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1 Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave 1 (1838)

handle is hein.slavery/narjwill0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER. NARRATIVE OF JAMES WILLIAMS, 'ONE DOLLAR PER 100.) AN AMERICAN SLAVE. [143 NASSAU ST. N. Y P RE F A C E. experience confirm this. Besides, admitting that the AMERICAN SLAVERY, said the celebrated John Wes- legal severity of a system may be softened in the prac- ley, is the vilest beneath the sun! Of the truth of this tice of the humane, may it not also be aggravated by emphatic remark, no other proof is required, than an that of the aqraricious and cruel ? examination of the statute books of the American slave But what are the testimony and admissions of slave- states. Tested by its own laws, in all that facilitates holders themselves on this point 1 In an Essay publish- and protects the hateful process of converting a man ed in Charleston, S. C., in 1822, and entitled A Ref- into a chattel personal ' in all that stamps the law- utation of the Calumnies circulated against the South- maker, and law-upholder with meanness and bypocri- ern and Western States, by the late Edwin C. Holland, sy, it certainly has no present rival of its bad emi- Esq., it is stated, that all slaveholders have laid down nlence; and we may search in vain the history of a non-resistance, andperfectanduniformobediencetotheir .world's despotism for a parallel. The civil code of orders as fundamental principles in the government of Justinian never acknowledged, with that of our demo- their slaves : that this is a necessary result of the re- cratic despotisms, the essential equality of man. The lation, and unavoidable. Robert J. Turnbull, Esq., dreamer in the gardens of Epicurus recognized neither of South Carolina, in remarking upon the management in himself, nor in the slave who ministered to his lux- of slaves, says, The only principle upon which any ury, the immortality of the spiritual nature. Neither authority over them, (the slaves,) can be maintained is Solon nor Lycurgus taught the inalienability of human fear, and he who denies this has little knowledge of rights. The Barons of the Feudal System, whose max- them. To this may be added the testimony of Judge im was emphatically that of Wordsworth's robber, Ruffin, of North Carolina, as quoted in Wheeler's Law That he should take who had the power, of Slavery, p. 247. The slave, to remain a slave, must And he should keep who can, p feel that there is no appeal from his master. No man can anticipate the provocations which the slave would while trampling on the necks of their vassals, and cour- give, nor tne consequent wrath of the master, prompting ting the life of a man as of less value than that of a him to BLOODY VENGEANCE on the turbulent wild beast, never appealed to God for the sincerity of traitor, a vengeance generally practised with impunity heir belief, that all men were created equal. It was by reason of its privacy. -eserved for American slave-holders to present to the In an Essay on the improvement of negroes on plan- s'orld the hideous anomaly of a code of laws, beginning tations, by Rev. Thomas S. Clay, a slaveholder of vith the emphatic declaration of the inalienable rights Bryan county, Georgia, and printed at the request of -f all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Georgia Presbytery, in 1833, we are told that the ,nd closing with a deliberate and systematic denial of present economy of the slave system is to get all you can hose rights, in respect to a large portion of their coun- from the slave, and give him in return as little as will rymen; engrossing on the same parchment the antago- barely support him in a working condition Here, in a list laws of liberty and tyranny. The very nature of few words, the whole enormity of slavery is exposed to his unnatural comtination, has rendered it necessary view: to get all you can from t1e slave-by means ,.hat American slavery, in law and'in practice, should of whips, and stocks and irons-by every device for axceed every other in severity and cool atrocity. The torturing the body, without destroying its capability of iaster. of' Greece and Rome permitted their slaves to labor; and in return give him as little of his coarse k'iead and write, and worship the gods of paganism in fare as will keep him, like a mere beast of burden, in peace and security, for there was nothing in the laws, a working condition; this is slavery, as explained by literature, or religion of the -age to awaken in the soul the slaveholder himself. of the bondman a just sense of his rights as a man. Mr. Clay further says: Offences against the master But the American slaveholder cannot be thus lenient. are more severely punished than violations of the law In the excess of his benevolence, as a political propa- of God, a fault which affects the slave's personal char- gandist, he has kindled a fire for the oppressed of the acter a good deal. As examples we may notice, .that old world to gaze at with hope, and for crowned heads runninz away is more severely punished than adultery. and dynasties to tremble at; but a due regard to the safe- He (tie slave) only knos masternashlagiver t of his peculiar institution, compels him to put out and executioner, ana knw s mst ashlawgiver the eyes of his own people, lest they too should see it. up to his view, is to make him a more obedient and pro- Calling on all the world to shake off the fetters of op- fitable slave. p ression, and wade through the blood of tyrants to free- Hon. W. B. Seabrook, in an address before the Agri- dom, he has been compelled to smother, in darkness cultural Society of St. John's, Colleton, published by and silence,the minds of his own bondmen, lest they order of the Society, at Charleston, in 1834, after stat- too should hear and obey the summons, by putting the ing that as Slavery exists in South Carolina, the ac- knife to hi, own throat.-Proclaiminz the truths of tion of the citizens should rigidly conform to that state Divine Revelation, and sending the Scriptures to the of things : and, that no abstract opinions of the rights four quarters of the earth, ie has found it necessary to of man should be allowed in any instance to modify the maintain heathenism at home by special enactments ; olice system of a plantation, proceeds as follows. He .and to make the second offence of teaching his slaves (the slave) should be practically treated as a slave; and the message of salvation punishable with death ! thotoughly taught the true cardinal principle on which What marvel then that American slavery even on the our peculiar institutions are founded, viz.; that to his .tatute book -.ssumes the right to transform moral beings owner he is bound by the law of God and man; and into brutes :* that it legalizes man's usurpation of thatno human authority can sever the link which unites Divine authority; the substitution of the will of the them. The great aim of the slaveholder, then, should master, f)r the moral government of God: that it anni- be to keep his people in strict subordination. In this, hilatos the rights of conscience; debars from the enjoy- it may in truth be said, lies his entire duty. Again, ment of relihions rights and privileges by specific in speaking of the punishments of slaves, he remarks: enactments; and enjoins disobedience to the Divine If to our army the disuse of TH LAsH has been pre- lawg-iv.'r: that it discourages purity and chastity, en- judicial, to the slaveholder it would operate to deprive courages crime, legalizes concubinayc; and, while it him of the MAIN SUPPORT of his authority. For the first places the slave entirely in the hands of his master, class of offences, I consider imprisonment in THE STOCKS* provides no real protection for his life or his person. * Of the nature of this punishment in the stocks, something But it may be said, that these laws afford no certain may be learned by the following extract of a letter from a Pen- evidenec of the actual condition of the slaves: that, tleman in Tallahassee, Florida, to the editor of the Ohio Atlas, in judging the system by its cole, no allowance is made dated June 9,1835: A planter, a professer of religion, in con- tbr the humanity of individual masters. It uas a just versing upon the universality of whipping, remarked, that a rcmiark of the celebrated Priestley, that no people planter in G- ,-who had whipped a great deal, at length rer were found to be better than their laws, though mnu g ot tired of it, and invented the following excellent method of have been known to be worse. All history and common punishment, which 1 saw practised while I iNs paying him a visit. The negro was placed in a sitting position, with his SThe cardiol principle of slavery, that a slare is not to be hands made fast above his head, and his feet in the stocks, so riked among sentient being,. but among things, a:s an that he could not move any part of the body. Fhe master re- article of property, a chattel personal, obtains as undoubted tired, intending to leave him till morning, but we were awak- law, in all the slave states, , 0udge Stroud's Sketch of Slave ened in the night by the groans of the negro, which were so Las, p. 22.) . doleful that we feared he was dying. NN Q went to him, and at night, with or without hard labor by day, as a pow- erful auxiliaryin the cause of good government. Ex- perience has convinced me that there is no punishment to which the slave looks with more horror, than that upon which I am commenting, (the stocks,) and none which has been attended with happier results. There is yet another class of testimony quite as per- tinent as the foregoing, which may at any time be gleaned from the newspapers of the slave states-the advertisements of masters for their runaway slaves, and casual paragraphs coldly relating cruelties, which would disgrace a land of Heathenism. Let the follow ing suffice for a specimen: To the Editors of the Constitutionalist. Aiken, S. C., Dec. 20, 1836. L have just returned from an inquest I held over the dead body of a negro man, a runaway. that was shot near the South Edisto, in this district, (Barnwell,) on Saturdav morning last. He came to his death by his own recklessness. He refused to be taken alive; and said that other attempts to take him had been made, and he was determined that he would not be taken When taken he was nearly naked-had a large dirk or knife and a heavy club. He was at first, (when those who were in pursuit of him found it absolutely necessary,) shot at with small shot, with the intention of merely crippling him. He was shot at several times, and at last he was so disabled as to le compelled to surrender. He kept in the run of a creek in a very dense swamp all the time that the neighbors were in pursuit of him. As soon as the negro was taken, the best medical aid was procured, but he died on the same evening. One of the witnesses at the inquisition stated that the negro boy said that he was from Mississippi, and belonged to so many persons he did not know who his master was; but again he said his mas ter's name was Brown, He said his own name was Sam ; and when asked by another witness who his master was, he mut- tered something like Augusta or Augustine. The boy was ap- parently al)ove 35 or 40 years of age-about six feet high- slightly yellow in the face'-very long beard or whiskers-and very stout built, and a stern countenance , and appeared to have been run away a long time. VILLIAM 11. PRITeHARD, Coroner, (cx officio,) Barnwell Dist., S. C. lElj The Mississippi and other papers will please copy the above.-Georgia Constitutionalist. $100 REWARD.-Ran away from the subscriber, living OR Herring Bay, Ann Anindel county, Md., on Saturday, 28th January, negro man Elijah, who calls himself Elijah Cook, is about 21 years of age, well made, of a very dark complexion has an impediment in his speech, and a scar on his left hed bone, apparently occasioned by a shot. J. SCaiRIwan. Annapolis (Md.) Rep., Feb., 1837. $40 REWARD.-Ran away from my residence near Me bile, two negro men, Isaac and Tim. Isaac is from 25 to 30 years old, dark complexion, scar on the right side of the head, and also one on the right side of the body, occasioned by BUcK SHOT. Tim is 22 years old, dark complexion, scar on the right cheek, as also another on the back of the neck. Cap- tains and owners of steamboats, vessels, and water crafts of every description, are cautioned against taking them on board under the penalty of the law ; and all other persons against harboring or in any manner favoring the escape of said negroos under like penalty. Mobile, Sept. 1. SARArH WALSiH. Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, Sept. 29, 1837. $200 REWARD.-Ran away from the subscriber, about three years ago, a certain negro man named Ben, (commonly known by the name of Ben Fox.) He is about five feet five or six inches high, chunky made, yellow complexion, and has but one eye. Also, one other negro, by the name of Ria-'don, who ran away on the 8th of this month. He is stout made, tall, and very black, N, ith large lips. I will give the reward of one hundred dollars for each of the above negroes, to be delivered to me or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones county, orfor the killing of them so that I can see thent. Masters of vessels and all olhers are cautionel against harboring, employing, or carrying them away, under the penalty of the law. W. D. Conn. .Lenoir county, N. C., Nov. 12, 1836. found him covered with a cold sweat, and almost gone. He could not have lived an hour longer, Mr.- found the .stocks' such an effective punishment, that it almost super- seded the a hip. No. 6.

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