The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
Page 50
“He has attempted to justify slavery here because it exists in Africa, and has
stated that it exists all over the world. Upon the same principle, he could justify
Mahometanism, with its plurality of wives, petty wars for plunder, robbery, and
murder, or any other of the abominations and enormities of savage tribes. Does
slavery exist in any part of civilised Europe?--No, sir, in no part of it.”
The calculations in the volume from which we have been
quoting are made in the year 1841. Since that time the area of
the Southern slave-market has been doubled, and the trade has
undergone a proportional increase. Southern papers are full of
its advertisements. It is, in fact, the great trade of the country.
From the single port of Baltimore, in the last two years, a
thousand and thirty-three slaves have been shipped to the
Southern market, as is apparent from the following report of the
custom-house officer:--
ABSTRACT of the Number of Vessels cleared in the District of Baltimore for Southern
Ports, having Slaves on Board, from January 1, 1851, to November 20, 1852.
Date. Denomina's. Names of Vessels. Where Bound. Nos.
1851.
January 6 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 16
" 10 " " " 6
" 11 Bark, Elizabeth, New Orleans, 92
" 14 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 9
" 17 " " " 6
" 20 Bark, Cora, New Orleans, 14
February 6 " E. H. Chapin, " 31
" 8 " Sarah Bridge, " 34
" 12 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 5
" 24 Schooner, H. A. Barling, New Orleans, 37
" 26 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 3 " 28 #" #" #" #42
March 10 Ship, Edward Everett, New Orleans, 20
" 21 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. #11
" 19 Bark, Baltimore, Savannah, 13
April 1 Sloop, Herald, Norfolk, Va. 7
" 2 Brig, Waverley, New Orleans, 31
" 18 Sloop, Baltimore, Arquia Creek, Va. 4
" 23 Ship, Charles, New Orleans, 25
" 28 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 5
May 15 " Herald, " 27
" 17 Schooner, Brilliant, Charleston, 1
June 10 Sloop, Herald, Norfolk, Va. 3
" 16 " Georgia, " 4
" 20 Schooner, Truth, Charleston, 5
" 21 Ship, Herman, New Orleans, 10
July 19 Schooner, Aurora, S., Charleston, 1
Septmbr. 6 Bark, Kirkwood, New Orleans, 2
October 4 " Abbott Lord, " 1
" 11 " Elizabeth. " 70
" 18 Ship, Edward Everett, " 12
" 20 Sloop, Georgia, Norfolk, Va. 1
Novem. 13 Ship, Eliza F. Mason, Nor Orleans, 57
" 18 Bark Mary Broughtons, " 47
Decem. 4 Ship, Timoleon, " 22
" 18 Schooner, H. A. Barling, " 45
1852.
January 5 Bark, Southerner, " 52
February 7 Ship, Nathan Hooper, " 51
" 21 " Dumbarton, " 22
March 27 Sloop, Palmetto, Charleston, 36
" 4 " Jewess, Norfolk, Va. 34
April 24 " Pahnetto, Charleston, 8
" 25 Bark, Abbott Lord, New Orleans, 36
May 15 Ship, Charles, " 2
June 12 Sloop, Pampero, " 4
July 3 " Palmetto, Charleston, 1
" 6 " Herald, Norfolk, Va. 7
" 6 " Maryland, Arquia Creek, Va. 4
Septmb. 14 " North Carolina, Norfolk, Va. 15
" 23 Ship, America, New Orleans, 1
October 15 " Brandywine, " 6
" 18 Sloop, Isabel, Charleston, 1
" 28 Schooner, Maryland, " 12
" 29 " H. M. Gambrill, Savannah, 11
Novem. 1 Ship, Jane Henderson, New Orleans, 18
" 6 Sloop, Palmetto, Charleston, 3
If we look back to the advertisements we shall see that the
traders take only the younger ones, between the ages of ten and
thirty. But this is only one port, and only one mode of exporting;
for multitudes of them are sent in coffles over land; and yet
Mr. J. Thornton Randolph represents the negroes of Virginia as
living in pastoral security, smoking their pipes under their own
vines and fig-trees, the venerable patriarch of the flock declaring
that “he nebber hab hear such a thing as a nigger sold to
Georgia all his life, unless dat nigger did something berry
bad.”
An affecting picture of the consequences of this traffic upon
both master and slave is drawn by the committee of the volume
from which we have quoted.
The writer cannot conclude this chapter better than by the
language which they have used:--
This system bears with extreme severity upon the slave. It subjects him to a
perpetual fear of being sold to the “soul-driver,” which to the slave is the
realisation of all conceivable woes and horrors, more dreaded than death. An
awful apprehension of this fate haunts the poor sufferer by day and night, from
his cradle to his grave. Suspense hangs like a thunder-cloud over his head.
He knows that there is not a passing hour, whether he wakes or sleeps, which
may not be THE LAST that he shall spend with his wife and children. Every
day or week some acquaintance is snatched from his side, and thus the con-
sciousness of his own danger is kept continually awake. “Surely my turn
will come next,” is his harrowing conviction; for he knows that he was reared
for this, as the ox for the yoke, or the sheep for the slaughter. In this aspect,
the slave's condition is truly indescribable. Suspense, even when it relates to an
event of no great moment, and “endureth but for a night,” is hard to bear.
But when it broods over all, absolutely all that is dear, chilling the present
with its deep shade, and casting its awful gloom over the future, it must break
the heart! Such is the suspense under which every slave in the breeding
State lives. It poisons all his little lot of bliss. If a father, he cannot go forth
to his toil without bidding a mental farewell to his wife and children. He cannot
return, weary and worn, from the field, with any certainty that he shall not find
his home robbed and desolate. Nor can he seek his bed of straw and rags with-
out the frightful misgiving that his wife may be torn from his arms before
morning. Should a white stranger approach his master's mansion, he fears that
the soul-driver has come, and awaits in terror the overseer's mandate, “You are
sold; follow that man.” There is no being on earth whom the slaves of the
breeding States regard with so much horror as the trader. He is to them
what the prowling kidnapper is to their less wretched brethren in the wilds
of Africa. The master knows this, and that there is no punishment so effectual
to secure labour, or deter from misconduct, as the threat of being delivered to
the soul-driver.*
Another consequence of this system is the prevalence of licentiousness. This is
indeed one of the foul features of slavery everywhere; but it is especially prevalent
and indiscriminate where slave-breeding is conducted as a business. It grows
directly out of the system, and is inseparable from it. * * * The pecuniary
inducement to general pollution must be very strong, since the larger the slave
increase the greater the master's gains, and especially since the mixed blood
demands a considerable higher price than the pure black.
&nb
sp; The remainder of the extract contains specifications too
dreadful to be quoted. We can only refer the reader to the
volume, p. 13.
The poets of America, true to the holy soul of their divine
art, have shed over some of the horrid realities of this trade the
pathetic light of poetry. Longfellow and Whittier have told
us, in verses beautiful as strung pearls, yet sorrowful as a
mother's tears, some of the incidents of this unnatural and
ghastly traffic. For the sake of a common humanity, let us
hope that the first extract describes no common event.
[title]THE QUADROON GIRL.
The Slaver in the broad lagoon
Lay moored with idle sail; He waited for the rising moon,
And for the evening gale. Under the shore his boat was tied,
And all her listless crew Watched the grey alligator slide
Into the still bayou. Odours of orange-flowers and spice
Reached them, from time to time, Like airs that breathe from Paradise
Upon a world of crime. The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
Smoked thoughtfully and slow; The Slaver's thumb was on the latch,
He seemed in haste to go. He said, “My ship at anchor rides
In yonder broad lagoon; I only wait the evening tides,
And the rising of the moon.” Before them, with her face upraised,
In timid attitude, Like one half curious, half amazed,
A Quadroom maiden stood.
Her eyes were large and full of light,
Her arms and neck were bare; No garment she wore save a kirtle bright,
And her own long raven hair. And on her lips there played a smile
As holy, meek, and faint, As lights in some cathedral aisle
The features of a saint. “The soil is barren, the farm is old,”
The thoughtful Planter said; Then looked upon the Slaver's gold,
And then upon the maid. His heart within him was at strife
With such accursed gains; For he knew whose passions gave her life,
Whose blood ran in her veins. But the voice of nature was too weak;
He took the glittering gold! Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek
Her hands as icy cold. The Slaver led her from the door,
He led her by the hand, To be his slave and paramour
In a strange and distant land! THE FAREWELL
OF A VIRGINIA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTERS, SOLD INTO SOUTHERN
BONDAGE.
Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
Where the noisome insect stings
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews,
Where the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air--
Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone, From Virginia's hills and waters-- Woe is me, my stolen daughters! Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. There no mother's eye is near them,
There no mother's ear can hear them;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash,
Shall a mother's kindness bless them,
Or a mother's arms caress them.
Gone, gone, &c. Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. Oh, when weary, sad, and slow,
From the fields at night they go,
Faint with toil, and racked with pain,
To their cheerless homes again--
There no brother's voice shall greet them,
There no father's welcome meet them.
Gone, gone, &c. Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. From the tree whose shadow lay
On their childhood's place of play;
From the cool spring where they drank;
Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank;
From the solemn house of prayer,
And the holy counsels there--
Gone, gone, &c. Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone; Toiling through the weary day,
And at night the spoiler's prey.
Oh, that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant's power is o'er,
And the fetter galls no more!
Gone, gone, &c. Gone, gone--sold and gone, To the rice-swamp dank and lone. By the holy love He beareth,
By the bruised reed He spareth,
Oh, may He, to whom alone
All their cruel wrongs are known,
Still their hope and refuge prove,
With a more than mother's love!
Gone, gone, &c.
John G. Whittier. The following extract from a letter of Dr. Bailey, in the Era, 1847, presents a view of this subject more creditable to some
Virginia families. May the number that refuse to part with
slaves, except by emancipation, increase!
The sale of slaves to the South is carried to a great extent. The slaveholders
do not, as far as I can learn, raise them for that special purpose. But, here is a
man with a score of slaves, located on an exhausted plantation. It must furnish
support for all; but, while they increase, its capacity of supply decreases. The
result is, he must emancipate or sell. But he has fallen into debt, and he sells to
relieve himself from debt, and also from an excess of mouths. Or, he requires
money to educate his children; or, his negroes are sold under execution. From
these and other causes, large numbers of slaves are continually disappearing from
the State, so that the next census will undoubtedly show a marked diminution of
the slave population.
The season for this trade is generally from November to April; and some esti-
mate that the average number of slaves passing the southern railroad weekly,
during that period of six months, is at least 200. A slave-trader told me that he
had known 100 pass in a single night. But this is only one route. Large num-
bers were sent off westwardly, and also by sea, coastwise. The Davises, in Peters-
burg, are the great slave-dealers. They are Jews, who came to that place many
years ago as poor pedlars; and, I am informed, are members of a family which
has its representatives in Philadelphia, New York, &c. These men are always in
the market, giving the highest price for slaves. During the summer and fall they
buy them up at low prices, trim, shave, wash them, fatten them so that they
may look sleek, and sell them to great profit. It might not be unprofitable to
inquire how much Northern capital, and what firms in some of the Northern
cities, are connected with this detestable business.
There are many planters here who cannot be persuaded to sell their slaves. They
have far more than they can find work for, and could at any time obtain a high
price for them. The temptation is strong, for they want more money and fewer
dependants. But they resist it, and nothing can induce them to part with a single
slave, though they know that they would be greatly the gainers in a pecuniary
sense were they to sell one-half of them. Such men are too good to be slave-
holders. Would that they might see it their duty to go one step further, and be-
come emancipators! The majority of this class of planters are religious men, and
this is the class to which generally are to be referred the various cases of emanci-
pation by will, of which from time to time we hear accounts.
* This horribly expressive appellation is in common use among the slaves of the
breeding States.
CHAPTER V.
&nb
sp; SELECT INCIDENTS OF LAWFUL TRADE, OR FACTS STRANGER
THAN FICTION.
The atrocious and sacrilegious system of breeding human
beings for sale, and trading them like cattle in the market, fails
to produce the impression on the mind that it ought to produce,
because it is lost in generalities.
It is like the account of a great battle, in which we learn, in
round numbers, that ten thousand were killed and wounded, and
throw the paper by without a thought.
So, when we read of sixty or eighty thousand human beings
being raised yearly and sold in the market, it passes through the
mind, but leaves no definite trace.
Sterne says that when he would realise the miseries of cap-
tivity, he had to turn his mind from the idea of hundreds of
thousands languishing in dungeons, and bring before himself the
picture of one poor, solitary captive pining in his cell. In like
manner, we cannot give any idea of the horribly cruel and de-
moralising effect of this trade, except by presenting facts in detail,
each fact being a specimen of a class of facts.
For a specimen of the public sentiment, and the kind of morals
and manners which this breeding and trading system produces,
both in slaves and in their owners, the writer gives the following
extracts from a recent letter of a friend in one of the Southern
States.
Dear Mrs. S--, The sable goddess who presides over our bed and wash-stand
is such a queer specimen of her race, that I would give a good deal to have you
see her. Her whole appearance, as she goes giggling and curtseying about, is per-
fectly comical, and would lead a stranger to think her really deficient in intellect.
This is, however, by no means the case. During our two months' acquaintance
with her, we have seen many indications of sterling good sense, that would do
credit to many a white person with ten times her advantages.
She is disposed to be very communicative; seems to feel that she has a claim
upon our sympathy, in the very fact that we come from the North; and we could
undoubtedly gain no little knowledge of the practical workings of the “peculiar
institution,” if we thought proper to hold any protracted conversation with her.
This, however, would insure a visit from the authorities, requesting us to leave