The Material and Moral Requirements of Antislavery Work: Addresses Delivered in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on August, 5, 6, 1847
THE MATERIAL AND MORAL REQUIREMENTS OF
ANTISLAVERY WORK: ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN
NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, ON 5, 6 AUGUST 1847
Pennsylvania Freeman, 19 August 1847.
The tenth annual meeting of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
was held at the Baptist Meetinghouse in Norristown on 4-6 August 1847. Two
to three hundred abolitionists commuted each day to the convention from
Philadelphia. William Lloyd Garrison had traveled down from Boston to join
such local Garrisonian notables as Robert Purvis, Lucretia Mott, and Charles
C. Burleigh. Although the Garrisonians had won control of this society in
1845, a number of non-Garrisonian abolitionists, including William H. Brisbane
and Thomas Earle, attended and participated in the debates. Douglass
arrived on the convention’s second day and immediately joined the discussion
of the resolutions. Garrison noted that, despite the large number of able
speakers at the gathering, Douglass unquestionably was “the ‘lion’ of the
occasion.” NASS, 12 August 1847; PaF, 12 August 1847; Lib., 20, 27
August 1847.
Second Day [5 August 1847]
MORNING SESSION
[Speeches by William Lloyd Garrison, Bartholomew Fussell1Bartholomew Fussell (1794-1871) was a Pennsylvania Quaker and early abolitionist. Son of a Chester County, Pennsylvania, farmer and Quaker minister. Fussell studied medicine at the University of Maryland. While a college student, he conducted a free school for slave children. Fussell supported Benjamin Lundy’s Genius of Universal Emancipation and Garrison’s Liberator in the early 1830s and was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In addition to his medical practice and antislavery activities, Fussell participated in the temperance, women's rights, and free elementary education movements. Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 1: 145, 398; DAB, 7: 80-81., and William H.
Brisbane.]
F. Douglass said,—Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to speak on this
resolution;2The resolution as adopted read: “Resolved, That we cordially approve of the plan of the American Anti-Slavery Society to publish a series of tracts during the ensuing year, and that we recommend to the Executive Committee of that Society to appoint some suitable person, whose exclusive duty it shall be to prepare and attend to the publication of such tracts; and that this society pledges itself to the payment of $300 per annum for this purpose, which amount shall be returned to us in the publications issued." PaF, 12 August 1847. I am much impressed with the importance of money; impressed
with its importance as the means of spreading intelligence. In proportion as
information is spread, in that proportion will rise the tide of public sentiment
towards the point which, when attained, will be the success of our
enterprise. The speaker alluded to the change in Lynn, the place of his
residence. Five years ago I could not walk in the streets without insult on
account of my complexion; on account of the badge by which I was identified
with the slave. I could not ride in a car or an omnibus; I could not send
my children to school, I could not attend a Lyceum; all because this badge
was upon me and upon them. And now the state of things is entirely
changed. No class of people are now more respected, more kindly treated,
or more cordially met than men of color.
And this has been done by the preaching of truth, earnestly, seriously;
we have made almost no use of the ballot-box or of any other agency, and
whenever the same means are used, whenever the truth is preached in love
and earnestness and perseverence, an impression will be made, a like effect
will be produced. That these means, thus used, must cut down this prejudice,
which is a main pillar of slavery, is as clear as that the sharp axe
applied to the trunk of the tree, must cause it to fall.
We feel this when we urge our friends to give their means to this work;
we feel that aid thus given is not given in vain. I now see things clearly; I
look for no miracles; I feel that it is a mockery for us to depend upon the
Lord to do this work by means of miracles; it is our duty to use his given
instrumentalities in the work. It were as absurd to look to other means than
labour to perform this work, as it were to look for our com and potatoes to
grow without an agency of ours in preparing and planting the ground. He
has given us truth to combat falsehood; liberty to combat slavery, and these
it is our duty to employ in forwarding this work. Mr. Garrison has alluded
to the manner of conducting the work abroad. I, too, was delighted with it. I
had, ere I went to England, read but little on the subject; I went among them
a stranger. I found there a Post Office by which letters could be sent from
one end of the kingdom to another, for a penny. Persons there print an
anti-slavery communication upon one side of a paper, and write a business
letter on the other. In tracts, a vacant leaf is left on which to write letters. It
was by these means that the Corn Law was abolished in face of the opposition
of the titled lords, the wealthy and the influential, and in defiance of the
rabble, by the spread of intelligence. Public speaking was not the chief
agent; that was too expensive, the rent of the Halls was so very high. A
single meeting held in Exeter Hall to denounce the Evangelical Alliance
paid for the rent of the house $250.3Douglass probably refers to the mass meeting at Exeter Hall on 14 September 1846 sponsored by the Anti-Slavery League. British newspapers reported that at least £55 was collected from the more than six thousand persons who attended the meeting. London Patriot, 17 September 1846; London Inquirer, 19 September 1846; BFASR, ser. 2, 1: 162, 166-68 (1 October 1846); Temperley, British Antislavery, 217. As the Anti-Corn-Law League4Organized in 1838, the British Anti-Corn Law League led the campaign that achieved the repeal of agricultural tariffs in 1846 and opened the way for a national free-trade policy. Generous contributions from British industrialists permitted the League to distribute millions of tracts and send out hundreds of lecturing agents each year. The League publicized its appeal with an assortment of miscellaneous items, including wafers for envelopes and anti-corn law tea and breakfast sets. McCord, Anti-Corn Law League, 173-86; William L. Langer, Political and Social Upheaval, 1832-1852 (New York, 1969), 60-65. did, so
can we do, namely, publish and disseminate tracts, nor have we cause to
fear that we shall be less successful. Of what avail is it for us annually to
hold meetings, if in the mean time we do nothing! I am convinced that half a
million [dollars] judiciously spent in publishing and circulating tracts could
be sufficient to terminate our work. I look upon the present as a most
interesting period in our enterprise, the time is a portentous one; matters in
connection with it are coming into collision in a most unusual manner. The
slaveholder has risen determined to check the progress of our cause; determined
to resist every movement which we are making. Calhoun, whom I
look upon as holding the position in regard to slavery, which Garrison does
to anti-slavery, has said “I am done forever with compromises."5In the spring of 1847, South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun strongly opposed efforts by northern congressmen to prohibit slaveholding in any territories acquired in the Mexican War. Considering such restrictions unconstitutional, Calhoun warned southerners against making any concessions on this issue. Douglass probably paraphrases Calhoun’s 19 February 1847 declaration in the Senate: “Let us have done with compromises. Let us go back and stand upon the Constitution!" H. Von Holst, John C. Calhoun (Boston, 1882), 280-99; Charles M. Wiltse, John C. Calhoun: Sectionalist, 1840-1850 (Indianapolis, 1951), 287-312. Would
that abolitionists would adopt the motto with equal determination. Were we
as true to our cause as they to theirs, our work would advance more rapidly
than it has done. I allude to the ‘Dissolution of the American Union.’ All
movements now should tend to this point. Calhoun is in effect working for
it; his actions are preparing the North for a separation from the slave power,
and hence I rejoice. I welcome the bolt whether it come from Heaven or
from Hell, that shall sever this Union; that shall strike to the ground the
system based upon it; we must be uncompromising; we must denounce all
that falls short of this point wherever we find it; and for this, money is
wanted, and I am sure if all were impressed with its importance, they would
give, give freely, give gladly, of their abundance, and if need be, of their
penury. We have a church which is dumb on this subject. We have Bibles
and Bowie knives together; we must expose these inconsistencies. In order
for this we must have means,—money. Our agents must live; we must
support them, for the pro-slavery public would be glad to starve them. Our
papers must be published; books sent forth; tracts scattered, and thus light
be poured into minds not yet willing to seek it. All know that these things
cannot be done without funds; and that we can expect none to give whose
hearts are not enlisted in the cause. Your liberality will determine with how
much efficiency this movement shall be carried on.
[Collection of donations; speech by William Lloyd Garrison]
Frederick Douglass said—His friend Garrison had referred to the
movements of the day, the Bible, the missionary, the tract Societies, &c.
He would have abolitionists withhold their aid from them all. He did not
think any great good could result from them while they excluded three
millions of their own countrymen from their benefits. It is harder to fight
slavery in this land than any where out of it. The missionaries have faith in
the Gospel to work its way amongst the heathen in other lands; but they
cannot trust it amongst the slaves. It would be dangerous even, though it is
among brethren of a common faith. It is more dangerous to preach righ-
teousness in our country than in any heathen land we know. The slave goes to
the wigwam of the savage for refuge from his Christian master. And yet
that Christian master is praying devoutly for the poor heathen afar off.
Some allusion had been made to a movement for sending the Bible to the
slave.6In the 1830s American abolitionists unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the American Bible Society to distribute the Scriptures to slaves. In the mid-1840s non-Garrisonian abolitionists, led by Joshua Leavitt and Henry Bibb, revived this campaign and won endorsements from several New England church groups. These abolitionists called for $40,000 in contributions to the Bible Society designated exclusively for a “Slaves' Bible Fund." Less than $2,000 was collected in this project, however, and the American Bible Society continued to defer to its southern auxiliaries' disinclination to undertake such a project. Boston Emancipator, 2 June 1846; Lib., 25 January, 21 May 1847; AFASR, 2: 25-26, 72 (January, October 1845); Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Sixteenth Annual Report (Boston, 1848), 66-67; American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Shall We Give Bibles to Three Millions of American Slaves? (n.p., n.d.); John R. McKivigan, “Abolitionism and the American Churches, 1830-1865: A Study of Attitudes and Tactics" (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1977), 292-96. It was only a paper movement, a resolution movement. It had its rise
in the statement made abroad, that with all our missionary spirit, American
churches withhold from their own countrymen the word of God. This
stimulated those churches to make some show of action, to rid themselves
of the charge, yet it is only show; no agent had been appointed; no Bibles
had been bought. A small sum of money had been raised. But that is all.
’Tis very true that sermons are preached to the slaves, but what is their
character? They are to teach servants to obey their masters as God’s over-
seers! The masters won't have the Bible among their slaves, because it
teaches them their right to liberty; so soon as I began to read my Bible, I
became doubly discontented with my condition. The slaveholders know
that this would be the effect, and they won’t have the Bible on their
plantations. The ministers know it, and they won't send it, they don’t mean
to. Why, let horse stealing become popular, and the church and clergy will
cease to be opposed to it. Whenever a sin becomes popular it ceases to be a
sin with them.
We may talk of the Wilmot proviso and of various other seemingly
anti-slavery actions taken by politicians; they have taken such action not
from love but from necessity. The pro-slavery parties have become weary
of defending themselves from our attacks. They are even gradually prepar-
ing for the doctrine of disunion. It is not in half so bad odor as it was some
time since. [The] Liberty party is now almost ready for it. Let us then take
courage and fail not to lend pecuniary aid. It is a very painful position for a
travelling agent to be obliged to depend upon funds raised at each meeting
he holds to carry him to the place of the next. In a pro-slavery community it
blunts his arguments exceedingly; whenever they see, sticking out from
under all his eloquence, a wedge of silver or a bar of copper, they begin to
suspect him. Our cause is a money making scheme, for the community.
Slaves do not ride on rail roads! Slaves do not employ mechanics. It is not
only giving the people a purer morality and religion, but it will promote
their worldly interests. Then let us give aid to the cause.
Third Day [6 August 1847]
MORNING SESSION
[Speeches by William Lloyd Garrison and Thomas Earle.7Thomas Earle (1796-1849) was a Philadelphia abolitionist and the Liberty party's vice-presidential nominee in 1840. After failing as a merchant, Earle became a lawyer and reform editor. He was a Jacksonian Democrat and helped lead the movement to rewrite Pennsylvania's Constitution in 1837. A member of the venerable Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in the 1820s, Earle joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830s. Selected as James G. Birney's running mate because of his credentials as a Democrat, Earle's “locofoco” image ironically proved a liability to the Liberty party ticket. Despite his political abolitionist leanings, Earle remained active in the American Anti-Slavery Society until that body endorsed disunionism in 1844. Edward B. Bonner, Thomas Earle as a Reformer (Philadelphia, 1948), 29, 37-41, 50-62; Sell, Ballots for Freedom, 48, 71-72; Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 2: 351, 3: 91, 101, 114; ACAB, 2: 288-89. ]
Mr. Douglass said—I do not feel very well qualified to speak on the
resolution before the meeting,8The resolution as unanimously adopted read: “Whereas, the Constitution of this State disenfranchises more than fifty thousand of her citizens on account of their complexion; and whereas, these citizens are compelled to contribute their proportion to the support of a government in which they are not allowed to participate . . . Resolved, that it be recommended to the Executive Committee to prepare and circulate a memorial or petition to the Legislature of the State, asking that our colored brethren who are otherwise duly qualified may be put in the full possession of all the rights of citizenship." PaF, 12 August 1847. but I will express my pleasure in seeing it
introduced here. I see the necessity of introducing it and also of keeping this
idea before the community,— that one day the colored man is to enjoy all
the rights which are essential to citizenship—that we will not be contented
till all our rights as men are recognized. I do not for my part attach much
importance to the voting power—but the right—the right is worth contending
for. We should constantly keep before the people our deep abhorrence
of the injustice which withholds it from us. I am astonished when I hear us
spoken of as a distinct class, as though we had nothing to do in this matter,
and yet that there is expected of us a willingness to defend the
government—that we should have a respect for one that treats us thus. They
seem to think we have no power to love our country, no capacity to assist in
legislation, or to defend ourselves from aggression. I assure the people of
this country that the colored people are far from being non-resistants, from
being indisposed to aid the government against any attacks whose success
may open a way to the recognition of their rights. The whole thing of
disfranchisement is impolitic—it is arraying our feeling against the government.
Then the injustice of taxing us, to make us the subjects of legislation,
in which we have no election. I do not know whether the colored
people care that the right is wrested from them; whether they think of it as a
right. I am certain, that as a general thing they do not act as if they thus
regarded it—that they object to any thing that will make a stir—that they
are fearful of any thing that will make an agitation on their account. I would
say to the colored men who have not learned their rights in this matter, that
it is your business to make yourselves acquainted with them. “Who would
be free, themselves must strike the blow.”9Douglass quotes a line from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II, Stanza LXXVI:
Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
By their right arms the conquest must be wrought?
Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? No!
George Gordon Noël Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Other Romantic Poems, ed. Samuel C. Chew (New York, 1936), 76. You must say, we feel this
wrong, not only in a political view, but it strikes at our social enjoyment.
Let us speak out freely, and as sure as right must triumph over wrong, so
surely shall we be heard, and in the end will obtain in this state the political
franchise.
I used to think it impossible for the colored people out of Massachusetts
ever to have their rights acknowledged, but let us ever be ready to assert our
conviction of what is due to us as men, and we shall realize that
“There’s a good time coming boys—
A good time coming;
We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
Cannon Balls may aid the truth,
But THOUGHT’S a weapon stronger,
We’ll win our battle by its aid,
Wait a little longer."10Douglass quotes the first verse of “The Good Time Coming" by Charles Mackay. Charles Mackay, Voices from the Mountains and from the Crowd (Boston, 1853), 202.
I repeat it, we must let it be known that we feel the injustice of our
wrong treatment, and that we will not rest till the oppression be removed. I
am sorry to see so few of my colored friends here to-day; the fact is we are
disheartened as well as disfranchised, we must learn our rights, we must
contend for them, and we cannot fail to succeed.