Pioneers in a Holy Cause: An Address Delivered in Canandaigua, New York, on August 2, 1847
PIONEERS IN A HOLY CAUSE: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN
CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK, ON 2 AUGUST 1847
National Anti-Slavery Standard, 19 August 1847. Another text in Foner, Life and Writings,
5: 54-64, misdated 1 August 1847.
In late July 1847 Douglass joined Samuel Ringgold Ward, Charles Lenox
Remond, and Charles Van Loon, a white clergyman from Poughkeepsie, for a
lecture tour through western New York, with stops in Port Byron and Sen-
eca Falls. At Canandaigua they took part in the celebration commemorat-
ing the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, which, because the actual
anniversary fell on a Sunday, was held on Monday, 2 August. At 10:00 A.M.
crowds began drifting onto the grounds adjoining the village academy, where
a temporary lecture platform had been erected. Approximately four thousand
persons attended, one-third of them black. Van Loon wrote that “for six hours
they sat in the shade of the Academy Grove, listening not merely with pa-
tience, but delight, to the ‘breathing thoughts and burning words’ ” of the
speakers. Samuel Ward opened the meeting with a prayer. A local band and
choir performed, and Henry Johnson of Canandaigua read the Act of Emanci-
pation. Douglass delivered the first speech of the day. Austin Steward said it
was delivered “in a style of eloquence which only Mr. Douglass himself can
equal.” The Standard noted that Douglass was an “orator of much power,
and stands forth a fearless, . . . and eloquent champion of his oppressed coun-
trymen.” Ward, Remond, and Henry Highland Garnet spoke later in the
afternoon. After the speeches, the remainder of the day was devoted to "feast-
ing and hilarity,” beginning with a parade to the Canandaigua Hotel and
ending with a ball at the Franklin House. A banquet, a ladies’ fair, and more
music were sandwiched in between. “It was indeed, a glorious day for the
coloured people generally,” said Austin Steward. “It was a good time, and an
earnest of the better time coming, ” echoed Charles Van Loon. NASS, 12, 19,
26 August 1847; Austin Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years
a Freeman (Rochester, 1857), 311-15.
We have assembled here to-day to celebrate the anniversary of West India
Emancipation; an event which may be justly regarded the greatest and
grandest of the nineteenth century. We meet here in the fulness of grateful
sincerity, joyfully to commemorate that glad day, the bright sun of whose
morning beamed light and Liberty upon the Western Isles. We are to direct
our attention with joyous admiration to a splendid achievement, a glorious
triumph of justice, love, and mercy, over avarice, pride, and cruelty. In a
word, we meet here on this occasion to revive the fire of Freedom, to
rekindle its holy flame upon the altar of our hearts, and to renew the
impression made nine years ago upon the tablets of our memory by that
magnanimous act of British legislation, descending like a voice from the
celestial throne of God, scattering the infernal altars of Slavery, proclaim-
ing deliverance from thraldom to eight hundred thousand of our fellow-
men.
In view of the majestic grandeur and moral sublimity of the subject I
might well pause, and apologize for consenting to occupy the prominent
position which the Committee of Arrangements have, in their kindness,
seen fit to assign me. It is without the slightest affectation of humility that I
confess the theme worthy of more eloquent lips, and of a more comprehen-
sive mind. I would prefer to be the last, rather than the first on this platform.
I have, however, one consolation in my present somewhat unaccustomed
position, and that is, I am to be followed by gentlemen, distinguished alike
for philanthropy and ability, who, I am sure, will make good any defects
which may appear in my humble address.
Friends, and countrymen! I rejoice to meet you here. I am proud to
assemble with you. The vastness of your numbers is delightful to my heart;
your holy enthusiasm carries gladness through my soul; your presence here
is a mighty argument—a powerful demonstration, which must act advan-
tageously wherever known and heard of. The sentiment that leads us to
celebrate noble deeds, to mark and commemorate great events in the
world’s progress, is natural and universal. The existence of this sentiment,
like that of religion, is a grand proof of the superiority of mankind over the
brute creation. This sentiment is as useful as it is universal. It is the power
which makes the present generation the proprietors of the wisdom and
experience of by gone ages. It makes the good of the past, the property of
the present. It seems to keep alive that sense of gratitude to God, essential
to the faith, without which it is impossible to succeed against present ills. It
is the golden chain extending from earth to heaven, and to it we may
summon the millions in eternity to aid us in pulling down the giant crimes
of our age.
In coming together this day, to celebrate this glorious anniversary, we
but act out one of the noblest sentiments of human nature, and vindicate our
just claim to an equal place in the ranks of human brotherhood.
It is just possible, however, that some may doubt the propriety of the
people of one nation celebrating the deeds of another. On this point I have
no scruples. Neither geographical boundaries, nor national restrictions,
ought, or shall prevent me from rejoicing over the triumphs of freedom, no
matter where or by whom achieved. We are not only Americans, but
men—coloured men. Many of us have borne the yoke of bondage. We have
dragged its heavy chains; the chambers of our souls have been made dark
with its infernal gloom; our spirit has been crushed beneath its ponderous
weight; our lacerated hearts have swollen with bitter anguish, while we
sighed for the inestimable boon of liberty; and having now, by the blessing
of God, escaped the galling chain, and being in the enjoyment of personal
liberty , we should be unworthy of the name of men, and our own freedom,
if we did not remember, with gratitude and rejoicing, the day of deliverance
to so many of our long-abused race.
On this question, we are strangers to nationality. Our platform is as
broad as humanity. We repudiate, with unutterable loathing and disgust,
that narrow spirit which would confine our duties to one quarter of the
globe, to the exclusion of another, that can see nothing good or great in any
land but our own, and which makes
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed,
Make enemies of nations—who had else
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.1William Cowper, The Time-Piece, lines 16—19, in J. C. Bailey, ed., The Poems of William Cowper (London, 1905), 267.
In celebrating this day, we place ourselves beneath the broad aegis of
human brotherhood, and adopt the motto of our illustrious pioneer, “Our
country is the world, and all mankind are our countrymen,"2Douglass misquotes the motto that appeared on the masthead of Garrison‘s Liberator, beginning with the first issue of 1 January 1831: “Our Country is the World—Our Countrymen are all Mankind." This slogan, later adopted by the New England Non-Resistance Society, had also appeared with minor variations in the prospectus that Garrison issued for his proposed paper in August 1830. Garrison apparently first read works by Thomas Paine in 1845 but did not then realize that Paine had similarly proclaimed in the fifth chapter of The Rights of Man: “[M]y country is the world, and my religion is to do good." [Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison], William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told By His Children, 4 vols. (1885; New York, 1969), 1: 202, 219, 3: 145 (hereafter cited as Garrison Life); Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3: 268n. and maintain
the right and propriety of commemorating the victories of liberty over
tyranny throughout the world. And, Sir, where is the man, of high or low
standing, white or black, who would lift his arm, or raise his voice, to
remove us from this place, or to silence our joyous exultations? It is true
that but a few years ago, our brethren in Philadelphia undertook to do just
what we are now doing. They undertook to celebrate the anniversary of
West India Emancipation. They formed their procession with the utmost
order and decorum. They neither assaulted nor insulted any man. Their
banners were raised in honour of Liberty; and in order to avoid offence to
their white brethren, as well as a desire to advance the cause of righteous-
ness, they inscribed Temperance as well as Freedom on their banners. But,
Sir, with all these virtuous precautions, they did not avoid giving offence;
nor did they escape brutal chastisement. They had not passed through two
streets of that city before they were cruelly assaulted by the populace. The
ranks of their procession were broken up, their banners torn into fragments,
and many of themselves were trampled in the dust, and left horribly bruised
and mangled in the streets. Mob violence, stimulated by the cheers of a
profligate press, and an inefficient police, reigned supreme in that city.
They marched in the very presence of the city Government, and with the
ferocity of wild—beasts, rushed into the houses of coloured people, sparing
neither men, women, nor children, but dealing heavy blows with sticks,
stones, and clubs, upon the defenceless heads of their victims. From the
private dwellings, they passed to the coloured churches. They burned the
coloured Presbyterian Church—threatened the Methodist, and destroyed
their Temperance Hall; and all this, fellow-countrymen, for doing just what
we are now doing. I mention this in sorrow rather than anger, and I thank
God, we are not subjected to such outrages here to-day; and it is peculiarly
gratifying to see so many of our white fellow-countrymen present to par-
ticipate with us in these joyous proceedings. We are worshipping at the
same shrine, with the same heart and spirit, and I trust, we shall be mutually
refreshed and blessed in the deed.
Sir, rightly to comprehend the grandeur of West India Emancipation,
we must do more than fix our attention upon the simple act of manumis-
sion. To know the value of a result, we must know something of the labour
and toil of bringing it about. Properly to appreciate the value of deliver-
ance, we must adequately comprehend the greatness of the evil or enormity
from which deliverance has been wrought out. The importance of this
glorious event must be determined, by considering its connection with the
past, its bearing on the present, and its influence on the future.
I shall not be able to enter fully or partially into all the branches of this
great subject, but will confine myself to one or more, and leave the field to
other and abler hands.
From the earliest periods of man’s history, we are able to trace manifes-
tations of that spirit of selfishness, which leads one man to prey upon the
rights and interests of his fellow-man. Love of ease, love of power, a strong
desire to control the will of others, lay deep-seated in the human heart.
These elements of character, over-riding all the better promptings of
human nature, [have] cursed the world with Slavery and kindred crimes.
Weakness has ever been the prey of power, and ignorance of intelligence.
Joseph was sold into Egyptian bondage by his own brethren, at a time when
he ought to have been most dear unto them.3Gen. 37: 18-36. The famine-stricken Israelites
were reduced to bondage, when their sufferings ought to have aroused the
most benevolent energies of the human heart. The Helots4One of several categories of slaves in ancient Sparta. were consigned
to serfdom or Slavery, while yet smarting under wounds received in battle
for their country. The proud Anglo-Saxon[s], overpowered in war, had
their property confiscated by their haughty Norman superiors, and [were] en-
slaved upon their own sacred soil. There are, at this moment, not fewer
than forty millions of white slaves in Russia, a number far exceeding the
present number of black slaves.
However much we may deplore the wickedness of such wholesale
Slavery, it is somewhat consoling, that all nations have had a share of it,
and that it cannot be said to be the peculiar condition of our race, any more
than others. “He that leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity,"5Rev. 13: 10. is a
truth confirmed by all history, and will remain immutably true.
Who were the fathers of our present haughty oppressors in this land?
They were, until within the last four centuries, the miserable slaves, the
degraded serfs, of Norman nobles. They were subjected to every species of
brutality which their fiendish oppressors could invent. They were regarded
as an inferior race,—unfit to be trusted with their own rights. They were not
even allowed to walk on the public highway, and travel from town without
a written permission from their owners. They could not hold any property
whatever, but were themselves property, bought and sold. They were not
permitted to give testimony in courts of law. They were punished for
crimes, which, if committed by their haughty masters, were not deemed
worthy of punishment at all. They were not allowed to marry without the
consent of their owners. They were subjected to the lash, and might even be
murdered with impunity by their cruel masters. But, Sir, I must not dwell
here, though a profitable comparison might be drawn between the condi-
tion of the coloured slaves of our land, and the ancient Anglo-Saxon slaves
of England.
I come at once to the history of the enslavement of that race, whose
deliverance from thraldom we have met to celebrate. The Slave-Trade by
which Slavery was introduced, and established in the British West Indies,
was commenced in the reign of Elizabeth, 1562. Spain and Italy had long
been engaged in the traffic, and England, no doubt tempted by their suc-
cess, was induced, reluctantly, to follow in their footsteps.6Early histories of the Atlantic slave trade designate Elizabethan mariner and privateer John Hawkins (1532-95) as the first Englishman to transport slaves from Africa to the New World. Hawkins made three slave-trading voyages (1562-63, 1564-65, 1567-69) to Spain's American colonies, but he by no means introduced the trade to the Caribbean islands. Spain, the sole colonizing power in the sixteenth century, had imported African slaves to Hispaniola as early as 1503, and by 1517 Spanish colonists held African slaves in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica as well. Not until the mid-seventeenth century, after the successful cultivation of sugar cane in Barbados and the acquisition of Jamaica by the British, did England assume a major role in the traffic in slaves. Thomas Clarkson, The History ofthe Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament, 2 vols. (London, 1808), 1: 40; Arthur P. Newton, The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493—1688 (1933; New York, 1967), 19, 61-79; James A. Williamson, Sir John Hawkins: The Time and the Man (London, 1927), 35, 78-116, 184-202. I say reluc-
tantly, because, from the first, the great Princess, Elizabeth, seems to have
entertained religious scruples concerning it, and to have revolted at the
thought of it. This is inferred from a conversation which the Queen had
with Sir John Hawkins, on his return from his first slave-trading voyage. At
this interview, she expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should be
carried off without their consent, declaring it would be detestable, and
would call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers!*Clarkson’s History of the Slave Trade—p. 54. This
pious outburst, though monstrous and absurd, as coming from one who had
just given her royal assent to this infernal traffic, was the natural result of
her wicked position, and is not without its parallel in our land.7Douglass bases his account of Hawkins's interview with Elizabeth I (1533—1603) on Clarkson, Abolition ofthe African Slave Trade, 1 :40, which in turn relies upon John Hill, The Naval History of Britain (London, 1756), 292. Modern scholars discount Elizabeth’s objection to Hawkins‘s slaving. Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade in America (Washington, 1930), l : 47n; James A. Williamson, Hawkins of Plymouth (London, 1949), 87—88. It was like
Pilate delivering the Lamb of Calvary to the iron-hearted murderers,
and—washing his hands of his blood.8Matt. 27: 24. Of course, the declarations of the
Queen were disregarded. It could not be otherwise. To make merchandise
of man, and treat him kindly, and respect his will, is morally impossible.
The expression of the Queen, if sincere, may be creditable to her humanity,
but it is a dark reflection on her sagacity. The will of a victim is never
respected. The lamb committed to the wolf may expect no quarter. The
injustice, cruelty, and barbarity of this inhuman traffic can never be told, or
conceived. They are known only to God. He alone can fully comprehend
them. We mortal, and finite beings, can only receive a partial view of them.
To assist in this, let us imagine, what must be far less than the whole truth.
Let us go to that little village on the West Coast of Africa. The inhabitants
are quiet, simple, peaceful, and happy. It is evening. Through the rents and
crevices of their fragile dwellings, a bright moon pours her soft and tranquil
rays. The day’s work is done, and the profound stillness is only relieved by
the melodious hum of tropical insects. How sweet the scene. The husband,
and wife, the parent and child, the sister and brother, and “friends of
kindred tie,” have met to while away the evening hour in simple talk, and
innocent song, and how sweet the moments glide. At the hour appointed,
the mother Clasps her innocent babe to her bosom, and with looks and
words of love and admonition, she retires. Soon all follow, and our hut and
village is still. The unsuspecting inhabitants are in the arms of “Nature’s
soft nurse,” “and lulled with sounds of sweetest melody."9Henry IV, Part II, act 3, sc. 1, lines 6, 14. Lineation for Shakespeare's plays follows that in the volumes in the Yale edition. They sleep on
the brink of destruction. Let us leave for a moment this happy village, and
go to the shore. A slave-ship is anchored off the Coast. On her deck, dim
lights are seen in motion. A boat is now lowered from the side, and softly
rowed ashore. Twelve armed men land. Their swords, guns, and cutlases,
reflect the moonlight. When ready for their infernal work, they move off
stealthily toward the doomed village. They are met by some wretch calling
himself a Prince, who, bribed by this wicked crew, becomes the treacher-
ous instrument of destruction to this abode of happiness, and the enslave-
ment of its unoffending people. A few moments, and the village is in
flames. The fear-smitten people start forth from the devouring fire, and in
the hour of surprise, and consternation, its people have become the prey of
the spoiler. Grim death, and desolation reigns, where before was life,
peace, and joy.
Let us follow those despoiled people a short distance on their voyage to
West Indian bondage. Chained and hand-cuffed, they are driven before
cutlases, and pistols, to the ship. Their path is marked with blood. Tom
from home, despoiled of their freedom, they go to drag out a miserable
existence in Colonial Slavery. What pain, what anguish, what agony of
soul, struggles beneath the hatchway of that pirate ship. They are stowed
away, with as little regard to health, as to decency. Breathing the putrid air
inseparable from being so closely packed, disease and death, soon reign in
their infernal dungeon. Many of them become food for the hungry shark,
who reddens the wake of a slave-ship with their blood. And by the time they
land at their point of destination, one-third of all taken on board, have been
thrown overboard during the voyage, and more horrible still, many have
been thrown overboard alive, lest they should spread the death-dealing
contagion among the rest. Those who reach the shore, are sick, emaciated,
and covered with sores. Landed on English soil, strangers to the English
tongue, their only language is that of the lash. Before the bloody lash, they
are driven to market, and under the cry of the auctioneer, they are sold, and
separated from each other. All is lost! They are, they know not where. Such
is but a faint picture of that trade, which is even now plied, and which
peopled with slaves the Western Isles, and made Liverpool, Glasgow, and
Bristol rich, on the blood, bones, and sinews of men. A view of this
God-defying trade, led the great Anti-Slavery poet of England, to cry out in
the agony of his mighty soul:
Is there not some chosen curse,
Hid in the stores of Heaven, red with uncommon wrath,
To blast the man, who gains his fortune
By the blood of souls.
In view of the cruel inhumanity of this trade, it is [a] matter of astonish-
ment that it was carried on for nearly two centuries, under the very eye of
the British Government, and under the very droppings of British pulpits,
without interruption, or opposition. For two hundred years did this trade go
on, despoiling Africa of her children, bearing them away into a worse than
Egyptian bondage, consigning them to the cruel lash, and hurrying them
into eternity, uninformed and unprepared. Yet scarce a voice was heard
against it during this long and dreary period. Silence prevailed. The
Slave-Trade, with its train of evils, increased. Every year added to its
strength, and augmented its influence, both upon the Government, and the
Church. The first merchants of England were engaged in it,——professors of
religion were engaged in it, and it became so interwoven with the interests
of various classes, as when attacked, to bring the powers of Church and
State to its defence. The minister of religion pleaded the Bible in its favour,
and the minister of the crown pleaded national prosperity in its behalf. Thus
bulwarked and protected, it became a giant in the land, threatening to cast
down at a blow, any who might venture to attack it. Giant, however,
though it was, and greatly to be dreaded, thank Heaven, there were found a
chosen few, who did not shrink from the attack. I should be most happy,
did my brief hour permit, to give you the names, and the history of those
who had the humanity and intrepidity to stand forth as pioneers in this holy
cause. But this I cannot do; I may only in reverence repeat their names, and
bestow a tear of gratitude upon each. They have gone from this stage of life
and activity, into the boundless realms of eternity. They rest from their
labour, and their good works do follow them. Yea, we are at this moment
reaping the rich reward of their labours.
Among the most distinguished of those who early struggled in this
glorious cause, history has handed down the names of Richard Baxter,10Richard Baxter (1615-91), English Presbyterian clergyman and author, whose Christian Directory denounced the slave trade as piracy. Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory; or, A Summ of Practical Theologie and Cases of Conscience ( London, 1673); Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1 :46—47; DNB, 1: 1349-57.
Addison,11Douglass possibly refers to Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English classical scholar and essayist. In 1711, in order to exemplify the “Savage Greatness of Soul," Addison related a “wild Tragedy " of slave lovers that had, he claimed, “passed about twelve Years ago at St. Christopher’s." Primitive nobility was corrupted, he argued, by “the Contempt with which we treat this Part of our Species.” James Ramsay, Anglican clergyman and early antislavery activist, popularized Addison's romance, along with other tales of African virtue, in his influential Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (London, 1784). Wylie Sypher, Guinea's Captive Kings: British Anti-Slavery Literature of the XVIIth Century (Chapel Hill, 1942), 73, 137-41; Spectator, no. 215, 6 November 1711, in Donald F. Bond, ed., The Spectator, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1965), 2: 338-41. Montesquieu,12Charles de Secondat, baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755), French political theorist, in whose Esprit des lois (Geneva, 1748) proslavery apologists as well as antislavery advocates found empirical justification of their views on slavery. F. T. H. Fletcher, "Montesquieu's Influence on Anti-Slavery Opinion in England." JNH, 18: 414—26 (October 1933); David Byron Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Ithaca, N.Y., 1966), 395; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 49; Biographie Universelle (Paris, 1811—62), 29: 501-22. Godwin,13Morgan Godwyn (fl. I685), Anglican clergyman, urged the Church of England to sponsor missionary work among the slaves in The Negro's and Indian's Advocate, Suing for their Admission into the Church (London, 1680). Godwyn, who spent some time in Virginia and Barbados, denounced the commercial spirit of slave traders and planters, even though he upheld the legality of slavery. Davis, Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, 204-06, 339—40; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 46. Steele,14Richard Steele (1672-—1729), English essayist, playwright, and political journalist. Clarkson and other abolitionists read a condemnation of the slave trade in "Arietta, " Steele's adaptation of the romance between Thomas Inkle, a young Englishman, and Yarico, his Indian lover. In 1706 Steele, who apparently never questioned the institution of slavery, inherited a Barbadian plantation and some two hundred slaves after his first wife died. Richard Steele, “Arietta,” Spectator, no. 2, 13 March 1711 , in Bond, Spectator, 1: 47-51; Calhoun Winton, Captain Steele: The Early Career of Richard Steele (Baltimore, 1964), 77; Rae Blanchard, “Richard Steele’s West Indian Plantation," Modern Philology, 39: 281-85 (1942); Davis, Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, 11-12; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 52; DNB, 18: 1017—24. Shenstone,15Abolitionists frequently reprinted portions of Elegy XX by William Shenstone (1714-—63), the English poet: “He compared his humble fortune with the distress of others; and his subjection to Delia with the miserable servitude of an African slave." William Shenstone, Works in Verse and Prose, 3 vols., 5th ed. (London, 1777), 1: 82—84; Granville Sharp, An Essay on Slavery, Proving from Scripture Its Inconsistency with Humanin and Religion(Burlington, Eng, 1773), 26-27; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 57—58; DNB, 18: 48-50. Sterne,16Laurence Sterne (1713-68), English satirist, whose characterization of a black servant in Tristram Shandy was favorably recalled by Clarkson. Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, ed. Ian Watt (Boston, 1965), xxxvii, 466; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 60—61.
Warburton,17William Warburton (1698-1779), bishop of Gloucester and author of theological treatises, questioned the right to hold property in “rational creatures. . . possessing all our qualities but that of colour, our brethren both by nature and grace" in a sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1766. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 61; S. Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, 3 vols. (Philadelphia. 1859—71), 3: 25, 69-73. Wesley,18Methodist leader John Wesley, whose moral condemnations of slavery and the slave trade Douglass frequently cites. Whitfield,19In 1740 the English revivalist George Whitefield (1714-70) denounced the physical abuses of slavery and urged evangelization and Christianization of slaves in a “Letter to the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina." However, Whitefield never condemned physical slavery to man as strongly as he attacked spiritual slavery to sin. In 1747 he purchased a plantation and slaves in South Carolina to support his financially troubled orphanage near Savannah, Georgia, and shortly thereafter urged trustees of the colony of Georgia to legalize slavery. Stephen J. Stein, “George Whitefield on Slavery: Some New Evidence," Church History, 42: 243—56 (June 1973); Frank J. Klingberg, The Anti-Slavery Movement in England: A Study in English Humanitarianism (1926; New York, 1968), 47-49; Simpson, Cyclopaedia of Methodism, 941-42; Davis, Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, 148; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 171. Dr. Hartley,20This is probably David Hartley (1732-—1813), M.P. from Hull who was remembered for his opposition to the Atlantic slave trade. It was Hartley's father, the philosopher David Hartley (1705-57), who practiced medicine, though he never took a medical degree. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 84-85; DNB, 9: 67, 68—69. Granville Sharpe, Dr.
Robertson,21William Robertson (1721-93), Scottish divine and historian, in The History of America, 2 vols. (London, 1777), found the slave trade “no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the principles of religion." Quoted in Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 88; Allibone, British and American Authors, 2: 1824-32. Abbe Raynal,22Guillaume Thomas Francois Raynal (1711-96), French historian whose widely translated Histoire philosophique et politique des etablissements et du commerce des Europeens dans les deux Indes,4 vols. (Paris, 1770), denounced slavery and the slave trade. In 1781 Raynal's history was burned by the public executioner at the order of Louis XVI. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 88—91; Biographie Universelle, 37: 168—83; ACAB, 5: 194—95. Thomas Day,23Thomas Day (1748-89) wrote the poem The Dying Negro (London, 1773) after a slave recaptured by his owner committed suicide on board a ship on the Thames. James Walvin, Black and White: The Negro and English Society, 1555 —1945 (London, 1973), 167; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 82-83, 97—98; Allibone, British and American Authors, 1: 486; ACAB, 2: 112-13. Bishop Portius24Beilby Porteus (1731-1808), bishop of London, tried to marshal opposition to the slave trade in the House of Lords. Although he urged the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to ameliorate the treatment of slaves on its estate in Barbados, he refused to condemn slavery, believing it to be sanctioned by Scripture. Beilby Porteus, A sermon preached before the incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. . . On February 21 , 1783 (London, 1783); David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770—1823 (Ithaca, NY. , 1975), 46, 417n; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 98, 126; DNB, 16: 195-97., Necker,25Jacques Necker (1732-1804), French economist and principal minister of state under Louis XVI, authored De l'administration des finances de la France, 3 vols. ([Paris], 1784), which urged that European powers jointly abolish the trade in slaves. Edward D. Seeber, Anti-Slavery Opinion in France during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, 1937), 156; Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 104-05; Biographie Universelle, 31: 9—22.
Thomson,26James Thomson (1700-48), Scottish poet, whose revised edition of his poem Seasons (1730; London, 1744) was popular among abolitionists. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 53; Allibone, British and American Authors, 3: 2399-402; DNB, 19: 726—34. Adam Smith,27Adam Smith (1723-90), Scottish political economist, condemned slavery as morally repugnant and economically backward in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759; London, 1774) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 2 vols. (London, 1776). Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 85-86; DNB, 18: 411-18. Gilbert Wakefield,28Gilbert Wakefield (1756-1801), English religious scholar who, while a curate in Liverpool in 1778, spoke out against the slave trade. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 99-100; DNB, 20: 452-55. and George Fox.29George Fox (1624-91), founder of the Society of Friends, recalled that, while preaching in Barbados in 1671, he had advised slaveowners to “cause their overseers to deal mildly and gently with their Negroes. . . and that after certain years of servitude they should make them free." Quoted in Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 110; ACAB, 2: 519; NCAB, 7: 10.
Brave men; let their names be remembered, and their memory
cherished. Let us thank God that such men were raised up. Let us hand
down their names to our children, and commend their conduct to their
imitation. These holy men laid the foundation upon which the noble Wil-
berforce, and the illustrious Clarkson 30William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. erected the temple of West Indian
freedom. What confidence in truth, what faith in God, what a self-
sacrificing spirit, must have animated the bosoms of those forerunners in
the cause of emancipation. They arrayed themselves against powers and
principalities. The nation was against them, a large part of the Church was
against them, the wealth of England was against them, practice and the
press was against them. So universal was Slavery in that land, it was
common to see advertisements in respectable London journals, for run-
away slaves. Slaveholders from “Jamaica,” hunted and apprehended their
slaves in London with as much impunity as American slaveholders do in
our own land, and this practice continued until the sainted Sharpe, in 1769,
obtained the decision in the famous Sommerset case, by which England
was redeemed from the disgrace of being slave-hunting ground.31To demonstrate that because chattel slavery violated natural law and the common law of England it could have no foundation in English statutory law, Granville Sharp published in 1769 his pamphlet A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery; Or of Admitting the least Claim of Private Property in the Persons of Men, in England. Douglass may well have confused the date of the publication of Sharp‘s pamphlet, an outgrowth of Sharp's effort to substantiate the right to freedom claimed by the slave Jonathan Strong, with the decision in 1772 of William Murray, Lord Mansfield, as Chief Justice of King's Bench, in the case of the slave James Somerset. Somerset had been brought to England by his owner Charles Stewart. a customs officer in Boston, in November 1769. Somerset escaped and Stewart, upon recapturing him, confined him on board a ship bound for Jamaica, where he was to be sold. Sometime after Mansfield ordered the ship captain to release Somerset pending further prosecution of the case, the slave appealed to Sharp for help. Though Sharp did not attend any of the hearings in the case, he advised Somerset closely. shared his legal research with Somerset's counsel, and raised money on the slave‘s behalf. As a result of Sharp's “almost incessant vigilance and attention," Thomas Clarkson judged, “the poor African ceased to be hunted in our streets as a beast of prey." Mansfield's decision prohibited slaveowners from deporting slaves by use of force and affirmed that habeas corpus was available to the slave to protest such deportation. A widespread belief, however, held that it at minimum denied the slaveowner's right to reclaim slave property in England and at maximum abolished slavery in England. “The great and glorious result of the trial, " Clarkson concluded, “was, that as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English territory, he became free " Mansfield attempted to limit the scope of his decision both privately and from the bench. But as late as 1824 Justice George Sowley Holroyd of King's Bench declared in Forbes v. Cockran and Cockbum that when a slave “puts his foot on the shores of this country, his slavery is at an end." Nevertheless, until the abolition of slavery by Parliament in 1833 the rights of slaveowners received limited acknowledgment. Contracts for the sale of slaves were honored, and slaves who sued for wages were nonsuited. Masters who wished to bring their slaves to England commonly avoided legal problems by having the slave sign an indenture, for the violation of which the slave was liable to prosecution. Notices for “fugitive servants“ who had broken such contracts by running away continued to appear in English newspapers. Mansfield himself, under no illusion that slavery was legally dead in England, guaranteed the freedom of his mulatto niece by manumitting her in his will in 1782. Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 77, 78; William M. Wiecek, “Somerset: Lord Mansfield and the Legitimacy of Slavery in the Anglo-American World," University of Chicago Law Review, 42: 86-146 (Fall 1974); Edward Fiddes, “Lord Mansfield and the Sommersett Case," Law Quarterly Review, 50: 499-511 (October 1934); Walvin, Black and White, 117-43; F. O. Shyllon, Black Slaves in Britain (London, 1974), 174, 238-42; Davis, Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 480-501.
The Slave-Trade was regarded by the friends of freedom, the life-blood
of Slavery. Hence the first object of attack. It is a remarkable circumstance,
“that men so sagacious and disinterested as Clarkson and Wilberforce,
should have laboured so long, and so hard, for the accomplishment of a
half-way measure; and their experience ought to be a lesson to us, for with
all their caution against asking too much, they neither appeased the wrath
of slave-traders, nor gained the good will of slaveholders.” They were
called wild enthusiasts, fanatical dreamers, and humanity mongers. The
now sainted Clarkson was once burnt in effigy in Bristol, and came near
being thrown overboard and drowned, at Liverpool.32Thomas Clarkson narrowly escaped being drowned in the summer of 1787 while on a five-month tour to collect evidence for the recently formed Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He visited Bristol. Liverpool, and other ports, interviewing merchants and seamen involved in the trade, gathering samples of African products, which the trade in slaves “hindered foreigners from discovering," and collecting iron handcuffs, shackles. and other such instruments of the trade to exhibit to audiences and government officials in London. In late July he reached Liverpool, some of whose inhabitants were already aware of the purpose of his visit. Principals in the trade viewed his efforts suspiciously and, as his investigation continued, he received anonymous letters threatening his life and advising him to end his inquiry. A local surgeon and veteran of the trade frequently served Clarkson as an armed escort through the city. Clarkson assumed that the immediate cause of the attempt on his life arose from his investigation of the treatment of English seamen and his attempt to bring criminal charges in cases of abusive corporal punishment. During his stay in Liverpool he began to investigate the case of Peter Green, a steward aboard the slaver Alfred, who had died the year before after being beaten by the ship's captain. Green's alleged murderer was among the eight or nine men who tried to force Clarkson off a Liverpool pier, where he had been watching some boats caught in a heavy gale. Clarkson broke through the circle of men crowded around him, knocking one of them down, and escaped “not without blows, amidst their imprecations and abuse." Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 379, 410; Earl Leslie Griggs, Thomas Clarkson, the Friend of the Slaves (London, 1936), 38-42; Klingberg, Anti-Slavery Movement in England, 73-81. It was with the
utmost difficulty, that these men could be heard against the giant crime.
Ten times did the noble-hearted Wilberforce move a bill to abolish this
infernal traffic, and ten times was he doomed to defeat. The slave-power in
Parliament, like the slave-power in Congress, maintained a united and bold
front. The arguments used by these defendants of the Slave-Trade were
quite similar to those used now in this country, in behalf of Slavery. It was
said, that if the Slave-Trade were abolished, prisoners taken in war, in
Africa, would be murdered. That it was merciful to bring them into Slav-
ery; they were better off than the labourers in England. It was a source of
revenue to the country. It was a religious duty to bring the heathen where
they could be brought under the influence of the Christian religion, and it
was contended the Scriptures sanctioned it. However, as the cause pros-
pered, some more prudent, just, and magnanimous than the rest were for
regulating the trade. And this was deemed a great concession. It was a
confession that something ought to be done.
But what an idea to talk of regulating a system of wholesale plunder.
Mr. Fox replied to this argument in a most powerful manner. He said that it
was impossible to regulate robbery and murde33Between 1788 and 1797 Parliament passed a series of acts designed to improve and standardize the physical conditions of slave transport during the “middle passage,” protect the health of seamen in the trade, and regulate the insurance of slave cargo. In 1799 these regulations were codified in 39 George III, c. 80. Charles James Fox (1749-1806), foreign secretary (1782, 1783, 1806) and M.P., continuously expressed his opposition to such regulatory measures, asserting that “the slave trade ought not to be regulated, but destroyed." Clarkson, Abolition of the African Slave Trade, 1: 511; Dale H. Porter, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in England, 1784—1807 ([Hamden. Conn.], 1970), 37-50; DNB, 7: 535-52. After twenty-four years
of anxious conflict with this great crime, the friends of humanity
triumphed. The bill to abolish the Slave-Trade, was carried through the
British Parliament, and obtained the royal assent in 1807. This was re-
garded a great victory, and such it truly was at that time.
Immediately after this, and in the same year, a society was formed,
called the “African Institution.” Mr. Clarkson was identified, and took an
active part in its proceedings. The object of the institution, was the ultimate
abolition of Slavery in the West Indies.34The African Institution, formed in April 1807, absorbed the membership of the older Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Government ministers and many members of Parliament joined the new organization, whose president and patron during its twenty-year existence was William Frederick, second Duke of Gloucester. The society focused its attention on the African slave trade, not, as Douglass suggests, on the issue of slavery in British colonies. The body proposed to monitor the enforcement of England‘s new law abolishing the slave trade, to lobby for an international agreement outlawing the slave trade, to organize philanthropic support for the new British colony of Sierra Leone, and to promote commerce “beneficial alike to the natives of Africa and to the manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland." Rules and Regulations of the African Institution (London, 1807), 11; Howard Temperley, British Antislavery, 1833-1870 (Columbia, SC, 1972), 7-10, 49; Griggs, Thomas Clarkson, 94-95. At this time, no one thought of
immediate emancipation as practicable, or desirable. Gradual emancipa-
tion was the most ultra idea then broached, and though tame, insipid, and
stale, it was at the first a terrible note to the slaveholder, as well as their
abettors. It, however, lost its power to stir the souls of its friends, or disturb
the fears of its foes. The cause languished. Everybody was in favour of
gradual abolition, but no one was ready for action, now. After twenty years
of toil to promote gradual abolition—the cause dragging heavily along,
while those noble men were hesitating about what they should do to infuse
spirit into the Anti-Slavery ranks, and to accomplish their noble
purpose—a woman, with the head of a prophetess, and the heart of an
angel, came to instruct and strengthen their faltering ranks.35Douglass probably refers to Elizabeth Heyrick (c. 1769-1831), Quaker author of the pamphlet Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition; or An Inquiry into the Shortest, Safest, and Most Effectual Means of Getting Rid of West Indian Slavery (London, 1824). Rice, Rise and Fall of Black Slavery, 254. She taught
that what is right, is reasonable, and what ought to be done, can be done,
and that immediate emancipation was the right of the slave, and the duty of
the master. Her heavenly counsel was heeded. Wilberforce was converted.
The agitation now went on with vigour. They organized committees, ap-
pointed agents, and sent forth lecturers into all parts of the country. They
printed tracts, and circulated their views through the press in various ways,
till they succeeded in impressing the public mind favourably to their ob-
jects, and created that tide of public opinion which demanded immediate
and unconditional freedom to the West Indian slave.
The Anti-Slavery cause in England received but little support from the
Government Church, yet it was ever regarded as a religious movement, and
was early espoused by dissenting churches and ministers in that land. In
this honourable work, the Baptist and Congregational denominations stood
foremost. It was the noble Knibb, and Burchell,36William Knibb and Thomas Burchell. Baptist ministers, who
gave the last and most powerful blows towards the overthrow of this foul
crime, and which ended its existence in the West Indies.
In perusing this history, one is struck with the contrast between the
churches and ministers of our own country, and those of England. Slavery
found no support in the Baptist, Methodist, or Congregational churches, in
England, Ireland, or Scotland. But how different with us to-day. The
slave—system finds no such palliators and defenders, as emanate from these
bodies, in our own land. Our churches are directly implicated in the crime.
In the slave States of the Union, we have Slavery openly defended from the
Bible. Corrupt and corrupting as are our political parties, they send no
champions to the field to battle for Slavery, equal to these. They speak in
the name of God, and are clothed with divine authority. They brand all
movements for the abolition of Slavery, with the charge of infidelity. They
are the choice friends of Slavery. When we attack it, it runs to them for
protection. Religion is prostituted to the support of robbery. The Gospel of
Liberty is tortured to maintain Slavery. Piety is pressed into the service of
cruelty; and slaveholding, slave-buying, and slave-trading, is deliberately
carried on in this land by all the leading Christian denominations. We have
men sold to build churches, and babes sold to buy Bibles, and women sold
to support missionaries. It was not thus in England. Slavery was the deadly
foe of religion. It hated the missionary. It robbed their chapels, assaulted
their ministers; and for the best of all reasons, the minister was faithful to
his charge, denounced Slavery as being from the infernal, and not from the
celestial regions.
But, Sir, I must hasten to a close—others are to follow me, who will do
ample justice to the subject. I will just say, in conclusion, that I am not
disheartened—I am not discouraged. The cause is in good hands. God,
truth, and humanity are with us, and all things are working for our good. I
see cause of hope in all directions—in the movements of our enemies not
less than in those of our friends. The wrath of man is made to praise God.
He has declared that he will confound the wisdom of the crafty, and bring to
naught the counsels of the ungodly. In the spirit of the age, in the voice of
civilization, in the improvements of steam navigation, in every bar of
railroad iron, I read the approach of that happy period, when, instead of
being called upon to celebrate the emancipation of eight hundred thousand
persons in the West Indies, we shall be summoned to rejoice over the
downfall of Slavery in our own land.