 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrew Simmons. Clotel or The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown. Preface. More than 200 years have elapsed since the first cargo of slaves landed on the banks of the James River in the colony of Virginia from the west coast of Africa. From the introduction of slaves in 1620 down to the period of the separation of the colonies from the British crown, the number had increased to 500,000. Now there are nearly 4 million. In 15 of the 31 states, slavery is made lawful by the Constitution, which binds the several states into one confederacy. On every foot of soil, over which stars and stripes wave, the Negro is considered common property, on which any white man may lay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population of the United States, north and south, are bound by their oath to the Constitution and their adhesion to the fugitive slave allure to hunt down the runaway slave and return him to his claimant and to suppress any effort that may be made by the slaves to gain their freedom by physical force. 25 millions of whites have banded themselves in solemn conclave to keep 4 millions of blacks in their chains. In all grades of society are to be found men who either hold, buy or sell slaves from the statesmen and doctors of divinity who can own their hundreds down to the person who can purchase but one. Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves and thereby giving the system a reputation and especially professed Christians, slavery would long since have been abolished. The influence of the great honors, the corruption and chastisement doth therefore hide his head. The great aim of the true friends of the slave should be to lay bare the institution so that the gaze of the world may be upon it and cause the wise, the prudent and the pious to withdraw their support from it and leave it to its own fate. It does the cause of emancipation but little good to cry out in tones of execration against the traders, the higher-ling overseers and brutal drivers so long as nothing is said to fasten the guilt on those who move in a higher circle. The fact that slavery was introduced into the American colonies while they were under the control of the British Crown is a sufficient reason why Englishmen should feel a lively interest in its abolition. And now that the genius of mechanical invention has brought the two countries so near together and both having one language and one literature, the influence of British public opinion is very great on the people of the new world. If the incidents set forth in the following pages should add anything new to the information already given to the public through similar publications and should thereby aid in bringing British influence to bear upon American slavery, the main object for which this work was written will have been accomplished. W Wells Brown 22 Cecil Street, Strand, London End of Preface This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrew Simmons Clotel or The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown Chapter 1 The Negro Sale Why stand she near the auction stand that girl so young and fair? What brings her to this dismal place? Why stands she weeping there? With the growing population of slaves in the southern states of America, there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of whose fathers are slave owners and their mothers slaves. Society does not frown upon the man who sits with his mulatto child upon his knee, whilst its mother stands a slave behind his chair. The late Henry Clay, some years since, predicted that the abolition of Negro slavery would be brought about by the amalgamation of the races. John Randolph, a distinguished slave holder of Virginia and a prominent statesman, said in a speech in the legislator of his native state that the blood of the first American statesman coursed through the veins of the slave of the South. In all the cities and towns of the slave states, the real Negro, or clear black, does not amount to more than one in every four states of the slave population. This fact is, of itself, the best evidence of the degraded and immoral condition of the relation of master and slave in the United States of America. In all the slave states, the law says, slaves shall be deemed, sold, held, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns to all intents, actions, and purposes whatsoever. A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master. The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, or so as to maim and mutilate him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death. The slave, to remain a slave, must be sensible that there is no appeal from his master. Where the slave is placed by law entirely under the control of the man who claims him, body and soul, as property, what else could be expected than the most depraved social condition? The marriage relation, the oldest and most sacred institution given to man by his creator, is unknown and unrecognised in the slave laws of the United States. Would that we could say that the moral and religious teaching in the slave states were better than the laws, but alas, we cannot. A few years since, some slaveholders became a little uneasy in their minds about the rightfulness of permitting slaves to take to themselves husbands and wives, while they still had others living, and applied to their religious teachers for advice, and the following will show how this grave and important subject was treated. Is a servant whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her master into a distant country to be permitted to marry again? The query was referred to a committee who made the following report, which after discussion was adopted. That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion that it is better to permit servants thus circumstance to take another husband or wife. Such was the answer from a committee of the Shiloh Baptist Association, and instead of receiving light, those who asked the question were plunged into deeper darkness. A similar question was put to the Savannah River Association, and the answer, as the following will show, did not materially differ from the one we have already given. Whether, in a case of involuntary separation of such a character as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought to be allowed to marry again. Answer That such separation among persons situated as our slave are is simply a separation by death, and they believe that in the sight of God it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such cases would be to expose the parties not only to stronger hardships and strong temptation, but to church censure for acting in obedience to their masters who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves are not free agents, and a dissolution by death is not more entirely without their consent, and beyond their control than by such separation. Although marriage, as the above indicates, is a matter which the slaveholders do not think is of any importance, or of any binding force with their slaves, yet it would be doing that degraded class in injustice not to acknowledge that many of them do regard it as a sacred obligation and show a willingness to obey the subject on this subject. Marriage is, indeed, the first and most important institution of human existence the foundation of all civilization and culture, the root of church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed among mankind, and for many persons the only relation in which they feel the true sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for every human virtue, since each of these is developed from the love and confidence which here predominate. It unites all which are nobles and beautifies life, sympathy, kindness of will indeed, gratitude devotion, and every delicate intimate feeling. As the only asylum for true education it is the first and last sanctuary of human culture. As husband and wife, through each other, become conscious of complete humanity and every human feeling and every human virtue, so children at their first awakening in the fond covenant of love between parents, both from a tenderly concerned for the same object, find an image of complete humanity leaked in free love. The spirit of love which prevails between them acts with creative power upon the young mind and awakens every germ of goodness within it. This invisible and incalculable influence of parental life acts more upon the child than all the efforts of education whether by means of instruction, precept, or exhortation. If this be a true picture of the vast influence for good of the institution of marriage, what must be the moral degradation of that people to whom marriage is denied? Not content with depriving them of all the higher and holier enjoyments of this relation by degrading and darkening their souls, the slave holder denies to his victim even that slight alleviation of his misery which would result from the marriage relation being protected by law and public opinion such as the influence of slavery in the United States that the ministers of religion even in the so-called free states are the mere echoes instead of the correctors of public sentiment. We have thought it advisable to show that the present system of chateau slavery in America undermines the entire social condition of man so as to prepare the reader for the following narrative of slave life in that otherwise happy and prosperous country. In all the large towns in the southern states there is a class of slaves who are permitted to hire their time of their owners and for which they pay a high price. These are malato women or quadruins as they are familiarly known and are distinguished for their fascinating beauty. The handsomest usually pays the highest price for her time. Many of these women are the favourites of persons who furnish them with the means of paying their owners and not a few are dressed in the most extravagant manner. Reader, when you take into consideration the fact that amongst the slave population no safeguard is thrown around virtue and no inducement held out to slave women to be chased you will not be surprised when we tell you that immorality and vice pervade the cities of the southern states in a manner unknown in the cities and towns of the northern states. Indeed most of the slave women have no higher aspiration than that of becoming the finely dressed mistress of some white man and at Negro balls and parties this class of women usually cut the greatest figure. At the close of the year the following advertisement appeared in a newspaper published in Richmond the capital of the state of Virginia. Notice 38 Negroes will be offered for sale on Monday November 10th at 12 o'clock being the entire stock of the late John Graves Esquire. The Negroes are in good condition some of them very prime Among them are several mechanics able-bodied field hands, plough boys and women with children at the breast and some of them very prolific ladies affording a rare opportunity to anyone who wishes to raise a strong and healthy lot of servants for their own use. Also several mulatto girls of rare personal qualities two of them very superior. Any gentleman or lady wishing to purchase can take any of the above slaves on trial for a week for which no charge will be made. Amongst the above slaves to be sold were Cara and her two daughters Clotel and Althisa. The latter were the girls spoken of in the advertisement as very superior. Cara was a bright mulatto and a pre-possessing appearance though then nearly 40 years of age. She had hired her time for more than 20 years during which time she had lived in Richmond. In her younger days Cara had been the housekeeper of a young slave-holder but of later years had been a laundress or washerwoman and was considered to be a woman of great taste in getting up linen. The gentleman for whom she had kept house was Jefferson by whom she had two daughters. Jefferson being called to Washington to fill a government appointment Cara was left behind and thus she took herself to the business of washing by which means she paid her master Mr. Graves and supported herself and two children. At the time of the decease of her master Cara's daughters Clotel and Althisa were aged respectively 16 and 14 years and both like the most of their own sex in America were well grown. Cara early resolved to bring her daughters up as ladies as she termed it and therefore imposed little or no work upon them. As her daughters grew older Cara had to pay a stipulated price for them yet her notoriety as a laundress of the first class enabled her to put an extra price upon her charges and thus she and her daughters lived in comparative luxury. To bring up Clotel and Althisa to attract attention and especially at balls and parties was the great aim of Cara. Although the term Negro ball is applied to most of these gatherings yet a majority of the attendants are often whites. Nearly all the Negro parties in the cities and towns of the southern states are made up of Quadruan and Milato girls and white men. These are Democratic gatherings where gentlemen shopkeepers and their clerks all appear upon terms of perfect equality and there is a degree of gentility and decorum in these companies that is not surpassed by similar gatherings of white people in the slave states. It was at one of these parties that Horatio Green, the son of a wealthy gentleman of Richmond, was first introduced to Clotel. The young man had just returned from college and was in his 22nd year. Clotel was 16 and was admitted by all to be the most beautiful girl coloured or white in the city. So attentive was the young man to the Quadruan during the evening that it was noticed by all and became a matter of general conversation. While Cara appeared delighted beyond the daughter's conquest, from that evening young Green became the favourite visitor at Cara's house. He soon promised to purchase Clotel as speedily as it could be affected and make her mistress of her own dwelling and Cara looked forward with pride to the time when she should see her daughter emancipated and free. It was a beautiful moonlight night in August when all who reside in tropical climes are eagerly gasping for a breath of fresh air that Horatio Green was seated in a small garden behind Cara's cottage with the object of his affections by his side. And it was here that Horatio drew from his pocket the newspaper wet from the press and read the advertisement for the sale of the slaves to which we have alluded. Cara and her two daughters being of the number. At the close of the evening's visit and as the young man was leaving he said to the girl, you shall soon be free and your own mistress. As might have been expected the day of sale brought an unusual large number together to compete for the property to be sold. Farmers who make a business of raising slaves for the market were there. Slave traders and speculators were also numerously represented. And in the midst of this throng was one who felt a deeper interest in the result of the sale than any other of the bystanders. This was Young Green. True to his promise he was there with a blank bank check in his pocket awaiting with impatience to enter the list as a bidder for the beautiful slave. The less valuable slaves were first placed upon the auction block one after another and sold to the highest bidder. Husbands and wives were separated with the degree of indifference that is unknown in any other relation of life except that of slavery. Brothers and sisters were torn from each other and mothers saw their children leave them for the last time on this earth. It was late in the day when the greatest number of persons were thought to be present that Cara and her daughters were brought forward to the place of sale. Cara was first ordered to ascend the auction stand which she did with a trembling step. The slave mother was sold to a trader. Althisa the youngest and who was scarcely less beautiful than her sister was sold to the same trader for $1,000. Clotel was the last and as was expected commanded a higher price than any that had been offered for sale that day. The appearance of Clotel on the auction block created a deep sensation amongst the crowd. There she stood with a complexion that is most of those who were waiting with a wish to become her purchasers. Her features as finely defined as any of her sex of pure Anglo-Saxon, her long black wavy hair done up in the neatest manner, her form tall and graceful and her whole appearance indicating one superior to her position. The auctioneer commenced by saying that Miss Clotel had been reserved for the last because she was the most valuable. How much gentlemen, real albino fit for a fancy girl for anyone. She enjoys good health and has a sweet temper. How much do you say? $500. Only $500 for such a girl as this. Gentlemen, she is worth a deal more than that some. You certainly don't know the value of the article you are bidding upon. Here gentlemen, I hold in my hand a paper certifying that she has a good moral character. $700. Ah, gentlemen, that is something like. This paper also states that she is very intelligent. $800. She is a Christian and perfectly trustworthy. $900. $950. $10. $11. $1200. Here the sale came to a dead stand. The auctioneer stopped, looked around and began in a rough manner to relate some anate goats relative to the sale of slaves, which he said had come under his own observation. At this juncture the scene was indeed strange. Laughing, joking, swearing, smoking, spitting and talking kept up a continual hum and noise amongst the crowd, while the slave girl stood with tears in her eyes at one time looking towards her mother and sister, and at another towards the young man whom she hoped would become her purchaser. The chastity of this girl is pure. She has never been from under her mother's care. She was a virtuous creature. $13. $14. $15. $1500 cried the auctioneer and the maiden was struck for that sum. This was a southern auction at which the bones, muscles, sinus, blood and nerves of a young lady of $16 were sold for $500, her moral character for $200, her improved intellect for $100, her Christianity for $300, and her chastity and virtue for $400 more. And this too in a city thronged with churches whose tall spires look like so many signals pointing to heaven, and whose ministers preach that slavery is a God ordained institution. What words can tell the inhumanity, the atrocity and the immorality of that doctrine which from exalted office commend such a crime to the favour of enlightened and Christian people. What indignation from all the world is not due to the government and people who put forth all their strength and power to keep in existence such an institution. Nature abhors it, the age repels it, and Christianity needs all her meekness to forgive it. Clotel was sold for $1500, but her purchaser was her ratio green. Thus closed the Negro sale at which two daughters of Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of American Independence, and one of the presidents of the Great Republic, were disposed of to the highest bidder. O God, my every heart-string cries, dost thou these scenes behold? In this our boasted Christian land, and must the truth be told? Blush Christian, blush, for in the dark untutored heathen sea, thy inconsistency and lo, they scorn thy God and thee. End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Clotel This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Betsy Bush, Marquette, Michigan, July 2010. Clotel by William Wells Brown Chapter 2 Going to the South My country, shall thy honoured name, be as a byword through the world? Rouse, for as if to blast thy fame, this keen reproach is at the hurled, the banner that above the waves is floating o'er three million slaves. Dick Walker, the slave speculator, who had purchased Curr and Althesia, put them in prison until his gang was made up, and then with his forty slaves started for the New Orleans market. As many of the slaves had been brought up in Richmond and had relations reciting there, the slave trader determined to leave the city early in the morning, so as not to witness any of those scenes so common where slaves are separated from their relatives and friends when about departing for the southern market. This plan was successful, for not even Clotel, who had been every day at the prison to see her mother and sister, knew of their departure. A march of eight days through the interior of the state, and they arrived on the banks of the Ohio River, where they were all put on board a steamer, and then speedily sailed for the place of their destination. Walker had already advertised in the New Orleans paper that he would be there at a stated time with a prime lot of able-bodied slaves ready for field service, together with a few extra ones between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. But, like most who make a business of buying and selling slaves for good, he often bought some who were far advanced in years and would always try to sell them for five or ten years younger than they actually were. Few persons can arrive at anything like the age of a negro by mere observation, unless they are well acquainted with the race. Therefore the slave trader very frequently carried out this deception with perfect impunity. After the steamer had left the wharf and was fairly on the bosom of the father of waters, Walker called his servant Pompey to him and instructed him as to getting the negroes ready for market. Amongst the forty negroes were several whose appearance indicated that they had seen some years and had gone through some services. Their gray hair and whiskers at once pronounced them to be above the ages sat down in the trader's advertisement. Pompey had long been with the trader and knew his business, and if he did not take delight in discharging his duty he did it with a degree of alacrity so that he might receive the approbation of his master. Pompey, as Walker usually called him, was of real negro blood and would often say, when alluding to himself, disnigger is no counterfeit, he is degenuine article. Pompey was of low stature, round face, and like most of his race, had a set of teeth which for whiteness and beauty could not be surpassed. His eyes large, lips thick, and hair short and woolly. Pompey had been with Walker so long and had seen so much of the buying and selling of slaves that he appeared perfectly indifferent to the heart-rending scenes which daily occurred in his presence. It was on the second day of the steamer's voyage that Pompey selected five of the old slaves, took them in a room by themselves, and commenced preparing them for the market. Well, said Pompey, addressing himself to the company, I is the gentleman, dead is to get you ready, so that you will bring Marcer a good price in the Orlean's market. How old is you?" addressing himself to a man who, from appearance, was not less than forty. If I live to see next corn-planting time, I will either be forty-five or fifty-five. I don't know which. That may be, replied Pompey, but now you is only thirty years old. That is what Marcer says you is to be. I know I is more than that, responded the man. I knows nothing about that, said Pompey, but when you get into market and anybody asks you how old you is, and you tell him forty-five, Marcer will tie you up and give you to whipped-like smoke. But if you tell him that you is only thirty, then he won't. Well, then, I guess I will only be thirty when they ask me, replied the chattel. What's your name, replied Pompey? James, answered the man. Oh, Uncle Jim, is it? Yes. Then you must have off dem dare whiskers of yours, and when you get to Orleans you must grease that face and make it look shiny. This was all said by Pompey in a manner which clearly showed that he knew what he was about. How old is you, asked Pompey of a tall, strong-looking man? Twenty-nine last potato-digging time, said the man. What's your name? My name is Tobias, but they call me Tobie. Well, Tobie, or Mr. Tobias, if that will suit you better, you is now twenty-three years old and no more. Does you hear that? Yes, responded Tobie. Pompey gave each to understand how old he was to be when asked by persons who wished to purchase, and then reported to his master that the old boys were all right. At eight o'clock on the evening of the third day the lights of another steamer were seen in the distance and apparently coming up very fast. This was a signal for a general commotion on the Patriot, and everything indicated that a steamboat race was at hand. Nothing can exceed the excitement attendant upon a steamboat race on the Mississippi River. By the time the boats had reached Memphis they were side by side in a single sentence in point of speed. The night was clear, the moon shining brightly, and the boats so near to each other that the passengers were calling out from one boat to the other. On board the Patriot the firemen were using oil, lard, butter, and even bacon with the wood for the purpose of raising the steam to its highest pitch. The blaze mingled with the black smoke showed plainly that the other boat was burning more than wood. The two boats soon locked and the boats were passing from vessel to vessel, and the wildest excitement prevailed throughout amongst both passengers and crew. At this moment the engineer of the Patriot was seen to fasten down the safety valve so that no steam should escape. This was indeed a dangerous resort. A few of the boat-hands who saw what had taken place left the end of the boat for more secure quarters. The Patriot stopped to take in passengers and still no steam was permitted to escape. At the starting of the boat cold water was forced into the boilers by the machinery, and as might have been expected one of the boilers immediately exploded. One dense fog of steam filled every part of the vessel while shrieks, groans, and cries were heard on every hand. The saloons and cabins soon had the appearance of a hospital. By this time the boat had landed in the Columbia, the other boat, had come alongside to render assistance to the disabled steamer. The killed and scalded, 19 in number, were soon on shore and the Patriot taken in tow by the Columbia was soon again on its way. It was now twelve o'clock at night and instead of the passengers being asleep the majority were ambling in the saloons. Thousands of dollars changed hands during a passage from Louisville or St. Louis to New Orleans on a Mississippi steamer and many men and even ladies are completely ruined. Go call my boy, steward," said Mr. Smith as he took his cards one by one from the table. In a few moments a fine-looking bright-eyed mulatto boy apparently about fifteen years of age was standing by his master's side at the table. I will see you in five hundred dollars better said Smith as his servant Jerry approached the table. What price do you want to set on that boy? asked Johnson as he took a roll of bills from his pocket. He will bring a thousand dollars any day in the New Orleans market," replied Smith. Then you bet the whole of the boy, do you? Yes. I call you then," said Johnson at the same time spreading his cards out upon the table. You have beat me," said Smith as soon as he saw the cards. Jerry, who was standing on top of the table with the banknotes and silver dollars round his feet was now ordered to descend from the table. You will not forget that you belong to me," said Johnson as the young slave was stepping from the table to a chair. No, sir," replied the chattel. Now go back to your bed and be up in time tomorrow morning to brush my clothes and clean my boots. Do you hear? Yes, sir," responded Jerry as he wiped the tears from his eyes. Smith took from his pocket the bill of sale and handed it to Johnson at the same time saying, I claim the right of redeeming that boy, Mr. Johnson. My father gave him to me when I came of age and I promise not to part with him. Most certainly, sir, the boy shall be yours whenever you hand me over a cool thousand," replied Johnson. The next morning as the passengers were assembling in the breakfast saloons and upon the guards of the vessel and the servants were seen running about waiting upon or looking for their masters poor Jerry was entering his new master's stateroom with his boots. Who do you belong to? said a gentleman to an old black man who came along leading a fine dog that he had been feeding. When I went to sleep last night I belonged to Governor Lucas but I understand that he has been gambling all night so I don't know who owns me this morning. Such is the uncertainty of a slave's position. He goes to bed at night the property of the man with whom he has lived for years and gets up in the morning the slave of someone whom he has never seen before. To behold five or six tables in a steamboat's cabin with half a dozen men playing at cards and money, pistols, bowie knives all in confusion on the tables is what may be seen at almost any time on the Mississippi River. On the fourth day, while at Natchez taking in freight and passengers Walker who had been on shore to see some of his old customers returned accompanied by a tall, thin-faced man dressed in black with a white neck cloth which immediately proclaimed him to be a clergyman. I want a good, trusty woman for house service," said the stranger as they entered the cabin where Walker's slaves were kept. Here she is and no mistake," replied the trader. Stand up, curr, my gal. Here's a gentleman who wishes to see if you will suit him. Elfieza clung at her mother's side as the ladder rose from her seat. She is a rare cook, a good washer and will suit you to a tea, I am sure. If you buy me, I hope you will buy my daughter too," said the woman in rather an excited manner. I only want one for my own use and would not need another," said the man in black as he and the trader left the room. Walker and the parson went into the saloon, talked over the matter, the bill of sale was made out, the money paid over, and the clergyman left with the understanding that the woman should be delivered to him at his house. It seemed as if poor Elfieza would have wept herself to death the first two days after her mother had been torn from her side by the hand of the ruthless trafficker in human flesh. On the arrival of the boat at Baton Rouge an additional number of passengers were taken on board and amongst them several persons who had been attending the races. Gambling and drinking were now the order of the day. Just as the ladies and gentlemen were assembling at the supper table the report of a pistol was heard in the direction of the social hall which caused great uneasiness to the ladies and took the gentlemen to that part of the cabin. However, nothing serious had occurred. A man at one of the tables where they were gambling had been seen attempting to conceal a card in his sleeve and one of the parties seized his pistol and fired. But fortunately the barrel of the pistol was knocked up just as it was about to be discharged and the ball passed through the upper deck instead of the man's head as intended. Order was soon restored. All went on well the remainder of the night until the next day. At ten o'clock the boat arrived at New Orleans and the passengers went to the hotels and the slaves to the market. Our eyes are yet on Afric's shores. Her thousand wrongs we still deplore. We see the grim slave trader there. We hear his fettered victim's prayer and hasten to the sufferer's aid forgetful of our own slave trade. The ocean pirates fiend-like form beneath the vengeance storm. His heart of steel shall quake before the battled-in and havoc roar. The nave shall die, the law hath said, while it protects our own slave trade. What earthly eye presumes to scan the wily, proteas heart of man? What potent hand will ere unroll the mantled treachery of his soul? Aware is he who hath surveyed the horrors of our own slave trade. There is an eye that wakes in light. There is a hand of peerless might, which soon or late shall yet assail and rend dissimulations veil, which will unfold the mass-grade which justifies our own slave trade. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of Clotel This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Clotel by William Wales Brown. Chapter 3 The Negro Chase We shall now return to Natchez, where we left cover in the hands of the Methodist parson. For many years Natchez has enjoyed an odoriety for the inhumanity and barbarity of its inhabitants and the cruel deeds perpetrated there, which have not been equalled in any other city in the southern states. The following advertisements, which we take from a newspaper published in the vicinity, will show how they catch their Negroes, who believe in the doctrine that all men are created free. Negro Dogs The undersigned, having bought the entire pack of Negro dogs, of the Hay and Allen stock, he now proposes to catch runaway Negroes. His charges will be $3 a day for hunting and $15 for catching a runaway. He resides 3.5 miles north of Livingston, near the Lower Jones Bluff Road, November 6, 1845. Notice, the subscriber, lying on Carroway Lake on Ho's Bayou, in Carroll Parish, 16 miles on the road leading from Bayou Mason to Lake Providence, is ready with a pack of dogs to hunt runaway Negroes at any time. These dogs are well trained and are known throughout the parish. Letters addressed to me at Providence will secure immediate attention. My terms are $5 per day for hunting the trails, whether the Negro is caught or not. Where a 12-hour trail is shown, and the Negro not taken, no charge is made. For taking a Negro, $25, and no charge made for hunting. November 26, 1847. These dogs will attack a Negro at their master's bidding, and cling to him as the bulldog will cling to a beast. Many are the speculations of whether they are alive or dead when these dogs once get on his track. A slave hunt took place near Natchez, a few days after Carroway's arrival, which was calculated to give her no favorable opinion of the people. Two slaves had run off owing to severe punishment. The dogs were put upon their trail. The slaves went into the swamps with the hope that the dogs, when put on their scent, would be unable to follow them through the water. The dogs soon took to the swamp, to the highlands, which was now covered with water, waist-deep. Here these faithful animals, swimming nearly all the time, followed the zigzag course, the torturous twistings and windings of these two fugitives, who, it was afterwards discovered, were lost, sometime sending the tree, wherein they had found a temporary refuge from the mud and water, at other places where the deep mud had pulled off a shoe, two hours and a half for four or five miles did men and dogs wade through this bushy, dismal swamp, surrounded with grim visaged alligators, who seemed to look on with jealous eye at this encroachment of their hereditary domain. Now losing the trail, then slowly and dubiously taking it off again, until they triumphantly threaded it out, bringing them back to the river, where it was found that the Negroes had crossed their own trail near the place of starting. In the meantime a heavy shower had taken place, putting out the trail. The Negroes were now at least four miles ahead. It is well known to hunters that it requires the keenest scent and the best blood to overcome such obstacles, and yet these persevering and sagacious animals conquered every difficulty. The slaves now made a straight course for the Baton Rouge and Bayou-Sara Road about four miles distant, feeling hungry now for their morning walk and perhaps Thursday too. They went about half a mile off the road and ate a good hardy substantial breakfast. Negroes must eat as well as other people, but the dogs will tell on them. Here for a moment the dogs are at fault, but soon unravel the mystery and bring them back to the road again and now what before was wonderful becomes almost a miracle. Here in this common highway the thoroughfare for the whole country is valid and through mire meeting wagons and teams in different solitary wayfarers and what above all is most astonishing actually running through a gang of Negroes their favorite game who were working on the road they pursued the track of the two Negroes. They even ran for eight miles to the very edge of the plain the slaves near them for the last mile. At first they would fain believe it some hunter chasing deer. Nearer and nearer the whimpering pack the delusion begins to dispel all at once the truth flashes upon them like a glare of light their hair stands on end to his table with his dogs the scent becomes warmer and warmer what was an irregular cry now deepens into one ceaseless roar as the relentless pack rolls on after its human prey it puts one in mind of Actaeon and his dogs they grow desperate and leave the road in the vain hope of shaking them off vain hope indeed the momentary cessation only adds new zest to the chase the cry grows louder and louder the yelp grows short and quick sure indication that the game is at hand it is a perfect rush upon the part of the hunters while the Negroes call upon their wary and jaded limbs to do their best but they falter and stagger beneath them the breath of the hounds is almost upon their very heels and yet they have a vain hope for the animals they can run no longer the dogs are upon them they hastily attempt to climb a tree and as the last one is nearly out of reach the catch dog seizes him by the leg and brings him to the ground he sings out lustily and the dogs are called off after this man was secured the one in the tree was ordered to come down this however he refused to do let a gun being pointed at him soon caused him to change his mind on reaching the ground the fugitive made one more bound and the chase again commenced but it was of no use to run and he soon yielded while being tied he committed an unpardonable offence he resisted and for that he must be made an example on their arrival home a mob was collected together and a lynch court was held to determine what was best to be done with the Negro who had had the impudence to raise his hand against a white man the lynch court decided that the Negro should be burnt at the stake a nach as newspaper the free trader giving an account of it says the body was taken and changed to a tree immediately on the banks of the Mississippi on what is called Union Point faggots were then collected and piled around him to which he appeared quite indifferent when the work was complete he was asked what he had to say he then warned all to take example by him and asked the prayers of all around he then called for a drink of water which was handed to him he drank it and said now set fire I am ready to go in peace the torches were lighted and placed in the pile which soon ignited he watched unmoved the curling flame that grew until it began to entwine itself around and feed upon his body then he sent forth cries of agony painful to the ear begging someone to blow his brains out sometime surging with almost superhuman strength until the staple with which the chain was fastened to the tree not being well secured drew out and he leaped from the burning pile at that moment the sharp ringing of several rifles was heard the body of the negro fell a corpse on the ground he was picked up by some two or three and again thrown into the fire and consumed not a vestige remaining to show that such a being ever existed thousands slaves were collected from the plantations in the neighborhood to witness this scene numerous speeches were made by the magistrates and ministers of religion to the large concourse of slaves warning them and telling them that the same fate awaited them if they should prove rebellious to their owners there are hundreds of negroes who run away and live in the woods some take refuge in the swamps because they are less frequented by human beings a Natchez newspaper following account of the hiding place of a slave who had been captured a runaway's den was discovered on Sunday near the Washington spring in a little patch of woods where it had been for several months so artfully concealed underground that it was detected only by accident though in sight of two or three houses in near the rodent fields where there has been constant daily passing the entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw representing a hog bed which being removed discovered a trapped door and steps that led to a room about six feet square comfortably sealed with plank containing a small fireplace the flu of which was ingeniously conducted above ground and concealed by the straw the inmates took the alarm and made their escape but Mr. Adams and his excellent dogs being put upon the trail soon run down and secured one of them which proved to be a negro fellow after he stated that the other occupant was a woman who had been a runaway a still longer time in the den was found a quantity of meal, bacon, corn, potatoes etc and various cooking utensils and wearing apparel Vicksburg Sentinel December 6th, 1838 Carrera was one of those who witnessed the execution of the slave at the stake and it gave her no very exalted opinion of the people of the cotton growing district End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Clotel This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Clotel by William Wells Brown Chapter 4 The Quadrunes Home How sweetly on the hillside sleeps the sunlight with its quickening rays the verdant trees that crown the steeps grow greener in its quivering blaze About three miles from Richmond is a pleasant plain with hair in there a beautiful cottage surrounded by trees so scarcely to be seen Among them was one far retired from the public roads and almost hidden among the trees It was a perfect model of rural beauty The piazzas that surrounded it were covered with clematis and passion flower The pride of China mixed its oriental looking foliage with the majestic magnolia and the air was redolent with the fragrance of flowers peeping out of every nook and nodding upon you with a most unexpected welcome The tasteful hand of art had not learned to imitate the lavish beauty in harmonious disorder of nature but they lived together in loving amity and spoke in accordant tones The gateway rose in a Gothic arch with graceful tracery and ironwork so mounted by a cross round which fluttered and played the mountain fringe that lightest and most fragile of vines This cottage was hired by Horatio Green for Clotel and the quadrant girl soon found herself in a new home The tenderness of Clotel's conscience together with the care her mother had with her and the high value she placed upon virtue required an outward marriage though she well knew that a union with her prescribed race was unrecognized by law and therefore the ceremony of her no legal hold on Horatio's constancy but her high poetic nature regarded reality rather than the semblance of things and when he playfully asked how she could keep him if he wished to run away she replied If the mutual love we have for each other and the dictates of your own conscience do not cause you to remain my husband and your affections fall for me I would not if I could hold you by a single fetter It was indeed a marriage sanctioned by heaven although unrecognized on earth There the young couple lived secluded from the world and passed their time as happily as circumstances would permit It was Clotel's wish that Horatio should purchase her mother and sister but the young man pleaded that he was unable owing to the fact that he had not come into possession of his share of the property yet he promised that when he did he would seek them out and purchase them Their first born was named Mary Clotel was still lighter than her mother Indeed she was not darker than other white children As the child grew older it more and more resembled its mother The iris of her large dark eye had the melting mesotense which remains the last vestige of African ancestry and gives that plaintive expression so often observed and so appropriate to that docile and injured race Clotel was still happier after the birth of her child for Horatio, as might have been expected was often absent day and night with his friends in the city and the edicts of society had built up a wall of separation between the quadrone and them Happy as Clotel was in Horatio's love and surrounded by an outward environment of beauty so well adapted to her poetic spirit she felt these incidents with inexpressible pain For herself she cared but little for she had found a sheltered home in Horatio's heart not very ridicule but had no power to profane But when she looked at her beloved Mary and reflected upon the unavoidable and dangerous position which the tyranny of society had awarded her her soul was filled with anguish The rare loveliness of the child increased daily and was evidently ripening into most marvellous beauty The father seemed to rejoice in it with unmingled pride but in the deep tenderness of the mother's eye there was an indwelling sadness that spoke of anxious thoughts and fearful foreboding Clotel now urged Horatio to remove to France or England where both her and her child would be free and where colour was not a crime This request excited but little opposition and was so attractive to his imagination that he might have overcome all intervening obstacles had not a change come over the spirit of his dreams He still loved Clotel but he was now becoming engaged and had kept him oftener and longer from the young mother and ambition to become a statesman was slowly gaining the ascendancy over him Among those on whom Horatio's political success most depended was a very popular and wealthy man who had an only daughter His visits to the house were at first purely of a political nature But the young lady was pleasing and he fancied he discovered in her a sort of timid preference for himself This excited his vanity and thoughts of the great worldly advantages connected with the union Reminisances of his first love kept these vague ideas in check for several months for with it was associated the idea of restraint moreover Gertrude though inferior in beauty was yet a pretty contrast to her rival Her light hair fell in silken ringlets down her shoulders Her blue eyes were gentle though inexpressive and her healthy cheeks were like opening rose buds She had already become accustomed to the dangerous experiment of resisting his own inward convictions and this new impulse to ambition combined with the strong temptation of variety and love met the ardent young man weakened in moral principle and unfettered by laws of the land The change wrought upon him was soon noticed by Klotel End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Klotel This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Klotel by William Wells Brown Chapter 5 The Slave Market What? Mothers from their children riven What? God's own image bought and sold Americans to market driven and bartered as the brute for gold Whittier Not far from Canal Street in the city of New Orleans a small building surrounded by a stone wall 12 feet high the top of which is covered with bits of glass and so constructed as to prevent even the possibility of anyone's passing over it without sustaining great injury Many of the rooms resemble cells in a prison In a small room near the office are to be seen any number of iron collars hobbles handcuffs thumb screws cow hides A backyard enclosed by a high wall looks something like a playground attached to one of our large New England schools and in which are rows of benches and swings attached to the back premises is a good-sized kitchen where two old Negroes are at work stewing, boiling and baking and occasionally wiping the sweat from their furrowed and swarthy brows The slave trader Walker on his arrival in New Orleans took up his quarters at this slave-pen with his gang of human cattle and the morning after at ten o'clock they were exhibited for sale Their first of all was the beautiful Altheza whose pale countenance and dejected look told how many sad hours she had passed since parting with her mother at Natchez There was a poor woman who had been separated from her husband and five children another woman whose looks and manner were expressive of deep anguish sat by her side There too was Uncle James with his whiskers off his face shaved clean and the gray hair plucked out and ready to be sold for ten years younger than he was Toby was also there with his face shaved and greased ready for inspection The examination commenced and was carried on in a manner calculated to shock the feelings of anyone not devoid of the milk of human kindness What do you wipe in your eyes for? In quieter fat red-faced man with a white hat of his head and a cigar in his mouth of a woman who sat on one of the stools I suppose I have been crying Why do you cry? Because I have left my man behind Oh, if I buy you I will furnish you with a better man than you left I have lots of young bucks on my farm I don't want and will never have any other man replied the woman What's your name? Asked a man in a straw hat of a tall negro man across his breast and leaning against the wall My name is Aaron, sir How old are you? Twenty-five Where were you raised? In Old Virginia, sir How many men have owned you? Four Do you enjoy good health? Yes, sir How long did you live with your first owner? Twenty years Did you ever run away? No, sir Were you ever whipped much? No, sir, I suppose I did not deserve it How long did you live with your second master? Ten years, sir Have you a good appetite? Yes, sir Can you eat your allowance? Yes, sir, when I can get it What were you employed at in Virginia? I worked in the tobacco field In the tobacco field? Yes, sir How old did you say you were? I would be twenty-five if I lived to see next sweet potato digging time I am a cotton planter And if I buy you, you will have to work in the cotton field My men pick one hundred and fifty pounds a day and the women one hundred and forty And those who fail to pick their task receive five stripes from the cat for each pound that is one Now do you think you could keep up with the rest of the bands? I don't know, sir, I suspect I'd have to How long did you live with your third master? Three years, sir While this makes you thirty-three I thought you told me you was only twenty-five Aaron now looked first at the planter then at the trader and seemed perfectly bewildered He had forgotten the lesson given him by Pompey as to his age and the planter's circuitous talk dealtless to find out the slave's real age had the negro off his guard I must see you back so as to know how much you have been whipped before I think of buying, said the planter Pompey, who had been standing by during the examination thought that his services were now required and stepping forward with a degree of officiousness, said to Aaron Don't you hear the gentleman tell you he won't examine your limbs? Come, unhine as you say, old bar and don't be standing there Aaron was soon examined and pronounced sound yet the conflicting statement about his age was not satisfactory Fortunate for Altheza she was spared the pain of undergoing such an examination Mr. Crawford, a teller in one of the banks had just been married and wanted a maid servant for his wife and passing through the market in the early part of the day was pleased with the young slave's appearance and purchased her and in his dwelling the quadrune found a much better home than often falls to the lot of a slave sold in the New Orleans market the heart-rending in cruel traffic and slaves which has been so often described is not confined to any particular class of persons No one forfeits his or her character standing in society by buying or selling slaves or even raising slaves for the market The precise number of slaves carried from the slave-raising to the slave-consuming states we have no means of knowing but it must be very great as more than 40,000 were sold and taken out of the state of Virginia in one year Known to God only is the amount of human agony and suffering which sends its cry from the slave markets in negro pens Mothers weeping for their children breaking the night's silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts From some you will hear the burst of bitter lamentation while from others the loud hysteric laugh denoting still deeper agony Most of them leave the market for cotton or rice plantations where the slave-whip ceaseless swings with a noisome insect stings where the fever, demons, strews poison with the falling dews where the sickly sunbeams glare through the hot and misty air End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Clotel by William Wills Brown Chapter 6 The Religious Teacher What preaching and slave men give thanks and rob thine own afflicted poor talk of thy glorious liberty and then bolt hard the captive's door Whittier The Reverend John Peck was a native of the State of Connecticut where he was educated for the ministry in the Methodist persuasion. His father was a strict follower of John Wesley and spared no pains in his son's education with the hope that he would one day be as renowned as the great leader of his sect. John had scarcely finished his education at New Haven when he was invited by an uncle then on a visit to his father to spend a few months at Natchez in the State of Mississippi. Young Peck accepted his uncle's invitation and accompanied him to the south. Few young men and especially clergymen going fresh from a college to the south but are looked upon as geniuses in a small way and who were not invited to all the parties in the neighborhood. Mr. Peck was not an exception to this rule the society into which he was thrown on his arrival at Natchez was too brilliant for him not to be captivated by it. And as might have been expected he succeeded in captivating a plantation with seventy slaves if not the heart of the lady to whom it belonged. Added to this he became a popular preacher, had a large congregation with a snug salary. Like other planters Mr. Peck confided the care of his farm to Ned Huckleby an overseer of high reputation in his way. The popular farm, as it was called was situated in a beautiful valley nine miles from Natchez and near the river Mississippi. The once unshorn face of nature had given way and now the farm blossomed with a splendid harvest the neat cottage stood in a grove where lawn-body poplars lift their tufted tops almost to prop the skies. The willow, locust and horse chestnut spread their branches and flowers never ceased to bloom. This was the Parsons country house where the family spent only two months during the year. The town residence was a fine villa seated upon the brow of a hill at the edge of the city. It was in the kitchen of this house that Currer found her new home. Mr. Peck was every inch of him a Democrat and early resolved that his people, as he called his slaves, should be well fed and not overworked and therefore lay down the law and gospel to the overseer I wish," said he to Mr. Colton an old school fellow who was spending a few days with him. It is my wish that a new system be adopted on the plantations in this estate. I believe that the sons of Ham should have the gospel and I intend that my Negroes shall. The gospel is calculated to make mankind better and none should be without it. What say you?" replied Colton about the right of man to his liberty. Now, Colton you have begun again to harp about man's rights. I really wish you could see this matter as I do. I have searched in vain for any authority for man's natural rights. If he had any they existed before the fall that is Adam and Eve may have had some rights which God gave them and which modern philosophy in its pretended reverence for the name of God prefers to call natural rights. I can imagine that they had the right to eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. They were restricted even in this by the prohibition of one. As far as I know without positive assertion their liberty of action was confined to the garden. These were not inalienable rights. However, for they forfeited both them and life with the first act of disobedience had they, after this any rights? We cannot imagine them. They were condemned beings. They could have no rights. But by Christ's gift as king these are the only rights man can have in his independent isolated being if we choose to consider him in this impossible position in which so many theorists have placed him. If he had no rights he could suffer no wrongs. Rights and wrongs are therefore necessarily the creatures of society such as man would establish himself in his gregarious state. They are in this state both artificial and voluntary. Though man has no rights as thus considered undoubtedly or by such arbitrary rules of right and wrong as his necessity enforces. I regret I cannot see eye to eye with you," said Carleton. I am a disciple of Rousseau and have for many years made the rights of man my study and I must confess to you that I see no difference between white men and black men as it regards liberty. Now, my dear Carleton, would you really have the Negroes enjoy the same rights with ourselves? I would most certainly look at our great division at the constitution of our own Connecticut and see what is said in these about liberty. I regard all this talk about rights as mere humbug. The Bible is older than the declaration of independence and there I take my stand. The Bible furnishes to us the Alma of Proof weapons of heavenly temper and mold whereby we can maintain our ground against all attacks. But this is true only when we obey its directions as well as employ its sanctions. Our rights are there established but it is always in connection with our duties. If we neglect the one we cannot make good the other. Our domestic institutions can be maintained against the world if we but allow Christianity to throw its broad shield over them. But if we act as to array the Bible against our social economy they must fall. Nothing ever yet stood long against Christianity. Those who say that religious instruction is inconsistent with our peculiar civil polity are the worst enemies of that polity. They would drive religious men from its defense. Sooner or later if these views prevail they will separate the religious portion of our community from the rest and thus divided we shall become an easy prey. Why, is it not better that Christian men should hold slaves than unbelievers? We know how to value the bread of life and will not keep it from our slaves. Well everyone to his own way of thinking Carlton as he changed his position. I confess, editing, that I am no great admirer of either the Bible or slavery. My heart is my guide, my conscience is my Bible. I wish for nothing further to satisfy me of my duty to man. If I act rightly to mankind I shall fear nothing. Carlton had drunk too deeply of the bitter waters of infidelity and had spent too many hours over the writings of Rousseau, Voltaire and Thomas Paine to place that appreciation upon the Bible and its teaching that it demands. During this conversation there was another person in the room seated by the window who although at work upon a fine piece of lace paid every attention to what was said. This was Georgiana, the only daughter of the parson. She had just returned from Connecticut where she had finished her education. She had had the opportunity of contrasting the spirit of and liberty in New England with that of slavery in her native state and had learned to feel deeply for the injured negro. Georgiana was in her nineteenth year and had been much benefitted by a residence of five years at the north. Her form was tall and graceful, her features regular and well defined and her complexion was illuminated by the freshness of youth, beauty and health. The daughter differed from both the father and his visitor upon the subject which they had been discussing and as soon as an opportunity offered she gave it as her opinion that the Bible was both the bulwark of Christianity and of liberty with a smile she said Of course Papa will overlook my differing from him for although I am a native of the south I am by education and sympathy a northerner. Mr. Peck laughed and appeared pleased rather than otherwise at the manner in which his daughter had expressed herself. This Georgiana took courage and said We must try the character of slavery and our duty in regard to it as we should try any other question of character and duty. To judge justly of the character of anything we must know what it does that which is good does good and that which is evil does evil and as to duty God's designs indicate his claims that which accomplishes the manifest design of God is right that which counteracts it whatever in its proper tendency in general effect produces secures or extends human welfare is according to the will of God and is good and our duty is to favor and promote according to our power that which God favors and promotes by the general law of his providence. On the other hand whatever in its proper tendency in general effect destroys of bridges or renders insecure human welfare is opposed to God's will in his evil and as whatever accords with the will of God in any manifestation of it should be done and persisted in so whatever opposes that will should not be done and if done should be abandoned can that then be right be well doing can that obey God's behest which makes a man a slave which dooms him in all his posterity in limitless generations to bondage to unrequited toil through life thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself this single passage of scripture should cause us to have respect to the rights of the slave true Christian love is of an enlarged disinterested nature it loves all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity without regard to color or condition Georgianna my dear you are an abolitionist your talk is fanaticism said Mr. Peckon rather a sharp tone but the subdued look of the girl in the presence of Carlton caused the father to soften his language Mr. Peck having lost his wife by consumption and Georgianna being his only child he loved her too dearly to say more even if he felt displeased a silence followed this exhortation from the young Christian but her remarks had done a noble work the father's heart was touched and the skeptic for the first time was viewing Christianity in its true light I think I must go out to your farm said Carlton as if to break the silence I shall be pleased to have you go returned Mr. Peck I am sorry I can't go myself but Huckleby will show you every attention and I feel confident that when you return to Connecticut you will do me the justice to say that I am one who looks after my people in a moral social and religious point of view well what do you say to my spending next Sunday there why I think that is a good move you will then meet the Snyder our missionary oh you have missionaries in these parts have you yes replied Mr. Peck Snyder is from New York and is our missionary to the poor and preaches to our people on Sunday you will no doubt like him he is a capital fellow then I shall go said Carlton but only wish I had company this last remark was intended for Miss Peck for whom he had the highest admiration it was on a warm Sunday morning in the month of May that Miles Carlton found himself seated beneath a fine old apple tree whose thick leaves entirely shaded the ground for some distance round under similar trees and nearby were gathered together all the people belonging to the plantation Hans Snyder was a man of about 40 years of age exceedingly low in stature but of a large frame he had been brought up in the Mohawk Valley in the state of New York and claimed relationship with the oldest Dutch families in that vicinity he had once been a sailor and had all the roughness of character that a seafaring man might expect to possess together with the half Yankee half German peculiarities of the people of the Mohawk Valley it was nearly 11 o'clock when a one horse wagon drove up in haste and the low squatty preacher got out and took his place at the foot of one of the trees where a sort of rough board table was placed and took his books from his pocket and commenced as it is rather late said he we will leave the singing and praying for the last and take our text and commence immediately I shall base my remarks on the following passage of Scripture and hope to have that attention which is due to the cause of God all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do you even so unto them that is, do by all mankind just as you would desire they should do by you if you were in their place and they in yours now to suit this rule to your particular circumstances suppose you were masters and mistresses and had servants unto you would you not desire that your servants should do their business faithfully and honestly as well when your back was turned as while you were looking over them would you not expect that they should take notice of what you said to them that they should behave themselves as you and yours and be as careful of everything belonging to you as you would be yourselves you are servants do therefore as you would wish to be done by and you will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God who requires this of you and will reward you well for it if you do it for the sake of conscience in obedience to his commands you were not to be eye servants now eye servants are such as will work hard and seem mighty diligent while they think anybody is taking notice of them but when their masters and mistresses backs are turned their idol and neglect their business I am afraid there are a great many such eye servants among you and that you do not consider how great a sin it is to be so and how severely God will punish you for it you may easily deceive your owners and make them have an opinion of you that you do not deserve and get the praise of men by it but remember that you cannot deceive Almighty God who sees your wickedness and deceit and will punish you accordingly for the rule is that you must obey your masters in all things and do the work they set you about with fear and trembling in singleness of heart as under Christ not with eye servants as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not as to men take care that you do not fret or murmur rumble or repine at your condition for this will not only make your life uneasy but will greatly offend Almighty God consider that it is not yourselves it is not the people that you belong to it is not the men who have brought you to it but it is the will of God who hath by his providence made you servants because no doubt he knew that condition would be best for you in this world and help you the better towards heaven if you would but do your duty in it so that any discontent that you're not being free or rich or great as you see some others is quarreling with your heavenly master and finding fault with God himself who hath made you what you are and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of heaven as the greatest man alive if you will but behave yourself aright and do the business he hath set you about in this world honestly and cheerfully riches and power have proved the ruin of many an unhappy soul by drawing away the heart and affections from God and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments so that when God who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves sees that they would be hurtful to us and therefore keeps them from us it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us you may perhaps fancy that if you had riches and freedom you could do your duty to God with greater pleasure than you can now but pray consider that if you can but save your souls through the mercy of God you will have spent your time to the best of purposes in this world and he that last can get to heaven has performed a noble journey let the road be ever so rugged and difficult besides you really have a great advantage over most white people who have not only the care of their daily labor upon their hands but the care of looking forward and providing necessaries for tomorrow and next day and of clothing and bringing up their children and of getting food and raiment for as many of you as belong to their families which often puts them to great difficulties and distracts their minds so as to break their rest and take off their thoughts from the affairs of another world whereas you are quite eased from all these cares and have nothing but your daily labor to look after and when that is done take your needful rest neither is it necessary for you to think of laying up against old age as white people are obliged to do for the laws of the country have provided that you shall not be turned off when you are past labor but shall be maintained while you live by those you belong to whether you are able to work or not there is only one circumstance which may appear grievous that I shall now take notice of and that is correction now when correction is given you deserve it or you do not deserve it but whether you really deserve it or not it is your duty and Almighty God requires that you bear it patiently you may perhaps think that this is hard doctrine but if you consider it right you must need to think otherwise of it suppose then that you deserve correction you cannot but say that it is just and right you should meet with it suppose you do not or at least you do not deserve so much or so severe a correction that you have committed you perhaps have escaped a great many more and are at last paid for all or suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing is it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was never discovered and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would not let you escape without punishment one time or another and are you not in such a case would be thankful that he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness than destroy your souls for it in the next life but suppose even this was not the case a case hardly to be imagined and that you have by no means known or unknown deserved the correction you suffered there is this great comfort in it that if you bear it patiently and leave your cause in the hands of God he will reward you for it in heaven and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to your exceeding great glory hereafter lastly should you serve your masters faithfully because of their goodness to you see to what trouble they have been on your account your fathers were poor, ignorant and barbarous creatures in Africa and the whites fitted out ships at great trouble and expense and brought you from that benighted land to Christian America where you can sit under your own vine no one molest or make you afraid oh my dear black brothers and sisters you are indeed a fortunate and a blessed people your masters have many troubles that you know nothing about if the banks break your masters are sure to lose something if the crop turns out poor they lose by it if one of you die your master loses what he paid for you while you lose nothing now let me exhort you once more often during the delivery of the sermon did Snyder cast an anxious look in the direction where Carlton was seated no doubt to see if he had found favour with the stranger Huckleby, the overseer was also there seated near Carlton with all Snyder's gesticulations sonorous voice and occasionally bringing his fists down upon the table with the force of sledgehammer he could not succeed in keeping the Negroes all interested four or five were fast asleep leaning against the trees as many more were nodding while not a few were stealthily cracking and eating hazelnuts Uncle Simon you may strike up a hymn said the preacher as he closed his Bible a moment more and the whole company Carlton accepted had joined in the well-known hymn commencing with when I can read my title clear to mansions in the sky after the singing Sandy closed with prayer and the following questions and answered read and the meeting was brought to a close question what command has God given to servants concerning obedience to their masters answer servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye servants as men pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God question what does God mean by masters according to the flesh answer masters in this world question what are servants to count their masters worthy of answer all honour question how are they to do the service of their masters answer with goodwill doing service as unto the Lord and not unto men question how are they to try to please their masters answer please him well in all things not answering again question is a servant who is an eye servant to his earthly master an eye servant to his heavenly master answer yes question is it right in a servant when commanded to do anything to be solid and slow and answer his master again answer no question if the servant professes to be a Christian ought he not to be as a Christian servant an example to all other servants of love and obedience to his master answer yes question and should his master be a Christian also ought he not on that account specially to love and obey him answer yes question but suppose the master is hired to please and threatens and punishes more than he ought what is the servant to do answer do his best to please him question when the servant suffers wrongfully at the hands of his master and to please God takes it patiently will God reward him for it answer yes question is it right for the servant to run away or is it right to hover a run away answer no question if a servant runs away what should be done with him answer he should be caught and brought back question when he is brought back what should be done with him answer whip him well question why may not the whites be slaves as well as the blacks answer because the Lord intended the negroes for slaves question are they better calculated for servants than the whites answer yes their hands are large the skin thick and tough and they can stand the song better than the whites question why should servants not complain when they are whipped answer because the Lord has commanded that they should be whipped question where has he commanded it answer he says he let know of his master's well and do with it not shall be beaten with many stripes question then is the master to blame for whipping his servant answer oh no he is only doing his duty as a Christian Snyder left the ground in company with Carlton and Huckleby and the three dined together in the overseers dwelling well said Joe after the three white men were out of hearing master Snyder been trying himself today yes said Ned he want to show the strange gentleman how good he can preach that's a new sermon he give us today said Sandy these white folks is the very devil said Dick and all the whole study is to try to fool the black people didn't you like the sermon asked Uncle Simon no answered four or five voices he rared and pitched enough continued Uncle Simon now Uncle Simon was himself a preacher or at least he thought so and was rather pleased than otherwise he heard others spoken of in a disparaging manner Uncle Simon can beat that sermon all to pieces said Ned as he was filling his mouth with hazelnuts I got no notion of these white folks know how returned Aunt Daphne they all the time telling that the Lord made us for to work for them and I don't believe a word of it Master Peck gave that sermon to Snyder I know said Uncle Simon he just did one for that replied Sandy I think the people that made the Bible was great fools why Uncle Simon because they made such a great big book and put nothing in it but servants obey your masters oh replied Uncle Simon there's more in the Bible than that only Snyder never reads any other pot to us I used to hear it read in Maryland and there was more than once Snyder lets us hear in the overseer's house there was another scene going on and far different from what we have described here chapter six chapter seven of Clotel this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Clotel by William Wills Brown chapter seven the poor whites south no seeming of logic can ever convince the American people that thousands of our slave holding brethren are not excellent humane and even Christian men fearing God and keeping His commandments Reverend Dr. Joel Parker you like these parts better than New York? said Carlton to Snyder as they were sitting down to dinner in the overseer's dwelling I can't say that I do was the reply I came here ten years ago as missionary and Mr. Peck wanted me to stay and I have remained I travel among the poor whites during the week and preach for the niggers on Sunday are there many poor whites in this district? not here but about 30 miles from here in the Sand Hill District they are as ignorant as horses why it was no longer than last week I was up there and really you would not believe it that people were so poor off in New England and I may say in all the free states they have free schools and everybody gets educated not so here in Connecticut there was only one out of every 500 above 21 years that can neither read nor write here there is one out of every eight that can neither read nor write there is not a single newspaper taken in five of the counties in this state last week I was at Sand Hill for the first time and I called at a farmhouse the man was out it was a low log hut and yet it was the best house in that locality and nine children were there and the geese, ducks, chickens pigs and children were all running about the floor the woman seemed scared at me when I entered the house I inquired if I could get a little dinner in my horse-fed she said yes if I would only be good enough to feed him myself as her gal, as she called her daughter would be afraid of the horse when I returned into the house again from the stable she kept her eyes upon me all the time she said, I suppose you ain't never been in these paths before no, said I is you going to stay here long? not very long, I replied on business, I suppose yes, said I I am hunting up the lost sheep of the house of Israel oh, exclaimed she hunting for lost sheep is you well, you have a hard time to find him here my husband lost an old ram last week peace haunted every day I am not looking for four-legged sheep said I, I am hunting for sinners ah she said, then you are a preacher yes, said I you are the first of that sort that's been in these diggins for many a day turning to her eldest daughter she said in an excited tone clear out the pigs and ducks and sweep up the floor this is a preacher and it was some time near me one remained under the bed which by the by was in the same room all the while I was there well, continued the woman I was a telling my man only yesterday that I would like once more to go to meeting before I died and he said as he should like to do the same but as you have come it will save us the trouble of going out of the district then you found some of the lost sheep said Carlton yes, replied Snyder I did not find anything else up there the state makes no provision for educating the poor they are unable to do it themselves and they grow up in a state of ignorance and degradation the men hunt and the women have to go in the fields and labor what is the cause of it inquired Carlton slavery, answered Snyder slavery and nothing else look at the city of Boston it pays more taxes for the support of the government the people of Boston do more business than the whole population of Mississippi put together I was told some very amusing things while at Sand Hill a farmer there told me a story about an old woman who was very pious herself she had a husband and three sons who were sad characters and she had often prayed for their conversion but to no effect at last one day while working in the corn field one of her sons was bitten by a rattlesnake he had scarce reached home before he felt the poison and in his agony called loudly on his maker the pious old woman when she heard this forgetful of her son's misery and everything else but the glorious hope of his repentance fell on her knees and prayed as follows oh lord I thank thee that thou hast at last opened Jimmy's eyes to the error of his ways and I pray that in thy divine mercy that we'll send a rattlesnake to bite the old man and another to bite Tom for I am certain that nothing but a rattlesnake or something of that kind will ever turn them from their simple ways they are so hard headed when returning home and before I got out of the Sand Hill District I saw a funeral and thought I would fasten my horse to a post and attend the coffin was carried in a common horse-cott and followed by fifteen or twenty persons very shabbily dressed and attended by a man whom I took to be the religious man of the place after the coffin had been placed near the grave he spoke as follows friends and neighbors you have congregated to see this lump of mortality put into a hole in the ground you all know the deceased a worthless drunken good-for-nothing vagabond he lived in disgrace and infamy and died in wretchedness you all despised him you all know his brother Joe who lives on the hill he's not a bit better a little property by cheating his neighbors his end will be like that of this lulsome creature whom you will please put into the hole as soon as possible I won't ask you to drop a tear but brother Bo-Hau will please raise a hymn while we fill up the grave I am rather surprised to hear that any portion of the whites in this state are in so low a condition yes it is true replied Snyder these are very unpleasant facts to be related to you Carlton said Hucklebee but I can bear witness to what Mr. Snyder has told you Hucklebee was from Maryland where many of the poor whites are in a sad a condition as the sand-hillers of Mississippi he was a tall man of iron constitution and could neither read nor write but was considered one of the best overseers in the country when about to break a slave in to do a heavy task he would make him work by his side all day and if the new hand kept up with him he was set down as an able-bodied man Hucklebee had neither moral religious or political principles and often boasted that conscience was a matter that never caused him a thought Mr. Snyder ain't told you half about the folks in these parts, continued he we who comes from more enlightened parts don't know how to put up with them down there I find the people here knows mighty little indeed in fact I may say that they are mostly uneducated I goes out among none of them because they ain't such as I have been used to associate with when I gets a little richer so that I can stop work I tend to go back to Maryland and spend the rest of my days I wonder the Negroes don't attempt to get their freedom by physical force it ain't no use for them to try that for if they do we put some through by daylight replied Hucklebee there are some desperate fellows among the slaves said Snyder indeed remarked Colton oh yes replied the preacher a case has just taken place near here where a neighbor of ours Mr. J. Higgerson attempted to correct a Negro man and his employee who resisted drew a knife and stabbed him Mr. H in several places Mr. J. C. Hobbs a Tennessean ran to his assistants Mr. Hobbs stooped to pick up a stick to strike the Negro and while in that position the Negro pushed upon him and caused his immediate death the Negro then fled to the woods but was pursued with the dogs and soon overtaken he had stopped in a swamp to fight the dogs when the party who were pursuing him came up upon him and commanded him to give up which he refused to do he then made several efforts to stab them Mr. Roberson one of the party gave him several blows on the head with a rifle gun but this instead of subduing a desperate revenge Mr. R then discharged his gun at the Negro and missing him the ball struck Mr. Boone in the face and felled him to the ground the Negro seeing Mr. Boone prostrated attempted to rush up and stab him but was prevented by the timely interference of some one of the party he was then shot three times without revolving pistol and once with a rifle and after having his throat cut he still kept the knife firmly grasped in his hand and tried to cut their legs when they approached to put an end to his life this chastisement was given because the Negro grumbled and found fault with his master for flogging his wife well this is a bad state of affairs indeed and especially the condition of the poor whites said Carlton you see replied Snyder no white man is respectable in these slave states who works for a living and is generous where honest labor is not honored no society can be rightly constituted where the intellect is not fed whatever institution reflects discredit on industry whatever institution forbids the general culture of the understanding is palpably hostile to individual rights and to social well-being slavery is the incubus that hangs over the southern states yes interrupted Huckleby it's my sentiments now and no mistake I think that for the honor of our country this slavery business should stop I don't own any know how and I would not be an overseer if I weren't paid for it End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Clotel this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Clotel by William Wales Brown Chapter 8 The Separation in many ways does the full heart reveal the presence of the love it would conceal but in far more the estranged heart lets know the absence of love which yet at feign would show at length the news of the approaching marriage of Horatio met the ear of Clotel her head grew dizzy and her heart fainted within her but with a strong effort at composure she inquired all the particulars and her pure mind at once took its resolution Horatio came that evening and though she would feign have met him as usual her heart was too full not to throw a deep sadness over her looks and tones she had never complained of his decreasing tenderness or of her own lonely hours but he felt that the mute appeal of her heartbroken looks was more terrible than words he kissed the hand she offered and with a countenance almost as sad as her own led her to a window in the recess shadowed by a luxuriant passion flower it was the same seat where they had spent the first evening in this beautiful cottage consecrated to their first loves the same calm clear moonlight looked in through the trellis the vine then planted had now a luxuriant growth and many a time had Horatio fondly twined its sacred blossoms with the glossy ringlets of her raven hair the rush of memory almost overpowered poor Clotel and Horatio felt too much oppressed and ashamed to break the long deep silence at length and words scarcely audible Clotel said tell me dear Horatio are you to be married next week he dropped her hand as if a rifle ball had struck him and it was not until after long hesitation that he began to make some reply about the necessity of circumstances mildly but earnestly the poor girl begged him to spare apologies it was enough that he no longer loved her and that they must bid farewell trusting to the yielding tenderness of her character he ventured in the most soothing accents to suggest that as he still loved her better than all the world she would ever be his real wife and they might see each other frequently he was not prepared for the storm of indignant emotion his words excited true she was his slave her bones and sinews had been purchased by his gold yet she had the heart of a true woman and hers was a passion too deep and absorbing to admit of partnership and her spirit was too pure to form a selfish league with crime at length this painful interview came to an end they stood together by the Gothic gate where they had so often met imparted in the moonlight old remembrances of their souls farewell dearest Horatio said Clotel give me a parting kiss her voice was choked for utterance and the tears flowed freely as she bent her lips toward him he folded her convulsively in his arms and imprinted a long impassioned kiss on that mouth which had never spoken to him but in love and blessing with efforts like a death-paying she at length raised her head from his heavy bosom and turning from him with bitter sobs it is our last to meet thus is henceforth crime God bless you I would not have you so miserable as I am farewell a last farewell the last exclaimed he with a wild shriek oh God Clotel did not say that and covering his face with his hands he wept like a child recovering from his emotion he found himself alone the moon looked down upon him mild but very sorrowfully as the Madonna seemed to gaze upon her worshipping children bowed down with consciousness of sin at that moment he would have given worlds to have disengaged himself from Gertrude but he had gone so far that blame, disgrace and duels with angry relatives would now attend any effort to obtain his freedom oh how the moonlight oppressed him with its friendly sadness it was like the plaintive eye of his forsaken one like the music of sorrow echoed from an unseen world long and earnestly he gazed at that cottage where he had so long known Earth's purest foretaste of heavenly bliss slowly he walked away then turned again to look on that charmed spot the nestling place of his early affections he caught a glimpse of Clotel weeping beside a magnolia which commanded a long view of the path leading to the public road he would have sprung toward her but she darted from him and entered the cottage that graceful figure weeping in the moonlight haunted him for years it stood before his closing eyes and greeted him with the morning dawn poor Gertrude had she known all what a dreary lot would hers have been but fortunately she could not miss the impassioned tenderness she never experienced and her ratio was the more careful in his kindness because he was deficient in love after Clotel had been separated from her mother and sister she turned her attention to the subject of Christianity and received that consolation from her Bible that has never denied to the children of God although it was against the laws of Virginia for a slave to be taught to read Currer had employed an old free negro who lived near her to teach her two daughters to read and write she felt that the step she had taken in resolving never to meet her ratio again would no doubt expose her to his wrath and probably cause her to be sold yet her heart was too guileless for her to commit a crime and therefore she had ten times rather have been sold as a slave than do wrong some months after the marriage of Horatio and Gertrude their barouche rolled along a winding road that skirted the forest near Clotel's cottage when the attention of Gertrude was suddenly attracted by two figures among the trees by the wayside and touching Horatio's arm she exclaimed do look at that beautiful child he turned and saw Clotel and Mary his lips quivered and his face became deadly pale his wife looked at him intently but said nothing in returning home he took another road but his wife seeing this expressed a wish to go back the way they had come he objected and suspicion was awakened in her heart and she soon after learned that the mother of that lovely child both the name of Clotel a name which she had often heard Horatio murmur in uneasy slumbers from gossiping tongues she soon learned more than she wished to know she wept but not as poor Clotel had done for she never had loved and been beloved like her and her nature was more proud henceforth the change came over her feelings and her manners and her ratio had no further occasion to assume a tenderness in return for hers changed as he was by ambition he felt the wintry chill of her polite propriety and sometimes in agony of heart he compared it with the gushing love of her who was indeed his wife but these in all his emotions were a sealed book to Clotel of which she could only guess the contents with remittances for her and her child's support there sometimes came earnest pleadings that she would consent to see him again but these she never answered though her heart yearned to do so she pitied his young bride and would not be tempted to bring sorrow into her household by any fault of hers her earnest prayer was that she might not know of her existence she had not looked on her ratio since she watched him under the shadow of the magnolia until his barouche passed her in her rambles some months after she saw the deadly paleness of his countenance and had he dared to look back he would have seen her tottering with faintness Mary brought water from a rivulet and sprinkled her face when she revived she clasped her beloved child to her heart with a vehemence that made her scream soothingly she kissed away her fears and gazed into her beautiful eyes with a deep deep sadness of expression which poor Mary never forgot wild with the thoughts that passed round her aching heart and almost maddening her poor brain thoughts which had almost driven her to suicide the night of that last farewell for her child's sake she had conjured the fierce temptation then and for her sake she struggled with it now but the gloomy atmosphere of their once happy home overcrowded the morning of Mary's life Clotel perceived this and it gave her unutterable pain tis ever thus with woman's love true till life's storms have passed and like the vine around the tree it braves them to the last End of Chapter 8 Section 9 of Clotel This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Clotel by William Wells Brown Chapter 9 The Man of Honor My tongue could never learn sweet soothing words but now thy beauty has proposed my feet my proud heart soothes and prompts my tongue to speak Shakespeare James Crawford the purchaser of Altheza was from the Green Mountains of Vermont and his feelings were opposed to the holding of slaves but his young wife persuaded him into the idea that it was no worse to own a slave than to hire one and pay the money to another hence it was that he had been induced to purchase Altheza Henry Morton a young physician from the same state and who had just commenced the practice of his profession in New Orleans was boarding with Crawford when Altheza was brought home the young physician had been in New Orleans but a few weeks and had seen very little of slavery in his own mountain home he had been taught that the slaves of the southern states were Negroes if not from the coast of Africa the descendants of those who had been imported he was unprepared to behold with composure a beautiful young white girl of 15 in the degraded position of a chattel slave the blood chilled in his heart as he heard Crawford tell how by bartering with the traitor he had bought her for $200 less than he first asked his very looks showed that the slave girl had the deepest sympathy of his heart Altheza had been brought up by her mother to look after the domestic concerns of her cottage in Virginia and knew well the duties imposed upon her Mrs. Crawford was much pleased with her new servant and often made mention of her in the presence of Morton the young man's sympathy ripened into love which was reciprocated by the friendless and injured child of sorrow there was but one course left that was to purchase the young girl and make her his wife which he did six months after her arrival in Crawford's family the young physician and his wife immediately took lodgings in another part of the city a private teacher was called in and the young wife taught some of those accomplishments which are necessary for ones taking a position in society Dr. Morton soon obtained a large practice in his profession and his wealth but with all his wealth he never would own a slave Mrs. Morton was now in a position to seek out and redeem her mother whom she had not heard of since they parted at Natchez an agent was immediately dispatched to hunt out the mother and to see if she could be purchased the agent had no trouble in finding out Mr. Peck but all overtures were unavailable he would not sell carer that he could not spare her poor Althiza felt sad when she found out that her mother could not be bought however she felt a consciousness of having done her duty in the matter yet waited with the hope that the day might come when she should have her mother by her side End of chapter 9 Here we see God dealing in slaves giving them to his own favorite child Abraham a man of superlative worth and as a reward for his eminent goodness Reverend Theodore Clape of New Orleans On Carleton's return the next day from the farm he was overwhelmed with questions from Mr. Peck as to what he thought of the plantation the condition of the negroes Huckleby and Snyder and especially how he liked the sermon of the latter Mr. Peck was a kind of a patriarch in his own way to begin with he was a man of some talent he not only had a good education but was a man of great eloquence and had a wonderful command of language he too either had or thought he had a poetical genius and was often sending contributions to the Natch's free trader and other periodicals in the way of raising contributions for foreign missions he took the lead of all others in his neighborhood everything he did he did for the glory of God as he said he quoted scripture for almost everything he did being in good circumstances he was able to give to almost all benevolent causes to which he took a fancy he was a most loving father and his daughter exercised considerable influence over him and owing to her piety and judgment that influence had a beneficial effect Carleton though a school fellow of the Parsons was nevertheless nearly ten years as junior and though not an avowed infidel was however a free thinker and one who took no note of tomorrow and for this reason Georgiana took peculiar interest in the young man for Carleton was but little over thirty and unmarried the young Christian felt that she would not be living up to that faith that she professed and believed in if she did not exert herself to the utmost to save the thoughtless man from his downward career and in this she succeeded to her most sanguine expectations she not only converted him but in placing the scriptures before him in their true light she redeemed those sacred writings from the charge of supporting the system of slavery which her father had cast upon them in the discussions some days before Georgiana's first object however was to awaken in Carleton's breast a love for the Lord Jesus Christ the young man had often sat under the sound of the gospel with perfect indifference he had heard men talk who had grown gray bending over the scriptures and their conversation had passed by him unheeded but when a young girl much younger than himself reasoned with him in the innocent and persuasive manner that women is want to use when she has entered with her whole soul upon an object it was too much for his stout heart and he yielded her next aim was to vindicate the Bible from sustaining the monstrous institution of slavery she said God has created of one blood all the nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth to claim, hold, and treat a human being as property is felony against God and man the Christian religion is opposed to slaveholding in its spirit and its principles it classes men stealers among murderers and it is the duty of all who wish to meet God in peace to discharge that duty and spreading these principles let us not deceive ourselves into the idea that slavery is right because it is profitable to us slaveholding is the highest possible violation of the 8th commandment to take from a man his earnings is theft but to take the earner is a compound life long theft and he who professed to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer should do our utmost to extirpate slavery from the land for my own part I shall do all I can when the Redeemer was about to ascend to the bosom of the Father and resume the glory which he had with him before the world was he promised his disciples that the power of the Holy Ghost should come upon them and that they should be witnesses for him to the uttermost parts of the earth what was the effect upon their minds they all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women stimulated by the confident expectation that Jesus would fulfill his gracious promise they poured out their hearts in fervent supplications probably for strength to do the work which he had appointed them unto for they felt that without him they could do nothing and they consecrated themselves on the altar of God to the great and glorious enterprise of the unsearchable riches of Christ to a lost and perishing world have we less precious promises than the scriptures of truth may we not claim of our God the blessing promised unto those who consider the poor the God will preserve them and keep them alive and they shall be blessed upon the earth does not the language in as much as you did it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me belong to all who are rightly engaged in endeavouring to unloose the bondman's fetters shall we not then do as the apostles did shall we not in view of the two million of heathen in our very midst in the view of the souls that are going down in an almost unbroken phalanx to utter perdition continue in prayer and supplication that God will grant us the supplies of his spirit to prepare for us that work which he has given us to do shall not the wail of the mother as she surrenders her only child to the grasp of the ruthless kidnapper or the traitor in human blood animate our devotions shall not the manifold crimes and horrors shall we not incite more ardent outpourings at the throne of grace to grant repentance to our guilty country and permit us to aid in preparing the way for the glorious second advent of the messiah by preaching deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to those who were bound Georgiana had succeeded in riveting the attention of Carlton during her conversation and as she was finishing her last sentence she observed the silent tear stealing down the cheek of the newly born child of God at this juncture her father entered the room dear papa said Georgiana will you grant me one favor or rather make me a promise I can't tell my dear till I know what it is replied Mr. Peck if it is a reasonable request I will comply with your wish continued he I hope my dear answered she that papa would not think me capable of making an unreasonable request well well returned he tell me what it is in your future conversation with Mr. Carlton on the subject of slavery you will not speak of the Bible as sustaining it why Georgiana my dear you are mad ain't you exclaimed he in an excited tone the poor girl remained silent the father saw in a moment that he had spoken too sharply and taking her hand in his he said now my dear child why do you make that request because returns she I think he is on the stool of repentance if he has not already been received among the elect he you know was bordering upon infidelity and if the Bible sanctioned slavery then he will naturally enough say that it is not from God for the argument from internal evidence is not only refuted but actually turned against the Bible if the Bible sanctioned slavery then it misrepresents the character of God nothing would be more dangerous to the soul of a young convert than to satisfy him that the scriptures favored such a system of sin don't you suppose that I understand the scriptures better than you I have been in the world longer yes said she you have been in the world longer and amongst slaveholders so long that you do not regard it in the same light that those do who have not become so familiar with its everyday scenes as you I once heard you say that you were opposed to the institution when you first came to the south yes answered he I did not know so much about it then with great deference to you Papa replied Georgiana I don't think that the Bible is about slavery the Old Testament contains the explicit condemnation of it he that steal with a man and sell with him or if he be found in his band he shall surely be put to death and woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong that use if his neighbor service without wages and giveth him not for his work when also the New Testament exhibits such words of rebuke as these behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaith the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for men stealers for liars for perjured persons a more scathing denunciation of the sin fleshed in is surely to be found on record in no other book I am afraid, continued the daughter that the acts of the professed friends of Christianity in the south do more to spread infidelity than the writings of all the atheists which have ever been published the infidel watches the religious world he surveys the church in low thousands and tens of thousands of her accredited members actually hold slaves members in good and regular standing fellowshiped throughout Christendom by a few anti-slavery churches generally despised as ultra and radical reduced their fellow men to the condition of chattels and by force keep them in that state of degradation bishops ministers elders and deacons are engaged in this awful business and do not consider their conduct as at all inconsistent with the precepts of either the old or new testaments moreover those ministers and churches who do not themselves hold slaves very generally defend the conduct of those who do it and according to them a fair Christian character and in the way of business frequently take mortgages and levy executions on the bodies of their fellow men and in some cases of their fellow Christians now is it a wonder that infidels beholding the practice and listening to the theory of professing Christians should conclude that the Bible inculcates a morality not inconsistent with chattelizing human beings and must not this conclusion be strengthened when they hear ministers of talent and learning declare that the Bible does sanction slave holding and that it ought not to be made a disciplinable offense in churches and must not all doubt be dissipated when one of the most learned professors in our theological seminaries asserts the Bible recognizes that the relation may still exist salva fide at salva ecclesia without injury to the Christian faith or church and that only the abuse of it is the essential and fundamental wrong are not infidels bound to believe that these professors ministers understand their own Bible and that consequently not withstanding solitary passages which appear to condemn slave holding the Bible sanctions it when nothing can be further from the truth and as for Christ his whole life was a living testimony against slavery and all that it inculcates when he designed to do us good he took upon himself the form of a servant he took a station at the bottom of society he voluntarily identified himself with the poor and the despised the warning voices of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were raised in olden time against sin let us not forget what followed therefore thus saith the Lord ye have not harkened unto me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor behold I proclaim a liberty for you saith the Lord to the sword to the pestilence into the famine are we not virtually as a nation adopting the same empires language and are we not exposed to the same tremendous judgments shall we not in view of those things use every laudable means to awaken our beloved country from the slumbers of death and baptize all our efforts with tears and with prayers that God may bless them then should our labor fail to accomplish the end for which we pray we shall stand acquitted at the bar of Jehovah and although we may share the national calamities which await unrepented sins yet that blessed approval will be ours well done good and faithful servants enter ye into the joy of your Lord my dear Georgiana said Mr. Peck I must be permitted to entertain my own views on this subject and to exercise my own judgment believe me dear Papa she replied I would not be understood as wishing to teach you or to dictate to you in the least but only grant my request not to allude to the Bible as sanctioning slavery when speaking with Mr. Carlton well returned he I will comply with your wish the young Christian had indeed accomplished a noble work and whether it was admitted by the father or not she was his superior and his teacher Georgiana had viewed the right to enjoy perfect liberty as one of those inherent and inalienable rights which pertain to the whole human race and of which they can never be divested except by an act of gross injustice and no one was more able than herself to impress those views upon the hearts of all with whom she came in contact modest and self-possessed with the voice of great sweetness and a most winning manner she could with the greatest ease to herself engage their attention End of Chapter 10