Enjoying his new celebrity after the publication of his Narrative in July 1847, Brown accepted an offer to deliver a lyceum lecture in Salem, Massachusetts, to the local women’s antislavery society. Whereas he generally spoke spontaneously, for this more formal occasion he delivered a prepared, polished lecture, whose text was recorded on the spot by a local stenographer, then printed and disseminated by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. It delivers one of his most rhetorically skillful attacks on the institution of slavery in clear, urgent language and in terms of direct address designed to move his audience to sympathy and action.
Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen:—In coming before you this evening to speak upon this all-important, this great and commanding subject of freedom, I do not appear without considerable embarrassment; nor am I embarrassed without a cause. I find myself standing before an audience whose opportunities for education may well be said to be without limit. I can scarcely walk through a street in your city, or through a city or a town in New England, but I see your common schools, your high schools, and your colleges. And when I recollect that but a few years since, I was upon a Southern plantation, that I was a Slave, a chattel, a thing, a piece of property,—when I recollect that at the age of twenty-one years I was entirely without education, this, every one will agree, is enough to embarrass me. But I do not come here for the purpose of making a grammatical speech, nor for the purpose of making a speech that shall receive the applause of my hearers. I did not accept the invitation to lecture before this association, with the expectation or the hope that I should be able to present anything new. I accepted the invitation because I felt that I owed a duty to the cause of humanity; I felt that I owed a duty to three millions of my brethren and sisters, with some of whom I am identified by the dearest ties of nature, and with most of whom I am identified by the scars which I carry upon my back. This, and this alone, induced me to accept the invitation to lecture here.
My subject for this evening is Slavery as it is, and its influence upon the morals and character of the American people.
I may try to represent to you Slavery as it is; another may follow me and try to represent the condition of the Slave; we may all represent it as we think it is; and yet we shall all fail to represent the real condition of the Slave. Your fastidiousness would not allow me to do it; and if it would, I, for one, should not be willing to do it;—at least to an audience. Were I about to tell you the evils of Slavery, to represent to you the Slave in his lowest degradation, I should wish to take you, one at a time, and whisper it to you.
Slavery has never been represented; Slavery never can be represented. What is a Slave? A Slave is one that is in the power of an owner. He is a chattel; he is a thing; he is a piece of property. A master can dispose of him, can dispose of his labor, can dispose of his wife, can dispose of his offspring, can dispose of everything that belongs to the Slave, and the Slave shall have no right to speak; he shall have nothing to say. The Slave cannot speak for himself; he cannot speak for his wife, or his children. He is a thing. He is a piece of property in the hands of a master, as much as is the horse that belongs to the individual that may ride him through your streets to-morrow. Where we find one man holding an unlimited power over another, I ask, what can we expect to find his condition? Give one man power ad infinitum over another, and he will abuse that power; no matter if there be law; no matter if there be public sentiment in favor of the oppressed.
The system of Slavery, that I, in part, represent here this evening, is a system that strikes at the foundation of society, that strikes at the foundation of civil and political institutions. It is a system that takes man down from that lofty position which his God designed that he should occupy; that drags him down, places him upon a level with the beasts of the field, and there keeps him, that it may rob him of his liberty. Slavery is a system that tears the husband from the wife, and the wife from the husband; that tears the child from the mother, and the sister from the brother; that tears asunder the tenderest ties of nature. Slavery is a system that has its blood-hounds, its chains, its negro-whips, its dungeons, and almost every instrument of cruelty that the human eye can look at; and all this for the purpose of keeping the Slave in subjection; all this for the purpose of obliterating the mind, of crushing the intellect, and of annihilating the soul.
I have read somewhere of an individual named Caspar Hauser, who made his appearance in Germany some time since, and represented that he had made his escape from certain persons who had been trying to obliterate his mind, and to annihilate his intellect. The representation of that single individual raised such an excitement in Germany, that law-makers took it in hand, examined it, and made a law covering that particular case and all cases that should occur of that kind; and they denominated it the “murder of the soul.” Now, I ask, what is Slavery doing in one half of the States of this Union, at the present time? The souls of three millions of American citizens are being murdered every day, under the blighting influence of American Slavery. Twenty thousand have made their escape from the prison-house; some have taken refuge in the Canadas, and others are lurking behind the stumps in the Slave-States. They are telling their tales, and representing that Slavery is not only trying to murder their souls, but the souls of three million of their countrymen at the present day; and the excitement that one individual raised in monarchical Germany, three millions have failed to raise in democratic, Christian, republican America!
I ask, is not this a system that we should examine? Ought we not to look at it? Ought we not to see what the cause is that keeps the people asleep upon the great subject of American Slavery? When I get to talking about Slavery as it is,—when I think of the three millions that are in chains at the present time, I am carried back to the days when I was a Slave upon a Southern plantation; I am carried back to the time when I saw dear relatives, with whom I am identified by the tenderest ties of nature, abused and ill-treated. I am carried back to the time when I saw hundreds of Slaves driven from the Slave-growing to the Slave-consuming States. When I begin to talk of Slavery, the sighs and the groans of three millions of my countrymen come to me upon the wings of every wind; and it causes me to feel sad, even when I think I am making a successful effort in representing the condition of the Slave.
What is the protection from the masters which Slaves receive? Some say, law; others, public sentiment. But, I ask, Where is the law; where is the public sentiment? If it is there, it is not effectual; it will not protect the Slave. Has the case ever occurred where the Slaveholder has been sent to the State’s Prison, or anything of the kind, for ill-treating, or for murdering a Slave? No such case is upon record; and it is because the Slave receives no protection and can expect no protection from the hands of the master. What has the brother not done, upon the Slave-plantation, for the purpose of protecting the chastity of a dearly beloved sister? What has the father not done to protect the chastity of his daughter? What has the husband not done to protect his wife from the hands of the tyrant? They have committed murders. The mother has taken the life of her child, to preserve that child from the hands of the Slave-trader. The brother has taken the life of his sister, to protect her chastity. As the noble Virginius seized the dagger, and thrust it to the heart of the gentle Virginia, to save her from the hands of Appius Claudius of Rome, so has the father seized the deadly knife, and taken the life of his daughter, to save her from the hands of the master or of the Negro-driver. And yet we are told that the Slave is protected; that there is law and public sentiment! It is all a dead letter to the Slave.
But why stand here and try to represent the condition of the Slave? My whole subject must necessarily represent his condition, and I will therefore pass to the second part,—the influence of Slavery upon the morals of the people; not only upon the morals of the Slave-holding South, or of the Slave, but upon the morals of the people of the United States of America. I am not willing to draw a line between the people of the North and the people of the South. So far as the people of the North are connected with Slaveholding, they necessarily become contaminated by the evils that follow in the train of Slavery.
Let me look at the influence which Slavery has over the morals of the people of the South. Three millions of Slaves unprotected! A million of females that have no right to marriage! Among the three millions of Slaves upon the Southern plantations, not a single lawful marriage can be found! They are out of the pale of the law. They are herded together, so far as the law is concerned, as so many beasts of burden are in the free States.
Talk about the influence of Slavery upon the morals of the people, when the Slave is sold in the Slave-holding States for the benefit of the church? when he is sold for the purpose of building churches? when he is sold for the benefit of the minister?
I have before me a few advertisements, taken from public journals and papers, published in the Slaveholding States of this Union. I have one or two that I will read to the audience, for I am satisfied that no evidence is so effectual for the purpose of convincing the people of the North of the great evils of Slavery as is the evidence of Slaveholders themselves. I do not present to you the assertion of the North; I do not bring before you the advertisement of the Abolitionists, or my own assertion; but I bring before you the testimony of the Slaveholders themselves,—and by their own testimony must they stand or fall.
The first is an advertisement from the columns of the New Orleans Picayune, one of the most reputable papers published in the State of Louisiana, and I may say one of the most reputable papers published South of Mason and Dixon’s line. If you take up the Boston Courier, or any other reputable paper, you will probably find in it an extract from the New Orleans Picayune, whose editor is at the present time in Mexico, where our people are cutting the throats of their neighbors.
COCK-PIT.—Benefit of Fire Company No. 1, Lafayette.—A cock-fight will take place on Sunday, the 17th inst., at the well-known house of the subscriber. As the entire proceeds are for the benefit of the Fire Company, a full attendance is respectfully solicited.
ADAM ISRANG,
Corner of Josephine and Tchoupitolas Streets, Lafayette
[N. O. Pic. of Sunday, Dec. 17
TURKEY SHOOTING.—This day, Dec. 17, from 10 o’clock, A. M., until 6 o’clock, P. M., and the following Sundays, at M‘Donoughville, opposite the Second Municipality Ferry.
[From the same paper
The next is an advertisement from the New Orleans Bee, an equally popular paper.
A BULL FIGHT, between a ferocious bull and a number of dogs, will take place on Sunday next, at 11 o’clock, P. M., on the other side of the river, at Algiers, opposite Canal Street. After the bull fight, a fight will take place between a bear and some dogs. The whole to conclude by a combat between an ass and several dogs.
Amateurs bringing dogs to participate in the fight will be admitted gratis. Admittance—Boxes, 50 cts; Pit, 30 cts. The spectacle will be repeated every Sunday, weather permitting.
PEPE LEULLA.
Now these are not strange advertisements to be found in a Southern journal. They only show what Slavery has been doing there to contaminate the morals of the people. Such advertisements can be found in numbers of the public journals that are published in the Slaveholding States of this Union. You would not find such an advertisement in a Boston or a Salem paper. Scarcely a paper in New England would admit such an advertisement; and why? Because you are not so closely connected with Slavery; you are not so much under its blighting influence as are the Slave-owners in the Slaveholding States of the Union.
I have another advertisement, taken from a Charleston paper, advertising the property of a deceased Doctor of Divinity, probably one of the most popular men of his denomination that ever resided in the United States of America. In that advertisement it says, that among the property are “twenty-seven Negroes, two mules, one horse, and an old wagon.” That is the property of a Slave-holding Doctor of Divinity!*
I have another advertisement before me, taken from an Alabama paper, in which eight Slaves are advertised to be sold for the benefit of an Old School Theological Seminary for the purpose of making ministers. I have another, where ten Slaves are advertised to be sold for the benefit of Christ Church Parish. I have another, where four Slaves are advertised to be sold for the benefit of the Missionary cause,—a very benevolent cause indeed. I might go on and present to you advertisement after advertisement representing the system of American Slavery, and its contaminating influence upon the morals of the people. I have an account, very recent, that a Slave-trader,—one of the meanest and most degrading positions in which a man can be found upon God’s footstool,—buying and selling the bodies and souls of his fellow-countrymen, has joined the church, and was, probably, hopefully converted. It is only an evidence that when Wickedness, with a purse of gold, knocks at the door of the Church, she seldom, if ever, is refused admission.
This is not the case here; for, some forty years since, the Church was found repudiating Slavery; she was found condemning Slavery as man-stealing, and a sin of the deepest dye. The Methodists, Presbyterians, and other denominations, and some of the first men in the country, bore their testimony against it. But Slavery has gone into all the ramifications of society; it has taken root in almost every part of society, and now Slavery is popular. Slavery has become popular, because it has power.
Speak of the blighting influence of Slavery upon the morals of the people! Go into the Slaveholding States, and there you can see the master going into the church, on the Sabbath, with his Slave following him into the church, and waiting upon him,—both belonging to the same church. And the day following, the master puts his Slave upon the auction-stand and sells him to the highest bidder. The Church does not condemn him; the law does not condemn him; public sentiment does not condemn him; but the Slaveholder walks through the community as much respected after he has sold a brother belonging to the same church with himself, as if he had not committed an offence against God.
Go into the Slaveholding States, and to-morrow you may see families of Slaves driven to the auction-stand, to be sold to the highest bidder; the husband to be sold in presence of the wife, the wife in presence of the husband, and the children in presence of them both. All this is done under the sanction of law and order; all is done under the sanction of public sentiment, whether that public sentiment be found in Church or in State.
Leaving the Slaveholding States, let me ask what is the influence that Slavery has over the minds of the Northern people? What is its contaminating influence over the great mass of the people of the North? It must have an influence, either good or bad. People of the North, being connected with the Slaveholding States, must necessarily become contaminated. Look all around, and you see benevolent associations formed for the purpose of carrying out the principles of Christianity; but what have they been doing for Humanity? What have they ever done for the Slave?
First, we see the great American Bible Society. It is sending bibles all over the world for the purpose of converting the heathen. Its agents are to be found in almost every country and climate. Yet three millions of Slaves have never received a single bible from the American Bible Society. A few years since, the American Anti-Slavery Society offered to the American Bible Society a donation of $5,000 if they would send bibles to the Slaves, or make an effort to do it, and the American Bible Society refused even to attempt to send the bible to the Slaves!
A Bible Society, auxiliary to the American Bible Society, held a meeting a short time since, at Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio. One of its members brought forward a resolution that the Society should do its best to put the bible into the hands of every poor person in the country. As soon as that was disposed of, another member brought forward a resolution that the Society should do its best to put the bible into the hands of every Slave in the country. That subject was discussed for two days, and at the end of that time they threw the resolution under the table, virtually resolving that they would not make an attempt to send bibles to the Slaves.
Leaving the American Bible Society, the next is the American Tract Society. What have you to say against the American Tract Society? you may ask. I have nothing to say against any association that is formed for a benevolent purpose, if it will only carry out the purpose for which it was formed. Has the American Tract Society ever published a single line against the sin of Slaveholding? You have all, probably, read tracts treating against licentiousness, against intemperance, against gambling, against Sabbath-breaking, against dancing, against almost every sin that you can think of; but not a single syllable has ever been published by the American Tract Society against the sin of Slaveholding. Only a short time since they offered a reward of $500 for the best treatise against the sin of dancing. A gentleman wrote the treatise, they awarded him the $500, and the tract is now in the course of publication, if it is not already published. Go into a nice room, with fine music, and good company, and they will publish a tract against your dancing; while three millions are dancing every day at the end of the master’s cowhide, and they cannot notice it! Oh, no; it is too small fry for them! They cannot touch that, but they can spend their money in publishing tracts against your dancing here at the North, while the Slave at the South may dance until he dances into his grave, and they care nothing about him.
A friend of mine, residing at Amsterdam, N. Y., who had been accustomed every year to make a donation to the American Tract and Bible Societies, some two years since said to the Agent when he was called upon, “I will not give you anything now, but tell the Board at New York that if they will publish a tract against the sin of Slaveholding, they may draw on me for $50.” The individual’s name is Ellis Clisby, a member of the Presbyterian church, and a more reputable individual than he cannot be found. The next year when the Agent called upon him, he asked where was the tract. Said the Agent, “I laid it before the Committee and they said they dared not publish it. If they published it their Southern contributions would be cut off.” So they were willing to sacrifice the right, the interest, and the welfare of the Slave for the “almighty dollar.” They were ready to sacrifice humanity for the sake of receiving funds from the South. Has not Slavery an influence over the morals of the North?
I have before me an advertisement where some Slaves are advertised to be sold at the South for the benefit of merchants in the city of New York, and I will read it to you. It is taken from the Alabama Beacon.
“PUBLIC SALE OF NEGROES.—By virtue of a deed of trust made to me by Charles Whelan, for the benefit of J. W. & R. Leavitt, and of Lewis B. Brown, all of the city of New York, which deed is on record in Greene County, I shall sell at public auction, for cash, on Main Street, in the town of Greensborough, on Saturday, the 22d day of December next, a Negro Woman, about 30 years old, and her child, eleven months old; a Negro Girl about 10 years old, and a Negro Girl about 8 years old.
WM. TRAPP, Trustee.”
Now if I know anything about the history of this country, the 22d day of December is the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims; the anniversary of the day when those ambassadors, those leaders in religion, came to the American shore; when they landed within the encircling arms of Cape Cod and Cape Ann, fleeing from political and religious tyranny, seeking political and religious freedom in the New World. The anniversary of that day is selected for selling an American mother and her four children for the benefit of New York merchants.
I happen to know something of one of the parties. He is a member of Dr. Spring’s church, and it is said that he gives more money to support that church than any other individual. And I should not wonder, when the bones, and muscles, and sinews, and hearts of human beings are put upon the auction-stand and sold for his benefit, if he could give a little to the church. I should not wonder if he could give a little to some institution that might throw a cloak over him, white-wash him, and make him appear reputable in the community. Has not Slavery an influence over the morals of the North, and of the whole community?
Now let us leave the morals of the American people and look at their character. When I speak of the character of the American people, I look at the nation. I place all together, and draw no mark between the people and the government. The government is the people, and the people are the government. You who are here, all who are to be found in New England, and throughout the United States of America, are the persons that make up the great American confederacy; and I ask, what is the influence that Slavery has had upon the character of the American people? But for the blighting influence of Slavery, the United States of America would have a character, would have a reputation, that would outshine the reputation of any other government that is to be found upon God’s green earth.
Look at the struggle of the fathers of this country for liberty. What did they struggle for? What did they go upon the battle-field for, in 1776? They went there, it is said, for the purpose of obtaining liberty; for the purpose of instituting a democratic, republican government. What is Democracy? Solon, upon one occasion, while speaking to the Athenians said, “A democratic government is a government where an injury done to the least of its citizens is regarded as an insult and an injury to the whole commonwealth.” That was the opinion of an old law-maker and statesman upon the subject of Democracy. But what says an American statesman? A South Carolina governor says that Slavery is the corner-stone of our Republic. Another eminent American statesman says that two hundred years have sanctioned and sanctified American Slavery, and that is property which the law declares to be property. Which shall we believe? One that is reared in republican America, or one that is brought up in the lap of aristocracy. Every one must admit that democracy is nothing more or less than genuine freedom and liberty, protecting every individual in the community.
I might carry the audience back to the time when your fathers were struggling for liberty in 1776. When they went forth upon the battle-field and laid down their bones, and moistened the soil with their blood, that their children might enjoy liberty. What was it for? Because a three-penny tax upon tea, a tax upon paper, or something else had been imposed upon them. We are not talking against such taxes upon the Slave. The Slave has no tea; he has no paper; he has not even himself; he has nothing at all.
When we examine the influence of Slavery upon the character of the American people, we are led to believe that if the American Government ever had a character, she has lost it. I know that upon the 4th of July, our 4th of July orators talk of Liberty, Democracy, and Republicanism. They talk of liberty, while three millions of their own countrymen are groaning in abject Slavery. This is called the “land of the free, and the home of the brave;” it is called the “Asylum of the oppressed;” and some have been foolish enough to call it the “Cradle of Liberty.” If it is the “cradle of liberty,” they have rocked the child to death. It is dead long since, and yet we talk about democracy and republicanism, while one-sixth of our countrymen are clanking their chains upon the very soil which our fathers moistened with their blood. They have such scenes even upon the holy Sabbath, and the American people are perfectly dead upon the subject. The cries, and shrieks, and groans of the Slave do not wake them.
It is deplorable to look at the character of the American people, the character that has been given to them by the institution of Slavery. The profession of the American people is far above the profession of the people of any other country. Here the people profess to carry out the principles of Christianity. The American people are a sympathizing people. They not only profess, but appear to be a sympathizing people to the inhabitants of the whole world. They sympathize with everything else but the American Slave. When the Greeks were struggling for liberty, meetings were held to express sympathy. Now they are sympathizing with the poor down-trodden serfs of Ireland, and are sending their sympathy across the ocean to them.
But what will the people of the Old World think? Will they not look upon the American people as hypocrites? Do they not look upon your professed sympathy as nothing more than hypocrisy? You may hold your meetings and send your words across the ocean; you may ask Nicholas of Russia to take the chains from his poor down-trodden serfs, but they look upon it all as nothing but hypocrisy. Look at our twenty thousand fugitive Slaves, running from under the stars and stripes, and taking refuge in the Canadas; twenty thousand, some leaving their wives, some their husbands, some leaving their children, some their brothers, and some their sisters,—fleeing to take refuge in the Canadas. Wherever the stars and stripes are seen flying in the United States of America, they point him out as a Slave.
If I wish to stand up and say, “I am a man,” I must leave the land that gave me birth. If I wish to ask protection as a man, I must leave the American stars and stripes. Wherever the stars and stripes are seen flying upon American soil, I can receive no protection; I am a Slave, a chattel, a thing. I see your liberty-poles around in your cities. If to-morrow morning you are hoisting the stars and stripes upon one of your liberty-poles, and I should see the man following me who claims my body and soul as his property, I might climb to the very top of your liberty-pole, I might cut the cord that held your stars and stripes and bind myself with it as closely as I could to your liberty-pole, I might talk of law and the Constitution, but nothing could save me unless there be public sentiment enough in Salem. I could not appeal to law or the Constitution; I could only appeal to public sentiment; and if public sentiment would not protect me, I must be carried back to the plantations of the South, there to be lacerated, there to drag the chains that I left upon the Southern soil a few years since.
This is deplorable; and yet the American Slave can find a spot where he may be a man;—but it is not under the American flag. Fellow citizens, I am the last to eulogise any country where they oppress the poor. I have nothing to say in behalf of England or any other country, any further than as they extend protection to mankind. I say that I honor England for protecting the black man. I honor every country that shall receive the American Slave, that shall protect him, and that shall recognise him as a man.
I know that the United States will not do it; but I ask you to look at the efforts of other countries. Even the Bey of Tunis, a few years since, has decreed that there shall not be a Slave in his dominions; and we see that the subject of liberty is being discussed throughout the world. People are looking at it; they are examining it; and it seems as though every country, and every people, and every government were doing something, excepting the United States. But Christian, democratic, republican America is doing nothing at all. It seems as though she would be the last. It seems as though she was determined to be the last to knock the chain from the limbs of the Slave. Shall the American people be behind the people of the Old World? Shall they be behind those who are represented as almost living in the dark ages?
“Shall every flap of England’s flag
Proclaim that all around are free,
From farthest Ind to each blue crag
That beetles o’er the western sea?
And shall we scoff at Europe’s kings,
When Freedom’s fire is dimmed with us;
And round our country’s altar clings
The damning shade of Slavery’s curse?”
Shall we, I ask, shall the American people be the last? I am here, not for the purpose of condemning the character of the American people, but for the purpose of trying to protect or vindicate their character. I would to God that there was some feature that I could vindicate. There is no liberty here for me; there is no liberty for those with whom I am associated; there is no liberty for the American Slave; and yet we hear a great deal about liberty! How do the people of the Old World regard the American people? Only a short time since, an American gentleman, in travelling through Germany, passed the window of a bookstore where he saw a number of pictures. One of them was a cut representing an American Slave on his knees, with chains upon his limbs. Over him stood a white man, with a long whip; and underneath was written, “the latest specimen of American democracy.” I ask my audience, who placed that in the hands of those that drew it? It was the people of the United States. Slavery, as it is to be found in this country, has given the serfs of the Old World an opportunity of branding the American people as the most tyrannical people upon God’s footstool.
Only a short time since an American man-of-war was anchored in the bay opposite Liverpool. The English came down by hundreds and thousands. The stars and stripes were flying; and there stood those poor persons that had never seen an American man-of-war, but had heard a great deal of American democracy. Some were eulogising the American people; some were calling it the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” And while they stood there, one of their number rose up, and pointing his fingers to the American flag, said:
“United States, your banner wears
Two emblems,—one of fame;
Alas, the other that it bears,
Reminds us of your shame.
The white man’s liberty entyped,
Stands blazoned by your stars;
But what’s the meaning of your stripes?
They mean your Negro-scars.”
What put that in the mouth of that individual? It was the system of American Slavery; it was the action of the American people; the inconsistency of the American people; their profession of liberty, and their practice in opposition to their profession.
I find that the time admonishes me that I am going on too far; but when I get upon this subject, and find myself surrounded by those who are willing to listen, and who seem to sympathise with my down-trodden countrymen, I feel that I have a great duty to discharge. No matter what the people may say upon this subject; no matter what they may say against the great Anti-Slavery movement of this country; I believe it is the Anti-Slavery movement that is calculated to redeem the character of the American people. Much as I have said against the character of the American people this evening, I believe that it is the Anti-Slavery movement of this country that is to redeem its character. Nothing can redeem it but the principles that are advocated by the friends of the Slave in this country.
I look upon this as one of the highest and noblest movements of the age. William Lloyd Garrison, a few years since, planted the tree of Liberty, and that tree has taken root in all branches of Government. That tree was not planted for a day, a week, a month, or a year; but to stand till the last chain should fall from the limbs of the last Slave in the United States of America, and in the world. It is a tree that will stand. Yes, it was planted of the very best plant that could be found among the great plants in the world.
“Our plant is of the cedar,
That knoweth not decay;
Its growth shall bless the mountains,
Till mountains pass away;
Its top shall greet the sunshine,
Its leaves shall drink the rain,
While on its lower branches
The Slave shall hang his chain.”
Yes, it is a plant that will stand. The living tree shall grow up and shall not only liberate the Slave in this country, but shall redeem the character of the American people.
The efforts of the American people not only to keep the Slaves in Slavery, but to add new territory, and to spread the institution of Slavery all over Christendom,—their high professions and their inconsistency, have done more to sadden the hearts of the reformers in the Old World than anything else that could have been thought of. The reformers and lovers of liberty in the Old World look to the American Government, look to the lovers of liberty in America, to aid them in knocking the chains from their own limbs in Europe, to aid them in elevating themselves; but instead of their receiving cooperation from the Government of the United States, instead of their being cheered on by the people of the United States, the people and the Government have done all that they could to oppose liberty, to oppose democracy, and to oppose reform.
Go to the capital of our country, the city of Washington; the capital of the freest government upon the face of the world. Only a few days since, an American mother and her daughter were sold upon the auction-block in that city, and the money was put into the Treasury of the United States of America. Go there and you can scarcely stand an hour but you will see caufles of Slaves driven past the Capitol, and likely as not you will see the foremost one with the stars and stripes in his hand; and yet the American Legislators, the people of the North and of the South, the “assembled wisdom” of the nation, look on and see such things and hold their peace; they say not a single word against such oppression, or in favor of liberty.
In conclusion let me say, that the character of the American people and the influence of Slavery upon that character have been blighting and withering the efforts of all those that favor liberty, reform, and progression. But it has not quite accomplished it. There are those who are willing to stand by the Slave. I look upon the great Anti-Slavery platform as one upon which those who stand, occupy the same position,—I would say, a higher position, than those who put forth their Declaration in 1776, in behalf of American liberty. Yes, the American Abolitionists now occupy a higher and holier position than those who carried on the American Revolution. They do not want that the husband should be any longer sold from his wife. They want that the husband should have a right to protect his wife; that the brother should have a right to protect his sister. They are tired and sick at heart in seeing human beings placed upon the auction-block and sold to the highest bidder. They want that man should be protected. They want that a stop should be put to this system of iniquity and bloodshed; and they are laboring for its overthrow.
I would that every one here could go into the Slave-States, could go where I have been, and see the workings of Slavery upon the Slave. When I get to talking upon this subject I am carried back to the day when I saw a dear mother chained and carried off in a Southern steamboat to supply the cotton, sugar, or rice plantations of the South. I am carried back to the day when a dear sister was sold and carried off in my presence. I stood and looked at her. I could not protect her. I could not offer to protect her. I was a Slave, and the only testimony that I could give her that I sympathised with her, was to allow the tears to flow freely down my cheeks; and the tears flowing freely down her cheeks told me that my affection was reciprocated. I am carried back to the day when I saw three dear brothers sold, and carried off.
When I speak of Slavery I am carried back to the time when I saw, day after day, my own fellow-countrymen placed upon the auction-stand; when I saw the bodies, and sinews, and hearts, and the souls of men sold to the highest bidder. I have with me an account of a Slave recently sold upon the auction-stand. The auctioneer could only get a bid of $400, but as he was about to knock her off, the owner of the Slave made his way through those that surrounded him and whispered to the auctioneer. As soon as the owner left, the auctioneer said, “I have failed to tell you all the good qualities of this Slave. I have told you that she was strong, healthy, and hearty, and now I have the pleasure to announce to you that she is very pious. She has got religion.” And although, before that, he could only get $400, as soon as they found that she had got religion they commenced bidding upon her, and the bidding went up to $700. The writer says that her body and mind were sold for $400, and her religion was sold for $300. My friends, I am aware that there are people at the North who would sell their religion for a $5 bill, and make money on it; and that those who purchased it would get very much cheated in the end. But the piety of the Slave differs from the piety of the people in the nominally free States. The piety of the Slave is to be a good servant.
This is a subject in which I ask your cöoperation. I hope that every individual here will take hold and help carry on the Anti-Slavery movement. We are not those who would ask the men to help us and leave the women at home. We want all to help us. A million of women are in Slavery, and as long as a single woman is in Slavery, every woman in the community should raise her voice against that sin, that crying evil that is degrading her sex. I look to the rising generation. I expect that the rising generation will liberate the Slave. I do not look to the older ones. I have sometimes thought that the sooner we got rid of the older ones the better it would be. The older ones have got their old prejudices, and their old associations, and they cling to them, and seem not to look at the Slave or to care anything about him.
Now, fellow-citizens, when you shall return home, and be scattered around your several firesides, and when you have an opportunity to make a remark about what I have said here this evening, all I ask of you is to give the cause, justice; to give what I have said, justice. Give it a fair investigation. If you have not liked my grammar, recollect that I was born and brought up under an institution, where, if an individual was found teaching me, he would have been sent to the State’s Prison. Recollect that I was brought up where I had not the privilege of education. Recollect that you have come here to-night to hear a Slave, and not a man, according to the laws of the land; and if the Slave has failed to interest you, charge it not to the race, charge it not to the colored people, but charge it to the blighting influences of Slavery,—that institution that has made me property, and that is making property of three millions of my countrymen at the present day. Charge it upon that institution that is annihilating the minds of three millions of my countrymen. Charge it upon that institution, whether found in the political arena or in the American churches. Charge it upon that institution, cherished by the American people, and looked upon as the essence of Democracy,—upon AMERICAN SLAVERY.
*Dr. Furman, of South Carolina.