American and Scottish Prejudice Against the Slave: An Address Delivered in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 1, 1846
AMERICAN AND SCOTTISH PREJUDICE AGAINST THE SLAVE: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, ON 1 MAY 1846
Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury, 7 May 1846. Other texts in Edinburgh Advertiser, 5 May 1846; Edinburgh Evening Post, 6 May 1846; Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 6 May 1846; Glasgow Argus, 7 May 1846; Edinburgh Scottish Herald, 9 May 1846.
By early May 1846 the abolitionists' "Send Back the Money" campaign was at its height. "[W]e have had a set of glorious meetings here against
the Free Church," wrote Mary Welsh to Maria Weston Chapman on 17 May 1846, "and we are to have more of them this week. George Thompson, Frederick Douglass . . . have done wonders in opening the eyes of the public to this enormous iniquity, never was there such excitement created as at present." The fourth of these meetings was held on 1 May 1846 at the Music Hall in Edinburgh, where some 2000 people purchased tickets sold at sixpence each to hear George Thompson, Frederick Douglass, Henry C. Wright, and James Buffum explain their opposition to Free Church policy. Although Free Church leader William Cunningham had earlier declined to debate Thompson in public, Free Church clergymen and their advocates were the focus of Thompson's address. Moved by the enthusiastic cheers which had greeted the evening's speeches, Thompson expressed confidence that the "force of public opinion" which had "subdue[d] to its mighty power the influential party called the West India interest . . . and even the landed aristocracy of England . . . need not despair of its influence being felt by Drs. Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish." Mary Welsh to Maria Weston Chapman, 17 May 1846, in Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, 261; Quarles, FD, 43–44.
Mr. Douglas[s] was received with much applause. He said, that one of the greatest drawbacks to the progress of the Anti-Slavery cause in the United States was the inveterate prejudices which existed against the coloured population. They were looked on in every place as beasts rather than men; and to be connected in any manner with a slave—or even with a coloured freeman—was considered as humbling and degrading.
Amongst all ranks of society in that country, the poor outcast coloured man was not regarded as possessing a moral or intellectual sensibility, and all considered themselves entitled to insult and outrage his feelings with impunity. Thanks to the labours of the abolitionists, however, that feeling was now broken in upon, and was, to a certain extent, giving way; but the distinction was still so broad as to draw a visible line of demarcation between the two classes. If the coloured man went to the church to worship God, he must occupy a certain place assigned for him; as if the coloured skin was designed to be the mark of an inferior mind, and subject its possessor to the contumely, insult, and disdain of many a white man, with a heart as black as the exterior of the despised negro—(cheers).
Mr. Douglas[s] then alluded to the case of Maddison Washington, an American slave, who with some others escaped from bondage, but
was retaken, and put on board the brig Creole. They had not been more than seven or eight days at sea when Maddison resolved to make another effort to regain his lost freedom. He communicated to some of his fellow-captives his plan of operations; and in the night following carried them into effect. He got on deck, and seizing a handspike, struck down the captain and mate, secured the crew, and cheered on his associates in the cause of liberty; and in ten minutes was master of the ship—(cheers). The vessel was then taken to a British port (New Providence), and when there the crew applied to the British resident for aid against the mutineers. The Government refused—(cheers)—they refused to take all the men as prisoners; but they gave them this aid—they kept 19 as prisoners, on the ground of mutiny, and gave the remaining 130 their liberty—(loud cheers). They were free men the moment they put their foot on British soil, and their freedom was acknowledged by the judicature of the land—(cheers).
But this was not relished by brother Jonathan—he considered it as a grievous outrage—a national insult; and instructed Mr. Webster, who was then Secretary of State, to demand compensation from the British Government for the injury done; and characterised the noble Maddison Washington as being a murderer, a tyrant, and a mutineer. And all this for the punishment of an act, which, according to all the doctrines "professed" by Americans, ought to have been honoured and rewarded—(cheers). It was considered no crime for America, as a nation, to rise up and assert her freedom in the fields of fight; but when the poor African made a stroke for his liberty it was declared to be a crime, and he [was] punished as a villain—what was an outrage on the part of the black man was an honour and a glory to the white; and in the Senate of that country—"the home of the brave and the land of the free"—there were not wanting the Clays, the Prestons, and the Calhouns, to stand up and declare that it was a national insult to set the slaves at liberty, and demand reparation 1Henry Clay, William Campbell Preston (1794–1860), and John C. Calhoun. Preston represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate between 1833 and 1842. During the Creole controversy Preston was a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and on 11 January 1842 he supported Calhoun's request for information on the President's handling of the Creole affair. Congressional Globe, 27th Cong., 2d sess., 47, 115–16, 204; DAB, 15 : 207–08.—these men who were at all times ready to weep tears of red hot iron—(cheers and laughter)—for the oppressed Monarchical nations of Europe—now talked about being ready to go to all lengths in defence of the national honour and present an unbroken front
to England's might—(loud cheers). But the British Government, undismayed by the vapouring of the slaveholders, sent Lord Ashburton to tell them—just in a civil way—(laughter)—that they should have no compensation, and that the slaves should not be returned to them—(loud cheers)—thus giving practical effect to the great command—"Break the bonds, and let the oppressed go free"—(great cheering).
He remembered himself, while travelling through the United States, happening to be the unknown companion of some gentlemen inside of a coach. It was dark when he entered, and they had no opportunity of examining into his features; and during the night a spirited conversation was kept up—so much so, that he absolutely for once began to think he was considered a man, and had a soul to be saved—(cheers). But morning came, and with it light—(laughter)—which enabled his companions to ascertain the colour of his skin, and there was an end to all their conversation. One of them stooped down, and looking under his hat, exclaimed to his neighbour, "I say, Jem, he's a nigger! kick him out"—(cheers and laughter). That was a specimen of the manner in which the outcast coloured man was treated in the land of freedom and of liberty—(cheers).
Well, to the land where these things were practised, and practised openly, a deputation from the Free Church of Scotland came, commissioned to go forth and lift up their voices, and ask aid in defence of religious liberty—the liberty of conscience. They visited the slave states, where they saw God's image abused, defaced, flogged, driven as a brute beast, and suffered to pass from time to eternity without even an intimation that they had a soul to be saved—they saw this, and lifted not their testimony against it—(cheers, and cries of "shame, shame")—no comforting hand was held out to the crushed and broken spirit of the slave—(cheers)—but they cringingly preached only such doctrines as they knew would be acceptable to the slaveholder and the man stealer—(Loud cheers).
He would rather suffer to exhibit on his hands the burning brand of "S. S." (slave stealer) which some of his abolition brethren could do,2Douglass refers to Jonathan Walker. and suffer the persecutions and dangers to which they had been subjected, than bear on his head the sin which lay at the door of that deputation—the moral responsibility which their acts involved, and the respectability which their implied sanction gave to the traffickers in
humanblood—(immense cheering—three distinct rounds of applause). The feeling of prejudice, however, against the slave was not altogether confined to the United States—(hear, hear, from Dr. Ritchie)3The Reverend John Ritchie.—there were men in this country, too, ministers of the Gospel of Christ, who could point the finger of scorn at the "fugitive slave." There was the Rev. Mr. M'Naughton4The Reverend John MacNaughtan. of Paisley—supported by such papers as the Northern Warder and the Witness—who did not hesitate to brand him (Mr. Douglas[s]) when he visited Paisley as a poor, ignorant, miserable fugitive slave—(loud cries of shame, shame) —and what more did he say? Did he say that he would "send back the money?"—(Loud cheers and laughter.) No, no, that would have been humbling to him, and insulting to the gentlemen of the United States, for whom, he said, he had the highest regard. Oh yes, he had given so much "regard" to the purse-proud slaveholder that he had none left to bestow on the poor degraded slave—(loud cheers).
Now he (Mr. Douglas[s]) did not expect such things as these when he came to this country—he did not expect to hear them from a minister of the gospel, but least of all did he expect to hear them from the Rev. Mr. M'Naughton—(hear, hear)—a minister of the Free Church—a man who had loaded his altar with the gold which, produced by the labour of the "fugitive slave," should have been employed in his education, and yet turns round and calls him ignorant—(loud cheers)—who built his churches with the earnings of the slave—wrung from him amidst tears of blood and sounds of woe—and yet slanders him now as a miserable fugitive—(immense cheering). He (Mr. D.) would not say that to a dog, after having taken his earnings—after having robbed him; yes, it was a hard word, but it was nothing else than robbery, he cared not who took it—(cheers).
But when was the money to be sent back? He would tell them; when the people in this country, out of the pale of the Free Church, came to the conclusions he had just shown them—when the full tide of popular indignation—and it was fast flowing just now—(cheers)—will not be withstood by that Church, and when her members become fully alive to the odium and disgrace they are incurring for the sake of clutching the stained hand of the man-stealer—then shall the money be sent back—(loud cheers). The present moment was just the very time to consider this question of Free Church contamination. They must not lay all the
charge, however, on the United States—the Free Church, as a body, has given a respectability to slavery in America which it never before enjoyed—(hear)—and henceforth they must bear their share of the responsibility attaching to it—the responsibility of the tears and the agony of the slave; and the crime—the deep, black, damning crime—of the blood-polluted man stealer—(cheering, and some hisses). They might rail against the "system;" but so long as they sanctioned the results of that system, they helped to prop up the fabric itself—(cheers).
He would go to the next meeting of the Free Assembly, and he believed they would not turn a deaf ear to his complaints. As they had listened to the slave-holder, surely they would not refuse to hear the slave—the "fugitive slave"—(loud cheers). As they had received the money of the slaves, surely they would permit him to show cause why they should return it. But whether he should be heard or not, he would be there—(cheers)—and he would take his place in a seat where there would be no danger of his being overlooked or mistaken—for once seen, there was no danger of again mistaking him—(laughter)—and if he was not heard within the walls, he would take care that he would be heard without them 5Douglass and George Thompson did attend the 1846 session of the Free Church General Assembly at Canonmills, Edinburgh, and were present on 30 May when the slavery issue was debated. Douglass, Bondage and Freedom, 383–85; Rice, "Scottish Factor," 324, 327.—(cheers).
There was one thing, he did not abuse the Free Church for taking this money because she was the Free Church. Had it been the Relief, the Secession, or the Reformed Presbyterian, or even the Established Church itself, he would have pursued towards it the same uncompromising hostility he now showed to the Free—(cheers).
But even now he began to see something of a right spirit developing itself. Dr. Candlish had moved, at a late preliminary meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, that no slaveholder should be admitted as a member—(cheers). Why, was it come to this now, that the Evangelical Alliance was to be a purer body than the Free Church of Scotland? Why should the slave-holding, slave-selling minister be allowed to hold "Christian fellowship" with the Free Church, and not with the Evangelical Alliance—holding him as a brother in Edinburgh, and despising him as a man in Manchester—(loud cheers). That was a question which the voice of popular opinion would answer if Dr. Candlish would not. He trusted that when the Assembly met, the same rev. doctor would make a similar motion there—repudiate the connection so disgracefully
entered into—and SEND BACK THE MONEY—(loud and prolonged cheering).