ijiis Li iL-. OF IHE rET) STATES BY S. G. & E. L. ELBERT BY THE SAME AUTHOR: THE CROONIAN LECTURES, DELH ERED AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHTSICLIXS, LJJ 18-30, 18-31 AN'D 1852, OX THE SPINAL SYSTEM. PREPARIXG rUR THE PRESS : PHYSIOLOGY IX THE CLLXICAL WARD AXD THE SICK-ROOM; FOR THE MEDICAL STUDENT. THE TWO-rOLD SLAYEEY OP THE UNITED STATES. THE TWO-FOLD SLAVERY OF THE UNITED STATES; WITH A PROJECT OF SELF- EMANCIPATION; BY MARSHALL HALL, M.D., F.R.S.; &c. LONDON: ADAM SCOTT, CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE. 1854. y ! *• There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. But there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority Washington, in a letter to Robert Morris. La Fayette remarked, in his last visit, with astonishment, the aggravation of the prejudices againstthe blacks ; and states, that, in the revolutionary war, the black and white soldiers messed together without hesitation." Jay, on Slavery, 1853. Let the religions people in the United States do their duty, and Slavery and the Second Slavery will cease from that hour Anon. DEDICATION. To MARSHALL HALL, Jun. Esq. My dear Son, I dedicate these pages to you, the com- panion of my travels in the United States. You were witness to all my anxieties for the poor African race, and to the formation of the plan of Self- Emancipation about to be developed. Remember with me, and with every loyal Ameri- can, the simple but emphatic words of Washington. Your most affectionate Father, MARSHALL HALL. London, August Ibth, 1854. The fact of these pages having been written to different persons, at different times, will account for occasional repetitions of the same idea. I have thought it better to leave this defect, than to alter the original manuscripts. An idea so repeated at distant inter- vals must assuredly have been one which from its im- portance had made a vivid impression on the writer's mind. PREFATOEY ADDRESS TO THE PLANTERS AND THE MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES LEGISLATURES IN THE UNITED STATES. Gentlemen, I take the liberty of addressing these Letters to you, because from you, I beheve, all good to the poor African people in the United States must originate. With your interests, with your estates, with your famihes, they and their condition are indissolubly hnked and bound up ; from your kindness and generosity, and sense of justice, any peaceful, beneficent, and momentous change in their condition must flow. I have frequently heard it observed by you, that Slavery is a great evil ; but that it is an inheritance which you have received from England, and now know not how to dismiss from your soil ; and that you would gladly adopt any measure which would have this effect, if such a m^easure could be devised. X PREFATORY ADDRESS. Believing in and relying upon this assurance, I earnestly submit to your consideration the details and the suggestions which the following Letters unfold. Being addressed in idea to you, they cannot contain an offensive word. They are written with the most sincere good wishes for your reputation throughout the world, and for your welfare at home. I trust you will receive them in good part and with cordiality. If a benevolent American were to come to this country, and to point out, in a friendly spirit (such a spirit as shall pervade these Letters), all that is wrong here, with its remedy, I, at least, would hail his visit and efforts as those of a benefactor. Believe me. Gentlemen, Your sincere well-wisher, THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PART FIRST—LETTERS. Letter L PAGE The Slavery and Second Slavery of the United States ; Abolition; Colonization; Perpetual Slavery; Self- Emancipation ... 1 Letter IL Slavery in the United States : its Ignorance ; its Degra- dation ; the Want of Holy Mamage, and of Parental Rights; Servile War? 10 Letter III. The Second Slavery in the United States; Prejudice, Oppression, Persecution 17 Letter IY. Slave-Breeding : its Immoralities ; the Separation of Parents and Children ; &c 24 Letter Y. The Planter and the Plantation 31 Letter YI. Latitude; Climate; Products; Slaves 36 Letter VII. Progress of Emancipation in the North the Eifect of Climate 46 ; Letter YII.* Tlie Abolition Movement 51 Letter YIII. The Colonization Movement 54 Letter IX. Project of Self Emancipation; of the Slave; of the Plan- ter; of the States; of the Nation 59 Letter X. The Tables ; the Chart , . 7-t Letter XL * ;' Religions in the United States : the Friends the Me- thodists ; the Baptists 78 Letter XIL Self-Emancipation : its Effect? : its Picture c 81 Letter XIII. Kidnapping in the Free States, and Abduction to the South 83 Letter XIY. Pro- Slavery Hypotheses : the African Slave the Descen- dant of Ham ; distinct in Species from the European &c. &c 88 Letter XY. Free- State Legislation: the Black Act of Connecticut; the Black Laws of Ohio, of Illinois; &c 93 Letter XYL Emancipation ; without Amalgamation ; a Necessity. ... 96 Letter XYII. Character of the African; Banneker; Toussaiat L'Ou- verture ; the Soldier of 1814; &c 99 CONTENTS. XIU Letter XYIII. Slavery : its Cruelties and Indignities 118 Letter XIX. Degree of Friendliness towards the African race 121 Letter XX. Homes for the Free African friendly and unfriendly ; States 125 Letter XXL Self- Emancipation ; successive Boons to the Slave 128 Letter XXII. What shall we do to further Self-Emancipation ? 130 PART SECOND—MY TOUR. Chapter I. ; ; Louis- Washington Baltimore ; Philadelphia ; the Ohio ville; the Upper Mississippi; &c 135 Chapter II. Niagara ; Canada ; New York 142 Chapter III. Richmond; Charleston; Savannah; the Alabama; Mobile. 146 Chapter IV. New Orleans ; Havana ; the Lower Mississippi ; the Ohio 152 \ PART FIRST. LETTERS. ; THE TWO-FOLD SLAVERY OF THE UNITED STATES. LETTER I. The Slavery and Second Slavery of the United States ; Abolition; Colonization; Perpetual Slavery ; Self- Emancipation. •X- -X- 4f * -Jf * I HAVE, during nearly fifteen months spent in the United States, directed all my attention to the condition of the African race in that land of hberty, so-called. I have during this period four times crossed the States between their eastern and western points, in their mean and extreme latitudes ; and I have visited Canada and Cuba. I wished to see and judge for myself. I wished to behold the poor African in all his positions and in all his conditions : —in his state of freedom in Canada in his bondage to a popular prejudice and a cruel oppres- sion in the northern, and in his slavery under a legal institution in the southern, States ; and in his worse than United States' bondage under the yoke imposed by Spanish law or custom in Cuba. B 2 THE TWO-FOLD SLAVERY I soon perceived that the question was not one of mere slavery, as that tenn is usually employed ; but that there is a second slavery of the free or eman- cipated African in the United States, severer, in cer- tain respects, even than the first, —a slavery to which too little attention has hitherto been paid. In effect, the African in the slavery of the United States is usually so well cared for, that he is for the most part, according to the expression of Henry Clay, * fat and sleek,' and his numbers increase in a higher ratio than those of the European ; whilst the African said to be free is so crushed by State legislation and popular prejudice and oppression as to provide for himself and family through extreme difficulties, and is at once wi*etched indindually and scarcely increases his numbers as a race;—^facts of the most affectmg uiterest. Much, therefore, as has been said of Abolition, I can scarcely regard it, under existing circumstances, as a boon to the poor African in the United States. Slavery at least feeds and clothes its unhappy vic- tims, so that animal life is supported and perpetuated. It is only when the slave is viewed as an intellectual being—as Man, in a word—that his degradation, his ignorance, his privation of holy marriage and of parental rights, his subjection to the infliction of the lash, his exposure to pubUc sale by auction, and his treatment for the sake of offspring in the breeding States," stand forth in all their enormity. The question in regard to slavery in the United States is essentially a question of religion and of OF THE UNITED STATES. 3 conscience. Any other lower view of the subject is utterly unworthy of its magnitude and importance, in itself, and in its relation to three millions and a half (3,638,808) of our fellow men and brethren, the coloured people in the United States, and to the character of a great nation. It will be perceived, as I proceed, that this high and conscientious view of the subject is happily not in- compatible with the best interests of the European in the United States, and of the country at large. Unprepared abolition, I repeat, would be no boon to the African slave in the United States. It would, alone, only lead to the second slavery to which I have adverted, even if the freed slave was perfectly well- conducted. Might it not also lead to ruin of both planter and estate ? Besides, it is statistically true that, during the period of the abolition agitation, the increase of the number of the slaves has been regular and fearful, whilst that of the free, so-called, has rapidly diminished. What then has this abohtion accompHshed ? Nothing ! And, at this very moment, nothing is being done for the poor African race in the United States.