My Bondage and My Freedom
evil. At present, the slaveholders blind them to this competition, by
keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves, _as men_—not against
them _as slaves_. They appeal to their pride, often denouncing
emancipation, as tending to place the white man, on an equality with
Negroes, and, by this means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of
the poor whites from the real fact, that, by the rich slave-master,
they are already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the
slave. The impression is cunningly made, that slavery is the only power
that can prevent the laboring white man from falling to the level of
the slave’s poverty and degradation. To make this enmity deep and
broad, between the slave and the poor white man, the latter is allowed
to abuse and whip the former, without hinderance. But—as I have
suggested—this state of facts prevails _mostly_ in the country. In the
city of Baltimore, there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the
slaves to be mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to
dispense with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with
characteristic dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, white
mechanics in Mr. Gardiner’s ship-yard—instead of applying the natural,
honest remedy for the apprehended evil, and objecting at once to work
there by the side of slaves—made a cowardly attack upon the free
colored mechanics, saying _they_ were eating the bread which should be
eaten by American freemen, and swearing that they would not work with
them. The feeling was, _really_, against having their labor brought
into competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was too
much to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; and,
therefore proving their servility and cowardice they dealt their blows
on the poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent _him_ from serving
himself, in the evening of life, with the trade with which he had
served his master, during the more vigorous portion of his days. Had
they succeeded in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, they
would have determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The
feeling was very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about
this time (1836), and they—free and slave suffered all manner of insult
and wrong.
Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship
carpenters worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr.
Duncan, Mr. Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any
impropriety in it. To outward seeming, all hands were well satisfied.
Some of the blacks were first rate workmen, and were given jobs
requiring highest skill. All at once, however, the white carpenters
knocked off, and swore that they would no longer work on the same stage
with free Negroes. Taking advantage of the heavy contract resting upon
Mr. Gardiner, to have the war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in
July, and of the difficulty of getting other hands at that season of
the year, they swore they would not strike another blow for him, unless
he would discharge his free colored workmen.
Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it did
reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and
bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I suffered with the
rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began to
feel it to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high
looks, and to talk contemptuously and maliciously of _“the Niggers;”_
saying, that “they would take the country,” that “they ought to be
killed.” Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a
slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these
young men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They
seldom called me to do any thing, without coupling the call with a
curse, and Edward North, the biggest in every thing, rascality
included, ventured to strike me, whereupon I picked him up, and threw
him into the dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I struck back again,
regardless of consequences. I could manage any of them _singly_, and,
while I could keep them from combining, I succeeded very well. In the
conflict which ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner’s, I was beset by four of
them at once—Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom Humphreys. Two
of them were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, in
broad day light. The attack was made suddenly, and simultaneously. One
came in front, armed with a brick; there was one at each side, and one
behind, and they closed up around me. I was struck on all sides; and,
while I was attending to those in front, I received a blow on my head,
from behind, dealt with a heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by
the blow, and fell, heavily, on the ground, among the timbers. Taking
advantage of my fall, they rushed upon me, and began to pound me with
their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, after I came to myself,
with a view of gaining strength. They did me little damage, so far;
but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave a sudden surge, and,
despite their weight, I rose to my hands and knees. Just as I did this,
one of their number (I know not which) planted a blow with his boot in
my left eye, which, for a time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When
they saw my eye completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I
staggering under the stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As
soon as I gathered sufficient strength, I picked up the hand-spike,
and, madly enough, attempted to pursue them; but here the carpenters
interfered, and compelled me to give up my frenzied pursuit. It was
impossible to stand against so many.
Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is true, and,
therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white men stood by,
and saw this brutal and shameless outrage committed, and not a man of
them all interposed a single word of mercy. There were four against
one, and that one’s face was beaten and battered most horribly, and no
one said, “that is enough;” but some cried out, “Kill him—kill him—kill
the d—d nigger! knock his brains out—he struck a white person.” I
mention this inhuman outcry, to show the character of the men, and the
spirit of the times, at Gardiner’s ship yard, and, indeed, in Baltimore
generally, in 1836. As I look back to this period, I am almost amazed
that I was not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous was
the spirit which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, I came
near losing my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, through the
keelson, with Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. Hays cursed me, and
said that it was my blow which bent the bolt. I denied this, and
charged it upon him. In a fit of rage he seized an adze, and darted
toward me. I met him with a maul, and parried his blow, or I should
have then lost my life. A son of old Tom Lanman (the latter’s double
murder I have elsewhere charged upon him), in the spirit of his
miserable father, made an assault upon me, but the blow with his maul
missed me. After the united assault of North, Stewart, Hays and
Humphreys, finding that the carpenters were as bitter toward me as the
apprentices, and that the latter were probably set on by the former, I
found my only chances for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting
away, without an additional blow. To strike a white man, was death, by
Lynch law, in Gardiner’s ship yard; nor was there much of any other law
toward colored people, at that time, in any other part of Maryland. The
whole sentiment of Baltimore was murderous.
After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, and
related the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it is due to
him to say, that his conduct—though he was not a religious man—was
every way more humane than that of his brother, Thomas, when I went to
the latter in a somewhat similar plight, from the hands of _“Brother
Edward Covey.”_ He listened attentively to my narration of the
circumstances leading to the ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs of
his strong indignation at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but
manly-hearted fellow, and, at this time, his best nature showed itself.
The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again
melted in pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and
blood-covered face, moved the dear lady to tears. She kindly drew a
chair by me, and with friendly, consoling words, she took water, and
washed the blood from my face. No mother’s hand could have been more
tender than hers. She bound up my head, and covered my wounded eye with
a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation for the
murderous assault, and my suffering, that it furnished and occasion for
the manifestation, once more, of the orignally(sic) characteristic
kindness of my mistress. Her affectionate heart was not yet dead,
though much hardened by time and by circumstances.
As for Master Hugh’s part, as I have said, he was furious about it; and
he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of speech in that
locality. He poured curses on the heads of the whole ship yard company,
and swore that he would have satisfaction for the outrage. His
indignation was really strong and healthy; but, unfortunately, it
resulted from the thought that his rights of property, in my person,
had not been respected, more than from any sense of the outrage
committed on me _as a man_. I inferred as much as this, from the fact
that he could, himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so.
Bent on having satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a little
the better of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire Watson’s
office, on Bond street, Fell’s Point, with a view to procuring the
arrest of those who had assaulted me. He related the outrage to the
magistrate, as I had related it to him, and seemed to expect that a
warrant would, at once, be issued for the arrest of the lawless
ruffians.
Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, he
inquired.—
“Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?”
“It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands.”
“Sir,” said Watson, “I am sorry, but I cannot move in this matter
except upon the oath of white witnesses.”
“But here’s the boy; look at his head and face,” said the excited
Master Hugh; _“they_ show _what_ has been done.”
But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, unless
_white_ witnesses of the transaction would come forward, and testify to
what had taken place. He could issue no warrant on my word, against
white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a _thousand
blacks_, their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to
arrest a single murderer. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to say,
that this state of things was _too bad;_ and he left the office of the
magistrate, disgusted.
Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify against my
assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the actors were but
the agents of their malice, and only what the carpenters sanctioned.
They had cried, with one accord, _“Kill the nigger!” “Kill the
nigger!”_ Even those who may have pitied me, if any such were among
them, lacked the moral courage to come and volunteer their evidence.
The slightest manifestation of sympathy or justice toward a person of
color, was denounced as abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist,
subjected its bearer to frightful liabilities. “D—n _abolitionists,”_
and _“Kill the niggers,”_ were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed
ruffians of those days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not
have been any thing done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws and