Part 4

57. A short time after having completed the memorandums above alluded to, the youth just mentioned, having learned the subject on which I had been occupied, and being prompt to communicate whatever he might meet with relative to it, informed me on returning from school, in the evening of the 19th December 1815, that a black woman, destined for transportation to Georgia with a coffle, which was about to start, attempted to escape, by jumping out of the window of the garret of a three story brick tavern in F. street, about day-break in the morning; and that in the fall she had her back and both arms broken! I remarked, that I did not wonder that she did so; and inquired, whether it had not killed her? To which he replied, that he understood that she was dead, and that the _Georgia-men_ had gone off with the others. The relation of this shocking disaster excited considerable agitation in my mind, and fully confirmed the sentiments which I had already adopted and recorded, of the multiplied horrors added to slavery, when its victims are bought and sold, frequently for distant destinations, with as much indifference as fourfooted beasts. Supposing this to have been a recent occurrence, and being desirous of seeing the mangled slave before she should be buried, I proceeded with some haste early on the following morning, in search of the house already mentioned. Calling at a house near the one at which the catastrophe occurred, I was informed, that it had been three weeks since it took place, and that the woman was still living. Having found the house, I desired permission of the landlord to see the wounded woman; to which he assented, and directed a lad to conduct me to her room, which was in the garret over the third story of the house. On entering the room I observed her lying upon a bed on the floor, and covered with a white woollen blanket, on which were several spots of blood (from her wounds,) which I perceived was _red_, notwithstanding the _opacity_ of her skin. Her countenance, though very pale from the shock she had received, and dejected with grief, appeared complacent and sympathetic. Both her arms were broken between the elbows and wrists, and had undoubtedly been well set and dressed; but from her restlessness she had displaced the bones again, so that they were perceptibly crooked. I have since been informed by the Mayor of the city, who is a physician, and resides not far distant from the place, that he was called to visit her immediately after her fall, and found, besides her arms being broken, that the lower part of the spine was badly shattered, so that it was doubtful whether she would ever be capable of walking again, if she should survive. The lady of the Mayor said she was awakened from sleep by the fall of the woman, and heard her heavy struggling groans.

58. I inquired of her, whether she was asleep when she sprang from the window. She replied, "No, no more than I am now." Asking her what was the cause of her doing such a frantic act as that, she replied, "They brought me away with two of my children, and wouldn't let me see my husband--they didn't sell my husband, and I didn't want to go';--I was so confused and 'istracted, that I didn't know hardly what I was about--but I didn't want to go, and I jumped out of the window;--but I am sorry now that I did it;--they have carried my children off with 'em to Carolina." I was informed that the Slave Trader, who had purchased her near Bladensburgh, (she being a _legal_ slave,) gave her to the landlord, as a compensation for taking care of her. Thus her family was dispersed from north to south, and herself _nearly_ torn in pieces, without the shadow of a hope of ever seeing or hearing from her _children_ again! He that can behold this "poor woman," (as a respectable citizen of Washington afterwards expressed himself, on requesting of her landlord the privilege of seeing her,) and listen to her _unvarnished story_; and then delineate it with the mental pencil, (_quill_) and then view the picture from his _own hand_, without a _humid eye_, I will confess possesses a _stouter heart_ than I do.

59. The sympathy of the whole American white population, (and it is presumed of the black also, for they know how to estimate such matters by dear experience,) has recently been very justly excited towards young King Prather and his "confus'd and 'istracted" mother roaming in search of him, along half the extent of the coast of the United States. As he was kidnapped by a son of Africa, (though not for the detestable purpose of cupidity or enslavement, but for a ladder to his own liberty,) it is presumed if Africa's Genius were permitted to offer her sentiments on the subject, she would pronounce it a _retort courteous apropos_, from Africa to her sister Columbia.

60. I have since learned many recent instances of the tragical consequences of the usurped trade in the souls and bodies of men.[19] I have been informed by several different persons in the district of Columbia, that a woman who had been sold in Georgetown, for the southern slave market, cut her own throat, ineffectually, while on the way, in a hack, to the same depository above mentioned; and that on the road to Alexandria she completed her design of destroying her life, by cutting it again mortally. A statement was published in the Baltimore Telegraph, a few months ago, that a female slave, who had been sold in Maryland, with her child, on the way from Bladensburgh to Washington, heroically cut the throats of both her child and herself, with mortal effect. This narrative has been since confirmed by a relative of the person who sold them. An African youth, in the city of Philadelphia, lately cut his throat almost mortally, merely from the apprehension, as he said, of being sold. This information was obtained from several respectable citizens of Philadelphia, who had personal knowledge of the fact.

61. Believing the facts already recited are sufficient to satisfy every candid reader, of the unreasonableness, injustice, and inhumanity of the prevailing interior slave trade, and of the necessity of legislative control; I will now commence a delineation of the still more outrageous and abominable practice of seizing, and selling into exile, _men_, _women_, _and children_, whose freedom and _moral_ rights are guaranteed by our national and state constitutions. In the same recess with that mangled woman, while interrogating her, I discovered (without having the least previous intimation, or even suspicion, of any thing of the kind) three persons of colour, who were born free, and had been forcibly seized in the time of night, bound and transported in the night, out of their native state, (Delaware) and sold as slaves for life to itinerant _Man-Dealers_[20] in Maryland, who generally range themselves along near the line of division between the two states. One of these was a mulatto man, about 21 years of age. I found him thoroughly secured in irons. His arms were manacled with strong loops round his wrists, resembling a _clevis_, connected by a strong iron bolt. On the shelf over the fireplace, lay a pair of heavy rough hopples (or hobbles,) with which he said his legs had been fettered until a short time previous, but were then secured by a pair of polished gripes, (perhaps manufactured for the purpose, resembling the patent horse fetters with locks,) connected by a strong new tug chain, with a loose end of two or three feet in length, lying upon the floor.[21] He stated, that a journeyman to the man with whom he resided, and to whom he had been bound to service for a term of years, having decoyed him into the fields, some distance from the house, late in the evening, on pretence of hunting oppossums, two strangers rushed upon him with ropes in their hands, and with the assistance of the person[22] just mentioned, bound his hands, and led him with a pistol held each side of him (with which he said they threatened to shoot him if he made any alarm,) 15 or 20 miles, where he was secreted till the next evening; when another person came with a chaise and conveyed him to a tavern in Maryland, a little over the line;[23] from whence one of the Man-Dealers, (who has since been advertised as a man-stealer, in a different case,) brought him to Washington in manacles, and sold him to another, as a slave for life. He said his _Driver_ overhearing him tell a coloured woman near Annapolis, that his parents (both of whom are light coloured mulattos) were free-born, threatened to shoot him, if he should catch him talking to any body again about his being free. He said the trader did strike him on the head with his fist, after his arrival at Washington, for telling a person to whom he was offered for sale, that he was lawfully free, and threatened to flog him if he should fail of selling him in the city on that account. He also stated, that another boy, about sixteen, was brought off with him at the same time, and sold for a slave in Washington, who was lawfully free, and had been sold to the traders, by a person to whom the boy's father had let him to service.

62. This statement has been since confirmed by corroborative information; and I am in possession of memorandums, by which the boy might probably be traced and found.

63. The others, whom I found in the same garret, and at the same time, were a young black widow woman, with an infant at the breast, both of whom were born free. Her husband had died but a few days previous to her seizure, and she was in a state of pregnancy at the time. She stated, that the man in whose house she resided, together with his brother, and three other persons, came into the room (a kitchen,) where she was in bed, seized and dragged her out;--fastened a noose round her neck, to prevent her from screaming, and attempted to blindfold her, which she resisted with such violence, that she prevented them from succeeding. She said, while one of them was endeavouring to fix the bandage over her eyes, that she seized his cheek with her teeth, and tore a piece of it entirely off. She said one of them struck her head several times with a stick of wood, from the wounds of which she was almost covered with blood. She shewed me a large scar upon her forehead, occasioned by one of the blows, which a gentleman, who saw her the day previous to her seizure, has since informed me was not there before. She said, while she was struggling against them, and screaming, the man in whose house she lived _bawled out_, "Choke the d----d b----h! don't let her halloo--she'll scare my wife!" Having conquered her by superior force, she said they placed her with the child in a chaise, (her description of which, with the horse and the driver, who was one of the victors, corresponds precisely with that given by the mulatto man of the carriage, &c. by which he also was conveyed,) and refusing to dress herself, three of them, leaving the two who belonged to the house, carried her off in the condition that she was dragged from bed, to a certain tavern in Maryland, and sold them both to the Man-Dealer, who brought them to the city of Washington. She stated, that one of her captors drove the carriage, and held the rope which was fixed to her neck, and that one rode each side, on horseback.--That, while one of them was negociating a bargain with her purchaser, he asked her who her master was; and, replying that she had none, her seller beckoned to him to go into another room, where the business was adjusted without troubling her with any farther inquiries. She stated, that her purchaser confessed, while on the way to Annapolis, that he believed she might have had some claim to freedom, and intimated that he would have taken her back, if the man[24] of whom he bought her had not ran away; but requested her, notwithstanding, to say nothing to any body about her being free, which she refused to comply with. She affirmed, that he offered her for sale to several persons, _who refused to purchase, on account of her asserting that she was free_. She stated, that her purchaser had left her in Washington for a few weeks, and gone to the _Eastern Shore_, in search of more black people, in order to make up a drove for Georgia.

64. These facts clearly exemplify the safety with which the free born inhabitants of the United States may be offered for sale and sold, even in the metropolis of Liberty,[25] as oxen; even to those who are notified of the fact, and are perhaps convinced of it, that they are free![26]

65. The discovery of these captives, on their road to the dismal _gulf_[27] of (perhaps) interminable slavery to themselves, and their multiplying progeny; in this very accidental, unless providential manner, filled me with a mixture of astonishment, compassion and joy. With a view to commence immediate legal measures, for restoring them to their liberty, I took my pencil and noted down their narratives circumstantially.

66. I had not quite finished, before the purchaser of the mulatto man came into the room. He seemed a little surprised to find me writing, but made no inquiries about it, and having obtained all the information that I wished, I continued noting it down, notwithstanding his being present, until my memorandums were completed; when I left him in the room, without having had any conversation with him, except answering some questions, which he asked me relative to the wounded slave. Without hesitation, I commenced a suit in the circuit court of the United States, for the District of Columbia, for the restitution of their liberty. The first attempt to secure the persons of the captives, by a writ of habeas corpus, was ineffectual. I accompanied the deputy marshal myself, to the house in which I found them. The landlord declared, that "if he had known I was writing so long in the room where the Negroes were, he should have been very angry with me; and that if I had no other evidence of their freedom, but their stories, we should not see them." He said he believed "Negroes were made to serve the Whites, and that they had no more sense than horses." He stated, that the person who saw me writing, suspected some difficulty, and had directed him to conceal the Negroes, and that he had done it. He told me, in a sneering manner, that if I wished to take the part of the negroes, he could find me plenty of such business. He informed me that he had been in the way of keeping Negroes for the Traders many years, and took better care of them than they received in the jail.[28]

67. Notwithstanding the writ of habeas corpus was returned to the magistrate unexecuted, I still persevered, and obtained a process of injunction, in order to prevent the removal of the captives from the District, until the commencement of the session of the court; by which it was ascertained that they still remained in the same house. A second writ of habeas corpus having been issued from the court while sitting, they were at length produced, which, fortunately, was accomplished on the very day that the purchaser of the woman and child left Washington, with a coffle of ten or twelve coloured persons, with whom he had just returned from Maryland.[29] The court having examined them, placed them in safe custody for further examination at the ensuing summer session, so that time could be had for procuring the requisite testimony from Delaware. For defraying the expense of accomplishing this purpose, and of prosecuting the suits, a subscription was drawn up by Francis T. Key, esq. who volunteered his own services as attorney, gratis, as did also J. B. Caldwell, and J. B. Lear, Esqs. The subscription was commenced by general Van Ness; the heads of the executive departments of the government, with but rare exception; several gentlemen of the senate and house of representatives, and the mayor and citizens of Washington generally, (possessors of slaves as well as others,) to whom application was made, joined in the contribution. I was highly gratified to meet with this practical evidence, that the disposition to extend the hand of relief to abused _African_ strangers, is not at the present period, by any means confined exclusively to the limits of a solitary religious society. Between one and two hundred dollars having been collected,[30] I proceeded myself to the state of Delaware; and having travelled from Wilmington to Lewestown and Georgetown, returned with unequivocal proof of the legal right of the captives to their liberty, which was accordingly restored to them by the court at the ensuing June session.

68. One of the attornies having addressed letters to several respectable citizens of Delaware, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the correctness of the statements of the captives, an answer was received relative to the female, of which the following is an extract:--

69. "Your letter of the 30th ult. I received by yesterday's mail, and am happy to find the unfortunate negro woman is once more rescued from the fangs of the ----s and others, as vile a banditti as ever were permitted to disturb the peace of society. The statement by ---- [the woman] is no doubt true. This poor creature was rescued from the ----s some time last winter, and seems in the case which occurred then, as well as that which you relate, to have been saved by an almost miraculous intervention. The ----s stand now indicted for taking her off last winter.--Their gang is numerous, daring--full of money, &c."

70. Understanding that several of the persons concerned in the cases had been arrested, and having been informed by one of the representatives to congress, from Delaware, that the laws of that state inflict corporeal punishment for offences of this kind, such as whipping, cropping the ears, and exposure in the pillory, I wrote a reply to the above letter, of which the following is an extract:

71. "Not for vengeance, but for the sake of humanity, I hope this fell banditti, with which the free (or ought to be free) soil of America is polluted, may be routed. But, for Heaven's sake, and for the sake of their wives and children, and _for my sake_, let the wrath of justice and law be so managed, that their _animal_ bodies shall not be tormented, in consequence of my exertions to arrest the progress of their outrageous and unpardonable conduct, equal to the scratch of a pin. Yet I cannot help charging that state jurisprudence, which permits the easy repetition of the crimes of which they have been guilty, with being exceedingly defective. It seems to me, that where there is no work-house in a state, such persons should be limited under sufficient securities and penalties, to their own farms, or some prescribed boundaries;--and, in case they transgress these, to be declared to be outlawed, and liable to be estimated and treated no other than as wolves and tygers, to which they have already assimilated themselves of their own accord."

72. Governor Miller of North-Carolina, says in his speech already alluded to, "The principle will be conceded, that the end of punishment is the prevention of crimes." Lacerations and mutilations of the human frame, exasperate its occupant in the highest degree, and are very likely to excite an obstinate perseverance in crimes, by way of retaliation and spite. Imprisonment, with labour, if it does not reform the disturber of the public peace, by the opportunity of reflection and salutary instruction, it certainly restrains his career for a specific time, effectually.

73. The satisfaction of beholding the yellow man, and the black woman, with her two female infants, (one of them having been born but a short time previous to their release,) seated in the stage, under the care of one of the senators of the legislature of Delaware, who had attended the court as a witness in behalf of the woman; afforded me a rich reward for thus having performed an indispensable _duty_, which I owed to their Creator, to them as their _neighbour_, to the principles of our social and political system, and to myself.

74. The specimen here given of _man-stealing_, forms but a mere speck in an extensive system of this nefarious profession, which for many years has been, and continues to be pursued, with increasing vigor and _pecuniary_ profit, in all the middle states. Even the city of Philadelphia is not exempt from this moral pestilence.

75. To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of men-stealing, which are known to have occurred in the state of Delaware, within the recollection of many of the citizens of that state, would require a heavy volume. In many cases, whole families of free coloured people have been attacked in the night, beaten _nearly_ to death with clubs, gagged and bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity and slavery, leaving no traces behind, except the blood from their wounds.

76. During the last winter, since the seizure of the woman and infant, as related above, the house of a free black family was broken open, and its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just mentioned, except, that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp, while on their way to the state of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses; and the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an opportunity, as they were passing a house, and sprang off; and not daring to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little farther along by the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed, that its cries would attract the mother, but she prudently waited until morning, and recovered it again in safety.

77. I consider myself more fully warranted in particularising this fact, from the circumstances of having been at New-Castle at the time that the woman was brought with her child, before the grand jury, for examination; and of having seen several of the persons against whom bills of indictment were found, on the charge of being engaged in the perpetration of the outrage; and also that one or two of them were the same who were accused of assisting in seizing and carrying off the woman and child whom I discovered at Washington. The ingenuity and stratagems employed by kidnappers, in effecting their designs, are such as to prove, that the most consummate cunning is no evidence of wisdom or moral purity, nor incompatible with the most consummate villainy. A monster, in human shape, was detected in the city of Philadelphia, pursuing the occupation of courting and marrying mulatto women, and selling them as slaves. In his last attempt of this kind, the fact having come to the knowledge of the African population of this city, a mob was immediately collected, and he was only saved from being torn in atoms, by being deposited in the city prison. They have lately invented a method of attaining their objects, through the instrumentality of the laws:--Having selected a suitable free coloured person, to make a _pitch_ upon, the _conjuring_ kidnapper employs a confederate, to ascertain the distinguishing marks of his body and then claims and obtains him as a slave, before a magistrate, by describing those marks, and proving the truth of his assertions, by his well-instructed accomplice.