My Bondage and My Freedom, My Bondage and My Freedom

F >> Frederick Douglass >> My Bondage and My Freedom, My Bondage and My Freedom

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the
monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South
America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the
last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of
this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting
barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a
rival.

THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE.

_Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July 5, 1852_

Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers,
is especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us
that the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the
fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of
the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on in
all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy;
and millions are pocketed every year by dealers in this horrid
traffic. In several states this trade is a chief source of
wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave
trade) _"the internal slave trade_." It is, probably, called so,
too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign
slave trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been
denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced
with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an
execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this
nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa.
Everywhere in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign
slave trade as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws
of God and of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it is
admitted even by our _doctors of divinity_. In order to put an
end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored
brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and
establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. It is,
however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is poured
out by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade,
the men engaged in the slave trade between the states pass
without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable.

Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade--the
American slave trade sustained by American politics and American
religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for
the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a
man-drover. They inhabit all our southern states. They
perambulate the country, and crowd the <355>highways of the
nation with droves of human stock. You will see one of these
human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and bowie-knife,
driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the
Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched
people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers.
They are food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill.
Mark the sad procession as it moves wearily along, and the
inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his
blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives.
There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one
glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders
are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the
brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen,
weeping, yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she
has been torn. The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have
nearly consumed their strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap,
like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain
rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream that
seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul. The crack
you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the scream you heard
was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered
under the weight of her child and her chains; that gash on her
shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans.
Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms
of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of
American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated
forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that
scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun,
can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this
is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at this
moment, in the ruling part of the United States.

I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave
trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often
pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street,
Fell's Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the
slave ships in the basin, anchored from the shore, with their
cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them
down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart
kept at the head of Pratt street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents
were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing
their arrival through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills,
headed, "cash for negroes." These men were generally well
dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to
drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate <356>of many a slave
has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has
been snatched from the arms of its mothers by bargains arranged
in a state of brutal drunkenness.

The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive
them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a
sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered,
for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New
Orleans. From the slave-prison to the ship, they are usually
driven in the darkness of night; for since the anti-slavery
agitation a certain caution is observed.

In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often
aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the
chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish
heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my
mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very
wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the
heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with
me in my horror.

Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active
operation in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my
spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the south;
I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered
humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are
to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the
highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly
broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of the buyers
and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.

_Is this the land your fathers loved?
The freedom which they toiled to win?
Is this the earth whereon they moved?
Are these the graves they slumber in?_

But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of
things remains to be presented. By an act of the American
congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in
its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason and
Dixon's line has been obliterated; New York has become as
Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and
children as slaves, remains no longer a mere state institution,
but is now an institution of the whole United States. The power
is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and American
christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-
hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for
the sportsman's gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human
decrees, the liberty and person of every man are <357>put in
peril. Your broad republican domain is a hunting-ground for
_men_. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely,
but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded
all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your
president, your secretary of state, your lords, nobles, and
ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and
glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed
thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have within the past two
years been hunted down, and without a moment's warning, hurried
away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating
torture. Some of these have had wives and children dependent on
them for bread; but of this no account was made. The right of
the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the right of marriage,
and to _all_ rights in this republic, the rights of God included!
For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor
religion. The fugitive slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME;
and bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN
DOLLARS FOR EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and five, when
he fails to do so. The oath of an{sic} two villains is
sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most
pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of
slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring no
witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound
by the law to hear but _one side_, and that side is the side of
the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let
it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king
hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats
of justice are filled with judges, who hold their office under an
open and palpable _bribe_, and are bound, in deciding in the case
of a man's liberty, _to hear only his accusers!_

In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the
forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the
defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law
stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if
there be another nation on the globe having the brass and the
baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in
this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and
feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him
at any suitable time and place he may select.

THE SLAVERY PARTY

_Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. Society, in
New York, May, 1853_

Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery
party--a party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to
promote the interests of slavery. The presence of this party is
felt everywhere in the republic. It is known by no particular
name, and has assumed no definite shape; but its branches reach
far and wide in the church and in the state. This shapeless and
nameless party is not intangible in other and more important
respects. That party, sir, has determined upon a fixed,
definite, and comprehensive policy toward the whole colored
population of the United States. What that policy is, it becomes
us as abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored
people themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought
to know who our enemies are, where they are, and what are their
objects and measures. Well, sir, here is my version of it--not
original with me--but mine because I hold it to be true.

I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects.
They are these: 1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery
discussion. 2d. The expatriation of the entire free people of
color from the United States. 3d. The unending perpetuation of
slavery in this republic. 4th. The nationalization of slavery to
the extent of making slavery respected in every state of the
Union. 5th. The extension of slavery over Mexico and the entire
South American states.

Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern
logic of passing events; in the facts which are and have been
passing around us during the last three years. The country has
been and is now dividing on these grand issues. In their
magnitude, these issues cast all others into the shade, depriving
them of all life and vitality. Old party ties are broken. Like
is finding its like on either side of these great issues, and the
great battle is at hand. For the present, the best
representative of the slavery party in politics is the democratic
party. Its great head for the <359>present is President Pierce,
whose boast it was, before his election, that his whole life had
been consistent with the interests of slavery, that he is above
reproach on that score. In his inaugural address, he reassures
the south on this point. Well, the head of the slave power being
in power, it is natural that the pro slavery elements should
cluster around the administration, and this is rapidly being
done. A fraternization is going on. The stringent
protectionists and the free-traders strike hands. The supporters
of Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. The silver-
gray whig shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only
differing from the latter in name. They are of one heart, one
mind, and the union is natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate
Negroes; both hate progress; both hate the "higher law;" both
hate William H. Seward; both hate the free democratic party; and
upon this hateful basis they are forming a union of hatred.
"Pilate and Herod are thus made friends." Even the central organ
of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a morsel from
the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the feast
by the more deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one
side it turns the other, and preseveres in its importunities.
The fact is, that paper comprehends the demands of the times; it
understands the age and its issues; it wisely sees that slavery
and freedom are the great antagonistic forces in the country, and
it goes to its own side. Silver grays and hunkers all understand
this. They are, therefore, rapidly sinking all other questions
to nothing, compared with the increasing demands of slavery.
They are collecting, arranging, and consolidating their forces
for the accomplishment of their appointed work.

The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party
of the United States, is the compromise of 1850. In that
compromise we have all the objects of our slaveholding policy
specified. It is, sir, favorable to this view of the designs of
the slave power, that both the whig and the democratic party bent
lower, sunk deeper, and strained harder, in their conventions,
preparatory to the late presidential election, to meet the
demands of the slavery party than at any previous time in their
history. Never did parties come before the northern people with
propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral sentiment
and the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked
them to unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and
to drive the Almighty presence from the councils of the nation.
Resting their platforms upon the fugitive slave bill, they boldly
asked the people for political power to execute the horrible and
hell-black provisions of that bill. The history of that election
reveals, with great clearness, the extent to which <360>slavery
has shot its leprous distillment through the life-blood of the
nation. The party most thoroughly opposed to the cause of
justice and humanity, triumphed; while the party suspected of a
leaning toward liberty, was overwhelmingly defeated, some say
annihilated.

But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs
of the slave power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner
did the democratic slavery party come into power, than a system
of legislation was presented to the legislatures of the northern
states, designed to put the states in harmony with the fugitive
slave law, and the malignant bearing of the national government
toward the colored inhabitants of the country. This whole
movement on the part of the states, bears the evidence of having
one origin, emanating from one head, and urged forward by one
power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and general, and looked to
one end. It was intended to put thorns under feet already
bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave a
people already but half free; in a word, it was intended to
discourage, dishearten, and drive the free colored people out of
the country. In looking at the recent black law of Illinois, one
is struck dumb with its enormity. It would seem that the men who
enacted that law, had not only banished from their minds all
sense of justice, but all sense of shame. It coolly proposes to
sell the bodies and souls of the blacks to increase the
intelligence and refinement of the whites; to rob every black
stranger who ventures among them, to increase their literary
fund.

While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political
board of health is established at Washington. Senators Hale,
Chase, and Sumner are robbed of a part of their senatorial
dignity and consequence as representing sovereign states, because
they have refused to be inoculated with the slavery virus. Among
the services which a senator is expected by his state to perform,
are many that can only be done efficiently on committees; and, in
saying to these honorable senators, you shall not serve on the
committees of this body, the slavery party took the
responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that sent
them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states
who shall be sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this
aggression on the part of the slave power did not meet at the
hands of the proscribed senators the rebuke which we had a right
to expect would be administered. It seems to me that an
opportunity was lost, that the great principle of senatorial
equality was left undefended, at a time when its vindication was
sternly demanded. But it is not to the purpose of my present
statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. I am
persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of
<361>anti slavery men in congress, and charges of recreancy
should never be made but on the most sufficient grounds. For, of
all the places in the world where an anti-slavery man needs the
confidence and encouragement of friends, I take Washington to be
that place.

Let me now call attention to the social influences which are
operating and cooperating with the slavery party of the country,
designed to contribute to one or all of the grand objects aimed
at by that party. We see here the black man attacked in his
vital interests; prejudice and hate are excited against him;
enmity is stirred up between him and other laborers. The Irish
people, warm-hearted, generous, and sympathizing with the
oppressed everywhere, when they stand upon their own green
island, are instantly taught, on arriving in this Christian
country, to hate and despise the colored people. They are taught
to believe that we eat the bread which of right belongs to them.
The cruel lie is told the Irish, that our adversity is essential
to their prosperity. Sir, the Irish-American will find out his
mistake one day. He will find that in assuming our avocation he
also has assumed our degradation. But for the present we are
sufferers. The old employments by which we have heretofore
gained our livelihood, are gradually, and it may be inevitably,
passing into other hands. Every hour sees us elbowed out of some
employment to make room perhaps for some newly-arrived emigrants,
whose hunger and color are thought to give them a title to
especial favor. White men are becoming house-servants, cooks,
and stewards, common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and,
for aught I see, they adjust themselves to their stations with
all becoming obsequiousness. This fact proves that if we cannot
rise to the whites, the whites can fall to us. Now, sir, look
once more. While the colored people are thus elbowed out of
employment; while the enmity of emigrants is being excited
against us; while state after state enacts laws against us; while
we are hunted down, like wild game, and oppressed with a general
feeling of insecurity--the American colonization society--that
old offender against the best interests and slanderer of the
colored people--awakens to new life, and vigorously presses its
scheme upon the consideration of the people and the government.
New papers are started--some for the north and some for the
south--and each in its tone adapting itself to its latitude.
Government, state and national, is called upon for appropriations
to enable the society to send us out of the country by steam!
They want steamers to carry letters and Negroes to Africa.
Evidently, this society looks upon our "extremity as its
opportunity," and we may expect that it will use the occasion
well. They do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes.
<362>

But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of
one aspect of the present condition and future prospects of the
colored people of the United States. And what I have said is far
from encouraging to my afflicted people. I have seen the cloud
gather upon the sable brows of some who hear me. I confess the
case looks black enough. Sir, I am not a hopeful man. I think I
am apt even to undercalculate the benefits of the future. Yet,
sir, in this seemingly desperate case, I do not despair for my
people. There is a bright side to almost every picture of this
kind; and ours is no exception to the general rule. If the
influences against us are strong, those for us are also strong.
To the inquiry, will our enemies prevail in the execution of
their designs. In my God and in my soul, I believe they _will
not_. Let us look at the first object sought for by the slavery
party of the country, viz: the suppression of anti slavery
discussion. They desire to suppress discussion on this subject,
with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of
slavery. Now, sir, neither the principle nor the subordinate
objects here declared, can be at all gained by the slave power,
and for this reason: It involves the proposition to padlock the
lips of the whites, in order to secure the fetters on the limbs
of the blacks. The right of speech, precious and priceless,
_cannot, will not_, be surrendered to slavery. Its suppression
is asked for, as I have said, to give peace and security to
slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be done. God has
interposed an insuperable obstacle to any such result. "There
can be _no peace_, saith my God, to the wicked." Suppose it were
possible to put down this discussion, what would it avail the
guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he is upon heaving bosoms of
ruined souls? He could not have a peaceful spirit. If every
anti-slavery tongue in the nation were silent--every anti-slavery
organization dissolved--every anti-slavery press demolished--
every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, pamphlet, or what
not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to ashes,
and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still
the slaveholder could have _"no peace_." In every pulsation of
his heart, in every throb of his life, in every glance of his
eye, in the breeze that soothes, and in the thunder that
startles, would be waked up an accuser, whose cause is, "Thou
art, verily, guilty concerning thy brother."

THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT

_Extracts from a Lecture before Various Anti-Slavery Bodies, in
the Winter of 1855_

A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for
any purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and
proper to be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly
participate in it, but also for those who stand aloof from it--
even for those by whom it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery
movement to be such an one, and a movement as sublime and
glorious in its character, as it is holy and beneficent in the
ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it safe to
say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than
any other subject now before the American people. The late John
C. Calhoun--one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the
American senate--did not deem it beneath him; and he probably
studied it as deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or
William Lloyd Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with
the subject; and the greatest efforts of his last years in the
senate had direct reference to this movement. His eagle eye
watched every new development connected with it; and he was ever
prompt to inform the south of every important step in its
progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but
always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import;
and in this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and
religious constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in
the better days of his life, before he gave his assent to the
fugitive slave bill, and trampled upon all his earlier and better
convictions--when his eye was yet single--he clearly comprehended
the nature of the elements involved in this movement; and in his
own majestic eloquence, warned the south, and the country, to
have a care how they attempted to put it down. He is an
illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good
advice. To these two men--the greatest men to whom the nation
has yet given birth--may be traced the two great facts of the
present--the south triumphant, and the north humbled. <364>Their
names may stand thus--Calhoun and domination--Webster and
degradation. Yet again. If to the enemies of liberty this
subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so should it
be such to freedom's friends. The latter, it leads to the gates
of all valuable knowledge--philanthropic, ethical, and religious;
for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully
made--the proper study of man through all time--the open book, in
which are the records of time and eternity.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30