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The Remedy For Slavery

The Remedy For Slavery image
Parent Issue
Day
31
Month
October
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Remedy for Slavery - who can teil us what it is ? Let us ask the slave himself. He has had occasion to study on this matter with the utmost inter.silv of thought and fee] tig. Yonder, undor a trep, ss oíd Torn, all nlono, enting nis meridian meal of hoe cake. Let us ask him. " Tom, why don't you brush up your ideas, become free, and try to be somebody in the world ? Why do you loil herc a slavn all your days ?" " Ah, ir, l should like to be (Vee : but how can I become so ? Uy master has me in his power, and 1 cannot get away. Sometimes I have run away : bui he always catcbrs me again. Then I have tried to buy myself of )nns:er; bul he will not let me go. I have some hopes ihat before master dies, he will set mo Cree. What can I do to m;ike myself free ? l cannot get liberty by fighting : fur nobody will help me, and 1 should bemtdiaiely killed. Be.sides,ve have friends at the North whoare doing all they can to get us free by law. I ne vershall bc? free unless I get my liberty in one of these ways ; and t s ín Mie hope of its coming that I toil on from year to year." Now you find, on cxamination, that old Tom's answer, short as it is, comprehendsevery practicable mode of abolishingslavery. It must be done, 1. By THE FLIGI1T OF THE SlAVE, 2. By his Resistaxce, 3. By the individual actiox of the Master, or,4. 13y Legislation. We will say something on each oí theso methods of Emancipation. 1. Running away cannot bc an efiectual rcmedy for American Slavcry. Two and a half millions of slaves cannot successfully run away from their masters. Therc isonly onc instanceon record, that of the Israelites, whëre a whole nation escaped from Slavery ; and tlien it was done only by a coniinued series ofmiracles, which cannot be looked for in these days. A few thousand may escape annually ; but the great mass, it is evident, if they ever find liberty, will find it on the soil where they have labored. The number of escapes, under the most favorable circumstances, cannot be expected even to keep down the increase of the slave population.2. Butcannot theslaves obtain their liborty, as oilier people havo done, by Pightlng for it ? Perhaps ihey might ; but under ordinary circumstances, t is not probable that they will of themselves very soon atternpt it. SJavery has existed for more than two hundred years ; and yet no really formidable insurrection has laken place. Occasional neighborhood out breaks, on sicgle plantations. have occurred ; but they were probably about ns frequent a century ugo, according to the number of sla ves, as they are now. The slave child, irom the time he can see a white man, is brought up to fear and reverence him. The infiuence ofihese early impressions is almost beyond the caiculation of persons who have always been free. Frederick Douglass. who seems to have much true nobleness of sou], assures us that the kindness of abolitionists, long familiarity on equal terms with white men at the Norih, and the most defcrmined eiForts of his own mind, have not been able to entiiely efface those early impressions by which he was taught to look to the white man as his superior. And it is found by experience that a people who have been enslaved for several generations usual ly lose the hope of obtaining freedom, and settle down in a sort of conlented, brutish acquiescence with their lot. Mark, wedo not say thcy lose all desire for líber ty: but the desire isso faint in degree that, fit leads to any eöbrt at all, it is so inefficiënt asto attempt little for freedoin and accomplish less. We approhend this is the real condition of the great mass of the slaves. They all desire liberty ; but, they will rarely make it their absorbing business to attain it. Much less are the willing to strive for it through carnage and bJood. The slaveholders generally have no great fearof slave insurreclions, originaling amone Ihc slaves. As Dr.Channing lias woll rcmarked, the mastei has but little to apprehend Trom the resislance of a slave who wil] look on, from time to time, while the wife of his bosom, the dearcst object of man's earthly affections, is strip ped and tied and scourged, wilhout any ftiult of hers, before his eyes and he not Jifting his hand to prevent it.The human being who can pennit this to to be done from year to year, has lost the spirit of a man ; and from the vongeance of hisarm, unless stimulated by otlier nnc superior minds, the tyrant has little to fear. But it is a principie of human nature, that men may be led to performwith success, through 'he incitement of slronger and bolder minds, acts which they woulü not for a moment have thoughl practicable without this foreign stimulus. It S this FOREIGX INTERFERENCE which the slaveholders dread. Henee their jealousy of Abolüionists coming to the South; and henee their apprehensions in case of a war with England, so forcibly set forth by Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State, in his report to Congress. lie wishes tobuild up a rtavy half as large as that of England, to protect this country ngainst the " hoslile clemcnls " which might be arrayed ngainst it by a foreign foe, from itsown bosom. Indeed, the Slaveholders wouldhave reason to dread the landing of a foreign force on their shorcs, with the ofler of arms and freedom to the slaves. The transformation of iazv, toiling, submiesive, half-nakêd, crouching slaves into erect, independent, free, Rriiislisoldiers, clolhed in an elegant uniform, with glittering bayonets in their hands, and commanded by experienced oiTicers, would beominous of evil to the master. The nervous arm of the negro which had been strengthened by unrequited toil ir. the service of the planter, would handle the wenpons of death in defence of his freedom, with a right good will. So of any other nation who should choose to make war with us a war of emancipation. A body of cmancipaced slaves, fully equipped with arms, would neveragain become slaves. But such a colusión with a powerful foreign nation is not at all probable, and the slaveholders have every year less to dread on this score.There is one otlier consideration, however, direclly nntagonistic to the favorable view we have advanced, to be taken inlo account, in estimotiug tlie probability of violence on the part of the slaves in the coming generation. It is well known that they are rapidly becoming assimiiátéd to their masters,in color, form, features, and physical conformation. - All travellers at the South speak of the large and increasing nurnber of mulatto slaves; and there is reason to believe that after the A frican hue has once begun to turn pale, the process of whiiening accelerates in a geometrical proportion. The barrier of color is perpetually losing its power. The female poriion oí' the slaves, it is woll known, are universally bought, sold, and hired for the purposes of licentiousness ; and as a fruitfu] intercourse is found to be profitable to the owners of slaves, no obstacle is interposed by the interest of the master,bv public sentiment orby law, to an indefinite increase of the slave population by this promiscuous intercourse. A few facts on this whitening process may be in place here, which we find collected in an exchange :Mr. Paxton, n Virginia writer, iclls us in his work on slavery, that "the best blood in Virginia ílows in the veins of the slaves." Dr. Torrey, in his work on domestic slavery in the United States, p. 14, says: "While at a public house in Fredericktown, there came into the bar-room on Sunday, a decently dressed while man, of quite a light complexión, in company with one who was totally black. Afier they went away, the landlord observed thac the while man was p slave. I asked him with some surprise how that could bepossible? To which he replied, ihat lie was a descendant, by female ancestry, Df an African slave. He also slated thatnot far from Fredcricklown, there was a slave estáte on which there were severa] xohite females of as fair and elegan' appearance as white ladies in general, held in legal bondage as sla ves ! ! A Missouri paper, reporting he trial of a sïave boy, remarks : "All the physioogical marks of distinction which characterize the A frican decent, had disappeared. His skin was fair, his hair soft, straight, fine and white, his eyes blue, but rather disposed to the ht-zei-nut coloi ihe nose prominent, the lips small anc well formed, forehead high and prominent." In the summer of 1835, a slaveholder from Maryland arrestedas his fugitive, a young woman in Philadelphia. A trial ensued, when t was most conclusively provea that the alledged slave, Mary Gilmore, was the child of poor Irish parents, and had not a drop of African blood iu her veins.A paper printed at Louisville Ky. the "Emporium," relates a circumstance that occurred in that city, in the following terms. "A laudable indignation was universally manifesfed among our citizens on Saturday last, by he exposure of a woman and two childrcn forsale at public auction, at the front of our principal tavern. The woman and children were as white as any of our citizens ; indeed, we scarcely ever saw a child with aer or clearer complexion than the young erone." - Ntlc's Regisier. June, 1821. Mr. Niles tells us ín his Register, tha .Mr. Calhoun, the late Vice President ïad related to liim the case of a man 'placed on the stand for sale as ?. slave vhose appearance n all respects gave him a better claim to the charactor of a WHITE MAN than most persons 6o acknowledged could show.' - Regisler,25th Oei. 1834.Ilenry Clay, who has been familiar with slavery all hislife, tells us that he expects in 150 or 200 years but few vestiges of the African race vvill be found existing amongst us. He supposes they will disappear by a gradual assimilation to the white population. It is the great law of nature, through all her kingdoms, that like begets like. - The mental feelings and energie?, as well as the physica] form and features, descendfrom íheparents to the children. Évery instance of amalgamaron cnrries into the communiiy or the slaves more nnd more of the intellect, the pride, and the active energy of the Anglo-Saxon race. Tiius the race of the slaves is improved by continual addilions of the best blood of the masters. And when the slaves become entirely theequals of their masters ineveryway nhysically, will they not beconie indignant at the thraldom which doorns them tobe merebeasts of burfhen ? Will they nol arouse from the long stupor of ages, nnd exercise in scènes of vengeance those faculties of Combativencss, Destructivenessand conscious Pridc of character, which tney have derived from their Anglo-Saxon anceslors? - Should Slavery continue another century, may we not iinticipate, from this sou ree, some fierce and deadly struggles of the white slaves fpr the altainment of white freedom? These views are fully endorsed by Rev. J. S. C. Abbott, a phüosophical wrilerof no mean ability. We give an extract from a. late article of his."Vnrious causes are rapidly diminíshing the genuine negro race. Whatever repugnance moy be manifest in reference to legalized matrimony, the crowds of mulattocs which throng the streets of all our principal cities, provc that there s not so slrong an objection to unlawful concubinagc. In the large towns of the North and the South, the skin is rapidly losing its color, and ebony hue becomes more and more faint, from commingling wiih the white man's blood. Many a slave at the South serves a masterblackcr than himself. Many are the yellow boys and yclloio girls, now advertised as the most valuable of slaves. Many a Southern coachman looks with complacency upon his white hands, and boasts to his fellow. slaves that his master is his i'alher. And it is by no means an unlieardof case in Southern Courts, fór a slave todemand his liberty on the g round that he is a white man. These white men are the ones who may eventual headthe armiesfor atenging their o-ppression, and vindícate their righls in a dcluge of Nood. The question to be solved in this country is not whether negro slavery shall be perpetuated, for ihere may soon be but few ncgrocs in our land. But can ihose increasing tens of thousahds repose in quiet bondage, whose pride is roused by ihe consciousness that the white mnn's blood courses n their veins ; and in whose character is combined ihe energy of the master, with the senso of wrong which burnsinthe bosom of the slave ? Will the son and brother of the white man long submit to this mercilessdegradation ? - He must ally himself in vengeance, with that colored race whose blood intermingled with his own, doorns him to infamy.Humboldtjir. his celebrnted trcatise upon the mixed races, states that four generations of intermarriage with the whiies entirely obliterates all traces of negro blood. We have first the mulatto, then the quarteroon, then the quinteroon, after which not the slightest difFerence can be perceived. These are the influences and the grades through which the African is loosing his native color, and becoming transformed into the white man. A little observation and reflection will convince any mind, tliat tkis process is advancing f ar more rapidly than is generally imagincd. In intermnrriage with the lnJian, all traces of Indian descent are lost in the third, and ofien in the second gen3ration.In South America, this transforming process is ady.ancing wilh astonishing rapidity. The Frnchmnn and the Spaniard appear to have no repugnance to intermarriage with the colored race; and all over thnt agitated, semi-civilized continent, the European, the Indian and the negro freely intermingle. And when they shall become weary of anarchy and war, and a stable government shall be eslablished, and all the refinements of intellect and Christian life shall adorn the valleys of the Amazon and the sides of the Cordilleras, there will doubtless appear ihere, physically, a noble race. - It would seem that a miracle, o i! -, can prevent that in a few generatiorw I orth and South America shall be inhabKed by a homogeneous people - the Indian, the negro and the white man being all blended together into forms of erect and manly beauty." But whatever may be our speculations on this subject, we may rest assured that the day of emancipation will ultimalely come. If it comes not tbrough Ihe influentes of Peace nnd Good Will, it will come through the measures of Vengeance and Bloot?.