Glass. t-*t il Book Jyg^ PRESENTED BV CONCERNING A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOUTHERN ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY BY JOHN DOUGLASS VAN HORNE Reprinted from the July number ot The Sewanee Review i 9 2 i CONCERNING A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOUTHERN ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY BY JOHN DOUGLASS VAN HORNE Reprinted from the July number of The Sewanee Review ii 9 2 i VS4 Gift Author 8£P Of I THE SOUTHERN ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY "And I also told Mark how H. C. Bunner had confessed to me that he had never fully understood the Southern attitude toward slavery as a peculiar institution not to be apologized for but rather to be venerated as virtuously righteous, until he read the record of Huck's long struggle with himself to refrain from sending Jim back into the servitude from which he was escaping." — Brander Matthews. A writer on The Ethical Aspect of Slavery says that modern moralists, familiar with a society from which slavery has been eliminated and having before them the bad historical record of slavery, are more inclined than older moralists to emphasize arguments against it and less inclined to lay stress upon argu- ments in its favor. 1 The modern moralists here meant are persons respectful of the authority of their elders, but they have not escaped the influence of a changed environment. What con- fronted their predecessors was "a condition — not a theory", nor yet a mere record. Even Peter and Paul, recognizing a long- established and well-sanctioned system, fell back upon preaching to slaves obedience and to masters mercy. Probably not a few people to-day in the North conscientiously seek to know the truth about Southern slavery, but a bare record will never familiarize them with it to the degree of understanding possessed by many Northern men who lived through the con- troversy over slavery. "The North has the principles, but the South has the Negroes." It is presumptuous to enlarge upon a saying like this. Nevertheless, it is well to bear in mind that the North did not monopolize the principles nor the South the Negroes, because the known practice in the South of principles with respect to slaves and the presence in the North of Negroes whose condition in freedom was not enviable enabled conservative Northern men to understand the real difficulties of the situation. And this understanding long kept them clear of the influence of the extremists, who, as Daniel Webster said, were "disposed to mount upon some particular duty as upon a war-horse and to 1 Rev. James J. Fox, in the Catholic Encyclopadia. 4 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery drive furiously on, upon and over all other duties" standing in the way. There were other considerations than the then potent doctrine of State Rights. Slavery was virtually a part of the environment of these conservative men. Not a few had known it as existing in the North, and many lived near it, if not with it. They knew how it was carried on and how the slaves were treated; they had relations of friendship or of business with Southern slaveholders; they understood that their Southern contemporaries were not guilty of introducing slavery into the country ; they saw how deeply rooted the system was and how close and extensive the relation was between Southern pro- duction and Northern and foreign industry ; and they appreciated the difficulty and the peril of emancipation — especially of prema- ture action. The abolitionist demand for immediate and un- conditional emancipation without compensation appealed neither to their reason nor to their sense of justice. At an early day the abolitionists discovered that their true mission was to convert the North, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison declared: — "During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence that a greater revolution was to be effected in the free States — and particularly in New England — than at the South. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among the slave-owners themselves." a There is comfort to some minds, perhaps, but not unvarnished truth in the notion that with respect to slavery a 'good' Northern attitude was always opposed to a 'bad' Southern attitude, and that the cause of emancipation and the cause of the Union went always hand in hand. By 1844 Garrison was asking whether there could be fellowship of light with darkness, or cooperation between Christ and Belial, but the North in general was still far from conversion to his views. War and much of it was required to stir up the people to anything like this pitch. In "* Library of Original Sources, Vol. IX, pp. 95-96. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 5 his Ttiaddeus Stevens Mr. Samuel W. McCall says that too much of the abolitionist agitation was simply disruptive in its tendency, and, as conducted by the extremists, contributed in no small measure to the causes which produced secession and war, but that the force which rescued the slave and saved the country was the sentiment of union * — a sentiment, let me add, which the leading agitators successfully repressed, if they enter- tained it at all. In 1862 Abraham Lincoln said to an abo- litionist: — "In working in the anti-slavery movement you naturally come into contact with a good many people who agree with you, and possibly may overestimate the number in the country who hold such views. But the position in which I am placed brings me into some knowledge of opinions in all parts of the country and of many different kinds of people; and it appears to me that the great masses of this country care comparatively little about the Negro, and are anxious only for military successes." 4 As Virginius Dabney puts it in his picture of Virginia life, The Story of Don Miff: " 'We come to save the Union — dash the niggers!' was the angry and universal reply of the Federal soldiers when our women jeered them on their supposed mission." As late as June, 1863, the Virginia abolitionist, Moncure D. Conway, then in London, wrote to James M. Mason, Confederate Commissioner in England, proposing, in exchange for emancipation of the slaves by the Confederate States, oppo- sition on the part of the Northern abolitionists and anti-slavery leaders (who, according to Conway, held the balance of power) to further prosecution of the war by the United States govern- ment. 5 Conway fell into some embarrassment by reason of this letter, partly, no doubt, because it was rather closely followed by the fall of Vicksburg and the battle of Gettysburg— events not calculated to encourage support of his proposal by his friends. The letter, however, not only represented his own wishes, but fairly reflected the original attitude of the persons with whom 3 Samuel W. McCall : Thaddeus Stevens, pp. 133-135- 4 Moncure Daniel Conway: Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 346- 5 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 413. 6 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery he had been associated here, and with whose countenance and material aid he had gone to England. He himself said: — "It has all along been their [the abolitionists'] avowed position that they are, to quote Wendell Phillips, 'willing to accept anything, union or disunion, on the basis of emancipation'." 6 Garrison was outspoken for disunion if continuance of slavery were to be the alternative. Though he practised vituperation, he preached non-resistance; and in 1861 he said: "All Union-saving efforts are simply idiotic". 1 He was surprised when the South took precedence of himself in departing from the Union, if we may judge from his remark: "I had no idea that I should live to see death and hell secede". 8 The Northern attitude or attitudes ranged in fact, through various phases, from indifference to fanaticism. Fanaticism made gradual headway, and constant agitation of the slavery question did much to excite the hatred essential to a war between two peoples or between two sections. A clamor not devoid of vulgarity began to deafen ears ready enough, no doubt, to hear reason, and finally all but stifled the voices of conservatism and conciliation. Such proceedings are sometimes called "arousing the public conscience". A good many consciences, however, were refractory. In 1846 the eminent lawyer and orator, Seargent S. Prentiss, a native of Maine, in an address to the New England Society of New Orleans, invoked curses upon "the traitorous lips, whether of Northern fanatic or Southern demagogue", that proposed disunion.'' In 1850 Daniel Webster, speaking "not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the United States Senate", appealed to those whom be considered "sober-minded men at the North, consci- entious men . . . men not carried away by some fanatical idea or some false impression". When the crisis actually came there were many Northern men of excellent standing who, having no love oi slavery, yet wished to subordinate questions concerning 'Moncure Daniel Conway: Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 423. 7 Lindsay Swift : // 'illiam Lloyd Garrison, p. 318. * Ibid., p. 372. 'George Lewis Prentiss: Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, Vol. II, p. 408. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 7 it to the aim of preserving the Union. It would be foolish to disparage the ability and influence of Garrison and his associates as agitators, but it was war (a resort contrary to the professed principles of the abolitionist leader), prolonged and successful war, that finally inspired the Northern people in general with the exaltation about slavery which seems still to possess many of them. 10 Much that I hear and read tends to convince me that while Northern opinion on Southern slavery is now more nearly uni- form than it was during the actual controversy, it is not so close to the truth as conservative Northern opinion then was. The passage placed at the head of this article seems to me a good example of that effect of misinformation which has been called "acquired ignorance". I cast no doubt upon the accuracy of Professor Brander Matthews's report of Mr. H. C. Bunner's 'confession', although it seems that the humor shown in Mr. Bunner's own works and vocation should have saved him from such an avowal. His full understanding seems to have amounted to the conviction that in general the Southern people (numbering millions), although guilty of something for which an apology at least was rationally due, were so perverse or so deluded as to believe that their fault, sin or crime was righteousness — even virtuous righteousness — worthy of veneration. As Huckleberry Finn was a creature of the nineteenth century, Mr. Bunner's Southerners must be assigned to that enlightened age. Now, it is true that there were in the South people who went to every conceivable length in defending slavery, and among 10 "When the war began, not one-tenth of the people of the country would have favored immediate and unconditional abolition ; but in the three years' struggle [to 1864] sentiment ripened rapidly." — J. K. Hosmer: Outcome of the Civil War, Vol. XXI of The American Nation: A History, p. 1^5. In a note this author refers to James G. Blaine, who, in his Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I, p. 504, says : "In the short space of three years, by the opera- tion of war, under the dread of national destruction, a great change had been wrought in the opinions of the people of the Loyal States. When the war began not one-tenth of the citizens of those States were in favor of immediate and unconditional emancipation. It is very doubtful whether in September, 1862, the proclamation of the President would have been sus- 6f ined by a majority of the Northern people." 8 The So7itkern Attitude Toward Slavery them persons who insisted upon the theory of divine sanction. What is more, these persons could cite weighty precedents ; and it is indeed not easy to show on Scriptural authority that slavery had not divine sanction. If the exponents of this view, however, represented a Southern attitude, they were neither numerous enough nor influential enough to make up the Southern attitude. I cannot help giving some significance to my own experience among Southern men, which has been fairly long and wide. I have never heard a defence of slavery based upon allegation of its sanctity, and I have never caught a Southerner in the act of venerating it. On the other hand, it must be admitted that no Southerner ever confided to me a wish to apologize for slavery in behalf of himself or of his neighbors. One obstacle to an apology may have been the difficulty of ascertaining to whom (on earth, at any rate) it should be made. "The 'institution' ", says Mr. McCall, "had existed in New England, and had vanished for the very good reason that it did not pay." This consideration and others did not commend the abolitionists of that region to the South as father-confessors. In the South there were virtuous men and righteous men and even some men deserving to be called, with more or less admi- ration, virtuously righteous. But in the matter of slavery the palm for virtuous righteousness never belonged to the South. Originally gained by Sir John Hawkins, England's pioneer in the slave trade, it finally descended to William Lloyd Garrison. When in one of his voyages his ships were becalmed and his Negroes were dying, Sir John took comfort in the pious reflec- tion that God would not suffer His elect to perish. This exhi- bition made a record that stood for three centuries, but it was at last surpassed on July 4th, 1854, when Garrison held at Fram- ingham, Massachusetts, what one of his friends modestly calls a "Judgment Day" — an indication, perhaps, that Garrison needed no election except by himself. On this solemn day, after Scrip- ture readings, Garrison proceeded to the "symbolic action" of burning first a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law, then copies of certain legal documents unpleasant in his sight, and finally a copy of the Constitution of the United States, "the source and parent of the other atrocities — a covenant with death and an The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 9 agreement with hell" ; and after the incineration he commanded all the people to say "Amen!" 11 According to some reports, a copy ©f the Declaration of Independence was included in this burnt-offering, and apparently consistency required its sacrifice in order to round out the symbolic action. Like all other people, the Southerners were subject to the law announced by Voltaire's Candide at the close of his unfortunate wanderings: "II faut cultiver notre jardin". They had to make their living with the means at hand. Such being their most pressing earthly concern, they were not given, more than other people, to dwelling upon their faults or to turning their faults into imaginary virtues. It is absurd to suppose either that they labored under a continual sense of sin because of slavery or that they felt a pious exaltation because of their maintenance of an institution of fancied sanctity. ** Naturally, Southern opinion on slavery was more nearly con- solidated than Northern opinion (especially after the days of slavery in the North), but it was not practically unanimous ex- cept under special conditions. It was varied by time and by cir- cumstance. It was sometimes eulogistic and sometimes de- nunciatory. Economic considerations led to condemnation of slavery in one place and to the fostering of it in another. Individ- uals and groups held different and at times contradictory views. Some men, for instance, upheld State Rights and opposed slav- ery, while others upheld slavery and despised State Rights. After all, however, the general attitude was not positive or conscious, but rather a natural acceptance of conditions that seemed natural. The abolitionist Conway had to undergo sev- eral changes of environment before he saw the enormity of slav- ery. Of his boyhood days in Virginia he says: — "The word 'slave' was not used. We spoke of 'free Ne- groes' and 'servants'. Those were the happy days of incon- sistency. Our Fourth-of-July orators talked grandly of the enormity of 'taxation without representation' and the right of every man to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' ; but the bondage of millions of dusky human beings was never thought of as a thing even to be explained in those days. 11 Swift: Garrison, pp. 306-07. io The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery For myself, I did not know our servants were slaves, and dare say I repeated in the kitchen my favorite school dec- lamation ending 'Give me liberty or give me death!' .... It [slavery] was too close to my eyes to be seen." 12 To those who believe that slavery was venerated the following extract from a letter written to Conway by his mother in 1856 may be instructive: — "I am the greatest slave here at any season to the servants of our household, who are raised in such a state of depen- dence of thought and action that they will not even make an effort to make their own clothing — indeed are too stupid to know how unless I direct them. Oh, what a thral/dom to me — the white slave — mentally and bodily! I often think that if someone were to arouse me some morning from my sleep with the intelligence that everyone had left the prem- ises, I should feel such a sense of freedom and relief from responsibility (more oppressive as I grow older) that I should be heard singing Te Deum laudamus — could I but banish the knowledge that they would be in a state of ex- treme suffering and that their numerous babies would perish. If any abolitionist could know exactly what I have endured from over-pressure of work for thirty negroes for the last month, and the worry I have had to get them to do any work for themselves, they would look on me with greater pity than on them." In the same letter this lady speaks with scant respect of both "ultra pro-slavery men and abolitionists of the fire-and-fagot sort", and goes on to say that God's "greatest reformations have ever been commenced by the small human means without knowl- edge of what their efforts were to lead to, they only doing what duty personally required of them". 13 What Mrs. Conway and thousands of other Southern women venerated and sought faith- fully to discharge was the obligation to do their best for the creatures in their care. It came to be a saying that the most complete slave on a plantation was its mistress. 14 12 Conway : Autobiography, Vol. I, pp. 29, 30, 89. 13 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 250. 14 Susan Dabney Smedes: Memorials of a Southern Planter, p. 191. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery n Not only in Virginia, but farther south, the worship of slavery- seems to have been "honored in the breach". In i827-*28 Cap- tain Basil Hall visited part of the cotton region, and wrote as follows:— "That slavery is an evil in itself, and eminently an evil in its consequences, no men that I have ever met with are more ready to grant than most of the American planters. That the time will come when it must cease to exist, is not, however, so general an opinion, but meanwhile it is admitted by all parties to be so completely beyond the reach of any human exertions that I consider the immediate abolition of slavery as one of the most profitless of all possible subjects of discussion." 15 The experience of the young Conway was virtually the ex- perience of every child of a decent slave-holding family. The impression of the naturalness and propriety of the conditions into which one was born and amid which one grew up was seldom entirely destroyed ; but the tendency of the thoughtful who came to consider slavery more or less objectively was to find fault with it. The evil which was most manifest and which became graver as time went on was the economic strain and waste of slavery. This was, perhaps, the chief ground of Southern criticism or condemnation, but' it was by no means the only ground. Moral considerations led some of the South's best men to denounce slavery and to seek means to be rid of it. 16 The same sentiment existed and possibly was more widespread among thoughtful Southern women. The intrepid 'copperhead' Vallandigham declared that meddling abolitionism taught the South to search for and defend the assumed merits of slavery. Leaving out of consideration ec- centric individuals and such people as are now called 'cranks', I venture to say that extravagant pro-slavery pronouncements were almost invariably called forth by extravagant anti-slavery pronouncements. The South in general felt no need to defend 15 Library of Original Sources, Vol. IX, p. 55. 16 Beverley B. Munford : Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, pp. 82-103 ; also Carl Schurz: Life of Henry Clay, Vol. I, p. 31, quoting re- marks of Clay in 1829 on the disadvantages of slavery. 12 The Southern Attitude Toivard Slavery slavery until it was attacked. Possibly the defence would have been more temperate if the attack had been less violent and abusive. But the aim of the extreme abolitionists was to irritate, and their weapon was insult. How closely the temper of defence corresponded to the nature of assault may be seen in a well-known message addressed to the South Carolina Legis- lature in 1835 by Governor McDuffie. The character of the assault and the intent that underlay it are indeed beyond doubt. The process has been called "moral warfare waged against the South upon the institution of slavery". Of the abolitionists it has been said by a biographer of Garrison that "by provok- ing replies to their own exhaustless vocabulary of abuse and criticism they began to put the pro-slavery side on the de- fensive", 17 and of Garrison himself that in this sort of warfare he was a "sure strategist", having "a power to irritate not excelled even by Wendell Phillips". 18 Garrison's words were "hurled with the precision and, it must be added, with the deliberate desire to madden with which the banderillero throws his darts at the tortured bull". 19 Add to this that there were "abolitionists more denunciatory and reckless of speech than their leader", 20 and it is not surprising to learn that the pro- slavery heart was hardened as Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Without a hint of humorous intent, it has been remarked that Garrison was lovable and gentle when not in a vituperative mood, which reminds one of the saying of some French sage about Alexander the Great: "Alexandre, quand il n'assassinait pas ses amis, avait l'ame assez genereuse". It is hard to believe that Garrison could have even an equal as a moral warrior until we find that at a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Soci- ety Miss Abby Kelley offered a resolution that "the sectarian organizations called churches are combinations of thieves, robbers, adulterers, pirates and murderers, and as such form the bulwark of American slavery". 21 - To most of the Southerners who considered it, the problem of emancipating the slaves without removing them from the 17 Swift : Garrison, p. 84. ™ Ibid., p. 84. "Ibid., p. 90. J " Ibid., p. 1 50. » Ibid., p. 227. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 13 country seemed most difficult, if not insoluble. It baffled some of the best minds — notably the mind of Thomas Jefferson, an owner of slaves but a vehement enemy of slavery. 22 He gave much thought to the question of emancipation, and welcomed discussion of it, saying that "every plan should be advocated and every experiment tried which may do something towards the ultimate object" ; 2! but it is to be noted that in this matter he had not much confidence in "noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity". 24 Jefferson's opinions and the opinions of James Madison and others helped a later movement toward emancipation in Virginia. At one time this movement gave promise of success, and its actual success would have led to organized efforts for emancipation in the other Southern States, for at the time Virginia's prestige was great with them, and Virginia's practical example must have had a weighty influence. Moreover, there was a nucleus of emancipationist sentiment in the other States. - In the Virginia General Assembly of i83i-'32 several schemes of emancipation were considered, one of which was submitted by Jefferson's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. In the course of the discussion slavery was bitterly denounced by men of high standing. No bill for actual emancipation was passed, but the House of Delegates, by a vote of 79 to 41, approved a measure providing for the deportation and colonization of Negroes then free or to become free, which was subsequently defeated in the Senate by only one vote. The sentiment for emancipation seems to have been stronger at that time than any opposition to it in principle, and the real stumbling-block was apparently the practical difficulty of freeing the slaves. 25 The measure that went through the House and barely failed in the Senate drew part of its support from the belief of emancipationists that many people would free slaves if means were provided to remove and 22 See views of Jefferson and Clay and also of Abraham Lincoln, cited in Munford's Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, pp. 75-81, 183-184. 23 William Elroy Curtis : The True Thomas Jefferson, p. 83. u Ibid., p. 86. 15 As to the prevalence of the sentiment, see remarks of C. J. Faulkner cited by Munford in Virginia's Attitude, pp. 93-94 ; and as to the difficulties of emancipation, see pp. 159-184 of the same work. 14 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery to colonize them. The free and open discussion of the question in the Assembly was fairly to be regarded as an entering wedge, and the prospect for definite future action seemed favorable. Yet the movement virtually stopped here; emancipationist sentiment, or, rather, its organized expression, subsided, 26 and there was no longer a well-grounded hope that in the near future Virginia would set a fruitful example. The main cause of this change seems clear. In 1884 Thomas S. Dabney, chief figure in a notable book, Memorials of a South- ern Planter, wrote in a letter to a relative: — "In 1832, I think it was, the South Hampton Insurrec- tion 27 occurred in Virginia, and stirred the State to its cen- tre, although only a dozen to twenty whites were murdered, according to my recollection. But the attempt was so bold that the people took a serious view of it. The Richmond Enquirer took ground for the gradual emancipation of the negroes. The Bruces, among the largest slaveholders in the State, took the stump on the same side, and the largest slaveholder in my county of Gloucester made a speech (which I heard) in favor of the measure. The State was rapidly drifting into it when the Northern abolitionists undertook to advise and cheer us on in the good cause. Agitation in Virginia ceased. Those who had openly espoused the cause took back their word, the Enquirer ceased to advocate it, and the old State relapsed into her old views and remained there till her negroes were taken from her by violence." 28 With respect to the cause of the change described by the writer of this letter, he is corroborated by a witness who also lived through these events. This is Daniel Webster, who used the checking of the emancipationist movement in Virginia to illustrate the harm done by the abolitionists. Webster said: — 26 That the sentiment still actuated individuals is shown by the continuance of emancipation through deed or testament. — Munford: Virginia's Attitude, p. 114. It has been estimated that at least 100,000 slaves were freed volun- tarily by Virginians alone, a number much exceeding the total freed by law in all the North. — James Curtis Ballagh : History of Slavery in Virginia, p. 144. 27 The Southampton Insurrection, led by Nat Turner, occurred in 1831, and preceded the legislative session referred to. ''•Mrs. Smedes: Southern Planter, p. 312. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 15 "I do not mean to impute gross motives even to the lead- ers of these [abolitionist] societies, but I am not blind to the consequences of their proceedings. I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference with the South has pro- duced. And is it not plain to every man ? Let any gentle- man who entertains doubts on this point recur to the de- bates in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, and he will see with what freedom a proposition made by Mr. Jefferson Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery was discussed in that body. Everyone spoke of slavery as he thought; very ignominious and disparaging epithets were applied to it. . . . That was in 1832. As has been said by the hon- orable member from South Carolina, these Abolition Socie- ties commenced their course of action in 1835. It is said, I do not know how true it may be, that they sent incendiary publications into the slave States; at any rate, they at- tempted to arouse, and did arouse, very strong feeling; in other words, they created great agitation in the North against Southern slavery. Well, what was the result ? The bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more strongly fastened. Public opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery and was opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle. I wish to know whether anybody in Virginia can now talk as openly as Mr. Randolph, Governor McDowell, and others talked in 1832 and sent their remarks to the press ? We all know the fact and we all know the cause, and everything that these agi- tating people have done has been, not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster, the slave pop- ulation of the South." The "honorable member from South Carolina" seems to have been in error if he really meant that abolitionist agitation did not begin until 1835. In 1831 Garrison, who had already devel- oped his policy of insisting upon immediate and unconditional emancipation, was editing The Liberator in Boston, and he made the Southampton Insurrection the occasion of a special de- nunciation of slavery. Agitation was going on before Garrison became identified with it and before the Rev. William E. Chan- ning said in 1828: — "My fear in regard to our efforts against slavery is that we shall make the case worse by arousing sectional pride and 1 6 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery passion for its support, and that we shall only break the country into two great parties, which may shake the founda- tions of government." 29 One of Garrison's expectations, by the way, was to "shake the nation". 30 It is true, however, that agitation was particularly active and offensive about 1835, and then and for years there- after embarrassed or repelled friends of emancipation in Vir- ginia and elsewhere. The effect in Kentucky has been thus described by a distinguished Kentuckian who followed the cause of the Union and served as a Federal soldier: — "Accompanied as was this [abolitionist] work of rescuing slaves by a violent abuse of slaveholding, it destroyed in good part the desire to be rid of the institution which had grown on the soil, and gave place to a natural though un- reasonable determination to cling to the system against all foreign interference." And the irritation thus caused was felt even by the class that did not own slaves. 31 The Southampton Insurrection is the central event in The Old Dominion, written by the English novelist, G. P. R. James, who was in Virginia from 1852 to 1856 after about two years' residence in Massachusetts. This book is in part an avowed study of Southern slavery, with opportunities for observation (as the author himself hints) that few Englishmen ever had. Undoubtedly James became familiar with the life and the senti- ments of the Virginia in which he lived, and could fairly well reconstruct the Virginia of 1831. For reasons best known to himself he makes "Mr. Wheatley", a New Englander long resi- dent in Virginia, the chief spokesman of Southern views. Just before the insurrection the English hero of the tale (which is told in the first person) has a talk with Mr. Wheatley about an abolitionist harangue which they have heard at a camp-meeting. 29 Letter appended to speech of March 7, 1850,111 E. P. Whipple's Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster. 30 Swift : Garrison, p. 93. 31 N. S. Shaler : Kentucky, p. 198. As to Virginia, see Munford : Virginia's Attitude, pp. 51-59. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 17 Part of this dialogue may be of interest here. The Englishman having expressed surprise that the people had listened patiently to doctrines contrary to their institutions, Mr. Wheatley says: — " 'Oh, you are quite mistaken as to our state of feeling. Virginia is well-nigh an abolition State. There is hardly a man here who would not emancipate all his slaves, if he could do so without utter ruin to himself and grave danger to the State ' " 'I should think,' I replied, 'if the Negroes hear many more such sermons as that of the Rev. Mr. McGrubber, they will take the matter into their own hands and free themselves with^yengeance. ' " 'There is the danger,' answered Mr. Wheatley, more gravely than was customary with him. 'Not that an insur- rection of the slaves could ever be successful in this coun- try. . . . But what I apprehend is that my fanatical friends of the North, not content with letting public opinion, which all tends towards emancipation, work its way quietly, will go a step too far, and either instigate the Negroes to some sud- den outbreak, or else create a reaction in public sentiment by their irritating diatribes. Men may be led who will not be driven, and, let me tell you, you can't drive a Virginian. You have seen to-night how much these people will bear quietly when it takes the form of argument, but there can be no doubt that such men as this McGrubber are even now circulating incendiary pamphlets amongst the slaves, which are read to little knots of them by anyone who can read. In other instances, the same principles are spread by pic- tures and horrid bad prints — a sort of hieroglyphic aboli- tionism; and if this is carried too far, the tendency to emancipation will be extinguished at once, and every man will arm himself to resist to the death.' " 32 To Garrison's policy emancipation as proposed in Virginia was repugnant. He maintained as irreducible his demand for immediate and unconditional abolition. With apparent pride he said of the American Anti-Slavery Society that it "has never had any character except for fanaticism and never can have any, safely, until the trumpet of jubilee sounds throughout the land". 33 If due credit for consistency and steady purpose is 32 G. P. R. James: The Old Dominion, pp. 124-126. 33 Library of Original Sources, Vol. IX, p. 101. 1 8 The Southern Attittide Toward Slavery granted to him and to his associates, it yet appears that they not only helped to create the atmosphere of war, but contributed to the baffling of Southern efforts to do away with slavery. "The children of intermeddling are strife and murder", said the obnoxious but truthful Vallandigham. In his able work, The Great Illusion, Mr. Norman Angell writes: — "Great and penetrating as were many of the minds of antiquity, none of them shows much conception of any condition of society in which the economic impulse could replace physical compulsion. Had they been told that the time would come when the world would work very much harder under the impulse of an abstract thing known as economic interest, they would have regarded such a state- ment as that of a mere sentimental theorist. Indeed one need not go so far; if one had told an American slave-holder of sixty years ago that the time would come when the South would produce more cotton under the free pressure of economic forces than under slavery he would have made a like reply. He would probably have declared that 'a good cowhide whip beats all economic pressure', etc." 3i I do not pretend to know how the great minds (or, for that matter, the laborious slaves) of antiquity would have received Mr. Norman Angell's prophet of a world to come of harder work, but in the South a seer of the kind would not necessarily have been rebuffed with a rude cowhide flourish. Provided that he was fairly well introduced and, above all, that he came not as a moral warrior from without, panoplied in self-righteousness and brandishing abolitionist pictures and tracts, he would have found many a slaveholder willing politely to argue the point or even to prophesy courteously with or against him. The Southerners were fond of argument and not a little given to prophecy. Not all their prophets were trustworthy, but here and there was a man whose prediction might have been as close to the spirit of truth as this forecast made by Mr. Norman Angell about 1910:— :i4 Norman Angell : The Great Illusion, pp. 269.-270. For remarks con- cerning factors in the production of cotton after emancipation, see Walter L. Fleming's Documentary History of Reconstruction^ ol. II, pp. 311-312. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 19 "Take the case of what is reputed (quite wrongly, incident- ally) to be the most military nation in Europe — Germany. The immense majority of adult Germans — practically all who make up what is known as Germany — have never seen a bat- tle, and in all human probability never will see one • As already pointed out, the men who really give tone to the German nation, to German life and conduct — that is to say, the majority of adult Germans — have never seen a battle, and never will see one." 35 Although long an American citizen, Mr. Norman Angell is English by birth, and perhaps he should know that the best field for an economic missionary and prophet seeking martrydom would have been the British West Indies, and not in the time of slavery, but after emancipation — that is, in the language of the English historian Froude, after "we practised our virtues vicari- ously at their expense". 36 That was indeed barren ground for the seed "of the free pressure of economic forces". The very word 'free' was wormwood to the planters of Jamaica bereft of labor- ers for their fields; and it is to be feared that the emancipated, living at ease upon earth's spontaneous fruits and vexed neither with rent nor with tailor's bills, would have laughed at the no- tion that they were working harder under the "abstract thing known as economic interest" than they had worked under com- pulsion. The remarks quoted from The Great Illusion follow a gloomy consideration of Roman slavery, and it is possible that Roman slavery and Southern slavery were not so far apart in the author's mind. It is precisely of Roman slavery, however, that the great historian Lecky remarks: "Isolated acts of great cruelty undoubtedly occurred ; but public opinion strongly reprehended them, and Seneca assures us that masters who ill-treated their slaves were pointed at and insulted in the streets"; 37 and so far as this goes, Lecky might almost have been speaking of South- ern slavery. In the South public opinion — powerful there as in all the rest of this country — discountenanced cruelty to slaves, 35 The Great Illusion, pp. 217, 225. 36 James Anthony Froude : The English in the West Indies, p. 371. 37 W. E. H. Lecky: History of European Morals, Vol. I, p. 304. 20 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery and in aggravated cases odium rested upon families for the brutal deeds of individuals. In a letter sent from Natchez in 1831 to one of his brothers in Maine, Seargent S. Prentiss, after four years' residence in Mississippi, wrote: "To be sure, there are, occasionally, men who treat their slaves cruelly and inhumanly — but they are not countenanced by society, and their conduct is as much reprobated as it would be anywhere." 38 In his work on Mississippi J. F. H. Claiborne says: "The cruel master lost all social position, and public opinion operated more strongly than the special enactments which, in every State, provided for humane treatment of slaves." 39 The English abolitionist, Har- riet Martineau, though she detested slavery and discovered much in the South that shocked her, was surprised by the kindness and patience of the whites in dealing with their slaves, and it is worthy of note that both she and the more open-minded G. P. R. James found that Northerners and foreigners were reputed to be the most exacting masters, because they imperfectly understood the Negro character or were unwilling to put up with some of its peculiarities. The wise and brilliant Virginius Dabney, who demonstrated in The Story of Don Miff his understanding of Negroes (and who, by the way, was understood and liked by them at sight), once said that his sympathy extended to the lazy but good-natured variety of the class called 'trifling'. His sister, Mrs. Susan Dabney Smedes, whose ability to observe what went on about her and whose skill in the difficult art of telling the truth make her Memorials of a Southern Planter an invalu- able record of plantation life, remarks: — "When one hires servants and they do not give some sort of satisfaction, redress is at hand. The servant is dismissed. But with slaves, at Burleigh and with all the good masters and mistresses in the South — and I have known very few who were not good — there was no redress. "It may be thought that Southerners could punish their servants, and so have everything go on just as they pleased. But he who says this knows little of human nature. 'I can- ' Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, Vol. I, pp. 107-10S. 1 J. F. H . Claiborne : Mississippi as a Provim e, Territory and State, p. 1 45 . The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 21 not punish people with whom I associate every day', Thomas Dabney said, and he expressed the sentiment of thousands of other slave-owners. It was true that discipline had some- times to be used, but not often ; in very many instances only once in a lifetime, and in many more, never. George Page, who in his youth, and in his middle age, was about his master's person and knew him well, said, 'Master is a heap more strict with his children than he is with his servants. He does not overlook things in his children like he does in his people'. "Apart from the humane point of view, common-sense, joined with that great instructor, responsibility, taught slave- owners that very little can be effected by fear of punishment. "Fear and punishment only tend to harden the rebellious heart. What then was to be done with a grown servant who was too lazy or too ill-tempered to do half work, with abundant and comfortable support insured whether the work was done or not? It is clear that unless the moral nature could be appealed to, that servant had to be endured." 40 Mrs. Smedes adds that a bad master was "universally execrated". And Moncure D. Conway says: — "No cruelty to negroes occurred in the houses or on the farms of any families in which we were intimate. Servants were sometimes flogged, but with no more severity and with less frequency than white children." 41 The trouble, however, with Mr. Norman Angell's remark is not merely the implication of cruelty, but also the assumption (by no means restricted to him) that a slaveholder would naturally whip away as unworthy of consideration a proposal inconsistent with the system to which he was used and with his supposedly narrow view of things. Once a slaveholder, always a slaveholder. Thus Mrs. Frances Trollope and the poet Thomas Moore under- took to exhibit Thomas Jefferson simply as an outrageously brutal master of slaves. The man who for twenty years was his steward and overseer said that Jefferson was indulgent and "could not bear to have a servant whipped, no odds how much he deserved it". 42 But another important truth is that he was i0 Mrs. Smedes : Southern Planter, pp. 190-191. a Conway : Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 28. 42 Curtis: The True Thomas Jefferson, p. 87. 22 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery an enlightened man seeking more enlightenment, glad to discuss means of getting rid of slavery — glad, moreover, and usually fit, to discuss any matter of interest to mankind, from religion to the manufacture of nails. To be sure, such men as Jefferson are rare anywhere, but he had able and well-educated slaveholding contemporaries who shared both his wish to do away with slavery and his zeal for enlightenment. Among later planters of the South the average of intelligence was not low, while edu- cation was more widespread than in Jefferson's day. These men thought and read and travelled. They were concerned in what- ever could improve their property or increase production, and many of them showed signal ability in the general management of great plantations, as well as resourcefulness and shrewd in- ventiveness in details. They took an active and sincere interest in the affairs of government, and one of the worst results of the war was the wiping out of their wholesome political influence. The world has not often known a large class more solidly good or a large agricultural class more intelligent. To suppose that they could not or would not consider the case of free labor versus slave labor is to suppose that they could not or would not see what was going on before their eyes. What was there to prevent Virginia from knowing as much about Pennsylvania as Pennsylvania knew about Virginia? The following description of the condition of slaves in his region was written at or near Natchez in 1800 by William Dunbar, one of the early cotton-planters, who was commended to Thomas Jefferson as the first character in his part of the world for "science, probity and general information": — "With regard to the condition of slaves here there is no country where they are better treated. They are supplied with winter and summer clothing of good material, heavy blankets, and hats and shoes. This is a fine country for stock, and it is easy to ration our hands with plenty of pork and beef. They are often allowed to raise hogs for them- selves, and every thrifty slave has his pig-pen and poultry- house. They have as much bread, and usually milk and vegetables, as they wish, and each family has a lot of ground and the use of a team, for melons, potatoes, etc. In the cotton-picking season all that they gather over the usual The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 23 task of seventy-five or eighty pounds a day, they are re- warded for. "They have no night work and are provided with comfort- able quarters and the unrestricted use of fuel. In lower Louisiana the life of the slave, perhaps, is not so easy. Owing to their numbers stricter discipline is maintained, but the Spanish laws require humane treatment for them, and prescribe the holidays they are entitled to." 43 As the century advanced the general treatment of the slaves did not become harsher or more parsimonious, although the care of them pressed more and more heavily upon the planters' resources. As the Southern slaves of the nineteenth century were not born free and did not achieve freedom by their own exertions, it seems that freedom was thrust upon them." This does not mean necessarily that they were emancipated against their will (although that is true of many of them), but it fairly raises a question whether they had any definite and compelling wish for freedom. There is no doubt that some independent spirits among them chafed under restraint and yearned for liberty, but that the slaves in general were not stimulated by an ardent wish to be free seems clear from their conduct during the war. Their fidelity to their masters throughout the four years of a struggle which at almost any time they could have ended, or at least interrupted, by a revolt, is a fact destructive of the notion that they were radically disaffected. Their faithfulness may not safely be imputed to mere stupidity, for in the emergency of the war it was the most intelligent among them who were chosen and especially trusted as agents and exemplars. 45 Nor is it ^Claiborne: Mississippi, pp. 144-145. 44 It has been said that the Negro's civil rights were not won, but almost forced upon him. — William Archibald Dunning: Reconstruction, Vol. XXII of The American Nation: a History, p. 213. 45 After his withdrawal from the U. S. Senate in January, 1861, Jefferson Davis visited his plantation to prepare for an indefinite absence. He con- ferred with the Negroes on the place, advising them of their duties and re- sponsibilities, and saying to those in whose judgment and loyalty he had most confidence : "You may have to defend your mistress and her children, 24 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery plausible that the slaves were eager for freedom and yet so cowed and palsied from maltreatment that throughout the South they neglected (with insignificant exceptions) for four years the opportunity offered by the absence of most of the able-bodied whites from the plantations. It is more reasonable, after giving due weight to custom, discipline and the example set by the higher servants, to put their conduct upon the plane of loyalty and goodwill. The question is not how others think the slaves should have felt or how others would have felt in their place, but how they themselves actually felt. One of the Grimke sisters, who, as South Carolinians, were trump cards in the abolitionist hand, is said to have remarked that, although she was brought up in the midst of slavery and had talked with hundreds of well-treated slaves, she had never found one who did not wish to be free. I do not know under what circumstances this remark was made, but the degree of its significance depends largely upon the manner in which the wish of the slaves was made known to Miss Grimke. If large numbers of slaves spontaneously asserted to her such a wish, her experience was interesting and uncommon. The slaves who felt discontent were not given to manifesting it so openly. For this or that reason an individual might wish his freedom, and ordinarily he could discuss the matter with his master, who would then come to a decision upon what seemed to him the merits of the case. But anything like a concerted or general aspiration of the kind would have been looked upon with sus- picion and disfavor by the most considerate master, unless he was already prepared to emancipate his slaves. Even a tentative declaration of independence by a body of slaves would have been analogous to a hint of mutiny at sea, and the white captains of the South had no intention to surrender control to their black crews. The slaves knew where the line was drawn, and therefore and I feel I may trust you." — Armistead C. Gordon : Jefferson Davis, pp. 124- 125. As to the general loyalty of the slaves, see Memorials of a Southern Planter, pp. 313-314; Documentary History of Reconstruction, Vol. I, pp. 257-258; Ballagh: History of Slavery in Virginia, pp. 114-115 ; Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery, pp. 12-13. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 25 the real lovers of liberty among them and the seriously disaffected were secretive. The circumstances of the Southampton Insur- rection show how secretive they could be. A small body of Ne- groes, moving from house to house and from plantation to plan- tation, butchered fifty-five people before the whites knew enough of what was going on to organize a resistance. Only the last house which the band sought to visit was defended, and in its defence Negroes took part, knowing nothing themselves, perhaps, of Nat Turner's project. Although Turner's active followers were not many, the plot had been brewing long enough to insure some knowledge of it on the part of at least a few other Negroes ; yet the whites had no warning at all. The whole affair indicates, however, that grave disaffection was not widespread. At that time the white population of Southampton county was consider- ably exceeded by the slave population — to say nothing of the free Negroes ; but the insurrection was broken when the band was repulsed at the last house. If, on the other hand, Miss Grimke (herself an advocate of freedom for the slaves) ascertained their wish by questioning them, the result of her inquiries is neither surprising nor es- pecially important. Most people under restraint or in a subor- dinate position would like to be independent, and, if sympathet- ically questioned, are likely enough to say as much. But with the slaves this natural feeling was qualified by equally natural considerations. Usually, the slave who asked for freedom knew or thought he knew how he could make both ends meet through his own exertions; and usually also the slave to whom freedom was offered was chary about the gift until he learned how his future was to be assured. Mrs. Smedes tells of two dissatisfied Negroes to whom her father offered freedom with a bonus, and who rejected the offer because of the stipulation that they should never return to the plantation if they left it. 46 In an early chap- ter of The Old Dominion James presents the following evidence of his qualification to deal with old Virginia: — "I heard a loud dispute at the foot of the stairs, and found another fellow as black as himself abusing no other person 46 Mrs. Smedes : Southern Planter, pp. 102-103. 26 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery than Mr. Zedekiah Jones I did not stop to listen, but one vituperative epithet was applied to him by his op- ponent which I never should have expected to hear addressed by one negro to another. 'You're a damn'd black free nigger!' cried the little stumpy fellow who was contending with him. 'You're as black as I am,' retorted Zedekiah, 'and nigger too. I couldn't help being free. Old massa 'mancipate me whether I like or no.' " 4; As a rule, the free Negroes were not nearly so well off as the slaves, who, indeed, looked upon the class with contempt. 46 The free Negro, if not a man without a country, was at least a man without a family — a nobody tied to nobody. The plight of the free Negroes in the North was still worse, for they had not even the precarious 'pickings' of their Southern brethren. Seargent S. Prentiss says of the Mississippi slaves that their situation was much preferable to that of the free Negroes who infested the Northern cities. 49 In 1844 John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of State, wrote in a letter to the British Minister at Washington: — "The census and other authentic documents show that, in all instances where the States have changed the former re- lations between the two races, the condition of the African, instead of being improved, has become worse. They have invariably sunk into vice and pauperism, accompanied by the bodily and mental inflictions incident thereto — deafness, blindness, insanity, and idiocy — to a degree without ex- ample", etc. And Calhoun proceeded to support his statements by statistics. 60 A slave, therefore, could not expect much from mere freedom in either section. In a description of the formal emancipation of the slaves on the plantation where he himself lived in slavery as a child, Booker T. Washington wrote: — 47 The Old Dominion, p. 12. 48 Booker T. Washington : Two Generations under Freedom, in The Out- look, February 7, 1903, p. 295. 49 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, Vol. I, pp. 107-108. 50 Library of Original Sources, Vol. IX, pp. 114-115. See also Munford : Virginia's Attitude, pp. 162-163, 169-174 ; and James : The Old Dominion, pp. 1 i and 127. It is to be remembered that James spent about two years in the North before going to Virginia. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 27 "The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children seemed to take possession of them Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild re- joicing ceased, and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters ? To some it seemed that, now they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they expected to find it As I have stated, most of the colored people left the old plantation for a short while at least, so as to be sure, it seemed, that they could leave and try their freedom on to see how it felt. After they had remained away for a time many of the older slaves, especially, returned to their old homes and made some kind of contract by which they remained on the estate." 51 The case of the Kentucky slaves in the period of abolitionist excitement is significant. In spite of the nearness of a large part of the State to free communities and to stations of the 'underground railroad', the fugitives from Kentucky were few, and even in the region along the Ohio River the slaves gen- erally remained quietly at home. It has been said that if all the slaves in Kentucky had been allowed to wander for six months with the option of returning at the end of their leave, three- fourths of them would have come back to their homes and to their 'yoke'. It is, nevertheless, probable that almost everywhere the slave felt a rather placid wish to be free and that this feeling, not unmixed with a natural longing for mere change of scene and circumstance, was strongest with the young. But liberty for liberty's sake was not the common goal. Assurance that the change would not be for the worse was needed by those mindful of their own welfare, who made up the great majority. Apart from other considerations, 53 the slaves knew where their bread 51 Washington : Up from Slavery ; pp. 21-22 and 24. 52 Prominent among these considerations was the general affection of the slaves for their masters and their masters' families. Concerning this see Fleming: Documentary History of Reconstruction, Vol. I, pp. 257-258 ; Bal- lagh : History of Slavery in Virginia, pp. 100-101, 114-115. Booker T. Wash- ington ( Upfront Slavery, p. 22,) says of the older slaves : "Besides, deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to 'Old Marster' 28 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery was buttered, and generally they bad no difficulty in choosing between the humble safety of dry land and the glorious un- certainty of the sea of freedom. To Prentiss the slaves seemed "fully as happy as their masters". 53 They were, indeed, happier, if happiness is to be inferred from evidences of contentment and from the disposition and the ability to make the most of a good time. Contentment may be an ignoble state, but it is not sub- jectively an unhappy one. If the state of most of a population numbering millions even approaches contentment, no tears need be shed over their lot except by those who would introduce among them the loftier standard of discontent. Conway says that Thomas Carlyle remarked to him : — "I have no dislike of the Negroes. By wise and kindly treatment they might have been made into a happy and contented laboring population. I do not wish for them any condition which I would not under like circumstances wish for myself. No man can have anything better than the protection and guidance of one wiser and better than him- self, who would feed and clothe him and heal him if he were sick, and get out of him the exact kind of work that he was competent to achieve." M Aside from the implication that they were not wisely and kindly treated, this remark seems applicable to the condition and sentiment of the Southern slaves. That the treatment of most of them was kind is beyond reasonable doubt; whether it was wise is necessarily a matter of opinion. Yet it is true that almost all the equipment of the Southern Negroes for the adventure of freedom came from their training as slaves, including the practice of useful occupations and trades, the teaching of which began at an early day and was conscientiously carried on, for instance, by Thomas Jefferson and by his father before him. But besides and above these bread-winning arts there was and ' Old Missus' and to their children which they found it hard to think of breaking off." For evidence of the reluctance of many to leave their masters permanently, see Dr. Fleming's admirable Documentary History of Recon- struction, Vol. I, pp. 84, 86 ; also Munford : Virginia's Attitude, pp. 70-74. 53 Memoir of 'S. S. Prentiss, Vol. I, pp. 107-108. 64 Conway: Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 400. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 29 acquired a general discipline without which the condition of the Negroes after the war would have been even more disastrous to themselves and even more a source of danger to others. Booker T. Washington says that "the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe". Returning to this subject, Washington says of his friend Lewis Adams: — "I have always felt that Mr. Adams, in a large degree, derived his unusual power of mind from the training given his hands in the process of mastering well three trades during the days of slavery. If one goes to-day [that is, more than thirty years after the war's end] into any Southern town and asks for the leading and most reliable colored man in the community, I believe that in five cases out of ten he will be directed to a Negro who learned a trade during the days of slavery. ' ' B5 Those who think that the South would not have dealt with the problem of slavery or was not competent to deal with it should take some account of the fact that the Negro question is to-day mainly a Southern question, to be dealt with mainly by the South. The war had as one of its immediate results the end of formal slavery 56 and as a remoter result a confusion of Southern affairs so intolerable that the burden of the Negro question, unsettled rather than settled by the ordeal of battle, was shifted back to the people upon whom it rested when all the 'sound and fury' began. While the North still kept in its own hands 55 Washington : Up from Slavery, pp. 16, 121. 56 Putting an end to slavery changed but did not forthwith abolish the Negro's "condition of servitude", which was a fact not to be destroyed by proclamations or by any sudden magic of law. Remarks made in strikingly similar terms by Carl Schurz and by Frederick Douglass, while not literally true, contain an element of truth. Schurz said : "But although the freedman is no longer considered the property of the individual master, he is considered the slave of society " And Douglass said : "He [the freedman] was free from the individual master, but the slave of society."— Fleming : Documen- tary History of Reconstruction, Vol. I, pp. 56, 89. 30 The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery the remedying of wrongs, the cure called Reconstruction was compounded and applied. Of its virtues a former slave has written: — "Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related to my race, was in a large measure on a false foundation, was artificial and forced. In many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office, and that there was an element in the North which wanted to punish the Southern white men by forcing the Negro into positions over the heads of the Southern whites. I felt that the Negro would be the one to suffer for this in the end." 57 The Negroes were, in fact, among those who suffered and in nothing more than in disturbance of the good feeling of slavery days. It has been said that in the main the Southern "black codes" were conceived in good faith and designed to meet actual conditions, whereas certain Federal legislation was enacted without regard for facts so far as the freedmen's status in fact was concerned. 68 This article is restricted, so far as has been possible, to con- sideration of matters concerning slavery in the nineteenth century. I have felt no need to dwell upon the right or wrong of slavery in itself. The slaveholders of the last century inherited a system planted and deeply rooted before their day. Assuming slavery to be and always to have been a sin, what may be called the original sin of American slavery is to be imputed to many men of many nations; and even those who feel a call to help in the divine function of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children might find it hard to distinguish in such a mass the guilty fathers of the Southern slaveholders. The people of whom I have tried to speak are fairly accountable only for their own 57 Washington : Up from Slavery, p. 84. M Dunning : Reconstruction, pp. 57, 58, 63. The Southern Attitude Toward Slavery 31 management of one of the most embarrassing inheritances that ever fell to man. What they might have done of their own motion about slavery is now matter for conjecture, the one certainty being that things could not long have stayed as they were. After serving purposes useful to the outside world as well as to the South, slavery had come to be an economic incubus, and in that sense at least it was too bad to last. In some other ways the old Southern life, including, in certain aspects, the rela- tions between masters and slaves, was too good to last.