Observations on American Slavery, After a Year's Tour in the United States

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http : //books . google . com/

36 S

wmm

U^ ia 6 3 . 3 t X

HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

Giflef

THE AUTHOR

1

I'w^ £. Z tf > ^.^

OBSERVATIONS

, AMERICAN SLAVERY.

gar's %,nt in \\t %v.\i\ %ii\n.

BY

RUSSELL LANT CARPENTER,/ B. A.

iiLONDON:
EDWARD T. WHITFIELD, 2, ESSEX STREET, STRAND.

1852.

{iXSH2,2a

>>^ ,

-^^A*. /l

f^ ^ V ^

^

HA^^VARD \
MAY 6 ^^n

PREFACE.

The following Letters were written at the request of the Editor of the
Christian Eeformer, to whom they were originally addressed. They are to
be read as the observations of a traveller, not as a treatise on Slavery. They
convey impressions recorded, for the most part, at the time, in letters to those
whose anti-slavery zeal required no stimulant, and who needed information
less as to the horrors of slavery, than as to the general aspect of the system,
as it appears to its supporters and to passing observers.

My acquaintances were of every shade of opinion on the subject, and I
desired to hear with candour what each had to say : if this candour is embo-
died in these pages, their views will be represented without distortion : there-
fore, in describing my visit among « pro-slavery" persons, I may state that
which is supposed to have a pro-slavery bearing; nor have I so mean an idea
of the love of freedom in the hearts of my readers, that I shall tremble for
the consequences of my fairness. Even should these papers fall into the
hands of any who sanction slavery, I have no fear lest they should suppose
that I befriend their system $ whilst they will be more likely to listen patiently
to what I say against it, from seeing that I have listened patiently to what
can be said for it If we wish to convince those in error, we must shew our
comprehension of theur point of view, and our readiness to give the friU weight
to all that they can urge. The resultant of conflicting forces is more deserv-
ing of regard than a single force which has not yet overcome opposition.

As I did not permit the glories of America to dazzle me, I should be un-
willing to let its shame blind me ; and what the Christian Hegister (Boston,
Oct. 25, 1851) says of my articles on another subject, may I hope be applied
by unprejudiced readers to the present letters : — " The London Inquirer of
Sept. 27, among its other good things (brother May's letter about us, one of
them P) contains an excellent article on our Common Schools, by Rev. R. L.
Carpenter. There is no Englishman who seems to us to write more wisely
about America and American affairs than Mr. Carpenter. He recognizes both
the good and the evil, and praises and blames us not without discrimination.
He saw through his eyes, rather than through his prejudices for or against
us."

The complaint is made in some anti-slavery publications, that travellers to
the South are peculiarly liable to become " pro-slavery." If those who went
wiUi strong prepossessions against slavery return its advocates, it certainly
implies that there must be some good qualities in an institution which thus

CONTENTS.

Letteb I.

Political aspect of the Slave question in 18^0, l-^Peculiar charaeter of the city
of Washington, 2— Distinction between the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution, 2— Opinions of the different parties as to the bearings of the
Constitution on this question, 4 — A visit to Congress, 7 — ^History of the Fugi-
tive Slave Law, 7— Speech of Senator Hale, 10— Other speakers, 11.

Letter n.

Visit to the South ; Dr. Fumess, of Philadelphia ; Baltimore ; Maryland ; Dr.
Bumap, 13 — Constitutional influences at Washington, 14— Defences of Slavery ;
Senator Hunter, l^—The Presid^t's levee; General Taylor, 18— Daniel
Webster, 19— Dr. Bailey and the National Era, 19— Unitarian Church ; Rev.
J. H. Allen, 20— Catholic Church, 20— Coloured people at Washington, 20—
Journey through Virginia ; the disinterested Slave, 22— Wilmington, N. C,
22^A gang of Slaves, 23 — ^Wrongs at home, 24.

Lettbb m.

Charleston, S. C. ; Calhoun ; Disunion meeting, 25— Southern Views of the
Slave question, 26— Slave sale, 28— Slave advertisements, 29— Superficial

. views of Slavery, 31— The mixed race, 32-^Dr. Gilman and his nominal Slav«>
33— Unitarian Church, 34— Negro prayer-meeting, 35.

Letter IV.

Heligious teaching of Slaves, 38— Miss Bremer, 39— Mrs. Oilman; the Southern
matron, 40 fnote^— Condition of women, 40— Visit to a plantation, 41— Sa-
vannah, 43 — Macon; Coloured Church, 44— The North in the South, 45—
Journey with a Methodist Bishop, 45 — ^Visit to the Mammoth Cave ; Stephen,
46— Nashville, 47— The State prison, 48.

Letter V.

Voyage to St. Louis ; Slave at Paducah ; Episcopal Methodists, 49— St. Louis ;
Mr. Eliot ; Unitarian Church, 50— Louisville ; Mr. Hey wood ; the Louisville
Examiner, 51— Conversations with Slaveholders, 52— The Coloured race at
the North, 54— Cincinnati, 55— F. Douglass, 56— Coloured schools, 57— J.
Henson, 57— Dr. Nichols, 57— Dr. Hill, 58— Position of Unitarian ministers
on this question, 58— The Christian Register, 62 (and 59, note)^J>r. Palfrey ;
his sacrifices, 63— The Abolitionists ; Mr. Mountford, 64—" Pro-slavery," 66
—Personal intercourse with Abolitionists, 67— English action, 68.

AMERICAN SLAVERY.

to the editob of the chbistian befobmeb.

Sib,
You ask me for some observations on Slavery in the United States.
I comply, but not without reluctance ; for the subject is painful and
complicated, and every one who handles it must submit to be misre-
presented. This article will be published on the first of August, the
anniversary of West-Indian Emancipation. When I took part in a
meeting of American Abolitionists, a year ago, to commemorate this
great event, I candidly told them that it seemed to me that the South-
erners misunderstood the Northerners, and the Northerners the South-
erners, and that I could not profess to understand either of them.
Slavery I detest ; for Abolition I earnestly pray ; but as to the degree
in which slaveholders are guilty or abolitionists wise, I do not feel
prepared either to give a decision myself, or to accept one from any
other man : perhaps no reasonable person will wish me to do so.
I had intended to give you some impressions derived from my brief
! observation of slavery; but though these shall not be withheld on
some other occasion, should you require them, it on the whole seems
[ best to make this letter of a less personal nature, and to dwell more
on that political aspect of the question which presented itself to me
. when I visited Washington in March, 1850. It was an interesting
session : the subject of slavery had been uppermost from its commence-
• ment. The nine Free-soil members had refused, at the onset, to aid
i in the election of a Speaker who was not firm in the cause of freedom ;
and so evenly balanced were the principal parties, that for several
weeks no Speaker could be chosen. Before the excitement from this
unprecedented conflict was allayed, the claims of California divided the
nation.

It will be remembered that whilst the number of Representatives
; depends on population, that of Senators is fixed — two from each State.
', So long, then, as the number of States in each section remained equal,
I a balance would be preserved in the Senate, whatever might be the
J overwhelming preponderance of Representatives. Accordingly, each
I section has been anxious to increase the number of its States, and in
j this policy the South has been generally beforehand. Texas was an-
j nexed with the view of confirming slavery ; and the same motive was
paramount in the infamous Mexican war, — a war attended with such
J atrocious horrors, that, after reading its records, the wickedness of
I slavery seems commonplace ! The Southerners reckoned on California
j as theirs ; whilst the friends of liberty in the North expressed their
j determination to oppose the admission of any new slave State. Mean-
while the Californians, unwilling to risk such opposition, and perceiving
that, as their wealth arose from labour, it was undesirable to bring
disgrace on it by employing slaves in the same work, agreed on a con-
stitution excluding slavery ; but that this arose from no high feeling
of human brotherhood is manifest from their exclusion of all coloured

people, free as well as slaves. Their decision excited general surprise.
Southerners declared that there had been foul play, — that the Federal
government, to avoid a struggle, had recommended this course, and
that the President, General Taylor (though himself a slaveholder), had
used his influence to betray them. Whilst some vehemently opposed
the admission of a State on which they had once reckoned so fondly,
others demanded, as the price of the political power thus accruing to
the North, concessions, among which was a measure of the nature of
the Fugitive Slave Bill. The great Whig leaders. Clay and Webster,
had each proclaimed their ideas of compromise before my arrival, so
that I only heard them on minor occasions. Their powerful rival, the
slaveholding democrat Calhoun, had published his final sentiments in
a speech which was read by a friend, and his death was daily expected.

The visitor to Washington soon perceives a change from the moral
atmosphere of the North. It is not a city of spontaneous growth,
which has achieved its own greatness; but it owes its existence to
political expediency, and is, literally, built upon a concession. Its very
form is significant — a noble plan not carried out — magnificent distances
— the few great buildings disposed on the principle of the balance of
power, so that no division has more than a share. Compared with
European capitals, the city is remarkably devoid of all intrinsic charms
and sources of excitement. All depends on the Union. The Capitol,
the White House, the Post Office, the Patent Office, the Treasury, are
all owing to the Union. The singularly heterogeneous population, i
comprising some very agreeable residents, is brought together by the
Union. The traveller owns that there is at least one spot, and that
the one which for the time engages his attention and enlists his inte- .
rest, which entirely depends for its fame and prosperity on the Union. '
The name reminds him of one whom the Union delights to honour. *
Every relic of that great man is preserved with scrupulous care : he is
idolized : a saint of remote antiquity could not be more revered, the j
memory of a near kinsman could not be more hallowed : a magnificent
marble obelisk, designed to reach the height of 600 feet, with a base i
of 55 feet square, is receiving the contributions of the States of which I
he has been called the Father. We hear everywhere of his courage, '
his wisdom and philanthropy ; but we turn our eyes to the slaves, and J
mourn over the incompleteness of human virtue. '

A dreamer might fancy that the capital of the most enlightened of i
republics, the peculiar mission of which is to teach the world freedom, j
would be the favourite home of Liberty. A reasoner might doubt J
whether Liberty is most at home in any seat of government whatever ; •
for those who draw the car of state go in harness ; and certainly he •
should not expect to find here more freedom than the average through \
the country, which must needs be lower than what he could meet with *
elsewhere. We must distinguish between the characters of the Con- i
stitution and of the Revolution. The fundamental idea of the Revolu-
tion was Liberty, which is embodied in the Declaration of Independence,
Union results in a consciousness of mutual dependence, A Constitution^
a standing together, is less designed to promote effort after more
liberty, than to preserve order, — Heaven's first law, — indeed, the
essence of all law. The preamble is as follows : j

" We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more per- [

feet union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless-
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America."

As some love peace, though they detest the war by which it is affirmed
that peace was attained, so men are to be found who value the amount
of liberty secured by the constitution, but candidly own that they regard
the Declaration of Independence but as so much waste paper ; whilst
there have been from the first those who objected to a central govern-
ment, as having a tendency to abridge liberty. The old parties, Fede-
ralists and Anti-federalists, still exist under different names. A con-
federated government is not founded on the same obvious necessity as
a state government ; and therefore, if it is to exist at all, its conditions
must be more scrupulously observed. You enter the Senate, and find
ambassadors, so to speak, of "Sovereign States" of quite different origins
— the Spanish Florida, the French Louisiana, the Dutch New York, the
Catholic Maryland, the Calvinistic Connecticut, — the descendants of Ca-
valiers and the descendants of Roundheads. The vast influx of immi-
grants of every nation add to the complexity. Our own Parliament has,
indeed, to consult for interests as various ; but we have no fear that
England will lapse into a Heptarchy again. Our constitution has under-
gone changes, and will undergo more ; alteration is not fatal to it — it is
a thing of life. But the American constitution is a machine, constructed
with the utmost skill and care ; break part, the whole is endangered.
Men remember its formation, and may see its destruction. If, moreover,
it is broken in bad faith or blind anger, no new union can be expected
to grow out of mistrust and alienation. The question, then, does not
lie between this form of government and a better, but between this and
none at all. It is, indeed, open to alteration — it has been altered — by
the consent of three-fourths of the States ; but if any smaller section
despotically insists on a dominant idea and breaks this condition, the
confederation is destroyed. It will be destroyed hopelessly and terribly ;
the idea of mutual forbearance will have been proved futile ; impatience
and wounded pride will inflame an undisciplined people ; the stability
which the best part of the population inherit from the mother country,
will be exchanged for the feverish and unsuccessful struggles of conti-
nental Europe, and there will be warfare, worse than European, worse
than Mexican, the worst kind of civil war ; the revolutionary idea, once
rekindled, will not be satisfied so soon as when the Atlantic interposed
between the combatants. It will easily be conceived that these consi-
derations give the American constitution an adventitious importance,
and this is felt nowhere more strongly that at Washington. The citizen
of a remote State may think little and care less for the safety of the
confederation ; but when he comes here he is almost on frontier ground,
and he is told that here, if war is kindled, will be the scene of conflict :
and if he comes as a Member of Congress, he is reminded that the con-
sciences of men differ, their customs differ, their State laws differ, but
that he and his fellow-members have one thing in common, the Consti-
tution, and on that their decisions must be based. (However narrowing
we may esteem such deference to human law, we must candidly remem-
ber that those of our own reformers who have produced the most lasting
practical results have worked under our constitution.) I found, there-

fore, the absorbing question to be, What says the constitution — what
is its general spirit, and what its special enactments — is it pro-slavery^
or is it anti-slavery ?

The Garrisonianf abolitionists, whose watchword is. No union with
slaveholders, regard it a " covenant with death and an agreement with
hell." They point to these facts, — that as, in the census for represen-
tation, five slaves are reckoned as three freemen, the Southern States
have, through their 3,000,000 slaves, an influence equal to 1,800,000
freemen, which influence is specially exerted against these very slaves
through whom it is derived ; that the North is bound to give up the
fugitives, and to aid in suppressing any insurrection ; that the seat of
government is a slave district ; and that the influence of this union has
been shewn in the subservience of the North, and the remarkable pre-
ponderance of slaveholding Presidents and high public functionaries.

The ultra Southerners accept this line of argument, and threaten dis-
union, unless respect is shewn to what they somewhat ludicrously call
the rights of the South.

The Free-soil party (to which we shall afterwards allude) plead, on
the contrary, that, to judge of the tendency of the constitution, we must
not compare it with abstract right, but with the system under the
British government which it superseded ; that the provision to abolish
the foreign slave-trade at a time when the number of native Negroes
was diminishing, indicated the desire to limit the evil, and that slavery
has actually been abolished in many States ; that whilst the Represen-
tatives are apportioned, not according to the number of voters, but to
the population in each State, the diminution of the number by two-fifths
in the case of slaves ought to be regarded as a penalty on slavery ; J
that Jefferson's resolution in 1787, which had the effect of making all
the territory over which Congress had control free soil, — the absence of
all mention of slavery in the constitution, and the known sentiments of
many of the Southern Members of the Convention, — indicated the ex-
pectation that an evil inherited from the mother country would gradu-
ally disappear through the general influence of republicanism (which
might have been the case but for circumstances not then foreseen) ; and
that, interpreting it by the spirit of its founders, as displayed in the
Declaration of Independence, those are the true friends of the constitu-

* I must apologize for the use of a word essentially wnenglish,
t I by no means use this word invidiously, as if to indicate that any party
surrenders its freedom of thought to Garrison, but simply to denote that section
of those who desire the abolition of slavery which looks for this result through
the dissolution of the Union.

J See Gerrit Smith's Constitutional Argument. In point of fact, this provision
arose out of a measure for taxation. To meet the expenses of the war, it was
proposed, in 1776, that the different colonies should contribute according to their
population. A Southern member wished that the white inhabitants alone should
be reckoned; another, as a compromise, proposed that two slaves should be
counted as one freeman. On the whole, when the rate of five to three was
agreed to in 1783, it seemed a concession on the part of the South. "The
provision " in regard to representation *• was adopted, because members of the
Convention who were * principled against slavery,* were yet unwilling to seem
to do injustice to the slaveholding States, by an appointment of direct taxes
without an equivalent representation." See Report ofCongi'egational Ministers on
Slavery, 1849, p. 70.

tion vrho use the powers it undoubtedly gives them to make the influ-
ence of government favourable to freedom.

Others wish to regard the constitution as neutral. They conceive that
its founders considered that it was of more importance to have a go-
vernment, than to risk its existence by determining its position in regard
to questions which, after all, must for the most part be settled by the
States in their separate capacity. If Northern States were false to their
great principle in linking themselves to slaveholders, Englishmen have
no right to condemn them, for they did it to secure that portion of
liberty which they had acquired against the tyranny of England, which
was sdso slaveholding. If compromises were made, it is to be remem-
bered that all governments, except despotisms, are founded on com-
promise ; and if those compromises were in some respects unfavourable
to liberty, it was not in abridging liberty formerly enjoyed, but in ac-
quiescence with less than had been desired.

Neutrality is now, however, no longer possible. Earnest men on
each side are striving to enlist the national influence, and on each side
much may be done within the letter of the constitution. Those who
think peace worth any sacrifice, declare that the same spirit of compro-
mise which called the Union into being is required for its continuance ;
and plead that it is ungenerous in the North to take advantage of its
rapidly-increasing strength, to sacrifice those without whose aid in times
past New England might have been still a colony. The obvious answer
is, that we cannot be generous with that which does not belong to us.
Let the North abridge its own privileges if it thinks proper ; but these
questions at issue affect three million persons, who, being citizens of
no State, have the claims of humanity on every State. Indeed, every
law passed by Congress injurious to the slave, has a flaw inherent in it
which impairs its moral obligation even on those who profess submis-
sion to the will of the majority ; for 1,800,000 voices have been recorded
for it which ought to have been against it, and 3,000,000 voices against
it have been disregarded.

Politicians regard slavery politically, and frequently take sides, ac-
cording to their section of country of which the institution, or the
absence of it, happens to be the badge. But we generally find that
men who contend for property are more unscrupulous and united than
those who contend for principle ; and the Southern oligarchy* forms a
more compact body, and numbers more adroit politicians, than the
Northern democracy. The Southerners profess that their principles
and their interests go together ; whilst interest often tempts the North-
erner from his professed principle, and those who have been eloquent
for freedom before their sympathizing constituents, have been ready in
the Southern atmosphere of Washington to abandon it at the threat of
disunion, or the bribe of some commercial or party boon ; so that Con-
gress, though containing a Northern majority, and challenging the
reverence of the world as the guardian of freedom, has been disgraced
by such barefaced betrayal of the liberty of speech and petition, that it
provokes scorn and indignation.

As each of the great parties in the North, though professing anti-

* The slaveholders are a mere fraction of the inhabitants of the South, being,
it is thought, under 200,000.

slavery sentiments when it suited their purpose, have evidently made
the cause of the slave quite a suhordinate concern, the puhlic sentiment
against Southern aggression, which was kindled by the annexation of
Texas, occasioned the formation of a third party, which has taken Free
Soil* as its watchword. I have already given the view that it takes of
the spirit of the constitution, and it maintains that " it is the duty of the
government to relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence or
continuance of slavery, wherever that government has constitutional
power to legislate on the subject, and is consequently responsible for its
existence," and that all compromises with slavery " must be repealed."
The Free-soilers did not appear to be in favour. As the Conservatives
and even some Liberals at home viewed the erection of a Free- trade party
with jealousy, so this movement has weakened both Whigs and Demo-
crats. The South is of course indignant with them ; the Northern politi-
cians feel their existence implies a reproach on their own apathy to free-
dom. They are in some quarters more obnoxious than the Abolitionists :
just as Chartists, who turn the scale at elections and are impracticable on
divisions, and who insist on a hearing in the House, are more disliked
than those who keep aloof from all political action. The Garrisonians
place no confidence in them, because they have seen the instability of
politicians. What could be stronger than the assertion of Webster in
the Senate, so lately as Aug. 10, 1848 ? — " My opposition to the increase
of slavery in this country, or to the increase of slave representation in
Congress, is general and universal. It has no reference to the lines of
latitude or points of the compass. I shall oppose all such extension,
and all such increase, in all places, at all times, under all circumstances,
even against all inducements, against all supposed limitation of great
interests, against all combinations, against all compromise." This pas-
sage, and another equally forcible, I heard Mr. Hale quote in the Senate;
but Mr. Webster, in explanation, professed that no one " of candour
and intelligence" could see any inconsistency between that and his
recent speech ! The firmness and courage hitherto shewn by the Free-
soil leaders seem to give proof of their superior honesty. As the Gar-
risonians believe that the constitution is pro-slavery^ they likewise allege
that no one who has taken an oath to observe it can be true to freedom
without being guilty of perjury .f

» This party has nothing to do with that movement ctgainat rent-paying which
occasioned disturbance some time ago.

t A little before my visit, Governor Seward, Senator for New York, who,
however, does not belong to the Free-soil party, had made this declaration :
"The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the
domain to union, to justice, to defence, to weliare, and to liberty. But there is
a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the
domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no
inconsiderable part, of the common heritiige of mankind, bestowed upon them
by the Creator of the universe. "We are his stewards, and must so discharge
our trust as to secure, in the highest attainable degree, their happiness." This
contains what many will deem a self-evident truth ; but " no sentiment ever
uttered in Congress seemed to produce more astonishment. Grave Senators
affected to be horrified that a statesman should conceive the idea that the law
of the Creator was paramount to human enactments.** (Vide Annual Report of
the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1850, p. 86.) They chose to
understand from it, " that a person who is sworn to support the Constitution,
if he believes the Constitution countervails the law of God, is imder no obliga-

I attended the meetings of Congress almost daily whilst I was at
Washington ; they usually commenced about twelve o'clock, and ad-
journed about four o'clock. In the House the speakers are limited to
an hour. From the bad construction of their hall, I heard so imper-
fectly that I seldom remained there. On my last visit, I sent in my
card to Mr. Horace Mann, to Xvhom I b»4 been introduced, and he
politely invited me to sit with him. This is not unfrequently done,
though in strictness it is a privilege only allowed to certain official per-
sons ; the admission of Father Mathew to the floor of the Senate was
made the subject of a special vote. The speaker was a person of no
great weight ; but I could hear easily, and the observations of those
around enabled me to enter more completely into the spirit of what was
going on. Mr. Mann, who has a European celebrity as an educator, is
now striving to educate the public conscience. I was not acquainted
with Mr. Wilmot, who has given name to the proviso, that " the Jef-
fersonian ordinance of 1787" should be applied to all new territories
and states. I met Mr. Giddings, however, who was expelled from the
House of Representatives several years ago for his anti-slavery zeal,
but was immediately returned again by his constituents in Ohio, and
has not been molested since. He seemed hopeful as to the future ; for,
whatever might be the immediate issue, the free discussion of the sub-
ject must have a good effect. He was a tall, hearty-looking man ; and
personal pretence is not to be despised in one who has to stand much
alone.

The Free-soil Senators are Messrs. Hale and Chase (to these we may
now add Charles Sumner). Mr. Hale traces his great interest in this
movement, as I have heard, to the influence of his late pastor at Dover,
N.H., the Rev.^. Parkman, who has visited this country. He, too,
had a hearty, courageous, though good-humoured demeanour. There
was, I thought, a good deal of the Englishman about him ; and he
commands more respect than if he seemed a wily politician. Three
years ago he so kindled the ire of Mr. Foote, an excitable Southerner,
that he declared in the Senate that if Mr. Hale would visit his State,
" he would not travel ten miles before he would grace one of the tallest
trees of the forest, with a rope about his neck, with the approbation of
every virtuous and patriotic citizen ; and that, if necessary, he (Mr. F.)
would assist in the operation." Mr. Foote distinguished himself by
an equally violent attack on Mr. Benton (during my visit), which was
not received with equal good temper.

As I before intimated, the Southern Members were not disposed to
admit California without compromises, and one of these was to be a
Fugitive Slave Bill. The gross injustice of the measure, which was
passed some months afterwards, took us on this side the Atlantic by
surprise ; and those who had not heard Douglass and others describe
the perils to which fugitives have been always exposed, even on nomi-
nally " free soil," supposed that this law worked an entire revolution
in their position, and was a scandalous innovation, not only in detail,

tion to support the Constitution, and that he is to judge of his obligations after
he has taken the oath to support it." Certainly, as no one is compelled to enter
office, he ought previously to study the meaning of the oath, and not take it if
he does not intend to keep it. Southerners, however, have used similar or
stronger language when it suited their purpose.

8

but in principle. It is now, however, generally understood that the
general principle, though happily our English feeling could not tolerate
it, is not discordant with the American Constitution. I will recite the
passage that bears upon it :

" Article IV. — Miscellaneous.
« Section I.

" 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts,
records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And Congress may,
by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and pro-
ceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

" Section II.

" 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several States.

" 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on the demand
of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up,
to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.

"3. No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labour ; but shall be delivered up
on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due."

All this seems to read innocently enough, and Sect. II. § 2 is perhaps
the worst in appearance ; for as, within the present century, some things
were capital ofiFences in England which were not offences at all in Ame-
rica, and many which were venial there, so there is dissimilarity, though
not so great, between the criminal codes of the different commonwealths;
and persons might be very unwilling to give up a man who had thrown
himself on their protection, and whom they might think very pardon-
able, if not innocent, to be tried and hung elsewhere ; but a regard to
federal obligations leads them to " shift the responsibility" on the State
where the alleged crime was committed, and which demands the of-
fender. Now as to service,— if a man is held to it by a friendly State,
it might seem a less hardship than that to which we have just adverted
that he should be restored to that State, which, it is presumed, will
judicially decide as to the legality of his indenture ; but our feeling in
the matter quite changes when we know that the meaning is not service,
but slavery, which implies not service only, but a hopeless deprivation
of all the rights of freemen, and liability to injury and wrong too dread-
ful to describe.

It will be observed that the clause relates to fugitives, I understand
that if a master take his slave with him into a free State, and the slave
choose to leave him and assert his freedom, this clause gives the master
no redress ; because the servant did not escape into the free State, but
was brought there voluntarily.

In 1 793, an Act was passed to carry into effect the provision of this
clause, to which Dr. Palfrey thus alludes, in a speech on the " Political
Aspect of the Slave Question," delivered Jan. 26, 1848, in the House
of Representatives, of which he was then a distinguished Free-soil
Member :

" Let me first mention the unutterably heinous law — I can characterize it
by no milder epithet — of Feb. 12, 1793, putting the liberty of every freeman
in this nation at the mercy of every paltry town and county magistrate whom
the kidnapper may delude, or bribe to do his dirty work. If my neighbour

sues me for twenty dollars, the Constitution of my country gives me, the
security of a jury of our peers to pass between us. Not so with my liberty,
which 1 value at more than tw^enty dollars. Let a stranger come among us
of the free States, and claim one of our number as his runaway slave, and
let him satisfy, any-hoto, some trading justice that his claim is good, and that
justice's warrant is valid for him against all the world. The law makes no
distinction between white and black men ; though, if it did, it would make
no difference in the atrocity of the principle. Let the man-stealer get that
warrant, and with it he may bring me, or any representative from a free
State on this floor, to the auction-block close by this Capitol, to make our
next remove in chains to Natchez or New Orleans. He may take my wife
from my side, or my infant from its cradle, and if I resist, he is armed with
the whole power of the country to strike me down. The odious law by its
letter threatens and insults the Governor of Massachusetts or New York, as
much as the darkest menial they employ. Do gentlemen say the law would
never be so executed ? Be it so. What would prevent it ? The law of force,
or the fear of force. The standing outrage and indignity, standing on the
defiled pages of the Statute-book, are still the same."

The vagueness of this law, v^rhilst it added to its atrocity, crippled its
power. In Massachusetts and other States, laws were passed prohibit-
ing the State officers from any action in the matter, and refusing the
use of State prisons for the detention of the fugitives. The strong
popular feeling which led to these measures afforded an additional
security. There are many who would sympathize in the bold language
of Mr. Giddings in the House of Representatives (March 28, 1850) :

" We cannot under the constitution protect or secrete the slave from
his master. But the Legislatures of free States may prohibit their own
citizens from aiding or assisting the master to track out the panting
fugitive, in order again to subject him to the lash or the thumb-screw.
Such a law has been introduced into the Legislature of Ohio ; and I
am free to say, that if there be a crime for which I would hang a citizen
of our State, it is that of aiding the slaveholder to seize his trembling
victim upon soil consecrated to freedom."

Where, then, this clause was enforced, it was usually by violence or
stratagem. When I was in Cincinnati, I found that the day before
a party of armed Kentuckians had carried off a fugitive in open day,
in defiance of the citizens, who attempted a rescue ; and in the remoter
States a capture was rarely attempted, still more rarely successful. The
case of Prtffg v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania brought the matter
to an issue; and the Supreme Court of the United States decided,
though not unanimously, that it was the duty, not of the State officers,
but of those of the National Government, to further such capture. As
a general principle, it is of course desirable to avoid collisions between
the States and the Federal Government. Three ways of dealing with
the question were open: — First, to repeal the clause in the consti-
tution ; but this, under present circumstances, was impossible, for it
would require the consent of three-fourths of the States. Secondly, to
leave it alone ; the obscurity of the Act enforcing the clause is in keep-
ing with the vagueness of the clause itself; it is impolitic to attempt to
violate conscience, when that conscience is the conscience of a State !
Thirdly, to maintain the supremacy of the constitution, by providing
that the officers of the general government should be required to carry
out its enactments. The first course being at present impracticable,

10

the second seemed the least of two evils. We English are usually more
tolerant of apparent contradiction than of a practical grievance. The
politician, however, who makes the existence of a federal government
his first consideration, insists on the observance of those provisions
through which it came into being, and on which its life depends. But
this plea has not much weight in the present instance ; for those who
exhibited such reverence for contracts in the case of Sect. II. § 3, pro-
posed no measure to prevent the atrocious violation of Sect. II. § 1 !

" The coloured citizen of Massachusetts," says Dr. Palfrey, " goes on his
lawful occasions to a Southern State, with just as ^ood a constitutional right
to tread its soil in security and at will, as the heir of its own longest and
proudest lineage. But not only is he forbidden by the pseudo-legislation of
the place to land there in freedom, he is not permitted even to remain in
freedom on board the ship that has conveyed him. He is forced on shore to
a prison ; and when he is discharged and departs, it is on the payment of a
ransom, called the expense of his detention. If he comes a second time, he
is scourged. If a third, he is sold into perpetual slavery."

If the South had shewn a readiness to maintain the constitutional
rights of the coloured freemen of the North, it might with some plau-
sibility have demanded some mode of obtaining legally that " service"
which the constitution guaranteed.

The rage of many of the Southerners on being, as they thought,
cheated out of California, and the corresponding eagerness of the North
to obtain the prize, led to the proposition of compromises which turned
Congress, as it was said, into a club for debating slavery. I attended the
Senate several times. The speakers there are not limited as to time.
I have now before me a newspaper containing a speech by Mr. Hale in
answer to Mr. Calhoun. The Daily National Intelligencer gives a con-
densed account of the debates of the day before, and a full report, often
revised by the speaker, of some leading speech on a previous day. This
speech covers fifteen columns. On the first day, Mr. Hale shewed at
considerable length that the opponents of slavery were acting in accord-
ance with the spirit of those who framed the constitution ; and when I
heard him on the following day, he gave a most interesting and detailed
account of the Abolition movement, with the pretext of disproving the
charge of Mr. Calhoun, that both the parties of the North had co-ope-
rated with the abolitionists in almost all their measures.

" Every principle of law, and every safeguard of property, and every pro-
priety of civilized society, were violated by both parties at the North to put
down this movement. And, Sir, they vied with each other to see who might
go the farthest ; and the men that said the severest things, and who did the
severest things against the abolitionists, were those who supposed that they
were commending themselves most to public favour. And yet. Sir, in the
face of this undoubted history of the facts of the case, it is now asserted that
they were received with favour by both parties at the North, and that both
parties did their bidding. It has been charged against the abolitionists
also, again and again, that throughout this movement they were sending emis-
saries to the South, preaching insurrection to the slaves. In 1835, when this
movement first started, it is due in justice to the abolitionists to say, that
they disavowed it in the most solemn manner, and have continued to disavow
it from that day to the present, although the assertion is repeated here almost
every time that any gentleman has occasion to speak upon this subject."

Few on hearing the recapitulation of the injuries inflicted on the

11

abolitionists in that ** martyr age of the United States," could feel sur-
prise at the acrimoniousness in which they have sometimes unfortunately
indulged ; and we may certainly congratulate ourselves that there has
been some progress in public opinion. Mr. Hale quoted from Southern
organs, which at the first threatened a disunion convention, in case the
Abolition movement was not put down by the States' Legislatures.
The movement continued, but the threat was empty. (The Southerners
have cried "Wolf!" so often, that a certain incredulity on the part of
the North is scarcely surprising.) He proceeded to advert to the pro-
posed Fugitive Slave Bill. He could not, consistently with the con-
stitution, protest against the surrender of those who had " escaped from
service." His objections were therefore against the details ; and he
pointed out the dangers to which (as we have shewn was also the case
under the former Act) even freemen were exposed.

'' You come upon him with an affidavit taken a thousand miles off, and
you seize him. Where is that man's right P Where is the trial by jury ?
Where is the habeas corpus ? Where is the protection which the consti-
tution guarantees to the meanest citizen living under the law ? Why, Sir, it
is trampled in the dust by this Bill ; he is carried before a tribunal by one of
the officers of the Government, without the right of a supervising examina-
tion of a judge of the United States Court within the district ; without any
of the privileges belonging to a freeman, he is seized and hurried off; and
although it may appear upon the face of it a mere prima facie examination,
it is to all intents and purposes a final and conclusive judgment, because the
officer gives to the claimant a certificate, and he hurries him off; and when
he gets to the great slave mart of Christendom, the city of Washington, he
may sell him, or send hira wherever he pleases. • • • Now, Sir, if that is to
be the price of the preservation of the Union, I say, * Come disunion, and
come to-day.* If you can only purchase peace with us by compelling us to
surrender everything which exalts us above your slaves, let disunion come ;
I think the people of the free States will be ready for it. I am utterly aston-
ished to hear a proposition of this sort made in the American Senate. The
Bill proceeds entirely on the assumption that there are no rights in the con-
stitution except the rights of slavery ; and there is not a single word or
letter in the proposition I have read, and I have read it very carefully, that
is found to guard and protect with any efficient legislation the rights of a
man or child that may be wrongfully seized."

Having been accused of desiring " to irritate, wound and insult the
feelings of Southern gentlemen," he refers them to the still stronger
declarations of the founders of the republic in slave States, among them
the celebrated speech of Pinkney in Maryland. He concluded his
speech with an eloquent prediction of ultimate freedom. It is a great
point gained that such a speech could be delivered in the Senate, and
find its way, by the papers, in quarters where no anti-slavery publica-
tion is ever seen. When he commenced, the Senators did not appear
to pay him much attention. They have their desks, and seem to occupy
much of their time in writing ; but as he proceeded, they became inte-
rested and excited, and frequently interrupted him with remarks and
questions.

On another occasion, I heard Mr. Chase, of Ohio. He was entering
into minute calculations of the political power which had hitherto been
chiefly absorbed by the South, to prove that the retention of fugitives
could not be taken as a desire on the part of the North to deprive the
South of its influence ; and shewed that it was premature for the slave-

12

holders to complain that they would be cramped if confined to their
present boundaries, whilst they had such an immense preponderance of
land over the free States.

I also heard Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey, which it will be remembered
was originally a slave State. He first spoke on the territorial question,
but afterwards entered into the proposed Fugitive Slave Bill at consi-
derable length, and shewed the extreme injustice of its provisions. Mr.
D. was not a Free-soiler, and spoke contemptuously and angrily of that
party ; but he seemed to take somewhat the same ground. He advo-
cated trial by jury for the alleged fugitive. Probably, however, it is
well that the inherent injustice of the Bill should not be disguised by
any show of justice in the details. A jury might, indeed, protect a man
who was not a fugitive ; but the fugitive woiSdd be only mocked by the
form of a trial, unless his escape was secured at the expense of twelve
cases of perjury. As the measure stands, there is nothing to divert the
attention from its essential iniquity.

I was of course desirous to hear what the Southerners could say in
their defence, and I was present at a speech by a Senator of Virginia,
of which I may give you some account in a subsequent letter.

On the whole, I am inclined, from what I saw and heard, to look
favourably on the future. The passage of this Bill shewed, indeed, the
strength of the slave power and the timidity or selfishness of the North-
ern majority, but it established no new principle ; whilst, if I am not
mistaken, a counter-concession was made in the abolition of the slave-
trade in the District of Columbia. This is a most important measure :
it is the commencement of legislation on the subject of slavery in the
District, and may also be a step towards the abolition of the slave-trade
between the different States. When this takes place, freedom in those
States where it is now only profitable to rear slaves for transportation,
cannot be far distant. Another triumph of still greater importance is
the recovery of the right of petition and freedom of speech in Congress.
Hitherto it has operated most unfavourably for liberty, that the legis-
lature has met where the sight of slavery became familiar to them,—
the North has been contaminated, the South unreformed ; but every
blow aimed at slavery in the District will be felt throughout the South ;
and, as I have before intimated, the debates are read by thousands
whose consciences were before comparatively torpid on the subject.

We live in an age of great reforms ; but this may teach us to per-
severe without impatience. In our own country, deep-rooted preju-
dices have been destroyed, mighty interests have yielded to the claims
of humanity, and an occasional disappointment and defeat does not
dishearten those who labour in hope. I trust that we may see the day
when liberty, as well as peace and order, shall prevail in the great con-
federacy of America, — when the word slavery^ which does not appear
in the Constitution, shall be obsolete, and the thing it signifies be
viewed as a bygone horror and disgrace.

Yours respectfully,

R. L. Carpenter.

Neath, July 5, 1851.

No. II.

to the editob of the chbistian befobmeb.

Sib,

In my last letter,* I described the political aspect of the Slave ques-
tion, as it presented itself to me on my visit to Washington last year.
I shall advert to the same topic again ; but this letter will also contain
more of my personal observations. Your readers will be candid enough
to distinguish observations hom judgments. My materials are my let-
ters written at the time : and I may repeat what persons told me,
without aflBrming my own accordance in their views. My opinion of
slavery is not derived from the superficial and brief view I had of it,
but from the investigations of those who have studied it in its varied
bearings ; and I should be pained if any one was unwise enough to
think lightly of so monstrous an evil, because, as a traveller, I met
with those who thus thought of it, and report what they said without
any comment ; for since I am writing to Englishmen, I suppose such
comments little needed. I was very fortunate in making my last home,
before quitting what was comparatively free soil, with Dr. Fumess, of
Philadelphia, — a man of large heart and spirit, who has taken decided
part with the Abolitionists, though by doing so he has alienated some
of his congregation, — among them, I fear, some of the English founders
of this congregation, or their descendants. Some of those who are
disgusted with the apathy of the church in this movement, intimate
that the fact that a minister retains his position, is a proof that he is
no honest foe to slavery. If this is a rule, Dr. Fumess must be taken
as an exception. His moral heroism is, however, blended with Chris-
tian charity ; and in a large city many can be found to admire both
these qualities. I did not understand that his congregation had lost
more than it had gained. I saw at Philadelphia Lucretia Mott and
some other earnest abolitionists.

I entered the Slave States, March 18, 1851. My first resting-place
was at Baltimore, in Maryland, which had an interest for me as the
former abode of F. Douglass. As I looked on his coloured f brethren,
I thought whether he had kindred spirits among them who would, like
him, achieve their freedom. I carried a letter of introduction to the
Unitarian minister. Dr. Burnap, who kindly insisted upon my leaving
my hotel and being his guest, as Miss Martineau and the Rev. W.
Hincks had before been. He is well known in this country by repub-
lications of his Lectures to Young Men and other works, and is one of
the most industrious literary men in our body. There is a University
here, of which he is one of the Regents, and I accompanied him to the
annual bestowal of medical degrees. The church was full of ladies and
other friends of the students, and it was a very interesting occasion.
The Unitarian church is built somewhat after the model of the Pan-

♦ In the last letter, p. 7, line 28, for Rev. F. Parkman, read Rev. J. Park-
man.

t White is the combination of colours, black the a^ence of them ; but perhaps
an anomalous nomenclature is appropriate to an anomalous system.

14

theon at Rome, and is considered one of the handsomest edifices in the
Union, and, as Dr. B. remarked, is the scene of the ** Unitarian Pen-
tecost," — Dr. Channing's great sermon in 1819. Dr. Jared Sparks,
who succeeded Mr. Everett as President of Cambridge University, was
minister here, which may partly account for his strong objection to any
violent disruption of the ties which bind the Northern and Southern
States.

In Maryland, slavery does not prevail in its most aggravated form.
I was told that great numbers of slaves had been set at liberty, either
being allowed to work for hire and buy their freedom. Or being freed as
a reward of faithful service, or having received their liberty by bequest.
The number of free blacks (73,943), which bears an unusually large
proportion to that of the slaves (89,800), seems to confirm this state-
ment. In the city of Baltimore (population 160,000) there are com-
paratively few slaves, though a great number of hired coloured servants.
There may perhaps be half-a-dozen slaveholders in Dr. Bumap's large
congregation, which comprises some country families. Since the Abo-
lition movement, it is said that the pride of the slaveholders has been
roused, and that emancipation is much more difficult and rare ; and I
was sorry to see lately a law passed which seemed directed against the
free coloured population. Those, however, who agitate from a Chris-
tian sense of duty and in a Christian spirit, must not be deterred by
increased injuries on those whom they would benefit : the irritation
may be preliminary to cure.

Dr. Bumap, who is more secluded than he wishes from ministerial
intercourse, was kindly urgent that I should prolong my stay ; but I
was anxious to reach Washington with as little delay as possible, and
from March 20th to 29th I paid a promised visit to the Rev. J. H.
Allen (now of Bangor, Maine), a nephew of Dr. H. Ware, Jun.

I have already alluded to the peculiar influences of Washington,
leading men to look at questions in relation to that constitution throngh
which they meet together ; and there are cases in which we might
judge incorrectly of a person's real feelings from this circumstance.
One of the Supreme Judges, in conversation, expressed his doubt of
the legality of the Wilmot proviso, though he was a friend to freedom.
This, indeed, is what we are continually finding at home : the lawyer
and politician seem to make a point of silencing the wishes of their
hearts whilst they determine what is according to law and the princi-
ples of our government. The true moral reformer enunciates lofty
principles, and is ready to abstain from action rather than compromise
them : the political reformer, looking to practical results, enunciates
lofty principles only when it leads to them, and meanwhile shakes
hands with evils which he hopes to change or cure. Each is apt to be
impatient with the other ; each, when wise, is glad of the aid the other
gives his cause. To take, as an example, the evil of war (which Chan-
ning pronounces " the concentration of ail human crimes : here is its
distinguishing accursed brand : under its standard gather violence,
malignity, rage, fraud, perfidy, rapacity and lust ") : no ardent peace-
man could vote for reduced warlike estimates, — any estimate implies a
participation in a system he abhors ; but to plead against any arma-
ment, however small, Gobden would deem futile ; yet the " impractica-
ble enthusiast" influences public sentiment, and the politician makes

15

this sentiment as available as possible to change deep-rooted practices.
The cause of freedom is probably greatly indebted, not indeed to those
statesmen who are ready to declaim for freedom when it interferes with
no party measure, but to those who are now making freedom itself the
watchword of Iheir party, and are doing all they can to turn the influ-
ence of government in the right direction. Their number, as was
before intimated, is so small, that they could do but little, were it not
that they often hold the balance of power, and have a moral influence
from the stress they lay on what is, nominally, the great boast of Ame-
rica — ^liberty and equal rights.

In my last letter I gave a brief account of some speeches I heard
against slavery : it will now be fair to give you some idea of what was
said on the other side. I once supposed that the iniquity of slavery
was so self-evident, that no one would defend it, except on the ground
that it was too deeply rooted to be easily removed ; but the Southern-
ers now not only palliate, but justify their system ; and, spoiled by the
deference they have so long received, denounce the present stand made
against them as most injurious tyranny. Some of their pleas might
impose on those who have not that wholesome horror of slavery which
needs no argument to rebut its sophistries. We refer them to the
Bible : they do not see a.ny positive precept, and differ from us in their
apprehension of its spirit. We bid them hearken to the voice of Chris-
tendom : they And it divided. We address them as American citizens,
and they answer in this way : We are a confederacy of independent
States : slavery is not prohibited in the constitution : nothing is said
there about the sin of slaveholding, or having property in man. " As
a general rule, there is no positive law in England, or this country,
creating property in anything. The right to property, according to
Grotius and Fuflendorf, rests upon the implied assent of mankind.
This assent is implied in every society, either from laws providing re-
medies for the protection of this right, or from laws regulating the
mode of its transfer, or from undisturbed use and occupation." What
is property in some regions, is not in others : each must determine for
itself. If you say, that no precedent ought to hold in this case, for
that property in man is an outrage on common sense, we remind you
that the common sense of the majority of mankind has been, and is,
in favour of slavery, and that many of the honoured fathers of our con-
stitution were slaveholders themselves. As long as we are in a con-
federacy, we are not to be persecuted and reviled for laws which have
been recognized among us for nearly the whole of our existence. We
agree with your ultra-abolitionists, that if we cannot tolerate each
other's differences of opinion, it will be best to separate, when we will
each carry out our own ideas without molestation.

The speaker from whom I have already quoted was Mr. Hunter, the
Senator for Virginia. It was interesting to me to hear a Southerner's
statement of what the North had already attempted for freedom :

" The evil, Mr. President, of which the South complains, arises out of the
fact, that a party in the North, by no means contemptible in point of num-
bers, is seefing to convert this Government, through its direct legislation,
into an instrument of warfare upon tiie institution of slavery in the States,
and from the fear that the majority of those in the free States who are here-
after to control and manage this Government will use, if not its positive legis-

16

lation, at least iU moral influence,* for that purpose. GoTemment is designed
to protect persons and property ; but with what feelings will it be regarded,
if, instead of performing those fiinctions, it should become either directly or
indirectly the source of constant assaults, not only upon twelve or fifteen
hundred millions of property in the South, but upon the very safety of those
whose peace depends upon preserving the existing relations between master
and dave in tiiose States ?"

He then gave a summary of the Northern agitation of the subject,
and continued :

** They petitioned Congress to withdraw the protection of law from slavery
wherever it was given by the National Government. And why? Because
slavery itself, in their opinion, was unlawful, and one man had no right to
hold another as property.f They petitioned Congress to abolish slavery in
the forts, arsenals and dock-yards of the United States, even in the slave
States.^ Their object was to exhibit to the master and to the slave in those
States the example and influence of the general Government operating in their
very midst and m opposition to slavery. They had probably other things in
view, which were even better calculated for use in this war upon slavery.
These places were thus to be fltted as the arenas for anti-slavery agitation in
those States, and to be opened as a sort of free-negro Alsatia, where he might
hold his perpetual Saturnalia of license and of crime (!) Thus the forts de-
signed for our military protection were to be converted into abolition strong-
holds in the slave States themselves."

He dwelt on the dangers to the slave system from the propositions
to abolbh slavery in the district of Columbia and the slave-trade be-
tween the States—" the most deadly blow, short of actual abolition, at
the institution of slavery which could possibly be given " — and men-
tions other instances to prove the innovating tendencies of the North.
The grievance which most provoked his ire was their determination to
oppose the admission of any more slave States, and thus to seal the
political doom of the Southern party ; and he draws a picture, meant
to be very touching, of the horror and shame felt by the young hero
in the Mexican war on finding that he had only fought to secure the
ascendancy of his political foes, and to bring disgrace on his native
State. All this was rather gratifying to me to hear ; for it shewed
that the efforts of the North for freedom, however inadequate we may
deem them, were producing no inconsiderable result.

It was not, however, by any means soothing to my English pride
when he commenced a justification of slavery on the ground that it was
necessary for national welfare. "I have been looking," he said, "into
the results of the British experiment, and for that purpose I have ex-
amined the last Reports upon that subject which are to be found in
our library. They are comprised in certain volumes for 1847, 1848 —

* Some Southerners have impudently demanded that the moral influence of
Government should be exerted to perpetuate slavery.

t I am not aware that the constitution at all recognizes the right of property
in tnarif though it recognizes the right of property in ktbouTf wmch is not the
same thing. A freeman may owe service. Art. Iv. Sect. ii. 3 (which I quoted
in my last letter as that on which the Fugitive Slave Bill was founded), uses no
words which might not refer to an apprentice, or a hired labourer who had re-
ceived his wages in advance.

t It is singular how men who boast of their liberty can bear to call their native
land a slave State : one would suppose that it was only the reproachful name
given by their foes !

17

large volumes, Sir — and turn where you may, you find the same pic-
ture of ruin, waste and social depression." He then gave a succession
of extracts from official documents, which, taken by themselves, cer-
tainly led to the idea that vast evil had resulted from emancipation.
He dwelt on the horrors of the " new slave-trade " in Coolies, and noted
that the African slave-trade had greatly increased in extent and in the
wretchedness attending it ; so that the efforts of English philanthro-
pists had proved ''disastrous and illusory;" and affirmed that our
islands were relapsing into barbarism, and that any civilized nation had
as much right to seize on them as we had to take them from the In-
dians.* He drew an imaginary picture of the result, if throughout the
world slavery had been abolished, with a similar decline of exports :
" Why how many people would have been thus stricken, rudely and
at once, from the census of the world ! An intelligent member from
Alabama, in a recent and striking letter to his constituents, has just
said, that the entire loss of one cotton crop in the United States would
produce more misery and ruin in Europe than any two of Napoleon's
most destructive campaigns."

He then proceeds to argue against the horror felt at slavery as in-
voluntary servitude :

" But what is involuntary servitude — what is slavery? as I asked before. I
know of no voluntary servitude, except the labour of love. The socialist tells
us that the institution of wages is an institution of slavery ; and surely all
servitude for wages is involuntary, and therefore a state of slavery according
to the common definition. We serve for wages to avoid something which
is more painful to us than serving another ; and upon what other principle is
it that the African works for us ? Will any man pretend to say that the ser-
vitude of the labourers in the crowded populations of Europe is voluntary ?
Go into the English colliery, and tell me if those boys who are hitched to
carts by dog-chains, to draw coals through the dark, damp and narrow pas-
sages of the pits, are voluntary servants ; if those women who toil like beasts
of burden, without even the blankets that cover the coach-horse, are voluntary
servants ; if those beings who know nothing of the most essential truths of
religion, nothing of the most common facts in human history, who pass through
life knowing nothing, caring nothing, and fearing nothing, but the taskmaster's
edict and the taskmaster's lash (for it seems tne lash is used there too), are
to be considered as serving less from compulsion than our Southern slaves P
In point of moral culture and physical comfort, who can doubt but that the
Southern slave is the superior ? 6ut it may be said that the condition of the
father is not inherited by the son ; he has at least a chance to rise above the
social position of those from whom he sprung. A chance to rise above this
condition ! — the child inherits it as certainly from its parents by the force of
circumstances, as if it descended to him by positive law. What chance has
the child for moral culture or social advancement who is sent to labour at six,
eight or ten years of age, and works twelve, fourteen or sixteen hours a day,
as a living fixture to a spinning machine P Chosen because his limbs are
supple and his will obedient, he winds and turns amidst the machinery until
his limbs grow crooked, and his body becomes misshapen and deformed. A
victim to premature vice and sordid ignorance, what can he hope except to
tread the weary round trodden by his father before him — ^from Uie cradle to

* I was continually taught how easy it is to make out a strong case, even
from official documents, if we confine ourselves to one-sided evidence : and per-
haps the slaveholder may complain that we also are one-sided when we descant
on the physical evils of slavery, as if they were universal or unmitigated.

18

the factory, from the factory to the poor-house, and the poor-house to the
grave? The Southern slave has a far better chance to become a freeman by
emancipation than the child of the lowest class of English labourers has to
rise above the condition of his father.''

It were a strange mode of defending a system to compare it with
evils which every one of ordinary humanity deplores,^ and which are
only named among us as abuses which call for a reme'dy. His argu-
ment, however, may have some force against those in the old world
who say, " Stand by thyself, come not near unto me, for I am holier
than thou :" and when he further tells us, " Your socialist is the true
abolitionist, and he only fully understands his mission," we may re-
member that other questions are opening upon us, in which the wea-
pons we are forging will be used ; and that, unless we are prepared to
discard all mere prudential considerations, and to regulate our daily life
by the law of self-sacrificing Christian love, it may be wise to mete
such measure as we shall not be displeased to have measured unto us
again.

The subject of disunion was the common topic of conversation whilst
I was at Washington, and I was mortified to find that an idea was
prevalent that the South was making a league with England. I re-
marked to a gentleman who mentioned it, that I thought that the sen-
timents of Great Britain, as regards slavery, were pretty well known.
He did not know that I was an Englishman, and replied, that its love
of money was equally notorious. I observed that our sacrifice of
£20,000,000 precluded such an insinuation, and also that, as our free-
traders* were for the most part peace-men, however glad they might
be to have free- trade with the South, they would not be likely to en-
gage in war with the North in its behalf.

One Friday evening I attended the President's Levee, which I shall
not encroach on the province of the general tourist by describing. I
was pleased with the simplicity of the arrangements, and the general
blending of persons of all ranks. With one discreditable exception —
the absence of coloured people — it seemed in keeping with a Republic.
Among the persons of note to whom I was introduced was Mr. Filmore,
then Vice-President, who was a member of my friend's congregation.
I went to America with a considerable contempt and horror for General
Taylor. I had no respect for his intellect ; in fact, I understood that
he was elected as a party tool. I merely regarded him as a slaveholder
and a soldier who had been successful in some scandalous wars, bound
up therefore with two systems that I detest. But I suppose that we
usually find out that a man is not an embodied sin : such a one would
be 9k fiend. No one is always fighting or exercising tyranny. General
Taylor, before he died, gained the character, even with many undoubted
lovers of peace and freedom, of a courageous man, who honestly tried

* It used to be said, vices clash, virtues harmonize ; but perhaps it may ap-
pear that imperfect virtues also clash ; and if it is the case that zeal iox free-trade
had the effect of stimulating slavery in Brazil, &c., we ought to exercise some
charity towards those whose one-sided zeal for union seems to cherish slavery.
Both Unionists and Free-traders have this faith in their favourite principle,
that if they will have patience with it, it will pay them all. Certainly the ill
success of our crusade against slave-ships confirms the truth, that Satan cannot
cast out Satan, and that cruelty cannot be put down by violence.

19

to do his duty, — though, compared with pure Christianity, his notions
of duty were rarely of the very highest, and had been of the lowest
kind. But, as President, he strove to act for the whole people, and to
put away party, sectional and private interests. The South felt that
he would not swerve from the constitution to favour them; whilst some
of those who dreaded his accession the most, were most disheartened
at his death. I called at the White House on the following Tuesday
morning, with a gentleman who had been first Comptroller of the Trea-
sury when the Democrats were in power : he spoke (as every one did)
of the kindheartedness of General Taylor, who had been anxious to
retain him in office, though differing from him in politics, and only
knowing him by report. As no one, I believe, called on Tuesday
mornings without a previous introduction, the servant did not attend
us to announce our names. Other callers were there, and as there were
not chairs enough near the President, he immediately rose to fetch
some for us from the side of the room. Of course we forestalled him ;
but I must confess that I thought this unaffected, gentlemanly courtesy
far more engaging than the formal courtliness of our European poten-
tates. He conversed in a pleasant, friendly manner, and told me that
I should find a difference between England and America : we were
improving our lands, whilst they were exhausting theirs : he princi-
pally referred to Virginia. I said that I supposed that the owners
would adopt some mode of renewing their exhausted soil : he thought
not, they preferred to migrate. I was glad to hear the gentleman who
was with me, a Southerner, speak of the pleasure which the improved
culture and the evident security of property had given him in New
England. Had it been polite, I should have liked to have intimated
to General Taylor that neglect of land was not surprising in regions
marked by neglect of man : but I heard that he was no enthusiast for
slavery, but regarded it, as some of our military men do war, as a
necessary evil.

I called on the man who holds the greatest intellectual eminence in
America, Daniel Webster, bringing an introduction from Mr. Lothrop
(the present President of the American Unitarian Association), to whose
church he belongs when at Boston. His wife, I was informed, is an
Episcopalian, and he did not attend our church at Washington. I was
impressed, as every one is, by his wonderful eyes and forehead. He
had a far more imposing presence than the President. The brief con-
versation in which we engaged was very interesting to me ; but I pur-
posely avoided any reference to the Slavery question, on which we
must have differed.

I spent part of an evening with Dr. Bailey, whose (weekly) paper,
The National JEra, is, I suppose, regarded as the Free-soil organ at
Washington. It has a circulation of about 15,000, including about 600
exchanges. Provincial editors are of course glad to get a paper from
the capital ; so they print his circular, and then he does not know how
to decline an exchange. He manages to glance at most of them, which
of course gives him considerable knowledge of what is going on through-
out the country. He has many subscribers, and about a hundred
" exchanges," in the Southern States. The view that he took of cheap
literature was on the whole favourable, as he thought that the reading
matter, consisting largely of extracts, was generally superior to the

tone of the popular mind, and must, so far, tend to elevate it. His
office has been mobbed on account of his sentiments. He mentioned
that, in Louisiana, a process is going on which may ultimately promote
abolition. There is a large free coloured population which is not under
ban so much as in the North, and intermarriages are not unfrequent.

On the morning of Sunday, March 24th, I preached for Mr. Allen,
who took the opportunity to do some missionary duty in the neigh-
bourhood. This church, like that of Philadelphia, boasts an indepen-
dent origin, not being a scion of New England. Mr. Little, from this
country, was the first minister here. He died somewhat suddenly,
after labouring here for eight years, much lamented and respected.
The attendance was about 200, comprising the mayor of the city,
several members of Congress, and other persons of influence. Some
fellow-countrymen came to speak to me after the service. A cloud
passed over my spirit at the consciousness that I was preaching in slave
territory. I prayed, however, distinctly for the slaves, shewing what
I felt rather in tone and manner than in mere words. Mr. Allen has
great independence of character, and is not a party-man ; those who
are fond of paradox may therefore call him pro-slavery ; but I was
pleased to find that his church was disliked by many as 'Hhe Abolition
church :" what may be its future reputation under Dr. Dewey it is not
for me to say.

In the afternoon I went to a large Roman Catholic church. On my
way I fell in with a Negro and wjdked with him, as we were going to
the same place. In the North I should have done so as a matter of
course ; but here I had to learn a little charity towards others, by being
conscious of reluctance to attract observation by transgressing the
usages of the place. As, however, I could not reconcile this false shame
with any honourable feeling, I overcame it at once, and I do not re-
member being troubled with it again. He took for granted that I was
a Northerner ; I felt pleasure in telling him that I was an Englishman.
In most of the other denominations, as he informed me, they have
separate churches : the whites would not take the communion with
them : in the Catholic church, they have one of the side galleries. My
new acquaintance introduced me to the sexton, who directed me to a
seat. Those who believe the soul the most important part of man, will
deem the enslavement of the soul the most awful kind of slavery. The
spiritual bondage of those who make their loud boast of freedom, the
ceremonies of this old decaying church in this irreverential new world,
and the bold tirade of the eloquent preacher, excited a variety of re-
flections, — with which, however, it is not necessary that I should trou-
ble your readers.

The next morning a black man called to ask aid to build a coloured
Presbyterian church. Whilst they have separate places of worship,
the black elder or minister is allowed a place in the Presbytery. There
are several thousand free coloured people in Washington, if free they
can be called when they are subject to so much oppression. They have
to find a heavy bail to enable them to settle here, and they are not
allowed to keep shops, though they may be barbers, hucksters, and
dealers in small wares ; and they are liable to a fine if out after ten
o'clock at night, unless they are coachmen or servants. I asked him
why he did not live in the North ? He had travelled over a great part

21

of the Union, but was attached to his home ; he was free-born. He
had seen F. Douglass, but dared not take his paper : one of their mi-
nisters had had his house searched for abolition papers ; fortunately he
had sent them away a little while before. The coloured inhabitants,
he further told me, have no assistance from the public school fund : on
the other hand, they are not taxed for it. They are now attending to
education, and are very different in that respect from what they were
ten years ago.

I did not inquire how many slaveholders there were in my friend's
congregation, nor indeed whether there were any. Free black servants
are common. One very estimable lady told me that she preferred
hiring slaves. An abolitionist, who would eat no Carolina rice and use
no slave-grown cotton, might, without inconsistency, say that she was
patronizing the system. This lady, however, felt that these slaves, if
not hired out, would be sold, and that by hiring them she could secure
for them the comforts of a kind home as long as they were with her.
Those who see no express injunction against the employment of slaves
in the Bible, and have not our almost instinctive horror of it, naturally
doubt whether their desire to alter one of the bad institutions of their
country should so far keep them aloof from it as to put it out of their
power to mitigate the condition of its victims. She treats them not as
slaves, but as hired servants — far more considerately than many treat
their servants ; and if the wages go for the most part (for food and
clothing, &c., of course form part of the wages) to some one who has
no moral right to it, this unfortunately is not absolutely peculiar to
slave countries. I mention this case to shew how difficult it is to
decide as to persons' motives. We may be thankful if we are never
tempted to compromise with slavery through a benevolent feeling
towards the slave.

I left Washington on Good Friday. My time was limited, as I made
a particular point of returning for the Boston anniversaries, and I had
a great deal to see first ; else I should have liked to have remained here
longer. It was the arena of a most important conflict, and afforded
me the opportunity of becoming acquainted with men of high talent
and great influence. There seemed to be more social intercourse than
in the busy Northern cities, and of course the society was more varied.
The number of idlers make it, however, a very dissipated place. It is
rising in favour as a winter residence, though its anomalous position —
not belonging to any State, but being under the general Government,
of which the local city Government is sometimes jealous — was long
unfavourable to its improvement. Hitherto, as I hinted in my last
letter, the session of Congress in a city which has been described as
^' the great slave mart of Christendom," is not only a just cause of
contemptuous indignation against a " free and enlightened Republic,"
but has had a tendency to weaken and corrupt the Northern majority :
when once, however, it understands and asserts its great principles,
these circumstances will have a very different result. Washington will
be the fulcrum on which the lever of freedom will work. It is already
decreed that the slave-dealer must find his mart elsewhere : he takes it
as an omen, and so do I, that he shall see the day when he shall find
one nowhere.

The sail down the Potomac affords a beautiful view of Washington,

22

and we soon arrived at the place where he whose name it bears lies
buried. His memory is kept green. As we passed Mount Vernon,
the bell of the steamer tolled solemnly«*unlike the ringing usual to
warn passengers to disembark. We soon landed in Virginia — the old
dominion-* once the principal State in the Union, now only the fourth.
I reached Richmond by railroad, which had an interest for me as the
abode of Dr. Channing at a very important period of his life. It con-
tains large manufactories of tobacco : prejudice against colour subsides
before affection for the weed, and Americans do not object to chew
what Negroes have been handling. I was told that slaves employed
in this work often earn a good deal for themselves : they may have
the gloomy satisfaction that they are engaged in forging chains for
their masters, who are the slaves of this filthy and degrading habit
A black came into the '' cars*' to sell papers, and, to put the passengers
in good humour, talked in the grandest and most absurdly pompous
style. Most of the conversation that I heard was on the prevailing
topic of the day. One gentleman was speaking of a slave who had
purchased the freedom of his wife in preference to his own : I suppose
that any children he might afterwards have should be free, as they
follow the condition of the mother. I understood that, since the agi-
tation of the subject, laws had been passed prohibiting persons who
should be freed thenceforth from remaining in the State. The husband
had therefore induced some gentlemen, on whom he could rely, to be
her nominal purchasers, that she might continue to be near him. A
horrid state of the laws 1 yet slavery does not shew its vilest influences
when such self-devotion can grow up under it. It touched me to find
one who loved his wife and children better than himself. He was the
Lord's freeman : the servile soul was in his reputed master !

The mere passing traveller is struck with the difference between
this Southern railroad and those in the North. The trains are less
frequent, the cars inferior, the roads wretched. One mitigation was,
that, time not being valued, we had an easy allowance of it for our
meals. Temperance principles seemed less prevalent, and the compa-
rative absence of the excitements of commercial speculation appeared
in numerous schemes for lotteries. I was first reminded of the new
kind of *' property" in these regions (for I had not remarked it at
Washington) by a paper stuck up at a '' dep6t," announcing a sale
by auction of thirty Negroes. I wondered how my fellow-passengers
in the second-class cars felt when they read such advertisements, till I
remembered that probably they could not read.

When we reached Wilmington, N. C, we embarked on board a
steamer ; but the weather was unfavourable, and the next morning we
had to put back. It was Easter Sunday. I had hoped to have spent
it at Charleston, S. C, but found my way to the Episcopal church of
this town. Here, emphatically a strange land, I found that the En-
glish Liturgy had its charms. All sects are equal : the wicked and
base political services and Athanasian Creed are omitted from the
Prayer-book ; and I could listen to it less as a Dissenter protesting
i^ainst a tyrannical establishment, than as an Englishman thinking of
his home of freedom. What touched me most, however, was one of
our commonest of common-metre tunes, in which I joined with good
heart. I witnessed the administaration of the Lord's Supper. How

23

characteristic it seems of a system in which the church is to do every-
thing, that instead of the communicants taking the bread and dividing
it among themselves, the priest selects the piece of bread for each one,
and gives it him or her. Bishop Ives preached : he is a Puseyite ;
and I heard that very high notions as to clerical authority prevailed in
some of the proud cities of the South.

We waited for the arrival of the daily train, which brought us some
new passengers of a painfully interesting character— 70 or 80 slaves
going to Alabama for sale. I never felt more strongly than in such
circumstances the importance of a firm, deep-rooted conviction of the
inalienable dignity of human nature — honour for man as man; for,
without it, the sight of degradation naturally excites contempt, unless
there is something to move anger or pity ; and where there is no ex-
ternal sign of misery, sorrow is only spontaneous in one who looks
beneath the surface. It is well known that chains and fetters are the
frequent accompaniments of slavery ; but I saw nothing of this kind,
and no outward cruelty. It was really sadder as it was : it shewed
that escape was deemed impossible. The Negro porters of the vessel
were lively fellows, though their jokes sometimes saddened me : they
were very merry about the " African gentlemen." We in England see
a superior class of Negroes : if they are fugitives, the fact indicates
enterprize and superiority to a base condition : even if they are not men
of mark, those who are in constant intercourse with the European race
must have some civilization, though too often of a bad sort : but some
of these persons looked in the lowest grade of humanity. Of course
I do not refer to the colour, — for some of the finest men that I have
seen had the same, — but to their features and expression. I felt dis-
posed to attribute this to slavery ; yet I was assured by visitors to Cuba,
that the new importations are much worse.* Be this as it may, if the
tyranny of their native rulers in a heathen, barbarous country tends to
keep them in a low condition, this is no justification for tyranny, even
of a milder form, in a country professedly civilized and Christian. There
is something naturally disgusting in the idea of slavery, and I looked
with no good- will on the two drivers. As I had resolved to travel as an
observer, I looked, but said nothing. My looks may have indicated
my feelings ; for three or four Americans explained to me that the
dealers were a despised race, and that selling slaves, except in cases of
extreme necessity, was thought disreputable. (This " extreme neces-
sity " seems extremely common.) Perhaps they have the same feeling
towards them that some moderate drinkers have to publicans or gin-
sellers. I was shocked to see that most of the gangs were women,
generally young, and children. This indicated a great disruption of
family ties. There were only four or five men. I purposely did not
speak to them : their real feelings will not be uttered in presence of
their oppressors, and the utterance of mine might have only increased
their oppression. A passenger asked one of them whether he was not
sorry to leave Washington. He said that he was sorry when he was
first parted from his family ; but that if he was to be moved from them,

* Perhaps no general statement can be made. Some native Africans are said
to be far finer and nobler men than the majority of slaves bom in America.

24

he supposed that he might find as good a master in Alabama as in
Washington.

Nothing, I hope, shall ever silence my voice against this treatment
of man as property, and driving human beings from their homes in
droves, like sheep ; but it is just to remember that, with us, sheep are
often more regarded than men, because men are not property, and
poverty is often treated as a crime. Your readers are familiar with
the evictments of human beings, for the benefit of sheep-owners, in
the Highlands. Such cases still continue. Last February, I saw in a
London paper a forcible letter against welcoming Americans who are
cool about slavery, and I had some thought of sending it across the
water, but was deterred by seeing that the next column contained a
letter from a Scotch paper not creditable to our selfish freedom :

" This will be handed you by a very poor man, one of the fathers of ten
most destitute families, comprising about sixty individuals, old and youn^;,
who have been compelled by the strong arm of starvation to flee from their
wretched homes in the island of Barra; or, more properly speaking, have
been driven out by the proprietor of the soil which they and tneir ancestors
have occupied f(fT centuries. * * ♦ The proprietor, wallowing in wealth, as
he is said to be, seems to think he makes out a sufficient plea of justification
for his conduct * * * by alleging that he has made a bad bargain in the pur-
chase of this island, and that therefore he has a full right to clear off from it
all incumbrances, especially the wretched people. ♦ * • Hunger was legibly
painted in their faces, and till benevolent individuals supplied various articles
of clothing, all of them nearly, but especially the women and children, were
in rags, or almost naked.**

As regards this single feature of slavery, that it tears persons from
their homes, it may seem as bad to deem them an incumbrance and
turn them off to starve, as to deem them property and drive them off
to toil. " Two wrongs," however, " do not make a right ;" and for-
tunately, with us, no class is so dominant as to enforce silence as to
its wrong-doings : what we in England freely denounce as unfeeling
though legalized tyranny, is in republican America an every-day occur-
rence. I will confess that the horror which the sight of slavery kindled
in me, makes me more sensitive than ever to heartless oppression of
every kind ; and till Great Britain is without sin, it especially becomes
us to remember that our Saviour spake a " parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others."

If you feel sufficient interest in my remarks to desire their conti-
nuance, I will in my next letter give you an account of my visit to
Charleston, S. C, the head quarters of Slavery and Disunion.

Yours respectfully,
Neath, Aug, 4, 1851. R. L. Cakpentek.

No. III.

to the editob of the chbistiak befobmeb.

Sib,

In the Northern States, I might often have forgotten that I was not
on British ground ; but in the South, I was continually reminded that
I was no longer in the land of the free. The captain of the steamet
from Wilmingtoii, N. C, to Charleston, S. C, demanded our age, pro-
fession, native land, &c., as if we were entering a foreign country.

South Carolina, the "Nullification State," is famed for its high
notions respecting '* State rights :" it is also peculiarly sensitive on the
Slavery question, for the slaves preponderate (350,000 slaves, 280,000
whites) ; whilst in all the Southern States taken together the white
population is twice as numerous as the slaves. Calhoun, the stern
upholder of slavery, was one of its senators in Congress ; and what
made it peculiarly interesting to me at that juncture, was, that his
death was just announced ; and I attended a public meeting, called in
consequence at the City Hall, at which the Governor presided. There
was a great deal of impassioned eloquence.* They were exhorted to
vow, as over his body, " inextinguishable resistance to tyranny :" and
as his death was hastened by his efforts for the Southern party, there
were various allusions to the death- wounds of Caesar, &c. ; and one
speaker suggested that he was sorry that, instead of electing a suc-
cessor, they could not leave his empty seat, decked in mourning, to
speak to the hearts of the senators. The audience thought the idea
very beautiful : doubtless the North would equally have admired it ; —
votes are precious.

The next day I attended a much more numerous meeting, convened
at the Military Hall, the largest in the city, to appoint delegates to the
Nashville Convention. The views taken were strangely different from
those to which I had been accustomed. So far from these Southerners
being ashamed of themselves, as worse than sheep-stealers, they seemed
quite in earnest in regarding themselves as injured men struggling for
great rights. They spoke of the Revolutionary war as caused by less
provocation than they had now, though England had been quite as
dear to them as the North : the Northerners were all Abolitionists, or
sympathizers with them, and a Southerner felt like a foreigner among
them ; he was ostracised : disunion was a serious matter, and none
should take part in these preliminaries who were not prepared for the
horrors of civil war, &c. I was not struck with the ardour of the
meeting : such stirring speeches, if they met with the popular approval,

» An interesting anecdote was related of Calhoun. At the time of the Ash-
burton treaty, the Administration was very unpopular. A gentleman connected
with it, however, who was not on good terms with Mr. C, felt the importance
of its ratification so much, that he called on him, dwelt on the horrors of war
with ** glorious old England," and told him, that whatever might be the faults
of the treaty, it seemed to be the only way of preventing war. Mr. C. said that
he would take it into consideration, and would not allow personal feelings to
influence him. When the Senate met, in secret session, for executive business,
and appearances were strongly against the Administration, Calhoun rose, and
produced such an impression that the treaty was carried. Persons of all parties
shook hands with him, and it was truly said that such an hour was worth a life.

26

would hare been much more loudly cheered with us; but their habits on
these occasions are quieter, and it was regarded as very enthusiastic.
It was ludicrous, though painful, to hear them complain of '* Southern
wrongs," and aggression and tyranny, in apparent unconsciousness
that they are themselves regarded by many as the greatest tyrants
and aggressors and wrong-doers on the face of the earth. It is, how-
ever, no new thing for men to dwell on some apparent injustice towards
themselves, rather than on their own injustice to others. In their esti-
mate of the constitution as *' pro-slavery'' (as well as in their desire for
disunion), they coincide with the Garrisonians. Those who declare that
they will admit no new State without the Wilmot proviso, appear to
them dishonest. "We have bought these lands from Mexico," they
say, " with our blood and our treasure ; unless you can bring back oar
dead and pay our costs, we are entitled to our share. You knew what
persons we were when you entered into partnership ; it is too late to
disclaim us now ; either give us our share, or we will break up partner-
ship and take our share. You add insult to injury when you urge that
our institutions would bring disgrace and evil on these lands. Better
be tyrannized over by a king, than by a majority who are constantly
getting more and more outrageous in their exactions !" They seemed
quite as much in earnest as some Unitarians are against the British and
Foreign School Society, which has pocketed our money and would now
cast us out. " Think of your compact," say we ; " be honest I" " Honesty
may be the best policy," say our opponents, " but we must not peril
the immortal souls of children for morality, or policy, or anything else."
" Observance of compacts and oaths may be all very well," says the
North, " but human freedom is far above them all." Thus the South
thinks of the North, so we of the orthodox ; in each case, the other
party thinks itself misrepresented.

In the evening a friend introduced me to a meeting of his club, com-
posed of some of the most influential men of the city, including some
of the Professors of the University. The subject was. The Philosophy
of the Union. The opener of the discussion regarded slavery as a
divine institution and a providential arrangement. Cotton, rice, &c.,
were needed for human welfare : incalculable misery, in Europe as well
as America, would result from their failure : they would fail without
coloured labour. West-Indian experience proved that without slavery
sufficient labour could not be procured, whilst the race was sinking
back to a state of savage existence, and wretched neglect and ruin pre-
vailed.* Wilberforce's labours were abortive, as the British Govern-
ment was convinced that the horrors of the Slave-trade had only been
increased by compulsory efibrts to check it. Slavery had done far more
than missionary effort to civilize the coast of Africa: the Liberians
would teach the natives the useful arts which they had learnt whilst
slaves. It was absurd for persons in the North, living in an entirely
different climate and in quite another state of society, to judge for them.
Union was very important : on no continent had the idea of unshackled
intercourse been so fully developed : it was delightful to travel from
one State to another without restrictions and imposts ; — still, if union

* I have before adverted to the one-sided use made of some official reports
from the West Indies.

27

only forced persons together to quarrel, who might be friendly if sepa-
rate, it ceased to be a blessing. England was the great anti-slavery
country : it was not interest or calculation that made it so. The prospe-
rity of the colonies was not consulted. There was such b strong senti-
ment against slavery, that it had to be abolished. England refused to
give up slaves, and was the great exciter of anti-slavery feeling in the
North ; and yet it so happened, that they had now kindlier feelings
towards England than towards the North. The North and South took
entirely different views, and then difficulties arose from the attempt to
make the North the supporter of a system which it abhorred. The
South would get on better by itself. Its energies had stagnated ; dis-
union would stimulate them. It possessed the world's supply of cotton,
and it had a North within itself, the manufacturing capabilities* of
which would soon be developed. This gentleman spoke in the calmest
manner, and evidently laid great stress on the Bible : he bore the highest
character, I heard, for purity and integrity of character.

A clergyman said, that he was glad to hear slavery spoken of as a
civilizing instrumentality. He thought that the moderate opponents
of the system would not feel such abhorrence of it if they regarded it
as transitional, and preparatory to a better state. If the Negroes were to
be the educators of Western Africa, they must themselves be educated.
(This was demurred to ; the education meant was only of that kind
which was insensibly derived from living among civilized men.) He
could not give any hopeful view for the future. Whatever might be
the temporary alternations of feeling in the North, it was on the whole
becoming more decidedly opposed to the system. The churches of the
North were divided, if not formally, yet in feeling, from those in the
South. He felt under a ban in New England. He believed that there
were 20,000 pulpits where prayers were offered against slavery every
Sunday, and in many of them sermons were annually preached against
it. — Another clergyman spoke very bitterly of the immoral doctrines
of the Northern church : the sanctity of oaths and compacts seemed
utterly despised.

One gentleman remarked that he did not entertain the least hope from
Webster, who spoke as a constitutional lawyer. As Texas had been
admitted, he would carry out all the provisions then made ; but he
avowed that he had opposed those provisions, — that he was averse to
slavery, and would take all constitutional means to discountenance it.

It was believed that the New - Englanders, who were of Puritan
origin, were moved by a sincere, though narrow-minded and over-
bearing, sense of duty ; but New York was spoken of contemptuously,
as the hotbed of socialism and wild theory, peopled by a mixed race,
and making concessions only through mercenary motives. It was stated
that when Governor Seward f visited the South, he said that he was
merely acting as he felt compelled to by his constituents. The idea
that individual conscience was higher than all law or compact, was the
purest fanaticism (!) |

* And not improbably its anti-slavery tendencies also !
t Vide p. 6.

i The Catholic says, Hear the Church ; the Puritan, Hear the Conscience ;
the Politician, Hear the State. We consider the Catholic immorali in setting

28

Of course I took no part. In the midst of much that grieved me, it
was interesting to hear the way in which they referred to their English
origin,* and their respect for the mother country (this feeling prevails
far more in the old States of the North and South than in the Middle
States) ; and it was a comfort to find, that though the Northern clergy
are considered by the Garrisonians as scandalously lukewarm, they are
regarded by the supporters of the system as doing more than any other
body to diffuse a general sentiment against it. It was a favourable
opportunity for hearing the opinions of a number of sensible and influ-
ential men, conversing among themselves. They seemed to have no
idea that they were in the wrong ; but spoke in the tone of persons
who had been calumniated, and who were about to be cheated. If sla-
very was what they represented it in theory, and what in the practice
of some few wise and kind persons it may be, it might be viewed with
that calmness with which we contemplate those faulty systems which,
in the Divine government, seem designed to prepare the way for what
is better. Conversing with a number of gentlemanly men on the matter
abstractedly, is like a friendly chat with officers who have been engaged
in our ambitious wars. If we happen to witness a flogging, naval or
military, or to come across the victims of rapacity, lust and fury, and
hear their tale, it is not quite so pleasant.

The next morning I saw in the newspaper several advertisements of
sales, by a merchant whom I had met the evening before. They were
to be held near the Post-office, and I resolved to be present. Of course
my acquaintance did not officiate in person, any more than a high-
sheriflf would act as hangman ; meaner men are found ready to do dis-
creditable work. There were several slaves for sale. They stood upon
a bench by the auctioneer, lot after lot. I did not observe any fetters
or show of violence. On the whole, I would rather have seen them :
it would not have seemed such an ordinary, commonplace matter. The
absence of precaution to prevent escape shewed that escape was re-
garded as hopeless. Outward force is less mysteriously horrible than the
influence which paralyses a man's inward strength. I did not remark
any of those indecencies, as regards the dress or the handling of the
persons for sale, which so frequently reveal the inherent and essential
indecency of all such sales. There was no peculiar excitement, and
only about thirty persons were present. They were selling a young
man when I came — a good boy, he would not run away (the " good-
ness'' was that of a prisoner; he looked stupid and sullen); afterwards
a black girl, who manifested her shame at being sold ; a mother and
her children ; an old man : I wondered that any one would buy the
duty of taking care of him in his declining years. As some persons
think no jest so good as a perversion of what is sacred^ so others seem
to find something ludicrous in the perversion of what is human; and if
incongruity is the soul of wit, a heartless wit may find amusement in the
outrageous incongruities of a human market : and I saw in many present
a sneering expression, which I have often noticed in persons who have

aside oaths to serve the Church ; the Politician thinks us immoral, in setting
them aside to serve private Conscience ; we and the Catholics think the Politi-
cian impious, to set Church and private Conscience at nought to serve the State.
* Some of the principal people of Charleston, however, are of Huguenot
extraction.

29

to look on that which they dare not regard serioosly. I thought, too,
that I detected a brutality of tone which men do not acquire from
dealing in sheep. The sales I have specified were not quite consecu-
tive ; for though they took but a very short time, it was longer than I
could endure to remain, for they made me half hysterical, half sick ;
and in order to retain the necessary composure, I had to go away once
or twice to recover self-control. What the deadening effect might be of
seeing such a thing often, I do not care to inquire. I have seen it once :
I went as a duty — a duty I hope never to have to undertake again. I
found that those who viewed it as a necessary part of a necessary system,
could not understand my emotion, nor the horror which I assured them
my friends would feel at the very sight of the advertisements.* Those,
however, who perceived how shocking I thought it, were anxious to
impress upon me that it was regarded as discreditable to sell, except
in cases of emergency, and that great efforts were made to provide as
comfortable places as possible for those from whom they had to part,
and not to separate families. No doubt the kind persons who spoke
in this way would act thus themselves ; and I saw in one of the papers
an advertisement — " A likely black girl, 17 years of age ; a good house-
servant ; to remain in the city, as she is sold for no fault ;*' and in a few
other cases, " to be sold to a city resident ;" but generally the adver-
tisements shew no such consideration. I had intended to copy all the
advertisements relating to slavery which occurred in a single paper, the
Charleston Courier, April 9, 1850, — since, as I hope that your volumes
will long outlive the '' peculiar institution," they may hereafter be re-
garded as curiosities. I found, however, that there were about twenty-
five, relating to the sale of about 250 slaves ; and I will not distress
you with more than a few specimens :

"Negeoes Wanted. — Wanted to purchase, likely young Negroes, for
which the very highest market price will be paid. Apply to M. McBride,
1, Chalmers Sr." He might have spared his advertisement if he had applied
to "Thos. Rtan & Son, 12, State Street," who announce "Negeges at
Pbivate Sale : Between 60 and 70 Negroes, consisting of Field Hands,
Cooks, Washers and Ironers, House Servants, Coachmen and Hostlers, &c.''
" At Private Sale, an uncommonly fine family of Negroes, consisting of
one Woman, 40 years old, a first-rate washer and ironer, with her three cnil-
dren, one 19, one 14, and one 8 years old. They are town raised, of unex-
ceptionable character, and perfectly healthy" (you will observe that there
is no mention of a husband; and I may say the same of the other ** family"
advertisements in the paper) ; " also, a very valuable Ship Carpenter, about
35 years old. The above property is offered simply to change the investment,
and is well worthy the attention of persons wishing such. Apply at the office
of D. C. Gibson, Esq., 84, Church Street, up stairs." " On Thursday, the
11th inst, at 11 o'clock, at the North of the Custom House, will be sold, A
Pew in St. Peter's church, known by the No. 72, and situate in the south
aisle. AlsOf Two Slaves, viz. Peggy, an elderly woman, and Jeofry [her

* A gentleman told me, that as there must of course be sales, he thought
public ones best. Some Southerners, whose chivalric notions about white
women are in the inverse ratio of their respect for womanhood when the skin
is coloured, would be shocked at our statute-fairs, where women stand in the
streets for hire, exposed to the staring scrutiny of every passer-by, sometimes
even allowing their hands to be felt, as evidence that they nad been accustomed
to hard work. Whilst, then, we have public hiring it is not the publicity of
the sale, but the fieust that there is a tale at all, which is to us so utterly revolting.

32

general deportment. When I have had occasion to walk or ride with
them, I was not disturbed by the perpetual touching of the hat in con-
versation. This, however, may result from the general custom of
society; and there would be more difference in manner between a
white American and a slave, than between an English mechanic and a
footman. To see the coloured people at their " weekly jubilee," the
Saturday market,* which is mostly supplied by them, or to watch them
on the Sunday before the doors of their houses, chatting merrily with
one another, one would not imagine them a wretched people. Our
sadness, however, awakens when theirs sleeps. We know that, whilst
the masses may seem resolved to make what they suppose the best of
their condition, the noblest among them are wretched even in their
ease, and are bitterly longing for the hardness of the freeman*s lot.
Complacency in slavery is the perfection of its curse.

A tourist who did not look at advertisements, and never came across
a dave-sale, might not have his feelings much lacerated by what met
his eye. He is not importuned by beggars. He sees no thumb-screws,
or slave- whips, or fetters, hung up in the halls, nor is he awakened in
the morning by screams. His own kindly looks may be reciprocated
by those who wait on him, and there may be nothing to remind him
that he is not receiving free-will service. There is, however, a place in
this city where persons may, if they please, send slaves whom they
deem refractory or dishonest. It was an old sugar-house, and was not
long ago the scene of a formidable riot. When I was at Charleston,
a new building was in course of erection. The Southerners boast that
they do not punish their slaves so severely as the law does offenders in
free States : such boasters seem vnlfully blind to the atrocities so fVe-
quently perpetrated. Even if mild persons shrink from being their own
executioners, and selfish ones do not choose to be at the expense of
the maintenance of a slave when unproductive,! it does not prove the
humanity of the South ; but may indicate our inhumanity, if our punish-
ments are more severe than we should ourselves choose to inflict on
any in whom we had a direct interest.

The prevalence of persons of the intermediate shades of colour, who
for obvious reasons are more numerous in the cities than on the planta-
tions, tells its own sad and disgraceful tale. In former times there were
instances in which a white man would marry a coloured woman, and
set her and the children free; but now no one can be set free and
remain in the State. A high-minded man would as soon be the son of
a slave as the father of one ; but these persons, who cant about liberty,
seem to take a pleasure in being the parents of slaves ! Which is most
free in soul, — the mother who weeps to see her children in bonds, or
the father who loves to have them so ? He is the degraded slave of
lust and mammon. The mixed race are, in the South, the evidences
of licentiousness. On this matter, those who are acquainted with inves-
tigations connected with this most painful of subjects will perhaps feel

* It is held in a commodious erection down one of the principal streets, and
is lighted with gas. Basket-work and rough upholstery were for sale, besides
meat and vegetables.

t Five hundred dollars a month has been paid to the city for board of the
prisoners by their owners.

d3

that we in England cannot with propriety assume any Pharisaic atti-
tude ; nor is the cwidition of our myriads of victims of seduction much
to be envied, even by Negro mothers. Fortunately, we are spared one
temptation to hypocrisy ; for there you may hear grave divines arguing
against the imion of races, as something abhorrent to the laws of
nature, whilst palpable proofs to the contrary are everywhere before
their eyes ; and, if I am not mistaken, a coloured man is punishable
with death for having intercourse with a white woman, whilst her bro-
ther may with impunity corrupt his (the coloured man's) sister. It is
not then, colour, but slavery, that has most influence here. The co-
loured children of the white woman would be free, and mammon has
no motive to pardon the disgrace. The coloured children of the black
woman are slaves : the owner cares little who the father was ; perhaps
prefers a white one, because they may be more intelligent. — But the
disgust which I feel in adverting to this topic, teaches me some allow-
ance for those who willingly are ignorant of the worst horrors of sla-
very.

My visit at Charleston was to the Rev. Dr. Oilman, a native of New
England, whom a residence of thirty years in the South has familiarized
with the feelings of the place. He is, nominally, a slaveholder, and is
much respected in this metropolis of slavery — circumstances sufficient
to secure him the denunciations of some abolitionists. He certainly
occupies a position which would be fatal to my peace of mind, but yet
I hope that he is indirectly promoting the great cause of freedom. He
has held a slave for many years, I believe ; how he became possessed
of him, I did not inquire : by the law of the land he is prevented from
setting him free to reside in the State. He treats him, however, with
the same kindness that he shews to his hired white servants, pays his
wages into the savings' bank, and whenever he is disposed to leave the
State, those wages and his free papers are ready for him. One of
Dr. O.'s daughters has lately married in New England, and she wished
to take this servant with her, when of course he would have been free ;
but he naturally preferred remaining in the scenes with which he was
familiar. If he went Northward, the climate might not suit him, and
he would And himself comparatively isolated on account of his colour.
At present, knowing that he is virtually free, he may feel in a better
relative position in the South, where the majority are of his own com-
plexion and not so fortunate as himself. I need not descant on the
obvious iniquity of the law ; but any censures are manifestly unjust
which confound those who strive to mitigate the evils under which
they live, with those who aggravate them. And possibly it might
savour as much of pride as of humanity, if, to avoid the name of slave-
holder. Dr. O. should drive a man who was attached to his country into
compulsory exile. If all slaveholders followed his example, slavery
would of course be a nonentity ; and I was glad to be able to adduce it
to those who professed to me that, living in the South, they couki not
do otherwise than fall in with the ordinary customs. Dr. O. heard me
with much candour when I commented with my usual freedom on the
evils of the system. From his connection with the North, as well as
from natural disposition, he was a devoted adherent of the Union, and
censured those whose bitterness he regarded as a cause of the tenacity
with which the South clung to an institution which he thought would

34

have yielded before the combhied influences of Republicanism and
Christianity. He had, however, no sympathy with those who spoke
lightly on the subject, and expressed the pain that he felt when pro-
fessing Christians at Boston advocated the delivery of a fugitive (under
the old Act) on the ground of their commercial relations with the South.
At his request I preached for him on Sunday, April 7. His church
was larger, apparently, than that at Washington; and they talk of
either enlarging or rebuilding it. It is situated in the midst of a spa-
cious burying-ground, which then bloomed with Cherokee roses and
other flowers, in striking contrast to the snow which I had left at
Washington. It was not the fullest season, but there was a good con-
gregation, and in the galleries were many coloured people — several of
them, I believe, slaves. Ladies and gentlemen were in the same gal-
leries, and I did not see a more marked distinction than between the
rich and the poor at home.* Had I been told that I was only to preach
on certain conditions, I should certainly have declined altogether ; yet,
whilst no such conditions were imposed, I felt that I was not there to
gratify my own impatience at evil, but to do what good was in my
power. When I was in the pulpit, it occurred to me to shew Dr. G.
this expression — "We would remember those who are in bonds, as
bound with them" — in the written prayer which I thought of using. f
He told me that he might perhaps use the expression, to which, in
itself, there could of course be no objection, but that its employment
by a stranger would give rise to much irritation and remark ; and that,
in the. present highly excited state of public feeling, it was for me to
consider whether I wished to drop a spark upon gunpowder. If it had
been a sentence in a sermon, my pride might have dictated its reten-
tion, come what would. Yet even abolitionists indignantly blame those
whose honest speech wounds their feelings ; so perhaps it would have
been a false pride which would lead me to utter what would offend
without convincing. And in a mixed congregation, where slaves are
present, one cannot wisely say what one might address to masters alone.
The Great Teacher spoke as the people were able to bear it. In a public
prayer, however, the minister speaks in behalf of the people ; and if he
utters that as the people's which he knows is not, — if he inflames their
rage, whilst he professes to be drawing their thoughts to God, — he
can scarcely be offering true worship. Accordingly, I selected another
prayer. Perhaps there may be some pulpits, even in England, in which
ministers do not feel themselves perfectly free to set themselves in
direct opposition to the strong and prevailing sentiment in their socie-
ties ; but during the whole of my visit to the South, I had a most

* I ouffht not to foreet that in the chapel that I attended as a boy, the minis-
ters of which were undoubted friends to freedom and Christian equsdity, the
poor had their separate seats ; and after the sermon, my childish admiration was
excited by seeing a troop of livery- servants leaving tne chapel, — it seeming of
more importance that their masters should not be kept waiting for their car-
riages, than that they themselves should join in the concluding devotions of the
congregation.

t The American pulpits are very large, and usually contain a sofa or two or
three chairs. When a stranger preaches, it is the custom for the minister of
the pla^e to sit in the pulpit with him. Written forms of prayer do not appear
to be used in America. I thought it wisest, however, to act on my usual cus-
tom of eraplojang my manuscript in what we call the long prayer.

35

painful conviction of the humiliating hondage in which all puhlic men
are held on this topic. I conversed freely, because I was a traveller
and an Englishman ; but I found that a whisper of blame was as ef-
fective and audible there, as a shout of reproach on the subject in the
North. Another reflection was more consolatory : I had often heard
the prayers of Northern ministers for the slave treated with something
like derision ; but I found that they are not regarded as idle words, and
that there are few things more distressing to a religious Southerner
than the knowledge that those under his yoke are continually the sub-
jects of prayer, as peculiarly requiring the Divine compassion and deli-
verance.

I partook of the Lord's Supper. At one part of it we were invited
to think of our absent friends in Christ, and there was a pause for that
purpose. Certainly, if we remember the Head, we should call to mind
the members also ; and as a stranger in a foreign land, I felt it pecu-
liarly interesting to be led to go in thought to those who were so near
me in heart. About thirty or forty Negroes communicated with us.
They were seated on benches down the middle aisle, and I believe that
the senior deacon handed them the bread and wine.* After the service,
an aged Negro came up and shook hands cordially with Dr. Oilman
and myself, .and hoped to see us at their evening meeting. He* was an
interesting old man. Before the present law rendered such a step ille-
gal, he had bought his freedom with his savings, and a day or two after
he had acquired it he broke his arm. A double loss : for had he re-
mained a slave, his master was bound by law to maintain him ; or had
he desired his freedom, he could of course have procured it at a much
reduced rate. He had however many kind friends, who contributed to
his support. There is often open-handedness where there is not even-
handedness : the South loves generosity more than justice.

The second service in the church, according to the usage which still
prevails in America, was in the afternoon. In the evening I attended
a religious meeting of Negroes, in a large upper room adjoining Dr.
Oilman's house, which lasts from about seven to half-past nine o'clock.
Mrs. O. makes a point of attending, and Dr. O. generally looks in. I
believe that such evening meetings would be illegal without the pre-
sence of a white person. Miss Fredrika Bremer, whom I had previ-
ously met at Cambridge, Mass., was now visiting Charleston. She bad
been my hearer in the morning, and was now, like myself, desirous to
be present at a scene so strange to us. We and two or three other
visitors had the inferior places: it was our turn now to sit down the aisle.
The service was conducted by two old black men, one of whom read,
very imperfectly, John xiv., which had been my lesson in the morning,
expounding it as he proceeded, f The other could not read at all, but
said that he was moved by the spirit, which was above the letter. A
prayer-meeting for the women followed, the presiding brother telling
them to be short. One prayed in a most beautiful, beseeching tone :

* I have heard that in most places the black and white communicants do not
meet, but receive the rite at different times. I relate what I saw. There was
more religious equality than in a Catholic congregation, entirely white, where
the laity are excluded from the cup.

t When he came to the 22nd verse, he said, <* Now you shall hear the objec-
tion made by the traitor. * Judas saith unto him, Not Iscariot, Lord,' " &c.

the interest which I felt in the others was principally derived (rom their
condition. One infirm old lady seemed to have a better heart than
head. She not only prayed to, or invoked, Christ, but Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, &c., and her ''dear pastor*' (who was not then present).
She seemed full of intense gratitude that she had been able that day to
attend public worship, for the first time after many months' illness.
Many of her expressions were very touching. Hymns were sung, but
with little credit to their musical powers. When they were told to sing
" more spiritually" (spiritedly ?), they gave us one or two characteristic
songs : one was a sort of Easter recitative. The minister walked among
them and gave out a line, such as — " I go before you to Galilee ;" then
the rest sung *' Hallelujah !" with great zeal. The burden of another
song was to this effect — ''We shall have nothing at all to do but ring
Jerusalem ;" and they did " ring Jerusalem," with amazing animation,
the old man gesticulating, and the others waving to and fro and singing
with the greatest earnestness.

I came away much moved by what I had seen and heard. I was
painfully impressed with the evil of keeping our brethren in degrading
ignorance ; but I also felt, never more strongly, the significance of that
text, " The Spirit maketh intercession for us, with groanings which
cannot be uttered." Their scarcely intelligible exclamations were often
the promptings of that prayerful spirit which Qod hears as clearly as
our distinct requests-soften, in their very distinctness, undevotional.
I recognized the blessedness of religion : to it these poor people owed
what little instruction they possessed : low as they are, criminal as are
those who keep them so, they are thus raised far above their pagan
ancestors, and indeed above all who have not the knowledge of God.
Slavery would have made them " without hope," were it not that the
gospel gives to them, as freely as to us, " life's best cordial." They
adverted in their prayers to their hope of sitting on thrones in heaven,
and to their enjoyment of the reward of faithful service. I was re-
minded of those whom Paul exhorted, if they might be made free, to
use it rather (1 Ck>r. vii.), but at all events remembering that the time
was short, just to perform those duties which -Providence assigned them,
The words " Our Father" had an affecting significance. Here was the
Swedish novelist, and the English preacher, and the Northerner proud
of freedom, and the master, and the slave ; but it was one Father to
whom we were all praying, and we were brethren, going to the same
home ; and all our local and conventional differences seemed paltry
when contemplating the infinite. Commonplace truths startle us in
uncommon circumstances. The old minister spoke of me as "the
brother over the water," and wished me to say a few words : so I
simply told them that I had come from a far land, and mi^ht not see
them again here ; but I hoped that we might all meet in that better^
land, to which those who obey their Lord and Master ''^ Jesus were
hastening. My heart responds to this prayer, as I now repeat it in
my dear native land. Religion widens and deepens our sympatliies :
it unites us to those from whom we seem diametrically to differ, intel-

* I had been struck with their frequent use of the expr^ion, " Master Jesus."
I thought that they would have had such painful assdmtions with the word
nutOeTf that they would not have applied it to the Saviour.

87

lectually and morally. Where a cultivated taste, or fastidious refinement,
repels us, — where even humanity finds little to attract it,— -or where,
on the other hand, a narrow philanthropy indignantly forbids our at-
tachment, — a belief that the divine nature exists, however obscured,
in every soul, awakens a solemn conviction of brotherhood. No com-
plexion conceals it, no oppression can crush it out, no sin can utterly
destroy it : and so we feel when in the Father's presence.

As I am writing to those whom I suppose well acquainted with the
horrors of slavery, I need not remind them that religion, as usually
administered in the South, awakens no such earnest sense of brother-
hood ; that its perversions soothe the tyrant, and make the slave's de-
gradation more complete ; that the Protestant zeal which sends Bibles
to savages abroad, subsides into a Papal reserve towards the servile
population at home ; that God's word is thus dishonoured, and the
ambassadors of Christ become the spiritual police of the powers of the
world. I am not, however, hopeless as to the future ; and if you desire
it, I may, in some further observations, intimate the reasons of my hope.

Yours respectfully,
Neath, Aug, 23, 1851. R. L. Cabpenteb.

No. IV.

to the editob of the chbistian befobmeb.
Sib,

As I intimated in my last letter, when we look at the Southern
Church in relation to human rights, we cannot he surprised at those
who are revolted by its servility, hypocrisy, or inconsistency. How-
ever honourable the exceptions, it must be on the whole regarded as a
bulwark of slavery ; — as such, many slaveholders themselves regard
it. A speaker at Charleston, S. C, observed that it appeared provi-
dential, that when slavery had become impaired, its vitality was re-
newed by religion ; for so great a zeal for the spiritual welfare of the
slaves had arisen, that places of worship for them were springing up
in all directions. He did not explain how religion operated as a sup-
port to slavery : whether it was that the consciences of the masters
were spared the reproaches which even their own synods uttered
against the disgraceful heathenism of the South, — and that now they
flattered themselves that slavery had received a spiritual grace, as an
instrument for the salvation of Negroes (as our opium war was to^ be
sanctified to the conversion of the Chinese to a saving faith), — or v^rhe-
ther the slaves themselves had become, in consequence, more moral and
manageable.

I mentioned to Dr. Oilman the notion we had in England of the sort
of religious instruction which was given to Negroes, yet expressed my
hope, that as it was the religious public in Great Britain which pro-
moted emancipation, so it might be the same there eventually. He
thought it possible. After the dangerous riot at the slave prison, many
were very vehement against the religious teaching of the slaves, on the
ground that it made them presuming and rebellious, and a committee
was appointed to obtain the opinions of clergymen and others. The
religious sentiment prevailed, and it was determined that they should
continue to attend public worship in the same churches with the whites.
He thought that if the South should ever gain rest from outward agi-
tation, the important differences of opinion as to religious education
would be a fertile source of contention. The pro-slavery clergy expli-
citly maintain that slavery is distinctly taught, sanctioned and provided
for, in the Bible ; and denounce as fanaticism the assertion, that if slave-
holders were Christians they would free their slaves. On the other
hand, they denounce as infidelity the plea, that to make the slaves
Christians would give them a thirst for civil liberty ; and consistently
say, that as they would not sanction slavery unless they believed it
Christian, so they will sanction nothing which shall deprive the slaves
of Christian teaching. This feeling will lead on to the desire for some-
thing more than oral instruction : the somewhat superstitious regard of
most Protestants for the letter of Scripture, may prompt to an educa-
tion which shall put that letter in the reach of all. At present, how-
ever, it is a point of pride not to appear to yield to intimidation : in
the storm of passion, wisdom is either silent or unheard. It is quite
fashionable to give oral instruction to slaves at one of the Episcopal
churches at Charleston ; and though doubtless it is such as the more
intelligent among them despise, it has probably an elevating effect on
the masses^ and it cannot but have an important influence in coun-

39

teracting the base view of a slave as a soulless chattel. The abomi-
nable anti-educational laws are notorious : like other laws which con-
travene the best feelings of our nature, they are frequently broken.
Children often teach their coloured playmates ; and at Charleston there
is a school which is attended by some young slaves, bringing tickets of
leave from their mistresses, who pay the cost. Mrs. G. heard one of
them read an extract from Milton. There is not the same objection to
reading as to writing. Writing would enable them to forge passes, &c.
We know how strong a prejudice existed in England against the edu-
cation of the working classes, lest they should be raised above their
condition as labourers and servants, and use their powers to the detri-
ment of their employers : even now, many clergymen are to be found
who discourage all but mere scriptural instruction. The rapid change
which is going on in this respect among us may give us hope for the
South.

Religion as administered by the selfish and crafty is made there, as
elsewhere, an instrument of degradation ; on the whole, however, its
influence is to elevate the social condition of the Negroes. Their de-
votional fervour touches a chord of sympathy in the more pious whites.
Bond and free mutually pray with each other and for each other. I
heard of one lady who regularly prayed with her slave, who was a
member of the same church with herself, for the conversion of this
lady's husband. No one who has been truly awakened to a conviction
of the immortal nature of a slave, and has felt that he has equal access
with himself to the Great Father of all, can regard him as a mere am-
mal.* On some of the plantations the religious culture of the slaves is
still, no doubt, shamefully neglected ; but in the towns that I visited,
they appeared to frequent public worship as freely as the poor at home,
and are allowed to choose their own religion, which is more than can
be said for many English servants. The Baptist is, I believe, the most
popular faith with the Negroes : the ceremony of immersion, typifying
newness of life, would in itself have a powerful hold on their imagina-
tions. Some of the white clergy are jealous of the coloured preachers,
and wish them superseded, on the ground that they rant and talk non-
sense. They think that it would be better that they should preach to
the coloured congregations themselves. Possibly, however, some may
suggest that this would not always obviate the objection. Looking at
it abstractedly, I preferred the system of Dr. Gilman's church, where
all of the same faith join in public worship together, whatever their
hue, whilst the coloured people have an additional service conducted
by themselves. There is one incidental evil connected with this ad-
mixture, that a preacher cannot, in presence of the slaves, feel as free
as he otherwise might to deal plainly with the masters.

I mentioned that Miss Bremer attended our Sunday services. I had
also the pleasure of meeting her at Prof. Bachman's, and at an agree-
able pic-nic at Sullivan's Island, which my friends had arranged for
her. I am informed that she is now regarded by the Garrisonians as
pro-slavery. Certainly, I never heard such a suggestion whilst I was

* Experience of course proves that a recognition of a common nature does
not prevent cruelty. White persons are savage to each other; and without
doubt there are many instances in which the master is cruel to the slave with
whom he has prayed.

40

in America. More than most travellers^ she entered those circles
which are regarded as ultra in philanthropic movements, and was sup-
posed to sympathize with them. Mrs. Oilman is well known as an
authoress ;* and Miss Bremer wrote to her, to try to enlist her pen in
the cause of emancipation. Mrs. Q., regarding the matter as one of
politics, considered it out of her province. She suggested to me, that
Miss B. might he herself reminded that she may he indirectly injuring
the cause of Temperance, hy the laxity on that subject displayed by
some of her heroines. Both Dr. and Mrs. Q. are very earnest in the
Temperance movement, and, among other means of improving the
social condition of the coloured people of their flock, had established a
Teetotal Society among them.f I told them that I had heard that
many planters promoted intemperance among their slaves, in order to
drown that serious thought which might prompt to liberty. As far as
their own observation went, they pronounced it a calumny. Where
there are three million slaves, there will of course be a great diversity
in the mode in which they are treated. I sympathized with my friends
in their efforts to promote that self-control which is wisdom's root.

The pitiable fate of the Indians proves, that liberty connected with
licence is more fatal to a race than outward slavery. Our passions are
our worst tyrants ; or if we are at the mercy of others, those are most
cruel and savage whose passions are frenzied by intoxication. There
are many Negro slaves who have no reason to envy the wife and chil-
dren of a brutal, fiendish drunkard. The most disgusting feature of
slavery is the condition of the women ; and whilst some who have the
power are striving to restore the sanctity of domestic relations by poli-
tical action, those are not labouring in vain who endeavour to produce
those habits without which outward freedom is partial at best. I have
heard Southern ladies question how far women might gain by any
sudden emancipation. Slavery educates for tyranny, and the freed
slave might be the domestic tyrant. Nor is woman safe from injury
among those who are of free birth : the free-bom Negro may have as
vile passions as the free-bom white, and be as unscrupulous in their
gratification. Woman is only respected and honoured where Christian
principle prevails. Elsewhere, her defenceless condition entails on her
the hardest drudgery, or makes her the sport of pleasure ; and even in
England her advocate can plead*—" The truly horrible effects of the
present state of the law among the lowest of the working population,
is exhibited in those cases of hideous maltreatment of their wives by

• One of her works is " The Southern Matron,'* which gives what I should
regard as the sunny side of Southern life. A friend of mine in the North, a
gentleman of inteUigence, said that his feeling of the pro-slavery tendency of
me book was so strong, that he burnt his copy. When I next wrote to Br. G.,
I mentioned this circiunstance. His family felt rather proud of this auto-de-fi,
" It is strange," he says, " that anybody should regard it as a pro-slavery book.
It was written with not the slightest reference to the Abolition agitation, which
at that time was hardly felt at the South. It was only a faithful {Hcture of what
tiie writer had seen and experienced, just as *The Northern Housekeeper' was.
To bum it for being dangerous, is one of the most convincing arguments in
favour of the institution ; for its representations were notoriously true, and the
dark sides of the institution were intimated, as well as the bright sides."

t Dr. G. also makes a point of attending the weekly meeting of the Tem-
perance Society in the town.

41

working men with which every hew&pftper and everj police-court
teems. Wretches unfit to have the smallest authority over any living
thing, have a helpless woman for their household slave/' (West-
minster Review for July, 1851.) I mentioned (p. 22) an instance in
which a man preferred the freedom of his wife to his own. I heard
of a case of a different kind, in which a young coloured woman, who
was free, and whose children therefore would be free, whatever l^e
condition of the husband, married a slave in preference to a free black,
because, she said, the free coloured men treated their wives so badly,
(You may suggest the possibility of some other reason !) I trust that
no one will be absurd enough to suppose that I state this as a defence
of the present state of things : on the contrary, it is an evil growing
out of this state, which takes for granted that power to oppress gives
the right. The labours of those who strive to substitute the dominion
of Christian love and equity are here especially needed.

I scarcely saw anything of plantation life, though a gentleman kindly
drove me over to his estate, about eight miles from Charleston. It
was a fine day at the beginning of April, and the ride was lovely. The
road, indeed, was in a state of nature — sand, except where a portion of
plank-road had been just laid down ; but all around had the rich beauty
of our early summer. There were many hedges (they are very rare in
the North), but not quite like ours ; for one that I remarked round the
well-cultivated garden of a Scotchman was a mixture of Spanish bayo-
net and Cherokee rose, the blossoms of which added grace to its for-
midable aspect. One plantation which we passed belonged to a mu-
latto. A Frenchman of the last generation had married a slave and
liberated her : this would now be illegal, unless she left the State. We
turned off the high road, through a forest, into the plantation. I saw
the acacia full of blossom ; the dog- wood too, about twenty feet high,
with its blossoms as large as dog-roses. Fines seemed the commonest
trees, but the live oak was the glory of the place. It has a small dark
leaf,— the same, I believe, as owe evergreen 0£ik, only it grows to a
magnificent size, in spite of the long trailing clusters of Spanish moss
which hang from it, and which are often picked by the Negroes and
sold for bed-stuffing. Mr. P. and his father own about 1500 acres,
only 500 of which are cultivated, and laid out principally in rice, Indian
com and vegetables. There was a reserve (a very large pond) which
held the water used for irrigation. Alligators are found in it, and rat-
tle-snakes are in the beautiful woods which overhang it. A number of
cranes were sitting near its brink. The water is let on the land before
the rice is planted, and is drained off in ditches. After the rice has
sprouted up, the water is let on two or three times more. Only Negroes
can live in these swampy districts : it is dangerous for Whites to sleep
on rice plantations in the months of June and July. The culture
requires much care. Mr. P.'s plantation is near a tidal river ; and some
of his lands were completely spoilt the previous year by some breakage
in an embankment, which let in the salt water. The land is a rich
black soil, said to be twelve feet deep. I saw some rice lands still
under water ; a buzzard with his wide-spread wings was flying across
them. I went to another field, where there were about thirty Negroes,
of both sexes, employed in scattering the rice, and just turning the
earth over it with a sort of toothless rake. It did not seem hard work.

42

The overseer was there, and the driver, who carried the disgusting
whip. The name and ensign of his office were repulsive to me. Mr. P.
told me that the whip was only used three or four times a year. The
driver was a very trustworthy old Negro ; though usually the blacks,
when in office, are tyrannically inclined, as fags make the hardest mas-
ters. He said that, as a rule, those who treated the slaves worst were
the free coloured proprietors ; next the French ; then the Scotch, who
were too grasping ; next the English and Northerners, who got impa-
tient at their stupidity ; and that the best masters are the Southern-
ers, who are to the manner born.* Every here and there I saw a little
patch of land, which he told me was a Negro's. He allows them to
cultivate as much as they can in spare times. In some parts of the
year they work very hard, but generally much the contrary ; and they
often get home by one o'clock when employed on task- work (that day
they were returning home before our dinner). I can believe that where
masters are indulgent, slaves may earn a great deal more, with less
work, than our farm labourers ; but then they are still slaves. They
may often be as well or better fed, and perhaps as well clothed. Those
that I saw had no shoes or stockings : they have them in the winter ;
but, like many of the children of the rich, dislike them at this season.
The women seemed not very different in dress from those similarly
employed in England, except that they wore turbans or handkerchiefs
instead of bonnets, and drawers reaching down to the ankles. They
were certainly not prepossessing. A few whom I saw in the city, how-
ever, held themselves very well, were tall, and looked dignified.

Most of the houses of the Negroes were near the residence. I did
not ask to go into them, as I did not desire to appear intrusive, and I
was told that as Mr. P. did not reside on the spot, they might not be
a fair specimen. The cottages were of wood, better looking than many
of the Irish shanties which I have seen. I observed that there was no
glass, only shutters, for their windows ; but I subsequently noticed the
same in the cottages of some white persons. Mr. P. seemed to take
an interest in his slaves ; he brought over an oven for one of them in
his carriage. He was, however, a determined Southerner, believing
slave labour essential for the culture of rice and cotton ; and only look-
ing on the evils of the system as either not inherent in it, or else such
as are necessarily attached to every system. He thought that the
Negroes needed direction and control ; and that to give them freedom
would be to reduce them to squalidity, sloth, and the most abject po-
verty. In reference to their religious instruction, he told me that they
generally go to worship at Charleston, though sometimes persons come
out and preach to them. They are married, and live in families. When
young, they are usually unchaste, but settle down into general faith-

♦ If they are the bestf you may say, woe for the worst ! This statement I
have heard confirmed by others. Till I visited the South, I was scarcely aware
that there were coloured slaveholders there. The Southerners, though passionate,
have often more kindliness than Northern masters, who, indeed, one must sup-
pose to have done great violence to their nature to be slaveholders at all. The
relaxing climate seems favourable to indolence and fataUsra. These are spe-
cially the weaknesses of the slaves, and help to keep them in their degraded
position ; they also afiect the masters, and contribute to deaden them to the
horrors of their system.

43

fulness. He has slaves whose ancestors have been slaves to his ances-
tors for three or four generations. They feel mutually attached. His
old nurse seems as much interested in him as in a child of her own.
I see no reason for disputing such statements. We know that there
are disinterested friendships between those who by the sweat of their
brow can scarcely keep their families from starvation, and those who
by the profits of their labour are affluent and at ease. Justice is indeed
a great safeguard for a wise and lasting friendship ; but affection springs
up in the human heart whether there be justice and equality or not.
We have not to go to America to find out anomalies. The lordly arro-
gance of one white to another, the extortion of half-paid service, the
crying poverty and even starvation to be found in our islands, shock a
Southerner. Those who have felt satisfied with themselves, as if they
had done their duty when they have cared for the physical condition of
their dependants, have told me that they have felt a pang which they
could scarcely endure when in Europe they have heard the cries of our
beggars. You rarely see a beggar there.

After a ten-days' visit to Charleston, I left it, not without emotion.
It seemed to me the seat of many sins and many virtues. No city in
the Union was more associated in my mind with heartless tyranny ; yet
nowhere did I live in a domestic atmosphere of greater kindness. These
contrasts induce a feverish state of feeling. I have mentioned the
friends with whom I stayed more than I should have felt justified in
doing, had they not been to a certain degree public characters. The
position which Dr. Q. holds brings upon him the charge of time-serving.
His principles on the matter of slavery certainly are not the same as
yours and mine ; but this does not prove them to be dishonest. He
has maintained his Unitarian views in a region where they are extremely
unpopular, which shews that he is not one who merely floats with the
stream ; and if he is of a mild and conciliatory disposition, I have not
yet learnt that such men are altogether unchristian or useless. A world
all sores and no balm would soon fester away.

My next visit was to Savannah, Georgia, where I called on an Epis-
copalian clergyman, with whom I had had some warm but friendly dis-
cussions on the subject of slavery in the steamer by which I went to
America. We were well pleased to meet again, and he kindly took
me a beautiful ride over the bluff, to a plantation about four miles off.
About 300 Negroes are employed on this estate. We rode through
their village, which was about a furlong from the residence. I did
not enter the houses. Externally they were sufficiently commodious,
though they had a bare look. The gardens, if any, were, I took for
granted, elsewhere ; as vegetables would not thrive under the thick wood
beneath which these cottages were built. The whole had a very foreign
aspect. The Negroes are accused of great want of cleanliness ; they
will not keep their houses neat. Cleanliness cannot flourish where
self-respect is trampled down.

I only remained at Savannah two days, which I spent at the hotel.
I called on some Unitarians to whom I had introductions. One of
them, since deceased, was about to build a new church for the congre-
gation, which was then without one. Their minister was in the North.
I did not remember that this was the society which rejected a Unitarian
minister some years ago^ on the ground that he was suspected tp be

44

inimical to Southern institutions, though entirely unconnected with the
Abolition movement ! Most of the gentlemen who took this humiliat-
ing course were New-Englanders.* Converts are often most zealous.
Some gentlemen with whom I conversed complained much of the
remarks against slavery in the Unitarian papers, and the alienation
between the various Northern and Southern churches. I remarked
that if our papers contained erroneous statements, they were doubtless
open to reply ; and that, whilst personally unfavourable to exclusive-
ness, I thought that as long as men did separate from one another, it
was a rather more important subject of difference whether man could
be made property, than whether a child should be sprinkled !

I spent Sunday, April 14, at an hotel at Macon, Ga., a place which
I remember with additional interest when I think of it as the slave
residence of W. and E. Craft. A gentleman, to whom I had been
introduced, shewed me a little of the neighbourhood. There is an
important female seminary here ; and the appearance of the suburbs,
• f and the hilly situation, reminded me more of New England than the
^ places I had recently visited. In the morning I attended the Episcopal
church, in the afternoon the Methodist, and thence proceeded to the
coloured church, a modest wooden building, in a grove, not far from
the beautiful Rose-Hill Cemetery. There was not room for me to
enter, for it was a special occasion. An old man had died, and was
buried some six months before ; but they had found no fitting occasion
to do honour to his memory. The hour and the man had now both
come. I listened, and looked in at the door and then at an open win-
dow. The audience was mostly composed of women, of every shade
of complexion, down to the white child, whom its nurse had taken with
her. The preacher expressed himself very well, and was certainly more
of an orator than his white brother whom I had just heard. The people
shewed their emotion by amens, sighs and groans. When I looked at
them and marked their orderly deportment and comfortable appearance,
and when I heard the preacher discoursing of the rest that remaineth
for the people of God, I could not but feel how far elevated they were
above their savage brethren in Africa ; although I lamented that the
cry was, Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther. Christianity appeared
yet more sacred and the Sabbath more lovely: as I gazed on these
slaves, they revived my hopes of their deliverance. I saw several cheer-
ful groups of Negroes this day, — generally they were well dressed —
many genteelly so ; some wore light satin bonnets and white mantillas
with lace. I am not prepared to state why a black woman should not
dress in white with as great propriety as a white woman in black. No
doubt many mistresses take as much pride in seeing their servants well
dressed, as the masters of footmen in livery do in England. Gaiety
often hides a heavy heart ; yet the Negroes are a more cheerful race
than their oppressors : and though persons who are alive to the degra-
dation of their condition may truly say, that they never knew a happy
hour till they had escaped, I apprehend that, were their thoughtful
misery more general, so would be the issue to it. Three million Crafts

♦ Vide an article in the Christian Examiner, for July, 1843, " Position and
Duties of the North with regard to Slavery," by ReV. A. P. Peabody (reprinted

46

could not be kept as slaves. Better thoughtful misery than mere ser-
vile acquiescence ; the slaveys joy makes the free heart sad. I was a little
struck here by a lady telling me that she had a slave who was almost
a white person, and was so in her disposition. It never seemed to
enter her mind that there was anything to be ashamed of in having a
white slave ; she only congratulated herself on being so fortunate : and
from what she said of the kindness often shewn to slaves, probably
thought that she did more on her part than many mistresses of hired
servants.

I was about a week in Georgia, making a visit to the remarkable
Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, an isolated granite mass, which rises
abruptly to the height of about 1000 feet above the plain, and commands
a magnificent view. I also spent a day at Marietta, the scenery near
which is very beautiful. This north-western part of the State, which
recently belonged to the Cherokees, is hilly, and I found a great change
in the climate. Southerners boast that they have a North within them-
. selves ; and there is more truth in this than some of them are aware ofi
These colder regions are not favourable to slavery, which is said, espe-
cially now that immigration makes labour so much cheaper, to be only
profitable in those rich soils where a very slovenly labour is productive,
or in those regions where whites cannot toil with impunity. The white
residents, too, have more of a Northern character, and are less indolent
and pleasure-seeking than those who inhabit the relaxing districts.
Georgia is one of the most energetic of the Southern States, and is
shewing zeal in manufactures and in education, both of which are ini-
mical to slavery. For slaves generally advance in intelligence as their
masters advance ; and if they are employed in skilled labour, they learn
their own resources for providing an independent maintenance, and
receive a training for freedom. There is an increasing class of persons
who are too poor to keep slaves, and are jealous of the oligarchy who
assume undue influence from their possessions. Georgia is one of the
most violently bigoted Slave States in the Union ; but it will not con-
tinue so, if its present energy lasts. I travelled through it over more
than 400 miles of railroad, and there are other lines. The accommo-
dation on them is in no respect equal to that of New England ; but it
is very striking to pass in this way through forests which Cherokees so
lately tenanted, and to enter thriving towns where the stumps of pri-
meval trees are still seen in the roads.

From Chattanooga, Tennesee (on the borders of Georgia), I proceeded
to the famous Mammoth Caves, in Kentucky, by stage. The distance
was only about 240 miles, but it took me three days and part of three
nights. The first part of the route, over the Cumberland Mountains,
was very picturesque ; but two consecutive nights in a jolting coach are
not agreeable: and as the streams we had to cross were suddenly
swollen by unusual floods, our lives were once or twice endangered.
Almost my only fellow-passengers, as far as Nashville, were a bishop*
and clergyman belonging to the slaveholding section of the Episcopal

* He was somewliat more primitive than their Lordships in England, — e. g.,
he spoke of ** them big trees. These slaveholding religionists are great tithers
of mint and anise ; they were discussing the case of a barber who had been ex-
pelled by his church for shaving on Sunday. Pious slaveholding Methodists
shave on Saturday night. Dr. Bunting asked them, in England, whetiier they
also thought it wrong to wash on Sunday.

46

Methodists. If a man speaks of slavery in the abstract as sin, the CFar-
risonians suspect him to be pro-slavery ! This clergyman, however,
was extremely indignant at any such doctrine. Slavery, he said, was
not an abstract question, but a fact; as such he wished it judged.
Where the masters were cruel, let them be condemned ; where they
provided well for the slaves and treated them kindly, let them be
acquitted !

From Nashville my only companion part of the way was a dirty young
Negro, twelve years old, whose master preferred the outside for the
benefit of the driver's company. He seemed by no means crushed by
his servile condition (the full weight of which was yet to come), but
enjoyed himself as he might, grinning at the persons whom we met.
I saw several very respectably-dressed Negroes along the road. The
boy said that he had been " raised" by this master, who seemed to take
a kindly interest in him, asking him how he got on, &c., in very friendly
tones. I had occasionally some interesting conversation with Negro
drivers, porters, &c., and it was pleasant to feel that one could cheer,
them by some remuneration for their services. Their situation gave
them intercourse with strangers, and they were far more intelligent
than I apprehend the majority of " field hands" would be, or even than
many of our rustics. I asked one of them how he would like to be sent
to a rice plantation further south ? He replied, " Lord, have mercy !"
but those who are habituated to this relaxing heat cannot bear the cold
of the hills. In the frontier States their condition is improving ; and
in Kentucky (H. Clay's State) I was informed that education is not
unlawful, and that masters may set their slaves free to live in the State.
The Negroes are themselves rising in character. We may see no moral
obligation that a slave is under to one who has robbed him of a price-
less treasure — Liberty ! yet this is perhaps one of the cases in which
honesty is the best policy ; the better-disposed masters repose more
confidence in them, and treat them more as rational and accountable
beings.

The most intelligent slave that I ever met was Stephen, one of the
guides at the Mammoth Cave, for whom I had been told to inquire by
a former master of his, who was now landlord of the inn at which I
stopped at Nashville. His father was a white, and he has, I fancy, a
slight admixture of Indian blood. His last master owned the Cave,
and apprenticed him to the guide. He died not long before my visit,
leaving his slaves to be freed in six years, so that Stephen has only a
limited term to finish. He first taught himself to read by watching
persons write their names, so that he could read manuscript before he
could printing. The first difficulties surmounted, he obtained aid. I
was very much interested in his conversation. He has an extremely
retentive memory, and treasures up what different travellers say. He
evidently wished to gain knowledge as well as to impart it, and was
very attentive if I made any remark which struck him as new. His old
master was very proud of him, and had lent him several geological
works, so that he talked quite familiarly of Lyell, Buckland, &c. He
had also sent him to visit other caves ; he had been in some forty —
none, however, above " the line ;" but he hopes, when he is free, to
come and see the Peak and other caves of ours some day. I told him
that he, and coloured men like him, were indirectly the best practical
arguments for emancipation. Many Southerners must feel a little sur«

47

prised, perhaps abashed, at finding "a chattel" so much more conver-
sant with science than themselves. He was interested in hearing that
F. Douglass had been my guest, and we had a good deal of conversa-
tion on slavery. When I told him that it was constantly urged that
the Negroes if set free would sink into careless indolence, he replied
that it would not be strange if those whose masters discouraged them
from thinking or providing for themselves might not at first feel at
home in their new condition, but he believed that the children would
reap the benefit. He confirmed what I had heard of the improved con-
dition of many of the slaves. Some years ago the masters declared that
it was cheaper to work them up and buy new ones ;* but he believed
that this is not the case now. (I heard it said of the Irish that they
were killed off by wholesale in public works under the burning sun, but
new immigrants were ready to fill the voids.) I took three excursions
with Stephen, — two into the Mammoth Cave, and another into a smaller
one. I was the only visiter, for it was not the season. The confidence
which we repose in one another flashed vividly on my mind, when I
found myself several miles from the entrance alone with him, a complete
stranger. I was of course completely in his power — yet I felt no fear.
The solitude was very awful in that immense cavern, especially when
he left me for a few minutes to arrange some lights, &c. I was con-
scious of some reverence for a man who raised himself from the degra-
dation to which human laws and prejudices would consign him, by
linking himself as it were to nature. How much more enviably free is
such a bondsman than those who are burdened with nothing — no bonds
of affection, no weight of knowledge ; whilst, indeed, their minds are
fettered and their hearts heavy ! We parted with regret.

On my way to and from the Mammoth Cave, I spent two days at
Nashville, the principal city of Tennesee. It was here that the dreaded
Southern Disunion Convention met, which, however, proved a failure.
In Tennesee and Kentucky the whites are to the slaves as more than
three to one, and there is less panic and pro-slavery bigotry than in
S. Carolina. Southern feeling is, however, sufficiently strong. I car-
ried an introduction here to a gentleman who had visited England. I
dined with him, and he shewed me many objects of interest in the town ;
among them, the house of President Polk : that of President General
Jackson is in the neighbourhood. When I remarked that this choice
of Southern Presidents proved that the North did not take advantage
of their superiority in strength, he observed, that the Northerners could
not but admit the superior gentlemanliness and high bearing which
fitted the Southerners for such stations ! The Northerners were very
excellent men, whom they were glad to have to settle among them ;
still, they were generally more ingenious and painstaking than agree-
able. He congratulated himself on being free from the low democracy
of the North, where pauper emigrants came pouring in and swamping
the constituency. They had not to depend for work on a number of

• A similar selfish disregard to life is shewn in our own country, wherever
masters kill their workpeople by inciting them to excessive toil, or by neglect, on
account of the expense, of those sanatory improvements in workshops, &c., which
are essential to health, — a course which they would be wise enough to avoid, if
they had to pay a slave's price for every new workman. As it is, they have
plenty of volunteers to supply the empty place at slave's wages — enough to pro-
cure house-room, clothing and food.

48

immoral foreigners, but on well-disposed, orderly Negroes; so that
things went on very pleasantly, and there was not so much crime !
Nashville contains a University, an Academy (which I visited) of about
300 young ladies, — the full course in which extends over ten years, —
and a magnificent State House, in course of erection, which is to cost
a million dollars. The situation of the town is fine, and the turnpike
roads out of it are remarkably numerous and good. I was most inte-
rested in the State Prison, which is considered a model one. It is self-
supporting; indeed, the labour of the prisoners in quarrying, shoe-
making, cabinet-making, &c., has yielded a profit to the State. A
dreadful affair had happened on the morning of my visit. A man who
had been foreman in the shoe department had been superseded, and he
kept brooding upon it till he attempted to murder his successor. For-
tunately, he did not strike a vital part. He was removed to his cell ;
and as they were too busy with the wounded man to think of searching
him, he committed suicide with a knife which he had concealed about
him. It was very striking to see the every-day aspect of the prison ;
all was going on as if nothing had happened. Both the convicts were
men-stealers, A criminal institution engenders strange crimes. There
is a class of persons who entice away or kidnap slaves for the purposes
of sale, — it seems to be thought worse to steal a slave than to kidnap
a free man ! — and they are regarded with as little favour as our horse-
stealers. A gentleman said, You have no offenders of that kind in
England. I was glad to reply that we did not recognize such property.
I saw no wards for women or boys, and asked whether there were simi-
lar prisons for them. It was made a merit that there were none. They
had responsible persons — husbands or parents — who ought to look
after them ; and the Southerners were far too gallant to punish women
(i. e. white ones) ! If sentenced, they were generally pardoned. One
woman took advantage of this feeling. She got convicted five times,
and was as many times pardoned. If she would only have left the
State, they should not have minded !

I attended on the previous Sunday (April 21) the Christian church
of the school of Campbell. They are more orthodox than the Chris-
tians of the North, but agree with them in dislike to creeds and reve-
rence for Scripture : they also are Baptists. The preacher was elo-
quent, and the service interested me, — the more so from the presence
of a large number of Negroes in the galleries, which again filled me
with an intense emotion of the inspiring character of Christianity, with
its immortal hopes, to a down-trodden people. Even if they did not
sit among us, as I might have wished, there is something in worshiping
one God in common, at the same hour, under the same roof. When
will the day come when the religious sentiment of the South shall
resolve itself into religious action, instead of evaporating into senti-
mentality !

In one paper more I shall come to the end of what I intend to narrate
respecting American slavery. It is anything but a pleasant task to
write these letters, — to omit all description of those beautiful scenes
which refreshed my spirit, and solely to cull out my reminiscences of a
subject which never presented itself to me without grief, perplexity
and disgust.

Yours respectfully,

Birkenhead, Oct, 7, 1851. R. L. Cabpenteb,

No. V.

to the editor of the ghbistian befofimeb.

Sib,

Fbom Nashville, Tennesee, I proceeded by steamer to St. Louis,
Missouri. I retain vivid recollections of the grandeur and beauty
which surrounded me; — the great flood on the Cumberland river,
spreading through the trees and over ruined dwellings as far as the eye
could reach ; the junction of those magnificent streams, the Ohio and
Mississippi, which I saw at dawn and sunrise ; and the starlight scene
which presented itself to me on the following night, as I paced the
roof, so to speak, in solitude. Physically speaking, however, the voyage
was not very comfortable ; for the vessel was unusually crowded with a
large party of emigrants to California, and a host of Methodist clergy,
including two bishops whom I had met before, who were going to a
Conference at St. Louis. As all the state-rooms were full, I had to
consider myself fortunate in securing for about five hours each night a
mattrass, with my carpet bag for pillow, on a table in the close saloon :
the floor was strewed with emigrants and clergy. My mint-and-anise
friends, who would not on any consideration travel in a stage-coach on
Sunday, found themselves in this steam-boat. However, they had
service on board, and stopped at Paducah, at the mouth of the river
Tennesee, to preach to the people there : both sermons were interest-
ing. At an hotel at Paducah, I saw a slave punished : as we know
how common an event this is, I was fortunate in not seeing it in any
other instance. As I passed through the passage, I found the landlady
striking a coloured waiter. It was dusk ; but from the sound, I do not
suppose that she inflicted much bodily pain ; but the feeling of personal
indignity made my blood boil. She evidently was not ashamed of her-
self: — Her yellow boy was a smart fellow, but had been enticed by the
yellow boy who kept the bar in the steamer, and had been made
drunk: the boy was honest, and worth his weight in gold when
sober ; but she would sell him for 800 dollars, though he would fetch
1000 dollars at New Orleans, &c. Thus a man is first treated like a
child or a beast ; then he makes a beast of himself, and then is treated
so again. The only other occasion during my travels in which I wit-
nessed blows, was on board an American ship, in my voyage home,
when they were inflicted on white, and therefore " free and enlight-
ened," American citizens: the cause here also was drunkenness. I
saw men handcuffed : one (for another cause) retained in a filthy state
from day to day : I heard the most horrid oaths and furious vitupera-
tion : blood was shed upon the deck in a fray, and a formal flogging
was expected.* Never had I felt before in such an atmosphere of
tyranny, from which it was impossible to escape ; but then the limit of
it was brief, and there was, if needful, a subsequent appeal to law :
whilst slavery has no justice and no hopes.

It was a good opportunity for learning the feelings of the Southern
clergy, for these Episcopal Methodists belonged to the slaveholding
section ; though, as I have since learnt, the division did not take place

♦ The Americans have now set us a good example in abolishing flogging in
the navy ; and the law, I believe, extends to merchantmen.

50

on the general question, but as to whether it was expedient that bishops
should be slaveholders. One of the Northern bishops sided with the
South ; whilst about 4000 slaveholders, 27,000 slaves, and their clergj,
are said to remain with the Northern branch. I had some interesting
conversation with the minister who preached at Paducah. He was a
slaveholder, and said that he could not justify it to his conscience to
be otherwise : the law prevented him from setting his slaves free,* and
to sell them to another would be to do away with the means he had
of improving their condition. He owned that there were great evils
in the system : one of the greatest was the want of sanctity in the
marriage tie. The law did noi recognize it»-the church of course did ;
but he could not make the slaves pledge themselves to be constant till
death do them part I asked whether he would consider a Christian
Negro at liberty to marry again, if removed from his wife beyond his
power to see her again ? He said that this was a painful question, on
which he did not wish to pass judgment. Worldly, s^fish men might
sell the husband and wife apart, but it was deemed discreditable and
wrong : sometimes the husband oi wife would prefer remaining where
they were, to going with their partner into a new service. As to the
mixture of the races, he thought there was a divine law against it. I
said that there was no revealed law, and that if it was a law of nature
merely we need not interfere, but let nature take care of itself. He
saw an improvement in the coloured race : th^e was still a great deal
of immorality among them, part of which must be attributed to their

Sisition ; still he had met with instances of the most exalted virtue,
e spoke of their ill-treatment by some of those who were zealous
against slavery. When he was at New York, many of his Northern
brethren would not venture to lose caste, as they thought it, by preach-
ing at the African church ; whibt he willingly did it, to their surprise,
though greatly fatigued by two other services.

St. Louis, as its name imports, was a French town, but most of the
old buildings have been burnt down. Its rapid growth is wonderful.
I first stopped at the Missouri Hotel, at which W. W. Brown was once
a slave. The servants there seemed principally white : the Irish are
superseding the slaves in many places. I afterwards spent a few days
with a hospitable New-Englander. The Rev, W. Eliot was unfortunately
from home. By his untiring zeal, aided by the remarkable increase of
the place, the handful of persons with whom he commenced worship
here has swelled into one of the largest Unitarian congregations in the
Union. They have sold their church for 26,000 dollars, and were
building another to cost about 60,000. Mr. Eliot has resided here
longer than any other minister, and has exerted a very beneficial influ-
ence in the city : he was appointed President of the Board of Educa-
tion. Dickens, in his *' Notes," speaks of him with respect. He has
been charged with being a slaveholder. As I was informed, his pity
was greatly moved by a young woman who was to be sold ; he pur-
chased her, and enabled her to earn her freedom. If he had selfishly

• Unless, indeed, he forced them into exile. I was glad in cases like this to
quote the example of Dr. Oilman. The evil is to have slaves at all : from the
first injustice spring many more. Frequently the possession is an inherited
curse ; sometimes it is even prompted by an imperfect kindness.

61

refrained from having anything to do with her, he might have pre-
served his anti-slavery reputation untarnished. In Missouri, the white
population is to the black as 6 to 1, and therefore there is not the fana-
ticism and terror which prevail in South Carolina, e. g. The subject
is openly discussed. Mr. Eliot is well known there to be opposed to
slavery. He frequently adverts to the topic ; and by dwelling on great
principles, he has the sympathy of most of his congregation against it.

I preached in the morning of May 5th. In the afternoon there was
a Lord-Supper service^ which was administered by Mr. Hassell, for-
merly an English Methodist, Mr. E.'s colleague ; and in the evening
the pulpit, in common with those of other denominations, was occupied
by one of the Methodist Conference. (I have preached twice in a Me-
thodist church in Pennsylvania, though known to be a Unitarian.) On
the previous week I had looked in at their meeting. One of the body
was proposing that the laity should be represented : they had thought
it very hard that the church should be split on the slavery question,
without their being permitted to utter a word. Still he feared that, if
they were admitted to the Conference, the same men might be ap-
pointed whose influence procured them civil promotions, such as senators
and representatives ; and this would virtually make the Conference a
union of Church and State, which was undesirable. The disGassion was
postponed, many of the brethren thinking it a pity to put such thoughts
into the heads of the laity. The cholera broke out whilst I was there,
and one of the ministers, who had been my fellow-passenger, died of it.
As the population had been decimated the year before, some 6000
having been carried off by it, a gloom was cast over everything. The
disease, however, subsided.

I proceeded up the Mississippi as far as Alton, Illinois, in ordef to
see the confluence of the Missoiu?!, and afterwards went to Cincinnati,
spending a day on my way at Louisville, Kentucky. Our minister there
is the Rev. J. H. Heywood, who seems peeuHarly devoted to his holy
duties, especially to the young and the addicted. He cannot have the
same loathing of slavery whidi some cherish, or he could not endure a
life in such close contact with it. It appeared to me, however, that he
was doing more, than many who declaim against it at a distance, to
mitigate its horrors and prepare for its subversion. He avails himself
of the comparative freedom of discussion which prevails in parts of Ken-
tucky, to publish a little periodical called *^The Louisville Examiner,"
which contains papers favourable to liberty. He gave me the number
for the month (May, 1850), the leading article of which is entitled,
'* £jaow one Another and be Just.'* He shews that Northerners cannot
regard slavery with too great aversion, as it is '' a system, not accident-
ally, but inh^ently, corrupt and wrong ;" but tdiat they are u&just in
regarding slaveholders without discrimination as embodiments of the
i^stem; and are often so mistaken as to the actual condition of many of
the slaves,* that it causes a revulsion of feeling when they come among

* Whilst writing this article, I see that a Free-soiler from Kentucky says at
Boston that " the 200,000 slaves of Kentucky might be, and probably are, better
clothed and fed than an equal number of the poorest whites of the same State ;
yet there was not one of those whites that would change places with one of those
slaves. The existence of slavery was a great moral and civil evil to the whites,
and was dragging the State down to ruin."

52

them. On the other hand, hereditary slaveholders who are kind to
their Negroes lose sight of those essential evils of the system which
they would see clearly if they were taken out of it, and unjustly regard
the Northerners as meddlesome fanatics or political knaves. " Let the
inhabitants of the different portions of our land," he concludes, " under-
stand each other well ; let them come up together to the solution of
the great problem of our country and our age, in the spirit of brother-
hood, and with a determination to be just one to another, and all to be
just to the slave, and the problem would speedily be solved. To remove
the dark mountain of slavery which now obstructs our country's path
to true greatness and glory, seems a formidable, a disheartening under-
taking; but to a nation with boundless resources, and strong in its
allegiance to duty and God, nothing is impossible. To the spirit which
loyalty to heaven makes brave and strong, the right is always practi-
cable." This number also contains W. Finckney's denunciation of
slavery.

On May 11, I landed at Cincinnati, and found myself once more on
nominal free soil.

When I was discussing slavery with a Southern clergyman, on board
the Sarah Sands from Liverpool, I jocosely said, that before I visited
the Southern States I might find it convenient to tar and feather
myself, as I could probably do it more to my own satisfaction than his
countrymen could do it for me. He assured me, however, that I could
travel without risk ; and I am bound to say that I never felt any appre-
hension either of violence or insult. (This was my experience through
the whole of my travels in America, over about 13,000 miles, though I
was often thrown into very rough company.) But then I seldom
mixed in private life among persons who would be guilty of violence ;
and as I was not travelling as an agent of any society, or even as a
missionary, but as an observer, I rarely volunteered remarks on the
subject, though I was glad of those opportunities for expressing my
sentiments which the remarks of others occasioned. What would be
cautious reserve with us, was bold outspeaking in the land of despot-
ism ! As an English traveller, I was probably allowed greater freedom
of speech than would be tolerated in an American ; because we are
recognized opponents of slavery, and have shewn our honest aversion
to it by our sacrifices. It would be a sort of treason to our country to
defend slavery; whilst unless an American consents to it, he is re-
garded as a traitor to the Union. My appearance indicated my origin,
and I found strangers not unwilling to know what I thought of their
institution. As facts can be mentioned where opinions might be invi-
dious, I more than once found the advantage of being able to state how
respectfully Douglass had been received in England, and that he had
been a guest of my own. Once, for instance, I had some conversation
with a well-educated Southerner, whom I met on the borders of
Georgia, at an inn. He dilated on the kindness shewn to slaves, and
asked my opinion. I told him that he need not inquire it, for I was an
Englishman. When he pressed me, however, I said that I was dis-
posed to believe that there were few better-fed peasantries anywhere.
I was a second Daniel ! But then came my fundamental objection, —
that they made it a crime to seek what it was a sin for a man not to
seek — ^liberty and education. He then found that the English could

53

not understand their institutions ! He was half amused, half surprised,
on hearing of the friendly equality on which I had been with coloured
people in England.* It was now my turn to say that the Americans
could not understand our institutions, and that he could probably scarce
conceive the astonishment of England if the South actually left the
Union on the ground that it, a republic, thought slavery essential.

As the opponents of the system dwell exclusively on the dark side,
its supporters are anxious to represent favourable exceptions as general
rules. I heard a great deal of the care which masters and mistresses
often take of their slaves. In cases of illness the family physician was
called in, and ladies watched by the sick bed. As we know that per-
sons are usually ready to preserve their property, I do not see that this
need be disputed. I heard Southerners boast that if they fought against
the North, their slaves would fight for them. As English slaves fight,
if called on, against their old companions, and even their kindred, this
may be also granted. I heard that they are frequently treated with,
kindness — so are dogs and cats ; — that they are regarded as members
of the family — those must have base souls indeed who are willing to
regard the members of their family as slaves ! And this state of things
is precarious : let the slave be successful, often with no little falseness
and fiattery, in retaining a kindness which is based on no sense of
justice, and which depends on caprice — an angry creditor comes, or
that cold but inexorable one. Death ; and the pet of the family may be
sold, like the spaniel, to some harsh, brutal tyrant. Slaves may acquire
property: good-natured planters allow them ground for their own
culture : wise ones have found the stimulus of hope more powerful
than that of fear (it were well if the wise were not the rare exceptions;
for the more this truth is learnt, the nearer will be the day of freedom):
and occasionally those whose labour is hired out, have the opportunity
of earning something for themselves. A Northern acquaintance, whom
I met in the South, told me that in a steamer in Georgia he found the
steersman and his sons both slaves. One grieves that a steersman
should be a slave, but is glad that a slave should be a steersman;
for the steersmen on the American boats have superior accommoda-
tions, and of course such an office is one of great trust. They were
very intelligent men, and their master hired them out for 60 dollars a
month, of which he gave them 30 ; or 29^. a week. A Tenneseean
allowed to me that many blacks were very intelligent : his father had
a slave of great practical sagacity, who was consulted about everything,
and, as he had saved a good deal of money, was quite an important
personage among the poor whites. He did not care to buy his freedom,
as he thought that he was best off as he was. But in all these cases,
I am not aware that if the master chose to rob the slave of his money,
there would be any redress : certainly, if there was, it would be strain-
ing out the gnat and swallowing the camel. It is no recommendation
of slavery that some of its victims are better than some who grow up

♦ One young man asked me how I should like a sister of mine to marry a
coloured person ? — for his part, he would rather shoot his, than that such a thmg
should happen ! I replied that there were a great many persons, even in my
o\im country, for whom I desired equal rights, whom I did not desire as brothers-
in-law, but I supposed that I should be ready to receive as such any one whom
a sister should accept as a husband.

under other wrong systems. Those of us who hate war and fagging,
may allow that there are men and hoys so had, that they have heen
improved hy the tyrannical discipline that hratalizes others; hut it
remains to he proved that they could not he improved in a hetter way.
The toiling Negro is a more respectable character than the mean heg-
gar, or the lazerone, or the lazy savage who throws all the toil upon
his wife ; but this is no proof that the Negro will necessarily relapse
into sloth, or that compulsion is the only stimulus to industry. Those
who defend slavery for the slave's sake, assume the responsibility of
his present artificial condition with all its atrocities.

Since my return, I have read over the portion of Dr. Channing's
Memoirs which relates to this subject, and have been struck with per-
ceiving how fully I can sympathize in his views. Did space allow, I
might attempt to describe the general effect produced upon me by my
tour ; but perhaps you will draw your own inferences from what I have
already said.

It remains that I say a little of what I observed in the Northern
States. It cannot be denied that if all the Northerners were firm and
consistent lovers of freedom, the days of slavery would be numbered.
The frontier States would find it impossible to preserve their peculiar
institution, if the coloured race were treated as brethren across the
border. But now the moral influence of the Northerners is blighted :
whenever they declaim about freedom, the condition of the Negroes in
their midst is not unnaturally retorted against them. The liberty of
some of the States is of a very selfish character: coloured persons
are not allowed to settle in them ; so that their declamations arise
rather from republican pride, than from a feeling of justice and human-
ity. In other States they are treated with very great hardship and
indignity ; and whilst the coloured race in slavery has been rapidly
increasing, that in freedom in the North has actually declined. This,
however, may be an argument against the cruelty of exiling manumit-
ted slaves to a climate which is unfavourable to them. The coloured
people in the North are either fugitives or freed men, or their descend-
ants, or the descendants of those who had been slaves in the States
which are now free. The fugitives are probably of two characters—
either persons who have been quickened to flight by an uncontrollable
yearning for liberty, or those who are rather moved by the practical
hardships of slavery than by any lofty aspirations, and perhaps dread
punishment for some offences — if there can be offence where there is no
law. The first class we respect as heroes ; the last we pity for their
sufferings. The first come ready to toil ; the last seek rest. The first
have the souls of freemen, and all who are free will welcome them ;
the others shew the degrading influence of their past bondage. The
States which open their portals to all the refuse of Europe, as well as
to its noble unfortunates, look with morbid horror on the dark stain
caused by some few thousand men who have had energy enough to
break their chains. Since I left, the coloured people have been the
object of greater uneasiness than ever. They, rather than their tyrants,
are regarded as the source of all the woe, the causers of the offence.
The injured are hated ; and some petulantly wish that they could be
driven back to the South — ^better still to Africa — anywhere out of their
sight ! I believe that we ure somewhat chargeable with an analogous

55

perversity. Many men, who were very indignant at the wrongs of the
Irish peasantry, were no less anxious that those who were broken down
by these wrongs should not settle down among us. Scores were sent
back to the scenes of starvation : and lovers of liberty and equal rights
have been so tired of the *' wrongs of Ireland," that, half in jest, half
in despairing earnest, they have said that the best way of curing them
would be to submerse that ** gem of the sea" for some twenty minutes.
A similar barbarous emotion does the sight of Negroes arouse in many
American bosoms. I learnt, however, that, as a general rule, they are
better treated and are improving in their condition. I have before
mentioned, p. 9, that the day before I landed at Cincinnati, a fugitive
slave had been carried off. He was a barber, and had been living for
some time at Cincinnati undisturbed: a band of Kentuckians, however,
armed with bowie knives, seized him in the public streets at midday,
defying the crowd who attempted to rescue him ; and, hurraing, hur-
ried him off by the ferry boat to the Kentuckian shore. I was told
that ten years ago nothing would have been thought of it. Now it
created great excitement : the papers boasted that the exchange was
on the whole in favour of freedom ; for eight slaves had been smuggled
from Kentucky to Ohio on the same day. I heard some burning words
from the Presbyterian preacher the next Sunday morning,* who an-
nounced that he should preach on the subject in the evening.f

I had some conversation with a black hairdresser, a man of substance,
whose son went to the Oberlin Institute, for which a collection was
made in this country about ten years ago. My brother, P. P. Carpenter,
had charged me with a packet for it, which I left here. It is said to be
very free from a sectarian spirit. There are about 300 pupils, about 30
or 40 of whom are coloured, and are received on a footing of equality.

I was acquainted with very few coloured people in the North, but
when visiting Rochester, N. Y., on my first journey to Niagara, I made

* The Unitarian church, was closed for repairs. I arrived on the Saturday,
and was not expected. Some kind friends to whom I had been introduced
insisted on my leaving the hotel for their very hospitable house, and on Sunday
evening I preached at the New Jerusalem church to as many of the Unitarians
as could be collected at a few hours' notice. The Rev. A. A. Livermore, whose
Commentaries are well known among us, and whom I had previously visited at
Keene, N. H., arrived in the course of the following week. The congregation
were fortunate in securing such a successor to the lamented Rev. J. H. Perkins.
Dr. Ephraim Peabody and Mr. W. H. Channing had been mimsters here. I
retain extremely agreeable recollections of my visit to Cincinnati.

t The following table, from the Official Census Returns of Aug. 1851, will
be interesting to your readers.

Table ofFugUwea and Manumitted Slaves from the Southern States during the Tear
ending June 1, 1850.

States. FugitiTM. Manumitted.
Mississippi 49 11

States. Fugitives. Manumitted.

Delaware 19 174

Maryland 249 483

Virginia 89 211

N.Carolina 57 2

S.Carolina 14 2

Georgia 91 30

Florida 16 22

Alabama 32 14

Louisiana • 79 • 96

Texas 33 6

Kentucky 143 164

Tennesee 69 40

Missouri 59 54

Arkansas 11 6

Dist. Columbia • • . . 7

Total 1017 1314

56

a point of calling on F. Douglass. (It was a little indication of the
way in which they are viewed, that in the City Directory they occupied
a separate part of the book. They seemed mostly cooks, waiters,
barbers, &c.) He resides at a neat house in the suburbs, which cost
him about £400. Unfortunately, he was out of town: however, I
found Mrs. Douglas and her sister, who are of a darker hue than he is,
and his young family. They asked me to remain to tea, and we had
much to converse about. It was a curious combination of the familiar
and the strange. It was the first time that I had seen a Negro family,
yet I saw one of my sister's pictures over the mantel-piece, and many
reminiscences of England. They had not the same acquaintance among
the whites as at Lynn, Mass., where they before resided ; and the
coloured people were more illiterate. Mrs. D. did not seem, I thought,
very intimate with them. She complained much of the diflSculty of
providing her children with a good education. It was an interesting
visit. In the following December, in New England, I heard my name
cordially uttered at full length in a railway car, and Douglass presented
himself to me. A minister who was with me gave him his seat ; so
we sat together and had a good deal of conversation. He was rather
afraid lest his English friends should be set against him by his desire
to occupy a position independent of the Garrisonians. He regretted
that I could not employ that unqualified denunciation of slaveholders,
which is, to say the least, excusable in one who has been a victim ; but
he knew my views on this point when he was at Bridgwater. I sub-
scribed for his paper half a year, asking for the copy to be sent to some
coloured man, which gratified him. The elevation of the free coloured
race is a most important instrumentality for emancipation, and a man
of talent and independence of character like Douglass is a telling ar-
gument against the pretended necessity of slavery. While we were
chatting together, the conductor, according to American custom, was
walking through the carriage to look at the tickets, and came to where
we were sitting. I observed that D. pulled out his ticket much more
at his leisure than I had done. When the conductor had passed, D.
asked me if he seemed civil. I said. Quite so. A few years ago, he
observed, that man hit my hands, and dragged me out of the car. A
great change has come over public opinion. Many of the coloured
people at first were diffident, and did not like for D. and others to pro-
voke ill will by struggling for their rights ; but now they are glad to
enjoy them. I saw them in first-class railway cars not unfrequently,
and in the omnibuses. It may have been accidental, but I thought
that they generally went to the end of the cars, as if they did not feel
yet quite at home there. I had some conversation with a respectable
coloured man, on one of the Lake Erie steamers ; and he spoke warmly
of the improvement, and the kinder usage which he received ; but I did
not notice him at table with us. I saw coloured people in civic pro-
cessions, public meetings, &c., at Boston ; and though no doubt there
is still a great deal of prejudice to overcome, it is, I think, decidedly
abating."^ The question that was then agitating the public mind in

♦ No doubt the labours of the abolitionists have been very important in
raising the coloured race ; but the gentlemanly feeling and sturdy common sense
of others has not been unavailing. Mr. Edmund Quincy is an earnest abolition-
ist, but his father is a whig of the old school. When President of the University

57

relation to them, was that of separate coloured schools, which at first,
as I was told, were accepted as a boon by the coloured population, and
are even now preferred by the less aspiring of their number. It is,
however, obviously at variance with the spirit of equality, that colour
should exclude from those public schools which are free to all — even
to the child of the poorest Irish immigrant. If their right to admission
were granted, as in many places it is, there might be no objection to
schools supported by private benevolence for coloured children, as there
are now for white ones, whom circumstances indispose from attending
the ordinary schools. One advantage of coloured schools, as of coloured
congregations, is, that it helps to raise a class of coloured teachers and
preachers who might else, at present, fail of a situation. At a festive
gathering of a normal school at W. Newton, Mass., I met a coloured
lady, who seemed very well received. It is a fortunate circumstance
that the great advocate of education, Horace Mann, is a distinguished
advocate for freedom and equal rights.

None of our ministers, with whom I conversed on the subject, ex-
pressed that aversion to Negroes which Dr. Tuckerman and others had
to cure with so much difficulty. I was at a very pleasant gathering of
ministers at Boston, comprising some of the most influential, and, as
they might be regarded, some of the most conservative of the body.
The business of the meeting was concluded, when Josiah Henson was
introduced, a fugitive slave who has settled in Canada. I was pleased
at the cordial greeting which he received. He was installed in an
arm-chair, and for about an hour conversed on subjects connected with
slavery. Some one asked him what he thought of the position of the
clergy in this matter. He sagaciously replied, that he greatly disap-
proved of all " epithetic " observations on them ; but he shortly after
gave us quite an earnest harangue, in the manner of a sermon, as to
how persons would feel on their dying beds who had been idle or
indifferent on this subject. I was interested at seeing this complete
Negro, a born slave, sitting and giving instruction to some of the
leading minds of the country.

When I was at the ministerial conference at Portland, a handsome
collation was prepared, the ladies presiding at the tables. It was at
one time intended to invite the orthodox mmisters. Dr. Nichols, the
respected minister of the First Church, declared that there should be
no reference to colour, and that the two orthodox coloured preachers
should be invited with the rest. He told me, that though he was in

at Cambridge, Mass., Mr. Quincy was riding in an omnibus when a coloured
lady wanted to get in. (The extreme courtesy shewn in America to white ladies
is well known.) No one stirred, till the President himself made room for her ;
and now I understand that in the Cambridge omnibuses no diflference is made
in regard to colour. I heard another anecdote : — A coloured man was riding in
a first-class railway car. A Southerner was excessively indignant ; and, though
he had close by him a coloured servant taking care of his children, he began to
bluster at the conductor, and to tell him that either he or the nigger must leave
the car. The poor conductor was frightened and about to succumb, when a
great burly man, who was getting quite purple in the face from indignation at
the fiery Southerner, roared out to the conductor, that he should turn the black
man out at his peril ; for he had as soon travel with a nigger as with a damned
fool ! The said fool at once collapsed, while the stout man felt himself bound
in honour henceforth to be a defender of Negro rights.

58

no favour with the aholitionists, he felt so strongly on this suhject,
that he would rather have lost his parish than have refused to consort
with his coloured brethren. He carried his point in the committee
(composed of residents at Portland). It was afterwards found that
some embarrassment might be caused to some orthodox ministers, if
they went to a Unitarian collation ; and therefore none were asked, I
believe.

A brother minister, with whom I was staying at Boston, walked
with me and with a coloured man through the streets of that city with-
out making it appear that he was doing anything unusual. When I
was stopping at Dr. Hill's at Worcester, a Negro called, I fancy for
some aid. He was a minister among the coloured people, of whom
there are about 200 there ; but unfortunately they are divided between
Zion and Bethel, so that neither shepherd has much of a flock ! He
told me that F. Douglass was one of " his boys," as he first gave him
licence to preach. I felt that it was much easier to feel on terms of
equality with such men as Douglass, than with the coarser, common-
place specimens of the race. This worthy man went out as waiter or
coachman, I believe, to increase his means of living, for which he is
of course to be commended. Dr. H. asked him to remain to dinner,
though there were two young ladies visiting him ; and afterwards he
rode between us to town in Dr. H.'s open carriage. An ex-governor
of the State called whilst he was there, and shook hands with him.
Dr. H. is not one of the Qarrisonians ; but he did not make any parade
of what he did, as though it was an unusual condescension. I was
glad to refer to cases like these, when I heard Southern men saying
that free blacks were more contemptuously treated in the North than
with them.

I think that I had unusual opportunities of becoming acquainted
with the feelings of our brethren ; for two-thirds of my American year
was spent in private houses. I was the guest of a great many ministers,
and had social intercourse with many more. I am glad of this oppor-
tunity of expressing my gratitude for the unmeasured kindness which
was shewn me. It was not confined to one party : some of my most
valued friends were Conservatives, others Garrisonians ; while the
majority, especially among the younger men, seemed to me to accord
in the views of Ware and Channing. The general tone of feeling
among them was certainly more anti-slavery than I had expected,
though there was the diversity of view which always results from in-
dependent thought. I was told that it is now as unpopular to defend
slavery in our churches, as it was ten years ago to preach against it.
The subject was noticed, in connection with other moral movements,
on public occasions.* Perhaps my visit was at a favourable juncture.

♦ At the Unitarian Association, meeting in Dr. Gannett's church, May 1850,
the Rev. H. Bellows alluded to the heavy cloud of domestic slavery. I was
called upon next, and commenced thus : — " The black cloud to which the last
speaker has alluded has saddened us, even on the other side of the Atlantic.
When we contrasted that freedom and prosperity which might naturally excite
your pride, with that baneful and humiliating institution, we were reminded of
the providence of God, who permitted the apostle a thorn in the flesh, a mes-
senger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure. To
many of my brethren that cloud seemed to shed so much of its darkness even
here, that they feared to come among you ; but, whilst not insensible of the

69

The threatened ignominy of the horrible Fugitive Slave Bill called out
the love of freedom, which had been too often dormant I confess my
disappointment at the comparative silence which has since prevailed
on the subject ; but there are many who warmly protested against the
making of the law, who suppose that, now that it is made, a different
course of conduct is incumbent on them. My impression of their pre-
sent position with regard to it is derived from my correspondents, and
from my constant reading of the Christian Register.* I never met
with a single advocate for slavery among Unitarian ministers, though,
from extracts from the sermons of the Rev. T. Clapp, of New Orleans,
I fear that such advocates may be found ; nor do I know that any of
them approve the atrociously unjust provisions of the Fugitive Slave
Bill, though some, viewing the matter constitutionally, might say that
Congress could not do other than pass some such law, if called on by
the South to do so. Dr. Dewey f and a few others, as it is well known,
say that, as the law of the land, it must be obeyed. Others, feeling
the complexity of the question, by their apologies for the maintainers
of the law, and their sUence as to its iniquity, are ranked among its
supporters. Some of these men, though deficient in the perception of
wrongs in another clime, are remarkable for their generous defence of
the injured, and self-sacrificing kindness to sufferers who have come
within the range of their sympathies. Others, again, have viewed the
matter, not from the constitutional, but the human point of view, and
have boldly expressed their indignation, not only before, but after, it
became law, and their fixed determination to oppose it, in a way which
warms our hearts. Theodore Parker states his intention to resort to
violence, if necessary, for the defence of the fugitive. His allusion to

evil, it has been my privilege to behold the rainbow of promise, and to know
that there was light which would dissipate the gloom. ♦ ♦ ♦ The great prin-
ciples which we hold in common, on each side the ocean, are mitigating the evils
in the worid, and preparing for their gradual extinction." My remarks were
well received, even by those whom the Garrisonians call pro-slavery ; but my
friend Dr. Gilman wrote to me that they occasioned him both mortification and
regret. ** I was imable to circulate the Annual Report among my people ; yet
your intentions, I have no doubt, were honest and fair."

* The editors of this paper are the Rev. A. P. Peabody, who took decided
anti-slavery ground in his paper on the Duties of the North ; the Rev. J. H.
Morison, who is of the school of Henry Ware ; and the Rev. F. D. Huntingdon,
with whose views I am less acquainted, though I know him to be interested in
the various philanthropic movements. These gentlemen are men of the first
standing in our body. The Rev. Dr. Peabody, who is regarded as conservative,
and the Rev. J. Parkman, who is an abolitionist, have both recently retired
from the editorship.

t Dr. Dewey's shocking expression, — for every filial feeling is outraged by
it, — that he would rather send his own mother into slavery, and go himself,
than see the union between the free and slaveholding States dissolved, seems to
indicate a degraded carelessness or blind ignorance of the evils of slavery, or a
very exaggerated idea of the importance of the Union ; yet it does not prove
that he thinks slavery desirable — only the least of two evifs. A noted abolition-
ist, Parker Pillsbury, is reported to have said, " The American Union ! Union
of whom } I would not pay such a price for union with the blest in heaven. I
would rather suffer damnation for ever and ever." But probably it would be
incorrect to regard him as pro-etemal-danmaiiion. An advocate of non-resistance
might be driven to say, that, rather than kill men in the blossom of their sin,
he would see his mother murdered before his eyes, and die himself; but it
would not be charitable to regard him as somewhat favourable to the murder of

60

his ancestral sword and revolutionary pistols reads a little theatrical :
if arms are used, more modern ones would be more killing : no one,
however, who has marked his course, will doubt his entire earnestness
and sincerity. Hitherto the abolitionists have been the great advocates
for peace ; and although we excuse a man who takes murderous wea-
pons on a sudden impulse of self-defence, such deliberate professions
of bloody resistance to the laws of the land give a handle to the op-
pressor, and produce a reaction in favour of what is represented as the
cause of order. Lynch lawlessness, as well as Lynch law, may be
dictated by a great thirst for justice ; but it is a thirst which leads to
intemperance. The riot in favour of a fugitive at Boston has, I think,
occasioned a greater timidity in the utterances of our body. An influ-
ential minister, after deprecating the violence of speech which aggra-
vates a sectional feeling already so passionate as well nigh to create
civil war, adds, — " For my part, without deciding whether the Fugitive
Slave Law of 1851 is or is not worse than the old law of 1793, 1 shall
have nothing to do with the law. I shall obey it only in its penalties ;
but I shall not prevent public oi&cers executing it. I will not join
mobs nor encourage them, nor by harsh words raise them. I mean to
bear patiently, hopefully, prayerfully — speak and preach when I think
any good can come of it, otherwise be silent." It is, I believe, the
resolution of the majority of our ministers to shew their respect for the
law of God by harbouring the fugitive, and for that of man by submit-
ting to the penalty. The '^ mission of silence " has exposed many to a
great deal of obloquy and ridicule. We always admire courage ; and
even a reckless daring is more attractive, to those who are uninjured
by it, than prudence. The question arises, whether this prudence is
selfish or disinterested, and our decision will be guided by our opinion
of the individual. If it springs from cowardice, we despise it ; if from
a generous forbearance, preferring contempt to the injury which a
Quixotic interference brings upon the sufferer, we honour it. Some
believe that, till there is a reasonable prospect of repealing the law,
agitation only makes it more active : they hope that it may share the
fate of the old law, which in New England was rarely put in operation.
My hopes in this matter are not quite so creeping ; yet, whilst I regret
this silence, I am not clear as to what example we set them. It is
better to be a slave than a prisoner — that is, a slave at large than a
slave in confinement ; because all prisoners are of course slaves, sepa-
rated from their families, not allowed to marry, far more dull and mi-
serable and degraded than Negroes. Imprisonment is a punishment
which the slave himself dreads. In England, many persons are impri-
soned who are not moral agents — children who steal by order of their
parents, — adults who break laws of which they may be ignorant, or of
which they have never learnt the obligation. Far more persons are

mothers. It is fair to remark, that Dr. D. does not say that he was prepared to
be a slaveholder t but a slave-— to suffer , not to do wrong. I have not seen his sad
speech, and many of your readers are probably better acquainted with it than I
am : it is perhaps consistent with his views formerly expressed, and with his
mode of viewing other moral questions. His intimate iriends speak of him as a
man of great independence of character. To us his independence seems less
manifested against timeserving politicians than against overbearing reformers
who do not convince him.

61

causelessly sent to slavery in England, and branded for life with the
felon's mark, than there are returned fugitives in America. Soldiers
have been entrapped into the service by those who were guilty of the
awful crime of making them drunk; sailors have been impressed,
actually kidnapped; and these men have not only been reduced to
slavery — for no one who is acquainted with the rules of the service can
pretend that it is otherwise — ^but a slavery which in their moments of
thought they may feel positively abominable and cursed, obliging them
to shed innocent blood. Yet, have the ministers of peace urged the
duty of encouraging deserters, and braving the laws in their protection?
Do we preach the duty of rescuing all persons whom we think unjustly
sentenced, or sentenced to a punishment unjustly disproportionate to
the offence ? There are many among us who do not think it either
right or wise to set laws at defiance, whilst we strive to amend them ;
and others, not very depraved, are so accustomed to these evils, that
they scarcely attempt their cure. Channing truly says (Life, Vol.
III. p. 142), *' We are slow to believe that we are as blinded as those
whose errors amaze us ; but I begin to fear that the condition of so-
ciety among ourselves may seem as shocking to a more enlightened
and virtuous age as slavery does to us."

Ministers in America are somewhat differently situated from what
they are with us. Though it sounds absurd for a young republic to be
toryfied, it is true that those who seem only one remove from anarchy
are more likely to dread it than those who live under an old-established
government ; and this will be particularly the case with the cultivated
classes. Our clergy there more correspond with an established order,
linked to existing institutions. We Dissenters, on the contrary, are
hereditary nonconformists, and feel that we may indulge our fault-
finding propensities with all freedom : there is little danger of our
moving the world too fast, and the Government Church will take care
that no abuses perish too soon. At the same time, it is fair to say that
some of the boldest spirits in America are to be found among our clergy
there. We hear in England the complaints of the abolitionists, which
seem confirmed by occasional extracts from the conservative papers,
eager to make the most of the countenance that is shewn this bad
law ; but a wider knowledge of the American press would convince us
that those whom we rebuke for their cowardice have to brunt the storm
of those who reproach them for their anarchical tendencies, and our
ministers are charged with ultra-radicalism ! So difScult is it to form
an estimate of a widely-scattered body of men, living under varied in-
fluences, guided by different fundamental rules of action, only united
in adherence to the doctrine of the Divine Unity.

As to the mode of preaching proper on the slavery question, there is
great diversity of opinion. Some, at the risk of obloquy, poverty, and,
what is far more trying, expulsion from a people dearly beloved and
longed for, have preached boldly, searchingly and pointedly upon it.
They have made the sacrifice, and have resigned their pulpits ; but
their successors have found speech on the same subject far easier,
and the absolute silence which was once required is now generally
unpopular. We must judge of a man's conduct in this matter by his
general style of preaching. If he is very plain and direct in his allu-
sions to other particular sins, and omits this, it may be supposed that

62

he is either cowardly or indifferent respecting it ; hut, on the other
hand, he may make it his general practice to lay down fundamental
principles, and leave the application to his hearers. Some ministers
who have adopted this latter course, suppose that they can trace to it
an improved sentiment on this subject among their people. At all
events, those who, engaging in great and unpopular movements at
home, have found their warmth produce coldness, and have alienated
where they wished to convince, and have felt how solemn a thing it is
to divide a church and the families in it, will judge charitably of those
who hesitate how best to attain the object they may have at heart.
There is this additional difficulty. An English preacher on temperance,
e. g., urges something practical, and in no way politicaL An anti-slavery
preacher may be thought political or sentimental. If he eschew poli-
tics, he speaks of an institution of other States : his hearers are not told
to alter their own habits, for they do not keep slaves, but to oppose
those of men living under other governments ; and if feeling is excited
too frequently, without any direct effect on the condtici, sentiment fer-
ments into sentimentality. If, on the other hand, he exhort to action,
it will be commonly understood to denote political action— voting for
some candidate, petitioning against some law, or supporting a party
opposed to all candidates and to the Constitution itself. At home, our
congregations for the most part support one section of the political
world ; but there they are of all parties. In one State, the three rival
candidates for Governor — Whig, Democratic and Free-soil — all be-
longed to the same congregation. It may easily be imagined how
little sacred would be the feelings which a minister would excite, who
was supposed to be using the pulpit as an election engine. And even
when he lays down great truths, those who might receive them with
patience in ordinary circumstances— -perhaps have actually done so—
are very sore if they suppose that it has cost them their office. It
would not be fair to judge of the Unitarian laity by the resignations
of ministers in consequence of their advocacy of freedom. In many
cases the violent dissentients were a minority, even a small one, but
enough to destroy a minister's comfort ; and those who have left one
post for this cause, have sometimes found another more influential. I
confess, however, that I do not envy the position of an American mi-
nister at this juncture. Those who desire to fulfil their duty as the
moral guides of the community, — the followers of him who came to
save the lost and break every yoke, — ^have great need of wisdom to
direct, of love to bear, and courage to act ; but we cannot doubt whose
blessing follows those who give up all for the truth's sake.

These remarks may be borne in mind in relation to our religious
newspapers there. Owing to the abundance of papers, subscribers do
not depend on their denominational paper for their general intelligence.
The Register is not like our Inquirer. It scrupulously avoids touching
on politics. Its supporters are of all parties, and the character of
the paper would be altogether changed if it entered on party strife.
There is a wider line than with us between the so-called secular and
religious papers ; and questions which with us are simple moral ques-
tions, are discussed with fierce political rancour. Hence the Register
has been more reserved than we could wish on the Fugitive Slave Bill,
since it has become law, with a political party as its champion ; but I

65

rarely see a number without some article against slavery, or in defence
of the rights of conscience in relation to it.

I mentioned in my first paper that I met some of the leaders of the
Free-soil party in Washington. I saw others of them at Boston, among
whom I may mention Hon. Charles Sumner, the present senator for
Massachusetts, and Dr. Palfrey. Dr. Palfrey visited this country when
he was Theological Professor at Cambridge. He edited my father's
Harmony in America, and has made important contributions to theo-
logical literature. Some years ago he relinquished the ministry, and,
like his predecessor, Mr. Everett, devoted himself to politics, — not,
however, with equal success. He joined the Free-soil party, and has
for some time been out of office. He is the Free-soil candidate for
Governor, but with little chance of election. No one can doubt that
he has made a sacrifice for freedom ; but this is not his first sacrifice.
His father was a Boston merchant, who settled in Louisiana, where two
of Dr. P.'s brothers still reside. Dr. P. set his share of the slaves free.
I was conversing with him on the laxity of the marriage contract among
Negroes ; and he mentioned, that finding that one of the women whom
he liberated had a husband who was a slave in a neighbouring planta-
tion, he wrote to his master, asking him to name a price, — wishing to
set him free, to live with his wife. The planter coolly replied that he
did not want to sell him, and had furnished him with another wife.
Dr. P. had never had any intercourse with Garrison, except when they
had met on some town committee, and has shared the attacks which
the Garrisonians make on his party; but I found at the South that such
an act as his is more convincing than the most vehement speeches.
They are always taunting the North with their want of sincerity. " You
talk," say they, "of remembering those in bonds as bound with them ;
and certainly you speak against us as if you had actually seen your own
mothers whipped before your eyes. You call us pirates and robbers :
yet if you were in the shocking state you describe, would you hesitate
about giving up your money to be delivered from it ? If your mother
were taken by a pirate, would you doubt as to the propriety of ransom-
ing her, lest you should seem to acknowledge his right to capture her ?
Slavery, you say, is worse than death ; yet if a robber asked for your
money or your life, would you decline giving the money, lest it should
indicate his right to it ? We don't believe you. You demand from us
a sacrifice which our consciences do not require, but plead conscience
against making any sacrifice yourselves. You sneer and reproach the
consciences of those who let a slave be taken back to his master rather
than break a law of the land ; yet expect us to respect your consciences,
who let a slave be taken back to hell, as you call it, rather than put
your hands in your pockets." To reasoners of this kind, who are not
aware of the sacrifices the genuine abolitionists are making, such a
plain, unmistakeable, palpable sacrifice as Dr. P. has made, speaks
volumes. I heard Dr. P. make perhaps one of the most finished and
touching speeches which I have ever listened to, at the Unitarian
gathering, which greatly moved even his political opponents. I was
scarcely prepared for the acrimony with which the Free-soilers are
viewed ; but the Whigs of Massachusetts attribute to them some sore
defeats. The consistent men of their party are among the most pow-
erful and influential advocates of freedom : as a party, however, they

64

wUl be liable to those temptations to sacrifice principle to expediency
to which other parties have at times succumbed. From this insinu-
ation I must certainly except the Qarrisonians, who in a remarkable
degree sacrifice expediency to principle.

It will be expected that I should say something of the abolitionists ;
yet it is painful to speak where one is sure to be misunderstood. A
Yankee is properly a New-Englander ; whilst in remote parts of the
Union all Northerners are so called, and we give the name to inha-
bitants of the United States generally : so some Southerners call all
Northerners abolitionists, whilst those in the North so name the advo-
cates of abolition; whilst in New England the term especially denotes
the Qarrisonians. Many are therefore embraced under this wide name,
who are men of a very different spirit from the noble and disinterested
labourers whom we honour. Some adopt the cry, in districts where it
is popular, for political and selfish purposes. Some are actuated by
pride, — vehement against the slaveholders for their pretensions and
arrogance, — arrogant themselves towards the coloured race whose cause
they espouse, like some haughty democrats at home. Some, with all
their horror at the burden of slavery, will not move it with their fingers,
only if possible with their tongues ; men who m£ike no pretension to
anti-slavery zeal will often give and do far more to redeem a captive,
than those whose mouths open more easily than their purses. Some
profess abolitionism just as men migrate to the back woods — to feel
themselves free from all restraint. If they give up the pleasure of co-
operating with an important party, they love, in these moral " clear-
ings," to have unbounded licence to say bitter things against all exist-
ing institutions of church, state and society. (See Prospective Review
for last November, "The American Fugitive Slave Act.") Whilst
others, again, are men who, loving peace and good- will, and valuing a
position in society, and income, and reputation, and the kindly appre-
ciation of friends, have sacrificed everything for the oppressed's sake,
knowing that what they do for the least of Christ's brethren, they do
for him. So vast is the diversity among them, that you must judge
each by himself, or refrain from judging at all.

Though I attended more anti-slavery meetings than temperance ones,
they were but few-— though I think that the half-dozen or so at which I
was present afforded me a tolerable specimen. The meeting at which
I spoke was at the celebration of West-Indian independence. There
I felt in place as an Englishman ; but at public meetings to assail the
Union and reproach public men, I should have thought it as improper
for me to take a part, as for an American minister to be conspicuous at
a revolutionary meeting in England. Much that I heard at their Conven-
tion was certainly offensive. I did not like the glee of the audience when
public men were "killed," or, as we might say, " cut up." If there is
joy in heaven over the sinner that repenteth, pleasure in the inspection
of other men's sins is felt elsewhere. It seemed to me that some
speakers were, unintentionally, feeding malignant passions. As I knew
pretty well what they meant, I did not allow myself to be much dis-
turbed at some of their startling expressions. My friend W. Mount-
ford, however, who came fresh to it, was filled with intense disgust
when he heard H. C. Wright intimating his intention to trample on
the Bible if there was anything pro-slavery in it, and to defy the Old-

65

Testament Qod. M. was nearly rising to remonstrate, but he was
prudently silent. He has since learnt what a man must expect who
has the honesty to utter what he thinks.*

What I heard led me to feel that the breach between the church and
the Garrisonians was so wide, that it was hopeless to attempt any cor-
dial union between them. The church must be anti-slavery after its
manner, and the Oarrisonians religious after their manner; and the
wise men of each party will learn of the other. Unhappily, those who
have set up for sanctity have been so cool about humanity, that the
advocates for humanity are very suspicious of sanctity. Pious people
say things which outrage the humane, and humane men outrage the
pious. If humane men cannot bear to have their brother treated as a
chattel, devout men are not partial to hearing their Heavenly Father
(for so Christ calls the God of the patriarchs) treated as worse than a
chattel— defied and scorned as a monstrosity. The church has much
to answer for. In old times it set itself against science, and the philo-
sophers derided it ; and now it has provoked the burning scorn of phi-
lanthropists. Where it does its duty, it may have philosophy and
philanthropy as its faithful friends and servants.

* He addressed a letter tp our Inquirer against the proposed excommunication
of American ministers, on the ground that we could as little understand their
position in regard to the Abohtion movement, as they could ours in regard to
the Chartist and other movements. More than a column is devoted to him in
the Liberator, of which the first paragraph may be taken as a specimen : — " Mr.
Mountford is an English Unitarian clergyman settled at Gloucester, in this
State. Whether he belongs to that class

* Who leave their country for their country's good,*
or not, his short residence here has already made it very clear that he is no
acquisition to the land of his adoption. The almost entire recreancy of the
American pulpit to the cause of the heart-broken slave population at the South,
renders it quite insupportable that it should be upheld and extended by foreign
importation. The most despicable as well as the most dangerous of all trim-
mers and time-servers is he who, claiming to be a minister of Jesus Christ (the
most fearless and radical reformer who has ever appeared), is disposed to con-
nive at popular wrong, and to cry, Peace ! peace ! when there is no peace. He
is both a coward and a traitor of the basest type." I have given this extract,
because your readers, who know Mr. M., will be able to judge what value is to
be attached to similar censures of those whom they do not know. Mr. M. is not
singular in his comparisons. Joseph Barker was supposed fully to sympathize
vnSi Garrison ; and as he edited a collection of the horrors of American Slavery,
he may be regarded as acquainted with them. Yet in a letter from America to
B. Barker, which I suppose is his {The People, No. 75, Vol. II.), he writes as
follows : — ** 1 consider that the aristocrats of Great Britain and Ireland are as
really slaveholders as the slaveholders in the Southern States of America, and
that the working clsisses are as really slaves as the poor chained Negroes of the
Southern States." ** True, there is slavery here (in America), and sla-
very is a terrible evil. It is nevertheless a fact, that the slavery of the Southern
States neither starves men to death so often, nor separates husbands and wives,
parents and children, brothers and sisters, so frequently, nor causes so much
disease, nor so many violent deaths, as the horrible system of oppression prevail-
ing in Great Britain and Ireland. True, slavery is the lowest state of man. It
is a state in which humanity cannot long remain. It is nevertheless true, I
believe, that the generality of the working people of Ireland are neither so well
clad, so well fed, nor so well used in general, as the Negro slaves of the South.
That is my opinion. And there appears to be a better prospect of speedily abo-
lishing slavery, than there does of annihilating the aristocratic tyranny of Great
Britain and Ireland, and popularizing their general and locid governments."

66

I have, as you know, some experience in the moral movements in
England, and the churches have been regarded as indifferent or even
obstructive to them ; but I have never heard at home such abuse of
religious bodies and institutions as in America ; if I did, I could not
act with them without such protests as would make my co-operation
unacceptable. But the bond of our teetotal societies, e. g., is action^
not opinion. Any man who pledges himself to abstain from intoxicating
drinks is a teetotaler, and the utmost strictness as to practice is combined
with boundless freedom of opinion as to the way in which the intemperate
are to be regarded. But a man by abstaining firom slaveholding is not
thereby an abolitionist : the bond of the society is opinion, not as to our
own conduct so much as to that of others. The practice of the Gar-
risonian need not be different from that of other men ; he may, or may
not, partake of slave produce ; other men may be as ready as he to
redeem a fugitive or to suffer for him, and to treat the coloured race as
brethren. He, and those whom he reviles, may and often do act in the
same way towards the Negro. The main point at issue is, How is the
master to be influenced ? Is the union with him to be regarded as a
covenant with hell and a league with death, or as a bond of peace which
may ultimately draw him to the cause of freedom ?

The use of the term pro-slavery by the Garrisonians, strikes me as
incorrect and likely to mislead. Fro denotes the inclination of the act
or the actor. If of the aci, everything that has a tendency directly or
indirectly to prolong slavery and aggravate its evils is pro-slavery ; but
this is matter of opinion : it is the very charge brought warmly, and I
have no doubt sincerely, against the Garrisonians themselves. If of
the doer, we have no right to say that a man favours a sin because he
does not accord in our way of uprooting it. Some teetotallers believe
that if there were no moderate drinking there would be no drunkenness;
but it would be deemed very unjust to call such moderate men pro-
drunkenness, as if they were inclined to that vice. But, as I have said,
these Northern pro-slavery men may be as free from slaveholding, even
of the mildest form, as the Garrisonians themselves, and may protest
against it. What would be thought if we called a man pro-drunkenness,
who was a strict abstainer and an able and sincere defender of absti-
nence, because he does not think it proper to denounce all makers,
vendors and drinkers, and has spoken strongly on what he supposes the
errors of teetotallers ? To say that slavery is the most hellish of crimes,
and then to charge men with favouring it who are not only innocent,
but express their abhorrence of it, seems to me unchristian and para-
doxical. But paradox is a favourite weapon with them. Now that the
evil of slavery is generally acknowledged, the topic does not seem suflS-
ciently exciting to draw an audience. Their vehemence is often directed
against those who are labouring to raise the condition of the Negro by
a different instrumentality from their own. Many think it better, or
easier, to destroy than improve ; and if any err from the truth, they do
not restore them in the spirit of meekness. If a politician or clergyman
has influence and uses it ill, they try to destroy his influence by blast-
ing his character, as if he were a rock in their way. It did not seem to
me that they were worse in this respect than some others. They do as
they have been done by. Party vituperations in America are offensive
and unjust in the extreme. Only one would wish the lovers of man-

67

kind to speak in love, and the friends of freedom to avoid moral despot-
ism. We raise a high standard for them. Theology is of the old times,
and has often the acerhity of age ; young philanthropy should have the
sweetness as well as the vigour of childhood. Odium theohgicum is
too had for us to desire odium philanthropicum. But moralists have
similar dangers to religionists. The moral higot is as positive as to
the truth of his convictions and the wickedness of contrary ones as the
doctrinal bigot; and fanaticism and intolerance are injurious and dan-
gerous in each case. On the other hand, we ought to make the same
allowances for those who seem perhaps over-zealous in behalf of man,
that we do for those who are zealots for Qod. Each party is attempt-
ing a great work.

My personal intercourse with abolitionists was very pleasant. When
hearing them speak, I was often reminded of what one of their number
gave me as his reason for not attending their Convention. He stopped
away partly because he heard nothing new, but also because it was not
pleasant to hear people whom he liked say things which he did not like.
Incompleteness misleads. Half a loaf is better than no bread, but half
a truth is often worse than silence ; and I frequently felt that, whatever
might be my accordance with their speakers, their want of completeness
gave an entirely wrong impression.* In conversation this could be
altered. I freely told t^em my objections, which they kindly met, and
we talked pleasantly of some of those other things by and for which
men live. In my book of extracts. Garrison and Dr. Gannett appear
side by side : we had this link of S3rmpathy — there were friends in En-
gland who loved us all. I spent no happier or more profitable days
&fui those which I enjoyed in the religious and affectionate homes of
each of the Messrs. May and other leading abolitionists ; and I do not
know any who had my fuller sympathy on this subject than those who
laboured for the slave as the ministers of Christ, who did not allow the
Egyptian darkness to overwhelm them, but were cheered in their
labours by the light of love for the erring and faith in God.

The Garrisonians have laboured devotedly in a glorious cause, and
they cannot yet be spared. I am not prepared to deny that since their
agitation the slaves have been more rigorously dealt with, from real or
affected fear on the part of the masters, whose pride is more than ever
enlisted in the maintenance of the system : in other States, however,
there has been improvement. But in the North there has been a de-
cided advance, much of which must be attributed to their unceasing
exertions ,f and if they have done harm, good preponderates as far as

* Perhaps this is almost unavoidable in a party meeting. The panegyrics on
the Union uttered by the opposite party seemed to me equally one-sided.

t All societies attacking existing institutions cause a temporary reaction. The
ardour of Dissenters stimulates the Church. The Reformation Society inflames
the Catholics. Unitarians are more opposed to Popery than any ouier body,
yet they discountenance the Keformation Society, though the courage and zeal
of many of its speakers are imdoubted, and the CathoUc Church is chargeable
with countless errors and crimes : we think it well, if we want to convince a
man, not to taunt him with his absurdities alone, but to do justice to everything
which modifies them. One of our ministers told me Uiat it only did him harm
to read the unceasing accusations of the abolitionists: he is coiled pro-slavery ;
yet so great is his disgust at slavery, that he assured me he had never entered
a slave State, as he could not endure the sight of it.

68

the cause of freedom is concerned. If I resided in America, I should
probably not connect myself with them, but should prefer striving for
freedom freely ; but I have every year given or procured contributions
to their bazaar, because I honour their unflinching, self-sacriflcing inte-
grity ; and those who discard all the ties of country for the slave's sake
deserve the sympathy of men of all countries. To labour with them in
America might be taken as an endorsement of much that would offend
our consciences ; but by aiding them here we do not enter into their
feuds with governments and religions, but aid '' an^t-slavery in the ab-
stract," distinct from the questionable peculiarities of its advocates.
Philanthropy requires a missionary spirit as well as theology ; and if it
is right to send out preachers to convert the heathens abroad, though
we have practical heathenism at home, I do not know why we should
not help to assail slavery abroad, though we have practical slavery at
home.

Before I close this letter (which I have already extended far beyond
my wish, though much has been omitted which I desired to say), I may
advert to what we have already done. After a visit from Mr. S. May,
Jun., a letter of brotherly remonstrance was sent from the Unita-
rian ministers of this country which was numerously signed, and
received an answer which indicated that it had done good. After a
visit of F. Douglass to Bridgwater, I was commissioned by a com-
mittee, appointed at a public meeting, to draw up a letter on the sub-
ject to our namesake in Massachusetts, which had considerable dealings
with the South. It fortunately met the approval of the Garrisonians,
without exciting any hostile feeling in those whom it addressed : we
had an answer very numerously signed : it drew increased attention
to the question in the locality, and their neighbours at Taunton said
that they would like a letter from their English namesake, couched in
the same fraternal spirit. When an invitation was sent to our ministers
to attend the Boston Unitarian anniversaries, a reply was drawn up,
declining, on the ground, I believe, that a slaveholder was or had been
an officer of the Association. Some of us could not conscientiously
sign this letter, as it was not accordant with our principles nor our
practices in parallel cases. This reply does not seem to have been
effective of much good ; and as it was signed by laymen, those who
objected to it, intimated that they did not want a refusal from persons
whom they had never invited. There has been more recently an attempt
to pass a resolution, excluding from our pulpits all American ministers
who are not sound on this question. As such a step was generally re-
garded as inconsistent with our congregational usages, it was only
carried, I believe, in one instance. Its adoption would have led to
some perplexity and many inconsistencies among ourselves, and might
have exposed our American abolitionist ministers to great annoyance.
When I was there, they freely exchanged pulpits with their brethren.
If our exclusiveness had led to exclusiveness there, their influence would
have been narrowed, and jealousy and unkindness might have been the
result. Many of our congregations sent remonstrances, some of which
might have less weight from their apparent ignorance of the origin of
the Fugitive Slave Bill, — supposing its principle to be an innovation.
The judge must know both sides, and hear all the evidence : where
resolutions appear echoes of the Garrisonian party, those who are not

69

affected by the voice, are not much moved by the echo ; and the Ame-
rican Unitarian papers have shewn no greater forwardness to insert our
resolutions, than our periodicals might be to give publicity to any series
of American documents which they thought incorrect. I should be
extremely sorry if our hearts did not burn with indignation at so abo-
minable a law, and at the whole system which inflicts such awful
wrong — moral, mental, and often physical — on three millions of our
fellow-beings : and it is the word from the heart which goes to the
heart. Whatever we can do we ought to do, to lessen the evil. We
should keep it in mind as the great wrong, which no false politeness
should make us blink when Americans boast to us of the glory of their
institutions. The law has this good effect, that the North can no
longer pretend that it has nothing to do with the system. Unless they
think their government a mass of rottenness, which it is death to
touch, they must desire to shew their country as it ought to be — in
the van, not the rear, of freedom. In our addresses to individuals or
churches, we should be guided by our own experience. If we are im-
proved by censures for faults to which we do not plead guilty, let us
thus censure others ; if fierce invectives for acknowledged evil help us
to quit it, let us not spare invectives : they may at all events help to neu-
tralize those of the South, or the conservatives of the North, in the
minds of the wavering. If it is kindness which subdues us, let us over-
come evil with good ; if we are moved by appeals to our better natures,
and encouraged by hope, let us administer life's best cordial to those
■who are silent through despondency. Whatever we would that men
should do to us, let us do to them.

From England, America inherited slavery. Let it have her aid to
uproot it : let us strive to instruct the myriads who leave our shores to
settle there, in their duties to the coloured race : let us assist our Trans-
atlantic visitors to be free from their prejudices, and to love equal
rights. Let us help to raise the condition of our enfranchised popula-
tion in the West Indies, to whom the Americans look to see the results
of freedom, and who are quite as much our concern as the inhabitants of
the States. Let us raise our degraded population at home, lest our selfish
neglect bring distrust upon freedom. Let us root out from ourselves
all moral and spiritual slavery, and never try to crush what we dislike,
or to tyrannize over what we despise. When we act consistently with
our Christian profession in our home walks, we shall have a Christ-like
strength to break the yoke and set the oppressed free in distant lands :
the truth that makes us free shall free others ; and those who do the
will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, may pray with full assu-
rance of faith, Thy kingdom come.

Yours respectfully,

Birkenhead, Nov, 4, 1851, R. L. Cabpenteb.

C. Oieen, Printer, Hackney.

->

739

^l 63 A C 55 2i

nil

This book should be returned to
the Library on or before the last date
stamped below.

A fine is incurred by retaining it

beyond the specified time.
Please return promptly.