to a different master. Opposite each 
 name are ruled lines, at the top of which is the 
 day of the month. Here is the name of William 
 Benson. If he is present, p is marked opposite 
 his name; if absent, a; if distant, cl; if sick, s; 
 if dead, or sold to the South, his name is struck 
 off the book. The announcement that a member 
 has been sold produces a greater sensation than 
 the announcement of his death would produce. 
 Slaves raised in educated families use good lan- 
 guage; but, in general, their words and illustra- 
 
292 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 tions harmonize with their lowly and oppresset 
 condition. Fearing no criticism or convention a 
 alities, they are perfectly themselves. 
 
 The name of John Gladding is called. Johi 
 arises, and the leader thus addresses him : “ Tel [o 
 your class how you are prospering in religion.” !]0 
 John . — “My brothers and sisters, I had a grea' n 
 desire to come here to tell you how I have beer 
 getting along in religion, in the past week. 1 
 tell you, brothers, that religion is good all thu 
 time, ’long the fence-roads as well as in the ^ 
 church. I feel Jesus in my soul. I am bound ^ 
 for the kingdom. Pray for me that I may hold] 
 out, and hold on, and get to heaven when I die.’’ 
 “Amen!” says one; “Glory !” ejaculates another. | 
 Leader . — “Watch and pray, John; he that 3| 
 endureth to the end shall be saved.” A sweet 
 hymn is sung: — 
 
 A charge to keep I have, 
 
 A God to glorify; 
 
 A never-dying soul to save, 
 
 And fit it for the sky. 
 
 Leader . — “Hannah More, what are your pros- 
 pects of heaven ?” 
 
COLORED CLASS-MEETINGS. 
 
 293 
 
 Hannah . — “My class-mates, I have deep 
 raters to pass through; but, when I kneel in 
 ecret prayer, the Lord does clear my sky. I 
 Lave had two children sold to Georgia. I hope 
 o meet them in heaven where parting will be 
 lo more, and see Jesus as he is. Glory be to his 
 lame forever !” 
 
 Henry Orum. — “Brethren, I have my diffi- 
 ulties; sometimes up and sometimes down; hut 
 he blessed Lord knows that I do love him. I 
 sel the witness in my bosom. I have nothing 
 iut a poor slave body; but when I get to heaven, 
 expect to be free, soul and body. I expect to 
 ndure hardness as a good soldier, and plough 
 he furrow to the end, the Lord being my 
 Lelper.” 
 
 Another hymn is sung: — 
 
 "How tedious and tasteless the hours, 
 
 When Jesus no longer I see! 
 
 Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers 
 Have all lost their sweetness to me. 
 
 The midsummer sun shines but dim ; 
 
 The fields strive in vain to look gay : 
 
 But when I am happy in Him, 
 
 December’s as pleasant as May.” 
 
 25 * 
 
294 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Aunt MiUy. — “Children, I have been travel- 
 ling the narrow road for fifty years, and am not 
 tired of the way yet; the nearer the fountain, 
 the sweeter the water. Children, I never shall 
 forget the day when Jesus washed my sins away. 
 I was awakened under the preaching of the 
 great Freeborn Garretson. I thought I was good 
 enough till the Spirit got hold of me; then I felt 
 that my heart was very wicked. I fasted and 
 prayed; but my heart got harder. Then I 
 thought that there was no mercy for me. I was 
 miserable. Old master said I was going crazy, 
 and told me to keep away from the crazy Method- 
 ists; if I did not, he would give me thirty-nine 
 lashes on my bare back. Then I w T ent to Uncle 
 Joseph, who had religion; he told me to pray on; 
 that the darkest hour was just before the break 
 of day; to look right up to the Lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sin of the world. I knelt 
 down, and Uncle Joseph prayed for me; and I 
 cried, ‘Lord, have mercy on a poor African soul !’ 
 and bless you, children, I saw the light coming 
 as a great ball of fire. My sins rolled olf; I felt 
 as light as a feather. My soul was full of love. 
 I had the witness of the Spirit to bear witness to 
 
COLORED CL ASS- MEETINGS. 
 
 295 
 
 my spirit that I was the child of God. Then 
 I prayed for old master. I joined with the people 
 of God, and from that day to this the Lord has 
 been my helper. My old class-mates have crossed 
 over Jordan, and I am left alone; hut soon I ex- 
 pect to join them, and walk the golden streets of 
 the New Jerusalem. The old Methodists, child- 
 ren, fasted every Friday, and prayed three times a 
 day in secret, and they went to class and preach- 
 ing through cold and heat, rain or shine. Be 
 faithful, children ; the old woman will soon leave 
 you for bright glory above.” 
 
 Another hymn : — 
 
 “When life sinks apace, and death is in view, 
 
 The word of his grace shall comfort us through ; 
 
 Xot fearing or doubting, with Christ on our side, 
 
 We hope to die shouting, ‘ The Lord will provide.’ ” 
 
 Henry Banning. — “Brethring, my soul is hot; 
 hot as pepper. Before I sought de Lord, I was 
 a very bad negro. I got drunk, and took de 
 name of de Lord in vain; but now I am a new 
 creature in Christ Jesus, and on my way to heb- 
 ben. I toats the witness in my breast! Bress 
 de Lord, I feel dat my name is roten on his 
 hands.” 
 
296 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Singing: — 
 
 “He ever lives above, 
 
 For me to intercede ; 
 
 His all-redeeming love, 
 
 His precious blood to plead ; 
 
 His blood atoned for all our race, 
 
 And sprinkles now the Throne of Grace.” 
 
 Edward Ross . — “ My class-mates, I feel some- j 
 times that I have no friends, like a strange horse 
 in a pound, with all the rest of the horses kicking j 
 at him. I am trying to be honest, to watch as 
 well as pray, to do as well as say. I don’t want 
 to be a hypocrite, to come here on Sunday and 
 bleat like a sheep, and act like a goat all the 
 rest of the week. Pray for me, my brethren.” 
 
 Silence for a few minutes. 
 
 Aunt Sue . — “My brothers and sisters, I am 
 looking to Jesus. I have a house not made with 
 hands, eternal in the heavens. My soul is 
 bowed down with sorrow and trouble. I think 
 sometimes I shall go crazy. Pray for me, my 
 dear class-mates, that I may get safe home at i 
 last.” 
 
 The class sings as follows : — 
 
COLORED CL ASS- MEETINGS. 
 
 297 
 
 “ Though troubles assail, aud dangers affright, 
 
 Though friends should all fail, aud foes all unite, 
 
 Yet one thing secures us — whatever betide, 
 
 The promise assures us, the Lord will provide.” 
 
 Aunt Sue was a free colored woman, of remark- 
 able piety. But there was so much anguish 
 of soul depicted in her countenance that I felt 
 sorrowful whenever I saw her, knowing, as I did, 
 the trouble through which she had passed. Her 
 husband was sold under the following circum- 
 stances: He was a slave, but sought to buy 
 himself, paying the required amount in regular 
 instalments. He had nearly succeeded in pay- 
 ing for himself, when his master died or failed 
 in business. The poor fellow was seized by his 
 master’s creditors just as the golden prize of 
 liberty was nearly within his grasp. I shall 
 never forget his personal appearance. He was 
 tall and well made, and was skillful in the use 
 of the broad axe in hewing ship-timber. He was 
 at work in the woods when the negro-catchers 
 and kidnappers surrounded him. I learned that 
 he at first had resolved to defend himself with 
 his broad-axe, but, seeing his antagonists were 
 too numerous, he surrendered, was handcuffed, 
 
298 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 and dragged from his wife, cheated out of his 
 hard earnings, and consigned to hopeless slavery. 
 This was the result of one man holding the 
 legal right of property in another man. When 
 high Heaven shall let loose the fires of righteous 
 retribution on this adulterous and sinful nation, 
 who shall be able to stand ! 
 
 DELAWARE. 
 
 There are more free colored persons in Dela- 
 ware, according to population, (if I mistake 
 not,) than any other State. In Newcastle 
 County there are very few slaves, if any. This 
 result is due to the influence of the Friends or 
 Quakers. Wherever the Quaker goes, he bears 
 silent testimony against slavery. Who ever 
 heard of a Quaker being killed by a negro ? If 
 the slaves of the South were emancipated, and 
 there was any danger of an insurrection, one 
 Quaker preacher would do more to suppress it 
 than a hundred soldiers. The city of Wilming- 
 ton is the only place in the State, so far as I 
 know, that permits freedom of speech. If 
 Delaware would buy all the slaves in the State, 
 and proclaim herself a free State, she would 
 
SLAVERY AND FREE TERRITORY. 299 
 
 immensely augment her wealth, and, what would 
 be still better, she would elevate the moral tone, 
 and increase the intellectual culture of her 
 citizens. There is something very grating to 
 my ears in the word “ slave,” as an appendage 
 to a State or nation. How would it sound if 
 applied to European nations ? Were we to apply 
 the stigma to England, to Holland, to Swit- 
 zerland, and to France, with what scorn would 
 the insult be repelled ! Yet Southern men some- 
 times speak of Southern States as slave States, 
 and even glory in the name. 
 
 SLAVERY AND FREE TERRITORY. 
 
 Slavery should, under no circumstances, be 
 permitted to advance further over the free ter- 
 ritory of the American Government. Many 
 reasons might be adduced why soil now free 
 should remain free. I shall advance but 
 one. It is this. In behalf of the industrious 
 whites of the South, and of those antislavery 
 men who will, by force or other causes, be 
 driven from the South, it is our duty to hold 
 this territory as a place of refuge. The time 
 is coming when all who will not bow down to 
 
300 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 slavery will have to leave the South. Where «i 
 shall they go ? To the Eastern and the Middle tii 
 States? No. These States are already full 
 They must go to the territories. The North 
 then, for the good of the natives of the Soutl 
 alone, apart from her own interest in the matter 
 should resist to the uttermost the encroachments 
 of the unhallowed institution. When the slave! 
 trade is reopened, lawfully or unlawfully, the; 
 free negroes will either be reduced to slavery] 
 or driven from the South. These also must 
 have a place of refuge. To resist the encroach- 
 ments of slavery on free soil is a high and 
 sacred religious duty. 
 
 THE FREE COLORED PEOPLE OF PHILA- ! 
 
 DELPHIA. 
 
 The free colored people of Philadelphia are in 
 bad repute in the South. Southern merchants, 
 and other travellers coming to Philadelphia, 
 stumble over a few drunken negroes in Bedford- 
 street, and, when they go home, report that the 
 slaves of the South are better off than the free 
 negroes of the North. Not so fast, gentlemen ! 
 
 I have taken some pains to examine into this 
 
COLORED PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. SOI 
 
 matter, and I rejoice to know that their condi- 
 tion is fifty per cent, better than I expected to 
 find it. The committals at Moyamensing 
 prison will show you that more whites are there 
 incarcerated, according to population, than 
 
 blacks. Do vou infer from this that the slaves 
 
 %/ 
 
 of the South are better off than the white 
 people of Philadelphia? Let me say, as a 
 Southern man, that I have seen, in one day, 
 more drunkenness, brutality, and degradation 
 on holiday occasions among slaves, than I have 
 seen in Philadelphia in three months. It is an 
 insult to the colored people of Philadelphia to 
 compare them, in mind or morals, to Southern 
 slaves. Every candid man in the South will 
 say so, if he will come to this city, and visit 
 their eighteen or twenty churches ; their splen- 
 did new Masonic Hall ; their classical high 
 school, with its colored professors from New 
 England and J amaica — a school such as I have 
 never seen on the Eastern Shore of Maryland ; 
 their private day-schools, and their two beautiful 
 cemeteries. Let him listen to their orators and 
 lecturers, and then say, if he can, that these 
 men are worse off than Southern slaves. I 
 26 
 
302 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 pity the man from my heart that could arrive 
 at such a conclusion. 
 
 BALTIMORE. 
 
 Baltimore is the Paris of all the cities of the 
 slave States, so far as elegance and refinement 
 are concerned. Witness, for example, her 
 hotels, her monuments, her churches, her spa- 
 cious streets, and her elegant* private residences. 
 But in moral sublimity she is far behind Boston, 
 New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cincin- 
 nati. These cities possess something far nobler 
 than a marble monument to the father of his 
 country. They have freedom of speech, free dis- 
 cussions, free newspapers, and free pulpits for 
 white and colored persons ; and this cannot be 
 said of the beautiful city of my native State. 
 
 THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 The recent decision of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, in the case of Dred Scott, 
 has sent a thrill of sadness to the hearts of the 
 good and benevolent throughout our country. 
 By this decision nearly 500,000 Native Ameri- 
 cans have been outlawed from the protection of 
 
THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 303 
 
 -• the stars and stripes, which, proudly floating in 
 all seas, is unfurled from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific. Many of these are our brethren in 
 \ Christ, and ambassadors from the Court of 
 . Heaven to sinful men. Those whom Massa- 
 chusetts, New York, and Ohio claim and protect 
 . as citizens of their respective States, are regarded 
 i by the National Court as aliens, and unprotected 
 as citizens by the Federal Government. Let no 
 man after this insult Christianity by calling 
 this Republic a Christian Government. Such a 
 decision would not have been given by the Su- 
 preme Court from 1794 to 1820. But slavery 
 has poisoned our theology ; it has corrupted the 
 vast majority of the pulpits of the land; it 
 now controls many of the great ecclesiastic 
 bodies of the Union, and has full possession of 
 all departments of the National Government, 
 the single distinctive measure of which seems to 
 be to extend slavery, so that it shall henceforth 
 be a national institution. The next step in the 
 programme will be the reopening of the foreign 
 slave-trade. The destruction of Liberia is to 
 follow, if she interposes any barrier to the 
 traffic ; for our Government has always refused 
 
304 
 
 PICTURES OP SLAVERY. 
 
 to acknowledge the independence of that repub- 
 lic. I also predict that the slave States will 
 pass laws to enslave the free negroes within 
 their jurisdiction; then to enslave the antisla- 
 very men of the free States who may visit 
 them ; next, to reduce their own poor whites to 
 chattel slaves by selling them for pretended 
 debts; and, finally, to place the government 
 under a military despotism. To the poor men 
 of the free States, I say : “ Arise, and shake 
 yourselves from the dust , for the Philistines are 
 already upon ye l” Henceforward I shall wel- 
 come with more joy than ever the thousands of 
 foreign Protestants who shall arrive on our 
 shores. I have noticed that nearly all Eng- 
 lishmen, Protestant Irish, and Germans are 
 opposed to chattel-slavery ; and by their assist- 
 ance alone can the native American freemen 
 successfully combat the slave power, backed 
 up as it is by Romanism and rum. Slavery 
 is as much opposed to Christianity as it is to 
 patriotism — to the laboring white man as to 
 the colored man. The antislavery foreigners 
 should be welcomed as brothers beloved, for 
 the power of slaveholders is more to be feared 
 
THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 305 
 
 :han that of such foreigners. Slavery is the 
 common enemy of freemen of all nations, 
 longues, and races ; just as Romanism is the 
 common enemy of all Protestant denominations, 
 ireemasonry, and odd-fellowship. 
 
 26 * 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 SLAVERY AND WHITE LABOR. 
 
 at 
 
 Thebe are certain professions and avocation 
 in the South which slaves cannot follow. The 
 labor performed by these chattels — such as field 
 work, house-work, and certain mechanical trade 
 — becomes, in the minds of the whites of the bo 
 South, associated with the slaves themselves. 
 In other words, such labor is regarded as dis- 
 honorable. Now, when the poor white man 
 engages in such labor, he falls to the level of 
 the slave himself in the estimation of the slave’s 
 master. Hence the effort of the whites in the 
 South to avoid all labor usually performed by 
 slaves. They will seek to hide themselves in 
 obscure places, and live in idleness ; or they 
 will move to free States. But the evil stops 
 not here. When the slaveholder comes North, 
 and observes white men engaged in the same 
 labor performed by his slaves, he regards them 
 with secret contempt. The odium attached to 
 ( 306 ) 
 
SLAVERY A YD WHITE LABOR. 
 
 307 
 
 lomestic service on tlie part of poor white 
 ivomen in the North is the result of Southern 
 slavery. Perhaps no nation on earth suffers so 
 much family inconvenience and discord on ac- 
 count of female labor as our own. Slavery 
 insults the free labor of the North. To dishonor 
 labor in itself is one of its infallible results. 
 
 Degrade a man to a chattel, and you degrade 
 labor. Elevate the chattel to a man, and the 
 elevation of labor follows. Hence the free la- 
 borer is bound by every principle of self-respect, 
 as well as by his affection for his children, to 
 oppose slavery everywhere and always to the 
 uttermost. Slavery converts a lazy loafer into 
 a gentleman, and degrades an industrious man 
 to a slave. 
 
 When this institution prevails to any extent 
 in a country, it performs all the offices usually 
 performed by war, pestilence, and famine. Go 
 to my native county in Maryland, and travel 
 the main road on the Worcester side from New 
 Town to Snow Hill, a distance of fifteen miles; 
 and what do you behold but barrenness, desola- 
 tion, and gloom, with houses rotting down, and 
 fields turned out ! Fifty or one hundred Jersev 
 
308 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 farmers and gardeners would make this spot 
 blossom as the rose. Slavery resembles the 
 dog in the manger ; it is not only unproductive 
 itself, but permits productiveness nowhere within 
 the range of its influence. In Maryland and 
 Virginia there are thousands who, by emanci- 
 pating their negroes, selling half their farms to 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware far- 
 mers, and employing skilled and cultivated 
 white labor, would realize considerable gains. 
 
 FAMILIARITY. 
 
 Such is the moral constitution of man, that 
 familiarity produces singular results, both for 
 good or evil. A cultivated young man who 
 had contracted the exceedingly sinful habit of 
 profane swearing, told me that he had never 
 been guilty of profanity until verging on man- 
 hood ; that the first oath he swore thrilled him ; 
 with horror and remorse; but that, by continuing 
 to use profane language, finally he could swear j 
 with impunity. What is more alarming at first 
 than pestilential death ? Some three years ago 
 the town in which I resided was visited with 
 cholera for the space of three months; and 
 
FAMILIARITY. 
 
 309 
 
 nearly as many persons perished, according to 
 the population, as died of the yellow fever in 
 Norfolk. On its appearance it created great 
 alarm. Some of the inhabitants moved from 
 the town. I buried nearly three-fourths of all 
 that died. Although suffering with the chills 
 myself, I would leave my sick-bed at the hour 
 if midnight to baptize and comfort the dying. 
 A. friend would be talking to you in the after- 
 noon, and he dead before morning. Yet, after 
 three or four weeks, all classes became somewhat 
 composed. The sight of a funeral procession 
 tost its solemnity, and the burial-service its im- 
 pressiveness. Persons at a distance were aston- 
 ished that all who could leave did not escape 
 from the afflicted village. “ Why don’t you 
 teave ?” said a friend. “ No ; I shall stay with 
 the afflicted, and trust to Providence.” A 
 brother minister from a distance called one day 
 for a few hours. “ Come,” said I, “ and go 
 with me to see a lady dying with the cholera.” 
 In evident alarm he exclaimed : “ No, no ; I 
 must he going ; I must have my horse.” The 
 iaw of familiarity had not operated sufficiently 
 long to reconcile him to this awful pestilence. 
 
310 
 
 PICTUKES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Now apply this law to slavery. There ar( 
 many things about slave life that shock the 
 moral sensibility of a Northern man or ar 
 Englishman, and w T hen he speaks of them tc 
 Southern men, the latter will get into a passion 
 and deny the allegations ; and thus things which 
 are odious to others have ceased to make anj; 
 impression upon their memory or hearts. 
 
 How are the Southern people to be roused 
 from this insensibility to the effects of slavery ? 
 Simply by directing their attention to them, 
 no matter if they do become angry. Two 
 friends were travelling through snow and cold. 
 One said he “felt sleepy, and wished to lie 
 down a little while.” His fellow-traveller be-i 
 came alarmed, for he knew to sleep was to die. 
 He told him he must not lie down ; that, if he' 
 gave way to his feelings, he would sleep in 
 death. But the drowsy man was unwilling to 
 listen to the voice of love and reason, and 
 insisted upon lying down, declaring that he 
 would sleep only a little while. His com- 
 panion saw that the only chance of saving his 
 friend was to be resolute and active, to forcibly j 
 drag him along, and to give him no peace till 
 
IS'DEX EXPURGATORIUS. 
 
 311 
 
 he got him safe at home. When seated before 
 the blazing fire, with a sense of security from 
 danger, the poor fellow could appreciate the 
 kindness which saved his life despite his will. 
 Slaveholders and their friends say, “ Let us 
 alone. The blood of four million slaves be upon 
 us and our children.” The real enemies of the 
 slaveholders say : “Sleep on; you ought to have 
 rest.” While, upon the other hand, their true 
 friends say : “ We will not give you the dan- 
 gerous rest. We will cry aloud, and spare not. 
 Ton shall have no rest till out of danger.” 
 
 INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 
 
 The South is out-heroding Herod. She is 
 getting more zealous than papal Rome. She 
 ias her “ Index Expurgatorius.” Indeed, she 
 las several of them ; for nearly every village, 
 :own, and city is establishing one. Book after 
 aook is being prohibited. Author after author 
 s falling under Southern bulls and edicts. The 
 song is getting to be, “ 0, the bliss of igno- 
 rance !” Booksellers are running like rats from 
 i barn on fire. Publishers in the North must 
 
812 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 mind their P’s and Q’s, or forfeit their Souther) 
 custom. 
 
 EXHORTATION BY A COLORED PREACHER. 
 
 In one of our Northern cities, I once attendee 
 church among the colored people, knowing n< 
 one, and unknown to any one in the congrega 
 tion. I took my seat at the door, and certainh 
 had no expectation of hearing any thing upoi 
 the subject of slavery. What was unexpected 
 by me, the sermon was delivered by a Quaker 
 who preached with much energy, and made i 
 vigorous onslaught on the institutions of th< 
 South. He took his seat, and a colored preache: 
 got up to exhort. I will give the substance of 
 his speech : — 
 
 “ My Brethren : I was much pleased with the 
 sermon of my brother. It had truth enougl: 
 in it to save the whole world. But, brethren. 
 I can be nothing but a Methodist ; I am a corn- 
 field preacher. My brethren, I think the aboli- i 
 tionists have done a great deal of good for us 
 colored people ; but some of my colored brethren 
 say that the abolitionists have made it worse 
 for them ; that they are not so well off as before 
 
THE SABBATH AND SLAVERY. 313 
 
 the abolitionists came about ; that the masters 
 are worse on their slaves than they were before ! 
 Now, brethren, Moses was an abolitionist. The 
 Master told him to go to Pharaoh, and tell him 
 that the Lord says : ‘ Let my people go, that 
 they may serve me.’ But Pharaoh said : 
 ‘ Who is the Lord ? I will not let his people 
 go.’ So Pharaoh oppressed the people more 
 and more; and then they went to Moses and 
 told him that he had made things worse than 
 they were before ; and they blamed Moses for 
 stirring up Pharaoh. Now, my brethren, we 
 must make the devil mad before we can do any 
 good. The abolitionists have done good, be- 
 cause they have called the attention of the 
 people to our brethren, who are under their 
 taskmasters.” 
 
 THE SABBATH AND SLAVERY. 
 
 The Sabbath was made for man. As was 
 said of the Bible, by a celebrated writer, it has 
 “ God for its author, and salvation for its end.” 
 It is the emblem of the visible presence and 
 authority of the Lord of heaven and earth. 
 The closing of banks, of stores and of factories ; 
 27 
 
314 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the plough resting in the furrow, and the scyth( 
 hanging up in the barn, all indicate the weekly 
 visit of this angel of the Lord. Take awaj 
 the day of rest for the body, and of religious 
 worship for the soul, and religion, on her golder 
 pinions, would fly away to her native heaven 
 Our churches, unfilled with worshipers, would 
 crumble and decay. Civilization itself would 
 be succeeded by barbarism. 
 
 I am painfully impressed with the conviction 
 that the Sabbath is not, and will never be ex- 
 tensively observed, according to the spirit and 
 design of the institution, in any country where 
 slavery exists. Slavery degrades labor. It 
 seeks to reverse the law of the Ailwise Creator, 
 who has stamped it with honor. It is impossible 
 for a lazy community to appreciate the Sabbath, 1 
 for to such all days are alike. Slavery puts a 
 premium on idleness. In the free States labor 
 is the rule — idleness the exception ; and the 
 exception is generally found among those who 
 are the Sabbath-breakers, or who keep it as a 
 day of frolic and amusement. In the South 
 laziness is the rule, and industry the exception. 
 Hence the Sabbath is there the great day of 
 
THE SABBATH AND SLAVERY. - 315 
 
 visiting and feasting. Thousands of servants 
 are kept from church in order to prepare warm 
 dinners. The majority of the professors of re- 
 ligion feel no scruple about conversing on worldly 
 business before and after the services of the 
 morning. The remainder of the day is one of 
 pleasure. Where other things are equal, the 
 most intelligent communities exhibit the strictest 
 observance of the Sabbath. But slavery deadens 
 all intellectual life among the masses of a com- 
 munity, and the latter are therefore irresistibly 
 impelled to place a high value on physical en- 
 joyments. Hence, in the slave States, you will 
 see every Sabbath desecrated by droves of 
 negro-boys and girls roving through the woods 
 and highways. Any one who should attempt 
 to educate them in the word of Christ would be 
 persecuted and disgraced. The rich and wealthy 
 of the South are not, as a class, church-going 
 people. Out of their towns it is with the greatest 
 difficulty that Sabbath-schools can be sustained. 
 Their teachers come principally from among 
 the unmarried, to whom the Sabbath is the 
 great day of courtship. Labor and the Sab- 
 
316 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 bath are divinely married; and a divorce would 
 be fatal to both. 
 
 THE WARNING. 
 
 In 1853, 1 established, in St. Michael’s, Talbot 
 County, Md., a Sabbath school for colored persons, 
 slave and free. Previous to its organization, I 
 unfolded my purpose in regard to it to a 
 brother in the church, who advised me to desist 
 from the undertaking, as I was already denounced 
 as an abolitionist; stating that it would injure 
 my influence among the white people, and cut off 
 my prospects of getting a support for my family, 
 which, as I was in poor health, was dependent, 
 to a great extent, on the community for support; 
 and finally, that he feared, if persisted in, I should 
 receive personal violence. I replied : “ Is it not 
 just and right that they, as well as the whites, 
 should be taught to read the Scriptures?” That l 
 proposition he would not dispute. Then I said : 
 
 “ I will trust in the Lord. I will get up a school, 
 
 regardless of consequences.” Miss , a noble 
 
 Christian lady, proffered to assist me ; the school 
 was put in operation ; and afterward, its govern- 
 ment and continuance principally devolved upon 
 
THE WARNING. 317 
 
 her. I received insulting and scandalous anony- 
 mous letters, one containing the portrait of a 
 colored person. Sucli letters none but black- 
 guards could have written. During March and 
 April, 1855, a report was in circulation that the 
 negroes were going “to rise and kill the whites” 
 in Talbot County. A public meeting was called 
 in Easton, and resolutions were adopted. I 
 received a letter from an officer of the county, 
 warning me to stop my Sabbath school. The 
 circular letter was signed, among others, by 
 James L. Martin, a distinguished lawyer in 
 Easton ; by Mr. Holliday, ex-secretary of State 
 for Md. ; by Mr. Johnson, editor of the “Easton 
 Gazette;” and by Thomas K. Robson, editor of 
 the “Easton Star.” Mr. Robson I knew well. 
 He had always treated me with great personal 
 kindness. But, in opposing antislavery prin- 
 ciples and influences, he “knows no man after 
 the flesh;” he suffers no considerations of per- 
 sonal regard to keep him from opposing what he 
 
 calls abolitionism. With such earnestness and 
 
 % 
 
 singleness of purpose all antislavery men ought 
 to act, and will have to act. The officer handed 
 me the letter in presence of several men. I told 
 27* 
 
318 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 him that I would not stop the school; that, if he 
 did it, he must take the responsibility; that I 
 considered the letter an insult to Christianity. 
 
 I asked why these gentlemen did not send cir- 
 culars to all the rumsellers in the county, 
 warning them against selling rum to the negroes, 
 the very thing that stimulates the amorous and 
 murderous passions. I requested the officer to 
 tell the gentlemen that the report of the insur- 
 rection was false and slanderous, and that I was 
 ashamed of their conduct. 
 
 The terrified whites recovered from their fears 
 in two or three weeks, and ought to have felt 
 ashamed of being actors in such a miserable 
 farce. No blood was shed, no lives were lost, 
 and the poor frightened negroes were restored to 
 their usual privileges. Some of our Southern 1 
 gentry occasionally succeed in “gulling” some 
 Northern advocates of slavery into the belief 
 that the master and negroes are very happy. 
 What kind of happiness is that where both 
 parties are in constant dread of each other? I 
 have seen slavery in its mildest form, and I can 
 truly pray : “ From it, good Saviour, deliver me 
 and my children, the poor slaves and my whole 
 
THE OLD VESSEL. 319 
 
 i country, and the church of Jesus Christ through- 
 out the 'world !” 
 
 THE OLD YESSEL. 
 
 My father’s house was immediately on the 
 ; Pocomoke River. This river, I presume, takes 
 I its name from a tribe of Indians long since 
 • extinct. A vessel of considerable size, which 
 had done good service in the past, having been 
 t abandoned as unseaworthy, v and dismantled of 
 ‘ ropes and sail, was permitted to drift from the 
 town, and by some means sunk in the river 
 opposite my father’s house, where the stream is 
 ! about 150 yards wide. Her hull was sub- 
 merged while her masts projected several feet 
 above the surface. Her name, if I remember 
 rightly, was the “Fair American.” Before she 
 became permanently fixed in the mud, it was 
 amusing, on a pleasant summer evening, when 
 the river was of glassy smoothness, to sit and 
 watch the masts. The mast-heads point up the 
 river, in the direction of the late tide. The 
 floating chips have now become stationary, in- 
 dicating that the tide is about to turn. The 
 sturgeon leaps more than his full-length out of 
 
320 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the water, suggesting to you that “there are as 
 good fish in the sea as were ever caught out of 
 it.” The whippowil has struck up his evening 
 song, and the sweet and dying notes of the 
 swamp-robin tell you that he is hanging his 
 harp upon the dark green cypress for the night. 
 A short time has elapsed; the tide has turned, 
 and is ebbing toward the sea. Now watch the 
 masts, how slowly they turn, — gradually — 
 gradually. Now they are again upright, and 
 for a moment stationary; again they waver — 
 then yield to the ebbing w'ater, till their heads 
 nearly touch its surface. And so, twice a day, 
 they shift and turn to the motion of every tide. 
 Now for the moral. 
 
 We have thousands of men amongst us who, 
 in politics and religion, blow hot and cold con- 
 tinually on the subject of slavery. When they 
 are in the North, they are opposed to slavery ; 
 when in the South, they favor it; if they are on 
 the Border, they quiver with the changing tide 
 of public sentiment — one day pro-slavery, the 
 next antislaverv, and at another time neither 
 the one thing nor the other. 
 
 1 
 
 Hi' 
 
 ['ii' 
 
 Inn 
 
 II 
 
 !ii 
 
 l)ii 
 
 lie 
 
 nr 
 
 III 
 v 
 
 iv 
 
 l! 
 
B 
 
 POCOMOKE SWAMP. 321 
 
 L 
 
 POCOMOKE SWAMP. 
 
 This extensive swamp lies between Snow Hill, 
 Worcester County, Md., and Dagsboro’, Sussex 
 County, Del. I suppose it is about thirty miles 
 long, and from three to ten miles wide. It 
 abounds in cypress timber, which is riven into 
 shingles by the “ swampers.” Hundreds of 
 bushels of the finest whortleberries can there 
 be gathered every year ; and it might not be 
 unprofitable for gentlemen engaged in the fruit 
 business to visit the place at the proper season, 
 well provided with air-tight cans ; the cost of 
 gathering the fruit would be trifling, compared 
 with the profit the labor would yield. 
 
 There are hundreds who inhabit the neigh- 
 borhood of this swamp who are in as much 
 ignorance and degradation as wild Indians. 
 They never mingle in refined society, and have 
 no wish to cultivate their minds or their morals. 
 Intelligent shingle-merchants will sometimes 
 settle in the vicinity of the swamp to obtain 
 the lumber. Outlaws can here take refuge with 
 tolerable security from molestation. On one 
 occasion I had to preach on the borders of this 
 
322 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 swamp, and I was under tlie necessity of put- 
 ting up at the house of a shingle-merchant, 
 by whom I was treated kindly. It was a winter 
 evening when I arrived at the place ; and I was 
 belated. A grog-shop, kept by an abandoned 
 black man, stood on the border of the swamp. ; 
 A number of drunken white men were shooting 
 at a target in the county road. As I rode up, I 
 I called to them politely to desist, and let me 
 pass. They told me to come on. When I was 
 opposite the grog-shop, its owner ordered me to 
 stop. I reined up. The negro came up and 
 asked me if I was a preacher. I answered in 
 the affirmative. “ Then,” said he, “ are you the 
 man that turned out a barrel of cider for me at i 
 camp-meeting ?” I told him no ; that I did .■ 
 not travel that circuit at the time he alluded ! 
 to, and knew nothing of the circumstance. He >1 
 then let me pass ; but if I had been the preacher 
 he inquired for, he could have hired those white 
 men to shoot me for a quart of whisky. 
 Those who knew the man said I was in great 
 danger. A gentleman told me that he had 
 seen him drink his own blood after being bled. 
 
 At another place, on the border of this swamp, 
 
POCOMOKE SWAMP. 
 
 323 
 
 there was a grog-shop called the “ Goose Nest.” 
 At this spot I made an appointment to deliver 
 a temperance address to the “ swampers.” The 
 time was evening, and there was a large gather- 
 ing. While I was depicting the evil effect of 
 liquor, one of the party shouted out, “ That’s a 
 lie !” I gave no heed to the remark. Soon he 
 interrupted me again thus : “ Mr., what was 
 liquor made for?” I replied, “I will answer 
 your question if you will answer me this : 
 What were rattlesnakes and mosquitos made 
 for ?” My question settled him. My auditors 
 threatened to “ egg” me for that speech, hut 
 never put their threat into execution. 
 
 On one occasion I was thrown off my guard 
 while speaking upon temperance to an ill- 
 favored crowd. When I was about half through 
 my speech, a half-drunken fellow rose to his 
 feet, and said : “ Mr., that’s a good speech ; 
 you ought to be paid for it ; here is twelve-and- 
 a-half cents, any how.” The remark created 
 much laughter, and was made in such good 
 humor that I had to smile myself. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MARYLAND HOSPITALITY. 
 
 Maryland hospitality is far-famed and pro- 
 verbial. I wish to detract nothing from her 
 real merit in -this respect. I have been the 1 
 recipient of it in sickness and in health. Truth 
 demands, however, that I should say that it is a 
 good deal exaggerated. I will not flatter my 
 native State at the expense of truth. I despise 
 the whole tribe of flatterers, whether native or 
 foreign. They are commonly hypocrites. Mary- 
 land hospitality is too often one-sided and con- 
 ditional. If you are known to be a sound pro- 
 slavery man, or if you will agree to withhold 
 the expression of your sentiments on the subject 
 of slavery, the moment you cross Mason and 
 Dixon’s line, you will be treated — should you 
 be a distinguished man — with great attention. 
 But should you intend to oppose slavery pub- 
 licly, or denounce it privately, then you will 
 find the hospitality quite another thing. 
 
 ( 324 ) 
 

 MARYLAND HOSPITALITY. 325 
 
 Northern clergymen and authors seldom see 
 the disagreeable side of slavery. Suppose a 
 Northern doctor of divinity visits Maryland for 
 the purpose of taking observations of slavery, 
 would he be likely to see it in its revolting 
 aspects? No. He would be taken to Col. A/s, 
 thence to General B.’s, and thence to ’Squire 
 C.’s. He would see finely-dressed house-serv- 
 ants and sumptuous tables. At family praj-ers 
 in the morning he would recognize those same 
 servants. If superficial in his examination he 
 might return home and report the kindness 
 of masters and the apparent happiness of 
 slaves; and thus perhaps make himself ridicu- 
 lous in the estimation of his neighbors, and be a 
 subject of jesting on the part of the slaveowners. 
 But, while this doctor was praying over the 
 finely-dressed house-servants, he was not per- 
 mitted to see the field slaves, who had been 
 marched from their huts, at day-break, by their 
 overseers. He was not asked to visit the filthy 
 quarters of the common slaves; to take a walk 
 to the adjoining plantation or field to witness 
 the downcast and dejected looks of those who 
 are watched constantly by a “ nigger-driver,” 
 28 
 
326 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 with liis cowhide in hand. And, moreover, 
 before a great dignitary in the church, every- 
 body will put on his best clothes and exhibit 
 his best Christian deportment. The very emi- 
 nence of his social position will be an obstruction 
 to his seeing slavery as it is. But let the com- 
 mon man, who is supposed not to have sense 
 enough to take notes, visit the same individuals, 
 and he will have a much more accurate range 
 of vision. To him even the wolfish overseers 
 are off their guard. He may pass through the 
 fields, and they will not refrain from cursing the 
 poor slaves in his presence. According to my 
 notion, true hospitality does not compel my 
 visitor to think as I think; nor does it depend 
 on the fact that he assents to my views on 
 slavery. A true gentleman ought to be above 
 restricting his hospitality to those only who 
 subscribe to his political or religious creed. 
 
 A SOUTHERN MAN WITH NORTHERN 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 I was defining my views on slavery to a gen- 
 tleman, who remarked that I was a “ Southern 
 man with Northern principles.” I replied that 
 
THE WILD WOMAN. 
 
 827 
 
 [was not; that I was a Southern man with Bible 
 principles. Antislavery principles claim a higher 
 origin than Old or New England. They were 
 written by the finger of God upon the heart 
 af the first man, and they have been transmitted 
 from generation to generation till this hour. It 
 is gloriously true that those principles prevail 
 more extensively in New England than in the 
 slave States. Some men advocate slavery lest 
 they should be branded as traitors to the South. 
 Slavery perverts, with all the skill of Jesuits, 
 our very patriotism and love of home. It is the 
 slaveholder that is not true to the real interests 
 of the South. If to oppose slavery is treason, 
 then I glory in being a traitor. If, to be true to 
 the South, I must ignore God and humanity, 
 then I will prove false to the South. 
 
 When I hear a man talk of knowing no North, 
 no South, no East, no West, I set him down at 
 once as a pro-slavery man. 
 
 THE WILD WOMAN. 
 
 While riding on horseback, on a cold winter 
 da}', through an oak swamp in Kent County, 
 Delaware, I came to a pen on the roadside from 
 
S28 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 which smoke was issuing. The pen was about 
 six feet high and six feet square. I had seen 
 negro-huts of all sizes ; but nothing like this as 
 the home of a human being. It was like a hog- 
 pen, with planks thrown flat across the top. 
 
 It contained no fire-place ; no floor ; no bed ; ! 
 no furniture except a stool, a few old rags, a 
 coffee-pot, a wooden mortar in which to beat 
 coffee, and a large oven-lid, which covered a few 
 coals, and prevented the wind from blowing 
 them about. In this pen breathed a little white 
 woman, apparently about sixty-five years of 
 ige — a woman who gave intelligent answers to 
 my questions, and was by no means as ignorant 
 as many others. 1 asked her how she kept 
 dry when it rained. By standing, she replied, \ 
 under a certain portion of the planks, which 
 kept the rain from falling directly upon her. I 
 gave her some money, and left her. I think i 
 she was found dead some time after my visit. I 
 called on a gentleman some miles distant, who 
 gave me the following history of her case. 
 She was very poor, and had been sent to the . 
 almshouse ; but there she would not stay. He 
 stated that she was the last of a family that 
 
THE KING-BIRD. 
 
 329 
 
 ived a wild sort of life in the swamps, main- 
 taining themselves by stealing hogs and cattle, 
 and in sleeping under trees and in pens, ex- 
 posed to the weather, so as always to be on the 
 alert for officers of justice; that in the spring 
 the members of this family would climb oak- 
 trees and skin the bark off them, and get the 
 lumber-men to take it to Milford in exchange 
 for whisky, tobacco, and flour ; that the time 
 had been when the woman I am speaking of 
 could lie out drunk all night, on the frozen 
 ground, without injury. 
 
 There are thousands of poor whites in Dela- 
 ware and Maryland whom slavery has driven 
 on the borders of our swamps and marshes, 
 where they can become squatter-sovereigns, in 
 company with bull and spring-frogs, green- 
 headed flies, mosquitos, seed-ticks, whippowils, 
 and jiggers. There are white heathens in our 
 midst for whose souls but few care. 
 
 THE KING-BIHD. 
 
 The king-bird is about the size of the English 
 mocking-bird. It devours the honey-bee in 
 great numbers ; it oppresses the weak and kills 
 28 * 
 
380 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the laborer. I have never admired the bird 
 though I have often been struck with his cour- 
 age and audacity. When a boy, I often stopped 
 my play to see him encounter the crows, and) 
 was puzzled to divine why it was that so large 
 a bird should be attacked and frightened by so 
 small a bird. I have been vexed at hearing the 
 caw ! caio ! ccao ! of the crow begging for life, 
 when, if he had faced his enemy, he might 
 have killed him with one stroke of his wing. 
 
 I have always despised the crow for his cun- 
 ning, cruelty, and cowardice. He will pick out 
 the eyes of the innocent lambs, and caw with 
 affright at the little king-bird. 
 
 Once upon a time, a nation, living upon a cer- 
 tain planet of the Solar system, occupied a ter- 
 ritory which was divided into two parts, called 
 the North and the South. This nation was 
 governed by delegates, who met in a great, 
 council every winter, in a building called the 
 Capitol. For many years the North sent to 
 this council nearly all crows, while the South 
 sent king-birds. When the crows behaved 
 themselves, and were duly obedient to the king- 
 birds, things went on smoothly. But when 
 
THE KING-BIRD. 
 
 331 
 
 they proved refractory, the king-birds would fly 
 at them, and cow them into submission. The 
 North at last got ashamed of its crows, and 
 i sent to the council a few golden eagles. Now 
 the eagle is a strong and far-seeing bird, and 
 full of courage ; and his presence created great 
 alarm and consternation among the king- birds, 
 for one eagle is more than a match for a dozen 
 of them. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 I. Red Pepper . — Persons cannot be too careful 
 how they meddle with medicines of which they 
 know nothing. On one occasion, I was slowly 
 recovering from a severe illness. A protracted 
 meeting was in progress on the circuit. In the : 
 exercises^* this meeting I Avas deeply anxious 
 to participate ; and it was of the utmost import- 
 ance to my health that I should run no risk 
 of taking cold. To counteract the liability to 
 this, I was advised to put red-pepper in my 
 stockings. Accordingly I procured some Afri- 
 can bird-pepper — the strongest kind known — 
 poured a tablespoonful into my stockings, next 
 to my feet, and started for church on a rainy 
 evening. Soon after the preaching commenced, 
 
 I felt a shock from feet to head like that pro- 
 duced by a galvanic battery. My sufferings 
 momentarily increased. Every shock came at 
 ( 332 ) 
 
PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 S3B 
 
 shorter intervals. I liastily left the congrega- 
 tion, and started for my boarding-house ; where, 
 with my clothes saturated with perspiration, 
 and utterly exhausted, I had to take stimulants 
 to keep from fainting. I did not fully recover 
 for two weeks. 
 
 II. Charcoal . — During the heat of summer, I 
 was once very ill with bilious fever. A kind 
 Christian brother was sitting up with me. The 
 windows were open. A charcoal furnace was 
 burning in an adjoining room. As I was sleep- 
 ing, he thought he would lie down at the foot 
 of my bed. Forgetting the furnace, he shut 
 down all the windows, and fell asleep. I awoke 
 with excruciating pain in the heart and lungs. 
 If a dagger had been run through me, it would 
 not perhaps have hurt me worse. I also felt a 
 sensation of cold, as though ice had been applied 
 to the back. I groaned and swooned away. The 
 noise awoke my friend, who, feeling oppressed 
 himself, suspected the cause. He threw open 
 the windows immediately, and sent for the 
 doctor. I was placed in warm water and brought 
 to. But for that sigh, both of us might have 
 slept the sleep of death. 
 
334 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 III. The Revolver . — Good men lmve often 
 thoughtlessly and by accident inflicted the 
 greatest suffering upon others and themselves. 
 
 I was in company with several Methodist 
 brethren. Mr. A. had taken a six-barrel re- 
 volver from a drunken neighbor. Mr. B., with- 
 out reflecting, suddenly took it from his friend’s! 
 hand, and placing the pistol to my breast, said : 
 
 “ Bro. Long, I will shoot you.” Mr. A. again 
 seized it, and fired it off. It was discharged at 
 the slightest touch of the trigger. Mr. B. apo- i 
 logized, and was alarmed at the danger to which 
 he had exposed me. I had, it was afterwards 
 remarked, made a very narrow escape. 
 
 IV. The Ball of Fire . — In September, 1856, 
 
 I came to Philadelphia, rented a house, and 
 returned to my residence in St. Michael’s, Talbot 
 County, Md., to make preparations to move. : 
 By the 17th of October, I was nearly packed up. i 
 On the 16th the weather was quite cold. When 
 
 I arose on the morning of the 17th, the heavens 
 were overcast with clouds. It was raining mo- 
 derately. My four boys (the oldest being twelve 
 years) had just left their bed-room. I came 
 down before my wife, and approached the stove, 
 
PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 
 
 335 
 
 around which were gathered the boys and the 
 servant, the latter getting breakfast. While 
 standing immediately before the stove, I was 
 struck senseless for a moment by lightning, and 
 was thrown violently against the door. The first 
 .sensation I experienced was that of lightness ; 
 of being raised up. I found myself trying to 
 stand against the door. I heard the terrific ex- 
 plosion, and saw balls of fire in every direction. 
 I had a strange feeling in my side. I was not 
 aware immediately that I had been struck, nor 
 until I made an effort to walk did I find that I 
 was injured. No other member of the family 
 was harmed. The house was full of smoke, 
 and smelt strongly of brimstone. A lady living 
 near by, wdio was feeding her chickens, saw 
 what appeared to be a ball of fire, larger than a 
 half-bushel measure, leave the clouds and dart 
 upon my house ; and so terrible was the sight 
 that she put her hands over her eyes. The 
 ball struck the roof, tearing up the shingles, and 
 the fluid passed down in three streams through 
 the building. The splinters from the mantelpiece 
 would have killed or maimed all my boys had 
 they been in their own room at the time. Pass- 
 
336 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ing down into the kitchen, the electric fluid toi W 
 up the floor, and even melted the zinc under m ! 
 feet. When I was put to bed, it was foun 
 that my left foot was burned almost crisp. Tl. 
 cotton and woollen stocking I had on that fo( 
 was in some parts burned to a cinder. That o 
 my right foot was also singed, though tb 
 foot itself was uninjured. I was unable t 
 walk for two w T eeks without assistance. I fea 
 that my foot w'ill never be well. For tw ai 
 months subsequent to this accident, my disease 
 lung was better than it had been for two years 
 The citizens of the town showed me grea 
 kindness on the occasion. On a review of al 
 the circumstances of the case, I can say : “ ( 
 Lord, thy hand alone delivered thy servan 
 from instant death !” Previous to this occur! 
 rence, I was deeply impressed with the dub 
 of getting a lightning-rod, but excused my 
 self on the ground that I could not afford th< 
 expense. 
 
 A clerical friend, who came to see me during 
 my affliction, good humoredly and wittily re 
 marked that the day Lot went out of Sodom the: 
 
' 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE M. E. CHURCH. 337 
 
 -Lord rained down fire and brimstone out of 
 :heaven. I replied that I had not got quite out. 
 
 -i 
 
 J THE DISCIPLINE OF THE M. E. CHTJHCH. 
 
 ! Is the Discipline of the M. E. Church anti- 
 * slavery or pro-slavery? The question is not, 
 “Do the vast majority of the ministers and laity 
 of the M. E. Church hold antislavery or pro- 
 slavery sentiments?” I believe the majority 
 are antislavery. But I must sorrowfully admit 
 that a layman can, according to the Discipline, 
 hold slaves as chattels and give them away to 
 friends who may sell them at pleasure, while no 
 preacher in the church can expel him therefor. 
 Hence the Discipline should be so altered that he 
 who holds a slave for gain shall be expelled from 
 the church. The church should regard all slave- 
 holders as mercenary till they prove the con- 
 trary. Some wish the M. E. Church to extend the 
 range of its operations further South. I trust 
 that such will not be the case unless she is 
 accompanied thither by a free Gospel, which 
 shall proclaim liberty from sin to the master, 
 and liberty of soul and body to the slave. Some 
 of our preachers are in danger of becoming pro- 
 29 
 
338 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAYER Y . 
 
 slavery by the alliances they contract in slav( ;f 
 territory. It is true they may not hold slaves ' 
 directly, but they can hold them indirectly, 
 How strangely inconsistent is it in the Phila 
 delphia and Baltimore Conferences to forbid 
 their members holding slaves while they suffei 
 them to be held by exhorters and class-leaders 1 1 
 If the one is contrary to sound morals and reli- i 
 gion, so is the other. On the supposition that 
 some of our preachers hold and breed slaves, 
 why should we rather refuse to meet them in 
 good fellowship than preachers belonging to the 
 M. E. Church South? \Southern preachers are 
 regarded with much favor in Philadelphia and 
 New York. This recognition of their claims to 
 our Christian confidence and regard is the most j 
 emphatic of admissions that we do not consider 
 it sinful in preachers to hold slaves. If the 
 question were asked me, “Have you one or more 
 slaveholding members of the Philadelphia Con- 
 ference?” I should answer, that I would neither 
 affirm nor deny the fact. And no one can deny 
 the fact, unless the roll of the Conference were 
 called, and the following question emphatically 
 answered in the negative by every individual 
 
THE CONTRAST. 
 
 339 
 
 )elonging to that body: “Do you own slaves, 
 lirectly or indirectly? If not directly, have 
 -ou not exchanged them for other property with 
 -our relatives, when it was your duty to 
 et them free?” If this question, I say, were 
 mswered in the negative, then, and not till then, 
 vould any one be justified in saying that there 
 s not one slaveholder among the members of the 
 Philadelphia Conference. 
 
 THE CONTRAST 
 
 Pro-slavery Men. — Class A. Those who pro- 
 ess to believe slavery wrong in the abstract; 
 hose who profess to deplore slavery among 
 is, -yet contend that it is better to hold human 
 )eings in bondage than set them free among us; 
 bus depriving such persons of the rights of 
 lumanity, and holding them subject to all the 
 labilities of chattels. Such persons are per- 
 ecutors of free negroes, and oppose those who 
 :ontend that freedom, partially enjoyed, is bet- 
 er than absolute slavery. We have many per- 
 sons, in all our churches, who hold to these 
 loctrines. Class B. Those who affect to believe 
 hat the negro is a brute; that he has not 
 
340 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 descended from Adam and Eve ; that slavery is a 
 blessing to him; and that he was never intended i 
 for any thing else than a servant of the white 
 man. Yet such persons hold in equal subjec- 
 tion the whitest quadroon and the blackest Congo. 
 Glass C. Those who sell their slaves or exchange; 
 them for lands or stock, and move to the West 
 or the North, while they prate against slavery 
 and denounce the slaveholder. Such persons 
 enjoy the rewards of slavery without its troubles 
 and inconveniences. They are the worst of pro- 
 slavery men. 
 
 Antislavery Men.-^- Class A. Those who dis- 
 believe the Bible, and reject Christ as the Re- 
 deemer; who offer to the slave freedom for the 
 body and despair for the soul. Glass B. Those I 
 who regard the holding of our fellow-beings as 
 chattels, as a sin against God and man, as opposed 
 to the sweet spirit of the Gospel , and as subver- 
 sive of the doctrine which proclaims the universal 
 brotherhood of the race, taught in the Bible; 
 those who regard the negro as a man and neigh- 
 bor, as a being redeemed by the blood of Christ; 
 those who oppose slavery by all the political, 
 moral, and religious agencies of which they can 
 
ARGUMENTS, ETC., REFUTED. 341 
 
 avail themselves, regardless of ease, honor, 
 reputation, and persecution; those who regard 
 chattel slavery as the direst enemy with which 
 Christianity has to contend in this nation, and 
 the only thing that endangers the stability of 
 our Union. 
 
 PRO-SLAVERY ARGUMENTS AND APOLOGIES 
 REFUTED. 
 
 I. The Africans are no part of the human 
 race. They are a superior species of the orang- 
 outang. 
 
 Refutation . — If so, why do you pass laws to 
 keep them from learning to read ? Why are 
 they ever subjected to the forms of a jury trial ? 
 Why fear a competition with them in the social 
 and professional walks of life ? Why dread 
 their eloquence and talent ? Why amalgamate 
 with them ? for, if they are mere brutes, such 
 amalgamation becomes a horrible and unnatural 
 crime — a crime which is more prevalent near 
 our court-houses and State capitals than any 
 where else in the South. 
 
 II. They are a part of the human race, but 
 under a curse ; for it is written, “ Cursed be 
 
 29 * 
 
342 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Canaan ! A servant of servants shall he he 
 unto his brethren.” \ ( 
 
 Ansiver . — The African race has no part or i 
 lot in this matter. The quotation had reference 
 to the Canaanites in their national capacity, as 
 the descendants of Ham. The Canaanites wei'e 
 as white as the Jews who expelled them for 
 their wickedness from their native soil. 
 
 III. Admitting slavery to be wrong in the 
 abstract, yet it has proved a great blessing to 
 the negroes, for it has been a means of civilizing 
 and Christianizing them. 
 
 Answer. — The All-wise Being has saved 
 thousands of slaves in spite of slavery. But 
 this does not prove that slavery is right or good 
 in itself. When Joseph forgave his brethren 
 for selling him into Egypt, his forgiveness did 
 not prove that they had acted rightly towards 
 him. Their consciences told them otherwise. 
 I believe that two white persons in our land 
 have been hopelessly paganized in consequence 
 of slavery, for every slave who has been Chris- 
 tianized by its agency. Had England and 
 America never engaged in the slave-trade, I 
 have not the least doubt that one hundred 
 
ARGUMENTS, ETC., REFUTED. 343 
 
 white missionaries would be in Africa where 
 ' there is now one ; that two Africans would have 
 been made Christians on their own soil where 
 one is now made on American soil. The white 
 missionary who justifies polygamy among slaves 
 in America, and goes to Africa to condemn it in 
 the native, ought to be driven home by the 
 negro for his shameful inconsistency. No church 
 that tolerates or justifies slavery is fit to be a 
 missionary church among the heathen. 
 
 IY. But we have a legal right to our slaves. 
 We hold them according to the laws of the 
 State. 
 
 Answer . — So you do. But your right is based 
 neither on morals nor religion. Your slaves 
 were stolen from Africa, and sold here without 
 their consent ; and time cannot make that right 
 which was originally and intrinsically wrong. 
 
 V. We have got the negroes here, and it 
 will not do to set them free. 
 
 Answer . — The question to be settled is this : 
 “Is slavery wrong? Is it unjust?” If it is, 
 then it is clearly wrong to perpetuate injustice. 
 
 VI. If our slaves were set free, the whites 
 and the blacks would amalgamate. 
 
344 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Answer . — Not so much as they do now in a 
 state of slavery. 
 
 VII. The whites would never receive the 
 negroes on a footing of social equality. 
 
 Answer . — Suppose they did not. Is that any 
 reason why the whites should hold them in 
 bondage ? The Jews do not receive the Chris- 
 tians, nor do the Christians receive the Jews, on 
 such a social footing. They seldom intermarry. 
 Is that any reason why the Christians should 
 hold the Jews as slaves ? The learned rich 
 do not meet the poor and ignorant whites on 
 terms of equality. Is that any argument to 
 justify the rich in reducing the latter to chat- 
 tels ? 
 
 That great French writer, M. de Tocqueville, 
 the author of “ Democracy in America,” has 
 said that there is as much prejudice in the free 
 States against negroes as there is in the slave 
 States ; and this opinion has been re-ecnoed by 
 hundreds. I deny the assertion. There is not 
 half so much prejudice against color in the 
 North as in the South. I admit that a vast 
 amount of prejudice exists against the free 
 negroes on the part of Northern people. But 
 
ARGUMENTS, ETC., REFUTED. 345 
 
 what respect white men in the free States do 
 show to colored men is at least rendered to 
 i their manhood. In the South no such respect 
 I exists on the part of a master to his negro. 
 
 The daughter of a wealthy slaveholder may 
 » take her servant-maid into her bed-room, and if 
 the young miss is afraid of ghosts, and trembles 
 j at the thought of a visitor with raw head and 
 bloody bones, for the belief in which she is in- 
 debted to the slave, she may go so far as to 
 insist on her servant sleeping in the same bed 
 with her;' but it is on the same principle pre- 
 cisely that she would let her cat sleep on her 
 bed. I have seen the daughters and wives of 
 wealthy slaveholders sit in a close carriage with 
 jet black negro men, when they would have felt 
 themselves disgraced had they permitted a white 
 mechanic to ride with them. They did not 
 ride with their negroes because they recognized 
 their humanity, but because they regarded them 
 in the same light that they did the horse that 
 pulled them. Both were father’s chattels. You 
 will see the rich master very familiar with a 
 favorite negro ; but it is on the same principle 
 that he is familiar with his favorite dog. Let 
 
346 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 that negro assert to his master that he is a man, 
 and ought to be treated as a man, and his 
 master will be as indignant at him as he would 
 be at his dog who should refuse to flush a covey 
 of partridges. 
 
 VII. But the negroes would rise and kill 
 the whites if set free. Look at St. Domingo. 
 
 Answer . — Not a fitting comparison. St. Do- 
 mingo was a distant colony of France, and con- 
 tained, perhaps, more blacks than whites at the 
 period of the revolt, while France itself was in 
 a state of revolution. Moreover, the abolition- 
 ists of the North, even the most rabid of them, 
 would march to the rescue of the whites in case 
 of an insurrection among the negroes growing 
 out of emancipation. We are in promixity to 
 the South, which, at nearly all points, is readily 
 accessible by our steamers and railroads. Ac- 
 cordingly, a successful and widespread insurrec- 
 tion, from the cause indicated, would be utterly 
 impracticable. 
 
 VIII. But the Old Testament allowed sla- 
 very. 
 
 Answer . — So it allowed polygamy and private 
 vengeance. No such slavery existed among the 
 
 \h 
 
 f 
 
 It 
 
 I 
 
 i!n 
 
 It 
 
 In 1 
 
! 
 
 ARGUMENTS, ETC., REFUTED. 347 
 
 Jews as American chattel slavery. Every slave 
 Jew was free at the expiration of six years. 
 The Jews were commanded to protect all fugi- 
 tive slaves from the heathen nations around 
 them. 
 
 IX. But the New Testament sanctions sla- 
 very. Paul says : “ Servants, obejr your mas- 
 ters.” 
 
 Answer . — And he also says to slaves, “ If thou 
 mayest be free, choose it rather.” We must 
 look into this defence of slavery more closely, 
 for in the South it is more depended on than 
 any other. The intelligent slaveholder perceives 
 plainly that if the church should withdraw her 
 support from slavery, the system would fall. 
 Hence nothing is more grateful to his ear than 
 the declaration, on the part of Christian minis- 
 ters, that slavery is sanctioned and confirmed 
 by the Christian religion, even though he secretly 
 despises those who proclaim the doctrine ; even 
 though such ministers thereby quicken into 
 bloom and vigor the germ of infidelity which 
 is already in his heart. In the days of St. Paul, 
 the Roman empire was at the height of' its 
 power. The Romans were a warlike people, 
 
348 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and had subdued every civilized nation on th 
 g'lobe. Tlieir government was not founded o 
 justice and liberty, but was one of force ; i 
 was, in other words, a great military despotisir 
 The Christians living under this governmen (K 
 had no power to make or unmake laws. Th k 
 cruel and infamous Nero was emperor during ; a 
 part of Paul’s life, and, it is supposed, had th 
 illustrious apostle beheaded. Yet Paul exhortec 
 the Christians to render obedience even unt< 
 him. What better could he do ? If Paul wer< 
 now living in these United States, would In 
 exhort the people to change their governmem 
 from a republican to a despotic form ? Would In 
 urge them to substitute an emperor for theii 
 President ? Certainly not. Paul exhorted wives 
 to obey their husbands ; yet the Roman husbanc 
 could take the life of his wife for certain crimes 
 But in our day no civilized State will permit 
 nor w r ill any church authorize, a husband to take 
 the life of his wife for any crime. The relation 
 between husband and wife, as it existed among 
 the Romans, our modern Christianity has abro- 
 gated. Paul also enjoined children to obey 
 their parents. Yet the Roman parent could 
 
ARGUMENTS, ETC., REFUTED. 349 
 
 take tlie life of his son, and sell him at any 
 time, even when that son had arrived at matu- 
 rity. Our civil government has broken up the 
 relation between father and son, recognized by 
 pagan Rome, for the sufficient reason that such 
 relations conflict with the dignity of humanity, 
 and are therefore opposed to love, justice, and 
 mercy, which pure Christianity enjoins. He 
 said to slaves : “ Servants, obey your masters.” 
 What else could he say? for no resistance, unless 
 miraculously aided, would have rendered null 
 and void the relations sanctioned by a govern- 
 ment of despotic force. Were Paul living under 
 our government, where the majority of its 
 rulers profess allegiance to Christ instead of 
 idols, can any one suppose that he would have 
 hesitated to advise us to conform our laws to 
 the law of Christ, who requires us to love our 
 neighbor as ourself? 
 
 Peter says : “ Fear God, and honor the 
 king.” Some persons might thence argue that 
 every government without a king is not in ac- 
 cordance with the Bible. But such logic would 
 make no serious impression on the rqinds of the 
 American people. Government is an institution 
 30 
 
350 
 
 PIC TUBES OF SLAYEBY. 
 
 of God ; but the form of a government is left 
 to the judgment and growing sense of mankind. 
 Submission to authority is required by Heaven; 
 but chattel slavery results from the abuse of 
 legitimate authority, just as tyranny is an abuse 
 of government. But the argument from the 
 Bible proves too much. The Romans held 
 white people as slaves. Do slaveholders claim 
 that right ? Paul says nothing against gam- 
 bling, yet he inculcates honesty, industry, and 
 sobriety, which effectually prevent gambling 
 on the part of those whose who practice his 
 doctrines. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE FOURTH OF JULY. 
 
 The Fourth of July is our national anniver- 
 sary. In bygone years its recurrence stimulated 
 sentiments of freedom and liberty. How changed 
 are the times ! In the slave States it affords an 
 opportunity for beardless lawyers and preachers 
 to spread their newly-fledged wings. To such 
 it affords a fine occasion for turgid declama- 
 tion about the star-spangled banner and the 
 spread-eagle, and our glorious country, with 
 many bombastic utterances concerning the Mis- 
 sissippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the gold 
 mines of California. 
 
 The great slaveholders of the South take 
 little or no interest in the celebration of this an- 
 niversary. The fact is, the occasion recalls to 
 mind too vividly the principles of the immortal 
 Declaration, which, if indiscriminately lauded, 
 might find their way to the hearts of talented 
 mulatto slaves. There is little doubt that the 
 
 ( 351 ) 
 
352 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Declaration of Independence, published in a 
 tract form, and spread throughout the South, 
 would be considered incendiary in its tendency. 
 
 Some years have elapsed since I participated 
 in one of these celebrations of our national an- 
 niversary ; and I felt much condemnation of 
 spirit for the part I then took in the exercises. 
 On the occasion to which I allude, a military 
 company met in one of our Southern court- 
 houses to honor the day. I was called on to 
 open the exercises with prayer. A young orator 
 followed, with an eulogium on our free country. 
 Now the next day, at the very door of the house 
 where he was then speaking, might have been 
 seen men with as much natural intellect as those 
 who had listened to him, sold to the slave-trader 
 at the highest bid, and handcuffed like criminals, 
 though guilty of no crime. I felt that I had 
 lessened my ministerial dignity by giving my 
 countenance and example to so solemn a farce. 
 Should I again participate in the exercises of 
 the day, it will be to advance liberty, morality, 
 and religion. 
 
THE POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH. 35B 
 
 THE POOR TVHITES OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 The poor whites of the South constitute a class 
 of poor peculiar to the slave States of the Union. 
 They are unlike any class of poor found in the 
 free States or in Europe. They are the Arabs, 
 the Bedouins of our moral desert; the Ishmaelites 
 of slave society. Despised by the large slave- 
 holder, hated by the small farmer and mechanic, 
 and treated with contempt by the body-servants 
 of the aristocracy, their condition is pitiable 
 indeed. They number hundreds of thousands. 
 They are easily recognized by a Southern man, 
 whether found in Maryland or Texas. Among 
 them we do not include the mechanic, or the 
 farmer, or the man of regular labor. These 
 creatures live from hand to mouth, and despise 
 labor, in the proper sense of that term. They 
 are squatter-sovereigns of the purest water. 
 They are gipsies of American origin, the pio- 
 neers of our swamps, and marshes, and sedge- 
 fields. They hunt the racoon, the opossum, the 
 squirrel, the muskrat, the otter, the mink, and 
 the rabbit; catch the snapping-turtle, fish, and 
 clams; gather wild fruits, hunt fugitive negroes, 
 30* 
 
354 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and deal and associate with the lowest class of 
 slaves and free negroes. The height of their 
 ambition, if they live in the country, is to get an 
 old horse and a pair of wheels, with corn-husk 
 collars and rope reins, by means of which they 
 may obtain sufficient money to buy a quart of 
 whisky, a pound of coffee, and a plug of tobacco, 
 with pipes and snuff for their women. The 
 shrewdest among them sometimes rise to the 
 dignity of grog-shop keepers, nigger-drivers, horse- 
 jockeys, cock-fighters, and bobtail-gamblers. If 
 they live in towns or villages, they sometimes 
 aspire to the office of bailiff, which gives them 
 an opportunity to whip colored persons, and 
 thus get their grog free. 
 
 They are servile to the aristocracy, and im- 
 pudent when they dare be. They have all the 
 superstitions of the negroes, without tlieir habits 
 of labor. Now and then one finds his way to 
 the jury-box. A lawyer of age and experience, 
 in one of our slave States, in recounting to me 
 some of the incidents of his professional career, { 
 referred with regret to one act of his life. It 
 was this. He acted as the counsel of a man 
 who had perpetrated a wilful murder. One of 
 
THE POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH. 355 
 
 the jury was an ignorant, superstitious man, who 
 believed in ghosts. This the lawyer knew. 
 When the case came before the j ury, the lawyer, 
 fixing his eye on this ignorant fellow, told the 
 jury that if they brought in a verdict of guilty 
 against his client, and he was hung, the ghost of 
 the dead man would haunt them as long as they 
 lived. The jury retired. There were eleven 
 for conviction; but this superstitious man de- 
 clared that he would not leave the room till 
 they brought in a verdict of not guilty ; and to 
 the astonishment of the community, such a ver- 
 dict was rendered. 
 
 Some of these poor fellows are quite shrewd, 
 and are keen at retort. A gentleman in Mary- 
 land related to me the following anecdote : One 
 of these creatures was before court as a witness. 
 A knowing young lawyer asked him several 
 questions, to which he obtained very unsatis- 
 factory answers. The lawyer got into a pet, and 
 asked him to tell the court what he did know, in- 
 asmuch as he had told them what he did not know. 
 “Well,” said the fellow, “I know that I have a 
 hound-dog at home ; and if his tongue were slit in 
 the middle, he would make a good second-hand 
 
356 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 lawyer, like yourself.” At this remark the audi- 
 ence roared, and the bar and court were con- 
 vulsed with laughter. 
 
 To these uneducated persons, the howling of j 
 a dog is a sign of death; a horse-shoe nailed 
 over the door is a sure protection against witches. 
 Some of them will not suffer a woman to come 
 to the house on New Year’s day; nor will they 
 go to the church the first Sabbath after moving. 
 Indeed, the name of their charms and wonders ' 
 is Legion. When infirm with age or disease, 
 they often suffer much for food, for want of 
 shelter, for lack of clothing and medical atten- 
 tion. In case of a servile war in the South, 
 these fellows would be the most dangerous ene- 
 mies to Southern society 
 
 THE EFFECT OF SLAVERY ON THE HIGHER 
 CLASSES IN THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 The greatest victory that slavery ever gained 
 in this country was the annexation of Texas, a 
 country as large as France, with a rich soil and 
 splendid climate. It could support the whole 
 slave population of the Union. This annexation 
 brought on the Mexican war. While this war 
 
THE HIGHER CLASSES. 
 
 857 
 
 was in progress, I regretted its existence in the 
 presence of a citizen of a slave State, who justi- 
 fied it on the ground that it would serve to kill 
 otf a number of rich men’s sons, who were a 
 source of trouble to their parents and a nui- 
 sance to the neighborhood in which they resided. 
 This was, I confess, a novel view of the advan- 
 tages of war, though it failed to convince me that 
 the contest was a righteous one. Yet it required 
 a corrupt state of society to suggest the remark. 
 
 Slavery degrades the white man to a greater 
 extent than it degrades the negro or the slave. 
 It defies God, for it is at war with his moral and 
 physical laws. It sears the conscience, hardens 
 the heart, and violates the sense of justice im- 
 planted in the breast by our Creator. It falsely 
 interprets the Bible, and makes a mockery of our 
 National Constitution. It reads ancient history 
 backwards ; it contradicts experience ; and it in- 
 terposes an insurmountable barrier to profound 
 theological and philosophical inquiries. It is the 
 assassin of free speech and of a free press. Loving 
 darkness rather than light, it confounds moral 
 distinctions, glorifies materialism, and is about as 
 healthful to the soul as leprosy is to the body. 
 
358 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 THE PRIVATEER AND THE HERETICS. 
 
 The reader will, I trust, pardon me for refer- 
 ring to the following incident for an illustration. 
 My father was compelled to remain six months 
 in the city of Naples. When a boy, my imagi- 
 nation would kindle into a blaze at his vivid 
 descriptions of that gorgeous city, of her magni- 
 ficent bay, and of Vesuvius, towering in awful 
 grandeur to the skies, and terribly sublime dur- 
 ing the partial eruption which he witnessed. 
 He was in Naples during stirring times. He 
 was present at the coronation of Murat and his 
 queen, who was the sister of Napoleon. 
 
 My father and all his shipmates were captured 
 by a French privateer, and taken in chains to 
 Naples. The vessel in which they sailed was ! 
 almost in sight of the city of Palermo, to which 
 she was bound, laden with a cargo worth one 
 hundred thousand dollars. The pirates claimed 
 her as their lawful prize under the Berlin and 
 Milan Decrees, promulgated by Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, which doomed every American vessel, 
 boarded or examined by a British man-of-war, to 
 be a lawful prize to the French government. The 
 
THE PKIYATEEK AND THE HERETICS. 359 
 
 ship in question had not been overhauled by any 
 man-of-war up to the time of her seizure. To make 
 her a prize, then, it was necessary to get one or 
 more of the crew to perjure themselves. All 
 the crew, the officers excepted, were chained to 
 a bar of iron in the hold of the privateer ; and 
 while the ship was towed into port, tempting 
 offers were made to each of the company to take 
 a false oath ; but all spurned the bribes of the 
 robbers, except two men. For a part of the 
 prize, these men agreed to swear that the ship 
 was boarded by a British man-of-war at the 
 mouth of the Mediterranean. The two Judases 
 were, accordingly, immediately released; while 
 the remainder of the crew were kept in chains, 
 became foul with vermin, and were as cruelly 
 treated as the negro in the slave-barracoons. 
 When the case was brought before the proper 
 tribunal for adjudication, the whole ship’s com- 
 pany directly and unequivocally impeached the 
 evidence of the perjured villains, whose testi- 
 mony, moreover, was contradictory. To enable 
 the testimony of the two traitors to outweigh, in 
 the estimation of the aforesaid tribunal, that of 
 the officers and the rest of the crew, it was only 
 
860 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 necessary for them to profess to be converted t( 
 Komanism. Converts they accordingly became 
 and in evidence thereof, each wore a large cros: 
 on his breast. The oaths of the entire heretica 
 crew could not avail anything against these 
 newly-converted sons of the church. The vesse' 
 was condemned as a lawful prize, and these faith 
 ful seamen were thrown upon the mercy of the 
 American consul; while the two perjured men 
 accompanied by their mistresses, rode in splendoi 
 through the streets of Naples, having obtained 
 their share of the prize-money. 
 
 From the facts recited, we learn that a Pro 
 testant or heretic is not assumed to tell the 
 truth in Naples, when his statements come in 
 conflict with the asseverations of a Roman 
 Catholic. Yet the reader may spare his indigna-i 
 tion, for a still more absurd thing obtains in cer- 
 tain Protestant churches in his own country. 
 Let him take, for example, the M. E. phurch in 
 Maryland and Virginia. She gives license to 
 colored men as exliorters and preachers; and 
 yet if a white man, not a member of the church, 
 prefers a charge against them in the church, 
 they are not allowed to prove an alibi by per- 
 
IMPUDENCE. 
 
 361 
 
 sons whose skin has the same hue as their own. 
 If a colored preacher were to see his own wife 
 approached in an unseemly manner by a white 
 member of the church, his evidence to that 
 effect would be discredited, simply on account of 
 his skin. We preach that the “Gospel is the 
 power of God to salvation to all that believe,” 
 of whatever race or color; yet we practically 
 assert that the Gospel affords the colored man 
 no security against falsehood when he comes in 
 contact with a white man. It is high time that 
 this fashionable religion, which is considered 
 only fit for the white man, should be sternly 
 rebuked. 
 
 Colored exhorters and local-preachers among 
 us are members of the Quarterly Conference, and 
 their license must be renewed every year; yet 
 they have no voice in voting for one another, or 
 for others. Thus, even in the midst of their 
 brethren, they are made to feel that they are 
 not one in Christ Jesus. 
 
 IMPUDENCE. 
 
 Edward was a jet-black young man, of sober 
 and industrious habits. He possessed an intel- 
 31 
 
362 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 lect of more than average power, and thirsted 
 for knowledge. By “ hook or by crook” he had 
 learned to read well, and to write a beautiful 
 hand. He lived near my father’s house, and 
 when he had spare time he would often beg me 
 to teach him arithmetic. It flattered my boyish 
 vanity to think that I could teach a grown-up 
 man, and it gratified my love of authority to 
 see him so obedient to my instructions ; aijd I i 
 was always ready to leave my sports to teach 
 him. He soon reached the level of my capacity to 
 instruct him, and was considered quite a prodigy 
 among the ignorant whites. His master, at 
 first, seemed to be proud of him. But, alas for 1 
 poor Edward ! His intelligence was construed 
 into impudence, and he was tied, handcuffed, I 
 and sold to the negro-trader. His body, soul, 
 and intellect were converted into money, and 
 put into the pocket of his master ; and some of 
 this money was used to buy whisky. Some 
 years after the slave was sold, his master pre- 
 sented himself to the altar of prayer as a seeker i 
 of religion, at a meeting which I was conduct- 
 ing. He professed to experience religion, and 
 joined the church, but soon withdrew. If he 
 
IMPUDENCE. 
 
 363 
 
 is still living, and should read these lines, I 
 trust he will make another effort to seek mercy ; 
 for nothing less than the atonement of Christ 
 can ever wash from his conscience the stupen- 
 dous sin of having sold Edward into hopeless 
 bondage. 
 
 Education and learning are wholly incom- 
 patible with chattel slavery. If a man holds 
 slaves, and wishes to elevate them, the very 
 first thing he must do is to emancipate them. 
 If a person intends to hold his slaves for life, 
 and leave them to his children, then he should 
 treat them like brutes ; for the more they are 
 enlightened and refined, the more galling is the 
 3'oke of slavery. Pro-slavery preachers contend 
 that the relation of master and slave is a per- 
 manent scriptural relation, just like that of 
 parent and child. I would ask : how is it that 
 education is subversive of that relation ? How 
 is it that masters are afraid to let their slaves 
 read the Bible, which, they say, recognizes the 
 relation as a just and proper one? Parents do 
 not fear that learning will destroj’ the affection 
 of their children for them. Even slaveholding 
 
364 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 parents are anxious to place the Bible in the 
 hands of their children. 
 
 From the case of poor Edward we learn that 
 a knowledge of reading and writing subjects a 
 slave to constant suspicion, fear, and envy on 
 the part of his master, and the neighborhood 
 in which he may reside. 
 
 THE SAILOR. 
 
 I love the sailor, with all 1ns faults. I am 
 not speaking of the fresh-water mill-pond va- 
 riety. I refer to the pure old ocean’s full-grown 
 son — he who rises from a cabin-boy to a com- 
 mander. My father was a sailor, a regular grad- 
 uate of Neptune’s school. No class of men, 
 according to their numbers, have done more to 
 raise this nation to its present wealth, power, 
 and fame. And no class of men, except South- 
 ern slaves, have been more despised, neglected, 
 and brutally treated. I hesitate not to express 
 the opinion that no captains on the globe are, 
 as a rule, so tyrannical to their men as those 
 belonging to our merchant and naval service. I 
 
 If this be so, what is the reason ? In my opin- 
 
 • 
 
 ion, chattel slavery. It is slavery that gives 
 
THE SAILOR. 
 
 365 
 
 an overbearing tinge to the American character, 
 from New Orleans to Boston. Many of our 
 naval officers are natives of the South. Accus- 
 tomed from boyhood to implicit obedience from 
 slaves, they seek to exact, the moment they 
 as midshipmen touch the quarter-deck, the same 
 obedience from the common sailor. When my 
 father exchanged the forecastle for the quarter- 
 deck, he never flogged his hands. He found 
 kindness and decision better than cruelty. 
 When a boy, I have sat with delight, during 
 the long winter evenings, and heard him re- 
 count some of the incidents of his life on the 
 “ ocean’s wave.” A few of these incidents 
 deeply impressed themselves upon my youthful 
 memory. In his fourteenth year he was the 
 cabin-boy of a new ship which sailed from Nor- 
 folk to Amsterdam. The captain was a large 
 man, and a tiger in disposition. During the 
 voj'age he flogged every sailor on board, except 
 his cabin-boy, and him he frightened half to 
 death by his profanity. One of the crew died 
 from the effects of the scurvy and the savage 
 brutality of the captain, wdio would make the 
 poor fellow go aloft, and then shoot at him with 
 31 * 
 
366 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 a pistol charged with powder. At night the 
 fiendish captain was afraid of the dead man’s 
 ghost. 
 
 On a voyage my father made to the city of 
 Palermo, in Sicily, he went ashore with others 
 to get a barrel of water, and while there nar- 
 rowly escaped capture by a party of Algerines, 
 who would have reduced him to slavery. Had 
 he been made a slave for life, and had some 
 Algerine dignitary, with pious and unctuous 
 phrase, told him that bondage was a wholesome 
 and conservative institution, it is probable that 
 conviction would have entered quite as deeply 
 into his mind, as it enters into our own minds 
 wdien some sanctimonious, Union-saving, cotton 
 doctor of divinity proclaims the institution to 
 be in accordance with the gospel of Christ. 
 
 MISS MARGARET DARRAH. 
 
 Miss Darrah was a member of the Old School 
 Presbyterian Church in Newcastle, Delaware, 
 and died in 1849. During my ministry, I have 
 resided there three years, and I had an oppor- 
 tunity of ascertaining her Christian standing in 
 the community, and of observing her Christian 
 
MISS MARGARET DARRAH. 
 
 3(37 
 
 deportment. What Hester Ann Rogers was in 
 the Methodist Church — what Miss Allibone 
 was in the Episcopal Church — Miss Darrah was 
 in the Presbyterian Church. No person that I 
 ever knew more nearly lived up to what I con- 
 ceive to be the duties enjoined in the following 
 words of the inspired writer : “ That ye present 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
 unto God, which is your reasonable service, that 
 ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, 
 and perfect will of God.” 
 
 This accomplished Christian lady possessed 
 the peculiar talent of introducing religious sub- 
 jects, on all occasions, in a cheerful and easy 
 manner. Her religion did not end in the parlor 
 and at the church door. It was something 
 more than a sentimental sanctification. She 
 was a sister of charity without the name or the 
 fame of one. She was an incarnate angel 
 among the poor of all colors in Newcastle. If 
 any were sick, she would nurse them ; if any 
 hungry or naked, she would feed and clothe 
 them. The ignorant she would instruct. She 
 helped to get up and sustain a Sabbath school 
 of neglected colored children. She often invited 
 
368 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 W1 
 
 me to lecture to them, which I did with plea- 
 sure. She died suddenly, having just time to 
 express her confidence in her heavenly Father. 
 The sad intelligence produced a shock in all 
 hearts, for all felt that they had lost a friend. 
 
 Sleep on, Christian lady ! The golden trump 
 of the archangel will awake thee, in the resur- 
 rection morning, to glory and to God. 
 
 THE MURDERER. a 
 
 C 
 
 In M County of Maryland might have 
 
 been seen every day, in and about the tavern, a 
 healthy-looking man, dressed in black cloth, | 
 with a fine pair of gold spectacles mounted 1 
 across his nose. I saw him frequently during 
 the space of two years. He never spoke to me, 
 but he eyed me with a savage fierceness. A 
 few years previously he had, with a hatchet, 
 killed a poor white man in the town. He fled 
 to New Orleans, whither his wife and children 
 followed him. The Governor of Maryland 
 offered several hundred dollars reward for his 
 apprehension. He returned to the town of 
 
 M , voluntarily surrendered himself, and 
 
 w T as tried and acquitted. He abandoned his 
 
THE MURDERER, 
 
 369 
 
 wife in the South, and ruined one or two poor 
 white girls in my neighborhood. By the laws 
 of Maryland he could not ruin any colored 
 woman. How did he support himself? He 
 was a blackleg. Had he lived subsequent to 
 the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, he would 
 have made a capital negro-hunter. He would 
 have carried out the requirements of the law 
 to the very letter. I have gazed on that man, 
 and marvelled how he could look so fat and 
 cheerful, with his hands reeking with a brother’s 
 blood. But he died. Come to his death-bed, 
 reader, and learn an awful lesson. A Method- 
 ist brother of the highest standing, who never 
 was, and I trust never will be a slaveholder, 
 described to me his last agonies. While in 
 health he seemed to be utterly callous ; yet, at 
 the approach of the dread monster, he wms 
 terror-stricken. Starting up from his bed in 
 w T ild horror, he would declare that he could see 
 the dying man whom he had killed, with his 
 blood and brains running from his head ! And 
 thus he died. Where is the hapless creature 
 now ? Echo answers — where ! 
 
370 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAYER Y. 
 
 THE DRUNKARD. 
 
 I was once preaching on the future judgment, 
 to a congregation in . Among other char- 
 
 acters, I endeavored to depict the rumseller ap- 
 proaching the Eternal, in the presence of an 
 assembled universe, with his victims to confront 
 him. A rumselling Methodist in the audience 
 rose to his feet, took his hat, and walked out 
 immediately. He called for his class-leader, and 
 demanded that his name should be stricken from 
 the church record, assigning as the reason for 
 such action that I had publicly insulted him. 
 All this took place while I was yet speak- 
 ing. He was perhaps the wealthiest man at 
 that appointment. I was very glad that the 
 church had got clear of him so easily. I re- 
 fused to apologize for the plainness of the 
 sermon. 
 
 A few weeks after, being in his neighborhood, 
 I heard that he was ill, and, feeling that I was 
 his friend and not his enemy, I went to see him. 
 To my surprise he received me with cordiality, 
 expressed deep regret at the course he had 
 pursued, and said, if he had taken my warning 
 sooner, he should have escaped the dreadful 
 
THE DRUNKARD. 
 
 371 
 
 affliction under which he was then suffering. 
 
 He had not only sold rum for years, but drank 
 
 it seci’etly, and now his sin had found him out, 
 
 and he was laboring under all the horrors of 
 
 delirium tremens. He would exclaim: “0, Mr. 
 
 . 
 
 Long, look at those slimy snakes crawling down 
 the bed-post! Here they come at me!” And 
 he would cover his head with the bed-quilts, 
 trembling with affright, while the cold clammy 
 sweat would ooze from every pore. Again he 
 would exclaim in wild terror: “Look at the 
 black devils in the corner of the room, grinning 
 at me !” I tried to soothe him ; but to no pur- 
 pose. When the paroxysm would go off, he 
 would be perfectly rational. He told me that he 
 feared he should be lost. I commended him to 
 the compassionate Jesus in prayer. He is now 
 in the spirit world. And the Judge of all the 
 earth will do right. Young man, beware of the 
 first social glass of intoxicating liquor! Had 
 the previous pastors of this church dealt plainly 
 with this man, he might have lived for years a 
 blessing to his family and church. 
 
 This case is but one among many cases tend- 
 ing to confirm the truth of the following observ- 
 ations: — 
 
372 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 1. Of all the rumsellers I have known, eight 
 out of ten have died drunkards. “ They that 
 kill by rum shall die by rum,” seems an inevit- 
 able law. 
 
 2. Every rumseiler whom I have known has 
 been a pro-slavery man, and in favor of the op- 
 pression of the negro. I am not the enemy of 
 rumsellers because I tell them the truth. No; 
 I glory in being their true and faithful friend. 
 
 3. I fear thousands of slaveholding Methodists, 
 Baptists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians have 
 gone down to darkness through the unfaithful- 
 ness of their preachers. Too many of these 
 slave-breeding professors, I am afraid, when they 
 stand before Christ at the last day, will be thus 
 addressed : “Depart, ye cursed ! for I was with 
 you in the person of that poor slave-mother 
 when you tore her babe from her arms ; I was 
 with you in the person of that heart-broken wife 
 when you handcuffed her husband and sold him 
 like a brute ; I was with you in the person of 
 that poor slave who asked to he taught my dying 
 requests written in my own Book, and you shut 
 the door of knowledge against him, and voted 
 for laws made on purpose to degrade him. 
 
 , I say, for I know you not.” 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A DYING BABE IN JAIL. 
 
 A short time before leaving for Philadelphia, 
 in October last, a negro-catcher, with whom I had 
 some business, described to me, with great gusto, 
 the circumstances connected with his selling a 
 woman and her child. During the hot weather 
 of last summer, he said, he was employed to 
 convey the woman to jail and dispose of her to 
 the trader. He boasted of his success in getting 
 the rival buyers to bid against each other, and 
 ultimately succeeded in obtaining two hundred 
 dollars more for her than her owner anticipated. 
 For this service he received fifty dollars. He 
 depicted, with the utmost minuteness, the poor 
 colored mother, as she held out her sick and 
 dying child to him, and, sobbing aloud, besought 
 him not to buy her. My negro-catching narrator 
 called her a “black hussy,” and told her, if she 
 did not hush her whining, he would cowhide her. 
 He stated that the buj^ers refused to give any 
 82 ( 373 ) 
 
374 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVE.RY. 
 
 thing for the child, as it was nearly dead with the 
 summer-complaint; saying they wished it was out 
 of the way. 
 
 I listened to the narration with painful feel- 
 ings; but what was my astonishment, when he 
 informed me that her owner was a member of the 
 highest standing in the M. E. Church ! “Can it be 
 possible?” I asked. He asserted that it was a 
 fact. And so it was; I had always entertained 
 the highest opinion of the character of the 
 owner, who, I was not even aware, had ever held 
 slaves. 
 
 0 what will not men do when they possess 
 unlimited power over their fellow-creatures! 
 No man or woman can safely be trusted with 
 such power. Here was a woman, a mother, with 
 a dying babe, in a professed Christian community, 
 lodged in jail, separated from her husband — 
 her innocent child especially requiring fresh air, 
 good nursing, and medical attendance in the 
 sultry season of the year — and sold by one pre- 
 tending to be a meek and lowly follower of the 
 crucified Jesus! What must have been the feel- 
 ings of that mother, at the midnight hour, when 
 she gazed in silence on her dying loved one! 
 
A DYING BABE IN JAIL. 
 
 375 
 
 The barking of the town-dogs alone broke the 
 monotony of that gloomy vigil! Did she look, 
 in her heart-rending anguish, to the great Com- 
 forter for consolation, and for that mercy which 
 she could not receive from man? The negro- 
 catcher is now a member of the Methodist Pro- 
 testant Church. 
 
 Antislavery Methodists may draw two con- 
 clusions from the preceding narrative: 1. That 
 it is a very easy matter in a slave State to sell 
 slaves through the medium of negro-catchers, and 
 thus to avoid detection and church trials. 2. The 
 only remedy for such gross inhumanity is to 
 have a law of the Discipline to bar out every 
 slaveholder from our churches. As well might 
 one attempt to bail the Chesapeake Bay dry 
 with a spoon, as to extirpate slavery in the M. 
 E. Church by now and then expelling a mem- 
 ber for selling slaves, while he is permitted to 
 breed, to hold, and to work them as beasts of 
 burden. 
 
 I will here add an important fact. Of all the 
 slaveholders whom I have known in Delaware 
 and Maryland, I have found none that could 
 not emancipate their slaves, if they desired to 
 
376 
 
 PICTUBES OF SLAVE BY. 
 
 do so. All of them hold slaves from choice, 
 for pecuniary advantage, with no regard to their 
 good. I never found one that denied the fact. 
 
 THE AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH. 
 
 Under the denomination of A frican M. E. 
 Church , I include all divisions of colored 
 Methodists in this country ; for they all orig- 
 inally sprang from the M. E. Church. This 
 church numbers several hundred preachers, 
 some of whom are quite talented, and nearly 
 sixty thousand members. Success to the African 
 M. E. Church ! May she prosper a hundred- 
 fold ! I hope she will send to our next General 
 Conference a fraternal delegation. In 1840 we 
 had, in the Philadelphia Conference, 34,000 
 white, and 8,700 colored members. In 1857, 
 48,000 white, and 9,000 colored. Increase of 
 whites in seventeen years, 14,000; increase of 
 colored, 300. In the last thirty years, in Dela- 
 ware and Maryland, we have driven off from 
 the M. E. Church thousands of colored persons 
 by our cold neglect. In all the new congrega- 
 tions established in our church in slave terri- 
 tory, we have made little or no provision for 
 
I 
 
 THE AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH. 377 
 
 them. As a general rule, they are not desired 
 in our fine churches. And they know the fact 
 as well as we do. Even the portion of the gal- 
 leries allotted to them they must resign to the 
 whites frequently on Quarterly Meeting occa- 
 sions, when the latter are crowded for room. 
 On the other hand, if more colored people are 
 present than can be seated in the gallery, and 
 the lower floor, reserved for the whites, is not 
 half full, they must leave the church without 
 hearing the Gospel, though they may be stand- 
 ing on the brink of eternity. 
 
 I have generally assisted in building churches 
 for colored people, not that I approved of sepa- 
 rate edifices for them ; but I have regarded the 
 arrangement as one of necessity, inasmuch as a 
 half loaf is better than no bread at all ; as a 
 little religion is better than none. Our fathers 
 used to shake hands with colored preachers and 
 exlrorters ; but many of our modern preachers 
 are too dainty for such contact. We have neg- 
 lected the colored people to please the South, 
 or rather, to borrow the eloquent and brilliant 
 language of Dr. Stevens, “ the Great South and 
 what have we gained by it? The Great South 
 32 * 
 
PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 has gone off and left us ; and, moreover, despises 
 us for our inconsistency. 
 
 There are more free colored persons in Mary- 
 land than in any State in the Union ; and I at- 
 tribute the fact, as I have already stated, to the 
 first Methodist preachers, who zealously opposed 
 the aggressions of slavery, and preached against 
 it publicly. Of this class was the celebrated 
 Joseph Everett. Had the preachers of the 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore Conferences con- 
 tinued to bear the faithful testimony of such 
 men against the institution, Maryland at this 
 day would have been rid of the evil. 
 
 The Wilberforce University is an institution 
 for the education of colored persons situated in 
 Ohio, and is under the patronage of the M. E. 
 Church. Rev. John F. Wright is the agent. 
 Wealthy antislavery Methodists in the South 
 would do well to send their young emancipated 
 slaves to this school. 
 
 COVETOUSNESS. 
 
 In reading the New Testament, I have 
 been struck with the fact that our Blessed Re- 
 deemer and his apostles denounce covetousness 
 
COVETOUSNESS. 
 
 379 
 
 more frequently than any other sin. It is the 
 only sin that men constantly, and with apparent 
 success, cloak under the garb of religion. The 
 miser is an incarnate atheist, notwithstanding 
 he may profess the most orthodox creed in the 
 world. He is a materialist, and an idolater. 
 There is nothing that so effectually converts a 
 human heart into marble and brass, as the pur- 
 suit of money for its own sake. To the miser, 
 the wail of the widow, the cry of the orphan, 
 and the groans of the slave, are as music to the 
 ear. "When one of these men gets into a Chris- 
 tian church, woe be unto that Society ! Does 
 he dress plainly ? It is to save money. Does he 
 oppose the establishment of schools and colleges, 
 and the building of churches ? It is to save 
 money. Does he own slaves ? Poor creatures ! 
 Who shall write your history, and tell the tale 
 of your sufferings ? Is the miser in the pulpit ? 
 Does he blubber in our love-feasts ? Then are 
 poor thoughtless girls, wearing a ribbon or a 
 breast-pin, threatened with fire and brimstone, 
 while the whining, hypocritical slaveholder is 
 listened to with loud “ Amens” as he relates, with 
 minute accuracy of detail, the day and the hour 
 
380 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 of bis sanctification, even though, at the same 
 time, he is not endowed with sufficient humanity 
 to gain admittance into a Mohammedan temple ; 
 even though, should you go to his negro quar- 
 ters, you might witness vulgar Mormonism in 
 its various stages of development ! 
 
 Men and women ought to dress plainly be- 
 cause the Gospel requires it, and because, by so 
 dressing, they are enabled to bestow more liber- 
 ally on beneficent objects. The various reli- 
 gious bodies of the South have, to a great extent, 
 divorced humanity, justice, and mercy from 
 religion. Their standard of morality depends 
 on latitude and longitude. Were a man in 
 Philadelphia to force a colored girl to work for 
 him without wages, and then to cowhide her if 
 she should murmur, he would be called a villain 
 and expelled from the church. If he does the 
 same thing in Maryland, he is none the less a 
 first-class Christian. Hence the infidel takes ad- 
 vantage of us, and says we have no standard 
 of right and wrong. I once asked a little 
 colored boy if he said his prayers. “ Yes, 
 massa !” he replied ; but added, that saying 
 prayers was not praying. I treasured up that 
 
DEGRADING EPITHETS. 
 
 381 
 
 remark. Professions are not always a true test 
 of Christian excellence. 
 
 DEGRADING EPITHETS. 
 
 There is nothing which all classes of men so 
 utterly loathe as cool and deliberate contempt, 
 whether by word or action, aimed at their man- 
 hood, and designed to wound their self-respect. 
 Nothing is so difficult to forgive on the part of 
 the good ; nothing is so rarely forgiven by the 
 bad. The poor slave is no exception to this 
 rule, and this fact proves his title to manhood. 
 If you wish to plant a thorn in the heart of a 
 colored man, call him “ Nigger” in derision, and 
 your power over him is gone for ever, so far as 
 any good you can do him is concerned. “ Dar- 
 key” and “ Donkey” are felt as still more degrad- 
 ing epithets. I could never hear these degrading 
 terms applied to them, without involuntarily ex- 
 claiming to myself, “ 0, how wrong !” They love 
 to be addressed as “ Colored friends,” or “ Colored 
 brethren.” They have no objection to being 
 called African. They do not like the word 
 Nesro, because of the resemblance of the word 
 to “ Nigger.” 
 
 I 
 
382 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I have a word of counsel to such boys and 
 girls as may read my book. Let them read the 
 second chapter of the Second Book of Kings, 
 and they will there find a significant instance 
 of. the deep displeasure with which the Supreme 
 Being regards contempt and mockery. “ Go up, 
 thou bald-head! Go up, thou bald-head !” said 
 the children of Bethel to Elisha; and their 
 punishment was as signal as their offence. I 
 have often heard wicked boys in the South call 
 out to colored persons, u Nigger !” “ You black 
 nigger !” Now, my young friends, we should 
 never reproach a blind man for being blind, or a 
 lame man for being lame ; and for this excellent 
 reason — they cannot help their condition. We 
 should not insult the colored man by calling 
 him, in derision, “ Nigger !” for he did not make 
 himself. We reproach God when we act thus, 
 and commit sin. 
 
 I trust that my young readers will never 
 follow the example of some grown-up boys, 
 who are guilty of the mean and unmanly 
 offence of insulting the African by the cry of 
 “ Woolly heads ! Woolly heads !” 
 
XEGKO PKAYEK - MEETINGS. 
 
 383 
 
 NEGRO PRAYER-MEETINGS. 
 
 The prayer-meetings of the more degraded 
 class of slaves are conducted after the following 
 manner : The colored exhorter or leader calls 
 on two or three in succession to pray, filling up 
 the intervals with singing tunes and words com- 
 posed by themselves. At a given signal of the 
 leader, the men will take off their jackets, hang 
 up their hats, and tie up their heads with hand- 
 kerchiefs ; the women will tighten their turbans ; 
 and the company will then form a circle around 
 the singer, and jump and bawl to their heart’s 
 content, the women always making more noise 
 than the men. At this stage of the exercises, 
 I have seen colored men, who made no preten- 
 sions at all to religion, jump as high as the 
 most devout. After a prolonged continuation 
 of these violent evolutions, some will swoon 
 away ; their muscles will become perfectly rigid, 
 and they will lie as motionless as though they 
 were dead. Sand thrown in their eyes, while 
 in this state, will not make them wink. Many 
 persons think this condition is the result of su- 
 pernatural power, and regard the subjects of it 
 
384 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 with reverence. I think it is the result of 
 sheer nervous exhaustion, and has no necessary 
 connection w r ith religion whatever. I knew e 
 white man, of dubious moral character, w r he 
 could throw himself into a rigid state, and re 
 cover his suppleness at pleasure. He woulc 
 play off such tricks upon religious persons tc 
 create amusement. 
 
 The poor slaves that worship in the mannei 
 we have described do the best they can. The} 
 are permitted to use their heads only to a lim 
 ited extent ; hence the extravagant use of 
 their heels. I have remarked that free colorec 
 persons who can read, generally stand aloof fron. 
 such exercises. Liberty and education woulc 
 put a stop to much of this boisterous extrava 
 gance in religious worship among the slaves. 
 
 HAVE YOU MADE YOUR WILL ? 
 
 It is a serious thing to die. The good have 
 need to pray for dying grace. The wickec 
 have not a moment to spare in seeking mercy 
 Leader, have you property to dispose of? Make 
 your will while in health. Do not burdef 
 your dying bed with worldly thoughts and cares 
 
HAVE YOU MADE YOUR WILL? 885 
 
 If you be a slaveholder, do not make a will, in 
 sickness or in health, such as I am about to 
 describe. 
 
 Within the last seven years, a member of the 
 M. E. Church, of the highest standing, made a 
 will, by which he left his slaves to be sold at 
 auction to the highest bidder,, the money to be 
 invested for the use of his family. After his 
 death, the will was carried out to the letter. 
 This act was regarded as a shrewd business 
 transaction by the community in which he had 
 lived, and was not thought to reflect in the 
 slightest degree on his Christian character. 
 The newspapers eulogized his virtues in extrava- 
 gant language. 
 
 A widow of one of the preachers of the Phila- 
 % 
 
 clelphia Annual Conference died since January 
 of the present }’ear. She resided in Maryland ; 
 she was wealthy, and a slaveholder. Shortly 
 before her decease, she gave three or five hundred 
 dollars towards building for our preachers one 
 of the finest parsonages on the Eastern Shore 
 of Maryland. She left a portion of her wealth 
 to the M. E. Church South. We thus see that 
 
886 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the pro-slavery feeling is not quite dead yet in 
 our Conference. 
 
 I have often thought that Pennsylvania 
 Methodists should refrain from sending their 
 preachers or agents into Maryland to beg money 
 to build churches for their own free State. Let 
 the Methodists of Maryland devote what funds 
 they can spare for charitable and religious uses 
 to the purchase of some pious colored persons 
 who are groaning in helpless bondage. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE SLATE. 
 
 Volumes, filled with hair-breadth escapes, 
 thrilling adventures, and heroic deeds, might be 
 written concerning runaway slaves. Humanity 
 and letters have both suffered loss for lack of a 
 pen adequately to record the feats' of noble dar- 
 ing achieved by the African in the pursuit of 
 freedom. All things considered, there is nothing 
 in our revolutionary annals that surpasses such 
 heroism. Our fathers sought liberty in com- 
 pany. They fought an enemy three thousand 
 miles distant. The solitary fugitive seeks free- 
 dom with an empire for his foe, and himself in 
 its midst. The very attempt has in it all the 
 elements of the great and the sublime. 
 
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE. 
 
 387 
 
 The parties described in the following nar- 
 rative lived in my native State. I was not 
 acquainted with the aged mother ; but the father 
 and son I knew well. The venerable couple 
 were kindly cared for by their master, and lived 
 in a cabin by themselves. 
 
 Moses, their son, in the common parlance of 
 the South, was considered a very “smart nigger.” 
 He was sold to the negro-trader; and, as one of 
 a slave-drove, was transported to New Orleans. 
 
 i 1 
 
 His aged parents mourned him as worse than 
 dead. 
 
 The injury inflicted on parents, wives, and 
 children by selling their relatives to the traders, 
 is a far greater injury than that which death it- 
 self produces. What adds tenfold keenness to the 
 blow is its Unexpectedness. So rudely are the 
 cords of affection snapped asunder, so sicken- 
 ing a thrill of horror does the shock create, that, 
 ofttimes, the whole machinery of the soul seems, 
 forever after, to be unhinged. Parents in the 
 free States, who have lost by accident the object 
 of their tenderest affection, know how much 
 more poignant the shock has been, than if their 
 beloved one had lingered for *veeks in their pres- 
 
388 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 ence, thus enabling them to become, in a mea- 
 sure, prepared for the stroke. 
 
 But to my story. Time rolled on. The flowers 
 still bloomed. The birds still sang their joyous 
 songs. The moon walked as peerless in her 
 nightly robes, and the great orb of day shone as 
 brightly as though nothing had occurred. The 
 “ old folks at home” thought and spoke of their 
 boy as lost, as though they would never see him 
 again till the resurrection morning. But Moses 
 had a noble soul in him ; his heart kept alive 
 with the tires of hope. A favorable opportunity 
 presented itself, and he ran away. Then com- 
 menced a career of suffering almost unparalleled. 
 He was hunted like a wild beast. Two or three 
 white men attempted, on one occasion, to recap- 
 ture him; but he overcame them all. He had 
 to travel by night, and suffered at times all 
 the pains of starvation. He had to steal what 
 he ate, all the way from Louisiana to Maryland. 
 Just before he reached Baltimore, he narrowly 
 escaped with his life. Before daybreak he had 
 hidden himself in a pile of tan-bark, that he 
 might commence his travels when night came 
 on ; but, unfortunately, the workmen in the tan- 
 
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE. 
 
 389 
 
 yard commenced grinding bark in the mill, close 
 by him. The small particles of dust from the 
 mill nearly suffocated him. He had to endure 
 the infliction all day, or be captured. At length 
 night came to his relief, and he pursued his 
 journey. God and the North Star were still his 
 friends. 
 
 ’Tis the hour of midnight. Wood and lawn 
 are clothed in darkness. The watch-dog alone 
 is wakeful, and whiles away the lonely hours by 
 baying at the stars. A man with stealthy foot 
 approaches the log-hut of the aged couple, and 
 in an under-tone calls : " Father ! father !” " Who 
 is that?” says the old man. "It is I, father. 
 Please get up, and let me in. It is your son 
 Moses!” "No, it is not,” replied the old man. 
 "Poor Moses was sold to the Georgia trader.” 
 "Yes, it is your son Moses, father!” The aged 
 mother of twelve children exclaimed : “It is my 
 hoy ; I know his voice! She sprang out of bed 
 and opened the door, and the poor father and 
 mother fell on their son, and wept tears of joy, 
 as though he had risen from the dead. 
 
 Moses cautioned his parents to beware how 
 they conducted themselves, for, should his 
 33 * 
 
390 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 arrival be known, the negro-hnnters would 
 again consign him to slavery. He remained 
 with the “old folks” for a short period, being 
 concealed in the day-time, and meeting them 
 at night. He then bade them a final adieu, and 
 they soon after heard of his safe arrival in New 
 York. The parents of Moses, if I remember 
 rightly, were both members of the M. E. Church. 
 They have gone to eternity. Does Moses still 
 reside in New York? If so, is he an humble 
 follower of the blessed Jesus, with a good hope of 
 meeting his parents in heaven? 
 
 THE INFIDEL. 
 
 The picture that I shall attempt to paint is 
 no fancy sketch. I am not capable of delineat- 
 ing the features of the character I am speaking 
 of in all their terrible deformity. I will omit the 
 name of the person out of respect to his relatives. 
 He lived in one of the most beautiful counties 
 of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and died as 
 he lived. I preached his funeral sermon in 1854, 
 and those who heard it will bear me witness 
 that I did not preach him to heaven. I sup- 
 pose he was sixty-five or seventy years of age. 
 
THE INFIDEL. 
 
 391 
 
 His fiendish traits of character have furnished 
 fireside-talk for the families of his neighborhood, 
 and will furnish more for years to come. I have 
 good authority for my statements. A volume 
 might be written in describing the heartlessness 
 of his conduct. He was a man of intellect, and 
 devoted much of his leisure to reading old books, 
 among which he seemed particularly fond of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures. But he was an infidel. 
 He never looked into the New Testament; and, 
 when reading the Old, would profanely swear at 
 the persons therein described. To him, the 
 Bible was a book of history, to be believed or 
 rejected, to he applauded or condemned, as it 
 might suit one’s taste and humor. He was in 
 affluent circumstances, owning several farms and 
 a number of slaves. He was a bachelor. His 
 cruelty to his negroes continued for many years, 
 and seemed to be the result more of calm 
 deliberation than the outburst of passion. He 
 had iron collars made for some of his men-ser- 
 vants, and would occasionally chain their ankles, 
 so that, when they walked, they could only 
 step a certain distance. These leg-chains and 
 neck-collars were sometimes worn by the poor 
 
392 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 fellows while toiling in the field; they served a 
 twofold purpose — that of preventing their escape, 
 and of permitting the master to perform his 
 cruelties with impunity. 
 
 In the winter season, he confined one of his 
 most valuable negro women in a log poultry house, 
 with no food but bread and water, without fire 
 or bed-clothes, for several weeks. The only waj'- 
 she kept from freezing to death was by catch- 
 ing the chickens, and holding them to her feet 
 and body. She afterwards succeeded in running 
 away from him, and now resides in the city of 
 Baltimore. 
 
 He made his slaves work on the Sabbath; 
 and occasionally would dress some of them fan- 
 tastically, place them in an old coach, and send 
 them to church. He would not suffer his women 
 to have husbands, nor his men to have wives. 
 His slaves at one time were driven to desperation, 
 and came near beating him to death. Afterwards 
 his severity was somewhat moderated; and his 
 negroes were not fettered as formerly. Occa- 
 sionally, however, his old habits would get the 
 mastery, and his savage acts would be perpe- 
 trated anew. 
 
THE INFIDEL. 
 
 893 
 
 He was full of malice, and if he took a dislike 
 to his neighbor, would seek revenge upon his 
 property. 
 
 Professors of religion were the especial objects 
 of his hate; and if neighbors dared to speak 
 out against his brutality, their stock or their 
 servants were in danger of being injured, if 
 found on his premises. His negroes wore de- 
 jected countenances, looking as though hope 
 had for ever fled from their hearts. They looked 
 upon their owner as a monster, as the imperso- 
 nation of all that is horrid and cruel. 
 
 Being a great coward, he had his house built 
 with double doors. He lived in constant fear, 
 hating every one, and despised by all who knew 
 him. I shall give no more facts in this man’s 
 life. I have already said enough to indicate his 
 character, and probably to nauseate my readers. 
 I have not dragged this monster of iniquity 
 before the public to show that moral men in the 
 community in which he lived approved of his 
 conduct; far from it. We hold him up to the 
 gaze of the public to show the wickedness of the 
 laws which confer power so unlimited on such 
 an outlaw from humanity. This man could 
 
394 
 
 PICTURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 have bought as many quadroon girls as he 
 wanted, could have robbed them of their vir- 
 tue, could have destroyed their happiness, and 
 the laws of Maryland were powerless to harm 
 him, unless some white persons could be found 
 to testify against him. But his neighbors 
 were not altogether innocent. Why did they 
 suffer him to commit outrages in their midst, at 
 which humanity shudders ? Why did they not 
 call a public meeting, and warn him to desist or 
 to leave the county ? “ 0,” says one, “ we had 
 
 no right to interfere ; his slaves were his pro- 
 perty as much as his horses were. He had 
 the law on his side, and could halt or abuse 
 either, or both, at his pleasure.” I ask, “ Did 
 you seek to have those wicked laws abolished ? 
 Had I gone to your county, and publicly preached 
 against the wickedness of those laws, a public 
 meeting of saints and sinners, of moralists and 
 blackguards, would soon have been called, and 
 I would have been tarred and feathered, or 
 driven like a criminal from your midst. You 
 could not tolerate freedom of speech when it 
 conflicted with your interests, though outraged 
 humanity might be crying to heaven for assist- 
 
THE INFIDEL. 
 
 395 
 
 ance. Yet you could tolerate that monster, 
 and would, had need required it, have protected 
 him by force.” 
 
 There were slaveholders, perhaps, who used 
 this man as a scarecrow, to frighten their ser- 
 vants into obedience. A threat to hire or sell 
 them to him was all-powerful in subduing the 
 most obdurate slave. Like objects of terror, 
 placed in a cornfield to frighten off the black- 
 birds, he served the purpose, in the community, 
 of carrying dismay into the hearts of the poor 
 negroes. 
 
 I know another monster in a neighboring 
 county, and would draw his infamous picture, 
 but his children are living, and I have no wish 
 to wound their feelings. 
 
 On the forehead of slavery, as it exists in 
 the Southern States of the American Union, and 
 as I have faintly endeavored to picture it 
 in these pages, may be inscribed these burning 
 words of terrible significance, from the Book 
 of Revelation : Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
 the Mother of Harlots and abominations 
 
 OF THE EARTH. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TESTIMONY OF JOHN WESLEY AGAINST 
 SLAVERY, 
 
 [Nothing that interested mankind was a matter of indifference to 
 the founder of Methodism. Though eighty-three years have elapsed 
 since the publication of his “Thoughts upon Slavery,” no Christian 
 philanthropist can now read, unmoved, his noble and stirring appeal 
 to the justice and humanity of England and her colonies. The energy, 
 the eloquence, and the earnestness with which, almost single-handed, 
 he combated an institution recognizedby the public sentiment of Chris- 
 tendom are an additional proof of the daring moral courage which char- 
 acterized him as a Christian and as a man. How pitiful and mean 
 appear the cringing, fawning, and time-serving crowd who offer up 
 their homage to the great Southern idol, alongside of this true cham- 
 pion of liberty, who could neither be cajoled, nor flattered, nor in- 
 timidated into outward respect for that which he felt in his heart to 
 be intrinsically wrong! 
 
 From Mr. Wesley’s tract I quote the following pungent remarks 
 on slavery and the slave-trade:] 
 
 “Men-buyers are exactly on a level with men-stealers. 
 Indeed you say, ‘ I pay honestly for my goods ; and I am 
 not concerned to know how they are come by.’ Nay, but 
 you are ; you are deeply concerned to know they are honestly 
 come by. Otherwise you are a partaker with a thief, and 
 are not a jot honester than him. But you know they are 
 not honestly come by; you know they are procured by 
 means nothing near so innocent as picking of pockets, house- 
 34 ( 39 ?) 
 
398 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 breaking, or robbery upon the highway. You know they are 
 procured by a deliberate series of more complicated vil- 
 lainy (of fraud, robbery, and murder) than was ever prac- 
 ticed either by Mohammedans or Pagans ; in particular, by 
 murders of all kinds ; by the blood of the innocent poured 
 upon the ground like water. Now, it is your money that 
 pays the merchant, and through him the captain and the 
 African butchers. You therefore are guilty, yea, principally 
 guilty, of all these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the 
 spring that puts all the rest in motion ; they would not stir a 
 step without you ; therefore the blood of all these wretches, 
 who die before their time, whether in their country or else- 
 where, lies upon your head. ‘ The blood of thy brother’ (for, 
 whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in the sight of 
 Him that made him) 1 crieth against thee from the earth,’ from 
 the ship, and from the waters. O, whatever it costs, put a 
 stop to its cry before it be too late : instantly, at any price, 
 were it the half of your goods, deliver thyself from blood- 
 guiltiness ! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, 
 thy lands, are at present stained with blood. Surely it is 
 enough ; accumulate no more guilt ; spill no more the blood 
 of the innocent ! Do not hire another to shed blood ; do 
 V not pay him for doing it I Whether you are a Christian or 
 no, show yourself a man ! Be not more savage than a lion 
 or a bear I 
 
 “Perhaps you will say, ‘I do not buy any negroes; I only 
 use those left me by my father.’ So far is well; but is it 
 enough to satisfy your own conscience? Had your father, 
 have you, has any man living, a right to use another as a 
 slave ? It cannot be, even setting Revelation aside. It 
 cannot be, that either war, or contract, can give any man 
 such a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen. 
 Much less is it possible that any child of man should ever 
 be born a slave. Liberty is the right of every human crea- 
 ture, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law 
 can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law 
 of nature. 
 
 . “If, therefore, you have any regard to justice, (to say noth- 
 Ping of mercy, nor the revealed law of God,) render unto all 
 I their due. Give liberty to whom liberty is due, that is, 
 
 | to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. 
 Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 399 
 
 voluntary choice. Away with all whips, all chains, all com- 
 pulsion ! Be gentle toward all men ; and see that you in- 
 variably do unto every one as you would he should do unto 
 you.” 
 
 II. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF BEY. RICHARD WATSON 
 AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 [This eminent theologian was a worthy disciple of the illustrious 
 Wesley. As an earnest, faithful, and able minister of Jesus Christ, 
 as a profound writer on divinity, and as a weighty teacher on all 
 questions which lay within the range of his investigations, his claims 
 to respect are universally conceded by the Methodists of the United 
 States. His reputation is by no means confined to the denomination 
 with which he was connected. His comprehensive mind was quick 
 to discern the evils of a system which fettered the bodies and souls 
 of 800,000 British subjects. His broad and generous heart scarcely 
 needed the stimulus of duty to enable it to beat responsive to the 
 claims of justice. Hence, on all occasions, we find him a consistent 
 and undaunted advocate of the moral and intellectual progress of the 
 human race. 
 
 In 1830, the Wesleyan Conference adopted a series of antislavery 
 resolutions, and recommended such of the members of the Methodist 
 societies as enjoyed the elective franchise to vote for those candidates 
 alone who should pledge themselves to support, in parliament, the 
 most effectual measures for the entire abolition of slavery through- 
 out the colonies of the British empire. 
 
 In furtherance of this resolution, a meeting was held in the City 
 Boad Chapel, at which Mr. Watson delivered a speech, from which we 
 quote the following remarks :] 
 
 “We stand,” said Mr. Watson, “near the grave of a man 
 who was one of the first to lift up his voice against West 
 Indian bondage, and to plead the wrongs of Africa with an 
 eloquence which is at once touching from its pathos, and 
 irresistible from its power.* Were that voice now living, it 
 would give its sanctiou to our efforts; and in this place, 
 
 * Alluding to Mr. Wesley’s able and stirring tract against slavery; and 
 the very strong views on this subject which that eminent man was known to 
 entertain. 
 
400 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I' 
 
 where that voice has been so often heard, we may feel that, 
 ‘though dead,’ on this subject especially ‘ he yet speaketh.’ 1 
 
 “The slave-trade, so far as it consisted in the transporting 
 of slaves from Africa, for sale in our colonies, is indeed no 
 more ; but slavery, and a colonial slave-trade still exist. So 
 far indeed the cause of humanity has advanced, that no one 
 now is found to advocate the justice of man-stealing on the j 
 coast of Africa, or to palliate the horrors of the middle-pas- i 
 sage. By common consent, or by silence at least, all ac- i 
 knowledge this branch of Africau oppression to be indefen- \ 
 sible; but there is an argument suspended from this very [ 
 acknowledgment which the advocates of colonial slavery 
 must, I think, be very dexterous, satisfactorily to dispose of. 
 
 If it was wrong to steal men from Africa, to reduce them to 
 a state of bondage ; it is, for the same reason, wrong to re- 
 tain them in slavery. If you condemn the first thief, and 
 the first receivers of the stolen goods, how will you justify 
 those who, knowing them to be stolen, continue to retain 
 them ? I confess that I cannot see how the perpetuation 
 of an injury can cause it to cease to be an injury, or by what 
 process an acknowledged wrong can be transmuted into a 
 right by continuing in it. My argument then is, if it was 
 wrong to enslave the negroes, it is wrong to keep them in 
 hopeless bondage; and it follows, that, after this country had 
 renounced the African slave-trade, it was bound, by the very \ 
 principles on which that wretched traffic was repudiated, + o 
 have taken measures for the liberation of all who had thus 
 been wickedly reduced to a state of captivity, at the earliest j 
 period at which their liberation could have been made con- j 
 sistent with their own interests, and long before this time to ! 
 have converted them into a free, industrious, and happy 
 peasantry. Then, indeed, should we as a nation have 
 brought forth ‘fruits meet for repentance;’ but the very 
 reason why so much remains to be done by us is, that the 
 principle of interminable bondage has been set up by the \i 
 holders of slaves, and that while justice foi’bade us to drag 
 any more of the inhabitants of Africa into bondage, it was 
 perfectly just to rivet the chain upon those already dragged 
 into this unhappy condition from generation to generation. 
 
 “Now to this principle we oppose ourselves; and we con- 
 tend, that the free inhabitants of Africa have not a stronger 
 claim of justice to set up against being reduced to slavery, 
 
 
than the African race, originally carried to our colonies, 
 have to be liberated from it. As to the slave-trade, we 
 have indeed abstained from wrong ; but as to colonial slavery, 
 we still perpetrate a wrong of the same kind ; and that after 
 we have professed to blush with shame at its recollection, 
 and when we are endeavoring to persuade other nations to 
 renouuce it after our example. Here we and our opponents 
 meet. We go up to parliament to urge in behalf of negroes 
 the redress of a manifest injury ; they deny that it is an in- 
 jury at all. 
 
 “I think it will not be difficult for us to make good our 
 view of the question ; and it will perhaps bring us more 
 fairly into its merits, if we glance at a few of the reasons 
 which have lately been put forth by the pro-slavery party, 
 to prevent the people of this country from giving their sig- 
 natures to antislavery petitions. We are first told that it 
 is assumed without any sufficient proof that slavery is wrong 
 in the abstract. My answer to this is, that neither party 
 has any need to go so into the discussion of abstract cases. 
 The simple matter at issue is, Dot slavery in some imaginary 
 form, but West Indian slavery; and when we have stated 
 what it is, we may boldly ask whether that be morally right. 
 
 “Let it then be observed that West Indian slavery is slavery 
 inflicted upon persons who have committed no offence, and 
 therefore never forfeited liberty, but possess that natural 
 right unimpaired; and it follows therefore necessarily that 
 it would be quite as right for the black slave to reduce his 
 master into bondage, as for the white master to hold in it 
 his sable bondsman. If one be right, then is the other. I 
 will not multiply illustrations ; I rest it here ; if liberty be 
 forfeited by no crime, the right and the wrong are as much 
 on the side of the slave as the master ; and a kind of slavery, 
 I contend, which, considered abstractedly, rests upon the 
 principle of taking away personal liberty without forfeiture 
 by offence, bears upon it the broad, the indelible character 
 of a high and flagrant moral wrong. And the matter comes 
 home to every one. If a hand we cannot resist were laid 
 upon auy of us, and we were told that we were to be slaves 
 for life, and our children after us, should we not naturally 
 exclaim, ‘ What have I done V And if no crime meriting 
 the punishment could he alleged, should we not all exclaim 
 against it, as a ruthless tyranny ? And would it alter our 
 34 * 
 
402 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 moral view of the case at all, to be told that it is difficult to 
 prove slavery in the abstract to be a moral wrong? 
 
 “We are further told, however, that the moral wrong-of 
 slavery cannot be assumed, because it was practiced by the 
 patriarchs and Jews under the Old Testament. This is a 
 mere sophism; of which the fallacy here consists in this, that 
 it is assumed that West Indian slavery stands upon the 
 same ground as that mentioned in the Old Testament. Now, I 
 shall show that they differ both circumstantially and in 
 essence; and that this reference will not only not serve the 
 advocates of colonial slavery, but is fatal to all their preten- 
 sions to the slightest coloring of right. 
 
 “The circumstances differ. The slaves mentioned in the 
 Old Testament were a part of the family ; not left, as West 
 Indian slaves, to be worked and abused by hirelings, while 
 their masters were resident in a distant country. The 
 wretched prejudice of color and caste did not exist against 
 them, as in our colonies, — a contemptuous feeling, from the 
 effects of which nothing can free them, but a restoration to 
 the rank of freemen. They were under the protection of 
 mild and equal laws, which our slaves are not. They were 
 not governed on a principle of fear, which our slaves are. 
 They could demand their liberty, if treated with cruelty ; 
 but ours have no such redress. They had all the rest 
 of the Sabbath, of which ours are deprived. They 
 were made partakers of the religion of the patriarchs and 
 Jews; while ours have been almost systematically and con- 
 temptuously excluded from Christianity. If they were of 
 the Hebrew nation, they could not be held in perpetual ser- 
 vitude ; but the negroes born in our colonies are as much 
 of our nation as the peasants born in our counties; and yet 
 they and their children are doomed to hopeless servitude. 
 Husbands and wives, parents and children, were not sepa- 
 rated. Cruelties, unheard of among the patriarchal and 
 Hebrew masters, are daily perpetrated in our colonies. 
 None of these ancient slaves were worked under the cart- 
 whip, but rendered a willing service for a comfortable home 
 and maintenance; and then, to mark the difference still more 
 strongly, while, in all our sugar colonies, the murderous sys* 
 tern of overworking is diminishing the population, under 
 the milder system of ancient times the population was con- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 403 
 
 tinually increasing, — a proof of the superiority of their con- 
 dition. 
 
 “Now, who, taking these circumstances into account, will 
 be bold enough to identify the severe system of slavery, as 
 it generally exists in our colonies, with that mentioned in 
 the Old Testament ? 
 
 “But the difference between the two is essential; and this 
 turns the argument with overwhelming force against the 
 advocates of African bondage. We know the origin of 
 slavery in ancient nations. It took its rise from two cus- 
 toms. The first was, of taking the insolvent debtor as a 
 slave, in lieu of payment. Now, this practice cannot be 
 objected to on the ground of injustice, because all were 
 equally liable to it; the rich, as well as others, if they squan- 
 dered away their substance ; and the master upon this prin- 
 ciple might become a slave. Here was a principle of com- 
 mutation of liberty for pecuniary obligation. The other 
 source was war : the lives of persons taken in war were 
 spared, on condition of becoming servants. Milder and 
 better customs have been introduced by Christianity; but 
 here was at least no partiality, no injustice ; all w r ere placed 
 on equal ground. Then, as to slavei’y among the Jews, as 
 far as it respected the Canaanites, they were under a Divine 
 malediction ; by virtue of a special revelation which, I sup- 
 pose, our West Indians will not plead in their favor. Here, 
 then, the ancient slavery, however objectionable it might 
 be on civil grounds, involves, strictly speaking, no moral 
 wrong; no injustice, no partiality; liberty was forfeited by 
 debt, by war, or by a Divine malediction. But, let it be 
 observed, that during these very times, when slavery existed 
 in these forms, the compulsory reduction of unoffending 
 man to servitude was an acknowledged and punishable 
 crime. It is branded as ‘man-stealing,’ both in the Old 
 and New Testaments; among the Jews it was punished with 
 death ; and under the Gospel it is ranked with the crimes 
 which bring upon men the penalties of a future state. But 
 this is precisely the origin of Yv r est Indian slavery. It was 
 man-stealing in its origin ; and with this vicious origin it 
 remains tainted to this day. It would be as hopeless a task 
 to wash it off, as to wash the Ethiop white. Characterized 
 as a crime against God and man, the thin gauze of sophistry 
 cannot conceal its hateful aspect ; and the attempt to find a 
 
404 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 palliation for it in the Old Testament, only makes more 
 audible those thunders which are launched against it, as 
 one of the most odious crimes, both in the Law and in the 
 Gospel. 
 
 “But the advocates of slavery take us to the New Testa- 
 ment as well as to the Old. I am sure we can have no 
 objection to follow them. Their argument is, that the 
 apostles utter no denunciations against slavery, although 
 in that age it was practiced in most of the countries in 
 which they preached ; but rather exhorted servants to obey 
 their masters ; from which, they tell us, that we rush much 
 too hastily to a conclusion, when we represent slavery as 
 contrary to the spirit and to the laws of Christianity. I 
 greatly mistake if this argument from the New Testament 
 will not, upon examination, sink as completely under them, 
 as that from the Old, already examined. 
 
 “Bad as the slavery was which existed among the Greeks 
 and Romans in the apostles’ time, it stood not generally 
 upon the vicious, odious offence of ‘man-stealing.’ The 
 Greeks made a distinction in favor of those slaves who had 
 been kidnapped by perfidy, and opened the way for them 
 to release themselves from servitude ; so that the very prin- 
 ciple of our colonial slavery was condemned by these pagans, 
 whose treatment of their slaves was, in other respects, 
 severe enough. But though ancient slavery had not this 
 criminality upon it, it is a vain attempt to show that it was 
 regarded with any complacency by Christianity. It is indeed 
 surprising enough, that, with the fact before them that 
 Christianity has abolished slavery in all the ancient countries 
 where it obtained predominant influence, that any persons 
 should dream that, in its earliest periods, when it glowed with 
 all that warmth of charity with which it burst from the, foun- 
 tain of the Divine compassiou, it should enter into any alliance 
 with it. To hold property in men is a thing agreeable enough 
 to human nature, as we have proof in the present day : it flat- 
 ters man’s pride, it gratifies his love of power to see his 
 fellow-creatures tremble before him, and to be the absolute 
 lord of their life and happiness. If, then, before Christi- 
 anity commenced a war upon slavery, was it ever attacked 
 by any other system of religion, or was it ever bound upon 
 the conscience to free a fellow-man from hereditary servi- 
 tude, or thought a work of religious merit to do so, to what 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 405 
 
 is this to be attributed, but to the acknowledged and felt 
 spirit of Christianity? And if to its spirit, in vain shall we 
 look to its letter for a justification of it. The argument, 
 however, is, that the apostles say, ‘Servants,’ (slaves,) ‘be 
 obedient to your masters.’ But this is nothing more than 
 our missionaries are properly enjoined to say, and is said by 
 them, although as hostile to the whole system as we our- 
 selves. The fact is, that deliverance could not come to the 
 body of slaves in ancient times by the resistance of the 
 Christianized slaves, any more than to those of our colonies ; 
 and from the operation of the justice and mercy of Christi- 
 anity upon the ruling powers only could they be taught to 
 look for it. It is enough to know that the principles of 
 Christianity are opposed to it ; and that when the rulers 
 professed Christianity, they were then bound by its prin- 
 ciples. Such is the case now. Ours is professedly a 
 Christian government, and by its principles it is bound; the 
 masters of these slaves profess Christianity, and by those 
 principles are bound. They tell us that the apostles did 
 not command pagan governments to loose their slaves ; and 
 they take shelter here, as though they could plead this 
 black privilege of pagan despotism. But we hold them to 
 their profession ; they profess Christianity ; and therefore 
 they must be tried by its laws ; and by one of these laws we 
 are content that the whole question of the consonancy of 
 Christianity with slavery shall be tried : ‘Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do unto you, so do ye also unto them.’ 
 
 “Let it also be observed, that the apostles do no more in 
 this case than counsel submission in a state of slavery to 
 their converts, as submission to an evil, and an affliction ; 
 they never speak of it, like our West Indians, as a privilege, 
 a happy state in which men ought to be content for its own 
 sake. On the contrary, St. Paul sets freedom before the 
 Christian slave as a good after which he ought to aspire by 
 all lawful means : ‘If thou mayest be free, choose it rather.’ 
 I believe this language would have conducted him to a jail 
 in Jamaica; but it is his language; and it proves that he 
 regarded slavery as an evil, and liberty as a good to be 
 sought by every Christian slave. If the apostle were a 
 friend to slavery, why did he thus exhort the slaves ? And if 
 he thus urges them to seek their liberty, then in vain do our 
 Scripture-quoting slaveholders plead apostolical authority. 
 
406 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 “Here, however, I find the advocates of slavery fall into a 
 marvellous inconsistency : they now tell us, and they have 
 long told us, that we ought to leave it to the influence of 
 Christianity gradually and slowly to abolish slavery in our 
 colonies, as it did in Europe. This reason, which has been 
 within a few days urged to induce the public to refrain from 
 signing petitions to parliament for the abolition of slavery, 
 gives rise, in my mind, to two inquiries. 
 
 “ The first is, why they should allow that Christianity ought, 
 at any future period, to abolish slavery. They tell us that 
 it is a very good thing.; that the slaves are in a much better 
 condition than if they were free ; and that, to make them 
 free, would only be to render those wretched who are now 
 contented and happy. Now, if this be true, why at any 
 future time, any more than at present, ought Christianity to 
 deprive them of their felicity ? I confess that I cannot com- 
 prehend this. If the fetter be so comfortable an ornament 
 to the African limb, that, in the name of mercy, itself, we are 
 conjured not to snap it at a blow, why should it be allowed, 
 why should they give us their full consent to deprive them 
 of it by a slow process of filing, which may take some fifty 
 or a hundred years to effect their liberation from it ? I leave 
 the solution of the difficulty to them ; but my conclusion is, 
 that if slavery is to be destroyed by Christianity, either to- 
 morrow, or a century hence, then the one is inimical to the 
 other, on their own showing, and they give up the argument 
 which has been just refuted. They take the same ground, 
 in fact, with us; and they too allow that there is something 
 in slavery so inconsistent with a religion of judgment and 
 mercy, that they caunot permanently coexist. 
 
 “But, as they may urge that Christianity, when more 
 largely diffused among the slaves, will the better prepare 
 them for freedom, my second inquiry is, Are they really 
 anxious to extend the influence of Christianity among the 
 slaves ? And here, I am sorry to say, I believe not; and 
 that this is a hollow pretence, assumed in order to paralyze 
 our exertions. ‘ Leave the slavery of our colonies to be 
 terminated by the gradual influence of Christianity,’ say the 
 planters ; aud yet what steps did they ever take to Chris- 
 tianize the hundreds of thousands of pagan slaves over whom 
 they have absolute control ? Truly none ; but every attempt 
 to give religious instruction to them has come from other 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 407 
 
 quarters ; and, when offered, has either been treated with 
 indifference, or resisted with contempt. They, indeed, are 
 the men to speak of the gradual influence of Christianity 
 upon the slaves at some future time, who will not allow the 
 slaves its Sabbath for their worship ! and who, by excessive 
 toil, disqualify the slave from effectual attendance upon 
 those means of instruction which might in the evenings of 
 other days be afforded ! — they who have never introduced 
 among them, on any large scale, the sanctities of marriage, 
 and who have never hesitated to separate parents and 
 children, husbands and wives, by selling them to different 
 proprietors, or different islands, and thus to break up with- 
 out remorse those family connections which form the only 
 soil on which public morals and private virtues can be 
 planted ! — they who have been contending insolently and 
 factiously with government in order to acquire the right to 
 pass persecuting acts, and to restrain the Christian mis- 
 sionary from Christiauizing their slaves by the fear of fines 
 and imprisonment; who have manifested in most instances 
 as much rancor against the zealous clergyman of the parish, 
 as against the missionary who had not the same patronage; 
 and in whose skirts are found the blood of martyred men, 
 hated and persecuted to death, only because of their zeal to 
 extend that very Christianity for the diffusion of which they 
 bid us hope ! Those who know the spirit with which 
 Christianity is treated in a slave colony know how to value 
 all such pretences. We may, without the slightest breach 
 of charity, brand them as hypocritical, as they are intended 
 to mislead the public; but they can mislead none who know 
 the parties from whom they emanate.” 
 
 III. 
 
 JUDGE TANEY AND REV. JACOB GRUBER. 
 
 (Extracted frtrn the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, May 5th, 1S57.) 
 
 The Hon. Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, has, in this year of grace 1857, delivered a judicial 
 decision affirming divers things — and, among them, v that slaves are 
 property according to the Constitution of the United States ; that the 
 language of the Declaration of Independence, about all men being 
 
408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 created free and equal, was not meant to apply to colored people; and 
 that in old times everybody believed these doctrines. 
 
 In the year 1819, the Rev. Jacob Gruber, a minister of the Balti- 
 more Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was tried in the 
 Frederick County Court, Maryland, for “ attempting to excite insubor- 
 dination and insurrection among slaves” by preaching a sermon in 
 which he set forth the evils of slavery and the duties of masters. Mr. 
 Roger B. Taney was one of the counsel for the defence; and in a 
 pamphlet account of the trial, published in 1819, at Fredericktown, 
 Bid., by David Blartin, and now lying before us, we find Mr. Taney’s 
 views of slavery, of the rights of man, and of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, at that time. For the benefit of BIr. Taney’s good name, 
 and for the purpose of letting every one compare his former opinions 
 with his recent decision, we offer a few extracts from his opening 
 speech for the defence. 
 
 MR. TANEY SHOWS THE RELATION OF METHODISM TO SLAVERY. 
 
 “You have already been told, that Mr. Gruber is a min- 
 ister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And it is not 
 necessary to tell you, that the religious society to which 
 he belongs, is nearly as numerous as any other society of 
 Christians in this State ; and the equal of any other, in the 
 general order and decorum of their behavior, in their moral 
 deportment, and in their habits of obedience to the laws. It 
 was at a very early period of his life that Mr. Gruber be- 
 came a member of this society, and took upon himself the 
 duties of a minister of the Gospel. In this vocation he has 
 faithfully labored for more than twenty yeai’S ; and he now 
 fills a post of high rank, and great confidence, in his church ; 
 the reward of his fervent piety and unwearied zeal. We 
 shall also prove to you by a most respectable witness, a 
 minister of the same Church, whose duty it has often been, 
 according to the Discipline of that society, to examine into 
 the conduct and character of the accused, that, during the 
 whole course of his ministry, the reverend gentleman who is 
 now on his trial has sustained a character of spotless in- 
 tegrity. 
 
 “It is well known, that the gradual and peaceable aboli- 
 tion of slavery in these States is one of the objects which 
 the Methodist Society have steadily in view. No slaveholder 
 is allowed to be a minister of that church. Their preachers 
 are accustomed, in their sermons, to speak of the injustice 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 409 
 
 and oppressions of slavery. The opinion of Mr. Gruber on 
 this subject, nobody could doubt. And if any slaveholder 
 believed it dangerous to himself, his family, or the community, 
 to suffer his slaves to learn that all slavery is unjust and 
 oppressive, and persuade himself that they would not of 
 themselves be able to make the discovery, it was in his 
 power to prevent them from attending the assemblies, where 
 such doctrines were likely to be preached. Mr. Gruber did 
 not go to the slaves; they came to him. They could not 
 have come, if their masters had chosen to prevent them.” 
 
 HE VINDICATES FREE SPEECH AGAIN. 
 
 “ Mr. Gruber feels that it is due to his own character, to the 
 station he fills, to the respectable society of Christians in 
 which he is a minister of the Gospel, not only to defend him- 
 self from this prosecution, but also to avow, and to vindi- 
 cate here, the principles he maintained in his sermon. 
 There is no law that forbids us to speak of slavery as we 
 think of it. Any man has a right to publish his opinions 
 on that subject whenever he pleases ; it is a subject of 
 national concern, and may at all times be freely discussed.” 
 
 MR. TANEY SPEAKS OF SLAVERY — NOT AS A LAWYER, BUT IN 
 HIS OWN NAME. 
 
 “Mr. Gruber did quote the langnage of our great act of 
 National Independence, and insisted on the principles con- 
 tained in that venerated instrument. He did rebuke those 
 masters, who, in the exercise of power, are deaf to the calls 
 of humanity ; and he warned them of the evils they might 
 bring upon themselves. He did speak with abhorrence of 
 those reptiles who live by trading in human flesh, and 
 enrich themselves by tearing the husband from the wife — the 
 infant from the bosom of the mother; and this I am instructed 
 was the head and front of his offending Shall I content 
 myself,” continued Mr. Taney, “with saying he had a right to 
 say this ? that there is no law to punish him ? So far is he- 
 from being the object of punishment in any form of pro- 
 ceedings, that we are prepared to maintain the same prin- 
 ciples, and to use, if necessary, the same language here in 
 the temple of justice, and in the presence of those who are 
 the ministers of the law. A hard necessity, indeed, com- 
 pels us to endure the evil of slavery for a time. It was im- 
 35 
 
410 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 posed upon us by another nation, while we were yet in a 
 state of colonial vassalage. It cannot be easily, or sud- 
 denly removed. Yet while it continues, it is a blot on our 
 national character, and every real lover of freedom confi- 
 dently hopes that it will be effectually, though it must be 
 gradually wiped away ; and earnestly looks for. the means 
 by which this necessary object may be best attained. And 
 until it shall be accomplished; until the time shall come 
 when we can point, without a blush, to the language held in 
 the Declaration of Independence, every friend of humanity 
 will seek to lighten the galling chain of slavery, and better, 
 to the utmost of his power, the wretched condition of the 
 slave. Such was Mr. Gruber’s object in that part of his 
 sermon of which I am now speaking. Those who have 
 complained of him, and reproached him, will not find it easy 
 to answer him : unless complaints, reproaches, and persecu- 
 tion shall be considered an answer.” 
 
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto 
 all the inhabitants thereof. — (Ley. 25 : 10th verse.) 
 
 By order, or the Assembly of the Province of Penn- 
 sylvania for the State House in Philadelphia, 1753. 
 
 The above is the inscription on the time-honored bell which now 
 stands in Independence Hall — the most sacred political spot in the 
 world. It is surely significant that the bell which, for more than 
 twenty years, had borne so prophetic a motto, should be the first, 
 in all the American colonies, to ring out the joyous news of the 
 immortal Declaration of Independence ! 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

, 
 
 i 
 
 

 326 LS48P 79133 
 
 f