My Bondage and My Freedom
an occasion for making the people of Scotland thoroughly acquainted
with the character of slavery, and for arraying against the system the
moral and religious sentiment of that country. Therefore, while we did
not succeed in accomplishing the specific object of our mission,
namely—procure the sending back of the money—we were amply justified by
the good which really did result from our labors.
Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form a
union of all evangelical Christians throughout the world. Sixty or
seventy American divines attended, and some of them went there merely
to weave a world-wide garment with which to clothe evangelical
slaveholders. Foremost among these divines, was the Rev. Samuel Hanson
Cox, moderator of the New School Presbyterian General Assembly. He and
his friends spared no pains to secure a platform broad enough to hold
American slaveholders, and in this partly succeeded. But the question
of slavery is too large a question to be finally disposed of, even by
the Evangelical Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the
Alliance, to the judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the
happiest effect. This controversy with the Alliance might be made the
subject of extended remark, but I must forbear, except to say, that
this effort to shield the Christian character of slaveholders greatly
served to open a way to the British ear for anti-slavery discussion,
and that it was well improved.
The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before the
British public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors of
divinity to silence me on the platform of the World’s Temperance
Convention. Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. Dr.
Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the
convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New
York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to the doctor as
well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful hearing
before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers
of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong.
Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove
to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both
countries was compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the
very ill usage I received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the
mob on board the “Cambria,” by the attacks made upon me in the American
newspapers, and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of
the Free Church of Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who,
for the moment, at least, “have greatness forced upon them.” People
became the more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for
themselves, of the truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is
by no means easy for a stranger to get fairly before the British
public, it was my lot to accomplish it in the easiest manner possible.
Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and
being about to return to America—not as I left it, a slave, but a
freeman—leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country
intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds
of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were
so ardently devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I do
not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should
simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing
materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of
my enslaved and oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest
hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people of the
United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that country, placed
upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his assumed natural
inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and
oppression, as things inevitable, if not desirable. The grand thing to
be done, therefore, was to change the estimation in which the colored
people of the United States were held; to remove the prejudice which
depreciated and depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher
consideration; to disprove their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate
their capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and
prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, that, in my judgment,
a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of persons of the
despised race, by calling out the mental energies of the race itself;
by making them acquainted with their own latent powers; by enkindling
among them the hope that for them there is a future; by developing
their moral power; by combining and reflecting their talents—would
prove a most powerful means of removing prejudice, and of awakening an
interest in them. I further informed them—and at that time the
statement was true—that there was not, in the United States, a single
newspaper regularly published by the colored people; that many attempts
had been made to establish such papers; but that, up to that time, they
had all failed. These views I laid before my friends. The result was,
nearly two thousand five hundred dollars were speedily raised toward
starting my paper. For this prompt and generous assistance, rendered
upon my bare suggestion, without any personal efforts on my part, I
shall never cease to feel deeply grateful; and the thought of
fulfilling the noble expectations of the dear friends who gave me this
evidence of their confidence, will never cease to be a motive for
persevering exertion.
Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, in the
spring of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with something which
painfully reminded me of the kind of life which awaited me in my native
land. For the first time in the many months spent abroad, I was met
with proscription on account of my color. A few weeks before departing
from England, while in London, I was careful to purchase a ticket, and
secure a berth for returning home, in the “Cambria”—the steamer in
which I left the United States—paying therefor the round sum of forty
pounds and nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But
on going aboard the Cambria, I found that the Liverpool agent had
ordered my berth to be given to another, and had forbidden my entering
the saloon! This contemptible conduct met with stern rebuke from the
British press. For, upon the point of leaving England, I took occasion
to expose the disgusting tyranny, in the columns of the London _Times_.
That journal, and other leading journals throughout the United Kingdom,
held up the outrage to unmitigated condemnation. So good an opportunity
for calling out a full expression of British sentiment on the subject,
had not before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result
was, that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals,
assuring them of his regret at the outrage, and promising that the like
should never occur again on board his steamers; and the like, we
believe, has never since occurred on board the steamships of the Cunard
line.
It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; but if
all such necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be very happy
to bear, patiently, many more than I have borne, of the same sort.
Albeit, the lash of proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social
position, even for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly
less severe than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from
the back of the plantation slave. It was rather hard, after having
enjoyed nearly two years of equal social privileges in England, often
dining with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, and
religious eminence never, during the whole time, having met with a
single word, look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest reason to
think my color was an offense to anybody—now to be cooped up in the
stern of the “Cambria,” and denied the right to enter the saloon, lest
my dark presence should be deemed an offense to some of my democratic
fellow-passengers. The reader will easily imagine what must have been
my feelings.
CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_
NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE—UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION—THE OBJECTIONS TO IT—THEIR
PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED—MOTIVES FOR COMING TO ROCHESTER—DISCIPLE OF MR.
GARRISON—CHANGE OF OPINION—CAUSES LEADING TO IT—THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE
CHANGE—PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR—AMUSING CONDESCENSION—“JIM CROW
CARS”—COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN—TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO
STOP AT LYNN—AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE—SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND
MAN—PREJUDICE UNNATURAL—ILLUSTRATIONS—IN HIGH COMPANY—ELEVATION OF THE
FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR—PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE.
I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years’
experience in freedom—three years as a common laborer on the wharves of
New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of
semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains
to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will
be done.
A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for
which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future
usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in
England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a press
and printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as
well as my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and
building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and
oppression to the grave, and restore to “liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” the people with whom I had suffered, both as a slave and as
a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what I
intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them
favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was
mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my
starting a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not
needed; secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer;
thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the
paper could not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter so highly
esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to look for advice and
direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon
the enterprise. All previous attempts to establish such a journal
having failed, I felt that probably I should but add another to the
list of failures, and thus contribute another proof of the mental and
moral deficiencies of my race. Very much that was said to me in respect
to my imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully
true. The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored
newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they failed,
how could I hope for success? Yet I did hope for success, and persisted
in the undertaking. Some of my English friends greatly encouraged me to
go forward, and I shall never cease to be grateful for their words of
cheer and generous deeds.
I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and
presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I was but
nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, I was but nine
years old. That one, in such circumstances, should aspire to establish
a printing press, among an educated people, might well be considered,
if not ambitious, quite silly. My American friends looked at me with
astonishment! “A wood-sawyer” offering himself to the public as an
editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming
to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles