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http://www.archive.org/details/keytouncletomsca02stow

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A K

I 0

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

PRESENTING THE ORIGINAL

FACTS AND DOCUMENTS

UPON WHICH THE STORT* IS FOUNDED.

TOGETHER WITH

CarrnljorHtibx Statcinnife

VEKiFTiaa

THE TRUTH OP THE WORK.

BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE,

AUTHOB OF "UNCUS TOM'S CABIN."

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & CO.

CLEVELAND, OHIO:

JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON. *

LONDON: LOW AND COMPANY.

1853.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE,

In the Clerk's Office of the Distric', Court for the District of Massachnsetta.

/^l

%i 6^111

STEREexTPKD BY

nOBAIlT A ROBBINS,

WBW ENGLAND TYPE AND STKBKOTYPB FOt'NDEBT,
BOSTON.

Dainrcll & Moore, Printers, 16 Devonshire St., Bostoo.

PREFACE.

The work which the writer here presents to the public is one which has
been written with no pleasure, and with much pain.

In fictitious writing, it is possible to find refuge from the hard and the
terrible, by inventing scenes and characters of a more pleasing nature. No
such resource is open in a work of fact ; and the subject of this work is one
on which the truth, if told at aU, must needs be very dreadful. There is no
bright side to slavery, as such. Those scenes which are made bright by the
generosity and kindness of masters and mistresses, would be brighter still if
the element of slavery were withdrawn. There is nothing picturesque or
beautiful, in the family attachment of old servants, which is not to be found
in countries where thes'e servants are legally free. The tenants on an Eng-
lish estate are often more fond and faithful than if they were slaves. Slavery,
therefore, is not the element which forms the picturesque and beautiful of
Southern life. What is peculiar to slavery, and distinguishes it from free
servitude, is evil, and only evil, and that continually.

In preparing this work, it has grown much beyond the author's original
design. It has so far overrun its limits that she has been obliged to omit
one whole department ; — that of the characteristics and developments of
the colored race in various countries and circumstances. This is more
properly the subject for a volume ; and she hopes that such an one will
soon be prepared by a friend to wliom she has transferred her materials.

The author desires to express her thanks particularly to those legal
gentlemen who have given her their assistance and support in the legal part
of the discussion. She also desires to thank those, at the North and at the
South, who have kindly furnished materials for her use. Many more 'have
been supplied than could possibly be used. The book is actually selected
out of a mountain of materials.

The great object of the author in writing has been to bring this subject of
slavery, as a moral and religious question, before the minds of all those who

IV PREFACE.

profess to be followers of Christ, in this country. A minute history has
been given of the action of the various denominations on this subject.

The writer has aimed, as far as possible, to say what is true, and only
that, without regard to the effect which it may have upon any person or
party. She hopes that what she has said will be examined without bitter-
ness, — in that serious and earnest spirit which is appropriate for the
examination of so very serious a subject. It would be vain for her to
indulge the hope of being wholly free from error. In the wide field which
she has been called to g^ over, there is a possibility of many mistakes. She
can only say that she has used the most honest and earnest endeavors to
learn the truth.

The book is commended to the candid attention and earnest prayers of
aU true Christians, throughout the world. May they unite their prayers
that Christendom may be delivered from so great an evil as slavery '

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

At different times, doubt has been ex-
pressed Avhether the representations of
•'Uncle Tom's Cabin" are a fair repre-
sentation of slaver J as it at present exists.
This work, more, perhaps, than any other
work of fiction that ever was written,
has been a collection and arrangement of
real incidents, — of actions really per-
formed, of words and expressions really
uttered, — grouped together with reference
to a general result, in the same manner
that the mosaic artist groups his fragments
of various stones into one general picture.
His is a mosaic of gems, — this is a mosaic
of facts.

Artistically considered, it might not be
best to point out in which quarry and from
which region each fragment of the mosaic
picture had its origin ; and it is equally un-
artistic to disentangle the glittering web of
fiction, and show out of what real warp and
woof it is woven, and with what real color-
ing dyed. But the book had a purpose en-
tirely transcending the artistic one, and
accordingly encounters, at the hands of the
public, demands not usually made on fic-
titious works. It is treated as a reality,
— - sifted, tried and tested, as a reality ; and
therefore as a reality it may be proper
that it should be defended.

The writer acknowledges that the book is
a very inadequate representation of slavery ;
and it is so. necessarily, for this reason, —
tluit slavery, in some of its workings, is too
dreadful for the purposes of art. A work
which should represent it sti-ictly as it is
would be a work which could not be read.
And all works which ever mean to give
pleasure must draw a veil somewhere, or
they cannot succeed.

The author will now proceed along the
course of the story, from the first page on-
ward, and develop, as far as possible, the
incidents by which different parts were
suggested.

CHAPTER II.

MR. HALEY.

In the very first chapter of the book we
encounter the character of the negro-trader,
Mr. Haley. His name stands at the head
of this chapter as the representative of all
the different characters introduced in tlie
work which exhibit the trader, the kidnap-
per, the negro-catcher, the negro-whipper,
and all the other inevitable auxiliaries and
indispensable appendages of what is often
called the "divinely-instituted relation'^
of slavery. The author's first personal
observation of this class of beings was some-
what as follows :

Several years ago, while one morning
employed <in the duties of the nursery, a
colored woman wa-s announced. She was
ushered into the nursery, and the author
thought, on first survey, that a more surly,
unpromising face she had never seen. The
woman was thoroughly black, thick-set,
firmly built, and with strongly-marked Af-
rican features. Those who haveljeen ac-
customed to read the expressions of the
African face know what a peculiar effect is
produced by a lowering, desponding expres-
sion upon its dark features. It is like the
shadow of a thunder -cloud. Unlike her
race generally, the woman did not smile
when smiled upon, nor utter any pleasant
remark in reply to such as were addressed
to her. The youngest pet of the nursery,
a boy about three years old, walked up, and
laid his little hand on her knee, and seemed
astonished not to meet the quick smile Avhich
the negro almost always has in reserve for
the little child. The writer thought her
very cross and disagreeable, and, after a few
moments' silence, asked, with perhaps a
little impatience, "Do you vrant anything
of me to-day 7 ' '

" Here are some papers," said the wo-
man, pushing them towards her; "perhaps
you would read them."

The first paper opened was a letter from

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

a negro-trader in Kentucky, stating con-
cisely that he had waited about as long as
he could for her child ; that he wanted to
start for the South, and must get it oiF
his hands ; that, if she would send him
two hundred dollars before the end of the
week, she should have it; if not, that he
would set it up at auction, at the court-
house door, on Saturday. He added, also,
that he might have got more than that for
the child, but that he was willing to let her
have it cheap.

"What sort of a man is this 7 " said the
author to the woman, when she had done
reading the letter.

" Dunno, ma'am ; great Christian, I
know, — member of the Methodist church,
anyhow."

The expression of sullen irony with which
this was said was a thing to be remem-
bered.

" And how old is this child'?" said the
author to her.

The woman looked at the little boy who
had been standing at her knee, with an ex-
pressive glance, and 'said, " She will be
three years old this summer."

On further intjuiry into the history of
the woman, it appeared that she had been
set free by the will of her owners; that
the child was legally entitled to freedom,
but had been seized on by the heirs of
the estate. She was poor and friendless,
without money to maintain a suit, and the
heirs, of course, threw the child into the
hands of the trader. The necessary sum, it
may be added, was all raised in the small
neighborhood which then surrounded the
Lane Theological Seminary, and the child
was redeemed.

If the pul)lic would like a specimen of
the correspondence which passes between
these worthies, who are the principal reli-
ance of the community for supporting acid
extending the institution of slavery, the fol-
lowing may be interesting as a matter of
literary curiosity. It Wiis forwarded by
Mr. M. J. Thomas, of Philadelphia, to the
National Era, and stated by him to be "a
copy taken verbatim from the original,
found among the |>a[)crs of the person to
whom it was addressed, at the time of his
arrest and conviction, for passing a variety
of counterfeit bank-notes."

Poolsvilk, Montgomery Co., Md.,
March 24, 1831.

Dear Sir : T arriviMl Ii Hne in safety with Lou-
ifUi, Jylm having been rescued from me, out of a

two-story winduw, at twelve o'clock at night. I
offered a reward uf fifty dollars, and have him here
safe in jail. The persons who took him brought
him to Fredericktownjail. I wish you to ^vriteto
no person in this state but myself. Kephart and
myself are determined to go the wh^le hog for any
negro you can find, and you must give me the ear-
liest information, as soon as you do find any. En-
closed you will receive a handbill, andl can make
a good bargain, if yuu can find them. I will in
all cases, as soon as a negro runs off, send you a
handbill immediately, so that you may be on the
look-out. Please tell the constable to go on witli
the sale of John's property ; and, Avhen the money
is made, 1 will send on an order to you for it.
Please attend to tliis for me ; likewise write to me,
and inform me of any negro you think has run away,
— no matter where you think he has come' from,
nor how far, — and I will try and find out his mas-
ter. Let me know where you tliink he is from,
with all particular marks, and if I don't find his
master, Joe 's dead !

Write to me about the crooked-fingered negro,
and let me know which hand and which finger,
color, &c.; likewise any mark the fellow has w^ho
says he got away from the negro-buyer, with his
height and color, or any other you think has
run off.

Give my respects to your partner, and be sure
you \vrite to no person but myself. If any person
writes to you, you can inform me of it, and I will
try to buy from them. I think we can make mon-
ey, if we do business together ; for I have plenty
of money, if you can find plenty of negroes. Let
me know if Daniel is still where he was, and if
you have heard anything of Francis since I left
you. Accept for yourself my regard and esteem.
Reuben B. Carllev.

John C. Saunders.

This letter strikingly illustrates the
character of these fellow-patriots w'ith
whom the great men of our land have been
acting in conjunction, in carrying out the
beneficent provisions of the Fugitive Slave
Law.

With regard to the Kephart named in
this letter the community of Boston may
have a special interest to know further par-
ticulars, as he was one of the dignitaries
sent from the South to assist the good citi-
zens of that [)lace in the religious and pa-
triotic enterprise of 1851, at the time that
Shadrach was unfortunately rescued. It
therefore may be well to introduce somewhat
particularly John Kepuart, as sketched
by RiciiAKi) H. Dana, Jr., one of the
lawyers em})loycd in the defence of the per-
petrators of the rescue.

I shall never forget John Caphart. I have been
eleven years at the bar, and in tliat time have seen
many develo{iment8 of vice and liardness, but I
never met with anything so cold-l)looded as the
testimony of tliat man. John Caphnrt is a tall,
sallow man, of al)out fifty, with jet-black hair, a
restless, dark eye, and an anxious, care-w«rn
look, which, had there been enough of moral ele-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

ment in the expression, might be called melan-
choly. His frame was strong, and in youth he
had evidently been powerful, but he was not ro-
bust. Yet there was a calm, cruel look, a power
of will and a quickness of muscular action, which
still render him a terror in his vocation.

In the manner of giving in his testimony there
was no bluster or outward show of insolence. His
contempt for the humane feelings of the audience
and community about him was too true to require
any assumption of that kind. He neither paraded
nor attempted to conceal the worst features of his
calling. He treated it as a matter of business
which he knew the community shuddered at, but
the moral nature of which ho was utterly indif-
ferent to, beyond a certain secret pleasure in thus
indirectly inflicting a little torture on his hearers.

I am not, however, altogether clear, to do John
Caphart justice, that he is entirely conscience-
proof. There was something in his anxious look
which leaves one not without hope.

At the fii'st trial we did not know of his pur-
suits, and he passed merely as a police-man of
Norfolk, Virginia. But, at the second trial, some
one in the room gave me a hint of the occupations
many of these police-men take to, which led to my
cross-examination.

From the Examination of John Caphart, in the

" Rescue Trials,'" at Boston, in June and Nov.,

1851, and October, 1852.

Question. Is it a part of your duty, as a police-
man, to take up colored persons who are out after
hours in the streets?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Q. What is dime with themi

A. We put them in the lock-up, and in the
morning they are brought into court and or-
dered to be punished, — those that are to be
punished.

Q. What punishment do they get?

A. Not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.

Q. Who gives tliem these lashes ?

A. Any of the officers. 1 do, sometimes.

Q. Are you paid ixtra for this? How much?

A. Fifty cents a he;id. It used to be sixty-two
cents. Now it is fifty. Fifty cents for each one
we arrest, and fifty more for each one we flog.

Q. Are these persons you flog men and boys
only, or are they women and girls also ?

A. Men, women, boys and girls, just as it hap-
pens.

[The government interfered, and tried to pre-
vent any further examination ; and said, among
other things, tliat he only performed his duty as
police-Dfficer under the law. After a discussion.
Judge Curtis allowed it to proceed.]

Q. Is your Hoggijig confined to these cases ?
Do you not flog slaves at the request of their
masters ?

A. Sometimes I do. Certainly, when I am
called upon.

Q. In these cases of private flogging, are the
negroes sent to you ? Have you a place for
flogging ?

A. No. I go r(mnd,a8 I am sent for.

Q. Is this part of your duty as an officer ?

A. No, sir.

Q. In these cases of private flogging, do you
inquire into the circumstances, to see what the
fault has been, or if there is any ?

A. That 's none of my business. I do as I am
tequt^sted. The master is responsible.

Q. In these cases, too, I suppose you flog wo-
men and girls, as well as men.

A. Women and men.

Q. Mr. Caphart, how long have you been en-
gaged in this business?

A. Ever since 1836

Q. How many negroes do you suppose you have
flogged, in all, women and children included?

A. [Looking calmly round the room.] I don't
know how many niggers you have got here in Mas-
chusetts, but I should think I had flogged as many
as you 've got in the state.

[The same man testifiea that he was often em-
ployed to pursue fugitive slaves. His reply to
the question was, " I never refuse a good job in
that line."]

Q. Don't they sometimes turn out bad jobs 1

A. Never, iff can help it.

Q. Are they not sometimes discharged after
you get them ?

A. Not often. I don't know that they ever are,
except those Portuguese the counsel read about.

[I had found, in a Virginia report, a case of
some two hundred Portuguese negroes, whom this
John Caphart had seized from a vessel, and en-
deavored to get condemned as slaves, but whom
the court discharged.]

Hon. Jolin P. Hale, associated with Mr.
Dana, as counsel for the defence, in the
Rescue Trials, said of him, in his closing
argument :

Why, gentlemen, he sells agony! Torture is
his stock-in-trade ! He is a walking scourge !
He hawks, peddles, retails, groans and tears about
the streets of Norfolk !

See also the following correspondence
between two traders, one in North Carolina,
the othei' in New Orleans ; with a word of
comment, by Hon. William Jay, of New
York:

Halifax, N. C, Nov. IG, 1839.
Dear Sir : I have shipped in the brig Addison,
— prices are below :

No. 1. Caroline Ennis,
" 2. Silvy Holland,
" 3. Silvy Booth, .
" 4. Maria Pollock,
" 5. Emeline Pollock,
" 6. Delia Averit, .

$650 00
G25.00
487.50
475.00
475.00
475.00

The two girls that cost $650 and $625. were
bought before I shipped my first. I have a great
many negroes offered to me, but I will not pay the
prices tliey ask, for I know they will come down.
I have no opposition in market. I will wait until
I hear from you before I I)uy, and then I can
judge what I must pay. Goodwin will send you
the bill of lading- for my negroes, as he shipped
them with his own. VV'fite often, as the times
are critical, and it depends on the prices you get
to govern me- in buying. Yours, &c.,

G. W. Barnes.
Mr. Theophilus Freeman,
New Orleans.

The above was a small but choice invoice of
wives and mothers. Nine da}s before, namely,
7th Nov., Mr. Barnes advised Mr. FrecMan of
having shipped a lot of forty-three men and

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

women. Mi. Freeman, informing one of his cor-
respondents of the state of the market, writes
{Sundmj, 21st Sept., 1839), " I bought a boy yes-
terday, sixteen years old, and likely, weighing
one hundred and ten pounds, at $700. I sold a
likely gu-1, twelve years old, at $500. I bought a
man yesterday, twenty years old, sis feet high, at
$820 ; one to-day, twenty-four years old, at $850,
black and sleek as a mole."

The writer has drawn in this work only
one class of the negro-traders. There are
all varieties of them, up to the great whole-
sale purchasers, who keep their large trad-
ing-houses ; who are gentlemanly in man-
ners and courteous in address ; who, m many
respects, often perform actions of real gen-
erosity ; who consider slavery a very great
evil, and hope the country will at some
time be delivered from it, but who think

pered by just discipline and religious instruc-
tion, skilfully and judiciously imparted.

The writer did not come to her task with-
out reading much upon both sides of the
question, and making a particular effort to
collect all the most favorable representa-
tions of slavery which she could ob-
tain. And, as the reader may have a
curiosity to examine some of the documents,
the writer will present them quite at large.
There is no kind of danger to the world iii
letting the very fairest side of slavery be
seen; in fact, the horrors and barbarities
which are necessarily inherent in it are so
terrible that one stands absolutely in need
of all the comfort which can be gained from
incidents like the subjoined, to save them
from utter despair of human nature. The first

that so long as clergyman and layman, saint j^account is from Mr. J. K. Paulding's Letters
and sinner, are all agreed in the propriety
and necessity of slave-holding, it is better
that the necessary trade in the article be
conducted by men of humanity and decency,
than by swearing, brutal men, of the Tom
Loker school. These men are exceedingly
sensitive with regard to what they consider
the injustice of the world in excluding them
from good society, simply because they un-
dertake to supply a demand in the com-
munity which the bar, the press and the
pulpit, all pronounce to be a proper one. In
this respect, society certainly imitates the
unreasonableness of the ancient Egyptians,
Avho employed a certain class of men to
prepare dead bodies for embalming, but
flew at them with sticks and stones the mo-
ment the operation was over, on account of
the sacrilegious liberty which they had
taken. If there is an ill-used class of men
in the world, it is certainly the slave-trad-
for," if there is no harm in the institu-

ers ^

tion of slavery,— if it is a divinely-appointed
and honorable one, like civil government
and the fiimily state, and like other species of
property relation. — then there is no earthly
T-eason why a man may not as innocently
be a slave-trader as any other kind of
trader.

CHAPTER m.

MR. AND MRS. SHELBY.

It was the design of the writer, in delin-
eating the domestic arrangements of Mr.
and Mrs. Shelby, to show a picture of the
faii-csl side of slave-life, where easy indul-
gence and good-natured forljoarunce are tem-

on Slavery; and is a letter from a Virginia
planter, whom we should judge, from his
style, to be a very amiable, agreeable man,
and who probably describes very fairly the
state of things on his own domain.

Dear Sir : As regards the first query, which .
relates to the " rights and duties of the slave," I
do not know how extensive a view of this branch
of the subject is contemplated. In its simplest
aspect, as understood and acted on in Virginia, I
should say that the slave is entitled to an abun-
dance of good plain food ; to coarse but comfortable
apparel ; to a warm but humble dwelling ; to pro-
tection when well, and to succor when sick ; and,
in return, that it is his duty to render to his mas-
ter all the service he can consistently with per-
fect health, and to behave submissively and hon-
estly. Other remarks suggest themselves, but
they will be more appropriately introduced under
different heads.

2d. " The domestic relations of master and
slave." — These relations are much misunderstood
by many persons at the North, who regard the
terms as synonymous with oppressor and op-
pressed. Nothing can be further from the fact.
The condition of the negroes in this state haa
been greatly ameliorated. The proprietors were
formerly fewer and richer than at present. Dis-
tant «(uarters were ofteri kept up to support the
aristocratic mansion. They were rai-ely visited
by their owners ; and heartless overseers, fre-
quently changed, were employed to manage them
for a share of the crop. These men scourged the
land, and sometimes the slaves. Their tenure
was but for a year, and of course they made the
most of their brief authority. Owing to the influ-
ence of our institutions, property has become sub-
divided, and most persons live on or near their
estates. There are exceptions, to be sure, and
particularly among Avealthy gentlemen in the
towns ; but these last are almost all enlightened
and humane, and alike liberal to the soil and to
the slave who cultivates it. I could point out
some noble instances of patriotic and spn-ited im-
provement among them. But, to return to the
resident proprietors : most of them have beea
raiiiod on the estates ; from the older negroes

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

they hLve received in infancy numberless acts of
kindness ; the younger ones have not unfrequently
been their playmates (not the most suitable, I
admit), and njuch good-will is thus generated on
both sides. ^ In addition to this, most men feel
attached to their property ; and this attachment
is stronger in the case of persons than of things.
I know it, and feel it. It is true, there are harsh
masters ; but there are also bad husbands and
bad fathers. They are all exceptions to the rule,
not the rule itself. Shall we therefore condemn
in the gross those relations, and the rights and
authority they imply, from their occasional
abuse 1 I could mention many instances of strong
attachment on the part of the slave, but will only
adduce one or two, of which I have been the ob-
ject. It became a question whether a faithful
servant, bred up with me from boyhood, should
give up his muster or his wife and children, to
whom he was affectionately attached, and most
attentive and kind. The trial was a severe one,
but he determined to break those tender ties and
remain with me. I left it entirely to his discre-
tion, though I would not, from considerations of <
Interest, have taken for him quadruple the price I
should probably have obtained. Fortunately, in
the sequel, I was enabled to purchase his family,
with the exception of a daughter, happily situ-
ated ; and nothing but death shall henceforth part
them. AYere it put to the test, I am convinced
that many masters would receive this striking
proof of devotion. A gentleman but a day or two
since informed me of a similar, and even stronger
case, afforded by one of his slaves. As the reward
of assiduous and delicate attention to a venerated
parent, in her last illness, I proposed to purchase
and liberate a healthy and intelligent woman,
about thirij- years of age, the best nurse, and, in
all respects, one of the best servants in the state,
of which I was only part owner ; but she declined
to leave the family, and has been since rather
better than free. I shall be excused for stating a
ludicrous case I heard of some time ago : — A
favorite and indulged servant requested his master
to sell him to another gentleman. His master re-
fused to do so, but told him he was at perfect
liberty to go to the North , if he were not already
free enough. After a while he repeated the re-
quest ; and, on being urged to give an explanation
of his singular conduct, told his master that he
considered himself consumptive, and would soon

die ; and ho thought ^Ir. B was better able

to bear the loss than his master. He was sent to
a medicinal spring and recovered his health, if,
indeed, he had ever lost it, of which his master
had been unapprized. It may not be amiss to
describe my deportment towards my servants,
whom I endeavor to i-ender happy while I make
them, yirofitable. I never turn a deaf ear, but
listen patiently to their communications. I chat
familiarly with those who have passed service, or
have not begun to render it. With the others I
observe a more prudent reserve, but I encourage
all to approach me without awe. I hardly ever
go to town without having commissions to execute
for some of them ; and think they prefer to em-
ploy me, from a belief that, if their money should
not quite liold out, I would add a little to it ; and
I not unfrequently do, in order to get a better
ai'ticle. The relation between myself and my
slaves is decidedly friendly. I keep up pretty ex-
act discipline, mingled with kindness, and hardly
ever lose property by thievish, or labor by run-

away slaves. I never lock the outer doors of mj
house. It is done, but done by the servants ; and
I rarely bestow a thought on the matter. I leave
home periodically for two months, and commit the
dwelling-house, plate, and other valuables, to the
servants, without even an enumeration of the,
articles.

3d. •' The duration of the labor of the slave." —
The day is usually colisidered long enough. Em-
ployment at night is not exacted by me, except to
shell corn once a week fur their own consumption,
and on a few other extraordinary occasions. The
people, as we generally call them, are required to
leave their houses at daybreak, and to work until
dark, with the intermission of half an hour to an
hour at breakfast, and one to two hours at dinner,
according to the season and sort of work. In this
respect I suppose our negroes will bear a faver-
able comparison with any laborers whatever.

4th. " The liberty usually allowed the slave, —
his holidaj^s and amusements, and the way in
which they usually spend their evenings and holi-
days."— They are prohibited from going off the
estate without first obtainingJeave ; though they
often transgress, and with impunity, except in
flagrant cases. Those who have wives on other
plantations visit them on certain specified nights,
and have an allowance of time fjr going and re-
turning, proportioned to the distance. My ne-
groes are permitted, and, indeed, encouraged, to
raise as many ducks and chickens as they can ; to
cultivate vegetables for their own use, and a patch
of corn for sale ; to exercise their trades, when
they possess one, which many do ; to catch musk-
rats and other animals for the fur or the flesh : to
raise bees, and, in fine, to earn an honest penny
in any way which chance or their own ingenuity
may offer. The modes specified are, however,
those most commonlj- resorted to, and enable prov-
ident servants to make from five to thirty dollars •
apiece. The corn is of a different sort from that
which I cultivate, and is all ]}ought by me. A
great many fcjwls are raised ; I have this year
known ten dollars worth sold by one man at one
time. One of the chief sources of profit is the
fur of the muskrat ; for the purpose of catching
which the marshes on the estate have been par-
celled out and appropriated from time immemo-
rial, and are held by a tenure little short of fee-
simple. The negroes are indebted to Nat Turner *
and Tappan for a curtailment of some of their
privileges. As a sincere friend to tlic blacks, I
have much regretted the reckless interference of
these persons, on account of the restrictions it ha&
become, or been thought, necessary to impose.
Since the exploit of the former hero, they have
been forbidden to preach, except to their fellow-
slaves, the property of the same owner ; to have
public funerals, unless a white person officiates ;
or to be taught to read and write. Their funerals
formerly gave them great satisfaction, and it was
customary here to furnish the relations of the de-
ceased with bacon, spirit, flour, sugar and butter,,
with which a grand entertainment, in their way.
was got up. Wewerepnce much amused by a
hearty fellow requesting his mistress to let him
have his funeral during his lifetime, when it would
do him some good. The waggish request was
granted ; and 1 venture to say there never was a

* The leader of the insurrection in lower Virginia, in
which upwards of a hundred white persons, principally
women and chUdren, were massacred iu cold blood.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

funeral the suhject of which enjoyed it so much.
When permitted, some of our negroes preached
with great fluency. I was present, a few years
since, when an Episcopal minister addressed the
people, hy appointment. On the conclusion of an
excellent sermon, a negro preacher rose and
thanked the gentleman kindly for his discourse,
but frankly told him the congregation "did not
understand his lingo.'" He then proceeded him-
self, with great vehemence and volubility, coining
words where they had not been made to his hand,
or ratlier his tongue, and impressing his hear-
ers, douljtless, with a decided opinion of his supe-
riority over his white co-laborer in the field of
grace. JNIy brother and I, who own contiguous
estates, have lately erected a chapel on the line
between them, and have employed an acceptable
minister of the Baptist persuasion, to which the
negroes almost exclusively belong," to afford them
religious instruction. Except as a preparatory
step to emancipation, I consider it exceedingly
impolitic, even as regards the slaves themselves,
to permit them to read and write : " Where igno-
rance is l)liss, "tis^oUy to be wise." And it is^^
certainly imprjlitic as regards their masters, on
the principle that " knowledge is power." My
servants have not as long holidays as those of
most other persons. I allow three days at
Christmas, and a day at each of three other pe-
riods, besides a little time to work thc'r patches ;
or, if very busy, I sometimes prefer to work them
myself. Most of the ancient pastimes have been
lost in this neighborhood, and religion, mock or
real, has succeeded them. The banjo, their na-
tional instrument, is known but in name, or in a
few of the tunes which have survived. Some of
the younger negroes sing and dance, but the
■evenings and holidays are usually occupied in
■working, in visiting, and in praying and singing
hymns. Tlie primitive customs and sports are. I
believe; better jn-eserved further south, where
■slaves were brought from Africa long after they
ceased to come here.

6th. " Tlie provision usually made for their
food and clothing, — for those who are too young
or too old to labor." — My men receive twelve
quarts of ln<lian meal (the abundant and uni-
versal allnvvauce in tliis state), seven salted her-
rings, and twi^ pounds of smoked bacon or three
pounds of pork, a week ; the otlier liauds propor-
tionally less. Fat, generally speaking, their food
is issued daily, with t!ie exception of meal, and
consists of lish or liacon fir breakfast, and meat,
fresh or salted, with vegctaliles whenever we can
provide tlifui, for dinner ; or, fqr a uinntli or two
in the s[iring, fresh fisl: cooked with a little bacon.
This mode is rather more expensive to me than
that of wet;kly rations, hut more comfortal)le to
the servaiiis. Su[u'rannuated or invalid slaves
draw tlieir provi.siins regularly once a week ; and
the inomi'ut a child ceases to be nourished hy its
mother, it receives eight quarts of meal (more than
it can cousmiie), and one half-pound of lard. Be-
sides the fooJ furnished by me, nearly all tlu!
servants are able to make some addition from
their finvate stores ; and there is among the
adults iiardly an instance of one so improvident
-as not to do it. He must be an unthrifty fellow,
indeed, who cannot realize the wish of the famous
Henry IV. in regard to the French peasantry, and
enjoy hia fo\.l on Sunday. I always ktu-p on
ha!nd, for the use ol' the negroes, sugar, molasses,
&o.,whieh. though not regularly issued, are applied

for on the slightest pretexts, and frequently no
pretext at all, and are never refused, except in
cases of misconduct. In regard to clothing : —
the men and boys receive a winter coat and trou-
sers of strong cloth, three shirts, a stout pair of
shoes and socks, and a pair of summer pantaloons,
every year ; a hat about every second year, and a
great-coat and blanket every third year. Instead
of great-coats and hats, the women have large
capes to protect the bust in bad weather, and
handkerchiefs for the head. The articles fur-
nished are good and serviceable ; and, with their
own acquisitions, make their appearance decent
and respectable. On Sunday they are even fine.
The aged and invalid are clad as regulurly as the
rest, but less substantially. Motliers receive a
little raw cotton, in proportion to the number of
children, with the privilege of having the yam,
when- spun, woven at my expense. I provide
them with blankets. Orphans are put with care-
ful women, and treated with tenderness. I am
attached to the little slaves, and encourage famil-
iarity among them. Sometimes, when I ride
near the quarters, they come running after me with
the most whimsical requests, and are rendered
happy by the distribution of some little donation
The clothing described is that which is given to
the crop hands. Home-sei'vants, a numerous
class in Virginia, are of course clad in a different
and very superior manner. I neglected to men-
tion, in the proper place, that there are on each
of ray plantations a kitchen, an oven, and one or
more cooks ; and that each hand is furnished witii
a tin bucket for his food, which is carried into the
field by little negroes, who also supply the labor-
ers with water.

7th. " Their treatment when sick,"— My negroes
go, or are carried, as soon as tluy are iittacked,to
a spacious and well-ventilated hos))ital. near the
mansion-house. They are there received by an
attentive nurse, who has an assortment of medi-
cine, additional bed-clothing, and the ctmimand of
as much light food as slie may require, either
from the table or the store-room of the proprietor.
AVine, sago, rice, and other little coniibrts apper-
taining to such an establishment, are always
kept on hand. The condition of the sick is much
better than that of the poor v.hites or I'ree colored
people in the neighborhood.

8th. " Their rewards and punishments." — I
occasionally bestow little gratuities foi good con-
duct, and particularly after harvest ; i'ud hardly
ever refuse a favor asked l)v ihose \vlu) faithfully
perform their duty. Vicious and idle servants are
punished with stripes, moderately imiicted ; to
which, in the case of tlieft, is added p!i\ation of'
meat, a severe punishment to those who .are never
sufiered to be witliout it on any othtfr account.
Fi'ora my limited observation, 1 think that ser-
vants to the North .work mueli i.ardi-i than our
slaves. I was educated at a coU.jge in ■•<w of the
free states, and, on my return to \ 'rn-Miia, was
struck with tiie coittrast. 1 wasastouis led at the
number of idle domestics, and .iclually n-.irricdmy
mother, much to my contrition sincts, to reduce
the establishment. I say to my conuition, be-.
cause, after eighteen years' residence in the good
Old Dominion, ! find myself siuTounded l>y a troop
of servants about as numerous as chat against
which I formerly so loudl> exclaimed. While on
this subject it may tiot be amiss to stare a case of
manumission wliicli occurred aboui. three years
since. My nearest neighljor, a man of immense

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

wealth, owned a favorite servant, a fine fellow,
with polished manners and excellent disposition,
who reads and writes, and is thorougfily versed in
the duties of a butler and housekeeper, in the per-
formance of wliich he was trusted without limit.
This man was, on the death of his master, eman-
cipated witli a legacy of six thousand dollars, be-
sides about two thousand dollars more which he had
been permitted to accumulate, and had deposited
with his master, who had given him credit for it..
The use that this man, apparently so well quali-
fied for freedom, and who has had an opportunity
of travelling and of judging for himself, makes of
his money and his time, is sOmewhat remarkable.
In consequence of his exemplary conduct, he has
been permitted to reside in the state, and for very
moderate wages occupies the same situation he
did in the old estaldishment, and will probably
continue to occupy it as long as he lives. He has
no children of his own, but has put a little girl, a
njlation of his, to school. Except in this instance,
and in the pur(;hase of a few plain articles of fur-
niture, his freedom and his money seem not much
to have benefited liim. A servant of mine, who
is intimate with him, thinks he is not as happy as
he was before his liberation. Several other serv-
ants were fi-eed at the same time, with smaller leg
acies, but I do ni.>t know what has become of them.

I do not regard negro-slavery, however mitigat-
ed, as a Utopian system, and have not intended so
to delineate it. But it exists, and the difficulty of
removing it is felt and acknowledged by all, save
the faniitics, who, like " fools, rush in where
angels dare not tread.'' It is pleasing to know
that its l)urdens are not too heavy to be borne.
That the treatment of slaves in this state is hu-
mane, and even indulgent, may be inferred from the
fact of their rapid increase and great longevity. I
believe that, constituted as they are, morally and
physically, they are as happy as any peasantry
in the world ; and I venture to affirm, as the re-
sult of my reading and inquiry, that in no coun-
ti-y are the labor"rs so liberally and inrarfably sup-
plied with bread and meat as are the negro slaves
of the United States. However great the dearth
of provisions, famine never reaches them.

P. S. — It miglit have be-n stated above that
on this estate there are about one hundred and
sixty blacks. With the exception of infants,
there has been, in eighteen months, but one
death that I remember, — that of a man fully sixty-
five years of age. The bill for medical attend-
ance, from the second day of last November, com-
prising upwards of a year, is less than forty dol-
lurs.

The following accounts ai-e taken from
" Ingrahain's Travels in the South-west,'" a
work which seems to have been written as
much to show the beauties of slavery as
an}^hing else. Speaking of the state of
thing -1 on some Southern plantations, he gives
the following pictures, which are presented
without note or comment :

The little candidates for " field honors" are use-
less articles on a plantation during the first five
or six years of their existence. They are then to
take their first lesson in the elementary part of their
education. Wlien they have learned their niiinual
alphabet tolerably well, they are placed in the

field to take a spell at cotton-picking. The fii"st
day in the field is their proudest day. The youn^
negroes look forward to it with as much restless-
ness and impatience as school-boys to a vacation.
Black childrt'ti aye not put to work so young as
many children of poor parents in the North. It
is often the case that the children of the domestic
servants become pets in the house, and tlie play-
mates of tlie wliite children of the family. No
scene can be livelier or more interesting to. a North-
erner, than that which the negi'o quarters of a
well-regulated plantation present on a Sabbath
morning. Just before church-hnurs. In every
cabin the men are shaving and dressing ; the wo-
men, arrayed in their gay muslins, are arranging
their frizzly hair, — in which they take no little
pride, — or investigating the condition of their chil-
dren ; the old pe-n'!--, neatly clothed, are quietly
conversinof f^i- ■^:^,.K.ing about the doors ; and those
of the '>'■ -oiiger portion who are not undergoing tlie
infliction of the wash-tub are enjoying themselves
in the shade of the trees, or around some little
pond, with as much zest as though slavery' and
fieedom were s^'nonyraous terms. When all are
dressed, and the hour arrives for worship, they
lock up their cabins, and the whole population of
the little village proceeds to the chapel, whore
divine service is performed, sometimes by an
officiating clergyman, and often I>y the planter
himself, if a church-member. The whole planta-
tion is also frequently formed into a Sabbath
class, which is instructed by the planter, or some
member of his family ; and often, such is the
anxiety of the master that they should perfectly
understand what they are tauglit, — a hard matter
in the present state of their intellect, — that no
means calculated to advance their progress arc
left untried. I was not long since shown a m;-nu-
script catechism, drawn up with great care and
judgment by a distinguished planter, on a plan
admirably adapted to the comprehension of the
negroes.

It is now popular to treat slaves with kindness ;
and those planters who are known to be inhumanl}'
rigorous to their slaves are scarcely countenanced
by the more intelligent and humane portion of
the community. Such instances, however, are
very rare ; but there are unprincipled men ever^--
where, who will give vent to their ill feelings and
bad passions, not with less good will upon the
back of an indented apprentice, than upon that of
a purchased slave. Private chapels are now in-
troduced upon most of the plantations of the
more wealthy, which are far from any church ;
Sabbath-schools are instituted for the black chil-
dren, and Bilile-classes for the parents, which are
superintended by the planter, a chaplain, or some
of the female members of the family.

Nor are planters indiSerent to the comf irt of
their grajr-headed slaves. I have been much af-
fected at beliolding many exhibitions of their
kindly feeling towards them. They always address
them in a mild and pleasant manner, as " Un-
cle," or " Aunty,"' — titles as peculiar to the old
negro and negress as " boy " and " girl '" to ail
under forty years of age. Some old Africans are
allowed to spend their last years in their houses,
without doing any kind of labor ; these, if not too
infirm, cultiviite little patches of ground, on which
they raise a few vegetables, — for vegetables grow
nearly all the year round in this climate, — and
make a little money to purchase a few extra com-
forts. They are also always receiving presents

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

from their masters and mistresses, and the negroes
on the estate, the latter of whom are extremely
desirous of seeing the old people comfortable. A
relation of the extra comforts wliich some planters
allow their slaves would hardly obtain credit at
the North. But you must recollect that Southern
planters are men, and men of feeling, gener-
ous and high-minded, and possessing as ijiuch of
the "milk of human kindness" as the sons of
colder climes — although they may have been
educated to regard that as right which a differ-
ent education has led Northerners to consider
.vrong.

With regard to the character of Mrs.
Shelby the writer must say a few words.
While traY<9lling in Kentucky, a few years
since, some pious ladies oxy^^essed to her
the same sentiments with regaia 'S <ilavery
which the reader has heard expressed by
Mrs. Shelby.

There are many whose natural sense of
justice cannot be made to tolerate the enor-
mities of the system, even though they hear
it defended by clergymen from the pulpit,
and see it countenanced by all that in most
iionorable in rank and wealth.

A pious lady said to the author, with re-
o-ard to instructino; her slaves, "I am
o^shamed to teach them what is right ; I
know that they know as well as I do that it
is wrong to hold them as slaves, and I am
ashamed to look them in the face." Point-
ing to an intelligent mulatto woman who
passed through the room, she continued,
" Now, there 's B . She is as intelli-
gent and capable as any wliite woman I
ever knew, and as well able to have her

and she

as
and as well
liberty and take care of herself
knows it isn't right to keep her as we do,
and I know it too ; and yet I cannot get my
husband to think as I do, or I should be
glad to set them free."

A venera1)le friend of the writer, a lady
born and educated a slave-holder, used to
the writer the very words attributed to Mrs.
Shelby : — "I never thought it was right to
hold slaves. I always thought it was
wrong when I was a girl, and I thought so
still more when I came to join the church."
An incident related by this friend of her
examination for the church shows in a
striking manner what a difference may often
exist between theoretical and practical be-
nevolence.

A certain class of theologians in Amer-
ica have advocated the doctrine of disinter-
ested benevolence with such zeal as to make
it an imperative article of belief that every
individual ought to be willing to endure ever-
lasting misery, if by doing so they could,

on the whole, produce a greater amount of
general good in the universe ; and the in-
quiry was sometimes made of candidates for
church-membership whether they could
bring themselves to this point, as a test of
their sincerity. The clci-gyman who was to
examine this lady was particularly interested
in these speculations. When he came to
inquire of her with regard to her views as
to the obligations of Christianity, she in-
formed him decidedly that she had brought
her mind to the point of emancipating all
her slaves, of whom she had a large number.
The clergyman seemed rather to consider
tliis as an excess of zeal, and recommended
that she should take time to reflect upon it.
He was, however, very urgent to know
whether, if it should appear for the greatest
good of the universe, she would be willing
to be damned. Entirely unaccustomed to
theological speculations, the good woman
answered, with some vehemence, that "she
was sure she was not;" adding, naturally
enough, that if that had been her purpose
she need not have come to join the church.
The good lady, however, was admitted, and
proved her devotion to the general good by
the more tangible method of setting all her
slaves at liberty, and carefully watching
over their education and interests after they
were liberated.

Mrs. Shelby is a fair type of the very
best class of Southern women ; and while
the evils of the institution are felt and de-
plored, and while the world looks with just
indignation on the national support and
patronage wliich is given to it, and on tlie
men who, knowing its nature, deliberately
make efforts to perpetuate and extent." it, it
is but' justice that it should bear in mind
the virtues of such persons.

Many of them, surrounded 1iy circum-
stances over which they can have no con-
trol, perplexed by domestic cares of wliich
women in free states can have very little
conception, loaded down by duties and re-
sponsibilities which wear upon the very
springs of life, still go on bravely and pa-
tiently from day to day, doing all they can
to alleviate what they cannot prevent, and,
as far as the sphere of their own immediate
power extends, rescuing those who are de-
pendent upon them from the evils of the
system.

We read of Him who shall at last come
to judgment, that " His fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and
gather his wheat into the garner." Out

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of the great abyss of national sin he will
rescue every grain of good and honest pur-
pose and intention. His eyes, which are as a
flame of fire, penetrate at once those intricate
mazes where human judgment is lost, and
will save and honor at last the truly good
and sincere, however they may have been
involved with the evil ; and such souls» as
have resisted the greatest temptations, and
persisted in good under the most perplexing
circumstances, are those of whom he has
written, " And they shall be mine, saith the
Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up
my jewels ; and I Avill spare them as a man
(spareth his own son that serveth him."

CHAPTER IV.

GEORGE HARRIS.

The character of George Harris has been
represented as overdrawn, both as respects
personal qualities and general intelligence.
It has been said, too, that so many afilictive
incidents happening to a slave are improba-
ble, and present a distorted view of the
institution.

In regard to person, it must be remem-
bered that the half-breeds often inherit, to a
great degree, the traits of their white an-
cestors. For this there is abundant evi-
dence in the advertisements of the papers.
Witness the following from \heChattanooga
(Tenn.) Gazette, Oct. 5th, 1852 :

$500 REV\MRD.

>j» Runaway from the subscriber, on the 25th
^ May, a VERY BRIGHT MULATTO BOY,
^ about 21 or 22 years old, named WASH.
Said boy, without close observation, might
pass himself for a white man, as he is very bright
— has sandy hair, blue eyes, and a fine set of
teeth. He is an excellent bricklayer ; but I have
no idea that he will pursue his trade, for fear of
detection. Although he is like a white man in
appearance, he has the disposition of a negro, and
delights in comic songs and witty expressions.
He is an excellent house servant, very handy
about a hotel, — tall, slender, and has rather a
down look, especially when spoken to, and it
sometimes inclined to be sulky. I have no doubt
but he has been decoyed off by some scoundrel,
and I will give the above reward for the appre-
hension of the boy and thief, if delivered at Chat-
tanooga. Or, I will give $200 for the boy alone ;
or $100 if confined in any jail in the United States,
so that I can get him.

GEORGE 0. RAGLAXD.
Chattanooga, June 15, 1852.

From the Capitolian Vis-a-vis, West
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Nov. 1, 1852 :

$150 REWARD.

Runaway about the 15th of August last, Toe, a
yellow man ; small , about 5 feet 8 or 9 ' nchts
high, and about 20 years of age. Has a Roman
nose, was raised in New Orleans, and speaks
French and English. He was bought last winter
of Mr. Digges, Banks Arcade, New Orleans.

In regard to general intelligence, the
reader will recollect that the writer stated
it as a fact Avhich she learned while on a
journey through Kentucky, that a young
colored man invented a machine for clean-
ing hemp, hke that alluded to in her
story.

Advertisements, also, occasionally pro-
pose for sale artisans of different descrip-
tions. Slaves are often employed as pilots
for vessels, and highly valued for their skill
and knowledge. The following are adver-
tisements from recent newspapers.

From the South Carolinian (Columbia),
Dec. 4th, 1852 :

VALUABLE XE6ROES AT AUCTION.

BY J. & L. T. LETIN.

WILL be sold, on MONDAY, the 6th day of De-
cember, the following valuable NEGROES :
Andrew, 24 years of age, a bricklayer and plas-
terer, and thorough workman.

George, 22 years of age, one'of the best barbers
in the State.

James, 19 years of age, an excellent painter.
These boys were raised in Columbia, and are
exceptions to most of boys, and are sold for no
fault whatever.

The terms of sale are one-half cash, the balance
on a credit of six months, with interest, for not«s
payable at bank, with two or more approved
endorsers. .

Purchasers to pay for necessary papers.

WILLIAM DOUGLASS.
November 27, 36.

From the same paper, of November 18th,
1852:

Will be sold at private sale, a LIKELY MAN,
boat hand, and good pilot ; is well acquainted
with all the inlets between here and Savannah
and Georgetown.

With regard to the incidents of George
Harris' life, that he may not be supposed a
purely exceptional case, we propose to offer
some parallel ficts from the lives of slaves
of our personal acquaintance.

Lewis Clark is an acquaintance of the
writer. Soon after his escape from slavery,
he was received into the family of a ?ister- ,
in-law of the author, and there educated
His conduct during this time was such as
to win for him uncommon afiection and re-
spect, and the author has frequently heard

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

iiim spoken of in the highest terms by all
who knew him.

The gentleman in whose family he so
long resided says of him, in a recent letter
to the writer, " I would trust him, as the
saying is, with untold gold."

Lewis is a quadroon, a fine-looking man,
with European features, hair slightly wavy,
and with an intelligent, agreeable expres-
sion of countenance.

The reader is now desired to compare the
following incidents of his life, part of which
he related personally to the author, with
the incidents of the life of George Harris.

His mother was a handsome quadroon
woman, the daughter of her master, and
given by him in marriage to a free white
man, a Scotchman, with the express under-
standing that she and her children were to
be free. This engagement, if made sin-
cerely at all, was never complied with. His
mother had nine children, and, on the death
of her husband, came back, with all these
cliildren, as slaves in her father's house.

A married daughter of the family, who
Avas the dread of the whole household, on
account of the violence of her temper, had
taken from the family, upon her marriage,
a young girl. By the violence of her
abuse she soon reduced the child to a state
of idiocy, and then came imperiously back
to her father's establishment, declaring that
the child was good for nothing, and that
she would have another; and, as poor Lewis'
evil star would have it, fixed her eye upon
him.

To avoid one of her terrible outbreaks of
temper, the fomily offered up this boy as a
pacificatory sacrifice. The incident is thus
described by Lewis, in a published narra-
tive :

Every boy was ordered in, to pass before this
female sorceress, that she mi^ht select a victim
for her unprovoked malice, and on whom to pour
the vials of her wrath for years. I was that un-
lucky fellow. Mr. Campbell, my grandfather,
ohiected, because it would divide a family, and
offered her Moses ; * * * but objections and
claims of every kind W3re swept away by the wild
passion and shrill-toned voice of Mrs. B. Mo she
would have, and n^jne else. Mr. Campbell went
out to hunt, and drive away ba<l thoughts ; the
old lady became quiet, for she was sure none of
her blood run in my veins, and, if there was any
of her husband's there, it was no fault of hers.
iSlave-holding women are always revengeful toward
the cliildren of slaves that have any of the blood
of their husbands in them. I was too young —
only seven years of age — to understand what
was going on. But my poor and affectionate
mother understood and appreciated it all. When
she left the kitchen of the mansion-house, where
she was emploved as cook, and came home to her

own little cottage, the tear of anguish was in her
eye, and the image of sorrow upon every feature
of her face. She knew the female Nero whosff
rod was now to be over me. That night sleep
departed from her eyes. "With the youngest child
clasped firmly to her bosom, she spent the night
in walking the floor, coming ever and anon to lift
up the clothes and look at me and my poor brother,
who lay sleeping together. Sleeping, I said
Broiler slept, but not I. I saw my mother when
she first came to me, and I could not sleep. The
vision of that night — its deep, ineffaceable im-
pression— is now before my mind with all the
distinctness of yesterday. In the morning I was
put into the carriage with Mrs. B. and her chil-
dren, and my weary pilgrimage of suffering was
fairly begun.

Mrs. Banton is a character that can only
exist where the laws of the land clothe with
absolute power the coarsest, most brutal and
violent-tempered, equally with the most
generous and humane.

If irresponsible power is a trial to the
virtue of the most watchful and careful,
how fast must it develop cruelty in those
who are naturally violent and brutal !

This woman was united to a drunken
husband, of a temper equally ferocious. A
recital of all the physical torture which this
pair contrived to inflict on a hapless child,
some of which have left ineffaceable marks
on his person, would be too trying to hu-
manity, and we gladly draw a veil over it.

Some incidents, however, are presented
in the following extracts :

A very trivial offence was suflScient to call forth
a great burst of indignation from this woman of
ungoverned passions. In my simplicity, I put my
lips to the same vessel, and drank out of it, from
which her children were accustomed to drink.
She expressed her utter abhorrence of such an
act by throwing my head violently back, and
dashing into my face two dippers of water. The
shower of water was followed by a heavier shower
of kicks ; but the words, bitter and cutting, that
followed, were like a storm of hail upon my young
heart. " She would teach me better manners than
that ; she would let me know 1 was to be brought
up to her hand ; she would have one slave that
knew his place ; if I wanted water, go to the
spring, and not drink there in the house." This
was new times for me ; for some days I was com-
pletely benumbed with my sorrow.

If there be one so lost to all feeling as even to
say that the slaves do not suffer when families
are separated, let such a one go to the ragged
quilt which was my couch and pillow, and stand
there night after night, for long, weary hours,
and see the bitter tears streaming down the face
of that more than orphan boy, while with 'half-
suppressed sighs and sobs he calls again and
again upon his absent mother.

" Say, wast thou oonsoious of the tears I shed 1
Ilcivorod thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son 1
Wretch even then. ! life's journey just begun."

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

•15

He was employed till late at night in
spinning flax or rocking the baby, and
called at a very early hour in the morning;
and if he did not start at the first summons,
a cruel chastisement was sure to follow.
He says :

Such horror has seized me, lest I might not
hear the first shrill call, that I have often in
dreams fancied I heard that unwelcome voice,
and have leaped from my couch and walked
through tlio house and out of it before I awoke.
I have gone and called the other slaves, in my
sleep, and asked thein if they did not hear master
call. Never, while I live, will the remembrance
<A those long, bitter nights of fear pass from my
ramd.

He adds to this words which should be
deeply pondered by those who lay the flat-
tering unction to their souls that the op-
pressed do not feel the sundering of family
ties.

But all my sev.>re labor, and bitter and cruel
punishments, for these ten years of captivity with
this worse than Arab family, all these were as
nothing to the suii'crings I experienced by being
separated from my mother, brothers and sisters ;
the same things, with them near to sympathize
with me, to hear my story of sorrow, would have
5>een comparatively tolerable.

They were distant only about thirty miles ; and
yet, in ten long, lonely years of childhood, I was
only permitted to see them three times.

My motlior occa-sionally found an opportunity
to send me some token of remembrance and affec-
tion,— a sugar-plum or an apple ; but I scarcely
ever ate them ; they were laid up, and handled
and wept over, till they wasted away in my
hand.

My thoughts continually by day, and my dreams
by night, were of m(jther and home ; and the hor-
ror experienced in the morning, when I awoke
:ind beliold it was a dream, is beyond the power
of language to describe.

Lewis had a beautiful sister by the name
of Delia, who, on the death of her grand-
father, was sold, with all the other children
of his mother, for the purpose of dividing
the estate. She was a pious girl, a mem-
ber of the Baptist church. She fell into
the hands of a brutal, drunken man, who
wished to make her his mistress. Milton
Clark, a brother of Lewis, in the narra-
tive of his life describes the scene where
he, with his muther, stood at the door
while this girl was brutally whipped be-
fore it for wishing to conform to the prin-
ciples of her Christian profession. As her
resolution was unconqueiable, she was
placed in a cofile and sent down to the
New Orleans mai'ket. Here she was sold
to a Frenchman, named Coval. He took
her to Mexico, emancipated and married

her. After residing some time in France
and the West Indies with him. Tie died,
leaving her a fortune of twenty or thirty
thousand dollars. At her death she endeav-
ored to leave this by will to purchase the
freedom of her brothers ; but, as a slave
cannot take property, or even have it left
in trust for him, they never received any
of it.

The incidents of the recovery of Lewis'
freedom are thus told :

I had long thought and dreamed of Libe itt • 1
was now determined to n»ake an effort to gain it.
No tongue can tell the doubt, the perplexities, the
anxiety, which a slave feels, when making up his
mind upon this subject. If he makes an effort,
and is not successful, he must be laughed at by
his fellows, he will be beaten unmercifully by the
master, and then watched and used the harder for
it all his life.

And then, if he gets away, tvho, what will he
find? He is ignorant of the world. All the white
part of mankind, that he has ever seen, are ene-
mies to him and all his kindred. How can he
venture where none but white faces shall greet
him ? The master tells him that abolitionists
decoy slaves off into the free states to catch them
and sell them to Louisiana or Mississippi ; and, if
he goes to Canada, the British will put him in a
miyie under ground, with both eyes put out , for life.
How does he know what or whom to believe 1 A
horror of great darkness comes upon him, as he
thinks over what may befall him. Long, very
long time did I think of escaping, before 1 made
the effijrt.

At length, the report was started that I was to
be sold for Louisiana. Then I thought it was
time to act. My mind was made up.

What my feelings were when I reached the free
shore can be better imagined than described. I
trembled all over with deep emotion, and I could
feel my hair rise up on my head. I was on what
was called a free soil, among a people who had
no slaves. I saw white men at work, and no
slave smarting beneath the lash. Everything was
indeed neio and wonderful. Not knowing where
to find a friend, and being ignorant of the coun-
try, unwilling to inquire, lest I should betray my
ignorance, it was a whole week before I reached
Cincinnati. At one place where I put up, I lad
a great many more questions put to me than I
«-ished to answer. At another place, I was very
much annoyed by the officiousness of the landlord,
who_ made it a point to supply every guest with
newspapers. I took the copy handed me, and
turned it over, in a somewhat awkward manner,
1 suppose. He came to me to point out a veto,
or some other very important news. I thought it
best to decline his assistance', and gave up the
paper, saying my eyes were not in a fit condition
to read much.

At another place, the neighbors, on learning
that a Kentuckian was at the tavern, came, in
great earnestness, to find out what my business
was. Kentuckians sometimes came tliere to kid-
nap their citizens. They were in the habit of
watching them close. I at length satisfied them
by assuring them that I was not, nor my father

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

before me, any slave-holder at all ; but, lest their
suspicions should be excited in another direction,
I added my grandfather wa8 a slave-holder.
******
At daylight we were in Canada. When I
stepped ashore here, I said, sure enough, I am
FREE. Good heavens ! what a sensation, when it
first visits the b'osom of a full-grown man ; one
born to bondage ; one who had been taught, from
early infancy, that this was his inevitable lot for
life ! Not till then did I dare to cherish, for a
moment, the feeling that one of the limbs of my
body was my own. The slaves often say, when
cut in the hand or foot, "Plague on the old foot "
or " the old hand ! It is master's, — let him take
care of it Nigger don't care if he never get well."
My handS; my feet, were'now my ovm.

It will be recollected that George, in con-
versing with Eliza, gives an account of a
seene in which he was violently beaten by
his master's young son. This incident was
suggested by the following letter from John
M. Nelson to Mr. Theodore Weld, given
iil= Slavery as If, Is, p. 51.

Mr. Nelson removed from Virginia to
Highland County, Ohio, many years since,
where he is extensively known and re-
spected. The letter is dated January 3d,
1839.

I was bom and raised in Augusta County, Vir-
ginia ; my father was an elder in the Presbyterian
church, and was " o^vner " of about twenty slaves ;
he was what was generally termed a " good mas-
ter. ' ' His slaves were generally tolerably well fed
and clothed, and not over-worked ; they were some-
times permitted to attend church, and called in to
family worship ; few of them, however, availed
themselves of these privileges. On some occasions
I have seen him whip them severely, particularly
for the crime of trying to obtain their liberty, or for
what was called " running away." For this they
were scourged more severely than for anything else.
After they have been retaken I have seen them
stripped naked and suspended by the hands, some-
times to a tree, sometimes to a post, until their
toes barely touched the ground, and whipped with
a cowhide until the blood drfpped from their backs.
A boy named Jack, particularly, I have seen
served in this way more than once. When I was
quite a child, I recollect it grieved me very much
to see one tied up to be whipped, and I used to
intercede ■vfith tears in their behalf, and mingle
my cries with theirs, and feel almost willing to
take part of the punishment ; I have been severely
rebuked by my father for this kind of sympathy.
Yet, such is the hai'dening nature of such scenes,
that from this kind of commiseration for the suf-
fering slave I became so blunted that I could not
only witness their stripes with composure, but
myself inllict them, and that witliout remorse.
One case I have often looked back to with sorrow
and contrition, particularly since I have been con-
vinced that "negroes are men." When I was
perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of ago, 1 under-
took to coi-rect a young fellow named Ned, for
some supposed ofibnce, — I think it was leaving a
bridle out of its proper place ; he, being larger

and stronger than myself, took hold of my arms
and held me, in order to prevent my striking him.
This I considered the height of insolence, and
cried for help, when my father and mother both
came running to my rescue. My father stripped
and tied him, and took him into the orchard, where
switches were plenty, and directed me to whip
him ; when one switch wore out, he supplied me
with others. After I had whipped him a while,
he fell on his knees to implore forgiveness, and I
kicked him in the face ; my father said, " Don't
kick him, but whip him;" this I did until his
back was literally covered with ivelts. I know I
have repented, and trust I have obtained pardon
for these things.

My father ovrned a woman (we used to call
aimt Grace) ; she was pvurchased in Old Virginia-
She has told me that her old master, in his wiUf
gave her her freedom, but at his death his' sons
had sold her to my father : when he bought her
she manifested some unwillingness to go with him,
when she was put in irons and taken by force.
This was before I was born ; but I remember to
have seen the irons, and was told that was what
they had been used for. Aimt Grace is still living,
and must be between seventy and eighty years of
age ; she has, for the last forty years, been an
exemplary Christian. When I was a youth I took
some pains to learn her to read ; this is now a
great consolation to her. Since age and infii-mity
have rendered her of little value to her " owners,"'
she is permitted to read as much as she pleases ;
this she can do, with the aid of glasses, in the old
family Bible, which is almost the only book she
has ever looked into. This, with some little
mending for the black children, is all she does ;
she is still held as a slave. I well remember what
a heart-rending scene there was in the family when
my father sold her husband; this was, I suppose,
thirty-five years ago. And yet my father was
considered one of the best of masters. I know
of few who were better, but of many who were
worse.

With regard to the intelligence of George,
and his teaching himself to read 'and write,
there is a most interesting and affecting
parallel to it in the "Life of Frederick
Douglass," — a book which can be recom-
mended to any one who has a curiosity to
trace the workings of an intelligent and ac-
tive mind through all the squahd misery,
degradation and oppression, of slavery. A
few incidents will be given.

Like Clark, Douglass was the son of a
white man. He was a plantation slave in u
proud old family. His situation, probably,
may be considered as an average one ; that
is to say, he led a life of dirt, degradation,
discomfort of various kinds, made tolerable
as a matter of daily habit, and considered
as enviable in comparison with the lot of
those who suffer worse abuse. An iricident
which Douglass relates of his mother is
touching. He states that it is customary
at an early age tc separate mothers from
their chikb-cn, for the purpose of blunting

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

and deadening natural affection. When he
was three years old his mother was sent to
work on a plantation eight or ten miles dis-
tant, and after that he never saw her except
in the night. After her day's toil she
would occasionally walk over to her child,
lie down with him in her arms, hush hiip to
sleep in her hosom, then rise up and walk
back again to be ready for her field work
by daylight. Now, we ask the highest-
born lady in England or America, who is a
mother, wliether this does not show that
. this poor field- laborer had in her bosom,
* Ijpneath her dirt and rags, a true mother's
heart '?

The last and bitterest indignity which
has been heaped on the head of the un-
happy slaves has been the denial to them of
those holy affections which God gives alike
to all. We are told, in fine phrase, by lan-
guid ladies of fashion, that " it is not to be
supposed that those creatures have the same
feelings that we have," when, perhaps, the
very speaker could not endure one tithe of
the fatigue and suffering which the slave-
mother often bears for her child. Every
mother who has a mother's heart within her,
ought to know that this is blasphemy against
nature, and. standing between the cradle of
her hving and the grave of her dead child,
should indignantly reject such a slander on
all motherhood.

Douglass thus relates the account of his
learning to read, after he had been removed
tx) the situation of house-servant in Balti-
more.

It seems that his mistress, newly rdarried
and unaccustomed to the management of
slaves, was very kind to him, and, among
other acts of kindness_, commenced teaching
liim to read. His master, discovering what
was going on, he says,

At once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me fur-
ther, telling her, among other things, that it was
imlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to
read. To use his ovra words, further, he said,
" If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.
A nigger should know nothing but to obey his
master — to do as he is told to do. Learning
would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now,"
said he, " if you teach that nigger (speaking of
myself) how to read, there would be no keeping
him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.
He would at once become unmanageable, and of
no value, to his master. As to himself, it could
do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It
would make him discontented and unhappy."
These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up
sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called
into existence an entirely new train of thought.
It was a new and special revelation, explaining
dark and mysterious things, with which my youth-

ful understanding had struggled, but struggled in
vain. I now understood what had been to me
a most perplexing difficulty — to wit, the white
man's power to enslave the black man. It was a
grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From
that moment, I understood the pathway from slav-
ery to freedom.

After this, his mistress was as watchful tc
prevent his learning to read as she had
before been to instruct him. His course
after this he thus describes :

From this time I was most narrowly watched.
If I was m a separate room any considerable
length of time, I was sure to be suspected of hav-
ing a book, and was at once called to give an ac-
count of myself. All this, however, was too late.
The first step had been taken. INIistress, in teach-
ing me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no
precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.

The plan which I adopted, and the one by which
I was most successful, was that of making' friends
of all the little white boys whom T met in the
street. As many of these as I could I converted
into teachers. With thoir kindly aid, obtained a*
difierent times and in different places, I finally suc-
ceeded in learning to read. When I was sent of
errands I always took my book with me, and by
going one part of my errand quickly, I found time
to get a lesson before my return. I used also to
carry bread with me, enough of which was always
in the house, and to which I was always welcome ;
for I was much better ofi'in this regard than many
of the^poor white children in our neighborhood.
This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little
urchins, who, in return, would give me that more
valuable bread of knowledge. I am strongly
tempted to give the names of two or three of those
little boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and
affection I bear them ; but prudence forbids ; —
not that it would injure me, hut it might embarrass
them ; for it is almost an unpardonable offence to
teach slaves to read in this Christjan country. It
is enough to say of the dear little fellows, that
they lived on Philpot-strect, very near Durgin and
Bailey's ship-yard. I used to talk this matter of
slavery over with them. I would sometimes say
to them I wished I could be as free as they would
be when they got to be men. " You will' be free
as soon as you are twenty-one, 6w< / am a slave for
life ! Have not I as good a right to be free as you
have V These words used to trouble them ; they
would express for me the liveliest sympathy, and
console me with the hope that something would
occur by which I might be free.

I was now about twelve years old, and the ,ir
thought of being a slave for life began to bear
heavily upon my heart. Just about this time I
got hold of a book entitled " The Columbian Ora-
tor." Every opportunity I got I used to read this
book. Among much of other interesting matter^
I found in it a dialogue between a master and his
slave. The slave was represented as having run
away from his master three times. The dialogue
represented the conversation which took place be-
tween them when the slave was retaken the third
time. In this dialogue, the whole argument in
behalf of slavery was brought forward by the
master, all of which was disposed of Ijy the slaTfl,
The slave was made to say some very smart as
well as impressive things in reply to his maater,

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

■^

— things which had the desired though unex-
pected effect ; for the conversation resulted in the
voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part
of the master.

In the same book I met vrith one of Sheridan's
mighty speeches on and in bclfalf of Catholic
emancipation. These were choice documents to
me. I read them over and over again, with un-
abated interest. They gave tongue to interesting
thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently
flashed through my mind , and died away for want
of utterance. Tlie moral which I gained from the
dialogue was the power of truth over the con-
Bcience of even a slave-holder. What I got from
Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and
a powerful vindication of human rights. The
reading of these documents enabled me to utter
my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought
forward to sustain slavery ; but, while they re-
lieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another
even more painful than the one of which I was
relieved. The more I read, the more I was led to
abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard
them in no other light than a band of successful
robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to
Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a
strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed
them as being the meanest as well as the most
wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the
subject, behold ! that very discontentment which
Master Hugh had predicted would follow my
learning to read had already come, to torment and
Bting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I
writhed under it, I would at times feel that learn-
ing to read had been a curse rather than a bless-
ing. It had given me a view of my wretched con-
dition without the remedy. It opened my oyes to
the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to
get out. In moments of agony I envied my
fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often
wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition
of the meanest reptile to my own. Anything, no
matter what, to get rid of thinking ! It was this
everlasting thinking of my condition that tor-
mented me. There Avas no getting. rid of it. It
was pjressed upoa me by every object within sight
©r hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver
trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal
wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disap-
pear no more forever. It was heard in every
Bound, and seen in every thing. It was ever pi-es-
ent to torment me with a sense of my wretched
condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I
heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing
without feeling it. It looked from every star, it
smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and
moved in every storm.

I often found myself regretting my own exist-
ence, and wishing myself dead ; and but for the
hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I
should have killed myself, or done something for
which I should have been killed. While in this
state of mind I was eager to hear any one speak
of slavery. I was a ready listener. Every little
while I could hear something about the abolition-
ists. It was some time before I found what the
word meant. It was always used in such connec-
tions as to make it an interesting word to me. If
a slave ran away and succeeded in getting clear,
or if a slave killed his master, set tire to a barn,
€»r did anything very wrong in the mind of a slave-
holder, it was spoken of as the fruit of abolition.
HiarxDg the word in thi^ connection very often. I

set about learning what it meant. The dictionary
afforded me little or no help. I found it was " the
act of abolishing ;" but then I did not know what
was to be abolished. Here I was perplexed. I
did not dare to ask anj' one about its meaning,
for I was satisfied that it was something they
wanted me to know very little aliout. x\fter a
patient waiting, I got one of our city papers, con-
taining an account of the number of petitions from
the North praying for the al)olition of slavery in
the District of Columbia, and of the slave-trade
between the states. From this time I understood
the words abolition and abolitionist, and always
drew near when that word was spoken, expecting
to hear something of importance to myself and
fellow-slaves. The light broke in upon me by de-
grees. I went one day down on the wharf of Mr.
Waters ; and, seeing two Irishmen unloading »
scow of stone, I went, unasked, and helped them.
When we had finished, one of them came to me
and asked me if I were a slave. I told him I was.
He asked, " Are ye a slave for life'?" I told him
that I was. The good Irishman seemed to be
deeply affected by the statement. He said to the
other that it was a pity so tine a little fellow as my-
self should be a slave for life. He said it was a
shame to hold me. They both advised me to run
away to the North ; that I should find friends there,
and that I should be free. I pretended not to be
interested in- what they said, and treated them a?
if I did not understand them ; for I feared they
might be treacherous. White men have been
known to encourage slaves to escape, and then, to
get the reward, catch them and return them to
their masters. I was afraid that these seemingly
good men might use me so ; but I nevertheless
remembered their advice, and from that time I re-
solved to run away. I looked forward to a time
at which it would be safe for me to escape. I
was too young to think of doing so immediately ;
besides, I wished to learn how to write, as I might
have occasion to write my own pass. I consoled
myself with the hope that I should one day find a
good chance. Meanwhile I would learn to write.
The idea as to how I might learn to write was
suggested to me by being in Durgin and Bailey's
ship-yard, and frequently seeing the ship carpen-
ters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber
ready for use, write on the timber the name of
that part of the ship for which it was intended
When a piece of timber was intended for the lar-
board side it would be marked thus — " L."
AVhen a piece was for the starlioard side it would
be marked thus — " S. " A piece for the larbo;ixd
side forward would be marked thus — "L. F."
When a piece was for starlioard side forward it
would be marked thus — "S. F." For larboard
aft it would be marked thus — "L. A." For
starboard aft it would be marked thus — " S. A.'*
I soon learned the 'names of tliese letters, and for
what they were intended when placed upon a
piece of timber in the sliip-yard. I immediately
commcijccd copying them, and in a short time was
able to make the four letters named. After that,
when I met with any boy who I knew could WTite,
I would tell him I could write as well as ho. Tiio
next word would be, " I don't believe you. Let
me see you try it." I would then 'make the let
ters which I had been so fortunate as to learn,
and ask him to beat that In this way I got a
good many lessons in writing, which it is quite
pOesible I should never have gotten in aiiy other
way. During this time my copy-book was the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

board fence, brick wall and pavement ; my pen
and ink was a lump of chalk. With these I
learned mainly how to wi-ite. I then commenced
and continued cojiying the Italics in Webster's
Spelling-book, until I could make them all with-
out looking on the book. By this time my little
Master Thomas had gone to school and learned
how to write, and had written over a number of
copy-books. These had been brought home, and
shown to some of our near neighbors, and then
laid aside. My mistress used to go to class-meet-
ing at the Wilk-street meeting-house every Mon-
day afternoon, and leave me to take care of the
house. When left thus I used to spend the time
in writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas'
copy-book, copying what he had Avritten. I con-
tinued to do tliis until I could write a hand very
similar to that of Master Thomas. Thus, after a
long, tedious effort for years. I finally succeeded
in learning how to write.

These few quoted incidents "will show
that the case of George Harris is bj no
means so uncommon as might be supposed.

Let the reader peruse the account which
George Harris gi\'es of the sale of his
mother and her children, and then read the
following'' account given bj the venerable
Josiah Henson, now pastor of the mission-
r^rj settlement at Dawn, in Canada.

After the death of his master, he says,
the slaves of the plantation were all put up
at auction and sold to the highest bidder.

!My brothers and sisters were bid off one by one,
while my mother, holding my hand, looked on in
an agony of grief, the cause of which I but ill
understood at iirst, but which dawned on my mind
with dreadful clearness as the sale proceeded. My
mother was then separated from me, and put up
in her turn. She was bought Ijy a man named
Isaac R., residing in Montgomery County [Mary-
land], and then I was offered to the asseml^led pur-
chasers. My mother, half distracted with the
parting forever from all her children, pushed
through the crowd, wiiile the bidding for me was
going on, to the spot where R. was standing. She
fell at his feet, and clung to his knees, entreating
him, in tones that a mother only could CDmmand,
to buy her baby as well as herself, and spare to her
one of -her little ones at least. Will it, can it be
believed, that this man, thus appealed to, was
capable not merely of turning a deaf ear to her
6upplicati(m, but of disengaging himself from her
with such violent blows and kicks as to reduce
her to the necessity of creeping out of his reach,
and mingling the groan of bodily suffering with
the sob of a breaking heart ?

Now, all these incidents that have been
given are real incidents of slavery, related
by those who know slavery by the best of
all tests — experience; and they are given
by men who have e;u'ned a character in free-
dom which makes their word as good as the
YTOrd of any man living.

The case of Le^ns Clark might be called
& harder one than common. The case of

Douglass is prolably a very fair average
specimen.

The writer has conversed, in her time, with
a very considerable number of liberated
slaves, many of whom stated that their own
individual lot had been comparatively a mild
one ; but she never talked with one Avho
did not let fall, first or last, some incident
which he had observed, some scene which
he had witnessed, which went to show some
most horrible abuse of the system; and,
what was most aflecting about it, the nar-
rator often evidently considered it so much a
matter of course as to mection it incident-
ally, without any particular emotion.

It is supposed by many that the great
outcry among those who are opposed to
slavery comes from a morbid reading of
unautlienticated accounts gotten up in
abolition papers, &c. This idea is a very
mistaken one. The accounts which tell
againsf the slave-system are derived from
the continual living testimony of the poor
slave himself; often from that of the fugi-
tives from slavery Avho are continually pass-
ing through our Northern cities.

As a specimen of some of the incidents
thus developed, is given the following fact
of recent occurrence, related to the author
by a lady in Boston. This lady, who was
much in the habit of visiting the poor, was
sent for, a month or two since, to see a
mulatto woman who had just arrived at a
colored boarding-house near by, and who
appeared to be in much dejection of mind.
A httle conversation shoAved her to be a fu-
gitive. Her history was as follo^vs : She,
with her brother, were, as is often the case,
both the children and slaves of their master.
At his death they were left to his legitimate
daughter as her servants, and treated with
as much consideration as very common kind
of people might be expected to show to those
who Avere entirely and in every respect at
their disposal.

The wife of her brother ran away to
Canada ; and as there Avas some talk of sell-
ing her and her child, in consequence of
some embarrassment in the family affairs,
her brother, a fine-spirited young man, de-
termined to effect her escape, also, to a land
of liberty. He concealed her for some time
in the back part of an obscure dwelling in
the city, till he could find an opportunity
to send her off. While she was in this re-
treat, he was indefatigable in his attentions
to her, frequently bringing her fruit and
flowers, and doing everything he could to
beguile the weariness of her impr -rsnent.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

At length, the steward of a vessel, whom j to the first circles of Boston society ; she
he had obliged, offered to conceal him on I says that she never was more impressed by-
board the siiip, and give him a chance to j the personal manners of any gentleman
escape. The noble-hearted fellow, though i than by those of this fugitive brother. So

tempted by an offer which would ena1)le
him immediately to join his wife, to wliom
he was tenderly attached, preferred to give
this offer to his sister, and during the ab-
sence of the captain of the vessel she and
her child were brought on board and se-
creted.

The captain, when he returned and dis-
covered what had been done, was very
angry, as the thing, if detected, would
have involved him in very serious difficul-
ties. He declared, at first, that he would
send the woman up into town to jail ; but,
by her entreaties and those of the stcAvard
was induced to

word to her brother to come and take her
back. After dark the brother came on
board, and, instead of taking his sister
away, began to appeal to the humanity of
the captain in the most moving terms. He
told his sister's history and his own, and
pleaded eloquently his desire for her liberty.
The captain had determined to be obdurate,
but, alas ! he was only a man. Perhaps
he had himself a wife and child, — perhaps
he felt that, were he in the young ma,n's
case, he would do just so for his sister. Be
it as it may, he was at last overcome. He
paid to the young man, " I must send you
away from my ship ; I '11 put off a boat
and see you got into it, and you nmst row
off, and never let me see your fiices again ;
and if, after all, you should come back and
get on board, it will be your fault, and not
mine."

So, in the rain and darkness, the young
man an<l his sister and child were lowered
over the side of the vessel, and rowed away.
After a while the ship weighed anchor, but
before she reached Boston it was discovered
that the woman and child were on board.

The lady to whom this story was related
was requested to write a letter, in certain
terms, to a person in the city whence the
fugitive had come, to let the brother know
of her safe arrival.

The fugitive was furnished with work,
by which she could support herself and
child, and the lady carefully attended to her
wants for a few Aveeks.

One morning she came in, with a good

deal of agitation, exclaiming, " 0, ma'am,

he's come ! George is come ! " And in a

few minutes the young man was introduced

The lady who gave this relation belongs

much did he have the air of a perfect, fin-
ished gentleman, that she felt she could not
question him with regard to his escape with
the fomiliarity v/ith Avhich persons of his
condition are commonly approached ; and it
was not till he requested her to write a let-
ter for him, because he could not write
himself, that she could realize that this fine
specimen of manhood had been all his life a
slave.

The remaindei of the history is no less
romantic. The lady had a friend in Mont-
real, whither George's wife had gone ; and,
after furnishing; money to pay their ex-

wait till evening, and send penses, she presented them with a letter to

this gentleman, requesting the latter to
assist the young man in finding his wife.
When they landed at INIontreal, George
stepped on shore and presented this letter
to the first man he met, asking him if he
knew to whom it was directed. The gen-
tleman proved to be the very person to
whom the letter was addressed. He knew
George's wife, brought him to her without
delay, so that, by return mail, the lady had
the satisfaction of learning the happy termi-
nation of the adventure.

This is but a specimen of histories which
are continually transpiring; so that those
who speak of slavery can say, "We speak
that which we do know, and testify that we
have seen."

But we shall be told the slaves are all a
lying race, and that these are lies which they
tell us. There are some things, however,
about these slaves, which cannot lie. Those
deep lines of patient sorrow upon the face ;
that attitude of crouchino; and humble sub-
jection; that sad, habitual expression of
hope deferred, in the eye, — would tell tjieir
story, if the slave never spoke. '

It is not long since the writer has seen
faces such as might haunt one's dreams for
weeks.

Suppose a poor, worn-out mother, sickly,
feeble and old, — her hands worn to the
bone with hard, unpaid toil, — whose nine
children have been sold to the slave-trader,
and Avhosc tenth soon is to be sold, unless
by her labor as washer-woman she can raise
nine hundred dollars ! Such are the kind
of cases constantly coming to one's knowl-
I" And in n. edge, — such are tlie Avitncsses which will
not let us sleep.

Doubt has been expressed -whether such

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

a tlung as an advertisement for a man,
" dead or alive,'' like the advertisement for
George Harris, was ever published in the
Southern States. The scene of the story in
which that occurs is supposed to be laid a
few years back, at the time when the black
laws of Ohio were passed. That at this
time such advertisements were common in
the newspapers, there is abundant evidence.
That they are less common now, is a matter
of hope and gratulation.

In the year 1839, Mr. Theodore D.
Weld made a systematic attempt to collect
and arrange the statistics of slavery. A
mass of facts and statistics was gathered,
Tvhich were authenticated with the most
unquestionable accuracy. Some of the
'• one tliousand witnesses," whom he brings
upon the stand, were ministers, lawyers,
merchants, and men of various other call-
ings, who were either natives of the slave
states, or had been residents there for many
years of their life. Many of these were
slave-holders. Others of the witnesses
were, or had been, slave-drivers, or officers of
coasting-vessels engaged in the slave-trade.

Another part of his evidence was gath-
ered from public speeches in Congress, in
the state legislatures, and elsewhere. But
the majority of it was taken from recent
newspapers.

The papers from which these facts were
copied were pi'eserved and put on file in a
public place, where they remained for some
years, for the information of the curious.
After Mr. Weld's book was completed, a
copy of it was sent, through the mail, to
every editor from whose paper such adver-
tisements had been taken, and to every in-
dividual of whom any facts had been nar-
rated, with the passages Avhich concerned
them marked.

It is quite possible that this may have
had some influence in rendering such ad-
vertisements less common. Men of sense
often go on doing a thing which is very
absurd, or even inhuman, simply because it
has alwaj's been done before them, and they
follow general custom, without much reflec-
tion. When their attention, however, is
called to it by a stranger who se6s the
thing from another point of view, they be-
come immediately sensible of the improprie-
ty of the practice, and discontinue it. The
reader ^ill, however, be pained to notice,
when he comes to the legal part of the book,
that even in some of the largest cities of our
slave states this barbarity had not been en-
tirely discontinued, in the year 1850.

The list of advertisements in Mr. Weld's
book is here inserted, not to weary the
reader with its painful details, but that, by
running his eye over the dates of the papers
quoted, and the places of their publication,
he may form a fair estimate of the extent to
which this atrocity was j^'^Micly practised :

The Wilmington (North Carolina) Advertiser of
July 13, 1838, contains the following advertise-
ment :

" $100 will be paid to any person who may ap"
prehend and safely confine in any jail in this state
li certain negro man, named Alfred. And the
same reward will be paid, if satisfactory evidence
is given of his having been killed. He has one or
more scars on one of his hands, caused by his hav-
ing been shot. The Citizens of Onslow.

" Richlands, Onslow Co., May 16, 1538."

In the same column with the above, and direct-
ly under it, is the following :

" Ran AWAY, my negro man Richard. A reward
of $25 will be paid for his apprehension, DEAD
or ALIVE. Satisfactory proof will only be re-
quired of his bluing KILLED. He has with
him, in all probability, his wife, Eliza, who ran
away from Col. Thompson, now a resident of Ala-
bama, about the time he commenced his journey
to that state. Dl'rant H. Rhodes."

In the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, May 28, is
the following :

"About the 1st of March last the negro man
Ransom left me without the least provocation
whatever ; I will give a reward of twenty dollars
for said negro, if taken, dead or alive, — and if
killed in any attempt, an advance of five dollars
will be paid. Bryant Johnson.

^^ Crawford Co., Georgia.'^

See the Newbern (N. C.) Spectator, Jan. 5, 1838,
for the following :

" RAN A WAY from the subscriber, a negro
man named SAMPSON. Fifty dollars reward
will be given for the delivery of him to me, or liis
confinement in any jail, so that I get him:
and should he resist in being taken, so that vio-
lence is necessary to arrest him, I will not hold
any person liable for damages should the slave be
KILLED. Enoch Foy.

''Jones Co., N. C."

From the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, Feb. 20,
183G:

" $300 REWARD. — Ranaway from the sub-
scriber, in Noveiulier last, his two negro men
named Billy and Pompey.

" Billy is 25 years old, and is known as the
patroon of my boat for many jears ; in all proba-
fjility he may resist ; in that event 50 dollars will
be paid for his HEAD."

CHAPTER V.

ELIZA.

The writer stated in her book that Eliza
was a portrait drawn fi-om life. The inci-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

dent wliich brought the original to her
notice may be simply narrated.

While the writer was travelling in Ken-
tucky, many years ago, she attended church
in a small country town. While there, her
attention was called to a beautiful quadroon
girl, who sat in one of the shps of the church,
and appeared to have charge of some young
children. The description of Eliza may
suffice for a description of her. When the
author returned from church, she inquired
about the girl, and was told that she was as
gODd and amiable as she was beautiful ; that
she was a pious girl, and a member of the
church; and, finally, that she was owned
by Mr. So-and-so. The idea that this girl
was a slave struck a chill to her heart, and
she said, earnestly, " 0, I hope they treaf
her kindly."

"0, certainly," was the reply; "they
think as much of her as of their own chil-
dren."

" I hope they will never sell her," said a
person in the company.

"Certainly they will not; a Southern
gentleman, not long ago. offered her master
a thousand dollars for her : but he told him
that she was too good to be his wife, and he
certainly should not have her for a mis-
tress."

This is all that the writer knows of that
girl.

With regard to the incident of Eliza's
crossing the river on the ice, — as the possi-
bility of the thing has been disputed, — the
writer gives the following circumstance in
confirmation.

Last spring, while the author was in New
York, a Presbyterian clergyman, of Ohio,
came to her. and said, " I understand they
dispute that fact about the woman's crossing
the river. Now, I know all about that, for
I got the story from the very man that
helped her up the bank. I know it is true,
for she is now living in Canada."

It has been objected that the representa-
tion of the scene in which the plan for kid-
napping Eliza, concocted by Haley, Marks
and Loker, at the tavern, is a gross carica-
ture on the state of things in Ohio.
' What knowledge the author has had of
the facilities which some justices of the
peace, under the old fugitive law of Ohio,
were in the habit of giving to kidnapping,
may be inferred by comparing the statement
m her book with some in her personal knowl-
edge.

" Yo seo," said Marks to llalcy, stirring his

punch as he did so, " ye see, we has justices con-
venient at all p'ints alongshore, that docs up any
little jobs in our line quite reasonable. Tom, he
does the knoekin' down, and that ar ; and I com©
in all dressed up, — shining boots, — everything
first chop, — when the swearin' 's to be done. You
oughter see me, now ! " said Marks, in a glow of
professional pride, " how I can tone it off. One
day I 'm Mr. Twickem, from Ncav Orleans ;
'nother day, I 'm just come from my plantation oa
Pearl river, where I works seven hundred nig-
gers ; then, again, I come out a distant relation
to Henry Clay, or some old cock in Ken tuck.
Talents is different, j^ou know. Now, Tom 's a
roarer when there 's any thumping or fighting to
be done; but at lying lie an't good, Tom an't;
ye see it don 't come natural to him ; but, Lord !
if thar 's a feller in the country that can swear to
anything and everything, and put in all the cir-
cumstances and flourishes with a longer face, and
carry 't through Ijetter 'n I can, why, I 'd like to
see him, that 's all ! I b'lieve, my heart, I could
get along, and make through, even if justices
were more particular than they is. Sometimes I
rather wish they was more particular ; 't would
be a heap more relishin' if they was, — more fun,
yer know."

In the year 1839, the writer received
into her family, as a servant, a girl from
Kentucky. She had been the slave of one
of the lowest and most brutal families, with
whom she had been brought up, in a log-
cabin, in a state of half-barbarism. In pro-
ceeding to give her religious instruction, the
author heard, for the first time in her life,
an inquiry which she had not supposed pos-
sible to be made in America : — " Who is
Jesus Christ, now, anyhow? "

When the author told her the history of
the love and life and death of Christ, the
girl seemed wholly overcome ; tears streamed
down her cheeks ; and she exclaimed, pite-
ously, "Why did n't nobody never tell me
this before? "

" But," said the writer to her, " have n't
you ever seen the Bible 7 "

" Yes, I have seen missus a-readin' on 't
sometimes ; but, law sakcs ! she 's just
a-readin' on 't 'cause she could ; don't s'pose
it did her no good, no way."

She said she had been to one or two camp-
meetings in her life, but " didn't notice very
particular."

At all events, the story certainly made
great impression on her, and had such an
effect in improving her conduct, that the
writer had great hopes of her.

On inquiring into her history, it was dis-
covered that, by the laws of Ohio, .she was
legally entitled' to her freedom, from the
fact of her having been brought into the
state, and left there, teuiporaril}'-, by the
consent of her mistress. These facts being

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

properly authenticated before the proper
authorities, papers attesting her freedom
were drawn up, and it was now supposed
that all danger of pursuit was over. After
she had remained in the family for some
months, word was sent, from various sources,
to Professor Stowe, that the girl's young
master was over, looking for her, and that,
if care -were not taken, she would be con-
veyed back into slavery.

Professor Stowe called on the magistrate
who had authenticated her papers, and
inquired whether they were not sufficient to
protect her. The reply was, " Certainly
they are, in law, if she could have a fair
hearing ; but they will come to your house
in the n>ght, with an officer and a warrant ;

they will take her before Justice D ,

and swear to her. lie 's the man that does
all this kind of business, and he '11 deliver
her up, and there '11 be an end to it."

Mr. Stowe then inquired what could be
done ; and was recommended to carry her to
some place of security till the inquiry for
her was over. Accordingly, that night, a
brother of the author, with Professor Stowe,
performed for the fugitive that office which
the senator is represented as performing for
Eliza. They drove about ten miles on a
solitary road, crossed the creek at a very
dangerous fording, and presented themselves,
at midnight, at the house of John Van
Zandt, a noble-minded Kentuckian, who had
performed the good deed which the author,
in her story, ascribes to Van Tromp.

After some rapping at the door, the wor-
thy owner of the mansion appeared, candle
in hand, as has been narrated.

"Are you the man that would save a
poor colored girl from kidnappers 7" was the
first question.

" Guess I am," was the prompi resprnse ;
'•where is she? "

-Why, she's here."

"But how did you come '? " '

" I crossed the creek."

" Why, the Lord helped you ! " said he ;
"I should n't dare cross it myself in the
night. A man and his wife, and five chil-
dren, were drowned there, a httle while
ago."

The reader may be interested to know
that the poor girl never was re-taken ; that
she married well in Cincinnati, is a very
respectable woman, and the mother of a
large family of children.

CHAPTER VI.

UNCLE TOM.

The character of Uncle Tom has been
objected to as improbable ; and yet the
writer has received more confirmations of
that character, and from a greater variety
of sources, than of any other in the book.

Many people have said to her, "I knew
an Uncle Tom in such and such a Southern
State." All the histories of this kind which
have thus been related to her would of
themselves, if collected, make a small vol-
ume. The author will relate a few of them.

While visiting in an obscure town in
Maine, in the family of a friend, the conver-
sation happened to turn upon this subject,
and the gentleman with whose family sho
was staying related the following. He said
that, when on a visit to his brother, in New
Orleans, some years before, he found in his
possession a most valuable negro man, of
such remarkable probity and honesty that
his brother literally trusted him with all he
had. He had frequently seen him take out
a handful of bills, without looking at them,
and hand them to this servant, bidding him
go and provide what was necessary for the
family, and bring him tlie change. He
remonstrated with his brother on this impru-
dence ; but the latter replied that he had had
such proof of this servant's impregnable con-
scientiousness that he felt it safe to trust
him to any extent.

The history of the servant was this. He
had belonged to a man in Baltimore, who,
having a general prejudice against all the
religious exercises of slaves, did all that h&^*
could to prevent his having any time for ^^
devotional duties, and strictly forbade him
to read the Bible and pray, either by him-
self, or with the other servants ; and because,
lik.^ a certain man of old, named Daniel, he
consisntly disobeyed this unchristian edict,
his master inflicted upon him that punish-
ment which a master always has in his
power to inflict, — he sold him into perpet-
ual exile from his wife and children, down to
New Orleans.

The gentleman who gave the writer this in-
formation says that, although not himself a
religious man at the time, he was so struck
with the man's piety that he said to his •
brother, "I hope you will never do anything
to deprive this man of his religious privi-
leges, for I think a judgment will come upon
you if you do." To this his brother replied
that he should be very foolish tc do it, since

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

V:^

he had made up his mind that the man's
rehgion was the root of his extraordinary
excellences.

Some time since, there was sent to the
writer from the South, through the mail, a
little book, entitled, " Sketches of Old Vir-
ginia Family Servants," with a preface by
Bishop INIeade. The book contains an
account of the following servants-: African
Bella, Old Milly, Blind Lucy, Aunt Betty,
Springfield Bob, Mammy Chris, Diana
Washington, Aunt Margaret, Rachel Par-
ker, Nelly Jackson, My Own Mammy, Aunt
Beck.

The following extract from Bishop Meade's
preface may not be uninteresting.

The following sketches were placed in my hands
with a request that I would examine them with a
view to publication.

After reading them I could not but think that
they would be both pleasing and edifying.

Very many such examples of fidelity and piety
might be added from the old Virginia families.
These will sufBce as specimens, and will serve to
show how interesting the relation between master
and servant oft^n is.

Many will doubtless be surprised to find that
there was so much intelligence, as well as piety, in
some of the old servants of Virginia, and that they
had learned to read the Sacred Scriptures, so as to
be useful In this way among their felloAV-servants.
It is, and always has been true, in regard to the
servants of the Southern States, that although
public schools may have been prohibited, yet no
interference has been attempted, where the own-
ers,have chosen to teach their servants, or permit
them to learn in a private way, how to read
God's word. Accordingly, there always have
been some who were thus taught. In the more
southern states the number of these has most
abounded. Of this flxct I became well assured,
about thirty years since, when visiting the Atlan-
tic states, with a view to the formation of auxil-
iary colonization societies, and the selection of
the first colonists f<jr Africa. In the city of
Charleston, South Carolina, I found more intelli-
gence and character among the free colored popu-
lation than anywhere else. The same was true
of some of those in 1)ondage. A respectable num-
ber might h& seen in certain parts of the Episco-
pal churches wliich I attended using their prayer-
books, and joining in the rosp(mses of the church.

Many purposes of convenience and hospitality
were subsei-ved l)y this encouragement of cultiva-
tion in some of the servants, on the part of the
owners.

When travelling many years since with a sick
wife, and two female relatives, Irom Charleston
to Virginia, at a period of the year when many of
the families from the country resort to the town for
health, we were kindly urged to call at tlie seat
of one of the first families in South Ciirolina, and
a letter from the mistress, then in tlie city, was
given us, to her servant, who liad charge of tlio
house in the al)3once of tlie family. On reaching
there and detiveriug the letter to a most respect-
able-looking female servant, who immediately read
it, we were kindly welcomed, and entertained,

during a part of two days, as sumptuously aa
though the ownei had been present. We un-
derstood that it was no uncommon thing in South
Carolina for travellers to be thus entertained by
the servants in the absence of the owners, on re-
ceiving letters from the same.

Instances of confidential and afiectionate rela-
tionship between servants and their masters and
mistresses, such as are set fortli in the following
Sketches, are still to be found in all the slave-
holding states. I mention one, which has come
under my own observation. The late Judge Up-
shur, of Virginia, had a faithful house-servant
(by his will now set free), with whom he used to
correspond on matters of business, when he was
absent on his circuit. I was dining at his house,
some years since, with a number of persons, him-
self being aljsent, when the conversation turned on
the subject of the presidential election, then
going on through the United States, and about
which there was an intense interest ; Avhen his
servant informed us that he had that day received
a letter from his master, then on the western
shore, in which he stated that the friends of Gen-
eral Harrison might be relieved from all uneasi-
ness, as the returns already received made his
election quite certain.

Of course it is not to be supposed that we de-
sign to convey the impression that such instances
are numerous, the nature of the relationship for-
bidding it ; but we do mean emphatically to
affirm that there is far more of kindly and Chris-
tian intercourse than many at a distance are apt
to believe. That there is a great and sad want of
Christian instruction, notwithstanding the more
recent efforts put forth to impart it, we most
sorrowfully acknowledge.

Bishop Meade adds that these sketches
are published with the hope that they might
have the effect of turning the attention of
ministers and heads of families more seri-
ously to the duty of caring for the souls of
their servants.

With regard to the servant of Judge Up-
shur, spoken of in this communication of
Bishop Meade, his master has left, in his
last will, the following remarkal^le tribute to
his worth and excellence of character :

I emancipate and set free my servant, David
Rice, and direct my executors to give him one hun-
dred dol/ois. I recommend him in the strongest
manner to the respect, esteem and confidence, of
any counnunity in which he may happen to live.
He has been my slave for twenty-four years, dur-
ing all which time he has been trusted to every
extent, and in every respect ; my confidence in
him has been unbounded ; liis relation to mys3lf
and family has always been such as to afford h:m
daily opportunities to deceive and injure us, yet
he has never been detected in any seriitus fault,
nor even in an unintentional breach of the deco-
rum of his station. His intelligence is of a high
order, his integrity above all suspicion, and his
sense of right and propriety correct, and' even
refined. I feel that- he is justly entitled to carry
this certificate from me in the new relations wliich
he must now form ; it is due to iiis long and most
faithful services, and to the sincere and steady
frieud8hi|) which I bear to him In the uuiuter-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

-upted confidefntial intercourse of twenty-four
years, I have never given him, nor had occasion
to give him, one unpleasant vrord. I know no
man who has fewer faults or morc^ excellences
than he.

In the free states there have been a few
instances of such extraordinary piety among
negroes, that their biography and sayings
have been collected in religious tracts, and
published for the instruction of the commu-
nity.

One of these "was, before his conversion, a
convict in a state-prison in New York, and
there received what was, perhaps, the first
rehgious instruction that had ever been im-
parted to him. He became so eminent an
example of humility, faith, and, above all,
fervent love, that his presence in the neigh-
borhood was esteemed a blessing to the church.
A lady has described to the writer the man-
ner in which he would stand up and exhort
in the church-meetings for prayer, when,
with streaming eyes and the deepest abase-
ment, humbly addressing them as his mas-
ters and misses, he would nevertheless pour
forth religious exhortations which were edify-
ing to the most cultivated and refined.

In the town of Brunswick, Maine, where
the writer lived when writing " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," may now be seen the grave of an aged
colored woman, named Phebe, who was so
eminent for her piety and lovehness of char-
acter, that the writer has never heard her
name mentioned except with that degree of
awe and respect which one would imagine
due to a saint. The small cottage where she
resided is still visited and looked upon as a
sort of shrine, as the spot where old Phebe
lived and prayed. Her prayers and pious
exhortations were supposed to have been the
cause of the conversion of many young people
in the place. Notwithstanding that the un-
christian feeling of caste prevails as strongly
in Maine as anywhere else in New England,
and the negro, commonly speaking, is an
object of aversion and contempt, yet, so great
was the influence of her piety and loveliness
of character, that she was uniformly treated
with the utmost respect and attention by all
classes of people. The most cultivated and
intelligent ladies of the place esteemed it a
privilege to visit her cottage ; and when she
was old and helpless, her wants were most
tenderly provided for. When the news of
her death was spread abroad in the place, it
excited a general and very tender sensation
of regret. " We have lost Phebe' s prayers,"
was the remark frequently made afterwards
by members of the church, as they met one

another. At her funeral the ex-governor
of the slate and the professors of the college
officiated as pall-bearers, and a sermon was
preached in which the many excellences of
her Christian character were held up as an
example to the community. A small reli-
gious tract, containing an account of her life,
was published by the American Tract So-
ciety, prepared by a lady of Brunswick. The
writer recollects that on reading the tract,
when she first went to Brunswick, a doubt
arose in her mind whether it was not some-
what exaggerated. Some time afterwards
she overheard some young persons convers-
ing together about the tract, and saying that
they did not think it gave exactly the right
idea of Phebe. *" ' Why, is it too highly col-
ored ? " was the inquiry of the author. " 0,
no, no, indeed," was the earnest response;
"it doesn't begin to give an idea of hov
good she was."

Such instances as these serve to illus-
trate the words of the apostle, " God hath
chosen the foolish thincrs of the world to con-

- ■

found the wise ; and God hath ychosen the
weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty."

John Bunyan says that although the val-
ley of humiliation be unattractive in the eyes
of the men of this world, yet the very sweet-
est flowers grow there. So it is with the
condition of the lowly and poor in this world.
God has often, indeed always, shown a par-
ticular regard for it, in selecting from that
class the recipients of his grace. It is to be
remembered that Jesus Christ, when he came
to found the Christian dispensation, did not
choose his apostles from the chief priests and
the scribes, learned in the law, and high in
the church ; nor did he choose them from
philosophers and poets, whose educated and
comprehensive minds might be supposed best
able to appreciate his great designs ; but he
chose twelve plain, poor fishermen, who were
ignorant, and felt that they were ignorant
and who, therefore, were wilhng to give them-
selves up with all simplicity to his guidance.
What God asks of the soul more than any-
thing else is fiith and simplicity, the afiectior
and reliance of the httle child. Even thes<.
twelve foncied too much that they were wise,
and Jesus was obliged to set a little child in
the midst of them, as a more perfect teacher.

The negro race is confessedly more simple,
docile, child-like and affectionate, than other
races ; and hence the divine'graces of love and
faith, when in-breathed by the Holy Spirit,
find in their natural temperament a more
congenial atmosphere.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

A last insta^nce parallel with that of Uncle
Tom is to be found in the published memoirs
of the venerable Josiah Henson, now, as we
have said, a clergyman in Canada. He was
"raised' ' in the State of Maryland. His first
recollections were of seeing his father muti-
lated and covered with blood, suffering the
penalty of the law for the crime of raising
his hand against a white man, — that white
man being the overseer, who had attempted a
brutal assault upon his mother. This punish-
ment made his father surly and dangerous,
and he was subsequently sold south, and thus
parted forever from his wife and children.
Henson grew up in a state of heathenism,
without any religious insU'uction, till, in a
camp-meeting, he first heard of Jesus Christ,
and was electrified by the great and thrill-
ing news that He had tasted death for every
man, the bond as well as the free. This
story produced an immediate conversion, such
as we read of in the Acts of the Apostles,
where the Ethiopian eunuch, from one inter-
view, hearing the story of the cross, at once
believes and is baptized. Henson forthwith
not only became a Christian, but began to
declare the news to those about him ; and,
being a man of great natural force of mind
and strength of character, his earnest endeav-
ors to enlighten his fellow-heathen were so
successful that he was gradually led to assume
the station of a negro preacher ; and though
he could not read a word of the Bible or
hymn-book, his labors in this line were much
prospered. He became immediately a very
valuable slave to his master, and was in-
trusted by the latter with the oversight of
his whole estate, which he managed with
great judgment and prudence. His master
appears to have been a very ordinary man
in every respect, — to have been entirely in-
capable of estimating him in any other light
then as exceedingly valuable property, and
to have had no other feeling excited by his
extraordinary faithfulness than the desire to
make the most of him. When his affairs
became embarrassed, he formed the design of
removing all his negroes into Kentucky, and
intrusted the operation entirely to his over-
seer. Henson was to take them alone, with-
out any other attendant, from Maryland to
Kentucky, a distance of some thousands of
miles, giving only his promise as a Christian
that he would faithfully perform this under-
taking. On the* way thither they passed
through a portion of Ohio, and there Hen-
son was informed that he could now secure
his own freedom and that of all his fellows,
&D(i he was strongly ur^ed to do it. He

was exceedingly tempted and tried, but his
Christian principle was invulnerable. No
inducements could lead him to feel that it
was right for a Cliristian to violate a pledge
solemnly given, and his influence over the
whole band was so great that he took them
all with him into Kentucky. Those casuists
among us who lately seem to think and teach
that it is right for us to violate the plain
commands of God whenever some great
national good can be secured by it, would
do well to contemplate the infiexil)le prin-
ciple of this poor slave, who, Avithout being
able to read a letter of the Bible, was yet
enabled to perform this most su'ilime act
of self-renunciation in obedience to its com-
mands. Subsequently to this, his master,
in a relenting moment, was induced by a
friend to sell him his freedom for four hun-
dred dollars ; but, when the excitement of the
importunity had passed off, he regretted that
he had suffered so valuable a piece of prop-
erty to leave his hands for so slight a remu-
neration. By an unworthy artifice, therefore,
he got possession of his servant's free papers,
and condemned him still to hopeless slavery.
Subsequently, his aflairs becoming still more
involved, he sent his son down the river with
a flat-boat loaded with cattle and produce for
the New Orleans market, directing him to
take Henson along, and sell him after they
had sold the cattle and the boat. All the
depths of the negro's soul were torn up and
thrown into convulsion by this horrible piece
of ingratitude, cruelty and injustice; and,
while outwardly calm, he was struggling
with most bitter temptations from within,
which, as he could not read the Bible, he
could repel only by a recollection of its sacred
truths, and by earnest prayer. As he neared
the New Orleans market, he says that these
convulsions of soul increased, especially when
he met some of his old companions from
Kentucky, whose despairing countenances
and emaciated forms told of hard work and
insufficient food, and confirmed all his worst
fears of the lower country. In the trans-
ports of his despair, the temptation was more
urgently presented to him to murder his
-young master and the other hand on the flat-
boat in their sleep, to seize upon the boat,
and make his escape. He thus relates the
scene where he was almost brought to the
perpetration of this deed :

One dark, rainy night, -n-itlnn a foAV days of
New Orleans, my liDiir seemed to have como. 1
was alone on the deck ; Mr. Amos and tlie liands
were all asleep beluw, and I crept down n&ise-
lesslj, got hold of an axe, entered the cubiu, ;ind

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

looking by the aid of the dim light there for my
victims, my eye fell upon Master Amos, who was
nearest to me ; my hand slid along the axe-
handlo, I raised it to strike the fatal blow, — when
suddenly the thought came tome, " What ! com-
mit mwrc/er/ and you a Christian ?" I had not
called it murder before. It was self-defence, —
it was pi'evcnting others from murdering me, —
it was justifiable, it was even praiseworthy. But
now, all at once, the truth burst upon me that it
was a crime. I was going to kill a young man,
who had done nothing to injure me, but obey com-
mands which he could not resist ; I was about to
lose the fruit of all my efforts at self-improvement,
the character I had acquired, and the peace of
mind wliich had never deserted me. All this
came upon me instantly, and with a distinctness
.which made me almost think I heard it wliispcred
in my car ; and I believe I even turned my head
to listen. I shrunk back, laid down the axe,
crept up on dock again, and thanked God, as I
have done every day since, that I had not com-
mitted murder.

My feelings were still agitated, but they were
changed. I vras filled with shame and remorse for
the design T had entertained, and with the fear that
my companions would detect it in my face, or that
a careless word would betray my guilty thoughts.
I remained on deck all night, instead of rousing
one of the men to relieve me ; and nothing brought
composure to my mind, but tKe solemn resolution
I then made to resign myself to the will of God,
and take with thankfulness, if I could, but with
submission, at all events, whatever he might
decide should be my lot. I reQected that if my
life were reduced to a brief term I should have
less to suffer, and that it was better to die with a
Clu'istian's hope, and a quiet conscience, than to
live with the incessant recollection of a crime
that would destroy the value of life, and under
the weight of a secret that would crush out the
satisfaction tiiat might be expected from freedom,
and every other blessing.

Subsequently to this, his young master was
taken violently down with the river fever,
and became as helpless as a child. He pas-
sionately entreated Henson not to desert him,
but to attend to the selling of the boattAnd
produce, and put him on board the steamboat,
and not to leave him, dead or alive, till he had
carried him back to his father.

The young master was borne in the arms
of his faithful servant to the steamboat, and
there nursed by him with unremitting atten-
tion during the journey up the river ; nor
did he leave him till he had placed him in
his father's arms.

Our love for human nature would lead us
to add, with sorrow, that all this disinterest-
edness and kindness was rewarded only by
empty praises, such as would be bestowed
upon a very fine dog; and Henson indig-
nantly resolved no longer to submit to the
injustice. With a degree of prudence, cour-
age and address, which can scarcely find, a
parallel in any history, he managed, with
his wife and two children, to escape into Can-

ada, Here he learned to read, and, by big
superior talent and capacity for management,
laid the foundation for the fugitive settlement
of Dawn, which is understood to be one of
the most flourishing in Canada.

It would .be well for the most cultivated
of us to ask, whether our ten talents in the
way of religious knovrledge have enabled U3
to bring forth as much fruit to- the glory of
God, to withstand temptation as patiently,
to return good for evil as disinterestedly, as
this poor, ignorant slave. A writer in Eng-
land has sneeringly remarked that such a
man as Uncle Tom might be imported as a
missionary fb teach the most cultivated in
England or America the true nature of reli-
gion. These instances show that what ha3
been said with a sneer is in truth a sober
verity ; and it should never be forgotten that
out of this race Avhom man despiseth have
often been chosen of God true messengers of
his grace, and temples for the indwelling of
his Spirit.

" Por thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhahiteth eternity^ whose name
is Holy, I dwell iii the high and holy
place, with hiin also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones.'^

The vision attributed to Uncle Tom intro-
duces quite a curious chapter of psychology
with regard to the negro race, and indicates
a peculiarity which goes far to show how
very different they are from the white race.
They are possessed of a nervous organiza-
tion peculiarly susceptible and impressible.
Their sensations and impressions are very
vivid, and their fancy and imagination lively.
In this respect the race has an oriental char-
acter, and betrays its tropical origin. Like
the Hebrews of old and the oriental nations
of the present, they give vent to their emotions
with the utmost vivacity of expression, and
their whole bodily system sympathizes with
the movements of their minds. When in
distress, they aetia'ally lift up their voices to
weep, and "cry with an exceeding bitter
cry." When alarmed, they are often para-
lyzed, and rendered entirely helpless. Their
religious exercises are all colored by this
sensitive and exceedingly vivacious tempera-
ment. Like oriental nations, they incline
much to outward expressions, violent gestic-
ulations, and agitating movements of the
body. Sometimes, in their religious meet-
ings, they will spring from the floor many
times in succession^ with a violence and
rapidity which is perfectly astonishing.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

They ^\]\\ laugh, weep, embrace each other
convulsively, and sometimes become entirely
paralyzed and cataleptic. A clergyman
from the North once remonstrated with a
Southern clergyman for permitting such
extravagances among his flock. The reply
of the Southern minister was, in effect, this :
" Sir, I am satisfied that the races are so
essentially different that they cannot be reg-
ulated by the same rules. I, at first, felt
as you do ; and, though I saw that genuine
conversions did take place, with all this out-
ward manifestation, I was still so much
annoyed by it as to forbid it among my
negroes, till I was satisfied that the repres-
sion of it was a serious hindrance to real
religious feeling ; and then I became certain
that all men cannot be regulated in their
religious exercises by one model. I am
assured that conversions produced with these
accessories are quite as apt to be genuine,
and to be as influential over the heart and
life, as those produced in any other way."
The fact is, that the Anglo-Saxon race —
cool, logical and practical — have yet to
learn the doctrine of toleration for the pecu-
liarities of other races ; and perhaps it was
with a foresight of their peculiar character,
and dominant position in the earth, that God
gave the Bible to them in the fervent lan-
guage and with the glowing imagery of the
more susceptible and passionate oriental
« races.

Mesmerists have found that the negroes
are singularly susceptible to all that class
of influences which produce catalepsy, mes-
meric sleep, and partial clairvoyant phenom-
ena.

The x\frican race, in their own climate,
are believers in spells, in ''fetish and obi,"
in "the evil eye," and other singular influ-
ences, for which, probably, there is an origin
in this peculiarity of constitution. The
magicians in scriptural history were Afri-
cans ; and the so-called magical arts are still
practised in Egypt, and other parts of
Africa, with a degree of skill and success
which can only be accounted for by suppos-
ing peculiarities of nervous constitution quite
different from tliose of the whites. Consid-
ering those distinctive traits of the race, it
is no matter of surprise to find in their reli-
gious histories, when acted upon by the
powerful stimulant of the Christian religion,
very peculiar features. We are not sur-
prised to find almost constantly, in the nar-
rations of their religious histories, accounts
of visions, of heavenly voices, of mysterious
8y"U>a'thie3 and transmissions of knowledge

from heart to heart without the interven-
tion of the senses, or what the Quakeis call
being "baptized into the spirit" of those
who are distant.

Cases of this kind are constantly recur-
ring in their histories. The young man
whose story was related to the Boston lady,
and introduced above in the chapter on
George Harris, stated this incident concern-
ing the recovery of his liberty : That, after
the departure of his wife and sister, he, for
a long time, and very earnestly, sought some
opportunity of escape, but that every avenue
appeared to be closed to him. At length,
in despair, he retreated to his room, and
threw himself upon his bed, resolving to
give up the undertaking, when, just as he
was sinking to sleep, he was roused by a
voi-se saying in his ear, " Why do you sleep
now 7 Bise up, if you ever mean to be
free!" He sprang up, went immediately
out, and, in the course of two hours, discov-
ered the means of escape which he used.

A lady whose history is known to the writer
resided for some time on a Southern planta-
tion, and was in the habit of imparting reli-
gious instruction to the slaves. One day, a
woman from a distant plantation called at
her residence, and inquired for her. The
lady asked, in surprise, "How did you
know about me 7" The old woman's reply
was, that she had long been distressed about
her soul; but that, several nights before,
some one had appeai'ed to her in a dream,
told her to go to this plantation and inquire
for the strange lady there, and that she
would teach her the way to heaven.

Another specimen of the same kind was
related to the writer by a slave-woman who
had been through the whole painful experi-
ence of a slave's life. She was originally a
young girl of pleasing exterior and gentle
nature, carefully reared as a seamstress and
nurse to the children of a family in Virginia,
and attached, with all the warmth of her
susceptible nature, to these children. Al-
though one of the tenderest of mothers when
the writer knew her, yet she assured the
writer that she had never loved a child of
her own as she loved the dear little young
mistress Avho Avas her particular charge.
Owing, probably, to some pecuniary diffi-
culty in the family, this girl, whom we will
call Louisa, was sold, to go on to a, South-
ern plantation. She has often described the
scene when she Avas forced into a carriage,
and saw her dear young mistress leaning
from the windoAv, stretching her arms
towards her, screaming, and calling her

KEY TO TINCLE TOM S CABIN.

name, -^itli all the vehemence of childish
grief. She was carried in a coffle, and sold
as cook on a Southern plantation. With
the utmost earnestness of language she has
described to the writer her utter loneliness,
and the distress and despair of her heart, in
this situation, parted forever from all she
held dear on earth, without even the possi-
bility of writing letters or sending messages,
surrounded by those who felt no kind of
interest in her, and forced to a toil for which
her more delicate education had entirely
unfitted her. Under these circumstances,
she began to believe that it was for some
dreadful sin she had thus been afflicted.
The course of her mind after this may be
best told in her own simple words :

"After that, I began to feel awful Avicked,
— 0, so wicked, you 've no idea ! I felt so
wicked that my sins seemed like a load on
me, and I went so heavy all the day ! I
felt so wicked that I didn't feel worthy to
pi'ay in the house, and I used to go way off
in the lot and pray. At last, one day, when
I was praying, the Lord he came and spoke
to me."

"The Lord spoke to you?" said the
writer; " what do you mean, Louisa? "

With a fice of the utmost earnestness,
she answered, "Why, ma'am, the Lord
Jesus he came and spoke to me, you know ;
and I never, till the last day of my life.
Bhall for;^et what he said to me."

"What was it?" said the writer.

" He said. ' Fear not, my little one ; thy
sins are forgiven thee;' " and she added to
this some verses, which the writer recos;-
nized as those of a Methodist hymn.

Being curious to examine more closely
this phenomenon, the author said,

"You mean that you dreamed this,
Louisa."

With an air of wounded feeling, and much
earnestn<.'S3, she answered,

"0 no, Mrs. Stowe; that never was a
dream; you "11 never make me believe that."

The thought at once arose in the writer's
mind, If the Lord Jesus is indeed every-
where present, and if he is as tender-hearted
and compassionate as he was on earth, —
and we know he is, — must he not some-
times long to speak to the poor, desolate
slave, when he knows that no voice but His
can carry comfort and heahng to his soul ?

This instance of Louisa is so exactly par-
allel to another case, which the author
rec .od from an authentic source, that she
is icu^pted to place the two side by side.

Among the slaves who were brought into

the New England States, at the time when
slavery was prevalent, was one woman,
who, immediately on being told the history
of the love of Jesus Christ, exclaimed, " He
is the one; this is what I wanted."

This language causing surprise, her his-
tory was inquired into. It was briefly this :
While living in her sirap'e hut in Africa,
the kidnappers one day rushed upon her
family, and carried her husband and chil-
dren off to the slave-ship, she escaping into
the woods. On returning to her desolate
home, she mourned with the bitterness of
" Rachel weeping for her children." For
many days her heart was oppressed with a
heavy weight of sorrow ; and, refusing all
sustenance, she wandered up and down the
desolate forest.

At last, she says, a strong impulse came
over her to kneel down and pour out her
sorrows into the ear of some unknown Being
whom she fancied to be above her, in the sky.

She did so ; and, to her surprise, found
an inexpressible sensation of relief After
this, it was her custom daily to go- out to
this same spot, and supplicate this unknown
Friend. Subsequently, she w'as herself
taken, and brought over to America ; and,
when the story of Jesus and his love was
related to her, she immediately felt in her
soul that this Jesus was the very friend who
had spoken comfort to her yearning spirit
in the distant forest of Africa.

Compare now these experiences with the
earnest and beautiful language of Paul :
" He hath made of one blood all nations of
men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth ; and hath determined the times be-
fore appointed and the bounds of their
habitation, that they should seek the
Lord^ if haply they might feel after
Him and find Him, though he he not far
from every one of usJ'^

Is not this truly '■'•feeling after God
and finding Him'''' 7 And may we not
hope that the yearning, troubled, helpless
heart of man, pressed by the insufferable
anguish of this short life, or wearied by its
utter vanity, never extends its ignorant,
pleading hand to God in vain ? Is not the
veil which divides us from an almighty and
most merciful Father much thinner than we, '*
in the pride of our philosophy, are apt to
imagine ? and is it not the most worthy con-
ception of Him to suppose that the more
utterly helpless and ignorant the human
being is that seeks His aid, the more tender
and the more condescending will be His
communication with that soul ?

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

If a motlier has among her children one
whom sickness has made blind, or deaf, or
dumb, incapable cf acquiring knowledge
through the usual channels of communica-
tion, does she not seek to reach its darkened
mind by modes of communication tenderer
and more intimate than those which she
uses with the stronger and more favored
ones ? But can the love of any mother be
compared with the infinite love of Jesus 7
Has He not described himself as that good
Shepherd who leaves the whole flock of
secure and well-instructed ones, to follow
over the mountains of sin and ignorance the
one lost sheep ; and, when He hath found
it, rejoicing more over that one than' over
the ninety and nine that went not astray ?
Has He not told us that each of these little
ones has a guardian angel that doth always
behold the face of his Father which is in
heaven 7 And is it not comforting to us to
think that His love and care will be in pro-
portion to the ignorance and the wants of
His chosen ones 7

Since the above was prepared for the
press the author has received the following
extract from a letter written by a gentleman
in Missouri to the editor of the Oberlin
(Ohio) Evajigelist :

I really thou j^ht, while reading "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," that the authoress, when describing the
character of Tom, had in her mind's eye a slave
whose acquaintance I made some years since, in
the State of Mississippi, called "Uncle Jacob."
I was staying a day or two with a planter, and in
the evening, when out in the yard, I heard a well-
knoAvn hymn and tunc sung in one of the " quar-
ters," and then the voice of prayer ; and 0, such
a prayer ! what fervor, what unction, — nay, the
man "prayed right up;" and when I read of
Uncle Tom, how " nothing could exceed the
touching simplicity, the childlike earnestness, of
his prayer, enriched with the language of Scrip-
ture, which seemed so entirely to have wrought
itself into his being as to have become a part of
himself," the recollections of that evening pra3'er
were strangely vivid. On entering the house and
referring to what I had hoard, his master replied,
" Ah, sir, if I covet anything in this world, it is
Uncle Jacob's relij^ion. If there is a good man
on earth, lie certainly is one." He said Uncle
Jacob was a regulator on the plantation ; that a
word or a look from him, addressed to younger
slaves, had tnore elEcacy. than a blow from the
overseer.

The next morning Uncle Jacob informed mo he
was from Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati ; that
his opportunities for attending religious worship
had been frequent ; that at about the age of
forty he was sold soutli, was set to picking cotton ;
could not, when doing his best, pick tlie task as-
Bigned him ; was whipped and whipped, he could
not possibly tell how often ; was of the opinion
that the overseer came to the conclusion that

whipping could not bring one more pound out of
him, f(ir he set him to driving a team. At this and
other work he could " make a hand ;'' I:ad changed
owners three or four times. He expressed him-
self as well pleased with his present situation as
ho expected to be in the South, but was yearning
to return to his former associations in Kentucky.

CHAPTER Vn.

MISS OPHELIA.

Miss Ophelia stands as the representa-
tive of a numerous class of the very best
of Northern people ; to whom, perhaps, if
our Lord should again address his churches
a letter, as he did those of old time, he
would use the same words as then: "I
know thy works, and thy labor, and thy
patience, and how thou canst not bear them
which are evil ; and thou hast tried them
which are apostles and are not, and hast
found them liars : and hast borne, and hast
patience, and for my name's sake hast
labored and hast not fainted. Neverthe-
less, I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love."

There are in this class of people acti^aty,
zeal, unflinching conscientiousness, clear in-
tellectual discriminations between truth and
error, and great logical and doctrinal cor-
rectness ; but there is a want of that spirit
of love, without which, in the eye of Christ,
the most perfect character is as deficient as
a wax flower — wanting in life and perfume.

Yet this blessed principle is not dead in
their hearts, but only sleepeth ; and so great
is the real and genuine goodness, that, when
the true magnet of divine love is applied,
they always answer to its touch.

So when the gentle Eva, who is an imper-
sonation in childish form of the love of
Christ, solves at once, by a blessed instinct,
the problem which Ophelia has long been
unable to solve by dint of utmost hammer-
ing and vehement effort, she at once, wdth
a good and honest heart, perceives and ac-
knoAV ledges her mistake, and is willing to
learn even of a little child.

Miss Ophelia, again, represents one great
sin, of which, unconsciously, American
Christians have allowed themselves to be
guilty. Unconsciously it must be, for no-
where is conscience so predominant as
among this class, and nowhere is there a
more honest strife to bring every thought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

One of the first and most declared objects
of the gospel has been to break down all

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CAIIN

those irrational barriers and prejudices
which separate the human brotherhood into
diverse and contending clans. Paul says,
" In Christ Jesus there. is neither Jew nor
Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free."'
The Jews at that time were separated from
the Gentiles bj an insuperable wall of
prejudice. They could not eat and drink
together, nor pray together. But the apos-
tles most earnestly labored to show them
the sin of this prejudice. St. Paul says to
the Ephesians, speaking of this former
division, " He is our peace, who hath made
both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us."

It is very easy to see that although slav-
ery has been abp'lished in the New England
States, it has left behind i^ the most
baneful feature of the system — that wliich
makes American Avorse than Roman slavery
— the prejudice of caste and color. In
the New England States the negro has been
treated as belonging to an inferior race of
beings ; — forced to sit apart by himself in
the place of worship ; his children excluded
from the schools ; himself excluded from the
railroad-car and the omnibus, and the pecu-
liarities of his race made the subject of
bitter contempt and ridicule.

This course of conduct has been justified
by saying that they are a degraded race.
But how came they degraded ? Take any
class of men, and shut them from the means
of education, deprive them of hope and self-
respect, close to tliem all avenues of honor-
able ambition, and you will make just such
a race of them as the negroes have been
among us.

So singular and so melancholy is the
dominion of prejudice over the human mind,
that professors of Christianity in our New
England States have often, with very serious
self-denial to themselves, sent the gospel to
heathen as dark-complexioned as the Afri-
cans, when in their very neighborhood were
persons of dark complexion, who, on that
account, were forbidden to send their chil-
di'en to the schools, and discouraged from
entering the churclies. The eflfect of this
has been directly to degrade and depress
the race, and then this very degradation
and depression has been pleaded as the
reason for continuins this course.

Not long since the wi'iter called upon a
benevolent lady, and during the course of
the call the conversation turned upon the
incidents of a fire which had occurred the
night before in the neighborhood. A de-
S3rted house had been burned io the oround.

The lady said it was supposed it had been
set on fire. " ^Vliat could be any one's
motive for setting it on fire?" said the
writer.

"Well," replied the lady, "it was sup-
posed that a colored family was about to
move into it, and it was thought that the
neighborhood would n"t consent to that. So
it was supposed that was the reason."

This was said with an air of innocence
and much unconcern.

The writer inquired, " Was it a family of
bad character 1 "

" No, not particularly, that I know of,"
said the lady ; " but then they are negroes,
you know."

Now, this lady is a very pious lady. She
probably would deny herself to send the
gospel to the heathen, and if she had ever
thought of considering this family a heathen
fxmily, would have felt the deepest interest
in their welfare ; because on the subject of
duty to the heathen she had been frequently
instructed from the pulpit, and had all her
religious and conscientious sensibilities awake.
Probably she had never listened from the
pulpit to a sermon which should exhibit the
great truth, that " in Christ Jesus there is
neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian,
bond. nor free."

Supposing our Lord was now on earth,
as he was once, what course* is it probable
that he would pursue with regard to this un-
christian prejudice of color ]

There was a class of men in those days
as much despised by the Jews as the negroes
are by us ; and it was a complaint made of
Christ that he was a friend of publicans and
sinners. And if Christ should enter, on some
communion season, into a place of worship,
and see the colored man sitting afar off by
himself, would it not be just in his spirit to
go there and sit with him, rather than to take
the seats of his richer and more prosperous
brethren ?

It is, however, but just to our Northern
Christians to say that tliis sin- has been
committed ignorantly and in unbehef, and
that within a few years signs of a much bet-
ter spirit have begun to manifest themselves.
In some places, recently, the doors of
school-houses have been thrown open to the
children, and many a good Miss Opheha
has opened her eyes in astonishment to find
that, while she has been devouring the
Missionary Herald^ and going without but-
ter on her bread and sugar in her tea to send
the gospel to the Sandwich Islands, there is
a very thriving colony of hfathpn in her

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

own neigliborhood at home ; and, true to
her own good and honest heart, she has
resolved, not to give up her prayers and
efforts for the heathen abroad, but to add
thereunto labors for the heathen at home.

Our safety and hope in this matter is
this : that there are multitudes in all our
churches who do most truly and sincerely
love Christ above all things, and who, just
so soon as a little reflection shall have made
them sensible of f-heir duty in this respect,
will most earnestly perform it.

It is true that, if they do so, they may be
called Abolitionists ; but the true Miss Ophe-
lia is not afraid of a hard name in a good
cause, and has rather learned to consider
" the reproach of Christ a greater treasure
than the riches of Egypt."

That there is much already for Christians
to do in enlightening the moral sense of the
community on this subject, will appear if we
consider that even so well-educated and gen-
tlemanly a man as Frederick Douglass was
recently obliged to pass the night on the deck
of a steamer, when in delicate health, because
this senseless prejudice deprived him of a
place in the cabin ; and that that very labo-
rious and useful minister, Dr. Pennington,
of New York, has, during the last season,
been often obliged seriously to endanger his
health, by walking to his pastoral labors,
over his very extended parish, under a burn-
ing sun, because he could not be allowed the
common privilege of the omnibus, which con-
veys every class of white men, from the most
refined to the lowest and most disgusting.

Let us consider now the number of pro-
fessors of the religion of Christ in New York,
and consider also that, by the very fact of
their profession, they consider Dr. Penning-
ton the brother of their Lord, and a member
with them of the body of Christ.

Now, these Christians are influential, rich
and powerful ; they can control public sen-
timent on any subject that they think of
any particular importance, and they profess,
by their religion, that " if one member suf-
fers, all the members suffer with it."

It is a serious question, whether such a
marked indignity offered to Christ and his
ministry, in the person of a colored brother,
without any remonstrance on their part, will
not lead to a general feeling that all that the
Bible says about the union of Christians is
a mere hollow sound, and means nothing.

Those who are anxious to do something
directly to improve the condition of the slave,
can do it in no way so directly as by elevat-

ing the condition of the free colored people
around them, and taking every pains to give
them equd rights and privileges.

This unchristian prejudice has doubtless
stood in the way of the emancipation of hun-
dreds of slaves. The slave-holder, feeling
and acknowledging the evils of slavery, has
come to the North, and seen evidences of
this unkindly and unchristian state of feeling
towards the slave, and has thus reflected
within himself:

" If I keep my slave at the South, t.e is,
it is true, under the dominion of a very
severe law ; but then he enjoys the advan-
tage of my friendship and assistance, and
derives, through his connection with me and
my family, some kind of a position in the
community. . As my servant he is allowed a
seat in the car and a place at the table. But
if I emancipate and send him North, he will
encounter substantially all the disadvantages
of slavery, with no master to protect him."

This mode of reasoning has proved an
apology to many a man for keeping his slaves
in a position which he confesses to be a
bad one ; and it will be at once perceived
that, should the position of the negro be con
spicuously reversed in our northern states,
the effect upon the emancipation of the slave
would be very great. They, then, who keep
up this prejudice, may be said to be, in a cer-
tain sense, slave-holders.

It is not meant by this that all distinc-
tions of society should be broken over, and
that people should be obliged to choose their
intimate associates from a class unfitted by
education and habits to sympathize with them.

The negro should not be lifted out of his
sphere of life because he is a negro, but he
should be treated with Christian courtesy in
his sphere. In the railroad car, in the om-
nibus and steamboat, all ranks and degrees
of white persons move with unquestioned
freedom side by side ; and Christianity re-
quires that the negro have the same privilege.

That the dirtiest and most uneducated
foreigner or American, with breath redolent
of whiskey and clothes foul and disordered,
should have an unquestioned right to take a
seat next to any person in a railroad car or
steamboat, and that the respectable, decent
and gentlemanly negro should be excluded
simply because he is a negro, cannot be con-
sidered otherwise than as an irrational and
unchristian thing : and any Christian who
allows such things done in his presence with-
out remonstrance, and the use of his Chrisih
ian influence, will certainly be made deeply

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

sensible of his error when he comes at last
to direct and personal interview with his
Lord.

There is no hope for this matter, if the
love of Christ is not strong enough, and if
it cannot be said, with regard to the two
races, " He is our peace who hath made both
one, and hath broken down the middle wall
of partition between us."

The time is coming rapidly when the up-
per classes in society must learn that their
education, wealth and refinement, are not
their own ; that they have no right to use
them for their own selfish benefit ; but
that they should hold them rather, as Fene-
lon expresses it, as " a ministry," a stew-
ardship, which they hold in trust for the
benefit of their poorer brethren.

In some of the very highest circles in
England and America we begin to see illus-
trious examples of the commencement of such
a condition of things.

One of the merchant princes of Boston,
whose funeral has lately been celebrated in
our city, afforded in his life a beautiful exam-
ple of this truth. His wealth was the wealth
of thousands. He was the steward of the
widow and the orphan. His funds were a
savings bank, wherein were laid up the re-
sources of the poor ; and the mourners at
his funeral w?re the scholars of the schools
which he had founded, the officers of literary
institutions which his munificence had en-
dowed, the widows and orphans whom he
had counselled and supported, and the men,
in all ranks and conditions of life, who had
been made by his benevolence to feel that
his wealth was their wealth. May God raise
up many men in Boston to enter into the
spirit and labors of Amos Lawrence !

This is the true socialism, which comes
from the spirit of Christ, and, without break-
ing down existing orders of society, by love
makes the property and possessions of the
higher class the property of the lower.

Men are always seeking to begin their
reforms with the oiiticard and physical.
Christ begins his reforms in the heart. Men
would break up all ranks of society, and
throw all property into a common stock ; but
Christ would inspire the higher class with
that Divine Spirit by which all the wealth
and means and advantages of their position
are used for the good of the lower.

We see, also, in the highest aristocracy
of England, instances of the same tendency.

Among her oldest nobility there begin to
arise lecturers to mechanics and patrons of
ragged schools ; and it is said that even on
3

the throne of England is a woman who
weekly instructs ker class of Sunday-school
scholars from the children in the vicinity of
her country residence.

In this way, and not by an outward and
physical division of property, shall all things
be had in common. And when the white
race shall regard their superiority over the
colored one only as a talent intrusted for
the advantage of their weaker brother, then
will the prejudice of caste melt away in the
light of Christianity.

CHAPTER VIIL

MARIE ST, CLARE.

Marie St. Clare is the type of a class
of women not peculiar to any latitude, nor
any condition of society. She may be found
in England or in America. In the north-
ern free states we have many Marie St.
Clares, more or less fully developed.

When found in a northern latitude, she is
forever in trouble about her domestic rela-
tions. Her servants never do anything right.
Strange to tell, they are not perfect, and
she thinks it a very great shame. She is
fully convinced that she ought to have every
moral and Christian virtue in her kitchen
for a little less than the ordinary wages;
and when her cook leaves her, because she
finds she can get better wages and less work
in a neighboring family, she thinks it* shock-
ingly selfish, unprincipled conduct. She is
of opinion that servants ought to be perfectly
disinterested ; that they ought to be willing
to take up with the worst rooms in tha
house, with very moderate wages, and very
indifferent food, when they can get much
better elsewhere, purely for the sake of
pleasing her. She likes to get hold of for-
eign servants, who have not yet learned our
ways, who are used to working for low
wages, and who will be satisfied with almost
anything ; but she is often heard to lament
that they soon get spoiled, and want as
many privileges as anybody else, — which is
perfectly shocking. Marie often wishes
that she could be a slave-holder, or could
live somewhere where the lower class are
kept down, and made to know their place.
She is always hunting for cheap seamstresses,
and will tell you, in an under-tone, that she
has discovered a woman who will make hnen
shirts beautifully, stitch the collars and
wristbands twice, all for thirty-seven centa^

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

when many seamstresses get a dollar for it ;
says she does it because sbe 's poor, and has
no friends ; thinks you had better be care-
ful in your conversation, and not let her
know what prices are, or else she will get
spoiled, and go to raising her prille,— these
sewing-women are so selfish. When Marie
St. Glare has- the misfortune to live in a free
state, there is no end to her troubles. Her
cook is always going oif for better wages
and more comfortable quarters ; her cham-
ber-maid, strangely enough, won't agree to
be chambermaid and seamstress both for
half wages, and so she deserts. Marie's
kitchen-cabinet, therefore, is always in a
state of revolution ; and she often declares,
with affecting earnestness, that servants are
the torment of her life. If her husband
endeavor to remonstrate, or suggest another
mode of treatment, he is a hard-hearted,
unfeeling man; "he doesn't love her, and
she always knew he didn't;" and so he is
disposed of.

But, when Marie comes tinder a system
of laws which gives her absolute control over
her dependants, — which enables her to sep-
arate them, at her pleasure, from their dear-
est family connections, or to inflict upon
them the most disgraceful and violent pun-
ishments, without even the restraint which
seeing the execution might possibly produce,
— then it is that the ch3.raeter arrives at
full maturity. Human nature is no worse
at the South than at the North ; but law at
the Soiith distinctly provides for and pro-
tects the worst abuses to which that nature
is liable.

It is often supposed that domestic servi-
tude in slave states is a kind of paradise;
that house-servants are invariably pets;
that young mistresses are always fond of
their "mammies," and young masters always
handsome, good-natured and indulgent.

Let any one in Old England or New
England look about among their immediate
acquaintances, and ask how many there are
who would use absolute despotic power ami-
ably in a family, especially over a class
degraded by servitude, ignorant, indolent,
deceitful, provoking, as slaves almost neces-
sarily arc, and always must be.

Let them look into their own hearts, and
ask themselves if they would dare to be
trusted with such a power. Do they not
find in themselves temptations to be unjust
to those who are inferiors and dependants 1
Do they not find themselves tempted to be
irritable and provoked, when the service of
their families is neghgently performed 7

And, if they had the power to inflict cruel
punishments, or to have them inflicted by
sending the servant out to some plaCe of
correction, would they not be tempted to
use that liberty?

With regard to those degrading punish-
ments to which females are subjected, by
being sent to professional whippers, or by
having such functionaries sent for to the
house, — as John Caphart testifies that he
has often been, in Baltimore, — what can be
said of their influence both on the superior
and on the inferior class 7 It is very pain-
ful indeed to contemplate this subject. The
mind instinctively shrinks from it ; but still
it is a very serious question whether it be
not our duty to encounter this pain, that
our sympathies may be quickened into more
active exercise. For this reason, we give
here the testimony of a gentleman whose
accuracy will not be doubted, and who sub-
jected himself to the pain of being an eye-
witness to a scene of this kind in the cala-
boose in New Orleans. As the reader will
perceive from the account, it was a scene of
such every-day occurrence as not to excite
any particular remark, or any expression of
sympathy from those of the same condition
and color with the sufferer.

When our missionaries first went to India,
it was esteemed a duty among Christian
nations to make themselves acquainted with
the cruelties and atrocities of idolatrous Avor-
ship, as a means of quickening our zeal to
send them the gospel.

If it be said that we in the free states
have no such interest in slavery, as we do
not support it, and have no power to pre-
vent it, it is replied that slavery does exist
in the District of Columbia, which belongs
to the Avhole United States; and that the
free states are, before God, guilty of the
crime of continuing it there, unless they will
honestly do what in them hes for its exter-
mination.

The subjoined account was written by the
benevolent Dr. Howe, whose labors in behalf
of the blind have rendered his name dear to
humanity, and was sent in a letter to the
Hon. Charles Sumner. If any. one think it
too painful to be perused, let him ask
himself if God will hold those guiltless who
suffer a system to continue, the details of
which they cannot even read. That this
describes a common scene in the calaboose,
we shall by and by produce other witnesses
to show.

I have passed ten days in New Orleans, not
unprofitably, I trust, in examining the publio

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

institutions, — the schools, asylums, hospitals,
prisons, &c. With the exception of the first,
there is little hope of amelioration. I know not
how much merit there may lie in their system ;
but I do know that, in the administration of the
penal code, there are abominations which should
bring down the fate of Sodom upon the city. If
Howard or Mrs. Fry ever discovered so ill-admin-
istered a den of thieves as the New Orleans
prison, they never described it. In the negro's
apartment I saw much which made me blush that
I was a white man, and which, for a moment,
stirred up an evil spirit in my animal nature.
Entering a large paved court-yard, around which
ran galleries filled with slaves of all ages, sexes
and colors, I heard tlie snap of a whip, every
stroke of which sounded like the sharp craek of a
pistol. I turned my head, and beheld a sight
which absolutely chilled me to the marrow of
my bones, and gave me, for the first time in my
life, the sensation of ray hair stifl[ening at tlie
roots. There lay a black girl flat upon her face,
on a hoard, her two thumbs tied, and fastened to
one end, her feet tied, and drawn tightly to the
otlicr end, while a strap passed over the small of
her back, and, fastened around the board, com-
pressed her closely to it. Below the strap she
Avas entirely naked. By her side, and sis feet off,
stood a huge negro, with a long whip, which he
applied with dreadful power and wonderful pre-
cision. Every stroke brought away a strip of
skin, which clung to the lash, or fell quivering on
the pavement, while the blood followed after it.
The poor creature writhed and shrieked, and, in a
voice which show^ed alike her fear of death and
her dreadful agony, screamed to her master, who
stood at her head, "0, spare my life ! don't cut
my soul out!" But still fell the horrid lash;
still strip after strip peeled off from the skin ;
gash after gash was cut in her living flesh, until
it became a livid and bloody mass of raw and quiv-
ering muscle. It was with the greatest difficulty
I refrained from springing upon the torturer, and
arresting his lash ; but, alas ! what could I do,
but turn aside to hide juy tears for the sufferer,
and my blushes for humanity? This was in a
public and regularly-organized prison ; the pun-
ishment was one recognized and autiiorized by the
law. But think you the poor wretch had com-
mitted a heinous offence, and had been convicted
thereof, and sentenced to the lash ? Not at all .
She was brought 1iy lier master to be whipped by
the common executioner, Avitliout trial, ju^lge or
jury, just at his beck or nod, for some real or sup-
posed offence, or to gratily'his own whim or mal-
ice. And he may bring lier day after day^ with-
out cause assigned, and inflict any number of
lashes he pleases, short of twenty-five, provideil
only he pays t!ie fee. Or. if he choose, he may
have a private whipping-board on his own prem-
ises, and brutalize hiiusulf there. A shocking
part of this horrid punisluuent was its publicity,
as I have said ; it was in a court-yard surrounded
by galleries, which were filled with colored {Persons
of all sexes, — runaway slaves, committed for
some crime, or slaves up for sale. You would
naturally suppose they crowded forward, and
g-azed, horror-stricken, at the brutal spectacle
below ; but they did not ; many of them hardly
noticed it, and many were entirely indifferent to
it. They went on in their childish pursuits, and
Bome were laughing outright in the distant parts

of the galleries ; so low can man, created in God's
image, be sunk in brutality.

CHAPTER IX.

ST. CLARE.

It is with pleasure that we turn from the
dark picture just presented, to the character
of the generous and noble-hearted St. Clare,
wherein the fairest picture of our Southern
brother is presented.

It has been the writer's object to separate
carefully, as far as possible, the system from
the men. It is her sincere belief that, while
the irresponsible power of slavery is such
that no human being ouglit ever to possess it,
probably that power was never exercised
more leniently than in many cases in the
Southern States. She has been astonished
to see how, under all the disadvantages
which attend the early possession of ar-
bitrary power, all the temptations which
every reflecting mind must see will arise
from the possession of this power in various
forms, there are often developed such fine'
and interesting traits of character. To say
that these cases are common, alas ! is not in
our power. Men know human nature too
well to believe us, if we should. But the
more dreadful the evil to be assailed, the
more careful should we be to be just in our
apprehensions, and to balance the horror
which certain abuses must necessarily ex-
cite, by a consideration of those excellent
and redeeming traits which are often found
in individuals connected with the system.

The twin brothers, Alfred and Augustine
St. Clare, represent two classes of men
which are to be found in all countries.
They are the radically aristocratic and
democratic men. The aristocrat by position
is not always the aristocrat by nature, and
viee versa ; but the aristocrat by nature,
whether he be in a higher or lower position
in society, is he who. tliough he laay be
just, generous and humane, to those whom
he considers his ecfuals, is entirely insensi-
ble to the wants, and sufferings, and conmion
humanity, of those whom he considers the
lower orders. The sufferings of a countess
would. make him weep; the sufferings of a
seamstress are quite another matter.

On the other hand, the democrat is often
found in the highest position of life. To
this man, superiority to his brother is a thing
which he can never boldly and nakedly as-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM*S CABIN.

sert without a secret pain. In the lowest
and humblest walk of life, he acknowledges
the sacred ness of a common humanity ; and
however degraded by the opinions and in-
stitutions of society any particular class
may be, there is an instinctive feeling in
his soul which teaches him that they are
7nen of like passions with himself. Such
men have a penetration Avhich at once sees
through all the false shows of outward cus-
tom which make one man so dissimilar to
another, to those great generic capabilities,
soi'rows, wants and weaknesses, wherein all
men and women are alike ; and there is no
such thing as making them realize that one
order of human beings have any prescrip-
tive right over another order, or that the
tears and sufferings of one are not just as
good as those of another order.

That such men are to be found at the
South in the relation of slave-masters, that
when so found they cannot and will not be
deluded by any of the shams and sophistry
wherewith slavery has been defended, that
Jiiey look upon it as a relic of a barbarous
*age, and utterly scorn and contemn all its
apologists, we can abundantly show. Many
of the most illustrious Southern men of the
Revolution were of this class, and many
men of distinguished position of later day
have entertained the same sentiments.

Witness the following letter of Patrick
Hem-y, the sentiments of which are so much
an echo of those of St. Clare that the reader
miglit suppose one to be a copy of the
other :

LETTER OF PATRICK HENRY.

Hanover, January \^th, 1773.
Dear Sir : I take this opportunity to acknowl-
edge tlie receipt of Anthony Benezet's book
against the slave-trade ; I thank you for it. Is
it not a little surprising that thfe professors of
Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in
softening the human heart, in cherisliing and im-
proving its finer feelings, should encourage a
practice so totally repugnant to the first impres-
sions of right and wrong? What adds to the
wonder is, that tliis abominable practice has been
introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times
that seem to have pretensions to boast of high
improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined
morality, have brought into general use, and
guai-ded by many laws, a species of violence and
tyi'anny which our more rude and barbarous, but
more honest ancestors detested. Is it not amazing
that at a time when the riglits of humanity are
defined and understood with precision, in a country
above all others fond of liberty, — that in such an
age and in such a country we find men professing
a religion the most mild, humane, gentle and
generous, adopting such a principle, as repugnant
to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible,
Sffld destructive to ID^erty ? Every thinking, honest

man rejects it in speculation. How free in prao
tice from conscientious motives !

Would any one believe that I am master of
slaves of my own purchase 1 I am drawn along
by the general inconvenience of living here with-
out them. I will not, I cannot, justify it. How-
ever culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my
devoir to virtue as to own the excellence and rec-
titude of her precepts, and lament my want of
conformity to them.

I believe a time will come when an opportunity
will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
Everything we can do is to improve it, if it hap-
pens in our day ; if not, let us transmit to our
descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for
their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence for slavery.
If we cannot reduce this wished-for reformatioB
to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with
lenity. It is the furthest advance we can make
towards justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity
of our religion, to show that it is at variance with
that law which warrants slavery.

I know not when to stop. I could say many
things on the subject, a serious view of which
gives a gloomy prospect to future limes!

What a sorrowful thing it is that such
men live an inglorious life, drawn along by
the general current of society, when they
ought to be its regenerators ! Has God en-
dowed them with such nobleness of soul,
such clearness of perception, for nothing '?
Should they, to whom he has given superior
powers of insight and feeling, live as all the
world live?

Southern men of this class have often
risen up to reprove the men of the North,
when they are drawn in to apologize for the
system of slavery. Thus, on one occasion,
a representative from one of the northern
states, a gentleman now occupying the very
highest rank of distinction and official sta-
tion, used in Congress the following Ian
guage:

The great relation of servitude, in some form or
other, with greater or less departui-o from the theo-
retic equality of men, is inseparable from our
nature. Domestic slavery is not, in my judgment,
to be set down as an immoral or "irreligious rela-
tion. The slaves of this country are better
clothed and fed than the peasantry of some of
the most prosperous states of Europe.

He was answered by Mr. Mitchell, of
Tennessee, in these words :

Sir, I do not go the length of the gentleman
from Massachusetts, and hold that the existence
of slavery in this country is almost a blessing.
On the contrary, I am firmly settled in the opinion
that it is a great curse, — one of the greatest tliat
could have hcen interwoven in our system. I,
Mr. Chairman, am one of those whom these poor
wretches call masters. I do not task them ; I
feed and clothethcm well ; but yet, alas ! they are
slaves, and slavery is a curse in any shape. It is
no doubt true that there are persona in Europe far
more degraded than our slaves, — worse fed, worse

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

clothed, &c. , but, sir, this is far from proving
that negroes ought to be shives.

The celebrated John Randolph, of Roan-
oke, said in Congress, on one occasion :

Sir, 1 envy neither the heart nor the head of
that man from the North who rises here to defend
slavery on principle.

The following lines from the will of this
eccentric man show that this clear sense of
justice, which is a gift of superior natures,
at last produced some appropriate fruits in
practice :

I give to my slaves their freedom, to lohich my
cvnscicnrr tells me they are justly entitled. It has
a long time been a matter of the deepest regret to
me, that t!ie circumstances under which I in-
herited them, and the obstacles thrown in the
way by tlie laws of the land, have prevented my
emancipating them in my life-time, which it is
my full intention to do in case I can accomplish
it.

The influence on such minds as these of
that kind of theological teaching which pre-
vails in the majority of pulpits at the
South, and which justifies slavery directly
from the Bible, cannot be sufficiently re-
gretted. Such men are shocked to find
their spiritual teachers less conscientious
than themselves ; and if the Biblical argu-
ment succeeds in bewildering them, it pro-
duces scepticism with regard to the Bible
itself Professor Stowe states that, during
his residence in Ohio, he visited at the house
1)f a gentleman who had once been a Vir-
ginian planter, and during the first years
of his life wa«s an avowed sceptic. He
stated that his scepticism was entirely
referable to this one cause, — that his minis-
ter had constructed a scriptural argument
in defence of slavery which he was unable
to answer, and that his moral sense was so
shocked by the idea that the Bible defended
such an atrocious system, that he became an
entire unbeliever, and so continued until he
came under the ministration of a clergyman
in Ohio, Avho succeeded in presenting to him
the true scriptural view of the subject. He
immediately threw aside his scepticism, and
became a member of a Christian church.

So we hear the Baltimore Sun, a paper
in a slave state, and no way suspected of
leaning towards abolitionism, thus scorn-
fully disposing of the scriptural argument :

Messrs. Burgess, Taylor <Sb Co., Sun Iron Build-
ing, send us a copy of a work of imposing ex-
terior, a handsome work of nearly six hundred
pages, from the pen of Rev. Josiah Priest,
A.M., and published bj Rev. W. S. Brown, M.D.,

at Glasgow, Kentucky, the copy before us convey-
ing the assurance that it is the "fifth edition —
stereotyped." And we have no doubt it is ; and
the fiftieth edition may be published ; but it will
amount to nothing, for there is nothing in it.
The book comprises the usually quoted facts asso-
ciated with the history of slavery as recorded in
the Scriptures, accompanied by the opinions apd
arguments of another man in relation thereto.
And this sort of thing may go on to the end of
time. It can Jiccomplish nothing towards the
perpetuation of slavery. The book is called
" Bible Defence of Slavery ; and Origin, Fortunes,
and History, of the Negro Race." Bible defence
of slavery ! There is no such thing as a Bi})le
defence of slavery at the present day. Slavery in
the United States is a social institution, originat-
ing in the convenience and cupidity of our ances-
tors, existing by state laws and recognized to a
certain extent — for the recovery of slave prop-
erty— by the constitution. And nobody would
pretend that, if it were inexpedient and unprofit-
able for any man or any state to continue to hold
slaves, they would be bound to do so, on the
ground of a "Bible defence" of it. Slavery is
recorded in the Bible, and approved, with many
degrading characteristics. War is recorded in
the Bible, and apjiroved, under what seems to us
the extreme of cruelty. But are slavery and war
to endure forever, because we find them in the
Bible ? Or, are they to cease at once and forever,
because the Bible inculcates peace and brother-
hood?

The book before us exhibits great research, but
is obnoxious to severe criticism, on account of its
gratuitous assumptions. The writer is constantly
assuming this, that, and the other. In a work of
this sort, a " doubtless" this, and " no doubt"
the other, and " such is our belief," with respect
to important premises, will not be acceptaljle to
the intelligent reader. Many of the positions as-
sumed are ludicrous ; and the fancy of the writer
runs to exuberance in putting words and speeches
into the mouths of the ancients, predicated upon
the brief record of Scripture history. The argu-
ment from the curse of Ham is not worth the paper
it is written upon. It is just equivalent to that
of Blackwood' s Magazine, we remember examin-
ing some years since, in reference to the admission
of Rothschild to Parliament. The writer main-
tained the religious obligation of the Christian
public to perpetuate the political disabilities of
the Jews, because it would be resisting the Divine
will to remove them, in view of the "curse"
which the aforesaid Christian Pharisee under-
stood to be levelled against the sons of Abraham.
Admitting that God • has cursed both the Jewish
race and the descendants of Ham, He is able to
fulfil His purpose, though the " rest of mankind"
should in all things act up to the benevolent pre-
cepts of the "Divine law." Man may very
safely cultivate the highest principles of the
Christian dispensation, and leave God to work out
the fulfilment of His cvrse.

According to the same book and the same logic,
all mankind being under a " curse," none of us
ought to work out any alleviation for ourselves,
and we are sinning heinously in harnessing steam to
the performance of manual labor, cutting wheat by
McCormick's diablerie, and laying hold of the light-
ning to carry our messages for us, instead of footing
it ourselves as our father Adam did. With a little
more common sense, and much less of the uncom-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

mon sort, we should better understand Scripture,
the institutions under which we live, the several
rights of our fellow-citizens in all sections of the
ii#oantrv, and the good, sound, practical, social
'delations, which ought to contribute infinitely more
than they do to the happiness of mankind.

If the l-eader wishes to know what kind
of preaching it is that St. Clare alludes to,
when he says he can learn what is quite as
much to the purpose from the Picayune,
and that such scnptural expositions of
their peculiar relations don't edifj him
much, he is referred to the following extract
from a sermon preached in New Orleans, bv
tiie Rev. Theophilus Clapp. ' Let our reader
now imagine that he sees St. Clare seated in
the front slip, waggishly taking notes of the
following specimen of ethics and humanity.

Let all Christian teachers show our servants
the importance of being submissive, obedient, in-
dustrious, honest and faithful to the interests of
tlwir masters. Let their minds be filled with
sweet anticipations of rest eternal beyond the
grave. Lot them be trained to direct their views
to that fascinating and glorious futurity, where
the sins, sorrows, and troubles of earth, will be
contemplated under the aspect of means indis-
pensable to our everlasting progress in knowledge,
virtue and happiness. I would say to every slave
In the United States, " You should realize that a
wise, kind, and merciful Providence has appointed
for you your condition in life ; and, all things con-
sidered, you could not be nKjre eligibly situated.
The burden of your care, toils and responsibilities,
is much lighter than that which God has imposed
on your master. The most enlightened philan-
thropists, with unlimited resources, could not
place you in a situation more favorable to your
present and everlasting welfiire than that which
you now occupy. You have your troul^les. So
have all. Pv,emomljer how evanescent are the
pleasures and joys of human life."

But, as Mr. Clapp will not, perhaps, be
accepted as a representation of orthodoxy,
let him be supposed to listen to the follow-
ing declarations of the Rev. James Smylie,
a clergyman of great influence in the Pres-
byterian church, in a tract upon slavery,
which he states in the introduction to have
been written with particular reference to
removing the conscientious scruples of re-
ligious people in Mississippi and Louisiana,
with regard to its propriety.

If I believed, or was of opinion, that it was
the legitimate tcndeiiey of the gospel to abolish
slavery, liovr would I approach a man, possessing
as many slave? as Abraham liiid, and tell him I
wislied to obtain his permission to preach to his
slaves ?

Suppose the man to bt ignorant of the gospel,
and that ho would inquire of me what was my
object. I would tell him candidly (and every
miniKster ought to be candid) that I wished to
preach the gospel, because its legitimate tendency

is to make his slaves honest, trusty and faithful :
not serving " with eye service, as men pleasers,"
"not purloining, but sliowing all good fidelity."
" And is this," he would ask, " really the tendency
of the gospel?" 1 would answer. Yes. Then I
might expect that a man who had a thousand
slaves, if he believed me, would not only permit
me to preach to his slaves, but wimld do more.
He would be willing to build me a liouse, furnish
me a garden, and ample [)ruvision for a support.
Because, he would conclude, verily, then this
-preacher luoidd he worth more to him than a dozen
overseers. But, suppose, then, lie would tell me
that he had understood that t!ie tendency of tlie
gospel was to abolish slavery, and inquire of me if
that was the fact. x\h ! this is the rub. lie has
now cornered me. What shall I say? Shall I,
like a dishonest man, twist and dodge, and shift
and turn, to evade an answer? No. I muit
Kentuckian like, come out, broad, flat-footed, •a\\'\
tell him that abolition is the tendency of the gos-
pel. What am I now to calculate upon ? I have
told the man that it is the tendency of the gospel
to make him so poor as to oblige him to take hold
of the maul and wedge himself; he must catch,
curry, and saddle his own horse ; he must black
his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy
boots). His wife must go, herself, to the wash-
tub, take hold of the scrubbing-broom, wi\sh
the pots, and cook all that she and her rail mauler
will eat.

Query. — Is it to be expected that a master ig-
norant heretofore of the tendency of the gospel
would fall so desperately in love with it, from a
knowledge of its tendency, that he would en-
courage the preaching of it among his slaves ?
Verily, NO.

But suppose,, when he put the last question to
me, as to its tendency, I cozild and ivould, without
a twist or quibble, tell him, plainly and candidly,
that it was a slander on the gospel to say that
emancipation or abt)lition was its legitimate ten-
dency. I would tell hiiu that the commandments
of some men, and not the commandments of God,
made slavery a sin. — Smylie on Slavery, p. 71.

One can imagine the expression of
countenance and tone of voice with which
St. Clare would receive such expositions of
the gospel. It is to be remarked that this
tract does not contain the opinions of one
man only, but that it has in its appendix a
letter from two ecclesiastical bodies of the
Presbyterian church, substantially endorsing
its sentiments.

Can any one wonder that a man like St.
Clare should put such questions as these 7

"Is what you hear at church religion 7 Is
that which can bend and turn, and descend
and ascend, to fit every crooked phase of self-
ish, worldly society, religion 7 Is thai reli-
gion, which is less scrupulous, less generous,
less just, less considerate for man, than even
my own ungodly, worldly, blinded nature 7
No ! When I look for a religion, I must*
look for something above me, and not some-
thing beneath."

The character of St. Clare was drawn by

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the writer with enthusiasm and with hope.
•Will this hope never be realized '? Will those
men at the South, to whom God has given
the power to perceive and the heart to
feel the unutterable wrong and injustice of
slavery, always remain silent and inactive?
What nobler ambition to a Southern man
than to deliver his country from this dis-
grace? From the South must the deliverer
arise. How long shall he delay ? There
is a crown brighter than any earthly am-
bition has ever worn, — there is a laurel
which will not fade : it is prepared and wait-
ing for that hero who shall rise up for liberty
at the South, and free that noble and beau-
tiful country from the burden and disgrace
of slavery.

CHAPTER X.

LEGEEE.

As St. Clare and the Shelbys are the
representatives of one class of masters, so
Legree is the representative of another ; and,
as all good masters are not as enlightened,
as generous, and as considerate, as St. Clare
and Mr. Shelby, or as careful and success-
ful in religious training as Mrs. Shelby,
so all bad masters do not unite the personal
ugliness, the coarseness and profaneness,
of Legree.

Legree is introduced not for the sake of
vilifying masters as a class, but for the sake of
bringing to the minds of honorable Southern
men, who are masters, a very important feat-
ure in the system of slavery, upon which,
perhaps, they have never reflected. It is
this : that no SoiUhern law requires any
test 0/ CHARACTER /ro/Tt the man to whom
the absoliUe poioer of master is granted.

In the second part of this book it will be
shown that the legal power of the master
amounts to an absolute despotism over body
and soul ; and that there is no protection for
the slave's life or limb, his family relations,
his conscience, nay, more, his eternal inter-
ests, but the CHARACTER of the master.

Rev. Charles C. Jones, of Georgia, in
addressing masters, tells them that they have
the power to open the kingdom of heaven
or to shut it. to their slaves {Relii{ions In-
struction of the Negroes, p. 158), and a
South Carolinian, in a recent article in Fro-
ser^s M larnzine, apparently in a very seri-
ous spirit, thus acknowledges the f ict of this
ftwful power : ' ' Yes, we would have the

whole South to feel that the soul of the
slave is in some sense in the master's keep-
ing, and to be charged against him here-
after."

Now, it is respectfully submitted to men
of this high class, who are the law-makers,
whether this "awful power to bind and to
loose, to open and to shut the kingdom of
heaven, ought to be intrusted to every man
in the community, without any other quali-
fication than that of property to buy. Let
this gentleman of South Caiolina cast his
eyes around the world. Let him travel for
one week through any district of country
either in the South or the North, and ask
himself how many of the men whom he
meets are fit to be trusted with this power, —
how many are fit to be trusted with their own
souls, much less with those of others 7 '

Now, in all the theory of government aa
it is managed in our country, just in pro-
portion to the extent of power is the strict-
ness with which qualification for the proper
exercise of it is demanded. The physician
may not meddle with the body, to prescribe
for its ailments, without a certificate that he
is properly qualified. The judge may not
decide on the laws which relate to property,
without a long course of training, and most
abundant preparation. It is only this office
of MASTER, which Contains the power to bind
and to loose, and to open and shut the king-
dom of heaven, and involves responsibility
for the soul as well as the body, that is
thrown out to every hand, and committed
without inquiry to any man of any character.
A man may have made all his property by
piracy upon the high seas, as we have rep-
resented in the case of Legree, and there is
no law whatever to prevent his investing
that property in acquiring this absolute con-
trol over the souls and bodies of his fellow-
beings. To the half-maniac drunkai'd. to the
man notorious for hardness and cruelty, to
the man sunk entirely below public opinion,
to the bitter infidel and blasphemer, the law
confides this power, just as freely as to the
most honorable and religious man on earth.
And yet, men who make and uphold these
laws think they are guiltless before God,
because individually they do not perpetrate
the wrongs Avhich they allow others to per-
petrate !

To the pirate Legree the law gives a power
which no man of woman born, save One,
ever was good enough to exercise.

Ai'e there such men as Legree 7 Let
any one go into ^e low districts and dens
of New York, let them go into some of the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

lanes and alleys of London, and will they
not there see many Legrees ? Nay, take
the purest district of New England, and let
people cast about in their memory and see
if there have not been men there, hard,
coarse, unfeeling, brutal, who, if they had
possessed the absolute power of Legree,
would have used it in the same Avay ; and
that there should be Legrees in the South-
ern States, is only saying that human nature
is the same there that it is everywhere. The
only difference is this, — that in free states
Legree is chained and restrained by law ;
in the slave states, the law makes him an
absolute, irresponsible despot.

It is a shocking task to confirm by fact
this part of the writer's story. One may
well approach it in fear and trembling. It
is so mournful to think that man, made in
the image of God, and by his human birth
a brother of Jesus Christ, can sink so low,
can do such things as the very soul shud-
ders to contemplate, — and to think that the
very man who thus sinks is our brother, — is
capable, like us, of the renewal by the Spirit
of grace, by which he might be created in
the image of Christ and be made equal unto
the angels. They who uphold the laws
which grant this awful power have another
heavy responsibility, of which they little
dream. How many souls of masters have
been ruined through it ! How has this ab-
solute authority provoked and developed
wickedness which otherwise might have been
suppressed ! How many have stumbled into
everlasting perdition over this stumbling-
stone of IRRESPONSIBLE POWER !

What facts do the judicial trials of slave-
holding states occasionally develop ! What
horrible records defile the pages of the law-
book, describing unheard-of scenes of torture
and agony, perpetrated in this nineteenth
century of the Christian era, by the irre-
sponsible despot who owns the body and soul !
Let any one read, if they can, the ninety-
third page'cf Weld's Slavery as It Is, where
the Rev. Mr. Dickey gives an account of a
trial in Kentucky for a deed of butchery
and blood too repulsive to humanity to be
here described. The culprit was convicted,
and sentenced to death. Mr. Dickey's
account of the finale is thus :

The Court sat — Tsham was judged to be guilty
of a capital crime in the affair of George. lie was
to be lianjj;od at Salem. The day was set. My
good old fatlier visited him in the prison — two or
throe times talked and prayed with him ; I visited
him once myself. We fondly honed that he was
a sincere penitent. Before the day of execution
came, by some lueanfl, I uever kaovr what, Isham

was missing. About two years after, we learned
that he had gone dovm to Natchez, and had mar-
ried a lady of some refinement and piety. I saw
her letters to his sisters, who were Avorthy mem-
bers of the church of which I was pastor. The
last letter told of his death. He was in Jackson's
army, and fell in the famous battle of New Or-
leans. I am, sir, your friend,

Wm. Dickey.

But the reader will have too much reason
to know of the possibility of the existence
of such men as Legree, when he comes to
read the records of the trials and judicial
decisions in Part II.

Let not the Southern country be taunted
as the only country in the world which pro-
duces such men ; — let us in sorrow and in
humility concede that such men are found
everywdiere ; but let not the Southern coun-
try deny the awful charge that she invests
such men with absolute, irresponsible power
over both the body and the soul.

With regard to that atrocious system of
working up the human being in a given
time, on which Legree is represented as con-
ducting his plantation, there is unfortunately
too much reason to know that it has been
practised and is still practised.

In Mr. Weld's book, '■ Slavery as It Is,"
under the head of Labor, p. 39, are given
several extracts from various documents, to
show that this system has been pursued on
some plantations to such an extent as to short-
en life, and to prevent the increase of the
slave population, so that, unless annually
renewed, it would of itself die out. Of these
documents we quote the following :

The Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge, La.,
in its report, published in 1829, furnishes a
labored estimate of the amount of expenditure
necessarily incurred in conducting " a well-regu-
lated sugar estate." In this estimate, the annual
net loss of slaves, over and abuve the supply by
propagation, is set down at two and a half per
CENT. ! The late Hon. Josiah S. Jolnison, a mem-
ber of Congress from Louisi.ina, addressed a letter
to the Secretary of the United States" Treasury, in
1830, containing a similar estimate, apparently
made with great care, and going into minute
details. Many items in tliis estimate differ from
the preceding ; but the estimate of the annual
decrease of the slaves on a plantation was the
same, — two and a n.\w per cent. !

In September, 1834, tlie writer of this had an
interview with James G. Birney, Esq., who then
resided in Kentucky, iiaving removed, with his
family, from Alabama, the year before. A few
hours before that interview, and on the morning
of the same day, Mr. B. liad spent a co\iple of
hours with Hon. Henry Clay, at his residence,
near Lexington. Mr. Birney remarked that Mr.
Clay had just told him he had lately been led to
mistrust certain estimates as to tlie increase of
the slave population in tlie far South-west, — esti-
mates wliicli he had presented, I think, in a

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speech before the Colomzation Society. He now
believed that the births among the slaves in that
quarter vrere not equal to the deaths ; and that, of
course, the sli^ve population, independent of immi-
gration from the slave-selling states, was not sus-
taining itself.

Among other facts stated by Mr. Clay was the
following, which we copy verbatim from the origi-
nal memorandum made at the time by Mr. Bir-
ney, with which he has kindly furnished us.

'^Sept. 16, 1834. —-Hon. li. Clay, in a conver-
sation at his own house on the subject of slavery,
informed me that Hon. Outcrbridge Horsey — for-
merly, a senator in Congress from the State -of
Delaware, and the owner of a sugar plantation in
Louisiana — declared to him that his overseer
worked his hands so closely that one of the women
brought forth a child whilst engaged in the labors
of the field.

y Also that, a few years since, he was at a
brick-yard in the environs of New Orleans, in
which one hundred hands were employed ; among
them were from twenty to thirty young women, in
the prime of life. He was told by the proprietor
that there had not been a child horn among them
for the last two or three years, although they all had
husbands.'"

The late Mr. Samuel Blackwell, a highly-
respected citizen of Jersey City, opposite the'city
of New York, and a member of the Presbyterian
church, visited many of the sugar plantations in
Louisiana a few years since ; and having, for
many years, been the owner of an extensive sugar
refinery in England, and subsequently in this
country, he had not only every facility aflbrded
him by the planters for personal inspection of all
parts of the process of sugar-making, but received
from them the most unreserved communications
as to their management of their slaves. Mr. B.,
after his return, frequently made the following
statement to gentlemen of his acquaintance : —
"That the plantei;g generally declared to him
that they were obliged so to overwork their slaves,
during the sugar-making season (from eight to
ten weeks), as to use them up in seven or eight
years. For, said they, after the process is com-
menced, it must be pushed, without cessation,
night and day ; and we cannot afford to keep a
sufficient number of slaves to do the extra work at
the time of sugar-making, as we could not profit-
ably employ them the rest of the year."

Dr. Demming, a gentleman of high respectabil-
ity, residing in Ashland, Richland County, Ohio,
stated to Professor Wright, of New York city,

" That, diuing a recent tour at the South, while
ascending the Ohio river, on the steamboat Fame,
he had an opportunity of conversing with a jNIr.
Dickinson, a resident of Pittsburg, in company
with a number of cotton-planters and slave-deal-
ers from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
Mr. Dickinson stated as a fact, that the sugar-
planters upon the sugar-coast in Louisiana had
ascertained that, as it was usually necessary to
employ about twice the amount of labor during the
boiling season that was required during the sea-
son of raising, they could, bjr excessive driving,
day and night, diu-ing the boiling season, accom-
plish the whole labor with one set of hands. By
pursuing this plan, they could afford to sacrifice a
set of hands once in seven years ! He further stated
thatthis horrible system was now practised to a
conaiderable extent ! The correctness of this

statement was substantially admitted by the
slave-holders then on board."

The following testimony of Rev. Dr. Channing,
of Boston, who resided some time in Virginia,
shows that the over-working of slaves, to such an
extent as to abridge life, and cause a decrease of
population, is not confined to the far South and
South-west.

" I heard of an estate managed by an individ-
ual who was considered as singularly successful,
and who was able to govern the slaves without
the use of the whip. I was anxious to see him ;
and trusted that some discovery had been made
favorable to humanity. I asked him how he wa8
able to dispense with corporal punishment. He
replied to me, with a very determined look, ' The
slaves know that tlie work must be done, and that
it is better to do it without punishment than with
it.' In other words, the certainty and dread of
chastisement were so impressed on them that they
never incurred it.

" I then found that the slaves on this well-
managed estate decreased in number. I asked the
cause. He replied, with perfect frankness and
ease, ' The gang is not large enough for the
estate.' In other words, they were not equal to
the work of the plantation, and yet were made to
do it, though with the certainty of abridging life.
" On this plantation the huts were uncommonly
convenient. There was an unusual air of neat-
ness. A superficial observer would have called
the slaves happy. Yet they were living under a
severe, subduing discipline, and were over-worhea
to a degree that shortened life.''^ — Channing on
Slavery, page 162, first edition.

A friend of the writer — the Rev. Mr.
Barrows, now officiating as teacher of
Hebrew in Andover Theological Seminary
— stated the following, in conversation with
her : — That, while at New Orleans, some
time since, he was invited by a planter to
visit his estate, as he considered it to be a
model one. He found good dwellings for
the slaves, abundant provision distributed to
them, all cruel punishments superseded by
rational and reasonable ones, and half a day
every week allowed to the negroes to culti-
vate their own grounds. Provision was also
made for their moral and religious instruc-
tion. Mr. Barrows then asked the planter,
" Do you consider your estate a fair speci-
men'?" The gentleman rephed, "There
are two systems pursued among us. One
is, to make all we can out of a negro in a
few years, and then supply his place with
another ; and the other is, to treat him as I
do. My neighbor on the next plantation
pursues the opposite system. His boys are
hard worked and scantily fed ; and I have
had them come to me, and get down on their
knees to beg me to buy them."

Mr. Barrows says he subsequently passed
by this plantation, and that the woe-struck,
dejected aspect of its laborers fully confirmed

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the account. He also says that the gentle-
man who managed so benevolently told him,
"I do not make much money out of my
slaves."

It will be easy to show that such is the
nature of slavery, and the temptations of
masters, that such well-regulated plantations
are and must be infinitely in the minority,
and exceptional cases.

The Bev. Charles C. Jones, a man of the
finest feelings of humanity, and for many
years an assiduous laborer for the benefit of
the slave, himself the owner of a plantation,
and qualified, therefore, to judge, both by
experience and observation, says, after speak-
ing of the great improvidence of the negroes,
engendered by slavery :

And, indeed, once for all, I will here say that
the wastes of the system are so great, as well as
the fluctuation in prices of the staple articles for
market, that it is difficult, nay, impossible, to in-
dulge in large expenditures on plantations, and
make them savingly profitable. — Religious In-
struction, p. IIG.

If even the religious and benevolent mas-
ter feels the difficulty of uniting any great
consideration for the corn fort of the slave
with prudence and ecouomy, how readily
must the moral question be solved by minds
of the coarse style of thought which we have
supposed in Legree !

" I used to, when I fust begun, have considera-
ble trouble fussin' with 'em, and trying to make
'em hold out, — doctorin' on 'em up when they 's
sick, and givin' on 'em clothes, and blankets, and
what not, trying to keep 'em all sort o" decent
and comf()rtal)le. Law, 'twant no sort o' use ; f
lost money on 'era, and 'twas heaps o' trouble.
Now, you see, I just put 'em straight through,
sick or well. When one nigger's dead, I buy
another ; and I find it comes cheaper and easier
every way."

Added to this, the peculiar mode of labor
on the sugar plantation is such that the mas-
ter, at a certiiin season of the year, must
over-work his slaves, unless he is wiUino^ to
incur great pecuniary loss. In that very
gracefully written apology for slavery. Pro-
fessor Ingraham's "Travels in the South-
west," the following description of sugar-
making is given. We quote from him in
preference to any one else, because he speaks
as an apologist, and describes the thing with
the grace of a ]\Ir. Skimpole.

When the gi-inding has once commenced, there
is no cessation of labor till it is completed. From
beginning to end a busy and cheerful scene con-
tinues. The negroes,

Whose sore task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week,"
work from eighteen to twenty hours,

"And make the night joint laborer with the day ;"

though, to lighten tlie burden as much as possi
ble, the gang is divided into two watches, one
taking the iirst and the other the last part of the
night ; and, notwithstanding this cimtinued labor,
the negroes improve in appearance, and appear
fat and flourishing. They drink freely of cane-
juice, and the sickly among them revive, and
become robust and healthy.

After the grinding is finished, the negi*oes have
several holidays, when they are quite at liberty to
dance and frolic as much as they please : and the
caae-sohg — which is improvised by one of the
gang, the rest all joining in a prolong(>d and unin
telligible, chorus — now breaks, night and day,
upon the ear, in notes " most musical, most mel-
ancholy."

The above is inserted as a specimen of the
facility with which the most honible tacts
may be told in the gente'-lest phrase In a
work entitled "Travels in Louisiana in
1802" is the following extract (soe Weld's
"Slavery as It Is," p. 184). troiii which it
appeals that this cheerfiiJ pioct'ss of labor-
ing night and day lasts tliree months I

Now, let any one learn the private his-
tory of seven hundred blacks. — men and
women, — cotnpelled to work day and night,
under the lash of a driver, for a period of
three months.

Possibly, if the gentleman who wrote this
account were employed, with his wile and
family, in this "cheerful scene" of labor, —
if lie saw the woman that he loved, the
daughter who was dear t<%him as his own
soul, forced on in the geqjfs^l gang, in this
toil which

" Does not divide the Sabbath from the week,
And makes the night joint laboi'er with the day,"

— possibly, if he saw all this, he might have
another opinion of its cheerfulness ; and it
might be an eminently saFutary thing if
every apologist for slavery Hyere to enjoy
some such privilege for a season^, particularly
as Mr. Ingraham is careful to tell us that
its effect upon the general health is so excel-
lent that the negroes improve in appearance;,'
and appear fat and flourishing, and that the
sickly among them revive, and become
robust and healthy. One would think it a
surprising fact, if working slaves night and
day, and giving them cane-juice to drink,
really produces such salutary results, that
the practice should not be continued the
whole year round ; though, perhaps, in this
case, the negroes would become so- fat as to
be unable to labor. Possibly, it is because
this healthful process is not longer continued
that the agricultural societies of Louisiana
are obliged to set down an annual loss of
slaves ou sugar plantations to thr amount

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of two and a half per cent. This ought to
be looked into bj philanthropists. Perhaps
■working them all night for six months,
instead of three, might remedy the evil.

But this periodical pressure is not con-
fined to the making of sugar. There is also
a press in the cotton season, as any one can
observe by reading the Southern newspapers.
At a certain season of the year, the whole
interest of the community is engaged in gath-
ering in the cotton crop. Concerning this
Mr. Weld says (" Slavery as It Is," page
34):

In the cotton and sugar region there is a fear-
ful amount of desperate gambling, in which,
tliough money is the ostensible stake and forfeit,
huma.'i life is the real one. The length to which
this rivalry is carried at the South and South-
west, the multitude of planters who engage in it,
and the recklessness of human life exhibited in
driving the murderous game to its issue, cannot
well be imagined by one who has not lived in the
midst of it. Desire of gain is only one of the
motives that stimulates them ; the ec/ai of having
made the largest crop with a given number of
hands is also a powerful stimulant ; the Southern
newspapers, at the crop season, chronicle care-
fully the " cotton brag," and the " crack cotton-
picking," and " unparalleled driving," &c. Even
the editors of professedly religious papers cheer
on the melee, and sing the triumphs of the victor.
Among these we recollect the celelirated Rev. J.
N. Muffit, recently editor of a religious paper at
Natchez, Miss., in which he took care to assign a
prominent place and capitals to '"the cotton

BRAG."

As a specimen, of recent date, of this kind
of affair, we subjoin the following from the
Fairfield Herald' Winsboro', S. C, Nov.
4, 1852.

COTTON-PICKING.

We find in many of our southern and western
exchanges notices of the amount of cotton picked
by hands, and the quantity by each hand ; and,
as we have received a similar account, which we
have not seen excelled, so far as regards the quan-
tity picked by one liand, we with pleasure fur-
nish the statement, with the remark that it is
from a citizen of this district, overseeing for Mai.
H. VV. Parr.

''Broad River, Oct. 12, 1852.

"Messrs. Editors: — By way of contributing
something to your variety (provided it meets your
approbation), 1 send you the return of a day's
picking of cotton, not by picked hands, but the
fag end of a set of hands on one plantation, the
able-bodied hands having been draA\Ti out for other
purposes. Now for the result of a day's picking,
I'rom sun-up until sun-down, by twenty-two hands,
— women, boys, and two men: — four thousand
eight hundred and ei*hty pounds of clean picked
Ootton, fruin the stalk.

"The highest, three hundred and fifty pounds,
Dy ftsveral ; the lowest, one hundred and fifteen
pounds. One of tlie number has picked in the last
seven and a half days (Sunday excepted), eleven

hours each day, nineteen hundred pounds clean cot^
ton. When any of my agricultural friends beat
this, in the same time, and during sunshine, I will
try again. James Steward."

It seems that this agriculturist professes
to have accomplished all these extraordinary
results with what he very elegantly terms
the "fag end" of a set of hands; and, the
more to exalt his glory in the matter, he
distinctly informs the public that there were
no "able-bodied" hands employed; that
this whole triumphant result was worked out
of women and children, and two disabled
men ; in other words, he boasts that out of
women and children, and the feeble and
sickly, he has extracted four thousand eight
hundred and eighty pounds of clean picked
cotton in a day ; and that one of these same
hands has been made to pick nineteen hun-
dred pounds of clean cotton in a week ! and
adds, complacently, that, when any of his
agricultural friends beat this, in the same
time, and during sunshine, he "will try
again."

Will any of our readers now consider the
forcing up of the hands on Legree's planta-
tion an exaggeration? Yet see how com-
placently this account is quoted by the
editor, as a most praiseworthy and laudable
thing !

" Behold the hire of the laborers
WHO 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 THB
EARS OF THE LORD OF SaBAOTH."

That the representations of the style of
dwelling-house, modes of housekeeping, and.
in short, the features of life generally, as
described on Legree's plantation, are not
wild and fabulous drafts on the imagination,
or exaggerated pictures of exceptional cases,
there is the most abundant testimony before
the world, and has been for a long number
of years. Let the reader weigh the follow-
ing testimony with regard to the dwellings
of the negroes, which has been for some
years before the world, in the work of Mr.
Weld. It shows the state of things in this
respect, at least up to the year 1888.

Mr. Stephen E. Maltby, Inspector of Provisions,
Skaneateles, N. Y., who has lived in Alabama.
— " The huts where the slaves slept generally con-
tained but one apartment, and that without fioor."

Mr. George A. Avery, elder of the 4th Presby-
terian Church, Rochester, N. Y., who lived four
years in Virginia. — " Amongst all the negro
cabins which 1 saw in Virginia, 1 cannot call to mind
one in wliich there was any other floor than the
earth ; anything that a Northern laborer, oi

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

mechanic, white or colored, would call a bed, nor a
BQ^t?iXj fartition, to separate the sexes."

Wiliiara Ladd, Esq., jNIinot, Maine, President
of the American Peace Society, formerly a slave-
holder in Florida. — " The dwellings of the slaves
were palmetto huts, built by themselves of stakes
and poles, thatched with the palmetto-leaf. The
door, when they had any, was generally of the
same materials, sometimes boards found on the
beach. They had no floors, no separate apart-
ments ; except the Guinea negroes had sometimes
a small enclosure for their ' god houses.' These
huts the slaves built themselves after task and on
Sundays."

Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, pastor Presbyterian
Church, Castile, Greene Co., N. Y., who lived in
Missoui'i five years pi-evious to 1837. — " The slaves
live generally in miserable huts, which are without
floors ; and have a single apartment only, where
both sexes are herded promiscuously together."

Mr. George W. Westgate, member of the Con-
gregational church in Quincy, Illinois, who has
spent a number of years in slave states. — " On old
plantations the negro quarters are of frame and
clapboards, seldom affording a comfortable shelter
from wind or rain ; their size varies fi'om eight
by ten to ten by twelve feet, and six or eight feet
high ; sometimes there is a hole cut for a window,
but I never saw a sash, or glass, in any. In the new
country, and in the woods, the quarters are gen-
erally built of logs, of similar dimensions."

Mr. Cornelius Johnson, a member of a Christian
church in Farming^ton, Ohio, Mr. J. lived in
Mississippi in 1837--0. — *' Their houses were com-
monly built of logs ; sometimes they were framed,
often they liad no floor ; some of them have two
apartments, commonly but one ; each of those
apartments contained a family. Sometimes these
families consisted of a man and his wife and chil-
dren, while in other instances persons of both sexes
were thrown together, without any regard to family
relationship."

The Western Medical Reformer, in an article on
the Cachexia Africana, by a Kentucky physician,
thus speaks of the huts of the slaves : " They are
crowded together in a small hut, and sometimes
having an imperfect and sometimes no floor, and
seldom raised from the ground, ill ventilated, and
surrounded with filth."

Mr. William Leftwich, anativeof Virginia, but
has resided most of his life in Madison Co., Ala-
bama. — " The dwellings of the slaves are log huts,
from ten to twelve feet square, often without
windows, doors or floors ; they have neither chairs,
table, or bedstead."

Reuben L. Macy, of Hudson, N. Y., a member
of the religious society of Friends. He lived in
South Carolina in 1818-10. — " The houses for the
field-slaves were about fourteen feet square, built
in the coarsest manner, witli one room, ivithout
any chimney or flooring, with a hole in the roof to
let the smoke oul.^^

Mr. Lemuel Sapington, of Lancaster, Pa., a na-
tive of Maryland, I'ormerly a slave-holder. — " The
descriptions generally given of negro quarters are
connect ; tlic quarters are ivithout floors, and not
suflicient to keep off the inclemency of the weather ;
they are uncomfortable both in summer and win-
ter."

Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee. —
" When they return to their miserable huts at
night, they find not there the means of comfort-

able rest ; but on the cold ground they must lie
without covering, and shiver while they slumber.''''

Philemon Bliss, Esq., Elyria, Ohio, who lived
in Florida in 1835. — " The dwellings of the slaves
are usually small ofen log huts, with but one apart-
ment, and very generally without floor sy

Slavery as It Is, p. 43.

The Rev. C. C. Jones, to wliom we have
already alluded, when taking a survey of
the condition of the n.egroes considered as a
field for missionary effort, takes into account
all the conditions of their external life. He
speaks of a part of Georgia where as much
attention had been paid to the comfort of the
negro as in any part of the United States.
He gives the following picture :

Their general mode of living is coarse and vul
gar. Many negro houses are small, low to the
ground, blackened with smoke, often with dirt
floors, and the furniture of the plainest kind. On
some estates the houses are framed, weather-
boarded, neatly white-washed, and made suffi-
ciently large and comfortable in every respect.
The improvement in the size, material and finish,
of negro houses, is extending. Occasionally they
may be found constructed of tabby or brick.

Religious Instruction of the Negroes, p. 116.

Now, admitting what Mr. Jones says, to
wit, that improvements with regard to the
accommodation of the negroes are continually
making among enlightened and Cliristian
people, still, if we take into account how
many people there are who are neither en-
lightened nor Christian, how unproductive
of any benefit to the master all these im-
provements are, and how entirelj'-, therefore
they must be the result either of native
generosity or of Christian sentiment, the
reader may fairly conclude that such im-
provements are the exception, rather than
the rule.

A friend of the writer, travelling in Geor-
gia during the last month, thus writes :

Upon the long line of rice and cotton planta-
tions extending along the railroad from Savannah
to this city, the negro quarters cc/ntain scarcely a
single hut which a Northern farmer would deem fit
shelter for his cattle. They are all built of poles,
with the ends so slightly notclied that they are al-
most as open as children's cob-houses (wliich tliey
very much resemble), without a single glazed win-
dow, and witli only one mud chimney to each clus-
ter of from four to eight cabins. And yet our fel-
low-travellers were quietly expatiating upon the
negro's strange inability to endure cold weather !

Let this modern picture be compared with
the account given by the Rev. Horace Moul-
ton, who spent five years in Georgia, between
1817 and 1824, and it will be seen, in that
state at least, there is some resemblance be-
tween the more remote and more recent
practice :

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poorest
kind. Tliey are not as good as those temporary
ahantiea which are thrown up beside railroads.
They are erected with posts and crotches, with
but little or no frame-work about them. They
have no stoves or chimneys ; some of them have
Bomethinj^ like a fireplace at one end, and a board
or two oil at that side, or on the roof, to let off
the smoke. Others have nothing like a fireplace
in them ; in these the fire is sometimes made in
the middle of the hut. These buildings have but
one apartment in them ; the places where they
pass in and out serve both for doors and windows ;
the sides and roofs are covered with coarse, and
in many instances with refuse boards. In warm
weather, especially in the spring, the slaves keep
up a smoke, or tire and smoke, all niglit, to drive
away the gnats and mosquitos, which are very
troublesome in all the low country of the South ;
so much so that the whites sleep under frames
with nets over them, knit so fine that the mosqui-
tos cannot fly through them.

Slavery as It Is, Tp. 19.

The same Mr. MouKon gives the follow-
ing account of the food of the slaves, and the
mode of procedure on the plantation on
■which he was engaged. It may be here
mentioned that at the time he was at the
South he was engaged in certain business
relations which caused him frequently to
visit different plantations, and to have under
his control many of the slaves. His oppor-
tunities for observation, therefore, were quite
intimate. There is a homely matter-of-fact
distinctness in the style that forbids the idea
of its being a fancy sketch :

It was a general custom, wherever I have been,
for the master to give each of his slaves, male
and female, one peck of corn per week for their food.
This, at fifty cents per bushel, which was all that
it was worth when I was there, would amount to
twelve and a half cents per week for board per head.

It cost me, upon an average, when at the South,
one dollar per day for board ; — the price of four-
teen bushels of corn per week. This would make
my board equal in amount to the board oi forty-six
slaves ! This is all that good or bad masters allow
their slaves, round about Savannah, on the planta-
tions. One peck of gourd-seed corn is to be meas-
ured out to each skive once every week. One
man with whom I labored, however, being desir-
ous to get all the work out of his hands he could,
before i left (about fifty in number), bought for
them every week, or twice a week, a beef's head
from market. With this they made a soup in a
large iron kettle, around which the hands came at
meal-tiuie, and dipping out the soup, would mix
it with their hominy, and eat it. as though it
were a feast. This man permitted his slaves to
eat twice a day while I was doing a job for him.
He promised me a beaver hat, and as good a suit
of clothes as could be bought in the city, if I would
accomplish so much for him before I returned to
the North ; giving me the entire control over his
slaves. Thus you may see the temptations over-
seers sometimes have, to get all the work they
can out of the poor slaves. The above is an excep-
tion to the general rule of feeding. For, in all
otlier places where I worked and visited, the

slaves had nothing from (heir masters hut the corn,
or its equivalent in potatoes or rice; and to this
they were not permitted to come but once a day.
The custom was to blow the horn early in the
morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go
to work. When commenced, they continue work
until about eleven o'clock A. M., when, at the
signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts,
made their fires, made their corn-meal into hom-
iny or cake, ate it, and went to work again at
the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or
until their tasks were done. Some cooked their
breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave
must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he
has done his work at night. There is generally
one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of
the slaves.

Some of the planters have no com ; others often
get out. The substitute for it is the equivalent of
t)ne peck of corn, either in rice or sweet potatoes,
neither of which is as good for the slaves as com.
They complain more of being faint when fed on
rice or potatoes than when fed on corn. I was
with one man a few weeks who gave me his
hands to do a job of work, and, to save time, one
cooked for all the rest. The following course was
taken : — Two crotched sticks were driven down at
one end of the yard, and, a small pole being laid
on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on
the middle of the pole ; then made up a fire under
the kettle, and boiled the hominy ; when ready,
the hands were called around this kettle with
their wooden plates and spoons. They dipped
out and ate standing around the kettle, or sitting
upon the ground, as best suited their convenience.
When they had potatoes, they took them out with
their hands, and ate them.

Slavery as It Is, p. 18.

Thomas Clay, Esq., a slave-holder of
Georgia, and a most benevolent man, and
who interested himself very successfully in
endeavoring to promote the improvement of
the negroes, in his address before the Geor-
gia Presbytery, 1833, says of their food,
" The quantity allowed by custom is a peck
of corn a week.'"

The Maryland Journal ajid Baltimore
Advertiser., May 30, 1788, says, " A single
peck of corn, or the same measure of rice, is
the ordinary provision for a hard-working
slave, to which a small quantity of meat ia
occasionally, though rarely, added."

Captain William Ladd, of JNIinot, Maine,
formerly a slave-holder in Florida, says,
" The usual allowance of food was a quart
of corn a day to a full-task hand, with a
modicum of salt ; kind masters allowed a
peck of corn a week."'

The law of North Carolina provides that
the master shall give his slave a quart of
corn a day, which is less than a peck a week
by one quart. — Hay wood' s Manual. 525 ;
Slavery as It Is, p. 29. The master, there-
fore, who gave a peck a week would feel
that he was going beyond the law, and giv-
ing a quart for generosity.

KEY TU UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

This condition of tilings will appear far
more probable in the section of country
where the scene of the story is laid. It is
in the south-western states, where no pro-
vision is raised on the plantations, but the
supply for the slaves is all purchased from
the more nortjiern states.

Let the reader now imagine the various
temptations which might occur to retrench
the allowance of the slaves, under these cir-
cumstances : — scarcity of money, financial
embarrassment, high price of provisions, and
various causes of the kind, bring a great
influence upon the master or overseer.

At the time when it was discussed whether
the State of Missouri should be admitted as
a slave state, the measure, like all measures
for the advancement of this horrible system,
was advocated on the good old plea of hu-
manity to the negroes ; thus Mr. Alexander
Smyth, in his speech on the slavery question,
Jan. 21, 1820, says:

By confining the slaves to the Southern States,
where crops are raised for exportation, and bread
and meat are purchased, y:)u doom them to scarcity
and hunger. It is proposed to hem in the blacks
where they are ill fed.

Slavery as It Is, ip. 28.

This is a simple recognition of the state
of things we have adverted to. To the
same purport, Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theo-
logical student, who resided near Natchez,
Miss., in 1834-5, says :

On almost every plantation, the hands suffer
more or less from hunger at some seasons of almost
every year. There is always a good deal of suffer-
ing from hunger. On many plantations, and par-
ticularly in Louisiana, the slaves are in a condi-
tion of almost utter famishment, during a great por-
tion of the year. — Ibid.

Mr. Tobias Baudinot, St. Albans, Ohio,
a member of the Methodist Church, who for
some years was a navigator on the Missis-
sippi, says :

The slaves down the ]\Iississippi are half-starved.
The lioats, when they stop at night, are constantly
boarded by slaves, begging for something to eat.

Ibid.

On the whole, while it is freely and cheer-
fully admitted that many individuals have
made most conunendable advances in regard
to the provision for the physical comfort of
the slave, still it is to be feared that the
picture of the accommodations on Legree's
plantation hixs as yet too many counterparts.
Lest, however, the autlior sljould be sus-
pected of keeping back anything which
might serve to thi'ow light on the subject,

she will insert in full the following incidents
on the other side, from the pen of the accom-
plished Professor In graham. How far these
may be regarded as exceptional cases, or as
pictures of the general mode of providing
for slaves, may safely be left to the good
sense of the reader. The professor's anec-
dotes are as follows :

"What can you do with so much tobacco 1"
said a gentleman, — who relatecl the circumstance
to me, — on hearing a planter, whom he was visit-
ing, give an order to his teamster to bring two
hogslieads of toljacco out to the estate from the
" Landing."

" I purchase it for my negroes ; it is a harmless
indulgence, which it gives me pleasure to afford
them."

" Why are you at the trouble and expense of
having high-post bedsteads for your negroes'?"
said a gentleman from the North, while walking
through the handsome " quarters," or village, for
the slaves, then in progress on a plantation near
Natchez — addressing the proprietor.

" To suspend their ' bars ' from, that they may
not be troubled with mosquitos."

" Master, me would like, if you please, a little
bit gallery front my house."

" For what, Peter?"

" 'Cause, master, the sun too hot [an odd rea-
son for a negro to give] that side, and when he
rain we no able to keep de door open."

" Well, well, when a carpenter gets a little lei-
sure, you shall have one."

A few weeks after, I was at the plantation, and
riding past the quarters one Sabbath morning,
beheld Peter, his wife and children, with his old
father, all sunning themselves in the new gallery.

" Missus, you promise me a Chrismus gif."

" Well, Jane, there is a new calico frock for
you."

" It werry pretty. Missus," said Jane, eying it
at a distance without touching it, " but me prefer
muslin, if you please : muslin de fashion dis
Chrismus."

" Very well, Jane, call to-morrow, and you shall
have a muslin."

The writer would not think of controvert-
ing the truth of these anecdotes. Any prob-
able amount of high-post bedsteads and
mosquito " bars," of tobacco distributed as
gratuity, and verandas constructed by lei-
surely carpenters for the sunning of fasti-
dious negroes, may be conceded, and they
do in no whit impair the truth of the other
facts. When tlie reader lemembers that the
"gang" of some opulent owners amounts
to trora five to seven hundred working hands,
besides children, he can judge how exten-
sively these accommodations are likely to be
provided. Let them be safely thrown into
the account, . for what they are worth.

At all events, it is pleasing to end off so
disagreeable a chapter with some more agree-
able images. ' * -

£.EY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER XI.

SELECT INCIDENTS OF LAWFUL TRADE.

In this chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin
were recorded some of the most highly-
wrought and touching incidents of the slave-
trade. It Avill be well to authenticate a
few of them.

One of 4he first sketches presented to view
is an account of the separation of a very old,
decrepit negro woman from her young son,
by a sheriffs sale. The writer is sorry to
say that not the slightest credit for inven-
tion is due to her in this incident. She
found it, almost exactly as it stands, in the
published journal of a young Southerner,
related as a scene to which he was eye-wit-
ness. The only circumstance which she has
omitted in the narrative was one of addi-
tional inhumanity and painfulness which he
had delineated. He represents the boy as
being bought by a planter, who fettered his
hands, and tied a rope round his neck which
he attached to the neck of his horse, thus
compelling the child to trot by his side.
This incident alone was suppressed by the
author.

Another scene of fraud and cruelty, in
tlie same chapter, is described as perpetrated
by a Kentucky slave-master, who sells a
woman to a trader, and induces her to go
with him by the deceitful assertion that she
is to be taken down the river a short dis-
tance, to work at the same hotel with her
husband. This was an instance which oc-
curred under the writer's own observation,
some years since, when she was going down
the Ohio river. The woman was very re-
spectable both in appearance and dress. The
writer recalls her image now with distinct-
ness, attired with great neatness in a white
wrapper, her clothing and hair all arranged
wil;)i evident care, and having with her a
prettily-dressed boy about seven years of
age. She had also a hair trunk of clothing,
which showed that she had been carefully
and respectably brought up. It will be
seen, in perusing the account, that the
incident is somewhat altered to suit the pur-
pose of the story, the woman being there
represented as carrymg with her a young
infant.

The custom of unceremoniously separating
the infant from its mother, when the latter
is about to be taken from a Northern to a
Southern market, is a matter of every-day
notoriety in the trade. It is not done oc-
casionally and sometimes, but always, when-

ever there is occasion for it: and the moth-
er" s agonies are no more regarded than those
of a coAv when hei' calf is separated from
her.

The reason of this is, that the care and
raising of children is no part of the intention
or provision of a Southern plantation. They
are a trouble ; they deti-act from the value
of the mother as a field-h;ind, and it is more
expensive to raise them than to buy them
ready raised ; they are therefore left behind
in the making up of a coflie. Not longer
ago than last summer, the writer was con-
versing with Thomas Strother, a slave
minister of the gospel in St. Louis, for
whose emancipation she was making some
effort. He incidentally mentioned to her a
scene which he had witnessed but a short
time before, in which a young woman of his
acquaintance came to him almost in a state
of distraction, telhng him th-at she had been
sold to go South with a trader, and leave
behind her a nursing infant.

In Lewis Clark's narrative he mentions
that a master in his neighborhood sold a
woman and child to a trader, with the charge
that he should not sell the child from its
mother. The man, however, traded off the
child in the very next town, in pajonent of
his tavern-bill.

The following testimony is from a gentle-
man who writes from New Orleans to the
Natiojial Era.

This writer says :

"While at Robinson, OT Tyree Springs, twenty
miles from Nashville, on the borders of Kentucky
and Tennessee, my hostess said to me, one day,
"Yonder comes a gang of slaves, chained." I
went to the road-side and viewed them. For the
better answering my purpose of observation, I
stopped the white man in front, who was at hia
ease in a one-horse wagon, and asked him if those
slaves were for sale. I counted them and observed
their position. They were divided by three one-
horse wagons, each containing a man-merchant,
so arranged as to command the whole gang. Some
were unchained ; sixty were chained in two com-
panies, thirty in each, the right hand of one to
the left hand of the other opposite one, making
fifteen each side of a largp ox-chain, to which
every hand was fastened, and necessarily compelled
to tiold up, — men and women promiscuously, and
about in equal proportions, — all young people.
No children here, except a few in a wagon behind,
which were the only children in the four gangs.
I said to a respectable mulatto woman in the
house, "Is it true that the negro-traders take
mothers from their babies?" " Massa, it is
true ; for here, last week, such a girl [naming
her], who lives about a mile oflF, was taken after
dinner, — knew nothing of it in the morning, —
sold, put into the gang, and her baby given away
to a neighbor. She was a stout young woman,
and brought a good price."

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Nor is the pitiful lie to be regarded which
says that these unhappy mothers and fathers,
husbands and wives, do not feel when the
most sacred ties are thus severed. Every
day and hour bears living witness of the
falsehood of this slander, the more false be-
cause spoken of a race pecuharly affectionate,
and strong, vivacious and vehement, in the
expression of their feelings.

The case which the writer supposed of
the woman's throwing herself overboard is
not by any means a singular one. Witness
the following recent fact, which appeared
Tinder the head of

ANOTHER INCIDENT FOR " UNCLE TOm'S CABIN."

The editorial correspondent of the Oneida, (N.
Y.) Telegraph, writing from a steamer on the
Mississippi river, gives the following sad story :

" At Louisville, a gentleman took passage,
having M'ith him a family of blacks, — husband,
wife and children. The master was bound for
Memphis, Tenn., at which place he intended to
take all except the man ashore. The latter was
hand-cuffed, and although his master said nothing
of his intention, the negro made up his mind, from
appearances, as well as from the remarks of those
around him, that he was destined for the Southern
market. We reached Memphis during the night,
and whilst within sight of the town, just before
landing, the negro caused his wife to divide their
things, as though resigned to the intended sepa-
ration, and then, taking a moment when his
master's back was turned, ran forward and jumped
into the river. Of course he sank, and his master
was several hundred dollars poorer than a moment
before. That was all ; at least, scarcely any one
mentioned it the next morning. I was obliged to
get my information from the deck hands, and did
not hear a remark concerning it in the cabin. In
justice to the master, I should say, that after the
occurrence he disclaimed any intention to separate
them. Appearances, however, are quite against
him, if I have been rightly informed. This sad
affair needs no comment. It is an argument,
however, that I might have used to-day, with
some effect, whilst talking with a highly-intelli-
gent Southerner of the evils of slavery. He had
been reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, and spoke of it
as a novel, which, like other romances, was well
calculated to excite the sympathies, by the recital
of heart-touching incidents which never had an ex-
istence, except in the imagination of the writer."

Instances have occurred where mothers,
whose children were about to be sold from
them, have, in their desperation, murdered
their own offspring, to save them from this
worst kind of orphanage. A case of tliis
kind has been recently tried in the United
States, and was alluded to, a week or two
ago, by Mr. Giddings, in his speech on the
floor of Congress.

An American gentleman from Italy, com-
plaining of the effect of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" on the Italian mind, states that.

images of fathers dragged from their families
to be sold into slavery, and of babes toni
from the breasts of weeping mothers, are
constantly presented before the minds of
the people as scenes of every-day life in
America. The author can only say, sorrow-
fully, that it is 07i//ij the truth which is thus
presented.

These things are, every day, part and
parcel of one of the most thriving trades
that is carried on in America. The only
difference betAveen us and foreign nations is,
that we have got used to it, and they have
not. The thing has been done, and done
again, day after day, and year after year,
reported and lamented over in every variety
of way; but it is sroing on this day with
more briskness than ever before, and such
scenes as we have described are enacted
oftener, as the author will prove when she
comes to the chapter on the internal slave-
trade.

The incident in this same chapter which
describes the scene w^here the wife of the
unfortunate article, catalogued as "John
aged 30," rushed on board the boat and
threw her arms around him. with moans and
lamentations, was a real incident. The
gentleman who related it was so stirred in
his spirit at the sight, that he addressed the
trader in the exact words which the writer
represents the young minister as having
used in her narrative.

My friend, how can you, how dare you, carry
on a trade like this? Look at those poor crea-
tures ! Here I am, rejoicing in my heart that I
am going home to my wife and child ; and the
same bell which is the signal to carry me onward
towards them will part this poor man and his
wife forever. Depend upon it, God will bring
you into judgment for this.

If that gentleman has read the work, —
as perhaps he has before now, — he has
probably recognized his own words. One
affecting incident in the narrative, as it
really occurred, ought to be mentioned. The
wife was passionately bemoaning her hus-
band's fate, as about to be foiever separated
from all that he held dear, to be sold to the
hard usage of a Southern plantation. The
husband, in reply, used that very simple but
sublime expression which the writer has
placed in the mouth of Uncle Tom, in simi-
lar circumstances : " There 7/ be the same
God there that there is Jicre.^^

One other incident mentioned in " Uncle
Tom's Cabin" may, perhaps, be as well
verified in this place as in any other.

The case of old Prue was related J^ a

KEY TO [JNCLE TOM S CABIN.

brother and sister of the writer, as follows :
She was the woman who supplied rusks and
other articles of the kind at the house where
they boarded- Her manners, appearance
and character, were just as described. One
day another servant came in her place,
bringing the rusks. The sister of the
writer inquired what had become of Prue.
She seemed reluctant to answer for some
time, but at last said that they had taken
her into the cellar and beaten her, and that
the flies had got at her, and she was dead !

It is well known that there are no cellars,
properly so called, in New Orleans, the
nature of the ground beincf such as to forbid
digging. The slave who used the word had
probably been imported from some state
where cellars were in use, and apphed the
term to the place which was used for the
ordinary purposes of a cellar. A cook
who lived in the writer's family, having lived
most of her life on a plantation, always ap-
phed the descriptive terms of the plantation
to the very limited enclosures and retinue
of a very plain house and yard.

This same lady, while living in the same
place, used frequently to have her compas-
sion excited by hearing the wailings of a
sickly baby in a house adjoining their own,
as also the objurgations and tyrannical abuse
of a ferocious virago upon its mother. She
once got an opportunity to speak to its
mother, who appeared heart-broken and
dejected; and inquired what was the matter
with her child. Her answer was that she
had had a fever, and that her milk was all
dried away ; and that her mistress was set
against her child, and would not buy milk
for it. She had tried to feed it on her own
coarse food, but it pined and cried continu-
ally ; and in witness of this she brought the
baby to her. It was emaciated to a skeleton.
The lady took the little thing to a friend of
hers in the house who had been recently con-
fined, and who was suffering from a redun-
dancy of milk, and begged her to nurse it.
The miserable sight of the little, fomished,
wasted thing affected the mother so as to
overcome all other considerations, and she
placed it to her breast, when it revived, and
took food with an eagerness which showed
how much it had suffered. But the child
was so reduced that tliis proved only a tran-
sient alleviation. It was after this almost im-
possible to get sight of the woman, and the
violent temper of her mistress was such as
to make it difficult to interfere in the case.
The lady secretly afforded what aid she could,
though, as she confessed, with a sort of mis-

giving that it was a cruelty to try to hold
back the poor little sufferer from the refuge
of the grave ; and it was a relief to her when
at last its waihngs ceased, and it went where
the weary are at rest. This is one of those
cases which go to show that the interest of
the owner will not always insure kind treat-
ment of the slave.

There is one other incident, which the
writer interwove into the history of the
mulatto woman who was bought by Legree
for his plantation. The reader will remem-
ber that, in telling her story to Emmeline,
she says :

"My M.os'r was Mr. Ellis, — lived on Lcvec-
street. P'raps you've seen the house."

" Was he good to you?" said Emmeline.

" Mostly, till he tuk sick. He 's lain sick, off
and on, more than six months, and heen orful
oneasy. 'Pears like he -war n't willin' to have
nobody rest, day nor night; and got so cur'ous,
there could n't nobody suit him. 'Pears like he
just grew Grosser every day ; kep me up nights
till I got fairly beat out, and couldn't keep awake
no longer ; and 'cause I got to sleep one night,
Lors ! he talk so orful to me, and he tell me he 'd
sell me to just the hardest master he could find ;
and he 'd promispd me my freedom, too, when he
died.'

An incident of this s^rt came under the
author's observation in the following man-
ner : A quadroon slave family, liberated by
the will of the master, settled on Walnut
Hills, near her residence, and their children
were received into her family school, taught
in her house. In this family was a little
quadroon boy, four or five years of age, with
a sad, dejected appearance, who excited their
interest.

The history of this child, as narrated by
his friends, was simply this : His mother
had been the indefitigable nurse of her mas-
ter, during a lingering and painful sickness,
which at last terminated his life. She had
borne all the fatigue of the nursing, both by
night and by day, sustained in it by his
promise that she should be rewarded for it
by her liberty, at his death. Overcome by
exhaustion and fatigue, she one night fell
asleep, and he was unable to rouse her.
The next day, after violently upbraiding
her, he altered the directions of his will, and
sold her to a man who was noted in all the
region round as a cruel master, which sale,
immediately on his death, which was shortly
after, took effect. The only mitigation of
her sentence was that her child was not to
be taken with her into this dreaded lot, but
was given to this quadroon family to be
brought into a free state.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

The writer very well remembers hearing
this story narrated among a group of liber-
ated negroes, and their comments on it. A
peculiar form of grave and solemn irony
often characterizes the communications of
this class of people. It is a habit engen-
dered in slavery to comment upon proceed-
ings of this kind in language apparently
respectful to the perpetrators, and which is
felt to be irony only by a certain peculiarity
of manner, difficult to describe. After the
relation of this story, when the writer ex-
pressed her indignation in no measured
terms, one of the oldest of the sable circle
remarked, gravely,

" The man was a mighty great Christian,
anyhow."

The writer warmly expressed her dissent
from this vieAV, when another of the same
circle added,

"Went to glory, anyhow."

And another continued,

"Had the greatest kind of a time when
he was a-dyin' ; said he was goin' straight
into heaven."

And when the writer remarked that many
people thought so who never got there, a sin-
gular smile of grim approval passed round
the circle, but no further comments were
made. This incident has often recurred to
the writer's mind, as showing the danger to
the welfare of the master's soul from the pos-
session of absolute power. A man of justice
and humanity when in health, is often
tempted to become unjust, exacting and
exorbitant, in sickness. If, in these circum-
stances, he is surrounded by inferiors, from
whom law and public opinion have taken
away the rights of common humanity, how
is he tempted to the exercise of the most
despotic passions, and, like this unfortunate
man, to leave the world with the weight of
these awful words upon his head : " If ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses."

CHAPTER XII.

TOPSY.

TOPST stands as the representative of a
large class of the children who are growing
up under the institution of slavery, — (juick,
active, subtle and ingenious, apparently
utterly devoid of principle and conscience,
keenly penetrating, by an instinct which
exists in the childish mind, the degradation
of their condition, and the utter hopelessness

of rising above it ; feeling the black skin on
them, like the mark of Cain, to be a sign of
reprobation and infamy, and urged on by a
kind of secret desperation to make their
"calhng and election" in sin "sure."

Christian people have often been perfectly
astonished and discouraged, as Miss Opheha
was, in the attempt to bring up such chil-
dren decently and Christianly, under a state
of things which takes away every stimulant
which God meant should operate healthfully
on the human mind.

We are not now speaking of the Southern
States merely, but of the New England
States ; for, startling as it may appear,
slavery is not yet wholly abolished in the
free states of the North. The most un-
christian part of it, that which gives to it all
the bitterness and all the sting, is yet, in a
great measure, unrepealed ; it is the practi-
cal denial to the negro of the rights of
human brotherhood. In consequence of
this, Topsy is a character which may be
found at the North as well as at the South.

In conducting the education of negro,
mulatto and quadroon children, the writer
has often observed this fact : — that, for a
certain time, and up to a certain age, they
kept equal pace with, and were often supe-
rior to, the white children with whom they
were associated ; but that there came a time
when they became indifferent to learning,
and made no further progress. This was
invariably at the age when they were old
enough to reflect upon life, and to perceive
that society had no place to offer them for
which anything more would be requisite
than the rudest and most elementary knowl-
edge.

Let us consider how it is with our own
children ; how few of them would ever
acquire an education from the mere love of
leai'ning.

In the process necessary to acquire a
handsome style of hand-writing, to master
the intricacies of any language, or to con-
quer the difficulties of mathematical study,
how often does the perseverance of the child
flag, and need to be stimulated by his
parents and teachers by such considerations
as these : "It will be necessary for you, in
such Or such a position in life, to possess
this or that acquirement or accomplishment.
How could you ever become a merchant,
without understanding accounts ) IIow
could you enter the learned professions
without understanding languages '? If yoii
are ignorant and uninformed, you cannot
take rank as a gentleman in society."

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Does not every one know that, -without
the stimulus which teachers and parents
thus continually present, multitudes of chil-
dren would never gain a tolerable educa-
tion ? And is it not the absence of all such
stimulus which has prevented the negro
child from an equal advance ?

It is often objected to the negro race that
they are frivolous and vain, passionately
fond of show, and are interested only in
trifles. And who is to blame for all this 7
Take away all high aims, all noble ambition,
from any class, and what is left for them to
ffe interested in but trifles ?

The present attorney-general of Liberia,
Mr. Lewis, is a man who commands the
highest respect, for talent and ability in his
position ; yet, while he was in America, it
is said that, like many other young colored
men, he was distinguished only for foppery
and frivolity. What made the change in
Lewis after he went to Liberia'? Who does
not see the answer I Does any one wish to
know what is inscribed on the seal which
keeps the great stone over the sepulchre of
African mind ? It is this, — which was so
truly said by poor Topsy, — " Nothing but
A nigger!"

It is this, burnt into the soul by the
branding- iron of cruel and unchristian scorn,
that is a sorer and deeper wound than all
the physical e\dls of slavery together.

There never was a slave who did not feel
it. Deep, deep down in the dark, still waters
of his soul is the conviction, heavier, bitterer
than all others, that he \?>'not regarded as
a man. On this point* may be introduced
the testimony of one who has known the
wormwood and the gall of slavery by bitter
experience. The following letter has been
received from Dr. Pennington, in relation
to some inquiries of the author :

5 50 Laurens-street,
\ Neio York, Nov. 30, 1852.

Mrs H. B Stowe.

EsTEEifED Mad.vm : I have duly received yoiir
kind letter in answer to mine of the 15th instant,
in vcnich you state that you " have an intense curi-
osity to mow how far you have rightly divined
the heart of the slave." You give me your idea
in these words : " There lies buried dovtia in the
heart of the most seemingly careless and stupid
slave a bleeding spot, that bleeds and aclics,
though he could scarcely tell why ; and that this
Bore spot is the degradation of his position."

After escaping from the plantation of Dr. Tilgh-
man, in Washington County, Md., where I was
held as a slave, and worked as a blacksmith, I
came to the State of Pennsylvania, and, after ex-
periencing there some of the vicissitudes referred
to in my little published narrative, I came into,

New York State, bringing in my mind a certain
indescribable feeling of wretchedness. They used
to say of me at Dr. Tilghman's, " That blacksmith
Jemmy is a 'cute fellow ; still water runs deep."
But I confess that " blacksmith Jemmy" was not
'cute enough to understand the cavise of his own
^vretchedness. The current of the still Avater
may have run deep, but it did not reach down to
that awful bed of lava.

At times I thought it occasioned by the lurking
fear of betrayal. There was no Vigilance Com-
mittee at the time, — there were but anti-slavery
men. I came North with my counsels in my own
cautious breast. I married a wife, and did not
tell her I was a fugitive. None of my friends
knew it. I knew not the means of safety, and
hence I was constantly in fear of meeting with
some one who would betray me.

It was fully two yea'S before I could hold up
my head ; but still that Veling was in my mind.
In 1846, after opening n f bosom as a fugitive to
John Hooker, Esq., I felt this much relief, —
" Thank God there is one brother-man in hard old
Connecticut that knows my troubles."

Soon after this, when I sailed to the island of
Jamaica, and on landing there saw colored men
in all the stations of civil, social, commercial life,
where I had seen white men in this country, that
feeling of wretchedness experienced a sensible re-
lief, as if some feverish sore had been just reached
by just the right kind of balm. There was before
my eye evidence that a colored man is more than
" a nigger." I went into the House of Assembly
at Spanishtown, where fifteen out of forty-five
members were colored men. I went into the
courts, where I saw in the jury-box colored and
white men together, colored and irhite laAvyers
at the bar. I went into the Compion Council of
Kingston; there I found meii rr difierent colors.
So in all the counting-rooms, &c. &c.

But still there was this drawback. Somebody
says, " This is nothing but a nigger island." Now,
then, my old trouble came back again ; " a nigger
among niggers is bat a nigger still."

In 1849, when I undertook my second visit to
Great Britain, I resolved to prolong and extend my
travel and iBteroourse with the best class of men,
with a view to see if I could banish that trouble-
some old ghast entirely out of my mind. In Eng-
land, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium
and Prussia , my whole power has been concen-
trafed on this object. " I '11 be a man, and I "U
kill off this enemy which has haunted me these
twenty years and more." I believe I have suc-
ceeded in some good degree ; at least, I have now
no more trouble on the score of equal manhood
with the whites. My European tour was certainly
useful, because there the trial was fair and honor-
able. I had nothing to complain of. I got what
was due to man, and I was expected to do what
was due from man to man. I sought not to be
treated as a pet. I put myself into the harness,
and wrought manfully in the first pulpits, and the
platforms in peace congresses, conventions, anni-
versaries, commencements, &c. ; and in these ex-
ercises that rusty old iron came out of my soul,
and went "clean away."

You say again you have never seen a oiaye how
ever careless and merry-hearted, who had not this
sore place, and that did not shrink or get angry
if a finger was laid on it. I see that you hav«
been a close observer of negro natura

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

So fer as I understand your idea, I think you
are perfectly correct in the impression you have
received, as explained in your note.

0, Mrs. Stowe, slavery is an awful system ! It
takes man as God made him; it demolishes him,
and then mis-creates him, or perhaps I should
say mal-creates him !

Wishing you good health and good success in
your arduous vrork,

I am yours, respectfully,

J. W. C. Pennington.

People of intelligence, wlio have had the
care of slaves, have often made this remark
to the writer : " Thej are a singular whim-
sical people ; you can do a great deal more
with them by humoi-ing some of their prej-
udices, than by bestowing on them the
most substantial favors." On inquiring
what these prejudices were, the reply would
be, "They like to have their weddings ele-
gantly celebrated, and to have a good deal
of notice taken of their funerals, and to
give and go to parties dressed and appear-
ing like white people ; and they will often
put up with material inconveniences, and
suffer themselves to be worked very hard,
if they are humored in these respects."

Can any one think of this without com-
passion ] Poor souls ! willing to bear with
so much for simply this slight acknowledg-
ment of their common humanity. To honor
their weddings, and funerals is, in some sort,
acknowledging that they are human, and
therefore they prize it. Hence we see the
reason of the passionate attachment which
often exists in a faitbful slave to a good
master. It is, in fact, a transfer of his
identity to his master. A stem laAV and an
unchristian public sentiment bas taken away
his birthright of humanity, erased his name
from the catalogue of men, and made him
an anomalous creature — neither man nor
brute. When a kind master recognizes his
humanity, and treats him as a humble com-
panion and a friend, there is no end to
the devotion and gratitude which he thus
excites. He is to the slave a deliverer and
a saviour from the curse which lies on his
hapless race. Deprived of all legal rights
and privileges, all opportunity or hope of
personal advancement or honor, he transfers,
as it were, his whole existence into his mas-
ter's, and appropriates his rights, his position,
his honor, as his own ; and thus enjoys a
kind of refiectcd sense of what it might be
to be a man himself Hence it is that the
appeal to the more generous part of the
negro character is seldom made in vain.

An acquaintance of the writer was mar-
ried to a gentleman in Louisiana, who was

the proprietor of some eight hundred slaves.
He, of course, had a large train of servants
in his domestic establishment. When about
to enter upon her duties, she was warned
that the servants were all so thievish that
she would be under the necessity, in com-
mon with all other housekeepers, of keep-
ing everything under lock and key. She,
however, announced her intention of train-
ing her servants in such a manner as to
make this unnecessary. Her ideas were
ridiculed as chimerical, but she resolved to
carry them into practice. The course she
pursued was as follows : She called all thifc
family servants together ; told them that it
would be a great burden and restraint upon
her to be obliged to keep everything locked
from them ; that she had heard that they
were not at all to be trusted, but that she could
not help hoping that they were much better
than they had been represented. She told
them that she should provide abundantly for
all their wants, and then that she should leave
her stores unlocked, and trust to their honor.

The idea that they were supposed capable
of having any honor struck a new chord at
once in every heart. The servants appeared
most grateful for the trust, and there was
much public spirit excited, the older and
graver ones exerting themselves to watch
over the children, that nothing might be done
to destroy this new-found treasure of honor.

At last, however, the lady discovered
that some depredations had been made on
her cake by some of the juvenile part of the
establishment ; slie, therefore, convened all
the servants, and stated the fact to them. She
remarked that it was not on account of the
value of the cake that she felt annoyed, but
that they must be sensible that it would not
be pleasant for her to have it indiscriminately
fingered and handled, and that, therefore,
she should set some cake out upon a table,
or some convenient place, and beg that all
those who were disposed to take it woukl go
there and help themselves, and allow the
rest to remain undisturbed in the closet.
She states that the cake stood upon the |
table and dried, without a morsel of it being
touched, and that she never afterwards had
any trouble in this respect.

A little time after, a new carriage was
bought, and one night the leather boot of it
was found to be missing. Before hpr hus-
band had time to take any steps on the sub-
ject, the servants of the family called a
convention among themselves, and instituted
an inquiry into the offence. The boot was
found and promptly restored, though they

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

vroukl not reveal to tlieir master and mis-
tress the name of the offender.

One other anecdote which this lady re-
lated illustrates that peculiar devotion of a
slave to a good master, to which allusion
has been made. Her husband met with his
death by a sudden and melancholy accident.
He had a personal attendant and confiden-
tial servant who had grown up with him
from childhood. This servant was so over-
whelmed with grief as to be almost stupefied.
On the day of the funeral a brother of his
deceased master inquired of him if he had
performed a certain commission for his mis
tress. The servant said that he had forgotten
it. Not perceiving his feelings at the mo-
ment, the gentleman replied, " I am surprised
that you should neglect any command of
your mistress, when she is in such afflic-
tion."

This remark was the last drop in the full
cup. The poor fellow fell to the ground
entirely insensible, and the family were
obliged to spend nearly two hours employ-
ing various means to restore his vitality.
The physician accounted for his situation
by saying that there had been such a rush
of all the blood in the body towards the
heart, that there was actual danger of a
rupture of that organ, — a literal death by
a broken heart.

Some thoughts may be suggested by Miss
Ophelia's conscientious but unsuccessful
efforts in the education of Topsy.

Society has yet need of a great deal of
enlightening as to the means of restoring
the vicious and degraded to virtue.

It has been erroneously supposed that with
brutal and degraded natures only coarse and
brutal measures could avail ; and yet it has
been found, by those who have most experi-
ence, that their success with this class of
s-ociety has been just in proportion to the
delicacy and kindliness with which they
have treated them.

Lord Shaftsbury, who has won so honor-
able a fame by his benevolent interest in the
efforts made for the degraded lower classes
of his o^Yn land, says, in a recent letter to
the author :

You are right about Topsy ; our ragged schools
will afford you many instances of poor children,
hardened by kicks, insults and neglect, moved to
tears and docility by the first word of kindness.
It opens new feelings, develops, as it were, a new

nature, and brings the wretched outcast into the
family of man.

Recent efforts which have been made
among unfortunate females in some of the
worst districts of New York show the same
thing. What is it that rankles deepest in
the breast of fallen woman, that makes her
so hopeless and irreclaimable? It is that
burning consciousness of degradation which
stings worse than cold or hunger, and makes
her shrink from the face of the missionary
and the philanthropist. They who have vis-
ited these haunts of despair and wretchedness
have learned that they must touch gently
the shattered harp of the human soul, if
they would string it again to divine music ;
that they must encourage self-respect, and
hope, and sense of character, or the bonds
of death can never be broken.

Let us examine the gospel of Christ, and
see on what principles its appeals are con-
structed. Of what nature are those motives
which have melted our hearts and renewed
oz«' wills 1 Are they not appeals to the
most generous and noble instincts of our na-
ture 1 Axe we not told of One fairer than
the sons of men, — One reigning in immor-
tal glory, who loved us so that he could
bear pain, and want, and shame, and death
itself, for our sake %

When Christ speaks to the soul, does he
crush one of its nobler faculties 7 Does he
taunt us with our degradation, our selfish-
ness, our narrowness of view, and feeble-
ness of intellect, compared with his own?
Is it not true that he not only saves us
from our sins, but saves us in a way most
considerate, most tender, most regardful of
our feelings and sufferings ? Does not the
Bible tell us that, in order to fulfil his office
of Redeemer the more perfectly, he took
upon him the condition of humanity, and
endured the pains, and wants, and tempta-
tions of a mortal existence, that he might
be to us a sympathizing, appreciating friend,
"touched with the feeling of our infii-m-
ities," and cheering us gently on in the
hard path of returning virtue 7

0, when shall we, who have received so
much of Jesus Christ, learn to repay it in
acts of kindness to our poor brethi-en 7
When shall we be Christ-like, and not man-
like, in our efforts to reclaim the fallen and
wandering ?

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER XIIL

THE QUAKERS.

The ■writer's sketch of tlie character of
this people has been di-awn from personal
observation. There are several settlements
of these people in Ohio, and the manner of
living, the tone of sentiment, and the habits
of life, as represented in her book, are not at
all exaggerated.

These settlements have always been
refuges for the oppressed and outlawed
slave. The character of Rachel Halliday
was a real one, but she has passed away
to her reward. Simeon Halliday, calmly
risking fine and imprisonment for his love
to God and man, has had in this country
many counterparts among the sect.

The writer had in mind, at the time of
writing, the scenes in the trial of Thomas
Garret, of Wilmington, Delaware, for the
crime of hiring a hack to convey a mother
and four children from Newcastle jail to
Wilmington, a distance of Jive miles.

The writer has received the facts in this
case in a letter from John Garret himself,
from which some extracts will be made :

< Wilmington, Delaivare,
I Isi month 18th, 1853.
My Dear Friend,

Harriet Beecher Stowe : I have this day received
a request from Charles K. Whipple, of Boston, to
furnish thee with a statement, authentic and
circumstantial, of the trouble and losses which
have been brought upon myself and others of my
friends from the aid we had rendered to fugitive
slaves, in order, if thought of suiScient importance,
to be published in a work thee is now preparing
for the press.

I will now endeavor to give thee a statement of
what John Hunn and myself suffered by aiding a
family of slaves, a few years since. I will give
the facts as they occurred, and thee may condense
and publish so much as thee may think useful in
thy work, and no more :

" In the 12th month, y<5ar 1846, a fomily, con-
sisting of Samuel Hawkins, a freeman, his wife
Emeline, and six children, who were afterwards
proved s/ares, stopped at the house of a friend
, named John Hunn, near Middletown, in this state,
in the evening about sunset, to procure food and
lodging for the night. .They were seen by some
of llunn's pro-slavery neighbors, who soon came
with a constable, and had them taken before a
magistrate. Hunn had left the slaves in his
kitchen when he went to the village of Middle-
town, half a mile distant. When the officer
came with a warrant for them, he met Hunn at
the kitchen door, and asked for the blacks ; Hunn,
with truth, said he did not know where tliey
were. Hunn's wife, thinkin* tliey would be
safer, had sent them up stairs during his absence,
wliere they were found. Hunn made no resistance,
and they were taken before the magistrate, and
from his office direct to Newcastle jail, wliere they
arrived about one o'clock on 7th day morning.

The sheriff and his daughter, being kind, hii-
mane people, inquired of Hawkins and wife the
facts of their case ; and his daughter wrote to a
lady here, to request me to go to Newcastle and
inquire into the case, as her father and self really
believed they were most of them, if not all, en-
titled to their freedom. Next morning I went to
Newcastle : had the family of colored people
brought into the parlor, and the sheriif and myself
came to the conclusion that the parents and four
youngest children were by law entitled to theii
freedom. I prevailed on the sheriff to show me
the commitment of the magistrate, which I found
was defective, and not in due form according to
law. I procured a copy and handed it to a lawyer.
He pronounced the commitment irregular, and
agreed to go next morning to Newcastle and have
thb whole family taken before Judge Booth, Chief
Justicb of the state, by habeas corpus, when the fol-
lowing acimission was made by Samuel Hawkins
and wife : Tkey admitted that the two eldest boys
were held by one Charles Glaudin, of Queen Anne
County, Maryland, us slaves ; that after the birth
of these two children, Elizabeth Turner, also of
Queen Anne, the mistress of their mother, had set
her free, and permitted her lo go and live with her
husband, near twenty miles from her residence,
after which the four youngest children were bom ;
that her mistress during all that time, eleven or
twelve years, had never contributed one dollar to
their support, orcometosee them. After examining
the commitment in their case, and consulting with
my attorney, the judge set the whole family at
liberty. The day was wet and cold ; one of the
children, three years old, was a cripple from white
swelling, and could not walk a step ; another, eleven
months old, at the breast ; and the parents being
desirous of getting to Wilmington, five miles dis-
tant, I asked the judge if there would be any risk
or impropriety in my hiring a conveyance for the
mother and four young children to Wilmington.
His reply, in the presence of the sheriff and my at-
torney, was there would not be any. I then re-
quested the sheriff to procure a hack to take them
over to Wilmington."

The whole family escaped. John Hunn
and John Garret were brought up to trial
for having practically fulfilled those words
of Christ which read, "I was a stranger
and ye took me in, I was sick and in prison
and ye came unto me." For John llunn's
part of this crime, he was fined two thousand
five hundred dollars, and John Garret was
fined five thousand four hundi-ed. Three
thousand five hundred of this was the fine
for hiring a hack for them, and one thousand
nine hundred was assessed on him as the
value of the slaves ! Our European friends
will infer from this that it costs something
to obey Christ in America, as well as in
Europe.

After John Garrefs trial was ovcl", and
this heavy judgment had been given against
him, he calmly rose in the court-room, and
requested leave to address a few words to
the court and audience.

Leave being granted, he spoke as follows:

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

I have a few words which I wish to address to
the court, jury and prosecutors, in the several
suits that have been brought against me during
the sittings of this court, in order to determine
the amount of penalty I must pay for doing
what my feelings prompted me to do as a lawful
and meritorious ait ; a simple act of humanity and
justice, as I believed, to eight of that pppressed
race, the people of color, whom I found in the
Newcastle jail, in the 12th month, 1845. I will
now endeavor to state the facts of those cases, for
your consideration and reflection after you return
home to your families and friends. You will then
have time to ponder on what has transpired here
since the sitting of this court, and I believe that
your verdict will then be unanimous, that the law
of the United States, as explained by our vener-
able judge, when c(jmpared with the act committed
by me, was cruel and oppressive, and needs re-
modelling.

Here follows a very brief and ^lear state-
ment of the facts in the case, of which the
reader is already apprized.

After showing conclusively that he had
no reason to suppose the family to be slaves,
and that they had all been discharged by
the judge, he nobly adds the following
words :

Had I believed every one of them to be slaves,
I should have done the same thing. I should have
done violence to my convictions of duty, had I
not made use of all the lawful means in my
power to liberate those people, and assist them to
become men and women, rather than leave them
in the condition of chattels personal.

I am called an Abolitionist ; once a name of re-
proach, but one I have ever been proud to be con-
sidered worthy of being called. For the fast
twenty-five years I have been engaged in the
cause of this despised and much-injured race, and
consider their cause worth suffering for ; but,
owing to a multiplicity of other engagements, I
could not devote so much of my time and mind to
their cause as I otherwise should have done.

2he impositions and persecutions practised on
those unoffending and innocent brethren are ex-
treme beyond endurance. I am now placed in a
situation in which I have not so much to claim my
attention as formerly ; and I now pledge myself, in
the presence of thi's assembly, to use all lawful
and honorable means to lessen the burdens of this
oppressed people, and endeavor, according to ability
furnished, to burst their chains asunder, and set
them free ; not relaxing my efforts on their behalf
while blessed with health, and a slave remains to
.tread the soil of the state of my adoption, —
Delaware.

After mature reflection, I can assure this as-
sembly it is my opinion at tliis time that the ver-
dicts you have given the prosecutors against John
Hunn and myself, within the past few days, will
have a tendency to raise a spirit of inquiry
throughput tiie length and breadth of the land,
respecting this monster evil (slavery), in many
minds that h^ve not heretofore investigated the
subject. Tlie reports of those trials will be pub-
lished by editors from Maine to Texas and the fiir
AYest ; and Avhat must be the effect produced !
It will, no doubt, add hundreds, perhaps thou-
sands, to the present large and rapidly increasing

army of abolitionists. The injury is great to us
who are the immediate sufferers by your verdict ;
but I believe the verdicts you have given against
us within the last few days will have a powerful
effect in bringing about the abolition of slavery in
this country, this land of boasted freedom, where
not only the slave is fettered at the South by his
lordly master, but the white man at the North is
bound as in chains to do the bidding of his South
em masters.

In his letter to the writer John Garret
adds, that after this speech a young man who
had served as juryman came across the room,
and taking him by the hand, said :

" Old gentleman, I believe every state-
ment that you have made. I came from home
prej udiced against you, and I now acknowl-
edge that I have helped to do you injus-
tice."

Thus calmly and simply did this Quaker
confess Christ before men, according as it is
written of them of old, — " He esteemed the
reproach of Christ greater riches than all
the treasures of Egypt."

Christ has said, ' ' Whosoever shall be
ashamed of me and my words, of him shall
the Son of Man be ashamed." In our days
it is not customary to be ashamed of Christ
personally, but of his loords many are
ashamed. But when they meet Him in
judgment they will have cause to remember
them ; for heaven and earth shall pass away,
but His word shall not pass away.

Another case of the same kind is of a
more affecting character.

Richard Dillingham was the son of a
respectable Quaker family in INIorrow
County, Ohio. His pious mother brought
him up in the full belief of the doctrine of
St. John, that the love of God and the love
of man are inseparable. He was diligently
taught in such theological notions as are
implied in such passages as these: " Hereby
perceive we the love of God. because he
laid down liis life for us ; and we ought also
to lay down our lives for the brethren. —
But whoso hath this world's goods andseeth
his brother have need and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him 7 — ]My little cliildren,
let us not love in word and in tongue, but
in deed and in truth."

In accordance with these precepts, Richard
Dilhngham, in early manhood, was found in
Cincinnati teaching the colored people, and
visiting in the pi'isons and doing what in him
lay to " love in deed and in truth."

Some unfortunate families among the
colored people had dear friends who were

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

slaves in Nashville, Tennessee. Richard
was so interested in their story, that "U'hen
he went into Tennessee he was actually

in the very fact of
people to escape to

prison,
im-

taken up and caught
helping certain poor
their friends.

He was seized and thrown into
In the language of this world he was
prisoned as a " negro-stealer. " His own
account is given in the following letter to
his parents :

Nashville Jail, 12th mo. 15ih, 1849.
Dear Parents : I presume you have heard of my
arrest and imprisonment in the Nashville jail,
under a charge of aiding in an attempted escape
of slaves from the city of Nashville, on the 5th
inst. I was arrested by M. D. Maddox (district
constable), aided by Frederick Marshal, watch-
man at the Nashville Inn, and the bridge-keeper,
at the bridge across the Cumberland river. When
they arrested me, I had rode up to the bridge on
horseljack and paid the toll for myself and for the
hack to pass over, in which three colored persons,
who were said to be slaves, were found by the
men who arrested me. The driver of the hack
(who is a free colored man of this city) , and the
persons in the hack, were also arrested ; and after
being taken to the Nashville Inn and searched, we
were all taken to jail. My arrest took place about
eleven o'clock at night.

In another letter he says :

At the bridge, ^laddox said to me, " You are just
the man we wanted. We will make an example of
you." As soon as we were safe in'the bar-room of
the inn, Maddox took a candle and looked me in the
face, to see if he could recognize my countenance :
and looking intently at me a few moments, he said,
" Well, you are too good-looking a young man to
be engaged in such an affair as this." The by-
standers asked me several questions, to which I
replied that under the present circumstances I
would rather be excused from answering any ques-
tions relating to my case ; upon which they
desisted from furtiier inquiry. Some threats and
malicious wishes were uttered against me by the
ruffian part of the assembly, being about twenty-
five persons. I was put in a cell which had six
persons in it, and I can assure thee that they were
very far from being agreeable companions to me.
although they were kind. But thou knows that I
do not relish cursing and swearing, and worst of
all loathsome and obscene blasphemy ; and of
such was most of the conversation of my prison
mates when I was first put in here. The jailers
are kind enough to me, but the jail is so con-
structed tliat it cannot bo warmed, and we liavc
to either warm ourselves by walking in our cell,
which is twelve l)y fifteen feet, or by lying in bed.
I went out to my trial on the 16th of last month,
and put it oil' till the next term of the court,
whicli will be commenced on the scctmd of next
4th month. I put it oil* on the ground of excite-
ment.

Dear brother, I have no hopes of go{,ting cledr
of being ccmvietod and sentenced to the peniten-
tiary ; but do not think that I am without comrort
in my alihctions, for I assure tiiee tliat I liave
many reflections that give mo sweet consolation in
the midst of my grief. I have a clear conscience

before my God, which is my greatest comfort and
support through all my troubles and afflictions.
An approving conscience none can know but thos0
who enjoy it. It nerves us in the hour of trial to
bear our sufferings with fortitude, and even with
cheerfulness. The greatest affliction 1 have is the
reflection of the sorrow and anxiety my friends will
have to endure on my account. But' I can assure
thee, brother, that with the exception of tliis reflec-
tion, I am far, very f\ir, from being one of the most
miserable of men. Nay, to the contrary, I am not
terrified at the prospect before me, though I am
grieved about it ; but all have enough to grieve
about in this unfriendly wilderness of sin and woe.
My hopes are not fixed in this world, and there-
fore I have a source of coiisolation that will never
fail me, so long as I slight not the oflers of mercy,
comfort and peace, which my blessed Saviour con-
stantly privileges me with.

One source of almost constant annoyance to my
feelings is the profanity and vulgarity, and the
bad, disagreeable temper, of two or three fellow-
prisoners of my cell. They show me considerable
kindness and respect ; but they cannot do other-
wise, when treated with the civility and kindness
Avith which I treat them. If it be my fate to go
to the penitentiary for eight or ten years, I can, I
believe, meet my doom without shedding a tear.
I have not yet shed a tear, though there may be
many in store. My bail-bonds were set at seven
thousand dollars. If I should be bailed out,
I should return to my trial, unless my security
were rich, and did not wish me to return ; for 1
am Richard yet, although I am in the prison of my
enemy, and will not flinch from what I believe to
be right and honorable. These are the principles
which, in carrying out, have lodged me here ; for
there was a time, at my arrest, that I might have,
in all probability, escaped the police, but it would
have subjected those who were arrested with
mp to punishment, perhaps even to death, in
order to find out who I was, and if they had not
told mo;^e than they could have done in truth, they
would probably have been punished without
mercy ; and I am determined no one shall suffer
for me. 1 am now a prisoner, but those who were
arrested with me are all at lil>erty, and I believe
without whipping. I now stand alone before the
Commonwealth of Tennessee to answer for the
affair. Tell my friends I am in the midst of con-
solation here.

Richard was engaged to a young lady of
amiable disposition and fine mental endovf-
ments.

To her he thus writes :

0, dearest! Canst thou upbraid me? canst
thou call it crime? wouldst thou call it crime, or ,
couldst thou uj-ibraid rac. for rescuing, or attempt-
ing to rescue, thy father, mother, or lu-othcr and
sister, or even friends, from a captivity among a
cruel race of oppressors ? 0, couldst thou only see
what I have seen, and hear what 1 have heard, of
the sad, vexatious, degrading, and soul-trying
situation of as noble minds as ever tlie Anglo-
Saxon race were possessed of, mourning -in vain
for that universal heaven-born boon of iVeedom,
which an all-wise and beneficent Creator has
designed for all, thou couldst not censure, but
wouldst deeply sympathize with mo ! Take all
these things into consideration, and the thousands
of poor mortals wlio are dragging out far* more

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

miserable lives than mine will be, even at ten
years in the penitentiary, and thou wilt not look
upon my fate with so much horror as thou would
at first thought.

In another letter he adds :

I have happy hours here, and I should not be
miserable if I could only know you were not sor-
rowing foi me at home. It would give me more
satisfaction to hear that you were not grieving
about me than anything else.

The nearer I live to the principle of the com-
mandment, " Love thy neighbor as thyself," the
more enjoyment I have of this life. None can
know the enjoyments that flow from feelings of
good will towards our fellow-beings, both friends
and enemies, but those who cultivate them. Even
in my prison-cell I may be happy, if I will. For
tlie Christian's consolation cannot be shut out from
him by enemies or iron gates.

In another letter to the lady before al-
luded to he says :

By what I am able to learn, I believe thy
" Richard" has not fallen altogether unlamented ;
and the satisfaction it gives me is suflBcient to
make my prison life more pleasant and desirable
than even a life of liberty without the esteem and
respect of my friends. But it gives bitterness to
the cup of my afflictions to think that my dear
friends and relatives have to suflfer such grief and
Borrow for me.

Though persecution ever so severe be my lot,
yet I will not allow my indignation ever to ripen
into revenge even against my bitterest enemies ;
for there will be a time when all things must be
revealed before Him who has said " Vengeance is
mine, I will repay." Yes, my heart shall ever
glow with love for my poor fellow-mortals, who
are hastening rapidly on to their final destination
— the awful tomb and the solemn judgment.

Perhaps it will give thee some consolation for
me to tell thee that I believe there is a consider-
able sympathy existing in the minds of some of
the better portion of the citizens here, which may
be of some benefit to me. But all that can be
done in my behalf will still leave my case a sad
one. Think not, however, that it is all loss to
me, for by my calamity I have learned many good
and useful lessons, which I hope may yet prove
both temporal and spiritual blessings to me.

" Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face."

Therefore I hope thou and my dear distressed

farents will be somewhat comforted about me, for
know you regard my spiritual welfare far more
than anything else.

In his next letter to the same friend he
says :

Since I wrote my last, I have had a severe
moral conflict, in which 1 believe the right con-
quered, and has completely gained the ascendency.
The matter was this : A man with whom I have
become acquainted since my imprisonment oSered
to bail me out and let me stay away from my
trial, and pay the bail-bonds for me, and was very

anxious to do it. [Here he mentions that - the
funds held by this individual had been placed in
his hands by a person who obtained them by dis-
honest means.] But having learned the above
facts, which he in confidence made known to me,
I declined accepting his offer, giving him my rea-
sons in full. The matter rests with him, my
attorneys and myself. My atlorneys do not know
who he is, but, with his permission, I in confi-
dence informed them of the nature of the case,
after I came to a conclusion upon the subject, and
had determined not to accept the offer ; which
was approved by them. I also had an ofi'er of
iron saws and files and other tools by which I
could break jail ; but I refused them also, as I do
not wish to pursue any such underhanded course to
extricate myself from my present difficulties ; for
when I leave Tennessee — if I ever do — I am
determined to leave it a free man. Thou need riot
fear that I shall ever stoop to dishonorable means
to avoid my severe impending fate. When I meet
thee again I want to meet thee with a clear con-
science, and a character unspotted by disgrace.

In another place he says, in view of his
nearly approaching trial :

0 dear parents ! The principles of love for my
fellow-beings which you have instilled into my
mind are some of the greatest consolations I have
in my imprisonment, and they give me resignation
to bear whatever may be inflicted upon me without
feeling any malice or bitterness toward my vigi-
lant prosecutors. If they show me mercy, it will
be accepted by me with gratitude ; but if they do
not, I will endeavor to bear whatever they may
inflict with Christian fortitude and resignation,
and try not to murmur at my lot ; but it is hard
to obey the commandment, " Love your enemies."

The day of his trial at length came.

His youth, his engaging manners, frank
address, and invariable gentleness to all who
approached him, had won many friends, and
the trial excited much interest.

His mother and her brother, Asa "Williams, went
a distance of seven hundred and fifty miles to at-
tend his trial. They carried with tbem a certifi-
cate of his character, drawn up by Dr. Brisbane,
and numerously signed by his friends and ac-
quaintances, and officially countersigned by civil
officers. This was done at the suggestion of his
counsel, and exhibited by them in court. When
brought to the bar it is said that " his demeanor
was calm, dignified and manly." His mother sat
by his side. The prosecuting attorney waived his
plea, and left the ground clear for Richard's
counsel. Their defence was eloquent and pa-
thetic. After they closed, Richard rose, and in
a calm and dignified manner spoke extempora-
neously as follows :

'.' By the kind permission of the Court, for
which I am sincerely thankful, I avail myself of
the privilege of adding a few words to ihe remarks
already made by my counsel. And although I
stand, by my own confession, as a criminal in the
eyes of your violated laws, yet I feel confident •
that I am addressing those who have hearts to
feel ; and in meting out the punishment that I am
about to suffer I hope you ■vill be lenient, for it
is a new situation in which I am placed. Never

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

before, in the whole course of my life, have I been
charged with a dishonest act. And from my
childhood kind parents, whose names I deeply
reverence, have instilled into my mind a desire to
be virtuous and honorable ; and it has ever been
my aim so to conduct myself as to merit the con-
fidence and esteem of my fellow-men. But, gen-
tlemen, I have violated your laws. This oifence I
did commit ; and I now stand before you, to my
Borrow and regret, as a criminal. But I was
prompted to it by feelings of humanity. It has
been suspected, as I was informed, that I am
leagued with a fraternity who are combined for
the purpose of committing such offences as the
t)ne Avith which I am charged. But, gentlemen,
the impression is false. I alone am guilty, I
alone committed the offence, and I alone must
suffer the penalty. My parents, my friends, my
relatives, are as innocent of any participation in
or knowledge of my olience as the babe unborn.
My parents are still living, * though advanced in
years, and, in the course of nature, a few more
years will terminate their earthly existence. In
their old age and infirmity they will need a stay
and protection ; and if you can, consistently with
your ideas of justice, make my term of iifiprison-
ment a short one, you will receive the lasting
gratitude of a son who reverences his parents, and
the prayers and blessings of an aged father and
mother who love their child."

A great deal of sensation now appeared in the
court-room, and most of the jury are said to have
wept. They retired for a few moments, and
returned a verdict for three years imprisonment
in the penitentiary.

The Nashville Daily Gazette of April 13, 1849,
contains the following notice :

" TIIE KrONAPPING CASE.

" Richard Dillingham, who was arrested on the
5th day of December last, having in his possession
three slaves whom he intended to convey with him
to a free state, was arraigned yesterday and tried
in the Criminal Court. The prisoner confessed his
guilt, and made a short speech in palliation of his
offence. He avowed that the act was undertaken
by himself without instigation from any source,
and he alone was responsible for the error into
which his education had led him. He had, he
said, r.o other motive than the good of the slaves,
and did not expect to claim any advantage by
freeing them. He was sentenced to three years
imprisonment in the penitentiary, tlie least time
the law allows for tlie offence committed. Mr.
Dillingham is a Quaker from Ohio, and has been
a teacher in that state. He belongs to a respect-
able family, and he is not without the sympathy
of those who attended the trial. "It was a fool-
"hardy enterprise in which ho embarked, and
dearly has he paid for his rashness."

His motlier, before leaving Nasliville, visited
the governor, and had an interview with him in
regard to pardDuing her son. lie gave iior some
encouragement, but tliought she had lietter post-
pone her petitiiin lor the present. After the lapse
of several inontlis, she wrote to him about it ; but
he seemed to have changed his mind, as the fol-
lowing letter will sliow :

" Nashville, Aui^ust 29, 1S49.

" Dear Madam : Your letter of the 0th of the
7th mo. was received, and would have been noticed

' B. D.'s father survived him only a few months.

earlier but for my absence from home. Tour
solicitude for your son is natural, ami it would be
gi-atifying to be able to reward it ])y releasing him,
if it were in my power. But the offence for
which he is sufiering was clearly made out, anci*
its tendency here is very hurtful to our rights,
and our peace as a people. He is doomed to the
shortest period known to our statute. And, at all
events, I could not interfere with his case for
some time to come ; and, to be frank with you, I do
not see how his time can be lessened at ail. But
my term of office will expire soon, and the gov-
eraor elect. Gen. William Trousdale, will take my
place. To him you will make any future appeal.
" Yours, &c. N. L. Browx.''

The warden of the penitentiary, John Mcin-
tosh, was much prejudiced against him. He
thought the sentence was too light, and, being of
a stern bearing, Richard had not much to expect
from his kindness. But the same sterling integrity
and ingenuousness which had ever," under all cir-
cumstances, marked his conduct, soon wrought a
change in the minds of his keepers, and of his
enemies generally. He became a favorite with
Mcintosh, and some of the guard. According to
the rules of the prison, he was not allowed to
write oftener than once in three months, and what
he Avrote had, of course, to be inspected by the
warden.

He was at first put to sawing and scrub-
bing rock ; but, as the delicacy of his frame
unfitted him for such labors, and the spotless
sanctity of his life won the reverence of his
jailers, he was soon promoted to be steward
of the prison hospital. In a letter to a
friend he thus announces this change in his
situation :

I suppose thou art, ere this time, informed of
the change in my situation, having been placed
in the hospital of the penitentiary as stCAvard. . .
I feel but poorly qualified to fill the situation they
have assigned me, but will try to do the best I

can I enjoy the comforts of a good fire

and a warm room, and am alloAved to sit up
evenings and read, which I prize as a great priv-
ilege I have now been here nearly nine

montlis, and ha^-e twenty-seven more to stay. It
seems to me a long time in prospect. I try to bo
as patient as I can, ])ut sometimes I get low-
spirited. I throAV off the thoughts of lionie and
friends as much as possible ; for, when indulged
in, they only increase my melanclioly feelings.
And Aviiat wounds my feelings most is the reflec
tiim of what you all suffer of grief and anxiet-
for me. Cease to grieve for me, for I am un«
worthy of it ; and it only causes pain for you,

without availing aught for mo As ever,

thine in the bonds of affection, R. D.

lie had been in prison little moie than a
year when the cholera invaded Nashville,
and broke out among the inmates ; l^chard
was up day and night in attendance on
the sick, his disinterested and sympathetic
nature leading him to labors to which his
delicate constitution, impaired by confine-
ment, was altogether inadequate.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

" Beside the bed where parting life was laid,

And sorrow, grief and pain, by turns dismayed.
The youthfiu champion stood : at his control
Despair and anguish fled the trembling soul,
Comfort came down the dying wretch to raise.
And his last faltering accents whispered praise."

Worn Tvith these labors, the gentle, patient
lover of G'od and of his brother, sank at last
overAvearied, and passed peacefully away
to a world where all are lovely and loving.

Though his correspondence with her he
most loved was interrupted, from his unwil-
lingness to subject his letters to the sur-
veillance of the warden, yet a note reached
her, conveyed through the hands of a pris-
oner whose time was out. In this letter,
the last which any earthly friend ever re-
ceived, he says :

T ofttimes, yea, all times, think of thee ; — if I
did not, I should cease to exist.

"Wliat must that system be which makes
it necessary to imprison with convicted
felons a man like this, because he loves his
brother man " not wisely but too well " 7

On his death Whittier wrote the follow-
ing :

" Si crucem libenter portes, te portabit." — Imit. Christ.

" The Cross, if freely borne, shall bo
No burthen, but support, to thee."
So, moved of old time for our sake.
The holy man of Kempen spake.

Thou brave and true one, upon whom
Was laid the Cross of Martyrdom,
How didst thou, in thy faithful youth.
Bear witness to this blessed truth !

Thy cross of suffering and of shame
A statf within thy hands became ; —
In paths, where Faith alone could see
The Mji^ter's steps, upholding thee.

Xhine \^ *s the seed-time : God alone
Beholds the end of what is sown ;
Beyond cur vision, weak and dim.
The har> ist-time is hid with Him.

Tet, unf< rgotten where it lies.
That seeu of generous sacrifice.
Though seeming on the desert cast.
Shall ri* ) with bloom and fruit at last.

J. G. Whittieb.
Amtsbury, & r^nd mo. ISth, 1852.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SPIRIT OF ST. CLARE.

The general tone of the press and of the
jommunity in the slave states, so far as it
Aas been made known at the North, has
been loudly condemnatory of the representa-
tions of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Still, it
would be unjust to the character of the South
to refuse to acknowledge that she has many

sons with candor enough to perceive, and
courage enough to avow, the evils of her
'•peculiar institutions." The manly inde-
pendence exhibited by these men, in com-
munities where popular sentiment rules des-
potically, either by law or in spite of law,
should be duly honored. The sympathy
of such minds as these is a high encourage-
ment to philanthropic effort.

The author inserts a few testimonials
from Southern men, not without some pride
in being thus ^indly judged by those who
might have been naturally expected to read
her book with prejudice against it.

The Jefferson Inquirer, published at
Jefferson City, Missouri, Oct. 23, 1852,
contains the following communication :

PKCLE TOM'S CABIN'.

I have lately read this celebrated book, which,
perhaps, has gone through more editions, and
been sold in greater numbers, than any work from
the American press, in the same length of time.
It is a work of high literary finish, and its sev-
eral characters are drawn with great power and
truthfulness, although, Mke the characters inmost
novels and works of fiction, in some instances too
highly colored. There is no attack on slave-hold-
ers as such, but, on the contrary, many of them
are represented as highly noble, generous, humane
and benevolent. Nor is there any attack upon
them as a class. It sets forth many of the evils
of slavery, as an institution established ly law, but
without charging these evils on those who hold
the slaves, and seems fully to appreciate the diffi-
culties in finding a remedy. Its effect upon th^
slave-holder is to make him a kinder and better
master ; to which none can object. This is said
without any intention to endorse everything con-
tained in the book, or, indeed, in any novel, or
work of fiction. But, if I mistake not, there are
few, excepting those who are greatly prejudiced,
that will rise from a perusal of the book "without
being a truer and better Christian, and a more
humane and benevolent man. As a slave-holder,
I do not feel the least aggrieved. How Mrs.
Stowe, the authoress, has obtained her extremely
accurate knowledge of the negroes, their charac-
ter, dialect, habits, &c., is beyond my comprehen-
sion, as she never resided — as appears from the
preface — in a slave state, or among slaves or
negroes. But they are certainly admirably delin-
eated. The book is highly interesting and amus-
ing, and will afford a rich treat to its reader.

Tnoius Jefferson.

The opinion of the editor himself is given
in these words :

UNCLE TOM's CABDC.

Well, like a good portion of " the world and
the rest of mankind," we have read the book of
Mrs. Stowe bearing the above title.

From numerous statements, newspaper para-
graphs and rumors, we supposed the book was aU
that fanaticism and heresy could invent, and were
therefore greatly prejudiced against it. But, on
reading it, we cannot refrain from saying that it
is a work of more than ordinary moral wortl^ and

KEY TO XJNCLE TOM S CABIN.

is entitled to consideration. We do not regard it
as "a corruption of moral sentiment," and a
gross " libel on a portion of our people." The
authoress seems disposed to treat the subject
fairly, though, in some particulars, the scenes are
too highly colored, and too strongly drawn from
the imagination. The book, however, may lead
its readers at a distance to misapprehend some of
the general and better features of " Southern life
as it is " (which, by the way, we, as an individ-
ual, prefer to Northern life) ; yet it is a perfect
mirror of several classes of people " we have in
our mind's eye, who are not free from all the ills
flesh is heir to." It has been feared that the
book would result in injury to the slave-holding
interests of the country ; but we apprehend no
such thing, and hesitate not to recommend it to the
perusal of our friends and the public generally.

]\Irs. Stowe has exhibited a knowledge of many
peculiarities of Southern society which is really
wonderful, when we consider that she is a North-
ern lady by birth and residence.

We hope, then, before our friends form any
harsh opinions of the merits of " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," and make up any judgment against us
for pronouncing in its favor (barring some objec-
tions to it), that they will give it a careful
perusal ; and, in sd speaking, we may say that
we yield to no man in his devotion to Southern
rights and interests.

The editor of the St. Louis (Missouri)
Battery pronounces the following judgment:

We took up this work, a few evenings since,
with just such prejudices against it as we pre-
sume many others have commenced reading it.
We have been so much in contact with ultra abo-
litionists,— have had so much evidence that their
benevolence was much more hatred for the master
than love for the slave, accompanied with a pro-
found ignorance of the circumstances surrounding
both, and a most consummate, supreme disgust
for the whole negro ra(je, — that we had about
concluded that anything but rant and nonsense
was out of the question from a Northern writer
upon the subject of slavery.

Mrs. Stowe, in these delineations of life among
the lowly, has convinced us to the contrary.

She brings to the discussion of her subject a
perfectly cool, calculating judgment, a wide, all-
comprohanding intellectual vision, and a deep,
warm, sea-like woman's soul, over all of which is
flung a perfect iris-like imagination, which makes
the light of lier pictures stronger and more beauti-
ful, as their shades are darker and terror-striking.
We do not wonder that the copy before us is of
the seventieth thousand. And seventy thousand
more will not supply the demand, or Ave mistake
the appreciation of the American people of the
real merits of literary productions. Mrs. Stowe
has, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," set up for herself
a monument more enduring than marble. It will
stand amid tlie wastes of slavery as the Memnon
stands amid the sands of the African desert, toll-
ing both the white man and the negro of the ap-
proacli of morning. The book is not an abolition-
ist work, in tlie oiTensive sense of the word. It
is, as we have intimated, free from ever^'thing
like fanaticism, no matter wliat amount of enthu-
siasm vivifies every page, and runs like electricity
along ever}' thread of the st(jry. It presents at
one view the excellences and the evils of the sys-

tem of slavery, and breathes the true spirit of
Christian benevolence for the slave, and charity
for the master.

The next witness gives his testimony in a
letter to the New York Evenmg Post:

LIGHT IN THE SOUTH. -

The subjoined communication comes to us post-
marked New Orleans, June 19, 1852 :

" I have just been reading ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,
or. Scenes in Lowly Life,' by Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe. It found its way to me through the chan-
nel of a young student, who purchased it at the
North, to read on his homeward passage to New
Orleans. He was entirely unacquainted with its
character ; he was attracted by its title, suppos-
ing it might amuse him while travelling. Through
his family it was shown to me, as something that
I would probably like. I looked at the author's
name, and said, ' 0, yes ; anything from that lady
I will read ;' otherwise I should have disregarded
a work of fiction without such a title.

" The remarks from persons present were, that
it was a most amusing work, and the scenes most
admirably dravra to life. I accepted the offer of
a perusal of it, and brought it home with me.
Although I have not read every sentence, I have
looked over the whole of it, and I now wish to
bear my testimony to its just delineation of the
position that the slave occupies. Colorings in the
work there are, but no colorings of the actual and
real position of the slave worse than really exist.
Whippings to death do occur ; I know it to be so.
Painful separations of master and slave, vmder
circumstances creditable to the master's feelings
of humanity, do also occur. I know that, too.
Many families, after having brought up their
children in entire dependence on slaves to do
everything for them, and after having been in-
dulged in elegances and luxuries, have exhausted
all their means ; and the black people only being
left, whom they must sell, for further support.
Running away, everybody knows, is the worst
crime a slave can commit, in the eyes of his mas-
ter, except it be a humane master ; and from such
few slaves care to run away.

" I am a slave-holder myself. I have long been
dissatisfied with the system ; particularly since I
have made the Bible my criterion for judging of
it. I am convinced, from what I read there
slavery is not in accordance Avith what God
delights to lionor in his creatures. I am alto-
gether opposed to the system ; and I intend always
to use wliatever influence I may have ag;iinst it.
I feel very bold in speaking against it, though
living in tlie midst of it, because I am backed by
a powerful arm, that can overturn and overrule
the strongest eflbrts that the determined friends
of slavery are now making for its continuance.

" I sincerely hope that more of ^Irs. Stowes
may be found, to show up the reality of slavery.
It needs master minds to show it as it is, that it
may rest upon its own merits.

"Like Mrs. Stowe, I feel that, since so many
and good people, too, at the North, have quietly
consented to leave the slave to his fate, by acqui-
escing in and approving the late measures of gov-
ernment, those who do feel difJerently should
bestir themselves. Christian effort must do the
Avork ; and soon it would be done, if Christians
would unite, not to destroy the Union states, but
honestly to speak out, and speak li-eely, against

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

that they know is wrong. They are not aware
what countenance they give to slave-holders to
hold on to their prey. Troubled consciences can
be easily quieted by the sympathies of pious peo-
ple, particularly when interest and inclination
€ome in as aids.

"I am told there is to be a reply made to
' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' entitled ' Uncle Tom's
Cabin as It Is.' I am glad of it. Investigation
ia what is wanted.

"You will wonder why this communication is
made to jou by an unknown. It is simply made
to encoiu-age your heart, and strengthen your
determination to persevere, and do all you can to

?ut the emancipation of the slave in progress,
rho I am you will never know ; nor do I wish
you to know, nor any one else. I am a

" Republican."

The following facts make the fiction of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" appear tame in the
comparison. Thej are from the New York
Evangelist.

UNCLE TOm's cabin.

JIr. Editor : I see in your paper that some per-
sons deny the statements of Mrs. Stowe. I have
read her book, every ivord of it. I was bom in
East Tennessee, near Knoxville, and, ive thought,
in an enlightened part of the Union, much favored
in our social, political and religious privileges,
&c. &c. "Well, I think about the year 1829, or,
perhaps, "28, a good old German Methodist owned
a black man named Robin, a Methodist preacher,
and the manager of farm, distillery, &c., sales-
man and financier. This good old German jMcth-
odist had a son named Willey, a schoolmate of
mine, and, as times were, a first-rate fellow. The
old man also O'mied a keen, bright-eyed mulatto
girl; and Willey — the naughty boy!- — became
enamored of the poor girl. The result was soon
discovered ; and our good German Methodist told
his brother Robin to flog the girl for her wicked-
ness. Brother Robin said he could not and would
not perform such an act of cruelty as to flog the
girl for what she could not help ; and for that act
of disobedience old Robin was flogged by the
good old German brother, until he could not
stand. He was carried to bed ; and, some three
weeks thereafter, when my father left the state,
he was still conlined to his bed from the efiects of
that flogging.

Again : in the fall of 1836 I went South, for my
health, stopped at a village in Mississippi, and
obtained employment in the largest house in the
county, as a book-keeper, wit'n a firm from Louis-
ville, Ky. A man residing near the village — a
bachelor, thirty years of age — became efnbar-
rassed, and executed a mortgage to my employer
on a fine, likely boy, weighing about two hundred
pounds. — quick-witted, active, obedient, and re-
markably faithful, trusty and honest ; so much so,
that he was held up as an example. He had a wife
that he loved. His owner cast his eyes upon her,
and she became his paramour. His boy remon-
strated with his master ; told him that he tried
faithfully to perform his every duty ; that he was
a good and faithful " nigger " to him ; and it was
hard, after he had toiled hard all day, and till ten
o'clock at night, for him to have his domestic
relations broken up and interfered with. The
white man denied the charge, and the wife also

denied it. One night, about the first of Septem-
ber, the boy came home earlier than usual, say
about nine o'clock. It was a wet, dismal night ;
he made a fire in his cabin, went to get his sup-
per, and found ocular demonstration of the guilt
of his master. He became enraged, as I suppose
any man would, seized a butcher-knife, and cut
his master's throat, stabbed his wife in twenty-
seven places, came to the village, and knocked at
the ofiice-door. I told him to come in. He did
so, and asked for my employer. I called him.
The boy then told him that he had killed his mas-
ter and his wife, and what for. My employer
locked him up, and he, a doctor and myself, went
out to the house of the old baclielor, and found
him dead, and the boy's wife nearly so. She,
however, lived. We (my employer and myself)
returned to the village, watched the boy until
about sunrise, left him locked up, and went to
get our breakfasts, intending to take the boy to
jail (as it was my employer's interest, if possible,
to save the boy, having one thousand dollars at
stake in him). But, whilst we were eating, some
persons who had heard of the murder broke open
the door, took the poor fellow, put a log chain
round his neck, and started him for the woods, at
the point of the bayonet, marcliing by where we
were eating, with a great deal of noise. My em-
ployer, hearing it, ran out, and rescued the boy.
The mob again broke in and took the boy, and
marched him, as before stated, out of town.

My employer then begged them ilot to disgrace
their town in such a manner ; but to appoint a
jury of twelve sober men, to decide what should be
done. And twelve as sober men as could be found
(I was not sober) said he must be hanged. They
then tied a rope round his neck, and set him on
an old horse. He made a speech to the mob,
which I, at the time, thought if it had come from
some senator, would have been received with
rounds of applause ; and, withal, he was more
calm than I am now, in writing this. And, after
he had told all about the deed, and its cause, he
then kicked the horse out from under him, and
was launched into eternity, IMy employer has
often remarked that he never saw anything more
noble, in his whole life, than the conduct of that
boy^

Now, Mr. Editor, I have given you facts, and
can give you names and dates. You can do what
you think is best for the cause of humanity. I
hope I have seen the evil of my former practices,
and will endeavor to reform.

Very respectfully,

James L. Hill.

Springfield, III., Sept. VJth, 1852.

"The Opinion of a Southerner," given
below, appeared in the National Era, pub-
lished at Washington. This is an anti-
slavery journal, but bj its generous, tone
and eminent ability it commands the re-
spect and patronage of many readers in the
slave states :

The following communication comes enclosed in
an envelope from Louisiana. — Ed. Era.

THE opinion of A SOUTHERNER.

To the Editor of the National Era :

I have just been reading, in the New York Ob-
server of the 12th of August, an article from

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the Southern Free Press, headed by an editorial one
from the Observer, that has for its caption, " Pro-
gress in the Right Quarter ^

The editor of the New York Observer says that
the Southern Free Press has been an able and
earnest defender of Southern institutions ; but
that he now advocates the passage of a law to
prohibit the separation of families, and recom-
mends instruction to a portion of slaves that are
most honest and faithful. The Observer further
adds : "It was such language as this that was
becoming common, before Northern fanaticism
ruined the prospects of emancipation." It is not
so ! Northern fanaticism, as he calls it, has done
everything that has been done for bettering the
condition of the slave. Every one who knows
anything of slavery for the last thirty years will
recollect that about that time since, the condition
of the slave in Louisiana — for about Louisiana
only do I speak, because about Louisiana only do I
know — was as depressed and miserable as any
of the accounts of the abolitionists that ever I
have seen have made it. I say abolitionists ; I
mean friends and advocates of freedom, in a fair
and honorable way. If any doubt my asser-
tion, let them seek for information. Let them get
the black laws of Louisiana, and read them. Let
them get facts from individuals of veracity, on
whose statements they would rely.

This wretched condition of slaves roused the
friends of hui;aanity, who, like men, and Christian
men, came fearlessly forward, and told truths, in-
dignantly expressing their abhorrence of their
oppressors. Such measures, of course, brought
forth strife, which caused the cries of humanity
to sound louder and louder throughout the land.
The friends of freedom gained the ascendency in
the hearts of the people, and the slave-holders
were brought to a stand. Some, through fear of
consequences, lessened their cruelties, while others
were made to think, that, perhaps, were not un-
willing to do so when it was urged upon them.
Cruelties were not only refrained from, but the
slave's comforts were increased. A retrograde
treatment now was not practicable. Fears of re-
bellion kept them to it. The slave had found
friends, and they were watchful. It was, how-
ever, soon discovered that too many privileges,
too much leniency, and giving knowledge, would
destroy the power to keep down the slave, and
tend to weaken, if not destroy, the system. Ac-
cordingly, stringent laws- had to be passed, and a
penalty attached to them No one must teach, or
cause to be taught, a slave, without incurring the
penalty. The law is now in force. These neces-
sary laws, as they are called, are all put down to
the account of the friends of freedom — to their
interference. I do suppose that they do justly
belong to their interference ; for who that studies
the history of the world's transactions does not
know «tliat in all contests with power the weak,
until successful, will be dealt with more rigor-
ously 1 Ixjse not sight, however, of their former
condition. Law after law has since been passed
to draw the cord tigliter around the poor shivo,
and all attrilmted to the abolitionists. Well,
anyhow, progress is being made. Hero conuss
out the Southern Press, and makes some lionoral)le
concessions, lie says : " The assaults upon slav-
ery, made for the last twenty years by the North,
have increased tlic evils of it. The treatment of
slaves has undoubtedly bcc(jme a delicate and
difficult question. The South has a great and

moral conflict to wage ; and it is for her to put
on the most invulnerable moral panoply.'^ He then
thinks the availability of slave property would
not be injured by passing a law to prohibit the
separation of slave families; for he says, " Al-
though cases sometimes occur which we observe
are seized by these Northern fanatics as charac-
teristic of the system," &c. Nonsense! there
are no "cases sometimes" occurring — no such
thing ! They are every day's occm-rences, though
there are families that form the exception, and
many, I would hope, that would not do it. While
I am writing I can call before me three men that
were brought here by negro traders from Virginia,
each having left six or seven children, with their
wives, from whom they have never heard. One
other died here, a short time since, who left the
same number in Carolina, from whom he had
never heard.

I spent the summer of 1845 in Nashville. Dur-
ing the month of September, six huiidred slaves
passed through that place, in four different gangs,
for New Orleans — linal destination, probably,
Texas. A goodly proportion were women ; young
women, of course ; many mothers must have left
not only their children, but their babies. One
gang only had a few children. I made some
excursions to the different watering places around
Nashville ; and while at Robinson, or Tyree
Springs, twenty miles from Nashville, on the
borders of Kentucky and Tennessee, my hostess
said to me, one day, " Yonder (femes a gang
of slaves-, chained." I went to the road-side,
and viewed them. For the better answering my
purpose of observation, I stopped the white man
in front, who was at his ease in a one-horse wagon,
and asked him if those slaves were for sale. I
counted them and observed their position. They
were divided by three one-horse wagons, each
containing a man-merchant, so arranged as to
command the whole gang. Some were unchained ;
sixty were chained, in two companies, thirty in
each, the right hand of one to the left hand of the
other opposite one, making fifteen each side of a
large ox-chain, to which every hand was fastened,
and necessarily compelled to hold up, — men and
Avomen promiscuously, and about in equal pro-
portions,— all young people. No children here,
except a few in a wagon behind, which Avere the
only children in the four gangs. I said to a
respectable mulatto woman in the house, " Is
it true that the negro traders take mothers
from their babies?" "Missis, it is true; for
here, last week, such a girl [naming her], Avho
lives aljout a mile off, was taken after dinner, —
knew nothing of it in the morning, — sold, put into
the gang, and her baby was given away to a
neighbor. She was a stout young woman, and
brought a good price."

The annexation of Texas induced the spirited
traffic that summer. Coming down home in a
small boat, water low, a negro trader on board
had forty-five men and women crammed into a little
spot, some handcuifcd. One respectable-looking
man had leit a wife and seven children in Nashville.
Near Memphis the boat stopped at a plantation
by previt)us arrangement, to take in thirt}' more.
An hour's delay was the stipulated time with the
captain of the boat. Tlnrty young men and
women came down the bank of the Mississippi,
looking wretchetlness personified — just from the
field ; iu appearance dirty, disconsolate and op
pressed ; Bomc with an old shawl under their arm ,

KEY TO UNCLE TOM B CABIN.

a few had blankets ; some had nothing at all —
looked as though they cared for nothing. I cal-
culated, while looking at them coming down the
bank, that I could hold in a bundle all that the
whole of them had. The short notice that was
given them, when about to leave, was in conse-
quence of the fears entertained that they would
slip one side. They all looked distressed, —
leaving all that was dear to them behind, to be
put under the hammer, for the property of the
highest bidder. No children here ! The whole
Beventy-Eve were crammed into a little space on
the boat, men and women all together.

I am happy to see that morality is rearing its
bead with advocates for slavery, and that a " most
invulnerable moral panoply" is thought to be
necessary. I hope it may not prove to be like Mr.
Clay's compromises. The Southern Press says :
"As for caricatures of slavery in ' Uncle Tom's
Cabin ' and the ' White Slave,' all founded in
imaginary circumstances, &c., we consider them
highly incendiary. He who undertakes to stir up
strife between two individual neighbors, by de-
traction, is justly regarded, by all men and all
moral codes, as a criminal." Then he quotes the
ninth commandment, and adds : " But to bear
false witness against whole states, and millions
of people, &c., would seem to be a crime as much
deeper in turpitude as the mischief is greater and
the provocation less." In the first place, I will
put the SouLhern Press upon proof that Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe has told one falsehood. If
she has told truth, it is, indeed, a powerful engine
of " assault on slavery," such as these Northern
fanatics have made for the " last twenty years."
The number against whom she offends, in the
editor's opinion, seems to increase the turpitude
of her crime. That is good reasoning! I hope
tlie editor will be brought to feel that wholesale
■wickedness is worse than single-handed, and is
infinitely harder to reach, particularly if of long
standing. It gathers boldness and strength when
it is s-anctioned by the authority of time, and
aided by numbers that are interested in support-
ing it Such is slavery ; and Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe deserves the gratitude of " states and
millions of people" for her talented work, in
'showing it up in its true light. She has advo-
cated truth, justice and humanity, and they will
back her efforts. Her work will be read by ' ' states
and millions of people ;" and when the Southern
Press attempts to malign her, by bringing forward
her o\\Ti avowal, " that the subject of slavery had
been so painful to her, that she had abstained
from conversing on it for several years," and that,
in his opinion, "it accounts for the intensity of
the venom of her book," his really envenomed
shdfts will fall harmless at her feet ; for readers
will judge for themselves, and be very apt to con-
clude that more venom comes from the Southern
Press than from her. She advocates what is right,
and has a straight road, which " few get lost on :"
he advocates wliat is wrong, and has, consequently,
to tack, concede, deny, slander, and all sorts of
things.

With all due deference to whatever of just
principles the SoutJicm Press may have advanced
in favor of the slave, I am a poor judge of human
nature if I mistake in saying that']\Irs. Stowe has
done much to draw from him those concessions ;
and the putting furth of tliis " most invulnerable
moral panoply,'' that has just come into his head
as a bulwark of safety for slavery, owes its impe-

tus to her, and other like efforts. I hope the
Southern Press will not imitate the spoiled child,
who refused to eat his pie for spite.

The " White Slave" I have not seen. I guesa
its character ; for I made a passage to New York,
some fourteen or fifteen years since, in a packet-
ship, with a young woman whose face was en-
veloped in a profusion of light brown curls, and
who sat at the table with tiie passengers all the
way as a white woman. When at the quarantine,
Staten Island, the captain received a letter, sent
by express mail, from a person in New Orleans,
claiming her as his slave, and threatening the cap-
tain with the penalty of the existing law if she
was not immediately returned. The streaming
eyes of the poor, unfortunate girl told the truth,
when the captain reluctantly broke it to hor. Sho
unhesitatingly confessed that she had run away,
and that a friend had paid her passage. Proper
measures were taken, and she was conveyed to a
packet-ship that was at Sandy Hook, Ijound for
New Orleans.

" Uncle Tom's Cabin," I think, is a just de-
lineation of slavery. The incidents are colored, but
the position that the slave is made to hold is just.
I did not read every page of it, my object being to
ascertain what position the slave occupied. I
could state a case of whipping to death that
would equal Uncle Tom'a ; still, such cases are
not very frequent.

The stin-ing up of strife between neighbors,
that the Southern Press complains ofj deserves
notice. Who are neighbors ? The most explicit
answer to this question will be found in the reply
Christ made to the lawyer, when he asked it of
him. Another question will arise. Whether, in
Christ's judgment, Mrs. Stowe would be con-
sidered a neighbor or an incendiary ? As the Al-
mighty Ruler of the universe and the Maker of
man has said that He has made all the nations of
the earth of one blood, and man in His own image,
the black man, irrespective of his color, would
seem to be a neighbor who has fallen among his
enemies, that have deprived him of the fruits of
his labor, his liberty, his right to his wife and
childi-en, his right to obtain the knowledge to
read, or to anything that earth holds dear, except
such portions of food and raiment as will fit him
for his despoiler's purposes. Let not the apolo-
gists for slavery bring up the isolated cases of
leniency, giving instruction, and affectionate at
tachment, that are found among some masters, as
specimens of slavery ! It is unfair ! They form
exceptions, and much do I respect them ; but they
are not the rules of slavery. The strife that ia
being stirred up is not to take away anything that
belongs to another, — neither their silver or gold,
their fine linen or purple, their houses or land,
their horses or cattle, or anytliing that is their
property ; but to rescue a neighbor from their un-
manly cupidity. A Refublicax.

No introduction is necessary to explain
the following correspondence, and no com-
mendation will be required to secure for it
a respectful attention from tliinking readers :

5 WashingionCity, D. C,
} Dec. 6, 1852.

D. R. GooDLOE, Esq.

Dear Sir : I understand that you are a North

Carolinian, and have always resided in the South

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

you must, consequently, be acquainted with the
workings of the institution of slavery. You have
doubtless also read that world-renowned book,
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," by INIrs. Stowe. The apolo-
gists for slavery deny that this book is a truthful
picture of slavery. They say that its representa-
tions are exaggerated, its scenes and incidents
unfounded, and, in a word, that the whole book is
a caricature. They also deny that families are
separated, — that children are sold from their
parents, wives from their husbands, &c. Under
these circumstances, I am induced to ask your
opinion of Mrs. Stowe's book, and whether or not,
in your opinion, her statements are entitled to
credit. I have the honor to be,

Yours, truly,

A. M. Gangewer.

Washington, Bee. 8, 1852.

Dear Sir : Your letter of the 6th inst., asking
my opinion of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," has been
received ; and there being no reason why I should
withhold it, unless it be the fear of public opinion
(your object being, as I understand, the publication
of my reply), I proceed to give it in some detail.

A book of fiction, to be worth reading, must neces-
sarily be fdled with rare and striking incidents,
and the leading characters must be remarkablj,
some for great virtues, others, perhaps, for greut
vices or follies. A narrative of the ordinary events
in the lives of commonplace people would be in-
Buiferably dull and insipid ; and a book made up
of such materials would be, to the elegant and

fraphic pictures of life and manners which we
ave in the writings of Sir Walter Scott and Dick-
ens, what a surveyor's plot of a ten-acre field is
to a painted landscape, in which the eye is charmed
by a thousand varieties of hill and dale, of green
Bhrubl)ery and transparent water, of light and
shade, at a glance. In order to determine whether
a novel is a fair picture of society, it is not neces-
sary to ask if its cliief personages are to be met with
every day ; hut whether they are characteristic of
the times and country, — whether they embody the
prevalent sentiments, virtues, vices, follies, and pe-
culiarities,— and whether the events, tragic or
otherwise, are such as may and do occasionally
occur.

Judging " Uncle Tom's Cabin" by these prin-
ciples, I have no hesitation in saying that it is a
faithful portraiture of Southern life and institu-
tions. There is nothing in the book inconsistent
with the laws and usages of the slave-holding
states ; the virtues, vices, and peculiar hues of
character and manners, are all Southern, and must
be recognized at once by every one who reads the
book. I may never have seen such depravity in one
man as that exhibited in the character of Legree,
though I have ten thousand times witnessed the va-
rious sliados of it in different individuals. On the
other hand, I have never seen so many perfections
concentrated in one human being as Mrs. Stowe has
conferred upon the daughter of a slave-holder.
Evangeline is an image of beauty and goodness
which can never be effiiced from the mind, what-
ever may be its prejudices. Yet her whiilo char-
acter is fragrant of tlie South ; her generous sym-
pathy, her l)eauty and delicacy, her sensibility
are all Soutliern. They are " to the manor born,'
and embodying as they do the Southern ideal of
beauty and loveliness, cannot be ostracizad from
Southern hearts, even by the power of the vigilance
committees.

The character of St. Clare cannot fail to inspire
love and admiration. He is the beau ideal of a
Southern gentleman, — honorable, generous and
humane, of accomplished manners, liberal edu-
cation, and easy fortune. In his treatment of his
slaves, he errs on the side of lenity, rather than
vigor ; and is always their kind protector, from
a natural impulse of goodness', without much reflec-
tion upon what may befall them when death or
misfortune shall deprive them of his friendship.

Mr. Shelby, the original owner of Uncie Tom,
and who sells him to a trader, from the pressure
of a sort of pecuniary necessity, is by no means a
bad character ; his wife and son are whatever
honor and humanity could wish ; and, in a word,
the only white persons who make any considerable
figure in the book to a disadvantage are the vil-
lain Legree, who is a Vermonterby birth, and the
oily-tongued slave-trader Haley, who has the ac-
cent of a Northerner. It is, therefore, evident
that Mrs. Stowe's object in writing '• Uncle Tom's
Cabin" has not been to disparage Southern char-
acter. A careful analysis of the book Avould au-
thorize the opposite inference, — that she has stud-
ied to shield the Southern people from opprobrium,
and even to convey an elevated idea of Southern
society, at the moment of exposing the evils of the
system of slavery. She directs her batteries against
the institution, not against individuals ; and gener-
ously makes a renegade Vermonter stand for her
most hideous picture of a brutal tyrant.

Invidious as the duty may be, I cannot with-
hold my testimony to the fact that families of
slaves are often separated. I know not how any
man can have the hardihood to deny it. The
thing is notorious, and is often the subject of pain-
ful remark in the Southern States. 1 iiave often
heard the practice of separating husband and Avife,
p^\rent and child, defended, apologized for, pal-
liated in a thousand ways, but have never heard
it denied. How could it be denied, in fact, when
probably the very circumstance which elicited the
conversation was a case of cruel separation then
transpiring ? No, sir ! the denial of this fact by
mercenary scribblers may deceive persons at a dis-
tance, but it can impose upon no one at the South.

In all the slave-holding states the relation of,
matrimony between slaves, or between a slave
and free person, is merely voluntary. There is no
law sanctioning it, or recognizing it in ;iny shape,
directly or indirectly. In a word, it is illicit, and
binds no one, — neither the slaves themselves nor
their masters. In separating Inisbund and wife,
or parent and child, the trader or owner violates
no law of the state — neither statute nor common
law. He buys or sells at auction or privately
that which the majesty of the law has declared to
be property. The victims may writhe in agony,
and the tender-hearted spectator may look on with
gloomy sorrow and indignation, <l)ut it is to no pur-
pose. Tlie promptings of mercy and justice in the
heart are only in rebellion against the law of the
land.

The law itself not unfrequently performs tlie
most cruel separations of families, almost with-
out the intervention of individual agency. This
happens in the case of persons who die insolvent,
or who become, so during lifetime. Tlio estate,
real and personal, must be disposed of at auction
to the highest bidder, and the executor, adminis-
trator, sheriff, trustee, or other person whose duty
it is to dispose of the property, altliough he may
possess the most humane intentions in the worlu.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

cannot prevent the final severance of the most
endearing ties of kindred. The illustration given
by Mrs. Stowe, in the sale of Uncle Tom by Mr.
Shelby, is a very common case. Pecuniary embar-
rassment is a most fruitful source of misfortune to
the slave as well as the master ; and instances of
family ties broken from this cause are of daily
occurrence.

It often happens that great abuses exist in vio-
lation of lavr, and in spite of the efforts of the au-
thorities to suppress them ; such is the case with
drunkenness, gambling, and other vices. But here
is a law common to all the slave-holding states,
which upholds and gives countenance to the wrong-
doer, while its blackest terrors are reserved for
those who would interpose to protect the iuno-
cent. Statesmen of elevated and honorable char-
acters, from a vagiie notion of state necessity,
have defended this law in the abstract, while they
would, without hesitation, condemn every instance
of its application as unjust.

In one respect I am glad to see it publicly
denied that the families of slaves are separated ;
for while it argues a disreputable want of candor,
it at the same time evinces a commendable sense
of shame, and induces the hope that the public
opinion at the South will not much longer tolerate
this most odious, though not essential, part of the
system of slavery.

In this connection I will call to your recollection
a remark of the editor of the Southern Press, in
ffue of the last numbers of that paper, which ac-
knowledges the existence of the abuse in question,
and recommends its correction. He says :

" The South has a great moral conflict to wage ;
and it is for her to put on the most invulnerable
moral panoply. Hence it is her duty, as well as
interest, to mitigate or remove whatever of evil that
results incidentally from the institution. The
separation of husband and wife, parent and child,
is one of these evils, which we know is generally
avoided and repudiated there — although cases
sometimes occur which we observe are seized bj
these Northern fanatics as characteristic illustra-
tions of the system. Now we can see no great evil
01' inconvenience, but much good, in the prohibi-
tion by law of such occurrences. Let the husband
and wife be sold together, and the parents and
minor children. Such a law would affect but
slightly the general value or availability of slave
property, and would prevent in some cases the vio-
lence done to the feelings of such connections by
soles either compulsory or voluntary. "We are sat-
isfied that it would oe beneficial to the master and
slave to promote marriage, and the observance of
all its duties ani relations."

Much as I have differed with the editor of the
Sovfhem Press in his general views of public
policy, I am disposed to forgive him past errors in
consideration of his public acknowledgment of
this " incidental evil," and his frank recommend-
atio-n of its removal. A Southern newspaper less
-ievoted than the Southern Press to the mainte-
nance of slavery would be seriously compromised
by such a suggestion, and its advice would be
for less likely to be heeded. I think, therefore,
that Mr. Fisher deserves the thanks of every good
man. North and South, for thus boldly pointing out
the necessity of reform.

The picture which Mrs. Stowe has drawn of slav-
ery as an institution is anything but favorable.
She has illustrated the frightful cruelty and op-'
DressioQ tliat muat resoit Sroin a l%w v^.hich gives

to one class of society almost absolute and irre-
sponsible power over another. Yet the very ma-
chinery she has employed for this purpose shows
that all who are parties to the system are not
necessarily culpable. It is a high virtue in St.
Clare to porchase Uncle Tom. He is actuated by
no selfish or improper motive. Moved by a desire
to gratify his daughter, and prompted by his own
humane feelings, he purchases a slave, in order to
rescue him from a hard fate on the plantations. If
he had not been a slave-holder before, it was now
his duty tobecome one. This, I think, is the moral
to be drawn from the story of St. Clare , and the
Soilth have a right to claim the authority of ISIrs.
Stowe in defence of slave-holding, to this extent.

It may be said that it was the duty of St. Clare
to emancipate Uncle Tom ; buf?the wealth of the
Eothschilds would not enable a man to act out hia
benevolent instincts at such a price. And if such
was his duty, is it not equally the duty of every
monied man in the free states to attend the New
Orleans slave-mart with the same benevolent pur-
pose in view 1 It seems to me that to purchase a
slave with the purpose of saving him from a hard
and cruel fate, and without any view to emanci-
pation, is itself a good action. If the slave should
subsequently become able to redeem himself, it
would doubtless be the duty of the o\vner to eman-
cipate him ; and it would be but even-handed
justice to set down every dollar of the slave's earn-
ings, above the expense of his maintenance, to his
credit, until the price paid for him should be fully
restored. This is aU that justice could exact of
the slave-holder.

Those who have railed against " Uncle Tom'g
Cabin" as an incendiary publication have singu-
laily (supposing that they have read the book) over-
looked the moral of the hero's life. Uncle Tom is
the most faithful of servants. He literally " obeyed
in all things" his " masters according to the
flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but
in singleness of heart, fearing God." If his con-
duct exhibits the slightest departure from a lit-
eral fulfilment of this injunction of Scripture,
it is in a case which must command the appro-
bation of the most rigid casuist ; for the injunc-
tion of obedience extends, of course, only to law-
ful commands. It is only when the monster
Legree commands him to inflict undeserved chas-
tisement upon his fellow-servants, that Uncle Tom
i-e fuses obedience. He would not listen to a prop-
osition of escaping into Ohio with the young
woman Eliza, on the night after they were sold
by Mr. Shelby to the trader Haley. He thought
it would be bad faith to his late master, whom he
had nursed in his arms, and might be the means
of bringing him into difficulty. He offered no
resistance to Haley, and obeyed even Legree in
every legitimate command. But when he was
required to be the instrument of his master's
cruelty, he chose rather to die, with the courage
and resolution of a Christian martyr, than to save
his life by a guilty compliance. Such was Uncle
Tom — not a bad example for the imitation of man
or master. I am, sir, very respectfully,

Your ob't serv"t,

Daniel E. Goodloe.

A. M. Gaxgfo'er, Esq.,
Washington, D. C. '

The writer has received permission lo
publish the following extract from a letter
received by a lady at the North from tho

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

editor of a Southern paper. The mind and
character of the author will speak for them-
selves, in the reading of it :

Charleston, Sunday, 25th July, 1852.

* * * The books, I infer, are Mrs. Beecher
Stowe's " Uncle Torns Cabin.'" The book was fur- ,

nished me by , about a fortnight ago,

and you may be assured I read it with an atten-
tive interest. ' ' Now, what is your opinion of it ? "
you will ask ; and , knowing my preconceived opin-
ions upon the question of slavery, and .the em-
bodiment of my principles, which I have so long
supported, in regard to that peculiar institution,
you may be prepared to meet an indirect answer.
This my own consciousness of truth would not
allow, in the present instance. The book is a
truthful picture of life, with the dark outlines
beautifully portrayed. The life — the character-
istics, incidents, and the dialogues — is life itself
reduced to paper. In her appendix she rather
evades the question whether it was taken from
actual scenes, but says there are many counter-
parts. In this she is correct, beyond doubt. Had
she changed the picture of Legree, on Red river,

for , on Island, South Carolina, she

could not have drawn a more admirable portrait.
I am led to question whether she had not some
knowledge of this beast, as he is known to be,
and made the transposition for effect.

My position in connection with the extreme
party, both in Georgia and South Carolina, would
constitute a restraint to the full expression of my
feelings upon several of the governing principles of
the institution. I have studied slavery, in all its
different phases, — have been thrown in contact
»vith the negro in different parts of the world, and
made it my aim to study his nature, so far as my
limited abilities would give me light, — and,
whatever my opinions have been, they were based
upon what I supposed to be honest convictions.

During the last three years you well know
•what my opportunities have been to examine all
the sectional bearings of an institution which now
holds the great and most momentous question of
our federal well-being. These opportunities I
have not let pass, but have given myself, body and
Boul, to a knowledge of its vast intricacies, — to
its constitutional compact, and its individual
hardships. Its wrongs are in the constituted
rights of tlie master, and the blayik letter of those
laws which pretend to govern the bondman's
rights. What legislative act, based upon the
construction of self-protection for the very men
who contemplate the laws, — even though their
intention was amelioration, — could be enforced,
when the legislated object is held as the bond prop-
erty of the legislator 1 The very fact of constituting
a law for tlie amelioration of property becomes an
absurdity, so far as carrying it out is concerned.
A law which is intended to Govern, and gives
the governed no means of seeking its protection,
is like tlie clustering together of so many use-
less words for vain show. But why talk of law '

That which is considered the popular rights of a
people, and every tenacious prejudice set forth to
protect its property interest, creates its own power,
against every weaker vessel. Laws v,'hich inter-
fere with this become unpopular, — repugnant to
a forceable will, and a dead letter in effect. . So
long as the voice of the governed cannot be heard,
and his wrongs are felt beyond the jurisdiction or
domain of the law, as nine-tenths are, where is
the hope of redress ? The master is the powerful
vessel ; the negro feels his dependence, and, fear-
ing the consequences of an appeal for his rights,
submits to the cruelty of his master, in preference
to the dread of something more cruel. It is in
those disputed cases of cruelty we find the vrronga
of slavery, and in those governing laws which give
power to bad Northern men to become the most
cruel task-masters. Do not judge, from my obser-
vations, that I am seeking consolation for the
abolitionists. Such is not my intention ; but truth
to a course which calls loudly for reformation con-
strains me to say that humanity calls for some
law to govern the force and absolute will of the
master, and to reform no part is more requisite
than that which regards the slave's food and
raiment. A person must live years at the South
before he can become fully acquainted with the
many workings of slavery. A Northern man not
prominently interested in the political and social
weal of the South may live for years in it, and
pass from town to town in his e very-day pursuits,
and yet see but the polished side of slavery. With
me it has been different. Its effect upon the
negro himself, and its effect upon the social and
commercial well-being of Southern society, has
been laid broadly open to me, and I have seen
more of its workings within the past year than
was disclosed to me all the time before. It is
with these feelings that I am constrained to do
ciedit to Mrs. Stowe's book, which I consider
must have been written by one who derived the
materials from a thorough acquaintance with the
subject. The character of the slave-dealer, the
bankrupt owner in Kentucky, and the New Or-
leans merclnant, are simple every-day occurrences
in these parts Editors may speak of the dramatic
effect as they please ; the tale is not told them,
and the occurrences of common reality would form
a picture more glijring. I could write a work,
with date and incontrovertililo facts, of abuses
which stand recorded i-a the knowledge of the
community in which they were transacted, that
would need no dramatic effoct, and would stand
out ten-fold more horrible than anything Mrs.
Stowe has described.

I have read two columns in the Southern Press
of Mrs. Eastman's " ^4?//!^ PhilUs^ Cabin, or
Southern Life as It Is," with the remarks of the
editor. I have no comments to make u].on it, that
being done by itself. The editor might have
saved himself being writ down an ass bv the pub-
lic, if he had withheld his nonsense. If the Uvo
columns, are a specimen of Mrs. Eastman's book,
I pity her attempt and her name as an author.

PART II

CHAPTER I.

The New York Courier and Enquirer
of November 5th contained an article which
has been quite valuable to the author, as
summing up, in a clear, concise and intel-
ligible form, the principal objections -which
may be urged to Uncle Toni's Cabin. It
is here quoted in full, as the foundation of
the remarks in the following pages.

The author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," that
writer states, has committed false-witness
against thousands and milhons of her fellow-
men.

She has done it [he says] by attaching to them
as slaveholders, in the eyes of the world, the guilt
of the al)uses of an institution of which they are
absolutely guiltless. Her story is so devised as
to present slavery in three dark aspects : first, the
cruel treatment of the slaves ; second, the separa-
tion of families ; and, third, their ivant of religious
instruction.

To show the first, she causes a reward to be
offered for the recovery of a runaway slave, " dead
or alive," when no reward with such an alterna-
tive was ever heard of, or dreamed of, south of
Mason and Dixon's line, and it has been decided
over and over again in Southern courts that " a
slave who is merely flying away cannot be killed."
She puts such language as this into the mouth of
one of her speakers : — "The master who goes
furthest and does the worst only uses within
limits the power that the law gives him ;" when,
in fact, the civil code of the very state where it is
represented the language was uttered — Louisiana
— declares that

" The slave is entirely subject to the will of his
master, who may correct and chastise him, though
not iiith unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or muti-
late him, or to expose him to the danger of loss of
life, or to cause his death.'' ^

And provides for a compulsory sale

" When the master shall be convicted of cruel
treatment of his slaves, and the judge shall deem

f)roper to pronounce, besides the penalty estab-
ished for such cases, that the slave be sold at
public auction, in order to place him out of the
reach of the power ichich the master has abused.''''

" If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill
his slave, or the slave of another person, the said
person, being convicted thereof, shall be tried and
condemned agreeably to the laws."

In the General Court of Virginia, last year, in
the case of Souther v. the Commonwealth, it was
held that the killing of a slave by his master and

owner, by wilful and excessive whipping, is mur-
der in the first degree, though it may not hare been
the purpose of the master and owner to kill the
slave ! And it is not six months since Governor
Johnston, of Virginia, pardoned a slave who
killed his master, who was beating him with
brutal severity.

And yet, in the face of such laws and decisions
as these, Mrs. Stowe winds up a long series of
cruelties upon her other black personages, by
causing her faultless hero, Tom, to be literally
whipped to death in Louisiana, by his master,
Legree ; and these acts, which the laws make
criminal, and punish as such, she sets forth in
the most repulsive colors, to illustrate the insti-
tution of slavery !

So, too, in reference to the separation of chil-
dren from their parents. A considerable part of
the plot is made to hinge upon the selling, in
Louisiana, of the child Eliza, " eight or nine
years old," away from her mother; when, had
its inventor looked in the statute-book of Louis-
iana, she would have found the following lan-
guage :

" Every person is expressly prohibited from
selling separately from their mothers the children
who shall not have attained the full age of ten
years.''''

" Be it further enacted. That if any person or
persons shall sell the mother of any slave child
or children under the age of ten years, separate
from said child or children, or shall, the mother
living, sell any slave child or children of ten years
of age, or under, separate from said mother, said
person or persons shall be fined not less than
one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars,
and be imprisoned in the public jail for a period
of not less than six months nor more than one
year."

The privation of religious instruction, as repre-
sented by Mrs. Stowe, is utterly unfounded in fact.
The largest churches in the Union consist entirely
of slaves. The first African church in Louisville,
which numbers fifteen hundred persons, and. the
first African church in Augusta, which numbers
thirteen hundred, are specimens. On multitudes
of the large plantations in the different parts of
the South the ordinances of the gospel are as reg-
ularly maintained, by competent ministers, as in
any other communities, north or south. A larger
proportion of the slave population are in commu-
nion with some Christian church, than of the white
population in any part of the country. A very
considerable portion of every southern congrega
tion, either in city or country, is sure to consist
of blacks ; whereas, of our northern churches, not
a colored person is to be seen in one out of fiftj".

The peculiar falsity of this whole book consista
in making exceptional or impossible cases the rep-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

resentalives of the system. By the same process
which she lias used, it would not be difficult to
frame a fatal argument against the relation of
husbaud and wife, or parent and child, or of guard-
ian and ward ; for thousands of wives and chil-
dren and wards have been maltreated, and even
murdered. It is wrong, impardonably wrong, to
impute to any relation of life those enormities
which spring only out of the worst depravity of
human nature. A ridiculously extravagant spirit
of generalization pervades this fiction fi-om begin-
ning to end. The Uncle Tom of the authoress is
a perfect angel, and her blacks generally are half
angels ; her Simon Legree is a perfect demon,
and her whites generally are half demons. She has
quite a peculiar spite against the clergy ; and, of
the many she introduces at different times iato
the scenes, all, save an insignificant exception,
are Pharisees or hypocrites. One who could
know nothing of the United States and its people,
except by what he might gather from this book,
would judge that it was some region just on the
coufines of the infernal world. We do not say that
Mrs. Stowe was actuated by wrong motives in the
preparation of this work, but we do say that she
has done a wrong which no ignorance can excuse
and no penance can expiate.

A much- valued correspondent of the au-
thor, writing from Richmond, Virginia, also
uses the following language :

I will venture this morning to make a few
suggestions which have occurred to me in regard
to future editions of your work, " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," which I desire should have all the influence
of which your genius renders it capable, not only
abroad, but in the local sphere of slavery, where
it 'has been hitherto repudiated. Possessing al-
ready the great requisites of artistic beauty and
of sympathetic aiTection, it may yet be improved
in regard to accuracy of statement without being
at all enfeebled. For example, you do less than
justice to the formalized laws of the Southern
States, while you give more credit than is due to
the virtue of public or private sentiment in Kstrict-
ing the evil which the laws permit.

I enclose the following extracts from a southern
paper :

" ' I '11 manage that ar ; they 's young in the business,
and must spcct to work cheap,' said Marks, as ho con-
tinued to read. ' Thar 's three on 'cm easy cases, 'cause
ail you've got to do is to shoot 'em, or swear they is shot ;
they couldn't, of course, charge much for that.' "

" The reader will observe that two charges
against the South are involved in this precious
discourse ; — one that it is the habit of Southern
mastora to offer a reward, with the alternative of
' dead or alive,' for their fugitive slaves ; and the
other, that it is usual for pursuers to shoot them
Indeed, we are led to infer that, as the shootinj
is the easier mode of obtaining the reward, it is
the more frequently employed in such cases.
Now, when a Southern master offers a reward for
his runaway slave, it is because ho has lost a cer-
tain amount of property, represented by the nogro
which he wishes to recover. What man of Ver-
mont, having an ox or an iias that had gone astray,
would forthwith offer half the full value of the
animal, not for the carcas.-t, which niiglit be turned
to some useful purpose, but for the unavailing satis-
faction of its head? Yet arc the two cases exactly
parallel Wit& regard to the assumption that

men are permitted to go alout, at the South, with
double-barrelled guns, shooting down runaway
negroes, in preference to apprehending them, we
can only say that it is as wicked and wilful as it
is ridiculous. Such Thugs there may have been
as Marks and Loker, who have killed negroes in
this unprovoked manner ; but, if they have escaped
the gallows, they are probably to be found within
the walls of our state penitentiaries, where they
are comfortably provided for at public expense.
The laws of the Southern States, which are de-
signed, as in all good governments, for the pro-
tection of persons and property, have not been
so loosely framed as to fail of their object where
person and property are one.

' ' The law with regard to the killing of runaways
is laid down with so much clearness and precision
by a South Carolina judge, that we cannot forbear
quoting his dictum, as directly in point. In the
case of Witsell v. Earnest and Parker, Colcock J.
delivered the opinion of the court :

" ' By the statute of 1740, any white man may
apprehend, and moderately correct, any slave who
may be found out of the plantation at which he is
employed ; and if the slave assaults the white
person, he may be killed ; but a slave Avho is
merely flying away cannot be killed. Nor can the
defendants be justified by the common law, if we
consider the negro as a person ; for j^„ ^^j.^, ^g^g
they were not clothed with the au- i Nott & Mc
thority of the law to apprehend him '^b'"'^'^ fi'^'
as a felon, and without such authority ^^' "
he could not be killed. '

" ' It 's commonly supposed that the property interest
is a sufficient guard in these cases. If people choose to
ruin their possessions, I don't know what 's to be done.
It seems the poor creature was a thief and a drunkard ;
and so there won't be much hope to get up sympathy for
her.'

" ' It is perfectly outrageous, — it is horrid, Augustine !
It will certainly bring down vengeance upon you.'

" ' iMy dear cousin, I did n't do it, and I can't help it ;
I would, if I could. If low-minded, brutal people will
act like themselves, what am I to do 1 They have abso-
lute control ; they are irresponsible despots . There would be
no use in interfering ; there is no law, that amoimts to any-
thing practicxlly, for such <i case. The best we can do is to
shut our eyes and ears, and let it alone. It 's the only
resource left us.'

" In a subsequent part of the same conversa
tion, St. Clare says :

" ' For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because wc are
men born of women, and not savage beasts, many of us do
not, and dare not, — wo would scorn to use the full power
which our savage laws put into our hands. A7id he who
goes furthest and does the worst only tises witltin limits the
power thai the law gives him.^

"Mrs. Stowe tells us, through St. Clare, that
' there is no law that amounts to anvthing ' in
such cases, and that he who goes furthest in
severity towards his slave, — that is, to the de-
privation of an eye or a limb, or oven the destruc-
tion of life, — ' only uses witliin limits the power
tliat the law gives him.' Ihis is an aAvful and
tremendous charge, which, lightly and unwarrant-
alily made, must subject the maker to a fearful
accounta1)ility. Let us see how the matter st^mds
upon the statute-book of Louisiana. By referring
to the civil aydo of that state, chapter 3d, articlo
173, the reader will find this general declaration-

" ' The slave is entirely subject to the will of
his master, who may correct and chastise him,
though not ivith tmnsual rigor, nar so as to maim
or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of
loss of life, or to cause his death. ^

KEY TO JNCLE TOM's CABIN.

'* On a subsequent page of the same volume and
chapter, article 192, we find provision made for
the slave's protection against his master's cruelty,
in the statement that one of two cases, in which
a master can be compelled to sell his slave, is

" ' When the master shall be convicted of cruel
treatment of hia slave, and the judge shall deem
prqper to pronoimce, besides the pcna/ti/ established
for such cases, that the slave shall bo sold at public
auction, in order to place him out of tJie reach of tlie
power which the master has abused. '

" A code thus watchful of the negro's safety in
life and liml) confines not its guardianship to in-
hibitory clauses, but proscribes extreme penalties
in case of tlieir infraction. In the Code Noir
(Bhick Code) of Louisiana, under head of Crimes
and Offences, No. 55, ^ xvi., it is laid down, that

" ' If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill
his slave, or the slave of another person, the said
person, being convicted thereof, shall be tried
and condemned agreeably to the laws.'

" And because negro testimony is inadmissible
in the courts of the state, and therefore the evi-
dence of such crimes might be with difliculty sup-
plied, it is further provided that,

" ' If any slave be mutilated, beaten or ill-
treated, contrary to the true intent and meaning
of this act, when no one shall be present, in such
case the owner, or other person having the man-
agement of said slave thus mutilated, shall be
deemed responsible and guilty of the said offence,
and shall be prosecuted without further evidence,
unless the said owner, or other person so as afore-
said, can prove the contrary by means of good and
sufficient evidence, or can clear himself by his
own oath, which said oath every court, under the
Code Noir. cognizanco of which such offence shall
Crimes and Of- have been examined and tried, is by
fences, 56, xvU. j.j^jg ^^^ authorized to administer.'

" Enough has been quoted to establish the utter
falsity of the statement, made by our authoress-
through St. Clare, that brutal masters are ' irre-
sponsiljle despots,' — at least in Louisiana. It
would extend our review to a most unreasonable
length, should we undertake to give the law, with
regard to the murder of slaves, as it stands in
each of the Southern States. The crime is a rare
one, and therefore the reporters have had few
cases to record. We may refer, however, to two.
In Fields v. the State of Tennessee, the plaintiff in
error was indicted in the circuit court of Maury
county for the miu'der of a negro slave. He
pleaded not guilty ; and at the trial was found

fuilty of wilful and felonious slaying of the slave,
'rom this sentence he prosecuted his writ of error,
which Avas disallowed, the court affirming the orig-
inal judgment. The opinion of the court, as given
by Peck J., overflows with tlie spirit of enUglit-
ened humanity. He concludes thus :

*' ' It is well said by one of the ji^dges of North
Carolina, that the master has a right to exact the
hibor of his slave ; that far, the rights of the slave
are suspended ; l.>ut tliis gives the master no right
over the life of liis slave. I add to the saying of
the judge, that law which says thou shalt not kill,
protects the slave ; and he is within
lYergrr's its very letter. Law, reason, Chris-
'''^"iM^"^^" tianity, and common humanity, all
point but one way. '
" In the General Court of Virginia, June term,
1851, in Souther V. the Commonwealth, it was held
that ' the killing of a slave by his master and
owner, by wilful and excessive whipping, is mur-
der in the fii'st degre*'. ; ihoui^h it may not have been

"i Grattau's
Hep. 67£.

the purpose of the master and owner to
hill the slave.^ The Avriter shows,
also, an ignorance of the law of con-
tracts, as it affects slavery in the South, in mak-
ing George's master take him from the factory
against the proprietor's consent. George, by vir-
tue of the contract of hiring, had become the prop-
erty of the proprietor for tlie time being, and his
master could no more have taken him away forci-
])ly than the ovraer of a house in Massachusetts
can dispossess his lessee, at any moment, from
mere whim or caprice. There is no court in Ken-
tucky where the hirer's rights, in tliis regard,
would not be enforced.

" 'No. Father bouglit her once, in one cT his trips to
New Orleans, and brought her up as a present to mother
She was about eight or nine years old, then. Father
would never tell mother what he gave for her ; but, the
other day, in looking over his old papers, we came across
the bill of sale. He paid an extravagant sum f 'r her, to
be sure. I suppose, on account of her extraordinary
beauty.'

" George sat with his back to Gassy, and did not see
the absorbed expression of her countenance, as he was
giving these details.

" At this point in the story, she touched his arm, and,
with a face perfectly white with interest, said, 'Do you
Icnow the names of the people he bought her of ! '

" ' A man of the name of Simmons, I think, was the
principal in the transaction. At least, I think that was
the name in the bill of sale.'

" ' 0, my God ! ' said Gassy, and fell insensible on tho
floor of the cabin. "

" Of course Eliza turns out to be Cassy's child,
and we are soon entertained with the family meet-
ing in Montreal, where George Harris is living,
five or six years after the opening of the story, in
great comfort.

" Now, the reader wiU perhaps be surprised to
know that such an incident as the sale of Cassy
apart from Eliza, upon which the whole interest
of the foregoing narrative hinges, never could have
taken place in Louisiana, and that the bill of sale
for Eliza would not have been worth the paper it
was Avi-itten on Observe. George Shelby states
that Eliza was eight or nine years old at the time
his father purchased her in New Orleans. Let us
again look at the statute-book of Louisiana.

" In the Code Noir we find it set down that

" ' Every person is expressly prohibited from
selling separately from their mothers the children
who shall not have attained the full age often years,'

"And this humane pi'ovision is strengtlieued by
a statute, one clause of which runs as follows :

" ' Be it further enacted, Tliat if any person or
persons shall sell the mother of any slave child or
children under the age of ten years, separate from
said child or children, or shal), the mother living,
sell any slave child or children of ten years of age, or
under, separate from said mother, sucli person or
persons shall .incur the penalty of the sixth sectioE
of this act.'

"This penalty is a fine of not less tlian one thou-
sand nor more than two tliousand dollars, and im-
prisonment in the public jail for a period of not
less than six months nor more than one year. —
Vide Acts of Louisiana, 1 Sessio7i, 9th Legislature,
1828, 1829, No. 24, Section 10."

The author makes here a remark. Scat-
tered through all the Southern States are
slaveholders ■who are such only in name.
They have no pleasui-e in the system, they
consider it one of wrong altogether, and they

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

hold the legal relation still, only hecause not
yet clear with regard to the best way of
changing it, so as to better the condition of
those held. Such are most earnest advo-
cates for state emancipation, and are friends
of anything, written in a right spirit, which
tends in that direction. From such the
author ever receives criticisms with pleasure.

She has endeavored to lay before the
world, in the fullest manner, all that can be
pbjected to her work, that both sides may
have an opportunity of impartial hearing.

When writing " Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
though entirely unaware and unexpectant
of the importance which would be attached
to its statements and opinions, the author of
that work was anxious, from love of consist-
ency, to have some understanding of the
laws of the slave system. She had on hand
for reference, while writing, the Code Noir
of Louisiana, and a sketch of the laws relat-
ing to slavery in the different states, by
Judge Stroud, of Philadelphia. This work,
professing to have been compiled with great
care from the latest editions of the statute-
books of the several states, the author sup-
posed to be a sufficient guide for the writing
of a work of fiction.* As the accuracy of
those statements which relate to the slave-
laws has been particularly contested, a
more especial inquiry has been made in this
direction. Under the guidance and with
the assistance of legal gentlemen of high
standing, the writer has proceeded to examine
the statements of Judge Stroud with regard
to statute-law, and to follow them up with
some inquiry into the decisions of covirts.
The result has been an increasing conviction
on her part that the impressions first derived
from Judge Stroud's work were correct ; and
the author now can only give the words of
St. Clare, as the best possible expression of
the sentiments and opinion which this course
of reading has awakened in her mind.

This cursed business, accursed of God and man,
— what is it 1 Strip it of all its ornament, run it
down to the root and nucleus of the wliole, and
what is it 1 Why, because my brother Quashy is
ignorant and weak, and I am iutcUigont and
strong, — l)ecause I know how, and can do it, —
therefore I may steal all he has, keep it, and give
him only such and so much as suits my fancy !
Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too disagreea))le
for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I
don't like work, Quashy sliall work. Because the
sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in tlio sun.
Quashy shall earn the money, and t will spend it.

* In this connection it may bo well to state that the
work of Judge Stroud is now out of print, but that a work
of the same character is in course of preparation by Wil-
liam I. Bowditoh, Esq., of Boston, which will bring the
subject out, by the assistance of the latest editions of
statutes, and the most recent decisions of courts.

Quashy shall lie down in every puddle, that I
may walk over dry shod. Quashy shall do my
will, and not his, all the days of his mortal life,
and have such a chance of getting to heaven at
last as I find convenient. This I take to be about
what slavery is. I defy anybody on earth to read
our slave-code, as it stands in our law-books, and
make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of
slavery ! Humbug ! The thing itself h the essence
of all abuse. And the only reason why the land
don't sink under it, like Sodom and Gomorrah, is
because it is used in a way infinitely better than
it is. For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because
we are men born of women, and not savage boasts,
many of us do not, and dare not, — we would
scorn to use the full power which our savage laws
put into our hands. Ajid he who goes the furthest,
and does the worst, only uses within limits the
power that the law gives him !

The author still holds to the opinion that
slavery in itself, as legally defined in law-
books and expressed in the records of courts,

is the SUM AND ESSENCE OF ALL ABUSE;

and she still chngs to the hope that there are
many men at the South in finitely better
than their laws ; and after the reader has
read all the extracts which she has to make,
for the sake of a common humanity they Avill
hope the same. The author must state, with
regard to some passages which she must
quote, that the language of certain enact-
ments was so incredible that she would not
take it on the authority of any compilation
whatever, but copied it with her own hand
from the latest edition of the"statvite-book
where it stood and still stands.

CHAPTER II.

WHAT IS SLA VERT 1

The author will now enter into a consid-
eration of slavery as it stands revealed in
slave law.

What is it, according to the definition of
law-books and of legal interpreters 7 "A
slave," says the law of Louisiana, "is one
who is in the power of a master, to whom he
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose
of his person, his industry and liis labor ; he
can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire
anything, but what must belong to civii Code,
his master." South Carolina says Art. 35.
" slaves sliall bo deemed, sold, taken, reputed
and adjudged in law, to bo chattels personal
in the hands of their owners and possessors.
and their executors, administrators, and
assigns, to all intents, con-
structions AND purposes WHAT- 229. "I'rincf's
SOEVER." The law of Georgia is ^'s"^'- "^
similar.

Let the reader reflect on the extent of
the meaning in this last clause. Judge

KB' TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN.

Ruffiu, pronouncing the opinion of the Su-
preme Court of North Carolina, says, a slave
is ''one doomed in his own person, and his
posterity, to live without knowledge, and
without the capacity to make any-
of sfavery, 2iQ. thing his own, and to toil that
sute V. Maiin. another may reap the fruits."

This is what slavery is, — this is what it is
to be a slave ! The slave-code, then, of the
Southern States, is designed to keep millions
of human beings in the condition of chattels
personal ; to keep them in a condition in wliich
the master may sell them, dispose of their
time, person and labor ; in Avliich they can do
nothing, possess nothing, and acquire nothing.
except for the benefit of the master ; ui which
they are doomed in themselves and in their
posterity to Uve without knowledge, Avithout
the power to make anything their own, — to
toil that another may reap. The laws of
the slave-c©de are designed to work out tliis
problem, consistently Avith the peace of the
community, and the safety of that superior
race which is constantly to perpetrate tliis
outrage.

From this simple statement of what the
faws of slavery are designed to do, — from a
consideration that the class thus to be re-
duced, and oppressed, and made the sub-
jects of a perpetual robbery, are men of
like passions with our own, men originally
made in the image of God as much as our-
pelves, men partakers of that same human-
ity of which Jesus Christ is the highest
ideal and expression, — when we consider
that the material thus to be acted upon is
that fearfully explosive element, the soul of
man ; that soul elastic, upspringing, immor-
tal, whose free will even the Omnipotence
of God refuses to coerce, — we may form
some idea of the tremendous force wliich is
necessary to keep tliis mightiest of elements
in the state of repression which is contem-
plated in the definition of slavery.

Of course, the system necessary to con-
summate and perpetuate such a work, from
age to age, must be a fearfully stringent
one ; and our readers will find that it is so.
Men who make the laws, and men who in-
terpret them, may be fully sensible of their
terrible severity and inhumanity ; but, if
they are going to preserve the thing, they
have no resource but to make the laws, and
to execute them faithfully after they are
made. They may say, with the honorable
Judge Ruffin. of North Carolina, when sol-
emnly from the bench announcing this great
foundation principle of slavery, that " THE

POWER OF THE MASTER MUST BE ABSO-

LUTE, TO RENDER THE SUBMISSION OF THE

SLAVE PERFECT," — they may say, with
him, ' ' I most freely confess my sense of
the bars] mess of this proposition ; I feel it
as deeply as any man can ; and, as a prin-
ciple of moral right, every person in his re-
tirement must repudiate it ; " — but they
will also be obliged to add, with him, '■' But,
in the actual condition of things, it must
BE SO. * * This discipline belongs to
the state of slavery. * * * It is in-
herent in the relation of master and slave."

And, like Judge Rufiin, men of honor, men
of humanity, men • of kindest and gentlest
feelings, are obliged to interpret these severe
laws with inflexible severity. In the per-
petual reaction of that awful force of human
passion and human will, which necessarily
meets the compressive power of slavery, —
in that seething, boiling tide, never wholly
repressed, Avhich rolls its volcanic stream un-
derneath the whole frame-work of society
so constituted, ready to find vent at the
least rent or fissure or unguarded aperture,
— there is a constant necessity which urges to
severity of law and inflexibility of execution.
So Judge Ruffin says, "We cannot allow
the right of the matter to be brought into
discussion in the courts of justice. The slave,
to remain a slave, must be made sensible
that there is NO appeal from his mas-
ter." Accordingly, we find in the more
southern states, where the slave population
is most accumulated, and slave property
most necessary and valuable, and, of course,
the determination to abide by the system the
most decided, there the enactments are most
severe, and the interpretation of courts the
most inflexible.* And, when legal decisions
of a contrary character begin to be made, it
would appear that it is a symptom of leaning
towards emancipation. So abhorrent is the
slave-code to every feeling of humanity, that
just as soon as there is any hesitancy in the
community about perpetuating the institu-
tion of slavery, judges begin to listen to the
voice of their more honorable nature, and by
favora1)le interpretations to soften its neces-
sary severities.

Such decisions do not commend them-
selves to the profe^ional admiratien of legal
gentlemen. But in the workings of the
slave system, when the irresponsible jDower
which it guarantees comes to be used by men

* "We except the State of Louisiana. Owing to the
influence of the French code in that state, more really
humane provisions prevail there. How much these pro-
visions avail in point of fact, will be shown when we come
to that part of the subject.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of the most hrutal nature, cases sometimes
arise for trial -where tlie consistent exposi-
tion of the law involves results so loathsome
and frightful, that the judge prefers to be
illogical, rather than inhuman. Like a spring
outgushing in the desert, some noble man,
now and then, from the fulness of liis own
better nature, throws out a legal decision,
generously inconsistent with every principle
and precedent of slave jurisprudence, and
we bless God for it. ^1 we wish is that
there were more of them, for then should
we hope that the day of redemption w^as
drawing nigh.

The reader is now prepared to enter
with us on the proof of this proposition :
That the slave-code is designed only for the
security of the master, and not ivith re-
gard to the welfare of tJie slave.

This is imphed in the whole current of
law-making and law-administration, and is
often asserted in distinct form, with a pre-
cision and clearness of legal accuracy which,
in a hterary point of view, are quite admira-
ble. Thus, Judge Ruffin, after stating that
considerations restricting the power of the
master had often been drawn from a com-
parison of slavery with the relation of parent
and child, master and apprentice, tutor and
pupil, says distinctly :

The court does not recognize their application.
There is no likeness between the cases. They are
in opposition to each other, and there is an impass-
able gulf between tham. * * # #

In the one [case], the end in view is the happiness
of the youth, born to equal rights with that gov-
ornor, on wliom the duty devolves of training the
young to usefulness, in a station which he is after-
wards to assume among freemen. * * * * Witli
Wh '- Law ^l^^'*3^y it 's f'^^ otherwise. The end
of Slavery, ijase '-^ '^^c profit of the master, his secu-
246. rity and the puljlic safety.

Not only is this principle distinctly as-
serted in so many words, but it is more dis-
tinctly implied in multitudes of the arguings
and reasonings wliich are given as grounds
of legal decisions. Even such provisions as
seem to be for the benefit of the slave we
often find carefully interpreted so as to show
that it is only on account of his property
value to his master that he is thus protected,
and not fi-om any consideration of humanity
towards himself Thus it has been decided
that a master can bring no action for assault
wieeier'sLaw ^'^^ battcry ou his shivc, nnless
"f •'^'2^0''^' P" ihe injury be such as to pro-
duce a loss of service.

The spirit in which this question is dis-
cussed is worthy of remark. We give a

brief statement of the case, as presented m
Wheeler, p. 239.

It was an action for assault and battery
committed by Dale on one Cornfute's slave.
It was contended by Cornfute"s counsel that
it was not neces.sary to prove cornfut«„.
loss of service, in order that the ^"''^' ^p"'

TpiTn 1800

action should be sustained; that inar.& Johns,
an action might be supported for ^^' ^
beating plaintiff's horse; and iJi'^^oTvi-
that the lord might have an ac- ^'"■''^ ^^'^- ^^
tion for the battery of his Anllein, which is
founded on this principle, that, as the villein
could not support the action, the injury
would he without redress, unless the lord
coidd. On the other side it was said that Lord
Cliief Justice Raymond had decided that
an assault on a horse Avas no cause of action,
unless accompanied with a special damage
of the animal^ which would impair his value.

Chief Justice Chase decided that no re-
dress could be obtained in the case, because
the value of the slave had not been impaired,
and without injury or ivrong to the nuis-
ter no action could be sustained ; and as-
signed this among other reasons for it, that
there was no reciprocity in the case, as the
master was not hable for assault and battery
committed by his slave, neither could he g"ain
redress for one committed upon his slave.

Let any reader now imagine what an
amount of wanton cruelty and indignity may
be heaped upon a slave man or woman or
child without actually impairing their power
to do service to the master, and he will have
a full sense of the cruelty of this decision.

In the same spirit it has been held in
North Carolina that patrols (night watch-
men) are not liable to the master ^ate r. O'Neai
for inflicting punishment on the }, ^g^"^^' ^^^•
slave, unless their conduct clear- •!,'?. 797° §i2i.-
ly demonstrates malice against tJie master.

The cool-bloodedness of some of these legal
discussions is forcibly shoAvn by two deci-
sions in "Wliccler's Law of Slavery, p. 243.
On the question whether the criminal offence
of assault and battery can be committed on
a slave, there are two decisions of the tAvo
States of South and North Carolina ; and it
is difficult to say wliich of these g^ate v. Maner,
decisions has the preeminence ;- uiiPs Rep.^
for cool legal inhumanity. That ilw of slavery,
of South Carolina reads thus. r-%'e243.

Judge O'Neill says :

The criminal offence of assault and battcry can
not, at common law, be committed upon the per-
S(jn of a slave. For notwithstanding (for some
])urposes) a slave is regarded by law as a person,
yet generally he is a mere chattel personal, and liia

KEY TO TJNJLE TOM'S CABIN.

right of personal protection belongs to his master,
who can maintain an action of trespass for the bat-
tery of his slave. There can be therefore no offence
an-ainst the state for a mere beating of a slave unac-
armpanicd with any circumstances of cruelty ( ! ! ) ,
or an attempt to kill and murder. The peace of
the state is not thereby broken ; for a slave is not
generally regarded as legally capable of being
within the peace of the state. lie is not a citi-
zen, and is not in that character entitled to her
protection.

What declaration of the utter incliiFerence
of the state to 'the sufferings of the slave
could be more elegantly cool and clear?
S6e state v. But in North Carolina it appears
p.239. auawk! that the case is argued still more
N.c.Rep.5S2. elaborately.

Chief Justice Taylor thus shows that,
after all, there are reasons why an assault
and battery upon the slave may, on the
whole, have some such general connection
with the comfort and security of the com-
munity, that it may be construed into a
breach of the peace, and should be treated
as an indictable offence.

The instinct of a slave may be, and generally
is, tamed into subservience to his master's will,
and from liim ho receives chastisement, whether it
be merited or not, with perfect submission ; for he
knows the extent of the dominion assumed over
him, and that the law ratifies the claim. But
when the same authority is wantonly usurped by
a stranger, nature is disposed to assert her rights,
and to prompt the slave to a resistance, often
momentarily successful, sometimes fatally so.
The public peace is thus broken, as much as if a
free man had been beaten ; for the party of the
aggressor is always the strongest, and such con-
tests usually terminate by overpowering the slave,
and inflicting on him a severe chastisement, Avith-
out regard to the original cause of the conflict.
There is, consequently, as much reason for mak-
ing such offences indictable as if a white man had
lx;en the victim. A wanton injury committed on
a slave is a great 'provocation to tlie owner, awaliens
Ms resentment, and has a direct tendency to a breach
of the peace, by inciting him to seek immediate ven-
geance. If resented in the heat of blood, it would
probably extenuate a homicide to manslaughter,
upon the same principle with the case stated by
lx)rd Hale, that if A riding on the road, B had
whipped his horse out of the track, and then A
had alighted and killed B. These offences are
usually committed, by men of dissolute habits,
hanging loose upon society, ivho, being repelled
from association with well-disposed citizens, take
refuge in the company of colored persons and
slaves, rohom they deprave by their example, embold-
en by their familiarity, and then beat, under the
(expectation that a slave dare not resent a blow from
a while man. If such ofl'ences may be committed
with impunity, the public peace will not only be
rendered extromely insecure, but the value of slave
property must he much impaired, for the offenders
can seldom make any reparation in damages.
Nor is it necessary, in any case, that a person
who has received an injury, real or imaginary,
from a slave, should carve out his own justice ;

for the laio has made ample and summary pro-
vision for the punishment of all trivial offences com
mitted by slaves, by carrying them be-
fore a justice, who is authorized to j j^g^ q^^
pass sentence for their being publicly 448.

whipped. This provision, Avhile it
excludes the necessity of private vengeance, would
seem to forbid its legality, since it effectually pro-
tects all persons from the insolence of slaves, even
where their masters are umvilling to correct them
upon complaint being made. The common law
has often been called into efficient operation, for
the punishment of puljlic cruelty inflicted upon
animals, for needless and wanton barbarity exer-
cised even by masters upon their slaves, and for
various violations of decency, morals, and comfort.
Reason and analogy seem to require that a human
being, although the subject of property, should be
so far protected as the public might be injured
through him.

For all purposes necessary to enforce the obe-
dience of the slave, and to render him useful as
property, the law secures to the master a com-
plete authority over him, and it will not lightly
interfere with the relation thus established. It is
a more effectual guarantee of his right of property,
when the slave is protected from loanton abuse frqm
those who have no power over him ; for it cannot be
disputed that a slave is rendered less capable of
performing his master's service when he finds
himself exposed by the law to the capricious vio-
lence of every turbulent man in the community.

If this is not a scrupulous disclaimer of
all humane intention in the decision, as far
as the slave is concerned, and an explicit
declaration that he is protected only out of
regard to the comfort of the community, and
his property value to his master, it is difficult
to see how such a declaration could be mada
After all this cool-blooded course of remark,
it is somewhat curious to come upon the fol-
lowing certainly most unexpected declaration,
which occurs in the very next paragraph :

Mitigated as slavery is by the humanity of our
laws, the refinement of manners, and by publk
opinion, which revolts at every instance of cruelty
towards them, it would ])e an anomaly in the sys-
tem of police which affects them, if the offence
stated in the verdict were not indictable.

The reader will please to notice that this
remarkable declaration is made of the State
of North Carolina. We shall have occa-
sion again to refer to it by and by, when
we extract from the statute-book of North
Carolina some specimens of these humane
laws.

In the same spirit it is decided, under the
law of Louisiana, that if an individual in-
jures another's slave so as to make him en-
tirely useless., and the owner recovers from
him the full value of the slave, the slave by
that act becomes thenceforth the ^ , .

, Jouraam v.

property of the person who in- ration, juiy
jured him. A decision to this jimtui's i^oia
effect is given in Wheeler s Law ii«p-6i5-

KEV rO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of Slavery, p. 249. A woman sued for an in-
jury done to her slave by the slave of the de-
fendant. The injury was such as to render
him entirely useless, his only eye being put
out. The parish court decreed that she should
recover twelve hundred dollars, that the de-
fendant should pay a further sum of twenty-
five dollars a month from the time of the
injury; also the physician's bill, and two
hundred dollars for the sustenance of the
slave during his life, and that he should
remain forever in the possession of his mis-
tress.

The case was appealed. The judge re-
versed the decision, and delivered the slave
into the possession of the man whose slave
had committed the outrage. In the course
of the decisio;!. the judge remarks, with
that calm legal explicitness for which many
decisions of this kind are remarkable, that

The principle of humanity, which would lead
us to suppose that the mistress, whom he had long
served, would treat her miserable blind slave with
more kindness tlian the defendant, to whom the
judgment ought to transfer him, cannot be taken
into consideration in deciding this case.

, , _,„ Another case, reported in Wheel-
Jan. temi,is2s. ' '■ r\n
9 Martin Lu. er's Law, page 198, the author

^^'" "° ■ thus summarily abridges. It is
Dorothee v. Coquillon et al. A young girl,
by will of her mistress, was to have her free-
dom at twenty-one ; and it was required by
the will that in the mean time she should be
educated in such a manner as to enable her
to earn her living when free, her services
in the mean time being bequeathed to the
daughter of the defendant. Her mother (a
free woman) entered complaint that no care
■was taken of the child's education, and that
she was cruelly treated. The prayer of the
petition was that the child be declared free
at twenty-one, and in the mean time hired
out by the sheriff. The suit was decided
against the mother, on this ground, — that
she could not sue for her daughter in a
case where the daughter could not sue for
herself were she of age, — the object of the
suit being relief from ill-treatment during
the time of her slavery^ which a slave
cannot sue for.

Jan. term, 1827. Obscrve, iiow, the following
4 M'Cord's ii.p. case of Jennings v. Fundeberg.

161. Whculor'd . o , . o

Law of Slavery, it scems Jcnnmgs brings an ac-
^'' ^*'^' tion of trespass against Funde-
berg for killing his slave. The case was
thus : Fundeberg with others, being out
hunting runaway negroes, surprised them in
their camp, and, as tlie report says, '•'•fired
his gun towards them as they were run-

ning away, to induce them, to stop.^^ One
of them, being shot through the head, was
thus induced to stop, — and the master of
the boy brought action for trespass against
the firer for killing his slave.

The decision of the inferior court was as
follows :

The court " thought the killing acciden-
tal, and that the defendant ought not to be
made answerable as a trespasser." * * * *
" When. one is laAvfully interfering with the
property of another, and accidentally de-
stroys it, he is no trespasser, and ought
not to be answerable for the value of the prop-
erty. In this case, the defendant was en-
gaged in a lawful and ineritorious service,
and if he really fired his gun in the manner
stated it was an allowable act."

The superior judge reversed the decision,
on the ground that in dealing with another
person's property one is responsible for any
injury which he could have avoided by any
degree of circumspection, "The firing
.... was rasli and incantions.^^

Does not the whole spirit of this discus-
sion speak for itself ?

0 1,1 . • Jan. T. 1S27. 4

bee also the very next case m jrcord'3 Kep. ,
Wheeler's Law. Richardson v. '^^^
Dukes, p. 202.

Trespass for killing the plaintiiF's slave. It
appeared the slave was stealing potatoes from a
bank near the defendant's house. The defendant
fired upon him with a gun loaded with buckshot,
and killed him. The jury found a verdict for
plaintiff for one dollar. .j\Iotion for a new trial.

The Court. Nott S. held, there must be a
new trial ; that the jury ought to have giveu the
plaintiff the value of the slave. That if the jiu-y
were of opinion the slave was of bad character,
some deduction from the usual price ought to be
made, but the plaintiff was certainly entitled to
his actual damage for killing his slave. AVhero
property is in question, the value of tlie article,
as nearly as it can bo ascertained, fui-nishcs a rule
from which they are not at liberty to depart.

It seems that the value of this unfortunate
piece of property was somewhat reduced
from the circumstance of his " stealing pota-
toes." Doubtless he had his own best rea-
sons for this ; so, at least, we should infer
from the following remark, which ^heeler's L;w
occurs in one of the reasonings of slavery, 220.
of Judge Taylor, of N. Carolina.

" The act of 1780 (Iredell's Revisal, p. 588)
does, in the preamble, recognize the fact, that
many persons, by cruel trcaimnit to tlieir slaves,
cause them to commit crimes for which they are
e-xecuted. * * The cruel treatment here al-
luded to must consist in ivithholding from them the
necessaries of life; and tlie crimes thus resulting
arc such as are calculated to furnish them with food
and raiment.^''

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Perhaps " stealing potatoes " in this case
was one of the class of crimes alluded to.
whitstii i;. Aciain we have the followinf>;

Karuesl & Par- ° °

ker. Wheeler, CaSO :
p. 202.

The defendants went to the phxntation of Mrs.
Witsell for the purpose of hunting fur runaway
negroes; there being many in the neighborhood,
and the phvce in considerable alarm. As they
approached the house with loaded guns, a negro
ran from the house, or near the house, towards a
swamp, when they fired and killed him.

The judge charged the jury, that such cir-
cumstances might e.xist, by the excitement and
alarm of the neighborhood, as to authorize the
killing of a negro without the sanction of a magis-
trate.

This decision was reversed in the Superior
Court, in the following language :

By the statute of 1740, any white man may
apprehend and moderately correct any slave who
may be found out of the plantation at which he
is employed, and if the slave assaults the white
person, he maybe hilled ; but a slave who is merely
dying away cannot be killed. Nor can the de-
fendants be justified by common law, if we consider
the negro as a person ; for they were not clothed
with the authority of the law to apprehend him
as a felon, and without such authority he could
nwt be killed.

If we consider the tiegro a person^

says the judge ; and, from his decision in the
case, he evidently intimates that he has a
strong leaning to this opinion, though it has
been contested by so many eminent legal
authorities that he puts forih his sentiment
modestly, and in an hypothetical form. The
reader, perhaps, will need to be informed
that the question whether the slave is to be
considered a person or a human being in any
respect has been extensively and ably argued
on both sides in legal courts, and it may be
a comfort to know that the balance of legal
opinion inclines in favor of the slave. Judge
Clarke, of Mississippi, is quite clear on the
point, and argues very ably and earnestly,
though, as he confesses, against very respect-
able legal authorities, that the slave is a
person, — that he is a reasonable creature.
,^ , The reasonins; occurs in the case

Wheeler, p. ~ „ , ,. 9 . . t i

2j^- btate or Mississippi v. Jones, and
Walker's IS worthy 01 attcntiou as a literary
Rep. 83. curiosity.

It seems that a case of murder of a slave
had been clearly made out and proved in the
lower court, and that judgment was arrested
and the case appealed on the ground wheth-
er, in that state, murder could be committed
on a slave. Judge Clarke thus ably and
earnestly argues :

The question in this case is, whether murder
''an be committed on a slave. Because individuals

may have been deprived of many of their rights by
society, it does not follow, that they have been
deprived of all their rights. In some respects,
slaves may be considered as chattels ; but in others,
they are regarded as men. The law views them
as capable of committing crimes. This can only
be upon the principle, that they are men and ra-
tional beings. The Roman laAV has been much
relied on by the counsel of the defendant. That
law was confined to the Roman empire, giving the
power of life and death over captives in war, as
slaves ; but it no more extended here, than the sim-
ilar power given to parents over the lives of their
children. Sluch stress has also been laid by the
defendant's counsel on the case cited from Tay-
lor's Reports, decided in North Carolina ; yet, in
that case, two judges against one were of opinion,
that killing a slave was murder. Judge Hall, who
delivered the dissenting opinion in the above case,
based his conclusions, as we conceive, upon erro-
neous principles, by considering" the laws of Rome
applicable here. His inference, also, that a per-
son cannot be condemned capitally, because he
may be liable in a civil action, is not sustained by
reason or authority, but appears to us to be in
direct opposition to both. At a very early period
in Virginia, the power of life over slaves Avas given
by statute ; but Tucker obser\-es, that as soon as
these statutes were repealed, it was at once con-
sidered by their courts that the killing of a slave
might be murder. Comnionwealth v. Dolly Chap-
man : indictment for maliciously stabbing a slave,
under a statute. It has been determined in
Virginia that slaves are persons. In the con-
stitution of the United States, slaves are ex-
pressly designated as "persons." In this state
the legislatui-e have considered slaves as rea-
sonable and accountable beings ; and it would be
a stigma upon the character of the state, and a
reproach to the administration of justice, if the
life of a slave could be taken with impunity, or if
he could be murdered in cold blood, without sul>
jecting the offender to the highest penalty known
to the criminal jurisprudence of the country. Has
the slave no rights, because he is deprived of his
freedom? He is still a human being, and pos-
sesses all those rights of which he is not deprived
by the positive provisions of the law ; but in vain
shall we look for any law passed by the enlight-
ened and philanthropic legislature of this state,
giving even to the master, much less to a stranger,
power over the life of a slave. Such a statute
would be worthy the age of Draco or Caligula,
and would be condemned by the unanimous voice
of the people of this state, where even cruelty to
slaves, much [more] the taking away of life, meets
with universal reprobation. By the provisions of
our law, a slave may commit murder, and be pun-
ished with death ; why, then, is it not mm-der to
kill a slave 1 Can a mere chattel commit mui'der,
and be subject to punishment ?

The right of the master exists not by force of the
law of nature or nations, but by virtue only of the
positive law of the state; and although that gives to
the master the right to command the services of
the slave, requiring the master to feed and clothe
the slave from infancy till death, yet it gives the
master no right to take the life of the slave ; and,
if the offence be not murder, it is not a crime,
and subjects the offender +.0 no punishment.

The taking away the life of a reasonable crea- ♦

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Ture, under the king's peace, with malice afore-
thought, express or implied, is murder at common
law. Is not a slave a reasonable creature 1 — is he
not a human being ■? And the meaning of this
phrase, reasonable creature, is, a human being.
For the killing a lunatic, an idiot, or even a child
unborn, is murder, as much as the killing a phi-
losopher ; and has not the slave as much reason as
a lunatic, an idiot, or an unborn child?

Thus triumphantly, in this nineteenth cen-
tury of the Christian era and in the State
of Mississippi, has it been made to appear
that the slave is a reasonable creature, — a
human being !

What sort of system, what sort of a pub-
lic sentiment, was that which made this
argument necessary?

And let us look at some of the admissions
of this argument with regard to the nature
of slavery. According to the judge, it is
depriving human beings of many of their
rights. Thus he says : " Because individ-
uals may bave been deprived of many of
their rights by society, it does not follow
that they have been deprived of all their
rights." Again, he says of the slave : "He
is still a human being, and possesses all
those rights of which he is not deprived by
the positive provisio7is of the laio.'" Here
he admits that the provisions of law deprive
the slave of natural rights. Again he says:
" The right of the master exists not by force
of the law of nature or of nations, but by
virtue only of the positive law of the state."
According to the decision of this judge,
therefore, slavery exists by the same right
that robbery or oppression of any kind does,
— the right of ability. A gang of robbers
associated into a society have rights over
all the neighboring property that they can
acquire, of precisely the same kind.

With the same unconscious serenity does
the law apply that principle of force and
robbery which is the essence of slavery, and
show how far the master may proceed in
appropriating another human being as his
property.

The question arises. May a master give a
Wheeler, p. 2s. womau to onc pcrsou, and her
r^'Markshmy^^ uiiborn childrcii to another one?
Spriii- T. 1S23. Let us hear the case arfi;ued.

'i Liuli' s Kcp. ,, 111

■2.-0. The unfortunate mother selected
as the test point of this interesting legal
principle comes to our view in the will of
one Samuel jMarksl)ury, under the style
and denomination of " my negro wench
Pen." Said Samuel states in his will that,
for the good will and love he bears to his own
children, he gives said negro Avcnch Pen to
60U Samuel, and all her future increase to

daughter Rachael. When daughter Rachael,
therefore, marries, her husband sets up a
claim for this increase, — as it is stated,
quite off-hand, that the "wench had several
children." Here comes a beautifully inter-
esting case, quite stimulating to legal acu-
men. Inferior court decides that Samuel
Marksbury could not have given away un-
born children on the strength of the legal
maxim, ^^ Nemo dat quod non hahet,'''' —
i. e., " Nobody can give what he has not
got," — which certainly one should think
sensible and satisfactory enough. The case,
however, is appealed, and reversed in the
superior court; and how let us hear the
reasoning.

The judge acknowledges the force of the
maxim above quoted, — says, as one would
think any man might say, that it is quite a
correct maxim, — the only difficulty being
that it does not at all apply to the present
case. Let us hear him :

He who is the absolute owner of a thing owns
all its faculties for profit or increase ; and he
may, no doubt, grant the profits or increase, as
well as the thing itself. Thus, it is every day's
practice to grant the future rents or profits of real
estate ; and it is held that a man may grant th«
wool of a flock of sheep for years.

See also p. 33, Fanny v. Bryant, 4 J. J.
Marshall's Rep., 368. In this almost pre-
cisely the same language is used. If the
reader will proceed, he will find also this
principle applied with equal clearness to the
hirina;, sellinsr mortrras-incr of unborn cliil-
dren ; and the perfect legal nonchalance of
these discussions is only comparable to run-
ning a dissecting-knife through the course
of all the heart-strings of a living subject,
for the purpose of demonstrating the laws
of nervous contraction.

Judge Stroud, in his sketch of the slave-
laws, page 99, lays down for proof the fol-
lowing assertion : That the penal codes of
the slave states bear much more severely on
slaves than on white persons. He intro-
duces his consideration of this proposition
by the following humane and sensible re-
marks :

A being, ignorant of letters, unenlightened by
roli"'ion, and deriving but little iii.s!:nuti(in from
good example, cannot be su^iijiosed to have right
conceptions as to the nature and extent of mural
or political oljligations. This remark, with but a
sli"-lit qualificaticm, is applicable to the condition
of the slave. It has been just shown tliat the
benefits of education are not conferred uponliim,
while his chance of acquiring a knowledge of the
precepts of the gospel is so remote as scarcely to
be appreciated. lie may be regarded, therefore

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

as almost -without the capacity to comprehend
the force of hxws ; and, on this account, such as
are designed for his government should be recom-
mended by their simplicity and mildness.

Ilis condition suggests another motive for
tenderness on liis behalf in these particulars.
He is unable to read, and holding little or no com-
munication with those who are better informed
tlian himself; how is he to become acquainted
with the fact that a law for his observance has
been made ? To exact obedience to a law which
has not been promulgated, — which is unknown
to the subject of it, — has ever been deemed most
unjust and tyrannical. The reign of Caligula,
were it obnoxious to no other reproach than this,
would never cease to be remembered with abhor-
rence.

The law cji vers of the slaveholding states seem,
in the formation of their penal codes, to have
Ixjen uninilucnced by these claims of the slave
upon their compassionate consideration. The
hardened convict moves their sympathy, and is
to be taught the laws before he is expected to
obey tliem ; yet the guiltless slave is subjected to
an extensive system of cruel enactments, of no
part of which, probably, has he ever heard.

Parts of this system apply to the slave ex-
clusively, and for every infraction a large retribu-
tion is demanded ; while, with respect to oifences
for which whites as well as slaves are amenable,
funishments of much greater severity are inflicted
upcrn the latter than upon the former.

This heavj charge of Judge Stroud is
sustained by twenty pages of proof, showing
the very great disproportion between the
number of offences made capital for slaves,
and those that are so for whites. Con-
cerning this, we find the following cool re-
mark in Wheeler's Law of Slavery, page
222, note.

Much has been said of the disparity of pun-
ishment between the white inhabitants and the
slaves and negroes of the same state ; that slaves
are punished with much more severity, for the
commission of similar crimes, by white persons,
than the latter. The charge is undoubtedly true
to a considerable extent. It must be remembered
that the primary object of the enactment of penal
laws, is the protection and security of those who
make them. The slave has no agency in making
them. He is indeed one cause of the apprehended
evils to the other class, which those laws are ex-
pected to remedy. That he should be hold ame-
nable for a violation of those rules established for
the security of the other, is the natui-al result of
the state in which lie is placed. And the sever-
ity of those rules will always bear a relation to
that danger, real or ideal, of the other class.

It has been so among all nations, and will
ever continue to be so, while the disparity be-
tween bond and free remains.

A striking example of a legal decision
to this purport is given in Wlieeler's

The %UL« V. Law of Slavery, page 224. The
TennTis?9.°2 casc, apart from legal tech-

Devercaux's nioalities, mav be thus briefly

North CarcUiia i

Eep 26b. stated :

The defendant, Mann, had hired a slave- '
woman for a year. During this time the
slave committed some slight offence, for which
the defendant undertook to chastise her.
While in the act of doing so the slave ran
off, whereat he shot at and wounded her. The
judge in the inferior court charged the jury
that if they believed the punishment was
cruel and unwarrantable, and disproportioned
to the offence, in law the defendant was
guilty, as he had only a special propet^ty
in the slave. The jury finding evidence that
the punishment had been cruel, unwarrant-
able and disp?-oporlioned to the offence^
found verdict against the defendant. But on
what ground ? — Because, according to the
law of North Carolina, cruel, unwarrantable,
disproportionate punishment of a slave from
a master, is an indictable offence? No. They
decided against the defendant, not because
the punishment was cruel and unwarrant-
able, tut because he was not the person wlio
had the right to inflict it, "as he had only
a SPECIAL right of property in the slaveP

The defendant appealed to a higher court,
and the decision was reversed, on the ground
that the hirer has for the time being all the
rights of the master. The remarks of Judge
Ruffin are so characteristic, and so strongly
express the conflict between the feehngs of
the humane judge and the logical necessity
of a strict interpreter of slave-law, that we
shall quote largely from it. One cannot
but admire the unflinching calmness with
which a man, evidently possessed of honor-
able and humane feelings, walks through the
most extreme and terrible results and con-
clusions, in obedience to the laws of legal
truth. Thus he says :

A judge cannot but lament, when such cases
as the present are brought into judgment. It is
impossible that the reasons on which they go can
be appreciated, but where institutions similar to
our own exist, and are thoroughly understood.
The struggle, too, in the judge's own breast, be-
tween the feelings of the man and the duty of the
magistrate, is a severe one, presentiag strong
temptation to put aside such questions, if it be
possible It is useless, however, to complain of
things inherent in our political state. And it is
criminal in a court to avoid any responsibility
which the laws impose. With whatever reluc-
tance, therefore, it is done, the court is compelled
to express an opinion upon the extent of the do-
minion of the master over the slave in North Car-
olina. The indictment charges a battery on Lydia,

a slave of Elizabeth Jones The inquiry

here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery
on a slave by the hirer is indictable. The judge
below instructed the jury that it is. He seems to
have put it on the ground, that the defendant bad
but a special property. Our laws uniformly treat
the master, or ether person having the possession

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

and command of the slave, as entitled to the same
extent of authority. The object is the same, the
service of the slave ; and the same powers must be
confided. In a criminal proceeding, and, indeed,
in reference to all other persons but the general
owner, the hirer and possessor of the slave, in rela-
tion to both rights and duties, is, for the time being,
the owner But, upon the general ques-
tion, wliether the owner is answerable criminal-
iter, for a bafctery upon his own slave, or other
exercise of authority of force, not forbidden by
statute, the court entertains but little doubt.
That he is so liable, has never been decided ; nor,
as far as is known, been hitherto contended.
TliOTe has been no prosecution of the sort. The
established habits and uniform practice of the
country, in this respect, is the best evidence of the
portion of power deemed by the whole community
requisite to the preservation of the master's do-
minion. If we thought differently, we could not
set our notions in array against the judgment of
everybody else , and say that this or that authority
may be safely lopped off. This has indeed been
assimilated at the bar to the other domestic rela-
tions ; and arguments drawn from the well-estab-
lished principles, which confer and restrain the
authority of the parent over the child, the tutor
over the pupil, the master over the apprentice,
have been pressed on us.

The court does not recognize their application.
There is no likeness between the cases. They are
in opposition to each other, and there is an im-
passable gulf between them. The difference is
that which exists between freedom and slavery ;
and a greater cannot be imagined. In the one, the
end in view is the happiness of the youth born to
equal rights with that governor on whom the duty
devolves of training the young to usefulness, m a
station which he is afterwards to assume among
freemen. To such an end, .and with such a subject,
moral and intellectual instruction seem the natural
means ; and, for the most part, they are found to
suffice. Moderate force is superadded only to
make the others effectual. If that fail, it is bet-
ter to leave the party to his own headstrong pas-
sions, and the ultimate correction of the law, than
to allow it to be immoderately inflicted by a pri-
vate person. Witli slavery it is far otherwise.
Tlio end is the profit of the master, his security
and the public safety; the subject, one doomed,
in his own person and his posterity, to live with-
out knowledge, and without the capacity to make
anything his own, and to toil that another may
reap the fruits. What moral considerations shall
be addressed to such a being, to convince him
wliat it is impossible but that the most stupid
must feel and know can never Ijc true, — that he
is thus to labor upon a principle of naturaKluty,
or for the sake of his own personal happiness ?
Such services can only be expected from one who
has no will of his own ; who surrenders liis will
in implicit oliedience to that of another. Such
obediuiice is the consequence only of uncontrolled
authority over the body. There is nothing else
Avhich can operate to produce the effect. The

POWER 01' THE MASTER MUST BE ABSOLUTE, TO RENDER
TUE SUBMISSION OK THE SLAVE I'EKFECT. I UlOSt IVecly

confess my sense of the harshness of this propo-
sition. I feel it as deeply as any man can. And,
as a principle of moral right, every jierson in his
retirement must repudiate it. But, in the aptual
condition of things, it must be so. There is no
remedy. This discipline belongs to the state of

slavery. They cannot be disunited without abro-
gating at once the rights of the master, and ab-
solving the slave from his subjection. It consti-
tutes the curse of slavery to both the bond and
the free portions of our population. But it is
inherent in the relation of master and slave. That
there may be particular instances of cruelty and
deliberate barbarity, where in conscience the law
might properly interfere, is most probable. The
difficulty is to determine where a court may prop-
erly begin. Merely in the abstract, it may well
be asked which power of the master accords with
right. The answer will probably sweep away all
of them. But we cannot look at the matter in
that light. The truth is that we are forbidden to
enter upon a train of general reasoning on the
subject. We cannot allow the right of the mas-
ter to be brought into discussion in the courts of
justice. The slave, to remain a slave, must be
made sensible that there is no appeal from his
master ; that his power is, in no instance, usurped,
but is conferred by the laws of man, at least, if
not hy the law of God. The danger would be
great, indeed, if the tribunals of justice should be .
called on to graduate the punishment appropriate
to every temper and every dereliction of menial
duty.

No man can anticipate the many and aggra-
vated provocations of the master which the slave
would be constantly stimulated by his own pas-
sions, or the instigation of others, to give ; or
the consequent wrath of the master, prompting
him to bloody vengeance upon the turbulent
traitor ; a vengeance generally practised icith impu-
nity, by reason of its privacy. The court, therefore,
disclaims the power of changing the relation in
which these parts of our people stand to each
other.

*****

I repeat, that I would gladly have avoided
this ungrateful question. But, being brought to
it, the court is compelled to declare that while
slavery exists amongst us in its present state, or
until it shall seem fit to the legislature to interpose
express enactments to the contrary, it will be the
imperative duly of the judges to recognize the full
dominion of the owner over the slave, except where
the exercise of it is forbidden by statute.

And this we do upon the ground that this do-
minion is essential to the value of slaves as property,
to the security of the master and the public tram/uil-
lity, greatly dependent upon their subordination ;
and, in fine, as most effectually securing the gen-
eral protection and comfort of the slaves them-
selves. Judgment below reversed ; and judgment
entered for the defendant.

No one can read this decision, so fine
and clear in expression, so dignified and
solemn in its earnestness, and so dreadful
in its results, without feeling at once deep
respect for the man and horror for the sys-
tem. The man, judging him from tliis
short specimen, Avhich is all the author
knows,* has one of that high order of minds,
which looks straight through all verbiage
and sophistry to the heart of every subject
which it encounters. lie has, too, that noble

* More recently the author hw met with n passage in f
North Carolina newspaper, containing sonic further par-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

scorn of dissimulation, that straightforward
determination not to call a bad thing by
a good name, even when most popular and
reputable and legal, which it is to be wished
could be more frequently seen, both in our
Northern and Southern States. There is
but one sole regret ; and that is that such a
man, with such a mind, should have been
merely an expositor^ and not a reformer of
law.

CHAPTER III.

SOUTHER V. THE COMMONWEALTH THE

NE PLUS ULTRA OF LEGAL HUMANITY.

" Yet in the face of such laws and decisions as these !
Mrs. Stowe, Ac." — Cuurier §• Enquirer.

The case of Souther v. the Common-
wealth has been cited by the Courier <S^
Enquirer as a particularly favorable speci-

ticulars of the life of Judge RufEn, which have proved in-
teresting to her, and may also to the reader.

From the Raleigh {N. C.) Register.

Rksioxation of the Chief Justice of the State of

North Carolina.

We publish below the letter of Chief Justice Ruffin, of
the Supreme Court, resigning his seat on the bench.

This act takes us, and no less Will it take the state, by
stirprise. The public are not prepared for it ; and we
doubt not there will scarcely be an exception to the deep
and general regret which will be felt throughout the state.
Judge Ruffin's great and unsurpassed legal learning, his
untiring industry, the ease with which he mastered the
details and comprehended the whole of the most compli-
cated cases, were the admiration of the bar; and it has
been a common saying of the ablest lawyers of the state,
for a long time past, that his place on ihe bench could be
supplied by no other than himself.

He is now, as we learn, in the sixty-fifth year of his age,
in full possession of his usual excellent health, unaffected,
so far as we can discover, in his natural vigor and strength,
and certainly without any symptom of mental decay.
Forty-five years ago he commenced the practice of the
law. He has been on the bench twenty-eight years, of
which time he has been one of the Supreme Court twenty-
three years. During this long public career he has, in a
pecuniary point of view, sacrificed many thousauas ; for
there has been no time of it in which he might not, with per-
fect ease, have doubled, by practice, the amount of his
salary as judge.

" To the Honorable the General Assembly of North Carolina,
now in session.

" Gentlemen : I desire to retire to the walks of private
life, and therefore pray your honorable body to accept the
resignation of my place on the bench of the Supreme
Court. In surrendering this trust, I would wish to express
my grateful sense of the confidence and honors so often
and so long bestowed on me by the General Assembly.
But I have no language to do it suitably. I am very sen-
sible that they were far beyond my deserts, and that I
have made an insufficient return of the service. Yet I
can truly aver that, to the best of my ability, I have ad-
ministered the law as I understood it, and to the ends of
suppressing crime and wrong, and upholding virtue, truth
and right; aiming to give confidence to honest men, and
to confirm in all good citizens love for our country, and a
pure trust in her law and magistrates.

" In my place I hope I have contributed to these ends ; •
and I firmly believe that our laws will, as heretofore, be
executed, and our people happy in the administration of
justice, honest and contented, as long as they keep, and
only so long as they keep, the independent and sound ju-
diciary DOW established in the constitution; which, with

men of judicial proceedings under the slave-
code, with the following remark :

And yet, in the face of such laws and decisiona
as these, Mrs. Stowe winds up a long series of
cruelties upon her other black personages, by
causing her faultless hero, Tom, to be literally
whipped to death in Louisiana, by his master, Le-
gree ; and these acts, which the laws iiKik:' crimi-
nal, and punish as such, she sets fortliin tii; most
repulsive colors, to illustrate the institution of
slavery !

By the above language the author was
led into the supposition that this case had
been conducted in a manner so creditable to
the feelings of our common humanity as to
present a fairer side of criminal jurispru-
dence in this respect. She accordingly
took the pains to procure a report of the
case, designing to publish it as an offset to
the many barbarities which research into
this branch of the subject obliges one to un-
fold. A legal gentleman has copied the
case from Grattan's Reports, and it is here
given. If the reader is astounded at it. he
cannot be more so than was the writer.

Souther v. The Commonwealth. 7 Grattan. G73,
1851.

The killing of a slave by his master and owner, by wilful
and excessive whipping, is murder in the first degree:
though it may not have be-en the purpose and intention
of the master and owner to kill the slave.

Simeon Souther was indicted at the October
Term, 1850, of the Circuit Court for the County of
Hanover, for the murder of his own slave. The
indictment contained fifteen counts, in which the
various modes of punishment and torture by wliich
the homicide was charged to have been committed
were stated singly, and in various combinations.
The fifteenth count unites them all : and, as the
court certifies that the indictment ivas sustained
by the evidence, the giving the facts stated in that
count will show what was the charge against the
prisoner, and what was the proof to sustain it.

The count charged that on the 1st day of Sep-
tember, 1849, the prisoner tied his negro slave.
Sam, with ropes about his wrists, neck, body,
legs and ankles, to a tree. That whilst so tied,
the prisoner first whipped the slave with switches.
That he next beat and cobbed the slave with a
shingle, and compelled two of his slaves, a man
and a woman, also to cob the deceased with the
shingle. That whilst the d-eceased was so tied to
the tree, the prisoner did strike, knock, kick, stamp
and beat him upon various parts of his head, face
and body ; that he applied fire to his body ; * *
* * that he then washed his body with warm
water, in which pods of red pepper had been put
and steeped ; and he compelled his two slaves
aforesaid also to wash him with this same prepara-
tion of warm water and red pepper. That after
the tying, whipping, cobbing, striking, beating,
knocking, kicking, stamping, wounding, bruising,
lacerating, bummg, washing and torturing, aa

all other blessings, I earnestly pray may be perpetuated
to the people of North Carolina.

" I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obliged
and obedient servant, Thomas Rcffis.

" Raleigh, November 10, 1852."

KEY TO \jNCLjS TOM S CABIN.

aforesaid, the prisoner untied the deceased from
the tree in such Tray as to throw him with vio-
lence to the ground ; and he then and there did
knock, kick, stamp and beat the deceased upon
!iis head, temples, and various parts of his body.
That the prisoner then had the deceased carried
into a shed-room of his house, and there he com-
pelled one of his slaves, in his presence, to con-
tine the deceased's feet in stocks, by making his
legs fast to a piece of timber, and to tie a rope
al)out the neck of the deceased, and fasten it to
a bed-post in the room, thereby strangling, chok-
ing and suffocating the deceased. And that whilst
the deceased was thus made fast in stocks as afore-
said, the prisoner did kick, knock, stamp and beat
him upon his head, face, breast, belly, sides, back
and body ; and he again compelled his two slaves
to apply fire to tlie body of the deceased, whilst he
was so made fast as aforesaid. And the count
charged that from these various modes of punish-
ment and torture the slave Sam then and there died.
'^t appeared that the prisoner commenced the pun-
ishment of the deceased in the morning, and that it
was continued throughout the day : and that the
deceased died in the presence of the prisoner, and
one of his slaves, and one of the witnesses, whilst
the punishment w^as still progressing.

Field J. delivered the opinion of the court.

The prisoner was indicted and convicted of mur-
der in the second degree, in the Circuit Court of
Hanover, at its April term last past, and was
sentenced to the penitentiary for five years, the
period of time ascertained by the jury. The mur-
der consisted in the killing of a negro man-slave
by the name of Sam, the property of the prisoner,
by cruel and excessive whipping and torture, in-
fiicted by Souther, aided by two of his other slaves,
CO the 1st day of September, 1849. The prisoner
moved for a new. trial, upon the ground that the
offence, if any, amounted only to manslaughter.
The motion for a new trial was overruled, and a
bill of exceptions taken to the opinion of the court,
setting forth the facts proved, or as many of
them as were deemed material for the considera-
tion of the application for a new trial. The bill
of exception states : That the slave Sam, in the
indictment mentioned, was the slave and property
of the prisoner. That for the purpose of chas-
tising the slave for the offence of getting drunk,
and dealing as the slave confessed and alleged
with Henry and Stone, two of the witnesses for the
Commonwealth, he caused him to be tied and
punished in the presence of the said witnesses,
with the exception of slight whipping with peach
01" apple-tree switches, before the said witnesses
arrived at tfie scene after they were sent f()r by the
prisoner (wlio were present by request from the de-
fondant), and of several slaves of the prisoner, in
tiie manner and by the means charged in the in-
dictment ; and the said slave died under and from
the indiction of the said punisliment, in the pres-
ence of the prisoner, one of his slaves, and of one
of the witnesses for the Commonwealth. But it did
not appear that it was the design of tlic pris-
oner to kill the said slave, unless such design be
properly inferable from the manner, means and
duration, of tiic punishment. And, on the contrary,
it did appear that the prisoner frequently deelaretl,
while the said slave was undergoing the punish-
ment, that he believed the said slave was feigning,
and pretending to be sufl'ering and injured when
he was not. The judge certifies tliat the slave
was punished in the manner and by the means

charged in the indictmcjit. The indictment con-
tains fifteen counts, and sets forth a case of the
most cruel and excessive whipping and torture.*
*_^» # # # # «•

It is believed that the records of criminal juris-
prudence do not contain a case of more atrocious
and wicked cruelty than was presented upon the
trial of Souther ; and yet it has been gravely and
earnestly contended here by his counsel that his
offence amounts to manslaughter only.

It has been contended by the counsel of the
prisoner that a man cannot be indicted and prose-
cuted for the cruel and excessive whipping of his
own slave. That it is lawful for the master to
chastise his slave, and that if death ensues from
such chastisement, unless it was intended to pro-
duce death, it is like the case of homicide vdiich
is committed by a man in the performance of a
lawful act, which is manslaughter only. It has
been decided by this court in Turner's casej 5
Rand, that the owner of a slave, for the malicious,
cruel and excessive beating of his own slave, c.vi-
not be indicted ; yet it by no means follows, when
such malicious, cruel and excessive beating results
in death, though not intended and premedito-x^d,
that the beating is to be regarded as lawful for the
purpose of reducing the crime to manslaughter,
when the whipping is inflicted for the solo purpose
of chastisement. It is the policy of the law, in respect
to the relation of master and slave, and for the sake
of securing proper subordination and obedience on tht
part of the slave, to protect the master from prosecu-
tion in all such cases, even if the luhipping and pun-
ishmcnt be malicious, cruel and excessive. But in so
inflicting punishment for the sake of punishment,
the owner of the slave acts at his peril ; and if
death ensues in consequence of such punishment,
the I'elation of master and slave affords no ground
of excuse or palliation. The principles of tlie
common law, in relation to homicide, apply to his
case without qualification or exception ; and ac-
cording to those principles, the act of the prisoner,
in the case under consideration, amounted to mur-
der. * * * The crime of the prisoner is not
manslaughter, but murder in the first degree.

On the case now presented tlicrc are some
remarks to be made.

This scene of torture, it seems, occupied
about twelve hours. It occurred in tlie
State of Virginia, in the County of Hanover.
Two white men were witnesses to neaily the
whole proceeding, and, so fur us we can see.
made no effort to arouse the neigliborhood,
and bring in help to stop the outrage. What
sort of an education, what habits ot thought,
does this presuppose in these men l

The case was brought to trial. It re-

Judge Field's stutcmont of tlio pun-

* The following
isbment :

The nogro was tied to a tree and wliipped with switches
Wlien Souther became fatigued witli tlio labor of whlp-
ping, ho called upmi a negro man of hi.s, and made him
Ciib Sam with a shinglo. ilo also made a negro woman uf
hi.s help to cob him. And, after cobbing and whipping, \u>
aii{)licd firo to tho body of the slave. * * * - * JIo
tlien caused him to bo waslied down with hot water, in
which pods of red popper had been steeped. The negw
wa.s also tied to a log aud to tho bed-post with n>pes, which
choked him, ai.d ho was kicked and stamped by Souther.
Tliis sort of puiishmont was continued aal ropeatod until
tho negro died under its infliction.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

quires no ordinary nerve to read over the
counts of this indictment. Nobody, one
would suppose, could willingly read them
twice. One would think that it would have
laid a cold hand of horror on every heart ;
— that the community would have risen,
Dy an universal sentiment, to shake out
the man, as Paul shook the viper from his
hand. It seems, however, that they were
quite self-possessed; that lawyers calmly
sat, and examined, and cross-examined, on
particulars known before only in the records
of the Inquisition ; that it was " ably and
earnestly argued" by educated, intelligent,
American men, that this catalogue of hor-
rors did not amount to a murder ! and, in
the cool language of legal precision, that
"the offence, if any, amounted to man-
slaughter;" and that an American jury
found that the offence was murder in the
second degree. Any one who reads the
indictment will certainly think that, if this
be murder in the second degree, in Vir-
ginia, one might earnestly pray to be mur-
dered in the first degree, to begin with.
Had Souther walked up to the man, and
shot him through the head with a pistol,
before white witnesses, i'/iat would have been
murder in the Jirst degree. As he preferred
to spend tioelve hours in killing him by
torture, under the name of " chastisement,''
that, says the verdict, is murder in the
second degree ; " because,' ' says the bill of
exceptions, with admirable coolness, " it did
not appear that it was the design of the
prisojier to kill the slave, unless such de-
sign BE PROPERLY INFERABLE FROM THE
MANNER, MEANS AND DURATION, OF THE
PUNISHMENT.

The bill evidently seems to have a leaning
to the idea that twelve hours spent in beating,
stamping, scalding, burning and mutilating
a human being, might possibly be considered
as presumption of something beyond the
limits of lawful chastisement. So startling
an opimon, however, is expressed cautiously,
and with a becoming diflBdence, and is bal-
anced "by the very striking fact, which is also
quoted in this remarkable paper, that the
prisoner frequently declared, while the slave
was undergoing the punishment, that he be-
lieved the slave was feigning and pretending
to be suffering, when he was not. This
view appears to have struck the court as
eminently probable, — as going a long way
to prove the propi-iety of Souther's inten-
tions, making it at least extremely probable
that only correctioth was intended.

It seems, also, that South sr, so far from

being crushed by the united opinion of the
community, found those to back him who
considered five years in the penitentiarj an
unjust severity for his crime, and hence the
bill of exceptions from which we have quoted,
and the appeal to the Superior Court ; and
hence the form in which the case stands
in law-books, '■ Souther v. the Common-
wealth.'' Souther evidently considers him-
self an ill-used man, and it is in this character
that he appears before the Superior Court.
As yet there has been no particular
overflow of humanity in the treatment of
the case. The manner in which it has been
discussed so far reminds one of nothing so
much as of some discussions which the reader
may have seen quoted from the records of
the Inquisition, with regard to the propriety
of roasting the feet of childi'en who have not
arrived at the age of thirteen years, with a
view to eliciting evidence.

Let us now come to the decision of the
Superior Court, which the editor of the
Courier 4' Enquirer thinks so particularly
enlightened and humane. Judge Field
thinks that the case is a very atrocious one,
and in this respect he seems to differ ma-
terially from judge, jury and lawyers, of
the court below. Furthermore, he doubts
whether the annals of jurisprudence furnish
a case of equal atrocity, wherein certainly
he appears to be not far wrong; and he-
also states unequivocally the principle that
killing a slave by torture under the name
of correction is murder in the first deo^ree ;
and here too, certainly, everybody will
think that he is also right ; the only w^mder
being that any man could ever hav^ been
called to express such an opinion, judicially.
But he states, quite as unequivooally as
Judge Ruffin, that awful principle of slave-
laws, that the law cannot interfei-e with the
master for any amount of torture inflicted
on his slave which does not result in death.
The decision, if it establishes anything, es-
tablishes this principle quito as- strongly as
it does the other. Let us hear the words
of the decision :

It has been decided by this court, in Turner's
case, that Me owner of a slave, for the malicious y
cruel and excessive beating of his own slave, cannot
he indicted. ******
It is the policy of the laic, in respect to the relation-
of master and slave, and for the sake of seairhig-
proper subordination and obedience on the part of the
sieve, to protect the master from prosecution in ail
such cases y even if the whipping and punishment be
malicious, cruel arid excessive.

What follows as a corollary from this
remarkable declaration is this, — that if che

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

victim of this twelve hours' torture had only
possessed a little stronger constitution, and
had not actually died under it, there is no
law in Virginia by which Souther could
even have been indicted for misdemeanor.

If this is not filling out the measure of the
language of St. Clare, that "he who goes
the furthest and does the worst only uses
within limits the power Avhich the law gives
him," how could this lancuage be verified?
Which is " ///e ?ror5/," death outright, or
torture indefinitely prolonged 7 This deci-
sion, in so many words, gives every master
the power of indefinite torture, and takes
from him only the power of terminating the
agony by merciful death. And this is the
judicial decision which the Courier ^' En-
quirer cites as a perfectly convincing speci-
men of legal humanity. It must be hoped
that the editor never read the decision, else
he never Avould have cited it. Of all who
knock at the charnel-house of legal pre-
cedents, with the hope of disinterring any
evidence of humanity in the slave system,
it may be said, in the awful words of the
Jlebrew poet :

" He knoweth not that the dea^ are there,
j4ud that her guests are in tne depths of hell."

The upshot of this case was, that Souther,
instead of getting off from his five years'
imprisonment, got simply a judicial opinion
from tlie Superior Court that he ought to
be hung ; but he could not be tried over
again, ajad, as we may infer from all the
facts in tlie case that he was a man of
toleral^ly r-esolute nerves and not very ex-
((uisite sensibility, it is not likely that the
opinion gave him any very serious uneasi-
ness. He hivs probably made up his mind
to get over his five years with what grace
ne may. Wlien he comes out, there is no
law in Virginia to prevent his buying ixs
many more negroes as he chooses, and going
over, the same scene Avith any one of them
. at a future time, if only he profit by tlie
nformation which has been so explicitly
conveyed to him in this decision, that he
must take care an<l stop his tortures short
of the point of death, — a matter about
which, as the history of the Inquisition
shows, men, by careful practice, can be
able to judge with considerable precision.
Probably, also, the next time, he will not
be so foolish as to send out and request the
attendance of two Avhite witnesses, even
though they may be so complacently inter-
ested in the proceedings as to spend the
whole day in witnessing them without effort
at prevention

Slavery, as defined in American law, is
no more capable of being regulated in its
administration by principles of humanity,
than the torture system of the Inquisition.
Every act of humanity of every individual
owner is an illogical result from the legal
definition ; and the reason why the slave-
code of America is more atrocious than any
ever before exhibited under the sun, is that
the Anglo-Saxon race are a more coldly and
strictly logical race, and have an unflinching
courage to meet the consequences of every
premise which they lay down, and to work
out an accursed principle, with mathemati-
cal accuracy, to its most accursed results.
The decisions in American law-books show
nothing so much as this severe, unflinching
accuracy of logic. It is often and evidently,
not because judges are inhuman or partial,
but because they are logical and truthful,
that they announce from the bench, in the
calmest manner, decisions which one would
think might make the earth shudder, and
the sun turn pale.

The French and the Spanish, nations are,
by constitution, more impulsive, passionate
and poetic, than logical ; hence it will be
found that while there may be more instances
of individual barbarity, as might be expected
among impulsive and passionate people, there
is in their slave-code more exhibition of
humanity. The code of the State of Louis-
iana contains more really humane provisions,
were there any means of enforcing them,
than that of any other state in the Union.

It is believed that there is no code of laws
in the world which contains such a perfect
cabinet crystallization of every tear and
every drop of blood which can be wrung
from humanity, so accurately, elegantly and
scientifically arranged, as the slave-code of
America. It is a case of elegant surgical
instruments for the work of dissecting the
living human heart ; — every instrumenf:
wrought with exactest temper and polish,
and adapted with exquisite care, and labelled
with the name of the nerve oi- artery or mus^
cle which it is designed to sever. The instru-
ments of the anatomist are instruments of
earthly steel and wood, designed to operate
at most on perishable and corruptible mat-
ter; but these are instruments of keener
temper, and more ethereal woi kraanship, de-
signed in the most precise and scientific nurn-
ner to destroy the immortal soXil, and
carefully and gradually to reduce man from
the high position of a free agent, a social,
religious, accountable being, down to the con-
dition of the brute, or of inanimate matter.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER IV.

PROTECTIVE STATUTES.

\pprenuces protected. — Outlawry. — Melodrama of Prue
ia the Swamp. — Harry the Carpenter, a Romance of
Real Life.

But the question now occurs, Are there
not protective statutes, the avowed object of
which is the protection of the hfe and hmb
of the slave 7 "VVe answer, there are ; and
these protective statutes are some of the
most remarkable pieces of legislation extant.

That they were dictated by a spirit of
humanity, charity, which hopeth all things,
would lead us to hope ; but no newspaper
stories of bloody murders and shocking out-
rages convey to the mind so dreadful a
picture of the numbness of public sentiment
caused by slavery as these so-called pro-
tective statutes. The author copies the fol-
lowing from the statutes of North Carolina.
Section 3d of the act passed in 1798 runs
thus :

Whereas by another Act of the Assemblj, passed
in 1774, the killing of a slave, however wanton,
cruel and deliberate, is only punishable in the first
instance by imprisonment and paying the value
thereof to the owner, which distmction of crimi-
nality between the murder of a white person and one
who is equally a human creature, but merely of a
different complexion, is disgraceful to humanity,

AND DEGRADING IX THE HIGHEST DEGREE TO THE LAWS
AND PRINCIPLES OF A FREE, CHRISTIAN AND ENLIGHT-

RNED COUNTRY, Be it enacted, &c.. That if any
person shall hereafter be guilty of wilfully and
maliciously killing a slave, such offender shall,
upon the first conviction thereof, be adjudged
guilty of murder, and shall suffer the same punish-
ment as if he had killed a free man : Provided
always, this act shall not eatend to the person kiMing
a slave outlawed by virtue of any Act of ^\5riEJiBLY
OF THIS state, or to any slave in the act of resistance
to his lawful owner or master, or to any slave dying
under moderate correction.^''

A law with a like proviso, except the
outlawry clause, exists in -Tennessee; See
Caruthers and Nicholson^ s Coinpilatiori,
1836, p. 6T6.

The language of the constitution of Geor-
gia, art. iv., sec. 12, is as follows :

Any person who shall maliciously dismember
or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punish-
ment as would be inflicted in case the like offence
had been committed on a free white person, and
on the like proof, except in case of insurrection
by such slave, ind unless such death should happen
by accident in giving such slave moderate correction.
—Cobb's Dig. 1851, p. 1125.

Let now any Englishman or New Eng-
lander imagine that such laws with regard
to apprentices had ever been pi'oposed in
Parliament or State Legislature under the
head o{ protective acts; — laws which in

so many words permit the killing of the
subject in three cases, and those comprising
all the acts Avhich would generally occur
under the law ; namely, if the slave resist,
if he be outlawed, or if he die under moder-
ate correction.

What rule in the world will ever prove
correction immoderate, if the fact that the
subject dies under it is not held as proof 7
How many such "accidents" would have
to happen in Old England or New England,
before Parliament or Legislature would hear
from such a protective law.

" But," some one may ask, '• what is the
outlaicry spoken of in this act?" The
question is pertinent, and must be answered.
The author has copied the following from
the Revised Statutes of North Carolina,
chap, cxi, sec. 22. It may be remarked in
passing that the preamble to this law presents
rather a new view of slavery to those who
have formed their ideas from certain pictui'Cs
of blissful contentment and Arcadian repose,
which have been much in vogue of late.

Whereas, many times slaves run away and lie
out, hid and lurking in swamps, woods, and ot/ur
obscure places, killing cattle and hogs, and cimi-
mitting other injuries to the inhabitants of this
state ; in all such cases, upon intelligence of any
slave or slaves lying out as aforesaid, any two
justices of the peace for the county wherein such
slave or slaves is or are supposed to lurk or do
mischief, shall, and they are hereby empowered
and i-equired to issue proclamation against such
slare or slaves (reciting his or their names, and
the name or names of the owner or owners, if
known), thereby requiring him or them, and every
of them, forthwith to surrender him or themselves :
and also to empower and require the sheriff of the
said county to take such power Avith him as lie
shall think- fit and necessary for going in search
and pursuit of, and effectually apprehending, such
outlying slave or slaves ; which proclamation
shall be published at the door of the court-house,
and at such other places as said justices sliall
direct. And if any slave or slaves against whom
proclamation hath been thus issued stay out, and
do not immediately return home, it shall be law-
ful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill
and destroy such slave or slaves by such ways and
means as he shall think ft, without accusation or
impeachment of any crime for the same.

What ways and means have been thought
fit, in actual experience, for the destruction
of the slave? What was done with the
negro McLitosh, in the streets of St. Louis,
in open daylight, and endorsed at the next
sitting of the Supreme Court of the state,
as transcending the sphere of law, because
it was " an act of the majority of her mos+
respectable citizens " ? * If these things
are done in the green tree, what will be don«
in the dry 7 If these things have once been

* This m&n was burned alive.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

done in the open streets of St. Louis, by " a
majority of her most respectable citizens,"
wliat will be done in the lonely swamps of
North Carolina, by men of the stamp of
Souther and Legree 7

This passage of the Revised Statutes of
North Carolina is more terribly suggestive
to the imagination than any particulars into
which the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin has
thought fit to enter. Let us suppose a little
melodrama quite possible to have occurred
under this act of the legislature. Suppose
some luckless Prue or Peg, as in the case we
nave just quoted, in State v. Mann, getting
tired of the discipline of whipping, breaks
from the overseer, clears the dogs, and gets
into the swamp, and there " lies out," as
the act above grapliically says. The act
which we are considering says that many
slaves do this, and doubtless they have their
own best reasons for it. We all Vnow what
fascinating places to " lie out '' in these
Southern swamps are. What with alliga-
tors and moccasin snakes, mad and water,
and poisonous vines, one would be apt to
think the situation not particularly eligible ;
but still, Prue " lies out" there. Perhaps in
the night some husband or brother goes to
see her, taking a hog, or some animal of the
plantation stock, which he has ventured his
life in kilhng, that she may not perish with
hunger. Master overseer walks up U) master
proprietor, and reports the accident ; master
proprietor mounts his horse, and assembles
to his aid two justices of the peace.

In the intervals between drinking brandy'
and smoking cigars a proclamation is duly
drawn up, summoning the contumacious Prue
to surrender, and requiring sheriff of said
county to take such power as he shall
think fit to go in search and pursuit of said
slave ; which proclamation, for Prue's fur-
tlier enlightenment, is solemnly published at
the door of the court-house, and "at such
other places as said justices shall direct." *
Let us suppose, now, that Prue, given over
to hardness of heart and blindness of mind,
pays no attention to all these means of grace,
put forth to draw her to the protective
shadow of the patriarchal roof Suppose,
Jurther, as a final effort of long-suffering,
and to leave her utterly without excuse, the

worthy magistrate rides forth in full force, —
man, horse, dog and gun, — to the very verge
of the swamp, and there proclaims aloud the
merciful mandate. Suppose that, hearing
the yelping of the dogs and the proclama^
tion of the sheriff mingled together, and the
shouts of Loker, Marks, Sambo and Quimbo,
and other such posse, black and white, as a
sheriff can generally summon on such a
hunt, this very ignorant and contumacious
Prue only runs deeper into the swamp, and
continues obstinately " lying out," as afore-
said ; — now she is by act of the assembly
outlawed^ and, in the astounding words of
the act, "it shall be lawful for any person or
persons whatsoever to kill and destroy her,
by such ways and means as he shall think
fit, without accusation or impeachment of
any crime for the same." What awful pos-
sibilities rise to the imagination under the
fearfully suggestive clause ' ' by svch ways
and means as he shall think fit ! " Such
ways and means as any man shall think fit,
of any character, of any degree of fiendish
barbarity ! ! Such a permission to kill even
a dog, by "any ways and means which any-
body should think fit," never ought to stand
on the law-books of a Christian nation ; and
yet this stands against one bearing that
same humanity which Jesus Christ bore, —
against one, perhaps, who, though blinded,
darkened and ignorant, he will not l^e
ashamed to own, when he shall come in the
glory of his Father, and all his holy angels
with him !

That this law has not been a dead letter
there is sufficient proof. In 183G the
folloTfing proclamation and advertisement
appeared in the "Newbern (N. C) Speuta-
tor:"

State of North Carolina, Lexoir County. —
Whereas complaint hath been this day made to us,
two of the justices of the peace for the said county,
by William D. Cobb, of Jones County, that two
negro-slaves belonging to him, named Ben (onm
monly known by the name of Ben Fox) and Eig
don, have absented themselves from their said
master's service, and are lurking about in tlie
Counties of Lenoir and Jones, committing acts of
felony ; these are, in the name of the stati', to
command the said slaves forthwith to surrender
themselves, and turn home to their said niastfr.
And we do hereby also require the sheriff of said
County of Lenoir to make diligent search and pur-
suit after the above-mentioned slaves. . . And
we do hereby, by virtue of an act of assembly of
this state concerning servants and slaves, inti-
mate and declare, if the said slaves do not surren-
der themselves and return home to their nuistor
immediately after the publication of these presents,
that any person may kill or destroy said slaves*

♦The old statute of 1741 had some features still more
edifying. That provides that said " proclamation shall
be published on a Sabbath day, at the door of every church
or chapel, or, for want of such, at the place where divine
service shall be performed in the said county, by the
parish clerk or reader, immfdiattly after divine service."
Potter's Revisal, i. 1<)6. What a peculiar appropriateness

there must have been in this proclamation, particularly ^ - ^• xl xi • f i;.. . -41 ^

^r a sermon on the love of Christ, or an exposition of by Buch means as he or they think ht, >Yith..ut
t^ text " thou Shalt lore thy neighbor as thyself ! " I accusation or impeachment ot any crmie or ullonoe

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

for 80 doing, or without incurring any penalty or
forfeiture thereby.

Given under our hands and seals, this 12th of

November, 1836. B. Coleman, J. P. [Seal.]

Jas. Jones, J. P. [Seal.]

^200 Reward. — Ran away from the subscrib-
er, about three years ago, a certain negro-man,
named Ben, commonly kiiown by the name of Ben
Fox ; also one other negro, by the name of Rigdon,
who ran away on the 8th of this month.

I will give the reward of $100 for each of the
above negroes, to be delivered to me, or confined
in the jail of Lenoir or Jones County, or for the
killing of them, so that 1 can see them.

Nov. 12, 1836 W. D. Cobb.

That this act was not a dead letter, also,
was plainly implied in the protective act
first quoted. If slaves were not, as a matter
of fiict, ever outlawed, Avhy does the act for-
mally recognize such a class 7 — " provided
that this act shall not extend to the killing
of any slave outlawed by any act of the
assembly." This language sufficiently in-
dicates the existence of the custom.

Further than this, the statute-book of 1821
contained two acts : the first of which pro-
vides that all masters in certain counties,
who have had slaves killed in consequence
of outlawry, shall have a claim on the
treasury of the state for their value, unless
cruel treatment of the slave be proved on
the part of the master : the second act ex-
tends the benefits of the latter provision to
all the counties in the state.*

Finally, there is evidence that this act
of outlawry was executed so recently as the
year 1850, — the year in which "Uncle
Tom' s Cabin ' ' was written. See the follow-
ing from the Wilmington Journal of De-
cember 13, 1850 :

State of North Carolina, New Hanover Coun-
ty.— Whereas complaint upon oath hath this day
been made to us, two of the justices of the peace
for the said state and county aforesaid, by Guil-
ford Horn, of Edgecombe County, that a certain
male slave belonging to him, named Harry, a car-
penter by trade, about forty years old, five feet five
inches high, or thereabouts ; yellow complexion ;
stout built ; with a scar on his left leg (from the
cut of an axe) ; has very thick lips ; eyes deep
sunk in his head ; forehead very square ; tolerably

* Be it further enncted. That when any slave shall be
legally outlawed in any of the counties within mentioned,
. the owner of which shall reside in one of
8^ ch.*467 Vr *^^ ^^'"^ counties, and the said slave shall be
' ' killed in consequence of such outlawry, the
value of such slave sliall be ascertained by a jury which
shall be empanelled at the succeeding court of the county
where the said slave ws-a killed, and a certificate of such
valuation shall be given by the clerk ol the court to the
owner of said slave, who shall be entitled to receive two-
thirds of such valuation from the sheriff of the county
wherein the slave was killed. [Extended to other coun-
ties in 1797. — Potter, ch. 480, § 1.] now obsolete.

loud voice ; has lost one or two of his upjtcr teeth ;
and has a very dark spot on his jaw, supposed to
be a mark, — hath absented himself from his mas-
ter's service, and is supposed to be lurking about
in this county, committing acts of felony or other
misdeeds ; these are, therefore, in the name of the
state aforesaid, to command the said slave forth-
Avith to surrender himself and return home to
his said master ; and we do hereby, by virtue of
the act of assembly in such cases made and pro-
vided, intimate and declare that if the said slave
Harry doth not surrender himself and return home
immediately after the publication of these presents,
that any person or persons may kill and destroy
the said slave by such means as he or they may
think fit, without accusation or impeachment of
any crime or offence for so doing, and without in-
curring any penalty or forfeiture thereby.

Given under our hands and seals, this 29th day
of June, 1850.

James T. Miller, J. P. [Seal.]
W. C. Bettencourt, J. P. [Seal.]

One Hiindred and Twenty-five Dollars Re-
ward will be paid for the delivery of the said
Harry to me at Tosnott Depot, Edgecombe County,
or for his confinement in any jail in the state,
so that I can get him ; or One Hundred and Fifti,
Dollars will be given for his head.

He was lately heard from in Newbern, where he
called himself Henry Barnes (or Burns), and will
be likely to continue the same name, or assume
that of Copage or Farmer. He has a free mulatto
woman for a wife, by the name of Sally Bozeman,
who has lately removed to Wilmington, and lives
in that part of the town called Texas, where he
will likely be lurking.

Masters of vessels are particularly cautioned
against harboring or concealing the said negro on
board their vessels, as the full penalty of the law
will be rigorously enforced.
• June 2'i)th, 1850. Guilford Horn.

There is an inkling of history and ro-
mance about the description of this same
Harry, who is thus publicly set up to be
killed in any way that any of the negio-
hunters of the swamps may think the most
piquant and enlivening. It seems he is a
carpenter, — a powerfully made man, whose
thcAvs and sinews might be a profitable
acquisition to himself. It appears also tliat
he has a wife, and the advertiser intimates
that possibly he may be caught prowling
about somewhere in her vicinity. This
indicates sagacity in the writer, certainly.
jMarried men generally have a way of liking
the society of their wives ; and it strikes us,
from what Ave know of the nature of car-
penters here in New England, that Harry
was not peculiar in this respect. Let us
further notice the portrait of Harry : '^ Eyes
deep sunk in his head ; — forehead very
square.^' This picture reminds us of what
a persecuting old ecclesiastic once said, in
the days of the Port-Royalists, of a certain
truculent abbess, who stood obstinately to a

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

certain course, in the face of the whole
power, temporal and spiritual, of the Rom-
ish church, in spite of fining, imprisoning,
starving, whipping, beating, and other
enlightening argumentative processes, not
wholly peculiar, it seems, to that age.
'' You will never subdue that woman," said
the ecclesiastic, who was a phrenologist be-
fore his age; "she's got o, square Itead,
and I have always noticed that people with
square heads never can be turned out of
tlieir course." We think it very probable
that Harry, with his "sc^uare head," is just
one of this sort. He is probably one of those
articles which would be extremely valuable,
if the owner could only get the use of him.
His head is well enough, but he will use it
for himself It is of no use to any one but
the wearer ; and the master seems to sym-
bolize this state of things, by offering twenty-
five dollars more for the head without the
body, than he is Avilling to give for head,
man and all. Poor Harry ! We wonder
whether they have caught liim yet ; or
whether the impenetrable thickets, the poi-
sonous miasma, the deadly snakes, and the
unwieldy alligators of the swamps, more
humane than the slave-hunter, have inter-
posed their uncouth and loathsome forms to
guard the only fastness in Carolina where a
slave can live in freedom.

It is not, then, in mere poetic fiction that
the humane and graceful pen of Longfellow
has drawn the following picture :

" In the dark fens of the Dismal Swamp

The hunted negro lay;
He saw the fire of the midnight camp,
And heard at times the horse's tramp,

And a bloodhound's distant bay.

" Where will-o'the-wisps and glow-worms shine,

In bulrush and in brake;
Where waving mosses shroud the pine,
And the cedar grows, and the poisonous viae

Is spotted like the snake ;

" Where hardly a human foot could pass.

Or a human heart wouM dare, —
On the quaking turf of the green morass
H^ crouohed in the rank and tangled grass.

Like a wild beast in his lair.

" A poor old slave ! infirm and lame.

Great scars deformed his face;
On his forehead he boro tlie brand of shamo.
And the rags that hid his mangled frame

Were the livery of disgrace.

•* All things above were bright and fair,

All things were glad and free;
lathe squirrels darted here and there.
And wild birds filled the echoing air

With songs of liberty !

" On him alone was the doom of pain,

From the morning of his birth ;
On him alone the curse of Cain *
Fell like the flail on the garnered grain,

And struck him to the earth."

• Oen. 4 : 14. — " And it shall come to pass that every one that
Rudelh me eliull slay me."

The civilized world may and will ask, in
what state this law has been drawn, and
passed, and revised, and allowed to appear
at the present day on the revised statute-
book, and to be executed in the year of our
Lord 1850, as the above-cited extracts from
its most respectable journals show. Is it
some heathen, Kurdish tribe, some nest of
pirates, some horde of barbarians, where
destructive gods are worshipped, and liba-
tions to their honor poured from human
skulls 7 The civilized Avorld will not be-
lieve it, — but it is actually a fact, that tliis
law has been made, and is still kept in force,
by men in every other respect than what
relates to their slave-code as high-minded,
as enlightened, as humane, as any men in
Christendom ; — by citizens of a state which
glories in the blood and hereditary Christian
institutions of Scotland. Curiosity to know
what sort of men the legislators of North
Carolina might be, led the writer to exanune
with some attention the proceedings and de-
bates of the convention of that state, called
to amend its constitution, which assembled
at Raleigh, June 4th, 1835. It is but jus-
tice to say that in these proceedings, in
which all the different and perhaps conflict-
ing interests of the various parts of the
state Avere discvissed, there was an exhibition
of candor, fairness and moderation, of gen-
tlemanly honor and courtesy in the treat-
ment of opposing claims, and of an over-
ruling sense of the obligations of law and
religion, which certainly have not always
been equally conspicuous in the proceedings
of deliberative bodies in such cases. It
simply goes to show that one can judge
nothing of the religion or of the humanity
of individuals from what seems to ns objec-
tionable practice, where they have been
educated under a system entirely incompati-
ble with both. Such is the very equivocal
character of what we call virtue.

It could not be for a moment supposed
that such men as Judge Ruffin, or many
of the gentlemen who figure in the debates
alluded to, would ever think of availing
themselves of the savage permissions of such
a law. But what then? It follows that
the law is a direct permission, letting loose
upon the defenceless slave that class of men
who exist in every community, who have
no conscience, no honor, no shame, — ,who
arc too far below public opinion to be re-
strained by that, and from whom accordingly
this provision of the law takes aAvay the
only available restraint of their fiendish na-
tures. Such men arc not peculiiu- to the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

South. It is unhappily too notorious that
they exist everywhere, — in England, in
New England, and the world over ; but
they can only arrive at full maturity in
wickedness under a system where the law
clothes them with absolute and irresponsible
power.

CHAPTER V.

PROTECTIVE ACTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND
LOUISIANA. — THE IRON COLLAR OF LOU-
ISIANA AND NORTH CAROLINA.

Thus far by way of considering the pro-
tective acts of North Carolina, Georgia and
Tennessee.

Certain miscellaneous protective acts of
various other states Avill now be cited,
merely as specimens of the spirit of legisla-
tion.

In South Carolina, the act of 1740 pun-
ished the wilful, deliberate murder of a
o. J. o« slave by disfranchisement, and by

Stroud, p. 39. '' , ' Y

2 Brevard's a fine 01 sevcu hundred pounds
Digest,p.2«. gm-j.gj^^ money, or, in default of

payment, imprisonment for seven years.
But the wilful murder of a slave, in the sense
contemplated in this law, is a crime which
would not often occur. The kind of murder
which was most frequent among masters or
overseers was guarded against by another
section of the same act, — how adequately
the reader will judge for himself, from the
following quotation

If any person shall, on a sudden heat or pas-
sion, or by undue correction, kill his
Stroud's Sketch, ^^^,^ slave, or the slave of any other
vard's Digest, person, he shall forfeit the sum of

241. James' three hundred and fifty pou?ids cuirent
Digest, 392. JJ^f

money.

In 1821 the act punishing the wilful
murder of the slave only with fine or im-
prisonment was mainly repealed, and it was
enacted that such crime should be punished
by death ; but the latter section, which re-
lates to killing the slave in sudden heat or
passion, or by undue correction, has been
altered only by diminishing the pecuniary
penalty to a fine of five hundred dollars,
authorizing also imprisonment for six months.

The next protective statute to be noticed
is the following from the act of 1740, South
Carolina.

In case any person shall wilfully cut out the

tongue, put out the eye, * * * or cruelly scalil,

Stroud, p. 40. hui'n, or deprive any slave of any limb,

2 Brevard's or member, or shall inflict any other

Digest. 241. pj-uel punishment, oth^r than by wliip-

ping or beating with a horse-whip, cowskiuj switch

or small stick, or by putting irons on, or confining
or imprisoning such slave, every such person shall,
for every sucli offence, forfeit the sum of one hun-
dred pounds, current money.

The language of this law, like many other
of these protective enactments, is exceedingly
suggestive ; the first suggestion that occui-s
is. What sort of an institution, and what
sort of a state of society is it, that called
out a law worded like this 7 Laws are
generally not made against practices that
do not exist, and exist Avith some degree of
frequency.

The advocates of slavery are very fond
of comparing it to the apprentice system of
England and America. Let us suppose
that in the British Parliament, or in a New
England Legislature, the following law is
proposed, under the title of An Act for the
Protection of Apprentices, &c. &c.

In case any person shall wilfully cut out the
tongue, put out the eye, or cruelly scald, burn, or
dejirive any apprentice of any limb or member, or
shall inflict any other cruel punishment, otlier
than by whipping or beating with a horse-whip,
cowskin, switch or small stick, or by putting irons
on or confining or imprisoning such apprentice,
every such person shall, for every such ofience,
forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current
money.

What a sensation such a proposed law
would make in England may be best left
for Englishmen to say ; but in New Eng-
land it would simply constitute the proposer
a candidate for Bedlam. Yet that such a
statute is necessary in South Carolina is
evident enough, if we reflect that, because
there is no such statute in Virginia, it has
been decided that a wretch who perpeti-ates
all these enormities on a slave camiot even
be indicted for it, unless the slave dies.

But let us look further : — What is to be
the penalty ,Avhen any of these fiendish
things are done 7

Why, the man forfeits a hundred pounds,
current money. Surely he ought to pay as
much as that for doing so very unnecessary
an act, when the Legislature bountifully
allows him to inflict any torture which re-
vengeful ingenuity could devise, by means
of horse-whip, cowskin, sw"itch or small stick,
or putting ii-ons on, or confining and im-
prisoning. One would surely think that
here was sufiicient scope and variety of
legalized means of torture to satisfy any
ordinary appetite for vengeance. It would
appear decidedly that any more piquant
varieties of agony ought to be an extra
charge. The advocates of slavery are fond
of comparing the situation of the slave with

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

that of the English laborer. We are not
aware that the English laborer has been so
unfortunate as to be protected by any enact-
ment like this, since the days of villeinage.
Judge Stroud says, that the same law,
substantially, has been adopted in Louisiana.
„, „ „, , . It is true that the civil code of

Stroud's Sketch, . . .

p. 41. 1 Mar. Louisiaua thus expresses its hu-

Digest, 054. .... ■•■

mane intentions.

The slave is entirely subject to the will of his
master, who may correct and chastise him, though
not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or
mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of
loss of life, or to cause his death. — Civil Code of
Louisiana, Article 173.

The expression "unusual rigor" is sug-
gestive, again. It will afford large latitude
for a jury, in states where slaves are in the
habit of dying under moderate correction ;
where outlawed slaves may be killed by any
means which any person thinks fit ; and
where laws have to be specifically made
against scalding, burning, cutting out the
tongue, putting out the eye, &c. What
will be thought unusual rigor 7 This is a
question, certainly, upon which persons in
states not so constituted can have no means
of forming an opinion.

In one of the noAYspaper extracts with
which we prefaced our account, the following
protective act of Louisiana is alluded to, as
being particularly satisfactory and efiicient.
We give it, as quoted by Judge Stroud in
his Sketch, page 58, giving his reference.

No master shall be compelled to sell his slave,
but in one of two cases, to wit: the first, when,
being only co-proprietor of the slave, his co-pro-
prietor demands the sale, in order to make parti-
tion of the property ; second, when the master
shall be coxvicted of cruel treatment of his slave,

AND THE JL^DGE SHALL DEEM IT PROPER TO PRONOUNCE,

besides the penalty established for such cases, that
the slave sliall be sold at public auction, in order
to place him out of the reach of the power which
his master has abused. — Civil Code, Art. 192.

The question for a jury to determine in
tliis case is. What is cruel treatment of a
slave ] Now, if all these barbarities which
have been sanctioned by the legislative acts
which we have quoted arc not held to be
cruel treatment, the question is, What is
cruel treatment of a slave 7

Everything that fiendish barbarity could
desire can be effected under the protection
of the law of South Carohna, which, as we
have just shown, exists also in Louisiana.
It is true the law restrains from some par-
ticular forms of cruelty. If any person J*as
a mind to scald or burn his slave, — and it
seems, by the statute, that there have been
Buch people, — thcoc statutes merely pro-

vide that he shall do it in decent privacy •
for, as the very keystone of Southern juris-
prudence is the rejection of colored testi-
mony, such an outrage, if perpetrated most
dehberately in the presence of hundreds of
slaves, could not be proved upon the master.
It is to be supposed that the fiendish
people whom such statutes have in view will
generally have enough of common sense not
to perform it in the presence of white wit-
nesses, since this simple act of prudence
will render them entirely safe in doing what-
ever they have a mind to. We are told, it
is true, as we have been reminded by our
friend in the newspaper before quoted, that
in Louisiana the deficiency caused by the
rejection of negro testimony is supplied by
the following most remarkable provision of
the Code Noir :

If any slave be mutilated, beaten, or ill treated,
contrary to the true intent and meaning of this
section, when no one shall be present, in such
case the owner, or other person having the charge
or management of said slave thus mutilated, shall
be deemed responsible and guilty of the said
offence, and shall be prosecuted without further ■
evidence, unless the said owner, or other person
so as aforesaid, can prove the contrary by means
of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear him-
self by his own oath, which said oath every court
under the cognizance of which such offence shall
have been examined and tried is by this act
authorized to administer. — Code Noir. Crimes and
Offences, 56. xvii. Rev. Stat. 1852, p. 550, ^ 141.

Would one have supposed that sensible
people could ever publish as a law such a
specimen of utter legislative nonsense — so
ridiculous on the very face of it !

The object is to bring to justice those
fiendish people who burn, scald, mutilate,
&c. How is this done ? Why, it is enacted
that the fxct of finding the slave in this con-
dition shall be held presumption against the
owner or overseer, unless — unless what?
Why, unless he will prove to the contrary,
— or swear to the contrary, it is no matter
which — either will answer the purjx)se.
The question is. If a man is bad enough
to do these things, will he not be bad
enough to swear falsely ? As if men who
are the incarnation of cruelty, as supposed
by the deeds in question, would not have
suflicient intrepidity of conscience to com-
pass a false oath !

What was this law ever made for 7 Can
any one imagine 7

Upon this whole subject, we may quote
the language of Judge Stroud, who thus
sums up the Avhole amount of the protective
laws for the slave, in the United States of
America :

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

' Upon a fair review of what has been written on
the subject of this proposition, the result is found
to be — that the master's power to inflict corporal
punishment to any extent, short of life and limb,
18 fully sanctioned by law, in all the slave-hoMing
states ; that the master, in at least two states, is
expressly protected in using the horse-whip and
cowskin as instruments fur beating his slave ;
tJiat he may with entire impunity, in the same
states, load his slave with irons, or subject him
to perpetual imprisonment, whenever he may so
choose ; that, fur cruelly scalding, wilfully cut-
ting out the tongue, putting out an eye, and for
any other .dismemberment, if proved, a fine of one
hundred pounds currency only is incurred in South
Carolina ; that, though in all the states the wil-
ful, deliberate and malicious murder of the slave
is now directed to be punished with death, yet, as
in the case of a white offender none except wliites
can give evidence, a conviction can seldom, if
ever, take place. — Stroud's Sketch, p. 43.

One very singular antithesis of two laws
of Louisiana will still further show that
deadness of public sentiment on cruelty to
the slave which is an inseparable attendant
on the system. It will be recollected that
the remarkable protective law of South
Carolina, with respect to scalding, burning,
cutting out the tongue, and putting out the
eye of the slave, has been substantially en-
acted in Louisiana ; and that the penalty for
a man's doing these things there, if he has
not sense enough to do it privately, is not
more than five hundred dollars.

Now. compare this other statute of Louisi-
ana, (Rev. Stat., 1852, p. 552, <§. 151) :

If any person or persons, &e., shall cut or break
any iron cliain or collar, which any master of
slaves should have used, in order tc^
' ^' ' prevent the running away or escape oi
any such slave or slaves, such person or persons so
ofiending shall, on conviction, &c., be fined not
less than two hundred dollars, nor exceeding one
thousand dollars ; and suffer imprisonment for a i
term not exceeding two years, nor less than six
months. — Act of Assembly of March 6, 1819.
Pamphlet, page 64.

Some Englishmen may naturally ask,
" What is this iron collar which the Legis-
lature have thought worthy of being pro-
tected by a special act? " On this subject
will be presented the testimony of an unim-
peachable witness. Miss Sarah M. Grimke,
a personal friend of the author. " Miss
Grimke is a daughter of the late Judge
Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South
Carolina, and sister of the late Hon. Thomas
S. Grimke." She is now a member of the
Society of Friends, and resides in Bellville,
New Jersey. The statement given is of a
kind that its author did not mean to give,
nor wish to give, and never would have
given, had it not been made necessary to
illustrate this passage in the slave-law.
''.^he account occurs in a statement which

Miss Grimke furnished to her brother-in-
law, Mr. Weld, and has been before the
public ever since 1839, in his work entitled
Slavery as It Is, p. 22.

A handsome mulatto woman, about eighteen or
twenty years of age, whose independent spirit
could not brook the degradation of slavery, was in
the habit of running away : for this offence she had
been repeatedly sent by her master and mistress to
be whipped by the keeper of the Charleston work-
house. This had been done with such inhuman
severity as to lacerate her back in a most shocking
manner ; a finger could not be laid between the
cuts. But the love of liberty was too strong to
be annihilated by torture ; and, as a last resort,
she was whipped at several different times, and
kept a close prisoner. A heavy iron collar, Avith
three long prongs projecting from it, was placed
round her neck, and a strong and sound front tooth
was extracted, to serve as a mark to describe her,
in case of escape. Her sufferings at this time
were agonizing ; she could lie in no position but
on her back, which was sore from scourgings, as
I can testify from personal inspection ; and her
only place of rest was the floor, on a blanket.
These outrages were committed in a family where
the mistress daily read the Scriptures, and as-
sembled her children for family Avorship. She
was accounted, and was really, so far as alms-
giving was concerned, a charitable woman, and
tendei'-hearted> to the poor ; and yet this suffering
slave, who was the seamstress of the family, was
continually in her presence, sitting in her chamber
to sew, or engaged in her other household work,
with her lacerated and bleeding back, her muti-
lated mouth, and heavy iron collar, without, so
far as appeared, exciting any feelings of compas-
sion.

This iron collar the author has often
heard of from sources equally authentic*
That one will meet with it every day in
walking the streets, is not probable ; but
that it must have been used with some great
degree of frequency, is evident from the
fact of a law being thought necessary to
protect it. But look at the penalty of the
two protective laws ! The fiendish cruel-
ties described in the act of South Carolina
cost the perpetrator not more than five
hundred dollars, if he does them before
white people. The act of humanity costs
from two hundred to one thousand dollars,
and imprisonment from six months to two
years, according to discretion of court !
What public sentiment was it which made
these laws 7

♦The iron collar was also in vogue in North Carolina, as
the following extract from the statute-book will show.
The wearers of this article of apparel certainly have some
reason to complain of the " tyranny of fashion."

" ^Vhen the keeper of the said public jail shall, by di-
rection of such court as aforesaid, let out any negro or
runaway to hire, to any person or persons whomsoever, the
said keeper shall, at the time of his delivery, cause aa
iron collar to be put on the neck of such negro or runaway,
with the letters P. Gr. stamped thereon ; and thereafter
the said keeper shall not be answerable for any escape of
the said negro or runaway." — Potter's Revival, i. 1G2.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER VI.

PROTECTIVE ACTS WITH REGARD TO FOOD
AND RAIMENT, LABOR, ETC.

Illustrative Drama? of Tom v. Legree, under the Law of
South Carolina. — Separation of Parent and Child.

Having finished the consideration of the
laws which protect the life and limb of the
slave, the reader may feel a curiosity to
know something of the provisions by which
he is protected in regard to food and clothing,
and trom the exactions of excessive labor.
It is true, there are multitudes of men in the
Northern States who would say, at once, that
such enactments, on the very face of them,
must be superfluous and absurd. "What ! "
they say, ' ' are not the slaves property 7
and is it likely that any man will impair
the market value of his own property by not
giving them sufficient food or clothing, or
by overworking them?" This process of
reasoning appears to have been less con-
vincing to the legislators of Southern States
than to gentlemen generally at , the North ;
since, as Judge Taylor says, "the act of
Wheeler, p. 1^86 (IredolFs Rovisal, p. 588)
220. State t). docs, in the preamble, recognize

Sue, Cameron ^i p , , i / i

& Norwood's the tact, that inanij persons, by
c. Rep. 54. (.J.^gl treatment of their slaves,
cause them to commit crimes for which
they are executed ; " and the judge further
explains this language, by saying, " The
cruel treatment here alluded to must consist
in withholding from them the necessaries of
life ; and the crimes thus resulting are such
as are necessary to furnish them with food
and raiment."

The State of South Carolina, in the act
of 1740 (see Stroud"s Sketch, p. 28), had
a section with the following language in its
preamble :

Wnereas many owners of slaves, and others who
have the care, management, and overseeing of
slaves, do confine them so closclij to hard

laJ)or that they have not sufficient time

Stroud, p. 29.

for natural rest ; —

And the law goes on to enact that the
slave shall not work more than fifteen hours
a day in summer, and fourteen in winter.
Judge Stroud makes it appear that in
three of the slave states the time allotted for
work to convicts in prison, whose punish-
ment is to consist in hard labor, cannot ex-
ceed tea hours, even in the sunnncr months.

This was the protective act of South
Carolina, designed to reform the abusive
practices of masters who confined their
slaves so closely that they had not time for

natural rest ! What sor: of habits of thought
do these humane provisions show, in the
makers of them? In order to pr:tect the
slave from what they consider undue exac-
tion, they humanely provide that he shall
be obliged to work only four or five hours
longer than the convicts in the prison of the
neighboring state ! In the Island of Jamaica,
besides many holidays which were accorded
by law to the slave, ten hours a day was the
extent to which he was compelled by law
ordinarily to work. — See Strovd, p. 29.

With regard to protective acts concerning
food and clothing. Judge Stroud gives the
following example from the legislation of
South Carolina. The author gives it as
quoted by Stroud, p. 32.

In case any person, &c., who shall be the
owner, or who shall have the care, government or
charge, of any slave or slaves, shall deny, neglect
or refuse to allow, such slave or slaves, &c.,
sufficient clothing, covering or food, it shall and
may be lawful for any person or persons, on behalf
of such slave or slaves, to make complaint to the
next neighboring justice in the parish where such
slave or slaves live, or are usually employed, * * *
and the said justice shall summons the party
against whom such complaint shall be made, and
shall inquire of, hear and determine, the same ;
and, if the said justice shall find the said complaint
to be true, or that such person will not exculpate
or clear himself from the charge, by his or her own
oath, which such person shall be at liberty to do in
all cases where positive proof is not given of the
offence, such justice shall and may n\ake such
orders upon the same, for the relief of such slave
or slaves, as he in his discretion shall think fit ;
and shall and may set and impose a fine or
penalty on any person who shall offend in the
premises, in any sum not exceeding twenty
pounds current money, for each offence. — 2 Bi-ey-
ard's, Dig. 241. Also Cobb's Dig. 827.

A similar law obtains in Louisiana. —
Rev. StaL 1852, p. 557, <^ 166.

Now, would not anybody think, from the
virtuous solemnity and gravity of this act,
that it was intended in some way to amount
to something '] Let us give a little sketch,
to show how much it does amount to. Ange-
lina Grimke Weld, sister to Sarah Grimke,
before quoted, gives the following account
of the situation of slaves on plantations : *

And here let me say, that the treatment of
plantation slaves cannot "be fully known, except by
the poor suilerers themselves, and tlieir drivers
and overseers. In a multitude of instances, even
the master can know very little of tlie actual con-
dition of his own field-slaves, and liis wife and
dauglitera far leas. A few fiicts concerning my
own family will sliow this. Our permanent i-osi-
denco was' in Charleston ; our country-seat (Bclle-
mont) was two hundred miles distant, in the

* Slavery as It Is ; Testimony of a Thousaiu) A^'itnessos.
New York, 183'J. pp. 52, 53.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

north western part of the state, where, for some
years, our family spent a few months annually.
Our plantation was three miles from this family
mansion. There all the field-slaves lived and
worked. Occiisionally, — once a month, perhaps,
— some of the family would ride over to the planta-
tion ; but I never visited the fields where the slaves
were at work, and knew almost nothing of their
condition ; but this I do know, that the overseers
who had charge of them were generally unprin-
cipled and intemperate men. But I rejoice to
know that the general treatment of slaves in that
region of country was far milder than on the
plantations in the lower country.

Throughout all the eastern and middle portions
of the state, the planters very rarely reside per-
manently on their plantations. They have almost
invariably tioo residences, and spend less than
half the year on their estates. Even while spend-
ing a few months on them, politics, field-sports,
races, speculations, journeys, visits, company,
literary pursuits, &c., absorb so much of their
time, that they must, to a considerable extent,
take the condition of their slaves on trust, from
the reports of their overseers. I make this state-
ment, because these slaveholders (the wealthier
class) are, I believe, almost the only ones who
visit the North with their families ; and Northern
opinions of slavery are based chiefly on their tes-
timony.

With regard to overseers, Miss Grimke's
testimony is further borne out by the uni-
versal acknowledgment of Southern owners.
A description of this class of beings is fur-
nished by Mr. Wirt, in his Life of Patrick
Henry, page 34. "Last and lowest," he
says, [of different classes in society] " a
fecnhim of beings called overseers, — a most
abject, degraded, unprincipled race." Now,
suppose, while the master is in Charleston,
enjoying literary leisure, the slaves on some
Bellemont or other plantation, getting tired
of being hungry and cold, form themselves
into a committee of the whole, to see what
is to be done. A broad-shouldered, courage-
ous fellow, whom we will call Tom, declares
it is too bad, and he won't stand it any
longer ; and, having by some means become
acquainted with this benevolent protective
act, resolves to make an appeal to the horns
of this legislative altar. Tom talks stoutly,
having just been bought on to the place,
and been used to better quarters elsewhere.
The women and children perhaps admire,
but the venerable elders of the plantation, —
Sambo, Cudge, Pomp and old Aunt Dinah,
— tell him he better mind himself, and keep
clar o' dat ar. Tom, being young and pro-
gressive, does not regard these conservative
maxims ; he is determined that, if there is
such a thing as justice to be got, he will have
it. After considerable research, he finds
some white man in the neighborhood verdant
enough to enter the complaint for him.

Master Legree finds himself, one sunshiny,
pleasant morning, walked off to some Justice
Dogberry's, to answer to the charge of not
giving his niggers enough to eat and wear.
We will call the infatuated white man who
has undertaken this fool's errand Master
Shallow. Let us imagine a scene : — Le-
gree, standing carelessly with his hands in
his pockets, rolling a quid of tobacco in his
mouth ; Justice Dogbeny, seated in all the
majesty of law. reinforced by a decanter of
whiskey and some tumblers, intended to
assist in illuminating the intellect in such
obscure cases.

Justice Dogberry. Come, gentlemen,
take a little somethino;, to begin with. Mr.
Legree, sit down ; sit doAvn, Mr. — a'
what 's-your-name ? — Mr. Shallow.

Mr. Legree and Mr. Shallow each sit
down, and take their tumbler of whiskey and
water. After some httle conversation, the
justice introduces the business as follows :

' ' Now, about this nigger business. Gentle-
men, you know the act of um — um, —

where the deuce is that act? [Fumbling an
old law-book.] How plagued did you ever
hear of that act. Shallow ? I 'm sure I 'm
forgot all about it ; — 0 ! here 't is. Well,
Mr. Shallow, the act says you must make
proof, you observe.

Mr. Shallow. [Stuttering and hesitat-
ing.] Good land ! why, don't everybody
see that them ar niggers are most starved ?
Only see how ragged they are !

Justice. I can't say as I 've observed it
particular. Seem to be very well con-
tented.

Shallow. [Eagerly.] But just ask
Pomp, or Sambo, or Dinah, or Tom !

Justice Dogberry. [With dignity.] I' m
astonished at you, Mr. Shallow ! You
think of producing negro testimony? I
hope I know the law better than that ! We
must have direct proof, you know.

Shallow is posed; Legree significantly
takes another tumbler of whiskey and water,
and Justice Dogberry gives a long ahe-a-
um. After a few moments the justiije
speaks :

"Well, after all, I suppose, Mr. Legree,
you wouldn't have any objections to swarin'
off; that settles it all, you know."

As swearing is what Mr. Legree is rather
more accustomed to do than anything else
that could be named, a more appropriate
termination of the affair could not be sug-
gested ; and he swears, accordingly, to any
extent, and with any fulness and variety
of oath that could be desired ; and thus the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

little affair terminates. But it does not
terminate thus for Tom or Sambo, Dinah,
or any others who have been alluded to for
authority. What will happen to them, when
Mr. Legree comes home, had better be left
to conjecture.

It is claimed, by the author of certain
paragraphs quoted at the commencement of
Part II. that there exist in Louisiana
ample protective acts to prevent the separa-
tion of young cliildren from their mothers.
This writer appears to be in the enjoyment
of an amiable ignorance and unsophisticated
innocence with regard to the workings of
human society generally, which is, on the
whole, rather refreshing. For, on a certain
incident in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which
represented Cassy's little daughter as hav-
ing been sold from her, he makes the fol-
lowing naif remark :

Now, the reader will perhaps be surprised to
know that such an incident as the sale of Cassy
apart from Eliza, upon which the whole interest
of the foregoing narrative hinges, never could have
taken place in Louisiana, and that the bill of sale
for Eliza would not have been worth the paper it
was written on. — Observe. George Shelby states
that Eliza was eight or nine years old at the time
his father purchased her in New Orleans. Let
us again look at the statute-book of Louisiana.

In the Code Noir we find it set down that

" Every person is expressly prohibited from
selling separately from their mothers the children
who shall not liave attained the full age of ten
years. ' '

And this humane provision is strengthened by
a statute, one clause of which runs as follows :

" Be it further enacted, that if any person or
persons shall sell the mother of any slave child or
children under the age of ten years, separate from
said child or children, or shall, the mother living,
sell any slave child or children of ten years of age or
under, separate from said mother, such person or
persons shall incur the penalty of the sixth sec-
tion of this act."

This penalty is a fine of not less than one
thousand nor more than two thousand dollars,
and imprisonment in the public jail for a period
of not less than six months nor more than one
year. — Vide Acts of Louisiana, 1 Session, ^th
Legislature, 1828t-9, No. 24, Section 16. {Rev.
Stat. 1852, p. 550, § 143.)

What a charming freshness of nature is
suggested by this assertion ! A thing could
not have happened in a certain state, be-
cause there is a law against it !

Has there not been for two years a law
forbidding to succor fugitives, or to hinder
their arrest '? — and has not this thing been
done thousands of times in all the Northern
States, and is not it more and more likely
to bo done every year! What is a law,
against the whole public sentiment of
society? — and will anybody venture to say
that the public sentiment of Louisiana

jyractically goes against separation of fami-
lies?

Bat let us examine a case more minutely,
remembering the bearing on it of two
great foundation principles of slave juris-
prudence : namely, that a slave cannot
bring a suit in any case, except in a suit
for personal freedom, and this in some
states must be 'brought by a guardian ; and
that a slave cannot bear testimony in any
case in which whites are imphcated.

Suppose Butler wants to sell Cassy's
child of nine years. There is a statute for-
bidding to sell under ten years ; — what is
Cassy to do 7 She cannot bring suit. Will
the state pi-osecute? Suppose it does, —
what then 7 Butler says the child is ten
years old ; if he pleases, he will say she is
ten and a half, or eleven. What is Cassy to
do '\ She cannot testify ; besides, she is
utterly in Butler's power. He may tell her
that if she offers to stir in the affair, he will
whip the child within an inch of its life ; and
she knows he can do it, and that there is no
help for it ; — he may lock her up in a dun-
geon, sell her on to a distant plantation, or
do any other despotic thing he chooses, and
there is nobody to say Nay.

How much does the protective statute
amount to for Cassy? It may be very
well as a piece of advice to the public, or
as a decorous expression of opinion ; but
one might as well try to stop the current of
the Mississippi with a bulrush as the tide of
trade in human beings with such a regula-
tion.

We think that, by this time, the reader
will agree with us, that the less the defend-
ers of slavery say about protective statutes,
the better.

state

CHAPTER VIL

THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE.

Eliza Rowand. — The " Mgis of Protection " to
tlio Slave's Life.

" We cannot but regard the fact of this triaf as a salu-
tary OCCurroncc." — Charleston Courier.

Having given some account of what sort
of statutes arc to be found on the law-books
of slavery, the reader will iiardly be satisfied
without knowing what sort of trials arc hold
under them. We will quote one sftocimcn of
a trial, reported in the Charleston Courier
of May Gth, 1847. The Charleston Courier
is one of the leading papers of South Caro-
lina, and the case is reported with the ut-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

most apparent innocence that there was any-
thin'T about the trial that could reflect in the
least on the character of the state for the
utmost legal impartiahty. In fact, the
Charleston Courier ushers it into public
view with the following flourish of trumpets,
as something which is forever to confound
those who say that South Carolina does not
protect the life of the slave :

THE TRIAli FOR MITRDER.

■ Our community was deeply interested and ex-
citwi, yesterday, by a case of great importance,
and also of entire novelty in our jurisprudence.
It was the trial of a lady of respectable family,
and the mother of a large family, charged with
the murder of her own or her husband's slave,
flic court-house was thronged with spectators of
the exciting drama, who remained, with unabated
interest and undiminished numbers, until the ver-
dict was rendered acquitting the prisoner. We
cannot but regard the fact of this trial as a salu-
tary, although in itself lamentable occurrence, as
it will show to the world that, however panoplied
in station and wealth, and although challenging
those sympathies which are the right and inher-
itance of the female sex, no one will be suffered, in
this community, to escape the most sifting scru-
tiny, at the risk of even an ignominious death,
who stands charged with the suspicion of murder-
ing a slave, — to whose life our law nL>v.' extends
the jBgis of protection, in the same manner as it
does to that of the white man, save only in the
character of the evidence necessary for conviction or
defence. While evil-disposed persons at home are
thus taught that they may expect rigorous trial
and condign punishment, when, actuated by ma-
lignant passions, they invade the life of the hum-
ble slave, the enemies of our domestic institution
abroad ^\-ill find, their calumnies to the contrary
notwithstanding, that we are resolved, in this
particular, to do the full measure of our duty to
the laws of humanity. We subjoin a report of
the case.

The proceedings of the trial are thus
given :

TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF A SLAVS.

State V. Eliza Rowand. — Spring Term, May 5,
1847.
Tried before his Honor Judge O'Neall.
Tlie prisoner was brought to the bar and ar-
raigned, attended by her husband and mother, and
humanely supported, during the trying scene, by
the sheriff, J. B. Irving, Esq. On her arraign
ment, she pleaded " Not Guilty," and for her
trial, placed herself upon " God and her country."
After challenging John M. Deas, James Bancroft,
H. F. Harbers, 0. J. Beckman, E. R. Cowperth-
waite, Parker J. Holland, Moses D. Hyams,
Thomas Glaze, Jolin Lawrence, B. Archer, J. S.
Addison, B. P. Colburn, B. M. Jenkins, Carl
Houseman, Geo. Jackson, and Joseph Coppen-
berg, the prisoner accepted the subjoined panel,
who were duly sworn, and charged with the case :
1. John L. Nowell, foreman. 2. Elias Whilden.
3. Jesse Coward. 4. Effington Wagner. 5. Wm.
Whaley. 6. James Culbert. 7. R. L. Baker.
8. S. WUey. 9. W. S. Chisolm. 10. T. M.
Howard. 11. JohnBickley 12. John Y. Stock.

to wit :

The following is the indictment on which the
prisoner was aiTaigned for trial :

The State v. Eliza Bowand — Indictment for mur
der of a slave.

State of South Carolina, \
Charleston District, \

At a Court of General Sessions, begun and
holden in and for the district of Charleston, in
the State of South Carolina, at Charleston, in the
district and state aforesaid, on Monday, the third
day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and forty-seven :

The jurors of and for the district of Charleston,
aforesaid, in the State of South Carolina, afore-
said, upon their oaths present, that Eliza Rowand,
the wife of Robert Rowand, Esq., not ba\dng the
fear of God before her eyes^ but being moved and
seduced by the instigation of the devil, on the 6th
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thr u-
sand eight hundred and forty-seven, vrith force
and arms, at Charleston, in the district of Charles-
ton, and state aforesaid, in and upon a certain
female slave of the said Robert Rowand, named
Maria, in the peace of God, and of the said state,
then and there being, feloniously, maliciously,
wilfully, deliberately, and of her malice afore-
thought, did make an assault ; and that a certain
other slave of the said Robert Rowand, named
Richard, then and there, being then and there in
the presence and by the command of the said Eliza
Rowand, with a certain piece of wood, which he
the said Richard in both his hands then and there
had and held, the said Maria did beat and strike,
in and upon the head of her the said Maria, then
and there giving to her the said Maria, by such
striking and beating, as aforesaid, with the piece
of wood aforesaid, divers mortal bruises on the
top, back, and sides of the head of her the said
Maria, of which several mortal bruises she, the
said Maria, then and there instantly died ; and
that the said Eliza Rowand was then and there
present, and then and there feloniously, mali-
ciously, wilfully, deliberately, and of her malice
aforethought, did order, command, and require,
the said slave named Richard the murder and fel-
ony aforesaid, in maimer and form aforesaid, to
do and commit. And as the jurors aforesaid, up-
on their oaths aforesaid, do say, that the said
Eliza Rowand her the said slave named Maria,
in the manner and by the means aforesaid, felo-
niously, maliciously, wilfully, deliberately, and of
her malice aforethought, did kill and murder
against the form of the act of the General A»
sembly of the said state in such case made and
provided, and against the peace and dignity of
the same state aforesaid.

And the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths
aforesaid, do further present, that the said Eliza
Rowand, not having the fear of God before her
eyes, but being moved and seduced by the insti-
gation of the devil, on the sixth day of January,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun-
dred and forty-seven, with force and arms, at
Charleston, in the district of Charleston, and
state aforesaid, in and upon a certain other fe-
male slave of Robert Rowand, named Maria, in
the peace of God, and of the said state, then and
there being, feloniously, maliciously, wilfully,
deliberately, and of her malice aforethought, did
make an assault ; and that the said Eliza Row-
and, with a certain piece of wood, which she, the
said Eliza Rowand, in both her hand^ then and

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

there had and held, her the said last-mentioned
slave named ISIaria did then and there strike, and
beat, in and upon the head of her the said Ma-
ria, then and there giving to her the said Maria,
by sucli striking and beating aforesaid, with the
piece of wood aforesaid, divers mortal bruises, on
the top, back, and side of the head, of her the
said jSlaria, of which said several mortal bruises
she the said Maria then and there instantly died.
And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths
aforesaid, do aay, that the said Eliza Rowand
her the said last-mentioned slave named Maria,
in tlie manner and by the means last mentioned,
feloniously, maliciously, wilfully, deliberately,
and of her malice aforethought, did kill and mur-
der, against the form of the act of the General
Assemljly of the said state in such case made and
provided, and against the peace and dignity of
the same state aforesaid.

H. Bailey, Attorney-general.

As some of our readers may not have been
in the habit of endeavoring to extract any-
thing Hke common sense or information
from documents so very concisely and lu-
minously worded, the author will just state
her OAvn opinion that the above document
is intended to charge Mrs. Eliza Rowand
with having killed her slave Maria, in one
of two ways: either with beating her on
the head with her own hands, or having the
same deed performed by proxy, by her slave-
man Richard. The whole case is now pre-
sented. In order to make the reader clear-
ly understand the arguments, it is necessary
that he bear in mind that the law of 1740,
as we have before shown, punished the mur-
der of the slave only with fine and dis-
franchisement, whil^ the law of 1821 pun-
ishes it with death.

On motion of Mr. Petigru, the prisoner was
allowed to remove from the bar, and take her
place by her counsel ; the judge saying he grant-
ed the motion only because the prisoner was a
woman, but that no such privilege would have
been extende<l by him to any man.

The Attorney-general, Henry Bailey, Esq.,
then rose and opened the case for the state, in
substance, as follows : He said that, after months
of anxiety and expectation, the curtain had at
length risen, and lie and the jury Avere about to
bear their ])art in tlie sad drama of real life, which
had s:> long engrossed the public mind. He and
tliey were called to the discliargo of an import-
ant, painful, and solemn duty. Tliey Avere to
pass hi't\v(;cn the prisoner and the state — to take
an intjuisition of blood ; on their decision hung
the Hie or death, the honor or ignominy, of the
prisoner ; yet he trusted he and they would have
Streiigtli and ability to perform their duty faith-
fully ; and, whatever miglit be the result, their
I consciences would be consoled and quieted by that
reflection. He bade the jury pause and reflect on
the great sanctions and solemn responsibilities
under which they were acting. The constitution
of tlio state invested tliem with power over all
that affected the life and was dear to the family
of the unfortunate lady on trial before them.

They were cliarged, too, with the sacred care of
the law of the land ; and to their solution was
siibmitted one of the most solemn questions ever
intrusted to the arbitrament of man. They
should pursue a direct and straight-forward course,
turning neither to the right hand nor to the left
— influenced neither by prejudice against the pris-
oner, nor by a morbid sensibility in her behalf.
Some of them might practically and personally
be strangers to their present duty ; but they were
all familiar with the laws, and must be aware of
the responsibilities of jurymen. It was scarcely
necessary to tell them that, if evidence fixed guilt
on this prisoner, they should not hesitate to record
a verdict of guilty, although they should write that
verdict in tears of blood. They should let no
sickly sentimentality, or morbid feeling on the
subject of capital punishments, deter them from
the discharge of their plain and obvious duty.
They were to administer, not to make, the law ;
they were called on to enforce the law, by sanc-
tioning the highest duty to God and to their coun-
try, if any of them were disturbed with doubts
or scruples on this point, he scarcely supposed
they would have gone into the jury-box. The
law had awarded capital punishment as the
meet retribution for the crime under investiga-
tion, and they were sworn to administer that
law. It had, too, the full sanction of Holy
Writ ; we were there told that " the land cannot be
cleansed of the blood shed therein, except by the
blood of him that shed it." He felt assured,
then, that they would be swayed only by a firm
resolve to act on this occasion in obedience to the
dictates of sound judgments and enlightened con-
sciences. The prisoner, however, had claims on
them, as well as the community; she was en-
titled to a fair and impartial trial. By the wise
and humane principles of our law, they Mere
bound to hold the prisoner innocent, and she stood
guiltless before them, until proved guilty, by le-
gal, competent, and satisfactory evidence. Deaf
alike to the voice of sickly humanity and heated
prejudice, they should proceed to their task with
minds perfectly equipoised and impartial ; they
should weigh the circumstances of the case with
a nice and careful hand ; and if, by legal evi-
dence, circumstantial and satisfactory, although
not positive, guilt be established, they should un-
hesitatingly, fearlessly and faithfully, record the
result of their convictions. He would next call
their attention to certain legal distinctions, Init
would not say a word of the facts ; he Mouhl
leave them to the lips of the witnesses, unaSected
by any previous comments of his own. The pris-
oner stood indicted for the murder of a slave.
This was supposed not to be murder at common
law. At least, it was not murder b}' our former
statute ; but the act of 1S21 had placed the kill-
ing of the white man and the black man on the
same footing. He here read the act of 1821, de-
claring tliat *' any person who shall wilfully, de-
liberately, and maliciously murder a slave, sliall.
on conviction thereof, sufler death without henehi
of clergy." The rules applicable to murder at
common law were generally applicable, however,
to the present case. The inquiries to bo made
may be reduced to two : 1. Is the party charged
guilty of the fact of killing ? This must be clearly
made out by proof. If she be not guilty of kill-
ing, tliere is an end of the caae. 2. The charac-
ter of that killing, or of the offence. W"'^ >*
done with malice aforethought? Malice is the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

essential ingredient of the crime. Where kill-
ing takes place, malice is presumed, unless the
contrary appear ; and this must be gathered from
the attending circumstances. Malice is a techni-
cal term, importing a diffarent meaning from that
conveyed by the same word in common parlance.
According to the learned Michael Foster, it con-
sists not in " malevolence to particulars," it does
not mean hatred to any particular individual, but
is general in its import and application. But
even killing, with intention to kill, is not always
murder ; there may be justifiable and excusable
homicide, and killing in sudden heat and passion
is so modified to manslaughter. Yet there may be
murder when there is no ill-feeling, — nay, perfect
indifference to the slain, — as in the case of the
robber who slays to conceal his crime. Malice
aforethought is that depraved feeling of the heart,
which makes one regardless of social duty, and
fatally bent on mischief. It is fulfilled by that
recklessness of law and human life which is indi-
cated by shooting into a crowd, and thus doing
murder on even an unknown object. Such a feel-
ing the law regards as hateful, and visits, in its
practical exhibition, with condign punishment,
because opposed to the very existence of law and
society. One may do fatal mischief without this
recklessness ; but when the act is done, regard-
less of consequences, and death ensues, it is mur-
der in the eye of the law. If the facts to be
proved in this case should not come up to these
requisitions, he implored the jury to acquit the
accused, as at once due to law and justice. They
should note every fact with scrutinizing eye, and
ascertain whether the fatal result proceeded from
passing accident or from brooding revenge, which
the law stamped with the odious name of malice.
He would make no further preliminary remarks,
but proceed at once to lay the facts before them,
from the mouths of the witnesses.

Evidence.

J. Porteous Deveaux sworn. — He is the coro-
ner of Charleston district ; held the inquest, on
the seventh of January last, on the body of the
deceased slave, Maria, the slave of Robert Row-
and, at the residence of Mrs. T. C. Bee (the
mother of the prisoner), in Logan-street. The
body was found in an outbuilding — a kitchen ;
it was the body of an old and emaciated person,
between fifty and sixty years of age ; it was not
examined in his presence by physicians ; saw some
few scratches about the face ; adjourned to the
City Hall. Mrs. RoAvand was examined ; her ex-
amination was in wi-iting; it was here produced,
and read, as folbws :

" Mrs. Eliza Rnwand sworn. — Says Maria is
her nurse, and had misbehaved on yesterday morn-
ing ; deponent sent Maria to ^Ir. Rowand's house,
to be corrected by Simon ; deponent sent Maria
from the house about seven o'clock, A. M.; she
returned to her about nine o'clock ; came into her
chamber ; Simon did not come into the chamber
at any. time previous to the death of Maria ; de-
ponent says Maria fell down in the chamber ; de-
ponent had her seated up by Richard, who was
then in the chamber, and deponent gave Maria
some asafoetida ; deponent then left the room ;
Richard came down and said Maria was dead ;
deponent says Richard did not strike ^laria, nor
did any one else strike her, in deponent's chamber.
Richard left the chamber immedii.tely with depo-
nent ; Maria was about fifty-twc^ years of age" ;

deponent sent Maria by Richard to Simon, to Mr
Rowand's house, to be corrected ; [Mr. Rowand
was absent from the city ; Maria died about
twelve o'clock ; Richard and Maria were on good
terms ; deponent was in the chamber all the while
that Richard and Maria were there together.

" Eliza Rowand.
" Sworn to before me this seventh January, 1847.
" J. P. Deveaux, Coroner, D. C."

Witness went to the chamber of prisoner, where
the death occurred ; saw nothing particular ; some
pieces of wood in a box, set in the chimney ; his
attention was called to one piece, in particular,
eighteen inches long, three inches wide, and about
one and a half inch thick ; did not measure it ;
the jury of inquest did ; it was not a light- wood
knot ; thinks it was of oak ; there was some pine
wood and some split oak. Dr. Peter Porcher was
called to examine the body professionally, who
did so out of witness' presence.

Before this witness left the stand, B. F. Hunt,
Esq., one of the counsel for the prisoner, rose
and opened tRe defence before the jury, in sub-
stance as follows :

He said that the scene before tliem was a very
novel one ; and whether for good or evil, he would
not pretend to prophesy. It was the first time,
in the history of this state, that a lady of good
character and respectable connections stood ar-
raigned at the bar, and had been put on trial for
her life, on facts arising out of her domestic rela-
tions to her o-wn slave. It was a spectacle con-
soling, and cheering, perhaps, to those who owed
no good will to the institutions of our country ;
but calculated only to excite pain and regret
among ourselves. He would not state a proposi-
tion so revolting to humanity as that crime should
go unpunished ; but judicial interference between
the slave and the owner was a matter at once of
delicacy and danger. It was the fiirst time he had
ever stood between a slave-owner and the public
prosecutor, and his sensations were anything but
pleasant. This is an entirely different case from
homicide between equals in society. Subordination
is indispensable where slavery exists ; and in this
there is no new principle involved. The same
principle prevails in every country ; on shipboard
and in the army a large discretion is always left
to the superior. Charges by inferiors against
their superiors were always to be viewed with
great circumspection at least, and especially when
the latter are charged with cruelty or crime
against subordinates. In the relation of OAvner
and slave there is an absence of the usual motives
for murder, and strong inducements against it on
the part of the former. Life is usually taken from
avarice or passion. The master gains nothing,
but loses niuch, by the death of his slave ; and
when he takes the life of the latter deliberately,
there must be more than ordinary malice to insti-
gate the deed. The policy of altering the old
law of 1740, which punished the killing of a slave
with fine and political disfranchisement, was more
than doubtful. It was the law of our colonial
ancestors ; it conformed to their policy and was
approved by their wisdom, and it continued
undisturbed by their posterity until the year
1821. It was engrafted on our policy in counter-
action of the schemes and machinations, or in
deference to the clamors, of those who formed
plans for our improvement, although not inter-
ested in nor understanding our institutions, and

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

whose interference led to the tragedy of 1822.
He here adverted to the viewa of Chancellor Har-
per on this subject, who, in his able and philosophi-
cal memoir on slavery, said : "It is a somewhat
singular fact, that when there existed in our state
no law for punishing the murder of a slave, other
tlian a pecuniary fine, there were, I will venture
to say, at least ten murders of freemen for one mur-
der of a slave. Yet it is supposed that they are
less protected than their masters." " The change
was made in subserviency to the opinions and
clamor of others, who were utterly incompetent
to form an opinion on the subject ; and a wise act
is seldom the result of legislation in this spirit.
From the fact I have stated, it is plain they need
less protection. Juries are, therefore, less wil-
ling to convict, and it may sometimes happen that
the guilty will escape all punishment. Security
iy one of the compensations of their humble posi-
tion. We chsiUenge the comparison, that with
us there have been fewer murders of slaves than
of parents, children, apprentices, and other mur-
ders, cruel and unnatural, in society where slav-
ery does not exist."

Such was the opinion of Chancellor Harper on
this subject, who had profoimdly studied it, and
whose views had been extensively read on this
eor jinent and in Europe. Fortunately, the jury,
he said, were of the country, acquainted with our
policy and practice ; composed of men too inde-
pendent and honorable to be led astray by the
noise and clamor out of doors. All was now as
it should be ; — at least, a court of justice had
assembled, to which his client had fled for refuge
and safety ; its threshold was sacred ; no profane
clamors entered there ; but legal investigation
was had of facts, derived from the testimony of
sworn witnesses ; and this should teach the
community to shut their bosoms against sickly
humanity, and their ears to imaginary tales of
blood and horror, the food of a depraved appetite.
He warned the jury that they ivere to listen to no
testimony but that of free white jpersons, given on
oath in open court. They were to imagine none
that came not from them. It was for this
that they were selected, — their intelligence
putting them beyond the influence of unfound-
ed accusations, unsustained by legal proof;
of legends of aggravated cruelty, founded on the
evidence of negroes, and arising from weak and
wicked falsehoods. Were slaves permitted to
testify against their owner, it would cut the cord
that unites them in peace and harmony, and
enable them to sacrifice their masters to their ill
will or revenge. Whole crews had been often
leagued to charge captains of vessels with foulest
murder, but judicial trial had exposed the false-
hood. Truth has been distorted in this case, and
murder manufactured out of what 'was nothing
more than ordinary domestic discipline. Chastise-
ment must l)e inflicted until subordination is pro-
duced ; and the extent of the punishment is not
to bojudgedof by one's neighbors, but by himself.
The event in this case has l)een unfortunate and
Bad ; but there was no motive for tlio taking of
life. There is no pecuniary interest in the owner
to destroy his slave ; the murder of his slave
can only happen from ferocious passions of the
master, filling liis own bosom with anguish and
contrition. This case has no other basis but un-
founded rumor, commonly Ijolieved, on evidence
that will not venture here, the oH'Hpring of tliat pas-
sion and depravity which uuiko up falsehood.

The hope of freedom, of change of ovmers, reveru^
are all motives with slave witnesses to malign their
owners ; and to credit such testimony would be to
dissolve human society. Where deliberate, wilful,
and malicious murder is done, whether by male
or female, the retribution of the law is a debt to
God and man ; but the jury should beware lest it
fall upon the innocent. The offence charged was
not strictly murder at common law. The act of .
1740 was founded on the practical good sense of I
our old planters, and its spirit still prevails. The
act of 1821 is, by its terms, an act only to in-
crease 'the punishment of persons convicted of
murdering a slave , — and this is a refinement in hu- ,f
manity of doubtful policy. But, by the act of 1821,
the murder must be wilful, deliberate and mali-
cious ; and, when punishment is due to the slave,
the master must not be held to strict account for
going an inch beyond the mark ; whether for doing
so he shall be a felon, is a question for the jury to
solve. The master must conquer a refractory
slave ; and deliberation, so as to render clear the
existence of malice, is necessary to bring the
master within the provision of the act. He bade
the jury remember the words of Him who spake
as never man spake, — " Let him that has never
sinned throw the first stone." T/iey, as masters
might regret excesses to which they have themselves
carried punishment. He was not at all surprised
at the course of the attorney-general ; it was his
wont to treat every case with perfect fairness. He
(Colonel H.) agreed that the inquiry should be —

1. Into the fact of the death.

2. The character or motive of the act.

The examination of the prisoner showed con
clusively that the slave died a natural death, and
not from personal violence. She was chastised
with a lawful weapon, — was in weak health, ner-
vous, made angry by her punishment, — excited
The story was then a plain one ; the community
had been misled by the creations of imagination,
or the statements of interested slaves. The negro
came into her mistress' chamber ; fell on the
floor ; medicine was given her ; it was supposed
she was asleep, but she slept the sleep of death.
To show the wisdom nnd policy of the old act of
1740 (this indictment is under both acts, — the
punishment only altered by that of 1821), he
urged that a case like this was not murder at
common law ; nor is the same evidence applicable
at common law. There, murder was presumed
from killing ; not so in the case of a slave. The
act of 1740 permits a master, when his slave is
killed in his presence, there being no other white
person present, to exculpate himself by his own
oath ; and this exculpation is complete, unless
clearly contravened by the evidence of two whito
witnesses. This is exactly what the prisoner haa
done ; she has, as the law permits, by calling on
God, exculpated herself. And her oath is good,
at least against the slander of her own slaves.
Which, then, should prevail, the clamors of oth-
ers, or the policy of the law established by our
colonial ancestors ■? There Avould not be -a tittle
of positive evidence against the prisoner, nothing
but circumstantial evidence ; and ingenious com-
bination might bo made to lead to any conclusion.
Justice was all that his client asked. She ap-
pealed to liberal and high-minded men, — and she
rejoiced in the privilege of doing so, — to accord
her that justice they would demand for them-
selves.

Mr. Deveaux was not cross-examined.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Evidence resumed.

Dr. E. W. North swom. — (Cautioned by at-
torney-general to avoid hearsay evidence.) Was
the family physician of Mrs. Rowand. Went on
the 6th January, at Mrs. Rovrand's request, to
see her at her mother's, in Logan-street ; found
her 'down stairs, in sitting-room. She was in a
nervous and excited state ; had been so for a
month before ; he had attended her ; she said
nothing to witness of slave jNIaria ; found Maria
in a chamber, up stairs, about one o'clock, P. M. ;
she was dead ; she appeared to have been dead
about an hour and a half; his attention was
attracted to a piece of pine wood on a trunk or
table in the room ; it had a large knot on one end ;
had it been used on jNIaria, it must have caused
considerable contusion ; other pieces of wood were
in a box, and much smaller ones ; the corpse was
lying one side in the chamber ; it was not laid
out ; presumed she died there ; the marks on the
body were, to witness' view, very slight ; some
scratches about the face ; he purposely avoided
making an examination ; observed no injuries
about the head ; had no conversation with Mrs.
Rowand about Maria ; left the house ; it was on
the 6th January last, — the day before the in-
quest ; knew the slave before, but had never
attended her.

Cross-examined. — Mrs. Rowand was in feeble
health, and nervous ; the slave Maria was Aveak
and emaciated in appearance ; sudden death of
such a person, in such a state, from apoplexy or
action of nervous system, not unlikely; her sud-
den death would not imply violence ; had pre-
scribed asaf»tida for Mrs. Rowand on a former
visit ; it is an appropriate remedy for nervous
disorders. Mrs. Rowand was not of bodily strength
to handle the pine knot so as to give a severe
blow; Mrs. Rowand has five or sis children, the
elder of them large enough to have carried pieces
of the wood about the room ; there must have
been a severe contusion, and much extravasation
of blood, to infer death from violence in this case ;
apoplexy is frequently attended with extravasa-
tion of blood ; there were two Marias in the fam-

ily

In reply. — Mrs. Rowand could have raised the
pine knot, but could not have struck a blow with
it ; such a piece of wood could have produced
death, but it would have left its mark ; saw the
fellow Richard ; he was quite capable of giving
such a blow.

Dr. Peter Porcher. — Was called in by the coro-
ner's jury to examine Maria's body ; found it in
the wash-kitehen ; it was the corpse of one feeble
and emaciated ; partly prepared for biu"ial ; had
the clothes removed ; the body was lacerated with
stripes ; abrasions about face and knuckles ; skin
knocked off; passed his hand over the head ; no
I "me broken ; on request, opened her thorax, and
examined the viscera ; found them healthy ; heart
unusually so for one of her age ; no particular
odor ; some undigested food ; no inflammation ;
removed the*iscalp, and found considerable extrav-
asation between scalp and skull ; scalp bloodshot ;
just under the scalp, found the effects of a single
blow, just over the right ear ; after removing the
scalp, lifted the bone ; no rupture of any blood-
vessel ; some softening of the brain in the upper
hemisphere ; there was considerable extravasation
under the scalp, the result of a succession of blows
on the top of the head ; this extravasation was
general, but that over the ear was a single spot ;

the butt-end of a cowhide would have sufficed for
this purpose ; an ordinary stick, a heavy one,
would have done it ; a succession of blows on the
head, in a feeble woman, would lead to death,
when, in a stronger one, it would not ; saT no
other appearance about her person, to account for
her death, except those blows.

Cross-examined. — To a patient in this wo-
man's condition, the blows would probably cause
death ; they were not such as were calculated to
kill an ordinary person ; witness saw the body
twenty-four hours after her death ; it was winter,
and bitter cold ; no disorganizatiun, and the ex-
amination was therefore to be relied on ; the blow
behind the ear might have resulted from a fall,
but not the blow on the top of the head, unless
she fell head foremost ; came to the conclusion of
a succession of blows, from the extent of the ex-
travasation ; a single blow would have shown a
distinct spot, with a gradual spreading or diffu-
sion ; one large blow could not account for it, as
the head Was spherical ; no blood on the brain ;
the softening of the brain did not amount to inucl
in an ordinary dissection would have passed «c
over ; anger sometimes produces apoplexy, wb ,h
results in death ; blood between the scalp ant? Jie
bone of the skull ; it was evidently a fresh ei-^ftir-
asation ; twenty-four hours would scarcely havo
made any change ; knew nothing of this -legn)
befS^re ; even after examination, the ca.-ise of
death is sometimes inscrutable, — not usual, hov
ever.

In reply. — Does not attribute the softening of
the brain to the blows ; it was slight, and might
have been the result of age ; it was some evidence
of impairment of vital powers by advancing age.

Dr. A. P. Hayne. — At request of the coroner,
acted with Dr. Porcher ; was shown into an out-
house ; saw on the back of the corpse evidences of
contusion ; arms swollen and enlarged ; lacera-
tion of body ; contusions on head and neck ; be-
tween scalp and skull extravasation of blood, on
the top of head, and behind the right ear ; a burn
on the hand ; the brain presented healthy appear-
ance ; opened the body, and no evidences of disease
in the chest or viscera ; attributed the extravasa-
tion of blood to external injury from blows, —
blows from a large and broad and blunt instru-
ment ; attributes the death to those blows ; sup-
poses they were adequate to cause death, as slie
was old, weak and emaciated.

Cross-examined. — Would not have caused death
in a young and robust person.

The evidence for the prosecution here closed,
and no witnesses were called for the defence.

The jury were then successively addressed, ably
and eloquently, by J. L. Petigru and James S,
llhett, Esqrs., on behalf of the prisoner, and H.
Bailey, Esq., on behalf of the state, and by B. F.
Hunt, Esq., in reply. Of those speeches, and
also of the judge's charge, we have taken full
notes, but have neither time nor space to insert
them here.

His Honor, Judge O'Neall, then charged the
jury eloquently and ably on the facts, vindicating
the existing law, making death the penalty for
thfe murder of a slave ; but, on the law, intimated
to the jury that he held the act of 1740 so far still
in force as to admit of the prisoner's exculpation
by her own oath, unless clearly disproved by tha
oaths of two witnesses ; and that they were,
therefore, in his opinion, bound to acquit, —
although he left it to them, wholly, to say wheth-

KEY TO UNCLE TOm's CABIN.

er the prisoner was guilty of murder, killing in
sudden heat and passion, or not guilty.

The jury then retired, and, in about twenty or
thirty minutes, returned with a verdict of " Not
Guilty."

There are some points which appear in
this statement of the trial, especially in the
plea for the defence. Particular attention
is called to the following passage :

"Fortunately," said the lawyer, "the jury
were of the country ; — acquainted with our policy
ttP.^ practice ; composed of men too honorable to
be '^ astray by the noise and clamor out of doors.
All was now as it should be ; at least, a court of
justice had assembled to which his client had fled
for refuge and safety ; its threshold was sacred ;
no profane clamors entered there ; but legal investi-
gation was had of facts."

From this it plainly appears that the case
was a notorious one ; so notorious and atro-
cious as to break' through all the apathy
which slave-holding institutions tend to pro-
duce, and to surround the court-house with
noise and clamor.

From another intimation in the same
speech, it would appear that there was abun-
dant testimony of slaves to the direct fact, —
testimony which left no kind of doubt on the
popular mind. Why else does he thus
earnestly warn the jury ?

He warned the jury that they were to listen
to no evidence but that of free white persons,
given on oath in open court ; they were to imag-
ine none that came not from them. It was for
this that they were selected ; — their intelligence
putting theni beyond the influence of unfounded
accusadons, unsustalned by legal proof; of legends
of aggravated cruelty, founded on the evidence of
nef'-roeS; and arising from weak and wicked false-
hoods.

See also this remarkable admission : —
" Truth had been distorted in this case, and
murder manufactured out of Avhat was
nothing more than ORDINARY DOMESTIC
DisciPLi>TE." If the reader refers to the tes-
timony, he will find it testified that the
woman appeared to be about sixty years
old ; tliat she was much emaciated ; that
there had been a succession of blows on the
top of her head, and one violent one over the
ear; and that, in the opinion of a sur-
geon, these blows were sufficient to cause
death. Yet the lawyer for the defence
coolly remarks that " murder had been
manufactured out of what wdS ordmanj
domestic discipline." Arc we *to under-
stand that beating feeble old women on the
head, in this manner, is a specimen of o?-dl-
iiary domestic dlscqillne in Charleston?

What woujd have been said if any anti
slavery newspaper at the North had made
such an assertion as this "i Yet the Charles-
ton Courier reports this statement without
comment or denial. But let us hear the
lady's lawyer go still further in \indication
of this ordinary domestic discipline : " Chas-
tisement must be inflicted until subordina-
tion is produced ; and the extent of the pun-
ishment is not to be judiied by one's neigh-
bors, but by himself The event, in this
CASE, has been unfortunate and sad." The
lawyer admits that the result of thumping
a feeble old woman on the head has, in this
case, been "unfortunate and sad." The
old thing had not strength to bear it._ and
had no greater regard for the convenience
of the family, and' the reputation of "the
institution," than to die, and so get the
family and the community generally into
trouble. It will appear from this that in
most cases where old women are thumped
on the head they have stronger constitutions
— or more consideration.

Again he says, "When punishment is '
due to the slave, the master must not be
held to strict account for going an ijich
beyond the mark.'" And finally, and most
astounding of all, comes this: ''He hade
the jury remember the words of him who
spake as never man spake, — ' Let him

THAT HATH NEVER SINNED THROW THE

FIRST STONE.' They, as masters, might
regret excesses to which they themselves
might have carried punishment."

What sort of an insinuation is this'?
Did he mean to say that almost all the jury-
men had probably done things of the same
sort, and therefore could have nothing to
say in this case ? and did no member of the
jury get up and resent such a charge?
From all that appears, the jury acquiesced '
in it as quite a matter of course ; and the
Charleston Courier quotes it without com-
ment, in the record of a trial which it says
"will show to the world how the law ex-*
tends the aegis of her protection alike over
the white man and the humblest slave."

Lastly, notice the decision of the judge,
which has become law in South Carolina.
What point does it establish'? That the
simple oath of the master, in Yacc of all cir-
cumstantial evidence to the contrary, may
clear him, when the murder of a slave is the
question. And this trial is paraded as a
triumphant specimen of legal impartiality
and equity ! "If the light that is in thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness !"

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE GOOD OLD TIMES.

•*A refinement in hiunanity of doubtful policy."

B. h\ Hunt.

The author takes no pleasure in present-
ing to lier readers the shocking details of
the following case. But it seems necessary
to exhibit what were the actual workings
of the ancient law of South Carolina, which
has been characterized as one "conformed
to the policy, and approved by the wisdom,"
of the fathei's of that state, and the reform
of which has been calleil "a rej&nement in
humanity of doubtful policy."

It is Avell, also, to add the charge of
Judge Wilds, partly for its intrinsic liter-
ary merit, and the nobleness of its senti-
ments, but principally because it exhibits
such a contrast as could scarcely be found
elsewhere, between the judge's high and
indignant sense of justice, and the shameful
impotence and imbecility of the laws under
which he acted.

The case was brought to the author's
knowledge by a letter from a gentleman of
Pennsylvania, from which the following is
an extract :

Some time between the years 1807 and 1810,
there was lying in the harbor of Charleston a
Bhip commanded by a man named Shiter. His
crew were slaves : one of them committed some
offence, not specified in the narrative. The cap-
tain ordered him to be bound and laid upon the
deck ; and there, in the harbor of Charleston, in
tlie broad day-li,!;lit, compelled another slave^
sailor to chop off his head. The aflair was pub-
lic— notorious. A prosecution was commenced
against him ; the offence was proved bej^ond all
doubt, — jjerhaps, indeed, it was not denied, —
and the judge, in a most eloquent charge or
rehuke of the defendant, expressed his sincere
regret that he could inflict no punishment, under
the laws of the state.

I was studying law when the case was pub-
lished in " Hall's American Law Journal, vol: i."
I have not seen the book for twenty-five or thirty
years. I may be in error as to names, etc., but
while I have life and my senses tlie facts of the
case cannot be forgotten.

The following is the "charge" alluded
to in the above letter. It was pronounced
by the Honorable Judge Wilds, of South
Carolina, and is copied from HalFs Law
Journal, i. 67.

John Slater ! You have been convicted by a
jury of your country of the wilful murder of your
own slave ; and I am sorry to say, the short,
impressive, uncontradicted testimony, on which
that conviction was founded, leaves but too little
room to doubt its propriety.

The annals of human depravity might be safely

challenged for a parallel to this unfeeling, bloody
and diabolical transaction.

You caused your imoffending, unresisting slave
to be bound hand and foot, and, by a refinement
in cruelty, compelled his companion, perhaps the
friend of his heart, to chop his head with an
axe, and to cast his body, yet convulsing witli tlie
agonies of death, into the water ! And this deed
you dared to perpetrate in the very harbor of
Charleston, within a few j-ards of the shore, un-
blushingly, in the fiice of open day. Had your
murderous arm been raised against your equals,
whom the laws of self-defence and the more ftfii-
cacious law of the land unite to protect, your
crimes would not have been without precedent,
and vrould have seemed less horrid. Your per-
sonal risk would at least have proved, that though
a murderer, you were not a coward. But you too
well knew that this unfortunate man, whom chance
had subjected to your caprice, had not, like your-
self, chartered to him by the laws of the land the
sacred rights of nature ; and that a stern, but
necessary policy, had disarmed him of the rights
of self-defence. Too well you knew that to you
alone he could look for protection ; and that your
arm alone could shield him from oppression, or
avenge his wrongs ; yet, that arm you cruelly
stretched out for his destruction.

The counsel, who generously volunteered hi;?
services in your behalf, shocked at the enormity
of your offence, endeavored to find a refuge, as
well for his own feelings as for those of all who
heard your trial, in a derangement of your intel-
lect. Several witnesses were examined to estab-
lish this fact ; but the result of their testimony, it
is apprehended, was as little satisfactoi-y to his
mind, as to those of the jury to whom it was
addressed. I sincerely wish this defence had
proved successful, not from any desire to save
you from the punishment which awaits you, and
which you so richly merit, but from the desire of
saving my country from the foul reproach of hav-
ing in its bosom so great a monster.

From the peculiar situation of this country, our
fathers felt themselves justified in subjecting to a
very slight punishment him who murders a slave.
Whether the present state of society require a
continuation of this policy, so opposite to the
apparent rights of humanity, it remains for a
subsequent legislature to decide. Their attention
would ere this have been directed to this subject,
but, for the honor of human nature, such hardened
sinners as yourself are rarely found, to disturb the
repose of society. The grand jury of this district,
deeply impressed with your daring outrage against
the laws both of God and man. have made a verv
strong expression of their feelings on the sahject
to the legislature ; and, from the wisdom and jus-
tice of that ))ody, the friends of humanity niav
confidently hope soon to see this blackest'in the
catalogue of human crimes pursued by appropri-
ate punishment.

In proceeding to pass the sentence which the
law provides for your offence, I confess I never
felt more forcil)ly tlie want of power tn make
respected the laws of my country, whose minister
I am. You have already violated the majesty of
those laws. You have profonely pleaded 'the'law
under which you stand convicted, aa a justifica-
tion of your crime. You have held that law in
one hand, and brandished your bloody axe in, the
other, impiously contending that the' owe gave a
licens<^ to the unrestrRined use pf th*» ofher.

100

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

But, though you will go off unhurt in person,
by the present sentence, expect not to escape with
impunity. Your bloody deed hae set a mark upon
you, wliich I fear the good actions of your future
life will not cSiice. You will be held in abhor-
rence by an impartial world, and shunned as a
monster by every honest man. Y'our unoffending
posterity will be visited, for your iniquity, hy the
stigma of deriving their origin from an unfeeling
murderer. Your days, which will be but few,
will be spent in wretchedness ; and, if your con-
science be not steeled against every virtuous. emo-
ti(m, if you be not entirely abandoned to hardness
of heart, the mangled, mutilated corpse of your
murdered slave will ever he present in your imag-
inncion, obtrude itself into all your amusements,
and haunt you in the hours of silence and repose.

But, should you disregard the reproaches of an
offended world, should you hear Avith callous
insensibility the gnawings of a guilty conscience,
yet remember, I charge you, remember, that an
awfid period is (iist approaching, and with you
is close at hand, when you must appear before a
tribunal whose want of power can afford you no
prospect of impunity ; when you must raise your
bloody hands at the bar of an impartial omni-
scient Judge ! Remember, I pray you, remem-
ber, Avhilst yet you have time, tluit God is just,
and that his vengeance will not sleep forever !

The penalty that followed this solemn
denunciation was a fine of scveti hundred
pounds^ current money, or, in default of
payment, imprisonment for seven years.

And yet it seems that there have not
been wanting those who consider the reform
of this law " a refinement in humanity of
doubtful policy^' ! To this sentiment, so
high an authority as that of Chancellor
Harper is quoted, as the reader w'ill see by
referring to the speech of Mr. Hunt, in the
last chapter. And, as is very common in
such cases, the old law is vindicated, as
being, on the whole, a surer protection to
the life of the slave thoji the new one.
From the results of the last tAvo trials, there
would seem to be a fair show of plausibility
in the argument. For under the old law it
seems that Slater had at least to pay seven
hundred pounds, while under the new Eliza
Eowand comes off with only the penalty of
"a most sifting scrutiny."

Thus, it appears, the penalty of the law
goes with the murderer of the slave.

How is it executed in the cases which
concern the life of the master 7 Look at
this short notice of a recent trial of this kind,
"which is given in the Alexandria (Va.)
Gazette^ of Oct. 23, 1852, as an extract
from the Charlestoion (Va.) Free Press.

TKIAL OF NEGKO HENRY.

The trial of tliis slave for an attack, with in-
tent to kill, on the person of Mr. Harrison An-
derson, was commenced on Monday and concluded
on Tuesday evening. Ilis Honor, Braxton Daven-

port, Esq., chief jusrtice of the county, A.-ith fnm
associate gentlemen justices, composed the court
The commonwealth was represented l>y ita at-
torney, Charles B. Harding, Esq., and the ac-
cused, ably and eloquently defended by Wm. C
Worthington and John A. Thompsop, Esqs. The
evidence of the prisoner's guilt was conclusive.
A majority of the court thought that he ought to
suffer the extreme penalty of the law ; but, as this
required a unanimous agreement, he was sen-
tenced to receive five hundred lashes, not more
than tliirty-nine at one time. The physician of
the jail Avas instructed to see that they should not
be administered too frequently, and only when,
in his opinion, he could bear them.

In another paper we are told that the
Free Press says :

A majority of the court thought that he ought
to suffer the extreme penalty of the law ; but, as
this required a unanimous agreement, he was
sentenced to receiA'e five hundred lashes, not more
than thirty-nine at any one time. The physician
of the jail was instructed to see that they should
not be administered too frequently, and m.ly
Avhen, in his opinion, he could bear them, l^is
may seem to be a harsh and inhuman punishment ;
but, when we take into consideration that it ia in
accordance with the law of the land, and the ftir-
ther fact that the insubordination among the
slaves of that state has become truly alarmig,
Ave cannot question the righteousness of the judg-
ment.

Will anybody say that the master's life
is in more danger from the slave than the
slave's from the master, that this dispro-
portionate retribution is meted out '? Those
who countenance such legislation will do
well to ponder the solemn words of an an-
cient book, inspired by One who is no
respecter of persons :

" If I have refused justice to my man-servant or maid-
servant,
"Wlien they had a cause with me,
What shall I do when God riseth up 1
And when he visiteth, what shall I answer hira 1
Did not he that made mc in the womb make him 1 i
Did not the same (iod fashion us in the womb 1 "

JoiiSl : 13—16

CHAPTER IX.

MODERATE CORRECTION AND ACCIDENTAL
DEATH — STATE V. CASTLEMAN.

The author remarks that the record of
the folloAving trial was read by her a little
time before Avriting the account of the death
of Uncle Tom. The shocking particulars
haunted her mind and were in her thoughts
when the following sentence was MTitten :

What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve
to hear. What brother man and brother Christian

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

101

must suffer, cannot be told us, even in our secret
chaiuber, it so harrows up the soul. And yet, 0
my country, these things are done under the
shadow of thy laws ! 0 Christ, thy church sees
them almost in silence !

It is given precisely as prepared by Dr.
G. Bailey, the very liberal and fair-minded
editor of the National Era.

From the National Era, IVasliington, November 6, 1851.
HOMICIDE CASE IN CLARKE COUNTY, VIRGINIA.

Some time since, the newspapers of Virginia
contained an account of a horrible tragedy, enacted
in Clarke County, of that state. A slave of
Colonel James Castleman, it was stated, had been
chained by the neck, and whipped to death by his
master, on the charge of stealing. The whole
neigiiborhood in which the transaction occurred
was incensed ; the Virginia papers abounded in
denunciations of the cruel act ; and the people
of the North were called upon to bear witness to
the justice which would surely be meted out in a
slave state to the master of a slave. We did not
publish the account. The case was horrible ; it
was, we were confident, exceptional ; it should
not be taken as evidence of the genei-al treatment
of slaves ; we chose to delay any notice of it till
the courts should pronounce their judgment, and
we could announce at once the crime and its pun-
ishment, so that the state might stand acquitted
of the foul deed.

Those who were so shocked at the transaction
will be surprised and mortified to hear that the
actors in it have been tried and acquitted; and
when they read the following account of the trial
and ver4ict, published at the instance of the
friends of the accused, their mortification will
deepen into bitter indignation :

from the "Spirit of Jefferson."

"Colonel James Castleman. — The following
statement, understood to have been drawn up by
counsel, since the trial, has been placed by tlie
friends of this gentleman in our hands for publi-
cation :

" At the Circuit Superior Court of Clarke
County, coimnencing on the 13th of October,
Judge Samuels presiding, James Castleman and
his son Stephen D. Castleman were indicted
jointly for the murder of negro Lewis, property of
the latter. By advice of their counsel, the parties
elected to be tried separately, and the attorney
for the commonwealth directed that James Cas-
tleman should be tried first.

" It was proved, on this trial, that for many
months previous to the occurrence the money-
drawer of the tavern kept by Stephen D. Castleman,
and the liquors kept in large quantities in his cellar,
had been pillaged from time to time, until the thefts
had attained tu a considerable amount. Suspicion
had, fi'om various causes, been dii'eeted to Lewis,
and another negro, named Reuben (a blacksmith),
the property of James Castleman ; but by the aid
of two of the house-servants they had eluded the
most vigilant watch.

" On the 20th of August last, in the afternoon,
S. D. Castleman accidentally discovered 'a clue,
by means of which, and through one of the house-
servants implicated, he was enabled fully to de-
tect the depredators, and to ascertain the manner
ia which the theft had been committed. He im-

mediately sent for his father, living near him, and
after communicating what hie had discovered, it
was determined that the offenders should be pun-
ished at once, and before they should know of the
discovery that had been made.

" Lewis was punished first ; and in a manner, as
was fully shovsTi, to preclude all risk of injury to
his person, by sti-ipes with a broad leathern strap.
He was punished severely, but to an extent by no
means disproportionate to his offence ; nor was it
pretended, in any quarter, that this punishment
implicated either his life or health. He confessed
the oflence, and admitted that it had been effected
by false keys, furnished by the blacksmith, Reu-
ben.

" The latter sen^ant was punished immediately
afterAvards. It was believed that he was the
principal offender, and he was found to be more
obdurate and contumacious than Lewis had been
in reference to the offence. Thus it was proved,
both by the prosecution and the defence, tliat he
was punished with gi-eater severity than his ac-
complice. It resulted in a like confession on his
part, and he produced the false key, one fashioned
by himself, by which the theft had been effected
" It was further shown, on the trial, that Lewis
was whipped in the upper room of a warehouse,
connected with Stephen Castleman's store, and
near the public road, where he was at work at the
time ; that after he had been flogged, to secure
his person, whilst they went after Reuben, he was
confined by a chain around his neck, which was
attached to a joist above his head. The length of
this chain, the breadth and thickness of the joist,
its height from the floor, and the circlet of chain
on the neck, were accurately measured ; and it
was thus shown that the chain unoccupied by the
circlet and the joist was a foot and a half longer
than the space between the shoulders of the man
and the joist above, or to that extent the chain
hung loose above him ; that the circlet (which was
fastened so as to prevent its contraction) rested
on the shoulders and breast, the chain being suf-
ficiently drawn only to prevent being slipped over
his head, and that there was no other place in the
room to which he could be fastened, except to one
of the joists above. His hands were tied in front ;
a white man, who had been at work with Lewis
during the day, was left with him by the Messrs.
Castleman, the better to insure his detention, whilst
they were absent after Reuben. It was proved by
this man (who was a witness for the prosecution)
that Lewis asked for a box to stand on, or for
something that he could jump off from ; that after
the Castlemans had left him he expressed a fear
that when they came back he would be whipped
again ; and said, if he had a knife, and coidd get
one hand loose, he would cut his throat. The
witness stated that the negro ' stood firm on his
feet,' that he could turn freely in whatever di-
rection he wished, and that he made no complaint
of the mode of his confinement. This man stated
that he remained with Lewis about half an hour,
and then left there to go home.

" After punishing Reuben, the Castlemans re-
turned to the warehouse, bringing him with them ;
their object being to confront the two men, in the
hope that by further examination of them jointly
all their accomplices might be detected.

" They were not absent more than half an hour.
When they entered the room above, Lewis vras
found hanging by the neck, his feet thrown behind

■L*

102

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

him, Iiis knees a few inches from the floor, and his
lirad thrown forward — the body warm and sup-
ple (or relaxed), but life Avas extinct.

"It was proved by the surgeons who made a post-
mortem examination before the coroner's inquest
that the death Avas caused by strangulation by
hano-ing ; and other eminent surgeons were ex-
amined to show, from the appearance of the brain
and its Ijlood-vessels after death (as exhibited at
the post-mortem examination), that the subject
could not have fainted before strangulation.

" After the evidence was finished on botli sides,
the jury from their box, and of their own motion,
v.ithout a word from counsel on either side, in-
formed the court that they had agreed upon their
verdict. The counsel assented to its being thus
received, and a verdict of " not guilty " was im-
mediately rendered. The attorney for the com-
monwealth then informed the court that all the
evidence for the prosecution had been laid before
che jury ; and as no new evidence could be offered
on the trial of Stephen I). C^astleman, he sub-
mitted to the court the propriety of entering a
nolle prosequi. The judge replied that the case had
been fully and fairly laid before the jury upon the
evidence ; that the court was not only satisfied
v/ith the verdict, but, if any other had been ren-
dered, it must have been set aside ; and that if no
fiu-t!ier evidence was to be adduced on the trial of
Stephen, the attorney for the commonwealth
would exercise a proper discretion in entering a
nolle proseijui as to him, and the court would ap-
prove its being done. A nolle prosequi was en-
tered accordingly, and both gentlemen discharged.

" It may be added that two days were consumed
in exhibiting the evidence, and that the trial was
l)y a jury of Clarke County. Both the parties
liud been on bail from the time of their arrest, and
^vere continued on bail whilst the trial was de-
pending."

Let us admit that the e^-idence does not prove
the legal crime of homicide : what candid man
can doubt, after reading this co? parte version of it,
that the slave died in consequence of the punish-
ment inflicted upon him ?

In criminal prosecutions the federal constitu-
tion guarantees to the accused the right to a pub-
lic trial by an impartial jury; the right to be
iiifdvmed of the nature and cause of tlie accusa-
tion ; to be confronted with the witnesses against
liiui ; to have compulsory process for obtaining
witness in his favor ; and to have the assistance
<jf counsel ; guarantees necessary to secure inno-
cence against hasty or vindictive judgment, — a1>
soliitely necessary to prevent injustice. Grant that
th(!y vvere not intended fur shivt^s ; every master of
a slave must feel that they are still morally bind-
ing u])on him. lie is the sole judge ; he alone
deti'rniincs the offence, the ja-oof requisite to es-
taltlisli it, and the amount 'of the punishment.
The slave then lias a peculiar claim upon him for
justice. When charged with a crime, common
humanity nnjuires that he should be informed of
it, tliat he should beconfronted with the witnesses
against liim, that he should be permitted to show
evidence in flavor of his innocence.

J!ut how was poor Lewis treated? The son of
Castleman said ho laid discovered who stole the
money ; and it was forthwith " determined that
the offenders should be punished at once, and be-
fore tkcy should know of the dn^coviry that had been
made.'^ Punished without a hearing ! Punished

on the testimony of a house-servant, the nature of
which does not appear to have been inquired inta
by the court ! Not a word is said which au-
thorizes the belief that any careful examination
was made, as it respects their guilt. LeAvis and
Reuben Avere assumed, on loose evidence, Avithout
deliberate inA-estigation, to be guilty ; and then,
without allowing them to attempt to show their
evidence, they Avere whipped, until a confession
of guilt was extorted by bodily pain,
is this Virginia justice 1

Lewis was punished Avith "a brnad leathern
strap," — he was " punished severely :" this vre
do not need to be told. A " broad leathern stmp"
is well adapted to severity of punishment. " Nor
Avas it pretended," the account says, "in any
Quarter, that this punishment implicated cither
his life or his health." This is false ; it Avas ex-
pressly stated in the newspaper accounts at the
time, and such Avas the general impression in the
neighborhood, that the punishment did vei-y se-
verely implicate his life. But more of this anon.

LcAvis was left. A chain was fastened around
his neck, so as not to choke him, and secured to
the joist above, leaving a slack of about a foot and
a half. Remaining in an upright positi(m. he Avas
secure against strangulation, but he could neither
sit nor kneel ; and should he faint, he Avould be
choked to death. The account says that they
fastened him thus for the purpose of securing
him. If this had been the sole object, it could
have been accomj^lished by safer and less cruel
methods, as every reader must know. This mode
of securing him was intended probably to intimi-
date him, and, at the same time, afforded some
gratification to the vindictive feeling Avhich con-
trolled the actors in this foul transaction. The
man Avhom they left to Avatch LcAvis said that,
after remaining there about half an hour, he went
home ; and LcAvis was then alive. The Castle-
mans say that, after punishing Reuben, they re-
tui'ned, having been absent not more than half nu
hour, and they found him hanging by the neck,
dead. We direct attention to this part of the
testimony, to shoAV hoAv loose the statements Avero
Avhich went to make up the evidence.

AYhy was LcAvis chained at all, and a man left
to watch him .' " To secure him," say the Castle-
mans. Is it customary to chain slaves in this
manner, and set a watch over tiiem, after severe
punishment, to prevent their running aAvay ? If
the punishment of LcAvis had not been unusual,
and if he had not been threatened with another
infliction on their return, there would have been
no necessity for chaining him.

The testimony of tiie man left to watch repre-
sents him as desperate, apparently, with pain and
friglit. " LcAvis asked for a box to stand on :"
why I Was ho not suffering from pain and ex-
haustion, and did he not wish to rest himself,
Avitliout danger of sIoav strangulation ! Again :
lie asked for " sometliing he could jumpoff from ;"
" after the Castlenuxns left, he exjiressed a fear
when they came l)ack that he AA'ould be Avhinped
a"-aiu ; and said, if he had a knife, and could get
one hand loose, ho Avould cut his throat."

The punislnnent that could drive him to such
desperation must iiave been horrible.

lloAV long tiiey Avere absent avo know not, for

the testimony on tliis point is contradictory.

They found him hanging by the neck, dead, "^ his

feet thrown behind liim, his knees a few inches

[ from the Hour, and his head thrown fcrAvard," :—

f •

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

103

iTe

,ast the position he would naturally fall into, had
Jie sunk from exhaustion. They wish it to appear
that he hung himself. Coul(J this be proved (we
need hardly say that it is not) , it would relieve
but slightly the dark picture of their guilt. The
probability is that he sank, exhausted by suffering,
fatigue and fear. As to the testimony of " sur-
geons," founded upon a post-mortem examination
of the brain and blood-vessels, " that the subject
could not have fainted before strangulation," it is
not worthy of consideration. We know some-
thing of the fallacies and fooleries of such ex-
aminations.

From all we can learn, the only evidence relied
on by the prosecution was that white man em-
ployed by the Castlemans. He was dependent
upon them for work. Other evidence might have
been obtained ; why it was not is for the prosecut-
ing attorney to explain. To prove what we say,
and to show that justice has not been done in this
horrible affair, we publish the following commu-
nication from an old and highly-respectable citizen
of this place, and who is very far from being an
Abolitionist. The slave-holders whom he men-
tions are well known here, and would have
promptly appeared in the case, had the prosecu-
tion, which was aware of their readiness, sum-
moned them.

" To the Editor of the Era:

" I see that Castleman, who lately had a trial
for whipping a slave to death, in Virginia, was
' triumphantly acquitted,'' — as many expected.
There are three persons in this city, with whom I
am acquainted, who staid at Castleman's the
same night in which this aAvful tragedy was
enacted. They heard the dreadful lashing and
the heart-rending screams and entreaties of the
sufferer. They implored the only white man they
could find on the premises, not engaged in the
bloody work, to interpose ; but for a long time he
refused, on the ground that he was a dependent,
and was afraid to give offence ; and that, more-
over, they had been drinking, and he was in fear
for his own life, should he say a word that would
be displeasing to them. He did, however, ven-
ture, and returned and reported the cruel manner
in which the slaves were chained, and lashed, and
secured in a blacksmith's vice. In the morning,
when they ascertained that one of the slaves was
dead, they were so shocked and indignant that
they refused to eat in the house, and reproached
Castleman with his cruelty. lie expressed his
regret thtit the slave had died, and especially as
he had ascertained that he ivas innocent of the ac-
cusation fur which he had suffered. The idea was
that he had fainted from exhaustion ; and, the
chain being round his neck, he was strangled.
The persons I refer to are themselves slave-holders,
— hut their feelings were so harrowed and lace-
rated that they could not sleep (two of them are
ladies) ; and for many niglits afterwards their rest
was disturbed, and then- dreams made frightful,
by the appalling recollection.

" These persons would have been material wit-
nesses, and would have willingly attended on the
part of the prosecution. The knowledge they had
of the case was communicated to the proper au-
thorities, yet their attendance was not required.
The only witness was that dependent who con-
sidered his own life in danger.

"Yours, &c., J. F."

The acoDunt, as published by the friends of the

accused parties, shows a case of extreme cruelty.
The statements made by our correspondent prove
that the truth has not been fully revealed, and
that justice has been baffled. The result of the
trial shows how irresponsible is the power of a
master over his slave ; and that whatever security
the latter has is to be sought in the humanity of
the former, not in the guarantees of law. Against
the cruelty of an inhuman master he has really no
safeguard.

Our conduct in relation to this case, deferring
all notice of it in our columns till a legal investi-
gation could be had, shows that we are not dis-
posed to be captious towards our slave-holding
countrymen. In no unkind spirit have we ex-
amined this lamentable case ; but we must expose
the utter repugnance of the slave system to the
proper administration of justice. The newspapers
of Virginia generally publish the account from the
Spirit of Jeffcrso?i, without comment. They are
evidently not satisfied that justice was done ;
they doubtless will deny that the accused were
guilty of homicide, legally ; but they will not
deny that they were guilty of an atrocity which
should brand them forever, in a Chi-istian country.

CHAPTER X.

PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED. — STATE V. LE-
GREE; A CASE NOT IN THE BOOKS.

From a review of all the legal cases
which have hitherto heen presented, and of
the principles established in the judicial
decisions upon them, the following facts
must be apparent to the reader :

First, That masters do, now and then,
kill slaves by the torture.

Second, That the fact of so killing a
slave is not of itself held presumption of
murder, in slave jurisprudence.

Third, That the slave in the act of resist-
ance to his master may always be killed.

From these things it will be seen to fol-
low, that, if 'the facts of the death of Tom
had been fully proved by two white wit-
nesses, in open court, Legree could not have
been held by any consistent interpreter of
slave-law to be a murderer ; for Tom w^as
in the act of resistance to the will of his
master. His master had laid a command
on him, in the presence of other slaves.
Tom had deliberately refused to obey the
command. The master commenced chas-
tisement, to reduce him to obedience. And
it is evident, at the first glance, to every
one, that, if the law does not sustain him in
enforcing obedience in such a case, there is
an end of the whole slave power. No
Southern court would dare to decide that
Leo-ree did wrong to continue the punish-
ment, as long as Tom continued the insub-
ordination. Legree stood hy him every

104

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

moment of the time^ pressing him to yield,
and offering to let him go as soon as he did
yield. Tom's resistance was insurrection.
It was an example which could not be
allowed, for a moment, on any Southern
plantation. By the express words of the
constitution of Georgia, and by the under-
standing and usage of all slave-law, the
power of life and death is always left in the
hands of the master, in exigences like this.
This is not a case like that of Souther v.
The Commonwealth. The victim of Souther
was not in a state of resistance or insurrec-
tion. The punishment, in his case, was a
simple vengeance for a past offence, and not
an attempt to reduce him to subordination.
There is no principle of slave jurispru-
dence by which a man could be pronounced
a murderer, for acting as Legree did, in his
circumstances. Everybody must see that
such an admission would strike at the found-
ations of the slave system. To be sure,
Tom was in a state of insurrection for con-
science' sake. But the law does not, and
cannot, contemplate that the negro shall
have a conscience independent of his mas-
ter's. To allow that the negro may refuse
to obey his master whenever he thinks that
obedience would be wrong, would be to pro-
duce universal anarchy. If Tom had been
allowed to disobey his master in this case,
for conscience' sake, the next day Sihnbo
would, have had a case of conscience, and
Quimbo the next. Several of them might
very justly have thought that it was a sin
to work as they did. The mulatto Avoman
would have remembered that the command of
God forbade her to take another husband.
Motliers might have considered that it was
more their duty to stay at home and take
care of their children, when they were
young and feeble, than to work for Mr.
Legree in the cotton-field. There would
be no end to the havoc made upon cotton-
growing operations, were the negro alloAved
the right of maintaining his own conscience
on moral subjects. If the slave system is a
right system, and ought to be maintained,
Mr. Legree ought not to be blamed for his
conduct in this case ; for he did only what
was alisolutely essential to maintain the
system ; and Tom died in fanatical and fool-
hardy resistance to "the powers that be,
which are ordained of God." He followed
a sentimental impulse of his desperately
depraved heart, and neglected those "solid
to^ichings of the written word," which, as
recently elucidated, have proved so refresh-
ing to eminent political men.

CHAPTER XI.

THE TRIUMPH Of JUSTICE OVER LAW,

Having been obliged to record so many
trials in which justice has been turned away
backward by the hand of law, and equity
and common humanity have been kept out
by the bolt and bar of logic, it is a relief to
the mind to find one recent trial recorded,
in North. Carolina, in vv'hich the nobler
feelings of the human heart have burst over
formalized limits, and where the prosecution
appears to have been conducted by men,
who Avere not ashamed of possessing in their
bosoms that very dangerous and most illog-
ical agitator, a human heart. It is true
that, in giving this trial, very sorrowful,
but inevitable, inferences will force them-
selves U2)on the mind, as to that state of
public feeling which allowed such outrages
to be perpetrated in open daylight, in the
capital of Nofth Carolina, upon a hapless
woman. It would seem that the public
Avere too truly instructed in the awful doc-
trine pronounced by Judge Ruffin, that

" THE POWER OF THE MASTER MUST BE

ABSOLUTE," to think of interfering Avhile
the poor creature was dragged, barefoot and
bleeding, at a horse's neck, at the rate of
five miles an hour, through the streets of
Raleigh. It seems, also, that the most
horrible brutalities and enormities that
could be conceived of were witnessed^ with-
out any efficient interference, by a numbei
of the citizens, among whom we see the
name of the Hon. W. H. HayAVOod, of Ra-
leigh. It is a comfort to find the attorney-
general, in this case, speaking as a man
ought to speak. Certainly there can be
no occasion to Avish to pervert or overstate
the dread workings of the slave system, oi
to leave out the few comforting and encour-
aKino- features, however small the ^ncour-
agement of them may be.

The case is noAV presented, as narrated
from the published reports, by Dr. Bailey,
editor of the National Era ; a man Avhose
candor and fairness need no indorsing, as
every line that he Avrites speaks for itself

The reader may at first bo surprised to
find slave testimony in the court, till he
recollects that it is a slaA'e that is on trial,
the testimony of slaves being only null .^
Avhen it concerns Avhites.

AN' INTERESTING TRIAL.

We find in one of the Raleigh (North Caro-
lina) papers, of June 5, 1851, a report of an
interesting trial, at the spring term of the Su-
perior Court. Mima, a slave, was Indicted for '^

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

105

the murder of her master, William Smith, of
Johnston County, on the* night of the 29th of
November, 1850. The evidence for the prose-
cution was Sidney, a slave-boy, twelve years
old, who testified that, in the night, he and a
slave-girl, named Jane, were roused from sleep
by the call of their master, Smith, who had re-
turned home. Tliey went out, and found ^lima
tied to his horse's neck, with two ropes, one
round her neck, the other round her hands.
Deceased carried her into the house, jerking the
rope fastened to her neck, and tied her to a post.
He called for something to eat, threw her a piece
of bread, and, after he had done, beat her on her
naked back with a large piece of light-wood,
giving her many hard blows. In a short time,
deceased went out of the house, for a special pur-

Sose, witness accompanying him with a torch-
ght, and hearing him say that he intended " to
use the prisoner up." The light was extin-
guished, and he reentered the house for the pur-
pose of lighting it. Jane was there ; but th«
prisoner had been untied, and was not there.
While lighting his torch, he heard blows outside,
and heard the deceased cry out, two or three times,
" 0, Leah ! 0, Leah !" Witness and Jane went
out, saw the deceased bloody and struggling, were
frightened, ran back, and shut themselves up.
Leah, it seems, was mother of the prisoner, and
had run off two years, on account of cruel treat-
ment by the deceased.

Smith was speechless and unconscious till he
died, the following morning, of the wounds in-
flicted on him.

It was proved on the trial that Carroll, a white
man, living about a mile from the house of the
deceased, and whose wife was said to be the ille-
gitimate daughter of Smith, had in his possession,
the morning of the murder, the receipt given the
deceased by sheriff High, the day before, for jail
fees, and a note for thirty-five dollars, due deceased
from one Wiley Price, which Carroll collected a
short time thereafter ; also the chest-keys of the
deceased ; and no proof was offered to show how
Carroll came into possession of these articles.

The following portion of the testimony discloses
facts so horrible, and so disgraceful to the people
who tolerated, in broad daylight, conduct which
would have shamed the devil, that we copy it
just as we find it in the Raleigh paper. The
scene, remember, is the city of Raleigh.

" The defence was then opened. James Harris,
C. W. D. Ilutchings, and Hon. W. H. Haywood,
of Raleigh ; John Cooper, of Wake ; Joseph Hane
and others, of Johnston, were examined for the
prisoner. The substance of their testimony was
as follows : On the forenoon of Friday, 2yth of
November last, deceased took prisoner from Ra-
leigh jail, tied her round the neck and Avrist ;
ropes were then latched to the horse's neck ; he
cursed the prisoner several times, got on his horse,
and started off; when he got opposite the Tele-
graph ofHce, on Fayetteville-street, he pulled her
shoes and stockings off, cursed her again, went
off in a swift trot, the prisoner running after him,
doing apparently all she could to keep up ; passed
round by Peck's store ; prisoner seemed very
humble and submissive; took down the street east
of the capitol, going at the rate of five miles an
hour; continued this gait until he passed 0.
Rork's corner, about half or three-quarters of a
mile from the capitol ; that he reached Cooper's
(oae of the witnesses), thirteen miles from Ra-

leigh, about four o'clock, P. M. : that it was rain-
ing very hard ; deceased got off his horse, turned
it loose with prisoner tied to its neck ; witness
went to take deceased's horse to stable ; heard
great lamentations at the house ; hurried back ;
saw his little daughter running through the rain
from the house, much frightened ; got there ;
deceased was gouging prisoner in the eyes, and
she making outcries ; made him stop ; became
vexed, and insisted upon leaving ; did leave in a
short time, in the rain, sun about an hour high;
when he left, prisoner was tied as she was before ;
her arms and fingers were very much swollen ; the
rope around her wrist was small, and had sunk
deep into the flesh, almost covered with it; that
around the neck was large, and tied in a slip-
knot ; deceased would jerk it every now and then ;
when jerked, it would choke prisoner ; she was
barefoot and bleeding ; deceased was met some
time after dark, in about six miles of home, being
twenty- four or twenty-five from Raleigh."

Why did they not strike the monster to the
earth, and punish him for his infernal brutality?

The attorney-general conducted the prosecution
with evident loathing. The defence argued; first,
that the evidence was insuflScient to fasten the
crime upon the prisoner ; secondly, that, should
the jury be satisfied beyond a rational doubt that
the prisoner committed the act charged, it would
yet be only manslaughter.

" A single bloAV between equals Avould mitigate
a killing instanter from murder to manslaughter.
It could not, in law, be anything more, if done
under the furor brevis of passion. But the rule
was different as between master and slave. It
was necessary that this should be, to preseiTe the
subordination of the slave. The prisoner's coun-
sel then examined the authorities at length, and
contended that the prisoner's case came within
the rule laid down in The State v. Will (1 Dev.
and Bat. 121). The rule there given by Judge
Gaston is this : ' If a slave, in defence of his
life, and under circumstances strongly calculated
to excite his passions of terror and resentment^
kill his overseer or master, the homicide is, by
such circumstances, mitigated to manslaughter.'
The cruelties of the deceased to the prisoner were
grievous and long-continued. They would have
shocked a barbarian. The savage loves and thirsts
for blood ; but the acts of civilized life have not
afforded him such refinement of" torture as was
here exhibited."

The attorney-general, after discussing tlie law,
appealed to the jury " not to suffer the prejudice
which the counsel for the defence had attempted
to create against the deceased [tvhose conduct, he
admitted, was disgraceful to human nature) to in-
fluence their judgments in deciding whether the
act of the prisoner was criminal or not, and what
degree of criminality attached to it. He desired
the prisoner to have a fair and impartial trial. He
wished her to receive the benefit of every rational
doubt. It ivas her right, however humble her condi-
tion ; he hoped he had not that heart, as he certainly
had not the right by virtue of his office, to ask in her
case for anything more than he would ask from the
highest and proudest of the land on trial, that the
jury should decide according to the evidence, and
vindicate the violated law."

These were honorable sentiments.

After an able charge by Judge Ellis, the jury
retired, and, after having remained out several
hours, returned with a verdict of Not Guiltt. Of

106

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

course, we see not how they could hesitate to come
to this verdict at once.

The correspondent who furnishes the Register
with a report of tlie case says :

"It excited an intense interest in the commu-
nity in which it occurred, and, although it devel-
ops a series of cruelties shocking to human
nature, the result of the trial, nevertheless, vindi-
cates the benignity and justice of our laws tow-
ards that class of our population whose condi-
tion Northern fanaticism has so carefully and
grossly misrepresented, for their own purposes of
selfishness, agitation, and crime."

We have no disposition to misrepresent the
condition of the slaves, or to disparage the laws
of North Carolina ; but we ask, with a sincere
desire to know the truth. Do the laws of North
Carolina allow a master to practise such horrible
cruelties upon his slaves as Smith was guilty of,
•ind would the public sentiment of the city of Ra-
/eigh permit a repetition of such enormities as
were perpetrated in its streets, in the light of
day, by that miscreant 1

In conclusion, as the accounts of these
various trials contain so many shocking in-
cidents and particulars the author desires
to enter a caution against certain mistaken
uses which may be made of them, hj well-
intending persons. The crimes themselves,
which form the foundation of the trials, are
not to be considered and spoken of as speci-
mens of the common working of the slave
system. They are, it is true, the logical
and legitimate fruits of a system which
makes every individual owner an irrespons-
. ible despot. But the actual number of
them, compared with the whole number of
masters, we take pleasure in saying, is
small. It is an injury to the cause of
freedom to ground the argument against
slavery upon the frequency with which
such scenes as these occur. It misleads the
popular mind as to the real issue of the
subject. To hear many men talk, one
would think that they supposed that unless
negroes actually were whipped or burned
alive at the rate of two or three dozen a
week, there was no harm in slavery. They
seem to see nothing in the system but its
gross bodily abuses. If these are absent,
they think there is no harm in it. They do
uot consider that the twelve hours' torture
of some poor victim, bleeding away his
life, drop hj drop, under the hands of a
Souther, is only a symbol of tliat more
atrocious process by Avhich the divine, im-
mortal soul is mangled, burned, lacerated,
thrown down, stamped upon, and suffocated,
by the fiend-like force of the tyrant Slav-
ery. And as, when the torturing Avork was
done, and the poor soul flew up to the judg-
ment-seat, to stand there in awful witness,
there >vas not a vestige of humanity left in

that dishonored body, nor anything by
which it could be said, " See, this was a
man!" — so, when Slavery has finished
her legitimate work upon the soul, and
trodden out every spark of manliness, and
honor, and self-respect, and natural affec-
tion, and conscience, and religious sentiment,
then there is nothing left in the soul,
by which to say, " This was a man ! "
and it becomes necessary for judges to con-
struct grave legal arguments to prove that
the slave is a human being.

Such extreme cases of bodily abuse from
the despotic power of slavery are compara-
tively rare. Perhaps they may be paral-
leled by cases brought to light in the crim-
inal jurisprudence of other countries. They
might, perhaps, have happened anywhere;
at any rate, we will concede that they
might. But where under the sun did such
TRIALS, of such cases, ever take place,
in any nation professing to be free and
Christian? The reader of English history
will perhaps recur to the trials under Judge
Jeffries, as a parallel. A moment's reflec-
tion will convince him that there is no
parallel between the cases. The decisions
of Jeffries were the decisions of a monster,
who violently wrested law from its legiti-
mate course, to gratify his own fiendish
nature. The decisions of American slave-
law have been, for the most part, the deci-
sions of honorable and humane men, who
have wrested from their natural course the
most humane feelings, to fulfil the mandates
of a cruel law.

In the case of Jeffi'ies, the sacred forms
of the administration of justice were violat-
ed. In the case of the American decisions,
every form has been maintained. Revolt-
ing to humanity as these decisions appear,
they are strictly logical and legal.

Therefore, again, we say, Where, ever, in
any nation professing to be civilized and
Christian, did such trials, of such cases,
take place ? When were ever such legal
arguments made 7 Wlien, ever, such legal
principles judicially affirmed? Was ever
such a trial held in England as that in
Virginia, of Souther v. The Common-
wealth 7 Was it ever necessary in Eng-
land for a judge to declare on the bench,
contrary to the opinion of a loAver court,"
that the death of an apprentice, by twelve
hours' torture from his, master, di d'amomit
to murder in the fii'st degree 7 Was such a
decision, if given, accompanied by the af-
firmation of the principle, that any amoiint
of torture inflicted by the master, short of

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

107

the point of death, wag not indictable?
Not being read in English law, the writer
cannot sa j ; but there is strong impression
from within that such a decision as this
would have shaken the whole island of
Great Britain; and that such a case as
Souther v. The CommomveaUh would
never have been forgotten under the
sun. Yet it is probable that very few per-
sons in the United States ever heard of the
case, or ever would have heard of it, had it
not.laeen quoted by the New York Courier
and Enquirer as an overwhelming ex-
ample of legal humanity.

The horror of the whole matter is, that
more than one such case should ever need
to happen in a country, in order to make
the whole community feel, as one man, that
such power ought not to be left in the hands
of a master. How many such cases do
people toish to have happen? — how many
tnust happen, before they will learn that
utter despotic power is not to be trusted in
any hands'? If one white man's son or
brother had been treated in this way, under
the law of apprenticeship, the whole coun-
try would have trembled, from Louisiana to
Maine, till that law had been altered. They
forget that the black man has also a father.
It is "He that sitteth upon the circle of
the hea\'Bn3, who bringeth the princes to
nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth
as vanity."' He hath said that " When he
maketh inquisition for blood, he forgettbth
NOT the cry of the humble." That blood
which has fallen so despised to the earth, —
that blood which lawyers have quibbled over,
in the quiet of legal nonchalance, discussing
in great ease whether it fell by murder in the
first or second degree, — HE will one day
reckon for as the blood of his own child.
He " is not slack concerning his promises,
as some men count slackness, but is long-
suffering to usward;" but the day of ven-
geance is surely coming, and the year of
his redeemed is in his heart.

Another court will^ sit upon these trials,
when the Son of Man shall come in his glory.
It will be not alone Souther, and such as he,
that will be arraigned there ; but all those in
this nation, north and south, who have abetted
the system, and made the laws which jiade
Souther what he was. In that court negro
testimony will be received, if never before ;
and the judges and the counsellors, and the
chief men, and the mighty men, marshalled
to that awful bar, will say to the mountains
and the rocks. " Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him that sitteth on

the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb."

The wrath of the Lamb ! Think of it !
Think that Jesus Christ has been present,
a witness. — a silent witness through every
such scene of torture and anguish, — a silent
witness in every such court, calmly hearing
the evidence given in, the lawyers pleading,
the bills filed, and cases appealed! And
think what a heart Jesus Christ has, and
with what age-long patience he has sufiered ?
What awful depths are there in that word,
LONG-SUFFERIN-G ! and what must be that
wrath, when, after ages of endurance, this
dread accumulation of Avrong and anguish
comes up at last to judgment !

CHAPTER XL

A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAN LAW OP
SLAVERY WIT? THE AMERICAN.

The writer has expressed the opinion
that the American law of slavery, taken
throughout, fs a more severe one than that
of any other civilized nation, ancient or
modern, if we except, perhaps, that of
the Spartans. She has not at hand the
means of comparing French and Spanish
slave-codes ; but, as it is a common remark
that Roman slavery was much more severe
than any that has ever existed in America,
it will be well to compare the Roman with
the American law. We therefore present
a description of the Roman slave-law, as
quoted by William Jay, Esq., from Blair's
^Inquiry itito the State of Slavery among
the Romans,^' gj^ing such references to
American authorities as will enable the
reader to make his own comparison, and to
draw his own inferences.

I. The slave had no protection against the avarice,
rage, or lust of the master, ivhose authority leas
founded in absolute property ; and the bond?nan
laas viewed less as a human being subject to arbitrary
dominion, than as an inferior animal, depcTideni
wholly on the will of his owner.

See law of South Carolina, in Stroud's
'■^Sketch of the Laics of Slavery,''^ p. 23.

' Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed

and adjudged in law to be chattels per- ^ srev. Dig.

sonal in the hands of their owners and 22a Prince's

possessors, and their executors, admin- _,^'f; '^:
!.^ J • i, 11 -ii. Cobb's Dig.

istrators and assigns, to all intents, 972.

constructions, and purposes whatever.

A slave is one who is in the lou. cirii CoA^
power of a master to whom he art. 35. stiwia'a
belongs Sketch, psa

108

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Such obedience is the consequence only

Judge iiuf- of" uncontrolled authority over the body.
uTttie^ca^j'of i'l'Gre is nothing else which can op-
rue State v. crate to produce the eifect. The power
Mann. \Vhee- gf ^^e niaster must be absolute, to ren-
^veryi 240. ^^'^ t'^^ submission of the slave perfect.

II. At first, the master possessed the uncontrolled
power of life and death.

Judge Clarke, in case of ^^M * Very early period in

State of .Miss. v. Jones. Virginia, the power or lite over

Wheeler, 252. slavcs was given by statute.

m. He might kill, mutilate or torture his slaves,
for any or no offence ; he wight force them to become
gladiators or prostituies.

The privilege of killing is now some-
what abridged; as to mutilation and tor-
ture, see the case of Souther v. The Com-
montveallh, 7 Grattan.^ 673, qu'oted in
Chapter III., above. Also State v. Mann^
in the same chapter, from Wheeler.^ p. 244.

IV. The temporary unions of male with female
slaves were formed and dissolved at his command ;
fa/nilies and friends were separated when he pleased.

See the decision of Judge Mathews in
the case of Girod v. Lewis, Wheeler, 199 :

It is clear, that slaves have no legal capacity to
assent to any contract. With the consent of their
master, they may marry, and their moral power
to agree to such a contract or connection as that
of marriage cannot be doubted ; but whilst in a
state of slavery it cannot produce any civil effect,
because slaves are deprived of all civil rights.

See also the chapter below on " the sep-
aration of families," and the files of any
southern newspaper, passim.

V. The laics recognized no obligation upon the
mvners of slaves, to furnish them ivith food and
clothing, or to take care of them in sickness.

The extent to which this deficiency in
the Roman law has been supplied in the
American, by '^protective acts,'' has been
exhibited above.*

VI. Slaves could have no property but hy the suf-
ferance of their master, for whom they acquired
everytliing, and with whom they could form no en-
gagements which could he binding on him.

The following chapter will show how far
American legislation is in advance of that
of the Romans, in that it makes it a penal
oiFence on the part of the master to permit
his slave to hold property, and a crime
on the ])art of the slave to be so permitted.
For the present purpose, we give an extract
from the Civil code of Louisiana, as quoted
by Judge Stroud :

• See also the case of State v. Abram, 10 Ala. 928. lU.
B. Dig. p. 449. "Tho master or ovor.secr, and not the
clave, 18 tho proper judjje whctlier tho slave is too sick to
be able to labi^r. The latter cannot, therefore, resist tho
oedar of the former to go to work."

A slave is one who is in the power of a mastef
to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, •
dispose of his person, his industry, (,j^.j, ^^^
and his labor ; he can do nothing, Article 35.'
possess nothing, nor acquire anything Stroud, p. 22.
but what must belong to his master.

According to Judge RuflBn, a slave is
"one doomed in his own person, and his
posterity, to live without knowl- -mi-ier's Law
edge, and Avithout the capacity to •^o^'^'suTe v'. -
make anything his own, and to ^^*^-
toil that another may reap the fruits."

With reference to the binding power of
engagements between master and slave, the
following decisions from the Uijitgd States
Digest are in point (7, p. 449) :

All the acquisitions of the slave i* possession
are the property of his master, not- *
withstanding the promise of his mas- ve^.'^o^u*^^
ter that the slave shall have certain of ' 424.
them.

A slave paid money which he had earned over
and above his wages, for thjB purchase of his
children into the hands of B, and B purchased
such children with the money. Held that
the master of such slave was entitled to ' "
recover the money of B.

Vii. The master might transfer his rights by
either sale or gift, or might bequeath them by will.

Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed
and adjudged in law, to be chattels Law of s. Car-
personal in the hands of their owners oi'ia- Cobb'j
and possessors, and their executors, '°*^'' ^'^'
administrators, and assigns, to all intents, con-
structions, and purposes whatsoever.

VIII. A master selling, giving, or bequeathing
a slave, sometimes made it a provision that he should
never be carried abroad, or that he should be 7nanu-
mittcd on a fixed day ; or that, on the other hand,
he should never be emancipated, or that he should be
kept in chains for life.

We hardly think that a provision that*- a

slave should never be emancipated, or that

he should be kept in chains for

^'i'hX' u.^'.^' life, would be sustained. A pro-

ucp. 1, 5 u. s. vision that the slave should not

Jjig. 792, § 5. , . , i r xi i- i.

be earned out 01 the state, or
sold, and that on the happening of either
ev'ent he should \fR free, has been sustained.
The remainder of Blair's account of Ro-
man slavery is devoted rather to the practices
of masters than the state of the law itself
Surely, the writer is not called upon to
exhibit in tlie society of enlightened, repub-
lican and Christian America, in the nine-
teenth century, a parallel to the atrocities
committed in pagan Rome, under the scep-
tre of the persecuting Ca;sars, when the
amphitheatre was the favorite resort of the
most refined of her citizens, as well as the
great " school of morals" for the multitude.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

109

A fevf references only will show, as far as
we desire to show, how much safer it is now
to trust man with absolute power over his
fellow, than it was then.

IX. While slaves turned the handmill they were
generally chained, and. had a broad wooden collar, to
■prevail them from eating the grain. The furca,
which in later language means a gibbet, tvas, in older
dialect, used to denote a wooden fork or collar, wJdch
was made to bear upon their shoulders, or around
their necks, as a mark of disgrace, as much as an
uneasy burden.

The reader has already seen, in Chapter
v., that this instrument of degradation has
been in use, in our own day, in certain of
the slave stateS, under the express sanction
and protection of statute laws ; although the
material is different, and the construction
doubtless improved by modern ingenuity.

X. Fetters and chains were much used for pun-
ishment (fr restraint, and were, in some instances,
worn by slaves during life, through the sole author-
ity of the master. Porters at the gates of the rich
were generally chained. Field laborers worked for
the most part in irons posterior to the first ages of
the republic.

The Legislature of South Carolina spec-
ially sanctions the same practices, by except-
ing them in the ^'■'protective enactment,^''
which inflicts the penalty of one hundred
pounds " in case any person shall wilfully
cut out the tongue," &c., of a slave, " or
shall inflict any other cruel punishment,
other than by whipping or beating with-
a horse-whip, cowskin, switch, or small stick,
or hij putting irons on, or confining or
imprisoning such slave."

XI. Some persons v^de it their business to catch
runaway slaves.

That such a profession, constituted by the
highest legislative authority in the nation,
and rendered respectable by the commenda-
tion expressed or implied of statesmen and
divines, and of newspapers political and re-
ligious, exists in our midst, especially in
the free states, is a fact which is, day by
day, making itself too apparent to need tes-
timony. The matter seems, however, to be
managed in a more perfectly open and busi-
ness-like manner in the State of Alabama
than elsewhere. Mr. Jay cites the follow-
ing advertisement from the Sumj>ter County
(Ala.) Whig:

NEGRO DOGS.

The undersigned having bought the entire pack
of Negro Dogs (of the Hay and Allen stock) , he
now proposes to catch runaway negroes. His
charges will be Three Dollars per day for hunting,
and Fifteen Dollars for catching a runaway. He

resides three and one half, miles north of Living-
ston, near the lower Jones' Blafl'road.

William Gambei,.
Nov. 6, 1845. — 6m.

^he following is copied, verbatim et lit-
eratim, and with the pictorial embellish-
ments, from The Dadeinlle (Ala.) Ban-
7ier, of November 10th, 1852. The
Dadeville Banner is " devoted to politics,
literature, education, agriculture, 4"^."

NOTICE.

The undersigned having an excel- ^-- ^

• lentpack of Hounds, for trailing and^=i:^^
catching runaway slaves, informs the public that
his prices in future will be as follows for such
services :
For each day employed in hunting or

trailing, $2.50

For catching each slave, _ - - 10.00
For going over ten miles and catching

slaves, 20.00

If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in
cash. The subscriber resides one mile and a
half south of Dadeville, Ala.

B. Black.

Dadeville, Sept. 1, 1852. • Itf

XTI. The runaivay, when taken, was severely
punished by authority of the master, or by the judge,
at his desire ; sometimes ivith crucifixion, amputa-
tion of a foot, or by being sent to fight as a gladia-
tor with wild beasts ; but most frequently by being
branded on the brow with letters indicative of his
crime.

That severe punishment would be the lot
of the recaptured runaway, every one would
suppose, from the " absolute j)ower " of the
master to inflict it. That it is inflicted in
many cases, it is equally easy and needless
to prove. The peculiar forms of punish-
ment mentioned above are now very much
out of vogue, but the following advertise-
ment by Mr. Micajah Ricks, in the Raleigh
(N. C.) Standard of July 18th, 1838,
shows that something of classic taste in tor-
ture still lingers in our degenerate days.

Ran away, a negro woman and two children ;
a few days before she went off, I burnt her with
a hot iron, on the left side of her face. I tried to
make the letter M.

It is charming to notice the na'if be-
trayal of literary pride on the part of Mr.
Ricks. He did not wish that letter M to be
taken as a specimen of what he could do in
the way of writing. The creature would
not hold still, and he fears the M may be
ilegible.

The above is only one of a long list of
advertisements of maimed, cropped and
branded negroes, in the book of Mr. "Weld,
entitled American Slavery as It Is, p. 77.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

XIII. Cntei, rnaxd s sometimes hired torturers
by profession, or had such persons in their estab-
lishments, to assist them in punishing their slaves.
The noses and ears and teeth of slaves were often
in danger from an enraged owner; and sometimes
the eyes of a great offender were fut out. Crucifix-
. on icas very frecptrnthj made the fate of a wretched
ilave for a trifling misconduct, or from mere
reprice.

For justification of suet practices as
these, we refcK again to tliat horriblQ list of
maimeil and mutilated men, advertised by-
slaveholders themselves, in Weld's Ameri-
can Slavery/ as It Is, p. 77. We recall the
reader's attention to the evidence of the
monster Kephart, given in Part I. As to
crucifixion, we presume that there are
wretches whose religious scruples would de-
ter them from this particular form of torture,
who would not hesitate to inflict equal cruel-
ties by other means ; as the Greek pirate,
during a massacre in the season of Lent, was
conscience-stricken at having tasted a drop of
blood. We presume ? — Let any one but read
again, if he can. the sickening; details of that
twelve hours' torture of Souther's slave,
and say how much more merciful is Ameri-
can slavery than Roman.

The last item in Blair's description of
Roman slavery is the following :

By a decree passed by the Senate, if a master
u^as ?niirdered when his slaves might possibly have
aided him, all his household within reach were held
as implicated, and deserving of death ; and Tacitus
relates an instance in whidi a family of four hundred
were all executed.

To this alone, of all the atrocities of the
slavery of old heathen Rome, do we fiiil to
find a parallel in the slavery of the United
States of America.

There are other respects, in which Amer-
ican lea;islation has reached a refinement in
tyranny of which the despots of those early
days never conceived. The following is the
language of Gibbon :

Hope, the best comfort of our impei'fect con-
dition, was not denied to the Roman slave ; and if
be had any opportunity of rendering himself either
useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect
that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would
be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom.
• * * Without destroying the distinction of
ranks, a distant prospect of freedt)m and honors
was pi-esented even to those whom pride and pre-
judice almost disdained to number among the
human species.*

The yctutlis of promising genius were in-
structed in the arts and sciences, and their price
was ascertained by the degree of their skill and
talents. Almost every profession, either liberal
or meciianical, might be found in the household of
an opulent senator, f

* GiLlion's " Decline and Fall." Cbap. ii. t ToW.

The following chapter will show how
"the best comfort" which Gibbcn knew for
human adversity is taken away from the
American slave ; how he is denied the com-
monest privileges of education and mental
improvement, and how the whole tendency
of the unhappy system, under which he is
in bondage, is to take from him the conso-
lations of religion itself, and to degrade him
from our common humanity, and common
brotherhood with the Son of God.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE MEX BETTER THAN THEIR LAWS.

Judgment is turned away backward,
And Justice standeth afar off;
For Truth is fallen in the street,
And Equity cannot enter.
Yea, Truth faileth ;

And HE THAT DEPARTETH FROM EVIL MAKETH HIMSELF A

PREv. Isaiah 59; 14, 15.

There is one very remarkable class of
laws yet to be considered.

So full of cruelty and of vmmerciful se-
verity is the slave-code, — such an atrocity
is the institution of which it is the legal
definition, — that there are multitudes of
individuals too generous and too just to be
willing to go to the full extent of its restric-
tions and deprivations.

A generous man, instead of regarding
the poor slave as a piece of property, dead,
and void of rights, is tempted to regard him
rather as a helpless younger brother, or as
a defenceless child, and to extend to him,
by his own good right arm, that protection
and those rights which the law denies him.
A religious man, who, by the theory of his
belief, regards all men as brothers, and con-
siders his Christian slave, with himself, as a
member of Jesus Christ, — as of one body,
one spirit, and called in one hope of his
calling, — cannot willingly see him " doomed
to live without knowledge," without the
power of reading the written Word, and to
raise up his childi'cn after him in the same
darkness.

Hence, if left to itself, individual hu-
manity would, in many cases, practically
abrogate the slave-code. Individual human-
ity would teach the slave to read and write,
— would build school-houses for 'his chil-
dren, and would, in very, very many cases,
enfranchise him.

The result of all this has been foreseen.
It has been foreseen that the result of edu-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Ill

cation would bi3 general intelligence ; that
the result of inteUigence would be a knowl-
edo-e of personal rights ; and that an inquiry
into the doctrine of personal rights would
be fatal to the system. It has been foreseen,
also, that the example of disinterestedness
and generosity, in emancipation, might carry
with it a generous contagion, until it should
become universal ; that the example of edu-
cated and emancipated slaves would prove a
dangerous excitement to those still in bondage.

For this reason, the American slave-code,
which, as we have already seen, embraces,
substantially, all the barbarities of that of
ancient Rome, has had added to it a set of
laws more cruel than any which ancient and
heathen Rome ever knew, — laws (^ei.^ned
to shut against the slave his last rvfxuge, —
the humanity of his master. The master,
in ancient Rome, might give his slave what-
ever advantages of education he chose, or at
any time emancipate him, and the state did
not interfere to prevent *

But in America the laws, throughout all
the slave states, most rigorotisly forbid, in
the first place, the education of the slave.
We do not profess to give all these laws, but
a few striking specimens may be presented.
Our authority is Judge Stroud's "Sketch
of the Laws of Slavery."

The legislature of South Carolina, in
1740, enounced the following preamble : —
Stroud's Sketch, " Whcrcas, the having of slaves
p- ^^- taught to write, or suffering
them to be employed in writing, may be at-
tended with o-rea? incon'veniences ;'''' and
enacted that the crime of teaching a slave to
write, or of employing a slave as a scribe,
should be punished by a fine of one hundred
j)ounds, current money. If the reader will
turn now to the infamous " protective "
statute, enacted by the same legislature, in
the same year, he will find that the sa7ne
penalty has been appointed for the cutting
out of the tongue, putting out of the eye,
cruel scalding, &c., of any slave, as for the
offence of teaching him to write ! That is
to say, that to teach him to Avrite, and to put
out his eyes, are to be regarded as equally
reprehensible.

That there might be no doubt of the
"great and fundamental pohcy" of the
state, and that there' might be full security
against the '■'great inconveniences^^ of
" having of slaves taught to write," it was

* In and after the reign of Augustus, certain restrictive
regulations were passed, designed to prevent an increase
of unworthy citizens by emancipation. They had, how-
eyer, nothing like the stringent force of American la^vs.

enacted, in 1800, " That assemblies of slaves,
free negroes, kc. * * * * for the
purpose of mental instruction, in a con-
fined or secret place, &c. &c., is [are] de-
clared to be an unlawful meeting ; " and the
officers are required to enter such confined
places, and disperse the "unlawful assem-
blage," inflicting, at their discretion, ^-such
corporal punishment^ not exceeding twenty
lashes, upon such slaves, free stroucvs sketch,
negroes, &c., as they may judge ^;,,^^sDiS;
necessary for deterring them, pp- 254^-5.
from -the like unlawful assemblage in
future.''^

The statute-book of Virginia is adorned
with a law similar to the one last ^"gg'^'sg.PP"
quoted.

The offence of teaching a slave to write
was early punished, in Georgia, as in South
Carolina, by a pecuniary fine. But the
city of Savannah seems to have found this
penalty insufficient to protect it from ' ^ great
inconveniences" and we learn, by a quot-
ation in the work of Judge Stroud from
a number of "The Portfoho," that "the
city has passed an ordinance, by which any
person that teaches any person of color,
slave or free, to read or write, or causes
such person to be so taught, is gtroud's sketch,
subjected to a fine of thuty dol- pp- ^9, so.
lars for each offence ; and every person of
color who shall keep a school, to teach
reading or writing, is subject to a fine of
thirty dollars, or to be imprisoned ten days,
and whipped thirty -nine lashes."

Secondly. In regard to religious privi-
leges :

The State of Georgia has enacted a law,
" To protect religious societies in the exer-
cise of their religious duties." This law,
after appointing rigorous penalties for the
offence of interrupting or disturbing a con-
gregation of vahite persons, concludes in the
following words :

No congregation, or company of negroes,
shall, nndev pretence of divine icorship, stroud, p. 92.
assemble themselves, contrary to the Prince's Digest,
act regulating patrols. ^'

" The act regulating patrols," as quoced
by the editor of Prince's Digest, empowers
every justice of the peace to disperse ANT
assembly or meeti?ig of slaves „

, . , '' ,. 11 Stroud, p. 93.

which fnay aisturb the peace, irince's Digest,
&c., of his majesty's subjects, ^''^^''
and permits that every slave found at such
a meeting shall " itrmiediately be corrected,
"WITHOUT TRIAL, by receiving on the bare
back twenty-five stripes with a whip,
sjcitch. or couskin.'^

112

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

The history of legislation in South Caro-
lina is significant. An act was passed in
1800, containing the following section :

Ifc shall not be lawful for any number of

slaves, free negroes, mulattoes or mestizoes, even
in company with white persons, to meet together
Stroud p. 93. ^^^ assemble for the purpose of men-
2 Brevard's tal instruction or religious worship,
Dig. 254, 255. either before the rising of the sun, or
after the going down of the same. And all magis-
trates, sheriffs, militia officers, &c. &c., are hereby
vested with power, &c., for dispersing such
assemblies, &c.

The law just quoted seems somehow to
have had a prejudicial effect upon the reli-
gious interests of the " slaves, free negroes,"
&c., specified in it; for, three years after-
wards, on the petition of certain religious
societies, a '•'• i^otective act'''' was passed,
which should secure them this great re-
Ugioiis privilege ; to wit, that it should be
unlawful, before nine o'clock, " to break
into a place of meeting, wherein shall be
assembled the members of any religious so-
ciety of this state, prov'ided a majority of
them shall be white persons, or otherwise
to disturb their devotion, unless such per-
son shall have first obtained * * * *
a warrant, &c."

Thirdly. It appears that many masters,
who are disposed to treat their slaves gen-
erously, have allowed them to accumulate
property, to raise, domestic animals for their
own use, and, in the case of intelligent
servants, to go at large, to hire their OAvn
time, and to trade upon their own account.
Upon all these practices the law comes
down, with unmerciful severity. A penalty
is inflicted on the owner, but, with a rigor
quite accordant with the tenor of slave-law
the offence is considered, in law, as that of
the slave, rather than that of the master ;
80 that, if the master is generous enough not
to regard the penalty which is imposed upon
himself, he may be restrained by the fear
of bringing a greater evil upon his depend-
ent. These laws are, in some cases, so con-
structed as to make it for the interest of the
lowest and most brutal part of society that
they be enforced, by offering half the profits
to the informer. We give the following, as
specimens of slave legislation on this sub-
ject:

The law of South Carolina :

It shall not be lawful for any slave to buy,
sell, trade, &c., for any goods, &c., without a
license from the owner, &c.; nor shall any slave bo
permitted to keep any boat, periaugor,* or canoe,

Stroud, p. 47

I. t. Poriagua.

or raise and breed, for the benefit of such slave,
any horses, mares, cattle, sheep, or hogs, under
pain of forfeiting all the goods, &c., and all the
boats, periaugers, or canoes, horses, mares, cattle,
sheep or hogs. And it shall be law- „. , .„

c \ c 1. X i Stroud, pp. 46,

tul tor any person whatsoever to 47. james' Di
seize and take away from any slave s=3t, 385. 386.
all such ^oods, &c., boats, &c. &c., Actofi740.
and to deliver the same into the hands of any jus-
tice of the peace, nearest to the place where the
seizure shall be made ; and such justice shall take
the oath of the person making such seizure, con-
cerning the manner thereof; and if tlie said jus-
tice shall be satisfied that such seizure has been
made according to law, he shall pronounce and
declare the goods so seized to be forfeited, and
order the same to be sold at public outcry, one
half of the moneys arising from such sale to go to
the state, and the other half to him or them that
sue for the same.

The laws in many other states are similar
to the above ; but the State of Georgia has
an additional provision, against per- 2 Cobb's
mitting the slave to hire himself to ^'s- ^■^i-
another for his own benefit ; a penalty of
thirty dollars is imposed for every weekly
offence, on the part of the master, unless
the labor be done on his own premises.
Savannah, Augusta, and Sunbury, are places
excepted.

In Virginia, "if the master shall permit
his slave to hire himself out," the
slave is to be apprehended, (fcc.,""
and the master to be fined.

In an early act of the legislature of the
orthodox and Presbyterian State of North
Carolina, it is gratifying to see how the judi-
cious course of public policy is made to
subserve the i^jterests of Christian charity,
— how, in a single ingenious sentence, pro-
vision is made for punishing the offender
against society, rewarding the patriotic in-
former, and feeding the poor and destitute :

All horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, that, one
month after the passing of this act, shall
belong to any slave, or be of any slave's sketch^47.
mark, in this state, shall be seized and
sold by the county wardens, and by them applied,
the one-half to the support of the poor of the
county, and the other half to the informer.

In Mississippi a fine of fifty dollars is
imposed upon the master who permits his
slave to cultivate cotton for his own
use ; or who licenses his slave to
go at large and trade as a freeman ; or who
is convicted of pernjitting his slave to keep
" stock of (iny description.'^

To show how the above law has, been in-
terpreted by the highest judicial tribunal of ■
the sovereign State of Mississippi, we repeat
here a portion of a decision of Chief Justice
Sharkey, which we have elsewhere given
more in full

Stroud, p. 4a.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

113

Independent of the principles laid down in ad-
judicated cases, our statute-law prohibits slaves
from owning certain kinds of property ; and it
may be inferred that the legislature supposed
they were extending the act as far as it could be
necessary to exclude them from owning any prop-
erty, as the prohibition includes that kind of
property which they would most likely be per-
mitted to own without interruption, to wit : hogs,
horses, cattle, &c. They cannot be prohibited
from holding such property in consequence of its
being of a dangerous or offensive character, but be-
cause it ivas deemed impolitic for them to hold prop-
erty of any description.

It was asserted, at the beginning of this
head, that the permission of the master to a
?lave to hire his own time is, by law, con-
sidered the ojQfence of the slave ; the slave
being subject to prosecution therefor, not
the master. This is evident from the tenor
of some of the laws quoted and alluded to
above. It will be still further illustrated by
the following decisions of the courts of North
Carolina. They are copied from the Sup-
plement to the U. S. Digest, vol. n. p. 798 :

139. An indictment charging that a certain

negro did hire her own time,
'■"''^5^Sii^22l!'^" contrary to the form of the stat-
' " ' ute, &c., is defective and must
be quashed, because it was omitted to be charged
that she ivas permitted by her master to go at large,
johich is one essential part of the offence.

140. Under the first clause of the thirty-first
section of the 111th chapterof the Revised Statutes,
prohibiting masters from hiring to slaves their
own time, the master is not indictable; he is only
subject to a penalty of forty dollars. Nor is the
master indictable under the second clause of that
section ; the process being against the slave, not
against the master. — lb.

142. To constitute the offence under section 32
(Rev. Stat. c. cxi. ^ 32) it is not necessary that
the slave should have hired his time ; it is suffi-
cient if the master permits him to go at large as
a freeman.

This is maintaining the ground that
" ^/te master can do no wrong " with great
consistency and thoroughness. But it is in
perfect keeping, both in form and spirit,
with the whole course of slave-law, which
always upholds the supremacy of the master,
and always depresses the slave.

Fourthly. Stringent laws against eman-
cipation exist m nearly all the slave states.

In four of the states, — South Carolina,
Stroud, 147. Prince's ^^eorgia, Alabama, and Mis-
Dig. 456. James- Dig. sissippi, — emancipation cau-

393. Toulmin's Dig. . -S^ ' jv. ^ i ^ ^ ^

«:J2. Miss. Rev. Code, not DC enected, cxccpt Dy a
^^^' special act of the legislature

of the state.

In Georgia, the offence oi setting free
" any slave, or slaves, in any other manner
and form than the one prescribed," was pun-
ishable, according to the law of 1801, by
8

the forfeiture of two hundred dollars, to be
recovered by action or indictment ; the
slaves in question still remaining, " to all
intents and purposes, as Tnuch in a state
of slavery as before they were manu-
mitted.^^

Believers in human progress will be in-
terested to know that since the law of 1801
there has been a reform introduced into this
part of the legislation of the republic of
Georgia. In 1818, a new law was passed,
which, as will be seen, contains a grand
remedy for the abuses of the old. In this
it is provided, with endless variety of spe-
cifications and synonyms, as if to " let sus-
picion double-lock the door " against any
possible evasion, that, "All and every will,
testament and deed, whether by way of
trust or otherwise, contract, or agreement,
or stipulation, or other instrument in writing
or by parol, made and executed for the
purpose of effecting, or endeavoring to effect,
the manumission of any slave or slaves,
either directly ... or indirectly, or vir-
tually, &c. &c., shall be, and the same are
hereby, declared to be utterly null and
void." And the guilty author of the out-
rage against the peace of the state, contem-
plated in such deed, &c. &c., " and all and
every person or persons concerned in giving
or attempting to give effect thereto, . . .
in any way or manner whatsoever, shall be
severally liable to a penalty not exceeding
one thousand dollars."

It would be quite anomalous in slave-law,
and contrary to the " great and fundamental
policy " of slave states, if the negroes who^,
not having the fear of God before their eye&,
but being instigated by the devil, should be
guilty of being thus manumitted, were suf-
fered to go unpunished; accordingly, the law
very properly and judiciously provides
that " each and every slave or slaves in
whose behalf such will or testament, &c.
&c. &c., shall have been made, shall be
liable to be arrested by war- „, ., c, . u

P 1 7 . ■ 7 Stroud's Sketch, pp.

rant, &;c. ; and, being there- 147—8. Prince'sDig.
of convicted, &c., shall be *^^"
liable to be sold as a slave or slaves by pub-
lic outcry ; and the proceeds of such slaves
shall be appropriated, &c. &c."

Judge Stroud gives the following account
of the law of Mississippi :

The emancipation must be by an instrument in
ivriting, a last will or deed, &c., pt^oud's Sketch, U9.
under seal, attested by at least two miss. Kev. Code, ass
credible witnesses, or acknowledged —6 (Act June 18,
in the court of the county or cor- ^
poration where the emancipator resides ; prooj
satisfactory to theGeneral Assembly must be ad-

114

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

(luced that the elaye has done sorm meritorious act
for the benefit of his master, or rendered some distin-
guished ser dec' to the state; all which circumstances
are l;ut pre-requisites, and are of no efficacy until a
special act of assembly sanctions the emancipation ;
to which may be added, as has been already stated,
a saving of the rights of creditors, and the protec-
tion of the ividow^s thirds.

The same pre-requisite of " meritorious
services^ to be adjudged of and allowed by
the county court," is exacted by an act of
the General Assembly of North Carolina ;
and all slaves emancipated contrary to the
provisions of this act are to be committed to
the jail of the county, and at the next court
held for that county are to be sold to the
highest bidder.

But the law of North Carolina does not
refuse opportunity for repentance, even after
the crime has been proved : accordingly,

The sheriff is directed, five days before the time

a. j> oi » », for the sale of the emancipated negro,

Stroud's Sketch, , . ,. . •,• ^, .1 °

148. Haywood's to give notice, in vsTiting, to the per-

Manuai,525,526, ggn by whom the emancipation was

^^^' ^^^- made, to the end,

and with the hope that, smitten by remorse
of conscience, and brought to a sense of his
guilt before God and man,

such person may, if he thinks proper, renew
his claim to the negro so emancipated by him ; on
failure to do which, the sale is to be made by the
sheriff, and one-fifth part of the net proceeds is to
become the property of the freeholder by whom
the apprehension was made, and the remaining
four-fifths are to be paid into the public treasury.

It is proper to add that we have given
examples of the laws of states Avhose legis-
lation on this subject has been most severe.

a^ , The laws of Virginia, Maryland,
Stroud, pp. ,-. . ^.^ , ,0 ? J . )

148—154. jNlissouri, Kentucky and Louisiana,
are much less stringent,

A striking case, which shows how inex-
orably the law contends with the kind de-
signs of the master, is on record in the
reports of legal decisions in the State of
Mississippi. The circumstances of the case
have been thus briefly stated in the New

York Evening Post, edited by Mr. Wil-
liam Cullen Bryant. They are a romance
of themselves.

A man of the name of Elisha Brazealle, a
planter in Jefferson County, Mississippi, was at-
tacked with a loathsome disease. During his ill-
ness he was faithfully nursed by a mulatto slave,
to whose assiduous attentions he felt that he owed
his life, lie was duly impressed by her devotion,
and soon after his recovery took her to Ohio, and
had her educated. She was very intelligent, and
improved her advantages so rapidly that when he
visited her again he determined to marry her. He
bxecuted a deed for her emancipation, and had it

recorded both in the States of Ohio and Mlfisia
sippi, and made her his wife.

Mr, Brazealle returned with her to Missis
sippi, and in process of time had a son. After a
few years he sickened and died, leaving a will, in
which, after reciting the deed of emancipation, he
declared his intention to ratify it, and devised all
his property to this lad, acknowledging him in the
will to be such.

Some poor and distant relations in North Car-
olina, whom he did not know, and for whom he
did not care, hearing of his death, came on to Mis-
sissippi, and claimed the property thus devised.
They instituted a suit for its recovery, and the
case (it is reported in Howard's Mississippi Re-
ports, vol. II., p. 837) came before Judge Sharkey,
our new consul at Havana. He decided it, and
in that decision declared the act of emancipati 3D
an offence against morality, and pernicious and
detestable as an example. He set aside the will,
gave the property of Brazealle to his distant rela-
tions, condemned Brazealle' s son,, and his wife, that
son's mother, again to bondage, and made them
the slaves of these North Carolina kinsmen, as
part of the assets of the estate.

Chief Justice Sharkey, after narrating
the circumstances of the case, declares the
validity of the deed of emancipation to be
the main question in the controversy. He
then argues that, although according to
principles of national comity ' ' contracts
are to be construed according to the laws
of the country or state where they are
made," yet these principles are not to be
followed when they lead to conclusions in
conflict with ' ' the great and fundamental
pohcy of the state." What tliis " great and
fundamental policy" is, in Mississippi,
may be gathered fi'om the remainder of
the decision, which we give in full. ■

Let us apply these principles to the deed of
emancipation. To give it validity would be, in
the first place, a violation of the declared policy,
and contrary to a positive law of the state.

The policy of a state is indicated by the gen-
eral course of legislation on a given subject ; and
we find that free negroes are deemed offensive,
because they are not permitted to emigrate to or
remain in the state. They are allowed few privi-
leges, and subject to heavy penalties for offences.
They are required to leave the state within thirty
days after notice, and in the mean time give secu-
rity for good behavior ; and those of them who can
lawfully remain must register and carry with
them their certificates, or thej may be committed
to jail. It would also violate a positive law,
passed by the legislature, expressly to maintain
this settled policy, and to prevent emancipation.
No owner can emancipate his slave, but by a deed
or will properly attested, or acknowledged in court,
and proof to the legislature that such slave has
performed some meritorious act for the benefit of
the master, or some distinguished service for the
state ; and the deed or will can have no validity
until ratified by special act of legislature. It is
believed that this law and policy are too essen-
tially important to the interests ot our citizens t«
permit them to be evaded.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

115

The state of the case shows conclusively that
the contract had its origin in an offence against
morality, pernicious and detestable as an example.
But, above all, it seems to have been planned and
executed with a fixed design to evade the rigor of
the laws of this stat6. The acts of the party in
going to Ohio with the slaves, and tJaere execut-
ing the deed, and his immediate return with them
to this state, point with unerring certainty to his
purpose and object. The laws of this state can-
not be thus defrauded of their operation by one of
our OAvn citizens. If we could have any doubts
about the principle, the case reported in 1 Ran-
dolph, 15, would remove them.

As we think the validity of the deed must
depend upon the laws of this state, it becomes
unnecessary to inquire whether it could have any
force by the laws of Ohio. If it were even valid
there, it can have no force here. The consequence
is, that the negroes, John Monroe and his mother,
are still slaves, and a part of the estate of Elisha
Brazealle. They have not acquired a right to
their freedom under the will ; for, even if the
clause in the will were sufficient for that purpose,
their emancipation has not been consummated by
an act of the legislature.

John Monroe, being a slave, cannot take the
property as devisee ; and I apprehend it is equal-
I}' clear that it cannot be held in trust for him.
4 Desans. Rep. 266. Independent of the princi-

{)le8 laid down in adjudicated cases, our statute
aw prohibits slaves from owning certain kinds of
property ; and it may be inferred that the legis-
lature supposed they were extending the act as
far as it could be necessary to exclude them from
owning any property, as the prohibition includes
that kind of property which they would most
likely be permitted to own vrithout interruption ,
to wit, hogs, horses, cattle, &c. They cannot be
prohibited from holding such property in conse-
quence of its being of a dangerous or offensive
character, but because it was deemed impolitic
for them to hold property of any description. It
follows, therefore, that his heirs are entitled to
the property.

As the deed was void, and the devisee could
not take under the will, the heirs might, perhaps,
have had a remedy at law ; but, as an account
must be taken for the rents and profits, and for
the final settlement of the estate, I see na good
reason why they should be sent back to law. The
remedy is, doubtless, more full and complete than
it could be at law. The decree of the chancellor
overruling the demurrer must be affirmed, and the
cause remanded for further proceedings.

The Chief Justice Sharkey who pro-
nounced this decision is stated by the
Evening Post to have been a principal
agent in the passage of the severe law
under which this horrible inhumanity was
perpetrated.

Nothing more forcibly shows the abso-
lute despotism of the slave-law over all the
kindest feelings and intentions of the mas-
ter, and the determination of courts to
carry these severities to their full lengths,
than this cruel deed, which precipitated a
young man who had been educated to con-
Bider himself free, aiwi his mother, «n edu-

cated woman, back into the bottomless abyss
of slavery. Had this case been chosen for
the theme of a novel, or a tragedy, the
world would have cried out upon it as a
plot of monstrous improbability. As it
stands in the law-book, it is only a speci-
men of that awful kind of truth, stranger
than fiction, which is all the time evolving,
in one form or another, from the workings
of this anomalous system.

This view of the subject is a very im-
portant one, and ought to be earnestly and
gravely pondered by those in foreign coun-
tries, who are too apt to fasten their con-
demnation and opprobrium rather on the
person of the slave-holder than on the hor-
rors of the legal system. In some slave
states it seems as if there was very little
that the benevolent owner could do which
should permanently benefit his slave, unless
he should seek to alter the Imcs. Here
it is that the highest obligation of the
Southern Christian lies. Nor will the
world or God hold them guiltless who, with
the elective franchise in their hands, and
the full power to speak, write and discuss,
suffer this monstrous system of legalized
cruelty to go on from age to age.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE HEBREW SLAVE-LAW COMPARED WITH
THE AMERICAN SLAVE-LAW.

Having compared the American law with
the Roman, we will now compare it with
one other code of slave-laws, to wit, the
Hebrew.

This comparison is the more important,
because American slavery has been defended
on the ground of God's permitting Hebrew
slavery.

The inquiry now arises, "VMiat kind of
slavery was it that was permitted among the
Hebrews 7 for in different nations very dif-
ferent systems have been called by the
general name of slavery.

That the patriarchal state of servitude
which existed in the time of Abraham was
a very different tiling from American slav-
ery, a few gi-aphic incidents in the scripture
narrative show ; for we read that when the
angels came to visit Abraham, although he
had three hundred servants born in his
house, it is said that Abraham hasted, and
took a calf, and killed it, and gave it to a
joung man to dress ; and that he told Sarah

116

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

to take three measures of meal and knead
it into cakes ; and that, when all was done,
he himself set it before his guests.

From various other incidents which ap-
pear in the patriarchal narrative, it would
seem that these servants bore more the re-
lation of the members of a Scotch clan to
their feudal lord than that of an American
slave to his master ; — thus it seems that if
Abraham had died without children, his head
servant would have been his heir. — Gen.
15: 3.

Of what species, then, was the slavery
which God permitted among the Hebrews 7
By what laws was it regulated?

In the New Testament the whole Hebrew
system of administration is spoken of as a
relatively imperfect one, and as superseded
by the Christian dispensation. — Heb. 8 : 13.

We are taught thus to regard the Hebrew
system as an educational system, by which
a debased, half-civilized race, which had been
degraded by slavery in its worst form among
the Egyptians, was gradually elevated to
refinement and humanity.

As they went from the land of Egypt, it
would appear that the most disgusting per-
sonal habits, the most unheard-of and un-
natural impurities, prevailed among them ;
so that it was necessary to make laws with
relation to things of which Christianity has
banished the very name from the earth.

Beside all this, polygamy, war and slav-
ery, were the universal custom of nations.

It is represented in the New Testament
that God, in educating this people, proceeded
in the same gradual manner in which a wise
father would proceed with a family of children.

He selected a few of the most vital points
of evil practice, and forbade them by positive
statute, under rigorous penalties. '

The worship of any other god was^ by
the Jewish law, constituted high treason
and rigorously punished with death.

As the knowledge of the true God and re
ligious instruction could not then, as now, be
aflforded by printing and books, one day in the
week had to be set apart for preserving in
the minds of the people a sense of His being,
and their obligations to Him. The devoting of
this day to any other purpose was also pun-
ished with death ; and the reason is obvious,
that its sacredness was the principal means
relied on for preserving the allegiance of the
nation to their king and God, and its dese-
cration, of course, led directly to high trea-
son against the head of the state.

With regard to many other practices which
prevailed among the Jews, as among other

heathen nations, we find the Divine Being
taking the same course which wise human
legislators have taken.

When Lycurgus wished to banish money
and its attendant luxuries from Sparta, he
did not forbid it by direct statute-law, but
he instituted a currency so clumsy and un-
comfortable that, as we are informed by Rol-
lin, it took a cart and pair of oxen to carry
home the price of a very moderate estate.

In the same manner the Divine Being
surrounded the customs of polygamy, war,
blood-revenge and slavery, with regulations
which gradually and certainly tended to
abolish them entirely.

No one would pretend that the laws which
God estabhshed in relation to polygamy,
cities of refuge, &c., have any application
to Christian nations now.

The following summary of some of these
laws of the Mosaic code is given by Dr. C.
E. Stowe, Professor of Bibhcal Literature
in Andover Theological Seminary :

1. It commanded a Hebrew, even though a mar-
ried man, with wife and children living, to take the
childless widow of a deceased brother, and beget
children with her. — Deut. 25 : 5 — 10.

2. The Hebrews, under certain restrictions, were
allowed to make concubines, or wives for a limited
time, of women taken in war. — Deut. 21 : 10 — 19.

3. A Hebrew who already had a wife was al-
lowed to take another also, pronded he still con-
tinued his intercourse with the first as her hus-
band, and treated her kindly and affectionately. —
Exodus 21: 9—11.

4. By the Mosaic law, the nearest relative of a
murdered Hebrew could pursue and slay the mur-
derer, imless he could escape to the city of refuge ;
and the same permission was given in case of
accidental homicide. — Num. 35 : 9 — 39. ,

5. The Israelites were commanded to extermi
nate the Canaanites, men, women and children. —
Deut. 9 : 12 ; 20 : 16—18.

Any one, or all, of the above practices, can be
justified by the Mosaic law, as well as the practice
of slave-liolding.

Each of these laws, although in its time it was
an ameliorating law, designed to take the place of
some barbarous abuse, and to bo a connecting link
by which some higlier ytate of society might be
introduced, belongs confessedly to that system
which St. J'aul says made nothing perfect.
They are a part of the commandment which he
says was annulled for tlie weakness and unprofit-
ableness thereof, and whicli, in the time whicli ho
vrrote, was waxing old, and ready to vanish away.
And Clirist himself says, with regard to certain
permissions of this system, tliat they were given on
account of the " hardness of their hearts," — be-
cause the attempt to enforce a more stringent sys-
tem at that time, OAving to huma^ dgpravity,
would have only produced greater abuses.

The following view of the Hebrew laws
of slavery is compiled from Barnes' work
on slavery, and from Professor Stowe's
manuscript lectures.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

117

The legislation commenced by making the
great and common source of slavery — kid-
napping — a capital crime.

The enactment is as follows : "He that
stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be
found in his hand, he shall surely be put to
death." —Exodus 21 : 16.

The sources from wliich slaves were to
be obtained were thus reduced to two. : first,
the voluntary sale of an individual by him-
self, which certainly does not come under
the designation of involuntary servitude ;
second, the appropriation of captives taken
in war, and the buying from the heathen.

With regard to the servitude of the
Hebrew by a voluntary sale of himself, such
servitude, by the statute-law of the land,
came to an end once in seven years ; so that
the worst that could be made of it was that
it was a voluntary contract to labor for a
certain time.

With regard to the sejvants bought of the
heathen, or of foreigners in the land, there
was a statute by which their servitude was
annulled once in fifty years.

It has been supposed, from a disconnected
view of one particular passage in the Mosaic
code, that God directly countenanced the
treating of a slave, who was a stranger and
foreigner, with more rigor and severity than
a Hebrew slave. That this was not the
case will appear from the following enact-
ments, which have express reference to
strangers :

The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be
unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt
love him as thyself. — Lev. 19 : 34.

Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress
him ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
— Exodus 22: 21.

Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know
the heart of a stranger. — Exodus 23 : 9.

The Lord year God regardeth not persons. He
doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and
the vridow, and loveth the stranger in giving him
food and raiment ; love ye therefore the stranger.
-- Deut. 10 : 17—19.

Judge righteously between every man and his
brother, and the stranger that is with him. —
Deut. 1 : 16.

Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the
stranger. — Deut. 27 : 19.

Instead of making slavery an oppressive
institution with reojard to the strano;er, it was
made by God a system within which heathen
were adopted into the Jewish state, educated
and instructed in the worship of the true
God, and in due time emancipated.

In the first place, they tVere protected by
law from personal violence. The loss of an
eye or a tooth, through the tiolence of his
master, took the slave out of that master's

power entirely, and gave him his liberty.
Then, further than this, if a master's con-
duct towards a slave was such as to induce
him to run away, it was enjoined that no-
body should assist in retaking him, and that
he should dwell wherever he chose in the
land, without molestation. Third, the law
secured to the slave a very considerable por-
tion of time, which was to be at his own
disposal. Every seventh year was to be at
his own disposal. — Lev. 25 : 4 — 6. Every
seventh day was, of course, secured to him.
— Ex. 20 : 10.

The servant had the privilege of attend-
ing the three great national festivals, when
all the males of the nation were required
to appear before God in Jerusalem. — Ex.
34: 23.

Each of these festivals, it is computed,
took up about three weeks.

The slave also was to be a guest in the
family festivals. In Deut. 12 : 12, it is
said, "Ye shall rejoice before the Lord
your God, ye, and your sons, and your
daughters, and your men-servants, and your
maid-servants, and the Levite that is within
your gates."

Dr. Barnes estimates that the whole
amount of time which a servant could have
to himself would amount to about twenty-
three years out of fifty, or nearly one-half
his time.

Again, the servant was placed on an ex-
act equality with his master in all that con-
cerned his religious relations.

Now. if we recollect that in the time of
Moses the God and the king of the nation
were one and the same person, and that the
civil and religious relation were one and the
same, it will appear that the slave and his
master stood on an equahty in their civil
relation with regard to the state.

Thus, in Deuteronomy 29, is described a
solemn national convocation, which took
place before the death of Moses, when the
whole nation were called upon, after a
solemn review of their national history, to
renew their constitutional oath of allegiance
to their supreme Magistrate and Lord.

On this occasion, Moses addressed them
thus : — "Ye stand this day, all of you,
before the Lord your God ; your captains of
your tribes, your elders, and your officers,
with all the men of Israel, your little ones,
your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy
camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the
drawer of thy water ; that thoit shouldest
enter mto covenant with the Lord thy God,
and into his oath, which the Lord thy God
maketh with thee this day."

118

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

How different is this from the cool and

explicit declaration of South Carolina with

regard to the position of the American

slave : — " A slave is not generally regarded

as lesrally capable of beinsr

Wheeler's Law •,!■ *l /• j1 t *

of Slavery, p. witfim the pcuce of the state.
2^^- He is not a citizen, and is not in
that character entitled to her protection."

In all the religious services, which, as we
have seen by the constitution of the nation,
were civil services, the slave and the master
mingled on terms of strict equality. There
was none of the distinction which appertains
to a distinct class or caste. " There was
no special service appointed for them at
unusual seasons. There were no particular
seats assigned to them, to keep up the idea
that they were a degraded class. There
was no withholding from them the instruc-
tion which the word of God gave about the
equal rights of mankind."

Fifthly. It was always contemplated that
the slave would, as a matter of course,
choose the Jewish religion, and the service
of God, and enter willingly into all the ob-
ligations and services of the Jewish polity.

Mr. Barnes cites the words of Maimoni-
des, to show how this was commonly un-
derstood by the Hebrews. — Inquiry into
the Scriptural Views of Slavery. By Al-
bert Barnes, p. 132.

Whether a servant be born in the power of
an Israelite, or whether he be purchased from the
heathen, the master is to bring them both into the
covenant.

But he that is in the house is entered on the
eighth day ; and he that is bought with money,
on the day on which his master receives liim, un-
less the slave be unwilling. For, if the master
receive a gi'own slave, and he be unwilling, his
master is to bear with him, to seek to win him
over by instruction, and by love and kindness, for
one year. After which, should he refuse so long,
it is forbidden to keep him longer than a year.
And the master must send him back to the strang-
ers from whence he came. For the God of Jacob
will not accept any other than the worship of a
willing heart. — Maimon. Hilcoth Miloth, chap.
I., sec. 8.

A sixth fundamental arrangement with
regard to the Hebrew slave was that he
could never be sold. Concerning this Mr.
Barnes remarks :

A man, in certain circumstances, might he
bought by a Hebrew ; but when once bought, that
was an end of the matter. There is not the
slightest evidence that any Hebrew ever sold
a slave ; and any provision contemplating that
was unknown to the constitution of the Counuon-
wealth. It is said of Abraham that he had " ser-
vants bought with money ;" but there is no record
of his having ever sold one, nor is there any ac-
count of its ever having been done by Isaac or

Jacob. The only instance of a sale of this kind
among the patriarchs is that act of the brothers of
Joseph, which is held up to so strong reprobation,
by which they sold him to the Ishmaelites. Per-
mission is given in the law of Moses to huy a
servant, but none is given to sell him again ; and
the fact that no such permission is givem is fall
proof that it was not contemplated. When he
entered into that relation, it became certain that
there could be no change, unless it was voluntary
on his part (comp. Ex. 21 : 5, 6), or unless his
master gave him his freedom, until the not dis-
tant period fixed by law when he could be free.
There is no arrangement in the law of Moses by
which servants were to be taken in pajonent of
their master's debts, by which they were to be
given as pledges, by which they were to be con-
signed to the keeping of others, or by which they
were to be given away as presents. There are no
instances occurring in the Jewish history in which
any of these things were done. Tliis law is posi-
tive in regard to the Hebrew servant, and the
principle of the law would apply to all others.
Lev. 25 : 42. — " They shall not be sold as bond
men." In all these respects there was a marked
difference, and there was doubtless intended to be,
between the estimate afiSxed to servants and to
property. — Inquiry, &c., p. 133 — 4.

As to the practical workings of this sys-
tem, as they are developed in the incidents
of sacred history, they are precisely what
we should expect from such a system of
laws. For instance, we find it mentioned
incidentally in the ninth chapter of the first
book of Samuel, that when Saul and his ser-
vant came to see Samuel, that Samuel, in
anticipation of his being crowned king, made
a great feast for him ; and in verse twenty-
second the history says : " And Samuel
took Saul and his servant ., and brought
them into the parlor, and made tliem sit
in the chiefest place."

We read, also, in 2 Samuel 9 : 10, of a
servant of Saul who had large estates, and
twenty servants of his own.

We find, in 1 Chron. 2 : 34, the follow-
ing incident related : " Now, Sheshan had
no sons, but daughters. And Sheshan had
a servant, an Eg3rptian, whose name was
Jarha. And Sheshan gave liis daughter to
Jarha, his servant, to wife."

Does this resemble American slavery ?

We find, moreover, that this conncctioni
was not considered at all disgraceful, for the
son of this very daughter was enrolled
among the valiant men of David's army. —
1 Chron. 2 : 41.

In fine, we are not surprised to discover
that the institutions of INIoses in effect so
obhtcratcd all the characteristics of slavery,
that it had ceased to exist among the Jews
long before the time of Christ. Mr. Barnes
asks :

On what evidence would a man rely to prove

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABLST.

119

that slavery existed at all in the land in the time
of the later prophets of the Maccabees, or when
the Saviour appeared? There are abundant
proofs, as we shall see, that it existed in Greeco
and Rome ; but what is the evidence that it ex-
isted in Judea 1 So far as I have been able to
ascertain, there are no declarations that it did to
bo found in the canonical books of the Old Tes-
tament, or in Josephus. There are no allusions
to laws and customs which imply that it was prev-
alent. There are no coins or medals which sup-
pose it. There are no facts which do not admit
of an easy explanation on the supposition that
slavery had ceased. — ■ Inquiry, &c., p. 226.

Two objections have been urged to the
interpretations which have been given of two
of the enactments before quoted.

1. It is said that the enactment, " Thou
shalt not return to his master the servant
that has escaped," &c., relates only to ser-
vants escaping from heathen masters to the
Jewish nation.

The following remarks on this passage
are from Prof Stowe's lectures:

Deuteronomy 23 : 15, 16. — These words
make a statute which, like every other stat-
ute, is to be strictly construed. There is
nothing in the language to hmit its mean-
ing ; there is nothing in the connection in
which it stands to limit its meaning ; nor
is there anything in the history of the Mo-
saic legislation to limit the application of
this statute to the case of servants escaping
from foreign masters. The assumption that
it is thus limited is wholly gratuitous, and,
so far as the Bible is concerned, unsustained
by any evi<ience whatever. It is said that
it would 1)6 absurd for Moses to enact such
a law while servitude existed among the
Hebrews. It would indeed be absurd, were
it the object of the Mosaic legislation to sus-
tain and perpetuate slavery ; but, if it were
the object of Moses to limit and to restrain,
and finally to extinguish slavery, this statute
was admirably adapted to his purpose.
That it was the object of Moses to extin-
guish, and not to perpetuate, slavery, is per-
fectly clear from the whole course of his
legislation on the subject. Every slave
was to have all the religious privileges
and instruction to which his master's chil-
dren were entitled. Every seventh year
released the Hebrew slave, and every fiftieth
year produced universal emancipation. If
a master, by an accidental or an angry
blow, deprived the slave of a tooth, the
slave, by that act, was forever free. And
so, by the statute in question, if the slave
felt himself oppressed, he could make
his escape, and, though the master was
not forbidden to retake him if he could,

every one was forbidden to aid his master in
doing it. This statute, in fact, made the
servitude voluntary, and that was what
Moses intended.

Moses dealt with slavery precisely as he
dealt with polygamy and Avith war : with-
out directly prohibiting, he so restricted as
to destroy it ; instead of cutting down the
poison-tree, he girdled it, and left it to die
of itself There is a statute in regard to
military expeditions precisely analogous to
this celebrated fugitive slave law. Had
Moses designed to perpetuate a warlike
spirit among the Hebrews, the statute would
have been preeminently absurd ; but, if it
was his design to crush it, and to render
foreign wars almost impossible, the statute
was exactly adapted to his purpose. It
rendered foreign military service, in effect,
entirely voluntary, just as the fugitive law
rendered domestic servitude, in effect,
voluntary.

The law may be found at length in Deu-
teronomy 20 : 5 — 10 ; and let it be care-
fully read and compared with the fugitive
slave law already adverted to. Just when
the men are drawn up ready for the expe-
dition,— just at the moment when even the
hearts of brave men are apt to fail them, —
the officers are commanded to address the
soldiers thus : ,

' ' What man of you is there that hath built a
new house, and hath not dedicated it ? Let him
go and return to his house, lest he die in the bat-
tle, and another man dedicate it.

" And what man is he that hath planted a vine-
yard and hath not yet eaten of it ? Let him also
go and return to his house, lest he die in the bat-
tle, and another man eat of it.

" And what man is there that hath betrothed a
wife, and hath not taken her ? Let him go and
return unto his house, lest he die in the battle,
and another man take her."

And the ofiBcers shall speak further unto the
people, and they shall say, " What man is there
that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go
and return unto his house, lest his brethren's
heart faint, as well as his heart."

Now, consider that the Hebrews were ex-
clusively an agricultural people, that warlike
parties necessarily consist mainly of young
men, and that by this statute every man
who had built a house which he had not
yet lived in, and every man who had plant-
ed a vineyard from which he had not yet
gathered fruit, and every man who had en-
gaged a wife whom he had not yet married,
and every one who felt timid and faint-
hearted, was permitted and commanded to
go home, — how many would there probably
be left 1 Especially when the officers, in-

120

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

gtead of exciting their military ardor by
visions of glory and of splendor, were com-
manded to repeat it over and over again
that they would probably die in the battle
and never get home, and hold this idea up
before them as if it were the only idea suit-
able for their purpose, how excessively ab-
surd is the whole statute considered as a
military law, — just as absurd as the Mosaic
fugitive law, understood in its widest appli-
cation, is, considered as a slave law !

It is clearly the object of this military
law to put an end to military expeditions ;
for, with this law in force, such expeditions
must always be entirely volunteer expedi-
tions. Just as clearly was it the object of
the fugitive slave law to put an end to com-
pulsory servitude; for, with that law in
force, the servitude must, in effect, be, to a
great extent, voluntary, — and that is just
what the legislator intended. There is no
possibility of limiting the law, on account
of its absurdity, when understood in its
widest sense, except by proving that the
Mosaic legislation was designed to perpetu-
ate and not to limit slavery ; and this cer-
tainly cannot be proved, for it is directly
contrary to the plain matter of fact.

I repeat it, then, again : there is nothing
in the language of this statute, there is
nothing in the connection in which it stands,
there is nothing in the history of the Mo-
saic legislation on this subject, to limit the
application of the law to the case of ser-
vants escaping from foreign masters; but
every consideration, from every legitimate
source, leads us to a conclusion directly the
opposite. Such a limitation is the arbitrary,
unsupported stet voluntas pro ratione as-
sumption of the commentator, and nothing
else. The only shadow of a philological
argument that I can see, for limiting the
statute, is found in the use of the words to
thee^ in the fifteenth verse. It may be said
that the pronoun thee is used in a national
and not individual sense, implying an es-
cape from some other nation to the He-
brews. But, examine the statute imme-
diately preceding this, and observe the use
of the pronoun thee in the thirteenth verse.
Most obviously, the pronouns in these
statutes arc used with reference to the indi-
viduals addressed, and not in a collective
or national sense exclusively ; very rarely,
if ever, can this sense be given to them
in the way claimed by the argument re-
ferred to.

2. It is said that the proclamation, "Thou
shalt proclaim liberty through the laud to

all the inhabitants thereof," related only tc
Hebrew slaves. This assumption is based
entirely on the supposition that the slave
was not considered, in Hebrew law, as a
person, as an inhabitant of the land, and a
member of the state; but we have just
proved that in the most solemn transaction
of the state the hewer of wood and drawer
of water is expressly designated as being
just as much an actor and participator as
his master ; and it would be absurd to sup-
pose that, in a statute addressed to all the
inhabitants of the land, he is not included
as an inhabitant.

Barnes enforces this idea by some pages
of quotations from Jewish writers, which
will fully satisfy any one who reads his
work.

From a review, then, of all that relates
to the Hebrew slave-law, it will appear that
it was a very well-considered and wisely-
adapted system of education and gradual
emancipation. No rational man can doubt
that if the same laws were enacted and the
same practices prevailed with regard to
slavery in the United States, that the system
of American slavery might be considered, to
all intents and purposes, practically at an
end. If there is any doubt of this fact, and
it is still thought that the permission of
slavery among the Hebrews justifies Ameri-
can slavery, in all fairness the experiment
of making the two systems alike ought to
be tried, and we should then see what would
be the result.

CHAPTER XV.

6LAVERY IS DESPOTISM.

It is always important, in discussing a
thing, to keep before our minds exactly what
it is.

The only means of understanding pre-
cisely Avhat a civil institution is are aD
examination of the laws which regulate it.
In different ages and nations, very different
things have been called by the name of
slavery. Patriarchal servitude was one
thing, Hebrew servitude was another, Greek
and Roman servitude still a third : and these
institutions differed very nuich from each
other. What, then, is American slavery,
as we have seen it exhibited by law, and by
the decisions of courts 'I

Let us begin by stating what it is not.

1. It is not apprenticeship.

2. It is not guardianship.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

121

3. It is in no sense a system for the
education of a weaker race by a stronger.

4. The happiness of the governed is in no
sense its object.

5. The temporal improvement or the eter-
nal well-being of the governed is in no sense
its object.

The object of it has been distinctly stated
in one sentence, by Judge Ruffin, — " The
end is the profit of the master, his security,
and the public safety."

Slavery, then, is absolute despotism, of
the most unmitigated form.

It would, however, be doing injustice to
the absolutism of any civilized country to
liken American slavery to it. The absolute
governments of Europe none of them pre-
tend to be founded on a propej^ty right of
the governor to the persons and entire capa-
bilities of the governed.

This is a form of despotism which exists
only in some of the most savage countries
of the world ; as, for example, in Dahomey.

The European absolutism or despotism,
now, does, to some extent, recognize the
happiness and welfare of the governed as
the foundation of government ; and the ruler
is considered as invested with power for the
benefit of the people ; and his right to rule
is supposed to be in somewhat predicated
upon the idea that he better understands how
to promote the good of the people than they
themselves do. No government in the civ-
ilized world now presents the pure despotic
idea, as it existed in the old days of, the
Persian and Assyrian rule.

The arguments which defend slavery
must be substantially the same as those
which defend despotism of any other kind ;
and the objections which are to be urged
against it are precisely those which can be
urged against despotism of any other kind.
The customs and practices to which it gives
rise are precisely those to which despotisms
in all ages have given rise.

Is the slave suspected of a crime ? His
master has the power to examine him by
torture (see State v. Castleman). His mas-
ter has, in fact, in most cases, the power of
life and death, owing to the exclusion of the
slave's evidence. He has the power of ban-
ishing the slave, at any time, and without
giving an account to anybody, to an exile
as dreadful as that of Siberia, and to labors
as severe as those of the galleys. He has
also unhmited power over the character of
his slave. He can accuse him of any crime,
yet withhold from him all right of trial or
investigation, and sell him into captivity,

with his name blackened by an unexamined
imputation.

These are all abuses for which despotic
governments are blamed. They are powers
which good men who are despotic rulers are
beginning to disuse ; but, under the flag of
every slave-holding state, and under the flag
of the whole United States in the District
of Columbia, they are committed indiscrim-
inately to men of any character.

But the worst kind of despotism has been
said to be that which extends ahke over the
body and over the soul ; which can bind the
hberty of the conscience, and deprive a man.
of all right of choice in respect to the man-
ner in which he shall learn the will of God,
and worship Him. In other days, kings on
their thrones, and cottagers by their fire-
sides, alike trembled before a despotism
which declared itself able to bind and to
loose, to open and to shut the kingdom of
heaven.

Yet this power to control the conscience,
to control the religious privileges, and all
the opportunities which man has of acquaint-
anceship with his Maker, and of learning to
do his will, is, under the flag of every slave
state, and under the flag of the United
States, placed in the hands of any men, of
any character, who can afibrd to pay for it.

It is a most awful and most solemn truth
that the greatest republic in the world does
sustain under her national flag the worst
system of despotism which can possibly
exist.

With regard to one point to which we
have adverted, — the power of the master to
deprive the slave of a legal trial while accus-
ing him of crime, — a very striking instance
has occurred in the District of Columbia,
within a year or two. The particulars of
the case, as stated, at the time, in several
papers, were briefly these : A gentleman in
Washington, our national capital, — an elder
in the Presbyterian church, — held a female
slave, who had, for some years, supported a
good character in a Baptist church of that
city. He accused her of an attempt to poi-
son his family, and immediately placed her
in the hands of a slave-dealer, who took her
over and imprisoned her in the slave-pen at
Alexandria, to await the departure of a
coffle. The poor girl had a mother, who
felt as any mother would naturally feel.

When apprized of the situation of her
daughter, she flew to the pen, and, with
tears, besought an interview with her only
child; but she was cruelly repulsed, and told
to be gone ! She then tried to see the elder,

122

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

, but failed. Slie liad the promise of money
sufficient to purchase her daughter, but the
Q-WTier would listen to no terms of compro-
mise..

^ In her distress, the mother repaired to a
lawyer in the city, and begged him to give
form to her petition in writing. She stated
to him what she wished to have said, and he
arranged it for her in such a form as she
herself might have presented it in, had not
the benefits of education been denied Iier.
The following is the letter :

Mr.

Washington, July 25, 1851.

SfR : I address you as a rich Christian freeman
Stfid father, while I am myself but a poor slave-
mother ! I come to plead with you for an only child
whom I love, who is a professor of the Christian
religion with yourself, and a member of a Chris-
tian church ; and who, by your act of ownership,
now pines in her imprisonment in a loathsome
man-warehouse, where she is held for sale ! I
come to plead with you for the exercise of that
blessed law, " Whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so to them."

With great labor, I have found friends who are
willing to aid me in the purchase of my child, to
save us from a cruel separation. You, asa/a^/ic?',
can judge of my feelings when I was told that
you had decreed her banishment to distant as well
as to hope/ess bondage !

For nearly six years my child has done for you
the hard labor of a slave ; from the age of sixteen
to twenty-two, she has done the hard work of your
chamber, kitchen, cellar, and stables. By night
and by day, your will and your commands have
been her highest law ; and all this has been unre-
quited toil. If in all this time her scanty allow-
ance of tea and coffee has been sweetened, it has
been at the cost of her slave-mother, and not at
yours.

You are an office-bearer in the church, and a
man of prai/er. As such, and as the absolute
owner of my child, I ask candidly whether she
has enjoyed such mild and gentle treatment, and
amiable example, as she ought to Jiave had, to
encourage her in her monotonous bondage 1 Has
she received at your hands, in faithful religious
instruction in the Word of God, a full and fair
compensation for all lier toil ■? It is not to me alone
that you must answer these questions. You ac-
knowledge the high authority of His laws who
preached a deliverance to the captive, and who
commands you to give to your servant " that which
is just and equal." 0! I entreat you, withhold
not, at this trying hour, from my child that which
win cut oil' her last hope, and which may endanger
your own soul !

It has been said that you charge my daughter
with crime. Can this be really so? Can it be
that you would set aside the obligations of honor
and good citizenship, — tliat you would dare to sell
the guilty one away for money, rather than bring
her to trial, whicli you know she is ready to mei^t !
What would you say, if you were accused of guilt,
and refused a trial ? Is not her fair name as pre-
cious to her, in the church to which she belongs,
as yours can be to you 1

Suppose, now, for a mcmnnt, that ymir daugh-
ter, whom you love, instead of mine, was in these
hot days incarcerated in a ncgro-pcn, subject to
my control, fed on the coarsest food, committed
to the entire will of a brute, denied tlie privilege
commonly allowed even to the murderer — that of -
seeing the face of his friends? 0! then, you
would feel! Feel soon, then, for a poor slave-
mother and her child, and do for us as you shall
wish you had dune when we shall meet befoEe
the Great Judge , and when it shall be your great-
est joy to say, " I did let the oppressed "free."

Ellen Brown.

The girl, however, was sent off to the
Southern market.

The writer has received these mcidents
from the gentleman who wrote the letter.
Whether the course pursued by the master
was strictly legal is a point upon which we
are not entirely certain ; that it was a course
in Avhich the law did not in fact interfere is
quite plain, and it is also very apparent that
it was a course against which public senti-
ment did not remonstrate. The man who
exercised this power was a professedly reli-
gious man, enjoying a position of importance
in a Christian church ; and it does not ap-
pear, from any movements in the Christian
community about him, that they did not
consider his course a justifiable one.

Yet is not this kind of power the very
one at which we are so shocked when we see
it exercised by foreign despots 7

Do we not read with shuddering that in
Russia, or in Austria, a man accused of
crime is seized upon, separated from his
friends, allowed no opportunities of trial or
of self-defence, but hurried off to Siberia, or
some other dreaded exile ?

Why is despotism any Avorse in the gov-
ernor of a state than in a private individual ?

There is a great controversy now going
on in the world between the despotic and
the republican principle. All the common
arguments used in support of slavery are
arguments that apply with equal strength
to despotic government, and there are som.e
arguments in favor of despotic governments
that do not apply to individual slavery.

There are arguments, and quite' plausible
ones, in favor of despotic government. No-
body can deny that it possesses a certain
kind of efficiency, compactness, and prompt-
ness of movement, Avliich cannot, from the
nature of things, belong to a repuWic. Des-.
potism has established and sustained much
more efficient- systems of police than ever a
republic did. The late King of Prussia, by
the possession of absolute despotic power
was enabled to carry out a much more effi-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

123

cient system of popular education than we
ever have succeeded in carrying out in
America. He districted his kingdom in the
most thorough manner, and obliged every
parent, whether he would or not, to have his
children thoroughly educated.

If we reply to all this, as we do, that the
possession of absolute power in a man qual-
ified to use it right is undoubtedly calcu-
lated for the good of the state, but that there
are so few men that know how to use it,
that this form of government is not, on the
whole, a safe one, then we have stated an
argument that goes to overthrow slavery as
much as it does a despotic government ; for
certainly the chances are much greater of
finding one man, in the course of fifty years,
who is capable of wisely using this power,
than of finding thousands of men every
day in our streets, who can be trusted with
such power. It is a painful and most seri-
ous fact, that America trusts to the hands
of the most brutal men of her country,
equally with the best, that despotic power
which she thinks an unsafe thing even in
the hands of the enlightened, educated and
cultivated Emperor of the Russias.

"With all our republican prejudices, we
cannot deny that Nicholas is a man of talent,
with a mind liberalized by education ; we
have been informed, also, that he is a man
of serious and religious character : — he cer-
tainly, acting as he does in the eye of all
the world, must have great restraint upon
him from public opinion, and a high sense of
character. But who is the man to whom
American laws intrust powers more absolute
than those of Nicholas of Russia, or Ferdi-
nand of Naples ? He may have been a
pirate on the high seas ; he may be a drunk-
ard ; he may, like Souther, have been con-

* »

victed of a brutality at which humanity turns
pale ; but, for all that, American slave-law
will none the less trust him with this irre-
sponsible power, — power over the body, and
power over the soul.

On which side, then, stands the American
nation, in the great controversy which is
now going on between self-government and
despotism ? On which side does America
stand, in the great controversy for liberty of
conscience 7

Do foreign governments exclude their
population from the reading of the Bible ?

— The slave of America is excluded by the
most effectual means possible. Do we say,
" Ah ! but we read the Bible to our slaves,
and present the gospel orally ? " — This is
.precisely what rehgious despotism in Italy
says. Do we say that we have no objection
to our slaves readmg the Bible, if they will
stop there ; but that with this there will come
in a flood of general intelligence, which will
upset the existing state of things 1 — This is
precisely what is said in Italy.

Do we say we should be willing that the
slave should read his Bible, but that he, in
his ignorance, will draw false and erroneous
conclusions from it, and for that reason we
prefer to impart its truths to him orally 'i

— This, also, is precisely what the rehgious
despotism of Europe says.

Do we say, in our vain-glory, that despotic
government dreads the coming in of any-
thing calculated to elevate and educate the
people ? — And is there not the same di'ead
through all the despotic slave governments
of America 7

On which side, then, does the American
nation stand, in the great, last question of
the age 7

PAET III.

CHAPTER I.

DOES PUBLIC OPINION PROTECT THE SLAVE 1

The utter inefficiency of the law to pro-
tect the slave in any respect has been sho^>Ti.

But it is claimed that, precisely because
the law aifords the slave no protection,
therefore public opinion is the more strenu-
ous in his behalf.

Nothing more frequently strikes the eye,
in running over judicial proceedings in the
courts of slave states, than announcements of
the utter inutihty of the law to rectify some
glaring injustice towards this unhappy race,
coupled with congratulatory remarks on
that beneficent state of public sentiment
which is to supply entirely this acknowl-
edged deficiency of the law.

On this point it may, perhaps, be sufii-
cient to ask the reader, whether North or
South, to review in his own mind the judi-
cial documents which we have presented, and
ask himself what inference is to be drawn,
as to the state of public sentiment, from
the cases there presented, — from the pleas
of lawyers, the decisions of judges, the facts
sworn to by witnesses, and the general style
and spirit of the whole proceedings.

In order to appreciate this more fully, let
us compare a trial in a free state with a
trial in a slave state.

In the free State of Massachusetts, a man
of standing, learning and high connections,
murdered another man. He did not torture
him, but Avith one blow sent him in a
moment from life. The murderer had every
advantage of position, of friends ; it may be
said, indeed, that he had the sympatliy of
the whole United States ; yet how calmly,
with Avhat unmoved and awful composure,
did the judicial examination proceed ! The
murderer was condcnmcd to die — what a
sensation shook tlie country ! Even sover-
eign states assumed the attitude of petition-
ers for him.

There was a voice of entreaty, from Maine

to New Orleans. There were remonstrances,
and there were threats ; but still, with what
passionless calmness retributive justice held
on its way ! Though the men who were
her instruments were men of merciful and
bleeding hearts, yet they bowed in silence
to her sublime will. In spite of all that
influence and wealth and power could do, a
cultivated and intelligent man, from the first
rank of society, suffered the same penalty
that would fall on any other man who vio-
lated the sanctity of human life.

Now, compare this with a trial in a slave
state. In Virginia, Souther also murdered
a man ; but he did not murder him by one
merciful blow, but by twelve hours of torture
so horrible that few readers could bear even
the description of it. It was a mode of
death which, to use the language that Cicero
in his day applied to crucifixion, "ought
to be forever removed from the sight, hear-
ing, and from the very thoughts of man-
kind." And to this horrible scene two
white men were witnesses !

Observe the mode in which these two
cases were tried, and the general sensation
they produced. Hear the lawyers, in this
case of Souther, coolly debating whether it
can be considered any crime at all. Hear
the decision of the inferior court, that it is
murder in the second degree, and appor-
tioning as its reward five years of imprison-
ment. See the horrible butcher coming up
to the Superior Court in the attitude of an
injured man ! See the case recorded as that
of Souther versus The Cojnnionwealth,
and let us ask any intelligent man, North
or South, what sort of public sentiment does
this show !

Does it show a belief that the negro is a
man 1 Does it not show decidedly that he is
not considered as a man 1 Consider further
the horrible principle which, reiiffiinied in
the case, is the law of the land in Virginia.
It is the policy of the law, in respect to
the relation of master and slave, and for

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

125

the sake of securing- proper subordination
on the part of the slave, to protect the
master from prosecution in all such cases,
even if the whipping and punishment be
tnalicious, cruel and excessive!

When the most cultivated and intelligent
men in the state formally, calmly and
without any apparent perception of saying
anything inhuman, utter such an astounding
decision as this, Tvhat can be thought of it '?
If they do not consider this cruel, what is
cruel 7 And, if their feelings are so blunted
as to see no cruelty in such a decision, what
hope is there of any protection to the slave?

This law is a plain and distinct permis-
sion to such wretches as Souther to inflict
upon the helpless slave any torture they
may choose, without any accusation or
mpeachment of crime. It distinctly tells
rfouther, and the white witnesses who saw
his deed, and every other low, unprincipled
man in the court, that it is the policy of
the law to protect him in malicious, cruel
and excessive punishments.

Whut sort of an education is this for the
intelligent and cultivated men of a state to
communicate to the lower and less-educated
class ? Suppose it to be solemnly announced
in Massachusetts, with respect to free laborers
or apprentices, that it is the policy of the
law, for the sake of producing subordination,
to protect the master in inflicting any pun-
ishment, however .cruel, malicious and ex-
cessive, short of death. We cannot imagine
such a principle declared, without a rebel-
lion and a storm of popular excitement to
which that of Bunker Hill was calmness
itself: — but, supposing the State of Massa-
chusetts were so "twice dead and plucked up
by the roots" as to allow such a decision to
pass without comment concerning her work-
ing classes, — suppose it did pass, and be-
come an active, operative reality, what kind
of an educational influence would it exert
upon the commonwealth 7 What kind of
an estimate of the working classes would it
show in the minds of those who make and
execute the law?

What an immediate development of vil-
lany and brutality would be brought out
by such a law, avowedly made to protect
men in cruelty ! Cannot men be cruel
enough, without all the majesty of law
being brought into operation to sanction it,
and make it reputable %

And suppose it were said, in vindication
of such a law, "0, of course, no respect-
able, humane man would ever think of taking
sidvantage of it." Should we not think the

old State of Massachusetts sunk very low,
to have on her legal records direct assur-
ances of protection to deeds Avhich no decent
man would ever do ?

And, when this shocking permission la
brought in review at the judgment-seat of
Christ, and the awful Judge shall say to its
makers, aiders, and abettors. Where is thy
brother ? — when all the souls that have
called from under the altar, " How long, 0
Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood," shall rise around tke judgment-seat
as a great cloud of witnesses, and the judg-
ment is set and the books are opened, — what
answer will be made for such laws and de-
cisions as these 7

Will they tell the great Judge that it was
necessary to preserve the slave system, —
that it could not be preserved without them ?

Will they dare look upon those eyes,
which are as a flame of fire, with any such
avowal 7

Will He not answer, as with a voice of
thunders, "Ye have killed the poor and
needy, and ye have forgotten that the Lord
was his helper "7

The deadly sin of slavery is its denial of
humanity to man. This has been the sin
of oppression, in every age. To tread down,
to vilify and crush, the image of God, in
the person of the poor and lowly, has been
the great sin of man since the creation of
the world. Against this sin all the proph-
ets of ancient times poured forth their
thunders. A still stronger witness was
borne against this sin when God, in Jesus
Christ, took human nature, and made each
human being a brother of the Lord. But
the last and most sublime witness shall be
borne when a Man shall judge the whole
earth — a Man who shall acknowledge for
His brother the meanest slave, equally with
the proudest master.

In most singular and afiecting terms it is
asserted in the Bible that the Father hath
committed all judgment to the Son, because
HE IS THE Son of Man. That human
nature, which, in the person of the poor
slave, has been despised and rejected, scofied
and scorned, scourged and tortured, shall in
that day be glorified ; and it shall appear
the most fearful of sins to have made
light of the sacredness of humanity, as these
laws and institutions of slavery have done.
The fact is, that the whole system of slave-
law, and the whole practice of the slave
system, and the public sentiment that is
formed by it, are alike based on the gi'eatest
of all heresies, a denial of equal human

126

BEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

brotherhood. A whole race has been thrown
out of the range of human existence, their
immortality disregarded, their dignity as
children of God scoflFed at, their brotherhood
with Christ treated as a fable, and all the
law and public sentiment and practice with
regard to them such as could be justified
only on supposition that they were a race of
inferior animals.

It is because the negro is considered an
inferior animal, and not worthy of any bet-
ter treatment, that the system which relates
to him and the treatment which falls to him
are considered humane.

Take any class of white men, however
uneducated, and place them under the same
system of laws, and make their civil con-
dition in all respects like that of the negro,
and would it not be considered the most
outrageous cruelty?

Suppose the slave-law were enacted with
regard to all the Irish in our country, and
they were parcelled off as the property of
any man who had money enough to buy
them. Suppose their right to vote, their
right to bring suit in any case, their right
to bear testimony in courts of justice, their
right to contract a legal marriage, their
right to hold property or to make contracts
of any sort, were all by one stroke of law
blotted out. Furthermore, suppose it was
forbidden to teach them to read and write,
and that their children to all ages were
*' doomed to live without knowledge." Sup-
pose that, in judicial proceedings, it were
solemnly declared, with regard to them, that
the mere beati?ig o? an Irishman, "apart
from any circumstances of cruelty, or any
attempt to kill," was no offence against the
peace of the state. Suppose that it were de-
clared that, for the better preservation of
subjection among them, the law would pro-
tect the master in any kind of punishment
inflicted, even if it should appear to be
malicious, cruel and excessive; and suppose
that monsters like Souther, in availing them-
selves of this permission, should occasionally
torture Irishmen to death, but still this cir-
cumstance should not be deemed of sufficient
importance to call for any restriction on the
part of the "master. Suppose it should be
coolly said, " 0 yes, Irishmen are occasion-
ally tortured to death, we know ; but it is
not by any means a general occurrence ; in
fact, no men of position in society would do
it; and when cases of the kind do occur, they
are indignantly frowned upon."

Suppose it should be stated that the rea-
B<Hi that the law restraining the power of

the master cannot be made any more strin-
gent is, that the general system cannot be
maintained without allowing this extent of
power to the master.

Suppose that, having got all the Irishmen
in the country down into this condition, they
should maintain that such was the public
sentiment of humanity with regard to them
as abundantly to supply the want of all
legal rights, and to make their condition, on
the whole, happier than if they were free.
Should we not say that a public sentiment
which saw no cruelty in thus depriving a
whole race of every right dear to manhood
could see no cruelty in anything, and had
proved itself wholly unfit to judge upon the
subject? What man would not rather see
his children in the grave than see them
slaves? What man, who, should he wake
to-morrow morning in the condition of an
American slave, would not wish himself in
the grave ? And yet all the defendei"s of
slavery start from the point that this legal
condition is not of itself a cruelty ! They
would hold it the last excess of cruelty with
regard to themselves, or any white man ;
why do they call it no cruelty at all with
regard to the negro?

The writer in defence of slavery in Fra-
ser's Magaziyie justifies this depriving of
a whole class of any legal rights, by urging
that "the good" there is in human nature
will supply the deficiencies of human legis-
lation." This remark is one most signifi-
cant, powerful index of the state of public
sentiment, produced even in a generous
mind, by the slave system. This writer
thinks the good there is in human nature
will supply the absence of all legal rights
to thousands and millions of human beings.
He thinks it right to risk their bodies and
their souls on the good there is in human
nature ; yet this very man would not send
a fifty-dollar bill through the post-office, in
an unsealed letter, trusting to " the good
there is in human nature."

Would this man dare to place his children
in the position of slaves, and trust them to
" the good in human nature " ?

Would he buy an estate from the most
honorable man of his acquaintance, and have
no legal record of the deed, trusting to "the
good in human nature"? And if "the
good in human nature" will not suffice for
him and his children, how will it sufiice for
his brother and his brother's children ? Is
his happiness of any more importiince in
God's sight than his brother's happiness,
that liis must be secured by legal bolts, and

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

127

bonds, and bars, and his brother's left to
"the good there is in human nature"?
Never are we so impressed with the utter
deadness of public sentiment to protect the
slave, as when we see such opinions as these
uttered by men of a naturally generous and
noble cbai-acter.

The most striking and the most painful
examples of the perversion of public senti-
ment, with regard to the negro race, are
often given in the writings of men of hu-
manity, amiableness and piety.

That devoted laborer for the slave, the
Kev. Charles 0. Jones, thus expresses his
sense of the importance of one African
soul:

Were it now revealed to ns that the most ex-
tensive system of instruction which we could
devise, requiring a vast amount of labor and pro-
tracted through ages, would result in the tender
mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of
one poor African, we should feel warranted in
cheerfully entering upon our Avork, with all its
C06ts and sacrifices.

What a noble, what a sublime spirit, is
here breathed ! Does it not show a mind
capable of the very highest impulses ?

And yet, if we look over his whole writings,
•we shall see painfully how the moral sense
of the finest mind may be perverted by con-
stant familiarity with such a system.

We find him constructing an appeal to
masters to have their slaves orally instructed
in religion. In many passages he speaks
of oral instruction as confessedly an imper-
fect species of instruction, very much in-
ferior to that which results from personal
reading and examination of the Word of
God. He says, in one place, that in order
to do much good it must be begun very
early in life, and intimates that people in
advanced years can acquire very little from
it ; and yet he decidedly expresses his
opinion that slavery is an institution with
which no Christian has cause to interfere.

The slaves, according to his own showing,
are cut off from the best means for the sal-
vation of their souls, and restricted to one
of a very inferior nature. They are placed
under restriction which makes their souls as
dependent upon othei-s for spiritual food as
a man without hands is dependent upon
others for bodily food. He recognizes the
fact, which his own experience must show
him, that the slave is at all times liable to
pass into the hands of those who will not
take the trouble thus to feed his soul ; nay,
if we may judge from his urgent appeals to
masters, he perceives around him many who,

having spiritually cut off the slave's hands,
refuse to feed him. He sees that, by the
operation of this law as a matter of fa«t,
thousands are placed in situations where the
perdition of the soul is almost certain, and
yet he declares that he does not feel called
upon at all to interfere with their civil con-
dition !

But, if the soul of every poor African is
of that inestimable worth which Mr. Jones
believes, does it not follow that he ought to
have the very best means for getting to
heaven which it is possible to give him ?
And is not he who can read the Bible foi
himself in a better condition than he who is
dependent upon the reading of another? If
it be said that such teaching cannot be
afforded, because it makes them unsafe prop-
erty, ought not a clergyman like Mr. Jones
to meet this objection in his own expressive
language :

Were it now revealed to us that the most ex
tensive system of instruction which we could
devise, requiring a vast amount of labor and pro-
tracted through ages, would result in the tender
mercy of our God in the salvation of the soul of
one poor African, we should feel warranted in
cheerfully entering upon our work, with all its
costs and sacrifices.

Should not a clergyman, like Mr. Jones,
tell masters that they should risk the loss
of all things seen and temporal, rather than
incur the hazard of bringing eternal ruin
on these souls 1 All the arguments which
Mr. Jones so eloquently used with masters,
to persuade them to give then- slaves oral
instruction, would apply with double force
to show their obligation to give the slave
the power of reading the Bible for himself

Again, we come to hear Mr. Jones telling
masters of the power they have over the
souls of their servants, and we hear him
say,

We may, according to the power lodged in our
hands, forbid religious meetings and religious in-
struction on our own plantations ; we may forbid
our servants going to church at all, or only to such
churches as we may select for them. We may
literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men, and suffer not them that are entering to go

And, when we hear Mr, Jones say all this,
and then consider that he must see and
know this awful power is often lodged in
the hands of wholly irreligious men, in the
hands of men of the most profligate charac-
ter, we can- account for his thinking such a
system right only by attributing it to that
blinding, deadening influence which th«

128

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

public sentiment of slavery exerts even over

the best-constituted minds.

Neither Mr. Jones nor any other Christ-
ian minister would feel it right that the
eternal happiness of their own children
should be thus placed in the power of any
man who should have money to pay for them.
How, then, can they think it right that this
power be given in the case of their African
brother ?

Does this not show that, even in case of
the most humane and Christian people, who
theoretically believe in the equality of all
souls before God, a constant familiarity with
slavery works a practical infidelity on this
point ; and that they give their assent to
laws which practically declare that the sal-
vation of the servant's soul is of less con-
sequence than the salvation of the property
relation ?

Let us not be thought invidious or un-
charitable in saying, that where slavery ex-
^ts there are so many causes necessarily
uniting to corrupt public sentiment with re-
gard to the slave, that the best-constituted
minds cannot trust themselves in it. In the
northern and free states public sentiment
has been, and is, to this day, fatally infected
by the influence of a past and the proximity
of a present system of slavery. Hence
the injustice with which the negro in many
of our states is treated. Hence, too,
those apologies for slavery, and defences
of it, which issue from Northern presses,
and even Northern pulpits. If even at the
North the remains of slavery can produce
such baleful eifects in corrupting public sen-
timent, how much more must this be the
case where this institution is in full force !

The whole American nation is, in some
sense, under a paralysis of public sentiment
on this subject. It was said by a heathen
writer that the gods gave us a fearful power
when they gave us the faculty of becoming
accustomed to things. This power has proved
a fearful one indeed in America. We have
got used to things which might stir the dead
in their graves.

When but a small portion of the things
daily done in America has been told in Eng-
land, and France, and Italy, and Germany,
there has been a perfect shriek and outcry
of horror. America alone remains cool, and
asks, " What is the matter? "

Europe answers back, "Why, we have
heard that men are sold like cattle in your
country."

"Of course they are," says America ;
" but what then ? "

" We have heard," says Europe, "that
milhons of men are forbidden to read and
write in your country."

" We know that," says America; "but
what is this outcry about 7 "

"We have heard," says Europe, "that
Christian girls are sold to shame in your
markets ! "

" .That is n't quite as it should be," says
America ; " but still what is this excitement
about ? "

" We hear that three millions of your
people can have no legal marriage ties,'
says Europe.

" Certainly that is true," returns Amer-
ica ; "but you made such an outcry, we
thought you saw some great cruelty going
on."

" And you profess to be a free country ! '•
says indignant Europe.

' ' Certainly we are the freest and most
enlightened country in the world, — what
are you talking about 7 " says America.

" You send your missionaries to Christ-
ianize us," says Turkey ; "and our religion
has abohshed this horrible system."

" You ! you are all heathen over there,
— what business have you to talk 7 " an-
swers America.

Many people seem really to have thought
that nothing but horrible exaggerations of
the system of slavery could have produced
the sensation which has recently been felt in
all modern Europe. They do not know
that the thing they have become accustomed
to, and handled so freely in every discus-
sion, seems to all other nations the sum and
essejice of villany. Modern Europe, open-
ing her eyes and looking on the legal theory
of the slave system, on the laws and inter-
pretations of law which define it, says to
America, in the language of the indignant
Othello, If thou wilt justify a thing like
this,

" Never pray more ; abandon all rcraorss ;
On Horror's head horrors accumulate ;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than this."

There is an awful state of familiarity with
evil which the apostle calls being " dead in
trespasses and sins," wliere truth has been
resisted, and evil perseveringly defended,
and the convictions of conscience stifled, and
the voice of God's Holy Spirit bidden to
depart. There is an awful paralysis of the
moral sense, when deeds unholiest and
crimes most fearful cease any longer to aSect
the nerve. That paralysis, always a fearful

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

129

indication of the death and dissolution of
nations, is a doubly dangerous disease in a
republic, whose onlj power is in intelligence,
justice and virtue.

CHAPTER II.

PUBLIC OPINION FORMED BY EDUCATION.

Rev. Charles C. Jones, in his interest-
ing work on the Religious Instruction of
Negroes, has a passage which so peculiarly
describes that influence of public opinion
which we have been endeavoring to illustrate,
that we shall copy it.

Habits of feeling and prejudices in relation to
any subject are wont to take their rise out of our
education or circumstances. Every man knows
their influence to be great in shaping opinions
and conduct, and ofttimes how unwittingly they
are formed ; that while we may be unconscious
of their existence, they may grow with our growth
and strengthen with our strength. Familiarity
converts deformity into comeliness. Hence we
are not always the best, judges of our condition.
Another may remark inconveniences, and, indeed,
peal evils, in It, of which we may be said to have
been all our lives scarcely conscious. So, also,
evils which, upon first acquaintance, revolted our
whole nature, and appeared Intolerable, custom
almost makes us forget oven to see. Men passing
out of one state of society into another encounter
a thousand things to which they feel that they
can never be reconciled ; yet, shortly after, their
sensibilities become dulled, — a change passes
over them, they scarcely know how. They have
accommodated themselves to their new circum-
stances and relations, — they are Romans in Rome.

Let us now inquire what are the educa-
tional influences Avhich bear upon the mind
educated in constant familiarity with the
slave system.

Take any child of ingenuous mind and of
generous heart, and educate him under the
Influences of slavery, and what are the things
which go to form his character 7 An anec-
dote which a lady related to the writer may
be in point in this place. In giving an ac-
count of some of the things which induced
her to remove her family from under the
influence of slavery, she related the follow-
ing incident : Looking out of her nursery
window one day, she saw her daughter,
about three years of age, seated in her little
carriage, with six or eight young negro
children harnessed into it for horses. Two
or three of the older slaves were standing
around their little mistress, and one of them,
putting a whip into her hand, said, " There,
Misse, whip 'em Avell ; make 'em go, — they 're
all your niggers."
is >*K - 9

"What a moral and religious lesson was
this for that young soul ! The mother was
a judicious woman, who never would herself
have taught such a thing ; but the whole
influence of slave society had burnt it into
the soul of every negro, and through them it
was communicated to the child.

As soon as a child is old enough to read the
newspapers, he sees in every column such
notices as the following from a late Rich-
mond Whig, and other papers.

liARGE SAI.E OF NEGROES, HORSES,
MULES, CATTLE, &c.

The subscriber, under a decree of the Circuit
Superior Court for Fluvanna County, will proceed
to sell, by public auction, at the late residence of
William Gait, deceased, on Tuesday, the 30th
day of November, and Wedxesday, the 1st day
of December next, beginning at" 11 o'clock, the
negroes, stock, &c., of all kinds, belonging to the
estate, consisting of 175 negroes, amongst whom are
SOME Carpenters and Blacksmiths, — 10 horses,
33 mules, 100 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 200 hogs,
1500 barrels com, oats, fodder, &c., the planta-
tion and shop tools of all kinds.

The Negroes will be sold for cash ; the other
property on a credit of nine months, the purchaser
giving bond, with approved security.

James Galt, Administrator of

Oct. 19, William Gait, deceased.

From the Nashville Gazette, Nov. 23,
1852 :

GREAT SALE OF NEGROES, MULES, CAT
TLB, Sic.

On Tuesday, the 21st day of December next, at
the Plantation of the late N. A. McNairy, on the
Franklin Turnpike, on account of Mrs. C. B.
McNairy, Executrix, we will offer at Public Sale

FIFTY YALTJABLE NEGROES.

These Negroes are good
will be sold in families,
chase will do well to see
sale.

Also, TEN FINE WoRK

ONE Jennet, Milch Cows
Hogs, 1200 barrels Corn
Two Wagons, One Cart,

Plantation Negroes, and

Those wishing to pup-

them before the day of

Mules, two Jacks and
AND Calyes, Cattle, Stock
, Oats, Hay, Fodder, ka.
Farming Utensils, &c.

From the Neioherry Sentinel :

FOR SALE.

The subscriber will sell at Auction, on the 15th
of this month, at the Plantation on which he
resides, distant eleven miles from the Town of
Newberry, and near the Laurens Railroad,

22 Young and Likely Negroes;

comprising able-bodied field-hands, good cooks,
house-servants, and an excellent blacksmith ; —
about 1500 bushels of corn, a quantity of fodder,
hogs, mules, sheep, neat cattle, household and
kitchen furniture, and other property. — Term.
made public on day of Sale.

M. C. Gary.

Dec. 1.

(^ Laurensville Herald copy till day of saJ»-

130

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

From the South Carolinian, Oct. 21,
1852 :

ESTATE SAIiE OF VALUABLE PROP-
ERTY.

The undersigned, as Administrator of the Estate
of Col. T. Rapdell, deceased, will sell, on Mox-
DAY, the 20th December nest, all the personal
property belonging to said estate, consisting of
56 Negroes, Stock, Corn, Fodder, &c. &c. The
sale will take place at the residence of the de-
ceased, on Sandy River, 10 miles West of Ches-
terville.

Terms of Sale : The negroes on a credit of 12
months, with interest from day of sale, and two
good sureties. The other property will be sold
for cash. Samuel J. Raj^dell.

Sept. 2.

See, also, New Orleans Bee, Oct. 28.
After advertising the landed estate of Mad-
eline Lanoux, deceased, comes the following
enumeration of chattels :

Twelve slaves, men and women ; a small, quite
new schooner ; a ferrying flat-boat ; some cows,
calves, heifers and sheep ; a lot of household fur-
niture ; the contents of a store, consisting of hard-
vrare, crockery ware, groceries, dry goods, etc.

Now, suppose all parents to be as pious
and benevolent as Mr. Jones, — a thing not
at all to be hoped for, as things are ; — and
suppose them to try their very best to
impress on the child a conviction that all
souls are of equal value in the sight of God ;
that the negro soul is as truly beloved of
Christ, and ransomed with his blood, as the
master's; and is there any such thing as
making him believe or reahze if? Will he
believe that that which he sees, every week,
advertised with hogs, and horses, and fod-
der, and cotton-seed, and refuse furniture,
— bedsteads, tables and chairs, — is indeed
so divine a thing? We will suppose that
the little child knows some pious slave ;
that he sees him at the communion-table,
partaking, in a far-off, solitary manner, of
the Sacramental bread and wine. He sees
his pious fiither and mother recognize the
slave as a Christian brother ; they tell him
that he is an " heir of God, a joint heir with
Jesus Christ;" and the next week he sees
him advertised in the paper, in company with
a lot of hogs, stock and fodder. Can the
child possibly believe in what his Christian
parents have told him, when he sees this 7
We have spoken now of only the common
advertisements of the paper; but suppose
the child to live in some districts of tlie
country, and advertisements of a still more
degrading character meet his eye. In the
State of Alabama, a newspaper devoted to
politics, literature and education, has a

standing weekly advertisement of which this
is a copy :

NOTICE.

^ ^ The undersigned having an excel-
£=» lent pack of Hoitnds, for trailing

and catching runaway slaves, informs the public
that his prices in future will be as follows for
sucli services :
For each day employed in hunting or

trailing, - - - - - - $2.50

For catching each slave, - - - 10.00
For going over ten miles, and catching

slaves, 20.00

If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in
cash. The subscriber resides one mile and a half
south of Dadeville, Ala. -r, -d

Dadeville, Sept. 1, 1852. 1-tf

The reader will see, by the printer's sign
at the bottom, that it is a season advertise-
ment, and, therefore, would meet the eye
of the child week after week. The paper
from which we have cut this contains
among its extracts passages from Dickens'
Household Words, from Professor Felton's
article in the Christia7i Examiner on the
relation of the sexes, and a most beautiful
and chivalrous appeal from the eloquent
senator Soule on the legal rights of women.
Let us now ask, since this paper is devoted
to education, what sort of an educational
influence such advertisements have. And,
of course, such an establishment is not kept
up without patronage. Where there are
negro-hunters advertising in a paper, there
are also negro-hunts, and there are dogs
being trained to hunt ; and all this process
goes on before the eyes of children ; and
what sort of an education is it 7

The writer has received an account of the
way in which dogs are tranied for this busi-
ness. The information has been communi-
cated to the gentleman who writes it by a
negro man, who, having been always accus-
tomed to see Jt done, described it with as little
sense of there being anything out of the way
in it as if the dosis had been trained to catch
raccoons. It came to the writer in a recent
letter from the South.

The way to train 'em (says tlio man) *.s to
take those yer pups, — any kind o' pups will do, —
fox-hounds, bull-dogs, most any ; — i)ut take tho
pups, ami keep 'cm shut up, and don't let 'em never
see a nigger till they get big enough to be larncd.
When tlio pups gits old enough to bo set on to
things, then make 'cm run alter a nigger ; and
when they cotchcs him, give 'em meat. Toll the
nigger to run as hard as he can, and git up in a
tree, so as to larn the dogS'to tree 'em ; then take
the shoe of a nigger, and larn 'em to lind t!ie nig-
ger it belongs to ; then a rag of his clothes ; and
so on. AUers bo earful to tree tho nigger, and

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

131

teach the dog to wait and bark under the tree
till you come up and give him his meat.

See also the following advertisement from
the Ouachita Register^ a newspaper dated
"Monroe, La., Tuesday evening, June 1,
1852."

NEGRO DOGS.

The undersigned would respectfully inform the
citizens of Ouachita and adjacent parishes, that
he has located about 2.^ miles east of John
White's, on the road leading from Monroe to Bast-
rop, and that he has a fine pack of Dogs for catch-
ing negroes. Persons wishing negroes caught
will do Avell to give him a call. He can always
be found at his stand when not engaged in hunt-
ing, and even then information of his whereabouts
can always be had of some one on the premises.

Terms. — Five dollars per day and found, when
there is no track pointed out. When the track
is shown, twenty-five dollars will be charged for
catching the negro. jj ^_ ^^^^^

Monroe, Feb. 17, 1852.

15-3m

Now, do not all the scenes likely to be
enacted under this head form a fine educa-
tion for the children of a Christian nation ?
and can we wonder if children so formed see
no cruelty in slavery ? Can children real-
ize that creatures who are thus hunted are
the children of one heavenly Father with
themselves 7 .

But suppose the boy grows up to be a
man, and attends the courts of justice, and
hears intelligent, learned men declaring
from the bench that " the mere beating of a
slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances
of cruelty, or an attempt to kill, is no breach
of the peace of the state." Suppose he hears
it decided in the same place that no insult or
outrage upon any slave is considered worthy
of legal redress, unless it impairs his prop-
erty value. Suppose he hears, as he would
in Virginia, that it is the policy of the law
to protect the master even in inflicting cruel,
malicious and excessive punishment upon
the slave. Suppose a slave is murdered,
and he hears the lawyers arguing that it
cannot be considered a murder, because
the slave, in law, is not considered a human
being; and then suppose the case is ap-
pealed to a superior court, and he hears
the judge expending his forces on a long
and eloquent dissertation to prove that the
slave is a human being ; at least, that he is
as much so as a lunatic, an idiot, or an
unborn child, and that, therefore, he can be
murdered. (See JuHge Clark's speech, on
p. 75 .) Suppose he sees that all the admin-
istration of law with regard to the slave
proceeds on the idea that he is absolutely

nothing more than a bale of merchandise.
Suppose he hears such language as tliis,
which occurs in the reasonings of the Braze-
alle case, and which is a fair sample of the
manner in which such subjects are ordina-
rily discussed. "The slave has no more
political capacity, no more right to purchase, jj
hold or transfer property, than the mule in
his plough; he is in himself but a mere
chattel, — the subject of absolute owner-
ship." Suppose he sees on the statute-
book such sentences as these, from the civil
code of Louisiana :

Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and ani-
mals are divided into two classes, — vices of body
and vices of character. "

Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished
into absolute and relative.

Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are lep-
rosy, madness and epilepsy.

Art. 2503. The absolute vices of horses and .
mules are short wind, glanders, and founder.

The influence of this language is made all
the stronger on the young mind from tha
fact that it is not the language of contempt,
or of passion, but of calm, matter-of-fact,
legal statement.

What eifect must be produced on the mind
of the young man when he comes to see
that, however atrocious and however well-
proved be the murder of a slave, the mur-
derer uniformly escapes ; and that, though
the cases where the slave has fallen a vic-
tim to passions of the white are so multi-
plied, yet the fact of an execution for such a
crime is yet almost unknown in the country?
Does not all this tend to produce exactly
that estimate of the value of negro life and
happiness which Frederic Douglass says was
expressed by a common proverb among the
white boys where he was brought up : " It's
worth sixpence to kill a nigger, and sixpence
more to bury him " '?

We see the public sentiment which has
been formed by this kind of education ex-
hibited by the following paragraph from the
Cambridge Democrat, Md.. Oct. 27, 1852.
That paper quotes the following frrm the
Wooduille Rejntblicaii, of Mississippi. It
seems a Mr. Joshua Johns had killed a
slave, and had been sentenced therefor to -
the penitentiary for two years. The Jir-
piiblicati thus laments his hard lot :

STATE V. JOSHUA JOHNS.

This cause resulted in the conviction of Johns,
and his sentence to the penitentiary for two yearai ;
Although every member of the jui-y, together witli^
the bar, and the public generally, signed a poti- *
tiou to the governor for young Joluis' pardon, yet ';

132

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

there was no fault to find with the verdict of the
jury. The extreme youth of Johns, and the cir-
Cttiiistances in which the killing occurred, enlisted
universal sympathy in his favor. There is no
doulit that the negi-o had provoked hini to the
deed Iiy tlie use of insolent language ; but how
often must it l)e told that words are no justifica-
tion for blows? There are wjowy persons — and
we regret to say it — wltn think they have the same
* right to shoot a negro, if he insults them, or even
runs from them, that they have to shoot down a dog ;
but there are laws for the protection of the slave
as well as the master, and the sooner the error
ahove alhuJed to is removed, the better vdW it be for
both parties.

The unfortunate youth who has now entailed
upon himself tlie penalty of the law, we doubt not,
had no idea that tliere existed such penalty ; and
even if he was aware of the fact, tlio repeated in-
sults and taunts of the negro go far to mitigate
the crime. Johns was defended by I. D. Gildart,
Esq., wlio pro!)ably did all that could have been
eflected in his defence.

The Democrat adds :

We learn from Mr. Curry, deputy sheriff, of
Wilkinson County, that Johns has been pardoned
by the governor. We are gratified to hear it.

This error above alluded to, of thinking
it is as innocent to shoot down a negro as a
dog, is one, v^e fairly admit, for which young
Johns ought not to be very severely blamed.
He has been educated in a system of things
of which this opinion is the inevitable result;
and he, individually, is far less guilty for it,
than are those men who support the sys-
tem of laws, and keep up the educational
influences, which lead young Southern men
directly to this conclusion. Johns may be,
for aught we know, as generous-hearted and
as just naturally as any young man living ;
but the horrible system under wdiich he has
been educated has rendered him incapable
of distinguishing what either generosity or
justice is. as applied to the negro.

Tiie public sentiment of the slave states
is the sentiment of men who have been thus
educated, and in all that concerns the negro
it is utterly blunted and paralyzed. What
would seem to them injustice and hon-ible
■wi'ong in the case of white persons, is the
coolest matter of course in relation to slaves.

As this educational influence descends
from generation to generation, the moral
sense ])ecomes more and more blunted, and
tlie power of discriminating right from
wrojig, in what relates to the subject race,
more and more enfeebled.

Thus, if we read the writings of distin-
guished men who were slave-holders about
the time of our American Revolution, what
clear views do we find e.xprcssed of the in-
/ustice of slavery, what strong language of

reprobation do we find apj^lied to it ! Nothing
more forcible could possibly be said in rela-
tion to ii<i evils than by quoting the language
of such men as Washington, Jefferson, and
Patrick Henry. In those days there were
no men of that high class of mind who
thought of such a thing as defending slavery
on principle ; now there are an abundance of
the most distinguished men, North and
South, statesmen, civilians, men of letters,
even clergymen, who in various degrees
palliate it, apologize for or openly defend
it. And what is the cause of this, except
that educational influences have corrupted
public sentiment, and deprived them of the
power of just judgment? 77/e public
ojnnioji even of free America^ with regard
to slavery^ is behind that of all other
civilized nations.

When the hoWers of slaves assert that
they are, as a general thing, humanely
treated, what do they mean ? Not that they
would consider such treatment humane if
given to themselves and their chikben, — no,
indeed ! — but it is humane for slaves.

They do, in effect, place the negro below
the range of humanity, and on a level with
brutes, and then graduate all their ideas of
humanity accordingly.

They'Avould not needlessly kick or abuse
a dog or a negro. They may pet a dog,
and they often do a negro. Men have been
found who fancied having their horses cle- i
gantly lodged in marble stables, and to eat \
out of sculptured mangers, but they thoughb
them horses still ; and, with all the indul-
gences with which good-natured masters
sometimes surround the slave, he is to them
but a negro still, and 7iot a man.

In what has been said in this chapter, and
in what appears incidentally in all the facta
cited throughout this volume, there is abun-
dant proof that, notwithstanding there be fre-
quent and most noble instances of generosity
towards the negro, and although the senti-
ment of honorable men and the voice of
Christian charity does everywhere protest
against what it feels to be inhumanity, yet
the popular sentiment engendered by the
system must necessarily fall deplorably
short of giving anything like sufiicient pro-
tection to the riglits of the slave. It will
appear in the succeeding chapters, as it must
already have appeared to reflecting minds,
that the whole course of educational influence
upon the mind of the slave-master is such as
to deaden his mind to those appeals wliich
come from the negro as a fellow-man and a
brother.

KEY TO UNCLE TOm's CABIN.

133

CHAPTER III.

SEPARATION OP FAMILIES-

"What must tho difference be," said Dr. Worthington,
with startling energy, " between Isabel and her servants !
To her it is loss of position, fortune, the fair hopes of life,
perhaps even health ; for she must inevitably break down
under the unaccustomed labor and privations she will have
to undergo. But to them it is merely a change of ynasters " /

" Yes, for tlie neighbors won't allow any of the families
to be separated."

" Of course not. We read of such things in novels some-
times. But I have yet to see it in real life, except in
rare eases, or where the slave has been guilty of some mis-
demeanor, or crime, for which, in the North, he would
have been imprisoned, perhaps for life." — Cabin and Par-
lor, by J. Thornton Randolph, p. 39.

*********

" But they 'ro going to sell us all to Georgia, I say.
How are we to escape that 1 "

" Spec dare some mistake in dat," replied Uncle Peter,
stoutly. " I nebber knew of sich a ting in dese parts,
'cept where some niggar 'd been berry bad." — Hid.

By such graphic touches as the above
does Mr. Thornton Randolph represent to
us the patriarchal stability and security of
the slave population in the Old Dominion.
Such a thing as a slave being sold out of
the state has never been heard of by Dr.
Worthington, except in rare cases for some
crime ; and old Uncle Peter never heard of
such a thing in his life.

Are these representations true ?

The worst abuse of the system of slavery
is its outrage upon the family ; and, as the
■writer views the subject, it is one which is
more notorious and undeniable than any
other.

Yet it is upon this point that the most
stringent and earnest denial has been made
to the representations of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," either indirectly, as by the romance-
writer above, or more directly in the asser-
tions of newspapers, both at the North and
at the South. When made at the North, they
indicate, to say the least, very great igno-
rance of the subject ; when made at the
South, they certainly do very great injustice
to the general character of the Southerner
for truth and honesty. All sections of
country have fliults pecuhar to themselves.
The fault of the South, as a general thing,
has not been cowardly evasion and deception.
It was with utter surprisv> that the author
read the following sentences in an article in
Fraser's Magazine^ professing to come
trom a South Carolinian.

!Mrs. Stowo's favoi-ite illustration of the master's
power to the injury of the slave is the separation
of ^milies. We are told of infants of ten months
old being sold from tlie arras of tlieir mothers, and
of men whose hal)it it is to raise childi'cn to sell
away from their mother as soon as they are old
eJiough to be separated. Wjre our views of this

feature of slavery derived from Mrs. Stowe's book,
we should regard the families of slaves as utterly
unsettled and vagrant.

And again :

We feel confident that, if statistics could be
had to throw light upon this subject, we should
find that there is less separation of families among
the negroes than occurs with almost any other
class of persons.

As the author of the article, however, is
evidently a man of honor, and expresses
many most noble and praiseworthy senti-
ments, it cannot be supposed that these
statements were put forth with any view to
misrepresent or to deceive. They are only
to be regarded as evidences of the facility
with which a sanguine mind often overlooks
the most glaring facts that make against a
favorite idea or theory, or which are un-
favorable in their bearings on one's own
country or family. Thus the citizens of
some place notoriously unhealthy will come
to believe, and assert, with the utmost sin-
cerity, that there is actually less sickness
in their town than any other of its size
in the known world. Thus parents often
think their children perfectly immaculate
in just those particulars in which others
see them to be most faulty. This solution
of the phenomena is a natural and amiable
one, and enables us to retain our respect for
our Southern brethren.

There is another circumstance, also, to ha
taken into account, in reading such asser-
tions as these. It is evident, from the
pamphlet in question, that the writer is one
of the few who regard the possession of ab-
solute irresponsible power as the highest of
motives to moderation and temperance in its
use. Such men are commonly associated
in friendship and family connection with
others of similar views, and are very apt to
Ml into the error of judging others by
themselves, and thinking that a thing may
do for all the world because it operates well
in their immediate circle. Also it cannot
but be a fact that the various circumstances
which- from infancy conspire to degrade and
depress the negro in the eyes of a Southern-
born man, — the constant habit of speaking
of them, and hearing them spoken of, and '
seeinof them advertised, as mere articles of
property, often in connection with horses,
mules, fodder, swine, kc. as they are almost
daily in every Southern paper, — must tend,
even in the best-constituted minds, to pro-
duce a certain obtuseness with regard to the
interests, sufferings and affections, of such
aa do not partieuiarly belong to himself,

134

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

•which will pecularly unfit him for estimating
their condition. The author has often been
singularly struck with this fact, in the letters
of Southern friends ; in which, upon one
page, the J will make some assertion regard-
ing the condition of Southern negroes, and
then go on, and in other connections state
facts which apparently contradict them all.
We can all be aware how this familiarity
would operate Avith ourselves. Were we
called upon to state how often our neighbors'
cows Avere separated from their calves, or
how often their household furniture and
other effects are scattered and dispersed by
executor's sales, Ave should be inclined to say
that it was not a misfortune of very common
occurrence.

But let us open two South Carolina papers,
published in the very state where this gen-
tleman is residing, and read the advertise-
ments FOR OXE AVEEK. The author has
slightly abridged them.

COMMISSIOXER'S SALE OF 12 LIKELY
KEGROES.

Fairfield District.
R. "W. Murray and wife and!
others f

In Equity.
William Wriglit and wife
and others.

In pursuance of an Order of the Court of
Equity made in the above case at July Term,
1852, 1 will sell at public outcry, to the highest
bidder, before the Court House in Wirmsboro, on
the first Monday in January next,

12 VERY LIKELY NEGROES,

belonging to the estate of INlicajah Mobley, de-
ceased, late of Fairfield District.

These Negroes consist chiefly of young boys
and girls, and are said to be very likely.

Terms of Sale, &c.

W. R. Robertson,
C.E.F.D

Commissioner's Office,

VVinn.sboro, Nov. 30

Dec. 2 42 s4.

ice, >

),1S52. X

ADMIXISTRATOR'S SALE.

Will be sold at pul)lic outcry, to the highest
bidder, nn Tuesday, the 21st day of December
next, at the late residence of Mrs. M. P. llabb,
deceased, all of the personal estate of said de-
ceased, consisting in part of about

2,000 Bushels of Corn.

25,000 pounds of Fudder.

Wheat — Cotton Seed.

Horses, Mules, Cattle, Hogs, Sheep.

There will, in all proljahility, be sold at the
eame time and place S'jvcral likely Young Negroes.

The Terms of Sale will be — all sums under
Twenty-five Dollars, Cash. All sums of Twenty-
five Dollars and over, twelve months' credit, with
interest from day of Sale, secured by note and
two approved sureties. William S. Rabb,

Administrator.

Nov. 11. 39 x2

COMMISSIOXER'S SALE OF LAND AND
X EG ROES.

Fairfield District.

James E. Caldwell,

Admr., with the Will

annexed, of Jacob Gibson,

deceased, y In Equity

Jason D. Gibson
and others.

In pursuance of the order of sale made in the
above case, 1 will sell at public outcry, to the
highest bidder, before the Court House in Winna-
boro, on the first Monday in January next, and
the day following, ti,-^ following real and personal
estate of Jacob Gibson, deceased, late of Fair-
field District, to wit :

The Plantation on which the testator lived at
the time of his death, containing 661 Acres, more
or less, lying on the waters of Wateree Creek, and
bounded by lands of Samuel Johnston, Theodore
S. DuBose, Edward P. Mobley, and B. R. Cockrell.
This plantation will be sold in two separate tracts,
plats of which will be exhibited on the day of
sale :

46 prime likely negroes,

consisting of Wagoners, Blacksmiths, Cooks, House
Servants, d^c. W. R. Robertson,

C. E. F.D.

Commissioner's Office, )

Winnsboro, 29th Nov. 1852. 5

ESTATE SALE.— FIFTY PRIME NEGROES.
BY J. & L. T. LEV IX.

On the first Monday in January next I will sell,
before the Court House in Columbia, 50 of as
Likely Negroes as have ever been exposed to public
sale, belonging to the estate of A. P. Vinson, de-
ceased. The Negroes have been well cared for,
and well managed in every respect. Persons wish-
ing to purchase will not, it is confidently believed,
have a better opportunity to supply themselves.

J. H. Adams,
Executor.

Nov. 18 40 x3

ADMIXISTRATOR'S SALE.

Will be sold on the 15th Decemlx!r next, at the
late residence of Samuel Moore, deceased, in York
District, all the personal property of said deceased,
consisting of ;

35 likely negroes,
a quantity of Cotton and Corn, Horses and IMules,
Farming Tools, Household and Kitchen Furniture,
with many other articles.

S.VilUEL E. MOOKE,
Administrator.
Nov. 18 40 x4t.

ADMINISTRATOR'S SALE.

Will bo sold at public outcry, to the highest
bidder, on Tuesday, the 14th day of December
next, at the late residence of Rolwrt W. Durlnun,
deceased, in Fairfield District, all of the personal
estate of said deceased : consisting in part as fol-
lows :

50 PRIME likely NEGROES.

About 3,000 Bushels of Corn.
A largo quantity of Fodder.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

135

Wlieat, Oats, Cow Peas, Rye, Cotton Seed,
Horses, Mules, Cattle, Hogs, Sheep.

C. H. Durham,
Nov. 23. Administrator.

SHERIFF'S SALE.

By virtue of sundry executions to me directed,
I will sell at Fairfield Court House, on the first
Monday, and the day following, in December next,
within the legal hours of sale, to the highest bid-
der, for cash, the following property. Purchasers
to pay for titles :

2 Negroes, levied upon as the property of Allen
R. Crankfield, at the suit of Alexander Brodie, et al.

2 Horses and 1 Jennet, levied upon as the prop-
erty of Allen R. CrankHeld, at the suit of Alexan-
der Brodie.

2 Mules, levied upon as the property of Allen
R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance E. Miller
and J. W. Miller.

1 pair of Cart Wheels, levied upon as the prop-
erty of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Tem-
perance E. Miller and J. W. Miller.

1 Chest of Drawers, levied upon as the property
of Allen R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance
E. Miller and J. W. Miller.

1 Bedstead, levied upon as the property of Allen
R. Crankfield, at the suit of Temperance E. Miller
and J. W. Miller.

I Negro, l9\'ied upon as the property of R. J.
Gladney, at the suit of James Camak.

1 Negro, levied upon as the property of Geo.
McCormick, at the suit of W. M. Phifer.

1 Riding Saddle, to be sold under an assignment
of G. W. Boulware to J. B. Mickle, in the case of
Geo. Murphy, Jr., v. G. W. Boulware.

R. E. Ellison,
Sherirs Office, > S. F. D.

Nov. 19 1852. ^

Nov. 20 37 fxtf

COMMISSIONER'S SALE.

In Equity.

John A. Crumpton,
and others,

Zachariah C. Crumpton

In pursuance of the Decretal order made in this
case, I will sell at public outcry to the highest
bidder, before tlie Court House door in Winnslioro,
on the first Monday in December next, three
separate tracts or parcels of land, belonging to
the estate of Zachariah Crumpton, deceased.

I will also sell, at the same time and place, five
OR SIX LIKELY YouNG Negroes, sold as the property
of the said Zachariali Crumpton, deceased, by
virtue of the authority aforesaid.
■The Terms of sale are as follows, &c. &c.

W. R. ROBETSOX,

Commissioner's Office, > C. E. F. D.

Winnsboro, Nov. 8, 1852. \

Nov 11 30 x3

ESTATE SALE OF VALUABLE PROPERTY.

The undersigned, as Administrator of the Estate
of Col. T. Randell, deceased, will sell, on Monday
the 20th December next, all the personal property
belonging to said estate, consisting of
5G NEGROES,

STOCK, CORN, FODDER, ETC. ETC.

Terms of sale, &c. &c.

Samuel J. Raxdell.
Sep. 2 29 xlG

The Tri-ioeekly South Carolinian^ pub-
lished at Columbia, S. C, has this motto :

" Be JUST AND FEAR NOT ; LET ALL THE ENDS THOU
AIm'sT AT BE THY CoUNTRV's, THY God's, AND

Truth's."

In the number dated December 23d,
1852, is found a " Reply of the Women of
Vircrinia to the Women of Engjland." con-
tammg this sentmient :

Believe us, we deeply, prayerfully, stutJij God's
holy word; we are fully persuaded that our in-
stitutions are in accordance with it.

After which, in other columns, come tho
ten advertisements following :

SHERIFF'S SALES FOR JANUARY 2, 1853.

By virtue of sundry writs of fieri facias, to me
directed, will be sold before the Cofirt House in
Columbia, within the legal hours, on the first
Monday and Tuesday in January next.

Seventy-four acres of Land, more or less, in
Richland District, bounded on the north and east
by Lorick's, and on the south and west by Thomas
Trapp.

Also, Ten Head of Cattle, Twenty-five Head of
Hogs, and Two Hundred Bushels of Corn, levied
on as the property of jM. A. Wilson, at the suit
of Samuel Gardner v. M. A. Wilson.

Seven Negroes, named Grace, Frances, Edmund,
Charlotte, Emuline, Thomas and Charles, levied
on as the property of Bartholomew Turnipseed,
at the suit of A. F. Dubard, J. S. Lever, Bank of
the State and others, v. B. Turnipseed.

450 acres of Land, more or less, in Richland
District, bounded on the north, &c. &c.

LARGE SALE OF REAL AND PERSONAL
PROPERTY— ESTATE SALE.

On Monday, the (7th) seventh day of February
next, I will sell at Auction, without reserve, at the
Plantation, near Linden, all the Horses, Mules,
Wagons, Farming Utensils, Corn, Fodder, &c.

And on the following Monday (14th), the four-
teenth day of February next, at the Court House,
at Linden, in Marengo County, Alabama, I vrill
sell at public auction, without reserve, to tho
highest bidder,

110 PRIME AND LIKELY NEGROES,

belonging to the Estate of the late John Robinson,
of South Carolina.

Among the Negroes are four valuable Carpen-
ters, and a very superior Blacksmith.

NEGROES FOR SALE.

By permission of Peter Wylie, Esq., Ordinary
for Chester District, I will sell, at public auction,
before the Court House, in Chesterville, on the
first Monday in February next,

FORTY LIKELY NEGROES,

belonging to the Estate of F. W. Davie.

W. D. DeSaussure, Executor.
Dec. 23. 56 ■ ftds.

ESTATE SALE OF FURNITURE, &c., BY J.
&. L. T. LEVIN.

Will be sold, at our store, on Thursday, the 6th
day of January next, all the Household and Kitch

136

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

en Furniture, belonging to the Estate of B. L.
McLaughlin, deceased, consisting in part of

Hair Seat Chairs, Sofas and Rockers, Piano,
Mahogany Dining, Tea, and Card Tables ; Carpets,
Rugs, Andirons, Fenders, Shovel and Tongs, Man-
tel Ornaments, Clocks, Side Board, Bureaus, Ma-
hogany Bedsteads, Feather Beds and Mattresses,
Wash Stands, Curtains, fine Cordial Stand, Glass-
ware, Crockery, and a great variety of articles for
family use.

Terms cash.

ALSO,

A Negro Man, named Leonard, belonging to
same.
Terms, &c.

ALSO,

At same time, a quantity of New Brick, belong-
ing to Estate of A. S. Johnstone, deceased.
Dec. 21. 53 Jtds.

GREAT SALE OF NEGROES AND THE SA-
LUDA FA'CTORY, BY J. & L. T. LEVIN.

On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o'clock, will
be sold at the Court House in Columbia,

ONE HUNDRED VALUABLE NEGROES.

It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now
offers. Among them are only four beyond 45
years old, and none above 50. There are twenty-
five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty ;
forty of the most likely young women, and as fine
a set of children as can be shown! !

Terms, &c. Dec. 18, '52.

XEGROES AT AUCTION. — BY J. & L. T.
LEVIN.

Will be sold, on Monday, the 3d January next,
at the Court House, at 10 o'clock,

22 LIKELY NEGROES, the larger number of which
are young and desirable. Among them are Field
Hands, Hostlers and Carriage Drivers, House Ser-
vants, &c., and of the following ages: Robinson
40, Elsey 34, Yanaky 13, Sylla 11, Anikee 8, Rob-
inson 6, Candy 3, Inflmt 9, Thomas 35, Die 38,
Amey 18, Eldridge 13, Charles G, Sarah 60, Baket
50, Mary 18, Betty IG, Guy 12, Tilla 9, Lydia 24,
Rachel 4, Scipio 2.

The above Negroes are sold for the purpose of
making some other investment of the proceeds ;
the sale will, therefore, be positive.

Terms. — A credit of one, two, and three yeare,
for notes payable at either of the Banks, with two
or more approved endorsers, with interest from
date. Purchasers to pay for papers. Doc 8 43

'^' Black River Watchman will copy the above,
and forward bill to the auctioneers for payment.

Poor little Scip. !

LIKELY AND VALUABLE GIRL, AT PRI-
tf VATE SALE.

H^ A LIKELY GIRL, al)()ut Seventeen years old
(raised in the up-country), a good Ji'urse and
House Servant, can wash and iron, and do plain
cooking, and is warranted sound and Iieaitliy.
She may l)e soon at our office, where she will re-
main until sold. Allen & Phillii's,
Dec. 15, '49. Auctioneers & Com. Agents.

PLANTATION AND NEGROES FOR SALE.

The subscriber, having located in Columbia,
offers for sale his Plantation in St. Matthew's

Parish, six miles from the Railroad, containing
1,500 acres, now in a high state of cultivation,
with Dwelling House and all necessary Out-build-

50 Likely Negroes, with provisions, &c.

The terms will be accommodating. Persona
desirous to purchase can call upon the subscriber
in Columbia, or on his son at the Plantation.

Dec. 6 41. T. J. Goodwvn.

FOR SALE.

A likely negro boy, about twenty-one years
old, a good wagoner and field hand. Apply at
this office. Dec. 20 52.

Now, it is scarcely possible that a person
who has been accustomed to see such adver-
tisements from boyhood, and to pass them
over with as much indifference as we p;is3
over advertisements of sofas and chairs for
sale, could possibly receive the shock from
them which one wholly unaccustomed to
such a mode of considering and disposing of
human beings would receive. They make
no impression upon him. His own family
servants, and those of his friends, are not in
the market, and he does not realize that any
are. Under the advertisements, a hundred
such scenes as those described in " Uncle
Tom" may have been acting in his very
vicinity. When Mr. Dickens drew pictures
of the want and wretchedness of London
life, perhaps a similar incredulity might
have been expressed within the silken cur-
tains of many a brilliant parlor. They
had never seen such things, and they had
always lived in London. But, for all that,
the writings of Dickens awoke in noble and
aristocratic bosoms the sense of a common
humanity with the lowly, and led them to
feel how much misery might exist in their
immediate vicinity, of which they were
entirely unaware. They have never accused
him as a libeller of his country, though he
did make manifest much of the suffering,
sorrow and abuse, which were in it. The
author is led ^earnestly to entreat that the
writer of this very paper would examine
the "statistics" of the American internnl
slave-trade; that he would look over the
exchange files of some newspaper, and, for
a month or two, endeavor to keep some
inventory of the number of human beings,
with hearj;s, hopes and affections, like his
own, who are constantly subjected to all the
uncertainties and mutations of property rela-
tion. The writer is sure that he could not
do it long without a generous desire being
excited in his bosom to become, not an apol-
ogist for, but a reformer of, these institu-
tions of his country.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

137

These papers 'of South Carohna are not
exceptional ones : they may be matched by
hundreds of papers from any other state.

Let the reader now stop one minute, and
look over again these two weeks' advertise-
ments. This is not novel-writing — this is
fact. See these human beings tumbled pro-
miscuously out before the public with
horses, mules, second-hand buggies, cotton-
seed, bedsteads, &c. &c.; and Christian
ladies, in the same newspaper, saying that
they prayerfully study God's word, and
believe their institutions have his sanction !
Does he suppose that here, in these two
weeks, there have been no scenes of suffering?
Imagine the distress of these families — the
nights of anxiety of these mothers and
children, wives and husbands, when these
sales are about to take place ! Imagine the
scenes of the sales ! A young lady, a friend
of the writer, who spent a winter in Caro-
lina, described to her the sale of a woman
and her children. When the little girl,
seven years of age, was put on the block,
she fell into spasms with fear and excitement.
She was taken off — recovered and put
back — the spasms came back — three times
the experiment was tried, and at last the
sale of the cliild was deferred !

See also the following, from Dr. Elwood
Harvey, editor of a western paper, to th5
Pennsylvania Freeman. Dec. 25, 1846.

We attended a sale of land and other property,
near Petersburg, Tirginia, and unexpectedly saw
slaves sold at public auction. The slaves were
told they would not be sold, and were collected
in front of the quarters, gazing on the assembled
multitude. The land being sold, the auctioneer's
loud voice was heard, " Bring up the niggers!''''
A shade of astonishment and afiright passed over
their faces, as they stared first at each other, and
then at the crowd of purchasers, whose attention
was now directed to them. When the horrible
truth was revealed to their minds that they were
to be sold, and nearest relations and friends parted
forever, the efiect was indescribably agonizing.
Women snatched up their babes, and ran scream-
ing into the huts. Children hid behind the huts
and trees, and the men stood in mute despair.
The auctioneer stood on the portico of the house,
and the " men and boys" were ranging in the
yard for inspection. It was announced that no
warranty of soundness was given, and purchasers
must examine for themselves. A few old men
were sold at prices from thirteen to twenty-five
dollars, and it was painful to see old men, bowed
with years of toil and suffering, stand up to be the
jest of brutal tn^ants, and to hear them tell their
disease and worthlessness, fearing that they would
be bought by traders for the southern market.

A white boy, about fifteen years old, was placed
on the stand. His hair was bro\vn and straight,
his skin exactly the same hue as other white per-
sons and no discernible trace of negro features
in hh countenance.

Some vulgar jests were passed on his color, and
two hundred dollars was bid for him ; but the audi-
ence said " that it was not enough to begin on for
such a likely young nigger." Several remarked
that they " would not have him as a gift.') Some
said a white nigger was more trouble than he was
worth. One man said it was wrong to sell white
people. I asked him if it was more wrong than
to sell black people. He made no reply. Before
he was sold, his mother rushed from the house
upon the portico, crj'ing, in frantic grief, " My
son, 0 ! my boy, they will take away my dear — "
Here her voice was lost, as she was rudely pushed
back and the door closed. The sale was not for a
moment interrnpted, and none of the crowd ap-
peared to be in the least affected by the scene.
The poor boy, afraid to cry before so many stran-
gers, who showed no signs of sympathy or pity,
trembled, and wiped the tears from his cheeKs
with his sleeves. He was sold for about two
hundred and fifty dollars. During the sale, the
quarters resounded with cries and lanlentations
that made my heart ache. A woman was next
called by name. She gave her infant one wild
embrace before leaving it with an old woman, and
hastened mechanically to obey the call ; but
stopped, threw her arms aloft, screamed and was
unable to move.

One of my companions touched my shoulder
and said, " Come, let us leave here ; I can bear no
more." We left the ground. The man who
drove our carriage from Petersburg had two sons
who belonged to the estate — small boys. He
obtained a promise that they should not be sold.
He was asked if they were his only children ; he
answered, "All that's left of eight." Three
others had been sold to the south, and he would
never see or hear from them again.

As Northern people do not see such things,
they should hear oi them often enough to keep
them awake to the sufferings of the victims of
their indifference.

Such are the common incidents, not the
admitted cftielties, of an institution which
people have brought themselves to feel is in
accordance with God's word !

Suppose it be conceded now that " the '
family relation is protected, as far as possi-
ble.^' The question still arises. How far is
it possible ? Advertisements of sales to the
number of those we have quoted, more or
less, appear from week to week in the same
papers, in the same neighborhood : and pro-
fessional traders make it their business to
attend them, and buy up victims. Now, if
the inhabitants of a given neighborhood
charge themselves with the care to see that 1^"
no families are separated in this whirl of ^
auctioneering, one would fancy that they
could have very little else to do. It is a
fact, and a most honorable one to our com-
mon human nature, that the distress and
anguish of these poor, helpless creatures
does often raise up for them friends among
the generous-hearted. Southern men often
go to the extent of their means, and beyond
their meanSj to arrest the cruel operationa

138

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of trade, and relieve cases of individual dis-
tress. There are men at the South who
could tell, if thej would, how, when they
have spent the last dollar that they thought
they could afford on one week, they have
been importuned by precisely such a case
the next, and been unable to meet it. There
are masters at the South who could tell, if
they would, how they have stood and bid
against a trader, to redeem some poor slave
of their own, till the bidding was perfectly
ruinous, and they have been obliged to give
up by sheer necessity. Good-natured auc-
tioneers know very well how they have often
been entreated to connive at keeping a poor
fellow out of the trader's clutches ; and how
sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they
do not.

The very struggle and effort which gen-
erous Southern men make to stop the regu-
lar course of trade only shows them the
hopelessness of the effort. We fully con-
cede that many of them do as much or more
than any of us would do under similar cir-
cumstances ; and yet they know that what
they do amounts, after all, to the merest
trifle.

But let us still further reason upon the
testimony of advertisements. What is to be
understood by the following, of the Mem-
phis Eagle and Inquirer^ Saturday, Nov.
13, 1852? Under the editorial motto,
" Liberty and Union, now and forever,"
come the following illustrations :

NO. I.

75 NEGROES.

^^ I have just received from the East 75
J^ assorted A No. 1 negroes. Call soon, if
^M . you want to get the first choice.

Bexj. Little.

NO. II.

CASH FOR NEGROES.

/*® I will pay as high cash prices for a few
■^^ likely young negroes as any trader in this
^rs ^^ city. Also, will receive and sell on commis-
sion at Byrd Hill's, old stand, on Adams-street,
Memphis. Bknj. Little.

NO. III.

500 NEGROES WANTED.

We will pay the highest cash price
for all good negroes offered. We in-
vite all those having negroes for sale
to call on us at our Mart, opposite the lower
steamboat landing. We will also have a large
lot of Virginia negroes for sale in the Fall. We
have as safe a jail as any in the country, where
we can keep negroes safe for those tliat wish tliem
kept. Bolton, Dickins & Co.

Under the head of advertisements No. 1,
let us humbly inquire what " assorted A
No. 1 Negroes ^^ means. Is it likely that

it means negroes sold in families ? What is
meant by the invitation, " Call soon if you
want to get the first choice " ?

So much for Advertisement No. 1. Let
us now propound a few questions to the
initiated on No. 2. What does Mr. Benja-
min Little mean by saying that he " icill
■pay as high a cash price for a feio likely
young negroes as any trader in the
city ' ' 7 Do families commonly consist ex-
clusively of " likely young negi^oes " 7

On the third advertisement we are also
desirous of some information. INIessrs.
Bolton, Dickins & Co. state that they
expect to receive a large lot of Virginia
negroes in the fall.

Unfortunate Messrs. Bolton, Dickins &
Co. ! Do you suppose that Virginia fami-
lies will sell their negroes ? Have you read
Mr. J. Thornton Randolph's last novel,
and have you not learned that old Virginia
families never sell to traders ? and, more
than that, that they always club together
and buy up the negroes that are for sale in
their neighborhood, and the traders w^hen
they appear on the ground are hustled off
with very little ceremony? One would
really think that you had got your impres-
sions on the subject from '• Uncle Tom's
Cabin." For we are told that all who de-
rive their views of slavery from this book
"regard the families of slaves as utterly
unsettled and vagrant." *

•But, before we recover from our astonish-
ment on reading this, we take up the
Natchez (Mississippi) Coiirier of Nov.
20th, 1852, and there read :

NEGROES.

The undersigned would respectfully state ^j^
to the public that he has leased the stand in jA
the Forks of the Eoad, near Natchez, for a ^y,
term of years, and that he intends to keep a lar^e
lot of NEGROES on hand during tlie year. He
will sell as low or lower than any other trader at
this place or in New Orleans.

He has just arrived from Virginia with a very
likely lot of Field Men and Women ; also. House
Servants, three Cooks, and a Carpenter. Call and
see.

A fine Buggy Horse, a Saddle Horse and a
Carryall, on hand, and for sale.

Tuos. G. James.

Natchez, Sept. 28, 1852.

Where in the world did this lucky Mr.
Tiios, G. James get this likely "H'irginia
"assortment " '? Probably in some county
which Mr. Thornton Randolph never visited.
And had no families been sc])arated to form

* Article in Fraser^s Magazine for October, hy a South
Caroliuian.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

139

the assortment ? We hear of a lot of field
men and women. Where are their children 7
We hear of a lot of house-servants, — r of
"three cooks," and "one carpenter," as
•well as a "fine buggy horse." Had these
unfortunate cooks and carpenters no rela-
tions 7 Did no sad natural tears stream
doAvn their dark cheeks, when they were
being "assorted" for the Natchez market?
Does no mournful heart among them yearn
to the song of

" 0, carry mo back to old Virginny " 1

Still further, we see in the same paper the
following :

SliAVESI SLA VES : SLAVES :

^9 Fresh Arrivals Weekly. — Having estab-
Jt\ lished ourselves at the Forks of the Road,
^y near Natchez, for a term of years, we have
now on hand, and intend to keep throughout the
entire year, a large and well-selected stock of
Negroes, consisting of field-hands, house servants,
mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers,
etc., Avhich we can and will sell as low or lower
than any other house here or in New Orleans.

Persons wishing to purchase would do well to
call on us before making purchases elsewhere, as
our regular arrivals will keep us supplied with a
good and general assortment. Our terms are
liberal. Give us a call.

Griffin & Pullam.
Natchez, Oct. 15, 1852.-6m.
Free Trader and Concordia Intelligencer copy
as above.

Indeed ! Messrs. GriflSn and Pullam, it
seems, are equally fortunate ! They are
having fresh supplies weekly, and are going
to keep a large, well-selected stock con-
stantly on hand, to wit, " field-hands, house-
servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses,
washers, ironers, etc."

Let us respectfully inquire what is the
process by which a trader acquires a well-
selected stock. He goes to Virginia to select.
He has had orders, say, for one dozen cooks,
for half a dozen carpenters, for so many
house-servants, &c. &c. Each one of these
individuals have their own ties ; besides
being cooks, carpenters and house-servants,
they are also fathers, mothers, husbands,
wives ; but what of that 7 They must be
selected — it is an assortment that is wanted.
The gentleman who has ordered a cook does
not, of course, want her five children ; and
the planter who has ordered a carpenter does
not want the cook, his wife. A carpenter
is an expensive article, at any rate, as they
cost from a thousand to fifteen hundred dol-
lars ; and a man who has to pay out this
sum for him cannot always afford himself
the luxury of indulging his humanitv • and

as to the children, they must be left in the
slave-raising state. For, when the ready-
raised article is imported weekly into
Natchez or New Orleans, is it likely that
the inhabitants will encumber themselves
with the labor of raising children 7 No, there
must be division of labor in all well-ordered
business. The northern slave states raise
the article, and the southern ones con-
sume it.

The extracts have been taken from the
papers of the more southern states. If, now,
the reader has any curiosity to explore the
selecting process in the northern states, the
daily prints will further enlighten him. In
the Daily Virginian of Nov. 19, 1852,
Mr. J. B. McLendon thus announces to the
Old Dominion that he has settled himself
down to attend to the selecting process :

IVEGROEES %VA1VTD.

The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is
giving the highest cash prices for negroes between
the ages of 10 and 30 years. Those having
negroes for sale may find it to their interest to
call on him at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg,
or address him by letter.

All communications will receive prompt atten-
tion. J. B. McLendon.

nov. 5-dly.

Mr. McLendon distinctly announces that
he is not going to take any children under
ten years of age, nor any grown people over
thirty. Likely young negroes are what he
is after : — families, of course, never separ-
ated !

Again, in the same paper, Mr. Seth
Woodroof is desirous of keeping up the
recollection in the community that he also
is in the market, as it would appear he has
been, some time past. He, likewise, wanv>3
negroes between ten and thirty years of age ;
but his views turn rather on mechanics,
blacksmiths, and carpenters, — witness hia
hand :

NEGROES WANTED.

The subscriber continues in market for Negroes,
of both sexes, betiveen the ages of 10 and 30
years, including Mechanics, such as Blacksmiths,
Carpenters, and will pay the highest market prices
in cash. His office is a newly erected brick build-
ing on 1st or Lynch street, immediately in rear of
the Farmers' Bank, where he is prepared (having
erected buildings with that view) to board negroes
sent to Lynchburg for sale or otherwise on aa
moderate terms, and keep them as secure, as if
they were placed in the jail of the Corporation.

aug 26. Seth Woodroof.

There is no manner of doubt that this
Mr. Seth Woodroof is a gentleman of hu-
manity, and wishes to avoid the separation

140

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

of families as nmch as possible. Doubt-
less he ardently wishes that all his black-
smiths and carpenters would be considerate,
and never have any children under ten years
of age ; but, if the thoughtless dogs have got
them, what 's a humane man to do 7 He has
to fill out Mr. This, That, and the Other's
order, — that's a clear case; and therefore
John and Sam must take their last look
at their babies, as Unc!e Tom did of his
when he stood by the rough trundle-bed
and dropped into it great, useless tears.

Nay, my friends, don't curse poor Mr.
Seth Woodroof, because he docs the horrible,
loathsome work of tearing up the living
human heart, to make twine and shoe-strings
for you ! It 's disagreeable business enough,
he will tell you, sometimes ; and, if you must
have him to do it for you, treat him civilly,
and don't pretend that you are any better
than he.

But the good trade is not confined to the
Old Dominion, by any means. See the fol-
lowing extract from a Tennessee paper, the
Nashville Gazette, Nov. 23, 1852, where
Mr. A. A. McLean, general agent in this
kind of business, thus makes known his
wants and intentions :

WANTED.

I want to purchase immediately 25 likely
NEGEOES, — male and female, — between the
ages' of lb and 25 years; for which I will pay
the highest price in cash.

A. A. McLean, General Agent,

nov 9 Cherry Street.

^Ir. McLean, it seems, only wants those
between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.
This advertisement is twice repeated in the
same paper, from Avhich fact we may con-
jecture that the gentleman is very much in
earnest in his wants, and entertains rather
confident expectations that somebody will
be^ willing to sell. Further, the same gen-
tleman states another want.

WANTED.

I want to purchase, immediately, a Negro man,
Carpenter, and will give a good price. ,.

sept 29 A. A. McLean, Gcnl Agent.

Mr. McLean docs not advertise for his
wife and children, or where this same car-
penter is to be sent, — whether to the New
Orleans market, or up the Red River, or
off" to some far bayou of the Mississippi,
jaever to look upon wife or child again. But,
again, Mr. McLean in the same paper tells
us of another Avant :

AVAXTED IM MEDIATELY.

A Wet Nurse. Any price Avill be given for one
of good character, constitution, &c. Apply to
A. A. McLean, Gen I Agent.

And what is to be done with the baby of
this wet nurse ? Perhaps, at the moment
that Mr. McLean is advertising for her, she
is hushing the little thing in her bosom, and
thinking, as many another mother has done,
that it is about the brighest, prettiest little
baby that ever was born; for, singularly
enough, even black mothers do fall into this
delusion sometimes. No matter for all this,
— she is wanted for a wet nurse ! Aunt
Prue can take her baby, and raise it on
coi-n-cake, and what not. Ofi" with her to
Mr. McLean !

See, also, the following advertisement of
the good State of Alabama, Avhich shows
how the trade is thriving there. Mr. S. N.
Brown, in the Advertise?' and Gazette,
]\Iontgomery, Alabama, holds forth as fol-
lows:

NEGROES FOR SALE.

S.N. Brown takes this method of informing his
old patrons, and others waiting to purchase Slaves,
that he has now on hand, of his own selection
and purchasing, a lot of likely young Negroes,
consisting of Men, Boys, and Women, Field Hands,
and superior House Servants, which he offers
and will sell as low as the times will warrant.
Office on Market-street, above the Montgomery
Hall, at Lindsay's Old Stand, where he intends to
keep slaves for sale on his own account, and not
on commission, — therefore thinks he can give
satisfaction to those who patronize him.

Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 13, 1852. twtf (j)

Where were these boys and gii-ls of Mr.
Brown selected, let us ask. Hoav did their
fathers and mothers feel when they were
" selected'^ ? Emmeline was taken out of
one family, and George out of another. The
judicious trader has travelled through wide
regions of country, leaving in his track
Availing and anguish. A little incident,
Avhich has recently been the rounds of the
papers, may perhaps illustrate some of the
scenes he has occasioned :

INCIDENT OF SLAAT:RA'.

A negro woman belonging to Geo. M. Garrison,
of Polk Co., killed four of her children, by cutting
their throats while they Avere asleep, on Thursday
night, the 2d inst., and then put an end to her
own existence by cutting her throat. Ilcr master
knows of no cause for the horrid act, unless it bo
that she lieard him speak of selling hor and two
of her children, and keeping the others.

The uncertainty of the master in this
case is edifying. He knoAvs that negroes
cannot be expected to ha\-e the feelings of
cultivated popple ; — and yet, here is a case
where the creature really acts unaccountably,
and he can't think of any cause except that
he was going to sell her from her children.

But, compose yourself, dear reader ; there
was no great harm done. These were all

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

141

poor people's cliiWren, and some of them,
though not all, were black ; and that makes
all the difference in the world, you know !

But Mr. Brown is not alone in Montgom-
ery. Mr. J. W. Lindsey wishes to remind
the people of his depot.

100 NEGROES FOR SALE,

At my depot, on Commerce-street, immediately
between the Exchp.nge Hotel and F. M. Gilmer,
Jr.'s Warehouse, where I will be receiving, from
time to time, large lots of Negroes during the sea-
son, and will sell on as accommodating terms as
any house in this city. I would respectfully
request my old customers and friends to call and
examine my f took. Jno. W. Lindsey.

Montgomerj, Nov. 2, 1852.

Mr. Lindsey is going to be receiving,
from time to time, all the season, and will
sell as cheap as anybody ; so there 's no fear
of the supply's falling off. And, lo ! in the
same paper, Messrs. Sanders & Foster press
their claims also on the pubhc notice.

NEGROES FOR SALE.

The undersigned have bought out the well-known
establishment of Eckles & Brown, where they have
now on liand a large lot of likely young Negroea,
to wit : Men, Women, Boys and Girls, good field-'
hands. Also, several good House Servants and
Mechanics of all kinds. The subscribers intend
to keep constantly on hand a large assortment of
Negroes, comprising every description. Persons
wishing to purchase will find it much to their
interest to call and examine previous to buying
elsewhere. S^vnders & Foster.

April 13.

Messrs. Sanders & Foster are going to
have an assortment also. All their negroes
arc to be young and likely ; the trashy old
fathers and mothers are all thrown aside like
a heap of pig- weed, after one has been Aveed-
ing a garden.

Query : Are these Messrs. Sanders &
Foster, and J. AV. Lindsey. and S. N.
Brown, and McLean, and Woodroof, and
McLendou, all members of the church,
in good and regular standing? Does the
question shock you ? Why so 7 Why
should they not be 7 The Bev. Dr. Smylie,
of INIississippi, in a document endorsed by
two presbyteries, says distinctly that the
Bible gives a right to buy and sell slaves.*

If the Bible guarantees this right, and
sanctions this trade, why should it shock you
to see the slave-trader at the coimnunion-

* " If language can convey a clear and definite mean-
ing at all, I know not how it can more unequivocally or
more plainly present to the mind any thought or idea
than the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus clearly or une-
quivocally establishes the fact that slavery or bondage
was sanctioned by God himself ; and that ' buying, selling,
holding and bequeathing ' slaves, as property, are regula-
tions which were established by MJcaself." — Smylie on
Slavery.

table ? Do you feel that there is blood on
his hands, — the blood of human hearts,
which he has torn asunder ? Do you shud-
der when he touches the communion-bread,
and when he drinks the cup which " who-
soever drinketh unworthily drinketh damna-
tion to himself"? But who makes the
trader ? Do not you ? Do you think that
the trader's profession is a healthy one for
the soul? Do you think the scenes with
which he must be familiar, and the deeds he
must do, in order to keep up an assortment
of negroes for your convenience, are such
things as Jesus Christ approves ? Do you
think they tend to promote his growth in
grace, and to secure his soul's salvation?
Or is it so important for you to have assorted
negroes that the traders must not only be
turned out of good society in this life, but
run the risk of going to hell forever, for
your accommodation ?

But let us search the Southern papers,
and see if we cannot find some evidence of
that humanity which avoids the separation
of families, as far as possible. In the
Argus, published at Weston, Missouri,
Nov. 5, 1852, see the following :

A NEGRO FOR SALE.

I wish to sell a black girl about 24 years old, a
good cook and washer, handy with a needle, can
spin and weave. I wish to sell her in the neigh-
borhood of Camden Point ; if not sold there in a
short time, I will hunt the best market ; or I will
trade her for two small ones, a boy and girl.

M. DOYAL.

Considerate Mr, Doyal ! He is opposed
to the separation of families, and, therefore,
wishes to sell this woman in the neighbor-
hood of Camden Point, where her family
ties are, — perhaps her husband and chil-
dren, her brothers, or sisters. He will not
separate her from her family if it is possi-
ble to avoid it ; that is to say, if he can get
as much for her without ; but, if he can't,
he will ^'■hunt the best market J'' What
more would you have of Mr. Doyal ?

How speeds the blessed trade in the State
of Maryland? — Let us take the Baltimore
^i^?i of Nov. 23, 1852.

Mr. J. S. Donovan thus advertises the
Christian pubhc of the accommodations of
his jail :

CASH FOR NEGROES.

The undersigned continues, at his old stand,
No. 13 Camden St., to pay the highest price for
Negroes. Persons bringing Negroes by railroad
or steamboat will find it very convenient to secure
their Negroes, as my Jail is adjoining the Rail-
road Depot and near the Steamboat Landings.
Negroes received for safe keeping.

J. S. Donovan.

142

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Messrs. B. :M. & W. L. Campbell, ia the
respectable old stand of Slatter. advertise as
follows :

SLAVES WANTED.

We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying
the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell
will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter's old
stand). Communications attended to.

B. M. & W. L. Campbell.

In another column, however, Mr. John
Denning has his season advertisement, in
terms which border on the sublime :

5000 N^EGROES AVAIVTED. '

I will pay the highest prices, in cash, for 5000
Negroes, with good titles, slaves for life or for a
terra of years, in large or small families, or single
negroes. I will also purchase Negroes restricted
to remain in the State, that sustain good charac-
ters. Families never separated. Persons having
Slaves for sale will please call and see me, as I
am always in the market with the cash. Com-
munications promptly attended to, and liberal
commissions paid, by Johx N. Dexnixg, No. 18
S. Frederick street, between Baltimore and Second
streets, Baltimore, Maryland. Trees in front of
the house.

Mr. John Denning, also, is a man of hu-
manity. He never separates families. Don't
you see it in his advertisement ? If a man
offers him a wife without her husband, Mr.
John Denning won't buy her. 0, no ! His
five thousand are all unbroken families ; he
never takes any other; and he transports
them whole and entire. This is a comfort
to reflect upon, certainly.

See, also, the Democrat^ published in
Cambridge, Maryland, Dec. 8, 1852. A
gentleman gives this pictorial representation
of himself, with the proclamation to the
slave-holders of Dorchester and adjacent
counties that he is again in the market :

XEGROES \VANTED.

I wish to inform the slave-holders of
^X. Dorchester and the adjacent counties that I
J^ am again in the JMavket. Persons having
■-•** negroes that are slaves for life to dispose
of will find it to their interest to see me before
they soil, as I am determined to pay the highest
prices in cash tliat tlie Soutlicrn market will jus-
tify. I can be found at A. Hall's Hotel in Easton,
•where I will remain until the Ih-st day of July
next. Communications addressed to me at Easton,
or information given to \V"m. Bell in Cambridge,
will meet with prompt attention.'

Wm. IIarker.

Mr. IIarker is very accommodating. He
keeps himself informed as to the state of the
southern market, and will give the xoxy
highest price that it will justify. Moreover,
he will be on hand till July, and will answer
any letters from the adjoining country on

the subject. On one point he ought to be
spoken to. He has not advertised that he
does not separate families. It is a mere
matter of taste, to be sure ; but then some
well-disposed people like to see it on a
j trader's card, thinking it has a more credit-
able appearance ; and, probably, Mr. IIarker,
if he reflects a little, will put it in ne.\t time.
It takes up very httle room, and makes a
good appearance.

We are occasionally reminded, by the
advertisements for runaways, to how small
an extent it is found possible to avoid the
separation of flimilies ; as in the Richtnond
Whig oil^oy. 5, 1852:

*10 REWARD.

We are requested by Henry P. Davis to offer a
reward of $10 for the apprehension of a negro
man named Hen'ry, who ran away from tlie said
Davis' farm near Petersburg, on Thursday, the
27th October. Said slave came from near Lynch-
burg, Va., purchased of Cock, and lias a

wife in Halifix county, Ya. He has recently
been employed on the South Side Railroad. He
may be in the neighborhood of his wife.

PuLLi.Aii & Davis, Aucts., Richmond.

It seems to strike the advertiser as possi-
ble that Henry may be in the neighborhood
of his wife. We should not at all wonder
if he were.

The reader, by this time, is in possession
of some of those statistics of which the
South Carolinian speaks, when he says,

We feel confident, if statistics could be had, to
throw light upon the suljject, we shovi^,find that
there is less separation of fomilies ^mong the
negi'oes than occurs with almost any other class
of persons.

In order to give some little further idea
of the extent to which this kind of property
is continually changing hands, see the fol-
lowing calculation, which has been made
from sixty-four Southern newspapers, taken
very much at random. The papers were all
•published in the last two weeks of the month
of November, 1852.

The negroes are advertised sometimes by
name, sometimes in definite numbers, and
sometimes in "lots," "assortments," and
other indefinite terms. AVe present the
result of this estimate, fivr as it must fall
from a fs|^ representation of the facts, in a
tabular form.

Here is recorded, in onli/ elcvcfi j^'^po's,
the sale of eight hundred forty-nine slaves
in two weeks in Virginia ; the state where
INIr. J. Thornton Randolph describes such
an event as a separation of families being a
thing that " wc read of in ;« or eZs sometimes."

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

143

States where
published.

§1

d 8

6 «

"•a

Virginia,

849

Kentucky,
Tennessee,

238
385

1
4

7
17

S. Carolina,

852

Georgia,

Alabama,

549

Mississippi,
Louisiana,

8
4

6G9
4G0

6
35

4100

In South Carolina, where the writer in
Fraser^s Magazine dates from, we have
during these same two weeks a sale of eight
hundred and fiftj-two recorded by one dozen
papers. Verily, we must apply to the news-
papers of his state the same language which
he applies to " Uncle Tom's Cabin :" " Were
our views of the system of slavery to be
derived from these papers, we should regard
the families of slaves as utterly unsettled
and vr.grant."

The total, in sixty-four papers, in differ-
ent states, for only two weeks, is four thou-
sand one hundred, besides ninety-two lots,
as they are called.

And now, who is he who compares the
hopeless, returnless separation of the negro
from his f imily, to the voluntary separation
of the freeman, whom necessary business in-
terest takes for a while fx*om the bosom of
his family 7 Is not the lot of the slave
bitter enough, w ithout this last of mockeries
and worst of ins alts'? Well may they say,
in their anguish, " Our soul is exceedingly
filled with the S(!orning of them that are at
ease, and with the contempt of the proud ! "

From the poor negro, exposed to bitterest
separation, the law jealously takes away the
power of writing. For him the gulf of sep-
aration yawns black and hopeless, with no
redeeming signal Ignorant of geography,
he knows not wluther he is going, or where
he is, or how to direct a letter. To all in-
tents and purposes, it is a separation hope-
- less as that of death, and as final.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SLAVE-TRADE.

What is it that constitutes the vital force
>f the institution of slavery in this country ?

Slavery, being an unnatural and unhealth-
ful condition of society, being a most waste-
ful and impoverishing mode of cultivating
the soil, would speedily run itself out in a
community, and become so unprofitable as
to fall into disuse, were it not kept alive by
some unnatural process.

What has that process been in America ?
Why has that healing course of nature which
cured this awful wound in all the northern
states stopped short on Mason & Dixon's
line ?• In Delaware, Maryland, Virginia
and Kentucky, slave labor long ago impov-
erished the soil almost beyond recovery,
and became entirely unprofitable. In all
these states it is well known that the ques-
tion of emancipation has been urgently pre-
sented. It has been discussed in legisla-
tures, and Southern men have poured forth
on the institution of slavery such anathemas
as only Southern men can pour forth. All
that has ever been said of it at the North
has been said in four-fold thunders in these
Southern discussions. The State of Ken-
tucky once came within one vote, in her
legislature, of taking measures for gradual
emancipation. The State of Virginia has
come almost equally near, and Maryland
has long been waiting at the door. There
was a time when no one doubted that all
these states would soon be free states ; and
what is now the reason that they are not ?
Why are these discussions now silenced, and
why does this noble determination now ret-
rograde ? The answer is in a word. It is
the extension of slave territory, the open-
ing of a great southern slave-market, and
the organization of a great internal slave-
trade, that has arrested the progress of
emancipation.

While these states were beginning to look
upon the slave as one who might possibly
yet become a man, while they mechtated
giving to him and his wife and children the
inestimable blessings of liberty, this great
southern slave-mart was opened. It began
by the addition of Missouri as slave territory,
and the votes of two Northern men were
those which decided this great question.
Then, by Ihe assent and concurrence of
Northern men, jcame in all the immense ac-
quisition of slave territory which now opens -
so boundless a market to tempt the avarice
and cupidity of the northern slave-raising
states.

This acquisition of territory has deferred
perhaps for indefinite ages the emancipation
of a race. It has condemned to sorrow and

144

KEY CO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

heart-brealdng separation, to groans and
mailings, hundreds of thousands of slave
families ; it has built, through all the South-
ern States, slave-warehouses, with all their
ghastly furnishings of gags, and thumb-
screws, and cowhides; it' has organized
unnumbered slave-coffles, clanking their
chains and filing in mournful march through
this land of liberty.

This accession of slave territory hardened
the heart of the master. It changed what
was before, in comparison, a kindly relation,
into the most horrible and inhuman of trades.

The planter whose slaves had grown up
around him, and whom he had learned to
look upon almost as men and women, saw
on every sable forehead now nothing but its
market value. This man was a thousand
dollars, and this eight hundred. The black
baby in its mother's arms wa.s a hundred-
dollar bill, and nothing more. All those
nobler traits of mind and heart which should
have made the slave a brother became only
so many stamps on his merchandise. Is the
slave intelligent ? — Good ! that raises his
price two hundred dollars. Is he conscien-
tious and faithful 7 — Good ! stamp it down
in his certificate ; it 's worth two hundred
dollars more. Is he religious 1 Does that
Holy Spirit of God, whose name we men-
tion with reverence and fear, make that
despised form His temple 7 — Let that also
be put down in the estimate of his market
value, and the gift of the Holy Ghost shall be
sold for money. Is he a minister of God 7 —
Nevertheless, he has his price in the market.
From the church and from the communion-
table the Christian brother and sister are
taken to make up the slave-coffle. And
woman, with her tenderness, her gentleness,
her beauty, — Avoman, to whom mixed blood
of the black and the white have given graces
perilous for a slave, — what is her accursed
lot, in this dreadful commerce 7 — The next
few chapters will disclose facts on this subject
which ought to wring the heart of every
Christian mother, if, indeed, she be worthy
of that holiest name.

But we will not deal in assertions merely.
We have stated the thing to be proved ; let us
show the facts which prove it.

The existence of this fearful traffic is
known to many, — the particulars and
dreadful extent of it realized but by few.

Let us enter a little more particularly on
them. The slave-exporting states are Mary-
land, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina,
Tennessee and Missouri. These are slave-
raising states, and the others are slave-con-

suming states. We have shown, in the pre-
ceding chapters, the kind of advertisements
which are usual in those srotes ; but, as we
wish to produce on the minds of our readers
something of the impression which has been
produced on our own mind by their multi-
plicity and abundance, we shall add a few
more here. For the State of Virginia, see
all the following :

Kanawha Republican, Oct. 20, 1852,
Charleston, Va. At the head — Liberty,
with a banner, " Drapeait, sajis Tacked

CASH FOR XEGROES.

The subscriber wishes to purchase a few yo.mg
NEGROES, frojn 12 to 25 years of age, for wLioh
the highest market price will be paid in cash. A
few lines addressed to hira through the Post Ofb-^e,
Kanawha 0. H., or a personal application, will
be promptly attended to. Jas. L. Fickllv.

Oct. 20, '53. — 3t

Alexandria Gazette, Oct. 28th :

CASH FOR NEGROES.

1 wish to purchase immediately, for the South,
any number of NEGROES, from 10 to 30 years of
age, for which I will pay the very highest cadh .
price. All communications promptly attended to.

Joseph Bruin

West End, Alexandria, Va., Oct. 26. — tf

Lynchburg Virginian, Nov. 18 :

NEGROES AVAXTED.

The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is
giving the highest cash prices for negroes, between
the ages of 10 and 30 years. Those having negroea
for sale may find it to their interest to call on him
at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg, or address
him by letter.

All communications will receive prompt atten-
tion. J. B. McLexdox.

Nov. 5. — dly

Rockingham Register, Nov. 13 :

CASH FOR NEGROES.

I wish ta purchase a number of NEGROES of
both sexes and all ages, for the Southern market,
for which I will pay the highest cash prices.
Letters addressed to me at AVinchester, Virginia,
will be promptly attended to.

H. J. McDaxiel, Agent

Nov. 24, 1846. — tf for Wm. Crow.

Richmond Whig, Nov. 16 :

PULLIAM & DAVIS,

AUCTIONEERS FOR THE SALE OF NEGROES.

D. M. PuLi-iAM. Hector Davis.

The subscribers continue to sell Negroes, at
their office, on AVall-street. From tJicir cxpcri-
ence in the business, they can safely insure the
highest prices, for all negroes intrusted to their
care. They will make sales of negroes in estates,
and would say to Commissioners, Executors ami
Administrators, that they will make their sales on
favorable terms. They are prepared to board and
lodge negroes comfortably at 25 cents per day.

KEY TO UNCLE XDM S CABIN.

145

NOTICE. — CASH FOR SLAVES.

Tliose who wish to sell slaves in Buckingham
and the adjacent counties in Virginia, by applica-
tion to Anderson D. Abraham, Sr., or his son,
Anderson D. Abraham, Jr., they will find sale, at
the highest cash prices, for one hundred t,nd fifty
to two hundred slaves. One or the other of the
above parties will be found, for the next eight
months, at their residence in the aforesaid county
and state. Address Anderson D. Abraham, Sr.,
Maysville Post Office, White Oak Grove, Buck-
ingham County, Va.

Winchester Republicafi, June 29, 1852 :

XEGROES WANTED.

The subscriber having located himself in Win-
chester, Va., wishes to purchase a large number
of SLAVES of both sexes, for which he will give
the highest price in cash. Persons wishing to
dispose of Slaves will find it to their advantage
to give him a call before selling.

All communications addressed to him at the
Taylor Hotel, Winchester, Va., will meet with
prompt attention. Elijah INIcDowel,

Agent for B. M. & Wm. L. Campbell,

Dec. 27, 1851. — ly of Baltimore.

For Maryland :

Port Tobacco Times, Oct., '52 :

SLAVES WANTED.

The subscriber is permanently located at !Mid-
DfjEviLLE, Charles County (immediately on the
road from Port Tobacco to AUen's Fresh) , where
he will be pleased to buy any Slaves that are for
Bale. The extreme value will be given at all
times, and liberal commissions paid for informa-
tion leading to a purchase. Apply personally, or
by letter addressed to Allen's Fresh, Charles
County. John G. Campbell.

mddleville, AprU 14, 1852.

Cambridge (Md.) Democrat. October
2T, 1852 :

NEGROES AVANTED.

I wish to inform the slave-holders of Dorches-
ter and the adjacent counties thac I am ngain in
the market. Persons having neOToes that are
slaves for life to dispose of will find it to their in-
terest to see me tefore they sell, as I am deter-
mined to pay the highest prices in cash that the
kiouthern market will justify. I can be found at
A. Hall's Hotel, in Easton, where I will remain
■ntil the first day of July next. Communications
addressed to me at Easton, or information given
to Wm. BeU, in Cambridge, will meet with prompt
attention.

I will be at John Bradshaw's Hotel, in Cam-
Iridge, everv Monday. Wm. Harkek.

Oct.6, 1§52. — 3m

The Westminster Carroltmiian, Oct.
22, 1852 :

25 NEGROES W^ ANTED.

The undersigned wishes to purchase 25 LIKELY
YOUNG NEGROES, for which the highest cash
10

prices will be paid. All communications ad-
dressed to me in Baltimore will be punctually at-
tended to. Lewis Wlnters,
Jan. 2. — tf

For Tennessee the following :
Nashville True Whig, Oct. 20tli, '52 ;

FOR SAL.E.

21 likely Negroes, of difierent ages.

Oct. G. A. A. ^McLean, Gen. Agent.

AVANTED.

I want to purchase, immediately, a Negro man,
Carpenter, and will give a good price.

Oct. 6. A. A. McLean, Gen. Agent

Nashville Gazette, October 22 :

FOR SALE.

SEVERAL likely girls from 10 to 18 years old.
a woman 24, a very valuable woman 25 years old,
with three very likely children. *

Williams & Glovkr

Oct. 16th, 1852. A. B. o.

WANTED.

I want to purchase Tvventy-ive LIKELY
NEGROES, between the ages of I8 and 25 years,
male and female, for which I will pay the highest
price LN cash. A. A. McLean.

Oct. 20. Cherry Street.

The Blemphis Paily Eagle and E71-
quirer :

500 NEGROES AVANTED.

We will pajthe highest cash price for all good
negroes oflfcred. We invite all those having
negroes for sale to call on us at our mart, opposite
the lo>ver steamboat landing. We wUl also have
a large lot of Virginia negroes for sale in the Pall.
TVe have as safe a jail as any in the country,
where we can keep negroes safe for those that
wish them kept. Bolton, Dickins & Co.

je 13 — d & w

LAND AND NEGROES FOR SALE.

A good bargain will be given in about 400 acres
of Land ; 200 acres are in a fine state of cultiva-
tion, fronting the Railroad about ten miles from
Memphis. Together with 18 or 20 likely negroes,
consisting of men, women, boys and giris. Good
time will be given on a portion of the purchase
money. J. M. Provlne.

Oct. 17. — Im.

Clarksville Chronicle, Dec. 3, 1852:

NEGROES WANTED.

We wish to hire 25 good Steam Boat hands for
the New Orleans and Louisville trade. We will
pay very full prices for the Season, commencina:
about the 15th November.

McClitrb & Crozibr, Agents

Sept. 10th, 1852. — Im S. B. BeUpoor

146

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Missouri :

The Daily St. Louis Times, October
14. 1852 :

REUBEX BARTIiETT,

On Chesnut, between Sixth and Seventh streets,
near the city jail, will pay the highest price in
ca«h for all good negroes offered. There are also
other buyers to be found in the office very anxious
to pui-chase, who will pay the highest prices given
in cash.

Negroes boarded at the lowest rates.

jy 15 — 6m.

MEGROES.

BLAKELY and McAFEE having dissolved co-
partnership by mutual consent, the subscriber
will at all times pay the highest cash prices for
negroes of every description. Will also attend to
the sale of negroes on commission, having a jail
and yard fitted up expressly for boarding them.

J^ Negroes for sale at all times.

3 A. B. McAfee, 93 Olive street.

OKE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED.

Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to
purchase, us soon as possible, one hundred likely
negroes, consisting of men, women, boys and girls,
for which I will pay at all times from fifty to one
hundred dollars on the head more money than any
ather trading man in the city of St. Louis, or the
State of JMissom-i. I can at' all times be found at
Barnum's City Hotel, St. Louis, Mo.

jel2d&wly. John Mattinglt.

From another St. Louis paper :

NEGROES Wanted.

I will pay at all times the highest price in cash
for all good negroes offered. I am buying for the
Memphis and Louisiana markets, ajid can afford
to pay, and will pay, as high as any trading maji
in this State. All those having negroea to sell
will do well to give me a call at No. 210, corner
of Sixth and Wash streets, St Louis, Mo.

Tuos. DicKKs,
of the firm of Bolton, Dickins & Co.

We ask you, Christian reader, vre beg
you to think, what sort of scenes are going
on in Virginia under these advertisements 1
You see that they are carefully worded so as
to take only the young people ; and they are
only a specimen of the standing, season ad-
vertisements which are among the most com-
mon things in the Virginia papers. A suc-
ceeding chapter will open to the reader the
interior of these slave-prisons, and show him
something of the daily incidents of this kind
of trade. Now let us look at the corre-
sponding advertisements in the southern
states. The coffles made up in Virginia
and other states are thus announced in the
southern market.

From the Natchez (Mississippi) Free
Trader, Nov. 20 :

NEGROES FOR SALE.

The undersigned have just arrived, direct from
Richmond, Va., with a large and likely lot of
Negroes, consisting of Field Hands, House
Servants, Seamstresses, Cooks, Washers and
Ironers, a first-rate brick mason, and other me-
chanics, which they now offer for sale at the Forks
of the Road, near Natchez (Miss.), on the most
accommodating terms.

They will continue to receive fresh supplies
from Richmond, Va., during the season, and will
be able to furnish to any order any description of
Negroes sold in Richmond.

Persons -wishing to purchase would do well to
give us a call before purchasing elsewhere.

nov20-6m Matthews, Branton & Co

ONE HUNDRED NEGROES AVANTED.

Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to
purchase one hundred likely Negroes, consisting
of men and women, boys and girls, for vs-hich I
will pay in cash from fifty to one hundred dollars
more than any other trading man in the city of
St. Louis or the State of Missouri. I can at all
times be found at Barnum's City Hotel, St. Louis,
Mo. John Mattingly.

jel4d&wly

B. M. liYNCH,

No. 104 Locust street, St. Louis, Missouri,
Is prepared to pay the higliest prices in cash for
good and likely negroes, or will furnish boarding
(or others, in comfortable quarters and under se-
cure fastenings. He will also attend to the sale
and purchase of negroes on commission.
g^ Negroes for sale at all times. &w

To The Public.

NEGROES BOUGHT AND SOLD,

Robert S. Adams & Moses J. Wicks have this
day associated themselves under the name and
style of Adams & Wicks, for the purpose of buy-
ing and Belling Negroes, in the city of Aberdeen,
and elsewhere. They have »an Agent who has
been purchasing Negroes for them in the Old
States for the last two months. One of the firm,
Ro>>ert S. Adams, haves this day for North Caro-
lina and Virginwi, and will buy a large number of
negroes for this market. They will keep at their
depot in Aberdeen, during the coming fall and
winter, a large lot of choice Negroes, wliich they
will sell low for cash, or for bills on Mobile.
Robert S. Adams,
MosEa J, VficKS.
Aberdeen, Miss. , May 7th, 1852.

slaves: SLAVES! SLAVES I

Fresh arrivals weekly. — Having established
ourselves at the Forks of the Road, near Nat<;hez,
for a term of years, we have now on hand, and in-
tend to keep throughout the entire year, a larg«
and well-selected stock of Negroes, consisting of
field-hands, house servants, mechanics, cooks,
seamstresses, washers, ironers, etc., which weca*
sell and will sell as low or lower than any other
house hero or in New Orleans.

Persons wisliing to purchase would do well *•
call on us before making purchases elsewhefe, as

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

owe regular anivals will keep us supplied with a
good and general assortment. Our terms are lib-
eral. Give us a call.

Griffin & Pullvm.
Natchez, Oct. 16, 1852. 6m

NEGROES FOR SALE.

I have just returned to my stand, at the Forks
of the Road, with fifty likely young NEGROES
for sale. " H. H. Elam.

sept 22

NOTICE.

The undersigned would respectfully state to the
public that he has leased the stand in the Forks
of the Road, near Natchez, for a terra of years, and
that he intends to keep a large lot of NEGROES on
hand during the year. He will sell as low, or
lower, than any other trader at this place or in
New Orleans.

He has just arrived from Virginia, with a very
likely lot of field men and women and house ser-
vants, three cooks, a carpenter and a fine buggy
horse, and a saddle-horse and carryall. Call and
Boe. Thos. G. Jaues.

Daily Orleanian^ Oct. 19, 1852 :

W. F. TANXEHILIi,

No. 159 Gravier Street.
SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES!
Constantly on hand, bought and sold on com-
mission, at most reasonable prices. — Field hands,
cooks, washers and ironers, and general house
servants. City reference given, if required.
Oct 14

DEPOT D'ESCLAVES

DE LA NOUVELLE-ORLEANS.
No. 68, RUE Baronne.

Wii. F. Tanxehu-l & Co. ont constamment en
mains un assortiment complet d'ESCL^vES hien
choisis A VENDRE. Aussi, vente et achat d'esclaves
par commission.

Nous avons actuellement en mains un grand
nombre de xegres a louer auxmois, parmi I'esquels
Be trouvent des jeunes garcons, dome^tiques de
maison, cuisinieres, blanchisseuses et repas-
seuses, nourices, etc.

REFERENCES :

Wright, Williams & Co. Moon, Titus & Co.
Williams, Phillips & Co. S. 0. Nelson & Co.
Mosea Greenwood. E. W. Diggs. 3ms

New Orleans Daily Crescent^ Oct. 21,
1852 :

SLAVES.

jAJfES White, No. 73 Baronne street, New Or-
leans, will give strict attention to receiving, board-
ing and selling SLAVES consigned to him. He
will also buy and sell on commission. References :
Messrs. Robson & Allen, McRea, Coflman & Co.,
Pregram, Bryan & Co. sep 23

NEGROES WANTED.

Fifteen or twenty good Negro INIen wanted to
go on a Plantation. The best of wages will be
given until the first of January, 1853.

Apply to Thomas G. Mackey So Co.,

5 Canal street, comer of Magazine,
•epll up stairs.

14T

From another number of the Mississipjn

Free Trader is taken the tbllowinof :

NEGROES.

The undersigned would respectfully state to the
public that he has a lot of about forty-five now
on hand, having tliis day received a lot of twenty-
five direct from Virginia, two or three good cooks,
a carriage driver," a good house boy, a fiddler, a
fine semnstress and a likely lot of field men and
women ; all of whom he will sell at a small profit.
He wishes to close out and go on to Virginia
after a lot for the fall trade. Call and see.

Thomas G. Jajies.

The slave-raising business of the northern
states has been variously alluded to and re-
cognized, both in the business statistics of
the states, and occasionally in the speeches
of patriotic men, who have justly mourned
over it as a degratlation to their country. In
1841, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery
Society addressed to the executive com-
mittee of the American And- Slavery Society
some inquiries on the internal American
slave-trade.

A labored investigation was made at that
time, the results of which were published in
London ; and from that volume are made the
following extracts :

The Virginia Times (a weekly newspaper,
published at Wheeling, Virginia) estimates, in
1836, the number of slaves exported for sale from
that state alone, during " the twelve months pr&-
ceding," at forty thousand, the aggregate value
of whom is computed at twenty-four millions of
dollars.

Allowing for Virginia one-half of the whole ex
portation during the period in question, and wb
have the appalling sum total of eighJy thousana
slaves exported in a single year from the breeding
states. _ We cannot decide with certainty what
proportion of the above number was furnished by
each of the breeding states, but Maryland ranks
next to Virginia in point of numbers. North Caro-
lina follows. Maryland, Kentucky North Carolina,
then Tennessee and Delaware.

The Natchez (Mississippi) Courier says " that
the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
and Arkansas, imported ^wo hundred and fifty thou-
sand slaves from the more northern states in the
year 1836."

This seems absolutely incredible, but it proba-
bly includes all the slaves introduced by the im-
migration of their masters. The following, from
the Virginia Times, confirms this supposition.
In the same paragraph which is referred to under
the second query, it is said :

" We have heard intelligent men estimate the
number of slaves exported from Virginia, within
the last twelve months, at a hundred and twenty
thousand, each slave averaging at least sxi
hundred dollars, making an aggregate of seventy-
two million dollars. Of the number of slaves
exported, not more than one-third have been sold;
the others having been carried by their mastera,
who have removed."

Assuming one-third to be the proportion of the

148

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

sold, tbere are more than eighty thousand im-
ported for sale into the four States of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Supposing
one-half of eighty thousand to be sold into the
other buying states, — S. Carolina, Georgia, and
the territory of Florida, — and we are brought to
the conclusion that more than a hundred and
twenty thousand slaves were, for some years pre-
vious to the great pecuniary pressure in 1837, ex-
ported from the breeding to the consuming states.
The Baltimore American gives the following
irom a Mississippi paper of 1837 :

"The report made by the committee of the
citizens of Mobile, appointed at their meeting
held on the 1st instant, on the subject of the ex-
isting pecuniary pressure, states that so large
has been the return of slave labor, that purchases
by Alabama of that species of property from
other states, since 1833, have amounted to about
t^n million dollars annually. ^^

" Dealing in slaves," says the Baltimore (Mary-
land) Register of 1829, has become a large busi-
ness ; establishments are made in several places
in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold
like cattle. These places of deposit are strongly
built, and well supplied with iron thumbscrews
and gags, and ornumented with cowskins and
other whips, oftentimes bloody."

Professor Dew, now President of the University
of William and Mary, in Virginia, in his review
of the debate in the Virginia Ibgislature in 1831 —
2, says (p. 120) :

*' A full equivalent being left in the place of the
slave (the purchase-money), this emigration be-
comes an advantage to the state, and does not
check the black population as much as at first
view we might imagine ; because it furnishes
every inducement to the master to attei\d to the
negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause the
greatest number possible to be raised.^'' Again :
'■^Yirginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state fir the
other states.'"

Mr. Goode, of Virginia, in his speech before the
Virginia legislature, in January, 1832, said :

" The superior usefulness of the slaves in the
South will constitute an effectual demand, which
will remove them from our limits. We shall send
them from our state, because it will be our interest
to do so. But gentlemen are alarmed lest the mar-
kets of other states be closed against the introduction
of our slaves. Sir, the demand for slave labor
must increase,'''' <^c.

In the debates of the Virginia Convention, in
1?29, Judge Upshur g'aid :

" The value of slaves as an article of property
depends much on the state of the market abroad.
In this view, it is the value of land abroad, and not
of land here, which furnishes the ratio. Nothing
is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A
late law of Louisiana reduced their value twenty-
five per cent, in two hours after its passage was
known. If it should be our lot, as I trust it will
, be, to a-^re the country of Texas, their price will
rise again.''''

Hon. Philip Doddridge, of Virginia, in his
speech in tlio Virginia Convention, in 1829 (De-
bates p. 89), said :

'* The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance
th© Talue ot the property in question (Virginia
slaves)."

Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, North Caro-
lina, at a Colonization meeting held at that place
iA the faU of 1837, said ;

"Thei-e were nearly seven thousand slaves
offered Li New Orleans market, last winter. From
Virginia alone six thousand were annually sent to
the South, and from Virginia and North Carolina
there had gone to the South, in the last twenty
years, three hundred thocsand sl.wes."

Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in his speech
before the Colonization Society, in 1829, says :

"It is believed that nowhere in the farming
portion of the United States would slave labor be
generally employed, if the proprietor were not
tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the
southern markets, which keeps it up in his own."

The Neiv York Journal of Commerce of Octo-
ber 12th, 1835, contains a letter from a Virginian,
whom the editor calls " a very good and sensible
man," asserting that twenty thousand sla-voa h&d
been driven to the South from Virginia that year,
but little more than three-fourths of which had
then elapsed.

Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the
legislature of that state, January 18, 1831 (see
Richmond Whig) , says ;

" It has always (perhaps erroneously) been
considered, by steady and old-fashioned people,
that the owner of land had a reasonable right to
its annual profits ; the owner of orchards to their
annual fruits ; the owner of brood mares to their
product ; and the owner of female slaves to their
increase. We have not the fine-spun intelligence
nor legal acumen to discover the technical dis-
tinctions dra^vn by gentlemen (that is, the distinc-
tion between female slaves and brood mares). The
legal maxim of partus sequitur ventrem is coeval
with the existence of the right of property itself,
and is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the
justice and inviolability of this maxim that the
master foregoes the service of the female slave,
has her nursed and attended during the period of
her gestation, and raises the helpless infant off-
spring. The value of the property ^us/(^es the ex-
pense, and I do not hesitate to say that in its in-
crease consists tnuch of our wealth.'"

Can any comment on tlie state of public
sentiment produced by slavery equal the
simplfc reading of this extract, if we re-
member that it was spoken in the Virginia
legislature? One would think the cold
cheek of Washington would redden in its
grave for shame, that his native state had
sunk so low. That there were Virginian
hearts to feel this disgrace is evident from
the following reply of Mr. Faulkner to Mr.
Gholson, in the Virginia House of Dele-
gates, 1832. See Richmond Whig :

" But he (jNIr. Gholson) has labored to show
that the abolition of slavery would be impolitic,
because your slaves constitute the entire wealth
of the state, all the productive capacity Virginia
possesses ; and, sir, as things are, / believe he is
correct. He says that the slaves constitute the
entire available wealth of Eastern Virginia. Is
it true that for two hundred years the only in-
crease in the wealtli and resources of Virginia
has been a remnant of the natural increase of
this miserable race T Can it bo that on this
increase she places her sole dependence ? Until I
heard these declaraticms, I had not fully conceived
tho horrible extent of this evil These gen-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN,

149

tiemen state th* fact, which the history and
present aspect of the commanwealth but too well
eustain. What, sir! have you lived for two hun-
dred years without personal effijrt or productive
industry, in extravagance and indolence, sustained
alone by the return from the sales of the in-
crease of slaves, and retaining merely such a
number as your now impoverished lands can
sustain as stock ' "

Mr. Thomas Jefferson Randolph in the Virginia
legislature used the following language {Liberty
Bell, p. 20) :

" I agree with gentlemen in the necessity of
arming the state for internal defence. I will unite
with them in any effort to restore confidence to
the public mind, and to conduce to the sense of
the safety of our wives and our children. Yet,
sir, I must ask upon whom is to fall the burden
of this defence 1 Not upon the lordly masters of
their hundred slaves, who will never turn out except
to retire with their families when danger threatens.
No, sir ; it is to fall upon the less wealthy class of
our citizens, chiefly upon the non-slaveholder. I
have kno\vn patrols turned out where there loas not
a slave-holder among them ; and this is the practice
of the coutitry. I have slept in times of alarm
quiet in bed, without having a thought of care,
while these individuals, o^vning none of this prop-
erty themselves, were patrolling under a compul-
sory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents
per twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house,
and guarding that property which was alike dan-
gerous to them and myself. After all, this is but
an expedient. As this population becomes more
numerous, it becomes less productive. Your
guard must be increased, until finally its profits
will not pay for the expense of its subjection.
Slavery has the effect of lessening the free popu-
lation of a country.

'• The gentleman has spoken of the increase of
the female slaves being a part of the profit. It is
admitted ; but no great evil can be averted, no
good attained, without some inconvenience. It
may be questioned how far it is desirable to foster
and encourage this branch of profit. It is a prac-
tice, and an increasing practice, in parts of Vir-
ginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an
honorable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his
country, bear to see this Ancient Dominion, ren-
dered illustrious by the noble devotion and patri-
otism of her sons in the cause of liberty, con-
verted into one grand menagerie, where men are to
reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles ?
Is it better, is it not worse, than the slave-trade ; —
that trade which enlisted the labor of the good
and wise of every creed, and every clime, to
abolish it 1 The trader receives the slave , a
stranger in language, aspect and manners, from
the merchant who has brought him from the in-
terior The ties of father, mother, husband and
cliild, have all been rent in twain ; before he re-
ceives him, liis soul has become callous. But
here, sir, individuals whom the master has known
from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the
innocent gambols of childhood, who have been
accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears
from the mother's arms, and sells into a strange
country, among strange people, subject to cruel
taakuiasters.

" lie has attempted to justify slavery here be-
cause it exists in Africa, and has stated that it
exists all o'^er the world. Upon the same prin-
ciple, he could justify Mahometanism, with its

plurality of wives, petty wars for plunder, rob-
bery and murder, or any other of the abomina-
tions and enormities of savage tobes. Does slav-
ery exist in any part of civilised Europe 1 — No
sir, in no part of it."

The calculations in the volume from wliich
•we have been quoting were made in the year
1841. Since that time, the area of the
southern slave-market has been doubled, and
the trade has undeigone a proportional in-
crease. Southern papers are fiill of its ad-
vertisements. It is, in fact, the great trade
of the country. From the single port of
Baltimore, in the last two years, a thousand
and thirty-three slaves have been shipped to
the southern market, as is apparent from
the following report of the custom-house
officer :

ABSTRACT OF THE NUMBER OF VESSELS CLEARED IN
THE DISTRICT OF BALTIMORE FOR SOUTHERN PORTS,
HAVING SLAVES ON BOARD, FROM JAN. 1, 1S51, TO
NOVEMBER 20, 1852.

Due. Denomina's.j

Names of Vessels. '

Where Bound.

No..

1851

Jan. 6

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

" 10

" 11

Bark,

Elizabeth,

New Orleans.

" 14
" 17
" 20

Sloop,

Gteorgia,

Norfolk, Va.

Bark,

Cora,

New Orleans.

Feb. 6

E. H. Chapin,

" 8

Sarah Bridge,

" 12

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

" 24

Schooner,

IL A. Barling,

New Orleans.

" 26

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

" 28

Mar. 10

Ship,

Edward Everett,

New Orleans.

" 21

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

" 19

Bark,

Baltimore,

Savannah.

Apr. 1

Sloop,

Herald,

Norfolk, Va.

" 2

Brig,

Waverley,

New Orleans.

" 18

Sloop,

Baltimore,

Arquia Creek, Va.

" 23

Ship,

Charles,

New Orleans.

" 2S

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

May 15

Herald,

" 17

Schooner,

Brilliant,

Charleston.

June 10

Sloop,

Herald,

Norfolk, Va.

" 16

Georgia,

" 20

Schooner,

Truth,

Charleston.

" 21

Ship,

Herman,

New Orleans.

July 19

Schooner,

Aurora S.,

Charleston.

Sept. 6

Bark,

Kirkwood,

New Orleans.

Oct. i

Abbott Lord,

" 11

Elizabeth,

" 18

Ship,

Edward Everett,

Oct. 20

Sloop,

Georgia,

Norfolk, Va.

Nov. 13

Ship,

Eliza F. MasoB,

New Orleans.

" 18

Bark,

Jlary Broughtons,

Dec. 4

Ship,

Timalean,

" 13

Schooner,

H. A. Barling,

1852.

Jan. 5

Bark,

Southerner,

Feb. 7

Ship,

Nathan Hooper,

" 21

Dumbarton,

Mar. 27

Sloop,

falraetto.

Charleston.

" 4

Jewess,

Norfolk, Va.

Apr. 24

Palmetto,

Charleston.

" 25

Bark,

Abbott Lord,

New Orleans.

May 15

Ship,

Charles,

June 12

Sloop,

Pampero,

July 3

Palmetto,

Charleston.

" 6

Herald,

Norfolk, Va.

« 6

.Maryland,

Arquia Creek, Va.

Sept. 14

North Carolina,

Norfolk, Va.

" 23

Ship,

America,

New Orlearis.

Oct. 15

!•

Brandywine,

" 18

Sloop,

Isabel,

Charleston.

•' 28

Schooner,

Maryland,

" 29

II. M. Gambrill,

Savannah.

Sov. 1

Ship,

Jane Henderson,

New Orleans.

" 6

Sloop,

Palmetto,

Charleston.

1033

150

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

If we look back to the advertisements, we
shall see that the traders take only the
jounger ones, between the ages of ten and
thirty. But this is only one port, and only
one mode of exporting ; for multitudes of
them are sent in coffles over land • '4 yet
Mr. J. Thornton Randolph represencs the
negroes of Virginia as living in pastoral
security, smoking their pipes under their
own vines and fig-trees, the venerable pa-
triarch of the flock declaring that "he neb-
ber hab hear such a ting as a nigger sold to
Georgia all his life, unless dat nigger did
someting very bad."

An affecting picture of the consequences
of this traffic upon both master and slave is
drawn by the committee of the volume from
"which we have quoted.

The writer cannot conclude this chapter
better than by the language which they
have used.

This system bears with extreme severity upon
tiie slave. It subjects him to a perpetual fear of
being sold to the " soul-driver," which to the
slave is the realization of all conceivable woes and
horrors, more dreaded than death. An awful ap-
prehension of this fate haunts the poor sufferer by
day and by night, from his cradle to his grave.
Suspense hangs like a thunder-cloudover his head.
He knows that there is not a passing hour, wheth-
er he wakes or sleeps, wliich may not be the
LAST that he shall spend with his wife and chil-
dren. Every day or week some acquaintance is
snatched from his side, and thus the consciousness
of his own danger is kept continually awake.
" Surely my turn will come next," is his harrow-
ing conviction ; for he knows that he was reai-ed
for this, as the ox for the yoke, or the sheep for
the slaughter. In this aspect, the slave's condi-
tion is truly indescribable. Suspense, even when
it relates to an event of no great moment, and
" endureth but for a night," is hard to bear. But
when it broods over all, absolutely all that is dear,
chilling the present with its deep shade, and cast-
ing its awful gloom over the future, it jnust break
the heart ! Such is the suspense under which
every slave in the breeding states lives. It poisons
ail his little lot of bliss. If a flithor, he cannot
go forth to his toil without bidding a mental f;xre-
well to his wife and children. lie cannot return,
weary and worn, from tlie field, with any certainty
that he shall not find his home robbed and desolate.
Nor can he seek his bed of straw and rags with-
out the frightful misgiving that his wife may be
torn from his arms before morning. Sliould a
white stranger approach his master's mansion, he
fears tliat the soul-driver has come, and awaits in
terror the overseer's mandate, " You are sold ; fol-
low that man." There is no being on earth whom
the slaves of the breeding states regard Avith so
much horror as tlie trader. He is to them what
the prowling kidnapper is to their less vvrctcliod
brethren in the wilds of Africa. The master knows
this, and tliat there is no punishment so effectual
to secure labor, or deter from misconduct, as the
tlireat of being delivered to the soul-driver.*

* This horribly expressive appellation is in commoa
use among the slaves of the breeding states.

Another consequence of this system is the prer-
alence of licentiousness. This is indeed one of the
foul features of slavery everywhere ; but it is espe-
cially prevalent and indiscriminate where slave-
breeding is conducted as a business. It grows di-
rectly out of the system, and is inseparable from it.
* * * The pecuniary inducement to general pol-
lution must be very strong, since the larger the slave
increase the greater the master's gains, and espe-
cially since the mixed blood demands a considerably
higher price than tlie pure black.

The remainder of the extract contains spe-
cifications too dreadful to be quoted. We can
only refer the reader to the volume, p. 13.

The poets of America, true to the holy
soul of their divine art, have shed over soms
of the horrid realities of this trade the
pathetic light of poetry. Longfellow and
Whittier have told us, in verses beautiful as
strung pearls, yet sorrowful as a mother's
tears, some of the incidents of this unnatural
and ghastly traffic. For the sake of a com-
mon humanity, let us hope that the first ex-
tract describes no common event.

THE QUADROON GIRL.

The Slaver in the broad lagoon

Lay moored with idle sail :
He waited for the rising moon,

And for the evening gale.

Under the shore his boat was tied

And all her listless crew
Watched the gray alligator slide

Into the still bayou.

Odors of orange-flowers and spice
Reached them, from time to time^

Like airs that breathe from Paradise
Upon a world of crime.

The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
Smoked thoughtfully and slow ;

The Slaver's thumb was on the latch.
He seemed in haste to go.

Ho said, " My ship at anchor rides
s In yonder broad lagoon ;
I only wait the evening tides,
And the rising of the moon."

Before them, with her face upraised,

In timid attitude,
Like one half curious, half amazed,

A Quadroon maiden stood.

Her eyes were large, and full of light,
Her arms and neck wore bare ;

No garment she wore, save a- kirtle bright.
And her own long raven hair.

And on her lips there played a smile

As holy, meek, and faint,
As lights in somo cathedral aisle

The features of a saint.

" The soil is barren, the farm is old,"
The thoughtful Planter said ;

Then looked upon the Slaver's gold,
And then upon the maid.

Ilia heart within him was at strife

With such accui-scd gains ;
For he knew whoso passions gave her life.

Whose blood ran in her veins.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

But the voice of nature was too weak ;

He took the glittering gold !
Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek.

Her hands as icy cold.

The Slaver led her from the door,

He led her by the hand.
To be his slave and paramour

In a strange and distant land !

THE FAREWELL

•r A T"«GISnA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTEHS, SOLD INTO
SOLTHEIW BONDAGE.

Gone, gone, — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Whore the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
AVhere the noisome insect stings,
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling Sews,
AVhere the sickly sunbeams glare
Ihrough the hot and misty air, —
Gone, gone, — sold and gone.
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me,*my stolen daughters I

Gone, gone, — sold and gone.
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Ttore no mother's eye is near them.
There no mother's ear can hear them ;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash.
Shall a mother's kindness bless them.
Or a mother's arms caress them.
Gone, gone, &o.

•'"' • Gone, gone, — sold and gone,

To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
0, when weary, sad, and slow,
From the fields at night they go,
Faint with toil, and racked with pain.
To their cheerless homes again, —
There no brother's voice shall greet them,
There no father's welcome meet them.
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone, — sold and gone.
To the rice-iwamp dank and lone.

From the tree whoso shadow lay
On their childhood's place of play ;

From the cool spring where they drank ;

Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank ;

From the solemn house of prayer.

And the holy counsels there, —
Gone, gone, &o.

Crone, gone, — sold and gone.
To the rice-swarnp dank and lon« ;
Toiling through the weary day.
And at night the spoiler's prey.
0, that they had earlier died.
Sleeping calmly, side by side.
Where the tyrant's power is o'er.
And the fetter galls no more !
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone, — sold and gone.
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
By the holy love He beareth.
By the bruised reed He spareth,
0, may He, to whom alone
All their cruel wrongs are known.
Still their hope and refuge prove.
With a more than mother's love *
Gone, gone, &c.

JoHK G. TVhittier.

The following extract from a letter of
Dr. Bailey, in tlie Era, 1847, presents a \iew
of this subject more creditable to some Vir-
ginia families. Maj the number that refuse

151

to part with slaves except by emancipation
increase !

The sale of slaves to the south is carried to a

r'eat extent. The slave-holders do not, go far as
can learn, raise them for that special purposo.
But, here ia a man with a score of slaves, located
on an exhausted plantation. It must furnish sup.
port for all ; but, while they increase, its capacity
of supply decreases. The result is, he must eman-
cipate or sell. But he has fallen into debt, and
he sells to relieve himself from debt, and also from
an excess of mouths. Or, he requires money to
educate his children ; or, his negroes are sold un-
der execution. From these and other causes, large
numbers of slaves are continually disappearing
fi'om the state, so that the next census will un-
doubtedly show a marked diminution of the slave
population.

The season for this trade is generally from No-
vemljer to April ; and some estimate that the aver-
age number of slaves passing by the southern
railroad weekly, during that period of six months,
is at least two hundred. A slave-trader told me
that he had known one hundred pass in a single
night. But this is only one route. Large num-
bers ai'e sent off westwardly, and also by sea,
coastwise. The Davises, in Petersburg, are the
great slave-dealers. They are Jews, who came to
that place many years ago as poor pedlers ; and,
I am informed, are members of a family which
has its representatives in Philadelphia, New York,
&c. ! These men are always in the market, giv-
ing the highest price for slaves. During the sum-
mer and fall they buy them up at low prices, trim,
shave, wash them, fatten them so that they may
look sleek, and sell them to great profit. It might
not be unprofitable to inquire how much North-
ern capital, and what firms in some of the North-
ern cities, are connected with this detestable
business.

There are many planters here who cannot be
persuaded to Sell their slaves. They have far
more than they can find work for, and could at
any time obtain a high price for them. The tempt-
ation is strong, for they want more money and
fewer dependants. But they resist it, and noth-
ing can induce them to part with a single slave,
though they know that they would be greatly the
gainers in a pecuniary sense, were they to sell
one-half of them. Such men are too good to be
slave-holders. Would that they might see it their
duty to go one step further, and become emanci-
pators ! The majority of this class of planters
are religious men, and this is the class to which
generally are to be referred the various cases of
emancipation iy ivill, of which from time to time
we hear accounts.

CHAPTER y.

SELECT INCIDENTS OF LAWFUL TRADE, OR
FACTS STRANGER THAN FICTION.

The atrocious and sacrilegious system of
breeding human beings for sale, and trading
them like cattle in the market, fails to pro-
duce the impression on the mind that it
ought to produce, because it is lost in
generalities.

152

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

It is like the account of a great battle, in
■which we learn, in round numbers, that ten
thousand were killed and wounded, and
throw the paper by without a thought.

So, when we read of sixty or eighty thou-
sand human beings being raised yearly and
Bold in the market, it passes through our
mind, but leaves no definite trace.

Sterne says that when he would "realize
the miseries of captivity, he had to turn his
mind from the idea of hundreds of thousands
lanojuishincr in dungeons, and bring before
himself the picture of one poor, solitary cap-
tive pining in his cell. In hke manner, we
cannot give any idea of the horribly cruel
and demoralizing effect of this trade, except
by presenting facts in detail, each fact being
a specimen of a class of facts.

For a specimen of the public sentiment
and the kind of morals and manners which
this breeding and trading system produces,
both in slaves and in their owners, the writer
gives the following extracts from a recent
letter of a friend in one of the Southern
States.

Dear Mrs. S: — The sable goddess who pre-
sides over our bed and wash-stand is such a queer
specimen of her race, that I would give a good
deal to have you see her. Her whole appear-
ance, as she goes giggling and curtseying about,
is perfectly comical, and would lead a stranger to
think her really deficient in intellect. This is,
however, by no means the case. During our two
months' acquaintance with her, we have seen
many indications of sterling gqpd sense, that
would do credit to many a white person with ten
times her advantages.

She is disposed to be very communicative ; —
seems to feel that she has a claim upon our sym-

O, in the very fact that we come from the
I ; and we could undoubtedly gain no little
knowledge of the practical workings of the "pe-
culiar institution," if we thought proper to hold
any protracted conversation with her. This, how-
ever, would insure a visit from the authorities,
requesting us to leave town in the next train of
cars ; so we are forced to content ourselves with
gleaning a few items, now and then, taking care
to appear quite indifferent to her story, and to cut
it short by despatching her on some trifling er-
rand; — being equally careful, however, to note
down her peculiar expressions, as soon as she has
disppeared. A copy of these I have thought you
would like to see, especially as illustrating the
views of the marriage institution which is a neces-
sary result of the great human property relation
system.

A Southern lady, who thinks " negro senti-
ment" very nnich exaggerated in "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," iussurcs us tliat domestic attachments can-
not be very strong, where one man will have two
or three wives and families, on as many different
plantations. (!) And tlio lady of our hotel tells us
of her cook having received a message from her
husband, that he lias another wife, and she may
get aiother husband, with perfect indifference ;

simply expressing a hope that " she won't find
another here during the next month, us she must
then be sent to her owner, in Georgia, and would
be more unwilling to go." And yet, both of these
ladies are quite religious, and highly resent any
insinuation that the moral character of the slaves
is not far above that of the free negroes at the
North. _

With VioletiRtory, I will also enclose that of
one of our waiteft ; in which, I think, you will be
interested.

Violet's father and mother both died, as she
says, " 'fore I had any sense," leaving eleven
children — all scattered. " To sabe my life. Missis,
couldn't tell dis yer night where one of dem is.
IMassa lib in Charleston. My first husband, —
when we was young, — nice man ; he had seven
children ; den he sold off to Florida — neber hear
from him 'gain. Ole folks die. 0, dat's be my
boderation, Missis, — when ole people be dead, den
we be scattered all 'bout. Den I sold up here —
now hab 'noder husband — hab four children up
here. I lib bery easy when my young husband
'libe — and we had children bery fast. But now
dese yer ones tight fellers. Massa don't 'low us
to raise noting; no pig — no goat — no dog —
no noting; won't allow us raise, a bit of corn.
We has to do jist de best we can. Dey don't gib ua
a single grain but jist two homespun frocks — no
coat 'tall.

" Can't go to meetin, 'cause. Missis, get dis
work done — den get dinner. In summer, I goes
ebery Sunday ebening ; but dese yer short days,
time done get dinner dishes washed, den time get
supper. Gen'lly goes Baptist church."

" Do your people usually go there V

" Dere bees tree shares ob dem — Methodist
gang. Baptist gang, 'Piscopal gang. Last sum-
mer, use to hab right smart* meetins in our yard,
Sunday night. ^lassa Johnson preach to us. Den
he said couldn't hab two meetins — we might go
to church."

" Why ■?"

" Gracious knows. I lubs to go to meetin
allers — 'specially when dere 's good preaching —
lubs to hab people talk good to me — likes to hab
people read to me, too. 'Cause don't b'long to
church, no reason why I shan't."

" Does your master like to have others read to
you 1 ' '

"He won't hinder — I an't bound tell him
when folks reads to me. I hab my soul to sabe —
he hab his soul to sabe. Our owners won't stand
few minutes and read to us — dey tink it too great
honor — dey 's bery hard on us. Brack preachers
sometimes talk good to us, and pray wid us, —
and pray a heap for dkm too.

" I jest done hab great quarrel wid Dinah, down
in de kitchen. I tells Dinah, ' De Avay you goes
on spile all de women's character.' — She say she
didn't care, she do what she please wid herself.
Dinah, she slip away somehow from her first hus-
band, and hab 'noder child 1)y Sambo (he b'long
to Massa D.) ; so she and hor first husband dey
fall out someliow. Dese yer men, yer know, is so
queer, ^lissis, dey don't neber like sich tings.

" Ye know. Missis, tings we lub, we don't like
hab anybody else hab 'em. Such a ting sis dat,
Missis, tetch your heart so, ef you don't mind,
't will fret you almost to death. Ef my husband

* Rit^ht srnnrt of — that is, a great many of — an idiom
of Auglo-Ethiopia.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

153

was to slip away from me, Missis, dat ar way, it ud
wake me right up. I 'm brack, but I would n't do
80 to my husband, neider. What I hide behind
de curtain now, I can't hide it behind (Je curtain
when I stand before God — de whole world know
it den.

" Dinah's (second) husband say what she do
for her first husband noting to him; — now, my
husband don't feel so. He say he wouldn't do as
Daniel do — he wouldn't buy tings for de oder
children — dom as has de children might buy de
tings for dem. Well, so dere dey is. — Dinah's
first husband come up wheneber he can, to see
his children, — and Sambo, he come up to see his
child, and gib Dinah tings for it.

" You know, Jlissis, Massa hab no nigger but
me and one yellow girl, when he bought me and
my four children. VN'ell, den Massa, he want me
to breed ; so he say, ' Violet, you must take some
nigger here in C

" Den I say, ' No, Massa, I can't take any here.'
Den he say, ' You must, Violet ;' 'cause you see
he want me breed for him ; so he say plenty
young fellers here, but I say I can't hab any ob
dem. Well, den. Missis, he go do-wn Virginia,
and he bring up two niggers, — and dey was
pretty ole mea, — and Missis say, ' One of dem 's
for you, Violet;' but I say, 'No, Missis, I can't
'take one of dem, 'cause I don't lub 'em, and I
can't hab one I don't lub.' Den Massa, he say,
' You must take one of dese — and den, ef you can't
htb him., you must find somebody else you can lub,'
Den I say, ' 0, no, Massa ! I can't do dat — I can't
liab one ebery day.' Well, den, by-and-by, Massa
he buy tree more, and den Missis say, ' Now, Vio-
let, ones dem is for you.' "I say, 'I do'no —
maybe I can't lub one dem neider ;' but she say,
' You must hab one ob dese.' Well, so Sam and I
we lib along two year — he watchin my ways,
and I watchin his waj's.

" At last, one night, we was standin' by de
wood-pile togeder, and de moon bery shine, and
I do'no how 't was, Missis, he answer me, he
wan't a wife, but he did n't know where ho get
one. I say, plenty girls in G. He say, ' Yes —
but maybe 1 shan't find any I like so well as
you.' Den I say maybe he wouldn't like my
ways, 'cause I 'se an ole woman, and I hab four
children by my fii'st husband ; and anybody marry
me, must be jest kind to dem childi-en as dey was
to me, else I couldn't lub him. Den he say, ' Ef
he had a woman 't had children,' — mind you, he
did n't say me, — ' he would be jest as kind to de
fiidldren as ho was to de moder, and dat 's 'cordin
to how she do by him.' Well, so we went on
from one ting to anoder, till at last we say we 'd
take one anoder, and so we 've libed togeder eber
since — and I 's had four children by him — and
he neber slip away from me, nor I fx'om him."

" How are you married in your yard ?"

" We jest takes one anoder — we asks de white
folks' leave — and den takes one anoder. Some
folks, dey 's married by de book ; but den, what 's
de use ? Dere 's my fus husband, we 'se married
by de book, and he sold way off to Florida, and
I 's here. Dey wants to do what dey please wid
us, so dey don't want us to be married. Dey
don't care what wo does, so we jest makes money
for dem.

"My fus husband, — he yiung. and he bcry
kind to me, — 0, ]Missis, he be) y kind indeed. He
Bet up all night and work, so as to make me com-
liartable. 0, we got "long bery well when I hadj

him ; but he sold way off Florida, and, sence
then. Missis, / jest gone to noting. Dese yer
white people dey hab here, dey won't 'low us
noting — noting at all — jest gibs us food, and
two suits a year — a broad stripe and a narrow
stripe ; you '11 see 'em, Missis." —

And we did " see 'em ;" for Violet brought us
the " narrow stripe," with a request that we
wouM fit it for her. There was just enough to
cover her, but no hooks and eyes, cotton, or
even lining ; these extras she must get as she
can ; and yet her master receives from our host
eight dollars per month for her 8er\'ices. We
asked how she got the "broad stripe" mad«
up. ^

"0, Missis, my husband, — he working now
out on de farm, — so he hab 'lowance four pounds
bacon and one peck of meal ebery week ; so he
stinge heself, so as to gib me four pounds bacon
to pay for making my frock." [Query. — Are
there any husbands in refined circles who would
do more than this 1 ]

Once, finding us all three busily writing, Violet
stood for some moments silently watching the
mysterious motion of our pens, and then, in a
tone of deepest sadness, said,

" 0 ! dat be great comfort. Missis. You can
write to your friends all 'bout ebery ting, and so
hab dem write to you. Our people can't do so.
Wheder dey be 'live or dead, we can't neber
know — only sometimes we hears dey be dead,"

What more expressive comment on the
cruel laws that forbid the slave to be
taught to write !

The history of the serving-man is thus
given :

George's father and mother belonged to some-
body in Florida. During the war, two older sis-
ters got on board an English vessel, and went to
Halifax. His mother Avas very anxious to go with
them, and take the whole family ; but her hus-
band persuaded her to wait until the next ship
sailed, when he thought he should be able to go
too. By this delay opportunity of escape was
lost, and the whole family were soon after sold
for debt. George, one sister, and their mother,
were bought by the same man. He says, " My
old boss cry powerful when she (the mother) die ;
say he'd rather lost two thousand dollars. She
was part Indian — hair straight as yourn — and
she was white as dat ar pillow." George married
a woman in another yard. He gave this reason
for it : " 'Cause, when a man sees his wife 'bused,
he can't help feelin' it. When he heais his wife's
'bused, 'tan't like as how it is when he sees it.
Then I can fadge for her better than when she 's
in my own yard." This wife was sold up coim-
try, but after some years l>ecame " lame and sick
— could n't do much — so her massa gabe her her
time, and paid her fai-e to G." — [The sick and
infirm are always provided for, you know.] —
" Hadn't seen her for tree years," said George ;
" but soon as I heard of it, went right down, —
hired a house, and got some one to take care
ob her, — and used to go to see her ebery tree
months." He is a mechanic, and worked some-
times all night to earn money to do this. His
master asks twenty dollars per month for his ser-
vices, and allows him fifty cents per week for
clothes, etc. J. says, if he could only save, by

154

KEY TO UNCLE TOil's CABIN.

VFOrkin^ nights, money enough to buy himself, he
•would get some one he could trust to buy him ;
•' den work hard as elier, till I could buy my
children, den I 'd get away from dis yer." —

" Where?"

" 0 ! Philadelphia — New York — somewhere
North."

" "Why, you 'd freeze to death."

" 0, no, Missis ! I can bear cold. I want to go
where I can belong to myself, and do as I want to. ' '

The following communication has been
given to the writer bj Captain Austin
Bearse, ship-master in Boston. Mr. Bearse
is a native of Barnstable, Cape Cod. He is
well known to our Boston citizens and mer-
chants.

I am a native of the State of ^Massachusetts.
Bietween the years 1818 and 1830 I was, from time
to time, mate on board of different vessels engaged
in the coasting trade on the coast of South Carolina.

It is well known that many New England ves-
sels are in the habit of sjDending their winters on
the southern coast in pursuit of this business.
Our vessels used to run up the rivers for the rough
rice and cotton of the plantations, which we took
to Charleston.

We often carried gangs of slaves to the planta-
tions, as they had been ordered. These slaves were
generally collected by slave-traders in the slave-
pens in Charleston, — brought there by various
causes, such as the death of owners and the division
of estates, which threw them into the market. Some
were sent as punishment for insubordination, or
because the douiestic establishment was too large,
or because persons moving to the North or West
preferred selling their slaves to the trouble of car-
rying them. . We had on board our vessels, from
time to time, numbers of these slaves, — sometimes
two or three, and sometimes as high as seventy or
eighty. They were separated from their families
and connections with as little concern as calves and
pigs are selected out of a lot of domestic animals.

Our vessels used to lie in a place called Poor
Man's Hole, not far from the city. We used to
allow the relations and friends of the slaves to
come on board and stay all night with their friends,
before the vessel sailed.

In the morning it used to be my business to
pull off the hatches and warn them that it was
time to separate ; and the shrieks and heart-rend-
ing cries at these times were enougli to make any-
body's heart ache.

In the year 1828, while mate of the brig Milton,
from Boston, bound to New (_)rleans, the follow-
ing incident occurred, which I shall never forget :

The traders brought on Ijoard four quadroon
men in handcuffs, to be stowed away for the New
Orleans market. An old negro woman, more than
®^S''''y years of age, came screaming after them,
"My son, 0, my son, my son!" She seciued almost
frantic, and wlien we had got more than a mile
out in the harbor we heard her screaming yet.

When we got into the Culf Stream, 1 came to the
men, and took off their handcuffs. They were res-
olute fellows, and they told me that I would see
that they would never live to be slaves in New
Orleans. One of the men was a carpenter, and one
a blacksmith. Wc brought them into New Or-
leans, and consigned them over to the agent. Tiie
agent told the captain afterwards tliat in forty-
eight hours after they came to New OAeans they
Were all dead men, having every one killed them-

selves, as they said they sfiould. One of them, I
know, was bougjit for a fireman (n t!io steamer
Post Boy, that went down to the Balize. He jumped
over, and ;^vas drowned.

The others, — one was sold to a blacksmith, and
one to a carpenter. The particulars of their death
I did n"t know, only that the agent told the captain
that they were aU dead.

There was a plantation at Coosahatchie, back
of Charleston, S. C, ke'pt by a widow lady, who
owned eighty negroes. She sent to Charleston,
and bought a quadroon girl, very nearly white, for
her son. We carried her up. She was more
delicate than our other slaves, so that she was not
put with them, but was carried up in the cabin.

I have been on the rice-plantations on the river.,
and seen the cultivation of the rice. In the fall
of the year, the plantation hands, both men and
women, work all the time above their knees in
water in the rice-ditches, pulling out the grass, to
fit the ground for sowing the rice. Hands sold
here from the city, having been bred mostlv to
house-labor, find this very severe. The plantations
are so deadly that white people cannot remain on
them during the summer-time, except at a risk of
life. The proprietors and their families are thera
only thrijugh the winter, and the slaves are left in
the summer entirely under the care of the cve]^
seers. Such overseers as I saw were generally a
brutal, gambling, drinking set.

I have seen slavery, in the course of my wandeu-
ings. in almost all the countries in the world. I
have been to Algiers, and seen slavery there. I
have seen slavery in Smyrna, among the Turks. I
was in Smyrna wlien our American consul ransomed
a beautiful Greek girl in the slave-market. I saw
her come aboard the brig Suffolk, when she came
on board to be sent to America for her education.
I have seen slavery in the Spanish and French
ports, though I have not been on their plantations.

My opini(m is that American slavery, as I have
seen it in the internal slave-trade, as I have seen
it on the rice and sugar plantations, and in the city
of New Orleans, is full as bad as slavery in any
country of the world, heathen or Christian. Peo-
ple wlio go for visits or pleasure through the
Southern States cannot possibly know those things
which can be seen of slavery by ship-masters
who run up into the back plantations of coun-
tries, and who transport the slaves and produce of
plantations.

In my past days the system of slavery was not
much discussed. I saw these things as others did,
withc)ut interference. Because 1 no louder think
it right to see these things in silence, 1 ti-ade no
more south of Mason & IJixou's line.

Austin Bearsb.

The following account ■v\"as given to tho
writer by Lewis Hayden. Hayden was a
fugitive slave, who escaped from Kentucky
by the assistance of a young lady named
Delia Webster, and a man named Calvin
Fairbanks. Both were imprisoned. Lewis
Hayden has earned his own character as a
free citizen of Boston, where he can fiiid
an abundance of vouchers for his character.

I ludonged to the Rev. Adam Runkin, a Pre*-
bytorian minister in Lexington, Kentucky.

My nu)ther was of mixed blood, — white and
Indian. She married my father when he was
working in a bagging factory near by. After a

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

155

wlffle my father's owner moved off and took my
father with him, which broke up the marriage.
She was a very handsome woman. My master
kept a large dairy, and she was the milk-woman.
Lexington was a small town in those days, and
the dairy was in tlie town. Back of the college
was the Masonic lodge. A man who belonged to
the lodge saw my mother when she was about
her work. Ho made proposals of a base nature
to her. When she would have nothing to say to
him, he told her that she need not be so independ-
ent, for if money could buy her he would have
her. My mother told old mistress, and begged
that master might not se'll her. But he did sell
her. My mother had a high spirit, being part
Indian. She would not consent to live with this
man, as he wished ; and he sent her to prison, and
had her flogged, and punished her in various ways,
80 that at last she began to have crazy turns. When
I read in " (Jncle Tom's Cabin" about Cassy, it
put me in mind of my mother, and I wanted to
tell Mrs. S about her. She tried to kill her-
self several times, once with a knife and once by
hanging. She had long, straight black hair, but
after this it all turned white, like an old person's.
When she had her raving turns she always talked
about her children. The jailer told the owner
that if he would let her go to her children, per-
haps she would get quiet. They let her out one
time, and she came to the place where we were.
I miglit have been seven or eight years old, —
don't know ray age exactly. I was not at home
when she came. I came in and found her in one
of the cabins near the kitchen. She sprung and
oaught my arms, and seemed going to break them,
and then said, " I '11 fix you so they '11 never get
you ! " I screamed, for I thought she was going to
kill me ; they came in and took me away. They tied
her, and carried her off. Sometimes, when she was
in her right mind, she used t'o tell me what things
they had done to her. At last her owner sold her,
for a small sum, to a man named Lackey. While
with him she had another husband and several
diildren. After a while this husband either died
or was sold, I do not remember which. The man
then si)kl lier to another person, named Bryant.
My own f ither's owner now came and lived in the
neighborhood of this man, and brought my mother
with him. He had had another wife and family of
children where he had been living. He and my
mother came together again, and finished their
days together. My mother almost recovered her
mind in her last days.

I never saw anything in Kentucky which made
me suppose that ministers or professors of religion
considered it any more wrong to separate the
families of slaves by sale than to separate any
domestic animals.

Tliere may be ministers and professors of re-
ligion wlio think it is wrong, but I never met with
them. My master was a minister, and yet he
sold my mother, as I have related.

^riien he was going to leave Kentucky for Penn-
sylvania, he sold all my brothers and sisters at
auction. I stood by and saw them sold. When
I was just going up on to the block, he swapped
.sae off For a pair of -carriage-horses. I looked at
Sliose horses with strange feelings. I had indulged
hopes that master would take rae into Pennsyl-
vania with him, and I should get free. How I
looked at those horses, and walked round them,
and thought for them I was sold !

It was commonly reported that my master had

said in the pulpit that there was no more harm m
separating a family of slaves than a litter of pigs.
I did not hear him say it, and so cannot say
whether this is true or not.

It may seem strange, but it is a fact, — I had
m-ore sympathy and kind advice, in my efforts to get
my freedom, from gamblers and such sort of men,
than Christians. Some of the gamblers were very
kind to me:

1 never knew a slave-trader that did not seem
to think, in his heart, that the trade was a bad one.
I knew a great many of them, such as Neal,
McAnn, Cobb, Stone, Pulliam and Davis, &G.
They were like Haley, — they meant to repent
when they got through.

Intelligent colored people in my circle of ac-
quaintance, as a general thing, felt no security-
whatever for their family ties. Some, it is true,
who belonged to rich families, felt some security ,
but those of us who looked deeper, and knev/ how
many were not rich that seemed so, and saw how
fast money slipped away, were always miserable.
The trader was all around, the slave-pens at
hand, and we did not know what time any of us
might be in it. Then there were the rice-swamps,
and the sugar and cotton plantations ; we had
had them held before us as terrors, by our masters
and mistresses, all our lives. We knew about
them all ; and when a friend was carried off, why,
it was the same as death, for we could not write
or hear, and never expected to see them again.

I have one child who is buried in Kentucky,
and that grave is pleasant to think of. I 've got
another that is sold nobody knows where, and that
I never can bear to think of. Lewis Haydkn'.

The next history is a long one, and part
of it transpired in a most public manner, in
the face of our whole communitj.

The history includes in it the whole
account of that memorable capture of the
Pearl, Avliich produced such a sensation in
Washington in the year 1848. The author,
however, will preface it with a short history
of a slave woman who had six children em-
barked in that ill-fated enterprise.

CHAPTER VI.

MiLLY Edmondson is an aged woman,
now upwards of seventy. She has received
the slave's inheritance of entire ignorance.
She cannot read a letter of a book, nor write
her own name ; but the writer must say that
she was never so impressed with any presen-
tation of the Christian rehgion as that which
was made to her in the language and appear-
ance of this woman during the few interviews
that she had with her. The circumstances of
the interviews will be detailed at length in
the course of the story.

Milly is above the middle height, of a
large, full figure. She di-esses with the
greatest attention to neatness. A plain

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

156

Methodist cap shades her face, and the plain
white Methodist handkerchief is folded across
the bosom. A well-preserved stuflf gown,
and clean white apron, with a white pocket-
handkercliief pinned to her side, completes
the inventory of the costume in which the
writer usually saw her. She is a mulatto,
and must once have been a very handsome
one. Her eyes and smile are still uncom-
monly beautiful, but there are deep-wrought
lines of patient sorrow and weary endurance
on her face, which tell that this lovely and
noble-hearted woman has been all her^ life a
slave.

Milly Edmondson was kept by her owners
and allowed to live with her husband, with
the express understanding and agreement
that her service and value was to consist in
breeding up her own children to be sold in
the slave-market. Her legal owner was a
maiden lady of feeble capacity, who was set
aside by the decision of court as incompetent
to manage her affairs.

The estate — that is to say, Milly Edmond-
son and her children — was placed in the
care of a guardian. It appears that Milly' s
poor, infirm mistress was fond of her, and
that Milly exercised over her much of that
ascendency which a strong mind holds over
a weak one. Milly' s husband, Paul Ed-
3jiondson was a free man. A httle of her
history, as she related it to the writer, will
now be given in her own words :

" Her mistress," she said, "was always
kind to her ' poor thing ! ' but then she
hadn't sperit ever to speak for herself, and
her friends wouldn't let her have her own
way. It always laid on my mind," she said,
" that I was a slave. When I wan't more
than fourteen years old, Missis was doing
some work one day that she thought .she
could n't trust me with, and she says to me,
'Milly, now you see it's I that am the
slave, and not you.' I says to her, ' Ah,
Missis, I am a poor slave, for all that.' I 's
sorry afterwards I said it, for I thought it
seemed to hurt her feelings.

" Well, after a while, when I got engaged

to Paul, I loved Paul very much ; but I

thought it wan't right to bring childi;en

into the world to be slaves, and I told our

■ folks that I was never going to marry,

though I (lid love Paul. But that Avan't to

be allowed," she said, with a mysterious air.

" What do you mean 7" said I.

" Well, they told me I must marry, or I

should 1)0 turned out of the church — so it

was," she added, with a significant nod. —

" \^ ell, Paul and me, we was married, and

we was happy enough, if it had n't been for
that ; but when our first child was born I
says to him, ' Ttere 't is, now, Paul, our
troubles is begun; this child iyn't ours.'
And every child I had,- it grew worse and
worse. ' 0, Paul,' says I, ' what a thing
it is to have children that is n't ours ! ' Paul
he says to me, * Milly^ my dear, if they be
God's children, it an't so much matter
whether they be ours or no ; they may be
heirs of the kingdom, Milly, for all that.'
Well, when Paul's mistress died, she set him
free, and he got him a little place out about
fourteen miles from Washington.; and they
let me live out there with him, and take
home my tasks ; for they had that confi-
dence in me that they always know'd that
what I said I 'd do was as good done as if
they 'd seen it done. I had mostly sewing ;
sometimes a shirt to make in a day, — it was
coarse like, you know, — or a pah' of sheets,
or some such; but, whatever 't was, I always
got it done. Then I had all my house-work
and babies to take care of; and many 's the
time, after ten o'clock, I 've took my chil-
dren's clothes and washed 'em all out and
ironed 'em late in the night, 'cause I
couldn't never bear to see my children
dirty, — always wanted to see 'em sweet
and clean, and I brought 'em up and taught
'em the very best ways I was able. But
nobody knows what I suffered ; I never see
a white man. come on to the place that I
did n't think, ' There, now, he 's coming to
look at my children ;' and when I, saw any
white man going by, I 've called in my
children and hid 'em, for fear he 'd see 'em
and want to buy 'em. 0, ma'am, mine 's
been a long sorrow, a long sorrow ! I 've
borne this heavy cross a great many years."

"But," said I, " the Lord has been with
you."

She answered, with very strong emphasis,
" Ma'am, if the Lord had n't held me up. I ^
should n't have been alive this day. 0,
sometimes my heart's been so heavy, it
seemed as if I must die ; and then I 've
been to the throne of grace, and when I 'd
poured out all my sorrows there, I came
away UglU^ and feltthat I could hvc a little
longer."

This language is exactly her own. She
had often a forcible and peculiarly boautilul
manner of expressing herself, Avhich im-
pressed what she said strongly.

Paul and Milly Edmondson were both
devout communicants in the Methodist Epis-
copal Chm-ch at Washington, and the testi-
mony to their blamelcssness^of hfe and the

KEY TO UNCLF TOM S CABIN.

157

Cotidstence of their piety is unanimous from
aU who know them. In their simple cot-
tage, made respectable by neatness and
order, and hallowed by morning and evening
prayer, they trained up th«ir children, to
the best of their poor ability, in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, to be sold in
the slave-market. They thought themselves
only too happy, as one after another arrived
at the age when they were to be sold, that
they were hired to falnilies in their vicinity.
and not thrown into the trader's pen to be
drafted for the dreaded southern market !

The "mother, feeling, with a constant but
repressed anguish, the weary burden of
slavery which lay upon her, was accustomed,
as she told the writer, thus to warn her
daughters :

" Now, girls, don't you never come to the
sorrows that I have. Don't you never marry
till you get your liberty. Don't you marry,
to be mothers to children that anH your
own."

As a result of this education, some of her
older daughters, in connection with the young
men to whom they were engaged, raised the
sum necessary to jjay for theu' freedom be-
fore they were married. One of these young
women, at the time that she paid for her
freedom, was in such feeble health that the
physician told her that she could njot live
many months, and advised her to keep the
money, and apply it to making herself as
comfortable as she could.

She answered, " If I had only two hours
to live, I would pay do^vn that money to die
free."

If this was setting an extravagant value
on liberty, it is not for an American to
say so.

All the sons and daughters of this fanaily
were distinguished both for their physical
and mental developments, and therefore
were priced exceedingly high in the market.
The whole family, rated by the market prices
which ■ have been paid for certain members
of it, might be estimated as an estate of
fifteen thousand dollars. They were dis-
tinguished for intelligence, honesty and
faithfulness, but above all for the most
devoted attachment to each other. These
children, thus intelligent, were all held as
slaves in the city of Washington, the very
capital where our national government is
conducted. Of course, the high estimate
which their own mother taught them to
pliwe upon liberty was in the way of being
constantly strengthened and reinforced by
such addresses, ct^Iebrations and speeches,

on the subject of liberty, as every one know?
are constantly being made, on one occasion or
another, in our national capital.

On the 13th day of April, the little
schooner Pearl, commanded by Daniel
Drayton, came to anchor in the Potomac
river, at Washington.

The news had just arrived of a revolution f
in France, and the establishment of a demo-
cratic government, and all Washington was
turning out to celebrate the triumph of
■Liberty.

The trees in the avenue were fancifiilly
hung with many-colored lanterns, — drums
beat, bands of music played, the houses of
the President and other high officials were
illuminated, and men, women and children,
were all turned out to see the procession,
and to join in the shouts of liberty that rent
the air. Of course, all the slaves of the
city, lively, fanciful and sympathetic, most
excitable as they are by music and by daz-
zling spectacles, were everywhere listening,
seeing, and rejoicing, in ignorant joy. All
the heads of department, senators, represent-
atives,- and dignitaries of all kinds, marched
in procession to an open space on Penn-
sylvania Avenue, and there delivered con-
gratulatory addresses on the progress of
universal freedom. With unheard-of im-
prudence, the most earnest defenders of
slave-holding institutions poured down on
the listening crowd, both of black and white,
bond and free, the most inflammatory and
incendiary sentiments. Such, for example,
as the following language of Hon. Frederick
P. Stanton, of Tennessee:

We do not, indeed, propagate our principles with
the sword of power ; but there is one sense in
which we are propagandists. We cannot help
being so. Our example is contagious. In the
section of this great country where I live, on the
banks of the mighty Mississippi river, we have the
true emblem of the tree of liberty. There ycu
may see the giant cotton-wood spreading his
branches widely to the winds of heaven. Some-
titoes the current lays bare his roots, and you be-
hold them extending far aroimd, and penetrating
to an immense depth in the soil. When the sea-
son of maturity comes, the air is filled with a cot-
ton-like substance, which floats in every direction,
bearing on its light wings the living seeds of
the mighty tree. Thus the seeds of freedom have
emanated from the tree of our liberties. They fill ^
the air. They are wafted to every part of tha
habitable globe. And even in the ban'en sands
of tyranny they are destined to take root. The
tree of liberty will spring up everywhere, and
nations shall recline in its shade.

Senator Foote, of Mississippi, also, used
this language :
Such has ^ea the extraordinary course of eventa

158

KET TO \rSCLE TOM S CABIN.

in France, and in Europe, within the last tveo
months, that the more deliberately we surviy the
ecene which has been spread out befi^>> us, and
the more rigidly we scrutinize the coiu" ct of its
actors, the more confident does our conviction be-
come that the glorious work which has been so
well begun cannot possibly fail of complete ac-
complishment ; that the age of tyrants and
SLAVERY is rapidly drawing to a close ; and that
the happy period to be signalized by the universal
emancipation of rnan from the fetters of civil op-
j>ression, and the recognition in all countries of the
great principles of popular sovereignty, equality,
and BKOTHERuooD, is, at this moment, visibly com-
mencing.

Will any one be surprised, after this, that
seventj-seven of the most intelligent young
slaves, male and female, in Washington city,
horestly taking Mr. Foote and his brother
senators at their word, and believing that
the age of tyrants and slavery was drawing
to a close, banded together, and made an
effort to obtain their part in this reig-n of
universal brotherhood 1

The schooner Pearl was lying in the
harbor, and Captain Drayton was found to
have the heart of a man. Perhaps he. too, had
listened to the addresses on Pennsylvania
Avenue, and thought, in the innocence of
his heart, that a man who really did some-
thing to promote universal emancipation
was no worse than the men who only made
speeches about it.

At any rate, Drayton was persuaded to
allow these seventy-seven slaves to secrete
themselves in the hold of his vessel, and
among them were six children of Paul and
Milly Edmondson. The incidents of the rest
of the narrative will now be given as ob-
tained from Mary and Emily Edmondson,
by the lady in whose family they have been
placed by the writer for an education.

Some few preliminaries may be necessary,
in order to understand the account.

A respectable colored man, by the name
of .Daniel Bell, who had purchased his own
freedom, resided in the city of Washington.
His wife, with her eight children, were set
free by her master, when on his death-bed.
The heirs endeavored to break the will, on
the ground that he was not of sound mind
at the time of its preparation. The magis-
trate, however, before whom it was executed,
■ by his own personal knowledge of the com-
petence of the man at the time, was cnaJjlcd
to defeat their purpose ; — the family, there-
fore, lived as free for some years. On the
death of this magistrate, the heirs again
brought the c;use into court, and, as it seemed
likely to be decided against the family, they
resolved to secure their legal rights by flight.

and engaged passage on board the vessel of
Captain Drayton. Many of their associates
and friends, stirred up, perhaps, by the recent
demonstrations in favtw of hberty, begged
leave to accompany them, in their flight.
The seeds of the cotton-wood were flying
everywhere, and springing up in all hearts ;
so that, on the eventful evening of the 15th
of April, 1848, not less than seventy-seven
men, women and children, with beating
hearts, and anxious secrecy, stowed them-
selves away in the hold of the little schooner,
and Captain Drayton was so wicked that' he
could not, for the life of him, say " Nay "
to one of them.

Richard Edmondson had long sought to
buy his hberty; had toiled for it early and
late ; but the price set upon him was so
high that he despaired of ever earning it.
On this evening, he and his three brothers
thought, as the reign of universal brother-
hood had begun, and the reign of tyrants and
slavery come to an end, that they would take
to themselves and their sisters that sacred
gift of hberty, which all Washington had
been informed, two evenings before, it was
the peculiar province of America to give to
all nations. Their two sisters, aged sixteen
and fourteen, were hii'ed out in families in
the city. On this evening Samuel Edmond-
son called at the house where Emily lived,
and told her of the projected plan.

"But what will mother think?" said
Emily.

" Don't stop to think of her; she would
rather we 'd be free than to spend time to
talk about her."

"Well, then, if Mary will go, I will."

The airls give as a reason for wishing to
escape, that though they had never suflored
hardships or been treated unkindly, yet they
knew they were liable at any time to be sold
into rigorous bondage, and separated far from
all they loved.

They then all went on board the Pearl,
which was lying a little way off' from tba
place where vessels usually anchor. There
they found a company of slaves, seventy-
seven in number.

At twelve o'clock at night the silent
wings of the little schooner were spread, arid
with her weight of fear and mystery she
glided out into the stream. A fresh breeze
sprang up, and by eleven o'clock ncxt,nigbt <j
they had sailed two hundred miles fi-om ^
Washington, and began to think that hberty
was gained. They anchored in a place callt^
Cornfield Harbor, intending to wait for day-
hght. All laid down to sleep in peacetul

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

159

(Security ,* lulled by the gentle rock of the [would do the same." The man turned to a

bystander and said, " Han't she got good
3pank7"

But the most vehement excitement was

against Drayton and Sayres, the captain and

mate of the vessel. Ruffia^ns armed with

dirk-knives and pistols crowded around them,

infuriated set of armed men. ^In a moment, With the most horrid threats. One of them

vessel and the rippling of the waters

But at two o'clock at night they were
roused by terrible noises on deck, scuffling,
screaming, swearing and groaning. A
steamer had pursued and overtaken them,
and the little schooner was boarded by an

the captain, mate and all the crew, were seized
and bound, amid oaths and dreadful threats.
As they, swearing and yelling, tore open
the hatches on the defenceless prisoners be-
low, Richard Edmondson stepped forward,
and in a calm voice said to them, " Gentle-
men, do yourselves no harm, for we are all
here." With this exception, all was still
among the slaves as despair could make it ;
not a word was spoken in the whole com-
pany. The men were all bound and placed
on board the steamer ; the women were left
on board the schooner, to be towed after.

The explanation of their capture was this :
In the morniu'^ after they had sailed, many
families in Washington found their slaves
missing, and the event created as great an
excitement as the emancipation of France
had, two days before. At that time they
had listened in the most complacent manner
to the announcement that the reign of slavery
was near its close, because they had not the
slightest idea that the language meant any-
thing ; and thty were utterly confounded by
this practical a[9lication of it. More than
a hundred men, reountedupon horses, deter-
mined to push out into the country, in pur-
suit of these new disciples of the doctrine of
universal eraanci patioa. Here a colored man,
by the name of Judson Diggs, betrayed the
whole plot. He ha^l been provoked, because,
after having taken a poor woman, with her
luggage, down to the boat, she was unable to
pay the twenty-five cenlg that he demanded.
So he toll these admiiers of universal
brotherhood that they need not ride into the
country, as their slaves had sailed down the
river, and were fir enough off by this time.
A steamer was immediately manned by two
hundred armed men, and away they went
in pursuit.

When the cortege arrived with the cap-
tured slaves, there was a most furious ex-
citement in the city. The men were di-iven
through the streets bound with ropes, two
and two. Showers of taunts and jeers rained
upon them from all sides. One man asked
one of the girls if she " didn't feel pretty to
be caught running away," and another asked
her " if she was n"t sorry." She answered,
" No, if it was to do again to-morrow, she

struck so near Drayton as to cut his ear,
which Emily noticed as bleeding. Mean-
while there mingled in the crowd multitudes
of the relatives of the captives, who, looking
on them as so many doomed victims, bewailed
and lamented them. A brother-in-law of
the Edmondsons was so overcome when ho
saw them that he fainted away and fell down
in the street, and was carried home insen-
sible. The sorrowful news spread to the
cottage of Paul and Milly Edmondson; and.
knowing that all their children were now
probably doomed to thd southern market,
they gave themselves up to sorrow. " 0 !
what a day that was ! " said the old mother
when describing that scene to the writer.
'• Never a morsel of anything could I put into
my mouth. * Paul and me we fasted and
prayed before the Lord, night and day, for
our poor children."

The whole public sentiment of the com-
munity was roused to the most intense in-
dignation. It was repeated from mouth to
mouth that they had been kindly treated
and never abused ; and what could have in-
duced them to try to get their liberty 7 All
that Mr. Stanton had said of the insensible
influence of American institutions, and all
his pretty similes about the cotton- wood seeds,
seemed entirely to have escaped the memory
of the community, and they could see no-
thing but the most unheard-of depravity in
the attempt of those people to secure free-
dom. It was strenuously advised by many
that their owners should not forgive them,

— that no mercy should be shown, but that
they should be thrown into the hands of the
traders, forthwith, for the southern market,

— that Siberia of the irresponsible despots
of America.

^Vhen all the prisoners were lodged in
jail, the o^wnei-s came to make oath to their
property, and the property also was required
to make oath to tlieir owners. Among them
came the married sisters of Mary and Emily,
but were not allowed to enter the prison.
The girls looked through the iron grates of
the third-story windows, and saw their sis-
ters standing below in the yard weeping.

The guardian of the Edmondsons, who
acted in the place of the real owner, apparently

160

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

touclied with their sorrow, promised their
family and friends, who were anxious to
purchase them, if possible, that they should
have an opportunity the next morning.
Perhai:)S he intended at the time to give
them one ; but. as Bruin and Hill, the
keepei's of the large slave wai-ehouse in
Alexandria, offered him four thousand five
hundred dollars for the six children, they
were irrevocably sold before the next morn-
ing. Bruin would listen to no terms which
any of their friends could propose. The
lady with whom Mary had lived offered a
thousand dollars for her; but Bruin re-
fused, saying he could get double that
sum in the New Orleans market. He
said he had had his eye upon the family for
twelve years, and had the promise of them
should they ever be sold.

While the girls remained in the prison
they had no beds* or chairs, and only one
blanket each, though the nights were chilly ;
but, understanding that the rooms below,
where their brothers were confined, were
still colder, and that no blankets were given
them, they sent their own down to them.
In the morning they were allowed to go
down into the yard for a few moments; and
then they used to run to the window of
their brothers' room, to bid them good-morn-
ing, and kiss them through the grate.

At ten o'clock, Thursday night, the
brothers were handcuffed, and, with their
sisters, taken into carriages by their new
owners, driven to Alexandria, and put into
a prison called a Georgia Pen. The girls
were put into a large room alone, in total
darkness, without bed or blanket, where
they spent the night in sobs and tears, in
utter ignorance of their brothers' fate. At
eight o'clock in the morning they were
called to breakfast, when, to their great com-
fort, they found their four brothers all in
the same prison.

They remained here about four weeks,
being usually permitted by day to stay be-
low with their brothers, and at night to re-
turn to their own rooms. Their brothers
had great anxieties about them, fearing they
would be sold south. Samuel, in particu-
lar, felt very sadly, as he had been the
principal actor in getting them away. He
often said he would gladly die for them, if
that would save them from the fate he feitred.
He used to weep a great deal, though he
endeavored to restrain liis tears in their
presence.

While in the slave-prison they were rc-
<luiro(J to wash for thirteen men, though

their brothers performed a gi-eat share of
the labor. Before they left, their size and
height were measured by their owners. At
length thej were again taken out, the
brothers handcuffed, and all put on board a
steamboat, where were about forty slaves,
mostly men, and taken to Baltimore. The
voyage occupied one day and a night.
When arrived in Baltimore, they were
thrown into a slave-pen kept by a partner
of Bruin and Hill. He was a man of
coarse habits, constantly using the most
profane language, and grossly obscene and
insulting in his remarks to women. Here
they were forbidden to pray together, as
they had previously been accustomed to do.
But, by rising very early in the morning, they
secured to themselves a little interval which
they could employ, uninterrupted, in this
manner. They, with four or five other
women in the prison, used to meet together,
before daybreak, to spread their sorrows be-
fore the Refuge of the afflicted ; and in these
prayers the hard-hearted slave-dealer Avas
daily remembered. The brothers of Mary
and Emily were very gentle and tender in
their treatment of their sisters, which had
an influence upon other men in their com-
pany. _

At this place they became acquamted
with Aunt Rachel, a most godly woman,
about middle age, who had been sold into
the prison away from her husband. The
poor husband used ofter. to come to the
prison and beg the trader to sell her to his
owners, who he thoughi were willing to pur-
chase her, if the price was not too high. But
he was driven off with brutal threats and
curses. They remained in Baltimore about
three weeks.

The friends in Washington, though hither-
to unsuccessful _ in their efforts to redeem
the family, were still exerting themselves in
their behalf; and one evening a message
was received from them by telegraph,
statinf' that a person would arrive in the
morning irain of cars prepared to bargain
for the taraily, and that a part of the money
wos now ready. But the trader w:ia in-
exorable, and in the morning, an hour be-
fore the cars were to arrive, tliey were all
put on board the brig Union, ready to sail
for New Orleans. The messenger came,
and brought nine hundred dollars in money,
the gift of a grandson of John Jacob Astor.
This was finally appropriated to the ransom
of Richard Edmondson, as his wife and
children were said to be suffering in Wash-
ington ; and the trader would not sell the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

girls to them upon any consideration, nor
would he even suffer Richard to be brought
back from the brig, which had not yet sailed.
The bargain was, however, made, and the
money deposited in Baltimore.

On this brig the eleve^i women were put
in one small apartment^ and the thirty or
forty men in an adjoining one. Emily was
very sea-sick most of the time, and her
brothers feared she would die. They used
to come and carry heP" out on deck and
back again, buy little comforts for their sis-
ters, and take all possible care of them.

Frequently head winds blew them back,
80 that they made very slow progress ; and
in their prayer-meetings, which they held
every night, they used to pray that head
winds might blow them to New York ; and
one of the sailors declared that if they
could get within one hundred miles of New
York, and the slaves would stand by him,
he would make way with the captain, and
pilot them into New York himself.

When they arrived near Key West, they
hoisted a signal for a pilot, the captain be-
ing aware of the dangers of the place, and yet
not knowing how to avoid them. As the
pilot-boat approached, the slaves were all
fastened below, and a heavy canvas thrown
over the grated hatchway door, which en-
tirely excluded all circulation of air, and
almost produced suffocation. The captain
and pilot had a long talk about the price,
and some altercation ensued, the captain not
being willing to give the price demanded by
the pilot ; during which time there was great
suffering below. The women became so ex-
hausted that they were mostly helpless ; and
the situation of the men was not much bet-
ter, though they managed with . a stick to
break some holes through the canvas on
their side, so as to let in a little air, but a
few only of the strongest could get there to
enjoy it. Some of them shouted for help
as long as their strength would permit ; and
at length, after what seemed to them an
almost interminable interview, the pilot left,
refusing to assist them ; the canvas was re-
moved, and the brig obliged to turn tack,
and take another course. Then, one after
another, as they got air and strength, crawled
out on deck. Mary and Emily were carried
out by their brothers as soon as they were
able to do it.

Soon after this the stock of provisions
ran low, and the water failed, so that the
slaves were restricted to a gill a day. The
sailors were allowed a quart each, and often
gave a pint of it to one of the Edmondsons
for their sisters ; and they divided it with

the other women, as they always did every
nice thing they got in such ways.

The day they arrived at the mouth of the
Mississippi a terrible storm arose, and the
waves rolled mountain high, so that, when
the pilot- boat approached, it would sometimes
seem to be entirely swallowed by the waves
and again it would emerge, and again ap-
pear wholly buried. At length they were
towed into and up the river by a steamer,
and there, for the first time, saw cotton
plantations, and gangs of slaves at work on
them.

They arrived at New Orleans in the night,
and about ten the next day were landed and
marched to what they called the show-rooms,
and, going out into the yard, saw a great
many men and women sitting around, with
such sad faces that Emily soon began to cry,
upon which an overseer stepped up and
struck her on the chin, and bade her " stop
crying, or he would give her something to
cry about." Then pointing, he told her
' ' there was the calaboose, where they
whipped those who did not behave them-
selves ! " As soon as he turned away, a
slave- woman came and told her to look cheer-
ful, if she possibly could, as it would be far
better for her. One of her brothers soon
came to inquire what the woman had been
saying to her; and when informed, en-
couraged Emily to follow the advice, and
endeavored to profit by it himself.

That night all the four brothers had their
hair cut close, their mustaches shaved off,
and their usual clothino; exchanged for a
blue jacket and pants, all of which so
altered their appearance that at first their
sisters did not know them. Then, for three
successive days, they were all obliged to stand
in an open porch fronting the street, for
passers by to look at, except, when one was
tired out, she might go in for a little time,
and another take her place. Whenever
buyers called, they were paraded in the auc-
tion-room in rows, exposed to coarse jokes
and taunts. When any one took a liking
to any girl in the company, he would call
her to him, take hold of her, open her
mouth, look at her teeth, and handle hei
person rudely, frequently making obscene
remarks.; and she must stand and bear it^
without resistance. Mary and Emily com
plained to their brothers that they could not
submit to such treatment. They conversed
about it with Wilson, a partner of Bruin
and Hill, who had the charge of the slaves
at this prison. After this they were treated
with more decency.

Another brother of the girls, named Ham-

162

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

ilton, had been a slave in or near New Or-
leans for sixteen years, and had j ust purchased
his own freedom for one thousand dollars ;
having once before eai'ned that sum for him-
self, and then had it taken from him. Rich-
ard being now really free, as the money was
deposited in Baltimore for his ransom, found
him out the next day after their arrival at
New Orleans, and brought him to the prison
to see his brothers and sisters. The meet-
ing was overpoweringly affecting.

He had never before seen his sister Emily,
as he had been sold away from his parents
before her birth.

The girls' lodging-room was occupied at
night by about twenty or thirty women, who
all slept on the bare floor, with only a blan-
ket each. After a few days, word was re-
ceived (which was really i7icorreci), that
half the money had been raiised for the
redemption of Mary and Emily. After
this they were allowed, upon their broth-
ers' earnest request, to go to their free
brother's house and spend their nights,
and return in the mornings, as they had
suffered greatly from the mosquitos and
other insects, and their feet were swollen and
sore.

While at this prison, some horrible cases
of cruelty came to their knowledge, and
some of them under their own observation.
Two persons, one woman and one boy, were
whipped to death in the prison while they
were there, though they were not in the
same pen, or owned by the same trader, as
themselves.

None of the slaves were allowed to sleep
in the day-time, and sometimes little children
sitting- or standing idle all day would become
so sleepy as not to be able to hold up their
eyelids ; but, if they wore caught thus by the
oveiseer, they were cruelly beaten. Mary
and Emily used to watch the little ones, and
let them sleep until they heard the over-
seers coming, and then spring and rouse
them in a moment.

One young woman, who had been sold by
the traders for the worst of purposes, was
returned, not being fortunate (?) enough to
Buit her purchaser ; amd^ as is their custom
in such cases, was most cl'uclly flogged, — so
much so that some of her flesh mortified, and
her life was despaired of "Wlien Mary and
Emily first arrived at New Orleans they saw
and conversed with her. She was then just
beginning to sit up ; was quite small, and
very fine-looking, with beautiful straight
hair, which was formerly long, but had been
cut off short by her brutal tormentors.

The overseer who flogged her said, in thefr
hearing, that he would never flog another
girl in that way — it was too much for any
one to bear. They suggest that perhaps
the reason why he promised this was be-
cause he was obliged to be her nurse, and
of course saw her sufferings. She was from
Alexandria, but they have forgotten her
name.

One young man and woman of their com-
pany in the prison, who were engaged to be
married, and were sold to differe'ut owners,
felt so distressed at their separation that
they could not or did not labor well ; and
the young man was soon sent back, with
the complaint that he would not answer the
purpose. Of course, the money was to be
refunded, and he flogged. He was con-
demned to be flogged each night for a week;
and, after about two hundred lashes by the
overseer, each one of the male slaves in the
prison was required to come and lay on five
lashes with all his strength, upon penalty of
being flogged himself The young woman,
too, was soon sent there, with a note from her
new mistress, requesting that she might be
whipped a certain number of lashes, and
enclosing the money to pay for it; which
request was readily complied with.

While in New Orleans they saw gangs of
women cleaning the streets, chained to-
gether, some with a heavy iron ball attached
to the chain ; a form of punishment fre-
quently resorted to for household servants
who had displeased their mistresses.

Hamilton Edmondson, the brother who
had purchased liis own freedom, made great
efforts to get good homes for his brothei-s
and sisters in New Orleans, so that they
need not be far separated from each other.
One day, Mr. Wilson, the overseer, took
Samuel away Avith him in a carriage, and
returned without him. The brothers and
sisters soon found that he was sold, and
gone they knew not whither ; but they were
not allowed to weep, or even look sad, upon
pain of severe punishment. The next day,
however, to their great joy, he came to the
prison himself, and told them he had a good
home in the city with an Englishman, who
had paid a thousand dollars for him.

After remaining about three weeks in this
prison, the Edmondsons were told that, in
consequence of the prevalence of the yellow
fever in the city, together with the- fact of
their not being acclimated, it was deemed
dangerous for th(?m to remain there longer ;
— and, besides this, purchasci-s were loth to
give good prices under these circumstaiiccs.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

163

Some of the slaves in tlie pen were already
sick ; some of them old, poor or dirty, and
for these reasons greatly exposed to sickness.
Richard Edmondson had already been ran-
somed, and ^must be sent kick ; -tinfily upon
the whole, it was thought best to fit^ut and
eend off a gang to Baltimore, vrithout delay.

The Edmondsons received these tidings
with joyful hearts, for they had not "^ yet
been undeceived with regard to the raising
of the money for their ransom. Their
brother who was free procured for them
many comforts for the voyage, such as a
mattress, blankets, sheets and different kinds
of food and drink ; and, accompanied to the
vessel by their friends there, they embarked
on the brig Union just at night, and were
towed out of the river. The brig had
nearly a full cargo of cotton, molasses, sugar,
&e., and, of course, the space for the slaves
was exceedingly limited. The place allotted
the females was a little close, filthy room,
perhaps eight or ten feet square, filled with
cotton within two or three ieet of the top of
the room, except the space directly under the
hatchway door. Richard Edmondson kept
his sisters upon deck with him, though with-
out a shelter; prepared their food himself,
made up their bed at night on the top of bar-
rels, or wherever he could find a place, and
then slept by their side. Sometimes a storm
would arise in the middle of the night, when
he would spring up and wake them, and,
gathering up their bed and bedding, conduct
them to a little kind of a pantry, where they
could all three just stand, till the storm
passed away. Sometimes he contrived to
nwike a temporary shelter for them out of
bits of boards, or something else on deck.

After a voyage of sixteen days, they
arrived at Baltimore, fully expecting that
their days of slavery wore numbered. Here
they were conducted back to the same old
prison from which they had been taken a
fe.AV weeks before, though they supposed it
would be but,for an hour or two. Presently
Mr. Bigelow, of Washington, came for
Richard. When the girls found that they
were not to be set free too, their grief and
disappointment were unspeakable. But
they were separated. — Richard to go to
his home, his wife and children, and they
to remain in the slave-prison. Wearisome
days and nights again rolled on. In the
mornings they were obliged to march round
the yard to the music of fiddles, banjoes, kc. ;
in the day-time they washed and ironed for
the male slaves, slept some, and wept a great
deal. After a few weeks their father came
to visit them, accomp.iiiiuil by their sisicr

His object was partly to ascertain what
were the very lowest terms upon which their
keeper would sell the girls, as he indulged
a faint hope that in some way or other the
money might be I'aised, if time enough were
allowed. The trader declared he should
soon send them to some other slave-market,
but he would wait tAvo weeks, and, if the
friends could raise the money in that time,
they might have them.

The night their father and sister spent in
the prison with them, lie lay in the room
over their heads ; and they could hear him
groan all night, while their sister was weep-
ing by their side. None of them closed
their eyes in sleep.

In the morning came again the wearisome
routine of the slave-prison. Old Paul
walked quietly into the yard, and sat down
to see the poor slaves marched around. He
had never seen his daughters in such cir-
cumstances before, and his feelings quite
overcame him. The yard was narrow, and
the girls, as they walked by him, almost
brushing him with their clothes, could just
hear him groaning within himself, "0. my
children, my children ! "

After the breakfast, which none of them
were ^able to eat, they parted with sad
hearts, the father begging the keeper to send
them to New Orleans, if the money could
not be raised, as perhaps their brothers there
might secure for them kind masters.

Two or three weeks afterwards Bruin k
Hill visited the prison, dissolved partnership
with the trader, settled accounts, and took the
Edmondsons again in then- own possession.

The girls were roused about eleven o'clock
at night, after they had fallen asleep, and
told to get up directly, and prepare for going
home. They had learned that the word of
a slave-holder is not to be trusted, and feared
they -were going to be sent to Richmond,
Virginia, as there had been talk of it. They
were soon on their way in the cars with
Bruin, and arrived at Washington at a little
past midnight.

Their hearts throbbed high when, after
these long months of weary captivity, they
found themselves once more in the city
where were their brothers, sigters and pa-
rents. But they were permitted to see none
of them, and were put into a carriage and*
driven immediately to the slave-prison at
Alexandria, where, about two o'clock at
night, they found themselves in the same for-
lorn old room in which they had begun their
term of captivity !

This was the latter part of August. Agaiu
they weie employed in washing ixuiimg and

164

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIIT.

sewing by day, and always locked up by
niii-ht Sometimes they were allowed to
sew m Bruin's house, and even to eat there.
After they had been in Alexandria two or
three weeks, their eldest married sister, not
having heard from them for some time, came
to see Bruin, to learu, if possible, something
of their fate ; and her surprise and joy were
great to see them once more, even there.
After a few weeks their old father came again
to see them. Hopeless as the idea of their
emancipation seemed, he still clung to it. He
had had some encouragement of assistance in
Washington, and he purposed to go North
to see if anything could be done thexj^^ and
he was anxious to obtain from Bruin \vhat
were the very lowest possible terms for which
he would sell the girls. Bruin drew up his
terms in the following document, which we
subjoin:

Alexandria, Va., Sept. 5, 1848.

The bearer, Paul Edmondson, is the father of
two girls, Mary Jane and Emily Catharine Ed-
mondson. These ^irls have been purchased by
us, and once sent fo the south ; and, upon the
positive assurance that the money for them would
be raised if they were brought back, they were
returned. Nothing, it appears, has as yet been
done in this respect by those who promised, and
we are on the very eve of sending them south the
second time ; and we are candid in saying that, if
they go again, we will not regard any promises
made in relation to them. The father wishes to
raise money to pay for them ; and intends to ap-
peal to the liberality of the humane and the good
to aid him, and has requested us to state in writ-
ing the conditioiis upon which we will sell his
daughters.

We expect to start our servants to the south in
a few days ; if the sum of twelve hundred ($1200)
dollars be raised and paid to us in fifteen days, or
we be assured of that sum, then we will retain
them fbr twenty-five days more, to give an oppor-
tunity for the raising of the other thousand and
fifty ($1050) dollars ; otherwise we shall be com-
pelled to send them along with our other servants.

Bruin & Hill.

Paul took his papers, and parted from his
/daughters sorrowfully. After this, the time
to the girls dragged on in heavy suspense.
Constantly they looked for letter or message,
and prayed to God to raise them up a de-
liverer from some quarter. But day after
day and week after week passed, and the
dreaded time drew near. The preliminaries
for fitting up the gang for South Carolina
commenced. Gay calico was bought for them
to make up into "show dresses," in which
they were to be exhibited on sale. They
made them up with fiir sadder feelings than
they would have sewed on their own shrouds.
Hope had almost died out of their bosoms.
A few days before the gang were to be sent

off, their sister made them a sad farewell risit.
They mingled their prayers and tears, and
the girls made up little tokens of remem-
brance to send by her as parting gifts to
their brothers and sisters and aged father
and mother, and with a farewell sadder than
that of a death-bed the sisters parted.

The evening before the coffle was to start
drew on. Mary and Emily went to the
house to bid Bruin's family good-by. Bruin
had a little daughter who had been a pet and
favorite with the girls. She clung round
them, cried, and begged them not to go.
Emily told her that, if she wished to have
them stay, she must go and ask her father.
Away ran the little pleader, full of her
errand ; and was so very eainest in her im-^
portunities, that he, to pacify her, said he
would consent to their remaining, if his part-
ner, Captain Hill, would do so. At this
time Bruin, bearing Mary crying aloud in
the prison, went up to see her. AVith all the
earnestness of despair, she made her last ap-
peal to his feelings. She begged him to
make the case his own, to think of his own
dear little daughter, — what if she were ex-
posed to be torn away from every friend on
earth, and cut off from all hope of redemption,
at the very moment, too, when deliverance was
expected ! Bruin was not absolutely a man
of stone, and this agonizing appeal brought
tears to his eyes. He gave some encourage-
ment that, if Hill would consent, they need
not be sent off with the gang. A sleepless
night followed, spent in weeping, groaning
and prayer. Morning at last dawned, and,
according to orders received the day before,
they prepared themselves to go, and even
put on their bonriets and shawls, and stood
ready for the word to be given. "When the
very last tear of hope was shed, and they
were going out to join the gitng. Bruin's
heart relented. He called them to him, and
told them they might remain ! 0, how glad
were their hearts made by this, as they might
now hope on a little longer! Either the
entreaties of little Martha or Mary's plea
with Bruin had prevailed.

Soon the gang was started on foot, — men,
women and children, two and two, the men
all handcuffed t02;ether, the ri";ht wrist of
one to the left wrist of the other, and a chain
passing through the middle from the hand-
cuffs of one couple to those of the next. The
women and children walked in the same
manner throughout, handcuffed or chained.
Drivers went before and at the side, to take
up those who were sick or lame. They were
obliged to set off sing-ing ! accompanied

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

165

witli fiddles and banjoes ! — " For they that
carried us away captive required of us a
son^, and they that wasted us require^
of us mirthy And this is a scene of dai*y
occurrence in a Christian country ! — and
Christian ministers saj that the right to do
these things is given by God himself ! !

Meanwhile poor old Paul Edmondson went
northwaixl to supplicate aid. Any one who
should have travelled in the cars at that
time might have seen a venerable-looking
black man, all whose air and attitude indi-
cated a patient humility, and who seemed to
carry a weight of overwhelming sorrow, like
one who had long been acquainted with grief.
That man was Paul Edmondson.

Alone, friendless, unknown, and, worst of
all, black, he came into the great bustling
city of New York, to see if there was any
one there who could give him twenty-five
hundretl dollars to buy his daughters with.
Can anybody realize what a poor man's feel-
ings are, who visits a great, bustling, rich
city, alone and unknown, for such an ob-
ject! The writer has now, in a letter
from a slave father and husband who was
visiting Portland on a similar errand, a
touching expression of it :

I walked all day, till I was tired and discouraged.

O ! Mrs. S , when I see so many people who

Beeiu to have so many more things than they want
or know what to do with, and then think that I
have worked hard, till I am past forty, all my life,
and don't own even my own wife and children, it
makes me feel sick and discouraged !

So sick at heart and discouraged 'felt
Paul Edmondson. He went to the Anti-
Slavery Office, and made his case known.
The sum was such a large one, and seemed to
many so exorbitant, that, though they pitied
the poor father, they were disheai'tened
about i-aising ic. They wrote to Washing-
ton to authenticate the particulars of the
story, and wrote to Bruin and Hill to see
if there could be any reduction of price.
Meanwhile, the poor old man looked sadly
from one adviser to another. He was re-
commended to go to the Rev. H. W. Beecher,
and tell his story. He inquired his way to
his door, — ascended the steps to ring the
door-bell, but his heart failed him, — he sat
down on the steps weeping !

There Mr. Beecher found him. He took
him in, and inquired his story. There was
to be a public meeting that night, to raise
money. The hapless father begged him to
go and plead for his children. He did go,
and spoke as if he were pleading for his own
feiher and sisters. Otiuir clergymen fol-

lowed in the same strain, — the meeting be-
came enthusiastic, and the money was raised
on the spot, and poor old Paul laid his head
that night on a grateful pillow, — not to
sleep, but to give thanks !

Meanwhile the gifls had been dragging
on anxious days in the slave-prison. They
were employed in sewing for Bruin's family,
staying sometimes in tlw prison and some-
times in the house.

It is to be stated here that Mr. Bruin is
a man of very difierent character from many
in his trade. He is such a man as never
would have been found in the profession of
a slave-trader, had not the most respectable
and religious part of the community defended
the right to buy and sell, as being conferred
by God himself. It is a fact, with regard to
this man, that he was one of the earliest sub-
scribers to the National Era, in the District
of Columbia ; and, when a certain individual
there brought himself into great peril by as-
sisting fugitive slaves, and there was no one
found to go bail for him, Mr. Bruin came
forward and performed this kindness.

While we abhor the horrible system and
the horrible trade with our whole soul, there
is no harm, we suppose, in wishing that such
a man had a better occupation. Yet we can-
not forbear reminding all such that, when
we come to give our account at the judg-
ment-seat of Christ, every man must speak
for himself alone ; and that Christ will
not accept as an apology for sin the word of
all the ministers and all the synods in the
country. He has given fair warning, '' Be-
ware of false prophets ; " and if people will
not beware of them, their blood is upon their
own heads. .

The girls, while under Mr. Bruin's care,
were treated with as much kindness and con-
sideration as could possibly consist with the
design of selling them. There is no doubt
that Bruin was personally friendly to them,
and really wished most earnestly that they
might be ransomed ; but then he did not see
how he was to lose two thousand five hun-
dred dollars. He had just the same dif-
ficulty on this subject that some New Y^ork
members of churches have had, when they
have had slaves brought into their hands as
security for Southern debts. He was sorry
for them, and wished them well, and hoped
Providence would provide for them when
they were sold, but still he could not afibrd
to lose his money ; and while such men re-
main elders and communicants in churches
in New York, we must not be surprised that
there remain slave-trader's in Alexandria.

166

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

It is one great art of the enemy of souls
to lead men to compound for their partici-
pation in one branch of sin bj their right-
eous horror of another. The slave-trader
has been the general scape-goat on whom all
parties have vented thei§ indignation, while
buying of him and selling to him.

There is an awful warning given in the
fiftieth Psalm to those who in word have
professed religion and in deed consented to
iniquity, where from the judgment-seat
Christ is represented as thus addressing
them : " What hast thou to do to declare my
statutes, or that thou shouldst take my cove-
nant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest in-
struction, and castest my words behind
thee 7 When thou sawest a thief, then thou
consentedst with him, and hast been par-
taker with adulterers."

One thing is certain, that all who do these
things, openly or secretly, must, at last,
make up their account with a Judge who
is no respecter of persons, and who will just
as soon condemn an elder in the church for
slave-trading as a professed trader ; nay. He
may make it more tolejhble for the Sodom
and Gomorrah of the trao^. than for them, —
for it may be, if the trader had the means of
grace that they have had, that he would have
repented long ago.

But to return to our history. — The girls
were sitting sewing near the open window
of -their cage, when Emily said to Mary,
" There, Mary, is that white man we have
seen from the North. ' ' They both looked, and
in a moment more saw their own dear father.
They sprang and ran through the house and
the office, and into the street, shouting as
they ran, followed by Bruin, who said he
thought the girls were crazy. In a moment
they were in their fvther's arms, but ob-
served that he trembled exceedingly, and
that his voice was unsteady. They eagerly
in( quired if the money was raised for their
ransom. ^ Afraid of exciting their hopes too
soon, before their free papers were signed,
he said he would talk with them soon, and
went into the office with Mr. Bruin and Mr.
Chaplin. Mr. Bruin professed himself sin-
cerely glad, as undoubtedly he was, that they
had brought the money ; but seemed much
hurt by the manner in which he had been
spoken of by the Ilev. H. W. Beecher at the
liberation meeting in New York, thinking
it hard that no difference should be made
between him and other traders, when he had
shown himself so much more considerate and
huraijne than the great bo<ly of them. He,
however, counted over the money and signed

the papers with great good will, taking out
a five-dollar gold piece for each of the girls,
as a parting present.

The affair took longer than they supposed,
and the time seemed an age to the poor girls,
who were anxiously walking up and down
outside the room, in ignorance of their fate.
Could their father have brought the money '?
Why did he tremble so? Could he have
failed of the money, at last 7 Or could it be
that their dear mother was dead, for they
had heard that she was very ill !

At length a messenger came shouting to
them, " You are free, you are free! " Emily
thinks she sprang nearly to the ceiling over-
head. They jumped, clapped their handa,
laughed and shouted aloud. Soon their
father came to them, embraced them tenderly
and attempted to quiet them, and told them
to prepare them to go and see their mother.
This they did they know not how, but with
considerable help fi-om the family, who al5
seemed to rejoice in their joy. Their father
procured a carriage to take them to the
wharf, and, with joy overflowing all bounds,
they bade a most affectionate farewell to
each member of the family, not even omit-
ting Bruin himself The "good that thero
is in human nature " for once had the up-
per hand, and all were moved to tears of
sympathetic joy. Their father, with sub-
dued tenderness, made great efforts to soothe
their tumultuous feelings, ' and at length par-
tially succeeded. When they arrived at
Washington, a carriage was ready to take
them to their sister's house. People of every
rank and description came running together
to get a sight of them. Their brothers
caught them up in their arms, and ran
about with them, almost frantic with joy.
Their aged and venerated mother, raised up
from a sick bed by the stimulus of the glad
news, was there, Aveeping and giving thanks
to God. Refreshments were prepared in
their sister's house for all who called, and
amid greetings and rejoicings, tears and
gladness, prayers and thanksgivings, but
without sleep, the night passed away, and-
the morning of November 4, 1848, dawned
upon them free and happy.

This last spring, during the month of
May, as t^c writer has already intimated,
the aged mother of the Edmondson family
came on to New York, and the reason of
her coming may bo thus briefly explained.
She had still one other daughter, the guide
and support of her feeble age, or, as she calls
her in her own expressive language, " the
last drop of blood in her heart." She had

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

167

also a son, twenty-one years of age, still a
slave on a neighboiing plantation. The in-
firm woman in whose name the estate was
held was supposed to be drawing 'near to
death, and the poor parents were distressed
with the fear that, in case of this event, their
two remaining children would be sold for
the purpose of dividing the estate, and thus
thrown into the dreaded southern market.
No one can realize what a constant horror
the slave-prisons and the slave-traders are
to all the unfortunate families in the vicinity.
Everything for which other parents look
on their childr'^n with pleasure and pride is
to these poor souls a source of anxiety and
dismay, Ijecause it renders the child so much
more a merchantable article.

It is no wonder, therefore, that the light
in Paul and Milly's cottage was overshad-
owed by this terrible idea.

The guardians of these children had given
their father a written promise to sell them
to him for a certain sum, and by hard beg-
ging he had acquired a hundred dollars tow-
ards the twelve hundred which were neces-
sary. But he was now confined to his bed
with sickness. After pouring out earnest
prayers to the Helper of the helpless, Milly
says, one day she said to Paul, " I tell ye,
Paul, I 'm going up to New York myself,
to see if I can't get that money."

" Paul says tome, ' Why, Milly dear, how
can you ? Ye an't fit to be off the bed, and
ye 's never in the cars in your life.'

" ' Never you fear, Paul,' says I; 'I shall
go trusting in the Lord ; and the Lord,
He '11 take me, and He '11 bring me, — that I
know.'

" So I went to the cars and got a white
man to put me aboard ; and, sure enough,
there I found two Bethel ministers ; and
one set one side o' me, and one set the other,
all the way ; and they got me my tickets,
and looked after my things, and did every
thing for me. There did n't anything hap-
pen to me all the way. Sometimes, when I
went to set down in the sitting'-rooms, peo-
ple looked at me and moved off so scornful !
^Vell, I thought, I wish the Lord would give
you a better mind."

Emily and Mary, who had been at school
in New York State, came to the city to
meet their mother, and they brought her
directly to the Rev. Henry W. Beecher's
house, where the writer then was.

The writer remembers now the scene
when she first met this mother and daugh-
ters. It must be recollected that they had
ttot seen each other before for four years.

One was sitting each side the mother, hold-
ing her hand ; and the air of pride and filial
affection with which they presented her was
touching to behold. After being presented
to the writer, she again sat down between
them, took a hand of each, and looked very
earnestly first on one and then on tlic other ;
and then, looking up, said, with a smile,
" 0, these children, — how they do lie round
our hearts ! "

She then explained to the writer all her
sorrows and anxieties for the younger chil-
dren. "Now, madam," she says, "that
man that keeps the great trading-house at
Alexandi'ia, that ma/i," she said, with a
strong, indignant expression, "has sent to
know if there 's any more of my children to
be sold. That man said he wanted to see
me ! Yes, ma'am, he said he 'd give twenty
dollars to see me. I would n't see him, if
he 'd give me a hundred! He sent for me
to come and see him, when he had my daugh-
ters in his prison. I would n't go to see
him, — I did n't want to see them there ! "

The two daughters, Emily and INIary,
here became very muoli excited, and broke
out in some very natural but bitter language
against all slave-holders. " Hush, children !
you must forgive your enemies," she said.
" But they 're so wicked ! " said the girls.
" Ah, children, you must hate the sin, but
love the si?ine?\" "Weil," said one of
the girls, " mother, if I was taken again
and made a slave of, I 'd kill myself" " I
trust not, child, — that would be wicked."
" But, mother, I should ; I know I never
could bear it." " Bear it. my child?" she
answered, " it 's they that bears the sorrow
here is they that has the glories there."

There was a deep, indescribable pathos of
voice and manner as she said these words,

— a solemnity and force, and yet a sweet-
ness, that can never be forgotten.

This poor slave-mother, whose whole hfe
had been one long outrage on her holiest
feelings, — who had been kept from the
power to read God's Word, whose whole
pilgrimage had been made one day of sor-
row by the injustice of a Christian nation,

— she had yet learned to solve the highest
problem of Christian ethics, and to do what
so few reformers can do, — hate the sin, but
love the simiei' !

A great deal of interest was excited
among the ladies in Brooklyn by this his-
tory. Several large meetings were held in
different parlors, in which the old mother re-
lated her history with great simphcity and
pathos, and a subscription for the re-

168

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S' CABIN.

demption of the remaining two of her
family was soon on foot. It may be in-
teresting to know that the subscription list
was headed by the lovely and benevolent
Jenny Lind Goldschmidt.

Some of the ladies who listened to this
touching story were so much interested in
Mrs. Edmondson personally, they wished to
have her daguerreotype taken ; both that
they might be strengthened and refreshed
by the sight of her placid countenance, and
that they might see the beauty of true good-
ness beaming there.

She accordingly went to the rooms with
them, with all the simplicity of a little child.
" 0," said she, to one of the ladies, "you
can't think how happy it 's made me to get
here, where everybody is so kind to me !
Why, last night, when I went home, I was so
happy I could n't sleep. I had to go and
tell my Saviour, over and over again, how
happy I was."

A lady spoke to her about reading some-
thing. " Law bless you, honey ! I can't
read a letter."

" Then," said another lady, "how have
you learned so much of God, and heavenly
things?"

" Well, 'pears like a gift from above."

" Can you have the Bible read to you ?"

" Why, yes ; Paul, he reads a little, but
then he has so much work all day, and
when he gets home at night he's so tired !
and his eyes is bad. But then the Sperit
teaches us."

" Do you go much to meeting?"

" Not much now, we live so far. In
winter I can't never. But, 0 ! what meet-
ings I have had, alone in the corner, — my
Saviour and only me!" The smile with
which these words were spoken was a thing
to b6 remembered. A little girl, daughter
of one of the ladies, made some rather
severe remarks about somebody in the da-
guerreotype rooms, and her mother checked
her.

The old lady looked up, with her placid
smile. " That puts me in mind," she said,
" of what I heard a preacher say once.
' My friends,' says he, ' if you know of any-
thing that will make a brother's heart glad,
run qnlck and tell it ; but if it is some-
thing tliat will only cause a sigh, ' bottle it
up, bottle it up ! ' 0, I often tell my cliil-
dren, ' Bottle it up, bottle it up ! '" "

When the writer came to part with the
old lady, she said to her : " Well, good-by,
my dear friend; remember and pray for
me."

"Pray for youf^'she said, earnestly.
" Indeed I shall,— I can't help it." She
then, raising her finger, said, in an emphatic
tone, peculiar to the old of her race, " Tell
you what ! we never gets no good bread
ourselves till we begins to ask for our
brethren.''''

The writer takes this opportunity to in-
form all those friends, in different parts of
the country, who generously contributed for
the redemption of these children, that they
are at last free !

The following extract from the letter
of a lady in Washington may be interesting
to them :

I have seen the Edmondson parents, — Paul and
his wife Milly. I have seen the free Edmond-
sons, — mother, son, and daughter, — the very day
after the great era oi free life commenced, while
yet the inspiration was on them, while the
mother's face was all light and love, the father's
eyes moistened and glistening with tears, the
son calm in conscious manhood and responsibility,
the daughter (not more tha'n fifteen years old,
I think) smiling a delightful appreciation of joy
in the present and hope in the future, thus sud-
denly and completely unfolded.

Thus have we finished the account of on*
of the families who were taken on board th?
Pearl. We have another history to give,
to which we cannot promise so fortunate a
termination.

CHAPTER yn.

Among those unfortunates guilty of lov-
ing freedom too well, was a be;iutiful young
quadroon girl, named Emily Russell, whose
mother is now living in New York. The
writer has seen and conversed with her. She
is a pious woman, highly esteemed and re-
spected, a member of a Christian cliurch.

By the avails of her own industry she pur-
chased her freedom, and also redeemed from
bondage some of her children. Emily was a
resident of Washington, D. C, a place which
belongs not to any state, but to the United
States ; and there, under the laws of the
United States, she was held as a slave. She
was of a gentle disposition and amiable man-
ners ; she had been early touched with a sense
of religious things, and was on the very
point of uniting herself with a Christian
church ; but her heart yearned after her
widowed mother and after freedom, ami so,
on the fatal night when all the other poor
victims sought the Pearl, the child Emily
went also among them.

How they were taken has already been

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN;

169

told. The sin of the poor girl was inexpiable.
Because she longed for her mother's arms
and for liberty, she could not be forgiven.
Nothing would do for such a sin, but to throw
her into the hands of the trader. She also
was thrown into Bruin & Hill's jail, in
Alexandi'ia. Her poor mother in New York
received the following letter from her. Read
it, Christian mother, and think what if your
daughter had written it to you !

To Mrs. N.VXCV Cartwhight, New York.

Alexandria, Jan. 22, 1850.
My Dear ^Mother : I take this opportunity
of writing you a few lines, to inform you that I
am in Bruin' s Jail, and Aunt Sally and all of her
children, and Aunt Uagar and all her children,
and grandmother is almost crazy. My dear moth-
er, will you please to come on as soon as you
can? I expect to go away very shortly. 0,
mother ! my dear mother ! come now and see your
distressed and heart-broken daughter once more.
Mother ! my dear mother ! do not forsake me, for
I feel desolate ! Please to come now.
Your daughter,

Emily Russell.

P, S. — If you do not come as far as Alexandria,
come to Washington, and do what you can.

That letter, blotted and tear-soiled, was
brought by this poor washerwoman to some
Christian friends in New York, and shown
to them. " What do you suppose they will
ask for her? " was her question. All that
she had, — her little house, her little furni-
ture, her small earnings, — all these poor
Nancy was willing to throw in ; but all these
were but as a drop to the bucket.

The first thing to be done, then, was to
ascertain what Emily could be redeemed for ;
and, as it may be an interesting item of
American trade, we give the reply of the
traders in full :

Alexandria, Jan. 31, 1850.
Dear Sir : "When I received your letter I had
not bought the negroes you spoke of, but since
that time I have bought them. All I have to say
about the matter is, that we paid very high for the
negroes, and cannot afford to sell the girl Emily
for less than EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS.
This may seem a high price to you, but, cotton be-
ing very high, consequently slaves are high. We
have two or three offers for Emily from gentlemen
from the south. She is said to be the finest-looking
woman in this country. As for Hagar and her seven
children, we will take two thousand five hundred
dollars for them. Sally and her four children,
we will take for them two thousand eight hundred
dollars. You may seem a little surprised at the
difference in prices, but the difference in the ne-
groes makes the difference in price. We expect to
start south with the negroes on the 8th February,
and if you intend to do anything, you had better
do it soon. Yours, respectfully,

Bruin & Hill.

This letter came to New York before the

case of ,the Edmondsons had called the atten-
tion of the community to this subject. The
enormous price asked entirely discouraged
effort, and before anything of impoi-tance
was done they heard that the coffle ha£l de-
parted, with Emily in it^

Hear, 0 heavetfs ! and give ear, 0 earth !
Let it be known, in all the countries (rf
the earth, that the market-price of a
beautiful Christian girl in America is from

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED tO TWO THOUSAND

DOLLARS ; and yet, judicatories in the
church of Christ have said, in solemn con-
clave, that American slavery as it I3

IS NO EVIL ! *

From the table of the sacrament and from
the sanctuary of the church of Christ this
girl was torn away, because her beauty was
a salable article in the slave-market in New
Orleans !

Perhaps some Northern apologist for
slavery will say she was kindly treated here
— not handcuffed by the wrist to a chain,
and forced to walk, as articles less choice
are ; that a wagon was provided, and that she
rode; and that food abundant was given her
to eat, and that her clothing was warm and
comfortable, and therefore no harm was done.
We have heard it told us, again and again,
that there is no harm in slavery, if one is
only warm enough, and full-fed, and com-
fortable. It is true that the slave-woman
has no protection from the foulest dishonor
and the utmost insult that can be offered to
womanhood, — none whatever in law or gos-
pel ; but, so long as she has enough to eat and
wear, our Christian fathers and mothers tell
us it is not so bad !

Poor Emily could not think so. There
was no eye to pity, and none to help. The
food of her accursed lot did not nourish her ;
the warmest clothing could not keep the
chill of slavery from her heart. In the
middle of the overland passage, sick, weary,
heart-broken, the child laid her down and
died. By that lonely pillow there was no moth-
er. But there was one Friend, who loveth at
all times, who is closer than a brother. Could
our eyes be touched by the seal of faith, where
others see only the lonely wilderness and
the dying girl, we, perhaps, should see one
clothed in celestial beauty, waiting for that
short agony to be over, that He might redeem
her from all iniquity, and present her fault-
less before the presence of his Grace with
exceeding joy !

* The words of the Qeor^a Annual Conference : J?«»
solved, " That slavery, as it exists in the United States,
is not a vafital evil."

170

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Even the hard-liearted trader was touched
with her sad fate, and we are credibly in-
formed that he said he was sorry he had
taken her.

Bruin & Hill wrote to New York that
the girl Emily was dead. A friend of the
family went with the letter, to break the
news to her mother. Since she had given
up all hope of redeeming her daughter from
the dreadful doom to which she had been
sold, the helpless mother had drooped like a
stricken woman. She no longer lifted up
her head, or seemed to take any interest in
life.

When the friend called on her, she
asked, eagerly,

" Have you heard anything from my
daughter? "

•'• Yes, I have," was the reply, " a letter
from Bruin & Hill."

'■'■ And what is the news? "

He thought best to give a direct answer,
— " Emily is deadP

The poor mother clasped her hands, and,
looking upwards, said, " The Lord be
thanked ! He has heard my prayers at
last!"

And, now, will it be said this is an ex-
ceptional case — it happens one time in a
thousand? Though we know that this is
the foulest of falsehoods, and that the case is
only a specimen of what is acting every day
in the American slave-trade, yet, for argu-
ment's sake, let us, for once, admit it to
be true. If only once in this nation, under
the protection of our law, a Christian girl
had been torn from the altar and the
communion-table, and sold to foulest shame
and dishonor, would that have been a light
sin? Does not Christ say, "Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of
these, ye have done it unto me " ? 0,
words of woe for thee, America ! — words
of woe for thee, church of Christ ! Hast
thou trod them under foot and trampled
them in the dust so long that Christ has
forgotten them ? In the day of judgment
every one of these words shall rise up,
living and burning, as accusing angels to
witness against thee. Art thou, 0 church
of Christ ! praying daily, " Thy kingdom
come"? Barest thou pray, "Come, Lord
Jesus, come quickly"? 0, what if He
should come ? What if the Lord, whom ye
seek, should suddenly come into his tem-
ple ? If his soul was stirred within him
when he found within his temple of old
those that changed money, and sold sheep
and oxen and doves, what will he say now.

when h*e finds them selling body, blood and
bones, of liis own people ? And is the
Christian church, which justifies this enor-
mous system, — which has used the awful
name of her Redeemer to sanction the buy-
ing, selling and trading in the souls of men,
— is this church the bride of Christ ? Is
she one with Christ, even as Christ is one
with the Father ? 0, bitter mockery !
Does this church believe that every Chris-
tian's body is a temple of the Holy Ghost?
Or does she think those solemn words were
idle breath, when, a thousand times, every
day and week, in the midst of her, is this
temple set up and sold at auction, to be
bought by any godless, blasphemous man,
who has money to pay for it !

As to poor Daniel Bell and his family,
whose contested claim to freedom was the
beginning of the whole trouble, a few mem-
bers of it were redeemed, and the rest were
plunged into the abyss of slavery. It would
seem as if this event, like the sinking of a
ship, drew into its maelstrom the fate of
every unfortunate being who was in its vi-
cinity. A poor, honest, hard-working slave-
man, of the name of Thomas Ducket, had
a wife who was on board the Pearl. Tom
was supposed to know the men who counte-
nanced the enterprise, and his master, there-
fore, determined to sell him. He brought
him to Washington for the purpose. Some
in Washington doubted his legal right to
bring a slave from Maryland for the pur-
pose of selling him, and commenced legal
proceedings to test the matter. While they
were pending, the counsel for the master
told the men who brought action against
his client that Tom was anxious to be sold ;
that he preferred being sold to the man who
had purchased his wife and children, rather
than to have his liberty. It was well known
that Tom did not wish to be separated from
his family, and the friends here, confiding in
the representations made to them, consented
to withdraw the proceedings.

Some time after this, they received letters
from poor Tom Ducket, dated ninety miles
above New Orleans, complaining sadly of
his condition, and making piteous appeals
to hear from them respecting his wife and
children. Upon inquiry, nothing could be
learned respecting them. They had been
sold and gone, — sold and gone, — no one
knew whither ; and as a punishment to
Tom for his contumacy in refusing to give the
name of the man who had projected the
expedition of the Pearl, he was denied
the privilege of going oflF the place, and was

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 171

not allowed to talk vrith the other servants,
his master fearing ^ conspirac j. In one of
his letters he says, " I have seen more
trouble here in one day than I have in all
my life." In another, " I -syould be glad
to hear from her [his wife], but I should
be more glad to hear of her death than for
her to come here."

In his distress, Tom wrote a letter to Mr,
Bigelow, of Washington. People who aro
not in the habit of getting such documents
have no idea of them. We give a fac
simile of Tom's letter, with all its poor
spelling, all its ignorance, helplessness, and
misery.

cf6i

'fn- ^^^.^gs^'^v^^'^'^'*^'^*^-^^*'^^**^ m^^'^ny

172

KEY TO UNCLE TOM's CABIN.

^Tl^i^^^Z-

[Febmarf 18, 1852.
Mr. BiGEiow. Dear Sir : ^ I write to let you
know how 1 am getting along. Hard times here.

I have not had one hour to go outside the place
since I have been on it. I put my trust in the
Lord to help me. 1 long to hoar from you all

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN

173

I written to hear from you all. Mr. Bigelow, I
hope you will not forget me. You know it was
not my fault that I am here. I hope you will
name me to Mr. Geden, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Bailey,
to help me out of it. I believe that if they would
make the least move to it that it could be done.
I long to hear from my family how they are get-
ting along. You will please to write to me just
to let me know how they are getting along. You
can write to me.

I remain your humble servant,

Thomas Ducket.

You can direct your letters to Thomas Ducket,
in care of Mr. Samuel T. Harrison, Louisiana,
near Bayou Goula. For God's sake let me hear
from you all. My wife and children are not out
of my mind day nor night.]

CHAPTER VIII.

KIDNAPPING.

The principle whicli declares tliat one
human being may lawfully hold another as
property leads directly to the trade in hu-
man beings ; and that trade has, among
its other horrible results, the temptation to
the crime of kidnapping.

The trader is generally a man of coarse
nature and low associations, hard-hearted,
and reckless of right or honor. He who is
not so is an exception, rather than a speci-
men. If he has anything good about him
when he begins the business, it may well be
seen that he is in a fair way to lose it.

Around the trader are continually pass-
ing and repassing men and women who
would be worth to him thousands of dollars
in the way of trade, — who belong to a
class whose rights nobody respects, and
who, if reduced to slavery, could not easily
make their word good against him. The
probability is that hundreds of free men and
women and children are all the time being
precipitated into slavery in this way.

The recent case of Northrop^ tried in
Washington, D. C, throws light on this
fearful subject. The following account is
abridged from the New York Times:

Solomon Northrop is a free colored citizen of
the United States ; he was bom in Essex county.
New York, about the year 1808 ; became early a
resident of Washington county, and married there
in 1829. His fother and mother resided in the
pounty of Washington about fifty years, till their
decease, and were both free. With his vrife and
children he resided atf Saratoga Springs in the
winter of 1841, and while there was employed by
two gentlemen to drive a team South, at the rate
of a dollar a day. In fulfilment of his employ-

ment, h§ proceeded to New Ycrk, and, having taken
out free papers, to show that he was a citizen, he
went on to Washington city, where he arrived the
second day of April, the same year, and put up
at Gadsby's Hotel. Soon after he arrived he felt
unwell, and went to bed.

While sufiering with severe pain, some persona
came in, and, seeing the condition he was in, pro-
posed to give him some medicine, and did so.
This is the last t*iing of which he had any recol-
lection, until he found himself chained to the floor
of Williams' slave-pen in this city, and hand-
cuffed. In the course of a few hours, James H.
Burch, a slave-dealer, came in, and the colored
man asked him to take the irons off from him, and
wanted to know why they were put on. Burch
told him it was none of his business. The colored
man said he was free, and told where he was bom.
Burch called in a man by the name of Ebenezer
Rodbury, and they two stripped the man and laid
him across a bench, Rodbury holding him down
by his wrists. Burch whipped him with a pad-
dle until he broke that, and then with a cat-o'-
nine-tails, giving him a hundred lashes ; and he
swore he would kill him if he ever stated to any
one that he was a free man. From that time for-
ward the man says he did not communicate the
fact from fear, either that he was a free man, oi
what his name was, until the last summer. He
was kept in the slave-pen about ten days, when
he, with others, was taken out of the pen in the
night by Burch, handcuffed and shackled, and
taken down the river by a steamboat, and then to
Richmond, where he, with forty-eight others, was
put on board the brig Orleans. There Burch left
them. The brig sailed for New Orleans, and on
arriving there, hefore she was fastened to the
wharf, Theophilus Freeman, another slave-dealer,
belonging in the city of New Orleans, and who in
1833 had been a partner with Burch in the slave-
trade, came to the wharf, and received the slaves
as they were landed, under his direction. This
man was immediately taken by Freeman and shut
up in his pen in that city. He was taken sick
with the small-pox immediately after getting
there, and was sent to a hospital, where he lay
two or three weeks. When he had sufficiently
recovered to leave the hospital. Freeman declined
to sell him to any person in that vicinity, and sold
him to a Mr. Ford, who resided in Rapides Parish,
Louisiana, where he was taken and lived more
than a year, and worked as a carpenter, working
with Ford at that business.

Ford became involved, and had to sell him. A
Mr. Tibaut became the purchaser. He, in a short
time, sold him to Edwin Eppes, in Bayou Beouf,
about one hundred and thirty miles from the
mouth of Red river, where Eppes has retained
him on a cotton plantation since the year 1843.

To go back a step in the narrative, the man
wrote a letter, in June, 1841, to Henry B. Nor-
throp, of the State of New York, dated and post-
marked at New Orleans, stating that he had been
kidnapped and was on board a vessel, but was un-
able to state what his destination was ; but re-
questing Mr. N. to aid him in recovering his free-
dom, if possible. Mr. N. was unable to do any-
thing in his behalf, in consequence of not know-
ing where he had gone, and not being able to find
any trace of him. His place of residence re-
mained unknown until the month of September
last, when the following letter was received by
his friends :

174

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

Bayou Beouf, August, 1852.
Mr. William Pent, or Mr. Lewis Parker.

Gentlehex : It having been a long time since I
have seen or heard frora you, and not knowing
that you are living, it is with uncertainty that I
write to you ; but the necessity of the case must
be my excuse. Having been born free just across
the river from you, I am certain you know me ;
and I am here now a slave. I wish you to obtain
free papers for me, and forward them to me at
Marksville, Louisiana, Parish of Avovelles, and
oblige Yours, Solomon Northrop.

On receiving the above letter, Mr. N. applied to
Governor Hunt, of New York, for such authority
as was necessary for him to proceed to Louisiana
as an agent to procure the liberation of Solomon.
Proof of his freedom was furnished to Governor
Hunt by affidavits of several gentlemen. General
Clarke among others. Accordingly, in pursuance
of the laws of New York, Henry B. Northrop was
constituted an agent, to take such steps, by pro-
curing evidence, retaining counsel, &c., as were
necessary to secure the freedom of Solomon, and
to execute all the duties of his agency.

The result of Mr. Northrop' s agency was
the establishing of the claim of Solomon
Northrop to freedom, and the restoring him
to his native land.

It is a singular coincidence that this man
was carried to a plantation in the Red river
country, that same region where the scene
of Tom's captivity was • laid ; and his ac-
count of this plantation, his mode of life
there, and some incidents which he describes,
form a striking parallel to that history.
We extract them from the article of the
Times :

The condition of this colored man during the
nine years that he was in the hands of Eppes was of
a character nearly approaching that described by
Mrs. Stow* as the condition of " Uncle Tom"
while in that region. During that whole period
his hut contained neither a floor, nor a chair, nor
a bed, nor a mattress, nor anything for him to lie
upon, except a board about twelve inches wide,
with a block of wood for his pillow, and with
a single blanket to cover him, while the walls of
his hut did not by any mear^ protect him from
the inclemency of the weather. He was some-
times compelled to perform acts revolting to hu-
manity, and outrageous in the highest degree.
On one occasion, a colored girl belonging to Eppes,
about seventeen years of age, went one Sunday,
without the permission of her master, to the near-
est plantation, about half a mile distant, to visit
another colored girl of her acquaintance. She re-
turned in the course of two or three hours, and for
that offence she was called up for punishment,
which Suloinon was required to inflict. Eppes com-
pelled him to drive four stakes into the ground at
Buch distances tliat the hands and ankles of the girl
might be tied to them, as she lay with her liice
upon the ground; and, having thus fastened her
down, he compelled him, while standing by him-
Bclf, to inflict one hundred lashes upon her bare
flesh, she being stripped naked. Having inflicted
the hundred blows, Solomon refused to proceed any
furtlier. Eppes tried to compel him to go ou, but

he absolutely set him at defiance, and refused to
murder the girl. Eppes then seized the whip, and
applied it until he was too weary to continue it.
Blood flowed from her neck to her feet, and
in this condition she was compelled the next day
to go into the field to work as a field-hand. She
bears the marks still upon her body, although the
punishment was inflicted four years ago.

When Solomon was about to leave, under the
care of Mr. Northrop, this girl came from behind
her hut, unseen by her master, and, throwing her
arms around the neck of Solomon, ci ai^'^ratulated
liim on his escape from slavery, and his return to
his family; at the same time, in language of de-
spair, exclaiming, " But, 0 God! what will be-
come of me?"

These statements regarding the condition of
Solomon while with Eppes, and the punishment
and brutal treatment of the colored girls', are
taken from Solomon liimself. It has been stated
that the nearest plantation was distant from
that of Eppes a half-mile, and of course there
could be no interference on the part of neigh-
bors in any punishment, however cruel, or how
ever well disposed to interfere they might be.

Had not Northrop been able to write, aa
few of the free blacks in the slave states
are, his doom might have been sealed for
life in this den of misery.

Two cases recently tried in Baltimore also
unfold facts of a similar nature.

The following is from

THE CASE OF RACHEL PARKER AND HER SISTER.

It will be remembered that more than a year
since a young colored woman, named jMary Eliza-
beth Parker, was abducted from Chester county
and conveyed to Baltimore, where she Avas sold as
a slave, and transported to New Orleans. A few
days after, her sister, Rachel Parker, was also
abducted in like manner, taken to Baltimore, and
detained there in consequence of the interference
of her Chester county friende. In the first case,
]\Iary Elizabeth was, by an arrangement with the
individual who had her in charge, brouglit back to
Baltimore, to await her trial on a petition for free-
dom. So also with regard to Rachel. Both, after
trial, — tlie proof in their favor being so over-
whelming, — were discharged, and are now among
their friends in Chester county. In this connec-
tion we give the narratives of both females, ob-
tallied since their release.

Rachel Parker^s Narrative.

" I was taken from Joseph C. Miller's about
twelve o'clock on Tuesday (Dec. 30th, 1851), by
two men who came up to the house by the back
door. One came in and asked Mrs. Miller where
Jesse McCreary lived, and then seized me bythe
arm, and pulled me out of the house. Mrs. Miller
called to her husband, who was in the/n;«/ porch,
and he ran out and seized the man by the collar,
and tried to stop him. The otlier, with an oath,
then told him to take his hands off, and if he
touched me he would kill him. He then told jMil-
Icr that I belonged to Mr. Schoolfield, in Balti-
more. They then hurried me to a wagon, where
tliero was another large man, put me in, and drove
ofl:

"Mr. Miller ran across the field to head the
wagon, and picked up a stake to run t'.u-oug>. the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

17d

wheel, when one ofc the men pulled out a sword (I
tliink it was a sword, I never saw one), and threat-
ened to cut Miller's arm off. Pollock's wagon
being in the way, and he refusing to get out of
the road, we turned off to the left. After we rode
away, one of the men tore a hole in the back of
the carriage, to look out to see if they were com-
ing after us, and they said they wished they had
given Miller and Pollock a blow.

" We stopped at a tavern near the railroad, and
I told the landlord (I think it was) that 1 was free.
I also told several persons at the car-office ; and a
very nice-looking man at the car-office was talking
at the door, and he said he thought that they had
better take me back again. One of the men did
not come further than the tavern. I was taken to
Baltimore, where we arrived about seven o'clock
tlie same evening, and I was taken to jail.

" The next morning, a man with large light-
colored whiskers took me away by myself, and
asked me if I was not Mr. Schoolfield's slave. I
told him 1 was not ; he said that I was, and that
if T did not say I was he would ' cowhide me and
ealt lue, and put me in a dungeon.' I told him
I was free, and that I would say nothing but the
truth."

Mary E. Parker's Narrative.

" I was taken from Matthew Donnelly's on Sat-
urday night (Dee. Gth, or 13th, 1851); was caught
whilst out of doors, soon after I had cleared the
supper-table, about seven o'clock, by two men, and
put into a Avagon. One of them got into the
wagon with me, and rode to Elkton, Md., where I
was kept until Sunday night at twelve o'clock,
when I left there in the cars for Baltimore, and
ajrived there early on Monday morning.

" At Elkton a man was brought in to see me,
by one of the men, who said that I was not his
father's slave. Afterwards, when on the way to
Baltimore in the cars, a man told me that I must
say that I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave, or he would
shoot me, and pulled a 'rifle' out of his pocket
and showed it to me, and also threatened to whip
me.

"On Monday morning, Mr. Schoolfield called
at the jail in Baltimore to see me ; and on Tues-
day morning he brought his wife and several other
ladies to see me. I told them I did not know
them, and then ]Mr. C. took me out of the room,
and told me who they were, and took me back
again, so that I might appear to know them. On
the next Monday I was snipped to New Orleans.

" It took about a month to get to New Orleans.
After I had been there about a week, Mr. C. sold
me to ]Madame C, who keeps a large flower-gar-
den. She sends flowers to sell to the theatres,
sells milk in market, &c. I went out to sell
candy and flowers for her, when I lived with her.
{ One evening, when I was coming home from the
■ theatre, a watchman took me up, and I told him
I was not a slave. He put me in the calaboose,
and next morning took me before a magistrate,
who sent for ^ladame C, who told him she bought
me. He then sent for Mr. C, and told him he
must account for how he got me. Mr. C. said that
my mother and all the family were free, except
me. The magistrate told me to go back to Mad-
ame C, and he told Madame C. that she must
not let me go out at night ; and he told Mr. C.
tliat he must prove how he came by me. The
magistrate afterwards called on Mrs. C, at her
house, and had a long talk with her in the parlor.
I Hfi ririf irr^-^-r --':r.t h.o said, as iaey were by them-

selves. About a month afterwards, I was seat
baci to Baltimore. I lived with Madame C. about
six months.

' ' ' There were six slaves came in the vessel with
me to Baltimore, who belonged to Jlr. D., and
were returned because they were sickly.

" A man called to see me at the jail after I
came back to Baltimore, and told me that I must
say I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave, and that if I did
not do it he would kill me the first time he got a
chance. He said Rachel [her sister] said she
came from Baltimore and was Mr. Schoolfield's
slave. Afterwards some gentlemen called on me
[Judge Campbell and Judge Bell, of Philadelphia,
and William H. Norris, Esq., of Baltimore], and
I told them I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave. They
said they were my friends, and I must tell them
the truth. I then told them who I was, and all
about it.

" When I was in New Orleans Mr. C. whipped
me because I said that I was free."

Elizabeth, by her own account above, was seized
and taken from Pennsylvania, Dec. Gth or 13th,
1851, which is confirmed by other testimony.

It is conceded that such cases, when
brought into Southern courts, are generally
tried with great fairness and impartiality.
The agent for Northrop' s release testifies to
this, and it has been generally admitted fact.
But it is probably only one case in a hundred
that can get into court ; — of the multitudes
who are drawn down in the ever-widening
maelstrom only now and then one ever comes
back to tell the tale.

The succeeding chapter of advertisements
will show the reader how many such victims
there may probably be.

CHAPTER IX.

SLAVES AS THEY AKE, ON TESTIMONY OP
OWNERS.

The investigation into the actual con-
dition of the slave population at the South
is beset with many difficulties. So many
things are said p7'o and con, — so many
said in one connection and denied in another,
— that the effect is very confusing.

Thus, we are told that the state of the
slaves is one of blissful contentment ; that
they would not take freedom as a gift;
that their family relations are only now and
then invaded; that they are a stupid race,
almost sunk to the condition of animals;
that generally they are kindly treated. &c.
&c. &c.

In reading over some two hundi'cd South-
em newspapers this fall, the author has been
struck with the very graphic and circum-
stantial pictures, which occur in all of them,

176

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

describing fugitive slaves. From these de-
scriptions one may learn a vast many things.
The author vrill here give an assortment of
them, taken at random. It is a comment-
ary on the contented state of the slave
population that the writer finds two or three
always, and often many more, in every one
of the hundreds of Southern papers ex-
amined.

In reading the following little sketches of
"slaves as they are," let the reader no-
tice :

1. The color and complexion of the
majority of them.

2. That it is customary either to describe
slaves by some scar, or to say " No scars
recollected.''^-

3. The intelligence of the parties adver-
tised.

4. The number that say they are free
that are to be sold to pay jail-fees.

Every one of these slaves has a history, —
a history of woe and crime, degradation,
endurance, and wrong. Let us open the
chapter :

South-side Democrat, Oct. 28, 1852.
Petersburgh, Virginia :

REAVARD.

Twenty-five dollars, with the payment of all
necessary expenses, will be given for the appre-
hension and delivery of my man CHARLES, if
taken on the Appomattox river, or within the pre-
cincts of Petersburgh. He ran off about a week
ago, and, if he leaves the neighborhood, will no
doubt make for Farmville and Petersburgh. He is
a, mulatto, rather below the medium height and
size, but well proportioned, and very active and
sensible. He is aged about 27 years, has a mild,
submissive look, and will, no doubt, show the marks
of a recent whipping, if taken. He must be de-
livered to the care of Peebles, White, Davis & Co.
R. H. DeJarnett,

Oct. 25 — 3t. Lunenburgh.

Poor Charles ! — - mulatto! — has a mild,
submissive look, and will probably show
marks of a recent whipping !

Kosciusko Chronicle, Nov. 24, 1852 :

COMMITTED

To the Jail of Attila County, on the 8th in-
stant, a negro boy, who calls his name GREEN,
and says he belongs to James Gray, of Winston
County. Said boy is about 20 years old, yelloio
complexion, round face, has ayscar on his face, one
on his left thigh, and one in his left hand, is about 5
feet 6 inches high. Had on when taken up a cot-
ton check shirt, Linsey pants, now cloth cap, and
was riding a large roan horse about 12 or 14 years
old and thin in order. The owner is requested to
come forward, prove property, pay charges, and
take him away, or he will be sold to pay charges.
E. B. Sanders, Jailer A. C.

Oct. 12, 1842. nl2tf.

Capitolian Vis-a- Vis, West Baton Rouge,
Nov. 1, 1852 :

«100 REWARD.

Runaway from the subscriber, in Randolph
County, on the 18th of October, a yellow boy,
named JIM. This boy is 19 years old, a light
mulatto with dirty sunburnt hair, inclined to be
straight; he is just 5 feet 7 inches high, and
slightly made. He had on when he left a black
cloth cap, black cloth pantaloons, a plaided sack
coat, a fine shirt, and brogan shoes. One hundred
dollars will be paid for the recovery of the above-
described boy, if taken out of the State, or fifty
dollars if taken in the State.

Mrs. S. P. Hall,

Nov. 4, 1852. Huntsville, Mo.

American Baptist, Dec. 20, 1852 :

TWENTY DOLLARS RE\VARD FOR A
PREACHER.

The following paragraph , headed ' ' Twenty Dol-
lars Reward," appeared in a recent number of the
New Orleans Picayune :

" Run away from the plantation of the under-
signed the negro man Shedrick, a preacher, 5 feet
9 inches high, about 40 years old, but looking not
over 23, stamped N. E. on the breast, and having
both small toes cut off. He is of a very dark com-
plexion, with eyes small but bright, and a look
quite insolent. He dresses good, and was arrested
as a runaway at Donaldson ville, some three years
ago. The aoove reward will be paid for his arrest,
by addressing Messrs. Armant Brothers, St. James
parish, or A. Miltenberger & Co., 30 Carondelet-
street."

Here is a preacher who is branded on the
breast and has both toes cut off, — and will
look insolent yet ! There 's depravity for
you!

Jefferson Inquirer, Nov. 27, 1852 :

$100 DOLLARS REW^ARD.

RAN A WAY from my plantation, in Bolivar
County, Miss., a negro man named MAY, aged
40 years, 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, copper
colored, and very straight ; his front teeth are
good and stand a little open ; stout through the
shoulders, and has some scars on his hack that show
above the skin plain, caused by the whip; he fre-
quently hiccups when eating, if he has not got
water handy ; he was pursued into Ozark County,
Mo., and there left. I will give the above reward
for hiw <!onfinement in jail, so that I can get hinj.
James H. Cousar,
Victoria, Bolivar County, Mississippi.

Nov. 13,1m.

Delightful master to go back to, this man
must be !

The Alabama Standard has for its
motto :

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience
TO God."

Date of Nov. 29th, this advertisement:

COMMITTED

To the Jail of Choctaw County, by Judge Young,
of Marengo County, a RUNAWAY SLAVE, who

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

177

calls his name BILLY, and says he belongs to the
late William Johnson, and was in the employ-
ment of John Jones, near Alexandria, La. He
is about 5 feet 10 inches high, black, about 40
years old, much scarred on the face and head, and
tjvite intelligent.

The owner is requested to come forward, prove
his property, and take him from Jail, or he will
be disposed of according to law.

S. S. Houston, Jailer C. 0.

December 1, 1852. 44-tf

Query : Whether this "quite intelligent"
Billy had n't been corrupted by hearing
this incendiary motto of the Standard ?

Knoxville (Tenn.) Register, Nov. 3d:

L.OOK OUT FOR RUXAWAYS 1 1
$25 REWARD I

RANATVAY from the subscriber, on the night
of the 2Gth July last, a negro woman named
HARRIET. Said woman is about five feet five
inches high, has prominent cheek-bones, large
mouth and good front teeth, tolerably spare built,
about 26 years old. We think it probable she is
harbored by some negroes not far from John !My-
natt's, in Knox Coonty, where she and they are
likely making some arrangements to get to a free
state ; or she may be concealed by some negroes
(her connections) in Anderson County, near Clin-
ton. I will give the above reward for her appre-
hension and confinement in any prison in this
state, or I will give fifty dollars for her confine-
ment in any jail out of this state, so that I get
her. H. B. GOENS,

Nov. 3. 4m Clinton, Tenn.

The Alexandria Gazette, November
29, 1852, under the device of Liberty
trampling on a tyi-ant, motto " Sic sem-
per tyrannis^'' has the following :

T^-^EWTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber, living in the
County of Rappahannock, on Tuesday last, Daniel,
a bright mulatto, about 5 feet 8 inches high, about
35 years old, very intelligent, has been a wagoner
for several years, and is pretty well acquainted
from Richmond to Alexandria. He calls himself
DANIEL T URNER ; his hair curls, without show-
ing black blood, or wool; he has a scar on one cheek,
end his left hand has been seriously injured by a pistol-
shot, and he was shabbily dressed when last seen.
I will give the above reward if taken oat of the
county, and secured in jail, so tha't I get him
again, or $10 if taken in the county.

A. M. Willis.

Rappahannock Co.,Ya., Nov. 29. — eolm.

Another " very intelligent," straight-
haired man. Who was his father ?

The NeiD Orleans Daily Crescent,
office No. 93 St. Charles-street ; Tuesday
morning, December 13, 1852 :

BROUGHT TO THE FIRST DISTRICT PO-
LICE PRISON'.

NANCY, a grifie, about 34 years old, 5 feet 1|
inch high, a scar on left wrist ; says she belongs to
Madame Wolf.

CHARLES HALL, a black, about 13 years old,
5 feet 6 inches high ; says he is free, but supposed
to be a slave.

PHILOMONIA, a mulattress, about 10 years
old, 4 feet 3 inches high ; says she is free, but sup-
posed to be a slave.

COLUJMBUS, a griffe, about 21 years old, 5 feet
5| inches high ; says he is free, but supposed to be
a slave.

SEYMOUR, a black, about 21 years old, 5 feet
1| inch high ; says he is free, but supposed to be
a slave *

The owners will please comply with the law
respecting them. J Wokrall, Warden.

New Orleans, Dec. 14, 1852.

What chance for any of these poor fel-
lows who say they are free 7

$.50 REWARD.

RANAWAY from the subscriber, living in
Unionville, Frederick County, Md., on Sunday
morning, the 17th instant, a DARK MULAnO
GIRL, about 18 years of age, 5 feet 4 or 5 inches
high, looks pleasant generally, talks very quick.
converses tolerably well, and can read. It is sup-
posed she had on, when she left, a red Merino
dress, black Visette or plaid Shawl, and a purple
calico Bonnet, as those articles are missing.

A reward of Twenty-five Dollars will be given
for her, if taken in the State, or Fifty Dollars if
taken out of the State, and lodged in jail, so that
I get her again. G. R. Sappixgton.

Oct. 13. — 2m.

Kosciusko Chronicle, Mississippi :

TW^ENTY DOLLARS REWARD

Will be paid for the delivery of the boy WALK-
ER, aged about 28 years, about 5 feet 8 or 9
inches high, black complexion, loose make, smiles
when spoken to, has a mild, sweet voice, and fine
teeth. Apply at 25 Tchoupitoulas-street, up
stairs. ol2Gt.

Walker has walked off, it seems. - Peace
be with him !

825 REWARD.

RANAWAY from the subscriber, living near
White's Store, Anson County, on the 3d of May
last, a bright mulatto boy, named BOB. Bob is
about 5 feet high, will weigh 130 pounds, is about
22 years old, and has some beard on his upper lip.
His left leg is somewhat shorter than hi» right,
causing him to hobble in his walk ; has a very
broad face, and tvill show color like a white man.
It is probable he has gone ofi" with some wagoner
or trader, or he may have free papers and be pass-
ing as a free man. He has straight hair.

I will give a reward of TWENTY-Fl^T] DOI^
LARS for the apprehension and delivery to me of
said boy, or for his confinement in any jail, so
that I get him again. Clara Lockhart,

By Adam Lockhart.

June 30, 1852. 698 : 5

Southern Standard, Oct. 16, 1852 :
850 reward:::

RANAWAY, or stolen, from the subscril>cr.
living near Aberdeen, Miss., a light mulatto wo-
manTof small size, and about 23 years old. She
has hng, black, straight hair, and she xisually k*^ps

178

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

it in good order. When she left she had on either
a white dress, or a brown calico one with white
spots or figures, and took with her a red handker-
chief, and a red or pink sun-bonnet. She generally
dresses very neatly. She generally calls herself
Mary Ann Paine, — can read priiit, — has some
freckles on her face and hands, — shoes No.
4, — had a ring or two on her fingers. She is
very intelligent, and converses well. The above
reward will be given for her, if taken out of the
State, and $25 if taken within the State.

U. McAllister.

Memphis (weekly) Appeal will insert to the
amount of $5, and send account to this office.

October 6th, 1853. 20 — tf.

Much can be seen of this Mary Ann in
this picture. The black, straight hair,
usually kept in order, — the general neat-
ness of dress, — the ring or two on the
fingers, — the ability to read, — the fact of
being intelligent and conversing well, are
all to be noticed.

$20 REWARD.

Kanaway, on the 9th of last August, my ser-
vant boy HENRY: he is 14 or 15 years old, a
bright mulatto, has dark eyes, stoops a little, and
stutters when confused. Had on, when he went
away, white pantaloons, long blue summer coat,
and a palm-leaf hat. I will give the above re-
ward if he should be taken in the State of Vir-
ginia, or i|30 if taken in either of the adjoining
States, but in either case he must be so secured
that I get him again. Edwin C. Fitzhugh.

Oct. 7. — eotf.

Poor Henry ! — only 14 or 15.

COMMITTED

To the Jail of Lowndes County, Mississippi, on
the 9th of May, by Jno. K. Peirce, Esq., and
taken up as a runaway slave by William S. Cox,
a negro man, who says his name is ROLAND, and
that he belongs to Ma]. Cathey, of INIarengo Co.,
Ala., was sold to him by Henry Williams, a negro
trader from North Carolina.

Said negro is about 35 years old, 5 feet 6 or 8
inches high, dai'k complexion, weighs about 150
pounds, middle finger on the right hand off at the
second joint, and had on, when committed, a black
silk liat, black drop d'cte dress coat, and white
linsey pants.

The owner is requested to come forward, prove
property, pay charges, and take him away, or he
will be dealt with according to law.

L. II. Wjlleford,

June 6, 1852. 19 — tf. Jailer.

Richmond Semi-weekly Exami?ier, Oc-
tober 29, 1852 : •

FIFTY DOLLARS REW^ARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber, residing in the
County of Halifax, about the middle of last Au-
gust, a Negro Man, Ned, aged some thirty or forty
years, of medium height, copper color, full fore-
licad, and cheek bones a little prominent. No
scars recollected, except one gf his fingers — the

little one, probably — is stiff and crooked. The
man Ned was purchased in Richmond, of Mr. Rob-
ert Goodwin, who resides near Frederick-Hall,
in Louisa County, and has a luife in that vicinity.
He has been seen in the neighborhood, and is sup-
posed to have gone over the Mountains, and to be
now at work as a free man at some of the Iron
Works ; some one having given him free papers.
The above reward vrill be given for the apprehen-
sion of the slave Ned, and his delivery to R. H
Dickinson & Bro., in Richmond, or to the under-
signed, in Halifax, Virginia, or twenty-five if con-
fined in any jail in the Commonwealth , so that 1
get him. Jas. M. Chappell,

[Firm of ChappeU & Tucker.]
Aug. 10. — tf.

This unfortunate copper-colored article is
supposed to have gone after his wife.

Kentucky Whig, Oct. 22, '52 :

$200 REWARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber, near Jlount
Sterling, Ky., on the night of the 20th of October,
a negro man named PORTER. Said boy is black,
about 22 years old, very stout and active, weighs
about 165 or 170 pounds. He is a smart fellow,
converses well, without the negro accent ; no particur
lar scars recollected. He had on a pair of coarse
boots about half worn, no other clothing recol-
lected. He was raised near Sharpsburg, in Bath
county, by Harrison Caldwell, and may be lurk-
ing in that neighborhood, but will probably
endeavor to reach Ohio.

I will pay the above-mentioned reward for him,
if taken out of the State ; $50, if taken in any
county bordering on the Ohio river ; or $25, if
taken in this or any adjoining county, and
secured so that I can get him.

He is supposed to have ridden a yellow Horse,
15 hands and one inch high, mane and tail both
yellow, five years old, and paces well.

October 21st, 1852. G. W. Proctor.

" No partictilar scars recollected " !
St. Louis Times, Oct. 14, 1852 :

NOTICE.

Taken up and committed to Jail in the town of
Rockbridge, Ozark county. Mo., on the Slst of
August last, a runaway slave, who calls his name
MOSES. Had on, when taken, a brown Jcanes
pantaloons, old cotton shirt, blue frock-coat, an
old rag tied round his head. He is about six feet
high, dark complexion, a scar over the left eye,
supposed to be about 27 years old. The owner is
hereby notified to come forward, prove said negro,
and pay all lawful charges incurred on liis account,
or the said negro will bo sold at public auction
for ready money at the Court House door in the
town of Rockbridge, on MONDAY, the 13th of
December next, according to law in such cases
made and provided, this 9th of September, 1852.

s23d & w. Robert IIicks, Sh'ff.

Charleston Mercury, Oct. 15, 1852 :

FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD.

Runaway on Sunday the 6th inst., from the
South Carolina Railroad Company, their negro

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

179

man SAM, recently bought by them, with others,
at Messrs. Cothran & SprouU's sale, at Aiken. He
was raised in Cumberhmd County, North Caro-
lina, and last brought from Richmond, Va. In
height he is 5 feet GJ inches. Complexion copper
color ; on the left arm and right leg sornewkal
scarred. Countenance good. The above reward
will be paid for his apprehension and lodgment in
any one of the Jails of this or any neighboring
State. J. D. Petsch,

June 12. Sup't Transportation.

Kosciusko Chronicle^ Nov. 24, ^52:

COMMITTED

To the Jail of Attila County, Miss., October
the 7th, 1852, a negro boy, who calls his name
HAMBLETON, and says he belongs to Parson
William Young, of Pontotoc County ; is about 26
or 27 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches high, rather
dark complexion, has two or three marks on his
back, a small scar on his left hip. Had on, when
taken up, a pair of blue cotton pants, white cotton
drawers, a new cotton shirt, a pair of kip boots,
an old cloth cap and wool hat. The owner is
requested to come forward, prove property, pay
charges and take him away, or he Avill be dealt
with as provided in such case.

E. B. Sanders, Jailer A. C.

Oct. 12, 1852. n 12tf.

Frankfort Commonwealth, October
21, 1852 :

COMMITTED TO JAIL..

A negro boy, who calls his name ADAAf , was
committed to the Muhlenburg Jail on the 24:th of
July, 1852. Said boy is black ; about 16 or 17
years old ; 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high ; will weigh
about 150 lbs. He has lost a -part of the finger
next to his little finger on the rigid hand ; also the
great toe on his left foot. This boy says he belongs
to Wm. iSIosley ; that said Mosley was moving to
Mississippi from Virginia. He further states
that he is lost, and not a runaway. His owner is
requested to come fprward, prove property, pay
expenses, and take him away, or he will be dis-
posed of as the law directs.

S. H. Deotsey, J. M. C.

GreenvUle,Ky., Oct. 20, 1852.

RUNAWAY SLAVE.

A negro man arrested and placed in the Barren
County Jail, Ky., on the 21st instant, calling
himself HENRY, about 22 years old ; says he ran
away from near Florence, Alabama, and belongs to
John Calaway. He is about five feet eight inches
high, dark, but not very black, rather thin visage,
pointed nose, Jio scars perceivable, rather spare
built ; says he has been runaway nearly throe
months. The owner can get him by applying
and paying the reward and expenses ; if not, he
will be proceeded against according to law. This
24th of August, 1852. Samuel Adwell, Jailer.

Aug. 25, 1852. — Om

In the same paper are two more poor
fellows, "who probably have been sold to pay
jail-fees, before now.

NOTICE.

Taken up by M. H. Brand as a runaway slave,

on the 22d ult., in the city of Covington, Kenton
county, Ky., a negro man calling himself
CH.\RLES WARFIELD, about 30 years old, but
looks older, about 6 feet high ; no particular
marks : had no free papers, but he says he is free,
and was horn in Pennsylvania, and in Fayette
county. Said negro was lodged in jail on the said
22d ult., and the owner or owners, if any, are
hereby notified to come forward, prove property,
and pay charges, and take him away.

C. W. Hull, J. K. C.
August 3, 1852. — 6m.

COMMITTED

To the Jail of Graves county, Ky., on the 4th
inst., a negro man calling himself DAVE or
DAVID. He says he is free, but formerly belonged
to Samuel Brown, of Prince William county,
Virginia. He is of black color, about 5 feet lO
inches high, weighs about 180 lbs. ; supposed to
be about 45 years old ; had on brown pants and
striped shirt. He had in his possession an old
rifle gun, an old pistol, and some old clothing.
He also informs me that he has escaped from the
Dyersburg Jail, Tennessee, where he had been
confined some eight or nine months. The owner ia
hereby notified to come forward, prove property
pay charges, &c.

L. B. HoLEFiELD, Jailer G. C.

June 28, 1852. — w6m.

Charleston Mercury, Oct. 29, 1852 :

$200 REWARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber, some time ia
^larch last, his servant LYDIA, and is suspected
of being in Charleston. I will give the above
reward to any person who may apprehend her,
and furnish evidence to conviction of the person
supposed to harbor her, or §50 for having her
lodged in any Jail so that I get her. Lydia is a
Mulatto woman, twenty-five years of age, four
feet eleven inches high, with straight black hair,
which inclines to cxirl, her front teeth defective, and
has been plugged ; the gold distinctly seen when
talking; round face, a scar under her chin, and two
fingers on one hand stiff at the first joints.

June 16. tuths C. T. Scaife.

$25 REWARD.

Runaway from the subscriber, on or about the
first of May last, his negro boy GEORGE, about
18 years of age, about 5 feet high, well set, and
speaks properly. He formerly belonged to jSIr. J.
D. A. Murphy, living in Blackville ; has a mother
belonging to a Mr. Lorrick, living in Lexington
District. He is supposed to have a pass, and is
likely to be lurking about Branchville or Charles-
ton.

The above reward will be paid to any one
lodging George in any Jail in the State, so that I
can get him.

J. J. Andrews, Orangeburg C. H.

Orangeburg, Aug. 7, 1852. bw Sept 11

NOTICE.

Committed to the Jail at Colleton District as a
runaway, JORDAN, a negro man about thirty
years of age, who says he belongs to Dobson

180

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Coely, of Pulaski County, Georgia. The owner
has notice to prove propei-ty and take him away.
L. W. McCants, Sheriff Colleton Dist.
Walterboro, So. Ca., Sept. 7, 1852.

The following are selected by the Com-
mo7iwealth mostly from New Orleans papers.
The characteristics of the slaves are inter-
esting.

TWENTY-FIVE DOLIiARS REWARD

Will be paid by the undersigned for the appre-
hension and delivery to any Jail in this city of
the negro woman MARIAH, who ran away from
the Phoenix House about the 15th of October last.
Sha is about 45 years old, 5 feet 4 inches high,
stout built, speaks French and English. Tfas
purchased from Ohas. Deblanc.

H. BiDWELL & Co., 16 Front Levee.

FIFTY DOIiliARS REW^ARD.

Ranaway about the 25th ult., ALLEN, a bright
mulatto, aged about 22 years, 6 feet high, very
well dressed, has an extremely careless gait, of
slender build, and wore a moustache when he
left; the property of J. P. Harrison, Esq., of this
city. The above reward will be paid for his safe
delivery at any safe place in the city. For fur-
ther particulars apply at 10 Bank Place.

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD.

We will give. the above reward for the appre-
Hension of the light mulatto boy SEA BO URN,
aged 20 years, about 5 feet 4 inches high ; is stout,
well made, and remarkably active. He is some-
what of a circus actor, by which he may easily
be detected, as he is always showing his gymnastic
qualifications. The said boy absented himself on
the 3d inst. Besides the above reward, all rea-
sonable expenses will be paid.

W. & H. Stackhouse, 70 Tchoupitoulas.

TW^ENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REAVARD.

Tlie above reward will be paid for the appre-
hension of the mulatto boy SEVERIN, aged 25
years, 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high ; most of his front
teeth are out, and the letters C. V. are marked on
ei titer of his arms with India Ink He speaks French,
English and Spanish, and was formerly owned by
Mr. Courcell,in the Third District. I will pay,
in addition to the above reward, $50 for such in-
formation as will lead to the conviction of any
person harboring said slave.

John Ermon, comer Camp and Race sts.

TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD.

Ran away from the Chain Gang in Now Orleans,
First Municipality, in February last, a negro boy
named STEPHEN. He is about 5 feet 7 inches
in lic.ight, a very light mulatto, with blue eyes and
brownish hair, stoops a little in the shoulders, has
a, cast- down look, and is very strongly built and
muscular. He will not acknowledge his name or
owner, is an habitual runaway, and was shot some-
where in the ankk itlule endeavoring to escape from
Baton Eouge Jail. The above rewiu-d, with all

attendant expenses, will be paid on his delivery
to me, or for his apprehension and commitment to
any Jail from which I can get him.

A. L. BlXGAMAX.

TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS RE\VARD.

The above reward vd]\ be given to the person
who will lodge in one of the Jails of this city the
slave SARAH, belonging to Mr. Guisonnet, cor-
ner St. John Baptiste and Race streets ; said slave
is aged about 28 years, 5 feet high, benevolent
face, fine teeth, and speaking French and English.
Captains of vessels and steamboats are hereby
cautioned not to receive her on board, under
penalty of the law. Avet Brothers,

Corner Bienville and Old Levee streets.

Lyjichhiirg Virginian^ Nov. 6th :

TW^ENTY DOLLARS REW^ARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber on the Virginia
and Tennessee Railroad, in the county of Wythe,
on the 20th of June, 1852, a negro man named
CHARLES, 6 feet high, copper color, with sev-eral
teeth out in front, about 35 years of age, rather
slow to reply, but pleasing appearance ichen spoken
to. He wore, when he left, a cloth cap and a
blue cloth sack coat ; he was purchased in Tennes-
see, 14 months ago, by Mr. M. Connell, of Lynch-
burg, and carried to that place, where be
remained until I purchased him 4 months ago.
It is more than probable that he will make his way to
Tennessee, as he has a wife noiv living there ; or he
may perhaps return to Lynchburg, and lurk about
there, as he has acquaintances there. The above
reward will be paid if he is taken in the State
and confined so that I get him again ; or I will
pay a reward of $40, if taken out of the State and
confined in Jail. George W. Ktijs.

July 1. — di;c2twt3

Winchester Republican {Yfi.\ Nov. 26:

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REW.ARD.

Ranaway from the subscriber, near Culpepper
Ct. House, Va., about the 1st of October, a negro
man named ALFRED, about five feet seven inches
in height, about twenty-five years of age, uncom-
monly muscular and active, complexion dark but
not black, countenance mild and rather pleasant.
He had a boil last winter on the middle joint of
the middle or second finger of the right hand,
which left the finger stiff in that joint, more visi-
ble in opening his hand than in shutting it. //'.'
has a ivife at Mr. Thomas G. Marshall's, near
Farrowsvilk, in Fauquier County, and may be in
that neighborhood, where he wishes to be sold, and
where I am willing to sell him.

I will give the above reward if he is taken out
of the State and secured, so that I get him again ;
or $50 if taken in the State, and secured in like
manner. W. B. Sl.vugiiteb.

October 29, 1852.

From the Louisville Daily Journal,
Oct. 23, 1852 :

»100 REWARD.

Ran away from the subscriber, in this city, on
; Friday, May 28th, a nogro boy named WYATT.

•KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

181

Said boy is copper colored, 25 or 2G years old,
about 5 feet 11 inches high, of large frame, slow
and heavy gait, has very large hands and feet,
small side-whiskers, a full head of hair which he
combs to the side, quite a pleasing look, and is
very likely. I recently purchased Wyatt from
Mr. Garrett, of Garrett's Landing, Ky., and his
wife is the 'property of Thos. G. Rowland, Esj. , of
this city. I will pay the above reward for the
apprehension and delivery of the boy to me if
taken out of the State, or $50 if taken in tiie State.
June 2 d&wtf David W. Yandell.

*200 REWARD.

TWO NEGROES. Ranaway from the subscri-
ber, living in Louisville, on the 2d, one ne^o man
and girl. The man's name is MILES. He is about
5 feet 8 inches high, dark-brovra color, with a
large scar upon his head, as if caused from a burn ;
age about 25 years ; and had with him two carpet
sacks, one of cloth, the other enamelled leather,
also a pass from Louisville to Owenton, Owen
county, Ky., and back. The girl's name is JULLA.,
and she is of light-brown color, short and heavy
set, rather good looking, with a scar upon her fore-
head; had on a plaid silk dress when she left, and
took other clothes with her ; looks to be about 16
years of age.

The above reward will be pa^d for the man, if
taken out of the State, or $100 for the girl;
$100 for the man, if taken in the State, or $50
for the girl. In either event, they are to be se-
cured, so I sret them. t ttt t

oct5d&wtf John W.Lynn.

The following advertisements are all dated
Shelby Co., Kentucky.

JAILER'S XOTICE.

Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county
a negro woman, who says her name is JUDA ;
darlj/Complexion ; twenty years of age ; some five
feet high ; weighs about one hundred and twenty
pounds ; no scars recollected, and says she belongs
to James Wilson, living in Denmark, Tennessee.
The owner of said slave is requested to come for-
ward, prove property, pay charges, and take her
away, or she will be dealt with as the law directs.

W. H. E.VNES,

oct27 — w4t Jailer Shelby county.

JAILER'S NOTICE.

Waa committed to the Jail of Shelby county,
on the 28th ult., a negro boy, Avho says his name
is JOHN W. LOYD ; of a bright complexion, 25
years of age, will weigh about one hundred and
fifty pounds, about five feet nine or ten inches
high, three scars on his left leg, which teas caused by
a dog-bite. The said boy John claims to be free. If
he has any master, he is hereby notified to come
forward, prove property, pay charges, and take
liim away, ci he will be dealt with as the law
directs. [nov3 — w4t

Also — Committed at the same time a negro
boy, who says his name is PATRICK, of a bright
complexion, about 30 years of age, will weigh
about one hundred and forty-five or fifty pounds ;
about six feet high ; his face is very badly scarred,
which he says was caused by being salivated.

The disease caused him to lose the bone out of
his nose, and his jaw-bone, also. Says he belongs
to Dr. Wm. Cheathum, living in Nashville, Tenn.
The owner of said slave is requested to come for-
ward, prove property, pay charges, and take him
away, or he wUl be dealt with as the law directs.

[nov3 — w4t

Also — Committed at the same time a negro
boy, who says his name is CLAIBORXE ; dark
complexion, 22 years of age, will weigh about
one hundred and forty pounds, about five feet
high ; no scars recollected ; says he belongs to Col.
Rousell, living in De Soto county, Miss. The
owner of said slave is requested to come forward,
prove property, pay charges, and take him away,
or he will be dealt with as the law directs.

W. H. Eanes,

novS — w4t ' Jailer of Shelby county

JAILER'S XOTICE.

Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county a
negro boy, who says his name is GEORGE ; dark
complexion, about twenty-five or thirty years of
age, some five feet nine or ten inches high ; will
weigh about one hundred and forty pounds, no
scars, and says he belongs to Malley Bradford,
living in Issaqueen county, Mississippi. The
owner of said slave is requested to come forward ,
prove property, pay charges, and take him away,
or he will be dealt with as the law directs.

W. H. Eanes,

novlO. — w4t Jailer of Shelby county.

JAILER'S XOTICE.

Was committed to the Jail of Shelby county,
on the 30th ult., a negro woman, who says her
name is NANCY, of a bright complexion, some
twenty or twenty-one years of age, will weigh
about one hundred and forty pounds, about five
feet high, no scars, and says she belongs to John
Pittman, living in Memphis, Tenn. The o^vner
of said slave is requested to come forward, prove
property, pay charges, and take her away, or she
will be dealt with as the law directs.

W. H. Eanes,

novlO. — w4t Jailer of Shelby county.

Negro property is decidedly " brisk" in
this county.

Natchez (Miss.) Free Trader.^ Novem-
ber 6, 1852 :

25 DOLLARS REWARD.

Ranaway from the undersigned, on the 17tb
day of October, 1852, a negro man by the name
of ALLEN, about 23 years old, near 6 feet high,
of dark mulatto color, no marks, save one, and that
caused by the bite of a dog ; had on, when he left,
lowell pants, and cotton shirt ; reads imperfect,
can make a short calculation correctly, and can
write some few words ; said negro has run away
heretofore, and when taken up was in possession
of a free pass. He is quick-spoken, lively, and
smiles when in conversation.

I will give the above reward to any one who
will confine said negro in any Jail, so that I can
get him. Tnos R. Cheats ah.

nov6. — 3t

182

Nffwberry Sentinel {S. C), Nov. 17, 1852 :

NOTICE :

RANAWAY from the subscriber, on the 9th of
July last, my Boy WILLIAM, a bright mulatto,
about 26 years old, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, of
slender make, quite intelligent, speaks quick when
spoken to, and walks briskly. Said boy was brought
from Virginia, and will frobably attempt to get back.
Any information of said boy will be thankfully
received. John M. Mars.

Near Mollohon P. O.j Newberry Dist., S. 0.

Nov. 3. 414t.

Ij^" Raleigh Register and Richmond Enquirer
will copy four times weekly, and send bills to this
office.

Greensboro' Patriot (N. C), Nov. 6 :

10 DOLLARS RE%VARD.

RANAWAY from my service, in February,
1851, a colored man named EDWARD WINS-
LOW, low, thick-set, part Indian, and a first rate
fiddler. Said Winslow was sold out of Guilford
jail, at February court, 1851, for his prison charges,
for the term of five years. It is supposed that he
is at work on the Railroad, somewhere in Davidson
county. The above reward will be paid for his
"*' apprehension and confinement in the jail of Guil-
ford or any of the adjoining counties, so that I get
him, or for his delivery to me in the south-east
corner of Guilford. My post-office is Long's Mills,
Randolph, N. C. P. 0. Smith.

October 27, 1852. 702 — 5w.

The New Orleans True Delta., of the
11th ult, 1853, has the following editorial
notice :

The Great Raffle of a Trotting Horse and
A Negro Servant. — The enterprising and go-a-
head Col. Jennings has got a rafile under way
now, which eclipses all his previous undertakings
in that line. The prizes are the celebrated trot-
ting horse "Star," buggy and harness, and a valu-
able negro servant, — the latter valued at nine hun-
dred dollars. See his advertisement in another
column.

The advertisement is as follows :

RAFFIiE.

MK. JOSEPH JENNINGS

Respectfully informs his friends and the public,
that, at the request of many of his acquaintances,
he has been induced to purchase from Mr. Osborn,
of Missouri, the celebrated dark bay horse " Star,"
age five years, square trotter, and warranted sound,
with a new light trotting Buggy and Harness ;
a/50 the stout mulatto girl " Sara/t," aged about tiven-
ty years , general house servant, \i\\\\*i(\ at nine hun-
dred dollars, and guaranteed ; will be raflh^d for at 4
o'clock, P. M., February 1st, at any hotel selected
by the subscribers.

The a!)ovo is as represented, and those persons
who may wish to engage in the usual pra(;tico of
raffling will, I assure them, be perfectly satisfied
with their destiny in this aflliir.

Fifteen hundred chances, at $1 each.

The whole is valued at its just worth, fifteen
hundred dollars.

The raffle will be qpnductcd by gentlemen se-
lected by tlie interested subscribers present Five

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

nights allowed to complete the raffle. Both of
above can be seen at my store. No. 78 Common-
street, second door from Camp, at from 9 o'clock
A.M., till half-past 2 P.M.

Highest throw takes the first choice ; the lowest
throw the remaining prize, and the fortunate win-
ners to pay Twenty Dollars each, for the refresh-
ments furnished for the occasion.

Jan. 9. 2w. J. Jennings.

Daily Courier (Natchez, Miss.), Nov.
20, 1852 :

T\VEXTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD.

THE above reward will be given for the appre-
hension and confinement in any jail of the negro
man HARDY, who ran away from the subscriber,
residing on Lake St. John, near Rifle Point, Con-
cordia parish. La. , on the 9th August last. Hardy
is a remarkably likely negro, entirely free from all
marks, scars or blemishes, when he left home ; about
six feet high, of black complexion (though quite
light), fine countenance, unusually smooth skin,
good head of hair, fine eyes and teeth.

Address the subscriber at Rifle Point, Concordia
Parish, La. ^ Robert Y. Jones.

Oct. 30. — Im. .

What an unfortunate master — lost an
article entirely free from " marks, scars or
blemishes " ! Such a raritjr ought to be
choice !

Savannah Daily Georgian, 6th Sept.,
1852:

ARRESTED,

ABOUT three weeks ago, under suspicious cir-
cumstances, a negro woman, who calls herself
PHEBE, or PHILLIS. Says she is free, and lately
from Beaufort District, South Carolina. Said
woman is about 50 years of age, stout in statiu-e,
mild-spoken, 5 feet 4 inches high, and Aveighs
about 140 pounds. Having made diligent inquiry
by letter, and from w^hat I can learn, said woman
is a runaway. Any person ovraing said slave can
get her by making application to me, properly
authenticated. Waring Russell,

Coun^Constable .

Savannah, Oct. 25, 1852. T oct. 26.

250 DOLLARS REAVARD.

RANAWAY from Sparta, Ga., about the first
of last year my boy GEORGE. He is a good car-
penter, about 35 years : a bright mulatto, taU and
quite likely. He toas brought about three 7/cars ago
from St. Man/s, and had, u'hai he ran array, a
wife there, or near there, bchmging to a Mr. Holzcn-
dorff. I think he has told me he has been about
Macon also. Ho had, and perhaps still has, a
brother in Savannah, lie is very intclUgnit. I
will give the altove reward for his confinement in
some jail in the State, so that I can get him. Re-
fer, for *any further information, to Rabun &
Whitehead, Savannah, Ga.

W. J. Sassn^tt.

Oxford, Ga., Aug. 13th, 1852. tuthsSm. al7.

From tlicsc advertisements, and hundreds
of similar ones, one may learn the following
thinsB :

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

is:

1. That the arguments for the enslaving
of the negro do not apply to a large part
of the actual slaves.

2. That they are not, in the estimation
of their masters, very stupid.

3. That they are not remarkably con-
tented.

4. That they have no particular reason
to be so.

5. That multitudes of men claiming to
be free are constantly being sold into slavery.

In respect to the complexion of these
slaves, there are some points worthy of con-
sideration. The writer adds the following
advertisements, published by Wm. I. Bow-
ditch, Esq., in his pamphlet " Slavery and
the Constitution."

From the Richmond (Va.) Whig:

lOO DOL<t.ARS REWARD

WILL be given for the apprehension of my ne-
gro (?) Edmund Kenney. He has straight hair,
and complexion so netfrli/ ivhite that it is believed a
stranger would suppose there icas no African blood
in him. He was with my boy Dick a short time
since in Norfolk, and offered him for sale, and was
apprehended, but escaped under pretence of being a
while man ! Anderson Bowles.

January 6, 1836.

From the Republican Banner and Nash-
ville Whig of July 14, 1849 :

200 BOLLARS REWARD.

RAN A WAY from the subscriber, on the 23d of
Jiuic last, a bright mulatto woman, named Julia,
about 25 years of age. She is of common size,
nearly lohite, and very likely. She is a good seam-
stress, and can read a little. She may attempt to
pass for ivhite, — dresses fine. She took with her
Anna, her child, 8 or 9 years old, and considsrably

dai'ker than her mother She once

belonged to a Mr. Helm, of Columbia, Tennessee.

I will give a reward of $50 for said negro and
child, if delivered to me, or confined in any jail in
this state, so 1 ean get them ; §100, if caught in
any other Slaverstate, and confined in a jail so that
I can get them ; and $200, if caught in atiy Fi-ee
state, and put in any good jail in Kentucky or
Tennessee, so I can get them.

A. W. JonxsoN.

Nashville, July 9, 1849.

The following three advertisements are
taken from Alabama papers :

R AAA WAY

From the Subscriber, working on the plantation
of Col. IL Tinker, a bright mulatto boy, named
Alfred. Alfred is about 18 years old, pretty well
grown, lias bkie eyes, light flaxen hair, skin disposed
to freckle. He will try to pass as free-born.

Green County, Ala. S. G. Stewart.

100 DOLLARS RE\VARD.

Ran away from the subscriber, a bright mulatto
man-slave, named Sam. Light, sandy hair, blue
eyes, ruddy complexion, — is so white as very easily
to pass for a free white man. Edwln Peck.

Mybilc, April 22, 1837.

RANAW^AY,

On the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman,
named Fanny. Said woman is 2C years old ; is
rather tall ; can read and write, and so forge
passes for herself. Carried away with her a pair
of ear-rings, — a Bible with a red cover ; is very
pious. She prays a great deal, and was, as sup-
posed, contented and happy. She is as ivhite as
most white women, with straight, light hair, and blue
eyes, and can pass herself for a white woman. I
will give $500 for her apprehension and deliverj
to me. She is very intelligent.

Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845. John Balch.

From the Newhern (N. C.) Spectator :

50 DOLLARS REWARD

Will be given for the apprehension and delivery
to me of the following slaves : — Samuel, and Judy
his wife, with their four children, belonging to
the estate of Sacker Dubberly, deceased.

I will give $10 for the apprehension of William
Dvbberly, a slave belonging to the estate. William
is about 19 years old, quite white, and would not
readily be taken for a slave. . John J. Lane.

March 13, 1837.

The next two advertisements we cut from
the Neii^ Orleans Picayune of Sept. 2,
1846:

25 DOLLARS REWARD.

Ranaway from the plantation of Madame Fergus
Duplantier, on or about the 27th of June, 1846, a
bright mulatto, named Ned, very stout built, about
5 feet 11 inches high, speaks English and French,
about 35 years old, waddles in his walk. He may
try to pass himself for a white man, as he is of a
very clear color, and has sandy hair. The above
reward will be paid to whoever will bring him to
MaJame Duplantier's plantation, Manehac, or
lodge him in some jail where he can be conve-
niently obtained.

200 DOLLARS REWARD.

Ran away from the subscriber, last November.
a white negro man, about 35 years old, height
about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches, blue eyes, has a yellow
woolly head, very fair skin.

These are the characteristics of three races.
The copper-colored complexion shows the In-
dian blood. The others are the mixed races
of negroes and whites. It is known that the
poor remains of Indian races have been in
many cases forced into slavery. It is no
less certain that white children have some-
times been kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, Presbyte-
rian minister, who wrote against slavery
there as early as 1816, gives an account of
a boy who was stolen from his parents at seven
years of age, immersed in a tan-vat to change
his complexion, tattooed and sold, and, after
a captivity of fourteen years, succeeded in
escaping. The tanning process is not neces-
sary now, as a fair skin is no presumption
against slavery. There is reason to think

184

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

that the grandmother of poor Emily Rus-
sell was a white cJtild^ stolen by kidnappers.
That kidnappers may steal and sell white
jhildren at the South now, is evident from
these advertisements.

The writer, within a week, has seen a
fugitive quadroon mother, who had with her
two children, — a boy of ten months, and a
girl of three years. Both were surpassingly
fair, and uncommonly beautiful. The girl
had blue eyes and golden hair. The mother
and those children were about to be sold for
the division of an estate, which was the reason
why she fled. When the mind once becomes
fe,miliarized with the process of slavery, — of
enslaving first black, then Indian, then mu-
latto, then quadroon, and when blue eyes and
golden hair are advertised as properties of
negroes^ — what protection will there be for
poor white people, especially as under the
present fugitive law they can be carried
away without a jury trial?

A Governor of South Carolina openly de-
clared, in 1835, that the laboring population
of any country, bleached or unbleached,
were a dangerous element, unless reduced
to' slavery. Will not this be the result, then 7

CHAPTER VIII.

" POOR WHITE TRASH."

When the public sentiment of Europe
speaks in tones of indignation of the system
of American slavery, the common reply has
been, " Look at your own lower classes?''
The apologists of slavery have pointed Eng-
land to her own poor. They have spoken
of the heathenish ignorance, the vice, the
darkness, of her crowded cities, — nay, even
of her agricultural districts.

Now, in the first place, a country where
the population is not crowded, where the
resources of the soil are more than sufficient
for the inhabitants, — a country of recent
origin, not burdened with the worn-out
institutions and clumsy lumber of past ages,
— ought not to be satisfied to do only as well
as countries which have to struggle against
all these evils.

It is a poor defence for America to say to
older countries, ' ' We are no worse than you
are." She ought to be infinitely better.

But it will appear that the institution of

slavery has produced not only heathenish.

" degraded, miserable slaves, but it produces

a class of white people who are, by univer-

sal admission, more heathenish, degraded,
and miserable. The institution of slavery
has accomplished the double feat, in America,
not only of degrading and brutalizing her
black working classes, but of producing,
notwithstanding a fertile soil and abundant
room, a poor Avhite population as degraded
and brutal as ever existed injpy of the most
crowded districts of Europej^Pk

The way that it is done can be made ap-
parent in a few words. 1. The distribu-
tion of the land into large plantations, and
the consequent sparseness of settlement,
make any system of common-school edu-
cation impracticable. 2. The same cause
operates with regard to the preaching of the
gospel. 3. The degradation of the idea of
labor, which results inevitably from en-
slaving the working class, operates to a
great extent in preventing respectable work-
ing men of the middling classes from settling
or remaining in slave states. Where carpen-
ters, blacksmiths and masons, are advertised
every week with their own tools, or in com-
pany with horses, hogs and other cattle,
there is necessarily such an estimate of the
laboring class that intelligent, self-respecting
mechanics, such as abound in the free states,
must find much that is annoying and disa-
greeable. They may endure it for a time,
but with much uneasiness ; and they are glad
of the first opportunity of emigration.

Then, again, the filling up of all branches
of mechanics and agriculture with slave lalx)i
necessarily depresses free labor. Suppose,
now, a family of poor whites in Carolina or
Virginia, and the same family in Vermont
or Maine ; how different the influences that
come over them ! In Vermont or Maine,
the children have the means of .education at
hand in public schools, and they have all
around them in society avenues of success
that require only industry to make them
available. The boys have their choice
among all the different trades, for which the
organization of free society makes a steady
demand. The girls, animated by the spirit
of the land in which they are born, think
useful labor no disgrace, and find, with true
female ingenuity, a hundred Avays of adding
to the family stock. If there bo one mem-
ber of a family in whom diviner gifts and
higher longings seem a call for a more fin-
ished course of education, then cheerfully
the whole family unites its productive indus-
try to give that one the wider education
which his wider genius demands ; and thus
have been given to the world such men aa
Roger Sherman and Daniel Webster.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

,185

But take this same family and plant them
in South Carolina or Virginia — how differ-
ent the result ! No common school opens
its doors to their children ; the only church,
perhaps, is fifteen miles off, over a bad road.
The whole atmosphere of the country in
which they are born associates degradation
and slavery with useful labor ; and the only
standard of gentility is ability to live without
work. What branch of useful labor opens
a way to its sons 7 Would he be a black-
smith?— The planters around him prefer to
buy their blacksmiths in Virginia. Would
he be a carpenter 7 — Each planter in his
neighborhood owns one or two now. And
so coopers and masons. Would he be a
shoe-maker ? — The plantation shoes are made
in Lynn and Natick, towns of New Eng-
land. In fact, between the free labor of the
North and the slave labor of the South,
there is nothing for a poor white to do.
Without schools or churches, these misera-
ble families grow up heathen on a Christian
soil, in idleness, vice, dirt and discomfort
of all sorts. They are the pest of the
neighborhood, the scoff and contempt or pity
even of the slaves. The expressive phrase,
so common in the mouths of the negroes, of
" poor white trash," says all for this luckless
race of beings that can be said. From this
class spring a tribe of keepers of small grog-
geries, and dealers, by a kind of contraband
trade, with the negroes, in the stolen produce
of plantations. Thriving and promising
sons may perhaps hope to grow up into
negro-traders, and thence be exalted into
overseers of plantations. The utmost stretch
of ambition is to compass money enough, by
any of a variety of nondescript measures,
to "buy a nigger or two," and begin to
appear like other folks. Woe betide the
unfortunate negro man or woman, carefully
raised in some good religious family, when
an execution or the death of their proprie-
tors throws them into the market, and they
are bought by a master and mistress of this
class ! yftentimes the slave is infinitely
the superit^r, in every respect, — in person,
manners, education and morals ; but, for all
that, the law guards the despotic authority
of the owner quite as jealously.

From all that would appear, in the case
of Souther, which we have recorded, he
must have been one of this class. We have
certain indications, in the evidence, that the
two white witnesses, who spent the whole
day in gaping, unresisting survey of his
diabolical .proceedings, were men of this
order. It appears that the crime alleged

against the poor victim was that of gettmg
drunk and trading with these two very men,
and that they were sent for probably by
way of shelving them " what a nigger would
get by trading with them." This circum-
stance at once marks them out as belonging
to that band of half-contraband traders who
spring up among the mean whites, and occa-
sion owners of slaves so much inconvenience
by dealing with their hands. Can any
words so forcibly show what sort of whit<;
men these are, as the idea of their stand-
ing in stupid, brutal curiosity, a whole day.
as witnesses in such a hellish scene 1 .

Conceive the misery of the slave who falls
into the hands of such masters ! A clergy-
man, now dead, communicated to the writer
the following anecdote : In travelling in
one of the Southern States, he put up for
the night in a miserable log shanty, kept by
a man of this class. All was dirt, discom-
fort and utter barbarism. The man, his
wife, and their stock of wild, neglected chil-
dren, drank whiskey, loafed and predominat-
ed over the miserable man and woman who
did all the work and bore all the caprices of
the whole establishment. He — the gentle-
man — was not long in discovering that these
slaves were in person, language, and in every
respect, superior to their owners ; and all
that he could get of comfort in this misera-
ble abode was owing to their ministrations.
Before he went away, they contrived to have
a private interview, and begged him to buy
them. They told him that they had been
decently brought up in a respectable and
refined family, and that their bondage was
therefore the more inexpressibly galling.
The poor creatures had waited on him with
most assiduous care, tending his horse,
brushing his boots, and anticipating all his
wants, in the hope of inducing him to buy
them. The clergyman said that he never
so wished for money as when he saw the
dejected visages with which they listened to
his assurances that he was too poor to com-
ply with their desires.

This miserable class of whites form, in all
the Southern States, a material for the most
horrible and ferocious of mobs. Utterly
ignorant, and inconceivably brutal, they aro
like some blind, savage monster, which,
when aroused, tramples heedlessly over
everything in its way.

Singular as it may appear, though slavery
is the cause of the misery and degradation of
this class, yet they are the most vehement
and ferocious advocates of slavery.

The reason is this. They feel the scoi a

'«?6

KEY TO UXCLE TOM S CABIN.

of the upper classes, and their only means
of consolation is in having a class below
them, whom thej may scorn in turn. To
set the negro at liberty would deprive them
of this last comfort ; and accordingly no
class of men advocate slavery with such
frantic and unreasoning violence, or hate
abolitionists with such demoniac hatred. Let
the reader conceive of a mob of men as
brutal and callous as the two white witnesses
of the Souther tragedy, led on by men like
Souther himself, and he will have some idea
of the materials which occur in the worst
kind of Southern mobs.

The leaders of the community, those men
who play on other men with as little care
for them as a harper plays on a harp, keep
this blind, furious monster of the mob, very
much as an overseer keeps plantation-dogs,
as creatures to be set on to any man or thing
whom they may choqse to have put down.

These leading men have used the cry of
'■^ abolitionism^^ over the mob, much as a
huntsman uses the "set on" to his dosrs.
Whenever they have a purpose to carry, a
man to put down, they have only to raise
this cry, and the monster is wide awake,
ready to spring wherever they shall send
him.

Does a minister raise his voice in favor of
the slave ? — Immediately, Avith a whoop and
hurra, some editor starts the mob on him, as
an abolitionist. Is there a man teaching his
negroes to read ? — The mob is started upon
him — he must promise to give it up, or
leave the state. Does a man at a public
hotel-table express his approbation of some
anti-slavery work? — Up come the police, and
arrest him for seditious language ; * and on the
heels of the police, thronging round the
justice's oflSce, come the ever-ready mob, —
men with clubs and bowie-knives, swearing
that they will have his heart 's blood. The
more respectable citizens in vain try to com-
pose them ; it is quite as hopeful to reason
with a pack of hounds, and the only way is
to sumggle the suspected person out of the
state as quickly as possible. All these are
scenes of common occurrence at the South.
Every Southern man knows them to bo so,
and tlicy know, too, the reason iohy they are
so; but, so much do they fear the monster,
that they dare not say whut they know.

This brute monster sometimes gets be-
yond the power of his masters, and then
results ensue most mortifying to the patriot-

* The writer is describing liore a scene of recent occur-
rence in a sliivc state, of whose particuhirs she has the
best means of knowledge. The work in question was
" Uncle Tom's Cabin."

ism of hdnorable Southern men. but which
they are powerless to prevent. Such wa3
the case when the Honorable Senator Hoar,
of Massachusetts, with his daughter, visited
the city of Charleston. The senator was
appointed by the sovereign State of jNIassa-
chusetts to inquire into the condition of her •
free colored citizens detained in South Caro-
lina prisons. We cannot suppose that men of
honor and education, in South Carolina, can
contemplate without chagrin the fact that
this honorable gentleman, the representa-
tive of a sister state, and accompanied by
his daughter, was obliged to flee from South.
Carolina, because they were told that the
constituted authorities would not be powerful
enough to protect them from the ferocities
of a mob. This is not the only case in which
this mob power has escaped from the hands
of its guiders, and produced mortifying re-
sults. The scenes of Yicksburg, and the
succession of popular whirlwinds Avhich at
that time flew over the south-western states,
have been forcibly painted by the author of
"The White Slave."

They who find these popular outbreaks
useful when they serve their own turns are
sometimes forcibly reminded of the conse-
quences

" Of letting rapine loose, and murder.
To go juxt so far, and no further ;
And setting all the land on fire,
To huinjunt so high, and no higher."

The statements made above can be sub-
stantiated by various documents, — mostly
by the testimony of residents in slave states,
and by extracts from their newspapers.

Concerning the class of poor whites, Mr.
William Gregg, of Charleston, South Caro-
lina, in a pamphlet, called "Essays on Do-
mestic Industry, or an Inquiry into the
expediency of establishing Cotton Manufac-
tories in South Carolina, 1845," says, p. 22 :

Shall we pass unnoticed the thousands of poor,
ignorant, degraded white people among us, who,
in this land of plenty, live in comparative naked-
ness and starvation? ^lany a one is reared in
proud South Carolina, from birth to manhood, who
has never passed a month in which he has not,
some part of the time, been stinted for meat.
jMany a motlicr is there who will tell you tliat her
children are but scantily pi-ovided with bread, and
much more scantily with meat ; and, if they bo clad
with comfortable raiment, it is at the expense of
tiiese scanty allowances of food. These may be
startling statements, but they are nevcrthclesji true ;
and if not believed in Charleston, the members of
our legislature who have traversed the state in
electioneering campaigns can attest their truth.''

The Rev. Henry DufFner, D.D., Presi-
dent of Lexington College, Va., himself a

KEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN.

187

slave-holder, published in 1847 an address
to the people of Virginia, showing that slav-
ery is injurious to public welfare, in which
he shows the influence of slavery in producing
a decrease of the white population. He says :

It appears that, in the ten years ft-om 1830 to
1840. Virp;inia lost by emigration no fewer than
three hundred and seventy-five thousand of her
people ; of whom East Virginia lost three hun-
dred and four thousand, and West Virginia
seventy-one thousand. At this rate, Virginia
supplies the Wesb, every ten years, with a
population equal in number to the population
of the State of Mississippi in 1840. *****
She has sent — or, we should rather say, she has
driven — from her soil at least one-third of all the
emigrants who have gone from the old states to
the new. More than another third have gone from
the other old slave states. Many of these multi-
tudes, who have left the slave states, have shunned
the regions of slavery, and settled in the free
countries of the West. These were generally in-
dustrious and enterprising white men, who found,
by sad experience, that a country of slaves was
not the country for them. It is a truth, a certain
trnth, that slavery drives free laborers — farmers,
mechanics and all, and some of the best of them, too
— out of the country, and fills their places with ne-
groes. ***** Even the common mechanical
trades do not flourish in a slave state. Some
mechanical operations must, indeed, be performed
in every civilized country ; but the general rule in
the Soutli is, to import from abroad every fabri-
cated thing that can be carried in ships, such as
household furniture, boats, boards, laths, carts,
ploughs, axes, and axe-helves ; besides innumerable
other things, which free communities are accus-
tomed to make for themselves. What is most
wonderful is, that the forests and iron mines of
the South supply, in great part, the materials out
of which these things are made. The Northern
freemen come with their ships, carry home the
timber and pig-iron, work them up, supply their
own wants with a part, and then sell the rest at a
good profit in the Southern markets. Now, al-
though mechanics, by setting up their shops in
the South, could save all these freights and profitp,
yet so it is that Northern mechanics will not settle
in the South, and the Southern mechanics are un-
dersold by their Northern competitors.

In regard to education, Rev. Theodore
Parker gives the following statistics, in his
•Letters on Slavery," p. Q5:

In 1G71, Sir William Berkely, Governor of Vir-
ginia, said, " I thank God that there are no free
schools nor printing-presses (in Virginia), and I
hope we shall not have them these hundred years."
In 1840, in the fifteen slave states and territories,
there were at the various primary schools 201,085
scholars ; at the various primary schools of the
free states, 1,620,028. The State of Ohio alono
had, at her primary schools, 17,524 more scholars
than all the fifteen slave states. New York alone
had 301,282 more.

In the slave states there are 1,368,325 free white
children between the ages of five and twenty ; in
the free states, 3,536,089 such children. In the
slave states, at schools and colleges, there are
301,172 pupils; in the free states, 2.212,444
pupils at schools or colleges. Thus, in the slave
states, out of twenty-five free white children be-

tween five and twenty, there are not quite five a4
any school or college ; while out of twenty-five
such children in the free states, there are more
than fifteen at school or college.

In the slave states, of the free white population
that is over twenty years of age, there is almost
one-tenth part that are unable to read and write ;
while in the free states there is not quite one in
one hundred and fifty-six who is deficient to that
degree.

In New England there are but few bom therein,
and more than twenty years of dge, who are un-
al)le to read and write ; but many foreigners
arrive there with no education, and thus swell the
numberof the illiterate, and diminish the apparent
effect of her free institutions. The South has few
such emigrants ; the ignorance of the Southern
States, therefore, is to be ascribed to other causes.
The Northern men who settle in the slave-lioldinc;
states have perhaps about the average culture oi
the North, and more than that of the South. The
South, therefore, gains educationally from immi-
gration, as the North loses.

Among the Northern States Connecticut, and
among the Southern States South Carolina, are to
a great degree free from disturbing influences of
this character. A comparison between tlie two
will show the relative effects of the respective in-
stitutions of the North and South. In Connecti-
cut there are 163,843 free persons over twenty
years of age ; in South Carolina, but 111,663, In
Connecticut there are but 526 persons over twenty
who are unable to read and write, while in South
Carolina there are 20,615 free white persons over
twenty years of age unable to read and write. In
South Carolina, out of each 626 free whites more
than twenty years of age there are more than 58
wholly unable to read or write ; out of that num-
ber of such persons in Connecticut, not quite two !
More than the sixth part of the adult freemen of
South Carolina are unable to read the vote which
will be deposited at the next election. It is but
fair to infer that at least one-third of the adults
of South Carolina, if not of much of the South, are
unable to read and understand even a newspaper.
Indeed, in one of the slave states this is not a
matter of mere inference ; for in 1837 Gov. Clarke,
of Kentucky, declared in his message to the legis-
lature that "one-third of the adult population
were unable to write tlieir names ;" yet Kentucky
has a " school-fund," valued at $1,221,819, while
South Carolina has none.

One sign of this want of ability even to read, in
the slave states, is too striking to be passed by.
The staple reading of the least-cultivated Ameri-
cans is the newspapers, one of the lowest forms of
literature, though one of the most powerful, read
even by men who read nothing else. In the slave
states there are pul^lished but 377 newspapers,
and in the free 1135. These numbers do not ex-
press the entire difference in the case ; for, as a
general mle, the circulation of the Southern news-
papers is 50 to 75 per cent, less than that of the
North. Suppose, however, that each Southern
newspaper has two-thirds the circulation of a
Northern journal, we have then but 225 newspapers
for the slave states I The more valuable journals —
the monthlies and quarterlies — are published
almost entirely in the free States.

The number of churches, the number .and char-
acter of the clergy who labor for these churches,
are other measures of the intellectual and moral
condition of the people. The scientific character
of the Southern clergy has l^eeu already touched
on. Let us comp;ure the more ext ;i.l facta.

188

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

In 1830, South Carolina had a population of
581,185 souls ; Connecticut, 297,675. In 183G,
South Carolina had 364 ministers; Connecticut,
498.

• In 1834, there were in the slave states but
82,532 scholars in the Sunday-schools ; in the free
states, 504,835 ; in the single State of New York,
161,768.

The fact of constant emigration from
slave states is also shown by such extracts
from papers a§ the following, from the
Raleigli (N. C.) Register, quoted in the
columns of the National Era :

THEY WILL LEAVE NORTH CAROLINA.

Our attention was arrested, on Saturday last,
by quite a long train of wagons, winding througli
our streets, which, upon inquiry, we found to be-
long to a party emigrating from Wayne county,
in this state, to the " far West." This is but a
repetition of many similar scenes that we and
others have witnessed during the past few years ;
and such spectacles will be still more frequently
witnessed, unless something is done to retrieve
our fallen fortunes at home.

If there be any one "consummation devoutly
to be wished " in our policy, it is that our young
men should remain at home, and not abandon
their native state. From the early settlement of
North Carolina, the great drain upon her pros-
perity has been the spirit of emigration, which
has so prejudicially afiected all the states of the
South. Her sons, hitherto neglected (if we must
say it) by an unparental government, hav6
wended their way, by hundreds upon hundreds,
from the land of their fathers, — that land, too, to
make it a paradise, wanting nothing but a market,
— to bury their bones in the land of strangers.
We firmly believe that this emigration is caused
by the laggard policy of our people on the subject
of internal improvement, for man is not prone
by nature to desert the home of his affections.

The editor of the Era also quotes the fol-
lowing from the Greensboro (Ala.) Beacon :

"An unusually large number of movers have
passed through this village, within the past two
or three weeks. On one day of last week, up-
wards of thirty wagons and other vehicles belong-
ing to emigrants, mostly from Georgia and South
Carolina, passed through on their way, most of
tliem bound to Texas and Arkansas."

This tide of emigration does not emanate from
an overflowing population. Very far from it.
Rather it marks an abandonment of a soil which,
exhausted by injudicious culture, will no longer
repay the labor of tillage. The emigrant, turning
iiis back upon the homes of his childhood, leaves
a desolate region, it may be, and finds that he can
indulge in his feelings of local attachment only at
the risk of starvation.

IIow are tlie older states of the South to keep
their population 1 Wo say nothing of an increase ,
but how are tliey to hold their own ? It is use-
loss to talk al)out strict construction, state rights,
or Wilmot Provisos. Of what avail can such
things bo to a sterile desert, upon which people
cannot subsist?

In tiie columns of the National Era,

Oct. 2, 1851, also is the foll)wmg article,
by its editor :

STAN1> YOUR GROUND.

A citizen of Guilford county, N. C, in a letter
to the True Wesleyan, dated August 20th, 1851,
writes :

' ' You may discontinue my paper for the present,
as I am inclined to go Westward, where I can
enjoy religious liberty, and have my family in a
free country. Mobocracy has the ascendency
here, and there is no law. Brother Wilson had
an appointment on Liberty Hill, on Sabbath, 24th
inst. The mob came armed, according to mob
law, and commenced operations on the meeting-
house. They knocked all the weather-boarding off,
destroying doors, windows, pulpit, and benches ;
and I have no idea that, if the mob was to kill a
AYesleyan, or one of their friends, that they would
be hung.

" There is more moving this fall to the far West
than was ever known ia one year. People do not
like to be made slaves, and they are determined
to go where it is no crime to plead the cause of
the poor and oppressed. They have become
alarmed at seeing the laws of God trampled under
foot with impunity, and that, too, by legislators,
sworn ofiicers of the peace, and professors of reli-
gion. And even ministers (so called) are justify-
ing mobocracy. They think that such a course
of conduct will lead to a dissolution of the Union ,
and then every man will have to fight in defence
of slavery, or be killed. This is an awful state
of things, and, if the people were destitute of the
Bible, and the various means of information which
they possess, there might be some hope of reform.
But there is but little hope, under existing circum-
stances."

We hope the writer wiU reconsider his pui-pose.
In his section of North Carolina there are very
many anti-slavery men, and the majority of the
people have no interest in what is called slave
property. Let them stand their ground, and
maintain the right of free discussion. How is
the despotism of Slavery to be put down, if those
opposed to it abandon their rights, and flee their
country V^Let them do as the idomitable Clay
docs in Kentucky, and they will make themselves
respected.

The following is quoted, without comment,
in the Natiotial Era, in 1851, from the col-
umns of the Angtista Republic (Georgia) .

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN GEORGIA.

( Warrcnton (Ga.),

\ Thursday, July 10, 1851.
This day the citizens of the town and county
met in the court-house at eight o'clock, A. M. On
motion, Thomas F. Parsons, Esq., was called to
the chair, and Mr. Wm. H. Pilclier requested to
act as secretary.

The object of the meeting was stated by the
chaii'man, as follows :

Whereas, our community has been thrown into
confusion by the presence among us of one
Nathan Bird Watson, who hails from New Haven
(Conn.) , and who has been promulgating abolition
sentiments, publicly and privately, among oux
people, — sentiments at war with our institutions,
and intolerable in a slave community, — and also
been detected in visiting suspicious negro houses,

KEY

TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

189

as we suppose for the purposte of inciting our
slaves and free negro population to insurrection
and insubordination.

The meeting having been organized, Wm. Gib-
son, Esq., oifcred the following resolution, which,
after various expressions of opinion, was unani-
mously adopted, to wit :

Resolved, That a committee of ten be appointed
bv the chairman for the purpose of making ar-
rangements to expel Nathan Bird Watson, an
avowed abolitionist, who has been in our village
for three or four weeks, by twelve o'clock this day,
by the Georgia Railroad cars ; and that it shall
be the duty of said committee to escort the said
Watson to Camak, for the purpose of shipment to
his native land.

The following gentlemen were named as that
committee :

William Gibson, E. Cody, J. M.Roberts, J. B.
Eluff, E. H. Pottle, E. A. Brinkley, John C. Jen-
nings, George W. Dickson, A. B. Rogers, and
Dr. R. W. Hubert.

On motion, the chairman was added to that
committee.

It was, on motion,

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting,
witli a minute description of the said Watson, be
forwarded to the publishers of the Augusta papers ,
with the request that they, and all other pub-
lishers of papers in the slave-holding states, pub-
lish the same for a sufficient length of time.

Description. — The said Nathan Bird Watson
is a man of dark complexion, hazel eyes, black
hair, and Avears a heavy beard ; measures five
feet eleven and three-quarter inches ; has a quick
itep, and walks with his toes inclined inward,
and a little stooped-shouldered ; now wears a
checked coat and white pants ; says he is twenty-
three years of age, but will pass for twenty-iive
or thirty.

On motion, the meeting was adjourned.

Thomas F. Parsons, Chairman.

William H. Pilches, Secretary.

This may be regarded as a specimen of
that kind of editorial halloo which is de-
signed to rouse and start in pursuit of a
man the bloodhounds of the mob.

The following is copied by the National
Era from the Richmond Times :

LYNCH LAW.

On the 13th inst. the vigilance committee of
the county of Grayson, in this state, arrested a
man named John Cornutt [a friend and follower
of Bacon, the Ohio abolitionist], and, after ex-
amining the evidence against him, required him
to renounce his abolition sentiments. This Cor-
nutt refused to do ; thereupon, he was stripped,
tied to a tree, and whipped. After receiving a
dozen stripes, he caved in, and promised, not only
to recant, but to sell hia property in the county
[consisting of land and negroes], and leave the
state. Great excitement prevailed throughout
the country, and the Wytheville Republican of the
20th instant states that the vigilance committee
of Grayson were in hot pursuit of other obnoxious
persons.

On this outrage the Wytheville Repub-
lican makes the following comments :

Laying aside the white man, humanity to the
negro, the slave, demands that these abolitionists
be dealt with summarily, and above the law.

On Saturday, the 13th, we learn that the com-
mittee of vigilance of that county, to the number
of near two hundred, had before them one John
Cornutt, a citizen, a friend and backer of Bacon,
and promulgator of his abolition doctrines. They
required him to renounce abolitionism , and promise
obedience to the laws. He refused. They stripped
him, tied him to a tree, and appealed to him
again to renounce, and promise obedience to the
laws. He refused. The rod was brought ; one,
two, three, and on to twelve, on the bare back,
and he cried out; he promised — and, more, he
said he would sell and leave.

This Mr. Cornutt owns land, negroes and
money, say fifteen to twenty thousand dollars.
He has a wife, but no white children. He has
among his negroes some born on his farm, of
mixed blood. He is believed to be a friend of th«
negro, even to amalgamation. He intends to set
his negroes free, and make them his heirs. It is
hoped he will retire to Ohio, and there finish his
operations of amalgamation and emancipation.

The vigilance committees were after another of
Biicon's men on Thursday ; we have not heard
whether they caught him, nor what followed.
There are not more than six of his followers that
adhere ; the rest have renounced him, and are
much outraged at his imposition.

Mr. Cornutt appealed for redress to the
law. The result of his appeal is thus stated
in the Richmond (Va.) Times ^ quoted by
the National Era :

MORE TROUBLE IN GRAYSON.

The clerk of Grayson County Court having, on
the 1st inst. (the first day of Judge Brown's
term) tendered his resignation, and there being
no applicant for the office, and it being publicly
stated at the bar that no one would accept said
appointment. Judge Brown found himself unable
to proceed with business, and accordingly ad-
journed the court until the first day of the next
term.

Immediately upon the adjournment of the
court, a public meeting of the citizens of the
county was held, when resolutions were adopted
expressive of the determination of the people to
maintain the stand recently taken ; exhorting the
committees of vigilance to increased activity in
ferreting out all persons tinctured with abo-
litionism in the county, and oflfering a reward of
one hundred dollars for the apprehension and de-
livery of one Jonathan Roberts to any one of the
committees of vigilance.

We have a letter from a credible correspondent
in Carroll county, which gives to the affair a still
more serious aspect. Trusting that there may bo
some error about it, we have no comments to make
until the facts are known with certainty. Our
correspondent, whose letter bears date the 13th
inst., says :

" I learn, from an authentic source, that the
Circuit Court that was to sit in Grayson county
during last week was dissolved by violence. The
circumstances were these. After the execution
of the negroes in that county, some time ago,
who had been excited to rebellion by a certain
Methodist preacher, by the name of Bacon, of

190

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

which you have heard, the citizens held a meeting,
and instituted a sort of inquisition, to find out,
if possible, who were the accomplices of said
Bacon. Suspicion soon rested on a man by the
name of Cornutt, and, on being charged with being
an accomplice, he acknowledged the fact, and
dechu'od his intention of persevering in the cause ;
upon which he was severely lynched. Cornutt
then instituted suit against the parties, who after-
wards held a meeting and passed resolutions, notify-
ing the court and lawyers not to undertake the case,
•cpon pain of a coat of tar and feathers. The
court, however, convened at the appointed time ;
and, true to their promise, a band of armed men
marched around the court-house, fired, their guns by
platoons, and dispersed the court in confusion. There
tens no blood shed. This county and the county of
AV'ythe have held meetings and passed resolu-
tions sustaining the movement of the citizens of
Grayson."

Is it anj wonder that people emigi'ate
from states where such things go on 1

The following accounts will show what
ministers of the gospel will have to en-
counter who undertake faithfully to express
their sentiments in slave states. The first
is an article bj Dr. Bailey, of the Era of
April 3, 1852 :

LYNCHING IN KENTUCKY.

The American Baptist, of Utica, New York, pub-
lishes letters from the Rev. Edward Matthews,
giving an account of his barbarous treatment in
Kentucky.

Mr. jNIatthews, it seems, is an agent of the
American Free Mission Society, and, in the ex-
ercise of his agency, visited that state, and took
occ\ision to advocate from the pulpit anti-slavery
sentiments. Not long since, in the village of
Richmond, Madison county, he applied to several
churches for permission to lecture on the moral
and religious condition of the slaves, but was un-
successful. February 1st, in the evening, he
preached to the colored congregation of that place,
after which he was assailed by a mol), and driven
from the town. Returning in a short time, he
left a communication respecting the transaction
at the office of the Richmond Chronicle, and again
departed ; but had not gone fiir before he was
overtaken by four men, who seized him, and led
him to an out-of-the-way place, where they con-
sulted as to what they should do with him. They
resolved to duck him, ascertaining first that he
could swim. Two of them took him and threw
him into a pond, as far as tliey could, and, on his
rising to the surface, bade him come out. He
did so, and, on his refusing to promise never to
come to Richmond, they flung him in again. This
operation was repeated four times, when he yielded.
Tiiey next demanded of him a promise that he
would leave Kentucky, and never return again.
He refused to give it, and they tiu'cw him in the
water six times more, when, his strength failing,
and they threatening to whip him, ho gave the
pledge required, and left the state.

"We do not know anything about Mr. Matthews,
or his mode of promulgating his views. The laws
in Kentucky for the jirotection of what is called
"■' slave property" are stringent enough, and no-
body aau doubt the readiness of public sentiment

to enforce their heaviest penalties against offend-
ers. If Mr. Matthews violated the law, he should
have been tried by the law ; and he would have
been, had he committed an illegal act. Xo
charge of the kind is made against him.

He was, then, the victim of Lynch law, ad-
ministered in a rufiSanly manner, and without
provocation ; and the parties concerned in the
transaction, whatever their position in society,
were guilty of conduct as cowardly as it was
brutal.

As to the manner in which Mr. Matthews has
conducted himself in Kentucky we know notliing.
We transfer to our columns the following extract
from an editorial in the Journal and Messenger of
Cincinnati, a Baptist paper, and which, it may
be presumed, speaks intelligently on the subject :

" Mr. Matthews is likewise a Baptist minister,
whose ostensible mission is one of love. If he has
violated that mission, or any law, he is amenable
to God and law, and not to lawless yiolescs.
His going to Kentucky is a matter of conscience
to him, in which he has a right to indulge.
Many good anti-slavery men would question the
wisdom of such a step. None would doubt his
RIGHT. Many, as a matter of taste and pro-
priety, cannot admire the way in which he is re-
puted to do his work. But they believe he is
conscientious, and they know that ' oppression
maketh even a wise man mad.' We do not
think, in obedience to Christ's commands, he suf-
ficiently counted the cost. For no one in his
position should go to Kentucky to agitate the
question of slavery, unless he expects to die.
No man in this position, which Mr. Matthews oc-
cupies, can do it, without falling a martyr. Lib-
erty of speech and thought is not, cannot be, en-
joyed in slave states. Slavery could not exist for
a moment, if it did. It is, doubtless, the duty
of the Christian not to surrender his life cheaply,
for the sake of being a martyr. This would ]:>e
an unholy motive. It is his duty to preserve it
until the last moment. So Christ enjoins. It
is no mark of cowardice to flee. ' When they
persecute you in one city, flee into anotlier,'
said the Saviour. But he did not say, Give a
pledge that you will not exercise your rights.
Hence, he nor his disciples never did it. But
it is a question, after one has deliberated, and
conscientiously entered a community in the exer-
cise of his constitutional and religious rights,
whether he should give a pledge, under the in-
fluence of a love of life, never to return. If he
does, he has not counted the cost. A Christian
sliould be as conscientious in pledging solemnly
not to do what he has an undoul)ted right to do,
as ho is in laboring for the emancipation of the
slave."

The following is from the National Era,
July 10, 1851.

Mr. McBride wished to form a church
of non-slaveholders.

case of rev. JESSE m'bride.

This missionary, it will be remembered, was
expelled lately from the State of North Carolina.

We give below his letter detailing the conduct
of the mob. His letter is dated Guilford, May 6.
After writing tliat he is suflFering from temporary
illness, he proceeds :

" I would have kept witliin doora this day, but

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

191

for the fact that I mistrusted a mob would be out
to disturb my congregation, though such a hint
had not been given me by a human being. About
BIX o'cluck this morning I crawled into my carriage
and drove eighteen miles, which brought me to
my meeting place, eight miles east of Greensboro',
— the place I gave an account of a few weeks
since, — where some seven or eight persons gave
their names to go into the organization of a Wes-
leyan Methodist church. Well, pure enough,
just before meeting time (twelve o'clock) I was in-
formed that a pack of i-ioters were on hand, and
that they had sworn I should not fulfil my ap-
pointment this day. "As they had heai'd nothing
of this before, the news came upon some of my
friends like a clap of thunder from a clear sky ;
they scarcely knew what to do. I told them I
should go to meeting or die in the attempt, and,
like ' good soldiers,' they followed. Just before
I got to the arbor, I saw a man leave the crowd
and approach me at the left of my path. As I
was about to pass, he said :

" ' Mr. j\IcBride, here 's a letter for you.'

" I took the letter, put it into my pocket, and
said, ' I have not time to read it until after meet-
ing.'

" ' No, you must read it now.''

" Seeing that I did not stop, he said, ' I want to
spo.ik to you,' beckoning with his hand, and turn-
ing, expecting me to follow.

"'I will talk to you after meeting,' said I,
pulling out my watch ; ' you see I have no time
to spare — it is just twelve.'

" As I went to go in at the door of the stand,
a man Avho had taken his seat on the step rose up,
placed his hand on me, and said, in a very excited
tone,

" ' Mr. ]\IcBride, you can't go in here !'

" Without ofiTering any resistance, or saying a
word, I knelt down outside the stand, on the
ground, and prayed to my ' Father ; ' plead His

f)romises, such as, ' When the enemy comes in
ike a ilood, I ivill rear up a standard against'
him; 'lam a present help in trouble;' ' I will
fight all your battles for you ;' prayed for grace,
victory, my enemies, &c. Rose perfectly calm.
Mftantime my enemies cursed and swore some, but
most of the time they were rather quiet. Mr.
Hi^tt. a slave-holder and merchant from Greens-
boro', said,

"'You can't preach here to-day; we have
come to prevent you. We think you are doing
harm — violating our laws,' &c.

" ' From what authority do you thus command
and prevent me from preaching ] Are you au-
thotized by the civil authority to prevent me]'

'"No, sir.'

" ' Has God sent you, and does he enjoin it on
you as a duty to stop me 1 '

" ' I am unacquainted with Him.^

" ' Well, ' acquaint now thyself with Him,^nd
be at peace;' and he will give you a more honor-
able business than stopping men from preaching
his gispel. The judgment-day is coming on, and
I summon you there, to give an account of this
day's conduct. And now, gentlemen, if I have
Tiolated the laws of North Carolina, by them I
am willing to be judged, condemned, and pun-
ished ; to go to the whipping-post, pillory or jail,
or even to hug the stake. But, gentlemen, you
ai-e not generally a pack of ignoramuses ; your
good sense teaches you the impropriety of your
coarse ; you h ow that you are doing wrong ; you

know that it is not right to trample all law, both
human and divine, in the dust, out of professed
love for it. You must see that your course A^-ill
lead to perfect anarchy and confusion. The time
may come when Jacob Hiatt may be in the mi-
nority, when his principles may be as unpopular
as Jesse McBride's are now. What then'' Why,
if your course prevails, he must be lynched —
whipped, stoned, tarred and feathered, dragged
from his own house, or his house burned over
his head, and he perish in the ruins. The per-
sons became food for the beasts they threw Dan-
iel to ; the same fire that was kindled for the
' Hebrew childi-en' consumed those who kindled
it ; Haman stretched the same rope he prepared
for IMordecai. Yours is a dangerous course, and
you must reap a retribution, either here or here-
after. W^e will sing a hymn,' said I.

" ' 0 yes,' said H., ' you. may sing.'

" ' The congregation will please assist me, as I
am quite unwell;' and I lined off the hymn,
' Father, I stretch my hands to thee,' &c., rioters
and all helping to sing. All seemed in good hu-
mor, and I almost forgot their errand. When we
closed, I said, ' Let us pray.'

" ' G — d d n it, that 's not singing ! ' said one

of the company, who stood back pretty well.

" While we invoked the divine blessing, I think
many could say, 'It is good for us to be here.'
Before I rose from my knees, after the friends
rose, I delivered an exhortation of some ten or
fifteen minutes, in which I urged the brethren to
steadfastness, prayer, &c., some of the mob cry-
ing, ' Lay hold of him !' ' Drag him out ! ' ' Stop
him!' &c."

" My voice being nearly drowned by the tumult,.
I left off. I was then called to have some conver-
sation with H., who repeated some of the charges
he preferred at first, — said I was bringing on in-
surrection, causing disturbance, &c. ; wishing me
to leave the state ; said he had some slaves, and
he himself was the most of a slave of any of them,
had harder times than they had, and he would
like to be shut of them, and that he was my true
friend.

" ' As to your friendship, !Mr. H., you have act-
ed quite friendly, remarkably so — fully as much
so as Judas when he kissed the Saviour. As to
your having to be so much of a slavfe, I am sorry
for you ; you ought to be freed. As to insurrec-
tion, I am decidedly opposed to it, have no sym-
pathy with it whatever. As to raising disturb,
ance and leaving the state, I left a little mother-
less daughter in Ohio, over whom I wished to
have an oversight and care. When I left, I only
expected to remain in North Carolina one year ;
but the people dragged me up before the court un-
der the charge of felony, put me in bonds, and kept
me ; and now would you have me leave my secur-
ities to suffer, have me lie and deceive the court?'

" '0! if you will leave, yom- bail wiU not
have to suffer ; that can, I think, be settled with-
out much trouble,' said Mr H.

" ' They shall not have trouble on my account,'
said I.

" After talking with Mr. H. and one or two
more on personal piety, &c., I went to the arbor,
took my seat in the door of the stand for a min-
ute ; then rose, and, after referring to a few texts
of Scripture, to show that all those who will live
godly shall suffer persecution, I inquired, 1st.
What is persecution ' 2ndly, noticed the fiict,
' shall suffer ;' gave a synoptical history of per-

192

secutiorij by showing that Abel was the first mar-
tyr ibr the right — the Israelites' sufferings. The
prophets were stoned, were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword, had to wan-
der m deserts, mountains, dons and caves of the
earth, were driven from their houses, given to fe-
rocious beasts, lashed to the stake, and destroyed
in different ways. Spoke of John the Baptist ;
showed how he was persecuted, and what the
charge. Christ was persecuted for doing what
John was persecuted for not doing. Spoke of the
sufferings of the apestles, and their final death ;
of Luther and his coadjutors ; of the Wesleys
and early Methodists ; ol" Fox and the early Qua-
kers ; of the early settlers in the colonies of the
United States. Noticed why the righteous were
persecuted, the advantages thereof to the right-
eous themselves, and how they should treat their
persecutors — with kindness, &c. Spoke, I sup-
pose, some half an hour, and dismissed. Towards
the close, some of the rioters got quite angry, and
yelled, 'Stop him!' 'Pull him out!' 'The
righteous were never persecuted for d d aboli-
tionism,' &c. Some of them paid good attention
to what I said. And thus we spent the time from
twelve to three o'clock, and thus the meeting
passed by.

" Brother dear,.! am more and more confirmed
in the righteousness of our cause. I would rather,
much rather, die for good principles, than to have
applause and honor for propagating false theories
and abominations, You perhaps would like to
know how I feel. Happy, most of the time ; a
religion that will not stand persecution will not

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

take us to heaven. Blessed be God, that I have
not, thus far, been suffered to deny Him. Some-
times I have thought that I was nearly home. I
generally feel a calmness of soul, but sometimes
my enjoyments are rapturous. I have had a great
burden of prayer for the dear flock ; help me pray
for them. Thank God, I have not heard of one
of them ginng up or turning ; and I believe some ,
if not most of them, would go to the stake rather
than give back. I forgot to say I read a part of
the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to
the rioters, commencing at the 17th verse. I told
them, if their institutions were of God, I could not
harm them ; that if our cause was of God, they
could not stop it — that they could kill me, but
they could not kill the truth. Though I talked
plainly, I talked and felt kindly to them.

" I have had to write in such haste, and being
fatigued and unwell, my letter is disconnected.
I meant to give you a copy of the letter of the
mob. Here it is :

'"Mr. McBride:

" ' "We, the subscribers, very and most respect-
fully request you not to attempt to fulfil your
appointment at this place. If you do, you will
surely be interrupted.

" ' May 6, 1851.' t^'S^^^ ^^ ^^ persons.]

" Some were professors of religion — Presbyte
rians. Episcopal Methodists, and Methodist Prot-
estants. One of the latter was an ' exhorter.' 1
understand some of the crowd were negro-tradera
' ' Farewell , J . McBride . "

PART IV

CHAPTER I.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH

ON SLAVERY.

There is no country in the world where
the religious influence has a greater ascend-
ency than in America. There is no country
where the clergy are more powerful. This
is the more remarkable, because in Amer-
ica religion is entirely divorced from the
state, and the clergy have none of those
artificial means for supporting their influ-
ence which result from rank and wealth.
Taken as a body of men, the American
clergy are generally poor. The salaries
given to them afford only a bare support,
and yield them no means of acquiring prop-
erty. Their style of living can be barely
decent and respectable, and no more. The
fact that, under these circumstances, the
American clergy arc probably the most pow-
erful body of men in the country, is of itself
a strong presumptive argument in their fa-
vor. It certainly argues in them, as a class,
both intellectual and moral superiority.

It is a well-known fact that the influence
of the clergy is looked upon by our states-
men as a most serious element in making
up their political combinations ; and that
that influence is so great, that no statesman
would ever undertake to carry a measure
against which all the clergy of the country
should unite. Such a degree of power,
though it be only a power of opinion, argu-
ment and example, is not without its dan-
gers to the purity of any body of men. To
be courted by political partisans is always
a dangerous thing for the integrity and
spirituality of men who profess to be gov-
erned by principles which are not of this
world. The possession, too, of so great a
power as we have described, involves a most
weighty responsibility ; since, if the clergy
do possess the power to rectify any great
Hational immorality, the fact of its not being
13

done seems in some sort to bring the &in
of the omission to their door.

We have spoken, thus far, of the clergy
alone; but in America, where the clergy-
man is, in most denominations, elected by
the church, and supported by its voluntary
contributions, the influence of the church and
that of the clergy are, to a very great extent,
identical. The clergyman is the very ideal
and expression of the church. They choose
him, and retain him, because he expresses
more perfectly than any other man they can
obtain, their ideas of truth and right. The
clergyman is supported, in all cases, by his
church, or else he cannot retain his position
in it. The fact of his remaining there is
generally proof of identity of opinion, since
if he differed very materially from them,,
they have the power to withdraw from him,
and choose another.

The influence of a clergyman, thus re-
tained by the free consent of the under-
standing and heart of his church, is in some
respects greater even than that of a papal
priest. The priest can control only by a
blind spiritual authority, to which, very
often, the reason demurs, while it yields an
outward assent; but the successful free
minister takes captive the affections of the
heart by his affections, overrules the rea-
soning powers by superior strength of rea-
son, and thus, availing himself of affection^
reason, conscience, and the entire man, pos-
sesses a power, from the very freedom of the
organization, greater than can ever result
from blind spiritual despotism. If a minis-
ter cannot succeed in doing this to some
good extent in a church, he is called unsuc-
cessful ; and he Avho realizes this description
most perfectly has the highest and most
perfect kind of power, and expresses the
idea of a successful American minister.

In speaking, therefore, of this subject,
we shall speak of the church and the clergy
as identical, using the word church in the
American sense of the word, for that class

194

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

of men, of all denominations, who are or-
ganized in bodies distinct from nominal
Christiiuis, as professing to be actually con-
trolled by the precepts of Christ.

What, then, is the influence of the church
on this great question of slavery 7

Cdl'tain things are evident on the very
face of the matter.

1. It has not put an end to it.

2. It has not prevented the increase of it.

3. It has not occasioned the repeal of the
laws which forbid education to the slave.

4. It has not attempted to have laws
passed for))i(lding the separation of families
and legalizing the marriage of slaves.

5. It has not stopped the internal slave-
trade.

6. It has not prevented the extension of
this system, with all its wrongs, over new
territories.

With regard to these assertions it is pre-
sumed there can be no diflference of opinion.
What, then, have they done ?
In reply to this, it can be stated,

1. That almost every one of the leading
'denominations have, at some time, in their
collective capacity, expressed a decided dis-
approbation of the system, and recommended
that something should be done with a view
to its abolition.

2. One denomination of Christians has
pursued such a course as entirely, and in
fact, to free every one of its members from
any participation in slave-holding. We
refer to the Quakers. The course by which
this result has been ejQFectcd will be shown
by a pamphlet soon to be issued by the
poet J. G. Whittier, one of their own body.

3. Individual members, in all dcnomi-
.nations. animated by the spirit of Chris-
tianity, have in various ways entered their
protest ngainst it.

It will be well now to consider more defi-
nitely and minutely the sentiments which
some leading ecclesiasticjil bodies in the
■church have expressed on tlys subject

It is fair that tlic writer should state the
sources from which the quotations are drawn.
Those relating to the action of Southern judi-
catories are prinei])ally from a pamphlet com-
piled by the lion. James G. Birney, and enti-
tled " The Clmrch the Bulwark of Slavery."
The writer addressed a letter to Mr. Birney,
in which she incjuired the sources from which
he compiled. His reply was, in substance,
as follows : That the pamphlet was compiled
from original documents, or files of news-
papers, which had recorded these transactions
:at the time of their occurrence. It was

compiled and published in England, in 1842,
M'ith a view of leading the people there to un
derstand the position of the American church
and clergy. Mr. Birney says that, although
the statements have long been before the
world, he has never known one of them to
be disputed; that, knowing the extraordi-
nary natui e of the sentiments, he took the
utmost pains to authenticate them.

We will first present those of the South-
ern States.

1. The Presbyterian Church,

HARMONY PRESBYTERY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Whereas, sundry persons in Scotland and Eng-
land, and others in the north, east and west of
our country, have denounced slavery as obnoxious
to the laws of God, some of whom have presented
before the General Assembly of our church, and
the Congress of the nation, memorials and peti-
tions, with the avowed object of bringing into
disgrace slave-holders, and abolishing the relation
of master and slave : And whereas, from the said
proceedings, and the statements, reasonings and
circumstances connected therewith, it is most
manifest that those persons " know not what they
say, nor whereof they affirm;" and with this
ignorance discover a spirit of self-righteousness
and exclusive sanctity, &c., therefore,

1. Resolved, Tliat as the kingdom of our Lord
is not of this world. His chui-ch, as such, has no
right to abolish, alter, or affect any institution or
ordinance of men, political or civil, &c.

2. Resolved, That slavery has existed from the
days of those good old slave-holders and patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who are now in the
kingdom of heaven), to the time when the apostle
Paul sent a runaway home to his master Philemon,
and wrote a Christian and fraternal letter to this
slave-holder, which we find still stands in the
canon of the Scriptures ; and that slavery has
existed ever since the days of the apostle, and
does now exist.

3. Resolved, That as the relative duties of
master and slave are taught in the Scriptures, in
the same manner as those of parent and cliild, and
husband and wife, the existence of slavery itself
is not opposed to the Avill oi: God ; and whosoever
has a conscience too tender to recognize this rela-
tion as lawful is " righteous over much," is
" wise above what is written," and iias sul)mitte<)
his neck to the yoke of men, sacrificed his Chris-
tian liberty of conscience, and leaves the infallible
word of God for the fancies and doctrines of men.

THE CHARLESTON UNION PRESBYTERY.

It is a principle which meets the views of this
body, that slavery, as it exists among us, is u
political institution, M'itli wliich ecclesiastical ju-
dicatories liave not the smallest right to interfere ;
and in relation to which, any such interference,
especially at the present momentous crisis, would
be morally icromj, and fraught wi'Ji the' most
dangerous and pernicious consequences. 'J"he sen-
timents wliich wc maintain, in common ivith Chris-
tians at the South of every denomination, are
sentiments which so luUy approve themselves to
our consciences, are so iJeutitied with our solemn

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

195

convictions of duty, that we should maintain them
under any circumstances.

Resolced, That in th« opinion of this Presbytery,
the holding of slaves, so far from being a sin in
the sight of God, is nowhere condemned in his
holy word ; that it is in accordance with the
example, or consistent with the precepts, of patri-
archs, apostles and prophets, and that it is com-
patible with the most fraternal regard to the best
good of those servants whom God may have
committed to our charge.

The New-school Presbyterian Church in
Petersburgh, Virginia, Nov. 16, 1838, passed
the following :

Whereas, the General Assembly did, in the
year 1818, pass a law which contains provisions
for slaves irreconcilable with our civil institutions,
and solemnly declaring slavery to be sin against
God — a law at once offensive and insulting to the
whole Southern community,

1. Resolved, That, as slave-holders, we can-
not consent longer to remain in connection with
any church where there exists a statute conferring
the riglit upon slaves to arraign their masters be-
fore the judicatory of the church — and that, too, for
the act of selling them without their consent first had
and obtained.

2. Resolved, That, as the Great Head of the
church has recognized the relation of master and
slave, we conscientiously believe that slavery is
not a sin against God, as declared by the General
Assembly. .

This sufficiently indicates the opinion of
the Southern Presbyterian Church. The
next extracts will refer to the opinions of
Baptist Churches. In 1835 the Charles-
ton Baptist Association addressed a memo-
rial to the Legislature of South Carolina,
which contains the following :

The undersigned would further represent that
the said association does not consider that the
Holy Scriptures have made the fact of slavery a
question of morals at all. Tlie Divine Author of
our holy religion, in particular, found slavery a
part of the existing institutions of society ; with
wliich, if not sinful, it was not his design to inter-
meddle, but to leave tlieiii entirely to the control
of men. Adopting this, therefore, as one of the
allowed arrangements of society, he made it the
province of his religion only to prescribe the re-
ciprocal duties of the relation. The question, it
is believed, is pui-ely one of political economy. It
amounts, in effjct, to this, — Whether the operatives
of a country shall be bouiiht and sold, and tliernselves
become properly, as in this state ; or tohcther they
shall be hirelings, and their lalmr only become prop-
erty^ as in some other slates. In other words,
whether an employer may buy the whole time of
l.iI)orers at once, of those who have a right to dis-
pose of it. with a penniinent relation of protection
and care over them ; or whether he shall be re-
stricted to bay it in certain portions only, subject
to their control, and with no such permanent rela-
tion of care and protection. The riglit of masters
to dispose of the time of their slaves has been distinctly
recognized by the Creator of all things, who is surely
at liberty to vest the right of property over any
object in whomsoever he pleases. That the lawful

possessor should retain tliis right at will, is no
more against tlie laws of society and good morals,
than tliat he should retain tlie personal endow-
ments witli which his Creator !ias blessed hii:,',or
the money and lands inherited from his ancestors,
or acquired by his industry. And neitlier society
nor individuals have any more autliority to de-
mand a relintiuisliment, without an equivalent, in
the one case, than in the other.

As it is a question purely of political economy,
and one which in this country is reserved to the
cognizance of the state governments severally, it
is further believed, that tlie State of South Caro-
lina alone has the right to regulate the existence
and condition of slavery within her territorial
limits; and we should resist to the utm jst every
invasion of this riglit, come from what quarter
and under whatever pretence it may.

The Methodist Church is, in some re-
spects, peculiarly situated upon this subject,
because its constitution and book of discipline
contain the most vehement denunciations
against slavery of which language is cap.ible,
and the most stringent requisitions that all
members shall be disciplined for the holding
of slaves; and these denunciations and re-
quisitions have been reaffirmed by its Gen-
eral Conference.

It seemed to-be necessary, therefore, for
the Southern Conference to take some notice'
of this fact, which they did, with great cool-
ness and distinctness, as follows :

TUE GEORGIA ANXUAL COXFERENCE.

Resolved, unanimously, That, whereas there is
a clause in the discipline of our church which
states that we are as much as ever conviliced of
the great evil ot slavery ; and whereas the said
clause has been perverted by some, and used in
such a manner as to produce the impression that
the Methodist Episcopal Church believed slavery
to be a moral evil ; —

Therefore Resolved, That it is the sense of Wie
Georgia Annual Conference that slavery, as it
exists in the United States, is not a moral evil.

Resolved, That we view slavery as a civil and
domestic institution, and one with which, as min-
isters of Christ, we have nothing to do, further
than to ameliorate the condition of the slave, bv
endeavoring to impart to him and his master the
benign induences of the religion of Christ, and
aiding both on their way to heaven.

On motion, it was Resolved, unanimously.
That the Georgia Annual Conference regard witli
feelings of profound respect and approbation tlie
dignified course pursued by our several superintend
ents, or bishops, i>i suppressing the attempts that
have been made by various iudividuals to get up
and protract an excitement in the churches and
country on the suliject of abolitionism.

Resolved, further, Tliat they'^shall have our cor-
dial and zealous support in sustaining them in thfi
ground they have taken.

SOCTII CAROLIXA CONFERENXE.

The Rev. W. Martin introduced resolu
tions similar to those cf the Georgia Con-
ference.

196

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

The Rev. W. Ciipers, D.D., after ex-

piL'S6ing his conviction that " the sentiment
of the resolutions was universally held, not
only by the ministers of that conference, but
of the whole South;" and after stating that
the only true doctrine was, "it belongs to
Cajsar, and not to the church," offered the
following as a substitute :

Whereas, we hold that the subject of slavery in
these United States is not one proper for the
action of the church, but is exclusively appropri-
ate to the civil authorities,

Therefore Resolved, That this conference will
not intermeddle with it, further than to express
our regret that it has ever been introduced, in any
form, into any one of the judicatures of the
ch\irch.

Brother Martin accepted the substitute.

Brother Betts asked whether the substitute was
intended as implying that slavery, as it exists
among us, was not a moral evil 1 He understood it
as equivalent to such a declaration.

Brother Capers explained that his intention was
to convey that sentiment fully and unequivocally ;
and that he had chosen the form of the substitute
for the purpose, not only of reproving some wrong
doings at the North, hut with reference also to the
General Conference. If slavery were a moral evil
Cthat is, sinful), the church would be hound to take
cognizance of it ; but our affirmation is, that it is
not a matter for her jurisdiction, but is exclusively
appropriate to the civil government, and of course
not sinful.

The substitute was then unanimously
adopted.

In 1836, an Episcopal clergyman in North
Carolina, of the name of Freeman, preached,
in the presence of his bishop (Rev. Levi. S.
Ives, D.D., a native of a free state), two ser-
mons on the rights and duties of slav^-hold-
ers. In these he essayed to justify from
the Bible the slavery both of white men
and negroes, and insisted that " without a
new revelation from heaven., no man was
authorized to projioiince slavery WRONG."
The sermons were printed in a pamphlet,
prefaced with a letter to Mr. Freeman from
the Bishop of North Carolina, declaring that
he had ' ' listened with most unfeigned pleas-
ure " to his discourses, and advised their
publication, as being " urgently called for at
the present time."

"The Protestant Episcopal Society for
the advancement of Christianity (!) in South
Carolina " thought it expedient to repub-
lish Mr. Freeman's pamphlet as a religions
tract ! *

Afterwards, when the addition of the new
State of Texas made it important to organize
the Episcopal Church there, this Mr. Free-
man was made Bishop of Texas.

* Birney's pampblot

The question may now arise, — it must
arise to every intelligent thinker in Chris-
tendom,— Can it be possible that American
slavery, as defined by its laws, and the
decisions of its courts, including all the hor-
rible abuses that the laws recognize and
sanction, is considered to be a right and
proper institution? Do these Christians
merely recognize the relation of slavery, in
the abstract, as one that, under proper legis-
lation, might be made a good one, or do
they justify it as it actually exists in
America 7

It is a fact that there is a large party at
the South who justify not only slavery in
the abstract, but slavery just as it exists in
America, in whole and in part, and even its
worst abuses.

There are four legalized parts or results
of the system, which are of especial atrocity.

They are, —

1. The prohibition of the testimony of
colored people in cases of trial.

2. The forbidding of education.

3. The internal slave-trade.

4. The consequent separation of families.
We shall bring evidence to show that

every one of these practices has been either
defended on principle, or recognized without
condemnation, by decisions of judicatories of
churches, or by writings of influential cler-
gymen, without any expression of dissent
being made to their opinions by the bodies
to which they belong.

In the first place, the exclusion of colored
testimony in the church. In 1840, the
General Conference of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church passed the following resolu-
tion: "That it is inexpedient and

UNJUSTIFIABLE FOR ANY PREACHER TO
PERMIT COLORED PERSONS TO GIVE TES-
TIMONY AGAINST WHITE PERSONS IN ANY
STATE "WHERE THEY ARE DENIED THAT
PRIVILEGE BY LAW."

This was before the Methodist Chui-ch
had separated on the question of slavery, as
they subsequently did, into Northern and
Southern Conferences. Both Northern and
Southern members voted for this resolution.

After this was passed, the conscience of
many Northern ministers was aroused, and
they called for a reconsideration. The South-
ern members imperiously demanded that it
should remain as a compromise and test of
union. The spirit of the discussion may be
inferred from one extract.

Mr. Peck, of New York, who moved the
reconsideration of the resolution, thus ex-
pressed himself:

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

197

That resolution (said he) was introduced under
peculiar circumstances, during considerable excite-
ment, and he went for it ax a peace-offering to the
SomM, without sufficiently reflecting upon the pre-
cise import of its phraseology ; but, after a little
deliberation, he was sorry; and he had been sorry
but once, and that was all the time ; he was con-
vinced that, if that resolution remain upon the
journal, it would he disastrous to the whole Northern
church.

Rev. Dr. A. J. Few, of Georgia, the
mover of the original resokition, then rose.
The following are extracts from his speech.
The Italics are the writers.

Look at it ! What do you declare to us, in
taking this course? Why, simply, as much as to
say, " We cannot sustain you in the condition
which you cannot avoid!" We cannot sustain
you in the necessary conditions of slave-holding ;
one of its necessary conditions being the rejection
of negro testimony ! If it is not sinful to hold
slaves, under all circumstances, it is not sinful to
hold them in the only condition, and under the only
circumstances, which they can be held. The rejec-
tion of negro testimony is one of the necessary
circumstances under which slave-holding can
exist; indeed, it is utterly impossible for it to
exist without it ; therefore it is not sinful to hold
slaves i?i the condition and under the circumstances
which they are held at the South, inasmuch as they
can be held under no other circumstances. * * * If
you believe that slave-holding is necessarily sinful,
come out with the al)olitionists, and honestly say
so. If you believe that slave-holding is necessa-
rily sinful, you believe we are necessarily sinners :
and, if so, come out and honestly declare it, and
let us leave you. * * * We want to know distinctly,
precisely and honestly, the position which you
take. We cannot be tampered with by you any
longer. We have had enough of it. We are
tired of your sickly sympathies. * * * If you are
not opposed to the principles which it involves,
unite with us, like honest men, and go home, and
boldly meet the consequences. We say again,
you are responsible for this state of things ; for it
is- you who have driven us to the alarming point
where we find ourselves. * * * You have made
that resolution absolutely necessary to the quiet
of the South ! But you now revoke that resolu-
tion ! And you pass the Rubicon ! Let me not be
misunderstood. I say, you pass the Rubicon ! If
you revoke, you revoke the principle which that
resolution involves, and you array the whole South
against you, and we must sfparate! * * * If you
accord to the principles which it involves, arising
from the necessity of the case, stick by it,
" though the heavens perish !" But, if you per-
sist on reconsideration, I ask in Avhat light will
, your course be regarded in the South ? What
will be the conclusion, there, in referooce to iti
Why, that j'ou cannot sustain us as long as we
hold slaves ! It will declare, in the face of the
sun, " We cannot sustain you, gen-lemen, while
you retain your slaves !" Your opp isition to the
resolution is based upon your opposition to
slavery; you cannot, therefore, maintain your
consistency, unless you come out with the aboli-
tionists, and condemn us at once and forever; or
else lefuse to reconsider.

The resolution was therefore left in force,
with another resolution appended to it, ex-
pressing the widimiuished regard of the
General Conference for the colored •popu-
lation.

It is quite evident that it itms undi-
minished, for the hest of reasons. That
the colored population were not properly
impressed with this last act of condescension,
appears from the fact that "the official
members of the Sharp-street and Asbury
Colored Methodist Church in Baltimore "
protested and petitioned against the mo-
tion. The following is a passage from their
address : *

The adoption of such a resolution, by our highest
ecclesiastical judicatory, — a judicatory composed
of the most experienced and wisest brethren in the
church, the choice selection of twenty-eight An-
nual Conferences, — has inflicted, we fear, an irre-
parable injmy upon eighty thousand souls for
whom Christ died — souls, who, by this act of
your body, have been stripped of the dignity of
Christians, degraded in the scale of humanity, and
treated as criminals, for no other reason than the
color of their skin ! Your resolution has, in our
humble opinion, virtually declared, that a more
physical peculiarity, the handiwork of our all-
wise and benevolent Creator, is prima facie evi-
dence of incompetency to tell the truth, or is an
unerring indication of unworthiness to bear testi-
mony against a fellow-being whose skin is de-
nominated white. * * *

Brethren, out of the abundance of the heart we
have spoken. Our grievance is b<fore you ! If
you have any regard for the salvation of the
eighty thousand immortal souls committed to your
care ; if you would not thrust beyond the pale of
the church twenty-five hundred souls in this city,
who have felt determined never to leave the church
that has nourished and brought them up ; if you
regard us as children of one common Father, and
can, upon reflection, sympathize with us as mem-
bers of the body of Christ, — if you would not
incur the fearful, the tremendous responsibility
of offending not only one, but many thousands of
his " little ones," we conjure you to wipe from
your journal the odious resolution which is ruin-
ing our people.

"A Colored Baltimorean." writing to the
editor of ZioJi's Watchman^ says :

The address was presented to one of the secre-
taries, a delegate of the Baltimore Conference,
and subsequently given by him to the bishops."
How many of the members of the conference saw
it, I know not. One thing is certain, it was not
read to the conference.

"With regard to the second head, — of de-
fending the laws which prevent the slaye
from being taught to read and write, — we
have the following instance.

In the year 1835, the Chillicothe Pres-
bytery, Oliio, addressed a Christian remon-
strance to the presbytery of ^lississippi on

tja.

198

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the subject of slavery, in which they spe
cifically enumerated the respects in Avhich
they considered it to be unchristian '^^'-
eiwhth resolution was as follows :

The

That any member of our church, who shall
advocate or speak in favor of such laws as have
been or may yet be enacted, for the purpose of
keeping the slaves in ignorance, and preventing
them from learnmg to read the word of God, is
guilty of a great sin, and ought to be dealt with
as for other scandalous crimes.

Tliis remonstrance was answered by Rev.
James Smylie, stated clerk of the Missis-
sippi Presbytery, and afterwards of the
Amity Presbytery of Louisiana, in a pam-
plilet of eighty-seven pages, in which he
defended slavery generally and particularly,
in the same manner in which all other
abuses have always been defended — by the
word of God. The tenth section of this
pamphlet is devoted to the defence of this
law. He devotes seven pages of fine print
to this object. He says (p. 63) ;

There are laws existing in both states, Missis-
sippi and Louisiana, accompanied with heavy
penal sanctions, prohibiting the teaching of the
slaves to read, and meeting the approbation of the
religious part of the reflecting community.

# # * * *

He adds, still further :

The laws preventing the slaves from learning to
read are a fruitful source of much ignorance and
immorality among the slaves. The printing, pub-
lishing, and circulating of abolition and emanci-
patory principles in those states, was the cause of
the passage of those laws.

He then goes on to say that the ignorance
and vice which are the consequence of those
laws do not properly belong to those who made
the laws, but to those whose emancipating
doctrines rendered them necessary. Speak-
ing of these consequences of ignorance and
vice, he says :

Upon whom must they be saddled ? If you will
allow me to answer the question, I will answer
by saying, Upon such great and gnod men as John
Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Porteus,
Paley,'lIorsley, Scott, Clark, Wilherforce, Sharpe,
Clarkson, Fox, Johnson, Burke, and other great
and good men, who, without exaiuiniiig the word
of God, have concluded that it is a true maxim
that slavery is in itself sinful.

He then illustrates the necessity of these
laws by the following simile. He supposes
that the doctrine had been promulgated
that the authority of parents was an unjust
usurnation, and that it was getting a general
hold of society; that societies were being
formed foi the cmancipati(jn of children from
the control of thtir parents : that all books

were beginning to be pervaded by this senti-
ment ; and that, under all these influences,
children were becoming restless and frac-
tious. He supposes that, under these cir-
cumstances, parents meet and refer the
subject to legislators. He thus describes
the dilemma of the legislators :

Tljese meet, and they take the subject seriously
and solemnly into consideration. On the one
hand, they perceive that, if their children had
access to these doctrines, they were ruined forever.
To let them have access to them was unavoidable,
if they taught them to read. To prevent their
being taught to read was cruel, and would pre-
vent them from obtaining as much knowledge of
the laws of Heaven as otherwise they might enjoy.
In this sad dilemma, sitting and consulting in a
legislative capacity, they must, of two evils, choose
the least. With indignant feelings towards those,
who, under the influence of "seducing spirits,"
had sent and were sending among them " doc-
trines of devils," but with aching hearts towards
their children, they resolved that their children
should not be taught to read, until the storm
should be overblown ; hoping that Satan's being let
loose will be but for a little season. And during
this season they will have to teach them orally,
and thereby guard against their being contami-
nated by these wicked doctrines.

So much for that law.

NoAV, as for the internal slave-trade, —
the very essence of that trade is the buyina
and selling of human beings for the mere
purposes of gain.

A master who has slaves transmitted to
liim, or a master who buys slaves with the
purpose of retaining them on his plantation
or in his family, can be supposed to have
some object in it besides the mere jmrpose
of gain. He may be supposed, in certain
cases, to have some regard to the happiness
or well-being of the slave. The trader
buys and sells for the mere i^wpose of
gain.

Concerning this abuse the Cliillicothe
Presbytery, in the document to Avhich we
have alluded, passed the following resolution :

Resolved, That the buying, selling, or holding
of a slave, for the sake of' gain, is a heinuus sin
and scandal, requiring the cognizance of the judi-
catories of the church.

In the reply from which we have ali'eady
quoted, Mr. Smylie says (p. 13) :

If the buying, selling and holding of a slave for
the sake of gain, is, as you say, a heinous sin and
scandal, then verily three-fourtlis of all Episcojxi-
lians, Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, in
the eleven states of the Union, are of the devil.
* * » * * ,

Again :

To question whether slave-holders or slave-buy-
ers are of the devil, seems to me like calling la

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

199

question whether God is or is not a true witness ;
that is, provided it is God's testimony, and not
merely the testimony of the Chillicothe Presbytery,
that it is a " heinous sin and scandal" to buy, sell
and hold slaves.

Again (p. 21) :

If language can convey a clear and definite
meaning at all, I know not how it can more
plainly or unequivocally present to the mind any
thought or idea, tlian the twenty-fifth chapter of
Leviticus clearly and unequivocally establishes
the fact tliat slavery was sanctioned by God him-
self, and tliiit buying, selling, holding and be-
queathing slaves, as propcrfi/, are regulations which
are established by himself.

What language can more explicitly show, not
that God winked at slavery merely, but that, to
Bay tlie least, he gave a written pcr/nii to the He-
brews, then the liest j^eople in the world, to but/,
hold and bei/ueathj men and tea men, to perpetual
servitude? What, now, becomes of the position
of the Chillicotlie Presbytery 1 * * * * Is
it, indeed, a fact, that God once gave a -written per-
mission to his own dear people [" ye shall buy'^] to
do that which is in itself sinful ? Nay, to do that
which the Chillicothe Presbytery says " is a hei-
nous sin and scandal " ?

God resolves that his own children may, or
rather " shall,^^ " buy, possess and hold,'''' bond-
men and bond-women, in bondage, forever. But
the Chillicothe Presl)ytery resolves that " buying,
selling, or holding slaves, for the sake of gain, is a
heinous sin and scandal.''^

We do not mean to say that Mr. Smylie
had the internal slave-trade directly in his
mind in writing these sentences ; but we do
say that no slave-trader would ask for a
more explicit justification of his trade than
this.

Lastly, in regard to that dissolution of
the marriage relation, "which is the neces-
sary consequence of this kind of trade, the
following decisions have been made by ju-
dicatories of the church.

The Savannah River (Baptist) Associa-
tion^ in 1835, in reply to the question,

Whether, in a case of involuntary separation,
of such a character as to preclude all prospect
of future intercourse, the parties ought to be al-
lowed to marry again ?

answered,

That such a sep:U"ation, among persons situated
as our slaves are, is cirilly a separation by death,
and they believe that, in the sight of God, it
would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages,
in such cases, would be to expose the parties, not
only to stronger hardships and strong temptation,
but to church censure, for acting in obedience to
their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce
in a regulation at variance with justice to the
slaves, and to the spirit of that counuaud which
regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves
are not free agents, and a dissolution by death is

not more entirely without their consent, and be-
yond their control, than by such separation.

At the Shiloh Baptist Association, -which
met at Gourdvine, a few years since, the
following query, says the Religious Her-
ald^ was presented from Hedgman church,
viz :

Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been
sold })y his or licr master into a distant country,
to be permitted to marry again 1

The query -was referred to a committee,
who made the following report ; which, after
discussion, was adopted :

That, in view of the circumstances in which
servants in this country are placed, the committee
are unanimous in the opinion that it is better to
permit servants thus circumstanced to take another
husband or wife.

The Reverend Charles G. Jones, who was .
an earnest and indefatigable laborer for the
good of the slave, and one -who, it -would be
supposed, would be likely to feel strongly on
this subject, if ainy one would, simply re-
marks, in estimating the moral condition of
the negroes, that, as husband and wife are
subject to all the vicissitudes of property,
and may be separated' by division of estate,
debts, sales or removals, <*fcc. &c., the marriage
relation naturally loses much of its sacred-
ness, and says :

It is a contract of convenience, profit or pleas-
ure, that may be entered into and dissolved at
the will of the parties, and that without heinous
sin, or injury to the property interests of any
one.

In this sentence he is expressing, as we
suppose, the cominon idea of slaves and
masters of the nature of this institution,
and not his own. We infer this fiom the
fact that he endeavors in his catechism to
impress on the slave the sacredncss and per-
petuity of the relation. But, -when the
most pious and devoted men that the South
has, and those professing to spend their
lives for the service of the slave, thus
calmly, and without any reprobation, con-
template this state of things as a state -vvith
which Christianity does not call on them, to
interfere, -what can be expected of the world
in general 7

It is to be remarked, with regard to the
sentiments of Mr. Smylie' s pamphlet, that
they are endorsed in the appendix by a
document in the name of two presbyteries,
which document, though with less minute-
ness of investigation, takes the same ground
with ^Ir. Smylie. This Rev. James Smylie

200

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

was one who, in compa,ny with the Rev.
John L. Montgomery, was appointed by the
synod of Mississippi, in 1839, to write or
compile a catechism for the instruction of
the negroes.

Mr. Jones says, in his "History of the
Kehgious Instruction of the Negroes " (p.
83) : " The Rev. James Smylie and the
Rev. C. Blair are engaged in this good
work (of enlightening the negroes) sys-
tematically and constantly in Mississippi."
The former clergyman is characterized as
an "asred and indefatigable father." "His
success in enlightening the negroes has been
very great. A large proportion of the
negroes in his old church can recite both
Williston's and the Westminster Catechism
very accurately." The writer really wishes
that it were in her power to make copious
extracts from Mr. Smylie' s pamphlet. A
great deal could be learned from it as to what
style of mind, ^nd habits of thought, and
modes of viewing religious subjects, are
likely to grow up under such an institution.
The man is undoubtedly and heartily sin-
cere in his opinions, and appears to main-
tain them with a most abounding and tri-
umphant joy fulness, as the very latest
improvement in theological knowledge. We
are tempted to present a part of his Intro-
duction^ simply for the light it gives us on
the style of thinking which is to be found
on our south-western waters :

In presenting the following review to the pub-
lic, the author was not entirely or mainly influ-
enced by a desire or hope to correct the views of
the Chillicotlie Presbytery. He hoped the publi-
cation would be of essential service to others, as
well as to the presbytery.

From his intercourse with religious societies of
all denominations, in INIississippi and Louisiana, he
was aware that the abolition maxim, namely, that
slavery is in itself sinful, had gained on and en-
twined itself among the religious and conscien-
tious scruples of many in the community so far
as not only to render them unhappy, but to draw
off the attention from the great and important
duty of a householder to his household. The eye
of the mind, resting on slavery itself as a corrupt
fountain, from which, of necessity, nothing but
corrupt streams could flow, was incessantly cm-
ployed in search of some plan by which, with
safety, the fountain could, in some future time, be
entirely dried up ; never reflecting, or dreaming,
that slavery, in itself considered, was an innox-
ious relation, and that the whole error rested in
the neglect of the relative duties of the relation.

If there bo a consciousness of guilt resting on
tho mind, it is all the same, as to the effect,
whether tho conscience is or is not right. Al-
though the word of God alone ought to be tlic
guide of conscience, yet it is not always the case.
Hence, conscientious scruples sometimes exist for
neglecting to do that whicli tho word of God con-
demns.

The Bomean who neglects to kill his father,
and to eat him with his dates, when he has become
old, is sorely tortured by the wringings of a guilty
conscience, when his filial tenderness and sympa-
thy have gained the ascendency over his appre-
hended duty of killing his parent. In like man-
ner, many a slave-holder, whose conscience is
guided, not by the word of God, but by the doc-
trines of men, is often suffering the lashes of a
guilty conscience, even when he renders to his
slave " that which is just and equal," according
to the Scriptures, simply because he does not
emancipate his slave, irrespective of the benefit
or injury done by such an act.

" How beautiful upon the mountains," in tlie
apprehension of the reviewer, " would be the feet
of him that would bring" to the Bornean " the
glad tidings" that his conduct, in sparing the life
of his tender and affectionate parent, was no sin !
* * * * Equally beautiful and delightful,
does the reviewer trust, will it be, to an honest,
scrupulous and conscientious slave-holder, to learn,
from the word of God, the glad tidings that slav
ery itself is not sinful. Keleased now from an
incubus that paralyzed his energies in discharge
of duty towards his slaves, he goes forth cheer-
fully to energetic action. It is not no\^ as for-
merly, when he viewed slavery as in itself sinful.
He can now pray, with the hope of being heard,
that God will bless his exertions to train up his
slaves "in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord:" whereas, before, he was retarded by this
consideration, — "If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me." Instead of
hanging down his head, moping and brooding over
his condition, as formerly, without action, he
raises his head, and moves on cheerfully, in the
plain path of duty.

He is no more tempted to look askance at the
word of God, and saying, " Hast thou found me,
0 mine enemy," come to "filch from me" my
slaves, which, "while not enriching" them, "leaves
me poor indeed ? ' ' Instead of viewing the word of
God, as formerly, come with Avhips and scorpions
to chastise him into paradise, he feels that its
" ways are ways of pleasantness, and its paths
peace." Distinguishing now between the real
word of God and what are only the doctrines and
commandments of men, the mystery is solved,
which was before insolvable, namely, " The stat-
utes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart."

If you should undertake to answer such
a man by saying that his argument proves
too much, — that neither Christ nor his
apostles bore any explicit testimony against
the gladiatorial shows and the sports of .the
arena, and, therefore, it would be right to
get them up in America, — the probability
seems to be that he would heartily assent to
it, and think, on the whole, that it might be a
good speculation. As a further specimen of
the free-and-easy facetiousness Avhich seems
to be a trait in this production, see, on p. 58,
where the Latin motto Facilis descensus
Avernl scd rcvocarc, &c., receives the fol
lowing quite free and truly Western trans-
lation, which, he good-naturedly says, is
given for the benefit of those who do not

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

201

understand Latin, — "It is easy to go to the
devil, but the devil to get back."

Some uncharitable people might, perhaps,
say that the preachers of such doctrines are
as likely as anybody to have an experi-
mental knowledge on this point. The idea
of this jovial old father instructing a class
of black " Sams " and young " Topsys " in
the mysteries of the Assembly's Catechism
is truly picturesque !

That Mr. Smylie's opinions on the subject
of slavery have been amply supported and
carried out by leading clergymen in every
denomination, we might give volumes of
quotations to show.

A second head, however, is yet to be con-
sidered, with regard to the influence of the
Southern church and clergy.

It is well known that the Southern politi-
cal community have taken their stand upon
the position that the institution of slavery
shall not be open to discussion. In many
of the slave states stringent laws exist, sub-
jecting to fine and imprisonment, and even
death, any who speak or publish anything
upon the subject, except in its favor. They
have not only done this with regard to citi-
zens of slave states, but they have shown the
strongest disposition to do it with regard to
citizens of free states : and w^hen these discus-
sions could not be repelled by regular law,
they have encouraged the use of illegal meas-
ures. In the published letters and speeches
of Horace iNIann the following examples are
given (p. 467). In 1831 the Legislature
of Georgia offered five thousand dollars to
any one who would arrest and bring to trial
and conviction, in Georgia, a citizen of Mas-
sachusetts, named William Lloyd Garrison.
This law was approved by W. Lumpkin,
Governor, Dec. 26, 1831. At a meet-
ing of slave-holders held at Sterling, in the
same state, September 4, 1835, it was
formally recommended to the governor to
offer, by proclamation, five thousand dollars
reward for the apprehension of any one of
ten persons, citizens, with one exception, of
NeAv York and Massachusetts, whose names
were given. The Milledgeville (Ga.)
Federal Union of February 1st, 1836,
contained an offer of ten thousand dollars
for the arrest and kidnapping of the Rev. A.
A. Phelps, of New York. The committee
of vigilance of the parish of East Feliciana
offered, in the Loriisville Journal of Oct.
15, 1835, fifty thousand dollars to any
person who would deliver into their hands
Arthur Tappan. of New York. At a pub-
lic meeting at Mount Meigs, Alabama, Aug.

13, 1836, the Hon. Bedford Ginress in the
chair, a reward of fifty thousand dollars
was offered for the apprehension of the same
Arthur Tappan, or of Le Roy Sunderland,
a Methodist clergyman of New York. Of
course, as none of these persons could be
seized except in violation of the laws of the
state where they were citizens, this was
offering a public reward for an act of felony.
Throughout all the Southern States associa-
tions were formed, called committees of
vigilance, for the taking of measures for
suppressing abolition opinions, and for the
punishment by Lynch law of suspected
persons. At Charleston, South Carohna, a
mob of this description forced open the post-
office, and made a general inspection, at
their pleasure, of its contents ; and whatever
publication they found there which they
considered to be of a dangerous and anti-
slavery tendency, they made a pubhc bonfire
of, in the street. A large public meeting
was held, a few days afterwards,! to complete
the. preparation for excluding anti-slavery
principles from publication, and for ferreting
out persons suspected of abolitionism, that
they might be subjected to Lynch law.
Similar popular meetings were held through*
the Southern and Western States. At one
of these, held in Clinton, Mississippi, in the
year 1835, the following resolutions "were
passed :

Resolved, That slavery through the South .ind
West is not felt as an evil, moral or politicr.l, but
it is recognized in reference to the arlual, avl not
to any Utopian condition of our slaves, as a hless-
ing both to master and slave.

Resolved, That it is our decided opinion thai
any individual who dares to circulate, with a view
to effectuate the designs of the abolitionists, any
of the incendiary tracts or newspapers now in
a course of transmission to this country, is justly
worthy, in the sight of God and man, of immedi-
ate death ; and we doubt not that such would be
the punishment ot any such offender in any part
of the State of Mississippi where he may be found.

Resolved, That the clergy of the State of ^lissis-
sippi be hereby recommended at once to take a
stand upon this subject ; and that their further
silence in relation thereto, at this crisis, will, in
our opinion, be subject to serious censure.

The treatment to which persons were ex-
posed, when taken up by any of these vigi-
lance committees, as suspected of anti-slavery
sentiments, may be gathered from the follow-
ing account. The writer has a distinct
recollection of the circumstances at the
present time, as the victim of this injustice
was a member of the seminary then under
the care of her father.

Amos Dresser, now a missionary in Jamaica,
was a theological student at Lane Seminary, near

202

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Cin(;ini.iiti. In the vacation (August 1835) he
undertook to sell Bibles in tiie State of Tennessse.
with a view to raise means further to continue his
studies. Wliilst there, he fell under siisrpicioii
of being an abolitionist, was arrested by the vigi-
lanee committee whilst attending a religious
meeting in the neighborhood of Nashville, the
capital of the state, and, after an afternoon and
evening's inquisition, condemned to receive twenty
lashes on his naked body. The sentence was exe-
^•1.1 ted on liiin, l)etween eleven and twelve o'clock
on Saturday night, in the presence of most of the
rommittee,'and of an infuriated and blaspheming
mob. The vigilance committee (an unlawful as-
sociation) consisted of sixty persons. Of these,
twenty-seven were members of churches ; one, a
religious teacher ; another, the Elder who but a
few days before, in the Presbyterian church.
Landed Mr. Dresser the bread and wine at the
communion of the Lord's supper.

It will readilj be seen that the principle
involved in such proceedings as these in-
volves more than the question of slavery.
The question was, in fact, this, — whether it
is so important to hold African slaves that it
is proper to deprive free Americans of the
liberty of conscience, and liberty of speech,
and liberty of the press, in order to do it. It
is easy to see that very serious changes
would be made in the government of a coun-
try by the admission of this principle;
because it is quite plain that, if all these
principles of our free government may be
given up for one thing, they may for
another, and that its ultimate tendency
is to destroy entirely that freedom of opin-
ion and thought which is considered to be
the distinguishing excellence of American
institutions.

The question now 'is, Did the church join
with the world in thinking the institution
of slavery so important and desirable as to
lead them to look with approbation upon
Lynch law, and the sacrifice of the rights
of free inquiry ? '\\''e answer the reader by
submitting the following facts and quota-
tions.

At the large meeting which we have de-
scribed above, in Charleston, South Caro-
lina, the Charleston Courier informs us
''that the clergy of all denominations at-
tended in a body, lending their sanction to
the proceedings, and adding by their pres-
ence to tlie impressive character of the
scene." There can be no doubt that the
presence of the clergy of all denomina-
tions, in a body, at a meeting held for sucli
a purpose, was an impressive scene, truly !

At this meeting it was Resolved,

I'hat the thanks of this meeting are due to tlie
rcvertind gentlemen of tiie clergy in this city, who
ha"C so promptly and so elTeetually responded to

public sfmtiment, by suspending their schools in
whicii the free cohered ]ioi>vIa/ion were taught;
and that this meeting deem it a patriotic action,
worthy of all praise, and proper to be imitated
by other teachers of similar schools througliout
the state.

The question here arises, whether their
Lord, at the day of judgment, will comment
on their actions in a similar strain.

The alarm of the Virginia slave-holders
was not less ; nor were tlie clergy in the
city of Richmond, the capital, less prompt
than the clergy in Charleston to respond to
"public sentiment." Accordingly, on the
29th of July, they assembled together, and
Resolved, unanimouslij ,

That we earnestly deprecate the unwarrantable
and highly improper interference of the people of
any other state with the domestic relations of
master and slave.

That the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and
his apostles, in not interfering with the question
of slavery, but uniformly recognizing the relatii^ns
of master and servant, and giving full and affec-
tionate instruction to both, is worthy of the imi-
tation of all ministers of the gospel.

That we will not patronize nor receive any
pamphlet or newspaper of the anti-slavery socie-
ties, and that we will discountenance the circula-
tion of all such papers in the community.

The Rev. J. C. Postell, a Methodist
minister of South Carolina, concludes a very
violent letter to the editor of Z ion's Watch-
7nan, a Methodist anti-slavery paper pub-
lished in New York, in the following
manner. The reader will see that this
taunt is an allusion to the offer of fifty
thousand dollars for his body at the South
which we have given before.

But, if you desire to educate the slaves, I will
tell you ho-w" to raise the money without eiliting
Zion's Watchman. You and (,id Artiiur Tapjian
come out to the South this winter, and they will
raise one hundred thousand dollars for yon New
Orleans, itself, will be pledged for it. Desiring
no further acquaintance with you, and never ex-
pecting to see you but once in time or eternity, that
is at the judgment, I subscribe myself tlie friend
of the Bible, and the opposcr of abolitionists,

^J. C. Postell.

Orangchiirgh, July 21s/, 183G.

The Rev. Thomas S. Witherspoon, a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church, writing to
the editor of the Emancipator, says :

I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the
Old and ^fcw Testament, to hold the slave in
bondage. The principle of holding the heathen in
bondage is recognized by CJod. * * * Wliea
the tardy process of the law is too long in rtxlress-
ing our grievances, we of the Soutli have adopted
the summary remedy of Judge Lynch — and really
I think it one of the most wholesome and .salutary
remedies for tlie malady of Northern fanaticism
tiiat can bo applied, and uo doubt my worthy

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

203

friend, the Editor of the Emancipator and Hnmoi
Rights, would feel the better of its enforceiuent,
provided he had a Southern administrator. I g'>
to the Bible for my warrant in all moral matters.
* * Let your emissaries dare venture to cross
the Potomac, and I cannot promise you that their
fate will be less than Ilaman's. Tlien beware
how you goad an insulted but magnanimous peo-
ple to deeds of desperation!

The Rev. Robert N. Anderson, also a
member of the Presbyterian Chuich, says, in
a letter to the Sessions of the Presbyterian
Congregations within the bounds of the West
Hanover Presbytery :

At the approaching stated meeting of our Pres-
bytery, I design to offer a preamble and string of
resolutions on the subject of the use of wine in
the Lord's Supper ; and also a preamble and string
of resolutions on the subject of the treasonable and
abominal)ly wicked interference of the Northern
and Eastern fanatics with our political and civil
rights, our property and our domestic concerns.
You are aware that our clergy, whether with or
without reason, are more suspected by the public
than the clergy of other denominations. Now,
dear Christian brethren, I humbly express it as my
earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men. If
there be any stray goat of a minister among you,
tainted with the blood-hound principles of aboli-
tionism, let him be ferreted out, silenced, excom-
municated, and left to the public to dispose of him
in other respects.

Your afiectionate brother in the Lord,

Robert N. Anderson.-

The Rev. William S. Plummer, D.D., of
Richmond, a member of the Old-school Pres-
byterian Church, is another instance of the
same sort. He was absent from Richmond
at the time the clergy in that city purged
themselves, in a body, from the charge of
being favorably disposed to abolition. On
his return, he lost no time in communicating
to the " Chairman of the Committee of Cor-
respondence " his agreement with his clerical
brethren. The passages quoted occur in his
letter to the chairman :

I have carefully watched this matter from its
earliest existence, and everything I have seen or
heard of its cliaracter, both from its patrons and
its enemies, has confirmed me, beyond repentance,
in the belief, that, let the character of abolition-
ists be wliat it may in the sight of the Judge of
all the earth, this is the most meddlesome, impu-
dent, reckless, fierce, and wicked excitement L
ever saw.

If abulitionists will s?t the country in a blaze,
it is but lair that they should receive the fii'st
warming at the fire.

Lastly. Abolitionists are like infidels, wholly
unaddictod to martyrdom for opinion's sake. Let
them understand that they will be caught [Lynched]
if they come among us, and they will take good
heed to keep out of our way. There is not one
man among them who has any more idea of shed-

ding his blood in this cause than he has of making
war on the (jirand Tui-k.

The Rev. Dr. Hill, of Virginia, said, in
the New School Assembly :

The abolitionists have made the servitude of
the slave harder. If I could tell you some of the
dirty tricks which these al)olitionists have plaj'ed,
you would not wonder. Some of tliem have been
Lynched, and it served them right.

These things sufficiently show the estimate
which the Southern clergy and church have
formed and expressed as to tlie relative value
of slavery and the right of free inquiry. It
shows, also, that they consider slavery as so
important that they can tolerate and encour-
age acts of lawless violence, and risk all the
dangers of encouraging mob law, for its sake.
These passages and considerations sufficiently
show the stand which the Southern church
takes upon this subject.

For many of these opinions, shocking as
they may appear, some apology may be
found in that blinding power of custom and
all those deadly educational influences which
always attend the system of slavery, and
which must necessarily produce a certain ob-
tuseness of the moral sense in the mind of
any man who is educated from childhood
under them.

There is also, in the habits of mind formed
under a system which is supported by con-
tinual resort to force and violence, a neces-
sary deadening of sensibility to the evils of
force and violence, as applied to other sub-
jects. The whole style of civilization which
is formed under such an institution has been
not unaptly denominated by a popular writer
"the bowie-knife style;" and we must not
be surprised at its producing a peculiarly
martial cast of religious character, and ideas
very much at variance with the spirit of the
gospel. A religious man, born and educated
at the South, has all these difficulties to con-
tend with, in elevating himself to the true
spirit of the gospel.

It was said by one that, after the Reform-
ation, the best of men, being educated under
a system of despotism and force, and accus-
tomed from childhood to have force, and not
argument, made the test of opinion, came to
look upon all controversies very much in a
Smithfield light, — the. question being not as
to the propriety of burning heretics, but as
to which party ought to be burned.

The system of slavery is a simple retro-
gression of society to the worst abuses of the
middle ages. We must not therefore be sur-
prised to find the opinions and practices of

204

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the middle ages, as to civil and religious
toleration, prevailing.

However much we may reprobate and de-
plore those unworthy views of God and reli-
gion which are implied in such declarations
as are here recorded, — however blasphemous
and absurd they may appear, — still, it is ap-
parent that their authors uttered them with
sincerity ; and this is the most melancholy
feature of the case. They are as sincere as
Paul when he breathed out threatenings and
slaughter, and when he thought within him-
self that he ought to do many things contrary
to the name of Jesus. They are as sincere
as the Brahmin or Hindoo, conscientiously
supporting a religion of cruelty and blood.
They are as sincere as many enlightened,
scholarlike and Christian men in modern Eu-
rope, who, born and bred under systems of
civil and religious despotism, and having them
entwined with all their dearest associations
of home and country, and having all their
habits of thought and feeling biased by them,
do most conscientiously defend them.

There is something in conscientious con-
viction, even in case of the worst kind of
opinions, which is not without a certain de-
gree of respectability. That the religion
expressed by the declarations which we have
quoted is as truly Antichrist as the religion
of the Church of Rome, it is presumed no
sensible person out of the sphere of American
influences will deny. That there may be
very sincere Christians under this system of
religion, with all its false principles and all
its disadvantageous influences, liberality must
concede. The Church of Rome has had its
Fenelon, its Tliomas a Kempis; and the
Southern Church, which has adopted these
principles, has had men who have risen
above the level of their system. At the
time of the Reformation, and now, the
Church of Rome had in its bosom thou-
sands of praying, devoted, humble Christians,
which, like flowers in the clefts of rocks,
could be counted by no eye, save God's alone.
And so, amid the rifts and glaciers of this
horrible spiritual and temporal despotism, we
hope are blooming flowers of Paradise, pa-
tient? prayerful, and self-denying Christians;
and it is the deepest grief, in attacking the
dreadful system under which they have been
born and brought up, that violence must be
done to their cherished feelings and associa-
tions. In another and better world, perhaps,
they may appreciate the motives of those
who do this.

But now another consideration comes to
the mind. These Southern Christians have

been united in ecclesiastical relations with
Christians of the northern and free states,
meeting with them, by their representatives,
yearly, in their various ecclesiastical assem-
blies. One might hope, in case of such a
union, that those debasing views of Chris-
tianity, and thatdeadness of pubhc sentiment,
which were the inevitable result of an educa-
tion under the slave system, might have been
qualified by intercourse with Christians in
free states, who, having grown up under free
institutions, would naturally be supposed to
feel the utmost abhorrence of such sentiments.
One would have supposed that the church
and clergy of the free states would naturally
have used the most strenuous endeavors, by
all the means in their power, to convince
their brethren of errors so dishonorable to
Christianity, and tending to such dreadful
practical results. One would have supposed
also, that, failing to convince their brethren,
they would have felt it due to Christianity to
clear themselves from all complicity with
these sentiments, by the most solemn, earnest
and reiterated protests.

Let us now inquire what has, in fact, been
the course of the Northern church on this
subject.

Previous to making this inquiry, let us
review the declarations that have been made
in the Southern church, and see what prin-
ciples have been established by them.

1. That slavery is an innocent and law-
ful relation, as much as that of parent and
child, husband and wife, or any other lawful
relation of society, (Harmony Pres., S. C.)

2. That it is consistent with the most
fraternal regard for the good of the slave.
(Charleston Union Pres., S. C.)

3. That masters ought not to be disci-
plined for selling slaves without their con-
sent. (New-school Pres. Church, Peters-
burg, Va.)

4. That the right to buyj sell, and hold
men for purposes of gain, was given by
express permission of God. (James Smylie
and his Presbyteries.)

5. That the laws which forbid the educa-
tion of the slave are right, and meet the
approbation of the reflecting part of the
Christian community. (Ibid.)

6. That the fact of slavery is not a ques-
tion of morals at all, but is purely one of
political economy. (Charleston Baptist As-
sociation.)

7. The right of masters to dispose of the
time of their slaves has been distinctly
recognized by the Creator of all things-
(Ibid.)

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

205

8. That slavery, as it exists in these
United States, is not a moral evil. (Georgia
Conference, Methodist.)

9. That, without a new revelation from
heaven, no man is entitled to pronounce
slavery wrong.

10. That the separation of slaves by sale
should be regarded as separation by death,
and the parties allowed to marry again.
(Shiloh Baptist Ass., and Savannah River
Ass.)

11. That the testimony of colored mem-
bers of the churches shall not be taken
against a white person. (Methodist Church.)

In addition, it has been plainly avowed,
by the expressed principles and practice of
Christians of various denominations, that they
regard it right and proper to put down all
inquiry upon this subject by Lynch law.
, One would have imagined that these prin-
ciples were sufficiently extraordinary, as
coming from the professors of the religion
of Christ, to have excited a good deal of
attention in their Northern brethren. It
also must be seen that, as principles, they
are principles of very extensive application,
underlying the whole foundations of religion
and morality. If not true, they were cer-
tainly heresies of no ordinary magnitude,
mvolving no ordinary results. Let us now
return to our mquiry as to the course of
the Northern church in relation to them.

CHAPTER IL

In the first place, have any of these
opinions ever been treated in the church as
heresies, and the teachers of them been sub-
jected to the censures with which it is
thought proper to visit heresy ?

After a somewhat extended examination
upon the subject, the writer has been able
to discover but one instance of this sort.
It may be possible that such cases have
existed in other denominations, which have
escaped inquiry.

A clergyman in the Cincinnati N. S. Pres-
bytery maintained the doctrine that slave-
holding was justified by the Bible, and for
persistence in teaching this sentiment was
suspended by that presbytery. He appealed
to Synod, and the decision was confirmed by
the Cincinnati Synod. The New School
General Assembly, however, reversed this
decision of the presbytery, and restored the
standing of the clergyman. The presbytery,

on its part, refused to receive him back, and
he was received into the Old School Church.

The Presbyterian Church has probably
exceeded all other churches of the United
States in its zeal for doctrinal opinions.
This church has been shaken and agitated to
its very foundation with questions of heresy ;
but, except in this individual case, it is not
known that any ©f these principles which
have been asserted by Southern Presbyterian
bodies and individuals have ever been dis-
cussed in its General Assembly as matters
of heresy.

About the time that Smylie's pamphlet
came out, the Presbyterian Church was
convulsed with the trial of the Rev. Albert
Barnes for certain alleged heresies. These
heresies related to the federal headship of
Adam, the propriety of imputing his sin to
all his posterity, and the question whether
men have any ability of an^ kind to obey
the commandments of God.

For advancing certain sentiments on these
topics, Mr. Barnes was silenced by the vote
of the synod to which he belonged, and his
trial in the General Assembly on these
points was the all-engrossing topic in the
Presbyterian Church for some time. The
Rev. Dr. L. Beecher went through a trial
with reference to similar opinions. During
all this time, no notice was taken of the
heresy, if such it be, that the right to buy,
sell, and hold men for purposes of gain,
was expressly given by God ; although that
heresy was publicly promulgated in the
same Presbyterian Church, by Mr. Smylie,
and the presbyteries with which he was con-
nected.

If it be accounted for by saying that the
question of slavery is a question of 'practi-
cal Tnorals^ and not of dogmatic theology,
we are then reminded that questions of
morals of far less magnitude have been dis-
cussed with absorbing interest.

The Old School Presbyterian Church, in
whose communion the greater part of the
slave-holding Presbyterians of the South are
found, has never felt called upon to discipline
its members for upholding a system which
denies legal marriage to all slaves. Yet this
church was agitated to its very foundation
by the discussion of a question of morals
which an impartial observer would probably
consider of far less magnitude, namely,
whether a man might lawfully marry his
deceased wife's sister. For the time, all
the strength and attention of the church
seemed concentrated upon this important
subject. The trial went from Presbytery to

206

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Synod, and from Synod to General Assem-
bly ; and ended with deposing a very respect-
able minister for this crime.

Rev. Robert P. Breckenridge, D.D., a
member of the Old School Assembly, has
thus described the state of the slave popu-
lation as to their marriage relations : " The
system of slavery denies to a whole class of
human beings the sacredness of marriage
and of home, compelling them to live in a
state of concubinage ; for in the eye of the
law no colored slave-man is the husband of
any wife in particular, nor any slave-woman
the wife of -any husband in particular; no
slave-man is the father of any children in
particular, and no slave-child is the child of
any parent in particular."

Now, had this church considered the fact
that three million men and women were, by
the laws of th^ land, obliged to live in this
manner, as of equally serious consequence,
it is evident, from the ingenuity, argument,
vehemence, Biblical research, and untiring
eeal, which they bestowed on Mr. McQueen's
trial, that they could have made a very
Btrong case with regard to this also.

The history of the united action of de-
nominations which included churches both
in the slave and free states is a melancholy
exemplification, to a reflecting mind, of that
gradual deterioration of the moral sense
which results from admitting any compro-
mise, however slight, with an acknowledged
sin. The best minds in the world cannot
bear such a familiarity without injiM-y to the
moral sense. The facts of the slave system
and of the slave laws, when presented to
disinterested judges in Europe, have excited
a universal outburst of horror ; yet, in assem-
blies composed of the wisest and best cler-
gymen of America, these ^things have been
discussed from year to year, and yet brought
no results that have, in the slightest degree,
lessened the evil. The reason is this. A
portion of the members of these bodies had
pledged themselves to sustain the system,
and p(?remptorily to refuse and put down all
discussion uf it ; and the other part of the
body did not consider this stand so taken as
being of sufficiently vital consequence to
authorize se[)aration.

Nobody will doubt that, had the Southern
members taken such a stand against the
divinity of our Lord, the division would
have been iininediato and unanimous; but
yet the Southern members do maintain the
right to buy and sell, lease, hire and mort-
gage, multitudes of men and women, whom,
with the same breath, they declared to be

members of their churches and true Chris-
tians. The Bible declares of all such that
they are temples of the Holy Ghost ; that '
they are members of Christ's body, of his
flesh and bones. Is not the doctrine that
men may lawfully sell the members of
Christ, his body, his flesh and bones, for
purposes of gain, as really a heresy as the
denial of the divinity of Christ ; and is it
not a dishonor to- Him who is over all. God
blessed forever, to tolerate this dreadful
opinion, with its more dreadful consequences,
while the smallest heresies concerning the
imputation of Adam's sin are pursued with
eager vehemence'? If the history of the
action of all the bodies thus united can be
traced downwards, we shall find that, by
reason of this tolerance of an admitted sin,
the anti-slavery testimony has every year
grown vreaker and weaker. If we look over
the history of all denominations, we shall
see that at first they used very stringent
language with relation to slavery. This is
particularly the case with the Methodist and
Presbyterian bodies, and for that reason we
select these two as examples. The Methodist
Society especially, as organized by John
Wesley, was an anti-slavery society, and the
Book of Discipline contained the most })Osi-
tive statutes against slave-holding. The
history of the successive resolutions of the
conference of this church is very striking.
In 1780, before the church was regularly
organized in the United States, they resolved
as follows :

The conference acknowledges that slavery is
contrary to the hxws of God, man and nature,
and hurtful to society ; contrary to tlie dictates of
conscience and true religion ; and doing wiiat we
would not others should do unto us.

In 1784, when the church was fully or-
ganized, rules were adopted prescrihing the
times at which members who were already
slave-holders should emancipate their slaves. -^
These rules were succeeded by the following :

Every person concerned, who will not comply
with these rules, shall luive li})erty quietly to
withdraw from our society witliin the twol .'o
u\onths following the notice being given him, as
aforesaid ; otherwise the assistants shall exclude
him from the society.

No person holding slaves shall in future be
admitted into society, or to the Lord's Supper,
till he previously comply with these rules concern-
ing slavery.

Those who buy, sell, or give [slaves] away,
unless on purpose to free them, shall be exj^elled
immediately.

In 1801: .

We declare tliat we are more than ever con-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S :ABIN.

207

vincod of the great evil of African slavery, •which
Btill exists in these United States.

Every member of the society who sells a slave
shall, immediately after full proof, be excluded
from the society, &c.

The Annual Conferences are directed to draw-
up addresses, for the gradual emancipation of the
slaves, to the legislature. Proper committees
shall he appointed l)y the Annual Conferences, out
of the most respectable of our friends, for the
conducting of the business ; and the presiding
elders, deacons, and travelling preachers, shall
procure as many proper signatures as possible to
the ad(h-esses ; and give all the assistance in their
power, in every respect, to aid the committees, and
to further tlie blessed undertaking. Let this be
continued I'rom year to year, till the desired end
be accomplished.

In 1836 l6t us notice the change. The
General Conference held its annual, session
in Cincinnati, and resolved as follows :

Resolved, By the delegates of the Annual Con-
ferences in General Conference assembled. That
they are decidedly opposed to modern abolition-
ism, and u'holly disclaim any right, wish, or inten-
tion, to interfere in the civil and political relation
between master and slave, as it exists in the slave-
holding stales of this Union.

Tliese resolutions were passed bj a very
large majority. An address was received
from the Wcsleyan Methodist Conference in
England, affectionately remonstrating on the
subject of slavery. The Conference re-
fused to publish it. In the pastoral address
to the churches are these passages:

It cannot be unknown to you that the question
of slavery in the United States, by the constitu-
tional CDiiipact which binds us together as a nation,
is left to l)e regulated by the several state legis-
latures tl'.emseives ; and thereby is put beyond the
control of the general government, as well as that
of all eci-lesiistic.il bodies ■ it being manifest that
in the sl.ive-holding states themselves the entire
responsi'iility of its existence, or non-existence,
rests with tliose state legislatures. * * * *
These facts, which are only mentioned here as a
reason f.ir tlie friandly admonition which we wish
to give you. constrain us, as your pastors, who are
called ti) watch over your souls as they must give
account, to exhort you to abstain from all abolition
moveuKMits and assoc-iatiims, and to refrain from
patroni/.hig any of their publications, &c. * *

The subordinate conferences showed the
same s|)irii.

In I806 the New York Annual Confer-
ence resolved that no one should be elected
a deacon or elder in the church, unless he
would give a plcilge to the church that he
would refiain from discussing tliis subject.*

In 188S the conference resolved :

As the sense of this conference, that any of its
members, or probationers, who shall patronize
Zion's Watchman , cither by writing in commend-

* This res'-'ution is given in Birney's pamphlet.

ation of its character, by circulating it, recom-
mending it to our people, or procuring subscribers,
or by collecting or remitting moneys, shall be
deemed guilty of indiscretion, and dealt with ac-
cordingly.

It will be recollected that Zmi^s Watch-
man was edited by Le Roy Sunderland, for
whose abduction the State of Alabama had
offered fifty thousand dollars.

In 1840, the General Conference at Bal-
timore passed the resolution that we have
already quoted, forbidding preachers to allow
colored persons to give testimony in their
churches. It has been computed that about
eighty thousand people were deprived of the
right of testimony by this act. This Metho-
dist Church subsequently broke into a North-
ern and Southern Conference. The South-
ern Conference is avowedly all pro-slavery,
and the Northern Conference has still in its
communion slave-holding conferences and
members.

Of the Northern conferences, one of the
largest, the Baltimore, passed the following :

Resolved, That this conference disclaims having
any fellowship with abolitionism. On the con-
trary, while it is determined to maintain its well-
known and long-established position, by keeping
the travelling preachers composing its own body
free from slavery, it is also determined not to hold
connection with any ecclesiastical body that shall
make non-slaveholding a condition of membership
in the church ; but to stand by and maintain the
discipline as it is.

The following extract is made from an ad-
dress of the Philadelphia Annual Conference
to the societies under its care, dated Wil-
mington Del., April 7, 1847 :

If the plan of separation gives us the pastoral
care of you, it remains to inquire whether we have
done anything, as a conference, or as men, to for-
feit your confidence and affection. We are not
advised that even in the great excitement 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 ex-
citement among you is, that some suspect us, or
affect to suspect us, of being abolitionists. Yet
no particular act of the conference, or any partic-
ular member thereof, is adduced, as the ground of
the erroneous and injurious suspicion. VVe would
ask you, brethren, whether the conduct of our
ministry among you for sixty ye.ars past ouglit
not to be sufficient to protect us from this cliarge.
Whether the question we have been accustomed,
for a few years past, to put to candidates for
admission among us, namely, Are you an aboli-
tionist ? and, witliout each one answered in the
negative, he was not received, ouglit not to protect
us from the charge. Whether the action of the
last conference on this particular matter ought
not to L^atisfy any fair and candid mind that we are

208

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

not, and do not desire to be, abolitionists. * * *
We cannot see how we can be regarded as aboli-
tionists, without the ministers of the Methodist
Episcopal 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. Kennadat,

Ignatius T. Cooper, V Comm,
William H. Gilder,
Joseph Castle,

These facts sufficiently define the position
of the Methodist Church. The history is
melancholy, but instructive. The history of
the Presbyterian Church is also of interest.

In 1793, the following note to the eighth
commandment was inserted in the Book of
Discipline, as expressing the doctrine of the
church upon slave-holding :

1 Tim. 1 : 10. The law is made for man-stealers.
This crime among the Jews exposed the perpetra-
tors of it to capital punishment, Exodus 21 : 15 ;
and the apostle here classes them with sinners of
the first rank. The word he uses, in its original
import, comprehends all who are conqerned in
bringing any of the human race into slavery, or in
retaining tJiern in it. Hominiim fures, qxu servos
vfil liheros abducinit, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt.
Stealers of men are all those who bring off slaves
or freemen, and keep, sell, or buy them. To steal a
free man, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft.
In other instances, we only steal human property ;
but when we steal or retain men in slavery, we
seize those who, in common with ourselves, are
constituted by the original grant lords of the earth.

No rules of church discipline were en-
forced, and members whom this passage de-
clared guilty of this crime remained undis-
turbed in its communion, as ministers and
ciders. This inconsistency was obviated in
1816 by expunging the passage from the
Book of Discipline. In 1818 it adopted an
expression of its views on slavery. This
document is a long one, conceived and writ-
ten in a very Christian spirit. The Assembly's
Digest says, p. 341, that it viaBvnanlmously
adopted. The following is its testimony as
to the nature of slavery :

We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part
of the human race by anotlier as a gross violation
of tlie most precious and sacred riglits of human
nature ; as utterly inconsistent with the law of
God, wliicli rccjuiros us to love our neiglibor as
ourselves ; and as totally irreconcilable with the
spirit and principles of the gospelof Christ, which
enjoin that " all things whatsoever yo would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
Slavery creates a paradox in the moral systoiii —
it exhibits rational, accountable, and innnortal
beings in such circumstancos as scarcely to leave
them the power of moral action. Itcxhibits them
as dependent on the will of otiiers, whether they
eliall receive religious ia.structiun ; whether they
shall know and worship the true God ; whether

they shall enjoy the ordinances of the gospel ;
whether they shall perform the duties and cherish
the endearments of husbands and wives, parents
and children, neighbors and friends ; whether they
shall preserve their chastity and purity, or regard
the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are
some of the consequences of slavery, — conse-
quences not imaginary, but which connect them-
selves with its very existence. The evils to which
the slave is always exposed often take place in
fact, and in their very worst degree and form : and
where all of them do not take place, — as we rejoice
to say that in many instances, through the influence
of the principles of humanity and i-eligion on the
minds of masters, they do not, — still the slave is
deprived of his natural right, degraded as a human
being, and exposed to the danger of passing into
the hands of a master who may inflict upon him
all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity
and avarice may suggest.

This language was surely decided, and it
was unanimously adopted by slave-holders
and non-slaveholders. Certainly one might
think the time of redemption was drawing
nigh. The declaration goes on to say :

It is manifestly the duty of all Christians who
enjoy the light of the presentday, when the incon-
sistency of slavery both with the dictates of hu-
manity and religion has been demonstrated and
is generally seen and achnowUdged, to use honest,
earnest, unwearied endeavors to correct the errors
of former times, and as speedily as possible to
efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtaix
THE complete abolition of slavcry throughout
Christendom and throughout the world.

Here we have the Presbyterian Church,
slave-holding and non-slaveholding, virtually
formed into one great abolition society, as
we have seen the Methodist was.

The assembly then goes on to state that
the slaves are not at present prepared to be
free, — that they tenderly sympathize with
the portion of the church and country that
has had this evil entailed upon them, where
as they say "a great and the most virtuous
part of the community abhor slavery and
wish ITS EXTERMINATION." But they co-
hort them to commence immediately the work
of instructing slaves, with a view to preparing
them for-freedom ; and to let no greater delay
take place than "a regard to public welfare
i/idisjjeiisably domnrnls." "To be governed
by no other considerations than au honest
and impartial regard to the happiness
of- the injured party , 7ininfiuenccd by the
expense and inconvenience which such re-
gard may involve." It warns against " un-
duly extending this plea of ?iecessity,^'
against making it a cover for the lore ana
practice of slavery. It ends by recom-
mending that any one who shall sell a fellow-
Christian without his consent be immediately
disciplined and suspended.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

209

If we coDsidev that this was imanimously
adopted by slave-holders and all, and grant,
as we certainly do, that it was adopted in all
honesty and good faith, we shall surely ex-
pect something from it. We should expect
forthwith the organizing of a set of common
schools for the slave-children; for an efficient
religious ministration ; for an entire discon-
tinuance of trading in Christian slaves ; for
laws which make the family relations sacred.
Was any such thing done or attempted?
Alas ! Two years after this came the admis-
srox OF Missouri, and the increase of de-
mand in the southern slave-market and the
internal slave-trade. Instead of school-
teachers, they had slave-traders; instead of
gathering schools, they gathered slave-cof-
Jles : instead of building school-houses, they
built slave-pens and slave-prisons, jails, bar-
racoons, factories, or whatever the trade pleases
to term them ; and so went the plan of grad-
ual emancipation.

In 1834, sixteen years after, a committee
of the Synod of Kentucky, in which state
slavery is generally said to exist in its
inildest form, appointed to make a report on
the condition of the slaves, gave the follow-
ing picture of their condition. First, as to
their spiritual condition, they say :

After making all reasonable allowances, our
colored population can be considered, at the most,
but semi-heathen. As to their temporal estate
— Brutal stripes, and all the various kinds of per-
sonal indignities, are not the only species of
cruelty which slavery licenses. The law does not
recognize the family relations of the slave, and
extends to him no protection in the enjoyment of
domestic endearments. The members of a slave-
family may be forcibly separated, so that they
shall never more meet until the final judgment.
And cupidity often induces the masters to practise
what tlie law allows. Brothers and sisters, pa-
rents and children, husbands and wives, are torn
asunder, and permitted to see each other no more.
These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us.
The shrieks and the agony often witnessed on
such occasions proclaim with a trumpet-tongue
the iniquity and cruelty of our system. The
cries of these sufferers go up to the ears of the
L<ird of Sabaoth. There is not a neigJiiorhood
where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed.
There is not a village or road that does not behold
the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose
chains and mournful countenances tell that they
are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold
dear. Out church, years ago, raised its voice of
solemn warning against this flagrant violation of
every principle of mercy, justice, aiid humanity.
Yet we blush to announce to you and to the world
that this warning has been often disregarded,
even by those who hold to our communion. Cases
have occurred, in oiir own denomination, where pro-
fessors of the religion of mercy have torn the
mothei from her children, and sent her into a merci-
less flnd retiirnless exile. Yet acts of discipline
have rarely followed such conduct.
14

Hon. James G. Birney, for years a resi-
dent of Kentucky, in his pamphlet, amends
the word rarely by substituting n ever. What
could show more plainly the utter ineffi-
ciency of the past act of the Assembly, and
the necessity of adopting some measures
more efficient? In 1885, therefore, the sub-
ject was urged upon the General Assembly,
entreating them to carry out the principles
and designs they had avowed in 1818.

Mr. Stuart, of Illinois, in a speech he
made upon the subject, said :

I hope this assembly are prepared to come out
fuHy and declare their sentiments, that slave-hold-
ing is a most flagrant and heinous si>f. Let us
not pass it by in this indirect way, while so many
thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow-
creatures are writhing under the lash, often
inflicted, too, by ministers and elders of the Pres-
byterian Church.

* * # ♦ #

In this church a man may take a free-born child,
force it away from its parents, to whom God gave
it in charge, saying "Bring it up forme," and »
sell it as a beast or hold it in perpetual bondage,
and not only escape corporeal punishment, but
really be esteemed an excellent Christian. Nay,
even ministers of the gospel and doctors of divinity
may engage in this unholy traffic, and yet sus-
tain their high and holy calling.

*****

Elders, ministers, and doctors of divinity, are,
with both hands, engaged in the practice.

One would have thought facts like these,
stated in a body of Christians, were enough
to wake the dead ; but. alas ! we can become
accustomed to very awful things. No ac-
tion was taken upon these remonstrances,
except to refer them to a committee, to be
reported on at the ne.tt session, in 1836.

The moderator of the assembly in 1836
was a slave-holder. Dr. T. S. Witherspoon.
the same who said to the editor of the
Emancipator, "I draw my warrant from the
Scriptures of the Old an^New Testament-,
to hold my slaves in bondl^ The princi-
ple of holding the heathen in bondage is
recognized by God. When the tardy pro-
cess of the law is too ^^ng in redi-essing oui-
grievances, we at the South have adopted
the summary process of Judge Lynch.''

The majority of the committee appointed
made a report as follows :

Whereas the subject of slavery is inseparably
connected with the laws of many of the states in
this Union, with which it is by no means prope"-
for an ecclesiastical judicature to interfere, and
involves many considerations in regard to which
great diversity of opinion and intensity of feeling
are known to exist in the churches represented ir
this Assembly : And whereas there is great reasor
to believe that any action on the part of this Aa

210

sembly, in reference to this subject, would tend to
distract and divide our churches, and would
probably in no wise promote the benefit of those
whose welfare is immediately contemplated in the
memorials in question.
Therefore, Resolved,

1. That it is not expedient for the Assembly to
take any further order in relation to this subject.

2. That as the notes which have been expunged
from our public formularies, and which some of
the memorials referred to the committee request
to have restored, were introduced irregularly,
never had the sanction of the church, and there-
fore never possessed any authority, the General
Assem))ly has no power, nor would they think it
expedient, to assign them a place in the authorized
sUindards of the church.

The minority of the committee, the Rev.
Messrs. Dickey and Beman, reported as
follows :

Resolved,

1. That the buying, selling, or holding a human
being as property, is in the sight of God a heinous
sin, and ought to subject the doer of it to the
censures of the church.

2. That it is the duty of every one, and espe-
cially of every Christian, who may be involved in
this sin, to free himself from its entanglement
without delay.

3. That it is the duty of every one, especially
of every Christian, in the meekness and firmness
of the gospel to plead the cause of the poor and
needy, by testifying against the principle and
practice of slave-holding ; and to use his best en-
deavors to deliver the church of God from the
evil ; and to bring about the emancipation of the
slaves in these United States, and throughout the
world.

The slave-holding delegates, to the number
of forty-eight, met apart ^ and Resolved^

That if the General Assembly shall undertake
to exercise authority on the subject of slavery, so
as to make it an immori^lity, or shall in any way
declare tliat Christians are criminal in holding
slaves, that a declaration shall be presented by
the Southern delegation declining their jurisdiction
in the case, and our determination not to submit
. to such decision.

In view of these conflicting reports, the
. Assembly rcs6lvcd as follows :

Inasmuch as the'constitutiim of the Presbyte-
rian Churcli, in its preliminary and fundamental
princijiles, declares tliat no church judicatories
ought to ])rotend to make laws to bind the con-
: science m virtue of their own authority; and as
I the urgency of the business of tlio Assemlily, and
; the shi)rtiics.s of the time during which they can
continue in session, render it impossible to delib-
erate and decide! judiciously on tlie sulyect of
slavery in its relation to the church ; tlierefore,
Resolved, Tliat tliis whole subject be indelinitely
, postponed.

The amount of the slave-trade at the
time when the General Assembly refused
to act upon the subject of slavery at all,
may be inferred from the following items.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

The Virgi7na Times, in an article pub-
lished in this very year of 1836, estimated
the number of slaves exported for sale
from that state alone, during the twelve
months preceding, at forty thousand. The
Natchez (Miss.) Courier says that in the
same year the States of Alabama, Missouri
and Arkansas, received two hundred and
fifty thousand slaves from the more northern
states. If we deduct from these all who
may be supposed to have emigrated with
their masters, still what an immense trade
is here indicated !

The Rev. James II. Dickey, who moved
the resolutions above presented, had seen
somq sights which would naturally incline
him to wish the Assembly to take some
action on the subject, as appears from the
following account of a slave-coffle, from his
pen.

In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my
family from a visit to the Barrens of Kentucky, I
witnessed a scene such as I never witnessed be
fore, and such as I hope never to witness again.
Having passed through Paris, in Bourbon county,
Ky., the sound of music (beyond a little rising
ground) attracted my attention. I looked for-
ward, and saw the flag of my country waving.
Supposing that I was about to meet a military
parade, I drove hastily to the side of the road ;
and, having gained tlie ascent, I discovered (I sup-
pose) about forty black men all chained together
after the following manner : each of them was
handcufied, and tliey were arranged in rank and
file. A chain perhaps forty feet hmg, the size of
a fifth -horse-chain, was stretclied between the two
ranks, to which short chains were joined, which
connected with the handcuffs. Behind them were,
I suppose, about tliirty vv(jmen, in double rank,
the couples tied hand to hand. A solemn sadness
sat on every countenance, and the dismal silence
of this march of despair was interrupted only by
the sound of two violins ; yes, as if to add insult
to injury, the foremost couple were furnished with
a violin a-piece ; the second couple were orna-
mented with cockades, while near tlie centre
waved the repulilican Hag, carried by a hand liter-
ally in chains. I ctiuld not forbear exclaiming to
the lordly driver who rode at his ease along-side,
" Heaven will curse that man who engages in
such traffic, and the govenuueiit that protects him
in it!" I pursued my journey till evening, and
put up for the night, when I mentioned the
scene I had witnessed. "Ah!" cried my land-
lady, " that i§ my brother!" From her 1 learned
that his name is Stone, of Bourbon county, Ken-
tucky, in partnorshiji with one Fvinningham, of
Paris ; and that a few days before he had pur-
chased a negro-woman from a man in Nicholaa
county. She refused to go with him ; he at-
tempted to compel her, but she defended herself.
Without further ceremony, he stepped back, and,
by a blow on the side of her head with the butt
of Ilia whi}), brought her to the ground ; he tied
her, and drove her oil". 1 learned further, that
besides the drove I had seen, there were about
thirty shut up in the Paris prison for safe-keep-
ing, to be added to the company, luid that they

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

211

were designed for the Orleans market. And to
this they are doomed for no other crime than that
of a black ekia and curled locks. Sliall I not
visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not
my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?

It cannot be possible that these Christian
men realized these things, or, at most, they
realized them just as we realize the most tre-
mendous truths of religion, dimly and feebly.

Two years after, the General Assembly,
by a sudden and very unexpected movement,
passed a vote exscinding, without trial, from
the communion of the church, four synods,
comprising the most active and decided anti-
slavery portions of the church. The reasons
alleo-ed were, doctrinal differences and eccle-
siastical practices inconsistent with Presby-
terianism. By this act about five hundred
ministers and sixty thousand members were
cut off from the Presbyterian Church.

That portion of the Presbyterian Church
called New School, considering this act un-
just, refused to assent to it, joined the ex-
scinded synods, and formed themselves into
the New School General Assembly. In this
communion only three slave-holding pres-
byteries remained. In the old there were
between thirty and forty.

The course of the Old School Assembly,
after the separation, in relation to the sub-
ject of slavery, may be best expressed by
quoting one of their resolutions, passed in
1845. Having some decided anti-slavery
members in its body, and being, moreover,
addressed on the subject of slavery by asso-
ciated bodies, they presented, on this year,
the following deliberate statement of their
policy. (Minutes for 1845, p. 18.)

Resolved, 1st. That the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States was
originally organized, and has since continued the
bond of union in the church, upon the conceded
vrincip/e (hat the existence of domestic slavery, under
the circumstances in which it is found in the South-
ern portion of ilie country, >« no bar to Christian
communion.

2. That the petitions that ask ii.s Assembly to
make tlie holding of sl.ives in itself a matter of
discipline do virtually require this judicatory to
dissolve itself, and abandon the organization under
which, by the divine blessing, it has so long pros-
pered. The tendency is evidently to separate the
Northern from the Southern portion of the church,
— a result which every good Christian must de-
plore, as tending to the dissoluticm of the Union of
our beloved country, and which every enlightened
Christian will oppose, as bringing about a ruinous
and unnecessary schism ^between brethren who
maintain a common faith.

Yeas, Ministers and Elders, 168.

Nays, " " " 13.

It is scarcely necessary to add a comment
to this very explicit declaration. It is the
plainest possible " disclaimer of any protest

against slavery ; the plainest possible state-
ment tliat the existence of the ecclesiastical
organization is of more importance than all
the moral and social considerations which are
involved in a full defence and practice of
American slavery.

The next year a large number of petitions
and remonstrances were presented, request-
ing the Assembly to utter additional testi-
mony against slavery.

In reply to the petitions, the General As-
sembly reaffirmed all their former testimonies
on the subject of slavery for sixty years
back, and also affirmed that the previous
year's declaration must not be understood as
a retraction of that testimony; in other words,
they expressed it as their opinion, in the
words of 1818, that sli^very is " wholly

OPPOSED TO THE LAW OF GoD," and " TO-
TALLY IRRECONCILABLE WITH THE PRE-
CEPTS OF THE GOSPEL OF CiiRiST; " and
yet that they " had formed their church or-
ganization upon the conceded principle that
the existence of it, under the circumstances
in which it is found in the Southern States
of the Union, is no bar to Christian com-
munion."

Some members protested against this ac-
tion. (Minutes, 1846. Overture No. 17.)

Great hopes were at first entertained of the
New School body. As a body, it was com-
posed mostly of anti-slavery men. It had
in it those synods whose anti-slavery opin-
ions and actions had been, to say the least,
one very efficient cause for their excision
from the church. It had only three slave-
holding presbyteries. The power was -all in
its own hands. Now, if ever, was their
time to cut this loathsome incumbrance
wholly adrift, and stand up, in this age of
concession and conformity to the world, a
purely protesting cliurch, free from all com-
plicity with this most dread^ national im-
morality. VBH

On the first session of the Generol
Assembly, this course was most vehemently
urged, by many petitions and memorials.
These memorials were referre<i to a commit-
tee, of decided anti-slavery men. The ar-
gument on one side was, that the time
was now come to take decided measures
to cut free wholly from all pro-slavery com-
plicity, and avow their principles with de-
cision, even though it should repel all such
churches from their communion as were not
prepared for immediate emancipation.

On the other hand, the majority of the
committee were urged by opposing consid-
erations. The brethren from slave states
made to them representations somcT^ like

212

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

these: "Brethren, our hearts are with
you. We are with you in faith, in char-
ity, in prayer. We sympathized in the
injury that had been done you by excision.
We stood by you then, and are ready to
stand by you still. We have no sympathy
with the party that have expelled you, and
we do not wish to go back to them. As to
this matter of slavery, we do not differ from
you. We consider it an evil. We mourn
and lament over it. We are trying, by
gradual and peaceable means, to exclude it
from our churches. We are going as far in
advance of the sentiment of our churches as
.we consistently can. We cannot come up to
more decided action without losing our hold
over them, and, as we think, throwing back
the cause of emancipation. If you begin in
this decided manner, we cannot hold our
churches in the union ; they will divide, and
go to the Old School."

Here was a very strong plea, made by
good and sincere men. It was an appeal,
too, to the most generous feelings of the
heart. It was, in effect, saying, ' ' Brothers, we
stood by you, and fought your battles, when
everything was going against you ; and, now
that you have the power in your hands, are
you going to use it so as to cast us out 7"

These men, strong anti-slavery men as
they were, were affected. One member of
the committee foresaw and feared the result.
He felt and suggested that the course pro-
posed conceded the whole question. The
majority thought, on the whole, that it was
best to postpone the subject. The com-
mittee reported that the applicants, for
reasons satisfactory to themselves, had with-
drawn their papers.

The next year, in 1839, the subject was
resumed ; and it was again urged that the
Assembly should take high and decided
and unmistakable ground ; and certainly, if
we consider ^bat all this time not a single
church had emancipated its slaves, and that
the power of the institution was everywhere
stretching and growing and increasing, it
would certainly seem that something more
eflBcient was necessary than a general un-
derstanding that the church agreed with the
testimony delivered in 1818. It was strongly
represented that it was time something was
done. This year the Assembly decided to
refer the subject to pres])yterie3, to do what
they deemed advisable. The words employed
were these : '^ Solemnly referring the whole
wbject to the lower judicatories, to take
uch action as in their judgment ij 'Host

judicious, and adapted to remove the evil."
This of course deterred, but did not avert,
the main question.

This brought, in 1840, a much larger
number of memorials and petitions ; and
very strong attempts were made by the
abolitionists to obtain some decided action.

The committee this year referred to what
had been done last year, and declared it in-
expedient to do anything further. The
subject was indefinitely postponed. At this
time it was resolved that the Assembly
should meet only once in three years.* Ac-
cordingly, it did not meet till 1843. In
1843, several memorials were again pre-
sented, and some resolutions offered to the
Assembly, of which this was one (Minutes of
the General Assembly for 1843, p. 15) :

Resolved, That we affectionately and earnestly
urge upon the Ministers, Sessions, Presbyteries
and Synods connected with this Assembly, that
they treat this as all other sins of great magni-
tude ; and, by a diligent, kind and faithful appli-
cation of the means which God has given them,
by instruction, remonstrance, reproof and effective
discipline, seek to purify the church of this great
iniquity.

This resolution they
passed the following :

declined. They

Whereas there is in this Asseniblv great diver-
sity of opinion as to the proper and best mode of
action on the subject of slavery ; and whereas,
in such circumstances, any expression of senti-
ment would carry with it but little weight, as it
would be passed by a small majority, and must
operate to produce alienation and division ; and
whereas the Assembly of 1830, with great unan^
imity, referred this whole subject to the lower
judicatories, to take such order as in their judg-
ment might be adapted to remove the evil ; — Re-
solved, That the Assembly do not think it for the
edification of the church for this body to take any
action oa the subject.

They, however, passed the following :

Resolved, That the fashionable amusement of
promiscuous dancing is so entirely unscriptural,
and eminently and exclusively that of " the world
which lieth in wickedness," and so wholly incon-
sistent with the spirit of Christ, and with that
propriety of Christian deportment and that purity
of heart which his followers are bound to maintain,
as to render it not only improper and injurious for
professing Christians either to partake in it, or to
qualify their children for it, by toacliing them tiio
art, but also to call for the faithful and judirious
exercise of discipline on the part of Church Ses-
sions, when any of the members of their churches
have been guilty.

Three years after, in 1846, the General

* The synods woro also mode courts of last appeal iu
judicial casoa.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

513

Assembly published the following declaration
of sentiment:

1 . The system of slavery, as it exists in these
United States, viewed either in the laws of the
several states which sanction it, or in its actual
operation and results in society, is intrinsically
unrighteous and oppressive ; and is opposed to the
prescriptions of the law of God, to the spirit and
precepts of the gospel, and to the best interests
of humanity.

2. The testimony of the General Assembly,
from A. D. 1787 to A. D. 1818, inclusive, has
condemned it ; and it remains still the recorded
testimony of the Presbyterian Church of these
United States against it, from which we do not
recede.

3. We cannot, therefore, withhold the expres-
sion of our deep regret that slavery should be
continued and countenanced by any of the mem-
bers of our churches ; and we do earnestly exhort
both them and the churches among whom it
exists to use all means in their power to put it
away from them. Its perpetuation among them
cannot fail to be regarded by multitudes, influenced
by their example, as sanctioning the system por-
trayed in it, and maintained by the statutes of the
several slave-holding states, wherein they dwell.
Nor can any mere mitigation of its severity,
prompted by the humanity and Christian feeling
of any who continue to hold their fellow-men in
bondage, be regarded either as a testimony against
the system, or as in the least degree changing its
essential- character.

4. But, while we believe that many evils inci-
dent to the system render it important and obli-
gatory to bear testimony against it, yet would we
not undertake to determine the degi'ee of moral
turpitude on the part of individuals involved by
it. This will doubtless be found to vary, in the
sight of God, according to the degree of light and
other circumstances pertaining to each. In view
of all the embarrassments and obstacles in the
way of emancipation interposed by the statutes
of the slave-holding states, and by the social influ-
ence affecting the views and conduct of those
involved in it, we cannot pronounce a judgment of
general and promiscuous condemnation, implying
that destitution of Christian principle and teeling
which should exclude from the table of the Lord
all who should stand in the legal relation of mas-
ters to slaves, or justify us in withholding our
ecclesiastical and Christian fellowship from them.
Wo rather sympathize witli, and would seek to
succor them in tlieir embarrassments, believing
that separation and secession among the churches
and their members are not the methods God
approves and sanctions for the reformation of his
church.

5. While, thcref ire, we feel bound to bear our
testimony against slavery, and to exhort our be-
loved brethren to remove it from them as speedily
as possible, by all appropriate and available
means, we do at the same time condemn all divi-
sive and schismatical measures, tending to destroy
the unity and disturb the peace of our church,
and deprecate the spirit of denunciation and in-
flicting severities, w .:ich would cast from the fold
thos<3 whom we are rather bound, by the spirit of
the gospel, and the obligations of our covenant,
to instruct, to counsel, to exhort, and thus to lead
in the ways of God ; and towards whom, even

though they may err, we ought to exercise for-
bearance and brotherly love.

6. As a court of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
possess no legislative authority ; and as the Gen-
eral Assemljly of the Presbyterian Church, we
possess no judiciary autliority. AVe have no right
to institute and pjrescribe a test of Christian cliar-
acter and church membership, not recognized and
sanctioned in the sacred Scriptures, and in our
standards, by which we have agreed to walk. We
must leave, therefore, this matter with the ses-
sions, presbyteries and s3'nods, — the judicatories
to whom pertains the right of judgment to act ii)
the administration of discipline, as they may
judge it to be their duty, constitutionally subjecc
to the General Assemljly only in the way of gen
eral review and control.

When a boat is imperceptibly going down
stream on a gentle but strong current, we
can see its passage only by comparing ob-
jects with each other on the shore.

If this declaration of the New-school
General Assembly be compared with that of
1818, it will be found to be far less out-
spoken and decided in its tone, while in the
mean time slavery had become four-fold more
powerful. In 1818 the Assembly states that
the most virtuous portion of the community
in slave states abhor slavery, and wish its
extermination. In 1846 the Assembly
states with regret that slavery is still con-
tinued and countenanced by any of the
members of our churches. The testimony
of 1818 has the frank, outspoken air of a
unanimous document, where there was but
one opinion. That of 1846 has. the guarded
air of a compromise ground out between the
upper and nether millstone of two contend-
ing parties, — it is winnowed, guarded, cau-
tious and careful.

Considering the document, however, in
itself, it is certainly a very good one ; and it
would be a very proper expression of Chris-
tian feeling, had it related to an evil of any
common magnitude, and had it been uttered
in any common crisis ; bdb|fjl|t us consider
what was the evil attaclMS^and what was
the crisis. Consider the picture which the
Kentucky Synod had drawn of the actual
state of thinojs amono; them : — " The mem-
bers of slave-families separated, never to
meet again until the final judgment; broth-
ers and sisters, parents and children, hus-
bands and wives, daily torn asunder, and
permitted to see each other no more ; the
shrieks and agonies, proclaiming as with
trumpet-tongue the iniquity and cruelty of
the system ; the cries of the suft'erers go-
ing up to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth
not a neighborhood where those heart-rend-
ing scenes are not displayed ; not a village

214

KEF TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

or road without the sad procession of mana-
cled outcasts, whose chains and mournful
countenances tell thej are exiled by force
from all that heart holds dear; Christian
professors rending the mother from her child,
to sell her into returnless exile."

This was the language of the Kentucky
Synod fourteen years before ; and those scenes
had been going on ever since, and are going
on now, as the advertisements of every
Southern paper show ; and yet the church
of Christ since 1818 had done nothing but
express regret, and hold grave metaphysical
discussions as to whether slavery was an
" evil per 5e," and censure the rash action
of men who, in utter despair of stopping
the evil any other way, tried to stop it by
excluding slave-holders from the church. As
if it were not better that one slave-holder in
a hundred should stay out of the church, if
he be peculiarly circumstanced, than that
all this horrible agony and iniquity should
continually receive the sanction of the
church's example ! Should not a generous
Christian man say, "If church excision will
stop this terrible evil, let it come, though it
does bear hardly upon me ! Better that I
suffer a little injustice than that this horri-
ble injustice be still credited to the account
of Christ's church. Shall I embarrass the
whole church with my embarrassments ?
What if I am careful and humane in my
treatment of my slaves, — what if, in my
heart, I have repudiated the wicked doctrine
that they are my property, and am treating
them as my brethren, — what am I then
doing ] All the credit of my example goes
to give force to the system. The church
ought to reprove this fearful injustice,
and reprovers ought to have clean hands ;
and if I cannot really get clear of this, I
had better keep out of the church till I
can." ii^

Let us consiH^also, the awful intrench-
ments and streno;th of the evil against which
this very moderate resolution was discharged.
"A money power of two thousand millions of
dollars, held by a small body of able and
desperate men ; that body raised into a po-
litical aristocracy by special constitutional
provisions; cotton, the product of slave-
labor, forming the basis of our whole foreign
commerce, and the commercial class thus
subsidized ; the press bought up ; the
Southern pulpit reduced to vassalage ; the
heart of the common people chilled by a
bitter prejudice against the black race ; and
our leading men bribed by ambition either,

to silence or open hostility."* And now, m
this condition of things, the whole weight
of these churches goes in support of
slavery, from the fact of their containing
slave-holders. No matter if they did not
participate in the abuses of the system ; no-
body wants them to do that. The slave-
power does not wish professors of religion to
separate families, or over-work their slaves,
or do any disreputable thing, — that is not
their part. The slave power wants pious,
tender-hearted, generous and humane mas-
ters, and must have them, to hold up the
system against the rising moral sense of the
world ; and the more pious and generous the
better. Slavery could not stand an hour
without these men. What then 7 These
men uphold the system, and that great
anti-slavery body of ministers uphold these
men. That is the final upshot of the mat-
ter.

Paul says that we must remember those
that are in bonds, as bound with them. Sup-
pose that this General Assembly had been
made up of men who had been fugitives.
Suppose one of them had had his daughters
sent to the New Orleans slave-market, like
Emily and Mary Edmondson ; that another's
daughter had died on the overland passage
in a slave-coffle, with no nurse but a slave-
driver, hke poor Emily Russell ; another's
wife died broken-hearted, when her chil-
dren were sold out of her bosom ; and
another had a half-crazed mother, whose
hair had been turned prematurely white
with agony. Suppose these scenes of ago-
nizing partings, with shrieks and groans,
which the Kentucky Synod says have been
witnessed so long among the slaves, had
been seen in these ministers' families, and
that they had come up to this discussion
with their hearts as scarred and seared
as the heart of poor old Paul Edmondson,
when he came to New York to beg for his
daughters. Suppose that they saw that the
horrid system by which all this had been
done was extending every hour ; that pro-
fessed Christians in every denomination at
the South declared it to be an appointed in-
stitution of God ; that all the wealth, and ali
the rank, and all the fashion, in the country,
were committed in its favor ; and that they,
like Aaron, were sent to stand between the
living and the dead, that the plague might
be stayed.

Most humbly, most earnestly, let it be

* Speech of W. Phillips, Boston.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

215

submitted to the Christians of this nation,
and to Christians of all nations, for such an
hour and such a crisis was this action suf-
ficient '? Did it do anything '? Has it had
the least effect in stopping the evil? And, in
such ■ a horrible time, ought not something
to be done which will have that effect ?

Let us continue the history. It will be
observed that the resolution concludes by re-
ferring the subject to subordinate judicatories.
The New School Presbytery of Cincinnati, in
which were the professors of Lane Seminary,
suspended Mr. Graham from the ministry for
teaching that the Bible justified slavery;
thereby establishing the principle that this
was a heresy inconsistent with Christian
fellowship. The Cincinnati Synod con-
firmed this decision. The General Assem-
bly reversed this decision, and restored Mr.
Graham. The delegate from that presby-
tery told them that they would never re-
trace their steps, and so it proved. The
Cincinnati Presbytery refused to receive him
back. All honor be to them for it ! Here,
at least, was a principle established, as far
as the New School Cincinnati Presbytery is
concerned, — and a principle as far as the
General Assembly is concerned. By this
act the General Assembly established the
fact that the New School Presbyterian
Church had not decided the Biblical defence
of slavery to be a heresy.

For a man to teach that there are not
three persons in the Trinity is heresy.

For a man to teach that all these three
Persons authorize a system which even Ma-
hometan princes have abolished from mere
natural shame and conscience, is no heresy !

The General Assembly proceeded further
to show that it considered this doctrine no
heresy, in the year 1846, by inviting the
Old School General Assembly to the cele-
bration of the Lord's supper Avith them.
Connected with this Assembly were, not only
Dr. Sraylie, and all those bodies who, among
them, had justifiei.1 not only slavery in the
abstract, but some of its worst abuses, by
the word of God ; yet the New School body
thought these opinions ?to heresy which
should he a bar to Christian communion !

In 1849 the General Assembly declared*
that there had been no information before the
Assembly to prove that the members in
slave states were not doing all that they could,
in the providence of God, to bring about the
possession and enjoyment of liberty by the
enslaved. This is a remarkable declaration,
if we consider that in Kentucky there are

* Minutes of the New School Assembly, p. 188.

no stringent laws against emancipation, and
that, either in Kentucky or Virginia, the
slave can be set free by simply giving him a
pass to go across the line into the next
state.

In 1850 a proposition wag presented in
the Assembly, by the Rev. H. Curtiss, of In-
diana, to the following effect : "That the en-
slaving of men, or holding them as property,
is an offence, as defined tn our Book of Dis-
cipline, ch. 1, sec. 3; and as such it calls^for
intjuiry, correction and removal, in the man-
ner prescribed by our rules, and should be
treated with a due regard to all the ajjcrra-
vating or mitigating circumstances in each
case." Another proposition was from an
elder in Pennsylvania, affirming " that slave-
holding was, prima facie, an offence within
the meaning of our Book of Discipline, and
throwing upon the slave-holder the burden
of showing such circumstances as will take
away from him the guilt of the offence.''*

Both these propositions were rejected.
The following was adopted: " That slavery
is fraught with many and great evils ;
that they deplore the workings of the whole
system of slavery ; that the holding of our
fellow-men in the condition of slavery, except
in those cases where it is unavoidable /rowi
the laws of the state, the obligations of
guardianshij), or the demands of human-
ity, is an offence, in the proper import of
that term, as used in the Book of Discipline,
and should be regarded and treated in the
same manner as other offences ; also refer-
ring this subject to sessions and presbyter-
ies." The vote stood eighty-four to six-
teen, under a written protest of the minor-
ity, who were for no action in the present
state of the country. Let the reader again
compare this action with that of 1818, and
he will see that the boat is still drifting:, — •
especially as even this mo^|rate testimony
was not unanimous. Agaffi^n this year of
1850, they avow themselves ready to meet,
in a spirit of fraternal kindness and Ciiris-
tian love, any overtures for reunion which
may be made to them by the Old School
body.

In 1850 wag passed the cruel fugitive
slave law. What deeds Avere done then !
Then to our free states were transported
those scenes of fear and agony before acted
only on slave soil. Churches were broken
up. Trembling Christians fled. Husbands
and Avives were separated. Then to the
poor African was fulfilled the di-ead doom

* These two resolutions are given on the authority of
Goodel's History. I do not find them in the Minutes

216

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

denounced on the wandering Jew, — " Thou
shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of
thy foot have rest ; but thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day
and night, and shalt have no assurance of
thy life." Then all the world went one
Avay, — all the wealth, all the power, all the
fashion. Now, if ever, was a time for Christ's
church to stand up and speak for the poor.

The General Assembly met. She was
earnestly memorialized to speak out. Never
was a more glorious opportunity to show
that the kingdom of Christ is not of this
world. A protest then, from a body so nu-
merous and respectable, might have saved
the American church from the disgrace
it now wears in the eyes of all nations. 0
that she had once spoken ! What said the
Presbyterian Church'? She said nothings
and the thanks of political leaders were ac-
corded to her. She had done all they de-
sired.

Meanwhile, under this course of things,
the number of presbyteries in slave-holding
states had increased from thi'ee to twenty !
and this church has now under its care from
fifteen to twenty thousand members in slave
states.

So much for the course of a decided anti-
slavery body in union with a few slave-hold-
ing churches. So much for a most discreet,
judicious, charitable, and brotherly attempt
to test by experience the question, "What
communion hath light with darkness, and
what concord hath Christ with Belial 1 The
slave-system is darkness, — the slave-system
is Belial ! and every attempt to harmonize it
with the profession of Christianity will be just
like these. Let it be here recorded, how-
ever, that a small body of tha most deter-
mined opponents of slavery in the Pres-
byterian Church seceded and formed -the
Free Preshyt&mLii Churchy whose terms
of communiorPWe, an entire withdrawal
from slave-holding. Whether this principle
be a correct one, or not, it is worthy of re-
mark that it was adopted and carried out by
the Quakers, — the only body of Christians
involved in this evil Avho have ever suc-
ceeded in freeing themselves from it.

Whether cliurch discipline and censure is
an appropriate medium for correcting such
immoralities and heresies in individuals, or
not, it is enough for the case that this has
been the established opinion and practice of
the Presbyterian Church.

If the argument of Charles Sumner be
contemplated, it will l)c seen that the history
of this Presbyterian Church and the histoi*y

of our United States have strong points
of similarity. In both, at the outset, the
strong influence was anti-slavery, even among
slave-holders. In both there was no differ-
^ence of opinion as to the desirableness of
abolishing slavery ultimately ; both made a
concession, the smallest which could possibly
be imagined ; both made _ the concession in
all good faith, contemplating the speedy re-
moval and extinction of the evil ; and the
history of both is alike. The little point
of concession spread, and absorbed, and ac-
quired, from year to year, till the United
States and the Presbyterian Church stand
just where they do. Worse has be^n the
history of the Methodist Church. The his-
tory of the Baptist Church shows the same
principle ; and, as to the Episcopal Church,
it has never done anything hut comply, either
North or South. It differs from all the rest
in that it has never had any resisting ele-
ment, except now and then a protestant,
like William Jay, a worthy son of him who
signed the Declaration of Independence.

The slave power has been a united, con-
sistent, steady, uncompromising principle.
The resisting element has been, for many
years, wavering, self-contradictory, compro-
mising. There has been, it is true, a deep,
and ever increasing hostility to slavery in
a decided majority of ministers and church-
members in free states, taken as individ-
uals. Nevertheless, the sincere opponents
of slavery have been unhappily divided among
themselves as to principles and measures,
the extreme principles and measures of some
causing a hurtful reaction in others. Besides
this, other great plans of benevolence have
occupied their time and attention ; and the re-
sult has been that they have formed altogether
inadequate conceptions of the extent to Avhich
the cause of God on earth is imperilled by
American slavery, and of the duty of Chris-
tians in such a crisis. They have never had
such a conviction as has aroused, and called
out, and united their energies, on this, as on
other great causes. Meantime, great organic
influences in church and state are, much
against their wishes, neutralizing their iiiflu-
cnce against slavery, — sometimes even ar-
raying it in its favor. The perfect inflex-
ibility of the slave-system, and its absolute
refusal to allow any discussion of the subject,
has reduced all those who wish to hav^ re-
ligious action in .common with slave-holding
churches to the alternative of either giving
up the support of the South for that object,
or giving up their protest against slavery.

Tliis luis held out a strong temptation tc

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

217

men who luive had benevolent and hiudable
objects to carry, and who did not realize the
full peril of the slave-system, nor appreciate
the moral power of Christian protest against
it. When, therefore, cases have arisen where
the choice lay between sacrificing what they
considered the interests of. a good object, or
giving up their right of protest, they have
generally preferred the latter. The decision
has always gone in this way : The slave power
will not concede, — we 'nmst. The South
says, "We will take no religious book that
has anti-slavery principles in it." The Sun-
day School Union drops Mr. Gallaudet's
History of Joseph. Why? Because they
approve of slavery? Not at all. They
look upon slavery with horror. What then?
" The South will not read our books, if we
do not do it. They will not give up, and Ave
must. We can do more good by intro-
ducing gospel truth with this omission than
we can by using our protestant power."
This, probably, was thought and said hon-
estly. The argument is plausible, but the
concession is none the less real. The slave
power has got the victory, and got it by the
very best of men from the very best of mo-
tives; and, so that it has the victory, it
cares not how it siets it. And althouo-h it
may be said that the amount in each case of
these concessions is in itself but small, yet,
when we come to add together all that have
been made from time to time by every differ-
ent denomination, and by every different
benevolent oi-sranization, the ao;2:reo;ate is
truly appalling ; and, in consequence of all
these united, what are we now reduced to?

Here we are, in this crisis, — here in this
nineteenth century, when all the world is
dissolving and reconstructing on principles
of universal liberty, — we Americans, who
are sending our Bibles and missionaries to
Christianize jMahoinetan lands, are uphold-
ing, with all our might and all our influence,
a system of worn-out heathenism Avhich even
the Bey of Tunis has repudiated !

The Southern • church has baptized it in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost. This worn-out, old, effete
system of Roman slavery, which Christian-
ity once gradually but certainly abolished,
has been dug up out of its dishonored grave,
a few laws of extra cruelty, such as Rome
never knew, have been added to it, and now,
baptized and sanctioned by the whole South-
ern church, it is going abroad conquering
and to conquer ! The only power left to the
Northern church is the protesting power;
and will they use it ^ Ask the Tract Soci-

ety if they will pu])lis[i a tract on the sin-
fulness of slavery, though such tract should
be made up solely from the writings of Jon-
athan Edwards or Dr. Hopkins! Ask the
Sunday School Union if it will publish the
facts about this heathenism, as it has facta
about Burmah and Hindostan ! Will they '\
0, that they would answer Yes !

Now, it ig freely conceded that all these
sad results have come in consequence of tho
motions and deliberations of good men, who
meant well ; but it has been well said that,
in critical times, when one wrong step en-
tails the most disastrous consequences, to
mean well is not enough.

In the crisis of a disease, to mean well
and lose the patient, — in the height of a tem-
pest, to mean well and wreck the ship, — in
a great moral conflict, to mean well and lose
the battle, — these are things to be lamented.
We are wrecking the ship, — we are losing
the battle. There is no mistake about it.
A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a
little more folding of the hands to sleep, and
we shall awake in the whirls of that mael-
strom which ^ has but one passage, and that
downward.

There is yet one body of Christians whose
influence we have not considered, and that a
most important one, — the Congregationalista
of New England and of the West. Erom
the very nature of Congregationalism, i>he
cannot give so united a testimony as Presby-
terianism; yet Congregationalism has spoken
out on slavery. Individual bodies have
spoken very strongly, and individual cler-
gymen still stronger. They have remon-
strated with the General Assembly, and
they have very decided anti-slavery papers.
But, considering the vrhole state of public
sentiment, considering the critical nature of
the exigency, the mighty sweep and force of
all the causes which are gping in favor of
slavery, has the vehemence and force of the
testimony of Congregationalism, as a body,
been equal to the dreadful emergency? It
has testimonies on record, very full and ex-
plicit, on the evils of slavery ; but testimo-
nies are not all that is wanted. There is
abundance of testimonies on record in the
Presbyterian Church, for that matter, quite
as good and quite as strong as any that have
been given by Congi'egatioualism. There
have been quite as many anti-slavery men
in the New School Presbyterian Church as in
the Congregational, — quite as strong anti-
slavery newspapers ; and the Presbyterian
Church has had trial of this matter that the
Con^rre^rational Church has never been ex-

218

KEY TO CTNCLE TOM S CABIN,

posed to. It has had slave-holders in its
own communion ; and from this trial Congre-
gationalism has, as yet, been mostly exempt.
Being thus free, ought not the testimony
of Congregationalism to have been more than
equal ? ought it not to have done more than
testify ? — ought it not to have fought for the
question '] Like the brave three hundred in
Tliermopylas left to defend the liberties of
Greece, when all others had fled, should they
not have thrown in heart and soul, body and
spirit? Have they done it 1

Compare the earnestness which Congre-
gationalism has spent upon some other sub-
jects with the earnestness which has been
spent upon this. Dr. Taylor taught that all
sin consists in sinning, and therefore that
there could be no sin till a person had sinned ;
and Dr. Bushnell teaches some modifications
of the doctrine of the Trinity, nobody seem-
ing to know precisely what. The South
Carolina presbyteries teach that slavery is
approved by God, and sanctioned by the ex-
ample of patriarchs and prophets. Suppos-
ing these, now, to be all heresies, which of
them is the worst 7 — which will bring the
worst practical results 7 And, if Congrega-
tionalism had fought this slavery heresy as
some of her leaders fought Dr. Bushnell and
Dr. Taylor, would not the style of battle
have been more earnest? Have not both
these men been denounced as dangerous here-
siarchs, and as preaching doctrines that tend
to infidelity? And pray where does this
other doctrine tend ? As sure as there is a
God in heaven is the certainty that, if the
Bible really did defend slavery, fifty 3'^ears
hence would see every honorable and high-
minded man an infidel.

Has, then, the past influence of Congre-
gationalism been according to the nature of
the exigency and the weight of the subject ?
But the late cojQvention of Congregational-
ists at Albany, including ministers both from
New England and the Western States, did
take a stronger and more decided ground.
Here is their resolution :

Rc.whcd, That, in the opinion of this conven-
tion, it is the tendency of the gospel, wherever
it is preached in its purity, to correct all social
evils, and to destroy sin in all its forms ; and that
it is tlie duty of Missionary Societies to grant aid
to cliurches in slave-holding states in the sujiport
of such ministers only as shall so preach the gos-
pel, and inculcate the principles and application
of gospel discipline, that, with the hlcssing of
God, it shall have its full effect in awakening and
enlightening the moral sense in regard to slavery,
and in bringing to pass tlie speedy abolition of
that stupendous wrong ; and that wherever u min-
ister is not pennltted so to preach, he should, in

accordance with the directions of Christ, " depart
out of that city."

This resolution is a matter of hope and
gratulation in many respects. It was passed
in a very large convention, — the largest ever
assembled in this country, fully represent-
ing the Congregationalism of the United
States, — and the occasion of its meeting was
considered, in some sort, as marking a new
era in the progress of this denomination.

The resolution Avas passed unanimously.
It is decided in its expression, and looks to
practical action, which is what is wanted. It
says it will support no ministers in slave
states whose preaching docs not tend to de-
stroy slavery; and that, if they are not al-
lowed to preach freely on the subject, they
must depart.

That the ground thus taken will be effi-
ciently sustained, may be inferred from the fact
that the Home Missionary Society, which is
the organ of this body, as well as of the New
School Presbyterian Church, has uniformly
taken decided ground upon this subject in
their instructions to missionaries sent into
slave states. These instructions are ably set
forth in their report of March. 1853. When
application was made to them, in 1850, from
a slave state, for missionaries who would let
slavery alone, they replied to them, in the
most decided language, that it could not be
done ; that, on the contrary, they must un-
derstand that one grand object in sending
missionaries to slave states is, as far as possi-
ble, to redeem society from all forms of sin ;
and that, "if utter silence respecting slavery
is to be maintained, one of the greatest in-
ducements to send or retain missionaries in
the slave states is taken away."

The society furthermore instructed their
missionaries, if they could not be heard on
this subject in one city or Village, to go
to another ; and they express their convic-
tion that their missionaries have made pro-
gress in awakening the consciences of the
people. They say that they do not suffer
the subject to sleep; that they do not let it
alone because it is a delicate subject, but
they discharge their consciences, whether their
message be Avell received, or whether, as in
some instances, it subjects them to opposition,
opprobrium, and personal danger ; and that
where their endeavors to do this have not
been tolerated, they have, in repeated cases,
at great sacrifice,, resigned their position, and
departed to other fields. In their report of
this year they also quote letters from minis-
ters in slave-holding states, by which it ap-
pears that they have actually secured, in the

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

219

lace of much opposition, the right publicly
to preacn iiud propagate their sentiments
upon this subject.

One of these missionaries says, speaking
of slavery, " We are determined to remove
this great difficulty in our way, or die in the
attempt. As Christians and as freemen, we
will suffer this libel on our religion and in-
Btitutioas to exist no longer."

This is noble ground.

And, while we are recording the protest-
ing power, let us not forget the Scotch se-
ceders and covenanters, who, with a perti-
nacity and decision worthy of the children
of the old covenant, have kept themselves
clear from the sin of slavery, and have uni-
formly protested against it. Let us remem-
ber, also, that the Quakers did pursue a
course which actually freed all their body
from the sin of slave-holding, thus showing
to all other denominations that what has been
done once can be done again. Also, in
all denominations, individual ministers and
Christians, in hours that have tried men's
souls, have stood up to bear their testimony.
Albert Barnes, in Philadelphia, standing in
the midst of a great, rich church, on the bor-
ders of a slave state, and with all those tempt-
ations to complicity which have silenced so
many, has stood up, in calm fidelity, and
declared the whole counsel of God upon this
subject. Nay, more : he recorded his sol-
emn protest, that " NO influences out of

THE CHURCH COULD SUSTAIN SLAVERY AN
HOUR, IF IT WERE NOT SUSTAINED IN IT;"

and, in the last session of the General As-
sembly, which met at Washington, disre-
garding all suggestions of policy, he boldly
held the Presbyterian Church up to the
strength of her past declarations, and de-
clared it her duty to attempt the entire abo-
lition of slavery throughout the world. So,
in darkest hour, Dr. Channing bore a noble
testimony in Boston, for which his name
shall ever live. So, in Illinois, E. P. Love-
joy and Edward Beecher, with their asso-
ciates, formed the Illinois Anti-slavery So-
ciety, amid mobs and at the hazard of their
lives ; and, a few hours after, Lovejoy was
shot down in attempting to defend the twice-
destroyed anti-slavery press. In the Old-
school Presbyterian Church, William and
Robert Breckenridge, President Young, and
others, have preached in favor of emancipation
in Kentucky. Le Roy Sunderland, in the
Methodist Church, kept up his newspaper
under ban of his superiors, and with a
bribe on his life of fifty thousand dollars.
Torrey, meekly patient, died in a prison,

saying ' It 1 am a guilty man 1 am
a very guilty one _ for I havr helped four
hundred slaves to freedom, who but for mo
would have died slaves." Dr. Nelson was
expelled by mobs from Missouri for the
courageous declaration of the trutli on slave
soil. All these were in the ministry. Nor
are these all. Jesus -Christ has not wholly
deserted us yet. There have been those who
have learned how joyful it is to suffer shame
and brave death in a good cause.

Also there have been private Christians
who have counted nothing too dear for this
sacred cause. Witness Richard Dillinijhara,
and John Garrett, and a host of others, who
took joyfully the spoiling of their goods:

But yet, notwithstanding this, the awful
truth remains, that the whole of what has
been done by the church has not, as yet, per-
ceptibly abated the evil. The great system
is stronger than ever. It is confessedly the
dominant power of the nation. The whole
power of the government, and the whole power
of the wealth, and the whole power of the
fashion, and the practical organic workings of
the large bodies of the churoh, are all gone
one way. The church is familiarly quoted as
being on the side of slavery. Statesmen on
both sides of the question have laid that down
as a settled fact. Infidels point to it with
triumph; and America, too, is beholding
another class of infidels, — a class that could
have grown up only under such an influence.
Men, whose whole life is one study and prac-
tice of benevolence, are now ranked as infi-
dels, because the position of church organiza-
tions misrepresents Christianity, and they
separate themselves from the church. We
would offer no excuse for any infidels who
take for their religion mere anti-slavery zeal,
and, under this guise, gratify a malignant
hatred of real Christianity. But such de-
fences of slavery from the Bible as some of
the American clergy have made are exactly
fitted to make infidels of all honorable and
high-minded men. The infidels of olden
times were not much to be dreaded, but such
infidels as these are not to be despised. Woe
to the church when the moral standard of
the infidel is higher than the standard of the
professed Christian ! for the only armor that
ever proved invincible to infidelity is the
armor of righteousness.

Let us see how the church organizations
work now, practically. What do Bruin &
Hill, Pulliam & Davis, Bolton, Dickins &
Co., and Matthews, Bran ton & Co., depend
upon to keep their slave-factories and slave-
barracoons full, and their business brisk "] la

220

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

it to be supposed that thej are not men like
oui-selves 7 Do they not sometimes tremble
at the awful workings of fear, and despair,
and agony, which they witness when they are
tearing asunder living hearts in the depths of
those fearful slave-prisons? What, then,
keeps down the consciences of these traders ?
It is the public sentiment of the community
where they live ; and that pubhc sentiment is
made by ministers and church-members. The
trader sees plainly enough a logical sequence
between the declarations of the church and the
practice of his trade. He sees plainly enough
that, if slavery is sanctioned by God, and it
is right to set it up in a new territory, it is
right to take the means to do this ; and, as
slaves do not grow on bushes in Texas, it is
necessary that there should be traders to
gather up coffles and carry them out there ; —
and, as they cannot always take whole fam-
ilies, it is necessary that they should part
them ; and, as slaves will not go by moral
suasion, it is necessary that they should be
forced : and, as gentle force will not do, they
must whip and torture. Hence come gags,
thumb-screws, cowhides, blood, — all neces-
sary measures of carrying out what Chris-
tians say God sanctions.

So goes the argument one way. Let us
now trace it back the other. The South
/ Carolina and Mississippi Presbyteries main-
tain opinions which, in their legitimate re-
sults, endorse the slave-trader. The Old
School General Assembly maintains fellow-
ship with these Presbyteries, without disci-
pline or protest. The New School Assem-
bly signifies its willingness to reiinite with
the Old, while, at the same time, it de-
clares the system of slavery an abomina-
tion, a gross violation of the most sacred
rights, and so on. Well, now the cliain
is as complete as need be. All parts are
in ; every one standing in his place, and
saying just what is required, and no more.
The trader does the repulsive work, the.
Southern church defends him, the Northern
church defends the South. Every one does
as much for slavery as would be at all expe-
dient, considering the latitude tliey live in.
This is the practical result of the thing.

The melancholy part of the matter is,
that while a large body of New School men,
and many 01(1 School, are decided anti-slavery
men, this denominational position carries
their influence on the other side. As goes
the General Assembly, so goes their influ-
ence. The following aftecting letter on this
subject was written by that eminently pious
man. Dr. Nelson, whose work on Infidelity

is one of the most efficient popular appeals
that has ever appeared :

I have resided in North Carolina more than
forty years, and been intimately acquainted w \x
the system, and I can scarcely even think of its
operations without shedding tears. It causes me
excessive grief to think of my own poor slaves,
for whom I liave for years been trying to find a
free home. It strikes me with equal astonish-
ment and horror to hear Northern people make
light of slavery. Had they seen and known aa
much of it as I, they could not thus treat it, un-
less callous to the deepest woes and degradation
of humanity, and dead both to the religinn and
philanthropy of the gospel. But many of them
are doing just what the hardest-hearted tyrants
of the South most desire. 'J'hose tyrants would
not, on any account, have them advocate or even
apologize for slavery in an unqualified manner.
This would be bad policy with the North. I won-
der that Gerritt Smith should understand shivery
so much better than most of the Northern people.
How true was nis remark, on a certain occasion,
namely, that the South are laughing in their
sleeves, to think what dupes they make of most
of the people at the North in regard to the real
character of slavery ! Well did Mr. Smith remark
that the system, carried out on its fundamental
principle, would as soon enslave any laboring white
man as the African. But, if it luere not for the
support of the North, the fabric of blood uwuld fall
at once. And of all the efforts of public bodies
at the North to sustain slavery, the Connecticut
General Association has made the best one. I
have never seen anything so well constructed in
that line as their resolutions of June, 1836. The
South certainly could not have asked anything
more effectual. But, of all Northern periodicals,
the New York Observer must have the preference,
as an ef&cient support of slavery. I am not sure
but it does more than all things combined to keep
the dreadful system alive. It is just the succor
demanded by the South. Its abuse of the abo-
litionists is music in Southern ears, which operates
as a charm. But nothing is equal to its harping
ufJon the "religious privileges and instruction"
of the slaves of the South. And nothing could
be so false and injurious (to the cause of freedom
and religion) as the impression it gives on that
subject. I say what I know Avlien 1 speak in re-
lation to tliis matter. I have been intimately ac-
quainted with the religious opportunities of slaves,
— in the constant habit of liearing the sermons
wliich are preached to them. And I solemnly
affirm, that, during the forty years of my res-
idence and observation in this line, I never heard
a single one of these sermons but what was taken
up with the obligations and duties of slaves to
their masters. Indeed, I never heard a sermon to
slaves but wliat made obedience to masters by t!ie
slaves the fundamental and supreme law of re-
ligion. Any candid and intelligent man can de-
cide whether sueli preaching is not, as to religious
pui'poses, worse than none at all.

A"-ain : it is wonderful how the credulity of the
Nortii is subjected to imposition in regard to' the
hind treatment of slaves. For myself, f can dear
up the apparent contradictions found in writers
who have resided at or visited the South. The
" majority of slave-holders, " say some, " treat
t'leir slaves with kindness." Now, this may be

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

221

true in certain states and districts , setting aside
all quiistiuns of treatment, except such as refer to
t!io body. And yet, while the '* majority of slave-
holders" in a certain section may be kind, the
majority of slaves in that section will be treated
with cruelty. This is the truth in many such
cases, that while there may be thirty men who may
have but one slave apiece, and that a house-ser-
vant, a shigle man in their neighborhood may
have a hundred slaves, — all field-hands, half-fed,
worked excessively, and whipped most cruelly.
This is what I have often seen. To give a case,
to show tiie awful influence of slavery upon the
master, I will mention a Presbyterian elder, who
was esteemed one of the best men in the region,
— a very kind master. I was called to his death-
bed to write his will. He had what was con-
sidered a favorite house-servant, a female. After
all otlier things were disposed of, the elder paused,
as if in doubt what to do with " Su." I enter-
tained pleasing expectations of hearing the word
" liberty" fall from his lips ; but who can tell
my surprise when I heard the master exclaim,
'■ What shall be done with Sal I am afraid she
will never be under a master severe enough for
her." Shall I say that both the dying elder and
his " Su" were members of the same church, the
latter statedly receiving the emblems of a Saviour's
dying love from the former !

All this temporizing and concession has
been excused on the plea of brotherly love.
What a plea for us Northern freemen ! Do
v/e think the slave-sjstem such a happj,
desirable thing for our brothers and sisters
at the South 'I Can we look at our common
schools, our neat, thriving towns and vil-
lages, our dignified, intelligent, self-respect-
ing farmers and mechanics, all concomitants
of free labor, and think slavery any blessing
to our Southern brethren ] That system
which beggars all the lower class of whites,
which curses the very soil, which eats up
everything before it, like the palmer-worm,
canker and locust, — which makes common
schools an impossibility, and the preaching
of the gospel almost as much so, — this sys-
tem a blessing ! Does brotherly love require
us to help the South preserve it 7

Consider the educational influences under
wliich such children as Eva and Henrique
must grow up there ! We are speaking of
what many a Southern mother feels, of
what makes many a Southern father's heart
sore. Slavery has been spoken of in its
influence on the family of the slave. There
are those, who never speak, who could tell,
if they would, its influence on the family of
the master. It makes one's heart ache to
see generation after generation of lovely,
noble childi-en exposed to such influences.
What a country the South might be, could
she develop herself without this curse ! If
the Southern character, even under all these
disadvantages, retains so much that is noble.

and is fascinating even m its faults, what
might it do with free institutions .-

Who is the real, who is the true and noble
lover of the South 7 — they who love her
with all these faults and incumbrances, or
they Avho fix their eyes on the bright ideal
of what she might be, and say that these
faults are no proper part of her I Is it true
love to a friend to accept the ravings of
insanity as a true specimen of his mind 7
Is it true love to accept the disfigurement
of sickness as a specimen of his best con-
dition 7 Is it not truer love to say, "This
curse is no part of our brother ; it dishonors
him ; it does him injustice ; it misrepresents
him in the eyes of all nations. We love his
better self, and we will have no fellowship
with his betrayer. This is the part of true,
generous, Christian love."

But will it be said. " The abolition enter-
prise was begun in a wrong spirit, by reck-
less, meddling, impudent fanatics " 7 Well,
supposing that this were true, how came it
to be so 7 If the church of Christ had be-
gun it 7-ight, these so-called fanatics would
not have begun it wrDiig. In a deadly
pestilence, if the right physicians do not
prescribe, everybody will prescribe. — men,
women and children, will prescribe, — be-
cause something must be done. If the
Presbyterian Church in 1818 had pursued
the course the Quakers' did, there never
would have been any fimaticism. The Qua-
kers did all by brotherly love. They melted
the chains of Mammon only in the fires of a
divine charity. When Christ came into
Jerusalem, after all the mighty works that
he had done, while all the so-called better
classes were non-committal or opposed, the
multitude cut doAvn branches of palm-trees
and cried Ilosanna ! There was a most
indecorous tumult. The very children caught
the enthusiasm, and were crying Hosannas in
the temple. This was contradictory to all
ecclesiastical rules. It was a highly im-
proper state of things. The Chief Priests
and Scribes said unto Jesus, " Master,
speak unto these that they.Jiold their peace."
That gentle eye flashed as he answered, " I

TELL YOU, IF THESE SHOULD HOLD THEIR
PEACE, THE VERY STONES WOULD CRY
OUT."

Suppose a fire bursts out in the streets of
Boston, while the regular conservators of
the city, who have the keys of the fire-
engines, and the regulation of fire-companies,
are sitting together in some distant part of
the city, consulting for the public good.
The cry of fire reaches them, but they think

222

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

it a false alarm. The fire is no less real, for
all that. It burns, and rages, and roars, till
everybody in the neighborhood sees that
something must be done. A few stout
leaders break open the doors of the engine-
houses, drag out the engines, and begin,
regularly or irregularly, playing on the fire.
But the destroyer still advances. Messen-
gers come in hot haste to the hall of these
deliberators, and, in the unselect language
of fear and terror, revile them for not com-
ing out.

" Bless me ! " says a decorous leader of
the body, " what horrible language these
men use ! "

" They show a very bad spirit," remarks
another; "we can't possibly join them in
such a state of things."

Here the more energetic members of the
body rush out, to see if the thing be really
so ; and in a few minutes come back, if pos-
sible more earnest than the others.

" 0 ! there is a fire ! — a horrible, dread-
ful fire ! The city is burning, — men, wo-
men, children, all burning, perishing! Come
out, come out ! As the Lord liveth, there
is but a step between us and death ! "

" I am not going out; everybody that goes
gets crazy," says one.

"I 've noticed," says another, " that as
soon as anybody goes out to look, he gets
just so excited, — I won't look."

But by this time the angry fire has burned
into their very neighborhood. The red
demon glares into their windows. And now,
fairly aroused, they get up and begin to
look out.

" Well, there is a fire, and no mistake ! "
says one.

" Something ought to be done," says
another.

" Yes," says a third; "if it wasn't for
being mixed up with such a crowd and rab-
ble oF folks, Id go out."

" Upon my word," says another, " there
are luut/ieii. in the ranks, carrying pails of
water ! There, one woman is going up a
ladiler to get tliofb children out. What an
indecorum ! If tiiey 'd manage this matter
propeily, we wuuld join them."

And now come lumbering over from
Charlcstown the engines and fire-companies.

" What impudence of Charlcstown," say
these men, " to be sending over here, — just
as if we could not put our own fires out !
They have fires over there, as much as we
do."

yVn<l now the flames roarvand burn, and
shake hauls across the streets. They leap

over the steeples, and glare demoniacally out
of the church-windows.

" For Heaven's sake, do something ! ''
is the cry. " Pull down the houses ! Blow
up those blocks of stores with gunpowder !
Anything' to stop it."

" See, now, what ultra, radical measures
they are going at," says one of these spec-
tators.

Brave men, who have rushed into the
thickest of the fire, come out, and fall dead
in the street.

"They are impracticable enthusiasts.
They have thrown their lives away in fool-
hardiness," says another.

So, church of Christ, burns that awful fire !
Evermore burning, burning, burning, over
church and altar ; burning over senate-house
and forum ; burning up liberty, burning up
religion ! No eartlily hands kindled that
fire. From its sheeted flame and wreaths
of sulphurous smoke glares out upon thee
the eye of that enemy who was a murderer
from the beginning. It is a fire that burns
TO THE LOWEST HELL !

Church of Christ, there was an hour
when this fire might have been extinguished
by thee. Now, thou standest like a mighty
man astonished, — like a mighty man that
cannot save. But the Hope of Israel is not
dead. The Saviour thereof in time of
trouble is yet alive.

If every church in our land were hung
with mourning, — if every Christian should
put on sack-cloth, — if "the priest should
weep between the porch and the altar," and
say, " Spare thy people, 0 Lord, and give
not thy heritage to reproach ! " — that were
not too great a mourning; for such a time as
this.

0, church of Jesus ! consider what hath
been said in the midst of thee. What a
heresy hast thou tolerated in thy bosom \
Thy God the defender of slavery ! — thy
God the patron of slave-law ! Thou hast
suffered the character of thy God to be
slandered. Thou hast suffered false witness
against thy Redeemer and thy Sanctifier.
The Holy Trinity of heaven has been foully
traduced in the midst of thee ; and that God
whose throne is awful in justice has been
made the patron and leader of oppression.

This is a sin against every Christian on
the globe.

Why do we love and adore, beyond ' all
things, our God 7 Why do we say to him,
from our inmost souls, " Whom have I in
heaven but thee, and there is none upon
earth I desire beside thee"? Is this a

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

221

bought-up worship ? — is it a cringing and
hollow subserviency, because he is great and
rich and powerful, and we dare not do
otherwise ? His eyes are a flame of fire ; —
he reads the inmost soul, and will accept no
such service. From our souls we adore and
love him, because he is holy and just and
good, and will not at all acquit the wicked.
We love him because he is the father of the
fatherless, the judge of the widow ; — because
he lifteth all who fixll, and raiseth them that
are bowed down. We love Jesus Christ, be-
cause he is the Lamb without spot, the
one altogether lovely. We love the Holy
Comforter, because he comes to convince the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment. 0, holy church universal,
throughout all countries and nations ! 0,
ye great cloud of witnesses, of all people
and lannjuao-es and tongues ! — differing in

- ITT

many doctrines, but united in crying Wor-
thy is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath
redeemed us from all iniquity ! — awake !
— arise up ! — be not silent ! Testify against
this heresy of the latter day, which, if it
were possible, is deceiving the very elect.
Your God, your glory, is slandered. An-
swer with the voice of many waters and
mighty thunderings ! Answer with the in-
numerable multitude in heaven, who cry,
day and night, Holy, holy, holy ! just and
true are thy ways, 0 King of saints !

CHAPTER m.

MARTYRDOM.

At the time when the Methodist and
Presbyterian Churches passed the anti-slav-
ery resolutions which we have recorded, the
system of slavery could probably have been
extirpated by the church with comparatively
little trouble. Such was the experience of
the Quakers, who tried the experiment at
that time, and succeeded. The course they
pursued was the simplest possible. They
districted their church, and appointed regu-
lar committees, whose business it was to go
from house to house, and urge the rules of
the church individually on each slave-holder,
one by one. This was done in a spirit of
such simplicity and brotherly love that very
few resisted the appeal. They quietly
yielded up, in obedience to their own con-
sciences, and the influence of their brethren.
This mode of operation, though gentle, was
as efficient as the calm sun of summer, which,

by a few hours of patient shining, dissolves
the iceberg on which all the storms of winter
have beat in vain. 0, that so happy a
course had been thought of and pursued by
all the other denominations ! But the day
is past when this monstrous evil would so
quietly yield to gentle and persuasive meas-
ures.

At the time that the Quakers made their
attempt, this Leviathan in the reeds and
rushes of America was young and callow,
and had not learned his strength. Then
he might have been "drawn out with a
hook;" then they might have "made a
covenant with him, and taken him for a ser-
vant forever ;" but now Leviathan is full-
grown. " Behold, the hope of him is vain.
Shall not men be cast down even at the
sight of him ? None is so fierce that dare
stir him up. His scales are his pride, shut
up together as with a close seal ; one is so
near to another that no air can come be-
tween them. The flakes of his flesh are
joined together. They are firm in them-
selves, they cannot be moved. His heart is
as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as the nether
mill-stone. The sword of him that layeth
at him cannot hold. He esteemeth iron as
straw, and brass as rotten wood. Arrows
cannot make him flee; sling-stones are
turned with him into stubble. He laugheth
at the shaking of a spear. Upon the earth
there is not his like : he is king over all the
children of pride."

There are those who yet retain the delu-
sion that, somehow or other, without any
very particular efibrt or opposition, by a soft,
genteel, rather apologetic style of operation.
Leviathan is to be converted, baptized and
Christianized, They can try it. Such a style
answers admirably as long as it is under-
stood to mean nothing. But just the mo-
ment that Leviathan finds they are in earnest,
then they will see the consequences. The de-
bates of all the synods in the United States,
as to whether he is an evil ])er se, will not
wake him. In fact, they are rather a pleas-
ant humdrum. Nor will any resolutions
that they "behold him with regret" give him
especial concern ; neither will he be much
annoyed by the expressed expectation that
he is to die somewhere about the millennium.
Notwithstanding all the recommendations of
synods and conferences. Leviathan himself
has but an indifferent opinion of his own
Christianity, and an impression that he
would not be considered quite in keeping
with the universal reign of Christ on eartli :
but he does n't much concern himself about

224

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

the prospect of giving up the ghost at so
very remote a period.

But let any one, either North or South,
take the sword of the Spirit and make one
pass under his scales that he shall feel, and
then he will know what sort of a conflict
Christian had with Apollyon. Let no one,
either North or South, undertake this war-
fare, to whom fame, or ease, or wealth, or
anything that this world has to give, are too
dear to be sacrificed. Let no one undertake
it who is not prepared to hate his own good
name, and, if need be, his Hfe also. For this
reason, we will give here the example of one
martyr who died for this cause ; for it has
been well said that ''the blood of the martyr
is the seed of the church."

The Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was the son
of a Maine woman, a native of that state
which, barren in all things else, is fruitful
in noble sentiments and heroic deeds. Of
his early days we say nothing. Probably
they were like those of other Maine boys.
We take up his history where we find him a
clergyman in St. Louis, Mo., editing a re-
ligious newspaper. Though professing not
to be a technical abolitionist, he took an open
and decided stand against slavery. This
aroused great indignation, and called forth
threats of violence. Soon after, a mob,
composed of the most respectable individuals
of the place, burned alive a negro-man in the
streets of St. Louis, for stabbing the ofiicers
who came to arrest him. This scene of pro-
tracted torture lasted till the deed was com-
pleted, and the shrieks of the victim for a
more merciful death were disregarded. In
his charge to the grand jury, Judge Lawless
decided that no legal redress could be had
for this outrage, because, being the act of an
infuriated multitude, it was above the law.
Elijah Lovejoy expressed, in determined
language, his horror of the transaction and
of the decision. For these causes, his ofiice
was torn down and destroyed by the mob.
Happening to be in St. Charles, a mob of
such men as 0!ily slavery could raise at-
tacked the house to take his life. His
distracted wife kept guard at his door,
struggling with men armed with bludgeons
and bowie-knives, who swore that they
would have his heart's blood. A woman's
last despair, and the aid of friends, repelled
the first assault ; but when the mob again
returned, he made his escape. Lovejoy came
to Alton, Illinois, iind there set up his paper.
The mob followed him. His press was twice

destroyed, and he was daily threatened witli
assassination.

Before his press was destroyed the third
time, a call was issued in his paper for a
convention of the enemies of slavery and
friends of free inquiry in Illinois, for the pur-
pose of considering and recommending meas-
ures adapted to meet the existing crisis.
This call was signed by about two hundred
and fifty persons from different parts of the
state, among whom was the Rev. E. Beecher,
then President of Illinois College. This
gathering brought together a large number.
When they met for discussion, the mobocrats
came also among them, and there was a great
ferment. The mob finally out-voted and
dissolved the convention. It was then
resolved to form an anti-slavery society,
and to issue a declaration of sentiments,
and an address to the people of the state.
Threats were expressed that, if Mr. Love-
joy continued to print his paper, the mob
would destroy his expected press. In this
state of excitement, Mr. Beecher, at the re-
quest of the society, preached two sermons,
setting forth the views and course of conduct ,
which were contemplated in the proposed
movement. They Avere subsequently set
forth in a published document, an extract
from which will give the reader an idea of
what they were :

1. We shall endeavor to induce all our fellow-
citizens to elevate their minds above all selfish,
pecuniary, political, and local interests ; and, from
a deep sense of the presence of God, to regard
solely the eternal and immutable principles of
truth, which no human legislature or popular sen-
timent can alter or remove.

2.. We shall endeavor to present the question
as one between thid community and God, — a sub-
ject on which lie deeply feels, and on wliich we
owe great and important duties to Him and to our
fellow-citizens.

3. We shall endeavor, as far as possible, to
allay the violence of party strife, to remove all
unholy excitement, and to produce mutual oonii-
dence and kindness, and a deep interest in the
welfare of all parts of our nation ; and a strong
desire to preserve its union and promote its liigli-
est welfare.

Our entire reliance is upon truth and love, and
the influences of the Holy Spirit. We desire to
compel no one to act against his judgment or con-
science by an oppressive power of puljlic senti-
ment ; but to arouse all men to candid thought,
and impartial inquiry in the fear of God, we do
desire.

And, to accomplish this end, we shall use the

same means tbat are used to enlighten and olpvate

the pul)lic mind on all other great moral sulijeets,

— personal influence, public address, the pulpit

1 and the press.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

225

4. We shall endeavor ta produce a new and
radical investigation of the principles of human
rights, and of the relations of all just legislation
to them , deriving our principles from the nature
of the human mind, the relations of man to God,
and the revealed will of the Creator.

5. We shall then endeavor to examine the slave-
laws of our land in the light of these principles,
and to prove that they are essentially sinful, and
that they are at war alike with the will of God
and all the interests of the master, the slave, and
the community at large.

6. We shall then endeavor to show in what
manner communities where such laws exist may
relieve themselves at once, in perfect safety and
peace, both of the guilt and dangers of the sys-
tem.

7. And, until communities can be aroused to do
their duties, we shall endeavor to illustrate and
enforce the duties of individual slave-holders in
8uch communities.

To views presented in this spirit and
manner one would think there could have
been no rational objection. The only diffi-
culty with them was, that, though calm and
kind, they were felt to be in earnest ; and
at once_Leviathan was wide awake.

The next practical question was, Shall the
third printing-press be defended, or shall it
also be destroyed?

There was a tremendous excitement, and a
great popular tumult. The timid, prudent,
peace-loving majority, who are to be found in
every city, who care not what principles
irevail, so they promote their own interest,
were wavering and pusillanimous, and thus
encouraged the mob. Every motive was
urged to induce Mr. Beecher and Mr. Love-
joy to forego the attempt to reestablish the
press." The former was told that a price had
been set on his head in Missouri, — a fashion-
able mode of meeting argument in the pro-
slavery parts of this country. Mr. Lovejoy
had been so long threatened with assassina-
tion, day and night, that the argument with
him was something musty. Mr. Beecher was
also told that the interests of the college of
which he was president would be sacrificed,
and that, if he chose to risk his own safety,
he had no right to risk those interests. But
Mr. Beecher and Mr. Lovejoy both felt that
the very foundation principle of free insti-
tutions had at this time been seriously com-
promised, all over the country, by yielding
up the right of free discussion at the clamors
of the mob ; that it was a precedent of very
vride and very dangerous application.

Tn a pubhc meeting, Mr. Beecher ad-
dressed the citizens on thQ right of main-
taining free inquiry, and of supporting
every man in the right of publishing and
3peaking his conscientious opinions. He
15

read to them some of those eloquent pas-
sages in which Dr. Channing had maintained
the same rights in very similar circumstances
in Boston. He read to them extracts from
foreign papers, which showed how the
American character suffered in foreign lands
from the prevalence in America of Lynch
law and mob violence. He defended the
right of Mr. Lovejoy to print and publish
his conscientious opinions ; and. finally, ho
read from some Southern journals extracts
in which they had strongly condemned tho
course of the mob, and vindicated Mr.
Lovejoy's right to express his opinions. He
then proposed to them that they should pass
resolutions to the following effect :

That the free communication of opinion is one of
the invaluable rights of man ; and that every citizen
may freely speak, write or print, on any subject,
being responsible for the abuse of the liberty.

That maintenance of these principles should be
independent of all regard to persons and senti-
ments.

That they should be especially maintained with
regard to unpopula,r sentiments, since no others
need the protection of law.

That on these grounds alone, and without re-
gard to political and moral differences, we agree
to protect the press and property of the editor of
the Alton Observer, and support him in his right
to publish whatever he pleases, holding him re-
sponsible only to the laws of the land.

These resolutions, so proposed, were to be
taken into consideration at a final meeting
of the citizens, which was to be held the
next day.

That meeting was held. Their first step
was to deprive Mr. Beecher, and all who
were not citizens of that county, of the right
of debating on the report to be presented.
The committee then reported that they deeply
regretted the excited state of feeling ; that
they cherished strong confidence that the
citizens would refrain from undue excite-
ments; that the exigences of the time re-
quired a course of moderation and compro-
mise; and that, while there was no disposition
to prevent free discussion in general, they
deemed it indispensable to the public tran-
quillity that Mr. Lovejoy should not publish
a paper in that city ; not wishing to reflect
in the slightest degree upon Mr. Lovejoy's
character and motives. All that the meet-
ing waited for now was, to hear whether Mr.
Lovejoy would comply with their recom-
mendation.

One of the committee arose, and expressed
his sympathy for Mr. Lovejoy, characterizing
him as an unfortunate individual, hoping that
they would all consider that he had a wife

226

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

and family to support, and trusting that they
would disgrace him as little as possible ; but
that he and all his party would see the ne-
cessity of making a compromise, and depart-
ing from Alton. What followed is related
in the words of Mr. Beecher, who was pres-
ent at the meeting :

As Brotlier Lovejoy rose to reply to the speech
above meuciwied, I watched his countenance with
deep interest, not to say anxiety. I saw no tokens
of disturbance. With a tranquil, self-possessed
air, he went up to the bar within which the chair-
man sat, and, in a tone of deep, tender and sub-
dued feeling, spoke as follows :

" I feel, Mr. Chairman, that this is the most
Bolemn moment of my life. I feel, I trust, in some
measure the responsibilities which at this hour I
sustain to these, my fellow-citizens, to the church
©f which I am a minister, to my country, and to
God. And let me beg of you, before I proceed fur-
ther, to construe nothing I shall say as being disre-
epectful to this assembly. I have no such feeling :
far from it. And if I do not act or speak accord-
ing to their wishes at all times, it is because I
cannot conscientiously do it.

" It is proper I should state the whole matter, as
I understand it, before this audience. I do not
stand hero to aigue the question as presented by
the report of the committee. My only wonder is
that the honorable gentleman the chairman of that
committee, for whose character I entertain great
respect, though I have not the pleasure of his per-
gonal acquaintance, ^:7- my only wonder is how that
gentleman could have%rought himself to submit
jsuch a report.

" Mr. Chairman, I do not admit that it is the
business of this assembly to decide whether I
ishail or shall not publish a newspaper in this
city. The gentlemen have, as the lawyers say,
made a wrong issue. I have the right to do it. I
know that I have the right freely to speak and pub-
lish my sentiments, subject only to the laws of the
land for the abuse oi that right. This right was
given me by my Maker ; and is solemnly guaranteed
to me by the constitution of these United States,
and of this state. What I wish to know of you
is, whether you will protect me in the exercise
of this right ; or whether, as heretofore, I am to
be subjected to personal indignity and outrage.
These resolutions, and the measm-es proposed by
them, are spoken of as a compromise — a compro-
mise between two parties. Mr. Chairman, this is
not so. There is but one pajty here. It is simply
a question whether the law shall be enforced, or
whether the mob shall be allowed, as they now
do, to continue to trample it under their feet, by
violating with impunity the rights of an innocent
individual.

" Mr. Chairman, what have I to eompromise?
If freely to forgive those who have so greatly in-
jured me , if to pray for their temporal and eternal
happiness, if etill to wish for the prosperity of
your city and state, notM'itlistanding all the indig-
nities I have suffered in it, — if this be the compro-
mise intended, then do I willingly make it. My
rights have boon ahamefully, wickedly outraged ;
this I know, and feel, and can never forget. But
I can and do freely forgive those who have done it.
" But if by a compromise is meant thati should
eea«e from doing that which duty requires of me,

I cannot make it. And the reason is, that I fear
God more than I fear man. Think not that I
would lightly go contrary to public sentiment
around me. The good opinion of my fellow-men
is dear to me, and I would sacrifice anything but
principle to obtain their good wishes ; but when
they ask me to surrender this, they ask for more
than I can, than I dare give. Refcence is made
to the fact that I offered a few days since to
give up the editorship of the Observer into other
hands. This is true ; I did so because it waa
thought or said by some that perhaps the paper
would be better patronized in other hands. They
declined accepting my offer, however, and since
then we have heard from the friends and support-
ers of the paper in all parts of the state. There
was but one sentiment among them, and this
was that the paper could be sustained in no other
hands than mine. It is also a very different ques-
tion, whether I shall voluntarily, or at the request
of friends, yield up my post ; or whether I shall
forsake it at the demand of a mob. The former I
am at all times ready to do, when circumstances
occur to require it ; as I will never put my personal
wishes or interests in competition with the cause
of that Master whose minister I am. But the latter,
be assured, I never will do. God, in his providence,
— so say all my brethren, and so I think, — has de-
volved upon me the responsibility of maintaining
my ground here ; and, Mr. Chairman, I am deter-
mined to doit. A voice comes to me from Maine,
from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, from New-
York, from Pennsylvania, — yea, from Kentucky,
from Mississippi, from jMissouri, —^calling upoh me,
in the name of all that is dear in heaven or earth,
to stand fast; and, by the help of God, I will
STAND. I know I am but one, and you are many.
My strength would avail but little against you all.
You can crush me, if you will ; but I shall die at
my post, for I cannot and will not forsake it.

" Why should I flee from Alton 1 Is not this a
free state 1 When assailed by a mob at St. Louis,
I came hither, as to tlie home of freedom and of
the laws. The mob has pursued me here, and
why should I retreat again 1 Where can I be safe,
if not here? Have not I a right to claim the pro-
tection of the laws ? What more can I liave in any
other place ? Sir, the very act of retreating will
embolden the mob to follow me wherever I go. No,
sir, there is no way to escape the mob, but to
abandon the path of duty ; and that, God helping
me, I will never do.

" It has been said here, that my hand is against
every man, and every man's hand against me. The
last part of the declaration is too painfully true.
I do indeed find almost every hand lifted against
me ; but against whom in this place has my hand
been raised 1 I appeal to every individual present ;
whom of you have I injured 1 Whose character
have I traduced ? Whose fiimily have I molested ?
Whose business have I meddled with ? If any,
let him rise here and testify against me. — No one
answers.

' ' And do not your resolutions say that you find
nothing against my private or personal character!
And docs any one believe that, if there was any-
thing to be found, it would not be found and
brought forth? If in anything I have ofiended
against the law, I am not so popular in this com-
munity as that it would be difficult to convict me.
You have courts and judges and juries ; they find
nothing against me. And now you come together
for the purpose of driving out a confessedly inno-

KEY rO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

227

cent man, for no cause but that he dares to think
and speak as his conscience apd his God dictate.
Will conduct like this stand the scrutiny of your
country, of posterity, above all, of the judgment-
day? For remember, the Jud^e of that day is no
respecter of persons. Pause, I beseech you, and
reflect ! The present excitement will soon be over ;
the voice of conscience will at last be heard. And
in some season of honest thought, even in this
world, as you review the scenes of this hour, you
will be compelled to say, 'He was right ; he was
right.'

" But you have been exhorted to be lenient and
compassionate, and in driving me away to affix
no unnecessary disgrace upon me. Sir, I reject all
such compassion. You cannot disgrace me. Scan-
dal and falsehood and calumny have ali'&ady done
their worst. My shoulders have borne the burthen
till it sits easy upon them. You ma/ hang me up,
as the mob hung up the individuals ofJt'^icksburg !
You may burn me at the stake, as they did Mcin-
tosh at St. Louis ; or you may tar and feather me,
or throw me into the Mississippi, as you have often
threatened to do ; but you cannot disgrace me. I,
and I alone, can disgrace myself ; and the deepest
of all disgrace would be, at a time like this, to
deny my Master by forsaking his cause. He died
for me ; and I were most unworthy to bear his
name, should I refuse, if need be, to die for him.

" Again, you have been told that I have a fam-
ily, who are dependent on me ; and this has been
given as a reason why I should be driven off as
gently as possible. It is true, Mr. Chairman, I
am a husband and a father ; and this it is tha^
adds the bitterest ingredient to the cup of sorrow
I am called to drink. I am made to feel the wis-
dom of the apostle's advice; 'It is better not to
marry.' I know, sir, that in this contest I stake
not my life only, but that of others also. I do not
expect my wife will ever recover the shock received
at the awful scenes through which she was called
to pass at St. Charles. And how was it the other
night, on my return to my house ? I found her
driven to the garret, through fear of the mob, who
were prowling roimd my house. And scarcely had
I entered the house ere my windovrs were broken
in by the brickbats of the mob, and she so alarmed
that it was impossible for her to sleep or rest
that night. I am hunted as a partridge upon the
mountains ; I am pursued as a felon through your
streets ; and to the guardian power of the law I
look in vain for that protection against violence
•which even the vilest criminal may claim.

" Yet think not that I am unhappy. Think not
that I regret the choice that I have made. While
all around me is violence and tumult, all is peace
within. An approving conscience, and the re-
warding smile of God, is a full recompense for all
that I forego and all that I endure. Y'es, sir, I
enjoy. a peace which nothing can destroy. I sleep
Bweetl^ and undisturbed, except when awaked by
the brickbats of the mob.

" No, sir, I am not unhappy. I have counted
the cost, and stand prepared freely to offer up my
all in the service of God. Yes, sir, I am fully
aware of all the sacrifice I make, in here pledging
myself to continue this contest to the last. — (For-
give these tears — I had not intended to shed
them, and they flow not for myself but Others.)
But I am commanded to forsake father and mother
and wife and children for Jesus' sake ; and as his
professed disciple I stand prepared to do it. The
time for fulfilling this pledge in u^y case, it se^uus

to me, has come. Sir, I dare not flee away from
Alton. Should I attempt it, T should feel that
the angel of the Lord, with his flaming sword, was
pursuing me wherever I went. It is because I
fear God that I am not afraid of all who oppose
me in this city. No, sir, the contest has com-
menced here ; and here it must be finished. Be-
fore God and you all, I here pledge myself to con-
tinue it, if need be, till death. If I fall, my grave
shall be made in Adton."

In person Lovejoy was well formed, in voice
and manners refined ; and the pathos of this
last appeal, uttered in entire simplicity,
melted every one present, and produced a
deep silence. It was one of those moments
when the feelings of an audience tremble in
the balance, and a grain may incline them to
either side. A proposition to support him
might have carried, had it been made at that
moment. The oharm was broken by another
minister of the gospel, who rose and cfeliv-
ered a homily on the necessity of compro-
mise, recommending to Mr. Lovejoy especial
attention to the example of Paul, who was
let down in a basket from a window in
Damascus ; as if Alton had been a heathen
city under a despotic government ! The
charm once broken, the meeting became
tumultuous and excited, and all manner of
denunciations were rained down upon abo-
litionists. The meeting passed the resolu-
tions reported by the committee, and refused
to resolve to aid in sustaining the law against
illegal violence ; and the mob perfectly un-
derstood that, do what they might, they
should have no disturbance. It being now
understood that Mr. Lovejoy would not re-
treat, it was supposed that the crisis of the
matter would develop itself when his print-
ing-px'ess came on shore.

During the following three days there
seemed to be something of a reaction. One
of the most influential of the mob-leaders
was heard to say that it was of no use to
go on destroying presses, as there was money
enough on East to bring new ones, and that
they might as well let the fanatics alone.

This somewhat encouraged the irresolute
city authorities, and the friends of the press
thought, if they could get it once landed, and
safe into the store of Messrs. Godfrey & Gil-
man, that the crisis would be safely passed.
They therefore sent an express to the captain
to delay the landing of the boat till three
o'clock in the morning, and the leaders of
the mob, after watching till they were tired,
went home ; the press was safely landed and
deposited, and all supposed that the trouble
was safely passed. Under this impression
Mr. Beecher left Alton, and returned hwae

228

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Wo will give a few extracts from Mr.
Beecher's narrative, which describe his last
interview with Mr. Lovejoy on that night,
after they had lauded and secured the press :

Shortly after the hour fixed on for the landing
of the boat, Mr. Lovejoy arose, and called me to go
with him to see what was the result. The moon
had set and it was still dark, but day was near ;
and here and there a light was glimmering from
the window of some sick room, or of some early
riser. The streets were empty and silent, and the
sounds of our feet echoed from the walls as we
passed along. Little did he dream, at that hour,
of ttie contest whicli the next night would witness ;
that these same streets would echo with the
shouts of an infuriate mob, and be stained with
his own heart's blood.

We found the boat there, and the press in the
warehouse ; aided in raising it to the third story.
We were all rejoiced that no conflict had ensued,
and that the press was safe ; and all felt that the
crisis was over. We were sure that the store
could not be carried by storm by so few men as
had ever yet acted in a mob ; and though the ma-
jority of the citizens would not aid to defend the
press, we had no fear tliat they would aid in an
attack. So deep was this feeling that it was
tliought that a small number was sufficient to
guard the press afterward ; and it was agreed
that the company should be divided into sections
of six, and take turns on successive nights. As
they had been up all night, Mr. Lovejoy and my-
self offered to take charge of the press till morn-
ing ; and they retired.

The morning soon began to dawn ; and that
morning I shall never forget. Who that has stood
on the banks of the mighty stream that then rolled
before me can forget the emotions of sublimity that
filled his heart, as in imagination he has traced
those channels of intercourse opened by it and its
Ifranches through the illimitable regions of this
western world? I thought of future ages, and of
the countless millions that should dwell on this
mighty stream ; and that nothing but the truth
would make them free. Never did I feel as then
the value of the right for which we were con-
tending thoroughly to investigate and fearlessly
to proclaim that truth. 0, the sublimity of
moral power ! By it God sways the universe. By
it he will make the nations free.

I passed through the scuttle to the roof, and as-
cended to the highest point of the wall. The sky
and the river were beginning to glow with ap-
proaching day, and the busy hum of business
to be heard. I looked with exultation on the
scenes below. I felt that a bloodless battle had
bo(>n gained for God and for the truth ; and that
Alton was redeemed from eternal shame. And as all
around grew brighter with approaching day, I
thought of that still brighter sun, even now dawn-
ing on the world, and soon to bathe it with floods
of glorit)U3 light.

Brother Lovejoy, too, was happy. lie did not
3xuU ; he was tranquil and composed, but his
countenance indicated the state of his mind. It was
i. calm and tranquil joy, for he trusted in God that
the point was gained ; that the banner of an un-
fettered press would soon wave over that miglity
Btreara.

Vain hopes ! How soon to be buried in a
martyr's grave ! Vain, did I say? No: they are

not vain. Though dead he still speaketh ; and
a united world can never silence his voice.

The conclusion of the tragedy is briefly
told. A volunteer company, of whom Love-
joy was one, was formed to act under the
mayor in defence of the law. The next night
the mob assailed the building at ten o'clock.
The stoi-e consisted of two stone buildings in
one block, with doors and windows at each
end, but no windows at the sides. The roof
was of wood. Mr. Oilman, opening the end
door of the third story, asked what they
wanted. They demanded the press. He re-
fused to give it up, and earnestly entreated
them to go away without violence, assuring
them that, as the property had been com-
mitted to their charge, they should defend it
at the risk of their lives. After some in-
effectual attempts, the mob shouted to set
fire to the roof Mr. Lovejoy, with some
others, went out to defend it from this attack,
and was shot down by the deliberate aim of
one of the mob. After this wound he had
barely strength to return to the store, went
up one flight of stairs, fell and expired.

Those within then attempted to capitulate,
but were refused with curses by the mob, who
threatened to burn the store, and shoot them
as they came out. At length the building
was actually on fire, and they fled out, fired
on as they Avent by the mob. So terminated
the Alton tragedy.

When the noble mother of Lovejoy heard
of his death, she said, "It is well. I had
rather he would die so than forsake his prin-
ciples." All is not over with America while
such mothers are yet left. Was she not
blessed who could give up such a son in
such a spirit 7 Who was that woman whom
God pronounced blessed above all women T
Was it not she who saw her dearest cruci-
fied ? So difierently does God see from
what man sees.

CHAPTER IV.

SERVITUDE IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
COMPARED WITH AMERICAN SLAVERY.

" Look now upon this picture ! ■

-and on this."
Hamlet.

It is the standing claim of those professors
of religion at the South who support slavery
that they are pursuing the same course ia
relation to it that Christ and his apostles did.
Le^- us consider the course of Christ and his
c^jostles, and the nature of the kingdom

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

229

which they founded, and see if this be the
fact.

Napoleon said, "Alexander, Coesar, Charle-
magne and myself, have founded empires;
but upon what did we rest the creation of
our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ
alone founded his empire upon love."

The desire to be above others in power,
rank and station, is one of the deepest in
human nature. If there is anything which
distinguishes man from other creatures, it is
that he is par excellence an oppressive
animal. On this principle, as Napoleon
observed, all empires have been founded;
and the idea of founding a kingdom in any
other way had not even been thought of
when Jesus of Nazareth appeared.

When the serene Galilean came up from
the waters of Jordan, crowned and glorified
by the descending Spirit, and began to preach,
saying, " The kingdom of God is at hand,"
wliat expectations did he excite? Men's
heads were full of armies to be marshalled,
of provinces to be conquered, of cabinets to
be formed, and offices to be distributed.
There was no doubt at all that he could get
all, these things for them, for had he not
miraculous power?

Therefore it was that Jesus of Nazareth
was very popular, and drew crowds after
him.

Of these, he chose, from the very lowest
walk of life, twelve men of the best and most
honest heart which he could find, that he
might make them his inseparable companions,
and mould them, by his sympathy and friend-
ship, into some capacity to receive and trans-
mit his ideas to mankind.

But they too, simple-hearted and honest
though they were, were bewildered and be-
witched by the common vice of mankind ; and,
though they loved him full well, still had an
eye on the offices and ranks which he was to
confer, when, as they expected, this miracu-
lous kingdom should blaze forth.

While his heart was struggling and labor-
ing, and nerving itself by nights of prayer
to meet desertion, betrayal, denial, rejection,
by his beloved people, and ignominious death,
they were forever wrangling about the offices
in the new kingdom. Once and again, in
the plainest way, he told them that no such
thing was to be looked for ; that there was to
be no distinction in his kingdom, except the
distinction of pain, and suffering, and self-
renunciation, voluntarily assumed for the
good of mankind.

His words seemed to them as idle tales.
In fact, they considered him as a kind of a

myth, — a mystery, — a strange, supernatu-
ral, inexplicable being, forever talking in
parables, and saying things which they could
not understand.

One thing only they held fast to : he was
a king, he would have a kingdom ; and he
had told them that they should sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And so, when he was going up to Jerusa-
lem to die, — when that anguish long wres-
tled with in the distance had come almost
face to face, and he was walking in front of
them, silent, abstracted, speaking occasionally
in broken sentences, of which they feaied to
ask the meaning, — they, behind, beguiled tha
time with the usual dispute of "who should
be greatest."

The mother of James and John came to
him, and, breaking the mournful train of
revery, desired a certain thing of him, —
that her two sons might sit at his right hand
and his left, as prime ministers, in the new
kingdom. With his sad, far-seeing eye still
fixed upon Gethsemane and Calvary, he said,
"Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able
to drink of the cup Avhich I shall drink of,
and to be baptized w'ith the baptism where-
with I shall be baptized?"

James and John were both quite certain
that they were able. They were willing to
fight through anything for the kingdom's
sake. The ten were very indignant. Were
they not as willing as James and John ?
And so there was a contention among them.

" But Jesus called them to him and said.
Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and their great
ones exercise authority upon them ; but it
shall not be so among you.

" Whosoever will be great among you. let
him be your minister ; and whosoever will be
chief among you, let him be your servant, —
yea, the servant of all. For even the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many."

Let us now pass on to another week in
this history. The disciples have seen their
Lord enter triumphantly into Jerusalem,
amid the shouts of the multitude. An in-
describable something in his air and manner
convinces them that a great crisis is at hand.
He walks among men as a descended God.
Never were his words so thrilling and ener-
getic. Never were words spoken on earth
which so breathe and burn as these of the
last week of the hfe of Christ. All the
fervor and imagery and fire of the old proph-
ets seemed to be raised from the dead,

230

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

ethereal] zed and transfigured in the person of
this Jesus. They dare not ask him, but
they are certain that the kingdom must be
coming. They feel, in the thrill of that
mighty soul, that a great cycle of time is
finishing, and a new era in the world's
history beginning. Perhaps at this very
feast of the Passover is the time when the
miraculous banner is to be unfurled, and the
new, immortal kingdom proclaimed. Again
the ambitious longings arise. This new
kino-dom shall have ranks and dignities. And
who is to sustain them? While therefore
their Lord sits lost in thought, revolving in
his mind that simple ordinance of love
which he is about to constitute the sealing
ordinance of his kingdom, it is said again,
"There was a strife among them which
should be accounted the greatest."

This time Jesus does not remonstrate.
He expresses no impatience, no weariness,
no disgust. What does he, then? Hear
what St. John says :

"Jesus knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, and that
he was come from God and went to God, he
riseth from supper, and laid aside his gar-
ments, and took a towel and girded himself.
After that, he poureth water into a basin,
and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith he was
girded." " After he had washed their feet
and had taken his garments and was sat
down again, he said unto them, Know ye
what I have done to you? Ye call me Mas-
ter and Lord : and ye say well, for so I am.
If I, then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one
another's feet ; for I have given you an exam-
ple that ye should do as I have done to you."

' ' Verily, verily I say unto you, the ser-
vant is not greater than his lord, neither he
that is sent 2i;reater than he that sent him.
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye
do them."

Here, then, we have the king, and the
constitution of the kingdom. The king on
his knees at the feet of his servants, per-
forming the lowest menial service, with the
announcement, "I have given you an ex-
ample, that ye should do as I have done to
you."

And when, after the descent of the Holy
Ghost, all these immortal words of Christ,
Avhich had lain buried like dead seed in the
heart, were quickened and sprang up in ce-
lestial verdure, then these twelve became,
each one in his place, another Jesus, filled
with the spirit of him who had gone heaven-

ward. The primitive church, as organized
by them, was a brotherhood of strict equality.
There was no more contention who should
be greatest ; the only contention was, who
should suffer and serve the most. The
Christian church was an imjoerium in imr-
perio ; submitting outwardly to the laws of
the land, but professing inwardly to be regu-
lated by a higher faith and a higher law.
They Avere dead to the world, and the world
to them. Its customs were not their cus-
toms ; its relations not their relations. AH
the ordinary relations of life, when they
passed into the Christian church, underwent
a quick, immortal change ; so that the trans-
formed relation resembled the old and heathen
one no more than the glorious body which is
raised in incorruption resembles the mortal
one which was sown in corruption. The
relation of marriage was changed, from a
tyrannous dominion of the stronger sex over
the weaker, to an intimate union, symbolizing
the relation of Christ and the church. The
relation of parent and child, purified from
the harsh features of heathen law, became a
just image of the love of the heavenly
Father; and the relation of master and
servant, in like manner, was refined into a
voluntary relation between two equal breth-
ren, in which the servant faithfully performed
his duties as to the Lord, and the master gave
him a full compensation for his services.

No one ever doubted that such a relation
as this is an innocent one. It exists in all
free states. It is the relation which exists
between employer and employed generally,
in the various departments of hfe. It is
true, the master was never called upon to
perform the legal act of enfranchisement,
— and why ? Because the very nature of the
kingdom into which the master and slave
had entered enfranchised him. It is not
necessary for a master to write a deed of en-
franchisement when he takes his slaves into
Canada, or even into New York or Pennsyl-
vania. The moment the master and slave
stand together on this soil, their whole rela-
tions to each other are changed. The mas-
ter may remain master, and the servant a
servant; but, according to the constitution
of the state they have entered, the service
must be a voluntary one on the part of the
slave, and the master must render a just
equivalent. When the water of baptism
passed over the master and the slave, 'both
alike came under the great constitutional
law of Christ's empire, Avhich is this :

" Whosoever will be great among you, let
him be your minister ; and whosoever will be

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

231

chief among you, let him be your servant,
yea, the servant of all." Under such a law,
servitude was dignified and made honorable,
but slavery was made an impossibility.

That the church was essentially, and in its
©wn nature, such an institution of equality,
brotherhood, love and liberty, as made the
existence of a slave, in the character of a
slave, in it, a contradiction and an impossi-
bility, is evident from the general scope and
tendency of all the apostolic writings, par-
ticularly those of Paul.

And this view is obtained, not from a dry
analysis of Greek words, and dismal discus-
sions about the meaning of doulos, but from
b full tide of celestial, irresistible spirit, full
cf life and love, that breathes in every de-
scription of the Christian church.

To all, whether bond or free, the apostle
addresses these inspiring words : " There is
one body, and one spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calhng; one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all, and through all,
and in you all." "For through him we all
have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father."
" Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers
and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God, and are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ, himself, being the
chief corner-stone." "Ye are all the chil-
dren of God, by faith in Jesus Christ ; there
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor fe-
male, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

" For, as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body, so also is
Christ ; for by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we he Jews or Gen-
tiles, whether Ave be bond or free ; and wheth-
er one member suffer, all the members suffer
with it, or one member be honored, all the
members rejoice with it."

It was the theory of this blessed and
divine unity, that whatever gift, or superi-
ority, or advantage, was possessed by one
member, was possessed by every member.
Thus Paul says to them, " All things are
yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas,
or life, or death, all are yours, and ye are
Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Having thus represented the church as
one living body, inseparably united, the
apostle uses a still more awful and im-
pressive simile. The church, he says, is
one body, and that body is the fulness of
Him who fiUeth all in all. That is, He

who filleth all in all seeks this church to
be the associate and complement of him-
self, even as a wife is of the husband. This
body of believers is spoken of as a bright
and mystical bride, in the world, but not of
it; spotless, divine, immortal, raised from the
death of sin to newness of life, redeemed by
the blood of her Lord, and to be presented
at last unto him, a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.

A delicate and mysterious sympathy is
supposed to pervade this church, like that
delicate and mysterious tracery of nerves
that overspreads the human body; the mean-
est member cannot suffer without the whole
body quivering in pain. Thus says Paul,
who was himself a perfect realization of this
beautiful theory : " Who is weak, and I am
not weak ? Who is offended, and I burn
not?" " To whom ye forgive anything, I
forgive also."

But still further, individual Christians
were reminded, in language of awful solem-
nity, "What! know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is
in you, which ye have of God, and that ye
are not your own?" And again, "Ye are
the temple of the living God ; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them and walk in them."
Nor was this sublime language in those days
passed over as a mere idle piece of rhetoric,
but was the ever-present consciousness of the
soul.

Every Christian was made an object of
sacred veneration to his brethren, as the
temple of the living God. The soul of
every Christian was hushed into awful still-
ness, and inspired to carefulness, watchful-
ness and sanctity, by the consciousness of an
indwelling God. Thus Ignatius, who for
his preeminent piety was called, pa/- excel-
lence^ by his church, "Theophorus, the God-
bearer," when summoned before the Emperor
Trajan, used the following remarkable lan-
guage: "No one can call Theophorus an evil
spirit * ** * for, bearing in my heart Christ
the king of heaven, I bring to nothing the
arts and devices of the evil spirits."

"Who, then, is 'the God-bearer'?" asked
Trajan.

"He who carries Christ in his heart,"
was the reply. * * * *

" Dost thou mean him whom Pontius Pi-
late crucified? "

"He is the one I mean," replied Ignatius.
* * *

"Dost thou then bear the crucified one in
thy heart?" asked Trajan.

"Even so," said Ignatius; "for it is

232

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

written, 'I will dwell in them and rest in
them.'"

So perfect was the identification of Christ
with the individual Christian in the primitive
church, that it was a familiar form of ex-
pression to speak of an injury done to the
meanest Christian as an injury done to Christ.
So St. Paul says, " When ye sin so against
the weak brethren, and wound their weak
consciences, ye sin against Christ." He
snys of himself, *' I live, yet not I, but
Christ hveth in me."

See, also, the following extracts from a
letter by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, to
some poor Numidiau churches, who had ap-
plied to him to redeem some of their mem-
bers from slavery among bordering savage
tribes. (Neander Denkw. I. 340.)

Wq could view the captivity of our brethren no
otherwise than as our own, since we belong to one
body, and not only love, but religion, excites us to
redeem in our brethren the members of our own
body. We must, even if affection were not suf-
ficient to induce us to keep our brethren, — we
must reflect that the temples of God are in cap-
tivity, and these temples of God ought not, by
our neglect, long to remain in bondage. * * *

Since the apostle saj's " as many of you as are
baptized have put on Christ," so in our captive
brethren we must see before us Christ, who hath
ransomed us from the danger of captivity, who
hath redeemed us from the danger of death ;
Him wlio hath freed us from the abyss of Satan,
and who now remains and dwells in us, to free
Him from the hands of barbarians ! With a small
Bum of money to ransom Him who hath ransomed
us by his cross and blood ; and who hath permitted
this to take place that our faith may be proved
thereby !

Now, because the Greek word doulos may
mean a slave, and because it is evident that
there were men in the Christian church who
were called doulol, will anybody say, in the
whole face and genius of this beautiful in-
stitution, that these men were held actually as
slaves in the sense of Roman and American
law? Of all dry, dull, hopeless, stupidities,
this is the most stupid. Suppose Christian
masters did have servants who were called
dou/oi, as is plain enough they did, is it not
evident that the word doidoi had become sig-
nificant of something very different in the
Christian church from what it meant in Roman
law 7 It was not the business of the apostles
to make new dictionaries ; they did not change
words, — they changed things. The baptized,
regenerated, new-created doidos, of 'one body
and one spirit with his master, made one with
his master, even as Christ is one with the
Father, a member with him of that church
which is the fulness of Him who fiUeth all

in all, — was his relation to his Christian mas-
ter like that of an American slave to his
master 7 Would he who regarded his weak-
est brother a? being one with Christ hold
his brother a.s a chattel personal? Could
he hold Christ as as a chattel personal?
Could he sell Christ for money ? Could he
hold the temple of the Holy Ghost as his
property, and gravely defend his right to
sell, lease, mortgage or hire the same, at
his convenience, as that right has been argued
in the slave-holding pulpits of America l

What would have been said at such a doc-
trine announced in the Christian church?
Every member would have stopped his
ears, and cried out, "Judas!" If he was
pronounced accursed who thought that the gift
of the Holy Ghost might be purchased with
money, what would have been said of him who
held that the very temple of the Holy Ghost
might be bought and sold, and Christ the
Lord become an article of merchandise 7
Such an idea never -^-as thought of. It
could not have been refuted, for it never
existed. It was an unheard-of and unsup-
posable work of the devil, which Paul never
contemplated as even possible, that one
Christian could claim a right to hold another
Christian as merchandise, and to trade in the
"member of the body, flesh and bones" of
Christ. Such a horrible doctrine never pol-
luted the innocence of the Christian church
even in thought.

The directions which Paul gives to Chris-
tian masters and servants sufficiently shoV
what a redeeming change had passed over
the institution. In 1st Timothy, St. Paul
gives the following directions, first to those
who have heathen masters, second, to those
who have Christian masters. That con-
cerning heathen masters is thus expressed :
" Let as many servants as are under the
yoke count their own masters worthy of all
honor, that the name of God and his doc-
trine be not blasphemed." In the next
verse the direction is given to the servants
of Christian masters : " They that have be-
lieving masters, let them not despise them
because they are brethren, but rather do
them service because they are faithful and
beloved, partakers of the benefit." Notice,
now, the contrast between these directions-
The servant of the heathen master is said to
be under the yoke, and it is evidently impHcd
that the servant of the Christian master -was
not under the yoke. The servant of the
heathen master was under the severe Roman
law ; the servant of the Christian master is
an equal, and a brother. In these circum-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

233

stancoa, the servant of the heathen master is
commanded to obey for the sake of recom-
mending the Christian religion. The ser-
vant of the Christian master, on the other
hand, is commanded not to despise his mas-
ter because he is his brother ; but he is to do
him service because his master is faithful
and beloved, a partaker of the same glori-
ous hopes with himself Let us suppose,
now, a clergyman, employed as a chaplain
on a cotton plantation, where most of the
members on the plantation, as we are in-
formed is sometimes the case, are members
of the same Christian church as their mas-
ter, should assemble the hands around him
and say, "Now, boys, I would not have you
despise your master because he is your
brother It is true you are all one in Christ
Jesus ; there is no distinction here; there is
neither Jew nor Greek, neither negro nor
white man, neither bond nor free, but ye
are all brethren, — all alike members of
Christ, and heirs of the same kingdom; but
you must not despise your master on this
account. You must love him as a brother,
and be willing to do all you can to serve him,
because you see he is a partaker of the same
benefit with you, and the Lord loves him as
jnuch as he does you." Would not such an
address create a certain degree of astonish-
ment both with master and servants; and does
not the fact that it seems absurd show that the
relation of the slave to his master in Ameri-
can law is a very different one from what it
was in the Christian church ? But again,
let us quote another passage, which slave-
owners are much more fond of In Colos-
sians 4 : 22 and 5 : 1, — " Servants, obey,
in all things, your masters, according to
the flesh; not with eye-service as men-
pleasers, but in singleness of heart as fear-
ing God ; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily
as unto the Lord, and not unto men, know-
ing that of the Lord ye shall receive the
reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the
Lord Christ." "Masters, give unto ser-
vants that which is just and ei^ual, knowing
that ye also have a Master in heaven."

Now, there is nothing in these directions
to servants which would show that they were
chattel servants in the sense of slave-law ;
for they will apply equally well to every
servant in Old England and New England :
but there is something in the direction to
masters which shows that they were not con-
sidered chattel servants by the church, be-
cause the master is commanded to give unto
them that which is just and equal, as a con-

sideration for their service. Of the words
"just and equal," "just" means that which
is legally theirs, and "equal" means that
which is in itself equitable, irrespective of law.

Now, we have the undoubted testimony
of all legal authorities on American slave-
law that American slavery does not pretend
to be founded on what is just or equal either.
Thus Judge Ruffin says: "Merely in the
abstract it may well be asked which power
of the master accords with right. The
answer will probably sweep away all of
them;" and this principle, so unequivocally
asserted by Judge Ruffin, is all along im-
plied and taken for granted, as we have
just seen, in all the reasonings upon slavery
and the slave-law. It would take very little
legal acumen to see that the enacting of
these words of Paul into a statute by any
state would be a practical abolition of
slavery in that state.

But it is said that St. Paul sent Ones-
imus back to his master. Indeed ! but
how 7 When, to our eternal shame and
disgrace, the horrors of the fugitive slave-
law were being enacted in Boston, and the
very Cradle of Liberty resounded with the
groans of the slave, and men harder-hearted
than Saul of Tarsus made havoc of the
church, entering into every house, haling
men and women, committing them to pris-
on ; when whole churches of humble Chris-
tians were broken up and scattered like
flocks of trembling sheep ; when husbands
and fathers were torn from their families,
and mothers, with poor, helpless children,
fled at midnight, with bleeding feet, through
snow and ice, towards Canada ; — in the
midst of these scenes, which have made
America a by- word and a hissing and an
astonishment among all nations, there were
found men, Christian men, ministers of the
gospel of Jesus, even, — alas ! that this
should ever be written, — who, standing in
the pulpit, in the name and by the authority
of Christ, justified and sanctioned these enor-
mities, and used this most loving and simple-
hearted letter of the martyr Paul to justify
these unheard-of atrocities !

He who said, "Who is weak and lam
not weak? Who is offended and I burn
not?" — he who called the converted slave
his own body, the son begotten in his bonds,
and who sent him to the brother of his soul
with the direction, " Receive him as myself,
not now as a slave, but above a slave, a
brother beloved," — this beautiful letter, this
outgush of tenderness and love passing the

234

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

love of woman, was held up to be pawed over
by the polluted hobgoblin-fingers of slave-
dealers <ind slave- whippers as their lettre de
cachet, signed and sealed in the name of
Christ and his apostles, giving full authority
to carry back slaves to be tortured and
whipped, and sold into perpetual bondage,
as were Henry Long and Thomas Sims !
Just as well might a mother's letter, when,
with prayers and tears, she commits her first
and only child to the cherishing love and sym-
pathy of some trusted friend, be used as an in-
quisitor's warrant for inflicting imprisonment
and torture upon that child. Had not every
fragment of the apostle's body long since
mouldered to dust, his very bones would have
moved in their grave, in protest against such
slander on the Christian name and faith.
And is it come to this, 0 Jesus Christ ! have
such things been done in thy name, and art
thou silent yet? Verily, thou art a God that
hidest thyself, 0 God of Israel, the Saviour !

CHAPTER V.

l5uT why did not the apostles preach
against the legal relation of slavery, and
seek its overthrow in the state 1 This ques-
tion is often argued as if the apostles were
in the same condition with the clergy of
Southern churches, members of republican
institutions, law-makers, and possessed of all
republican powers to agitate for the repeal
of unjust laws.

Contrary to all this, a little reading of
the New Testament will show us that the
apostles were almost in the condition of out-
laws, under a severe and despotic govern-
ment, whose spirit and laws they repro-
bated as unchristian, and to which they sub-
mitted, just as they exhorted the slave to
submit, as to a necessary evil.

Hear the apostle Paul thus enumerating
the political privileges incident to the minis-
try of Christ. Some false teachers had
risen in the church at Corinth, and contro-
verted his teachings, asserting that they had
greater pretensions to authority in the Chris-
tian ministry than he. St. Paul, defending
his apostolic position, thus speaks: "Are
they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a
fool) I am more ; in labors more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five
times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I
stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night

and a day have I been in the deep; in jour-
neyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by mine own country-
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
in the sea, in perils among false brethren :
in weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness."

What enumeration of the hardships of an
American slave can more than equal the
hardships of the great apostle to the Gen-
tiles ? He had nothing to do with laws ex-
cept to suffer their penalties. They were
made and kept in operation without asking
him, and the slave did not suffer any more
from them than he did.

It would appear that the clergymen of the
South, Avhen they imitate the example of
Paul, in letting entirely alone the civil relation
of the slave, have left wholly out of their
account how different is the position of an
American clergyman, in a republican govern-
ment, where he himself helps make and sus-
tain the laws, from the condition of the
apostle, under a heathen despotism, with
whose laws he could have nothing to do.

It is very proper for an outlawed slave to
address to other outlawed slaves exhortations
to submit to a government which neither he
nor they have any power to alter.

We read, in sermons which clergymen ak
the South have addressed to slaves, exhorta-
tions to submission, and patience, and hu-
mility, in their enslaved condition, which
would be exceedingly proper in the mouth
of an apostle, where he and the slaves were
alike fellow-sufferers under a despotism whose
laws they could not alter, but which assume
quite another character when addressed to
the slave by the very men who make the
laws that enslave them.

If a man has been waylaid and robbed of
all his property, it would be very becoming
and proper for his clergyman to endeavor to
reconcile him to his condition, as, in some
sense, a dispensation of Providence ; but if
the man who robs him should come to him,
and address to him the same exhortations, he
certainly will think that that is quite another
phase of the matter.

A clergyman of high rank in the church, in
a sermon to the negroes, thus addresses them :

Almighty God hath been pleased to make you
slaves here, and to give you nothing but labor and
poverty in this world, which you are oblii^od to
submit to, as it is his will that it should be so.
And think within yourselves what a terrible thing
it would be, after all your labors and suU'<n-iui:;8 iu
this life, to be turned into hell in the next life ;

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

235

and, after wearing out yourbijdies in service here,
to p;o into a far worse slavery when this is over,
and your poor souls be delivered over into the
possession of the devil, to become his slaves for-
ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free
from it. If, therefore, you would be God's free-
men in heaven, you must strive to be good and
serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you know,
are not your own : they are at the disposal of those
you belong to ; but your precious souls are still
your own, which nothing can take from you, if it
be not your own fiiult. Consider well, then, that
if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives
here, you have got nothing by it in this world,
and you have lost your all in the nest. For your
idleness and wickedness is generally found out, and
your bodies suffer for it here ; and, what is far
worse, if you do not repent and amend, your un-
happy souls will suffer for it hereafter.

Now, this clergymfin was a man of un-
doubted sincerity. He had read the New
Testament, and observed that St. Paul ad-
dressed exhortations something like this to
slaves in his day.

But he entirely forgot to consider that
Paul had not the rights of a republican
clergyman ; that he was not a maker and sus-
tainer of those laws by which the slaves
were reduced to their condition, but only a
fellow-sufferer under them. A case may be
supposed which would illustrate this principle
to the clergyman. Suppose that he were
travelling along the highway, with all his
worldly property about him, in the shape of
bank-bills. An association of highwaymen
seize him, bind him to a tree, and take away
the whole of his worldly estate. This they
would have precisely the same right to do
that the clergyman and his brother republi-
cans have to take all the earnings and pos-
sessions of their slaves. The property would
belong to these highwaymen by exactly the
same kind of title, — not because they have
earned it, but simply because they have got
it and are able to keep it.

Tlie head of this confederation, observing
some dissatisfaction upon the face of the
clergyman, proceeds to address him a re-
ligious exhortation to patience and submis-
sion, in much the same terms as he had be-
fore addressed to the slaves. " Almighty
God has been pleased to take away your en-
tire property, and to give you nothing but
labor and poverty in this world, which you
are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that
it should be so. Now, think within yourself
what a terrible thing it would be, if, having
lost all your worldly property, you should,
by discontent and want of resignation, lose
also your soul ; and, having been robbed of
all your property here, to have your poor
soul delivered over to the possession of the

devil, to become his property forever in hell,
without any hope of ever getting free from
it. Your property now is no longer your
own ; we have taken possession of it ; but
your precious soul is still your own, and
nothing can take it from you but your own
fault. Consider well, then, that if you lose
your soul by rebellion and murmuring
against this dispensation of Providence, you
will get nothing by it in this world, and will
lose your all in the next."

Now, should this clergyman say, as he
might very properly, to these robbers, —
" There is no necessity for my being poor
in this world, if you will only give me back
my property which you have taken from me,"
he is only saying precisely what the slaves
to whom he has been preaching might say
to him and his fellow-republicans.

CHAPTER VL

But it may still be said that the apostles
mi^ht have commanded Christian masters to
perform the act of legal emancipation in all
cases. Certainly they might, and it is quite
evident that they did not.

The professing primitive Christian re-
garded and treated his slave as a brother,
but in the eye of the law he was still his
chattel personal, — a thing, and not a man.
Why did not the apostles, then, strike at the
legal relation ? Why did they not command
every Christian convert to sunder that chain
at once 7 In answer, we say that every at-
tempt at reform which comes from God has
proceeded uniformly in this manner. — to
destroy the spirit of an abuse first, and leave
the form of it to drop away, of itself, after-
wards,— to girdle the poisonous tree, and
leave it to take its own time for dying.

This mode of dealing with abuses has this
advantage, that it is compendious and univer-
sal, and can apply to that particular abuse in
all ages, and under all shades and modifica-
tions. If the apostle, in that outward and
physical age, had merely attacked the legal
relation, and had rested the whole burden of
obligation on dissolving that, the corrupt and
selfish principle might have run into other
forms of oppression equally bad, and shel-
tered itself under the technicality of avoiding
legal slavery. God, therefore, dealt a surer
blow at the monster, by singling out the
precise spot where his heart beat, and say-
ing to his apostles, " Strike there ! "

Instead of saying to the slave-holder^

236

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN".

"manumit your slave," it said to him,
" treat him as your brother," and left to the
slave-holder's conscience to say how much
was implied in this command.

In the directions which Paul gave about
slavery, it is evident that he considered the
legal relation with the same indifference with
which a gardener treats a piece of unsightly
bark, which he perceives the growing vigor
of a young tree is about to throw off by
its own vital force. He looked upon it as
a part of an old, effete system of heathen-
ism, belonging to a set of laws and usages
which were waxing old and ready to vanish
away.

There is an argument which has been
much employed on this subject, and which
is specious. It is this. That the apostles
treated slavery as one of the lawful relations
of life, like that of parent and child, hus-
band and wife.

The argument is thus stated : The apostles
found all the relations of life much corrupted
by various abuses.

They did not attack the relations^ but
reformed the abuses, and thus restored the
relations to a healthy state.

The mistake here lies in assuming that
slavery is the lawful relation. Slavery is
the corruption of a lawful relation. The
lawful relation is servitude, and slavery is
the coi^ruption of servitude.

When the apostles came, all the relations
of life in the Roman empire were thoroughly
permeated with tjlie principle of slavery.
The relation of child to parent was slavery.
The relation of wife to husband was skvery.
The relation of servant to master was slav-
ery.

The power of the father over his son, by
Roman law, was very much the same with
the power of the master over his slave.*
He could, at his pleasure, scourge, imprison,
or put him to death. The son could possess
nothing but what was the property of his
father ; and this unlimited control extended
throujrh the whole lifetime of the father,
unless the son were formally liberated by an
act of manumission three times repeated,
while the slave could be manumitted by per-
forming the act only once. Neither was
there any law obliging the father to manu-
mit ; — he could retain this power, if he
chose, during his whole life.

Very similar was the situation of the Ro-
man wife. In case she were accused of
crime, her husband assembled a meeting of
her relations, and in their presence sat in

* See Adams' Boman Antiquities.

judgment upon her, awarding such punislls
ment as he thought proper.

For unfaithfulness to her marriage-vow,
or for drinking wine, Romulus allowed her
husband to put her to death.* From this
slavery, unlike the son, the wife could never
be manumitted ; no legal forms were provided:
It was lasting as her life.

The same spirit of force and slavery per-
vaded the relation of master and servant,
giving rise to that severe code of slave-law,
which, with a few features of added cruelty,
Christian America, in the nineteenth cen-
tury, has reenacted.

With regard, now, to all these abuses of
proper relations, the gospel pursued one
uniform course. It did not command ^he
Christian father to perform the legal act of
emancipation to his son ; but it infused such
a divine spirit into the paternal relation, by
assimilating it to the relation of the heavenly
Father, that the Christianized Roman would
regard any use of his barbarous and op-
pressive legal powers as entix-ely inconsist-
ent with his Christian profession. So it
ennobled the marriage relation by comparing
it to the relation between Christ and his
church; commanding the husband to love his
wife, even as Christ loved the church, and
gave himself for it. It said to him, ''No
man ever yet hated his own flesh, but
nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the church;" "so ought every one to
love his wife, even as himself" Not an
allusion is made to the barbarous, unjust
power which the law gave the husband. It
was perfectly understood that a Christian
husband could not make use of it in con-
formity with these directions.

In the same manner Christian masters
were exhorted to give to their servants that
which is just and equitable; and, so far from
coercing their services by force, to forbear
even threatenings. The Christian master
was directed to receive his Christianized
slave, " NOT now as a slave, but above a
slave, a brother beloved ;" and, as in all these
other cases, nothing was said to him about
the barbarous powers which the Roman law
gave him, since it was perfectly understood
that he could not at the same time treat him
as a brother beloved and as a slave in the
sense of Roman law.

When, therefore, the question is asked,
why did not the apostles seek the abolition
of slavery, we answer, they did seek it.
They sought it by the safest, shortest, and
most direct course which could possibly have
beon adopted.

♦ Dionys. Hal. ii. 25.

■KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

237

CHAPTER VII.

But did Christianity abolish slavery as a
matter of fact 7 We answer, it did.

Let us look at these acknowledged facts.
At the time of the coming of Christ, slavery
extended over the whole civilized world.
Captives in war were uniformly made slaves,
and, as wars were of constant occurrence,
the ranks of slavery were continually being
reinforced ; and, as slavery was hereditary
and perpetual, there was every reason to
suppose that the number would have gone
on increasing indefinitely, had not some in-
fluence operated to stop it. This is one fact.

Let us now look at another. At the time
of the Reformation, chattel-slavery had en-
tirely ceased- throughout all the civilized
countries of the world ; — by no particular
edict, by no special laws of emancipation,
but by the steady influence of some gradual,
unseen power, this whole vast system had
dissolved away, like the snow-banks of win-
ter.

These two facts being conceded, the inquiry
arises, What caused this change? If, now,
we find that the most powerful organization
in the civilized world at that time did pur-
sue a system of measures which had a direct
tendency to bring about such a result, we
shall very naturally ascribe it to that organ-
ization.

The Spanish writer, Balmes, in his work
entitled " Protestantism compai'ed with Ca-
tholicity," has one chapter devoted to the
anti-slavery course of the church, in which
he sets forth the whole system of measures
which the church pursued in reference to
this subject, and quotes, in their order, all
the decrees of councils. The decrees them-
selves are given in an appendix at length, in
the original Latin. We cannot but sympa-
thize deeply in the noble and generous spirit
in which these chapters are written, and the
enlarged and vigorous ideas which they give
of the magnanimous and honorable nature
of Christianity. They are evidently con-
ceived by a large and noble soul, capable of
understanding such views, — a soul grave,
earnest, deeply religious, though evidently
penetrated and imbued with the most pro-
found conviction of the truth of his own
peculiar faith.

We shall give a short abstract, from M.
Balmes, of the early course of the church.
In contemplating the course which the church
took in this period, certain things are to be
borne in mind respecting the character of
the times.

The process wag carried on during that
stormy and convulsed period of society
which succeeded the breaking up of the Ro-
man empire. At this time, all the customs
of society were rude and barbarous. Though
Christianity, as a system, had been nominally
very extensively embraced, yet it had not,
as in the case of its first converts, penetrated
to the heart, and regenerated the whole nature.
Force and violence Avas the order of the day,
and the Christianity of the savage northern
tribes, who at this time became masters of
Europe, was mingled with the barbarities of
their ancient heathenism. To root the insti-
tution of slavery out of such a state of society,
required, of course, a very difierent process
from what would be necessary under the
enlicfhtened organization of modern times.

No power but one of the peculiar kind
which the Christian church then possessed
could have effected anything in this way.
The Christian church at this time, far from
being in the outcast and outlawed state in
which it existed in the time of the apostles,
was now an organization of great power, and
of a kind of power peculiarly adapted to that
rude and uncultured age. It laid hold of all
those elements of fear, and mystery, and
superstition, which are strongest in barba-
rous ages, as with barbarous individuals, and
it visited the violations of its commands with
penalties the more dreaded that they related
to some awful future, dimly perceived and
imperfectly comprehended.

In dealing with slavery, the church did
not commence by a proclamation of universal
emancipation, because, such was the barba-
rous and unsettled nature of the times, so
fierce the grasp of violence, and so many the
causes of discord, that she avoided adding to
the confusion by infusing into it this ele-
ment ; — nay, a certain council of the church
forbade, on pain of ecclesiastical censure,
those who preached that slaves ought imme-
diately to leave their masters.

The course was commenced first by re-
stricting the power of the master, and grant-
ing protection to the slave. The Council
of Orleans, in 549, gave to a slave threatened
with punishment the privilege of taking
sanctuary in a church, and forbade his mas-
ter to withdraw him thence, without taking
a solemn oath that he would do him no harm ;
and, if he violated the spirit of this oath, he
was to be suspended from the church and
the sacraments, — a doom which in those days
was viewed with such a degree of supersti-
tious awe, that the most barbarous would
scarcely dare to incur it. The custom was
afterwards introduced of requiring an oath

238

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

on such occasiong, not only that the slave
should be free from corporeal infliction,
but that he should not be punished by an
extra imposition of labor, or by any badge
of disgrace. When this was complained of,
as being altogether too great a concession on
the side of the slave, the utmost that could
be extorted from the church, by way of re-
traction, was this, — that in cases of very
heinous offence the master should not be
required to make the two latter promises.

There was a certain punishment among
the Goths which was more dreaded than
death. It was the shaving of the hair. This
was considered as inflicting a lasting disgrace.
If a Goth once had his hair shaved, it was
all over with him. The fifteenth canon of
the Council of Merida, in 666, forbade eccle-
siastics to inflict this punishment upon their
slaves, as also all other kind of violence,
and ordained that if a slave committed an
offence, he should not be subject to private
vengeance, but be delivered up to the secular
tribunal, and that the bishops should use
their power only to procure a moderation of
the sentence. This was substituting public
justice for personal vengeance — a most im-
portant step. The church further enacted,
by two councils, that the master who, of his
own authority, should take the life of his
slave, should be cut off for two years from
the communion of the church, — a condition,
in the view of those times, implying the most
awful spiritual risk, separating the man in
the eye of society from all that was sacred,
and teaching him to regard himself, and
others to regard him, as a being loaded with
the weight of a most tremendous sin.

Besides the protection given to life and limb,
the church threw her shield over the family
condition of the slave. By old Roman law,
the slave could not contract a legal, inviola-
ble marriage. The church of that age
availed itself of the catholic idea of the sacra-
mental nature of marriage to conflict with
this heathenish doctrine. Pope Adrian I.
said, " According to the words of the apostle,
as in Jesus Christ we ought not to deprive
either slaves or freemen of the sacraments
of the church, so it is not allowed in any
way to prevent the Tnarriage of slaves ; and
if their marriages have been contracted in
spite of tJie opposition and repugnance
of their masters^ nevertheless they ought
not to be dissolved.''^ St. Thomas was of
the same opinion, for he openly maintains
that, with respect to contracting marriage,
" slaves are not obliged to obey their mas-
ters:'

It can easily be seen what an effect was
produced when the personal safety and family
ties of the slaves were thus proclaimed
sacred by an authority which no man living
dared dispute. It elevated the slave in the
eyes of his master, and awoke hope and self-
respect in his own bosom, and powerfully
tended to fit him for the reception of that
liberty to which the church by many ave-
nues was constantly seeking to conduct him.

Another means which the church used to
procure emancipation was a jealous care of
the freedom of those already free.

Every one knows how in our Southern
States the boundaries of slavery are continu-
ally increasing, for want of some power there
to perform the same kind ofiice. The liberated
slave, travelling without his papers, is con-
tinually in danger of being taken up, thrown
into jail, and sold to pay his jail-fees. He
has no bishop to help him out of his troubles.
In no church can he take sanctuary. Hun-
dreds and thousands of helpless men and
women are every year engulfed in slavery
in this manner.

The church, at this time, took all enfran-
chised slaves under her particular protection.
The act of enfranchisement was made a re-
ligious service, and was solemnly performed
in the church ; and then the church received
the newly-made freeman to her protecting
arms, and guarded his newly-acquired rights
by her spiritual power. The first Council
of Orange, held in 441, ordained in its^
seventh canon that the church should check
by ecclesiastical censures whoever desired
to reduce to any kind of servitude slaves
who had been emancipated within the enclos-
ure of the church. A century later, the
same prohibition wag repeated in the seventh
canon of the fifth Council of Orleans, held
in 549. The protection given by the church
to freed slaves was so manifest and known to
all, that the custom was introduced of espe-
cially recommending them to her, either in
lifetime or by will. The Council of Agde,
in Languedoc, passed a resolution command"
ing the church, in all cases of necessity, to
undertake the defence of those to whom
their masters had, in a lawful way, given
liberty.

Another anti-slavery measure which the
church pursued with distinguished zeal had
the same end in view, that is, the pre-
vention of the increase of slavery. It
wag the ransoming of captives. As at that
time it was customary for captives in war to
be made slaves of, unless ransomed, and as,
owing to the unsettled state of society, wars

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

239

Trere frequent, slavery might have been in-
definitely prolonged, had not the church
made tlie greatest efforts in this way. The
ransoming of slaves in those days held the
same place in the affections of pious and de-
voted members of the church that the enter-
prise of converting the heathen now does.
Many of the most eminent Christians, in their
excess of zeal, even sold themselves into
captivity that they might redeem distressed
families. Chateaubriand describes a Christian
priest in France who voluntarily devoted
himself to slavery for the ransom of a Chris-
tian soldier, and thus restored a husband to
his desolate wife, and a father to three unfor-
tunate children. Such were the deeds which
secured to men in those days the honor of
saintship. Such was the history of St.
Zachary, whose story drew tears from many
eyes, and excited many hearts to imitate so
sublime a charity. . In this they did but
imitate the spirit of the early Christians ;
for the apostolic Clement says, "We know
how many among ourselves have given up
themselves unto bonds, that thereby they
might free others from them." (1st letter
to the Corinthians, •§> 55, or ch. xxi. v.
20.) One of the most distinguished of
the Frankish bishops was St. Eloy. He
was originally a goldsmith of remarkable
skill in his art, and by his integrity and
trustworthiness won the particular esteem
and confidence of King Clotaire I., and
stood high in his court. Of him Ne-
ander speaks as follows. " The cause of the
gospel was to him the dearest interest, to
which everything else was made subservient.
"While working at his art, he always had a
Bible open before him. The abundant income
of his labors he devoted to religious objects
and deeds of charity. Whenever he heard
of captives, who in these days were often
dragged off in troops as slaves that were
to be sold at auction, he hastened to the
spot and paid down their. price." Alas for
our slave-coffles ! — there are no such bishops
now ! " Sometimes, by his means, a hundred
at once, men and women, thus obtained their
liberty. He then left it to their choice,
either to return home, or to remain with him
aa free Christian brethren, or to become
monks. In the first case, he gave them
money for their journey ; in the last, which
pleased him most, he took pains to procure
them a handsome reception into some
monastez'y."

So great was the zeal of the church for
the ransom of unhappy captives, that even
the ornaments and sacred vessels of the

church were sold for their ransom. By the
fifth canon of the Council of Macon, held in
585, it appears that the priests devoted
church property to this purpose. The Coun-
cil of Rheims, held in 625, orders the punish-
ment of suspension on the bishop who shall
destroy the sacred vessels for any other

MOTIVE THAN THE RANSOM OF CAPTIVES;

and in the twelfth canon of the Council of
Verneuil, held in 844, we find that the prop-
erty of the church was still used for this
benevolent purpose.

When the church had thus redeemed the
captive, she still continued him under her
special protection, giving him letters of re-
commendation which should render his liberty
safe in the eyes of all men. The Council of
Lyons, held in 583, enacts that bishops shall
state, in the letters of recommendation which
they give to redeemed slaves, the date and
price of their ransom. The zeal for this
work was so ardent that some of the clergy
even went so far as to induce captives to
run away. A council called that of St.
Patrick, held in Ireland, condemns thii
practice, and says that the clergyman whft
desires to ransom captives must do so with
his own money, for to induce them to rur
away was to expose the clergy to be con-
sidered as robbers, which was a dishonor t€
the church. The disinterestedness of the
church in this work appears from the fact
that, when she had employed her funds for
the ransom of captives she never exacted
from them any recompense, even when they
had it in their power to discharge the debt.
In the letters of St. Gregory, he reassures
some persons who had been freed by the
church, and who feared that they should be
called upon to refund the money which had
been expended on them. The Pope orders
that no one, at any time, shall venture to
disturb them or their heirs, because the sa-
cred canons allow the employment of the
goods of the church for the ransom of cap-
tives. (L. 7, Ep. 14.) Still further to
guard against the increase of the number of
slaves, the Council of Lyons, in 566, ex-
communicated those who unjustly retained
free persons in slavery.

If there were any such laws in the South-
ern States, and all were excommunicated who
are doing this, there would be quite a sen-
sation, as some recent discoveries show.

In 625, the Council of Rheims decreed
excommunication to all those who pursue
free persons in order to reduce them to
slavery. The twenty-seventh canon of the
Council of London, held 1102, forbade the

240

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

barbaroas custom of trading in men, like
animals; and the seventh canon of the Coun-
cil of Coblentz, held 922, declares that he
who takes away a Christian to sell him is
guilty of homicide. A French council,
held in Verneuil in 616, established the law
that all persons who had been sold into
slavery on account of poverty or debt should
receive back their liberty by the restoration
of the price which had been paid. It will
readily be seen that this opened a wide field
for restoration to liberty in an age where so
great a Christian zeal had been awakened for
the redeeming of slaves, since it afforded op-
portunity for Christians to interest themselves
in raising the necessary ransom.

At this time the Jews occupied a very

peculiar place among the nations. The spirit

of trade and commerce was almost entirely

confined to them, and the great proportion

>, of the wealth was in their hands, and, of

i0- course, many slaves. The regulations which

'the church passed relative to the slaves of

^ews tended still further to strengthen the

^l^inciples of liberty. They forbade Jews to

r^^^ihpel Christian slaves to do things contrary

to the religion of Christ. They allowed

Christian slaves, who took refuge in the

church, to be ransomed, by paying their

masters the proper price.

Tliis produced abundant results in favor
of liberty, inasmuch as they gave Christian
slaves the opportunity of flying to churches,
and there imploring the charity of their
brethren. They also enacted that a Jew
who should pervert a Christian slave should
be condemned to lose all his slaves. This
was a new sanction to the slave's conscience,
and a new opening for liberty. After that,
they proceeded to forbid Jews to have Chris-
tian slaves, and it was allowed to ransom
those in their possession for twelve sous.
As the Jews were among the greatest trad-
ers of the time, the forbidding them to keep
slaves was a very decided step toward gen-
eral emancipation.

Another means of lessening the ranks of
slavery was a decree passed in a council
at Rome, in 595, presided over by Pope
Gregory the Great. This decree offered
liberty to all who desired to embrace the
monastic life. This decree, it is said, led to
great scandal, as slaves fled from the houses
9f their masters in great numbers, and took
refuge in monasteries.

The church also ordained that any slave
who felt a calling to enter the ministry, and
appeared qualified therefor, should be al-
lowed to pursue his vocation j and enjoined

it upon his master to liberate him, since the
church could not permit her minister to wear
the yoke of slavery. It is to be presumed
that the phenomenon, on page 176, of a
preacher with both toes cut oS" and branded
on the breast, advertised as a runaway in the
public papers, was not one which could
have occurred consistently with the Chris-"
tianity of that period.

Under the influence of all these regula-
tions, it IS not surprising that there are docu-
ments cited by M. Balmes Avhich go to show
the following things. First, that the number
of slaves thus liberated was very great, as
there was universal complaint upon this head.

Second, that the bishops were complained
of as being always in favor of the slaves,
as carrying their protection to very great
lengths, laboring in all ways to realize the
doctrine of man's equality; and it is afiirmed
in the documents that complaint is made that
there is hardly a bishop who cannot be charged
with reprehensible compliances in favor of
slaves, and that slaves were aware of this
spirit of protection, and were ready to throw
off" their chains, and cast themselves into the
church.

It is not necessary longer to extend this
history. It is as perfectly plain whither
such a course tends, as it is whither the
course pursued by the American clergy at
the South tends. We are not surprised that
under such a course, on the one hand, the
number of slaves decreased, till there were
none in modern Europe. We are not sur-
prised by such a course, on the other hand,
that they have increased until there are three
millions in America.

Alas for the poor slave ! What church
befriends him 7 In what house of prayer
can he take sanctuary? What holy men
stand forward to rebuke the wicked law that
denies him legal marriages'? What pious
bishops visit slave-cofiles to redeem men,
women and children, to liberty ? What holy
exhortations in chui'ches to buy the freedom
of wretched captives ? When have church
velvets been sold, and communion-cups melted
down, to liberate the slave'? Where are the
pastors, inflamed with the love of Jesus, who
have sold themselves into slavery to restore
separated families '? Where are those honor-
able complaints of the world that the church
is always on the side of the oppressed '? —
that the slaves feel the beatings of her- gene-
rous heart, and long to throw themselves into
her arms '? Love of brethren, holy chari-
ties, love of Jesus, — where are ye? — Are
ye fled forever 1

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

241

CHAPTER VIII.

■ Masters, give unto your servants that which is just
and equal."

From what has been said in the last chap-
ter, it is presumed thit it will appear that
the Christian church of xVmerica by no
means occupies that position, with regard to
slavery, that the apostles did, or that the
church of the earlier ages did.

However they may choose to interpret the
language of the apostles, the fact still re-
mains undeniable, that the church organiza-
tion which grew up immediately after these
instructions did intend and did effect the
abolition of slavery.

But we wish to give still further consider-
ation to one idea which is often put forward
by those who defend American slavery. It
Ls this. That the institution is not of itself
a sinful one, and that the only sin consists
in the neglect of its relative duties. All
that is necessary, they say, is to regulate
the institution by the precepts of the gospel.
They admit that no slavery is defensible
which is not so r^^gulated.

If, therefore, it shall appear that Ameri-
ean slave-law cannot be regulated by the
precepts of the gospel, without such altera-
tions as will entirely do away the whole
system, then it will appear that it is an
unchristian institution, against which every
Christian is bound to remonstrate, and from
which he should entirely withdraw.

The Roman slave-code was a code made by
heathen, — by a race, too, proverbially stern
and unfeeling. It was made in the darkest
apies of the world, before the li;2;ht of the
gospel had dawned. Chi'istianity gradually
but certainly abolished it. Some centuries
later, a company of men, from Christian na-
tions, go to the continent of Africa; there
they kindle wars, sow strifes, set tribes
against tribes with demoniac violence, burn
villages, and in the midst of these diabolical
scenes kidnap and carry off, from time to
time, hundreds and thousands of miserable
eaptives. Such of those as do not die of ter-
ror, grief, suffocation, ship-fever, and other
horrors, are, from time to time, landed on
tlie shores of America. Here they are.
And now a set of Christian legislators meet
logether to construct a system and laws of
Bervitude, with regard to these unfortunates,
which is hereafter to be considered as a Chris-
tian institution.

Of course, in order to have any valid title
K) such a name, the institution must be regu-
l(i

lated by the principles which Christ and his
apostles have laid down for the government
of those who assume the relation of masters.
The New Testament sums up these princi-
ples in a single sentence : "Masters, giveuntc
your servants that which is just and equal."

But, forasmuch as there is always some
confusion of mind in regard to what is just
and equal in our neighbor's affairs, our Lord
has given this direction, by which we may
arrive at infallible certainty. " All things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them."

It is, therefore, evident that if Christian
legislators are about to form a Christian sys-
tem of servitude, they must base it on these
two laws, one of which is a particular speci-.
fication under the other.

Let us now examine some of the particu-
lars of thfe code which they have formed, an(\
see if it bear this character.

First, they commence by declaring that
their brother shall no longer be considered
as a person, but deemed, sold, taken, and
reputed, as a chattel personal. — This is "just
and equal ! "

This being the fundamental principle of
the system, the following are specified as its
consequences :

1. That he shall have no right to hold
property of any kind, under any circum-
stances.— Just and equal !

2. That he shall have no power to con-
tract a legal marriage, or claim any woman
in particular for his wife. — Just and equaH

3. That he shall have no right to his
children, either to protect, restrain, guide or
educate. — Just and equal !

4. That the power of his master over
him shall be absolute, without any possi-
bility of appeal or redress in consequence of
any injury Avhatever.

To secure this, they enact that he shall not
be able to enter suit in any court for any
cause. — Just and equal !

That he shall not be allowed to bear testi-
mony in any court where any white person
is concerned. — Just and equal !

That the owner of a servant, for " mali-
cious, cruel, and excessive beating of his slave,
cannot be indicted." — Just and equal !

It is further decided, that by no indirect
mode of suit, through a guardian, shall a
slave obtain redres^for ill-treatment. (Do-
rothea V. Coquillon et al, 9 Martin La. Rep.
350.) — Just and equal !

0. It is decided that the slave shall not

only have no legal redress for injuries in-

1 flicted by his master, but shall have no re-

^42

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

dress for those inflicted by any other person,
unless the injury impair his property value.
— Just and equal !

Under this head it i3 distinctly asserted
as follows :

" There can be no offence against the
peace of the state, by the mere beating of a
slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances
of cruelty, or an intent to kill and murder.
The peace of the state is not thereby broken."
(State V. Maner, 2 Hill's Rep. S. C.) — Just
and equal !

If a slave strike a white, he is to be con-
demned to death; but if a master kill his slave
by torture, no white witnesses being present,
he may clear himself by his own oath.
(Louisiana.) — Just and equal !

The law decrees fine and imprisonment to
the person who shall release the servant of
smother from the torture of the ii'on collar.
(Louisiana. ) — Just and equal !

It decrees a much smaller fine, without
imprisonment, to the man who shall torture
him with red-hot irons, cut out his tongue,
put out his eyes, and scald or maim him.
(Ibid. ) — Just and equal !

It decrees the same punishment to him
who teaches him to write as to him who puts
out his eyes. — Just and equal !

As it might be expected that only very
ignorant and brutal people could be kept in
a condition like this, especially in a country
where every book and every newspaper are
full of dissertations on the rights of man,
they therefore enact laws that neither he nor
his children, to all generations, shall learn
to read and write. — Just and equal !

And ns, if allowed to meet for religious
worship, they might concert some plan of
escape or redress, they enact that " no con-
ffrejiration of nejcroes, under pretence of divine
worship, shall assemble themselves ; and that
every slave found at such meetings shall
bo immediately corrected, loitliout trial, by
receiving on the bare back twenty-five stripes
with a whip, switch or cowskin." (Law of
Georgia, Prince's Digest, p. 447.) — Just
and equal !

Though the servant is thus kept in igno-
rance, nevertheless in his ignorance he is
punished more severely for the same crimes
than freemen. — Just and equal !

By way of protecting hj^m from over- work,
they enact tliat he shall not labor more than
five hours longer than convicts at hard labor
in a penitentiary !

They also enact that the master or over-
seer, not the slave, shall decide when he is
too sick to work. — Just and equal !

If any master, compassionating this condi-
tion of the slave, desires to better it, the law
takes it out of his power, by the following
decisions :

1. That all his earnings shall belong to
his master, notwithstanding his masters
promise to the contrary ; thus making them
liable for his master's debts. — Just and
equal !

2. That if his master allow him to keep
cattle for his own use, it shall be lawful for
any man to take them away, and enjoy half
the profits of the seizure. — Just and equal !

3. If his master sets him free, he shall
be taken up and sold again. — Just and equal !

If any man or woman runs away from
this state of things, and, after proclamation
made, does not return, any two justices of
the peace may delare them outlawed, and
give permission to any person in the com-
munity to kill them by any ways or means
they think fit. — Just and equal !

Such are the laws of that system of slavery
which has been made up by Christian mas-
ters late in the Christian era, and is now
defended by Christian ministers as an emi-
nently benign institution.

In this manner Christian legislators have
expressed their understanding of the text,
" Masters, give unto your servants that
which is just and equal.'" and of the text,
" All things whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you io ye even so to them."

It certainl' presents the most extraordi-
nary view: jf justice and equity, and is the
most '• jmarkable exposition of the principle
of domg to others as we would others should
do to us, that it has ever been the good
fortune of the civilized world to observe.
This being the institutioji, let any one con-
jecture what its abuses must be ; for we are
gravely told, by learned clergymen, that they
do not feel called upon to interfere with the
system, but only with its abuses. We should
like to know what abuse could be spccific<l
that is not provided for and expressly pro-
tected by slave-law.

And yet, Christian republicans, who, with
full power to repeal this law, are daily sus-
taining it, talk about there being no harm
in slavery, if they regulate it according to
the apostle's directions, and give unto their
servants that which is just and equal. Do
they think that, if the Christianized masters
of Rome and Corinth had made such a set
of rules as this for the government of their
slaves, Paul would have accepted it as a
proper exposition of what he meant by ja8t
and equal \

KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

243

But the Presbyteries of South Carolina
Bay, and all the other religious bodies at the
South say, that the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ has no right to interfere with
civil institutions. What is this church of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that they speak of 7
Is it not a collection of republican men, who
have constitutional power to alter these laws,
and whose duty it is to alter them, and who are
disobeying the apostle's directions every day
till they do alter thera ? Every minister at
the South is a voter as much as he is a
minister; every church-member is a voter as
much as he is a church-member ; and minis-
ters and church-members are among the
masters who are keeping up this system of
atrocity, when they have full republican power
to alter it; and yet they talk about giving
their servants that which is just and equal !
If they are going to give their servants that
which is just and equal, let them give them
back their manhood ; they are law-makers,
and can do it. Let them give to the slave
the rigiit to hold property, the right to
form legal marriage, the right to read the
word of God, and to have such education
as -will fully develop his intellectual and
moral nature; the right of free religious
opinion and worsliip; let them give him the
right to bring suit and to bear testimony;
give him the right to have some vote in
the government by which bis interests are
controlled. This will be something more
like giving him that which is "'just and
equal."

Mr. Sraylie, of Mississippi, says that the
planters of Louisiana and Mississippi, when
they are giving from twenty to twenty-five
dollars a barrel for pork, give their slaves
three or four pounds a week ; and intimates
that, if that will not convince people that
they are doing what is just and equal, he
does not know what will.

Mr. C. C. Jones, after stating in various
places that he has no intention ever to inter-
fere with the civil condition of the slave,
teaches the negroes, in his catechism, that
the master gives to his servant that which
is just and equal, when he provides for them
good houses, good clothing, food, nursing,
and religious instruction.

This is just like a man who has stolen an
estate which belongs to a family of orphans.
Out of its munificent revenues, he gives the
orphans comfortable food, clothing, &c.,
while he retains the rest for his own use,
declaring that he is thus renderint; to them
that which is just and equal.

If the laws which regulate slavc/y were

made by a despotic sovereign, over whose
movements the masters could have no con-
trol, this mode of proceeding might be called
just and equal; but, as they are made and
kept in operation by these Christian masters,
these ministers and church-members, in com-
mon with those who are not so, they are every
one of them refusing to the slave that which
is just and equal, so long as they do not
seek the repeal of these laws ; and, if they
cannot get them repealed, it is their duty to
take the slave out from under them, since
they are constructed with such fatal ingenu-
ity as utterly to nullify all that the master
tries to do for their elevation and permanent
benefit.

No man would wish to leave his own
family of children as slaves under the care
of the kindest master that ever breathed;
and what he would not wish to have done to
his own children, he ought not to do to
other people's children.

But, it will be said that it is not becoming
for the Christian church to enter into politi-
cal matters. Again, we ask, what is the
Christian church 7 Is it not an association
of republican citizens, each one of whom has
his rights and duties as a legal voter?

Now, suppose a law were passed which
depreciated the value of cotton or sugar three
cents in the pound, would these men consider
the fact that they are church-members as
any reason why they should not agitate for
the repeal of such law 7 Certainly not.
Such a law would be brittle as the spider's
web ; it would be swept away before it was
well made. Every law to which the ma-
jority of the community does not assent is.
in this country, immediately torn down.

Why, then, does this monstrous systeir
stand from age to age 7 Because the com
munity consent to it. They rehiaci
these unjust laws every day, by their silent
permission of them.

The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is
not of this world, say the South Carolina
Presbyteries; therefore, the church has n\)
right to interfere with any civil institution ;
but yet all the clergy of Charleston could
attend in a body to give sanction to the pro-
ceedings of the great Vigilance Committee
They could not properly exert the least influ-
ence against slavery, because it is a civil
institution, but they could give the whole
weight of their influence in favor of it.

Is it not making the kingdom of our Lord
Jesus Christ quite as much of this world, to
patronize the oppressor, as to patronize the
slave 7

244

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

CHAPTER IX.

13 THE SYSTEM OF RELIGION WHICH IS
TAUGHT THE SLAVE THE GOSPEL?

The ladies of England, in their letter to
the ladies of America, spoke in particular of
the denial of the gospel to the slave. This
has been indignantly resented in this country,
and it has been claimed that the slaves do
have the gospel communicated to them very
extensively.

Whoever reads Mr. Charles C. Jones'
book on the religious instruction of the ne-
groes will have no doubt of the following
facts :

1. That from year to year, since the in-
troduction of the negroes into this country,
various pious and benevolent individuals
have made eiforts for their spiritual welfare.

2. That these efforts have increased, from
year to year.

3. That the most extensive and important
one came into being about the time that
Mr. Jones' book waa written, in the year
1842, and extended to some degree through
the United States. The fairest development
of it was probably in the State of Georgia,
the sphere of Mr. Jones' immediate labor,
where the most gratifying results were wit-
nessed, and much very amiable and com-
mendable Christian feeling elicited on the
part of masters.

4. From time to time, there have been
prepared, for the use of the slave, catechisms,
hymns, short sermons, &c. &c., designed
to be read to them by their masters, or
taught them orally.

5. It will appear to any one who reads
Mr. Jones' book that, though written by a
man who believed the system of slavery
.sanctioned by God, it manifests a spirit of
-sincere and earnest benevolence, and of de-
votedness to the cause he has undertaken,
which cannot bo too highly appreciated.

It is a very painful and unpleasant task
to express any qualification or dissent with
regard to efforts which have been undertaken
in a good spirit, and which have produced,
in many respects, good results ; but, in the
reading of Mr. Jones' book, in the study of his
<;atechisra, and of various other catechisms
•md sermons which give an idea of the re-
ligious instruction of the slaves, the writer
Jias often been painfully impressed with the
idea that, however imbued and mingled with
good, it is not the tnie and pure gospel
system which is given to the slave. As far

as the writer has been able to traiie out what
is communicated to him, it amounts in sub-
stance to this ; that his master's authority
over him, and property in him, to the full
extent of the enactment of slave-law, is re-
cognized and sustained by the tremendous
authority of God himself He is told that
his master is God's overseer ; that he owes
him a blind, unconditional, unlimited submis-
sion; that he must not allow himself to
grumble, or fret, or murmur, at anything
in his conduct; and, in case he does so, that
his murmuring is not against his master,
but against God. He is taught that it is
God's will that he should have nothing but
labor and poverty in this world ; and that,
if he frets and grumbles at this, he will get
nothing by it in this life, and be sent to hell
forever in the next. Most vivid descriptions
of hell, with its torments, its worms ever
feeding and never dying, are held up before
him ; and he is told that this eternity of tor-
ture will be the result of insubordination
here. It is no wonder that a slave-holder
once said to Dr. Brisbane, of Cincinnati, that
religion had been worth more to him, on his
plantation, than a wagon-load of cowskins.

Furthermore, the slave is taught that to
endeavor to evade his master by running
away, or to shelter or harbor a slave who
has ran away, are sins which will expose
him <o the wrath of that omniscien ~~
whose eyes are in every pkce.

As the slave is a movable and merchanta-
ble being, liable, as Mr. Jones calmly re-
marks, to "all the vicissitudes of property,"
this system of instruction, one would think,
would be in something of a dilemma, when it
comes to inculcate the Christian duties of the
family state.

When Mr. Jones takes a survey of the
field, previous to commencing his system of
operations, he tells us, what we suppose
every rational person must have foreseen,
that he finds among the negroes an utter
demoralization upon this subject ; that po-
lygamy is commonly practised, and that the
marriage-covenant has become a mere tem-
porary union of interest, profit or pleasure,
formed without reflection, and dissolved
without the slightest idea of guilt.

That this state of things is the necessary
and legitimate result of the system of laws
which these Christian men have made and
are still keeping up over their slaves, any
sensible person will perceive ; and any one
would think it an indispensable step to any
system of religious instruction here, that the

Being,

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

245

negro should be placed in a situation where
he can form a legal marriage, and can ad-
here to it after it is formed.

But Mr. Jones and his coadjutors com-
menced by declaring that it was not their
intention to interfere, in the slightest degree,
with the legal position of the shive.

We should have thought, then, that it
would not have been possible, if these masters
intended to keep their slaves in the condition
of chattels personal, liable to a constant dis-
ruption of fiimily ties, that they could have
the heart to teach them the strict morality
of thij gospel with regard to the marriage
relation.

But so it is, however. If we examine
Mr. Jones' catechism, we shall find that the
slave is made to repeat orally that one man
can be the husband of but one woman, and
if, during her lifetime, he marries another,
God will punish him forever in hell.

Suppose a conscientious woman, instructed
in Mr. Jones' catechism, by the death of her
master is thrown into the market for the
division of the estate, like many cases we may
read of in the Geoi-gia papers every week.
She is torn from her husband and children,
and sold at the other end of the Union,
never to meet them again, and the new mas-
ter commands her to take another husband ;
— what, now, is this woman to do? If she
take the husband, according to her catechism
she commits adultery, and exposes herself to
everlasting fire ; if she does not take him,
she disobeys her master, who, she has been
taught, is God's o'verseer; and she is exposed
to evei-lasting fire on that account, and cer-
tainlv she is exposed to horrible tortures
here.

Noiv, we ask, if the teaching that has
involved this poor soul in such a labyrinth
of horrors can be called the gospel '?

Is it the gospel. — is it glad tidings in any
sense of the words ?

In the same manner, this catechism goes
on to instruct parents to bring up their chil-
dren in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, that they should guide, counsel, re-
strain and govern them.

Aii;ajii, these teachei-s tell them that they
should search the Scriptures most earnestly,
diligently and continually, at the same time
dechuing that it is not their intention to
interfere with the laws which forbid their
being taught to read. Searching the Scrip-
tures, slaves are told, means coming to people
who are willing to read to them. Yes, but
if there be no one willing to do this, what
then 7 Any one whom this catechism has

thus instructed is sold off to a plantation on
Red river, like that where Northrop lived;
no Bible goes with him ; his Christian in-
structors, in their care not to interfere with
his civil condition, Rave deprived him of the
power of reading; and in this land of dark-
ness his oral instruction is but as a faded
dream. Let any of us ask for what sum
we Avould be deprived of all power of ever
reading the Bible for ourselves, and made
entirely dependent on the reading of others,
— especially if we were liable to fall into
such han«ls as slaves are, — and then let us
determine whether a system of religious in-
struction, which begins by declaring that it
has no intention to interfere with this cruel
legal deprivation, is the gospel !

The poor slave, darkened, blinded, per-
plexed on every hand, by the influences which
the legal system has spread under his feet,
is, furthermore, strictly instructed in a per-
fect system of morality. He must not
even covet anything that is his master's; he
must not murmur or be discontented : he
must consider his master's interests as his
own, and be ready to sacrifice himself to
them ; and this he must do, as he is told, not
only to the good and gentle, but also to the
froward. He must forgive all injuries, and
do exactly right under all perplexities ;
thus is the obligation on his part expounded
to him, while his master's reciprocal obliga-
tions mean only to give him good houses,
clothes, food, &c. &c., leaving every master
to determine for himself what is good in re-
lation to these matters.

No wonder, when such a system of utter
injustice is justified to the negro by all the
awful sanctions of religion, that now and
then a strong soul rises up against it. We
have known under a black skin shrewd minds,
unconquerable spirits, whose indignant sense
of justice no such representations could blind.

That Mr. Jones has met such is evident \
for, speaking of the trials of a missionary
among them, he says (p. 127) :

He discovers Deism, Scepticism, Universalism.
As already stated, the various perversiuus of the
gospel, and ^11 the strong objections against the
trutli of God, — ol)jections which he may, perhaps,
have considered peculiar only to the cultivated
minds, the ripe scholarship and profound intelli-
gence, ol critics and philosopkers ! — extremes here
meet on the natural and common ground of a
darkened understanding and a hardened heart.

Again, in the Tenth Annual Report of
the " Association for the Religious Listruc-
tion of the Negroes in Liberty County
Georgia," he says:

246

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Allow me to relate a fact which occurred in the
spring of this year, illustrative of the character
and knowledge of the negroes at this time. I was
preaching to a large congregation on the Epistle
to Phikinon ; and when I, insisted upon Bdelity
and obedience as Christian virtues in servants, and,
upon the authority of Paul, condemned the practice
of running away, one-half of my audience delibe-
rately walked off with themselves, and those that
remained looked anything but satisfied, either
with the preacher or his doctrine. After dismis-
sion, there was no small stir among them : some
aolemnly declared that there was no such epistle
in the Bible ; others, " that it was not the gos-
pel;" others, " that I preached to please masters ;"
others, " that they did not care if they ever
heard me preach again." — pp. 24, 25.

Lundy Lane, an intelligent fugitive who
has published his memoirs, says that on one
occasion they (the slaves) were greatly de-
lighted with a certain preacher, until he told
them that God had ordained and created
them expressly to make slaves of. He says
that after that they all left him, and went
away, because they thought, with the Jews,
"This is a hard saying; who can hear it?"

In these remarks on the perversion of the
gospel as presented to the slave, we do not
mean to imply that much that is excellent
and valuable is not taught him. We mean
simply to assert that, in so far as the system
taught justifies the slave-system, so far
necessarily it vitiates the fundamental ideas
of justice and morality; and, so far as the
obligations of the gospel are inculcated on
the slave in their purity, they bring him
necessarily in conflict with the authority of
the system. As we have said before, it is
an attempt to harmonize light with darkness,
and Christ with Belial. Nor is such an at-
tempt to be justified and tolerated, because
undertaken in the most amiable spirit by
amiable men. Our admiration of some of
the laborers who have conducted this system
is very great ; so also is our admiration of
many of the Jesuit missionaries who have
spread tlie Roman Catholic religion among
our aboriginal tribes. Devotion and disin-
terestedness could be carried no further than
some of both these classes of men have carried
them.

But, while our respect for these good men
must not seduce us as Protestants into an
admiration of the system which they taught,
so our esteem for our Southern brethren
must not lead us to admit that a system
which fully justifies the worst kind of spir-
itual and temporal despotism can properly
represent the gospel of him who came to
preach deliverance to the captives.

To prove that we have not misrepresented

the style of instruction, we will give some
extracts from various sermons and discourses.
In the first place, to show how explicitly
religious teachers disclaim any intention of
interfering in the legal relation (see Mr.
Jones' work, p. 157) :

By law or custom, they are excluded from the
advantages of education ; and, by consequence,
from the reading of the word of God ; and this
immense mass of immortal beings is thrown, for
religious instruction, upon oral communications
entirely. And upon whom ? Upon their owners.
And their owners, especially of late years, claim
to be the exclusive guardians of their religious in-
struction, and the almoners of divine mercy tow-
ards them, thus assuming the responsibility of
their entire Christianization !

All approaches to them from abroad are rigidly
guarded against, and no ministers are allowed to
break to them the bread of life, except such a3
have commended themselves to the affection and con-
fidence of their owners. I do not condemn this
course of self-preservation on the part of our citi-
zens ; I merely mention it to show their entire
dependence upon ourselves.

In answering objections of masters to al-
lowing the religious instruction of the ne-
groes, he supposes the following objection,
and gives the following answer :

If we suffer our negroes to be instructed, the
tendency will be to change the civil relations of
society as now constituted.

To which let it be replied, that we separate
entirely their religious and their civil condition,
and contend that the one may be attended to
without interfering with the other. Our principle
is that laid down by the holy and just One :
" Render unto Csesar the things which are Caesar's,
and unto God the things which are God's." And
Christ and his apostles are our eorample. Did they
deem it proper and consistent with the good order
of socit^ty to preach the gospel to the servants'?
They did. In discharge of this duty, did they in-
terfere with their civil condition ? They did not.

With regard to the description of heaven
and the torments of hell, the following is
from Mr. Jones' catechism, pp. S3, 91, 92:

Q. Are there two places only spoken of in the
Bible to which the souls of men go after death 1 —
A. Only two.

Q. Which are they? — A. Heaven and hell.

* * * * *

Q. After the Judgment is over, into what place
do the riglitcDus go! — A. Into heaven.

Q. What kind of a place is heaven? — A. A
most glorious and happy place.

*****

Q. Shall tlie righteous in heaven have any
more hunger, or thirst, or nakedness, or heat, or
cold? Shall they have any more sin, or-sorrbw,
or crying, or pain, or deatli? — .4. No.

Q. kepoat " And God sliall wipe away all
tears from their eyes." — .4. "And God shull wipe
away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
bo no more death, neither sorrow nor crying;

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

247

neither shall there be any more pain ; for the
furmer tliiiij^s are passed awaj."

Q. Will heaven be their everlasting home ? —
A. Yes.

Q. And shall the righteous grow in knowledge
and holiness and happiness for ever and ever? —
.4. Yes.

Q. To what place sliould we wish and strive to
go, more than to all other places ! — A. Heaven.
* * « # *

Q. Into what place are the wicked to be casti

— A. Into hell.

Q. Repeat " The wicked shall be turned." —
A. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and
all the nations tliat forget God."

Q. What kind of a place is hell? — A. A
place of ilreadful torments.

Q. What does it bum with ? — A. Everlasting
fire.

Q. Who are cast into hell besides wicked men 1

— A. The devil and his angels.

Q. What will the torments of hell make the
wicked do ? — A. Werp and wail and gnash their
teeth.

Q. What did the rich man beg for when he
was tormented in the flame! — A. A drop of
cold water to cool his tongue.

Q. Will the wicked have any good thing in
hell ? the least comfort ? the least relief from tor-
ment?— A. No.

Q. AVill they ever come out of hell ? — A. No,
never.

Q. Can any go from heaven to hell, or from
hell to heaven ^ — A. No.

Q. What is fixed between heaven and hell ? —
A. A great gulf.

Q. What is the punishment of the wicked in
hell called ? — A. Everlasting punishment.

Q. Will this punishment make them better ? —
.4. No.

Q, Repeat " It is a fearful thing."— A. "It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God."

Q. What is God said to be to the wicked ? —
A. A consuming tire.

Q. What place should we strive to escape from
above all others ? — A. Hell.

The Rev. Alex. Glennie, rector of All-
saints parish, Waccamaw, South Carolina,
has for several years been in the habit of
proachijig with express reference to slaves.
In 1844 he published in Charleston a se-
lection of these sermons, under the title of
' • Sermons preached on Plantations to Con-
gregations of Negroes."' This book contains
twenty-six sermons, and in twenty-two of
them there is either a more or less extended
account, or a reference to eternal misery in
hell as a motive to duty. He thus describes
the day of judgment (Sermon 15, p. 90) :

When all people shall be gathered before him,
"he shall separate them, one from another, as
a shepherd divideth Ids sheep from the goats ;
and he sluill set the sheep on the right hand, but
the goats on the left." That, my brethren, will be
an awful time, wlien this separation shall be going
ou ; when tlie Imly angels, at the command of the
great Judge, shall he gathering together all the
obedient followers of Christ, and be setting them

on the right hand of the Judgment-seat, and shall
place all the remainder on the left. Remember
that each of you must he present; remember that
the Great Judge can make no mistake ; and that
you shall be placed on one side or on the other, ac-
cording as in this world you have believed in and
obeyed him or not. How full of joy and tlianks-
giving will you be, if you shall find yourself placed
on the right hand ! but how full of misery and
despair, if the left shall be appointed as your
porti(jn ! * * * #

But what shall he say to the wicked on the left
hand? To them he shall say, " Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting tire, prepared for the
devil and his angels." He will tell them to de-
part; they did not, while here, seek him by re-
pentance and faith; they did not obey him, and
now he will drive them from him. He will call
them cursed.

(Sermon 1, p. 42.) The death which is the
wages of sin is this everlasting fu-e prepared
for the devil and his angels. It is a fire which
shall last forever ; and the devil and his angels,
and all people who will not love and serve
God, shall there be punished forever. The Bible
says, " The smoke of their torment ascendeth
up for ever and ever." The fire is not quenched,
it never goes out, " their worm dieth not :" their
punishment is spoken of as a worm always feed-
ing upon but never consuming them ; it never
can stop.

Concerning the absolute authority of the
master, take the following extract from Bishop
Mead's sermon. (Brooke's Slavery, pp. 30,
31, 32.)

Having thus shown you the chief duties yoa
owe to your great Master in heaven, I now come
to lay before you the duties you owe to your mas-
ters and mistresses here upon earth ; and for this
you have one general rule that you ought always
to carry in your minds, and that is, to do all ser-
vice for them as if you did it for God himself.
Poor creatures ! you little consider, when you are
idle and neglectful of your masters' business, when
you steal and waste and hurt any of their substance,
when you are saucy and impudent, when you are
telling them lies and deceiving them ; or when
you prove stubborn and sullen, and will not do
the work you are set about without stripes and
vexation ; you do not consider, I say, that what
faults you are g^iilty of iowartfs your masters and
mistresses are faults done against Gud himscf, who
hath set your masters and mistresses over you in
his own stead, and expects that you will do fc*
them just as you would do for Him. And, pray,
do not think that I want to deceive you when I
toll you that your masters and mistresses are God^s
overseers; and that, if you are, faulty towards
them, God himself will punish you severely for it
in the next world, unless you repent of it, and
strive to make amends by your faithfulness and
diligence for the time to come ; for God himself
hath declared the same.

Now, from this general rule, — namely, that
you are to- do all service for your masters and
mistresses as if you did it for God himself. — there
arise several other rules of duty t(j wards your
masters and mistresses, which I shall endeavor to
lay out in order before you.

And, in the first place, you are to be obedient
and subject to your masters in all things.

248

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S UABIN.

And Christian ministers are commanded to "ex-
hort servants to be obedient unto their own mas-
ters, and tu please them well in all things, not
answering them again, or gainsaying." You see
how strictly God requires this of you, that whatever
your masters and mistresses order you to do, you
must set about it immediately, and faithfully per-
form it, without any disputing or grumbling, and
take care to please them well in all things. And
for your encouragement he tells you that he will
reward you for it in heaven ; because, while you
are honestly and faithfully doing your master's
business here, you are serving your Lord and
Master in heaven. You see also that you are not
to take any exceptions to the behavior of your
masters and mistresses ; and that you are to be
subject and obedient, not only to such as are good,
and gentle, and mild, towards you, but also to
»uch as may be froward, peevish, and hard. For
you are not at liberty to choose your own masters ;
but into whatever hands God hath been pleased
to put you, you must do your duty, and God will
reward you for it.

# « * * *

You are to be faithful and honest to rjour masters
«nd mistresses, not purloining or wasting their
goods or substance, but showing all good fidelity in

all things Do not your masters, under

God, provide for youl And how shall they be
able to do this, to feed and to clothe you, unless
you take honest care of everything that belongs
to them ? Remember that God requires this of you ;
and, if you are not afraid of suffering for it here,
you cannot escape the vengeance of Almighty God,
who ivill judge between you and your masters, and
make you pay severely in the next world for all the
injustice you do them here. And though you could
manage so cunningly as to escape the eyes and
hands of man, yet think what a dreadful thing it
is to full into the hands of the living God, who is
able to cast both soul and body into hell !

Yo7i are to serve your masters with cheerfulness,
reverence, and humility. You are to do your mas-
ters' service with good will, doing it as the will of
God from the heart, without any sauciness or an-
swering again. How many of you do things quite
otherwise, and, instead of going about your work
with a good will and a good heart, dispute and
gruml)le, give saucy answers, and behave in a
eurly manner ! There is something so becoming
and engaging in a modest, cheerful, good-natured
behavior, that a little work done in that manner
Boems better done, and gives far more satisfaction,
than a great deal more, that must be done with
fretting, vexati(m, and the lash always held over
you. It also gains the good will and h)ve of those
you belong to, and makes your own life pass with
more ease and pleasure. Besides, you are to
consider that this grumbling and ill-will do not
affect your masters and mistresses only. They
have ways and means in their hands of forcing
you to do your work, whether you are willing or
not. But your murmuring and grumbling is
against God, who hath placed you in that service,
who will punish you severely in the next world for
despising his commands.

A very awful query liero occurs to the
mind. If the poor, ignorant slave, who
wastes his master's temporal .^oods to answer
BOme of hi.^own [jrescnt purposes, he exposed
to this heavy retribution, what will become

of those educated men, who. for their tem-
poral convenience, make and hold in force
laws which rob generation after generation
of men, not only of their daily earnings, but
of all their rights and privileges as immortal
beings ?

The Rev. Mr. Glennie. in one of his ser-
mons, as quoted by Mr. Bowditch, p. 137,
assures his hearers that none of them Avill
be able to say, in the day of judgment, "I
had no way of hearing about my God and
Saviour."

Bishop Meade, as quoted by Erooke, pp.
34, 35, thus expatiates to slaves on the ad-
vantages of their condition. One would
really think, from reading this account, that
every one ought to make haste and get
himself sold into slavery, as the nearest
road to heaven.

Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grum-
ble or repine at your condition ; for this will not only
make your life uneasy, but will greatly offend Al-
mighty God. Consider that it is not yourselves,
it is not the people that you belong to, it is not
the men that have brought you to it, but it is the
will of God, ivho hath by his providence made you
servants, because, no doubt, he knew that condition
would be best for you in this world, and help you the
better towards heaven, if you would but do your
duty in it. So that any discontent at your not
being free, or rich, or great, as you see some
others, is quarrelling with your heavenly Master,
and finding fault with God himself, who hath
made you what you are, and hath promised you
as hirge a share in the kingdom of heaven as thp
greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself
aright, and do the business he hath set you about
in this world honestly and cheerfully. Riches
and power have proved the ruin of many an un-
happy soul, by drawing away the heart and affec-
tions from God, and fixing them on mean and
sinful enjoyments ; so that, when God, who know.s
our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees
that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore
keeps them from us, it is the gi-eatest mercy and
kindness ho could show us.

You may perhaps fancy that, if you had riches
and freedom, you could do your duty to God and
man witli greater pleasure than you can now.
But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your
souls, through tlie mercy of God, you will have
spent your time to the best of purposes in this
world ; and he that at last can get to heaven ha.1
performed a noble journey, let tlie road be ever so
rugged and difficult. Besides, you really have a
great advantage over most wliite peojile, who have
not only the care of their d<iily labin- upon their
hands, but tlie care of looking forward and pro-
viding necessaries for to-morrow and next day,
and of clotliing and bringing up their children,
and of getting food and raiment for as many of
you as belong to their fauiilies, which often put3
them to great dilKculties, and distracts' their
minds so as to brOak tlieir rest, and take off their
thouglits from the affairs of another world. Wliere-
;is, you are (juite eased from all these cares, and
have nothing but your daily labor to look after
and, whcu that is done, take your needful resi

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

249

Neither is it necessary for you to think of laying
up anythino; against old a^e, as white people are
obliged to do ; for the laws of the country have
provided that you sliall not be turned off when
you are past hihor, but shall be maintained, while
you live, by those you belong to, whether you are
able to work or not.

Bishop Meade farther consoles slaves'thus
for certain incidents of their lot, for which
they may think they have more reason to
find fault than for most others. The reader
must admit that he takes a very philo-
Bopliical view of the subject.

There is only one circumstance which may ap-
pear grievous, tliat I shall now take notice of, and
that is correction.

Now, when correction is given you, you either
deserve it, or you do not deserve it. But, whether
you really deserve it or not, it is your duty, and
• Almighty God requires, that you bear it patiently
You may perhaps think that this is hard doc-
trine ; but ii" vou consider it right, you must needs
think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you
aeserve correction ; you cannot but say that it is
just and right yon should meet with it. Suppose
you do not, or at least you do not deserve so much,
or so severe a con-ection, for the fault you have
committed ; you perhaps have escaped a great
many more, and at last paid for all. Or, suppose
you are quite innocent of what is laid to your
charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular
thing ; is it not possible you may have done some
other bad thing which was never discovered, and
that Almighty God, who saw you duing it, would
not let you escape without punishment, one time
or another ! And ought you not, in such a case,
to give glory to him, and be thankful that he
would rather punish you in this life for your
wickedness, tlian destroy your souls 'for it in the
next life? But, suppose even this was not the
case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you
have by no means, known or unknown, deserved
the correction you suffered ; there is this great
comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, and
leave your cause in the hands of God, he will re-
ward you for it in heaven, and the punishment
you suffer unjustly here shall turn to your ex-
ceeding great glory hereafter.

That Bishop Meade has no high opinion
of the present comforts of a life of slavery,
may be fairly inferred from the following
remarks which he makes to slaves :

Your own poor circumstances in this life ought
to put you purticuhirly upon this, and taking care'
of your SDuis ; for you cannot have tlie pleasures
and enjoyments of this life like rich free people,
who have estates and money to lay out as they
think fit. If others will run the hazard of their
souls, they have a chance of getting wealth and
power, of liea[)ing up riches, and enjoying all the
ease, luxury and pleasure, their hearts should long
after. But you can have none of these things ;
BO that, if you sell your souls, for the sake of
what poor matters you can get in tliis world,
you have made a very foolish bargain indeed.

This information is certainly very explicit
and to the point. He continues :

Almighty God hath been pleased to make you
slaves here, and to give you nothing but labor and
poverty in this world, which you are obliged to
submit to, as it is his will tliat it should be so.
And think within yourselves, what a terrible tiling
it would be, after all your labors and sufferings in
this life, to be turned into hell in the next life,
and, after wearing out your bodies in service here,
to go into a fixr worse slavery when this is over,
and your poor souls be delivered over into th«
possession of the devil, to become his slaves for-
ever in hell, without any hope of ever getting frea
from it ! If, therefore, you would be God's free-
men in heaven, you must strive to be good, and
serve him. here on earth. Your bodies, you know,
are not your own ; they are at the disposal of thosf>
you belong to ; but your precious souls are still
your own, which nothing can take from you, if it
be not your OAvn fault. Consider well, then, that
if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked live*
here, you have got nothing by it in this world,
and you have lost your all in the next. For your
idleness and wickedness is generally found out,
and your bodies suffer for it here ; and, what is far
worse, if you do not repent and amend, your un-
happy souls will suffer for it hereafter.

Mr. Jones, in that part of the work where
he is obviating the objections of masters to
the Christian instruction of their slaves, sup-
poses the master to object thus :

You teach them that ''God is no respecter of
persons;" that "He hath made of one blood, all
nations of men ;" " Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself;" "All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ;"
what use, let me ask, would they make of thesa
sentences from the gospel ?

Mr. Jones says :

Let it be replied, that the effect urged in tha
objection might result from imperfect and inju-
dicious religious instruction ; indeed, religious in-
struction may be communicated with the cxpres*
design, on the part of the instructor, to produce
the effect referred to, instances of which have oc-
curred.

But who will say that neglect of duty and in-
subordination are the legitimate effects of tba
gospel, purely and sincerely imparted to servants ?
Has it not in all ages been viewed as the graatest
civilizer of the human race ?

How Mr. Jones would interpret the golden
rule to the slave, so as to justify the slave-
system, we cannot possibly tell. We can,
however, give a specimen of the manner in
which it has been interpreted in Bishop
Meade's sermons, p. 116. (Brooke's
Slavery, &;c., pp. 32, 33.)

" All things whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so unto them ;"
that is, do by all mankind just as you would de-
sire they should do by you, if you were in their
place, and they in yours.

Now, to suit this rule to your particular circum-
stances, suppose yi)U were masters and mistresses,
and had servants under you : would you u.jt desiw
that your serviints should do their business faith-

250

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

fully and honostlj, as well whe.. your back was
turned as while y</U were lov_xing over tliem ?
Would you nv)t expect that tliey should take
notice of what you said to them ? that they
should holiave themselves with respect towards
you and yours, and be as careful of everything
belonging to you as you would be yourselves?
You are scirvants : do, therefore, as you would
wish to be done by, and you will be both good
servants to your masters, and good servants to
God, who requires this of you, and will reward
you well for it, if you do it for the sake of con-
Bcience, in obedience to his commands.

The reverend teachers of such expositions
of scripfure <lo great injustice to the natural
sense of their sable catechumens, if they sup-
i:o3e them incupable of detecting such very
shallow sophistry, and of proving conclu-
sirely that " it is a poor rule that "won't
work both ways." Some shrewd old patri-
arch, of the stamp of those who rose up and
went out at tin exposition of the Epistle to
Philemon, and who show such great acute-
ness in bringing up objections against the
truth of God, such as would be thought pe-
culiar to cultivated minds, might perhaps,
if he dared, reply to sucli an exposition of
scripture in this way: " Suppose you were a
slave, — could not have a cent of your own
earnings during your whole life, could have
no legal right to your wife and children,
could never send your children to school,
and had, as you have told us, nothing but
labor and poverty in this life, — how would
you like it? Would you not wish your
Christian master to set you free from this
condition?" We submit it to every one who
is no respecter of persons, whether this in-
terpretation of Sambo's is not as good as
the bishop's. And if not, why not?

To us, with our feelings and associations,
such discourses as these of Bishop Meade
appear hard-hearted and unfeeling to the
last degree. We should, however, do great
injustice to the character of the man, if we
supposed that they prove him to have been
such. They merely go to show how per-
fectly use may familiarize amiable and es-
timable men with a system of oppression,
till they shall have lost all consciousness of
the wrong which it involves.

That Bishop Meade's reasonings did not
thoroughly convince himself is evident from
the fact that, afier all his representations of
the superior advantages of slavery as a means
of religious improvement, he did, at last,
emancipate his own slaves.

But, in addition to what has been said,
this whole systeuj of religious instruction is
jlarkened by one hideous shadow, — TUB
tjLAVE-TRAUE. What does the Southern

church do with her catecharaens and com-
municar.ts 7 Read the advertisements of
Southern newsjiapers. and see. In every
city in the slave-raising states behold the
depots, kept constantly full of assorted
negroes from the ages of ten to thirty ! In
ever^ slave-consuming state see the re-
ceiving-houses, whither these poor wrecks
and remnants of families are constantly
borne ! Who preaches the gospel to the
slave-coffles 7 Who preaches the gospel in
the slave-prisons 7 If we consider the tre-
mendous extent of this internal trade, — if
we read papers with columns of auction
advertisements of human beino;s. chanwinoj
hands as freely as if they were dollar-bills
instead of human creatures, — we shall then
realize how utterly all those influences of re-,
ligious instruction must he nullified by leav-
ing the subjects of them exposed "to all
the vicissitudes of property."

CHAPTER X.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE 7

The thing to be done, of which I shall
chiefly speak, is that the whole American
church, of all denominations, should unitedly
come up, not in. forfii, but in fact, to
the noble purpose avowed by the Presby-
terian Assembly of 1818, to seek the E:^-

TIUE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT

America AND throughout Christendom.
To this noble course the united voice of
Christians in all other countries is urgently
calling the American church. Expressions
of this feeling have come from Christians of
all denominations in England, in Scotland,
in Ireland, in France, in Switzerland, in
Germany, in Persia, in the Sandwicli Islands,
and in China. All seem to be animated by
one spirit. They have loved and honored
this American church. They have rejoicetl
in the brightness of her rising. Her pros-
perity and success have been to them as their
own, and they have had hopes that God
meant to confer inestimable blessings through
her upon all nations. The American church
has been to them like the rismg of a glorious
sun, shedding healing from his wings, dis-
pei'sing mists and fogs, and t)ringing songs
of birds and voices of cheerful industry, and
sounds of gladness, contentment and peace.
But, lo ! in this b.'autiful orb is seen a
disastrous spot of dim eel ipse, whose gradu-
ally widening shadow threatens a total dark-

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

251

ness. Can we wonrler that the voice of re-
monstrance comes to us from those who have
so much at stake in our prosperity and suc-
cess ? We have sent out our missionaries
to all quarters of the globe ; but how shall
they tell their heathen converts the things
that are clone iti Christianized America 7
How shall our missionaries in Mahometan
countries hold up their heads, and proclaim
the supLM-iority of our religion, when we
tolerate barbarities which they have repu-
diated ?

A missionary among the Karens, in Asia,
writes back that his course is much embar-
rassed by a suspicion that is afloat among
the Karens that the Americans intend to
steal and sell them. He says :

I dread the time when these Karens will be able
U) read our books, and get a full knowledge of all
that is goinsj; on in our country. Many of them
are very inquisitive now, and often ask me ques-
tions that I find it very difficult to answer.

No, there is no resource. The church
of the United States is shut up, in the prov-
idence of God, to one work. She can
never fulfil her mission till this is done. So
long as she neglects this, it will lie in the
way of everything else which she attempts
to do

She must undertake it for another reason,
— because she alone can perform the work
peaceably. If this fearful problem is left to
take its course as a mere political question,
to be ground out between the upper and
nether millstones of political parties, then
what will avert agitation, angry collisions,
and tlie de.spt'nite rending the Union? No,
there is no safety but in making it a re-
ligious enterprise, and pursuing it in a
Christian spirit, and by religious means.

If it now be asked what means shall the
church employ, we answer, this evil must
be abolished by the same means which the
apostles first used for the spread of Chris-
tianity, and the extermination of all the
social evils which then filled a world lying
in wickedness. Hear the apostle enumer-
ate them: "By pureness, by knowledge,

]iY LONG-SUFFERING, BY THE HoLY GhOST,
BY LOVE UNFEIGNED, BY THE AR.MOR OF
RIG^ITEOUSNESS ON THE RIGHT HAND AND
UN THE LEFT."

We will briefly consider each of these
means.

First, "by Pureness." Christians in the
Northern free states must endeavor to purify
themselves and the country from various
malignant results of the system of slavery ;
and, in particular, they must endeavor to

abolish that which is the most sinful, — the
unchristian prejudice of caste.

In Hindostan there is a class called the
Pariahs, with which no other class will asso-
ciate, eat or drink. Our rai.ssionaries tell th©
converted Hindoo that this piejudice is un-
christian; for God hath made of one blood
all who dwell on the face of the earth, and
all mankind are brethren in Christ. With
what face shall they tell this to the Hindoo,
if he is able to reply, "In your own Chris-
tian country there is a class of Pariahs who
are treated no better than we treat ours.
You do not yourselves believe the things
you teach us."

Let us look at the treatment of the free
negro at the North. In the States of Indi-
ana and Illinois the most oppressive and un-
righteous laws have been passed with regard
to him. No law of any slave state could be
more cruel in its spirit than that recently
passed in Illinois, by which every fiee neg^ro
coming into the state is taken up and sold
for a certain time, and then, if he do not
leave the state, is sold again.

With what face can we exhort our South-
ern brethren to emancipate their slaves, if we
do not set the whole moral power of the
church at the North against such abuses as
this ? Is this course justified by saying that
the negro is vicious and idle 1 This is add-
ing insult to injury.

What is it these Christian states do 7 To
a great extent they exclude the colored
population from their schools; they dis-
courage them from attending their churches
by invidious distinctions ; as a general fact, '
they exclude them from their shops, where
they might learn useful arts and trades;
they crowd them out of the better callings
where they might earn an honorable liveli-
hood; and, having thus di.scouraged every
elevated aspiration, and reduced them to
almost inevitable ignorance, idleness and
vice, they fill up the measure of iniquity by
making cruel laws to expel them from their
states, thus heaping up wrath against the day
of wrath.

If we say that every Christian at the
South who does not use his utmost influence
against their iniquitous slave-laws is guilty,
as a repubhcan citizen, of sustaining those
laws, it is no less true that every Christiaa
at the North who does not do what in him
lies to procure the repeal of such laws in
the free states iji, so far, gui ty for their exist-
ence. Of late years we have had abun-
dant quotations from the Old Testament
to justify all manuer of oppression. A

252

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Hindoo, who knew nothing of this generous
and beautiful book, except from such pam-
phlets as Mr. Smylie's, might possibly think
it was a treatise on piracy, and a general justi-
fication of robhery. But let us quote from
it the directions which God gives for the
treatment of the stranger: " If a stranger
sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not
vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth
among you shall be as one born among you;
thou shalt love him as thyself" How much
more does this apply when the stranger has
been brougiit into our land by the injustice
and cruelty of our fathers !

We are happy to say, however, that the
number of states in which such oppressive
legislation exists is small. It is also matter
of encouragement and hope that the unphi-
losophical and unchristian prejudice of caste
is materially giving way, in many parts of
our country, before a kinder and more Chris-
tian spirit.

Many of our schools and colleges are
willing to receive the colored applicant on
equal terms with the white. Some of the
Northern free states accord to the colored
free m.iu full political equality and privileges
Some of the colored people, under this en-
couragement, have, in many parts of our
country, become rich and intelligent. A
very fair proportion of educated men is
rising among them. There are among them
respectable editors, eloquent orators, and
laborious and well-instructed clergymen. It
gives us pleasure to say that among intelli-
gent and Christian people these men are
treated with the consideration they deserve;
and, if they meet with insult and ill-treatment,
it is commonly from the less-educated class,
who, being less enlightened, are always longer
under the induence of prejudice. At a re-
cent ordination at one of the largest and
most respectable churches in New York, the
moderator of the presbytery was a black
man, who began life as a slave; and it was
undoubtedly a soujce of gratification to all
his Christian brethren to see him presiding in
this ca|);icity. He put the questions to the
candidate in tiie German language, the
church being in |)ait composed of Germans.
Our Christian friends in Europe may, at
least, infer from this that, if we have had our
faults in times past, we have, some of us,
Been and are endeavoring to correct them.

To bring tliis bead at once to a practical
conclusion, the writer will say to every in
dividual Christian, who wishes to do some-
thing for the abolition of slavery, begin by

doing what lies in your power for the colored
people in your vicinity. Are there children
excluded from schools by unchiistian preja-
dice 7 Seek to combat that prejudice by
fair arguments, presented in a right spirit.
If you cannot succeed, then endeavor to pro-
vide for the education of these children in
seme other manner. As far as in you lies,
endeavor to secure for them, in every walk
of life, the ordinary privileges of American
citizens. If they are excluded from the
omnibus and railroad-car in the place where
you reside, endeavor to persuade those who
have the control of these matters to pursue
a more just and reasonable course. Those
Chiistians who are heads of mechanical
establishments can do much for the cause by
receiving colored apprentices. Many mas-
ters excuse themselves for excluding the
colored apprentice by saying that if they
receive him all their other hands will desert
them. To this it is replied, that if they do
the thing in a Christian temper and for a
Christian purpose, the probability is that, if
their hands desert at first, they will return
to them at last. — all of them, at least, whom
they would care to retain.

A respectable dressmaker in one of our
towns has, as a matter of principle, taken
colored girls for apprentices, thus furnishing
them with a respectable means of livelihood.
Christian mechanics, in all the walks of life,
are earnestly requested to consider this sub-
ject, and see if, by ofiering their hand to
raise this poor people to respectability and
knowledge and competence, they may not be
performing a service which the Lord will
accept as done unto himself

Another thing which is earnestly com-
mended to Christians is the raising and
comforting of those poor chuj'ches of colored
people, who have been discouraged, dismem-
bered and disheartened, by the operation of
the fugitive slave law.

In the city of Boston is a church, which,
even now, is struggling with debt and
embarrassment, caused by being obliged to
buy its own deacons, to shield them from th«
terrors of that law.

Lastly, Christians at the North, we need
not say, should abstain from all trading in
sliiccs, whether direct or indirect, whether
by partnership with Southern houses or by
leceiving immortal beings as security for
debt. It is not necess.iry to expand this
point. It speaks for itself

By all these means the Christian church
at the North must secure for itself purity

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

253

from all complicity vrith the sin of slavery,
and from the unchristian customs and preju-
dices which have resulted from it.

The second means to be used for the abo-
lition of slavery is "Knowledge."

Every Christian ought thoroughly, care-
fully and prayerfully, to examine this system
of slavery, lie should regard it as one upon
which he is bound to have riglit views and
right opinions, and to exert a right influence
in forming and concentrating a powerful public
sentiment, of all others the most efficacious
remedy. IMany people are deterred from
examining the statistics on this subject, be-
cause they do not like the men who have
collected them. They say they do not like,
abolitionists, and therefore they will not at-
tend to tiiose facts and figures which they
have accumulated. This, certainly, is not
wise or reasonable. In all other subjects
which deeply affect our interests, Ave think it
best to take information where we can get it,
whether we like the persons who give it to
us or not.

Every Christian ought seriously to ex-
amine the extent to which our national
government is pledged and used for the
support of slavery. He should thoroughly
look into the statistics of slavery in the Dis-
trict of Columbia, and, above all, into the sta-
tistics of that awful system of legalized
piracy and oppression by which hundreds
and thousands are yearly torn from home
and friends, and all that heart holds dear,
and carried to be sold like beasts in the
markets of the South. The smoke from this
Iwttomless abyss of injustice puts out the
light of our Sabbath suns in the eyes of all
nations. Its awful groans and waitings
drown the voice of our psalms and religious
melodies. All nations know these things of
us, and shall vre not know them of ourselves 7
Shall we not have courage, shall we not
have patience, to investigate thoroughly our
own bad case, and gain a perfect knowledge
of the length and breadth of the evil we seek
to remedy '?

The third means for the abolition of slav-
ery is "Long-suffering."

Of this quality there has been some lack
in the attempts that have hitherto been made.
The friends of the cause have not had
patience with each other, and have not been
able to treat each other's opinions with for-
bearance. There have been many painful
things in the past history of this subject ;
but is it not time Avhen all the friends of the
slave should adopt the motto, ^'■forgetting
the things that are behind, and reaching

forth unto those which are before"? Let
not the believers of immediate abolition
call those who believe in gradual emancipa-
tion time-servers and traitors ; and let not
the upholders of gradual emancipation call
the advocates of immediate abolition fanatics
and incendiaries. Surely some more broth-
erly way of convincing good men can be
found, than by standing afar off on some
Ehal and Gerizim, and cursing each other.
The truth spoken in love will always go
further then the truth spoken in wrath ; and,
after all, the great object is to persuade our
Southern brethren to admit the idea of any
emancipation at all. When we have suc-
ceeded in persuading them that anything
is necessary to be done, then will be the
time for bringing up the question whether
the object shall be accomplished by an im-
mediate or a gradual process. Meanwhile,
let our motto be, '' Whereto we have already
attained, let us walk by the same rule, let
us mind the same things ; and if any man be
otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto him." "Let us receive even him that
is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful dis-
putations." Let us not reject the good there
is in any, because of some remaining defects.

We come now to the consideration of a
power without which all others must fail,
— " the Holy Ghost."

The solemn creed of every Christian
church, whether Roman, Greek, Episcopal
or Protestant, says, '• I believe in the Holy
Ghost." But how often do Christians,
in all these denominations, live and act,
and even conduct their religious affairs, as if
they had " never so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost." If we trust to
our own reasonings, our own misguided pas-
sions, and our own blind self-will, to effect
the reform of abuses, we shall utterly faiL
There is a power, sileut, convincing, irre-
sistible, which moves over the dark and
troubled heart of man, as of old it moved
over the dark and troubled waters of Chaos,
bringing light out of darkness, and order out
of confusion.

Is it not evident to every one who takes
enlarged ^aews of human society that a gentle
but irresistible influence is pervading the
human race, prompting groanings and long-
ings and dim aspirations for some coming era
of good ? Worldly men read the signs of the
times, and call this power the Spirit of the
Age, — but should not the church acknowl-
edge it as the spirit of God 1

Let it not be forgotten, however, that the
gift of his most powerful regenerating influ-

254

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

ence, at the openino; of the Christian dis-
pensation, was conditiniied on prajfei The
mighty tiiovenicnt tluit began on the day of
Pentecost was preceded by united, fervent
persevering prayer. A similar spirit of
prayer must precede the coming of the divine
Spirit, to effect a i evolution so great as that
at which we aim. The most powerful in-
strumentality which God has delegated to
man, and around which cluster all his glori-
ous promises, is prayer. All past prejudices
and animosities on this subject must be laid
aside, and the whole church unite as one
man in earnest, fervent prayer. Have we
forgotten the promise of the Holy Ghost /
Have we foi-gotten that He was to abide with
us forever? Have we forgotten that it is
He who is to convince the world of sin, of
righteousness and of judgment? 0, divine
and Holy Conifoiter ! Thou promise of the
Father ! Tliou only powerful to enlighten,
convince and renew ! Return, we beseech
thee, and visit this vine and this vineyard of
thy planting ! With thee nothing is impos-
sible ; and what we, in our weakness, can
scarcely conceive, thou canst accomplish!

Another means for the abohtion of slavery
is "Love unfeigned."

In all moral conflicts, that party who can
preserve, through every degree of opposition
and persecution, a divine, unprovokable spirit
of love, must finally conquer. Such are the
immutable laws of the moral world. Anger,
wrath, selfishness and jealousy, have all a
certain degree of vitality. They often pro-
duce more show, more noise and temporary
results, than love. Still, all these passions
have, in themselves, the seeds of weakness.
Love, and love only, is immortal ; and when
all the grosser passions of the soul have
spent themselves by their own force, love
looks foith like the unchanging star, with a
light that never dies.

In undeitaking this work, we must love
both the slave-holder and the slave. We
must never forget that both are our brethren.
We must expect to be misrepresented, to be
slandured, and to be hated. How can we
attack so powerful an interest without it/
We must be satisfied simply with' the pleasure
of being true friends, while we are treated as
bitter enemies.

This holy controversy must be one of
principle, and not of sectional bitterness.
We must not suffer it to degenerate, in our
hands, into a violent prejudice against the
South; and, to this end, we must keep con-
tinually before our minds the more amiable
features and attractive qualities of those

I with whose principles we are obliged to con-
I tlict. If they say all manner of evil against
I us, we must reflect that we expose them to
I great temptation to do so when we assail in-
j stitutions to which they, are bound by a
' thousand ties of interest and eaily associa-
I tion, and to whose evils habit has made
j them in a great degiee insensible. The
' apostle gives us this dii-ection in cases where
j we are called upon to deal with offending
I brethren, " Consider thyself lest thou also
be tempted." We may apply this to our
own case, and consider that if we had been
exposed to the temptations which surround
our friends at the South, and received the
same education, we might have felt and
thought and acted as the v' ih. But, while we
clierish all these considerations, we must
also remember that it is no love to the South
to countenance and defend a pernicious sys-
tem ; a system which is as injurious to the
master as to the slave; a system which turns
fruitful fields to deserts ; a system ruinous
to education, to morals, and to religion and
social progress ; a system uf which many of
the most intelligent and valuable men at the
South are weary, and from which they desire
to escape, and by emigration aie yearly
escaping. Neither must we concede the
rights of the slave ; for he is also our brother,
and there is a reason why we should speak
for him which does not exist in the case of
his master. He is poor, uneducated and
ignorant, and cannot speak for himself We
tnust, therefore, Avith greater jealousy, guard
his rights. Whatever else we compromise,
we must not compromise the rights of the
helpless, nor the eternal principles of recti-
tude and morality.

We must never concede tliat it is an
honorable thing to deprive woiking men of
their wages, though, like many other abuses,
it is customary, reputable, and popular, and
though amiable men, under the influence
of old prejudices, still continue to do it.
Never, not even for a moment, should we
admit the thought that an heir of God and a
joint heir of Jesus Christ may lawfully be
sold upon the auction-block, though it be a
common custom. We nmst repudiate, with
determined severity, the blasphemous doc-
trine of property in human beings.

Some have supposed it an absurd refine-
ment to talk about separating [jiinciples and
persons, or to admit that he who upholds a
bad system can be a good man. All ex-
perience proves the contrary. Systems most
unjust and despotic have been defended
by men personally just and humane. It is

KEY TO UNCLE TOM 8 CABIN.

a melancholy consideration, but no less true,
that there is almost no absurdity and no in-
justice that has not, at some period of the
world's history, had the advantage of some
good man's virtues in its support.

It is a part of our trial in this imperfect
life; — ■wore evil systems only supported by
the evil; our moral discipline would be much
less severe tlian it is, and our course in
attacking error far plainer.

On the whole, we cannot but think that
there was much Christian wisdom in the
remark, which we have before quoted, of a
poor old slave-woman, whose whole life had
been darkened by this system, that we must
" hate the sin, hut love the sinner?^

The last means for the abolition of slavery
is the "Armor of Righteousness on the right
hand and on the left."

By til is we mean an earnest application
of all straight-forward, honorable and just
measures, for the I'emoval of the system of
slavery. Every man. in his place, should re-
monstrate against it. All its sophistical
arguments should be answered, its biblical
defences unmasked by correct reasoning and
interpretation. Every mother should teach
the evil of it to her children. Every cler-
gyman should fully and continually warn his
church against any complicity with such a
sin. It is said that this would be introduc-
ing politics into the pulpit. It is answered,
that since people will have to give an account
Df their political actions in the day of judg-
ment, it seems proper that the minister
3hould instruct them somewhat as to their
political responsibilities. In that day Christ
will ask no man whether he was of this or
that party ; but he certainly will ask him
whether lie gave his vote in the fear of God,
and for the advancement of the kingdom of
righteousness.

It is often objected that slavery is a distant
sin, with which we have nothing to do. If
any clergyman wishes to test this fact, let
him once plainly and f lithfully preach upon
it. He will probably then find that the roots
of the poison-tree have run under the very
hearth-stone of New England families, and
that in his very congregation are those in
complicity with this sin.

It is no child's play to attack an institu-
tion which has absorbed into itself so much
of the political power and wealth of this
nation, and they who try it will soon find
that they wrestle "not with flesh and blood."
No armor will do for this warfare but the
" armor of righteousness"

To our brethren in the South God has

255

pointed out a more arduous conflict. The
very heart shrinks to think what ths faithful
Christian must endure who assails this insti-
tution on its own ground ; but it mtist bfi
done. How was it at the North 7 There
was a universal effort to put down the dis-
cussion of it here by mob law. Printing-
presses were broKon, houses torn down,
property destroyed. Brave men. however,
stood firm; mnrtyr blood was shed for the
right of free opinion and speech ; and so the
right of discussion was establish id. Nobody
tries that sort of argument now, — its day is
past. In Kentucky, also, they .tried to stop
the discussion by similar means. Mob vio-
lence destroyed a printing-press, and threat-
ened the lives of individuals. But there
were brave men the're, who feared not vio-
lence or threats of derith ; and emancipation
is now open for discussion in Kentucky.
The fact is. the South must discuss the
matter of slavery, She cannot shut it out,
unless she lays an embargo on the literature
of the whole civilized world. If it be,
indeed, divine and God-appointed, why does
she so tremble to have it touched I If it be
of God, all the free inquiry in the world can-
not overthrow it. Discussion must and will
come. It only requires courageous men to
lead the way.

Brethren in the South, there are many of
you who are truly convinced that slavery is
a sin, a tremendous wrong; but, if you confess
your sentiments, and endeavor to propagate
your opinions, you think that persecution,
affliction, and even death, await you. How
can we ask you, then, to come forward?
We do not ask it. Ourselves weak, irreso-
lute and worldly, shall we ask you to do
what perhaps we ourselves should not dare?
But we will beseech Htm to speak to you,
who dared and endured more than this for
your sake, and who can strengthen you to
dare and endure for His. He can raise you
above all temporary and woildly considera-
tions. He can inspire you with that love to
himself which will make you willing to
leave father and mother, and wife and child,
yea, to give up life itself, for his sake. And
if he ever brings you to that place where
you and this world take a final farewell of
each other, where you make up your mind
solemnly to give all up for his cause, where
neither life nor death, nor things present nor
things to come, can move you from this pur-
pose,— then will you know a joy which is
above all other joy, a peace constant and
unchanging as the eternal God from whom
it springs.

256

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.

Dear brethren, is this system to go on
forever in your land 7 Can you think these
slave-laws anything but an abomination to a
just God? Can you think this internal
alave-ti-ade to be anything but an abomina-
tion in his sight 7

Look, we beseech you, into those awful
slave-prisons which are in your cities. Do
the groans and prayers which go up from
those dreary mansions promise well for the
prosperity of our country 7

Look, we beseech you, at the mournful
march of the slave-cofllles ; follow the bloody
course of the slave-ships on your coast.
What, suppose you, does the Lamb of God
think of all these things 7 He whose heart
was so tender that he wept, at the grave of
Lazarus, over a sorrow that he was so soon
to turn into joy, — what does he think of
this constant, heart-breaking, yearly-repeated
anguish 7 What does he think of Christian
wives forced fi-ora their husbands, and hus-
bands from their wives 7 What does he
think of Christian daughters, whom his
church first educates, indoctrinates and bap-
tizes, and then leaves to be sold as merchan-
dise 7

Think you such prayers as poor Paul
Edmondson's, such death -bed scenes as Emily
Russell's, are witnessed without emotion by
that generous Saviour, who regards what is
done to his meanest servant as done to him-
self 7

Did it never seem to you, 0 Christian !
when you have read the sufferings of Jesus,
that you would gladly have suffered with
him 7 Does it never seem almost ungenerous
to accept eternal life as the price of such an-
guish on his part, while you bear no cross
for him 7 Have you ever wished you could
have watched with him in that bitter conflict
at Gethsemane, when even his chosen slept 7
Have you ever wished that you could have
Btood by hjm when all forsook him and fled, —

that you could have owned when Peter de-
nied,— that you could have honored him
when buffeted and spit upon 7 Would you
think it too much honor, could you, like Mary,
have followed him to the cross, and stood
a patient sharer of that despised, unpitied
agony 7 That you cannot do. That hour
is over. Christ, now, is exalted, crowned,
glorified, — all men speak well of him; rich
churches rise to him, and costly sacrifice goes
up to him. What chance have you, among
the multitude, to prove your love. — to show
that you would stand by him discrowned,
dishonored, tempted, betrayed, and suffering?
Can you show it in any way but by espous-
ing the cause of his suffering poor 7 Is
there a people among you despised and re-
jected of men, heavy with oppression, ac-
quainted with grief, with all the power of
wealth and fashion, of political and worldly in-
fluence, arrayed against their cause, — Chris-
tian, you can acknowledge Christ in them!

If you turn away indifferent from this
cause, — "if thou forbear to deliver them
that are drawn unto death, and those that
be ready to be slain; if. thou sayest, Be-
hold, we knew it not, doth not he that pon-
dereth the heart consider it, and he that
keepeth the soul, doth he not know it, shall
he not render to every man according to his
works?"

In the last judgment will He not say to
you, "I have been in the slave-prison, — in
the slave-cofl3e. I have been sold in your
markets ; I have toiled for naught in your
fields; I have been smitten on the mouth
in your courts of justice ; I have been
denied a hearing in my own church, — and y«
cared not for it. Ye went, one to his fiirm,
and another to his merchandise." And if
ye shall answer, " When, Lord?" He shall
say unto you, " Inasmuch as ye have dona
it to the least of these, my brethren, ye have
done it unto me."

APPENDIX.

FACT VS. FIGURES; OR, THE NINE ARAB
BROTHERS.

BEING A NEW ARABI.VN NIGHt'S ENTERTAINMENT.

It is a favorite maxim that ^^ figures cannot lie.^'
We are loth to assail the time-honored reputation
for veracity of this ancient and most respectable
race. There may have been days of pastoral in-
nocence and primitive simplicity, when they did
not lie. When Abraham sat contemplatively in
his tent-door, with nothing to do, all the long day,
but compose psalms and pious meditations, it is
likely that he had implicit faith in this maxim,
and never thought of questioning the statistical
tables of Eliezer of Damascus, with regard to the
number of camels, asses, sheep, oxen and goats,
which illustrated the prairie where he was for the
time being encamped. Alas for those good old
days ! Figures did not lie then, we freely admit ;
but we are sadly afraid, from their behavior in
recent ages, that this arose from no native inno-
cence of disposition, but simply from want of
occasion and opportunity. In those days, they
were young and green, and had not learned what
they could do. The first inventor, who commenced
making a numeration table, with the artless pri-
meval machine of his toes and fingers, had, like
other great inventors, very little idea of what he
was doing, and what would be the mighty uses of
these very simple characters, when men got to
having republican governments, and elections,
and discussions of all sorts of unheard-of ques-
tions in politics and morals, and to electioneering
among these poor simple Arab herdsmen, the nine
digits, for tlieir votes on all these complicated sub-
jects. No wonder that figures have had their heads
turned ! Such unprecedented power and popular-
ity is enough to turn any head. We are sorry to
speak ill of them ; but really we must say, that,
like many of our political men, they have been
found on all sides of every subject to an exteni
that is really very confusing. Of course, there is
no doubt of their veracity somewhere; the only
problem being, on which side, and where. Is any
great measure to be carried, now-a-days? Of
course, tlie statistics, cut and dried, in regular
columns, on both sides of the question, contra-
dict each other point-blank as two opposite can-
nons ; and each party marshals behind them, firing
them off with infinite alacrity, but with no par-
ticular effect, except the bewilderment of the few
old-fashioned people, who, like Mr. Pickwick at
the review, stand on the middle ground.

If that most respectiible female person, Mrs.
Partington, who, like most unsophisticated old
ladies, is a most vehement and uncompromising
abolitionist, could only hear the statistics that are
to be shown up in favor of slavery, she would take
off hei' spectacles and wipe her eyes in pious joy,
and think that the millennium, and nothing less,
had come upon earth. Such statistics they are,
about the woe , and want , and agony, and heathenish
darkness of Africa, which, by that eminent foreign

missionary operation, the slave-trade, have leen
turned into light and joy and thanksgiving ; here
she has them, in round figures ; she only needs to
put on her spectacles and look. " Here, ma'am, you
have it," says the illustrator ; "look on this side
of the column : here are three hundred million
of heathen, — don't spare the figures, — down in
Africa, sunk in heathenism — never heard the
sound of the gospel — actually eating each other
alive. Now, turn to this side of the column, and
here they all are, over iti America, clothed and in
their right mind, going to church with their mas-
ters, and finding the hymns in their own hymn-
books. Now, ma'am, can you doubt the beneficial
results of the slave-trade?"

But Mrs. Partington has heard something about
that middle passage which she thought waa
hon'id.

"By no means, my dear madam," says the
illustrator, whisking over his papers. " I have
that all in figures, — average of deaths in the first
cargoes, 25 per cent'., — large average, certainly;
they did n't manage the business exactly right ;
but then the rate of increase in a Christian coun-
try averages twenty-five per cent, over what it
would have been in Africa. Now, Mrs. Parting-
ton, if these had been left in Africa, they would
have been all heathen ; by getting them over
here, you have just as many, and all Christians
to boot. Because, you see, the excess of increase
balances the percentage of loss, and we make no
deduction for interest in those cases."

Now, as Mrs. Partington does not know with
very great clearness what "percentage" and
" average" mean, and as mental philosophers
have demonstrated that we are always powerfully
affected by the unknown, she is all the more
impressed with this reasoning, on that account ;
being one of the simple, old-fashioned people,
who have not yet gotten over the impression
that " figures cannot lie."

" Weil, now, really," says she, " strange what
these figures will do ! I always thought the
slave-trade was monstrous wicked. But it really:
seems to be quite a missionary work."

The fixct is, that these nomadic Arabs, the dig^
its, are making a very unfair use, among u&, of
the family reputation gotten up during the palmy
days of their innocence, when they were a breezy,
contemplatively unsophisticated race of shep-
herds, and, to use an American elegance of ex-
pression, had not yet " cut their eye-teeth." Ail
that remains of their Oriental origin in this coun-
try seems to be a characteristic turn for romancing,
Not an addition of slave territory has been madfe
to the United States, wherein these same Arab
brothers have not, with grave faces, been brought
in as witnesses, to swear, by the honor of the fam-
ily, that it was absolutely essential, for the best
interest of the African race, that there should be^
more slavery and more slave territory. To be
sure, it was for the pecuniary gain of the Amer-
ican race, but that was not the point insisted on.
0 no ! we ar^ always very glad when our intes

258

APPENDIX.

est coincides with that of the African race ; hut discovered, as he intended and would pledge himself

the extension of slavery is not to be considered in to show. He said they referred to the number of

that light principally; it is entirely a system (jf insane, Wind, &c., among the colored population.

Christian education, and evangelization of one ^'''3 had been made the subject of a pamphlet on the
race by another. Left " " "" " ' ' "" "' '

right back into heathenis
riorates ; he becomes

blind, — everything that can be thought of. " fs
this an actual fact?" asks some increduli)as Con-
gress man, as innocent as Mrs. Partington, " 0
yes I for only look ; here are the statistics. Just
see ; here in the town of Kittery, in Maine, are
twenty-seven insane and idiotic black people, and
down hero in the town of Dittery, South Carolina,
not a single one. Some simple-minded Kittery
man, who overhears this conversation in the
lobby, perhaps opens his eyes, and reflects with
wonder that he never knew that there were so
many black people in the town. But the Con-
gress man shows it to him in the census, and he
concludes to look for them when he goes home, as
" figures cannot lie."

On the census of 1840 conclusions innumerable
as to the capacity of the colored race to subsist in
freedom have been based. It has '^"cn the very
beetle, sledge-hammer and broad-axe ; and when
all other means foil, the objector, with a tri-
umphant flourish, exclaims, " There, sir, what do
you think of the census of 1840? You see, sir,
the thing's been tried, and it's no go'." We
poor common folks cannot tell what to think,
home of us suppose that we know that there were
more insane and idiotic and variously dilapidated
negroes reported in certain states than their
entire negro population. But, of course, as it 's
down in the census, and as "figures never lie,"
we n^ust believe our own eyes. We can only say
what some people have thought.

That most inconvenient and pertinacious man,
John Quincy Adams, made a good deal of trouble
in Congress about this same matter. At no less
than five difijrent times did this very persistent
old gentleman rise in Congress, with the state-
ment that the returns of the census had been
notoriously and grossly falsified in this respect ;
and that he was prepared, if leave were given,
to present before the House the most complete,
direct, and overwhelming evidence to this effect.
The following is an account of Mr. Adams" en-
deavors on this subject, collected from the Con-
gressional Globe, and Niles^s Register :

TWEN'TV-EIOIITH CONGRESS OF THE UXITED STATES.

House op Representatives. February 26, 1844.
-Mr. Adims, on leave, offered the following reso-
lution :

Resolved, That the Secretary of State he directed
to inform this House whether any gross errors have
been discovered in the "Sixth Census, or Enumera-
tion of the Iniiabitants of the United States, as cor

Great Britain, as well as Mexico, on the foundation
of these very errors. It was important, therefore,
that the true state of facts should he maiJe to appear.

-The Speaker remarked that whether errors existed
or not would be matter of investigation. In the
opinion of the chair, there was no error of the jour-
nal, because it contained only a faithful transcript of
the communication made by the Secretary of State.

Mr. Adams persisted in his motion. It was (he
said) the most extraordinary communication ever
made from the State Department. He would pledge
himself to produce documents to prove that gross
errors did exist. He would produce such proof as no
man would be able to contradict.

The House refused to amend the journal.

House of Representatives. May 16, 1844. — Mr.
Adams wished to present a memorial from certain
citizens in relation to errors which they say have been
committed in compiling and printing the last census
of the United States.

Objection being made, he moved to suspend the
rules for the purpose of offering the resolution, and
moving to refer it to a committee of five members.
The yeas and nays were ordered, and, being taken,
the rules were not suspended, — ayes 96, nays 49, —
less than two-thirds voting in the affirmative.

House OF Representatives. Dec. 10,1844. — Mr.
Adams presented a petition from the American Statis-
tical Society, in relation to certain errors in the last
or sixth census.

Mr. Adams said a petition on this subject at the las(
session was referred to a select committee, and hij
hoped this petition would take the same direction.
He moved the appointment of a select committee of
nine members, and that the memorial be printed.

The speaker announced that a majority had decided
in favor of a select committee. The motion to print
was laid on the table.

House of Representatives. Dec. 13, 1844. — The
following is the Select Committee appointed, on the
motion of Mr. Adams, to consider the petition from
the American Statistical Society in relation to the
errors in the sixth census: Messrs. Adims, Rhett,
Rayner, Stiles, Maclay, Brengle, Foster, Sheppard,
Gary, and Caleb B. Smith.

This was the end of the affair in Congress. The
fatss returns stand to this day in the statistical
tables of the census, to convince all cavillers of the
unfitness of the negro for freedom. That the
reader may know Avhat kind of evidence Mr. Ad-
ams had with which to sustain his allegations,
we append, as a specimen, an extract from the
American Almanac for 1845, p. 15G.

The " American Statistical Association," estab-

rectcd at the Department of State in 18tl," and, if Hshed in Boston, Mass., sent a memorial to Congress
so, how these errors originated, what they arc, and during the past winter, drawn up by INU'ssts. 'Willmm

what, if any, measures have been taken to rectify
them.

House of Representatives. May 6, 1844. — The
journal havinir been read, Mr. Adams moved a cor-
rection of the same by striking out from the commu-
nication of the Secretary of State (in answer to a
resolution of this House inquiring whether any gross
errors had been discovered in the printing of tlic Sixth
Census), as copied upon the journal, the fdiinwing
words : " That no such errors had been discovered."

Mr. Adams accompanied his motion with some I'e-
marks. It could not possibly (Mr. Adams said) be a
correct representation, as very gross errors luid been

Brigham, Edward Jarvis, and .J W. 'Ihornton, in
which, though they "confined their in\estigations to
the reports respecting education and nosology," they
exposed an extraordinary mass of errors '.n the cen-
sus. We can find room only for a few extracts from
this memorial.

* * * * * * *,*

" The most glaring and remarkable crrcrs are found
in the statements respecting nosology, the prevalence
! of insanity, blindness, deafness and dumbness, among
the people of this nation.

" The undersigned have compared these statements
with information obtained froui other more reliable

APPENDIX.

259

sources, and have found them widely varying from
the truth ; and, more than all, they have compared
the statements in one part of the census with those in
another part, and have found most extraordinary
discrepances. They have also examined the original
manuscript copy of the census, deposited by the mar-
shal of the District of Massachusetts in the clerk's
office in Boston, and have compared this with the
printed edition of both Blair and Rives, and Thomas
Allen, and found here, too, *a variance of statements.

" Your memorialists are aware that some of these
errors in respect to Massachusetts, and perhaps also
in respect to other states, were committed by the
marshals. Mr. William H. VViiliams, deputy mar-
shal, states that there were one hundred and thirty-
three colored pauper lunatics in the family of Samuel
B. Woodward, in the town of Worcester ; but on
another page lie states that there are no colored per-
sons in said Woodward's family.

"Mr. Benali Blood, deputy marshal, states, on one
page, that there were fourteen colored pauper lunatics
and two colored lunatics, who were supported at pri-
vate charge, in the family of Charles E. Parker, in tlie
town of Pepperell ; wiiile on another page he states
that there are no colored persons in the family of said
Parker. Mr. William M. Packson states, on one page,
that there are in the family of Jacob Cushman, in the
town of Plympton, four pauper colored lunatics, and
one colored blind person ; while on another page he
states that there are no colored persons in the family
of said Cushman.

" But, on comparing the manuscript copy of the
census at Boston with the printed edition of Blair and
Rives, the undersigned are convinced that a large
portion of the errors were made by the printers, and
that hardly any of the errors of the original doc-
ument are left out. The original document finds the
colored insane in twenty-nine towns, while the printed
edition ef Blair and Rives places them in thirty-five
towns, and each makes them more than ten-fold greater
than the state returns in regard to the paupers. And
one edition has given twenty, and the other twenty-
seven, self-supporting lunatics, in towns in which,
according to private inquiry, none are to be found.
According to the original and manuscript copy of the
census, there were in Massachusetts ten deaf and
dumb and eight blind colored persons ; whereas the
printed editions of the same document multiply them
into seventeen of the former and twenty-two of the
latter class of unfortunates.

" The printed copy of the censuS declares that there
were in the towns of Hingham and Scituate nineteen
colored persons who were deaf and dumb, blind, or
insane. On the other hand, the undersigned are in-
formed, by the overseers of the poor and the assessors,
who have cognizance of every pauper and tax-payer
in the town, that in the last twelve years no such
diseased persons have lived in the town of Scituate ;
and they have equally certain proof that none such
have lived in Hiiigham. Moreover, the deputy mar-
shals neither found nor made record of such per-
sons.

" The undersigned have carefully compared the
number of colored insane and idiot.*!, and of the deaf
and dumb and blind, with the whole number of the
colored population, as stated in the printed edition of
the census, in every city, town, and county of the
United Stvtes ; and have found the extraordinary con-
tradictions and improbabilities that are shown in the
following tables.

" The errors of the census are as certain, if not as
manifest, in regard to the insanity among the whites,
as among the colored people. Wherever your memo-
rialists have been able to compare the census with the
results of the investigations of the state governments,
of individuals, or societies, they have found that the
national enumeration h;is fallen far short of the more
probable amount.

"According to the census, there were in Massa-

chusetts six hundred and twenty-seven lunatics and
idiots supported at public charge ; according to the
returns of the overseers of the poor, there were eight
hundred and twenty-seven of this class of paupei-s.

" The superintendents of the poor of the State of
New York report one thousand and fifty-eight pauper
lunatics within that state ; the census reports only
seven hundred and thirty-nine.

"The government of New Jersey reports seven
hundred and one in that state ; the census discovers
only four hundred and forty-two.

"The Medical Society of Connecticut discovered
twice as many lunatics as the census within tljat
state. A similar discrepancy wm found in Eastern
Pennsylvania, and also in some counties in Virginia.

" Your memorialists deem it needless to go further
into detail in this matter. Suffice it to say, that these
are but specimens of the errors that are to be found in
the ' sixth census' in regard to nosology and educa-
tion, and they suspect also in regard to other matters
therein reported.

" In view of these facts, the undersigned, in behalf
of said Association, conceive that such documents
ought not to have the sanction of Congress, nor ought
they to be regarded as containing true statements
relative to the condition of the people and the re-
sources of the United States. They believe it would
have been far better to have had no census at all
than such an one as has been published ; and they
respectfully request your honorable body to take such
order thereon, and to adopt such measures for the
correction of the same, — or, if the same cannot be
corrected, for discarding and disowning the same, — as
the good of the country shall require, and as justice
and humanity shall demand.

" We have room for the tables for only three of the
states." [We will caution the reader not to skip this
statistical table, as he probably never saw one like it
before.]

MAINE.

rp Total colM ColM

T. .„. Total colM

ColM

^°™"'- Inh.b'ts

Insane.

Towns. j_^

liab'ts.

Insane.

Limerick,

Industry,

Lymington,

Dresden,

Scarboro',

Hope,

Poland,

Hartland,

Dixfield,

Newfield,

Calais,

]

VBW HAMPSHIRE.

Coventry,

Stratham,

Haverhill,'

Northampton,

Holderness,

New Hampton

Atkinson,

Lyman,

Bath,

Littleton,

Lisbon,

Henniker,

Compton,

MASSACHUSETTS.

Freetown,

Georgetown,

Plympton,

Carver,

Leominster,

Northbridge,

Wilmington,

Ashby,

Sterling,

Randolph,

Danvers,

Worcester, ]

51*

133

Hingham,

* 36 of these under 10 years of age.

Every fable, allegory and romance, must have
its moraL The moral of this ought to be deeply
considered by the American people.

In order to gain capital for the extension of slave
territory, tlie most important statistical document of
the United States has been boldly, grossly, and per^
severingly falsified , and stands falsified to this day.

Query : If state documents are falsified in sup-
port of slavery, what confidence can be placed m
any representations that are made upon the sub-
ject ?

INDEX.

PART L

CHAPTER I. — Imtboduction p. 5

CHAPTER II. — Haley 5

Author's experience. — Trader's letter. — Kep-
hart's examination. — Invoice of human beings.

— Various classes of traders.

CHAPTER III. —Mr. and Mes. Suelbt 8

Account of a well-regulated plantation. — Extract
from Ingraham.

CHAPTER IV.— George Harris 13

Advertisements. — Lewis Clark. — Mrs. Banton. -
Story of Lewis' sister. — Mr. Nelson's story. —
Frederick Douglas. — Josiah Henson's account
of the sale of his mother and her children. — Re-
cent incident in Boston. — Advertisements for
dead or alive.

CHAPTER V. — Eliza 21

Author's experience. — History of a slave-girl and
her escape.

CHAPTER VI.— Uncle Tom 23

Similar case. — Old Virginia family servant. —
Bishop Meade's remarks. — Judge Upshur's ser-
vant. — Instance in Brunswick, Me. — History of
Josiah Henson. — Uncle Tom's vision. — Similar
facts. — Story of a Boston lady. — Instance of the
Southern lady on a plantation. — Story of an
African woman. — Account of old Jacob.

CHAPTER VII. — Miss Ophelia 30

Prejudice of color — Instance in a benevolent lady.

— Dr. Pennington. — Influence of this upon slave-
holders. — True Christian socialism. — Amos
Lawrence.

CHAPTER VIIL — Marie St. CL.4RE 33

The Northern Marie St. Clare. — The Southern
Marie St. Clare. — Degrading punishment of fe-
males. — Dr. Howe's account.

CHAPTER IX. — St. Clare 35

Alfred and Augustine St. Clare representatives of
two classes of men. — Letter of Patrick Henry. —
Southern men reproving Northern men. — Mr.
Mitchell, of Tennessee. — John Randolph of Roan-
oke. — Instance of a sceptic made by the Bibli-

cal defence of slavery. — Baltimore Sun on
Biblical defence of slavery. — Specimen of pro-
slavery preaching.

CHAPTER X. — Lbgree 39

No test of character required in a master. — Mr.
Dickey's account in "Slavery as It Is." — "Work-
ing up slaves." — Extracts from Mr. Weld's
book. — Agricultural society's testimony. —
James G. Birney's do. — Hem-y Clay's do. —
Samuel Blackwell's. — Dr. Demming's. — Dr
Channing's. — Rev. Mr. Barrows'. — Rev. C. CI
Jones'. — Causes of severe labor on sugar plan-
tations.— Professor Ingraham's testimony. —
Periodical pressure of labor in the cotton season.
— Letter of a cotton-driver, published in the
Fa irfield Herald.' — Testimony as to slave-dwell-
ings. — Mr. Stephen E. Maltby. — Mr. George
Avery. — William Ladd, Esq. — Rev. Joseph M.
Sadd, Esq. — Mr. George W. Westgate. — Rev.
C. C. Jones. — Extract from recent letter from
a friend travelling in the South. — Extracts with
relation to the food of the slaves. — Professor
Ingraham's anecdotes.

CHAPTER XI. — Select Incidents of Lx-wfvl
Trade 47

Separation of an aged mother from her son authen-
ticated. — Selling of the woman to the trader
authenticated. — Parting the infant from the
mother verified. — Suicide of slaves from grief
authenticated. — Parting of "John aged 30"
from his wife authenticated. — Case of old Prue
in New Orleans authenticated. — Story of the
mulatto woman authenticated.

CHAPTER XH. — Topsy 50

Effect of the principle of caste upon children.' —
Letter from Dr. Pennington. — Instance of tJie
Southern lady. — Story of the devoted slave.

CHAPTER Xm.—TiiE Quakers 5-i

Trial of Garret and Hunn. — Imprisonment of
Richard Dillingham. — Poetry of Whittier.

CHAPTER XIV. — Spirit of St. Clark 59

Containing various testimony from Southern papers
and men in favor of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

PART II.

CHAPTER I p. B7

Accusations of the New York Courier and Enquir-
er. — Extract from a letter from a gentleman
in Richmond, Va., containing various criticisms
on slave-law. — Writer's examination and gene-
ral conclusion.

CHAPTER IL— What is Slavery? 70

Definitions from civil code of Louisiana. — From
laws of South Carolina. — Decision of Judge
Ruffin. — Involve absolute despotism. — Do not
admit of humane decisions. — Designed only for
the security of the master, with no regard for the
■welfare of the slave. — Judge Ruffin. — No re-

dress for personal injury that does not produce
loss of service. — Case of Cornfuto v. Dale. —
Decision with regard to patrols. — Decisions of
North and South Carolina with respect to the as-
sault and battery of slaves. — Decision in Loui-
siana, by which, if a person injures a slave, he
may, by paying a certain price, become his
owner. — Decision in Louisiana, Berard v. Be-
rard, establishing the principle that by no
mode of suit, direct or indirect, can a slave ob-
tain redress for ill-treatment. — Case of Jennings
V. Fundeburg. — Action for killing negroes. —
Also Richardson r. Dukes for tlie same. — Recog-
nition of the fact that many persons, by -n-ithhold -

INDEX.

261

ing from slaves proper food and raiment, cause
them to commit crimes for ■which they are exe-
cuted. — Is the negro a person in any sense ? —
Judge Clark's argument to prove that he is a hu-
m(jn being. — Decision that a woman may be given
to one person, and her unborn children to another.
— Disproportioned punishment of the slave com-
pared with the master. — Case of State v. Mann,
showing that the owner or hirer of a slave cannot
be punished for inflicting cruel, unwarrantable
and disproportioned punishments. — Judge Ruf-
fin's speecli.

CHAPTER III. — Souther v. The Commonwealth,

THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF LeG^U, HuMANITY. ... 79

Writer's attention called to this case by Courier
and Enquirer. — Case presented. — Writer's
remarks. — Principles established in this case.

CHAPTER IV. —Protective Statutes 83

Apprentices protected. — Outlawry. — Melodrama
of Prue in the swamp. — Harry the carpenter,
a romance of real life.

CHAPTER V. . — Protective Acts op South Caro-
lina AND Louisiana. — The Iron Collar op Lou-
isLiNA AND North Carolina 87

CHAPTER VI. — Protective Acts with regard to
Food and Raiment, Labor, etc 90

Illustrative drama of Tom v. Legree, under the
law of South Carolina. — Separation of parent
and child.

CHAPTER VII. — The Execution op Justice.

State V. Eliza Rowand. — The "^gis of protection"
to the slave's life.

CHAPTER VIII. — The Good Old Tisies 99

CHAPTER IX. — Moderate Correction and Acci-
dental Death. — State v. Castleman. . . . 100

CHAPTER X. — Principles established. — State
V. Legree; a Case not in the Books 103

CHAPTER XI. — The Triumph of Justice over
Law 104

CHAPTER Xn. — A Comparison of the Roman
Law of Slavery with the American 107

CHAPTER Xni. — The Men better than their
Laws 110

CHAPTER XrV.— The Hebrew Slave-law com-
pared with the American Sl-we-law. . . . 115
CHAPTER XV. — Slavery IS Despotism. . . . 120

PART ni.

CHAPTER I. — Does Public Opinion protect the
Slave? p. 124

CHAPTER n. — Public Opinion formed by Educa-
tion 129

Early training. — " The spirit of the press."
CHAPTER m. —Separation op Families. . . .133

The facts in the case. — Humane dealers. — The
exigences of trade.

CHAPTER IV. — The Slave-trade. -. 143

What sustains slavery? — The facts again, and
the comments of Southern men. — The poetry of
the slave-trade.

CHAPTER V. — Select Incidents op Lawful Trade ;
or. Facts stranger than Fiction 151

What " domestic sensibilities " Violet and George
- had. — Testimony of a sea-captain, and of a fu-
gitive slave.

CHAPTER VL — The Edmondson Family. . . . 155
Old Milly and her household. — Liberty and
equality. — The schooner Pearl. — An American
slave-ship. — Capture of fugitives. — Indignation.
— Captives imprisoned. — Voyage to New Orleans
and return. — Affecting incidents. — Final re-
demption.

CHAPTER VII. — Ejhly Russell 168

Price of her redemption. — Not raised. — Sent to
the South. — Redeemed by death. — Daniel BeU
and family. — Poor Tom Ducket. — Fac simile
of his letter.

CHAPTER VIIL— Kidnapping. . . . . . . .173

Causes which lead to kidnapping free negroes and
whites. — Solomon Northrop kidnapped. — Car-
ried to Red river. — Parallel to Uncle Tom. —
Rachel Parker and sister.

CHAPTER IX. — Slaves as they are, on Testi-
mony of Owners 175

Color and complexion. — Scars. — Intelligence. —
Sale of those claiming to be free. — Illustrated
by advertisements. — Inferences.

CHAPTER X. — Poor White Trash 184

Slavery degrades the poor whites. — Causes and
process. — Materials for mobs. — Fierce for slav-
ery. — Influence of slavery on education. — Emi-
gration from slave states. — N. B. Watson adver-
tised for a hunt. — John Cornutt lynched. — No
defence in law. — Justice prostrate. — Rev. E.
Matthews lynched. — Case of Jesse McBride.

PART IV.

CHAPTER I. — Influence of the American Church

ON Slavery p. 193

Power of the clergy. — The church, what ? — Influ-
ence.— Points self-evident. — Course of ecclesi-
astical bodies. — Sanction of American slavery,
us it is, by Southern bodies. — Summary of re-
sults.

CHAPTER II. — American Church and Slavery.

205

Trials for heresy. — Course as to slavery heresies. —

Course of the Methodist Church. — Course of the

Presbyterian Church , before the division. — Course

of the Old Schoo' body. — Course of the New

School body. — Results. — Congregationalists. —
Albany convention. — Home Missionary Society.

— The protesting power. — Practical workings
of the general system. — Pleas for inaction.—
Appeal to the church.

CHAPTER HL — Martyrdom 223

Power of Leviathan. — He cares more for deeds than
words. — E. P. Lovejoy at St. Louis. — At Alton.

— Convention. — Speech. — Mob. — Death.

CHAPTER IV. — Servitude in the Primtive
Church comp.uied with American Slavery. 228
Fundamental principles of the kingdom of Christ.

262

INDEX.

— R^liitloiiK to slavery.

— Case oi' OiiesituiLS.

- Apostolic directions.

CHAPTER V. — Teachings and Condition of the
Aposti-ks 234

Apostles and primitive Christians not law-makers.
— Preaching of modern law-makers.

CHAPTER Vr. — Apostolic Teaching on Emanci-
pation 235

CHAPTER VII. — Abolition of Slavery by Chris-
tianity 237

State of society. — Course of councils. — Influence
of bishops for freedom. — Redemption of cap-
tives. — Contrast.

CHAPTER ^T^II. — Justice and Equity versus
Slavery 241

Regulation of slavery impossible. — Contrast of its
principles and provisions with justice and equity.

CHAPTER IX. — Is the System of Religion which

is taught the Slave the Gospel ? 244

Points to be conceded. — What is taught ? — Prin-
ciples and discussion. — Necessary results of the
system. — Specimens of teaching and criticisms.

CHAPTER X. — What is tore done? . . . . 250
Work of the church in America. — Feelings of
Christians in all other countries. — Eradication
of caste, and repeal of sinful laws against free
colored people. — Various duties and measures
as to slavery. — Closing appeaL

ERRATUM.

Page 42, second column, after twenty-fifth line from top, insert :

" At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, they (the slaves in Louisiana) work
both night and day. Abridged of their sleep, they scarcely retire to rest during the whole period."

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A learned and philosophical exposure of the modem belief in Spiritual Manifestations, showing, most conclusively,
that we need not go to the spirit world to account for those things, but that they can all be explained by human
agency, and upon philosophical principles. Let the believers in Spiritual Rappings read this able and conclu-'
sive work. Price §'1.

;•-

THE TRIAL BY JURY.

BY LYSANDER SPOONER.

We need not inform the public that any work from Mr. Spooner's pen would be one of great research and learning
— his logical acuteness as a writer is too well known. This, his last, and perhaps his greatest effort, on the Trial
by Jury, is destined to create a commotion in the world. Jurymen will learn their rights and duties from it, and
also learn to what an alarming extent their rights Have i)een encroached upon. We bespeak for this able treatise a
candid perusal. Price Jgl.25 in cloth ; $1.50 in law sheep.

GERMAN UNCLE TOM.

One volume, octavo. Price 50 cts.

The English language has been exhausted in praise of this unrivalled tale ; and this translation into the German
language we believe will be as popular among the large German population in this country.

BOOK OF 1000 ANECDOTES:

HUMOROUS, GRAVE AND WITTY.

BY M. LAFAYETTE BYRN, M. D.

There are hours when men need relaxation from the sterner labors of life, both bodily and mental. In these seasons,
such a volume as the above is a desirable companion, and affords that relief which the mind jieeds. Price §1.

A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

BY MRS. H. E. STOWE. ■ ^

A work which will most thoroughly establish the truth of every statem^ in " ffncle atom's Cabin," and a good
numy no« in that work . Price 50 cents. j

GIDDINGS' SPEECHES.

The Congressional Speeches of this distinguished and uncompromising anti-slavery veteran, who is still battling
nobly with the powers of darkness. Complete in one volume, 12mo. With a Portrait. Price ^1.

KEY TO UNCLE TOM, IN GERMAN.

This work is now being translated into German by one of our best German scholars, and will be issued soon afbor
rfie publication of the English edition. Price 50 cents.

WRITINGS OE PROF. BELA B. EDWARDS, D. D.

BY REV. PROF. PARK, D.D. WITH A MExMOIR, BY DR. PARK.

This work, which has been unavoidably delayed, will be issued in two volumes, 12mo, about the first of ApriL
The nuriierous admirers of Dr. Edwards will hail with pleasure this announcement. The collected writings of such

a man are an invaluable contribution to our literature, more particularly when compiled by so ripe a scholar as Dr

Park. The memoir glows with all the fervid enthusiasm of the editor. Price $12.50.

COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC.

BY JOHN W. MOORE.

Assisted by Joiix S. D wight, Esq., the learned and accomplished Editor of The Journal of Music.

This work will occupy an unoccupied field, no such work ever having been compiled before, either in this country
or in England. It will be a complete Dictionary op all Musical Teums ; a History of the Science of Music,
from the earliest times to the present ; a Treatisb on Harmony and Thorough Bass ; a Description op all
known Musical Instruments, and a complete Musical Biography, containing a succinct memoir of more than
3000 of the most distinguished musical celebrities and composers who have ever lived. To be comprised in ont large
royal Svo. volume, of about 1000 pages, double columns. To be published during the summer.

The above valuublo works are published by

JOHN P. JEWETT & Co., Bosiok.

JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON, Cleveland, Ohio.

AND FOR SALE BY BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY.

c^^^\ .-^-^^ ^-"^f

7' oLOO!? C.

*.-:;/•

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