Today's selection about the Old South is from the Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1883 edition; first published 1875. The first part of the book - 128 pages - was prepared in 1850).
In the preface to the book by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, he addresses the hypocrisy of Americans celebrating the country as the land of freedom and equality while an increasingly brutal and inhuman system of slavery was allowed to exist and thrive in the slave states:
We see your banner floating proudly in the breeze from every flag-staff and mast-head in the land; but its blood-red stripes are emblematical of your own slave-driving cruelty, as you apply the lash to the flesh of your guiltless victim, even the flesh of a wife and mother, shrieking for the restoration of the babe of her bosom, sold to the remorseless slave speculator! We catch the gleam of your illuminated hills, everywhere blazing with bonfires; we mark your gay processions; we note the number of your orators; we listen to the recital of your revolutionary achievements: we see you kneeling at the shrine of Freedom, as her best, her truest, her sincerest worshippers! Hypocrites! liars! adulterers! tyrants! men-stealers! atheists! Professing to believe in the natural equality of the human race--yet dooming a sixth portion of your immense population to beastly servitude, and ranking them among your goods and chattels! Professing to believe in the existence of a God--yet trading in his image, and selling those in the shambles for whose redemption the Son of God laid down his life! Professing to be Christians--yet withholding the Bible, the means of religious instruction, even the knowledge of the alphabet, from a benighted multitude, under terrible penalties! Boasting of your democracy--yet determining the rights of men by the texture of their hair and the color of their skin! Assuming to be 'the land of the free and the home of the brave,' yet keeping in chains more slaves than any other nation, not excepting slave-cursed Brazil! Prating of your morality and honesty--yet denying the rites of marriage to three millions of human beings, and plundering them of all their hard earnings! Affecting to be horror-struck in view of the foreign slave-trade--yet eagerly pursuing a domestic traffic equally cruel and unnatural, and reducing to slavery not less than seventy thousand new victims annually! (my emphasis)
In the bizarre rhetoric of today's neo-Confederates, we often hear a twisted echo of Garrison's use of the symbolism of the American flag to remind her readers that slavery flourished under that flag. The neo-Confederates like to say, in defending the Confederate flag as a symbol, that the American flag has always stood for racism while the Confederate flag never did. The marvelous logic of fanaticism.
Sojourner Truth's narrative gives a good picture of the usual reality behind the not-entirely-false claim that slaveowners would sometimes eventually grant loyal and faithful servants their freedom. As in the situation described here, it usually meant that slaves too old to work and no longer able to care for themselves properly were turned out of the plantation to waste away and die so that the generous Christian master would not be burdened with caring for them in their old age. From Chapter 1:
But before Bomefree's good constitution would yield either to age, exposure, or a strong desire to die, the Ardinburghs again tired of him, and offered freedom to two old slaves--Cæsar, brother of Mau-mau Bett, and his wife Betsey--on condition that they should take care of James. (I was about to say, 'their brother-in-law'--but as slaves are neither husbands nor wives in law, the idea of their being brothers-in-law is truly ludicrous.) And although they were too old and infirm to take care of themselves, (Cæsar having been afflicted for a long time with fever-sores, and his wife with the jaundice) they eagerly accepted the boon of freedom, which had been the life-long desire of their souls--though at a time when emancipation was to them little more than destitution, and was a freedom more to be desired by the master than the slave. Sojourner declares of the slaves in their ignorance, that 'their thoughts are no longer than her finger.'
A rude cabin, in a lone wood, far from any neighbors, was granted to our freed friends, as the only assistance they were now to expect. Bomefree, from this time, found his poor needs hardly supplied, as his new providers were scarce able to administer to their own wants. However, the time drew near when things were to be decidedly worse rather than better; for they had notbeen together long, before Betty died, and shortly after, Cæsar followed her to 'that bourne front whence no traveller returns'--leaving poor James again desolate, and more helpless than ever before; as, this time, there was no kind family in the house, and the Ardinburghs no longer invited him to their homes. Yet, lone, blind and helpless as he was, James for a time lived on. One day, an aged colored woman, named Soan, called at his shanty, and James besought her, in the most moving manner, even with tears, to tarry awhile and wash and mend him up, so that he might once more be decent and comfortable; for he was suffering dreadfully with the filth and vermin that had collected upon him.
Soan was herself an emancipated slave, old and weak, with no one to care for her; and she lacked the courage to undertake a job of such seeming magnitude, fearing she might herself get sick, and perish there without assistance; and with great reluctance, and a heart swelling with pity, as she afterwards declared, she felt obliged to leave him in his wretchedness and filth. And shortly after her visit, this faithful slave, this deserted wreck of humanity, was found on his miserable pallet, frozen and stiff in death. The kind angel had come at last, and relieved him of the many miseries that his fellow-man had heaped upon him. Yes, he had died, chilled and starved, with none to speak a kindly word, or do a kindly deed for him, in that last dread hour of need!
Her narrative describes one scene dramatically illustrating the arbitrary power that slaveowners held over their human property. Anyone who believes that this kind of capricious control lends itself to kindly treatment of valued property is living in a haze. Sojourner Truth here is called by her slave name, Isabella or Bell:
As she advanced in years, an attachment sprung up between herself and a slave named Robert. But his master, an Englishman by the name of Catlin, anxious that no one's property but his own should be enhanced by the increase of his slaves, forbade Robert's visits to Isabella, and commanded him to take a wife among his fellow-servants. Notwithstanding this interdiction, Robert, following the bent of his inclinations, continued his visits to Isabel, though very stealthily, and, as he believed, without exciting the suspicion of his master; but one Saturday afternoon, hearing that Bell was ill, he took the liberty to go and see her. The first intimation she had of his visit was the appearance of her master, inquiring if she had seen Bob.' On her answering in the negative, he said to her, 'If you see him, tell him to take care of himself, for the Catlins are after him.' Almost at that instant, Bob made his appearance; and the first people he met were his old and his young masters. They were terribly enraged at finding him there, and the eldest began cursing, and calling upon his son to 'Knock down the d--d black rascal;' at the same time, they both fell upon him like tigers, beating him with the heavy ends of their canes, bruising and mangling his head and face in the most awful manner, and causing the blood, which streamed from his wounds, to cover him like a slaughtered beast, constituting him a most shocking spectacle. Mr. Dumont interposed at this point, telling the ruffians they could no longer thus spill human blood on his premises--he would have 'no niggers killed there.' The Catlins then took a rope they had taken with them for the purpose, and tied Bob's hands behind him in such a manner, that Mr. Dumont insisted on loosening the cord, declaring that no brute should be tied in that manner, where he was. And as they led him away, like the greatest of criminals, the more humane Dumont followed them to their homes, as Robert's protector; and when he returned, he kindly went to Bell, as he called her, telling her he did not think they would strike him any more, as their wrath had greatly cooled before he left them. Isabella had witnessed this scene from her window, and was greatly shocked at the murderous treatment of poor Robert, whom she truly loved, and whose only crime, in the eye of his persecutors, was his affection for her. This beating, and we know not what after treatment, completely subdued the spirit of its victim, for Robert ventured no more to visit Isabella, but like an obedient and faithful chattel, took himself a wife from the house of his master. Robert did not live many years after his last visit to Isabel, but took his departure to that country, where 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage,' and where the oppressor cannot molest.
Also included in this document is a contemporary account of her visit with President Abraham Lincoln in October of 1864, written a few days after the event. Neo-Confederates like to portray Lincoln as a blithering anti-black racist. Sojourner Truth had quite a different impression:
"It was about 8 o'clock A. M., when I called on the president. Upon entering his reception room we found about a dozen persons in waiting, among them two colored women. I had quite a pleasant time waiting until he was disengaged, and enjoyed his conversation with others; he showed as much kindness and consideration to the colored persons as to the whites--if there was any difference, more. One case was that of a colored woman who was sick and likely to be turned out of her house on account of her inability to pay her rent. The president listened to her with much attention, and spoke to her with kindness and tenderness. He said he had given so much he could give no more, but told her where to go and get the money, and asked Mrs. C--n to assist her, which she did.
"The president was seated at his desk. Mrs. C. said to him, 'This is Sojourner Truth, who has come all the way from Michigan to see you.' He then arose, gave me his hand, made a bow, and said, 'I am pleased to see you.'
"I said to him, Mr. President, when you first took your seat I feared you would be torn to pieces, for I likened you unto Daniel, who was thrown into the lion's den; and if the lions did not tear you into pieces, I knew that it would be God that had saved you; and I said if he spared me I would see you before the four years expired, and he has done so, and now I am here to see you for myself.
"He then congratulated me on my having been spared. Then I said, I appreciate you, for you are the best president who has ever taken the seat. He replied: 'I expect you have reference to my having emancipated the slaves in my proclamation. But,' said he, mentioning the names of several of his predecessors (and among them emphatically that of Washington), 'they were all just as good, and would have done just as I have done if the time had come. If the people over the river [pointing across the Potomac] had behaved themselves, I could not have done what I have; but they did not, which gave me the opportunity to do these things.' I then said, I thank God that you were the instrument selected by him and the people to do it. I told him that I had never heard of him before he was talked of for president. He smilingly replied, 'I had heard of you many times before that.' ...
"I must say, and Iam proud to say, that I never was treated by any onewith more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln, by the grace of God president of the United States for four years more. He took my little book, and with the same hand that signed the death-warrant of slavery, he wrote as follows:
"'For Aunty Sojourner Truth,
"'Oct. 29, 1864. A. LINCOLN.'
"As I was taking my leave, he arose and took my hand, and said he would be pleased to have me call again. I felt that I was in the presence of a friend, and I now thank God from the bottom of my heart that I always have advocated his cause, and have done it openly and boldly. I shall feel still more in duty bound to do so in time to come. May God assist me.
(See the Index to Confederate "Heritage" Month posts 2005 for links to all this year's posts.)
3 comments:
I was at a site a few weeks ago called Northern Slavery (www.northernlslavery.com). The basic premise of the site is for the webmaster to show all who visit that the North, too, had slavery. Apparently, he believes there is some sort of conspiracy to completely erase from American history books the fact that Northern states before and immediately after the American Revolution had slavery; of course my 8th grade history book (wow, that thing comes in handy) does mention that Northern states had slaves, so the so-called conspiracy to whitewash and revisionize, I don't see where he gets that.
Anyhow, there is a part of the site which deals with the American Colonization Society and their efforts to send former slaves back to Africa. He takes up the issue of Abraham Lincoln's purported support for such a plan. I just wanted to know what you're opinion of that was.
(I'm not trying to knock Lincoln, but if he did believe that former slaves should have been sent back to Africa, I think the issue should be addressed.) Here's the more specific address pertaining to this subject (www.northernslavery.com/colonize.htm)
Scratch those websites I gave you. The correct links are www.slavenorth.com or if you want to go specifically to the part about colonization www.slavenorth.com/colonize.htm
Actually, I'll be touching on some related issues in other posts in this series.
But I'm not sure who the Lost Cause crowd thinks is conspiring to keep Northern slavery secret. Sojourner Truth herself was a slave in New York state before slavery was abolished there. The difference, of course, is that the Northeastern states abolished slavery, while states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin came into the Union as free states. That was due to a deal originally brokered by Thomas Jefferson when the State of Virginia owned those territories to permanently exclude slavery from that area. The Congress (under the Articles of Confederation government) wrote the arrangement into federal law as the Northwest Ordinance when those territories became a federal responsibility.
The invention of the cotton gin was one of several reasons that slavery remained in the Southern states, because it made cotton farming more profitable. In the Northeast, the free population increased much faster than the slave population and the free citizens didn't want slavery around. Part of that experience was that free whites associated the absence of slavery with the absence of black people. That is one of the reasons why a completely impractical scheme like colonization could be taken seriously by people like Jefferson and Lincoln.
The idea had virtually zero support among freed slaves and black abolitionists. They knew it was a crock and said so to white abolitionists who retained the idea. A few slaves were settled in Liberia, where they had a tough time of it. There was a book published in the last couple of years called *Mississippi in Africa* that traces the lives and descendants of former Mississippi slaves who were among the few actually colonized "back" to Africa. - Bruce
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