Transcription
FREDERICK DOUGLASSAMERICAN SLAVEWRITTEN BY HIMSELF.PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICENO. 25 CORNHILL
S.C.Tmiyear 1845,Entered, according to Act of Congress, in theBy Frederick Douglass,of Massachusetts.In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court
PREFACE.In the month of August, 1841, I attended an antislavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was myhappiness to become acquainted with Frederick DougHe was alass, the writer of the following Narrative.stranger to nearly every member of that body ; but,having recently made his escape from the southernprison-house of bondage, and feeling his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the—of whom he had heard a somewhathe was invague description while he was a slave,duced to give his attendance, on the occasion alludedto, though at that time a resident in New Bedford.fortunateFortunate, most fortunate occurrence!for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet pantingfortunatefor deliverance from their awful thraldomfor the cause of negro emancipation, and of universallibertyfortunate for the land of his birth, which hefortuhas already done so much to save and blessnate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances,whose sympathy and affection he has strongly securedby the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuoustraits of character, by his ever-abiding remembranceof those who are in bonds, as being bound with themabolitionists,—!!————!!—fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of ourrepublic, whose minds he has enlightened on the subjectof slavery, andwho have been meltedhis pathos, or roused to virtuous indignationto tearsbybyhis stir-—forturing eloquence against the enslavers of mentunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the!
PREFACE.IVof public usefulness, “ gave the world assuranceof a man,” quickened the slumbering energies of hissoul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressedfieldgo free1never forget his first speech at the conventionextraordinary emotion it excited in my ownmindthe powerful impression it created upon athecrowded auditory, completely taken by surpriseapplause which followed from the beginning to the endI think I never hated slaveryof his felicitous remarks.I shall—the——so intensely as at thatmoment;mycertainly,percep-enormous outrage which is inflicted by it, onthe godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far moreThere stood one, in physical proporclear than ever.in intellecttion and stature commanding and exactinin natural eloquence a prodigyrichly endowedsoul manifestly “ created but a little lower than thetremblingyet a slave, ay, a fugitive slave,angels ”for his safety, hardly daring to believe that on theAmerican soil, a single white person could be foundwho would befriend him at all hazards, for the love ofCapable of high attainments asGod and humanityneeding nothing butan intellectual and moral beinga comparatively small amount of cultivation to makehim an ornament to society and a blessing to his raceby the law of the land, by the voice of the people,by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece ofproperty, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertion of the——'—!————theless!Abeloved friend from New Bedford prevailed onHe cameMr. Douglass to address the convention.forward to the platform with a hesitancy and embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensitive mindAfter apologizing for hisin such a novel position.ignorance, and reminding the audience that slaverywas a poor schoolfor thehumanintellectandheart,
PBEFACE.he proceededto narrateVsome-of thefacts in hisownhistory as a slave, and in the course of his speech gavemany noble thoughts andAs soon as he had taken hisutterance totions.hope and admiration,thrilling reflec-seat, filled withand declared that PatrickHenry, of revolutionary fame, never made a speechmore eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one wehad just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive.So I believed at that timesuch is my beliefnow. I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North,even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the PilgrimIrose,——among the descendants of revolutionary sires;appealed to them, whether they would ever allowhim to be carried back into slavery,law or no law,constitution or no constitution.The response wasFathers,andI——unanimous and in thunder-tones“NO!”you succor and protect him as a brother-man“Will—aresi-dent of the old Bay State ? ” “ YES ” shouted thewhole mass, with an energy so startling, that the ruthless tyrants south of Mason and Dixon’s line mightalmost have heard the mighty burst of feeling, andrecognized it as the pledge of an invincible determination, on the part of those who gave it, never to betrayhim that wanders, but to hide the outcast, and firmly toabide the consequences.It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that,if Mr. Douglass could be persuaded to consecrate histime and talents to the promotion of the anti-slaveryenterprise, a powerful impetus would be given to it,and a stunning blow at the same time inflicted onnorthern prejudice against a colored complexion.I!instil hope and courage intomind, in order that he might dare to engage in avocation so anomalous and responsible for a person inhis situation ; and I was seconded in this effort bywarm-hearted friends, especially by the late Generaltherefore endeavored tohis
PREFACE.VIAgent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, JVfr.John A. Collins, whose judgment in this instance entirely coincided with my own.At first, he could giveno encouragement with unfeigned diffidence, he expressed his conviction that he was not adequate to the;performance of so great a task ; the path marked outwas wholly an untrodden one he was sincerely apprehensive that he should do more harm than good.After much deliberation, however, he consented tomake a trial and ever since that period, he has actedas a lecturing agent, under the auspices either of theAmerican or the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.In labors he has been most abundant ; and his successin combating prejudice, in gaining proselytes, in agitating the public mind, has far surpassed the most san;;guine expectations that were raised at the commencement of his brilliant career. He has borne himselfwith gentleness and meekness, yet with true manlinessof character.As a public speaker, he excels in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength of reasoning,and fluency of language. There is in him that unionof head and heart, which is indispensable to an enlightenment of the heads and a winning of the hearts ofothers.May his strength continue to be equal to hisdayMay he continue to “ grow in grace, and in theknowledge of God,” that he may be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, whether athome or abroadIt is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one ofthe most efficient advocates of the slave population,now before the public, is a fugitive slave, in the personof Frederick Douglass ; and that the free coloredpopulation of the United States are as ably represented!!in the person of Charleseloquent appeals have extorted the highest applause of multitudes on both sidesof the Atlantic.Let the calumniators of the coloredby one of their own number,Lenox Remond, whose
TREFACE.Vlirace despise themselves for their baseness and illibof spirit, and henceforth cease to talk of thenatural inferiority of those who require nothing buttime and opportunity to attain to the highest point ofhuman excellence.It may, perhaps,' be fairly questioned, whether anyother portion of the population of the earth could haveendured the privations, sufferings and horrors ofslavery, without having become more degraded in theeralityscale of humanity than the slaves of African descent.Nothing has been left undone to cripple their intellects,darken their minds, debase their moral nature, oblitmankind andyet how wonderfully they have sustained the mightyload of a most frightful bondage, under which theyhave been groaning for centuriesTo illustrate theeffect of slavery on the white man,to show that he hasno powers of endurance, in such a condition, superiorto those of his black brother,Daniel O’Connell, theerate all traces of their relationship to;—!—distinguished advocate of universal emancipation, andthe mightiest .champion of prostrate but not conqueredIreland, relates the following anecdote in a speech de-by him in the Conciliation Hall, Dublin, beforeLoyal National Repeal Association, March 31,liveredthe1845.“Nomatter,” saidwhat specious termmayMr. O’Connell, “underdisguiseitself, slavery is hideous.It has a natural , an inevitable tendencyto brutalize every noble faculty of man.An Americanitstillwho was cast away on the shore of Africa,where he was kept in slavery for three years, was, atsailor,the expiration of that period, found to be imbruted and—he had lost all reasoning power; and having forgotten his native language, could only utter somesavage gibberish between Arabic and English, whichstultifiednobody could understand, and which even he himselffound difficulty in pronouncing. So much for the humaniv.i ng influence of the domestic institution ”!
PREFACE.viiiAdmitting this to have been an extraordinary case ofmental deterioration, it proves at least that the whiteslave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as theblack one.Mr. Douglass has very properly chosen to write hisown Narrative, in his own style, and according to thebest of his ability, rather than to employ some one else.It is, therefore, entirely his own production ; and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to runhow few have been his opportunities toas a slave,itimprove his mind since he broke his iron fetters,is, in my judgment, highly creditable to his head andheart.He who can peruse it without a tearful eye, awithout beingheaving breast, an afflicted spirit,filled with an unutterable abhorrence of slavery andall its abettors, and animated with a determination toseek the immediate overthrow of that execrable system,without trembling for the fate of this countryin the hands of a righteous God, who is ever on theside of the oppressed, and whose arm is not shortenedmust have a flinty heart, and bethat it cannot save,qualified to act the part of a trafficker “ in slaves andI am confident that it is essenthe souls of men.”—————statements ; that nothing has beennothing exaggerated, nofhing drawnfrom the imagination that it comes short of the reality,rather than overstates a single fact in regard toslavery as it is.The experience of FrederickDouglass, as a-slave, was not a peculiar one ; his lotwas not especially a hard one ; his case may be regarded as a very fair specimen of the treatment oftially true in all itssetdownin malice,;slaves in Maryland, in which Stateitisconceded thatthey are better fed and less cruelly treated than inMany have sufferedGeorgia, Alabama, or Louisiana.incomparably more, while very few on the plantationshave suffered less, than himself. Yet how deplorablewhat terrible chastisements werewas his situation!
IXPREFACE.more shockinginflicted upon his person! what stillwith all hisoutrages were perpetrated upon his mindlike a brutehowaspirations,sublimeandnoble powersthewas he treated, even by those professing to havewhatsame mind in them that was in Christ Jesus tosubjected howdreadful liabilities was he continuallyaid, even in hisdestitute of friendly counsel andhow heavy was the midnight ofgreatest extremitiesshrouded in blackness the last ray of hope,!!!!woe whichwhatand gloomfilled the future with terrorbis breast,longings after freedom took possession ofas heand how his misery augmented, in proportionthus demonstratinggrew reflective and intelligent,how he thought,1that a happy slave is an extinct mandriver, with thetheoflashthereasoned, felt, underwhat perils he encountered inchains upon his limbs!and—!andendeavors to escape from his horrible doompreservationanddeliverancehishow signal have beenenemiesin the midst of a nation of pitilessaffecting incidents,manycontainsNarrativeThismany passages of great eloquence and power but 1the descripthink the most thrilling one of them dll isas he stood sofeelings,hisgivesofDouglasstionchances of hisliloquizing respecting his fate, and thethe Chesaone day being a freeman, on the banks ofthey flewasvesselsrecedingtheviewingpeake Bayand apostrowith their white wings before the breeze,spirit of freephizing them as animated by the livingbe insensibleandpassage,thatreaddom. Who can.his1;—.Compressed into it is apathos and sublimity ?and senwhole Alexandrian library of thought, feeling,theurged,beneedthatallall that can,timentagainst thatform of expostulation, entreaty, rebuke,making man the property of hiscrime of crimes,O, how accursed is that system, whichtoits—m—fellow-man!the divineentombs the godlike mind of man, defacescrownedwerecreationbywhothosereducesimage,,
PREFACE.-X.with glory and honor to a level with four-footed beasts,exalts the dealer in human flesh above all that iscalled Godshould its existence be prolongedone hour ? Is ,it not evil, only evil, and that continually?What does its' presence imply but the absence of all fear of God, all regard for man, on thepart of the people of the United States ?Heavenspeed its eternal overthrowSo profoundly ignorant of the nature of slavery aremany persons, that they are stubbornly incredulouswhenever they read or listen to any recital of theand!Why!crueltieswhich are dailyinflictedonitsTheyvictims.do not deny that the slaves are held as property ; butthat terrible fact seems to convey, to their minds noidea of injustice, exposure to outrage, or savage barbarity.Tell them of cruel scourgings, of mutilationsand brandings, of scenes of pollution and blood, of thebanishment of all light and knowledge, and they affectto be greatly indignant at such enormous exaggerations, such wholesale misstatements, such abominableAslibels on the character of the southern plantersif all these direful outrages were not the natural resultsof slaveryAs if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the condition of a thing, than to give hima severe flagellation, or to deprive him of necessaryfood and clothingAs if whips, chains, thumb-screws,paddles, bloodhounds, overseers, drivers, patrols, werenot all indispensable to keep the slaves down, and toAs if,give protection to their ruthless oppressorswhen the marriage institution is abolished, concubinage,!!*!!adultery, and incest, must not necessarily abound ; whenall the rights of humanity are annihilated, any barrierremains to protect the victim from the fury of thespoiler ; when absolute power is assumed over life andliberty, it will not be wielded with destructive swaySkeptics of this character abound in society.In somefew instances, their incredulity arises from a want of!
XIPREFACE.reflectionlight,its;but, generally,afoes,itindicatesa'hatred of theslavery from the assaults ofcontempt of the colored race, whethera desireto shieldSuch will try to discredit the shockingof slaveholding cruelty which are recorded inthis truthful Narrative ; but they will labor in vain.Mr. Douglass has frankly disclosed the place of hisinbirth, the names of those who claimed ownershipwhohis body and soul, and the names also of thosecommitted the crimes which he has alleged againstHis statements, therefore, may easily be disthem.bond orfree.talesproved, if they are untrue.In the course of his Narrative, he relates two inin one of which astances of murderous cruelty,planter deliberately shot a slave belonging to a neigh-—boring plantation,in his lordlyunintentionally gotten withand in the other,;who haddomainin quest of fishbrains of a slave who hada stream of water to escape a bloody scourging.Mr. Douglass states that in neither of these instanceswas any thing done by way of legal arrest or judicialThe Baltimore American, of March 17,investigation.1845, relates a similar case of atrocity, perpetrated“ Shooting aas follows:with similar impunityam overseer blew out thefled to——— Welearn, upon the authority of a letter fromSlave.Charles county, Maryland, received by a gentleman ofMatthews, athis city, that a young man, namednephew of General Matthews, and whosefather,itisan office at Washington, killed one ofthe slaves upon his father’s farm by shooting him.The letter states that young Matthews had been left incharge of the farm that he gave an order to the servant, which was disobeyed, when he proceeded to thehouse, obtained a gun, and returning shot the servant.believed, holds;,,Heimmediately,father’s residence,Letittheletterwhere hecontinues,stillfledtohisremains unmolested. ’never be forgotten, that no slaveholder or
XUPREFACE.overseer can be convicted of any outrage perpetratedon the person of a slave, however diabolical it may be,on the testimony of colored witnesses, whether bond oifree.By the slave code, they are adjudged to be asincompetent to testify against a white man, as thoughthey were indeed a part of the brute creation.Hence,there is no legal protection in fact, whatever there maybe in form, for the slave population ; and any amountof cruelty may be inflicted on them with impunity.Isit possible for the humanmind to conceive of a morehorrible state of society ?The effect of a religious profession on the conductof southern masters is vividly described in the following Narrative, and shown to be any thing but salutary.In the nature of the case, it must be in the highest degree pernicious.The testimony of Mr. Douglass, onthis point, is sustained by a cloud of witnesses, whoseA“veracity is unimpeachable.slaveholder’s profession of Christianity is a palpable imposture.He is afelon of the highest grade.He is a man-stealer. Itof no importance what you put in the other scale.”Header are you with the man-stealers in sympathyand purpose, or on the side of their down-trodden victims ?If with the former, then are you the foe ofGod and man. If with the latter, what are you prepared to do and dare in their behalf ? Be faithful, bevigilant, be untiring in your efforts to break every yoke,and let the oppressed go free. Come what maycost what it mayinscribe on the banner which youis!——unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political—“No Compromise withUnion with Slaveholders ”mottoSlavery!No!WM. LLOYD GARRISON.Boston,May1,1845.'
letterFROM WENDELLPHILLIPS,ESQ,.Boston, April 22, 1845.MyDear FriendYou remember the old fable of “ The Manthat heand the Lion,” where the lion complained:“should not be so misrepresentedhistory.”I am glad the time hasthe lions wrotewhen,come when,the„lions writegatherhave been left long enough tohistory.”involuntary evidencethe character of slavery from theWeOne might, indeed, rest sufficientlyof the masters.in general, theit is evident, must be,what,satisfied withseeking farther to findresults of such a relation, withoutIndeed,whether they have followed in every instance.andweek,acornofpeckhalfthose who stare at theback, are seldom,love to count the lashes on the slave’sand abolitioniststhe “ stuff” out of which reformersmany were1838,inthat,remember1are to be made.experiment,waiting for the results of the West IndiaI hoseranks.before they could come into ourottewalasbut,”agolong“ resultshave come;as converts.that number have come with them,byman must be disposed to judge of emancipationproducetheincreasedhasother tests than whether itand to hate slavery for other reasons thanof sugar,eoemen and whips women,.A—because it starveshe is ready to lay the‘ Jfirststone of his anti-slaverylite
XivLETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.I was glad to learn, in your story, how early the mostneglected of God’s children waken to a sense of theirrights, and of the injustice done them.Experience isa keen teacher ; and long before you had masteredyouror knew where the “ white sails ” ofthe Chesapeake were bound, you began, I see, togauge the wretchedness of the slave, not by his hungerand want, not by his lashes and toil, but by the crueland blighting death which gathers over his soul.In connection with, this, there is one circumstanceABC,which makes your recollections peculiarly valuable,and renders your early insight the more remarkable.You come from that part of the country where we aretold slavery appears with its fairest features.Let ushear, then, what it is at its best estategaze on itsbright side, if it has oneand then imagination maytask her powers to add dark lines to the picture, as—;she travels southward to that (for the colored man)Valley of the Shadow of Death, where the Mississippisweeps along.Again, we have known you long, and can put themost entire confidence in your truth, candor, and sincerity.Every one who has heard you speak has felt,and, I am confident, every one who reads your bookwill feel, persuaded that you give them a fair specimenof the whole truth. No one-sided portrait,no wholesale complaints,but strict justice done, whenever——neutralized, for a moment,the deadly system with which it was strangely allied.You have been with us, too, some years, and canfairly compare the twilight of rights, which your raceenjoy at the North, with that “ noon of night ” underwhich they labor south of Mason and Dixon’s line.individual kindliness hasTell us whether, after all, the half-free colored manof Massachusetts is worse off than the pamperedslave of the rice swampsIn reading your life, no one can say that we have!
LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.unfairly picked outWeknowXVsome rare specimens of cruelty.which even you havethat the bitter drops,drained from the cup, are no incidental aggravations,no individual ills, but such as must mingle always andThey are thenecessarily in the lot of every slave.essential ingredients, not the occasional results, of thesystem.Afterfor you.all,Iread your book with tremblingyears ago,- when you were beginningshallSomeyour real name and birthplace, you mayto remainI stopped you, and preferredWith the exception of a vagueignorant of all.to tellmerememberdescription, so I continued,tillthe other day,when youyour memoirs. I hardly knew, at the time,whether to thank you or not for the sight of them,when I reflected that it was still dangerous, in Massareadmechusetts, for honestmento tell Theirnames!Theysay the fathers, in 1776, signed the Declaration ofIndependence with the hatter about their necks.You, too, publish your declaration of freedom withdanger compassing you around. In all the broad landswhich the Constitution of the United States overhowever narrow orshadows, there is no single spot,where a fugitive slave can plant himselfdesolate,and say, “ I am safe.” The whole armory of Northern Law has no shield for you. I am free to say that,in your place, I should throw the MS. into the fire.You, perhaps, may tell your story in safety, endearedas you are to so many warm hearts by rare gifts, and a——them to the service of others.be owing only to your labors, and the fearless efforts of those who, trampling the laws and Constitution of the country under their feet, are determinedthat they will “ hide the outcast,” and that their hearthsshall be, spite of the law, an asylum for the oppressed,if, some time or other, the humblest may stand in ourstillButrarer devotion ofitwill
LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.XVIand bear witness in safety against the cruelof which he has been the victim.Yet it is sad to think, that these very throbbing heartswhich welcome your story, and form your best safeguard in telling it, are all beating contrary to the “ statGo on, my dearute in such case made and provided.”friend, till you, and those who, like you, have beensaved, so as by fire, from the dark prison-house, shallstreets,tiesstereotype these free, illegal pulses into statutes ; andNew England, cutting loose from a blood-stainedUnion, shall glory in being the house of refuge for the“ hide the outtill we no longer merelyoppressed ;idlyby while hestandingofmeritamakecast,” oris hunted in our midst ; but, consecrating anew the soil—of the Pilgrims as an asylum for the oppressed, proclaimour welcome to the slave so loudly, that the tones shallreach every hut in the Carolinas, and make the broken-hearted bondman leap up at the thought of oldMassachusetts.God speed the day!Till then,and ever,YoursWENDELLFrederick Douglass.*\truly,PHILLIPS.
/NARRATIVEOF THELIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.CHAPTERwasI.Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, andfrom Easton, in Talbot county,Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age,never having seen any authentic record containing it.Ibornabout twelveByinmilesfar the larger part of the slavesknow ofknowaslittleofand it is the wishof most masters within my knowledge to keep theirI dp not remember to have everslaves thus ignorant.their ages as horsesmet aslavewho couldseldom come nearertotelltheirs,Theyof his birthday.than planting-time, harvest-itAtime, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time.wantof information concerning my own was a source ofunhappiness to me even during childhood. The whitechildren couldoughttotelltheir ages.Icould nottellbe deprived of the same privilege.not allowed tomake anyHe deemedinquiries ofmywhyIIwasmaster con-such inquiries on the partof a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence ofcerningit.1all
NARRATIVE OF THE2I can givetwentyandmakes me now between twenty-sevenmyhearingfromthis,cometoIeight years of age.master say, some time during 1835, 1 was about seven-aThespirit.restlessnearestestimateteen years old.mother was named Harriet Bailey. She wasof Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored,daughtertheand quite dark.' My mother was of a darker com-Mymy grandmother or grandfather.He was admitted towhite man.awasMy fatherbe such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage.The opinion was also whispered that my master wasplexion than eithermyof this opinion,father; but of the correctnessknowImeans of knowing was withheldMy mother and I were separated when Inothingthe;from me.before I knew her as my mother.was but an infantin the part of Maryland fromcustom,commonIt is awhich I ran away, to part children from their mothers—a very early age. Frequently, before the child hasreached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it,and hired out on some farm a considerable distanceatoff,and the childwoman,arationdone,placed under the care of an oldFor whatfor field labor.too oldisisIdo not know, unlessthe developmentchild’sof theitbeaffectionthis sep-to hindertowarditsmother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affectionThis is the inevitableof the mother for the child.result.Inever sawmyas such, moreand each of theseSheduration, and at night.mother,than four or five times intoknow hermylifewas very short inwas hired by a Mr. Stewart, whotimes;livedabout twelve
3LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.miles frommemyhome.She made her journeysin the night, travelling theto seewhole distance onfoot,performance of her day’s work. She was ahand, and a whipping is the penalty of not beingafter thefieldin the field at sunrise, unlessa slave has special per-mission from his or her master to the contrary—apermission which they seldom get, and one that givestohimit the proud name of being a kinddo not recollect of ever seeing my motherthat givesmaster.Iby the light of day. She was with me in the night.She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, butlong before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soonended what little we could have while she lived, andwith it her hardships and suffering.She died when Iwas about seven years old, on one of my master’sfarms, near Lee’s Mill.Iwas not allowed to bepresent during her illness, at her death, or burial.She was gone long before I knew any thing about it.Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, hersoothing presence, her tender and watchful care,muchceived the tidings' of her death withemotionsIshould have probablyfelt attheIre-samethe death of astranger.Called thus suddenly away, sheslightest intimation ofwho myper thatmybe trueand, true or false,quence;tomymaster wasmyleftmefather was.father,itismayof butwithout theThe whismay notorlittlepurpose whilst the fact remains,conse-in all itshave ordained,and by law established, that the children of slaveglaring odiousness, that slaveholderswomenshall in all cases follow the condition of their
NARRATIVE OF THE4mothersand;done too obviously to administerand make a gratification of theirthis isownto theirlusts,wicked desires profitable as well "as pleasurable ;by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder,forincases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double rela-master and father.tion ofIknowof such casesand;itisworthy of remarkandthat such slaves invariably.suffer greater hardships,have morethefirstSheistocontend with, than others.Theyare, inplace, a constant offence to their mistress.ever disposed to find fault with them ; they canto please her ; she is never betterseldom do any thingpleasedwhen she sees them under the lash,when she suspects her husband of showingthanespeciallyto his mulatto children favorshis black slaves.The masterwhich he withholds fromis frequently compelledto sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to thefeelings of his white wifestriketoany onehumanto be, forflesh-mongers,and, cruel as the deed;amanitisto sell hisownmaychildrenoften the dictate of hu-manity for him to do so ; for, unless he does this, hemust not only whip them himself, but. must stand byand see one white son lie up his brother, of but fewshades darker complexion than himself, and ply thegory lash to his naked back ; and if he lisp oneword ofdisapproval,it issetdownto his parental par-and only makes a bad matter worse, both forhimself and the slave whom he would protect andtiality,defend.Every year brings with it multitudes of this class ofIt was doubtless in consequence of a knowl-slaves.edge ofthis fact, thatone great statesma
PREFACE. ventioninNantucket,atwhichitwasmy happinesstobecomeacquaintedwithFrederickDoug-lass .
