1846

mr. douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: i feel exceedingly glad of the opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims of my brethren in bonds in the united states, to so many in london and from various parts of britain, who have assembled here on the present occasion. i have nothing to commend me to your consideration in the way of learning, nothing in the way of education, to entitle me to your attention; and you are aware that slavery is a very bad school for rearing teachers of morality and religion. twenty-one years of my life have been spent in slavery—personal slavery—surrounded by degrading influences, such as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; and it will not be strange, if under such circumstances, i should betray, in what i have to say to you, a deficiency of that refinement which is seldom or ever found, except among persons that have experienced superior advantages to those which i have enjoyed. but i will take it for granted that you know something about the degrading influences of slavery, and that you will not expect great things from me this evening, but simply such facts as i may be able to advance immediately in connection with my own experience of slavery.

now, what is this system of slavery? this is the subject of my lecture this evening—what is the character of this institution? i am about to answer the inquiry, what is american slavery? i do this the more readily, since i have found persons in this country who have identified the term slavery with that which i think it is not, and in some instances, i have feared, in so doing, have rather (unwittingly, i know) detracted much from the horror with which the term slavery is contemplated. it is common[318] in this country to distinguish every bad thing by the name of slavery. intemperance is slavery; to be deprived of the right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is slavery, says another; and i do not know but that if we should let them go on, they would say that to eat when we are hungry, to walk when we desire to have exercise, or to minister to our necessities, or have necessities at all, is slavery. i do not wish for a moment to detract from the horror with which the evil of intemperance is contemplated—not at all; nor do i wish to throw the slightest obstruction in the way of any political freedom that any class of persons in this country may desire to obtain. but i am here to say that i think the term slavery is sometimes abused by identifying it with that which it is not. slavery in the united states is the granting of that power by which one man exercises and enforces a right of property in the body and soul of another. the condition of a slave is simply that of the brute beast. he is a piece of property—a marketable commodity, in the language of the law, to be bought or sold at the will and caprice of the master who claims him to be his property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated as property. his own good, his conscience, his intellect, his affections, are all set aside by the master. the will and the wishes of the master are the law of the slave. he is as much a piece of property as a horse. if he is fed, he is fed because he is property. if he is clothed, it is with a view to the increase of his value as property. whatever of comfort is necessary to him for his body or soul that is inconsistent with his being property, is carefully wrested from him, not only by public opinion, but by the law of the country. he is carefully deprived of everything that tends in the slightest degree to detract from his value as property. he is deprived of education. god has given him an intellect; the slaveholder declares it shall not be cultivated. if his moral perception leads him in a course contrary to his value as property, the slaveholder declares he shall not exercise it. the marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one-sixth of the population of democratic america is denied its privileges by the law of the land. what is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of its humanity, boasting of its christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?—what must be the condition of that people? i need not lift up the veil by giving you any experience of my own. every one that can put two ideas together, must see the most fearful results from such a state of things as i have just mentioned. if any of these three millions find for themselves companions, and prove themselves honest, upright, virtuous persons to each other, yet in these[319] cases—few as i am bound to confess they are—the virtuous live in constant apprehension of being torn asunder by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their property. this is american slavery; no marriage—no education—the light of the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman—and he forbidden by law to learn to read. if a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck. if the father attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he may be punished by the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, at the discretion of the court. three millions of people shut out from the light of knowledge! it is easy for you to conceive the evil that must result from such a state of things.

i now come to the physical evils of slavery. i do not wish to dwell at length upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, not so much to influence your minds on this question, as to let the slaveholders of america know that the curtain which conceals their crimes is being lifted abroad; that we are opening the dark cell, and leading the people into the horrible recesses of what they are pleased to call their domestic institution. we want them to know that a knowledge of their whippings, their scourgings, their brandings, their chainings, is not confined to their plantations, but that some negro of theirs has broken loose from his chains—has burst through the dark incrustation of slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the gaze of the christian people of england.

the slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. if i were disposed, i have matter enough to interest you on this question for five or six evenings, but i will not dwell at length upon these cruelties. suffice it to say, that all of the peculiar modes of torture that were resorted to in the west india islands, are resorted to, i believe, even more frequently, in the united states of america. starvation, the bloody whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, cat-hauling, the cat-o’-nine-tails, the dungeon, the blood-hound, are all in requisition to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the united states. if any one has a doubt upon this point, i would ask him to read the chapter on slavery in dickens’s notes on america. if any man has a doubt upon it, i have here the “testimony of a thousand witnesses,” which i can give at any length, all going to prove the truth of my statement. the blood-hound is regularly trained in the united states, and advertisements are to be found in the southern papers of the union, from persons advertising themselves as blood-hound trainers, and offering to hunt down slaves at fifteen dollars a piece, recommending their hounds as the fleetest in the neighborhood, never known to fail.[320] advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating that slaves have escaped with iron collars about their necks, with bands of iron about their feet, marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the initials of their master’s name burned into their flesh; and the masters advertise the fact of their being thus branded with their own signature, thereby proving to the world, that, however damning it may appear to non-slavers, such practices are not regarded discreditable among the slaveholders themselves. why, i believe if a man should brand his horse in this country—burn the initials of his name into any of his cattle, and publish the ferocious deed here—that the united execrations of christians in britain would descend upon him. yet in the united states, human beings are thus branded. as whittier says—

... our countrymen in chains,

the whip on woman’s shrinking flesh,

our soil yet reddening with the stains

caught from her scourgings warm and fresh.

the slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. of all things that have been said of slavery to which exception has been taken by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, and yet there is no charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that of the most barbarous inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward their slaves. and all this is necessary; it is necessary to resort to these cruelties, in order to make the slave a slave, and to keep him a slave. why, my experience all goes to prove the truth of what you will call a marvelous proposition, that the better you treat a slave, the more you destroy his value as a slave, and enhance the probability of his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more kindly you treat him, the more wretched you make him, while you keep him in the condition of a slave. my experience, i say, confirms the truth of this proposition. when i was treated exceedingly ill; when my back was being scourged daily; when i was whipped within an inch of my life—life was all i cared for. “spare my life,” was my continual prayer. when i was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, i was not thinking of my liberty; it was my life. but, as soon as the blow was not to be feared, then came the longing for liberty. if a slave has a bad master, his ambition is to get a better; when he gets a better, he aspires to have the best; and when he gets the best, he aspires to be his own master. but the slave must be brutalized to keep him as a slave. the slaveholder feels this necessity. i admit this necessity. if it be right to hold slaves at all, it is right to hold[321] them in the only way in which they can be held; and this can be done only by shutting out the light of education from their minds, and brutalizing their persons. the whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the blood-hound, the stocks, and all the other bloody paraphernalia of the slave system, are indispensably necessary to the relation of master and slave. the slave must be subjected to these, or he ceases to be a slave. let him know that the whip is burned; that the fetters have been turned to some useful and profitable employment; that the chain is no longer for his limbs; that the blood-hound is no longer to be put upon his track; that his master’s authority over him is no longer to be enforced by taking his life—and immediately he walks out from the house of bondage and asserts his freedom as a man. the slaveholder finds it necessary to have these implements to keep the slave in bondage; finds it necessary to be able to say, “unless you do so and so; unless you do as i bid you—i will take away your life!”

some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking place in the middle states of the union. we have in those states what are called the slave-breeding states. allow me to speak plainly. although it is harrowing to your feelings, it is necessary that the facts of the case should be stated. we have in the united states slave-breeding states. the very state from which the minister from our court to yours comes, is one of these states—maryland, where men, women, and children are reared for the market, just as horses, sheep, and swine are raised for the market. slave-rearing is there looked upon as a legitimate trade; the law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the church does not condemn it. it goes on in all its bloody horrors, sustained by the auctioneer’s block. if you would see the cruelties of this system, hear the following narrative. not long since the following scene occurred. a slave-woman and a slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the absence of any law to protect them as man and wife. they had lived together by the permission, not by right, of their master, and they had reared a family. the master found it expedient, and for his interest, to sell them. he did not ask them their wishes in regard to the matter at all; they were not consulted. the man and woman were brought to the auctioneer’s block, under the sound of the hammer. the cry was raised, “here goes; who bids cash?” think of it—a man and wife to be sold! the woman was placed on the auctioneer’s block; her limbs, as is customary, were brutally exposed to the purchasers, who examined her with all the freedom with which they would examine a horse. there stood the husband, powerless; no right to his wife; the master’s right preeminent. she was sold. he was next[322] brought to the auctioneer’s block. his eyes followed his wife in the distance; and he looked beseechingly, imploringly, to the man that had bought his wife, to buy him also. but he was at length bid off to another person. he was about to be separated forever from her he loved. no word of his, no work of his, could save him from this separation. he asked permission of his new master to go and take the hand of his wife at parting. it was denied him. in the agony of his soul he rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take a farewell of his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck over the head with a loaded whip, and was held for a moment; but his agony was too great. when he was let go, he fell a corpse at the feet of his master. his heart was broken. such scenes are the everyday fruits of american slavery. some two years since, the hon. seth. m. gates, an anti-slavery gentleman of the state of new york, a representative in the congress of the united states, told me he saw with his own eyes the following circumstances. in the national district of columbia, over which the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators are ever holding forth on the subject of american liberty, american democracy, american republicanism, there are two slave prisons. when going across a bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he saw a young woman run out, bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little clothing on. she was running with all speed to the bridge he was approaching. his eye was fixed upon her, and he stopped to see what was the matter. he had not paused long before he saw three men run out after her. he now knew what the nature of the case was; a slave escaping from her chains—a young woman, a sister—escaping from the bondage in which she had been held. she made her way to the bridge, but had not reached, ere from the virginia side there came two slaveholders. as soon as they saw them, her pursuers called out, “stop her!” true to their virginian instincts, they came to the rescue of their brother kidnappers, across the bridge. the poor girl now saw that there was no chance for her. it was a trying time. she knew if she went back, she must be a slave forever—she must be dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the slaveholders continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, wretched young women, whom they call their property. she formed her resolution; and just as those who were about to take her, were going to put hands upon her, to drag her back, she leaped over the balustrades of the bridge, and down she went to rise no more. she chose death, rather than to go back into the hands of those christian slaveholders from whom she had escaped.

can it be possible that such things as these exist in the united states?[323] are not these the exceptions? are any such scenes as this general? are not such deeds condemned by the law and denounced by public opinion? let me read to you a few of the laws of the slaveholding states of america. i think no better exposure of slavery can be made than is made by the laws of the states in which slavery exists. i prefer reading the laws to making any statement in confirmation of what i have said myself; for the slaveholders cannot object to this testimony, since it is the calm, the cool, the deliberate enactment of their wisest heads, of their most clear-sighted, their own constituted representatives. “if more than seven slaves together are found in any road without a white person, twenty lashes a piece; for visiting a plantation without a written pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, thirty-nine lashes for the first offense; and for the second, shall have cut off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a club, thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale, without a ticket from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other than the most usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place, forty lashes; for traveling in the night without a pass, forty lashes.” i am afraid you do not understand the awful character of these lashes. you must bring it before your mind. a human being in a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles. “for being found in another person’s negro-quarters, forty lashes; for hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on horseback without the written permission of his master, twenty-five lashes; for riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek with the letter r. or otherwise punished, such punishment not extending to life, or so as to render him unfit for labor.” the laws referred to, may be found by consulting brevard’s digest; haywood’s manual; virginia revised code; prince’s digest; missouri laws; mississippi revised code. a man, for going to visit his brethren, without the permission of his master—and in many instances he may not have that permission; his master, from caprice or other reasons, may not be willing to allow it—may be caught on his way, dragged to a post, the branding-iron heated, and the name of his master or the letter r branded into his cheek or on his forehead. they treat slaves thus, on the principle that they must punish for light offenses, in order to prevent the commission of larger ones. i wish you to mark that in the single state of virginia there are seventy-one crimes for which a colored man may be executed; while there are only three of[324] these crimes, which, when committed by a white man, will subject him to that punishment. there are many of these crimes which if the white man did not commit, he would be regarded as a scoundrel and a coward. in the state of maryland, there is a law to this effect: that if a slave shall strike his master, he may be hanged, his head severed from his body, his body quartered, and his head and quarters set up in the most prominent places in the neighborhood. if a colored woman, in the defense of her own virtue, in defense of her own person, should shield herself from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical master, or make the slightest resistance, she may be killed on the spot. no law whatever will bring the guilty man to justice for the crime.

but you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land professing christianity? yes, they are so; and this is not the worst. no; a darker feature is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts. i have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at this time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody atrocities to which i have referred. while america is printing tracts and bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in foreign lands—the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. what have we in america? why, we have slavery made part of the religion of the land. yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed institution, as it is called. ministers of religion come forward and torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody deed. they stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this “institution.” as a proof of this, i need not do more than state the general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the sanctuary of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has not been any war between the religion and the slavery of the south. whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the limbs of the bondman, those droppings have served to preserve them in all their strength. instead of preaching the gospel against this tyranny, rebuke, and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by all and every means, to throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be construed into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they could torture into its support. this i conceive to be the darkest feature of slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified with religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of infidelity. yes, those with whom i have been laboring, namely, the old[325] organization anti-slavery society of america, have been again and again stigmatized as infidels, and for what reason? why, solely in consequence of the faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding religion of the southern states, and the northern religion that sympathizes with it. i have found it difficult to speak on this matter without persons coming forward and saying, “douglass, are you not afraid of injuring the cause of christ? you do not desire to do so, we know; but are you not undermining religion?” this has been said to me again and again, even since i came to this country, but i cannot be induced to leave off these exposures. i love the religion of our blessed savior. i love that religion that comes from above, in the “wisdom of god,” which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. i love that religion that sends its votaries to bind up the wounds of him that has fallen among thieves. i love that religion that makes it the duty of its disciples to visit the father less and the widow in their affliction. i love that religion that is based upon the glorious principle, of love to god and love to man; which makes its followers do unto others as they themselves would be done by. if you demand liberty to yourself, it says, grant it to your neighbors. if you claim a right to think for yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the same right. if you claim to act for yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the same right. it is because i love this religion that i hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, the mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the southern states of america. it is because i regard the one as good, and pure, and holy, that i cannot but regard the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. loving the one i must hate the other; holding to the one i must reject the other.

i may be asked, why i am so anxious to bring this subject before the british public—why i do not confine my efforts to the united states? my answer is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and all mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable character. my next answer is, that the slave is a man, and, as such, is entitled to your sympathy as a brother. all the feelings, all the susceptibilities, all the capacities, which you have, he has. he is a part of the human family. he has been the prey—the common prey—of christendom for the last three hundred years, and it is but right, it is but just, it is but proper, that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. i have another reason for bringing this matter before the british public, and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to all around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so deleterious to religion, so[326] sapping to all the principles of justice in its immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lack the moral stamina necessary to its removal. it is a system of such gigantic evil, so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to its removal. it requires the humanity of christianity, the morality of the world to remove it. hence, i call upon the people of britain to look at this matter, and to exert the influence i am about to show they possess, for the removal of slavery from america. i can appeal to them, as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder as for the slave, to labor in this cause. i am here, because you have an influence on america that no other nation can have. you have been drawn together by the power of steam to a marvelous extent; the distance between london and boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen days, so that the denunciations against slavery, uttered in london this week, may be heard in a fortnight in the streets of boston, and reverberating amidst the hills of massachusetts. there is nothing said here against slavery that will not be recorded in the united states. i am here, also, because the slaveholders do not want me to be here; they would rather that i were not here. i have adopted a maxim laid down by napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to occupy. the slaveholders would much rather have me, if i will denounce slavery, denounce it in the northern states, where their friends and supporters are, who will stand by and mob me for denouncing it. they feel something as the man felt, when he uttered his prayer, in which he made out a most horrible case for himself, and one of his neighbors touched him and said, “my friend, i always had the opinion of you that you have now expressed for yourself—that you are a very great sinner.” coming from himself, it was all very well, but coming from a stranger it was rather cutting. the slaveholders felt that when slavery was denounced among themselves, it was not so bad; but let one of the slaves get loose, let him summon the people of britain, and make known to them the conduct of the slaveholders toward their slaves, and it cuts them to the quick, and produces a sensation such as would be produced by nothing else. the power i exert now is something like the power that is exerted by the man at the end of the lever; my influence now is just in proportion to the distance that i am from the united states. my exposure of slavery abroad will tell more upon the hearts and consciences of slaveholders, than if i was attacking them in america; for almost every paper that i now receive from the united states, comes teeming with statements about this fugitive negro, calling him a “glib-tongued scoundrel,” and saying that he is running out against the institutions and people of america. i deny the charge that i am saying a word against the institutions of america,[327] or the people, as such. what i have to say is against slavery and slaveholders. i feel at liberty to speak on this subject. i have on my back the marks of the lash; i have four sisters and one brother now under the galling chain. i feel it my duty to cry aloud and spare not. i am not averse to having the good opinion of my fellow creatures. i am not averse to being kindly regarded by all men; but i am bound, even at the hazard of making a large class of religionists in this country hate me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done—i am bound by the prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling bondsmen, to have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form connected with the slaveholders of america. i expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. expose slavery, and it dies. light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under it. all the slaveholder asks of me is silence. he does not ask me to go abroad and preach in favor of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. he would not say that slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. the slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. they want the hatchway shut down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having no one to reprove or rebuke him. slavery shrinks from the light; it hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be reproved. to tear off the mask from this abominable system, to expose it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of the sun, that it may burn and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to this country. i want the slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring down in letters of light. i want him to feel that he has no sympathy in england, scotland, or ireland; that he has none in canada, none in mexico, none among the poor wild indians; that the voice of the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. i would have condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till, stunned and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled to let go the grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and restore them to their long-lost rights.