SCHMOLL/HISTORY231/DOCUMENT BASED WORK ON SLAVERY
1. One Englishman, William Harrison, wrote, (wm
harrison) "As for slaves and bondmen, we have none, naie such is the
privilege of our countrie, by the especiall grace of God and bountie of our
princes, that if anie come hither from other realms, so soone as they set foot
on land they become so free of condition as their master , whereby all note of
servile bondage is removed from them."
(1577, written about England)
2. Sarah
Frances Shaw Graves, Age 87 
"I was born March
23, 1850 in Kentucky, somewhere near Louisville. I am goin' on 88 years right
now. (1937). I was brought to Missouri when I was six months old, along with my
mama, who was a slave owned by a man named Shaw, who had allotted her to a man
named Jimmie Graves, who came to Missouri to live with his daughter Emily
Graves Crowdes. I always lived with Emily Crowdes."
The matter of allotment was confusing to the
interviewer and Aunt Sally endeavored to explain.
"Yes'm. Allotted? Yes'm. I'm goin' to explain
that, " she replied. "You see there was slave traders in those days,
jes' like you got horse and mule an' auto traders now. They bought and sold
slaves and hired 'em out. Yes'm, rented 'em out. Allotted means somethin' like
hired out. But the slave never got no wages. That all went to the master. The
man they was allotted to paid the master."
"I was never sold. My mama was sold only once,
but she was hired out many times. Yes'm when a slave was allotted, somebody
made a down payment and gave a mortgage for the rest. A chattel mortgage. . .
."
"Allotments made a lot of grief for the
slaves," Aunt Sally asserted. "We left my papa in Kentucky, 'cause he
was allotted to another man. My papa never knew where my mama went, an' my mama
never knew where papa went." Aunt Sally paused a moment, then went on
bitterly. "They never wanted mama to know, 'cause they knowed she would
never marry so long she knew where he was. Our master wanted her to marry again
and raise more children to be slaves. They never wanted mama to know where papa
was, an' she never did," sighed Aunt Sally.
3. Sarah
Gudger, Age 121 
I 'membahs de time when mah mammy wah alive, I
wah a small chile, afoah dey tuck huh t' Rims Crick. All us chillens wah
playin' in de ya'd one night. Jes' arunnin' an' aplayin' lak chillun will. All
a sudden mammy cum to de do' all a'sited. "Cum in heah dis minnit,"
she say. "Jes look up at what is ahappenin'," and bless yo' life,
honey, da sta's wah fallin' jes' lak rain.* Mammy wah tebble skeered, but we
chillen wa'nt afeard, no, we wa'nt afeard. But mammy she say evah time a sta'
fall, somebuddy gonna die. Look lak lotta folks gonna die f'om de looks ob dem
sta's. Ebbathin' wah jes' as bright as day. Yo' cudda pick a pin up. Yo' know
de sta's don' shine as bright as dey did back den. I wondah wy dey don'. Dey
jes' don' shine as bright. Wa'nt long afoah dey took mah mammy away, and I wah
lef' alone.
4. Charley
Williams, Age 94
When de day begin to crack de whole plantation
break out wid all kinds of noises, and you could tell what going on by de kind
of noise you hear.
Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start
potracking down at the edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up
'round de barn and de ducks finally wake up and jine in. You can smell de sow
belly frying down at the cabins in de "row," to go wid de hoecake and
de buttermilk.
Den purty soon de wind rise a little, and you
can hear a old bell donging way on some plantation a mile or two off, and den
more bells at other places and maybe a horn, and purty soon younder go old
Master's old ram horn wid a long toot and den some short toots, and here come
de overseer down de row of cabins, hollering right and left, and picking de ham
out'n his teeth wid a long shiny goose quill pick.
Bells and horns! Bells for dis and horns for
dat! All we knowed was go and come by de bells and horns!
5. SOME SLAVERY
STATISTICS:
Slaves
as a percentage of Virginia's total population in 1680: 7
Slaves as a
percentage of Virginia's total population in 1720: 30
Slaves as a percentage of Virginia's total population in 1770: 42
Number of slaves in Virginia in 1750: 100,000
Number of slaves in Virginia in 1850: 200,000
10.
Slavery
In Early America's Colonies: Seeds of Servitude Rooted in The Civil Law of Rome
by
Charles P.M. Outwin (1996)
The
question of definable humanity in the slave continued to plagued the courts.
Though his Negroes were impersonally "salable," an owner was not
allowed arbitrarily to kill one "as he could an ox." Indeed, in 1706
it was determined that "the common law takes no notice of negroes (sic)
for being different from other men. By common law no man can have property in
another, except in special instances ....” The opinion handed down by Sir
Philip Yorke, Attorney-General of the realm at the end of 1729, stated that
a
slave, by coming from the West Indies, either with or without his master, to
Great Britain or Ireland, doth not become free; and that his master's property
or right in him is not thereby determined or varied; and baptism doth not
bestow freedom on him, nor make any alteration in his temporal condition in
these kingdoms.This was an
unfortunate decision, because by then American and British legal practice had
already begun to diverge along the lines of economic expediency, supported by
resort to Roman civil code. American courts in the South were to look more and
more to Roman law concerning propertied interest for antecedents. The common
law, then, had become victim of its own flexibility.
13.
“The Universal Law of Slavery," by George Fitzhugh (most important advocate of slavery) 1857
He the Negro is but a grown up child, and must be governed as a child, not as a
lunatic or criminal. The master occupies toward him the place of parent or
guardian. We shall not dwell on this view, for no one will differ with us who
thinks as we do of the negro's capacity, and we might argue till dooms-day in
vain, with those who have a high opinion of the negro's moral and intellectual
capacity.
Secondly. The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer for the wants of
winter; will not accumulate in youth for the exigencies of age. He would become
an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and
can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery. In the last place, the
negro race is inferior to the white race, and living in their midst, they would
be far outstripped or outwitted in the chaos of free competition. Gradual but
certain extermination would be their fate. We presume the maddest abolitionist
does not think the negro's providence of habits and money-making capacity at
all to compare to those of the whites. This defect of character would alone
justify enslaving him, if he is to remain here. In Africa or the West Indies,
he would become idolatrous, savage and cannibal, or be devoured by savages and
cannibals. At the North he would freeze or starve.
We would remind those who deprecate and sympathize with negro slavery, that his
slavery here relieves him from a far more cruel slavery in Africa, or from
idolatry and cannibalism, and every brutal vice and crime that can disgrace
humanity; and that it christianizes, protects, supports and civilizes him; that
it governs him far better than free laborers at the North are governed. There,
wife-murder has become a mere holiday pastime; and where so many wives are
murdered, almost all must be brutally treated. Nay, more; men who kill their
wives or treat them brutally, must be ready for all kinds of crime, and the
calendar of crime at the North proves the inference to be correct. Negroes
never kill their wives. If it be objected that legally they have no wives, then
we reply, that in an experience of more than forty years, we never yet heard of
a negro man killing a negro woman. Our negroes are not only better off as to
physical comfort than free laborers, but their moral condition is better.
The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest
people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and
yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy
liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do
little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by
their masters. The negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good
weather, not more than nine hours a day. The balance of their time is spent in
perfect abandon. Besides' they have their Sabbaths and holidays. White men,
with so much of license and liberty, would die of ennui; but negroes luxuriate
in corporeal and mental repose. With their faces upturned to the sun, they can
sleep at any hour; and quiet sleep is the greatest of human enjoyments.
"Blessed be the man who invented sleep." 'Tis happiness in
itself--and results from contentment with the present, and confident assurance
of the future.
A common charge preferred against slavery is, that it induces idleness with the
masters. The trouble, care and labor, of providing for wife, children and
slaves, and of properly governing and administering the whole affairs of the
farm, is usually borne on small estates by the master. On larger ones, he is
aided by an overseer or manager. If they do their duty, their time is fully
occupied. If they do not, the estate goes to ruin. The mistress, on Southern
farms, is usually more busily, usefully and benevolently occupied than any one
on the farm. She unites in her person, the offices of wife, mother, mistress,
housekeeper, and sister of charity. And she fulfills all these offices
admirably well. The rich men, in free society, may, if they please, lounge
about town, visit clubs, attend the theatre, and have no other trouble than
that of collecting rents, interest and dividends of stock. In a well
constituted slave society, there should be no idlers. But we cannot divine how
the capitalists in free society are to put to work. The master labors for the
slave, they exchange industrial value. But the capitalist, living on his
income, gives nothing to his subjects. He lives by mere exploitations.
The Black American A Documentary History, Third Edition, by Leslie H. Fishel, Jr. and Benjamin Quarles,
Scott, Foresman and Company, Illinois, 1976,1970
14.
Theodore Dwight Weld, 1839, Slavery as it Really Is
Reader,
you are empaneled as a juror to try a plain case and bring in an honest
verdict. The question at issue is not one of law, but of fact--"What is
the actual condition of the slaves in the United States?" A plainer case
never went to a jury. Look at it. Twenty seven hundred thousand persons in this
country, men, women, and children, are in slavery. Is slavery, as a condition
for human beings, good, bad, or indifferent?...
Two
millions seven hundred thousand persons in these States are in this condition.
They are made slaves and are held such by force, and by being put in fear, and
this for no crime!...
As
slaveholders and their apologists are...flooding the world with testimony that
their slaves are kindly treated; that they are well fed, well clothed, well
housed, well lodged, moderately worked, and bountifully provided with all
things needful for their comfort, we propose--first, to disprove their
assertions by the testimony of a multitude of impartial witnesses, and then to
put slaveholders themselves through a course of cross-questioning which shall
draw their condemnation out of their own mouths. We will prove that the slaves
in the United States are treated with barbarous inhumanity; that they are
overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged, and have insufficient sleep;
that they are often made to wear round their necks iron collars armed with
prongs, to drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while working in the
field, and to wear yokes, and bells, and iron horns; that they are often kept
confined in the stocks day and night for weeks together, made to wear gags in
their mouths for hours or days, have some of their front teeth torn out or
broken off, that they may be easily detected when they run away; that they are
frequently flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper rubbed into their
lacerated flesh, and hot brine, spirits of turpentine, &c., poured over the
gashes to increase the torture; that they are often stripped naked, their backs
and limbs cut with knives, bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of blows
with the paddle, and terribly torn by the claws of cats, drawn over them by
their tormenters; that they are often hunted with blood hounds and shot down
like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs; that they are often suspended by the
arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and when revived by restoratives,
beaten again till they faint, and sometimes till they die; that their ears are
often cut off, their eyes knocked out, their bones broken, their flesh branded
with red hot irons; that they are maimed, mutilated, and burned to death over
slow fires.... We will establish all these facts by the testimony of scores and
hundreds of eye witnesses, by the testimony of slaveholders in all parts of the
slave states, by slaveholding members of Congress and of state legislatures, by
ambassadors to foreign courts, by judges, by doctors of divinity, and clergy
men of all denominations, by merchants, mechanics, lawyers and physicians, by
presidents and professors in colleges and professional seminaries, by planters,
overseers and drivers.
15. David Walker's Appeal
My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens.
Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United
States, and having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate
observations of things as they exist -- the result of my observations has
warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that we, (coloured people of these
United States,) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that
ever lived since the world began; and I pray God that none like us ever may
live again until time shall be no more. They tell us of the Israelites in
Egypt, the Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves, which last were made up
from almost every nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and
heathen nations, were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and
Christian nation, no more than a cypher -- or, in other words, those heathen
nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the name and form of
slavery; while wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a
phial, to be poured out upon, our fathers ourselves and our children, by Christian
Americans!
... I call upon the professing Christians, I call upon the
philanthropist, I call upon the very tyrant himself, to show me a page of
history, either sacred or profane, on which a verse can be found, which
maintains, that the Egyptians heaped the insupportable insult upon the
children of Israel, by telling them that they were not of the human family.
Can the whites deny this charge? Have they not, after having reduced us to the
deplorable condition of slaves under their feet, held us up as descending
originally from the tribes of Monkeys or Orang-Outangs? O! my
God! I appeal to every man of feeling-is not this insupportable? Is it not
heaping the most gross insult upon our miseries, because they have got us under
their feet and we cannot help ourselves? Oh! pity us we pray thee, Lord Jesus,
Master. -- Has Mr. Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to the
whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds? It is indeed
surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined with such excellent
natural parts, should speak so of a set of men in chains. I do not know what to
compare it to, unless, like putting one wild deer in an iron cage, where it
will be secured, and hold another by the side of the same, then let it go, and
expect the one in the cage to run as fast as the one at liberty. So far, my
brethren, were the Egyptians from heaping these insults upon their slaves, that
Pharaoh's daughter took Moses, a son of Israel for her own, as will appear by
the following.
The world knows, that slavery as it existed was, mans, (which
was the primary cause of their destruction) was, comparatively speaking, no
more than a cypher, when compared with ours under the Americans. Indeed
I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had not the very learned and
penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "when a master was murdered, all his
slaves in the same house, or within hearing, were condemned to death." --
Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson, (but he is gone to answer at the bar of God, for
the deeds done in his body while living,) I therefore ask the whole American
people, had I not rather die, or be put to death, than to be a slave to any
tyrant, who takes not only my own, but my wife and children's lives by the
inches? Yea, would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in preference to such servile
submission to the murderous hands of tyrants. Mr. Jefferson's very severe
remarks on us have been so extensively argued upon by men whose attainments in
literature, I shall never be able to reach, that I would not have meddled with
it, were it not to solicit each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to
buy a copy of Mr. Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put it in the
hand of his son.
But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some
further. Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of
Greece, he says: "Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging
circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often their rarest artists.
They excelled too, in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to
their master's children; Epictetus, Terence and Phaedrus, were slaves, -- but
they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition then, but nature,
which has produced the distinction." See this, my brethren! ! Do you
believe that this assertion is swallowed by millions of the whites? Do you know
that Mr. Jefferson was one of as great characters as ever lived among the
whites? See his writings for the world, and public labours for the United
States of America. Do you believe that the assertions of such a man, will pass
away into oblivion unobserved by this people and the world? If you do you are
much mistaken-See how the American people treat us -- have we souls in our
bodies? Are we men who
(15 CONTINUED)have any spirits at all? I know that there are
many swell-bellied fellows among us, whose greatest object is to fill
their stomachs. Such I do not mean -- I am after those who know and feel, that
we are MEN, as well as other people; to them, I say, that unless we try to
refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting us, we will only establish them.
Are
we MEN! ! -- I ask you, 0 my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator make us to
be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as
we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of Heaven, to
answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other Master
but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? -- What right
then, have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could be
so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as
good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with
the Lord, and we cannot precisely tell -- but I declare, we judge men by their
works. The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious
and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.
...to my no ordinary astonishment, [a] Reverend gentleman got up and told us
(coloured people) that slaves must be obedient to their masters -- must do
their duty to their masters or be whipped -- the whip was made for the backs of
fools, &c. Here I pause for a moment, to give the world time to consider
what was my surprise, to hear such preaching from a minister of my Master,
whose very gospel is that of peace and not of blood and whips, as this
pretended preacher tried to make us believe. What the American preachers can
think of us, I aver this day before my God, I have never been able to define.
They have newspapers and monthly periodicals, which they receive in continual
succession, but on the pages of which, you will scarcely ever find a paragraph
respecting slavery, which is ten thousand times more injurious to this country
than all the other evils put together; and which will be the final overthrow of
its government, unless something is very speedily done; for their cup is nearly
full.-Perhaps they will laugh at or make light of this; but I tell you
Americans! that unless you speedily alter your course, you and your Country
are gone! ! ! ! !
Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders
come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the
whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches
in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: -- and will they drive us
from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood? They
must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction upon them. The
Americans have got so fat on our blood and groans, that they have almost forgotten
the God of armies. But let the go on.
Surely, the Americans must think that we
are brutes, as some of them have represented us to be. They think that we do
not feel for our brethren, whom they are murdering by the inches, but they are
dreadfully deceived.
I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in
bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we
cannot be your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men,
and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the
whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will
become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but
remember that nothing is impossible with God.
I count my life not dear unto
me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment, For what is the use of living,
when in fact I am dead. But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched,
degraded and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation,
to support you and your families, that some of you, (whites) on the continent
of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born. You want slaves,
and want us for your slaves ! ! ! My colour will yet, root some of you out of
the very face of the earth ! ! ! ! ! ! You may doubt it if you please. I know
that thousands will doubt-they think they have us so well secured in
wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things
to occur.
See your Declaration Americans! ! !
Do you understand your won language? Hear your languages, proclaimed to the
world, July 4th, 1776 -- "We hold these truths to be self evident -- that
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL! ! that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness! !" Compare your own language above, extracted
from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders
inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers
and on us -- men who have never given your fathers or you the least
provocation! ! ! ! ! !
