Concerning slavery in the 1840s and 1850s

A N A D D R E S S T O T H E S L A V E S O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S O F A M E R I C A (REJECTED BY THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1843.) BY HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET. ______________________ PREFACE. The following Address was first read at the National Conven- tion held at Buffalo, N.Y., in 1843. Since that time it has been slightly modified, retaining, however, all of its original doctrine. The docu ment elicited more discussion than any other paper that was ever brought before that, or any other deliberative body of colored per sons, and their friends. Gentlemen who opposed the Address, based their objections on these grounds. 1. That the document was war-like, and encouraged insurrection ; and 2. That if the Convention should adopt it, that those delegates who lived near the borders of the slave states, would not dare to return to their homes. The Ad dress was rejected by a small majority ; and now in compliance with the earnest request of many who heard it, and in conformity to the wishes of numer- ous friends who are anxious to see it, the author now gives it to the public, praying God that this little book may be borne on the four winds of heaven, until the principles it contains shall be un- derstood and adopted by every slave in the Union. H. H. G. Troy, N. Y., April 15, 1848.

ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE U. S. Brethren and Fellow-Citizens : Your brethren of the north, east, and west have been accus- tomed to meet together in Na tional Conventions, to sympathize with each other, and to weep over your unhappy condition. In these meetings we have addressed all classes of the free, but we have never until this time, sent a word of consolation and ad- vice to you. We have been contented in sitting still and mourn- ing over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that before this day, your sacred liberties would have been restored. But, we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have been borne on streams of blood, and tears, to the shores of eternity. While you have been oppressed, we have also been partak ers with you ; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We there- fore write to you as being bound with you. Many of you are bound to us, not only by the ties of a com- mon humanity, but we are connected by the more tender rela- tions of parents, wives, husbands, children, brothers, and sis- ters, and friends. As such we most affectionately address you. Slavery has fixed a deep gulf between you and us, and while it shuts out from you the relief and consolation which your friends would willingly render, it afflicts and persecutes you with a fierce ness which we might not expect to see in the fiends of hell. But still the Almighty Father of Mercies has left to us a glim mering ray of hope, which shines out like a lone star in a cloudy sky. Mankind are becoming wiser, and better—the op- pressor’s power is fading, and you, every day, are becoming bet- ter informed, and more numerous. Your grievances, brethren, are many. We shall not attempt, in this short address, to present to the world, all the dark catalogue of this nation’s sins, which have been committed upon an innocent people. Nor is it indeed,

A D D R E S S . 3 nec essary, for you feel them from day to day, and all the civilized world look upon them with amazement. Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our in- jured race were brought to the shores of America. They came not with glad spirits to select their homes, in the New World. They came not with their own consent, to find an unmolested enjoy- ment of the blessings of this fruitful soil. The first dealings which they had with men calling themselves Christians, exhibited to them the worst features of corrupt and sordid hearts ; and con- vinced them that no cruelty is too great, no villainy and no rob- bery too abhorrent for even enlight ened men to perform, when influenced by avarice, and lust. Neither did they come flying upon the wings of Liberty, to a land of free dom. But, they came with broken hearts, from their beloved native land, and were doomed to unrequited toil, and deep degradation. Nor did the evil of their bondage end at their emancipation by death. Suc- ceeding generations inherited their chains, and millions have come from eternity into time, and have returned again to the world of spirits, cursed, and ruined by American Slavery. The propagators of the system, or their immediate ancestors very soon discovered its growing evil, and its tremendous wick- edness and secret promises were made to destroy it. The gross inconsis tency of a people holding slaves, who had themselves “fer- ried o’er the wave” for freedom’s sake, was too apparent to be en- tirely over looked. The voice of Freedom cried, “Emancipate your Slaves.” Humanity supplicated with tears for the deliver ance of the children of Africa. Wisdom urged her solemn plea. The bleed- ing captive plead his innocence, and pointed to Christianity who stood weeping at the cross. Jehovah frowned upon the nefarious institu tion, and thunderbolts, red with vengeance, struggled to leap forth to blast the guilty wretches who maintained it. But all was vain. Slavery had stretched its dark wings of death over the land, the Church stood silently by—the priests prophesied falsely,

A D D R E S S . 4 and the people loved to have it so. Its throne is established, and now it reigns triumphantly. Nearly three millions of your fellow-citizens, are prohibited by law, and public opinion, (which in this country is stronger than law), from reading the Book of Life. Your intellect has been destroyed as much as possible, and every ray of light they have attempted to shut out from your minds. The oppressors them- selves have become involved in the ruin. They have become weak, sensual, and rapa cious. They have cursed you—they have cursed themselves—they have cursed the earth which they have trod. In the language of a Southern statesman, we can truly say, “even the wolf, driven back long since by the approach of man, now returns after the lapse of a hundred years, and howls amid the desolations of slavery.” The colonists threw the blame upon England. They said that the mother country entailed the evil upon them, and that they would rid themselves of it if they could. The world thought they were sin cere, and the philanthropic pitied them. But time soon tested their sincerity. In a few years, the colonists grew strong and severed themselves from the British Government. Their In- dependence was declared, and they took their station among the sovereign powers of the earth. The declaration was a glori ous document. Sages admired it, and the patriotic of every nation reverenced the Godlike senti ments which it contained. When the power of Government returned to their hands, did they emanci- pate the slaves? No ; they rather added new links to our chains. Were they ignorant of the principles of Liberty? Cer tainly they were not. The sentiments of their revolu tionary ora tors fell in burning eloquence upon their hearts, and with one voice they cried, Liberty or Death. O, what a sentence was that ! It ran from soul to soul like electric fire, and nerved the arm of thou- sands to fight in the holy cause of Freedom. Among the diversity of opinions that are entertained in regard to physical resistance,

A D D R E S S . 5 there are but a few found to gainsay that stern decla ration. We are among those who do not. Slavery ! How much misery is comprehended in that single word. What mind is there that does not shrink from its direful effects? Unless the image of God is obliterated from the soul, all men cher ish the love of Liberty. The nice discerning political economist does not regard the sacred right, more than the untu- tored African who roams in the wilds of Congo. Nor has the one more right to the full enjoyment of his freedom than the other. In every man’s mind the good seeds of liberty are planted, and he who brings his fellow down so low, as to make him contented with a condition of slavery, commits the highest crime against God and man. Brethren, your oppressors aim to do this. They endeavor to make you as much like brutes as possible. When they have blinded the eyes of your mind—when they have em- bittered the sweet waters of life—when they have shut out the light which shines from the word of God—then, and not till then has American slavery done its perfect work. To such degradation it is sinful in the extreme for you to make vol un tary submission. The divine command- ments, you are in duty bound to reverence, and obey. If you do not obey them you will surely meet with the displeasure of the Almighty. He requires you to love him supremely, and your neighbor as yourself—to keep the Sabbath day holy—to search the Scriptures—and bring up your children with respect for his laws, and to worship no other God but him. But slavery sets all these at naught, and hurls defiance in the face of Je hovah. The forlorn condition in which you are placed does not de stroy your moral obligation to God. You are not certain of Heaven, because you suffer yourselves to remain in a state of slavery, where you cannot obey the com mandments of the Sovereign of the uni- verse. If the ignorance of slavery is a passport to heaven, then it is a blessing, and no curse, and you should rather desire its

A D D R E S S . 6 perpetuity than its aboli tion. God will not receive slavery, nor ignorance, nor any other state of mind, for love and obedience to him. Your condi tion does not absolve you from your moral obligation. The diaboli cal injustice by which your liberties are cloven down, neither God, nor angels, or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment. There- fore it is your solemn and imperative duty to use every means, both moral, intellectual, and physi- cal that promise success. If a band of hea then men should attempt to enslave a race of Christians, and to place their chil- dren under the influence of some false religion, surely, heaven would frown upon the men who would not resist such aggres- sion, even to death. If, on the other hand, a band of Christians should attempt to enslave a race of heathen men and to entail slavery upon them, and to keep them in hea thenism in the midst of Christianity, the God of heaven would smile upon every effort which the injured might make to disen thral themselves. Brethren, it is as wrong for your lordly oppressors to keep you in slavery, as it was for the man thief to steal our ancestors from the coast of Africa. You should therefore now use the same manner of resistance, as would have been just in our ancestors, when the bloody foot prints of the first remorseless soul thief was placed upon the shores of our fatherland. The humblest peasant is as free in the sight of God, as the proudest monarch that ever swayed a sceptre. Liberty is a spirit sent out from God, and like its great Author, is no respecter of persons. Brethren, the time has come when you must act for your- selves. It is an old and true saying, that “if hereditary bondmen would be free, they must themselves strike the blow.” You can plead your own cause, and do the work of emancipation better than any others. The nations of the old world are moving in the great cause of uni versal freedom, and some of them at least, will ere long, do you jus tice. The combined powers of Europe

A D D R E S S . 7 have placed their broad seal of disapprobation upon the African slave trade. But in the slave holding parts of the United States, the trade is as brisk as ever. They buy and sell you as though you were brute beasts. The North has done much—her opinion of slavery in the abstract is known. But in regard to the South, we adopt the opinion of the New York Evan gelist—“We have ad- vanced so far, that the cause apparently waits for a more effec- tual door to be thrown open than has been yet.” We are about to point you to that more effectual door. Look around you, and behold the bosoms of your loving wives, heaving with untold agonies ! Hear the cries of your poor children ! Remember the stripes your fathers bore. Think of the torture and disgrace of your noble mothers. Think of your wretched sisters, loving vir- tue and purity, as they are driven into concubinage, and are ex- posed to the unbridled lusts of incarnate devils. Think of the undying glory that hangs around the ancient name of Africa :— and forget not that you are native-born American citizens, and as such, you are justly enti tled to all the rights that are granted to the freest. Think how many tears you have poured out upon the soil which you have cultivated with unrequited toil, and en- riched with your blood ; and then go to your lordly enslavers, and tell them plainly, that you are determined to be free. Appeal to their sense of justice, and tell them that they have no more right to oppress you, than you have to enslave them. En- treat them to remove the grievous burdens which they have im- posed upon you, and to remunerate you for your labor. Promise them renewed diligence in the cultivation of the soil, if they will ren der to you an equivalent for your services. Point them to the in crease of happiness and prosperity in the British West Indies since the act of Emancipation. Tell them in language which they cannot misunderstand, of the exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and of a fu ture judgment, and of the righteous retributions of an indignant God. Inform them that all you desire, is Freedom,

A D D R E S S . 8 and that nothing else will suffice. Do this, and for ever after cease to toil for the heartless tyrants, who give you no other reward but stripes and abuse. If they then commence the work of death, they, and not you, will be responsible for the consequences. You had far better all die—die immediately, than live slaves, and en- tail your wretchedness upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it, there is not much hope of Redemp- tion without the shedding of blood. If you must bleed, let it all come at once—rather, die freemen, than live to be slaves. It is impossi ble, like the children of Israel, to make a grand Exodus from the land of bondage. The Pharaohs are on both sides of the blood-red waters ! You cannot remove en masse, to the dominions of the British Queen—nor can you pass through Florida, and overrun Texas, and at last find peace in Mexico. The propagators of American slavery are spending their blood and treasure, that they may plant the black flag in the heart of Mex- ico, and riot in the halls of the Montezumas. In the language of the Rev. Robert Hall, when addressing the volunteers of Bris- tol, who were rushing forth to repel the invasion of Napoleon, who threatened to lay waste the fair homes of England, “Reli- gion is too much inter ested in your behalf, not to shed over you her most gracious influ ences.” You will not be compelled to spend much time in order to be come inured to hardships. From the first moment that you breathed the air of heaven, you have been accustomed to noth- ing else but hardships. The heroes of the American Revolution were never put upon harder fare, than a peck of corn, and a few herrings per week. You have not become enervated by the luxu- ries of life. Your sternest energies have been beaten out upon the anvil of severe trial. Slav ery has done this, to make you subser- vient to its own purposes ; but it has done more than this, it has prepared you for any emergency. If you receive good treatment,

A D D R E S S . 9 it is what you could hardly expect ; if you meet with pain, sor- row, and even death, these are the common lot of the slaves. Fellow-men ! patient sufferers ! behold your dearest rights crushed to the earth ! See your sons murdered, and your wives, mothers, and sisters doomed to prostitution ! In the name of the merciful God ! and by all that life is worth, let it no longer be a debateable question, whether it is better to choose LIBERTY or DEATH. In 1822, Denmark Veazie, of South Carolina, formed a plan for the liberation of his fellow men. In the whole history of human eff orts to overthrow slavery, a more complicated and tremen- dous plan was never formed. He was betrayed by the treach- ery of his own people, and died a martyr to freedom. Many a brave hero fell, but History, faithful to her high trust, will tran- scribe his name on the same monument with Moses, Hampden, Tell, Bruce, and Wallace, Toussaint L’Overteur, Lafayette and Washington. That tremen dous movement shook the whole em- pire of slavery. The guilty soul thieves were overwhelmed with fear. It is a matter of fact, that at that time, and in consequence of the threat ened revolution, the slave states talked strongly of emancipa tion. But they blew but one blast of the trumpet of freedom, and then laid it aside. As these men be came quiet, the slaveholders ceased to talk about emancipation : and now be- hold your condi tion to-day ! Angels sigh over it, and human ity has long since exhausted her tears in weeping on your account ! The patriotic Nathaniel Turner followed Denmark Veazie. He was goaded to desperation by wrong and injustice. By Despot- ism, his name has been recorded on the list of infamy, and fu- ture gen erations will number him among the noble and brave. Next arose the immortal Joseph Cinque, the hero of the Amis- tad. He was a native African, and by the help of God he emanci- pated a whole ship-load of his fellow-men on the high seas. And he now sings of liberty on the sunny hills of Africa, and beneath

A D D R E S S . 1 0 his native palm trees, where he hears the lion roar, and feels him self as free as that king of the forest. Next arose Madison Washington, that bright star of freedom, and took his station in the constellation of freedom. He was a slave on board the brig Creole, of Richmond, bound to New Orleans, that great slave mart, with a hundred and four others. Nineteen struck for lib- erty or death. But one life was taken, and the whole were eman- cipated, and the vessel was carried into Nassau, New Provi dence. Noble men ! Those who have fallen in freedom’s conflict, their memories will be cherished by the true-hearted and the God- fearing, in all future generations ; those who are living, their names are sur rounded by a halo of glory. We do not advise you to attempt a revolution with the sword, because it would be inexpedient. Your numbers are too small, and moreover the rising spirit of the age, and the spirit of the gospel, are opposed to war and bloodshed. But from this mo- ment cease to labor for tyrants who will not remunerate you. Let every slave throughout the land do this, and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more op pressed than you have been—you cannot suffer greater cruel ties than you have already. Rather die freemen than live to be slaves. Re member that you are THREE MILLIONS ! It is in your power so to torment the God-cursed slaveholders, that they will be glad to let you go free. If the scale was turned, and black men were the masters, and white men the slaves, ev- ery de structive agent and element would be employed to lay the oppres sor low. Danger and death would hang over their heads day and night. Yes, the tyrants would meet with plagues more terrible than those of Pharaoh. But you are a patient people. You act as though you were made for the special use of these devils. You act as though your daughters were born to pamper the lusts of your masters and overseers. And worse than all, you tamely submit, while your lords tear your wives from your embraces,

A D D R E S S . 1 1 and defile them before your eyes. In the name of God we ask, are you men? Where is the blood of your fathers? Has it all run out of your veins? Awake, awake ; millions of voices are calling you ! Your dead fathers speak to you from their graves. Heaven, as with a voice of thunder, calls on you to arise from the dust. Let your motto be resistance ! resistance ! resistance ! —No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resis tance. What kind of resistance you had better make, you must decide by the cir cumstances that surround you, and ac- cording to the suggestion of expediency. Brethren, adieu ! Trust in the living God. Labor for the peace of the human race, and remember that you are three millions. ―――――――

1 2 Notes Notes are keyed to the page and line of the the present work. The line count includes subtitles, but not running heads. 1.1 AN ADDRESS ] Delivered before the National Convention of Col- ored Citizens, Buff alo, New York, August 16, 1843. This ver- sion was first published in Henry High land Garnet, Walker’s Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life. And also Gar net’s Ad- dress to the Slaves of the United States of America. New-York, Printed by J. H. Tobitt, 1848, pages 89–96. I am indebted to Derrick R. Spires for guiding me to the proper text of this edi- tion. A somewhat revised version was published in 1865 in James McCune Smith’s A Memorial Discourse of Rev. Henry Highland Garnet (1865). 3.3 Two hundred and twenty-seven years ] The first recorded enslaved Africans in British North America were landed at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, brought by English privateers who had seized them from a captured Portuguese slave ship. 4.11-14 a Southern statesman, ... desolations of slavery.” ] The pas- sage may derive from Lydia Maria Child’s Letters from New York, Second series (1845), Letter XVI, p. 146. Mrs. Child as- cribes the quote to “Mr. Custis,” probably George Washing- ton Parke Custis (1781-1857) of Virginia, step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington. A later speech in Con- gress—August 4, 1856—by A. H. Cragin of New Hampshire, ascribed the passage to “Mr. Curtis, in a speech in the Vir- ginia Legislature, in 1832,” though it does not seem to have been part of the slavery debate of 1832 and Custis/Curtis was not a member of the legislature at that time. Appendix to the Congressional Globe, First Session, Thirty-Fourth Congress (1856), p. 1166. The latter ascription is repeated in Hinton R. Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South (1857), p. 101.

1 3 N O T E S 6.28-29 if hereditary bondmen ... the blow ] Lord Byron, Childe Har- old, canto II, stanza 76, ll. 28-29: “Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not / Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?” 7.6 New York Evan gelist ] Weekly antislavery newspaper published in New York City, 1835-1853. 9.9 Denmark Veazie ] more commonly spelled Vesey (c.1767-1822) 9.15 Hampden ] John Hampden (c.1594–1643), English parliamen- tarian whose resistance to the authority of Charles I contrib- uted to the English Civil War. 9.16 Tell ] William Tell, semi-legendary 14th-century Swiss hero whose killing of a Hapsburg official helped spark the rebellion that led to the Swiss Confederacy. 9.16 Bruce ] Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), King of Scots who led war for independence from England. 9.16 Wallace ] Sir William Wallace (1270-1305), Scottish knight and military leader in Scottish war for independence. 9.16 Toussaint L’Overteur ] François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803), leader of the Haitian Revolution. 9.26 Nathaniel Turner ] Leader of an abortive rebellion in Southamp- ton County, Virginia, August 1831. 9.30 Joseph Cinque ] Captive West African who led revolt on Span- ish slave ship Amistad in 1839. He and associates were taken into custody by U.S. authorities, charged with mutiny and murder, but acquitted and freed on an appeal decided in the U.S. Supreme Court. 10.2-3 Madison Washington ] In November 1841, Washington led 17 others in taking control of the ship transporting 134 enslaved persons to New Orleans for sale. They sailed to Naussau where British officials declared them freed, tried the 18 conspirators for mutiny, but ruled in their favor