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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
... Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'education, la science et la culture
SLAVE VISIONS
The Aspirations and Hopes of Slaves and
Former Slaves
Compiled by
James Walvin,
University of York
United Kingdom
Educational resource for teachers prepared with the financial assistance of the Royal Norwegian Ministry
for Foreign Affairs,
for "Breaking the Silence", the Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project,
Associated Schools Project Network,
Division for the Promotion of Quality Education.
Address: 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SPII, rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15
Tel. central: + (33.1) 45.68.10.80 - Fax central: + (33.1) 45.67.56.39 - Email [email protected]
Website : http://www.unesco.org/education/asp
CONTENTS
Introduction.
2
Part 1. Thoughts about Africa.
1.
A new vision for Africa.
2.
Ending slavery. Cugoano.
3.
Africa without slavery. Equiano.
6
9
14
Part 2. Slaves
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
and Europe.
Finding a voice. Slaves and Europe.
Family. Gronniosaw.
A black poet. Phillis Wheatley.
A black love letter. Soubise.
An African man of Letters. Ignatius Sancho.
Part 3. Visions and realities.
9.
Slave pleasures.
10.
Escaping slavery. Runaways.
11.
Buying freedom. France.
12.
A Brazilian slave revolt.
Part 4. Slavery in North America.
13.
Slavery in North America.
14.
Slave demands for freedom.
15.
Slave demands freedom, Virginia, 1723.
16.
Black organisation and demands for freedom.
17.
The black press.
Women's rights.
18.
19.
Black anti-slavery pOlitics.
20.
The Civil War and black freedom.
17
19
26
28
30
32
34
36
39
42
44
45
47
50
53
62
65
Introduction.
The history of enslaved peoples in the Americas has been a topic of remarkable
academic and social interest in recent years. The more we know about that history, the more
remarkable it appears. For the best part of four centuries, Europeans, and Americans, traded
for African humanity along a vast African coastline. They were not the first to move large
numbers of Africans to distant destinations for sale and labour as slaves. Nor were they the
last. But the number of Africans removed in the Atlantic slave ships was staggering.
Moreover, the social and economic consequences of that trade were profound - for three
continents. Africa of course lost millions of its inhabitants. The Americas benefited by the
importation of slave labour, which was used to tap the economic potential of the hemisphere.
And Europe gained hugely from the diverse commercial activity which hinged on the Atlantic
slave system.
What was once seen as a simplified trade, linking those three continents (the muchquoted 'triangular trade') is now appreciated as a complex and increasingly sophisticated set
of trading systems which brought together the economies of distant parts of the globe, and all
dovetailing together into the Atlantic system. And all was made possible by the enforced
labour of millions of Africans.
The geography involved was enormous: goods from Asia were traded at one extreme
of the system, and goods from the native peoples of the Americas were bartered and traded at
the other extreme. In the process, slave-grown produce became the stuff of global trade and
commerce. Sugar and rum, tobacco and rice, coffee and cotton - all and more passed from the
hands of their slave cultivators into the habits of people in all corners of the globe. Even in the
most distant and isolated of settlements, where Europeans had only set down a tentative toeth
hold (for example in Australia in the late years of the 18 century) or on the very edges of the
American frontier, settlers and military needed their supplies of slave-grown produce. A pipe
2
of tobacco ami the sweet cup of tea or coffee made hard lives tolerable. Within a century,
tropical staples had shifted from being the luxury of the wealthy few to being the necessities
of the masses. Working people in Britain, in town and country, relied on regular cups of
sweetened tea to punctuate their days, and to make their life and work acceptable. This was
also true of those men who endured the brutal hardships of life aboard British warships; slavegrown rum was vital to the way the Royal Navy operated. Yet in all these cases, all was made
possible by the sweat of Africans and their descendants in the Americas.
Much the same was true at the other end of the social scale - among the richest and
more refined of European elites. Fashionable society enjoyed social routines which, again,
depended on slave-grown produce. Aristocratic ladies took tea in fashionable salons, and
laced their tea with slave-grown sugar. Royalty added sugar to their tea and coffee, and
smoked slave-grown tobacco (or inhaled it as snuff).
In the first half of the 19th century, the British industrial revolution spat out textiles in
vast and growing volumes, dispatching cheap clothing to all corners of the globe. Lancashire
in particular helped to clothe the world. But the basic ingredient of those textiles - cotton was substantially produced by African slaves on the cotton plantations of the American South.
Yet who made the connection? Who, as they slipped into their cotton clothing, even thought
about the slaves, anymore than their forebears had thought about slaves cultivating sugar or
tobacco? Who even thought of the people who made all this possible? Who pondered, as they
enjoyed such tropical staples, the toil of Africans labouring on the far side of the Atlantic? It
was one of the bitterest ironies that the slaves - the sources of so much prosperity and comfort
to millions - were out of sight and generally out of mind. They toiled away, unseen by the
outside world; certainly unseen by the majority of people who consumed the produce they
cultivated.
3
Stated simply, between, roughly 1650-1860, the fruits of slave labour were
everywhere. And for much of that time, few worried about the ethical issues of slavery. At the
point, for example, when the American colonies broke away from British control to become
the D.S. few doubted the economic benefits which had flowed directly from the use of
African labour in the Americas. For that reason alone, slavery had attracted no fundamental or
undermining criticism. It was, quite simply, too valuable, too profitable to all those involved
(traders, manufacturers, financiers, shippers and planters) to want to tolerate criticism of any
kind. Today it may seem strange that an institution which is, to modem eyes, so repellent and
immoral, survived, year after year, for such a huge time-span, without attracting a volley of
moral or religious outcry.
In fact a barrage of criticism did begin, in the last years of the 18th century. And it is
true that a number of nations (led by the British and Americans in 1807/1808) abolished their
slave trades. But slavery itself survived in the British colonies until 1833, in the D.S. until
destroyed by the Civil War after 1860: it lasted as late as 1888 in Brazil. Black slavery was,
by any criterion, an institution of great longevity, and it lasted so long because it brought such
material well-being to so many people.
What it brought to its victims (the more than 12 million enslaved Africans loaded onto
Atlantic ships) and what all this meant for Africa, is an altogether different story. It is no
longer true to claim that slaves have been left out of this historical account. Over the past
generation there has been a remarkable outpouring of literature about each and every aspect of
the lives of the enslaved peoples of the Americas. It remains true of course that the historical
data is heavily skewed, and we have much less material from the mouths and pens of slaves
(and ex-slaves) than we do from the people who owned or managed the slave system.
Nonetheless we have enough to recreate the enslaved life in some detail.
4
In earlier volumes in this series, colleagues have sought to reconstruct the experiences
of slave voyages, and to see what could be gleaned from slave voices. Here, the focus is upon
slave ambition - slave visions. There are a string of major problems to this aim. We are, after
all, dealing with millions of enslaved Africans and their descendants, drawn from very
different African communities, and scattered across the vastness of the American colonies.
There is also the problem of time and chronology. Slavery in the Americas lasted a very long
time. It spanned the period from its small scale origins, immediately post-Columbus, through
to the end of Brazilian slavery in 1888, and this is not to include the forms of slavery which
existed before - or afterwards. It is, quite simply, a massive institution, spanning an enormous
period and which directly involved three of the world's continents. Clearly, in a volume of
this kind, we can only begin to touch on that vast and complex history.
What follows is not however a conventional history. In any case such histories are
readily available elsewhere. What this volume tries to do is to explore an area of enslaved
history which is generally overlooked. Slaves had a vision for themselves, their families and
communities: ambitions which would make life more tolerable, would bring enslavement to
an end and would provide a basis for a very different kind of existence, i.e. a life of freedom
and equality. Not all enslaved people, of course, shared the same vision. But there are enough
major and recurring visions, in the word, actions and legacies of enslaved peoples (and those
who owned them) for us to be able to speak with confidence of slave visions.
What follows is then an attempt to do just that. The aim, throughout, is to use African
voices to speak to slave visions. And we have tried to cover - however unevenly - the wide
range of diasporic enslavement. What follows speaks of slave visions in Europe, in the
Caribbean, Brazil and North America. The volume begins however with the aspirations and
hopes of ex-slaves for their homeland: the continent which spawned everything - Africa.
5
1. A new vision for Africa.
The enslaved peoples of the Americas wished, above all else, to be rid of their
bondage. Whatever their status or condition in Africa, whatever their material conditions in
the Americas, it is clear enough that slavery was a universally hated misery. It is true, that
enslaved peoples worked hard to secure for themselves some leeway within the slave systems:
creating time and opportunities for themselves and kinfolk, improving their material lives and
seeking, always, to moderate their oppression. Even so, there was nothing to compare to
freedom itself. It is what they wanted and what they strived for.
One critical problem for Africans and their descendants was the broader question of
Africa itself. By the mid-l i
h
century - by the time the British settlements in the Caribbean
had begun to yield material bounty based on the Africans' work in the sugar fields - Africa
was being brutally pillaged for its resources. Initially the early Europeans maritime voyages to
West Africa had been in search of a range of African commodities: gold, spices, timbers,
dyes. And although African slaves had fallen victim to European traders from an early date
(and following the existing patterns of African internal and Arab slave trading) Europeans
were not, at first, primarily interested in slaves. They used Africans in growing numbers in
both Spain and Portugal, as slaves and even as free workers, and more and more Africans
were shipped to early Spanish settlements in the Atlantic islands. But it was the Americas
which transformed the course of history in Africa.
African slaves did not provide an immediate answer to the problems of Europeans
settling in lands where they needed labour. Free settlers, the military, prisoners, indentured
labour - all and more were used, often side-by-side, in the initial efforts to create a toe-hold in
the Americas, and later to create economically prosperous ventures, notably in mining and
agriculture. But Europeans turned to sugar - first in Brazil, later in the Caribbean - so too did
they turn to Africa for enslaved labour.
6
It began as a trickle. But in time it was to become the largest enforced movement of
humanity to date. What had initially been handfuls of Africans, travelling as human cargo on
trading ships, quickly became a mass movement of peoples, packed into custom-built slave
ships, destined for hungry slave markets, and awaiting merchants and planters across the
Americas: from Brazil, to the Caribbean, to Central America (thence south along the Pacific
coast of South America) and north along the American eastern seaboard. The figures involved
are, even today, staggering. That trickle of pioneering Africans in, say, 1600 had, by 1800,
become millions.
Africa thus became central to European considerations. Without Africa - rather
without African labour - critical areas of the American (and therefore the wider Atlantic
economy) simply could not function. Remove the Africans and the sugar economy (and a
string of spin-off tropical commodities) in Brazil and the Caribbean, the tobacco and rice
industry of North America - all and more would not be able to operate. Africans became vital
to the well-being of the tropical and semi-tropical Americas, and to the economies of the
European societies which governed and colonised those regions.
Europeans and their colonies in the Americas thus came to regard the African as vital
to their well-being. And they viewed Africa as essential to their economic future. It was
however an unusual economic relationship. What African provided was muscle power; raw
humanity to be shipped across the Atlantic and pitched into slave gangs and newly-created
work disciplines (which differed from crop to crop) with little regard to the labour force
except for its ability to reward colonial and imperial societies.
By the mid-18 th century few doubted that Africa and Africans enriched those outside
powers which traded on the coast. They had however created an utterly abnormal set of
trading and human relationships. What outsiders wanted from Africa (notwithstanding the
wide range of other commodities they bought and bartered) was African humanity. And they
7
wanted that humanity enslaved - not as free labour. To put it crudely, Europeans and
Americans viewed Africa as the source of enslaved humanity: Africa meant slaves, and slaves
meant prosperity in the plantations of the Americas (thence to Europe). It soon became
difficult for outsiders to think of Africa in any other light. Here was a continent able to deliver
apparently limitless supplies of humanity to the slave traders on the coast. Other forms of
trade - important, useful and profitable - seemed almost incidental to the main purpose which
Africa fulfilled: of satisfying the European demand for enslaved humanity.
But was all this inevitable? Did it have to be like that? Was Africa doomed to a
perpetual subservient position of simply disgorging its peoples at the whim and pleasure of
visiting foreigners? Could there not be another way of doing business? Might it not be
possible (as indeed it had been in the early years of trade between maritime European and
West Africa) for Africans and Europeans to trade as 'normal' trading partners, free of the
defining (and crippling) demand for Africans as slaves?
One key vision of people cast into the enslaved Americas was, then, for a different
kind of Africa itself: one defined by a new and more appropriate trading nexus with the
outside world. Two Africans gave voice to this vision in the late 18
th
century. Ouladah
Equiano, an early voice on a range of important black issues, was keen to stress the need to
redefine the trade with Africa. But even more dramatic was the vision of his friend and
contemporary, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, who simply demanded a world without slavery.
Here are two visions of an alternative future for Africa.
8
2. Ending slavery.
Quobna Ottobah Cugoano.
Slavery dominated the Atlantic world by the mid-18 th century, and it attracted all the
major European maritime powers to the Atlantic coast of Africa, as it had scattered Africans
across the face of the newly-settled Americas. It had also had its desired effect, of greatly
enhancing the well-being of those European and American powers and colonies most
intimately involved. Its impact on Africa was disastrous. Today modern students often find it
hard to grasp how so brutal a system could hold such sway, over so many people, for such a
long period. It all seems even more surprising, to modern eyes, that criticism was rare and
isolated, though the reasons are not hard to find. Here, after all, was a massive economic
system which yielded great benefits to the western world - whatever human cost might be
paid by Africa and Africans. To attack slavery was to undermine a fundamental pillar of the
commercial system of the Atlantic economy, and for many years there were few critics bold
enough to take so serious a step. Not surprisingly perhaps, one of the first to tackle slavery
head on was an African - Quobna Ottobah Cugoano (c. 1757 - c .1791).
Cugoano offered a vision for the future which was much more radical than any other
contemporary spokesman. What he wanted - demanded - was freedom for all slaves and an
ending of the entire Atlantic slave system. At a time when even the most outspoken and
aggressive of British and American abolitionists were content to argue simply for the end of
the slave trade, Cugoano wanted to demolish the entire system. His was a radical vision
which, at the time he expressed it in 1787, may have seemed hopelessly optimistic. Yet within
fifty years it had come to pass (at least within the British empire). Here, again, was a
remarkable visionary statement - and from an African ex-slave.
Cugoano was born in Ghana about 1757 - almost an exact contemporary of Ouladah
Equiano. Enslaved in his teens, he was shipped to Grenada where he worked in a slave gang.
9
Late in 1772 (the year of the famous legal decision in the Somerset Case which forbade the
removal of blacks from England against their wishes) he was taken to England by Alexander
Campbell. He was later baptised as 'John Stuart'. There is evidence that also suggests that this
same man, Alexander Campbell, owned Equiano (though at a different period). Cugoano
arrived in England shortly after the Somerset Case, in a period of heightened interest in the
wider issue of slavery, and when pioneering abolitionists felt that there had been a
breakthrough in their early attacks on the slave trade. Later Cugoano wrote his approval of
Lord Mansfield's decision, joining many others in believing that the Somerset case had
indeed been a serious blow against slavery and the slave trade.
The Somerset Case of 1772 had focus sed attention on the problems facing people like
Cugoano: blacks brought to England, often as slaves, who found their legal status uncertain,
but who soon discovered that life in England had a liberating effect. Though Britain was
clearly central to the functioning of a massive Atlantic slave empire, slavery in England itself
was of dubious legality. (The situation in Scotland was different because of the separate legal
system). The legal arguments about slavery in England in 1772 prompted a much broader
debate about the politics, morality and economics of slavery. Cugoano thus arrived in Britain
at the very moment when the issue of slavery was in the air. What he managed to achieve was
to shift that argument to a different level. Cugoano's vision was for an end to slavery itself:
not simply an end to slavery in England, or an end to the slave trade. But an end to the entire
Atlantic system.
By the time Cugoano published his book, Thoughts and Sentiments ... in 1787 he was a
free man. We do not know how he secured his own freedom. He was, by then, a servant living
in a fashionable part of London, employed by prominent painters Richard and Maria Cosway,
who regularly portrayed him in paintings and sketches of themselves. Cugoano was also wellplaced to meet prominent and fashionable London society of the period: he managed to
10
persuade a number of eminent figures to subscribe to his book (and thus enable it to be
published). Cugoano was clearly an articulate man of pronounced views, and was called upon
by other blacks in London to join their voice of protest on a number of issues (notably in
letters to the press) and he was active in the problem of the London poor in 1787-1788.
Early in 1787 the first committee for the abolition of the slave trade was formed in
London: all but two of its members were Quakers. From that small beginning there swiftly
developed a national, vociferous and highly effective campaign to end the slave trade.
Cugoano's book, published that same year, 1787, was thus part of the early abolition
campaign. But there was a major distinction between what Cugoano envisaged, and what the
Abolition Committee wanted. The Abolition Committee had decided NOT to press for the end
of slavery, which, at least to the committee, was far too utopian, too extreme a demand. They
settled instead for the aim of ending the Atlantic slave trade, hoping that abolition would
eventually lead to full black freedom at some unspecified point in the future. Cugoano on the
other hand demanded something altogether more fundamental: an end to slavery.
Here then is an African's vision of a future without slavery: Africa, Europe and the
Americas purged of the curse of slavery. He realised of course that it must have seemed
hopelessly ambitious, but what he proposed was a remarkably precise echo of what indeed
was to follow. When it came, in 1833, full emancipation of all British slaves would be
followed by pressure on other European slaving nations to follow suit: slave holders were
encouraged to convert and Christianise their slaves, and Royal naval vessels were stationed
off the African coast to ensure the end of Atlantic slave trading. This was more than a vision:
it was a real plan for ending slavery. It was also a plan, though augmented by greater complex
refinements, which the British were indeed to pursue from the 1820' s onwards.
11
This is surely a remarkable fact. The broad outlines of British emancipation and antislave trade policy after 1833 was effectively outlined and predicted by a former African slave
many years earlier.
There is no further need to underline the significance of Cugoano's vision for black
freedom, except perhaps to say it was both far-sighted and extraordinary.
-
.
Here then is one African's vision of how to put an end to slavery.
And now that blessings may come instead of a curse, and that many beneficent purposes of good might
speedily arise and flow from it, and be more readily promoted; I would hereby presume to offer the following
considerations, as some outlines of a general reformation which ought to be established and carried on. And first,
I would propose, that there ought to be days of mourning and fasting appointed, to make enquiry into that great
and preeminent evil for many years past carried on against the Heathen nations, and the horrible iniquity of
making merchandize of us, and cruelly enslaving the poor Africans; and that you might seek grace and
repentance, and find mercy and forgiveness before God Omnipotent; and that he may give you wisdom and
understanding to devise what ought to be done.
Secondly, I would propose that a total abolition of slavery should be made and proclaimed; and that an
universal emancipation of slaves should begin from the date thereof, and be carried on in the following manner:
That a proclamation should be caused to be made, setting forth the anti-Christian unlawfulness of the slavery and
commerce of the human species; and that it should be sent to all the courts and nations in Europe, to require their
advice and assistance, and as they may find it unlawful to carry it on, let them whosoever will join to prohibit it.
And if such a proclamation be found advisable to the British legislature, let them publish it, and cause it to be
published, throughout all the British empire, to hinder and prohibit all men under their government to traffic
either in buying or selling men; and, to prevent it, a penalty might be made against it of one thousand pounds, for
any man either to buy or sell another man. And that it should require all slave-holders, upon the immediate
information thereof, to mitigate the labour of their slaves to that of a lawful servitude, without tortures or
oppression; and that they should not hinder, but cause and procure some suitable means of instruction for them
in the knowledge of the Christian religion. And agreeable to the late royal Proclamation, for the Encouragement
of Piety and Virtue, and for the preventing and punishing of Vice, Profaneness and Immorality; that by no
means, under any pretence whatsoever, either for themselves or their masters, the slaves under their subjection
should not be suffered to work on the Sabbath days, unless it be such works as necessity and mercy may require.
But that those days, as well as some other hours selected for the purpose, should be appropriated for the time of
their instruction; and that if any of their owners should not provide such suitable instructors for them, that those
slaves should be taken away from them and given to others who would maintain and instruct them for their
labour. And that it should be made known to the slaves, that those who had been above seven years in the islands
or elsewhere, if they had obtained any competent degree of knowledge of the Christian religion, and the laws
civilization, and had behaved themselves honestly and decently, that they should immediately become free; and
that their owners should give them reasonable wages and maintenance for their labour, and not cause them to go
away unless they could find some suitable employment elsewhere. And accordingly, from the date of their
12
arrival to seven years, as they arrive at some suitable progress in knowledge, and behaved themselves honestly,
that they should be getting free in the course of that time, and at the end of seven years to let every honest man
and woman become free; for in the course of that time, they would have sufficiently paid their owners by their
labour, both for their first purpose, and for the expences attending their education. By being thus instructed in the
course of seven years, they would become tractable and obedient, useful labourers, dutiful servants and good
subjects; and Christian men might have the honor and happiness to see many of them vieing with themselves to
praise the God of their salvation. And it might be another necessary duty for Christians, in the course of that
time, to make enquiry concerning some of their friends and relations in Africa; and if they found any intelligent
persons amongst them, to give them as good education as they could, and find out a way of recourse to their
friends; that as soon as they had made any progress in useful learning and the knowledge of the Christian
religion, they might be sent back to Africa, to be made useful there as soon, and as many of them as could be
made fit for instructing others. The rest would become useful residents in the colonies; where there might be
employment enough given to all free people, with suitable wages according to their usefulness, in the
improvement of land; and the more encouragement that could be given to agriculture, and every other branch of
useful industry, would thereby encrease the number of the inhabitants; without which any country, however
blessed by nature, must continue poor.
And, thirdly, I would propose, that a fleet of some ships of war should be immediately sent to the coast
of Africa, and particularly where the slave trade is carried on, with faithful men to direct that none should be
brought from the coast of Africa without their own consent and the approbation of their friends, and to intercept
all merchant ships that were bringing them away, until such a scrutiny was made, whatever nation they belonged
to. And, I would suppose, if Great-Britain was to do any thing of this kind, that it would meet with the general
approbation and assistance of other Christian nations; but whether it did or not, it could be very lawfully done at
all the British forts and settlements on the coast of Africa; and particular remonstrances could be given to all the
rest, to warn them of the consequences of such an evil and enormous wicked traffic as is now carried on. The
Dutch have some crocodile settlers at the Cape, that should be called to a particular account for their murders
and inhuman barbarities. But all the present governors of the British forts and factories should be dismissed, and
faithful and good men appointed to their room; and those forts and factories, which at present are a den of
thieves, might be turned into shepherd's tents, and have good shepherds sent to call the flocks to feed beside
them. Then would doors of hospitality in abundance be opened in Africa to supply the weary travellers, and that
the immense abundance which they are enriched with, might be diffused afar; but the character of the inhabitants
on the west coast of Africa, and the rich produce of their country, have been too long misrepresented by
avaricious plunderers and merchants who deal in slaves; and if that country was not annually ravished and laid
waste, there might be a very considerable and profitable trade carried on with the Africans. And, should the
noble Britons, who have often supported their own liberties with their lives and fortunes, extend their
philanthropy to abolish the slavery and oppression of the Africans, they might have settlements and many
kingdoms united in a friendly alliance with themselves, which might be made greatly to their own advantage, as
well as they might have the happiness of being useful to promoting the prosperity and felicity of others, who
have been cruelly injured and wrongfully dealt with. Were the Africans to be dealt with in a friendly manner, and
kind instruction to be administered unto them, as by degrees they became to love learning, there would be
nothing in their power, but what they would wish to render their service in return for the means of improving
13
.-
their understanding; and the present British factories, and other settlements, might be enlarged to a very great
extent. And as Great-Britain has been remarkable for ages past, for encouraging arts and sciences, and may now
be put in competition with any nation in the known world, if they would take compassion on the inhabitants of
the coast of Guinea, and to make use of such means as would be needful to enlighten their minds in the
knowledge of Christianity, their virtue, in this respect, would have its own reward. And as the Africans became
refined and established in light and knowledge, they would imitate their noble British friends, to improve their
lands, and make use of that industry as the nature of their country might require, and to supply those that would
trade with them, with such productions as the nature of their climate would produce; and in every respect, the
fair Britons would have the preference with them to a very great extent; and, in another respect, they would
become a kind of first ornament to Great-Britain for her tender and compassionate care of such a set of distressed
poor ignorant people. And were the noble Britons, and their august Sovereign, to cause protection and
encouragement to be given to those Africans, they might expect in a short time, if need required it, to receive
from thence great supplies of men in a lawful way, either for industry or defence; and of other things in
abundance, from so great a source, where every thing is luxurious and plenty, if not laid waste by barbarity and
gross ignorance. Due encouragement being given to so great, so just, and such a noble undertaking, would soon
bring more revenue in a righteous way to the British nation, than ten times its share in all the profits that slavery
can produce; and such a laudable example would inspire every generous and enterprizing mind to imitate so
great and worthy a nation, for establishing religion, justice, and equity to the Africans, and, in doing this, would
be held in the highest esteem by all men, and be admired by all the world.
3. Africa without slavery.
Equiano Narrative.
Equiano's Narrative has been used, analysed and reissued for a myriad purposes over
the past forty years. But few scholars have commented on his comments on the need to create
. a new set of trading relationships with Africa. His argument was simple. He was writing when
the abolition of the slave trade was under active discussion in the British Parliament, and
Equiano stated the case for the development of normal trading relations between Britain and
Africa. Instead of trading for humanity, why not trade for other produce and commodities,
and, at the same time, cultivate African demand for British manufactures? After all, Africa
was a vast continent - the physical and human extent of which was not even fully known or
appreciated by outsiders in the late 18 th century - which could become a massive market for
14
British goods. Such trade would, in the process, help to 'civilize' Africa in the process:
persuade millions of Africans of the benefits of western ways and thus further enhance the
commercial interests of the British. (Today, this may seem an odd thing for an African to say:
that trade would 'civilize' Africa. We need to remember however that he was writing for a
particular kind of audience: he knew his British readership, and knew how best to appeal to
them).
.'
Equiano also argued, that if the slave trade were abolished, Africa would benefit by
experiencing a population increase (and would thereby have even more people available to
purchase imported British goods). Equiano touches on a sensitive issue here, one frequently
analysed by modern historians. What were the consequences, within Africa, of the drain of
Africans into the slave ships? Did it, for example, encourage or produce a decline in
population? For his part, Equiano was sure that without the slave trade, the population of
Africa would increase, and that increase would enable an enhanced trade to develop between
African customers and British traders. Stated simply, more and more Africans would be able
to buy ever more imported British goods. Equiano was employing a neat, circular argument:
stop the slave trade and it would encourage the growth of British trade and of British
prosperity.
What lay behind his argument was of course another economic argument - or rather
an assumption. It was widely accepted that the slave trade was economically good (vital even)
for the British economy. The wider slave lobby (the planters, traders, merchants - indeed
everyone remotely associated with the Atlantic trade) simply assumed that ending the slave
trade would spell economic doom for the British - and for other slave trading powers.
Equiano neatly turned this argument on its head by asserting that an unfettered flow of
business and trade between Britain and Africa would actually bring great economic benefits to both sides. Abolition of the slave trade, far from damaging British economic wellbeing,
15
would actually usher in a new and totally different form of commercial prosperity, one based
on open trade rather than slavery.
Here, then, is a bold and original argument, advanced by an African which embraces a
new vision for the relationship between Africa and the outside world. End the slave trade and
a more open trade would benefit everyone, in addition to freeing Africa of the threat and
damages of externally-prompted enslavement. It was a vision which incorporated the demand
for freedom - freedom from enslavement - with the prospect of continuing material well
being for all concerned. We know of course that the ending of the slave trade, and the
'normalising' of trade between Africa and the outsider world did not, in the event, bring what
Equiano hoped for. And we know that, in the years that followed - right down to the present
day, that Africa's commercial dealings with the outside world continued to be bedevilled by
an unequal and damaging relationship. For our purposes however, Equiano's vision of a new
form of trade was promoted both to end the damages caused by the Atlantic slave trade and in
the hope of promoting material prosperity for Africans and for outsiders. It was a potent
vision, the importance of which should not be dimmed by subsequent failing of commercial
relationships. Unarticulated by most of slavery's victims, here was a vision of Africa freed
from external slave demands.
As the inhuman traffic of slavery is now taken into the consideration of the British legislature, 1 doubt
not, if a system of commerce was established in Africa, the demand for manufactures would most rapidly
augment, as the native inhabitants would insensibly adopt the British fashions, manners, customs, &c. In
proportion to the civilization, so will be the consumption of British manufactures.
The wear and tear of a continent, nearly twice as large as Europe, and rich in vegetable and mineral
productions, is much easier conceived that calculated.
A case in point. - It cost the Aborigines of Britain little or nothing in clothing, &c. The difference
between their forefathers and the present generation, in point of consumption, is literally infinite. The
supposition is most obvious. It will be equally immense in Africa. - The same cause, viz. civilization, will ever
have the sam e effect.
It is trading upon safe grounds. A commercial intercourse with Africa opens an inexhaustible source of
wealth to the manufacturing interests of Great Britain, and to all which the slave-trade is an objection.
16
If I am not misinformed, the manufacturing interest is equal, if not superior, to the landed interest, as to
the value, for reasons which will soon appear. The abolition of slavery, so diabolical, will give a most rapid
extension of manufactures, which is totally and diametrically opposite to what some interested people assert.
The manufacturers of this country must and will, in the nature and reason of things, have a full and
constant employ, by supplying the African markets.
Population, the bowels and surface of Africa, abound in valuable and useful returns; the hidden
treasures of centuries will be brought to light and into circulation. Industry, enterprize, and mining, will have
their full scope, proportionally as they civilize. In a word, it lays open an endless field of commerce to the British
manufacturers and merchant adventurers. The manufacturing interest and the general interests are synonimous.
The abolition of slavery would be in reality an universal good.
Tortures, murder, and every other imaginable barbarity and iniquity are practised upon the poor slaves
with impunity. I hope the slave-trade will be abolished. I pray it may be an event at hand. The great body of
manufacturers, uniting in the cause, will considerably facilitate and expedite it; and, as I have already stated, it is
most substantially their interest and advantage, and as such the nation's at large, (except those persons concerned
in the manufacturing neck-yokes, collars, chains, hand-cuffs, leg-bolts, drags, thumb-screws, iron-muzzles, and
coffins; cats, scourges, and other instruments of torture used in the slave trade). In a short time one sentiment
alone will prevail, from motives of interest as well as justice and humanity. Europe contains one hundred and
twenty millions of inhabitants. Query. - How many millions doth Africa contain? Supposing the Africans,
collectively and individually, to expend 5£ a head in raiment and furniture yearly when civilized, &c., an
immensity beyond the reach of imagination!
This I conceive to be a theory founded upon facts, and therefore an infallible one. If the blacks were
permitted to remain in their own country, they would double themselves every fifteen years. In proportion to
such increase will be the demand for manufactures. Cotton and indigo grow spontaneously in most parts of
Africa; a consideration this of no small consequence to the manufacturing towns of Great Britain. It opens a most
immense, glorious, and happy prospect - the clothing, &c. of a continent ten thousand miles in circumference,
and immensely rich in productions of every denomination in return for manufactures.
4. Finding a voice.
Black writers.
The world of Atlantic slavery was dominated by a number of literate European
cultures. All the major slaving nations, and their colonial satellites in the Americas, were
characterised by their literate cultures. (A fact which explains how we have been able to
reconstruct the history of the Atlantic system in such detail). Indeed to a marked degree they
defined themselves as cultures through the written and printed word. There were of course
17
many other creative attributes they pointed to in order to define and explain the sophistication
of their culture; the arts, architecture - and perhaps above all, their religion. Yet the millions
of Africans they enslaved for the slave system of the Americas were taken from very different
kinds of societies: communities which outsiders (Europeans) described as uncivilized and
brute. Of course it was in the Europeans' interests to ignore or deny the full nature and
sophistication of African societies, preferring instead to fall back on what soon became crude
caricatures of African life and society. By doing so, the slave-trading nations were able to
elevate themselves; to mark themselves off from the Africans they enslaved. Europeans (and
Americans) were civilized, Africans were not. This distinction also enabled those involved in
slavery to justify and condone African slavery. This was of course a complicated process
which changed enormously over time. But the idea that superior white people were perfectly
at liberty to treat millions of black people as slaves - to view them as their personal items of
property, to be bought and sold as white people saw fit - hinged on a simple belief that the
African and his descendants was a deeply inferior being.
When, in the course of the 18th century, black voices emerged to challenge this view,
they often took an unusual approach. The very fact that the descendants of slaves were writing
and publishing their own words was in itself a major blow against the old stereotypes of the
slave lobby; a literate refutation of one basic principle that supported the slave system. The
18 th century was also the century when the printed word emerged in a new, more popular and
more widely-based format: newspapers, books, pamphlets, tracts, periodicals, all and more
flooded the urban areas of the western world. Reading and collecting items in print became a
feature of the western world. Men in coffee shops, ladies in their salons and libraries, had
access to a great variety of printed materials. It is into this world that a new generation of
black writers emerged. And it was this literate audience they spoke to.
18
Today, we have become familiar with the most prominent of 18th century black writers
(Equiano, Sancho and others) because they have been used, quoted, anthologised and
repeated, in a great variety of different formats, from scholarly publications to the popular
media. Yet the simple FACT of their writing is sometimes overlooked. Here, after all, are
people who ought NOT to have been literate. The slave system did not, at first, require literate
workers. It is true, that in time, as societies in the Americas became more complex, slave
literacy did indeed become more useful. But black literacy created a tension in the fabric of
slavery itself. It was proof and illustration that black people were not what the slave system
claimed they were: they did not always have to be mere labourers for their masters, destined
by their African origins to a life of harsh physical labour and little else.
It is into this context that we need to place the black writers of the mid-and late-18 th
century. In addition to their varied arguments (important and critical as they were) the fact
that they were engaged in a literate, and sometimes a literary debate, at a level which was
denied to their contemporaries, was in itself of major importance.
5. Family.
Gronniosaw.
th
The British dominated the Atlantic slave trade by the mid_18 century. It was British
(and British colonial) ships which carried ever more Africans across the Atlantic to their
Caribbean and North American colonies. It was inevitable that Africans, and others born to
African parents, would find their way back to Britain. They settled in Britain as slaves, as
servants, and as fashionable curiosities in a society generally unaccustomed to the presence of
black people in their midst. In time however this black presence became an inescapable fact,
and it was registered in a host of ways: in contemporary portraits, in local parish records, in
19
criminal proceedings and in the everyday records of contemporary social life. More
uncommon however were publications and writings by black people themselves. The
enslaved peoples of the Americas (and Europe) had emerged from the pre-literate cultures of
black Atlantic slavery. Although folk culture and popular memory formed a rich means of
transmitting collective memory between generations (even generations widely separated by
enslavement from their African homeland) written African accounts were rare. Those in our
possession are therefore all the more valuable.
lames Albert Ukawsa Gronniosaw (c. 1710-1772) was one such author whose
memoirs, published in Bath in 1772, provide invaluable evidence for black life, and provides
new visions for us to consider. His story was one which could have been replicated a million
times: of capture in Africa, trans-Atlantic transportation and settlement into American
bondage (in his case as a house-slave) before freedom and a new life at sea. Gronniosaw later
settled in Europe, married a local woman, and with whom he shared a family life of great
poverty.
His autobiography was published in Bath late in 1772, and seems to have been made
possible by the critical legal decision earlier that same year by Lord Mansfield in the famous
Somerset case. It was a decision based on a specific point of law (that slave owners could not
take slaves out of England against the slave's wishes) but the decision had the effect of ending
slavery in England itself. It also had the effect of bringing attention to the existence of the
IQcal black community. Gronniosaw's memoir was, in some respects, another contribution to
the wider debate which swirled around that famous court case, in print and in politics, and
which had consequences far beyond the fate of the single slave, lames Somerset, whose case
was under review.
As with all autobiographies, Gronniosaw's was a rich text which yields an abundance
of material and suggestions for any historian of the period. He talks of Africa, of slavery in
20
the Americas, of its brutalities, of his conversion to Christianity (a classic theme in slave
narratives) and of his unhappy life in England, and of the hardship of his family life with a
growing band of children.
Despite all that, what lies at the heart of his account is a simple aspiration shared by
millions: of the desire to enjoy family life on his own terms. This may seem an unexceptional
point. But we need to recall that Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, and settled into
the enslaved Americas not in family units but as individuals. They were bought, sold and
shipped as individuals, tom loose from their family, kin and communal structures in Africa. It
was to be one of the most important and remarkable achievements of slave life across the
Americas that men and women who had arrived alone - with no material possessions (most of
them naked or near naked) - had within a short time shaped for themselves personal, family
and communal life from the unlikely environment of the slave quarters. And this was true
wherever they were scattered; on the tropical plantations of the Americas or in the colder
environment of Europe. They found partners with whom they shared their lives. And from
those partnerships and marriages there emerged new forms of communities, black and white,
which became a feature of society on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gronniosaw was clearly an unusual man (simply by definition - how many others left
a personal memoir, an autobiography?). But his words speak to a simple vision (one shared by
many others); of the desire to shape for oneself, despite the miseries of slavery and despite the
poverty-stricken world of black freedom, a family life of one's own choosing.
So simple a fact, so normal a social routine stood in stark contrast to what slavery had
imposed on millions of Africans: their reduction to the will of others, and their removal from
family and kin. Gronniosaw, like millions of other Africans, had to recast his personal and
family life anew. The simplicities of family life formed, to repeat, an achievement which
often goes unnoticed.
21
My Lady purposed my marrying her maid; she was an agreeable young woman, had saved a great deal
of money, but I could not fancy her, though she was willing to accept of me, but I told her my inclinations were
engaged in ENGLAND, and I could think of no other Person.-On my return home, I found my Betty
disengaged.-She had refused several offers in my absence, and told her sister that, she thought, if ever she
married I was to be her husband.
Soon after I came home, I waited on Doctor Gifford, who took me into his family and was exceedingly
good to me. The character of this pious worthy Gentleman is well known; my praise can be of no use or
signification at all.-I hope I shall ever gratefully remember the many favours I have received from him.-Soon
after I came to Doctor Gifford I expressed a desire to be admitted into their Church, and set down with them;
they told me I must first be baptized; so I gave [missing text] I was baptized by Doctor Gifford with some others.
I then made known my intentions of being married; but I found there were many objections against it because the
person I had fixed on was poor. She was a widow, her husband had left her in debt, and with a child, so that they
persuaded me against it out of real regard to me.-But I had promised and was resolved to have her; as I knew
her to be a gracious woman, her poverty was no objection to me, as they had nothing else to say against her.
When my friends found they could not alter my opinion respecting her, they wrote to Mr. AlIen, the Minister she
attended, to persuade her to leave me; but he replied he would not interfere at all, that we might do as we would.
I was resolved that all my wife's little debt should be paid before we were married; so that I sold almost every
thing I had, and with all the money I could raise cleared all that she owed, and I never did any thing with a better
will in all my Life, because I firmly believed that we should be very happy together, and so it prov'd, for she was
given me from the LORD. And I have found her a blessed partner, and we have never repented, tho' we have
gone through many great troubles and difficulties.
My wife got a very good living by weaving, and could do extremely well; but just at that time there was
a great disturbance among the weavers; so that I was afraid to let my wife work, least they should insist on my
being one of the rioters which I could not think of, and, possibly, if I had refused to do so, they would have
knock'd me on the head.-So that by these means my wife could get no employ, neither had I work enough to
maintain my family. We had not yet been married a year before all these misfortunes overtook us.
Just at this time a gentleman, that seemed much concerned for us, advised us to go into Essex with him
and promised to get me employed.-I accepted his kind proposal, and he spoke to a friend of his, a Quaker, a
gentleman of large fortune, who resided a little way out of the town of Colchester, his name was Handbarar; he
ordered his steward to set me to work.
There were several employed in the same way with myself. I was very thankful and contented though
my wages were but small.-I was allowed but eight-pence a day, and found myself; but after I had been in this
situation a fortnight, my Master, being told that a Black was at work for him, had an inclination to see me. He
was pleased to talk with me for some time, and at last enquired what wages I had; when I told him he declared. it
was too little, and immediately ordered his Steward to let me have eighteen pence a day, which he constantly
gave me after; and I then did extremely well.
I did not bring my wife with me: I came first alone, and it was my design, if things answered according
to our wishes, to send for her-I was now thinking to desire her to come to me, when I receiv'd a letter to inform
me she was just brought to bed and in want of many necessaries.-This news was a great trial to me and a fresh
affliction: but my GOD, faithful and abundant in mercy, forsook me not in this trouble.-As I could not read
22
English, I was obliged to apply to some person to read the letter I received, relative to my wife. I was directed by
[missing text] of my Master.-I desired he would take the trouble to read my letter for me, which he readily
comply'd with and was greatly moved and affected at the contents; insomuch that he said he would undertake to
make a gathering for me, which he did and was the first to contribute to it himself. The money was sent that
evening to LONDON by a person who happen'd to be going there; nor was this ALL the goodness I experienced
from these kind friends, for, as soon as my wife came about and was fit to travel, they sent for her to me, and
were at the whole expence of her coming; so evidently has the love and mercy of GOD appeared through every
trouble that ever I experienced. We went on very comfortably all the summer.-We lived in a little cottage near
Mr. Handbarrar's House; but when the winter came on I was discharged, as he had no further occasion for me.
And now the prospect began to darken upon us again. We thought it most adviseable to move our habitation a
little nearer to the Town, as the house we lived in was very cold, and wet, and ready to tumble down.
The boundless goodness of GOD to me has been so very great, that with the most humble gratitude I
desire to prostrate myself before Him; for I have been wonderfully supported in every affliction.-My GOD
never left me. I perceived light still thro' the thickest darkness.
My dear wife and I were now both unemployed, we could get nothing to do. The winter prov'd
remarkably severe, and we were reduc'd to the greatest distress imaginable.-I was always very shy at asking for
any thing; I could never beg; neither did I chuse to make known our wants to any person, for fear of offending,
as we were entire strangers; but our last bit of bread was gone, and I was obliged to think of something to do for
our support.-I did not mind for myself at all; but to see my dear wife and children in want, pierc'd me to the
heart.-I now blamed myself for bringing her from London, as doubtless had we continued there we might have
found friends to have kept us from starving. The snow was at this season remarkably deep; so that we could see
no prospect of being relieved: In this melancholy situation, not knowing what step to pursue, I resolved to make
my case known to a Gentleman's Gardiner, that lived near us, and entreat him to employ me: but when I came to
him my courage failed me, and I was ashamed to make known our real situation.-I endeavoured all I could to
prevail on him to set me to work, but to no purpose: he assur'd me it was not in his power: but just when I was
about to leave him, he asked me if I would accept of some Carrots? I took them with great thankfulness, and
carried them home: he gave me four, they were very large and fine.-We had nothing to make a fire with, so
consequently we could not boil them: But was glad to have them to eat raw. Our youngest child was then an
infant; so that my wife was obliged to chew it, and fed her in that manner for several days.-We allowed
ourselves but one every day, least they should not last 'till we could get some other supply. I was unwilling to
eat at all myself; nor would I take any the last day that we continued in this situation, as I could not bear the
thought that my dear wife and children would be in want of every means of support. We lived in this manner 'till
our carrots were gone: [missing text] I could; still hoping and believing, that my GOD would not let us die: but
that it would please Him to relieve us, which He did almost by a Miracle.
We went to bed, as usual, before it was quite dark, (as we had neither fire nor candle) but we had not
been there long before some person knocked at the door & enquired if lames Albert lived there? I answer'd in
the affirmative, and rose immediately; as soon as I open'd the door I found it was the servant of an eminent
Attorney who resided at Colchester.-He asked how it was with me? if I was almost starv'd? I burst out a
crying, and told him that I was indeed. He said that his master suppos'd so, and that he wanted to speak with me,
and I must return with him. This Gentleman's name was Danniel, he was a sincere good christian. He used to
23
stand and talk with me frequently when I work'd on the road for Mr. Handbarrar, and would have employed me
himself, if I had wanted work.-When I came to his house he told me that he had thought a great deal about me
of late, and was apprehensive that I must be in want, and could not be satisfied till he had sent to enquire after
me. I made known my distress to him, at which he was greatly affected; and generously gave me a guinea; and
promis'd to be kind to me in future. I could not help exclaiming, 0 the boundless mercies a/my God! I pray'd
unto Him, and He has heard me; I trusted in Him, and He has preserv'd me: where shall I begin to praise Him, or
how shall I love Him enough?
I went immediately and bought some bread and cheese and coal and carried it home. My dear wife was
rejoiced to see me return with something to eat. She instantly got up and dressed our Babies, while I made a fire,
and the first Nobility in the land never made a better meal.-We did not forget to thank the LORD for all his
goodness to us.-Soon after this, as the spring came on, Mr. Peter Daniel employed me in helping to pull down a
house, and rebuilding it. I had then very good work, and full employ: he sent for my wife and children to
Colchester, and provided us a house where we lived very comfortably.-I hope I shall always gratefully
acknowledge his kindness to myself and family. I worked at this house for more than a year, till it was finished;
and after that I was employed by several successively, and was never so happy as when I had something to do;
but perceiving the winter coming on, and work rather slack, I was apprehensive that we should again be in want
or become troublesome to our friends.
I had at this time an offer made me of going to Norwich and having constant employ.-My wife seemed
pleased with this proposal, as she supposed that she might get work there in the weaving-manufactory, being the
business she was brought up to, and more likely to succeed there than any other place; and we thought as we had
an opportunity of moving to a Town where we could both be employ'd, it was most adviseable to do so; and that
probably we might settle there for our Iives.-When this step was resolv'd on, I went first alone to see how it
would answer; which I very much repented after, for it was not in my power immediately to send my wife any
supply, as I fell into the hands of a Master that was neither kind nor considerable; and she was reduced to great
distress, so that she was oblig'd to sell the few goods that we had, and when I sent for [missing text] When she
came to Norwich, I hired a room ready furnished.-I experienced a great deal of difference in the carriage of my
Master from what I had been accustomed to from some of my other Masters. He was very irregular in his
payments to me.-My wife hired a loom and wove all the leisure time she had and we began to do very well, till
we were overtaken by fresh misfortunes. Our three poor children fell ill of the small pox; this was a great trial to
us; but still I was persuaded in myself we should not be forsaken.-And I did all in my power to keep my dear
partner's spirits from sinking. Her whole attention was now taken up with the children as she could mind nothing
else, and all I could get was but little to support a family in such a situation, beside paying for the hire of our
room, which I was obliged to omit doing for several weeks: but the woman to whom we were indebted would
not excuse us, tho' I promised she should have the first money we could get after my children came about, but
she would not be satisfied and had the cruelty to threaten us that if we did not pay her immediately she would
turn us all into the street.
The apprehension of this plunged me in the deepest distress, considering the situation of my poor
babies: if they had been in health I should have been less sensible of this misfortune. But my GOD, stillfaithful
ofhis promise, raised me up a friend. Mr. Henry Gurdney, a Quaker, a gracious gentleman heard of our distress,
24
he sent a servant of his own to the woman we hired our room of, paid our rent, and bought all the goods, with my
wife's loom, and gave it us all.
Some other gentlemen, hearing of his design, were pleased to assist him in these generous acts, for
which we never can be thankful enough; after this my children soon came about; we began to do pretty well
again; my dear wife work'd hard and constant when she could get work, but it was upon a disagreeable footing
as her employ was so uncertain, sometimes she could get nothing to do and at other times when the weavers at
Norwich had orders from LONDON they were so excessively hurried, that the people they employ'd were
oblig'd to work on the Sabbath-day; but this my wife would never do, and it was a matter of uneasiness to us
that we could not get our living in a regular manner, though we were both diligent, industrious, and willing to
work. I was far from being happy in my Master, he did not use me well. I could scarcely ever get my money
from him; but I continued patient 'till it pleased GOD to alter my situation.
My worthy friend Mr. Gurdney, advised me to follow the employment of chopping chaff, and bought
me an instrument for that purpose. There were but few persons in the town that made this their business beside
myself; so that I did very well indeed and became quite easy and happy.-But we did not continue long in this
comfortable state: Many of the inferior people were envious and ill-natur'd and set up the same employ and
work'd under price on purpose to get my business from me, and they succeeded so well that I could hardly get
anything to do, and became again unfortunate: Nor did this misfortune come alone, for just at this time we lost
one of our little girls who died of a fever: this circumstance occasion'd us new troubles, for the Baptist Minister
refused to bury her because we [missing text] never been baptized. I applied to the Quakers, but met with no
success; this was one of the greatest trials I had ever met with, as we did not know what to do with our poor
baby.-At length I resolv'd to dig a grave in the garden behind the house, and bury her there; when the Parson of
the parish sent to tell me he would bury the child, but did not chuse to read the burial service over her. I told him
that I did not mind whether he would or no, as the child could not hear it.
We met with a great deal of ill treatment after this, and found it very difficult to Iive.-We could
scarcely get work to do, and were obliged to pawn our c1oaths. We were ready to sink under our troubles.When I proposed to my wife to go to Kidderminster and try if we could do there. I had always an inclination for
that place, and now more than ever as I had heard Mr. Fawcett mentioned in the most respectful manner, as a
pious worthy Gentleman, and I had seen his name in a favourite book of mine, Baxter's Saints everlasting rest;
and as the manufactory of Kidderminster seemed to promise my wife some employment, she readily came into
my way of thinking.
I left her once more, and set out for Kidderminster, in order to judge if the situation would suit us.-As
soon as I came there, I waited on Mr. Fawcett, who was pleased to receive me very kindly and recommended me
to Mr. Watson who employed me in twisting silk and worsted together. I continued here about a fortnight, and
when I thought that it would answer our expectation, I returned to Norwich to fetch my wife; she was then near
her time, and too much indisposed. So we were obliged to tarry until she was brought to bed, and as soon as she
could conveniently travel we came to Kidderminster, but we brought nothing with us as we were obliged to sell
all we had to pay our debts and the expences of my wife's illness, &c.
Such is our situation at present.-My wife, by hard labor at the loom, does every thing that can be
expected from her towards the maintenance of our family; and GOD is pleased to incline his People at times to
yield us their charitable assistance; being myself through age and infirmity able to contribute but little to their
25
support. As Pilgrims, and very poor Pilgrims, we are travelling through many difficulties towards our
HEAVENLY HOME, and waiting patiently for his gracious call, when the LORD shall deliver us out of the
evils of this present world and bring us to the EVERLASTING GLORIES of the world to come.-To HIM be
PRAISE for EVER and EVER, AMEN.
FINIS.
6. A black poet.
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784).
Why should we think a poet important enough to include in a volume devoted to slave
visions? After all few people read poetry, and poets - with notable exceptions - rarely made
the social impact of other writers. But a sample from Phillis Wheatley is presented here for a
number of important reasons.
Phillis Wheatley was a slave from Boston who, thanks to aristocratic patronage in
England, had her poetry published in London in 1773 (again, in the wake of the Somerset case
1772). She was only 19 when her work was published, partly to prove to doubters that a black
slave could indeed create such literature, but partly to encourage the early demands for the
abolition ofthe slave trade. Here once again, was a classic slave story.
She had been bought as a 7 year old in a slave market in Boston, wearing only a piece
from a dirty carpet. Her (adopted) name was that of her mistress. The young Wheatley soon
picked up an interest in reading. As with many other slaves (for example Equiano) the Bible
was the critical book. She was, by any standard, a child prodigy who impressed visitors to her
Boston home by her studious and quiet presence. She wrote her first poems at the age of 13
and, in 1773, was taken to England by her owner's son. There she was feted by fashionable
and aristocratic society. When her poems were published in that year, London reviewers were
astonished, by her youth but even more so by the fact that she was black - and still a slave.
Whatever the weaknesses of Wheatley's poetry, her work formed an important statement
26
about black potential and attainment. Here after all was a woman, barely out of adolescence,
writing in an art form which was the classic expression of that age of sensibility, and doing so
from a position of debased and oppressed enslavement. What might she have achieved had
she been freed and given a different set of opportunities? This was of course the same set of
questions prompted by all the black writers of the late 18th century. If they could make such
important contributions from a position of enslavement, or from recent emancipation, what
'.
potential lay untapped among other slaves?
Phillis Wheatley's fate stood in sharp contrast to the brief fame she enjoyed in London
III
1773. She remained in England only for a month; was returned to American slavery in
Boston. Within a year, the death of her mistress left her destitute, scratching a living by
selling her writing from door to door. She made an unhappy marriage to a poor free black,
lost two children and died, in poverty in 1784; her surviving child died a few hours later. It
was a miserable, anonymous end for a woman whose fame and talent had flared briefly only a
decade earlier. Yet her work survives. It will not perhaps find a place in the archives of major
contemporary verse, but it is essential as a precocious black voice. It is offered here as an
example of another slave vision: the simple desire to find a voice.
To be heard, to be listened to, to express a view, to command a hearing - all of these
are commonplace in the modem western world. But they were denied to millions in the world
of Atlantic slavery. Wheatley, and others, gave voice to the need to be heard: to register an
opinion. Here, again, was a vision of a different life.
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1768.
YOUR subjects hope, dread SireThe crown upon your brows may flourish long,
And that your arm in your God be strong!
o may your sceptre num'rous nations sway,
And all with love and readiness obey!
27
But how shall we the British king reward!
Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord!
Midst the remembrance of thy favours past,
The meanest peasants most admire the last.
May George, belov'd by all the nations round,
Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd!
Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,
And from his head let ev'ry evil fly!
And may each clime with equal gladness see
A monarch's smile can set his subjects free!
7. A Black Love Letter.
Soubise, c.1750-1780.
Slavery distorted human relations at a number of complex levels. By reducing the
slave to the level of property. slavery tried to strip its victims of a range of human emotions
(and potentials). Time and again, supporters of the slave systems wrote of Africans and their
new World descendants as being devoid of those refinements, sophistications and human
responses familiar to Europeans. How far people actually believed such claims is hard to tell.
Yet the critical matter is that this vast slave system, spanning both sides of the Atlantic,
thrived for centuries, and everything hinged on the assumption that the black was an
inanimate object: an item of trade and ownership. How could the slaves involved display the
full range of human emotions familiar to white society?
It was the determination to display their ordinary, common humanity which provides a
link between all the black writers of the late 18 th century. Theirs was a communal vision of
shared humanity. Their work was to assert a simple point: they were no different from anyone
else. Unlike in the slave colonies of the Americas, where people of African descent were
commonplace and unavoidable, in Europe they were unusual and exceptional. When they
spoke and wrote to their local (i.e. white) audience and readership, they not only adopted local
28
conventional styles of address and writing, but they also sought to appeal to the simple
humanity of those around them.
Like any other people, the offspring of slaves enjoyed everyday passions and
disappointments, affection and unrequited love. Here, in one man's (elaborate) love letter, we
see a very human pattern unfold.
We know little of Soubise himself, and what we know tends to come from the pen of
people who disliked him. Or rather disliked his womanising and wayward behaviour. He
worked as a servant to the Duchess of Queensbury. It was even reported that he had once been
caught in her boudoir when she was partly dressed. He trained as a domestic, but had spent
time at Eton and also worked as an assistant to Henry Angelo, who had been hired by the
Duchess to teach Soubise house-riding and fencing. Above all Soubise was a dandy, with a
great reputation which was parodied in the press (and in contemporary cartoons) for his
womanising. The long-suffering Duchess finally lost patience with him when he seduced her
maidservant. In 1777 he was disowned and dispatched to India - to a riding school in Madras,
where he died in a fall from a horse.
Soubise was not without his friends however. Ignatius Sancho for example spoke
warmly of him but he remained a figure of fun in the press, perhaps because his antics were
so outrageous. Even here, in the only letter we have in his hand, he writes in mock flattery of
the woman he is pursuing. In print, as in life, Soubise seems to have been a self-styled jester.
But again, there is an important dimension to Soubise reflected in his sole surviving letter. He
was a young man acting like so many other young men around him: he had adopted the tone
and style, the extravagant posturing of a love-struck gallant, anxious to win over his chosen
woman. Today it might seem off-putting and counter-productive. It was however yet another
aspect of an African trying to behave like other men around him. It may have seemed
29
pretentious to some. But so too did the antics of many other young men of fashion. The
difference, in this case, was that the poseur was an African.
Dear Miss,
I have often beheld you in public with rapture; indeed it is impossible to view you without such emotions as
must animate every man of sentiment. In a word, Madam, you have seized my heart, and I dare tell you, I am
your Negro Slave. You startle at this expression, Madam; but I love to be sincere. I am of that swarthy race of
ADAM, whom some despise on account of their complexion; but I begin to find from experience, that even this
trial of our patience may last but for a time, as Providence has given such knowledge to Man, as to remedy all
the evils of this life. There is not a disorder under the sun which may not, by the skill and industry of the learned,
be removed: so do I find, that similar applications in the researches of medicine, have brought to bear such
discoveries, as to remove the tawny hue of any complexion, if applied with skill and perseverance. In this
pursuit, my dear Miss, I am resolutely engaged, and hope, in a few weeks, I may be able to throw myself at your
feet, in as agreeable a form as you can desire; in the mean time, believe me with the greatest sincerity,
Your's most devotedly,
My lovely Angel,
Soubise.
8. An African man of Letters.
19natius Sancho, 1729-1780.
African visions in the era of Atlantic slavery took many forms. Here we are concerned
with the new world of print and publication. The western world, as we have seen, came to
prize literate culture, and in order to engage with that culture, black writers and spokesmen
emerged from the mid 18th century onwards - to stake their own particular claim to be a part
of that culture. Today, when we are able to compile substantial anthologies of black writing
from the period, it is relatively simple to see its significance. At the time however, from say
1750 onwards, black voices often seemed both marginal and isolated.
One difficulty such writers faced was being accepted by a world which preferred to
think of black humanity as slavish: as predestined to be the enslaved labourers for their white
owners and masters. They needed to appeal to their readership, and to make potentially useful
friends, in the language and literary conventions of the day. Much of the style of most of the
30
published black British writers seems, today, hard to appreciate. To modern tastes it seems at
times ingratiating and sometimes too humble; too flattering to their white hosts, and too
deferential. But we need, throughout to be alert to their problem. Here were writers who had
to conform to a series of literary styles and conventions. It was pointless writing in a way
which did not appeal. The end result is a literary style and tone which might grate on the
modern reader and which often strikes modern students as incongruous, perhaps especially
incongruous for black writers. Yet the question of the writer's tone and style should not
deflect us from the importance of their impact and message.
Nowhere was this more striking than in the writing of Ignatius Sancho who became,
through his letters, a highly effective and well-placed spokesman for the black cause. His
collected letters, published two years after his death, are good examples of that late 18th
century style, partly subservient, partly self-parody, which seems so alien to modern readers.
Yet Sancho's was an important voice, and a vision of what black people could become, if
freed from slavery. Sancho had a large circle of friends and correspondents in England and he
flattered, begged, cajoled and seduced them with his personal approaches. In addition,
Sancho's letters' were clearly designed to cultivate the image of a respectable man ofletters: a
man who was equal with any other, a man of refinement and sensibility able to hold his own
among educated and privileged people. Yet this same man - Ignatius Sancho, now Londonbased - had been born to an African mother on board an Atlantic slave ship. There could be
no sharper social rise than this: from the abject squalor of a slave ship to being friendly
correspondent with the good and the great. Sancho was not simply seeking personal
respectability. What he had in mind was a vision for all blacks: that they might all be accepted
as equal, on a par with their contemporaries, and remain unhindered by barriers of race or
inferiority (the barriers so basic to the slave system). Despite its (by-now) faded tone, and
despite Sancho's apparent deference, here were one man's visions of what might be achieved.
31
TO MR STERNE.
July, 1776.
REVEREND SIR,
It would be an insult on your humanity (or perhaps look like it) to apologize for the liberty I am taking. - I am
one of those people whom the vulgar and illiberal call "Negurs." - The first part of my life was rather unlucky,
as I was placed in a family who judged ignorance the best and only security for obedience. - A little reading and
writing I got by unwearied application. - The latter part of my life has been - thro' God's blessing, truly
fortunate, having spent it in the service of one of the best families in the kingdom. - My chief pleasure has been
books. - Philanthropy I adore. - How very much, good Sir, am I (amongst millions) indebted to you for the
character of your amiable uncle Toby! - I declare, I would walk ten miles in the dog-days, to shake hands with
..
the honest corporal. - Your Sermons have touch'd me to the heart, and I hope have amended it, which brings me
to the point. - In your tenth discourse, page seventy-eight, in the second volume - is this very affecting passage
- 'Consider how great a part of our species - in all ages down to this - have been trod under the feet of cruel and
capricious tyrants, who would neither hear their cries, nor pity their distresses. - Consider slavery - what it is how bitter a draught - and how many millions are made to drink it!' - Of all my favorite authors, not one has
drawn a tear in favor of my miserable black brethren - excepting yourself, and the humane author of Sir George
Ellison. - I think you will forgive me; - I am sure you will applaud me for beseeching you to give one halfhour's attention to slavery, as it is at this day practised in our West Indies. - That subject, handled in your
striking manner, would ease the yoke (perhaps) of many - but if only of one - Gracious God! - what a feast to a
benevolent heart! - and, sure I am, you are an epicurean in acts of charity. - You, who are universally read, and
as universally admired - you could not fail- Dear Sir, think in me you behold the uplifted hands of thousands of
my brother Moors. - Grief (you pathetically observe) is eloquent; - figure to yourself their attitudes; - hear their
supplicating addresses! - alas! - you cannot refuse. - Humanity must comply - in which hope I beg permission
to subscribe myself,
Reverend Sir, &c.
IGN. SANCHO.
9. Slave Pleasures.
There was much more to life in the slave colonies than unceasing work. For a start,
even the enslaved work regimes had a natural rhythm which provided its own breaks and
intervals. All agricultural labour is seasonal. At the height of the local crop, when the crop
was being harvested, collected or cut (be it sugar, tobacco or cotton), there was scarcely
enough labour for all the necessary tasks on the slave plantations. But outside the harvesting
32
period work was generally less taxing. In addition to this seasonality of local labour, the
emergence of the Christian week, with its calendar of the local Christian year, provided its
own festivals and breaks from work. Sunday offered a weekly break. Easter, Christmas, New
Year, and in Catholic societies, a number of Saints Days provided their own routines of rest
and recreation. Even when the majority of the local enslaved labour force was African, and
when they had not been formally converted to Christianity, slaves made the most of local
festivals, of high days and holidays.
All this was in addition to their own communal or family pleasures and celebrations
centred on birth, marriage, burial and a string of celebrations remembered and celebrated from
an African past. Stated simply, slaves made the most of whatever free time and opportunities
for pleasure which came their way. Indeed we know so such about this because outsiders planters, visitors, officials, were always struck by what they witnessed when confronted by
slaves at their pleasures. Here, a West Indian planter, Monk Lewis, describes how slaves
enjoyed themselves. The enslaved vision for a fuller life - even in the midst of slavery embraced simple personal and communal enjoyments.
JANUARY 6.
This was the day given to my negroes as a festival on my arrival. A couple of heifers were slaughtered
for them: they were allowed as much rum, and sugar, and noise, and dancing as they chose; and as to the two
latter, certainly they profited by the permission. About two o'clock they began to assemble round the house, all
drest in their holiday clothes, which, both for men and women, were chiefly white; only that the women were
decked out with a profusion of beads and corals, and gold ornaments of all descriptions; and that while the
blacks wore jackets, the mulattoes generally wore cloth coats; and inasmuch as they were all plainly clean
instead of being shabbily fashionable, and affected to be nothing except that which they really were, they looked
twenty times more like gentlemen than nine tenths of the bankers' clerks who swagger up and down Bond Street.
It is a custom as to the mulatto children, that the males born on an estate should never be employed as field
negroes, but as tradesmen; the females are brought up as domestics about the house. I had particularly invited
"Mr. John-Canoe" [slave musician and dancer wearing mask] (which I found to be the polite manner in which
the negroes spoke of him), and there arrived a couple of very gay and gaudy ones. I enquired whether one of
them was "John-Crayfish;" but I was told that John-Crayfish was John-Canoe's rival and enemy, and might
belong to the factions of "the Blues and the Reds;" but on Cornwall they were all friends, and therefore there
were only the father and the son - Mr. John-Canoe, senior, and Mr. John-Canoe, junior.
33
The person who gave me this information was a young mulatto carpenter, called Nicholas ....
... the smaller of the two John-Canoe machines was made by John Fuller, as smart and intelligent a
little fellow as eye ever beheld, who came grinning from ear to ear to tell me that he had made every bit of the
canoe with his own hands, and had set to work upon it the moment that he knew of massa's coming to Jamaica.
And indeed it was as fine as paint, paste-board, gilt paper, and looking-glass could make it! Unluckily, the
breeze being very strong blew off a fine glittering umbrella, surmounted with a plume of John Crow feathers,
which crowned the top; and a little wag of a negro boy whipped it up, clapped it upon his head, and performed
the part of an impromptu Mr. John-Canoe with so much fun and grotesqueness, that he fairly beat the original
performers out of the pit, and carried off all the applause of the spectators, and a couple of my dollars. The JohnCanoes are fitted out at the expense of the rich negroes, who afterwards share the money collected from the
spectators during their performance, allotting one share to the representator himself; and it is usual for the master
of the estate to give them a couple of guineas apiece.
10. Escaping slaves. Runaways.
Enslaved people everywhere sought their freedom. It had been true of more ancient
slave systems (in the Classical World for example) and it was spectacularly true in the world
of Atlantic slavery. At its simplest and most direct, slaves simply ran away. They ran away
from their captors in Africa, they tried to escape the miserable confines of the slave ships
(even to the extent of throwing themselves overboard in mid-ocean) and they ran away in
every part of the American slave colonies.
Slaves ran away for a host of reasons. They escaped to search out a loved one (a child,
a parent, a family, partner or friend), they fled the oppression of daily life and work, or they
sought to strike out on their own. Sometimes slave owners connived in their flight. Out of
season, an absent slave meant fewer mouths to feed. But we know so much about slave
runaways because slave owners advertised to find them, and have them returned.
What follows is a sample of advertisements for slave runaways. These advertisements
provide some remarkable information and insights into what slaves were looking for - what
they wanted - and how they tried to secure those ambitions.
34
From these simple lines we can learn a great deal about the slaves - and about what
they wanted.
Passage Port, June 2, 1790
ABSCONDED
th
From John Munro's wharf at this place, the 30 ultimo, a NEGRO SAILOR MAN, of the Coromantee nation; he
is about 5 feet 5 inches high, his face furrowed with the small pox marks, he has no brand mark, his back has got
several lumps which in some manner resemble a bunch of grapes; this fellow is well acquainted in and with all
the different islands to Windward; he has been on the Continent of America; came to this island from Rhode Isle
in the sloop Amphion, Captain Oliver Berry, who sold him lately to Mr. Munro; he had on when he went off an
osnaburgh frock and a pair of India Dungaree trowsers; supposed to be lurking in or about Kingston; he is artful,
speaks the English. French, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese languages; of course it is thought he may endeavour
to pass for a free man, and may thus impose on foreigners and other seafaring gentlemen.
A suitable reward will be given to any person who will lodge him in any gaol or workhouse in this
island, or conduct him to this wharf.
Daily Advertiser (Kingston)
7 June 1790
Philadelphia, October 29, 1747.
TAKEN up and committed to Newtown-goal in Bucks county, on suspicion of running away, a Negroe man
nam'd John Cuffee, aged about Twenty-six years, has a blemish in the right eye, mark'd very much with scars on
each side his face, and all over his forehead, has a light colour'd broadcloth surtout coat, with mohair buttons. He
says he did belong to one John Harding, master of a ship from Madeira to Patapsco in Maryland, and that his
master was shot in the voyage by a Spanish Privateer. Any person that can claim a property to the said Negroe, is
hereby desir'd to come and pay the charges, and take him away.
AMOS STRICKLAND, sheriff.
Philadelphia, May 5, 1748
RUN away, last Thursday, from Philip Syng, of this city, silversmith, a Negroe man, named Cato, about 20 years
old, a short, well-set fellow, and speaks good English: Had on when he went away two jackets, the uppermost a
dark blue halfthick, lined with red flannel, the other a light blue homespun flannel, without lining, ozenbrigs
shirt, old leather breeches, yarn stockings, old shoes, and an old beaver hat. When he went away he had irons on
his legs, and about his neck, but probably has cut them off, as he has done several times before on the like
occasion; he generally skulks about this City. Whoever brings him home, shall have Twenty Shillings reward,
and reasonable charges, paid by
PHILlP SYNG.
35
Runaway slaves
Advertisements in Jamaica Royal Gazette, 1782
MARIA, a Washer, bought from lames EIford, Esq., the initials of whose name she bears on one of her
shoulders: - She eloped early in October last and has been frequently seen at Port-Royal, where it is imagined
she is harboured among the shipping: ...
WILLIAM, a slim made Waiting-Boy, and a Postillion; 18 months ago purchased from Mrs. Susannah Gale: He eloped at Christmas, and has been a cruise to sea on board the Hercules Privateer; was apprehended on board
about ten days ago, but made his escape on landing: he passed
011
the late Capt. Graham of the Hercules as a free
man, and assumed the name ofGEORGE... , As he may, in all probability, attempt the like imposition on others,
and may endeavour to get off the island, all captains of men of war, masters and commanders of merchant-men,
and other vessels, are hereby cautioned against admitting the said Slave WILLIAM on board, otherwise they
shall, on conviction, be prosecuted in the rigorous manner the law has directed.
MARY, a stout, young House Wench, about 16 years old, eloped eight weeks ago. was seen twice since in
Liguanea. It is supposed she is harboured by the Watchmen, as she has been seen in Kingston selling plantain.
Whoever will secure the above runaways in gaol, or deliver them to the Subscriber, at his pen in Liguanea, or to
Mr. J. Davidson, Wharfinger in Kingston, shall receive FIVE POUNDS Reward.
N.B. As the Subscriber intends leaving the island by an early opportunity, he will dispose of his pleasant and
agreeable Penn in Liguanea. generally known by the name of GREIG'S PENN, together with all his Household
Furniture. Negroes, Horses, Carriages, etc., either by public or private sale.
11. Buying freedom.
Slaves sought freedom above all else. For most, formal. Legal freedom remained a
distant dream. But many were indeed able to secure freedom. Some were freed by their
owners for a variety of reasons: after years of service (or when they were too old to work), or
they might be freed for family or affectionate reasons (masters sometimes freed slave women
they had taken as mistresses as well as children born from these unions). Some slaves were
even able to buy their own freedom, from the cash they earned and saved, at those various
activities on and around the plantations in their free time. Sometimes, if they were lucky, their
36
owners agreed to free them - at a price. This, after all, was how Equiano secured his own
freedom.
Slaves placed great importance on freeing other relatives, and went to remarkable
lengths to secure the freedom of a loved one. In this case, when the slave Genevieve
Labothiere bought her brother's freedom, there were extraordinary complications. First of all,
at the time of this document, the French Revolution had thrown the Caribbean into great
convulsion and, through the upheaval in St. Domingue, into slave rebellion and warfare.
There was also the added complexity that while Genevieve lived in Guadeloupe, the brother
whose freedom she wanted to buy lived in Martinique. This in itself is a remarkable insight
into the complexities of slave networks, reaching across, and between the islands. It also
illustrates how well versed slaves could be in the politics of contemporary life (in this case, in
the progress of the French Revolution). Equally, here was a slave turning to the process of law
- creating a legal document - to pursue her aim: to free her brother. It is a astonishing
example of the slave's vision of freedom - for themselves and their loved ones. It also speaks
to the lengths they would go to in order to secure that freedom.
Genevieve Labothiere Purchases her Brother's Freedom
1796-1801
While Victor Hugues, the French administrator of Guadeloupe charged with bringing freedom to the
island, brought liberty to Guadeloupe, the British held on to Martinique, and as a result slavery was maintained
there. In this document, drawn up in front of a notary in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe a woman explained how she
was able to purchase her freedom for her brother, who was still enslaved in Martinique. Many ex-slaves like
Labothiere used their new right to create legal documents to document and solidify their access to liberty and
property. This document is relatively unique, however, because in the process of confronting the fact that her
actions were technically illegal - the slave trade was abolished in France - Labothiere related her individual
actions to the broader policies of Republican emancipation in a clear and powerful way. It also shows how
networks that tied together families, as well as blacks and whites such as Jacques Dupuy, crossed geographic
and imperial boundaries during this period.
Professor Laurent Dubois
37
Today, the morning of28 September, Year 10 of the French Republic, united and indivisible, before the
Notary Public of the said republic, established for the department of the Island of GuadeJoupe and its
dependencies, at the Basse-Terre residence of the undersigned, appeared the citizen Genevieve Labothiere,
called Mayoute, shopkeeper, and the citizen Joseph Labothiere, tailor, her natural brother, in the neighborhood of
Saint-Franc;;ois, department (state) of Guadeloupe, district and commune of Basse-Terre.
These two have declared that at the time when slavery was abolished in the colony, the citizen, Joseph
Labothiere, who then belonged to Lauzeau of Saint-Pierre, island of Martinique, fell under the power of the
English, [and] was deprived of benefiting from the general emancipation established by the general laws of the
French Republic. In order to improve the [illegible] of his manumission, he brought together the means that he
had already procured himself through his savings, those provided to him successively by active work and the
resources of honest industry. When he found himself in possession of the necessary sum for the realization of his
plan, he had a letter written to Citizenness Labothiere, his sister, who is present and who will stay, at his request,
involved in the present process ... [they have] judged appropriate to make the present declaration to certify the
truth, which is that Citizen Joseph Labothiere, although he was taken out of slavery by the laws of the republic,
was forced by circumstances, being in a colony that had been usurped by the enemies of France, to reclaim his
liberty with his own money. And that on this occasion, Citizenness Genevieve Labothiere, his sister, has carried
out made an act of fraternity, founded on the laws of nature, without hurting the laws of the Republic, since her
brother had himself paid the price of his freedom, and was not sold to her. Consequently, Citizenness Labothiere
never had any sort of right over the person of her brother, nor over the use of his time and services.
And, in order to avoid all future difficulties that could challenge her brother, as a result of the three
privately signed [acts] attached to this act, Citizeness Labothiere declares that she surrenders, over abundantly, to
the profit of Citizen Joseph Labothiere, her brother of all the rights the said private undersigned acts might give
her over the use of his time and of his services.... And she consents that her said brother do and dispose [what
he wishes] as he has done until now, since the period previously cited, of his time and his services, of his talents
and his industry, for his personal profit, without having to answer to anyone, and without his ever being
disturbed, troubled, or sought out by in this regard, by the present party [i.e. Genevieve Labothiere], nor by her
heirs or other representatives. Which has been accepted by the Citizen Labothiere, her brother.
For all of which the parties [comparants] requested an act, which was given to them by the undersigned
notary, to serve them and to veri:fy for which reason, done in Basse-Terre, in the neighborhood of Saint Fran<;ois,
the said day, month and year.
Attached to the above document were the following "private acts" mentioned in the text, which
documented how the money that was used to buy Joseph changed hands over the course of several years, in
several different locations
I received from Mister Jacques Dupuy the sum of two thousand Iivres for the mulatto Joseph, tailor,
who I sold and delivered to him at Saint Pierre [Martinique] 13 October, 1796
Signed, Gourrige Lazeau, representative ofMary
38
I recognize having received from Genevieve Mayoute the sum of two thousand livres for the price of
the mulatto Joseph, tailor by profession, who I sold and delivered to her at St. Thomas, 14 April 1798.
Signed, Jacques Dupuy
I recognize having received from my brother Joseph the sum of two thousand livres which I reimbursed
to Sir Jacques Dupuy for the acquisition he made of the said Joseph from the hands of the Dame Gourrige
Lauzeau, representation of the citizen Mary, the said receipt dated 14 April 1798.
Saint Thomas, 6 July 1798.
X (Mark of Genevieve Mayoute)
Inconsistencies in spelling of place names have been changed.
12, A Brazilian slave revolt.
Slave revolts were part of the fabric of slave history. Although slaves resisted in a
variety of ways, their most spectacular form of resistance was the slave revolt. Though such
upheavals rarely completely overthrew local slavery, the instinct to rebel was a universal fact
of slave society. It formed a permanent problem, a nightmare really, for slave owners across
the Americas. It also speaks to a universal and ubiquitous vision, shared by millions, to
overthrow slavery when the opportunity presented itself. Physical rebellion was of course
hugely dangerous for all involved: rumours of plotting, fears of slave subversion, signs that
slaves were stepping out of line, all and more would provoke the most savage retribution.
Indeed slave owners and their supporters were too easily persuaded that slave plots were in
the air, and cracked down violently on potential or imagined trouble-makers. Time and again,
innocent slaves found themselves caught out, and punished, by the rumours and fears which
periodically swept through slave colonies. This was a widespread fear among the slaveowning class which effectively amounted to a psychosis: a state of mind which saw them
fearing their slaves throughout the day and - especially - the night.
39
Like all communal panics, it had its cause and origin in harsh reality. Slaves did want
to end their bondage, and they were keen to overthrow the system which bound them so
cruelly to an unjust regime. They needed no invitation to seek ways of imposing their own
solutions on the problems of daily life.
Violent revolt seems to have been more common in Brazil and the Caribbean. Indeed
slave resistance formed the story of slavery itself. But revolt was too dangerous, too
unpredictable, to be entered into lightly. Not surprisingly, when rebellion flared we generally
•
have only the voices of the master class: the people who tended to triumph, and who put down
the slave rebellions. Occasionally however slave voices surface from the confusion of slave
revolt. When it does, the slaves' words offer a glimpse of that slave vision of freedom, and we
can grasp what slaves wanted at the end of their risky violent venture.
Thanks to the work of Stuart Schwarz we have a rare glimpse into the demands of 50
rebellious Brazilian slaves in 1789-1790 in Bahia. A group of local slaves had fled from their
engenho (plantation) and set up an independent mocambo (a maroon community) in nearby
forests. After the failure of a punitive expedition against them (led by local Indians) the
runaways drew up a detailed treaty addressed to their master, spelling out the precise
conditions under which they would return to work. Ultimately, they were tricked back to
enslaved labour. But the following slave-drafted treaty is a remarkable document for the
detailed outline it provides of the slaves' vision of their working lives on a particular
plantation. It offers, in the words of Stuart Schwartz: 'a vision of the conditions of life and
labour on Brazilian sugar plantations at the end of the eighteenth century from the point of
view of the slaves.'
What follows is possibly the clearest example we have of a slave vision of how life
and labour might be on a sugar plantation.
DOCUMENTII
40
Treaty Proposed to Manoel da Silva Ferreira
By His Slaves during the Time that They
Remained in Revolt
My Lord, we want peace and we do not want war; if My Lord also wants our peace it must be in this
manner, if he wishes to agree to that which we want.
In each week you must give us the days of Friday and Saturday to work for ourselves not subtracting
any of these because they are Saint's days.
To enable us to live you must give us casting nets and canoes. ll
You are not to oblige us to fish in the tidal pools nor to gather shellfish, and when you wish to gather
shellfish send your Mina blacks.
For your sustenance have a fishing launch and decked canoes, and when you wish to eat shellfish send
your Mina blacks.
Make a large boat so that when it goes to Bahia we can place our cargoes aboard and not pay freightage.
In the planting of manioc we wish the men to have a daily quota of two and one half hands and the
women, two hands.
The daily quota of manioc flour must be of five level alqueires, placing enough harvesters so that these
can serve to hang up the coverings.
The daily quota of sugarcane must be of five hands rather than six and of ten canes in each bundle.
On the boat you must put four poles, and one for the rudder, and the one at the rudder works hard for us.
The wood that is sawed with a hand saw must have three men below and one above.
The measure of firewood must be as was practiced here, for each measure of woodcutter and a woman
as the wood carrier.
The present overseers we do not want, choose others with our approval.
At the milling rollers there must be four women to feed in the cane, two pulleys, and a carcanha.
At each cauldron there must be one who tends the fire and in each series of kettles the same, and on
Saturday there must be without fail work stoppage in the mill.
The sailors who go in the launch beside the baize shirt that they are given must also have a jacket of
baize and all the necessary clothing.
We will go to work the canefield of Jabiru this time and then it must remain as pasture for we cannot
cut cane in a swamp.
We shall be able to plant our rice wherever we wish, and in any marsh, without asking permission for
this, and each person can cut jacaranda or any other wood without having to account for this.
Accepting all the above articles and allowing us to remain always in possession of the hardware, we are
ready to serve you as before because we do not wish to continue the bad customs of the other engenhos.
We shall be able to play, relax and sing any time we wish without your hinderance nor will permission
be needed.
11 The tarrafa or castmg net
lOch circular bottom that
IS
IS
stIll WIdely used along the coast of North-east Brazil It is presently about 170 inches in length WIth a 480-
weighted. See Shepard Forman, The Raft Fishermen (BloomlOgton, 1970), pp. 58-59
41
13. Slavery in North America.
The British were primarily responsible for the establishment of slavery in North
America (though the French and Spaniards played their own role in the Gulf region). The
colonial settlements of the 'Old South' turned to slaves primarily for the cultivation of
tobacco and rice, though the numbers of Africans involved did not approach the huge
numbers imported into the Caribbean and Brazil. Nor did Africans ever outnumber whites in
any North American colony. But like other slave colonies, the slave population of North
America initially grew via imports of Africans. But from the 1720' s, thanks to the increase of
the local black population, African imports became less important. African slaves were first
landed in the Chesapeake in 1610, but numbers only took off after the development of the
tobacco industry: as late as 1690, only 3,500 Africans had been landed in Virginia. That has
risen to 15,000 by the 1720's: by mid-century some 60,000 slaves lived in Virginia, the
Carolinas and Georgia. Slavery also slipped into most corners of North American life, in town
and country. There were for example 11,000 slaves in New England by 1750.
But the real expansion of North American slavery took place after 1800, and the
establishment of the cotton industry in the South, which was fuelled by migrations of slaves
from the old slave states. The US. in the nineteenth century did not need the Atlantic slave
trade: its slave economy thrived on the expanding, indigenous slave population. By 1810
there were almost one and a half million slaves in the V.S. This had grown to four million by
1860.
Slavery survived in the V.S. until the Civil War because of cotton. Cotton plantations
spread across swathes of the South, and did so on the back of black slavery. Slaves were
moved from old slave-owning states to the new cotton frontier. In the process, the V.S.
prospered, and not simply in the South. The North thrived on slave-grown cotton, which was
42
the nation's biggest export, and fonned a lucrative industry for banks, commerce and trade in
a number of northern cities.
All that was of course thrown into tunnoil by the Civil War after 1860. Although
slavery was not the cause of the war (which was about the complex question of states rights)
the war ensured the end of slavery. The slave population of the U. S. had exploded in the fifty
years to 1860. Like their forebears in colonial North America, slaves wanted freedom and
took every opportunity to secure it. Like slaves everywhere they tried to make the most of
daily life, adapting to its rigours and making the system work for them when they could. But
freedom was the overriding vision. Full freedom at best, freedom to enjoy the full, rounded
features of nonnal, everyday life, with family, friends and community. But at every turn,
North American slaves were frustrated by slavery. They were moved around as and when it
suited their owners: bought and sold away from family, separated from loved ones and always
denied that personal and family security which others took for granted.
We know much more about North American slaves than almost any other group for a
number of reasons. First, slavery lasted until the 1860's. Secondly American slavery was
increasingly at odds with the outside world and anti-slavery observers, from the North and
Europe, regularly wrote about it. The documentation of slavery in the V.S. is also more
complete, and better- preserved, than in any other society. We also know a great deal about it
because the slaves themselves wrote about their lives. Literacy and, above all, Christianity,
became prominent features of slave life in the V.S. Slaves expressed themselves in writing and in print - on a scale, and with a pervasiveness that does not exist in any other slave
society in the Americas. Like the wider society to which they belonged, American slaves were
literate, vocal, democratic - and devout. Inevitably, the records are filled with slave voices and those voices speak to a vision of a different world: a world without slavery.
43
14. Slave demands for freedom.
Slaves wanted freedom. They sought to secure it through whatever means was most
appropriate and seemed most likely to succeed - but always with an eye to their future
security. Slaves lived in a world of arbitrary and punitive sanctions. To alienate masters, and
whites in general, was guaranteed to bring trouble and retribution on themselves and their
families. We should never underestimate the risks and dangers faced by slaves when they
demanded freedom. To demand freedom, even in a modest, peaceable fashion (asking for it
from their white owners or political masters) was itself an act of considerable courage. Yet
despite the risks, slaves made periodic demands for freedom.
From the early days of North American slavery slaves in various North American
colonies petitioned for freedom - or for the freedom of loved ones. Such petitions offer
insights into the complexities of slave life and often reveal the tortured family relationships
that slavery imposed on the black community. We know of slaves who had been promised
freedom by a master - but the promise was subsequently denied: there were parents who were
freed, but whose children remained enslaved. There are examples of freed slaves being treated
as slaves and denied the freedom to which they were entitled. But beyond these particularities,
beyond the specific complaints and demands of each petitioner, there remained the core issue;
the slave vision of a free life.
This document of 1675 was from Phillip Corven, a former slave in Virginia who
petitioned for the return of his freedom, promised initially in a will, but subsequently revoked
and effectively denied. It also reveals the broader problems raised in other slave petitions.
But, more important, reveals the dogged enslaved attachment to personal liberty.
Virginia Petition, 1675
To the RT Hon b1e Sir Williarn Berkeley, Knt, Gover' and Capt. Genl. of Virg', with the Hon. Councell of State.
The Petition of Phillip Corven, a Negro, in all humility showeth: That yo' pet' being a servant to M"
Annye Beazley, late of lames Citty County, widdow, deed. The said Mrs Beazley made her last will & testament
44
in writing, under her hand & seal, bearing date, the 9th day of April, An. Dom. 1664, and, amongst other things,
did order, will appoint that yo' pet' by the then name of Negro boy Phillip, should serve her cousin, Mr.
Humphrey Stafford, the terme of eight yeares, then next ensueing, and then should enjoy his freedome & be paid
three barrels of come & a sute of clothes, as by the said will appears. Sonne after the makeing of which will, the
said Mrs Beazley departed this life, yor pet' did continue & and abide with the said M' Stafford, (with whome he
was ordered by the said will to live) some yeares, and then the said Mr. Stafford sold the remainder of yo' pelf
time to one Mr. Charles Lucas, with whom yO' pelf alsoe continued, doeing true & faithful service; but the said
Mr. Lucas, coveting yo' pete's service longer then of right itt was due, did not att the expiracon of the said eight
yeares, discharge yO' pelf from his service, but compelled him to serve three years longer than the time set by the
said Mrs. Beazley's will, and then not being willing yO' pet' should enjoy his freedome, did, contrary to all
honesty and good conscience with threats & a high hand, in the time of yo' pet"s service with him, and by his
confederacy with some persons compel yo' petr to sett his hand to a writeing, which the said M' Lucas now saith
is an Indenture for twenty yeares, and forced yo' petr to acknowledge the same in the County Court of Warwick.
Now, for that itt please yo' Hon', ye' petr, who all the time of the makeing the said forced writing, in the
servicee of the said Mr. Lucas, and never discharged from the same, the said M' Lucas alwaies unjustly
pretending that yo' petr was to serve him three yeares longer, by an order of Court, wh is untrue, which pretence
of the said Mr. Lucas will appeare to yo' hon' by ye testimony of persons of good credit.
Yo' Pet' therefore most humbly prayeth yo' hon rs to order that the said M'Lucas make him sattisfaction
for the said three yeares service above his time, and pay him come & clothes, with costs of suite.
And yo' pe tf (as in duty bound) shall ever pray, &c.
Wm. P. Palmer, ed., Calendar a/Virginia State Papers, 1 (Richmond, 1875), pp. 9-10.
15. A slave demands freedom.
Virginia, 1723.
There were many slaves who were related to white people. The offspring of white men
and slave women often occupied a curious position in a world which came to be starkly
polarised between free white and enslaved black. People of mixed race (the terms used to
describe them seem, today, uncomfortable and inappropriate), like the author of the following
excerpt, were growing in numbers, throughout the 18 th century, although they always
remained a small minority in colonial North America. They were slaves, but had blood
relatives in the white community. Often they received privileged treatment. More likely, they
45
were simply left where they originated: alongside their slave mother in the slave quarters.
Some clearly thought that they ought to occupy a different position, and to be free.
The following letter, written in faltering style, clearly came from the hand of a literate,
Christian slave, irked by his or her bondage, and determined to demand freedom. It was
addressed to the Bishop of London (nominally in charge of the American colonies) and
remained hidden for more than two centuries until its recent discovery by Thomas Ingersoll. It
is a remarkable document, eloquent and passionate in its vision of freedom.
[first page]
A [cancellation]
August the forth 1723
to The Right Rtgh Raverrand father in god my Lord arch Bishop ofLonnd
this corns to sattesfie your honour that there is in this Land of verJennia a Sort of people that is Calld molatters
which are Baptised and brouaht up in the way of the Christian faith aOO--#l:e and followes the wayes and Rulles of
the Chrch of England and sum of them has white fathers and sum white mothers and there is in this Land a--b a
Law or act which keeps and makes them and there seed SLaves forever -and most honoured sir a mongst the Rest of your Charitabell acts and deed wee ffi.l.mb.l.y your humbell and
~
poore partishinners doo begg Sir your aid and assistance in this one thing which Lise as I doo understand e.f in
your LordShips brest which is that yr Honour your honour will by the help of our SuffeFvering [i.e., sovereign]
Lord King George and the Rest of the Rullers will Releese us out of this Cruell Bondegg and this wee beg for
Jesus Christs his e.f Sake who has commaded us to seeke first the kingdom of -ged god and all things shall be
addid Ufl un to us
[second page]
here follows our hard serviee Sevarity and Sorrowful Sarvice we are hard used up on Every account wee-.f in the
first place wee are in Ignorance of our Salvation and in the next place wee are kept out of the Church aati and
matrimony is deenied us
and to be plain they doo Look no more up on us then if wee ware dogs which I hope when these Strange Lines
comes to your Lord Ships hands will be Looker in to
and here wee beg for Jesus Christs his Sake that as your honour do hope for the marcy of god att the day of death
and the Redemption of our Savour Christ that when this comes to your Lord Ships hands your honour wll Take
Sum pitty of us who is your humble butt Sorrowful portitinors
and Sir wee your humble pertioners do humblly beg the favour of your Lord Ship that your honour will grant and
Settell one thing upon us which is that our eh childarn may be broatt up in the way of the Christtian faith and our
desire is that they may be Larnd the Lords prayer the creed and the ten commandements and that they may
appeare Every Lord's day att Church before the G Curatt to bee Exammond for our desire is that godllines
46
Shoulld abbound amongs us and wee desire that our Childarn be putt to Scool and and Larnd to Reed through the
Bybell
[third page]
which is all att prasant with our prayers to god for itts good Success
before your honour these from your hum bell Servants in the Lord
my Riting is vary bad I whope yr honour will take the will for the deede
I am but a poore SLave tfl that writt itt and has no other tffime time butt Sunday and hardly that att Sumtimes
September the 8 th 1723
To the Right Reverrand father in d god
my Lord arch bishup of J London
these with care
wee dare nott Subscribe any mans name to this for feare of our masters if for if they knew that wee have Sent
home to your honour wee Should goo neare to Swing upon the gallass tree
16. Black organisations demand freedom.
1792-1816.
Demands for freedom among slaves in the V.S. took many forms, ranging from the
informal and personal, through to the highly organised and public. As the 19th century
advanced, two factors transformed black demands. First, the emergence of increasingly
powerful and articulate black churches and, related to that, the rise of a literate, educated
black leadership. The desire for freedom remained universal, of course: slaves of all sorts and
conditions wanted an end to their enslavement, and needed no reminder by better educated
contemporaries of their main vision. But in term of organised social and political expression,
the churches were critical. And within those churches, black preachers played a crucial role.
What added to the strength of black demands, rooted in black churches (and their related
organisations) was that such organisations attracted new generations offree black people. The
vision of a world where freedom was the right of all black people was thus articulated by both
the free and the enslaved. A growing number of powerful ex-slaves and free black people
began to campaign, especially in the northern states (and in Europe) against slavery. They
47
were part of increasingly powerful abolitionist organisations, on both sides of the Atlantic,
which brought the strength of their own numbers, and their growing political power, to the
task of demanding black freedom. It was to prove a long hard struggle, not least because it
was pitched against a D.S. slave system, rooted in cotton, of enormous commercial
importance. Cotton slavery had economic ramifications far beyond the South, reaching into
the commercial, financial and trading heartlands of the northern D.S. cities, across the
Atlantic, and into the massive textile industry of northern England.
The first organisations of slaves and free blacks emerged in the last years of the 18 th
century. A number of pioneering black churches, notably Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian,
emerged in Philadelphia, and in the Chesapeake region. From within each church and
congregation there emerged expressions of black Christianity which were quite unlike
anything white Christians were accustomed to. Moreover those churches were, from the first,
platforms for the expression of a much wider vision than merely religion. The communal
voices, and the black preachers, sang, preached, prayed and spoke about a very different
world: a world where freedom, not bondage, would be the lot of all American citizens. It was
inevitable too that African-American churches (the phrase 'African-American' was first
pioneered by these churches to describe themselves) would become part of a broader political
movement, as their leaders created political allegiances and federations from among their
individual churches.
The extract chosen here is from Richard AlIen, who bought his own freedom at the
age of 17 and moved to Philadelphia. Along with other free blacks, he led a break-away group
from the local white St George's Methodist church, organising their own African-American
congregation. It was the beginning of a long and sometimes troublesome experience. But it
was irreversible: the rise of organised, articulate and forceful African-American Christianity.
48
A black voice thus emerged, speaking to a vision which was religious in format but secular in
its consequences.
A number of us usually attended St. George's church in Fourth Street; and when the colored people
began to get numerous in attending the church, they moved us from the seats we usually sat on, and placed us
around the wall, and on Sabbath morning, we went to the church and the sexton stood at the door, and told us to
go in the gallery. He told us to go, and we would see where to sit. We expected to take the seats over the ones we
formerly occupied below, not knowing any better. We took those seats. Meeting had begun, and they were nearly
done singing, and just as we got to the seats, the elder said, "Let us pray." We had not been long upon our knees
before I heard considerable scuffling and low talking. I raised my head up and saw one of the trustees, H_ M_
having hold of the Rev. Absalom Jones, pulling him up off his knees, and saying, "You must get up - you must
not kneel here." Mr. Jones replied, "Wait until prayer is over." Mr. H_ M_ said "No, you must get up now, or
I will call for aid and force you away." Mr. Jones said, "Wait until prayer is over, and I will get up and trouble
you no more." With that, he beckoned to one of the other trustees, Mr. L_ S_ to come to his assistance. He
came, and went to William White to pull him up. By this time, prayer was over, and we all went out of the
church in a body, and they were no more plagued with us in the church.... We then hired a store-room, and held
worship by ourselves. Here we were pursued with threats of being disowned, and read publicly out of meeting if
we did continue worship in the place we had hired; but we believed the Lord would be our friend. We got
subscription papers out to raise money to build the house of the Lord....
I bought an old frame that had been formerly occupied as a blacksmith shop, ... and hauled it on the lot
in Sixth near Lombard Street, that had formerly been taken for the Church of England. I employed carpenters to
repair the old frame, and fit it for a place of worship. In July 1794, Bishop Asbury being in town I solicited him
to open the church for us which he accepted. ... The house was called Bethel, agreeable to the prayer that was
made ... that it might be a bethel to the gathering in of thousands of souls. My dear Lord was with us, so that
there were many hearty "amens" echoed through the house. This house of worship has been favored with the
awakening of many souls, and I trust they are in the Kingdom, both white and colored.
Our warfare and troubles now began afresh. Mr. C_ proposed that we should make over the church to
the Conference. This we objected to, he asserted that we could not be Methodists unless we did, we told him he
might deny us their name, but they could not deny us a seat in Heaven. Finding that he could not prevail with us
so to do, he observed that we had better be incorporated, then we would get any legacies that were left for us, if
not, we could not. We agreed to be incorporated. He offered to draw the incorporation himself, that it would save
us the trouble of paying for to get it drawn. We cheerfully submitted to his proposed plan. He drew the
incorporation, but incorporated our church under the Conference; our property was then all consigned to the
Conference for the present bishops, elders, ministers, etc., that belonged to the white Conference, and our
property was gone. Being ignorant of incorporations we cheerfully agreed thereto. We labored about ten years
under this incorporation, until James Smith was appointed to take the charge in Philadelphia; he soon waked us
up by demanding the keys and books of the church, and forbid us holding any meetings except by orders from
him; these propositions we told him we could not agree to. He observed he was elder, appointed to the charge,
and unless we submitted to him, he would read us all out of meeting. We told him the house was ours, we had
bought it, and paid for it. He said he would let us know it was not ours, it belonged to the Conference; we took
49
counsel on it; counsel informed us we had been taken in; according to the incorporation, it belonged to the white
connection. We asked him if it couldn't be altered; he told us if two-thirds of the society agreed to have it
altered, it could be altered.... I called the society together and laid it before them. My dear Lord was with us. It
was unanimously agreed to, by both male and female. We had another incorporation drawn that took the church
from the Conference....
About this time, our colored friends in Baltimore were treated in a similar manner by the white
preachers and trustees, and many of them driven away who were disposed to seek a place of worship.... Many
of the colored people in other places were in a situation nearly like those of Philadelphia and Baltimore which
induced us, in April 1816, to call a general meeting, by way of Conference. Delegates from Baltimore and other
places ... met those of Philadelphia, and taking into consideration their grievances, ... it was resolved: "That the
people of Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc., etc., should become one body, under the name of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church." We deemed it expedient to have a form of discipline, whereby we may guide our people in
the fear of God, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bonds of peace, and preserve us from that spiritual
despotism which we have so recently experienced.
17. The black Press.
Many if the documents in this collection reflect the important spread ofliteracy among
slaves and ex-slaves. We have already see how, in a western world where literacy was ever
more important, to be able to argue, write and publish - and to educate (or to educate oneself)
through the printed word was a vital social and political tool. And this was true for everyone:
black and white, free or enslaved. Among free working people, literacy was a prized
acquisition which enhanced personal and communal prospects, and which elevated selfesteem (and the estimation of outsiders). The same was true of slaves and freed people. To be
illiterate was obviously to be seriously disadvantaged in a world which came increasingly to
revolve around the printed word.
th
The black writers we have studied from the late 18 century had been largely selftaught. In general they had honed their literate (and literary) skills via the Bible. In the D.S. in
the early 19th century, there was a change of direction in and significance of black literacy.
These, after all, were the years of the rise of the modern press, aided by new technologies of
print and publication, by cheap mass communication, and by the eventual emergence of
50
telegraphic communication. News spread fast, along telegraphic and railway lines, and it was
repeated and reprinted, in cheap and easily accessible print form, throughout the western
world. The printed word - and the ability of millions to read it - became a potent political and
social weapon.
Not surprisingly then, politically-alert free blacks appreciated the importance of a
black press. To have a free press which represented black voices and visions, which spoke to
black issues (when few people elsewhere did so) was an enormous step forward. This
document is from the first issue of the first African-American newspaper, published in New
York in 1827. It was published by two men, both free blacks: Samuel Cornish and John B.
Russwurn, the former to be the dominant black journalist for twenty years. And, as can be
seen, here was a forceful expression of black interests, of anti-slavery, and of the demand for
black rights on a broad front.
The noble objects which we have in view by the publication of this Journal ." encourage us to come
boldly before an enlightened publick. ... We should advertise to the world our motives by which we are
actuated, and the objects which we contemplate.
We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the publick been
deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly, though in estimation of some mere trifles; for
though there are many in society who exercise towards us benevolent feelings; still (with sorrow we confess it)
there are those who make it their business to enlarge upon the least trifle, which tends to the discredit of any
person of colour, and pronounce anathemas and denounce our whole body for the misconduct of this guilty one.
We are aware that there are many instances of vice among us, but we avow that it is because no one has taught
its subjects to be virtuous; many instances of poverty, because no sufficient efforts accommodated to minds
contracted by slavery, and deprived of early education have been made, to teach them how to husband their hard
earnings, and to secure to themselves comfort
Education being an object of the highest importance to the welfare of society, we shall endeavour to
present just and adequate views of it, and to urge upon our brethren the necessity and expediency of training
their children, while young, to habits of industry, and thus forming them for becoming useful members of
society. It is surely time that we should awake from this lethargy of years, and make a concentrated effort for the
education of our youth. We form a spoke in the human wheel and it is necessary that we should understand our
[de]pendence on the different parts, and theirs on us, in order to perform our part with propriety.
Though not desiring of dictating, we shall feel it our incumbent duty to dwell occasionally upon the
general principles and rules of economy. The world has grown too enlightened, to estimate any man's character
by his personal appearance. Though all men acknowledge the excellency of Franklin's maxims, yet
51
comparatively few practice upon them. We may deplore when it is too late, the neglect of these self-evident
truths, but it avails little to mourn. Ours will be the task of admonishing our brethren on these points.
The civil rights of a people being of the greatest value, it shall ever be our duty to vindicate our
brethren, when oppressed; and to lay the case before the pub lick. We shall also urge upon our brethren (who are
qualified by the laws of the various states), the expediency of using their elective franchise; and of making
independent use of the same. We wish them not to become the tools of party.
And as much time is frequently lost, and wrong principles instilled, by the perusal of works of trivial
importance, we shall consider it a part of our duty to recommend to our young readers, such authors as will not
only enlarge their stock of useful knowledge, but such as will also serve to stimulate them to higher attainments
in science.
We trust also, that through the columns of the FREEDOM'S JOURNAL, many practical pieces, having
for their bases, the improvement of our brethren, will be presented to them, from the pens of many of our
respected friends, who have kindly promised their assistance.
It is our earnest wish to make our Journal a medium of intercourse between our brethren in the different
states of this great confederacy: that through its columns an expression of our sentiments, on many interesting
subjects which concern us, may be offered to the publick: that plans which apparently are beneficial may be
candidly discussed and properly weighed; if worthy, receive our cordial approbation; if not, our marked
disapprobation.
Useful knowledge of every kind, and everything that relates to Africa, shall find a ready admission in
our columns; and as that vast continent becomes daily more known, we trust that many things will come to light,
proving that the natives of it are neither so ignorant nor stupid as they have generally supposed to be.
And while these important subjects shall occupy the columns of the FREEDOM'S JOURNAL, we
would not be unmindful of our brethren who are still in the iron fetters of bondage. They are our kindred by all
the times of nature; and though but little can be effected by us, still let our sympathies be poured forth, and our
prayers in their behalf, ascend to Him who is able to succour them.
From the press and the pulpit we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented. Men whom we
equally love and admire have not hesitated to represent us disadvantageously, without becoming personally
acquainted with the true state of things nor discerning between virtue and vice among us. The virtuous part
our people feel themselves sorely aggrieved under the existing state of things - they are not appreciated.
Our vices and our degradation are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed by unnoticed. And
what is still more lamentable, our friends, to whom we concede all the principles of humanity and religion, from
these very causes seem to have fallen into the current of popular feeling, and are imperceptibly floating on the
stream - actually living in the practice of prejudice, while they abjure it in theory, and feel it not in their hearts.
Is it not very desirable that such should know more of our actual condition; and of our efforts and feelings, that
in forming or advocating plans for our amelioration, they may do it more understandingly? In the spirit of candor
and humility we intend by a simple representation of facts to lay our case before the publick, with a view to
arrest the progress of prejudice, and to shield ourselves against the consequent evils. We wish to conciliate all
and to irritate none, yet we must be firm and unwavering in our principles, and persevering in our efforts.
52
18. Women's rights.
African men formed a majority of all Africans carried across the Atlantic on the
Atlantic slave ships. But enslaved women were key figures in all the slave economies of the
Americas. As workers, as mothers and as partners their role was vital to the way slave society
functioned - although that was not always recognised by historians. Enslaved women's work
was vital both to their owners, and to the slave community. They undertook most of the hard
physical demands of the plantation economies: planting and harvesting the local crops,
processing, loading and dispatching local produce. Many of the skilled local tasks were
reserved for men but women were also busy on and around the slave properties in that myriad
of activities which made plantations and their human societies function properly. When work
for their owners was finished, slave women returned to their other tasks in and around their
homes: child rearing and family care, domestic chores, work in the gardens and plots. Theirs
were long unremitting lives of toil.
They also faced distinctive but familiar problems. The difficulties of pregnancy,
childbirth and child rearing brought extra burdens for most slave women. There was in
addition the horror of sexual exploitation and violence, in a slave world where the predatory
sexuality of white males was legendary. Slave women of all ages were vulnerable to sexual
attack and mistreatment, whether they worked as field hands or as domestic servants.
Naturally enough, slave women devised their own strategies to cope with life's dangers, and
reared their young (both boys and girls) in the cautionary tales about such dangers. Women,
like their men folk, had their own means of resisting. Some of course rebelled, and there were
a number of prominent female rebels, whose exploits often developed mythical qualities.
Demands for slave women's rights took on a more formal, more overtly political
th
expression, in the D.S. in the early 19 century. In part this was influenced by the emergence
of the broader political and social demands of slaves in the American South. But it was also a
53
reflection of the rise of demands for female rights throughout the western world. This, in turn,
stemmed directly and immediately from the 'age of revolution' and from the establishment of
human rights in the era 1776-1815. The democratic debate which flowed from the founding of
the early American Republic and from the Revolution in France (the ideals and vocabulary of
the rights of man - and women - of equality and fraternity) had an irresistibly contagious
effect. Here were rights which applied to everyone: men and women, black and white. Not
surprisingly then, the political voice of slave women was quick to find its own distinctive
expression. The extract presented here is from an American journal of 1827 and offers an
early example of black women's political demands: a vision of how life might be for the
millions of black women scattered throughout the Americas. It is accompanied by extracts
from the writing and speeches of Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) one of the most articulate
and forceful African-American female activists of the slavery period. Her call for action and
her demand for change again speaks to a vision for transformed black womanhood.
Messrs Editors,
Will you allow a female to offer a few remarks upon a subject that you must allow to be all important? I don't
know that in any of your papers you have said sufficient upon the education offemales. I hope you are not to be
classed with those who think that our mathematical knowledge should be limited to "fathoming the dish-kettle,"
and that we have acquired enough of history, if we know that our grandfather's father lived and died. 'Tis true
the time has been, when to darn a stocking, and cook a pudding wen, was considered the end and aim of a
woman's being. But those were days when ignorance blinded men's eyes. The diffusion of knowledge has
destroyed those degraded opinions, and men of the present age, allow, that we have minds that are capable and
deserving of culture. There are difficulties, and great difficulties, in the way of our advancement; but that should
only stir us to greater efforts. We possess not the advantages with those of our sex, whose skins are not coloured
like our own, but we can improve what little we have, and make our one talent produce two-fold. The influence
that we have over the male sex demands, that our minds should be instructed and improved with the principles of
education and religion, in order that this influence should be properly directed. Ignorant ourselves, how can we
be expected to form the minds of our youth, and conduct them in the paths of knowledge? There is a great
responsibility resting somewhere, and it is time for us to be up and doing. I would address myself to all mothers,
and say to them, that while it is necessary to possess a knowledge of cookery, and the various mysteries of
pudding-making, something more is requisite. It is their bounden duty to store their daughters' minds with useful
learning. They should be made to devote their leisure time to reading books, whence they would derive valuable
information, which could never be taken from them. I will not longer trespass on your time and patience. I
merely throw out these hints, in order that some more able pen will take up the subject.
54
MATILDA
I
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE AFRICAN MASONIC HALL,
BOSTON, FEBRUARY 27, 1833
African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breasts of every free man of color in these United
States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided, and heart-felt interest. When I cast my eyes on the long
list of illustrious names that are enrolled on the bright annals of fame among the whites, I turn my eyes within,
and ask my thoughts, "Where are the names of our il1ustrious ones?" It must certainly have been for the want of
energy on the part of the free people of color, that they have been long willing to bear the yoke of oppression. It
must have been the want of ambition and force that has given the whites occasion to say that our natural abilities
are not as good, and our capacities by nature inferior to theirs. They boldly assert that, did we possess a natural
independence of soul, and feel a love for liberty within our breasts, some one of our sable race long before this
would have testified it, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which we labor. We have made our-selves
appear altogether unqualified to speak in our own defence, and are therefore looked upon as objects of pity and
commiseration. We have been imposed upon, insulted and derided on every side; and now, if we complain, it is
considered as the height of impertinence. We have suffered ourselves to be considered as dastards, cowards,
mean, faint-hearted wretches; and on this account, (not because of our complexion) many despise us, and would
gladly spurn us from their presence.
These things have fired my soul with a holy indignation, and compelled me thus to come forward, and
endeavor to turn their attention to knowledge and improvement; for knowledge is power. I would ask, is it
blindness of mind, or stupidity of soul, or the want of education, that has caused our men who are 60 or 70 years
of age, never to let their voices be heard, nor their hands be raised in behalf of their color? Or has it been for the
fear of offending the whites? If it has, 0 ye fearful ones, throw off your fearfulness, and come forth in the name
of the Lord, and in the strength of the God of Justice, and make yourselves useful and active members in society;
for they admire a noble and patriotic spirit in others; and should they not admire it in us? If you are men,
convince them that you possess the spirit of men; and as your day, so shall the strength be. Have the sons of
Africa no souls? Feel they no ambitious desires? Shall the chains of ignorance forever confine them? Shall the
insipid appellation of "clever negroes," or "good creatures," any longer content them? Where can we find among
ourselves the man of science, or a philosopher, or an able statesman, or a counsellor at law? Show me our
fearless and brave, our noble and gallant ones. Where are our lecturers on natural history, and our critics in
useful knowledge? There may be a few such men among us, but they are rare. It is true, our fathers bled and died
in the revolutionary war, and others fought bravely under the command of Jackson, in defence of liberty. But
where is the man that has distinguished himself in these modern days by acting wholly in the defence of African
rights and liberty? There was one; although he sleeps, his memory lives.
I am sensible that there are many highly intelligent gentlemen of color in these United States, in the
force of whose arguments, doubtless, I should discover my inferiority; but if they are blest with wit and talent,
friends and fortune, why have they not made themselves men of eminence, by striving to take all the reproach
that is cast upon the people of color, and in endeavoring to alleviate the woes of their brethren in bondage? Talk,
without effort, is nothing; you are abundantly capable, gentlemen, of making yourselves men of distinction; and
55
,
this gross neglect, on your part, causes my blood to boil within me. Here is the grand cause which hinders the
rise and progress of the people of color. It is their want oflaudable ambition and requisite courage.
Individuals have been distinguished according to their genius and talents, ever since the first formation
of man, and will continue to be while the world stands. The different grades rise to honor and respectability as
their merits may deserve. History informs us that we sprung from one of the most learned nations of the whole
earth; from the seat, if not the parent of science; yes, poor, despised Africa was once the resort of sages and
legislators of other nations, was esteemed the school for leaning, and the most illustrious men in Greece flocked
thither for instruction. But it was our gross sink and abomination that provoked the Almighty to frown thus
heavily upon us, and give our glory unto others. Sin and prodigality have caused the downfall of nations, kings
and emperors; and were it not that God in wrath remembers mercy, we might indeed despair; but a promise is
,
left us; "Ethiopia shall again stretch forth her hands unto God."
But it is of no use for us to boast that we sprung from this learned and enlightened nation, for this day a
thick mist of moral gloom hangs over millions of our race. Our condition as a people has been law for hundreds
of years, and it will continue to be so, unless, by true piety and virtue, we strive to regain that which we have
lost. White Americans, by their prudence, economy and exertions, have sprung up and become one of the most
flourishing nations in the world, distinguished for their knowledge of the arts and sciences, for their polite
literature. While our minds are vacant, and starving for want of knowledge, theirs are filled to overflowing. Most
of our color have been taught to stand in fear of the white man, from their earliest infancy, to work as soon as
they could walk, and call "master," before they scarce could lisp the name of mother. Continual fear and
laborious servitude have in some degree lessened in us that natural force and energy which belong to man; or
else, in defiance of opposition, our men, before this, would have nobly and boldly contended for their rights. But
give the man of color an equal opportunity with the white from the cradle to manhood, and from manhood to the
grave, and you would discover the dignified states-man, the man of science, and the philosopher. But there is no
such opportunity for the sons of Africa, and I fear that our powerful ones are fully determined that there never
shall be. Forbid, ye Powers on high, that it should any longer be said that our men possess no force. 0 ye sons of
Africa, when will your voices be heard in our legislative halls, in defiance of your enemies, contending for equal
rights and liberty? How can you, when you reflect from what you have fallen, refrain from crying mightily unto
God, to turn away from the fierceness of his anger, and remember our transgressions against us no more forever.
But a God of infinite purity will not regard the prayers of those who hold religion in one hand, and prejudice, sin
and pollution in the other; he will not regard the prayers of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Is it possible, I
exclaim, that for the want of knowledge, we have labored for hundreds of years to support others, and been
content to receive what they chose to give us in return? Cast your eyes about, look as far as you can see; all, all is
owned by the lordly white, except here and there a lowly dwelling which the man of color, midst deprivations,
fraud and opposition, has been scarce able to procure. Like king Solomon, who put neither nail nor hammer to
the temple, yet received the praise; so also have the white Americans gained themselves a name, like the names
of the great men that are in the earth, while in reality we have been their principal foundation and support. We
have pursued the shadow, they have obtained the substance; we have performed the labor, they have received the
profits; we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits of them.
I would implore our men, and especially our rising youth, to flee from the gambling board and the
dance-hall; for we are poor, and have no money to throwaway. I do not consider dancing as criminal in itself,
56
but it is astonishing to me that our young men are so blind to their own interest and the future welfare of their
children, as to spend their hard earnings for this frivolous amusement; for it has been carried on among us to
such an unbecoming extent, that it has became absolutely disgusting. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but
the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Had those men among us, who have had an opportunity, turned their
attention as assiduously to mental and moral improvement as they have to gambling and dancing, I might have
remained quietly at home, and they stood contending in my place. These polite accomplishments will never
enroll your names on the bright annals of fame, who admire the belle void of intellectual knowledge, or applaud
the dandy that talks largely on politics, without striving to assist his fellow in the revolution, when the nerves
and muscles of every other man forced him into the field of action, You have the right to rejoice, and to let your
hearts cheer you in the days of your youth; yet remember that for all these things, God will bring you into
judgment. Then, 0 ye sons of Africa, turn your minds from these perishable objects, and contend for the cause of
,
God and the rights of man. Form yourselves into temperance societies. There are temperate men among you;
then why will you any longer neglect to strive, by your example, to suppress vice in all its abhorrent forms? You
have been told repeatedly of the glorious results arising from temperance, and can you bear to see the whites
arising in honor and respectability, without endeavoring to grasp after that honor and respectability also?
But I forbear. Let our money, instead of being thrown away as heretofore, be appropriated for schools
and seminaries of learning for our children and youth. We ought to follow the example of the whites in this
respect. Nothing would raise our respectability, add to our peace and happiness, and reflect so much honor upon
us, as to be ourselves the promoters of temperance, and the supporters, as far as we are able, of useful and
scientific knowledge. The rays of light and knowledge have been hid from our view; we have been taught to
consider ourselves as scarce superior to the brute creation; and have performed the most laborious part of
American drudgery. Had we as a people received one half of the early advantages the whites have received, I
would defy the government of these United States to deprive us any longer of our rights.
I am informed that the agent of the Colonization Society has recently formed an association of young
men, for the purpose of influencing those of us to go to Liberia who may feel disposed. The colonizationists are
blind to their own interest, for should the nations of the earth make war with America, they would find their
forces much weakened by our absence; or, should we remain here, can our "brave soldiers," and "fellowcitizens," as they were termed in time of calamity, condescend to defend the rights of the whites, and be again
deprived of their own, or sent to Liberia in return? Or, if the colonizationists are real friends to Africa, let them
expend the money which they collect, in erecting a college to educate her injured sons in this land of gospel light
and liberty; for it would be most thankfully received on our part, and convince us of the truth of their
professions, and save time, expense and anxiety. Let them place before us noble objects, worthy of pursuit, and
see if we prove ourselves to be those unambitious negroes they term us. But ah! methinks their hearts are so
frozen towards us, they had rather their money should be sunk in the ocean than to administer it to our relief; and
I fear, if they dared, like Pharaoh, king of Egypt, they would order every male child among us to be drowned.
But the most high God is still as able to subdue the lofty pride of these white Americans, as He was the heart of
that ancient rebel. They say, though we are looked upon as things, yet we sprang from a scientific people. Had
our men the requisite force and energy, they would soon convince them by their efforts both in public and in
private, that they were men, or things in the shape of men. Well may the colonizationists laugh us to scorn for
our negligence; well may they cry "Shame to sons of Africa." As the burden of the Israelites was too great for
57
•
Moses to bear, so also is our burden too great for our noble advocate to bear. You must feel interested, my
brethren, in what he undertakes, and hold up his hands by your good works, or in spite of himself, his soul will
become discouraged, and his heart will die within him; for he has, as it were, the strong bulls of Bashan to
contend with.
It is of no use for us to wait any longer for a generation of well educated men to arise. We have
slumbered and slept too long already; the day is far spent; the night of death approaches; and you have sound
sense and good judgment sufficient to begin with, if you feel disposed to make the right use of it. Let every man
of color throughout the United States, who possesses the spirit and principles of a man, sign a petition to
.
•
Congress, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and grant you the rights and privileges of common free
citizens; for if you had had faith as a grain of mustard seed, long before this the mountains of prejudice might
have been removed. We are all sensible that the Anti-Slavery Society has taken hold of the arm of our whole
population, in order to raise them out of the mire. Now all we have to do is, by a spirit of virtuous ambition to
strive to raise ourselves; and I am happy to have it in my power thus publicly to say, that the colored inhabitants
of this city, in some respects, are beginning to improve. Had the free people of color in these United States nobly
and boldly contended for their rights, and showed a natural genius and talent, although not so brilliant as some;
had they held up, encouraged and patronized each other, nothing could have hindered us from being a thriving
and flourishing people. There has been a fault among us. The reason why our distinguished men have not made
themselves more influential is, because they fear that the strong current of opposition through which they must
pass, would cause their downfall and prove their overthrow. And what gives rise to this opposition? Envy. And
what has it amounted to? Nothing, And who are the cause of it? Our whited sepulchres, who want to be great and
don't know how; who love to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi, who put on false sanctity, and humble themselves
to their brethren, for the sake of acquiring the highest place in the synagogue, and the upper-most seats at the
feast. You, dearly beloved, who are the genuine followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the salt of the earth and the
light of the world, are not so culpable. As I told you, in the very first of my writing, I tell you again, I am but as a
drop in the bucket - as one particle of the small dust of the earth. God will surely raise up those among us who
will plead the cause of virtue, and the pure principles of morality, more eloquently than I am able to do.
lt appears to me that America has become like the great city of Babylon, for she has boasted in her
•
heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow?" She is indeed a seller of slaves and the souls of
men; she has made the Africans drunk with the wine of her fornication; she has put them completely beneath her
feet, and she means to keep them there; her right hand supports the reins of government, and her left hand the
wheel of power, and she is determined not to let go her grasp. But many powerful sons and daughters of Africa
will shortly arise, who will put down vice and immorality among us, and declare by Him that sitteth upon the
throne, that they will have their rights; and if refused, I am afraid they will spread horror and devastation around.
I believe that the oppression of injured Africa has come up before the Majesty of Heaven; and when our cries
shall have reached the ears of the Most High, it will be a tremendous day for the people of this land; for strong is
the arm of the Lord God Almighty.
Life has almost lost its charms for me; death has lost its sting and the grave its terrors; and at times
r
have strong desire to depart and dwell with Christ, which is far better. Let me entreat my white brethren to
awake and save our sons from dissipation, and our daughters from ruin. Lend the hand of assistance to feeble
merit, plead the cause of virtue among our sable race; so shall our curses upon you be turned into blessings; and
58
though you should endeavor to drive us from these shores, still we will cling to you the more firmly; nor will we
attempt to rise above you; we will presume to be called your equals only.
The unfriendly whites first drove the native American from his much loved home. Then they stole our
fathers from their peaceful and quiet dwellings, and brought them hither, and made bond-men and bond-women
of them and their little ones; they have obliged our brethren to labor, kept them in utter ignorance, nourished
them in vice, and raised them in degradation; and now that we have enriched their soil, and filled their coffers,
they say that we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we never can rise respectability in this
country. They would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through. African
rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and
excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest.
.
a
A lecture by Maria W. Stewart, given at Franklin Hall,
Boston, September 21,1832.
Why sit we here and die? If we say we will go to a foreign land., the famine and the pestilence are there, and
there we shall die. If we sit here, we shall die. Come, let us plead our cause before the whites: if they save us
alive, we shall love - and ifthey kill us, we shall not die.
Methinks I heard a spiritual interrogation - "Who shall go forward, and take of the reproach that is cats
upon the people of color? Shall it be a woman?" and my heart made this reply - "If it is thy will, be it even so,
Lord Jesus?"
I have heard much respecting the horrors of slavery; but may Heaven forbid that the generality of my
color throughout these United States should experience any more of its horrors than to be a servant of servants,
or hewers of wood and drawers of water! Tell us no more of southern slavery; for with few exceptions, although
I may be very erroneous in any opinion, yet I consider our condition but little better than that. Yet, after all,
methinks there are no chains so galling as the chains of ignorance - no fetters so binding as those that bind the
soul, and exclude it from the vast field of useful and scientific knowledge. 0, had I received the advantages of
early education, my ideas would, ere now, have expanded far and wide; but alas! I possess nothing but moral
capability - no teachings ofthe Holy Spirit.
I have asked several individuals of my sex, who transact business for themselves, if, providing our girls
were to give them the most satisfactory references, they would not be willing to grant them an equal opportunity
with others? Their reply has been, for their own part, they had no objection; but as it was not the custom, were
they to take them into their employ, they would be in danger oflosing the public patronage.
And such is the powerful force of prejudice. Let our girls possess what amiable qualities of soul they
may, let their characters be fair and spotless as innocence itself, let their natural taste and ingenuity be what they
may, it is impossible for scarce an individual of them to rise above the condition of servants. Ah! why is this
cruel and unfeeling distinction? Is it merely because God has made our complexion to vary? If it be, 0 shame to
soft, relenting humanity! "Tell it not in Gath! Publish it not in the streets of Askelon!" Yet, after all, methinks
were the American free people of color to turn their attention or more assiduously to moral worth and intellectual
improvement, this would be the result: prejudice would gradually diminish, and the whites would be compelled
today. Unloose those fetters!
59
•
Though black their skin as shades of night,
Their hearts are pure - their souls are white.
Few white persons of either sex, who are calculated for anything else, are willing to spend their lives
and bury their talents in performing mean, servile labor. And such is the horrible idea that I entertain respecting a
life of servitude, that if I conceived of their being no possibility of my rising above the condition of a servant, I
would gladly hail death as a welcome messenger. 0, horrible idea. indeed! to possess noble souls aspiring after
high and honorable acquirements, yet confined by the chains of ignorance and poverty to lives of continual
••
drudgery and toil. Neither do I know of any who have enriched themselves by spending their lives as housedomestics, washing windows, shaking carpets, brushing boots, or tending upon gentlemen's tables. I can but die
for expressing my sentiments; and I am as willing to die by the sword as the pestilence - for I am a true born
American - your blood flows in my veins, and your spirit fire my breast.
I observed a piece in the Liberator a few months since, stating that the colonizationists had published a
work respecting us, asserting that we were lazy and idle. I confute them on that point. Take us generally as a
people, we are neither lazy nor idle; and considering how little we have to excite or stimulate us, I am almost
astonished that there are so many industrious and ambitious ones to be found - although I acknowledge, with
extreme sorrow, that there are some who never were and never will be serviceable to society. And have you not a
similar class among yourselves?
Again, it was asserted that we were" a ragged set, crying for liberty." I reply to it, the whites have so
long and so loudly proclaimed the theme of equal rights and privileges, that our souls have caught the flame also,
ragged as we are. As far as our merit deserves, we feel a common desire to rise above the condition of servants
and drudges. I have learnt, by bitter experience, that continual hard labor deadens the energies of the soul, and
benumbs the faculties of the mind: the ideas become confined, the mind barren. and, like the scorching sands of
Arabia, produces nothing - or like the uncultivated soil, brings forth thorns and thistles.
Again, continual hard labor irritates our tempers and sours our dispositions, the whole system becomes
worn out with toil and fatigue; nature herself becomes almost exhausted, and we care but little whether we Jive
or die. It is true that the free people of color throughout these United States are neither bought nor sold, nor
•
under the lash of the cruel driver; many obtain a comfortable support; but few, if any, have an opportunity of
becoming rich and independent; and the employments we most pursue are unprofitable to us as the spider's web
or the floating bubbles that vanish into air. As servants, we are respected; but let us presume to aspire any higher,
our employer regards us no longer. And were it not that the King eternal has declared that Ethiopia shall stretch
forth her hands unto God, I should indeed despair.
I do not consider it derogatory, my friends, for persons to live out to service. There are many whose
inclination leads them to aspire no higher - and I would highly commend the performance of almost anything for
an honest livelihood; but where constitutional strength is wanting, labor of this kind, in its mildest form, is
painful. And doubtless many are the prayers that have ascended to Heaven from Afric's daughters for strength to
perform their work. Oh, many are the tears that have been shed for the want of that strength! Most of our color
have dragged out a miserable existence of servitude from the cradle to the grave. And what literary acquirements
can be made, or useful knowledge derived, from either maps, books and charts, by those who continually drudge
from Monday morning until Sunday noon? 0, ye fairer sisters, whose hands are never soiled, whose nerves and
60
muscles are never strained, go learn by experience! Had we had the opportunity that you have had, to improve
our moral and mental faculties, what would have hindered our intellects from being as bright, and our manners
from being as dignified as yours? Had it been our lot to have been nursed in the lap of affluence and ease, and to
have basked beneath the smiles and sunshine of fortune, should we not have naturally supposed that we were
never made to toil? And why are not our forms as delicate, and our constitutions as slender as yours? Is not the
workmanship as curious and complete? Have pity upon us - have pity upon us, 0 ye who have hearts to feel for
others' woes; for the hand of God has touched us. Owing to the disadvantages under which we labor, there are
many flowers among us that are born to bloom unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air.
My beloved brethren, as Christ has died in vain for those who will not accept of offered mercy, so will
it be vain for the advocates of freedom to spend their breath in our behalf, unless with the united hearts and souls
••
you make some mighty efforts to raise your sons and daughters from the horrible state of servitude and
degradation in which they are placed. It is upon you that woman depends; she can do but little besides using her
influence; and it is for her sake and yours that I have come forward and made myself a hissing and a reproach
amongst the people; for I am also one of the wretched and miserable daughters of the descendents of fallen
Africa. Do you ask "Why are you wretched and miserable?" I reply, look at many of the most worthy and
interesting of us doomed to spend our lives in gentlemen's kitchens. Look at our young men, smart, active and
energetic, with souls filled with ambitious fire; if they look forward, alas! what are their prospects? They can be
nothing but the humblest laborers, on account of their dark complexions; hence many of them lose their
ambition, and become worthless. Look at our middle-aged men, clad in their rusty plaids and coats in winter,
every cent they earn goes to buy their wood and pay their rents; their poor wives also toil beyond their strength
to help support their families. Look at our aged sires, whose heads are whitened with the frosts of seventy
winters, with their old wood saws on their backs.
Alas, what keeps us so? Prejudice, ignorance and poverty. But ah! methinks our oppression is soon to
come to an end; yea, before the majesty of heaven, our groans and cries have reached the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. As the prayers and tears of Christians will avail the finally impenitent nothing; neither will the prayers
and tears of the friends of humanity avail us anything, unless we possess a spirit of virtuous emulation within our
breasts. Did the Pilgrims, when they first landed on these shores, quietly compose themselves, and say "The
Britons have all the money and all the power, and we must continue their servants forever?" Did they sluggishly
sigh and say "Our lot is hard - the Indians own the soil, and we cannot cultivate it?" No, they first made
powerful efforts to raise themselves and then God raised up those illustrious patriots, Washington and Lafayette,
to assist and defend them. And, my brethren, have you made a powerful effort? Have you prayed the legislature
for mercy's sake to grant you all the rights and privileges of free citizens, that your daughters may rise to that
degree of respectability which true merit deserves, and your sons above the servile situations which most of them
fill?
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•
19. Black anti-slavery politics.
The history of slavery in the Americas was the story of enslaved agitation against
slavery. It did not, as we have seen, always take the form of formal politics. But slave
political agitation became more striking from the late 18th century onwards. In large part that
stemmed from the changes in the social structure of slave life at large. The impact of a new
democratic vocabulary in the Age of Revolution, and the emergence of Christian churches,
&
•
plus the spread of formal literacy, encouraged ever more slaves to engage in formal political
debate and activity. Previously of course, such politics had been denied them. It was not so
much that slaves had not agitated previously, but rather that, henceforth, slave politics took on
new forms. Slave agitation was channelled into formal organisations, expressed through
advertised meetings (with invited speakers and audiences) and through the printed word.
Above all, it blossomed in, and from, the Christian place of worship.
In the early 19 th century, black churches in major V.S. cities offered a platform for
anti-slavery sentiment and activity, organised and articulated by free blacks, from pulpits and
political platforms. The simple fact of this change (here were the descendants of slaves
organising themselves in a manner familiar to the broader political culture) was a major step.
It was also a bold expression of the slave and free-slave vision for social and political freedom
•
and justice.
The first extract is from an address by the Rev. Peter Williams, delivered on the day
when the US abolition of the slave trade came into operation: January 1st 1808. He spoke in
the New York African Church. The second, resolutions passed by the Fifth Annual Negro
Convention in Philadelphia in 1835, speaks more broadly to a vision of black freedom,
demanding the full rights of American citizen from the V.S. Congress. The Convention also
demanded that no one should return a runaway slave back to slavery, from a free state.
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Despite the rise and power of cotton slavery, there was now an articulate black political
movement which spoke to the widely-shared vision of black rights and freedom.
(a)
Oh, God! we thank thee, that thou didst condescend to listen to the cries of Africa's wretched sons; and that thou
didst interfere in their behalf. At thy call, humanity sprang forth, and espoused the cause of the oppressed: one
hand she employed in drawing from their vitals the deadly arrows of injustice; and the other in holding a shield,
to defend them from fresh assaults: and at that illustrious moment, when the sons of 76 pronounced these United
States free and independent; when the spirit of patriotism, erected a temple sacred to liberty; when the inspired
voice of Americans first uttered those noble sentiments, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal; that they endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights; among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness"; and when the bleeding African, lifting his fetters, exclaimed "am I not a man and a
brother"; then with redoubled efforts, the angel of humanity strove to restore to the African race, the inherent
rights of man. '"
May the time speedily commence, when Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands; when the sun of liberty
shall beam resplendent on the whole African race; and its genial influences, promote the luxuriant growth of
knowledge and virtue.
Peter Williams, Jr, An Oration on the Abolition a/the Slave Trade; delivered in the African Church. in the City
ofNew York, January 1, 1808 (N.Y., 1808).
(b)
Men have exercised authority over our nation as if we was their property, by depriving us of our freedom, as
though they had a command from heaven thus to do. But, we ask, if freedom is the right of one nation; why not
the right of all the nations of the earth? ...
Some men that we are conversant with, however, are ready to say, that a black man, or an African,
ought never to be free. But this assertion is groundless, since it is founded on so shallow a foundation as to
scarcely bare bringing up to remembrance as an argument, that because many are slaves they all ought to be....
Did not America think it was a privilege truly desirable to be enjoyed, when her mother nation was
about to invade her land, and bring her under her dominion; did she not greatly regret the thought of a
deprivation of her freedom when she asked the assistance of her sister nation, France, to vindicate her cause
against Britain with her? If desirable, I say, to America under such circumstances, why not to any or all the
nations of the earth? I answer, equally desirable to all....
Slavery hath ever had a tendency to spread ignorance and darkness, poverty and distress in the world.
Although it hath advanced a few, yet many have been the sufferers; it was first invented by men of the most
malicious dispositions, and has been carried on by men of similar character.. "
Freedom is desirable; if not, would men sacrifice their time, their property, and finally lose their lives in
the pursuit 0 f it? If it was not a thing that was truly valuable, should we see whole nations engaged in hostility to
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procure it for their country, wives and children? Yea, I say there is something so dreadful in slavery that some
had rather die than experience it.
The Sons ofAfrica: An Essay on Freedom. With observations on the origin ofslavery
By a member of the African Society in Boston (Boston, 1808, printed for the Society).
Copy in the Boston Athenaeum.
(c)
•
The proposition has been advanced by men who claim a pre-eminence in the learned world, that Africans are
inferior to white men in the structure both of body and mind; the first member of this proposition is below our
notice; the reasons assigned for the second are, that we have not produced any poets, mathematicians, or any to
excel in any sciences whatever; our being oppressed and held in slavery forms no excuse, because, say they,
among the Romans, their most excellent artists and greatest scientific characters were frequently their slaves, and
that these on account of their ascendant abilities, arose to superior stations in the state; and they exultingly tell us
that these slaves were white men.
My Brethren, it does not require a complete master to solve this problem, nor is it necessary in order
like good logicians to meet this argument, that we should know which is the major and the minor proposition;
and the middle and extreme terms of syllogism, he must be a willful novice and blind, intentionally, who cannot
unfold the enigma.
Among the Romans, it was only necessary for the slave to be manumitted in order to be eligible to all
the offices of state, together with the emoluments belonging thereto; no sooner was he free than there was open
before him a wide field of employments for his ambition, and learning and abilities with merit, were as sure to
meet with their reward in him, as in any other citizen. But what station above the common employment of
craftsmen and laborers would we fill did we possess both learning and abilities; is there ought to enkindle in us
one spark of emulation; must not he who makes any considerable advances under present circumstances be
•
almost a prodigy: although it may be true we have not produced any to excel in arts and sciences, yet if our
situation be properly considered, and the allowances made which ought to be, it will soon be perceived that we
do not fall far behind those who boast of a superior judgment, we have produced some who have claimed
attention, and whose works have been admired, yes in despite of all our embarrassments, our genius does
sometimes burst forth from its encumbrance.
William Hamilton, An Address to the New-York African Society, for Mutual Relief, delivered in the Universalist
Church, January 2,1809 (N.Y., 1809).
Copy in Boston Athenaeum
Resolved, That this convention recommend to the free people of color throughout the United States, the propriety
of petitioning Congress and their respective State legislatures to be admitted to the rights and privileges of
American citizens, and that we be protected in the same....
64
Resolved, That the free people of color are requested by this convention, to petition those state
legislatures that have adopted the Colonization Society, to abolish it. ...
Resolved, That we recommend as far as possible, to our people to abandon the use of the word
"colored," when either speaking or writing concerning themselves; and especially to remove the title of African
from their institutions, the marbles of churches, and etc....
Resolved, That our duty to God, and to the principles of human rights, so far exceeds our allegiance to
those laws that return the slave again to his master, (from the free states,) that we recommend our people to
peaceably bear the punishment those inflict, rather than aid in returning their brethren again to slavery ....
The Liberator, August 1, 1835
20. The Civil War and black freedom.
The American Civil War made black freedom inevitable. The war was not caused by,
or fought because of, slavery. But few doubted that its outcome would determine slavery's
survival or destruction. In the short-term, it brought huge upheaval among the slaves, as tens
of thousands found themselves caught up in that epic flow of peoples, armies and violence,
back and forth across the disputed territories. Black soldiers were everywhere, and large
numbers of slaves took the opportunities afforded by the war to secure their freedom by
joining the northern armies. The brutality of the war, and the bitterness of the slave issue,
bought special dangers for black troops caught by Confederate soldiers - as this particularly
violent extract reveals.
[Enclosure]
In the field [Va.] July 11 til 1864
Sam' Johnson being duly sworn deposes and says:
I am Orderly Serg t of Co D- 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry- In about April last I went to Plymouth N.C. in
Co with Serg t French, a white man, who acted as recruiting Officer, to take charge of some recruits, and was
there at the time of the capture of Plymouth by the Rebel forcesWhen I found that the city was being surrendered I pulled off my uniform and found a suit of citizens
clothes which I put on, and when captured I was supposed and believed by the Rebels to be a citizen- After
being captured I was kept at Plymouth for some two weeks, and was employed in endeavoring to raise the
sunken vessels of the Union Fleet.
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•
From Plymouth I was taken to Weldon and from thence to Raleigh N.C. where I was detained about a
month and then was forwarded to Richmond where I remained until about the time of the battles near Richmond
when I went with Lieut Johnson, of the 6th N.C. Regt as his servant to Hanover Junction.
I did not remain there over four or five days before I made my escape into the lines of the Union Army
and was sent to Washington D.e. and then duly forwarded to my Regt in front ofPetersburgUpon the capture of Plymouth by the Rebel forces, all the negros found in blue uniform or with any
outward marks of a Union soldier upon him was killed- I saw some taken into the woods and hung- Others I
saw stripped of all their clothing, and they stood upon the bank of the river with their faces riverwards and then
. ..
they were shot- Still others were killed by having their brains beaten out by the butt end of the muskets in the
hands of the RebelsAll were not killed the day of the capture- Those that were not, were placed in a room with their
•
officers, they (the Officers) having previously been dragged through the town with ropes around their necks,
where they were kept confined until the following morning when the remainder of the black soldiers were
killedThe Regiments most conspicuous in these murderous transactions were the 8th N.e. and I think the 6th
N.C.
his mark X
Samuel Johnson
The Civil War divided black families. Freed black soldiers had families that remained
locked into slavery in the South, with all the emotional agonies created by such geographic
and legal divides.
299A: Missouri Black Soldier to His Enslaved Daughters
..
[Benton Barracks Hospital, St. Louis, Mo., September 3, 1864]
My children
I take my pen in hand to rite you A few lines to let you know that I have not forgot you and that I
want to see you as bad as ever
lots
now my Dear Children I want you to be contended with whatever may be your
be assured that I will have you if it cost me my life
on the 28 th of the mounth. 8 hundred White and 8
hundred blacke solders expects to start up the rivore to Glasgow and above there thats to be jeneraled by a
jeneral that will give me both of you
return.
Dont be uneasy my children
and I feel confident that I will get you
when they Come I expect to be with, them and expect to get you both in
I expect to have you.
Your Miss Kaitty said that I tried to steal you
that god never intended for man to steal his own flesh and blood.
confidence in her
IfDiggs dont give you up this Government will
But I,ll let her know
If I had no confidence in God I could have
But as it is If! ever had any Confidence in her I have none now and never expect to have
And I want her to remember if she meets me with ten thousand soldiers she [will?] meet her enemy
I once
[thought] that I had some respect for them but now my respects is sworn out and have no sympathy for
Slaveholders.
And as for her cristianantty I expect the Devil has Such in hell
You tell her from me that She
is the frist Christian that I ever hard say that aman could Steal his own child especially out of human bondage
66
You can tell her that She can hold you as long as she can
I never would expect to ask her again to let
you come to me because I know that the devil has got her hot set againsts that that is write
children I am going to close my letter to you
Give my love to all enquiring friends
now my Dear
tell them all that we are
well and want to see them very much and Corra and Mary receive the greater part of it you sefves
think hard of us not sending you any thing
sends their love to both of you
I you father have a plenty for you when I see you
and dont
Sport & Noah
Oh! My Dear children how I do want to see you
[Spotswood Rice]
For many slaves of course, the war, and military service offered a means of freedom.
But the end of the war brought, not the much anticipated benefits of full freedom, but an
'"
&
•
instant return to social violence, racial discrimination and a general thwarting of black
ambitions.
356: Affidavit of a Discharged Kentucky Black Soldier
10 th day of March 1866
Paducah Ky
Personally appeared before me Jacob Johnson late private "B" Co 4th U.S.C.A.H. who upon being duly
sworn deposes and says he was discharged from the U.S. Service on the 25 th day ofFeb'y 1866 and returned to
his home at Columbus Ky on the 1st of March 1866 bringing with him his arms consisting of a U.S. musket
purchased by him from the Govt and a pistol.- That his arms were demanded of him by Esq Morton a justice of
the peace at Columbus Ky, but deponant refused to deliver the same, until he had an opportunity to ascertain his
rights in the premises. He further deposes that all discharged col'd soldiers are required to surrender their arms to
the civil officers at Columbus including the muskets purchased by them from the U.S. Gov't
his mark X
Jacob Johnson
357: Discharged Maryland Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner
Near Centerville
General.
Queen Ann Co
March 13 th 1866
I hope you will parden me, for addressing this letter to you, But General we donot know who elce to
look to but you.
taken from them,
our case - Sir is this.
the returned colard Solgers are in Many cases beten, and their guns
we darcent walk out of an evening if we do, and we are Met by Some of these roudies. that
were in the rebbel army they beat us badly and Sumtime Shoot us,
on last Wednesday evening the 7th our
collard School teacher was collard and beaten, he got loos and ran and was Shot at.
Men.
Md
the party was Six white
th
and on Sunday evening the 11 Sum persons we think two in Number cam on horse back to our chirch a
bout 11 oclock P M and Set fier to the chirch that we keep School in and burnt it to the ground.
Now - Sir - this is the way we get our freedom
we do not know where to go for Safty.
can you do any thing for us,
for gods Sake do it
I am Gen your Obt Servt
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•
Charles A Watkins colard man
At the end of 1865, the year the Civil War ended, blacks in Washington D.C.
petitioned the U.S. Congress for the full franchise. Despite the wartime service of huge
numbers of blacks in the recent war, they had returned to post-war life without the full
.
political rights of their white fellow American citizens.
363: Washington, D.C., Blacks to the U.S. Congress
•
".
[Washington. D.e. December 1865]
To The Honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives in Congress Assembled.
We, the Colared Citizens of the District of Columbia, do most respectfully memorialize your Honorable
Bodies in our behalf to the following effect:
We would press upon your attention a principle universally admitted by all Americans, namely, that
"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed". The Colared American citizens of the
District of Columbia are denied the benefits ofthis conceded principle, in being refused the right of suffrage in
the District of Columbia, and therefore appeal to you for this franchise.
We respectfully submit to your Honorable Bodies, that a large portion of the Colared citizens of the
District of Columbia are property holders; that they pay no inconsiderable amount of taxes; but are nevertheless
as slaves to its distribution, unlike other tax-payers they see the proceeds of their labor taken and disposed of
without a single voice.
We are intelligent enough to be industrious; to have accumlated property; to build, and sustain
churches, and institutions of learning. We are and have been educating our children without the aid of any
school-fund, and, until recently, have for many years been furnishing unjustly as we deemed, a portion of the
means for the education of the white children of the District. We are intelligent enough to be amenable to the
,
,
same laws, and punishable alike with others for the infractions of said laws. We sustain as fair a character in the
Records of Crime and the statistics of Pauperism as any other class in the community, while unequal laws are
continually barring our way, in the effort to reach and possess ourselves of the blessings attendant upon a life of
industry, of self-denial, and of virtuous citizenship.
We also represent that out of a population of less than 15.000, we have contributed three full regiments,
over 3.500 enlisted men, while the white citizens out of a population of upwards 60.000 sent only about 1.500
enlisted men for the support of the Union, the Constitution and the Laws. In all our Country's trials, our loyalty
has never been questioned - our patriotism is unbounded. At our country's call we volunteered with alacrity, and
that without the incentives of high pay, bounty and promotion.
We cherish fond hopes and laudable desires, and have honorable aspirations in connection with the
future of our country. Your Honorable Bodies have done much for us within the past three years, for which you
have the Sincere, over-flowing gratitude of our whole people. You have given us a free District, and a free
68
I
Country. Still without the political rights enjoyed by every other man, the colored men of the District of
Columbia are but nominally free.
Experience teaches that all reforms have their opponents. The same experience also teaches that
apprehensions of evil arising from reforms founded in justice, are but seldom if ever realized. We would
respectfully offer as an illustration the just act of the thirty seventh Congress by which Slavery was abolished in
the District of Columbia. The opponents of that measure predicted most dire results to this community -which
was to be the "White man's Hell," and ruin to the party whose liberation was proposed. There has been no
realization ofthis prediction of evil, but, on the contrary, the happy results of this just measure are now manifest
and conceded by all. As Freemen, - far from being a terror and a curse to the country, they are a terror to its
enemies only. Experience likewise teaches that that debasement is most "humane which is most complete". The
..
possession of only a partial liberty, makes us the more keenly sensible to the injustice of withholding those other
rights which belong to a perfect manhood.
Without the right of suffrage, we are without protection, and liable to Combinations of outrage. The
petty officers of the law respecting the source of power, will naturally defer to the one having a vote; and the
partiality shown in this respect operates greatly to the disadvantage of the colored citizen.
These principles and Considerations are the basis upon which we predicate our claim for suffrage, and
civil equality before the law, and for which we will ever pray. Respectfully submitted.
[2.500 signatures]
Here was the beginning of a new phase of American black life; the demand for full
citizenship in a world no longer characterised by slavery, but rather dominated by a pervasive
denial of social and political rights of the freed black population. The vision of equality for all
remained as elusive as ever.
..
;
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